THE DEPARTURE BY WATER 
arms in the air. One of them blew plaintive sounds on 
one of the horns used by them for calling their com¬ 
panions while in the forest. Those horns could be heard 
enormous distances. Filippe, the white man, who was 
not paddling, fired back a salute of ten shots. There was 
nothing my men loved more than to waste ammunition. 
Fortunately we had plenty. 
The average width of the river there was from 80 to 
100 metres, with a fairly swift current. It was lucky that 
ours was the only boat on that river, for indeed we needed 
all that breadth of water in our snake-like navigation. I 
remonstrated with Alcides, who was at the helm, and 
advised him to keep the nose of the canoe straight ahead, 
as we were coming to a corrideira, or small rapid. 
Alcides, who could never be told anything, became 
enraged at my words of warning, and also at the derision 
of the other men, as we were drifting side on and he 
could not straighten her course. Just as we were entering 
the rapid, in his fury Alcides, in disgust, let go the 
steering-gear, which he said was useless. We were seized 
by the current and swung round with some violence, dash¬ 
ing along, scraping the bottom of the canoe on rocks, and 
bumping now on one side, now on the other, until 
eventually we were dashed violently over a lot of sub¬ 
merged trees, where the bank had been eroded by the 
current and there had been a landslide. The canoe nearly 
capsized, the three dogs and some top baggage being 
thrown out into the water by the impact. We got stuck 
so hard among the branches of the trees that we all had 
to remove our lower garments and get into the water to 
get the canoe off. 
My men used pretty language. That small accident 
was lucky for us. The shouts of my men attracted to the 
bank a passing man. Half scared, a wild figure of a 
mulatto with long, unkempt hair and beard, his body 
covered by what must have once been a suit of clothes, 
15 
