then, with engaging frankness, invited the natives,
who were now about two hundred in number,
to come closer. The natives consulted a little
while, and several— now smiling pleasantly themselves—
advanced leisurely into the water until
th e y touched the boat’s prow. T h e y stood a
few seconds talking swee tly, when suddenly
with a rush they ran the boat ashore, and then
all the others, seizing hawser and gunwale,
dragged her about 20 yards over the ro ck y
beach high and d r y , leaving us almost stupefied
with astonishment!
Then ensued a scene w hich beggars description.
Pandemonium— all its devils armed— raged
around us. A forest o f spears was levelled;
thirty or forty bows were drawn taut; as many
barbed arrows seemed already on the wing;
thick, kn o tty clubs waved above our heads;
two hundred screaming black demons jostled
with each other and struggled for room to vent
their fury, or for an opportunity to deliver one
crushing blow or thrust at us.
In the meantime, as soon as the first symptoms
o f this manifestation o f violence had been observed,
I had sprung to my feet, each hand
armed with a loaded self-cocking revolver, to
kill and be killed. But the apparent hopelessness
o f inflicting much injury upon such a large
crowd restrained me, and Safeni turned to me,
though almost cowed to dumbness b y the loud
fury around us, and pleaded with me to be patient.
I complied, seeing that I should g et no aid from
my crew; but, while bitterly blaming myself for
my imprudence in having yielded— against my
instincts— to placing myself in the power o f such
savages, I vowed that, if I escaped this once,
my own judgment should guide my actions for
the future.
I assumed a resigned air, though I still retained
my revolvers. My crew also bore the
first outburst o f the tempest o f shrieking rage
which assailed them with almost sublime imperturbability.
Safeni crossed his arms with the
meekness o f a saint. Baraka held his hands
palms outward, asking with serene benignity,
“What, my friends, ails you? Do y o u fear
empty hands and smiling people like us? W e
are friends, we came as friends to buy food,
two or three bananas, a few mouthfuls o f grain,
or potatoes, or muhogo (cassava), and if yo u
permit us, we shall depart as friends.”
Our demeanour had a great effect, The riot
and noise seemed to be subsiding, when some
fifty new-comers rekindled the smouldering fury.
Again the forest o f spears swayed on the launch,
again the knotty clubs were whirled aloft, again
the bows were drawn, and again the barbed
arrows seemed flying. Safeni received a push
which sent him tumbling, little Kirango received