CHAPTER III 
AN AFRICAN CREEK.—A LEOPARD AMONG THE CHICKENS.— 
A ‘NIGHT WATCH FOR LEOPARDS. 
Now I had just left the Island of Nengue Ngozo, 
and if your eyes could have reached that part of the 
world, you might have seen me still in the same little 
canoe, made of the trunk of a single tree, armed to the 
teeth, making for the Ikoi Creek, which was not far dis- 
tant. (This creek is also marked on my large map pub- 
lished in my work called ‘“ Explorations in Hquato- 
rial A frica.”’) 
The canoe was going swiftly through the water, the 
wind was good, and soon after our departure we entered 
the creek. I felt anxious, for the Bakalai and Shekiani 
villages were at war with each other—a wild and treach- 
erous set they are—and either tribe might have taken my 
canoe for that of their enemy, and so pounced upon us in 
ereat numbers and killed us all before we could let them 
know that we were strangers belonging to the Mpongwe 
tribe, their friends. I was watching continually to see 
if there were not some canoes in ambush. After a while 
the creek became narrower, the breeze ceased, the sail 
had to be furled along the mast, the men took to the 
paddles, and our canoe glided onward upon the waters 
of the Ikoi. 
B 
