THE RIVER OF DOUBT 263 



rections to hunt. Lyra killed a jacu for us, and Kermit 

 killed two monkeys for the men. Toward nightfall it 

 cleared. The moon was nearly full, and the foaming river 

 gleamed like silver. 



Our men were "regional volunteers," that is, they had 

 enlisted in the service of the Telegraphic Commission es- 

 pecially to do this wilderness work, and were highly paid, 

 as was fitting, in view of the toil, hardship, and hazard to 

 life and health. Two of them had been with Colonel 

 Rondon during his eight months' exploration in 1909, at 

 which time his men were regulars, from his own battalion 

 of engineers. His four aides during the closing months of 

 this trip were Lieutenants Lyra, Amarante, Alencarliense, 

 and Pyrineus. The naturalist Miranda Ribeiro also ac- 

 companied him. This was the year when, marching on 

 foot through an absolutely unknown wilderness, the colo- 

 nel and his party finally reached the Gy-Parana, which 

 on the maps was then (and on most maps is now) placed 

 in an utterly wrong course, and over a degree out of its 

 real position. When they reached the affluents of the 

 Gy-Parana a third of the members of the party were so 

 weak with fever that they could hardly crawl. They had 

 no baggage. Their clothes were in tatters, and some of 

 the men were almost naked. For months they had had 

 no food except what little game they shot, and especially the 

 wild fruits and nuts; if it had not been for the great abun- 

 dance of the Brazil-nuts they would all have died. At the 

 first big stream they encountered they built a canoe, and 

 Alencarliense took command of it and descended to map the 

 course of the river. With him went Ribeiro, the doctor 

 Tanageira, who could no longer walk on account of the 



