the two rivers the Juruena took the
name of Tapajoz River--was very great, although the many rapids there
encountered were mere child's play in comparison with those we had met
with up above. In them, nevertheless, many lives were lost and many
valuable cargoes disappeared for ever yearly. The rubber itself was not
always lost when boats were wrecked, as rubber floats, and some of it was
generally recovered. The expense of a journey up that river was enormous;
it took forty to sixty days from the mouth of the Tapajoz to reach the
_collectoria_ of S. Manoel. Thus, on an average the cost of freight on
each kilo (about 2 lb.) of rubber between those two points alone was not
less than sevenpence or eightpence.

As the River Tapajoz is extremely tortuous and troublesome, I think that
some day, in order to exploit that region fully, it will be found
necessary to cut a road through the forest from S. Manoel to one of the
tributaries of the Madeira, such as the River Secundury-Canuma, from
which the rubber could be taken down to the Amazon in a few days.

From the point of junction of the River Tres Barras or S. Manoel and the
Juruena, the river was fairly well known. It was partly in order to
ascertain whether the project of the road from S. Manoel to the Madeira
were feasible, that I decided to leave the river and cross the forest due
west as far as the Madeira River.

I spent two or three most delightful days enjoying the generous
hospitality of Mr. Barretto. I was able to purchase from him a quantity
of provisions, enough to last us some three months, and consisting of
tinned food, rice, beans, _farinha_, sugar, coffee, and dried meat.

Mr. Barretto kindly arranged to send his assistant, Mr. Julio Nery, and
three Apiacar Indians in order to help me along during the first two or
three days of our journey into the forest.

As I should be travelling on foot from that point across virgin forest,
and we should have to carry whatever baggage we had, it was necessary for
me to abandon all the things which were not of absolute importance, so as
to make the loads as light as possible.

I left behind at S. Manoel a tent, some of my rifles, a quantity of
cartridges, etc., the only articles I took along with me besides
provisions being my cameras, instruments, the photographic plates already
exposed, with some two hundred plates for further work, and the
geological and botanical collections, which by that time had got to be
valu