76 START FOR THE INTERIOR. Chap. IV. 



if Cliaillie gave her all she asked and made her heart 

 glad, she would lead us from tribe to tribe until we 

 reached the far-off sea where we wished to go. This 

 speech inspired my men with new confidence. I must 

 say that I felt very grateful to the old man. We all 

 sorely needed encouragement in the great enterprise 

 we had undertaken, and nothing was better calculated 

 to buoy up the spirits of my half-hearted followers 

 than these oracular sayings. 



We resumed our voyage, with quite a little fleet 

 of canoes in company, on the 14th ; the heat was 

 intense, and almost insupportable in the confine- 

 ment of the boat ; we paddled till twelve o'clock at 

 night, and towards the afternoon of the next day 

 arrived at Goumbi. 



Here friend Quengueza behaved most royally. 

 We revelled in plenty, and, if my object had been 

 merely to stay here, all would have been pleasant. 

 He soon made up his mind to accompany me to the 

 capital of the Ashira country, and resolved to do it in 

 a triumphal sort of way. But he continued to detain 

 me, day after day, long after all our preparations were 

 completed. The presence of a white man with stores 

 of goods gave him consequence in the eyes of the 

 neighbouring Bakalai, and he wished to prolong the 

 novel enjoyment as long as he could. In his great 

 generosity he franked all his wives to my men, but I 

 overheard them one day complaining that the royal 

 ladies were a grasping lot and drove very hard 

 bargains. 



During my stay at Goumbi, I undertook several 

 short excursions in the neighbourhood and made 



