ra River with the river Canuma, which river
actually has its proper mouth about half-way between Itaquatiara and
Santarem, at a place called Parintins. By way of the connecting channel
the two rivers were only a short distance apart, but that channel was not
always navigable. The steam launch, which drew little water, would have
difficulty in going through, even at that time, when the water was fairly
high.

[Illustration: On the Andes.]

[Illustration: A Street of Tarma.]

We therefore thought we would stay for the night at the mouth of the
channel, and start on our journey by that difficult passage in broad
daylight the next day. There was a house on the right-hand side of the
mouth of the channel. While we made preparations to make ourselves
comfortable for the night on the launch, the pilot went up to the house
in order to get an expert at that place to take us through the dangerous
channel.

I was just in the middle of my dinner when the pilot sent down a message
for me to go up to the house at once, as my presence was required
immediately. I struggled up the steep incline, not knowing what was up.
Much to my amazement, on reaching the house, I saw before me my man
Filippe the negro, who rushed at me and embraced me tenderly, and the
other man I had left with him in charge of the baggage. The two men had
been picked up by a boat two days up the river Canuma, where I had left
them with my baggage, and they had come down expecting to meet me in
Manaos. They had got stranded at that place, and although they had hailed
one or two steamers which had gone down the river, no one had paid any
attention to them, and there they had remained.

"Have you saved the photographs and the baggage, Filippe?" I immediately
asked, when I had made certain that both men were in good condition.

"Yes," said Filippe. "I have everything with me. I have taken the
greatest care of everything."

That was for me a happy moment, after all the vicissitudes we had had of
late. The most important part of my baggage was saved. I had taken all my
men back alive--if perhaps not very much alive--after so fateful an
expedition. I felt happy beyond words.

The man who owned the house was the trader who had taken Filippe and the
other man down the river in his boat, so I gave him a present of money
and also a lot of provisions which I had on board and which we should not
now need any more, as we should return at once to Manaos.

[Illustration: