me to a streamlet also flowing
north, which had made the soil extremely swampy. We had endless trouble
in getting across, the animals sinking and sticking in the black mud up
to their necks. One of the mules--more reckless than the others--actually
disappeared, baggage and all, while madly struggling to extricate itself
from the sucking slush and mud. It took all our efforts combined to save
that animal. By the time we had all got across, men, animals, and baggage
were a sight worth looking at--all filthy, absolutely smothered in black
mud.

We rose upon yet another dome, and then descended to the Rio Manso or Rio
das Mortes, the head-waters of which were not far from there, to the
south-west, in the Serra da Chapada. The river was there only 15 metres
wide, but too deep and rapid for the animals to ford, so we had to follow
its bank in order to find a suitable spot. The River das Mortes flowed,
roughly, first in an easterly then in a north-easterly direction, and
soon, swollen by innumerable streams, became the most powerful tributary
of the Araguaya River, which it met almost opposite the centre of the
great island of Bananal. In fact, one might almost consider the
head-waters of the Rio das Mortes as the secondary sources of the great
Araguaya. The Rio das Mortes flowed, at the particular spot where we met
it, due north, along the edge of the great dome. The elevation of the top
edge was 2,470 ft.

We camped that night on the Riberao do Boi, a swift torrent tributary of
the Rio das Mortes (elev. 2,250 ft.), having marched 30 kil. that day.
The cold was relatively severe during the night--the thermometer
registering a minimum of 48 deg. Fahr.

We were travelling entirely by prismatic compass. My men--who had no
faith whatever in what they called the _agulha_ (compass)--swore that we
were going to sure perdition.

"How can that _agulha_," said they, "possibly tell you where we can find
beans (_feijao_), lard (_toucinho_), and sugar bricks (_rapadura_)?" "It
is the invention of some madman!" said one. "It will bring us to our
death," sadly reflected another. "If I had only known that we should be
entrusting our lives all the time to that _agulha_," murmured a third,
pointing contemptuously to the compass, "I should have never come. Oh, my
poor mother and wife! And my dear little daughter six months old! Oh,
shall I ever see them again ... shall I ever see them again?" Here
followed a stream of bitter tears, wiped wi