Chapter XXIII.Itwould be hard by mere imagination to comprehend the terrors the boys experienced as they crept stealthily along the foot of the cliff. Before reaching the corner, around which they fancied they would come upon another open beach, they stopped many times, listening tremblingly for some sound to warn them of possible danger.But when they finally reached the corner and had peered around it with the greatest caution, they discovered that it broke into a forest, the straggling trees of which came almost to the water’s edge. Upon discovering that, they looked at each other for a moment, and then sat down, pale and weary, to discuss their further movements.“What shall we do now?” said Diego.“I think,” said Juan, “that if I could get a few bananas to eat, and then have a few hours of sleep, I should feel quite strong again, and could go on. Night will be our best time for travelling.”“Yes,” answered Diego, “and if we but dared to enter the wood yonder, we could get all the bananas we could eat.”“And hide in some thicket and sleep,” added Juan.The need they both had for sleep and food decided them, and, after weighing all the chances for and against their project, they fell on their faces and crawled into the wood. Fortune favored them, and enabled them to come upon a banana-tree loaded with the luscious fruit, which they plucked and carried with them into a shaded natural bower.After they had eaten all they desired, they laid themselves down and fell into a refreshing sleep, which even their fear of cannibals could not disturb. When they awoke, the stars were shining.They first ate some of the bananas, and then discussed the route they should take. It did not take them long to decide that the safest plan, as well as the most direct road, would be to keep along the beach as much as was possible, climbing or skirting any cliffs that might interpose themselves.With this plan in view, they made their way back around the cliff, but reached the other side of it only to discover that it was as crowded nowas it had been deserted during the day, the natives being scattered along it for a long distance—some of them gathered around fires, at which something was evidently cooking, and which they at once, with a horrible fear, fancied the worst of.They hastened back as they had come, and decided without loss of time to strike into the woods and go back a mile or more, and then take an easterly course, which would bring them into a nearly parallel line with the beach.“I remember, now,” said Diego, “that the villages of these Indians are always near enough to the beach to enable them to get to it.”“Yes,” said Juan. “It is either so, or far back in the interior.”But in this they were wrong, and, so far as it concerned the island of Bohio, or Haiti, as it really was called, they discovered their mistake ere very long. They retraced their steps in the wood until they came to where they had slept, and made a fresh departure from there. They had not gone two miles, however, before they almost stumbled into a small village.Greatly dismayed, they made a careful detour and passed the village; but they were so fearful of coming upon other villages that they proceeded now much more cautiously. Even thatdid not help them greatly, however, for after another two miles, perhaps, they came upon a very large village, and in endeavoring to go around this they became hopelessly lost.If they could have seen the heavens, they could have gained their bearings by the stars; but the woods were too dense for that, and they would have been obliged to stop and wait for daylight if Juan had not pointed out that they were certainly going up hill, which would indicate that they were going south, since the hills, as they had noticed from the canoe, ran east and west.“Then let us keep on going up,” said Diego, “and perhaps we can find a lookout to-morrow on the top of the mountains, and select a safer course.”The advice was certainly good, and it was not difficult to follow, particularly as they fell in with no more villages. So they kept on, always climbing, and occasionally, now, gaining a sight of the stars; though the forest remained dense as far as they went.How far they went they had no means of knowing; for even the time spent or the fatigue incurred was no criterion; for while they were quite certain that they must have been six hours on foot, they had wandered so much from a direct path that it was quite possible they mighthave gone but a very short distance; and they had been tired from the start.As well as they could in the darkness, they selected a sheltered spot to sleep in, and laid themselves down to rest. They fortunately had no need to think of snakes or of other dangerous reptiles or beasts; for the only really unpleasant creatures on the islands were scorpions, centipedes, and tarantulas, which were not feared by the natives, and in consequence the voyagers also had learned to hold them in little fear.In the shaded woods the morning sun had no opportunity to awaken the boys until they were ready to open their eyes, and so the day was well advanced before they roused themselves.“Ah-h-h!” yawned Diego, comfortably, “I am ready for breakfast, aren’t you?”