Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-09
and huddled up close around me. was


banked in by solid mass of warm flesh
and could scarcely move finger, and al
though the mosquitoes were now effectually
excluded from every square inch of my per-
son, soon became aware of the fact that
there are things worse even than mosquito
bites in this world of ours, and among them
was com PEELED TO reSkoh the atmosphere
under that ground sheet. 1 delcately
hinted to Mongessi, in broken tones, that
thought his wife very nice woman at
distance, and that should be delighted to
see more of her and his companions on
fine day on shore when the wind was in the
right direction and they were bearing we'll
to leeward of me, but he only replied by
digging me in the ribs and asking me for
some tobacco and match 10 light up his
pipe and smoke. abandoned the ground
sheet 10 this happy family, and slowly the
night wore away, while Glave and ! dozed
or chatted alternately. Our Ronki friends
across the water having relit their fires on
our departure under the shelter OF one of
the huts were now dancing round them and
singing wild war songs, brandishing spears
and knives as they hurled defiance at us
across the intervening channel.
With the earliest dawn we re-entered our
Canoes loaded every gun and rifle and COM
menced padding across to renew the fight,
determined to punish the Ronkis for their
unprovoked attack of the previous night.
They saw US coming, and renewed their wild
dance and song, but as We came within 100
wards or so of the shore they one by one
sidled off behind the tree trunks and into
the forest, SO that by the time our canoes
grounded on their beach we could not see a
single foe.
REVENGE UPON THE RoNKIs.
We sent a volley in between the trees and
then landed. Our natives promptly seized
all the huts, which contained only few
paddles and some fishing tackle, and setting
fire to them we pushed of, taking
with us two canoes which we found
up little creek. These we sank
in mid-stream, and then catching sight
of two big canoes full of men making off up
river about 800 yards above us we gave
chase, thinking them to be probably of the
party which had fired on u.s. However,
after half an hours hard padding we found
we were no nearer, SO we contented ourselves
with seeing them turn up a side creek and
disappear from view in the thick bushes of
the island we had been skirting, and feeling
that, having dispersed our enemies and suf-
fciently punished their wanton attack bv
the capture OF the two canoes and the burn
ing OF the huts, we returned down stream
and continued our journey to the north
bank mainland, passing the scene of the
confagration, on which the Ronkis were be-
ginning to reassemble to see what damage
we had done.
We padded all that day under a burning
sun until late in the afternoon, before we
reached the mainland OF the north shore
Camping for the night in a thick forest
Glave shot couple of monkeys, which the
men cooked for their supper, and Bukunu
bagged horn-bill, which served Glave and
myself an evening meal.
NO ELEPHANTS OR BUFFALO.
We spent the two next days padding
through long succession of narrow chan
nels of the great river, searching for traces
of elephant ground-and although we landed
at one or two spots and had some hours of
hard tramping through forest and swamp
up to our waists in water and mud, or
scrambling over roots of trees, we could
find no recent tracks of either elephant or
buffalo. The natives of village we came
to In our wanderings, named Bakanga,
assured us that the buffaloes were so numer-
Gus in the woods around that they were
obliged to fence in their manioc and banana
plantations with logs and felled trees to
keep out these intruders, and following two
OF the men, who offered to guide US to spot
where we should certainly find game, we
spent three hours in q terribly hot crawl
through a thick wood with dense under
growth to an open patch Of long grass with
out coming across anything worth shooting.
Returning to the village, we determined to
remain there all night and have try at the
buftaloes in the early morning, when the
natives assured us their manioc plantations
would be overrun by them.
Mongessi, who labored under the delusion
that he was a great sportsman, had mean
while primed himself with big gourd full
of palm wine, and be now set of with
Glave's Express rifle in a small canoe, pad
died by his unwilling wife. to shoot q hip