The Two Boys Had
Fraternised, And Come On The Rest Of Their Way Together, Lying
Waiting, Hidden Up A Creek, For Obanjo, Who They Knew Was Coming
Down River; And Having Successfully Got Picked Up By Him, They
Thought They Were Safe.
But after this affair boy number two judged
there was no more safety yet, and that his family would be down
after him very shortly; for he said he was a more valuable and
important boy than his late companion, but his family were an
uncommon savage set.
We felt not the least anxiety to make their
acquaintance, so clapped heels on our gallant craft and kept the
paddles going, and as no more Fans were in sight our crew kept at
work bravely. While Obanjo, now in a boisterous state of mind, and
flushed with victory, said things to them about the way they had
collapsed when those two women in a canoe came round that corner,
that must have blistered their feelings, but they never winced.
They laughed at the joke against themselves merrily. The other
boy's family we never saw and so took him safely to Gaboon, where
Obanjo got him a good place.
Really how much danger there was proportionate to the large amount
of fear on our boat I cannot tell you. It never struck me there was
any, but on the other hand the crew and Obanjo evidently thought it
was a bad place; and my white face would have been no protection,
for the Fans would not have suspected a white of being on such a
canoe and might have fired on us if they had been unduly irritated
and not treated by Obanjo with that fine compound of bully and
blarney that he is such a master of.
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Words from 101457 to 101754
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