CHAPTER XVIII 
Starting across the Virgin Forest — Cutting the Way incessantly 
— A Rugged, Rocky Plateau — Author’s Men throw away the 
Supplies of Food—Attacked by Fever—Marching by Compass — 
Poisoned — Author’s Men break down — Author proceeds across 
Forest endeavouring to reach the Madeira River — A Dramatic 
Scene 
B Y three o’clock in the afternoon I had been able to 
induce the Indian Miguel, his friend the carrier, and 
three other Apiacar Indians to come along with us 
for a few days, in order to carry the heavier packages 
as far as possible into the forest, so that I could spare 
my men. 
It was some relief to me -— although I saw plainly that 
we should surely have disaster sooner or later — when 
one after another of my men took up their loads and 
started off. I gave them the correct direction with the 
compass, almost due west; in fact, to make it easier for 
them, I told them that afternoon to travel in the direction 
of the sun. 
With Filippe the negro at the head, my own men 
started off at a rapid pace, the others following, while I 
was at the tail of the procession in order to see that no 
stragglers remained behind. For a short distance we 
found an old picada which went practically in the direction 
we wanted, so my men followed it, cutting only when 
necessary the vegetation which had grown up here and 
there. 
I had gone only a few hundred metres when I saw 
the ground a little way off our track covered with some 
vol. ii. —16 241 
