ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
the temptation, and instead of the usual three meals a 
day we were munching food all the time. 
The strong fever was wearing me out. The dissatis¬ 
faction of my men because we had no more food — it 
was their own fault, for they had insisted on leaving most 
of it behind — and their constant grumbling were tiring 
me to death. We killed a small bird in the evening. By 
the time we had broiled it over a flame it satisfied but 
little our ravenous appetites. 
On October third we reached quantities of boulders 
and rocks, which showed me that we were once more 
approaching the extensive rocky tableland I had seen on 
our outward journey. As we climbed up higher and 
higher we came to an elevated streamlet of limpid water 
running in a channel carved out of the solid rock. It 
took us over two hours’ steady marching, going perhaps 
some two and a half miles an hour, to cross the summit 
of that high rocky tableland. Then we descended through 
chapada and found ourselves among a lot of ravines, on 
the slope of one of which we halted for the night. There 
we killed two large monkeys, which we proceeded to broil 
and eat. I never liked the idea of eating monkeys, as I 
could not get over the feeling that I was eating a child, 
they looked so human. The hands and arms particularly, 
after they had been roasted over the fire, looked too 
human for words. 
On October fourth we climbed a steep and rocky hill, 
crossing on its summit another section of the rocky 
plateau, a regular dome of grey volcanic rock. Then, 
descending from this second tableland on its eastern side, 
we had to struggle and stumble through most rugged 
country, where I found an extinct circular crater some 
fifty feet in diameter and fifty feet deep, with a vent at 
an angle in its bottom going apparently to a great depth. 
Near that spot was a giant natural gateway of rock. 
The descent was steep and most trying for us among 
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