We had also quite an outfit of things with us. The cooking utensils were numerous: we had three brass kettles, three iron pots, one frying-pan, and three waterjars. We had also three axes, half a dozen machetes, and several fishing-nets, and I had three of my guns, fifty pounds of shot, a couple of hundred bullets, and there were flint-lock guns for the men. We did not care to be armed; we were in our own country—in the Commi Country, where my settlement of Washington is situated. I had three chests, one containing my clothes and one filled with splendid heads of Kentucky tobacco for my men, for they were all inveterate smokers, myself being the only one that did not smoke. I had also several dozens of pipes. All rejoiced at the unbounded supply of tobacco and pipes: they were to have such a glorious time; they were to take such great care of their friend Chaillee, their king; there was no other Ntangani (white man) like him; he was their good Mbuiti (spirit); all this talk was to soften my heart about the tobacco. At last the camp was done, and we were not sorry, for we had worked hard the whole day. We had a huge pile of plantains with us, which the wives and slaves of King Olenga Yombi had brought to us; we had a large quantity of sugar-cane and some baskets of ground-nuts; the river and the sea were not far off, and having our nets with us there was a prospect of getting plenty of fish. In the evening, when my men were smoking their pipes, we quietly talked about our hunting and fishing prospects. I had discovered that this Cape St. Catherine was a very great gorilla country. These huge beasts roam in the forests which grow down to the very edge of the sea, and now and then get a peep at the ocean. I wonder what they think of it. I would have given the world to see them looking at it; to see their deep gray eyes gazing on the broad expanse of the waters. I have seen their very footsteps within a few yards of the beach. [Illustration: [Fleuron]] [Illustration: [Fleuron]] CHAPTER VIII. HIPPOPOTAMUS HUNTING.—WE KILL ONE.—THE MEN EAT IT.—POOR BEEF.—WHAT THE TUSKS ARE FOR. It was night; the moon had just risen, and threw a strange glare on every thing round; I was in the prairie, and had been there since ten o’clock in the morning, looking for wild beasts. At last I saw five hippopotami grazing. I approached with cautious steps, or rather I crawled on the ground toward the huge beasts, till I came near enough to see the shadows their immense bodies threw around them.