days afterwards we packed up our baggage, and took farewell
of our hosts. We shaped our course towards the Indian cemetery. In
the first graves which we opened we found the bones decayed in part,
and I could only procure two skulls, which were not worth the danger
to which they exposed us. However, we continued our researches, and
towards the close of the day discovered the remains of a woman, who,
from the position of the body in the grave, must have been buried
before her death. The bones were still covered with skin; but the
body was dry, and almost like a mummy. This was a fit subject. We
had taken the body out of the grave, and were beginning to pack it
up piece by piece into a sack, when we heard small shrill cries at a
distance. The Ajetas were coming upon us, and there was no time to be
lost. We seized our prize and started off as quick as possible. We had
not got a hundred yards, when we heard the arrows whistling about our
ears. The Ajetas, perched on the tops of the trees, waited for us and
attacked us, without our having any means of defence. Fortunately night
came to our aid; their arrows, usually so sure, were badly directed,
and did not touch us. While escaping we fired a gun to frighten them,
and were soon able to leave them far behind, without having received
any other injury than the alarm, and a sufficient notice of the danger
to be encountered in disturbing the repose of their dead. On emerging
from the wood, some drops of blood caused me to remark a slight
scratch on the forefinger of my right hand; I attributed this to the
hurry of my flight, and did not trouble myself much about it, as was
my practice with trifles, but continued my march towards the sea-shore.

We still retained the skeleton, which we laid on the sandy beach,
as well as our haversacks and guns, and sat down to rest after the
fatigue of the journey. My companions then began to make reflections
on our position, and my lieutenant, inspired by his affection for me,
and his sense of the danger we were exposed to, addressed me in the
following strain:

"Oh, master! what have we done, and what is to become of us? To-morrow
morning the enraged Ajetas will come to attack us for the execrable
booty which we have carried off from them at the risk of our lives. If
they would attack in the open ground, with our guns we might defend
ourselves; but what can one do against those animals, perched here
and there like monkeys in the top branches o