I RETURN TO AN OLD TRADE.
As I took my way into the forest soon after daybreak I felt that
sense of exhilaration that accompanies a settled purpose. The building
of the house had been a necessary labour, but it had delayed me and
hindered the execution of my plans. Now I was to begin the actual
building of the canoe, and with the commencement of this work my
deliverance seemed to come within measurable distance.
The forest is a boat-builder’s paradise. Whatever kind of timber is
required, whether large or small, curved or straight, it is to be had
for the cutting. The great trees--which did not concern me--tower
aloft and spread their crowns of foliage like flat-topped umbrellas,
two hundred feet from the ground; and towards the chinks of sky
between their giant canopies, multitudes of saplings of all sizes
crane up, as smooth, as straight, and as slender as fishing-rods,
while lianas or creepers, varying from the thickness of a pack-thread
to that of a man’s thigh, hang from tree to tree in great festoons,
twining around trunk and branch, and twisting round one another in
every conceivable curve and contortion.
If a spar or a straight timber is wanted, all that is necessary is to
select a sapling of suitable thickness and cut off the length
required, while for a curved timber a liana of the requisite size can
be selected and the portion cut out that presents the curve required.
On the present occasion I contented myself with the cutting of a good
bundle of stout straight rods and a quantity of thin liana to serve as
cordage, devoting myself especially to a critical examination of the
trees viewed in the light of boat-building material, and I was
relieved at meeting with no less than three specimens of the Hon-ton
tree, any two of which would, on a pinch, have yielded sufficient bark
to cover my canoe.
My first labour, on returning with my load of poles, was to erect a
set of four trestles, forming a rough staging on which to build the
canoe and from which to launch it when it was finished; and in order
to render the launch more easy I made the “ways” with a slight slope
towards the water. The place where the staging was erected was by a
small bay at the bottom of the valley in which my house was
situated--indeed, the ways were only a dozen yards from the door of
the house. Here the ground was somewhat swampy and was evidently
submerged during the rainy season, so I felt secure against the
attacks of the white ants, which, in a drier situation, might have
come up in the night and devoured both staging and canoe.
This work, with the necessary intervals for attending to my fishing
lines, cooking the fish, and preparing firewood, took up most of the
day, and I determined to devote the remainder to felling a young Odúm
tree that I had noted growing near the middle of the island. It stood
some fifty feet high, and was nine or ten inches in diameter at the
base--a considerable thickness to hack through with a knife,
especially as the wood is very hard and tough; but it had a fine crown
of branches at its summit, which would furnish nearly all the straight
wood that I should want, so the labour of felling it would be well
spent. However, the darkness came when I had hacked but half through
the trunk, and I had to leave it to finish on the morrow.
That night, as I sat by the firelight in my house, I continued to
perfect the design of my canoe; but also I gave some serious thought
to the question of food, for the diet of fish was becoming excessively
distasteful, to say nothing of the shortness of the supply. I was loth
to waste my precious time in seeking provisions, but, I must be fed or
I could not work; so at last I reluctantly made up my mind to give up
the ensuing day, or part of it, to a search for fresh food.
Accordingly, on the following morning, after setting my lines and
making up the fire, I sharpened my spear upon a slab of sandstone that
I had picked up in the bed of the river, and crossed the shallows to
the side of the river that was most distant from the hill. Plunging at
once into the forest, I went forward softly, peering in all directions
and keeping a careful eye upon the shadows so that I should not lose
my way. It was a most tantalising place to a hungry man, for it
abounded in game, and fruit was fairly plentiful; but the game--mostly
hornbills and parrots--was up in the far-away tree-tops, and the fruit
was all strange, and I dared not taste it lest it should be poisonous.
Presently, however, I had a stroke of luck, for I came to a tree the
trunk of which was covered with a trailing vine bearing numbers of
globular fruit somewhat like oranges. I was much tempted to try one of
these, and was standing before them irresolute, with watering mouth,
when a pair of Diana monkeys came down the creeper, hand over hand,
and each picked one of the fruit and retreated to the top regions,
where I saw them seat themselves on a branch and nibble off pieces of
peel which they spat down on to me. Concluding that what was wholesome
for a monkey could not be poisonous to me, I cut off a couple of
branches, each bearing a bunch of the fruit, and dropping one bunch
into my pocket sat down among the roots of a tree to breakfast off the
remaining bunch. As I proceeded with my meal I noticed that a thick
milky juice was exuding freely from the cut end of the branch, and
before I had finished eating, this sap had begun to grow thicker and
more tenacious. Much interested, I was examining the sticky exudation
more closely when my attention was diverted by the sound of something
moving among the bushes.
