ty, the unarmed condition of Too-wit and his men, the certain
efficacy of our firearms (whose effect was yet a secret to the natives),
and, more than all, to the long-sustained pretension of friendship kept
up by these infamous wretches. Five or six of them went on before, as
if to lead the way, ostentatiously busying themselves in removing the
larger stones and rubbish from the path. Next came our own party. We
walked closely together, taking care only to prevent separation. Behind
followed the main body of the savages, observing unusual order and
decorum.

Dirk Peters, a man named Wilson Allen, and myself were on the right of
our companions, examining, as we went along, the singular stratification
of the precipice which overhung us. A fissure in the soft rock attracted
our attention. It was about wide enough for one person to enter without
squeezing, and extended back into the hill some eighteen or twenty feet
in a straight course, sloping afterward to the left. The height of the
opening, is far as we could see into it from the main gorge, was perhaps
sixty or seventy feet. There were one or two stunted shrubs growing from
the crevices, bearing a species of filbert which I felt some curiosity
to examine, and pushed in briskly for that purpose, gathering five or
six of the nuts at a grasp, and then hastily retreating. As I turned, I
found that Peters and Allen had followed me. I desired them to go back,
as there was not room for two persons to pass, saying they should have
some of my nuts. They accordingly turned, and were scrambling back,
Allen being close to the mouth of the fissure, when I was suddenly aware
of a concussion resembling nothing I had ever before experienced, and
which impressed me with a vague conception, if indeed I then thought of
anything, that the whole foundations of the solid globe were suddenly
rent asunder, and that the day of universal dissolution was at hand.

CHAPTER 21

AS soon as I could collect my scattered senses, I found myself nearly
suffocated, and grovelling in utter darkness among a quantity of loose
earth, which was also falling upon me heavily in every direction,
threatening to bury me entirely. Horribly alarmed at this idea, I
struggled to gain my feet, and at last succeeded. I then remained
motionless for some moments, endeavouring to conceive what had happened
to me, and where I was. Presently I heard a deep groan just at my ear,
and afterward the smothered voice of Pe