ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
great state of excitement. They were about to abandon 
the animals in order to save their own lives; but Alcides, 
Filippe, and I kept the rear, endeavouring to save men, 
baggage, and animals. The flames gained on us very 
quickly. They occasionally almost licked our animals. 
The mules and horses, now fully enveloped in dense, 
choking smoke, began to stampede, and soon all the 
animals were galloping away, sniffing, neighing, and bray¬ 
ing frantically. In their disorderly flight they crashed 
against trees and tore off branches; stumbled over rocks 
and rolled over themselves; struggling up on their feet 
only to resume their mad race for life. 
For some little time it was all we could do to keep 
a few yards in front of the flames, the heat of which was 
roasting our backs and necks. At last, in a desperate 
effort, we managed to get slightly ahead, and when we 
descended — some of the animals rolled down — into a 
deep depression, we found ourselves clear of the smoke. 
The wind was unfortunately blowing the way we were 
travelling, but in that depression we were sheltered, and 
the fire would not travel so fast. Our eyes were smarting 
terribly and we were coughing violently, our parched 
throats and lungs, filled with the pungent smoke, giving 
us a feeling of nausea. When we had reached a point of 
comparative safety we had to readjust all the loads on the 
pack-saddles, which had almost come undone. It was a won¬ 
der to me that in the precipitous flight we had lost nothing. 
We had unavoidably deviated several kilometres from 
our course, as the animals were beyond guiding under 
those circumstances. Eventually, after a considerable 
detour in order to avoid the flames, we went over several 
undulations, especially a peninsula-like spine of rock 
rising over a great depression, then between two twin 
mountains. We emerged on the bank of the Rio Manso, 
flowing northward on a pebbly bed. We crossed it where 
it was one hundred metres wide, but only two to three 
338 
