IN HUMBOLDT'S COUNTRY 387 
not light enough left to find out where it was. We 
made fast at the river-side, and the men were kept 
all night baling out water. I did not venture to 
sleep a moment, and roused the men in turn to 
their necessary task. In the morning we found out 
the leak and stopped it with clay, and when we 
reached Solano, on the 29th, we caulked it roughly 
without pitch, and the mud suspended in the waters 
of the Casiquiari soon made it completely water- 
tight. 
On examining the broken cable I found that it 
had been previously cut more than half through 
with some sharp instrument, otherwise a new cable 
of that size could not have been thus broken. It 
was not until after my return from this voyage that 
the Indians let out that this had been the work of 
my pilot Carlos, a merry, lazy scamp, who had cal- 
culated on nothing less than the destruction of my 
boat on the rocks, which would have saved him the 
toil of a voyage for which he had already received 
pay. He and his companions would have easily 
saved themselves by swimming when the boat 
foundered, for they think nothing at any time of 
plunging into furious rapids.^ 
I took with me on this voyage some large 
^ On my next voyage towards the cataracts of the Orinoco, Carlos deserted 
me, taking with him an easy, quiet lad named Antonio, who had long been 
my personal attendant both on land and water. This was the only instance of 
an Indian running away from me during the whole time of my stay in South 
America, and I could not be surprised at it, for the Upper Rio Negro — one of 
the hungriest regions of the world at the best of times — was then in a state 
approaching positive famine. We were waiting at the village of Tomo trying 
to get provisions to enable us to push on to the Atabapo and the Orinoco, but 
could with difficulty procure a daily subsistence. When I again reached San 
Carlos, Carlos and Antonio came to me very penitently, and each one accused 
the other of having induced him to desert me ; but they both honestly repaid 
me the articles I had advanced them for the voyage, to the great astonishment 
of the white residents, who said such a thing was never known of an Indian. 
