With one hand he drew the
long knife for skinning animals, which he wore at his belt, and
struck out fiercely, but a baboon seized his wrist in its teeth,
and Frank felt that all was over, when suddenly his assailants left
him, and the instant afterwards he was lifted to his feet by some
negroes.
He had, when attacked by the apes, thrown the baby into a clump
of ferns close by, in order to have the use of both his hands, and
when he looked round he found that a negress had already picked it
up, and was crying and fondling it. The negroes appeared intensely
astonished at Frank's color, and he judged by their exclamations
of surprise that, not only had they not seen a white man before,
but that they had not heard of one being in the neighborhood.
Frank had been too severely bitten and mauled by the baboons to be
able to walk, and the negroes, seeing this, raised him, and four
of them carried him to their village, which was but a quarter of a
mile distant. Here he was taken to the principal hut, and laid on
a bed. His wounds were dressed with poultices formed of bruised
leaves of some plant, the natives evincing the utmost astonishment as
Frank removed his clothes to enable these operations to be performed.
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