314 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



intelligence that it was unoccupied. From the 

 branches of a neighbouring cypress, the two girls 

 now stripped quantities of Spanish moss, wherewith 

 they speedily composed a soft and luxurious bed in 

 the interior of the cotton-tree. This done, they rolled 

 blocks of wood and fragments of trees to the entrance 

 apparently to form a rampart against the nocturnal 

 intrusion of bear or panther. These preparations 

 completed, they returned to the wounded man. Can- 

 ondah passed her left arm under his legs, and signed 

 to Rosa to grasp her hand, whilst their arms should 

 serve as a support to his back. Rosa blushed and 

 hesitated. 



"Does the White Rose," said Canondah, "fear to 

 touch her brother, for whose life she was lately so 

 anxious ] " 



For sole reply, the young girl took her friend's 

 hand, and raising the stranger from the ground, they 

 carried him to the hollow tree, and laid him down 

 upon his mossy couch. 



" When the earth is covered with darkness," said 

 Canondah, bending over him, "Canondah will visit 

 her brother, and pour balsam into his Avounds." 



But her words were unmarked by the person ad- 

 dressed, who, with the exception of a faint breathing, 

 gave no sign of life. The two maidens struck into 

 the path by which they had first approached the river, 

 and along which we will now precede them in order 

 to introduce the reader into an entirely new world. 



