278 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



The men, who had been dejected and sullen, were now in 

 despair. They refused to try to get the pulleys to work, 

 but retiring in a body to some distance from where I was 

 lying they sat close to each other, evidently concocting 

 some plan. It was almost night when Jacobson, who 

 had lagged behind, crawled into camp. Villegente did 

 not turn up. At about midnight my boy Freddy woke 

 me and whispered that he had overheard the Venezuelans 

 arranging to steal away at dawn, with the idea of aban- 

 doning us and walking to the settlement at Mura. I 

 immediately went over to where they were sitting, for 

 they had not gone to sleep, taking my rifle with me as 

 a precaution, I reproached them for their ingratitude 

 and cowardice, and then pointed out to them the utter 

 impracticability of trying to get to Mura through the 

 forest. After a good deal of talking I left them, satisfied 

 that they would not attempt to walk to Mm'a. 



May 20. — As it was a question of life and death to us 

 that something should be done with the pulleys, and as 

 the men did not know how to take them to pieces, I set 

 about trying to get them into worldng condition myself. 

 I succeeded in knocking the pin out and separating the 

 wheels from the blocks, but it took me fully an hour to 

 do this, as I was so weak that I had to stop repeatedly so 

 as to lie down and rest. At this part of the proceedings 

 the men got interested, and they willingly helped to scrape 

 the wheels and the inner sides of the blocks. By eleven 

 o'clock the hauling gear was in beautiful working order, 

 and the men, as hopeful and enthusiastic as they had been 

 dejected a few hours before, scrambled up the hill to make 

 a first attempt at getting the boat down. A fortuitous 

 coincidence had helped to buoy their spirits up. The 

 river had fallen during the night some three feet, so that 



