several pieces that I might satisfy them all, and distributed it
amongst them; they bound them about their heads, but gave me to
understand that they should have liked them better if they had been red:
after this we were seldom without their company, which gave occasion to
an accident, which though it seemed to threaten some danger at first,
turned afterwards to our advantage.

As these people were continually teasing us, our Portuguese one day
threatened in jest to kill one of them. The black ran in the utmost
dread to seek his comrades, and we were in one moment almost covered with
Galles; we thought it the most proper course to decline the first impulse
of their fury, and retired into our house. Our retreat inspired them
with courage; they redoubled their cries, and posted themselves on an
eminence near at hand that overlooked us; there they insulted us by
brandishing their lances and daggers. We were fortunately not above a
stone's cast from the sea, and could therefore have retreated to our bark
had we found ourselves reduced to extremities. This made us not very
solicitous about their menaces; but finding that they continued to hover
about our habitation, and being wearied with their clamours, we thought
it might be a good expedient to fright them away by firing four muskets
towards them, in such a manner that they might hear the bullets hiss
about two feet over their heads. This had the effect we wished; the
noise and fire of our arms struck them with so much terror that they fell
upon the ground, and durst not for some time so much as lift up their
heads. They forgot immediately their natural temper, their ferocity and
haughtiness were softened into mildness and submission; they asked pardon
for their insolence, and we were ever after good friends.

After our reconciliation we visited each other frequently, and had some
conversation about the journey I had undertaken, and the desire I had of
finding a new passage into AEthiopia. It was necessary on this account
to consult their lubo or king: I found him in a straw hut something
larger than those of his subjects, surrounded by his courtiers, who had
each a stick in his hand, which is longer or shorter according to the
quality of the person admitted into the king's presence. The ceremony
made use of at the reception of a stranger is somewhat unusual; as soon
as he enters, all the courtiers strike him with their cudgels till he
goes back to the door; the am