When at length they were satisfied we
addressed them, thanking them for their bravery, telling them that
they were free and asking what they meant to do.
Upon this point they seemed to have but one idea. They said that they
would come with us who were their protectors. Then followed a great
/indaba/, or consultation, which really I have not time to set out.
The end of it was that we agreed that so many of them as wished should
accompany us till they reached country that they knew, when they would
be at liberty to depart to their own homes. Meanwhile we divided up
the blankets and other stores of the Arabs, such as trade goods and
beads, among them, and then left them to their own devices, after
placing a guard over the foodstuffs. For my part I hoped devoutly that
in the morning we should find them gone.
After this we returned to our /boma/ just in time to assist at a sad
ceremony, that of the burial of my hunter who had been shot through
the head. His companions had dug a deep hole outside the fence and
within a few yards of where he fell.
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