CHAPTER IX 
The Departure — Devoured by Insects 
A FEW minutes later I had again joined my caravan, 
watched intently, at a respectful distance, by a few 
astonished natives of Goyaz. As soon as all my 
mules and horses had been packed — they were very 
heavily laden — I took my departure in a direction north¬ 
west by west. The six men mounted on mules came along. 
I had armed all my followers with the best repeating 
carbines that are made, as well as with excellent automatic 
pistols, and the long daggers locally used; but personally 
I carried no weapons of any kind. 
Having been unsuccessful in obtaining sufficient men 
from the officials of Goyaz, there yet remained for me one 
last faint hope. It was to try to get a few followers from 
the Indian colony of the Salesian friars, a few days’ 
journey west of the Araguaya River. 
On April twenty-sixth, from the height of Santa 
Barbara (elevation 2,150 feet above the sea level), a 
picturesque chapel and graveyard to the west of the city, 
I bade good-bye for good to Goyaz City (elevation 1,950 
feet). One obtained from this point a fine view of the 
entire city, spreading from north to south, at the bottom of 
the imposing frame of mountains on the south with their 
extraordinary columnar formation. Each natural column, 
with its mineral composition and crystallization, shone 
like silver in the bright light. The ensemble from our 
point of vantage resembled the set of pipes of an immense 
church organ. High hills stood to the east. In the 
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