I was much surprised, after entering the gate, to see only clusters of huts here and there, and no regular town, as I had been led to expect. I remained under the shade of a tree until the messenger went and acquainted the sultan of my arrival. On his return I accompanied him up to the sultan, whom I found sitting under a small projection of the verandah of one of his coozies: his midaki, or principal wife, sitting alongside of him. To this personage I had been advised by the widow Zuma to pay particular attention, as she was every thing with the sultan. He received me very kindly, and said the sultan of Youri had kept seven boats waiting for me for these last seven days to take me up the river to Youri. I said I was much obliged to the sultan of Youri, but that I did not intend going that way, as the war with the Fellatas had shut up the communication between Bornou and Youri; that with his permission I would go by the way of Koolfu and Nyffé, where there was no war. He said I was right, and that it was good for me that I had come to see him; that I should take what path I chose. We then parted, he ordering his head man to take me to a house. He would have come with me himself, but the midaki pulled him back; she had acted, during the time I was there, as prompter. The sultan is a fine looking young man, about twenty-five or twenty-six years of age, five feet ten inches high, with a high forehead, large eyes, Roman nose, decent lips, good teeth, short chin covered with about an inch and a half of beard, more of a spare than robust make. He was dressed in a white tobe, striped Moorish kaftan, with a red Moorish cap on his head. The midaki appears somewhat older, below the middle size, with nothing remarkable about her but her voice, and a winning womanish way, sitting on his left side, a little behind him, with her arm half around his neck. His house does not differ from those of other people, except the huts being a little larger, and surmounted by ostrich eggs. I found my house a very good one, with three rooms or huts, and a shade for the heat of the day; and the sultan and midaki sent me a sheep, yams, fish, milk, honey, and eggs.