228 ACROSS NHAMBIQUARA LAND [chap, vii 



grandfather, that Colonel Rondon as an orphan spent 

 the first seven years of his hfe. His father died before 

 he was born, and his mother when he was only a year 

 old. He lived on his grandfather's cattle-ranch, some 

 fifty miles from Cuyaba. Then he went to live in 

 Cuyabd with a kinsman on his father's side, from whom 

 he took the name of Rondon ; his own father's name 

 was Da Silva. He studied in the Cuyaba Government 

 School, and at sixteen was inscribed as one of the 

 instructors. Then he went to Rio, served for a year in 

 the army as an enlisted man in the ranks, and succeeded 

 finally in getting into the military school. After five 

 years as pupil he served three years as professor of 

 mathematics in this school, and then, as a heutenant of 

 engineers in the Brazilian army, he came back to his 

 home in Matto Grosso and began his life-work of 

 exploring the wilderness. 



Next day we journeyed to the telegraph station at 

 Bonafacio, through alternate spells of glaring sunshine 

 and heavy rain. On the way we stopped at an aldea — 

 village — of Nhambiquaras. We first met a couple of 

 men going to hunt, with bows and arrows longer than 

 themselves. A rather comely young woman, carrjdng 

 on her back a wickerwork basket, or creel, supported 

 by a forehead band, and accompanied by a small child, 

 was with them. At the village there were a number of 

 men, women, and children. Although as completely 

 naked as the others we had met, the members of this 

 band were more ornamented with beads, and wore 

 earrings made from the inside of mussel-shells or very 

 big snail-shells. They were more hairy than the ones we 

 had so far met. The women, but not the men, completely 

 remove the hair from their bodies — and look more, in- 

 stead of less, indecent in consequence. The chief, whose 



