The
prisoners brought in were unanimous in saying that great uneasiness
had been produced at Coomassie by the news of the advance of the
British to the Prah. The king had written to Ammon Quatia, severely
blaming him for his conduct of the campaign, and for the great loss
of life among his army.
All sorts of portents were happening at Coomassie, to the great
disturbance of the mind of the people. Some of those related
singularly resembled those said to have occurred before the capture
of Rome by the Goths. An aerolite had fallen in the marketplace of
Coomassie, and, still more strange, a child was born which was at
once able to converse fluently. This youthful prodigy was placed
in a room by itself, with guards around it to prevent anyone having
converse with the supernatural visitant. In the morning, however,
it was gone, and in its place was found a bundle of dead leaves.
The fetish men having been consulted declared that this signified
that Coomassie itself would disappear, and would become nothing but
a bundle of dead leaves. This had greatly exercised the credulous
there.
Two days after his arrival Frank went down at sunset to bathe in
the river. He had just reached the bank when he heard a cry among
some white soldiers bathing there, and was just in time to see one
of them pulled under water by an alligator, which had seized him
by the leg.
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