apon than his machete. With their present
means, then, there was very little chance of their killing any game,
even should they have fallen in with it. But they saw none as yet,
except some birds, such as parrots, macaws, and toucans, that fluttered
among the leaves. No wonder, then, they were anxious about what they
should find to eat, or whether they should find anything at all.

Don Pablo considered the cross a good omen, or rather a good _sign_.
Some missionary must have planted it in years gone by. No doubt a
missionary station must have been near; and it was highly probable that
what he had seen in the little valley below would turn out to be the
very place where it had stood.

As soon as it became day, therefore, Don Pablo again ascended the tree
to take the bearings of the valley, so that they should proceed towards
it. Guapo also climbed up, so that both might make sure of the route
they ought to take--for in the tangled forests of South America it is no
easy matter to reach any object, which you may have only seen at a
distance from the top of a tree. Without a compass, the traveller soon
loses his direction; and, after hours of vain exertion and devious
wandering, often finds himself at the very place from which he had
started.

After carefully noting the direction of the valley, Don Pablo and Guapo
came down from the tree; and while the former, assisted by Leon, packed
and saddled the animals, Guapo was busy with his machete in clearing
away the brushwood that obstructed the path. This did not turn out such
a task after all. It was only at the brow of the ridge, where the
undergrowth had choked up the way. A little farther down it was quite
passable, and the party, animals and all, were soon winding down the
Sierra towards the valley. Half-an-hour's travelling brought them to
their destination; and then a shout of joy, coming simultaneously from
all of them, announced their arrival upon the spot.

What was it that caused them to utter this shout of joy? Before them
towered the great _musaceae_--plantains and bananas. There were both:
their broad yellow-green and wax-like leaves sheathing their succulent
stems, and bending gracefully over to a length of twenty feet. But
beautiful as were the leaves of these giant plants, more attractive
still to the eyes of our travellers were the huge clusters of fruit-pods
that hung from beneath them. Each of these would have weighed nearly an
hundred-weight! There was