Smallpox came our way; seemed to take a piece about a quarter of a
mile wide. Many died. Woman very ill and man went for Priest. Rainy
and windy night and the little lamp the man carried in front of the
Priest, who was saying prayers, kept blowing out and having to be lit
again. The atmosphere of the room was awful for the Priest. Antonia
and two men. Antonia was confessed and died. The others cleared and
next day the man got a Spanish carpenter (Tapia) and boards and
sixteen old kerosene cans from the store and they made a coffin and
lined it with the kerosene cans and put Antonia in; her feet were
tied with a ribbon and the smallpox lumps showed through her white
stockings. Some friends came at night and in the morning we soldered
her up and had the funeral. Two wheels and the coffin on boards
covered with a cloth, a cross with her name, etc., painted on it as
well as one could; all the mourners on horseback. We buried her. Hers
was the first death here. Her sister, who came to see her, was well
for two weeks; then she died in twenty minutes; she only had one mark
on her.
[Illustration: Antonia's Funeral.]
[Illustration: Near Corientes.]
"MAY GOOD DIGESTION WAIT ON APPETITE."
We had run out of meat and were living on a few hard biscuits and
oranges for two days in our boat on a big river in South America; but
today we ran up a creek to Corientes and found any quantity at fifty
cents the aroba (25 pounds); so we took some to the creek mouth and
Maria cooked it while we sat round with our hunting knives. Don't use
plates and things; when cooked you cut a piece off, lay hold with
your mouth and cut off your mouthful avoiding your nose. Cooking is
done by sticking an iron rod (if you have one) through the meat into
the ground slanting over the fire, turning it when one side is done.
Then we sailed off again and came to Parana after a while. There is
a revolution on (Blancos and Colorados) and the town population is
picknicking with bedding, etc., on an island in the river. In the town
men are on the flat roofs shooting at others scurring about in the
bush shooting back; also maniacs are riding about like drunken demons
cutting at anything that comes in reach. We got away after a bit and
past batteries on the river bluffs which don't notice us (too small, I
suppose), though we pass close to the tops of the funnels of a steamer
that they just sank.
[Illustration: Cold Water Cure--Java.]