The sultan was himself encamped with the forces from Sockatoo, whither the travellers repaired to join him, and they arrived just in time to be eye-witnesses of a specimen of the military tactics and conduct of these much-dreaded Fellatas.  This curious scene is thus described:—­

After the mid-day prayers, all except the eunuchs, camel-drivers, and such other servants as were of use only to prevent theft, whether mounted or on foot, marched towards the object of attack, and soon arrived before the walls of the city.  Clapperton accompanied them, and took up his station close to the gadado.  The march had been the most disorderly that could be imagined; horse and foot intermingling in the greatest confusion, all rushing to get forward; sometimes the followers of one chief tumbling amongst those of another, when swords were half unsheathed, but all ended in making a face, or putting on a threatening aspect.  They soon arrived before Coonia, the town not being above half a mile in diameter, nearly circular, and built on the banks of one of the branches of the liver, or lakes.  Each chief, as he came, took his station, which, it was supposed, had been previously assigned to him.  The number of fighting men brought before the town could not be less than fifty or sixty thousand, horse and foot, of which the latter amounted to more than nine-tenths.  For the depth of two hundred yards, all round the walls, was a dense circle of men and horses.  The horse kept out of bow-shot, while the foot went up as they felt courage or inclination, and kept up a straggling fire with about thirty muskets and the shooting of arrows.  In front of the sultan, the Zeg Zeg troops had one French fusee; the Kano forces had forty-one muskets.  These fellows, whenever they fired their muskets, ran out of bow-shot to load; all of them were slaves; not a single Fellata had a musket.  The enemy kept up a slow and sure fight, seldom throwing away their arrows, until they saw an opportunity of letting fly with effect.  Now and then a single horseman would gallop up to the ditch, and brandish his spear, the rider taking care to cover himself with his large leathern shield, and return as fast as he went, generally calling out lustily, when he got amongst his own party, “Shields to the walls!  You people of the gadado, (or atego, &c.) why do you not hasten to the wall?” To which some voices would call out, “Oh, you have a good large shield to cover you.”  The cry of “Shields to the wall!” was constantly heard from the several chiefs to their troops; but they disregarded the call, and neither chiefs nor vassals moved from the spot.  At length the men in quilted armour went up “per order.”  They certainly cut not a bad figure at a distance, as their helmets were ornamented with black and white ostrich feathers, and the sides of the helmets with pieces of tin, which glittered in the sun; their long quilted cloaks of gaudy colours reaching over part of their horses’ tails, and hanging over the flanks.  On the neck,