I listened. Something--beast or human--was certainly approaching, and
was not far off. Very silently I rose to my feet and stood close
against the tree, stealthily peeping round the shaded side. As I did
so I saw, on a patch of bare earth, a shadow, the appearance of which
startled me considerably for the moment, for it exactly resembled the
head of the horned image near the Aboási pool. It was not the
Sakrobundi devil, however, as I immediately realised, but an antelope
with curved horns--probably the demon’s prototype.
I stepped back a pace and stood with my spear poised ready to throw.
The shadow came nearer, vanished for a space, and then reappeared on
the other side of the tree. A second later the animal’s head appeared,
and instantly I flung the spear with all my strength.
The startled beast leaped into the air and bounded away among the
bushes with the spear hanging from its neck. I darted after it, and a
few paces forward picked up the spear, while I could hear the wounded
animal crashing through the undergrowth ahead. The pursuit was not
difficult, for the track was marked by great pools of blood, and I had
not gone much more than a quarter of a mile when I came upon my victim
lying upon the ground dead.
Very fortunately for me, the animal in its flight had gone straight
towards the river and had fallen within fifty yards of the bank, so
that, when I had ascertained my position, I was able to drag the
carcase to the water and tow it down to the island, where I eventually
got it ashore close to the staging.
The skinning and cutting-up of the antelope was a formidable task, for
the beast was nearly as large as a red stag, and I was considerably
exercised in my mind as to how I should dispose of so much meat; for
the flies had scented it already, and in the damp heat of the forest
it would hardly keep twenty-four hours. At last it occurred to me to
hang the joints up in the fire hut, which was always full of smoke and
very dry, in the hope that they would become cured, and this plan I
adopted, to the disappointment of the flies. In the afternoon I
finished felling the Odúm tree, and selected two of its stoutest
branches to form the inside keel or kelson of the canoe. These I cut
off, so as to leave each one with about two feet of the main stem
attached to it, forming an L-piece, which I intended to make into the
stem-post and stern-post respectively.
That night I made an interesting discovery. I had dined sumptuously
off a lump of grilled venison, and was clearing up the debris, when I
bethought me of the fruit with which my pockets still bulged, and
endeavoured to pull out the bunch. But it would not come out. A
quantity of the milky sap had exuded and, solidifying, had cemented
the branch so firmly to the inside of the pocket that I had to turn
the latter inside out and cut the stalk free; and when I came to
examine the cut surface of the cement I found, to my joy, that it was
rubber. My hunting expedition had been a fortunate one indeed, for
here was an ideal material with which to make my canoe watertight.
During the following week I worked steadily at the canoe, cutting and
shaping the sticks for the frame, and lashing them together by the
daylight, and reserving for the evening such tasks as could be done by
the light of the fire. These included the making of a few simple
tools; for instance, finding that lashings alone would hardly make the
frame sufficiently rigid, I determined to fasten the larger timbers
together with wooden pegs or “treenails” in addition, and to this end
I took my smaller knife out of its handle and sharpened its tang to
make a boring tool. Then the treenails themselves had to be cut and
shaped, and a mallet made to drive them in with, and in addition, the
sticks for the ensuing day’s work had to have their bark peeled off,
which bark I tore into narrow strips and twisted into cord for
lashings. Finally, I had to make a measuring rule, which I did by
marking my own height upon a long rod, adding two inches to make it
six feet, and then dividing it up into equal parts with the aid of a
piece of cord. So that my evenings were as busy as my days, and I
usually turned in early, thoroughly tired.
My well-stocked larder relieved me of any immediate anxiety on the
score of food--for the meat became admirably dried and cured in the
smoky fire-hut; but I made few demands on my store, since, in the
course of some experiments upon the rubber vines, I produced an
elastic cord with which I was able to make an excellent catapult, a
weapon with which I had been very skilful as a boy; and as pebbles
were plentiful in the river bed, I was able to supply most of my wants
by this means.
