THE RIVER OF DOUBT 255 



and in the untrodden, or even in the unfrequented, wilder- 

 ness risk to the canoe is a serious matter. This particular 

 portage at Navai'te Rapids was far from being unusually 

 difficult; yet it not only cost two and a half days of severe 

 and incessant labor, but it cost something in damage to 

 the canoes. One in particular, the one in which I had been 

 journeying, was split in a manner which caused us serious 

 uneasiness as to how long, even after being patched, it 

 would last. Where the canoes were launched, the bank 

 was sheer, and one of the water-logged canoes filled and 

 went to the bottom; and there was more work in raising it. 



We were still wholly unable to tell where we were going 

 or what lay ahead of us. Round the camp-fire, after sup- 

 per, we held endless discussions and hazarded all kinds of 

 guesses on both subjects. The river might bend sharply 

 to the west and enter the Gy-Parana high up or low down, 

 or go north to the Madeira, or bend eastward and enter 

 the Tapajos, or fall into the Canuma and finally through 

 one of its mouths enter the Amazon direct. Lyra inclined 

 to the first, and Colonel Rondon to the second, of these 

 propositions. We did not know whether we had one hun- 

 dred or eight hundred kilometres to go, whether the stream 

 would be fairly smooth or whether we would encounter 

 waterfalls, or rapids, or even some big marsh or lake. 

 We could not tell whether or not we would meet hostile 

 Indians, although no one of us ever. went ten yards from 

 camp without his rifle. We had no idea how much time 

 the trip would take. We had entered a land of unknown 

 possibilities. 



We started down-stream again early in the afternoon 

 of March 5. Our hands and faces were swollen from the 



