UP THE RIVER OF TAPIRS 147 



Rondon's hardest trip, every man of the party had from 

 one to five grubs deposited in him, the fly acting with 

 great speed, and driving its ovipositor through clothing. 

 The grubs cause torture; but a couple of cross cuts with 

 a lancet permit the loathsome creatures to be squeezed out. 



In these forests the multitude of insects that bite, sting, 

 devour, and prey upon other creatures, often with accompa- 

 niments of atrocious suffering, passes belief. The very pa- 

 thetic myth of "beneficent nature" could not deceive even 

 the least wise being if he once saw for himself the iron 

 cruelty of life in the tropics. Of course "nature" — in 

 common parlance a wholly inaccurate term, by the way, 

 especially when used as if to express a single entity — is en- 

 tirely ruthless, no less so as regards types than as regards 

 individuals, and entirely indifferent to good or evil, and 

 works out her ends or no ends with utter disregard of pain 

 and woe. 



The following morning at sunrise we started again. 

 This time only Colonel Rondon and I went with Benedetto 

 and Antonio the Indian. We brought along four dogs 

 which it was fondly hoped might chase the cashadas. 

 Two of them disappeared on the track of a tapir and we 

 saw them no more; one of the others promptly fled when 

 we came across the tracks of our game, and would not 

 even venture after them in our company; the remaining 

 one did not actually run away and occasionally gave tongue, 

 but could not be persuaded to advance unless there was a 

 man ahead of him. However, Colonel Rondon, Benedetto, 

 and Antonio formed a trio of hunters who could do fairly 

 well without dogs. 



After four hours of riding, Benedetto, who was in the 



