392 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. XXXIII. 
and dejected, we thought it best to give up all idea of 
sheltered quarters, and, trusting to our good luck, to 
encamp outside. We therefore drew back altogether 
from the inhabited quarter into the open meadow, 
and dismounted beneath the wide-spreading shade of 
an immense kuka, or " bokki," at least eighty feet 
high, the foliage of which being interwoven with 
numbers of climbing plants, such as I very rarely 
observed on this tree, formed a most magnificent 
canopy. While my tent was being pitched here, a 
number of natives collected round us, and squatting 
down in a semicircle eyed all my things very atten- 
tively, drawing each other's attention to objects 
which excited their curiosity. They were all armed ; 
and as there were from thirty to forty, and hundreds 
more might have come to their assistance in a mo- 
ment, their company was not so agreeable as under 
other circumstances it might have been. The reason, 
however, why they behaved so inhospitably towards 
me evidently was, that they took me for an onicer of 
the king of Bornu : but this impression gave way the 
longer they observed my manners and things; indeed, 
as soon as they saw the tent, they became aware 
that it was not a tent like those of their enemies, 
and they came to the same conclusion with regard to 
the greater part of my luggage. In many places in 
Negroland I observed that the bipartite tentpole was 
a most wonderful object to the natives, and often 
served to characterize the Christian. This time, how- 
ever, we did not come to friendly terms; but the reader 
