XXIL] A PARLEY. 289 



the stores, so as to form one body ; and no sooner had they October, 

 quitted the camp than the natives set fire to it. 1874. 



The greater number of my people I placed under shelter of 

 huts, and posted others as pickets to prevent our being taken 

 in rear or flank, and then, with the guides, went into the centre 

 space of the village to declare our peaceable intentions, and to 

 inquire the cause of our being attacked ; but the only reply 

 vouchsafed was a dropping fire of arrows. I was much aston- 

 ished that none of us were hit, for at least half a dozen arrows 

 fell within a yard of me in a couple of minutes. 



Being unable to obtain any satisfactory answer, I returned to 

 the caravan, and at that moment a body of about five hundred 

 men, who had been posted in ambush on the road we were to 

 have taken, joined the natives. 



Encouraged by this re-enforcement and our pacific attitude, 

 the natives closed in and commenced hurling spears at us ; and 

 as matters were now becoming rather serious, I reluctantly al- 

 lowed a few shots to be fired. 



One of these fortunately took effect in the leg of a native, 

 who happened to be a person of consideration, and was standing 

 in what he imagined was a position of safety. This circum- 

 stance made such an impression that a parley was proposed by 

 the chief of the village, and I gladly acceded. 



After some talk, the following agreement was entered into, 

 namely: The goat should be found and returned; I should 

 'make a present to the chief of a piece of scarlet cloth ; 

 Bombay or Bilal should make brothers with him; and we 

 were to be furnished with guides and permitted to depart in 

 peace. 



I at once proceeded to carry out my part of the agreement, 

 and, having fetched the cloth, was returning with it to the chief 

 of Kamwawi, when another arrived with more armed men, and 

 said to him, " Don't be such a fool as to make peace with these 

 people for the sake of one piece of cloth. We are strong 

 enough to eat them, and can easily get every bit of cloth and 

 every bead belonging to them, and themselves we can kill or 

 make slaves of. How many tens are they ? Tou can count 

 their tens on one hand ; while our tens would take more hands 

 to count than we could number afterward." The councils of 



