100 AFLOAT UPON THE LLANOS. 



tlie flooded plains constituting the great delta of the 

 Apure, we emerged from a creek, that we had for some 

 little time been following, into the Payara, one of the 

 large branches of this net-work of rivers, Discovei-ing 

 upon its elevated banks a habitation, half-concealed in a 

 banana-grove, we pulled up for the night. For want of 

 room within the dirty, gloomy hovel, we sti:etched our 

 hammocks between banana-trunks — herbs of a year's 

 growth, eight and ten inches in diameter, and ten to 

 twelve feet in height. We were not yet initiated in the 

 use of mosquiteros, and niany sancudos secured admis- 

 sion at the same time with ourselves, much to our discom- 

 fort. Turning and shaking our nets, we made another 

 trial for solitary comjDanionship, which proved even more 

 unsuccessful than our first. Again and again, the revers- 

 ing and shaking process was repeated, but after each 

 operation the number of sancudos within multiplied, until 

 they seemed to be more numerous within than without. 

 As a last resort we rolled ourselves in our blankets, from 

 head to foot ; but the stifling heat soon rendered this 

 unsupportable, when, in despair, we abandoned our ham- 

 mocks, and passed the long hours of the night in walk- 

 ing to and fro along the river-bank, crouching occasionally, 

 when wearied in batting with our unseen foe, in the smoke 

 of our smouldering fire. Morning came, when we wreaked 

 vengeance on our persecutors, by gathering up our nets, 

 and crushing by wholesale the imprisoned sancudos. 



Our bongos, having gone some distance to an estate to 

 discharge a portion of their cargo, wei-e detained through 

 the day, and, having with them the supplies for the entire 

 party, we were forced to wait for their return, and pass 

 another night in this infested place, to which Egypt, in the 

 days of its plagues, must have been a perfect paradise. 

 Of all the annoyances to which the traveller on these 

 rivers is subjected, the insects are the most to be dreaded. 



