rom our hero, Mesty commenced as follows.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

IN WHICH MUTINY, LIKE FIRE, IS QUENCHED FOR WANT OF FUEL AND NO WANT OF
WATER.

Although we have made the African negro hitherto talk in his own mixed
jargon, yet, as we consider that, in a long narration, it will be
tedious to the reader, we shall now translate the narrative part into
good English, merely leaving the conversation with which it may be
broken in its peculiar dialect.

"The first thing I recollect," said Mesty, "is that I was carried on the
shoulders of a man with my legs hanging down before, and holding on by
his head.

"Every one used to look at me, and get out of the way, as I rode through
the town and market place, so loaded with heavy gold ornaments that I
could not bear them, and was glad when the women took them off: but, as
I grew older I became proud of them, because I knew that I was the son
of a king--I lived happy, I did nothing but shoot my arrows, and I had a
little sword which I was taught to handle, and the great captains who
were about my father showed me how to kill my enemies. Some times I lay
under the shady trees, sometimes I was with the women belonging to my
father, sometimes I was with him and played with the skulls, and
repeated the names of those to whom they had belonged, for in our
country, when we kill our enemies, we keep their skulls as trophies.

"As I grew older, I did as I pleased; I beat the women and the slaves; I
think I killed some of the latter--I know I did one, to try whether I
could strike well with my two-handed sword made of hard and heavy wood--
but that is nothing in our country. I longed to be a great captain, and
I thought of nothing else but war and fighting, and how many skulls I
should have in my possession when I had a house and wives of my own, and
I was no longer a boy. I went out in the woods to hunt, and I stayed
for weeks. And one day I saw a panther basking in the sun, waving his
graceful tail. I crept up softly till I was behind a rock within three
yards of it, and drawing my arrow to the head I pierced him through the
body. The animal bounded up in the air, saw me, roared and made a
spring, but I dropped behind the rock, and he passed over me. He turned
again to me, but I had my knife ready, and, as he fixed his talons into
my shoulder and breast, I pierced him to the heart. This was the
happiest day of my life; I had killed a panther without assistance, and
I had wou