re
his game, which is an odd-looking creature, with a long neck and longer
legs, similar to a crane. He accordingly fords the river at a shallow
point, and in spite of my remonstrances (for a river bird is not easy to
bag) goes in quest of his prey. At the expiration of a couple of hours,
Nicasio, who has followed the bird two or three miles up and down the
river, returns with it triumphantly, but he is himself very wet,
footsore, and exhausted.

Our fishing is not so successful as our shooting to-day, and we have
soon to abandon both amusements, together with our sketching, for the
day is on the wane, and the ladies have come down to the river to take
their afternoon's bath before dinner. So we modestly withdraw, and
betake ourselves to a neighbouring 'cocoral,' where we refresh ourselves
with the cool drink furnished by the cocoa-nut.

Towards nightfall, when dinner, with its indispensable accompaniments of
cafe and cigars, is over, our host invites the gentlemen to accompany
him to the plantations of a few friendly neighbours. Horses are
accordingly saddled, spurs are affixed to our boots, and away we gallop.

Our first halt is made at a grazing-farm belonging to Don Benigno, and
kept by his mayoral, or overseer, a stout, bronze-faced man, who, we are
told, rarely moves during the day from a leather-bottomed chair, which
he places slopingly against a post of the verandah. After inspecting
Don Benigno's cattle, which consist chiefly of oxen, cows, and goats, we
ride over to some coffee estates and tobacco farms, whose owners, or
representatives, give us a hearty welcome, and are lavish of their
hospitality, offering for our acceptance everything they possess except
their wives and families, whom they, however, present to us as our
'servants.'

Our time being limited, we cannot partake of their bounty to-night, but
promise to return another day. On the road homewards, we dismount at a
coffee estate belonging to Don Benigno's kinsman, Don Felipe, where we
remain for an hour or so, and watch the performances of a crowd of black
labourers, who are keeping holiday in honour of some favoured saint.
Dancing, with 'tumba' or drum accompaniments, forms the leading feature
in the entertainments. The negroes, in turn, take part in the drumming,
which is performed by bestriding barrel-shaped tambours, and beating the
parchment side rapidly with their hands. The strange measure of the
dance is so varied and well sustained, tha