aking him take this province for the Desert of Atacama, which
I visited formerly. But the child claimed his caoutchoucs and his
humming-birds. The mother demanded her quinquinas. The cousin was
crazy to find cocuyos. Faith, I was at the end of my imagination,
and after with great difficulty making them swallow ostriches for
giraffes--a god-send, indeed, Negoro!--I no longer knew what to
invent. Besides, I well saw that my young friend no longer accepted my
explanations. Then we fell on elephants' prints. The hippopotami were
added to the party. And you know, Negoro, hippopotami and elephants
in America are like honest men in the penitentiaries of Benguela.
Finally, to finish me, there was the old black, who must find forks
and chains at the foot of a tree. Slaves had freed themselves from
them to flee. At the same moment the lion roared, starting the
company, and it is not easy to pass off that roaring for the mewing
of an inoffensive cat. I then had only time to spring on my horse and
make my way here."

"I understand," replied Negoro. "Nevertheless, I would wish to hold
them a hundred miles further in the province."'

"One does what he can, comrade," replied Harris. "As to you, who
followed our caravan from the coast, you have done well to keep your
distance. They felt you were there. There is a certain Dingo that does
not seem to love you. What have you done to that animal?"

"Nothing," replied Negoro; "but before long it will receive a ball in
the head."

"As you would have received one from Dick Sand, if you had shown ever
so little of your person within two hundred feet of his gun. Ah! how
well he fires, my young friend; and, between you and me, I am obliged
to admit that he is, in his way, a fine boy."

"No matter how fine he is, Harris, he will pay dear for his
insolence," replied Negoro, whose countenance expressed implacable
cruelty.

"Good," murmured Harris, "my comrade remains just the same as I have
always known him! Voyages have not injured him!"

Then, after a moment's silence: "Ah, there, Negoro," continued he,
"when I met you so fortunately there below, at the scene of the
shipwreck, at the mouth of the Longa, you only had time to recommend
those honest people to me, while begging me to lead them as far as
possible across this pretended Bolivia. You have not told me what you
have been doing these two years! Two years, comrade, in our chance
existence, is a long time. One fine day, after having