; at
which, indeed, we were not much surprised, for as he had probably never
seen white faces before, he must have naturally taken us for ghosts or
phantoms of some sort.

He was armed with shield and spear, but his frame was paralysed with
terror. He seemed to have no power to use his weapons. At first we
also stood in silent wonder, and returned his stare with interest; but
after a few seconds the comicality of the man's appearance tickled
Peterkin so much that he burst into a fit of laughter, which had the
effect of increasing the terror of the black warrior to such a degree
that his teeth began to chatter in his head. He actually grew livid in
the face. I never beheld a more ghastly countenance.

"I say, Ralph," observed my companion, after recovering his composure,
"we must try to show this fellow that we don't mean him any harm, else
he'll die of sheer fright."

Before I could reply, or any steps could be taken towards this end, his
party came up, and we suddenly found ourselves face to face with at
least a hundred men, all of whom were armed with spears or bows and
arrows. Behind them came a large troop of women and children. They
were all nearly naked, and I observed that they were blacker in the skin
than most of the negroes we had yet met with.

"Here's a pretty mess," said Peterkin, looking at me.

"What is to be done?" said I.

"If we were to fire at them, I'd lay a bet they'd run away like the
wind," replied my comrade; "but I can't bear to think of shedding human
blood if it can possibly be avoided."

While we spoke, the negroes, who stood about fifty yards distant from
us, were consulting with each other in eager voices, but never for a
moment taking their eyes off us.

"What say you to fire over their heads?" I suggested.

"Ready, present, then," cried Peterkin, with a recklessness of manner
that surprised me.

We threw forward our rifles, and discharged them simultaneously.

The effect was tremendous. The whole band--men, women, and children--
uttered an overwhelming shriek, and turning round, fled in mad confusion
from the spot. Some of the warriors turned, however, ere they had gone
far, and sent a shower of spears at us, one of which went close past my
cheek.

"We have acted rashly, I fear," said I, as we each sought shelter behind
a tree.

No doubt the savages construed this act of ours into an admission that
we did not consider ourselves invulnerable, and plucked up courag