CHAPTER V 



UP THE RIVER OF TAPIRS 



AFTER leaving Caceres we went up the Sepotuba, 

 which in the local Indian dialect means River 

 of Tapirs. This river is only navigable for 

 boats of size when the water is high. It is a swift, fairly 

 clear stream, rushing down from the Plan Alto, the high 

 uplands, through the tropical lowland forest. On the 

 right hand, or western bank, and here and there on the 

 left bank, the forest is broken by natural pastures and 

 meadows, and at one of these places, known as Porto 

 Campo, sixty or seventy miles above the mouth, there 

 is a good-sized cattle-ranch. Here we halted, because 

 the launch, and the two pranchas — ^native trading-boats 

 with houses on their decks — which it towed, could not 

 carry our entire party and outfit. Accordingly most of 

 the baggage and some of the party were sent ahead to 

 where we were to meet our pack-train, at Tapirapoan. 

 Meanwhile the rest of us made our first camp under tents 

 at Porto Campo, to wait the return of the boats. The 

 tents were placed in a line, with the tent of Colonel Ron- 

 don and the tent in which Kermit and I slept, in the 

 middle, beside one another. In front of these two, on 

 tall poles, stood the Brazilian and American flags; and 

 at sunrise and sunset the flags were hoisted and hauled 



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