DISCOURAGEMENTS. 
223 
topy plan here, though wo were not, as in the other in- 
stances, likely to be overpowered by numbers. 
■My men offered all their ornaments, and I offered all my 
beads and shirts ; but, though we had come to the village 
against our will, and the guides had also followed us con 
trary to our desire, and had even sent for the Bangala 
traders without our knowledge or consent, yet matters 
could not be arranged without our giving an ox and one 
of the tusks. We were all becoming disheartened, and 
could not wonder that native expeditions from the interior 
to the coast had generally failed to reach their destinations. 
My people were now so much discouraged that some pro- 
mised to return home : the prospect of being obliged to 
return when just on the threshold of the Portuguese set- 
tlements distressed mo exceedingly. After using all my 
powers of persuasion, I declared to them that if they re- 
turned I would go on alono, and went into my littlo tent 
with the mind directed to Him who hears the sighing of 
the soul, and was soon followed by the head of Mohorisi, 
saying, “ Wo will never leave you. Ho not be disheartened. 
Wherever you lead we will follow. Our remarks wero 
made only on account of the injustice of these people.” 
Others followed, and with the most artless simplicity of 
manner told mo to bo comforted: “they were all my chil- 
dren; they knew no ono but Sekelctu and me, and they 
would die for me; they had not fought, because I did not 
wish it; they had just spoken in the bitterness of their 
spirit, and when feeling that they could do nothing; but 
d" these enemies begin you will see what wo can do.” Ono 
°* the oxen we offered to the Chiboquo had boon rejected 
because he had lost part of his tail, as they thought that it 
bad been cut off and witchcraft-medicine inserted; and 
some mirth was excited by my proposing to raise a similar 
objection to all the oxen wo still had in our possession. 
The remaining four soon presented a singular shortness of 
their caudal extremities, and, though no one ever ask-,o 
whether they had medicine in the stumps or no, we were 
