Mud had to serve
for soap. Our washing, spread out on the reeds, would soon dry, and
off we would start for another stage.
The unpeopled state of the country was a constant wonder to me;
generations have disappeared without leaving a trace of their
existence. Sometimes I stopped to admire the pure white water-lilies
growing on stagnant black water, or the lovely Victoria Regia, the
leaf of which is at times so large as to weigh ten pounds. The
flowers have white petals, tinted with rose, and the centre is a deep
violet. Their weight is between two and three pounds.
Wherever we camped we lit immense fires of brushwood, and generally
slept peacefully, but with loaded rifle at arm's length.
A portion of land which I rode over while in that district must have
been just a thin crust covering a mighty cave. The horses' footfalls
made hollow sounds, and when the thin roof shook I half expected to
be precipitated into unknown depths.
After many weeks of varied experiences we arrived at or near the land
I was seeking. There, on the banks of a river, we struck camp, and
from there I made short excursions in all directions in order to
ascertain the approximate value of the old gentleman's estate. On the
land we came upon an encampment of poor, half or wholly naked Caingwa
Indians. By them we were kindly received, and found that,
notwithstanding their extremely sunken condition and abject poverty,
they seemed to have mandioca and bananas in abundance. In return for
a few knives and beads, I was able to purchase quite a stock. Seeing
that all the dishes, plates, and bottles they have grow in the form
of gourds, they imagine all such things we use also grow. It was
amusing to hear them ask for seeds of the glass medicine bottles I
carried with me.
A drum, ingeniously made by stretching a serpent's skin over a large
calabash, was monotonously beaten as our good-night lullaby when we
stretched ourselves out on the grass.
The Caingwa men all had their lower lip pierced, and hanging down
over the breast was a thin stick about ten inches long. Their faces
were also painted in strange patterns.
Learning from their chief that the royal tribe to which they
originally belonged lived away in the depths of the forest to the
east, some moons distant, I became curious. After repeated enquiries
I was told that a king ruled the people there, and that they daily
worshipped the sun. Hearing of these sun-worshippers, I determined,
if possible, to push on thither. The old chief himself offered to
direct us if, in return, I would give him a shirt, a knife, and a
number of white beads.
