CHAP. XIII.] 
KAMRASI'S TACTICS. 
377 
no fever ; no long journey before us, that in our weak 
state was an infliction ; the only wish was to lay down 
the burthen. 
Curious is the warfare between the animal instincts 
and the mind! Death would have been a release that 
I would have courted, but I should have liked that 
one “ English beefsteak and pale ale ” before I died ! 
During our misery of constant fever and starvation 
at Shooa Moru, insult had been added to injury. 
There was no doubt that we had been thus deserted 
by Kamrasi s orders, as every seven or eight days one 
of his chiefs arrived, and told me that the king was 
with his army only four days’ march from me, and 
that he was preparing to attack Fowooka, but that 
he wished me to join him, as with my fourteen guns 
we should win a great victory. This treacherous con¬ 
duct, after his promise to forward me without delay 
to Shooa, enraged me exceedingly. We had lost the 
boats at Gondokoro, and we were now nailed to the 
country for another year, should we live, which was 
not likely ; not only had the brutal king thus deceived 
us, but he was deliberately starving us into conditions, 
his aim being that my men should assist him against 
his enemy. At one time the old enemy tempted me 
sorely to join Fowooka against Kamrasi; but, discarding 
the idea generated in a moment of passion, I deter¬ 
mined to resist his proposals to the last. It was per¬ 
fectly true that the king was within thirty miles of us, 
and that he was aware of our misery; he made use 
of our extremity to force us to become his allies. 
After more than two months passed in this distress 
it became evident that something must be done ; I sent 
my headman, or vakeel, and one man with a native as 
a guide (that Saat and Bacheeta had procured from an 
island), with instructions to go direct to Kamrasi, to 
abuse him thoroughly in my name for having thus 
treated us, and tell him that I was much insulted at 
his treating with me through a third party in proposing 
an alliance. My vakeel was to explain that I was a 
