212 FEAR OF POISON. 



being flogged if discovered, they supplied me 

 with eggs, fowls, and sometimes butter-milk, 

 and never did I receive from them anything but 

 kindness and pity. 



My tormentor visited me daily during my ill- 

 ness, which lasted about eight days, and I could 

 not help thinking that he was watching like a 

 vulture for the moment that my breath left my 

 body, to be able to pounce upon my goods. I 

 was not at all afraid of his taking them by force, 

 as he knew that I had two barrels of gunpowder ; 

 and I had told him, that if he attempted such a 

 thing I would blow his whole town about his 

 ears-; nor was I apprehensive of his personal vio- 

 lence, as I felt convinced that he dare not at- 

 tempt it, from his superstitious dread of the 

 power of a white man ; but I must confess that 

 the thought of being poisoned haunted me in- 

 cessantly : it is a horrid, disagreeable, sickening 

 kind of feeling, the idea of being poisoned; but 

 unfortunately, it is very commonly practised by 

 the chiefs, and suits the cowardly nature of 

 tyrants. I used great precaution, taking care 

 always to cook my own victuals, as, after Sars- 

 field had left me, I had no one in whom I could 

 place any confidence. My boys were made so 



