Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
- Page 535 of 587 - First - Home
This Was Refused With Disdain, For Boy Knew Not Its Value,
And Calling One Of His Men To Look At
What, he said, the Landers
wished to impose on him in lieu of his bars, both of them, with a
Significant groan, turned away from the Landers with scorn and
indignation, nor would they speak to them or even look at them again.
The mortification of the Landers was nearly now complete, but they
were helpless, and the fault was not with them.
Boy now ventured to approach Captain Lake, on the quarter deck, and
with an anxious petitioning countenance, asked for the goods, which
had been promised him. Prepared for the desperate game he was about
to play, it was the object of Lake to gain as much time as possible,
that he might get his vessel under way, before he came to an open
rupture. Therefore, he pretended to be busy in writing, and desired
Boy to wait a moment. Becoming impatient with delay, Boy repeated his
demand a second and a third time: "Give me my bars." "I NO WILL,"
said Lake, in a voice of thunder, which could hardly have been
expected from a frame so emaciated as his. "I no will, I tell you; I
won't give you a - flint. Give me my mate, you black rascal, or I will
bring a thousand men of war here in a day or two; they shall come and
burn down your towns, and kill every one of you; bring me my mate."
Terrified by the demeanor of Lake, and the threats and oaths he made
use of, poor King Boy suddenly retreated, and seeing men going aloft
to loosen the sails, apprehensive of being carried off to sea, he
quickly disappeared from the deck of the brig, and was soon observed
making his way on shore in his canoe, with the rest of his people;
this was the last they saw of him. In a few minutes from the time Boy
had left the vessel, the mate, Mr. Spittle, was sent off in a canoe,
so terrified were the Brass people that a man of war would come, and
put Lake's threats into execution.
At ten in the morning the vessel was got under way, and they dropped
down the river. At noon the breeze died away, and they were obliged
to let go an anchor to prevent their drifting on the western
breakers, at the mouth of the river. A few minutes more would have
been fatal to them, and the vessel was fortunately stopped, although
the depth of water where she lay, was only five fathoms. The rollers,
as the large high waves are called, which come into the river over
the bar, were so high, that they sometimes passed nearly over the bow
of the vessel, and caused her to ride very uneasily by her anchor.
They had been obliged to anchor immediately abreast of the Pilot's
town, and expected every moment that they should be fired at from the
battery.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 535 of 587
Words from 281963 to 282469
of 309561