ntities of blood besides. I must have been unconscious many hours,
after which I slept soundly till the sun was well up in the sky, when I
found myself resting on the ground with a pool of blood by my side. Poor
Filippe and Benedicto were also in a bad way.

On the front of that hut on a piece of board was written "El Paraiso"
(Paradise), the name of that place. It was not exactly my idea of Heaven.

Our first meals were worse than no meals at all. We felt in such a plight
that we lay helpless upon the floor of the hut, quite unable to move, so
exhausted were we. In turning my head around I discovered ten large
demijohns, some 21/2 ft. high and about 2 ft. in diameter, of thick green
glass. They were the usual demijohns--_garaffons_, as they are
called--used all over Brazil for "fire-water." I at once conceived the
idea of using them as floats in the construction of a raft.

My men grinned contemptuously at the idea when I mentioned it to them.
They said that all was over. It was no use trying to get away. The
Almighty wanted us to die, and we must only lie there and await our end,
which was not far off. Benedicto struggled to his knees and prayed to the
Almighty and the Virgin, sobbing bitterly all the time.

I struggled up on my feet and proceeded to carry the big vessels to the
river bank, where I intended to construct the raft. The effort to take
each heavy bottle those few metres seemed almost beyond me in my
exhausted state. At last I proceeded to strip the floor of the hut, which
had been made with split _assahy_ palms (_Euterpe oleracea_ L.), in order
that I might make a frame to which I could fasten the bottles. With a
great deal of persuasion I got Filippe and Benedicto to help me. The long
pieces of _assahy_ were too heavy for our purpose, and we had the
additional trouble of splitting each piece into four. It was most trying
work in our worn-out condition. Then we had to go into the forest and
collect some small liane, so that we could tie the pieces together, as we
had no nails and no rope.

On September 20th, again without food--for we had eaten up all the fruit
the previous day--we worked from morning till night in building the raft.
Unfortunately, Benedicto stumbled against one of the bottles, which was
on the edge of the river; it rolled down the steep bank and floated
quickly down stream, and we saw it disappear, unable to go and recover
it. So only nine bottles were left.

[Illustration: Raft con