The chief was quite right about the road. It certainly was not good, for it led us, to begin with, across an inundated plain, where we were up to our knees in water for about a mile. It was also oppressively hot, and the upper part of our bodies was as wet with perspiration as our legs were with the mud of the marsh. It was with a sigh of relief that we came to the rising ground where the road was better, except for the steep and rough bit strewn with sharp flints. We had this kind of thing for some four miles, and Taburet, who was toiling along beside me, became the colour of a ripe cherry. Was this colour a favourite one in these parts, I wondered? Anyhow our doctor made a deep impression on the heart of one of the beauties of Tenda, who had come to see us in our boats, and walked with us to the chief’s village. It was a regular case of love at first sight, for she never took her eyes off Taburet, offering him flowers and pea-nuts, and moving the flints out of his way. It was a real idyll. I felt pretty sure of the doctor’s power of resisting the blandishments of the syren, but still I thought it was as well to remind him of the negro eunuchs, who, if he did lapse from virtue, would be pretty sure to sew him up in an ox-hide, and fling him into what answered here to the Bosphorus. We arrived at Tenda laughing merrily, in spite of the condition of our socks and boots, which, soaked through and swollen as they were with the water we had shipped _en route_, hurt our feet dreadfully. We had already been told that this village was the capital of Dendi, but for all that its appearance greatly surprised us, for it is surrounded with a _tata_ nearly seven feet high, and at its base is a moat no less than nine feet deep by four, twelve to fifteen feet wide. Throughout the Sudan I had never seen any fortification to equal it in the mass of material used. It is in an excellent state of preservation, and the crest of the wall is covered with sharp thorns, forming a regular _chevaux de frise_. It would be very difficult to take the place even with artillery. I was delighted to see so formidable a stronghold in these parts, and should the Toucouleurs who took Kompa try their skill on it, they will have their hands pretty full.