f this circumstance, a huge mat sail being
hoisted on the craft which must inevitably have capsized her had it
happened to jibe. From the sharp rushing sound of the water along the
sides and bottom of the canoe, and the swift strokes of the paddles, I
judged that we must be travelling through the water at a rapid rate, a
conjecture the truth of which was afterwards very disagreeably verified.
We sped on thus until sunset, when the sail was suddenly lowered and
with loud shouts, which were re-echoed from the shore, the canoe's
course was altered, the craft grounding a few minutes afterwards on a
beach where all hands of us landed.

Smellie and I were by this time quite able to walk, but before we could
set foot to the ground a couple of stalwart blacks were told off to each
of us, and we were carried along as before. On this occasion, however,
our journey was but a short one, not more, perhaps, than five or six
hundred yards altogether. Arrived, apparently, at our destination, we
were set down, and immediately bound with _llianos_ or monkey-rope to
the bole of a huge tree. Looking about us, we discovered that we were
in a native village of considerable size, built in a semicircular shape,
having in its centre a structure of considerable architectural
pretensions in a barbaric sort of way, which structure we conjectured--
from the presence of a hideous idol in front of it--must be a sort of
temple. Looking about us still further, we noticed that the remainder
of the prisoners were being bound to trees like ourselves. There was a
peculiarity about the disposition of the prisoners which I certainly did
not like; there might be no motive for it, but it struck me that our
being ranged in a semicircle in front of this idol had a rather sinister
appearance.

Having secured the prisoners to their satisfaction, our captors left us;
and we were speedily surrounded by a curious crowd consisting chiefly of
women and children, who came and stared persistently with open-mouthed
curiosity at the captives, and especially at Smellie and myself, greatly
attracted by the apparently novel sight of our white skins. The old
women were, for the most part, hideously ugly, wrinkled, and bent, their
grizzled wool plastered with grease and dirt, and their bodies
positively _encrusted_ with filth. The young women, on the other hand--
those, that is to say, whose ages seemed to range between thirteen and
sixteen or seventeen--were by no mea