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 Quillimane. I have a house at Nyangue, and am owner of a good deal of the land about here. Will the Senhor Maxara and his fair daughter (here the sombrero was again removed) condescend to consider my poor house at Nyangue their own for the period they may honour me by staying?" "I thank you, Senhor, but it may not be. The `Halcyon' brig waits us at Quillimane, and I must needs say no. Isabel, can you not persuade the Senhor to join us?" "At all events, I can offer him part of my cushions," replied the lady, "on condition he talks French, for Portuguese will not be understood by our guests." "Ah, the two Englishmen whom I have heard of from the Limpopo. Perhaps you, gentlemen, will honour me with a visit?"