So Quickly Did This Happen
That Before We Had Time To Look Around The Unfortunate Man Was
Weltering In His Own Blood In The Bottom Of The Boat!
The assassin,
an elderly Brazilian, who had eaten at our table and scarcely spoken
to anyone, stepped forward quietly, confessing that he had shot one
of his old enemies.
He was then taken ashore in the ship's boat,
there to await Brazilian justice, and later on, to appear before a
higher tribunal, where the accounts of all men will be balanced.
Such rottenness obtains in Brazilian law that not long since a judge
sued in court a man who had bribed him and sought to evade paying the
bribe. Knowing this laxity, we did not anticipate that our murderous
fellow-traveller would have to suffer much for his crime. The News,
of Rio Janeiro, recently said: "The punishment of a criminal who has
any influence whatever is becoming one of the forgotten things."
After leaving Puerto Martinho, the uniform flatness of the river
banks changes to wild, mountainous country. On either hand rise high
mountains, whose blue tops at times almost frowned over our heads,
and the luxuriant tropical vegetation, with creeping lianas,
threatened to bar our progress. Huge alligators sunned themselves on
the banks, and birds of brilliant plumage flew from branch to branch.
Carpinchos, with heavy, pig-like tread, walked among the rushes of
the shore, and made more than one good dish for our table. This
water-hog, the largest gnawing animal in the world, is here very
common.
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