he spared them through love for Minha. One single species of grebe,
which is uneatable, found no grace in the eyes of the young merchant;
this was the _"caiarara,"_ as quick to dive as to swim or fly; a bird
with a disagreeable cry, but whose down bears a high price in the
different markets of the Amazonian basin.

At length, after having passed the village of Omaguas and the mouth
of the Ambiacu, the jangada arrived at Pevas on the evening of the
11th of June, and was moored to the bank.

As it was to remain here for some hours before nightfall, Benito
disembarked, taking with him the ever-ready Fragoso, and the two
sportsmen started off to beat the thickets in the environs of the
little place. An agouti and a cabiai, not to mention a dozen
partridges, enriched the larder after this fortunate excursion. At
Pevas, where there is a population of two hundred and sixty
inhabitants, Benito would perhaps have done some trade with the lay
brothers of the mission, who are at the same time wholesale
merchants, but these had just sent away some bales of sarsaparilla
and arrobas of caoutchouc toward the Lower Amazon, and their stores
were empty.

The jangada departed at daybreak, and passed the little archipelago
of the Iatio and Cochiquinas islands, after having left the village
of the latter name on the right. Several mouths of smaller unnamed
affluents showed themselves on the right of the river through the
spaces between the islands.

Many natives, with shaved heads, tattooed cheeks and foreheads,
carrying plates of metal in the lobes of their ears, noses, and lower