ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
in numerous successive small cascades over rocks; there¬ 
fore no fish was to be found. When we did find it in 
the big rivers, we had no way to catch it. 
It then again follows, concerning the country between 
great rivers, that where there is no fish, no game, no 
fruit, no vegetables, and no possible way of cultivating 
the land, there can be no inhabitants. That was why the 
great Brazilian forest in that region was uninhabited by 
human beings. 
It was rather pathetic, looking back on those days, 
to think of the small cooking pot I carried during that 
time of starvation, in hopes that we might find some¬ 
thing to cook. Its weight was not great, but it was a 
cumbersome thing to carry, as it dangled about and 
caught in all the vegetation. 
As the days went by and our strength got less and 
less every hour, I decided not to cut the forest any more, 
but to go through without that extra exertion. As I 
could not trust my men with the big knife, I had to 
carry it myself, as occasionally it had to be used — espe¬ 
cially near streams, where the vegetation was always more 
or less entangled. 
That evening (September ninth) we had halted at 
sunset, almost dead with fatigue and exhaustion. The 
sauba ants had cut nearly all the strings of Filippe’s 
hammock; while he was resting peacefully on it the re¬ 
mainder of the strings broke, and he had a bad fall. He 
was so exhausted that he remained lying on the ground, 
swarming all over with ants and moaning the whole time, 
having no strength to repair the hammock. 
When Filippe eventually fell into a sound slumber I 
had a curious experience in the middle of the night. I 
was sleeping in my improvised hammock, when I felt 
two paws resting on my body and something sniffing in 
my face. When I opened my eyes I found a jaguar, 
standing up on its hind paws, staring me straight in the 
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