LA PRISION 121 



our boat was half full of water and it looked very much 

 as if we were going to lose her and her cargo. The men 

 jumped overboard and managed to get her off, but nearly 

 all of our things had got wet, and this, to say the least 

 of it, was a serious inconvenience. The other boats were 

 not yet in sight, so I walked to the house alone, leaving 

 the men to spread our effects out to dry. I was no 

 stranger at La Prision. It was in the forest around the 

 settlement, and at the rapids of Mura close by, that I had 

 collected most birds in 1897 and 1898 ; and although I 

 had on that occasion frequently been away for several days, 

 and once for three weeks, yet I had on the whole spent 

 more time at La Prision than anywhere else. I must 

 have created a good impression during that first visit, for 

 my return appeared to be the cause of genuine pleasure 

 at the settlement, and vigorous was the back-patting and 

 bear-hugging with which these hospitable people empha- 

 sised the extent of their joy at seeing me. Word was 

 sent to the farthest houses that I had arrived. The back- 

 patting and bear-hugging had to be repeated with each 

 batch of arrivals, until I felt like a wrestler who had been 

 having a hard half-hour with a heavy antagonist. Arrivals 

 are not everyday occurrences at these settlements, but 

 such a coming as ours was an event in the history of the 

 place. 



In the height of the confusion brought about by my 

 home-coming, as Dona Antonia was pleased to call it, the 

 other boats arrived with Longacre and Jacobson. They 

 also had met with a mishap, and a part of the cargo of 

 one of the boats had got wet. The presentation of these 

 new arrivals to the lords of the soil occasioned great 

 excitement and bustle. The pigs and dogs joined in the 

 demonstration, and as they were anxious to make us 



