I was now enabled to arrange all our money matters, which were in a very confused and desperate state; for, besides the large debt due to the merchant Mohammed e’ Sfáksi, we were indebted to the vizier alone for 500 Spanish dollars. Not being able to satisfy all our creditors with ready money, there having been sent only 1050 dollars in cash, I arranged with the merchant, giving him 200 dollars in cash, and a bill for 1500 dollars on Fezzán, while I paid all the smaller debts, as well as that of the vizier. Indeed we might now have been able to achieve a great deal, if it had been our destiny to remain together—for in the beginning almost all our efforts were paralyzed by the smallness of our means, which did not allow us to undertake anything on a large scale; but it was our destiny, that, when sufficient supplies had arrived, one of us should succumb. I have already observed that, when on my return I met my companion before the gates of the capital, I was surprised at his exhausted appearance; and I was sorry to find that my first impression was confirmed by what I observed afterwards. As he himself was anxious for a little change of air, and as it was entirely in accordance with our object of exploring the lake, to observe the state of the komádugu at this season, while it was not possible at present to enter upon any great undertaking, we agreed that he should make a small trip to the lower part of the river; and he left accordingly for Ájiri on the 29th of August, in company with a small grandee or kókana, to whom the place belonged, a short distance westward from the district of Dúchi. I accompanied him about as far as the village of Dáwerghú; and we separated with a firm hope that the excursion would do him a great deal of good—and he really enjoyed extremely the rich vegetation of the komádugu, which at this time of the year, during the rising of the river, was in its full vigour. He learnt, by inquiry from the natives, the very interesting fact that the water in the komádugu, which during the dry season is limited to detached pools of stagnant water, begins to form a continuous stream of water eastward towards the Tsád on the 21st or 22nd July, and continues running for about seven months; that is to say, till about the middle of February. It begins to overflow its banks in the month of November. But, although my companion took great interest in the objects around him, he could not have felt very strong, as the notes which he wrote during this excursion are extremely short and unsatisfactory, while it would have been of importance if he had been able to lay down the course of the river with tolerable exactitude. Moreover, in his feeble condition, he committed the mistake of forcing his last day’s march in returning to Kúkawa, on the 13th September; and I was sorry to observe, when we supped together that evening, that his appetite greatly failed him.