Chap. IV. RETURN TO EGA. 255 



Daniel could distinguish all kinds of animals in the dark 

 by their footsteps. It now began to thunder, and our po- 

 sition was getting very uncomfortable. Daniel had not 

 seen anything of the other Indians, and thought it was 

 useless waiting any longer for Tracajas; we therefore 

 sent him to call in the whole party, and made off, our- 

 selves, as quickly as we could for the canoe. The rest 

 of the night was passed most miserably ; as indeed were 

 very many of my nights on the Solimoens. A furious 

 squall burst upon us ; the wind blew away the cloths 

 and mats we had fixed up at the ends of the arched 

 awning of the canoe to shelter ourselves, and the rain 

 beat right through our sleeping-place. There we lay, 

 Cardozo and I, huddled together and wet through, wait- 

 ing for the morning. 



A cup of strong and hot coffee put us to rights at 

 sunrise ; but the rain was still coming down, having 

 changed to a steady drizzle. Our men were all returned 

 from the pool, having taken only four Tracajas. The 

 business which had brought Cardozo hither being now 

 finished, we set out to return to Ega, leaving the senti- 

 nels once more to their solitude on the sands. Our 

 return route was by the rarely frequented north-easterly 

 channel of the Solimoens, through which flows part of 

 the waters of its great tributary stream, the Japura. We 

 travelled for five hours along the desolate, broken, tim- 

 ber-strewn shore of Baria. The channel is of immense 

 breadth, the opposite coast being visible only as a long, 

 low line of forest. At three o'clock in the afternoon we 

 doubled the upper end of the island, and then crossed 

 towards the mouth of the Teffe' by a broad transverse 



