Every respectable
person received a great wax taper to carry in the procession: the
coffin after being carried all round was deposited in the church: the
people dispersed; and the great day of Passion Week was brought to a
close."
CHAPTER IX.
EXPEDITION TO THE SUN-WORSHIPPERS. [Footnote: An account of this
expedition was requested by and sent to the Royal Geographical
Society of London, Eng.]
I took passage on the "Urano," a steamer of 1,500 tons, for
Concepcion, 200 miles north of Asuncion.
On the second day of our journey the people on board celebrated a
church feast, and the pilot, in his anxiety to do it well, got
helplessly drunk. The result was that during that night I was thrown
out of the top berth I occupied by a terrific thud. The steamer had
run on the sandbank of an uninhabited island, and there she stuck
fast - immovable. We were landed on the shore, and there had further
time for reflection on the mutability of things. In the white sand
there were distinct footprints of a large jaguar and cub, probably
come to prey on the lazy alligators that were lying on the beach; and
I caught sight of a large spotted serpent, which glided into the low
jungle where the tiger also doubtless was in hiding.
After three days' detention here, a Brazilian packet took us off.
