270 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



ized that the utmost his failing strength could do was to 

 reach the branch. He reached, and clutched it, and then 

 almost lacked strength to haul himself out on the land. 

 Good Trigueiro had faithfully swum alongside him through 

 the rapids, and now himself scrambled ashore. It was a 

 very narrow escape. Kermit was a great comfort and help 

 to me on the trip; but the fear of some fatal accident be- 

 falling him was always a nightmare to me. He was to be 

 married as soon as the trip was over; and it did not seem 

 to me that I could bear to bring bad tidings to his be- 

 trothed and to his mother. 



Simplicio was unmarried. Later we sent to his mother 

 all the money that would have been his had he lived. 

 The following morning we put on one side of the post 

 erected to mark our camping-spot the following inscription, 

 in Portuguese: 



"IN THESE RAPIDS DIED POOR SIMPLICIO." 



On an expedition such as ours death is one of the acci- 

 dents that may at any time occur, and narrow escapes from 

 death are too common to be felt as they would be felt else- 

 where. One mourns sincerely, but mourning cannot inter- 

 fere with labor. We immediately proceeded with the work 

 of the portage. From the head to the tail of this series of 

 rapids the distance was about six hundred yards. A path 

 was cut along the bank, over which the loads were brought. 

 The empty canoes ran the rapids without mishap, each 

 with two skilled paddlers. One of the canoes almost ran 

 into a swimming tapir at the head of the rapids; it went 

 down the rapids, and then climbed out of the river. Ker- 



