100 DOWN THE RIVER. 



All these form such a strange admixture of sounds, as can only be heard 

 in such a scene, and at such a time as I have attempted to describe. 



I wait here until the blacks have returned, and then walk over to their 

 camp. Fragments of fish and bones are strewed around, and the dogs are 

 engaged in the somewhat difficult process of eating them. Their owner 

 and his two friends are busy at a game of cards — such cards ! The pack 

 is evidently imperfect, and begrimed with dirt, but the players are quite 

 satisfied, and deal them round with the utmost gravity. I have often 

 watched the blacks on former occasions, but could never for the life of 

 me discover what game they were playing, or whether they were guided 

 by any rules, and I was ultimately obliged to come to the conclusion that 

 the smartest man took up the trick. As each played when he thought 

 fit, it would frequently happen that one would be left without any cards 

 in his hand, but noways disconcerted, he would quietly watch the others 

 until the next deal. However, they scorn the idea of playing '%r love," 

 and indeed have as aristocratic a taste for gambling as if they had been 

 born in Belgravia. It is not considered at all necessary that the stakes 

 should approximate in value, each man stakes what he has got — one a 

 pipe, another a knife, and another a pair of trowsers, and the fortunate 

 winner takes up the stakes, to the perfect contentment of the losers. 



When the game is finished I seat myself by the fire, and Ramrod and 

 I engage in an animated conversation. He tells me that, many years ago, 

 he camped with his tribe on this very spot, on a fishing excursion down 

 the river, when he was a little piccaninny, which I guess to be about 

 forty years ago; and that here he saw, for the first time, a white man. 

 I wish I could imitate his graphic description, spoken in that peculiar 

 patois commonly called "broken English," which is adopted in all com- 

 munications with the blacks. It was nearly sundown when one of the 

 women discovered a human being walking towards them along the sea-shore; 

 with a yell of terror the whole tribe, men, women, and children, plunged 

 into the lake, and swam across; but Ramrod being unable to follow, hid 

 himself amongst the tall reeds, and watched with breathless interest the 

 proceedings of the stranger. 



Attracted by the smoke of the fires the white man came up to the 

 camp, and greedily devoured the half cooked fish which the natives had 

 left in their precipitate retreat. Doubtless he was some poor mariner whose 

 vessel had been wrecked on the coast, and was now endeavouring to make 

 his way to Sidney, distant some two hundred and fifty miles. His clothes 

 were torn to rags, he was footsore and weary. Ramrod with that talent 

 of mimicry peculiar to all savages, illustrated his condition by hobbling 

 backwards and forwards in front of the fire, elongating his face to describe 

 the white man's gaunt look, and casting quick and frightened glances on 



