ile he,
with passions worn out, recalling his many bad acts, and with a vivid
conviction of the truth of all he had been taught in early life--for
Nuflo was nothing if not religious--was now grown timid and desirous
only of making his peace with Heaven. This difference of disposition
made him morose and quarrelsome with his companions; and they would, he
said, have murdered him without remorse if he had not been so useful to
them. Their favourite plan was to hang about the neighbourhood of some
small isolated settlement, keeping a watch on it, and, when most of the
male inhabitants were absent, to swoop down on it and work their will.
Now, shortly after one of these raids it happened that a woman they had
carried off, becoming a burden to them, was flung into a river to the
alligators; but when being dragged down to the waterside she cast up
her eyes, and in a loud voice cried to God to execute vengeance on
her murderers. Nuflo affirmed that he took no part in this black deed;
nevertheless, the woman's dying appeal to Heaven preyed on his mind;
he feared that it might have won a hearing, and the "person" eventually
commissioned to execute vengeance--after the usual days, of course might
act on the principle of the old proverb: Tell me whom you are with, and
I will tell you what you are--and punish the innocent (himself to
wit) along with the guilty. But while thus anxious about his spiritual
interests, he was not yet prepared to break with his companions. He
thought it best to temporize, and succeeded in persuading them that it
would be unsafe to attack another Christian settlement for some time to
come; that in the interval they might find some pleasure, if no great
credit, by turning their attention to the Indians. The infidels, he
said, were God's natural enemies and fair game to the Christian. To
make a long story short, Nuflo's Christian band, after some successful
adventures, met with a reverse which reduced their number from nine
to five. Flying from their enemies, they sought safety at Riolama, an
uninhabited place, where they found it possible to exist for some weeks
on game, which was abundant, and wild fruits.

One day at noon, while ascending a mountain at the southern extremity
of the Riolama range in order to get a view of the country beyond the
summit, Nuflo and his companions discovered a cave; and finding it
dry, without animal occupants, and with a level floor, they at once
determined to make it their