by H G Wells

When Captain Gerilleau received instructions his new gunboat, the _Benjamin Constant, to Badama Batemo arm Guaramadema and there assist the inhabitants against plague of ants, he suspected the authorities of mockery His promotion romantic and irregular, the affections of prominent Brazilian lady captain's liquid eyes had played part process, Diario and O Futuro lamentably disrespectful in their comments further occasion for disrespect

Creole, his conceptions of etiquette and discipline were pure-blooded Portuguese, and only to Holroyd, the Lancashire engineer who had come over boat, and as an exercise use of English--his "th" sounds were very uncertain--that he opened his heart

" in effect," , " me absurd ! What can man do against ants ? Dey come, dey go "

"They say," said Holroyd, " don't go That chap you said was Sambo----"

"Zambo;-- sort of mixture of blood "

"Sambo the people are going ! "

The captain smoked fretfully for time "Dese tings 'ave to happen," at last " it ? Plagues of ants and suchlike as God wills Dere was plague in Trinidad--the little ants that carry leaves Orl der orange-trees, all der mangoes ! What does it matter ? Sometimes ant armies come into your houses--fighting ants; different sort You go clean the house Then you come back again;--the house is clean, like new ! No cockroaches, no fleas, no jiggers floor "

"That Sambo chap," said Holroyd, "says these are different sort of ant "

The captain shrugged his shoulders, fumed, and gave his attention to cigarette

Afterwards he reopened the subject "My dear 'Olroyd, what am I about dese infernal ants ? "

The captain reflected " ridiculous," But afternoon he put full uniform and went ashore, and jars and boxes came back ship and subsequently And Holroyd sat on deck evening coolness and smoked profoundly and marvelled at Brazil They were six days up the Amazon, some hundreds of miles ocean, and east and west of him horizon like the sea, and south nothing but sand-bank island with some tufts of scrub The water was always running like sluice, thick with dirt, animated with crocodiles and hovering birds, and fed by some inexhaustible source of tree trunks; waste of it, the headlong waste of it, filled his soul The town of Alemquer, with its meagre church, its thatched sheds for houses, its discoloured ruins of ampler days, seemed little thing lost wilderness of Nature, sixpence dropped on Sahara young man, his first sight tropics, straight from England, where Nature is hedged, ditched, and drained, perfection of submission, and he had suddenly discovered the insignificance of man For six days they steaming up sea by unfrequented channels; and man as rare as rare butterfly One saw one day canoe, another day distant station, the next no men at all He began to perceive that man is indeed rare animal, having but precarious hold land

He perceived it more clearly days passed, and his devious way Batemo, company remarkable commander, who ruled over one big gun, and was forbidden to waste his ammunition Holroyd was learning Spanish industriously, but still present tense and substantive stage of speech, only other person who had any words of English was negro stoker, who had them all wrong The second in command was Portuguese, da Cunha, who spoke French, but different sort of French French Holroyd had learnt in Southport, and their intercourse was confined to politenesses and simple propositions weather weather, like everything else amazing new world, the weather had no human aspect, and was hot by night and hot by day, air steam, even the wind was hot steam, smelling of vegetation in decay: alligators strange birds, the flies of many sorts and sizes, the beetles, the ants, the snakes and monkeys seemed to wonder what man was doing in an atmosphere that had no gladness in its sunshine and no coolness in its night To wear clothing was intolerable, but to cast it aside was to scorch by day, and expose an ampler area mosquitoes by night; on deck by day was blinded by glare and to stay below was to suffocate And daytime came certain flies, extremely clever and noxious about one's wrist and ankle Captain Gerilleau, who was Holroyd's sole distraction physical distresses, developed into formidable bore, telling the simple story heart's affections day by day, string of anonymous women, telling beads Sometimes he suggested sport, shot at alligators, and at rare intervals they came to human aggregations waste of trees, and stayed for day or so, and drank and sat about, and, one night, danced with Creole girls, who found Holroyd's poor elements of Spanish, without either past tense or future, amply sufficient for their purposes But these were mere luminous chinks long grey passage streaming river, up which the throbbing engines beat certain liberal heathen deity, shape of demi-john, held seductive court aft, and, probable, forward

But Gerilleau learnt things ants, more things and more, stopping-place , and became interested mission

"Dey are new sort of ant," " got --what call it ? --entomologie ? Big Five centimetres ! Some bigger ! ridiculous like the monkeys---sent to pick insects . But dey are eating up the country "

He burst out indignantly "Suppose--suddenly, complications with Europe Here am I--soon above the Rio Negro--and my gun, useless ! "

