"Yes, it is true."
"And you can give me no protection?"
"We fear not any."
"Then I must go back to the coast—to the English?"
"Yes."
"Can you give me carriers to accompany me and my helpers, and to take food for the journey?"
"Yes, we promise that."
But Mr. Goodman could not get the promise fulfilled—whether from insincerity or inability on the part of the Mendis to keep it he could not discover.
What was to be done? He was the only white man there: some coloured people, chiefly from Free Town, and associated with the Mission, were with him; but the tribes all round were in a state of terrible unrest and were ripe for war, while, indeed, hostilities had actually commenced in some districts.
