242 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



themselves. We were all armed. We took no cartridges 

 for sport. Cherrie had some to be used sparingly for col- 

 lecting specimens. The others were to be used — unless in 

 the unlikely event of having to repel an attack — only to 

 procure food. The food and the arms we carried repre- 

 sented all reasonable precautions against suffering and 

 starvation; but, of course, if the course of the river proved 

 very long and difficult, if we lost our boats over falls or in 

 rapids, or had to make too many and too long portages, 

 or were brought to a halt by impassable swamps, then 

 we would have to reckon with starvation as a possibility. 

 Anything might happen. We were about to go into the 

 unknown, and no one could say what it held. 



