We Still Had A Little Chipa, Which Had By This Time
Become As Hard As Stone, But Which I Jealously Guarded To Use Only In
Case Of The Greatest Emergency.
At times we had been very hungry, but
my order was that it should not be touched.
Only the reader who has seen the virgin forest, with its interlacing
lianas, thick as a man's leg - the thorns six inches long and sharp
as needles - can form an idea of the task before us. As we penetrated
farther and farther in the selva, the darkness became deeper and
deeper. Giant trees reared their heads one hundred and fifty feet
into the heavens, and beautiful palms, with slender trunks and
delicate, feathery leaves, waved over us. The medicinal plants were
represented by sarsaparilla and many others equally valuable. There
was the cocoa palm, the date palm, and the cabbage palm, the latter
of which furnished us good food, while the wine tree afforded an
excellent and cooling drink. In parts all was covered with beautiful
pendant air-flowers, gorgeous with all the colors of the rainbow.
Monkeys chattered and parrots screamed, but otherwise there was a
sombre stillness. The exhalations from the depth of rotting leaves
and the decaying fallen wood rendered the steamy atmosphere most
poisonous. Truly, the flora was magnificent, and the fauna,
represented by the spotted jaguar, whose roar at times broke the
awful quiet of the night, was equally grand.
As the chief, ignorant of hours and miles, could not tell me the
extent of the forest, I determined to let him and Timoteo make their
way through as best they could, crawling through the branches, to the
Sun-Worshippers, and secure their help in cutting a way for the
horses.
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