56 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



there to the Ilo we saw a good number of natives, with 

 whom we made friends. The Ilo natives came to 

 meet us and escorted us through their country. A 

 most regrettable tragedy occurred on our arrival at 

 the Ilo. We had pulled up on a stony beach on the 

 banks of a stream to give the carriers a spell and a 

 smoke. We were surrounded by about fifty natives, 

 all, apparently, most friendly; they informed us by 

 signs to wait and they would bring us a pig. I had 

 promised one of the natives a knife. In giving it to 

 him I noticed that he was very excited, and also 

 that they all appeared more or less excited, so I 

 decided to move on. I drew the attention of Evans 

 and Stanton to the state of affairs, and told them to 

 look out. I felt sure that the natives were going 

 to make an attack on us, but thought it would be in 

 the form of a shower of arrows. I told the carriers 

 to make a move, and they were about to do so when 

 one of the natives grabbed one of them by the hair 

 and smashed in his skull with a stone club; other 

 natives were holding some of our carriers. Stanton 

 saw the native in the act of striking the fatal blow 

 and fired at him, but, unfortunately, not in time to 

 prevent the catastrophe. 



" In self-defence we had to fire on them, and, when 

 it was over, there were two dead natives, and one 

 dying and unconscious carrier on the ground. The 

 whole thing did not last more than half a minute ; no 

 doubt they had intended to try to get the lot of us, 



