rock, and among quantities of debris of marble, crystals, and eruptive
pebbles.

During the night we had a magnificent lunar display. There was a good
deal of moisture in the air, and mist. First of all a gorgeous lunar halo
was observed, which later vanished to leave room for a most extraordinary
geometrical design upon the partly moon-illuminated clouds and masses of
mist. A most perfect luminous equilateral triangle appeared, with its
apex downwards to the west and the half-moon in the central point of the
base-line of the triangle above. On either side of the apex of the
triangle faint concentric circles blended away into the sky near the
horizon. Later in the night that curious effect disappeared and a
multiple lunar rainbow of amazing beauty and perfection was to be
admired.

In ecstasy at the beautiful sight, and in a moment of forgetfulness, I
drew the attention of my men to the wonderful spectacle.

"That's the moon!" they answered, with a snarl. Talking among themselves,
they contemptuously added: "_He_ has never seen the moon before!" and
they went on with the never-changing, blood-curdling tales of murders
which filled them nightly with delight.

The streamlet flowing south, on the bank of which we camped, took its
name of Sapatinho from the many _sapatinho_ trees which were in the
neighbourhood. It was a curious watercourse, which disappeared into a
tunnel in the rock, to reappear only farther off out of a hole in a red
lava-flow.

We had marched until late into the night, and it was not until we arrived
and made camp that I noticed that Filippe the negro was missing. Several
hours elapsed, and as he had not turned up I feared that something had
happened to him. Had he been one of the other men I should have thought
it a case of desertion; but Filippe was a good fellow, and I had from the
beginning felt that he and Alcides would be the two faithful men on that
expedition. I went back alone a mile or two in the moonlight to try and
find him, but with no success.

At sunrise I ordered two men to go in search of him. The fellows--who had
no mercy whatever even for one another--were loth to go back to look for
their companion and his mount. When they eventually started they took a
pick each to dig his grave in case they found him dead. Fortunately they
had only been gone from camp a few minutes when I perceived Filippe
riding down the steep incline.

The minimum temperature was only 55 deg. Fahr. during