206 ACROSS NHAMBIQUARA LAND [chap, vii 



a native of Rio Grande do Sul, a blond man who looked 

 like an Englishman — an agreeable companion, and a 

 good and resolute officer, as aU must be who do their 

 work in this wilderness. The Juruena was first followed 

 at the end of the eighteenth century by the Portuguese 

 explorer Franco, and not again until over a hundred 

 years had elapsed, when the Telegraphic Commission 

 not only descended, but for the first time accurately 

 placed and mapped its course. 



There were several houses on the rise of the farther 

 bank, aU with thatched roofs, some of them with walls 

 of upright tree-trunks, some of them daub and wattle. 

 Into one of the latter, with two rooms, we took our 

 belongings. The sand-flies were bothersome at night, 

 coming through the interstices in the ordinary mosquito- 

 nets. The first night they did this I got no sleep until 

 morning, when it was cool enough for me to roU myself 

 in my blanket and put on a head-net. Afterward we 

 used fine nets of a kind of cheese-cloth. They were 

 hot, but they kept out aU, or almost aU, of the sand- 

 flies and other small tormentors. 



Here we overtook the rearmost division of Captain 

 Amilcar's bullock-train. Our own route had diverged, 

 in order to pass the great falls. Captain Amilcar had 

 come direct, overtaking the pack-oxen, which had left 

 Tapirapoan before we did, laden with material for the 

 Duvida trip. He had brought the oxen through in 

 fine shape, losing only three beasts with their loads, and 

 had himseK left the Juruena the morning of the day we 

 reached there. His weakest animals left that evening, 

 to make the march by moonlight ; and as it was desirable 

 to give them thirty- six hours' start, we halted for a day 

 on the banks of the river. It was not a wasted day. 

 In addition to bathing and washing our clothes, the 



