f the rapids; they are terrible.... Be careful
because the canoe does not steer true.... Do not let the canoe knock too
hard against rocks, or she may split in two!... Good-bye!... good-bye!"

With those encouraging remarks from the seringueiros, who were sobbing
bitterly, we drifted with the current, Antonio and Filippe the negro
paddling in the style generally adopted for scooping soup with a spoon
out of a dish.

I had provided the canoe with a number of improvised paddles we had cut
ourselves. There were no two of equal size, shape, or weight. We had
chopped them with an axe from sections of a tree. They were originally
all intended to be the same, but what we intended to have and what we got
were two different matters, as the five of us each worked on a separate
paddle.

The seringueiros stood on the high bank, waving their arms in the air.
One of them blew plaintive sounds on one of the horns used by them for
calling their companions while in the forest. Those horns could be heard
enormous distances. Filippe the white man, who was not paddling, fired
back a salute of ten shots. There was nothing my men loved more than to
waste ammunition. Fortunately we had plenty.

The average width of the river was there from 80 to 100 metres, with a
fairly swift current. It was lucky that ours was the only boat on that
river, for indeed we needed all that breadth of water in our snake-like
navigation. I remonstrated with Alcides, who was at the helm, and advised
him to keep the nose of the canoe straight ahead, as we were coming to a
_corrideira_ or small rapid.

Alcides, who could never be told anything, became enraged at my words of
warning, and also at the derision of the other men, as we were drifting
side on and he could not straighten her course. Just as we were entering
the rapid, in his fury Alcides, in disgust, let go the steering-gear,
which he said was useless. We were seized by the current and swung round
with some violence, dashing along, scraping the bottom of the canoe on
rocks, and bumping now on one side, now on the other, until eventually we
were dashed violently over a lot of submerged trees, where the bank had
been eroded by the current and there had been a landslide. The canoe
nearly capsized, the three dogs and some top baggage being thrown out
into the water by the impact. We got stuck so hard among the branches of
the trees that we all had to remove our lower garments and get into the
water trying t