226 WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR. 
we do without our Ntangani?” The women shouted, 
- “Chaillee, you must not go!” 
Gambo, Malaouen, and Querlaouen oy long faces 
and were sad, for we had a real affection for each other, 
we were such great friends, and how could it be otherwise ? 
We had braved danger together; we had gone through 
hardships and starvation together; many and many a 
night had we spent together in the forest. Of any wild 
animal they killed I was sure to have a piece; the best 
plantains were sure to be mine; the nicest fishes their 
women caught they brought to me. How kind they 
were to me, how gentle! No children could have been 
more docile, and yet how fierce, how brave, when the 
day of battle or of danger came! 
I was sorry to leave, for I had come to love these wild 
men who had never seen a white man before. I had 
also a kind of affection for the country, where, in the dis- 
covery of new and strange animals, I had enjoyed one of 
the greatest pleasures a naturalist can have. The rough 
life was forgotten when I looked at my precious collec- 
tions, and the thought of a gorilla even now enabled me 
to shake off the fever, and gave strength to my feeble 
limbs. | 
Quengueza, too, was tired of bush life, and had several 
times sworn that he had never known a man like me; 
that he could not understand what was moving me; that . 
I had a heart of njego (leopard). His Majesty called 
those Bakalais his bushmen, and to whatever village he 
would set his foot he had a right at once to at least a 
wife. 
Quengueza ‘is the best friend I ever had in Africa, in- 
deed one of the best friends I ever had anywhere. This 
