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NARRATIVE OP A 



could serve as a substitute ; nor could they be boiled, for 

 there was no salt, and, as one of the soldiers said, " El que 

 come un huevo sin sal, se comeria a su madre," (He that 

 would eat an egg without salt, would eat his mother.) 



Scarcely was this difficulty surmounted, when another 

 occurred. Night was coming on apace, and we had no 

 candles, nor any other light but that of the fire, which 

 was insufficient to enable me to make a memorandum of 

 the incidents which I am now recording. I represented 

 the case to mine host, and succeeded in making him com- 

 prehend that I wanted something to make a light with ; 

 but his answer was, as before, managh, managh. My 

 asistente now hinted to me, that unless I used threats, I 

 should never succeed, as nothing was to be got from an 

 Indian by fair means. This, however, I refused to do, 

 and it was all the better in the end ; for while these re- 

 marks were being made, the Indian had hit upon the 

 means of complying with my wishes. Making me a sign 

 to wait a little, he left the hut, and returned soon after 

 with a bundle of pine knots under his arm. One of these 

 he kindled at the fire, and seeing it emit a bright and 

 steady flame, he held it up before me with a smile. 



It now only remained to devise some means of fixing 

 this light in such a way as to render it unnecessary for 

 any of the men to hold it while I was writing. This new 

 difficulty was soon disposed of by my asistente, who, cast- 

 ing his eyes round, and seeing a little Indian about ten 

 years old, who had put his head in at the door of the hut, 

 and was gazing on us with a look of wonderment, went 

 and seized him by the collar, and planting him beside me, 

 said, " here is a candlestick." He then put the pine knot 

 into the child's hand, and shaking his finger at him, bade 

 him hold himself upright, and not to budge. The little 

 fellow, who had already learnt to yield passive obedience 

 to the white man, exhibited on the occasion the docility 

 peculiar to his race ; and there he stood for more than 

 half an hour, as motionless as a statue, and almost afraid 



