2H2 OPPORTUNE AID. 



He thought, as others did, that my men were slaves. He 

 was a young man, with woolly hair elaborately dressed : 

 thai, behind was made up into a cone, about eight inches 

 in diameter at the base, carefully swathed round with red 

 and black thread. As I resisted the proposal to deliver up 

 my blanket until they had placed us on the western bank, 

 this chief continued to worry us with his demands till I 

 was tired. My little tent was now in tatters, and, having 

 a wider hole behind than the door in front, I tried in vain 

 to lie down out of sight of our persecutors. We were on a 

 reedy flat, and could not follow our usual plan of a small 

 stockade in which we had time to think over and concoct 

 our plans. As I was trying to persuade my men to move 

 on to the bank in spite of these people, a young half-caste 

 Portuguese sergeant of militia, Cypriano di Abreu, made 

 his appearance and gave the same advice. He had come 

 across the Quango in search of bees'-wax. When we 

 moved off from the chief who had been plaguing us, his 

 people opened a fire from our sheds, and continued to blaze 

 away some time in the direction we were going ; but none 

 of the bullets reached us. It is probable that they ex- 

 pected a demonstration of the abundance of ammunition 

 they possessed would make us run; but, when we con- 

 tinued to move quietly to the ford, they proceeded no 

 farther than our sleeping-place. Cypriano assisted us in 

 making a more satisfactory arrangement with the ferry- 

 man than parting with my blanket; and as soon as we 

 reached the opposite bank we were in the territory of the 

 Bangala, who are subjects of the Portuguese, and often 

 spoken of as the Cassanges or Cassantse; and happily ail 

 our difficulties with the border-tribes were at an end. 



Passing with light hearts through the high grass by a 

 narrow footpath about three miles west of the river, we came 

 to several neat square houses, with many cleanly-looking 

 half-caste Portuguese standing in front of them to salute 

 us. They are all enrolled in the militia, and our friend 

 Cypriano is the commander of a division established here. 



