He Showed Symptoms Of Dread,
And Several Times Started Up As If To Run Away, But Was Prevented
By The Crowd Behind.
Some of the more intelligent understood
the explanations well, and expatiated eloquently on them to the more obtuse.
Nothing
Could exceed the civilities which had passed between us
during this day; but Kawawa had heard that the Chiboque had forced us
to pay an ox, and now thought he might do the same. When, therefore,
I sent next morning to let him know that we were ready to start,
he replied in his figurative way, "If an ox came in the way of a man,
ought he not to eat it? I had given one to the Chiboque,
and must give him the same, together with a gun, gunpowder, and a black robe,
like that he had seen spread out to dry the day before; that, if I refused
an ox, I must give one of my men, and a book by which he might see
the state of Matiamvo's heart toward him, and which would forewarn him,
should Matiamvo ever resolve to cut off his head." Kawawa came
in the coolest manner possible to our encampment after sending this message,
and told me he had seen all our goods, and must have all he asked,
as he had command of the Kasai in our front, and would prevent us
from passing it unless we paid this tribute. I replied that the goods
were my property and not his; that I would never have it said that a white man
had paid tribute to a black, and that I should cross the Kasai
in spite of him.
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