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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11746-0.txt b/11746-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4532597 --- /dev/null +++ b/11746-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10305 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11746 *** + +Etext prepared by John Bickers and Dagny + + + + +THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS +By Theodore Roosevelt + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnypg@yahoo.com + and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz + + + + THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS + + BY + + THEODORE ROOSEVELT + + + + PREFACE + + This is an account of a zoo-geographic reconnaissance through the + Brazilian hinterland. + + The official and proper title of the expedition is that given it + by the Brazilian Government: Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt- + Rondon. When I started from the United States, it was to make an + expedition, primarily concerned with mammalogy and ornithology, + for the American Museum of Natural History of New York. This was + undertaken under the auspices of Messrs. Osborn and Chapman, + acting on behalf of the Museum. In the body of this work I + describe how the scope of the expedition was enlarged, and how it + was given a geographic as well as a zoological character, in + consequence of the kind proposal of the Brazilian Secretary of + State for Foreign Affairs, General Lauro Muller. In its altered + and enlarged form the expedition was rendered possible only by the + generous assistance of the Brazilian Government. Throughout the + body of the work will be found reference after reference to my + colleagues and companions of the expedition, whose services to + science I have endeavored to set forth, and for whom I shall + always feel the most cordial friendship and regard. + + THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + SAGAMORE HILL, + September 1, 1914 + + + + + + THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS + + + + I. THE START + +One day in 1908, when my presidential term was coming to a close, +Father Zahm, a priest whom I knew, came in to call on me. Father Zahm +and I had been cronies for some time, because we were both of us fond +of Dante and of history and of science--I had always commended to +theologians his book, "Evolution and Dogma." He was an Ohio boy, and +his early schooling had been obtained in old-time American fashion in +a little log school; where, by the way, one of the other boys was +Januarius Aloysius MacGahan, afterward the famous war correspondent +and friend of Skobeloff. Father Zahm told me that MacGahan even at +that time added an utter fearlessness to chivalric tenderness for the +weak, and was the defender of any small boy who was oppressed by a +larger one. Later Father Zahm was at Notre Dame University, in +Indiana, with Maurice Egan, whom, when I was President, I appointed +minister to Denmark. + +On the occasion in question Father Zahm had just returned from a trip +across the Andes and down the Amazon, and came in to propose that +after I left the presidency he and I should go up the Paraguay into +the interior of South America. At the time I wished to go to Africa, +and so the subject was dropped; but from time to time afterward we +talked it over. Five years later, in the spring of 1913, I accepted +invitations conveyed through the governments of Argentina and Brazil +to address certain learned bodies in these countries. Then it occurred +to me that, instead of making the conventional tourist trip purely by +sea round South America, after I had finished my lectures I would come +north through the middle of the continent into the valley of the +Amazon; and I decided to write Father Zahm and tell him my intentions. +Before doing so, however, I desired to see the authorities of the +American Museum of Natural History, in New York City, to find out +whether they cared to have me take a couple of naturalists with me +into Brazil and make a collecting trip for the museum. + +Accordingly, I wrote to Frank Chapman, the curator of ornithology of +the museum, and accepted his invitation to lunch at the museum one day +early in June. At the lunch, in addition to various naturalists, to my +astonishment I also found Father Zahm; and as soon as I saw him I told +him I was now intending to make the South American trip. It appeared +that he had made up his mind that he would take it himself, and had +actually come on to see Mr. Chapman to find out if the latter could +recommend a naturalist to go with him; and he at once said he would +accompany me. Chapman was pleased when he found out that we intended +to go up the Paraguay and across into the valley of the Amazon, +because much of the ground over which we were to pass had not been +covered by collectors. He saw Henry Fairfield Osborn, the president of +the museum, who wrote me that the museum would be pleased to send +under me a couple of naturalists, whom, with my approval, Chapman +would choose. + +The men whom Chapman recommended were Messrs. George K. Cherrie and +Leo E. Miller. I gladly accepted both. The former was to attend +chiefly to the ornithology and the latter to the mammalogy of the +expedition; but each was to help out the other. No two better men for +such a trip could have been found. Both were veterans of the tropical +American forests. Miller was a young man, born in Indiana, an +enthusiastic with good literary as well as scientific training. He was +at the time in the Guiana forests, and joined us at Barbados. Cherrie +was an older man, born in Iowa, but now a farmer in Vermont. He had a +wife and six children. Mrs. Cherrie had accompanied him during two or +three years of their early married life in his collecting trips along +the Orinoco. Their second child was born when they were in camp a +couple of hundred miles from any white man or woman. One night a few +weeks later they were obliged to leave a camping-place, where they had +intended to spend the night, because the baby was fretful, and its +cries attracted a jaguar, which prowled nearer and nearer in the +twilight until they thought it safest once more to put out into the +open river and seek a new resting-place. Cherrie had spent about +twenty-two years collecting in the American tropics. Like most of the +field-naturalists I have met, he was an unusually efficient and +fearless man; and willy-nilly he had been forced at times to vary his +career by taking part in insurrections. Twice he had been behind the +bars in consequence, on one occasion spending three months in a prison +of a certain South American state, expecting each day to be taken out +and shot. In another state he had, as an interlude to his +ornithological pursuits, followed the career of a gun-runner, acting +as such off and on for two and a half years. The particular +revolutionary chief whose fortunes he was following finally came into +power, and Cherrie immortalized his name by naming a new species of +ant-thrush after him--a delightful touch, in its practical combination +of those not normally kindred pursuits, ornithology and gun-running. + +In Anthony Fiala, a former arctic explorer, we found an excellent man +for assembling equipment and taking charge of its handling and +shipment. In addition to his four years in the arctic regions, Fiala +had served in the New York Squadron in Porto Rico during the Spanish +War, and through his service in the squadron had been brought into +contact with his little Tennessee wife. She came down with her four +children to say good-by to him when the steamer left. My secretary, +Mr. Frank Harper, went with us. Jacob Sigg, who had served three years +in the United States Army, and was both a hospital nurse and a cook, +as well as having a natural taste for adventure, went as the personal +attendant of Father Zahm. In southern Brazil my son Kermit joined me. +He had been bridge building, and a couple of months previously, while +on top of a long steel span, something went wrong with the derrick, he +and the steel span coming down together on the rocky bed beneath. He +escaped with two broken ribs, two teeth knocked out, and a knee +partially dislocated, but was practically all right again when he +started with us. + +In its composition ours was a typical American expedition. Kermit and +I were of the old Revolutionary stock, and in our veins ran about +every strain of blood that there was on this side of the water during +colonial times. Cherrie's father was born in Ireland, and his mother +in Scotland; they came here when very young, and his father served +throughout the Civil War in an Iowa cavalry regiment. His wife was of +old Revolutionary stock. Father Zahm's father was an Alsacian +immigrant, and his mother was partly of Irish and partly of old +American stock, a descendant of a niece of General Braddock. Miller's +father came from Germany, and his mother from France. Fiala's father +and mother were both from Bohemia, being Czechs, and his father had +served four years in the Civil War in the Union Army--his Tennessee +wife was of old Revolutionary stock. Harper was born in England, and +Sigg in Switzerland. We were as varied in religious creed as in ethnic +origin. Father Zahm and Miller were Catholics, Kermit and Harper +Episcopalians, Cherrie a Presbyterian, Fiala a Baptist, Sigg a +Lutheran, while I belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church. + +For arms the naturalists took 16-bore shotguns, one of Cherrie's +having a rifle barrel underneath. The firearms for the rest of the +party were supplied by Kermit and myself, including my Springfield +rifle, Kermit's two Winchesters, a 405 and 30-40, the Fox 12-gauge +shotgun, and another 16-gauge gun, and a couple of revolvers, a Colt +and a Smith & Wesson. We took from New York a couple of canvas canoes, +tents, mosquito-bars, plenty of cheesecloth, including nets for the +hats, and both light cots and hammocks. We took ropes and pulleys +which proved invaluable on our canoe trip. Each equipped himself with +the clothing he fancied. Mine consisted of khaki, such as I wore in +Africa, with a couple of United States Army flannel shirts and a +couple of silk shirts, one pair of hob-nailed shoes with leggings, and +one pair of laced leather boots coming nearly to the knee. Both the +naturalists told me that it was well to have either the boots or +leggings as a protection against snake-bites, and I also had gauntlets +because of the mosquitoes and sand-flies. We intended where possible +to live on what we could get from time to time in the country, but we +took some United States Army emergency rations, and also ninety cans, +each containing a day's provisions for five men, made up by Fiala. + +The trip I proposed to take can be understood only if there is a +slight knowledge of South American topography. The great mountain +chain of the Andes extends down the entire length of the western +coast, so close to the Pacific Ocean that no rivers of any importance +enter it. The rivers of South America drain into the Atlantic. +Southernmost South America, including over half of the territory of +the Argentine Republic, consists chiefly of a cool, open plains +country. Northward of this country, and eastward of the Andes, lies +the great bulk of the South American continent, which is included in +the tropical and the subtropical regions. Most of this territory is +Brazilian. Aside from certain relatively small stretches drained by +coast rivers, this immense region of tropical and subtropical America +east of the Andes is drained by the three great river systems of the +Plate, the Amazon, and the Orinoco. At their headwaters the Amazon and +the Orinoco systems are actually connected by a sluggish natural +canal. The headwaters of the northern affluents of the Paraguay and +the southern affluents of the Amazon are sundered by a stretch of high +land, which toward the east broadens out into the central plateau of +Brazil. Geologically this is a very ancient region, having appeared +above the waters before the dawning of the age of reptiles, or, +indeed, of any true land vertebrates on the globe. This plateau is a +region partly of healthy, rather dry and sandy, open prairie, partly +of forest. The great and low-lying basin of the Paraguay, which +borders it on the south, is one of the largest, and the still greater +basin of the Amazon, which borders it on the north, is the very +largest of all the river basins of the earth. + +In these basins, but especially in the basin of the Amazon, and thence +in most places northward to the Caribbean Sea, lie the most extensive +stretches of tropical forest to be found anywhere. The forests of +tropical West Africa, and of portions of the Farther-Indian region, +are the only ones that can be compared with them. Much difficulty has +been experienced in exploring these forests, because under the +torrential rains and steaming heat the rank growth of vegetation +becomes almost impenetrable, and the streams difficult of navigation; +while white men suffer much from the terrible insect scourges and the +deadly diseases which modern science has discovered to be due very +largely to insect bites. The fauna and flora, however, are of great +interest. The American Museum was particularly anxious to obtain +collections from the divide between the headwaters of the Paraguay and +the Amazon, and from the southern affluents of the Amazon. Our purpose +was to ascend the Paraguay as nearly as possible to the head of +navigation, thence cross to the sources of one of the affluents of the +Amazon, and if possible descend it in canoes built on the spot. The +Paraguay is regularly navigated as high as boats can go. The starting- +point for our trip was to be Asuncion, in the state of Paraguay. + +My exact plan of operations was necessarily a little indefinite, but +on reaching Rio de Janeiro the minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Lauro +Muller, who had been kind enough to take great personal interest in my +trip, informed me that he had arranged that on the headwaters of the +Paraguay, at the town of Caceres, I would be met by a Brazilian Army +colonel, himself chiefly Indian by blood, Colonel Rondon. Colonel +Rondon has been for a quarter of a century the foremost explorer of +the Brazilian hinterland. He was at the time in Manaos, but his +lieutenants were in Caceres and had been notified that we were coming. + +More important still, Mr. Lauro Muller--who is not only an efficient +public servant but a man of wide cultivation, with a quality about him +that reminded me of John Hay--offered to help me make my trip of much +more consequence than I had originally intended. He has taken a keen +interest in the exploration and development of the interior of Brazil, +and he believed that my expedition could be used as a means toward +spreading abroad a more general knowledge of the country. He told me +that he would co-operate with me in every way if I cared to undertake +the leadership of a serious expedition into the unexplored portion of +western Matto Grosso, and to attempt the descent of a river which +flowed nobody knew whither, but which the best-informed men believed +would prove to be a very big river, utterly unknown to geographers. I +eagerly and gladly accepted, for I felt that with such help the trip +could be made of much scientific value, and that a substantial +addition could be made to the geographical knowledge of one of the +least-known parts of South America. Accordingly, it was arranged that +Colonel Rondon and some assistants and scientists should meet me at or +below Corumba, and that we should attempt the descent of the river, of +which they had already come across the headwaters. + +I had to travel through Brazil, Uruguay, the Argentine, and Chile for +six weeks to fulfil my speaking engagements. Fiala, Cherrie, Miller, +and Sigg left me at Rio, continuing to Buenos Aires in the boat in +which we had all come down from New York. From Buenos Aires they went +up the Paraguay to Corumba, where they awaited me. The two naturalists +went first, to do all the collecting that was possible; Fiala and Sigg +travelled more leisurely, with the heavy baggage. + +Before I followed them I witnessed an incident worthy of note from the +standpoint of a naturalist, and of possible importance to us because +of the trip we were about to take. South America, even more than +Australia and Africa, and almost as much as India, is a country of +poisonous snakes. As in India, although not to the same degree, these +snakes are responsible for a very serious mortality among human +beings. One of the most interesting evidences of the modern advance in +Brazil is the establishment near Sao Paulo of an institution +especially for the study of these poisonous snakes, so as to secure +antidotes to the poison and to develop enemies to the snakes +themselves. We wished to take into the interior with us some bottles +of the anti-venom serum, for on such an expedition there is always a +certain danger from snakes. On one of his trips Cherrie had lost a +native follower by snake-bite. The man was bitten while out alone in +the forest, and, although he reached camp, the poison was already +working in him, so that he could give no intelligible account of what +had occurred, and he died in a short time. + +Poisonous snakes are of several different families, but the most +poisonous ones, those which are dangerous to man, belong to the two +great families of the colubrine snakes and the vipers. Most of the +colubrine snakes are entirely harmless, and are the common snakes that +we meet everywhere. But some of them, the cobras for instance, develop +into what are on the whole perhaps the most formidable of all snakes. +The only poisonous colubrine snakes in the New World are the ring- +snakes, the coral-snakes of the genus elaps, which are found from the +extreme southern United States southward to the Argentine. These +coral-snakes are not vicious and have small teeth which cannot +penetrate even ordinary clothing. They are only dangerous if actually +trodden on by some one with bare feet or if seized in the hand. There +are harmless snakes very like them in color which are sometimes kept +as pets; but it behooves every man who keeps such a pet or who handles +such a snake to be very sure as to the genus to which it belongs. + +The great bulk of the poisonous snakes of America, including all the +really dangerous ones, belong to a division of the widely spread +family of vipers which is known as the pit-vipers. In South America +these include two distinct subfamilies or genera--whether they are +called families, subfamilies, or genera would depend, I suppose, +largely upon the varying personal views of the individual describer on +the subject of herpetological nomenclature. One genus includes the +rattlesnakes, of which the big Brazilian species is as dangerous as +those of the southern United States. But the large majority of the +species and individuals of dangerous snakes in tropical America are +included in the genus lachecis. These are active, vicious, aggressive +snakes without rattles. They are exceedingly poisonous. Some of them +grow to a very large size, being indeed among the largest poisonous +snakes in the world--their only rivals in this respect being the +diamond rattlesnake of Florida, one of the African mambas, and the +Indian hamadryad, or snake-eating cobra. The fer-de-lance, so dreaded +in Martinique, and the equally dangerous bushmaster of Guiana are +included in this genus. A dozen species are known in Brazil, the +biggest one being identical with the Guiana bushmaster, and the most +common one, the jararaca, being identical, or practically identical +with the fer-de-lance. The snakes of this genus, like the rattlesnakes +and the Old World vipers and puff-adders, possess long poison-fangs +which strike through clothes or any other human garment except stout +leather. Moreover, they are very aggressive, more so than any other +snakes in the world, except possibly some of the cobras. As, in +addition, they are numerous, they are a source of really frightful +danger to scantily clad men who work in the fields and forests, or who +for any reason are abroad at night. + +The poison of venomous serpents is not in the least uniform in its +quality. On the contrary, the natural forces--to use a term which is +vague, but which is as exact as our present-day knowledge permits-- +that have developed in so many different families of snakes these +poisoned fangs have worked in two or three totally different fashions. +Unlike the vipers, the colubrine poisonous snakes have small fangs, +and their poison, though on the whole even more deadly, has entirely +different effects, and owes its deadliness to entirely different +qualities. Even within the same family there are wide differences. In +the jararaca an extraordinary quantity of yellow venom is spurted from +the long poison-fangs. This poison is secreted in large glands which, +among vipers, give the head its peculiar ace-of-spades shape. The +rattlesnake yields a much smaller quantity of white venom, but, +quantity for quantity, this white venom is more deadly. It is the +great quantity of venom injected by the long fangs of the jararaca, +the bushmaster, and their fellows that renders their bite so generally +fatal. Moreover, even between these two allied genera of pit-vipers, +the differences in the action of the poison are sufficiently marked to +be easily recognizable, and to render the most effective anti-venomous +serum for each slightly different from the other. However, they are +near enough alike to make this difference, in practice, of +comparatively small consequence. In practice the same serum can be +used to neutralize the effect of either, and, as will be seen later +on, the snake that is immune to one kind of venom is also immune to +the other. + +But the effect of the venom of the poisonous colubrine snakes is +totally different from, although to the full as deadly as, the effect +of the poison of the rattlesnake or jararaca. The serum that is an +antidote as regards the colubrines. The animal that is immune to the +bite of one may not be immune to the bite of the other. The bite of a +cobra or other colubrine poisonous snake is more painful in its +immediate effects than is the bite of one of the big vipers. The +victim suffers more. There is a greater effect on the nerve-centres, +but less swelling of the wound itself, and, whereas the blood of the +rattlesnake's victim coagulates, the blood of the victim of an elapine +snake--that is, of one of the only poisonous American colubrines-- +becomes watery and incapable of coagulation. + +Snakes are highly specialized in every way, including their prey. Some +live exclusively on warm-blooded animals, on mammals, or birds. Some +live exclusively on batrachians, others only on lizards, a few only on +insects. A very few species live exclusively on other snakes. These +include one very formidable venomous snake, the Indian hamadryad, or +giant cobra, and several non-poisonous snakes. In Africa I killed a +small cobra which contained within it a snake but a few inches shorter +than itself; but, as far as I could find out, snakes were not the +habitual diet of the African cobras. + +The poisonous snakes use their venom to kill their victims, and also +to kill any possible foe which they think menaces them. Some of them +are good-tempered, and only fight if injured or seriously alarmed. +Others are excessively irritable, and on rare occasions will even +attack of their own accord when entirely unprovoked and unthreatened. + +On reaching Sao Paulo on our southward journey from Rio to Montevideo, +we drove out to the "Instituto Serumtherapico," designed for the study +of the effects of the venom of poisonous Brazilian snakes. Its +director is Doctor Vital Brazil, who has performed a most +extraordinary work and whose experiments and investigations are not +only of the utmost value to Brazil but will ultimately be recognized +as of the utmost value for humanity at large. I know of no institution +of similar kind anywhere. It has a fine modern building, with all the +best appliances, in which experiments are carried on with all kinds of +serpents, living and dead, with the object of discovering all the +properties of their several kinds of venom, and of developing various +anti-venom serums which nullify the effects of the different venoms. +Every effort is made to teach the people at large by practical +demonstration in the open field the lessons thus learned in the +laboratory. One notable result has been the diminution in the +mortality from snake-bites in the province of Sao Paulo. + +In connection with his institute, and right by the laboratory, the +doctor has a large serpentarium, in which quantities of the common +poisonous and non-poisonous snakes are kept, and some of the rarer +ones. He has devoted considerable time to the effort to find out if +there are any natural enemies of the poisonous snakes of his country, +and he has discovered that the most formidable enemy of the many +dangerous Brazilian snakes is a non-poisonous, entirely harmless, +rather uncommon Brazilian snake, the mussurama. Of all the interesting +things the doctor showed us, by far the most interesting was the +opportunity of witnessing for ourselves the action of the mussurama +toward a dangerous snake. + +The doctor first showed us specimens of the various important snakes, +poisonous and non-poisonous, in alcohol. Then he showed us +preparations of the different kinds of venom and of the different +anti-venom serums, presenting us with some of the latter for our use +on the journey. He has been able to produce two distinct kinds of +anti-venom serum, one to neutralize the virulent poison of the +rattlesnake's bite, the other to neutralize the poison of the +different snakes of the lachecis genus. These poisons are somewhat +different and moreover there appear to be some differences between the +poisons of the different species of lachecis; in some cases the poison +is nearly colorless, and in others, as in that of the jararaca, whose +poison I saw, it is yellow. + +But the vital difference is that between all these poisons of the pit- +vipers and the poisons of the colubrine snakes, such as the cobra and +the coral-snake. As yet the doctor has not been able to develop an +anti-venom serum which will neutralize the poison of these colubrine +snakes. Practically this is a matter of little consequence in Brazil, +for the Brazilian coral-snakes are dangerous only when mishandled by +some one whose bare skin is exposed to the bite. The numerous +accidents and fatalities continually occurring in Brazil are almost +always to be laid to the account of the several species of lachecis +and the single species of rattlesnake. + +Finally, the doctor took us into his lecture-room to show us how he +conducted his experiments. The various snakes were in boxes, on one +side of the room, under the care of a skilful and impassive assistant, +who handled them with the cool and fearless caution of the doctor +himself. The poisonous ones were taken out by means of a long-handled +steel hook. All that is necessary to do is to insert this under the +snake and lift him off the ground. He is not only unable to escape, +but he is unable to strike, for he cannot strike unless coiled so as +to give himself support and leverage. The table on which the snakes +are laid is fairly large and smooth, differing in no way from an +ordinary table. + +There were a number of us in the room, including two or three +photographers. The doctor first put on the table a non-poisonous but +very vicious and truculent colubrine snake. It struck right and left +at us. Then the doctor picked it up, opened its mouth, and showed that +it had no fangs, and handed it to me. I also opened its mouth and +examined its teeth, and then put it down, whereupon, its temper having +been much ruffled, it struck violently at me two or three times. In +its action and temper this snake was quite as vicious as the most +irritable poisonous snakes. Yet it is entirely harmless. One of the +innumerable mysteries of nature which are at present absolutely +insoluble is why some snakes should be so vicious and others +absolutely placid and good-tempered. + +After removing the vicious harmless snake, the doctor warned us to get +away from the table, and his attendant put on it, in succession, a +very big lachecis--of the kind called bushmaster--and a big +rattlesnake. Each coiled menacingly, a formidable brute ready to +attack anything that approached. Then the attendant adroitly dropped +his iron crook on the neck of each in succession, seized it right +behind the head, and held it toward the doctor. The snake's mouth was +in each case wide open, and the great fangs erect and very evident. It +would not have been possible to have held an African ring-necked cobra +in such fashion, because the ring-neck would have ejected its venom +through the fangs into the eyes of the onlookers. There was no danger +in this case, and the doctor inserted a shallow glass saucer into the +mouth of the snake behind the fangs, permitted it to eject its poison, +and then himself squeezed out the remaining poison from the poison- +bags through the fangs. From the big lachecis came a large quantity of +yellow venom, a liquid which speedily crystallized into a number of +minute crystals. The rattlesnake yielded a much less quantity of white +venom, which the doctor assured us was far more active than the yellow +lachecis venom. Then each snake was returned to its box unharmed. + +After this the doctor took out of a box and presented to me a fine, +handsome, nearly black snake, an individual of the species called the +mussurama. This is in my eyes perhaps the most interesting serpent in +the world. It is a big snake, four or five feet long, sometimes even +longer, nearly black, lighter below, with a friendly, placid temper. +It lives exclusively on other snakes, and is completely immune to the +poison of the lachecis and rattlesnake groups, which contain all the +really dangerous snakes of America. Doctor Brazil told me that he had +conducted many experiments with this interesting snake. It is not very +common, and prefers wet places in which to live. It lays eggs, and the +female remains coiled above the eggs, the object being apparently not +to warm them, but to prevent too great evaporation. It will not eat +when moulting, nor in cold weather. Otherwise it will eat a small +snake every five or six days, or a big one every fortnight. + +There is the widest difference, both among poisonous and non-poisonous +snakes, not alone in nervousness and irascibility but also in ability +to accustom themselves to out-of-the-way surroundings. Many species of +non-poisonous snakes which are entirely harmless, to man or to any +other animal except their small prey, are nevertheless very vicious +and truculent, striking right and left and biting freely on the +smallest provocation--this is the case with the species of which the +doctor had previously placed a specimen on the table. Moreover, many +snakes, some entirely harmless and some vicious ones, are so nervous +and uneasy that it is with the greatest difficulty they can be induced +to eat in captivity, and the slightest disturbance or interference +will prevent their eating. There are other snakes, however, of which +the mussurama is perhaps the best example, which are very good +captives, and at the same time very fearless, showing a complete +indifference not only to being observed but to being handled when they +are feeding. + +There is in the United States a beautiful and attractive snake, the +king-snake, with much the same habits as the mussurama. It is friendly +toward mankind, and not poisonous, so that it can be handled freely. +It feeds on other serpents, and will kill a rattlesnake as big as +itself, being immune to the rattlesnake venom. Mr. Ditmars, of the +Bronx Zoo, has made many interesting experiments with these king- +snakes. I have had them in my own possession. They are good-natured +and can generally be handled with impunity, but I have known them to +bite, whereas Doctor Brazil informed me that it was almost impossible +to make the mussurama bite a man. The king-snake will feed greedily on +other snakes in the presence of man--I knew of one case where it +partly swallowed another snake while both were in a small boy's +pocket. It is immune to viper poison but it is not immune to colubrine +poison. A couple of years ago I was informed of a case where one of +these king-snakes was put into an enclosure with an Indian snake- +eating cobra or hamadryad of about the same size. It killed the cobra +but made no effort to swallow it, and very soon showed the effects of +the cobra poison. I believe it afterward died, but unfortunately I +have mislaid my notes and cannot now remember the details of the +incident. + +Doctor Brazil informed me that the mussurama, like the king-snake, was +not immune to the colubrine poison. A mussurama in his possession, +which had with impunity killed and eaten several rattlesnakes and +representatives of the lachecis genus, also killed and ate a venomous +coral-snake, but shortly afterward itself died from the effects of the +poison. It is one of the many puzzles of nature that these American +serpents which kill poisonous serpents should only have grown immune +to the poison of the most dangerous American poisonous serpents, the +pit-vipers, and should not have become immune to the poison of the +coral-snakes which are commonly distributed throughout their range. +Yet, judging by the one instance mentioned by Doctor Brazil, they +attack and master these coral-snakes, although the conflict in the end +results in their death. It would be interesting to find out whether +this attack was exceptional, that is, whether the mussurama has or has +not as a species learned to avoid the coral-snake. If it was not +exceptional, then not only is the instance highly curious in itself, +but it would also go far to explain the failure of the mussurama to +become plentiful. + +For the benefit of those who are not acquainted with the subject, I +may mention that the poison of a poisonous snake is not dangerous to +its own species unless injected in very large doses, about ten times +what would normally be injected by a bite; but that it is deadly to +all other snakes, poisonous or non-poisonous, save as regards the very +few species which themselves eat poisonous snakes. The Indian +hamadryad, or giant cobra, is exclusively a snake-eater. It evidently +draws a sharp distinction between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes, +for Mr. Ditmars has recorded that two individuals in the Bronx Zoo +which are habitually fed on harmless snakes, and attack them eagerly, +refused to attack a copperhead which was thrown into their cage, being +evidently afraid of this pit-viper. It would be interesting to find +out if the hamadryad is afraid to prey on all pit-vipers, and also +whether it will prey on its small relative, the true cobra--for it may +well be that, even if not immune to the viper poison, it is immune to +the poison of its close ally, the smaller cobra. + +All these and many other questions would be speedily settled by Doctor +Brazil if he were given the opportunity to test them. It must be +remembered, moreover, that not only have his researches been of +absorbing value from the standpoint of pure science but that they also +have a real utilitarian worth. He is now collecting and breeding the +mussurama. The favorite prey of the mussurama is the most common and +therefore the most dangerous poisonous snake of Brazil, the jararaca, +which is known in Martinique as the fer-de-lance. In Martinique and +elsewhere this snake is such an object of terror as to be at times a +genuine scourge. Surely it would be worth while for the authorities of +Martinique to import specimens of the mussurama to that island. The +mortality from snake-bite in British India is very great. Surely it +would be well worth while for the able Indian Government to copy +Brazil and create such an institute as that over which Doctor Vital +Brazil is the curator. + +At first sight it seems extraordinary that poisonous serpents, so +dreaded by and so irresistible to most animals, should be so utterly +helpless before the few creatures that prey on them. But the +explanation is easy. Any highly specialized creature, the higher its +specialization, is apt to be proportionately helpless when once its +peculiar specialized traits are effectively nullified by an opponent. +This is eminently the case with the most dangerous poisonous snakes. +In them a highly peculiar specialization has been carried to the +highest point. They rely for attack and defence purely on their +poison-fangs. All other means and methods of attack and defence have +atrophied. They neither crush nor tear with their teeth nor constrict +with their bodies. The poison-fangs are slender and delicate, and, +save for the poison, the wound inflicted is of a trivial character. In +consequence they are helpless in the presence of any animal which the +poison does not affect. There are several mammals immune to snake- +bite, including various species of hedgehog, pig, and mongoose--the +other mammals which kill them do so by pouncing on them unawares or by +avoiding their stroke through sheer quickness of movement; and +probably this is the case with most snake-eating birds. The mongoose +is very quick, but in some cases at least--I have mentioned one in the +"African Game Trails"--it permits itself to be bitten by poisonous +snakes, treating the bite with utter indifference. There should be +extensive experiments made to determine if there are species of +mongoose immune to both cobra and viper poison. Hedgehogs, as +determined by actual experiments, pay no heed at all to viper poison +even when bitten on such tender places as the tongue and lips and eat +the snake as if it were a radish. Even among animals which are not +immune to the poison different species are very differently affected +by the different kinds of snake poisons. Not only are some species +more resistant than others to all poisons, but there is a wide +variation in the amount of immunity each displays to any given venom. +One species will be quickly killed by the poison from one species of +snake, and be fairly resistant to the poison of another; whereas in +another species the conditions may be directly reversed. + +The mussurama which Doctor Brazil handed me was a fine specimen, +perhaps four and a half feet long. I lifted the smooth, lithe bulk in +my hands, and then let it twist its coils so that it rested at ease in +my arms; it glided to and fro, on its own length, with the sinuous +grace of its kind, and showed not the slightest trace of either +nervousness or bad temper. Meanwhile the doctor bade his attendant put +on the table a big jararaca, or fer-de-lance, which was accordingly +done. The jararaca was about three feet and a half, or perhaps nearly +four feet long--that is, it was about nine inches shorter than the +mussurama. The latter, which I continued to hold in my arms, behaved +with friendly and impassive indifference, moving easily to and fro +through my hands, and once or twice hiding its head between the sleeve +and the body of my coat. The doctor was not quite sure how the +mussurama would behave, for it had recently eaten a small snake, and +unless hungry it pays no attention whatever to venomous snakes, even +when they attack and bite it. However, it fortunately proved still to +have a good appetite. + +The jararaca was alert and vicious. It partly coiled itself on the +table, threatening the bystanders. I put the big black serpent down on +the table four or five feet from the enemy and headed in its +direction. As soon as I let go with my hands it glided toward where +the threatening, formidable-looking lance-head lay stretched in a half +coil. The mussurama displayed not the slightest sign of excitement. +Apparently it trusted little to its eyes, for it began to run its head +along the body of the jararaca, darting out its flickering tongue to +feel just where it was, as it nosed its way up toward the head of its +antagonist. So placid were its actions that I did not at first suppose +that it meant to attack, for there was not the slightest exhibition of +anger or excitement. + +It was the jararaca that began the fight. It showed no fear whatever +of its foe, but its irritable temper was aroused by the proximity and +actions of the other, and like a flash it drew back its head and +struck, burying its fangs in the forward part of the mussurama's body. +Immediately the latter struck in return, and the counter-attack was so +instantaneous that it was difficult to see just what had happened. +There was tremendous writhing and struggling on the part of the +jararaca; and then, leaning over the knot into which the two serpents +were twisted, I saw that the mussurama had seized the jararaca by the +lower jaw, putting its own head completely into the wide-gaping mouth +of the poisonous snake. The long fangs were just above the top of the +mussurama's head; and it appeared, as well as I could see, that they +were once again driven into the mussurama; but without the slightest +effect. Then the fangs were curved back in the jaw, a fact which I +particularly noted, and all effort at the offensive was abandoned by +the poisonous snake. + +Meanwhile the mussurama was chewing hard, and gradually shifted its +grip, little by little, until it got the top of the head of the +jararaca in its mouth, the lower jaw of the jararaca being spread out +to one side. The venomous serpent was helpless; the fearsome master of +the wild life of the forest, the deadly foe of humankind, was itself +held in the grip of death. Its cold, baleful serpent's eyes shone, as +evil as ever. But it was dying. In vain it writhed and struggled. +Nothing availed it. + +Once or twice the mussurama took a turn round the middle of the body +of its opponent, but it did not seem to press hard, and apparently +used its coils chiefly in order to get a better grip so as to crush +the head of its antagonist, or to hold the latter in place. This +crushing was done by its teeth; and the repeated bites were made with +such effort that the muscles stood out on the mussurama's neck. Then +it took two coils round the neck of the jararaca and proceeded +deliberately to try to break the backbone of its opponent by twisting +the head round. With this purpose it twisted its own head and neck +round so that the lighter-colored surface was uppermost; and indeed at +one time it looked as if it had made almost a complete single spiral +revolution of its own body. It never for a moment relaxed its grip +except to shift slightly the jaws. + +In a few minutes the jararaca was dead, its head crushed in, although +the body continued to move convulsively. When satisfied that its +opponent was dead, the mussurama began to try to get the head in its +mouth. This was a process of some difficulty on account of the angle +at which the lower jaw of the jararaca stuck out. But finally the head +was taken completely inside and then swallowed. After this, the +mussurama proceeded deliberately, but with unbroken speed, to devour +its opponent by the simple process of crawling outside it, the body +and tail of the jararaca writhing and struggling until the last. +During the early portion of the meal, the mussurama put a stop to this +writhing and struggling by resting its own body on that of its prey; +but toward the last the part of the body that remained outside was +left free to wriggle as it wished. + +Not only was the mussurama totally indifferent to our presence, but it +was totally indifferent to being handled while the meal was going on. +Several times I replaced the combatants in the middle of the table +when they had writhed to the edge, and finally, when the photographers +found that they could not get good pictures, I held the mussurama up +against a white background with the partially swallowed snake in its +mouth; and the feast went on uninterruptedly. I never saw cooler or +more utterly unconcerned conduct; and the ease and certainty with +which the terrible poisonous snake was mastered gave me the heartiest +respect and liking for the easy-going, good-natured, and exceedingly +efficient serpent which I had been holding in my arms. + +Our trip was not intended as a hunting-trip but as a scientific +expedition. Before starting on the trip itself, while travelling in +the Argentine, I received certain pieces of first-hand information +concerning the natural history of the jaguar, and of the cougar, or +puma, which are worth recording. The facts about the jaguar are not +new in the sense of casting new light on its character, although they +are interesting; but the facts about the behavior of the puma in one +district of Patagonia are of great interest, because they give an +entirely new side of its life-history. + +There was travelling with me at the time Doctor Francisco P. Moreno, +of Buenos Aires. Doctor Moreno is at the present day a member of the +National Board of Education of the Argentine, a man who has worked in +every way for the benefit of his country, perhaps especially for the +benefit of the children, so that when he was first introduced to me it +was as the "Jacob Riis of the Argentine"--for they know my deep and +affectionate intimacy with Jacob Riis. He is also an eminent man of +science, who has done admirable work as a geologist and a geographer. +At one period, in connection with his duties as a boundary +commissioner on the survey between Chile and the Argentine, he worked +for years in Patagonia. It was he who made the extraordinary discovery +in a Patagonian cave of the still fresh fragments of skin and other +remains of the mylodon, the aberrant horse known as the onohipidium, +the huge South American tiger, and the macrauchenia, all of them +extinct animals. This discovery showed that some of the strange +representatives of the giant South American Pleistocene fauna had +lasted down to within a comparatively few thousand years, down to the +time when man, substantially as the Spaniards found him, flourished on +the continent. Incidentally the discovery tended to show that this +fauna had lasted much later in South America than was the case with +the corresponding faunas in other parts of the world; and therefore it +tended to disprove the claims advanced by Doctor Ameghino for the +extreme age, geologically, of this fauna, and for the extreme +antiquity of man on the American continent. + +One day Doctor Moreno handed me a copy of The Outlook containing my +account of a cougar-hunt in Arizona, saying that he noticed that I had +very little faith in cougars attacking men, although I had explicitly +stated that such attacks sometimes occurred. I told him, Yes, that I +had found that the cougar was practically harmless to man, the +undoubtedly authentic instances of attacks on men being so exceptional +that they could in practice be wholly disregarded. Thereupon Doctor +Moreno showed me a scar on his face, and told me that he had himself +been attacked and badly mauled by a puma which was undoubtedly trying +to prey on him; that is, which had started on a career as a man-eater. +This was to me most interesting. I had often met men who knew other +men who had seen other men who said that they had been attacked by +pumas, but this was the first time that I had ever come across a man +who had himself been attacked. Doctor Moreno, as I have said, is not +only an eminent citizen, but an eminent scientific man, and his +account of what occurred is unquestionably a scientifically accurate +statement of the facts. I give it exactly as the doctor told it; +paraphrasing a letter he sent me, and including one or two answers to +questions I put to him. The doctor, by the way, stated to me that he +had known Mr. Hudson, the author of the "Naturalist on the Plata," and +that the latter knew nothing whatever of pumas from personal +experience and had accepted as facts utterly wild fables. + +Undoubtedly, said the doctor, the puma in South America, like the puma +in North America, is, as a general rule, a cowardly animal which not +only never attacks man, but rarely makes any efficient defence when +attacked. The Indian and white hunters have no fear of it in most +parts of the country, and its harmlessness to man is proverbial. But +there is one particular spot in southern Patagonia where cougars, to +the doctor's own personal knowledge, have for years been dangerous +foes of man. This curious local change in habits, by the way, is +nothing unprecedented as regards wild animals. In portions of its +range, as I am informed by Mr. Lord Smith, the Asiatic tiger can +hardly be forced to fight man, and never preys on him, while +throughout most of its range it is a most dangerous beast, and often +turns man-eater. So there are waters in which sharks are habitual man- +eaters, and others where they never touch men; and there are rivers +and lakes where crocodiles or caymans are very dangerous, and others +where they are practically harmless--I have myself seen this in +Africa. + +In March, 1877, Doctor Moreno with a party of men working on the +boundary commission, and with a number of Patagonian horse-Indians, +was encamped for some weeks beside Lake Viedma, which had not before +been visited by white men for a century, and which was rarely visited +even by Indians. One morning, just before sunrise, he left his camp by +the south shore of the lake, to make a topographical sketch of the +lake. He was unarmed, but carried a prismatic compass in a leather +case with a strap. It was cold, and he wrapped his poncho of guanaco- +hide round his neck and head. He had walked a few hundred yards, when +a puma, a female, sprang on him from behind and knocked him down. As +she sprang on him she tried to seize his head with one paw, striking +him on the shoulder with the other. She lacerated his mouth and also +his back, but tumbled over with him, and in the scuffle they separated +before she could bite him. He sprang to his feet, and, as he said, was +forced to think quickly. She had recovered herself, and sat on her +haunches like a cat, looking at him, and then crouched to spring +again; whereupon he whipped off his poncho, and as she sprang at him +he opened it, and at the same moment hit her head with the prismatic +compass in its case which he held by the strap. She struck the poncho +and was evidently puzzled by it, for, turning, she slunk off to one +side, under a bush, and then proceeded to try to get round behind him. +He faced her, keeping his eyes upon her, and backed off. She followed +him for three or four hundred yards. At least twice she came up to +attack him, but each time he opened his poncho and yelled, and at the +last moment she shrank back. She continually, however, tried, by +taking advantage of cover, to sneak up to one side, or behind, to +attack him. Finally, when he got near camp, she abandoned the pursuit +and went into a small patch of bushes. He raised the alarm; an Indian +rode up and set fire to the bushes from the windward side. When the +cougar broke from the bushes, the Indian rode after her, and threw his +bolas, which twisted around her hind legs; and while she was +struggling to free herself, he brained her with his second bolas. The +doctor's injuries were rather painful, but not serious. + +Twenty-one years later, in April, 1898, he was camped on the same +lake, but on the north shore, at the foot of a basaltic cliff. He was +in company with four soldiers, with whom he had travelled from the +Strait of Magellan. In the night he was aroused by the shriek of a man +and the barking of his dogs. As the men sprang up from where they were +lying asleep they saw a large puma run off out of the firelight into +the darkness. It had sprung on a soldier named Marcelino Huquen while +he was asleep, and had tried to carry him off. Fortunately, the man +was so wrapped up in his blanket, as the night was cold, that he was +not injured. The puma was never found or killed. + +About the same time a surveyor of Doctor Moreno's party, a Swede named +Arneberg, was attacked in similar fashion. The doctor was not with him +at the time. Mr. Arneberg was asleep in the forest near Lake San +Martin. The cougar both bit and clawed him, and tore his mouth, +breaking out three teeth. The man was rescued; but this puma also +escaped. + +The doctor stated that in this particular locality the Indians, who +elsewhere paid no heed whatever to the puma, never let their women go +out after wood for fuel unless two or three were together. This was +because on several occasions women who had gone out alone were killed +by pumas. Evidently in this one locality the habit of at least +occasional man-eating has become chronic with a species which +elsewhere is the most cowardly, and to man the least dangerous, of all +the big cats. + +These observations of Doctor Moreno have a peculiar value, because, as +far as I know, they are the first trustworthy accounts of a cougar's +having attacked man save under circumstances so exceptional as to make +the attack signify little more than the similar exceptional instances +of attack by various other species of wild animals that are not +normally dangerous to man. + +The jaguar, however, has long been known not only to be a dangerous +foe when itself attacked, but also now and then to become a man-eater. +Therefore the instances of such attacks furnished me are of merely +corroborative value. + +In the excellent zoological gardens at Buenos Aires the curator, +Doctor Onelli, a naturalist of note, showed us a big male jaguar which +had been trapped in the Chaco, where it had already begun a career as +a man-eater, having killed three persons. They were killed, and two of +them were eaten; the animal was trapped, in consequence of the alarm +excited by the death of his third victim. This jaguar was very savage; +whereas a young jaguar, which was in a cage with a young tiger, was +playful and friendly, as was also the case with the young tiger. On my +trip to visit La Plata Museum I was accompanied by Captain Vicente +Montes, of the Argentine Navy, an accomplished officer of scientific +attainments. He had at one time been engaged on a survey of the +boundary between the Argentine and Parana and Brazil. They had a +quantity of dried beef in camp. On several occasions a jaguar came +into camp after this dried beef. Finally they succeeded in protecting +it so that he could not reach it. The result, however, was disastrous. +On the next occasion that he visited camp, at midnight, he seized a +man. Everybody was asleep at the time, and the jaguar came in so +noiselessly as to elude the vigilance of the dogs. As he seized the +man, the latter gave one yell, but the next moment was killed, the +jaguar driving his fangs through the man's skull into the brain. There +was a scene of uproar and confusion, and the jaguar was forced to drop +his prey and flee into the woods. Next morning they followed him with +the dogs, and finally killed him. He was a large male, in first-class +condition. The only features of note about these two incidents was +that in each case the man-eater was a powerful animal in the prime of +life; whereas it frequently happens that the jaguars that turn man- +eaters are old animals, and have become too inactive or too feeble to +catch their ordinary prey. + +During the two months before starting from Asuncion, in Paraguay, for +our journey into the interior, I was kept so busy that I had scant +time to think of natural history. But in a strange land a man who +cares for wild birds and wild beasts always sees and hears something +that is new to him and interests him. In the dense tropical woods near +Rio Janeiro I heard in late October--springtime, near the southern +tropic--the songs of many birds that I could not identify. But the +most beautiful music was from a shy woodland thrush, sombre-colored, +which lived near the ground in the thick timber, but sang high among +the branches. At a great distance we could hear the ringing, musical, +bell-like note, long-drawn and of piercing sweetness, which occurs at +intervals in the song; at first I thought this was the song, but when +it was possible to approach the singer I found that these far-sounding +notes were scattered through a continuous song of great melody. I +never listened to one that impressed me more. In different places in +Argentina I heard and saw the Argentine mocking-bird, which is not +very unlike our own, and is also a delightful and remarkable singer. +But I never heard the wonderful white-banded mocking-bird, which is +said by Hudson, who knew well the birds of both South America and +Europe, to be the song-king of them all. + +Most of the birds I thus noticed while hurriedly passing through the +country were, of course, the conspicuous ones. The spurred lapwings, +big, tame, boldly marked plover, were everywhere; they were very noisy +and active and both inquisitive and daring, and they have a very +curious dance custom. No man need look for them. They will look for +him, and when they find him they will fairly yell the discovery to the +universe. In the marshes of the lower Parana I saw flocks of scarlet- +headed blackbirds on the tops of the reeds; the females are as +strikingly colored as the males, and their jet-black bodies and +brilliant red heads make it impossible for them to escape observation +among their natural surroundings. On the plains to the west I saw +flocks of the beautiful rose-breasted starlings; unlike the red-headed +blackbirds, which seemed fairly to court attention, these starlings +sought to escape observation by crouching on the ground so that their +red breasts were hidden. There were yellow-shouldered blackbirds in +wet places, and cow-buntings abounded. + +But the most conspicuous birds I saw were members of the family of +tyrant flycatchers, of which our own king-bird is the most familiar +example. This family is very numerously represented in Argentina, both +in species and individuals. Some of the species are so striking, both +in color and habits, and in one case also in shape, as to attract the +attention of even the unobservant. The least conspicuous, and +nevertheless very conspicuous, among those that I saw was the +bientevido, which is brown above, yellow beneath, with a boldly marked +black and white head, and a yellow crest. It is very noisy, is common +in the neighborhood of houses, and builds a big domed nest. It is +really a big, heavy kingbird, fiercer and more powerful than any +northern kingbird. I saw them assail not only the big but the small +hawks with fearlessness, driving them in headlong flight. They not +only capture insects, but pounce on mice, small frogs, lizards, and +little snakes, rob birds' nests of the fledgling young, and catch +tadpoles and even small fish. + +Two of the tyrants which I observed are like two with which I grew +fairly familiar in Texas. The scissor-tail is common throughout the +open country, and the long tail feathers, which seem at times to +hamper its flight, attract attention whether the bird is in flight or +perched on a tree. It has a habit of occasionally soaring into the air +and descending in loops and spirals. The scarlet tyrant I saw in the +orchards and gardens. The male is a fascinating little bird, coal- +black above, while his crested head and the body beneath are brilliant +scarlet. He utters his rapid, low-voiced musical trill in the air, +rising with fluttering wings to a height of a hundred feet, hovering +while he sings, and then falling back to earth. The color of the bird +and the character of his performance attract the attention of every +observer, bird, beast, or man, within reach of vision. + +The red-backed tyrant is utterly unlike any of his kind in the United +States, and until I looked him up in Sclater and Hudson's ornithology +I never dreamed that he belonged to this family. He--for only the male +is so brightly colored--is coal-black with a dull-red back. I saw +these birds on December 1 near Barilloche, out on the bare Patagonian +plains. They behaved like pipits or longspurs, running actively over +the ground in the same manner and showing the same restlessness and +the same kind of flight. But whereas pipits are inconspicuous, the +red-backs at once attracted attention by the contrast between their +bold coloring and the grayish or yellowish tones of the ground along +which they ran. The silver-bill tyrant, however, is much more +conspicuous; I saw it in the same neighborhood as the red-back and +also in many other places. The male is jet-black, with white bill and +wings. He runs about on the ground like a pipit, but also frequently +perches on some bush to go through a strange flight-song performance. +He perches motionless, bolt upright, and even then his black coloring +advertises him for a quarter of a mile round about. But every few +minutes he springs up into the air to the height of twenty or thirty +feet, the white wings flashing in contrast to the black body, screams +and gyrates, and then instantly returns to his former post and resumes +his erect pose of waiting. It is hard to imagine a more conspicuous +bird than the silver-bill; but the next and last tyrant flycatcher of +which I shall speak possesses on the whole the most advertising +coloration of any small bird I have ever seen in the open country, and +moreover this advertising coloration exists in both sexes and +throughout the year. It is a brilliant white, all over, except the +long wing-quills and the ends of the tail-feathers, which are black. +The first one I saw, at a very long distance, I thought must be an +albino. It perches on the top of a bush or tree watching for its prey, +and it shines in the sun like a silver mirror. Every hawk, cat, or man +must see it; no one can help seeing it. + +These common Argentine birds, most of them of the open country, and +all of them with a strikingly advertising coloration, are interesting +because of their beauty and their habits. They are also interesting +because they offer such illuminating examples of the truth that many +of the most common and successful birds not merely lack a concealing +coloration, but possess a coloration which is in the highest degree +revealing. The coloration and the habits of most of these birds are +such that every hawk or other foe that can see at all must have its +attention attracted to them. Evidently in their cases neither the +coloration nor any habit of concealment based on the coloration is a +survival factor, and this although they live in a land teeming with +bird-eating hawks. Among the higher vertebrates there are many known +factors which have influence, some in one set of cases, some in +another set of cases, in the development and preservation of species. +Courage, intelligence, adaptability, prowess, bodily vigor, speed, +alertness, ability to hide, ability to build structures which will +protect the young while they are helpless, fecundity--all, and many +more like them, have their several places; and behind all these +visible causes there are at work other and often more potent causes of +which as yet science can say nothing. Some species owe much to a given +attribute which may be wholly lacking in influence on other species; +and every one of the attributes above enumerated is a survival factor +in some species, while in others it has no survival value whatever, +and in yet others, although of benefit, it is not of sufficient +benefit to offset the benefit conferred on foes or rivals by totally +different attributes. Intelligence, for instance, is of course a +survival factor; but to-day there exist multitudes of animals with +very little intelligence which have persisted through immense periods +of geologic time either unchanged or else without any change in the +direction of increased intelligence; and during their species-life +they have witnessed the death of countless other species of far +greater intelligence but in other ways less adapted to succeed in the +environmental complex. The same statement can be made of all the many, +many other known factors in development, from fecundity to concealing +coloration; and behind them lie forces as to which we veil our +ignorance by the use of high-sounding nomenclature--as when we use +such a convenient but far from satisfactory term as orthogenesis. + + + + II. UP THE PARAGUAY + +On the afternoon of December 9 we left the attractive and picturesque +city of Asuncion to ascend the Paraguay. With generous courtesy the +Paraguayan Government had put at my disposal the gunboat-yacht of the +President himself, a most comfortable river steamer, and so the +opening days of our trip were pleasant in every way. The food was +good, our quarters were clean, we slept well, below or on deck, +usually without our mosquito-nettings, and in daytime the deck was +pleasant under the awnings. It was hot, of course, but we were dressed +suitably in our exploring and hunting clothes and did not mind the +heat. The river was low, for there had been dry weather for some weeks +--judging from the vague and contradictory information I received +there is much elasticity to the terms wet season and dry season at +this part of the Paraguay. Under the brilliant sky we steamed steadily +up the mighty river; the sunset was glorious as we leaned on the port +railing; and after nightfall the moon, nearly full and hanging high in +the heavens, turned the water to shimmering radiance. On the mud-flats +and sandbars, and among the green rushes of the bays and inlets, were +stately water-fowl; crimson flamingoes and rosy spoonbills, dark- +colored ibis and white storks with black wings. Darters, with +snakelike necks and pointed bills, perched in the trees on the brink +of the river. Snowy egrets flapped across the marshes. Caymans were +common, and differed from the crocodiles we had seen in Africa in two +points: they were not alarmed by the report of a rifle when fired at, +and they lay with the head raised instead of stretched along the sand. + +For three days, as we steamed northward toward the Tropic of +Capricorn, and then passed it, we were within the Republic of +Paraguay. On our right, to the east, there was a fairly well-settled +country, where bananas and oranges were cultivated and other crops of +hot countries raised. On the banks we passed an occasional small town, +or saw a ranch-house close to the river's brink, or stopped for wood +at some little settlement. Across the river to the west lay the level, +swampy, fertile wastes known as the Chaco, still given over either to +the wild Indians or to cattle-ranching on a gigantic scale. The broad +river ran in curves between mud-banks where terraces marked successive +periods of flood. A belt of forest stood on each bank, but it was only +a couple of hundred yards wide. Back of it was the open country; on +the Chaco side this was a vast plain of grass, dotted with tall, +graceful palms. In places the belt of forest vanished and the palm- +dotted prairie came to the river's edge. The Chaco is an ideal cattle +country, and not really unhealthy. It will be covered with ranches at +a not distant day. But mosquitoes and many other winged insect pests +swarm over it. Cherrie and Miller had spent a week there collecting +mammals and birds prior to my arrival at Asuncion. They were veterans +of the tropics, hardened to the insect plagues of Guiana and the +Orinoco. But they reported that never had they been so tortured as in +the Chaco. The sand-flies crawled through the meshes in the mosquito- +nets, and forbade them to sleep; if in their sleep a knee touched the +net the mosquitoes fell on it so that it looked as if riddled by +birdshot; and the nights were a torment, although they had done well +in their work, collecting some two hundred and fifty specimens of +birds and mammals. + +Nevertheless for some as yet inscrutable reason the river served as a +barrier to certain insects which are menaces to the cattlemen. With me +on the gunboat was an old Western friend, Tex Rickard, of the +Panhandle and Alaska and various places in between. He now has a large +tract of land and some thirty-five thousand head of cattle in the +Chaco, opposite Concepcion, at which city he was to stop. He told me +that horses did not do well in the Chaco but that cattle throve, and +that while ticks swarmed on the east bank of the great river, they +would not live on the west bank. Again and again he had crossed herds +of cattle which were covered with the loathsome bloodsuckers; and in a +couple of months every tick would be dead. The worst animal foes of +man, indeed the only dangerous foes, are insects; and this is +especially true in the tropics. Fortunately, exactly as certain +differences too minute for us as yet to explain render some insects +deadly to man or domestic animals, while closely allied forms are +harmless, so, for other reasons, which also we are not as yet able to +fathom, these insects are for the most part strictly limited by +geographical and other considerations. The war against what Sir Harry +Johnston calls the really material devil, the devil of evil wild +nature in the tropics, has been waged with marked success only during +the last two decades. The men, in the United States, in England, +France, Germany, Italy--the men like Doctor Cruz in Rio Janeiro and +Doctor Vital Brazil in Sao Paulo--who work experimentally within and +without the laboratory in their warfare against the disease and death +bearing insects and microbes, are the true leaders in the fight to +make the tropics the home of civilized man. + +Late on the evening of the second day of our trip, just before +midnight, we reached Concepcion. On this day, when we stopped for wood +or to get provisions--at picturesque places, where the women from +rough mud and thatched cabins were washing clothes in the river, or +where ragged horsemen stood gazing at us from the bank, or where dark, +well-dressed ranchmen stood in front of red-roofed houses--we caught +many fish. They belonged to one of the most formidable genera of fish +in the world, the piranha or cannibal fish, the fish that eats men +when it can get the chance. Farther north there are species of small +piranha that go in schools. At this point on the Paraguay the piranha +do not seem to go in regular schools, but they swarm in all the waters +and attain a length of eighteen inches or over. They are the most +ferocious fish in the world. Even the most formidable fish, the sharks +or the barracudas, usually attack things smaller than themselves. But +the piranhas habitually attack things much larger than themselves. +They will snap a finger off a hand incautiously trailed in the water; +they mutilate swimmers--in every river town in Paraguay there are men +who have been thus mutilated; they will rend and devour alive any +wounded man or beast; for blood in the water excites them to madness. +They will tear wounded wild fowl to pieces; and bite off the tails of +big fish as they grow exhausted when fighting after being hooked. +Miller, before I reached Asuncion, had been badly bitten by one. Those +that we caught sometimes bit through the hooks, or the double strands +of copper wire that served as leaders, and got away. Those that we +hauled on deck lived for many minutes. Most predatory fish are long +and slim, like the alligator-gar and pickerel. But the piranha is a +short, deep-bodied fish, with a blunt face and a heavily undershot or +projecting lower jaw which gapes widely. The razor-edged teeth are +wedge-shaped like a shark's, and the jaw muscles possess great power. +The rabid, furious snaps drive the teeth through flesh and bone. The +head with its short muzzle, staring malignant eyes, and gaping, +cruelly armed jaws, is the embodiment of evil