ACROSS NHAMBIQUARA LAND 241 



days to the Gy-Parana, and then descend it, and continue 

 down the Madeira to Manaos. Rondon, Lyra, the doctor, 

 Cherrie, Kermit, and I, with sixteen paddlers, in seven ca- 

 noes, were to descend the Duvida, and find out whether it 

 led into the Gy-Parana, into the Madeira, or into the Ta- 

 pajos. If within a few days it led into the Gy-Parana, 

 our purpose was to return and descend the Ananas, whose 

 outlet was also unknown. Having this in view, we left a 

 fortnight's provisions for our party of six at Bonofacio. 

 We took with us provisions for about fifty days; not full 

 rations, for we hoped in part to live on the country — on 

 fish, game, nuts, and palm-tops. Our personal baggage 

 was already well cut down: Cherrie, Kermit, and I took 

 the naturalist's fly to sleep under, and a very light little 

 tent extra for any one who might fall sick. Rondon, Lyra, 

 and the doctor took one of their own tents. The things 

 that we carried were necessities — food, medicines, bedding, 

 instruments for determining the altitude and longitude and 

 latitude — except a few books, each in small compass : Lyra's 

 were in German, consisting of two tiny volumes of Goethe 

 and Schiller; Kermit's were in Portuguese; mine, all in 

 English, included the last two volumes of Gibbon, the plays 

 of Sophocles, More's "Utopia," Marcus Aurelius, and 

 Epictetus, the two latter lent me by a friend. Major 

 Shipton of the regulars, our military attache at Buenos 

 Aires. 



If our canoe voyage was prosperous we would gradually 

 lighten the loads by eating the provisions. If we met with 

 accidents, such as losing canoes and men in the rapids, or 

 losing men in encounters with Indians, or if we encountered 

 overmuch fever and dysentery, the loads would lighten 



