eedily of the food offered them, they had with
them a big mandioc cake, some honey, and a little fish. One of them
wore a high helmet of puma-skin, with the tail hanging down his back--
handsome head-gear, which he gladly bartered for several strings of
bright coral-red beads. Around the upper arms of two of them were
bands bound so tightly as to cut into and deform the muscles--a
singular custom, seemingly not only purposeless but mischievous, which
is common among this tribe and many others.

The Nhambiquaras are a numerous tribe, covering a large region. But
they have no general organization. Each group of families acts for
itself. Half a dozen years previously they had been very hostile, and
Colonel Rondon had to guard his camp and exercise every precaution to
guarantee his safety, while at the same time successfully endeavoring
to avoid the necessity of himself shedding blood. Now they are, for
the most part, friendly. But there are groups or individuals that are
not. Several soldiers have been killed at these little lonely
stations; and while in some cases the attack may have been due to the
soldiers having meddled with Nhambiquara women, in other cases the
killing was entirely wanton and unprovoked. Sooner or later these
criminals or outlaws will have to be brought to justice; it will not
do to let their crimes go unpunished. Twice soldiers have deserted and
fled to the Nhambiquaras. The runaways were well received, were given
wives, and adopted into the tribe.

The country when opened will be a healthy abode for white settlers.
But pioneering in the wilderness is grim work for both man and beast.
Continually, as we journeyed onward, under the pitiless glare of the
sun or through blinding torrents of rain, we passed desolate little
graves by the roadside. They marked the last resting places of men who
had died by fever, or dysentery, or Nhambiquara arrows. We raised our
hats as our mules plodded slowly by through the sand. On each grave
was a frail wooden cross, and this and the paling round about were
already stained by the weather as gray as the tree trunks of the
stunted forest that stretched endlessly on every side.

The skeletons of mules and oxen were frequent along the road. Now and
then we came across a mule or ox which had been abandoned by Captain
Amilcar's party, ahead of us. The animal had been left with the hope
that when night came it would follow along the trail to water.
Sometimes it did so. So