“Sh-sh!” said Juan, and pointed through the trees.Behind Diego, not more than a hundred yards distant, was an opening, a sort of level plateau on the mountain-side, and straggling along the side nearest the boys was a village of possibly two hundred huts. Under the shade of the trees nearest the huts were hammocks, in which the men lazily swung, while the women worked leisurely at their light tasks. Children played about everywhere.Nowhere had the boys seen comelier or pleasanter-looking women; but nowhere had they seen more forbidding-looking men. Their foreheads sloped back abruptly from their eyebrows, and their faces were hideously streaked with paint. Moreover, they were taller and more muscular in appearance than the other Indians they had seen. At least the few men they saw moving about were; and altogether the boys were satisfied that the men, at least, looked the cannibals they were reputed to be.They did not stop for any extended examination of the inhabitants; but stole away from the village, going higher up the mountain, as taking them in the direction they wished to go, and as promising to carry them farthest away from the village.When they had gone a sufficient distance for safety, they sought a banana-tree and plucked a quantity of the fruit and ate it. It was not what they would have eaten had they had the courage to make a fire to cook by; for they could have had potatoes or yuca-root; but they did not dare do that, and so they had to be content with bananas.The mountain by this time had begun to run bare of forest trees, and to become steeper, and it was not long after that the boys found themselvesfree of the woods altogether, with a patch ahead of them of bare rugged rocks. It seemed quite improbable that any village would be in such a spot, and they felt safe to cross the open space and climb to the highest of the rocks, in order to obtain a view of the ocean.They had supposed, from the edge of the woods, that these rocks were on the top of the mountain, but when they reached them, they discovered that the mountain-top was many feet above them still, and separated from them by a wooded valley. They obtained from the rocks the view they desired, however, and almost due northeast from where they stood they could see running to the water the mountains which they believed were the ones they were seeking.“I am sure of it,” said Juan, making a mental calculation of how far they had drifted and in what direction.“Look!” said Diego, in a choking voice.Juan followed his finger and saw a sail—thePintawas returning to find them.“We must hurry,” said Diego.“How far do you think it is?” asked Juan. “Six or seven leagues?”“Seven, I should say,” answered Diego. “Everything looks nearer in this country. Let us calculate. ThePintawill reach there in, say,three hours. She will surely remain as many more. Oh, yes, she will remain several hours. Why not?”He was thinking that even if they walked openly through the country, and at their best speed, they could not hope to reach the place in less than ten hours, allowing for losing their way. Juan understood him.“Never mind,” he said. “Let us start, and we may be able to go a long distance on the mountain-top without seeing a soul. Come! The sight of the ship makes me stronger. How glad they will be to see us!”“Will they not?”“Tell me, Diego,” said Juan, “I have been wishing to ask you and did not dare; did Miguel knock you off the yard?”“No. Why do you ask?”“Because when I saw you falling I saw him with his arm upraised, as if he either had struck you or intended to.”“I think he tried to help me,” said Diego; “but I don’t know.”“If the men knew he was on the yard with you, and they will be certain to, I am afraid it will fare ill with him. Come, let us hurry!”“‘LOOK!’ SAID DIEGO.”So they hastened down from their height, and struck into what seemed very much like a travelway, it was so easy to pass along. And yet it had no appearance of being anything but natural, and so they had no suspicion of it. At first the slope was slightly downward, but kept all the time in the open, rocky space. Then it entered a wooded tract and led them to a pretty mountain stream.They were tired, bananas offered themselves, and the water sounded so inviting either to drink or to bathe in that they could not resist.“Let us bathe and eat before we go farther,” suggested Diego, and they did so.Diego, who was somewhat more particular in the matter of cleanliness than the other sailors, always carried his comb in his pocket, and so he and Juan made their toilet to the extent of smoothing their hair; and then, very much refreshed, they got up and pushed on again.The woods were evidently only the result of the brook bringing moisture and soil to the rocky tract; for in a little while the depression ceased, and they emerged once more into the same rocky belt.“Hark!” said Diego of a sudden. “Do you hear any noise?”“The sound of drums, or something of the sort? yes.”They stopped and listened, and the noise grew distinctly in volume.“It is coming nearer,” cried Diego in alarm. “And I hear voices singing, or howling. It’s behind us. Juan! What shall we do? Hide! yes, that is it; hide!”They looked all about them for a proper place, and Diego noticed a narrow cleft in the rocks higher up to his right.“Up here!” he whispered, and ran with all his speed followed close by Juan.They were soon there, and the cleft proved to be a narrow, cave-like opening the depth of which the boys could not determine, nor did they try to discover; for all that interested them was the fact that it offered a good place of concealment for them.At the same time it afforded them a good view of the country they had been traversing, and promised to enable them to see the new-comers without difficulty. And it fulfilled its promise in a very few minutes, giving the boys a sight of a most extraordinary and startling spectacle.From out of the wood, not far from where they had just come, there emerged a fantastic procession, which moved with a rapidity that was really remarkable in view of the numbers of which it was composed.