474 THE EXPLORATION OF THE NIGER little strained. I confess too that with" the memory fresh in my mind of all the difficulties I had had at Bussa and at Ilo, and which might easily have led to the loss of our boats, I did nothing to relieve the tension between us.

" Before I talk about anything else," I said to Carrol, " I must tell you what happened at Bussa and at Auru, a few miles from your post at Leba. I will not accept the offers of service from the Company, nor from its agents, nor from its officers, until I know that you had nothing to do with those difficulties."

Quite upset by what I said, he gave me his word, the word of a soldier, that he knew absolutely nothing about them. The same assurance was given to me later by Major Festing, military Commandant, and by the civilians Messrs. Drew and Wallace.

The ice was now broken, and we were able inter pociila to allow ourselves the pleasure of chatting about European affairs with the Governor. He was the first European we had seen for a year. Ah, if only he had been a Frenchman !

Carrol was an Irishman, who spoke French well, and he lent us some English and French newspapers. He told us — without any details however — of the death of Mores, and of the massacre of a French expedition in the west on the Nikki side. We at once compared dates. This expedition consisted perhaps of our comrades sent to bring us the famous orders we had waited for at Say for five months. On hearing this sad news, I became eager to hasten our march to tell the people at Dahomey of the disturbed condition of the districts round Say. Later, Taburet was able to ascertain by carefully reading the English newspapers, that the expedition referred to was that led by Fonssagrives.

Captain Carrol, who was really a very good fellow and a