How was this change brought about? The first step of the Professor was to show the wise (?) men some of the mysterious things which the white men could do. The battery, which the boys had made at Cataract, was one of the instruments. Then he showed them the simple experiments in chemistry; how ores were treated and metals extracted and tempered.
These things were so much more important and wonderful than anything they could do or ever dreamed of, that when he told them they could do those things, he had the most willing pupils. Hour after hour they would perform some task, until they began to crave for new things. Then began the work of instilling knowledge of the language as a part of their education. They were taught how to communicate ideas by signs in the English language, and thus the alphabet was taught.
A spirit of rivalry was exhibited among them, and it was so intense that they had no further time for idleness or useless wanderings about the place. It was no wonder that the boys saw so little of them when the spirit once took possession of their energies.
Two of the men referred to had an undoubted aptitude for chemical experiments, one of them, Talala, being exceptionally bright and quick to grasp the meaning of an experiment. He usually accompanied the Professor on all his rounds visiting the sick, because this was now an imperative daily task on his part.
The thermometer was in frequent use and Talala understood its meaning. Only the simplest remedies were used and administered, and the gathering of the vegetables necessary for the making up of the remedies was a part of the work of each. In this the natives had a pretty good knowledge, but they knew nothing of making the extracts, or how to concentrate the compounds.
Cinchona, the Peruvian bark, and calisaya, its sister, which furnish the quinine of commerce, were well known to them, but they did not know how the white man made it so more efficient than the crude product as used by them.
He explained that by the use of an acid, like that furnished by sulphur, a chemical change could be produced, whereby a single grain would be more efficient than a dozen grains in the way they used it. This was labeled "Sulphate of Quinine," and so on along the whole line of remedies, he gave a term which they learned, and the reasons for it.
When John saw the wagon approaching he rushed out, followed by Uraso and Muro. The rescued captives were in the wagon. Pending their arrival a number of the warriors had cleaned out the large building—the one with the Doric[p. 205] columns, which stood at right angles to the chief's house. This structure appeared to be in the best state of preservation.
Another lot of the warriors took the wagon, and with their bolos gathered a large quantity of the sweet grass from the hillside, and this was brought to the building and arranged for the use of the chiefs and John, and for the boys when they returned.