The river was
dangerous for bathing, because of a peculiar fish--the piranha--a
savage little beast which attacks men and animals with its razor-
like teeth, inflicts fearful wounds and may even kill any
unfortunate creature which is caught by a school in deep water.
Some members of the party were badly bitten by the piranhas.
As their long and difficult course down the river continued, and
as their hardships increased, one of the native helpers murdered
another native--a sergeant--and fled. Roosevelt, while in the
water helping to right an upset canoe, bruised his leg against a
boulder. Inflammation set in, as it usually does with wounds in
the tropics. For forty-eight days they saw no human being outside
their own party. They were all weak with fever and troubled with
wounds received in the river. Colonel Roosevelt (who was nearly
fifty-six years old) wrote of his own condition:
The after effects of the fever still hung on; and the leg which
had been hurt while working in the rapids with the sunken canoe
had taken a turn for the bad and developed an abscess. The good
doctor, to whose unwearied care and kindness I owe much, had cut
it open and inserted a drainage tube; an added charm being given
the operation, and the subsequent dressings, by the enthusiasm
with which the piums and boroshudas took part therein. I could
hardly hobble, and was pretty well laid up.
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