until sunset--contenting himself with a few leaves of coca. No
pursuer appeared in sight. He then mounted his horse, and rode back to
his solitary hut.

Let us follow our travellers.

They crossed the table-plain during the day, and rested that night under
the shelter of some overhanging rocks on the other side. They supped
upon part of the vicunas, and felt more cheerful, as they widened the
distance between themselves and danger. But in the morning they did not
remain longer by their camp than was necessary to get breakfast.
Half-an-hour after sunrise saw them once more on their route.

Their road led through a pass in the mountains. At first it ascended,
and then began to go downward. They had crossed the last ridge of the
Andes, and were now descending the eastern slopes. Another day's
journey, or two at most, would bring them to the borders of that wild
forest, which stretches from the foot-hills of the Andes to the shores
of the Atlantic Ocean--that forest with scarcely a civilised settlement
throughout all its wide extent--where no roads exist--whose only paths
are rivers--whose dark jungles are in places so impenetrable that the
Indian cannot enter them, and even the fierce jaguar, embarrassed by the
thick underwood, has to take to the tree-tops in pursuit of his prey.
Another day's journey or so would bring them to the borders of the
"Montana"--for such is the name which, by a strange misapplication of
terms, has been given to this primeval wood. Yes, the Montana was
before them, and although yet distant, it could now and then be seen as
the road wound among the rocks, stretching far towards the sky like a
green and misty ocean.

In that almost boundless region there dwelt none but the aborigines of
the soil--the wild Indians--and these only in sparse and distant bands.
Even the Spaniards in their day of glory had failed to conquer it; and
the Portuguese from the other side were not more successful. Here and
there a lone missionary attempted to wheedle the simple natives into a
belief in his monkish religion, or when able to do so _forced it upon
them_, by fire and sword! But most of these efforts, both of conquest
and conversion, had failed; and now, with the exception of some isolated
trading post, or decayed mission station, on the banks of the great
rivers, the whole "Montana" was as wild and savage as when the keels of
Columbus first ploughed the waters of the Carib Sea.

The Spanish colonis