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After many sips, apparently, the brandy produced the desired effect, as my follower ceased to project his mouth, every now and then, over the side of the banca, but had sunk into a sound sleep, caused, we imagined, by the exhaustion and lassitude subsequent to sea-sickness; and so he remained till our approaching Tanay, when the sail was lowered, and he roused up and left to bring our luggage up to the Casa Real, or townhouse, where there is always a chamber and bedstead for strangers.

They vary all the way from "Banca Italiana" done in fat, fly-specked letters of gold, to "Sang Yuen" scrawled in Chinese red and black. Spaghetti and chop suey and dairy lunches nestle side by side. Here an electric sign blazons forth the tempting announcement of lunch. Just across the way, delicately suggesting a means of availing one's self of the invitation, is another which announces "Loans."

We toiled slowly over the great, sharp-ridged range which parts the waters of the Vilcamayo from those of the Apurimac the 'Great Speaker' then, descending again by the gorge of the river which is now called the Rio de la Banca, we came to the long bridge which swings in mid-air from rock to rock across the chasm through which the Great Speaker rolls his swift, roaring flood.

I think that any bank that settles down in Italy is going to be slowly and steadily naturalised Italian, it will become more and more Italian until it is wholly Italian. I would trust Italy to make and keep the Banca Commerciale Italiana Italian. I believe the Italian brain is a better brain than the German article.

"If you are able, señor, to grant me some hours of conversation, come this afternoon to the shore of the lake and embark in my banca, for I want to talk with you about some serious matters," said Elias. Ibarra gave a nod of assent and went away. Ñor Juan brought the list, but Ibarra read it in vain. The name of Elias was not on it.

The wind and current being both in our favour, and the moon rising soon after sunset, we were able to fetch Anjer Point in the middle watch and got well within Java Sea by morning. Next day we passed through Banca Strait by the Lucepara Channel, keeping to the Sumatra coast to avoid the dangerous reefs and rocks on the east side, until we sighted the Parmesang Hills.

At last we came out on the hard sand of the ocean beach, and reached the water's edge. Freed from the forest's shade the darkness was less dense. I could make out the surface of the water, and out on it a little way some dark object. The girl spoke to her mother in their native tongue. "There is a 'banca," the woman said, pointing out over the water to the boat. "No matter whose it is.

As far as I know, Banca yields nothing else; and the rice eaten by the Chinese miners, is sent regularly from Java. The rivers on this island are infested by very large alligators, which, from the scarcity of food, become highly dangerous. Their hunger drives them sometimes to attack boats, as they are rowed up the rivers; and serious accidents occur from time to time in this way.

The river here was as still as a lake, and the current so sluggish that only his labour with the paddle sent the "banca" forward. It grew dark quickly and fast, down in the bottom of this mountain gorge, and by and by the twilight glow on the tops of the banks, when he would peer up at them, grew fainter. The soldier strained his eyes to look ahead.

These robbers plunder the country in bands perfectly organized, and bodies of them are generally existing within a few miles of Manilla, the wilds and forests of the Laguna being favourite haunts, as well as the shores of the Bay of Manilla, from which they can come by night, without leaving a trace of the direction they have taken, in bodies of ten and twenty men at a time, in a large banca.