216 ACROSS NHAMBIQUARA LAND [chap, vii 



Rondon had to guard his camp and exercise every pre- 

 caution to guarantee his safety, whUe at the same time 

 successfully endeavouring to avoid the necessity of him- 

 self shedding blood. Now they are, for the most part, 

 friendly. But there are groups or individuals that are 

 not. Several soldiers have been killed at these little 

 lonely stations ; and while in some cases the attack may 

 have been due to the soldiers' having meddled with 

 Nhambiquara women, in other cases the kUMng was 

 entirely wanton and unprovoked. Sooner or later these 

 criminals or outlaws wiU have to be brought to justice ; 

 it win not do to let their crimes go unpunished. Twice 

 soldiers have deserted and fled to the Nhambiquaras. 

 The runaways were well received, were given wives, and 

 adopted into the tribe. 



The country, when opened, will be a healthy abode 

 for white settlers. But pioneering in the wilderness is 

 grim work for both man and beast. Continually, as we 

 journeyed onward, under the pitiless glare of the sun or 

 through blinding torrents of rain, we passed desolate 

 little graves by the roadside. They marked the last 

 resting-places of men who had died by fever, or dysentery, 

 or Nhambiquara arrows. We raised our hats as our 

 mules plodded slowly by through the sand. On each 

 grave was a frail wooden cross, and this and the 

 paling round about were already stained by the weather 

 as grey as the tree-trunks of the stunted forest that 

 stretched endlessly on every side. 



The skeletons of mules and oxen were frequent along 

 the road. Now and then we came across a mule or ox 

 which had been abandoned by Captain Amilcar's party, 

 ahead of us. The animal had been left with the hope 

 that when night came it would foUow along the trail to 

 water. Sometimes it did so. Sometimes we found it 



