AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 201 
before him, and immediately held forth our hands; all 
of them trembled like aspen leaves ; the chief looked up 
full in our faces, kneeling on the ground; light seemed 
to flash from his dark, rolling eyes, his body was 
convulsed all over, as though he were enduring the 
utmost torture, and with a timorous yet undefinable ex¬ 
pression of countenance, in which all the passions of our 
nature were strangely blended, he drooped his head, 
eagerly grasped our proffered hands, and burst into 
NATIVE MUSICIANS. 
tears. This was a sign of friendship ; harmony followed, 
and war and bloodshed were thought of no more. It 
was happy for us that our white faces and calm behaviour 
produced the effect it did on these people ; in another 
minute our bodies would have been as full of arrows as 
a porcupine’s is full of quills. ‘ I thought you were 
children of heaven fallen from the skies,’ said the chief, 
in explanation of this sudden change.” 
This scene took place in the market-town of Bocqua, 
of which the travellers had so often heard, whither 
