His wounds I
dressed, and found they would soon be healed; I then tied him to a
stake, near the river, by a cord long enough to allow him to fish at his
pleasure, and, in fact, in a few days, he learned to know us, and was
quite domesticated. Meantime, my boys had been trying to measure the
tree with the long canes I had brought, and came laughing to report to
me, that I ought to have got them ten times as long to reach even the
lowest branches. "There is a simpler mode than that," said I, "which
geometry teaches us, and by which the highest mountains can be
measured."
I then showed the method of measuring heights by triangles and imaginary
lines, using canes of different lengths and cords instead of
mathematical instruments. My result was thirty feet to the lowest
branches. This experiment filled the boys with wonder and desire to
become acquainted with this useful, exact science, which, happily, I was
able to teach them fully.
I now ordered Fritz to measure our strong cord, and the little ones to
collect all the small string, and wind it. I then took a strong bamboo
and made a bow of it, and some arrows of the slender canes, filling them
with wet sand to give them weight, and feathering them from the dead
flamingo. As soon as my work was completed, the boys crowded round me,
all begging to try the bow and arrows.
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