Liberia <•- 



exaggeration on the part of the rhymester. He describes how 

 the headman of some Kru village comes off to their big boat 

 in a canoe (Almadie) 



.... made of a log 



The very same, wherein you know 



We used to serve a hog. 



Aloof he stayed at first, 



Put water to his cheek, 



A sign that he would not us trust 



Unless we did the like. 



During the night the natives, however, deftly robbed the 

 pinnace of the big boat of the trade goods that were stored in 

 it. The result was that the Englishmen landed with their 

 men and had a great fight. The Kruboys came with a hundred 

 canoes, in each two men with long shields and darts. Many 

 of their darts had light strings attached to them, so that they 

 could be recovered after they had been shot away ; but " the 

 hail shot of the arquebus, the arrows of the long-bow men, and 

 the pikes of the halberdeers " killed and wounded some of the 

 Kruboys. Nevertheless, they redoubled their attacks. The 

 English had long since taken to their boats, and were rowing 

 hard down the river out into the sea, being followed by this 

 flotilla of a hundred canoes. The Kruboys' darts did consider- 

 able execution. Seven out of nine Englishmen were badly 

 wounded, one lying for dead, having been so pierced with a 

 spear that his viscera were torn out. 



The writer describes with a certain amount of pathos his 

 own pain and fever from his wounds, and how he passed into 

 a delirium delicious by contrast with the misery of his surround- 

 ings on board ship, and, when he regains his senses onge 

 more, the almost painful joy with which he learns from one of 

 the seamen that they have got " a right merry wind " and are 

 sailing for old England, which is safely reached at last. 



68 



