ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
with toothache, moaning and shrieking like lunatics when 
the pain became acute; others suffered with internal 
aches, another had cramp in the legs. I must say that 
Alcides, with all his faults, was the only one who always 
did his work — not always with common sense, but he 
did it — and, when ill, never gave exhibitions of pitiful 
weakness like the others. 
Filippe, the negro, who eventually showed himself to 
be the bravest Brazilian on that expedition, also stood the 
pain more calmly and with manliness. As I had judged 
from the first moment I had laid eyes upon them, those 
were really the only two men who were any good at all. 
" 11 bon di si vede dal mattino ” (A fine day is seen in 
the morning), says an ancient and very true Italian 
proverb; truer, perhaps, in its philosophy with individuals 
than with the weather. 
Many of my men’s complaints vanished with the 
warmth of the sun: 108° Fahrenheit at one p.m., with a 
maximum temperature during the day of 85° in the shade. 
With the beautiful clear sky and a gentle breeze 
blowing, it was a real delight to march. Only a slight 
whitish mist, always in horizontal streaks, was to be 
noticed near the earth. The sky, although limpid, was 
never of a deep blue, but merely of a pale cobalt. The 
dew was heavy during the night and soaked everything, 
making the baggage, the tents particularly, heavy for the 
animals to carry. We still kept at an elevation of 1,250 
feet, noticing, as we marched on, an isolated range of hills 
extending from northeast to southwest and showing con¬ 
siderable erosion at its southwesterly terminus. Two 
conical hills — one a broken cone — stood on the summit 
of a flat plateau, the entire range, as well as the summit 
of hills, showing eroded slopes with vertical, wall-like 
superior portions. 
After leaving the stream at the foot of a range 1,450 
feet above the sea level, on rising over a low pass I could 
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