re the sailors could take
advantage of this help or even so much as ship their oars, half a dozen
swarthy youths had waded out and, with shouts and gestures, whether of
welcome or hostility the Englishmen had no means of knowing, pushed it
high upon the beach. At once, then, for well they realized the danger
of delay, and with a stolid courage born of many a like adventure, the
seamen leaped fearlessly out upon the sand. In their hands they held
aloft bolts of brightly colored cloth snatched on the instant from the
bottom of the boat. These they offered for the wondering inspection of
the women who, observing the small number of invaders, were cautiously
returning. To the warriors grouped about the chief they proffered knives
of which the steel blades, set in strong handles of bone, glistened
in the sun. Eagerly, yet with a certain unexpected formality, the men
accepted these, passing them for examination from one to another with
many a grunt of satisfaction. To be sure, no brave among them but
might the next moment decide to try out the merits of his gift upon the
bestower, but this danger the adventurers had to risk. More timidly the
women, their eyes fixed wistfully upon the gaudy red and yellow cloth,
approached the strangers, offering in their turn bits of abalone shell
polished to iridescent beauty.

They seemed in truth a gentle, friendly people, so much so that at
length the sailors, deeming it safe to undertake the second part of
their errand, began to plead for water and to request, besides, an
interview between their captain and the chief. All this by means of
signs in which they displayed no little wit and skill, the Englishmen
accomplished until, well on toward the middle of the morning, they made
ready to return to the ship, the casks they had brought brimming with
sweet mountain water, while with them they bore as well the promise of
an interview of state between the great chief Torquam and Sir Francis
Drake, to take place upon the beach at sunset.

And then at once the little village of Toyobet seethed again with
excitement. For these good paleface friends and their god-like commander
a fitting welcome must be prepared. Fleet-footed messengers, bearing
flaming torches, sped in hot haste along the mountain trails that all
who saw might know without words spoken of the assembling of the tribe.
To the distant village at the isthmus they hurried, and to the cove on
the western coast, some twenty miles away,