He proved himself most active and energetic from the first.
And there was quite a deal to be seen to. All stores of every kind had been brought from the ship and from Guayaquil, and shortly after sunrise Samaro proceeded to muster his forces and take stock of everything.
The stores were a medley; but the heaviest packages were those that contained articles for barter with the Indians of the interior, and these consisted chiefly of light cloth, thread, needles, pins, beads, axes, knives, spear-heads, looking-glasses, an African tom-tom, and a couple of German concertinas. Many of these things would be given away as presents, and there was even a gun or two that might also change hands.
The stores for the use of Tom himself and his Indian followers consisted for the most part of the tent, a grass hammock, a few blankets, with plenty of rifles, revolvers, and ammunition. Fishing gear had not been forgotten, nor useful tools of various sorts, to say nothing of preserved meats and a few simple medicines.
Such was the outfit of the Hermit Hunter of the Wilds. A hermit of the old school might have been content with far less, but your modern wanderers do not despise anything which science may suggest as likely to add to their comfort. The horses were wiry, useful, willing beasts; strong too, and as sure-footed as mules even. The dogs were probably better than they looked. Mongrel greyhounds they were—not unlike a breed we find in Australia under the name of kangaroo-hounds.
The packages were carried by the horses in light, wicker baskets saddle fashion, and all were covered with waterproof canvas.
Tom had already enjoyed some of the delights of Ecuador travelling—if, indeed, there was very much delight in it—and his adventures as far as Riobamba would be worth relating were it not that those which followed were far more thrilling. But there had been rivers to cross, over tumble-down bridges, mountains to climb along tracks called roads which sheep in England would disdain, deep forests to force through, and long stretches of sandy plains to struggle over by paths that seemed interminable.
But although the rainy season was scarcely past the weather had been comparatively fine; and the scenery, ever varying, according to the altitude above the sea-level, was at times beautiful in the extreme, or grand even to awesome sublimity.
Tom was fond of nature in all her varied aspects, and all through his journeyings he had the pleasant companionship of birds and flowers and ferns, to say nothing of many a little forest friend in fur, that hardly thought of running away, so unused were the creatures of the wilds to the presence of man.
The greater part of the population of Riobamba turned out to see Tom start.