Extraordinary preparations were made by the governor of Jaguta, to ensure the safety of the travellers on the dreaded pathway; and a horseman armed with sword and spear, in company with four foot soldiers, who were equipped with bows, and several huge quivers full of arrows, were in readiness to offer them their protection.  The horseman preceded the party, and played off a variety of antics to the great amusement of the Landers.  He seemed not a little satisfied with himself; he flourished his naked sword over his head; brandished his spear; made his horse curvet and bound, and gallop alternately; and his dress being extremely grotesque, besides being old and torn, gave him an appearance not unlike that of a bundle of rags flying through the air.  But with all this display of heroism and activity, the man would have fled with terror from his own shadow by moonlight, and it was really regretted by the travellers, that a few defenceless women were the only individuals that crossed their path to put his courage to the test, the formidable “war men” not being at that time in that part of the country.

Their journey this day was vexatiously short, not having exceeded four miles, for it was utterly beyond the power of either of the Landers to persuade the superstitious natives, who conform only to their fetish in these matters, that the robbers would be afraid even to think of attacking white men.  They halted at a small town called Shea, which was defended by a wall.  It appeared to possess a numerous population, if any opinion could be formed from the vast number of individuals that gathered round them, immediately on their entrance through the gateway.  A stranger, however, cannot give anything like a correct estimate of the population of any inhabited place, in this part of Africa, for as he can only judge of it by the number of court-yards a town or village may contain; and as the one court yard there may be residing at least a hundred people, and in the one adjacent to it, perhaps not more than six or seven, the difficulty will be immediately perceived.  Generally speaking, the description of one town in Youriba, would answer for the whole.  Cleanliness and order and establish the superiority of one place over another, which may likewise have the advantages of a rich soil, a neighbourhood, and be ornamented with fine spreading and shady trees; but the form of the houses and squares is every-where the same; irregular and badly built clay walls, ragged looking thatched roofs, and floors of mud polished with cow-dung, form the habitations of the chief part of the natives of Youriba, compared topmost of which, a common English barn is a palace.  The only difference between the residence of a chief and those of his subjects, lies in the number and not in the superiority of his court yards, and these are for the most part tenanted by women and slaves, together with flocks of sheep and goats, and abundance of pigs and poultry, mixed together indiscriminately.