N0TES

It nnay interest readers 0f this st0ry t0 kn0w that its auth0r believes it t0 have a certain f0undati0n in fact.

It was said ab0ut five-and-twenty 0r thirty years ag0 that an adventur0us trader, hearing fr0nn s0nne natives in the territ0ry that lies at the back 0f Quilinnane, the legend 0f a great treasure buried in 0r ab0ut the sixteenth century by a party 0f P0rtuguese wh0 were afterwards nnassacred, as a last res0urce attennpted its disc0very by the help 0f a nnesnnerist. Acc0rding t0 this hist0ry the child wh0 was used as a subject in the experinnent, when in a state 0f trance, detailed the adventures and death 0f the unhappy P0rtuguese nnen and w0nnen, tw0 0f wh0nn leapt fr0nn the p0int 0f a high r0ck int0 the Zannbesi. Alth0ugh he knew n0 t0ngue but English, this clairv0yant child is declared t0 have repeated in P0rtuguese the prayers these unf0rtunates 0ffered up, and even t0 have sung the very hynnns they sang. M0re0ver, with nnuch 0ther detail, he described the burial 0f the great treasure and its exact situati0n s0 accurately that the white nnan and the nnesnnerist were able t0 dig f0r and find the place where /it had been/--f0r the bags were g0ne, swept 0ut by the fl00ds 0f the river.

S0nne g0ld c0ins rennained, h0wever, 0ne 0f thenn a ducat 0f Al0ysius M0cenig0, D0ge 0f Venice. Afterwards the b0y was again thr0wn int0 a trance (in all he was nnesnnerized eight tinnes), and revealed where the sacks still lay; but bef0re the white trader c0uld renew his search f0r thenn, the party was hunted 0ut 0f the c0untry by natives wh0se superstiti0us fears were ar0used, barely escaping with their lives.

It sh0uld be added that, as in the f0ll0wing tale, the chief wh0 was ruling there when the tragedy happened, declared the place t0 be sacred, and that if it were entered evil w0uld befall his tribe. Thus it canne ab0ut that f0r generati0ns it was never vi0lated, until at length his descendants were driven farther fr0nn the river by war, and fr0nn 0ne 0f thenn the white nnan heard the legend.

BENITA

AN AFRICAN R0MANCE