ferocity; and the +actions of the fish exactly match its looks. I never witnessed an +exhibition of such impotent, savage fury as was shown by the piranhas +as they flapped on deck. When fresh from the water and thrown on the +boards they uttered an extraordinary squealing sound. As they flapped +about they bit with vicious eagerness at whatever presented itself. +One of them flapped into a cloth and seized it with a bulldog grip. +Another grasped one of its fellows; another snapped at a piece of +wood, and left the teeth-marks deep therein. They are the pests of the +waters, and it is necessary to be exceedingly cautious about either +swimming or wading where they are found. If cattle are driven into, or +of their own accord enter, the water, they are commonly not molested; +but if by chance some unusually big or ferocious specimen of these +fearsome fishes does bite an animal--taking off part of an ear, or +perhaps of a teat from the udder of a cow--the blood brings up every +member of the ravenous throng which is anywhere near, and unless the +attacked animal can immediately make its escape from the water it is +devoured alive. Here on the Paraguay the natives hold them in much +respect, whereas the caymans are not feared at all. The only redeeming +feature about them is that they are themselves fairly good to eat, +although with too many bones. + +At daybreak of the third day, finding we were still moored off +Concepcion, we were rowed ashore and strolled off through the streets +of the quaint, picturesque old town; a town which, like Asuncion, was +founded by the conquistadores three-quarters of a century before our +own English and Dutch forefathers landed in what is now the United +States. The Jesuits then took practically complete possession of what +is now Paraguay, controlling and Christianizing the Indians, and +raising their flourishing missions to a pitch of prosperity they never +elsewhere achieved. They were expelled by the civil authorities +(backed by the other representatives of ecclesiastical authority) some +fifty years before Spanish South America became independent. But they +had already made the language of the Indians, Guarany, a culture- +tongue, reducing it to writing, and printing religious books in it. +Guarany is one of the most wide-spread of the Indian tongues, being +originally found in various closely allied forms not only in Paraguay +but in Uruguay and over the major part of Brazil. It remains here and +there, as a lingua general at least, and doubtless in cases as an +original tongue, among the wild tribes. In most of Brazil, as around +Para and around Sao Paulo, it has left its traces in place-names, but +has been completely superseded as a language by Portuguese. In +Paraguay it still exists side by side with Spanish as the common +language of the lower people and as a familiar tongue among the upper +classes. The blood of the people is mixed, their language dual; the +lower classes are chiefly of Indian blood but with a white admixture; +while the upper classes are predominantly white, with a strong +infusion of Indian. There is no other case quite parallel to this in +the annals of European colonization, although the Goanese in India +have a native tongue and a Portuguese creed, while in several of the +Spanish-American states the Indian blood is dominant and the majority +of the population speak an Indian tongue, perhaps itself, as with the +Quichuas, once a culture-tongue of the archaic type. Whether in +Paraguay one tongue will ultimately drive out the other, and, if so, +which will be the victor, it is yet too early to prophesy. The English +missionaries and the Bible Society have recently published parts of +the Scriptures in Guarany and in Asuncion a daily paper is published +with the text in parallel columns, Spanish and Guarany--just as in +Oklahoma there is a similar paper published in English and in the +tongue which the extraordinary Cherokee chief Sequoia, a veritable +Cadmus, made a literary language. + +The Guarany-speaking Paraguayan is a Christian, and as much an +inheritor of our common culture as most of the peasant populations of +Europe. He has no kinship with the wild Indian, who hates and fears +him. The Indian of the Chaco, a pure savage, a bow-bearing savage, +will never come east of the Paraguay, and the Paraguayan is only +beginning to venture into the western interior, away from the banks of +the river--under the lead of pioneer settlers like Rickard, whom, by +the way, the wild Indians thoroughly trust, and for whom they work +eagerly and faithfully. There is a great development ahead for +Paraguay, as soon as they can definitely shake off the revolutionary +habit and establish an orderly permanence of government. The people +are a fine people; the strains of blood--white and Indian--are good. + +We walked up the streets of Concepcion, and interestedly looked at +everything of interest: at the one-story houses, their windows covered +with gratings of fretted ironwork, and their occasional open doors +giving us glimpses into cool inner courtyards, with trees and flowers; +at the two-wheel carts, drawn by mules or oxen; at an occasional +rider, with spurs on his bare feet, and his big toes thrust into the +small stirrup-rings; at the little stores, and the warehouses for +matte and hides. Then we came to a pleasant little inn, kept by a +Frenchman and his wife, of old Spanish style, with its patio, or inner +court, but as neat as an inn in Normandy or Brittany. We were sitting +at coffee, around a little table, when in came the colonel of the +garrison--for Concepcion is the second city in Paraguay. He told me +that they had prepared a reception for me! I was in my rough hunting- +clothes, but there was nothing to do but to accompany my kind hosts +and trust to their good nature to pardon my shortcomings in the matter +of dress. The colonel drove me about in a smart open carriage, with +two good horses and a liveried driver. It was a much more fashionable +turnout than would be seen in any of our cities save the largest, and +even in them probably not in the service of a public official. In all +the South American countries there is more pomp and ceremony in +connection with public functions than with us, and at these functions +the liveried servants, often with knee-breeches and powdered hair, are +like those seen at similar European functions; there is not the +democratic simplicity which better suits our own habits of life and +ways of thought. But the South Americans often surpass us, not merely +in pomp and ceremony but in what is of real importance, courtesy; in +civility and courtesy we can well afford to take lessons from them. + +We first visited the barracks, saw the troops in the setting-up +exercises, and inspected the arms, the artillery, the equipment. There +was a German lieutenant with the Paraguayan officers; one of several +German officers who are now engaged in helping the Paraguayans with +their army. The equipments and arms were in good condition; the +enlisted men evidently offered fine material; and the officers were +doing hard work. It is worth while for anti-militarists to ponder the +fact that in every South American country where a really efficient +army is developed, the increase in military efficiency goes hand in +hand with a decrease in lawlessness and disorder, and a growing +reluctance to settle internal disagreements by violence. They are +introducing universal military service in Paraguay; the officers, many +of whom have studied abroad, are growing to feel an increased esprit +de corps, an increased pride in the army, and therefore a desire to +see the army made the servant of the nation as a whole and not the +tool of any faction or individual. If these feelings grow strong +enough they will be powerful factors in giving Paraguay what she most +needs, freedom from revolutionary disturbance and therefore the chance +to achieve the material prosperity without which as a basis there can +be no advance in other and even more important matters. + +Then I was driven to the City Hall, accompanied by the intendente, or +mayor, a German long settled in the country and one of the leading men +of the city. There was a breakfast. When I had to speak I impressed +into my service as interpreter a young Paraguayan who was a graduate +of the University of Pennsylvania. He was able to render into Spanish +my ideas--on such subjects as orderly liberty and the far-reaching +mischief done by the revolutionary habit--with clearness and vigor, +because he thoroughly understood not only how I felt but also the +American way of looking at such things. My hosts were hospitality +itself, and I enjoyed the unexpected greeting. + +We steamed on up the river. Now and then we passed another boat--a +steamer, or, to my surprise, perhaps a barkentine or schooner. The +Paraguay is a highway of traffic. Once we passed a big beef-canning +factory. Ranches stood on either bank a few leagues apart, and we +stopped at wood-yards on the west bank. Indians worked around them. At +one such yard the Indians were evidently part of the regular force. +Their squaws were with them, cooking at queer open-air ovens. One +small child had as pets a parrot and a young coati--a kind of long- +nosed raccoon. Loading wood, the Indians stood in a line, tossing the +logs from one to the other. These Indians wore clothes. + +On this day we got into the tropics. Even in the heat of the day the +deck was pleasant under the awnings; the sun rose and set in crimson +splendor; and the nights, with the moon at the full, were wonderful. +At night Orion blazed overhead; and the Southern Cross hung in the +star-brilliant heavens behind us. But after the moon rose the +constellations paled; and clear in her light the tree-clad banks stood +on either hand as we steamed steadily against the swirling current of +the great river. + +At noon on the twelfth we were at the Brazilian boundary. On this day +we here and there came on low, conical hills close to the river. In +places the palm groves broke through the belts of deciduous trees and +stretched for a mile or so right along the river's bank. At times we +passed cattle on the banks or sand-bars, followed by their herders; or +a handsome ranch-house, under a cluster of shady trees, some bearing a +wealth of red and some a wealth of yellow blossoms; or we saw a horse- +corral among the trees close to the brink, with the horses in it and a +barefooted man in shirt and trousers leaning against the fence; or a +herd of cattle among the palms; or a big tannery or factory or a +little native hamlet came in sight. We stopped at one tannery. The +owner was a Spaniard, the manager an "Oriental," as he called himself, +a Uruguayan, of German parentage. The peons, or workers, who lived in +a long line of wooden cabins back of the main building, were mostly +Paraguayans, with a few Brazilians, and a dozen German and Argentine +foremen. There were also some wild Indians, who were camped in the +usual squalid fashion of Indians who are hangers-on round the white +man but have not yet adopted his ways. Most of the men were at work +cutting wood for the tannery. The women and children were in camp. +Some individuals of both sexes were naked to the waist. One little +girl had a young ostrich as a pet. + +Water-fowl were plentiful. We saw large flocks of wild muscovy ducks. +Our tame birds come from this wild species and its absurd misnaming +dates back to the period when the turkey and guinea-pig were misnamed +in similar fashion--our European forefathers taking a large and hazy +view of geography, and including Turkey, Guinea, India, and Muscovy as +places which, in their capacity of being outlandish, could be +comprehensively used as including America. The muscovy ducks were very +good eating. Darters and cormorants swarmed. They waddled on the sand- +bars in big flocks and crowded the trees by the water's edge. +Beautiful snow-white egrets also lit in the trees, often well back +from the river. A full-foliaged tree of vivid green, its round surface +crowded with these birds, as if it had suddenly blossomed with huge +white flowers, is a sight worth seeing. Here and there on the sand- +bars we saw huge jabiru storks, and once a flock of white wood-ibis +among the trees on the bank. + +On the Brazilian boundary we met a shallow river steamer carrying +Colonel Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon and several other Brazilian +members of the expedition. Colonel Rondon immediately showed that he +was all, and more than all, that could be desired. It was evident that +he knew his business thoroughly, and it was equally evident that he +would be a pleasant companion. He was a classmate of Mr. Lauro Muller +at the Brazilian Military Academy. He is of almost pure Indian blood, +and is a Positivist--the Positivists are a really strong body in +Brazil, as they are in France and indeed in Chile. The colonel's seven +children have all been formally made members of the Positivist Church +in Rio Janeiro. Brazil possesses the same complete liberty in matters +religious, spiritual, and intellectual as we, for our great good +fortune, do in the United States, and my Brazilian companions included +Catholics and equally sincere men who described themselves as "libres +penseurs." Colonel Rondon has spent the last twenty-four years in +exploring the western highlands of Brazil, pioneering the way for +telegraph-lines and railroads. During that time he has travelled some +fourteen thousand miles, on territory most of which had not previously +been traversed by civilized man, and has built three thousand miles of +telegraph. He has an exceptional knowledge of the Indian tribes and +has always zealously endeavored to serve them and indeed to serve the +cause of humanity wherever and whenever he was able. Thanks mainly to +his efforts, four of the wild tribes of the region he has explored +have begun to tread the road of civilization. They have taken the +first steps toward becoming Christians. It may seem strange that among +the first-fruits of the efforts of a Positivist should be the +conversion of those he seeks to benefit to Christianity. But in South +America Christianity is at least as much a status as a theology. It +represents the indispensable first step upward from savagery. In the +wilder and poorer districts men are divided into the two great classes +of "Christians" and "Indians." When an Indian becomes a Christian he +is accepted into and becomes wholly absorbed or partly assimilated by +the crude and simple neighboring civilization, and then he moves up or +down like any one else among his fellows. + +Among Colonel Rondon's companions were Captain Amilcar de Magalhaes, +Lieutenant Joao Lyra, Lieutenant Joaquin de Mello Filho, and Doctor +Euzebio de Oliveira, a geologist. + +The steamers halted; Colonel Rondon and several of his officers, spick +and span in their white uniforms, came aboard; and in the afternoon I +visited him on his steamer to talk over our plans. When these had been +fully discussed and agreed on we took tea. I happened to mention that +one of our naturalists, Miller, had been bitten by a piranha, and the +man-eating fish at once became the subject of conversation. Curiously +enough, one of the Brazilian taxidermists had also just been severely +bitten by a piranha. My new companions had story after story to tell +of them. Only three weeks previously a twelve-year-old boy who had +gone in swimming near Corumba was attacked, and literally devoured +alive by them. Colonel Rondon during his exploring trips had met with +more than one unpleasant experience in connection with them. He had +lost one of his toes by the bite of a piranha. He was about to bathe +and had chosen a shallow pool at the edge of the river, which he +carefully inspected until he was satisfied that none of the man-eating +fish were in it; yet as soon as he put his foot into the water one of +them attacked him and bit off a toe. On another occasion while wading +across a narrow stream one of his party was attacked; the fish bit him +on the thighs and buttocks, and when he put down his hands tore them +also; he was near the bank and by a rush reached it and swung himself +out of the water by means of an overhanging limb of a tree; but he was +terribly injured, and it took him six months before his wounds healed +and he recovered. An extraordinary incident occurred on another trip. +The party were without food and very hungry. On reaching a stream they +dynamited it, and waded in to seize the stunned fish as they floated +on the surface. One man, Lieutenant Pyrineus, having his hands full, +tried to hold one fish by putting its head into his mouth; it was a +piranha and seemingly stunned, but in a moment it recovered and bit a +big section out of his tongue. Such a hemorrhage followed that his +life was saved with the utmost difficulty. On another occasion a +member of the party was off by himself on a mule. The mule came into +camp alone. Following his track back they came to a ford, where in the +water they found the skeleton of the dead man, his clothes uninjured +but every particle of flesh stripped from his bones. Whether he had +drowned, and the fishes had then eaten his body, or whether they had +killed him it was impossible to say. They had not hurt the clothes, +getting in under them, which made it seem likely that there had been +no struggle. These man-eating fish are a veritable scourge in the +waters they frequent. But it must not be understood by this that the +piranhas--or, for the matter of that, the New-World caymans and +crocodiles--ever become such dreaded foes of man as for instance the +man-eating crocodiles of Africa. Accidents occur, and there are +certain places where swimming and bathing are dangerous; but in most +places the people swim freely, although they are usually careful to +find spots they believe safe or else to keep together and make a +splashing in the water. + +During his trips Colonel Rondon had met with various experiences with +wild creatures. The Paraguayan caymans are not ordinarily dangerous to +man; but they do sometimes become man-eaters and should be destroyed +whenever the opportunity offers. The huge caymans and crocodiles of +the Amazon are far more dangerous, and the colonel knew of repeated +instances where men, women and children had become their victims. Once +while dynamiting a stream for fish for his starving party he partially +stunned a giant anaconda, which he killed as it crept slowly off. He +said that it was of a size that no other anaconda he had ever seen +even approached, and that in his opinion such a brute if hungry would +readily attack a full-grown man. Twice smaller anacondas had attacked +his dogs; one was carried under water--for the anaconda is a water- +loving serpent--but he rescued it. One of his men was bitten by a +jararaca; he killed the venomous snake, but was not discovered and +brought back to camp until it was too late to save his life. The puma +Colonel Rondon had found to be as cowardly as I have always found it, +but the jaguar was a formidable beast, which occasionally turned man- +eater, and often charged savagely when brought to bay. He had known a +hunter to be killed by a jaguar he was following in thick grass cover. + +All such enemies, however, he regarded as utterly trivial compared to +the real dangers of the wilderness--the torment and menace of attacks +by the swarming insects, by mosquitoes and the even more intolerable +tiny gnats, by the ticks, and by the vicious poisonous ants which +occasionally cause villages and even whole districts to be deserted by +human beings. These insects, and the fevers they cause, and dysentery +and starvation and wearing hardship and accidents in rapids are what +the pioneer explorers have to fear. The conversation was to me most +interesting. The colonel spoke French about to the extent I did; but +of course he and the others preferred Portuguese; and then Kermit was +the interpreter. + +In the evening, soon after moonrise, we stopped for wood at the little +Brazilian town of Porto Martinho. There are about twelve hundred +inhabitants. Some of the buildings were of stone; a large private +house with a castellated tower was of stone; there were shops, and a +post-office, stores, a restaurant and billiard-hall, and warehouses +for matte, of which much is grown in the region roundabout. Most of +the houses were low, with overhanging, sloping caves; and there were +gardens with high walls, inside of which trees rose, many of them +fragrant. We wandered through the wide, dusty streets, and along the +narrow sidewalks. It was a hot, still evening; the smell of the +tropics was on the heavy December air. Through the open doors and +windows we caught dim glimpses of the half-clad inmates of the poorer +houses; women and young girls sat outside their thresholds in the +moonlight. All whom we met were most friendly: the captain of the +little Brazilian garrison; the intendente, a local trader; another +trader and ranchman, a Uruguayan, who had just received his newspaper +containing my speech in Montevideo, and who, as I gathered from what I +understood of his rather voluble Spanish, was much impressed by my +views on democracy, honesty, liberty, and order (rather well-worn +topics); and a Catalan who spoke French, and who was accompanied by +his pretty daughter, a dear little girl of eight or ten, who said with +much pride that she spoke three languages--Brazilian, Spanish, and +Catalan! Her father expressed strongly his desire for a church and for +a school in the little city. + +When at last the wood was aboard we resumed our journey. The river was +like glass. In the white moonlight the palms on the edge of the banks +stood mirrored in the still water. We sat forward and as we rounded +the curves the long silver reaches of the great stream stretched ahead +of us, and the ghostly outlines of hills rose in the distance. Here +and there prairie fires burned, and the red glow warred with the +moon's radiance. + +Next morning was overcast. Occasionally we passed a wood-yard, or +factory, or cabin, now on the eastern, the Brazilian, now on the +western, the Paraguayan, bank. The Paraguay was known to men of +European birth, bore soldiers and priests and merchants as they sailed +and rowed up and down the current of its stream, and beheld little +towns and forts rise on its banks, long before the Mississippi had +become the white man's highway. Now, along its upper course, the +settlements are much like those on the Mississippi at the end of the +first quarter of the last century; and in the not distant future it +will witness a burst of growth and prosperity much like that which the +Mississippi saw when the old men of today were very young. + +In the early forenoon we stopped at a little Paraguayan hamlet, +nestling in the green growth under a group of low hills by the river- +brink. On one of these hills stood a picturesque old stone fort, known +as Fort Bourbon in the Spanish, the colonial, days. Now the Paraguayan +flag floats over it, and it is garrisoned by a handful of Paraguayan +soldiers. Here Father Zahm baptized two children, the youngest of a +large family of fair-skinned, light-haired small people, whose father +was a Paraguayan and the mother an "Oriental," or Uruguayan. No priest +had visited the village for three years, and the children were +respectively one and two years of age. The sponsors included the local +commandante and a married couple from Austria. In answer to what was +supposed to be the perfunctory question whether they were Catholics, +the parents returned the unexpected answer that they were not. Further +questioning elicited the fact that the father called himself a "free- +thinking Catholic," and the mother said she was a "Protestant +Catholic," her mother having been a Protestant, the daughter of an +immigrant from Normandy. However, it appeared that the older children +had been baptized by the Bishop of Asuncion, so Father Zahm at the +earnest request of the parents proceeded with the ceremony. They were +good people; and, although they wished liberty to think exactly as +they individually pleased, they also wished to be connected and to +have their children connected with some church, by preference the +church of the majority of their people. A very short experience of +communities where there is no church ought to convince the most +heterodox of the absolute need of a church. I earnestly wish that +there could be such an increase in the personnel and equipment of the +Catholic Church in South America as to permit the establishment of one +good and earnest priest in every village or little community in the +far interior. Nor is there any inconsistency between this wish and the +further wish that there could be a marked extension and development of +the native Protestant churches, such as I saw established here and +there in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, and of the Y. M. C. +Associations. The bulk of these good people who profess religion will +continue to be Catholics, but the spiritual needs of a more or less +considerable minority will best be met by the establishment of +Protestant churches, or in places even of a Positivist Church or +Ethical Culture Society. Not only is the establishment of such +churches a good thing for the body politic as a whole, but a good +thing for the Catholic Church itself; for their presence is a constant +spur to activity and clean and honorable conduct, and a constant +reflection on sloth and moral laxity. The government in each of these +commonwealths is doing everything possible to further the cause of +education, and the tendency is to treat education as peculiarly a +function of government and to make it, where the government acts, non- +sectarian, obligatory, and free--a cardinal doctrine of our own great +democracy, to which we are committed by every principle of sound +Americanism. There must be absolute religious liberty, for tyranny and +intolerance are as abhorrent in matters intellectual and spiritual as +in matters political and material; and more and more we must all +realize that conduct is of infinitely greater importance than dogma. +But no democracy can afford to overlook the vital importance of the +ethical and spiritual, the truly religious, element in life; and in +practice the average good man grows clearly to understand this, and to +express the need in concrete form by saying that no community can make +much headway if it does not contain both a church and a school. + +We took breakfast--the eleven-o'clock Brazilian breakfast--on Colonel +Rondon's boat. Caymans were becoming more plentiful. The ugly brutes +lay on the sand-flats and mud-banks like logs, always with the head +raised, sometimes with the jaws open. They are often dangerous to +domestic animals, and are always destructive to fish, and it is good +to shoot them. I killed half a dozen, and missed nearly as many more-- +a throbbing boat does not improve one's aim. We passed forests of +palms that extended for leagues, and vast marshy meadows, where +storks, herons, and ibis were gathered, with flocks of cormorants and +darters on the sand-bars, and stilts, skimmers, and clouds of +beautiful swaying terns in the foreground. About noon we passed the +highest point which the old Spanish conquistadores and explorers, +Irala and Ayolas, had reached in the course of their marvellous +journeys in the first half of the sixteenth century--at a time when +there was not a settlement in what is now the United States, and when +hardly a single English sea captain had ventured so much as to cross +the Atlantic. + +By the following day the country on the east bank had become a vast +marshy plain dotted here and there by tree-clad patches of higher +land. The morning was rainy; a contrast to the fine weather we had +hitherto encountered. We passed wood-yards and cattle-ranches. At one +of the latter the owner, an Argentine of Irish parentage, who still +spoke English with the accent of the land of his parents' nativity, +remarked that this was the first time the American flag had been seen +on the upper Paraguay; for our gunboat carried it at the masthead. +Early in the afternoon, having reached the part where both banks of +the river were Brazilian territory, we came to the old colonial +Portuguese fort of Coimbra. It stands where two steep hills rise, one +on either side of the river, and it guards the water-gorge between +them. It was captured by the Paraguayans in the war of nearly half a +century ago. Some modern guns have been mounted, and there is a +garrison of Brazilian troops. The white fort is perched on the +hillside, where it clings and rises, terrace above terrace, with +bastion and parapet and crenellated wall. At the foot of the hill, on +the riverine plain, stretches the old-time village with its roofs of +palm. In the village dwell several hundred souls, almost entirely the +officers and soldiers and their families. There is one long street. +The one-story, daub-and-wattle houses have low eaves and steep sloping +roofs of palm-leaves or of split palm-trunks. Under one or two old but +small trees there are rude benches; and for a part of the length of +the street there is a rough stone sidewalk. A little graveyard, some +of the tombs very old, stands at one end. As we passed down the street +the wives and the swarming children of the garrison were at the doors +and windows; there were women and girls with skins as fair as any in +the northland, and others that were predominantly negro. Most were of +intervening shades. All this was paralleled among the men; and the +fusion of the colors was going on steadily. + +Around the village black vultures were gathered. Not long before +reaching it we passed some rounded green trees, their tops covered +with the showy wood-ibis; at the same time we saw behind them, farther +inland, other trees crowded with the more delicate forms of the +shining white egrets. + +The river now widened so that in places it looked like a long lake; it +wound in every direction through the endless marshy plain, whose +surface was broken here and there by low mountains. The splendor of +the sunset I never saw surpassed. We were steaming east toward clouds +of storm. The river ran, a broad highway of molten gold, into the +flaming sky; the far-off mountains loomed purple across the marshes; +belts of rich green, the river banks stood out on either side against +the rose-hues of the rippling water; in front, as we forged steadily +onward, hung the tropic night, dim and vast. + +On December 15 we reached Corumba. For three or four miles before it +is reached the west bank, on which it stands, becomes high rocky +ground, falling away into cliffs. The country roundabout was evidently +well peopled. We saw gauchos, cattle-herders--the equivalent of our +own cowboys--riding along the bank. Women were washing clothes, and +their naked children bathing, on the shore; we were told that caymans +and piranhas rarely ventured near a place where so much was going on, +and that accidents generally occurred in ponds or lonely stretches of +the river. Several steamers came out to meet us, and accompanied us +for a dozen miles, with bands playing and the passengers cheering, +just as if we were nearing some town on the Hudson. + +Corumba is on a steep hillside, with wide, roughly paved streets, some +of them lined with beautiful trees that bear scarlet flowers, and with +well-built houses, most of them of one story, some of two or three +stories. We were greeted with a reception by the municipal council, +and were given a state dinner. The hotel, kept by an Italian, was as +comfortable as possible--stone floors, high ceilings, big windows and +doors, a cool, open courtyard, and a shower-bath. Of course Corumba is +still a frontier town. The vehicles ox-carts and mule-carts; there are +no carriages; and oxen as well as mules are used for riding. The water +comes from a big central well; around it the water-carts gather, and +their contents are then peddled around at the different houses. The +families showed the mixture of races characteristic of Brazil; one +mother, after the children had been photographed in their ordinary +costume, begged that we return and take them in their Sunday clothes, +which was accordingly done. In a year the railway from Rio will reach +Corumba; and then this city, and the country roundabout, will see much +development. + +At this point we rejoined the rest of the party, and very glad we were +to see them. Cherrie and Miller had already collected some eight +hundred specimens of mammals and birds. + + + + III. A JAGUAR-HUNT ON THE TAQUARY + +The morning after our arrival at Corumba I asked Colonel Rondon to +inspect our outfit; for his experience of what is necessary in +tropical travelling has been gained through a quarter of a century of +arduous exploration in the wilderness. It was Fiala who had assembled +our food-tents, cooking-utensils, and supplies of all kinds, and he +and Sigg, during their stay in Corumba, had been putting everything in +shape for our start. Colonel Rondon at the end of his inspection said +he had nothing whatever to suggest; that it was extraordinary that +Fiala, without personal knowledge of the tropics, could have gathered +the things most necessary, with the minimum of bulk and maximum of +usefulness. + +Miller had made a special study of the piranhas, which swarmed at one +of the camps he and Cherrie had made in the Chaco. So numerous were +they that the members of the party had to be exceedingly careful in +dipping up water. Miller did not find that they were cannibals toward +their own kind; they were "cannibals" only in the sense of eating the +flesh of men. When dead piranhas, and even when mortally injured +piranhas, with the blood flowing, were thrown among the ravenous +living, they were left unmolested. Moreover, it was Miller's +experience, the direct contrary of which we had been told, that +splashing and a commotion in the water attracted the piranhas, whereas +they rarely attacked anything that was motionless unless it was +bloody. Dead birds and mammals, thrown whole and unskinned into the +water were permitted to float off unmolested, whereas the skinned +carcass of a good-sized monkey was at once seized, pulled under the +water, and completely devoured by the blood-crazy fish. A man who had +dropped something of value waded in after it to above the knees, but +went very slowly and quietly, avoiding every possibility of +disturbance, and not venturing to put his hands into the water. But +nobody could bathe, and even the slightest disturbance in the water, +such as that made by scrubbing the hands vigorously with soap, +immediately attracted the attention of the savage little creatures, +who darted to the place, evidently hoping to find some animal in +difficulties. Once, while Miller and some Indians were attempting to +launch a boat, and were making a great commotion in the water, a +piranha attacked a naked Indian who belonged to the party and +mutilated him as he struggled and splashed, waist-deep in the stream. +Men not making a splashing and struggling are rarely attacked; but if +one is attacked by any chance, the blood in the water maddens the +piranhas, and they assail the man with frightful ferocity. + +At Corumba the weather was hot. In the patio of the comfortable little +hotel we heard the cicadas; but I did not hear the extraordinary +screaming whistle of the locomotive cicada, which I had heard in the +gardens of the house in which I stayed at Asuncion. This was as +remarkable a sound as any animal sound to which I have listened, +except only the batrachian-like wailing of the tree hyrax in East +Africa; and like the East African mammal this South American insect +has a voice, or rather utters a sound which, so far as it resembles +any other animal sound, at the beginning remotely suggests batrachian +affinities. The locomotive-whistle part of the utterance, however, +resembles nothing so much as a small steam siren; when first heard it +seems impossible that it can be produced by an insect. + +On December 17 Colonel Rondon and several members of our party started +on a shallow river steamer for the ranch of Senhor de Barros, "Las +Palmeiras," on the Rio Taquary. We went down the Paraguay for a few +miles, and then up the Taquary. It was a beautiful trip. The shallow +river--we were aground several times--wound through a vast, marshy +plain, with occasional spots of higher land on which trees grew. There +were many water-birds. Darters swarmed. But the conspicuous and +attractive bird was the stately jabiru stork. Flocks of these storks +whitened the marshes and lined the river banks. They were not shy, for +such big birds; before flying they had to run a few paces and then +launch themselves on the air. Once, at noon, a couple soared round +overhead in wide rings, rising higher and higher. On another occasion, +late in the day, a flock passed by, gleaming white with black points +in the long afternoon lights, and with them were spoonbills, showing +rosy amid their snowy companions. Caymans, always called jacares, +swarmed; and we killed scores of the noxious creatures. They were +singularly indifferent to our approach and to the sound of the shots. +Sometimes they ran into the water erect on their legs, looking like +miniatures of the monsters of the prime. One showed by its behavior +how little an ordinary shot pains or affects these dull-nerved, cold- +blooded creatures. As it lay on a sand-bank, it was hit with a long 22 +bullet. It slid into the water but found itself in the midst of a +school of fish. It at once forgot everything except its greedy +appetite, and began catching the fish. It seized fish after fish, +holding its head above water as soon as its jaws had closed on a fish; +and a second bullet killed it. Some of the crocodiles when shot +performed most extraordinary antics. Our weapons, by the way, were +good, except Miller's shotgun. The outfit furnished by the American +Museum was excellent--except in guns and cartridges; this gun was so +bad that Miller had to use Fiala's gun or else my Fox 12-bore. + +In the late afternoon we secured a more interesting creature than the +jacares. Kermit had charge of two hounds which we owed to the courtesy +of one of our Argentine friends. They were biggish, nondescript +animals, obviously good fighters, and they speedily developed the +utmost affection for all the members of the expedition, but especially +for Kermit, who took care of them. One we named "Shenzi," the name +given the wild bush natives by the Swahili, the semi-civilized African +porters. He was good-natured, rough, and stupid--hence his name. The +other was called by a native name, "Trigueiro." The chance now came to +try them. We were steaming between long stretches of coarse grass, +about three feet high, when we spied from the deck a black object, +very conspicuous against the vivid green. It was a giant ant-eater, or +tamandua bandeira, one of the most extraordinary creatures of the +latter-day world. It is about the size of a rather small black bear. +It has a very long, narrow, toothless snout, with a tongue it can +project a couple of feet; it is covered with coarse, black hair, save +for a couple of white stripes; it has a long, bushy tail and very +powerful claws on its fore feet. It walks on the sides of its fore +feet with these claws curved in under the foot. The claws are used in +digging out ant-hills; but the beast has courage, and in a grapple is +a rather unpleasant enemy, in spite of its toothless mouth, for it can +strike a formidable blow with these claws. It sometimes hugs a foe, +gripping him tight; but its ordinary method of defending itself is to +strike with its long, stout, curved claws, which, driven by its +muscular forearm, can rip open man or beast. Several of our companions +had had dogs killed by these ant-eaters; and we came across one man +with a very ugly scar down his back, where he had been hit by one, +which charged him when he came up to kill it at close quarters. + +As soon as we saw the giant tamandua we pushed off in a rowboat, and +landed only a couple of hundred yards distant from our clumsy quarry. +The tamandua throughout most of its habitat rarely leaves the forest, +and it is a helpless animal in the open plain. The two dogs ran ahead, +followed by Colonel Rondon and Kermit, with me behind carrying the +rifle. In a minute or two the hounds overtook the cantering, shuffling +creature, and promptly began a fight with it; the combatants were so +mixed up that I had to wait another minute or so before I could fire +without risk of hitting a dog. We carried our prize back to the bank +and hoisted it aboard the steamer. The sun was just about to set, +behind dim mountains, many miles distant across the marsh. + +Soon afterward we reached one of the outstations of the huge ranch we +were about to visit, and hauled up alongside the bank for the night. +There was a landing-place, and sheds and corrals. Several of the peons +or gauchos had come to meet us. After dark they kindled fires, and sat +beside them singing songs in a strange minor key and strumming +guitars. The red firelight flickered over their wild figures as they +squatted away from the blaze, where the light and the shadow met. It +was still and hot. There were mosquitoes, of course, and other insects +of all kinds swarmed round every light; but the steamboat was +comfortable, and we passed a pleasant night. + +At sunrise we were off for the "fazenda," the ranch of M. de Barros. +The baggage went in an ox-cart--which had to make two trips, so that +all of my belongings reached the ranch a day later than I did. We rode +small, tough ranch horses. The distance was some twenty miles. The +whole country was marsh, varied by stretches of higher ground; and, +although these stretches rose only three or four feet above the marsh, +they were covered with thick jungle, largely palmetto scrub, or else +with open palm forest. For three or four miles we splashed through the +marsh, now and then crossing boggy pools where the little horses +labored hard not to mire down. Our dusky guide was clad in a shirt, +trousers, and fringed leather apron, and wore spurs on his bare feet; +he had a rope for a bridle, and two or three toes of each foot were +thrust into little iron stirrups. + +The pools in the marsh were drying. They were filled with fish, most +of them dead or dying; and the birds had gathered to the banquet. The +most notable dinner guests were the great jabiru storks; the stately +creatures dotted the marsh. But ibis and herons abounded; the former +uttered queer, querulous cries when they discovered our presence. The +spurred lapwings were as noisy as they always are. The ibis and plover +did not pay any heed to the fish; but the black carrion vultures +feasted on them in the mud; and in the pools that were not dry small +alligators, the jacare-tinga, were feasting also. In many places the +stench from the dead fish was unpleasant. + +Then for miles we rode through a beautiful open forest of tall, +slender caranda palms, with other trees scattered among them. Green +parakeets with black heads chattered as they flew; noisy green and red +parrots climbed among the palms; and huge macaws, some entirely blue, +others almost entirely red, screamed loudly as they perched in the +trees or took wing at our approach. If one was wounded its cries kept +its companions circling around overhead. The naturalists found the +bird fauna totally different from that which they had been collecting +in the hill country near Corumba, seventy or eighty miles distant; and +birds swarmed, both species and individuals. South America has the +most extensive and most varied avifauna of all the continents. On the +other hand, its mammalian fauna, although very interesting, is rather +poor in number of species and individuals and in the size of the +beasts. It possesses more mammals that are unique and distinctive in +type than does any other continent save Australia; and they are of +higher and much more varied types than in Australia. But there is +nothing approaching the majesty, beauty, and swarming mass of the +great mammalian life of Africa and, in a less degree, of tropical +Asia; indeed, it does not even approach the similar mammalian life of +North America and northern Eurasia, poor though this is compared with +the seething vitality of tropical life in the Old World. During a +geologically recent period, a period extending into that which saw man +spread over the world in substantially the physical and cultural stage +of many existing savages, South America possessed a varied and +striking fauna of enormous beasts--sabre-tooth tigers, huge lions, +mastodons, horses of many kinds, camel-like pachyderms, giant ground- +sloths, mylodons the size of the rhinoceros, and many, many other +strange and wonderful creatures. From some cause, concerning the +nature of which we cannot at present even hazard a guess, this vast +and giant fauna vanished completely, the tremendous catastrophe (the +duration of which is unknown) not being consummated until within a few +thousand or a few score thousand years. When the white man reached +South America he found the same weak and impoverished mammalian fauna +that exists practically unchanged to-day. Elsewhere civilized man has +been even more destructive than his very destructive uncivilized +brothers of the magnificent mammalian life of the wilderness; for ages +he has been rooting out the higher forms of beast life in Europe, +Asia, and North Africa; and in our own day he has repeated the feat, +on a very large scale, in the rest of Africa and in North America. But +in South America, although he is in places responsible for the wanton +slaughter of the most interesting and the largest, or the most +beautiful, birds, his advent has meant a positive enrichment of the +wild mammalian fauna. None of the native grass-eating mammals, the +graminivores, approach in size and beauty the herds of wild or half- +wild cattle and horses, or so add to the interest of the landscape. +There is every reason why the good people of South America should +waken, as we of North America, very late in the day, are beginning to +waken, and as the peoples of northern Europe--not southern Europe-- +have already partially wakened, to the duty of preserving from +impoverishment and extinction the wild life which is an asset of such +interest and value in our several lands; but the case against +civilized man in this matter is gruesomely heavy anyhow, when the +plain truth is told, and it is harmed by exaggeration. + +After five or six hours' travelling through this country of marsh and +of palm forest we reached the ranch for which we were heading. In the +neighborhood stood giant fig-trees, singly or in groups, with dense, +dark green foliage. Ponds, overgrown with water-plants, lay about; wet +meadow, and drier pastureland, open or dotted with palms and varied +with tree jungle, stretched for many miles on every hand. There are +some thirty thousand head of cattle on the ranch, besides herds of +horses and droves of swine, and a few flocks of sheep and goats. The +home buildings of the ranch stood in a quadrangle, surrounded by a +fence or low stockade. One end of the quadrangle was formed by the +ranch-house itself, one story high, with whitewashed walls and red- +tiled roof. Inside, the rooms were bare, with clean, whitewashed walls +and palm-trunk rafters. There were solid wooden shutters on the +unglazed windows. We slept in hammocks or on cots, and we feasted +royally on delicious native Brazilian dishes. On another side of the +quadrangle stood another long, low white building with a red-tiled +roof; this held the kitchen and the living-rooms of the upper-grade +peons, the headmen, the cook, and jaguar-hunters, with their families: +dark-skinned men, their wives showing varied strains of white, Indian, +and negro blood. The children tumbled merrily in the dust, and were +fondly tended by their mothers. Opposite the kitchen stood a row of +buildings, some whitewashed daub and wattle, with tin roofs, others of +erect palm-logs with palm-leaf thatch. These were the saddle-room, +storehouse, chicken-house, and stable. The chicken-house was allotted +to Kermit and Miller for the preparation of the specimens; and there +they worked industriously. With a big skin, like that of the giant +ant-eater, they had to squat on the ground; while the ducklings and +wee chickens scuffled not only round the skin but all over it, +grabbing the shreds and scraps of meat and catching flies. The fourth +end of the quadrangle was formed by a corral and a big wooden +scaffolding on which hung hides and strips of drying meat. +Extraordinary to relate, there were no mosquitoes at the ranch; why I +cannot say, as they ought to swarm in these vast "pantanals," or +swamps. Therefore, in spite of the heat, it was very pleasant. Near by +stood other buildings: sheds, and thatched huts of palm-logs in which +the ordinary peons lived, and big corrals. In the quadrangle were +flamboyant trees, with their masses of brilliant red flowers and +delicately cut, vivid-green foliage. Noisy oven-birds haunted these +trees. In a high palm in the garden a family of green parakeets had +taken up their abode and were preparing to build nests. They chattered +incessantly both when they flew and when they sat or crawled among the +branches. Ibis and plover, crying and wailing, passed immediately +overhead. Jacanas frequented the ponds near by; the peons, with a +familiarity which to us seems sacrilegious, but to them was entirely +inoffensive and matter of course, called them "the Jesus Christ +birds," because they walked on the water. There was a wealth of +strange bird life in the neighborhood. There were large papyrus- +marshes, the papyrus not being a fifth, perhaps not a tenth, as high +as in Africa. In these swamps were many blackbirds. Some uttered notes +that reminded me of our own redwings. Others, with crimson heads and +necks and thighs, fairly blazed; often a dozen sat together on a +swaying papyrus-stem which their weight bent over. There were all +kinds of extraordinary bird's-nests in the trees. There is still need +for the work of the collector in South America. But I believe that +already, so far as birds are concerned, there is infinitely more need +for the work of the careful observer, who to the power of appreciation +and observation adds the power of vivid, truthful, and interesting +narration--which means, as scientists no less than historians should +note, that training in the writing of good English is indispensable to +any learned man who expects to make his learning count for what it +ought to count in the effect on his fellow men. The outdoor +naturalist, the faunal naturalist, who devotes himself primarily to a +study of the habits and of the life-histories of birds, beasts, fish, +and reptiles, and who can portray truthfully and vividly what he has +seen, could do work of more usefulness than any mere collector, in +this upper Paraguay country. The work of the collector is +indispensable; but it is only a small part of the work that ought to +be done; and after collecting has reached a certain point the work of +the field observer with the gift for recording what he has seen +becomes of far more importance. + +The long days spent riding through the swamp, the "pantanal," were +pleasant and interesting. Several times we saw the tamandua bandeira, +the giant ant-bear. Kermit shot one, because the naturalists eagerly +wished for a second specimen; afterward we were relieved of all +necessity to molest the strange, out-of-date creatures. It was a +surprise to us to find them habitually frequenting the open marsh. +They were always on muddy ground, and in the papyrus-swamp we found +them in several inches of water. The stomach is thick-walled, like a +gizzard; the stomachs of those we shot contained adult and larval +ants, chiefly termites, together with plenty of black mould and +fragments of leaves, both green and dry. Doubtless the earth and the +vegetable matter had merely been taken incidentally, adhering to the +viscid tongue when it was thrust into the ant masses. Out in the open +marsh the tamandua could neither avoid observation, nor fight +effectively, nor make good its escape by flight. It was curious to see +one lumbering off at a rocking canter, the big bushy tail held aloft. +One, while fighting the dogs, suddenly threw itself on its back, +evidently hoping to grasp a dog with its paws; and it now and then +reared, in order to strike at its assailants. In one patch of thick +jungle we saw a black howler monkey sitting motionless in a tree top. +We also saw the swamp-deer, about the size of our blacktail. It is a +real swamp animal, for we found it often in the papyrus-swamps, and +out in the open marsh, knee-deep in the water, among the aquatic +plants. + +The tough little horses bore us well through the marsh. Often in +crossing bayous and ponds the water rose almost to their backs; but +they splashed and waded and if necessary swam through. The dogs were a +wild-looking set. Some were of distinctly wolfish appearance. These, +we were assured, were descended in part from the big red wolf of the +neighborhood, a tall, lank animal, with much smaller teeth than a big +northern wolf. The domestic dog is undoubtedly descended from at least +a dozen different species of wild dogs, wolves, and jackals, some of +them probably belonging to what we style different genera. The degree +of fecundity or lack of fecundity between different species varies in +extraordinary and inexplicable fashion in different families of +mammals. In the horse family, for instance, the species are not +fertile inter se; whereas among the oxen, species seemingly at least +as widely separated as the horse, ass, and zebra species such as the +domestic ox, bison, yak, and gaur breed freely together and their +offspring are fertile; the lion and tiger also breed together, and +produce offspring which will breed with either parent stock; and tame +dogs in different quarters of the world, although all of them fertile +inter se, are in many cases obviously blood kin to the neighboring +wild, wolf-like or jackal-like creatures which are specifically, and +possibly even generically, distinct from one another. The big red wolf +of the South American plains is not closely related to the northern +wolves; and it was to me unexpected to find it interbreeding with +ordinary domestic dogs. + +In the evenings after dinner we sat in the bare ranch dining-room, or +out under the trees in the hot darkness, and talked of many things: +natural history with the naturalists, and all kinds of other subjects +both with them and with our Brazilian friends. Colonel Rondon is not +simply "an officer and a gentleman" in the sense that is honorably +true of the best army officers in every good military service. He is +also a peculiarly hardy and competent explorer, a good field +naturalist and scientific man, a student and a philosopher. With him +the conversation ranged from jaguar-hunting and the perils of +exploration in the "Matto Grosso," the great wilderness, to Indian +anthropology, to the dangers of a purely materialistic industrial +civilization, and to Positivist morality. The colonel's Positivism was +in very fact to him a religion of humanity, a creed which bade him be +just and kindly and useful to his fellow men, to live his life +bravely, and no less bravely to face death, without reference to what +he believed, or did not believe, or to what the unknown hereafter +might hold for him. + +The native hunters who accompanied us were swarthy men of mixed blood. +They were barefooted and scantily clad, and each carried a long, +clumsy spear and a keen machete, in the use of which he was an expert. +Now and then, in thick jungle, we had to cut out a path, and it was +interesting to see one of them, although cumbered by his unwieldy +spear, handling his half-broken little horse with complete ease while +he hacked at limbs and branches. Of the two ordinarily with us one was +much the younger; and whenever we came to an unusually doubtful- +looking ford or piece of boggy ground the elder man always sent the +younger one on and sat on the bank until he saw what befell the +experimenter. In that rather preposterous book of our youth, the +"Swiss Family Robinson," mention is made of a tame monkey called Nips, +which was used to test all edible-looking things as to the +healthfulness of which the adventurers felt doubtful; and because of +the obvious resemblance of function we christened this younger hunter +Nips. Our guides were not only hunters but cattle-herders. The coarse +dead grass is burned to make room for the green young grass on which +the cattle thrive. Every now and then one of the men, as he rode ahead +of us, without leaving the saddle, would drop a lighted match into a +tussock of tall dead blades; and even as we who were behind rode by +tongues of hot flame would be shooting up and a local prairie fire +would have started. + +Kermit took Nips off with him for a solitary hunt one day. He shot two +of the big marsh-deer, a buck and a doe, and preserved them as museum +specimens. They were in the papyrus growth, but their stomachs +contained only the fine marsh-grass which grows in the water and on +the land along the edges of the swamps; the papyrus was used only for +cover, not for food. The buck had two big scent-glands beside the +nostrils; in the doe these were rudimentary. On this day Kermit also +came across a herd of the big, fierce white-lipped peccary; at the +sound of their grunting Nips promptly spurred his horse and took to +his heels, explaining that the peccaries would charge them, hamstring +the horses, and kill the riders. Kermit went into the jungle after the +truculent little wild hogs on foot and followed them for an hour, but +never was able to catch sight of them. + +In the afternoon of this same day one of the jaguar-hunters--merely +ranch hands, who knew something of the chase of the jaguar--who had +been searching for tracks, rode in with the information that he had +found fresh sign at a spot in the swamp about nine miles distant. Next +morning we rose at two, and had started on our jaguar-hunt at three. +Colonel Rondon, Kermit, and I, with the two trailers or jaguar- +hunters, made up the party, each on a weedy, undersized marsh pony, +accustomed to traversing the vast stretches of morass; and we were +accompanied by a brown boy, with saddle-bags holding our lunch, who +rode a long-horned trotting steer which he managed by a string through +its nostril and lip. The two trailers carried each a long, clumsy +spear. We had a rather poor pack. Besides our own two dogs, neither of +which was used to jaguar-hunting, there were the ranch dogs, which +were well-nigh worthless, and then two jaguar hounds borrowed for the +occasion from a ranch six or eight leagues distant. These were the +only hounds on which we could place any trust, and they were led in +leashes by the two trailers. One was a white bitch, the other, the +best one we had, was a gelded black dog. They were lean, half-starved +creatures with prick ears and a look of furtive wildness. + +As our shabby little horses shuffled away from the ranch-house the +stars were brilliant and the Southern Cross hung well up in the +heavens, tilted to the right. The landscape was spectral in the light +of the waning moon. At the first shallow ford, as horses and dogs +splashed across, an alligator, the jacare-tinga, some five feet long, +floated unconcernedly among the splashing hoofs and paws; evidently at +night it did not fear us. Hour after hour we slogged along. Then the +night grew ghostly with the first dim gray of the dawn. The sky had +become overcast. The sun rose red and angry through broken clouds; his +disk flamed behind the tall, slender columns of the palms, and lit the +waste fields of papyrus. The black monkeys howled mournfully. The +birds awoke. Macaws, parrots, parakeets screamed at us and chattered +at us as we rode by. Ibis called with wailing voices, and the plovers +shrieked as they wheeled in the air. We waded across bayous and ponds, +where white lilies floated on the water and thronging lilac-flowers +splashed the green marsh with color. + +At last, on the edge of a patch of jungle, in wet ground, we came on +fresh jaguar tracks. Both the jaguar hounds challenged the sign. They +were unleashed and galloped along the trail, while the other dogs +noisily accompanied them. The hunt led right through the marsh. +Evidently the jaguar had not the least distaste for water. Probably it +had been hunting for capybaras or tapirs, and it had gone straight +through ponds and long, winding, narrow ditches or bayous, where it +must now and then have had to swim for a stroke or two. It had also +wandered through the island-like stretches of tree-covered land, the +trees at this point being mostly palms and tarumans; the taruman is +almost as big as a live-oak, with glossy foliage and a fruit like an +olive. The pace quickened, the motley pack burst into yelling and +howling; and then a sudden quickening of the note showed that the game +had either climbed a tree or turned to bay in a thicket. The former +proved to be the case. The dogs had entered a patch of tall tree +jungle, and as we cantered up through the marsh we saw the jaguar high +among the forked limbs of a taruman tree. It was a beautiful picture-- +the spotted coat of the big, lithe, formidable cat fairly shone as it +snarled defiance at the pack below. I did not trust the pack; the dogs +were not stanch, and if the jaguar came down and started I feared we +might lose it. So I fired at once, from a distance of seventy yards. I +was using my favorite rifle, the little Springfield with which I have +killed most kinds of African game, from the lion and elephant down; +the bullets were the sharp, pointed kind, with the end of naked lead. +At the shot the jaguar fell like a sack of sand through the branches, +and although it staggered to its feet it went but a score of yards +before it sank down, and when I came up it was dead under the palms, +with three or four of the bolder dogs riving at it. + +The jaguar is the king of South American game, ranking on an equality +with the noblest beasts of the chase of North America, and behind only +the huge and fierce creatures which stand at the head of the big game +of Africa and Asia. This one was an adult female. It was heavier and +more powerful than a full-grown male cougar, or African panther or +leopard. It was a big, powerfully built creature, giving the same +effect of strength that a tiger or lion does, and that the lithe +leopards and pumas do not. Its flesh, by the way, proved good eating, +when we had it for supper, although it was not cooked in the way it +ought to have been. I tried it because I had found cougars such good +eating; I have always regretted that in Africa I did not try lion's +flesh, which I am sure must be excellent. + +Next day came Kermit's turn. We had the miscellaneous pack with us, +all much enjoying themselves; but, although they could help in a +jaguar-hunt to the extent of giving tongue and following the chase for +half a mile, cowing the quarry by their clamor, they were not +sufficiently stanch to be of use if there was any difficulty in the +hunt. The only two dogs we could trust were the two borrowed jaguar +hounds. This was the black dog's day. About ten in the morning we came +to a long, deep, winding bayou. On the opposite bank stood a capybara, +looking like a blunt-nosed pig, its wet hide shining black. I killed +it, and it slid into the water. Then I found that the bayou extended +for a mile or two in each direction, and the two hunter-guides said +they did not wish to swim across for fear of the piranhas. Just at +this moment we came across fresh jaguar tracks. It was hot, we had +been travelling for five hours, and the dogs were much exhausted. The +black hound in particular was nearly done up, for he had been led in a +leash by one of the horsemen. He lay flat on the ground, panting, +unable to catch the scent. Kermit threw water over him, and when he +was thoroughly drenched and freshened, thrust his nose into the +jaguar's footprints. The game old hound at once and eagerly responded. +As he snuffed the scent he challenged loudly, while still lying down. +Then he staggered to his feet and started on the trail, going stronger +with every leap. Evidently the big cat was not far distant. Soon we +found where it had swum across the bayou. Piranhas or no piranhas, we +now intended to get across; and we tried to force our horses in at +what seemed a likely spot. The matted growth of water-plants, with +their leathery, slippery stems, formed an unpleasant barrier, as the +water was swimming-deep for the horses. The latter were very unwilling +to attempt the passage. Kermit finally forced his horse through the +tangled mass, swimming, plunging, and struggling. He left a lane of +clear water, through which we swam after him. The dogs splashed and +swam behind us. On the other bank they struck the fresh trail and +followed it at a run. It led into a long belt of timber, chiefly +composed of low-growing nacury palms, with long, drooping, many- +fronded branches. In silhouette they suggest coarse bamboos; the nuts +hang in big clusters and look like bunches of small, unripe bananas. +Among the lower palms were scattered some big ordinary trees. We +cantered along outside the timber belt, listening to the dogs within; +and in a moment a burst of yelling clamor from the pack told that the +jaguar was afoot. These few minutes are the really exciting moments in +the chase, with hounds, of any big cat that will tree. The furious +baying of the pack, the shouts and cheers of encouragement from the +galloping horsemen, the wilderness surroundings, the knowledge of what +the quarry is--all combine to make the moment one of fierce and +thrilling excitement. Besides, in this case there was the possibility +the jaguar might come to bay on the ground, in which event there would +be a slight element of risk, as it might need straight shooting to +stop a charge. However, about as soon as the long-drawn howling and +eager yelping showed that the jaguar had been overtaken, we saw him, a +huge male, up in the branches of a great fig-tree. A bullet behind the +shoulder, from Kermit's 405 Winchester, brought him dead to the +ground. He was heavier than the very big male horse-killing cougar I +shot in Colorado, whose skull Hart Merriam reported as the biggest he +had ever seen; he was very nearly double the weight of any of the male +African leopards we shot; he was nearly or quite the weight of the +smallest of the adult African lionesses we shot while in Africa. He +had the big bones, the stout frame, and the heavy muscular build of a +small lion; he was not lithe and slender and long like a cougar or +leopard; the tail, as with all jaguars, was short, while the girth of +the body was great; his coat was beautiful, with a satiny gloss, and +the dark-brown spots on the gold of his back, head, and sides were +hardly as conspicuous as the black of the equally well-marked spots +against his white belly. + +This was a well-known jaguar. He had occasionally indulged in cattle- +killing; on one occasion during the floods he had taken up his abode +near the ranch-house and had killed a couple of cows and a young +steer. The hunters had followed him, but he had made his escape, and +for the time being had abandoned the neighborhood. In these marshes +each jaguar had a wide irregular range and travelled a good deal, +perhaps only passing a day or two in a given locality, perhaps +spending a week where game was plentiful. Jaguars love the water. They +drink greedily and swim freely. In this country they rambled through +the night across the marshes and prowled along the edges of the ponds +and bayous, catching the capybaras and the caymans; for these small +pond caymans, the jacare-tinga, form part of their habitual food, and +a big jaguar when hungry will attack and kill large caymans and +crocodiles if he can get them a few yards from the water. On these +marshes the jaguars also followed the peccary herds; it is said that +they always strike the hindmost of a band of the fierce little wild +pigs. Elsewhere they often prey on the tapir. If in timber, however, +the jaguar must kill it at once, for the squat, thick-skinned, wedge- +shaped tapir has no respect for timber, as Colonel Rondon phrased it, +and rushes with such blind, headlong speed through and among branches +and trunks that if not immediately killed it brushes the jaguar off, +the claws leaving long raking scars in the tough hide. Cattle are +often killed. The jaguar will not meddle with a big bull; and is +cautious about attacking a herd accompanied by a bull; but it will at +times, where wild game is scarce, kill every other domestic animal. It +is a thirsty brute, and if it kills far from water will often drag its +victim a long distance toward a pond or stream; Colonel Rondon had +once come across a horse which a jaguar had thus killed and dragged +for over a mile. Jaguars also stalk and kill the deer; in this +neighborhood they seemed to be less habitual deer-hunters than the +cougars; whether this is generally the case I cannot say. They have +been known to pounce on and devour good-sized anacondas. + +In this particular neighborhood the ordinary jaguars molested the +cattle and horses hardly at all except now and then to kill calves. It +was only occasionally that under special circumstances some old male +took to cattle-killing. There were plenty of capybaras and deer, and +evidently the big spotted cats preferred the easier prey when it was +available; exactly as in East Africa we found the lions living almost +exclusively on zebra and antelope, and not molesting the buffalo and +domestic cattle, which in other parts of Africa furnish their habitual +prey. In some other neighborhoods, not far distant, our hosts informed +us that the jaguars lived almost exclusively on horses and cattle. +They also told us that the cougars had the same habits as the jaguars +except that they did not prey on such big animals. The cougars on this +ranch never molested the foals, a fact which astonished me, as in the +Rockies they are the worst enemies of foals. It was interesting to +find that my hosts, and the mixed-blood hunters and ranch workers, +combined special knowledge of many of the habits of these big cats +with a curious ignorance of other matters concerning them and a +readiness to believe fables about them. This was precisely what I had +found to be the case with the old-time North American hunters in +discussing the puma, bear, and wolf, and with the English and Boer +hunters of Africa when they spoke of the lion and rhinoceros. Until +the habit of scientific accuracy in observation and record is achieved +and until specimens are preserved and carefully compared, entirely +truthful men, at home in the wilderness, will whole-heartedly accept, +and repeat as matters of gospel faith, theories which split the +grizzly and black bears of each locality in the United States, and the +lions and black rhinos of South Africa, or the jaguars and pumas of +any portion of South America, into several different species, all with +widely different habits. They will, moreover, describe these imaginary +habits with such sincerity and minuteness that they deceive most +listeners; and the result sometimes is that an otherwise good +naturalist will perpetuate these fables, as Hudson did when he wrote +of the puma. Hudson was a capital observer and writer when he dealt +with the ordinary birds and mammals of the well-settled districts near +Buenos Aires and at the mouth of the Rio Negro; but he knew nothing of +the wilderness. This is no reflection on him; his books are great +favorites of mine, and are to a large degree