proceed no farther.  But before I had time to receive an answer another drew his knife, and seizing upon a metal button which remained upon my waistcoat, cut it off and put it into his pocket.  Their intentions were obvious, and I thought that the easier they were permitted to rob me of everything, the less I had to fear.  I therefore allowed them to search my pockets without resistance, and examine every part of my apparel, which they did with the most scrupulous exactness.  But observing that I had one waistcoat under another, they insisted that I should cast them both off; and at last, to make sure work, they stripped me quite naked.  Even my half-boots (though the sole of one of them was tied on to my foot with a broken bridle rein) were minutely inspected.  Whilst they were examining the plunder, I begged them, with great earnestness, to return my pocket-compass; but when I pointed it out to them as it was lying on the ground, one of the banditti, thinking I was about to take it up, cocked his musket, and swore that he would lay me dead upon the spot if I presumed to put my hand upon it.  After this, some of them went away with my horse, and the remainder stood considering whether they should leave me quite naked, or allow me something to shelter me from the sun.  Humanity at last prevailed; they returned me the worst of the two shirts and a pair of trousers; and, as they went away, one of them threw back my hat, in the crown of which I kept my memorandums, and this was probably the reason they did not wish to keep it.  After they were gone, I sat for some time looking round me within amazement and terror.  Whichever way I turned, nothing appeared but danger and difficulty.  I saw myself in the midst of a vast wilderness, in the depth of the rainy season—­ naked and alone, surrounded by savage animals, and men still more savage.  I was five hundred miles from the nearest European settlement.  All these circumstances crowded at once on my recollection, and I confess that my spirits began to fail me.  I considered my fate as certain, and that I had no alternative but to lie down and perish.  The influence of religion, however, aided and supported me.  I reflected that no human prudence or foresight could possibly have averted my present sufferings.  I was indeed a stranger in a strange land, yet I was still under the protecting eye of that Providence who has condescended to call Himself the stranger’s Friend.  At this moment, painful as my reflections were, the extraordinary beauty of a small moss in fructification irresistibly caught my eye.  I mention this to show from what trifling circumstances the mind will sometimes derive consolation; for though the whole plant was not larger than the top of one of my fingers, I could not contemplate the delicate conformation of its roots, leaves, and capsula without admiration.  Can that Being, thought I, who planted, watered, and brought to perfection, in this obscure part of the world, a thing which appears of so small