In Kókoroché also we had another day’s delay, till the messenger of the sultan arrived who was to protect me against any further intrigues of the ferrymen, whom I regarded with more suspicion than any policeman or constable in Europe. Meanwhile also the wife of Gréma ʿAbdú, who all this time had been staying with her father-in-law in Mústafají, joined us, and all further delay seemed to be at an end. Certainly such a visit of a married woman to her father’s house cannot but contribute to give to Europeans a higher opinion of African domestic life. Indeed people in Europe have little conception how cheerfully man and wife in these regions live together; and it was this amiable feature in his character which reconciled me in some degree to my companion, whom in other respects I greatly disliked. [Sidenote: August 13th.] There had been a great deal of rain in the afternoon of the preceding day; and a heavy shower which came on in the morning, and lasted full two hours, delayed our departure considerably. The distance which separated us from the river was not great; but the latter part of the journey was so bad that my camel threw off its load no less than six times, so that my servants were almost in despair, and did not join me till several hours after my arrival in the town of Ásu, and when I had made myself already comfortable in an excellent hut, built of clay, neatly polished, but from which I felt sorry to have driven away two spinsters, who had been its tenants. Having rested awhile, I went to obtain a sight of the river. Its magnitude had already surprised me, when I first saw it on coming from Logón, and it had delighted me as often as I looked down upon it from the village of Mélé; but it was now greatly increased in size, forming a broad sheet of water not less than one thousand yards across, and dotted with several little islands, while the high and gradually-shelving shore on this side was clothed with rich crops of Egyptian corn or masr (_Zea Maïs_). Several small canoes, or rather boats, were lying on the shore; but I looked in vain for one large enough to carry my camel, as I was really afraid to trust it to the stream. However, I was glad to observe that the current was not very strong; and it did not seem to me to flow faster than from about two and a half to three English miles an hour. Unfortunately, to-day also the weather was very wet, so that strolling about was not so pleasant as it would otherwise have been.