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

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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

reef, on which was a cornuca, owned by a mixed family. The sand was of the lightest yellow, and hard set, very pleasant to walk on, and dry immediately after a shower which fell that afternoon. The farmers told me that the rest of the road was too moist, with recent rains and the treading of cattle, to be convenient for early travelling; and as I was certain of getting to La Ceiba long before night-fall, I did not leave the Arenal before ten in the morning.

The journey was a most unpleasant one. Llaneros, with their mud-boots, passed me frequently that day, almost skipping through the mud. This was owing to equipment and habit. I blamed my ignorance, for I now saw and felt that no bushman should be without a pair; ordinary boots would be only an encumbrance. The mudholes were sometimes knee-deep, and it was often very difficult to get the foot out to make another step forward. Of course I had, as I saw the others all do, to take off my trousers and throw. them over my shoulders. Then the cow-flies were a nuisance. They took occasion to attack

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the calves of the legs very cleverly at the most helpless times, so that my legs soon streamed with blood. The sticks and stumps under the mud cut up my feet severely. At last came the culmination. Brambles and thorns appear to have been laid down on certain parts of the road to be trampled by the feet of horses and oxen, and these laid me hors de resistance. I fairly gave over, and, struggling to one side of the road, laid me down with no definite purpose whatever. At that moment, it was hard to decide whether it would be better to rise up and walk on to La Ceiba, or be pounced upon by a tiger. The latter, certainly, seemed the quicker solution of the difficulty. But I heard the sound of paddles, and hailed out lustily. A conversation ensued, by which I found that they were friends going to La Ceiba, the one in command being Juan, a god-son of Señor Valliviun. He came up and helped me to the corial. I washed my feet and legs, put on my trousers, and made a vow never again, if I could help it, to travel a foot in the lowland cattle paths of Venezuela.

As an instance of the reticence of Indians, and of their insouciance respecting matters not affecting themselves or their families, I shall mention that Hills was at La Ceiba the day before, and that Gerilleau, passing by in a corial, had a quarrel with him, the result of which was that Hills, having his rifle with him, shot the unfortunate Gerilleau. Two Indians, who were with him in the corial, jumped out and swam away to the other bank, not knowing the motive or object of the assassin. Although I travelled with three Indians who had all witnessed the act, and one of them, Juan, was particularly intimate with me, yet I heard nothing of the melancholy event until I was told of it by Señor Valliviun, while his good wife was engaged taking the prickles from my feet.

According to Señor Valliviun, the two partners had mistrusted each other, while each took every opportunity to recoup himself of some part of his supposed loss. "They were," he said, "disreputable men, to whom he had shown kindness, and, from both, received ingratitude in the most painful and offensive manner. I have had thoughts