arrived in the country at the limit both of his strength and his
resources. Magalhaës had found him half-dead with hunger and fatigue
in the neighboring forest. The Portuguese had an excellent heart; he
did not ask the unknown where he came from, but what he wanted. The
noble, high-spirited look which Joam Garral bore in spite of his
exhaustion had touched him. He received him, restored him, and, for
several days to begin with, offered him a hospitality which lasted
for his life.

Under such conditions it was that Joam Garral was introduced to the
farm at Iquitos.

Brazilian by birth, Joam Garral was without family or fortune.
Trouble, he said, had obliged him to quit his country and abandon all
thoughts of return. He asked his host to excuse his entering on his
past misfortunes--misfortunes as serious as they were unmerited. What
he sought, and what he wished, was a new life, a life of labor. He
had started on his travels with some slight thought of entering a
fazenda in the interior. He was educated, intelligent. He had in all
his bearing that inexpressible something which tells you that the man
is genuine and of frank and upright character. Magalhaës, quite taken
with him, asked him to remain at the farm, where he would, in a
measure, supply that which was wanting in the worthy farmer.

Joam Garral accepted the offer without hesitation. His intention had
been to join a _"seringal,"_ or caoutchouc concern, in which in those
days a good workman could earn from five to six piastres a day, and
could hope to become a master if he had any luck; but Magalhaës very
truly observed that if the pay was good, work was only found in the
seringals at harvest time--that is to say, during only a few months