light or tempt us in the least. The eating of an old unclean worsted sock (and the word unclean should be underlined), steeped in sugar and allowed to dry, gives some idea of this sweet West Indian delicacy.

"The shades of night were falling fast," as the poet puts it, and soon all nature's beauties, and there were many there, were wrapped in its dark mantle. We therefore lit our lamp, dealt out supper portions to our men, refreshing them with some coffee and some water mixed with rum. At times some wild Indians in their narow skiff shot by, or we could view them on the leafy bank, grouped together cooking their last caught fish, or munching at their fruit; imperturbable people, no shower of little biscuits or of hard nuts provoked them, but they picked them up and, like monkeys, looked at them, then cracked or swallowed them without a smile or a thought of thanks, poor children of the wild woods and waters. When supper was finished and night prayers said, and the rosary well responded to, we composed ourselves to rest as best we could, while our poor Indians kept rowing on, but when the tide turned, they wisely shipped their oars and slept or rested on till the turning of the next tide favored them again. The distant howling of the red monkey of the wood, distinctly heard, did not disturb or make us sleep less. Croaking frogs or crapauds did their best to waken us, but failed in the attempt, for we were tired.

66

As soon as the beams of the bright morning sun put the darkness to flight and the stars one by one," we arose and shook off all sleep and drowsiness, and having attended to some higher duties, putting away our breviaries, we attended next to the temporal wants of our hungry men, not neglecting our own. Coffee we boiled, and then cakes and cassava we distributed, and what fruit remained passed round.

By this time, and even before the break of day, we had entered the great Pomoroon River, a river of very considerable width in places here and there along its shores. We ran in our boat and clam bered up the slippery bank to visit some of the good Portuguese people who had settled there, and who, by dint of hard work and wonderful perseverance, had cleared parts of the forest or wild bush, and converted them into provision grounds, and moreover constructed fit dwelling-places for themselves and families, and evend harun up here and there

a shop for the benefit of the wayfarer, the Indian, and themselves.

Kindly indeed did these good people welcome the priest, killing, if not the "fatted calf," at least running after the plumpest duck, pulling up the best roots, thus to lay a dainty repast before us.

Then would they bring their little ones before us, to kiss our hand and receive a priestly blessing. Dear little ones of God, how their bright eyes gleamed with delight, and their fair faces smiled all over with infant joy, as they looked at the shining cross or medal pressed into their tiny hands, running off at once to show the brass treasure to every member of the household.

Our object in visiting the Portuguese along the river banks was to tell them that on a fixed day on our return, if wild beasts had not devoured us or hungry Indians eaten us both up, we would say mass in a certain place called Caledo nia, and would then attend as best we could to their spiritual wants, and that they must promptly do their part by spreading the news to all around. And these tidings of great joy did travel far and fast, bringing contentment and consolation to many good Catholic souls in those outlandish parts. The correspondence to our call was quite equal to our expectation, as later on we witnessed.

The river was gradually widening out as it was nearing or emptying itself into the sea, though not so much as rivers generally do, and after a long and hot and somewhat tedious voyage, we found ourselves at the mouth of the Pomoroon, and in the jaws of the boisterous ocean, or Caribbean Sea. It is almost always rough and unpleasant at this point, and this roughness we had to encounter before we could find an entrance into the mouth of the Moruca, unless we had taken a long, circuitous route through many narrow, winding watercourses, intercepted with fallen trees or branches, rendering it necessary to unload our boat more often than we felt inclined to do. So we preferred of the two evils to encounter the troubled waters than delay our course, imperil our frail bark, or try too much our patience.

After a vigorous row of some three hours or more, and having shipped many a wave, and with a calabash bailed them all out again, we found ourselves not certainly the dryer, but all safe and sound at the boca, or mouth, of the Moruca. The sun was fast hurrying on in its downward course, and well-nigh "had pillowed its chin upon an orient wave," when caring

open-sided dwelling, where all might hang their hammocks, cook, and take shelter for the night. Pagan Indians, according to their way, seemed hardly to recognize our presence; while hungry, half-starved dogs certainly did and fiercely eyed us,

It would be difficult to find a spot more inspiring to the poet, more puzzling to the painter, or more enchanting to the enthusiastic traveller, than this wild romantic entrance into the Moruca.

Its beauty consists not so much in the luxuriant foliage, or in the profusion of vines and flowery creepers, though these were not wanting there; but rather in the fantastic growth of the tall trees, so interlaced or interwoven with each other, and again in the curious appearances of their high uplifted roots. These roots, or natural tree-supports, have an utter abhorrence to hide themselves in the soil, like unto children with new shoes or boots, they must needs be seen by all, standing, these roots, as if on tiptoe on the dark water-edge, ready either to slip in or to take a plunge, or make a jump or spring across; while some of the higher branches of these strange, absent-minded trees, as if forgetting their high calling, dip down and degrade themselves to the rank of common roots, and grow as such. The sea and tidal waves no doubt have robbed these trees of their landed prop. erty, or much of their earthly inheritance; but still, not incommoded by the loss, they rather rejoice in it, and thrive all the better in their amphibious mode of life.

Nature has wondrous wild ways of its own out here, but few there are to note down or admire its wanton freaks and curious fancies.

