ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
From that point our march across the forest became 
tragic. Perhaps I can do nothing better than reproduce 
almost word by word the entries in my diary. 
We ate that morning what little there remained of 
the mutum we had shot the previous evening. Little we 
knew then that we were not to taste fresh meat again for 
nearly a month from that date. 
During September third we made fairly good progress, 
cutting our way through incessantly. We went that day 
twenty kilometres. We had no lunch, and it was not until 
the evening that we opened the last of the three small 
boxes of sardines, our entire dinner consisting of three and 
a half sardines each. 
On September fourth we were confronted, soon after 
our departure, by a mountainous country with deep 
ravines and furrows, most trying for us, owing to their 
steepness. We went over five ranges of hills from 100 to 
300 feet in height, and we crossed five streamlets in the 
depressions between those successive ranges. 
Filippe was again suffering greatly from an attack of 
fever, and I had to support him all the time, as he had 
the greatest difficulty in walking. Benedicto had that day 
been entrusted with the big knife for cutting the picada. 
We went some twenty kilometres that day, with 
nothing whatever to eat, as we had already finished the 
three boxes of sardines, and I was reserving the box of 
anchovies for the moment when we could stand hunger no 
longer. 
On September fifth we had another very terrible march 
over broken country, hilly for a good portion of the dis¬ 
tance, but quite level in some parts. 
The man Benedicto, who was a great eater, now 
collapsed altogether, saying that he could no longer carry 
his load, and could not go on any farther without food. 
The entire day our eyes had roamed in all directions, 
trying to discover some wild fruit which was edible, or 
260 
