With some
difficulty they made him comprehend their wish to see his place of
residence. He pointed over the hills, and proceeded onwards; but his pace
was slow and wandering, and he often stopped under pretence of having
lost the track; which led them to suspect that his only aim was to amuse
and tire them out. Judging, then, that in persisting to follow him they
must lose the remaining part of the flood tide, which was much more
valuable to them than the sight of his hut could be, they parted from him
in great friendship.
The most probable reason of his unwillingness to be their guide seemed,
his not having a male companion near him; and his fearing that if he took
them to his women, their charms might induce them to run off with them--a
jealousy very common with the natives of the continent.
He was a short, slight made man of a middle age, with a countenance more
expressive of benignity and intelligence than of that ferocity or
stupidity which generally characterised the other natives; and his
features were less flattened, or negro-like, than theirs.
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