In Far Bolivia: A Story of a Strange Wild Land

"Ugh!" cried St. Clair, as a splendidly-colouredbut hideous large snake hissed and glided awayfrom between his feet. "Ugh! had I tramped onthat fellow my prospecting would have been all ended."

"True, sir," said Jake; "but about the quartz?"

"Well, Jake."

"Well, Mr. St. Clair, there is gold here. I do notsay that we've struck an El Dorado, but I amcertain there is something worth digging for in thisregion."

"Shall we try? You've been in Australia. Whatsay you to a shaft?"

"Good! But a horizontal shaft carried into thebase of this hill or hummock will, I think, do for thepresent. It is only for samples, you know."

And these samples had turned out so well thatSt. Clair, after claiming the whole hill, determinedto send Jake on a special message to Pará to establisha company for working it.

He could take no more labour on his own head, for really he had more than enough to do with hisestate.

No white men were allowed to work at the shaft.Only Indians, and these were housed on the spot.So that the secret was well kept.

And now the voyage down the river was to beundertaken, and a most romantic cruise it turned outto be.

St. Clair had ordered a steamer to be built for himin England and sent out in pieces. She was calledThe Peggy, after our heroine. Not very large-butlittle over the dimensions of a large steam-launch,in fact-but big enough for the purpose of towingalong the immense raft with the aid of the current.

Jake was to go with his samples of golden sandand his nuggets; Burly Bill, also, who was captainof the Peggy; and Beeboo, to attend to the youngstersin their raft saloon. Brawn was not to be denied; and last, but not least, went wild Dick Temple.

The latter was to sleep on board the steamer, buthe would spend most of his time by day on the raft.

All was ready at last. The great raft was floatedand towed out far from the shore. All the plantationhands, both whites and Indians, were gathered on thebanks, and gave many a lusty cheer as the steamerand raft got under way.

The last thing that those on shore heard was thesonorous barking of the great wolf-hound, Brawn.

There was a ring of joy in it, however, that broughthope to the heart of both Tom St. Clair and hiswinsome wife.

Well, to our two heroes and to Peggy, not tomention Brawn and Burly Bill, the cruise promisedto be all one joyous picnic, and they set themselves tomake the most of it.

But to Jake Solomons it presented a more seriousside. He was St. Clair's representative and trustedman, and his business was of the highest importance, and would need both tact and skill.

However, there was a long time to think about allthis, for the river does not run more than three milesan hour, and although the little steamer could hurrythe raft along at probably thrice that speed, still longweeks must elapse before they could reach their destination.

As far as the raft was concerned, this would notbe Pará. She would be grounded near to a town farhigher up stream, and the timber, nuts, spices, andrubber taken seaward by train.

In less than two days everyone had settled down tothe voyage.

The river was very wide and getting wider, andsoon scarcely could they see the opposite shore, exceptas a long low green cloud on the northern horizon.

Life on board the raft was for a whole weeka most uneventful dreamy sort of existence. Oneday was remarkably like another. There was theblue of the sky above, the blue on the river's greatbreast, broken, however, by thousands of lines ofrippling silver.

There were strangely beautiful birds flying tackand half-tack around the steamer and raft, wavingtrees flower-bedraped-the flowers trailing andcreeping and climbing everywhere, and even dipping theirsweet faces in the water, – flowers of every hue of therainbow.

Dreamy though the atmosphere was, I would nothave you believe that our young folks relapsed intoa state of drowsy apathy. Far from it. They werevery happy indeed. Dick told Peggy that their life,or his, felt just like some beautiful song-waltz, andthat he was altogether so happy and jolly that hehad sometimes to turn out in the middle watch to laugh.

Peggy had not to do that.

In her little state-room on one side of the cabin, andin a hammock, she slept as soundly as the traditionaltop, and on a grass mat on the deck, with a footstoolfor a pillow, slumbered Beeboo.

Roland slept on the other side, and Brawn guardedthe doorway at the foot of the steps.

Long before Peggy was awake, and every morningof their aquatic lives, the dinghy boat took the boysa little way out into mid-stream, and they strippedand dived, enjoyed a two-minutes' splash, and gotquickly on board again.

The men always stood by with rifles to shoot anyalligator that might be seen hovering nigh, and morethan once reckless Dick had a narrow escape.

"But," he said one day in his comical way, "onehas only once to die, you know, and you might aswell die doing a good turn as any other way."

"Doing a good turn?" said Roland enquiringly.

