ANXIOUS MOMENTS 99 



At last a very unpleasant conversation ended in their 

 ordering me to moor my boat on the opposite bank. I 

 answered that I would do as I liked ; in the meantime 

 we would cut wood (fuel for the steamer). As I saw 

 that treachery was intended, I asked if they realised 

 what our guns were. They evidently thought them 

 very clumsy clubs, and jeered at my warning not to be 

 afraid. To say that when I fired my rifle into a tree 

 the result surprised me does not describe what hap- 

 pened. The whole of the elders fled, some falling in 

 their haste. The grass around was suddenly alive 

 with flying forms ; from 1000 to 2000 would not be 

 exaggeration. Our laughter brought some of the head- 

 men to a stand, and the old sheikh came back, took 

 my hand in both of his, and said that his country was 

 mine and my friends his. I sent word to the gunboat 

 to unload and fire a round of blank out of the nine- 

 pounder, which was done, and completed our triumph. 



I read the sheikh a short lecture on the stupidity of 

 thinking that we, who possessed such power, would 

 dream of being unfriendly, and gave him and his 

 people more presents. 



This shows how important it is to impress the 

 untutored savage by what he considers the super- 

 natural. Count Teleki describes the virtues of rockets, 

 and books of travel are full of the benefits of such 

 trickery. One cannot but be astounded that leaders of 

 other expeditions, holding the lives of many at the 

 value of their knowledge, have failed to grasp this fact, 

 or rather ignored it. 



I returned to the gunboat, but found its occupants 



