TROPICAL RIVER TRAVEL 151 



unglazed windows, and the big rooms were utterly bare — 

 not a book, not an ornament. A palm, loaded with scores 

 of the pendulous nests of the troupials, stood near the 

 door. Behind were orange-trees and cofFee-plants, and 

 near by fields of bananas, rice, and tobacco. The sallow 

 foreman was courteous and hospitable. His dark-skinned 

 women-folk kept in the furtive background. Like most 

 of the ranches, it was owned by a company with head- 

 quarters at Caceres. 



The trip was pleasant and interesting, although there 

 was not much to do on the boat. It was too crowded 

 to move around save with a definite purpose. We 

 enjoyed the scenery ; we talked — in English, Portu- 

 guese, bad French, and broken German. Some of us 

 wrote. Fiala made sketches of improved tents, ham- 

 mocks, and other field equipment, suggested by what 

 he had already seen. Some of us read books. Colonel 

 Rondon, neat, trim, alert, and soldierly, studied a 

 standard work on applied geographical astronomy. 

 Father Zahm read a novel by Fogazzaro. Kermit read 

 Camoens and a couple of Brazihan novels, " O Guarani " 

 and" Innocencia." My own reading varied from " Quentin 

 Durward " and Gibbon to the " Chanson de Roland." 

 Miller took out his httle pet owl Moses, from the 

 basket in which Moses dwelt, and gave him food and 

 water. Moses crooned and chuckled gratefully when 

 he was stroked and tickled. 



Late the first evening we moored to the bank by a 

 little fazenda of the poorer type. The houses were of 

 palm-leaves. Even the walls were made of the huge 

 fronds or leafy branches of the wawasa palm, stuck 

 upright in the ground, and the blades plaited together. 

 Some of us went ashore. Some stayed on the boats. 

 There were no mosquitoes, the weather was not 



