town of Zaraza. My friend, an officer in the army, was a leader

in the conspiracy; and as I was the only son of a man who had
been greatly hated by the Minister of War, it became necessary

for us both to fly for our lives. In the circumstances we could
not look to be pardoned, even on the score of youth.

Our first decision was to escape to the sea-coast; but as the
risk of a journey to La Guayra, or any other port of embarkation

on the north side of the country, seemed too great, we made our
way in a contrary direction to the Orinoco, and downstream to

Angostura. Now, when we had reached this comparatively safe
breathing-place--safe, at all events, for the moment--I changed

my mind about leaving or attempting to leave the country. Since
boyhood I had taken a very peculiar interest in that vast and

almost unexplored territory we possess south of the Orinoco, with
its countless unmapped rivers and trackless forests; and in its

savage inhabitants, with their ancient customs and character,
unadulterated by contact with Europeans. To visit this primitive

wilderness had been a cherished dream; and I had to some extent
even prepared myself for such an adventure by mastering more than

one of the Indian dialects of the northern states of Venezuela.
And now, finding myself on the south side of our great river,

with unlimited time at my disposal, I determined to gratify this
wish. My companion took his departure towards the coast, while I

set about making preparations and hunting up information from
those who had travelled in the interior to trade with the

savages. I decidedeventually to go back upstream and penetrate
to the interior in the western part of Guayana, and the Amazonian

territory bordering on Colombia and Brazil, and to return to
Angostura in about six months' time. I had no fear of being

arrested in the semi-independent and in most part savage region,
as the Guayana authorities concerned themselves little enough

about the political upheavals at Caracas.
The first five or six months I spent in Guayana, after leaving

the city of refuge, were eventful enough to satisfy a moderately
adventurous spirit. A complaisant government employee at

Angostura had provided me with a passport, in which it was set
down (for few to read) that my object in visiting the interior

was to collect information concerning the native tribes, the
vegetable products of the country, and other knowledge which

would be of advantage to the Republic; and the authorities were
requested to afford me protection and assist me in my pursuits.

I ascended the Orinoco, making occasional expeditions to the
small Christian settlements in the neighbourhood of the right

bank, also to the Indian villages; and travelling in this way,
seeing and learning much, in about three months I reached the

River Metal During this period I amused myself by keeping a
journal, a record of personal adventures, impressions of the

country and people, both semi-civilized and savage; and as my
journal grew, I began to think that on my return at some future

time to Caracas, it might prove useful and interesting to the
public, and also procure me fame; which thought proved

pleasurable and a great incentive, so that I began to observe
things more narrowly and to study expression. But the book was

not to be.
From the mouth of the Meta I journeyed on, intending to visit the

settlement of Atahapo, where the great River Guaviare, with other
rivers, empties itself into the Orinoco. But I was not destined

to reach it, for at the small settlement of Manapuri I fell ill
of a low fever; and here ended the first half-year of my

wanderings, about which no more need be told.
A more miserable place than Manapuri for a man to be ill of a low

fever in could not well be imagined. The settlement, composed of
mean hovels, with a few large structures of mud, or plastered

wattle, thatched with palm leaves, was surrounded by water,
marsh, and forest, the breeding-place of myriads of croaking

frogs and of clouds of mosquitoes; even to one in perfect health
existence in such a place would have been a burden. The

inhabitants mustered about eighty or ninety, mostly Indians of
that degenerate class frequently to be met with in small trading

outposts. The savages of Guayana are great drinkers, but not
drunkards in our sense, since their fermented liquors contain so

little alcohol that inordinate quantities must be swallowed to
produce intoxication; in the settlements they prefer the white

man's more potent poisons, with the result that in a small place
like Manapuri one can see enacted, as on a stage, the last act in

the great American tragedy. To be succeeded, doubtless, by other
and possibly greater tragedies. My thoughts at that period of

suffering were pessimistic in the extreme. Sometimes, when the
almost continuous rain held up for half a day, I would manage to

creep out a short distance; but I was almost past making any
exertion, scarcely caring to live, and takingabsolutely no

interest in the news from Caracas, which reached me at long
intervals. At the end of two months, feeling a slight

improvement in my health, and with it a returning interest in
life and its affairs, it occurred to me to get out my diary and

write a brief account of my sojourn at Manapuri. I had placed it
for safety in a small deal box, lent to me for the purpose by a

Venezuelan trader, an old resident at the settlement, by name
Pantaleon--called by all Don Panta--one who openly kept half a

dozen Indian wives in his house, and was noted for his dishonesty
and greed, but who had proved himself a good friend to me. The

box was in a corner of the wretched palm-thatched hovel I
inhabited; but on taking it out I discovered that for several

weeks the rain had been dripping on it, and that the manuscript
was reduced to a sodden pulp. I flung it upon the floor with a

curse and threw myself back on my bed with a groan.
In that desponding state I was found by my friend Panta, who was

constant in his visits at all hours; and when in answer to his
anxious inquiries I pointed to the pulpy mass on the mud floor,

he turned it over with his foot, and then, bursting into a loud
laugh, kicked it out, remarking that he had mistaken the object

for some unknown reptile that had crawled in out of the rain. He
affected to be astonished that I should regret its loss. It was

all a true narrative, he exclaimed; if I wished to write a book
for the stay-at-homes to read, I could easily invent a thousand

lies far more entertaining than any real experiences. He had
come to me, he said, to propose something. He had lived twenty

years at that place, and had got accustomed to the climate, but
it would not do for me to remain any longer if I wished to live.

I must go away at once to a different country--to the mountains,
where it was open and dry. "And if you want quinine when you are

there," he concluded, "smell the wind when it blows from the
south-west, and you will inhale it into your system, fresh from

the forest." When I remarked despondingly that in my condition
it would be impossible to quit Manapuri, he went on to say that a

small party of Indians was now in the settlement; that they had
come, not only to trade, but to visit one of their own tribe, who

was his wife, purchased some years ago from her father. "And the
money she cost me I have never regretted to this day," said he,

"for she is a good wife not jealous," he added, with a curse on
all the others. These Indians came all the way from the

Queneveta mountains, and were of the Maquiritari tribe. He,
Panta, and, better still, his good wife would interest them on my

behalf, and for a suitablereward they would take me by slow,
easy stages to their own country, where I would be treated well

and recover my health.
This proposal, after I had considered it well, produced so good

an effect on me that I not only gave a glad consent, but, on the
following day, I was able to get about and begin the preparations

for my journey with some spirit.
In about eight days I bade good-bye to my generous friend Panta,

whom I regarded, after having seen much of him, as a kind of
savage beast that had sprung on me, not to rend, but to rescue

from death; for we know that even cruel savage brutes and evil
men have at times sweet, beneficent impulses, during which they

act in a way contrary to their natures, like passive agents of
some higher power. It was a continual pain to travel in my weak