f they liked, write out their laws for them
in a book, and so give their customs cohesion and shape. To this plan
the tribes readily agreed; it retained all the former customs, it left
the chiefs their simple patriarchal authority, and it gave all of them
the advantage of combination in war. As the Leader, Felix was henceforth
known.

In the course of a fortnight, upwards of six thousand men had joined the
Confederacy, and Felix wrote down the names of twenty tribes on a sheet
of parchment which he took from his chest. A hut had long since been
built for him; but he received all the deputations, and held the
assemblies which were necessary, in the circular fort. He was so pressed
to visit the tribes that he could not refuse to go to the nearest, and
thus his journey was again postponed. During this progress from tribal
camp to tribal camp, Felix gained the adhesion of twelve more, making a
total of thirty-two names of camps, representing about eight thousand
spearmen. With pride Felix reflected that he commanded a far larger army
than the Prince of Ponze. But he was not happy.

Months had now elapsed since he had parted from Aurora. There were no
means of communicating with her. A letter could be conveyed only by a
special messenger; he could not get a messenger, and even if one had
been forthcoming, he could not instruct him how to reach Thyma Castle.
He did not know himself; the country was entirely unexplored. Except
that the direction was west, he had no knowledge whatever. He had often
inquired of the shepherds, but they were perfectly ignorant. Anker's
Gate was the most westerly of all their settlements, which chiefly
extended eastwards. Beyond Anker's Gate was the trackless forest, of
which none but the Bushmen knew anything. They did not understand what
he meant by a map; all they could tell him was that the range of
mountainous hills continued westerly and southerly for an unascertained
distance, and that the country was uninhabited except by wandering gipsy
tribes.

South was the sea, the salt water; but they never went down to it, or
near it, because there was no sustenance for their flocks and herds.
Till now, Felix did not know that he was near the sea; he resolved at
once to visit it. As nearly as he could discover, the great fresh water
Lake did not reach any farther south; Wolfstead was not far from its
southern margin. He concluded, therefore, that the shore of the Lake
must run continually westward,