River. The height of
the spur on which we were was 1,350 ft. above the sea level.

We had come in a great circle on the upper edge. A trail could be seen
crossing the great undulating valley below us. It passed at the western
terminus of the spur we were on. Evidently that was the trail connecting
Diamantino with Cuyaba (the capital of Matto Grosso) via Rosario. The
sight of a trail was most exhilarating to my men. Suddenly and quite
unexpectedly we came upon a few wretched, tumble-down houses--if one may
call them so--smothered in vegetation which grew everywhere. My animals
themselves seemed astonished at the unusual sight. The horses neighed and
the mules brayed loudly. Masonry work perhaps suggested to them more
substantial meals. Down a precipitous ravine, over large boulders and
stumbling into big holes, into which the mules disappeared for a few
seconds at a time ... there was the main street of Diamantino.

The village--the local people called it "a city"--was the very picture of
misery, yet to us it seemed as if we had dropped into the middle of
London or Paris. There were a few resident traders, two or three
Brazilians, two Italians, and a Turk. All were most hospitable and kind.
The chief industry of the place was rubber, which found its way to the
coast via the Paraguay River.

Formerly Diamantino was a flourishing place because diamonds were found
in abundance. Even now they can be found along the river, but the
difficulty of access, even by the easiest way, and the great expense of
living there have gradually depopulated the place, which was quite in an
abandoned state when I was there.

Here are some of the minimum prices which the rubber collectors had to
pay for articles of necessity: Beans, 1_s._ 6_d._ to 2_s._ per litre,[1]
or about 4_s._ a pound; rice, 2_s._ per litre; flour, 1_s._ 4_d._ per
litre, about 4_s._ a pound; sugar, 5_s._ per kilo (2 pounds), rapadura,
or sugar block, 4_s._ per small cake; tobacco, 5_s._ per metre of twist;
salt, 2_s._ 8_d._ to 3_s._ per litre; coffee, 6_s._ 6_d._ per kilo; lard,
6_s._ 6_d._ per kilo; purified lard in tins, 16_s._ to 20_s._ per 2
kilos. Bars of the commonest laundry soap, 4_s._ each bar; chickens
10_s._ to 15_s._ each; eggs, 10_s._ to 12_s._ a dozen; small tins or
sardines (containing five sardines) of the most inferior kind, 10_s._ to
15_s._ a tin; a one-pound tin of the commonest French salt butter, 15_s._

A genial banquet was offered me on my arriv