“THE CLEFT PROVED TO BE A NARROW, CAVE-LIKE OPENING.”At the head of it came a man beating a sort of drum and moving at a rapid pace. Behind him were perhaps twenty men, all beating drums and chanting at the same time that they performed all sorts of singular antics, though without interfering with the rapid advance of the procession. Behind them again came hundreds of girls, dancing and singing in time with each other; and behind them came hundreds more of men and women, also singing and dancing with the greatest fervor.It was some time before the boys could see all of this strange procession—strange in itself and stranger still for the place it was in. Their first thought, and the one they clung to, was that it was some horrible festival which would end in a cannibal orgy in the manner that had been described to Diego by the natives from whom he had learned to speak the Indian tongue.They watched it with a sort of fascinated abhorrence, and in their thoughts were deciding how they would escape it by climbing higher up the mountain. Nearer and nearer it came along the way they had come. Nearer and nearer to where they had turned to seek their hiding-place. It was there.“Juan,” gasped Diego, “it is coming up the mountain!”By it he meant the procession; and it certainly had turned up almost in the very footsteps of the boys. They shrank back, but still watching the coming crowds, which, now at the ascent, had ceased to dance, though the singing and drum-beating continued.And as they came nearer, the boys all the while wondering what their errand could be, it was easy to see that the man who led was a personage of importance; for he was covered with ornaments of gold, and wore a coronet of the same metal, with a head-dress of feathers rising above it. The men who followed him were ornamented in quite another way, being tattooed all over the body with grotesque figures.The girls, who came next, carried baskets of fruit and flowers, and were decked out with gold and other ornaments. The men and women farther down the line were loaded with as much as they could carry in the way of finery, but carried neither fruit nor flowers.All of this the boys could see because they did not dare to stir and were protected from observation by the shrubs that grew about the opening where they had taken shelter. Their hearts were in their mouths for fear of discovery, and they crouched side by side, very unwilling spectators of the scene that followed, and yet interested.The leading person, whom the boys took to be either a high-priest or a cacique, approached within twenty yards of the boys and stood there until an attendant hurried up with a stool of a dark polished wood, and placed it conveniently for him to sit, he meanwhile never ceasing to beat his drum.After he was seated, still beating his drum, the young girls with their baskets gathered near, and the others drew up in a wider circle, until all were up the mountain. Then the priests made obeisance to the sitting man and delivered a sort of address, pointing so often directly at the place where the boys were that Diego, who had strained his ears to hear, caught Juan and dragged him back.“Juan, Juan!” he whispered, convulsively, “they are coming in here. It must be a sort of cave. Let us run back into it.”
Chapter XXIII.Itwould be hard by mere imagination to comprehend the terrors the boys experienced as they crept stealthily along the foot of the cliff. Before reaching the corner, around which they fancied they would come upon another open beach, they stopped many times, listening tremblingly for some sound to warn them of possible danger.But when they finally reached the corner and had peered around it with the greatest caution, they discovered that it broke into a forest, the straggling trees of which came almost to the water’s edge. Upon discovering that, they looked at each other for a moment, and then sat down, pale and weary, to discuss their further movements.“What shall we do now?” said Diego.“I think,” said Juan, “that if I could get a few bananas to eat, and then have a few hours of sleep, I should feel quite strong again, and could go on. Night will be our best time for travelling.”“Yes,” answered Diego, “and if we but dared to enter the wood yonder, we could get all the bananas we could eat.”“And hide in some thicket and sleep,” added Juan.The need they both had for sleep and food decided them, and, after weighing all the chances for and against their project, they fell on their faces and crawled into the wood. Fortune favored them, and enabled them to come upon a banana-tree loaded with the luscious fruit, which they plucked and carried with them into a shaded natural bower.After they had eaten all they desired, they laid themselves down and fell into a refreshing sleep, which even their fear of cannibals could not disturb. When they awoke, the stars were shining.They first ate some of the bananas, and then discussed the route they should take. It did not take them long to decide that the safest plan, as well as the most direct road, would be to keep along the beach as much as was possible, climbing or skirting any cliffs that might interpose themselves.With this plan in view, they made their way back around the cliff, but reached the other side of it only to discover that it was as crowded nowas it had been deserted during the day, the natives being scattered along it for a long distance—some of them gathered around fires, at which something was evidently cooking, and which they at once, with a horrible fear, fancied the worst of.They hastened back as they had come, and decided without loss of time to strike into the woods and go back a mile or more, and then take an easterly course, which would bring them into a nearly parallel line with the beach.“I remember, now,” said Diego, “that the villages of these Indians are always near enough to the beach to enable them to get to it.”