Upon reaching Manaos we found that as yet no word had been received from Colonel Roosevelt and his party, who were supposedly still on the _Rio da Duvida_. A steamer, provided with comforts which would indeed be welcome to the explorers after their long, arduous voyage in canoes, had been sent up the river; with each passing day the excitement grew more intense in Manaos, and many conjectures were made as to the probable date of the return of that expedition. Before embarking on the unknown river Colonel Roosevelt had requested me to wait for him should I reach Manaos first, and in the event of his arriving in advance of our party he would await our return. I therefore spent a pleasant week in the city, and was treated with the utmost courtesy by the governor and the inhabitants. I had become acquainted with a Senhor Ramos, who invited me to visit a ranch he was opening some distance up the Solimões, so I accompanied him, hoping to add new treasures to the large collections we had brought from the Gy-Paraná and the Madeira. After spending a profitable week at this _fazenda_ we repaired to another locality on a different branch of the river. The latter region proved fully as interesting as the first, but scarcely had we become well established in our new surroundings than we were awakened one morning about one o’clock by the sharp blasts of a siren from the river below. We reached the water’s edge in a few moments, and there found a large steam-launch resting at anchor, the captain of which brought the good news that the long-absent expedition had arrived at Manaos. Half an hour later we were aboard, steaming at full speed down the river, arriving about seven o’clock in the city. The story of Colonel Roosevelt’s experiences on the unexplored river is well known. Owing to illness during the many weeks’ struggle against all but insurmountable difficulties, he had wasted to a mere shadow of his former self; but his unbounded enthusiasm remained undiminished. Shortly after noon on May 1 we boarded the S. S. _Dunstan_, on which we proceeded down the Amazon to Pará, and at that city transferred to the _Aiden_ for the long, uneventful voyage home. CHAPTER XVII DOWN THE COAST OF PERU--LAKE TITICACA AND LA PAZ--THROUGH THE ANCIENT INCAN EMPIRE TO COCHABAMBA The coast of Peru looked decidedly uninviting as day after day the S. S. _Palena_ of the Chilean Line nosed her way southward through the placid water of the Pacific. The high, rocky shore stretched on interminably, it seemed; no graceful palm or speck of green of any kind gladdened the eye; there were only the barren cliffs, against which the swell dashed itself into snowy spray and, above them, slopes of hot brown sand.