As a return gift we left the little organ at Geba, which had been our great joy at Say. It now belongs to Carrol’s successor, for we hear that the good Captain has returned safe and sound to his native country, rescued at last from the hands of the Royal Niger Company. At about one o’clock in the afternoon of the 12th we left Geba, exchanging salutes with our flags with the station. Our old guide Amadu remained there, but Major Festing lent us a man in the service of the Company, who was, however, quite useless to us, as navigation here, difficult enough for large vessels, was perfectly easy for us now the water was so high. We had but to let ourselves go, and we went fast enough. We reached Rabba, which seemed an unimportant factory, about five o’clock. This is the nearest point to Bidda, the capital of Nupé, which we knew to be at open war with the Company. There are no whites at the factory of Rabba, and we did not have any dealings with the Sierra Leonese who is in charge of it. We had been anchored for an hour, when the steam launch _Bargu_, with Major Festing on board, joined us. These launches, of which it is a pity there are not more on the Niger, are little steamers armed with a machine-gun. They carry an officer and some ten riflemen, who act as the river police only, and have nothing to do with transporting merchandise. Their office is by no means a sinecure. [Illustration: RABBA.] The voyage began to tell very much on our men now. It was not only that they were very tired, but the rain was continuous all night, and sometimes also in the day, so that we had to put up the tents on the decks. These tents, moreover, were no longer water-tight, and the sleeping-place in the damp boats was very small. Our negroes generally managed to stow themselves away under shelter somehow, often one on top of the other, but I should have liked better weather for this last bit of the journey, so that they might have been able to get over all they had gone through at Bussa. They made up for their discomfort at night by getting up late in the morning. All this, however, did not prevent us from making good headway without any over pressure, borne on as we were by the strong current. On the 13th we covered forty-five miles, going on until eight in the evening, just in time to anchor before we were overtaken by a tornado, and an awful one too. Fortunately we found shelter in a little gulf, and escaped with a good ducking. [Illustration: IGGA.] On the 14th, judging by the rate at which we went, the current must have been yet stronger. We made some fifty miles, passed the night near Igga, and arrived there at eight o’clock in the morning on the 15th.