THE RIVER OF DOUBT 273 



row-head was in him, and near by was a strange stick used 

 in the very primitive method of fishing of all these Indians. 

 Antonio recognized its purpose. The Indians, who were 

 apparently two or three in number, had fled. Some beads 

 and trinkets were left on the spot to show that we were 

 not angry and were friendly. 



Meanwhile Cherrie stayed at the head and I at the 

 foot of the portage as guards. Luiz and Antonio Correa 

 brought down one canoe safely. The next was the new 

 canoe, which was very large and heavy, being made of 

 wood that would not float. In the rapids the rope broke, 

 and the canoe was lost, Luiz being nearly drowned. 



It was a very bad thing to lose the canoe, but it was 

 even worse to lose the rope and pulleys. This meant that 

 it would be physically impossible to hoist big canoes up 

 even small hills or rocky hillocks, such as had been so fre- 

 quent beside the many rapids we had encountered. It was 

 not wise to spend the four days necessary to build new 

 canoes where we were, in danger of attack from the Indians. 

 Moreover, new rapids might be very near, in which case 

 the new canoes would hamper us. Yet the four remain- 

 ing canoes would not carry all the loads and all the men, 

 no matter how we cut the loads down; and we intended to 

 cut everything down at once. We had been gone eighteen 

 days. We had used over a third of our food. We had 

 gone only 125 kilometres, and it was probable that we had 

 at least five times, perhaps six or seven times, this distance 

 still to go. We had taken a fortnight to descend rapids 

 amounting in the aggregate to less than seventy yards of 

 fall; a very few yards of fall makes a dangerous rapid 

 when the river is swollen and swift and there are obstruc- 



