continued to her brother and to Manoel:

"Let us be off to the library! Let us get hold of every book and
every map that we can find which will tell us anything about this
magnificent river system! Don't let us travel like blind folks! I
want to see everything and know everything about this king of the
rivers of the earth!"


CHAPTER V

THE AMAZON

"THE LARGEST river in the whole world!" said Benito to Manoel Valdez,
on the morrow.

They were sitting on the bank which formed the southern boundary of
the fazenda, and looking at the liquid molecules passing slowly by,
which, coming from the enormous range of the Andes, were on their
road to lose themselves in the Atlantic Ocean eight hundred leagues
away.

"And the river which carries to the sea the largest volume of water,"
replied Manoel.

"A volume so considerable," added Benito, "that it freshens the sea
water for an immense distance from its mouth, and the force of whose
current is felt by ships at eight leagues from the coast."

"A river whose course is developed over more than thirty degrees of