MARTIN RATTLER. 125

muleteers. To this they readily agreed, being only
too glad of an opportunity of making some return to
their friend, who refused to accept any payment for
his hospitality, although Barney earnestly begged of
him to accept of his watch, which was the only object
of value he was possessed of—and that wasn’t worth
much, being made of pinchbeck, and utterly incapable
of going! Moreover, he relieved their minds by
telling them that they would easily obtain employ-
ment as canoemen on the Amazon, for men were
very difficult to be got on that river to man the
boats; and if they could stand the heat, and were
willing to work like Indians, they might travel as far
as they pleased. To which Martin replied, in his
ignorance, that he thought he could stand anything ;
and Barney roundly asserted that, having been burnt
to a cinder long ago in the “East Injies,” it was im-
possible to overdo him any more.

Under these circumstances, therefore, they started
three weeks later to visit a populous town about
twenty miles off, from which they set out on their
travels with a string of heavily-laden mules, crossed
the low countries or campos lying near to the sea, and
began to ascend the sierras that divide this portion
of Brazil from the country which is watered by the

innumerable rivers that flow into the mighty Amazon.