and escape, perhaps murdering some other good man.  He could not be shackled while climbing along the cliff slopes; he could not be shackled in the canoes, where there was always chance of upset and drowning; and standing guard would be an additional and severe penalty on the weary, honest men already exhausted by overwork.  The expedition was in peril, and it was wise to take every chance possible that would help secure success.  Whether the murderer lived or died in the wilderness was of no moment compared with the duty of doing everything to secure the safety of the rest of the party.  For the two days following we were always on the watch against his return, for he could have readily killed some one else by rolling rocks down on any of the men working on the cliff sides or in the bottom of the gorge.  But we did not see him until the morning of the third day.  We had passed the last of the rapids of the chasm, and the four boats were going down-stream when he appeared behind some trees on the bank and called out that he wished to surrender and be taken aboard; for the murderer was an arrant craven at heart, a strange mixture of ferocity and cowardice.  Colonel Rondon’s boat was far in advance; he did not stop nor answer.  I kept on in similar fashion with the rear boats, for I had no intention of taking the murderer aboard, to the jeopardy of the other members of the party, unless Colonel Rondon told me that it would have to be done in pursuance of his duty as an officer of the army and a servant of the Government of Brazil.  At the first halt Colonel Rondon came up to me and told me that this was his view of his duty, but that he had not stopped because he wished first to consult me as the chief of the expedition.  I answered that for the reasons enumerated above I did not believe that in justice to the good men of the expedition we should jeopardize their safety by taking the murderer along, and that if the responsibility were mine I should refuse to take him; but that he, Colonel Rondon, was the superior officer of both the murderer and of all the other enlisted men and army officers on the expedition, and in return was responsible for his actions to his own governmental superiors and to the laws of Brazil; and that in view of this responsibility he must act as his sense of duty bade him.  Accordingly, at the next camp he sent back two men, expert woodsmen, to find the murderer and bring him in.  They failed to find him.

Note:  The above account of all the circumstances connected with the murder was read to and approved as correct by all six members of the expedition.

I have anticipated my narrative because I do not wish to recur to the horror more than is necessary.  I now return to my story.  After we found that Julio had fled, we returned to the scene of the tragedy.  The murdered man lay with a handkerchief thrown over his face.  We buried him beside the place where he fell.  With axes and knives the camaradas dug