THE ENCAMPMENT SURROUNDED. 31/ 



village of Njambi, one of the chiefs of the Chiboque, we 

 intended to pass a quiet Sunday ; and our provisions being 

 quite spent, I ordered a tired riding-ox to be slaughtered. 

 As we wished to be on good terms with all, we sent the 

 hump and ribs to Njambi, with the explanation that this 

 was the customary tribute to chiefs in the part from 

 which we had come, and that we always honoured men in 

 his position. He returned thanks, and promised to send 

 food. Next morning he sent an impudent message, with 

 a very small present of meal ; scorning the meat he had 

 accepted, he demanded either a man, an ox, a gun , powder, 

 clotn, or a shell ; and in the event of refusal to comply 

 with his demand, he intimated his intention to prevent 

 our further progress. We replied, we should have thought 

 ourselves fools if we had scorned his small present, and 

 demanded other food instead ; and even supposing we 

 had possessed the articles named, no black man ought to 

 impose a tribute on a party that did not trade in slaves. 

 The servants who brought the message said that, when 

 sent to the Mambari, they had always got a quantity of 

 cloth from them for their master, and now expected the 

 same, or something else as an equivalent, from me. 



We heard some of the Chiboque remark, " They have 

 only five guns ; " and about mid-day, Njambi collected 

 all his people, and surrounded our encampment. Their 

 object was evidently to plunder us of everything. My 

 men seized their javelins, and stood on the defensive, 

 while the young Chiboque had drawn their swords and 

 brandished them with great fury. Some even pointed 

 their guns at me, and nodded to each other, as much as to 

 say, " This is the way we shall do with him." I sat on 

 my camp-stool, with my double-barrelled gun across my 

 knees, and invited the chief to be seated also. When he 

 and his counsellors had sat down on the ground in front of 

 me, I asked what crime we had committed that he had 

 come armed in that way. He replied that one of my 

 men, Pitsane, while sitting at the fire that morning, had, 

 in spitting, allowed a small quantity of the saliva to fall 

 on the leg of one of his men, and this " guilt " he wanted 

 to be settled by the fine of a man, ox, or gun. Pitsane 

 admitted the fact of a little saliva having fallen on the 

 Chiboque, and in proof of its being a pure accident, 

 mentioned that he had given the man a piece of meat, by 

 way of making friends, just before it happened, and wiped 



