ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
have had such a brilliant idea. They were now anxious 
to get on board. 
First Filippe came and sat himself in front of me, 
and I saw, with some concern, the raft sink down con¬ 
siderably into the water. When Benedicto also entered, 
the framework of our vessel absolutely disappeared under 
water, and only the short necks of the bottles showed 
above the surface. As we sat astride on the narrow 
longitudinal platform we were knee-deep in water. We 
took another small trip in mid-stream, and then decided 
that we would put the baggage on board and start at 
once on our journey down the river. 
I went back for the baggage and rolled it all up in 
the waterproof hammock, then fastened it with pieces 
of liane to the stern of the raft. Filippe and Benedicto 
fastened their own things also. Having made ourselves 
some primitive-looking paddles with the bottom of a small 
empty barrel we had found, which we attached to two 
sticks, we made ready to start. 
Filippe and I had already got on board, when Bene¬ 
dicto appeared with a huge punting pole he had cut 
himself, in case we might need it. He was excited over 
the prospect of having no more walking to do. When he 
got near he jumped on board so clumsily that the already 
too heavily laden raft turned over, and we were all flung 
into the water — there seven feet deep. When I came 
to the surface again I just managed to pull the craft 
ashore and then proceeded to save Benedicto and Filippe, 
who were struggling in the water, which was too deep 
for them. 
This mishap was unfortunate. My chronometer got 
full of water and stopped; the aneroids, the camera, all 
were injured beyond repair. Much to my distress, I also 
discovered that the water-tight cases, which had been 
knocked about so much of late, had let the water through 
before I had time to turn the raft the right way up and 
294 
