POISONED 
Personally, I had taken out a large cup full of water 
before they had gone to bathe, and avoided drinking 
again; but my men drank that water, made dirtier by 
their immersion and the use of soap — my soap, too! 
The next morning all had excruciating headaches. 
Their legs dangled, and they did not seem to be able 
to stand on them. Only the Indian — Miguel — seemed 
to have any strength left. He was a nasty-looking 
individual, always sulky and pensive as if under some 
great weight upon his conscience. Miguel and I walked 
in front; he, with a big knife, opening the way in the 
forest for the others to come behind. 
Just before leaving camp on September first I had 
gone some distance up the yellow stream in order to get 
a last drink in case we found no other water that day. 
The Indian, who was supposed to know the forest well, 
knew nothing whatever, and always misled me whenever 
I asked for information. 
A few minutes after we had left, I was seized with 
violent shivers, my teeth chattered, and I felt quite as 
frozen as if I had suddenly dropped in the Arctic regions. 
Evidently I had been poisoned by the water. I collapsed 
under my load, and for some moments I could not get 
up again. Although I had spent all my time and energy 
helping everybody else to get up when in difficulty, not 
one of my men came near me to unfasten the loads from 
my shoulders or help me to get up on my legs again. 
They merely squatted a little way off when they saw that 
I had collapsed, and proceeded to roll their cigarettes 
and smoke. 
True, I did not let my men suspect that I was very 
ill. After a few minutes I struggled up once more under 
my heavy load and asked the men to come along. I had 
been seized with such a violent attack of fever that my 
strength seemed to have vanished all of a sudden, and my 
limbs quivered in a most alarming way. I carried a 
251 
