were furbishing their old muskets, and the others were lounging about the door, fully accoutred, that is, bootless, jacketless, one with a cap, the other with an old and torn straw hat. They could be distinguished as soldiers only by their crossbelts with the bayonets and cartouche boxes.

The revenue officer, who appeared to have some communication for the jefe, retired with him into an apartment, and after a while the jefe came out and asked what he could do for me. To my inquiries respecting the peons, he answered that Christobal had left a week ago, with three other men, to work with un Ingles at Caña Caruto, presumably myself, and that Domingo was ill, and had deputed one of the three men to work in his stead. I asked permission to visit the town, and to see Domingo, if possible. Domingo, he said, was at home, some distance off. He would have himself gladly taken me about the town, only that he had some business to look after, but I was at liberty to go and see whatever was worth seeing. My companion offered to go with me.

The town of Pun Ceres is built in regular squares, in number about twenty, with an open space four times the size of the ordinary blocks. This open space is called La Plaza, and is supposed to be the place for the evolutions of the citizen soldiers of the district, and also the public market. On one side of this square was the guard-room or court-house, in which I saw the jefé. There were two or three stores or shops on the opposite side, kept by half-breeds. One side contained the district church. All the houses are whitewashed outside, and have thatched roofs.

We entered the church. It was of stucco, and thatched, and very decent within. The chancel had some pretensions to the gaudy splendour which mars the beauty of many churches, and is especially distasteful when its poverty of execution makes it a travesty of the original design.

The cura, a young man of about thirty years, was a priest of pure Indian blood, of a very benevolent thoughtful countenance, and with the slightest tinge of priestly pride discernible. He

was overlooking some painters and gilders, who had painted the rounded ceiling of the chancel of a very deep sky blue, and placed golden stars, and a carver who was replacing or renewing a dislocated member of an image of the Blessed Virgin Mother.

I never saw more goats at once in any place than in this square. They were lying all under the eaves of the church, and on the steps, quite tame, and undisturbed by the presence of passers by. We went to Domingo's house, in the suburbs of the town, where he was lying in his chincora with fever. I was glad to see him in his own place and among his family, to all of whom he introduced me.

CHAPTER X.

MY CORNUCA.

WE walked back to Maturin, and after a day's rest I started overland for Caña Colorado. As there is a considerable length of savanna before one gets to the forest land, it was advisable to leave Maturin in the afternoon and sleep in one of the settlements; then, starting early in the morning, to enter the forest before the sun rose high. I stopped at a settlement containing three or four peons with the proprietor, his wife and children, all Indians. They were cutting a cornuca in the forest, and lived out on the savanna. Here I slung my chinchora, but what from the mosquitoes, and the smoke made to drive them away, there was no rest during the night. The peons, who had got aloft to a half-floor by the roof, were evidently in like trouble, to judge by the flappings of their hands against their bodies

An Early Walk.

93

nearly all the night, and their repeated exclamations of "Caramba!" always, with them, an expression of surprise or annoyance. Long before daybreak I started away, and was joined by a seaman who was returning to the caña with despatches from his consignee. On comparing notes, I found that he also had been driven out by the musquitoes from a neighbouring rancheria. The morning was fresh in the savanna; and after a good walk, deeming that it was yet too early to descend into the forest, we sat down and I stretched myself out and slept very comfortably till sunrise. We passed by a hato that morning and had some milk, and took a small cheese (queso mano). The sailor, who was the regular messenger from the cattle schooner to Maturin, was several times impatient at our slow progress; and when he heard that I intended to sleep at the Arenal, we parted company, as it was of importance that he should be on board his vessel that evening.

The Arenal, at which I stopped about three o'clock that same afternoon, was a large sand