AFRAID OF THE GUN 217 



seen one man consume, there are few who could 

 credit it. 



At one of their feasts, a tribe from the north, many 

 of whom had never seen white men, were invited : and, 

 as may be supposed, we were the centre of attraction. 



In the afternoon, while they were throwing spears 

 at a shield, to see if any could put a hole through it, 

 Lohier came along and wanted us to give them an 

 exhibition of what a gun could do. I dropped a half- 

 dozen pistol-balls into my shot-gun, and telling them 

 to place the shield against a tree and all to get out of 

 the way, I took deliberate aim, and fired. At the 

 report of the gun many of the new-comers fell flat 

 upon the ground, screaming and saying they were all 

 killed. Others went to the shield, and seeing the 

 holes through it and into the tree, never stopped to 

 say good-by, but left for home on the double-quick. 



One evening, just at sunset, we were surprised to 

 hear several shots fired, on a hill just across the valley ; 

 and half an hour afterward, George Belford appeared, 

 with a large number of natives from the interior. He 

 had left the party at Shugary, and was on his way to 

 the coast, with a number of packers, to get provisions 

 and ammunition for the expedition. 



Father had written us a letter, and was in good 

 health, and doing very nicely. He said he had col- 

 lected a large number of insects, and that the birds 

 were very plentiful at Shugary. 



