262 THE RIVER OF DOUBT [chap, viii 



to warn off the Indian or Indians, who in all probability 

 had never seen a civilized man, and certainly could not 

 imagine that one was in the neighbourhood. He then 

 returned to the foot of the rapids, where the portage 

 was still going on, and, in company with Lyra, Kermit, 

 and Antonio Parcels, the Indian, walked back to where 

 Lobo's body lay. Sure enough he found him, slain by 

 two arrows. One arrow-head was in him, and near by 

 was a strange stick used in the very primitive method 

 of fishing of all these Indians. Antonio recognized its 

 purpose. The Indians, who were apparently two or 

 three in number, had fled. Some beads and trinkets 

 were left on the spot to show that we were not angry, 

 and were friendly. 



Meanwhile Cherrie stayed at the head and I at the 

 foot of the portage as guards. Luiz and Antonio 

 Correa brought down one canoe safely. The next was 

 the new canoe, which was very large and heavy, being 

 made of wood that would not float. In the rapids the 

 rope broke, and the canoe was lost, LuizHbeing nearly 

 drowned. 



It was a very bad thing to lose the canoe, but it was 

 even worse to lose the rope and pulleys. This meant 

 that it would be physically impossible to hoist big 

 canoes up even small hiUs or rocky hillocks, such as 

 had been so frequent beside the many rapids we had 

 encountered. It was not wise to spend the four days 

 necessary to build new canoes where we were, in 

 danger of attack from the Indians. Moreover, new 

 rapids might be very near, in which case the new canoes 

 would hamper us. Yet the four remaining canoes 

 would not carry all the loads and all the men, no matter 

 how we cut the loads down ; and we intended to cut 

 everything down at once. We had been gone eighteen 



