About half an hour after starting in the afternoon, we reached a considerable watercourse, which, bordered by fine spreading trees, had a very pleasant appearance. It is called Komádugu Ímbulú, or Mbulú. This watercourse was asserted by my companion Kágo to be entirely distinct from the Yálowe, or komádugu of Díkowa; and from the experience I had on my return-journey I think he was correct. The banks of the watercourse were twelve feet high; its breadth was from twenty to twenty-five yards; but the depth of the water was only a foot and a half. No current was then perceptible. The trees of the forest, after we left this watercourse, were of a greater variety, but all of rather stunted growth. We observed here great quantities of the grass called kréb or kashá, which I have before mentioned, and which constitutes a considerable part of the food of the poorer inhabitants. We passed several towns in a state of the utmost decay and entirely deserted; and traversing a dense underwood, which we scarcely expected to see in the neighbourhood of a large town, reached at five o’clock the clay walls of Ngála. The interior of this town has a very peculiar character, and nothing similar to it is seen in any part of Negroland, although the place at present is in a great state of decay; for all the ancient quarter of the town consists of clay houses, built on an imposing and elevated terrace. The palace of the governor is indeed something quite stupendous for these regions, having, with its immense substructure, and its large and towering walls, the appearance of a large citadel. We were quartered in the extensive mansion of the gedádo or delátu, in which Mr. Tully died; but it, as well as the whole of the town, was in the utmost state of decay. The times of Méram, the beloved wife of the sheikh Mohammed el Amín el Kánemy, had gone by; and the wealth of Ngála had been consumed by the slaves of the present sheikh and his vizier. The once magnificent palace of Méram itself is nothing but a large, desolate heap of ruins. The quarters, however, which were assigned to me were in a tolerable state of repair, consisting, as they did, of an upper story, which afforded me sufficient protection against the numbers of mosquitoes which infest the place. We remained here the following day, when I went to pay a visit to the governor at his residence; but I felt rather sorry for it, as the good impression which the imposing exterior of the palace had made upon me, was destroyed by the ruinous and desolate state of the interior. The whole province is now in a very neglected condition, such as would indicate that the ruler of the country himself acknowledged his incapability of defending his subjects against another inroad of the Wádáy.