against the
Portuguese, and driven them from their settlements. The poor priests,
indeed, seemed unhappy about themselves, and not at all confident that
their flocks might not rise and treat them in the same way. One,
indeed, gave out strong hints that he would like to accompany us, and
would undertake to pilot us down the river; but our canoe had already as
many on board as she could carry, while our provisions were so greatly
diminished that they would not hold out much longer.

We frequently avoided the main channel, the navigation of which in bad
weather is dangerous, and made our way through some of the numerous
channels filled by the rising waters on either side. Thus we paddled on
through channels sometimes so narrow that the boughs arched almost
overhead, at other times spreading out into lake-like expanses. I have
already so frequently described the vegetation, the numberless palms and
other trees, some of enormous size, with their festoons of air-plants
and climbers of all sorts, that I need not again draw the picture.
Emerging from a narrow path, we entered a calm and beautiful lake, when
there appeared before us, floating on the water, a number of vast
circular leaves, amid which grow up the most gigantic and beautiful
water-lilies.

"Oh, what flowers!" exclaimed Ellen; "do gather some."

"Surely those cannot be leaves!" exclaimed Arthur. "See, a bird with
long legs is walking over them!"

John fired, and the bird fell in the centre of the leaf on which it was
standing, and which still supported it in the water; and taking it off
the leaf, alongside which we paddled, we found it to be a jacana,
remarkable for the great length of its toes, especially the hinder one,
and their spine-like claws. It was a wonderfully light bird also, and
these peculiarities enable it to walk over the leaves of the
water-plants and procure its food, which consists of worms. The beak
was orange colour, but the greater part of the body black, with the back
and wing-coverts of a bright chestnut, with a few yellow touches here
and there, and the legs of a greenish-ash colour. We heard the shrill
and noisy notes of its fellows in the trees near us. "Ah, that is a
_piosoca_!" said Duppo, "and that leaf is its oven;" and so it was in
shape like the pans in which the natives roast their mandioca meal.

Ellen had, in the meantime, been examining one of the beautiful flowers
which the boatmen picked for her. The outside of t