Very unwillingly the Indians took their seats in the boat, and during the day the boys saw very much to interest them.
Among the trees were monkeys in regular droves, and the more mischievous appeared to think it great sport to follow the craft and pelt the occupants with fruit.
Next to these long tailed brutes, black squirrels were the most numerous, and had the party been on a hunting excursion it would have been possible to load the canoe to the water's edge with this species of game.
Now and then a sleek jaguar showed himself. Again a drove of peccaries peered out from among the underbrush, and more than once Cummings was forced to exert all his authority to prevent the Indians from stopping to bag an incautious tapir which had come to the stream for water.
The animals seen on this day's journey were few, however, as compared with the birds.
There were times when it seemed as if the channel was literally blocked with them, and as the boat advanced they dived under the surface or flew with harsh, discordant cries past the travelers' heads.
There were tantales with hard, crooked beaks, white heron, the spoon-bill with pink plumage, long necked flamingoes with flaming wings, cranes on their stilt-like legs, and teal and ducks in greatest variety.
Only once did Cummings allow any shooting to be done, and then it was to bring down a jacana that the boys might see the long spur, sharp as steel, which nature has placed under the wing, thus rendering him a formidable antagonist even to the boa.
For the noon-day meal there was plenty of provisions left from breakfast, and while the canoe was being borne along by the current at the rate of three or four miles per hour, the little party regaled themselves with meat or fruit as fancy dictated.
When the sun was within an hour of sinking behind the trees the word to halt was given, and that they had covered a long distance since morning could be told from the alligators and the turtles which were so numerous as to often render navigation dangerous.
"You will indulge in no more baths this side of Progresso," Cummings said, as the boys leaped ashore just as the long snout of an alligator appeared at the very edge of the water, its owner waiting in the hope that by falling overboard some of the boatmen would provide him with a supper. "The presence of these fellows shows that we are nearing the coast, and if they will give us half a chance you shall know the taste of fresh water turtle, which is much finer than that of their cousins from the sea."