To Sdnga-Tdnga and Back . 113 
Those who have shot under such circumstances 
will readily understand that everything depends 
upon “ luck; ” one man may beat the forest 
assiduously and vainly for five or six weeks; 
another will be successful on the first day. Thus 
whilst I, without any fault of my own, utterly 
failed in shooting a gorilla, although I saw him 
and heard him, and came upon his trail, and found 
his mortal spoils, another traveller had hardly 
landed in the Gaboon before he was so fortunate 
as to bring down a fine anthropoid. 
However, as man cannot command success, I 
was obliged to content myself with doing all in my 
power to deserve it. I offered five dollars, equal¬ 
ling the same number of sovereigns in England, to 
every huntsman for every fair shot, and ten dollars 
for each live ape. I implicitly obeyed all words 
of command, and my factotum Selim Agha was 
indefatigable in his zeal. Indeed “ luck” was dead 
against us during the whole of my stay in Gorilla- 
land. W,Q ran a fair risk of drowning in the first 
days voyage ; on the next march we were knocked 
down by lightning, and on the last trip I had a 
narrow escape from the fall of a giant branch that 
grazed my hammock. 
My first “ bush ” evening was spent in palm- 
wine, rum, and wassail; one must begin by humour¬ 
ing Africans, under pain of being considered a 
churl; but the inevitable result is, that next day 
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