A SAD MOMENT 
“ Very good! ” I said to them. “ If we have not the 
strength to move the canoe over those rocks, we certainly 
have the courage to shoot the rapid.” I said I had never 
yet known a Brazilian who failed when it came to courage, 
and I was sure they would not fail, as I had already seen 
how brave they had been. 
Flattery always answers. 
“ Come along, boys! We will take the canoe back 
into the rapid.” 
In a moment they had deposited their rifles on the 
rocks, and they were all helping me to push the canoe back 
the way we had come. 
The rapid in that particular part was devilish — not 
unlike the narrow channel we had gone through some time 
before. The passage, with high rocks on either side, was 
tortuous, and threw the water with great force from one 
side to the other, producing high waves in the centre in 
such confusion that it was quite terrifying to look at them. 
When my men looked at those awful waters, they 
suggested that perhaps we had better let the canoe down 
with ropes. I had quite made up my mind that we should 
lose the canoe for certain in that spot; and had we gone 
down in her ourselves we should undoubtedly have lost 
our lives as well. 
When we started taking her down with ropes — our 
ropes were all rotted by that time, and had no strength 
whatever — the canoe was tossed about in a merciless 
manner. I recommended my men, as they ran along, to 
beware of the ropes catching on the cutting edges of the 
high rocks. No sooner had the canoe started down the 
swift current than one of the ropes at once caught on a 
rock and snapped. The men who held the other rope were 
unable to hold it, and let it go. I saw the canoe give 
three or four leaps in the centre of the channel and then 
disappear altogether. That was a sad moment for me. 
But as my eye roamed along the foaming waters, what 
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