“We ought to do something,” Nicky urged, always anxious to act. “Let’s land and find out what’s what!”
“You cannot hurry an Indian,” Mr. Gray counseled. “We must wait to see what they will do.”
“More can be gained by patience than by forcing them to move,” Bill supplemented the older man’s counsel.
And so they let another day pass.
Then a canoe approached. It contained three of the older Indians, dark, steady, stolid men. They made gestures indicating that they desired the boat to go away.
Bill, standing at the bow, beckoned to them, and held out for them to see, some very flashy glass ornaments.
“For Big Chief!” he called, in Spanish.
The canoe lay quiet; the men did not move.
A long half-hour passed.
Then the men nodded, paddled closer and waited.