The crew was active early the next morning--long before daylight broke over the river. The cook had kindled a fire on a box of sand in the bow while the others squatted around him watching, and conversing in loud voices. When the water was bubbling he produced a container that looked like a very large pipe and filled it with leaves out of a bag. David, looking on, thought it was some kind of a pipe and tobacco, and was therefore surprised to see the man pour the steaming water into it. Then a short stem was inserted in the top opening and the cook handed it to the captain, who proceeded to draw up the liquor through the tube. When he had drunk all of it the cook refilled the bowl with water and brought it over to David. “What is it?” the latter asked. “Coffee?” “No! _Yerba maté_, or Brazilian tea. It is very good. Try it.” David did not like the idea of drinking through the tube that had already been used, but did not want to appear churlish, so took a sip. The concoction tasted bitter and astringent. He handed back the _bombilla_, for that was the name of the outfit. Don Marco and the men laughed. “He does not like our drink,” they said, “but he will get used to it. It is very delicious and a good medicine, too, but one has to learn to drink it.” The cook prepared coffee for David while the rest of the party continued to fill the bombilla with hot water and to pass it around from one to the other until each had had it at least half a dozen times. Occasionally it was recharged with fresh leaves, but all drank through the same tube. Later in the day Don Marco told David a good deal about yerba maté, which seemed to be a kind of national beverage in Brazil and some of the neighboring countries, liked by rich and poor and almost universally taken from a common container such as he had seen that morning. The plant from which the leaves are taken is a species of South American holly growing abundantly in parts of Brazil, the Argentine and Paraguay, and remaining green the year round. They are gathered while small, when they are of a light green color, by cutting the branches from the plant and heaping them in piles to dry, after which they are shaken over a cloth to catch them as they fall from the withered stems. This tea had been the principal beverage of the Guaraní Indians when the country was first settled, and the invaders found it so excellent that they followed the custom of the aborigines in drinking it. David became so interested in yerba maté after learning these facts that he bought an outfit of the trader for his personal use and soon learned to drink the native tea in preference to coffee.