270 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



hazard to life and health. Two of them had been with 

 Colonel Rondon during his eight months' exploration in 

 1909, at which time his men were regulars, from his own 

 battalion of engineers. His four aides during the closing 

 months of this trip were Lieutenants Lyra, Amarante, 

 Alencarliense, and Pyrineus. The naturalist Miranda 

 Ribeiro also accompanied him. 'This was the year when, 

 marching on foot through an absolutely unknown wilder- 

 ness, the colonel and his party finally reached the Gy- 

 Parana, which on the maps was then (and on most maps 

 is now) placed in an utterly wrong course, and over a 

 degree out of its real position. When they reached the 

 affluents of the Gy-Parana a third of the members of the 

 party were so weak with fever that they could hardly 

 crawl. They had no baggage. Their clothes were in 

 tatters, and some of the men were almost naked. For 

 months they had had na food except what little game they 

 shot, and especially the wild fruits and nuts; if it had not 

 been for the great abundance of the Brazil-nuts they 

 would all have died. At the first big stream they encoun- 

 tered they built a canoe, and Alencarliense took command 

 of it and descended to map the course of the river. With 

 him went Ribeiro, the doctor Tanageira, who could no 

 longer walk on account of the ulceration of one foot, 

 three men whom the fever had rendered unable longer to 

 walk, and six men who were as yet well enough to handle 

 the canoe. By the time the remainder of the party came 

 to the next navigable river eleven more fever-stricken 

 men had nearly reached the end of their tether. Here 

 they ran across a poor devil who had for four months' 

 been lost in the forest and was dying of slow starvation. 



