mosquitoes--the plague of tropical America--are not found on their
banks. This is not only a curious, but an important fact, and might be
sufficient to determine any one on the choice of a settlement. You may
deem a mosquito a very small thing, and its presence a trifling
annoyance. Let me tell you that settlements have been broken up and
deserted on account of the persecution experienced from these little
insects! They are the real "wild beasts" of South America, far more to
be dreaded than pumas, or crocodiles, or snakes, or even the fierce
jaguar himself.
Day after day our travellers kept on their course, meeting with many
incidents and adventures--too many to be recorded in this little volume.
After passing the mouth of the Rio Negro, they began to get a peep now
and then of high land, and even mountains, in the distance; for the
valley of the Amazon, on approaching its mouth, assumes a different
character from what it has farther up-stream. These mountains bend
towards it both from the Brazilian country on the south, and from Guiana
on the north, and these are often visible from the bosom of the stream
itself.
It was about a month from their entering the main stream of the Amazon,
and a little more than two from the first launching of their vessel,
when the balza was brought alongside the wharf of Grand Para, and Don
Pablo and his party stepped on shore at this Brazilian town. Here, of
course, Don Pablo was a free man--free to go where he pleased--free to
dispose of his cargo as he thought best. But he did _not_ dispose of it
at Grand Para. A better plan presented itself. He was enabled to
freight part of a vessel starting for New York, and thither he went,
taking his family and cargo along with him. In New York he obtained a
large price for his bark, roots, and beans; in fact, when all were
disposed of, he found himself nearly twenty thousand dollars to the
good. With this to live upon, he determined to remain in the great
Republic of the North until such time as his own dear Peru might be
freed from the Spanish oppressor.
Ten years was the period of his exile. At the end of that time the
Spanish-American provinces struck almost simultaneously for liberty; and
in the ten years' struggle that followed, not only Don Pablo, but Leon--
now a young man--bore a conspicuous part. Both fought by the side of
Bolivar at the great battle of Junin, which crowned the patriot army
with victory.
At the close of the War of Independence, Don Pablo was a general of
division, while Leon had reached the grade of a colonel. But as soon as
the fighting was over, both resigned their military rank, as they were
men who did not believe in soldiering as a _mere profession_. In fact,
they regarded it as an unbecoming profession in time of peace, and in
this view I quite agree with them.
Don Pablo returned to his studies; but Leon organised an expedition of
_cascarilleros_, and returned to the Montana, where for many years he
employed himself in "bark-hunting." Through this he became one of the
richest of Peruvian "ricos."
Guapo, who at this time did not look a year older than when first
introduced, was as tough and sinewy as ever, and was at the head of the
cascarilleros; and many a _coceada_ did Guapo afterwards enjoy with his
mountain friend the "vaquero" while passing backward and forward between
Cuzco and the Montana.
Dona Isidora lived for a long period an ornament to her sex, and the
little Leona had _her_ day as the "belle of Cuzco."
But Leon and Leona both got married at length; and were you to visit
Cuzco at the present time, you might see several little Leons and
Leonas, with round black eyes, and dark waving hair--all of them
descendants from our family of--
"Forest Exiles."
THE END.