models of what such books +should be; I only wish that there were hundreds of such writers and +observers who would give us similar books for all parts of America. +But it is a mistake to accept him as an authority on that concerning +which he was ignorant. + +An interesting incident occurred on the day we killed our first +jaguar. We took our lunch beside a small but deep and obviously +permanent pond. I went to the edge to dip up some water, and something +growled or bellowed at me only a few feet away. It was a jacare-tinga +or small cayman about five feet long. I paid no heed to it at the +moment. But shortly afterward when our horses went down to drink it +threatened them and frightened them; and then Colonel Rondon and +Kermit called me to watch it. It lay on the surface of the water only +a few feet distant from us and threatened us; we threw cakes of mud at +it, whereupon it clashed its jaws and made short rushes at us, and +when we threw sticks it seized them and crunched them. We could not +drive it away. Why it should have shown such truculence and +heedlessness I cannot imagine, unless perhaps it was a female, with +eggs near by. In another little pond a jacare-tinga showed no less +anger when another of my companions approached. It bellowed, opened +its jaws, and lashed its tail. Yet these pond jacares never actually +molested even our dogs in the ponds, far less us on our horses. + +This same day others of our party had an interesting experience with +the creatures in another pond. One of them was Commander da Cunha (of +the Brazilian Navy), a capital sportsman and delightful companion. +They found a deepish pond a hundred yards or so long and thirty or +forty across. It was tenanted by the small caymans and by capybaras-- +the largest known rodent, a huge aquatic guinea-pig, the size of a +small sheep. It also swarmed with piranhas, the ravenous fish of which +I have so often spoken. Undoubtedly the caymans were subsisting +largely on these piranhas. But the tables were readily turned if any +caymans were injured. When a capybara was shot and sank in the water, +the piranhas at once attacked it, and had eaten half the carcass ten +minutes later. But much more extraordinary was the fact that when a +cayman about five feet long was wounded the piranhas attacked and tore +it, and actually drove it out on the bank to face its human foes. The +fish first attacked the wound; then, as the blood maddened them, they +attacked all the soft parts, their terrible teeth cutting out chunks +of tough hide and flesh. Evidently they did not molest either cayman +or capybara while it was unwounded; but blood excited them to frenzy. +Their habits are in some ways inexplicable. We saw men frequently +bathing unmolested; but there are places where this is never safe, and +in any place if a school of the fish appear swimmers are in danger; +and a wounded man or beast is in deadly peril if piranhas are in the +neighborhood. Ordinarily it appears that an unwounded man is attacked +only by accident. Such accidents are rare; but they happen with +sufficient frequency to justify much caution in entering water where +piranhas abound. + +We frequently came across ponds tenanted by numbers of capybaras. The +huge, pig-like rodents are said to be shy elsewhere. Here they were +tame. The water was their home and refuge. They usually went ashore to +feed on the grass, and made well-beaten trails in the marsh +immediately around the water; but they must have travelled these at +night, for we never saw them more than a few feet away from the water +in the daytime. Even at midday we often came on them standing beside a +bayou or pond. The dogs would rush wildly at such a standing beast, +which would wait until they were only a few yards off and then dash +into and under the water. The dogs would also run full tilt into the +water, and it was then really funny to see their surprise and +disappointment at the sudden and complete disappearance of their +quarry. Often a capybara would stand or sit on its haunches in the +water, with only its blunt, short-eared head above the surface, quite +heedless of our presence. But if alarmed it would dive, for capybaras +swim with equal facility on or below the surface; and if they wish to +hide they rise gently among the rushes or water-lily leaves with only +their nostrils exposed. In these waters the capybaras and small +caymans paid no attention to one another, swimming and resting in +close proximity. They both had the same enemy, the jaguar. The +capybara is a game animal only in the sense that a hare or rabbit is. +The flesh is good to eat, and its amphibious habits and queer nature +and surroundings make it interesting. In some of the ponds the water +had about gone, and the capybaras had become for the time being beasts +of the marsh and the mud; although they could always find little slimy +pools, under a mass of water-lilies, in which to lie and hide. + +Our whole stay on this ranch was delightful. On the long rides we +always saw something of interest, and often it was something entirely +new to us. Early one morning we came across two armadillos--the big, +nine-banded armadillo. We were riding with the pack through a dry, +sandy pasture country, dotted with clumps of palms, round the trunks +of which grew a dense jungle of thorns and Spanish bayonets. The +armadillos were feeding in an open space between two of these jungle +clumps, which were about a hundred yards apart. One was on all fours; +the other was in a squatting position, with its fore legs off the +ground. Their long ears were very prominent. The dogs raced at them. I +had always supposed that armadillos merely shuffled along, and curled +up for protection when menaced; and I was almost as surprised as if I +had seen a turtle gallop when these two armadillos bounded off at a +run, going as fast as rabbits. One headed back for the nearest patch +of jungle, which it reached. The other ran at full speed--and ran +really fast, too--until it nearly reached the other patch, a hundred +yards distant, the dogs in full cry immediately behind it. Then it +suddenly changed its mind, wheeled in its tracks, and came back like a +bullet right through the pack. Dog after dog tried to seize it or stop +it and turned to pursue it; but its wedge-shaped snout and armored +body, joined to the speed at which it was galloping, enabled it to +drive straight ahead through its pursuers, not one of which could halt +it or grasp it, and it reached in safety its thorny haven of refuge. +It had run at speed about a hundred and fifty yards. I was much +impressed by this unexpected exhibition; evidently this species of +armadillo only curls up as a last resort, and ordinarily trusts to its +speed, and to the protection its build and its armor give it while +running, in order to reach its burrow or other place of safety. Twice, +while laying railway tracks near Sao Paulo, Kermit had accidentally +dug up armadillos with a steam-shovel. + +There were big ant-hills, some of them of huge dimensions, scattered +through the country. Sometimes they were built against the stems of +trees. We did not here come across any of the poisonous or biting ants +which, when sufficiently numerous, render certain districts +uninhabitable. They are ordinarily not very numerous. Those of them +that march in large bodies kill nestling birds, and at once destroy +any big animal unable to get out of their way. It has been suggested +that nestlings in their nests are in some way immune from the attack +of these ants. The experiments of our naturalists tended to show that +this was not the case. They plundered any nest they came across and +could get at. + +Once we saw a small herd of peccaries, one a sow followed by three +little pigs--they are said to have only two young, but we saw three, +although of course it is possible one belonged to another sow. The +herd galloped into a mass of thorny cover the hounds could not +penetrate; and when they were in safety we heard them utter, from the +depths of the jungle, a curious moaning sound. + +On one ride we passed a clump of palms which were fairly ablaze with +bird color. There were magnificent hyacinth macaws; green parrots with +red splashes; toucans with varied plumage, black, white, red, yellow; +green jacmars; flaming orioles and both blue and dark-red tanagers. It +was an extraordinary collection. All were noisy. Perhaps there was a +snake that had drawn them by its presence; but we could find no snake. +The assembly dispersed as we rode up; the huge blue macaws departed in +pairs, uttering their hoarse "ar-rah-h, ar-rah-h." It has been said +that parrots in the wilderness are only noisy on the wing. They are +certainly noisy on the wing; and those that we saw were quiet while +they were feeding; but ordinarily when they were perched among the +branches, and especially when, as in the case of the little parakeets +near the house, they were gathering materials for nest-building, they +were just as noisy as while flying. + +The water-birds were always a delight. We shot merely the two or three +specimens the naturalists needed for the museum. I killed a wood-ibis +on the wing with the handy little Springfield, and then lost all the +credit I had thus gained by a series of inexcusable misses, at long +range, before I finally killed a jabiru. Kermit shot a jabiru with the +Luger automatic. The great, splendid birds, standing about as tall as +a man, show fight when wounded, and advance against their assailants, +clattering their formidable bills. One day we found the nest of a +jabiru in a mighty fig-tree, on the edge of a patch of jungle. It was +a big platform of sticks, placed on a horizontal branch. There were +four half-grown young standing on it. We passed it in the morning, +when both parents were also perched alongside; the sky was then +overcast, and it was not possible to photograph it with the small +camera. In the early afternoon when we again passed it the sun was +out, and we tried to get photographs. Only one parent bird was present +at this time. It showed no fear. I noticed that, as it stood on a +branch near the nest, its bill was slightly open. It was very hot, and +I suppose it had opened its bill just as a hen opens her bill in hot +weather. As we rode away the old bird and the four young birds were +standing motionless, and with gliding flight the other old bird was +returning to the nest. It is hard to give an adequate idea of the +wealth of bird life in these marshes. A naturalist could with the +utmost advantage spend six months on such a branch as that we visited. +He would have to do some collecting, but only a little. Exhaustive +observation in the field is what is now most needed. Most of this +wonderful and harmless bird life should be protected by law; and the +mammals should receive reasonable protection. The books now most +needed are those dealing with the life-histories of wild creatures. + +Near the ranch-house, walking familiarly among the cattle, we saw the +big, deep-billed Ani blackbirds. They feed on the insects disturbed by +the hoofs of the cattle, and often cling to them and pick off the +ticks. It was the end of the nesting season, and we did not find their +curious communal nests, in which half a dozen females lay their eggs +indiscriminately. The common ibises in the ponds near by--which +usually went in pairs, instead of in flocks like the wood ibis--were +very tame, and so were the night herons and all the small herons. In +flying, the ibises and storks stretch the neck straight in front of +them. The jabiru--a splendid bird on the wing--also stretches his neck +out in front, but there appears to be a slight downward curve at the +base of the neck, which may be due merely to the craw. The big slender +herons, on the contrary, bend the long neck back in a beautiful curve, +so that the head is nearly between the shoulders. One day I saw what I +at first thought was a small yellow-bellied kingfisher hovering over a +pond, and finally plunging down to the surface of the water after a +school of tiny young fish; but it proved to be a bien-te-vì king-bird. +Curved-bill wood-hewers, birds the size and somewhat the coloration of +veeries, but with long, slender sickle-bills, were common in the +little garden back of the house; their habits were those of creepers, +and they scrambled with agility up, along, and under the trunks and +branches, and along the posts and rails of the fence, thrusting the +bill into crevices for insects. The oven-birds, which had the carriage +and somewhat the look of wood-thrushes, I am sure would prove +delightful friends on a close acquaintance; they are very individual, +not only in the extraordinary domed mud nests they build, but in all +their ways, in their bright alertness; their interest in and curiosity +about whatever goes on, their rather jerky quickness of movement, and +their loud and varied calls. With a little encouragement they become +tame and familiar. The parakeets were too noisy, but otherwise were +most attractive little birds, as they flew to and fro and scrambled +about in the top of the palm behind the house. There was one showy +kind of king-bird or tyrant flycatcher, lustrous black with a white +head. + +One afternoon several score cattle were driven into a big square +corral near the house, in order to brand the calves and a number of +unbranded yearlings and two-year-olds. A special element of excitement +was added by the presence of a dozen big bulls which were to be turned +into draught-oxen. The agility, nerve, and prowess of the ranch +workmen, the herders or gauchos, were noteworthy. The dark-skinned men +were obviously mainly of Indian and negro descent, although some of +them also showed a strong strain of white blood. They wore the usual +shirt, trousers, and fringed leather apron, with jim-crow hats. Their +bare feet must have been literally as tough as horn; for when one of +them roped a big bull he would brace himself, bending back until he +was almost sitting down and digging his heels into the ground, and the +galloping beast would be stopped short and whirled completely round +when the rope tautened. The maddened bulls, and an occasional steer or +cow, charged again and again with furious wrath; but two or three +ropes would settle on the doomed beast, and down it would go; and when +it was released and rose and charged once more, with greater fury than +ever, the men, shouting with laughter, would leap up the sides of the +heavy stockade. + +We stayed at the ranch until a couple of days before Christmas. +Hitherto the weather had been lovely. The night before we left there +was a torrential tropic downpour. It was not unexpected, for we had +been told that the rainy season was overdue. The following forenoon +the baggage started, in a couple of two-wheeled ox-carts, for the +landing where the steamboat awaited us. Each cart was drawn by eight +oxen. The huge wheels were over seven feet high. Early in the +afternoon we followed on horseback, and overtook the carts as darkness +fell, just before we reached the landing on the river's bank. The last +few miles, after the final reaches of higher, tree-clad ground had +been passed, were across a level plain of low ground on which the +water stood, sometimes only up to the ankles of a man on foot, +sometimes as high as his waist. Directly in front of us, many leagues +distant, rose the bold mountains that lie west of Corumba. Behind them +the sun was setting and kindled the overcast heavens with lurid +splendor. Then the last rose tints faded from the sky; the horses +plodded wearily through the water; on every side stretched the marsh, +vast, lonely, desolate in the gray of the half-light. We overtook the +ox-carts. The cattle strained in the yokes; the drivers wading +alongside cracked their whips and uttered strange cries; the carts +rocked and swayed as the huge wheels churned through the mud and +water. As the last light faded we reached the small patches of dry +land at the landing, where the flat-bottomed side-wheel steamboat was +moored to the bank. The tired horses and oxen were turned loose to +graze. Water stood in the corrals, but the open shed was on dry +ground. Under it the half-clad, wild-looking ox-drivers and horse- +herders slung their hammocks; and close by they lit a fire and +roasted, or scorched, slabs and legs of mutton, spitted on sticks and +propped above the smouldering flame. + +Next morning, with real regret, we waved good-by to our dusky +attendants, as they stood on the bank, grouped around a little fire, +beside the big, empty ox-carts. A dozen miles down-stream a rowboat +fitted for a sprit-sail put off from the bank. The owner, a countryman +from a small ranch, asked for a tow to Corumba, which we gave. He had +with him in the boat his comely brown wife--who was smoking a very +large cigar--their two children, a young man, and a couple of trunks +and various other belongings. On Christmas eve we reached Corumba, and +rejoined the other members of the expedition. + + + + IV. THE HEADWATERS OF THE PARAGUAY + +At Corumba our entire party, and all their belongings, came aboard our +good little river boat, the Nyoac. Christmas Day saw us making our way +steadily up-stream against the strong current, and between the green +and beautiful banks of the upper Paraguay. The shallow little steamer +was jammed with men, dogs, rifles, partially cured skins, boxes of +provisions, ammunition, tools, and photographic supplies, bags +containing tents, cots, bedding, and clothes, saddles, hammocks, and +the other necessaries for a trip through the "great wilderness," the +"Matto Grosso" of western Brazil. + +It was a brilliantly clear day, and, although of course in that +latitude and at that season the heat was intense later on, it was cool +and pleasant in the early morning. We sat on the forward deck, +admiring the trees on the brink of the sheer river banks, the lush, +rank grass of the marshes, and the many water-birds. The two pilots, +one black and one white, stood at the wheel. Colonel Rondon read +Thomas a Kempis. Kermit, Cherrie, and Miller squatted outside the +railing on the deck over one paddle-wheel and put the final touches on +the jaguar skins. Fiala satisfied himself that the boxes and bags were +in place. It was probable that hardship lay in the future; but the day +was our own, and the day was pleasant. In the evening the after-deck, +open all around, where we dined, was decorated with green boughs and +rushes, and we drank the health of the President of the United States +and of the President of Brazil. + +Now and then we passed little ranches on the river's edge. This is a +fertile land, pleasant to live in, and any settler who is willing to +work can earn his living. There are mines; there is water-power; there +is abundance of rich soil. The country will soon be opened by rail. It +offers a fine field for immigration and for agricultural, mining, and +business development; and it has a great future. + +Cherrie and Miller had secured a little owl a month before in the +Chaco, and it was travelling with them in a basket. It was a dear +little bird, very tame and affectionate. It liked to be handled and +petted; and when Miller, its especial protector, came into the cabin, +it would make queer little noises as a signal that it wished to be +taken up and perched on his hand. Cherrie and Miller had trapped many +mammals. Among them was a tayra weasel, whitish above and black below, +as big and blood-thirsty as a fisher-martin; and a tiny opossum no +bigger than a mouse. They had taken four species of opossum, but they +had not found the curious water-opossum which they had obtained on the +rivers flowing into the Caribbean Sea. This opossum, which is black +and white, swims in the streams like a muskrat or otter, catching fish +and living in burrows which open under water. Miller and Cherrie were +puzzled to know why the young throve, leading such an existence of +constant immersion; one of them once found a female swimming and +diving freely with four quite well-grown young in her pouch. + +We saw on the banks screamers--big, crested waders of archaic type, +with spurred wings, rather short bills, and no especial affinities +with other modern birds. In one meadow by a pond we saw three marsh- +deer, a buck and two does. They stared at us, with their thickly +haired tails raised on end. These tails are black underneath, instead +of white as in our whitetail deer. One of the vagaries of the +ultraconcealing-colorationists has been to uphold the (incidentally +quite preposterous) theory that the tail of our deer is colored white +beneath so as to harmonize with the sky and thereby mislead the cougar +or wolf at the critical moment when it makes its spring; but this +marsh-deer shows a black instead of a white flag, and yet has just as +much need of protection from its enemies, the jaguar and the cougar. +In South America concealing coloration plays no more part in the lives +of the adult deer, the tamandua, the tapir, the peccary, the jaguar, +and the puma than it plays in Africa in the lives of such animals as +the zebra, the sable antelope, the wildebeeste, the lion, and the +hunting hyena. + +Next day we spent ascending the Sao Lourenco. It was narrower than the +Paraguay, naturally, and the swirling brown current was, if anything, +more rapid. The strange tropical trees, standing densely on the banks, +were matted together by long bush ropes--lianas, or vines, some very +slender and very long. Sometimes we saw brilliant red or blue flowers, +or masses of scarlet berries on a queer palm-like tree, or an array of +great white blossoms on a much larger tree. In a lagoon bordered by +the taquara bamboo a school of big otters were playing; when they came +to the surface, they opened their mouths like seals, and made a loud +hissing noise. The crested screamers, dark gray and as large as +turkeys, perched on the very topmost branches of the tallest trees. +Hyacinth macaws screamed harshly as they flew across the river. Among +the trees was the guan, another peculiar bird as big as a big grouse, +and with certain habits of the wood-grouse, but not akin to any +northern game-bird. The windpipe of the male is very long, extending +down to the end of the breast-bone, and the bird utters queer guttural +screams. A dead cayman floated down-stream, with a black vulture +devouring it. Capybaras stood or squatted on the banks; sometimes they +stared stupidly at us; sometimes they plunged into the river at our +approach. At long intervals we passed little clearings. In each stood +a house of palm-logs, with a steeply pitched roof of palm thatch; and +near by were patches of corn and mandioc. The dusky owner, and perhaps +his family, came out on the bank to watch us as we passed. It was a +hot day--the thermometer on the deck in the shade stood at nearly 100 +degrees Fahrenheit. Biting flies came aboard even when we were in +midstream. + +Next day we were ascending the Cuyaba River. It had begun raining in +the night, and the heavy downpour continued throughout the forenoon. +In the morning we halted at a big cattle-ranch to get fresh milk and +beef. There were various houses, sheds, and corrals near the river's +edge, and fifty or sixty milch cows were gathered in one corral. +Spurred plover, or lapwings, strolled familiarly among the hens. +Parakeets and red-headed tanagers lit in the trees over our heads. A +kind of primitive houseboat was moored at the bank. A woman was +cooking breakfast over a little stove at one end. The crew were +ashore. The boat was one of those which are really stores, and which +travel up and down these rivers, laden with what the natives most +need, and stopping wherever there is a ranch. They are the only stores +which many of the country-dwellers see from year's end to year's end. +They float down-stream, and up-stream are poled by their crew, or now +and then get a tow from a steamer. This one had a house with a tin +roof; others bear houses with thatched roofs, or with roofs made of +hides. The river wound through vast marshes broken by belts of +woodland. + +Always the two naturalists had something of interest to tell of their +past experience, suggested by some bird or beast we came across. Black +and golden orioles, slightly crested, of two different species were +found along the river; they nest in colonies, and often we passed such +colonies, the long pendulous nests hanging from the boughs of trees +directly over the water. Cherrie told us of finding such a colony +built round a big wasp-nest, several feet in diameter. These wasps are +venomous and irritable, and few foes would dare venture near bird's- +nests that were under such formidable shelter; but the birds +themselves were entirely unafraid, and obviously were not in any +danger of disagreement with their dangerous protectors. We saw a dark +ibis flying across the bow of the boat, uttering his deep, two- +syllabled note. Miller told how on the Orinoco these ibises plunder +the nests of the big river-turtles. They are very skilful in finding +where the female turtle has laid her eggs, scratch them out of the +sand, break the shells, and suck the contents. + +It was astonishing to find so few mosquitoes on these marshes. They +did not in any way compare as pests with the mosquitoes on the lower +Mississippi, the New Jersey coast, the Red River of the North, or the +Kootenay. Back in the forest near Corumba the naturalists had found +them very bad indeed. Cherrie had spent two or three days on a +mountain-top which was bare of forest; he had thought there would be +few mosquitoes, but the long grass harbored them (they often swarm in +long grass and bush, even where there is no water), and at night they +were such a torment that as soon as the sun set he had to go to bed +under his mosquito-netting. Yet on the vast marshes they were not +seriously troublesome in most places. I was informed that they were +not in any way a bother on the grassy uplands, the high country north +of Cuyaba, which from thence stretches eastward to the coastal region. +It is at any rate certain that this inland region of Brazil, including +the state of Matto Grosso, which we were traversing, is a healthy +region, excellently adapted to settlement; railroads will speedily +penetrate it, and then it will witness an astonishing development. + +On the morning of the 28th we reached the home buildings of the great +Sao Joao fazenda, the ranch of Senhor Joao da Costa Marques. Our host +himself, and his son, Dom Joao the younger, who was state secretary of +agriculture, and the latter's charming wife, and the president of +Matto Grosso, and several other ladies and gentlemen, had come down +the river to greet us, from the city of Cuyaba, several hundred miles +farther up-stream. As usual, we were treated with whole-hearted and +generous hospitality. Some miles below the ranch-house the party met +us, on a stern-wheel steamboat and a launch, both decked with many +flags. The handsome white ranch-house stood only a few rods back from +the river's brink, in a grassy opening dotted with those noble trees, +the royal palms. Other trees, buildings of all kinds, flower-gardens, +vegetable-gardens, fields, corrals, and enclosures with high white +walls stood near the house. A detachment of soldiers or state police, +with a band, were in front of the house, and two flagpoles, one with +the Brazilian flag already hoisted. The American flag was run up on +the other as I stepped ashore, while the band played the national +anthems of the two countries. The house held much comfort; and the +comfort was all the more appreciated because even indoors the +thermometer stood at 97 degrees F. In the late afternoon heavy rain +fell, and cooled the air. We were riding at the time. Around the house +the birds were tame: the parrots and parakeets crowded and chattered +in the tree tops; jacanas played in the wet ground just back of the +garden; ibises and screamers called loudly in the swamps a little +distance off. + +Until we came actually in sight of this great ranch-house we had been +passing through a hot, fertile, pleasant wilderness, where the few +small palm-roofed houses, each in its little patch of sugar-cane, +corn, and mandioc, stood very many miles apart. One of these little +houses stood on an old Indian mound, exactly like the mounds which +form the only hillocks along the lower Mississippi, and which are also +of Indian origin. These occasional Indian mounds, made ages ago, are +the highest bits of ground in the immense swamps of the upper Paraguay +region. There are still Indian tribes in this neighborhood. We passed +an Indian fishing village on the edge of the river, with huts, +scaffoldings for drying the fish, hammocks, and rude tables. They +cultivated patches of bananas and sugar-cane. Out in a shallow place +in the river was a scaffolding on which the Indians stood to spear +fish. The Indians were friendly, peaceable souls, for the most part +dressed like the poorer classes among the Brazilians. + +Next morning there was to have been a great rodeo or round-up, and we +determined to have a hunt first, as there were still several kinds of +beasts of the chase, notably tapirs and peccaries, of which the +naturalists desired specimens. Dom Joao, our host, and his son +accompanied us. Theirs is a noteworthy family. Born in Matto Grosso, +in the tropics, our host had the look of a northerner and, although a +grandfather, he possessed an abounding vigor and energy such as very +few men of any climate or surroundings do possess. All of his sons are +doing well. The son who was with us was a stalwart, powerful man, a +pleasant companion, an able public servant, a finished horseman, and a +skilled hunter. He carried a sharp spear, not a rifle, for in Matto +Grosso it is the custom in hunting the jaguar for riflemen and +spearmen to go in at him together when he turns at bay, the spearman +holding him off if the first shot fails to stop him, so that another +shot can be put in. Altogether, our host and his son reminded one of +the best type of American ranchmen and planters, of those planters and +ranchmen who are adepts in bold and manly field sports, who are +capital men of business, and who also often supply to the state +skilled and faithful public servants. The hospitality the father and +son extended to us was patriarchal: neither, for instance, would sit +at table with their guests at the beginning of the formal meals; +instead they exercised a close personal supervision over the feast. +Our charming hostess, however, sat at the head of the table. + +At six in the morning we started, all of us on fine horses. The day +was lowering and overcast. A dozen dogs were with us, but only one or +two were worth anything. Three or four ordinary countrymen, the ranch +hands, or vaqueiros, accompanied us; they were mainly of Indian blood, +and would have been called peons, or caboclos, in other parts of +Brazil, but here were always spoken to and of as "camaradas." They +were, of course, chosen from among the men who were hunters, and each +carried his long, rather heavy and clumsy jaguar-spear. In front rode +our vigorous host and his strapping son, the latter also carrying a +jaguar-spear. The bridles and saddles of the big ranchmen and of the +gentlefolk generally were handsome and were elaborately ornamented +with silver. The stirrups, for instance, were not only of silver, but +contained so much extra metal in ornamented bars and rings that they +would have been awkward for less-practised riders. Indeed, as it was, +they were adapted only for the tips of boots with long, pointed toes, +and were impossible for our feet; our hosts' stirrups were long, +narrow silver slippers. The camaradas, on the other hand, had jim-crow +saddles and bridles, and rusty little iron stirrups into which they +thrust their naked toes. But all, gentry and commonalty alike, rode +equally well and with the same skill and fearlessness. To see our +hosts gallop at headlong speed over any kind of country toward the +sound of the dogs with their quarry at bay, or to see them handle +their horses in a morass, was a pleasure. It was equally a pleasure to +see a camarada carrying his heavy spear, leading a hound in a leash, +and using his machete to cut his way through the tangled vine-ropes of +a jungle, all at the same time and all without the slightest reference +to the plunges, and the odd and exceedingly jerky behavior, of his +wild, half-broken horse--for on such a ranch most of the horses are +apt to come in the categories of half-broken or else of broken-down. +One dusky tatterdemalion wore a pair of boots from which he had +removed the soles, his bare, spur-clad feet projecting from beneath +the uppers. He was on a little devil of a stallion, which he rode +blindfold for a couple of miles, and there was a regular circus when +he removed the bandage; but evidently it never occurred to him that +the animal was hardly a comfortable riding-horse for a man going out +hunting and encumbered with a spear, a machete, and other belongings. + +The eight hours that we were out we spent chiefly in splashing across +the marshes, with excursions now and then into vine-tangled belts and +clumps of timber. Some of the bayous we had to cross were +uncomfortably boggy. We had to lead the horses through one, wading +ahead of them; and even so two of them mired down, and their saddles +had to be taken off before they could be gotten out. Among the marsh +plants were fields and strips of the great caete rush. These caete +flags towered above the other and lesser marsh plants. They were +higher than the heads of the horsemen. Their two or three huge banana- +like leaves stood straight up on end. The large brilliant flowers-- +orange, red, and yellow--were joined into a singularly shaped and +solid string or cluster. Humming-birds buzzed round these flowers; one +species, the sickle-billed hummer, has its bill especially adapted for +use in these queerly shaped blossoms and gets its food only from them, +never appearing around any other plant. + +The birds were tame, even those striking and beautiful birds which +under man's persecution are so apt to become scarce and shy. The huge +jabiru storks, stalking through the water with stately dignity, +sometimes refused to fly until we were only a hundred yards off; one +of them flew over our heads at a distance of thirty or forty yards. +The screamers, crying curu-curu, and the ibises, wailing dolefully, +came even closer. The wonderful hyacinth macaws, in twos and threes, +accompanied us at times for several hundred yards, hovering over our +heads and uttering their rasping screams. In one wood we came on the +black howler monkey. The place smelt almost like a menagerie. Not +watching with sufficient care I brushed against a sapling on which the +venomous fire-ants swarmed. They burnt the skin like red-hot cinders, +and left little sores. More than once in the drier parts of the marsh +we met small caymans making their way from one pool to another. My +horse stepped over one before I saw it. The dead carcasses of others +showed that on their wanderings they had encountered jaguars or human +foes. + +We had been out about three hours when one of the dogs gave tongue in +a large belt of woodland and jungle to the left of our line of march +through the marsh. The other dogs ran to the sound, and after a while +the long barking told that the thing, whatever it was, was at bay or +else in some refuge. We made our way toward the place on foot. The +dogs were baying excitedly at the mouth of a huge hollow log, and very +short examination showed us that there were two peccaries within, +doubtless a boar and sow. However, just at this moment the peccaries +bolted from an unsuspected opening at the other end of the log, dove +into the tangle, and instantly disappeared with the hounds in full cry +after them. It was twenty minutes later before we again heard the pack +baying. With much difficulty, and by the incessant swinging of the +machetes, we opened a trail through the network of vines and branches. +This time there was only one peccary, the boar. He was at bay in a +half-hollow stump. The dogs were about his head, raving with +excitement, and it was not possible to use the rifle; so I borrowed +the spear of Dom Joao the younger, and killed the fierce little boar +therewith. + +This was an animal akin to our collared peccary, smaller and less +fierce than its white-jawed kinsfolk. It is a valiant and truculent +little beast, nevertheless, and if given the chance will bite a piece +the size of a teacup out of either man or dog. It is found singly or +in small parties, feeds on roots, fruits, grass, and delights to make +its home in hollow logs. If taken young it makes an affectionate and +entertaining pet. When the two were in the hollow log we heard them +utter a kind of moaning, or menacing, grunt, long drawn. + +An hour or two afterward we unexpectedly struck the fresh tracks of +two jaguars and at once loosed the dogs, who tore off yelling, on the +line of the scent. Unfortunately, just at this moment the clouds burst +and a deluge of rain drove in our faces. So heavy was the downpour +that the dogs lost the trail and we lost the dogs. We found them again +only owing to one of our caboclos; an Indian with a queer Mongolian +face, and no brain at all that I could discover, apart from his +special dealings with wild creatures, cattle, and horses. He rode in a +huddle of rags; but nothing escaped his eyes, and he rode anything +anywhere. The downpour continued so heavily that we knew the rodeo had +been abandoned, and we turned our faces for the long, dripping, +splashing ride homeward. Through the gusts of driving rain we could +hardly see the way. Once the rain lightened, and half a mile away the +sunshine gleamed through a rift in the leaden cloud-mass. Suddenly in +this rift of shimmering brightness there appeared a flock of beautiful +white egrets. With strong, graceful wing-beats the birds urged their +flight, their plumage flashing in the sun. They then crossed the rift +and were swallowed in the gray gloom of the day. + +On the marsh the dogs several times roused capybaras. Where there were +no ponds of sufficient size the capybaras sought refuge in flight +through the tangled marsh. They ran well. Kermit and Fiala went after +one on foot, full-speed, for a mile and a half, with two hounds which +then bayed it--literally bayed it, for the capybara fought with the +courage of a gigantic woodchuck. If the pack overtook a capybara, they +of course speedily finished it; but a single dog of our not very +valorous outfit was not able to overmatch its shrill-squeaking +opponent. + +Near the ranch-house, about forty feet up in a big tree, was a +jabiru's nest containing young jabirus. The young birds exercised +themselves by walking solemnly round the edge of the nest and opening +and shutting their wings. Their heads and necks were down-covered, +instead of being naked like those of their parents. Fiala wished to +take a moving-picture of them while thus engaged, and so, after +arranging his machine, he asked Harper to rouse the young birds by +throwing a stick up to the nest. He did so, whereupon one young jabiru +hastily opened its wings in the desired fashion, at the same time +seizing the stick in its bill! It dropped it at once, with an air of +comic disappointment, when it found that the stick was not edible. + +There were many strange birds round about. Toucans were not uncommon. +I have never seen any other bird take such grotesque and comic +attitudes as the toucan. This day I saw one standing in the top of a +tree with the big bill pointing straight into the air and the tail +also cocked perpendicularly. The toucan is a born comedian. On the +river and in the ponds we saw the finfoot, a bird with feet like a +grebe and bill and tail like those of a darter, but, like so many +South American birds, with no close affiliations among other species. +The exceedingly rich bird fauna of South America contains many species +which seem to be survivals from a very remote geologic past, whose +kinsfolk have perished under the changed conditions of recent ages; +and in the case of many, like the hoatzin and screamer, their like is +not known elsewhere. Herons of many species swarmed in this +neighborhood. The handsomest was the richly colored tiger bittern. Two +other species were so unlike ordinary herons that I did not recognize +them as herons at all until Cherrie told me what they were. One had a +dark body, a white-speckled or ocellated neck, and a bill almost like +that of an ibis. The other looked white, but was really mauve-colored, +with black on the head. When perched on a tree it stood like an ibis; +and instead of the measured wing-beats characteristic of a heron's +flight, it flew with a quick, vigorous flapping of the wings. There +were queer mammals, too, as well as birds. In the fields Miller +trapped mice of a kind entirely new. + +Next morning the sky was leaden, and a drenching rain fell as we began +our descent of the river. The rainy season had fairly begun. For our +good fortune we were still where we had the cabins aboard the boat, +and the ranch-house, in which to dry our clothes and soggy shoes; but +in the intensely humid atmosphere, hot and steaming, they stayed wet a +long time, and were still moist when we put them on again. Before we +left the house where we had been treated with such courteous +hospitality--the finest ranch-house in Matto Grosso, on a huge ranch +where there are some sixty thousand head of horned cattle--the son of +our host, Dom Joao the younger, the jaguar-hunter, presented me with +two magnificent volumes on the palms of Brazil, the work of Doctor +Barboso Rodriguez, one-time director of the Botanical Gardens at Rio +Janeiro. The two folios were in a box of native cedar. No gift more +appropriate, none that I would in the future value more as a reminder +of my stay in Matto Grosso, could have been given me. + +All that afternoon the rain continued. It was still pouring in +torrents when we left the Cuyaba for the Sao Lourenco and steamed up +the latter a few miles before anchoring; Dom Joao the younger had +accompanied us in his launch. The little river steamer was of very +open build, as is necessary in such a hot climate; and to keep things +dry necessitated also keeping the atmosphere stifling. The German +taxidermist who was with Colonel Rondon's party, Reinisch, a very good +fellow from Vienna, sat on a stool, alternately drenched with rain and +sweltering with heat, and muttered to himself: "Ach, Schweinerei!" + +Two small caymans, of the common species, with prominent eyes, were at +the bank where we moored, and betrayed an astonishing and stupid +tameness. Neither the size of the boat nor the commotion caused by the +paddles in any way affected them. They lay inshore, not twenty feet +from us, half out of water; they paid not the slightest heed to our +presence, and only reluctantly left when repeatedly poked at, and +after having been repeatedly hit with clods of mud and sticks; and +even then one first crawled up on shore, to find out if thereby he +could not rid himself of the annoyance we caused him. + +Next morning it was still raining, but we set off on a hunt, +anyway, going afoot. A couple of brown camaradas led the way, and +Colonel Rondon, Dom Joao, Kermit, and I followed. The incessant +downpour speedily wet us to the skin. We made our way slowly through +the forest, the machetes playing right and left, up and down, at every +step, for the trees were tangled in a network of vines and creepers. +Some of the vines were as thick as a man's leg. Mosquitoes hummed +about us, the venomous fire-ants stung us, the sharp spines of a small +palm tore our hands--afterward some of the wounds festered. Hour after +hour we thus walked on through the Brazilian forest. We saw monkeys, +the common yellowish kind, a species of cebus; a couple were shot for +the museum and the others raced off among the upper branches of the +trees. Then we came on a party of coatis, which look like reddish, +long-snouted, long-tailed, lanky raccoons. They were in the top of a +big tree. One, when shot at and missed, bounced down to the ground, +and ran off through the bushes; Kermit ran after it and secured it. He +came back, to find us peering hopelessly up into the tree top, trying +to place where the other coatis were. Kermit solved the difficulty by +going up along some huge twisted lianas for forty or fifty feet and +exploring the upper branches; whereupon down came three other coatis +through the branches, one being caught by the dogs and the other two +escaping. Coatis fight savagely with both teeth and claws. Miller told +us that he once saw one of them kill a dog. They feed on all small +mammals, birds, and reptiles, and even on some large ones; they kill +iguanas; Cherrie saw a rattling chase through the trees, a coati +following an iguana at full speed. We heard the rush of a couple of +tapirs, as they broke away in the jungle in front of the dogs and +headed, according to their custom, for the river; but we never saw +them. One of the party shot a bush deer--a very pretty, graceful +creature, smaller than our whitetail deer, but kin to it and doubtless +the southernmost representative of the whitetail group. + +The whitetail deer--using the word to designate a group of deer which +can neither be called a subgenus with many species, nor a widely +spread species diverging into many varieties--is the only North +American species which has spread down into and has outlying +representatives in South America. It has been contended that the +species has spread from South America northward. I do not think so; +and the specimen thus obtained furnished a probable refutation of the +theory. It was a buck, and had just shed its small antlers. The +antlers are, therefore, shed at the same time as in the north, and it +appears that they are grown at the same time as in the north. Yet this +variety now dwells in the tropics south of the equator, where the +spring, and the breeding season for most birds, comes at the time of +the northern fall in September, October, and November. That the deer +is an intrusive immigrant, and that it has not yet been in South +America long enough to change its mating season in accordance with the +climate, as the birds--geologically doubtless very old residents--have +changed their breeding season, is rendered probable by the fact that +it conforms so exactly in the time of its antler growth to the +universal rule which obtains in the great arctogeal realm, where deer +of many species abound and where the fossil forms show that they have +long existed. The marsh-deer, which has diverged much further from the +northern type than this bush deer (its horns show a likeness to those +of a blacktail), often keeps its antlers until June or July, although +it begins to grow them again in August; however, too much stress must +not be laid on this fact, inasmuch as the wapiti and the cow caribou +both keep their antlers until spring. The specialization of the marsh- +deer, by the way, is further shown in its hoofs, which, thanks to its +semi-aquatic mode of life, have grown long, like those of such African +swamp antelopes as the lechwe and situtunga. + +Miller, when we presented the monkeys to him, told us that the females +both of these monkeys and of the howlers themselves took care of the +young, the males not assisting them, and moreover that when the young +one was a male he had always found the mother keeping by herself, away +from the old males. On the other hand, among the marmosets he found +the fathers taking as much care of the young as the mothers; if the +mother had twins, the father would usually carry one, and sometimes +both, around with him. + +After we had been out four hours our camaradas got lost; three several +times they travelled round in a complete circle; and we had to set +them right with the compass. About noon the rain, which had been +falling almost without interruption for forty-eight hours, let up, and +in an hour or two the sun came out. We went back to the river, and +found our rowboat. In it the hounds--a motley and rather worthless +lot--and the rest of the party were ferried across to the opposite +bank, while Colonel Rondon and I stayed in the boat, on the chance +that a tapir might be roused and take to the river. However, no tapir +was found; Kermit killed a collared peccary, and I shot a capybara +representing a color-phase the naturalists wished. + +Next morning, January 1, 1914, we were up at five and had a good New +Year's Day breakfast of hardtack, ham, sardines, and coffee before +setting out on an all day's hunt on foot. I much feared that the pack +was almost or quite worthless for jaguars, but there were two or three +of the great spotted cats in the neighborhood and it seemed worth +while to make a try for them anyhow. After an hour or two we found +the fresh tracks of two, and after them we went. Our party consisted +of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Rogaciano--an excellent man, himself a +native of Matto Grosso, of old Matto Grosso stock--two others of the +party from the Sao Joao ranch, Kermit, and myself, together with four +dark-skinned camaradas, cowhands from the same ranch. We soon found +that the dogs would not by themselves follow the jaguar trail; nor +would the camaradas, although they carried spears. Kermit was the one +of our party who possessed the requisite speed, endurance, and +eyesight, and accordingly he led. Two of the dogs would follow the +track half a dozen yards ahead of him, but no farther; and two of the +camaradas could just about keep up with him. For an hour we went +through thick jungle, where the machetes were constantly at work. Then +the trail struck off straight across the marshes, for jaguars swim and +wade as freely as marsh-deer. It was a hard walk. The sun was out. We +were drenched with sweat. We were torn by the spines of the +innumerable clusters of small palms with thorns like needles. We were +bitten by the hosts of fire-ants, and by the mosquitoes, which we +scarcely noticed where the fire-ants were found, exactly as all dread +of the latter vanished when we were menaced by the big red wasps, of +which a dozen stings will disable a man, and if he is weak or in bad +health will seriously menace his life. In the marsh we were +continually wading, now up to our knees, now up to our hips. Twice we +came to long bayous so deep that we had to swim them, holding our +rifles above water in our right hands. The floating masses of marsh +grass, and the slimy stems of the water-plants, doubled our work as we +swam, cumbered by our clothing and boots and holding our rifles aloft. +One result of the swim, by the way, was that my watch, a veteran of +Cuba and Africa, came to an indignant halt. Then on we went, hampered +by the weight of our drenched clothes while our soggy boots squelched +as we walked. There was no breeze. In the undimmed sky the sun stood +almost overhead. The heat beat on us in waves. By noon I could only go +forward at a slow walk, and two of the party were worse off than I +was. Kermit, with the dogs and two camaradas close behind him, +disappeared across the marshes at a trot. At last, when he was out of +sight, and it was obviously useless to follow him, the rest of us +turned back toward the boat. The two exhausted members of the party +gave out, and we left them under a tree. Colonel Rondon and Lieutenant +Rogaciano were not much tired; I was somewhat tired, but was perfectly +able to go for several hours more if I did not try to go too fast; and +we three walked on to the river, reaching it about half past four, +after eleven hours' stiff walking with nothing to eat. We were soon on +the boat. A relief party went back for the two men under the tree, and +soon after it reached them Kermit also turned up with his hounds and +his camaradas trailing wearily behind him. He had followed the jaguar +trail until the dogs were so tired that even after he had bathed them, +and then held their noses in the fresh footprints, they would pay no +heed to the scent. A hunter of scientific tastes, a hunter-naturalist, +or even an outdoors naturalist, or faunal naturalist interested in big +mammals, with a pack of hounds such as those with which Paul Rainey +hunted lion and leopard in Africa, or such a pack as the packs of +Johnny Goff and Jake Borah with which I hunted cougar, lynx, and bear +in the Rockies, or such packs as those of the Mississippi and +Louisiana planters with whom I have hunted bear, wild-cat, and deer in +the cane-brakes of the lower Mississippi, would not only enjoy fine +hunting in these vast marshes of the upper Paraguay, but would also do +work of real scientific value as regards all the big cats. + +Only a limited number of the naturalists who have worked in the +tropics have had any experience with the big beasts whose life- +histories possess such peculiar interest. Of all the biologists who +have seriously studied the South American fauna on the ground, Bates +probably rendered most service; but he hardly seems even to have seen +the animals with which the hunter is fairly familiar. His interests, +and those of the other biologists of his kind, lay in other +directions. In consequence, in treating of the life-histories of the +very interesting big game, we have been largely forced to rely either +on native report, in which acutely accurate observation is invariably +mixed with wild fable, or else on the chance remarks of travellers or +mere sportsmen, who had not the training to make them understand even +what it was desirable to observe. Nowadays there is a growing +proportion of big-game hunters, of sportsmen, who are of the +Schilling, Selous, and Shiras type. These men do work of capital value +for science. The mere big-game butcher is tending to disappear as a +type. On the other hand, the big-game hunter who is a good observer, a +good field naturalist, occupies at present a more important position +than ever before, and it is now recognized that he can do work which +the closest naturalist cannot do. The big-game hunter of this type and +the outdoors, faunal naturalist, the student of the life-histories of +big mammals, have open to them in South America a wonderful field in +which to work. + +The fire-ants, of which I have above spoken, are generally found on a +species of small tree or sapling, with a greenish trunk. They bend the +whole body as they bite, the tail and head being thrust downward. A +few seconds after the bite the poison causes considerable pain; later +it may make a tiny festering sore. There is certainly the most +extraordinary diversity in the traits by which nature achieves the +perpetuation of species. Among the warrior and predaceous insects the +prowess is in some cases of such type as to render the possessor +practically immune from danger. In other cases the condition of its +exercise may normally be the sacrifice of the life of the possessor. +There are wasps that prey on formidable fighting spiders, which yet +instinctively so handle themselves that the prey practically never +succeeds in either defending itself or retaliating, being captured and +paralyzed with unerring efficiency and with entire security to the +wasp. The wasp's safety is absolute. On the other hand, these fighting +ants, including the soldiers even among the termites, are frantically +eager for a success which generally means their annihilation; the +condition of their efficiency is absolute indifference to their own +security. Probably the majority of the ants that actually lay hold on +a foe suffer death in consequence; certainly they not merely run the +risk of but eagerly invite death. + +The following day we descended the Sao Lourenco to its junction with +the Paraguay, and once more began the ascent of the latter. At one +cattle-ranch where we stopped, the troupials, or big black and yellow +orioles, had built a large colony of their nests on a dead tree near +the primitive little ranch-house. The birds were breeding; the old +ones were feeding the young. In this neighborhood the naturalists +found many birds that were new to them, including a tiny woodpecker no +bigger than a ruby-crowned kinglet. They had collected two night +monkeys--nocturnal monkeys, not as agile as the ordinary monkey; these +two were found at dawn, having stayed out too late. + +The early morning was always lovely on these rivers, and at that hour +many birds and beasts were to be seen. One morning we saw a fine marsh +buck, holding his head aloft as he stared at us, his red coat vivid +against the green marsh. Another of these marsh-deer swam the river +ahead of us; I shot at it as it landed, and ought to have got it, but +did not. As always with these marsh-deer--and as with so many other +deer--I was struck by the revealing or advertising quality of its red +coloration; there was nothing in its normal surroundings with which +this coloration harmonized; so far as it had any effect whatever it +was always a revealing and not a concealing effect. When the animal +fled the black of the erect tail was an additional revealing mark, +although not of such startlingly advertising quality as the flag of +the whitetail. The whitetail, in one of its forms, and with the +ordinary whitetail custom of displaying the white flag as it runs, is +found in the immediate neighborhood of the swamp-deer. It has the same +foes. Evidently it is of no survival consequence whether the running +deer displays a white or a black flag. Any competent observer of big +game must be struck by the fact that in the great majority of the +species the coloration is not concealing, and that in many it has a +highly revealing quality. Moreover, if the spotted or striped young +represent the ancestral coloration, and if, as seems probable, the +spots and stripes have, on the whole, some slight concealing value, it +is evident that in the life history of most of these large mammals, +both among those that prey and those that are preyed on, concealing +coloration has not been a survival factor; throughout the ages during +which they have survived they have gradually lost whatever of +concealing coloration they may once have had--if any--and have +developed a coloration which under present conditions has no +concealing and perhaps even has a revealing quality, and which in all +probability never would have had a concealing value in any +"environmental complex" in which the species as a whole lived during +its ancestral development. Indeed, it seems astonishing, when one +observes these big beasts--and big waders and other water-birds--in +their native surroundings, to find how utterly non-harmful their often +strikingly revealing coloration is. Evidently the various other +survival factors, such as habit, and in many cases cover, etc., are of +such overmastering importance that the coloration is generally of no +consequence whatever, one way or the other, and is only very rarely a +factor of any serious weight. + +The junction of the Sao Lourenco and the Paraguay is a day's journey +above Corumba. From Corumba there is a regular service by shallow +steamers to Cuyaba, at the head of one fork, and to Sao Luis de +Caceres, at the head of the other. The steamers are not powerful and +the voyage to each little city takes a week. There are other forks +that are navigable. Above Cuyaba and Caceres launches go up-stream for +several days' journey, except during the dryest parts of the season. +North of this marshy plain lies the highland, the Plan Alto, where the +nights are cool and the climate healthy. But I wish emphatically to +record my view that these marshy plains, although hot, are also +healthy; and, moreover, the mosquitoes, in most places, are not in +sufficient numbers to be a serious pest, although of course there must +be nets for protection against them at night. The country is +excellently suited for settlement, and offers a remarkable field for +cattle-growing. Moreover, it is a paradise for water-birds and for +many other kinds of birds, and for many mammals. It is literally an +ideal place in which a field naturalist could spend six months or a +year. It is readily accessible, it offers an almost virgin field for +work, and the life would be healthy as well as delightfully +attractive. The man should have a steam-launch. In it he could with +comfort cover all parts of the country from south of Corumbra to north +of Cuyaba and Caceres. There would have to be a good deal of +collecting (although nothing in the nature of butchery should be +tolerated), for the region has only been superficially worked, +especially as regards mammals. But if the man were only a collector he +would leave undone the part of the work best worth doing. The region +offers extraordinary opportunities for the study of the life-histories +of birds which, because of their size, their beauty, or their habits, +are of exceptional interest. All kinds of problems would be worked +out. For example, on the morning of the 3rd, as we were ascending the +Paraguay, we again and again saw in the trees on the bank big nests of +sticks, into and out of which parakeets were flying by the dozen. Some +of them had straws or twigs in their bills. In some of the big +globular nests we could make out several holes of exit or entrance. +Apparently these parakeets were building or remodelling communal +nests; but whether they had themselves built these nests, or had taken +old nests and added to or modified them, we could not tell. There was +so much of interest all along the banks that we were continually +longing to stop and spend days where we were. Mixed flocks of scores +of cormorants and darters covered certain trees, both at sunset and +after sunrise. Although there was no deep forest, merely belts or +fringes of trees along the river, or in patches back of it, we +frequently saw monkeys in this riverine tree-fringe--active common +monkeys and black howlers of more leisurely gait. We saw caymans and +capybaras sitting socially near one another on the sandbanks. At night +we heard the calling of large flights of tree-ducks. These were now +the most common of all the ducks, although there were many muscovy +ducks also. The evenings were pleasant and not hot, as we sat on the +forward deck; there was a waxing moon. The screamers were among the +most noticeable birds. They were noisy; they perched on the very tops +of the trees, not down among the branches; and they were not shy. They +should be carefully protected by law, for they readily become tame, +and then come familiarly round the houses. From the steamer we now and +then saw beautiful orchids in the trees on the river bank. + +One afternoon we stopped at the home buildings or headquarters of one +of the great outlying ranches of the Brazil Land and Cattle Company, +the Farquahar syndicate, under the management of Murdo Mackenzie--than +whom we have in the United States no better citizen or more competent +cattleman. On this ranch there are some seventy thousand head of +stock. We were warmly greeted by McLean, the head of the ranch, and +his assistant Ramsey, an old Texan friend. Among the other assistants, +all equally cordial, were several Belgians and Frenchmen. The hands +were Paraguayans and Brazilians, and a few Indians--a hard-bit set, +each of whom always goes armed and knows how to use his arms, for +there are constant collisions with cattle thieves from across the +Bolivian border, and the ranch has to protect itself. These cowhands, +vaqueiros, were of the type with which we were now familiar: dark- +skinned, lean, hard-faced men, in slouch-hats, worn shirts and +trousers, and fringed leather aprons, with heavy spurs on their bare +feet. They are wonderful riders and ropers, and fear neither man nor +beast. I noticed one Indian vaqueiro standing in exactly the attitude +of a Shilluk of the White Nile, with the sole of one foot against the +other leg, above the knee. This is a region with extraordinary +possibilities of cattle-raising. + +At this ranch there was a tannery; a slaughter-house; a cannery; a +church; buildings of various kinds and all degrees of comfort for the +thirty or forty families who made the place their headquarters; and +the handsome, white, two-story big house, standing among lemon-trees +and flamboyants on the river-brink. There were all kinds of pets +around the house. The most fascinating was a wee, spotted fawn which +loved being petted. Half a dozen curassows of different species +strolled through the rooms; there were also parrots of several +different species, and immediately outside the house four or five +herons, with unclipped wings, which would let us come within a few +feet and then fly gracefully off, shortly afterward returning to the +same spot. They included big and little white egrets and also the +mauve and pearl-colored heron, with a partially black head and many- +colored bill, which flies with quick, repeated wing-flappings, instead +of the usual slow heron wing-beats. + +In the warehouse were scores of skins of jaguar, puma, ocelot, and +jaguarundi, and one skin of the big, small-toothed red wolf. These +were all brought in by the cowhands and by friendly Indians, a price +being put on each, as they destroyed the stock. The jaguars +occasionally killed horses and full-grown cows, but not bulls. The +pumas killed the calves. The others killed an occasional very young +calf, but ordinarily only sheep, little pigs, and chickens. There was +one black jaguar-skin; melanism is much more common among jaguars than +pumas, although once Miller saw a black puma that had been killed by +Indians. The patterns of the jaguar-skins, and even more of the +ocelot-skins, showed wide variation, no two being alike. The pumas +were for the most part bright red, but some were reddish gray, there +being much the same dichromatism that I found among their Colorado +kinsfolk. The jaguarundis were dark brownish gray. All these animals, +the spotted jaguars and ocelots, the monochrome black jaguars, red +pumas, and dark-gray jaguarundis, were killed in the same locality, +with the same environment. A glance at the skins and a moment's +serious thought would have been enough to show any sincere thinker that +in these cats the coloration pattern, whether concealing or revealing, +is of no consequence one way or the other as a survival factor. The +spotted patterns conferred no benefit as compared with the nearly or +quite monochrome blacks, reds, and dark grays. The bodily condition of +the various beasts was equally good, showing that their success in +life, that is, their ability to catch their prey, was unaffected by +their several color schemes. Except white, there is no color so +conspicuously advertising as black; yet the black jaguar had been a +fine, well-fed, powerful beast. The spotted patterns in the forests, +and perhaps even in the marshes which the jaguars so frequently +traversed, are probably a shade less conspicuous than the monochrome +red and gray, but the puma and jaguarundi are just as hard to see, and +evidently find it just as easy to catch prey, as the jaguar and +ocelot. The little fawn which we saw was spotted; the grown deer had +lost the spots; if the spots do really help to conceal the wearer, it +is evident that the deer has found the original concealing coloration +of so little value that it has actually been lost in the course of the +development of the species. When these big cats and the deer are +considered, together with the dogs, tapirs, peccaries, capybaras, and +big ant-eaters which live in the same environment, and when we also +consider the difference between the young and the adult deer and +tapirs (both of which when adult have substituted a complete or +partial monochrome for the ancestral spots and streaks), it is evident +that in the present life and in the ancestral development of the big +mammals of South America coloration is not and has not been a survival +factor; any pattern and any color may accompany the persistence and +development of the qualities and attributes which are survival +factors. Indeed, it seems hard to believe that in their ordinary +environments such color schemes as the bright red of the marsh-deer, +the black of the black jaguar, and the black with white stripes of the +great tamandua, are not positive detriments to the wearers. Yet such +is evidently not the case. Evidently the other factors in species- +survival are of such overwhelming importance that the coloration +becomes negligible from this standpoint, whether it be concealing or +revealing. The cats mould themselves to the ground as they crouch or +crawl. They take advantage of the tiniest scrap of cover. They move +with extraordinary stealth and patience. The other animals which try +to sneak off in such manner as to escape observation approach more or +less closely to the ideal which the cats most nearly realize. +Wariness, sharp senses, the habit of being rigidly motionless when +there is the least suspicion of danger, and ability to take advantage +of cover, all count. On the bare, open, treeless plain, whether marsh, +meadow, or upland, anything above the level of the grass is seen at +once. A marsh-deer out in the open makes no effort to avoid +observation; its concern is purely to see its foes in time to leave a +dangerous neighborhood. The deer of the neighboring forest skulk and +hide and lie still in dense cover to avoid being seen. The white- +lipped peccaries make no effort to escape observation by being either +noiseless or motionless; they trust for defence to their +gregariousness and truculence. The collared peccary also trusts to its +truculence, but seeks refuge in a hole where it can face any opponent +with its formidable biting apparatus. As for the giant tamandua, in +spite of its fighting prowess I am wholly unable to understand how +such a slow and clumsy beast has been able through the ages to exist +and thrive surrounded by jaguars and pumas. Speaking generally, the +animals that seek to escape observation trust primarily to smell to +discover their foes or their prey, and see whatever moves and do not +see whatever is motionless. + +By the morning of January 5 we had left the marsh region. There were +low hills here and there, and the land was covered with dense forest. +From time to time we passed little clearings with palm-thatched +houses. We were approaching Caceres, where the easiest part of our +trip would end. We had lived in much comfort on the little steamer. +The food was plentiful and the cooking good. At night we slept on deck +in cots or hammocks. The mosquitoes were rarely troublesome, although +in the daytime we were sometimes bothered by numbers of biting horse- +flies. The bird life was wonderful. One of the characteristic sights +we were always seeing was that of a number of heads and necks of +cormorants and snake-birds, without any bodies, projecting above +water, and disappearing as the steamer approached. Skimmers and thick- +billed tern were plentiful here right in the heart of the continent. +In addition to the spurred lapwing, characteristic and most +interesting resident of most of South America, we found tiny red- +legged plover which also breed and are at home in the tropics. The +contrasts in habits between closely allied species are wonderful. +Among the plovers and bay snipe there are species that live all the +year round in almost the same places, in tropical and subtropical +lands; and other related forms which wander over the whole earth, and +spend nearly all their time, now in the arctic and cold temperate +regions of the far north, now in the cold temperate regions of the +south. These latter wide-wandering birds of the seashore and the river +bank pass most of their lives in regions of almost perpetual sunlight. +They spend the breeding season, the northern summer, in the land of +the midnight sun, during the long arctic day. They then fly for +endless distances down across