296 HOSTILITY OF THE NATIVES. 



liked any nation but their own, calling them 

 negroes, a word of great reproach among Kroo- 

 men. 



Standing on the paddle-box, I deliberately ob- 

 served the motions of the people on shore, deter- 

 mined to fire if they had given provocation by a 

 first discharge. One arrow from them would 

 have been quite sufficient to have purchased for 

 them such a volley of canister-shot as had never 

 before been fired on the Niger. 



I desired our interpreter, Kacundah, to re- 

 quest of them to give up Amerboo, my trade-wo- 

 man, and in return I would make them a pre- 

 sent, and that I was unwilling to make war or 

 kill any of them. To this amicable proposal 

 they made no answer, save that of bestowing a 

 volley of abuse upon Kacundah, saying, that he 

 was nothing but a slave to the white men ; that 

 they wanted me, not him ; and if I wanted Am- 

 erboo, I might go into the bush and fetch her, 

 where she was secured as a prisoner. 



These natives are a barbarous and savage- 

 looking race, with scarcely any covering, many 

 of them being in a state of nudity, and a terror 

 to the natives on the opposite bank of the river. 

 I was informed that last year they had seized a 



