Being what they
were, it was hard to blame them. If we had seen our parents shot, our
infants pitilessly butchered, our homes destroyed and our women and
children marched off in the slave-sticks to be sold into bondage,
should we not have done the same? I think so, although we are not
ignorant savages.
Thus our lives were saved by those whom we had tried to save, and for
once justice was done even in those dark parts of Africa, for in that
time they were dark indeed. Had it not been for Hans and the courage
which he managed to inspire into the hearts of these crushed blacks, I
have little doubt but that before nightfall we should have been dead,
for I do not think that any attempt at retreat would have proved
successful. And if it had, what would have happened to us in that wild
country surrounded by enemies and with only the few rounds of
ammunition that we could have carried in our flight?
"Ah! Baas," said the Hottentot a little while later, squinting at me
with his bead-like eyes, "after all you did well to listen to my
prayer and bring me with you.
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