A WOMAN'S EXPERIENCES IN VENEZUELA. 79 



edible dishes; he could boil the native vegetables, yam, 

 tania and kuch-kuch and he made very good cornmeal mush. 

 Then after a long, happy day on the cafios we were always 

 hungry, and happiness and honest hunger overlook a multi- 

 tude of sins. Besides, whatever was lacking in Maestro's bill 

 of fare was compensated by the dried soups, cocoa, crackers 

 and preserves from our own stores. So we managed one way 

 or another to keep the wolf from the door, or perhaps more 

 appropriately I should say, the crocodile from the com- 

 panionway. 



As in two weeks the crew had consumed provisions planned 

 by the Captain to last a month, the Captain purchased a hun- 

 dred pounds of beef from a dug-out full of Indians which 

 passed us one day on the river. This Maestro salted plenti- 

 fully and then hung up in the sun to cure. Long strips of it 

 were suspended from the rigging, from the boom, and over the 

 railing, and whole entomological collections buzzed noisily 

 about them. For a few days we felt as though we were 

 living in a butcher's shop; and a butcher's shop in a 

 tropical climate is a thing to be avoided. At first we were 

 inclined to resent this impromptu meat market. It was 

 not only disagreeable but it was in the way. Then came 

 the thought suppose it were fish; and we were so grate- 

 ful to be spared that, that we cheerfully submitted to a sloop 

 draped with strips of meat, as a house is festooned with smilax 

 at Christmas. As long as the larder was low the Captain had 

 known no peace of mind for fear his crew would desert us 

 and the sloop. So the purchase of such a delicacy as meat 

 was a successful piece of strategy. 



\Yith all their faults, there is among the Venezuelans, as 

 among the Mexicans, a certain chivalry toward women; and 

 so I never felt the least alarm at being left alone on the 

 sloop with the crew, while the Captain and my husband went 

 off up the river. The great dusky Creole mate would put my 



