The Chiboque At Last Put The Matter Before Us In This Way:
"You Come Among Us In A New Way, And Say You Are Quite Friendly:
How Can We Know It Unless You Give Us Some Of Your Food,
And You Take Some Of Ours?
If you give us an ox, we will give you
whatever you may wish, and then we shall be
Friends." In accordance with
the entreaties of my men, I gave an ox; and when asked what I should like
in return, mentioned food as the thing which we most needed.
In the evening Njambi sent us a very small basket of meal,
and two or three pounds of the flesh of our own ox! with the apology
that he had no fowls, and very little of any other food.
It was impossible to avoid a laugh at the coolness of the generous creatures.
I was truly thankful, nevertheless, that, though resolved to die
rather than deliver up one of our number to be a slave,
we had so far gained our point as to be allowed to pass on
without having shed human blood.
In the midst of the commotion, several Chiboque stole pieces of meat
out of the sheds of my people, and Mohorisi, one of the Makololo,
went boldly into the crowd and took back a marrow-bone from one of them.
A few of my Batoka seemed afraid, and would perhaps have fled
had the affray actually begun, but, upon the whole, I thought my men
behaved admirably.
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