Abstract
ON NOVEMBER 26, 1893, a thirteen-year-old Anglo-Brazilian girl opens her diary to record a rescue mission. Helena’s father, a diamond miner in Diamantina, in Minas Gerais, Brazil, has gone to Biribiri, about twenty kilometers away, to check out a new mine. One afternoon, his mule shows up at home, waiting to be fed. “We must get ready to leave early tomorrow morning. Something’s happened to Alexandre,” says Helena’s mother, tears in her eyes. The next day she wakes Helena and her siblings for their trek: “Get up! The rooster’s already crowed twice! It must be 4 o’clock.” They set out. After