152 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



a convicted comrade is taken down to Georgetown to execu- 

 tion, his friends and family realize only that he has gone 

 away in a boat to some mysterious place from which he never 

 returns. As far as the moral effect of an execution is con- 

 cerned, there is none. 



FIG. 73. FREDERICK, THE CARIB INDIAN BOY. 



Into the absolutely natural life of the Indian, with the 

 simple and perfectly comprehended tribal laws, has come so 

 much that is confusing; the new religion, the relations of 

 the laborer to the employer, the wearing of clothes and the 

 strange and powerful law. The Indian is a creature of 

 the present moment, instantly acting upon every desire, 

 working when he wishes to work, and quietly dropping 



