PEDRO DE TOLEDO ISLAND 
With a crew of six men, things were a little better for 
us. Four could paddle while one steered, and the sixth 
stood on the prow with a long pole punting, or on the 
look-out for dangerous obstacles. 
X paddled with such vigour that Alcides at the helm 
had the greatest difficulty in keeping the canoe straight. 
It had a good effect on the other men, who also paddled 
away with all their might, and we were speeding along 
with the strong current almost as fast as a steam launch. 
The minimum temperature during the night (July 
8-9) had been 57° Fahrenheit. The elevation above the 
sea level of Lucky Island was 1100 feet. 
The river dos Patos came from the south-southeast, 
then bent to the east, where its sources were. 
Lucky Island was 250 metres in length. The river 
had an average width of 80 metres. As we went along 
my men sang gaily, particularly X, who seemed like a 
bird let out of its cage, so happy did he feel at being a free 
man again. His repertoire was not of the choicest kind, 
but what was lacking in quality was made up in quantity. 
For some hours we were treated to a vocal concert, X’s 
solos sending my men into fits of merriment. His wit, 
of the crudest kind, was sometimes funny. 
This great gaiety seemed most weird in that region 
where silence reigned supreme always. The voices seemed 
to travel immense distances, echoing from one side of the 
river to the other. Words were reproduced with great 
clearness by the echo two or three times over. Especially 
when we had forest on both sides of the stream was the 
echo particularly perfect. 
Quantities of rubber trees, absolutely going to waste, 
were to be seen now on one side, then on the other, where 
the banks were wooded. 
Another most beautiful island, 800 metres long and 
80 metres wide, Pedro de Toledo Island, was passed. It 
had a channel 10 metres wide in a northwesterly direction, 
37 
