emselves beneath his toes.

"Let us set off this very instant," said Benito, "or these wretched
insects will invade us, and the jangada will become uninhabitable!"

"And we shall take them into Para," said Manoel, "where there are
already quite enough for its own needs."

And so, in order not to pass even the night near the banks, the jangada
pushed off into the stream.

On leaving Loreto the Amazon turns slightly toward the southwest,
between the islands of Arava, Cuyari, and Urucutea. The jangada then
glided along the black waters of the Cajaru, as they mingled with the
white stream of the Amazon. After having passed this tributary on
the left, it peacefully arrived during the evening of the 23d of June
alongside the large island of Jahuma.

The setting of the sun on a clear horizon, free from all haze, announced
one of those beautiful tropical nights which are unknown in the
temperate zones. A light breeze freshened the air; the moon arose in the
constellated depths of the sky, and for several hours took the place of
the twilight which is absent from these latitudes. But even during this
period the stars shone with unequaled purity. The immense plain seemed
to stretch into the infinite like a sea, and at the extremity of the
axis, which measures more than two hundred thousand millions of leagues,
there appeared on the north the single diamond of the pole star, on the
south the four brilliants of the Southern Cross.

The trees on the left bank and on the island of Jahuma stood up in sharp
black outline. There were recognizable in the undecided _silhouettes_
the trunks, or rather columns, of _"copahus,"_ which spread out in
umbrellas, groups of _"sandis,"_ from which is extracted the thick and
sugared milk, intoxicating as wine itself, and _"vignaticos"_ eighty
feet high, whose summits shake at the passage of the lightest currents
of air. "What a magnificent sermon are these forests of the Amazon!" has
been justly said. Yes; and we might add, "What a magnificent hymn there
is in the nights of the tropics!"

The birds were giving forth their last evening notes--_"bentivis,"_
who hang their nests on the bank-side reeds; _"niambus,"_ a kind of
partridge, whose song is composed of four notes, in perfect accord;
_"kamichis,"_ with their plaintive melody; kingfishers, whose call
responds like a signal to the last cry of their congeners; _"canindes,"_
with their sonorous trumpets; and red macaws, who fold their wings i