As he said this, he made the canoe glide in towards the nearest bank.
We quickly found ourselves in a quiet bay, overhung with trees, into which we had by chance entered. The sailor held on by the bough of a tree, which served to keep the canoe from floating out again. The wind had much abated, and the sky had become much clearer, so that there was sufficient light to enable us to steer free of any dangers in the middle of the stream; though where we now were we should have been completely concealed from the sight of persons on board any boat which might have been pa.s.sing, or even of one sent in search of us.
"Well," said the sailor, "what do you propose, mate?"
"I must first ask you whereabouts we are," I answered. "I promised an Indian who preserved my life, to return to him before I left the country, but I cannot tell where he is now to be found. Our wisest plan would be to try and reach the sea, so as to get on board some English ship. I do not think we shall be safe till then."
"What has your friend, then, to say to the matter?" said the sailor.
"He does not understand English, but I will ask him."
Pedro replied that he thought we should be guided by the sailor, who had already helped us so much.
The sailor seemed pleased with the answer.
"Why, then, I"ll try and do my best for you, mates," he said. "You see we are about ten miles away from your prison, and somewhere close upon two hundred miles from the nearest port where we are likely to fall in with any English ship. The Spaniards don"t encourage them to come openly into their ports with the high duties they clap on, though there"s a good deal of smuggling on the coast; and more than half the British manufactures used in the country are landed without paying a farthing of duty. I would rather stick to the river as long as we could; but then, you see, it"s the very place the Spaniards are likely to send to look for us. So I propose that we pull down some five or six miles further, where there are some rapids which we cannot pa.s.s, and then we will land on the south bank, and make our way over towards the country they call Chili, though it"s hot enough, to my mind, at times.
We might manage, to be sure, to get across the mountains, and launch a canoe upon one of the streams which run into the river of the Amazons.
It"s a long way, to be sure, but others have gone down the river; and I don"t see, if we can keep stout hearts in our bodies, why we shouldn"t.
When one man has done a thing, I always think another may, if he set the right way about it."
"A voyage down the river of the Amazons!" I exclaimed. "The very thing I should be delighted to accomplish. I do not care for the dangers or hardships we shall have to encounter. I say, let us try it by all means. I am sure Pedro will agree. We must first try and find my friend Manco, the Indian chief, if he should have escaped from his enemies."
I then explained to the sailor who Manco was.
"That"s the spirit I like to see," he answered. "We shall do, depend upon it. I"ve no great fancy for being caught by the Spaniards and clapped into prison; and they are certain to be looking for us all along the western coast. We shall have to go rather a roundabout way, but that can"t be helped. Now, from what I hear, the Indians have pretty well cleared the country of the white men to the south of this, so we shall have little to fear from the Spaniards; and as you say the Indians are your friends, if we fall in with them, it is to be hoped they will treat us well. We can"t expect, you know, to get through the world without running through a little danger now and then."
I told the sailor I agreed with him.
"And now, my friend," I said, "I have some more questions to ask you. I do not know your name, and I cannot guess how you came to find us out."
"What does that matter, mate? I do not know yours; and to say the truth, I never heard of you till a few days ago, when I heard the people talking--for I know something of their lingo--of a young Englishman who was to be shot for siding with the Indians. Now, thinks I to myself, that is a very bad thing for the lad, and if I can lend him a hand, we"ll disappoint the Dons. It"s my belief, a seaman--as far as that matters, anybody--ought always to help a countryman in distress, or he"s not worth his salt."
"Then I ought first to tell you who I am," I replied; and I gave him a short account of myself, and my late adventures, and how I came to meet with Pedro.
"That"s very strange," he muttered; "very strange. I"m more than ever glad to be of use to you. Now for my name. It"s not a long one. I"m called Ned Gale. I was born at sea and bred at sea; and it isn"t often I set foot on sh.o.r.e, so that what good there is in me I picked up afloat."
"Then how comes it, Ned Gale, that you got so far inland as this?" I asked.
"Why, you see the ship I sailed in was seized by the Spanish authorities, in the port of Callao, where we had been driven by stress of weather. It was alleged that we had been smuggling on the coast, which was neither here nor there, as there was no one to prove it. At last the master was advised to appeal to the viceroy, and so he set off to Lima to see him, taking me in his company. When we got to Lima, we found that the viceroy had gone up the country; so away we went after him. We travelled over mountains, and across sandy plains, and rivers and torrents, day after day, but he always kept ahead of us. You see that he had gone out to fight the Indians; and when at last we came up with him, we found him in a very bad humour, for his troops had been beaten in every direction. So he would not listen to a word my captain had to say. The fact was, the bribe Captain Hindson had been advised to offer him was not large enough. My poor captain had before been very ill, and as the ship was, his own property, and all he possessed in the world, his loss ruined him. From the day he got the viceroy"s answer, he never again lifted up his head; and in a week he died in my arms. It was of a broken heart, I suppose; for there was nothing the matter with him that I could see. Poor fellow, I have seen many a shipmate struck down by the shot of the enemy, or sinking under the foaming waves, when there was no help at hand; but I never mourned for one as I did for him, for he was a right honest and kind man. The Dons did not show much Christian charity towards him after he was dead either, for they said he was a heretic; so they would not bury him in the churchyard, but carried him away to a field, where they dug a hole and covered him up like a dog. I didn"t think that mattered at all, however; so I owed them no grudge for it. I never could see the use of praying for a man after he was dead. He did not mind where he lay, and G.o.d will know where to look for him at the last day, when he has to stand his trial like all of us.
