66 THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT, r August 4, i 8 7 s ,
' L Bumbireh. ' J
Nangu, nangu. Antari has many sons. We
wilL do nothing but fight. If you had not come
here* w e should have come to you.”-
‘‘Y o u will be sorry for it afterwards.”
“ Huh,” incredulously. “ Come on; we are
re ad y.” -
, Further pa rley was useless; so each man hav-
mg taken aim was directed to fire into a group
o f fifty or thereabouts. T h e result was several
killed and wounded.
T h e savages, perceiving the disastrous effect
o f our fire on a compact b o d y , scattered, and
came bounding down to the water’s edge, some
o f the boldest advancing until they were hip-
deep in water; others, more cautious, sought
the shelter o f the eane-grass, whence they discharged
many sheaves o f arrows, all o f which
fell short, o f us.
W e then moved to within 50 yards o f the
shore, to fire at close quarters,, and each man
was permitted to exercise himself as he best
could. T h e savages gallantly held the waterline
for an hour, and slung their stones with
better effect than th ey shot their arrows. The
spirit which animated them proved what they
might have done had they succeeded in effect-J
ing a landing at Mahyiga h y night, but here,
however, the spear, with which they generally
fight, was quite useless.
Perceiving that their spirit was abating, we
r August 4 , 1875-1 THE WORK OF PUNISHMENT. 67
Bumbireh. J
drew the canoes together, and made a feint as
though We wébe about to make a precipitate
* landing, which caused them to fffsh forward b y
hundreds With thetf SpeâfS off the launch. T h e
canoes Wéfe then suddenly halted, and a Volley
was fired into the Sipèar&afy which qtrke ©rushed
their courage,. Causing them to retreat up the
hill far away from the scehe. Our work o f
chastisement was complete.
T h e Wagarida speârmën (23Ô strong), Who
had been, up to this time, only interested spectators,
now clamoured lou d ly to be permitted
to land, arid complété the work ô f vérigéârice.
M’kwanga was fierce iff bis derriaHÎcÎs; the Wà-
ngwaria seconded the aganda, and ifi tiieir
hot ardour several 6 f the canôes fuSKea on the
shoré, but as' this extremity was ffôt my* object,
I resisted them, ând Whéri, despite mÿ’ fe&tM,
th e y persisted in their attempts to lhftd, I
threatened to fire upon thé first iri<£h, ÎÆgWana.
or Mganda, who Set foot uporf thé sh o ré , ârid
this threat feâtôred bïdef.
Lukanjah was again told to warn the natives
o f Bumbireh that* if th ey had not had’ enough
o f fighting, we should return next day, but that
w e would allow them â night to think o v e r it.
It was dark when w e arbrved- at our catap ;
but We did not omit, while passing Iroba, to
comfort the friendly king with the assurance