Every morning, as a rule, I made a short journey into the forest for
the purpose of marking the position of any rubber vines or Hon-ton
trees, so that when I was ready to use them there should be no delay.
The vines were fairly abundant, and I found also several other
rubber-bearing trees and creepers, so that I did not anticipate any
difficulty in obtaining as much rubber as I should want; while as to
the Hon-ton or bark trees, a couple would have been enough, and I had
marked at least a dozen. From these expeditions I generally brought
back a parrot or two, a hornbill, turakow, or other bird, and
sometimes a small animal such as a squirrel or a pangolin, and one day
I speared a porcupine. Monkeys I could have knocked down with my
catapult by the dozen, but I had conscientious scruples (for blood is
thicker than water), and avoided any nearer approach to cannibalism
than the killing and eating of a potto.
At the end of the week’s work the canoe had made considerable
progress. The keel was laid, the stem and stern-posts shaped and
strengthened with angle pieces, and the principal ribs or timbers of
the midship portion fixed to the keel with tree-nails and strong
lashings. The gunwales were also in position, the ends of the ribs
joined by cross-bars or deck beams, and on either side of the main
kelson (or inner keel) was another, rather lighter one at a distance
of twelve inches, so that the floor of the boat would be very strong
and rigid.
Before the close of the second week the frame was finished, and very
ship-shape it looked. I had at first had some misgivings as to the
strength of a boat put together in this way, but I had none now, for
although the separate timbers (excepting the kelson) were light and
flexible, their number made the construction immensely strong. There
were twenty-four ribs on each side, those of the midship portion being
in one piece from gunwale to gunwale, and made of curved pieces of
tough, springy liana; and the ends of all of them were joined by
transverse bars or deck beams, excepting where the opening of the well
would be. The ribs were fixed by eight stringers of hard wood on each
side, in addition to the gunwales, running from stem to stern and
fastened to the stem and stern posts. The fittings, too, were now
nearly complete, for the long hours of darkness gave me plenty of time
to work at them. The rudder (of the drop pattern like that of a
lifeboat) was ready to fix on; four anchors, or rather grapnels, had
been made from the hard stem of a bush which bore its branches in
whorls of four, and now, with their shanks weighted with stones and
their cables of liana secured, were ready for use. Two leeboards of
framed sticks covered with bark, a seven foot mast, and the yard and
boom were completed, and the fashioning of the paddle--the most
arduous task of all--had been commenced. And besides all this, I had
accumulated a quantity of liana cordage and a good length of rope made
by plaiting strands of fibrous bark.
The most difficult part of the work had now to be attacked--the
covering of the frame with its “skin.” The method by which I proposed
to do this was to turn the frame bottom upwards and lay the sheets of
bark upon it, cutting them to the shape and sewing their edges
together with an overlap. Then, when the entire shell or skin was
made, I intended to bring the edges together upon the deck with a
lacing that I could tighten as the bark stretched until the covering
was strained on tightly enough to be permanently fastened.
I spent two whole days tediously stripping the white canvas-like bark
from one of the trees that I had marked, and after this I usually
devoted half the day to collecting the bark, and the remainder to
fitting it to the frame; until I found I had accumulated more material
than I was likely to use, and was able to give up the entire day to
the work of fitting.
During all this time I had seen but a single human being--a hunter
whom I had espied in the forest one morning without being observed by
him--and I had marvelled more and more at the absolute desolation of
this out-of-the-way corner of the wilderness. But the sense of
security that had, in consequence, grown up in me now received a
severe shock; for one afternoon, as I was stitching away busily and
whistling cheerfully over my work, I was startled by the unmistakable
sound of voices. Quickly dropping my needle, I crept up on to the
higher ground and peered through the bushes, when, to my horror, I saw
two men--apparently hunters--cautiously wading across towards the
island, and looking about them very warily. No doubt they had heard my
whistling, and had come across to investigate.
For a moment I was doubtful how to act, but as their manner showed
hesitation and a little alarm, I thrust my fingers into my mouth and
blew a loud shrill whistle; whereupon they turned about, and waded
back without any hesitation at all, and disappeared quickly into the
forest.
For the time, then, the situation was saved, but the incident caused
me very grave anxiety. These men had been easily enough frightened
away, but they would talk of what they had heard, and some bolder
spirits might come--probably would come, in fact--and in more
formidable numbers. With my imperfect weapons I could hardly keep an
armed party at bay, and “war palaver” was the very last thing to be
desired; besides, the visitors might call in my absence.