At first I felt a wish to die too; but I soon got over that, and taking the money and the few things the captain had given me (I"ve got his note about that matter--his will he called it), I started off for the coast to look out for another ship. As I have been often in the country, I have picked up some of their lingo, so got on well enough among the Dons; but I found I couldn"t very well travel alone, and often had to wait till I found some one going my road. It was in this way, while I was looking out for companions, that I happened to fall in with you.
And now you know something of my history, are you willing to trust me?"
"Had I known nothing about it, after the essential service you have rendered us, I would confidently have trusted you," I answered.
"Avast now then, mate," exclaimed Ned Gale; "don"t give me any soft sawder; I"m not fond of it. I like the cut of your jib, and you like the cut of mine; so we shall sail very well in company. By-and-by we shall know more of each other. And the young Don there, I like his looks too, though I"m not over partial to the natives. Howsomdever, we"ve had talking enough, and as my arms are rested, and there don"t appear to be any enemy abroad looking for us, we may as well get under weigh again."
I agreed with him; and Pedro and I sinking down into our former position, we again glided out into the stream. The river was in places very shallow, and more than once we touched the bottom, and the water began to foam over the stern; but Gale lifted her clear with his paddle, without our being obliged to jump out, and away we went again as rapidly as before. Pedro was very silent--he felt confused and astonished at all that had occurred; neither did Ned Gale nor I exchange many words, for we could not tell at what moment we might come upon any of the villages which are to be found on the banks of the river. Now and then we heard a dog bark, and the crowing of some c.o.c.ks in the distance gave signs of the approach of morning; but no habitations were visible, and no human voices gave us cause for alarm.
Several of the villages on the south bank, Ned Gale had learned, had been destroyed by the Indians; but they had not attempted to cross to the north side. After about an hour"s paddling, we reached a spot similar to the one where we had before taken shelter. We paddled along the sh.o.r.e of the little bay for some way, trying to find a place hard enough to bear our feet, for the bank was generally soft and muddy fringed by a broad belt of reeds, which the alligators must have found convenient for tickling their snouts with.
"Step out," said Gale, "and learn if we are likely to make our way inland from this. I will wait for you and look after the canoe."
Doing as he desired, Pedro and I felt our way along with cautious steps, for under the trees it was so dark that we could scarcely see our hands held up before us. We found that the ground rose a little way beyond, and appeared quite hard. Satisfied with our discovery, after about a quarter of an hour"s absence, we commenced our return to the boat. We walked on slowly, every instant expecting to fall into some hole; and at last we agreed that we ought to have reached the canoe. We hunted about to the right and to the left, but we could not even see the river. We called out as loud as we dared, but Gale did not answer.
"There is the river; I see it shining through the trees," said Pedro.
Very soon we got up to it; and Pedro, who was a little in advance, was very nearly falling in. I dragged him back, and we began to hunt for the canoe. It was nowhere to be seen. Again we shouted louder than before, but Ned Gale did not answer. Could he have deserted us? Such a thing seemed impossible, yet we began almost to despair.
"Could an alligator have picked him off?" I asked Pedro, shuddering as I thought of our friend"s probable fate.
We had kept along the bank of the river for some way. Just then Gale"s voice sounded close to us. We were soon up with him, and had told him of the result of our expedition, and of our alarm.
"It was my fault, I suppose," he answered, laughing. "I found a tree to which I could make the canoe fast, so I thought I might as well take a little sleep while you were away. I heard you call, and dreamed that I answered you. The honest truth is, I spent all last night looking about the prison to find you out, so I haven"t closed my eyes for many an hour. You"ll pardon me, mates, I hope; nature"s nature, and will have its way."
I a.s.sured him, now that we had found him, we did not mind the fright; and asked him what he proposed doing next.
"Why, the first thing, you see, is to send the canoe out into the stream, so that our enemies may not discover where we have landed," he answered. "It will float away over the falls; so they may be looking for us miles below them perhaps."
According to Ned Gale"s suggestion, we towed the canoe to the end of the point which formed one side of the bay, and he then throwing the paddle into it, we gave it a shove, which sent it out into the middle of the stream, down which we could distinguish it gliding rapidly away, till it was lost to sight.
