quiet for nearly an hour, except for
their unceasing howls and yells, during which time we made an attempt
at getting some dinner. That meal, however, was not completed when we
saw them stealing down on us again. Again they came more than a
hundred strong, with heads held back, and arms at fullest tension to
give their spears the greatest projective force, when, just as they
came within spear shot, for we knew the exact distance now, we gave
them another volley, striking the sand up just before their feet;
again they halted, consulting one another by looks and signs, when the
discharge of Gibson's gun, with two long-distance cartridges, decided
them, and they ran back, but only to come again. In consequence of our
not shooting any of them, they began to jeer and laugh at us, slapping
their backsides at and jumping about in front of us, and indecently
daring and deriding us. These were evidently some of those lewd
fellows of the baser sort (Acts 17 5). We were at length compelled to
send some rifle bullets into such close proximity to some of their
limbs that at last they really did believe we were dangerous folk
after all. Towards night their attentions ceased, and though they
camped just on the opposite side of the creek, they did not trouble us
any more. Of course we kept a pretty sharp watch during the night. The
men of this nation were tall, big, and exceedingly hirsute, and in
excellent bodily condition. They reminded me of, as no doubt they are,
the prototypes of the account given by the natives of the Charlotte
Waters telegraph station, on my first expedition, who declared that
out to the west were tribes of wild blacks who were cannibals, who
were covered with hair, and had long manes hanging down their backs.

None of these men, who perhaps were only the warriors of the tribe,
were either old or grey-haired, and although their features in general
were not handsome, some of the younger ones' faces were prepossessing.
Some of them wore the chignon, and others long curls; the youngest
ones who wore curls looked at a distance like women. A number were
painted with red ochre, and some were in full war costume, with
feathered crowns and head dresses, armlets and anklets of feathers,
and having alternate stripes of red and white upon the upper portions
of their bodies; the majority of course were in undress uniform. I
knew as soon as I arrived in this region that it must be well if not
densely populated, for it is ne