up with any flogging. We
didn't much care whether they killed us or not, for we would just as
leave have died as passed our lives in that country with all its beastly
ways. Well, a couple of days after we had started, a big nigger driver
who had been laying on his stick freely on the backs of the slaves came
along, and let Tom and me have one apiece. Tom, who was nearest to him,
chucked down his load and went right at him, and knocked him over like a
ninepin.

"Well, some of the other drivers or guards, or whatever they call them,
ran up, and there was a tidy skrimage, I can tell you. It was ten
minutes, I should say, before they got the best of us; and there was not
one among them but was badly damaged about the figure-head. When they
had got us down they laid it on to rights, and I believe they would have
finished us if the Arab had not come up and stopped it.

"'Look here,' said I, when I was able to get up on to my feet again; 'we
are ready to work just as far as men can work, but if one of those
niggers lays a finger on us we will do for him. You may cut us in pieces
afterwards, but we will do for him.'

"I don't know whether the Arab understood just what I said, but I think
he got the gist of it. He spoke sharp to his men, and they never touched
us afterwards. I could not quite make out what they were taking us for,
because I can say honestly we were not much good at carrying--not half
as good as one of the slaves. The first day or two we carried a good
manful load. Then our shoes went to pieces, and we got that footsore and
bad we could scarcely crawl along, let alone carrying loads. Tom said he
thought that the Arab was a-taking us to sell as curios to some fellow
who had never seen white men before, and it turned out as he was right.
After we had been travelling for nigh a month we came to a big village;
and there was great excitement over our coming, and for two days there
were feastings, while the Arab sold part of his goods to the people for
gold dust and ivory.

"The chief had come to look at us the day we arrived, and we had been
packed away together in a little hut. The third day he came again with
the Arab, and made signs that I was his property now, while the Arab
told Tom to go out and start with his caravan. It was a big wrench for
us, but it were no good struggling against what was to be. So we shook
hands and parted on it quietly, and what became of Tom I have never
heard from that day to this;