e as possible, to please our black
companions, as well as to supply ourselves with food. I had kept on the
extreme right of the party, Charley on the left, and Tom in the centre,
so that we could communicate with each other. We had gone a mile or so
from the camp, when I caught sight of a beautiful little deer bounding
away up a glade. I followed without calling to my companions, expecting
almost immediately to come up with it. It went trotting on, and
feeding, and then bounding away in a playful manner, just keeping beyond
the range of my gun. Now I lost sight of it, but soon again saw it
before me. Thus I was led on further than I should have wished. How
many turns I had made, I could not tell but I fancied that I had gone in
a straight line. After all, just as I was about to fire, the deer took
flight, either at me, or something else, and bounded away.

Much disappointed, I turned to rejoin my companions. Before long,
however, I made the pleasing discovery that I had lost myself. I
listened, expecting to hear their shouts, but no sound reached my ears.
I had gone on, some way thinking that it was in the direction where I
was most likely to find my friends, when I heard voices in the distance
coming through the forest I at once endeavoured to make my way towards
the spot from whence they appeared to proceed. As I advanced they
sounded more strange. I kept on cautiously. They might be savages of a
different tribe, for Ombay had told me of many strange people inhabiting
that region. The shades of evening were already coming on. I caught
the glimmer of a fire in an open glade before me, and what was my
surprise on pushing aside the boughs, to see two enormous apes seated on
the ground, and a couple of young ones near them.

One seated in a sort of arbour, formed by the thick foliage above the
roots of the tree, appeared to be a patriarch, while just outside sat
his wife caressing the youngest one, while in the front of her lay the
other, warming himself before the fire. I could see the two adults were
enormous creatures, as large--they appeared to me--as any ordinary human
being, with huge chests and long arms. Had there been but one alone I
should have felt very nervous lest he should attack me, but what would
be my fate were both the creatures, aided by their infant progeny, to
set upon me. I feared almost to breathe lest I should be discovered.
Should I tread on a rotten branch, or brush by a bough t