“Yes,” said Juan. “It is either so, or far back in the interior.”But in this they were wrong, and, so far as it concerned the island of Bohio, or Haiti, as it really was called, they discovered their mistake ere very long. They retraced their steps in the wood until they came to where they had slept, and made a fresh departure from there. They had not gone two miles, however, before they almost stumbled into a small village.Greatly dismayed, they made a careful detour and passed the village; but they were so fearful of coming upon other villages that they proceeded now much more cautiously. Even thatdid not help them greatly, however, for after another two miles, perhaps, they came upon a very large village, and in endeavoring to go around this they became hopelessly lost.If they could have seen the heavens, they could have gained their bearings by the stars; but the woods were too dense for that, and they would have been obliged to stop and wait for daylight if Juan had not pointed out that they were certainly going up hill, which would indicate that they were going south, since the hills, as they had noticed from the canoe, ran east and west.“Then let us keep on going up,” said Diego, “and perhaps we can find a lookout to-morrow on the top of the mountains, and select a safer course.”The advice was certainly good, and it was not difficult to follow, particularly as they fell in with no more villages. So they kept on, always climbing, and occasionally, now, gaining a sight of the stars; though the forest remained dense as far as they went.How far they went they had no means of knowing; for even the time spent or the fatigue incurred was no criterion; for while they were quite certain that they must have been six hours on foot, they had wandered so much from a direct path that it was quite possible they mighthave gone but a very short distance; and they had been tired from the start.As well as they could in the darkness, they selected a sheltered spot to sleep in, and laid themselves down to rest. They fortunately had no need to think of snakes or of other dangerous reptiles or beasts; for the only really unpleasant creatures on the islands were scorpions, centipedes, and tarantulas, which were not feared by the natives, and in consequence the voyagers also had learned to hold them in little fear.In the shaded woods the morning sun had no opportunity to awaken the boys until they were ready to open their eyes, and so the day was well advanced before they roused themselves.“Ah-h-h!” yawned Diego, comfortably, “I am ready for breakfast, aren’t you?”“Sh-sh!” said Juan, and pointed through the trees.Behind Diego, not more than a hundred yards distant, was an opening, a sort of level plateau on the mountain-side, and straggling along the side nearest the boys was a village of possibly two hundred huts. Under the shade of the trees nearest the huts were hammocks, in which the men lazily swung, while the women worked leisurely at their light tasks. Children played about everywhere.Nowhere had the boys seen comelier or pleasanter-looking women; but nowhere had they seen more forbidding-looking men. Their foreheads sloped back abruptly from their eyebrows, and their faces were hideously streaked with paint. Moreover, they were taller and more muscular in appearance than the other Indians they had seen. At least the few men they saw moving about were; and altogether the boys were satisfied that the men, at least, looked the cannibals they were reputed to be.They did not stop for any extended examination of the inhabitants; but stole away from the village, going higher up the mountain, as taking them in the direction they wished to go, and as promising to carry them farthest away from the village.When they had gone a sufficient distance for safety, they sought a banana-tree and plucked a quantity of the fruit and ate it. It was not what they would have eaten had they had the courage to make a fire to cook by; for they could have had potatoes or yuca-root; but they did not dare do that, and so they had to be content with bananas.The mountain by this time had begun to run bare of forest trees, and to become steeper, and it was not long after that the boys found themselvesfree of the woods altogether, with a patch ahead of them of bare rugged rocks. It seemed quite improbable that any village would be in such a spot, and they felt safe to cross the open space and climb to the highest of the rocks, in order to obtain a view of the ocean.They had supposed, from the edge of the woods, that these rocks were on the top of the mountain, but when they reached them, they discovered that the mountain-top was many feet above them still, and separated from them by a wooded valley. They obtained from the rocks the view they desired, however, and almost due northeast from where they stood they could see running to the water the mountains which they believed were the ones they were seeking.“I am sure of it,” said Juan, making a mental calculation of how far they had drifted and in what direction.“Look!” said Diego, in a choking voice.Juan followed his finger and saw a sail—thePintawas returning to find them.“We must hurry,” said Diego.“How far do you think it is?” asked Juan. “Six or seven leagues?”“Seven, I should say,” answered Diego. “Everything looks nearer in this country. Let us calculate. ThePintawill reach there in, say,three hours. She will surely remain as many more. Oh, yes, she will remain several hours. Why not?”He was thinking that even if they walked openly through the country, and at their best speed, they could not hope to reach the place in less than ten hours, allowing for losing their way. Juan understood him.“Never mind,” he said. “Let us start, and we may be able to go a long distance on the mountain-top without seeing a soul. Come! The sight of the ship makes me stronger. How glad they will be to see us!”“Will they not?”“Tell me, Diego,” said Juan, “I have been wishing to ask you and did not dare; did Miguel knock you off the yard?”“No. Why do you ask?”“Because when I saw you falling I saw him with his arm upraised, as if he either had struck you or intended to.”