250 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



went in the smallest of the good canoes ; Colonel Rondon 

 and Lyra with three other paddlers in the next largest; 

 and the doctor, Cherrie, and I in the largest with three 

 paddlers. The remaining eight camaradas — ^there were 

 sixteen in all — were equally divided between our two 

 pairs of lashed canoes. Although our personal baggage 

 was cut down to the limit necessary for health and effi- 

 ciency, yet on such a trip as ours, where scientific work 

 has to be done and where food for twenty-two men for 

 an unknown period of time has to be carried, it is impos- 

 sible not to take a good deal of stuff ; and the seven dug- 

 outs were too heavily laden. 



The paddlers were a strapping set. They were ex- 

 pert river-men and men of the forest, skilled veterans 

 in wilderness work. They were lithe as panthers and 

 brawny as bears. They swam like water-dogs. They 

 were equally at home with pole and paddle, with axe and 

 machete ; and one was a good cook and others were good 

 men around camp. They looked like pirates in the pic- 

 tures of Howard Pyle or Maxfield Parrish; one or fwo 

 of them were pirates, and one worse than a pirate; but 

 most of them were hard-working, willing, and cheerful. 

 They were white, — or, rather, the olive of southern 

 Europe, — ^black, copper-colored, and of all intermediate 

 shades. In my canoe Luiz the steersman, the headman, 

 was a Matto Grosso negro ; Julio the bowsman was from 

 Bahia and of pure Portuguese blood ; and the third man, 

 Antonio, was a Parecis Indian. 



The actual surveying of the river was done by Colonel 

 Rondon and Lyra, with Kermit as their assistant. Kermit 

 went first in his little canoe with the sighting-rod, on 



