account better if I give it in ordinary English, for I took no little
trouble during several months to get the truth out of him, anxious as he
was to give the information I required. His vocabulary being somewhat
limited, he accompanied his words by signs, often of so curious a
description that it was with difficulty my officers and I could restrain
ourselves from bursting into fits of laughter, and yet his account was
sad enough.

"I placed before him the best map I possessed of the part of Africa from
which I calculated he came, and explained to him the rivers and lakes
marked upon it. He shook his head, as if he could make nothing of it,
but at last fixed on a spot some way in the interior.

"`There!' he said, making a wide circle with his finger, `There abouts
was my home. By the banks of a river which fell into a lake my people
and I were happy in our way, we cultivated our fields and tended our
cattle, and had abundance of food without thinking of the future. We
heard, it is true, that the cruel men who come across from the big sea
had carried off not a few of the inhabitants of other districts; but it
was a long, long distance away, and we hoped they would never come near
us. We lived as our fathers had done. Occasionally we had to fight to
punish our neighbours, who came upon our land and tried to carry off our
cattle; and as I grew up and increased in strength I became a warrior,
but I only wished to fight to protect my home and my fields from our
enemies. When old enough I married a wife, who was as fond of me as
woman could be. When kindly treated black women love their husbands, as
do their white sisters. We had a little child, I was fond of him, oh!
so fond. My delight when I came in from the fields was to carry him
about in my arms, or to roll with him on the grass, letting him tumble
over me and pull my hair and ears, and then he would smile down into my
face and laugh merrily. I was a hunter also, and used fearlessly to
attack huge elephants for the sake of their tusks, as well as for their
flesh, especially for their big feet, which afford a dainty meal. Even
one would be sufficient for the whole of our party. I had crossed the
river, with several companions, armed with bows, arrows, and spears,
intending to go some distance south, where many elephants, it was said,
had been seen. A stranger brought the account. We had gone a day's
journey, and were encamped at night, hoping to fall in