Chap. IX. DISCOVERY OF MORE LOSSES. 159 



disease ; the poor fellow seemed much pleased when 

 I shook hands with him, and showed him I was not 

 afraid of him. Tlie Mayolo people had wanted to 

 remove him from the hut, but he had refused to 

 leave the goods which I had put under his care. 



The next morning, on opening my japanned boxes 

 to take out medicine for Igala, I made fresh discove- 

 ries of the extent to which I had been robbed by these 

 rascally Ashira. All the bottles containing medicines 

 — castor-oi], calomel, laudanum, rhubarb, jalap — were 

 gone ; besides a thermometer, two sun thermometers, 

 several tins of preserved meats, camera, photographic 

 chemicals, beads, and many other things. They were 

 the boxes that had formed part of the cargoes of 

 Mintcho, Ayagui, and the Apingi men. I could 

 scarcely contain my vexation, and thoughts of being 

 forced, for sheer lack of goods and instruments, to 

 relinquish my object of penetrating further into the 

 interior, flashed across my mind. 



I now accused Mintcho boldly of the robbery, taking 

 care to seize his gun and his two slave-bundles * 

 beforehand. But the hypocritical rascal pretended to 

 be in a rage with others for having robbed me. He 

 worked himself into the appearance of violent passion, 

 foaming at the mouth, and exclaiming, " Let me go 

 back, Chaillie ; I will find out the robbers, and shoot 

 them if they do not give up everything you have 

 lost." Ayagui came in at this juncture, with a gun 

 which Rebouka had lent him to go out shooting that 



* The slave-bundle is a parcel of goods amounting to the value of a 

 slave, which the head men carried on the march, to buy slaves with on 

 their own account. 



