easy to negotiate by the large boats,
although in one or two cases tow-ropes had to be used by the men who had
landed in order to pull the boats through.

On September 23rd we passed some easy _corrideiras_. I had slept almost
that entire day on the roof of the boat, in the sun. It did me good. Late
in the evening, at about seven o'clock, we arrived at a trader's hut,
called Sao Jose, which was in the charge of a squinting mulatto--a most
peculiar fellow.

On September 24th I stayed at the trader's house, spending the whole day
drying thoroughly in the sun my notebooks and negatives and repacking
them, so that I could leave them at that spot until I could fetch them
again. My idea was to walk from that place across the forest once more
back to our original point of departure near the Tapajoz River, where I
had left the remainder of my party and the main part of my baggage.

A runaway _seringueiro_ was induced to accompany me on that errand, while
another man remained with faithful Filippe in charge of my valuable
possessions. I left with them supplies for three months, which I had
purchased from Pedro Nunes' expedition.

On September 25th I went a short distance farther up the river to its
most south-easterly point. From there, with two men and provisions for
thirty days, bidding goodbye to the men who had saved our lives, we
started, still in a weak and exhausted condition, on our march back to
the men we had left behind.

We only carried food supplies with us. I had left everything else on the
Secundury River. Marching was indeed painful, as I had absolutely no
strength, and was in a high fever. I stumbled along in excruciating pain,
now losing one shoe, now the other, when they caught in some liana. There
were a great many fallen trees in that part of the forest, which gave us
no end of trouble, when, exhausted as Benedicto and I were, we had to
climb over them or else squeeze under.

So great was my anxiety, however, to get back that, notwithstanding the
pain, I marched along, following the new man, who was in good condition.
We went 20 kil. that day.

The forest near the Secundury River was at first overgrown with dense
vegetation, which gave us a good deal of work and extra exertion; but
after that, when we got some distance from the water, the forest was
fairly clean, except of course for the fallen trees. We found troublesome
ravines of great height where streamlets had cut their way through.

In going