Chapter 4

The nightly chorus of wild dogs lulled me to sleep every evening, but small bandits of every description attempt to raid and pillage my stores, wakening me with a clockworks frequency. I have taken to alarming my goods with piles of heaped stones, which rattle and clatter when my uninvited guests tromple them. There is a masked bandit, which once purloining me of a large dried fish, proceeded to wash the dirt from it in full view of the campfire, immersing it and rubbing it with its clever thieving paws. There are the singing dogs, who make a quick dash and grab, often when a fellow of theirs distracts me from another direction. There is a fragrant and bold kit with a pair of white stripes who I quickly learned was not to be molested, as it sprays a poisonous effluent from under it's tail. I just pretend to sleep, and hope it doesn't abscond with too much of my dried fish or deer, which I now keep tightly bundled in thick canvas at night.

Even the birds in these parts are robbers, there is a bright blue and raucous voiced specimen who tries to take whatever food is in sight, caring not one whit that I am mere steps away. At first I was affronted and angry at these depredations, but I soon had to laugh at the way these bold of God's creatures seized upon providence so opportunely. I determined to do the same, to take the chances the Mighty Lord gave me to prosper.

There are venomous serpents in the rocks, but by God's plan, are not silent death like those of other lands, but instead, if they are cognizant of one's approach, make a great hissing noise from a second head on their tails. I saw a large herd of giant deer, with broad antlers and proud heads. They walked as apparitions in the dawning misty day, as silent as wraiths. I was too entranced by their beauty and majesty to even consider trying to obtain them for larder, feeling that these Lordly Deer were not for the common man such as I. In the light of reasoning day I scoffed at my notions, but still, they were very large, and I doubt myself that I could even get from them their skins, so great would be their weight upon the ground. Given opportunity, should one man alone attempt to capture a whale?

Beside the small and melodious wild dogs, I saw their larger cousins, fleet and shy wolves, who also filled the nights with mournful tones. It thrilled me to my marrow's core, and I gave thanks to My God that they were honorable enough to not want to steal from me. They like the savage men, were busy with their own pursuits, and molested me not. Once I had to escape into the water to avoid a bear she, a sleek black button eyed sow with two rambunctious young. They soon moved on, and I climbed from the chill waters to recover my belongings. At the confluence of other rivers I saw at times shapes I took to be stumps, but when examined through my spyglass, I saw were actually large and fierce bears, great monsters of golden and brown. I kept away from the flat river plains, and camped in the barren slopes of a night. It is good that the tidal influence no longer made the water brackish, and it was good, clean and pure under my hull.

There were a few reaches that were too quick for me to pass with scull oar, and I had to warp the wooden bobble along from the shore, using a rope on the bow and stern, and a pole I had cut for the purpose. It was easier than a portage, but still taxed my strength, and left me at the mercy of any animals who might attack me in my distraction. I planned on leaping into my craft and chancing the wild white spume and rocks, rather than stay to the claws and teeth of a vicious great beast, but luckily I was not put between Charybdis and Scylla.

I surely felt that the Hand of My God was over me, protectively.