Chap. XIX. SOKEOWS OF KING QUEXGUEZA. 399 



waxed warmer and warmer, rising and gesiiciilating 

 to show how they surrounded the enemy, and how 

 they slew them all, one after another. Tlie more 

 the narrators exaggerated, the more they were ap- 

 plauded hy the other men, until all with one accord 

 shouted, " We have slain 150 of our enemies!" This 

 story Qiiengueza would not believe, and said he 

 would not be satisfied until he had heard the whole 

 account from my own mouth ; " for," added he, " I 

 have heard from the Ashira the tale of the 150 dead 

 men, and I did not believe them." So all of them 

 assembled round me, and I gave them a faithful ac- 

 count of the whole affajr. They all listened very 

 attentively, and at the most stirring jiarts of the nar- 

 rative, when I described our turning in the forest 

 path and facing the crowd of enraged wkrriors, they 

 clasped their hands and cried out, " You are men ! 

 you are men !" 



In return, Quengueza narrated to me the events 

 that had happened since his parting from me at 

 Olenda. It was a most sorrowful story. The eviva, or 

 small-] )ox, broke out at Groumbi whilst Quengueza 

 was still at Olenda, and his departure was hastened 

 by the news brought to him of the plague. It had 

 caused fearfid havoc ; relatives, wives, slaves, all had 

 caught the infection and nearly all had died. Goumbi 

 was obliged to be forsaken. For many weeks the 

 old chief, with the relics of his clan, lived in tempo- 

 rary abodes or olakos on the opposite side of the 

 rivcT. Quengueza believed that if he had not re- 

 turned home at the time he did, his beloved son 

 Kombe' would also have died. The old man was 



