Fiction > Book editions > London, 1889 - Master of Ballantrae

THE master's wanderings. 77
Chew, who took a great pride in his knowledge^ had in-
deed often leetured us on the geography ; and Ballantrae,
I believe^ would listen. But for my part I have always
found such information highly tedious ; and beyond the
fact that we were now in the country of the Adirondack
Indians^ and not so distant from our destination^ could
yve but have found the way, I was entirely ignorant.
The wisdom of my course was soon the more apparent ;
for with all his pains, Ballantrae was no further advanced
than myself. He knew we must continue to go up one
stream ; then, by way of a portage, down another ; and
then up a third. But you are to consider, in a moun-
tain country, how many streams come rolling in from
every hand. And how is a gentleman, who is a perfect
stranger in that part of the world, to tell any one o£
them from any other ? Nor was this our only trouble.
We were great novices, besides, in handling a canoe; the
portages were almost beyond our strength, so that I have
seen us sit down in despair for half an hour at a time
without one word; and the appearance of a single
Indian, since we had now no means of speaking to them,
would have been in all probability the means of our
destruction. There is altogether some excuse if Ballan-
trae showed something of a glooming disposition ; his
habit of imputing blame to others, quite as capable as
himself, was less tolerable, and his language it was not
always easy to accept. Indeed, he had contracted on
board the pirate ship a manner of address which was in