looking at things by different
nations, I might as well include the endless arguments I had with my men
in selecting our camps. I naturally always selected the cleanest spots
with a flat ground, so that the tents could be pitched satisfactorily
without extra trouble, where there was little vegetation, and where the
water was good. My men always quarrelled over this, and insisted on
stopping in the filthiest places, either where some trees, rotted away,
had fallen down, where the vegetation on the edge of the river needed
cutting, and where the ground had to be levelled before I could pitch my
camp bed. They always preferred sleeping under the stifling vegetation to
where there was an open space and we had the clear sky over us.

They all slept in hammocks--the favourite resting arrangement of the
Brazilian--to my mind the most uncomfortable and absurd fashion of
resting, especially in tropical regions. First of all, it is almost an
impossibility to assume a perfectly horizontal position for your entire
body, except--if you are an expert--diagonally; then there is always a
certain amount of swing and you are likely to tumble over at any moment;
you can never keep the blankets in position, and you expose your entire
body to the stings of the mosquitoes, flies and other insects, and of the
ants which crawl into your hammock by hundreds from the trees in which
they swarm. It was not uncommon when we camped to hear during the night a
crash, followed immediately after by oaths. The tree to which one of the
hammocks had been fastened had suddenly broken and let the man down with
a bump. Then again, the mischievous ants took the greatest delight during
the night in cutting the strings of the hammocks, and on several
occasions my followers had nasty falls. Yet the Brazilians swear by
hammocks.

Another stream 2 m. wide, coming from the north, entered the Arinos on
the right bank. A number of _ariranhas_, attracted by the vivid red of
the British flag which was flying at the stern of the canoe, followed us
for some time and came courageously to the attack, showing their teeth
fiercely at us and snarling frantically. Entire families of those
delightful little creatures were seen, and they invariably gave us a
similar hearty greeting. They followed us sometimes for hundreds and
hundreds of metres, and became most excited when I took the flag and
waved it at them, and sometimes placed it near the water in order to
drive them frant