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Cornugaya Directory 09
Page 03
From the spot where I met Pedro Nunes--quite close to the junction of the
Canuma River with the Madeira River--going down by river it would have
been possible to reach Manaos in two or three days. Dom Pedro Nunes,
however, with his expedition, could not return, nor sell me a boat, nor
lend me men; so that I thought my best plan was to go back with him up
the River Canuma and then the Secundury River, especially when I heard
from the trader that the latter river came from the south-east--which
made me think that perhaps I might find a spot at its most south-easterly
point where the distance would not be great to travel once more across
the forest, back to my men whom I had left near the Tapajoz.
Had we not constructed that raft--had we not been on board at that
moment--we should have missed the expedition and certainly should have
died. Had we been following the bank of the river on foot, we never could
have seen the boats nor heard them, as the banks were extremely high, and
it was never possible to keep close to the stream when marching in the
forest; we always had to keep some hundred metres or so from the water in
order to avoid the thick vegetation on the edge of the stream. In fact,
Benedicto, who was walking in the forest along the stream, had gone past
the boats and had neither heard nor seen them. When we shouted out to him
he was already a long distance off, a boat sent out to him by Dom Pedro
Nunes having to travel nearly 800 m. before it could get up to him and
bring him back.
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