ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
once, as my presence was required immediately. I strug¬ 
gled up the steep incline, not knowing what was up. 
Much to my amazement, on reaching the house, I saw 
before me my man Filippe the negro, who rushed at 
me and embraced me tenderly, and the other man I had 
left with him in charge of the baggage. The two men 
had been picked up by a boat two days up the river 
Canuma, where I had left them with my baggage, and 
they had come down, expecting to meet me in Manaos. 
They had got stranded at that place, and although they 
had hailed one or two steamers which had gone down the 
river, no one had paid any attention to them, and there 
they had remained. 
“ Have you saved the photographs and the baggage, 
Filippe? ” I immediately asked, when I had made certain 
that both men were in good condition. 
“ Yes,” said Filippe. “ I have everything with me. 
I have taken the greatest care of everything.” 
That was for me a happy moment, after all the vicissi¬ 
tudes we had had of late. The most important part of 
my baggage was saved. I had taken all my men back 
alive — if perhaps not very much alive — after so fateful 
an expedition. I felt happy beyond words. 
The man who owned the house was the trader who had 
taken Filippe and the other man down the river in his 
boat, so I gave him a present of money and also a lot of 
provisions which I had on board and which we should not 
now need any more, as we should return at once to Manaos. 
Next morning, all as happy as possible, we steamed 
down full speed on our way back to Manaos. We came 
in for dirty weather all the time, which obliged us to halt 
for several hours and put into Itaquatiara for shelter. 
A few hours later we were once more in the capital of the 
Amazonas, in the city of jewellers’ shops and filthy food. 
On landing I found Maxim guns and artillery on one 
side of the principal square, with police troops in charge 
356 
