Page:The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse.pdf/175

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THE CAPTIVITY OF HANS STADE

Caput XX.

What happened on the return voyage to their country.

Now when they were about seven miles (leagues) away from Brikioka towards their own country,[1] it was, reckoning by the sun, about four o'clock in the afternoon, and it was on this same day that they had captured me.

And they sailed to an island and drew their canoes on shore, and intending to remain there the night, they took me from out of the canoe on to the shore. When I got on land I could not soc, for I had been struck under my eyes; also I could not walk well, and had to remain lying on the sand on account of the wounds which I had received in my leg. They stood around me and threatened how they would eat me.

Now when I was in such great terror and misery, I thought over what I never before contemplated, namely the sad vale of sorrow wherein we here live, and I began with tearful eyes to sing from the depth of my heart the Psalm:[2]

"Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee," etc.

Then said the savages, "Hear how he cries, how he laments!"[3]

Thereupon it seemed to them that there was no good encampment to be made on the island, for the purpose of remaining there passing the night, and they sailed away

  1. ↑ The Tupinambás would make for their own country as directly as possible, and twenty-eight nautical miles to the N.N.E. would land them upon the rock-stack called Montão de Trigo.
  2. ↑ De Profundis clamavi, Psalm cxxx, 1:—

    "Dum vita medio convertitur anxia luctu,
    Imploro superi Numinis æger opem."

  3. ↑ A great disgrace amongst the savages of South, as well as of North, America.
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