belly, with very peculiar back fins, that nearest to
the tail being a simple piece of flesh free from rays.
This fish has four long barbules in the upper jaw, and
two in the lower : the air-bladder, when dried, forms
a superior quality of isinglass, and the flesh of this
fish is excellent. I have frequently seen the bayard
sixty or seventy pounds’ weight, therefore I was not
proud of my catch, and I recommenced fishing;
Nothing large could be tempted, and I only succeeded
in landing two others of the same kind, one of
about nine pounds, the smaller about six. I resolved
upon my next trial to use a much larger bait, and T
returned to camp with my fish for dinner.
The life at our new camp was charmingly independent
; we were upon Abyssinian territory; but, as
the country was uninhabited, we considered it as our
own. I had previously arranged with the sheik of
Sofi that, whenever the rifle should be successful and
I could spare meat, I would hoist the English flag
upon my flagstaff; thus I could at any time summon
a crowd of hungry visitors, who were ever ready to
swim the river and defy the crocodiles in the hope of
obtaining flesh. We were exceedingly comfortable,
having a large stock of supplies; in addition to our
servants we had acquired a treasure in a nice old
slave woman, whom we had hired from the sheik at
a dollar per month to grind the corn. Masara (Sarah)
was a dear old creature, the most willing and obliging
specimen of a good slave; and she was one of those
bright exceptions of the negro race that would have
driven Exeter Hall frantic with enthusiasm. Poor
old Masara ! She had now fallen into the hands of a
kind mistress, and as we were improving in Arabic,
my wife used to converse with her upon the past and
present; the future had never been suggested to her
simple mind. Masara had a weighty care; her daily
bread was provided; money she had none, neither did
she require i t ; husband she could not have had, as a
slave has none, but is the common property of all
who purchase her : but poor Masara had a daughter, a
charmingly pretty girl of about seventeen, the offspring
of one of the old woman’s Arab masters. Sometimes
this girl came to see her mother, and we arranged the
bath on the inflated skins, and had her towed across
for a few days. This was Masara s greatest happiness,
but her constant apprehension; the nightmare of her
life was the possibility that her daughter should be sold
and parted from her. The girl was her only and all
absorbing thought, the sole object of her affection :
she was the moon in her mother’s long night of
slavery; without her, all were dark and hopeless.
The hearts of slaves are crushed and hardened by
the constant pressure of the yoke; nevertheless some
have still .those holy feelings of affection that nature
has implanted in the human mind : it is the tearing
asunder of those tender chains that renders slavery
the horrible curse that it really is human beings are
reduced to the position of animals, without the
blessings enjoyed by the brute creation - short
memories and obtuse feelings.