go on wherever I ordered them to go. They said that I certainly must have
a guardian angel watching over me, and they were sure that as long as
they were in my company they would never die of starvation.

"I have never seen anything like it!" exclaimed the man X, who was the
humorist of the party. "We want food and cannot get it, and there _el
senhor_ strolls a few yards away from us and a huge fish jumps almost
into his arms in order to be eaten."

I never cared to let them know of my own surprise at the extraordinary
occurrence.

I was rather pleased that day, because my men, in an outburst of
friendliness, said they knew that if ever we did die of starvation it
would not be my fault, because had they been careful we would still have
had three or four months' supply of provisions left. They themselves
said how foolish they had been; the provisions we carried had only lasted
us thirty days. Nearly three weeks before I had warned Alcides to
economize, and the result was that, instead of sorting out food twice a
day to the men, he sorted it out four times a day and in double
quantities.

[Illustration: Distant View showing Both Falls at the Salto Augusto.]

[Illustration: Launching the Canoe after its Journey over a Hill Range.]

That day we were really in great luck. We had the good fortune to find a
_bacopari_ tree simply laden with delicious yellow fruit, not unlike
unripe cherries, and we absolutely feasted on them.

To show how unpractical my men were, it is sufficient to tell that,
unlike any other human beings on the face of the globe when under a
fruit-tree, they did not proceed to shake the cherries down by throwing
sticks or by climbing up the tree. No, indeed; but they cut down the huge
tree, which required about an hour and a half of very hard work. Anyhow,
we got the cherries, and that was the principal thing.

We continued our journey over a small rapid with a low hill range
spreading from west to east on the left bank. The river here was 300 m.
wide. A hill range from 100 to 200 ft. high was also to be seen on the
right bank, running parallel with that on the left. Five or six
kilometres farther another high range of a gorgeous cobalt-blue colour
and extending from south-west to north-east, stood in front of us. The
river in that stretch was most beautiful, and was 900 m. wide. A charming
little island 300 m. long was reflected in the water, which looked as
still as oil in that particular part, a