320 TO THE AMAZON AND HOME [chap, x 



local tribes of Indians, had been named the Rio 

 Roosevelt. 



We left Rondon, Lyra, and Pyrineus to take observa- 

 tions, and the rest of us embarked for the last time on 

 the canoes, and, borne swiftly on the rapid current, we 

 passed over one set of not very important rapids, and 

 ran down to Senhor Caripe's little hamlet of Sao Joao, 

 which we reached about one o'clock on April 27, just 

 before a heavy afternoon rain set in. We had run 

 nearly 800 kilometres during the sixty days we had 

 spent in the canoes. Here we found and boarded 

 Pyrineus's river steamer, which seemed in our eyes 

 extremely comfortable. In the senhor's pleasant house 

 we were greeted by the senhora, and they were both 

 more than thoughtful and generous in their hospitality. 

 Ahead of us lay merely thirty-six hours by steamer to 

 Manaos. Such a trip as that we had taken tries men 

 as if by fire. Cherrie had more than stood every test ; 

 and in him Kermit and I had come to recognize a 

 friend with whom our friendship would never falter or 

 grow less. 



Early the following afternoon our whole party, 

 together with Senhor Caripe, started on the steamer. 

 It took us a little over twelve hours' swift steaming to 

 run down to the mouth of the river on the upper course 

 of which our progress had been so slow and painful ; 

 from source to mouth, according to our itinerary and to 

 Lyra's calculations, the course of the stream down which 

 we had thus come was about 1,500 kilometres in length 

 — about 900 mUes, perhaps nearly 1,000 mUes — fi-om its 

 source near the 13th degree in the highlands to its mouth 

 in the Madeira, near the 5th degree. Next morning we 

 were on the broad sluggish current of the lower Madeira, 

 a beautiful tropical river. There were heavy rainstorms. 



