BARTERING, 
191 
setting off, we had high hopes that perchance 
we might persuade them to give us some of 
their catch. We were sometimes not only dis- 
appointed but tantalised. A man brought once 
to our door a large piece of a fish, with a bunch 
of small ones of a particularly delicious flavour 
attached. He wanted a button for the whole, 
a bright gilt button, such as I had had on my 
dress ; but I had cut them off one by one at 
different times, and had then no more of that 
kind. I offered him a jacket of H/s complete, 
with bone buttons ; he would have none of it, 
nor anything in our whole stock. We bartered 
long, for we really needed food. He sat by the 
door till afternoon, thinking that at last I would 
produce the coveted button ; then he hung the 
fish on a pole in front of our door, and went, 
leaving them spoiling in the strong sun before 
our eyes. Next morning we had to send for 
him to remove them, stinking by that time. 
We dared not have taken them : to have done 
so would have probably cost us our lives. 
You will wonder that we did not send our 
own men to fish. Even if we had had the 
necessary appliances, we dared not. The fishing- 
ground of the natives is their most prized posses- 
sion ; the commencement of their fierce and long 
