Very Few People Now Resided At Esalay; And This Town, Lately So Populous And Flourishing, Was On The Visit Of The Landers Little Better Than A Heap Of Ruins.

After passing through Esalay, they crossed a large morass and three rivers, which intersected the roadway.

The croaking from a multitude of frogs which they contained, in addition to the noise of their drum, produced so animating an effect on their carriers, that they ran along with their burdens doubly as quick as they did before. They then arrived at an open village called Okissaba, where they halted for two hours under the shadow of a large tree, to allow some of their men who had been loitering behind to rejoin them, after which the whole party again set forward, and did not stop until they arrived at the large and handsome walled town. Atoopa, through which Captain Clapperton passed in the last expedition. During their ride, they observed a range of wooded hills, running from N.N.E. to S.S.W., and passed through a wilderness of stunted trees, which was relieved at intervals by patches of cultivated land, but there was not so much cultivation as might be expected to be found near the capital of Youriba.

The armed guides were no longer considered necessary, and, therefore, on the 10th May, they set out only with their Badagry and Jenna messengers and interpreters. On leaving Atoopa, they, crossed a river, which flowed by the foot of that town, where their travellers overtook them, and they travelled on together. The country through which the path lay, was uncommonly fine; it was partially cultivated, abounding in wood and water, and appeared by the number of villages which are scattered over its surface, to be very populous. As they rode along, a place was pointed out to them, where a murder had been committed about seven years ago, upon the person of a young man. He fell a victim to a party of Borgoo scoundrels, for refusing to give up his companion to them, a young girl, to whom he was shortly to be married. They, at first endeavoured to obtain her from him by fair means, but he obstinately refused to accede to their request, and contrived to keep the marauders at bay, till the young woman had made her escape, when he also ran for his life. He was closely pursued by them, and pierced by the number of arrows which they shot at him; he at length fell down and died in the path, after having ran more than a mile from the place where the first arrow had struck him. By the care with which this story is treasured up in their memory, and the earnestness and horror with which it is related, the Landers were inclined to believe, that although there is so great a fuss about the Borgoo robbers, and so manifest a dread of them, that a minder on the high-way is of very rare occurrence.

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