He soon learned by his sense of clearing that there were some
half dozen or more of negroes near to him, and that he was the subject
of their conversation. He could even detect his guide's voice among the
rest, though the conversation was carried on scarcely above a whisper.
He had on a previous voyage taken much pains to familiarize himself with
the language spoken by the shore tribes in the south, and he now had
little difficulty in understanding a considerable portion of the remarks
which were making by the gang who were secreted in the jungle so near to
where he was lying, while he pretended sleep.
He soon learned that his guide was followed by a half dozen or more of
negroes, who had lately visited Sierra Leone on some business of their
own, and who, in common with the guide, belonged to a fierce and warlike
tribe, whose chief village was but a few leagues from Don Leonardo's
factory. At first it was difficult to make out the actual purport of
their scheme, though Charles Bramble could guess what he did not hear,
and was satisfied that the cannibals intended to lead him, apparently in
good faith, to the neighborhood of their village, where he was to be
seized, sacrificed to some deity of these poor ignorant creatures'
manufacture, and afterwards be eaten in council with great ceremony.
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