Page:Life and Adventures of William Buckley.djvu/123

100 for a long time, in fact she made all sorts of excuses for not going back to her tribe, who not coming in search of her, and we not knowing of their whereabouts, were induced at length to remove for a change of hunting and fishing grounds; arriving ultimately at Danawa, where there is a considerable river, having its source in several high mountains, some way off in the interior. The scrub through which we should have had to pass, had we left the beach, being almost impassable, we were obliged to keep along the sea shore; and the weather by this time being cold and inclement, we occasionally took shelter, and slept in the caves and crevices of the rocks. This was a very suffering time, and as soon as we could, we returned again to my old fishing castle, on the Karaaf.

The reader may wonder, how it was possible for any one like myself, who had, in my earlier life, been associated with civilized beings, so to live; but I beg him to remember how many years I had led a different sort of existence, and how easy it is for the human being, as well as every other, to change his habits, taste, and I may add, feelings, when made the mere creature of circumstances. I look back now to that period of my life with inexpressible astonishment; considering it, as it were, altogether a dreaming delusion, and not reality. Perhaps there is no one living who can cast his mind back to so many years of his past life with such a multiplicity of extraordinary sensations, as have fallen to my lot to experience.

After many months we were visited by my