pest anxiety. Many of the
houses had been set on fire, and were reduced to ashes. The mangled
corpses of human beings were seen lying here and there amongst the
embers--some partially devoured by wild beasts, others reduced to simple
skeletons, and their bones left to whiten on the ruins of their old
homes. In one place the form of a woman tied to a tree, and dreadfully
mangled, showed that torture had been added to the other horrors of the
attack.

With feelings of mingled rage, pity, and anxiety, we hastened towards
the hut that had been the residence of Mbango, the chief. We found it,
like the rest, in ruins, and among them discovered the remains of a
child. Recollecting the little son of our friend Njamie, Okandaga's
guardian, I turned the body over in some anxiety; but the features were
too much mutilated to be recognisable.

"Alas! alas!" I exclaimed, as we collected in a group round this
remnant of a little child, "what a dreadful sight! What an unhappy race
of beings! Without doubt our friends have been slain, or carried into
captivity."

Poor Makarooroo, who had been from the first going about among the ruins
like a maniac, with a bewildered air of utter despair on his sable
countenance, looked at me as if he hoped for a slight word that might
reanimate hope in his bosom. But I could give him none, for I myself
felt hopeless.

Not so, Jack. With that buoyancy of spirit that was peculiar to him, he
suggested many ideas that consoled our guide not a little.

"You see," said he, "the rascally Portuguese trafficker in human flesh
would naturally try to effect his object with as little bloodshed as
possible. He would just fight until he had conquered, not longer; and
then he would try to take as many prisoners as he could, in order to
carry them away into slavery. Now, I cannot conceive it possible that
he could catch the whole tribe."

"Of course not," interrupted Peterkin; "he had a comparatively small
party. To take a whole tribe prisoners with such a band were
impossible."

"Ay, but you forget," said I, "that he might easily prevail on some
other tribe to go to war along with him, and thus capture nearly the
whole. Yet some must have escaped into the woods, and it is probable
that among these may have been the chief and his household. Okandaga
may be safe, and not far off, for all we know."

The guide shook his head.

"At any rate," observed Jack, "if caught they would certainly be gua