Noah's Ark
above the flood, and we were quite proud of her--but not sorry to say
good-bye.

And now away, into the very heart of a Central American forest! And hail
to the new life that lay all before us in El Dorado! The river was as
yellow as saffron; its shores were hidden in a dense growth of
underbrush that trailed its boughs in the water, and rose, a wall of
verdure, far above our smokestacks. As we ascended the stream the forest
deepened; the trees grew taller and taller; wide-spreading branches
hung over us; gigantic vines clambered everywhere and made huge hammocks
of themselves; they bridged the bayous, and made dark leafy caverns
wherein the shadows were forbidding; for the sunshine seemed never to
have penetrated them, and they were the haunts of weirdness and mystery
profound.

Sometimes a tree that had fallen into the water and lay at a convenient
angle by the shore afforded the alligator a comfortable couch for his
sun-bath. Shall I ever forget the excitement occasioned by the discovery
of our first alligator! Not the ancient and honorable crocodile of the
Nile was ever greeted with greater enthusiasm; yet our sportsmen had
very little respect for him, and his sleep was disturbed by a shower of
bullets that spattered upon his hoary scales as harmlessly as rain.

Though the alligator punctuated every adventurous hour of that memorable
voyage in Nicaragua, we children were more interested in our Darwinian
friends, the monkeys. They were of all shades and shapes and sizes; they
descended in troops among the trees by the river side; they called to us
and beckoned us shoreward; they cried to us, they laughed at us; they
reached out their bony arms, and stretched wide their slim, cold hands
to us, as if they would pluck us as we passed. We exchanged compliments
and clubs in a sham-battle that was immensely diverting; we returned
the missiles they threw at us as long as the ammunition held out, but
captured none of the enemy, nor did the slightest damage--as far as we
could ascertain.

Often the parrots squalled at us, but their vocabulary was limited; for
they were untaught of men. Sometimes the magnificent macaw flew over us,
with its scarlet plumage flickering like flame. Oh, but those gorgeous
birds were splashes of splendid color in the intense green of that
tropical background!

There were islands in this river,--islands that seemed to have no
shores, but lay half submerged in mid-stream, like huge