Even when unopposed it was difficult enough to keep the carriers, who were constantly deserting, but had they been exposed to continuous attacks there would have been no possibility of keeping them together.
It was then a strong argument in favor of peace that we had been permitted to advance thirty miles into their country without a shot being fired.

Upon the other hand no messengers had been sent down to meet us, no ambassadors had brought messages from the king.

This silence was ominous; nor were other signs wanting.

At one place a fetish, consisting of a wooden gun and several wooden daggers all pointing towards us, was placed in the middle of the road.

Several kids had been found buried in calabashes in the path pierced through and through with stakes; while a short distance outside Queesa the dead body of a slave killed and mutilated but a few hours before we entered it was hanging from a tree.