A Giant Wave of Lava.
On descending from the summit of the plateau, by a very steep slope, we saw many shrubs of sapatinho, a medicinal plant of the genus euphorbiaceæ (Euphorbia), growing in the interstices of red igneous rock, and among quantities of débris of marble, crystals, and eruptive pebbles.
During the night we had a magnificent lunar display. There was a good deal of moisture in the air, and mist. First of all a gorgeous lunar halo was observed, which later vanished to leave room for a most extraordinary geometrical design upon the partly moon-illuminated clouds and masses of mist. A most perfect luminous equilateral triangle appeared, with its apex downwards to the west and the half-moon in the central point of the base-line of the triangle above. On either side of the apex of the triangle faint concentric circles blended away into the sky near the horizon. Later in the night that curious effect disappeared and a multiple lunar rainbow of amazing beauty and perfection was to be admired.
In ecstasy at the beautiful sight, and in a moment of forgetfulness, I drew the attention of my men to the wonderful spectacle.
"That's the moon!" they answered, with a snarl. Talking among themselves, they contemptuously added: "He has never seen the moon before!" and they went on with the never-changing, blood-curdling tales of murders which filled them nightly with delight.
The streamlet flowing south, on the bank of which we camped, took its name of Sapatinho from the many sapatinho trees which were in the neighbourhood. It was a curious watercourse, which disappeared into a tunnel in the rock, to reappear only farther off out of a hole in a red lava-flow.
We had marched until late into the night, and it was not until we arrived and made camp that I noticed that Filippe the negro was missing. Several hours elapsed, and as he had not turned up I feared that something had happened to him. Had he been one of the other men I should have thought it a case of desertion; but Filippe was a good fellow, and I had from the beginning felt that he and Alcides would be the two faithful men on that expedition. I went back alone a mile or two in the moonlight to try and find him, but with no success.
At sunrise I ordered two men to go in search of him. The fellows—who had no mercy whatever even for one another—were loth to go back to look for their companion and his mount. When they eventually started they took a pick each to dig his grave in case they found him dead. Fortunately they had only been gone from camp a few minutes when I perceived Filippe riding down the steep incline.