In great perplexity I pondered upon the problem as I paced up and down
before my house. At length I received a suggestion from an unexpected
quarter. In a moment of idleness I had taken the skull of the antelope
from the river, where the fish had picked it clean, and fixed it as an
ornament above my door; and happening now to glance at it in passing,
and again being struck by its resemblance to the image by the pool, I
suddenly conceived the idea of sheltering myself behind the
superstitions of these forest natives. I remembered the effect the
encounter with that hideous effigy had had upon Alhassan--Mahommedan
as he was; doubtless upon an actual worshipper of the river god the
effect would have been even greater.
Then why should I not turn river god myself? No place of residence
could be more appropriate to such a deity than the island on which I
lived.
I sniggered a good deal at the notion, which nevertheless commended
itself to my judgment; and as the light was waning, I hastily
collected the materials for manufacturing a suitable “make up,” and
took them into the house. They consisted of a length of curved timber,
left over from the canoe frame, a quantity of odds and ends of fibre
that had been cut off in sewing the bark together, and one or two
furry skins of animals that I had eaten; and with these I spent a busy
evening by the firelight preparing for my apotheosis on the morrow.
But when the morrow came, and I looked at the absurd productions of my
labour--which appeared for all the world like the properties from some
amateur pantomime--I was inclined to pitch them into the river, so
preposterous did the whole thing seem. The “make up” included a cap or
wig of mixed fur and rubbed fibre, very flowing and dishevelled, to
which was attached a pair of curved horns of hard wood and a beard
that concealed the fastenings. I had also made a kilt of the same
materials, as I should have to discard my clothes--which, indeed,
would be little loss, for they were by this time a mere archipelago of
holes.
Presently I summoned up courage to try the ridiculous things on, and
when I had tied the wig securely in its place and exchanged my rags
for the kilt, I went round to the little bay, and stooping over the
bank, examined my reflection in the still water. The hideousness of my
appearance quite startled me, and I realised for the first time how
haggard and emaciated I had become with all this hard work, anxiety,
and low diet; and as the wig caused me little discomfort and the kilt
none at all, I decided to keep them on for the present.
I had hardly made this resolution when I caught the sound of voices,
and on mounting the ridge, I could see through the bushes a party of
six men on the opposite bank. I thought I could recognise two of them
as my friends of the previous day, and these were pointing at the
island and talking in loud, excited tones. Then the whole party began
to wade slowly across the shallows, each man manifestly endeavouring
to be the last of the procession.
As I saw that they must land under a high bank, I crept along the
ground to receive them on my domain, and when the leader was within a
dozen yards of the island, I slowly reared my head above the bank and
fixed him with a stony stare. He did not see me at first, having
turned to speak to his comrades; but when he suddenly met my eye, he
stopped dead, and stood with mouth agape as though turned into stone.
In a few seconds he recovered himself, and turning about, splashed
wildly across the river, screeching like a terrified child, and
followed closely by his five companions. When they reached the further
bank they paused to look back, and I took the opportunity to let
myself be seen for a moment as though flitting from one hiding-place
to another. A single glance was enough for them, for the instant I
appeared they made off at a run.
My visitors, then, were disposed of, at any rate, for some time to
come, and, as I returned to my work, I congratulated myself on the
brilliant success of my ruse. But yet the old sense of security was
destroyed, and I pushed on my labours with anxious impatience. For
although it was pretty certain that these men would not again venture
near the island, and that all the villagers would give a wide berth to
a place haunted by so dreadful a presence, yet the story of the
apparition would inevitably become the talk and wonder of the
district, and others besides the villagers would hear it. There were
the fetish-men in their settlement not two miles away. They might
resent the intrusion of an unofficial demon into their jurisdiction,
and their expert acquaintance with performances “in character” would
probably make them highly suspicious and sceptical, while if the
reports represented the island _abonsam_ as having a white skin, they
would be likely to connect him with the run-away slave who had cost
them so dear. This last consideration was especially disquieting, and
it kept me in a continual state of apprehension and watchfulness.
