But after what he had just seen,
Joe determined to be more circumspect for the future;
and, taking his bearings by the sun, he set off afoot toward
the northeast, avoiding with the utmost care cabins, huts,
hovels, and dens of every description, that might serve
in any manner as a shelter for human beings.
How often his gaze was turned upward to the sky!
He hoped to catch a glimpse, each time, of the Victoria;
and, although he looked vainly during all that long,
fatiguing day of sore foot-travel, his confident reliance on
his master remained undiminished. Great energy of character
was needed to enable him thus to sustain the situation
with philosophy. Hunger conspired with fatigue to
crush him, for a man's system is not greatly restored and
fortified by a diet of roots, the pith of plants, such as the
Mele, or the fruit of the doum palm-tree; and yet, according
to his own calculations, Joe was enabled to push on
about twenty miles to the westward.
His body bore in scores of places the marks of the
thorns with which the lake-reeds, the acacias, the mimosas,
and other wild shrubbery through which he had to force
his way, are thickly studded; and his torn and bleeding
feet rendered walking both painful and difficult.
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