AFRICA. 253 
greatcft defire imaginable to become a good 
markfman ; and though he had few opportuni- 
ties of improving himfelf, he found his ikill 
little inferior to his moft experienced neigh- 
bours. In ihort, he expatiated fo much, and 
with fuch fimplicity, upon the method he 
pradtifed for hitting the mark> as to afford ex- 
treme amufement to his countrymen who knew 
him. Seeing how much they enjoyed the joke, 
I propofed a trial of fkill, nothing doubting 
that our new knight-errant would prove an 
inexhauftible fource of entertainment. His 
three companions were all of them expert m 
what they undertook : as to himfelf, the pofi: 
of fafety, by way of eminence, would have 
been to have placed one's-felf precifely before 
the mark. 
As I faw he looked fomewhat afhamed, and 
took the point to heart, and as he w^as even 
afraid that his mifcarriage would injure him 
with me, I was eager to revive his confidence : 
I told him that, when I firfl attempted to 
handle a gun, I fhot farther from my mark 
than he did, and that I had no doubt, with 
his enthufiafm upon the fubjed, he would foon 
prove a very excellent markfman. I fliould 
have 
