302 DOWN AN UNKNOWN RIVER [chap, ix 



to another set of rapids, carried the baggage down past 

 them, and made camp long after dark in the rain— a 

 good exercise in patience for those of us who were still 

 suffering somewhat from fever. No one was in really 

 buoyant health. For some weeks we had been sharing 

 part of the contents of our boxes with the camaradas ; 

 but our food was not very satisfying to them. They 

 needed quantity, and the mainstay of each of their meals 

 was a mass of palmitas ; but on this day they had no 

 time to cut down palms. We finally decided to run 

 these rapids with the empty canoes, and they came 

 down in safety. On such a trip it is highly undesirable 

 to take any save necessary risks, for the consequences of 

 disaster are too serious ; and yet if no risks are taken the 

 progress is so slow that disaster comes anyhow ; and it 

 is necessary perpetually to vary the terms of the per- 

 petual working compromise between rashness and over- 

 caution. This night we had a very good fish to eat, a 

 big sUvery fellow called a pescada, of a kind we had not 

 caught before. 



One day Trigueiro failed to embark with the rest of 

 us, and we had to camp where we were next day to find 

 him. Easter Sunday we spent in the fashion with which 

 we were altogether too famiMar. We only ran in a 

 clear course for ten minutes all told, and spent eight 

 hours in portaging the loads past rapids down which 

 the canoes were run ; the balsa was almost swamped. 

 This day we caught twenty-eight big fish, mostly 

 piranhas, and everybody had aU he could eat for 

 dinner, and for breakfast the following morning. 



The forenoon of the following day was a repetition of 

 this wearisome work ; but late in the afternoon the river 

 began to run in long quiet reaches. We made fifteen 

 kilometres, and for the first time in several weeks camped 



