and was
descending with part of a cargo of India-rubber shoes. None of the men,
of whom there were four, could speak English; but they easily saw from
the Irishman's condition that he had escaped from enemies and was in
distress; so they took him on board, and were glad to avail themselves
of his services: for, as we have before mentioned, men are not easily
procured for voyaging in those parts of Brazil. Three weeks after this
they arrived at a small town, where the natives were busily engaged in
the manufacture of shoes, bottles, and other articles of India-rubber;
and here Barney found employment for a short time.

The seringa, or India-rubber-tree, grows plentifully in some parts of
Brazil, and many hundreds of the inhabitants are employed in the
manufacture of shoes. The India-rubber is the juice of the tree, and
flows from it when an incision is made. This juice is poured into
moulds and left to harden. It is of a yellowish colour naturally, and
is blackened in the course of preparation. Barney did not stay long
here. Shoe-making, he declared, was not his calling by any means; so he
seized the first opportunity he had of joining a party of traders going
into the interior, in the direction of the diamond districts. The
journey was long and varied. Sometimes by canoe and sometimes on the
backs of mules and horses, and many extraordinary adventures did he go
through ere he reached the diamond mines. And when at length he did so,
great was his disappointment. Instead of the glittering caves which his
vivid imagination had pictured, he found that there were no caves at
all; that the diamonds were found by washing in the muddy soil; and,
worst of all, that when found they were dim and unpolished, so that they
seemed no better than any other stone. However, he resolved to continue
there for a short time, in order to make a little money; but now that
Martin had arrived he thought that they could not do better than make
their way to the coast as fast as possible, and go to sea.

"The only thing I have to regret," he said, at the conclusion of his
narrative, "is that I left Grampus behind me. But arrah! I came off
from the savages in such a hurry that I had no time at all to tell him I
was goin'!"

Having sat till day-break, the two friends went to bed to dream of each
other and of home.

Next morning Barney took Martin to visit the diamond mines. On the way
they passed a band of Negro slaves who encircle