ATTEMPTS TO SCALE THE MOUNTAIN 241 



determined to explore this gorge on the following da5\ 

 As far as I could judge, if it were possible to get to the 

 plateau above from this side, our only chance of success 

 was up this opening. Everywhere else Ameha presents 

 an impregnable front that no human being can ever hope 

 to conquer. 



On the morning of the 19th (April), Mateo, Epifanio, 

 and myself ascended the river in a small boat until we 

 got to the mouth of a stream opposite to the chasm we 

 had seen the afternoon before, and which appeared to 

 flow from it. We found on the following day that this 

 stream really did come from the gorge. We were unable 

 to get our boat any distance up the little affluent on 

 account of the quantity of logs lying from bank to bank 

 across it, so we spent the afternoon cutting a track in the 

 direction from which it appears to come. At night I 

 suffered from an attack of fever so violent that in the 

 morning I was unable to accompany the men in their 

 journey to the mountain. When they returned late in 

 the afternoon they told me that they had succeeded in 

 getting to the gorge and had ascended it for some distance. 

 They seemed to think that it would be possible to get 

 to the summit of the mountain by this route. I passed 

 another wretched night, alternately roasting with fever 

 and shivering with ague, and was so unwell on the follow- 

 ing morning that I determined to return to our camp, 

 which we reached at ten o'clock. The men who had 

 remained behind had been occupied on a small dug-out. 

 It had been shaped and hollowed and was ready for firing,^ 

 the final operation in the construction of these canoes. 

 Unfortunately the men had chosen for this work a tree 

 they did not know, with the result that all attempts to 

 open the canoe met with failure, so unyielding was the 



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