  At Death's Door—Mundurucu Indians—All Author's Followers poisoned by Wild Fruit—Anxious Moments—Seringueiros—A Dying Jewish Trader—The Mori Brothers—A New Hat—Where the Tres Barras meets the Arinos-Juruena—The Canoe abandoned We had a minimum temperature on the night of August 15th of 70° F. We descended the All Saints rapid and fall, 150 m. in length, with no great difficulty, although with a certain amount of hard work. A large basin was below it, in the eastern part of which was a charming island. Innumerable rubber trees (Siphonia elastica) were to be seen in that region. We found the south-east passage the best in descending that rapid; but, although comparatively easy, we had to use the greatest care, as my canoe was by now falling to pieces, and a hard knock against a rock would be fatal. At the eastern end of the basin was a narrow channel between high rocks, where the current was extremely strong. A cluster of high vertical columnar rocks was seen. The three channels into which the river had been divided joined again in that basin, and were forced through a passage between high vertical rocky walls not more than 35 m. apart. The water naturally was much troubled in being Antonio and white Filippe, who had been instructed to go and reconnoitre, went a short distance away, where they sat themselves down behind some rocks, comfortably smoking cigarettes. After twenty minutes or so they returned and said they had gone all along the channel, and there was absolutely smooth water and no danger whatever. I was not well satisfied with their answer, but they swore they had inspected the channel thoroughly, and there was no danger. So I ordered them to enter the boat once more, and we started off. No sooner had we turned the corner round the high rocky cliffs and entered the narrow gorge than we were confronted by a huge central wave some 40 ft. high in the channel. It was formed by the clashing waters, coming from three different directions, meeting at that spot and trying to push through simultaneously. Before we knew where we were the canoe actually flew up in the air, in an almost vertical position, to the top of that enormous wave. A Moment of Suspense. Author and his men in their canoe going through a narrow channel between vertical walls of rock. The water forced through from three large arms of the river joining at that point formed a high and dangerous central wave. Baggage, men, and dogs slid down in confusion, the canoe gliding back into the water and progressing as swift as an arrow down the channel. The next moment we were on the point of being dashed against Once again the great rush of water shot us up in the air, above the central wave, and this time the canoe bucked and rode down on the other side of that foaming mass of water. My men were terrified. "Rema! rema! (Row! row!) for Heaven's sake!" I shouted to the perplexed men, as I tried to instil into them a little courage, when within me I really thought we were lost. As I shouted those words I saw to my horror two of the paddles washed away, and as I quickly measured with my eye the length of the channel I perceived that we still had some 200 m. more of that kind of navigation before we should shoot out of that dangerous place. Up and down we went several times on that high central wave; several times did we again shave the rocks on either side of the narrow channel. We were quite helpless, my men in chorus yelling "We are lost! we are lost!" Alcides bravely stuck to the helm for some time, but the force of the water was so great that he was knocked down into the canoe and had to let go. When we reached the point where the narrow passage came to an end, the waters looked so diabolical that when my men shouted "We are lost! we are lost!" I could not help saying "Yes, we are!" I held on to the canoe desperately, as we were banged about for a few seconds in a way that nearly I lose most things in the world, but I never lose my patience nor my sense of humour. I could not help laughing when I looked at the expression on the faces of my dogs—an expression of terror and astonishment, as they looked first at the place from which we had emerged and then at me, which I am sure would have meant in words: "Good gracious! where in the world are you taking us?" We had to halt as soon as convenient in order to cut some new paddles. It took my men some hours to recover from the effects of that experience. As is generally the case after a violent emotion, a great deal of merriment was produced, my men for the rest of the day talking about the incident and reproducing in a realistic way the sounds of the rushing water and the impact of the waves against the canoe. We found after that a great basin 3,000 m. long, 1,300 m. broad, from west to east, with a lovely sand beach 1,000 m. long on its eastern side. Conveying the Canoe through the Forest. Conveying the Canoe through the Forest. (Notice the side of the canoe split and stuffed with pieces of cloth.) At last—after all that time without meeting a soul—I came across a small tribe of Mundurucus—six of them all counted. They had their aldeja, or village, on the right side of the stream. Their chief rejoiced in the name of JoÃo. They were tiny little fellows, the tallest only 5 ft. in height. If you had met them anywhere else than in Central Brazil you would have mistaken them for Japanese, so exactly like them The Mundurucus