r the peccaries eventually succeeded in destroying the jaguar, or
whether the wounded tyrant of the forest escaped from their terrible
teeth, could never be told. Our young hunters had no curiosity to
follow and witness the _denouement_ of this strange encounter. Neither
cared they to take up the bodies of the slain. Ivan was completely
cured of any _penchant_ he might have had for peccary pork; and, as soon
as their late assailants were fairly out of sight, both leaped down from
the limbs of the tree, and made all haste towards the boat. This they
reached without further molestation; and the canoe-men, rapidly plying
their paddles, soon shot the craft out upon the bosom of the broad
river--where they were safe from the attack either of wild pigs or wild
cats.

It was likely the jaguar betook himself to a tree--his usual mode of
escape when surrounded by a herd of infuriated peccaries--and, as a
proof that he had done so, our travellers could hear the wild hogs still
uttering their fierce grunts long after the boat had rounded the
sand-spit, and was passing up the bend of the river.

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

THE OLD MISSIONS.

Passing many scenes of interest, and meeting with several other strange
incidents, our travellers at length arrived at Archidona--a small town
at the head of boat navigation upon the Napo, and the usual port of
embarkation for persons proceeding from the country around Quito to the
regions upon the Amazon. Up to this place they had been journeying
through a complete wilderness--the only exceptions being some missionary
stations, in each of which a monkish priest holds a sort of control over
two or three hundred half christianised Indians. It would be absurd to
call these missions civilised settlements: since they are in no degree
more advanced, either in civilisation or prosperity, than the
_maloccas_, or villages of the wild Indians--the "infidels," as it
pleases the monks to call those tribes who have not submitted to their
puerile teachings. Whatever difference exists between the two kinds of
Indians, is decidedly in favour of the unconverted tribes, who display
at least the virtues of valour and a love of liberty, while the poor
neophytes of the missions have suffered a positive debasement, by their
conversion to this so called "Christian religion." All these monkish
settlements--not only on the Napo, but on the other tributaries of the
Amazon--were at one time in a state of consi