ight line from our camp to 10 deg.
b.m., we perceived a headland with a hill upon it 200 ft. high. We had
been greatly troubled in the afternoon for the last two days by heavy
showers of rain and gusts of a north-westerly wind. Once or twice we got
entangled in channels among the many islands, and had to retrace our
course, but we went on until late in the evening, my men believing firmly
that we had now reached civilization again and that the journey would be
over in a few days. I did not care to disillusion them.

Late at night we camped on a magnificent beach, 1,000 m. long, at the end
of Araujo Island, 1,200 m. in length.

We had gone that day, August 19th, 46 kil. 500 m.

My men hung their hammocks on the edge of the forest. That camp was
extremely damp and unhealthy. When we woke up the next morning all my
followers were attacked by fever and were shivering with cold.

We left at 7.30 a.m. under a limpid sky of gorgeous cobalt blue. We
passed two islands--one 700 m. long (Leda Island), the other 2,000 m.
(Leander Island). When we had gone but 11,500 m. we arrived at one of the
most beautiful bits of river scenery I have ever gazed upon--the spot
where the immense S. Manoel River or Tres Barras or Paranatinga met the
Arinos-Juruena. The latter river at that spot described a sharp turn
from 20 deg. b.m. to 320 deg. b.m. We perceived a range of hills before us to the
north. Close to the bank gradually appeared a large shed with a clearing
near it on a high headland some 200 ft. above the level of the river
where the stream turned. On the left bank, before we arrived at the
meeting-place of those two giant streams, we found a tributary, the
Bararati, 30 m. broad.

The S. Manoel River showed in its centre an elongated island stretching
in an E.N.E. direction. Where the Arinos-Juruena met the S. Manoel it was
1,000 m. wide, the S. Manoel being 800 m. wide at the point of junction.

No sooner had we turned to 320 deg. b.m. than we perceived on our left the
_collectoria_ of S. Manoel, with two or three neat buildings. Several
astonished people rushed down to the water as they saw the canoe
approaching. When I landed the Brazilian official in charge of that place
and his assistants embraced me tenderly and took me inside their house.
When I told them how we had come down the river, tears streamed down
their cheeks, so horrified were they.

"Did you come in that log of wood?" said the collector, pointing to my
canoe.