CHAPTER XXII 
Baggage saved — The Journey down the Tapajoz River — Colonel 
Brazil — Wrecked — From Itaituba to the Amazon — Benedicto 
and the Man X are discharged 
O CTOBER sixth.and seventh I spent in a hammock. 
I was in such a high fever and so absolutely ex¬ 
hausted that I believed I should never be able to 
pull through. Albuquerque and his wife were kindness 
itself to me, and looked after me most tenderly. While 
I had been away a trading boat had passed. That boat 
would be on its way down the river again in a few days. 
I thought I would go down as far as the mouth of the 
Tapajoz on the Amazon in her. 
On the evening of October seventh, Benedicto, who 
was a great glutton, prepared a huge bowl of the mamdo 
fruit, stewed and sweetened with quantities of sugar. I 
had obtained from Albuquerque some tins of shrimps, 
lobster and salmon, butter and jam — all condemned stuff 
from some ship — and I gave all my men a feast. Bene¬ 
dicto brought me some of the sweet he had prepared, and 
it looked so tempting that, ill as I was, I ate a quantity 
of it. After dinner I persuaded my men to go back to 
the forest to recover the baggage they had abandoned 
there. Tempted by a present of money I offered them 
if they would bring it back safely, they all agreed to go. 
On October eighth, however, when the men were to 
start, the man X had a severe colic. He rolled himself 
on the ground in great pain and refused to go. 
The strong fever had finished me to such an extent 
that I did not think I should last many hours longer. 
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