38 
Hamlet is Found. 
attracted to the light that was spreading far and wide. A thunder- 
storm having again burst at uiiidnight, all the Indians in the neighbour- 
hood were summoned next morning to lend us assistance in our search 
for the w^anderer who Avas probably already half dead with terror. The pro- 
mises we milde, for only then did they show themselves ready to help 
search for the Negro, gathered some 20 around ; with tlie result that, in- 
cluding our own people, we now formed a crowd of 50 nVen, divided into 
three parties : one of them, my brother leading, i-eturned the way Ave came, 
another, accompanied by Mr. Goodall, took a ]iath more to the uorthwai'd, 
while I, with the third, struclv a line in a soutlierly direction. It Avas 
arranged that we Avere to continue fii-ing a shot at sliort intervals so as 
to draw Hamlet's attention to the help that Avas a])proaching. 
145. iThe two other ]>artics were soon lost to siglit, and the sound 
of the üriug liecame A\eaker and Aveaker until it finally faded away 
altogether. With their nodding and laughing my Indians meant to 
infer that the Negro was not even Avortli the poAvder, that Avould be 
better spent in hunting tapir, hokko hens, etc: indeed, there Avere times 
Avhen I had to exert every effort of persuas'ion and the Avliole of my 
energies to prevent them turning l)ack. .'This general detestation of the 
Negro hj tlie Indians is remarkable, especially as it is not limiti'd to 
jiarticular localities, but is said to be spread in an equal degree through- 
out Brazil, Chili, and Peru. 
14:0. After Avading across swamps, creeping through brushAvood, 
eliiubing up hill and doAvn dale, scramibling oA^er rocks, and neglecting 
nothing that could let the lost mjfin knoAV that we Avere trying our 
best, I found myself forced about sundoAvn, when I Avas again attacked 
AA'ith a sharp bout of fever, to turn back. HoAVCATr stubborn the Indians 
shoAved themselves to be, they nevertheless applied their entire acumen 
later on, in learning Avhether the tracks diiscovered, — they were certainly 
quite unnoticeable by me — belonged to Hamlet, i.e., to those of a Negro: 
''Here's the footprint of an Indian; this is an Indian womian's; one Avho 
did not l>elong to our village passed along here" — yet the Avords so keenly 
aAvaited, "This is the Negro's" were never uttered. The discernment 
of the Indians in picking up foot-tracks indeed borders upon the marvel- 
lous. In damp grass I could have miade a bet that I Avould distingnish 
the footprints of a European, a Negro, and an Indian from one another, 
but to be able to recognise and classify them even upon rocks seemed to 
me to be almost second -sight. 
147. It Avas fairly dark by now when we got back to camp, where 
we found Mr. Goodall already arrived Avithout his having discovered 
the slightest trace of the AA'anderer. Half an hour later a loud noise 
indicated the return of the third, but at the same time successful, 
party. My brother, about six miles back, had found the poor devil in a 
most pitiable condition. The fonner had given w\) all hope of success, 
and was about making again for the settlement Avhen one of the Indians 
heard a distant call, Avhich they followed and so found tracks and Hamlet 
as Avell. Fright and exhaustion had Avorked such a poAverful effect upon 
him that mjj- brother at first thought he had gone mad, his absolutely 
incoherent phrases rapidly alternating Avith intense crying and most 
