In An Instant The Gun Was Out Of The Rascal's
Hands, A Rattling Shower Of Blows Fell On His Back, And He Took An
Involuntary Header Into The River.
He crawled up the bank a sad and
sober man, and all three at once tumbled from the height of saucy
swagger to a low depth of slavish abjectness.
The musket was found
to have an enormous charge, and might have blown our man to pieces,
but for the promptitude with which his companions administered
justice in a lawless land. We were all ferried safely across by 8
o'clock in the evening.
In illustration of what takes place where no government, or law
exists, the two half-castes, to whom these men belonged, left Tette,
with four hundred slaves, armed with the old Sepoy Brown Bess, to
hunt elephants and trade in ivory. On our way up, we heard from
natives of their lawless deeds, and again, on our way down, from
several, who had been eyewitnesses of the principal crime, and all
reports substantially agreed. The story is a sad one. After the
traders reached Zumbo, one of them, called by the natives Sequasha,
entered into a plot with the disaffected headman, Namakusuru, to kill
his chief, Mpangwe, in order that Namakusuru might seize upon the
chieftainship; and for the murder of Mpangwe the trader agreed to
receive ten large tusks of ivory. Sequasha, with a picked party of
armed slaves, went to visit Mpangwe who received him kindly, and
treated him with all the honour and hospitality usually shown to
distinguished strangers, and the women busied themselves in cooking
the best of their provisions for the repast to be set before him.
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