an axe, were from 3 to 5 in. thick; her bottom from 6
in. to 1 ft. thick. The two extremities were solid blocks, so that her
weight--she was carved out of unusually heavy wood--was altogether over
2,000 lb.

When I went down to the water to examine my purchase I found that the
vessel was in a pitiful condition and needed sound repairing before she
could proceed on a long journey. She was sufficiently good for crossing
the stream--that was all she was used for by the seringueiros--but it
would be a different matter to go down rapids for some thousands of
kilometres. It took all the strength of my men, the seringueiros, and
myself combined to pull the canoe out of the water upon the beach and to
turn her over. We worked hard for two days with saws and hammers, knives,
tar and wadding, in order to stop up a gigantic crack which extended from
one end of the canoe to the other under her bottom. Although the crack
did not go right through, I could well imagine that a hard knock against
a rock might be quite sufficient to split the canoe in two. We scraped
her and cleaned her; we overhauled and strengthened her thoroughly; we
cut rough seats inside, and built an elevated deck upon which the baggage
might be comparatively safe from moisture.

We were proud of our work when we launched her. Wiping the dripping
perspiration from our foreheads, necks and arms, we looked just as if we
had come out of a bath, we sweated so in our efforts to push her back
into the water, the heat near the water, screened as it was from the
breeze by the high banks and trees, being suffocating! We gazed at
her--the queen of the Arinos River. She looked lovely in our eyes. On her
stern I fixed the steering gear, a huge paddle 12 ft. long; and upon a
neatly-made staff, which I had cut myself, I hoisted the British flag,
which had hitherto flown over my tent. It was, I think, the first time
the British flag had waved over that river. The canoe was baptized the
"Elfrida," after my sister's name.

It will be remembered that only four men remained with me. Not one of
them had ever been in a canoe before--except to be ferried across a
river, perhaps--not one had the slightest idea of navigation, and it
followed, of course, that not one had ever used a paddle or steered a
canoe.

As the river had never been surveyed, it was my intention to make an
accurate map of its entire course as far as its junction with the Tres
Barras, several thousand kils. away,