il the
following day. Their own men also, who were still more heavily laden
than the Katunga men, had suffered so much from the long and irksome
journey of yesterday, particularly Jowdie, who was the strongest and
most athletic of them all, that they greatly feared that all of them
would have been taken seriously ill on the road. They, therefore,
lightened their burdens, and distributed a portion of what they had
taken out of them into the boxes, &c., of their already overladen
Katunga associates, without, however, permitting the latter to know
any thing of the circumstance. Among the carriers was a very little
man, called Gazherie, (small man,) on account of his diminutive
stature; he was notwithstanding very muscular, and possessed uncommon
strength, activity, and vigour of body, and bore a package containing
their tent, &c., which though very heavy, was yet by far the lightest
load of the whole. Conceiving that corporeal strength, rather than
bulk or height, should in this case be taken into the account, a bag
of shot weighing 28lbs, was extracted from Jowdie's burden, and
clandestinely added to his. The little man trudged along merrily,
without dreaming of the fraud that had been practised on him, till
they arrived within a short distance of Leoguadda, when imagining
that one end of the tent felt much heavier than the other, he was
induced to take it from his head, and presently discovered the
cheat, for the bag having been thrust simply inside the covering, it
could be seen without unlacing the package. He was much enraged at
being thus deceived, and called his companions around him to witness
the fact, and said he was resolved to proceed no further than
Leoguadda. He then succeeded in persuading them to follow his
example, and thus a kind of combination was instantly formed against
the travellers. As was usual with them on entering a village, they
rested a little while under a shady tree in Leoguadda, and here they
were presently surrounded by the murmuring carriers, with the little
man at their head. They were furious at first, and gave them to
understand that they would go no further, and were determined, let
the consequence be what it might, to remain in the town all night.
Leoguadda contained no accommodations whatever for them, and a storm
seemed now to be gathering over their heads. Atoopa was the town in
which the king of Katunga had advised them to spend the night; they
therefore resolved to go on to tha