ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
two metres wide. All the streams we met flowed in a 
northerly direction. 
We walked and walked the entire day, until six p.m., 
covering a distance of twenty-six kilometres. The Indian 
Miguel worried me the whole day, saying that cutting the 
picada was heavy work and he could not go on, as his 
finger was hurting him, and the pay he received — ,£1 
sterling a day — was too small for the work he had to 
do. I had to keep constant watch on him, as he was a 
man of a slippery nature, and I did not know what he 
might do from one moment to another. Also he said we 
were simply committing suicide by trying to go through 
the virgin forest, as we should meet thousands of Indians 
who would attack us, and we had no chance of escape. I 
needed this man and his companion to carry my sextant 
and the unexposed photographic plates, some two hundred 
of them, which were of considerable weight. 
That night, when we made camp, Miguel shot a fine 
jacti (Penelope cristata), and we had a meal. Soon after 
a regular downpour came upon us, making us feel most 
uncomfortable. At about eight o’clock, however, the rain 
stopped. With a great deal of trouble we were able to 
light a fire, while the wet leaves of the trees dropped 
water on us and made a peculiar rustling noise on the 
carpet of dead foliage on the ground. 
By the light of that fire a weird and almost tragic 
scene took place. Miguel came up to me, and said in a 
dramatic tone that for the sake of his wife and children 
I must let him go back, as we were marching to sure death. 
If I did not let him go back — here he took his fore¬ 
head between his hands — “ God help me! ” he said, and 
he burst into tears. He said he did not wish for his pay, 
as he had not fulfilled his contract. Whatever he had on 
his person he was willing to give me if I would only let 
him go back. I said I wished him to keep all his 
j)ossessions, and as he did not wish to go along with me 
256 
