He Asked Leave To Go,
And When His Party Moved Off A Little Way, He Sent For My Spokesman,
And
Told him that, "if we did not add a red jacket and a man
to our gift of a few
Copper rings and a few pounds of meat,
we must return by the way we had come." I said in reply "that we should
certainly go forward next day, and if he commenced hostilities,
the blame before God would be that of Sansawe;" and my man added
of his own accord, "How many white men have you killed in this path?"
which might be interpreted into, "You have never killed any white man,
and you will find ours more difficult to manage than you imagine."
It expressed a determination, which we had often repeated to each other,
to die rather than yield one of our party to be a slave.
Hunger has a powerful effect on the temper. When we had got
a good meal of meat, we could all bear the petty annoyances of these borderers
on the more civilized region in front with equanimity; but having suffered
considerably of late, we were all rather soured in our feelings,
and not unfrequently I overheard my companions remark in their own tongue,
in answer to threats of attack, "That's what we want: only begin then;"
or with clenched teeth they would exclaim to each other,
"These things have never traveled, and do not know what men are."
The worrying, of which I give only a slight sketch, had considerable influence
on my own mind, and more especially as it was impossible to make any allowance
for the Bashinje, such as I was willing to award to the Chiboque.
They saw that we had nothing to give, nor would they be benefited in the least
by enforcing the impudent order to return whence we had come.
They were adding insult to injury, and this put us all into a fighting spirit,
and, as nearly as we could judge, we expected to be obliged
to cut our way through the Bashinje next morning.
3D APRIL. As soon as day dawned we were astir, and, setting off
in a drizzling rain, passed close to the village. This rain probably damped
the ardor of the robbers. We, however, expected to be fired upon
from every clump of trees, or from some of the rocky hillocks
among which we were passing; and it was only after two hours' march
that we began to breathe freely, and my men remarked, in thankfulness,
"We are children of Jesus." We continued our course,
notwithstanding the rain, across the bottom of the Quango Valley,
which we found broken by clay shale rocks jutting out,
though lying nearly horizontally. The grass in all the hollows,
at this time quite green, was about two feet higher than my head
while sitting on ox-back. This grass, wetted by the rain,
acted as a shower-bath on one side of our bodies; and some deep gullies,
full of DISCOLORED water, completed the cooling process.
We passed many villages during this drenching, one of which
possessed a flock of sheep; and after six hours we came to a stand
near the River Quango (lat.
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