culty. One or two of the
children wore necklaces and bracelets made of the polished wood of the
tucum palm, and of the molars of small rodents.

Next day's march led us across a hilly country of good pastureland.
The valleys were densely wooded, palms of several kinds being
conspicuous among the other trees; and the brooks at the bottoms we
crossed at fords or by the usual rude pole bridges. On the open
pastures were occasional trees, usually slender bacaba palms, with
heads which the winds had dishevelled until they looked like mops. It
was evidently a fine natural cattle country, and we soon began to see
scores, perhaps hundreds, of the cattle belonging to the government
ranch at Tres Burity, which we reached in the early afternoon. It is
beautifully situated: the view roundabout is lovely, and certainly the
land will prove healthy when settlements have been definitely
established. Here we revelled in abundance of good fresh milk and
eggs; and for dinner we had chicken canja and fat beef roasted on big
wooden spits; and we even had watermelons. The latter were from seeds
brought down by the American engineers who built the Madeira Marmore
Railroad--a work which stands honorably distinguished among the many
great and useful works done in the development of the tropics of
recent years.

Amilcar's pack-oxen, which were nearly worn out, had been left in
these fertile pastures. Most of the fresh oxen which he took in their
places were unbroken, and there was a perfect circus before they were
packed and marched off; in every direction, said the gleeful
narrators, there were bucking oxen and loads strewed on the ground.
This cattle ranch is managed by the colonel's uncle, his mother's
brother, a hale old man of seventy, white-haired but as active and
vigorous as ever; with a fine, kindly, intelligent face. His name is
Miguel Evangalista. He is a native of Matto Grosso, of practically
pure Indian blood, and was dressed in the ordinary costume of the
Caboclo--hat, shirt, trousers, and no shoes or stockings. Within the
last year he had killed three jaguars, which had been living on the
mules; as long as they could get mules they did not at this station
molest the cattle.

It was with this uncle's father, Colonel Rondon's own grandfather,
that Colonel Rondon as an orphan spent the first seven years of his
life. His father died before he was born, and his mother when he was
only a year old. He lived on his grandfather's cattl