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Cornugaya Directory 08
Page 03
As nearly all the launches in the place belonged to the Government, I had
then to apply to the Commandante of the flotilla of the Government boats.
It will be easily understood that my anxiety was great to go and rescue
my men; so that on leaving the palace I immediately proceeded to the
private house of this gentleman--a great friend of the Governor, I
learned afterwards. On sending in my card at five o'clock in the
afternoon I was kept waiting a little time, then there appeared a
yellow-faced individual in his pyjamas, muttering words which I should
not like to repeat.
I ARRIVED in Manaos in the evening of November 15th. I was very ill
indeed, my right foot so swollen that I could hardly stand on it, and so
painful that I could not put on a shoe or even a slipper, so that I had
to hop about with only a sock over it. The doctor on board had told me
that I was suffering from beri-beri, and although I tried not to believe
him I was gradually forced to the conclusion that he was right. In fact,
atrophy set in by degrees--one of the characteristics of beri-beri being
that after a time you feel no pain at all. You can dig a pin into the
affected part, or pluck off all the hairs without feeling the slightest
pain. I was in a bad way, although I never laid up for an entire day.
From the moment I arrived I "got busy," to use an American expression, in
order to go to the rescue of Filippe the negro and another man I had left
in charge of my valuable baggage near the mouth of the Canuma River, a
tributary of the Madeira. It was necessary for me to borrow or charter a
steam launch for one or two days, so that I could save men and baggage. I
applied to the Governor of the Amazonas, who had received telegraphic
instructions from the Central Government to give me every possible
assistance. When I called upon him he said he was not the "black servant"
of the President of the Republic; that he was practically an independent
ruler, and would obey nobody's orders or instructions, especially from
the Central Government.
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