Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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The Common Imports Are Goora Nuts, Brought From
The Borders Of Ashantee, And Coarse Calico And Woollen Cloth In Small
Quantities, With Brass And Pewter Dishes, And Some Few Spices From
Nyffee.
The Arabs from Tripoli and Ghadamis bring unwrought silk, attar of
roses, spices and beads; slaves are both exported and imported.
A
great quantity of guinea coin is taken every year by the Tuaricks, in
exchange for salt. The market is extremely well supplied, and is held
daily from sunrise to sunset.
After encountering several difficulties, and experiencing some very
hair-breadth escapes, Clapperton arrived at Zirmee the capital of
Zamfra, a kind of outlawed city, the inhabitants of which are
esteemed the greatest rogues in Houssa, and where all the runaway
slaves find protection. He passed also through Kashna or Cassina, the
metropolis of a kingdom, which, till the rise of the Fellata power,
ruled over all Africa from Bornou to the Niger. In its present
subject and fallen state, the inhabited part does not cover a tenth
of the wide circuit enclosed by its walls, yet a considerable trade
is still carried on with the Tuaricks, or with caravans coming across
the desert by the route of Ghadamis and Suat. Here Clapperton met
with much kindness from Hadgi Ahmet, a powerful and wealthy Arab
chief, who even took him into his seraglio, and desired him, out of
fifty black damsels to make his choice, a complaisance, nothing
resembling which had ever before been shown by a Mussulman.
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