254 THE RIVER OF DOUBT [chap, viii 



lieutenant drew up his eleven fever patients in line ; the 

 bugle sounded ; everyone came to attention ; and the 

 haggard Colonel read out the orders of the day. Then 

 the dugout, with its load of sick men, started down- 

 stream, and Rondon, Lyra, Amarante, and the twelve 

 remaining men resumed their weary march. When, a 

 fortnight later, they finally struck a camp of rubber- 

 gatherers, three of the men were hterally and entirely 

 naked. Meanwhile AmUcar had ascended the Jacy- 

 parana a month or two previously with provisions to 

 meet them ; for at that time the maps incon*ectly 

 treated this river as larger, instead of smaller, than the 

 Gy- Parana, which they were in fact descending ; and 

 Colonel Rondon had supposed that they were going 

 down the former stream. Amilcar returned after him- 

 self suffering much hardship and danger. The different 

 parties finally met at the mouth of the Gy-Parana, 

 where it enters the Madeira. The lost man whom 

 they had found seemed on the road to recovery, and 

 they left him at a ranch on the Madeira, where he could 

 be cared for ; yet after they had left him they heard 

 that he had died. 



On the 12th the men were still hard at work hollowing 

 out the hard wood of the big tree, with axe and adze, 

 while watch and ward were kept over them to see that 

 the idlers did not shirk at the expense of the industrious. 

 Kermit and Lyra again hunted ; the former shot a 

 curassow, which was welcome, as we were endeavouring 

 in aU ways to economize our food supply. We were 

 using the tops of palms also. I spent the day hunting 

 in the woods, for the most part by the river, but saw 

 nothing. In the season of the rains game is away from 

 the river, and fish are scarce and turtles absent. Yet it 

 was pleasant to be in the great silent forest. Here and 



