Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/332

 274 WEST AFRICA. Oshun basins. In 1851 Bowen estimated its population at seventy thousand, which has been raised to over one hundred thousand by the missionaries, who have subsequently visited the place. Like Abeokuta, Ibadan is an urban confederacy of villages grouped in a common enclosure, but each with a distinct name and special organisation. The Mohammedans are more numerous than in the rival republic, whose supremacy Ibadan has at last been compelled to acknowledge after a series of sanguinary wars. During one of these the great city of Ijayeh, lying 18 miles north-west of Ibadan, was totally destroyed. Along the much-frequented highway leading through the markets of Shonga or Egga north-east to the Nupe country, follow some other large towns, capitals of independent kingdoms, in which Mohammedan influences are continually spread- ing. Here Oyo became the capital of the north Yoruba state after the destruction of Katanga by the Fulahs ; but it is a much smaller place than its neighbour Ogbomosho, which lies in a fertile valley close to the water-parting between the coast streams and the affluents of the ^iger. Since it was first crossed by Clap- perton, this divide has been visited by few travellers, every obstacle being thrown in the way of European visitors by the middlemen, who have a monopoly of the international trade.