Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



in a moment with sword and six-shooter, and saw 

 at a glance every man dashing, rifle in hand, to 

 his allotted post ; only the sentries were gazing 

 unconcernedly over the wall, and shouting back 

 laughingly to their comrades. The matter was 

 soon explained ; it was the king arrived to clear 

 the bush. A Bariba is no great hand at work, 

 and he had brought 150 of them, who were excited 

 to a point of frenzy by the din and potations of 

 native beer, a harmless though exhilarating liquor, 

 in which state they attacked the bush like demons, 

 and continued to do so all day, to the accom- 

 paniment of yells and war-drums. This, I after- 

 wards discovered, was the king's little way 

 whenever he wanted a particularly big job carried 

 through. Of course, the sentries had seen the 

 whole thing, so were "in the know"; but I was 

 gratified to find with what alertness my "re- 

 cruities " behaved. 



I was able to give the French a warm re- 

 ception after all, though, thank goodness, of a 

 different kind to what I had intended, for, as 

 soon as the crisis was somewhat abated, a French 

 officer with a guard of Senegalese Tirailleur came 

 as my guest to Kiama. His object was to disinter 

 two French officers who had been killed by the 

 Baribas and buried near Kiama, and re-inter them 

 in French soil. Despite his sad errand, we had 

 a very cheery time together, sat up most of the 



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