rous earth and clay.

It was in 1770 that this mission was founded by the Jesuit missionaries.
The Ticuma Indians, who inhabit the territories on the north of the
river, are natives with ruddy skins, bushy hair, and striped designs on
their faces, making them look like the lacquer on a Chinese table. Both
men and women are simply clothed, with cotton bands bound round their
thighs and stomachs. They are now not more than two hundred in number,
and on the banks of the Atacoari are found the last traces of a nation
which was formerly so powerful under its famous chiefs.

At Loreto there also live a few Peruvian soldiers and two or three
Portuguese merchants, trading in cotton stuffs, salt fish, and
sarsaparilla.

Benito went ashore, to buy, if possible, a few bales of this smilax,
which is always so much in demand in the markets of the Amazon. Joam
Garral, occupied all the time in the work which gave him not a moment's
rest, did not stir. Yaquita, her daughter, and Manoel also remained on
board. The mosquitoes of Loreto have a deserved reputation for driving
away such visitors as do not care to leave much of their blood with the
redoubtable diptera.

Manoel had a few appropriate words to say about these insects, and they
were not of a nature to encourage an inclination to brave their stings.

"They say that all the new species which infest the banks of the Amazon
collect at the village of Loreto. I believe it, but do not wish to
confirm it. There, Minha, you can take your choice between the gray
mosquito, the hairy mosquito, the white-clawed mosquito, the dwarf
mosquito, the trumpeter, the little fifer, the urtiquis, the harlequin,
the big black, and the red of the woods; or rather they make take
their choice of you for a little repast, and you will come back hardly
recognizable! I fancy these bloodthirsty diptera guard the Brazilian
frontier considerably better than the poverty-stricken soldiers we see
on the bank."

"But if everything is of use in nature," asked Minha, "what is the use
of mosquitoes?"

"They minister to the happiness of entomologists," replied Manoel; "and
I should be much embarrassed to find a better explanation."

What Manoel had said of the Loreto mosquitoes was only too true. When
Benito had finished his business and returned on board, his face and
hands were tattooed with thousands of red points, without counting some
chigoes, which, in spite of the leather of his boots, had introduced
th