1871.] NAEEOW ESCAPES. 147 



its work, but felt no alarm till I saw it come straight 

 towards me : I ran a few paces back, and down it came 

 to the ground one yard behind me, and breaking into seve- 

 ral lengths, it covered me with a cloud of dust. Had the 

 branches not previously been rotted off, I could scarcely 

 have escaped. 



Three times in one day was I delivered from impending 

 death. 



My attendants, who were scattered in all directions, came 

 running back to me, calling out, " Peace ! peace ! you will 

 finish all your work in spite of these people, and in spite 

 of everything." Like them, I took it as an omen of good 

 success to crown me yet, thanks to the " Almighty Preserver 

 of men." 



We had five hours of running the gauntlet, waylaid 

 by spearmen, who all felt that if they killed me they 

 would be revenging the death of relations. From each 

 hole in the tangled mass we looked for a spear ; and each 

 moment expected to hear the rustle which told of deadly 

 weapons hurled at us. I became weary with the constant 

 strain of danger, and — as, I suppose, happens with soldiers 

 on the field of battle — not courageous, but perfectly indif- 

 ferent whether I were killed or not. 



When at last we got out of the forest and crossed the 

 Liya on to the cleared lands near the villages of Monan- 

 bundwa, we lay down to rest, and soon saw Muanampunda 

 coming, walking up in a stately manner unarmed to meet us. 

 He had heard the vain firing of my men into the bush, 

 and came to ask what was the matter. I explained the mis- 

 take that Munangonga had made in supposing that I was 

 Kolokolo, the deeds of whose men he knew, and then we 

 went on to his village together. 



In the evening he sent to say that if I would give him 

 all my people who had guns, he would call his people 

 together, burn off all the vegetation they could fire, and 



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