132 
TEMPESTUOUS WEATHER. 
setting aside every other consideration ; but as I had been 
fortunate in my intercourse with the natives during the first 
expedition, so I hoped the present journey would terminate 
without the occurrence of any fatal collision between us. 
The natives, it is true, were generally quiet ; but they 
crowded round us frequently without any regard to our re- 
monstrances, laying hold of the boat to prevent our going 
away, and I sometimes thought that had any of them been 
sufficiently bold to set the example, many of the tribes 
would have attempted our capture. Indeed, in several in- 
stances, we were obliged to resort to blows ere we could 
disengage ourselves from the crowds around us, and when- 
ever this occurred, it called forth the most sullen and fe- 
rocious scowl — such, probably, as would be the forerunner 
of hostility, and would preclude every hope of mercy at 
their hands. With each new tribe we were, in some mea- 
sure, obliged to submit to an examination, and to be pulled 
about, and fingered all over. They generally measured 
our hands and feet with their own, counted our fingers, 
felt our faces, and besmeared our shirts all over with grease 
and dirt. This was no very agreeable ceremony, and a re- 
petition of it was quite revolting, more especially when we 
had to meet the grins or frowns of the many with firmness 
and composure. 
The weather had been tempestuous and rainy, for three 
or four successive days : on the 28th it cleared up a little. 
Under any circumstances, however, we could not have de- 
layed our journey. W 6 had not proceeded very far, when 
