ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
garments. My coat also, which was of similar material, 
was beginning to show signs of wear and tear, the sewing 
of the sleeves and everywhere at the back having burst. 
We were going over almost level ground that day, 
across forest sparsely wooded and with much undergrowth 
of palms and ferns. We had drenching rain the entire 
day. My trousers were in shreds, dangling and catching 
in everything. When we had gone some eight or ten 
kilometres they were such a trouble to me that I discarded 
them altogether. The coat, too, was getting to be more 
of a nuisance than a protection. Owing to the incessant 
rain we marched only fourteen kilometres that day. 
On September twenty-ninth we again started of^ 
marching due east. We had slightly better weather, and 
were fortunate enough to shoot two monkeys, a coati, and 
a jacu, the new man possessing a rifle of his own, for 
which I had bought 200 cartridges from our friend Pedro 
Nunes. We had, therefore, that day, a good meal of 
meat; but what terrible pain we felt when we devoured 
the tough pieces of those animals, which we had broiled 
over a big flame! Notwithstanding the pain, however, 
we had an irresistible and insatiable craving for food. 
That day we made a good march of twenty-four 
kilometres. 
On September thirtieth the marching was compara¬ 
tively easy, through fairly clean forest, so that we had to 
use our knife very little in order to open our way. We 
crossed a small campo with a good deal of rock upon it, 
and as our strength was gradually coming back, we 
struggled along, covering a distance of thirty-four kilo¬ 
metres between seven o’clock in the morning and sevei 
in the evening. I was anxious to push on as fast as ^ 
possibly could, notwithstanding the grumblings of my 
men, for now that we had abandoned half of our supplies 
of food I did not want to have, if I could help it, another 
experience of starvation. 
306 
