Making due allowance, however, for the fact that they were savages, the general character of my collectors said a great deal for human nature. Doboi was a really good fellow, and had only one reprehensible escapade to his discredit. It was a case of the deceitfulness of wealth! He had worked extremely well and had amassed a small fortune, a blanket, many ramis, and a quantity of tobacco. With these possessions, he became a small king in his village. One day he vanished with all his goods. Now Doboi was under contract to remain with me while I was in the interior, and although he had received much, he had not really worked off his part of the bargain. Accordingly I had him pursued and brought back, and thereafter for the rest of his time he was a good boy. He was fourteen, but had attained to full manhood, and was a very capable fellow. My best mountain boy, however, was Ow-bow. He was my right hand, my native first officer. I could send him anywhere, for he was quick and alert, but he always stipulated that he must go armed, and believing him to be justified, I invariably provided him with a weapon. He loved firearms passionately, and to see Ow-bow enter a village with his gun over his shoulder was to realise on a small scale what a Roman triumph must have been! He understood the weapon—his fellow-tribesmen did not. Therein lay Ow-bow’s power. He would fire a shot in the air and then lay down the law to his comrades. If there were any possibility of getting what you wanted, Ow-bow would get it. He would, indeed, have done well on an American newspaper. He understood how to make the most of what knowledge he had, and was fully conscious that it gave him superior power, which he was not slow to wield. When he went to a village to recruit carriers, he arrayed himself in his best, donned his finest beads and feathers, and painted his cheeks in scarlet stripes. Thus resplendent, with his gun over his shoulder, he entered the village, strutting consequentially, and immediately made his presence felt. He was a man who would not and could not be refused. He showed his wages and told the tribesmen that they, if they carried for Parki, would become rich in like manner.