237 
CHAP. LXXIX. 
SEPARATION FROM THE SHEIKH. CROSS THE RIVER TO THE SOUTH- 
WESTERN SIDE. — VARIOUS ENCAMPMENTS. RIVER STUDDED 
WITH ISLANDS. — ANS6nGH0. 
At length the day dawned when I was, in Saturday, 
reality, to begin my home-journey, for all our J^^-^^^^- 
former movements along the river had rather re- 
sembled the wanderings of the natives themselves than 
the direct march of a European traveller, and, 
although I felt sincerely attached to my protector, 
and under other circumstances might still have found 
a great many objects worthy of my investigation and 
research in this region, I could not but feel greatly 
satisfied at being at length enabled to retrace my 
steps homeward, with a tolerable guarantee as to my 
safety. It was highly gratifying to me that when I 
left this place a great many people wished me a hearty 
farewell and a prosperous journey ; nay, Thakkefi 
even commissioned me to oiFer his special regards to 
Queen Victoria, wath whose name I had made him 
acquainted. 
Having then pursued our march through the level 
tract along the river, which here forms a great north- 
