CHAPTER X - FIRST ASCENT OF THE RIVER UAUPÉS

Summary

At length the long looked-for canoe arrived, and we immediately made preparations for our voyage. Fishhooks and knives and beads were looked out to suit the customers we were going among, and from whom Senhor L. hoped to obtain farinha and salsaparilha: and I, fish, insects, birds, and all sorts of bows, arrows, blowpipes, baskets, and other Indian curiosities.

On the 3rd of June, at six in the morning, we started. The weather had cleared up a few days before, and was now very fine. We had only two Indians with us, the same who had run away from Javíta, and who had been paid their wages beforehand, so we now made them work it out. Those who had just returned from Barra, were not willing to go out again immediately, but we hoped to get plenty on entering the Uaupés. The same afternoon, we reached São Joaquim, at the mouth of that river; but as there were no men there, we were obliged to go on, and then commenced our real difficulties, for we had to encounter the powerful current of the overflowing stream. At first some bays, in which there were counter-currents, favoured us; but in more exposed parts, the waters rushed along with such violence, that our two paddles could not possibly move the canoe.

We could only get on by pulling the bushes and creepers and tree-branches which line the margin of the river, now that almost all the adjacent lands were more or less flooded.