Shortly after their arrival, the governor sent them a sucking pig and some other presents, and seemed highly pleased that circumstances had thrown them in his way. “White men do nothing but good,” said he, “and I will pray that God may bless you, and send more of your countrymen to Youriba.”
Instead of the people running and scrambling to see them, the good-natured ruler of this place excluded the mass of them from visiting their yard, and came very civilly to ask their permission for a few of his friends to look at them. John Lander was too weak and indisposed to gratify their curiosity by rising from his couch, so his brother went out to exhibit his person, and suffered himself to be examined rather minutely, which must have had a very ludicrous effect, to see the European undergoing an examination by a posse of black inquisitors, just as if he had been a horse or a bullock at Smithfield. They, however, separated tolerably well pleased with each other.
On May the 4th, three men, inhabitants of Acboro, were captured by a gang of restless, marauding scoundrels, who are denominated here, as elsewhere, “War-men of the path,” but who are, in reality, nothing more nor less, than highway robbers. They subsist solely by pillage and rapine, and waylaying their countrymen. The late governor of Acboro was deposed and driven from the town by his own people, for his indifference to their interest, and the wanton cruelty, with which he treated them and their children. At different times he seized several individuals of both sexes, and sold them as slaves, without assigning any cause for the act. This drew on him the vengeance of the friends and relatives of the sufferers, who prevailed on the town’s people to arise with them and punish the aggressor. The latter soon found that his party were too weak to withstand the attacks of the exasperated populace, and he fled to a remote village, where he was residing at the time of the arrival of the Landers. The inhabitants of Acboro immediately elected a more humane and benevolent governor in his stead.
They rose this morning at an early hour, and John Lander finding himself sufficiently recovered to ride on horseback, they bade farewell to the governor of Acboro, and quitted the town by sunrise, taking care to use the same precaution against robbers as on the preceding day. In an hour and three quarters, they entered an open and delightful village called Lazipa. An assemblage of Fellata huts stood near it, by which their beautiful cattle were grazing. Many of the bullocks were as white as snow, others were spotted like a leopard’s skin, and others again were dotted with red and black on a white ground. A Fellata girl presented them with a bowl of new milk, which was very agreeable and refreshing, and after drinking it, they bade adieu to the Fellatas and their cattle for ever.