198 WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR. 
These were some of the many thoughts that suggested 
themselves to us as we talked matters over together. 
Besides Malaouen, Querlaouen, and Gambo, we had two 
boys with us; one was named Njali and the other Nola. 
We agreed that the first thing we must do was to 
build an inte Mchcd camp. : 
You will all say at once, “ What a wild and reckless 
_ set of fellows you were to choose such a place for a hunt- 
ing-ground |” 
So we were. We seemed to delight in danger for the 
sake of the excitement it afforded. 
So, having: made up our minds what to do, we rose, 
and taking in one hand our gun and in the other an axe, 
we went bravely to work and cut long poles about fifteen 
feet in length, which we brought to the place we had 
chosen for our camp. . As we cut these young trees we 
laid our guns close by; we did not stop cutting these 
poles until we had a few hundreds of them, and for three 
days we were at work as hard as we could. 
After we had collected all the poles we commenced 
building. We had chosen a place where four large trees: 
made the four corners of a square. They were about 
thirty feet apart from each other. We then begun to drive 
palisades, making them go down about six inches into 
the ground ; these we tied close together with strong lianas 
we had collected, until at last the square was finished. 
We cut all the underbrush inside, and made a very clean 
place for the interior of our fort. 
Then the question was how to get inside? So we 
made two ladders, one of creepers, flexible like ropes, for 
the outside ; the other, for the inside, was a very strong 
step-ladder. For the latter we cut two poles, and tied 