“I think he tried to help me,” said Diego; “but I don’t know.”“If the men knew he was on the yard with you, and they will be certain to, I am afraid it will fare ill with him. Come, let us hurry!”“‘LOOK!’ SAID DIEGO.”So they hastened down from their height, and struck into what seemed very much like a travelway, it was so easy to pass along. And yet it had no appearance of being anything but natural, and so they had no suspicion of it. At first the slope was slightly downward, but kept all the time in the open, rocky space. Then it entered a wooded tract and led them to a pretty mountain stream.They were tired, bananas offered themselves, and the water sounded so inviting either to drink or to bathe in that they could not resist.“Let us bathe and eat before we go farther,” suggested Diego, and they did so.Diego, who was somewhat more particular in the matter of cleanliness than the other sailors, always carried his comb in his pocket, and so he and Juan made their toilet to the extent of smoothing their hair; and then, very much refreshed, they got up and pushed on again.The woods were evidently only the result of the brook bringing moisture and soil to the rocky tract; for in a little while the depression ceased, and they emerged once more into the same rocky belt.“Hark!” said Diego of a sudden. “Do you hear any noise?”“The sound of drums, or something of the sort? yes.”They stopped and listened, and the noise grew distinctly in volume.“It is coming nearer,” cried Diego in alarm. “And I hear voices singing, or howling. It’s behind us. Juan! What shall we do? Hide! yes, that is it; hide!”They looked all about them for a proper place, and Diego noticed a narrow cleft in the rocks higher up to his right.“Up here!” he whispered, and ran with all his speed followed close by Juan.They were soon there, and the cleft proved to be a narrow, cave-like opening the depth of which the boys could not determine, nor did they try to discover; for all that interested them was the fact that it offered a good place of concealment for them.At the same time it afforded them a good view of the country they had been traversing, and promised to enable them to see the new-comers without difficulty. And it fulfilled its promise in a very few minutes, giving the boys a sight of a most extraordinary and startling spectacle.From out of the wood, not far from where they had just come, there emerged a fantastic procession, which moved with a rapidity that was really remarkable in view of the numbers of which it was composed.“THE CLEFT PROVED TO BE A NARROW, CAVE-LIKE OPENING.”At the head of it came a man beating a sort of drum and moving at a rapid pace. Behind him were perhaps twenty men, all beating drums and chanting at the same time that they performed all sorts of singular antics, though without interfering with the rapid advance of the procession. Behind them again came hundreds of girls, dancing and singing in time with each other; and behind them came hundreds more of men and women, also singing and dancing with the greatest fervor.It was some time before the boys could see all of this strange procession—strange in itself and stranger still for the place it was in. Their first thought, and the one they clung to, was that it was some horrible festival which would end in a cannibal orgy in the manner that had been described to Diego by the natives from whom he had learned to speak the Indian tongue.They watched it with a sort of fascinated abhorrence, and in their thoughts were deciding how they would escape it by climbing higher up the mountain. Nearer and nearer it came along the way they had come. Nearer and nearer to where they had turned to seek their hiding-place. It was there.“Juan,” gasped Diego, “it is coming up the mountain!”By it he meant the procession; and it certainly had turned up almost in the very footsteps of the boys. They shrank back, but still watching the coming crowds, which, now at the ascent, had ceased to dance, though the singing and drum-beating continued.And as they came nearer, the boys all the while wondering what their errand could be, it was easy to see that the man who led was a personage of importance; for he was covered with ornaments of gold, and wore a coronet of the same metal, with a head-dress of feathers rising above it. The men who followed him were ornamented in quite another way, being tattooed all over the body with grotesque figures.The girls, who came next, carried baskets of fruit and flowers, and were decked out with gold and other ornaments. The men and women farther down the line were loaded with as much as they could carry in the way of finery, but carried neither fruit nor flowers.All of this the boys could see because they did not dare to stir and were protected from observation by the shrubs that grew about the opening where they had taken shelter. Their hearts were in their mouths for fear of discovery, and they crouched side by side, very unwilling spectators of the scene that followed, and yet interested.The leading person, whom the boys took to be either a high-priest or a cacique, approached within twenty yards of the boys and stood there until an attendant hurried up with a stool of a dark polished wood, and placed it conveniently for him to sit, he meanwhile never ceasing to beat his drum.After he was seated, still beating his drum, the young girls with their baskets gathered near, and the others drew up in a wider circle, until all were up the mountain. Then the priests made obeisance to the sitting man and delivered a sort of address, pointing so often directly at the place where the boys were that Diego, who had strained his ears to hear, caught Juan and dragged him back.“Juan, Juan!” he whispered, convulsively, “they are coming in here. It must be a sort of cave. Let us run back into it.”