"Certainly. Do you not impart infinite joy to acayman if you permit him to eat you?"

The boys were always delightfully hungry half anhour before breakfast was served.

And it was a breakfast too!

Beeboo would be dressed betimes, and have the clothlaid in the saloon. The great raft rose and fell witha gentle motion, but there was nothing to hurt, sothat the dishes stuck on the cloth without any guard.

Beeboo could bake the most delicious of scones andcakes, and these, served up hot in a clean white towel, were most tempting; the butter was of the best andsweetest. Ham there was, and eggs of the gull, with fresh fried fish every morning, and fragrantcoffee.

Was it not quite idyllic?

The forenoon would be spent on deck under theawning; there was plenty to talk about, and booksto read, and there was the ever-varying panorama togaze upon, as the raft went smoothly gliding on, andon, and on.

Sometimes they were in very deep water close tothe bank, for men were always in the chains takingsoundings from the steamer's bows.

Close enough to admire the flowers that drapedthe forest trees; close enough to hear the wild lilt ofbirds or the chattering of monkeys and parrots; closeenough to see tapirs moving among the trees, watched, often enough, by the fierce sly eyes of ghastlyalligators, that flattened themselves against rocks or bitsof clay soil, looking like a portion of the ground, but warily waiting until they should see a chance toattack.

There cannot be too many tapirs, and there cannotbe too few alligators. So our young heroes thoughtit no crime to shoot these squalid horrors whereverseen.

But one forenoon clouds banked rapidly up in thesouthern sky, and soon the sun was hidden in sulphurousrolling banks of cumulus.

No one who has ever witnessed a thunderstorm inthese regions can live long enough to forget it.

For some time before it came on the wind had gonedown completely. In yonder great forest there couldnot have been breeze or breath enough to stir thepollen on the trailing flowers. The sun, too, seemedshorn of its beams, the sky was no longer blue, but ofa pale saffron or sulphur colour.

It was then that giant clouds, like evil beasts benton havoc and destruction, began to show head abovethe horizon. Rapidly they rose, battalion on battalion, phalanx on phalanx.

There were low mutterings even now, and flashes offire in the far distance. But it was not until the skywas entirely overcast that the storm came on in dreadand fearful earnest. At this time it was so dark, thatdown in the raft saloon an open book was barelyvisible. Then peal after peal, and vivid flash afterflash, of blue and crimson fire lit up forest and stream, striking our heroes and heroine blind, or causing theireyes for a time to overrun with purple light.

So terrific was the thunder that the raft seemed torock and shiver in the sound.

This lasted for fully half an hour, the whole worldseeming to be in flames.

Peggy stood by Dick on the little deck, and heheld her arm in his; held her hand too, for it was coldand trembling.

"Are you afraid?" he whispered, during a momentarylull.

"No, Dick, not afraid, only cold, so cold; take me below."

He did so.

He made her lie down on the little sofa, and coveredher with a rug.

All just in time, for now down came the awful rain.It was as if a water-spout had broken over theseemingly doomed raft, and was sinking it below the darkwaters of the river.

Luckily the boys managed to batten down in time,or the little saloon would have been flooded.

They lit the lamp, too.

But with the rain the storm seemed to increase inviolence, and a strong wind had arisen and addedgreatly to the terror of the situation. Hail camedown as large as marbles, and the roaring and dinwas now deafening and terrible.

Then, the wind ceased to blow almostinstantaneously. It did not die away. It simply droppedall of a sudden. Hail and rain ceased shortly after.

Dick ventured to peep on deck.

It was still dark, but far away and low down onthe horizon a streak of the brightest blue sky thatever he had seen had made its appearance. Itbroadened and broadened as the dark canopy ofclouds, curtain-like, was lifted.

"Come up, Peggy. Come up, Rol. The storm isgoing. The storm has almost gone," cried Dick; andsoon all three stood once more on the deck.

Away, far away over the northern woods rolled thelast bank of clouds, still giving voice, however, stillspitting fire.

But now the sun was out and shining brightlydown with a heat that was fierce, and the raft was allenveloped in mist.

So dense, indeed, was the fog that rose from therain-soaked raft, that all the scenery was entirelyobscured. It was a hot vapour, too, and far frompleasant, so no one was sorry when Burly Billsuddenly appeared from the lower part of the raft.

"My dear boys," he said heartily, "why, you'll beparboiled if you stop here. Come with me, MissPeggy, and you, Brawn; I'll come back for you, lads.Don't want to upset the dinghy all among the 'gators, see?"