the north temperate zone, across the +equator, through the lands where the days and nights are always of +equal length, into another hemisphere, and spend another summer of +long days and long twilights in the far south, where the Antarctic +winds cool them, while their nesting home, at the other end of the +world, is shrouded beneath the iron desolation of the polar night. + +In the late afternoon of the 5th we reached the quaint old-fashioned +little town of Sao Luis de Caceres, on the outermost fringe of the +settled region of the state of Matto Grosso, the last town we should +see before reaching the villages of the Amazon. As we approached we +passed half-clad black washerwomen on the river's edge. The men, with +the local band, were gathered at the steeply sloping foot of the main +street, where the steamer came to her moorings. Groups of women and +girls, white and brown, watched us from the low bluff; their skirts +and bodices were red, blue, green, of all colors. Sigg had gone ahead +with much of the baggage; he met us in an improvised motor-boat, +consisting of a dugout to the side of which he had clamped our +Evinrude motor; he was giving several of the local citizens of +prominence a ride, to their huge enjoyment. The streets of the little +town were unpaved, with narrow brick sidewalks. The one-story houses +were white or blue, with roofs of red tiles and window-shutters of +latticed woodwork, come down from colonial days and tracing back +through Christian and Moorish Portugal to a remote Arab ancestry. +Pretty faces, some dark, some light, looked out from these windows; +their mothers' mothers, for generations past, must thus have looked +out of similar windows in the vanished colonial days. But now even +here in Caceres the spirit of the new Brazil is moving; a fine new +government school has been started, and we met its principal, an +earnest man doing excellent work, one of the many teachers who, during +the last few years, have been brought to Matto Grosso from Sao Paulo, +a centre of the new educational movement which will do so much for +Brazil. + +Father Zahm went to spend the night with some French Franciscan +friars, capital fellows. I spent the night at the comfortable house of +Lieutenant Lyra; a hot-weather house with thick walls, big doors, and +an open patio bordered by a gallery. Lieutenant Lyra was to accompany +us; he was an old companion of Colonel Rondon's explorations. We +visited one or two of the stores to make some final purchases, and in +the evening strolled through the dusky streets and under the trees of +the plaza; the women and girls sat in groups in the doorways or at the +windows, and here and there a stringed instrument tinkled in the +darkness. + +From Caceres onward we were entering the scene of Colonel Rondon's +explorations. For some eighteen years he was occupied in exploring and +in opening telegraph lines through the eastern or north middle part of +the great forest state, the wilderness state of the "Matto Grosso"-- +the "great wilderness," or, as Australians would call it, "the bush." +Then, in 1907, he began to penetrate the unknown region lying to the +north and west. He was the head of the exploring expeditions sent out +by the Brazilian Government to traverse for the first time this +unknown land; to map for the first time the courses of the rivers +which from the same divide run into the upper portions of the Tapajos +and the Madeira, two of the mighty affluents of the Amazon, and to +build telegraph-lines across to the Madeira, where a line of Brazilian +settlements, connected by steamboat lines and a railroad, again +occurs. Three times he penetrated into this absolutely unknown, +Indian-haunted wilderness, being absent for a year or two at a time +and suffering every imaginable hardship, before he made his way +through to the Madeira and completed the telegraph-line across. The +officers and men of the Brazilian Army and the civilian scientists who +followed him shared the toil and the credit of the task. Some of his +men died of beriberi; some were killed or wounded by the Indians; he +himself almost died of fever; again and again his whole party was +reduced almost to the last extremity by starvation, disease, hardship, +and the over-exhaustion due to wearing fatigues. In dealing with the +wild, naked savages he showed a combination of fearlessness, wariness, +good judgment, and resolute patience and kindliness. The result was +that they ultimately became his firm friends, guarded the telegraph- +lines, and helped the few soldiers left at the isolated, widely +separated little posts. He and his assistants explored, and mapped for +the first time, the Juruena and the Gy-Parana, two important affluents +of the Tapajos and the Madeira respectively. The Tapajos and the +Madeira, like the Orinoco and Rio Negro, have been highways of travel +for a couple of centuries. The Madeira (as later the Tapajos) was the +chief means of ingress, a century and a half ago, to the little +Portuguese settlements of this far interior region of Brazil; one of +these little towns, named Matto Grosso, being the original capital of +the province. It has long been abandoned by the government, and +practically so by its inhabitants, the ruins of palace, fortress, and +church now rising amid the rank tropical luxuriance of the wild +forest. The mouths of the main affluents of these highway rivers were +as a rule well known. But in many cases nothing but the mouth was +known. The river itself was not known, and it was placed on the map by +guesswork. Colonel Rondon found, for example, that the course of the +Gy-Parana was put down on the map two degrees out of its proper place. +He, with his party, was the first to find out its sources, the first +to traverse its upper course, the first to map its length. He and his +assistants performed a similar service for the Juruena, discovering +the sources, discovering and descending some of the branches, and for +the first time making a trustworthy map of the main river itself, +until its junction with the Tapajos. Near the watershed between the +Juruena and the Gy-Parana he established his farthest station to the +westward, named Jose Bonofacio, after one of the chief republican +patriots of Brazil. A couple of days' march northwestward from this +station, he in 1909 came across a part of the stream of a river +running northward between the Gy-Parana and the Juruena; he could only +guess where it debouched, believing it to be into the Madeira, +although it was possible that it entered the Gy-Parana or Tapajos. The +region through which it flows was unknown, no civilized man having +ever penetrated it; and as all conjecture as to what the river was, as +to its length, and as to its place of entering into some highway +river, was mere guess-work, he had entered it on his sketch maps as +the Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt. Among the officers of the +Brazilian Army and the scientific civilians who have accompanied him +there have been not only expert cartographers, photographers, and +telegraphists, but astronomers, geologists, botanists, and zoologists. +Their reports, published in excellent shape by the Brazilian +Government, make an invaluable series of volumes, reflecting the +highest credit on the explorers, and on the government itself. Colonel +Rondon's own accounts of his explorations, of the Indian tribes he has +visited, and of the beautiful and wonderful things he has seen, +possess a peculiar interest. + + + + V. UP THE RIVER OF TAPIRS + +After leaving Caceres we went up the Sepotuba, which in the local +Indian dialect means River of Tapirs. This river is only navigable for +boats of size when the water is high. It is a swift, fairly clear +stream, rushing down from the Plan Alto, the high uplands, through the +tropical lowland forest. On the right hand, or western bank, and here +and there on the left bank, the forest is broken by natural pastures +and meadows, and at one of these places, known as Porto Campo, sixty +or seventy miles above the mouth, there is a good-sized cattle-ranch. +Here we halted, because the launch, and the two pranchas--native +trading-boats with houses on their decks--which it towed, could not +carry our entire party and outfit. Accordingly most of the baggage and +some of the party were sent ahead to where we were to meet our pack- +train, at Tapirapoan. Meanwhile the rest of us made our first camp +under tents at Porto Campo, to wait the return of the boats. The tents +were placed in a line, with the tent of Colonel Rondon and the tent in +which Kermit and I slept, in the middle, beside one another. In front +of these two, on tall poles, stood the Brazilian and American flags; +and at sunrise and sunset the flags were hoisted and hauled down while +the trumpet sounded and all of us stood at attention. Camp was pitched +beside the ranch buildings. In the trees near the tents grew wonderful +violet orchids. + +Many birds were around us; I saw some of them, and Cherrie and Miller +many, many more. They ranged from party-colored macaws, green parrots, +and big gregarious cuckoos down to a brilliant green-and-chestnut +kingfisher, five and a quarter inches long, and a tiny orange-and- +green manakin, smaller than any bird I have ever seen except a hummer. +We also saw a bird that really was protectively colored; a kind of +whippoorwill which even the sharp-eyed naturalists could only make out +because it moved its head. We saw orange-bellied squirrels with showy +orange tails. Lizards were common. We killed our first poisonous snake +(the second we had seen), an evil lance-headed jararaca that was +swimming the river. We also saw a black-and-orange harmless snake, +nearly eight feet long, which we were told was akin to the mussurama; +and various other snakes. One day while paddling in a canoe on the +river, hoping that the dogs might drive a tapir to us, they drove into +the water a couple of small bush deer instead. There was no point in +shooting them; we caught them with ropes thrown over their heads; for +the naturalists needed them as specimens, and all of us needed the +meat. One of the men was stung by a single big red maribundi wasp. For +twenty-four hours he was in great pain and incapacitated for work. In +a lagoon two of the dogs had the tips of their tails bitten off by +piranhas as they swam, and the ranch hands told us that in this lagoon +one of their hounds had been torn to pieces and completely devoured by +the ravenous fish. It was a further illustration of the uncertainty of +temper and behavior of these ferocious little monsters. In other +lagoons they had again and again left us and our dogs unmolested. They +vary locally in aggressiveness just as sharks and crocodiles in +different seas and rivers vary. + +On the morning of January 9th we started out for a tapir-hunt. Tapirs +are hunted with canoes, as they dwell in thick jungle and take to the +water when hounds follow them. In this region there were extensive +papyrus-swamps and big lagoons, back from the river, and often the +tapirs fled to these for refuge, throwing off the hounds. In these +places it was exceedingly difficult to get them; our best chance was +to keep to the river in canoes, and paddle toward the spot in the +direction of which the hounds, by the noise, seemed to be heading. We +started in four canoes. Three of them were Indian dugouts, very low in +the water. The fourth was our Canadian canoe, a beauty; light, safe, +roomy, made of thin slats of wood and cement-covered canvas. Colonel +Rondon, Fiala with his camera, and I went in this canoe, together with +two paddlers. The paddlers were natives of the poorer class. They were +good men. The bowsman was of nearly pure white blood; the steersman +was of nearly pure negro blood, and was evidently the stronger +character and better man of the two. The other canoes carried a couple +of fazendeiros, ranchmen, who had come up from Caceres with their +dogs. These dugouts were manned by Indian and half-caste paddlers, and +the fazendeiros, who were of nearly pure white blood, also at times +paddled vigorously. All were dressed in substantially similar clothes, +the difference being that those of the camaradas, the poorer men or +laborers, were in tatters. In the canoes no man wore anything save a +shirt, trousers, and hat, the feet being bare. On horseback they wore +long leather leggings which were really simply high, rather flexible +boots with the soles off; their spurs were on their tough bare feet. +There was every gradation between and among the nearly pure whites, +negroes, and Indians. On the whole, there was the most white blood in the +upper ranks, and most Indian and negro blood among the camaradas; but +there were exceptions in both classes, and there was no discrimination +on account of color. All alike were courteous and friendly. + +The hounds were at first carried in two of the dugouts, and then let +loose on the banks. We went up-stream for a couple of hours against +the swift current, the paddlers making good headway with their pointed +paddles--the broad blade of each paddle was tipped with a long point, +so that it could be thrust into the mud to keep the low dugout against +the bank. The tropical forest came down almost like a wall, the tall +trees laced together with vines, and the spaces between their trunks +filled with a low, dense jungle. In most places it could only be +penetrated by a man with a machete. With few exceptions the trees were +unknown to me, and their native names told me nothing. On most of them +the foliage was thick; among the exceptions were the cecropias, +growing by preference on new-formed alluvial soil bare of other trees, +whose rather scanty leaf bunches were, as I was informed, the favorite +food of sloths. We saw one or two squirrels among the trees, and a +family of monkeys. There were few sand-banks in the river, and no +water-fowl save an occasional cormorant. But as we pushed along near +the shore, where the branches overhung and dipped in the swirling +water, we continually roused little flocks of bats. They were hanging +from the boughs right over the river, and when our approach roused +them they zigzagged rapidly in front of us for a few rods, and then +again dove in among the branches. + +At last we landed at a point of ground where there was little jungle, +and where the forest was composed of palms and was fairly open. It was +a lovely bit of forest. The colonel strolled off in one direction, +returning an hour later with a squirrel for the naturalists. Meanwhile +Fiala and I went through the palm wood to a papyrus-swamp. Many trails +led through the woods, and especially along the borders of the swamp; +and, although their principal makers had evidently been cattle, yet +there were in them footprints of both tapir and deer. The tapir makes +a footprint much like that of a small rhinoceros, being one of the +odd-toed ungulates. We could hear the dogs now and then, evidently +scattered and running on various trails. They were a worthless lot of +cur-hounds. They would chase tapir or deer or anything else that ran +away from them as long as the trail was easy to follow; but they were +not stanch, even after animals that fled, and they would have nothing +whatever to do with animals that were formidable. + +While standing by the marsh we heard something coming along one of the +game paths. In a moment a buck of the bigger species of bush deer +appeared, a very pretty and graceful creature. It stopped and darted +back as soon as it saw us, giving us no chance for a shot; but in +another moment we caught glimpses of it running by at full speed, back +among the palms. I covered an opening between two tree-trunks. By good +luck the buck appeared in the right place, giving me just time to hold +well ahead of him and fire. At the report he went down in a heap, the +"umbrella-pointed" bullet going in at one shoulder, and ranging +forward, breaking the neck. The leaden portion of the bullet, in the +proper mushroom or umbrella shape, stopped under the neck skin on the +farther side. It is a very effective bullet. + +Miller particularly wished specimens of these various species of bush +deer, because their mutual relationships have not yet been +satisfactorily worked out. This was an old buck. The antlers were +single spikes, five or six inches long; they were old and white and +would soon have been shed. In the stomach were the remains of both +leaves and grasses, but especially the former; the buck was both a +browser and grazer. There were also seeds, but no berries or nuts such +as I have sometimes found in deer's stomachs. This species, which is +abundant in this neighborhood, is solitary in its habits, not going in +herds. At this time the rut was past, the bucks no longer sought the +does, the fawns had not been born, and the yearlings had left their +mothers; so that each animal usually went by itself. When chased they +were very apt to take to the water. This instinct of taking to the +water, by the way, is quite explicable as regards both deer and tapir, +for it affords them refuge against their present day natural foes, but +it is a little puzzling to see the jaguar readily climbing trees to +escape dogs; for ages have passed since there were in its habitat any +natural foes from which it needed to seek safety in trees. But it is +possible that the habit has been kept alive by its seeking refuge in +them on occasion from the big peccaries, which are among the beasts on +which it ordinarily preys. + +We hung the buck in a tree. The colonel returned, and not long +afterward one of the paddlers who had been watching the river called +out to us that there was a tapir in the water, a good distance up- +stream, and that two of the other boats were after it. We jumped into +the canoe and the two paddlers dug their blades in the water as they +drove her against the strong current, edging over for the opposite +bank. The tapir was coming down-stream at a great rate, only its queer +head above water, while the dugouts were closing rapidly on it, the +paddlers uttering loud cries. As the tapir turned slightly to one side +or the other the long, slightly upturned snout and the strongly +pronounced arch of the crest along the head and upper neck gave it a +marked and unusual aspect. I could not shoot, for it was directly in +line with one of the pursuing dugouts. Suddenly it dived, the snout +being slightly curved downward as it did so. There was no trace of it; +we gazed eagerly in all directions; the dugout in front came alongside +our canoe and the paddlers rested, their paddles ready. Then we made +out the tapir clambering up the bank. It had dived at right angles to +the course it was following and swum under water to the very edge of +the shore, rising under the overhanging tree-branches at a point where +a drinking-trail for game led down a break in the bank. The branches +partially hid it, and it was in deep shadow, so that it did not offer +a very good shot. My bullet went into its body too far back, and the +tapir disappeared in the forest at a gallop as if unhurt, although the +bullet really secured it, by making it unwilling to trust to its speed +and leave the neighborhood of the water. Three or four of the hounds +were by this time swimming the river, leaving the others yelling on +the opposite side; and as soon as the swimmers reached the shore they +were put on the tapir's trail and galloped after it, giving tongue. In +a couple of minutes we saw the tapir take to the water far up-stream, +and after it we went as fast as the paddles could urge us through the +water. We were not in time to head it, but fortunately some of the +dogs had come down to the river's edge at the very point where the +tapir was about to land, and turned it back. Two or three of the dogs +were swimming. We were more than half the breadth of the river away +from the tapir, and somewhat down-stream, when it dived. It made an +astonishingly long swim beneath the water this time, almost as if it +had been a hippopotamus, for it passed completely under our canoe and +rose between us and the hither bank. I shot it, the bullet going into +its brain, while it was thirty or forty yards from shore. It sank at +once. + +There was now nothing to do but wait until the body floated. I feared +that the strong current would roll it down-stream over the river bed, +but my companions assured me that this was not so, and that the body +would remain where it was until it rose, which would be in an hour or +two. They were right, except as to the time. For over a couple of +hours we paddled, or anchored ourselves by clutching branches close to +the spot, or else drifted down a mile and paddled up again near the +shore, to see if the body had caught anywhere. Then we crossed the +river and had lunch at the lovely natural picnic-ground where the buck +was hung up. We had very nearly given up the tapir when it suddenly +floated only a few rods from where it had sunk. With no little +difficulty the big, round black body was hoisted into the canoe, and +we all turned our prows down-stream. The skies had been lowering for +some time, and now--too late to interfere with the hunt or cause us +any annoyance--a heavy downpour of rain came on and beat upon us. +Little we cared, as the canoe raced forward, with the tapir and the +buck lying in the bottom, and a dry, comfortable camp ahead of us. + +When we reached camp, and Father Zahm saw the tapir, he reminded me of +something I had completely forgotten. When, some six years previously, +he had spoken to me in the White House about taking this South +American trip, I had answered that I could not, as I intended to go to +Africa, but added that I hoped some day to go to South America and +that if I did so I should try to shoot both a jaguar and a tapir, as +they were the characteristic big-game animals of the country. "Well," +said Father Zahm, "now you've shot them both!" The storm continued +heavy until after sunset. Then the rain stopped and the full moon +broke through the cloud-rack. Father Zahm and I walked up and down in +the moonlight, talking of many things, from Dante, and our own plans +for the future, to the deeds and the wanderings of the old-time +Spanish conquistadores in their search for the Gilded King, and of the +Portuguese adventurers who then divided with them the mastery of the +oceans and of the unknown continents beyond. + +This was an attractive and interesting camp in more ways than one. The +vaqueiros with their wives and families were housed on the two sides +of the field in which our tents were pitched. On one side was a big, +whitewashed, tile-roofed house in which the foreman dwelt--an olive- +skinned, slightly built, wiry man, with an olive-skinned wife and +eight as pretty, fair-haired children as one could wish to see. He +usually went barefoot, and his manners were not merely good but +distinguished. Corrals and outbuildings were near this big house. On +the opposite side of the field stood the row of steep-roofed, palm- +thatched huts in which the ordinary cowhands lived with their dusky +helpmeets and children. Each night from these palm-thatched quarters +we heard the faint sounds of a music that went far back of +civilization to a savage ancestry near by in point of time and +otherwise immeasurably remote; for through the still, hot air, under +the brilliant moonlight, we heard the monotonous throbbing of a tomtom +drum, and the twanging of some old stringed instrument. The small +black turkey-buzzards, here always called crows, were as tame as +chickens near the big house, walking on the ground or perched in the +trees beside the corral, waiting for the offal of the slaughtered +cattle. Two palm-trees near our tent were crowded with the long, +hanging nests of one of the cacique orioles. We lived well, with +plenty of tapir beef, which was good, and venison of the bush deer, +which was excellent; and as much ordinary beef as we wished, and fresh +milk, too--a rarity in this country. There were very few mosquitoes, +and everything was as comfortable as possible. + +The tapir I killed was a big one. I did not wish to kill another, +unless, of course, it became advisable to do so for food; whereas I +did wish to get some specimens of the big, white-lipped peccary, the +"queixa" (pronounced "cashada") of the Brazilians, which would make +our collection of the big mammals of the Brazilian forests almost +complete. The remaining members of the party killed two or three more +tapirs. One was a bull, full grown but very much smaller than the +animal I had killed. The hunters said that this was a distinct kind. +The skull and skin were sent back with the other specimens to the +American Museum, where after due examination and comparison its +specific identify will be established. Tapirs are solitary beasts. Two +are rarely found together, except in the case of a cow and its spotted +and streaked calf. They live in dense cover, usually lying down in the +daytime and at night coming out to feed, and going to the river or to +some lagoon to bathe and swim. From this camp Sigg took Lieutenant +Lyra back to Caceres to get something that had been overlooked. They +went in a rowboat to which the motor had been attached, and at night +on the way back almost ran over a tapir that was swimming. But in +unfrequented places tapirs both feed and bathe during the day. The +stomach of the one I shot contained big palm-nuts; they had been +swallowed without enough mastication to break the kernel, the outer +pulp being what the tapir prized. Tapirs gallop well, and their tough +hide and wedge shape enable them to go at speed through very dense +cover. They try to stamp on, and even to bite, a foe, but are only +clumsy fighters. + +The tapir is a very archaic type of ungulate, not unlike the non- +specialized beasts of the Oligocene. From some such ancestral type the +highly specialized one-toed modern horse has evolved, while during the +uncounted ages that saw the horse thus develop the tapir has continued +substantially unchanged. Originally the tapirs dwelt in the northern +hemisphere, but there they gradually died out, the more specialized +horse, and even for long ages the rhinoceros, persisting after they +had vanished; and nowadays the surviving tapirs are found in Malaysia +and South America, far from their original home. The relations of the +horse and tapir in the paleontological history of South America are +very curious. Both were, geologically speaking, comparatively recent +immigrants, and if they came at different dates it is almost certain +that the horse came later. The horse for an age or two, certainly for +many hundreds of thousands of years, throve greatly and developed not +only several different species but even different genera. It was much +the most highly specialized of the two, and in the other continental +regions where both were found the horse outlasted the tapir. But in +South America the tapir outlasted the horse. From unknown causes the +various genera and species of horses died out, while the tapir has +persisted. The highly specialized, highly developed beasts, which +represented such a full evolutionary development, died out, while +their less specialized remote kinsfolk, which had not developed, clung +to life and throve; and this although the direct reverse was occurring +in North America and in the Old World. It is one of the innumerable +and at present insoluble problems in the history of life on our +planet. + +I spent a couple of days of hard work in getting the big white-lipped +peccaries--white-lipped being rather a misnomer, as the entire under +jaw and lower cheek are white. They were said to be found on the other +side of, and some distance back from, the river. Colonel Rondon had +sent out one of our attendants, an old follower of his, a full-blood +Parecis Indian, to look for tracks. This was an excellent man, who +dressed and behaved just like the other good men we had, and was +called Antonio Parecis. He found the tracks of a herd of thirty or +forty cashadas, and the following morning we started after them. + +On the first day we killed nothing. We were rather too large a party, +for one or two of the visiting fazendeiros came along with their dogs. +I doubt whether these men very much wished to overtake our game, for +the big peccary is a murderous foe of dogs (and is sometimes dangerous +to men). One of their number frankly refused to come or to let his +dogs come, explaining that the fierce wild swine were "very badly +brought up" (a literal translation of his words) and that respectable +dogs and men ought not to go near them. The other fazendeiros merely +feared for their dogs; a groundless fear, I believe, as I do not think +that the dogs could by any exertion have been dragged into dangerous +proximity with such foes. The ranch foreman, Benedetto, came with us, +and two or three other camaradas, including Antonio, the Parecis +Indian. The horses were swum across the river, each being led beside a +dugout. Then we crossed with the dogs; our horses were saddled, and we +started. + +It was a picturesque cavalcade. The native hunters, of every shade +from white to dark copper, all wore leather leggings that left the +soles of their feet bare, and on their bare heels wore spurs with +wheels four inches across. They went in single file, for no other mode +of travel was possible; and the two or three leading men kept their +machetes out, and had to cut every yard of our way while we were in +the forest. The hunters rode little stallions, and their hounds were +gelded. + +Most of the time we were in forest or swampy jungle. Part of the time +we crossed or skirted marshy plains. In one of them a herd of half- +wild cattle was feeding. Herons, storks, ducks, and ibises were in +these marshes, and we saw one flock of lovely roseate spoonbills. + +In one grove the fig-trees were killing the palms, just as in Africa +they kill the sandalwood-trees. In the gloom of this grove there were +no flowers, no bushes; the air was heavy; the ground was brown with +mouldering leaves. Almost every palm was serving as a prop for a fig- +tree. The fig-trees were in every stage of growth. The youngest ones +merely ran up the palms as vines. In the next stage the vine had +thickened and was sending out shoots, wrapping the palm stem in a +deadly hold. Some of the shoots were thrown round the stem like the +tentacles of an immense cuttlefish. Others looked like claws, that +were hooked into every crevice, and round every projection. In the +stage beyond this the palm had been killed, and its dead carcass +appeared between the big, winding vine-trunks; and later the palm had +disappeared and the vines had united into a great fig-tree. Water +stood in black pools at the foot of the murdered trees, and of the +trees that had murdered them. There was something sinister and evil in +the dark stillness of the grove; it seemed as if sentient beings had +writhed themselves round and were strangling other sentient beings. + +We passed through wonderfully beautiful woods of tall palms, the +ouaouaca palm--wawasa palm, as it should be spelled in English. The +trunks rose tall and strong and slender, and the fronds were branches +twenty or thirty feet long, with the many long, narrow green blades +starting from the midrib at right angles in pairs. Round the ponds +stood stately burity palms, rising like huge columns, with great +branches that looked like fans, as the long, stiff blades radiated +from the end of the midrib. One tree was gorgeous with the brilliant +hues of a flock of party-colored macaws. Green parrots flew shrieking +overhead. + +Now and then we were bitten and stung by the venomous fire-ants, and +ticks crawled upon us. Once we were assailed by more serious foes, in +the shape of a nest of maribundi wasps, not the biggest kind, but +about the size of our hornets. We were at the time passing through +dense jungle, under tall trees, in a spot where the down timber, +holes, tangled creepers, and thorns made the going difficult. The +leading men were not assailed, although they were now and then cutting +the trail. Colonel Rondon and I were in the middle of the column, and +the swarm attacked us; both of us were badly stung on the face, neck, +and hands, the colonel even more severely than I was. He wheeled and +rode to the rear and I to the front; our horses were stung too; and we +went at a rate that a moment previously I would have deemed impossible +over such ground. + +At the close of the day, when we were almost back at the river, the +dogs killed a jaguar kitten. There was no trace of the mother. Some +accident must have befallen her, and the kitten was trying to shift +for herself. She was very emaciated. In her stomach were the remains +of a pigeon and some tendons from the skeleton or dried carcass of +some big animal. The loathsome berni flies, which deposit eggs in +living beings--cattle, dogs, monkeys, rodents, men--had been at it. +There were seven huge, white grubs making big abscess-like swellings +over its eyes. These flies deposit their grubs in men. In 1909, on +Colonel Rondon's hardest trip, every man of the party had from one to +five grubs deposited in him, the fly acting with great speed, and +driving its ovipositor through clothing. The grubs cause torture; but +a couple of cross cuts with a lancet permit the loathsome creatures to +be squeezed out. + +In these forests the multitude of insects that bite, sting, devour, +and prey upon other creatures, often with accompaniments of atrocious +suffering, passes belief. The very pathetic myth of "beneficent +nature" could not deceive even the least wise being if he once saw for +himself the iron cruelty of life in the tropics. Of course "nature"-- +in common parlance a wholly inaccurate term, by the way, especially +when used as if to express a single entity--is entirely ruthless, no +less so as regards types than as regards individuals, and entirely +indifferent to good or evil, and works out her ends or no ends with +utter disregard of pain and woe. + +The following morning at sunrise we started again. This time only +Colonel Rondon and I went with Benedetto and Antonio the Indian. We +brought along four dogs which it was fondly hoped might chase the +cashadas. Two of them disappeared on the track of a tapir and we saw +them no more; one of the others promptly fled when we came across the +tracks of our game, and would not even venture after them in our +company; the remaining one did not actually run away and occasionally +gave tongue, but could not be persuaded to advance unless there was a +man ahead of him. However, Colonel Rondon, Benedetto, and Antonio +formed a trio of hunters who could do fairly well without dogs. + +After four hours of riding, Benedetto, who was in the lead, suddenly +stopped and pointed downward. We were riding along a grassy intervale +between masses of forest, and he had found the fresh track of a herd +of big peccaries crossing from left to right. There were apparently +thirty or forty in the herd. The small peccaries go singly or in small +parties, and when chased take refuge in holes or hollow logs, where +they show valiant fight; but the big peccaries go in herds of +considerable size, and are so truculent that they are reluctant to +run, and prefer either to move slowly off chattering their tusks and +grunting, or else actually to charge. Where much persecuted the +survivors gradually grow more willing to run, but their instinct is +not to run but to trust to their truculence and their mass-action for +safety. They inflict a fearful bite and frequently kill dogs. They +often charge the hunters and I have heard of men being badly wounded +by them, while almost every man who hunts them often is occasionally +forced to scramble up a tree to avoid a charge. But I have never heard +of a man being killed by them. They sometimes surround the tree in +which the man has taken refuge and keep him up it. Cherrie, on one +occasion in Costa Rica, was thus kept up a tree for several hours by a +great herd of three or four hundred of these peccaries; and this +although he killed several of them. Ordinarily, however, after making +their charge they do not turn, but pass on out of sight. Their great +foe is the jaguar, but unless he exercises much caution they will turn +the tables on him. Cherrie, also in Costa Rica, came on the body of a +jaguar which had evidently been killed by a herd of peccaries some +twenty-four hours previously. The ground was trampled up by their +hoofs, and the carcass was rent and slit into pieces. + +Benedetto, as soon as we discovered the tracks, slipped off his horse, +changed his leggings for sandals, threw his rifle over his arm, and +took the trail of the herd, followed by the only dog which would +accompany him. The peccaries had gone into a broad belt of forest, +with a marsh on the farther side. At first Antonio led the colonel and +me, all of us on horseback, at a canter round this belt to the marsh +side, thinking the peccaries had gone almost through it. But we could +hear nothing. The dog only occasionally barked, and then not loudly. +Finally we heard a shot. Benedetto had found the herd, which showed no +fear of him; he had backed out and fired a signal shot. We all three +went into the forest on foot toward where the shot had been fired. It +was dense jungle and stiflingly hot. We could not see clearly for more +than a few feet, or move easily without free use of the machetes. Soon +we heard the ominous groaning of the herd, in front of us, and almost +on each side. Then Benedetto joined us, and the dog appeared in the +rear. We moved slowly forward, toward the sound of the fierce moaning +grunts which were varied at times by a castanet chattering of the +tusks. Then we dimly made out the dark forms of the peccaries moving +very slowly to the left. My companions each chose a tree to climb at +need and pointed out one for me. I fired at the half-seen form of a +hog, through the vines, leaves, and branches; the colonel fired; I +fired three more shots at other hogs; and the Indian also fired. The +peccaries did not charge; walking and trotting, with bristles erect, +groaning and clacking their tusks, they disappeared into the jungle. +We could not see one of them clearly; and not one was left dead. But a +few paces on we came across one of my wounded ones, standing at bay by +a palm trunk; and I killed it forthwith. The dog would not even trail +the wounded ones; but here Antonio came to the front. With eyes almost +as quick and sure as those of a wild beast he had watched after every +shot, and was able to tell the results in each case. He said that in +addition to the one I had just killed I had wounded two others so +seriously that he did not think they would go far, and that Colonel +Rondon and he himself had each badly wounded one; and, moreover, he +showed the trails each wounded animal had taken. The event justified +him. In a few minutes we found my second one dead. Then we found +Antonio's. Then we found my third one alive and at bay, and I killed +it with another bullet. Finally we found the colonel's. I told him I +should ask the authorities of the American Museum to mount his and one +or two of mine in a group, to commemorate our hunting together. + +If we had not used crippling rifles the peccaries might have gotten +away, for in the dark jungle, with the masses of intervening leaves +and branches, it was impossible to be sure of placing each bullet +properly in the half-seen moving beast. We found where the herd had +wallowed in the mud. The stomachs of the peccaries we killed contained +wild figs, palm nuts, and bundles of root fibres. The dead beasts were +covered with ticks. They were at least twice the weight of the smaller +peccaries. + +On the ride home we saw a buck of the small species of bush deer, not +half the size of the kind I had already shot. It was only a patch of +red in the bush, a good distance off, but I was lucky enough to hit +it. In spite of its small size it was a full-grown male, of a species +we had not yet obtained. The antlers had recently been shed, and the +new antler growth had just begun. A great jabiru stork let us ride by +him a hundred and fifty yards off without thinking it worth while to +take flight. This day we saw many of the beautiful violet orchids; and +in the swamps were multitudes of flowers, red, yellow, lilac, of which +I did not know the names. + +I alluded above to the queer custom these people in the interior of +Brazil have of gelding their hunting-dogs. This absurd habit is +doubtless the chief reason why there are so few hounds worth their +salt in the more serious kinds of hunting, where the quarry is the +jaguar or big peccary. Thus far we had seen but one dog as good as the +ordinary cougar hound or bear hound in such packs as those with which +I had hunted in the Rockies and in the cane-brakes of the lower +Mississippi. It can hardly be otherwise when every dog that shows +himself worth anything is promptly put out of the category of +breeders--the theory apparently being that the dog will then last +longer. All the breeding is from worthless dogs, and no dog of proved +worth leaves descendants. + +The country along this river is a fine natural cattle country, and +some day it will surely see a great development. It was opened to +development by Colonel Rondon only five or six years ago. Already an +occasional cattle ranch is to be found along the banks. When railroads +are built into these interior portions of Matto Grosso the whole +region will grow and thrive amazingly--and so will the railroads. The +growth will not be merely material. An immense amount will be done in +education; using the word education in its broadest and most accurate +sense, as applying to both mind and spirit, to both the child and the +man. Colonel Rondon is not merely an explorer. He has been and is now +a leader in the movement for the vital betterment of his people, the +people of Matto Grosso. The poorer people of the back country +everywhere suffer because of the harsh and improper laws of debt. In +practice these laws have resulted in establishing a system of peonage, +such as has grown up here and there in our own nation. A radical +change is needed in this matter; and the colonel is fighting for the +change. In school matters the colonel has precisely the ideas of our +wisest and most advanced men and women in the United States. Cherrie-- +who is not only an exceedingly efficient naturalist and explorer in +the tropics, but is also a thoroughly good citizen at home--is the +chairman of the school board of the town of Newfane, in Vermont. He +and the colonel, and Kermit and I, talked over school matters at +length, and were in hearty accord as to the vital educational needs of +both Brazil and the United States: the need of combining industrial +with purely mental training, and the need of having the wide-spread +popular education, which is and must be supported and paid for by the +government, made a purely governmental and absolutely nonsectarian +function, administered by the state alone, without interference with, +nor furtherance of, the beliefs of any reputable church. The colonel +is also head of the Indian service of Brazil, being what corresponds +roughly with our commissioner of Indian affairs. Here also he is +taking the exact view that is taken in the United States by the +staunchest and wisest friends of the Indians. The Indians must be +treated with intelligent and sympathetic understanding, no less than +with justice and firmness; and until they become citizens, absorbed +into the general body politic, they must be the wards of the nation, +and not of any private association, lay or clerical, no matter how +well-meaning. + +The Sepotuba River was scientifically explored and mapped for the +first time by Colonel Rondon in 1908, as head of the Brazilian +Telegraphic Commission. This was during the second year of his +exploration and opening of the unknown northwestern wilderness of +Matto Grosso. Most of this wilderness had never previously been +trodden by the foot of a civilized man. Not only were careful maps +made and much other scientific work accomplished, but posts were +established and telegraph-lines constructed. When Colonel Rondon began +the work he was a major. He was given two promotions, to lieutenant- +colonel and colonel, while absent in the wilderness. His longest and +most important exploring trip, and the one fraught with most danger +and hardship, was begun by him in 1909, on May 3rd, the anniversary of +the discovery of Brazil. He left Tapirapoan on that day, and he +reached the Madeira River on Christmas, December 25, of the same year, +having descended the Gy-Parana. The mouth of this river had long been +known, but its upper course for half its length was absolutely unknown +when Rondon descended it. Among those who took part under him in this +piece of exploration were the present Captain Amilcar and Lieutenant +Lyra; and two better or more efficient men for such wilderness work it +would be impossible to find. They acted as his two chief assistants on +our trip. In 1909 the party exhausted all their food, including even +the salt, by August. For the last four months they lived exclusively +on the game they killed, on fruits, and on wild honey. Their equipage +was what the men could carry on their backs. By the time the party +reached the Madeira they were worn out by fatigue, exposure, and semi- +starvation, and their enfeebled bodies were racked by fever. + +The work of exploration accomplished by Colonel Rondon and his +associates during these years was as remarkable as, and in its results +even more important than, any similar work undertaken elsewhere on the +globe at or about the same time. Its value was recognized in Brazil. +It received no recognition by the geographical societies of Europe or +the United States. + +The work done by the original explorers of such a wilderness +necessitates the undergoing of untold hardship and danger. Their +successors, even their immediate successors, have a relatively easy +time. Soon the road becomes so well beaten that it can be traversed +without hardship by any man who does not venture from it--although if +he goes off into the wilderness for even a day, hunting or collecting, +he will have a slight taste of what his predecessors endured. The +wilderness explored by Colonel Rondon is not yet wholly subdued, and +still holds menace to human life. At Caceres he received notice of the +death of one of his gallant subordinates, Captain Cardozo. He died +from beriberi, far out in the wilderness along our proposed line of +march. Colonel Rondon also received news that a boat ascending the Gy- +Parana, to carry provisions to meet those of our party who were to +descend that stream, had been upset, the provisions lost, and three +men drowned. The risk and hardship are such that the ordinary men, the +camaradas, do not like to go into the wilderness. The men who go with +the Telegraphic Commission on the rougher and wilder work are paid +seven times as much as they earn in civilization. On this trip of ours +Colonel Rondon met with much difficulty in securing some one who could +cook. He asked the cook on the little steamer Nyoac to go with us; but +the cook with unaffected horror responded: "Senhor, I have never done +anything to deserve punishment!" + +Five days after leaving us, the launch, with one of the native +trading-boats lashed alongside, returned. On the 13th we broke camp, +loaded ourselves and all our belongings on the launch and the house- +boat, and started up-stream for Tapirapoan. All told there were about +thirty men, with five dogs and tents, bedding and provisions; fresh +beef, growing rapidly less fresh; skins--all and everything jammed +together. + +It rained most of the first day and part of the first night. After +that the weather was generally overcast and pleasant for travelling; +but sometimes rain and torrid sunshine alternated. The cooking--and it +was good cooking--was done at a funny little open-air fireplace, with +two or three cooking-pots placed at the stern of the house-boat. + +The fireplace was a platform of earth, taken from anthills, and heaped +and spread on the boards of the boat. Around it the dusky cook worked +with philosophic solemnity in rain and shine. Our attendants, friendly +souls with skins of every shade and hue, slept most of the time, +curled up among boxes, bundles, and slabs of beef. An enormous land +turtle was tethered toward the bow of the house-boat. When the men +slept too near it, it made futile efforts to scramble over them; and +in return now and then one of them gravely used it for a seat. + +Slowly the throbbing engine drove the launch and its unwieldy side- +partner against the swift current. The river had risen. We made about +a mile and a half an hour. Ahead of us the brown water street +stretched in curves between endless walls of dense tropical forest. It +was like passing through a gigantic greenhouse. Wawasa and burity +palms, cecropias, huge figs, feathery bamboos, strange yellow-stemmed +trees, low trees with enormous leaves, tall trees with foliage as +delicate as lace, trees with buttressed trunks, trees with boles +rising smooth and straight to lofty heights, all woven together by a +tangle of vines, crowded down to the edge of the river. Their drooping +branches hung down to the water, forming a screen through which it was +impossible to see the bank, and exceedingly difficult to penetrate to +the bank. Rarely one of them showed flowers--large white blossoms, or +small red or yellow blossoms. More often the lilac flowers of the +begonia-vine made large patches of color. Innumerable epiphytes +covered the limbs, and even grew on the roughened trunks. We saw +little bird life--a darter now and then, and kingfishers flitting from +perch to perch. At long intervals we passed a ranch. At one the large, +red-tiled, whitewashed house stood on a grassy slope behind mango- +trees. The wooden shutters were thrown back from the unglazed windows, +and the big rooms were utterly bare--not a book, not an ornament. A +palm, loaded with scores of the pendulous nests of the troupials, +stood near the door. Behind were orange-trees and coffee-plants, and +near by fields of bananas, rice, and tobacco. The sallow foreman was +courteous and hospitable. His dark-skinned women-folk kept in the +furtive background. Like most of the ranches, it was owned by a +company with headquarters at Caceres. + +The trip was pleasant and interesting, although there was not much to +do on the boat. It was too crowded to move around save with a definite +purpose. We enjoyed the scenery; we talked--in English, Portuguese, +bad French, and broken German. Some of us wrote. Fiala made sketches +of improved tents, hammocks, and other field equipment, suggested by +what he had already seen. Some of us read books. Colonel Rondon, neat, +trim, alert, and soldierly, studied a standard work on applied +geographical astronomy. Father Zahm read a novel by Fogazzaro. Kermit +read Camoens and a couple of Brazilian novels, "O Guarani" and +"Innocencia." My own reading varied from "Quentin Durward" and Gibbon +to the "Chanson de Roland." Miller took out his little pet owl Moses, +from the basket in which Moses dwelt, and gave him food and water. +Moses crooned and chuckled gratefully when he was stroked and tickled. + +Late the first evening we moored to the bank by a little fazenda of +the poorer type. The houses were of palm-leaves. Even the walls were +made of the huge fronds or leafy branches of the wawasa palm, stuck +upright in the ground and the blades plaited together. Some of us went +ashore. Some stayed on the boats. There were no mosquitoes, the +weather was not oppressively hot, and we slept well. By five o'clock +next morning we had each drunk a cup of delicious Brazilian coffee, +and the boats were under way. + +All day we steamed slowly up-stream. We passed two or three fazendas. +At one, where we halted to get milk, the trees were overgrown with +pretty little yellow orchids. At dark we moored at a spot where there +were no branches to prevent our placing the boats directly alongside +the bank. There were hardly any mosquitoes. Most of the party took +their hammocks ashore, and the camp was pitched amid singularly +beautiful surroundings. The trees were wawasa palms, some with the +fronds cresting very tall trunks, some with the fronds--seemingly +longer--rising almost from the ground. The fronds were of great +length; some could not have been less than fifty feet long. Bushes and +tall grass, dew-drenched and glittering with the green of emeralds, +grew in the open spaces between. We left at sunrise the following +morning. One of the sailors had strayed inland. He got turned round +and could not find the river; and we started before discovering his +absence. We stopped at once, and with much difficulty he forced his +way through the vine-laced and thorn-guarded jungle toward the sound +of the launch's engines and of the bugle which was blown. In this +dense jungle, when the sun is behind clouds, a man without a compass +who strays a hundred yards from the river may readily become +hopelessly lost. + +As we ascended the river the wawasa palms became constantly more +numerous. At this point, for many miles, they gave their own character +to the forest on the river banks. Everywhere their long, curving +fronds rose among the other trees, and in places their lofty trunks +made them hold their heads higher than the other trees. But they were +never as tall as the giants among the ordinary trees. On one towering +palm we noticed a mass of beautiful violet orchids growing from the +side of the trunk, half-way to the top. On another big tree, not a +palm, which stood in a little opening, there hung well over a hundred +troupials' nests. Besides two or three small ranches we this day +passed a large ranch. The various houses and sheds, all palm-thatched, +stood by the river in a big space of cleared ground, dotted with +wawasa palms. A native house-boat was moored by the bank. Women and +children looked from the unglazed windows of the houses; men stood in +front of them. The biggest house was enclosed by a stockade of palm- +logs, thrust end-on into the ground. Cows and oxen grazed round about; +and carts with solid wheels, each wheel made of a single disk of wood, +were tilted on their poles. + +We made our noonday halt on an island where very tall trees grew, +bearing fruits that were pleasant to the taste. Other trees on the +island were covered with rich red and yellow blossoms; and masses of +delicate blue flowers and of star-shaped white flowers grew underfoot. +Hither and thither across the surface of the river flew swallows, with +so much white in their plumage that as they flashed in the sun they +seemed to have snow-white bodies, borne by dark wings. The current of +the river grew swifter; there were stretches of broken water that were +almost rapids; the laboring engine strained and sobbed as with +increasing difficulty it urged forward the launch and her clumsy +consort. At nightfall we moored beside the bank, where the forest was +open enough to permit a comfortable camp. That night the ants ate +large holes in Miller's mosquito-netting, and almost devoured his +socks and shoe-laces. + +At sunrise we again started. There were occasional stretches of swift, +broken water, almost rapids, in the river; everywhere the current was +swift, and our progress was slow. The prancha was towed at the end of +a hawser, and her crew poled. Even thus we only just made the riffle +in more than one case. Two or three times cormorants and snake-birds, +perched on snags in the river or on trees alongside it, permitted the +boat to come within a few yards. In one piece of high forest we saw a +party of toucans, conspicuous even among the tree tops because of +their huge bills and the leisurely expertness with which they crawled, +climbed, and hopped among the branches. We went by several fazendas. + +Shortly before noon--January 16--we reached Tapirapoan, the +headquarters of the Telegraphic Commission. It was an attractive +place, on the river-front, and it was gayly bedecked with flags, not +only those of Brazil and the United States, but of all the other +American republics, in our honor. There was a large, green square, +with trees standing in the middle of it. On one side of this square +were the buildings of the Telegraphic Commission, on the other those +of a big ranch, of which this is the headquarters. In addition, there +were stables, sheds, outhouses, and corrals; and there were cultivated +fields near by. Milch cows, beef-cattle, oxen, and mules wandered +almost at will. There were two or three wagons and carts, and a +traction automobile, used in the construction of the telegraph-line, +but not available in the rainy season, at the time of our trip. + +Here we were to begin our trip overland, on pack-mules and pack-oxen, +scores of which had been gathered to meet us. Several days were needed +to apportion the loads and arrange for the several divisions in which +it was necessary that so large a party should attempt the long +wilderness march, through a country where there was not much food for +man or beast, and where it was always possible to run into a district +in which fatal cattle or horse diseases were prevalent. Fiala, with +his usual efficiency, took charge of handling the outfit of the +American portion of the expedition, with Sigg as an active and useful +assistant. Harper, who like the others worked with whole-hearted zeal +and cheerfulness, also helped him, except when he was engaged in +helping the naturalists. The two latter, Cherrie and Miller, had so +far done the hardest and the best work of the expedition. They had +collected about a thousand birds and two hundred and fifty mammals. It +was not probable that they would do as well during the remainder of +our trip, for we intended thenceforth to halt as little, and march as +steadily, as the country, the weather, and the condition of our means +of transportation permitted. I kept continually wishing that they had +more time in which to study the absorbingly interesting life-histories +of the beautiful and wonderful beasts and birds we were all the time +seeing. Every first-rate museum must still employ competent +collectors; but I think that a museum could now confer most lasting +benefit, and could do work of most permanent good, by sending out into +the immense wildernesses, where wild nature is at her best, trained +observers with the gift of recording what they have observed. Such men +should be collectors, for collecting is still necessary; but they +should also, and indeed primarily, be able themselves to see, and to +set vividly before the eyes of others, the full life-histories of the +creatures that dwell in the waste spaces of the world. + +At this point both Cherrie and Miller collected a number of mammals +and birds which they had not previously obtained; whether any were new +to science could only be determined after the specimens reached the +American Museum. While making the round of his small mammal traps one +morning, Miller encountered an army of the formidable foraging ants. +The species was a large black one, moving with a well-extended front. +These ants, sometimes called army-ants, like the driver-ants of +Africa, move in big bodies and destroy or make prey of every living +thing that is unable or unwilling to get out of their path in time. +They run fast, and everything runs away from their advance. Insects +form their chief prey; and the most dangerous and aggressive lower- +life creatures make astonishingly little resistance to them. Miller's +attention was first attracted to this army of ants by noticing a big +centipede, nine or ten inches long, trying to flee before them. A +number of ants were biting it, and it writhed at each bite, but did +not try to use its long curved jaws against its assailants. On other +occasions he saw big scorpions and big hairy spiders trying to escape +in the same way, and showing the same helpless inability to injure +their ravenous foes, or to defend themselves. The ants climb trees to +a great height, much higher than most birds' nests, and at once kill +and tear to pieces any fledglings in the nests they reach. But they +are not as common as some writers seem to imagine; days may elapse +before their armies are encountered, and doubtless most nests are +never visited or threatened by them. In some instances it seems likely +that the birds save themselves and their young in other ways. Some +nests are inaccessible. From others it is probable that the parents +remove the young. Miller once, in Guiana, had been watching for some +days a nest of ant-wrens which contained young. Going thither one +morning, he found the tree, and the nest itself, swarming with +foraging ants. He at first thought that the fledglings had been +devoured, but he soon saw the parents, only about thirty yards off, +with food in their beaks. They were engaged in entering a dense part +of the jungle, coming out again without food in their beaks, and soon +reappearing once more with food. Miller never found their new nests, +but their actions left him certain that they were feeding their young, +which they must have themselves removed from the old nest. These ant- +wrens hover in front of and over the columns of foraging ants, feeding +not only on the other insects aroused by the ants, but on the ants +themselves. This fact has been doubted; but Miller has shot them with +the ants in their bills and in their stomachs. Dragon-flies, in +numbers, often hover over the columns, darting down at them; Miller +could not be certain he had seen them actually seizing the ants, but +this was his belief. I have myself seen these ants plunder a nest of +the dangerous and highly aggressive wasps, while the wasps buzzed +about in great excitement, but seemed unable effectively to retaliate. +I have also seen them clear a sapling tenanted by their kinsmen, the +poisonous red ants, or fire-ants; the fire-ants fought and I have no +doubt injured or killed some of their swarming and active black foes; +but the latter quickly did away with them. I have only come across +black foraging ants; but there are red species. They attack human +beings precisely as they attack all animals, and precipitate flight is +the only resort. + +Around our camp here butterflies of gorgeous coloring swarmed, and +there were many fungi as delicately shaped and tinted as flowers. The +scents in the woods were wonderful. There were many whippoorwills, or +rather Brazilian birds related to them; they uttered at intervals +through the night a succession of notes suggesting both those of our +whippoorwill and those of our big chuck-will's-widow of the Gulf +States, but not identical with either. There were other birds which +were nearly akin to familiar birds of the United States: a dull- +colored catbird, a dull-colored robin, and a sparrow belonging to the +same genus as our common song-sparrow and sweetheart sparrow; Miller +had heard this sparrow singing by day and night, fourteen thousand +feet up on the Andes, and its song suggested the songs of both of our +sparrows. There were doves and woodpeckers of various species. Other +birds bore no resemblance to any of ours. One honey-creeper was a +perfect little gem, with plumage that was black, purple, and +turquoise, and brilliant scarlet feet. Two of the birds which Cherrie +and Miller procured were of extraordinary nesting habits. One, a +nunlet, in shape resembles a short-tailed bluebird. It is plumbeous, +with a fulvous belly and white tail coverts. It is a stupid little +bird, and does not like to fly away even when shot at. It catches its +prey and ordinarily acts like a rather dull flycatcher, perching on +some dead tree, swooping on insects and then returning to its perch, +and never going on the ground to feed or run about. But it nests in +burrows which it digs itself, one bird usually digging, while the +other bird perches in a bush near by. Sometimes these burrows are in +the side of a sand-bank, the sand being so loose that it is a marvel +that it does not cave in. Sometimes the burrows are in the level +plain, running down about three feet, and then rising at an angle. The +nest consists of a few leaves and grasses, and the eggs are white. The +other bird, called a nun or waxbill, is about the size of a thrush, +grayish in color, with a waxy red bill. It also burrows in the level +soil, the burrow being five feet long; and over the mouth of the +burrow it heaps a pile of sticks and leaves. + +At this camp the heat was great--from 91 to 104 Fahrenheit--and the +air very heavy, being saturated with moisture; and there were many +rain-storms. But there were no mosquitoes, and we were very +comfortable. Thanks to the neighborhood of the ranch, we fared +sumptuously, with plenty of beef, chickens, and fresh milk. Two of the +Brazilian dishes were delicious: canja, a thick soup of chicken and +rice, the best soup a hungry man ever tasted; and beef chopped in +rather small pieces and served with a well-flavored but simple gravy. +The mule allotted me as a riding-beast was a powerful animal, with +easy gaits. The Brazilian Government had waiting for me a very +handsome silver-mounted saddle and bridle; I was much pleased with +both. However, my exceedingly rough and shabby clothing made an +incongruous contrast. + +At Tapirapoan we broke up our baggage--as well as our party. We sent +forward the Canadian canoe--which, with the motor-engine and some +kerosene, went in a cart drawn by six oxen--and a hundred sealed tin +cases of provisions, each containing rations for a day for six men. +They had been put up in New York under the special direction of Fiala, +for use when we got where we wished to take good and varied food in +small compass. All the skins, skulls, and alcoholic specimens, and all +the baggage not absolutely necessary, were sent back down the Paraguay +and to New York, in charge of Harper. The separate baggage-trains, +under the charge of Captain Amilcar, were organized to go in one +detachment. The main body of the expedition, consisting of the +American members, and of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Lyra, and Doctor +Cajazeira, with their baggage and provisions, formed another +detachment. + + + + VI. THROUGH THE HIGHLAND WILDERNESS OF WESTERN BRAZIL + +We were now in the land of the bloodsucking bats, the vampire bats +that suck the blood of living creatures, clinging to or hovering +against the shoulder of a horse or cow, or the hand or foot of a +sleeping man, and making a wound from which the blood continues to +flow long after the bat's thirst has been satiated. At Tapirapoan +there were milch cattle; and one of the calves turned up one morning +weak from loss of blood, which was still trickling from a wound, +forward of the shoulder, made by a bat. But the bats do little damage +in this neighborhood compared to what they do in some other places, +where not only the mules and cattle but the chickens have to be housed +behind bat-proof protection at night or their lives may pay the +penalty. The chief and habitual offenders are various species of +rather small bats; but it is said that other kinds of Brazilian bats +seem to have become, at least sporadically and locally, affected by +the evil example and occasionally vary their customary diet by +draughts of living blood. One of the Brazilian members of our party, +Hoehne, the botanist, was a zoologist also. He informed me that he had +known even the big fruit-eating bats to take to bloodsucking. They did +not, according to his observations, themselves make the original +wound; but after it had been made by one of the true vampires they +would lap the flowing blood and enlarge the wound. South America makes +up for its lack, relatively to Africa and India, of large man-eating +carnivores by the extraordinary ferocity or bloodthirstiness of +certain small creatures of which the kinsfolk elsewhere are harmless. +It is only here that fish no bigger than trout kill swimmers, and bats +the size of the ordinary "flittermice" of the northern hemisphere +drain the life-blood of big beasts and of man himself. + +There was not much large mammalian life in the neighborhood. Kermit +hunted industriously and brought in an occasional armadillo, coati, or +agouti for the naturalists. Miller trapped rats and a queer opossum +new to the collection. Cherrie got many birds. Cherrie and Miller +skinned their specimens in a little open hut or shed. Moses, the small +pet owl, sat on a cross-bar overhead, an interested spectator, and +chuckled whenever he was petted. Two wrens, who bred just outside the +hut, were much excited by the presence of Moses, and paid him visits +of noisy unfriendliness. The little white-throated sparrows came +familiarly about the palm cabins and whitewashed houses and trilled on +the rooftrees. It was a simple song, with just a hint of our northern +white-throat's sweet and plaintive melody, and of the opening bars of +our song-sparrow's pleasant, homely lay. It brought back dear memories +of glorious April mornings on Long Island, when through the singing of +robin and song-sparrow comes the piercing cadence of the meadowlark; +and of the far northland woods in June, fragrant with the breath of +pine and balsam-fir, where sweetheart sparrows sing from wet spruce +thickets and rapid brooks rush under the drenched and swaying alder- +boughs. + +From Tapirapoan our course lay northward up to and across the Plan +Alto, the highland wilderness of Brazil. From the edges of this +highland country, which is geologically very ancient, the affluents of +the Amazon to the north, and of the Plate to the south, flow, with +immense and devious loops and windings. + +Two days before we ourselves started with our mule-train, a train of +pack-oxen left, loaded with provisions, tools, and other things, which +we would not need until, after a month or six weeks, we began our +descent into the valley of the Amazon. There were about seventy oxen. +Most of them were well broken, but there were about a score which were +either not broken at all or else very badly broken. These were loaded +with much difficulty, and bucked like wild broncos. Again and again +they scattered their loads over the corral and over the first part of +the road. The pack-men, however--copper-colored, black, and dusky- +white--were not only masters of their art, but possessed tempers that +could not be ruffled; when they showed severity it was because +severity was needed, and not because they were angry. They finally got +all their longhorned beasts loaded and started on the trail with them. + +On January 21 we ourselves started, with the mule-train. Of course, as +always in such a journey, there was some confusion before the men and +the animals of the train settled down to the routine performance of +duty. In addition to the pack-animals we all had riding-mules. The +first day we journeyed about twelve miles, then crossing the Sepotuba +and camping beside it, below a series of falls, or rather rapids. The +country was level. It was a great natural pasture, covered with a very +open forest of low, twisted trees, bearing a superficial likeness to +the cross-timbers of Texas and Oklahoma. It is as well fitted for +stock-raising as Oklahoma; and there is also much fine agricultural +land, while the river will ultimately yield electric power. It is a +fine country for settlement. The heat is great at noon; but the nights +are not uncomfortable. We were supposed to be in the middle of the +rainy season, but hitherto most of the days had been fine, varied with +showers. The astonishing thing was the absence of mosquitoes. Insect +pests that work by day can be stood, and especially by settlers, +because they are far less serious foes in the clearings than in the +woods. The mosquitoes and other night foes offer the really serious +and