A ROAD NOT MACADAMIZED. 



41 



pistols and sword ; our principal muleteer, who was 

 mounted, carried a machete and a pair of murderous 

 spurs, with rowels two inches long, on his naked heels ; 

 and two other muleteers accompanied us on foot, each 

 carrying a gun. 



A group of friendly by-standers gave us their adieus 

 and good wishes ; and, passing a few straggling houses 

 which constituted the suburbs, we entered upon a 

 marshy plain sprinkled with shrubs and small trees, 

 and in a few minutes were in an unbroken forest. At 

 every step the mules sank to their fetlocks in mud, and 

 very soon we came to great puddles and mudholes, 

 which reminded me of the breaking up of winter and 

 the solitary horsepath in one of our primeval forests 

 at home. As we advanced, the shade of the trees be- 

 came thicker, the holes larger and deeper, and roots, 

 rising two or three feet above the ground, crossed the 

 path in every direction. I gave the barometer to the 

 muleteer, and had as much as I could do to keep my- 

 self in the saddle. All conversation was at an end, 

 and we kept as close as we could to the track of the 

 muleteer ; when he descended into a mudhole, and 

 crawled out, the entire legs of his mule blue with mud, 

 we followed, and came out as blue as he. 



The caravan of mules, which had started before us, 

 was but a short distance ahead, and in a little while 

 we heard ringing through the woods the loud shout of 

 the muleteers and the sharp crack of the whip. We 

 overtook them at the bank of a stream which broke 

 rapidly over a stony bed. The whole caravan was 

 moving up the bed of the stream ; the water was dark- 

 ened by the shade of the overhanging trees ; the mule- 

 teers, without shirts, and with their large trousers rolled 

 up to the thighs and down from the waistband, were 

 Vol, L— F 



