"Drink--drink while you can," he continued in
the same low tone. "It is more than wealth, it is life itself; it
fertilises, it invigorates, it cleanses, it blesses. Without it the
world would be but a sterile desert, unfit for the habitation of man;
while gold, which the white men value so much, has ever proved the curse
of our country. They value it because they think it scarce, while we,
who know the deep mines where in vast heaps it lies hid from their
sight, place it at its true worth, below iron and copper, or even silver
or tin."

While Ithulpo was thus speaking, he was employed in washing out and
filling the skins he had brought with water. I also filled a couple of
flasks with the pure fluid. We then retraced our steps by the way we
had come, I assisting him in carrying the somewhat heavy burden. We
reached the camp unobserved by the drowsy sentries. I was wondering
what the Indian intended doing with the skins, when, begging me to lie
down and rest, he took up two of the skins, and crept cautiously away
towards the enclosure where his countrymen were confined. After a
little time he returned, and again took the path to the fountain to
replenish the skins. I was afraid he would have been discovered, but he
went about the work so cautiously and silently, that he altogether
escaped the observation of the sentries. After he had given the
prisoners all the water they required, he came back to where we were
lying, and threw himself on the ground near us. The rest of the night
passed quietly away; and notwithstanding the painful position in which
we were placed, I slept soundly. I was aroused by the sound of a bugle,
and found the soldiers getting under arms and preparing to march. Our
baggage was replaced by Ithulpo, who I saw watched it carefully. The
men mounted, the prisoners were dragged out from their resting-place,
and we commenced our day's journey.

An extensive plain was before us, with a few rugged and barren heights
scattered over it. As we proceeded vegetation grew more and more
scanty, till after we had marched scarcely half a mile, it ceased
altogether. We had slept, we found, on the borders of a desert. The
ground was at first composed of a mixture of rock and clay, over which
the sea had evidently rolled in former ages; but as we proceeded it
became more loose and broken, till it changed into a soft shifting sand,
into which our horses' feet sank deep at every step they made.

The