Page:Life Amongst the Modocs.djvu/67



CHAPTER V.

IN A CALIFOKNIA MINING CAMP.

THINK I was ill. I remember some things but vaguely which took place this night, and the day and night that followed. I am certain that something was wrong all this time ; for, as a rule, when we first land from a voyage, or reach a journey s end, the mind is fresh and strong a blank ready to receive impressions and to retain them.

If you will observe or recall the fact, you will find that the first city you visited in China, or the first sea-port you touched at in Europe, is fixed in your mind more perfectly than any other. But my recollection of this time, usually clear and faultless, is shadowy and indistinct. I was surely ill.

This black man to me was a nightmare. I stood before him like a convict before his keeper. I felt that he was my master. Had he told me to do this or that I would have gone and done it, glad to get