This was flattering compared with the most of our descriptions of Mpande's physical charms, but it is only fair to note that the French traveller Delegorgue held to a very different opinion. He was so taken by the Prince that with Gallic enthusiasm Delegorgue wrote of his
'brilliant black eye, deepset, well-guarded by an advanced frontal angle, a high forehead, straight at the sides on which the trace of wrinkles was beginning to be perceived, a nose of usual mould with gristles boldly shown, a large mouth often smiling with the smile which means "I understand", a square chin indicating resolution; in fact a large head, well formed, borne on a superb body shining with plumpness, but on which the carriage was so noble...the gestures so precise that a Parisian might well have believed that Pande [sic] in his youth had frequented the palaces of kings'.