Bill was back again in a quarter of an hour, andthe boys were also taken on board the boat.

"She's a right smart little boat as ever was," saidBill; "but if we was agoin' to get 'er lip on to thewater, blow me tight, boys, if the 'gators wouldn'tboard us. They'm mebbe very nice sociable kind o'animals, but bust my buttons if I'd like to enter thenext world down a 'gator's gullet."

Beeboo did not mind the steam a bit, and by twoo'clock she had as nice a dinner laid in the raft saloonas ever boy or girl sat down to.

But by this time the timbers were dry once more, and although white clouds of fog still lay over the lowwoods, all was now bright and cheerful. Yet not moreso than the hearts of our brave youngsters.

Courage and sprightliness are all a matter ofstrength of heart, and you cannot make yourselfbrave if your system is below par. The coward isreally more to be pitied than blamed.

Well, it was very delightful, indeed, to sit on deckand talk, build castles in the air, and dream daydreams.

The air was cool and bracing now, and the sun feltwarm, but by no means too hot.

The awning was prettily lined with green cloth, thework of Mrs. St. Clair's own hands, assisted by theindefatigable Beeboo, and there was not anythingworth doing that she could not put willing, artfulhands to.

The awning was scalloped, too, if that be thewoman's word for the flaps that hung down a wholefoot all round. "Vandyked" is perhaps more correct, but then, you see, the sharp corners of the vandykingwere all rounded off. So I think scalloped muststand, though the word reminds me strangely ofoysters.

But peeping out from under the scalloped awning, and gazing northwards across the sea-like river, boatsunder steam could be noticed. Passengers on boardtoo, both ladies and gentlemen, the former all riggedout in summer attire.

"Would you like to be on board yonder?" saidDick to Peggy, as the girl handed him back thelorgnettes.

"No, indeed, I shouldn't," she replied, with a saucytoss of her pretty head.

"Well," she added, "if you were there, little Dickie,I mightn't mind it so much."

"Little Dick! Eh?" Dick laughed right heartily now.

"Yes, little Dickie. Mind, I am nearly twelve; andafter I'm twelve I'm in my teens, quite an old girl.A child no longer anyhow. And after I'm in myteens I'll soon be sixteen, and then I suppose I shallmarry."

"Who will marry you, Peggy?"

This was not very good grammar, but Dick was indownright earnest anyhow, and his young voice hadsoftened wonderfully.

"Me?" he added, as she remained silent, with hereyes seeming to follow the rolling tide.

"You, Dick! Why, you're only a child!"

"Why, Peggy, I'm fifteen-nearly, and if I live I'mbound to get older and bigger."

"No, no, Dick, you can marry Beeboo, and I shallget spliced, as the sailors call it, to Burly Bill."

The afternoon wore away, and Beeboo came up tosummon "the chillun" to tea.

Up they started, forgetting all about budding love, flirtation, and future marriages, and made a rush forthe companion-ladder.

"Wowff-wowff!" barked Brawn, and the 'gatorson shore and the tapirs in the woods lifted heads tolisten, while parrots shrieked and monkeys chatteredand scolded among the lordly forest trees.

"Wowff-wowff!" he barked. "Who says cakesand butter?"

The night fell, and Burly Bill came on board withhis banjo, and his great bass voice, which was assweet as the tone of a 'cello.

Bill was funnier than usual to-night, and whenBeeboo brought him a big tumbler of rosy rum punch, made by herself and sweetened with honey, he wasmerrier still.

Then to complete his happiness Beeboo lit his pipe.

She puffed away at it for some time as usual, byway of getting it in working order.

"'Spose," she said, "Beeboo not warm de bowl ob debig pipe plenty proper, den de dear chile Bill take achill."

"You're a dear old soul, Beeb," said Bill.

Then the dear old soul carefully wiped the ambermouth-piece with her apron, and handed Burly Billhis comforter.

The great raft swayed and swung gently to and fro,so Bill sang his pet sea-song, "The Rose of Allandale".He was finishing that bonnie verse-

"My life had been a wilderness,Unblest by fortune's gale,Had fate not linked my lot to hers,The Rose of Allandale",

when all at once an ominous grating was heardcoming from beneath the raft, and motion ceased assuddenly as did Bill's song.

"Save us from evil!" cried Bill. "The raft is aground!"

CHAPTER V-A DAY IN THE FOREST WILDS

Burly Bill laid down his banjo. Then he pushedhis great extinguisher of a thumb into the bowlof his big meerschaum, and arose.

