The wind remained contrary all day, as usual, and having but two men, our progress--or lack of progress--was becoming painful. Our provisions, too, were exhausted, and we were reduced to the regular Mexican fare of dried beef and boiled rice. We took a hand at the paddles, but our execution was clumsy and the work uncongenial. Someone suggested that in order to make our discomfiture complete it ought to rain for a day or two, but the boatman reassured us upon this point, saying that it never rained there at that season of the year,--about the only statement they made which was verified by facts. Having made but little progress that day, we held a consultation after our supper of dried beef and rice, and decided that the order of procedure would have to be changed. The wind had ceased and the mosquitoes attacked us in reinforced numbers. We were forced to remain in a much cramped position aboard the boat on top of the cargo, because every time we attempted to stretch our legs on shore we got covered with wood-ticks. It occurred to some of us to wonder what there could possibly be in the whole Republic that would compensate us for such annoyance and privation, and even if we should happen to find anything desirable in that remote district, how could we get in to it or get anything out from it? Certainly none of us had any intention of ever repeating the trip for any consideration. Thus far we had not seen a rubber-tree, vanilla-vine, coffee-tree, or anything else that we would accept as a gift. Next morning we went over to a nearby hut, and our interpreter calling in at the door asked of the woman inside if we could get some breakfast. "_No hay_" (none here) said she, not even looking up from her work of grinding corn for _tortillas_.[5] He then asked if we could get a cup of hot coffee, to which she again replied "_No hay_." In response to a further inquiry if we could get some hot _tortillas_ he got the same "_No hay_," although at that moment there was one baking over the fire and at least a dozen piled up on a low bench, which, in lieu of a table, stood near the fireplace,--which consisted of a small excavation in the dirt floor in the center of the room. The fire was made in this, and the _tortillas_ baked on a piece of heavy sheetiron resting on four stones. The interpreter said that we were hungry and had plenty of money to pay for breakfast, but the only reply he got was the same as at first. We therefore returned to the boat and breakfasted on boiled rice and green peppers, the dried beef strips having given out. Soon after our meal I had a severe chill, followed by high fever. Of course we all feared that it was the beginning of smallpox or malaria, or both. Another member of the party was suffering from a racking headache and dizziness, which, he declared, were the first symptoms of smallpox. There was no doctor nearer than Tuxpam or Tampico. The aspect was therefore gloomy enough from any point of view.