120 
LEGGE'S INTEMPERANCE. 
[chap. IV. 
I possessed of spirits of wine having broken in the 
medicine chest. Ibrahim begged me to give him a 
bottle to put him. in a good humour, as he enjoyed 
nothing so much as araki; I accordingly gave him 
a pint bottle of the strongest spirits of wine. To my 
amazement he broke off the neck, and holding his 
head well back, he deliberately allowed the whole of 
the contents to trickle down his throat as inno- 
cently as though it had been simple water. He 
was thoroughly accustomed to it, as the traders were 
in the habit of bringing him presents of araki every 
season. He declared this to be excellent, and demanded 
another bottle. At that moment a violent storm of 
thunder and rain burst upon us with a fury well 
known in the tropics; the rain fell like a waterspout, 
and the throng immediately fled for shelter. So 
violent was the storm, that not a man was to be seen : 
some were sheltering themselves under the neigh-* 
bouring rocks; while others ran to their villages 
that were close by; the trader’s people commenced 
a fusilade, firing off all their guns lest they should 
get wet and miss fire. I could not help thinking how 
completely they were at the mercy of the natives at 
that moment, had they chosen to attack them; the 
trader s party were lying under their untanned ox-hides 
with their empty guns. Each of my men was pro¬ 
vided with a piece of macintosh, with which his gun- 
locks were secured. We lay upon an angarep covered 
with a bull’s hide until the storm was over. The 
thunder was magnificent, exploding on the peak of 
the mountain exactly above us, and in the course 
of a quarter of an hour torrents were rushing down 
the ravines among the rocks, the effects of the violent 
storm that had passed away as rapidly as it had 
arrived. 
No sooner had it ceased than the throng again 
appeared. Once more the chief, “ Legge,” was before 
us begging for all that we had. Although the natives 
asked for beads, they would give nothing in exchange, 
