THE MULATTO NARCISSUS. 297 



led, perhaps, to their being judged too severely ; for in 

 other respects they are not so vicious as some travellers 

 have pretended. 



" But to be brief : I placed the poor boy in one of my 

 vehicles, and gave him some doses of quinine, and other 

 remedies. At the end of a few days, he trotted and 

 gambolled about as if he had never been ill." 



" Then you saved his life," I observed, " before he 

 saved yours 1 " 



" Probably," answered Mr. Jeffrey ; " though his 

 wound might, perhaps, have healed of itself, if I had not 

 found him on my road. The mulattoes are singularly 

 tenacious of life. It requires long fasts and terrible 

 diseases to drive them out of the world ; but listen while 

 I tell you how Narcissus showed his gratitude : 



"I had set out en route for Santa Fe, with two 

 waggons, and about a dozen servants. Two of the latter 

 were blacks, who had come from the Mozambique coast ; 

 the others, Canadians, whom I took into my service after 

 my departure. The majority of them I had picked up at 

 St. Louis. These men were tolerably well acquainted 

 with their work ; they had acquired quite a singular 

 topographical knowledge of the country I was about to 

 traverse ; they could, therefore, assist me in guiding the 

 cattle; and often I started them in pursuit of game, 

 whose scent they followed up with admirable accuracy. 



" But if they knew the country well, I must confess 

 that they required my constant surveillance. Nature 

 had cursed them with an excessive poltroonery, and 

 though several knew how to handle fire-arms, I could 

 never persuade them to confront, with any degree of 



