Across Unknown South America

The stars were of extraordinary brilliancy at night; so much so that one could see quite well enough by their light to get about. The atmosphere being extremely clear, they appeared of immense size, the planets shining with dazzling, changing colours which would have filled even the most profane with reverence for their splendour.

I drew the attention of my men to the wonderful sight.

"They are stars!" they replied contemptuously; "Have you never seen stars before?"

It was indeed difficult to enter into conversation on any subject with them without having an ardent desire to strangle the lot, they were so ignorantly offensive. I was thankful I had the sense always to go about unarmed, or I am certain some of them would have paid somewhat dearly for their impertinence. I was glad, too, that I never felt the weight of loneliness, as days and days would go by without my saying a word to them, barring perhaps a shout in camp to bring my breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

What was even worse than entering into conversation with them was to listen—one could not help it, they shouted so loudly all the time—to the conversation among themselves. We will not refer to the choice language they used, so inexplicably sacrilegious and indecorous that it would have set on edge the teeth of the coarsest specimens of humanity; but the subject—I say subject in the singular, mark you, for alas! there was only one subject—discussed in all its phases perhaps, but only one single subject—assassination. The accounts of different murders, in some of which the men boasted they had taken part, were nightly repeated in their minutest details to the assembled crowd—myself excluded—sitting around the fire, while the feijão—beans, so loved by them—were being stewed for hours and hours in a cauldron.

There was the story of one murder of which one of the men was particularly proud, in which he reproduced the facial expression as well as the smothered shrieks of the horrified victim. He gave a vivid description of how the blood squirted out like a fountain from the jugular vein of the throat as it was being severed. That story—most graphically narrated, I admit—had taken the fancy of that cruel crowd. Almost every evening, during the entire time those men were with me, many long months, I heard that story repeated amid roars of laughter from the company. Murder—when applied to others—was evidently for them a great joke!

Inconsiderate to a degree, they would get up and sing at the top of their voices in the middle of the night and keep everybody awake while the feijão was stewing. It took hours and hours before those awful black beans had boiled sufficiently to be edible, and the man who acted as cook had to sit up the whole night to stir them up and watch them. Yes, the position of cook for the camp was not an enviable one, for it meant marching all day and sitting up all night to prepare the feijão for the following day. Yet the love they had for their feijão—I never ate the beastly stuff myself—was so great that those lazy devils, who could not be induced on any account to do other work, did not mind at all having sleepless nights to watch over the stewing cauldron. With the feijão were placed in the pot large pieces of toucinho (lard). We carried quantities of feijão, for without feijão you cannot induce a Brazilian to do anything or go anywhere. Of the two he would rather sacrifice his life than lose his daily feijão.

It requires great ability, I believe, to cook feijão properly. I noticed that all my men in a body were ever superintending its preparation. When the cook in the early hours of the morning happened to let the fire go down, or in his drowsiness was not stirring it properly, there were angry shouts from the other men, who, every time they opened one eye in their sleep, invariably gazed towards the beloved cooking-pot.

We came to a second range parallel with the one described before and extending from north-east to south-west. Again a vertical natural wall was noticeable to the east. This range was subdivided into many sections, almost all of the same size and shape. The end section to the north-east—which made an exception—was about three and a half times the length of any of the others. I observed some deep vertical vents such as are frequently to be seen in the sections of volcanoes that have partly been blown up. These vents were particularly numerous in the north-easterly block, where broad corrugations and some narrow ones—ten in all—were also to be seen.

Two alternatives could explain the present configuration of that region. There had been either a great volcanic explosion or else a sudden subsidence. Personally I was inclined to favour the first hypothesis. I shall explain why. First because the great fissures between the various huge blocks and the grooves carved in those rocks would then at once explain themselves—caused naturally by the violent shock. They had apparently been enlarged in the course of time by erosion of water and wind, and possibly by the friction of the débris of the masses of rock settling down when the stratum was severed. The quantity of débris of shattered rock minutely broken into cubes and other angular forms would suggest that some great shock had occurred. Then the usual yellow pellets of polished lava, either globular or pear-shaped, or like an elongated oval ending in a point and well rounded at the other end, would also indicate that these missiles had been flying great distances through the air in a molten state before they had actually dropped. In fact, the flight was so long as absolutely to cool and solidify them before they fell—unless they had fallen in cold water—for they had retained their original form, instead of getting flattened at the heavier end, as could be expected had the lava reached the ground in a half-soft state. Large blocks of lava—which naturally took a longer time to cool and a shorter time to reach the earth after their flight through the atmosphere—had, in fact, become flattened on the lower side where they struck the ground. Others of a composite globular form had invariably been flattened into a slight curve on the side where they had come in contact with the soil.

