CHAPTER XXVI.

TENTH DAY ON THE LLANOS.

We did not hurry ourselves to start, but at five o'clock gathered dried palm fronds and their large spathes or seed-guards for our fire, cooked coffee, breakfasted, and then started. We soon reached the bridge of the rio Tigre.

It was

The bridge deserves some notice. made by rustic improvised engineers, of wood cut in the immediate neighbourhood, lashed together with bejuco (lianes or bush rope), and made to span a rapid river of about fifty feet breadth. We unloaded the donkeys and the guide got them over one-by-one, by attaching a rope to the neck and making them swim across while he walked over the bridge, holding the other end of the rope. It was a nervous sight to see the crazy bridge trembling, and swaying, and cracking at each step; and not pleasant, just then, to contemplate

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the flow of the eddying water. But it was the only present way of getting over, so we each took a part of the load on our shoulders and went over, one at a time, to avoid excessive vibration. We had to cross frequently until we had transferred everything from the one bank to the other.

We were now in a cultivated country. Corn and cane-fields gladdened our eyes. The busy creaking of cane-mills worked by oxen; the cracking whips and pleasant insouciance of the carters taking their loads from the plantations to San Pedro and further on to the town of Soledad to be ferried over to the city of Bolivar, afforded a pleasant change from the solitary grandeur of the past days. One met with carts having iron axle, nave, spokes and fellys, and carts with solid wheels sawn from the trunks of trees and roughly rounded; carts dragged by horses and mules, but chiefly by

oxen.

One would fain have rested a while in this lovely cultivated district, but our guide gave us, as he always could do, a good reason for not delaying, a specious one we all knew, still a good one.

We hastened on, and at three o'clock entered the little town of San Pedro; and took up our lodgings with a civilised Indian, whose wife was of mixed Indian and Creole descent.

very good-looking sons and daughters.

They had

In

All the houses here are thatched with the timichi palm fronds (Manicaria saccifera) each about eight or ten feet long, and when doubled for thatching about eighteen inches wide. British Guiana this palm is called the troolie and is much used for a similar purpose. The spathe which covers the bunch of nuts when moistened and distended is a natural cap with a peak, and is much used by the peons when attainable. Placed on the head it resembles the peaked cap of the Madeiran peasantry. With a little artifice they could be made comfortable indoor smoking caps.

Here in San Pedro, as in Aguassai, the men are chiefly engaged in the cattle trade. Hence they send hides and fat to Bolivar.

It was arranged among us that we three should hire an extra donkey each to take us onwards on our journey, for we were rather footsore;

so we went to a Frenchman who, in addition to his cattle farm or hato at no great distance, kept a shop and some donkeys in the village. The guide, on his return from Soledad, was to deliver the donkeys to their owner. M. Wilhelm not having, as he said, sufficient money to meet the contingencies of his first days in Bolivar, got me to lend him his portion of the hire of the donkeys, the repayment of which and other small accounts, from one cause or another, was long delayed.

In the Frenchman's shop we bought necessaries for the continuance of our journey, and were tempted to purchase some luxuries as a treat after our forced abstinence of many days. These consisted, among other things, of salted codfish at a shilling the pound, and sardines at twentypence the tin. We bought also some tasajo and rice for the road, and fresh beef for the morning's food. Beef here was nominally at twopence the pound, but we got about fifteen pounds for the ten pounds. we ordered. It would seem that the butchers here ply their trade more for the profit obtainable on the hides, horns, hoofs and fat of cattle

than for gain on the fresh beef. After they have prepared tasajo by salting particular parts of the beef, they get rid of the remaining carcass at as little cost as possible to those who buy.

We did not leave San Pedro until eleven o'clock on Thursday, having determined to eat a good breakfast. No wonder that good cheer is considered a good assistant civiliser. I can to-day, after years of distance of time, remember our breakfast at San Pedro, with a reflection of the pleasure we all enjoyed. M. Wilhelm insisted on being chief cook, and, during his occupation, kept everybody in roars of laughter at his jokes, mimicry, and songs. The young people of the house, and the old ones too, were puzzled and delighted at the light-heartedness of the heavy German. Even 'Nor Gabriel, who had been for some time cool with M. Wilhelm, relaxed, and enjoyed his fun-the prospect of a good breakfast no doubt acting beneficially on his temper.

While the guide was absent, and we sat in our chinchoras (for they are substitutes for bed, sofa, and chair) in peace and charity with all the world,