HARDSHIPS OF PIONEERS 253 



unknown wilderness, the Colonel and his party finally- 

 reached the Gy-Parana, which, on the maps was then 

 (and on most maps is now) placed in an utterly wrong 

 course, and over a degree out of its real position. When 

 they reached the affluents of the Gy-Parana a third of 

 the members of the party were so weak with fever that 

 they could hardly crawl. They had no baggage. Their 

 clothes were in tatters, and some of the men were 

 almost naked. For months they had had no food 

 except what little game they shot, and especially the 

 wild fruits and nuts ; if it had not been for the great 

 abundance of the Brazil-nuts they would all have died. 

 At the first big stream they encountered they built a 

 canoe, and Alencarliense took command of it, and de- 

 scended to map the course of the river. With him 

 went Ribeiro, the doctor Tanageira, who could no 

 longer walk on account of the ulceration of one foot, 

 three men whom the fever had rendered unable longer 

 to walk, and six men who were as yet well enough to 

 handle the canoe. By the time the remainder of the 

 party came to the next navigable river eleven more 

 fever-stricken men had nearly reached the end of their 

 tether. Here they ran across a poor devil who had 

 for four months been lost in the forest, and was djdng 

 of slow starvation. He had eaten nothing but Brazil- 

 nuts and the grubs of insects. He could no longer 

 walk, but could sit erect and totter feebly for a few 

 feet. Another canoe was built, and in it Pyrineus started 

 down-stream with the eleven fever patients and the 

 starving wanderer. Colonel Rondon kept up the morale 

 of his men by still carrying out the forms of military 

 discipline. The ragged bugler had his bugle. Lieu- 

 tenant Pyrineus had lost every particle of his clothing 

 except a hat and a pair of drawers. The half-naked 



