"He was doubtless welcomed as a hero," I said.

"Yes," said Samos. "And well he should have been."

"The next year," I said, "he mounted a new expedition, with eleven boats and a thousand men, an expedition financed, I now suppose, by Bila Huruma, to explore Lake Ngao, to circumnavigate it as he had Ushindi."

"Precisely," said Samos.

"And it was there that he discovered that Lake Ngao was fed, incredibly enough, by only one major river, as its eastern extremity, a river vast enough to challenge even the Vosk in its breadth and might, a river which he called the Ua."

"Yes," said Samos.

"It is impassable," I said, "because of various falls and cataracts."

"The extent of these obstacles, and the availability of portages, the possibility of roads, the possibility of side canals, are not known," said Samos.

" Shaba himself, with his men and boats, pursued the river for only a hundred pasangs," I said, "when they were turned back by some falls and cataracts."

"The falls and cataracts of Bila Huruma, as he named them," said Samos.

"The size of his boats made portage difficult or impossible," I said.

"They had not been built to be sectioned," said Samos. "'And the steepness of the portage, the jungle, the hostility, as it turned out, of interior tribes, made retreat advisable."

"The expedition of Shaba returned then," I said, "to Lake Ngao, completed its circumnavigation and returned later, via the swamps, to Lake Ushindi and the six ubarates."

"Yes," said Samos.

"A most remarkable man," I said.

"Surely one of the foremost geographers and explorers of Gor," said Samos. "And a highly trusted man."

"Trusted?" I asked.