ement.

CHAPTER TEN.

A DISASTROUS EXPEDITION.

Upon arriving abreast the beach, which we were obliged to hug pretty
closely in consequence of the contracted width of the channel and the
fact that the deepest water lay close to it, we found it occupied by
fully five hundred naked blacks, all of whom appeared to be profoundly
excited, for they yelled continuously at the top of their voices and
fiercely brandished their weapons. They appeared to be acting under the
leadership of a very tall and immensely powerful man who wore a
leopard-skin cloak upon his shoulders, and a head-dress of
brilliantly-coloured feathers. He was armed with _two_ muskets, and had
a ship's cutlass girt about his waist. A white man--or a half-caste, it
was difficult to tell which at that distance, so deeply bronzed was he--
accompanied him; a man attired in a suit of white drill topped off with
a broad-brimmed Panama hat wrapped round with a white puggaree; and it
appeared that all the excitement and animosity manifested by the blacks
at our approach was instigated by him, for we saw him speaking earnestly
to the apparent leader of the blacks, gesticulating violently in our
direction as he did so, while the savage now and then turned to his
followers and addressed a few sentences to them which seemed to arouse
them to a higher pitch of frenzy than ever.

Beyond the sand beach a wide open space extended that had evidently at
one time been carpeted with grass, for small tufts and patches of it
still remained here and there, but for the most part the rich, deep
chocolate-coloured earth was worn bare by the trampling of many feet.
This open space was occupied by a native village of considerable
dimensions, the houses--or huts, rather--being for the most part square
or quadrangular structures, although there were a few circular ones
among them, built of upright logs with panels of mud and leaves between
them, roofed in with palm-leaf thatch, the eaves projecting sufficiently
at each end to form a verandah some six or eight feet deep. At a little
distance from the village, a hundred yards or so, towered the clump of
lofty trees under which the slave barracoons were said to be erected;
but whether this was so or not we could not tell, as a belt of bush
interposed between us and the trees, affording an effectual screen to
any buildings that might stand beneath their shadow.

As the schooner glided up abreast of the beach, with the hands at th