"De good Lawd ha' mussy on our souls, chillun!"cried Beeboo, twisting her apron into a calico rope."We soon be all at de bottom ob de deep, and de'gators a-pickin' de bones ob us!"

"Keep quiet, Beeb, there's a dear soul! Never a'gator'll get near you. W'y, look 'ow calm Miss Peggyis. It be'ant much as'll frighten she."

Burly Bill could speak good English when he tooktime, but invariably reverted to Berkshire when in theleast degree excited.

He was soon on board the little steamer.

"What cheer, Jake?" he said.

"Not much o' that. A deuced unlucky business.May lose the whole voyage if it comes on to blow!"

"W'y, Jake, lad, let's 'ope for the best. No usegivin' up; be there? I wouldn't let the men go toprayers yet awhile, Jake. Not to make a bizness on'tlike, I means."

Well, the night wore away, but the raft neverbudged, unless it was to get a firmer hold of the mudand sand.

A low wind had sprung up too, and if it increasedto a gale she would soon begin to break up.

It was a dreary night and a long one, and few onboard the steamer slept a wink.

But day broke at last, and the sun's crimson lightchanged the ripples on the river from leaden gray todazzling ruby.

Then the wind fell.

"There are plenty of river-boats, Bill," said Jake."What say you to intercept one and ask assistance?"

"Bust my buttons if I would cringe to ne'er a oneon 'em! They'd charge salvage, and sponge enormous.I knows the beggars as sails these puffin' Jimmieswell."

"Guess you're about right, Bill, and you know theriver better'n I."

"Listen, Jake. The bloomin' river got low all atonce, like, after the storm, and so you got kind o'befoozled, and struck. I'd a-kept further out. ButBurly Bill ain't the man to bully his mate. On'ylisten again. The river'll rise in a day or two, andif the wind keeps in its sack, w'y we'll float like athousand o' bricks on an old Thames lumper! Bustmy buttons, Jake, if we don't!"

"Well, Bill, I don't know anything about the burstingof your buttons, but you give me hope. So I'll goto breakfast. Tell the engineer to keep the firesbanked."

Two days went past, and never a move made the raft.

It was a wearisome time for all. The "chillun", asBeeboo called them, tried to beguile it in the best waythey could with reading, talking, and deck games.

Dick and Roland were "dons" at leap-frog, and itmattered not which of them was giving the back, butas soon as the other leapt over Brawn followed suit, greatly to the delight of Peggy. He jumped in sucha business-like way that everybody was forced tolaugh, especially when the noble dog took a leap thatwould have cleared a five-barred gate.

But things were getting slow on the third morning, when up sprang Burly Bill with his cartridge-belt onand his rifle under his arm.

"Cap'n Jake," he said, touching his cap in RoyalNavy fashion, "presents his compliments to the crewof this durned old stack o' timber, and begs to saythat Master Rolly and Master Dick can come on shorewith me for a run among the 'gators, but that MissPeggy had better stop on board with Beeboo. Herlife is too precious to risk!"

"Precious or not precious," pouted the girl, "MissPeggy's going, and Brawn too; so you may tell CaptainJake that."

"Bravo, Miss Peggy! you're a real St. Clair. Well,Beeboo, hurry up, and get the nicest bit of coldluncheon ready for us ever you made in your life."

"Beeboo do dat foh true. Plenty quick, too; butoh, Massa Bill, 'spose you let any ebil ting befall depoh chillun, I hopes de 'gators'll eat you up!"

"More likely, Beeb, that we'll eat them; and really, come to think of it, a slice off a young 'gator's tailaint 'arf bad tackle, Beeboo."

An hour after this the boat was dancing over therippling river. It was not the dinghy, but a gig.Burly Bill himself was stroke, and three Indianshandled the other bits of timber, while Roland tookthe tiller.

The redskins sang a curious but happy boat-lilt asthey rowed, and Bill joined in with his 'cello voice:

"Ober de watter and ober de sea-ee-ee,De big black boat am rowing so free,Eee-Eee-O-ay-O!De big black boat, is it nuffin' to me-ee-ee,We're rowing so free?"Oh yes, de black boat am some-dings to meAs she rolls o'er de watter and swings o'er de sea,Foh de light ob my life, she sits in de stern,An' sweet am de glance o' Peggy's dark e'e,Ee-ee-O-ay-O-O!"

"Well steered!" said Burly Bill, as Roland ran thegig on the sandy beach of a sweet little backwater.

