JUAN SILVA'S WIFE 285- 



bility of abandoning the boat and walking through the 

 forest to Mura. If Pancho and the others had really left 

 the river in the hope of reaching the savannahs, I could 

 not help thinking that we should never hear of them 

 again. In any case there was no help for what had 

 occurred : all we could do was to await the return of 

 Juan Saba and his companions. On the day after their 

 departure Juan Silva's wife came from Temblador. We 

 were apprised of her arrival by her loud waihngs, which 

 she kept up for hours after reaching the house, Dona 

 j^ntonia doing her best in the meantime to comfort her. 

 Finally she quieted down sufficiently to discuss the busi- 

 ness side of the question. Was poor Juan entitled to any 

 balance in cash, and how much was it ? Would I hand 

 her over the amount if he did not come ? I felt relieved. 

 No woman who takes so sensible a view of the loss of a 

 husband is ever going to die of a broken heart. I put 

 her in possession of the facts and she became compara- 

 tively cheerful. I was glad of this, as some men who had 

 been engaged cutting cedar in the forest were leaving in 

 the afternoon for Puerto Antonio Liccioni, and I wished 

 to take advantage of the opportunity to write letters to 

 friends in Trinidad, to my wife and daughters in London, 

 and to my agents Messrs. Hugh Low & Co. It would 

 have been impossible for me to have attended to any 

 correspondence had Juan Silva's wife proved incon- 

 solable. After all, the woodcutters did not leave until the 

 following morning, so that I had ample time to write all 

 my letters. 



By June 1 Jacobson and I were well enough to 

 walk about with ease, if not with energy. Singularly 

 enough the men who had been ever so much stronger 

 than both of us on the day of our arrival were all laid up,. 



