342 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



canoes, and, borne swiftly on the rapid current, we passed 

 over one set of not very important rapids and ran down 

 to Senhor Caripe's little hamlet of Sao Joao, whith we 

 reached about one o'clock on April 27, just before a heavy 

 afternoon rain set in. We had run nearly eight hundred 

 kilometres during the sixty days we had spent in the 

 canoes. Here we found and boarded Pyrineus's river 

 steamer, which seemed in our eyes extremely comfortable. 

 In the senhor's pleasant house we were greeted by the 

 senhora, and they were both more than thoughtful and 

 generous in their hospitality. Ahead of us lay merely 

 thirty-six hours by steamer to Manaos. Such a trip as 

 that we had taken tries men as if by fire. Cherrie had 

 more than stood every test ; and in him Kermit and I had 

 come to recognize a friend with whom our friendship 

 would never falter or grow less. 



Early the following afternoon our whole party, to- 

 gether with Senhor Caripe, started on the steamer. It 

 took us a little over twelve hours' swift steaming to run 

 down to the mouth of the river on the upper course of 

 which our progress had been so slow and painful ; from 

 source to mouth, according to our itinerary and to Lyra's 

 calculations, the course of the stream down which we had 

 thus come was about 1,500 kilometres in length — about 

 900 miles, perhaps nearly 1,000 miles — from its source 

 near the 13th degree in the highlands to its mouth in the 

 Madeira, near the Sth degree. Next morning we were 

 on the broad sluggish current of the lower Madeira, a 

 beautiful tropical river. There were heavy rain-storms, 

 as usual, although this is supposed to be the very end of 

 the rainy season. In the afternoon we finally entered the 



