o accompany us.

In vain we tried to persuade Ombay that we should be more successful if
we carried our knapsacks. He, putting on a knowing look, again refused,
and we were finally compelled to set off without them.

"We must wait for another opportunity," said Charley; "it will come some
day or other, and it is very evident that we shall have to practise no
small amount of patience."

"I have been thinking seriously that I could make my way down to the
coast alone," said Tom, "and if I could fall in with an English vessel,
I might form a party of men to help you. I know that there is some
danger, but it matters very little if Tom Tubbs loses his life, although
it would be a sad thing for you three young gentlemen to be kept
prisoners by these black fellows for the rest of your lives."

"No fear of that," answered Charley. "We may find ourselves free sooner
than you expect. There must be rivers to the north of us, and if we
could once get to the banks of one of them, we could make our way down
to the sea in a canoe. The longer we remain with King Sanga Tanga, the
more confidence the people will have in us. At present we have only
Hobson's choice, stop here we must."

On this occasion the prince was accompanied by three times as many
hunters as before. We were expected to take an active part in the
sport. We proceeded nearly a couple of days journey, when we formed a
camp, and the hunters went out prepared to kill either elephants,
buffaloes, deer, or wild pigs; indeed, for some object or other, they
seemed anxious to accumulate a large supply of food. The first day they
killed two elephants, much in the same manner as I have before
described. The following day Charley, Harry, and I killed two buffaloes
and three deer, while the natives were not nearly so successful.
Parties arrived from the village to carry home the game we had already
shot. We were shortly afterwards joined by a number of strangers, who
came in, we found, from the different villages at a distance, though all
under the government of King Sanga Tanga, each party bringing a large
net, a similar net having arrived from our village. On examining them,
we found that they were made from the fibre of the pine apple plant and
that of other trees twisted into thick thread. Each net was about
seventy feet long, and nearly five feet in height.

The villagers--I should have said--were accompanied by packs of little
sharp-eared dogs, who gave vent