216 INCIDENTS OP TRAVEL. 



find the road ; but, whatever the cause, v^^e missed 

 the comforts of our travelhng equipage. We w^ere 

 without candles, too, and sat in the miserable ran- 

 cho in utter darkness, listening for the sound of 

 the approaching carriers, until Albino procured a 

 broken vessel of castor oil with a wick in it, which, 

 by faintly illuminating one corner, disclosed more 

 clearly the dreariness and discomfort of the scene. 



But worse than all was the prospect of sleeping 

 in the flea-infested hammocks, from one of which the 

 body of a dead man had just been taken. We got the 

 major domo to remove them and hire others, which, 

 perhaps, were in reality not much better. Albino 

 and Dimas had to lie down on the earthen floor, but 

 they could not remain long. Dimas mounted length- 

 wise upon a log, and Albino doubled himself up in 

 a bano, or bathing-tub, which kept him from the 

 bare ground, but not above the jump of a flea. For- 

 tunately, we suffered excessively from cold, which 

 prevented us from being thrown into a fever, but it 

 was one of the worst nights we had passed in the 

 country. 



Early in the morning Bernaldo made his appear- 

 ance, he and the carriers having had a harder time 

 than our own. They had been lost, and had wan- 

 dered till ten o'clock, when they came to a rancho, 

 where they learned their mistake, but were too much 

 tired to carry their loads any farther, and, with an 

 Indian from the rancho to guide them, had set out 

 two hours before daylight. 



