96

Gold wearily rubbed his face with his hands.

“Those days are hard for me to remember, John. Then I committed one of the most shameful acts of my entire life. But I swear I'll be completely honest about everything.

'I have no doubt, my friend,' nodded the vicar. - Few people could speak so frankly about themselves, not only good, but also bad.

— So, we got into a small pirogue and sailed up the river. Usually, for the construction of boats, the Indians took a tree with a wide trunk and burned out the middle. But this boat turned out to be wicker and very light. The current here was weak, so Anka and Yakumama rowed tirelessly.

About five hours later we landed on the shore, and I saw a path cut through the jungle, as wide as I had ever seen in these places. It turned out that the Indians dragged boats along it to another river, which they called the Serpent, and the Europeans - Madre de Dios. Even such a light pirogue as ours was not easy to drag, but we managed and by the evening reache