Ovoid rocks as large as a loaf of bread and composed of compressed cinders were to be seen about, which, when easily split open, showed a band of slightly ferruginous matter, very brittle, in a crystallized condition. In the centre of these rocks were invariably found beautiful crystals of great limpidity, easily separated from one another by a slight pressure of the fingers.

Erosion had evidently since played great part in the present appearance of the country, but to my mind—directly above what is now a valley—there existed at one time a high range of mountains, which was in those days the great dividing line of the waters flowing south and north.

One might, of course, also argue that what are the mountains now have been pushed up from underneath above the ground into their present position, but local conditions do not tend to encourage this theory.

The strata of red baked rock in the existing mountain side were almost absolutely horizontal, with merely a slight dip to the north. In the northern end of the range the rock showing through the vegetation was white, as if it had been subjected to baking. The western aspect of the first range showed also a vertical summit of red rock with a sloping spur extending to the west.

We camped that night on the river Prata, which flowed south. Elevation, 1,300 ft. Maximum temperature 85° F., minimum 63½° F.

The formation of the clouds was always interesting. The long horizontal streaks across the sky, which were daily noticeable, took a form that day not unlike the vertebræ of an immense snake, whereas the higher clouds of transparent mist in filaments looked exactly like a huge spider's web.

We established our camp under a tall, handsome, slender Xinghi-tree, the triangular fruit of which, with a light brown, hard skin, was deadly poisonous if eaten. Alcides told me that in Minas Geraes it was much used in the manufacture of soap. This tree was extremely neat-looking, with its clean sinuous branches and its pretty, light green, healthy leaves, of an elongated oval shape.

Volcanic Scenery of Matto Grosso.

Chapada in foreground.

Peculiar Formation of Central Plateau.

My men had insisted on bringing dogs away with us for safety in case of attack by Indians. They had in fact procured three—I would not care to say how—before our departure from the Goyaz Province. Those dogs were just as faithless and lazy and worthless as the people. They followed us because they got plenty of food, otherwise they had no affection for anybody; and, far from giving an alarm when any person or any animal approached the camp, they were quite unmoved by anything that happened around them during the day or night, except at meal-times. A handsome onça (jaguar) leapt close to camp, and on perceiving us bounded gracefully away—the dogs remaining fast asleep with their noses resting on their respective extended fore-paws. Another day during the march a veado (Cervus elaphus), a deer, sprang in his flight clean over one of the dogs without the dog even noticing him! Game was plentiful in that part of the country, and the animals were so unaccustomed to see people, that one could get quite near them.

My men went after game in the morning and we did not make an early start, in fact not until 10.30 a.m. It was amazing to see the amount of good water that was to be found on the plateau. We crossed a streamlet flowing south (elev. 1,300 ft.), and shortly afterwards, upon gently inclined land, we crossed another stream, also flowing south.

We were travelling due west along the foot of a curious range which stood to our north and of another of similar characteristics to the south. It seemed quite possible, in fact, even probable, that the two ranges were formerly only one, which had then split, and that we were travelling inside the partially-filled-up fissure between the two divided ranges. The sky-line of the two ranges matched exactly on both sides—first a long hump, then two smaller humps, after that a more even and continuous line.

On reaching an elevation of 1,500 ft. we were confronted with a splendid view of a flat plateau to the west. By a steep descent we went down 300 ft. to a river (elev. 1,200 ft. above the sea level) in a hollow, reached by going through dense tall grass and thick vegetation. A humble wooden cross by the stream marked the spot where a Brazilian had been murdered by Indians.

