On Monday the 2nd, all was hurry, bustle, and confusion, in getting their things ready for their departure, and after the beasts had been laden, and the people had their burdens on their head, they had to wait for the sultan’s long expected letter to the king of England.  A mallam was at length perceived hurrying towards them with it, and after him came the venerable Arab chief, to honour them with his company a little way on their journey.  This crafty old man was not their friend, for he had used them deceitfully, and misrepresented them and their goods to his master, and they enjoyed an innocent kind of revenge, in administering to him, after repeated applications, a powerful dose of medicine, which though harmless in its effects, had yet been very troublesome to him.  Indeed it was not till they had “jalaped” the sultan, his sister, and all the royal family, that they were permitted to take their farewell of Yaoorie.

The following is the letter of the sultan of Yaoorie, as it was translated into English by A. O. Salame: 

“Praise be to God, and blessings and salutations be unto that (prophet), since whom there has been no other prophet.

“To our friend in God, and his apostle (Mahommed), the prince of the English Christians; salutation and mercy, and blessings of God, be unto you, from your friend, the sultan of Yaouri, whose name is Mahommed Ebsheer.  Perfect salutation be unto you, (and) may God cause your mornings and evenings to be most happy, with multiplied salutations (from us).

“After our salutation unto you (some) ostrich feathers will reach you, (as a present,) from the bounty and blessings of God (we have in our country), and we, together with you, thank God (for what he has bestowed).  And salutation be unto your hired people, (your suite) and peace be unto our people, who praise God.

(Signed,) From the
PRINCE OF YAOURI.”

Of this letter, Mr. Salame says, that it is the worst of the African papers which he had seen, both as to its ungrammatical and unintelligible character.  Indeed, his Yaourick majesty seemed to be sadly in need of words to make himself intelligible.  It must be remarked, that the words between parentheses are not in the original, but supplied by the translator for the purpose of reducing the letter to some kind of meaning.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Owing to the reputed badness of the path, that by which the Landers had entered Yaoorie, was rejected for a more northerly one, leading in almost a direct line to the river Cubbie.  About mid-day they arrived at the walls of a pretty considerable town, called Guada, and halted near a small creek of a river flowing from Cubbie, and entering the Niger a little lower down.  Here, as soon as they had taken a slight refreshment, they sent their beasts across the Niger to proceed by land to Boossa, and embarked in two canoes, which were each paddled by four men.