But I had now been three months in their valley, as nearly as I could estimate; I had grown familiar with the narrow limits to which my wandering had been confined; and I began bitterly to feel the state of captivity in which I was held.

There was no one with whom I could freely converse; no one to whom I could communicate my thoughts; no one who could sympathize with my sufferings.
A thousand times I thought how much more endurable would have been my lot had Toby still been with me.

But I was left alone, and the thought was terrible to me.

Still, despite my griefs, I did all in my power to appear composed and cheerful, well knowing that by manifesting any uneasiness, or any desire to escape, I should only frustrate my object.
It was during the period I was in this unhappy frame of mind that the painful malady under which I had been labouring--after having almost completely subsided--began again to show itself, and with symptoms as violent as ever.

This added calamity nearly unmanned me; the recurrence of the complaint proved that without powerful remedial applications all hope of cure was futile; and when I reflected that just beyond the elevations, which bound me in, was the medical relief I needed, and that although so near, it was impossible for me to avail myself of it, the thought was misery.
In this wretched situation, every circumstance which evinced the savage nature of the beings at whose mercy I was, augmented the fearful apprehensions that consumed me.