LIVINGS TONI A—BLA N TYRE — Q UILL IMA NE. 417 
country. They would be sure to desert me. Where was 
the cloth I had promised them on arrival ? 
My only hope now was to make for the Shire river. 
Difficulties, as usual, were numerous. How was I to get 
there ? How was I to pay off the Angoni ? How was I 
to pay boys to take me there ? How was I to buy food 
even now ? 
These were serious questions for me to decide. Above 
all, I thought of my kind friend da Costa, who in all 
likelihood would have to bear the brunt of the awkward 
misadventure; for assuredly Chikuse would be told the 
wildest lies by his disappointed people, whose troubles 
would magnify during their journey across the great 
mountains and the wide plains. 
It was impossible not to think that my friend would 
be deeply mortified by the inevitable imposition, for he 
would be compelled to pay a monstrous indemnity by 
that sly scoundrel Chikuse. Remembering da Costa’s 
position, I determined to pay the Angoni as much as I 
possibly could, even if I was deprived of the last rag. I 
had promised to pay them on arrival, so I made up my 
mind to do so that very night and take the chances 
of their bolting. 
This resolution was soon put into action. Having 
made a small fire in the centre of the floor, I wrote a few 
lines upon a sheet of my journal paper telling da Costa 
of the predicament in which I had been landed ; of my 
having found the nest, while the birds had flown ; but I 
hoped to be able somehow to work my way to the Shire 
river; and with that view would try to keep the three 
Maravi with me. Coins to the natives were worth about 
as much as porcelain beads, so I wrapped a few sovereigns 
in my letter to da Costa, begging him to be so good as to 
pay the Angoni the remainder of the cloth which was 
justly due to them. 
From that eventful night until now, I have not heard 
anything of the result. 
A cheerful thought came to my mind. The Angoni 
might follow me to the eastern shores of the headland to 
one of the Nyanja villages ; now then I might be able to 
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