Interesting flows and domes of lava were to be seen near the stream, after which our marching that day was mostly up and down campos with magnificent grazing, the general slope of which was from north to south. At an elevation of 1,400 ft., on turning our heads back, we had a general view of the two ranges which had become separated.

On one side of the range, a sloping back was noticeable, whereas on the opposite side were almost vertical sides, much grooved, with a terrace about two-thirds up the total elevation, except at the western end, where the terrace was instead exactly half way up, with a minor terrace near the summit.

We met and crossed another streamlet, and then rose on our route to 1,550 ft., from where another beautiful view of the plateau to the south-west could be obtained, a low hill range with a higher peak in front of it, and the immense green campos at a slanting angle. Another fine panoramic view of the two divided ranges was also before us, although from that particular point of vantage it was slightly more difficult to reconstruct their former appearance in one's imagination than from the centre of the valley we had crossed, although even from that point the fact was apparent with a little study.

On proceeding down to the river we met some flows of red lava and, upon the top of nearly every undulation, boulders of black eruptive rock showed through, highly ferruginous, as well as much lava in pellets. Débris of baked red and black rock were to be found in quantities down the slopes and at the bottom of those undulations, carried there evidently by water. In one or two places, such as near the river at Ponte Keimada, I smashed some of the larger boulders of yellow lava. Here is what I found inside: Under an outer coating of lava an inch thick there was a layer of solidified cinders. Under that lay a thin layer of lava, then again yet another layer of grey ashes, then lava again. This would indicate that those boulders had gradually reached their present shape partly in revolutions through the air thick with cinders, partly by rolling down or along intermittent stretches of molten lava and cinders during a great eruption, or perhaps during several successive eruptions. Personally, I think that it was during various periods of one eruption before the lava had cooled, so that in its sticky state it would easily collect the ashes round it, which it would certainly not do in its polished, solidified state.

When we had passed beyond the western end of the two parallel ranges a great change was noticeable in the appearance of the country we were crossing. We missed the long, sweeping, uninterrupted lines of the scenery, and had before our eyes a confused surface of bosses, mounds and short undulations, with thick luxuriant vegetation upon them which prevented my studying carefully their geological formation. The soil, of a rich red colour, showed every indication of being extremely fertile in that particular climate.

From the point where we stood, one could well judge the effects of the great volcanic explosion on the back of the range—the one to our left—where a long line of buttresses had formed, as if on that side a subsidence on a large scale had also taken place. It was in any case curious to notice that at the two termini east and west of the two parallel ranges white rock in columnar form was exposed in both ranges in corresponding sites.

The slope noticeable on the north side of the southern range could be explained by the tilting of the strata where the separation took place. The angle of the strata clearly demonstrated this fact.

Millions of mosquitoes and piums, carrapatinhos and carrapatos made life unbearable both during the day and night. We never had a moment's respite. The gnats, too, in thick swarms around us were a constant worry—we were all day busy removing them from our eyes and ears. They stung us all over most mercilessly. I was making a botanical collection, which not only contained specimens of the leaves of all the trees we met with, but also of minor plants and various kinds of grass. This involved getting off my mule many times a day. Whenever I put my feet on the ground or touched a blade of grass I well knew what was in store for me. At once I became literally covered with carrapatinhos, and set to scratch myself so violently that nothing short of digging my nails into my skin seemed to relieve the irritation—and that, mind you, only momentarily. One had to bear it, and wait until one got to camp in the evening before one could disinfect oneself all over. In this world one never gets credit for anything, but I do think that few men under those circumstances would have gone on, as I did, collecting botanical specimens for no reward whatever except my own pleasure, if pleasure it can be called.

Again we noticed that day wonderful effects of clouds in filaments, one group stretching along the sky in an arc from north to east like the dorsal bone and ribs of an immense fish.

We camped on the bank of a stream (elev. 1,050 ft.) flowing north-east, which was, I think, the same stream we had met in the morning, and which had described a big turn.

My men amused me with their fears. Even when in camp they never left their rifles for a moment. When they went only a few yards away, either to fetch water or bring back a mule, they invariably took all their weapons with them—carbines, automatic pistols, and daggers.

