thing? Shall these baby-faces beard me before my own people?"
So saying, Ferodia threw his whip from him, and drowned his further
reflections in a mighty gourd-bowl full of strong pombe; and as he
sighed his content, all traces of anger vanished; and as he observed his
friend Olimali had long ago measured his length upon the clay floor of
the hut, he laughed heartily; but the fumes of the pombe he had already
drunk were rapidly conquering the conqueror--even Ferodia, chief of the
Watuta.

The first news Ferodia and Olimali received, when they had recovered in
the morning from their drunken stupor, was not calculated to content
them. This was the flight of Sultan bin Ali and his men by night from
the camp, with but two or three bales of cloth, so that a party flying
for their lives, and so lightly laden, were not easily to be overtaken,
and could not be done before they would reach a country friendly to the
Arabs. Still, when the two chiefs, after venting a few angry
expletives, came to reflect, to converse, and turn over coolly, calmly,
and deliberately the news, it was found not to be so bad after all--
rather the reverse; until, finally, it was settled that the news was the
best that could be heard of what might concern them, and they felt
accordingly very gratified.

Four hundred bales of cloth and beads, one hundred kegs of powder, a
vast number of bullets, rugs, carpets, counterpanes, feather pillows,
richly embroidered caps, knives, looking-glasses, despatch-boxes, a few
guns, kettles, cups and saucers, sugar, coffee, tea, spices, curry, and
numberless little things which go to make the miscellaneous sum-total of
the plunder of a large and wealthy caravan--in short, the sum of fifty
thousand silver dollars would not have covered the cost price of the
articles found in the Arabs' deserted camp.

In the possession of these articles, what a difference had been made
within twenty-four hours in that small area contained within the compass
of a square half mile, a spot in Africa that might be covered by a pin's
point on an ordinary school-map of the world! How much noise,
confusion, blowing of gunpowder, did the fact of possession comprehend!
How many lives had been destroyed! What noble men had died! How much
misery had been created! And on such a very small spot in this world,
that no one would ever have heard of it, had I not been elected the
historian of the battle of Kwikuru! Yet who will dare deny my rig