os will patiently bore with his sharp horn
until he has broken the tree, and then kill the man; that he will work
for days until his object be accomplished."

"See!" exclaimed Dona Isabel; "there are canoes coming up the river.
What are they doing?"

There were at that moment four small boats rounding the island, just
where the Shire discharged itself into the Zambesi, and their movements
seemed eccentric enough to warrant the surprise expressed by Dona
Isabel.

Independently of the rowers, one man stood erect in the bow of each
canoe, holding in his hand an assegai, which from time to time he threw.
As they neared the bank, a huge hippopotamus rose to the surface, and
with a shout, the how man in the nearest canoe made his cast. The spear
missed; but the second boat dashed up. Again the hippopotamus rose, and
this time the assegai struck true.

"Why, it is exactly the way the Arctic seamen take the whales!"
exclaimed Hughes.

A loud scream from Dona Isabel, as she started from her recumbent
position, was heard. The hippopotamus had risen again, and with its
great red mouth open, dashed in fury at the leading canoe.

The man in the bow seemed paralysed with fear, for he did not make a
cast; the next moment the boat was floating bottom upwards, drifting
with the stream, but the animal had received another assegai as he was
in the act of striking the canoe.

As for its crew, they rose to the surface, and struck out for the bank,
vigorously swimming like fishes, their comrades taking no notice of
them. The hippopotamus seemed badly hurt now, for it rose again
quickly, receiving another lance, and then, dragging itself on to the
bank, fell from exhaustion and loss of blood, the natives giving a yell
of triumph as they rowed up.

"Listen!" said Wyzinski, "that was a shout; here, down the river bank,
to the right."

"And there comes the owner of the cry," replied Hughes; "he is a
European, too, and well armed."

Dressed in a light calico suit of clothes, wearing a broad-brimmed
Panama hat, and carrying a rifle in his hand, while a brace of pistols
were stuck into a broad crimson Andalusian sash which encircled his
waist, the owner of the shout, as Hughes had called him, rode up,
followed by three mounted natives.

"The Senhor Dom Francisco Maxara?" inquired the new comer, raising his
sombrero.

"The same, Senhor," haughtily returned the noble, rising and replying to
the courtesy.

"I am Dom Assevedo, of