igh branches, and looking as though they
had been constructed out of raw silk and pasteboard. We may see trees
covered with these nests, and some with the nests of wasps, and still
others with those of troupials and orioles--birds of the genus _icterus_
and _cassicus_--hanging down like long cylindrical purses.

All these, and many more strange sights, may be seen in the great forest
of the Amazon valley; and some of them we shall see--_voila_!

CHAPTER TWO.

THE REFUGEES.

Upon a bright and lovely evening, many years ago, a party of travellers
might have been seen climbing up that Cordillera of the Andes that lies
to the eastward of the ancient city of Cuzco. It was a small and
somewhat singular party of travellers; in fact, a travelling family,--
father, mother, children, and one attendant. We shall say a word of
each of them separately.

The chief of the party was a tall and handsome man, of nearly forty
years of age. His countenance bespoke him of Spanish race, and so he
was. He was not a Spaniard, however, but a Spanish-American, or
"Creole," for so Spaniards born in America are called to distinguish
them from the natives of Old Spain.

Remember--Creoles are _not_ people with negro or African blood in their
veins. There is a misconception on this head in England, and elsewhere.
The African races of America are either negroes, mulattoes, quadroons,
quinteroons, or mestizoes; but the "Creoles" are of European blood,
though born in America. Remember this. Don Pablo Romero--for that was
the name of our traveller--was a Creole, a native of Cuzco, which, as
you know, was the ancient capital of the Incas of Peru.

Don Pablo, as already stated, was nearly forty years of age. Perhaps he
looked older. His life had not been spent in idleness. Much study,
combined with a good deal of suffering and care, had made many of those
lines that rob the face of its youthful appearance. Still, although his
look was serious, and just then sad, his eye was occasionally seen to
brighten, and his light elastic step showed that he was full of vigour
and manhood. He had a moustache, very full and black, but his whiskers
were clean shaven, and his hair cut short, after the fashion of most
people in Spanish America. He wore velvet pantaloons, trimmed at the
bottoms with black stamped leather, and upon his feet were strong boots
of a reddish yellow colour--that is, the natural colour of the tanned
hide before it has bee