In order to collect specimens and examine the country, I sometimes strayed away alone for long distances from camp—sometimes for two or three hours at a time—always absolutely unarmed. My men began to be thoroughly frightened of the immunity I possessed from attacks of wild beasts and Indians. Although I told them that wild beasts never attacked human beings unless attacked first, and that there were no Indians about, my men would not believe me. They maintained that I must have some special secret of my own which brought me back alive, and that I must be even bullet-proof. They could never be induced to go alone—even when armed—for more than a few metres from camp.

We were having cool nights. Minimum 59° Fahr., maximum 80° Fahr.—on May 17th. A mackerel sky of the prettiest design was overhead, like a lovely mosaic of white and blue porcelain, while a band of clear blue encircled us all around above the horizon line.

Across a forest we continued our journey, rising some 300 ft. to 1,350 ft. above the sea level, where we again found campos and forest alternately upon deep masses of fine red sand or else great expanses of grey and black volcanic cinders intermixed in patches. On reaching the highest elevation we actually went over 6 kil. of volcanic sand and ashes, and in one place traversed a patch of shattered débris with cutting edges of eruptive rock, and brilliant red or deep black pebbles. Then again we saw masses of the usual ferruginous, much-perforated rocks—many so absolutely spherical as to resemble cannon-balls.

To the west we could see before us lovely green undulations—campos—with, in the centre, a curious hump that looked as though due to subterranean pressure. In the distance was visible another of those long flat-topped plateaus typical of Brazil, with a headland which, owing, it seemed, chiefly to erosion, had become separated from the main range. It resembled and was parallel with the second range of the split mountains we had just left. Some nine kilometres from our last camp we encountered the river Das Corgo, flowing south (elev. 1,150 ft.) over a bed formed by an impressive great flow of solidified red lava covered in some places by deposits of bright red earth. Beyond the river we found ourselves again upon yellow sand and ashes.

Beneath a cirro-cumulus—or mackerel sky—again that day, wonderfully beautiful because of its perfection of design, we were gradually rising over the domed elevation we had previously observed, upon which we found masses of tiny pebbles—what are known to geologists by the Italian name of "puzzolana" or scoriæ reduced to a granular condition. Farther on, travelling over other undulations, we sank into thick deposits of grey and yellow volcanic scoriæ, such as fine sand, cinders, and lapilli. At the highest point (elev. 1,270 ft.) we travelled over deep sediments of sand and ashes mixed together. All those undulations, as a matter of fact, were above great buried flows of red lava, which were invariably exposed to sight in the depressions, particularly in the beds of rivers.

Being a great lover of good water—to my mind the elixir of life, the great secret of health and strength—I was always enraptured by the deliciousness of the water in the streams we met. It was so crystalline and limpid that one could not resist the temptation of drinking it, even when not thirsty. I always carried slung to my saddle an enamelled tin cup attached to a string so as to be able to procure myself a drink at all the streams without getting off my mount.

Twelve kilometres from our last camp we came to a watercourse flowing into a big stream at the bottom of the valley. Its bed was in overlapping terraces of polished red lava.

The green country before us, in great sweeping undulations, reminded one much, in its regularity, of the great waves of the ocean—what sailors call "long seas." Where the stream had cut through and left the underlying dome of lava exposed one could easily judge of the thick deposits of sand, ashes and pulverized rock which formed the strata above it.

We travelled over more red volcanic sand for some four kilometres, rising to 1,400 ft., on which elevation was thick matto, or stunted, much entangled forest. Then we emerged once more into glorious open country, marching over a stratum 8 ft. thick of whitish tufa and ashes, this stratum lying immediately above one of red volcanic earth. The strata were easily measurable where rivulets had cut deep grooves in the softer superficial strata and had reached the foundation layer of lava.

The campos seemed to get more and more beautiful as we went west. What magnificent grazing land! One could imagine on it millions and millions of happy, fat cattle; but no, not one was to be seen anywhere. What a pity to see such wonderful country go to waste! There was everything there, barring, perhaps, easy transport, to make the happiness and fortune of thousands upon thousands of farmers—excellent grazing, fertile soil, good healthy climate and delicious and plentiful water—but the country was absolutely deserted.

