ng were consecrated to a general examination
of the stores, especially the precious specimens of cinchona. Bundles
were restrapped, the damp provisions laid out in the sun, and the
clothing of the party, even to the most intimate garment, was taken
down to the river to be refreshed and furbished up. A common disaster
had created a common cause amongst the whole troop, and with one
accord everybody--peons, mozos, interpreters, bark-strippers and
gentlemen--set in motion a grand cleaning-up day. Napoleon-like, they
washed their dirty linen in the family. Whoever had seen the strangers
coming and going from the beach to the woods, clothed in most
abbreviated fashion, and seeming as familiar to the uniform as if they
had always worn it under the charitable mantle of the woods, would
have taken them for a savage tribe in the midst of its encampment. It
is probable they were so seen.

Thanks to the intense heat of the sun-shine, the garments and baggage
of the expedition were quickly dried. The first were donned, the last
was loaded on the porters, and the line of march was taken up. Up to
noon the road lay along the blazing sands under a sun of fire. All the
members of the party felt fresh and hardy after the involuntary bath,
except one of the Indians, who was affected with a kind of ophthalmia.
This attack, which Mr. Marcoy attributed partly to the glare, partly
to the wet, and partly to a singular hobby peculiar to the individual
of sleeping with his eyes wide open, was of no long duration. The pain
which he complained of disappeared with a few hours of exercise and
with the determination he showed in staring straight at the god of
day, who, as if in memory of the worship formerly extended toward him
in the country, deigned to serve as oculist for the sufferer. A little
before sunset halt was made for the night-camp in the centre of a
beach protected by clumps of reeds in three quarters of the wind. The
Indian porters, despatched for fish and firewood, returned suddenly
with a frightened mien to say that they had fallen into the midst of
a camp of savages. The white men quickly rejoined them at the spot
indicated, where they found a single hut in ruins, made of reeds which
appeared to have been cut for the construction some fortnight before,
and strewn with fire-brands, banana skins and the tail of a large
fish. Pepe Garcia, consulted on these indications, explained that it
was in reality the camping-place of some of the