collected enough to fill five photographic 5 × 7 plate-boxes, the
only empty receptacles I could lay my hands on. I could have filled a
barrel, for the creek was thick with the clay-balls as far as I could
see; but I had a continuous fever and this, with the exhaustion from
semi-starvation, caused me to be indifferent to this great wealth. In
fact, I would have gladly given all the gold in the creek for _One_
square meal. If the difficulties in reaching this infernal region
were not so great, I have no doubt that a few men could soon make
themselves millionaires.

The deadly fever came among us after a few days. It struck a young
man called Brabo first; the next day I fell sick with another serious
attack of swamp-fever, and we both took to our hammocks. For five
days and nights I was delirious most of the time, listening to the
mysterious noises of the forest and seeing in my dreams visions of
juicy steaks, great loaves of bread, and cups of creamy coffee. In
those five days the only food in the camp was howling monkey,
the jerked beef and the dried farinha having given out much to my
satisfaction, as I became so heartily disgusted with this unpalatable
food that I preferred to starve rather than eat it again. At first I
felt the lack of food keenly, but later the pain of hunger was dulled,
and only a warm, drugged sensation pervaded my system. Starvation
has its small mercies.

I became almost childishly interested in small things. There was a
peculiar sound that came from the deep forest in the damp nights;
I used to call it the "voice of the forest." To close one's eyes and
listen was almost to imagine oneself near the murmuring crowd of a
large city. It was the song of numerous frogs which inhabited a creek
near our _tambo_. Then I would hear four musical notes uttered in a