ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
scientific instruments and to injure anything I possessed. 
Those men were vandals by nature. The more valuable 
an object was, the greater the pleasure they seemed to take 
in damaging it. 
Thus another and unnecessary burden was placed 
upon me in order to save my instruments from destruc¬ 
tion, not only from natural accidents but through the 
infamy of my followers. Those fellows seemed to take 
no pride in anything. Even the beautiful and expensive 
repeating rifles and automatic pistols I had given each 
man had been reduced to scrap-iron. Yet they were so 
scared of Indians that the first time we met some, they 
handed over to them anything that took their fancy — 
and which belonged to me, of course — for fear of 
incurring their ill-favour. During my absence from camp, 
they even gave away to the Indians a handsome dog I had, 
which I never was able to trace again. 
Like all people with a dastardly nature, they could 
on no account speak the truth, even when it would have 
been to their advantage. They could never look you 
straight in the face. Hence, full of distrust for every¬ 
body, all the responsibility of every kind of work in 
connection with the expedition fell upon me. I not only 
had to do my own scientific work, but had to supervise 
in its minutest detail all the work done by them, all 
the time. It was indeed like travelling with a band of 
mischievous, demented people. The mental strain was 
considerable for me. 
On that day’s march we had passed two crosses 
erected, the Salesians had told me, on the spot where 
two men had been murdered by passing Brazilians — not 
by Indians. Their usual way of procedure was to shoot 
people in the back — never in front — or else when you 
were asleep. Nearly all carried a razor on their person, 
not to shave with, but in order to cut people’s throats as 
a vengeance, or even under less provocation. This was 
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