annel, 50 m.
wide, was reached, along the 250 m. length of which we proceeded with
great caution. Then a big basin spread out before us, where the current
and eddies were terrific. The bottom of the river was mostly rocky, with
great holes and depressions which caused the water to rotate in all
directions. In some places amidst the foaming waters could be seen great
circles of leaden-looking water, as still as oil. It was in a similar
place in the Niagara whirlpool that the famous swimmer, Captain Webb,
disappeared for ever. We saw thousands of those places on the Arinos.

The line of the banks on both sides was extremely rocky. In front of us
we had a hill with extensive campos on its northerly slope. Then we came
to the next rapid. We had endless trouble in this rapid, followed by a
second one, practically a continuation of the first.

For 1,000 m. the navigation was extremely dangerous. We unloaded and
reloaded the canoe dozens of times that day, although the work of taking
the baggage over on our heads was not so troublesome now, as we had very
little baggage left. But if we had not much, it was still the heaviest
cases which remained. All together they weighed between five and six
hundred pounds. The river ran beside a range of hills on the left side.

When we halted, exhausted, late at night we had travelled that day the
meagre distance of 9,900 m.

My men killed two large spider monkeys, which supplied them with a meal.
I could not touch them, as the monkeys looked too human for words. It
made me positively ill to see one of my men biting with great gusto at an
arm and hand which had been roasted on the flames, and which looked
exactly like a portion of a human corpse. The smell, too, of the roasted
monkeys was similar to the odour of roasted human beings--which I knew
well, as I had on several previous occasions been at rough cremations of
people in Japan, in the Himahlya (or Himalayas), and in Africa.

CHAPTER XIV

In the Hands of Providence--A Mutiny--Another
Mutiny--Foodless--Hard and Dangerous Work--A Near Approach to
Hades--Making an Artificial Channel among Thousands of
Boulders--An Awe-inspiring Scene--The Fall of S. Simao--A Revolt

WE all slept soundly that night, I taking good care to fasten the canoe
well, so that we should not find her gone next morning.

We had a minimum temperature of 63 deg. F. on the night of August 8th.

In the morning my men killed another b