Next we drowned many of our other stores. Into the water with our bottles of oil and pots of pomade! Then into the fire with our celluloid bracelets, necklaces, and rings! The despair of the natives on the bank became deeper and deeper, reaching its height when, just to wind up with _éclat_ and to increase their regrets rather than from necessity, we flung two or three dozen many-coloured umbrellas on to the blazing pile. This produced positive desolation amongst the spectators. All the better, it would teach them to behave properly to foreigners. A Fulah, sent I was told by the Sultan of Gando, flung himself at my feet and entreated me to stop the destruction, assuring me that the chief of Bussa would do all we wished. I reminded him of a proverb current in his native place: “It is no good to put the fish back in the water after it is cooked.” I had often been to that monarch’s court, I added, and I had no time to begin all over again, probably in vain, the palavers of yesterday and the day before that. I had had enough of it now. The river was falling too; we had noticed a decrease of some four inches in the depth of the water during the last twenty-four hours, and although all the natives agreed in declaring that it was only temporary, I was not going to run the risk of finding our passage blocked. Amongst the crowd I noticed a _diavandu_ from Igga, who was trying to incite the natives against us. There were several of his fellow-countrymen there too, easily identified by their _bubus_ with the green embroideries already referred to as sold by the Niger Company. I was now assured that the chief had had his canoe men put in irons for disappointing us, but unfortunately a minute afterwards I recognized them in the crowd. I copy the following sentence from my journal written on the spur of the moment— [Illustration: WOMEN OF BUSSA.] “It is very evident that the English have not lost time since last year; they have not, it is true, as I feared they would, pushed their effective occupation up-stream, but have merely, so to speak, set going the cavalry of Saint George. Their plan is simply to delay us; yes, to delay us till it is impossible for our boats to pass the rapids. We should then be obliged to go by land through Burgu, which they know to be dangerous, and where they have no doubt sown obstacles for us—one well-aimed shot, one well-planted poisoned arrow, and there would be an end of our expedition and its results. Otherwise there would be nothing left for us to do but to go down to Leba and ask the English to co-operate with us. “This was the policy described by Agoult, but _Inch Allah!_ our rivals will not have the latter satisfaction. Let us pass the rapids somehow or other, and I promise myself that I will describe the odiousness of such conduct even to, indeed especially to, the honest portion of the English nation. The first thing to be done is to pass the rapids.”