FUNERAL OF PARKS.
awaited until daylight to demand from the Alcalde a second force, to be placed under his own command, and with positive instructions, under the severest penalties known to the rude law of that region, not to leave him until they had overtaken the party. By dint of threats and exertions, he obtained the necessary orders from the Alcalde upon the local authorities of Yavisa, Pinogani, and Santa, to supply the requisite number with all dispatch, and immediately proceeded to the hire of five canoes. Says the journal:
"While arranging this important business, I was shocked by receiving intelligence of the death of Parks. I had left him but a few minutes before, apparently asleep, and though delirious he appeared strong, and was no more emaciated than the members of my own party. Ordering that a coffin should be made, and a grave dug, I charged Mr. Avery and the Padre with the care of his funeral, and prepared to set out immediately down the river to meet the Virago and ask their assistance, as I feared to intrust the safety of the party above to the cowardly natives, who might again return before reaching it.
"The Virago, I knew, ought to have returned on the day before, and I had determined, if by any chance she should have been delayed, to ascend the Savana to the New Granadian Presidio, and demand from the officer in charge a sufficient guard of soldiers to insure the obedience of the bogas whom I had requested to be drafted for the expedition. I hoped that military discipline might have repaired to some extent inherent cowardice, and that the bayonets of the troops would appear more formidable than the remote danger from the Indians. Unwilling to delay one moment longer than necessary, I left instructions with Mr. Avery to embark the provisions and medicines which I had brought up, and set out as soon as the natives should arrive from the various adjoining villages. Meanwhile the Jefe Politico, Mas Carinas, arrived, and a demand was made upon me by the bogas who had accompanied Mr. Avery, not only for the pay which had been promised them, but for the extra pay which he offered them on condition that they should accompany him until the party was relieved." The additional pay he refused to give them, and reproached them bitterly for their cowardice and roguery in stealing nearly all the provisions which he had with great difficulty obtained and destined for his own men, whom they had so scandalously abandoned to their fate.
The altercation waxed warm, and Strain's life was threatened; but he presented a six-barreled pistol, and kept them back, while a threat from the Jefe Politico that he would consign them to prison finally restored order.
Uneasy, vexed, and indignant, he finally threw himself into his canoe, and taking advantage of the remainder of the ebb-tide, swept rapidly down the river in search of assistance of such a character that he could risk the lives of his party upon it.
Extra pay and constant urging induced the bogas to pull even after the tide had turned, and when they could no longer make any headway against the current, and were forced to anchor, they had already made some sixteen or eighteen miles.
Immediately after anchoring, Strain was informed by a fisherman that an armed English boat was coming up the river; and soon after,
