A TKOPICAL SnOWEK. 83 



carried us rapidly down its course. Large patches of 

 grass, sometimes acres in extent, torn from the banks, or 

 brought from the flooded plains, were borne along like 

 floating meadows. Our bivouac for the night w^as in a low, 

 pestilential jungle, where an untimely rain cut short our 

 evening meal, and sancudos disturbed our slumbers. We 

 quitted the inhospitable place at early light, and commit- 

 ted ourselves once more to the swift current of the Tri- 

 naco, as the lower Pao is called. The scenery was less 

 varied than upon the previous days of our voyage, and a 

 stillness pervaded the forest that now fringed the banks, 

 that was profound as compared with the confused din 

 of the inundated plain. Here and there a hut was seen 

 through the woods, surrounded with plantains and yucas — 

 feeble exponents of civilization in this strange land. 



At 3 p. M. we encountered one of those severe storms 

 which the traveller so often experiences in the tropics. 

 The heavens opened, and the floods came in torrents that 

 threatened shipwreck to our frail bark. In vain we en- 

 deavored to protect ourselves from the fury of the storm. 

 There was only room for one at either end of the carroza ; 

 and here two forlorn beings might have been seen, with 

 their heads stowed away among the kettles and provisions, 

 and with their legs protruding, as convenient conductors 

 to convey the water which the projecting members might 

 collect, trickling down the back toward the head, wdien- 

 ever the canoe gave a favorable lurch ; and, at an adverse 

 plunge of the unstable craft, coursing back into their boots 

 at the opposite extremity. The strength of the tempest 

 was at length exhausted, wdien, dripping with wet, and 

 shivering from cold, we drew up to the shore, where a 

 small hut told of food and shelter. Our ever-loquacious 

 Alvino, revived by hot cofiee and sandcoche to an un- 

 common flow of eloquence, rehearsed the tale of our jour- 

 ney and adventures, drawing forth the frequent exclama- 



