May.] EXCURSION INTO THE INTERIOR 87 



weapons were muskets, pistols, and cutlasses, and our provisions a 

 week's supply of bread, as we trusted to our arms for venison and 

 poultry ; and I had never known them to deceive me, if any thing came 

 within musket or pistol distance. We took a west-north-west course 

 by compass, and travelled several miles without seeing such game as 

 we considered worthy the honour of a civilized death, by powder and 

 ball. Our vigilance, however, began to sharpen with our appetites ; so 

 that before nine o'clock we had sufficient fresh meat for a much larger 

 party, having killed a fine deer and two guanacoes. 



We now selected our quarters for the night on the bank of a fresh- 

 water rivulet, where there was but very little underbrush ; but where 

 the forest trees grew to a great height, interweaving their thick and lofty 

 branches so closely, that had there been a noon-day sun over our 

 heads, we should hardly have been sensible of it. While my com- 

 panions were employed in skinning our game, I was busy in building 

 a fire ; which, as there was no want of fuel, was soon large enough to 

 have barbacued an ox. A saddle of one of the guanacoes was soon 

 spitted and suspended, in the gipsy style, on the windward side of our 

 flaming volcano, where we contrived to present every side to the in- 

 fluence of the heat until it was fit for the table. The fat, of course, 

 was mostly wasted, except so much of it as we caught with our bread. 

 Each of us being supplied with pepper, salt, and a good appetite, it 

 must have been our own fault if we did not enjoy a good supper, equal 

 lo the best roast mutton I ever tasted. 



After giving our dogs a share of the supper, and having piled on 

 about two cartloads of wood, we all stretched our weary limbs and 

 bodies by the fire, with each a bunch of dry autumnal leaves for a 

 pillow. Thus moored, as we thought, for the night, we soon fell 

 asleep, each with one hand on a pistol, with as much composure as if 

 we had been in bed at the far distant homes of which we were dreaming. 



We slept very soundly until about midnight, when we were suddenly 

 alarmed by the distant barking of our dogs. In a moment every man 

 was on his feet, with his firearms in his hands, primed and cocked. 

 The dogs continued to bark, and the sound evidently approached nearer 

 and nearer. A rustling noise was now heard in the underbrush. Every 

 one was prepared for the approaching crisis, with an undaunted front, 

 and his finger on the trigger of his musket. At this moment of anx- 

 ious suspense, there suddenly appeared before us — one of our dogs, 

 with a small gray fox in his custody, which had been surprised and 

 captured while in the very act of approaching our fire ! 



After caressing and rewarding these faithful animals for their 

 vigilance and fidelity, we again " addressed ourselves to sleep ;" but 

 in about two nours, we were again alarmed in the same manner, and 

 with a like result, viz. another gray fox. Finding our repose thus 

 liable to be constantly broken, we concluded to sleep no more. We 

 therefore resumed our journey towards that stupendous range of moun- 

 tains which extends through more than seventy degrees of latitude, or 

 about four thousand three hundred miles ! 



May 4th. — It was now Sunday morning, and we still travelled by 

 compass in the direction of west-north-west, as nearly as we could lay 



