“Why are you landing here?”
“The wind is so heavy we can’t go on,” we replied.
“What’s your business?”
We explained to the best of our ability, not forgetting to mention the profession of civil engineer we had adopted up the river.
“But you had better not land here!” he urged.
“We must land; we can’t go on until the wind drops.”
“You certainly can’t stay here, for there is no hotel, and you won’t be able to get anything to eat.”
“We don’t want a hotel and we have food in our boats.”
“What did you come here for?”
We explained again that we were travelling to see the country.