and occupying the chief's
attention by a present of a bright scarf, they bade their men get under
weigh. A cry arose, "They are running away." There was a rush upon
them, and Charles managed to break through. He heard two shots fired,
and was pursued for some distance, but, as darkness came on, effected his
escape.

It seems to have been just one of the cases when a little hesitation and
uncertainty on the part of the civilized men did all the mischief by
emboldening the savages. Of course it was necessary to rescue them, but
as the Ajawa were but twenty miles off, and Magomero must be guarded,
there was no choice but to have recourse to the Makololo, and thus let
loose one set of savages against another. Just, however, as a message
was being despatched to bring them, the two clergymen were seen
returning. They too had walked eighty-five miles in forty-eight hours,
and had had but one fowl between them. They had in fact got out of the
village almost immediately after Charles, but closely beset with natives
armed with bows and poisoned arrows. Some tried to wrest Mr. Procter's
gun from him, and even got him down, when he defended himself with his
heels, until Mr. Scudamore, who was a little in advance, fired on his
assailants, when they gave back; but an arrow aimed at him penetrated the
stock of his gun so deeply that the head remained embedded in it. Firing
both barrels, he produced a panic, under cover of which they made their
way into the bush, and contrived with much difficulty to reach home.

Six of their eight bearers gradually straggled in, and the last brought
the following message from a chief in the next village: "I am not in
blame for this war; Manasomba has tried to kill the English, has stolen
their baggage and their boy, and has kept two of your men. He says if
the English want the men, let them come and buy them out, or else fight
for them."

It appeared that Manasomba was not a Man-gnaja, and that his suspicions
were excited by anything so inexplicable to the negro mind as white men
going about with so much cloth without buying slaves nor much of anything
else.

There were still two men to be rescued, and the question was, whether to
wait for Livingstone, who was armed with authority to give a lesson to
the negroes, or for the mission party to undertake it themselves,
especially in the haste which was needful in order to be in time for the
meeting with the _Pioneer_. They decided on the ma