ur entire days without eating anything at all, I
thought it was high time to open the valuable tin of anchovies--the only
one in our possession. We had a terrible disappointment when I opened the
tin. I had purchased it in S. Manoel from Mr. Barretto. To our great
distress we discovered that instead of food it contained merely some salt
and a piece of slate. This was a great blow to us. The box was a
Brazilian counterfeit of a tin of anchovies. How disheartening to
discover the fraud at so inopportune a moment! I had reserved the tin
until the last as I did not like the look of it from the outside. We kept
the salt--which was of the coarsest description.

On September 8th we were slightly more fortunate, as the country was
flatter. I was steering a course of 290 deg. b.m. (N.W.). I found that
farther south we would have encountered too mountainous a country.

We crossed several streamlets, the largest 3 m. wide, all of which flowed
south. We had no particular adventure that day, and considering all
things, we marched fairly well--some 20 kil. Towards the evening we
camped on a hill. When we got there we were so exhausted that we made our
camp on the summit, although there was no water near.

On September 9th, after marching for half an hour we arrived at a stream
15 m. wide, which I took at first to be the river Secundury, a tributary
of the Madeira River. Near the banks of that stream we found indications
that human beings had visited that spot--perhaps the Indians we had heard
so much about. The marks we found, however, were, I estimated, about one
year old. Although these signs should have given us a little courage to
go on, we were so famished and exhausted that my men sat down on the
river bank and would not proceed. By that time we had got accustomed even
to the fierce bites of the ants. We had no more strength to defend
ourselves. In vain we strained our eyes all the time in search of wild
fruit. In the river we saw plenty of fish; we had a fishing-line with us,
but no bait whatever that we could use. There are, of course, no worms
underground where ants are so numerous. We could not make snares in the
river, as it was much too deep. So we sat with covetous eyes, watching
the fish go by. It was most tantalising, and made us ten times more
hungry than ever to be so near food and not be able to get it.

It is curious how hunger works on your brain. I am not at all a glutton,
and never think of food under ordinary