if I had not a strong mind, I would embrace the customs and religion of such a people."
The next day we took leave of the king, who made us a second fine present of two mats, two pairs of beautifully wrought sandals, and three heads of cowries "to pay our expenses down." At our first interview, after receiving ours, he had made us a present of equal value. A horseman and two foot-soldiers were sent with us, as an escort, and quite a multitude followed us out of the town, wishing us a safe journey and blessings of every kind. The people of Ilorin are not all Mussulmans, there being also a large, almost equal proportion of Yorubas, heathens; these, headed by a powerful Balagun, occasion King Shita considerable trouble, and might one day remove him and his party from power, an object openly avowed. We saw a large number; of convicts about the streets, their legs chained so as to permit them a very limited and peculiar locomotion. Such prisoners are not found in other towns, being either sold into foreign slavery or decapitated as the penalty for their offense—the former, a kind of punishment the teachings of their religion forbid the Mohammedans inflicting on their own people.
