1812. 
BACHAPIN NEGOTIATION. 
403 
compelling me to accept,, in consideration, something beforehand. 
I began to feel that it was likely they would outwit me, by thus forcing 
me, either to confess that I did not mean to return again to that 
village, or to complete my agreement by giving them the gun before 
I left the town. 
Soon afterwards, several Bachapins entered the raootsi, driving 
before them two oxen, and followed by four men bearing two very 
large tusks of ivory. These tusks might probably have weighed 
about ninety pounds each, as they were too heavy to be carried by 
one man. Mattivi then asked me if I thouoht the two oxen and the 
teeth a satisfactory payment for the gun. I replied, that the ivory 
was of no use to me ; and besides, that, if he set so little value on 
the gun, it would be better that he gave up the idea of having it, 
as at all events it would be a long time before I should reach Klaar- 
water. This reply caused much earnest consultation among the 
members of the council, the purport of which I could not learn. 
They broke up soon after this, and nothing further was said on the 
subject that evening. 
16th. Early in the morning four oxen were produced for my 
acceptance. By their following up the affair so closely, and by their 
pertinaciously endeavouring to make me receive a payment before- 
hand, I perceived that their intention was to establish a claim to have 
immediate possession of their purchase. I had now put it out of my 
power to break off the negotiation by a peremptory refusal to part 
with any of my arms ; because I had consented, though under a re- 
mote condition, to let them have a musket. There was no plea left, 
by which I could save my gun, but that of objecting to the price ; and 
though it was barely probable that they would relinquish it on that 
account, I should at least gain, as some compensation, a greater 
strength in oxen, a point on which no small share of our future 
safety and success depended : for, to have hinted that it was in- 
tended as a present, would leave me no excuse for withholding it 
when it should be discovered that I was not returning to the place 
appointed for receiving it. This plea, they must have been well 
aware, might now be urged on reasonable grounds. 
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