on the surface. By that time the raft was almost
altogether submerged. When they took us on board, and a portion of the
raft came to the surface again, the amusement of those crews was intense.

I explained who we were. The strangers could not do enough for us. In a
moment they unloaded the baggage from our craft and put it on board their
boats. They halted near the right bank, and on hearing of our pitiful
plight immediately proceeded to cook a meal for us.

The people belonged to the rubber-collecting expedition of a trader named
Dom Pedro Nunes, who went only once every year with a fleet of boats up
to the headwaters of that river in order to bring back rubber. The
expedition--the only one that ever went up that river at all--took eight
or ten months on the journey there and back. It was really an amazing bit
of luck that we should owe our salvation to meeting that expedition in an
almost miraculous way, brought about by an extraordinary series of
fortunate coincidences.

Had we not constructed that raft--had we not been on board at that
moment--we should have missed the expedition and certainly should have
died. Had we been following the bank of the river on foot, we never could
have seen the boats nor heard them, as the banks were extremely high, and
it was never possible to keep close to the stream when marching in the
forest; we always had to keep some hundred metres or so from the water in
order to avoid the thick vegetation on the edge of the stream. In fact,
Benedicto, who was walking in the forest along the stream, had gone past
the boats and had neither heard nor seen them. When we shouted out to him
he was already a long distance off, a boat sent out to him by Dom Pedro
Nunes having to travel nearly 800 m. before it could get up to him and
bring him back.

The trader and his men treated us with tender care. We were practically
naked when they met us, my attire consisting of the leather belt with the
bags of money round my waist, and a small portion of the sleeveless coat,
all torn to pieces. Dom Pedro Nunes immediately gave me some clothes,
while his men gave garments to Filippe and Benedicto.

Several men rushed about collecting wood, and in a moment a large flame
was blazing. The sight of proper food brought back our appetites as by
magic. Our ravenous eyes gazed on several big pieces of _anta_ (_Tapirus
americanus_) meat, through which a stick had been passed, being broiled
over the flame. We three s