abolical treatment to
which the Indians were exposed.

The party now pressed still further into the forest and, turning up
a ravine, followed its windings for some distance; and then,
passing through an exceedingly narrow gorge, reached a charming
little valley; in which were some rough huts, showing that the
residence of at least a portion of the runaways had been reached.

Here, for some time, life passed uneventfully with the boys. Their
first care was to study sufficient of the language of the natives
to enable them to hold converse with them, for it was clear to them
that they might have to stop there for some considerable time.
Their food consisted of roots, of wild fruit, and of yams; which
the natives cultivated in small, scattered plots of ground. Many
birds, too, were brought in, the natives bringing them down with
small darts. They were able to throw their light spears with
extreme precision, and often pierced the larger kinds of birds, as
they sat upon the boughs of trees, with these weapons, before they
could open their wings for flight. With bows and arrows, too, they
were able to shoot with great accuracy; and the boys felt sure
that, if properly led, they would be able to make a stout
resistance to the Spaniards.

They heard, several times during the first three weeks of their
sojourn there, of raids made by small parties of the Spaniards; but
in none of these cases were the searchers successful in finding
traces of the fugitive slaves, nor did they come into the part of
the wood in which was the village which served as headquarters of
the negroes.

At the end of three weeks, the boys accompanied a party of their
friends to other points at which the fugitives were gathered.
Altogether they found that, in that part of the island, there were
some hundreds of natives, with about forty or fifty runaway
negroes. Through the latter, the boys explained to the natives that
they ought to build strong places to which, in case of necessity,
they could retreat, and where they could offer a desperate
resistance to the enemy. The extreme roughness of the ground, the
deep ravines and precipices, were all favorable for defense; and
although they could not hope to make a permanent resistance to a
large armed force, yet they might easily resist small parties, and
then make good their retreat before large reinforcements could
arrive.

The negroes expressed their approval of the plans, but the Indians
shook their h