I left the men to prepare an excellent and plentiful meal while I retired to a distant spot to count out their salaries. When I returned and handed them the money—after their appetites had been fully satisfied, and they had left next to nothing for me—they said I could keep the money, as they did not want it; they were sorry for what they had said, and would go on wherever I ordered them to go. They said that I certainly must have a guardian angel watching over me, and they were sure that as long as they were in my company they would never die of starvation.
"I have never seen anything like it!" exclaimed the man X, who was the humorist of the party. "We want food and cannot get it, and there el senhor strolls a few yards away from us and a huge fish jumps almost into his arms in order to be eaten."
I never cared to let them know of my own surprise at the extraordinary occurrence.
I was rather pleased that day, because my men, in an outburst of friendliness, said they knew that if ever we did die of starvation it would not be my fault, because had they been careful we would still have had three or four months' supply of provisions left. They themselves said how foolish they had been; the provisions we carried had only lasted us thirty days. Nearly three weeks before I had warned Alcides to economize, and the result was that, instead of sorting out food twice a day to the men, he sorted it out four times a day and in double quantities.
Distant View showing Both Falls at the Salto Augusto.
Launching the Canoe after its Journey over a Hill Range.