FINAL EFFORTS TO THROW OFF THE FULANI YOKE

The Metropolis had long been left to herself whilst great and stirring events had been taking place all over the country. The outcome of the rebellion of the chiefs and the revolution was the foundation of modern Ibadan, Abeokuta, Modakeke, the occupation of Ijaye, Abemo, the destruction of the city of Owu, and the fall of many ancient towns in the plain, and above all the ascendancy of Ilorin under the ravaging foreigners.

That such important events as these should take place, one after another, altering the face of the country, and the King not be able to promote or retard the accomplishment of any—a King only in name, the direct descendant of absolute monarchs and deified heroes—could not but be a matter of pain and grief to the sovereign. Added to all this was a great calamity which befel him at home, one that distressed him sore and accelerated his death. A fire broke out in the palace and all efforts to arrest its ravages failed, and most of the accumulated treasures of his ancestors were consumed in the conflagration! Great efforts were made to remove some to out-houses away from the direction of the flames, but unfortunately by a turn of the wind, those out-houses also caught fire and everything was lost!