THROUGH THE FOREST 
also proved useless, because the wood was also soaking wet 
and would not ignite. 
August thirty-first was a painful day for me. Two 
of the men were badly laid up with fever, the others were 
most obnoxious. I had endless trouble in making them 
take up their loads and start once more. The man X said 
he would take the load which contained my instruments, 
but he would certainly leave it, as soon as he had an 
opportunity, concealed in a spot where it could not be 
found again. I told him in plain words that if he carried 
out his intention I would shoot him dead, and I would 
from that moment do the same to any other man who 
rebelled. I was surprised to find that the lot of them 
took their loads upon their shoulders and proceeded to 
march along as quietly as possible. 
The Brazilian forest, unlike the equatorial forest of 
Africa, was comparatively clean underneath, there being 
very little undergrowth. It was quite easy to cut one’s 
way through if one knew how. There was a great art in 
cutting one’s way through the forest. If you happened to 
know the way trees grew or liane were suspended, it was 
easy enough to cut them with one sharp blow of the large 
knives. But if you did not happen to know the formation 
of the trees and you struck them the wrong way, you had 
to hit them many times before you knocked them down. 
The same thing and worse happened with liane, which 
could be severed easily with one stroke if it were applied 
the right way, but which wound round and entangled 
you in a merciless manner if hit at a wrong angle. 
Xo observant person, however, experiences trouble in 
marching through the Brazilian forest, and if not hindered 
by impossible followers it would be quite easy to march 
long distances daily in any part of the forest without 
much inconvenience. 
This statement applies only to the actual marching, 
and does not at all mean that you had not to go through 
247 