Itwould be hard by mere imagination to comprehend the terrors the boys experienced as they crept stealthily along the foot of the cliff. Before reaching the corner, around which they fancied they would come upon another open beach, they stopped many times, listening tremblingly for some sound to warn them of possible danger.
But when they finally reached the corner and had peered around it with the greatest caution, they discovered that it broke into a forest, the straggling trees of which came almost to the water’s edge. Upon discovering that, they looked at each other for a moment, and then sat down, pale and weary, to discuss their further movements.
“What shall we do now?” said Diego.
“I think,” said Juan, “that if I could get a few bananas to eat, and then have a few hours of sleep, I should feel quite strong again, and could go on. Night will be our best time for travelling.”
“Yes,” answered Diego, “and if we but dared to enter the wood yonder, we could get all the bananas we could eat.”
“And hide in some thicket and sleep,” added Juan.
The need they both had for sleep and food decided them, and, after weighing all the chances for and against their project, they fell on their faces and crawled into the wood. Fortune favored them, and enabled them to come upon a banana-tree loaded with the luscious fruit, which they plucked and carried with them into a shaded natural bower.
After they had eaten all they desired, they laid themselves down and fell into a refreshing sleep, which even their fear of cannibals could not disturb. When they awoke, the stars were shining.
They first ate some of the bananas, and then discussed the route they should take. It did not take them long to decide that the safest plan, as well as the most direct road, would be to keep along the beach as much as was possible, climbing or skirting any cliffs that might interpose themselves.
With this plan in view, they made their way back around the cliff, but reached the other side of it only to discover that it was as crowded nowas it had been deserted during the day, the natives being scattered along it for a long distance—some of them gathered around fires, at which something was evidently cooking, and which they at once, with a horrible fear, fancied the worst of.
They hastened back as they had come, and decided without loss of time to strike into the woods and go back a mile or more, and then take an easterly course, which would bring them into a nearly parallel line with the beach.
“I remember, now,” said Diego, “that the villages of these Indians are always near enough to the beach to enable them to get to it.”
“Yes,” said Juan. “It is either so, or far back in the interior.”
But in this they were wrong, and, so far as it concerned the island of Bohio, or Haiti, as it really was called, they discovered their mistake ere very long. They retraced their steps in the wood until they came to where they had slept, and made a fresh departure from there. They had not gone two miles, however, before they almost stumbled into a small village.
Greatly dismayed, they made a careful detour and passed the village; but they were so fearful of coming upon other villages that they proceeded now much more cautiously. Even thatdid not help them greatly, however, for after another two miles, perhaps, they came upon a very large village, and in endeavoring to go around this they became hopelessly lost.
If they could have seen the heavens, they could have gained their bearings by the stars; but the woods were too dense for that, and they would have been obliged to stop and wait for daylight if Juan had not pointed out that they were certainly going up hill, which would indicate that they were going south, since the hills, as they had noticed from the canoe, ran east and west.
“Then let us keep on going up,” said Diego, “and perhaps we can find a lookout to-morrow on the top of the mountains, and select a safer course.”
The advice was certainly good, and it was not difficult to follow, particularly as they fell in with no more villages. So they kept on, always climbing, and occasionally, now, gaining a sight of the stars; though the forest remained dense as far as they went.
