Their course from Zalee was in a south-easterly direction, and shortly after leaving the town, they came to a fine extensive plain, on which stood a few venerable and magnificent trees.  Numerous herds of antelopes were feeding, which on hearing the report of their guns, bounded over the plain in all directions.  From this place they beheld the city of Boossa, which lay directly before them at the distance of two or three miles, and appeared to be formed of straggling clusters of huts.  To their great astonishment, however, on a nearer approach, Boossa was found to be standing on the main land, and not on an island in the Niger, as described by Captain Clapperton.  Nothing could be discovered, which could warrant the assertion as laid down by that traveller.  At ten o’clock they entered the city by the western gateway, and discharged their pieces as the signal of their arrival.

After waiting a few minutes, they were introduced to the king, whom they found in an interior apartment of his residence, in company with the Midilie, the title bestowed on his principal wife or queen.  They welcomed the travellers to Boossa, with every appearance of cordiality.  They told them very gravely, and with rueful countenances, that they had both been weeping in the morning for the death of Captain Clapperton, whose untimely end they would never cease to lament.  It is true, they might have been so engaged, but as on their entrance, no outward signs of tears appeared, they rather mistrusted the information which had been imparted to them.

On the day subsequently to their arrival, they were visited by the noted widow Zuma, who presented herself to them without the slightest pretensions to finery of any kind, either in her dress or ornaments, for she was clad in very humble apparel of country cloth.  She related to them with great good humour, her quarrels with her prince, the ruler of Wowow, and her consequent flight from that city to escape his resentment.  It appeared that in order to effect this, she was actually obliged to climb over the city wall in the night, and travel on foot to Boossa, which was a very long journey, and to a woman of her size, must have been an arduous task.  She alleged that she had done nothing whatever to merit the displeasure of the Wowow chief, notwithstanding which, he had robbed her of all her household furniture and a number of her slaves.  But from another quarter, they learnt that one of her sons had committed a theft in the city, for which he would have suffered death, if he had not made his escape with his mother, who, it was said, had instigated him to the deed.  The widow complained sadly of poverty and the hardness of the times; she had fought with the Youribeans against Alorie, but instead of receiving a recompense for her bravery; she had lost half of her slaves in an engagement, which so disgusted her with the military profession, that she immediately abandoned it and returned home.  Yet in spite of all her losses and misfortunes, she had gained so much in corpulency, that it was with the utmost difficulty she could squeeze herself into the doorway of their hut, although it was by no means small.  The widow Zuma was a very good-looking person of matronly appearance, and her skin of a light copper colour.