Once on board we had to contend with strong winds. It poured with rain, and near by thunder rolled. Flocks of flamingos, egrets and cormorants flew past towards the shore. Only the alcatras, a large kind of pelican, continued to fish calmly in the gulf. We were eighteen on board, and the narrow pirogue, overloaded with sugar cane and bunches of bananas and coconuts, could hardly hold our instruments. The edge of the boat barely stood above the water-line.

As far back as the sixteenth century travelers have greatly differed in their opinions about chocolatl. Benzoni said, in his crude language, that it is a drink 'fitter for pigs than humans'. The Jesuit Acosta asserts that 'the Spaniards who inhabit America are fond of chocolate to excess . . . Fernando Cortez highly praised chocolate as being an agreeable drink if prepared cold and, especially, as being very nutritious. Cortez's page writes: 'He who has drunk one cup can travel all day without further food, especially in very hot climates. We shall soon celebrate this quality in chocolate in our voyage up the Orinoco. It is easily transported and prepared: as food it is both nutritious and stimulating. (83)