Taking Into Consideration The Wild Country, And The Adventurous
Mission Which Had Brought Us Together, Our Men Were Not At All A Bad
Class.
One of them, however, a black Brazilian, used to boast at
times that he had killed his father while he slept.
In the quiet of
the evening hour he would relate the story with unnatural gusto.
We generally slept on the deck of the steamer, each under a thin
netting, while the millions of mosquitos buzzed outside - and inside
when they could steal a march. Mosquitos? Why "mosquitos a la
Paris" was one of the items on our menu one day. The course was not
altogether an imaginary one either. Having the good fortune to
possess candles, I used sometimes to read under my gauzy canopy. This
would soon become so black with insects of all descriptions as to
shut out from my sight the outside world.
After carefully surveying the Bolivian shore, we fixed upon a site
for the future port and town. [Footnote: The latitude of Port
Quijarro is 17 47' 35", and the longitude, west of Greenwich, 57
44' 38". Height above the sea, 558 feet.] Planting a hugh palm in the
ground, with a long bamboo nailed to the crown, we then solemnly
unfurled the Bolivian flag. This had been made expressly for the
expedition by the hands of Senora Quijarro, wife of the Bolivian
minister residing in Buenos Ayres. As the sun for the first time
shone upon the brilliant colors of the flag, nature's stillness was
broken by a good old English hurrah, while the hunter and several
others discharged their arms in the air, until the parrots and
monkeys in the neighborhood must have wondered (or is wondering only
reserved for civilized man?) what new thing had come to pass.
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