“Are they all as pretty as she is?”
“Of course they are.”
“Then you must all be great fools to have left them to come here.”
I tried to make him understand what would be the delights of our return home, how our chiefs would praise us, and our fellow citizens admire us, how the whole country would ring with our fame; but it was no good, he stuck to his original opinion.
To prove that we really meant to start the next day, we now began to furl our tents, and the bank opposite us gradually became deserted. When darkness fell we finally dismissed our guides.
Early on the morning of the 6th, guided by a pilot sent to us by the chief of Gao, we started for Bornu, where Madidu was then encamped, and arrived there about eleven o’clock.
The river was still easily navigable, although here and there the presence of eddies proved the existence of rocks, which no doubt crop up, and are dangerous at low water. To make up for a less impeded stream, the banks became more and more rugged and wild as we proceeded. Lofty black and red cliffs covered with gum trees and sycamores succeeded each other, and we found that Bornu had been very exactly described and drawn by Barth. We anchored at the base of a perpendicular rock some three hundred and twenty feet high. Our guide went to the village, of which we could see the huts about half-a-mile off, and soon came back bringing a substitute.
As for Madidu, it appeared that he had slept in his camp, but had left very early in the morning. We should perhaps meet him at Dergona, where we changed pilots.
After breakfast we started again. The left bank now became extremely picturesque, cliffs of red rock broken into fantastic forms resembling the ruins of castles occurring here and there, whilst far away on the right rose a line of rocky mountains. We had evidently now left the dunes behind us.
We passed the night near Dergona, of which we could see the fires, and early the next morning we arrived there. Not a sign of Madidu. He had gone to the interior, driven there by the raids of the Kel Air. When night fell we had reached Balia, the Tabaliat of Barth.