234 SECOND JOURNEY TO THE 



humanity that many of you were not killed 

 to-day ; for they have all guns, with which 

 they can destroy you either when near or 

 at a distance. I also have a gun, and can 

 assure you that if a white man had fallen, I 

 would have been the first to have revenged 

 his death.' 



66 The veracity of Augustus was beyond 

 all question with us: such a speech, deli- 

 vered in a circle of forty armed men, was a 

 remarkable instance of personal courage. 

 We could perceive, by the shouts of ap- 

 plause with which they filled the pauses in 

 his harangue, that they assented to his argu- 

 ments, and he told us that they had ex- 

 pressed great sorrow for having given us so 

 much cause of offence, and pleaded, in miti- 

 gation of their conduct, that they had never 

 seen white people before, that every thing 

 in our possession was so new to them, and 

 so desirable, that they could not resist the 

 temptation of stealing, and begged him to 

 assure us that they never would do the like 

 again, for they were anxious to be on terms 

 of friendship with us, that they might par- 



