154 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
desperate, our provisions altogether would not 
suffice for more than a couple of meals, say to keep 
body and soul together for two days. Of the painful 
thoughts that passed through my mind at this 
critical juncture my rough notes contain no record, 
and writing now, after six months have elapsed, I 
shrink from recalling them. The conclusion of my 
cogitations was to remain by my effects till death 
or help should arrive ; and my lad, who promised 
not to desert me, was of the same opinion. We 
calculated that we should be able to keep alive for 
a week, and in that time perhaps some trader might 
come from the Sierra on his way to Canelos. The 
Indians also were loath to turn back for this reason 
that they had received their pay in money, with 
which they hoped to buy great store of calico in the 
Sierra, where it would cost them but a real the vara, 
whereas if they took the money back to Sara-yacu 
they must give four reals the vara for the same sort 
of calico to some trader who should by a rare chance 
go thither. I called a council by the river-side, in 
order to consult on the possibility of throwing the 
second bridge to a rock a few yards higher up the 
stream than the one that was under water, but so 
much higher out of the water than the first stone 
that the bridge resting on it must necessarily slope 
considerably, and so far apart that it was doubtful if 
the bamboos would span the distance. I had pro- 
posed the same thing to them yesterday, when they 
had declared it impossible, but now they seemed to 
think that if the bamboos would only reach the 
upper rock the plan was feasible. There was no 
time to be lost, for heavy rain was coming, and it 
was probable the river would speedily rise, so to 
