the heart and came out at the shoulder-blade, continuing its
flight beyond to somewhere where no one could find it again. That spoke
highly for the penetrating power of bullets from automatic pistols, and
also for the little harm those little bullets may inflict. The man, after
we had carefully dressed his wounds, looked, perhaps, a little miserable,
but he was able to depart on horseback carrying with his good arm a
bottle of medicine.

The Goyaz railway was making rapid progress. The rails were soon to be
laid on the north side of the river as far as Catalao. The bed of the
railway was fast being made ready.

It was not until April 3rd that I was able actually to make a start with
my caravan. My good friend, Mr. Louis Schnoor, had promised me two
men--Alcides Ferreiro dos Santos and Filippe da Costa de Britto; the
first a German Brazilian of a violent revolutionary temper but of
extraordinary bravery; the other a pure negro of a boisterous, simple
nature, also of indisputable bravery in moments of great danger. These
two men--both natives of Araguary--proved themselves to be on that
fateful expedition the two best men I possessed. Thus, if nothing else
can be said in praise of Araguary, it must be said in justice that it can
produce some men of great courage and faithfulness--a boast which cannot
well be applied to many places in Brazil.

On April 3rd, at 9 a.m., after a touching farewell, I left the engineers'
camp mounted on a magnificent mule that Mr. Schnoor had insisted on
lending me as far as Goyaz, with the pack animals which I had purchased.
I did not follow the principal road, which went by a somewhat circuitous
route from Araguary to the capital of Goyaz via the towns of Catalao and
Bomfin, but preferred to travel across country by a short cut which took
you there in an almost direct line in a north-westerly direction. On
getting over the Serrinha (elev. 2,250 ft.), a hill range, one obtained a
gorgeous view of the valley of the Paranahyba River--a river which,
already of good width there, became eventually the great Parana. It is on
the right bank of the river, near its mouth, some thousands of miles from
where we were, that Buenos Aires is situated.

Going through a beautiful forest in undulating country, we reached the
summit of a flat-topped tableland, 2,500 ft. above the sea level, with a
gentle slope towards the north, where the edge of its summit was some 50
ft. lower than on the south. The vegetat