CHAPTER VIII 
BY A CROOKED ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA 
A FTER passing a month in this mag- 
nificent island, and finding that my 
health was not improving, I made up 
my mind to push on to South America while 
my stock of strength, such as it was, lasted. But 
fortunately I could not find passage for any 
South American port. I had long wished to 
visit the Orinoco basin and in particular the 
basin of the Amazon. My plan was to get ashore 
anywhere on the north end of the continent, 
push on southward through the wilderness 
around the headwaters of the Orinoco, until I 
reached a tributary of the Amazon, and float 
down on a raft or skiff the whole length of the 
great river to its mouth. It seems strange that 
such a trip should ever have entered the dreams 
of any person, however enthusiastic and full of 
youthful daring, particularly under the disad- 
vantages of poor health, of funds less than a 
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