PALM-IEEE WINE. 209 



we advanced in the forest, we began to find little pathways, 

 looking as though they had been recently cleared out by the 

 lintdu't. Their windings displayed a great number of new 

 plants : Mougeotia mollis, Nelsonia albicans, Melnmpodium 

 {.ahidosum, Jonidiura anomaluin, Teucrium palustre, Gom- 

 phia liK-ens, and a new kind of Composees, the Spiracantha 

 rornifolia. A fine Pancratium embalmed the air in the 

 humid spots, and almost made us forget that those gloomy 

 and marshy forests are highly dangerous to health. 



After an hour's walk, we found, in a cleared spot, several 

 inhabitants employed in collecting palm-tree wine. The 

 dark tint of the zambos formed a strong contrast with the 

 appearance of a little man with light hair and a pale com- 

 plrxion, who seemed to take no share in the labour. I 

 thought at first that he was a sailor who had escaped from 

 some North American vessel ; but I was soon undeceived. 

 This fair-complexioned man was my countryman, born on 

 the coast of the Baltic ; he had served in the Danish navy, 

 and had lived for several years in the upper part of the Bio 

 Sinu, near Santa Cruz de Lorica. He had come, to use the 

 words of the loungers of the country " para ver tierras, y 

 pasear, no mas" (" to see other lands, and to roam about : 

 nothing else.") The sight of a man who could speak to him 

 ot' his country, seemed to have no attraction for him ; and, 

 as he had almost forgotten German without being able to 

 express himself clearly in Spanish, our conversation was not 

 \vry animated. During the five years of my travels in 

 Spanish America, I found only two opportunities of speak- 

 ing my native language. The first Prussian I met with was 

 a sailor from Memel, who served on board a ship from 

 Halifax, and who refused to make himself known till after 

 he had fired some musket-shot at our boat. The second, the 

 man we met at the Rio Sinu, was very amicably disposed. 

 Without answering my questions, he continued 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 we remained in the 

 -t, we should have the tertian fever (calentura) from 

 w h ich he had long suffered." "We had some difficulty in 

 testifying our gratitude to this good man for his kind 

 advice; for according to his somewhat aristocratic princi- 



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