Note note 50 — NOTES TO PART I

50 Brave (p. 218).--When the natives fight with spears, knives and arrows they are courageous, and, knowing how far their weapons will carry, they run in to throw them. They will fight foot to foot with their knives. To them guns are mysterious things--they pull a trigger and there is a puff, a bang, and a bullet or slug flies out, and the distance it will travel is, to them, an unknown quantity. They are not acquainted with the science of firearms, and are so overawed by the mysteriousness of these weapons that their natural bravery has not full play.