1851 .] 
INHABITANTS OF JAVITA. 
253 
spirits. My drawings here were made under great dif- 
ficulties. I generally returned from the forest about 
three or four in the afternoon, and if I found a new fish, 
had to sit down immediately to figure it before dark. 
I was thus exposed to the pest of the sand-flies, which, 
every afternoon, from fom* to six, swarm in millions, 
causing by their bites on the face, ears, and hands, the 
most painful irritation. Often have I been obliged to 
start up from my seat, dash down my pencil, and wave 
my hands about in the cool air to get a little relief. But 
the sun was getting low, and I must return to my task, 
till, before I had finished, my hands would be as rough 
and as red as a boiled lobster, and violently inflamed. 
Bathing them in cold water however, and half an hour’s 
rest, would bring them to their natural state ; in which 
respect the bite of this little insect is far preferable to that 
of the mosquito, the pium, or the mutuca, the effects" of 
whose bites are felt for days. 
The village of Javita is rather a large one, regularly laid 
out, and contains about two hundred inhabitants : they 
are all Indians of pure blood ; I did not see a white man, 
a mulatto, or a half-breed among them. Their principal 
occupation is in cutting piassaba in the neighbouring 
forests, and making cables and cordage of it. They are 
also the carriers of all goods across the “Estrada de Ja- 
vita,” and, being used to this service from childhood, 
they will often take two loads a day ten miles each way, 
with less fatigue than a man not accustomed to the work 
can carry one. When my Indians accompanied the 
Javitanos the first time from Pimichin, they could not 
at all keep up with them, but were, as I have related. 
