TO THE AMAZON AND HOME 327 



ids was a big house and store; and camped at the head 

 were a number of rubber-workers, waiting for the big 

 boats of the head rubber-men to work their way up from 

 below. They were a reckless set of brown daredevils. 

 These men lead hard lives of labor and peril; they con- 

 tinually face death themselves, and they think little of it 

 in connection with others. It is small wonder that they 

 sometimes have difficulties with the tribes of utterly wild 

 Indians with whom they are brought in contact, although 

 there is a strong Indian strain in their own blood. 



The following morning, after the empty canoes had 

 been run down, we started, and made a rather short after- 

 noon's journey. We had to take the baggage by one 

 rapids. We camped in an empty house, in the rain. Next 

 day we ran nearly fifty kilometres, the river making a long 

 sweep to the west. We met half a dozen batelaos making 

 their way up-stream, each with a crew of six or eight men, 

 and two of them with women and children in addition. 

 The crew were using very long poles, with crooks, or rather 

 the stubs of cut branches which served as crooks, at the 

 upper end. With these they hooked into the branches 

 and dragged themselves up along the bank, in addition to 

 poling where the depth permitted it. The river was as 

 big as the Paraguay at Corumba; but, in striking con- 

 trast to the Paraguay, there were few water-birds. We 

 ran some rather stiff rapids, the Infernino, without unload- 

 ing, in the morning. In the evening we landed for the 

 night at a large, open, shed-like house, where there were 

 two or three pigs, the first live stock we had seen other 

 than poultry and ducks. It was a dirty place, but we got 

 some eggs. 



