The River of Doubt 271 



He had eaten nothing but Brazil-nuts and the grubs of 

 insects. He could no longer walk, but could sit erect 

 and totter feebly for a few feet. Another canoe was 

 built, and in it Pyrineus started down-stream with the 

 eleven fever patients and the starving wanderer. Colonel 

 Rondon kept up the morale of his men by still carrying 

 out the forms of military discipline. The ragged bugler 

 had his bugle. Lieutenant Pyrineus had lost every par^ 

 tide of his clothing except a hat and a pair of drawers. 

 The half-naked lieutenant drew up his eleven fever pa- 

 tients in line ; the bugle sounded ; every one came to atten- 

 tion ; and the haggard colonel read out the orders of the 

 day. Then the dugout with its load of sick men started 

 down-stream, and Rondon, Lyra, Amarante, and the 

 twelve remaining men resumed their weary march. When 

 a fortnight later they finally struck a camp of rubber- 

 gatherers three of the men were literally and entirely 

 naked. Meanwhile Amilcar had ascended the Jacyparana 

 a month or two previously with provisions to meet them; 

 for at that time the maps incorrectly treated this river as 

 larger, instead of smaller, than the Gy-Parana, which 

 they were in fact descending; and Colonel Rondon had 

 supposed that they were going down the former stream. 

 Amilcar returned after himself suffering much hardship 

 and danger. The different parties finally met at the 

 mouth of the Gy-Parana, where it enters the Madeira. 

 The lost man whom they had found seemed on the road 

 to recovery, and they left him at a ranch, on the Madeira, 

 where he could be cared for ; yet after they had left him 

 they heard that he had died. 



On the 12th the men were still hard at work hollow- 



