ery
mush clibber; but we is clibberer, we is, ho! ho! ho!"

Our worthy guide looked so terribly fierce as he uttered this fiendish
laugh, that we all came to a stand and gazed at him in surprise; we
fancied that something must have deranged his mind.

"Mak," said Peterkin, "you are mad. What mean you by such grimaces?"

Pursing his lips tightly, and looking at each of us for a few moments in
silence, he finally crossed his arms on his chest, and turning eagerly
to Jack, said with extreme volubility--

"Dat rascal! dat tief! Him's no trader, him's slabe-dealer; hims no go
west, hims go south; an' w'at for hims go? W'at for hims carry guns so
many, eh? Hims go" (here the guide dropped his voice into a whisper of
intense bitterness)--"hims go for attack village an' take all peepils
away for be slabes. No pay for 'em--tief!--take dem by force."

"Why, how did you come to know all this," said Jack, "or rather to
suspect it? for you cannot be sure that you are right."

"W'at, no can be sure me right? ho, yis, me sartin sure. Me bery
clibber. Stop, now. Did him--dat tief!--speak bery mush?"

"Certainly he did, a good deal."

"Yis, ho! An' did him make _you_ speak bery mush?"

"I rather think he did," replied Peterkin, laughing at our guide's
eagerness.

"Yis, ho! hims did. An' did him ax you plenty question, all 'bout where
you go, an' where you come from, an' _de way back_ to village where we
be come from? An' did hims say, when him find you was come from _sout_,
dat hims was go _west_, though before dat hims hab say dat hims be go
_sout_, eh?"

"Certainly," said Jack, with a thoughtful look, "he did say all that,
and a great deal more to that effect."

"Yis, ho! hims did. Me know bery well. Me see him. An' me also dood
to de niggers what hims do to you. Me talk an' laugh an' sing, _den me
ax dem questions_. But dey bery wise; dey no speak mush, but dey manage
to speak 'nuff for me. Yis, me bam--bam--eh?"

"Boozle," suggested Peterkin.

"Vis, bamboozle dem altogidder, ho! ho!"

After a little further explanation we found that this Portuguese trader
was a man-stealer, on his way to one of the smaller villages, with the
intention of attacking it. Makarooroo ascertained that they meant to
proceed direct to that of King Jambai, first, however, getting one of
the neighbouring tribes to pick a quarrel with that monarch and go to
war with him; and we now recollected, with deep regret, that in our