The King seemed astonished.
"Tell me them. I desire you to tell me," he said.
"I ask nothing better," replied de Morin, "and the more so because I agree with you. You feared that the merchant, Aboo Sammit, who accompanied Schweinfurth, would establish commercial relations with the other kingdoms, south, east, and west, which border on yours. If Schweinfurth, instead of being accompanied by Aboo Sammit, had been alone, you would have allowed him to cross your territory, as you will certainly permit us to do, seeing that we are not engaged in either the ivory or the slave trade."
"Ah!" said the African monarch, "you want to go southwards."
"We intend," replied de Morin, boldly, "to ask your permission to do so."
Munza, for the first time, looked our friend full in the face, and said to him—
"You have not, then, as you stated, left your country simply for the sake of seeing me, because you also wish to know my neighbour?"
The observation was shrewd enough, but, fortunately, de Morin did not move a muscle.
"We are come," said he, "to pay you a visit, but we must go back to our own country, and we do not wish to do so by the same way that we came."
"But, since you have come from the north, you must take the road back to the north. Why, then, do you talk of going south?"