108 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



With the cutting off of communication between Venezuela 

 and Trinidad, Captain Truxillo's occupation was gone. 

 The " Josefa Jacinta" no longer plied busily back and forth 

 between Port of Spain and Maturin, driving a brisk trade in 

 hammocks, groceries and hides; and so at last she passed 

 from the possession of Captain Truxillo to that of some more 

 prosperous trader who could afford to wait for the reopening 

 of commerce. 



For a year our old Captain watched his little vessel guided 

 out of the harbor of Port of Spain, with a strange hand at 

 the helm, and a strange voice in command. Then one day 

 she sailed away never to return but to be run aground and 

 lost on a desolate and lonely part of the Venezuelan coast. 



What became of her new Captain and crew we never heard. 

 We knew only that the "Josefa Jacinta" was lost, and that 

 we could never sail her again, except on dream canos in a 

 phantom wilderness. 



