"And you, Chowpereh?"
"Pay, bana; it is better to get along quietly in this country.
If we were strong enough they would pay us. Ah, if we had only
two hundred guns, how these Wahha would run!"
"What do you say, Mabruki?"
"Ah, master, dear master; it is very hard, and these people are
great robbers. I would like to chop their heads off, all; so I
would. But you had better pay. This is the last time; and what
are one hundred cloths to you?"
"Well, then, Bombay and Asmani, go to Mionvu, and offer him twenty.
If he will not take twenty, give him thirty. If he refuses thirty,
give him forty; then go up to eighty, slowly. Make plenty of talk;
not one doti more. I swear to you I will shoot Mionvu if he demands
more than eighty. Go, and remember to be wise."
I will cut the matter short. At 9 P.M. sixty-four doti were
handed over to Mionvu, for the King of Uhha; six doti for
himself, and five doti for his sub; altogether seventy-five doti -
a bale and a quarter! No sooner had we paid than they began to
fight amongst themselves over the booty, and I was in hopes that
the factions would proceed to battle, that I might have good excuse
for leaving them, and plunging south to the jungle that I believed
existed there, by which means, under its friendly cover, we might
strike west.