During the afternoon of the day following this incident I put the
finishing touches to the covering of the canoe, and slipping it on to
the frame, fastened the lacing by which its edges were to be drawn
together on the deck. It was not a perfect success, for although it
fitted fairly well, there were slack places in which the skin bulged
away from the frame. After it had been on an hour or so and the bark
had stretched a little, I was able to draw in the lacing somewhat; and
this, with some judicious rubbing and stroking, reduced the bulgings
appreciably, but still it did not set as smoothly as I had hoped. In
the night, however, several showers occurred, and, when I came to
examine the canoe in the morning, its skin was as tight as a drumhead,
and fitted the frame perfectly; and all that was necessary to maintain
this condition was to draw in the lacing as the skin relaxed in
drying.
I had now reached the last stage in my labours--the coating of the
bark skin with rubber to render it watertight; and if I failed in
this, then all my previous work would be wasted, for the canoe would
not float ten minutes in its present state.
It was therefore with no little concern and anxiety that I sallied
forth into the forest to collect the material for the first trial. I
made my way straight to a place where I knew the vines grew in some
abundance, and, dragging down one of the long stems, cut it through
just above the ground, and hurried back to the island. By the time I
arrived, the sap was already becoming thick and sticky, and I had to
cut a fresh surface, from which the milky juice exuded freely; and as
it oozed out, I let it drip upon the skin of the canoe, spreading it
out with a small rag of bark. From time to time as the flow diminished
I had to cut away fresh portions of the stem, until the whole was used
up, when I ran off to my collecting ground for a fresh supply. It was
a tedious and slow business, for after almost a whole day’s work, I
had covered not more than nine or ten square feet; and as I estimated
the surface of the canoe at from seventy to eighty square feet, this
was a painfully small beginning.
However, on coming out the next morning to inspect my work, I was
consoled to find that, little as there was done, that little had been
done effectually, for the part that I had smeared with the juice was
now covered with a moderately thick film of rubber--enough to render
it watertight beyond all question. The method was therefore
practicable, and the accomplishment of my object was only a question
of time, and I set about my day’s task with renewed courage and
spirit.
The slowness of the process I managed to remedy materially during the
first day’s work by rigging up a light scaffolding over the canoe,
from which I could suspend three or four vine-stems at once; and as
they dripped much faster when hanging vertically, I could cover the
surface with comparative rapidity. The vines, too, turned out to be
even more plentiful than I had supposed, so that the work of coating
the canoe progressed briskly.
Meanwhile, the evenings’ labours were being carried forward with such
good-will that the last of the fittings was well advanced. This was
the sail, and a terrible business the cutting out and stitching it had
been, for I had had to make it of odd pieces of bark left from the
covering of the canoe, and my needles penetrated the tough material
with difficulty even when I had made myself a sailmaker’s palm with a
plate of bone for a thimble. Still, in spite of all difficulties, the
sail had been put together, and now only required to be roped round
with a cord of plaited bark fibre to be complete. It is true it was
clumsy and ill-shaped, but it was strong and rather large for the size
of the canoe--having an area of over thirty square feet--for I
reckoned that the great weight of ballast would enable me to carry a
good spread of sail.
At length, after six days of unintermitting labour, the coating of the
canoe was complete. From stem to stern, from deck to floor, she was
covered with a continuous sheet of rubber, smeary and uneven, but
unquestionably watertight. Even this, however, I did not intend to
take for granted, but proposed on the morrow to ladle some water into
her with my brass pan--for I finished the coating just as the light
was failing--a proceeding that was rendered unnecessary by a heavy
shower in the night. It had been my custom to cover the vessel, when I
was not at work, with some thatched frames or hurdles that I had made
for the purpose to protect her from the increasingly frequent rain;
but this being now no longer necessary, I left her uncovered, with the
tilt or apron off the well, and when I came to look at her in the
morning she contained two or three inches of water. By hoisting her
with levers, and rolling her from side to side, I made this water wash
all over the inside, but not a drop came through anywhere. She was as
tight as a drum, so I rolled her over, and let the water run out.
I now entered upon the last task of all--the fixing of the outside
keel and the fitting of the rudder; and this would be but a short
day’s work, since these parts were finished, even to the tree-nails,
and ready for fitting.
