At daybreak we pushed through a tangled mass of lilies and water hyacinths into a tiny caño or creek, and in a soft rain, while the tired Indians slept beneath protecting palm leaves, we cooked erbswurst and cocoa. The morning chorus was infinitely sweet, from flocks of invisible songsters, a trembling descending chord of three notes, rising at the end in a plaintive, questioning way. At eight o’clock we went on again, the Indians apparently perfectly rested after their two hours’ sleep. The Pomeroon narrowed to about a hundred yards, mangroves disappeared and mucka-mucka with its oblong, pineapple-like fruit, took their place. Flowers were abundant,—white convolvulus; wild sorrel, pink with deep carollas; large yellow blossoms with scarlet hearts, and many other varieties. Four-eyed fish were still common and Great Rufous Cuckoos,[77] Lesser Kiskadees[103] and Swallow-tailed Kites[58] were building nests. [Illustration: FIG. 99. MILES OF LILIES.] At Pickersgill Police Station we stopped for lunch. These posts are the sole representatives of law and order in the wilderness, and here the semi-military organization of negro police have their quarters. Most of them are men of unusually large size, and in disposition they are pleasant and obliging. They never failed to do their best to make us comfortable. The duty of these men is varied. Besides being responsible for the good conduct of the inhabitants of their districts, they keep account of shipments and all passing boats and passengers, and stand ready to run down, or rather paddle down, fugitives from justice. At each post are little rooms reserved for travellers, and here any strangers with proper credentials are at liberty to swing their hammocks and make themselves at home. The sergeant had just trapped a half dozen pretty blue and yellow Violet Euphonia Tanagers[140] in a mango tree near the station. The usual colony of Yellow-backed Cassiques[151] was deserted at the time of our visit, but had been occupied twice during the last year. Lying half in the water in front of the house was an anaconda fifteen feet long which had just been shot. We purchased thirty bananas for fourpence, and with fried bananas and bacon, the unfailing and never cloying erbswurst, jam, educator crackers and lime squash, we had a meal fit for the gods.