without certain difficulties, which were successfully overcome after
a good many resorts to the demijohn.
This allowed them to notice in passing some of those numerous lagoons
with black waters, which are distributed along the course of the
Amazon, and which often have no communication with the river. One of
these, bearing the name of the Lagoon of Oran, is of fair size, and
receives the water by a large strait. In the middle of the stream are
scattered several islands and two or three islets curiously grouped;
and on the opposite bank Benito recognized the site of the ancient
Oran, of which they could only see a few uncertain traces.
During two days the jangada traveled sometimes under the left bank,
sometimes under the right, according to the condition of the current,
without giving the least sign of grounding.
The passengers had already become used to this new life. Joam Garral,
leaving to his son everything that referred to the commercial side of
the expedition, kept himself principally to his room, thinking and
writing. What he was writing about he told to nobody, not even
Yaquita, and it seemed to have already assumed the importance of a
veritable essay.
Benito, all observation, chatted with the pilot and acted as manager.
Yaquita, her daughter, and Manoel, nearly always formed a group
apart, discussing their future projects just as they had walked and
done in the park of the fazenda. The life was, in fact, the same. Not
quite, perhaps, to Benito, who had not yet found occasion to
participate in the pleasures of the chase. If, however, the forests
of Iquitos failed him with their wild beasts, agoutis, peccaries, and
cabiais, the birds flew in flocks from the banks of the river and
fearlessly perched on the jangada. When they were of such quality as
to figure fairly on the table, Benito shot them; and, in the interest
of all, his sister raised no objection; but if he came across any
gray or yellow herons, or red or white ibises, which haunt the sides,
he spared them through love for Minha. One single species of grebe,
which is uneatable, found no grace in the eyes of the young merchant;
this was the _”caiarara,”_ as quick to dive as to swim or fly; a bird
with a disagreeable cry, but whose down bears a high price in the
different markets of the Amazonian basin.
At length, after having passed the village of Omaguas and the mouth
of the Ambiacu, the jangada arrived at Pevas on the evening of the
11th of June, and was moored to the bank.
As it was to remain here for some hours before nightfall, Benito
disembarked, taking with him the ever-ready Fragoso, and the two
sportsmen started off to beat the thickets in the environs of the
little place. An agouti and a cabiai, not to mention a dozen
partridges, enriched the larder after this fortunate excursion. At
Pevas, where there is a population of two hundred and sixty
inhabitants, Benito would perhaps have done some trade with the lay
brothers of the mission, who are at the same time wholesale
merchants, but these had just sent away some bales of sarsaparilla
and arrobas of caoutchouc toward the Lower Amazon, and their stores
were empty.
The jangada departed at daybreak, and passed the little archipelago
of the Iatio and Cochiquinas islands, after having left the village
of the latter name on the right. Several mouths of smaller unnamed
affluents showed themselves on the right of the river through the
spaces between the islands.
Many natives, with shaved heads, tattooed cheeks and foreheads,
carrying plates of metal in the lobes of their ears, noses, and lower
lips, appeared for an instant on the shore. They were armed with
arrows and blow tubes, but made no use of them, and did not even
attempt to communicate with the jangada.
CHAPTER XI
FROM PEVAS TO THE FRONTIER
DURING THE FEW days which followed nothing occurred worthy of note.
The nights were so fine that the long raft went on its way with the
stream without even a halt. The two picturesque banks of the river
seemed to change like the panoramas of the theaters which unroll from