Having got ready my presents for the governor, I went to pay him a visit; and while waiting in the inner courtyard, I had sufficient leisure to admire the solid and well-ornamented style of building which his palace exhibited, and which almost cast into the shade the frail architectural monuments of the capital. I was then conducted into a stately but rather sombre audience-hall, where the governor was sitting on a divan of clay, clad in a blue bernús, and surrounded by a great number of people whom curiosity had brought thither. Having exchanged with him the usual compliments, I told him that, as Mr. Richardson had paid him a visit on his first arrival in the country, and on his way from the north to Kúkawa, it had also been my desire, before leaving Bórnu for the western tribes, to pay my respects to him as the most noble, powerful, and intelligent governor of the country,—it being our earnest wish to be on friendly terms with all the princes of the earth, more especially with those so remarkably distinguished as was his family. He received my address with great kindness, and appeared much flattered by it. The number of people present on this occasion was so great, that I did not enter into closer conversation with the governor, the darkness of the place not allowing me to distinguish his features. I had, however, a better opportunity of observing his almost European cast of countenance when I paid him another visit, in order to satisfy his curiosity by firing my six-barrelled revolver before his eyes. On this occasion he did me the honour of putting on the white heláli bernús which had constituted the chief attraction of my present, and which he esteemed very highly, as most noble people do in this country, while the common chief values more highly a dress of showy colours. The white half-silk bernús looked very well, especially as he wore underneath it a red cloth kaftan. The real name of the governor is Kóso, Múniyóma being, as I have stated on a former occasion[22], nothing but a general title, meaning the governor of Múniyó, which, in the old division of the vast empire of Bórnu, formed part of the Yerí. In the present reduced state of the kingdom of Bórnu, he was the most powerful and respectable of the governors, and, by his personal dignity had more the appearance of a prince than almost any other chief whom I saw in Negroland. Besides making himself respected by his intelligence and just conduct, he has succeeded in spreading a sort of mystery round his daily life, which enhanced his authority. The people assured me that nobody ever saw him eating. But, as far as I had an opportunity of observing, even his family harboured that jealousy and want of confidence which undermines the wellbeing of so many princely households based on polygamy.