Chap. XVII. NIGHT ENCAMPMENT IN THE FOREST. 349 



to-morrow, &c. &c. It was impossible to get at the 

 truth of the case. How I wished I had an armed 

 party, strong enough to force my way through the 

 barriers which the caprice and trickery of these 

 savages opposed to my progress ! With twenty men 

 Hke Igala and Macondai, I would have set all these 

 vapouring fellows at defiance, and have been half- 

 way across the continent by this time. Before we 

 laid down to rest I had branches cut from the trees 

 and strewed all around our encampment, to prevent, 

 by the noise and impediments they would cause, a 

 nocturnal surprise, which I thought very likely to 

 happen, for parties of men from time to time sneaked 

 through the woods, and, after talking to us and tak- 

 ing note of our position, quietly went back again. 

 They were armed with bearded spears similar to 

 those carried by the Fans, and which they get from 

 the Ashangui tribe. I did not sleep all night. My 

 negroes kept watch, taking it in turns, three sleeping 

 and three w^aking, and I made them tell stories one 

 after the other, sjDcaking loud, so as to show the 

 people we were awake and watchful. 



July 2Qth. Early in the morning, as I had ex- 

 pected, a deputation from Mouaou, consisting of all 

 the elders of the village, came to me, and with sor- 

 rowful countenances asked why I had deserted them. 

 They prayed me to come back, and repeated that it 

 was not their fault that my journey had been delayed, 

 but the fault of the next village ahead. They pro- 

 mised earnestly that if I came back they would 

 send me forward in two days, and by another route, 

 to the south-east, so as to avoid the hostile villages, 



