THE SHOP KEEPER OF ESMERALDA. 1*75 



but all their searcli was in vain. The dog, which had 

 accompanied them from Caracas, and had so often in 

 swimming escaped the pursuit of the crocodiles, had been 

 devoured in the forest. 



On the 21st they again entered the bed of the Orinoco, 

 three leagues below the mission of Esmeralda. It was 

 now a month since they had left that river near the mouth 

 of the Guaviare. They had still to proceed seven hundred 

 and fifty leagues before reaching Angostura. 



At Esmeralda they were cordially received by an old 

 of&cer, who took them for Catalonian shopkeepers, and 

 who supposed that trade had led them to the missions. 

 On seeing packages of paper intended for drying their 

 plants, he smiled at their simple ignorance. "You 

 come," said he, " to a country where this kind of mer- 

 chandise has no sale ; we write little here ; and the dried 

 leaves of maize, the plantain-tree, and the heliconia serve 

 us, like paper in Europe, to wrap up needles, fish-hooks, 

 and other little articles of which we are careful." This 

 old officer united in his person the civil and ecclesiastical 

 authority. He taught the children the Rosary; he 

 rang the bells to amuse himself; and impelled by ardent 

 zeal for the service of the church, he sometimes used his 

 chorister's wand in a manner not very agreeable to the 

 natives. 



When they arrived at Esmeralda, the greater part of 

 the Indians were returning from an excursion which 

 they had made to the east, beyond the Kio Padamo, to 

 gather brazil nuts. Their return was celebrated by a 

 festival, which was called in the mission the festival of 

 brazil nuts, and which resembled the harvest-homes and 

 vintage-feasts of Germany. The women had prepared a 



