ade up my mind that he could not live much longer. He
paid but little attention in these days to either Yamba or myself, and in
this condition he lingered on for a year or more.

One morning I went into the second hut--which we still called Gibson's,
by the way, although he had never lived there--when to my dismay and
horror (notwithstanding that I was prepared for the event), I beheld my
poor Bruno laid out stiff and stark on the little skin rug that Gibson
had originally made for him. I do not think I knew how much I loved him
until he was gone. As I stood there, with the tears coursing down my
cheeks, all the strange events of my wondrous career seemed to rise
before my mind--events in which poor dead Bruno always took an active
part. He was with me on the wreck; he was with me on the island; he was
with me in all my wanderings and through all my sufferings and triumphs.
He got me out of many a scrape, and his curious little eccentricities,
likes, and dislikes afforded me never-ending delight. But now he was
gone the way of all flesh; and although I had expected this blow for many
months, I do not think this mitigated my poignant grief. Yamba, too, was
terribly grieved at his death, for she had become most devotedly attached
to him and he to her. I rolled the body of the faithful creature in a
kind of preservative earth and then in an outer covering of bark. This
done I laid him on a shelf in one of the caves where the wild dogs could
not get at him, and where the body of Gibson, similarly treated, had also
been placed.

CHAPTER XVIII

I make a perambulator--Meeting with whites--A dreadful habit--The miracle
of Moses--Preparing a demonstration--An expectant audience--Yamba growing
feeble--One tie snapped--Yamba's pathetic efforts--Vain hopes--Yamba
dying--Nearing the end--My sole desire--A mass of gold--I seek trousers
and shirt--An interesting greeting--A startling question--Towards Mount
Margaret--The French Consul--I reach London.

I always felt instinctively that any attempt at missionary enterprise on
my part would be dangerous, and might besides afford jealous medicine-men
and other possible enemies an excellent opportunity of undermining my
influence.

Sometimes, however, when all the tribe was gathered together, I would
bring up the subject of cannibalism, and tell them that the Great Spirit
they feared so much had left with me a written message forbidding all
feasting off the bodies of h