212 ACROSS NHAMBIQUARA LAND [chap, vii 



houses, showing through the driving rain, while the 

 sheets of muddy water slid past their door-sills ; and I 

 felt a sincere respect for the lieutenant and his soldiers 

 who were holding this desolate outpost of civilization. 

 It is an unhealthy spot ; there has been much malarial 

 fever and beriberi — an obscure and deadly disease. 



Next morning we resumed our march. It soon began 

 to rain and we were drenched when, some fifteen nules 

 on, we reached the river where we were to camp. After 

 the great heat we felt quite cold in our wet clothes, and 

 gladly crowded round a fire which was kindled under 

 a thatched shed, beside the cabin of the ferrymen. This 

 ferry-boat was so small that it could only take one mule, 

 or at most two, at a time. The mules and a span of 

 six oxen dragging an ox-cart, which we had overtaken, 

 were ferried slowly to the farther side that afternoon, 

 as there was no feed on the hither bank, where we our- 

 selves camped. The ferryman was a soldier in the 

 employ of the Telegraphic Commission. His good- 

 looking, pleasant-maimered wife, evidently of both 

 Indian and negro blood, was with him, and was doing 

 all she could do as a housekeeper, in the comfortless little 

 cabin, with its primitive bareness of furniture and fittings. 



Here we saw Captain Amilcar, who had come back 

 to hurry up his rear-guard. We stood ankle-deep in 

 mud and water, by the swollen river, whUe the rain beat 

 on us, and enjoyed a few minutes' talk with the cool, 

 competent officer who was doing a difficult job with 

 such workmanlike efficiency. He had no poncho, and 

 was wet through, but was much too busy in getting his 

 laden oxen forward to think of personal discomfort. 

 He had had a good deal of trouble with his mules, but 

 his oxen were still in fair shape. 



After leaving the Juruena the ground became some- 



