ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
straight in the face. He avoided riding near me on the 
march, and in camp was sulky and unpleasant, retiring 
to a distance and declining to work. He was relieved of 
the functions of cook. The last meal he had produced 
nearly brought massacre upon him at the hands of the 
other men. 
He received his full pay up to date, without uttering 
a word of thanks. He duly signed a receipt with his 
thumb-mark, as he was unable to write. When the troop 
of horses and mules and his companions left, he never 
spoke a word of farewell to his companions or animals, or 
to me. He sat silent and motionless, with his eyes riveted 
to the ground as if in a trance. Some days later we 
discovered that he had stolen from our store some forty 
pounds of coffee and a large quantity of sugar, as well as 
a number of other articles which had been useful to us. 
The sky when we left was overcast, and huge, 
globular clouds, white and grey, hung in great masses, 
especially half way up the vault of the sky. The 
country, after crossing the Araguaya, was remarkably 
beautiful, from an agricultural point of view: enormous 
campos or prairies over rich alluvial deposits, with scanty 
stunted trees upon them. Plenty of burity palms grew 
in the lower depressions. 
My men suffered intensely from the cold at night, 
the minimum being 60° Fahrenheit, maximum 92°, in the 
afternoon of the thirteenth. The temperature had been 
much lower since we had crossed the great river. The 
elevation was only 1,250 feet. 
Rising slowly over an undulation in the country to 
1,800 feet, we began to find igneous rock showing through 
the surface soil, especially on the higher points. 
Lima (Nephelium Litchi Carab), caraiba , and the 
laranjeira do campo (Citrus vulgaris), were trees to be 
seen in that region. 
We had wonderfully clear sky in the morning. At 
150 
