252 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



wedge between the lines of the Anglo-French and Anglo- 

 German Commissions is now all but finished, and if, on 

 careful working out, every step turns out sound, the map 

 ought to be a success. This w^ould be almost entirely owing 

 to our hitting upon Talbot at the eleventh hour before we 

 came out. 



" Then various collections have been made or are well in the 

 course of being worked up, and lastly but not least, the boats 

 have been put on Lake Chad by the exact routes and seasons 

 promised. The Government attempt to utilise the Gongola 

 this year for storing Bornu was largely a failure. Now we 

 have a large store of cloth and other trade goods here which 

 is probably the most cheaply transported stuff that has ever 

 arrived in Bornu. . . . Bee hasn't had any malaria since 

 his bad fever, which rather bears out what some doctors say, 

 that a bad ' go ' clears the system. The thing that put him 

 on his legs was the visit to Lokoja where they treated him 

 extraordinarily well. The CO. put Mm up in his own house 

 and Bee found the mess food excellent as well as a complete 

 change. 



" I am feeling very foolish at having been tied up here 

 in inaction for so long with such a childish sickness. The 

 doctor, a clever man, confesses his inability to explain the 

 origin, or rather — queer course. He can only name it from 

 the general symptoms, gastro-enteritis. ... I shall be 

 about in a day or two now. All I have to do is to finish 

 putting on flesh. ... It is quite easy to live in Bornu 

 practically without home stores, and you can make excellent 

 bread, porridge, and puddings of the native -grown wheat. 

 There are several good vegetables, and milk, rice, honey, and 



