THE PATH THROUGH THE FOREST.--A FORCED MARCH.--THE
BROMELACEAE.--MOSQUITOES.--THE WATER-PLANT.--THE PROMISED LAND.--A BAND
OF MONKEYS.
Gringalet's barking, the yelping of the coyotes, the heat, the song of
the grasshoppers, and the sting of the mosquitoes, all combined to
disturb our rest. About five o'clock the sun rose radiant, and was
greeted by the cardinals, trogons, and parrots. Lucien was aroused by
all these fresh sounds, and his eyes rested for some time on the wall of
verdure which seemed to bar the entrance of the forest. A cloud of
variegated butterflies drew his attention for an instant; but he was
soon absorbed in contemplating the humming-birds with their emerald,
purple, and azure plumage.
L'Encuerado, whose arm was now completely healed, had again taken
possession of the load, and Sumichrast commenced cutting the creepers in
order to open a path. I relieved him every now and then in this hard
work, and Lucien availed himself of the moments when we stopped for
breath to have a cut at the great vegetable screen which nature places
at the entrance of virgin forests, as if to show that there is within it
an unknown world to conquer. Unfortunately, the small height of the boy
rendered his work useless; but he at least evinced a desire to take his
part of the labor. At last the thick wall of vegetable growth was
passed, and we found ourselves in a semi-obscurity, caused by the shade
of gigantic trees.
"Are we now in a virgin forest?" asked Lucien.
"No, for we are only just entering it," I replied.
"But the ground is so bare; there are no more creepers, and the trees
look as if they were arranged in lines."
"What did you expect to meet with?"
"Plants all entangled together, birds, monkeys, and tigers."
"Your ideal menagerie will, perhaps, make its appearance subsequently.
As for the entangled plants, if the whole forest was full of them, it
would be absolutely impenetrable. The soil is bare because the trees are
so bushy that no rays of the sun can penetrate, and many plants wither
and die in the shade; but whenever we come upon a glade, you will find
the earth covered with grass and shrubs."
"Then the forests of the _Terre-Temperee_ are more beautiful than those
of the _Terre-Chaude_?"
"You judge too hastily," replied Sumichrast; "wait till our path leads
along the edge of some stream."
"All right," muttered the boy, shaking his head and turning towards his
friend; "the woods we have gone through are much more pleasant. It is so
silent, and the boughs are so high that we might fancy we were in a
church."
The boy's remark was far from incorrect. The dark arches of the
intersecting branches, the black soil formed by the accumulated
vegetable _debris_ of perhaps five or six thousand years, the dim
obscurity scarcely penetrated by the sunlight making its way through the
dark foliage--all combined to imbue the mind with a kind of vague
melancholy. The limited prospect and the profound silence (for birds
rarely venture into this forest-ocean) also tend to fill the soul with
gloomy thoughts, and prove that health of mind as well as of body
depends upon light.
A furnace-like heat compelled us to keep silence, and tree succeeded
tree with sad monotony. The moist soil gave way under our feet, and
retained the traces of our footsteps. At a giddy height above our heads
the dark foliage of the spreading branches entirely obscured the sky.
Every now and then I gave a few words of encouragement to Lucien, who
was walking behind me quite overcome with the heat; especially, I
recommended him not to drink, in the first place, because the water must
be economized, and next because it would only stimulate his thirst.
"Then we shall never drink any more," said the boy.
"Oh yes! Chanito," rejoined the Indian, "when we form our bivouac, I
shall make plenty of coffee, and if you sip it, in a quarter of an hour
your thirst will be quenched."
"Then I hope we shall soon reach our bivouac," said Lucien, mournfully.
If I had consulted my own feelings, I should now have given the word to
halt; but reason and experience enabled me to resist the desire. It
would really be better for Lucien to suffer for a short time than for us
to lose several hours, especially if we failed to find the stream we
were seeking. It was necessary to cross without delay the inhospitable
forest which we had entered, instead of waiting until hunger and thirst
imperiously cried--Onward! when perhaps we might be too exhausted to
move.
The ground became undulating, and I hastened forward, thinking to meet
with what we wished for, when a glade, which enabled us to catch a
glimpse of the sun, enlivened us a little. Here there was some grass,
and a few shrubs and creepers. I called Lucien to show him what to us
was a new plant, the _Bromelia pinguin_ of botanists.
Its ripe pink fruit was symmetrically placed in a circle of green
leaves. Lucien, kneeling down, tried to pluck them.
"Pull one from the middle, Chanito," cried l'Encuerado; "that's the only
way to get them."
The boy seized the centre berry, which came out, and, like the stones of
an arch when the key-stone is taken out, all the cones fell. Under their
thick husk there was a white, acid, melting pulp, well adapted to quench
the thirst; but I recommended Lucien not to eat more than two or three
of them. A second clump, a little farther on, enabled us to gather a
good stock of them. Providence could not have placed in our path a more
valuable plant, for the hundreds of cones which we had gathered would
enable us to brave the necessities of thirst for two or three days. We
now walked on at a quicker pace, and Lucien, a little refreshed, kept
his place courageously by my side.