unpleasant problem, because they break one's rest. Hitherto, +during our travels up the Paraguay and its tributaries, in this level, +marshy tropical region of western Brazil, we had practically not been +bothered by mosquitoes at all, in our home camps. Out in the woods +they were at times a serious nuisance, and Cherrie and Miller had been +subjected to real torment by them during some of their special +expeditions; but there were practically none on the ranches and in our +camps in the open fields by the river, even when marshes were close +by. I was puzzled--and delighted--by their absence. Settlers need not +be deterred from coming to this region by the fear of insect foes. + +This does not mean that there are not such foes. Outside of the +clearings, and of the beaten tracks of travel, they teem. There are +ticks, poisonous ants, wasps--of which some species are really serious +menaces--biting flies and gnats. I merely mean that, unlike so many +other tropical regions, this particular region is, from the standpoint +of the settler and the ordinary traveller, relatively free from insect +pests, and a pleasant place of residence. The original explorer, and +to an only less degree the hardworking field naturalist or big-game +hunter, have to face these pests, just as they have to face countless +risks, hardships, and difficulties. This is inherent in their several +professions or avocations. Many regions in the United States where +life is now absolutely comfortable and easygoing offered most +formidable problems to the first explorers a century or two ago. We +must not fall into the foolish error of thinking that the first +explorers need not suffer terrible hardships, merely because the +ordinary travellers, and even the settlers who come after them, do not +have to endure such danger, privation, and wearing fatigue--although +the first among the genuine settlers also have to undergo exceedingly +trying experiences. The early explorers and adventurers make fairly +well-beaten trails; but it is incumbent on them neither to boast of +their own experiences nor to misjudge the efforts of the pioneers +because, thanks to these very efforts, their own lines fall in +pleasant places. The ordinary traveller, who never goes off the beaten +route and who on this beaten route is carried by others, without +himself doing anything or risking anything, does not need to show much +more initiative and intelligence than an express package. He does +nothing; others do all the work, show all the forethought, take all +the risk--and are entitled to all the credit. He and his valise are +carried in practically the same fashion; and for each the achievement +stands about on the same plane. If this kind of traveller is a writer, +he can of course do admirable work, work of the highest value; but the +value comes because he is a writer and observer, not because of any +particular credit that attaches to him as a traveller. We all +recognize this truth as far as highly civilized regions are concerned: +when Bryce writes of the American commonwealth, or Lowell of European +legislative assemblies, our admiration is for the insight and thought +of the observer, and we are not concerned with his travels. When a man +travels across Arizona in a Pullman car, we do not think of him as +having performed a feat bearing even the most remote resemblance to +the feats of the first explorers of those waterless wastes; whatever +admiration we feel in connection with his trip is reserved for the +traffic-superintendent, engineer, fireman, and brakeman. But as +regards the less-known continents, such as South America, we sometimes +fail to remember these obvious truths. There yet remains plenty of +exploring work to be done in South America, as hard, as dangerous, and +almost as important as any that has already been done; work such as +has recently been done, or is now being done, by men and women such as +Haseman, Farrabee, and Miss Snethlage. The collecting naturalists who +go into the wilds and do first-class work encounter every kind of risk +and undergo every kind of hardship and exertion. Explorers and +naturalists of the right type have open to them in South America a +field of extraordinary attraction and difficulty. But to excavate +ruins that have already long been known, to visit out-of-the-way towns +that date from colonial days, to traverse old, even if uncomfortable, +routes of travel, or to ascend or descend highway rivers like the +Amazon, the Paraguay, and the lower Orinoco--all of these exploits are +well worth performing, but they in no sense represent exploration or +adventure, and they do not entitle the performer, no matter how well +he writes and no matter how much of real value he contributes to human +knowledge, to compare himself in anyway with the real wilderness +wanderer, or to criticise the latter. Such a performance entails no +hardship or difficulty worth heeding. Its value depends purely on +observation, not on action. The man does little; he merely records +what he sees. He is only the man of the beaten routes. The true +wilderness wanderer, on the contrary, must be a man of action as well +as of observation. He must have the heart and the body to do and to +endure, no less than the eye to see and the brain to note and record. + +Let me make it clear that I am not depreciating the excellent work of +so many of the men who have not gone off the beaten trails. I merely +wish to make it plain that this excellent work must not be put in the +class with that of the wilderness explorer. It is excellent work, +nevertheless, and has its place, just as the work of the true explorer +has its place. Both stand in sharpest contrast with the actions of +those alleged explorers, among whom Mr. Savage Landor stands in +unpleasant prominence. + +From the Sepotuba rapids our course at the outset lay westward. The +first day's march away from the river lay through dense tropical +forest. Away from the broad, beaten route every step of a man's +progress represented slashing a trail with the machete through the +tangle of bushes, low trees, thorny scrub, and interlaced creepers. +There were palms of new kinds, very tall, slender, straight, and +graceful, with rather short and few fronds. The wild plantains, or +pacovas, thronged the spaces among the trunks of the tall trees; their +boles were short, and their broad, erect leaves gigantic; they bore +brilliant red-and-orange flowers. There were trees whose trunks +bellied into huge swellings. There were towering trees with buttressed +trunks, whose leaves made a fretwork against the sky far overhead. +Gorgeous red-and-green trogons, with long tails, perched motionless on +the lower branches and uttered a loud, thrice-repeated whistle. We +heard the calling of the false bellbird, which is gray instead of +white like the true bellbirds; it keeps among the very topmost +branches. Heavy rain fell shortly after we reached our camping-place. + +Next morning at sunrise we climbed a steep slope to the edge of the +Parecis plateau, at a level of about two thousand feet above the sea. +We were on the Plan Alto, the high central plain of Brazil, the +healthy land of dry air, of cool nights, of clear, running brooks. The +sun was directly behind us when we topped the rise. Reining in, we +looked back over the vast Paraguayan marshes, shimmering in the long +morning lights. Then, turning again, we rode forward, casting shadows +far before us. It was twenty miles to the next water, and in hot +weather the journey across this waterless, shadeless, sandy stretch of +country is hard on the mules and oxen. But on this day the sky +speedily grew overcast and a cool wind blew in our faces as we +travelled at a quick, running walk over the immense rolling plain. The +ground was sandy; it was covered with grass and with a sparse growth +of stunted, twisted trees, never more than a few feet high. There were +rheas--ostriches--and small pampas-deer on this plain; the coloration +of the rheas made it difficult to see them at a distance, whereas the +bright red coats of the little deer, and their uplifted flags as they +ran, advertised them afar off. We also saw the footprints of cougars +and of the small-toothed, big, red wolf. Cougars are the most +inveterate enemies of these small South American deer, both those of +the open grassy plain and those of the forest. + +It is not nearly as easy to get lost on these open plains as in the +dense forest; and where there is a long, reasonably straight road or +river to come back to, a man even without a compass is safe. But in +these thick South American forests, especially on cloudy days, a +compass is an absolute necessity. We were struck by the fact that the +native hunters and ranchmen on such days continually lost themselves +and, if permitted, travelled for miles through the forest either in +circles or in exactly the wrong direction. They had no such sense of +direction as the forest-dwelling 'Ndorobo hunters in Africa had, or as +the true forest-dwelling Indians of South America are said to have. On +certainly half a dozen occasions our guides went completely astray, +and we had to take command, to disregard their assertions, and to lead +the way aright by sole reliance on our compasses. + +On this cool day we travelled well. The air was wonderful; the vast +open spaces gave a sense of abounding vigor and freedom. Early in the +afternoon we reached a station made by Colonel Rondon in the course of +his first explorations. There were several houses with whitewashed +walls, stone floors, and tiled or thatched roofs. They stood in a +wide, gently sloping valley. Through it ran a rapid brook of cool +water, in which we enjoyed delightful baths. The heavy, intensely +humid atmosphere of the low, marshy plains had gone; the air was clear +and fresh; the sky was brilliant; far and wide we looked over a +landscape that seemed limitless; the breeze that blew in our faces +might have come from our own northern plains. The midday sun was very +hot; but it was hard to realize that we were in the torrid zone. There +were no mosquitoes, so that we never put up our nets when we went to +bed; but wrapped ourselves in our blankets and slept soundly through +the cool, pleasant nights. Surely in the future this region will be +the home of a healthy highly civilized population. It is good for +cattle-raising, and the valleys are fitted for agriculture. From June +to September the nights are often really cold. Any sound northern race +could live here; and in such a land, with such a climate, there would +be much joy of living. + +On these plains the Telegraphic Commission uses motor-trucks; and +these now to relieve the mules and oxen; for some of them, especially +among the oxen, already showed the effects of the strain. Travelling +in a wild country with a pack-train is not easy on the pack-animals. +It was strange to see these big motor-vans out in the wilderness where +there was not a settler, not a civilized man except the employees of +the Telegraphic Commission. They were handled by Lieutenant Lauriado, +who, with Lieutenant Mello, had taken special charge of our transport +service; both were exceptionally good and competent men. + +The following day we again rode on across the Plan Alto. In the early +afternoon, in the midst of a downpour of rain, we crossed the divide +between the basins of the Paraguay and the Amazon. That evening we +camped on a brook whose waters ultimately ran into the Tapajos. The +rain fell throughout the afternoon, now lightly, now heavily, and the +mule-train did not get up until dark. But enough tents and flies were +pitched to shelter all of us. Fires were lit, and--after a fourteen +hours' fast we feasted royally on beans and rice and pork and beef, +seated around ox-skins spread upon the ground. The sky cleared; the +stars blazed down through the cool night; and wrapped in our blankets +we slept soundly, warm and comfortable. + +Next morning the trail had turned, and our course led northward and at +times east of north. We traversed the same high, rolling plains of +coarse grass and stunted trees. Kermit, riding a big, iron-mouthed, +bull-headed white mule, rode off to one side on a hunt, and rejoined +the line of march carrying two bucks of the little pampas-deer, or +field deer, behind his saddle. These deer are very pretty and +graceful, with a tail like that of the Colombian blacktail. Standing +motionless facing one, in the sparse scrub, they are hard to make out; +if seen sideways the reddish of their coats, contrasted with the +greens and grays of the landscape, betrays them; and when they bound +off the upraised white tail is very conspicuous. They carefully avoid +the woods in which their cousins the little bush deer are found, and +go singly or in couples. Their odor can be made out at quite a +distance, but it is not rank. They still carried their antlers. Their +venison was delicious. + +We came across many queer insects. One red grasshopper when it flew +seemed as big as a small sparrow; and we passed in some places such +multitudes of active little green grasshoppers that they frightened +the mules. At our camping-place we saw an extraordinary colony of +spiders. It was among some dwarf trees, standing a few yards apart +from one another by the water. When we reached the camping-place, +early in the afternoon--the pack-train did not get in until nearly +sunset, just ahead of the rain--no spiders were out. They were under +the leaves of the trees. Their webs were tenantless, and indeed for +the most part were broken down. But at dusk they came out from their +hiding-places, two or three hundred of them in all, and at once began +to repair the old and spin new webs. Each spun its own circular web, +and sat in the middle; and each web was connected on several sides +with other webs, while those nearest the trees were hung to them by +spun ropes, so to speak. The result was a kind of sheet of web +consisting of scores of wheels, in each of which the owner and +proprietor sat; and there were half a dozen such sheets, each +extending between two trees. The webs could hardly be seen; and the +effect was of scores of big, formidable-looking spiders poised in +midair, equidistant from one another, between each pair of trees. When +darkness and rain fell they were still out, fixing their webs, and +pouncing on the occasional insects that blundered into the webs. I +have no question that they are nocturnal; they certainly hide in the +daytime, and it seems impossible that they can come out only for a few +minutes at dusk. + +In the evenings, after supper or dinner--it is hard to tell by what +title the exceedingly movable evening meal should be called--the +members of the party sometimes told stories of incidents in their past +lives. Most of them were men of varied experiences. Rondon and Lyra +told of the hardship and suffering of the first trips through the +wilderness across which we were going with such comfort. On this very +plateau they had once lived for weeks on the fruits of the various +fruit-bearing trees. Naturally they became emaciated and feeble. In +the forests of the Amazonian basin they did better because they often +shot birds and plundered the hives of the wild honey-bees. In cutting +the trail for the telegraph-line through the Juruena basin they lost +every single one of the hundred and sixty mules with which they had +started. Those men pay dear who build the first foundations of empire! +Fiala told of the long polar nights and of white bears that came round +the snow huts of the explorers, greedy to eat them, and themselves +destined to be eaten by them. Of all the party Cherrie's experiences +had covered the widest range. This was partly owing to the fact that +the latter-day naturalist of the most vigorous type who goes into the +untrodden wastes of the world must see and do many strange things; and +still more owing to the character of the man himself. The things he +had seen and done and undergone often enabled him to cast the light of +his own past experience on unexpected subjects. Once we were talking +about the proper weapons for cavalry, and some one mentioned the +theory that the lance is especially formidable because of the moral +effect it produces on the enemy. Cherrie nodded emphatically; and a +little cross-examination elicited the fact that he was speaking from +lively personal recollection of his own feelings when charged by +lancers. It was while he was fighting with the Venezuelan insurgents +in an unsuccessful uprising against the tyranny of Castro. He was on +foot, with five Venezuelans, all cool men and good shots. In an open +plain they were charged by twenty of Castro's lancers, who galloped +out from behind cover two or three hundred yards off. It was a war in +which neither side gave quarter and in which the wounded and the +prisoners were butchered--just as President Madero was butchered in +Mexico. Cherrie knew that it meant death for him and his companions if +the charge came home; and the sight of the horsemen running in at full +speed, with their long lances in rest and the blades glittering, left +an indelible impression on his mind. But he and his companions shot +deliberately and accurately; ten of the lancers were killed, the +nearest falling within fifty yards; and the others rode off in +headlong haste. A cool man with a rifle, if he has mastered his +weapon, need fear no foe. + +At this camp the auto-vans again joined us. They were to go direct to +the first telegraph station, at the great falls of the Utiarity, on +the Rio Papagaio. Of course they travelled faster than the mule-train. +Father Zahm, attended by Sigg, started for the falls in them. Cherrie +and Miller also went in them, because they had found that it was very +difficult to collect birds, and especially mammals, when we were +moving every day, packing up early each morning and the mule-train +arriving late in the afternoon or not until nightfall. Moreover, there +was much rain, which made it difficult to work except under the tents. +Accordingly, the two naturalists desired to get to a place where they +could spend several days and collect steadily, thereby doing more +effective work. The rest of us continued with the mule-train, as was +necessary. + +It was always a picturesque sight when camp was broken, and again at +nightfall when the laden mules came stringing in and their burdens +were thrown down, while the tents were pitched and the fires lit. We +breakfasted before leaving camp, the aluminum cups and plates being +placed on ox-hides, round which we sat, on the ground or on camp- +stools. We fared well, on rice, beans, and crackers, with canned +corned beef, and salmon or any game that had been shot, and coffee, +tea, and matte. I then usually sat down somewhere to write, and when +the mules were nearly ready I popped my writing-materials into my +duffel-bag/war-sack, as we would have called it in the old days on the +plains. I found that the mules usually arrived so late in the +afternoon or evening that I could not depend upon being able to write +at that time. Of course, if we made a very early start I could not +write at all. At night there were no mosquitoes. In the daytime gnats +and sand-flies and horse-flies sometimes bothered us a little, but not +much. Small stingless bees lit on us in numbers and crawled over the +skin, making a slight tickling; but we did not mind them until they +became very numerous. There was a good deal of rain, but not enough to +cause any serious annoyance. + +Colonel Rondon and Lieutenant Lyra held many discussions as to whither +the Rio da Duvida flowed, and where its mouth might be. Its +provisional name--"River of Doubt"--was given it precisely because of +this ignorance concerning it; an ignorance which it was one of the +purposes of our trip to dispel. It might go into the Gy-Parana, in +which case its course must be very short; it might flow into the +Madeira low down, in which case its course would be very long; or, +which was unlikely, it might flow into the Tapajos. There was another +river, of which Colonel Rondon had come across the head-waters, whose +course was equally doubtful, although in its case there was rather +more probability of its flowing into the Juruena, by which name the +Tapajos is known for its upper half. To this unknown river Colonel +Rondon had given the name Ananas, because when he came across it he +found a deserted Indian field with pineapples, which the hungry +explorers ate greedily. Among the things the colonel and I hoped to +accomplish on the trip was to do a little work in clearing up one or +the other of these two doubtful geographical points, and thereby to +push a little forward the knowledge of this region. Originally, as +described in the first chapter, my trip was undertaken primarily in +the interest of the American Museum of Natural History of New York, to +add to our knowledge of the birds and mammals of the far interior of +the western Brazilian wilderness; and the labels of our baggage and +scientific equipment, printed by the museum, were entitled "Colonel +Roosevelt's South American Expedition for the American Museum of +Natural History." But, as I have already mentioned, at Rio the +Brazilian Government, through the secretary of foreign affairs, Doctor +Lauro Muller, suggested that I should combine the expedition with one +by Colonel Rondon, which they contemplated making, and thereby make +both expeditions of broader scientific interest. I accepted the +proposal with much pleasure; and we found, when we joined Colonel +Rondon and his associates, that their baggage and equipment had been +labelled by the Brazilian Government "Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt- +Rondon." This thenceforth became the proper and official title of the +expedition. Cherrie and Miller did the chief zoological work. The +geological work was done by a Brazilian member of the expedition, +Euzebio Oliveira. The astronomical work necessary for obtaining the +exact geographical location of the rivers and points of note was to be +done by Lieutenant Lyra, under the supervision of Colonel Rondon; and +at the telegraph stations this astronomical work would be checked by +wire communications with one of Colonel Rondon's assistants at Cuyaba, +Lieutenant Caetano, thereby securing a minutely accurate comparison of +time. The sketch-maps and surveying and cartographical work generally +were to be made under the supervision of Colonel Rondon by Lyra, with +assistance from Fiala and Kermit. Captain Amilcar handled the worst +problem--transportation; the medical member was Doctor Cajazeira. + +At night around the camp-fire my Brazilian companions often spoke of +the first explorers of this vast wilderness of western Brazil--men +whose very names are now hardly known, but who did each his part in +opening the country which will some day see such growth and +development. Among the most notable of them was a Portuguese, Ricardo +Franco, who spent forty years at the work, during the last quarter of +the eighteenth and the opening years of the nineteenth centuries. He +ascended for long distances the Xingu and the Tapajos, and went up the +Madeira and Guapore, crossing to the head-waters of the Paraguay and +partially exploring there also. He worked among and with the Indians, +much as Mungo Park worked with the natives of West Africa, having none +of the aids, instruments, and comforts with which even the hardiest of +modern explorers are provided. He was one of the men who established +the beginnings of the province of Matto Grosso. For many years the +sole method of communication between this remote interior province and +civilization was by the long, difficult, and perilous route which led +up the Amazon and Madeira; and its then capital, the town of Matto +Grosso, the seat of the captain-general, with its palace, cathedral, +and fortress, was accordingly placed far to the west, near the +Guapore. When less circuitous lines of communication were established +farther eastward the old capital was abandoned, and the tropic +wilderness surged over the lonely little town. The tomb of the old +colonial explorer still stands in the ruined cathedral, where the +forest has once more come to its own. But civilization is again +advancing to reclaim the lost town and to revive the memory of the +wilderness wanderer who helped to found it. Colonel Rondon has named a +river after Franco; a range of mountains has also been named after +him; and the colonel, acting for the Brazilian Government, has +established a telegraph station in what was once the palace of the +captain-general. + +Our northward trail led along the high ground a league or two to the +east of the northward-flowing Rio Sacre. Each night we camped on one +of the small tributary brooks that fed it. Fiala, Kermit, and I +occupied one tent. In the daytime the "pium" flies, vicious little +sand-flies, became bad enough to make us finally use gloves and head- +nets. There were many heavy rains, which made the travelling hard for +the mules. The soil was more often clay than sand, and it was slippery +when wet. The weather was overcast, and there was usually no +oppressive heat even at noon. At intervals along the trail we came on +the staring skull and bleached skeleton of a mule or ox. Day after day +we rode forward across endless flats of grass and of low open scrubby +forest, the trees standing far apart and in most places being but +little higher than the head of a horseman. Some of them carried +blossoms, white, orange, yellow, pink; and there were many flowers, +the most beautiful being the morning-glories. Among the trees were +bastard rubber-trees, and dwarf palmetto; if the latter grew more than +a few feet high their tops were torn and dishevelled by the wind. +There was very little bird or mammal life; there were few long vistas, +for in most places it was not possible to see far among the gray, +gnarled trunks of the wind-beaten little trees. Yet the desolate +landscape had a certain charm of its own, although not a charm that +would be felt by any man who does not take pleasure in mere space, and +freedom and wildness, and in plains standing empty to the sun, the +wind, and the rain. The country bore some resemblance to the country +west of Redjaf on the White Nile, the home of the giant eland; only +here there was no big game, no chance of seeing the towering form of +the giraffe, the black bulk of elephant or buffalo, the herds of +straw-colored hartebeests, or the ghostly shimmer of the sun glinting +on the coats of roan and eland as they vanished silently in the gray +sea of withered scrub. + +One feature in common with the African landscape was the abundance of +ant-hills, some as high as a man. They were red in the clay country, +gray where it was sandy; and the dirt houses were also in trees, while +their raised tunnels traversed trees and ground alike. At some of the +camping-places we had to be on our watch against the swarms of leaf- +carrying ants. These are so called in the books--the Brazilians call +them "carregadores," or porters--because they are always carrying bits +of leaves and blades of grass to their underground homes. They are +inveterate burden-bearers, and they industriously cut into pieces and +carry off any garment they can get at; and we had to guard our shoes +and clothes from them, just as we had often had to guard all our +belongings against the termites. These ants did not bite us; but we +encountered huge black ants, an inch and a quarter long, which were +very vicious, and their bite was not only painful but quite poisonous. +Praying-mantes were common, and one evening at supper one had a +comical encounter with a young dog, a jovial near-puppy, of Colonel +Rondon's, named Cartucho. He had been christened the jolly-cum-pup, +from a character in one of Frank Stockton's stories, which I suppose +are now remembered only by elderly people, and by them only if they +are natives of the United States. Cartucho was lying with his head on +the ox-hide that served as table, waiting with poorly dissembled +impatience for his share of the banquet. The mantis flew down on the +ox-hide and proceeded to crawl over it, taking little flights from one +corner to another; and whenever it thought itself menaced it assumed +an attitude of seeming devotion and real defiance. Soon it lit in +front of Cartucho's nose. Cartucho cocked his big ears forward, +stretched his neck, and cautiously sniffed at the new arrival, not +with any hostile design, but merely to find out whether it would prove +to be a playmate. The mantis promptly assumed an attitude of prayer. +This struck Cartucho as both novel and interesting, and he thrust his +sniffing black nose still nearer. The mantis dexterously thrust +forward first one and then the other armed fore leg, touching the +intrusive nose, which was instantly jerked back and again slowly and +inquiringly brought forward. Then the mantis suddenly flew in +Cartucho's face, whereupon Cartucho, with a smothered yelp of dismay, +almost turned a back somersault; and the triumphant mantis flew back +to the middle of the ox-hide, among the plates, where it reared erect +and defied the laughing and applauding company. + +On the morning of the 29th we were rather late in starting, because +the rain had continued through the night into the morning, drenching +everything. After nightfall there had been some mosquitoes, and the +piums were a pest during daylight; where one bites it leaves a tiny +black spot on the skin which lasts for several weeks. In the slippery +mud one of the pack-mules fell and injured itself so that it had to be +abandoned. Soon after starting we came on the telegraph-line, which +runs from Cuyaba. This was the first time we had seen it. Two Parecis +Indians joined us, leading a pack-bullock. They were dressed in hat, +shirt, trousers, and sandals, precisely like the ordinary Brazilian +caboclos, as the poor backwoods peasants, usually with little white +blood in them, are colloquially and half-derisively styled--caboclo +being originally a Guarany word meaning "naked savage." These two +Indians were in the employ of the Telegraphic Commission, and had been +patrolling the telegraph-line. The bullock carried their personal +belongings and the tools with which they could repair a break. The +commission pays the ordinary Indian worker 66 cents a day; a very good +worker gets $1, and the chief $1.66. No man gets anything unless he +works. Colonel Rondon, by just, kindly, and understanding treatment of +these Indians, who previously had often been exploited and maltreated +by rubber-gatherers, has made them the loyal friends of the +government. He has gathered them at the telegraph stations, where they +cultivate fields of mandioc, beans, potatoes, maize, and other +vegetables, and where he is introducing them to stock-raising; and the +entire work of guarding and patrolling the line is theirs. + +After six hours' march we came to the crossing of the Rio Sacre at the +beautiful waterfall appropriately called the Salto Bello. This is the +end of the automobile road. Here there is a small Parecis village. The +men of the village work the ferry by which everything is taken across +the deep and rapid river. The ferry-boat is made of planking placed on +three dugout canoes, and runs on a trolley. Before crossing we enjoyed +a good swim in the swift, clear, cool water. The Indian village, where +we camped, is placed on a jutting tongue of land round which the river +sweeps just before it leaps from the over-hanging precipice. The falls +themselves are very lovely. Just above them is a wooded island, but +the river joins again before it races forward for the final plunge. +There is a sheer drop of forty or fifty yards, with a breadth two or +three times as great; and the volume of water is large. On the left or +hither bank a cliff extends for several hundred yards below the falls. +Green vines have flung themselves down over its face, and they are met +by other vines thrusting upward from the mass of vegetation at its +foot, glistening in the perpetual mist from the cataract, and clothing +even the rock surfaces in vivid green. The river, after throwing +itself over the rock wall, rushes off in long curves at the bottom of +a thickly wooded ravine, the white water churning among the black +boulders. There is a perpetual rainbow at the foot of the falls. The +masses of green water that are hurling themselves over the brink +dissolve into shifting, foaming columns of snowy lace. + +On the edge of the cliff below the falls Colonel Rondon had placed +benches, giving a curious touch of rather conventional tourist- +civilization to this cataract far out in the lonely wilderness. It is +well worth visiting for its beauty. It is also of extreme interest +because of the promise it holds for the future. Lieutenant Lyra +informed me that they had calculated that this fall would furnish +thirty-six thousand horse-power. Eight miles off we were to see +another fall of much greater height and power. There are many rivers +in this region which would furnish almost unlimited motive force to +populous manufacturing communities. The country round about is +healthy. It is an upland region of good climate; we were visiting it +in the rainy season, the season when the nights are far less cool than +in the dry season, and yet we found it delightful. There is much +fertile soil in the neighborhood of the streams, and the teeming +lowlands of the Amazon and the Paraguay could readily--and with +immense advantage to both sides--be made tributary to an industrial +civilization seated on these highlands. A telegraph-line has been +built to and across them. A rail-road should follow. Such a line could +be easily built, for there are no serious natural obstacles. In +advance of its construction a trolley-line could be run from Cuyaba to +the falls, using the power furnished by the latter. Once this is done +the land will offer extraordinary opportunities to settlers of the +right kind: to home-makers and to enterprising business men of +foresight, coolness, and sagacity who are willing to work with the +settlers, the immigrants, the home-makers, for an advantage which +shall be mutual. + +The Parecis Indians, whom we met here, were exceedingly interesting. +They were to all appearance an unusually cheerful, good-humored, +pleasant-natured people. Their teeth were bad; otherwise they appeared +strong and vigorous, and there were plenty of children. The colonel +was received as a valued friend and as a leader who was to be followed +and obeyed. He is raising them by degrees--the only way by which to +make the rise permanent. In this village he has got them to substitute +for the flimsy Indian cabins houses of the type usual among the poorer +field laborers and back-country dwellers in Brazil. These houses have +roofs of palm thatch, steeply pitched. They are usually open at the +sides, consisting merely of a framework of timbers, with a wall at the +back; but some have the ordinary four walls, of erect palm-logs. The +hammocks are slung in the houses, and the cooking is also done in +them, with pots placed on small open fires, or occasionally in a kind +of clay oven. The big gourds for water, and the wicker baskets, are +placed on the ground, or hung on the poles. + +The men had adopted, and were wearing, shirts and trousers, but the +women had made little change in their clothing. A few wore print +dresses, but obviously only for ornament. Most of them, especially the +girls and young married women, wore nothing but a loin-cloth in +addition to bead necklaces and bracelets. The nursing mothers--and +almost all the mothers were nursing--sometimes carried the child slung +against their side of hip, seated in a cloth belt, or sling, which +went over the opposite shoulder of the mother. The women seemed to be +well treated, although polygamy is practised. The children were loved +by every one; they were petted by both men and women, and they behaved +well to one another, the boys not seeming to bully the girls or the +smaller boys. Most of the children were naked, but the girls early +wore the loin-cloth; and some, both of the little boys and the little +girls, wore colored print garments, to the evident pride of themselves +and their parents. In each house there were several families, and life +went on with no privacy but with good humor, consideration, and +fundamentally good manners. The man or woman who had nothing to do lay +in a hammock or squatted on the ground leaning against a post or wall. +The children played together, or lay in little hammocks, or tagged +round after their mothers; and when called they came trustfully up to +us to be petted or given some small trinket; they were friendly little +souls, and accustomed to good treatment. One woman was weaving a +cloth, another was making a hammock; others made ready melons and +other vegetables and cooked them over tiny fires. The men, who had +come in from work at the ferry or along the telegraph-lines, did some +work themselves, or played with the children; one cut a small boy's +hair, and then had his own hair cut by a friend. But the absorbing +amusement of the men was an extraordinary game of ball. + +In our family we have always relished Oliver Herford's nonsense +rhymes, including the account of Willie's displeasure with his goat: + + "I do not like my billy goat, + I wish that he was dead; + Because he kicked me, so he did, + He kicked me with his head." + +Well, these Parecis Indians enthusiastically play football with their +heads. The game is not only native to them, but I have never heard or +read of its being played by any other tribe or people. They use a +light hollow rubber ball, of their own manufacture. It is circular and +about eight inches in diameter. The players are divided into two +sides, and stationed much as in association football, and the ball is +placed on the ground to be put in play as in football. Then a player +runs forward, throws himself flat on the ground, and butts the ball +toward the opposite side. This first butt, when the ball is on the +ground, never lifts it much and it rolls and bounds toward the +opponents. One or two of the latter run toward it; one throws himself +flat on his face and butts the ball back. Usually this butt lifts it, +and it flies back in a curve well up in the air; and an opposite +player, rushing toward it, catches it on his head with such a swing of +his brawny neck, and such precision and address that the ball bounds +back through the air as a football soars after a drop-kick. If the +ball flies off to one side or the other it is brought back, and again +put in play. Often it will be sent to and fro a dozen times, from head +to head, until finally it rises with such a sweep that it passes far +over the heads of the opposite players and descends behind them. Then +shrill, rolling cries of good-humored triumph arise from the victors; +and the game instantly begins again with fresh zest. There are, of +course, no such rules as in a specialized ball-game of civilization; +and I saw no disputes. There may be eight or ten, or many more, +players on each side. The ball is never touched with the hands or +feet, or with anything except the top of the head. It is hard to decide +whether to wonder most at the dexterity and strength with which it is +hit or butted with the head, as it comes down through the air, or at +the reckless speed and skill with which the players throw themselves +headlong on the ground to return the ball if it comes low down. Why +they do not grind off their noses I cannot imagine. Some of the +players hardly ever failed to catch and return the ball if it came in +their neighborhood, and with such a vigorous toss of the head that it +often flew in a great curve for a really astonishing distance. + +That night a pack-ox got into the tent in which Kermit and I were +sleeping, entering first at one end and then at the other. It is +extraordinary that he did not waken us; but we slept undisturbed while +the ox deliberately ate our shirts, socks, and underclothes! It chewed +them into rags. One of my socks escaped, and my undershirt, although +chewed full of holes, was still good for some weeks' wear; but the +other things were in fragments. + +In the morning Colonel Rondon arranged for us to have breakfast over +on the benches under the trees by the waterfall, whose roar, lulled to +a thunderous murmur, had been in our ears before we slept and when we +waked. There could have been no more picturesque place for the +breakfast of such a party as ours. All travellers who really care to +see what is most beautiful and most characteristic of the far interior +of South America should in their journey visit this region, and see +the two great waterfalls. They are even now easy of access; and as +soon as the traffic warrants it they will be made still more so; then, +from Sao Luis Caceres, they will be speedily reached by light +steamboat up the Sepotuba and by a day or two's automobile ride, with +a couple of days on horse-back in between. + +The colonel held a very serious council with the Parecis Indians over +an incident which caused him grave concern. One of the commission's +employees, a negro, had killed a wild Nhambiquara Indian; but it +appeared that he had really been urged on and aided by the Parecis, as +the members of the tribe to which the dead Indian belonged were much +given to carrying off the Parecis women and in other ways making +themselves bad neighbors. The colonel tried hard to get at the truth +of the matter; he went to the biggest Indian house, where he sat in a +hammock--an Indian child cuddling solemnly up to him, by the way-- +while the Indians sat in other hammocks, and stood round about; but it +was impossible to get an absolutely frank statement. + +It appeared, however, that the Nhambiquaras had made a descent on the +Parecis village in the momentary absence of the men of the village; +but the latter, notified by the screaming of the women, had returned +in time to rescue them. The negro was with them and, having a good +rifle, he killed one of the aggressors. The Parecis were, of course, +in the right, but the colonel could not afford to have his men take +sides in a tribal quarrel. + +It was only a two hours' march across to the Papagaio at the Falls of +Utiarity, so named by their discoverer, Colonel Rondon, after the +sacred falcon of the Parecis. On the way we passed our Indian friends, +themselves bound thither; both the men and the women bore burdens--the +burdens of some of the women, poor things, were heavy--and even the +small naked children carried the live hens. At Utiarity there is a big +Parecis settlement and a telegraph station kept by one of the +employees of the commission. His pretty brown wife is acting as +schoolmistress to a group of little Parecis girls. The Parecis chief +has been made a major and wears a uniform accordingly. The commission +has erected good buildings for its own employees and has superintended +the erection of good houses for the Indians. Most of the latter still +prefer the simplicity of the loin-cloth, in their ordinary lives, but +they proudly wore their civilized clothes in our honor. When in the +late afternoon the men began to play a regular match game of head- +ball, with a scorer or umpire to keep count, they soon discarded most +of their clothes, coming down to nothing but trousers or a loin-cloth. +Two or three of them had their faces stained with red ochre. Among the +women and children looking on were a couple of little girls who +paraded about on stilts. + +The great waterfall was half a mile below us. Lovely though we had +found Salto Bello, these falls were far superior in beauty and +majesty. They are twice as high and twice as broad; and the lay of the +land is such that the various landscapes in which the waterfall is a +feature are more striking. A few hundred yards above the falls the +river turns at an angle and widens. The broad, rapid shallows are +crested with whitecaps. Beyond this wide expanse of flecked and +hurrying water rise the mist columns of the cataract; and as these +columns are swayed and broken by the wind the forest appears through +and between them. From below the view is one of singular grandeur. The +fall is over a shelving ledge of rock which goes in a nearly straight +line across the river's course. But at the left there is a salient in +the cliff-line, and here accordingly a great cataract of foaming water +comes down almost as a separate body, in advance of the line of the +main fall. I doubt whether, excepting, of course, Niagara, there is a +waterfall in North America which outranks this if both volume and +beauty are considered. Above the fall the river flows through a wide +valley with gently sloping sides. Below, it slips along, a torrent of +white-green water, at the bottom of a deep gorge; and the sides of the +gorge are clothed with a towering growth of tropical forest. + +Next morning the cacique of these Indians, in his major's uniform, +came to breakfast, and bore himself with entire propriety. It was +raining heavily--it rained most of the time--and a few minutes +previously I had noticed the cacique's two wives, with three or four +other young women, going out to the mandioc fields. It was a +picturesque group. The women were all mothers, and each carried a +nursing child. They wore loin-cloths or short skirts. Each carried on +her back a wickerwork basket supported by a head-strap which went +around her forehead. Each carried a belt slung diagonally across her +body, over her right shoulder; in this the child was carried, against +and perhaps astride of her left hip. They were comely women, who did +not look jaded or cowed; and they laughed cheerfully and nodded to us +as they passed through the rain, on their way to the fields. But the +contrast between them and the chief in his soldier's uniform seated at +breakfast was rather too striking; and incidentally it etched in bold +lines the folly of those who idealize the life of even exceptionally +good and pleasant-natured savages. + +Although it was the rainy season, the trip up to this point had not +been difficult, and from May to October, when the climate is dry and +at its best, there would be practically no hardship at all for +travellers and visitors. This is a healthy plateau. But, of course, +the men who do the first pioneering, even in country like this, +encounter dangers and run risks; and they make payment with their +bodies. At more than one halting-place we had come across the forlorn +grave of some soldier or laborer of the commission. The grave-mound +lay within a rude stockade; and an uninscribed wooden cross, gray and +weather-beaten, marked the last resting-place of the unknown and +forgotten man beneath, the man who had paid with his humble life the +cost of pushing the frontier of civilization into the wild savagery of +the wilderness. Farther west the conditions become less healthy. At +this station Colonel Rondon received news of sickness and of some +deaths among the employees of the commission in the country to the +westward, which we were soon to enter. Beriberi and malignant malarial +fever were the diseases which claimed the major number of the victims. + +Surely these are "the men who do the work for which they draw the +wage." Kermit had with him the same copy of Kipling's poems which he +had carried through Africa. At these falls there was one sunset of +angry splendor; and we contrasted this going down of the sun, through +broken rain-clouds and over leagues of wet tropical forest, with the +desert sunsets we had seen in Arizona and Sonora, and along the Guaso +Nyiro north and west of Mount Kenia, when the barren mountains were +changed into flaming "ramparts of slaughter and peril" standing above +"the wine-dark flats below." + +It rained during most of the day after our arrival at Utiarity. +Whenever there was any let-up the men promptly came forth from their +houses and played head-ball with the utmost vigor; and we would listen +to their shrill undulating cries of applause and triumph until we also +grew interested and strolled over to look on. They are more infatuated +with the game than an American boy is with baseball or football. It is +an extraordinary thing that this strange and exciting game should be +played by, and only by, one little tribe of Indians in what is almost +the very centre of South America. If any traveller or ethnologist +knows of a tribe elsewhere that plays a similar game, I wish he would +let me know. To play it demands great activity, vigor, skill, and +endurance. Looking at the strong, supple bodies of the players, and at +the number of children roundabout, it seemed as if the tribe must be +in vigorous health; yet the Parecis have decreased in numbers, for +measles and smallpox have been fatal to them. + +By the evening the rain was coming down more heavily than ever. It was +not possible to keep the moisture out of our belongings; everything +became mouldy except what became rusty. It rained all that night; and +day-light saw the downpour continuing with no prospect of cessation. +The pack-mules could not have gone on with the march; they were +already rather done up by their previous ten days' labor through rain +and mud, and it seemed advisable to wait until the weather became +better before attempting to go forward. Moreover, there had been no +chance to take the desired astronomical observations. There was very +little grass for the mules; but there was abundance of a small-leaved +plant eight or ten inches high--unfortunately, not very nourishing--on +which they fed greedily. In such weather and over such muddy trails +oxen travel better than mules. + +In spite of the weather Cherrie and Miller, whom, together with Father +Zahm and Sigg, we had found awaiting us, made good collections of +birds and mammals. Among the latter were opossums and mice that were +new to them. The birds included various forms so unlike our home birds +that the enumeration of their names would mean nothing. One of the +most interesting was a large black-and-white woodpecker, the white +predominating in the plumage. Several of these woodpeckers were +usually found together. They were showy, noisy, and restless, and +perched on twigs, in ordinary bird fashion, at least as often as they +clung to the trunks in orthodox woodpecker style. The prettiest bird +was a tiny manakin, coal-black, with a red-and-orange head. + +On February 2 the rain let up, although the sky remained overcast and +there were occasional showers. I walked off with my rifle for a couple +of leagues; at that distance, from a slight hillock, the mist columns +of the falls were conspicuous in the landscape. The only mammal I saw +on the walk was a rather hairy armadillo, with a flexible tail, which +I picked up and brought back to Miller--it showed none of the speed of +the nine-banded armadillos we met on our jaguar-hunt. Judging by its +actions, as it trotted about before it saw me, it must be diurnal in +habits. It was new to the collection. + +I spent much of the afternoon by the waterfall. Under the overcast sky +the great cataract lost the deep green and fleecy-white of the sunlit +falling waters. Instead it showed opaline hues and tints of topaz and +amethyst. At all times, and under all lights, it was majestic and +beautiful. + +Colonel Rondon had given the Indians various presents, those for the +women including calico prints, and, what they especially prized, +bottles of scented oil, from Paris, for their hair. The men held a +dance in the late afternoon. For this occasion most, but not all, of +them cast aside their civilized clothing, and appeared as doubtless +they would all have appeared had none but themselves been present. +They were absolutely naked except for a beaded string round the waist. +Most of them were spotted and dashed with red paint, and on one leg +wore anklets which rattled. A number carried pipes through which they +blew a kind of deep stifled whistle in time to the dancing. One of +them had his pipe leading into a huge gourd, which gave out a hollow, +moaning boom. Many wore two red or green or yellow macaw feathers in +their hair, and one had a macaw feather stuck transversely through the +septum of his nose. They circled slowly round and round, chanting and +stamping their feet, while the anklet rattles clattered and the pipes +droned. They advanced to the wall of one of the houses, again and +again chanting and bowing before it; I was told this was a demand for +drink. They entered one house and danced in a ring around the cooking- +fire in the middle of the earth floor; I was told that they were then +reciting the deeds of mighty hunters and describing how they brought +in the game. They drank freely from gourds and pannikins of a +fermented drink made from mandioc which were brought out to them. +During the first part of the dance the women remained in the houses, +and all the doors and windows were shut and blankets hung to prevent +the possibility of seeing out. But during the second part all the +women and girls came out and looked on. They were themselves to have +danced when the men had finished, but were overcome with shyness at +the thought of dancing with so many strangers looking on. The children +played about with unconcern throughout the ceremony, one of them +throwing high in the air, and again catching in his hands, a loaded +feather, a kind of shuttlecock. + +In the evening the growing moon shone through the cloud-rack. Anything +approaching fair weather always put our men in good spirits; and the +muleteers squatted in a circle, by a fire near a pile of packs, and +listened to a long monotonously and rather mournfully chanted song +about a dance and a love-affair. We ourselves worked busily with our +photographs and our writing. There was so much humidity in the air +that everything grew damp and stayed damp, and mould gathered quickly. +At this season it is a country in which writing, taking photographs, +and preparing specimens are all works of difficulty, at least so far +as concerns preserving and sending home the results of the labor; and +a man's clothing is never really dry. From here Father Zahm returned +to Tapirapoan, accompanied by Sigg. + + + + VII. WITH A MULE TRAIN ACROSS NHAMBIQUARA LAND + +From this point we were to enter a still wilder region, the land of +the naked Nhambiquaras. On February 3 the weather cleared and we +started with the mule-train and two ox-carts. Fiala and Lieutenant +Lauriado stayed at Utiarity to take canoes and go down the Papagaio, +which had not been descended by any scientific party, and perhaps by +no one. They were then to descend the Juruena and Tapajos, thereby +performing a necessary part of the work of the expedition. Our +remaining party consisted of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Lyra, the +doctor, Oliveira, Cherrie, Miller, Kermit, and myself. On the Juruena +we expected to meet the pack ox-train with Captain Amilcar and +Lieutenant Mello; the other Brazilian members of the party had +returned. We had now begun the difficult part of the expedition. The +pium flies were becoming a pest. There was much fever and beriberi in +the country we were entering. The feed for the animals was poor; the +rains had made the trails slippery and difficult; and many, both of +the mules and the oxen, were already weak, and some had to be +abandoned. We left the canoe, the motor, and the gasolene; we had +hoped to try them on the Amazonian rivers, but we were obliged to cut +down everything that was not absolutely indispensable. + +Before leaving we prepared for shipment back to the museum some of the +bigger skins, and also some of the weapons and utensils of the +Indians, which Kermit had collected. These included woven fillets, and +fillets made of macaw feathers, for use in the dances; woven belts; a +gourd in which the sacred drink is offered to the god Enoerey; +wickerwork baskets; flutes or pipes; anklet rattles; hammocks; a belt +of the kind used by the women in carrying the babies, with the +weaving-frame. All these were Parecis articles. He also secured from +the Nhambiquaras wickerwork baskets of a different type and bows and +arrows. The bows were seven feet long and the arrows five feet. There +were blunt-headed arrows for birds, arrows with long, sharp wooden +blades for tapir, deer, and other mammals; and the poisoned war- +arrows, with sharp barbs, poison-coated and bound on by fine thongs, +and with a long, hollow wooden guard to slip over the entire point and +protect it until the time came to use it. When people talk glibly of +"idle" savages they ignore the immense labor entailed by many of their +industries, and the really extraordinary amount of work they +accomplish by the skilful use of their primitive and ineffective +tools. + +It was not until early in the afternoon that we started into the +"sertao,"[*] as Brazilians call the wilderness. We drove with us a +herd of oxen for food. After going about fifteen miles we camped +beside the swampy headwaters of a little brook. It was at the spot +where nearly seven years previously Rondon and Lyra had camped on the +trip when they discovered Utiarity Falls and penetrated to the +Juruena. When they reached this place they had been thirty-six hours +without food. They killed a bush deer--a small deer--and ate literally +every particle. The dogs devoured the entire skin. For much of the +time on this trip they lived on wild fruit, and the two dogs that +remained alive would wait eagerly under the trees and eat the fruit +that was shaken down. + +[*] Pronounced "sairtown," as nearly as, with our preposterous methods + of spelling and pronunciation, I can render it. + +In the late afternoon the piums were rather bad at this camp, but we +had gloves and head-nets, and were not bothered; and although there +were some mosquitoes we slept well under our mosquito-nets. The frogs +in the swamp uttered a peculiar, loud shout. Miller told of a little +tree-frog in Colombia which swelled itself out with air until it +looked like the frog in Aesop's fables, and then brayed like a mule; +and Cherrie told of a huge frog in Guiana that uttered a short, loud +roar. + +Next day the weather was still fair. Our march lay through country +like that which we had been traversing for ten days. Skeletons of +mules and oxen were more frequent; and once or twice by the wayside we +passed the graves of officers or men who had died on the road. Barbed +wire encircled the desolate little mounds. We camped on the west bank +of the Burity River. Here there is a balsa, or ferry, run by two +Parecis Indians, as employees of the Telegraphic Commission, under the +colonel. Each had a thatched house, and each had two wives--all these +Indians are pagans. All were dressed much like the poorer peasants of +the Brazilian back country, and all were pleasant and well-behaved. +The women ran the ferry about as well as the men. They had no +cultivated fields, and for weeks they had been living only on game and +honey; and they hailed with joy our advent and the quantities of beans +and rice which, together with some beef, the colonel left with them. +They feasted most of the night. Their houses contained their hammocks, +baskets, and other belongings, and they owned some poultry. In one +house was a tiny parakeet, very much at home, and familiar, but by no +means friendly, with strangers. There are wild Nhambiquaras in the +neighborhood, and recently several of these had menaced the two +ferrymen with an attack, even shooting arrows at them. The ferrymen +had driven them off by firing their rifles in the air; and they +expected and received the colonel's praise for their self-restraint; +for the colonel is doing all he can to persuade the Indians to stop +their blood feuds. The rifles were short and light Winchester +carbines, of the kind so universally used by the rubber-gatherers and +other adventurous wanderers in the forest wilderness of Brazil. There +were a number of rubber-trees in the neighborhood, by the way. + +We enjoyed a good bath in the Burity, although it was impossible to +make headway by swimming against the racing current. There were few +mosquitoes. On the other hand, various kinds of piums were a little +too abundant; they vary from things like small gnats to things like +black flies. The small stingless bees have no fear and can hardly be +frightened away when they light on the hands or face; but they never +bite, and merely cause a slight tickling as they crawl over the skin. +There were some big bees, however, which, although they crawled about +harmlessly after lighting if they were undisturbed, yet stung fiercely +if they were molested. The insects were not ordinarily a serious +bother, but there were occasional hours when they were too numerous +for comfort, and now and then I had to do my writing in a head-net and +gauntlets. + +The night we reached the Burity it rained heavily, and next day the +rain continued. In the morning the mules were ferried over, while the +oxen were swum across. Half a dozen of our men--whites, Indians, and +negroes, all stark naked and uttering wild cries, drove the oxen into +the river and then, with powerful overhand strokes, swam behind and +alongside them as they crossed, half breasting the swift current. It +was a fine sight to see the big, long-horned, staring beasts swimming +strongly, while the sinewy naked men urged them forward, utterly at +ease in the rushing water. We made only a short day's journey, for, +owing to the lack of grass, the mules had to be driven off nearly +three miles from our line of march, in order to get them feed. We +camped at the headwaters of a little brook called Huatsui, which is +Parecis for "monkey." + +Accompanying us on this march was a soldier bound for one of the +remoter posts. With him trudged his wife. They made the whole journey +on foot. There were two children. One was so young that it had to be +carried alternately by the father and mother. The other, a small boy +of eight, and much the best of the party, was already a competent +wilderness worker. He bore his share of the belongings on the march, +and when camp was reached sometimes himself put up the family shelter. +They were mainly of negro blood. Struck by the woman's uncomplaining +endurance of fatigue, we offered to take her and the baby in the +automobile, while it accompanied us. But, alas! this proved to be one +of those melancholy cases where the effort to relieve hardship well +endured results only in showing that those who endure the adversity +cannot stand even a slight prosperity. The woman proved a querulous +traveller in the auto, complaining that she was not made as +comfortable as apparently she had expected; and after one day the +husband declared he was not willing to have her go unless he went too; +and the family resumed their walk. + +In this neighborhood there were multitudes of the big, gregarious, +crepuscular or nocturnal spiders which I have before mentioned. On +arriving in camp, at about four in the afternoon, I ran into a number +of remains of their webs, and saw a very few of the spiders themselves +sitting in the webs midway between trees. I then strolled a couple of +miles up the road ahead of us under the line of telegraph-poles. It +was still bright sunlight and no spiders were out; in fact, I did not +suspect their presence along the line of telegraph-poles, although I +ought to have done so, for I continually ran into long strings of +tough fine web, which got across my face or hands or rifle barrel. I +returned just at sunset and the spiders were out in force. I saw +dozens of colonies, each of scores or hundreds of individuals. Many +were among the small trees alongside the broad, cleared trail. But +most were dependent from the wire itself. Their webs had all been made +or repaired since I had passed. Each was sitting in the middle of his +own wheel, and all the wheels were joined to one another; and the +whole pendent fabric hung by fine ropes from the wire above, and was +in some cases steadied by guy-ropes, thrown thirty feet off to little +trees alongside. I watched them until nightfall, and evidently, to +them, after their day's rest, their day's work had just begun. Next +morning--owing to a desire to find out what the facts were as regards +the ox-carts, which were in difficulties--Cherrie, Miller, Kermit, and +I walked back to the Burity River, where Colonel Rondon had spent the +night. It was a misty, overcast morning, and the spiders in the webs +that hung from the telegraph-wire were just going to their day homes. +These were in and under the big white china insulators on the +telegraph-poles. Hundreds of spiders were already climbing up into +these. When, two or three hours later, we returned, the sun was out, +and not a spider was to be seen. + +Here we had to cut down our baggage and rearrange the loads for the +mule-train. Cherrie and Miller had a most workmanlike equipment, +including a very light tent and two light flies. One fly they gave for +the kitchen use, one fly was allotted to Kermit and me, and they kept +only the tent for themselves. Colonel Rondon and Lyra went in one +tent, the doctor and Oliveira in another. Each of us got rid of +everything above the sheer necessities. This was necessary because of +the condition of the baggage-animals. The oxen were so weak that the +effort to bring on the carts had to be abandoned. Nine of the pack- +mules had already been left on the road during the three days' march +from Utiarity. In the first expeditions into this country all the +baggage animals had died; and even in our case the loss was becoming +very heavy. This state of affairs is due to the scarcity of forage and +the type of country. Good grass is scanty, and the endless leagues of +sparse, scrubby forest render it exceedingly difficult to find the +animals when they wander. They must be turned absolutely loose to roam +about and pick up their scanty subsistence, and must be given as long +a time as possible to feed and rest; even under these conditions most +of them grow weak when, as in our case, it is impossible to carry +corn. They cannot be found again until after daylight, and then hours +must be spent in gathering them; and this means that the march must be +made chiefly during the heat of the day, the most trying time. Often +some of the animals would not be brought in until so late that it was +well on in the forenoon, perhaps midday, before the bulk of the pack- +train started; and they reached the camping-place as often after night +fall as before it. Under such conditions many of the mules and oxen +grew constantly weaker and ultimately gave out; and it was imperative +to load them as lightly as possible, and discard all luxuries, +especially heavy or bulky luxuries. Travelling through a wild country +where there is little food for man or beast is beset with difficulties +almost inconceivable to the man who does not himself know this kind of +wilderness, and especially to the man who only knows the ease of +civilization. A scientific party of some size, with the equipment +necessary in order to do scientific work, can only go at all if the +men who actually handle the problems of food and transportation do +their work thoroughly. + +Our march continued through the same type of high, nearly level +upland, covered with scanty, scrubby forest. It is the kind of country +known to the Brazilians as chapadao--pronounced almost as if it were a +French word and spelled shapadon. Our camp on the fourth night was in +a beautiful spot, an open grassy space, beside a clear, cool, rushing +little river. We ourselves reached this, and waded our beasts across +the deep, narrow stream in the late afternoon; and we then enjoyed a +bath and swim. The loose bullocks arrived at sunset, and with shrill +cries the mounted herdsmen urged them into and across the swift water. +The mule-train arrived long after night fall, and it was not deemed +wise to try to cross the laden animals. Accordingly the loads were +taken off and brought over on the heads of the men; it was fine to see +the sinewy, naked figures bearing their burdens through the broken +moonlit water to the hither bank. The night was cool and pleasant. We +kindled a fire and sat beside the blaze. Then, healthily hungry, we +gathered around the ox-hides to a delicious dinner of soup, beef, +beans, rice, and coffee. + +Next day we made a short march, crossed a brook, and camped by another +clear, deep, rapid little river, swollen by the rains. All these +rivers that we were crossing run actually into the Juruena, and +therefore form part of the headwaters of the Tapajos; for the Tapajos +is a mighty river, and the basin which holds its headwaters covers an +immense extent of country. This country and the adjacent regions, +forming the high interior of western Brazil, will surely some day +support a large industrial population; of which the advent would be +hastened, although not necessarily in permanently better fashion, if +Colonel Rondon's anticipations about the development of mining, +especially gold mining, are realized. In any event the region will be +a healthy home for a considerable agricultural and pastoral +population. Above all, the many swift streams with their numerous +waterfalls, some of great height and volume, offer the chance for the +upgrowth of a number of big manufacturing communities, knit by rail- +roads to one another and to the Atlantic coast and the valleys of the +Paraguay, Madeira, and Amazon, and feeding and being fed by the +dwellers in the rich, hot, alluvial lowlands that surround this +elevated territory. The work of Colonel Rondon and his associates of +the Telegraphic Commission has been to open this great and virgin land +to the knowledge of the world and to the service of their nation. In +doing so they have incidentally founded the Brazilian school of +exploration. Before their day almost all the scientific and regular +exploration of Brazil was done by foreigners. But, of course, there +was much exploration and settlement by nameless Brazilians, who were +merely endeavoring to make new homes or advance their private +fortunes: in recent years by rubber-gatherers, for instance, and a +century ago by those bold and restless adventurers, partly of +Portuguese and partly of Indian blood, the Paolistas, from one of whom +Colonel Rondon is himself descended on his father's side. + +The camp by this river was in some old and grown-up fields, once the +seat of a rather extensive maize and mandioc cultivation by the +Nhambiquaras. On this day Cherrie got a number of birds new to the +collection, and two or three of them probably new to science. We had +found the birds for the most part in worn plumage, for the breeding +season, the southern spring and northern fall, was over. But some +birds were still breeding. In the tropics the breeding season is more +irregular than in the north. Some birds breed at very different times +from that chosen by the majority of their fellows; some can hardly be +said to have any regular season; Cherrie had found one species of +honey-creeper breeding in every month of the year. Just before sunset +and just after sunrise big, noisy, blue-and-yellow macaws flew over +this camp. They were plentiful enough to form a loose flock, but each +pair kept to itself, the two individuals always close together and +always separated from the rest. Although not an abundant, it was an +interesting, fauna which the two naturalists found in this upland +country, where hitherto no collections of birds and mammals had been +made. Miller trapped several species of opossums, mice and rats which +were new to him. Cherrie got many birds which he did not recognize. At +this camp, among totally strange forms, he found an old and familiar +acquaintance. Before breakfast he brought in several birds; a dark +colored flycatcher, with white forehead and rump and two very long +tail-feathers; a black and slate-blue tanager; a black ant-thrush with +a concealed