before night had fairly set in, and the day before he had anticipated
any such attempt, the negroes suddenly fell upon him, and pinned his
arms, and otherwise disabled him, so that he was completely at their
mercy. Already they had arrived at the environs of their village, and
into it they bore him in great triumph. Council was at once held, and it
was resolved that on the morrow the prisoner should be sacrificed, and
cooked, and eaten! This was anything but agreeable to our adventurer,
but he did not despair. Thrusting his hand into his pack, he discovered
an almanac that he had brought with him from Cuba.

Turning over the hieroglyphics and singular figures, to the wonder and
amusement of the negroes, he saw that on the morrow an eclipse of the
sun would take place, and he immediately resolved to turn the fact to
good account. He summoned the chief of the tribe and told him to his no
small amazement, in his own tongue, that to-morrow, the Great Spirit
that ruled the sun would put a veil over it in displeasure at the
detention of his white child by them, but that as soon as they should
loose his feet and arms, and set him free, the veil would be removed.

Amazed at such an assertion, the chief consulted among his brethren, and
it was agreed that if the white man's story proved true, then he should
be released.

At the hour appointed on the following day, the negroes were surprised
and terrified to see the gradual and almost total eclipse of the sun,
and attributed it to the Great Spirit's displeasure because of their
detention of the white prisoner, as he had foretold. They hastened to
loose his arms and to set him on his way rejoicing. They even bore him
on their shoulders for leagues in a sort of triumphal march, and did not
permit him to walk until they had brought him safely and deposited him