222 ANECDOTES 



unplcasing ; though doubtless it owed much of its 

 efi'ect to the concomitant circumstances. The rude 

 savage — separated from all his former companions, 

 made at once an intimate and familiar witness of 

 some of the wonders of civilization, carried by his 

 new comrades to their very country, and brought face 

 to face with his traditionary foes, the dreaded "north- 

 ern men," and now returning to recount to his yet 

 ruder brethren the wonders he had witnessed — 

 could not fail to interest the least imaginative. 



Yet Miago had a decided and most inexplicable 

 advantage overall on board, and that in a matter espe- 

 cially relating to the science of navigation : he could 

 indicate at once and correctly the exact direction of 

 our wished-for harbour, when neither sun nor stars 

 were shining to assist him. He was tried frequently, 

 and under very varying circumstances, but strange 

 as it may seem, he was invariably right. This 

 faculty — though somewhat analogous to one I have 

 heard ascribed to the natives of North America — 

 had very much surprised me when exercised on 

 shore, but at sea, out of the sight of land, it seemed 

 beyond belief, as assuredly it is beyond explanation: 

 but I have sometimes thought that some such power 

 must have been possessed by those adventurous sea- 

 men who, long before the discovery of the compass, 

 ventured upon distant and hazardous voyages. 



I used sometimes, as we approached" the land of 

 his nativity, to question him upon the account he 

 intended to give his friends of the scenes he had wit- 



