o them grievous harm if
they displeased you. But if they knew that you were a man like
themselves, cast by chance upon their shores, they would perhaps
make you a slave, or might put you to death in one of the temples.
Therefore, on this subject be always silent. When the chief asks
you questions, shake your head, and say that these things cannot be
spoken of, and that it might bring down the anger of the gods, were
their secret told."

The advice seemed good to Roger, and he followed it. Now that he
was able to talk in his language, the chief soon plied him with
questions as to whence he had come. But Roger always shook his head
when the subject was approached, and said:

"It is not good to talk of these things. Evil might come to the
land. I am here, and that is enough. I will tell you many things
about other people, who live far over the sea, and who are very
great and powerful. When they go out they sit upon great animals,
which carry them easily, at a speed much exceeding that at which a
man can run. They live in lofty dwellings and, when they go to war,
are covered with an armor, made of a metal so strong that arrows
would not pierce it nor swords cut it. They traverse the sea in
floating castles; and when they want to convey their thought to
others, many days' journey away, they make marks upon a thin white
stuff they call paper, and send it by a messenger, and these marks
tell him who receives it what the writer's thoughts are, just the
same as if he had spoken in their ears."

The hearing of such wonders as these reconciled the chief to his
disappointment at not learning more about his visitor. The knife
Roger had given him was a never-ending source of wonder to the
cazique, and those whom he permitted to inspect it. Gold and silver
and copper they knew, and also tin, which they used for hardening
the copper. But this new metal was altogether strange to them. It
enormously exceeded copper in strength and hardness. Its edge did
not, like that of their own weapons, blunt with usage, and they
could well understand that, if armor could be formed of it, it
would be altogether unpierceable.

For a time Roger was every day at the chief's house, and his
narration afforded astonishment and wonder to the audiences that
gathered round him. At the same time, Roger perceived that a
difference of opinion existed, among the principal men, concerning
him. Some believed, as at first, in his supernatural origin, and
credi