magnificent bit of luck, the finding of the calisaya, awakened in
the susceptible bosom of Mr. Marcoy an ardent desire to explore for
himself the site of its discovery. But Eusebio, the chief of the
cascarilleros, assuming a mysterious and warning expression, informed
the traveler that the place was quite inaccessible for a white man, and
that he had risked his own neck a score of times in descending the
ravine which separated the route from the hillside where the fortunate
plants were growing. He promised, however, to point out the locality
from afar, and to show, by a certain changeable gloss proper to the leaf,
the precise stratum of the calisaya amongst the belts of the forest. This
promise he forgot to execute more particularly, but it appeared that the
locality would never be excessively hard to find, marked as it was by
Nature with the gigantic finger-post of Mount Camanti. Placing, then,
in security these precious specimens among their baggage, the
explorers continued their advance along the valley.
The footing was level and easy. Rocks and precipices were left behind,
and were displaced by a soft, slippery sort of sand, where from space to
space were planted, like so many oases in a desert, clumps of giant
reeds. By a strange but natural caprice these beds of rustling verdure
were cut in an infinity of well-defined geometric forms. Seen from an
eminence and at a distance, this arrangement gave a singular effect. In
the midst of these native garden-beds were cut distinct and narrow
alleys, where the drifting sands were packed like artificial paths. It is
unnecessary to add that the soft footways, notwithstanding their
advertisement of verdure and shade, proved to be of African
temperature.
The last hours of daylight surprised the travelers among the labyrinths
of these strange gardens. A suitable spot was chosen for the halt. As the
porters were preparing to throw down their packs, Pepe Garcia, who
marched ahead, announced the print of a South American tiger. The
first care of the Indians, on hearing this news, was to send forth a
horrible cry and to throng around the marks. The footprints disappeared
at the thickest part of the jungle. After an examination of the traces,
which resembled a large trefoil, they precipitated themselves on the
interpreter-in-chief, representing how impossible it was to camp out in
the neighborhood of the dreaded animal. But Pepe Garcia, accustomed
as he was by profession to try his strength with the ferocious bear and
the wily boar, was not the man to be afraid of a tiger, even of a genuine
tiger from Bengal. To prove to the porters how slight was the
estimation he placed on the supposed enemy, and also to drill them in
the case of similar rencounters, he pushed the whole troop pellmell into
the thickest part of the reeds, with the surly order to cut down the canes
for sheds. Drawing his own knife, he slashed right and left among the
stems, which the Indians, trembling with fear, were obliged to make
into sheaves on the spot and transport to the beach selected for the
bivouac. Double rows of these _arundos_, driven into the sand, formed
the partitions of the cabins, for which their interwoven leaves made an
appropriate thatch. The green halls with matted vaults were picturesque
enough; each peon, seeing how easily they were constructed, chose to
have a house for himself; and the Tiger's Beach quickly presented the
appearance of a camp disposed in a long straight line, of which the
timorous Indians occupied the extremity nearest the river.
No "tiger" appeared to justify the apprehensions of the porters; but
what was lacking to their fears from beasts with four feet was made up
to them by beasts with wings. The night closed in dry and serene. Since
leaving Maniri, whether because of the broadening of the valley, the
rarity of the water-courses or the decreasing altitude of the hills, the
adventurers had been little troubled with fogs at night. The fauna of the
region, too, had offered nothing of an alarming complexion, except the
footprints of the tiger in question: an occasional tapir or peccary from
the woods, and otters and fish from the streams, had attracted the shots
of the party, but merely as welcome additions to their game-bags, not
as food for their fears. To-night, however, the veritable bugbear of the
tropical forest paid them a visit, and left a real souvenir of his presence.
As the Indian servants stretched themselves out in slumber under the
bright stars and in the partial shelter of their ajoupas, a bat of the
vampire species, attracted by the emanations of their bodies, came
sailing over them, and emboldened by the silence reigning everywhere,
selected a victim for attack. Hovering over
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