were mild and gentle, soft-spoken and shy. They had all adopted Brazilian clothes. The hut of the chief was extremely clean and neat inside, the few utensils that were visible being kept in a tidy manner. JoÃo spoke a little Portuguese. From him I was able to buy a quantity of farinha, which came in useful to us, although I had to pay an exorbitant price for it—£4 sterling for each 50 litres or thereabouts—that is to say, about 5½ pecks in English measure. The price of farinha on the coast would be less than four shillings for that quantity. What interested me most among the Mundurucus was their strange ornamentations. The angular pattern was a great favourite with them, especially angles side by side, and the cross—which I think had been suggested, however, by their contact with Catholic missionaries farther down the river. The rudimentary figures which they carved—merely lines for the body, legs and arms, and a dot for the head—were extraordinary because they represented the body and limbs covered with hair, done simply by minor parallel lines. I asked the Mundurucus why they represented human beings with hair, whereas they themselves were hairless on the body and face. They said it was because in ancient times all the people were hairy like monkeys. I was strongly impressed by the difference in type I had been so busy taking notes of all I had seen in the aldeja, that when we started once more down the river I did not at first miss my best dog, Negrino, of whom I had got very fond. We had gone some 4 or 5 kil. down the river when I discovered that my men had given it away to the Indians while I was occupied studying the geological formation of that part of the country. It was impossible to go back all those kilometres against the current to recover the poor dog. Although it gave me a great deal of pain I never for one moment let the men see it, as I knew that it was in order to hurt me that they had disposed of Negrino. It is never right or useful to take revenge, for if you wait long enough you are always avenged by Providence. That afternoon my men saw some wild chestnuts on a tree, and they insisted on landing to pick them. They knocked down the tree, as usual, to get the chestnuts, although it was fully 3 ft. in diameter. They picked a great many of the wild chestnuts and proceeded to eat them—Alcides, much to my amazement, actually offering me one. I asked them if they knew what they were eating, as I quickly observed when the tree fell down that not a single chestnut had been touched by birds or monkeys. I have always noticed in equatorial countries that When we got back to the canoe we had only gone a short distance when Filippe the negro was seized with violent pains in his inside. His eyes had become sunken, his lips were quivering, and in a moment he was seized with cramps all over the body—so much so that he collapsed. We had to halt on a small island of rock, where we took Filippe out and I had him laid flat on his chest, he being just like a corpse. I inserted a leather strap into his throat in order to cause immediate vomiting, then I unpacked some of the castor oil which still remained in my possession—we never seemed to lose the beastly stuff—and gave him a dose powerful enough to kill an ox. The other men were laughing all the time, saying that they felt no pain at all; but their boast did not last long, for a few moments later, while I was watching poor Filippe, Antonio and the man X threw themselves down on the rocks, rolling over and contorting themselves, evidently in most excruciating pain. The same treatment was applied to them in turn, and I watched with great concern three men out of the six spread out helpless, and in such a dreadful condition that I really doubted whether they would be alive in another hour. I considered myself fortunate that the other three had not been poisoned. Alcides looked at the other men with an air of contempt and said: "They are rotten fellows! They cannot eat anything without getting poisoned. I feel no pain at all; the fruit has done me no harm." When I turned round to look at his face it had turned a lemon-yellow colour, which I did not quite like, but I did not mention the fact to him, and went about from one dejected man to another to try and bring them back to life again. Filippe the negro opened his eyes for a moment. "I am dying!" he said. "Good-bye, sir! Please give all my money to my sweetheart in Araguary." I noted her name and address in my book, for I really thought Filippe was about to expire. The moans and groans all round me were most funereal, and the odour unbearable, the nuts having formed a chemical combination in their insides which made their breath most offensive. The heat in the sun was oppressive on those volcanic rocks. My bare feet were absolutely scorched as I walked on them. Not many minutes later Alcides was rolling himself upon the rocks in intense pain. When I rushed to him to apply my favourite method he rebelled, refusing the treatment. "Very good," I said to him; "will you live or will you die?" Leading the Empty Canoe down a Dangerous Channel. Leading the Empty Canoe down a Dangerous Channel. (Photographed a few seconds before the rope snapped and canoe escaped.) "I prefer to die," said he, and proceeded to moan and groan, and also to dictate the name and address In a way I was sorry to see my men suffering so much. I was