My Late Chief Mutineer,
An Ambonda Man, Was Now Over-Loyal, For He Armed Himself
And Stood At The Gateway.
He would rather die than see his father imposed on;
but I ordered Mosantu to take him out of
The way, which he did promptly,
and allowed the Chiboque to march off well pleased with their booty.
I told my men that I esteemed one of their lives of more value than
all the oxen we had, and that the only cause which could induce me to fight
would be to save the lives and liberties of the majority.
In the propriety of this they all agreed, and said that, if the Chiboque
molested us who behaved so peaceably, the guilt would be on their heads.
This is a favorite mode of expression throughout the whole country.
All are anxious to give explanation of any acts they have performed,
and conclude the narration with, "I have no guilt or blame" ("molatu").
"They have the guilt." I never could be positive whether
the idea in their minds is guilt in the sight of the Deity,
or of mankind only.
Next morning the robber party came with about thirty yards of strong
striped English calico, an axe, and two hoes for our acceptance,
and returned the copper rings, as the chief was a great man, and did not need
the ornaments of my men, but we noticed that they were taken back again.
I divided the cloth among my men, and pleased them a little
by thus compensating for the loss of the ox. I advised the chief,
whose name we did not learn, as he did not deign to appear
except under the alias Matiamvo, to get cattle for his own use,
and expressed sorrow that I had none wherewith to enable him
to make a commencement. Rains prevented our proceeding till Thursday morning,
and then messengers appeared to tell us that their chief had learned
that all the cloth sent by him had not been presented; that the copper rings
had been secreted by the persons ordered to restore them to us,
and that he had stripped the thievish emissaries of their property
as a punishment. Our guides thought these were only spies of a larger party,
concealed in the forest through which we were now about to pass.
We prepared for defense by marching in a compact body,
and allowing no one to straggle far behind the others.
We marched through many miles of gloomy forest in gloomier silence,
but nothing disturbed us. We came to a village, and found all the men absent,
the guides thought, in the forest, with their countrymen.
I was too ill to care much whether we were attacked or not.
Though a pouring rain came on, as we were all anxious to get away
out of a bad neighborhood, we proceeded. The thick atmosphere
prevented my seeing the creeping plants in time to avoid them;
so Pitsane, Mohorisi, and I, who alone were mounted, were often caught;
and as there is no stopping the oxen when they have the prospect
of giving the rider a tumble, we came frequently to the ground.
In addition to these mishaps, Sinbad went off at a plunging gallop,
the bridle broke, and I came down backward on the crown of my head.
He gave me a kick on the thigh at the same time.
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