I did with my
right hand holding his left. He, with his right hand, tried to draw a
knife. I, with my left, tried to get my gun to bear on him, but there
was so little room to spare on account of the thick bush that both our
operations were difficult of performance. As soon as I saw him trying to
draw a knife, I dropped the hand with the whistle, and seized that with
which he tried to draw the knife. Thus the play went on for two or three
minutes; neither of us spoke, all our energies were directed on our
different games. At last, by turning round a little, I succeeded in
giving him a tremendous kick, which rolled him over on his back; then my
gun was free, and I held it to his head, upon which he took an attitude
of supplication on his knees, and prayed for quarter. I made him give me
his knife, go on all-fours again, and creep before me out of the wood.
This was a most audacious attempt at petty robbery. I should like to
have peppered him a little, but he was so penitent, I decided to let
him go. I don't think he meant to stab me; I think he merely wanted to
cut the string that held the whistle. These men were not generally
murderers. On this trip we killed twelve pigs, a hundred and seven
francolin, one lynx, and lots of cock and ducks. Coming back to the ship
I, and those with me in my boat, very nearly came to utter grief. There
was a good deal of sea on the bar of the river. The cutter that was with
me got over all safe, but my whale-boat being loaded heavily with pigs,
&c., refused to rise with the waves, and not doing so, the consequences
were that she filled and capsized. We had all to jump and make for the
shore, a distance of nearly a mile, being in the greatest danger while
doing so of getting into the current of the river. Any one who had done
this must have been washed away and drowned; however, thank goodness,
all hands were saved. The whale-boat was afterwards picked up, having
been washed out to sea, but we lost all tents, spare guns, &c.; the pigs
remained in the boat, as they were stowed under the thwarts, and hadn't
room to float out; so, friends, take warning of the bar of the Jihoon
river.

It was about this time that I received a report from some American
missionaries to the effect that one of their comrades had been robbed
and murdered by some Arabs who inhabited the mountains near
Alexandretta, people whose evil deeds had for some time past brought
them into notoriety. Although I was under orde