succession are detached from the scoop, exposed to the sun, hardened,
and assume the brownish color with which we are familiar. The
manufacture is then complete.
Benito, finding a capital opportunity, bought from the Indians all
the caoutchouc stored in their cabins, which, by the way, are mostly
built on piles. The price he gave them was sufficiently
remunierative, and they were highly satisfied.
Four days later, on the 14th of August, the jangada passed the mouths
of the Purus.
This is another of the large affluents of the Amazon, and seems to
possess a navigable course, even for large ships, of over five
hundred leagues. It rises in the southwest, and measures nearly five
thousand feet across at its junction with the main river. After
winding beneath the shade of ficuses, tahuaris, nipa palms, and
cecropias, it enters the Amazon by five mouths.
Hereabouts Araujo the pilot managed with great ease. The course of
the river was but slightly obstructed with islands, and besides, from
one bank to another its width is about two leagues.
The current, too, took along the jangada more steadily, and on the
18th of August it stopped at the village of Pasquero to pass the
night.
The sun was already low on the horizon, and with the rapidity
peculiar to these low latitudes, was about to set vertically, like an
enormous meteor.
Joam Garral and his wife, Lina, and old Cybele, were in front of the
house.
Torres, after having for an instant turned toward Joam as if he would
speak to him, and prevented perhaps by the arrival of Padre Passanha,
who had come to bid the family good-night, had gone back to his
cabin.
The Indians and the negroes were at their quarters along the sides.
Araujo, seated at the bow, was watching the current which extended
straight away in front of him.
Manoel and Benito, with their eyes open, but chatting and smoking
with apparent indifference, walked about the central part of the
craft awaiting the hour of repose.
All at once Manoel stopped Benito with his hand and said:
“What a queer smell! Am I wrong? Do you not notice it?”
“One would say that it was the odor of burning musk!” replied Benito.
“There ought to be some alligators asleep on the neighboring beach!”
“Well, nature has done wisely in allowing them so to betray
themselves.”
“Yes,” said Benito, “it is fortunate, for they are sufficiently
formidable creatures!”
Often at the close of the day these saurians love to stretch
themselves on the shore, and install themselves comfortably there to
pass the night. Crouched at the opening of a hole, into which they
have crept back, they sleep with the mouth open, the upper jaw
perpendicularly erect, so as to lie in wait for their prey. To these
amphibians it is but sport to launch themselves in its pursuit,
either by swimming through the waters propelled by their tails or
running along the bank with a speed no man can equal.
It is on these huge beaches that the caymans are born, live, and die,
not without affording extraordinary examples of longevity. Not only
can the old ones, the centenarians, be recognized by the greenish
moss which carpets their carcass and is scattered over their
protuberances, but by their natural ferocity, which increases with
age. As Benito said, they are formidable creatures, and it is
fortunate that their attacks can be guarded against.
Suddenly cries were heard in the bow.
“Caymans! caymans!”
Manoel and Benito came forward and looked.
Three large saurians, from fifteen to twenty feet long, had managed
to clamber on to the platform of the raft.
“Bring the guns! Bring the guns!” shouted Benito, making signs to the
Indians and the blacks to get behind.
“Into the house!” said Manoel; “make haste!”
And in truth, as they could not attack them at once, the bst thing
they could do was to get into shelter without delay.
It was done in an instant. The Garral family took refuge in the
house, where the two young men joined them. The Indians and the
negroes ran into their huts and cabins. As they were shutting the
door:
“And Minha?” said Manoel.