already thinking of how I could get out of that difficult dilemma. If they had all died it would have been out of the question for me to work the huge canoe alone going down such dangerous rapids. Some four hours were spent in deepest reflection, a little distance off from my men. I had done my best, and I could do no more for them. I returned every little while to see how they were progressing, but for the first three hours they were in so pitiful a condition that I really thought they could not possibly recover. When Alcides was almost unconscious I applied to him also the remedy I had used for the other men. It was only after some five hours or so that Filippe the negro began to feel a little better. Gradually one after another the men, half-dazed, were able to get up, swaying about as if badly intoxicated. They said they saw all the things in front of them moving up and down. Evidently the poison had affected their vision and also their hearing, as they said they could only hear me faintly when I spoke to them. Late in the evening I persuaded them to get once more into the canoe, as it was not possible to camp on those rocks. We floated down—fortunately for us the river was placid for some 15 kil., and we let the current do most of the work—I steering while all my men lay flat in the bottom of the canoe. We passed along two or three beautiful islands with quantities of rubber upon them. My men felt very bad the entire night, but by the We had some luck that evening, for we came to the hut of a seringueiro, a negro, and his wife, who had cut down a portion of the forest near their hut and cultivated some mandioca. Their amazement at seeing us appear was curious to watch, especially when they looked at our canoe—held together with pieces of rope and stopped up with pieces of our garments. Those poor people, stranded there without a possibility of getting away, were extremely kind. My men heard with delight that we should find no rapids of great importance from that point down stream, and that we might find a few other seringueiros on our way. I was able to buy from the seringueiro a quantity of food, my men being overjoyed at the prospect of eating feijÃo again with their meals. Naturally the expense of taking food so far up the river was very great, and I was glad indeed to pay the exorbitant price which the seringueiro asked of £10 sterling for each 50 kilos of farinha; feijÃo at 6s. a pound; sugar at 5s. a pound—the prices which the seringueiros themselves had to pay for those commodities from the rare trading boats which once a year reached that farthermost point. We started down stream once more, passing a tributary stream, 5 m. wide, on the left bank. We had only gone 9 kil. when to our great joy we met two trading-boats owned by a Brazilian Jew, who was on board in a critical condition from malarial fever. Although in a dying state, he had not lost He looked askance at us, as he could not make out who we were, what we were doing up that river, where we could have come from. At last he signed to me that he had something to whisper in my ear. He asked me if I was a runaway cashier from a bank! I told him that if I had been a runaway cashier I would certainly not come and spend my money on the Arinos-Juruena River. The sight of human beings again—if that term could be applied indiscriminately to all we had met so far—had greatly excited my men. Some 13 kil. farther, the river being smooth but swift, we came to a basin 700 m. broad, where the river described a turn toward the north-east. We came upon a large clearing on the hill-side on the left bank. There we saw the remains of two or three huts which had been destroyed by fire. We perceived one or two people, and we landed. We found that it was the shed of an enterprising Peruvian trader who had established himself there in order to collect rubber. Only a few days before we arrived a great fire had taken place, which had destroyed nearly all he possessed; but—fortunately for us—they had saved a few things, and I was able to purchase a quantity of rice, biscuits, dried meat, beans, farinha, condensed milk, banho (liquid lard in tins), and a number of other The Peruvian trader—of the Brothers Mori's firm—must have had a handsome store indeed at that place, a quantity of jewellery, rifles, pistols, etc., all badly injured by the fire, being seen strewn on the ground as we walked about. The Peruvians are wonderful traders, most remarkable people for exploring unknown regions and carrying on commerce to the most distant points where human beings are found. That particular Peruvian firm had foreseen that that region will some day develop to a great extent, and they had therefore established their store at the most distant point where it was possible to navigate the river without extraordinary dangers. The prices charged by the Peruvian, even when circumstances might have led him to put a high price on the goods he sold me, were far lower than those of the Jew in his dying moments. The river was there 1,000 m. wide, and of amazing beauty, flowing to 30° b.m. N.N.E. for 5,000 m. in a direct line. We had gone 30 kil. that day, and we had had so many things happen to us, we felt so rich and happy with our new purchases and with the prospect that our trials were nearly over, that when night came we had a grand meal, and slept soundly notwithstanding the swarms of mosquitoes which