Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/32

24 war-caps, and other ornaments, with which they equipped themselves. They afterwards, to exhibit their skill, shot their arrows sideways along the beach, as at a mark, making the whole time a variety of curious gestures.

Finding it useless to wait longer, we departed; but first gave them three cheers, and fired a pistol in the air, to see what effect it would have on their courage. This only redoubled their savage merriment; they shouted in return, jumped and skipped about and ran madly along the beach, expressing a kind of admiration, rather than dread, of our fire-arms. Much as we regretted our not being able to communicate with these natives, yet considering their vicinity to the Portuguese, I could not be surprised at their behaviour; nay, I was rather pleased to witness their warlike spirit, and to see how ready, and able they were to defend themselves against the attacks of slave-dealers, with whom they have had but too much intercourse, and for whom, there is every reason to think, we were mistaken.

From the little we saw of these people, I should suppose them, from their stature, colour, habits and language, to be nearly allied to the Kaffers, a large party of whom I had seen a short time before at the Cape, and I consider both races as perfectly distinct from either that of the Hottentot or of the Negro.

From this place we sailed direct to Elephant Point, and thence, the wind being foul, pulled with great difficulty through a heavy sea to the ship, which we did not reach till half past nine at night. During our absence, the Racehorse had moved her position, in doing which she had edged on another shoal in three and a half fathom. In the evening, Captain Fisher had a lunar observation, which confirmed his reckoning, and proved that the bay we had visited was actually that of Sofala.

On the 20th of August, the weather being very unsettled, and the wind hanging much to the eastward, Captain Fisher, unwilling to risk his ship on a shore where there was evidently many unknown shoals, determined at once to proceed to Mosambique.

Before we could get into ten fathoms, we passed three more shoals, over which the sea was breaking, when the soundings became regular, and no farther danger