A NERVOUS MULE 
Islands and Philippine Archipelago, only the Brazilian 
ones never attained proportions so large. 
With endless trouble we had gone twenty kilometres. 
We had come to streams, where again, owing to the precip¬ 
itous descents on the slippery, high banks, several mules 
fell over and rolled down into the stream. One mule, 
particularly, had become very nervous on approaching 
those places. Foreseeing the punishment which would be 
meted out, its knees invariably began to tremble and give 
way, and it let itself roll down purposely, every time we 
came to those difficult passages. Once down at the 
bottom, with baggage often immersed deep in water, we 
had the greatest difficulty in making the wretched animal 
get up again, and we frequently had to drag it bodily up 
the opposite slope by means of ropes. I have never seen 
an animal stand more beating than that brute did. 
Although I am most kind to animals, I must say for my 
men that this particular mule often drove us all to absolute 
despair. Dragging the dead weight of an animal up a 
steep slope, forty, fifty, or even seventy feet high — we 
were only seven men — was no joke at all. When you had 
to repeat the operation several times a day, it was some¬ 
what trying. Once the brute had been dragged up to the 
top it would quickly get up on its legs, and marched well 
while on fairly good ground. But in moments of danger 
it was one of the most pusillanimous animals I have ever 
possessed. 
I had given strict orders that in places of that kind 
the more timid animals were to be unloaded, and the 
loads conveyed across on men’s backs. My orders were 
always disobeyed. The result generally was that not only 
did the men have to carry the loads eventually, but we had 
to carry the animals as well. Endless time and energy 
were thus wasted. That is what happens to people who 
try to save themselves trouble. 
At sundown, after having witnessed a glorious view of 
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