PERSONAL INSPECTION. 95 



replied that they wished to look at us and to talk. 

 We informed them that we were in a hurry and could 

 not stop. They were also told we were English, but 

 that had no effect, their answer being that they did 

 not know the English. We assured them that we had 

 not come to fight, but they would not believe it. As 

 this conversation was drawing to a conclusion, the 

 beautiful breeze we had enjoyed all day suddenly 

 died away, and the sails hung. We first lost steerage 

 way, then way altogether, and as we began to go 

 astern, the oars were pulled, and we ran into the 

 bank under where these men stood. As the boat 

 came alongside, they all, with the exception of two 

 men, ran away crying " N'konda ! N'konda !" The 

 two stout-hearted individuals who remained were 

 afterwards rewarded with a piece of cloth for their 

 bravery. The main body now^ assembled within two 

 hundred yards, and stood looking at us for near- 

 ly an hour. Having satisfied themselves that we 

 were making ourselves comfortable, and instead of at- 

 tacking them, were preparing a bivouac for the night, 

 — moreover, seeing two of their own number walking 

 about amongst us in suits of new and expensive 

 cloth — one by one they came to us, and about an 

 hour and a half after our arrival I was standing in 

 the midst of a mob of about two hundred of them ex- 

 hibiting guns, pistols, &c., including myself. After a 

 long inspection, they returned to their village, as they 

 said, to tell the chief of our arrival. 



Later in the evening, when we were about to turn 

 in, four men arrived in camp, and laying down their 

 arms as they approached the fire by which I was 



