He told me how he had been frightened up the tree by the wolves,
and that, having lost his gun and his flint, he had no means of
defending himself, or of lighting a fire, and should certainly have
perished had I not come to his aid. Having assisted him down, I led him
towards the river, where he quenched his thirst.

We made but little progress that day, for Pablo was ill able to walk;
so, having reached a spot where we could obtain sufficient bark and wood
to build a hut and keep up a blazing fire all night, we encamped.
Leaving Pablo to finish the hut, I set off in search of game. I brought
down two black squirrels; and I afterwards came upon several bushes of
berries, which would add a variety to our meal.

On my return to the camp, I found that Pablo had finished all the
arrangements, and we soon had one of the squirrels roasting before the
fire.

Pablo opened his heart to me. I had been the means, he said, of saving
his life, and he should ever be grateful. The reason, he told me, of
his being so anxious to join the English, was, that he had met with a
missionary--who proved to be no other than our friend Martin Godfrey--
and that his object, therefore, was to live with those who held the same
opinions, for he was sure that they were the right ones. He cared
nothing for all the fatigue and danger he might have to go through,
provided that he gained his wishes at last.

We travelled on for several days, sometimes having to encamp in the open
prairie, where we were more especially exposed to the risk of being
attacked by wolves, or run over by a stampede of buffalo--though we did
not trouble our heads much on that score. Our chief risk lay in
encountering any bands of hostile Indians who might be traversing the
open prairie, as it would be scarcely possible to conceal ourselves from
them. I could only hope that, in the event of our being seen, they
would not attack two wayworn travellers who could not injure them.
Pablo, however, observed that there were some tribes who would murder us
for the sake of our scalps, so as to be able to boast that they had
killed two enemies in battle. He had no affection for the Indians, and
was inclined to doubt whether they possessed any good qualities.

How we should have got across the wide extent of prairie we traversed I
know not, had we not been able to stalk a buffalo, by getting well to
leeward of it, whereupon I brought it down with my rifle. Its stomach
was full