unlike otters--raised their heads
above water, and, hissing loudly, frequently came to attack the canoe.
They were extraordinarily brave. They were greatly attracted by the vivid
red of the British flag, which in their imagination suggested blood. They
became wildly excited when I waved the flag at them, and when I placed it
near the water they would charge the canoe--so much so that two or three
times my men were able to kill them by striking them on the head with the
heavy wooden paddles.

The river was at its lowest when I descended it, which made it all the
more difficult for us, as we were treated to innumerable small rapids
which would otherwise have been entirely covered over with water. A great
island (80 m. long) of pebbles and beautiful crystals was passed in the
centre of the stream, which there formed two channels; one entirely
blocked by fallen trees and accumulated rolling material, the other, 40
m. wide, very deep and swift.

The banks of the river were about 20 ft. high, generally of red earth,
with a stratum of white sand above. The vegetation was luxuriant and
extraordinarily tidy along the summit of the banks. The water was quite
crystal-like, it was so clear. All the time our nostrils were fully
expanded to inhale the delicious scent of the forest, which closely
resembled that of jessamine. Masses of violet-coloured convolvuli were
festooned from the trees. That was a great treat for me, after the months
I had gone through when my entire days were spent eating up dust raised
in clouds by the troop of animals marching in front of me.

When you came to survey a river it was really amazing what zigzags water
could make in cutting its way through a country. From north-west the
Arinos veered south-west, and from south-west to north-east.

By one o'clock we were in a spacious basin, 200 m. in diameter, close to
which a small tributary, 2 m. wide, entered the Arinos on the left bank.
Farther down on the right bank were neat beaches of white and red sand.
We stopped for a few moments at a seringueiro's shed. The poor fellow--a
negro--was in a pitiable condition from malarial fever.

Those martyrs of labour were much to be pitied, and also admired. There,
hundreds of miles away from everybody, they stayed, abandoned in the
forest until the agents of their masters who had dropped them there found
it convenient to come and fetch them back again. If they came back at all
and never failed, it was not, you ca