470 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
Frank with eight musketeers ancl sixty axes to form a 
stockade, I led thirty-six men in a line through the 
bushes, and drove the united Baswa and Bakurnu back- 
ward to their villages, the first of which were situated a 
mile from the river. Here a most determined stand was 
made by them, for they had piled up heaps of brush- 
wood, and cut down great trees to form defences, leaving 
only a few men in front. We crept through the jungle 
on the south side and succeeded in forcing an entrance, 
and driving them out. We had thus won peace for this 
day, and retreated to our camp. We then divided the 
Expedition into two parties, or relays, one to work by 
night, the other by day, after which I took a r picked 
body of pioneers with axes and guns and cut a narrow 
path three miles in length, which brought us opposite 
Ntunduru Island, blazing the trees as a guide, and 
forming rude camps at intervals of half a mile. Mate- 
rial — dried palm branches and bundles of cane smeared 
over with gum frankincense — was also brought from the 
village to form lights for the working parties at night : 
these were to be fastened at elevated positions on trees 
to illuminate the jungle. 
We were not further disturbed during this day. In 
the evening Frank began his work with fifty axe-men, 
and ten men as scouts deployed in the bushes in front 
of the working parties. Before dawn we were all 
awakened, and, making a rush with the canoes, suc- 
ceeded in safely reaching our first camp by 9 a.m. with 
all canoes and baggage. During [the passage of the 
rearguard the Bakurnu made their presence known to us 
by a startling and sudden outburst of cries ; but the 
scouts immediately replied to them with their rifles, and 
maintained their position until they were supported by 
the other armed men, who were now led forward as on 
the day before. We chased the savages two miles 
inland, to other villages which we had not hitherto seen, 
and these also we compelled them to abandon. 
In the evening, Frank, who had enjoyed but a short 
rest during the day, manfully set to work again, and by 
dawn had prepared another three-quarters of a mile of 
