268 THE EXPLORATION OF THE NIGER again and again, but fortunately without making any fresh holes in our much-tried barks. Still more rocks ahead !

Quousque tandem !

At about eleven o'clock on the 22nd we reached Tumare. The chief at first refused to give us guides, but a liberal present won him over.

Things seemed likely to be worse rather than better, for we had not gone more than four and a half miles during the whole of the 23 rd. The river was now but a river in name ; a mere maze of narrow channels between innumerable islets covered with fine trees and millet. The bed of these channels is encumbered with rocks, amongst which our barges had to follow a serpentine course for which they were little fitted. At two o'clock we reached the village of Desa, and the evening was wasted in a palaver without result. A feeling of sullen hostility against us was everywhere manifested, and the first question the natives asked was whether we were the same white men who had come the year before. At last, however, we succeeded in getting some guides who took us as far as Farca.

Our coolies told us that the crocodiles lay their eggs at this time of the year, when it always rains and blows hard. On this account we were obliged to remain anchored opposite Desa all the morning. We started at two o'clock in the afternoon. What a river we had to pass down!

Before we arrived at the anchorage, where we remained for the night, we had to go through a pass not much more than five yards wide.

The people of Desa, we were told by the natives above Gao, are Kurteyes of a very fierce and inhospitable disposition, and, truth to tell, their first reception of us was anything but cordial. " What had we come to their village for ? " they asked. " Why had we not stopped at a bigger