

DISCOURAGEMENTS. 223 



tcry plan here, though we were not, as in the other in- 

 stances, likely to be overpowered by numbers. 



My men offered all their ornaments, and I offered all my 

 beads and shirts; but, though we had come to the village 

 against our will, and the guides had also followed us con- 

 trary to our desire, and had even sent for the Bangala 

 traders without our knowledge or consent, yet matters 

 could not be arranged without our giving an ox and one 

 of the tusks. "W"e were all becoming disheartened, and 

 could not wonder that native expeditions from the interior 

 to the coast had generally failed to reach their destinations. 

 My people were now so much discouraged that some pro- 

 posed to return home : the prospect of being obliged to 

 return when just on the threshold of the Portuguese set- 

 tlements distressed me exceedingly. After using all my 

 powers of persuasion, I declared to them that if they re- 

 turned I would go on alone, and went into my little tent 

 with the mind directed to Him who hears the sighing of 

 the soul, and was soon followed by the head of Mohorisi, 

 saying, " We will never leave you. Do not be disheartened. 

 Wherever you lead we will follow. Our remarks were 

 made only on account of the injustice of these people." 

 Others followed, and with the most artless simplicity of 

 manner told me to be comforted : "they were all my chil- 

 dren; they knew no one but Sekeletu and me, and they 

 would die for me; they had not fought, because I did not 

 wish it; they had just spoken in the bitterness of their 

 spirit, and when feeling that they could do nothing; but 

 if these enemies begin you will see what we can do." One 

 of the oxen we offered to the Chiboque had been rejected 

 because he had lost part of his tail, as they thought that it 

 had been cut off and witchcraft-medicine inserted; and 

 some mirth was excited by my proposing to raise a similar 

 objection to all the oxen we still had in our possession. 

 The remaining four soon presented a singular shortness of 

 their caudal extremities, and, though no one ever asked 

 whether they had medicine in the stumps or no, we were 



