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The huts were of the same superior construction as those which we had seen near the Hutt, and the traces were very recent, but the natives themselves were either at a distance or kept carefully out of our way.
At this place many trees bore recent marks of their stone tomahawks, and the soft banks of the river were much imprinted with their feet; nevertheless, to our disappointment, none of the natives appeared; for a sight of our fellow-men, the inhabitants of these deserts idle, had at length become a subject of considerable curiosity.
The natives in those regions are very reluctant to show the locality of the waterholes. The supply is scanty, and they have learned to regard the white man as wasteful and inconsiderate in regard to water.
They are not worth the trouble, and they are only fit for slaves, to which position their race appears to have been condemned. "I believe I have wasted my time and energy, and have uselessly encountered difficulties, and made enemies by my attempt to suppress the slave trade, and thus improve the condition of the natives.
They are at enmity with the natives on the flat across the ravine, and it seems that sometimes they get a night visit, and may lose a man. For the last two nights the women have been in the village, but every sound heard causes a shout. Last night, when just getting off, they came rushing up to our house, and calling on us to get up with our guns, as their enemies were coming.
During the whole time I heard the drums beating in the distance, and I had no doubt that the natives were keeping up their corroborree, which I suppose afforded them as much amusement as a ball in England does the young ladies and gentlemen who attend it.
How was he to summon the terrible courage! "And Mary? who has a right to strike her dead?" thought John, whose heart was broken. Escape was clearly impossible. Ten warriors, armed to the teeth, kept watch at the door of Ware-Atoua. The morning of February 13th arrived. No communication had taken place between the natives and the "tabooed" prisoners.
The bark of the latter is very rich in tannin, and is used by the natives in the preparation of hides. The fruit is like an apple in appearance, and small, but is highly astringent. The well-known cashew-nut grows like an excrescence from the end of the apple.
The little township of Ichang was soon left astern, and we entered speedily to all intents and purposes into a new world, a world untrammelled by conventionalism and the spirit of the West. When I revised my copy, after I had spent a year and a half rubbing along with the natives in the interior, I could not suppress a smile at my impressions of a great city like Hankow.
And then the lust of slaughter overcame their fierce assailants, and despite Banderah and two or three of his most trusted men, a club was raised and fell swiftly upon the white, fair forehead of "Mr. de Vere" as he sought to tear away his hands from the vice-like grasp of two huge natives who held them.
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