I Was Indeed Thankful To Quit The Oven Of A Town When
At Last Quarantine Was Raised And A Brazilian Steamboat Called.
Rats were so exceedingly numerous on this packet that they would
scamper over our bodies at night.
So bold were they that we were
compelled to take a cudgel into our berths! A Brazilian passenger
declared one morning that he had counted three hundred rats on the
cabin floor at one time! I have already referred to Brazilian
numbering; perhaps he meant three hundred feet, or seventy-five rats.
With the heat and the rats, supplemented by millions of mosquitos, my
Corumba journey was not exactly a picnic.
In due time we arrived again at Puerto Martinio, only to hear that
our former fellow-passenger, the assassin, had regained his freedom
and could be seen walking about the town. But then - well, he was
rich, and money does all in Brazil - yea, the priest will even tell
you it purchases an entrance into heaven! In worldly matters the
people see its power, and in spiritual matters they believe it.
If the priest has heard of Peter's answer to Simon - "Thy money perish
with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be
purchased with money" - he keeps it to himself. How can he live if he
deceives not? Strange indeed is the thought that, three hundred years
before the caravels of Portuguese conquerors ever sailed these
waters, the law of the Indian ruler of that very part of the country
read:
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