A USELESS TASK 
posits. It was an interesting conglomerate of minute 
crystals cemented together by hardened clay, the whole 
forming large blocks. 
More trouble was in store for us. One of my mules 
was seriously injured. Its spine was so badly strained 
that it was quite disabled for further work. My cook, 
who had a slight attack of indigestion, wished to be left 
there to die, and declined to proceed any farther. With 
true Brazilian reasoning he wished, nevertheless, to be 
paid off before dying. With true English reasoning I 
explained to him that money would be of little use to him 
in the next world. If he really intended to die, I would 
certainly not pay him, but his wages would naturally go 
on while he was alive, continued the journey, and did the 
cooking. He quickly returned to life, and to his senses. 
Really, in the entire experiences of my travels I have 
never come across more pitiable specimens of manhood 
than those fellows. They absolutely gave me a sick feel¬ 
ing that I never lost while they were with me,* for many, 
many months to come. The animals, too, were almost as 
bad as the men. They had little endurance, they had no 
courage; everything seemed to affect them. The worst 
Abyssinian mule, for instance, was, for equal work, vastly 
superior to the best Goyaz mule. It was a useless task to 
try and train those animals. On my many previous expe¬ 
ditions I had been able to win the affection of my animals, 
and was able to train them in a few days so that they 
obeyed with the perfection of soldiers, but in Brazil, the 
last day I had them after the several months that they 
had been with me, they were just as disobedient and stupid 
as on the first day. In fact, they never even seemed to 
recognize us again. They had learnt absolutely nothing, 
except bad habits. Everything seemed to frighten them. 
One mule, for instance, was afraid to cross small streams. 
Its legs invariably began to quiver on entering the water, 
and down would go mule and baggage into the water. 
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