; they talked and laughed with one another and
the soldiers who guarded them, and appeared to care little for their
fate. As for me, I was broken-hearted with the disgrace and the
villainous manner in which I had been thus sacrificed. My heart was
full of bitterness, and I could gladly have lain down and died, had I
not been still buoyed up with some faint hope that I should have an
opportunity of making my position known, and obtain my release. I will
pass over the journey, as one day was but the forerunner of the other.
We halted at noon, and were supplied with fruit and maize, but we were
never unchained, day or night. In a short time I was like all the
rest--covered with vermin, and disgusting to myself. It was, I think,
between four and five weeks before we arrived at our destination, which
was in the district of Tejuco, and the locality of the diamond-mines was
called the Sierra de Espinhaco. This sierra, or mountain, was a ridge
of inaccessible precipices on each side of a narrow valley, traversed by
a small river called the Tequetinhonha, and in this valley, and in the
bed of the river, were the diamonds found, for which we were condemned
to toil for the remainder of our days. As we entered the ravine, I
perceived how impossible it would be to escape, even if a person could
find his way back, after having succeeded in his escape. For many miles
the road was a narrow path cut on the side of the mountain, a yawning
precipice below and inaccessible rocks above, and this narrow way was at
every two miles blocked up by a guard-house built upon it, and through
the portcullis of which it would be necessary to force a way. And here
we were, thousands of miles away from civilised life, in the heart of a
country uninhabited except by occasional bands of Indians. At last we
filed through the last of the guard-houses, and found ourselves in a
wider part of the ravine, which was crowded with buildings of various
descriptions. We were led up to the director's house, and our names,
persons, and descriptions were taken down by a clerk. When my turn
came, and I was asked in Portuguese who I was, I shook my head, and
replied "Ingles." An interpreter was called, and I then stated my name
and begged the director would hear what I had to say. He shook his
head, and, after they had taken my description, desired me to go away.

"Why did you not explain for me?" said I to the interpreter.

"Because he won't hear what you