ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
All the thrashing in the world could not make it get up. 
We had to drag the brute bodily across the stream, when 
it would jump up on its legs again. It was quite futile to 
try and prevent that animal from collapsing every time 
it had to go across water. So that, on approaching any 
streamlet, we had to unload it, in order to keep the 
baggage at least from getting soaked. 
The interior of Brazil — even comparatively near a 
city, as we were still to Goyaz — did not compare in 
civilization with the lowest and poorest countries of 
Central Asia or Africa. Humble countries like Persia 
and Beluchistan or Abyssinia some ten or fifteen years 
ago were more advanced than Brazil to-day. They had 
good trails on which a regular postal service was 
established, there were regular rest-houses on those trails, 
and horses or camels could easily be hired and exchanged 
at the different stations, so that one could travel compara¬ 
tively quickly. It was not so in Brazil. Even if you 
wished to take a short journey of a few days from a city, 
you had to purchase your horses or your mules, and have 
the riding and pack saddles made for you at a high cost. 
As we have seen, even in the city of Goyaz itself, there 
did not exist a single hotel, nor did we find a proper 
rest-house in the 531 kilometres between the railway 
terminus and the Goyaz capital. Nor is there one of 
these conveniences west, between Goyaz and Cuyaba, 
the capital of Matto Grosso. Of course there were no 
hotels because nobody travelled, but it can also be said 
that many people do not care to travel where there are 
no hotels. In so humble and poor a country as Persia 
you always could indulge in a delicious bath in every 
caravanserai, which you found in the remotest spots all 
over the country. In Brazil you have to resort to the 
streams, and the moment you remove your clothes you 
are absolutely devoured by mosquitoes, flies, and insects 
of all kinds — a perfect torture, I can assure you. Once 
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