There were three outside keels, one central and two lateral or “bilge
keels,” corresponding to the inside ones, to which they would be fixed
by long tree-nails passing through both keels and timbers. They were
highly important, as they would protect the skin of the canoe if she
ran aground or had to be pulled over an obstruction, and were made
accordingly pretty stout and deep. It took me but a short time to fit
them on, for the holes were already made in the wood, and it remained
only to carefully perforate the skin, lay on the keels, and drive the
tree-nails home. The fixing of the rudder was even a simpler matter,
for there was nothing to do but to pass the long wooden bolt or pintle
through four hardwood eyes--two on the stern-post, and two on the
rudder--and fix it there; and when I had done this I stepped back and
triumphantly surveyed my handiwork.
The canoe was finished, and ready to commence its voyage. My work was
done; the time of waiting was past, and I could, if I pleased, launch
my craft, and set out upon my journey this very day. And, indeed, my
impatience rather urged me to adopt this course; but, on sober
reflection, I resolved to defer the start until daybreak on the
morrow. My first day’s journey must needs be a long one, that I might
at once get clear of the dangerous neighbourhood of the mine and the
fetish priests; and to make possible a long day’s paddling, a good
night’s rest was essential. So I commenced in a leisurely way to make
my preparations and survey my resources.
On overhauling the contents of the fire-hut, I noted with satisfaction
that I had enough provisions to last me a week or ten days, for not
only was the antelope practically intact, but I had made small
additions to my store from the surplus of my meals. The smoked meat
was nearly black, and most unsavoury in appearance, but it was quite
sweet, and would now keep as long as I should want it.
Having inspected the provisions, there next arose the question of
unearthing the treasure. It ought to be dug up by daylight, for
otherwise some portion of it might be overlooked and left behind; but
unfortunately, the place in which it was buried was visible from the
opposite bank, and my confidence in the solitude of the place had been
quite destroyed. Yet there was no help for it; the only thing to be
done was to get it over as quickly as possible, and keep a bright
look-out.
I made my way to the spot--familiar enough by this time--and taking
once more the bearings by the oil palm and the tree, stuck my knife
deep into the moss. After one or two probings I felt the blade strike
the buried metal, and looking sharply up and down the river to make
sure that there were no observers, cut out a large square slab of
moss, and turned it back. The ends of a manilla stuck up through the
earth, and passing my fingers through the ring I hooked up the first
bunch, weighing about twenty pounds. In less than a minute I had three
other bunches out of the hole, and with the four I went off to the
house, where I deposited them on the floor. The work of disinterring
the gold was not a long one, owing to the convenient way in which the
manillas were fastened together; in about an hour I had removed the
entire treasure, consisting of fifty-seven bunches, and stacked them
in a heap at the farther end of the house. Returning after carrying
the last load, I probed the ground in all directions to make sure that
I had left none behind, and then kicking the earth back into the hole,
flung the slab of moss down on to it.
At this moment a loud shout rang out from down the reach, and looking
up, I saw a sight at which my heart seemed to stand still. A
procession was slowly making its way along the bank towards the
island, and the leader, who had already sighted me, was pointing to
me, and talking excitedly to his followers. There were ten men,
including the leader, all armed with long muskets, and most formidable
to look at; while the leader himself was, to me, the most terrifying
figure of all, for even at this distance I could see the broad, white
bands of his cowrie necklace and amulets, which told me that he was a
fetish priest. Almost choking with rage and disappointment, I rushed
to the house to arm for the fray, resolved to compel my foes to kill
me rather than submit to capture. There lay the heap of gold, a mere
mocking illusion, turning to dust and ashes at my touch. There it
would presently be found by the fetish-man, while I--Bah! I was too
infuriated to pursue the thought. With an oath I snatched up my spear
and catapult, and the bag of pebbles that I used when hunting, and
rushed out of the house with set teeth, as unpleasant an enemy as any
man might desire to meet. I was still wearing my horned wig and
kilt--indeed, I had worn them continually since my last encounter, and
had become so accustomed to the former, that I ceased to be conscious
of it--and murderous as I felt, I was yet determined to make the most
of my appearance before resorting to mere carnal weapons. I therefore
laid down my spear, as being out of character, and commenced a few
preliminary blandishments.
