usefully employed in catching them. I accordingly
sent for them, when, to my dismay, I was told that they were nowhere to
be found. At last one of the topmen said that he had seen them chasing
Master Spider among the boughs of the forest. A vision of jaguars,
venomous sea snakes and other reptiles, rose up before me, and I began
to fear that they might have met with some accident. We looked towards
the forest, but they could nowhere be seen. We shouted to them to show
themselves, but no answer came to our repeated hails. I immediately
ordered Anselmo's canoe to be lowered, and as soon as the brig had been
brought safely to an anchor at a distance from the trees, I paddled off
to look for them. I was quickly under the boughs, but as far as my eye
could reach water alone was to be seen, with huge trees apparently
growing out of it. By sounding I found that the depth, even some way
in, was fully six feet. Again and again I shouted, but got no answer,
and as for seeing anything above my head, that was impossible, from the
mass of sipos, as Anselmo called them, or vines, which hung in festoons
from the branches of the trees, uniting them in one vast network. I
began to fear that the youngsters had, in their hurry to overtake
Spider, slipt from aloft and fallen into the water, where they might
have stuck in the mud, or been carried off by some voracious alligator
watching for his prey. Going a little farther, I again shouted, when a
cry came from among the branches above my head: I looked up, expecting
to see the lads, but could not make them out. At last I distinctly
heard Tom's voice, exclaiming, `Here we are, sir, but Spider will hold
on by the boughs with his tail, and we cannot get him along.'

"`But that is nothing, sir,' added Gerald. `We are surrounded by
hundreds of monkeys, and are afraid that they will carry him off if we
let him go again.'

"`Wring his neck and pitch him down, and then come down yourselves,' I
shouted out, losing temper.

"`That's not so easily done, sir,' cried Gerald. `The monkeys may take
it into their heads to carry us off.'

"`No fear of that,' I shouted out; `tie Spider's tail over his head and
you will easily bring him down by some of these vines. If you happen to
fall into the water I will pick you up.' The youngsters did as I
directed them, though Spider showed fight and bit Gerald while he was
trying to perform the operation. Tom, however, very wisely thought of
tyi