to take
notice of it, but it convinced us plainly that the king would not agree
to our request. "Endeavour to bribe the king with promises of the
things we will send him," said Charley; "tell him we will pay him
handsomely."

"I'll try," replied Harry, and forthwith he began to pour out all the
native words he could recollect. It is just possible that he put in two
or three by mistake, which had a very contrary meaning, for the king
looked sometimes surprised, then angry, then highly amused, but yet he
would not give the permission we requested.

"Try again if he can't be bribed," said Charley. "Promise that we will
send him all sorts of things from England, if he will tell us how they
are to be transmitted."

Harry did his best to carry out Charley's wishes, Aboh interpreting the
words of the king. He said that a bird in the hand was worth two in the
bush, that if we got away we might forget the promise we had made, or
that if we sent the things, they might be lost long before they could
reach him.

"Now try him on the threatening tack," said Charley; "tell him what a
great man our king is, that ten of his soldiers would put to flight a
whole army of his blacks, and that if he does not let us go, our king
will send two or three hundred men, who will be landed from our ships,
and march up the country to look for us."

"They have not yet arrived," said the king, with another of those
sardonic grins in which he often indulged. "It will take them some time
to get here, and when they do come, they will have to fight us if they
come as enemies."

"Tell the obstinate old fellow that they will come notwithstanding, and
will blow him and his village up to the top of the mountains," exclaimed
Charley, who grew impatient at the king's refusal.

Harry did not say this, however, for two reasons. In the first place,
he thought it would be imprudent, and in the second, he could not find
words to express himself. He said something equivalent to it, however,
which had no apparent effect on the king's mind. At last we were
obliged to leave his majesty, determined notwithstanding, as Tom
advised, to take French leave, and go on the first opportunity. Our
condition after this became much worse than it had been before. We were
compelled to go into the plantations, and to dig and hoe the ground. We
at first refused, declaring that we were hunters and not cultivators of
the soil. We expostulated again and again remindin