How far they went they had no means of knowing; for even the time spent or the fatigue incurred was no criterion; for while they were quite certain that they must have been six hours on foot, they had wandered so much from a direct path that it was quite possible they mighthave gone but a very short distance; and they had been tired from the start.
As well as they could in the darkness, they selected a sheltered spot to sleep in, and laid themselves down to rest. They fortunately had no need to think of snakes or of other dangerous reptiles or beasts; for the only really unpleasant creatures on the islands were scorpions, centipedes, and tarantulas, which were not feared by the natives, and in consequence the voyagers also had learned to hold them in little fear.
In the shaded woods the morning sun had no opportunity to awaken the boys until they were ready to open their eyes, and so the day was well advanced before they roused themselves.
“Ah-h-h!” yawned Diego, comfortably, “I am ready for breakfast, aren’t you?”
“Sh-sh!” said Juan, and pointed through the trees.
Behind Diego, not more than a hundred yards distant, was an opening, a sort of level plateau on the mountain-side, and straggling along the side nearest the boys was a village of possibly two hundred huts. Under the shade of the trees nearest the huts were hammocks, in which the men lazily swung, while the women worked leisurely at their light tasks. Children played about everywhere.
Nowhere had the boys seen comelier or pleasanter-looking women; but nowhere had they seen more forbidding-looking men. Their foreheads sloped back abruptly from their eyebrows, and their faces were hideously streaked with paint. Moreover, they were taller and more muscular in appearance than the other Indians they had seen. At least the few men they saw moving about were; and altogether the boys were satisfied that the men, at least, looked the cannibals they were reputed to be.
They did not stop for any extended examination of the inhabitants; but stole away from the village, going higher up the mountain, as taking them in the direction they wished to go, and as promising to carry them farthest away from the village.
When they had gone a sufficient distance for safety, they sought a banana-tree and plucked a quantity of the fruit and ate it. It was not what they would have eaten had they had the courage to make a fire to cook by; for they could have had potatoes or yuca-root; but they did not dare do that, and so they had to be content with bananas.
The mountain by this time had begun to run bare of forest trees, and to become steeper, and it was not long after that the boys found themselvesfree of the woods altogether, with a patch ahead of them of bare rugged rocks. It seemed quite improbable that any village would be in such a spot, and they felt safe to cross the open space and climb to the highest of the rocks, in order to obtain a view of the ocean.
They had supposed, from the edge of the woods, that these rocks were on the top of the mountain, but when they reached them, they discovered that the mountain-top was many feet above them still, and separated from them by a wooded valley. They obtained from the rocks the view they desired, however, and almost due northeast from where they stood they could see running to the water the mountains which they believed were the ones they were seeking.
“I am sure of it,” said Juan, making a mental calculation of how far they had drifted and in what direction.
“Look!” said Diego, in a choking voice.
Juan followed his finger and saw a sail—thePintawas returning to find them.
“We must hurry,” said Diego.
“How far do you think it is?” asked Juan. “Six or seven leagues?”
“Seven, I should say,” answered Diego. “Everything looks nearer in this country. Let us calculate. ThePintawill reach there in, say,three hours. She will surely remain as many more. Oh, yes, she will remain several hours. Why not?”
He was thinking that even if they walked openly through the country, and at their best speed, they could not hope to reach the place in less than ten hours, allowing for losing their way. Juan understood him.
“Never mind,” he said. “Let us start, and we may be able to go a long distance on the mountain-top without seeing a soul. Come! The sight of the ship makes me stronger. How glad they will be to see us!”
“Will they not?”
“Tell me, Diego,” said Juan, “I have been wishing to ask you and did not dare; did Miguel knock you off the yard?”
“No. Why do you ask?”
“Because when I saw you falling I saw him with his arm upraised, as if he either had struck you or intended to.”
“I think he tried to help me,” said Diego; “but I don’t know.”
“If the men knew he was on the yard with you, and they will be certain to, I am afraid it will fare ill with him. Come, let us hurry!”
“‘LOOK!’ SAID DIEGO.”
“‘LOOK!’ SAID DIEGO.”
“‘LOOK!’ SAID DIEGO.”
So they hastened down from their height, and struck into what seemed very much like a travelway, it was so easy to pass along. And yet it had no appearance of being anything but natural, and so they had no suspicion of it. At first the slope was slightly downward, but kept all the time in the open, rocky space. Then it entered a wooded tract and led them to a pretty mountain stream.
