When the doctor came out, he sat on the bench between the mayor and me, and informed us that Huber had a sunstroke, and that it was doubtful if he would live. "Anyhow," he said, "if he recovers, he will have to remain here for weeks before he is well. He shouldn't have come here in the first place. My opinion is that he won't survive twenty-four hours longer." I returned to the botequim where I lodged for dinner, although the mayor was insistent that I should dine with him. I excused myself; saying that I had things to attend to and that I would return later on to see how Huber was getting on. "He will get on all right if human agencies can help, but in this case they are of little avail. I have seen such cases before," were his parting words to me, as I turned up the moonlit street towards the middle of the town from which shouts and ribald laughter emanating from the drunken rubber men were audible in the otherwise sleepy town.
At the botequim where I roomed there was an orgy going on. Most of the rubber men were soused and our two guides were rapidly filling up. Rum, gin, and brandy were spilled all over the room, on the tables, on the chairs, and on the floor. A couple of bums lay in a corner of the room and one on a soap box, his feet dangling over it into space. The brutal-appearing ruffian who was the landlord was his own best customer yet he was intent enough on business to charge two prices, one to the badly drunk individuals, and a cheaper one to those in a lesser maudlin state. I was hungry but as it was impossible to eat in this barroom, in which on other occasions meals were served, I repaired to the shed which served as a kitchen and asked if anything to eat could be had. Two slatternly halfbreed female servants informed me that in a few minutes dinner would be served. I waited for over half an hour and was so impatient with hunger that I was at my wits' end, when the youngest of the two approached me and whispered that the proprietor had the keys to the storeroom in his pocket and that he would beat her if she disturbed him. Disgusted I set out to buy some canned goods to sup on at one of the stores which combine the selling of groceries with that of light hardware and dry goods, when I felt a pull at my sleeve and looking around saw the same halfbreed standing there as if she had something to tell me.
"I hope the senhor does not want me to sleep with him to-night," she whispered to my great astonishment; "Manoel is here from the rubber country, and if he finds it out he will kill me. Manoel is my fellow and he is crazy jealous over me."
This was the first time that I was apprised of the fact that the custom of Bohemia was likewise prevalent in Matto Grosso.
For an exorbitant price, I bought two cans of salmon which I washed down with a bottle of warm beer. I had been counting for the past three days on a square meal at Diamantino. I returned to the mayor's house and found that Huber had steadily become worse, and at times was so violent that he had to be held down on the bed. Late that night he took a turn to the better, so the doctor said, which lasted about seven hours. About five o'clock in the morning he steadily grew worse and at eight-thirty died in the presence of the mayor, his family, the doctor, the priest, one of the guides, and myself. He had only been sick twenty hours. Although the mayor had said he had seen cases of sunstroke before, I had never seen one in the tropics. Moreover as sunstroke is most frequent in the first hours after sunrise and in those preceding sundown, it must have been that he was exposed in the morning of the day before, even before we reached the pool, for it was then that the hot rays shone on his head.
House in Diamantino where Huber Died
At about eleven o'clock in the morning of the day on which he died, Huber's lich was interred in the gruesome cemetery of plain black crosses on the hillside, a mile beyond the town, I officiating by throwing the last few shovelfuls of dirt on his eternal resting place. The town authorities took charge of his possessions and notified his employers who knew the address of his relations in Stettin. The mayor would accept no pay, but expressed the desire that he would like Huber's revolver, belt, and cartridges. I could not very well refuse seeing that he and the officials already had possession of all the deceased man's articles; I would not have refused anyway on account of the courtesy he showed. I paid the doctor and the priest, but I also have no doubt that they got their share for their services from the money that Huber had in a wallet as well. I stayed that night at the mayor's house, but the morbidity of the affair depressed me so much that I left Diamantino early the following morning for my return trip, being accompanied by Huber's guide as well as my own to Cuyabá. I saved a day by traveling the regular track and leaving the source of the Paraguay River a six hours' ride to the east. I stopped a day at Cuyabá, another one at Corumbá, and three weeks later left Asuncion.
Four passenger steamers of the Mihanovich line now ply weekly between Asuncion and Buenos Aires. They are the Bruselas, the Berna, and the two smaller ships, the Lambary and the Guarany. The downstream trip takes over three days. I left Asuncion a Sunday morning on the Bruselas. The scenery is intensely tropical, but after the first few miles flat. On the left bank soon after leaving Asuncion are passed the tumulus of Tucumbú and the conical-shaped hill, Lambary, the latter a landmark. Soon on the right we reached the Argentine frontier post of Pilcomayo, on the long and narrow river of that name. It rises in the high and bleak plateau of Bolivia and flows through the Gran Chaco, where for a long space it loses itself in the marshes only to reappear broader, lower down. From now on we have Paraguay on the left and the Argentine territory of Formosa on the right. The only stops of any importance the first day are Villeta, Formosa, Villa Oliva, Villa del Pilar, and Humaita. All are Paraguayan, except Formosa which is the capital of the Argentine territory of the same name. At Villeta, small boats laden with cigars, plants, and fruits are rowed out to the steamers, and the leprous hags to whom these mixed cargoes belong drive bargains with the sailors, who are crazy to buy pineapples. Before reaching Villa Oliva, a palmetto swamp is passed on the Paraguayan side which stretches backward as far as the eye can see. Villa del Pilar is the most important Paraguayan town stopped at. A railroad track on which are flat cars drawn by horses leads from the town to the dock; these cars are usually laden with tobacco leaf to be exported to Buenos Aires. A crowd was at the dock and it much resembled the crowds seen on the docks of the Great Lakes ports, with the exception that among its members were sportily attired youths with high collars, roaring ties, Panama hats, and patent-leather shoes. It was ludicrous to see such people in such out-of-the-way places.