and guinea-fowl. They had
likewise horses and bullocks. The chief did not make his appearance
for a long time, but as soon as he had introduced himself, he desired
them to follow him into a cleanly swept square, where was the house
which he intended them to occupy. Presently after his departure, he
sent them a quantity of yams, a basket of ripe bananas, and a
calabash of eggs, which they soon discovered to be good for nothing,
although sand had been mixed with them, that they might feel heavier
than they really were.

They were on this evening visited by four Burgoo traders, who
informed them that they had crossed the Niger at Inguazhilligie, not
more than fourteen days ago, and that although the rains had
commenced, the river had as yet received no great addition to its
waters.

The travellers were early on horseback, on the morning of the
27th, and preceded by the carriers of their luggage, they rode out
of the town of Dufo. The country, indeed, appeared inferior, as
to the boldness and beauty of its scenery, to that which they had
traversed on the preceding day but still it possessed features of no
common interest. Another table mountain was observed to the
left of their path in the course of the morning, as well as another
lion's head and rump. Ponderous masses of granite rock overhung
the road way; they were almost black, and seemed to have been
washed by the rains of a thousand years; in many of them were
deep and gloomy caverns, which, were they in Cornwall instead
of in central Africa, they would be selected by some novel-monger,
as the scene of some dark and mysterious murder, or as the
habitation of a gang of banditti, or perhaps of the ghost of some
damsel, who might have deliberately knocked her brains out against
some rocky protuberance, on account of a faithless lover. They were
followed a long while by hundreds of the natives, and who annoyed
them so much by their noises and curiosity, that they were compelled
to resort to violent measures to drive them away; but this was a line
of conduct rarely adopted towards them, and never without extreme
reluctance. They were at length frightened away, and they saw them no
more. About eight miles from Dufo, they arrived at a large straggling
village, called Elokba, where they halted a little, as the path had
been so stony, rugged, and irregular, that a few minutes rest was
absolutely necessary to recruit themselves. From this place the road
became excellent,