leaving by a side door and striking into the woods at a point east of
the hacienda, where, according to his information, a footpath existed,
which would lead us to the clearing we desired to visit. Of that
journey, gentlemen, I have most terrible memories.

"Imagine a dense and poisonous jungle, carpeted by rotten vegetation in
which one's feet sank deeply and from which arose a visible and
stenching vapour. Imagine living things, slimy things, moving beneath
the tread, sometimes coiling about our riding boots, sometimes making
hissing sounds. Imagine places where the path was overgrown, and we
must thrust our way through bushes where great bloated spiders weaved
their webs, where clammy night things touched us as we passed, where
unfamiliar and venomous insects clung to our garments.

"We proceeded onward for more than half an hour guided by the
moonlight, but this, although tropically brilliant, at some places
scarcely penetrated the thick vapour which arose from the jungle. In
those days I was a young and vigorous man; my companion was several
years my senior; and his sufferings were far greater than my own. But
if the jungle was horrible, worse was yet to come.

"Presently we stumbled upon an open space almost quite bare of
vegetation, a poisonous green carpet spread in the heart of the woods.
Here the vapour was more dense than ever, but I welcomed the sight of
open ground after the reptile-infested thicket. Alas! it was a snare, a
death-trap, a sort of morass, in which we sank up to our knees. Pah! it
was filthy--vile! And I became aware of great--lassitude, do you say?--
whilst Valera's panting breath told that he had almost reached the end
of his resources.