Very soon all were landed. Bill went first as guide, and the Indians brought up the rear, carrying thebasket and a spare gun or two.

Great caution and care were required in venturingfar into this wild, tropical forest, not so much onaccount of the beasts that infested it as the fear ofgetting lost.

It was very still and quiet here, however, and Billhad taken the precaution to leave a man in the boat, with orders to keep his weather ear "lifting", and ifhe heard four shots fired in rapid succession late inthe afternoon to fire in reply at once.

It was now the heat of the day, however, and thehairy inhabitants of this sylvan wilderness were allsound asleep, jaguars and pumas among the trees, andthe tapirs in small herds wherever the jungle wasdensest.

There was no chance, therefore, of getting a shotat anything. Nevertheless, the boys and Peggy werenot idle. They had brought butterfly-nets with them, and the specimens they caught when about five milesinland, where the forest opened out into a shrub-cladmoorland, were large and glorious in the extreme.

Indeed, some of them would fetch gold galore in theLondon markets.

But though these butterflies had an immense spreadof quaintly-shaped and exquisitely-coloured wings, thesmaller ones were even more brilliant.

Strange it is that Nature paints these creatures incolours which no sunshine can fade. All the tints thatman ever invented grow pale in the sun; these neverdo, and the same may be said concerning the tropicalbirds that they saw so many of to-day.

But no one had the heart to shoot any of these.Why should they soil such beautiful plumage withblood, and so bring grief and woe into this love-litwilderness?

This is not a book on natural history, else gladlywould I describe the beauties in shape and colour ofthe birds, and their strange manners, the wary waysadopted in nest-building, and their songs and queerways of love-making.

Suffice it to say here that the boys were delightedwith all the tropical wonders and all the picturesquegorgeousness they saw everywhere around them.

But their journey was not without a spice of realdanger and at times of discomfort. The discomfortwe may dismiss at once. It was borne, as Beeboowould say, with Christian "forty-tood", and was duepartly to the clouds of mosquitoes they encounteredwherever the soil was damp and marshy, and partlyto the attacks of tiny, almost invisible, insects of thejigger species that came from the grass and ferns andheaths to attack their legs.

Burly Bill was an old forester, and carried with himan infallible remedy for mosquito and jigger bites, which acted like a charm.

In the higher ground-where tropical heath andheather painted the surface with hues of crimson, pink, and purple-snakes wriggled and darted about everywhere.

One cannot help wondering why Nature has takenthe pains to paint many of the most deadly of these incolours that rival the hues of the humming-birds thatyonder flit from bush to bush, from flower to flower.

Perhaps it is that they may the more easily seektheir prey, their gaudy coats matching well with theshrubs and blossoms that they wriggle amongst, whilegliding on and up to seize helpless birds in their nestsor to devour the eggs.

Parrots here, and birds of that ilk, have an easyway of repelling such invaders, for as soon as theysee them they utter a scream that paralyses theintruders, and causes them to fall helplessly to the ground.

To all creatures Nature grants protection, andclothes them in a manner that shall enable them togain a subsistence; but, moreover, every creature inthe world has received from the same great power themeans of defending or protecting itself against theattacks of enemies.

On both sides, then, is Nature just, for though shedoes her best to keep living species extant untilevolved into higher forms of life, she permits eachspecies to prey on the overgrowth or overplus ofothers that it may live.

Knocking over a heap of soft dry mould with thebutt end of his rifle, Dick started back in terror to seecrawl out from the heap a score or more of the mostgigantic beetles anyone could imagine. These weremostly black, or of a beautiful bronze, with streaks ofmetallic blue and crimson.

They are called harlequins, and live on carrion.Nothing that dies comes wrong to these monsters, and a few of them will seize and carry away a deadsnake five or six hundred times their own weight.My readers will see by this that it is not so muchmuscle that is needed for feats of strength as indomitablewill and nerve force. But health must be at thebottom of all. Were a man, comparatively speaking,as strong as one of these beetles, he could lift on hisback and walk off with a weight of thirty tons!

Our heroes had to stop every now and then tomarvel at the huge working ants, and all the wondrousproofs of reason they evinced.

It was well to stand off, however, if, with snappinghorizontal mandibles and on business intent, any ofthese fellows approached. For their bites are aspoisonous as those of the green scorpions orcentipedes themselves.

What with one thing or another, all hands wereattacked by healthy hunger at last, and sought theshade of a great spreading tree to satisfy Nature'sdemands.