ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
rails were soon to be laid on the north side of the river as 
far as Catalao. The bed of the railway was fast being 
made ready. 
It was not until April third that I was able actually 
to make a start with my caravan. Mr. Schnoor had 
promised me two men -— Alcides Ferreiro dos Santos and 
Filippe da Costa de Britto: the first a German Brazilian 
of a violent, revolutionary temper but of extraordinary 
bravery; the other a pure negro of a boisterous, simple 
nature, and also of indisputable bravery in moments of 
great danger. These two men, both natives of Araguary, 
proved themselves to be the two best men I possessed on 
that fateful expedition. Thus, if nothing else can be said 
in praise of Araguary, it must be said in justice that it 
can produce some men of great courage and faithfulness 
<— a boast which cannot well be applied to many places 
in Brazil. 
On April third, at 9 a.m., after a touching farewell, 
I left the engineers’ camp, mounted on a magnificent 
mule that Mr. Schnoor had insisted on lending me as far 
as Goyaz, with the pack animals which I had purchased. 
I did not follow the principal road, which went by a 
somewhat circuitous route from Araguary to the capital 
of Goyaz via the towns of Catalao and Bomfin, but pre¬ 
ferred to travel across country by a short cut, which took 
you there in an almost direct line in a northwesterly 
direction. On getting over the Serrinha (elevation 2,250 
feet), a hill range, one obtained a gorgeous view of the 
valley of the Paranahyba River — a river which, already 
of good width there, became eventually the great Parana. 
On the right bank of the river, near its mouth, some thou¬ 
sands of miles from where we were, Buenos Aires is 
situated. 
Going through a beautiful forest in undulating 
country, we reached the summit of a flat-topped table¬ 
land, 2,500 feet above the sea level, with a gentle slope 
54 
