shing
harm to none. They were passing down the river to a city of gold of
which they had heard; during the weeks of their voyage they had not
laid an unkindly hand on any man, nor appropriated any man's goods.
His own people, and all the tribes along the river, loved and
reverenced their white brothers, and would die for them.

The villager listened gravely enough, then swung round towards the
gate, saying he would carry the message to his chief faithfully and
without alteration. At the end of about half an hour he reappeared.
His chief would not see the white men, nor provide them with anything.
He had heard that the children of the sun were cruel and rapacious,
murdering and burning without mercy if they thought that thereby they
might get any of the yellow metal their souls lusted after so strongly.

The interpreter replied that this was true of one section of white men,
but his brothers were the enemies of those monsters, warring with them
whenever they met them. His brothers were the lordly eagles, and were
called "English;" the others were the voracious birds that stalked in
the mud, feeding on garbage; the chief had heard of these last, the
"Spaniards."'

The villager went away again, but returned quickly with his message
unaltered; the chief would not trust the strangers. It was useless to
ask him for guides to any city of gold, or to the shores of any lake
such as the white men desired. He had never heard of these places, and
did not believe they existed. The whole story was a trick to get the
country out of the hands of its inhabitants. The trick had worked in
the plains where the men had the hearts and brains of sick women; it
would not succeed with the "Brown Eagles" of the hills. Let the "White
Eagles" from the sun try their strength and wit against them if they so
desired.

This answer was uncompromising enough, and with it the messengers went
back again to the river. They had looked only into the face of one man
of a tribe of a thousand hillmen.

There was a long council round the camp fire that night, and for the
first time for some weeks sentinels were set, and keen watch and ward
kept until daybreak. A further consultation was held in the morning,
after each man had slept upon the suggestions of the previous evening.
It was not easy to decide upon a course of conduct. Hitherto the
adventurers had pursued their way in peace, and they were anxious to
avoid hostilities with the natives.