These people apparently meant me no ill, and had no time to spare on me, But the sensation of moving through them was like walking on a black-dark night with precipices all around.

I felt odd quiverings between my shoulder blades where a spear might be expected to lodge.

Overhead was a great blue sky and a blazing sun, and I could see the path running clear before me between the walls of scrub.

But it was like midnight to me, a midnight of suspicion and unknown perils.

I began to wish heartily I had never come.
I stopped for my midday meal at a place called Taqui, a grassy glade in the bush where a tiny spring of water crept out from below a big stone, only to disappear in the sand.