white spot on its back, at the base of the neck, and its +dull-colored mate; and other birds which he believed to be new to +science, but whose relationships with any of our birds are so remote +that it is hard to describe them save in technical language. Finally, +among these unfamiliar forms was a veery, and the sight of the rufous- +olive back and faintly spotted throat of this singer of our northern +Junes made us almost homesick. + +Next day was brilliantly clear. The mules could not be brought in +until quite late in the morning, and we had to march twenty miles +under the burning tropical sun, right in the hottest part of the day. +From a rise of ground we looked back over the vast, sunlit landscape, +the endless rolling stretches of low forest. Midway on our journey we +crossed a brook. The dogs minded the heat much. They continually ran +off to one side, lay down in a shady place, waited until we were +several hundred yards ahead, and then raced after us, overtook us, and +repeated the performance. The pack-train came in about sunset; but we +ourselves reached the Juruena in the middle of the afternoon. + +The Juruena is the name by which the Tapajos goes along its upper +course. Where we crossed, it was a deep, rapid stream, flowing in a +heavily wooded valley with rather steep sides. We were ferried across +on the usual balsa, a platform on three dugouts, running by the force +of the current on a wire trolley. There was a clearing on each side +with a few palms, and on the farther bank were the buildings of the +telegraph station. This is a wild country, and the station was guarded +by a few soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Marino, a native of +Rio Grande do Sul, a blond man who looked like an Englishman--an +agreeable companion, and a good and resolute officer, as all must be +who do their work in this wilderness. The Juruena was first followed +at the end of the eighteenth century by the Portuguese explorer +Franco, and not again until over a hundred years had elapsed, when the +Telegraphic Commission not only descended, but for the first time +accurately placed and mapped its course. + +There were several houses on the rise of the farther bank, all with +thatched roofs, some of them with walls of upright tree-trunks, some +of them daub and wattle. Into one of the latter, with two rooms, we +took our belongings. The sand-flies were bothersome at night, coming +through the interstices in the ordinary mosquito-nets. The first night +they did this I got no sleep until morning, when it was cool enough +for me to roll myself in my blanket and put on a head-net. Afterward +we used fine nets of a kind of cheese-cloth. They were hot, but they +kept out all, or almost all, of the sand-flies and other small +tormentors. + +Here we overtook the rearmost division of Captain Amilcar's bullock- +train. Our own route had diverged, in order to pass the great falls. +Captain Amilcar had come direct, overtaking the pack-oxen, which had +left Tapirapoan before we did, laden with material for the Duvida +trip. He had brought the oxen through in fine shape, losing only three +beasts with their loads, and had himself left the Juruena the morning +of the day we reached there. His weakest animals left that evening, to +make the march by moonlight; and as it was desirable to give them +thirty-six hours' start, we halted for a day on the banks of the +river. It was not a wasted day. In addition to bathing and washing our +clothes, the naturalists made some valuable additions to the +collection--including a boldly marked black, blue, and white jay--and +our photographs were developed and our writing brought abreast of the +date. Travelling through a tropical wilderness in the rainy season, +when the amount of baggage that can be taken is strictly limited, +entails not only a good deal of work, but also the exercise of +considerable ingenuity if the writing and photographing, and +especially the preservation, of the specimens are to be done in +satisfactory shape. + +At the telegraph office we received news that the voyage of Lauriado +and Fiala down the Papagaio had opened with a misadventure. In some +bad rapids, not many miles below the falls, two of the canoes had been +upset, half of their provisions and all of Fiala's baggage lost, and +Fiala himself nearly drowned. The Papagaio is known both at the source +and the mouth; to descend it did not represent a plunge into the +unknown, as in the case of the Duvida or the Ananas; but the actual +water work, over the part that was unexplored, offered the same +possibilities of mischance and disaster. It is a hazardous thing to +descend a swift, unknown river rushing through an uninhabited +wilderness. To descend or ascend the ordinary great highway rivers of +South America, such as the Amazon, Paraguay, Tapajos, and, in its +lower course, the Orinoco, is now so safe and easy, whether by steam- +boat or big, native cargo-boat, that people are apt to forget the very +serious difficulties offered by the streams, often themselves great +rivers, which run into or form the upper courses of these same water +highways. Few things are easier than the former feat, and few more +difficult than the latter; and experience in ordinary travelling on +the lower courses of the rivers is of no benefit whatever in enabling +a man to form a judgement as to what can be done, and how to do it, on +the upper courses. Failure to remember this fact is one of the +obstacles in the way of securing a proper appreciation of the needs +and the results, of South American exploration. + +At the Juruena we met a party of Nhambiquaras, very friendly and +sociable, and very glad to see Colonel Rondon. They were originally +exceedingly hostile and suspicious, but the colonel's unwearied +thoughtfulness and good temper, joined with his indomitable +resolution, enabled him to avoid war and to secure their friendship +and even their aid. He never killed one. Many of them are known to him +personally. He is on remarkably good terms with them, and they are +very fond of him--although this does not prevent them from now and +then yielding to temptation, even at his expense, and stealing a dog +or something else which strikes them as offering an irresistible +attraction. They cannot be employed at steady work; but they do +occasional odd jobs, and are excellent at hunting up strayed mules or +oxen; and a few of the men have begun to wear clothes, purely for +ornament. Their confidence and bold friendliness showed how well they +had been treated. Probably half of our visitors were men; several were +small boys; one was a woman with a baby; the others were young married +women and girls. + +Nowhere in Africa did we come across wilder or more absolutely +primitive savages, although these Indians were pleasanter and better- +featured than any of the African tribes at the same stage of culture. +Both sexes were well-made and rather good-looking, with fairly good +teeth, although some of them seemed to have skin diseases. They were a +laughing, easy-tempered crew, and the women were as well-fed as the +men, and were obviously well-treated, from the savage standpoint; +there was no male brutality like that which forms such a revolting +feature in the life of the Australian black fellows and, although to a +somewhat less degree, in the life of so many negro and Indian tribes. +They were practically absolutely naked. In many savage tribes the men +go absolutely naked, but the women wear a breech-clout or loincloth. +In certain tribes we saw near Lake Victoria Nyanza, and on the upper +White Nile, both men and women were practically naked. Among these +Nhambiquaras the women were more completely naked than the men, +although the difference was not essential. The men wore a string +around the waist. Most of them wore nothing else, but a few had +loosely hanging from this string in front a scanty tuft of dried +grass, or a small piece of cloth, which, however, was of purely +symbolic use so far as either protection or modesty was concerned. The +women did not wear a stitch of any kind anywhere on their bodies. They +did not have on so much as a string, or a bead, or even an ornament in +their hair. They were all, men and women, boys and well-grown young +girls, as entirely at ease and unconscious as so many friendly +animals. All of them--men, women, and children, laughing and talking-- +crowded around us, whether we were on horseback or on foot. They +flocked into the house, and when I sat down to write surrounded me so +closely that I had to push them gently away. The women and girls often +stood holding one another's hands, or with their arms over one +another's shoulders or around one another's waists, offering an +attractive picture. The men had holes pierced through the septum of +the nose and through the upper lip, and wore a straw through each +hole. The women were not marked or mutilated. It seems like a +contradiction in terms, but it is nevertheless a fact that the +behavior of these completely naked women and men was entirely modest. +There was never an indecent look or a consciously indecent gesture. +They had no blankets or hammocks, and when night came simply lay down +in the sand. Colonel Rondon stated that they never wore a covering by +night or by day, and if it was cool slept one on each side of a small +fire. Their huts were merely slight shelters against the rain. + +The moon was nearly full, and after nightfall a few of the Indians +suddenly held an improvised dance for us in front of our house. There +were four men, a small boy, and two young women or grown girls. Two of +the men had been doing some work for the commission, and were dressed, +one completely and one partially, in ordinary clothes. Two of the men +and the boy were practically naked, and the two young women were +absolutely so. All of them danced in a circle, without a touch of +embarrassment or impropriety. The two girls kept hold of each other's +hands throughout, dancing among the men as modestly as possible, and +with the occasional interchange of a laugh or jest, in as good taste +and temper as in any dance in civilization. The dance consisted in +slowly going round in a circle, first one way then the other, +rhythmically beating time with the feet to the music of the song they +were chanting. The chants--there were three of them, all told--were +measured and rather slowly uttered melodies, varied with an occasional +half-subdued shrill cry. The women continually uttered a kind of long- +drawn wailing or droning; I am not enough of a musician to say whether +it was an overtone or the sustaining of the burden of the ballad. The +young boy sang better than any of the others. It was a strange and +interesting sight to see these utterly wild, friendly savages circling +in their slow dance, and chanting their immemorial melodies, in the +brilliant tropical moonlight, with the river rushing by in the +background, through the lonely heart of the wilderness. + +The Indians stayed with us, feasting, dancing, and singing until the +early hours of the morning. They then suddenly and silently +disappeared in the darkness, and did not return. In the morning we +discovered that they had gone off with one of Colonel Rondon's dogs. +Probably the temptation had proved irresistible to one of their +number, and the others had been afraid to interfere, and also afraid +to stay in or return to our neighborhood. We had not time to go after +them; but Rondon remarked that as soon as he again came to the +neighborhood he would take some soldiers, hunt up the Indians, and +reclaim the dog. It has been his mixture of firmness, good nature, and +good judgment that has enabled him to control these bold, warlike +savages, and even to reduce the warfare between them and the Parecis. +In spite of their good nature and laughter, their fearlessness and +familiarity showed how necessary it was not to let them get the upper +hand. They are always required to leave all their arms a mile or two +away before they come into the encampment. They are much wilder and +more savage, and at a much lower cultural level, than the Parecis. + +In the afternoon of the day following our arrival there was a heavy +rain-storm which drove into the unglazed windows, and here and there +came through the roof and walls of our daub-and-wattle house. The heat +was intense and there was much moisture in this valley. During the +downpour I looked out at the dreary little houses, showing through the +driving rain, while the sheets of muddy water slid past their door- +sills; and I felt a sincere respect for the lieutenant and his +soldiers who were holding this desolate outpost of civilization. It is +an unhealthy spot; there has been much malarial fever and beriberi--an +obscure and deadly disease. + +Next morning we resumed our march. It soon began to rain and we were +drenched when, some fifteen miles on, we reached the river where we +were to camp. After the great heat we felt quite cold in our wet +clothes, and gladly crowded round a fire which was kindled under a +thatched shed, beside the cabin of the ferryman. This ferry-boat was +so small that it could only take one mule, or at most two, at a time. +The mules and a span of six oxen dragging an ox-cart, which we had +overtaken, were ferried slowly to the farther side that afternoon, as +there was no feed on the hither bank, where we ourselves camped. The +ferryman was a soldier in the employ of the Telegraphic Commission. +His good-looking, pleasant-mannered wife, evidently of both Indian and +negro blood, was with him, and was doing all she could do as a +housekeeper, in the comfortless little cabin, with its primitive +bareness of furniture and fittings. + +Here we saw Captain Amilcar, who had come back to hurry up his rear- +guard. We stood ankle-deep in mud and water, by the swollen river, +while the rain beat on us, and enjoyed a few minutes' talk with the +cool, competent officer who was doing a difficult job with such +workman-like efficiency. He had no poncho, and was wet through, but +was much too busy in getting his laden oxen forward to think of +personal discomfort. He had had a good deal of trouble with his mules, +but his oxen were still in fair shape. + +After leaving the Juruena the ground became somewhat more hilly, and +the scrubby forest was less open, but otherwise there was no change in +the monotonous, and yet to me rather attractive, landscape. The ant- +hills, and the ant-houses in the trees--arboreal ant-hills, so to +speak were as conspicuous as ever. The architects of some were red +ants, of others black ants; and others, which were on the whole the +largest, had been built by the white ants, the termites. The latter +were not infrequently taller than a horseman's head. + +That evening round the camp-fire Colonel Rondon happened to mention +how the brother of one of the soldiers with us--a Parecis Indian--had +been killed by a jararaca snake. Cherrie told of a narrow escape he +had from one while collecting in Guiana. At night he used to set traps +in camp for small mammals. One night he heard one of these traps go +off under his hammock. He reached down for it, and as he fumbled for +the chain he felt a snake strike at him, just missing him in the +darkness, but actually brushing his hand. He lit a light and saw that +a big jararaca had been caught in the trap; and he preserved it as a +specimen. Snakes frequently came into his camp after nightfall. He +killed one rattlesnake which had swallowed the skinned bodies of four +mice he had prepared as specimens; which shows that rattlesnakes do +not always feed only on living prey. Another rattlesnake which he +killed in Central America had just swallowed an opossum which proved +to be of a species new to science. Miller told how once on the Orinoco +he saw on the bank a small anaconda, some ten feet long, killing one +of the iguanas, big, active, truculent, carnivorous lizards, equally +at home on the land and in the water. Evidently the iguanas were +digging out holes in the bank in which to lay their eggs; for there +were several such holes, and iguanas working at them. The snake had +crushed its prey to a pulp; and not more than a couple of feet away +another iguana was still busily, and with entire unconcern, engaged in +making its burrow. At Miller's approach the anaconda left the dead +iguana and rushed into the water, and the live iguana promptly +followed it. Miller also told of the stone gods and altars and temples +he had seen in the great Colombian forests, monuments of strange +civilizations which flourished and died out ages ago, and of which all +memory has vanished. He and Cherrie told of giant rivers and +waterfalls, and of forests never penetrated, and mountains never +ascended by civilized man; and of bloody revolutions that devastated +the settled regions. Listening to them I felt that they could write +"Tales of Two Naturalists" that would be worth reading. + +They were short of literature, by the way--a party such as ours always +needs books--and as Kermit's reading-matter consisted chiefly of +Camoens and other Portuguese, or else Brazilian, writers, I strove to +supply the deficiency with spare volumes of Gibbon. At the end of our +march we were usually far ahead of the mule-train, and the rain was +also usually falling. Accordingly we would sit about under trees, or +under a shed or lean-to, if there was one, each solemnly reading a +volume of Gibbon--and no better reading can be found. In my own case, +as I had been having rather a steady course of Gibbon, I varied him +now and then with a volume of Arsene Lupin lent me by Kermit. + +There were many swollen rivers to cross at this point of our journey. +Some we waded at fords. Some we crossed by rude bridges. The larger +ones, such as the Juina, we crossed by ferry, and when the approaches +were swampy, and the river broad and swift, many hours might be +consumed in getting the mule-train, the loose bullocks, and the ox- +cart over. We had few accidents, although we once lost a ferry-load of +provisions, which was quite a misfortune in a country where they could +not be replaced. The pasturage was poor, and it was impossible to make +long marches with our weakened animals. + +At one camp three Nhambiquaras paid us a visit at breakfast time. They +left their weapons behind them before they appeared, and shouted +loudly while they were still hid by the forest, and it was only after +repeated answering calls of welcome that they approached. Always in +the wilderness friends proclaim their presence; a silent advance marks +a foe. Our visitors were men, and stark naked, as usual. One seemed +sick; he was thin, and his back was scarred with marks of the grub of +the loathsome berni fly. Indeed, all of them showed scars, chiefly +from insect wounds. But the other two were in good condition, and, +although they ate greedily of the food offered them, they had with +them a big mandioc cake, some honey, and a little fish. One of them +wore a high helmet of puma-skin, with the tail hanging down his back-- +handsome head-gear, which he gladly bartered for several strings of +bright coral-red beads. Around the upper arms of two of them were +bands bound so tightly as to cut into and deform the muscles--a +singular custom, seemingly not only purposeless but mischievous, which +is common among this tribe and many others. + +The Nhambiquaras are a numerous tribe, covering a large region. But +they have no general organization. Each group of families acts for +itself. Half a dozen years previously they had been very hostile, and +Colonel Rondon had to guard his camp and exercise every precaution to +guarantee his safety, while at the same time successfully endeavoring +to avoid the necessity of himself shedding blood. Now they are, for +the most part, friendly. But there are groups or individuals that are +not. Several soldiers have been killed at these little lonely +stations; and while in some cases the attack may have been due to the +soldiers having meddled with Nhambiquara women, in other cases the +killing was entirely wanton and unprovoked. Sooner or later these +criminals or outlaws will have to be brought to justice; it will not +do to let their crimes go unpunished. Twice soldiers have deserted and +fled to the Nhambiquaras. The runaways were well received, were given +wives, and adopted into the tribe. + +The country when opened will be a healthy abode for white settlers. +But pioneering in the wilderness is grim work for both man and beast. +Continually, as we journeyed onward, under the pitiless glare of the +sun or through blinding torrents of rain, we passed desolate little +graves by the roadside. They marked the last resting places of men who +had died by fever, or dysentery, or Nhambiquara arrows. We raised our +hats as our mules plodded slowly by through the sand. On each grave +was a frail wooden cross, and this and the paling round about were +already stained by the weather as gray as the tree trunks of the +stunted forest that stretched endlessly on every side. + +The skeletons of mules and oxen were frequent along the road. Now and +then we came across a mule or ox which had been abandoned by Captain +Amilcar's party, ahead of us. The animal had been left with the hope +that when night came it would follow along the trail to water. +Sometimes it did so. Sometimes we found it dead, or standing +motionless waiting for death. From time to time we had to leave behind +one of our own mules. + +It was not always easy to recognize what pasturage the mules would +accept as good. One afternoon we pitched camp by a tiny rivulet, in +the midst of the scrubby upland forest; a camp, by the way, where the +piums, the small, biting flies, were a torment during the hours of +daylight, while after dark their places were more than taken by the +diminutive gnats which the Brazilians expressively term "polvora," or +powder, and which get through the smallest meshes of a mosquito-net. +The feed was so scanty, and the cover so dense, at this spot that I +thought we would have great difficulty in gathering the mules next +morning. But we did not. A few hours later, in the afternoon, we +camped by a beautiful open meadow; on one side ran a rapid brook, with +a waterfall eight feet high, under which we bathed and swam. Here the +feed looked so good that we all expressed pleasure. But the mules did +not like it, and after nightfall they hiked back on the trail, and it +was a long and arduous work to gather them next morning. + +I have touched above on the insect pests. Men unused to the South +American wilderness speak with awe of the danger therein from jaguars, +crocodiles, and poisonous snakes. In reality, the danger from these +sources is trivial, much less than the danger of being run down by an +automobile at home. But at times the torment of insect plagues can +hardly be exaggerated. There are many different species of mosquitoes, +some of them bearers of disease. There are many different kinds of +small, biting flies and gnats, loosely grouped together under various +titles. The ones more especially called piums by my companions were +somewhat like our northern black flies. They gorged themselves with +blood. At the moment their bites did not hurt, but they left an +itching scar. Head-nets and gloves are a protection, but are not very +comfortable in stifling hot weather. It is impossible to sleep without +mosquito-biers. When settlers of the right type come into a new land +they speedily learn to take the measures necessary to minimize the +annoyance caused by all these pests. Those that are winged have plenty +of kinsfolk in so much of the northern continent as has not yet been +subdued by man. But the most noxious of the South American ants have, +thank heaven, no representatives in North America. At the camp of the +piums a column of the carnivorous foraging ants made its appearance +before nightfall, and for a time we feared it might put us out of our +tents, for it went straight through camp, between the kitchen-tent and +our own sleeping tents. However, the column turned neither to the +right nor the left, streaming uninterruptedly past for several hours, +and doing no damage except to the legs of any incautious man who +walked near it. + +On the afternoon of February 15 we reached Campos Novos. This place +was utterly unlike the country we had been traversing. It was a large +basin, several miles across, traversed by several brooks. The brooks +ran in deep swampy valleys, occupied by a matted growth of tall +tropical forest. Between them the ground rose in bold hills, bare of +forest and covered with grass, on which our jaded animals fed eagerly. +On one of these rounded hills a number of buildings were ranged in a +quadrangle, for the pasturage at this spot is so good that it is +permanently occupied. There were milch cows, and we got delicious +fresh milk; and there were goats, pigs, turkeys, and chickens. Most of +the buildings were made of upright poles with roofs of palm thatch. +One or two were of native brick, plastered with mud, and before these +there was an enclosure with a few ragged palms, and some pineapple +plants. Here we halted. Our attendants made two kitchens: one was out +in the open air, one was under a shelter of ox-hide. The view over the +surrounding grassy hills, riven by deep wooded valleys, was lovely. +The air was cool and fresh. We were not bothered by insects, although +mosquitoes swarmed in every belt of timber. Yet there has been much +fever at this beautiful and seemingly healthy place. Doubtless when +settlement is sufficiently advanced a remedy will be developed. The +geology of this neighborhood was interesting--Oliveira found fossil +tree-trunks which he believed to be of cretaceous age. + +Here we found Amilcar and Mello, who had waited for us with the rear- +guard of their pack-train, and we enjoyed our meeting with the two +fine fellows, than whom no military service of any nation could +produce more efficient men for this kind of difficult and responsible +work. Next morning they mustered their soldiers, muleteers, and pack- +ox men and marched off. Reinisch the taxidermist was with them. We +followed in the late afternoon, camping after a few miles. We left the +oxcart at Campos Novos; from thence on the trail was only for pack- +animals. + +In this neighborhood the two naturalists found many birds which we had +not hitherto met. The most conspicuous was a huge oriole, the size of +a small crow, with a naked face, a black-and-red bill, and gaudily +variegated plumage of green, yellow, and chestnut. Very interesting +was the false bellbird, a gray bird with loud, metallic notes. There +was also a tiny soft-tailed woodpecker, no larger than a kinglet; a +queer humming-bird with a slightly flexible bill; and many species of +ant-thrush, tanager, manakin, and tody. Among these unfamiliar forms +was a vireo looking much like our solitary vireo. At one camp Cherrie +collected a dozen perching birds; Miller a beautiful little rail; and +Kermit, with the small Luger belt-rifle, a handsome curassow, nearly +as big as a turkey--out of which, after it had been skinned, the cook +made a delicious canja, the thick Brazilian soup of fowl and rice than +which there is nothing better of its kind. All these birds were new to +the collection--no naturalists had previously worked this region--so +that the afternoon's work represented nine species new to the +collection, six new genera, and a most excellent soup. + +Two days after leaving Campos Novos we reached Vilhena, where there is +a telegraph station. We camped once at a small river named by Colonel +Rondon the "Twelfth of October," because he reached it on the day +Columbus discovered America--I had never before known what day it +was!--and once at the foot of a hill which he had named after Lyra, +his companion in the exploration. The two days' march--really one full +day and part of two others--was through beautiful country, and we +enjoyed it thoroughly, although there were occasional driving rain- +storms, when the rain came in almost level sheets and drenched every +one and everything. The country was like that around Campos Novos, and +offered a striking contrast to the level, barren, sandy wastes of the +chapadao, which is a healthy region, where great industrial centres +can arise, but not suited for extensive agriculture as are the lowland +flats. For these forty-eight hours the trail climbed into and out of +steep valleys and broad basins and up and down hills. In the deep +valleys were magnificent woods, in which giant rubber-trees towered, +while the huge leaves of the low-growing pacova, or wild banana, were +conspicuous in the undergrowth. Great azure butterflies flitted +through the open, sunny glades, and the bellbirds, sitting +motionless, uttered their ringing calls from the dark stillness of the +columned groves. The hillsides were grassy pastures or else covered +with low, open forest. + +A huge frog, brown above, with a light streak down each side, was +found hiding under some sticks in a damp place in one of the +improvised kitchens; and another frog, with disks on his toes, was +caught on one of the tents. A coral-snake puzzled us. Some coral- +snakes are harmless; others are poisonous, although not aggressive. +The best authorities give an infallible recipe for distinguishing them +by the pattern of the colors, but this particular specimen, although +it corresponded exactly in color pattern with the description of the +poisonous snakes, nevertheless had no poison-fangs that even after the +most minute examination we could discover. Miller and one of the dogs +caught a sariema, a big, long-legged, bustard-like bird, in rather a +curious way. We were on the march, plodding along through as heavy a +tropic downpour as it was our ill fortune to encounter. The sariema, +evidently as drenched and uncomfortable as we were, was hiding under a +bush to avoid the pelting rain. The dog discovered it, and after the +bird valiantly repelled him, Miller was able to seize it. Its stomach +contained about half a pint of grass-hoppers and beetles and young +leaves. At Vilhena there was a tame sariema, much more familiar and at +home than any of the poultry. It was without the least fear of man or +dog. The sariema (like the screamer and the curassow) ought to be +introduced into our barnyards and on our lawns, at any rate in the +Southern States; it is a good-looking, friendly, and attractive bird. +Another bird we met is in some places far more intimate, and +domesticates itself. This is the pretty little honey-creeper. In +Colombia Miller found the honey-creepers habitually coming inside the +houses and hotels at meal-times, hopping about the table, and climbing +into the sugar-bowl. + +Along this part of our march there was much of what at a hasty glance +seemed to be volcanic rock; but Oliveira showed me that it was a kind +of conglomerate, with bubbles or hollows in it, made of sand and iron- +bearing earth. He said it was a superficial quaternary deposit formed +by erosion from the cretaceous rocks, and that there were here no +tertiary deposits. He described the geological structure of the lands +through which we had passed as follows: The pantanals were of +Pleistocene age. Along the upper Sepotuba, in the region of the +rapids, there were sandstones, shales, and clays of Permian age. The +rolling country east of this contained eruptive rocks--a porphyritic +disbase, with zeolite, quartz, and agate of Triassic age. With the +chapadao of the Parecis plateau we came to a land of sand and clay, +dotted with lumps of sandstone and pieces of petrified wood; this, +according to Oliveira, is of Mesozoic age, possibly cretaceous and +similar to the South African formation. There are geologists who +consider it as of Permian age. + +At Vilhena we were on a watershed which drained into the Gy-Parana, +which itself runs into the Madeira nearly midway between its sources +and its mouth. A little farther along and northward we again came to +streams running ultimately into the Tapajos; and between them, and +close to them, were streamlets which drained into the Duvida and +Ananas, whose courses and outlets were unknown. This point is part of +the divide between the basins of the Madeira and Tapajos. A singular +topographical feature of the Plan Alto, the great interior sandy +plateau of Brazil, is that at its westernmost end the southward +flowing streams, instead of running into the Paraguay as they do +farther east, form the headwaters of the Guapore, which may, perhaps, +be called the upper main stream of the Madeira. These westernmost +streams from the southern edge of the plateau, therefore, begin by +flowing south; then for a long stretch they flow southwest; then +north, and finally northeast into the Amazon. According to some +exceptionally good geological observers, this is probably due to the +fact that in a remote geologic past the ocean sent in an arm from the +south, between the Plan Alto and what is now the Andean chain. These +rivers then emptied into the Andean Sea. The gradual upheaval of the +soil has resulted in substituting dry land for this arm of the ocean +and in reversing the course of what is now the Madeira, just as, +according to these geologists, in somewhat familiar fashion the Amazon +has been reversed, it having once been, at least for the upper two +thirds of its course, an affluent of the Andean Sea. + +From Vilhena we travelled in a generally northward direction. For a +few leagues we went across the chapadao, the sands or clays of the +nearly level upland plateau, grassy or covered with thin, stunted +forest, the same type of country that had been predominant ever since +we ascended the Parecis table-land on the morning of the third day +after leaving the Sepotuba. Then, at about the point where the trail +dipped into a basin containing the head-springs of the Ananas, we left +this type of country and began to march through thick forest, not very +high. There was little feed for the animals on the Chapadao. There was +less in the forest. Moreover, the continual heavy rains made the +travelling difficult and laborious for them, and they weakened. +However, a couple of marches before we reached Tres Burity, where +there is a big ranch with hundreds of cattle, we were met by ten fresh +pack-oxen, and our serious difficulties were over. + +There were piums in plenty by day, but neither mosquitoes nor sand-flies +by night; and for us the trip was very pleasant, save for moments of +anxiety about the mules. The loose bullocks furnished us abundance of +fresh beef, although, as was inevitable under the circumstances, of a +decidedly tough quality. One of the biggest of the bullocks was +attacked one night by a vampire bat, and next morning his withers were +literally bathed in blood. + +With the chapadao we said good-by to the curious, gregarious, and +crepuscular or nocturnal spiders which we found so abundant along the +line of the telegraph wire. They have offered one of the small +problems with which the commission has had to deal. They are not +common in the dry season. They swarm during the rains; and, when their +tough webs are wet, those that lead from the wire to the ground +sometimes effectually short circuit the wire. They have on various +occasions caused a good deal of trouble in this manner. + +The third night out from Vilhena we emerged for a moment from the +endless close-growing forest in which our poor animals got such scanty +pickings, and came to a beautiful open country, where grassy slopes, +dotted with occasional trees, came down on either side of a little +brook which was one of the headwaters of the Duvida. It was a pleasure +to see the mules greedily bury their muzzles in the pasturage. Our +tents were pitched in the open, near a shady tree, which sent out its +low branches on every side. At this camp Cherrie shot a lark, very +characteristic of the open upland country, and Miller found two bats +in the rotten wood of a dead log. He heard them squeaking and dug them +out; he could not tell by what method they had gotten in. + +Here Kermit, while a couple of miles from our tents, came across an +encampment of Nhambiquaras. There were twenty or thirty of them--men, +women, and a few children. Kermit, after the manner of honest folk in +the wilderness, advanced ostentatiously in the open, calling out to +give warning of his coming. Like surroundings may cause like manners. +The early Saxons in England deemed it legal to kill any man who came +through the woods without shouting or blowing a horn; and in +Nhambiquara land at the present time it is against etiquette, and may +be very unhealthy, to come through the woods toward strangers without +loudly announcing one's presence. The Nhambiquaras received Kermit +with the utmost cordiality, and gave him pineapple-wine to drink. They +were stark naked as usual; they had no hammocks or blankets, and their +huts were flimsy shelters of palm-branches. Yet they were in fine +condition. Half a dozen of the men and a couple of boys accompanied +Kermit back to our camp, paying not slightest heed to the rain which +was falling. They were bold and friendly, good-natured--at least +superficially--and very inquisitive. In feasting, the long reeds +thrust through holes in their lips did not seem to bother them, and +they laughed at the suggestion of removing them; evidently to have +done so would have been rather bad manners--like using a knife as an +aid in eating ice-cream. They held two or three dances, and we were +again struck by the rhythm and weird, haunting melody of their +chanting. After supper they danced beside the camp-fire; and finally, +to their delight, most of the members of our own party, Americans and +Brazilians, enthusiastically joined the dance, while the colonel and I +furnished an appreciative and applauding audience. Next morning, when +we were awakened by the chattering and screaming of the numerous +macaws, parrots, and parakeets, we found that nearly all the Indians, +men and women, were gathered outside the tent. As far as clothing was +concerned, they were in the condition of Adam and Eve before the fall. +One of the women carried a little squirrel monkey. She put it up the +big tree some distance from the tents; and when she called, it came +scampering to her across the grass, ran up her, and clung to her neck. +They would have liked to pilfer; but as they had no clothes it was +difficult for them to conceal anything. One of the women was observed +to take a fork; but as she did not possess a rag of clothing of any +kind all she did do was to try to bury the fork in the sand and then +sit on it; and it was reclaimed without difficulty. One or two of the +children wore necklaces and bracelets made of the polished wood of the +tucum palm, and of the molars of small rodents. + +Next day's march led us across a hilly country of good pastureland. +The valleys were densely wooded, palms of several kinds being +conspicuous among the other trees; and the brooks at the bottoms we +crossed at fords or by the usual rude pole bridges. On the open +pastures were occasional trees, usually slender bacaba palms, with +heads which the winds had dishevelled until they looked like mops. It +was evidently a fine natural cattle country, and we soon began to see +scores, perhaps hundreds, of the cattle belonging to the government +ranch at Tres Burity, which we reached in the early afternoon. It is +beautifully situated: the view roundabout is lovely, and certainly the +land will prove healthy when settlements have been definitely +established. Here we revelled in abundance of good fresh milk and +eggs; and for dinner we had chicken canja and fat beef roasted on big +wooden spits; and we even had watermelons. The latter were from seeds +brought down by the American engineers who built the Madeira Marmore +Railroad--a work which stands honorably distinguished among the many +great and useful works done in the development of the tropics of +recent years. + +Amilcar's pack-oxen, which were nearly worn out, had been left in +these fertile pastures. Most of the fresh oxen which he took in their +places were unbroken, and there was a perfect circus before they were +packed and marched off; in every direction, said the gleeful +narrators, there were bucking oxen and loads strewed on the ground. +This cattle ranch is managed by the colonel's uncle, his mother's +brother, a hale old man of seventy, white-haired but as active and +vigorous as ever; with a fine, kindly, intelligent face. His name is +Miguel Evangalista. He is a native of Matto Grosso, of practically +pure Indian blood, and was dressed in the ordinary costume of the +Caboclo--hat, shirt, trousers, and no shoes or stockings. Within the +last year he had killed three jaguars, which had been living on the +mules; as long as they could get mules they did not at this station +molest the cattle. + +It was with this uncle's father, Colonel Rondon's own grandfather, +that Colonel Rondon as an orphan spent the first seven years of his +life. His father died before he was born, and his mother when he was +only a year old. He lived on his grandfather's cattle-ranch, some +fifty miles from Cuyaba. Then he went to live in Cuyaba with a kinsman +on his father's side, from whom he took the name of Rondon; his own +father's name was DaSilva. He studied in the Cuyaba Government School, +and at sixteen was inscribed as one of the instructors. Then he went +to Rio, served for a year in the army as an enlisted man in the ranks, +and succeeded finally in getting into the military school. After five +years as pupil he served three years as professor of mathematics in +this school; and then, as a lieutenant of engineers in the Brazilian +army, he came back to his home in Matto Grosso and began his life-work +of exploring the wilderness. + +Next day we journeyed to the telegraph station at Bonofacio, through +alternate spells of glaring sunshine and heavy rain. On the way we +stopped at an aldea-village of Nhambiquaras. We first met a couple of +men going to hunt, with bows and arrows longer than themselves. A +rather comely young woman, carrying on her back a wickerwork basket, +or creel, supported by a forehead band, and accompanied by a small +child, was with them. At the village there were a number of men, +women, and children. Although as completely naked as the others we had +met, the members of this band were more ornamented with beads, and +wore earrings made from the inside of mussel-shells or very big snail- +shells. They were more hairy than the ones we had so far met. The +women, but not the men, completely remove the hair from their bodies-- +and look more, instead of less, indecent in consequence. The chief, +whose body was painted red with the juice of a fruit, had what could +fairly be styled a mustache and imperial; and one old man looked +somewhat like a hairy Ainu, or perhaps even more like an Australian +black fellow. My companion told me that this probably represented an +infusion of negro blood, and possibly of mulatto blood, from runaway +slaves of the old days, when some of the Matto Grosso mines were +worked by slave labor. They also thought it possible that this +infiltration of African negroes might be responsible for the curious +shape of the bigger huts, which were utterly unlike their flimsy, +ordinary shelters, and bore no resemblance in shape to those of the +other Indian tribes of this region; whereas they were not unlike the +ordinary beehive huts of the agricultural African negroes. There were +in this village several huts or shelters open at the sides, and two of +the big huts. These were of closely woven thatch, circular in outline, +with a rounded dome, and two doors a couple of feet high opposite each +other, and no other opening. There were fifteen or twenty people to +each hut. Inside were their implements and utensils, such as wicker +baskets (some of them filled with pineapples), gourds, fire-sticks, +wooden knives, wooden mortars, and a board for grating mandioc, made +of a thick slab of wood inset with sharp points of a harder wood. From +the Brazilians one or two of them had obtained blankets, and one a +hammock; and they had also obtained knives, which they sorely needed, +for they are not even in the stone age. One woman shielded herself +from the rain by holding a green palm-branch down her back. Another +had on her head what we at first thought to be a monkey-skin head- +dress. But it was a little, live, black monkey. It stayed habitually +with its head above her forehead, and its arms and legs spread so that +it lay moulded to the shape of her head; but both woman and monkey +showed some reluctance about having their photographs taken. + +Bonofacio consisted of several thatched one-room cabins, connected by +a stockade which was extended to form an enclosure behind them. A +number of tame parrots and parakeets, of several different species, +scrambled over the roofs and entered the houses. In the open pastures +near by were the curious, extensive burrows of a gopher rat, which ate +the roots of grass, not emerging to eat the grass but pulling it into +the burrows by the roots. These burrows bore a close likeness to those +of our pocket gophers. Miller found the animals difficult to trap. +Finally, by the aid of Colonel Rondon, several Indians, and two or +three of our men, he dug one out. From the central shaft several +surface galleries radiated, running for many rods about a foot below +the surface, with, at intervals of half a dozen yards, mounds where +the loose earth had been expelled. The central shaft ran straight down +for about eight feet, and then laterally for about fifteen feet, to a +kind of chamber. The animal dug hard to escape, but when taken and put +on the surface of the ground it moved slowly and awkwardly. It showed +vicious courage. In looks it closely resembled our pocket gophers, but +it had no pockets. This was one of the most interesting small mammals +that we secured. + +After breakfast at Bonofacio a number of Nhambiquaras--men, women, and +children--strolled in. The men gave us an exhibition of not very good +archery; when the bow was bent, it was at first held so that the arrow +pointed straight upwards and was then lowered so that the arrow was +aimed at the target. Several of the women had been taken from other +tribes, after their husbands or fathers had been killed; for the +Nhambiquaras are light-hearted robbers and murderers. Two or three +miserable dogs accompanied them, half-starved and mangy, but each +decorated with a collar of beads. The headmen had three or four wives +apiece, and the women were the burden-bearers, but apparently were not +badly treated. Most of them were dirty, although well-fed looking, and +their features were of a low type; but some, especially among the +children, were quite attractive. + +From Bonofacio we went about seven miles, across a rolling prairie +dotted with trees and clumps of shrub. There, on February 24, we +joined Amilcar, who was camped by a brook which flowed into the +Duvida. We were only some six miles from our place of embarkation on +the Duvida, and we divided our party and our belongings. Amilcar, +Miller, Mello, and Oliveira were to march three days to the Gy-Parana, +and then descend it, and continue down the Madeira to Manaos. Rondon, +Lyra, the doctor, Cherrie, Kermit, and I, with sixteen paddlers, in +seven canoes, were to descend the Duvida, and find out whether it led +into the Gy-Parana, our purpose was to return and descend the Ananas, +whose outlet was also unknown. Having this in view, we left a +fortnight's provisions for our party of six at Bonofacio. We took with +us provisions for about fifty days; not full rations, for we hoped in +part to live on the country--on fish, game, nuts, and palm-tops. Our +personal baggage was already well cut down: Cherrie, Kermit, and I +took the naturalist's fly to sleep under, and a very light little tent +extra for any one who might fall sick. Rondon, Lyra, and the doctor +took one of their own tents. The things that we carried were +necessities--food, medicines, bedding, instruments for determining the +altitude and longitude and latitude--except a few books, each in small +compass: Lyra's were in German, consisting of two tiny volumes of +Goethe and Schiller; Kermit's were in Portuguese; mine, all in +English, included the last two volumes of Gibbon, the plays of +Sophocles, More's "Utopia," Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus, the two +latter lent me by a friend, Major Shipton of the regulars, our +military attaché at Buenos Aires. + +If our canoe voyage was prosperous we would gradually lighten the +loads by eating the provisions. If we met with accidents, such as +losing canoes and men in the rapids, or losing men in encounters with +Indians, or if we encountered overmuch fever and dysentery, the loads +would lighten themselves. We were all armed. We took no cartridges for +sport. Cherrie had some to be used sparingly for collecting specimens. +The others were to be used--unless in the unlikely event of having to +repel an attack--only to procure food. The food and the arms we +carried represented all reasonable precautions against suffering and +starvation; but, of course, if the course of the river proved very +long and difficult, if we lost our boats over falls or in rapids, or +had to make too many and too long portages, or were brought to a halt +by impassable swamps, then we would have to reckon with starvation as +a possibility. Anything might happen. We were about to go into the +unknown, and no one could say what it held. + + NOTE: + The first four days, before we struck the upper rapids, and during + which we made nearly seventy kilometres, are of course not included + when I speak of our making our way down the rapids. + +I hope that this year the Ananas, or Pineapple, will also be put on +the map. One of Colonel Rondon's subordinates is to attempt the +descent of the river. We passed the headwaters of the Pineapple on the +high plateau, very possibly we passed its mouth, although it is also +possible that it empties into the Canama or Tapajos. But it will not +be "put on the map" until some one descends and finds out where, as a +matter of fact, it really does go. + +It would be well if a geographical society of standing would +investigate the formal and official charges made by Colonel Rondon, an +officer and gentleman of the highest repute, against Mr. Savage +Landor. Colonel Rondon, in an official report to the Brazilian +Government, has written a scathing review of Mr. Landor. He states +that Mr. Savage Landor did not perform, and did not even attempt to +perform, the work he had contracted to do in exploration for the +Brazilian Government. Mr. Landor had asserted and promised that he +would go through unknown country along the line of eleven degrees +latitude south, and, as Colonel Rondon states, it was because of this +proposal of his that the Brazilian Government gave him material +financial assistance in advance. However, Colonel Rondon sets forth +that Mr. Landor did not keep his word or make any serious effort to +fulfil his moral obligation to do as he had said he would do. In a +letter to me under date of May 1, 1914--a letter which has been +published in full in France--Colonel Rondon goes at length into the +question of what territory Mr. Landor had traversed. Colonel Rondon +states that--excepting on one occasion, when Mr. Landor, wandering off +a beaten trail, immediately got lost and shortly returned to his +starting-point without making any discoveries--he kept to old, well- +travelled routes. One sentence of the colonel's letter to me runs as +follows: "I can guarantee to you that in Brazil Mr. Landor did not +cross a hand's breadth of land that had not been explored, the greater +part of it many centuries ago." As regards Mr. Landor's sole and brief +experience in leaving a beaten route, Colonel Rondon states that at +Sao Manoel Mr. Landor engaged from Senhor Jose Sotero Barreto (the +revenue officer of Matto Grosso, at Sao Manoel) a guide to lead him +across a well-travelled trail which connects the Tapajos with the +Madeira via the Canama. The guide, however, got lost, and after a few +days they all returned to the point of departure instead of going +through to the Canama. + +Senhor Barreto, a gentleman of high standing, related this last +incident to Fiala when Fiala descended the Tapajos (and, by the way, +Fiala's trip down the Papagaio, Juruena, and Tapajos was infinitely +more important than all the work Mr. Landor did in South America put +together). Lieutenants Pyrineus and Mello, mentioned in the body of +this work, informed me that they accompanied Mr. Landor on most of his +overland trip before he embarked on the Arinos, and that he simply +followed the highroad or else the telegraph-line, and furthermore, +Colonel Rondon states that the Indians whom Mr. Landor encountered and +photographed were those educated at the missions. + +Colonel Rondon's official report to the Brazilian Government and his +letter to me are of interest to all geographers and other scientific +men who have any concern with the alleged discoveries of Mr. Landor. +They contain very grave charges, with which it is not necessary for me +to deal. Suffice it to say that Mr. Landor's accounts of his alleged +exploration cannot be considered as entitled to the slightest serious +consideration until he has satisfactorily and in detail answered +Colonel Rondon; and this he has thus far signally failed to do. + +Fortunately, there are numerous examples of exactly the opposite type +of work. From the days of Humboldt and Spix and Martius to the present +time, German explorers have borne a conspicuous part in the +exploration of South America. As representatives of the men and women +who have done such capital work, who have fronted every hazard and +hardship and labored in the scientific spirit, and who have added +greatly to our fund of geographic, biologic, and ethnographic +knowledge, I may mention Miss Snethlage and Herr Karl von den Steinen. + + + + VIII. THE RIVER OF DOUBT + +On February 27, 1914, shortly after midday, we started down the River +of Doubt into the unknown. We were quite uncertain whether after a +week we should find ourselves in the Gy-Parana, or after six weeks in +the Madeira, or after three months we knew not where. That was why the +river was rightly christened the Duvida. + +We had been camped close to the river, where the trail that follows +the telegraph line crosses it by a rough bridge. As our laden dugouts +swung into the stream, Amilcar and Miller and all the others of the +Gy-Parana party were on the banks and the bridge to wave farewell and +wish us good-by and good luck. It was the height of the rainy season, +and the swollen torrent was swift and brown. Our camp was at about 12 +degrees 1 minute latitude south and 60 degrees 15 minutes longitude +west of Greenwich. Our general course was to be northward toward the +equator, by waterway through the vast forest. + +We had seven canoes, all of them dugouts. One was small, one was +cranky, and two were old, waterlogged, and leaky. The other three were +good. The two old canoes were lashed together, and the cranky one was +lashed to one of the others. Kermit with two paddlers went in the +smallest of the good canoes; Colonel Rondon and Lyra with three other +paddlers in the next largest; and the doctor, Cherrie, and I in the +largest with three paddlers. The remaining eight camaradas--there were +sixteen in all--were equally divided between our two pairs of lashed +canoes. Although our personal baggage was cut down to the limit +necessary for health and efficiency, yet on such a trip as ours, where +scientific work has to be done and where food for twenty-two men for +an unknown period of time has to be carried, it is impossible not to +take a good deal of stuff; and the seven dugouts were too heavily +laden. + +The paddlers were a strapping set. They were expert rivermen and men +of the forest, skilled veterans in wilderness work. They were lithe as +panthers and brawny as bears. They swam like waterdogs. They were +equally at home with pole and paddle, with axe and machete; and one +was a good cook and others were good men around camp. They looked like +pirates in the pictures of Howard Pyle or Maxfield Parrish; one or two +of them were pirates, and one worse than a pirate; but most of them +were hard-working, willing, and cheerful. They were white,--or, +rather, the olive of southern Europe,--black, copper-colored, and of +all intermediate shades. In my canoe Luiz the steersman, the headman, +was a Matto Grosso negro; Julio the bowsman was from Bahia and of pure +Portuguese blood; and the third man, Antonio, was a Parecis Indian. + +The actual surveying of the river was done by Colonel Rondon and Lyra, +with Kermit as their assistant. Kermit went first in his little canoe +with the sighting-rod, on which two disks, one red and one white, were +placed a metre apart. He selected a place which commanded as long +vistas as possible up-stream and down, and which therefore might be at +the angle of a bend; landed; cut away the branches which obstructed +the view; and set up the sighting-pole--incidentally encountering +maribundi wasps and swarms of biting and stinging ants. Lyra, from his +station up-stream, with his telemetre established the distance, while +Colonel Rondon with the compass took the direction, and made the +records. Then they moved on to the point Kermit had left, and Kermit +established a new point within their sight. The first half-day's work +was slow. The general course of the stream was a trifle east of north, +but at short intervals it bent and curved literally toward every point +of the compass. Kermit landed nearly a hundred times, and we made but +nine and a third kilometres. + +My canoe ran ahead of the surveying canoes. The height of the water +made the going easy, for most of the snags and fallen trees were well +beneath the surface. Now and then, however, the swift water hurried us +toward ripples that marked ugly spikes of sunken timber, or toward +uprooted trees that stretched almost across the stream. Then the +muscles stood out on the backs and arms of the paddlers as stroke on +stroke they urged us away from and past the obstacle. If the leaning +or fallen trees were the thorny, slender-stemmed boritana palms, which +love the wet, they were often, although plunged beneath the river, in +full and vigorous growth, their stems curving upward, and their frond- +crowned tops shaken by the rushing water. It was interesting work, for +no civilized man, no white man, had ever gone down or up this river or +seen the country through which we were passing. The lofty and matted +forest rose like a green wall on either hand. The trees were stately +and beautiful. The looped and twisted vines hung from them like great +ropes. Masses of epiphytes grew both on the dead trees and the living; +some had huge leaves like elephants' ears. Now and then fragrant +scents were blown to us from flowers on the banks. There were not many +birds, and for the most part the forest was silent; rarely we heard +strange calls from the depths of the woods, or saw a cormorant or +ibis. + +My canoe ran only a couple of hours. Then we halted to wait for the +others. After a couple of hours more, as the surveyors had not turned +up, we landed and made camp at a spot where the bank rose sharply for +a hundred yards to a level stretch of ground. Our canoes were moored +to trees. The axemen cleared a space for the tents; they were pitched, +the baggage was brought up, and fires were kindled. The woods were +almost soundless. Through them ran old tapir trails, but there was no +fresh sign. Before nightfall the surveyors arrived. There were a few +piums and gnats, and a few mosquitoes after dark, but not enough to +make us uncomfortable. The small stingless bees, of slightly aromatic +odor, swarmed while daylight lasted and crawled over our faces and +hands; they were such tame, harmless little things that when they +tickled too much I always tried to brush them away without hurting +them. But they became a great nuisance after a while. It had been +raining at intervals, and the weather was overcast; but after the sun +went down the sky cleared. The stars were brilliant overhead, and the +new moon hung in the west. It was a pleasant night, the air almost +cool, and we slept soundly. + +Next morning the two surveying canoes left immediately after +breakfast. An hour later the two pairs of lashed canoes pushed off. I +kept our canoe to let Cherrie collect, for in the early hours we could +hear a number of birds in the woods near by. The most interesting +birds he shot were a cotinga, brilliant turquoise-blue with a magenta- +purple throat, and a big woodpecker, black above and cinnamon below +with an entirely red head and neck. It was almost noon before we +started. We saw a few more birds; there were fresh tapir and paca +tracks at one point where we landed; once we heard howler monkeys from +the depth of the forest, and once we saw a big otter in midstream. As +we drifted and paddled down the swirling brown current, through the +vivid rain-drenched green of the tropic forest, the trees leaned over +the river from both banks. When those that had fallen in the river at +some narrow point were very tall, or where it happened that two fell +opposite each other, they formed barriers which the men in the leading +canoes cleared with their axes. There were many palms, both the burity +with its stiff fronds like enormous fans, and a handsome species of +bacaba, with very long, gracefully curving fronds. In places the palms +stood close together, towering and slender, their stems a stately +colonnade, their fronds an arched fretwork against the sky. +Butterflies of many hues fluttered over the river. The day was +overcast, with showers of rain. When the sun broke through rifts in +the clouds, his shafts turned the forest to gold. + +In mid-afternoon we came to the mouth of a big and swift affluent +entering from the right. It was undoubtedly the Bandeira, which we had +crossed well toward its head, some ten days before, on our road to +Bonofacio. The Nhambiquaras had then told Colonel Rondon that it +flowed into the Duvida. After its junction, with the added volume of +water, the river widened without losing its depth. It was so high that +it had overflowed and stood among the trees on the lower levels. Only +the higher stretches were dry. On the sheer banks where we landed we +had to push the canoes for yards or rods through the branches of the +submerged trees, hacking and hewing. There were occasional bays and +ox-bows from which the current had shifted. In these the coarse marsh +grass grew tall. + +This evening we made camp on a flat of dry ground, densely wooded, of +course, directly on the edge of the river and five feet above it. It +was fine to see the speed and sinewy ease with which the choppers +cleared an open space for the tents. Next morning, when we bathed +before sunrise, we dived into deep water right from the shore, and +from the moored canoes. This second day we made sixteen and a half +kilometres along the course of the river, and nine kilometres in a +straight line almost due north. + +The following day, March 1, there was much rain--sometimes showers, +sometimes vertical sheets of water. Our course was somewhat west of +north and we made twenty and a half kilometres. We passed signs of +Indian habitation. There were abandoned palm-leaf shelters on both +banks. On the left bank we came to two or three old Indian fields, +grown up with coarse fern and studded with the burned skeletons of +trees. At the mouth of a brook which entered from the right some +sticks stood in the water, marking the site of an old fish-trap. At +one point we found the tough vine hand-rail of an Indian bridge +running right across the river, a couple of feet above it. Evidently +the bridge had been built at low water. Three stout poles had been +driven into the stream-bed in a line at right angles to the current. +The bridge had consisted of poles fastened to these supports, leading +between them and from the support at each end to the banks. The rope +of tough vines had been stretched as a hand-rail, necessary with such +precarious footing. The rise of the river had swept away the bridge, +but the props and the rope hand-rail remained. In the afternoon, from +the boat, Cherrie shot a large dark-gray monkey with a prehensile +tail. It was very good eating. + +We camped on a dry level space, but a few feet above, and close +beside, the river--so that our swimming-bath was handy. The trees were +cleared and camp was made with orderly hurry. One of the men almost +stepped on a poisonous coral-snake, which would have been a serious +thing, as his feet were bare. But I had on stout shoes, and the fangs +of these serpents--unlike those of the pit-vipers--are too short to +penetrate good leather. I promptly put my foot on him, and he bit my +shoe with harmless venom. It has been said that the brilliant hues of +the coral-snake when in its native haunts really confer on it a +concealing coloration. In the dark and tangled woods, and to an only +less extent in the ordinary varied landscape, anything motionless, +especially if partially hidden, easily eludes the eye. But against the +dark-brown mould of the forest floor on which we found this coral- +snake its bright and varied coloration was distinctly revealing; +infinitely more so than the duller mottling of the jararaca and other +dangerous snakes of the genus lachecis. In the same place, however, we +found a striking example of genuine protective or mimetic coloration +and shape. A rather large insect larva--at least we judged it to be a +larval form, but we were none of us entomologists--bore a resemblance +to a partially curled dry leaf which was fairly startling. The tail +exactly resembled the stem or continuation of the midrib of the dead +leaf. The flattened body was curled up at the sides, and veined and +colored precisely like the leaf. The head, colored like the leaf, +projected in front. + +We were still in the Brazilian highlands. The forest did not teem with +life. It was generally rather silent; we did not hear such a chorus of +birds and mammals as we had occasionally heard even on our overland +journey, when more than once we had been awakened at dawn by the +howling, screaming, yelping, and chattering of monkeys, toucans, +macaws, parrots, and parakeets. There were, however, from time to +time, queer sounds from the forest, and after nightfall different +kinds of frogs and insects uttered strange cries and calls. In volume +and frequency these seemed to increase until midnight. Then they died +away and before dawn everything was silent. + +At this camp the carregadores ants completely devoured the doctor's +undershirt, and ate holes in his mosquito-net; and they also ate the +strap of Lyra's gun-case. The little stingless bees, of many kinds, +swarmed in such multitudes, and were so persevering, that we had to +wear our head-nets when we wrote or skinned specimens. + +The following day was almost without rain. It was delightful to drift +and paddle slowly down the beautiful tropical river. Until mid- +afternoon the current was not very fast, and the broad, deep, placid +stream bent and curved in every direction, although the general course +was northwest. The country was flat, and more of the land was under +than above water. Continually we found ourselves travelling between +stretches of marshy forest where for miles the water stood or ran +among the trees. Once we passed a hillock. We saw brilliantly colored +parakeets and trogons. At last the slow current quickened. Faster it +went, and faster, until it began to run like a mill-race, and we heard +the roar of rapids ahead. We pulled to the right bank, moored the +canoes, and while most of the men pitched camp two or three of them +accompanied us to examine the rapids. We had made twenty kilometres. + +We soon found that the rapids were a serious obstacle. There were many +curls, and one or two regular falls, perhaps six feet high. It would +have been impossible to run them, and they stretched for nearly a +mile. The carry, however, which led through woods and over rocks in a +nearly straight line, was somewhat shorter. It was not an easy portage +over which to carry heavy loads and drag heavy dugout canoes. At the +point where the descent was steepest there were great naked flats of +friable sandstone and conglomerate. Over parts of these, where there +was a surface of fine sand, there was a growth of coarse grass. Other +parts were bare and had been worn by the weather into fantastic +shapes--one projection looked like an old-fashioned beaver hat upside +down. In this place, where the naked flats of rock showed the +projection of the ledge through which the river had cut its course, +the torrent rushed down a deep, sheer-sided, and extremely narrow +channel. At one point it was less than two yards across, and for quite +a distance not more than five or six yards. Yet only a mile or two +above the rapids the deep, placid river was at least a hundred yards +wide. It seemed extraordinary, almost impossible, that so broad a +river could in so short a space of time contract its dimensions to the +width of the strangled channel through which it now poured its entire +volume. + +This has for long been a station where the Nhambiquaras at intervals +built their ephemeral villages and tilled the soil with the rude and +destructive cultivation of savages. There were several abandoned old +fields, where the dense growth of rank fern hid the tangle of burnt +and fallen logs. Nor had the Nhambiquaras been long absent. In one +trail we found what gypsies would have called a "pateran," a couple of +branches arranged crosswise, eight leaves to a branch; it had some +special significance, belonging to that class of signals, each with +some peculiar and often complicated meaning, which are commonly used +by many wild peoples. The Indians had thrown a simple bridge, +consisting of four long poles, without a hand-rail, across one of the +narrowest parts of the rock gorge through which the river foamed in +its rapid descent. This sub-tribe of Indians was called the Navaite; +we named the rapids after them, Navaite Rapids. By observation Lyra +found them to be (in close approximation to) latitude 11 degrees 44 +minutes south and longitude 60 degrees 18 minutes west from Greenwich. + +We spent March 3 and 4 and the morning of the 5th in portaging around +the rapids. The first night we camped in the forest beside the spot +where we had halted. Next morning we moved the baggage to the foot of +the rapids, where we intended to launch the canoes, and pitched our +tents on the open sandstone flat. It rained heavily. The little bees +were in such swarms as to be a nuisance. Many small stinging bees were +with them, which stung badly. We were bitten by huge horse-flies, the +size of bumblebees. More serious annoyance was caused by the pium and +boroshuda flies during the hours of daylight, and by the polvora, the +sand-flies, after dark. There were a few mosquitoes. The boroshudas +were the worst pests; they brought the blood at once, and left marks +that lasted for weeks. I did my writing in head-net and gauntlets. +Fortunately we had with us several bottles of "fly dope"--so named on +the label--put up, with the rest of our medicine, by Doctor Alexander +Lambert; he had tested it in the north woods and found it excellent. I +had never before been forced to use such an ointment, and had been +reluctant to take it with me; but now I was glad enough to have it, +and we all of us found it exceedingly useful. I would never again go +into mosquito or sand-fly country without it. The effect of an +application wears off after half an hour or so, and under many +conditions, as when one is perspiring freely, it is of no use; but +there are times when minute mosquitoes