Chap. XVIII. VISIT TO THE AJAWA. 3G1 



ing, " Nkondo ! Nkondo ! " (War ! War !) We heard the words 

 of the Manganja, but they did not strike us at the moment 

 as neutralizing all our assertions of peace. The captives 

 threw down their loads on the path, and fled to the hills : and 

 a large body of armed men came running up from the village, 

 and in a few seconds they were all around us, though mostly 

 concealed by the projecting rocks and long grass. In vain 

 we protested that we had not come to fight, but to talk with 

 them. They would not listen, having, as we remembered 

 afterwards, good reason, in the cry of " Our Chibisa." 

 Flushed with recent victory over three villages, and confident 

 of an easy triumph over a mere handful of men, they began 

 to shoot their poisoned arrows, sending them with great 

 force upwards of a hundred yards, and wounding one of our 

 followers through the arm. Our retiring slowly up the 

 ascent from the village only made them more eager to 

 prevent our escape ; and, in the belief that this retreat was 

 evidence of fear, they closed upon us in bloodthirsty fury. 

 Some came within fifty yards, dancing hideously ; others 

 having quite surrounded us, and availing themselves of the 

 rocks and long grass hard by, were intent on cutting us off, 

 while others made off with their women and a large body of 

 slaves. Four were armed with muskets, and we were obliged 

 in self-defence to return their fire and drive them off. When 

 they saw the range of the rifles, they very soon desisted, and 

 ran away ; but some shouted to us from the hills the con- 

 soling intimation, that they would follow, and kill us where 

 we slept. Only two of the captives escaped to us, but 

 probably most of those made prisoners that day fled else- 

 where in the confusion. We returned to the village which 

 we had left in the morning, after a hungry, fatiguing, and 

 most unpleasant day. 



Though we could not blame ourselves for the course we had 



