on to dine with the family, and they were received by Joam
Garral with the respect due to their rank.

During dinner Torres showed himself more talkative than usual. He spoke
about some of his excursions into the interior of Brazil like a man
who knew the country. But in speaking of these travels Torres did not
neglect to ask the commandant if he knew Manaos, if his colleague would
be there at this time, and if the judge, the first magistrate of the
province, was accustomed to absent himself at this period of the hot
season. It seemed that in putting this series of questions Torres looked
at Joam Garral. It was marked enough for even Benito to notice it,
not without surprise, and he observed that his father gave particular
attention to the questions so curiously propounded by Torres.

The commandant of San Pablo d'Olivenca assured the adventurer that the
authorities were not now absent from Manaos, and he even asked Joam
Garral to convey to them his compliments. In all probability the raft
would arrive before the town in seven weeks, or a little later, say
about the 20th or the 25th of August.

The guests of the fazender took leave of the Garral family toward the
evening, and the following morning, that of the 3d of July, the jangada
recommenced its descent of the river.

At noon they passed on the left the mouth of the Yacurupa. This
tributary, properly speaking, is a true canal, for it discharges its
waters into the Ica, which is itself an affluent of the Amazon.

A peculiar phenomenon, for the river displaces itself to feed its own
tributaries!

Toward three o'clock in the afternoon the giant raft passed the mouth
of the Jandiatuba, which brings its magnificent black waters from the
southwest, and discharges them into the main artery by a mouth of four
hundred meters in extent, after having watered the territories of the
Culino Indians.

A number of islands were breasted--Pimaicaira, Caturia, Chico,
Motachina; some inhabited, others deserted, but all covered with superb
vegetation, which forms an unbroken garland of green from one end of the
Amazon to the other.

CHAPTER XV. THE CONTINUED DESCENT

ON THE EVENING of the 5th of July, the atmosphere had been oppressive
since the morning and threatened approaching storms. Large bats of ruddy
color skimmed with their huge wings the current of the Amazon. Among
them could be distinguished the _"perros voladors,"_ somber brown above
and light-colored beneat