irons to the
kitchen fire, he suddenly dashed a brand into the thatch, and, seizing
another, sprang towards the powder-house, which his heavy shackles did
not allow him to reach before he was felled to the earth.

Freeman visited me soon afterwards, and, in spite of profit and
liquor, insisted on taking the brutal savage back; but, in the mean
time, the Bassa chief, to whom my prince was subordinate, heard of
Barrah's attempt on my magazine, and demanded the felon to expiate his
crime, according to the law of his country, at the stake. No argument
could appease the infuriate judges, who declared that a cruel death
would alone satisfy the people whose lives had been endangered by the
robber. Nevertheless, I declined delivering the victim for such a
fate, so that, in the end, we compromised the sentence by shooting
Barrah in the presence of all the slaves and townsfolk,--the most
unconcerned spectators among whom were his wife and sister!

FOOTNOTE:

[F] _Saucy-wood_ is the reddish bark of the _gedu_ tree, which when
ground and mixed with water, makes a poisonous draught, believed to be
infallible in the detection of crime. It is, in fact, "a trial by
ordeal;" if the drinker survives he is innocent, if he perishes,
guilty.

CHAPTER LV.

There is no river at the New Sestros settlement, though geographers,
with their usual accuracy in African outlines, have often projected
one on charts and maps. Two miles from the short and perilous beach
where I built my _barracoons_, there was a slender stream, which, in
consequence of its shallow bed, and narrow, rock-bound entrance, the
natives call "Poor River;" but my factory was at New Sestros _proper_;
and there, as I have said, there was no water outlet from the
interior; in fact, nothing but an embayed strand of two hundred yards,
flanked by dangerous cliffs. Such a beach, open to the broad ocean and
for ever exposed to the fall rage of its storms, is of course more or
less dangerous at all times for landing; and, even when the air is
perfectly calm, the common surf of the sea pours inward with
tremendous and combing waves, which threaten the boats of all who
venture among them without experienced skill. Indeed, the landing at
New Sestros would be impracticable were it not for the dexterous
Kroomen, whose canoes sever and surmount the billows in spite of their
terrific power.

Kroomen and Fishmen are different people from the Bushmen. The two
former classes in