e
accordingly, for they began again to advance towards us, though with
hesitation. I now saw that we should be compelled to fight for our
lives, and deeply regretted my folly in advising Peterkin to fire over
their heads; but happily, before blood was drawn on either side,
Makarooroo and Jack came running towards us. The former shouted an
explanation of who and what we were to our late enemies, and in less
than ten minutes we were mingling together in the most amicable manner.

We found that these poor creatures were starving, having failed to
procure any provisions for some time past, and they were then on their
way to another region in search of game. We gave them as much of our
provisions as we could spare, besides a little tobacco, which afforded
them inexpressible delight. Then rubbing noses with the chief, we
parted and went on our respective ways.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

HOW WE MET WITH OUR FIRST GORILLA, AND HOW WE SERVED HIM.

"It never rains but it pours," is a true proverb. I have often noticed,
in the course of my observations on sublunary affairs, that events
seldom come singly. I have often gone out fishing for trout in the
rivers of my native land, day after day, and caught nothing, while at
other times I have, day after day, returned home with my basket full.

As it was in England, so I found it in Africa. For many days after our
arrival in the gorilla country, we wandered about without seeing a
single creature of any kind. Lions, we ascertained, were never found in
those regions, and we were told that this was in consequence of their
having been beaten off the field by gorillas. But at last, after we had
all, severally and collectively, given way to despair, we came upon the
tracks of a gorilla, and from that hour we were kept constantly on the
_qui vive_, and in the course of the few weeks we spent in that part of
the country, we "bagged," as Peterkin expressed it, "no end of
gorillas"--great and small, young and old.

I will never forget the powerful sensations of excitement and anxiety
that filled our breasts when we came on the first gorilla footprint. We
felt as no doubt Robinson Crusoe did when he discovered the footprint of
a savage in the sand. Here at last was the indubitable evidence of the
existence and presence of the terrible animal we had come so far to see.
Here was the footstep of that creature about which we had heard so many
wonderful stories, whose existence the civilis