After A Time He Returned With The Information That The Notus Appeared
To Be Quite Friendly, And Anxious To Unite With Us Against The Common
Foe On The Morrow.
Several of them visited our camp during the day and brought us native
food and pigs, which latter Monckton shot with his revolver, to prevent
our carriers cooking them alive.
It was quite amusing to see the way
the Notus hopped about after each report, some of them running away,
and small blame to them, seeing that it was the first time that they
had ever heard the report of a firearm.
The next morning saw us up long before daybreak, and in the dim light
we could see small groups of Notu warriors wending their way amid the
tall coconuts in the direction of our camp, till about seventy of them
had assembled. They were all fully armed with long hardwood spears,
stone clubs and rattan shields (oblong in shape and of wood covered
with strips of rattan, with a handle at the back), and led the way
along the beach. The sun soon rose above the sea a very red colour, and
a superstitious person might have considered it an omen of bloodshed.
It was hard work walking in the loose sand, and I was glad when
we branched off into the bush to walk inland. We passed through
alternate forests and open grass land, the forest in places being
quite luxuriant, and new and beautiful plants and rare and gaudy
birds and butterflies made one long to loiter by the way.
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