start,
that by this time they must be close to the raft, if they are not safe
on it; and, depend upon it, we shall reach them soon after daylight."
We sat for some time, when Uncle Paul suggested that we should take some
refreshment before again starting; for, notwithstanding our hurry, we
had kept our provision-raft and clothes attached to our floats; indeed,
they were of too much value to admit of our abandoning them, unless in
the last extremity. We got out some dried fish and fruit, of which we
each of us partook, more from necessity than from feeling any
inclination to eat.

We had just again done up the packages, and were preparing to start,
when Kallolo exclaimed, "I hear some one coming!" We listened; and in a
few seconds we could distinguish the sound of a rustling of boughs, as
if a person were making his way through them.

"Stay a moment," said Kallolo. "There are but two people; and if they
were foes, they would not approach in that manner.--Who is there?" he
asked, in his native tongue.

"Friends," answered a voice.

"It is Maco!" he exclaimed, shouting a welcome to him; and in another
minute Maco himself, working his way through some brushwood which had
concealed him, climbed round the trunk of the tree, and joined us. He
was closely followed by another native, whom he introduced to us. "He
is more than a friend," he said; "he is my own brother, who had been
taken prisoner by our foes, the Guaranis. They had compelled him to
accompany them on their expedition; but he managed to escape when they
retired to hold a war-council after their attack on you. On returning
to the spot, he found me unconscious from loss of blood; but after he
had bathed and bound up my wounds, my senses returned, and with his
assistance I set out to overtake you. Fortunately, he had discovered a
much shorter cut through the forest than that made by the channel of the
river, and we were thus able to come up with you, though we scarcely
expected it."

We were thankful that Maco had escaped, and glad to get the assistance
of his brother Polo. Such, he told us, was his name. He was, for an
Indian, a remarkably strong-built, powerful man, and would prove a
useful addition to our party.

We had now to wait and afford Maco time to recover his strength. It
seemed wonderful that, after the severe treatment he had received, he
should have been able to move at all. Fortunately none of his bones had
been broken, and the Indi