any way.

Towards morning the rain slackened, and when daylight came I never felt
more thankful in my life. I climbed out of my nest, and there, only
about a hundred yards away, was my faithful mule standing exactly as I
had left him. I waited until the water in the stream had gone down
sufficiently, and crossing on foot, with the water about two feet deep,
I mounted my mule, and then recrossed on muleback. I knew from the
number of hours I had travelled on the previous day I could not be far
from Injenio, and I was right, as in less than an hour I saw my
destination right ahead of me. I was in a pitiful condition, and could
hardly stand up. The old Indian recognised me and got me dry wraps after
a fashion, and I got under his dry blankets. I could not eat, but I
drank a large quantity of "Aguardiente," which at least put some life
into me. In the meantime I did not know what had become of my pack
animals and Indians, but I was not in a state to worry about them, and
didn't. Instead, I kept my bed for about thirty hours, until I was
revived somewhat. Then, luckily, my men turned up, and I was able to
continue my journey to Sorata.

Well, we left Tolapampa about 6 a.m., and for the best part of the day
the route was over country very similar to that passed on the previous
day; but we were descending rapidly now, and the temperature became
perceptibly much warmer, in fact, by the afternoon we had indications
that soon we should arrive in the "montes," where we would have
vegetation in abundance, and consequently we would at least have some
shade during the heat of the day. The road, nevertheless, continued to
be very rough and broken, and we had frequently to dismount and lead our
animals for long distances at a time. The long pass of Margurani was
unusually tiring, as it was down hill most of the time, and over loose
rocks and stones, which were very hard on our poor feet. Pararani, a
small stopping-place, was reached about 2 p.m., and as both we and the
animals had just about had enough of it, we decided to remain for the
night.

We were now right in tropical surroundings, and the beautiful palms and
ferns, not to mention the magnificent butterflies of all colours, were a
grateful contrast to the scenery we had been accustomed to since we left
Sorata. We were now only about two thousand feet above sea level, and
the weather was very hot indeed, mosquitoes and other worrying insects
were very plentiful; but, bad as t