They were drinking rum and water out of tin pannikins--a great deal of rum and very little water.

Many of them seemed half-drunk already, at any rate their tongues were loosened.
"May a curse fall upon our father, the Devil!" said one, a half-breed; "why did he take it into his head to send us back with the boats just now?
We shall miss the fun." "What fun ?" answered the leader of the party.

"They won't cage the birds for another three or four days; the dhows are not ready, and there is talk of an English cruiser--may she sink to hell!--hanging about outside the river mouth." "No, not that," said the man who had spoken first, "there is not much sport in driving a lot of stinking niggers on to a dhow.

I mean the auction of the white girl, the English trader's daughter, whom we caught up the river yonder.

There's a beauty for some lucky dog; I never saw such a one.