S74 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



he could not steer, so ' the Pirate ' took his place, and 

 we put him in a reclining position in the bottom of the 

 boat. We were in an exceedingly difficult part of the 

 river to navigate and twice we shipped water. Maite, 

 who was singing catches of Indian songs and laughing 

 wildly, was unable to direct ' the Pirate,' as he had become 

 quite incoherent in his answers. I knew, however, that 

 above all things it was necessary to avoid the channels on 

 the right, which rush towards the big fall. After a while 

 our old Indian guide ceased singing and laughing, and we 

 thought that he had fallen asleep. All the time the rain 

 poured on us in such torrents that the boat had to be 

 baled out every quarter of an hour. At noon we reached 

 one of the most intricate parts of the Caura, where the 

 river spreads into a perfect network of channels before 

 ■dividing to form the island over which is the portage. 

 We went astray several times, but at last we reached the 

 ledge of rock beyond which there is only one channel on 

 the left. It was then we found out that Maite was dead. 

 The whole of the afternoon was spent in dragging the 

 boat across the rock, the men being so weak that they had 

 to lie down from time to time. It was sunset when we 

 reached our old camping-place of March 18. I shot a 

 courlan ^ with the Winchester rifle — one of two that had 

 alighted on the rocks at some distance from us. It was 

 boiled and divided up, and was the only bit of food we had 

 tasted for seventy-two hours, with the exception of yester- 

 day's pauji. The men said that it was too late to bury 

 Maite, and that they were moreover too tired to dig a 

 grave. 



May 17. — The men scooped out a shallow pit in the 

 sand and placed the corpse of our old Indian guide in it, 



' Aramus scolopacctia. 



