mself after
his nap. He looked greatly astonished at seeing us stand before him.

"Now tell him what we want," said Charley to Aboh; "just hint that if he
doesn't agree to King Sanga Tanga's demands he may expect to have his
plantain groves cut down, and his village burned, and himself and his
people carried off and sold to the slave traders."

"Berry good reason for not saying No," observed Aboh.

He forthwith addressed the king in due form. His majesty scratched his
head and sides and all parts of his body with much vehemence--a sign of
great agitation within, if not irritation without, and replied in a long
speech.

Aboh briefly translated it.

"Him no want fight, him say go when you like, but him ask before you
away."

"Tell the king we are very much obliged to him for so readily yielding
to our request, and we will certainly give him a present, and if we get
safe home we will send him another, as our means at present are
limited."

Whether Aboh understood this or not, I am not sure, but whatever he said
made the king's countenance brighten up. As we wished to rejoin Prince
Ombay as soon as possible, and put him out of suspense, we begged Tom to
get ready to march at once. Returning to our house, we took out four
necklaces of beads, one as a present from each of us, and also some
knives and trinkets which we presented to his majesty, telling Aboh to
thank him again for the kind way in which he had treated us, though he
had as a mark of his favour detained us longer than we desired.

We then, shouldering our packs, and taking our rifles in our hands, bade
the king good-bye, and saluting the people as we passed through the
streets of the village, hastened to the spot where we had left Prince
Ombay and his party. No one had discovered them, and as he thought it
prudent not to remain longer than necessary in the neighbourhood, we
immediately commenced our march to the north-east. Our success had been
far greater than we expected. Our bold bearing and the authoritative
tone we had used, had, no doubt, considerable influence in inducing the
black king to yield to our demands.

Prince Ombay was in high spirits at seeing us, and gave a hearty welcome
to Tom. He proposed immediately to set out for his father's town.

"We shall now conquer all our enemies; we shall succeed in all we
undertake; with four good guns what enemy can stand against us? The
wild beasts in the forest must succumb, we shall have ga