266 Letters from Mr. J. Graham Kerr. 



on board we numbered only seven, able-bodied men^ a force 

 which could, of course, have made practically no resistance 

 in the event of hostile Indians making their appearance. 

 And no soouer had Page left than we became aware that not 

 only were there Indians about, but that they were not afraid 

 to come very close. The night following Pagers departure 

 the carpenter had left his tools on his bench close by the 

 boat — several axes, box of nails, &c. In the morning all 

 these and a lot of clothes, which had been hanging out to 

 dry, had disappeared, while a short distance off we found in 

 the soft mud the footprints of heavily-laden Indians. Until 

 the beginning of September matters passed off uneventfully, 

 except that all of us, with one exception, were getting very 

 thin and exceedingly weak, owing to the starvation rations 

 of food. Our lives were, I believe, saved at this period 

 by our being able to kill a considerable number of the 

 large deer, Cervus paludosus, upon which we fed for about 

 two months. Upon Sept. 8th our doctor, Luigi Vignoli, an 

 intelligent young Italian, who had been ailing for some time 

 from the after effects of malarial fever, died, a victim 

 to the bad food and to the shocking ill-treatment which he had 

 received. Our already small number was thus still further 

 reduced, and we were all getting into such a condition that 

 we could not expect to last much longer. For a long time I 

 was scarcely able to walk a hundred yards without stopping 

 to rest. Upon Sept. 18th Indians appeared openly — only a 

 dozen of them. They appeared friendly, and we did some 

 little bartering with them. They stayed a couple of days, 

 and promised to come back the next moon, bringing many of 

 their " brothers.'^ However, before that time came we were 

 extricated from all our difficulties, when we had almost lost 

 all hope. For on the morning of Oct. 4th we suddenly were 

 surprised by a bugle-call close at hand, without any warning 

 whatever, and a few minutes later a detachment of Argen- 

 tine cavalry appeared, who had been sent off" to our help, 

 bringing a supply of live bullocks. They brought us a cer- 

 tain amount of news : how Page had died on his way down 

 stream, and that the expedition was consequently at an end ; 



