172 
Reaching the Promised Land. 
to fetch timber in the neighbourhood, the captain expecting to make his 
way back to the coast by the itabbos : his arrival however happened to be 
in the dry season when the river bed gets drained and the water, owing 
to the flood tide reaching up to here, becomes at the same time absolutely 
unpalatable: this and a number of other disappointments led to the 
desertion of the crew who, clandestinely making off with the ship’s boat, 
managed to get home again; some days later the captain was found 
marooned with his vessel by a party of Indians who got him back to the 
coast, but by the time lie returned with new hands the schooner was not 
only plundered, but also sunk, since it had supplied the wants of all the 
neighbouring natives in the way of nails, iron, boards, and the like. In 
the proximity of the coast the wreck would hardly have attracted any 
attention, but in this desert it aroused our liveliest interest, and in later 
times will perhaps afford occasion for the most curious conjectures to 
many a European who happens to venture so far inland. f 
583. The mouth of the small stream Asacota which we greeted with 
a loud hurrah lay immediately opposite the derelict on the western bank 
of the Beara. Since the feed of crabs, so pregnant in its results, nothing 
had passed our lips, and it was therefore with all the keener interest 
that we drew near to Caberalli’s home in the Asacota, of which lie had 
sketched us such a pleasant picture — the promised land that flowed with 
milk and honey where a plenteous supply of provisions would put an 
end to our misery, that happy Paradise where girls, even prettier than 
the daughters of the Waika chief, would toast us with the drinking cups. 
What was therefore more natural then, that even before reaching the 
village we should have made up our minds to spend a feu' days in it! 
584. The mouth of the Asacota was so hidden in dense thicket and 
scrub that only a well-informed person could have found it, and there 
involuntarily crossed my mind the statement of Waterton, the celebrated 
English traveller, when he spoke of a river-mouth thus concealed, as 
probably resembling completely the path trodden by Orpheus on his 
return from the Styx with his beloved Eurydice, because Ovid's descrip- 
tion “Arduus, obliquus, caligene densus opaca”* * exactly suited it. The 
intervening spaces between the branches of the bushes were tilled with 
innumerable blossoms and leaves of lovely orchids such as: Stauhopea , 
Zygopetalum, BurUngtonia, Rodriguczia , several species of Gongora, 
Maxillnria, and Bifrenaria. 
585. Caberalli with his corial in the lead made his way through the 
apparently impenetrable barrier, we others following him up the snake- 
like course of the stream until a building at last rose ahead of us on a 
cleared space. Caberalli who was waiting us here addressed himself to 
Mr. King and explained that he had had the hou.se built for him, so 
that on his subsequent journeys of inspection he would be saved the 
heavy journey up the Asacota to his own settlement. On each suhse- 
t The belief amongst the present-day Warraus is that a Spanish treasure-ship was 
sunk here by the Caribs who slaughtered the crew. I myself have dived into the spot, but 
found no trace of the vessel, a boom of which appears to have been noticed by the present 
Warrau captain, John Coxall of Warramuri, when a boy — Ed. 
* Ovid. Metamorph. X 54. 
