ABSTRACT
WHEN I was daily expecting the return of the others who, as I have reported, were preparing for my death, I heard one day the sound of howling in the huts of the king who was absent. I was much afraid, for I thought that they had now returned, since it is the custom of the savages, when one of them has been absent for not longer than four days, to cry over him with joy when he returns.51 Presently one of the savages came to me and reported that the brother of him who owned a share in me had returned with the news that the others were all sick, whereat I greatly rejoiced, for I told myself that now God would show his might. Not long afterwards this brother himself came to the hut where I was, and sitting down by me he commenced to cry aloud, saying that his brother, his mother, and his brother’s children had all fallen sick, and that his brother had sent him to me with the message that I was to make my God restore them to health; and he added that his brother was persuaded that my God was wrath with them. To which I replied: “My God is indeed angry with you for threatening to eat me, and for going to Mambukabe to prepare the feast, and for falsely accusing me of being a Portuguese.” I told him, further, to return to his brother and bid him come back to the huts, and I would intercede with my God to make him well again. He replied that his brother was too ill to come, but that he knew and had observed that if I desired it he would recover. Whereupon I made answer that he must wait until he was strong enough to come home to his huts, and that then he would be restored to health. With this answer he returned to Mambukabe, which is situated four miles from Uwattibi, where I was.