They were tired, bananas offered themselves, and the water sounded so inviting either to drink or to bathe in that they could not resist.
“Let us bathe and eat before we go farther,” suggested Diego, and they did so.
Diego, who was somewhat more particular in the matter of cleanliness than the other sailors, always carried his comb in his pocket, and so he and Juan made their toilet to the extent of smoothing their hair; and then, very much refreshed, they got up and pushed on again.
The woods were evidently only the result of the brook bringing moisture and soil to the rocky tract; for in a little while the depression ceased, and they emerged once more into the same rocky belt.
“Hark!” said Diego of a sudden. “Do you hear any noise?”
“The sound of drums, or something of the sort? yes.”
They stopped and listened, and the noise grew distinctly in volume.
“It is coming nearer,” cried Diego in alarm. “And I hear voices singing, or howling. It’s behind us. Juan! What shall we do? Hide! yes, that is it; hide!”
They looked all about them for a proper place, and Diego noticed a narrow cleft in the rocks higher up to his right.
“Up here!” he whispered, and ran with all his speed followed close by Juan.
They were soon there, and the cleft proved to be a narrow, cave-like opening the depth of which the boys could not determine, nor did they try to discover; for all that interested them was the fact that it offered a good place of concealment for them.
At the same time it afforded them a good view of the country they had been traversing, and promised to enable them to see the new-comers without difficulty. And it fulfilled its promise in a very few minutes, giving the boys a sight of a most extraordinary and startling spectacle.
From out of the wood, not far from where they had just come, there emerged a fantastic procession, which moved with a rapidity that was really remarkable in view of the numbers of which it was composed.
“THE CLEFT PROVED TO BE A NARROW, CAVE-LIKE OPENING.”
“THE CLEFT PROVED TO BE A NARROW, CAVE-LIKE OPENING.”
“THE CLEFT PROVED TO BE A NARROW, CAVE-LIKE OPENING.”
At the head of it came a man beating a sort of drum and moving at a rapid pace. Behind him were perhaps twenty men, all beating drums and chanting at the same time that they performed all sorts of singular antics, though without interfering with the rapid advance of the procession. Behind them again came hundreds of girls, dancing and singing in time with each other; and behind them came hundreds more of men and women, also singing and dancing with the greatest fervor.
It was some time before the boys could see all of this strange procession—strange in itself and stranger still for the place it was in. Their first thought, and the one they clung to, was that it was some horrible festival which would end in a cannibal orgy in the manner that had been described to Diego by the natives from whom he had learned to speak the Indian tongue.
They watched it with a sort of fascinated abhorrence, and in their thoughts were deciding how they would escape it by climbing higher up the mountain. Nearer and nearer it came along the way they had come. Nearer and nearer to where they had turned to seek their hiding-place. It was there.
“Juan,” gasped Diego, “it is coming up the mountain!”
By it he meant the procession; and it certainly had turned up almost in the very footsteps of the boys. They shrank back, but still watching the coming crowds, which, now at the ascent, had ceased to dance, though the singing and drum-beating continued.
And as they came nearer, the boys all the while wondering what their errand could be, it was easy to see that the man who led was a personage of importance; for he was covered with ornaments of gold, and wore a coronet of the same metal, with a head-dress of feathers rising above it. The men who followed him were ornamented in quite another way, being tattooed all over the body with grotesque figures.
The girls, who came next, carried baskets of fruit and flowers, and were decked out with gold and other ornaments. The men and women farther down the line were loaded with as much as they could carry in the way of finery, but carried neither fruit nor flowers.
All of this the boys could see because they did not dare to stir and were protected from observation by the shrubs that grew about the opening where they had taken shelter. Their hearts were in their mouths for fear of discovery, and they crouched side by side, very unwilling spectators of the scene that followed, and yet interested.
The leading person, whom the boys took to be either a high-priest or a cacique, approached within twenty yards of the boys and stood there until an attendant hurried up with a stool of a dark polished wood, and placed it conveniently for him to sit, he meanwhile never ceasing to beat his drum.
After he was seated, still beating his drum, the young girls with their baskets gathered near, and the others drew up in a wider circle, until all were up the mountain. Then the priests made obeisance to the sitting man and delivered a sort of address, pointing so often directly at the place where the boys were that Diego, who had strained his ears to hear, caught Juan and dragged him back.
“Juan, Juan!” he whispered, convulsively, “they are coming in here. It must be a sort of cave. Let us run back into it.”