Their prevailing
color was emerald green, while the wings and tail were made up of
tints of orange, scarlet, and blue, and around the back of the bird
was a golden sheen rarely found even in equatorial specimens. Whether
the bird is known to ornithologists or not I cannot tell. One night
our camp was pitched near an anthill, inhabited by innumerable
millions of those insects. None of us slept well, for, although our
hammocks were slung, as we thought, away from them, they troubled us
much. What was my horror next morning when the sun, instead of
lighting up the rainbow tints of my birds, showed only a black moving
mass of ants! My parrots had literally been eaten alive by them!
But I am wandering on and the ship is still aground on the reef!
After much hauling and pulling and breaking of cables, she at last
was got off into deep water. We had not proceeded far, however, when
another shock made the vessel quiver. Were we aground again? No, the
steamer had simply pushed a lazy alligator out of its way, and he
resented the insult by a diabolical scowl at us.
Continuing on our way, we entered another body of hitherto unexplored
water, a fairy spot, covered with floating islands of lotus, anchored
with aquatic cables and surrounded by palm groves. On the shallow,
pebbly shore might be seen, here and there, scarlet flamingoes. These
beautiful birds stood on one leg, knee deep, dreaming of their
enchanted home. Truly it is a perfect paradise, but it is almost as
inaccessible as the Paradise which we all seek. What long-lost
civilizations have ruled these now deserted solitudes? Penetrate into
the dark, dank forest, as I have done, and ask the question. The only
answer is the howling of the monkeys and the screaming of the
cockatoos. You may start when you distinctly hear a bell tolling, but
it is no call to worship in some stately old Inca temple with its
golden sun and silver moon as deities. It is the wonderful bell-bird,
which can make itself heard three miles away, but it is found only
where man is not. Ruins of the old Incan and older pre-Incan
civilizations are come across, covered now with dense jungle, but
their builders have disappeared. To have left behind them until this
day ruins which rank with the pyramids for extent, and Karnak for
grandeur, proves their intelligence.
The peculiar rasping noise you now hear in the undergrowth has
nothing to do with busy civilization - 'tis only the rattlesnake
drawing his slimy length among the dead leaves or tangled reeds. No,
all that is past, and this is an old new world indeed, and romance
must not rob you of self possession, for the rattle means that in the
encounter either he dies - or you.
Meanwhile the work on shore progressed. Paths were cut in different
directions and the wonders of nature laid bare. The ring of the axe
and the sound of falling trees marked the commencement of
civilization in those far-off regions. Ever and anon a loud report
rang out from the woods, for it might almost be said that the men
worked with the axe in one hand and a rifle in the other. Once they
started a giant tapir taking his afternoon snooze. The beast lazily
got up and made off, but not before he had turned his piercing eyes
on the intruders, as though wondering what new animals they were.
Surely this was his first sight of the "lords of creation," and
probably his last, for a bullet quickly whizzed after him. Another
day the men shot a puma searching for its prey, and numerous were the
birds, beasts and reptiles that fell before our arms. The very
venomous jaracucu, a snake eight to twelve feet long, having a
double row of teeth in each jaw, is quite common here.
The forests are full of birds and beasts in infinite variety, as also
of those creatures which seem neither bird nor beast. There are large
black howling monkeys, and little black-faced ones with prehensile
tails, by means of which they swing in mid-air or jump from tree to
tree in sheer lightness of heart. There is also the sloth, which, as
its name implies, is painfully deliberate in its motions. Were I a
Scotchman I should say that "I dinna think that in a' nature there is
a mair curiouser cratur." Sidney Smith's summary of this strange
animal is that it moves suspended, rests suspended, sleeps suspended,
and passes its whole life in suspense. This latter state may also
aptly describe the condition of the traveller in those regions; for
man, brave though he may be, does not relish a vis-a-vis with the
enormous anaconda, also to be seen there at most inconvenient times.
I was able to procure the skins of two of these giant serpents.
The leader of the "forest gang," a Paraguayan, wore round his neck a
cotton scapular bought from the priest before he started on the
expedition. This was supposed to save him from all dangers, seen and
unseen. Poor man, he was a good Roman Catholic, and often counted his
beads, but he was an inveterate liar and thief.
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.
