THE RESCUE OF HIS CHILD.
Some time before this, I had fortunately made for myself a pair of
long sandals, formed of panther's skin, which I wore as Bryan O'Lynn
did his breeches--
"With the skinny side out and the hairy side in."
Indeed these, and a kind of shirt of grass-matting, were all the
garments I possessed; for the savages, on our capture, tore all our
clothes into strips, that each might have a portion; thus, every coin
and button found upon us were appropriated; even our watches were
broken up, and the wheels and springs of them were worn in their
noses and ears as ornaments.
These sandals enabled me to run with ease and safety through patches
of prickly yams, among serrated blades of grass, wild vines, dense
creepers, and all kinds of thorny bushes.
Two warriors, on hearing the alarm, joined me in the pursuit. One
soon passed me, but went upon a false trail; the other stumbled and
hurt himself severely; so relinquishing my wooden hoe for his
asseguy, I continued the pursuit alone.
Encumbered by her prey, the baboon could only run upon her hind legs,
thus I easily kept her in sight after seeing her again. She was
making straight towards those steep and lofty rocks which overhang
the Gabon river--the same fatal rocks where three of our boat's crew
had perished so miserably.
But her progress was soon impeded by a wall of gigantic reeds about
ten feet high, through which a passage seemed impossible, as they
grew close and dense amid a deep miasmatic quagmire, which covered
all the plain at the base of the rocks, and amid which myriads of
water-snakes lurked, and poisonous reptiles squattered. Here, too,
there was no air--not a breath could be inhaled with freedom, for the
density of the reeds obstructed every passing current; and, gasping
and bathed in perspiration, as I drew near the savage animal she
turned, and was about to make a hostile, and perhaps most fatal
spring, in which case all had ended with me then; when suddenly
perceiving a narrow opening in the reedy wall, she changed her
intention, and entering, again vanished with the child.
Further pursuit seemed impossible!
I sank under a tree, and for some time fanned myself with a large
leaf. While thus employed, I heard a strange railing cry at a
distance, and on looking round perceived the baboon, about a hundred
yards off, clambering up the face of the rocks, where it entered a
hole, and disappeared.
Though I could scarcely hope that the child of Amoo would be alive or
undevoured, I marked well the locality of the crevice its captor had
entered, and making a detour, reached the end of the reedy marsh, and
then proceeded boldly to ascend the rocks.
In some parts the climbing convolvoli and papyrus grew in such
masses, and were so interlaced, as to form a rampart, against which I
toiled in despair, and had my skin torn in innumerable places, ere I
could burst through them. One feels so helpless without clothing.
At last I reached the vicinity of the hole, and after pausing for a
time to recover breath, advanced with the asseguy charged breast
high, lest the fierce brute might spring forth upon me; but on
peering into the den, I saw its eyes glancing, and its grim
satyr-like visage grinning at me, while uttering a hoarse cry.
The infant was alive, and its captor was kindly fondling it; having
been probably deprived of her own offspring by some hunter's shaft,
the act of abduction had been prompted by a strange and erratic
maternal emotion in herself.
Amoo explained this to me afterwards as being no uncommon occurrence.
I had no thought of it then, but rushed upon her with the long and
sharp asseguy, and thrust it deeply into her breast. Coiled up in
her little den, and thus rendered incapable of active resistance, she
could only howl, bite, and writhe upon the tough teakwood shaft;
while her life-blood smeared all the little black infant, and ebbed
away among the well-picked bones of the small monkeys and wild ducks,
which strewed the hole that formed her lair.
The poor baboon expired just as I drew forth the asseguy for a
finishing thrust; and at that moment Amoo, with a crowd of other
savages, came rushing up the rocks, and joined me, with excitement
expressed in all their wide mouths and glittering eyeballs.
Breathless and drenched in perspiration, overcome by exertion, and
somewhat sickened by the cries and death agonies of the half
human-like creature I had slain, I sank upon a bank of turf,
incapable of further exertion.
Amoo, after holding up his offspring by each leg alternately, and
viewing it over as one might do a dead duck or rabbit, to ascertain
if any of its bones were broken, found that it had suffered only a
few scratches, on which he uttered sundry shrill howls expressive of
paternal satisfaction, and patted me kindly on the head and breast,
in token that henceforth we were friends, and in amity.
"You are brave--you are brave! Yah--yah!" said he repeatedly. "You
are the brother of Amoo."
Thus did I achieve the very end I had in view--to win the confidence
of my savage task-masters!
We returned to the wigwams in triumph, bringing with us the skin of
the ursine baboon on the point of an asseguy; and the circumstance of
a creature so agile and ferocious having been slain by me, the poor
despised white slave, was evidently the cause of much marvel to that
dingy community.
From this day there was a sensible alteration in the bearing of my
mistress towards me. I cannot say that I gained more of her
confidence, or had fewer tasks set me, but when beating me with her
club, she entirely ceased to strike me on _the head_ or face, as she
had been wont to do. But the reason of this unusual forbearance was
explained to me by Amoo, and proved a very cogent reason for
hastening my departure from the unpleasant vicinity of the Snake
River.