Down an Unknown River 311 



some of the insect bites had become festering wounds, as 

 indeed was the case with all of us. Poisonous ants, 

 biting flies, ticks, wasps, bees were a perpetual torment. 

 However, no one had yet been bitten by a venomous ser- 

 pent, a scorpion, or a centiped, although we had killed all 

 of the three within camp limits. 



Under such conditions whatever is evil in men's natures 

 comes to the front. On this day a strange and terrible 

 tragedy occurred. One of the camaradas, a man of pure 

 European blood, was the man named Julio, of whom I 

 have already spoken. He was a very powerful fellow 

 and had been importunately eager to come on the expedi- 

 tion ; and he had the reputation of being a good worker. 

 But, like so many men of higher standing, he had had no 

 idea of what such an expedition really meant, and under 

 the strain of toil, hardship, and danger his nature showed 

 its true depths of selfishness, cowardice, and ferocity. 

 He shirkfed all work. He shammed sickness. Nothing 

 could make him do his share; and yet unlike his self- 

 respecting fellows he was always shamelessly begging for 

 favors. Kermit was the only one of our party who 

 smoked; and he was continually giving a little tobacco 

 to some of the camaradas, who worked especially well 

 under him. The good men did not ask for it ; but Julio, 

 who shirked every labor, was always, and always in vain, 

 demanding it. Colonel Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit each 

 tried to get work out of him, and in order to do anything 

 with him had to threaten to leave him in the wilderness. 

 He threw all his tasks on his comrades; and, moreover, 

 he stole their food as well as ours. On such an expedi- 

 tion the theft of food comes next to murder as a crime, 



