well enough
to enable us to continue our voyage. We are much obliged to you for
your timely warning, and we would advise you to part company from such
lawless associates as soon as possible."

Harry and I assured him that such was our purpose, although we would
gladly have enabled the men to escape from the pirates, hoping that they
would take to a better course of life. We sat up talking with our
friends for some time, and were then glad to lie down outside their hut,
having agreed to keep watch with them during the night. We drew lots as
to who should keep the watches. Harry had the first, from eight to ten;
Tubbs the next two hours; I from midnight until two o'clock, and the
Frenchmen the morning watch. Tubbs roused me up and said that all was
quiet, and that the ex-pirates were sleeping soundly. I paced up and
down between the tent and the boat, in which some of the black crew were
sleeping, while the rest were near their master's tent. Frequently I
stopped to listen for any distant sounds. I could hear occasionally the
cries of wild beasts far away to the eastward, and the shrieks of night
birds, the chirping of crickets or other insects, and the croaking of
frogs; but no human voice reached my ears. I trusted that we should be
able to finish our raft early the next day, and begin the voyage down
the river. With this hope, having called up one of the Frenchmen, I lay
down to sleep, feeling more drowsy than usual. I had just opened my
eyes and discovered that it was dawn, when I was startled by the most
fearful yell I had ever heard, and the next instant a hundred dark
forms, flashing huge daggers in their hands, leapt out from among the
bushes on every ride. Harry and Tubbs, who were sleeping next to me,
sprang to their feet. Our first impulse was to run to the trunk of a
large tree and place our backs against it, so that we might defend
ourselves to the last. As the unfortunate Frenchmen were crawling out
of their tent, the savages were upon them, while others seized upon the
drunken and still helpless seamen, and a fearful scene of slaughter
ensued. Three of them we saw killed, while some of the crew of the
canoe were also mercilessly put to death. Two of the seamen, however,
Herman Jansen and Caspar Caper, seizing their weapons, fought their way
out from among the savages, and, we concluded, took to flight, for we
saw a party of blacks start off in pursuit. Our enemy, seeing us well
armed, had