CHAP. IX. DISPUTES SETTLED BY CHAMELEON. 235 



latter, and anticipated a good supply of eggs ; but they 

 also bought two monkeys, and they ate all the eggs. A 

 hippopotamus came up one night, and laid waste their 

 vegetable garden ; the sheep broke into their cotton patch, 

 when it was in flower, and ate it all, except the stems ; 

 then the crocodiles carried off the sheep, and the natives 

 stole the fowls. Nor were they more successful as gun- 

 smiths : a Portuguese trader, having an exalted opinion of 

 the ingenuity of English sailors, showed them a double- 

 barrelled rifle, and inquired if they could put on the brown- 

 ing, which had rusted off. " I think I knows how," said 

 one, whose father was a blacksmith, " it's very easy ; you 

 have only to put the barrels in the fire." A great fire of 

 wood was made on shore, and the unlucky barrels put over 

 it, to secure the handsome rifle colour. To Jack's utter 

 amazement the barrels came asunder. To get out of the 

 scrape, his companion and he stuck the pieces together 

 with resin, and sent it to the owner, with the message, 

 " It was all they could do for it, and they would not 

 charge him anything for the job ! " They had also in- 

 vented an original mode of settling a bargain ; having 

 ascertained the market price of provisions, they paid that, 

 but no more. If the traders refused to leave the ship till 

 the price was increased, a chameleon, of which the natives 

 have a mortal dread, was brought out of the cabin ; and 

 the moment the natives saw the creature, they at once 

 sprang overboard. The chameleon settled every dispute 

 in a twinkling. 



But besides their good-humoured intercourse, they 

 showed humanity worthy of English sailors. A terrible 

 scream roused them up one night, and they pushed off in 

 a boat to the rescue. A crocodile had caught a woman, 

 and was dragging her across a shallow sandbank. Just 

 as they came up to her, she gave a fearful shriek : the 

 horrid reptile had snapped off her leg at the knee. They 



