The Bargain Was Struck, And Arrangements Were
Made To Start Off At Sunrise Next Day, My Commission Was Not Only To
See The Old Gentleman's Land, But To Visit The Surrounding Indians,
With A View To Missionary Work Being Commenced Among Them.
The morning dawned clear and propitious, but the chief had decided
not to go.
On enquiring the reason for the change of mind, I
discovered that his people had been telling him that I only wanted to
get him into the forest in order to kill him, and that I would not
give him the promised shirt and beads. I thought that it was much
more likely for him to kill me than I him, and I set his mind at rest
about the reward, for on the spot I gave him the coveted articles. On
receipt of those luxuries his doubts of me fled, and I soon assured
him that I had no intention whatever of taking his life. Towards noon
we started off, and, winding our way through the Indian paths in
single file, we again soon left behind us all signs of man, and saw
nothing to mark that any had passed that way before.
That night, as we sat under a large silk-cotton tree silently eating
supper off plates of palm leaves, the old chief suddenly threw down
his meat, and, with a startled expression, said, "I hear spirits!"
Never having heard such ethereal visitors myself, I smiled
incredulously, whereupon the old savage glared at me, and, leaving
his food upon the ground went away out of the firelight into the
darkness. Afraid that he might take one of the horses and return to
his people, I followed to soothe him, but his offended mood did not
pass until, as he said, the spirits had gone.
On the third day scarcity of water began to be felt. We had been
slowly ascending the rugged steeps of a mountain, and as the day wore
on the thirst grew painful. That night both we and the horses had to
be content with the dew-drops we sucked from the grass, and our dumb
companions showed signs of great exhaustion. The Indian assured me
that if we could push on we would, by next evening, come to a
beautiful lake in the mountains: so, ere the sun rose next morning,
we were in the saddle on our journey to the coveted water.
All that day we plodded along painfully, silently. Our lips were
dried together, and our tongues swollen. Thirst hurts! The horses
hung their heads and ears, and we were compelled to dismount and go
afoot. The poor creatures were getting so thin that our weight seemed
to crush them to the earth. The sun again set, darkness fell, and the
lake was, for all I could see, a dream of the chief, our guide. At
night, after repeating the sucking of the dew, we ate a little, drank
the blood of an animal, and tried to sleep.
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