As we proceeded up the river we met occasional groups of the people, who were always full of gesticulations; they snatched greedily at any gifts we offered them, but took themselves off directly we attempted to open any negotiations.
A clearance in the wood made us suspect we were approaching a larger settlement, and we soon came to a large sheet of water, in the middle of which was an island crowded with conical huts, that in the centre being much higher than the rest. The island had been connected with the land by a narrow causeway, which the natives made us understand we were not to cross; but they were not altogether indisposed to transact business with us, and parted with some amber at a very low rate. But although they attached so little value to their amber, it was far otherwise with their weapons; we could not induce them to part with one of their clumsy lances nor one of their smallest bone hooks for any article that we could offer them. They showed us various implements of polished stone, and appeared to be desirous of getting more like them, exhibiting some surprise that we had none to exchange away. Bronze they had seen before, and they were acquainted with the use of bows and arrows; they pointed to the birds upon the trees, as an indication that they wanted Bichri to shoot some; a desire on their part which he was more than ready to gratify.
Not thinking it prudent to remain all night in our present position, I gave orders for making our way back to the ships, yielding, however, to the wish expressed by several of the Suomi to accompany us; but so dark was the night, and so bad were the roads, that we utterly lost our way amidst the quagmires. We wandered about till near daybreak, when six of us—Hannibal, Chamai, Himilco, Bichri, one of the sailors, and myself—found ourselves up to our waists in a swamp. After extricating ourselves with much difficulty, we discovered that the rest of our party was out of sight, and although we shouted with all the strength of our lungs, we failed in making ourselves heard. Terrible as our situation was, there was a still greater dilemma in store. While we were anxiously endeavouring to find some waymarks to guide us, we were all at once surrounded by nearly two hundred of the savages, all stoutly armed. Resistance would have been useless even if it had been possible. The men had started, as if called by an incantation, from the tufted brushwood around, and before we could lay our hands upon our swords, they had felled us to the ground and pinioned our arms, yelling and dancing all the time. They did not allow us time to regain our feet, but pounced down upon us. Two men seized me by the arms, two by the feet, and a fifth, after taking away my sword, my cap, and my shoulder-belt, came dancing along behind, every now and then leaning close over me to peer into my face. They had all evidently tricked themselves out for their adventure; their hair was dyed red, and their faces were tattooed blue and black with war-paints.
After about an hour we were made to cross the causeway from which we had been repelled the day before, and alternately pushed and pulled, we were thrust into one of the huts. Hideous women and still more hideous children followed us in groups until we reached our destination, where a matting was fastened closely over the doorway, and we were left upon the cold damp ground in complete darkness, pillaged, bruised, and bound. There was the sound of retreating footsteps, and soon the noisy yells lapsed into perfect silence.
If we had been pinioned with rope we might perhaps have contrived to extricate ourselves, but we had been tied with a tough twist made of bark, which lacerated our wrists every time we made an attempt to release them. Chamai groaned aloud with agony.
"Who's groaning?" asked Hannibal, his voice being at once recognised in the darkness.
"I cannot slip these cursed cords," said Chamai.
"No," said Himilco, "you might as well try to break a ship's cable;" and remembering that he had not heard either me or Bichri speak, he asked whether we were there.