254 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



In mid-afternoon we came to the mouth of a big and 

 swift affluent entering from the right. It was undoubt- 

 edly the Bandeira, which we had crossed well toward 

 its head, some ten days before, on our road to Bono- 

 facio. The Nharabiquaras had then told Colonel Rondon 

 that it flowed into the Diivida. After its junction, with 

 the added volume of water, the river widened without 

 losing its depth. It was so high that It had overflowed 

 and stood among the trees on the lower levels. Only the 

 higher stretches were dry. On the sheer banks where 

 we landed we had to push the canoes for yards or rods 

 through the branches of the submerged trees, hacking 

 and hewing. There were occasional bays and ox-bows 

 from which the current had shifted. In these the coarse 

 marsh grass grew tall. 



This evening we made camp on a flat of dry ground, 

 densely wooded, of course, directly on the edge of the 

 river and five feet above it. It was fine to see the speed 

 and sinewy ease with which the choppers cleared an open 

 space for the tents. Next morning, when we bathed 

 before sunrise, we dived into deep water right from the 

 shore, and from the moored canoes. This second day 

 we made sixteen and a half kilometres along the course 

 of the river, and nine kilometres in a straight line almost 

 due north. 



The following day, March 1, there was much rain- 

 sometimes showers, sometimes vertical sheets of water. 

 Our course was somewhat west of north and we made 

 twenty and a half kilometres. We passed signs of Indian 

 habitation. There were abandoned palm-leaf shelters on 

 both banks. On the left bank we came to two or three 



