120 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



intervals an acre or two of wood, then an open space, with 

 a few huts on it . then wood again, and then an o]")eu space, 

 and so on, till the intervening of the western liills, higher 

 and steeper still, and crowned with trees of the loveliest 

 shades, closes the enchanting sceue. 



At the base of this hill stretches an immense plain, 

 which appears to the eye, on this elevated spot, as level 

 as a bowling-green. The mountains on the other side are 

 piled one upon the other in romantic forms, and gradually 

 retire, till they are undiscernible from the clouds in which 

 they are involved. To the south-south-west this far- 

 extending plain is lost in the horizon. The trees on it, 

 which look like islands on the ocean, add greatly to the 

 beauty of the landscape ; while the rivulet's course is 

 marked out by the ^Eta-trees which follow its meanders. 



Not being al)le to pursue the direct course from hence 

 to the next Indian habitation on account of the floods of 

 water that fall at this time of the year, you take a circuit 

 westerly along the mountain's foot. 



At last a large and deep creek stops your progress : it is 

 wide and rapid, and its banks very steep. There is neither 

 curial nor canoe, nor purple-heart tree in the neighbour- 

 hood to make a Wood-skin to carry you over, so that you 

 are obliged to swim across ; and by the time you have 

 formed a kind of raft, composed of boughs of trees and 

 coarse grass, to ferry over your baggage, the day will be 

 too far spent to think of proceeding. You must be very 

 (iautious before you venture to swim across this creek, for 

 the alligators are numerous, and near twenty feet long. On 

 the present occasion the Indians took uncommon precau- 

 tions lest they should l)e devoured by this cruel and vora- 

 cious reptile. They cut long sticks, and examined closely 

 the side of the creek for half a mile above and below the 

 place wdiere it w^as to be crossed ; and as soon as the 