For miles the beautiful prairies extended, especially to the south-west, where in the distant background loomed a high, flat-topped tableland, interrupted by two deep cuts in its extensive monotonous sky-line. Those cuts were near its southern end. To the south stood a long range of wooded hills—also with an absolutely flat sky-line. We ourselves were not higher than 1,400 ft. above the sea level. My animals stumbled along over a region of much-broken-up débris; then again travelling was easier, although heavy, over tufa, sand and ashes. On descending to a stream, 1,200 ft. above sea level, we slipped terribly on the steep argillaceous slope, and the animals had great difficulty in climbing up on the opposite side, where we made our camp.

Curious Domes of Lava with Upper Stratum of Earth, Sand and Ashes.

Great Undulating Campos of Matto Grosso.

The streamlet flowed east into a larger stream, which we also crossed, and which flowed south-west.

It seemed to be getting colder at night as we went westward (May 18th, min. 57° Fahr.), whereas during the day the temperature was hot—max. 97° F. As early as 9 a.m. the thermometer already registered 85° in the shade, and not a breath of wind. The elevation was 1,150 ft. The sky was in streaky horizontal clouds to the east, and thin misty clouds to the south—cirro-stratus.

One of my horses having strayed away a long distance, we only left that camp in the afternoon after the animal had been recovered. We rose quickly over the usual red volcanic sand held down in its place by the vegetation—rather anæmic at that particular spot. Higher up we again sank in the white and yellow ashes, with occasional zones covered by small, angular, black-baked débris.

Ants seemed to flourish happily in that region, for the ant-heaps were innumerable and of great size, several with towers about 6 ft. in height, resembling miniature mediæval castles.

Having risen—all the time over grey and white ashes—to 1,420 ft., we found ourselves again upon open campos with a splendid view of the flat-topped range we had already seen to the north and of another to the south. At the angle where the northern range changed its direction slightly there stood a high prominence of peculiar appearance. The range extended west, where it ended, into a broken cone—as I have already stated quite separated by erosion from the main range. All along the range in the section between the prominence at the angle and the terminal cone could be noticed three distinct level terraces and several intermediate ones—not yet well defined nor continuous along the whole face of the range. About half-way along its length, a semi-cylindrical vertical cut was a striking feature, and appeared from a distance to be the remains of an extinct crater. It may be noted that where that crater was, the range was higher than elsewhere. Its summit, with an undulating sky-line, lay to the west of it, no doubt formed by erupted matter. Other great vertical furrows were noticeable not far from the crater and to the west of it.

The scenery was getting stranger and stranger every day. We began to notice solitary domes and cones in the landscape. That day, in fact, beyond the great campos we had before us a curious little well-rounded dome, standing up by itself upon an absolutely flat surface, at a considerable distance from the flat tableland which stood on one side, and of which formerly it evidently made part. Higher mountains, somewhat nearer to us, were on the south-west.

We had reached the River Corgo Fundo (elev. 1,250 ft.), along the banks of which the laminæ of red-baked rock could be observed with thin white layers between. Above was a lovely green pasture with a tuft of deep green trees, which looked exactly like a bit of a well-kept English park. We mounted up again to 1,430 ft., then went down another descent into a large plain with campos, upon which grew merely a few stunted trees. We were still travelling over deep deposits of sand.

The range to the north of us extended, to be accurate, from north-east to south-west, and at its south-westerly end possessed a dome not dissimilar to the one already described on our previous day's march. This one was perhaps more rounded and not quite so tall. It rose above the plateau in two well-defined terraces, especially on the north-east side, but was slightly worn and smoothed to the south-west. On the terminal mound—clearly separated from the range by erosion—seven distinct terraces could be counted, with some less defined intermediate ones.

In the bed of another stream flowing south—it was impossible to ascertain the names of these streamlets, for there was no one to tell, and none were marked on existing maps—another great flow of red lava was visible. This stream flowed into the Rio das Garças or Barreiros, only 500 metres away—an important watercourse, throwing itself eastward into the Rio das Mortes, one of the great tributaries of the upper Araguaya River.

