96 
Visited by the Bhazilians. 
240. But it was luoie diflicnlt to l)anish the distress that was soon 
to be visiting us, than tlie monotony. With the increase in the thunder- 
storms and the rising of the waters, tlie game continued to disappear 
from our neighl)ourli()<)d, and the spoils of the huntsmen became more 
and more scarce and Avretched, until it often happened that hardly 
within the space of three or four days Avould. even a duck or aguti be 
Itrought home. The herds of cattle also disappeared along with the deer 
and ducks and the four Va(pieiios had to take things easy. Everything 
had retreated into the mountains. Our supplies of salted flesh had long 
been consumed, and meals l»ecame more frugal. At first, indeed, the 
officers helped us honoui-ably with what they possessed in the way of 
meat, but their provisions also came to an end, and the remaining 
cassava bread spai'cd by the insects together with the boiled soups made 
fi'om it became our daily dish until at last one of the hunters was again 
sufficiently foj'tunate as to kill enough to satisfy eight hungry stomachs. 
A shot from the mortar sent the glad tidings of the event to the officers 
of the Fort, while fiom the flagstatT fluttered the signal "Invitation to 
Lunch,'' just as much longed for by themj as l)y us when, in days of want, 
we in our turn hoped every minute to recognise the friendly sign. 
211. As we were thus one morning about to eke out the roasted 
maize-cobs with a juicy piece of venison, one of our huntsmen who liad 
left rirara already before daybreak to try his luck, rushed back into our 
hut shouting "Matti. ^Matti, Caraiba, rarail)a, Soldato touk().'" ( Friend, 
fi iend, many Brazilian soldiers) and made us forget all about swallowing 
the morsel we even had in our mouth. We were already aoeustomied to the 
flight to which the term "Caraiba" every time gave rise in an Indian 
settlement, but the fatal ''Soldato tonkti-toukcV' nevertheless put us into 
a more than indifferent state of mind — the "Soldato toukö-toukö'' must 
be the Brazilian army which, as Ave knew from reliable information, had 
already left Para weeks ago, to drive the Red-co?.ts, from Pirara. 
From the statements of the Indians, half dead with fright and 
fear, the "Soldato touk<)'' had broken up into two divisions, of which the 
one had taken passage by water in a large corial, while the other had 
turned off to the great oases south of Pirara. After our bearer of bad 
news had once again proved his information to be true, two shots from 
the small mortal' thundered out towards the Fort, and the national 
ensign on the mast gave the garrison the fateful news. The reply was 
now run saucily up the flagpost at the Fort, and all the figures whom we 
had seen shortly before outside the ramparts, vanished behind them for a 
few minutes, soon to become visible again, as our telescope showed us, 
armed to the teeth. So far as we were concerned no defence was of 
course to l)e thought of, and resigning ourselves to the inevitable Ave did 
our IcA'el best by maintaining an outward indifference to inspire at least 
the inhabitants of Pirara Avith some courage: the news spreading among 
them like wild-fire seemed to have wiped it clean out. Armed with their 
bows and clulis. the men had inunediately collected around us while 
with sucklings in arms and other childr-en by the hand, the women, 
thronged our houses. In this dilemma I casually asked the Indians who 
hfid brought the ill-fated news whether the soldiers carried guns, the 