The waters of the Moruca are darker and much deeper than either of the creeks we had passed through; besides, it is much broader, for it claims a right of being called a river. We had not long rowed up its current before we turned sharply to the left, finding an entrance into a shallow Indian port of six feet wide, and there, as evening was coming on, we determined to take supper, and hang our hammocks and rest a while, till the next washing of the waters at midnight favored our onward progress. We landed, and soon found ourselves under the covering of an Indian logie, or large thatched,

our boat, ready to snatch or claim even a lion's share. The little children ran away, till a few sweet biscuits dispelled their infant fears, and made them soon our bosom friends, and the dogs were in good time propitiated by sundry fragments of our food.

Soon were we busy cooking, and — sad to be forced to own our human weakness

we fell at once upon that roast-beef tin so prized, and ate it up for hunger sake, forgetting all about old England and the Italian feast-day. We cooked potatoes, such as never were cooked before or since, at least so we thought, forgetting we had brought a good, cheap, wholesome sauce with us in the shape of hunger.

This work over, and carefully packing up both our knives and forks and two tin spoons, for which we paid one penny each, and other such valuable wares, and securing all useful remnants from the greedy dogs and little voracious ants, we took a stroll along the river bank, coming across some of the good Indians of St. Rosa's Mission, who promised to meet us later at the Sunday's mass. Returning to the logie before dark, we swung our hammocks and prepared to sleep and rest.

"But oh, I passed a miserable night, far worse indeed than Clarence," for he had but an ugly dream, or nightmare, but with me it seemed as if every stinging mosquito of the colony was for my many sins let loose upon me, while sand-flies innumerable had no pity or compassion, teasing and tormenting me most cruelly, as if in very truth they themselves had once been angels !

Twisting and turning, rocking and rolling, I longed for the change of the tide or the brisk washing of the midnight waters. Twelve o'clock did come at last, as if some four or five hours late, and I felt as I turned out of my hammock on the gritty ground below, like unto one who by the holy and wholesome thought of others had been prayed out of or released from the pains of purgatory.

The men were soon at their posts and we in our places, so off we rowed in the midnight darkness with our lanterns lit before us, feeling sure that the morning's sun would light up a new prospect before us, and land us safe among our Indian

freely ventilated, for there are no walls to encompass them. A few straight palmtree poles, with a high-pitched roof thatched with troolee palm leaves in a most artistic and masterly manner, covering an area, say of forty feet long by twenty feet wide, make up these mansions of the woods. Anyhow, they are not, as many would very erroneously suppose, Indian huts or hovels. In some of the more respectable abodes, if not in most of them, a small apartment of some eight or ten feet square is divided off by some leaf or wicker-work walls from the rest of the dwelling, where papa or mamma, or broken-legged brother, or snake-bitten. cousin and little sick sister might rest and be cared for; and this sanctum contains, moreover, the family chest, some poor old battered box, where the scanty wardrobe of the household is kept together, with a few glass beads and other such priceless

treasures.

The rest of the family or household swung their hammocks from pole to pole, snugly sleeping there during the long night, and lazily lounging in them too many hours during the hot day.

The hammock for the Indians is chair and table, sofa, bed, smoking saloon, and

all.

And what do these simple people do under their ample troolee-covered sheds while the men are busy hunting down the game, or capturing the fish, or collecting fruit, birds, and gums? In most of the dwellings of the Indians you will observe a long hollow tree, or more often it may be an ancient canoe or corial no longer sea-worthy, but most useful there, for it is into this that they grate the cassava root, and in it too they squeeze its juice after the grating process is ended. This cassava grating, when almost dry, is spread upon large iron disks, under which a fire is made, and quickly the cassava cake is cooked and ready for consumption. This bread is their "staff of life," while "life itseli" is made from the fermented juice of the same cassava root, and many are inebriated with the drink thereof. It is called parwarri, and corresponds in great measure to the beer or ale of the English

man.

and the basis, as some will tell us, of almost every dark-colored dinner sauce. The cassareep finds in town a ready mar ket, and travels far and wide. Cassava, too, is sold in town, not quite so publicly as it was some few years ago, when little negro girls, with the bread upon their heads, would have in their mouths, or on their lips, these strange utterances :Nice Cassava bread, ladies, Nice Cassava bread; He who want me call me, He who no want me no call me ; He shame to call me give me the Wink, wink, wink.

Not quite a London cry, it must be owned, or rendered in the queen's best English, but quite as intelligible as most of the street cries of that huge, distant city.

But to return to the Indians and their limited industries. They make among other things a peculiar sort of matted basketwork from the splittings of a palm, staining some of the slender pieces black, and interweaving them in their work, producing thereby surface designs as chaste and true to art as Owen Jones, Ruskin, or the elder Pugin would well wish to see, faithful as if by instinct to the great true art-principle of decorating construction without constructing decoration, and consequently producing ornaments truthful in art and pleasing to the eye.

'Tis just congruity of parts combined

Must please the taste and satisfy the mind. In the style alluded to the Indians make a sort of basket called "peghalls," "matapees,' "sieves," "strainers," and many other articles peculiar to their own domestic wants. Some again spin the cotton from the cotton-tree that grows hard by, manufacturing it into hammocks of all sorts and sizes. Others carried on a little trade referred to above in collecting macaws, parrots, paroquets, and other birds of richest plumage, taming them, teaching them to speak, and then bring ing them into town to sell, or exchange for a gun, it may be, or a knife, some yards of colored cotton, some bright buttons, or some glass beads. Monkeys, too, are brought to town, sold, and reduced to utter slavery, but kindly treated, even by little black boys, as if they had a sort of fellow-feeling.