102 THOMAS J. COMBER. 
Kroo boys, through fear, deserted. Mr. Comber 
having been induced to make this particular effort 
through rumours which again and again had reached 
San Salvador, to the effect that Bwaka-Mata was 
willing for the white men to go through his land if 
they brought with them Kroo boys and no Congo 
men, he determined to go forward and ascertain 
whether these rumours were well founded. They 
passed Moila and Tungwa safely, and at last reached 
the town they were seeking, Banza Makuta. The . 
reception had better be given in John Hartland's 
graphic words: — ‘^We walked into the town and 
asked the people its name, but got no answer. The 
people drew back a little, and then one man called 
out ‘Ndabonga nkeli, vaunda mundeli!’ ‘Fetch the 
guns ; kill the white men ! * and in an instant they 
rushed away, returning immediately armed with great 
sticks, huge pieces of stone, knives, cutlasses, and 
guns, and, without any word of palaver, commenced 
dancing and leaping round us, and brandishing their 
weapons. Mr. Comber sat down by a house, and 
I was about to do the same, but our assailants yelled 
out, ‘Get up, get up,’ and rushed upon us. Such 
fiendish, blood-thirsty, cruel countenances I never 
saw. We got up and called to them to stop, that we 
would go back, but it was no good, and stones 
came flying towards us, and sticks and knives were 
brandished around us. We could see the people 
were determined, not only to drive us from the town, 
but to have our lives, so there was nothing left for us 
to do but to attempt flight, though it seemed hope- 
less. Away we started, amid stones and blows. We 
all got hit and bruised, but managed to reach the top 
of the steep hill, when a sudden report rang out 
behind us above the uproar, and Mr. Comber, who 
was in front of me, fell. I dashed up to him and 
tried to assist him to rise, but he said, ‘ It ’s no use, 
John ; I ’m hit, you go on.’ 
“ How I got down that terrible hill, through the 
