to fight; and if so, they must begin,
and bear the blame before God. I then sat silent for some time. It was
certainly rather trying, but I was careful not to seem flurried, and,
having four barrels ready for instant action, looked quietly at the
savage scene around." The palaver began again, and ended in the exchange
of an ox for a promise of food, in which he was wofully cheated. "It was
impossible to help laughing, but I was truly thankful that we had so far
gained our point as to be allowed to pass without shedding blood."

He now struck north to avoid the Chiboque, and made for the Portuguese
settlement of Cassange through dense forest and constant wet. Here
another fever fit came on, so violent that "I could scarcely, after some
hours' trial, get a lunar observation in which I could repose
confidence. Those who know the difficulties of making observations and
committing them all to paper will sympathize with me in this and many
similar instances."

At this crisis, when the goal was all but at hand, obstacles multiplied
till it seemed that after all it would never be reached. First his
riding ox, Sindbad--a beast "blessed with a most intractable temper,"
and a habit of bolting into the bush to get his rider combed off by a
climber, and then kicking at him--achieved a triumph in his weak state,
"when the bridle broke, and down I came backward on the crown of my
head, receiving as I fell a kick on the thigh. This last attack of fever
reduced me almost to a skeleton. The blanket which I used as a saddle,
being pretty constantly wet, caused extensive abrasion of the skin,
which was continually healing and getting sore again."

Then the guides missed their way and led them back into Chiboque
territory, where the demands of the chief of every village for "a man,
an ox, or a tusk," for permission to pass, began again. Worst of all,
signs of mutiny began to show themselves among the Batoka men of his
party, who threatened to turn back. He appeased them by giving them a
tired ox to be killed at the Sunday's halt. "Having thus, as I thought,
silenced their murmurs, I sank into a state of torpor, and was oblivious
of all their noise. On Sunday the mutineers were making a terrible din
in preparing the skin. I requested them twice to be more quiet as the
noise pained me, but, as they paid no attention to this civil request, I
put out my head and, repeating it, was answered by an impudent laugh.
Knowing that discipline would