Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/380

 trade of Central Africa, Nupé has the further advantage of an almost uniformly fertile soil, yielding in abundance all the fruits of the tropics. It might support millions of inhabitants, and at various epochs the population has been relatively very dense. Rabba, formerly one of the great cities of the continent, had one hundred thousand inhabitants at the beginning of the present century, when the slave-dealers had made it a depôt for their gangs of victims destined for sale on the seaboard. Opposite Rabba stood Zagoshi, peopled by boatmen and artisans, who, like all the riverain populations, obeyed the "king of the gloomy waters," a sovereign nearly always afloat on the stream. But both places were ruined by the suppression of the slave trade and the Fulah conquest. Rabba has partly recovered, thanks to its admirable position on a bend of the Niger at the southern extremity of a range of hills, skirted on the east by the little River Gingi.

Shonga-wharf, 15 miles farther down, has been chosen by the English as the chief depôt for goods destined for Yoruba.

Katanga (Katunga), former capital of the great kingdom of Yoruba, stood some 24 miles from the bend of the Niger at Geba, and had itself succeeded Bohu, which was much more advantageously situated in a fertile and picturesque valley. But both were destroyed by the Fulahs, and the kings of this country now pay annual tribute to Bida and Wurno. About 80 miles south of Rabba lies Saraki, a large place situated in a hilly but highly cultivated district, abounding in cotton, cereals, yams, and ground-nuts.

South-west of Saraki, the route across the Oshi affluent of the Niger leads to the great city of Ilorin, standing over 1,300 feet above sea-level, near the divide between the Niger basin and the streams flowing seawards. The enclosure,