over a big flame! Notwithstanding the pain, however, we had an
irresistible and insatiable craving for food.

That day we made a good march of 24 kil.

On September 30th the marching was comparatively easy, through fairly
clean forest, so that we had to use our knife very little in order to
open our way. We crossed a small _campo_ with a good deal of rock upon
it, and as our strength was gradually coming back we struggled along,
covering a distance of 34 kil. between seven o'clock in the morning and
seven in the evening. I was anxious to push on as fast as we possibly
could, notwithstanding the grumblings of my men, for now that we had
abandoned half of our supplies of food I did not want to have, if I could
help it, another experience of starvation.

On October 1st we had more trouble cutting our way through, as we again
found great ferns and palms, especially near streamlets of water, and
quantities of fallen trees, which made us continually deviate from our
direction. The forest was indeed dirty and much entangled in that
section, and thus made our march painful, liane catching my feet and head
all the time, tearing my ears and nose--especially when the man who
walked in front of me let them go suddenly and they swung right in my
face. Thorns dug big grooves into my legs, arms and hands. To make
matters worse, the high fever seemed to exhaust me terribly. Worse luck,
a huge boil, as big as an egg, developed under my left knee, while
another of equal size appeared on my right ankle, already much swollen
and aching. The huge shoes given me by the trader--of the cheapest
manufacture--had already fallen to pieces. I had turned the soles of them
into sandals, held up by numerous bits of string, which cut my toes and
ankles very badly every time I knocked my feet against a tree or stone.
My feet were full of thorns, so numerous that I had not the energy to
remove them. The left leg was absolutely stiff with the big boil, and I
could not bend it.

Limping along, stumbling all the time in intense pain--the boils being
prevented from coming to maturity owing to the constant cold moisture--I
really had as painful a time as one could imagine on those long marches
back.

On October 2nd we had to cut our way through all the time, still marching
due east. We encountered two high hill ranges, which gave us a lot to do
as in our weak condition we proceeded to climb them. We had eaten more
food than we should have done, and the