After the evening meal Tonzeka gave another proof of his hospitality. He opened some cases of trade gin[[32]] and two demijohns of rum, and invited Satu and his party to a drinking bout.
The fiery liquor quickly induced a quarrelsomeness in the drinkers that I thought would cause such murderous fights that the town would be drenched with blood; indeed, Bakula received a nasty cut on his arm, and several others were wounded and bruised. But this intoxicated madness was fortunately soon succeeded by a maudlin state, in which the carousers embraced each other, shouted senseless sayings, joined in ribald refrains, and engaged in obscene dances until at last the potions gained the mastery and they fell on the ground in sottish sleep--mere breathing logs.
Borne on the breeze from a distant part of the town came the evening hymn of the white man and his boys, and distinctly the words were carried to me--
“God loved the world of sinners lost
And ruined by the fall;
Salvation full, at highest cost,
He offers free to all.
Oh, ’twas love, ’twas wondrous love!
The love of God to me!
It brought my Saviour from above