208 



FLOOD. 



secure the canoe, a number of others run up to the woods and bring 

 fuel for a fire, and cut cane for the house. While one cook fetches water, 

 another breaks out from a platform in the canoe their provisions for 

 supper. 



As they all sat joking about the arrieros, while they smoke tobacco, 

 they laugh at the Quichua Indians they saw at Vinehuta, with the 

 arrieros, chewing coca leaves " like horses," as they said. 



At midnight the captain called me, speaking in the Canichana lan- 

 guage, which I could not understand, however ; when a man is called up 

 in the silence of night in such a wild country as this, he soon gains his 

 feet. 



"We found that the storm on the mountains had flooded the river ; the 

 canoe floated in close to my bed, which was gathered before the flood 

 passed over the spot, where a few moments before we were sleeping. As 

 the river was rising very fast, we were obliged to embark or be driven 

 into the cane brakes, which is the bed of the tigers, who growl if disturbed 

 by gentlemen at night. 



We all took our seats in the canoe and slept sitting, as well as the 

 musquitoes would let us. The bow was made fast to the root of a tree, 

 which was fastened to the bottom by its branches. 



These Indians are very careful people, constantly on the look-out. 

 We were aroused from a sound sleep in a moment by these watchful 

 fellows. Had the crew been an inexperienced one, the canoe might 

 have been carried off by the flood and we left in the canebrake. The 

 Indians expected a freshet. In the evening they carried our cooking 

 utensils far from the boat to the most elevated part of the beach, which 

 was not highest near the bank. When the flood came, the water 

 passed between us and the bank, leaving us on a sand island, which 

 was afterwards completely overflowed. 



At daylight the Indians begin at the paddles. They work best early 

 in the mornings and in the evenings. 



As we moved slowly down stream, rain began to 'fall; the winds 

 were variable. Some four or five different kinds of monkeys kept up 

 an excited chattering. An awkward, thick-set, ugly, bay-coated fellow 

 was bellowing out a noise not unlike that made by a large bullfrog. 

 The black ring-tailed squealed as he scampered off among the tree-tops. 

 The little white-whiskered tribe come down close to the river-bank 

 among the canes, and seem quizzically disposed to examine the char- 

 acter of the craft that intruded upon their morning sports. Th^re goes 

 a chocolate-colored little family, as though frightened to distraction. 

 Richards shouts at them in English, and the Canichanas roar with 



