But not one escaped. They were all overtaken
and felled to the earth. I saw, however, that they were not all killed.
Indeed, their enemies, now that they were conquered, seemed anxious to
take them alive; and they succeeded in securing fifteen, whom they bound
hand and foot with cords, and carrying them up into the woods, laid
them down among the bushes. Here they left them, for what purpose I
knew not, and returned to the scene of the late battle, where the
remnant of the party were bathing their wounds.
Out of the forty blacks that composed the attacking party, only
twenty-eight remained alive, two of whom were sent into the bush to
hunt for the women and children. Of the other party, as I have said,
only fifteen survived, and these were lying bound and helpless on the
grass.
Jack and Peterkin and I now looked at each other, and whispered our
fears that the savages might clamber up the rocks to search for fresh
water, and so discover our place of concealment; but we were so much
interested in watching their movements that we agreed to remain where
we were--and, indeed, we could not easily have risen without exposing
ourselves to detection. One of the savages now went up to the wood, and
soon returned with a bundle of firewood, and we were not a little
surprised to see him set fire to it by the very same means used by Jack
the time we made our first fire--namely, with the bow and drill.
Pages:
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197