THE BASIN. 



355 



himself along, and I believe that there could have 

 been no help from the Indians. 



This passage continued fifty or sixty feet, when 

 it doubled on itself, still contracted as before, and 

 still rapidly descending. It then enlarged to a rather 

 spacious cavern, and took a southwest direction, 

 after which there was another perpendicular hole, 

 leading, by means of a rude and rickety ladder, to 

 a steep, low, crooked, and crawling passage, de- 

 scending until it opened into a large broken cham- 

 ber, at one end of which was a deep hole or basin 

 of water. 



This account may not be perfectly accurate in all 

 the details, but it is not exaggerated. Probably 

 some of the turnings and windings, ascents and de- 

 scents, are omitted ; and the truest and most faith- 

 ful description that could be given of it would be 

 really the most extraordinary. 



The water was in a deep, stony basin, running 

 under a shelf of overhanging rock, with a pole laid 

 across on one side, over which the Indians leaned 

 to dip it up with their calabashes; and this alone, if 

 we had wanted other proof, was confirmation that 

 the place had been used as a well. 



But at the moment it was a matter of very little 

 consequence to us whether any living being had 

 ever drunk from it before ; the sight of it was more 

 welcome to us than gold or rubies. We were drip- 

 ping with sweat, black with smoke, and perishing 

 with thirst. It lay before us in its stony basin, 



