DIFFICULTY WITH BASHINJE CHIEF 
231 
anxious to cross to the western side, we tried to induce 
some of the Bashinje to lend us canoes for the purposo. 
This brought out the chief of these parts, who informed us 
that all the canoe-men were his children, and nothing 
could be done without his authority. Ho then made the 
usual demand for a man, an ox, or a gun, adding that 
otherwise wo must return to the country from which wo 
had come. As I did not beliovo that this man had any 
power over the canoes of the other side, and snspected that 
BASHINJE CHIEF'S MODE OF WEARING THE HAIR. 
t gave him my blanket — the only thing I now had in 
reserve — ho might leavo us in the lurch after all, I tried to 
persuade my men to go at onco to the bank, about two 
uriles off, and obtain possession of the canoes before we 
gavo up tho blanket; but they thought that this chief 
rrright attack us in the act of crossing, should we do so. 
The chief came himself to our encampment and made his 
demand again. My men stripped off the last of their cop- 
per rings and gave them ; but he was still intent on a man. 
