we not
only heard their war-song, if it might so be called, but remarked that
they were painted and armed, as they generally are, prior to their
engaging in deadly conflict. Notwithstanding these outward signs of
hostility, fancying that our four friends were with them, I continued
to steer directly in for the bank on which they were collected. I
found, however, when it was almost too late to turn into the succeeding
reach to our left, that an attempt to land would only be attended with
loss of life. The natives seemed determined to resist it. We approached
so near that they held their spears quivering in their grasp ready to
hurl. They were painted in various ways. Some who had marked their
ribs, and thighs, and faces with a white pigment, looked like
skeletons, others were daubed over with red and yellow ochre, and their
bodies shone with the grease with which they had besmeared themselves.
A dead silence prevailed among the front ranks, but those in the back
ground, as well as the women, who carried supplies of darts, and who
appeared to have had a bucket of whitewash capsized over their heads,
were extremely clamorous. As I did not wish a conflict with these
people, I lowered my sail, and putting the helm to starboard, we passed
quietly down the stream in mid channel. Disappointed in their
anticipations, the natives ran along the bank of the river,
endeavouring to secure an aim at us; but, unable to throw with
certainty, in consequence of the onward motion of the boat, they flung
themselves into the most extravagant attitudes, and worked themselves
into a state of frenzy by loud and vehement shouting.

PREPARATIONS FOR CONFLICT--UNEXPECTED INTERFERENCE.

It was with considerable apprehension that I observed the river to be
shoaling fast, more especially as a huge sand-bank, a little below us,
and on the same side on which the natives had gathered, projected
nearly a third-way across the channel. To this sand-bank they ran with
tumultuous uproar, and covered it over in a dense mass. Some of the
chiefs advanced to the water to be nearer their victims, and turned
from time to time to direct their followers. With every pacific
disposition, and an extreme reluctance to take away life, I foresaw
that it would be impossible any longer to avoid an engagement, yet with
such fearful numbers against us, I was doubtful of the result. The
spectacle we had witnessed had been one of the most appalling kind, and
sufficient to sh