more unreasonable they became, and at every fresh demand a shout was raised, and a rush made round us with brandished weapons.  One young man even made a charge at my head from behind, but I quickly brought round the muzzle of my gun to his mouth and he retreated.  My men behaved with admirable coolness.  The chief and his counsellors, by accepting my invitation to be seated, had placed themselves in a trap, for my men had quietly surrounded them and made them feel that there was no chance of escaping their spears.  I then said that as everything had failed to satisfy them they evidently meant to fight; and if so, they must begin, and bear the blame before God.  I then sat silent for some time.  It was certainly rather trying, but I was careful not to seem flurried, and, having four barrels ready for instant action, looked quietly at the savage scene around.”  The palaver began again, and ended in the exchange of an ox for a promise of food, in which he was wofully cheated.  “It was impossible to help laughing, but I was truly thankful that we had so far gained our point as to be allowed to pass without shedding blood.”

He now struck north to avoid the Chiboque, and made for the Portuguese settlement of Cassange through dense forest and constant wet.  Here another fever fit came on, so violent that “I could scarcely, after some hours’ trial, get a lunar observation in which I could repose confidence.  Those who know the difficulties of making observations and committing them all to paper will sympathize with me in this and many similar instances.”

At this crisis, when the goal was all but at hand, obstacles multiplied till it seemed that after all it would never be reached.  First his riding ox, Sindbad—­a beast “blessed with a most intractable temper,” and a habit of bolting into the bush to get his rider combed off by a climber, and then kicking at him—­achieved a triumph in his weak state, “when the bridle broke, and down I came backward on the crown of my head, receiving as I fell a kick on the thigh.  This last attack of fever reduced me almost to a skeleton.  The blanket which I used as a saddle, being pretty constantly wet, caused extensive abrasion of the skin, which was continually healing and getting sore again.”

Then the guides missed their way and led them back into Chiboque territory, where the demands of the chief of every village for “a man, an ox, or a tusk,” for permission to pass, began again.  Worst of all, signs of mutiny began to show themselves among the Batoka men of his party, who threatened to turn back.  He appeased them by giving them a tired ox to be killed at the Sunday’s halt.  “Having thus, as I thought, silenced their murmurs, I sank into a state of torpor, and was oblivious of all their noise.  On Sunday the mutineers were making a terrible din in preparing the skin.  I requested them twice to be more quiet as the noise pained me, but, as they paid no attention to this civil request, I put out my head and, repeating it, was