On each wing the infantry straggled far afield, but there was method in their disorder, for in the bush close ranks would have been impossible.

At any rate we kept wonderfully well together, and when we mounted a knoll the whole army seemed to move in one piece.

I was well in the rear of the centre column, but from the crest of a slope I sometimes got a view in front.
I could see nothing of Laputa, who was probably with the van, but in the very heart of the force I saw the old priest of the Snake, with his treasure carried in the kind of litter which the Portuguese call a machila, between rows of guards.

A white man rode beside him, whom I judged to be Henriques.

Laputa trusted this fellow, and I wondered why.