A CAMP AMONG CANNIBALS 



Many of them rubbed their great fat oily stomachs as if 

 to indicate our destination if we fell into their hands. 

 Trumpet blasts echoed and re-echoed from hill to hill, 

 sundown came and the light gradually failed ; we had 

 not sufficient wood for a fire to be kept up all night, and 

 we should have to rely on our eyes and keep the boys 

 on guard in turns. All through the long night the flames 

 of beacon fires on the slopes and hills for miles glared 

 bright in the darkness, vigilant eyes on both sides peered 

 into the uncertain gloom, each party expecting the other 



to take the initiative. P and I snatched an hour's 



respite, turn about, and several times during my watch 

 I thought I could make out the forms of natives gliding 

 on their bellies snake-like towards the camp. . . . 

 Morning broke, the savages had vanished, and not a 

 sound save the barking of dogs afar off disturbed the 

 stillness of daybreak as the sun rose like a glowing ball 

 of fire beyond the great and silent Mount VVati far to the 

 east. The people had fled ignominiously and now stood 

 in swarms on the hills far away on the road that we had 

 traversed the day before. 



There was no likelihood of our regaining possession 

 of the stolen property, so camp was struck just after 

 sunrise. Half an hour later the village close by, con- 

 sisting of fourteen huts and six granaries, like huge 

 circular beehives that were raised from the ground on 

 platforms some three feet high, was enveloped in flames. 

 I say again, that if you make a promise to a native keep 

 it to the letter, however unpleasant the duty may be : 

 remember that a firm hand is the only effective way of 

 teaching them when they reach such a stage as this. To 

 have crept away from this place with our tails between 

 our legs would have shown weakness. To betray a sign 

 of fear to these savages, for they are nothing more, 

 would be fatal, and once they were permitted to think 

 that they had got the better of a white man there would 



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