Though I Was By No Means
Free Of Apprehension, Yet I Resolved To Show As Few Signs Of Fear As
Possible, And Therefore Told Them That Unless My Hat Was Returned To
Me I Should Proceed No Farther.
But before I had time to receive an
answer another drew his knife, and seizing upon a metal button
Which
remained upon my waistcoat, cut it off and put it into his pocket.
Their intentions were obvious, and I thought that the easier they
were permitted to rob me of everything, the less I had to fear. I
therefore allowed them to search my pockets without resistance, and
examine every part of my apparel, which they did with the most
scrupulous exactness. But observing that I had one waistcoat under
another, they insisted that I should cast them both off; and at
last, to make sure work, they stripped me quite naked. Even my
half-boots (though the sole of one of them was tied on to my foot
with a broken bridle rein) were minutely inspected. Whilst they
were examining the plunder, I begged them, with great earnestness,
to return my pocket-compass; but when I pointed it out to them as it
was lying on the ground, one of the banditti, thinking I was about
to take it up, cocked his musket, and swore that he would lay me
dead upon the spot if I presumed to put my hand upon it. After
this, some of them went away with my horse, and the remainder stood
considering whether they should leave me quite naked, or allow me
something to shelter me from the sun. Humanity at last prevailed;
they returned me the worst of the two shirts and a pair of trousers;
and, as they went away, one of them threw back my hat, in the crown
of which I kept my memorandums, and this was probably the reason
they did not wish to keep it. After they were gone, I sat for some
time looking round me within amazement and terror. Whichever way I
turned, nothing appeared but danger and difficulty. I saw myself in
the midst of a vast wilderness, in the depth of the rainy season -
naked and alone, surrounded by savage animals, and men still more
savage. I was five hundred miles from the nearest European
settlement. All these circumstances crowded at once on my
recollection, and I confess that my spirits began to fail me. I
considered my fate as certain, and that I had no alternative but to
lie down and perish. The influence of religion, however, aided and
supported me. I reflected that no human prudence or foresight could
possibly have averted my present sufferings. I was indeed a
stranger in a strange land, yet I was still under the protecting eye
of that Providence who has condescended to call Himself the
stranger's Friend. At this moment, painful as my reflections were,
the extraordinary beauty of a small moss in fructification
irresistibly caught my eye.
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