We
Called Out That We Had Come To Have An Interview With Them, But Some
Of The Manganja Who Followed Us Shouted "Our Chibisa Is Come:"
Chibisa Being Well Known As A Great Conjurer And General.
The Ajawa
ran off yelling and screaming, "Nkondo!
Nkondo!" (War! War!) We
heard the words of the Manganja, but they did not strike us at the
moment as neutralizing all our assertions of peace. The captives
threw down their loads on the path, and fled to the hills: and a
large body of armed men came running up from the village, and in a
few seconds they were all around us, though mostly concealed by the
projecting rocks and long grass. In vain we protested that we had
not come to fight, but to talk with them. They would not listen,
having, as we remembered afterwards, good reason, in the cry of "Our
Chibisa." Flushed with recent victory over three villages, and
confident of an easy triumph over a mere handful of men, they began
to shoot their poisoned arrows, sending them with great force upwards
of a hundred yards, and wounding one of our followers through the
arm. Our retiring slowly up the ascent from the village only made
them more eager to prevent our escape; and, in the belief that this
retreat was evidence of fear, they closed upon us in bloodthirsty
fury. Some came within fifty yards, dancing hideously; others having
quite surrounded us, and availing themselves of the rocks and long
grass hard by, were intent on cutting us off, while others made off
with their women and a large body of slaves. Four were armed with
muskets, and we were obliged in self-defence to return their fire and
drive them off. When they saw the range of rifles, they very soon
desisted, and ran away; but some shouted to us from the hills the
consoling intimation, that they would follow, and kill us where we
slept. Only two of the captives escaped to us, but probably most of
those made prisoners that day fled elsewhere in the confusion. We
returned to the village which we had left in the morning, after a
hungry, fatiguing, and most unpleasant day.
Though we could not blame ourselves for the course we had followed,
we felt sorry for what had happened. It was the first time we had
ever been attacked by the natives or come into collision with them;
though we had always taken it for granted that we might be called
upon to act in self-defence, we were on this occasion less prepared
than usual, no game having been expected here. The men had only a
single round of cartridge each; their leader had no revolver, and the
rifle he usually fired with was left at the ship to save it from the
damp of the season. Had we known better the effect of slavery and
murder on the temper of these bloodthirsty marauders, we should have
tried messages and presents before going near them.
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