were blown down; Roofs of houses going along with the wind like chaff, the shady trees in the town bending and breaking; and in the intervals between the roaring of the thunder, nothing was heard but the war cry of the men and the screams of women and children, as no one knew but that an enemy was at hand, and that they should every instant share in the fate of Bali.  At last the rain fell, the fire at Bali had ceased by the town being wholly burnt down, and all was quiet and silent, as if the angel of extermination had brandished his sword over the devoted country.

Koolfu or Koolfie stands on the northern bank of the May Garrow, and contains from twelve to fifteen thousand inhabitants, including slaves.  It is built in the form of an oblong square, surrounded with a clay wall, about twenty feet high, with four gates.  There are a great number of dyers, tailors, blacksmiths, and weavers, but all these, together with the rest of the townsfolk, are engaged in traffic.  There are besides the daily market, general markets every Monday and Saturday, which are resorted to by traders from all quarters:  Youriba, Borgoo, Soccatoo, Houssa, Nyffee, and Benin.  The caravans from Bornou and Houssa, which halt at Koolfu a considerable time, bring horses, natron, unwrought silk, silk cord, beads, Maltese swords from Bengazi, remounted at Kano; clothes made up in the moorish fashion, Italian looking glasses, such as sell for one penny and upwards at Malta, tobes undyed, made in Bornou, khol for the eyelids, a small quantity of attar of roses, much adulterated, gums from Mecca, silks from Egypt, moorish caps, and slaves.  The latter who are intended for sale, are confined in the house mostly in irons, and are seldom allowed to go out of it, except to the well or river every morning to wash.  They are strictly guarded on a journey, and chained neck to neck, or else tied neck to neck by a long rope of raw hide, and carry loads on their heads, consisting of their master’s goods or household stuff; these loads are generally from fifty to sixty pounds weight.  A stranger may remain a long time in a town without seeing any of the slaves, except by accident or by making a particular inquiry.  Although professedly moslem, religion had not yet moulded the society of the Koolfuans into the usual gloomy monotony, nor had it succeeded in secluding or subjecting the female sex, who on the contrary, were the most active agents in every mercantile transaction.  In the widow Laddie’s house, no fewer than twenty-one of these female merchants were lodged at the same time that Clapperton and Lander took up their abode with her, and it may be easily supposed, that the Europeans led a most pleasant life of it.  An African hut is by no means at any time an abode which an European would covet, but in addition to the suffocating heat, the mosquitoes, and many other nameless inconveniences, to be congregated with twenty or thirty females, not carrying about them the most delicious odour in the