ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
On September twelfth we drowsily got up from our 
hammocks in a dejected state. By that time we had lost 
all hope of finding food, and no longer took the trouble 
to look round for anything to eat. We went on a few 
hundred metres at a time, Benedicto now fainting from 
exhaustion, then Filippe, then myself. While one or 
another was unconscious much time was wasted. March¬ 
ing under those conditions was horrible, as one or other 
of us collapsed every few hundred metres. 
Another violent storm broke out, and we all lay on 
the ground helpless, the skin of our hands and feet shrivel¬ 
ling up with the moisture. 
My feet were much swollen, owing to the innumer¬ 
able thorns which had got into them while walking bare¬ 
footed. It was most painful to march, as I was not 
accustomed to walk without shoes. 
We went only ten kilometres on September twelfth. 
We crossed two small rivers and one large, flowing west 
and south, evidently into the Secundury. 
On September thirteenth we had another painful 
march, my men struggling along, stumbling and falling 
every little while. They were dreadfully depressed. 
Towards the evening we came to a big tree, at the foot 
of which we found some discarded shells, such as we had 
once seen before, of fruit eaten by monkeys. My men 
and I tried to scrape with our teeth some of the sweet 
substance which still adhered to the shells. We saw some 
of the fruit, which was fit to eat, at a great height upon 
the tree, but we had not the strength to climb up or cut 
down that enormous tree. 
All the visions of good meals which I had had until 
then had now vanished altogether on that tenth day of 
fasting, and I experienced a sickly feeling in my inside 
which gave me an absolute dislike for food of any kind. 
My head was beginning to sway, and I had difficulty in 
collecting my ideas. My memory seemed to be gone, all 
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