in my face and gazed earnestly at it, and
when he found that it was entirely black, he whined piteously, as if
some great misfortune had happened to me. He, however, knew me by my
voice, so that I had no fear of his running away from me, and in a very
little time he got perfectly accustomed to my appearance.

Having done up our bundles again, and got ourselves ready for our march,
we started off towards the interior. We had a journey of three or four
days at the least before us. Bigg had been fully that time finding his
way to the sea. We had numberless dangers to encounter--not only from
natives, but from wild beasts and venomous reptiles. I had known of
them before, but they now presented themselves more vividly before me,
and I felt how grateful I ought to be to Bigg for his readiness to
encounter them for my sake. We soon left the region of mangrove-trees.
We got on easily enough across downs and grassy plains, but we had often
great difficulty in forcing our way through the bush and the dense
forests which lay in our course. We had gone some miles, and had not
hitherto seen any natives. Just as we were emerging from a wood, Bigg
touched my shoulder and pointed to several black figures with calabashes
on their heads, some three or four hundred yards off; across an open
glade which lay before us. In another moment we should have been
discovered. I signed to Solon to keep behind me, and we turned on one
side, skirting the border of the forest to avoid them. We were not
quite certain whether we had altogether escaped detection, for we
observed them looking about as if their quick eyes had detected
something unusual in the wood. As soon as we had got round, still
sheltered by trees, we were able to continue our proper course. We had
arranged what Bigg was to say should we meet any natives, and we were to
give them some small present to show our friendly disposition; at the
same time hinting that we had friends who would wreak their vengeance on
the heads of any one ill-treating us. We had not gone far before we
came to the outside of the forest, and now for a great distance an open,
undulating country, with here and there trees scattered over it,
appeared before us.

Suddenly Solon stopped, pricked up his ears, and looked intently back
towards the point whence we had come. We followed with our eyes the
direction at which the dog was pointing, and directly afterwards the
brushwood and the branches of the