It was the middle of the day, about two o’clock, when Selim Capitan, in order to take his leave, and to employ the dreaded people at the moment of our departure, and keep them far from us, threw ten cups of sug-sug on shore, and the cannons on all the vessels were discharged, to bid solemn farewell with twenty-one shots to the beautiful country which must contain so many more interesting materials. The forty or forty-two days lost by Arnaud’s fault, in Korusko, are again recalled to my mind. If we had arrived here twenty days previously, neither would all these rocks have been an obstacle, nor would there have been a pretext for not proceeding further; and it would have been no absolute misfortune, supposing that in our _return_ we had not been able immediately to sail over this reef of rocks. Rain begins here, as I have already said, in two months’ time. On its setting in, the neighbouring masses of rocks discharge their water into the river-bed; the river rises after a few days, and it would not be difficult, therefore, at the expiration of that time, to pass the rocky bar. But against the proposal to wait for the rainy season, the objection, partly founded in fact, was offered, that the provisions which had been provided for ten months, would not suffice for the return voyage. Certainly the provisions had been shamefully dealt with, and there was little to be expected from the people of this country, who would be paid for every thing. It is just as clear that the natives do not cultivate agriculture beyond their immediate necessities, and therefore have stored up no magazines, as that their herds are only sufficient for their consumption, because, had it been otherwise, the Sultan, leaving aside the people, must have shewn himself more liberal. It is certain also, that with the hitherto lavish profusion of glass-beads, their value must infallibly decrease, and that therefore we shall soon be in want of this means of payment. The principal reason, however, of my proposal not meeting with favour, appears to me to lie in this, that a sudden attack by the natives was feared, and not entirely without justice, on a longer and closer acquaintance, by which our supremacy, at all events, must suffer; because Turks wish always to remain Turks, that is, born lords of the earth. As a last resource I rely upon a third expedition, and this thought afforded me also some consolation.