buzzed around us. The S. SimÃo Waterfall. During the night of August 18th the minimum temperature was 71° F. During the day the temperature We halted for one day in order to repair the canoe, as it was all we could do to keep her afloat, she was leaking so badly. Poor Benedicto, who had spent the last few weeks baling out the water, swore that the moment he could leave the expedition he certainly would, since he felt he should turn into a fish soon, as he had not been dry one second for the last two months. The minimum temperature during the night of August 19th was 72° F. When we proceeded down the river we came upon most beautiful sand beaches, one as much as 500 m. long. Quantities of most delicious tortoise eggs were to be found. Furthermore, we killed some giant tortoises. Altogether we felt that all of a sudden we had dropped from a regular inferno into a heaven on earth. My men were paddling away with great vigour and were making rapid progress, the river flowing almost all the time northward, with deviations of a few degrees toward the east, in stretches from 2,000 to 6,000 m. in length. We crossed an immense basin 1,500 m. broad with most gorgeous sand beaches. Their formation in small dunes, occasionally with an edge like the teeth of a double comb, was most interesting. Once or twice we came to musical sands such as we had found before. Everywhere on those beaches I noticed the wonderful miniature sand plants, of which I made a complete collection. As my hat by that time had lost most of its brim, and the top of it had got loose and was moving up and down in the breeze, I thought I would not lose the opportunity of getting new headgear. So the purchase was made there and then, and thus fashionably attired I started once more down stream. We passed on the way most impressive sand banks and beaches—500, 700, and one 1,500 m. long. The river in some spots was 1,000 m. wide. A great island 4,000 m. in length—Bertino Miranda Island—was then passed, with a beautiful spit of sand 15 ft. high at its southern end. Hillocks were visible first on the left bank, then on the right. Other elongated sand accumulations of great length were found beyond the big island, one a huge tail of sand extending towards the north for 1,000 m. Beyond those accumulations the river was not less than 1500 m. across, and there an immense beach of really extraordinary beauty ran on the right side for a length of 1½ kil. On that beach we halted for lunch. In the afternoon we continued, between banks on either side of alluvial formation, principally silts and clay, light grey in colour or white. In fact, the soil in the section directly below the higher terrace of the great central plateau of Matto Grosso, was formed by extensive alluvial After we had gone some 5 kil. in a straight line from our camp to 10° b.m., we perceived a headland with a hill upon it 200 ft. high. We had been greatly troubled in the afternoon for the last two days by heavy showers of rain and gusts of a north-westerly wind. Once or twice we got entangled in channels among the many islands, and had to retrace our course, but we went on until late in the evening, my men believing firmly that we had now reached civilization again and that the journey would be over in a few days. I did not care to disillusion them. Late at night we camped on a magnificent beach, 1,000 m. long, at the end of Araujo Island, 1,200 m. in length. We had gone that day, August 19th, 46 kil. 500 m. My men hung their hammocks on the edge of the forest. That camp was extremely damp and unhealthy. When we woke up the next morning all my followers were attacked by fever and were shivering with cold. We left at 7.30 a.m. under a limpid sky of gorgeous cobalt blue. We passed two islands—one 700 m. long (Leda Island), the other 2,000 m. (Leander Island). When we had gone but 11,500 m. we arrived at one of the most beautiful bits of river scenery I have ever gazed upon—the spot where the immense S. Manoel River or Tres Barras or Paranatinga met the Arinos-Juruena. The latter river at that spot de The S. Manoel River showed in its centre an elongated island stretching in an E.N.E. direction. Where the Arinos-Juruena met the S. Manoel it was 1,000 m. wide, the S. Manoel being 800 m. wide at the point of junction. No sooner had we turned to 320° b.m. than we perceived on our left the collectoria of S. Manoel, with two or three neat buildings. Several astonished people rushed down to the water as they saw the canoe approaching. When I landed the Brazilian official in charge of that place and his assistants embraced me tenderly and took me inside their house. When I told them how we had come down the river, tears streamed down their cheeks, so horrified were they. "Did you come in that log of wood?" said the collector, pointing to my canoe. I said I had. "Good gracious me!" he exclaimed. "I will not let you go another yard in that dangerous conveyance. I will confiscate it, as I need a trough for my pigs and it will just do for that purpose, and not for navigating a dangerous river like this. If you want to go on by river I will supply you with a good boat." The Huge Canoe being taken through a Small Artificial Canal made in the Rocks by the Author and his Men. That was the last time I put my foot inside my canoe. I removed for good the British flag which had |
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