On June 15 Bretonnet reached the French post of Kouno on the Chari, having with him only half a hundred Senegal riflemen and two officers, but also three cannons, and was shortly after met by Gaourang, the king of Baguirmi, with 400 men. Bretonnet wrote a letter, on July 8, to Gentil, whose expedition had arrived in Middle Congo and was not very distant, in which he wrote that he did not trust the rumours that Rabih in person was marching on Kouno, but all the same asked Gentil to send him Captain Julien with his 130-strong company.