d find their principal occupation in making objects
for the Catholic religion. But, after all, why not? These Indians are
no longer the Indians of days gone by. Instead of being clothed in the
national fashion, with a frontlet of macaw feathers, bow, and blow-tube,
have they not adopted the American costume of white cotton trousers, and
a cotton poncho woven by their wives, who have become thorough adepts in
its manufacture?

San Pablo d'Olivenca, a town of some importance, has not less than
two thousand inhabitants, derived from all the neighboring tribes. At
present the capital of the Upper Amazon, it began as a simple Mission,
founded by the Portuguese Carmelites about 1692, and afterward acquired
by the Jesuit missionaries.

From the beginning it has been the country of the Omaguas, whose name
means "flat-heads," and is derived from the barbarous custom of the
native mothers of squeezing the heads of their newborn children between
two plates, so as to give them an oblong skull, which was then the
fashion. Like everything else, that has changed; heads have re-taken
their natural form, and there is not the slightest trace of the ancient
deformity in the skulls of the chaplet-makers.

Every one, with the exception of Joam Garral, went ashore. Torres also
remained on board, and showed no desire to visit San Pablo d'Olivenca,
which he did not, however, seem to be acquainted with.

Assuredly if the adventurer was taciturn he was not inquisitive.

Benito had no difficulty in doing a little bartering, and adding
slightly to the cargo of the jangada. He and the family received an
excellent reception from the principal authorities of the town, the
commandant of the place, and the chief of the custom-house, whose
functions did not in the least prevent them from engaging in trade. They
even intrusted the young merchant with a few products of the country for
him to dispose of on their account at Manaos and Belem.

The town is composed of some sixty houses, arranged on the plain which
hereabouts crowns the river-bank. Some of the huts are covered with
tiles--a very rare thing in these countries; but, on the other hand, the
humble church, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, has only a roof of
straw, rather more appropriate for a stable of Bethlehem than for an
edifice consecrated to religion in one of the most Catholic countries of
the world.

The commandant, his lieutenant, and the head of the police accepted
an invitati