100 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



once more : here one of them, a youth named Da- 

 mian, began to exclaim that he was getting tired, 

 and would sink unless Marcos would save him. 

 Marcos told him to save himself if he could ; then 

 Damian, bitterly reproaching him for his selfish- 

 ness, declared that he would swim back to the 

 side they had started from and give himself up 

 to the Indians. Naturally they made no objection, 

 being unable to help him; and so Damian left 

 them, and when the Indians saw him approaching 

 they got off their horses and came down to the 

 margin, their lances in their hands. Of course 

 Damian knew right well that savages seldom bur- 

 den themselves with a male captive when they 

 happen to be out on the war-path; but he was a 

 clever boy, and though death by steel was more 

 painful than death by drowning, there was still a 

 faint chance that his captors might have compas- 

 sion on him. He began, in fact, to appeal to their 

 mercy from the moment he abandoned his com- 

 panions. ''Indians! friends! brothers!" he 

 shouted aloud from the water. ' ' Do not kill me : 

 in heart I am an Indian like one of yourselves, and 

 no Christian. My skin is white, I know; but I hate 

 my own race, to escape from them has always been 

 my one desire. To live with the Indians I love, 

 in the desert, that is the only wish of my heart. 

 Spare me, brothers, take me with you, and I will 

 serve you all my life. Let me live with you, hunt 

 with you, fight with you especially against the 

 hated Christians." 



