THE PAPS OF TOLU. 207 



tinued repeating, with a smile, " that the country was hot 

 and humid ; that the houses in the town of Pomerania 

 were finer than those of Santa Cruz de Lorica ; and that, 

 if they remained in the forest, they would have the ter- 

 tian fever from which he had long suffered." The travel- 

 lers had some difficulty in showing their gratitude to this 

 man for his kind advice ; for according to his somewhat 

 aristocratic principles, a white man, were he barefooted, 

 should never accept money "in the presence of those 

 vile coloured people !" Less disdainful than their Euro- 

 pean countryman, the travellers saluted politely the 

 group of men of colour, who were employed in drawing 

 off into large calabashes, the palm-tree wine, from the 

 trunks of felled trees. 



They weighed anchor in the road of Zapote, on the 

 27th, at sunrise. The sea was less stormy, and the 

 weather rather warmer, although the fury of the wind 

 was undiminished. They saw on the north a succession 

 of small cones of extraordinary form, as far as the Morro 

 de Tigua ; these cones were known by the name of the 

 Paps of Santero, Tolu, Rincon, and Chichimar. The two 

 latter were nearest the coast. The Paps of Tolu rose in 

 the middle of the savannahs. There, from the trunks 

 of the Toluifera balsamum was collected the precious 

 balsam of Tolu. In the savannahs of Tolu the travellers 

 saw oxen and mules wandering half wild. In the archi- 

 pelago of San Bernardo, they passed between the island 

 of Salamanquilla and Cape Boqueron. They had scarcely 

 quitted the gulf of Morosquillo, when the sea became so 

 rough, that the waves frequently washed over the deck 

 of their little vessel. Their captain sought in vain a 

 sheltering-place on the coast, to the north of the village 



