CONTENTS from a hill-A drove of warree-Gathering the slain- Hiring men for mahogany works-We prepare our pro- visions ix PAGE 122-140 Birds of the morning-Shooting the rapids-Tapir yarns- Poultry of the spirits-Clamorous landrails-Night on the river-Night talk-Overcome with sleep-Attacked Proceed up the river-Lazy voyage-Small village-Hospi- tality-Hunting warree-Carrying the game out-Feast- Cupid-Drift down the river-Howling monkey killed- Yowya Creek: beauties of the forest-Sleep on a tomagoff 196-210 King vulture-Curassow-Quam-'Sun-down' partridge- Quail Twee-Woodpeckers-Red-rump blackbirds- Peetooyoola Formicivora-Wagtails- Warree-yoola Rainy season commences-Go out to main river-Wading through the bush-Swimming the flooded river-Country flooded-Fever and ague-Great green macaw-Paro- quets Indian dress and ornaments - Yellowtails - Toucans-Peeakos-Ooruk-Pillis-Swallows-Wild Industrious women-Family life-Women left alone-Egg LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS UPPER SETTLEMENT, TOONGLA RIVER (p. 170) THE AUTHOR'S HOME AT BLEWFIELDS SAVALO CREEK, GREYTOWN RIVER Sookoo, CHIEF OF QUAMWATLA Frontispiece To face p. 32 70 TWAKA HOUSE AT ACCAWASS MAYA TOONGLA RIVER FROM PIAKOS MAYA WAKNA CREek GEORGE AUGUSTUS FREDERICK, KING OF MOS QUITO The tribes-Arrival of negroes-Mortality among the aborigines-An abandoned dependency of Britain-Clayton-Bulwer Treaty-Mosquito Shore a bone of contention-Two hundred years' history of a brave people-Report of Don Carlos Marenco-Recommends great warlike preparations-Treaty misunderstood by MinistersMosquito Shore a British colony-Mosquito men volunteer to join. Nelson-Fort Dalling abandoned-Colonists appeal for help to Mosquito men-Disastrous evacuation of the colony-Mosquito Indians maintain dominion-Superintendent of Honduras crowns a Mosquito King-British officials appointed. THE Country known as the Mosquito Coast lies on the western shores of the Caribbean Sea, between 11° and 15° north latitude. Almost the whole of it is level alluvial land, flat near the sea, but rising gradually, and becoming more and more hilly inland, with ranges of mountains at the back from 100 to 150 miles from the coast, which ranges come down to the sea at Monkey Point, near Greytown, and at the extreme north near Black River. The coast lies, as sailors say, in the 'eye of the north-east trade winds '—that is, in the latitudes where the trades are most constant. In the rainy season the back ranges receive the excessive rain, which flows down in innumerable rivers to the coast. The Mosquito country was formerly definable as the region under the sway of the Mosquito Indians, and used |