nce at once, and that f

ence must be produced before the arrival of the order from Rio Janeiro. Once the identity of the prison

of the water as quickly as possible so as to regain und

intelligence, but also a perfect knowledge of the st

t, we should have to drag the river throughout a large area, for we shall have a good many

lied Manoel. "This very

has got stuck among the reeds and vegetation at the foot

hen!" answe

e Indians, furnished with long poles, began to sound every part of the

s chalky part, and ran perpendicularly down it into the water; and there many a cl

he shore, and the reeds shot up out of the river unbent. Every hope then existed that Torres' body had not been carried away by the main stream. Where the bed of the ri

from the circumference to the center the crews' long poles left not a single point unexplored. But no amount of sounding discovered

ng probably struck against the declivity, had fallen off obliquely and rolled bey

d despair," said Manoel, "still les

Benito, "to search the river throu

ps," answered Araujo, "through

?" asked

ses, so that there is a kind of natural barrier, well known to sailors as the Bar of Frias, which things floating near the surfac

followed his profession the crossing of the Bar of Frias, where the current was increased in force by its decrease in depth, had often given him

d over the bar. It is true that later on, when, on account of the expansion of the gases, it would again rise to the surface, the current would bear it away, a

raujo, and when he affirmed that the body could not have been borne out of the narrow channel for more

en the foot of the two banks had been visited up to the bar, it was in the bed itself,

alongside the banks. The reeds and vegetation were tried with the poles. Of the smallest ledges

half the day had elapsed without the body

ring this time they partook of some refresh

o explore its very bed. In certain places the poles proved insufficient to thoroughly search among the deeps, and hence a few dredges-or rather harrows, made of stones and

employed till the evening. The ubas and pirogues, worked by the oa

d appear only heavy stones or tufts of herbage which they had dragged from their sandy bed. No one, however, had an idea of giving up the enterprise. They none of them thought of themselves in this work of salvation. Benito, Manoel, Arau

he night in dragging the river. Of e

his operations in the gloom, gave the signal for the boats to join company a

intelligently conducted wa

their ill success before Benito. They feared that the d

nd this supreme effort to save the honor and the life of his father, and he it was who addressed

tter. We cannot pretend to have entirely explored the river

ecause it has not been carried away, because it could not be drawn over the Bar of Frias, and because it will take many days before

t was worth a good deal, and w

did for things, thought proper to reply, "Yes, Araujo; the

aid the

ecome the prey o

waited anxiously

nito," he said at length, "I am not in the habit of speaking lightly. I had the same idea as you;

," said

the black waters, which they so greatly prefer. When the raft was attacked by some of these creatures it was in a part where there was no place for them to flee to. Here it is quite different. Go to the Rio Negr

ilot's hand and shook it, and contented him

he started, and when she saw neither the pilot, nor Manoel, nor Benito, nor the boats, she had guessed the search on which they

ed that their search had been fruitless. However

Benito. "But the mo

d to their rooms, and nothing mo

nito lie down, so as to

at?" asked Benito. "Do