The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1901-01-18
CHAPTER x.

CHAPTER z.
Next sunrise saw Sc of us ashore.
We took nothing with us but our arms
and accouterments, trusting to the
wealth of the forest to provide us with
all necessary provender by the way.
| OF the 1O1 men who had sailed out of
Bristol river "a had died, and the re-
manning 81, who were all weak from
various ills, We're left behind to guard
the Bristol Merchant till our return.
..You will be quite safe," said Alec to
them as they stood about the ship TO
watch our departure, eff you keep a
bright lookout. There's small chance
of men disturbing the Bristol Merchant
in her present berth, and callers won't
be SO frequent as to be nuisance. II
i you do have visit from any one of
the pagan tribes, try kindness first, and,
if that fails. cannon. How long we
may be gone cannot say, but wait for
us here three years at the least. You
are in land of plenty. The shores
TEEN with duck and deer, the waters
ripple with fish, the trees of. the forest
are bending with their load Of fruit.
Take, then, Gods gifts that are offered,
hold peace among yourselves, keep
your culverins loaded and no ill can
befall you or your ship. save old age
and the ordinary maladies of life"
The men on the ship raised cheer
We answered them from the shore.
And so we parted.
There was no path through these yir-
gin forests, for the wild beasts that
held them never retrod their own foot
steps, and man had not as yet pene-
trated their solitudes. To force pas
sage was a work of time and Infinite
!, ly hard labor. 1t was hew and hack,
/ hack and hew, wherever the big trees
hourished, for the lanes which every
: where abounded had woven themselves
3 into one solid mass of interlacing net
, work. 1t was like breaking through a
i never ending wall of the strongest
!. wickerwork, and / rather think that
I after the first 20 miles of this sort Of
i tunneling many of our band of Sc en-
We'd the lazy lot of the 81 who were
4 left behind to guard the Bristol Mer-
4 chant.
4 On the second day out piece of
q misfortune befell us which left us
a without the guide on whom we had re
9 lied to lead us to the golden city. Our
8 pagan allowed himself to be bitten
by venomous serpent and SO died.
@ 1t was like breaking our compass at
n sea, as without this brown fellow for
I guide we could only drift, wandering
r. hither, wandering thither, up noun.
It tains whose tops We're capped with a
o hood of glistening snow, through ra
e vines where the surging waters hardly
+ left us standing room, now making
bridges of felled trunks, now twisting
d ropes of tough lanes, now killing deer
for dinner and now taking a great de
light in rolling over spotted jagual
% who had marked one of us for his owl
meal.
1t was weary work, though, and there
10 We're times when we almost gave NJ
; the quest in despair, for often after {
o. long day of painful hacking and hew
Il ing we had to go all the way bacl
n again TO get round swampy moras
n. or precipitous ravine, The disheart
,e ening aimlessness Of our toll went yer,
re near to quenching the fires of the gold
ST en- beacon which each mans hope
held up before his eyes.
IA Occasionally we would come acros
n village of Caribs or other savages
ID and, though they generally shove,
y fight at first, as soon as they learne
N that we were enemies to the Spaniard
If they at oncesbecame as friendly as pos
y. sible. JOB Trehalion was our inter
.e prefer, for, having fancy for givin
"a orders to his servant in his own lar
III guage, he had picked up great dea
of the pagan speech on the voyage ou
ID and SO now by mixture of scrapp
"a sentences and dumb show he was abb
"A to parley with the sayages. AS non
"a of the resttof us knew a word of thei
a. talk, Job was immensely proud of hi
% accomplishment, and by dint Of pra,
ticing it on every possible occasion h
~ eventually became quite a good inte
~ prefer, or at least if he misinterprete
ra we were not competent to point out h
errors.
Il Weary, weary days they were, an
no utterly profitless seemed our scare
-, through these trackless forests. Ever
tribe of Indians we met made sigr
co that they knew Manoa and willingl
~ pointed out the direction in which the
thought it lay. but search alway
20. brought us to another village. who:
al. inhabitants would in their turn declal
no that the golden city lay in a wholly di
ferent direction.
And so we were sent to the vale
Y0nd the mountain chain. from it