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Updated: May 27, 2025
These arrangements being made, we took our guns, and in the course of a few minutes had shot as many birds as we required for our supper and breakfast. On returning to our camp we saw, to our surprise, Pullingo seated on the ground opposite another black, on whose knees his hands rested, while they gazed into each other's faces.
Concealed as we were by the high grass and the trunks of the trees, they did not at first perceive us, and earnestly I hoped that they might pass by without doing so. Pullingo crouched down, eagerly watching them, but without uttering a word.
Pullingo had from the first looked upon Paddy Doyle as his chief friend, and they soon managed to understand each other in a wonderful way. Mudge suggested, indeed, that they were nearer akin than the rest of us.
But why Pullingo brought us to see them, is more than I can make out." "It puzzles me also," I said. "Perhaps my father or Mr Mudge will be able to form a conjecture on the subject." These remarks were not made till we were well out of hearing of the natives. Before we had got far, Pullingo joined us, and inquired, Paddy said, what we thought of the performance.
Pullingo pointed to his son, to intimate that he had brought him intelligence which made him wish to return. "And has he come all this way by himself?" asked Mudge, making signs at the same time to explain his meaning. The black intimated that he had not come alone, but that several of his tribe had accompanied him, for some object or other which we could not make out.
The first hut was intended for Pullingo and his wife; they afterwards put up a smaller one for their big son and the younger children. These structures, rude as they were, were superior to those we afterwards met with built by the natives, and showed us that Pullingo was more advanced in civilisation than the generality of his countrymen.
He soon returned to the cave, when he told me that Pullingo had, without hesitation or the slightest appearance of fear, grasped the rope and begun the ascent, showing as much activity as a monkey, or, as he observed, as if he had been born and bred at sea. He watched him till he had climbed safely over the top of the cliff; when a shout from above told him that my note had been received.
Pullingo, when he sat before the fire at supper, gave us, in a low voice, as if afraid they would overhear him, a long account of his native acquaintances who had honoured us with a visit; but what it was we could not clearly make out. One thing was certain, that a considerable number of blacks were encamped in our neighbourhood, though whether we should be troubled by them remained to be seen.
They, at all events, have no superstitious feeling regarding it; for Pullingo, plucking the bird, soon had it roasting before the fire; and, to the best of my belief, he had devoured the whole of it before the morning. "I hope we shall have no other disturbance during the night, and so I advise all hands to turn in," said my father. We quickly followed his advice.
"Depend upon it, these must proceed from our black friends, who are paying their respects to the cavern of the moon," observed Mudge. "I thought just now I caught sight of some figures moving over the ground. Probably Pullingo and his son are among them. Let us go and see what they are about." I willingly agreed.
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