native
tribes from a bloody extirpation is due. This woman, _La Perichola_,
whose caricatured likeness we see in the most agreeable of Offenbach's
operas, and whose deeds of mercy and edifying end in a convent entitle
her to some charitable consideration, persuaded her royal lover to
operate on the natives with missionaries and teachers rather than with
fire and sword. Antonio Amat yielded, and the Indians have survived.

[Illustration: "ANOTHER SAVAGE HAD FOUND A PAIR OF LINEN
PANTALOONS."--P. 146.]

Let no traveler go to South America and cross the Andes with the idea
of unearthing a Nineveh or a Babylon on the site of San Gavan. The
emissaries of Don Santo Domingo were quickly standing, among the
grinning and amused Indians, on the locality of the Golden Depot of
San Gavan. But Nature had thoroughly reclaimed her own, and the place,
indicated again and again by the savages with absolute unanimity,
showed nothing but mounds of fern and moss under canopies of forest
trees.

A day's rest and a sketch or two were consecrated by Marcoy to this
historic spot, the grave of a civilization. It had been well if he
had restrained his feelings of romance, and betaken himself with his
companions to the homeward track.

As the explorers were breakfasting in the morning on a squirrel and
a couple of birds shot among the vanished streets of San Gavan, a
disagreeable incident supervened. The wild Indians had disappeared
over-night. But now, seemingly born instantaneously from the trees, a
throng of Siriniris burst upon the scene, rushing up to the travelers,
straining them repeatedly in a rude embrace, then leaving them, then
assaulting them again, and accompanying every contact with the eternal
cry, _Siruta inta menea_--"Give me a knife." Each member of the troop
had now six savages at his heels, and they were not those of the day
before, but a new and rougher band. The chiefs of the party rushed
together and brandished their muskets. This forced the savages
to retire, but gave to the rencounter that hostile air which, in
consideration of the disparity of numbers, ought at all hazards to
have been avoided. The wild men quickly formed a circle around the
artillery. The latter, fearing for their porters and the precious
baggage, leaped through this circle and joined their servants, making
believe to cock their fire-arms. Upon this the Indians, half afraid of
the guns, vanished into the woods, first picking up whatever clothing
a