ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
white substance. With my usual curiosity I went to see 
what it was, and found to my disgust a large quantity of 
rice, which had evidently been scattered about there a 
few moments before. A few yards farther was another 
patch of white upon the ground, as if it had snowed. A 
whole sack of flour had been emptied and scattered about 
in such a way that it could not be recovered. 
I well knew what was happening. My men were 
throwing away everything, in order to make the loads 
lighter. So, relieved of the weight, they had got far ahead, 
while the Apiacar Indians who had remained behind were 
behaving in so strange a fashion that I had to stay in 
charge of them, so that they should not escape with the 
boxes of instruments and collections which they were 
carrying for me. 
We went that afternoon some six kilometres through 
fairly clean forest, barring a few obstacles such as huge, 
ancient, fallen trees, the insides of which were all rotted 
away or eaten up by ants. In one of the cavities of those 
trees I found another quantity of food which had been 
hidden by my men. Hampered by the Indians, who were 
giving me no end of trouble as they refused to carry their 
loads, it took me some little time to catch up with my other 
men. When I did I found them all seated, smacking their 
lips. They were filling their mouths as fast as they could 
with handfuls of sugar. When I reprimanded them, 
there was an unpleasant row. They said they were not 
beasts of burden, that men were not made to carry, and 
that therefore they had thrown away all the food. Under 
no circumstance would they carry loads any farther. 
A great deal of tact and persuasion was required. 
Alcides had discarded nearly all the stuff he carried, and 
was one of the chief offenders on that occasion. 
Matters looked bad. We camped that night near a 
little streamlet at the point where it had its birth. We 
still had plenty of food left, notwithstanding what they 
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