"What you say is very true; unhappily, I have not been able to take any other measures. I ought, in the interest even of our companions, to leave these Indians free, and to treat them honourably; their disposition is very gloomy; they do not pardon what they believe to be an insult. Moreover, one thing reassures me; it is, that if they had the intention of betraying us, they would not have waited until this moment to do so; a long time ago they would have abandoned us."
"That is true; and in fact, if I am not deceived, here we are at the rendezvous."
"Or at least we shall arrive there before half an hour."
"Our guides have, without doubt, perceived something now, general; for you see they have stopped, and are turning towards us, as if they had a communication to make to you."
"Let us rejoin them, then, as soon as possible," answered the general, spurring his horse, which set off at a gallop.
The two Indians had indeed stopped to await the Brazilians. When the general had reached them he ranged his horse near theirs, and immediately addressing them—
"Well, captains," said he to them, in a cheerful voice, "what has happened that you stop thus short in the middle of the path?"
"My brother and I have stopped," sententiously replied the elder of the two chiefs, "because the captains come to meet the palefaces, to do them the honour which is their due in their quality of ambassadors."
"We have then just reached the place?"
"Look," pursued the chief, stretching out his arms towards the hill, which was distant at the most a mile from the spot where they were.