Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon

enters remained the task of arranging in the form of a ra

e admitted, astonishing workmen. They have only an ax and a saw, and they work on woods so hard that the edge of their tools gets absolutely jagged; yet they square up trunks, shape beams out of enormo

roceed in a different way. The whole mass of trunks was symmetrically arranged on a flat part

ence it was that the Amazon was to float it when

is immense body of water, and more especially as relating to a singular ph

Mississippi, flow one from south to north across the African continent, the other from north to south through

east, on the frontiers of Ecuador and Peru-between the second and fourth parallels of south latitude.

in the south it occurs in March. Consequently the right-hand tributaries and the left-hand tributaries bring down their floods

ort on the river bank. In fact, between the mean and the higher level the height of the Amazon could vary as much as forty feet, and

ding to their sizes and floating power, which of course had to be taken into account, as among the

e. "Pia?aba" ropes strapped them together as firmly as any chain cables could have done. This material, which consists of the ramicles of a certain palm-tree growing very abundantly on the river banks,

nches above the load water-line. The bulk was enormous, as we must confess when it is considered that the raft measured a thousand feet long

Garral. But when that part was finished the question of arrangement was

e was doing in his new s

him by the neck and brought him up with a round turn. Fragoso had accepted the offer, thanked him from the bottom of his heart, and ever since had sought to make himself useful in a thousand ways. He was a very intelligent fellow-

to that he claimed to have cont

ing, "to play at 'following the liana!' It is a capital game ev

would laughingly reply Lina; "I

u see, it is not my trade to be hanged! If I tried my hand at it, it was through necessity. But, on consideration, I would rather die of hunger

itiative in his rescue, and Lina was not insensible to the attentions of the brave fellow, who was as straightforward, frank, and

e as possible. The Garral family, comprising the father, mother, daughter, Benito, Manoel, and the servants, Cybele and Lina, were to live in a separat

ds of islands and islets which lay in its course required fully as many as were taken, for if the current furnished the motive power, it had nothing to do with

nd a large dining-hall. One of the rooms was destined for Joam and his wife, another for Lina and Cybele near those of their mistresses,

indows on all sides. In front, the entrance-door gave immediate access to the common room. A light veranda, resting on slender bamboos, protected the exterior from the di

o to speak, had been compl

ourselves. The outside belongs to you, the inside to us. Mother and I would like it to be as though our

replied Joam Garral, smiling

will b

ything to you

the splendid country we are going through-which is yours, by the

if we were returning from exile-voluntary exile! D

and Fragoso on the other, devolved the care of decorating the inside of the house. W

ly to imagine that the walls remained bare. The boards were hidden beneath hangings of most agreeable variety. These hangings were made of valuable bark, that of the "tuturis," which is raised up in large folds like the brocades and damasks and softest and richest materials of our modern looms. On the floors of the rooms were jaguar ski

elem, those most precious to Minha being such as had come from Manoel. What could be more pleasing

under a lovely clump of trees on the borders of some beautiful river! Until it descended between the banks of the

r of the house was no less

ng fellows had given free scope

tire. What whimsical climbers-ruby red and golden yellow, with variegated clusters and tangled twigs-turned over the brackets, under the ridges, on the rafters of the roof, and across the lintels of the doors! They had brought them wholesale from the woods in the neighborhood of the fazenda. A hu

the end of the cipo spread out before the very window of the young mulatto, as t

; and as Yaquita, her daughter, and Lina

o make us plant trees on

!" ejacula

good soil, I am sure they would do well, and we would have no change of clima

o they not pass along with their trees, bushes, thickets, rocks, and fields, to lose themselves in the A

t, miss?" said Fragoso,

oung mulatto; "a forest with

ts jaguars!" c

c tribes," added Manoel,

so?" said Minha, seeing the active

the forest!"

ay and I am quite content. It is true," she added, pointing to the house hidde