sitors. The
crowd generally were densely packed round the sides of the quadrangle,
the middle being kept clear by a line of armed men who maintained order
by the free use of their heavy clubs, which they unhesitatingly drove
into the pit of the stomach of any unauthorised person who displayed an
undue eagerness to get a good view of the impending proceedings. In the
middle of the clear space sat the cacique of the village, with two men,
apparently visitors, on either side of him; and a little apart from
these stood two other men, one of whom Phil immediately recognised as
having been in one of the canoes which had attempted to bar their
progress up the river.

A little murmur of excited expectancy, perhaps mingled with wonder,
swept through the crowd as the two prisoners were led forward and halted
in front of the cacique; but it quickly died away and an intense silence
ensued, which was presently broken by the cacique, who, addressing
Stukely, said:

"White man, whence come you, and whither were you going when you strove
to force a passage up the river on the evening of the day before last?"

"We come," replied Phil, "from an island far away across the Great
Water; so far that we were voyaging a whole moon and more without sight
of land; and our business is to fight the Spaniard, who is our enemy, as
well as that of the Indian. Twice have we fought him already; once on
the Great Water, where we took from him one of his great canoes; and
once again in one of his towns, far away to the north, where we took
another of his great canoes, with much gold of which he had robbed the
Indian. But by a mischance my friend and I were left behind when our
comrades sailed away; and for a time we were in danger of falling into
the hands of the Spaniard. Then we escaped from them, but, having no
canoe big enough to take us across the Great Water, we were obliged to
remain in this land; and, having heard that there are many Spaniards in
the land lying to the southward, we determined to seek them out and take
from them as much as we can get of the gold which they have
unrighteously taken from the Indians."

"If that story be true, why did ye not tell it us instead of slaying
many of my people, one of them by an arrow from your bow, and the rest
by the jaws of the caimans?" demanded the cacique.

"Nay, why ask a question of which you yourself know the answer?"
retorted Phil. "For you were in one of the canoes, and saw and heard