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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III A FORTNIGHT ON THE COANZA RIVER The Natives Exchange Specimens for " Yankee Notions "—The Cunga Inhabitants Crave Liquor—A Dusky Flirtation— Portuguese Cruelty—Clancy Shoots One of Senhor Re- bella's Pigs—The Eclipse—A Hippopotamus Hunt—The Sailors Play a Practical Joke on the Aborigines — A Woman Killed by a Crocodile—Reptiles Robbed of a Feast—Some Funeral Customs. Large game was said to be plentiful on the Coanza River, but we were there at the worst time of the year for hunting. The vegetation was so rank that it was next to impossible to get about except along a beaten path ; consequently, we saw very little more than footprints. Although my brother Arthur and I had had a fair amount of experience in the Rocky Mountains in hunting deer and grizzlies, the jungles of equatorial Africa were new to us. Nevertheless, had we had more time at our disposal, or had our visit to the Coanza occurred during the dry season, when the grass could be burned, we should have met with better success. Our time was so limited that we gave most of it to preserving small mammals, birds, fishes, insects, reptiles, and plants. Of all these we succeeded in obtaining large numbers. The natives soon became intensely interested in collecting for us ; and crowds of men, women, and children visited our house every morning. With the little boys we traded fish-hooks, mouse-traps, and other trinkets for the insects which they brought. The men came with fishes, turtles, snakes, and other reptiles to exchange for copper coins, and the women accompanied them in order to see the excitement and contribute to the general hilarity. We had not been long in the neighborhood when the inhabitants began to appeal to us for medical assistance. Realizing that by refusing we should gain their disfa...
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