ertheless we resolved to keep a sharp
lookout, and be prepared for the worst. Meanwhile we did all in our
power to expedite our departure.

That evening the trader started on his return journey to the coast,
leaving us in charge of King Jambai, who promised earnestly to take good
care of us. We immediately put his willingness to fulfil his promise to
the test by begging him to furnish us with men to carry our goods into
the interior. He tried very hard to induce us to change our minds and
remain hunting with his tribe, telling us that the gorilla country was
far far away from his lands; that we should never reach it alive, or
that if we did we should certainly be killed by the natives, who,
besides being cruel and warlike, were cannibals; and that if we did meet
in with gorillas we should all be certainly slain, for no one could
combat successfully with that ferocious giant of the monkey tribe.

To this we replied that we were quite aware of the dangers we should
have to encounter in our travels, but added that we had come there for
the very purpose of encountering such dangers, and especially to pay a
visit to the giant monkeys in their native land, so that it was in vain
his attempting to dissuade us, as we were resolved to go.

Seeing that we were immovable, the king eventually gave in, and ordered
some of his best men to hold themselves in readiness to start with us on
the following morning. We then proceeded to his majesty's house, where
we had supper, and afterwards retired to our own hut to rest.

But we were destined to have little or no rest that night. The doctor
or fetishman of the tribe had stirred up the passions of the people in a
manner that was quite incomprehensible to us. King Jambai, it seems,
had been for some weeks suffering from illness--possibly from
indigestion, for he was fond of gorging himself--and the medicine-man
had stated that his majesty was bewitched by some of the members of his
own tribe, and that unless these sorcerers were slain there was no
possibility of his getting well.

We never could ascertain why the fetishman should fix upon certain
persons to be slain, unless it was that he had a personal enmity against
them; but this seemed unlikely, for two of the persons selected were old
female slaves, who could never, of course, have injured the doctor in
any way. But the doings of Africans, especially in regard to religious
superstitions, I afterwards found were so mysteriou