One of these was propelled by twenty-four oars, and most of the rest sailed.
Looking through the glass we soon made out that the row-boat was an official vessel, her crew being all dressed in a sort of uniform, whilst on the half-deck forward stood an old man of venerable appearance, and with a flowing white beard, and a sword strapped to his side, who was evidently the commander of the craft.

The other boats were apparently occupied by people brought out by curiosity, and were rowing or sailing towards us as quickly as they could.
'Now for it,' said I.

'What is the betting?
Are they going to be friendly or to put an end to us ?' Nobody could answer this question, and, not liking the warlike appearance of the old gentleman and his sword, we felt a little anxious.
Just then Good spied a school of hippopotami on the water about two hundred yards off us, and suggested that it would not be a bad plan to impress the natives with a sense of our power by shooting some of them if possible.

This, unluckily enough, struck us as a good idea, and accordingly we at once got out our eight-bore rifles, for which we still had a few cartridges left, and prepared for action.

There were four of the animals, a big bull, a cow, and two young ones, one three parts grown.