He nursed his knee and mused

"Dose people who were dere at de dancing place, dey 'ave come down Dey 'ave lost all they got De ants come to deir house one afternoon Everyone run out when de ants come one must--everyone runs out go over the house stayed they'd eat you See ? Well, presently dey go back; dey say, 'The ants 'ave gone ' . De ants 'aven't gone Dey try in--de son, 'e goes in De ants fight "

"Swarm over him ? "

"Bite 'im Presently he comes out again--screaming and running He runs past them river See ? He gets into de water and drowns de ants-- yes " Gerilleau paused, brought his liquid eyes close to Holroyd's face, tapped Holroyd's knee knuckle "That night he dies, just stung by snake "

"Poisoned-- ants ? "

"Who knows ? " Gerilleau shrugged his shoulders "Perhaps they bit him badly . When I joined dis service I joined to fight men Dese things, dese ants, dey come and go no business for men "

he talked frequently ants to Holroyd, and whenever they chanced to drift against any speck of humanity waste of water and sunshine and distant trees, Holroyd's improving knowledge language enabled him to recognise the ascendant word Saba_, more and more completely dominating the whole

He perceived the ants were becoming interesting, nearer he drew the more interesting they became Gerilleau abandoned his old themes almost suddenly, Portuguese lieutenant became conversational figure; something leaf-cutting ant, and expanded his knowledge Gerilleau sometimes rendered what he had to Holroyd little workers that swarm and fight, big workers that command and rule, and how these latter always crawled neck and how their bites drew blood how they cut leaves and made fungus beds, and how their nests in Caracas are sometimes hundred yards across Two days the three men spent disputing whether ants have eyes The discussion grew dangerously heated second afternoon, and Holroyd saved the situation by going ashore in boat to catch ants He captured various specimens and returned, and some had eyes and some hadn't Also, they argued, do ants bite or sting ?

"Dese ants," said Gerilleau, after collecting information at rancho, "have big eyes They don't run about blind--not as most ants do No ! Dey get in corners and watch what "

" sting ? " asked Holroyd

"Yes Dey sting Dere is poison sting " He meditated " what men can do against ants Dey come and go "

"But these don't go "

" ," said Gerilleau

Past Tamandu long low coast of eighty miles without any population, and then one comes confluence main river Batemo arm like great lake, and then the forest came nearer, came at last intimately near The character channel changes, snags abound, Benjamin Constant moored by cable that night, under the very shadow of dark trees first time for many days came spell of coolness, and Holroyd and Gerilleau sat late, smoking cigars and enjoying this delicious sensation Gerilleau's mind was full of ants and what do He decided to sleep at last, and lay down on mattress on deck, man hopelessly perplexed, his last words, when he already seemed asleep, were to ask, with flourish of despair, "What can one do with ants ? . De whole thing is absurd "

Holroyd was left to scratch his bitten wrists, and meditate alone

He sat bulwark and listened little changes in Gerilleau's breathing until fast asleep, and then the ripple and lap stream took his mind, and brought back that sense of immensity that growing upon him since first he had left Para and come up the river The monitor showed but one small light, and first little talking forward and then stillness His eyes went dim black outlines middle works gunboat towards the bank, black overwhelming mysteries of forest, lit by fire-fly, and never still murmur of alien and mysterious activities .

It inhuman immensity land that astonished and oppressed him the skies were empty of men, the stars were specks in an incredible vastness of space; the ocean was enormous and untamable, but in England he had come land as man's In England indeed man's, the wild things live by sufferance, grow on lease, everywhere the roads, the fences, and absolute security runs In an atlas, too, the land is man's, and all coloured to show his claim -- in vivid contrast universal independent blueness sea He had taken it for granted that day would come when everywhere earth, plough and culture, light tramways and good roads, an ordered security, would prevail But now, he doubted

This forest was interminable, it had an air of being invincible, and Man seemed at best an infrequent precarious intruder One travelled for miles, amidst the still, silent struggle of giant trees, of strangulating creepers, of assertive flowers, everywhere the alligator, the turtle, and endless varieties of birds and insects seemed at home, dwelt irreplaceably--but man, man at most held footing upon resentful clearings, fought weeds, fought beasts and insects barest foothold, fell prey to snake and beast, insect and fever, and was presently carried away In many places down the river he manifestly driven back, this deserted creek or that preserved the name of casa_, and here and there ruinous white walls and shattered tower enforced the lesson The puma, the jaguar, were more the masters here .

Who were the real masters ?