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The Forest Exiles: The Perils of a Peruvian Family in the Wilds of the Amazon
Chapter One.
The biggest Wood in the World
Boy reader, I am told that you are not tired of my company. Is this true?
“Quite true, dear Captain, – quite true!” That is your reply. You speak sincerely? I believe you do.
In return, believe me, when I tell you I am not tired of yours; and the best proof I can give is, that I have come once more to seek you. I have come to solicit the pleasure of your company, – not to an evening party, nor to a ball, nor to the Grand Opera, nor to the Crystal Palace, nor yet to the Zoological Gardens of Regent’s Park, – no, but to the great zoological garden of Nature. I have come to ask you to accompany me on another “campaign,” – another “grand journey” through the fields of Science and Adventure. Will you go?
“Most willingly – with you, dear Captain, anywhere.”
Come with me, then.
Again we turn our faces westward; again we cross the blue and billowy Atlantic; again we seek the shores of the noble continent of America.
“What! to America again?”
Ha! that is a large continent, and you need not fear that I am going to take you over old ground. No, fear not that! New scenes await us; a new fauna, a new flora, – I might almost say, a new earth and a new sky!
You shall have variety, I promise you, – a perfect contrast to the scenes of our last journey.
Then, you remember, we turned our faces to the cold and icy North, – now our path lies through the hot and sunny South. Then we lived in a log-hut, and closed every cranny to keep out the cold, – now, in our cottage of palms and cane, we shall be but too glad to let the breeze play through the open walls. Then we wrapped our bodies in thick furs, – now we shall be content with the lightest garments. Then we were bitten by the frost, – now we shall be bitten by sand-flies, and mosquitoes, and bats, and snakes, and scorpions, and spiders, and stung by wasps, and centipedes, and great red ants! Trust me, you shall have a change!
Perhaps you do not contemplate such a change with any very lively feelings of pleasure. Come! do not be alarmed at the snakes, and scorpions, and centipedes! We shall find a cure for every bite – an antidote for every bane.
Our new journey shall have its pleasures and advantages. Remember how of old we shivered as we slept, coiled up in the corner of our dark log-hut and smothered in skins, – now we shall swing lightly in our netted hammocks under the gossamer leaves of the palm-tree, or the feathery frondage of the ferns. Then we gazed upon leaden skies, and at night looked upon the cold constellation of the Northern Bear; – now, we shall have over us an azure canopy, and shall nightly behold the sparkling glories of the Southern Cross, still shining as bright as when Paul and his little Virginie with loving eyes gazed upon it from their island home. In our last journey we toiled over bleak and barren wastes, across frozen lakes, and marshes, and rivers; – now we shall pass under the shadows of virgin forests, and float lightly upon the bosom of broad majestic streams, whose shores echo with the voices of living nature.
Hitherto our travels have been upon the wide, open prairie, the trackless plain of sand, the frozen lake, the thin scattering woods of the North, or the treeless snow-clad “Barrens.” Now we are about to enter a great forest, – a forest where the leaves never fade, where the flowers are always in bloom, – a forest where the woodman’s axe has not yet echoed, where the colonist has hardly hewed out a single clearing, – a vast primeval forest, – the largest in the world.
How large, do you ask? I can hardly tell you. Are you thinking of Epping, or the New Forest? True, these are large woods, and have been larger at one time. But if you draw your ideas of a great forest from either of these you must prepare yourself for a startling announcement – and that is, that the forest through which I am going to take you is as big as all Europe! There is one place where a straight line might be drawn across this forest that would measure the enormous length of two thousand six hundred miles! And there is a point in it from which a circle might be described, with a diameter of more than a thousand miles, and the whole area included within this vast circumference would be found covered with an unbroken forest!
I need scarce tell you what forest I allude to, for there is none other in the world of such dimensions – none to compare with that vast, trackless forest that covers the valley of the mighty Amazon!
And what shall we see in travelling through this tree-covered expanse? Many a strange form of life – both vegetable and animal. We shall see the giant “ceiba” tree, and the “zamang,” and the “caoba,” twined by huge parasites almost as thick as their own trunks, and looking as though they embraced but to crush them; the “juvia,” with its globe-shaped fruits as large as the human head; the “cow-tree,” with its abundant fountains of rich milk; the “seringa,” with its valuable gum – the caoutchouc of commerce; the “cinchona,” with its fever-killing bark; the curious “volador,” with its winged seeds; the wild indigo, and the arnatto. We shall see palms of many species – some with trunks smooth and cylindrical, others covered with thorns, sharp and thickly set – some with broad entire leaves, others with fronds pinnate and feathery, and still others whose leaves are of the shape of a fan – some rising like naked columns to the height of an hundred and fifty feet, while others scarcely attain to the standard of an ordinary man.
On the water we shall see beautiful lilies – the snow-white nymphs, and the yellow nuphars. We shall see the Victoria regia covering the pool with its massive wax-like flowers, and huge circular leaves of bronze green. We shall see tall flags like Saracen spears, and the dark green culms of gigantic rushes, and the golden arundinaria– the bamboo, and “cana brava,” – that rival the forest trees in height.
Many a form of animal life we may behold. Basking in the sun, we may behold the yellow and spotted body of the jaguar – a beautiful but dreaded sight. Breaking through the thick underwood, or emerging slowly from the water, we may catch a glimpse of the sombre tapir, or the red-brown capivara. We may see the ocelot skulking through the deep shade, or the margay springing upon its winged prey. We may see the shaggy ant-bear tearing at the cones of sand-clay, and licking up the white termites; or we may behold the scaly armadillo crawling over the sun-parched earth, and rolling itself up at the approach of danger. We may see human-like forms, – the quadrumana– clinging among the high branches, and leaping from tree to tree, like birds upon the wing; we may see them of many shapes, sizes, and colours, from the great howling monkeys, with their long prehensile tails, down to the little saïmiris and ouistitis not larger than squirrels.
What beautiful birds, too! – for this forest is their favourite home. Upon the ground, the large curassows, and guans, and the “gallo,” with his plumage of bright red. Upon the trees, the macaws, and parrots, and toucans, and trogons. In the waters, the scarlet flamingoes, the ibises, and the tall herons; and in the air, the hawks, the zamuros, the king-vultures, and the eagles.
We shall see much of the reptile world, both by land and water. Basking upon the bank, or floating along the stream, we may behold the great water lizards – the crocodile and caiman; or the unwieldy forms of the cheloniae– the turtles. Nimbly running along the tree-trunk, or up the slanting lliana, we may see the crested iguana, hideous to behold. On the branches that overhang the silent pool we may see the “water-boa,” of huge dimensions, watching for his prey – the peccary, the capivara, the paca, or the agouti; and in the dry forest we may meet with his congener the “stag-swallower,” twined around a tree, and waiting for the roebuck or the little red-deer of the woods.
We may see the mygale, or bird-catching spider, at the end of his strong net-trap, among the thick foliage;
