d. These remarks do not apply to wild animals in
captivity.

On September 10th--that was the seventh day of our involuntary fast--we
had another dreary march, again without a morsel of food. My men were so
downhearted that I really thought they would not last much longer. Hunger
was playing on them in a curious way. They said that they could hear
voices all round them and people firing rifles. I could hear nothing at
all. I well knew that their minds were beginning to go, and that it was a
pure hallucination. Benedicto and Filippe, who originally were both
atheists of an advanced type, had now become extremely religious, and
were muttering fervent prayers all the time. They made a vow that if we
escaped alive they would each give L5 sterling out of their pay to have a
big mass celebrated in the first church they saw.

They spoke in a disconnected way, and looked about in a dazed condition,
alternating hysterical laughter with abundant tears. After Filippe's
tobacco had come to an end he had become most dejected, all the time
wishing to commit suicide.

"What is the use of more suffering?" he exclaimed fifty times a day. "Let
me die quickly, as I can stand the pain no more!" Then all of a sudden
his eyes would shine, he would prick up his ears, crying: "We are near
people!--we are near people! I can hear voices! Let us fire three shots"
(the signal all over Central Brazil of an approaching stranger or of
help required), "so that people can come to our assistance!"

That was much easier said than done, because none of our cartridges would
go off. We had one box of matches left. We had taken several boxes of
them, but Filippe had used them all in lighting his cigarettes, and we
had only one left, which I guarded with much care. To please my men we
lighted a big fire, and in it we placed a number of cartridges so that
they should explode. In fact some of them actually did explode, and my
men strained their ears in order to discover responding sounds. But no
sounds came, although they imagined they could hear all kinds of noises.

At this place I abandoned the few cartridges we had, as they were
absolutely useless. They were Mauser cartridges which I had bought in Rio
de Janeiro, and it is quite possible that they were counterfeits.

Taking things all round, my men behaved very well, but these were moments
of the greatest anxiety for me, and I myself was praying fervently to God
to get us out of that difficulty. My stre