208 



CHAPTER XVI. 



STRANGE LOT OF INMATES. BIVOUACKING. HOW SOME 



PERSONS TRAVEL. — FONDNESS FOR SPIRITS. STRIPPING 



FOR A STORM. KEEPING ONESELF DRY. — A PAIR OF 



NATIVES. 



TT is scarcely possible for any European 

 that has not been in a tropical cHmate to 

 conceive the force of an *' aguacero," or storm 

 of rain, that may last from half an hour to 

 three or four. It is very different from the 

 long steady rain that comes down now and 

 then during the wet season for two or even 

 three weeks in succession, without a moment's 

 intermission. The latter is never accom- 

 panied by lightning and thunder except at 

 the very end of the bad weather, w^hen the 

 grumbling of the thunder on the West Coast 

 proclaims the speedy breaking up of the 

 " temporal," as the long rain is called, and 

 also the release of the impatient prisoners in 

 the different ranchos or huts. 



This confinement is truly insupportable. 

 Every traveller or stray Indian that cannot 

 pass the swollen rivers, or who cannot bear a 



