210 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
which required all our attention to divine their purpose ; 
and while we were occupied with the truculent rabble 
in our front, a movement of which we were unaware 
was being made successfully at the stern ; but the 
guide, Saramba, catching sight of a thief, warned me 
to cast my eyes behind, and I detected him in the act 
of robbery. Becoming assured by this time that the 
Wavuma had arrived in such numbers for the sole 
purpose of capturing what appeared to them an appar- 
ently easy prey, and their manoeuvres were evidently 
intended to embarrass us and distract our attention, I 
motioned them to depart with my hand, giving orders 
at the same time to the boat’s crew to make ready their 
oars. This movement, of necessity, caused them to 
declare their purposes, and they manifested them by 
audaciously laying their hands on the oars, and arresting 
the attempts of the boat’s crew to row. Either we 
were free or we were not. If yet free men, with the 
power to defend our freedom, we must be permitted to 
continue our voyage on the sea without let or hindrance. 
If not freemen, we had first to be disarmed. I seized 
my gun, and motioned them again to depart. With a 
loud, scornful cry they caught up their spears and 
shields, and prepared to launch their weapons. To be 
saved, we must act quickly, and I fired over their 
heads ; and as they fell back from the boat, I bade my 
men pull away. Forming a line on each side of us, 
about thirty yards off, they flung their spears, which 
the boat’s crew avoided by dropping into the bottom of 
the boat. The canoes astern clapped their hands glee- 
fully, showing me a large bunch of Mutuncla beads 
which had been surreptitiously abstracted from the stern 
of the boat. I seized my repeating rifle and fired in 
earnest, to right and left. The fellow with the beads 
was doubled up, and the boldest of those nearest to us 
was disabled. The big rifle aimed at the waterline of 
two or three of the canoes, perforated them through and 
through, which compelled the crews to pay attention to 
their sinking crafts, and permitted us to continue our 
voyage into Napoleon Channel and to examine the 
