434 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA 



a furlong distant. There was not one only, but several 

 of the animals. The older men showed considerable 

 alarm, and proceeded to light fresh fires around the out- 

 side of our encampment. I had read in books of travel 

 of tigers coming to warm themselves by the fires of a 

 bivouac, and thought my strong wish to witness the 

 same sight would have been gratified to-night. I had 

 not, hov/ever, such good fortune, although I was the last 

 to go to sleep, and my bed was the bare sand under a 

 little arched covering open at both ends. The jaguars, 

 nevertheless, must have come very near during the night, 

 for their fresh footmarks were numerous within a score 

 yards of the place where we slept. In the morning I 

 had a ramble along the borders of the jungle, and found 

 the tracks very numerous and close together on the 

 sandy soil. 



We remained in this neighbourhood four days, and 

 succeeded in obtaining many hundred turtles, but we 

 were obliged to sleep two nights within the Carapana- 

 tuba channel. The first night passed rather pleasantly, 

 for the weather was fine and we encamped in the forest, 

 making large fires and slinging our hammocks between 

 the trees. The second was one of the most miserable 

 nights I ever spent. The air was close, and a drizzling 

 rain began to fall about midnight, lasting until morning. 

 We tried at first to brave it out under the trees. Several 

 very large fires were made, lighting up with ruddy gleams 

 the magnificent foliage in the black shades around our 

 encampment. The heat and smoke had the desired 

 effect of keeping off pretty well the mosquitoes, but the 

 rain continued until at length everything was soaked, 

 and we had no help for it but to bundle off to the canoes 

 with drenched hammocks and garments. There was not 

 nearly room enough in the flotilla to accommodate so large 

 a number of persons lying at full length ; moreover the 

 night was pitch dark, and it was quite impossible in the 

 gloom and confusion to get at a change of clothing. So 

 there we lay, huddled together in the best way we could 

 arrange ourselves, exhausted with fatigue and irritated 

 beyond all conception by clouds of mosquitoes. I slept 

 on a bench with a sail over me, my wet clothes clinging 

 to my body, and to increase my discomfort, close beside 

 me lay an Indian girl, one of Cardozo's domestics, who 

 had a skin disfigured with black diseased patches, and 



