Candide could not help admiring the cause of his deliverance. "What men! what manners! " cried he; "if I had not fortunately run my sword up to the hilt in the body of Miss Cunegund's brother, I should have infallibly been eaten alive. But, after all, pure nature is an excellent thing; since these people, instead of eating me, showed me a thousand civilities as soon as they knew I was not a Jesuit." CHAPTER XVII. Candide and his Valet arrive in the Country of El Dorado. What they saw there. WHEN they got to the frontiers of the Oreillons, "You see," said Cacambo to Candide, " this hemisphere is not better than the other; e'en take my advice, and let us return to Europe by the shortest way possible." "But how can we get back," said Candide, "and whither shall we go? To my own country? The Bulgarians and the Abares are laying that waste with fire and sword; or shall we go to Portugal? There I shall be burnt; and if we abide here, we are every moment in danger of being spitted. But how can I bring myself to quit that part of the world where my dear Miss Cunegund has her residence?" "Let us turn towards Cayenne," said Cacambo; "there we shall meet with some Frenchmen; for you know those gentry ramble all over the world; perhaps they will assist us, and God will look with pity on our distress." It was not so easy to get to Cayenne. They knew pretty nearly whereabouts it lay; but the mountains, rivers, precipices, robbers, savages, were dreadful obstacles in the way. Their horses died with fatigue, and their provisions were at an end. They subsisted a whole month upon wild fruit, till at length they came to a little river bordered with cocoa trees, the sight of which at once revived their drooping spirits, and furnished nourishment for their enfeebled bodies. |
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