170 Travels and Adventures 



Apart from the vacant air of the untaught man of 

 the woods, he had no savage look, and when left to 

 himself in his own native haunts I should think he was 

 good-natured. We took away his weapons, and then 

 left him to return to his companions. In a moment 

 he was off with a bound like a deer, and that was the 

 last I saw of the Opon Indians. We quickly made a 

 suitable resting-place for our dead companion, and 

 however loath we were to leave him there, we had no 

 remedy. Loosing our canoe from its moorings, in less 

 than two days the rapid stream landed us in the 

 waters of the Magdalena ; and for the future, how- 

 ever much I may covet the orchid gems of the head- 

 waters of the Opon, they must remain there for my 

 part until the last red man has disappeared from his 

 territory. 



