pretty little Mameluco woman, as she was tripping with a young
girl, whom I supposed to be her daughter, across the backyard.
Both wore long dressing-gowns made of bright-coloured calico
print, and had long wooden tobacco-pipes in their mouths. The
room in which we slept and worked had formerly served as a
storeroom for cacao, and at night I was kept awake for hours by
rats and cockroaches, which swarm in all such places. The latter
were running about all over the walls; now and then one would
come suddenly with a whirr full at my face, and get under my
shirt if I attempted to jerk it off. As to the rats, they were
chasing one another by the dozens all night long over the floor,
up and down the edges of the doors, and along the rafters of the
open roof.

September 7th.--We started from Baiao at an early hour. One of
our new men was a good-humoured, willing young mulatto named
Jose; the other was a sulky Indian called Manoel, who seemed to
have been pressed into our service against his will. Senor
Seixas, on parting, sent a quantity of fresh provisions on board.
A few miles above Baiao the channel became very shallow; we ran
aground several times, and the men had to disembark and shove the
vessel off. Alexandro shot several fine fish here, with bow and
arrow. It was the first time I had seen fish captured in this
way. The arrow is a reed, with a steel barbed point, which is
fixed in a hole at the end, and secured by fine twine made from
the fibres of pineapple leaves. It is only in the clearest water
that fish can be thus shot--and the only skill required is to
make, in taking aim, the proper allowance for refraction.

The next day before sunrise a fine breeze sprang up, and the men