262 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



low down, or go north to the Madeira, or bend eastward 

 and enter the Tapajos, or fall into the Canuma and finally 

 through one of its mouths enter the Amazon direct. Lyra 

 inclined to the first, and Colonel Rondon to the second, 

 of these propositions. We did not know whether we had 

 one hundred or eight hundred kilometres to go, whether 

 the stream would be fairly smooth or whether we would 

 encounter waterfalls, or rapids, or even some big marsh 

 or lake. We could not tell whether or not we would 

 meet hostile Indians, although no one of us ever went 

 ten yards from camp without his rifle. We had no idea 

 how much time the trip would take. We had entered a 

 land of unknown possibilities. 



We started down-stream again early in the afternoon 

 of March 5. Our hands and faces were swollen from 

 the bites and stings of the insect pests at the sand-flat 

 camp, and it was a pleasure once more to be in the middle 

 of the river, where they did not come, in any numbers, 

 while we were in motion. The current was swift, but 

 the river was so deep that there were no serious obstruc- 

 tions. Twice we went down over slight rifiies, which in 

 the dry season were doubtless rapids ; and once we struck 

 a spot where many whirlpools marked the presence under- 

 neath of bowlders which would have been above water 

 had not the river been so swollen by the rains. The dis- 

 tance we covered in a day going down-stream would have 

 taken us a week if we had been going up. The course 

 wound hither and thither, sometimes in sigmoid curves; 

 but the general direction was east of north. As usual, 

 it was very beautiful ; and we never could tell what might 

 appear around any curve. In the forest that rose on 



