310 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



camaradas who were too weak to help the others, their 

 condition being such as to cause us serious concern. 



However, the hills gradually sank into a level plain, 

 and the river carried us through it at a rate that enabled 

 us during the remainder of the day to reel off thirty-six 

 kilometres, a record that for the first time held out promise. 

 Twice tapirs swam the river while we passed, but not near 

 my canoe. However, the previous evening Cherrie had 

 killed two monkeys and Kermit one, and we all had a few 

 mouthfuls of fresh meat; we had already had a good soup 

 made out of a turtle Kermit had caught. We had to port- 

 age by one short set of rapids, the unloaded canoes being 

 brought down without difficulty. At last, at four in the 

 afternoon, we came to the mouth of a big river running in 

 from the right. We thought it was probably the Ananas, 

 but, of course, could not be certain. It was less in volume 

 than the one we had descended, but nearly as broad; its 

 breadth at this point being ninety-five yards as against 

 one hundred and twenty for the larger river. There were 

 rapids ahead, immediately after the junction, which took 

 place in latitude io° 58' south. We had come 216 kilo- 

 metres all told, and were nearly north of where we had 

 started. We camped on the poin«t of land between the 

 two rivers. It was extraordinary to realize that here 

 about the eleventh degree we were on such a big river, 

 utterly unknown to the cartographers and not indicated 

 by even a hint on any map. We named this big tributary 

 Rio Cardozo, after a gallant officer of the commission who 

 had died of beriberi just as our expedition began. We spent 

 a day at this spot, determining our exact position by the 

 sun, and afterward by the stars, and sending on two men to 



