We now observed a number of huts, out of which the natives issued, little dreaming of the spectacle they were to behold.

But the moment they saw us, they started back; their huts were in a moment in flames, and each with a fire-brand ran to and fro with hideous yells, thrusting them into every bush they passed.

I walked my horse quietly towards an old man who stood more forward than the rest, as if he intended to devote himself for the preservation of his tribe.

I had intended speaking to him, but on a nearer approach I remarked that he trembled so violently that it was impossible to expect that I could obtain any information from him, and as I had not time for explanations, I left him to form his own conjectures as to what we were, and continued to move towards a thick brush, into which they did not venture to follow us.
CONTINUE OUR JOURNEY.
After a ride of about eighteen miles, through a country of alternate plain and brush, we struck upon a second creek leading like the first to the northward.

The water in it was very bitter and muddy, and it was much inferior in appearance to that at which we had slept.