ained faithful to the travelers, was
drowned in the Bobonasa, in endeavoring to help the French doctor. At
length the canoe, damaged by rocks and floating trees, became useless.
It was therefore necessary to get on shore, and there at the edge of the
impenetrable forest they built a few huts of foliage. The doctor offered
to go on in front with a negro who had never wished to leave Madame des
Odonais. The two went off; they waited for them several days, but in
vain. They never returned.

"In the meantime the victuals were getting exhausted. The forsaken ones
in vain endeavored to descend the Bobonasa on a raft. They had to
again take to the forest, and make their way on foot through the almost
impenetrable undergrowth. The fatigues were too much for the poor folks!
They died off one by one in spite of the cares of the noble Frenchwoman.
At the end of a few days children, relations, and servants, were all
dead!"

"What an unfortunate woman!" said Lina.

"Madame des Odonais alone remained," continued Manoel. "There she was,
at a thousand leagues from the ocean which she was trying to reach! It
was no longer a mother who continued her journey toward the river--the
mother had lost her shildren; she had buried them with her own hands! It
was a wife who wished to see her husband once again! She traveled night
and day, and at length regained the Bobonasa. She was there received
by some kind-hearted Indians, who took her to the missions, where the
escort was waiting. But she arrived alone, and behind her the stages of
the route were marked with graves! Madame des Odonais reached Loreto,
where we were a few days back. From this Peruvian village she descended
the Amazon, as we are doing at this moment, and at length she rejoined
her husband after a separation of nineteen years."

"Poor lady!" said Minha.

"Above all, poor mother!" answered Yaquita.

At this moment Araujo, the pilot, came aft and said:

"Joam Garral, we are off the Ronde Island. We are passing the frontier!"

"The frontier!" replied Joam.

And rising, he went to the side of the jangada, and looked long and
earnestly at the Ronde Island, with the waves breaking up against
it. Then his hand sought his forehead, as if to rid himself of some
remembrance.

"The frontier!" murmured he, bowing his head by an involuntary movement.

But an instant after his head was raised, and his expression was that of
a man resolved to do his duty to the last.

CHAP