ore possessed in their
lives; they were gorging themselves with food such as they had never
dreamt of having in their homes, where they had lived like pariah
dogs--and huge heaps were thrown daily to the dogs--and they were paid a
salary five times higher than they could have possibly earned under
Brazilian employers.

What annoyed me a great deal with these men was the really criminal way
in which they--notwithstanding my instructions--always tried to smash my
cameras and scientific instruments and to injure anything I possessed.
Those men were vandals by nature. The more valuable an object was, the
greater the pleasure they seemed to take in damaging it.

Thus another and unnecessary burden was placed upon me in order to save
my instruments from destruction, not only from natural accidents but
through the infamy of my followers. Those fellows seemed to take no pride
in anything. Even the beautiful and expensive repeating rifles and
automatic pistols I had given each man had been reduced to scrap-iron.
Yet they were so scared of Indians that the first time we met some, they
handed over to them anything that took their fancy--and which belonged to
me, of course--for fear of incurring their ill-favour. During my absence
from camp they even gave away to the Indians a handsome dog I had, which
I never was able to trace again.

Like all people with a dastardly nature, they could on no account speak
the truth--even when it would have been to their advantage. They could
never look you straight in the face. Hence, full of distrust for
everybody, all the responsibility of every kind of work in connection
with the expedition fell upon me. I not only had to do my own scientific
work, but had to supervise in its minutest detail all the work done by
them, and all the time. It was indeed like travelling with a band of
mischievous demented people. The mental strain was considerable for me.

On that day's march we had passed two crosses erected, the Salesians had
told me, on the spot where two men had been murdered by passing
Brazilians--not by Indians. Their usual way of procedure was to shoot
people in the back--never in front--or else when you were asleep. Nearly
all carried a razor on their person--not to shave with, but in order to
cut people's throats as a vengeance, or even under less provocation. This
was usually done in a quick way by severing the artery at the neck while
the person to be killed was asleep.

The Brazilia