f the village; also he soon got to know the spots where game was most
likely to be found. Consequently after the first three or four days,
during which he was learning the country, he did quite as well as could
be reasonably expected, and frequently excited the cacique's admiration
by the quantity of meat which he contrived to bring in.

As for Phil, he was a Devon man, and consequently had acquired, almost
unconsciously, a considerable amount of knowledge regarding farming
matters, so that he found himself more than on a par with the Indians,
whose knowledge of agriculture was of the most elementary character;
also he understood the full value of system in the arrangement of work,
which the Indians did not. Consequently, by working systematically, and
making the women do their fair share, he found that he could do the work
which had been allotted to him, and still find time for his favourite
hobby of research.

It is not necessary to give a detailed description of our friends'
doings, day after day, during their sojourn with the Mayubuna Indians;
the above indication will enable the reader to picture the uneventful
sort of existence which they led; and it is only needful to add that so
well did the young Englishmen contrive matters that by the time that
they had been three months in the village the suspicion and distrust
with which they had at first been regarded had entirely disappeared, and
the Indians seemed to have gathered the impression that their white
prisoners had quite settled down and were content to spend the remainder
of their lives with them.

But it took fully three months to establish matters on this satisfactory
basis; and this brought the time on to what may be termed the winter
season; that is to say, the period of the year when, after a
long-continued spell of fine weather, during which the crops ripen and
are gathered in, the season of rain, wind, and violent thunderstorms
begins which is to soften, nourish, and invigorate the baked earth and
prepare it to bring forth the luxuriant vegetation of another summer.
And it was one of those violent thunderstorms which provided our friends
with the opportunity to escape for which they had been so long and so
patiently waiting.

The day had been unusually hot, to start with; and about noon the sky,
which had been clear during the earlier part of the day, had gradually
become veiled by a thick haze through which the sun revealed himself
with ever-incr