CHAPTER XIII

On the banks I collected some specimens of the laminated red rock, which had no great crushing resistance when dry. It could be easily powdered under comparatively light pressure, and scratched with no difficulty with one's nails. It was of various densities of red tones, according to the amount of baking it had undergone. The superposed red strata had a dip northward in some localities. The rock was much fissured, and had either gone through excessive contraction in cooling or else perhaps had been shattered by some earthly commotion—such as must have occurred often in that region in ages gone by, for, if not, how could one account for finding scattered blocks of this red rock resting upon the surface of great stretches—sometimes for 20 or 30 kil.—of uninterrupted sand or ashes which covered such great expanses of that country?

In the valleys, near water, burity palms were numerous.

Overhead the sky was always interesting. The days nearly invariably began with a clear, speckless sky, but, mind you, never of quite so deep a blue as the sky of Italy or Egypt. The sky of Central Brazil was always of a whitish cobalt blue. That morning—an exception to prove the rule—we had awakened to a thick mist around us, which enveloped and damped everything. No sooner did the sun rise than the mist was quickly dispelled. In the late morning, about 10 o'clock, clouds began to form high in the sky—not along the horizon, as is generally the case in most countries—and grew in intensity and size during the afternoon. Nearly every day at about sunset a peculiar flimsy, almost transparent, streak of mist stretched right across the sky from east to west, either in the shape of a curved line, or, as we had observed as recently as the day before, resembling with its side filaments a gigantic feather or the skeleton of a fish.

In the State of Goyaz, it may be remembered, we had a more beautiful and complete effect at sunset of many radiating lines, starting from the east and joining again to the west, but here we merely had one single streak dividing the sky in two. When the sun had long disappeared under the horizon, that streak high up in the sky was still lighted by its rays—becoming first golden, then red. The effect was quite weird.

My men went during the night on another fishing expedition, but with no luck—partly due to the infamy of our dogs. They used as bait for their large hooks toucinho, or pork fat, of which they had started out provided with a huge piece. They walked off a good distance from camp to find a suitable spot. Unfortunately, while they were there the dogs ate up all the toucinho and the result was that the men had to return disappointed. There was plenty of game, especially wild pig and veado (deer).

Alcides had a smattering of botany, which was a great danger to the company. He knew, he thought, the uses, medicinal or otherwise, of all plants, herbs and fruit, wild or not wild. This, in addition to the greediness of the men—who, although actually gorged with food, were always willing to devour anything else they found—led once or twice, as we shall see, to the poisoning of himself and his companions so dangerously as not only to cause terrible internal pains, but to bring them all actually to death's door.

I never got poisoned myself, as I generally took good care to watch the effects of those experiments upon my men first. Then also in my many years of exploration I had learnt only too well to beware of even the most seductive tropical plants and fruit. Notwithstanding all this, Alcides was really wonderful at turning out pleasant-tasting beverages from the stewed bark or leaves of various trees, and of these decoctions—in which additional quantities of sugar played an important part—my men and myself drank gallons upon gallons. Many of those drinks had powerful astringent qualities and had severe effects upon the bladder, but some were indeed quite good and innocuous.

During the night I observed a most perfect lunar halo, the circle, close to the moon, displaying a curious yellowish red outer fringe.

Since leaving the Araguaya we had been bothered a good deal nightly by the heavy dew, which absolutely soaked everything, made all our rifles and axes and iron implements rusty, and the tents and saddles and baggage considerably heavier for the animals to carry, owing to the moisture they had absorbed. In the early morning we began to get thick cold mist, and it was about that time that the minimum temperature was usually registered—58° Fahr. that particular night, May 19th. We were at quite a low elevation, merely 1,100 ft. When we started in the morning we found more sand and volcanic débris over ridges some 100 ft. or so above the level of the river. A torrent, 15 metres wide, flowing swiftly W.S.W. on a red lava bed, was crossed, the mules slipping terribly on the polished rock. More ashes and sand were found as we ascended to an elevation of 1,200 ft., from which height we discerned a much-terraced headland to the east and two streams meeting and flowing south where we eventually crossed them. One of those watercourses descended in cascades over laminated successive flows of lava, between which thin layers of white crystallization could be seen.

Slightly higher, at 1,250 ft., we sank again in yellow and grey ashes.

