One Of The Guides
Was Reached By One Of My Men As He Was In The Act Of Stooping To Get In,
And A Cut Was Inflicted On A Projecting Part Of The Body Which Would Have Made
Any One In That Posture Wince.
The guns were restored, but the beads
were lost in the flight.
All I had remaining of my stock of beads
could not replace those lost; and though we explained that we had no part
in the guilt of the act, the traders replied that we had brought the thieves
into the country; these were of the Bangala, who had been accustomed
to plague the Portuguese in the most vexatious way. We were striving to get
a passage through the country, and, feeling anxious that no crime whatever
should be laid to our charge, tried the conciliatory plan here,
though we were not, as in the other instances, likely to be overpowered
by numbers.
My men offered all their ornaments, and I offered all my beads and shirts;
but, though we had come to the village against our will, and the guides
had also followed us contrary to our desire, and had even sent
for the Bangala traders without our knowledge or consent, yet matters
could not be arranged without our giving an ox and one of the tusks.
We were all becoming disheartened, and could not wonder
that native expeditions from the interior to the coast had generally failed
to reach their destinations. My people were now so much discouraged
that some proposed to return home; the prospect of being obliged to return
when just on the threshold of the Portuguese settlements
distressed me exceedingly.
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