THE END OF JULIO 295 



always on the watch against his return, for he could 

 have readily killed someone else by rolling rocks down 

 on any of the men working on the cliff sides or in the 

 bottom of the gorge. But we did not see him until 

 the morning of the third day. We had passed the 

 last of the rapids of the chasm, and the four boats were 

 going down -stream when he appeared behind some 

 trees on the bank, and called out that he wished to 

 surrender and be taken aboard ; for the murderer was 

 an arrant craven at heart — a strange mixture of ferocity 

 and cowardice. Colonel Rondon's boat was far in 

 advance ; he did not stop nor answer. I kept on in 

 similar fashion with the rear boats, for I had no inten- 

 tion of taking the murderer aboard, to the jeopardy of 

 the other members of the party, unless Colonel Rondon 

 told me that it would have to be done in pursuance 

 of his duty as an officer of the army and a servant of 

 the Government of Brazil. At the first halt Colonel 

 Rondon came up to me and told me that this was his 

 view of his duty ; but that he had not stopped because 

 he wished first to consult me as the chief of the ex- 

 pedition. I answered that for the reasons enumerated 

 above, I did not believe that in justice to the good 

 men of the expedition we should jeopardize their 

 safety by taking the murderer along, and that if the 

 responsibility were mine I should refuse to take 

 him, but that he. Colonel Rondon, was the superior 

 officer of both the murderer and of all the other 

 enlisted men and army officers on the expedition, 

 and in return was responsible for his actions to his 

 own governmental superiors and to the laws of Brazil ; 

 and that in view of this responsibility, he must act 

 as his sense of duty bade him. Accordingly, at the 

 next camp he sent back two men, expert woodsmen, 



