We halted the next day, and took advantage of it to purchase the favour of the natives. At night we thought we had succeeded. But the next day two brothers went out into the bush to collect fuel: one was speared to death, the other rushed into camp, a lance quivering in his arm, his body gashed with the flying weapons, his face streaming with blood from the blow of a whirling knobstick. We were horrified. He cried out, ‘It is war, the savages are coming through the bush all round the camp!’ ‘There, master!’ said the chief men, as they rushed up to assist the wounded man, ‘What said we? We are in for it, sure enough, this time!’ ‘Keep silence,’ I said. ‘Even for this, I will not fight. You know not what you say. Two lives are lost; but that is small loss compared with the loss of a hundred, or even fifty. You cannot fight a tribe like this without paying a heavy forfeit of life. I cannot afford to lose you. We have a thousand tribes to go through yet, and you talk of war now. Be patient, men, this will blow over.’ ‘Never!’ cried the men. While I was arguing for peace, the camp was being gradually surrounded. As the savages came into view, I sent men to talk with them. It staggered the natives. They seemed to ask one another, ‘Have they not yet received cause enough to fight?’ But as it took two sides to fight, and one was unwilling, it was influencing them; and the matter might have ended, had not a fresh force, remarkable for its bellicose activity, appeared upon the scene. ‘Master, you had better prepare; there is no peace with these people.’ I gave the order to distribute twenty rounds of cartridges per man, and enjoined on all to retire quietly to their several places in the camp. My interpreters still held on talking soothingly, while I watched, meanwhile, to note the slightest event. Presently, the murderous band from the bush south of our camp appeared, and again the clamour for war rose loudly on our ears. I disposed two companies of fifty each on either side of the gate, to resist the rush. There was a hostile movement, the interpreters came flying back, the savages shot a cloud of arrows. On all sides rose bodies of savages. A determined rush was made for the gate of the camp. A minute later, firing began, and the companies moved forward briskly, firing as they went. Then every axe-man was marched out, to cut the bush, and fortify the camp. The savages were driven back for an hour, and a recall was sounded. No enemy being in sight, we occupied ourselves in making the camp impregnable, constructed four towers, twenty feet high, to command all sides, and, filling them with marksmen, waited events.