the body to settle upon. Where an animal had a sore
it would soon be swarming with carrapatos near its edge. It would then
putrefy, and maggots in hundreds would be produced inside the wound
almost within a few hours.

There was, near by, an old _moradoria_, a large patch of _muricy_ trees
(_Byrsonima_), of which various species exist. These were not unlike
small olive trees and produced a small sweet fruit quite good to eat.

We went for 22 kil. through a forest with beautiful fan palms over 30 ft.
high. There was no animal life. We crossed three streamlets, the country
between being undulating. Between the last two streams we came across
rock showing through the alluvial deposits. It was an interesting
conglomerate of minute crystals cemented together by hardened clay, the
whole forming large blocks.

More trouble was in store for us. One of my mules was seriously injured.
Its spine was so badly strained that it was quite disabled for further
work. My cook, who had a slight attack of indigestion, wished to be left
there to die, and declined to proceed any farther. With true Brazilian
reasoning he wished, nevertheless, to be paid off before dying. With true
English reasoning I explained to him that money would be of little use to
him in the next world. If he really intended to die I would certainly not
pay him, but his wages would naturally go on while he was alive,
continued the journey, and did the cooking. He quickly returned to life,
and to his senses.

Really, in the entire experiences of my travels I have never come across
more pitiable specimens of manhood than those fellows. They absolutely
gave me a sickly feeling that I never lost while they were with me, for
many many months to come. The animals, too, were almost as bad as the
men. They had little endurance, they had no courage, everything seemed to
affect them. The worst Abyssinian mule, for instance, was, for equal
work, vastly superior to the best Goyaz mule. It was a useless task to
try and train those animals. On my many previous expeditions I had been
able to win the affection of my animals, and was able to train them in a
few days so that they obeyed with the perfection of soldiers, but in
Brazil, the last day I had them--after several months that they had been
with me--they were just as disobedient and stupid as on the first day. In
fact, they never even seemed to recognize us again. They had learnt
absolutely nothing, except bad habits. Everythi