CHAPTER VII 



WITH A MULE TRAIN ACROSS 

 NHAMBIQUARA LAND 



FROM this point we were to enter a still wilder 

 region, the land of the naked Nhambiquaras. On 

 February 3 the weather cleared and we started 

 with the mule-train and two ox-carts. Fiala and Lieu- 

 tenant Lauriado stayed at Utiarity to take canoes and 

 go down the Papagaio, which had not been descended 

 by any scientific party, and perhaps by no one. They 

 were then to descend the Juruena and Tapajos, thereby 

 performing a necessary part of the work of the expedi- 

 tion. Our remaining party consisted of Colonel Rondon, 

 Lieutenant Lyra, the doctor, Oliveira, Cherrie, Miller, 

 Kermit, and myself. On the Juruena we expected to 

 meet the pack ox-train with Captain Amilcar and Lieu- 

 tenant Mello; the other Brazilian members of the party 

 had returned. We had now begun the difficult part of the 

 expedition. The pium flies were becoming a pest. There 

 was much fever and beriberi in the country we were 

 entering. The feed for the animals was poor ; the rains 

 had made the trails slippery and difficult ; and many, both 

 of the mules and the oxen, were already weak, and some 

 had to be abandoned. We left the canoe, the motor, and 

 the gasolene; we had hoped to try them on the Ama- 



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