anoe down a Dangerous Channel.

(Photographed a few seconds before the rope snapped and canoe escaped.)]

"I prefer to die," said he, and proceeded to moan and groan, and also to
dictate the name and address of his sweetheart in Araguary for me to
pay to her the money which belonged to him.

In a way I was sorry to see my men suffering so much. I was already
thinking of how I could get out of that difficult dilemma. If they had
all died it would have been out of the question for me to work the huge
canoe alone going down such dangerous rapids.

Some four hours were spent in deepest reflection, a little distance off
from my men. I had done my best, and I could do no more for them. I
returned every little while to see how they were progressing, but for the
first three hours they were in so pitiful a condition that I really
thought they could not possibly recover.

When Alcides was almost unconscious I applied to him also the remedy I
had used for the other men.

It was only after some five hours or so that Filippe the negro began to
feel a little better. Gradually one after another the men, half-dazed,
were able to get up, swaying about as if badly intoxicated. They said
they saw all the things in front of them moving up and down. Evidently
the poison had affected their vision and also their hearing, as they said
they could only hear me faintly when I spoke to them.

Late in the evening I persuaded them to get once more into the canoe, as
it was not possible to camp on those rocks. We floated down--fortunately
for us the river was placid for some 15 kil., and we let the current do
most of the work--I steering while all my men lay flat in the bottom of
the canoe. We passed along two or three beautiful islands with quantities
of rubber upon them.

My men felt very bad the entire night, but by the next morning they were
a little better, although in a most exhausted condition. We had a minimum
temperature of 72 deg. F. during the night of August 17th.

We had some luck that evening, for we came to the hut of a _seringueiro_,
a negro, and his wife, who had cut down a portion of the forest near
their hut and cultivated some _mandioca_. Their amazement at seeing us
appear was curious to watch, especially when they looked at our
canoe--held together with pieces of rope and stopped up with pieces of
our garments.

Those poor people, stranded there without a possibility of getting away,
were extremely kind. My men heard