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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 531 of 1070
Words from 151662 to 151966
of 306638
