The sun, whose journey was even more rapid than our own, threatened to leave us in obscurity and darkness; and when once his beams had disappeared, we had no certain direction to ascertain our way. It was in the month of June, and consequently winter in that part of the world; but accustomed to privations of almost every kind, we cared but little for the season, and as for attacks--we had weapons of defence. Yet still, at times, an indescribable emotion agitated my heart. The countenances of the _paysános_, and the certain death which awaited capture--death, too, the tortures of which might be increased by malignity and rendered lingering in the extreme, left no very pleasant sensation on the mind. The recollections of home crowded upon me--for the delights of domestic society never come more sweet to the memory than when they threaten to be torn from us for ever. Still we had come out for adventures, and the buoyant spirit of sailors urged us on. We had already travelled, at a moderate calculation, upwards of twenty miles without seeing a habitation, or the least trace of civilized society, when the bright luminary of day disappeared from the western horizon, and all became murky gloom and darkness. To have continued on without knowing whither we were going, (for not a star was visible to act as a friendly pilot in our navigation,) would have been downright madness; so reining in the horses, we suffered them to pursue their own way. Often could we hear the jaguar growling near us, and the enraged buffalo would dart across our path, while the bellowing of the wild cattle from the distance floated on the breeze. Frequently misled by the false light above the fen, we had nearly plunged into irretrievable destruction, and then imagination would (as the bleak wind passed across our eyes) make us fancy that we saw some dwelling near at hand of safety and security. Hunger, too, attacked us, for we had tasted but little food since our departure.