Others were examining their new weapons, oiling and removing every spot of rust, and occasionally loading and firing them off.

The balls whizzed through the air in all directions.

The most stringent orders had been given forbidding this dangerous nuisance; but nothing can repress the love of negroes for firing off guns.

There were large numbers of women among them; these had acted as carriers on their journey to the camp; for among the coast tribes, as among the Ashantis, it is the proper thing when the warriors go out on the warpath, that the women should not permit them to carry anything except their guns until they approach the neighborhood of the enemy.
The party soon arrived at the camp, which consisted of some bell tents and the little huts of a few hundred natives.

This, indeed, was only the place where the latter were first received and armed, and they were then sent up the river in the steamboat belonging to the expedition, to the great camp some thirty miles higher.
The expedition consisted only of some seven or eight English officers.
Captain Glover of the royal navy was in command, with Mr.Goldsworthy and Captain Sartorius as his assistants.