I could see that even as he spoke the faces of those who seemed most bitterly opposed to us changed, and when he finished speaking and sat down there was a general murmur of approval from all the chiefs. I thought all was now finished; but it was not so. The men round the idol had now to consult it. This they did with many fantastic capers, and much shuffling and changing of the positions of the charms which surrounded it, preparing, as I could see well enough, to give a verdict hostile to us.
The men who had been won over by Hatibu’s arguments again became sullen and gloomy, and looking at the masses of armed men who surrounded us I saw that they only wanted a word to throw themselves on us and spear us to death before we could raise a hand in self-defence.
At this supreme moment Hatibu rose to the occasion, and getting up from his seat he from a small bag he had concealed under his clothes produced some shell ornaments like those in the king’s ears, and gave one to each of the soothsayers, while the remainder he threw down before the idol. I was afraid such barefaced bribery would fail; but Hatibu knew his men better than I did. The charms and fetiches were soon rearranged, and it was pronounced as the sentence of the wooden image that Mona Mkulla and the new-comers could be friends.
This verdict was not received with universal satisfaction, for some of the chiefs sprang to their feet and protested loudly against it. As they found themselves disregarded, they called to their followers and left the assembly in high dudgeon. Their departure called forth no remark, but soon after twenty slaves loaded with ivory were marched into the centre of the village and presented to Hatibu as a token of Mona Mkulla’s friendship and goodwill.
CHAPTER XVIII.
PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENCE.
Altogether Hatibu was not so pleased with his present as I had expected him to be, and it was not long before I found out the reasons. He had enough ivory and stores to form loads for nearly all his party; but if to carrying this was added the work of watching these slaves, and possibly defending ourselves against the attacks of their friends, he did not see how we could manage to get in safety to Hamees ibu Sayf’s camp. Soon his anxiety was increased by a message from Mona Mkulla, which was nothing more nor less than a demand for an adequate present in return for his gift; failing this, he was to remain until his master could send to free him.
Hatibu consulted long and eagerly with his followers, and decided that the best thing he could do would be to send messengers to Hamees ibu Sayf to inform him of our position. He resolved also to get all the men he had left at our old camp to this place, so that, in the event of any difficulty arising with the natives, the whole party should be united, and not attacked and defeated in detail.
Mona Mkulla came several times to see Hatibu, attended only by a few spearmen and his dwarfs, by whom we never saw him unattended. He begged Hatibu very hard to give up the guns of the party, saying that these would be an ample return for the present he had made. To this request, which was simply one to render ourselves defenceless against the overwhelming numbers of the natives, Hatibu very naturally returned a refusal. As soon as the messengers had been sent away he employed the remainder of his men and the slaves Mona Mkulla had given him in constructing a camp at a short distance from the village. There we would be better able to defend ourselves from attack than if we remained scattered about in the village and mixed up with the people, and able to prevent being surprised and overpowered separately.
The place chosen was a small open bit of grass in the forest, where a small spring afforded a supply of water, and where, when the position and shape of our camp was decided upon, we should have a clear distance of at least a hundred and fifty yards between its boundary and the nearest trees.
The grass, which was over ten feet high and nearly dry, was burned down, and all hands laboured hard at forming the camp. I had often during my life in Africa admired the way in which the negro runs up a shelter from sun and storm and a defence against human enemies and wild beasts; but never had I seen such wonderful work as was done by these men from Zanzibar, all experienced travellers, to whom the building of huts and making a boma or fence round them was a portion of their every-day work.