Across campos we reached another foaming torrent, flowing as usual over a lava bed, but this time in a north-westerly instead of in a southerly direction. That day we met with many watercourses. Having risen to 1,450 ft., we soon after found another streamlet (elev. 1,230 ft.). Again a red lava-flow was exposed in its bed and showed heavy upper deposits of grey ashes, with above them a thick layer of yellow-ochre sand (1,300 ft.).

The distances on the journey were measured by a watch, the speed of the animals at the time being naturally taken into consideration. It was not possible to use the usual bicycle wheel with a meter attached, which is used with so much success in the Arctic regions or in countries where travelling more or less in a straight line and on a level surface is possible.

Another limpid stream flowing south-west (elev. 1,200 ft.) was reached, then more deep sand and ashes. After that we came to a thick growth of bamboos and brush on reaching the banks of a streamlet winding its way north.

Travelling up and down, all day and day after day, over those undulations became tedious work—red sand, whitish sand, grey ashes, all the time.

Typical Brazilian Plateau, showing Work of Erosion.

On the Plateau of Matto Grosso.

(Alcides in foreground.)

On the west side, on descending the last prominence we at last came to a slight variation in the geological composition of the country. After more white sand and ashes had been passed, we came upon great stretches of greenish grey granite exposed in huge domes and much striated, with parallel grooves on its surface so deep that they almost looked as if they had been incised by a sharp tool. These grooves were, nevertheless, naturally caused by the sharp friction of sand and water, I think, and also by sand blown over those rocks with terrific force by winds of inconceivable vigour. All the way down our descent we travelled over that striated rock. It had become exposed to the air, but must have once been buried under sand and ashes like all the rest of that region. Curious vertical cracks were to be noticed in several places, with ramifications from a common centre—evidently caused by the concussion of some huge weight which had fallen from above, perhaps a huge boulder shot out by volcanic action, which had then rolled farther down the incline.

The terminal side of the curious range we had on our right appeared not unlike a fortress with its vertical walls standing upon a slanting bastion.

At the bottom (elev. 1,200 ft.) of the great dome of granite we had travelled upon we crossed a stream flowing south-west, the water of which was quite warm. The high temperature was due, I think, to the heat absorbed by the rock exposed to the sun and communicated to the water flowing over it, rather than to a thermal origin.

Continuing our journey, we had to the south a great hollow basin in the south-western end of the range, with two hillocks between the range itself and the flat boundary plateau to the south.

The highest point of the hill on which we travelled was 1,450 ft. above the sea level. Every metre we travelled westward became more strangely interesting. We were now upon a conglomerate of bespattered lava-drops encased in a coating of solidified ashes. When we reached the stream we had to go through a dark tunnel of dense vegetation, great ferns, giant palms, creepers with their abundant foliage, and tall trees festooned with liane. Having crossed this dark vegetable passage, we emerged once more into lovely open campos.

Great lumpy globular woolly clouds faced us in the sky to the west. Horizontal intermittent white layers were close to the horizon to the east, then three parallel lines of feathery mist to the north-west. In quantity of clouds the sky that day would meteorologically be described as C 4—which means that four-tenths of the sky vault was covered.

One could not help being struck in Central Brazil by the almost absolute immobility of the clouds. One seldom experienced a strong wind; contrary to what must have taken place there in ages gone by, when that country must have been the very home of terrific air-currents and disturbances on a scale beyond all conception. It was only occasionally that a light breeze—merely in gusts of a few seconds—would refresh one's ears and eyes as one marched on. What was more remarkable still was the sudden change of direction of those spasmodic gusts of wind when they did come.

From a river (elev. 1,250 ft.) we proceeded over undulations to 1,550 ft. There we were treated to an extensive and beautiful view to the west, south-west and north-west. The elevated sky-line formed by the plateau and mountains was quite straight, barring three much eroded mountains standing quite isolated and at a great distance from one another.

One of these solitary elevations was to the south-west, another—the castle-like mountain of great height we had already observed—stood due west. Then came the long flat line of the plateau but for a gentle convexity at each end. The plateau, dressed in thick forest, stood in the middle distance to the west-south-west. Campos of great beauty were prominent on its slopes and in the two hollows in the immediate vicinity.

As we wound our way forward we found masses of ferruginous black rock, black débris, and beautiful crystals.

