ndertook to do this for me with the
help of a well-known Colonel, one of the most revered men in the city.

"There is only one boat on the Araguaya," said the Presidente to me. "You
cannot build a raft, as all the woods in these regions are too heavy and
not one will float. You must hire that boat or nothing."

[Illustration: View of Goyaz City from Sta. Barbara.]

[Illustration: Author's Men packing Animals.]

The honoured Colonel his friend also impressed that point well upon me.
"Only that boat or nothing." They also added that they had arranged for
me to hire that boat for four days, and it would only cost me L500
sterling. My distinguished friends had taken ten days to arrange that
bargain. It took me ten seconds to disarrange it all. All the more as
I had heard that a German traveller, Dr. Krause, had the previous year
gone down the Araguaya River, where he had done excellent research work,
and had also travelled up the tributary Tapirapez, crossing over nearly
as far as the Xingu River. He had found in that region no Indians and the
country of little interest. Furthermore, on my arrival in Goyaz capital I
learnt that a Brazilian Government expedition, under the leadership of
Dr. Pimentel, had already been in Goyaz some six months trying to start
on a journey down the Araguaya, and, if possible, also to go up the
Tapirapez and other tributaries of that great stream. Moreover, the
Araguaya was perhaps, after the Madeira, one of the best known southern
tributaries of the Amazon. As we have already seen, during the time of
Dom Pedro, the Emperor, there was even steam navigation almost all along
the course of the upper Araguaya as far as Leopoldina, the port for Goyaz
capital. Several Englishmen and Germans and very many Brazilians had
travelled on that river, where even military posts had at one time been
established at intervals on its banks.

So that, rather than be imposed upon and travel for hundreds of
kilometres in so well-known a region, I decided slightly to alter my
route in order to cover ground that was newer and infinitely more
interesting and important.

The Presidente's friend, the highly revered Colonel, had also undertaken
to purchase a number of horses and mules for me. "The people of Goyaz,"
said he, "are terrible thieves; they will swindle you if you buy them
yourself. I will purchase them for you and you will then pay me back the
money. By to-morrow morning," he had stated, "I shall have all