"Well!" said I, "you must confess now that virgin forests may have
something good in them. How do you like the _timbirichis_?"
"They are excellent; what family do they belong to?"
"They are akin to the pine-apples, and therefore belong to the
_bromelaceae_."
"But the pine-apple is a large fruit, which grows simply on its stalk."
"Yes, so it appears; but in reality it is formed by an assemblage of
berries all joined together. The strawberry, which belongs to the rose
family, is similarly formed, and few people would believe, when they
swallow a single strawberry, that they have eaten thirty or forty
fruits."
For an hour we scarcely exchanged a word, but walked silently on, soaked
with perspiration, and scarcely able to breathe the heated air.
"I think there is a glade," murmured Lucien, pointing to the left.
"So there is; forward! forward!"
Five minutes after we reached an open spot bathed in sunshine amidst a
thicket of tree-ferns and high grass. The trees, placed more widely
apart, were covered with gigantic creepers drooping to the ground. Here
we again heard the note of the hocco.
While I was clearing the ground, Sumichrast and l'Encuerado took up a
position amidst the bushes. I gave some water to Gringalet, whose tongue
hung out, for he had possibly suffered most, as he would not eat the
fruit which afforded us relief.
Two shots were fired shortly afterwards; but the sportsmen soon returned
with such a disappointed air that I felt sure they had been
unsuccessful.
I made a joke of the matter, and pretended that the dry maize-cakes were
better than the fattest turkey. I spoke with such apparent seriousness
that my companions began to get animated, and a sharp controversy gave a
zest to our frugal meal. I asserted, too, that the tepid water in our
gourds surpassed in flavor the product of the coolest spring, and that
the acid _timbirichi_ was the best of fruits. Gradually, however, I gave
way, and at bed-time pretended to be quite converted. I had amused our
party, and that was all I wanted.
The night passed without any incident save the continued attacks of
mosquitoes, and the unfortunate Gringalet pressing close to us to avoid
the cruel stings of the blood-thirsty insects which much annoyed him.
At sunrise I gave the word to start, and all day long we met with no
glade to give variety to our path. I could not help admiring Lucien,
who, although suffering from heat, fatigue, and thirst, uttered not one
complaint, but only looked at me with a sad face. Two or three times I
tried to enliven him; the poor little fellow then shook his troublesome
burden and smiled back so painfully that I was quite affected.
L'Encuerado, overwhelmed by his basket, puffed noisily, and declared
every now and then that he could sniff the river and the smell of the
crocodiles. This nonsense enlivened our march a little; but soon, dull
and silent, we resumed our sluggish pace. At last fatigue compelled us
to halt, when Lucien and l'Encuerado went off to sleep, quite forgetting
their suppers. I proposed to Sumichrast to regain as soon as we could
the mountain path.
"Let us keep on one day more," said my friend; "we have still four
bottles of water left, and even if we give Lucien and Gringalet the
largest share, it will serve us for another twenty-four hours."
The next day, just as we were starting, l'Encuerado killed a hocco. The
fire was soon lighted, and the game washed down with a mouthful of
brandy, which somewhat restored our energy. About midday, when the heat
was most intense, the aspect of the ground altered, the trees became
wider apart, and our strength seemed to redouble.
"Now, Master Sunbeam!" cried Sumichrast, "lengthen your strides a
little, if you please; don't you hear the murmur of a stream?"
"Three days you've been telling me this story, so that now both
Gringalet and I are skeptical."
"How will you behave when you cross the savannahs?"
"Just as at present. I would walk without drinking, so as not to excite
my thirst," replied the child archly, who had failed to be convinced by
our reasoning.
"Oh, come! I thought you were too ill for irony. Never mind, I can bear
witness that you have behaved like a man. What do your legs say?"
"That they would be very willing to rest."
"You would like to find yourself at Orizava?"
"I should rather see a stream, an alligator, and a puma."
"You are most unreasonable. I should be contented with the stream."
"Don't you find that the mosquitoes in the _Terre-Chaude_ bite much
sharper than those in the _Terre-Temperee_?" asked the boy, addressing
l'Encuerado.
"No, Chanito; they are all alike, for they belong to the same family, as
your papa says."
"Then they must be more numerous here, for every instant one receives a
fresh pinch."
"You must not complain yet, Chanito; you'll see what it will be when we
reach the stream."
"How will it be then?"
"We shall not be able to open our mouths without swallowing some of
these blood-suckers. But, Chanito, do you know what these mosquitoes
are?"
"Yes, papa told me yesterday that they were _diptera_, and relations of
the gadflys. Their proboscis is a kind of sheath inclosing six lancets,
by the help of which they pierce our skin and suck our blood."
"But where do these hungry wretches come from?"
"From the water, where the insect lays its eggs. You know those little
worms which are constantly moving up and down in pools; they are the
larvae of the mosquito."
"The mosquito, that terrible scourge of the _Terre-Temperee_ and the
_Terre-Chaude_, renders these regions inaccessible to the inhabitants of
the _Terre-Froide_. They can not get accustomed to their bites, which
cover their bodies with large red pustules, causing fever and want of
sleep, and giving the victims the appearance of having just recovered
from small-pox."
Again we walked on without talking, for the heat dried up our throats.
Suddenly some singular cries reached our ears.
"The clucking of an oscillated turkey!" cried Sumichrast.
L'Encuerado laid down his burden, and my two companions started off in
search of the birds. They joined us again in about a quarter of an hour,
each carrying a fowl with metallic-colored plumage dotted over with
spots, almost as large as a common turkey. It belongs to the
gallinaceous order, and is only found amidst the forests of the New
World, particularly in Honduras.
"Well!" cried Sumichrast, "we have plenty to eat now; but this is a bird
which is found at a long distance from streams, and warns us to
economize the contents of our gourds."
Five hundred paces farther on we saw some stones covered with moss, and
an enormous upright rock like a tower. We saluted the colossus without
stopping to examine it, and lengthened our strides, although the ups and
downs in our path gradually became more numerous. Gringalet every
instant raised his nose to sniff the air, and the hope of at last
emerging from the forest drew us forward with increased ardor, impelled,
as we were, by the desire of at last finding the longed-for stream.
Lucien actually mustered up a run, while his cheeks flushed and his eyes
glistened with anticipation.
"Here are grass and flowers! Forward! forward!" cried Sumichrast.
"Forward!" Lucien re-echoed.
The great trees, which were now farther apart, allowed the rays of the
sun to penetrate the foliage, and the creepers drooped down in flowery
festoons. The convolvuluses, the ferns, and the parasites, all entangled
together, compelled us to use our knives. A somewhat steep ascent,
anxiously scaled, led us up to a plateau. In front of us stretched a
prairie dotted over with thickets, and bordered with forests of
palm-trees, laurels, magnolias, and mahogany-trees, from which sounded
the songs of various birds, mingled with the harsh cry of parrots.
Panting, weary, and perfectly soaked with perspiration, I proposed to
bivouac on the plateau. Indeed, the sun was setting, and we had only
just time to collect the wood we required for the fire. This task
finished, I went and sat down with Lucien on the highest point we could
find. The mountains of the _Terre-Temperee_ showed against the horizon,
although we were already at least fifteen leagues from them. We long
looked down on the tree-tops of the forest we had just crossed, and the
uniformity of the dark-green foliage had a most gloomy aspect; and,
while close round us there were a number of birds fluttering about the
trees, none of the feathered tribe ventured into the solitudes we had so
lately traversed.
"I can not catch a sight of either rivulet or stream," said Lucien.
"Courage!" replied Sumichrast, who had seated himself by us. "The birds
which are flying round us can not live without drinking, and their large
number shows that there is plenty of water near."
"Hiou! hiou! Chanito."
"Ohe! ohe!" replied Lucien, darting to the place whence he heard the
familiar cry.
The two friends went down the hill together, l'Encuerado carrying his
enormous gourd.
"Can he have discovered water?" said I to my companion, and I approached
the fire where the game was roasting under the inspection of Gringalet.
Sumichrast remained to look after the cooking of the birds, and I
overtook Lucien and the Indian just at the moment when they were bending
over a plant with scarlet-red leaves, which grew encircling the stem of
a magnolia. About a glassful of limpid fluid flowed from it into the
calabash.
"Can we get water from this shrub by merely pressing it?" asked Lucien,
with surprise.
"All that is needed is to bend it," I replied. "It treasures up the
precious dew between its leaves, and l'Encuerado and I should have died
of thirst in one of our expeditions if it had not been for this plant."
"Why doesn't it grow in every forest?" asked Lucien.
"Certainly, if it grew everywhere, one of the greatest obstacles to
travelling in the wilderness would be removed."
"And what's the name of this plant?"
"The Creoles call it the 'Easter flower;' it is one of the
_bromelaceae_."
"Does it produce any fruit good to eat?"
"No, but in case of extreme necessity its large red leaves would appease
hunger."
We reascended the hill, when an uproar proceeding from the edge of the
forest reached our ears. L'Encuerado smiled, showing us the double range
of his white teeth.
"See down there," he said to Lucien, pointing to a corner of the wood,
away from which all the birds seemed to be flying.
There was a whole tribe of monkeys frolicking about among the creepers.
"Let us go and look at them more closely," said Lucien.
[Illustration: "There was a whole tribe of monkeys frolicking about."]
"It is too late now, Chanito; they have just been drinking, and will
soon go to sleep; but we shall eat some of them to-morrow--and now our
supper is waiting for us."
We finished our meal, and when the sun was setting we saw the paroquets
fly by in couples, and humming-birds flitting about among the bushes;
suddenly a formidable roaring made us all tremble.
"Oh! what is that dreadful noise?" cried Lucien.
"A tiger!" said l'Encuerado, whose eyes glittered with excitement.
"Not a tiger, but a jaguar (_Leopardus onca_)," said I; "the former
animal is found only in the Old World."
The king of the American forests again saluted the setting sun.
Gringalet, with his tail between his legs, came crouching down close to
us; a second fire was lighted, and we lay down to sleep with the
indifference which familiarity gives even in regard to the very greatest
dangers.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]