Chap. XVIII. 
mSUBORDINATION SUPPRESSED. 
347 
fears expressed by my people, and tlireatened to return if pre¬ 
sents were not made at once. But my men had never left their 
own country before, except for rapine and murder. When they 
formerly came to a village they were in the habit of killing 
numbers of the inhabitants, and then taking a few young men 
to serve as guides to the next place. As this was their first 
attempt at an opposite line of conduct, and as tliey were without 
their shields, they felt defenceless among the greedy Chiboque, 
and some allowance must be made for them on that account. 
Saturday, ll^A.—Beached a small village on the banks of a 
narrow stream. I was too ill to go out of my little covering, 
except to quell a mutiny which began to show itself among 
some of the Batoka and Ambonda of our party. They grumbled, 
as they often do against thek chiefs, when they think them 
partial in their gifts, because they supposed that I had shown 
a preference in the distribution of the beads; but the beads I 
had given to my principal men were only sufficient to purchase 
a scanty meal, and I had hastened on to this village in order to 
slaughter a tired ox, and give them all a feast as well as a rest 
on Sunday, as preparation for the journey before us. I explained 
this to them, and thought their grumbling was allayed. I soon 
sank into a state of stupor, which the fever sometimes produced, 
and was oblivious to all their noise in slaughtering. On Sunday 
the mutineers were making a terrible din in preparing a skin 
they had procured. I requested them twice, by the man who 
attended me, to be more quiet, as the noise pained me: but as 
they paid no attention to tliis civil request, I put out my head, 
and, repeating it myself, was answered by an impudent laugh. 
Knowing that discipline would be at an end if this mutiny were 
not quelled, and that our lives depended on vigorously uphold¬ 
ing authority, I seized a double-barrelled pistol, and darted forth 
from the domicile, looking, I suppose, so savage as to put them 
to a precipitate flight. As some remained within hearing, I 
told them that I must maintain discipline, though at the expense 
of some of their limbs; so long as we travelled together they 
must remember that I was master, and not they. There being 
but little room to doubt my determination, they immediately 
became very obedient, and never afterwards gave me any 
trouble, or imagined that they had any right to my property. 
