the Indians, and told them that they must obey
the hermit as their king, and settle there as best they could: for if
they broke up and wandered away, nothing was left for them but to fall
one by one into the hands of the Spaniards. They heard him with their
usual melancholy and stupid acquiescence, and went and came as they were
bid, like animated machines; but the negroes were of a different temper;
and four or five stout fellows gave Amyas to understand that they had
been warriors in their own country, and that warriors they would be
still; and nothing should keep them from Spaniard-hunting. Amyas saw
that the presence of these desperadoes in the new colony would both
endanger the authority of the hermit, and bring the Spaniards down
upon it in a few weeks; so, making a virtue of necessity, he asked them
whether they would go Spaniard-hunting with him.

This was just what the bold Coromantees wished for; they grinned and
shouted their delight at serving under so great a warrior, and then set
to work most gallantly, getting through more in the day than any ten
Indians, and indeed than any two Englishmen.

So went on several days, during which the trees were felled, and the
process of digging them out began; while Ayacanora, silent and moody,
wandered into the woods all day with her blow-gun, and brought home
at evening a load of parrots, monkeys, and curassows; two or three old
hands were sent out to hunt likewise; so that, what with the game and
the fish of the river, which seemed inexhaustible, and the fruit of the
neighboring palm-trees, there was no lack of food in the camp. But what
to do with Ayacanora weighed heavily on the mind of Amyas. He opened his
heart on the matter to the old hermit, and asked him whether he would
take charge of her. The latter smiled, and shook his head at the notion.
"If your report of her be true, I may as well take in hand to tame a
jaguar." However, he promised to try; and one evening, as they were
all standing together before the mouth of the cave, Ayacanora came up
smiling with the fruit of her day's sport; and Amyas, thinking this a
fit opportunity, began a carefully prepared harangue to her, which he
intended to be altogether soothing, and even pathetic,--to the effect
that the maiden, having no parents, was to look upon this good old man
as her father; that he would instruct her in the white man's religion
(at which promise Yeo, as a good Protestant, winced a good deal), and
te