othest substance. The scorched leaves
and very small twigs were then thrown down from the roof of the arch,
and, by means of a rude wooden mill, ground to powder.

The yerba or tea was now ready for use; and being conveyed to a larger
shed, previously erected for the purpose, was then received, weighed,
and stored by the overseer. The next and last process, and the most
laborious of all, was that of packing the tea. This was done by first
sewing together, in a square form, the half of a bull's hide, which
being still damp, was fastened by two of its corners to two strong
trestles, driven far into the ground. The packer then, with an
enormous stick, made of the heaviest wood, and having a huge block at
one end, and a pyramidal piece to give it a greater impulse at the
other, pressed, by repeated efforts, the yerba into the hide sack,
till he got it full to the brim. It then contained from 200 to 250
pounds, and being sewed up, and left to tighten over the contents as
the hide dried, it formed at the end of a couple of days, by exposure
to the sun, a substance as hard as stone, and almost as weighty and
impervious too.

Having described the process of making ready the yerba for use, we
will now accompany Mr. Robertson to the woods, to see how it is
collected.

"After all the preparations which I have detailed were completed
(and it required only three days to finish them), the peons sallied
forth from the yerba colony by couples. I accompanied two of the
stoutest and best of them. They had with them no other weapon than a
small axe; no other clothing than a girdle round their waist and a
red cap on their head; no other provision than a cigar, and a cow's
horn filled with water; and they were animated by no other hope or
desire, that I could perceive, than those of soon discovering a part
of the wood thickly studded with the yerba tree. They also desired
to find it as near as possible to the colonial encampment, in order
that the labor of carrying the rough branches to the scene of
operations might be as much as possible diminished.

We had scarcely skirted for a quarter of a mile the woods which shut
in the valley where we were bivouacked, when we came upon numerous
clumps of the yerba tree. It was of all sizes, from that of the
shrub to that of the full-grown orange tree; the leaves of it were
very like those of that beautiful production. The smaller