44 
A TRIBE OF ISATIVES. 
Continuing our journey on the following morning, vve 
at first kept on the banks of the creek, and at about a 
quarter of a mile from where we had slept, came upon a 
numerous tribe of natives. A young girl sitting by the fire 
was the first to observe us as we were slowly approaching 
her. She was so excessively alarmed, that she had not the 
power to run away 5 but threw herself on the ground and 
screamed violently. We now observed a number of huts, 
out of which the natives issued, little dreaming of the spec- 
tacle they were to behold. But the moment they saw us, 
they started back; their huts were in a moment in flames, 
and each with a fire-brand ran to and fro with hideous yells, 
thrusting them into every bush they passed. I walked 
my horse quietly towards an old man who stood more for- 
ward than the rest, as if he intended to devote himself for 
the preservation of his tribe. I had intended speaking to 
him, but on a nearer approach I remarked that he trembled 
so violently that it was impossible to expect that I could 
obtain any information from him, and as 1 had not time 
for explanations, I left him to form his own conjectures as 
to what we were, and continued to move towards a thick 
brush, into which they did not venture to follow us. 
After a ride of about eighteen miles, through a country of 
alternate plain and brush, we struck upon a second creek lead- 
ing like the first to the northward. The water in it was 
very bitter and muddy, and it was much inferior in appear- 
ance to that at which we had slept. After stopping for 
half-an-hour upon its banks, to rest our animals, we again 
