He approached a group of men near one of the batalaos and asked guarded questions as to the uses to which it was put. And then he swung the conversation to navigation in general on the river; to the country bordering the stream and to kindred topics, and so secured a good deal of information that was of value to him. He learned, for instance, that the craft was sea-worthy and was used on the longest journeys, frequently of months’ duration. That travelling in a batalao was a slow process unless the wind held out when sails were used to advantage; during the intervals of calm, oars or poles were used and even long-handled hooks to catch in the overhanging vegetation. Last of all, in answer to his question as to whether he could rent or buy such a craft, he was told that it was probably impossible to do either. All of them were owned by the proprietors of rubber concessions or similar ventures, and were employed in their service exclusively, excepting only a few in the possession of professional rivermen; these latter were usually under contract to some _patron_ and were engaged in some private pursuit such as fishing or freighting, which they could not desert. That was the last straw. As David walked away he began to believe that he should never reach Las Palmas. “Luck is certainly against me,” he murmured. “I’ll flip a coin to see what I’ll do. If it’s heads I will stay and keep on trying and if it’s tails I’ll--I’ll stay anyway. There must be a way of getting to that place; but I haven’t thought of it. The way will come to me--if I wait long enough.” And come it did, sooner than he expected. The very next day the opportunity presented itself in the guise of a very large batalao that swept down the river, manned by twenty swarthy oarsmen, and joined the collection of other boats at the landing. Somehow, that outfit was different from the others. The men did not look like the sailors along the waterfront. They spoke a different language and the Brazilians on shore did not greet them with the usual cries and banterings. David was interested in the new arrivals at once. “The way to find out things is to ask questions,” he thought. “I will find out about them.” He did not go to the man in charge of the batalao, but to one of the Brazilians to whom he had spoken on several other occasions.