r the night.

On the fourth morning the weather was fairer, and they travelled for
twelve miles over hills and through slushy morasses, crossing one river
after another to the number of about thirty. Rain poured down again in
the afternoon and during the greater part of the night, so that they had
much ado to keep their fires from going out. What with the discomforts
of their situation, the want of proper food, and the chilliness
preceding intermittent fever, they even forgot for the time their fears
of the Spaniards. However, as the sun rose they went on again until,
after travelling seven miles through the forest, they reached the hut of
a Spanish Indian, who supplied them with yams, sweet potatoes, and
plantains, but no meat except the flesh of two monkeys, which they gave
to the weak and sickly.

While resting here Wafer met with an accident. One of the company, in
drying some gunpowder on a silver plate, carelessly placed it near the
fire where he was sitting, with the result that it exploded and tore the
skin and flesh from one of his thighs, rendering him almost helpless. He
had a few medicines in his knapsack and dressed the wound as well as he
could under the circumstances, but rest and proper food were needed, and
these he could not have. The consequence was that, after struggling
along with the others until he sank down exhausted and suffering from
excruciating torture, he was left behind with two sick men at an Indian
village, where they were presently joined by two others who had broken
down.

Observing the condition of Wafer's wound, the Indians treated it with a
poultice of chewed herbs on a plantain leaf, and in twenty days it was
healed. Nevertheless, although they did him this kindness, they were
not over civil, but on the contrary treated the five white men with
contempt, throwing them their refuse provisions as if they were dogs.
One young Indian proved kinder, and got them some ripe bananas now and
then, but the others were annoyed because the main body had compelled
some inhabitants of the village to go with them as guides against their
will. The weather was then so bad that even the Indians considered
travelling almost impossible, and this annoyed them all the more,
especially when the guides did not return.

Day after day passed, and the Indians becoming more incensed at the
non-arrival of their people, began to think of avenging themselves on
Wafer and his comrades. Thinking that the guides