The country through which they passed became every day more and more rugged, until at length it assumed the character of a wild mountainous district.  Sometimes they wound their way in a zigzag manner up the mountain sides, by paths so narrow that they could scarcely find a foot-hold.  At other times they descended into narrow valleys where they saw great numbers of wild animals of various kinds, some of which the Indians killed for food.  After they reached the mountain district they loosed the hands of their prisoners, in order to enable them to climb more easily.  Indeed in many places they had to scramble so carefully that it would have been impossible for any one to climb with his hands tied behind his back.  But the Indians knew full well that they ran no risk of losing their prisoners; for if they had attempted to escape, dozens of their number were on the watch, before, behind, and on either side, ready to dart away in pursuit.  Moreover, Barney had a feeling of horror at the bare idea of the poisoned arrows, that effectually prevented him from making the smallest attempt at escape.  With a cutlass or a heavy stick he would have attacked the whole tribe single-handed, and have fought till his brains were knocked out; but when he thought of the small arrows that would pour upon him in hundreds if he made a dash for the woods, and the certain death that would follow the slightest scratch, he discarded all idea of rebellion.

One of the animals killed by the Indians at this time was a black jaguar,—­a magnificent animal, and very fierce.  He was discovered crouching in a thicket backed by a precipice, from which he could only escape by charging through the ranks of his enemies.  He did it nobly.  With a roar that rebounded from the face of the high cliff and echoed through the valley like a peal of thunder, he sprang out and rushed at the savages in front, who scattered like chaff right and left.  But at the same instant fifty blow-pipes sent their poisoned shafts into his body, and, after a few convulsive bounds, the splendid monarch of the American forests fell dead on the ground.  The black jaguar is a somewhat rare animal, and is very seldom seen.  This one was therefore hailed as a great prize, and the skin and claws were carefully preserved.

On the afternoon of the same day the party came to a broad stream, over which they, or some other of the numerous tribes in the country, had constructed a very simple and curious bridge.  It was a single rope attached to an immense mass of rock on one side and to the stem of a large tree on the other.  On this tight-rope was fastened a simple loop of cord, so constructed that it could encircle the waist of a man and at the same time traverse from one end of the tight-rope to the other.  Barney put on a comical frown when he came to this and saw the leader of the party rest his weight in the loop, and, in clinging with hands and legs to the long rope, work himself slowly across.