awned, when we could
hardly distinguish the island we had left, and found ourselves about
five miles from the mainland. We had now time to examine the contents
of the canoe, and had much reason to be gratified with our
acquisition. It had three bear-skins at the bottom, several pounds of
yams, cooked and uncooked, two calabashes full of water, bows and
arrows, three spears, a tomahawk, three fishing-lines and hooks, and
some little gourds full of black, white, and red paint; and what we
prized more than all, some flints and a large rusty nail, with rotten
wood to serve as tinder.

"We are fortunate," said the captain; "now, before we pull in for the
shore we must paint ourselves like Indians; at all events, you must
black yourself, as you have no shirt, and I must do the same, although
I do not require it so much as you do."

"Let us have something to eat and drink first," replied I, "and we
will proceed to our toilet afterwards."

CHAPTER XVII.

My adventures with the Indians, with what happened to
the Portuguese Captain, my companion.

Having eaten some venison, and drunk out of the calabash, the captain
painted me black, with here and there a line of red and white on the
face and shoulders. I performed the same duty towards him, and we then
resumed our paddles, and pushed in a slanting direction for the shore.
The tide now ran down against us, and we could hardly stem it, and
finding ourselves opposite a beach clear of trees for a quarter of a
mile, we agreed to run on shore to look for a large stone. We soon
found one which answered our purpose, and paddling off again to three
or four hundred yards, we made the stone fast to the bow-rope of our
boat, and anchored the canoe with it. Having succeeded in this, we got
out the fishing-lines, and with a piece of raw meat as a bait, we soon
had several fish in the canoe; after which we put on no more baits,
but pretended to fish till the tide slacked, when we lifted our anchor
and recommenced our paddling to the northward.

At night we landed on a rock, close to the beach, having well
reconnoitred before it was dark to see if there were any canoes or
Indians to be seen on the shore; and thus we continued for five days,
during which we passed the mouths of one or two rivers, and had
gained, as we supposed, more than 150 miles along the coast, but how
much to the northward we could not tell, as we followed the windings
of the shore. We were twice obli