such a ferocious yell as that. Anyhow, I have no reason to
complain; for you have given me a good long sleep, although I can't say
exactly that you have taken my watch. It will be broad daylight in half
an hour, so we must be stirring, comrades."

On considering the subject I admitted the force of these remarks, and
felt somewhat crestfallen. No doubt, my companions had treated the
thing jocularly, and, to say truth, there was much that was comical in
the whole affair; but the more I thought of it, the more I came to
perceive how terrible might have been the consequences of my
unfaithfulness as a sentinel. I laid the lesson to heart, and I can
truly say that from that day to this I have never again been guilty of
the crime of sleeping at my post.

We now busied ourselves in collecting together the dying embers of our
fire and in preparing breakfast, which consisted of tea, hard biscuit,
and cold monkey. None of us liked the monkey; not that its flesh was
bad--quite the contrary--but it looked so like a small roasted baby that
we could not relish it at all. However, it was all we had; for we had
set off on this hunting excursion intending to live by our rifles, but
had been unfortunate, having seen nothing except a monkey or two.

The kettle was soon boiled, and we sat down to our meagre fare with
hearty appetites. While we are thus engaged, I shall turn aside for a
little and tell the reader, in one or two brief sentences, how we got to
this place.

We shipped in a merchant ship at Liverpool, and sailed for the west
coast of Africa. Arrived there we found a party, under the command of a
Portuguese trader, about to set off to the interior. He could speak a
little English; so we arranged to go with him as far as he intended to
proceed, learn as much of the native language as possible while in his
company, and then obtain a native guide to conduct us to the country in
which the gorillas are found. To this native guide, we arranged, should
be explained by the trader our object in visiting the country, so that
he might tell the tribes whom we intended to visit. This, we found, was
an absolutely needful precaution, on the following ground.

The natives of Africa have a singular and very bad style of carrying on
trade with the white men who visit their shores. The traffic consists
chiefly of ivory, barwood (a wood much used in dyeing), and indiarubber.
The natives of the far interior are not allowed to convey t