ut end: and if it were
not for the gnats (of which Cary said that there were more mosquitoes
than there was air), they should be the happiest men alive. Amyas could
hardly blame the poor fellows; for the chance of their getting home
through the forest with one leg each was very small, and, after all,
they were making the best of a bad matter. And a very bad matter it
seemed to him, to be left in a heathen land; and a still worse matter,
when he overheard some of the men talking about their comrades' lonely
fate, as if, after all, they were not so much to be pitied. He said
nothing about it then, for he made a rule never to take notice of any
facts which he got at by eavesdropping, however unintentional; but he
longed that one of them would say as much to him, and he would "give
them a piece of his mind." And a piece of his mind he had to give within
the week; for while he was on a hunting party, two of his men were
missing, and were not heard of for some days; at the end of which time
the old cacique come to tell him that he believed they had taken to the
forest, each with an Indian girl.

Amyas was very wroth at the news. First, because it had never happened
before: he could say with honest pride, as Raleigh did afterwards when
he returned from his Guiana voyage, that no Indian woman had ever been
the worse for any man of his. He had preached on this point month after
month, and practised what he preached; and now his pride was sorely
hurt.

Moreover, he dreaded offence to the Indians themselves: but on this
score the cacique soon comforted him, telling him that the girls, as far
as he could find, had gone off of their own free will; intimating that
he thought it somewhat an honor to the tribe that they had found favor
in the eyes of the bearded men; and moreover, that late wars had so
thinned the ranks of their men, that they were glad enough to find
husbands for their maidens, and had been driven of late years to kill
many of their female infants. This sad story, common perhaps to every
American tribe, and one of the chief causes of their extermination,
reassured Amyas somewhat: but he could not stomach either the loss of
his men, or their breach of discipline; and look for them he would. Did
any one know where they were? If the tribe knew, they did not care to
tell: but Ayacanora, the moment she found out his wishes, vanished into
the forest, and returned in two days, saying that she had found the
fugitives; but s