After breakfast the Father took us through the chapel, followed by his dusky little tribe, all crossing themselves piously before the altar. He showed us with pride the decorations of the altar and the ceiling, all the work of himself and his little Indians. The ceiling represented the dome of heaven, bright blue, and dotted with a multitude of white stars. [Illustration: FIG. 96. TROPICAL LUXURIANCE.] When we called our little Pedro, the youngest of our Indian paddlers, to tell Marciano that we were ready, Father Gillett’s eyes filled with tears and he said, “Is your name Pedro? I lost a lovely Pedro. He died of fever last Easter. I did not know I could miss him so much. He used to talk to me. He was not like other Indian boys. He loved to talk.” Then turning to us he added simply, “It is a lonely life sometimes, you know.” We were told that white women had never before passed through that part of British Guiana. So unexpectedly did we arrive at midnight, and so early did we depart next morning that perhaps our visit seems as unreal to the good Father as it sometimes does to us—like a very vivid dream which we can never forget. He loaded us with gifts of cocoanuts and fruit and in the fresh coolness of early morning we again set forth on our journey. Just as we were paddling away, the Father ordered all his small boys into the water for their regular morning swim. Head first they went, splashing about as gayly as a school of strange copper-colored fish. We found as we went on that the Marooka changed rapidly in character. It was no wider but the water lilies and pampas grass disappeared and a softer, finer grass covered the marsh, dotted with a host of purple and yellow flowers rising from some aquatic plant. Isolated trees became more numerous, and great Woodpeckers, resembling our splendid Ivory-bills, looped here and there. Swallow-tailed Kites[58] dipped and soared and Kiskadees[101] shrieked near the occasional huts of the Indians. At noon we lunched on erbswurst and jam at a Protestant Mission—Warramuri—where a small colony of Red-backed Cassiques were established. A school of about fifty Indian children were studying and reciting at the top of their lungs. [Illustration: FIG. 97. CAPYBARA ON THE BANK OF A STREAM. (Photo by Bingham.)] We left in an hour and from here on the Marooka widened and consequently lost somewhat in interest. The low elevation on which the English Mission is built is composed wholly of fine white sand, and beyond this mangroves began to appear and the foliage became less diversified.