ing that referred to the commercial side
of the expedition, kept himself principally to his room, thinking and
writing. What he was writing about he told to nobody, not even Yaquita,
and it seemed to have already assumed the importance of a veritable
essay.

Benito, all observation, chatted with the pilot and acted as manager.
Yaquita, her daughter, and Manoel, nearly always formed a group apart,
discussing their future projects just as they had walked and done in
the park of the fazenda. The life was, in fact, the same. Not quite,
perhaps, to Benito, who had not yet found occasion to participate in the
pleasures of the chase. If, however, the forests of Iquitos failed him
with their wild beasts, agoutis, peccaries, and cabiais, the birds flew
in flocks from the banks of the river and fearlessly perched on the
jangada. When they were of such quality as to figure fairly on the
table, Benito shot them; and, in the interest of all, his sister raised
no objection; but if he came across any gray or yellow herons, or red
or white ibises, which haunt the sides, he spared them through love for
Minha. One single species of grebe, which is uneatable, found no grace
in the eyes of the young merchant; this was the _"caiarara,"_ as quick
to dive as to swim or fly; a bird with a disagreeable cry, but whose
down bears a high price in the different markets of the Amazonian basin.

At length, after having passed the village of Omaguas and the mouth of
the Ambiacu, the jangada arrived at Pevas on the evening of the 11th of
June, and was moored to the bank.

As it was to remain here for some hours before nightfall, Benito
disembarked, taking with him the ever-ready Fragoso, and the two
sportsmen started off to beat the thickets in the environs of the
little place. An agouti and a cabiai, not to mention a dozen partridges,
enriched the larder after this fortunate excursion. At Pevas, where
there is a population of two hundred and sixty inhabitants, Benito would
perhaps have done some trade with the lay brothers of the mission, who
are at the same time wholesale merchants, but these had just sent away
some bales of sarsaparilla and arrobas of caoutchouc toward the Lower
Amazon, and their stores were empty.

The jangada departed at daybreak, and passed the little archipelago of
the Iatio and Cochiquinas islands, after having left the village of the
latter name on the right. Several mouths of smaller unnamed affluents
showed themselves on