1 85 1.] NEW COFFEE. 181 



been lately using up an enormous quantity of farinha, hoping 

 when they had finished the last basket that I should be unable 

 to purchase any more in the village, and should therefore be 

 obliged to return. The day before I had just bought a fresh 

 basket, and the sight of that appears to have supplied the last 

 stimulus necessary to decide the question, and make them fly 

 from the strange land and still stranger white man, who spent 

 all his time in catching insects, and wasting good caxaea by 

 putting fish and snakes into it. However, there was now 

 nothing to be done, so I took my insect-net, locked up my 

 house, put the key (an Indian-made wooden one) in my pocket, 

 and started off for the forest. 



I had luckily, a short time before, bought a fine Venezuelan 

 cheese and some dried beef, so that, with plenty of cassava- 

 bread and plantains, I could get on very well. In the evening 

 some of my usual visitors among the Indians dropped in, and 

 were rather surprised to see me lighting my fire and preparing 

 my dinner ; and on my explaining the circumstances to them, 

 they exclaimed that my Indians were "mala gente" (bad 

 fellows), and intimated that they had always thought them no 

 better than they should be. I got some of the boys to fetch 

 me water from the river, and to bring me in a stock of fuel, 

 and then, with coffee and cheese, roasted plantains and cassava- 

 bread, I lived luxuriously. My coffee, however, was just 

 finished, and in a day or two I had none. This I could hardly 

 put up with without a struggle, so I went down to the cottage 

 of an old Indian who could speak a little Spanish, and begged 

 him, " por amor de Dios, ' to get me some coffee from a small 

 plantation he had. There were some ripe berries on the trees, 

 the sun was shining out, and he promised to 'set his little girl 

 to work immediately. This was about ten in the morning. 

 I went into the forest, and by four returned, and found that 

 my coffee was ready. It had been gathered, the pulp washed 

 off, dried in the sun (the longest part of the business), husked, 

 roasted, and pounded in a mortar ; and in half an hour more 

 I enjoyed one of the most delicious cups of coffee I have ever 

 tasted. 



As I wanted to remain a fortnight longer, I tried to persuade 

 one of the brown damsels of the village to come and make my 

 fire and cook for me; but, strange to say, not one would 

 venture, though in the other villages of the Rio Negro I might 



