We started again about two o’clock, and half-an-hour later we were opposite Leba, where floats the white flag of the Royal Niger Company, with its ship and the circle cut across by three rays, bearing the motto, _Pax, Jus, Ars_. Here we had to meet our last danger. What would the English do? I awaited them with composure, for it is we who have the whip hand now, and to begin by showing them that I was not going to submit to a compulsory halt, we passed on without stopping at Leba. There was a good deal of bustle at the station, however, and eleven riflemen came out and took up their position on the bank. Certainly there was effective occupation here, not a doubt of it; only every one will admit that no such effective occupation has taken place higher up-stream. My difficulties at Bussa may perhaps be renewed here, indeed increased. Lower Auru is about a mile and three-quarters from Leba. Either the English rule here or they do not; in the former case, it was they who had told the natives not to give us any help when two of our boats were in the greatest danger. In the second case, this effective occupation is very precarious and limited at the only point where there are any troops, and for the very best of reasons it does not extend to Bussa, which, from the European point of view, remains _rex nullius_. A tornado compelled us to anchor about four o’clock near the left bank, and we kept as strict a watch as we had done in the Tuareg country. We took care to be on our guard against _a blow from the Tatanis_, such as had succeeded so well in the case of Mizon. For the sake of those who have forgotten that incident I will add here that Mizon was attacked at the mouth of the Niger by Patanis, when he was entering it in his vessel, the _René Caillé_. When he complained, the Niger Company replied: “We were not aware that you were there.” Those very Patanis, his enemies of the day before, brought him wood for burning, by order of the English agent. At about eight o’clock on October 10 we passed Badjibo, or rather Guadjibo, where Captain Toutée had built Fort Arenberg. After he had evacuated it the English took possession of it, finding it in perfect repair. There is no doubt that as the Company already had a station at Leba, above Guadjibo, the French occupation of the latter place was open to discussion. I once started a conversation in a meeting at the Sorbonne, which at one moment seemed likely to become acrimonious, for I quoted a remark of Baron d’Haussy, Naval Minister in the time of Charles X., as a base of the policy to be followed in dealing with the English. It is well known that in a talk with the English ambassador, d’Haussy, irritated at the off-hand manner of the latter, said: “If you want a diplomatic answer, the President of the Council will give it to you; as for me, I say, setting aside official language, that _nous nous f . . . de vous_.”[11]