Early next morning, the little steam launch _Ewaffa_ started from Bonny to convey the consul, his secretary, and myself to visit the domains of Ja-Ja. A broad river stretches on either side of us, the waters of which are thick and green with the rotting slime of myriads of fallen leaves. The banks are not of land, but a dense jungle of trees growing down into the water, and dropping long suckers from their outstretched arms to form fresh trees. The roots of this jungle intercept as in a net the mud and slime and vegetable débris brought down by the river, and in course of time the inner parts of the jungle become sufficiently solid to afford footing for crocodiles and hippopotami, but quite impenetrable to human beings, the outskirts of the jungle being always comparatively new trees, growing dense and rank in the water itself, and interlaced thickly with great, strong, green hanging creepers, upon which swing and chatter the mangrove monkeys. As we steam up the river and across its numerous branches, no sound but the shrill chirp of these monkeys breaks the oppressive stillness. Now and again the black snout of a hippopotamus shows out of the thick ooze on the banks, or a motionless crocodile is seen basking in the sun. Occasionally, a long, low canoe glides noiselessly by; the boat, rower, and paddles all jet black, and hardly visible against the dark-green background of impenetrable jungle. The air is soft and sickly, with a whiff now and then of unutterable nastiness. The great fierce sun casts a yellow, all-pervading, hazy glare on the thick water, which is covered with a festering scum of miasmatic air-bubbles.