o which we had been a prey departed.

We were again entering among trees, when l'Encuerado suddenly stopped.

"What is that moving down below there?" he said.

"Some deer," I replied, after looking at them through my glass.

Each of us hurried to hide behind a bush, in hopes that the beautiful
animals would come within gunshot. Several times l'Encuerado expressed a
wish to move round to the other side of the plain; but I opposed his
idea, as the distance was too great. We spent more than an hour in
watching the flock browsing, playing about, and licking themselves; but
not one of them ventured in our direction. Tired with this inaction,
Sumichrast emerged from his hiding-place, and the deer scampered off.
Upon the whole, however, this delay had not been altogether useless;
for, thanks to the heat of the sun, the ground had become more
traversable, and my friend actually hummed a tune as he took the lead.

The time when we ought to have settled our bivouac had long passed, yet
we were still on the road. The path we were treading was flat and
unpromising, and the water from the cave, with which we had filled our
gourds, was so unpleasant in taste that we longed to find a spring.
Being unable to get a clear view of the horizon, I directed l'Encuerado
to climb to the summit of a lofty tree. The Indian ascended to its
topmost branch, and, having surveyed the prospect in every direction,
came down far from pleased at having failed to discern what he desired.
Fatigue, however, now compelled us to halt.

Our hut was soon constructed, the fire lighted, and the stew-pot filled
with water and rice. Not one of us felt inspired with sufficient courage
to induce him to go reconnoitring. An hour after sunset we were all
sleeping side by side; l'Encuerado had quite forgotten his earth-nuts,
and even dropped off to sleep without having been able to finish the
chant which he commenced.

I was wakened up by the cries of the tanagers--a beautiful species of
bird which lives in flocks. Lucien, like all the rest of us, complained
of feeling rather stiff in the joints, resulting, no doubt, from our
long journey the day before. On the morrow our little party started with
rather a hobbling gait; the presence of the birds seemed to tell us that
we were near some stream. Our limbs began gradually to lose their
numbness; we were now descending an almost imperceptible slope, and the
vegetation assumed a more tropical aspect. As we passed alon