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Cornugaya Directory 10
The men agreed to this. As I could not trust any of them, I took the
precaution to take along with me all my notebooks and the maps I had made
of the entire region we had crossed, four hundred glass negatives which I
had taken and developed, a number of unexposed plates, a small camera, my
chronometer, one aneroid, a sextant, a prismatic compass, one other
compass, and a number of other things which were absolutely necessary.
The rest of the baggage I left at that spot. I begged the men to take
special care of the packages. All I asked of them was to prop them up on
stones so that the termites and ants should not destroy my possessions,
and to make a shed with palm leaves so as to protect the packages as much
as possible from the rain. The men promised to do all this faithfully. We
drew lots as to who were to be the two to accompany me on the difficult
errand across the virgin forest. Fate selected Filippe the negro and
Benedicto, both terribly ill.
The last blow came to me that evening, when my men informed me that we
had no food whatever left. All that remained of our three months'
provisions were six tins of sardines and one tin of anchovies. That was
all. My men made no secret of having thrown away everything as we came
along. The sugar, for which they had a perfect craving, they had eaten,
consuming in the last two days the entire supply of 30 lb., which had
remained until then. It was then that I understood the cause of the
internal inflammation from which they all suffered. They were greatly
excited, and demanded the balance of their money, not wishing to come on
any more; they wanted to fall back on the River Tapajoz and go home.
There was a riot. They threatened to shoot me if I insisted on their
coming on.
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