and whose depredations among the water-melons
were very evident.

During the whole of this journey we made a point, as I have already
remarked, of avoiding man; not that we were indifferent to him, but
anxious not to be detained at that particular time. We were very
fortunate in this matter, for we succeeded in eluding the observation of
the natives of many villages that we passed, in escaping others by
flight, and in conciliating those who caught us by making them liberal
gifts of beads.

One day we came to a halt under the most magnificent tree I ever saw.
It was a mowano tree, whose trunk consisted of six stems united in one.
The circumference a yard or so from the ground was eighty-four feet--
upwards of nine yards in diameter.

"What a tree for a nobleman's park!" said Jack, as we gazed at it, lost
in admiration.

"Ay; and behold a gentleman worthy to take up his residence under it,"
said Peterkin, pointing as he spoke to a living creature that sat among
the grass near its roots.

"What can it be?" I exclaimed.

"The original father of all frogs!" replied Peterkin, as he darted
forward and killed the thing with a stick.

"I believe it _is_ a frog," said Jack.

We all burst into a fit of laughter, for undoubtedly it _was_ a frog,
but certainly the largest by far that any of us had ever seen. It was
quite as large as a chicken!

"What a shame to have killed it!" said I. "Why did you do it?"

"Shame! It was no shame. In the first place, I killed it because I
wish you to make scientific inspection of it; and in the second place, I
wanted to eat it. Why should not we as well as Frenchmen eat frogs? By
the way, that reminds me that we might introduce this giant species into
France, and thereby make our fortunes."

"You greedy fellow," cried Jack, who was busying himself in lighting the
fire, "your fortune is made already. How many would you have?"

"D'ye know, Jack, I have been in possession of my fortune, as you call
it, so short a time that I cannot realise the fact that I have it.--
Hollo! Mak, what's wrong with you?"

Peterkin thus addressed our guide because he came into the camp at that
moment with a very anxious expression of countenance.

"Dere hab bin fight go on here," said he, showing several broken arrows,
stained with blood, which he had picked up near our encampment.

"Ha! so there has, unless these have been shot at wild beasts," said
Jack, examining the weapons carefully.

"