Chap. IX. THE CHIEF FALLS ILL. 163 



show of takirjg back the whole. They all laughed 

 and said, "No, we were only trying it on;" and 

 looking at one another, they added, " He is a man ! " 

 which means he is not to be humbugged, and is a 

 high compliment. 



We had been only four days in Otando-land, when, 

 to my great sorrow and vexation, Mayolo fell seriously 

 ill. Thus it was my fate to see another chief cast 

 down after my arrival in his country. Should Mayolo 

 die, I felt that my expedition must come to an end, 

 for it would be impossible to drive the idea out of the 

 heads of the superstitious negroes that my presence 

 was the cause of the death of their chiefs. Night 

 after night I was kept awake with anxiety, listen- 

 ing to the moans of the sick man. The heat of the 

 weather, too, in the early days of April, was most 

 stilling. A conflagration of the prairie round the 

 village also came to add to our troubles, for I had 

 great difficulty in removing the ammunition and 

 goods from my hut in time to avoid a disaster. On 

 the 1st and 3rd of April I over-exerted myself in 

 taking several solar observations. The heat in the 

 shade was about 92° Fahr., and in the sun it reached 

 130° or 135° Fahr. I took, at night, several lunar 

 observations, ascertaining the distances between the 

 moon and Yenus and between the moon and Sj^ica, 

 and obtained also several meridian altitudes of stars. 

 The sky was so clear that I was anxious not to let 

 the opportunity pass of obtaining these observations. 

 My exertions, however, combined with my heavy 

 anxieties and the loss of my goods, brought on an 

 attack of fever. It was fortunate that the scoundresl 



M 2 



