From the east came a little tributary, 2 m. wide, on the right bank. Another beautiful island, 500 m. long and 80 m. wide—Helena Island—a most enchanting place, preceded by the usual gravel mounds and beach, was passed in the afternoon. Small streamlets entered the main stream, one on each side—one 6 kils. beyond Helena Island, the other one a little farther.
The river maintained its average width of 200 m. nearly all the time. Late in the afternoon we passed on the left bank a hill 120 ft. high, belonging to a range that extended from E.S.E. to W.N.W. at an angle to the river, which there flowed in a direction almost north. There was plenty of rubber of excellent quality near the water.
Shortly after leaving this range we came to a lagoon, then to open campos behind a thin row of stunted trees on the left bank. The lagoon was situated at a point where the river described a curve from north to 70° b.m. Two small streamlets entered the Arinos on the right. We made camp near a small lagoon in the forest shortly after sunset.
The distance we had travelled during the last two days was 86 kil. 900 m. on July 11th, and 76 kil. 600 m. on July 12th, or altogether 163 kil. 500 m.
To anybody accustomed to travelling in equatorial countries it seems amazing, on returning to civilization, to find what curious notions people have of the tropical forest. Even in the case of writers of distinction I could quote many passages which are painfully ridiculous. One of the greatest modern Italian writers, for instance—who, by the way, in one of his latest novels, copied almost word for word many pages from my books—added the poetic touch that in the tropical forest flowers were found so large that they could not be picked, and fruit so enormous that no human tooth could bite it! Again, the majority of people believe that it is impossible to go through the forest without cutting your way all the time—the "cutting a way through" meaning to most people the constant chopping down of trees of all sizes, undergrowth, bamboos, liane, and other creepers. As a matter of fact, any experienced traveller has much less trouble in going through the forest than people imagine. This is not the case with people unacquainted with the forest, or with people whose sense of observation is not much developed. One can go sometimes for miles through the dense forest without once using knives at all; although necessarily a knife must be carried, as there are places where a cut from its blade will make passing through more comfortable. This is particularly true of the Brazilian forest. The forests of that country, especially in the central region where I was then travelling, were wonderfully clean, when once you entered them, although, when seen from the river, they appeared impenetrable. Near the water, owing to the moisture, there was frequently a thick but narrow belt—only a few metres wide—of dense growth. Beyond it, when you were in the forest itself, nothing grew under the trees, and the ground was just as clean as the best kept English park. One could walk in comfort without the slightest trouble, an occasional well-applied blow with the heavy-bladed knife disentangling in a second an interfering liana which might stand in one's way.
It must not be forgotten that you can get under or over liane, or shift them on one side, without ever having the trouble of severing them. It is only occasionally, when they are entangled, that it saves time to cut them. Barring an occasional thick belt along the Amazon River, it is almost safe to assert that an experienced man can travel, alone, anywhere in the forests of Brazil without carrying a penknife. This is not the case, of course, when you are travelling with a caravan and with baggage, when a sufficiently large passage has to be opened.
In Africa the equatorial forests are incomparably more difficult to traverse than the Brazilian forests, and those who assert the Brazilian forests to be impenetrable only say so because they do not know what they are talking about. Even when it comes to actually chopping down trees in the Brazilian forests, one blow with the axe or with the knife will easily cut down a fair-sized tree. As I have already stated elsewhere, most of the Brazilian forest trees have no resistance whatever. They are full of water, and, with a judicious blow, can be cut almost as easily as celery. Many are the trees also, the inside of which near the ground has been eaten up entirely by ants, and it was not uncommon when you leant heavily against a tree that you and the tree tumbled down. Ants do not seem to attack lactiferous trees, such as those producing rubber, which therefore flourished in that particular region.
Most of the trees in that particular part of the forest were small in diameter, and only had branches or leaves at a very great height. That was why the forests in Brazil looked so extraordinarily clean beneath, in contrast to the equatorial forest in such countries as Central Africa or the Philippine Islands. The wonderful cleanliness of the river, to which I have so often alluded, was a great contrast to the masses of floating decomposing vegetation which is always to be seen in the African rivers.
The minimum temperature during the night of July 13th was 51° Fahr. During that night we were suddenly roused by our dogs barking furiously. We heard strange noises, as if people were trying to run away quickly through the forest. Indians had, much to our surprise, come quite close to our camp, and had it not been for the alarm given by the dogs we should most likely have been attacked by them. In the morning we heard in the distance their war-cries and piercing ululations, which rent the air. Judging merely by the noise they made, there must have been from thirty to fifty of them. My men were greatly excited over this experience. These Indians belonged, I think, to the Tapanhonas tribe.
We left our camp at 7.45 in the morning. As the river was there in an almost straight line for 8 kil., we continued hearing—more and more faintly, of course, as we went on—for some distance the excited yells of the Indians.