One Saturday evening a big steamer came to the white man’s beach, and soon after the news spread throughout our villages that a lot of white men from Europe—old men with grey hair—had come to see and judge of our condition for themselves, and to listen to what we had to tell them. Some of us were afraid to go near them; we had not had a good experience of white men in the past, and we kept away. But others were curious to see the elders of Europe, and so they went to take a look at them from a distance, and then came back and reported to us who stayed at home. There were, said they, three strange white men, said to be settlers of palavers, two of whom were in truth old, grey-headed men; one other was a medicine-man. These were accompanied by the great rubber chief, as well as the white men who worked the steamer. They had also heard that we were all invited to go to the steamer on the next day and state our grievances. Then while we were still talking about it, the white men of God sent to advise us not to hide anything, but to come and tell these white men all the palavers we could remember, giving names, and bringing eye-witnesses whenever we could. They also said that these white men had promised that we should be protected, and that no harm should come to us as the result of our making our grievances known. This reassured us, and we thought that as these white men were not boys but old and white-haired, they were worthy of respect, and their word should be true. Therefore we gathered together, we and our chiefs, and we told them many, many things—things which grieved and surprised and made them very angry. We told them how we had to make rubber when the vines were practically finished in our district; how we had to get animals all the year round and in all weathers, and fish, no matter what the state of the river might be; how our wives could scarcely prepare manioca for our own families because of the constant demands of the white men and his sentries. Then, gaining courage, we went on to tell of the treatment which we received from the sentries in our villages, of their cruelties and oppression, their murders and thefts, their wicked treatment of our wives and daughters, and many other abuses which I cannot tell you of. Many chiefs came from far distant villages and districts, bringing with them long knotted strings or bundles of twigs, each knot or twig representing a person killed or a woman stolen. Everything we told was written down, and the white men of God told many things, and these also were written down. This went on for two or three days, until at last the old white chief said, “Have you anything more to tell?” “Oh, yes,” we said, “many things, white man; we can go on like this for three more days, if you want to hear all.” Said he, “We have heard sufficient; we know that these things are bad, why should we hear more?”