The next event was a canoe journey which Burton made alone down the river Sao Francisco from its source to the falls
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of Paulo Affonso—and then on to the sea, a distance of 1500 miles—an astounding feat even for him. During these adventures a stanza in his own unpublished version of Camoens constantly cheered him:
"Amid such scenes with danger fraught and pain Serving the fiery spirit more to flame, Who woos bright honour, he shall ever win A true nobility, a deathless fame: Not they who love to lean, unjustly vain, Upon the ancestral trunk's departed claim; Nor they reclining on the gilded beds Where Moscow's zebeline downy softness spreads." 216
Indeed he still continued, at all times of doubt and despondency, to turn to this beloved poet; and always found something to encourage.