The silence of that wonderful landscape was impressive. The tinkling of my mules' neck-bells was the only cheering sound breaking that monotonous solitude—except perhaps the occasional harsh voices of my men urging on the animals with some unrepeatable oath or other.

Filippe, the negro—to be distinguished from the other Filippi in my employ, a mulatto—was mounted on one of my best mules. He carried a regular armoury on his back and round his waist, for not only did he carry his own rifle but also mine, besides a pistol and two large knives. He rode along, slashing with a long whip now at one mule then at another. Occasionally he treated us to some of his improvised melodies—not at all bad and quite harmonious, although one got rather tired of the incessant repetitions. Filippe was a pure negro, born in Brazil from ex-slaves. He had never been in Africa. His songs interested me, for although much influenced naturally by modern Brazilian and foreign airs he had heard at Araguary, still, when he forgot himself and his surroundings, he would relapse unconsciously into the ululations and plaintive notes and rhythm typical of his ancestral land in Central Africa—that of the Banda tribe, which I happened to have visited some years before. I identified him easily by his features, as well as by his music and other characteristics.

Filippe did not remember his father and mother, nor had he known any other relatives. He had no idea to what tribe he had belonged, he did not know any African language, and he had never to his remembrance knowingly heard African music. It was remarkable under those circumstances that the Central African characteristics should recur unconsciously in Filippe's music. It showed me that one is born with or without certain racial musical proclivities, dictated by the heart and brain. They cannot be eradicated for many generations, no matter what the place of birth may be or the different surroundings in which the individual may find himself, or the influences which may affect him even early in life.

Brazil was certainly a great country for tablelands. As we came out again into the open, another great plateau, ending with a spur not unlike the ram of a battleship, loomed in the foreground to the south. Yet another plateau of a beautiful pure cobalt, also with another gigantic ram, appeared behind the first, in continuation of the two separated plateaux we have already examined. It was separated from these by a deep cut—a regular cañon—several miles wide, and with sides so sharply defined that it looked like the artificial work of an immense canal.

Great campos lay before us in the near foreground, from our high point of vantage (elev. 1,550 ft.). We were still travelling on a surface of volcanic débris, yellow ashes and sand—forming a mere cap over all those hills, the foundation of which was simply a succession of giant domes of lava.

North-west we still had the almost flat sky-line of a plateau rising slightly in two well-defined steps or terraces to a greater height in its northern part. What most attracted me that day was the delightful view of the Barreiros valley spreading before us—a view of truly extraordinary grandeur.

We rapidly descended, leaving to our left the Indian colony of Aracy. Great granitic and lava slabs, much striated, were seen on our way down to the river (elev. 1,200 ft.). The stream was 50 metres wide, and flowed south where we crossed it. There was a handsome white sand beach on the left bank of the river. On the western, or right bank, stood great volcanic cliffs of boiled and broiled rock, interesting for the violent contortions they had undergone during the processes of ebullition, which showed plainly in their present solidified form.

The river bed itself was one of the usual lava-flows with huge globular lumps and knots—but all in a solid, uninterrupted mass.

We waded chest-deep across the stream, conveyed our baggage and mules to the opposite side, and then we all enjoyed a lovely bath with plenty of lathering soap in the deliciously refreshing waters of the Rio Barreiros.

The river Barreiros, which had its birth in the Serra Furnas Corros, to the south-west, entered the Rio das Garças—there 100 metres wide—a short distance from where we crossed it. The latter river, by far the larger of the two and of a very circuitous course, flowed in a south-easterly direction into the Araguaya. The Rio das Garças, which also had its origin in the Furnas Corros Mountains, had almost a parallel course with the upper Barreiros from south-west to north-east, but on meeting the Barreiros suddenly swung round at a sharp angle towards the south-east, which direction it more or less followed until it entered the Araguaya.

We made our camp on the right bank of the Barreiros River. My men were in a great state of mind when I told them that perhaps on this river we might find some Indians. The cautious way in which they remained as quiet as lambs in camp amused me. I noticed the care with which they cleaned their rifles and replenished their magazines with cartridges. I assured them that there was no danger—in fact, that quite close to this place we should find one of the Salesian colonies.

CHAPTER XIV