of Spain,
where countless thousands of sweating slaves had worn out their
straining bodies under the goad and lash, that the monarchs of Castile
might carry on their foolish religious wars and attempt their vain
projects of self-aggrandizement.

The day wore on without interest, and darkness closed in quickly when
the sun dropped behind the _Sierras_. It was to be Jose's last night
on the Magdalena, for the captain had told him that, barring disaster,
the next afternoon should find them at Badillo. After the evening meal
the priest took his chair to the bow of the steamer and gave himself
over to the gentle influences of the rare and soothing environment.
The churning of the boat was softly echoed by the sleeping forest. The
late moon shimmered through clouds of murky vapor, and cast ghostly
reflections along the broad river. The balmy air, trembling with the
radiating heat, was impregnated with sweetest odors from the myriad
buds and balsamic plants of the dark jungle wilderness on either hand,
where impervious walls rose in majestic, deterrant, awesome silence
from the low shore line, and tangled shrubs and bushes, rioting in
wild profusion, jealously hung to the water's edge that they might
hide every trace of the muddy banks. What shapes and forms the black
depths of that untrodden bush hid from his eyes, Jose might only
imagine. But he felt their presence--crawling, creeping things that
lay in patient ambush for their unwitting prey--slimy lizards,
gorgeously caparisoned--dank, twisting serpents--elephantine
tapirs--dull-witted sloths--sleek, wary jaguars--fierce formicidae,
poisonous and carnivorous. He might not see them, but he felt that he
was the cynosure of hundreds of keen eyes that followed him as the
boat glided close to the shore and silently crept through the shadows
which lay thick upon the river's edge. And the matted jungle, with its
colossal vegetation, he felt was peopled with other things--influences
intangible, and perhaps still unreal, but mightily potent with the
symbolized presence of the great Unknown, which stands back of all
phenomena and eagerly watches the movements of its children. These
influences had already cast their spell upon him. He was yielding,
slowly, to the "lure of the tropics," which few who come under its
attachment ever find the strength to dispel.

No habitations were visible on the dark shores. Only here and there in
the yellow glow of the boat's lanterns appeared the c