"We must lose no more time now, mates," said Ned Gale, as we climbed up the bank. "We must get some way inland before daylight, and then stow ourselves away in a wood till we have time to look about us. We must keep clear of all cottages, for the white-brown fellows hereabouts would make no bones of selling us to the Dons, if they thought they could get anything for us. You see I"ve brought prog enough to last all hands for three days or more, on somewhat short commons; and mayhap we may snare some game to eke it out much longer."
This was good news, for, by taking proper precautions, I thought we might at all events avoid falling into the hands of the Spaniards; and of the Indians I had no fear. The ground over which we were pa.s.sing, was very rough and uncultivated, and we could discover no beaten path.
After some time we came to a mud wall; and on the other side we found a field full of maize, just fit for cutting. This gave us a very welcome supply of food, and we filled our pockets and caps, and a bag Ned Gale had brought with him, for that very purpose.
It was necessary, however, to get away from the farm before daylight; so we skirted along the wall, and once more found ourselves on wild ground.
The whole eastern sky was covered with a ma.s.s of flame, a sign that the sun himself was about to appear, when we caught sight of a forest spreading out before us. We pushed on much faster than we had been able to do during the darkness, and had just concealed ourselves among the trees, as the sun, rushing from among the mountains, cast a bright glow of light over the plains we had just pa.s.sed. The first thing Ned Gale did, was to climb up one of the tallest trees on the outskirts of the forest, to take a look round and see what was in sight, as, he observed, a good seaman always does the first thing in the morning. When he came down, he reported that he had observed in the far distance some smoke, which he supposed arose from the farmhouse we had pa.s.sed in the night; but that he had discovered no other human habitation while as far as the eye could discern there appeared to be only an uncultivated plain.
Having eaten nothing since our last meal in the prison, Pedro and I were very glad when Ned Gale opened his wallet, and produced some dried meat and bread and cheese, and what was almost of greater value, a good supply of cocoa. He had a flint and steel with him, and a tin cup for boiling water; so we collected some sticks and lighted a small fire, sufficient to cook our cocoa and to parch some peas. On looking over our provisions, we found that we had already ample to last us a week, so that we might venture to push across the mountains towards Cuzco, where, Manco had told me, he expected about this time the Indians would be collected in great force. We had, however, more than a day"s journey before we could reach the foot of the mountains, which were upwards of thirty miles off.
On hunting about, we discovered a spring of bright water bubbling up close to the roots of an enormous tree, which it evidently very much a.s.sisted to nourish. We ate a good meal, and then Gale insisted that Pedro and I should lie down and rest, while he watched. As we both of us very much required sleep, we were not sorry to follow his advice; and in about two hours we awoke much refreshed.
I have not yet described Ned Gale. He was about five feet six in height, and very strongly built, with rather a large head, covered with a profusion of light hair. He wore a full bushy beard and large whiskers. His eyes were full and round, and of the brightest blue I have ever seen in those of a man. His month was large, and filled with strong white teeth, and his nose, though rather thick and prominent, was otherwise well cut. Indeed he came up fully to the description of a fine-looking fellow without being handsome. His dress was that of an ordinary seaman of those days. He wore a belt with a brace of pistols stuck in it, which were partly concealed by his loose cloth jacket. His head was covered by a small low-crowned straw hat; and the puzzle seemed to be how he could manage to keep it on. Altogether he presented a figure very seldom seen so far inland as we then were.
"Come, mates," he exclaimed, "it"s time to be making headway again."
We jumped up, and having divided our stores into three equal parts, and cut some thick walking-sticks, we shouldered our bundles, and recommenced our journey.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
OUR FLIGHT WITH NED GALE, AND THE ADVENTURES WE MET WITH.
We travelled all day through the forest, the glimpses we every now and then obtained of the mountains serving to guide our steps. On emerging from the forest we arrived at a rapid stream.
"How are we to cross this?" I exclaimed. "We shall spoil all our provisions, and have our clothes wet for the night, if we are obliged to swim across."
"Oh, I think we may be able to ford it," said Ned Gale. "Here, mates, let"s catch hold of each other"s hands, that if one falls the rest can pick him up. I"ll lead across, and sound with my stick. To my mind, that"s the way people should help each other through the world."
After hunting about for some time, we found a broad place, where, from the appearance of the bank on either side, we fancied there might be a ford. So we took off our lower garments, and fastening our loads high up on our shoulders, we commenced the pa.s.sage. For some way the water was shallow, and rose but little above our knees; but we went on slowly, Ned carefully sounding with his stick in advance. It was fortunate that we did so, for on a sudden Ned sung out that he could find no bottom; and scarcely had he spoken, when he sunk up to his armpits, and had not we not hauled him back with all our might, the current would have carried him down the stream. We tried several other places, but everywhere found the water too deep to ford.