The party had by this time reached the bank opposite the island, where
they halted for a few minutes to reconnoitre. I now introduced myself
to their notice by peeping furtively from behind a tree until they
observed me, when I drew back my head, and taking advantage of the
ridge, suddenly appeared in a different place, while they were still
staring at the tree. These sudden eclipses and reappearances, together
with my uncanny aspect, seemed to have a highly disturbing effect on
their nerves, for when the fetish-man at length took up his musket and
stepped into the water, they were very reluctant to follow. However,
the priest, who seemed in no way alarmed, would not listen to their
objections, and presently the whole party began to advance across the
shallows. The river had risen considerably of late, and the men were
soon immersed above their waists; and as the current ran rather
swiftly, they had to step cautiously.
As soon as the advance actually commenced, I got ready my catapult
(which, by the way, I had gradually improved from the form that I
first devised, into a most formidable weapon, in the use of which I
had indeed become very expert), and waited behind the ridge until they
should come within easy range. They came forward slowly in single
file, holding their muskets up clear of the water, the fetish-man
leading by a few paces.
When the priest had reached the middle of the ford, and paused for a
moment to reconnoitre, I considered that he had come far enough, so,
taking careful aim at his chest, I let fly a good-sized quartz pebble,
which went home with a sharp thud. With a piercing yell the fetish-man
spun round, and fell plump into the water, discharging his musket as
he fell, right over the shoulder of the man behind him. He was up
again in a moment, spluttering and choking, brandishing his dripping
musket, and roaring to his followers to avenge him. But they were in
full retreat. They had not seen the missile, but only its effects; and
three of them had been hit by the slugs from the priest’s musket.
Therefore they were executing a rapid strategic movement to the rear.
The fetish-man stood in mid-stream bellowing for them to come back,
but as they took no notice of him, he seemed inclined to follow them.
I helped him to make up his mind by discharging another pebble, which
struck him in the back; on which he uttered such a terrific screech,
that the warriors all broke into a run, and, scrambling up the bank,
vanished into the forest, followed closely by their leader.
I breathed again as the last man disappeared; but it had been a tight
squeeze--and it was not finished yet. I owed my escape, or rather my
respite, entirely to the superstitious fears of the armed villagers,
for as to the fetish-man, he evidently was not imposed upon by my
“make up.” He would now be, no doubt, excessively annoyed with me, and
I very strongly suspected that he had recognised me. In any case it
was practically certain that he would return, and more efficiently
supported this time; and the only question was, how soon might I
expect the next attack? The settlement was barely two miles distant,
so that it would be possible for him to return in an hour if he could
collect a suitable party; yet I hardly expected this, for the sun was
just setting, and night attacks are not much in favour with African
strategists.
But while I was turning over these matters, I was making active
preparations for my departure. The staging on which the canoe was
built was originally close to the water’s edge, but I had afterwards
extended it, forming “ways” (_i.e._ a launching slip-way) right into
the water; and as the river had risen several inches since then, there
was depth enough at its end for launching the loaded canoe into. I
determined, therefore, to load the craft before launching her, as this
would be quicker and more convenient than carrying the loads out to
her as she floated in the stream. First I made the canoe fast to a
post with a stout liana, which I belayed to a cleat in the well. Then
I levered her up with a pole, and rubbed her keels with some fat that
I had saved from my meals and stored in the brass pan, and the
remainder I spread upon the transverse bars of the slip-way.
She was now ready for her cargo, and I began forthwith to stow the
bunches of manillas on either side of the inside keel, tying each
bunch in its place with ends of lashing that I had left for the
purpose, so that the cargo could not shift during the launch. This
took me a considerable time, and it was dark long before I had
finished.
After the cargo came the stores--the tarry-looking joints of smoked
meat, my two mats, the brass pan, fishhooks, needles, anchors, and a
quantity of spare cordage. The lee-boards, mast, sail, paddle, and
pole were already on board, as well as a sinker or drag--a log of hard
wood weighted with stones, and fastened to a long, stout liana, which
I intended to use for trailing along the bottom where the current was
swift, to retard and steady the canoe, and hold her bows up stream as
she drifted, thus enabling her to be steered with the rudder. When
everything was on board, I placed an anchor, ready for dropping, on
one bow, and the sinker on the other, belaying their respective cables
to cleats in the well; so she was now fit to launch at a moment’s
notice, and the tightness of the cord that held her to the post showed
that she was ready to slide down the ways as soon as it was let go.
During all this time I kept a sharp and anxious look-out, but there
was no sign of any fresh invasion; and as it now began to rain
heavily, I drew the covering over the well of the canoe, and retired
to the house.