188 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



ried their personal belongings and the tools with which 

 they could repair a break. The commission pays the or- 

 dinary Indian worker 66 cents a day; a very good worker 

 gets $1, and the chief ^i.66. No man gets anything unless 

 he works. Colonel Rondon, by just, kindly, and under- 

 standing treatment of these Indians, who previously had 

 often been exploited and maltreated by rubber-gatherers, 

 has made them the loyal friends of the government. He 

 has gathered them at the telegraph stations, where they 

 cultivate fields of mandioc, beans, potatoes, maize, and 

 other vegetables, and where he is introducing them to stock- 

 raising; and the entire work of guarding and patrolling 

 the line is theirs. 



After six hours' march we came to the crossing of the 

 Rio Sacre at the beautiful waterfall appropriately called 

 the Salto Bello. This is the end of the automobile road. 

 Here there is a small Parecis village. The men of the vil- 

 lage work the ferry by which everything is taken across 

 the deep and rapid river. The ferry-boat is made of plank- 

 ing placed on three dugout canoes, and runs on a trolley. 

 Before crossing we enjoyed a good swim in the swift, clear, 

 cool water. The Indian village, where we camped, is 

 placed on a jutting tongue of land round which the river 

 sweeps just before it leaps from the overhanging precipice. 

 The falls themselves are very lovely. Just above them is 

 a wooded island, but the river joins again before it races 

 forward for the final plunge. There is a sheer drop of 

 forty or fifty yards, with a breadth two or three times as 

 great; and the volume of water is large. On the left or 

 hither bank a cliff extends for several hundred yards below 

 the falls. Green vines have flung themselves down over 



