1^6 TRAVELS through 



mals, fearing that they would likewife be 

 the caufe of his death*. Knowing the 

 genius of thefe people, I advifed the fol- 

 dier, whom the Indian looked upon as one 

 who had flain a deity, to pretend to be 

 drunk, and to do as if he would kill me 

 and his comrades. The Indians, not know- 

 ing that it was only a farce, were the 

 firft to cry out, that the white warrior -j- had 

 loft his wits. I aflced for cords to tie him ; 

 and as I fecmcd very angry with him, the 

 chiefs and the warriors came to intercede for 

 him, faying that it was a man who had loft 

 his fenfes by drinking; that the fame often 

 happened to the vtd men : in order to give 

 more colour to the impofture, I waited yet for 

 the Cacique's wife to beg me, and appeared 

 pacified in deference to her fex, which I re- 

 fpefted very much. 



I prefented the mailer of the fnake with 

 a bottle of brandy, to drown his grief. The 



Indians 



* I have fcen a peafant In France, who had killed an owl 

 on his neighbour's roof; and his father dying fome time af- 

 ter, he believed that his death was caufed by that bird of ill 

 prefage. 



f So they call our foldlers. 



