We looked at it. It was a copper or bronze plaque, black, apparently
with age, which once had been nailed on something for there were the
holes. It represented a tall man with a long beard and a tonsured head
who held a cross in his hand; and two other men, both short, who wore
round metal caps and were dressed in queer-looking garments and boots
with square toes. These man carried big and heavy matchlocks, and in
the hand of one of them was a smoking fuse. That was all we could make
out of the thing.
"Why did you leave the far country and come to this land, O Motombo?"
I asked.
"Because we were afraid that other white men would follow on your
steps and avenge you. The Kalubi of that day ordered it, though I said
No, who knew that none can escape by flight from what must come when
it must come. So we travelled and travelled till we found this place,
and here we have dwelt from generation to generation. The gods came
with us also; my brother that dwells in the forest came, though we
never saw him on the journey, yet he was here before us.
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