om that
pestilential place. But they would not listen to reason, and there they
would stay.

Although I had offered them every possible inducement to come on--their
original high pay had been practically trebled as long as the hard work
should last--and I had treated them with the greatest consideration, yet
they refused to come any farther. They said they had decided to go back.

In examining my loads I found that they had abandoned my sextant and
other instruments in the forest, and it was only after a great deal of
talking that I could induce the man X to go back with me to recover them,
for which service he received an immediate present of one pound sterling.

As luck would have it, that evening my men shot a plump _jaho_
(_Crypturus notivagus_) and a large _mutum_ (_Crax pinima_), two enormous
birds, most excellent to eat.

[Illustration: Apiacar Women.]

[Illustration: Apiacar Women.]

That camp was stifling, the moisture being excessive, and the miasma
rising from the putrid water poisoning my men in a disastrous way. The
drinking-water, too, from that swamp was full of germs of all sizes, so
big that with the naked eye you could see hundreds of them in your cup.
We could not boil the water because all our matches had got wet. We
wasted hundreds of them in trying to light a fire, but with no
success. Flint and steel also proved useless, because the wood was also
soaking wet and would not ignite.

August 31st was a painful day for me. Two of the men were badly laid up
with fever, the others were most obnoxious. I had endless trouble in
making them take up their loads and start once more. The man X said he
would take the load which contained my instruments, but he would
certainly leave it, as soon as he had an opportunity, concealed in a spot
where it could not be found again. I told him in plain words that if he
carried out his intention I would shoot him dead, and I would from that
moment do the same to any other man who rebelled. I was surprised to find
that the lot of them took their loads upon their shoulders and proceeded
to march along as quietly as possible.

The Brazilian forest was--unlike the equatorial forest of
Africa--comparatively clean underneath, there being very little
undergrowth. It was quite easy to cut one's way through if one knew how.
There was a great art in cutting one's way through the forest. If you
happened to know the way trees grew or liane were suspended, it was easy
enough