NEAVS OF FACUNDO^S DEATH 191 



I have no doubt that my illness was the cause of the 

 Indians abandoning us, for these people have a horror of 

 being in the presence of death. Strangely enough, Maite 

 did not accompany them, but remained vi^ith us. 



The men who had gone with Facundo to La Prision 

 returned on the 17th (January). Isidor and Vicente came 

 with them, having decided, I suppose, that I was either 

 dead and buried or convalescent ; so that in either case 

 they had nothing to fear. Their arrival was the cause of a 

 good deal of commotion in our camp, as they reached Pozo 

 Bravo late at night, long after the men had retired to rest, 

 and they bore down upon the island shouting and yelling 

 in true warlike fashion. The men, awakened from their 

 slumbers in this unceremonious manner, believed that we 

 were being attacked by all the Taparitos on the Nichare, 

 and they rushed about looking for their guns and cut- 

 lasses in the wildest confusion. Isidor and his companions, 

 when they realised that they were being mistaken for a 

 hostile invasion, promptly and emphatically declared who 

 they were, which was a thoughtful proceeding on their 

 part. After the commotion occasioned by the return of 

 the Waiomgomo prodigals had subsided, Isidor paid me 

 a visit and gave me the news. Of course no allusion was 

 made to his defection. Even if I had had the desire I 

 did not have the strength to quarrel with him over the 

 matter, and what does one ever gain by quarrelling with 

 a man over his religious scruples or superstitious fears ? 

 Besides, he had wisely thought of bringing a present of 

 eggs and fresh provisions tastefully arranged in a basket, 

 which he handed me with so much grace while he came 

 to my hammock and anxiously asked how I felt, that I 

 could not do anything else but thank him for his present. 

 He told me of Facundo's death and related incidents of 



