My Little Tent Was Now In Tatters,
And Having A Wider Hole Behind Than The Door In Front, I Tried In Vain
To Lie Down Out Of Sight Of Our Persecutors.
We were on a reedy flat,
and could not follow our usual plan of a small stockade,
in which we had time to think over and concoct our plans.
As I was trying
to persuade my men to move on to the bank in spite of these people,
a young half-caste Portuguese sergeant of militia, Cypriano di Abreu,
made his appearance, and gave the same advice. He had come across the Quango
in search of bees'-wax. When we moved off from the chief
who had been plaguing us, his people opened a fire from our sheds,
and continued to blaze away some time in the direction we were going,
but none of the bullets reached us. It is probable that
they expected a demonstration of the abundance of ammunition they possessed
would make us run; but when we continued to move quietly to the ford,
they proceeded no farther than our sleeping-place. Cypriano assisted us
in making a more satisfactory arrangement with the ferrymen
than parting with my blanket; and as soon as we reached the opposite bank
we were in the territory of the Bangala, who are subjects of the Portuguese,
and often spoken of as the Cassanges or Cassantse; and happily
all our difficulties with the border tribes were at an end.
Passing with light hearts through the high grass by a narrow footpath
for about three miles to the west of the river, we came to
several neat square houses, with many cleanly-looking half-caste Portuguese
standing in front of them to salute us.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 553 of 1070
Words from 158308 to 158599
of 306638
