I Explained This To Them,
And Thought Their Grumbling Was Allayed.
I soon sank into a state of stupor,
which the fever sometimes produced, and was oblivious to all their noise
in slaughtering.
On Sunday the mutineers were making a terrible din
in preparing a skin they had procured. I requested them twice,
by the man who attended me, to be more quiet, as the noise pained me;
but as they paid no attention to this civil request, I put out my head,
and, repeating it myself, was answered by an impudent laugh.
Knowing that discipline would be at an end if this mutiny were not quelled,
and that our lives depended on vigorously upholding authority,
I seized a double-barreled pistol, and darted forth from the domicile,
looking, I suppose, so savage as to put them to a precipitate flight.
As some remained within hearing, I told them that I must maintain discipline,
though at the expense of some of their limbs; so long as we traveled together
they must remember that I was master, and not they. There being but
little room to doubt my determination, they immediately became very obedient,
and never afterward gave me any trouble, or imagined that they had any right
to my property.
13TH. We went forward some miles, but were brought to a stand
by the severity of my fever on the banks of a branch of the Loajima,
another tributary of the Kasai. I was in a state of partial coma
until late at night, when it became necessary for me to go out;
and I was surprised to find that my men had built a little stockade,
and some of them took their spears and acted as a guard.
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