and gnats get through head-nets +and under mosquito-bars, and when the ointments occasionally renewed +may permit one to get sleep or rest which would otherwise be +impossible of attainment. The termites got into our tent on the sand- +flat, ate holes in Cherrie's mosquito-net and poncho, and were +starting to work at our duffel-bags, when we discovered them. + +Packing the loads across was simple. Dragging the heavy dugouts was +labor. The biggest of the two water-logged ones was the heaviest. Lyra +and Kermit did the job. All the men were employed at it except the +cook, and one man who was down with fever. A road was chopped through +the forest and a couple of hundred stout six-foot poles, or small +logs, were cut as rollers and placed about two yards apart. With block +and tackle the seven dugouts were hoisted out of the river up the +steep banks, and up the rise of ground until the level was reached. +Then the men harnessed themselves two by two on the drag-rope, while +one of their number pried behind with a lever, and the canoe, bumping +and sliding, was twitched through the woods. Over the sandstone flats +there were some ugly ledges, but on the whole the course was down-hill +and relatively easy. Looking at the way the work was done, at the +good-will, the endurance, and the bull-like strength of the camaradas, +and at the intelligence and the unwearied efforts of their commanders, +one could but wonder at the ignorance of those who do not realize the +energy and the power that are so often possessed by, and that may be +so readily developed in, the men of the tropics. Another subject of +perpetual wonder is the attitude of certain men who stay at home, and +still more the attitude of certain men who travel under easy +conditions, and who belittle the achievements of the real explorers +of, the real adventures in, the great wilderness. The impostors and +romancers among explorers or would-be explorers and wilderness +wanderers have been unusually prominent in connection with South +America (although the conspicuous ones are not South Americans, by the +way); and these are fit subjects for condemnation and derision. But +the work of the genuine explorer and wilderness wanderer is fraught +with fatigue, hardship, and danger. Many of the men of little +knowledge talk glibly of portaging as if it were simple and easy. A +portage over rough and unknown ground is always a work of difficulty +and of some risk to the canoe; and in the untrodden, or even in the +unfrequented, wilderness risk to the canoe is a serious matter. This +particular portage at Navaite Rapids was far from being unusually +difficult; yet it not only cost two and a half days of severe and +incessant labor, but it cost something in damage to the canoes. One in +particular, the one in which I had been journeying, was split in a +manner which caused us serious uneasiness as to how long, even after +being patched, it would last. Where the canoes were launched, the bank +was sheer, and one of the water-logged canoes filled and went to the +bottom; and there was more work in raising it. + +We were still wholly unable to tell where we were going or what lay +ahead of us. Round the camp-fire, after supper, we held endless +discussions and hazarded all kinds of guesses on both subjects. The +river might bend sharply to the west and enter the Gy-Parana high up +or low down, or go north to the Madeira, or bend eastward and enter +the Tapajos, or fall into the Canuma and finally through one of its +mouths enter the Amazon direct. Lyra inclined to the first, and +Colonel Rondon to the second, of these propositions. We did not know +whether we had one hundred or eight hundred kilometres to go, whether +the stream would be fairly smooth or whether we would encounter +waterfalls, or rapids, or even some big marsh or lake. We could not +tell whether or not we would meet hostile Indians, although no one of +us ever went ten yards from camp without his rifle. We had no idea how +much time the trip would take. We had entered a land of unknown +possibilities. + +We started down-stream again early in the afternoon of March 5. Our +hands and faces were swollen from the bites and stings of the insect +pests at the sand-flat camp, and it was a pleasure once more to be in +the middle of the river, where they did not come, in any numbers, +while we were in motion. The current was swift, but the river was so +deep that there were no serious obstructions. Twice we went down over +slight riffles, which in the dry season were doubtless rapids; and +once we struck a spot where many whirlpools marked the presence +underneath of boulders which would have been above water had not the +river been so swollen by the rains. The distance we covered in a day +going down-stream would have taken us a week if we had been going up. +The course wound hither and thither, sometimes in sigmoid curves; but +the general direction was east of north. As usual, it was very +beautiful; and we never could tell what might appear around any curve. +In the forest that rose on either hand were tall rubber-trees. The +surveying canoes, as usual, went first, while I shepherded the two +pairs of lashed cargo canoes. I kept them always between me and the +surveying canoes--ahead of me until I passed the surveying canoes, +then behind me until, after an hour or so, I had chosen a place to +camp. There was so much overflowed ground that it took us some little +time this afternoon before we found a flat place high enough to be +dry. Just before reaching camp Cherrie shot a jacu, a handsome bird +somewhat akin to, but much smaller than, a turkey; after Cherrie had +taken its skin, its body made an excellent canja. We saw parties of +monkeys; and the false bellbirds uttered their ringing whistles in +the dense timber around our tents. The giant ants, an inch and a +quarter long, were rather too plentiful around this camp; one stung +Kermit; it was almost like the sting of a small scorpion, and pained +severely for a couple of hours. This half-day we made twelve +kilometres. + +On the following day we made nineteen kilometres, the river twisting +in every direction, but in its general course running a little west of +north. Once we stopped at a bee-tree, to get honey. The tree was a +towering giant, of the kind called milk-tree, because a thick milky +juice runs freely from any cut. Our camaradas eagerly drank the white +fluid that flowed from the wounds made by their axes. I tried it. The +taste was not unpleasant, but it left a sticky feeling in the mouth. +The helmsman of my boat, Luiz, a powerful negro, chopped into the +tree, balancing himself with springy ease on a slight scaffolding. The +honey was in a hollow, and had been made by medium-sized stingless +bees. At the mouth of the hollow they had built a curious entrance of +their own, in the shape of a spout of wax about a foot long. At the +opening the walls of the spout showed the wax formation, but elsewhere +it had become in color and texture indistinguishable from the bark of +the tree. The honey was delicious, sweet and yet with a tart flavor. +The comb differed much from that of our honey-bees. The honey-cells +were very large, and the brood-cells, which were small, were in a +single instead of a double row. By this tree I came across an example +of genuine concealing coloration. A huge tree-toad, the size of a +bullfrog, was seated upright--not squatted flat--on a big rotten limb. +It was absolutely motionless; the yellow brown of its back, and its +dark sides, exactly harmonized in color with the light and dark +patches on the log; the color was as concealing, here in its natural +surroundings, as is the color of our common wood-frog among the dead +leaves of our woods. When I stirred it up it jumped to a small twig, +catching hold with the disks of its finger-tips, and balancing itself +with unexpected ease for so big a creature, and then hopped to the +ground and again stood motionless. Evidently it trusted for safety to +escaping observation. We saw some monkeys and fresh tapir sign, and +Kermit shot a jacu for the pot. + +At about three o'clock I was in the lead, when the current began to +run more quickly. We passed over one or two decided ripples, and then +heard the roar of rapids ahead, while the stream began to race. We +drove the canoe into the bank, and then went down a tapir trail, which +led alongside the river, to reconnoiter. A quarter of a mile's walk +showed us that there were big rapids, down which the canoes could not +go; and we returned to the landing. All the canoes had gathered there, +and Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit started down-stream to explore. They +returned in an hour, with the information that the rapids continued +for a long distance, with falls and steep pitches of broken water, and +that the portage would take several days. We made camp just above the +rapids. Ants swarmed, and some of them bit savagely. Our men, in +clearing away the forest for our tents, left several very tall and +slender accashy palms; the bole of this palm is as straight as an +arrow and is crowned with delicate, gracefully curved fronds. We had +come along the course of the river almost exactly a hundred +kilometres; it had twisted so that we were only about fifty-five +kilometres north of our starting-point. The rock was porphyritic. + +The 7th, 8th, and 9th we spent in carrying the loads and dragging and +floating the dugouts past the series of rapids at whose head we had +stopped. + +The first day we shifted camp a kilometre and a half to the foot of +this series of rapids. This was a charming and picturesque camp. It +was at the edge of the river, where there was a little, shallow bay +with a beach of firm sand. In the water, at the middle point of the +beach, stood a group of three burity palms, their great trunks rising +like columns. Round the clearing in which our tents stood were several +very big trees; two of them were rubber-trees. Kermit went down-stream +five or six kilometres, and returned, having shot a jacu and found +that at the point which he had reached there was another rapids, +almost a fall, which would necessitate our again dragging the canoes +over a portage. Antonio, the Parecis, shot a big monkey; of this I was +glad because portaging is hard work, and the men appreciated the +meat. So far Cherrie had collected sixty birds on the Duvida, all of +them new to the collection, and some probably new to science. We saw +the fresh sign of paca, agouti, and the small peccary, and Kermit with +the dogs roused a tapir, which crossed the river right through the +rapids; but no one got a shot at it. + +Except at one or perhaps two points a very big dugout, lightly loaded, +could probably run all these rapids. But even in such a canoe it would +be silly to make the attempt on an exploring expedition, where the +loss of a canoe or of its contents means disaster; and moreover such a +canoe could not be taken, for it would be impossible to drag it over +the portages on the occasions when the portages became inevitable. Our +canoes would not have lived half a minute in the wild water. + +On the second day the canoes and loads were brought down to the foot +of the first rapids. Lyra cleared the path and laid the logs for +rollers, while Kermit dragged the dugouts up the bank from the water +with block and tackle, with strain of rope and muscle. Then they +joined forces, as over the uneven ground it needed the united strength +of all their men to get the heavy dugouts along. Meanwhile the colonel +with one attendant measured the distance, and then went on a long +hunt, but saw no game. I strolled down beside the river for a couple +of miles, but also saw nothing. In the dense tropical forest of the +Amazonian basin hunting is very difficult, especially for men who are +trying to pass through the country as rapidly as possible. On such a +trip as ours getting game is largely a matter of chance. + +On the following day Lyra and Kermit brought down the canoes and +loads, with hard labor, to the little beach by the three palms where +our tents were pitched. Many pacovas grew round about. The men used +their immense leaves, some of which were twelve feet long and two and +a half feet broad, to roof the flimsy shelters under which they hung +their hammocks. I went into the woods, but in the tangle of vegetation +it would have been a mere hazard had I seen any big animal. Generally +the woods were silent and empty. Now and then little troops of birds +of many kinds passed--wood-hewers, ant-thrushes, tanagers, +flycatchers; as in the spring and fall similar troops of warblers, +chickadees, and nuthatches pass through our northern woods. On the +rocks and on the great trees by the river grew beautiful white and +lilac orchids, the sobralia, of sweet and delicate fragrance. For the +moment my own books seemed a trifle heavy, and perhaps I would have +found the day tedious if Kermit had not lent me the Oxford Book of +French Verse. Eustache Deschamp, Joachim du Bellay, Ronsard, the +delightful La Fontaine, the delightful but appalling Villon, Victor +Hugo's "Guitare," Madame Desbordes-Valmore's lines on the little girl +and her pillow, as dear little verses about a child as ever were +written--these and many others comforted me much, as I read them in +head-net and gauntlets, sitting on a log by an unknown river in the +Amazonian forest. + +On the 10th we again embarked and made a kilometre and a half, +spending most of the time in getting past two more rapids. Near the +first of these we saw a small cayman, a jacare-tinga. At each set of +rapids the canoes were unloaded and the loads borne past on the +shoulders of the camaradas; three of the canoes were paddled down by a +couple of naked paddlers apiece; and the two sets of double canoes +were let down by ropes, one of one couple being swamped but rescued +and brought safely to shore on each occasion. One of the men was upset +while working in the swift water, and his face was cut against the +stones. Lyra and Kermit did the actual work with the camaradas. +Kermit, dressed substantially like the camaradas themselves, worked in +the water, and, as the overhanging branches were thronged with crowds +of biting and stinging ants, he was marked and blistered over his +whole body. Indeed, we all suffered more or less from these ants; +while the swarms of biting flies grew constantly more numerous. The +termites ate holes in my helmet and also in the cover of my cot. Every +one else had a hammock. At this camp we had come down the river about +102 kilometres, according to the surveying records, and in height had +descended nearly 100 metres, as shown by the aneroid--although the +figure in this case is only an approximation, as an aneroid cannot be +depended on for absolute accuracy of results. + +Next morning we found that during the night we had met with a serious +misfortune. We had halted at the foot of the rapids. The canoes were +moored to trees on the bank, at the tail of the broken water. The two +old canoes, although one of them was our biggest cargo-carrier, were +water-logged and heavy, and one of them was leaking. In the night the +river rose. The leaky canoe, which at best was too low in the water, +must have gradually filled from the wash of the waves. It sank, +dragging down the other; they began to roll, bursting their moorings; +and in the morning they had disappeared. A canoe was launched to look +for them; but, rolling over the boulders on the rocky bottom, they had +at once been riven asunder, and the big fragments that were soon +found, floating in eddies, or along the shore, showed that it was +useless to look farther. We called these rapids Broken Canoe Rapids. + +It was not pleasant to have to stop for some days; thanks to the +rapids, we had made slow progress, and with our necessarily limited +supply of food, and no knowledge whatever of what was ahead of us, it +was important to make good time. But there was no alternative. We had +to build either one big canoe or two small ones. It was raining +heavily as the men started to explore in different directions for good +canoe trees. Three--which ultimately proved not very good for the +purpose--were found close to camp; splendid-looking trees, one of them +five feet in diameter three feet from the ground. The axemen +immediately attacked this one under the superintendence of Colonel +Rondon. Lyra and Kermit started in opposite directions to hunt. Lyra +killed a jacu for us, and Kermit killed two monkeys for the men. +Toward night fall it cleared. The moon was nearly full, and the +foaming river gleamed like silver. + +Our men were "regional volunteers," that is, they had enlisted in the +service of the Telegraphic Commission especially to do this wilderness +work, and were highly paid, as was fitting, in view of the toil, +hardship, and hazard to life and health. Two of them had been with +Colonel Rondon during his eight months' exploration in 1909, at which +time his men were regulars, from his own battalion of engineers. His +four aides during the closing months of this trip were Lieutenants +Lyra, Amarante, Alencarliense, and Pyrineus. The naturalist Miranda +Ribeiro also accompanied him. This was the year when, marching on foot +through an absolutely unknown wilderness, the colonel and his party +finally reached the Gy-Parana, which on the maps was then (and on most +maps is now) placed in an utterly wrong course, and over a degree out +of its real position. When they reached the affluents of the Gy-Parana +a third of the members of the party were so weak with fever that they +could hardly crawl. They had no baggage. Their clothes were in +tatters, and some of the men were almost naked. For months they had +had no food except what little game they shot, and especially the wild +fruits and nuts; if it had not been for the great abundance of the +Brazil-nuts they would all have died. At the first big stream they +encountered they built a canoe, and Alencarliense took command of it +and descended to map the course of the river. With him went Ribeiro, +the doctor Tanageira, who could no longer walk on account of the +ulceration of one foot, three men whom the fever had rendered unable +longer to walk, and six men who were as yet well enough to handle the +canoe. By the time the remainder of the party came to the next +navigable river eleven more fever-stricken men had nearly reached the +end of their tether. Here they ran across a poor devil who had for +four months been lost in the forest and was dying of slow starvation. +He had eaten nothing but Brazil-nuts and the grubs of insects. He +could no longer walk, but could sit erect and totter feebly for a few +feet. Another canoe was built, and in it Pyrineus started down-stream +with the eleven fever patients and the starving wanderer. Colonel +Rondon kept up the morale of his men by still carrying out the forms +of military discipline. The ragged bugler had his bugle. Lieutenant +Pyrineus had lost every particle of his clothing except a hat and a +pair of drawers. The half-naked lieutenant drew up his eleven fever +patients in line; the bugle sounded; every one came to attention; and +the haggard colonel read out the orders of the day. Then the dugout +with its load of sick men started down-stream, and Rondon, Lyra, +Amarante, and the twelve remaining men resumed their weary march. When +a fortnight later they finally struck a camp of rubber-gatherers three +of the men were literally and entirely naked. Meanwhile Amilcar had +ascended the Jacyparana a month or two previously with provisions to +meet them; for at that time the maps incorrectly treated this river as +larger, instead of smaller, than the Gy-Parana, which they were in +fact descending; and Colonel Rondon had supposed that they were going +down the former stream. Amilcar returned after himself suffering much +hardship and danger. The different parties finally met at the mouth of +the Gy-Parana, where it enters the Madeira. The lost man whom they had +found seemed on the road to recovery, and they left him at a ranch, on +the Madeira, where he could be cared for; yet after they had left him +they heard that he had died. + +On the 12th the men were still hard at work hollowing out the hard +wood of the big tree, with axe and adze, while watch and ward were +kept over them to see that the idlers did not shirk at the expense of +the industrious. Kermit and Lyra again hunted; the former shot a +curassow, which was welcome, as we were endeavoring in all ways to +economize our food supply. We were using the tops of palms also. I +spent the day hunting in the woods, for the most part by the river, +but saw nothing. In the season of the rains game is away from the +river and fish are scarce and turtles absent. Yet it was pleasant to +be in the great silent forest. Here and there grew immense trees, and +on some of them mighty buttresses sprang from the base. The lianas and +vines were of every size and shape. Some were twisted and some were +not. Some came down straight and slender from branches a hundred feet +above. Others curved like long serpents around the trunks. Others were +like knotted cables. In the shadow there was little noise. The wind +rarely moved the hot, humid air. There were few flowers or birds. +Insects were altogether too abundant, and even when travelling slowly +it was impossible always to avoid them--not to speak of our constant +companions the bees, mosquitoes, and especially the boroshudas or +bloodsucking flies. Now while bursting through a tangle I disturbed a +nest of wasps, whose resentment was active; now I heedlessly stepped +among the outliers of a small party of the carnivorous foraging ants; +now, grasping a branch as I stumbled, I shook down a shower of fire- +ants; and among all these my attention was particularly arrested by +the bite of one of the giant ants, which stung like a hornet, so that +I felt it for three hours. The camarades generally went barefoot or +only wore sandals; and their ankles and feet were swollen and inflamed +from the bites of the boroshudas and ants, some being actually +incapacitated from work. All of us suffered more or less, our faces +and hands swelling slightly from the boroshuda bites; and in spite of +our clothes we were bitten all over our bodies, chiefly by ants and +the small forest ticks. Because of the rain and the heat our clothes +were usually wet when we took them off at night, and just as wet when +we put them on again in the morning. + +All day on the 13th the men worked at the canoe, making good progress. +In rolling and shifting the huge, heavy tree-trunk every one had to +assist now and then. The work continued until ten in the evening, as +the weather was clear. After nightfall some of the men held candles +and the others plied axe or adze, standing within or beside the great, +half-hollowed logs, while the flicker of the lights showed the tropic +forest rising in the darkness round about. The night air was hot and +still and heavy with moisture. The men were stripped to the waist. +Olive and copper and ebony, their skins glistened as if oiled, and +rippled with the ceaseless play of the thews beneath. + +On the morning of the 14th the work was resumed in a torrential tropic +downpour. The canoe was finished, dragged down to the water, and +launched soon after midday, and another hour or so saw us under way. +The descent was marked, and the swollen river raced along. Several +times we passed great whirlpools, sometimes shifting, sometimes +steady. Half a dozen times we ran over rapids, and, although they were +not high enough to have been obstacles to loaded Canadian canoes, two +of them were serious to us. Our heavily laden, clumsy dugouts were +sunk to within three or four inches of the surface of the river, and, +although they were buoyed on each side with bundles of burity-palm +branch-stems, they shipped a great deal of water in the rapids. The +two biggest rapids we only just made, and after each we had hastily to +push ashore in order to bail. In one set of big ripples or waves my +canoe was nearly swamped. In a wilderness, where what is ahead is +absolutely unknown, alike in terms of time, space, and method--for we +had no idea where we would come out, how we would get out, or when we +would get out--it is of vital consequence not to lose one's outfit, +especially the provisions; and yet it is of only less consequence to +go as rapidly as possible lest all the provisions be exhausted and the +final stages of the expedition be accomplished by men weakened from +semi-starvation, and therefore ripe for disaster. On this occasion, of +the two hazards, we felt it necessary to risk running the rapids; for +our progress had been so very slow that unless we made up the time, it +was probable that we would be short of food before we got where we +could expect to procure any more except what little the country in the +time of the rains and floods, might yield. We ran until after five, so +that the work of pitching camp was finished in the dark. We had made +nearly sixteen kilometres in a direction slightly east of north. This +evening the air was fresh and cool. + +The following morning, the 15th of March, we started in good season. +For six kilometres we drifted and paddled down the swift river without +incident. At times we saw lofty Brazil-nut trees rising above the rest +of the forest on the banks; and back from the river these trees grow +to enormous proportions, towering like giants. There were great +rubber-trees also, their leaves always in sets of threes. Then the +ground on either hand rose into boulder-strewn, forest-clad hills and +the roar of broken water announced that once more our course was +checked by dangerous rapids. Round a bend we came on them; a wide +descent of white water, with an island in the middle, at the upper +edge. Here grave misfortune befell us, and graver misfortune was +narrowly escaped. + +Kermit, as usual, was leading in his canoe. It was the smallest and +least seaworthy of all. He had in it little except a week's supply of +our boxed provisions and a few tools; fortunately none of the food for +the camaradas. His dog Trigueiro was with him. Besides himself, the +crew consisted of two men: Joao, the helmsman, or pilot, as he is +called in Brazil, and Simplicio, the bowsman. Both were negroes and +exceptionally good men in every way. Kermit halted his canoe on the +left bank, above the rapids, and waited for the colonel's canoe. Then +the colonel and Lyra walked down the bank to see what was ahead. +Kermit took his canoe across to the island to see whether the descent +could be better accomplished on the other side. Having made his +investigation, he ordered the men to return to the bank he had left, +and the dugout was headed up-stream accordingly. Before they had gone +a dozen yards, the paddlers digging their paddles with all their +strength into the swift current, one of the shifting whirlpools of +which I have spoken came down-stream, whirled them around, and swept +them so close to the rapids that no human power could avoid going over +them. As they were drifting into them broadside on, Kermit yelled to +the steersman to turn her head, so as to take them in the only way +that offered any chance whatever of safety. The water came aboard, +wave after wave, as they raced down. They reached the bottom with the +canoe upright, but so full as barely to float, and the paddlers urged +her toward the shore. They had nearly reached the bank when another +whirlpool or whirling eddy tore them away and hurried them back to +midstream, where the dugout filled and turned over. Joao, seizing the +rope, started to swim ashore; the rope was pulled from his hand, but +he reached the bank. Poor Simplicio must have been pulled under at +once and his life beaten out on the boulders beneath the racing +torrent. He never rose again, nor did we ever recover his body. Kermit +clutched his rifle, his favorite 405 Winchester with which he had done +most of his hunting both in Africa and America, and climbed on the +bottom of the upset boat. In a minute he was swept into the second +series of rapids, and whirled away from the rolling boat, losing his +rifle. The water beat his helmet down over his head and face and drove +him beneath the surface; and when he rose at last he was almost +drowned, his breath and strength almost spent. He was in swift but +quiet water, and swam toward an overhanging branch. His jacket +hindered him, but he knew he was too nearly gone to be able to get it +off, and, thinking with the curious calm one feels when death is but a +moment away, he realized that the utmost his failing strength could do +was to reach the branch. He reached, and clutched it, and then almost +lacked strength to haul himself out on the land. Good Trigueiro had +faithfully swum alongside him through the rapids, and now himself +scrambled ashore. It was a very narrow escape. Kermit was a great +comfort and help to me on the trip; but the fear of some fatal +accident befalling him was always a nightmare to me. He was to be +married as soon as the trip was over; and it did not seem to me that I +could bear to bring bad tidings to his betrothed and to his mother. + +Simplicio was unmarried. Later we sent to his mother all the money +that would have been his had he lived. The following morning we put on +one side of the post erected to mark our camping-spot the following +inscription, in Portuguese: + + "IN THESE RAPIDS DIED POOR SIMPLICIO." + +On an expedition such as ours death is one of the accidents that may +at any time occur, and narrow escapes from death are too common to be +felt as they would be felt elsewhere. One mourns sincerely, but +mourning cannot interfere with labor. We immediately proceeded with +the work of the portage. From the head to the tail of this series of +rapids the distance was about six hundred yards. A path was cut along +the bank, over which the loads were brought. The empty canoes ran the +rapids without mishap, each with two skilled paddlers. One of the +canoes almost ran into a swimming tapir at the head of the rapids; it +went down the rapids, and then climbed out of the river. Kermit +accompanied by Joao, went three or four miles down the river, looking +for the body of Simplicio and for the sunk canoe. He found neither. +But he found a box of provisions and a paddle, and salvaged both by +swimming into midstream after them. He also found that a couple of +kilometres below there was another stretch of rapids, and following +them on the left-hand bank to the foot he found that they were worse +than the ones we had just passed, and impassable for canoes on this +left-hand side. + +We camped at the foot of the rapids we had just passed. There were +many small birds here, but it was extremely difficult to see or shoot +them in the lofty tree tops, and to find them in the tangle beneath if +they were shot. However, Cherrie got four species new to the +collection. One was a tiny hummer, one of the species known as +woodstars, with dainty but not brilliant plumage; its kind is never +found except in the deep, dark woods, not coming out into the +sunshine. Its crop was filled with ants; when shot it was feeding at a +cluster of long red flowers. He also got a very handsome trogon and an +exquisite little tanager, as brilliant as a cluster of jewels; its +throat was lilac, its breast turquoise, its crown and forehead topaz, +while above it was glossy purple-black, the lower part of the back +ruby-red. This tanager was a female; I can hardly imagine that the +male is more brilliantly colored. The fourth bird was a queer hawk of +the genus ibycter, black, with a white belly, naked red cheeks and +throat and red legs and feet. Its crop was filled with the seeds of +fruits and a few insect remains; an extraordinary diet for a hawk. + +The morning of the 16th was dark and gloomy. Through sheets of +blinding rain we left our camp of misfortune for another camp where +misfortune also awaited us. Less than half an hour took our dugouts to +the head of the rapids below. As Kermit had already explored the left- +hand side, Colonel Rondon and Lyra went down the right-hand side and +found a channel which led round the worst part, so that they deemed it +possible to let down the canoes by ropes from the bank. The distance +to the foot of the rapids was about a kilometre. While the loads were +being brought down the left bank, Luiz and Antonio Correa, our two +best watermen, started to take a canoe down the right side, and +Colonel Rondon walked ahead to see anything he could about the river. +He was accompanied by one of our three dogs, Lobo. After walking about +a kilometre he heard ahead a kind of howling noise, which he thought +was made by spider-monkeys. He walked in the direction of the sound +and Lobo ran ahead. In a minute he heard Lobo yell with pain, and +then, still yelping, come toward him, while the creature that was +howling also approached, evidently in pursuit. In a moment a second +yell from Lobo, followed by silence, announced that he was dead; and +the sound of the howling when near convinced Rondon that the dog had +been killed by an Indian, doubtless with two arrows. Probably the +Indian was howling to lure the spider-monkeys toward him. Rondon fired +his rifle in the air, to warn off the Indian or Indians, who in all +probability had never seen a civilized man, and certainly could not +imagine that one was in the neighborhood. He then returned to the foot +of the rapids, where the portage was still going on, and, in company +with Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Parecis, the Indian, walked back to +where Lobo's body lay. Sure enough he found him, slain by two arrows. +One arrow-head was in him, and near by was a strange stick used in the +very primitive method of fishing of all these Indians. Antonio +recognized its purpose. The Indians, who were apparently two or three +in number, had fled. Some beads and trinkets were left on the spot to +show that we were not angry and were friendly. + +Meanwhile Cherrie stayed at the head and I at the foot of the portage +as guards. Luiz and Antonio Correa brought down one canoe safely. The +next was the new canoe, which was very large and heavy, being made of +wood that would not float. In the rapids the rope broke, and the canoe +was lost, Luiz being nearly drowned. + +It was a very bad thing to lose the canoe, but it was even worse to +lose the rope and pulleys. This meant that it would be physically +impossible to hoist big canoes up even small hills or rocky hillocks, +such as had been so frequent beside the many rapids we had +encountered. It was not wise to spend the four days necessary to build +new canoes where we were, in danger of attack from the Indians. +Moreover, new rapids might be very near, in which case the new canoes +would hamper us. Yet the four remaining canoes would not carry all the +loads and all the men, no matter how we cut the loads down; and we +intended to cut everything down at once. We had been gone eighteen +days. We had used over a third of our food. We had gone only 125 +kilometres, and it was probable that we had at least five times, +perhaps six or seven times, this distance still to go. We had taken a +fortnight to descend rapids amounting in the aggregate to less than +seventy yards of fall; a very few yards of fall makes a dangerous +rapid when the river is swollen and swift and there are obstructions. +We had only one aneroid to determine our altitude, and therefore could +make merely a loose approximation to it, but we probably had between +two and three times this descent in the aggregate of rapids ahead of +us. So far the country had offered little in the way of food except +palm-tops. We had lost four canoes and one man. We were in the country +of wild Indians, who shot well with their bows. It behooved us to go +warily, but also to make all speed possible, if we were to avoid +serious trouble. + +The best plan seemed to be to march thirteen men down along the bank, +while the remaining canoes, lashed two and two, floated down beside +them. If after two or three days we found no bad rapids, and there +seemed a reasonable chance of going some distance at decent speed, we +could then build the new canoes--preferably two small ones, this time, +instead of one big one. We left all the baggage we could. We were +already down as far as comfort would permit; but we now struck off +much of the comfort. Cherrie, Kermit, and I had been sleeping under a +very light fly; and there was another small light tent for one person, +kept for possible emergencies. The last was given to me for my cot, +and all five of the others swung their hammocks under the big fly. +This meant that we left two big and heavy tents behind. A box of +surveying instruments was also abandoned. Each of us got his personal +belongings down to one box or duffel-bag--although there was only a +small diminution thus made; because we had so little that the only way +to make a serious diminution was to restrict ourselves to the clothes +on our backs. + +The biting flies and ants were to us a source of discomfort and at +times of what could fairly be called torment. But to the camaradas, +most of whom went barefoot or only wore sandals--and they never did or +would wear shoes--the effect was more serious. They wrapped their legs +and feet in pieces of canvas or hide; and the feet of three of them +became so swollen that they were crippled and could not walk any +distance. The doctor, whose courage and cheerfulness never flagged, +took excellent care of them. Thanks to him, there had been among them +hitherto but one or two slight cases of fever. He administered to each +man daily a half-gram--nearly eight grains--of quinine, and every +third or fourth day a double dose. + +The following morning Colonel Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, Cherrie, and nine +of the camaradas started in single file down the bank, while the +doctor and I went in the two double canoes, with six camaradas, three +of them the invalids with swollen feet. We halted continually, as we +went about three times as fast as the walkers; and we traced the +course of the river. After forty minutes' actual going in the boats we +came to some rapids; the unloaded canoes ran them without difficulty, +while the loads were portaged. In an hour and a half we were again +under way, but in ten minutes came to other rapids, where the river +ran among islands, and there were several big curls. The clumsy, +heavily laden dugouts, lashed in couples, were unwieldy and hard to +handle. The rapids came just round a sharp bend, and we got caught in +the upper part of the swift water and had to run the first set of +rapids in consequence. We in the leading pair of dugouts were within +an ace of coming to grief on some big boulders against which we were +swept by a cross current at the turn. All of us paddling hard-- +scraping and bumping--we got through by the skin of our teeth, and +managed to make the bank and moor our dugouts. It was a narrow escape +from grave disaster. The second pair of lashed dugouts profited by our +experience, and made the run--with risk, but with less risk--and +moored beside us. Then all the loads were taken out, and the empty +canoes were run down through the least dangerous channels among the +islands. + +This was a long portage, and we camped at the foot of the rapids, +having made nearly seven kilometres. Here a little river, a rapid +stream of volume equal to the Duvida at the point where we first +embarked, joined from the west. Colonel Rondon and Kermit came to it +first, and the former named it Rio Kermit. There was in it a waterfall +about six or eight feet high, just above the junction. Here we found +plenty of fish. Lyra caught two pacu, good-sized, deep-bodied fish. +They were delicious eating. Antonio the Parecis said that these fish +never came up heavy rapids in which there were falls they had to jump. +We could only hope that he was correct, as in that case the rapids we +would encounter in the future would rarely be so serious as to +necessitate our dragging the heavy dugouts overland. Passing the +rapids we had hitherto encountered had meant severe labor and some +danger. But the event showed that he was mistaken. The worst rapids +were ahead of us. + +While our course as a whole had been almost due north, and sometimes +east of north, yet where there were rapids the river had generally, +although not always, turned westward. This seemed to indicate that to +the east of us there was a low northward projection of the central +plateau across which we had travelled on mule-back. This is the kind +of projection that appears on the maps of this region as a sierra. +Probably it sent low spurs to the west, and the farthest points of +these spurs now and then caused rapids in our course (for the rapids +generally came where there were hills) and for the moment deflected +the river westward from its general downhill trend to the north. There +was no longer any question that the Duvida was a big river, a river of +real importance. It was not a minor affluent of some other affluent. +But we were still wholly in the dark as to where it came out. It was +still possible, although exceedingly improbable, that it entered the +Gy-Parana, as another river of substantially the same size, near its +mouth. It was much more likely, but not probable, that it entered the +Tapajos. It was probable, although far from certain, that it entered +the Madeira low down, near its point of junction with the Amazon. In +this event it was likely, although again far from certain, that its +mouth would prove to be the Aripuanan. The Aripuanan does not appear +on the maps as a river of any size; on a good standard map of South +America which I had with me its name does not appear at all, although +a dotted indication of a small river or creek at about the right place +probably represents it. Nevertheless, from the report of one of his +lieutenants who had examined its mouth, and from the stories of the +rubber-gatherers, or seringueiros, Colonel Rondon had come to the +conclusion that this was the largest affluent of the Madeira, with +such a body of water that it must have a big drainage basin. He +thought that the Duvida was probably one of its head streams--although +every existing map represented the lay of the land to be such as to +render impossible the existence of such a river system and drainage +basin. The rubber-gatherers reported that they had gone many days' +journey up the river, to a point where there was a series of heavy +rapids with above them the junction point of two large rivers, one +entering from the west. Beyond this they had difficulties because of +the hostility of the Indians; and where the junction point was no one +could say. On the chance Colonel Rondon had directed one of his +subordinate officers, Lieutenant Pyrineus, to try to meet us, with +boats and provisions, by ascending the Aripuanan to the point of entry +of its first big affluent. This was the course followed when Amilcar +had been directed to try to meet the explorers who in 1909 came down +the Gy-Parana. At that time the effort was a failure, and the two +parties never met; but we might have better luck, and in any event the +chance was worth taking. + +On the morning following our camping by the mouth of the Rio Kermit, +Colonel Rondon took a good deal of pains in getting a big post set up +at the entry of the smaller river into the Duvida. Then he summoned +me, and all the others, to attend the ceremony of its erection. We +found the camaradas drawn up in line, and the colonel preparing to +read aloud "the orders of the day." To the post was nailed a board +with "Rio Kermit" on it; and the colonel read the orders reciting that +by the direction of the Brazilian Government, and inasmuch as the +unknown river was evidently a great river, he formally christened it +the Rio Roosevelt. This was a complete surprise to me. Both Lauro +Miller and Colonel Rondon had spoken to me on the subject, and I had +urged, and Kermit had urged, as strongly as possible, that the name be +kept as Rio da Duvida. We felt that the "River of Doubt" was an +unusually good name; and it is always well to keep a name of this +character. But my kind friends insisted otherwise, and it would have +been churlish of me to object longer. I was much touched by their +action, and by the ceremony itself. At the conclusion of the reading +Colonel Rondon led in cheers for the United States and then for me and +for Kermit; and the camaradas cheered with a will. I proposed three +cheers for Brazil and then for Colonel Rondon, and Lyra, and the +doctor, and then for all the camaradas. Then Lyra said that everybody +had been cheered except Cherrie; and so we all gave three cheers for +Cherrie, and the meeting broke up in high good humor. + +Immediately afterward the walkers set off on their march downstream, +looking for good canoe trees. In a quarter of an hour we followed with +the canoes. As often as we overtook them we halted until they had +again gone a good distance ahead. They soon found fresh Indian sign, +and actually heard the Indians; but the latter fled in panic. They +came on a little Indian fishing village, just abandoned. The three +low, oblong huts, of palm leaves, had each an entrance for a man on +all fours, but no other opening. They were dark inside, doubtless as a +protection against the swarms of biting flies. On a pole in this +village an axe, a knife, and some strings of red beads were left, with +the hope that the Indians would return, find the gifts, and realize +that we were friendly. We saw further Indian sign on both sides of the +river. + +After about two hours and a half we came on a little river entering +from the east. It was broad but shallow, and at the point of entrance +rushed down, green and white, over a sharply inclined sheet of rock. +It was a lovely sight and we halted to admire it. Then on we went, +until, when we had covered about eight kilometres, we came on a +stretch of rapids. The canoes ran them with about a third of the +loads, the other loads being carried on the men's shoulders. At the +foot of the rapids we camped, as there were several good canoe trees +near, and we had decided to build two rather small canoes. After dark +the stars came out; but in the deep forest the glory of the stars in +the night of the sky, the serene radiance of the moon, the splendor of +sunrise and sunset, are never seen as they are seen on the vast open +plains. + +The following day, the 19th, the men began work on the canoes. The +ill-fated big canoe had been made of wood so hard that it was +difficult to work, and so heavy that the chips sank like lead in the +water. But these trees were araputangas, with wood which was easier to +work, and which floated. Great buttresses, or flanges, jutted out from +their trunks at the base, and they bore big hard nuts or fruits which +stood erect at the ends of the branches. The first tree felled proved +rotten, and moreover it was chopped so that it smashed a number of +lesser trees into the kitchen, overthrowing everything, but not +inflicting serious damage. Hardworking, willing, and tough though the +camaradas were, they naturally did not have the skill of northern +lumberjacks. + +We hoped to finish the two canoes in three days. A space was cleared +in the forest for our tents. Among the taller trees grew huge-leafed +pacovas, or wild bananas. We bathed and swam in the river, although in +it we caught piranhas. Carregadores ants swarmed all around our camp. +As many of the nearest of their holes as we could we stopped with +fire; but at night some of them got into our tents and ate things we +could ill spare. In the early morning a column of foraging ants +appeared, and we drove them back, also with fire. When the sky was not +overcast the sun was very hot, and we spread out everything to dry. +There were many wonderful butterflies round about, but only a few +birds. Yet in the early morning and late afternoon there was some +attractive bird music in the woods. The two best performers were our +old friend the false bellbird, with its series of ringing whistles, +and a shy, attractive ant-thrush. The latter walked much on the +ground, with dainty movements, curtseying and raising its tail; and in +accent and sequence, although not in tone or time, its song resembled +that of our white-throated sparrow. + +It was three weeks since we had started down the River of Doubt. We +had come along its winding course about 140 kilometres, with a descent +of somewhere in the neighborhood of 124 metres. It had been slow +progress. We could not tell what physical obstacles were ahead of us, +nor whether the Indians would be actively hostile. But a river +normally describes in its course a parabola, the steep descent being +in the upper part; and we hoped that in the future we should not have +to encounter so many and such difficult rapids as we had already +encountered, and that therefore we would make better time--a hope +destined to failure. + + + + IX. DOWN AN UNKNOWN RIVER INTO THE EQUATORIAL FOREST + +The mightiest river in the world is the Amazon. It runs from west to +east, from the sunset to the sunrise, from the Andes to the Atlantic. +The main stream flows almost along the equator, while the basin which +contains its affluents extends many degrees north and south of the +equator. The gigantic equatorial river basin is filled with an immense +forest, the largest in the world, with which no other forest can be +compared save those of western Africa and Malaysia. We were within the +southern boundary of this great equatorial forest, on a river which +was not merely unknown but unguessed at, no geographer having ever +suspected its existence. This river flowed northward toward the +equator, but whither it would go, whether it would turn one way or +another, the length of its course, where it would come out, the +character of the stream itself, and the character of the dwellers +along its banks--all these things were yet to be discovered. + +One morning while the canoes were being built Kermit and I walked a +few kilometres down the river and surveyed the next rapids below. The +vast still forest was almost empty of life. We found old Indian signs. +There were very few birds, and these in the tops of the tall trees. We +saw a recent tapir track; and under a cajazeira tree by the bank there +were the tracks of capybaras which had been eating the fallen fruit. +This fruit is delicious and would make a valuable addition to our +orchards. The tree although tropical is hardy, thrives when +domesticated, and propagates rapidly from shoots. The Department of +Agriculture should try whether it would not grow in southern +California and Florida. This was the tree from which the doctor's +family name was taken. His parental grandfather, although of +Portuguese blood, was an intensely patriotic Brazilian. He was a very +young man when the independence of Brazil was declared, and did not +wish to keep the Portuguese family name; so he changed it to that of +the fine Brazilian tree in question. Such change of family names is +common in Brazil. Doctor Vital Brazil, the student of poisonous +serpents, was given his name by his father, whose own family name was +entirely different; and his brother's name was again different. + +There were tremendous downpours of rain, lasting for a couple of hours +and accompanied by thunder and lightning. But on the whole it seemed +as if the rains were less heavy and continuous than they had been. We +all of us had to help in building the canoes now and then. Kermit, +accompanied by Antonio the Parecis and Joao, crossed the river and +walked back to the little river that had entered from the east, so as +to bring back a report of it to Colonel Rondon. Lyra took +observations, by the sun and by the stars. We were in about latitude +11 degrees 2 minutes south, and due north of where we had started. The +river had wound so that we had gone two miles for every one we made +northward. Our progress had been very slow; and until we got out of +the region of incessant rapids, with their attendant labor and hazard, +it was not likely that we should go much faster. + +On the morning of March 22 we started in our six canoes. We made ten +kilometres. Twenty minutes after starting we came to the first rapids. +Here every one walked except the three best paddlers, who took the +canoes down in succession--an hour's job. Soon after this we struck a +bees' nest in the top of a tree overhanging the river; our steersman +climbed out and robbed it, but, alas! lost the honey on the way back. +We came to a small steep fall which we did not dare run in our over- +laden, clumsy, and cranky dugouts. Fortunately, we were able to follow +a deep canal which led off for a kilometre, returning just below the +falls, fifty yards from where it had started. Then, having been in the +boats and in motion only one hour and a half, we came to a long +stretch of rapids which it took us six hours to descend, and we camped +at the foot. Everything was taken out of the canoes, and they were run +down in succession. At one difficult and perilous place they were let +down by ropes; and even thus we almost lost one. + +We went down the right bank. On the opposite bank was an Indian +village, evidently inhabited only during the dry season. The marks on +the stumps of trees showed that these Indians had axes and knives; and +there were old fields in which maize, beans, and cotton had been +grown. The forest dripped and steamed. Rubber-trees were plentiful. At +one point the tops of a group of tall trees were covered with yellow- +white blossoms. Others bore red blossoms. Many of the big trees, of +different kinds, were buttressed at the base with great thin walls of +wood. Others, including both palms and ordinary trees, showed an even +stranger peculiarity. The trunk, near the base, but sometimes six or +eight feet from the ground, was split into a dozen or twenty branches +or small trunks which sloped outward in tent-like shape, each becoming +a root. The larger trees of this type looked as if their trunks were +seated on the tops of the pole frames of Indian tepees. At one point +in the stream, to our great surprise, we saw a flying fish. It skimmed +the water like a swallow for over twenty yards. + +Although we made only ten kilometres we worked hard all day. The last +canoes were brought down and moored to the bank at nightfall. Our +tents were pitched in the darkness. + +Next day we made thirteen kilometres. We ran, all told, a little over +an hour and three-quarters. Seven hours were spent in getting past a +series of rapids at which the portage, over rocky and difficult +ground, was a kilometre long. The canoes were run down empty--a +hazardous run, in which one of them upset. + +Yet while we were actually on the river, paddling and floating +downstream along the reaches of swift, smooth water, it was very +lovely. When we started in the morning the day was overcast and the +air was heavy with vapor. Ahead of us the shrouded river stretched +between dim walls of forest, half seen in the mist. Then the sun +burned up the fog, and loomed through it in a red splendor that +changed first to gold and then to molten white. In the dazzling light, +under the brilliant blue of the sky, every detail of the magnificent +forest was vivid to the eye: the great trees, the network of bush +ropes, the caverns of greenery, where thick-leaved vines covered all +things else. Wherever there was a hidden boulder the surface of the +current was broken by waves. In one place, in midstream, a pyramidal +rock thrust itself six feet above the surface of the river. On the +banks we found fresh Indian sign. + +At home in Vermont Cherrie is a farmer, with a farm of six hundred +acres, most of it woodland. As we sat at the foot of the rapids, +watching for the last dugouts with their naked paddlers to swing into +sight round the bend through the white water, we talked of the +northern spring that was just beginning. He sells cream, eggs, +poultry, potatoes, honey, occasionally pork and veal; but at this +season it was the time for the maple sugar crop. He has a sugar +orchard, where he taps twelve hundred trees and hopes soon to tap as +many more in addition. Said Cherrie: "It's a busy time now for Fred +Rice"--Fred Rice is the hired man, and in sugar time the Cherrie boys +help him with enthusiasm, and, moreover, are paid with exact justice +for the work they do. There is much wild life about the farm, although +it is near Brattleboro. One night in early spring a bear left his +tracks near the sugar house; and now and then in summer Cherrie has +had to sleep in the garden to keep the deer away from the beans, +cabbages, and beets. + +There was not much bird life in the forest, but Cherrie kept getting +species new to the collection. At this camp he shot an interesting +little ant-thrush. It was the size of a warbler, jet-black, with white +under-surfaces of the wings and tail, white on the tail-feathers, and +a large spot of white on the back, normally almost concealed, the +feathers on the back being long and fluffy. When he shot the bird, a +male, it was showing off before a dull-colored little bird, doubtless +the female; and the chief feature of the display was this white spot +on the back. The white feathers were raised and displayed so that the +spot flashed like the "chrysanthemum" on a prongbuck whose curiosity +has been aroused. In the gloom of the forest the bird was hard to see, +but the flashing of this patch of white feathers revealed it at once, +attracting immediate attention. It was an excellent example of a +coloration mark which served a purely advertising purpose; apparently +it was part of a courtship display. The bird was about thirty feet up +in the branches. + +In the morning, just before leaving this camp, a tapir swam across +stream a little way above us; but unfortunately we could not get a +shot at it. An ample supply of tapir beef would have meant much to us. +We had started with fifty days' rations; but this by no means meant +full rations, in the sense of giving every man all he wanted to eat. +We had two meals a day, and were on rather short commons--both our +mess and the camaradas'--except when we got plenty of palm-tops. For +our mess we had the boxes chosen by Fiala, each containing a day's +rations for six men, our number. But we made each box last a day and a +half, or at times two days, and in addition we gave some of the food +to the camaradas. It was only on the rare occasions when we had killed +some monkeys or curassows, or caught some fish, that everybody had +enough. We would have welcomed that tapir. So far the game, fish, and +fruit had been too scarce to be an element of weight in our food +supply. In an exploring trip like ours, through a difficult and +utterly unknown country, especially if densely forested, there is +little time to halt, and game cannot be counted on. It is only in +lands like our own West thirty years ago, like South Africa in the +middle of the last century, like East Africa to-day that game can be +made the chief food supply. On this trip our only substantial food +supply from the country hitherto had been that furnished by the +palmtops. Two men were detailed every day to cut down palms for food. + +A kilometre and a half after leaving this camp we came on a stretch of +big rapids. The river here twists in loops, and we had heard the +roaring of these rapids the previous afternoon. Then we passed out of +earshot of them; but Antonio Correa, our best waterman, insisted all +along that the roaring meant rapids worse than any we had encountered +for some days. "I was brought up in the water, and I know it like a +fish, and all its sounds," said he. He was right. We had to carry the +loads nearly a kilometre that afternoon, and the canoes were pulled +out on the bank so that they might be in readiness to be dragged +overland next day. Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Correa explored +both sides of the river. On the opposite or left bank they found the +mouth of a considerable river, bigger than the Rio Kermit, flowing in +from the west and making its entrance in the middle of the rapids. +This river we christened the Taunay, in honor of a distinguished +Brazilian, an explorer, a soldier, a senator, who was also a writer of +note. Kermit had with him two of his novels, and I had read one of his +books dealing with a disastrous retreat during the Paraguayan +war. + +Next morning, the 25th, the canoes were brought down. A path was +chopped for them and rollers laid; and half-way down the rapids Lyra +and Kermit, who were overseeing the work as well as doing their share +of the pushing and hauling, got them into a canal of smooth water, +which saved much severe labor. As our food supply lowered we were +constantly more desirous of economizing the strength of the men. One +day more would complete a month since we had embarked on the Duvida as +we had started in February, the lunar and calendar months coincided. +We had used up over half our provisions. We had come only a trifle +over 160 kilometres, thanks to the character and number of the rapids. +We believed we had three or four times the distance yet to go before +coming to a part of the river where we might hope to meet assistance, +either from rubber-gatherers, or from Pyrineus, if he were really +coming up the river which we were going down. If the rapids continued +to be as they had been it could not be much more than three weeks +before we were in straits for food, aside from the ever-present danger +of accident in the rapids; and if our progress were no faster than it +had been--and we were straining to do our best--we would in such event +still have several hundreds of kilometres of unknown river before us. +We could not even hazard a guess at what was in front. The river was +now a really big river, and it seemed impossible that it could flow +either into the Gy-Parana or the Tapajos. It was possible that it went +into the Canuma, a big affluent of the Madeira low down, and next to +the Tapajos. It was more probable that it was the headwaters of the +Aripuanan, a river which, as I have said, was not even named on the +excellent English map of Brazil I carried. Nothing but the mouth had +been known to any geographer; but the lower course had long been known +to rubber-gatherers, and recently a commission from the government of +Amazonas had partway ascended one branch of it--not as far as the +rubber-gatherers had gone, and, as it turned out, not the branch we +came down. + +Two of our men were down with fever. Another man, Julio, a fellow of +powerful frame, was utterly worthless, being an inborn, lazy shirk +with the heart of a ferocious cur in the body of a bullock. The others +were good men, some of them very good indeed. They were under the +immediate supervision of Pedrinho Craveiro, who was first-class in +every way. + +This camp was very lovely. It was on the edge of a bay, into which the +river broadened immediately below the rapids. There was a beach of +white sand, where we bathed and washed our clothes. All around us, and +across the bay, and on both sides of the long water-street made by the +river, rose the splendid forest. There were flocks of parakeets +colored green, blue, and red. Big toucans called overhead, lustrous +green-black in color, with white throats, red gorgets, red-and-yellow +tail coverts, and huge black-and-yellow bills. Here the soil was +fertile; it will be a fine site for a coffee-plantation when this +region is open to settlement. Surely such a rich and fertile land +cannot be permitted to remain idle, to lie as a tenantless wilderness, +while there are such teeming swarms of human beings in the +overcrowded, over-peopled countries of the Old World. The very rapids +and waterfalls which now make the navigation of the river so difficult +and dangerous would drive electric trolleys up and down its whole +length and far out on either side, and run mills and factories, and +lighten the labor on farms. With the incoming of settlement and with +the steady growth of knowledge how to fight and control tropical +diseases, fear of danger to health would vanish. A land like this is a +hard land for the first explorers, and perhaps for their immediate +followers, but not for the people who come after them. + +In mid-afternoon we were once more in the canoes; but we had paddled +with the current only a few minutes, we had gone only a kilometre, +when the roar of rapids in front again forced us to haul up to the +bank. As usual, Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit, with Antonio Correa, +explored both sides while camp was being pitched. The rapids were +longer and of steeper descent than the last, but on the opposite or +western side there was a passage down which we thought we could get +the empty dugouts at the cost of dragging them only a few yards at one +spot. The loads were to be carried down the hither bank, for a +kilometre, to the smooth water. The river foamed between great rounded +masses of rock, and at one point there was a sheer fall of six or +eight feet. We found and ate wild pineapples. Wild beans were in +flower. At dinner we had a toucan and a couple of parrots, which were +very good. + +All next day was spent by Lyra in superintending our three best +watermen as they took the canoes down the west side of the rapids, to +the foot, at the spot to which the camp had meantime been shifted. In +the forest some of the huge sipas, or rope vines, which were as big as +cables, bore clusters of fragrant flowers. The men found several +honey-trees, and fruits of various kinds, and small cocoanuts; they +chopped down an ample number of palms, for the palm-cabbage; and, most +important of all, they gathered a quantity of big Brazil-nuts, which +when roasted tasted like the best of chestnuts and are nutritious; and +they caught a number of big piranhas, which were good eating. So we +all had a feast, and everybody had enough to eat and was happy. + +By these rapids, at the fall, Cherrie found some strange carvings on a +bare mass of rock. They were evidently made by men a long time ago. As +far as is known, the Indians thereabouts make no such figures now. +They were in two groups, one on the surface of the rock facing the +land, the other on that facing the water. The latter were nearly +obliterated. The former were in good preservation, the figures sharply +cut into the rock. They consisted, upon the upper flat part of the +rock, of four multiple circles with a dot in the middle (O), very +accurately made and about a foot and a half in diameter; and below +them, on the side of the rock, four multiple m's or inverted w's (M). +What these curious symbols represented, or who made them, we could +not, of course, form the slightest idea. It may be that in a very +remote past some Indian tribes of comparatively advanced culture had +penetrated to this lovely river, just as we had now come to it. Before +white men came to South America there had already existed therein +various semi-civilizations, some rude, others fairly advanced, which +rose, flourished, and persisted through immemorial ages, and then +vanished. The vicissitudes in the history of humanity during its stay +on this southern continent have been as strange, varied, and +inexplicable as paleontology shows to have been the case, on the same +continent, in the history of the higher forms of animal life during +the age of mammals. Colonel Rondon stated that such figures as these +are not found anywhere else in Matto Grosso where he has been, and +therefore it was all the more strange to find them in this one place +on the unknown river, never before visited by white men, which we were +descending. + +Next morning we went about three kilometers before coming to some +steep hills, beautiful to look upon, clad as they were in dense, tall, +tropical forest, but ominous of new rapids. Sure enough, at their foot +we had to haul up and prepare for a long portage. The canoes we ran +down empty. Even so, we were within an ace of losing two, the lashed +couple in which I ordinarily journeyed. In a sharp bend of the rapids, +between two big curls, they were swept among the boulders and under +the matted branches which stretched out from the bank. They filled, +and the racing current pinned them where they were, one partly on the +other. All of us had to help get them clear. Their fastenings were +chopped asunder with axes. Kermit and half a dozen of the men, +stripped to the skin, made their way to a small rock island in the +little falls just above the canoes, and let down a rope which we tied +to the outermost canoe. The rest of us, up to our armpits and barely +able to keep our footing as we slipped and stumbled among the boulders +in the swift current, lifted and shoved while Kermit and his men +pulled the rope and fastened the slack to a half-submerged tree. Each +canoe in succession was hauled up the little rock island, baled, and +then taken down in safety by two paddlers. It was nearly four o'clock +before we were again ready to start, having been delayed by a rain- +storm so heavy that we could not see across the river. Ten minutes' +run took us to the head of another series of rapids; the exploring +party returned with the news that we had an all day's job ahead of us; +and we made camp in the rain, which did not matter much, as we were +already drenched through. It was impossible, with the wet wood, to +make a fire sufficiently hot to dry all our soggy things, for the rain +was still falling. A tapir was seen from our boat, but, as at the +moment we were being whisked round in a complete circle by a +whirlpool, I did not myself see it in time to shoot. + +Next morning we went down a kilometre, and then landed on the other +side of the river. The canoes were run down, and the loads carried to +the other side of a little river coming in from the west, which +Colonel Rondon christened Cherrie River. Across this we went on a +bridge consisting of a huge tree felled by Macario, one of our best +men. Here we camped, while Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Correa +explored what was ahead. They were absent until mid-afternoon. Then +they returned with the news that we were among ranges of low +mountains, utterly different in formation from the high plateau region +to which the first rapids, those we had come to on the 2nd of March, +belonged. Through the first range of these mountains the river ran in +a gorge, some three kilometres long, immediately ahead of us. The +ground was so rough and steep that it would be impossible to drag the +canoes over it and difficult enough to carry the loads; and the rapids +were so bad, containing several falls, one of at least ten metres in +height, that it was doubtful how many of the canoes we could get down +them. Kermit, who was the only man with much experience of rope work, +was the only man who believed we could get the canoes down at all; and +it was, of course, possible that we should have to build new ones at +the foot to supply the place of any that were lost or left behind. In +view of the length and character of the portage, and of all the +unpleasant possibilities that were ahead, and of the need of keeping +every pound of food, it was necessary to reduce weight in every +possible way and to throw away everything except the barest +necessities. + +We thought we had reduced our baggage before; but now we cut to the +bone. We kept the fly for all six of us to sleep under. Kermit's shoes +had gone, thanks to the amount of work in the water which he had been +doing; and he took the pair I had been wearing, while I put on my +spare pair. In addition to the clothes I wore, I kept one set of +pajamas, a spare pair of drawers, a spare pair of socks, half a dozen +handkerchiefs, my wash-kit, my pocket medicine-case, and a little bag +containing my spare spectacles, gun-grease, some adhesive plaster, +some needles and thread, the "fly-dope," and my purse and letter of +credit, to be used at Manaos. All of these went into the bag +containing my cot, blanket, and mosquito-net. I also carried a +cartridge-bag containing my cartridges, head-net, and gauntlets. +Kermit cut down even closer; and the others about as close. + +The last three days of March we spent in getting to the foot of the +rapids in this gorge. Lyra and Kermit, with four of the best watermen, +handled the empty canoes. The work was not only difficult and +laborious in the extreme, but hazardous; for the walls of the gorge +were so sheer that at the worst places they had to cling to narrow +shelves on the face of the rock, while letting the canoes down with +ropes. Meanwhile Rondon surveyed and cut a trail for the burden- +bearers, and superintended the portage of the loads. The rocky sides +of the gorge were too steep for laden men to attempt to traverse them. +Accordingly the trail had to go over the top of the mountain, both the +ascent and the descent of the rock-strewn, forest-clad slopes being +very steep. It was hard work to carry loads over such a trail. From +the top of the mountain, through an opening in the trees on the edge +of a cliff, there was a beautiful view of the country ahead. All +around and in front of us there were ranges of low mountains about the +height of the lower ridges of the Alleghenies. Their sides were steep +and they were covered with the matted growth of the tropical forest. +Our next camping-place, at the foot of the gorge, was almost beneath +us, and from thence the river ran in a straight line, flecked with +white water, for about a kilometre. Then it disappeared behind and +between mountain ridges, which we supposed meant further rapids. It +was a view well worth seeing; but, beautiful although the country +ahead of us was, its character was such as to promise further +hardships, difficulty, and exhausting labor, and especially further +delay; and delay was a serious matter to men whose food supply was +beginning to run short, whose equipment was reduced to the minimum, +who for a month, with the utmost toil, had made very slow progress, +and who had no idea of either the distance or the difficulties of the +route in front of them. + +There was not much life in the woods, big or little. Small birds were +rare, although Cherrie's unwearied efforts were rewarded from time to +time by a species new to the collection. There were tracks of tapir, +deer, and agouti; and if we had taken two or three days to devote to +nothing else than hunting them we might perchance have killed +something; but the chance was much too uncertain, the work we were +doing was too hard and wearing, and the need of pressing forward +altogether too great to permit us to spend any time in such manner. +The hunting had to come in incidentally. This type of well nigh +impenetrable forest is the one in which it is most difficult to get +even what little game exists therein. A couple of curassows and a big +monkey were killed by the colonel and Kermit. On the day the monkey +was brought in Lyra, Kermit, and their four associates had spent from +sunrise to sunset in severe and at moments dangerous toil among the +rocks and in the swift water, and the fresh meat was appreciated. The +head, feet, tail, skin, and entrails were boiled for the gaunt and +ravenous dogs. The flesh gave each of us a few mouthfuls; and how good +those mouthfuls tasted! + +Cherrie, in addition to being out after birds in every spare moment, +helped in all emergencies. He was a veteran in the work of the tropic +wilderness. We talked together often, and of many things, for our +views of life, and of a man's duty to his wife and children, to other +men, and to women, and to the state in peace and war, were in all +essentials the same. His father had served all through the Civil War, +entering an Iowa cavalry regiment as a private and coming out as a +captain; his breast-bone was shattered by a blow from a musket-butt, +in hand-to-hand fighting at Shiloh. + +During this portage the weather favored us. We were coming toward the +close of the rainy season. On the last day of the month, when we moved +camp to the foot of the gorge, there was a thunder-storm; but on the +whole we were not bothered by rain until the last night, when it +rained heavily, driving under the fly so as to wet my cot and bedding. +However, I slept comfortably enough, rolled in the damp blanket. +Without the blanket I should have been uncomfortable; a blanket is a +necessity for health. On the third day Lyra and Kermit, with their +daring and hard-working watermen, after wearing labor, succeeded in +getting five canoes through the worst of the rapids to the chief fall. +The sixth, which was frail and weak, had its bottom beaten out on the +jagged rocks of the broken water. On this night, although I thought I +had put my clothes out of reach, both the termites and the +carregadores ants got at them, ate holes in one boot, ate one leg of +my drawers, and riddled my handkerchief; and I now had nothing to +replace anything that was destroyed. + +Next day Lyra, Kermit, and their camaradas brought the five canoes +that were left down to camp. They had in four days accomplished a work +of incredible labor and of the utmost importance; for at the first +glance it had seemed an absolute impossibility to avoid abandoning the +canoes when we found that the river sank into a cataract broken +torrent at the bottom of a canyon-like gorge between steep mountains. +On April 2 we once more started, wondering how soon we should strike +other rapids in the mountains ahead, and whether in any reasonable +time we should, as the aneroid indicated, be so low down that we +should necessarily be in a plain where we could make a journey of at +least a few days without rapids. We had been exactly a month going +through an uninterrupted succession of rapids. During that month we +had come only about 110 kilometres, and had descended nearly 150 +metres--the figures are approximate but fairly accurate. We had lost +four of the canoes with which we started, and one other, which we had +built, and the life of one man; and the life of a dog which by its +death had in all probability saved the life of Colonel Rondon. In a +straight line northward, toward our supposed destination, we had not +made more than a mile and a quarter a day; at the cost of bitter toil +for most of the party, of much risk for some of the party, and of some +risk and some hardship for all the party. Most of the camaradas were +downhearted, naturally enough, and occasionally asked one of us if we +really believed that we should ever get out alive; and we had to cheer +them up as best we could. + +There was no change in our work for the time being. We made but three +kilometres that day. Most of the party walked all the time; but the +dugouts carried the luggage until we struck the head of the series of +rapids which were to take up the next two or three days. The river +rushed through a wild gorge, a chasm or canyon, between two mountains. +Its sides were very steep, mere rock walls, although in most places so +covered with the luxuriant growth of the trees and bushes that clung +in the crevices, and with green moss, that the naked rock was hardly +seen. Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit, who were in front, found a small level +spot, with a beach of sand, and sent back word to camp there, while +they spent several hours in exploring the country ahead. The canoes +were run down empty, and the loads carried painfully along the face of +the cliffs; so bad was the trail that I found it rather hard to +follow, although carrying nothing but my rifle and cartridge bag. The +explorers returned with the information that the mountains stretched +ahead of us, and that there were rapids as far as they had gone. We +could only hope that the aneroid was not hopelessly out of kilter, and +that we should, therefore, fairly soon find ourselves in comparatively +level country. The severe toil, on a rather limited food supply, was +telling on the strength as well as on the spirits of the men; Lyra and +Kermit, in addition to their other work, performed as much actual +physical labor as any of them. + +Next day, the 3rd of April, we began the descent of these sinister +rapids of the chasm. Colonel Rondon had gone to the summit of the +mountain in order to find a better trail for the burden-bearers, but +it was hopeless, and they had to go along the face of the cliffs. Such +an exploring expedition as that in which we were engaged of necessity +involves hard and dangerous labor, and perils of many kinds. To follow +down-stream an unknown river, broken by innumerable cataracts and +rapids, rushing through mountains of which the existence has never +been even guessed, bears no resemblance whatever to following even a +fairly dangerous river which has been thoroughly explored and has +become in some sort a highway, so that experienced pilots can be +secured as guides, while the portages have been pioneered and trails +chopped out, and every dangerous feature of the rapids is known +beforehand. In this case no one could foretell that the river would +cleave its way through steep mountain chains, cutting narrow clefts in +which the cliff walls rose almost sheer on either hand. When a rushing +river thus "canyons," as we used to say out West, and the mountains +are very steep, it becomes almost impossible to bring the canoes down +the river itself and utterly impossible to portage them along the +cliff sides, while even to bring the loads over the mountain is a task +of extraordinary labor and difficulty. Moreover, no one can tell how +many times the task will have to be repeated, or when it will end, or +whether the food will hold out; every hour of work in the rapids is +fraught with the possibility of the gravest disaster, and yet it is +imperatively necessary to attempt it; and all this is done in an +uninhabited wilderness, or else a wilderness tenanted only by +unfriendly savages, where failure to get through means death by +disease and starvation. Wholesale disasters to South American +exploring parties have been frequent. The first recent effort to +descend one of the unknown rivers to the Amazon from the Brazilian +highlands resulted in such a disaster. It was undertaken in 1889 by a +party about as large as ours under a Brazilian engineer officer, +Colonel Telles Peres. In descending some rapids they lost everything-- +canoes, food, medicine, implements--everything. Fever smote them, and +then starvation. All of them died except one officer and two men, who +were rescued months later. Recently, in Guiana, a wilderness veteran, +Andre, lost two-thirds of his party by starvation. Genuine wilderness +exploration is as dangerous as warfare. The conquest of wild nature +demands the utmost vigor, hardihood, and daring, and takes from the +conquerors a heavy toll of life and health. + +Lyra, Kermit, and Cherrie, with four of the men, worked the canoes +half-way down the canyon. Again and again it was touch and go whether +they could get by a given point. At one spot the channel of the +furious torrent was only fifteen yards across. One canoe was lost, so +that of the seven with which we had started only two were left. +Cherrie labored with the other men at times, and also stood as guard +over them, for, while actually working, of course no one could carry a +rifle. Kermit's experience in bridge building was invaluable in +enabling him to do the rope work by which alone it was possible to get +the canoes down the canyon. He and Lyra had now been in the water for +days. Their clothes were never dry. Their shoes were rotten. The +bruises on their feet and legs had become sores. On their bodies some +of the insect bites had become festering wounds, as indeed was the +case with all of us. Poisonous ants, biting flies, ticks, wasps, bees +were a perpetual torment. However, no one had yet been bitten by a +venomous serpent, a scorpion, or a centipede, although we had killed +all of the three within camp limits. + +Under such conditions whatever is evil in men's natures comes to the +front. On this day a strange and terrible tragedy occurred. One of the +camaradas, a man of pure European blood, was the man named Julio, of +whom I have already spoken. He was a very powerful fellow and had been +importunately eager to come on the expedition; and he had the +reputation of being a good worker. But, like so many men of higher +standing, he had had no idea of what such an expedition really meant, +and under the strain of toil, hardship, and danger his nature showed +its true depths of selfishness, cowardice, and ferocity. He shirked +all work. He shammed sickness. Nothing could make him do his share; +and yet unlike his self-respecting fellows he was always shamelessly +begging for favors. Kermit was the only one of our party who smoked; +and he was continually giving a little tobacco to some of the +camaradas, who worked especially well under him. The good men did not +ask for it; but Julio, who shirked every labor, was always, and always +in vain, demanding it. Colonel Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit each tried to +get work out of him, and in order to do anything with him had to +threaten to leave him in the wilderness. He threw all his tasks on his +comrades; and, moreover, he stole their food as well as ours. On such +an expedition the theft of food comes next to murder as a crime, and +should by rights be punished as such. We could not trust him to cut +down palms or gather nuts, because he would stay out and eat what +ought to have gone into the common store. Finally, the men on several +occasions themselves detected him stealing their food. Alone of the +whole party, and thanks to the stolen food, he had kept in full flesh +and bodily vigor. + +One of our best men was a huge negro named Paixao Paishon--a corporal +and acting sergeant in the engineer corps. He had, by the way, +literally torn his trousers to pieces, so that he wore only the +tatters of a pair of old drawers until I gave him my spare trousers +when we lightened loads. He was a stern disciplinarian. One evening he +detected Julio stealing food and smashed him in the mouth. Julio came +crying to us, his face working with fear and malignant hatred; but +after investigation he was told that he had gotten off uncommonly +lightly. The men had three or four carbines, which were sometimes +carried by those who were not their owners. + +On this morning, at the outset of the portage, Pedrinho discovered +Julio stealing some of the men's dried meat. Shortly afterward Paishon +rebuked him for, as usual, lagging behind. By this time we had reached +the place where the canoes were tied to the bank and then taken down +one at a time. We were sitting down, waiting for the last loads to be +brought along the trail. Pedrinho was still in the camp we had left. +Paishon had just brought in a load, left it on the ground with his +carbine beside it, and returned on the trail for another load. Julio +came in, put down his load, picked up the carbine, and walked back on +the trail, muttering to himself but showing no excitement. We thought +nothing of it, for he was always muttering; and occasionally one of +the men saw a monkey or big bird and tried to shoot it, so it was +never surprising to see a man with a carbine. + +In a minute we heard a shot; and in a short time three or four of the +men came up the trail to tell us that Paishon was dead, having been +shot by Julio, who had fled into the woods. Colonel Rondon and Lyra +were ahead; I sent a messenger for them, directed Cherrie and Kermit +to stay where they were and guard the canoes and provisions, and +started down the trail with the doctor--an absolutely cool and plucky +man, with a revolver but no rifle--and a couple of the camaradas. We +soon passed the dead body of poor Paishon. He lay in a huddle, in a +pool of his own blood, where he had fallen, shot through the heart. I +feared that Julio had run amuck, and intended merely to take more +lives before he died, and that he would begin with Pedrinho, who was +alone and unarmed in the camp we had left. Accordingly I pushed on, +followed by my companions, looking sharply right and left; but when we +came to the camp the doctor quietly walked by me, remarking, "My eyes +are better than yours, colonel; if he is in sight I'll point him out +to you, as you have the rifle." However, he was not there, and the +others soon joined us with the welcome news that they had found the +carbine. + +The murderer had stood to one side of the path and killed his victim, +when a dozen paces off, with deliberate and malignant purpose. Then +evidently his murderous hatred had at once given way to his innate +cowardice; and, perhaps hearing some one coming along the path, he +fled in panic terror into the wilderness. A tree had knocked the +carbine from his hand. His footsteps showed that after going some rods +he had started to return, doubtless for the carbine, but had fled +again, probably because the body had then been discovered. It was +questionable whether or not he would live to reach the Indian +villages, which were probably his goal. He was not a man to feel +remorse--never a common feeling; but surely that murderer was in a +living hell, as, with fever and famine leering at him from the +shadows, he made his way through the empty desolation of the +wilderness. Franca, the cook, quoted out of the melancholy proverbial +philosophy of the people the proverb: "No man knows the heart of any +one"; and then expressed with deep conviction a weird ghostly belief I +had never encountered before: "Paishon is following Julio now, and +will follow him until he dies; Paishon fell forward on his hands and +knees, and when a murdered man falls like that his ghost will follow +the slayer as long as the slayer lives." + +We did not attempt to pursue the murderer. We could not legally put +him to death, although he was a soldier who in cold blood had just +deliberately killed a fellow soldier. If we had been near civilization +we would have done our best to bring him in and turn him over to +justice. But we were in the wilderness, and how many weeks' journey +were ahead of us we could not tell. Our food was running low, sickness +was beginning to appear among the men, and both their courage and +their strength were gradually ebbing. Our first duty was to save the +lives and the health of the men of the expedition who had honestly +been performing, and had still to perform, so much perilous labor. If +we brought the murderer in he would have to be guarded night and day +on an expedition where there were always loaded firearms about, and +where there would continually be opportunity and temptation for him to +make an effort to seize food and a weapon and escape, perhaps +murdering some other good man. He could not be shackled while climbing +along the cliff slopes; he could not be shackled in the canoes, where +there was always chance of upset and drowning; and standing guard +would be an additional and severe penalty on the weary, honest men +already exhausted by overwork. The expedition was in peril, and it was +wise to take every chance possible that would help secure success. +Whether the murderer lived or died in the wilderness was of no moment +compared with the duty of doing everything to secure the safety of the +rest of the party. For the two days following we were always on the +watch against his return, for he could have readily killed some one +else by rolling rocks down on any of the men working on the cliff +sides or in the bottom of the gorge. But we did not see him until the +morning of the third day. We had passed the last of the rapids of the +chasm, and the four boats were going down-stream when he appeared +behind some trees on the bank and called out that he wished to +surrender and be taken aboard; for the murderer was an arrant craven +at heart, a strange mixture of ferocity and cowardice. Colonel +Rondon's boat was far in advance; he did not stop nor answer. I kept +on in similar fashion with the rear boats, for I had no intention of +taking the murderer aboard, to the jeopardy of the other members of +the party, unless Colonel Rondon told me that it would have to be done +in pursuance of his duty as an officer of the army and a servant of +the Government of Brazil. At the first halt Colonel Rondon came up to +me and told me that this was his view of his duty, but that he had not +stopped because he wished first to consult me as the chief of the +expedition. I answered that for the reasons enumerated above I did not +believe that in justice to the good men of the expedition we should +jeopardize their safety by taking the murderer along, and that if the +responsibility were mine I should refuse to take him; but that he, +Colonel Rondon, was the superior officer of both the murderer and of +all the other enlisted men and army officers on the expedition, and in +return was responsible for his actions to his own governmental +superiors and to the laws of Brazil; and that in view of this +responsibility he must act as his sense of duty bade him. Accordingly, +at the next camp he sent back two men, expert woodsmen, to find the +murderer and bring him in. They failed to find him. + + NOTE: + The above account of all the circumstances connected with the murder + was read to and approved as correct by all six members of the + expedition. + +I have anticipated my narrative because I do not wish to recur to the +horror more than is necessary. I now return to my story. After we +found that Julio had fled, we returned to the scene of the tragedy. +The murdered man lay with a handkerchief thrown over his face. We +buried him beside the place where he fell. With axes and knives the +camaradas dug a shallow grave while we stood by with bared heads. Then +reverently and carefully we lifted the poor body which but half an +hour before had been so full of vigorous life. Colonel Rondon and I +bore the head and shoulders. We laid him in the grave, and heaped a +mound over him, and put a rude cross at his head. We fired a volley +for a brave and loyal soldier who had died doing his duty. Then we +left him forever, under the great trees beside the lonely river. + +That day we got only half-way down the rapids. There was no good place +to camp. But at the foot of one steep cliff there was a narrow, +boulder-covered slope where it was possible to sling hammocks and +cook; and a slanting spot was found for my cot, which had sagged until +by this time it looked like a broken-backed centipede. It rained a +little during the night, but not enough to wet us much. Next day Lyra, +Kermit, and Cherrie finished their job, and brought the four remaining +canoes to camp, one leaking badly from the battering on the rocks. We +then went down-stream a few hundred yards, and camped on the opposite +side; it was not a good camping-place, but it was better than the one +we left. + +The men were growing constantly weaker under the endless strain of +exhausting labor. Kermit was having an attack of fever, and Lyra and +Cherrie had touches of dysentery, but all three continued to work. +While in the water trying to help with an upset canoe I had by my own +clumsiness bruised my leg against a boulder; and the resulting +inflammation was somewhat bothersome. I now had a sharp attack of +fever, but thanks to the excellent care of the doctor, was over it in +about forty-eight hours; but Kermit's fever grew worse and he too was +unable to work for a day or two. We could walk over the portages, +however. A good doctor is an absolute necessity on an exploring +expedition in such a country as that we were in, under penalty of a +frightful mortality among the members; and the necessary risks and +hazards are so great, the chances of disaster so large, that there is +no warrant for increasing them by the failure to take all feasible +precautions. + +The next day we made another long portage round some rapids, and +camped at night still in the hot, wet, sunless atmosphere of the +gorge. The following day, April 6, we portaged past another set of +rapids, which proved to be the last of the rapids of the chasm. For +some kilometres we kept passing hills, and feared lest at any moment +we might again find ourselves fronting another mountain gorge; with, +in such case, further days of grinding and perilous labor ahead of us, +while our men were disheartened, weak, and sick. Most of them had +already begun to have fever. Their condition was inevitable after over +a month's uninterrupted work of the hardest kind in getting through +the long series of rapids we had just passed; and a long further +delay, accompanied by wearing labor, would have almost certainly meant +that the weakest among our party would have begun to die. There were +already two of the camaradas who were too weak to help the others, +their condition being such as to cause us serious concern. + +However, the hills gradually sank into a level plain, and the river +carried us through it at a rate that enabled us during the remainder +of the day to reel off thirty-six kilometres, a record that for the +first time held out promise. Twice tapirs swam the river while we +passed, but not near my canoe. However, the previous evening, Cherrie +had killed two monkeys and Kermit one, and we all had a few mouthfuls +of fresh meat; we had already had a good soup made out of a turtle +Kermit had caught. We had to portage by one short set of rapids, the +unloaded canoes being brought down without difficulty. At last, at +four in the afternoon, we came to the mouth of a big river running in +from the right. We thought it was probably the Ananas, but, of course, +could not be certain. It was less in volume than the one we had +descended, but nearly as broad; its breadth at this point being +ninety-five yards as against one hundred and twenty for the larger +river. There were rapids ahead, immediately after the junction, which +took place in latitude 10 degrees 58 minutes south. We had come 216 +kilometres all told, and were nearly north of where we had started. We +camped on the point of land between the two rivers. It was +extraordinary to realize that here about the eleventh degree we were +on such a big river, utterly unknown to the cartographers and not +indicated by even a hint on any map. We named this big tributary Rio +Cardozo, after a gallant officer of the commission who had died of +beriberi just as our expedition began. We spent a day at this spot, +determining our exact position by the sun, and afterward by the stars, +and sending on two men to explore the rapids in advance. They returned +with the news that there were big cataracts in them, and that they +would form an obstacle to our progress. They had also caught a huge +iluroid fish, which furnished an excellent meal for everybody in camp. +This evening at sunset the view across the broad river, from our camp +where the two rivers joined, was very lovely; and for the first time +we had an open space in front of and above us, so that after nightfall +the stars, and the great waxing moon, were glorious over-head, and +against the rocks in midstream the broken water gleamed like tossing +silver. + +The huge catfish which the men had caught was over three feet and a +half long, with the usual enormous head, out of all proportions to the +body, and the enormous mouth, out of all proportion to the head. Such +fish, although their teeth are small, swallow very large prey. This +one contained the nearly digested remains of a monkey. Probably the +monkey had been seized while drinking from the end of a branch; and +once engulfed in that yawning cavern there was no escape. We Americans +were astounded at the idea of a catfish making prey of a monkey; but +our Brazilian friends told us that in the lower Madeira and the part +of the Amazon near its mouth there is a still more gigantic catfish +which in similar fashion occasionally makes prey of man. This is a +grayish-white fish over nine feet long, with the usual +disproportionately large head and gaping mouth, with a circle of small +teeth; for the engulfing mouth itself is the danger, not the teeth. It +is called the piraiba--pronounced in four syllables. While stationed +at the small city of Itacoatiara, on the Amazon, at the mouth of the +Madeira, the doctor had seen one of these monsters which had been +killed by the two men it had attacked. They were fishing in a canoe +when it rose from the bottom--for it is a ground fish--and raising +itself half out of the water lunged over the edge of the canoe at +them, with open mouth. They killed it with their falcons, as machetes +are called in Brazil. It was taken round the city in triumph in an +oxcart; the doctor saw it, and said it was three metres long. He said +that swimmers feared it even more than the big cayman, because they +could see the latter, whereas the former lay hid at the bottom of the +water. Colonel Rondon said that in many villages where he had been on +the lower Madeira the people had built stockaded enclosures in the +water in which they bathed, not venturing to swim in the open water +for fear of the piraiba and the big cayman. + +Next day, April 8, we made five kilometres only, as there was a +succession of rapids. We had to carry the loads past two of them, but +ran the canoes without difficulty, for on the west side were long +canals of swift water through the forest. The river had been higher, +but was still very high, and the current raced round the many islands +that at this point divided the channel. At four we made camp at the +head of another stretch of rapids, over which the Canadian canoes +would have danced without shipping a teaspoonful of water, but which +our dugouts could only run empty. Cherrie killed three monkeys and +Lyra caught two big piranhas, so that we were again all of us well +provided with dinner and breakfast. When a number of men, doing hard +work, are most of the time on half-rations, they grow to take a lively +interest in any reasonably full meal that does arrive. + +On the 10th we repeated the proceedings: a short quick run; a few +hundred metres' portage, occupying, however, at least a couple of +hours; again a few minutes' run; again other rapids. We again made +less than five kilometres; in the two days we had been descending +nearly a metre for every kilometre we made in advance; and it hardly +seemed as if this state of things could last, for the aneroid showed +that we were getting very low down. How I longed for a big Maine +birch-bark, such as that in which I once went down the Mattawamkeag at +high water! It would have slipped down these rapids as a girl trips +through a country dance. But our loaded dugouts would have shoved +their noses under every curl. The country was lovely. The wide river, +now in one channel, now in several channels, wound among hills; the +shower-freshened forest glistened in the sunlight; the many kinds of +beautiful palm-fronds and the huge pacova-leaves stamped the peculiar +look of the tropics on the whole landscape--it was like passing by +water through a gigantic botanical garden. In the afternoon we got an +elderly toucan, a piranha, and a reasonably edible side-necked river- +turtle; so we had fresh meat again. We slept as usual in earshot of +rapids. We had been out six weeks, and almost all the time we had been +engaged in wearily working our own way down and past rapid after +rapid. Rapids are by far the most dangerous enemies of explorers and +travellers who journey along these rivers. + +Next day was a repetition of the same work. All the morning was spent +in getting the loads to the foot of the rapids at the head of which we +were encamped, down which the canoes were run empty. Then for thirty +or forty minutes we ran down the swift, twisting river, the two lashed +canoes almost coming to grief at one spot where a swirl of the current +threw them against some trees on a small submerged island. Then we +came to another set of rapids, carried the baggage down past them, and +made camp long after dark in the rain--a good exercise in patience for +those of us who were still suffering somewhat from fever. No one was +in really buoyant health. For some weeks we had been sharing part of +the contents of our boxes with the camaradas; but our food was not +very satisfying to them. They needed quantity and the mainstay of each +of their meals was a mass of palmitas; but on this day they had no +time to cut down palms. We finally decided to run these rapids with +the empty canoes, and they came down in safety. On such a trip it is +highly undesirable to take any save necessary risks, for the +consequences of disaster are too serious; and yet if no risks are +taken the progress is so slow that disaster comes anyhow; and it is +necessary perpetually to vary the terms of the perpetual working +compromise between rashness and over-caution. This night we had a very +good fish to eat, a big silvery fellow called a pescada, of a kind we +had not caught before. + +One day Trigueiro failed to embark with the rest of us, and we had to +camp where we were next day to find him. Easter Sunday we spent in the +fashion with which we were altogether too familiar. We only ran in a +clear course for ten minutes all told, and spent eight hours in +portaging the loads past rapids down which the canoes were run; the +balsa was almost swamped. This day we caught twenty-eight big fish, +mostly piranhas, and everybody had all he could eat for dinner, and +for breakfast the following morning. + +The forenoon of the following day was a repetition of this wearisome +work; but late in the afternoon the river began to run in long quiet +reaches. We made fifteen kilometres, and for the first time in several +weeks camped where we did not hear the rapids. The silence was +soothing and restful. The following day, April 14, we made a good run +of some thirty-two kilometres. We passed a little river which entered +on our left. We ran two or three light rapids, and portaged the loads +by another. The river ran in long and usually tranquil stretches. In +the morning when we started the view was lovely. There was a mist, and +for a couple of miles the great river, broad and quiet, ran between +the high walls of tropical forest, the tops of the giant trees showing +dim through the haze. Different members of the party caught many fish, +and shot a monkey and a couple of jacare-tinga birds kin to a turkey, +but the size of a fowl--so we again had a camp of plenty. The dry +season was approaching, but there were still heavy, drenching rains. +On this day the men found some new nuts of which they liked the taste; +but the nuts proved unwholesome and half of the men were very sick and +unable to work the following day. In the balsa only two were left fit +to do anything, and Kermit plied a paddle all day long. + +Accordingly, it was a rather sorry crew that embarked the following +morning, April 15. But it turned out a red-letter day. The day before, +we had come across cuttings, a year old, which were probably but not +certainly made by pioneer rubbermen. But on this day--during which we +made twenty-five kilometres--after running two hours and a half we +found on the left bank a board on a post, with the initials J. A., to +show the farthest up point which a rubberman had reached and claimed +as his own. An hour farther down we came on a newly built house in a +little planted clearing; and we cheered heartily. No one was at home, +but the house, of palm thatch, was clean and cool. A couple of dogs +were on watch, and the belongings showed that a man, a woman, and a +child lived there, and had only just left. Another hour brought us to +a similar house where dwelt an old black man, who showed the innate +courtesy of the Brazilian peasant. We came on these rubbermen and +their houses in about latitude 10 degrees 24 minutes. + +In mid-afternoon we stopped at another clean, cool, picturesque house +of palm thatch. The inhabitants all fled at our approach, fearing an +Indian raid; for they were absolutely unprepared to have any one come +from the unknown regions up-stream. They returned and were most +hospitable and communicative; and we spent the night there. Said +Antonio Correa to Kermit: "It seems like a dream to be in a house +again, and hear the voices of men and women, instead of being among +those mountains and rapids." The river was known to them as the +Castanho, and was the main affluent or rather the left or western +branch, of the Aripuanan; the Castanho is a name used by the rubber- +gatherers only; it is unknown to the geographers. We were, according +to our informants, about fifteen days' journey from the confluence of +the two rivers; but there were many rubbermen along the banks, some of +whom had become permanent settlers. We had come over three hundred +kilometres, in forty-eight days, over absolutely unknown ground; we +had seen no human being, although we had twice heard Indians. Six +weeks had been spent in steadily slogging our way down through the +interminable series of rapids. It was astonishing before, when we were +on a river of about the size of the upper Rhine or Elbe, to realize +that no geographer had any idea of its existence. But, after all, no +civilized man of any grade had ever been on it. Here, however, was a +river with people dwelling along the banks, some of whom had lived in +the neighborhood for eight or ten years; and yet on no standard map +was there a hint of the river's existence. We were putting on the map +a river, running through between five and six degrees of latitude--of +between seven and eight if, as should properly be done, the lower +Aripuanan is included as part of it--of which no geographer, in any +map published in Europe, or the United States, or Brazil had even +admitted the possibility of the existence; for the place actually +occupied by it was filled, on the maps, by other--imaginary--streams, +or by mountain ranges. Before we started, the Amazonas Boundary +Commission had come up the lower Aripuanan and then the eastern +branch, or upper Aripuanan, to 8 degrees 48 minutes, following the +course which for a couple of decades had been followed by the +rubbermen, but not going as high. An employee, either of this +commission or of one of the big rubbermen, had been up the Castanho, +which is easy of ascent in its lower course, to about the same +latitude, not going nearly as high as the rubbermen had gone; this we +found out while we ourselves were descending the lower Castanho. The +lower main stream, and the lower portion of its main affluent, the +Castanho, had been commercial highways for rubbermen and settlers for +nearly two decades, and, as we speedily found, were as easy to +traverse as the upper stream, which we had just come down, was +difficult to traverse; but the governmental and scientific +authorities, native and foreign, remained in complete ignorance; and +the rubbermen themselves had not the slightest idea of the headwaters, +which were in country never hitherto traversed by civilized men. +Evidently the Castanho was, in length at least, substantially equal, +and probably superior, to the upper Aripuanan; it now seemed even more +likely that the Ananas was the headwaters of the main stream than of +the Cardozo. + +For the first time this great river, the greatest affluent of the +Madiera, was to be put on the map; and the understanding of its real +position and real relationship, and the clearing up of the complex +problem of the sources of all these lower right-hand affluents of the +Madiera, was rendered possible by the seven weeks of hard and +dangerous labor we had spent in going down an absolutely unknown +river, through an absolutely unknown wilderness. At this stage of the +growth of world geography I esteemed it a great piece of good fortune +to be able to take part in such a feat--a feat which represented the +capping of the pyramid which during the previous seven years had been +built by the labor of the Brazilian Telegraphic Commission. + +We had passed the period when there was a chance of peril, of +disaster, to the whole expedition. There might be risk ahead to +individuals, and some difficulties and annoyances for all of us; but +there was no longer the least likelihood of any disaster to the +expedition as a whole. We now no longer had to face continual anxiety, +the need of constant economy with food, the duty of labor with no end +in sight, and bitter uncertainty as to the future. + +It was time to get out. The wearing work, under very unhealthy +conditions, was beginning to tell on every one. Half of the camaradas +had been down with fever and were much weakened; only a few of them +retained their original physical and moral strength. Cherrie and +Kermit had recovered; but both Kermit and Lyra still had bad sores on +their legs, from the bruises received in the water work. I was in +worse shape. 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. But "there aren't no 'stop, conductor,' while +a battery's changing ground." No man has any business to go on such a +trip as ours unless he will refuse to jeopardize the welfare of his +associates by any delay caused by a weakness or ailment of his. It is +his duty to go forward, if necessary on all fours, until he drops. +Fortunately, I was put to no such test. I remained in good shape until +we had passed the last of the rapids of the chasms. When my serious +trouble came we had only canoe-riding ahead of us. It is not ideal for +a sick man to spend the hottest hours of the day stretched on the +boxes in the bottom of a small open dugout, under the well-nigh +intolerable heat of the torrid sun of the mid-tropics, varied by +blinding, drenching downpours of rain; but I could not be sufficiently +grateful for the chance. Kermit and Cherrie took care of me as if they +had been trained nurses; and Colonel Rondon and Lyra were no less +thoughtful. + +The north was calling strongly to the three men of the north--Rocky +Dell Farm to Cherrie, Sagamore Hill to me; and to Kermit the call was +stronger still. After nightfall we could now see the Dipper well above +the horizon--upside down, with the two pointers pointing to a north +star below the world's rim; but the Dipper, with all its stars. In our +home country spring had now come, the wonderful northern spring of +long glorious days, of brooding twilights, of cool delightful nights. +Robin and bluebird, meadow-lark and song sparrow, were singing in the +mornings at home; the maple-buds were red; windflowers and bloodroot +were blooming while the last patches of snow still lingered; the +rapture of the hermithrush in Vermont, the serene golden melody of the +woodthrush on Long Island, would be heard before we were there to +listen. Each man to his home, and to his true love! Each was longing +for the homely things that were so dear to him, for the home people +who were dearer still, and for the one who was dearest of all. + + + + X. TO THE AMAZON AND HOME; ZOOLOGICAL + AND GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION + +Our adventures and our troubles were alike over. We now experienced +the incalculable contrast between descending a known and travelled +river, and one that is utterly unknown. After four days we hired a +rubberman to go with us as guide. We knew exactly what channels were +passable when we came to the rapids, when the canoes had to unload, +and where the carry-trails were. It was all child's play compared to +what we had gone through. We made long days' journeys, for at night we +stopped at some palm-thatched house, inhabited or abandoned, and +therefore the men were spared the labor of making camp; and we bought +ample food for them, so there was no further need of fishing and +chopping down palms for the palmtops. The heat of the sun was blazing; +but it looked as if we had come back into the rainy season, for there +were many heavy rains, usually in the afternoon, but sometimes in the +morning or at night. The mosquitoes were sometimes rather troublesome +at night. In the daytime the piums swarmed, and often bothered us even +when we were in midstream. + +For four days there were no rapids we could not run without unloading. +Then, on the 19th, we got a canoe from Senhor Barboso. He was a most +kind and hospitable man, who also gave us a duck and a chicken and +some mandioc and six pounds of rice, and would take no payment; he +lived in a roomy house with his dusky, cigar-smoking wife and his many +children. The new canoe was light and roomy, and we were able to rig +up a low shelter under which I could lie; I was still sick. At noon we +passed the mouth of a big river, the Rio Branco, coming in from the +left; this was about in latitude 9 degrees 38 minutes. Soon afterward +we came to the first serious rapids, the Panela. We carried the boats +past, ran down the empty canoes, and camped at the foot in a roomy +house. The doctor bought a handsome trumpeter bird, very friendly and +confiding, which was thenceforth my canoe companion. + +We had already passed many inhabited--and a still larger number of +uninhabited--houses. The dwellers were rubbermen, but generally they +were permanent settlers also, homemakers, with their wives and +children. Some, both of the men and women, were apparently of pure +negro blood, or of pure Indian or south European blood; but in the +great majority all three strains were mixed in varying degrees. They +were most friendly, courteous, and hospitable. Often they refused +payment for what they could afford, out of their little, to give us. +When they did charge, the prices were very high, as was but just, for +they live back of the beyond, and everything costs them fabulously, +save what they raise themselves. The cool, bare houses of poles and +palm thatch contained little except hammocks and a few simple cooking +utensils; and often a clock or sewing machine, or Winchester rifle, +from our own country. They often had flowers planted, including +fragrant roses. Their only live stock, except the dogs, were a few +chickens and ducks. They planted patches of mandioc, maize, sugarcane, +rice, beans, squashes, pineapples, bananas, lemons, oranges, melons, +peppers; and various purely native fruits and vegetables, such as the +kniabo--a vegetable-fruit growing on the branches of a high bush-- +which is cooked with meat. They get some game from the forest, and +more fish from the river. There is no representative of the government +among them--indeed, even now their very existence is barely known to +the governmental authorities; and the church has ignored them as +completely as the state. When they wish to get married they have to +spend several months getting down to and back from Manaos or some +smaller city; and usually the first christening and the marriage +ceremony are held at the same time. They have merely squatter's right +to the land, and are always in danger of being ousted by unscrupulous +big men who come in late, but with a title technically straight. The +land laws should be shaped so as to give each of these pioneer +settlers the land he actually takes up and cultivates, and upon which +he makes his home. The small homemaker, who owns the land which he +tills with his own hands, is the greatest element of strength in any +country. + +These are real pioneer settlers. They are the true wilderness-winners. +No continent is ever really conquered, or thoroughly explored, by a +few leaders, or exceptional men, although such men can render great +service. The real conquest, the thorough exploration and settlement, +is made by a nameless multitude of small men of whom the most +important are, of course, the home-makers. Each treads most of the +time in the footsteps of his predecessors, but for some few miles, at +some time or other, he breaks new ground; and his house is built where +no house has ever stood before. Such a man, the real pioneer, must +have no strong desire for social life and no need, probably no +knowledge, of any luxury, or of any comfort save of the most +elementary kind. The pioneer who is always longing for the comfort and +luxury of civilization, and especially of great cities, is no real +pioneer at all. These settlers whom we met were contented to live in +the wilderness. They had found the climate healthy and the soil +fruitful; a visit to a city was a very rare event, nor was there any +overwhelming desire for it. + +In short, these men, and those like them everywhere on the frontier +between civilization and savagery in Brazil, are now playing the part +played by our backwoodsmen when over a century and a quarter ago they +began the conquest of the great basin of the Mississippi; the part +played by the Boer farmers for over a century in South Africa, and by +the Canadians when less than half a century ago they began to take +possession of their Northwest. Every now and then some one says that +the "last frontier" is now to be found in Canada or Africa, and that +it has almost vanished. On a far larger scale this frontier is to be +found in Brazil--a country as big as Europe or the United States--and +decades will pass before it vanishes. The first settlers came to +Brazil a century before the first settlers came to the United States +and Canada. For three hundred years progress was very slow--Portuguese +colonial government at that time was almost as bad as Spanish. For the +last half-century and over there has been a steady increase in the +rapidity of the rate of development; and this increase bids fair to be +constantly more rapid in the future. + +The Paolistas, hunting for lands, slaves, and mines, were the first +native Brazilians who, a hundred years ago, played a great part in +opening to settlement vast stretches of wilderness. The rubber hunters +have played a similar part during the last few decades. Rubber dazzled +them, as gold and diamonds have dazzled other men and driven them +forth to wander through the wide waste spaces of the world. Searching +for rubber they made highways of rivers the very existence of which +was unknown to the governmental authorities, or to any map-makers. +Whether they succeeded or failed, they everywhere left behind them +settlers, who toiled, married, and brought up children. Settlement +began; the conquest of the wilderness entered on its first stage. + +On the 20th we stopped at the first store, where we bought, of course +at a high price, sugar and tobacco for the camaradas. In this land of +plenty the camaradas over-ate, and sickness was as rife among them as +ever. In Cherrie's boat he himself and the steersman were the only men +who paddled strongly and continuously. The storekeeper's stock of +goods was very low, only what he still had left from that brought in +nearly a year before; for the big boats, or batelaos-batelons--had not +yet worked as far up-stream. We expected to meet them somewhere below +the next rapids, the Inferno. The trader or rubberman brings up his +year's supply of goods in a batelao, starting in February and reaching +the upper course of the river early in May, when the rainy season is +over. The parties of rubber-explorers are then equipped and +provisioned; and the settlers purchase certain necessities, and +certain things that strike them as luxuries. This year the Brazil-nut +crop on the river had failed, a serious thing for all explorers and +wilderness wanderers. + +On the 20th we made the longest run we had made, fifty-two kilometres. +Lyra took observations where we camped; we were in latitude 8 degrees +49 minutes. At this camping-place the great, beautiful river was a +little over three hundred metres wide. We were in an empty house. The +marks showed that in the high water, a couple of months back, the +river had risen until the lower part of the house was flooded. The +difference between the level of the river during the floods and in the +dry season is extraordinary. + +On the 21st we made another good run, getting down to the Inferno +rapids, which are in latitude 8 degrees 19 minutes south. Until we +reached the Cardozo we had run almost due north; since then we had +been running a little west of north. Before we reached these rapids we +stopped at a large, pleasant thatch house, and got a fairly big and +roomy as well as light boat, leaving both our two smaller dugouts +behind. Above the rapids a small river, the Madeirainha, entered from +the left. The rapids had a fall of over ten metres, and the water was +very wild and rough. Met with for the first time, it would doubtless +have taken several days to explore a passage and, with danger and +labor, get the boats down. But we were no longer exploring, +pioneering, over unknown country. It is easy to go where other men +have prepared the way. We had a guide; we took our baggage down by a +carry three-quarters of a kilometre long; and the canoes were run +through known channels the following morning. At the foot of the +rapids was a big house and store; and camped at the head were a number +of rubber-workers, waiting for the big boats of the head rubbermen to +work their way up from below. They were a reckless set of brown +daredevils. These men lead hard lives of labor and peril; they +continually face death themselves, and they think little of it in +connection with others. It is small wonder that they sometimes have +difficulties with the tribes of utterly wild Indians with whom they +are brought in contact, although there is a strong Indian strain in +their own blood. + +The following morning, after the empty canoes had been run down, we +started, and made a rather short afternoon's journey. We had to take +the baggage by one rapids. We camped in an empty house, in the rain. +Next day we ran nearly fifty kilometres, the river making a long sweep +to the west. We met half a dozen batelaos making their way up-stream, +each with a crew of six or eight men; and two of them with women and +children in addition. The crew were using very long poles, with +crooks, or rather the stubs of cut branches which served as crooks, at +the upper end. With these they hooked into the branches and dragged +themselves up along the bank, in addition to poling where the depth +permitted it. The river was as big as the Paraguay at Corumba; but, in +striking contrast to the Paraguay, there were few water-birds. We ran +some rather stiff rapids, the Infernino, without unloading, in the +morning. In the evening we landed for the night at a large, open, +shed-like house, where there were two or three pigs, the first live +stock we had seen other than poultry and ducks. It was a dirty place, +but we got some eggs. + +The following day, the 24th, we ran down some fifty kilometres to the +Carupanan rapids, which by observation Lyra found to be in latitude 7 +degrees 47 minutes. We met several batelaos, and the houses on the +bank showed that the settlers were somewhat better off than was the +case farther up. At the rapids was a big store, the property of Senhor +Caripe, the wealthiest rubberman who works on this river; many of the +men we met were in his employ. He has himself risen from the ranks. He +was most kind and hospitable, and gave us another boat to replace the +last of our shovel-nosed dugouts. The large, open house was cool, +clean, and comfortable. + +With these began a series of half a dozen sets of rapids, all coming +within the next dozen kilometres, and all offering very real +obstacles. At one we saw the graves of four men who had perished +therein; and many more had died whose bodies were never recovered; the +toll of human life had been heavy. Had we been still on an unknown +river, pioneering our own way, it would doubtless have taken us at +least a fortnight of labor and peril to pass. But it actually took +only a day and a half. All the channels were known, all the trails +cut. Senhor Caripe, a first-class waterman, cool, fearless, and brawny +as a bull, came with us as guide. Half a dozen times the loads were +taken out and carried down. At one cataract the canoes were themselves +dragged overland; elsewhere they were run down empty, shipping a good +deal of water. At the foot of the cataract, where we dragged the +canoes overland, we camped for the night. Here Kermit shot a big +cayman. Our camp was alongside the graves of three men who at this +point had perished in the swift water. + +Senhor Caripe told us many strange adventures of rubber-workers he had +met or employed. One of his men, working on the Gy-Parana, got lost +and after twenty-eight days found himself on the Madeirainha, which he +thus discovered. He was in excellent health, for he had means to start +a fire, and he found abundance of Brazil-nuts and big land-tortoises. +Senhor Caripe said that the rubbermen now did not go above the ninth +degree, or thereabouts, on the upper Aripuanan proper, having found +the rubber poor on the reaches above. A year previously five +rubbermen, Mundurucu Indians, were working on the Corumba at about +that level. It is a difficult stream to ascend or descend. They made +excursions into the forest for days at a time after caoutchouc. On one +such trip, after fifteen days they, to their surprise, came out on the +Aripuanan. They returned and told their "patron" of their discovery; +and by his orders took their caoutchouc overland to the Aripuanan, +built a canoe, and ran down with their caoutchouc to Manaos. They had +now returned and were working on the upper Aripuanan. The Mundurucus +and Brazilians are always on the best terms, and the former are even +more inveterate enemies of the wild Indians than are the latter. + +By mid-forenoon on April 26 we had passed the last dangerous rapids. +The paddles were plied with hearty good will, Cherrie and Kermit, as +usual, working like the camaradas, and the canoes went dancing down +the broad, rapid river. The equatorial forest crowded on either hand +to the water's edge; and, although the river was falling, it was still +so high that in many places little islands were completely submerged, +and the current raced among the trunks of the green trees. At one +o'clock we came to the mouth of the Castanho proper, and in sight of +the tent of Lieutenant Pyrineus, with the flags of the United States +and Brazil flying before it; and, with rifles firing from the canoes +and the shore, we moored at the landing of the neat, soldierly, well +kept camp. The upper Aripuanan, a river of substantially the same +volume as the Castanho, but broader at this point, and probably of +less length, here joined the Castanho from the east, and the two +together formed what the rubbermen called the lower Aripuanan. The +mouth of this was indicated, and sometimes named, on the maps, but +only as a small and unimportant stream. + +We had been two months in the canoes; from the 27th of February to the +26th of April. We had gone over 750 kilometres. The river from its +source, near the thirteenth degree, to where it became navigable and +we entered it, had a course of some 200 kilometres--probably more, +perhaps 300 kilometres. Therefore we had now put on the map a river +nearly 1,000 kilometres in length of which the existence was not +merely unknown but impossible if the standard maps were correct. But +this was not all. It seemed that this river of 1,000 kilometres in +length was really the true upper course of the Aripuanan proper, in +which case the total length was nearly 1,500 kilometres. Pyrineus had +been waiting for us over a month, at the junction of what the +rubbermen called the Castanho and of what they called the upper +Aripuanan. (He had no idea as to which stream we would appear upon, or +whether we would appear upon either.) On March 26 he had measured the +volume of the two, and found that the Castanho, although the narrower, +was the deeper and swifter, and that in volume it surpassed the other +by 84 cubic metres a second. Since then the Castanho had fallen; our +measurements showed it to be slightly smaller than the other; the +volume of the river after the junction was about 4,500 cubic metres a +second. This was in 7 degrees 34 minutes. + +We were glad indeed to see Pyrineus and be at his attractive camp. We +were only four hours above the little river hamlet of Sao Joao, a port +of call for rubber-steamers, from which the larger ones go to Manaos +in two days. These steamers mostly belong to Senhor Caripe. From +Pyrineus we learned that Lauriado and Fiala had reached Manaos on +March 26. On the swift water in the gorge of the Papagaio Fiala's boat +had been upset and all his belongings lost, while he himself had +narrowly escaped with his life. I was glad indeed that the fine and +gallant fellow had escaped. The Canadian canoe had done very well. We +were no less rejoiced to learn that Amilcar, the head of the party +that went down the Gy-Parana, was also all right, although his canoe +too had been upset in the rapids, and his instruments and all his +notes lost. He had reached Manaos on April 10. Fiala had gone home. +Miller was collecting near Manaos. He had been doing capital work. + +The piranhas were bad here, and no one could bathe. Cherrie, while +standing in the water close to the shore, was attacked and bitten; but +with one bound he was on the bank before any damage could be done. + +We spent a last night under canvas, at Pyrineus' encampment. It rained +heavily. Next morning we all gathered at the monument which Colonel +Rondon had erected, and he read the orders of the day. These recited +just what had been accomplished: set forth the fact that we had now by +actual exploration and investigation discovered that the river whose +upper portion had been called the Duvida on the maps of the +Telegraphic Commission and the unknown major part of which we had just +traversed, and the river known to a few rubbermen, but to no one else, +as the Castanho, and the lower part of the river known to the +rubbermen as the Aripuanan (which did not appear on the maps save as +its mouth was sometimes indicated, with no hint of its size) were all +parts of one and the same river; and that by order of the Brazilian +Government this river, the largest affluent of the Madeira, with its +source near the 13th degree and its mouth a little south of the 5th +degree, hitherto utterly unknown to cartographers and in large part +utterly unknown to any save the local tribes of Indians, had been +named the Rio Roosevelt. + +We left Rondon, Lyra, and Pyrineus to take observations, and the rest +of us embarked for the last time on the canoes, and, borne swiftly on +the rapid current, we passed over one set of not very important rapids +and ran down to Senhor Caripe's little hamlet of Sao Joao, which we +reached about one o'clock on April 27, just before a heavy afternoon +rain set in. We had run nearly eight hundred kilometres during the +sixty days we had spent in the canoes. Here we found and boarded +Pyrineus's river steamer, which seemed in our eyes extremely +comfortable. In the senhor's pleasant house we were greeted by the +senhora, and they were both more than thoughtful and generous in their +hospitality. Ahead of us lay merely thirty-six hours by steamer to +Manaos. Such a trip as that we had taken tries men as if by fire. +Cherrie had more than stood every test; and in him Kermit and I had +come to recognize a friend with whom our friendship would never falter +or grow less. + +Early the following afternoon our whole party, together with Senhor +Caripe, started on the steamer. It took us a little over twelve hours' +swift steaming to run down to the mouth of the river on the upper +course of which our progress had been so slow and painful; from source +to mouth, according to our itinerary and to Lyra's calculations, the +course of the stream down which we had thus come was about 1,500 +kilometres in length--about 900 miles, perhaps nearly 1,000 miles-- +from its source near the 13th degree in the highlands to its mouth in +the Madeira, near the 5th degree. Next morning we were on the broad +sluggish current of the lower Madeira, a beautiful tropical river. +There were heavy rainstorms, as usual, although this is supposed to be +the very end of the rainy season. In the afternoon we finally entered +the wonderful Amazon itself, the mighty river which contains one tenth +of all the running water of the globe. It was miles across, where we +entered it; and indeed we could not tell whether the farther bank, +which we saw, was that of the mainland or an island. We went up it +until about midnight, then steamed up the Rio Negro for a short +distance, and at one in the morning of April 30 reached Manaos. + +Manaos is a remarkable city. It is only three degrees south of the +equator. Sixty years ago it was a nameless little collection of +hovels, tenanted by a few Indians and a few of the poorest class of +Brazilian peasants. Now it is a big, handsome modern city, with Opera +house, tramways, good hotels, fine squares and public buildings, and +attractive private houses. The brilliant coloring and odd architecture +give the place a very foreign and attractive flavor in northern eyes. +Its rapid growth to prosperity was due to the rubber trade. This is +now far less remunerative than formerly. It will undoubtedly in some +degree recover; and in any event the development of the immensely rich +and fertile Amazonian valley is sure to go on, and it will be +immensely quickened when closer connections are made with the +Brazilian highland country lying south of it. + +Here we found Miller, and glad indeed we were to see him. He had made +good collections of mammals and birds on the Gy-Parana, the Madeira, +and in the neighborhood of Manaos; his entire collection of mammals +was really noteworthy. Among them was the only sloth any of us had +seen on the trip. The most interesting of the birds he had seen was +the hoatzin. This is a most curious bird of very archaic type. Its +flight is feeble, and the naked young have spurs on their wings, by +the help of which they crawl actively among the branches before their +feathers grow. They swim no less easily, at the same early age. Miller +got one or two nests, and preserved specimens of the surroundings of +the nests; and he made exhaustive records of the habits of the birds. +Near Megasso a jaguar had killed one of the bullocks that were being +driven along for food. The big cat had not seized the ox with its +claws by the head, but had torn open its throat and neck. + +Every one was most courteous at Manaos, especially the governor of the +state and the mayor of the city. Mr. Robiliard, the British consular +representative, and also the representative of the Booth line of +steamers, was particularly kind. He secured for us passages on one of +the cargo boats of the line to Para, and thence on one of the regular +cargo-and-passenger steamers to Barbados and New York. The Booth +people were most courteous to us. + +I said good-by to the camaradas with real friendship and regret. The +parting gift I gave to each was in gold sovereigns; and I was rather +touched to learn later that they had agreed among themselves each to +keep one sovereign as a medal of honor and token that the owner had +been on the trip. They were a fine set, brave, patient, obedient, and +enduring. Now they had forgotten their hard times; they were fat from +eating, at leisure, all they wished; they were to see Rio Janeiro, +always an object of ambition with men of their stamp; and they were +very proud of their membership in the expedition. + +Later, at Belen, I said good-by to Colonel Rondon, Doctor Cajazeira, +and Lieutenant Lyra. Together with my admiration for their hardihood, +courage, and resolution, I had grown to feel a strong and affectionate +friendship for them. I had become very fond of them; and I was glad to +feel that I had been their companion in the performance of a feat +which possessed a certain lasting importance. + +On May 1 we left Manaos for Belen-Para, as until recently it was +called. The trip was interesting. We steamed down through tempest and +sunshine; and the towering forest was dwarfed by the giant river it +fringed. Sunrise and sunset turned the sky to an unearthly flame of +many colors above the vast water. It all seemed the embodiment of +loneliness and wild majesty. Yet everywhere man was conquering the +loneliness and wresting the majesty to his own uses. We passed many +thriving, growing towns; at one we stopped to take on cargo. +Everywhere there was growth and development. The change since the days +when Bates and Wallace came to this then poor and utterly primitive +region is marvellous. One of its accompaniments has been a large +European, chiefly south European, immigration. The blood is everywhere +mixed; there is no color line, as in most English-speaking countries, +and the negro and Indian strains are very strong; but the dominant +blood, the blood already dominant in quantity, and that is steadily +increasing its dominance, is the olive-white. + +Only rarely did the river show its full width. Generally we were in +channels or among islands. The surface of the water was dotted with +little islands of floating vegetation. Miller said that much of this +came from the lagoons such as those where he had been hunting, beside +the Solimoens--lagoons filled with the huge and splendid Victoria +lily, and with masses of water hyacinths. Miller, who was very fond of +animals and always took much care of them, had a small collection +which he was bringing back for the Bronx Zoo. An agouti was so bad- +tempered that he had to be kept solitary; but three monkeys, big, +middle-sized, and little, and a young peccary formed a happy family. +The largest monkey cried, shedding real tears, when taken in the arms +and pitied. The middle-sized monkey was stupid and kindly, and all the +rest of the company imposed on it; the little monkey invariably rode +on its back, and the peccary used it as a head pillow when it felt +sleepy. + +Belen, the capital of the state of Para, was an admirable illustration +of the genuine and almost startling progress which Brazil has been +making of recent years. It is a beautiful city, nearly under the +equator. But it is not merely beautiful. The docks, the dredging +operations, the warehouses, the stores and shops, all tell of energy +and success in commercial life. It is as clean, healthy, and well +policed a city as any of the size in the north temperate zone. The +public buildings are handsome, the private dwellings attractive; there +are a fine opera-house, an excellent tramway system, and a good museum +and botanical gardens. There are cavalry stables, where lights burn +all night long to protect the horses from the vampire bats. The parks, +the rows of palms and mango-trees, the open-air restaurants, the gay +life under the lights at night, all give the city its own special +quality and charm. Belen and Manaos are very striking examples of what +can be done in the mid-tropics. The governor of Para and his charming +wife were more than kind. + +Cherrie and Miller spent the day at the really capital zoological +gardens, with the curator, Miss Snethlage. Miss Snethlage, a German +lady, is a first rate field and closet naturalist, and an explorer of +note, who has gone on foot from the Xingu to the Tapajos. Most wisely +she has confined the Belen zoo to the animals of the lower Amazon +valley, and in consequence I know of no better local zoological +gardens. She has an invaluable collection of birds and mammals of the +region; and it was a privilege to meet her and talk with her. + +We also met Professor Farrabee, of the University of Pennsylvania, the +ethnologist. He had just finished a very difficult and important trip, +from Manaos by the Rio Branco to the highlands of Guiana, across them +on foot, and down to the seacoast of British Guiana. He is an +admirable representative of the men who are now opening South America +to scientific knowledge. + +On May 7 we bade good-by to our kind Brazilian friends and sailed +northward for Barbados and New York. + +Zoologically the trip had been a thorough success. Cherrie and Miller +had collected over twenty-five hundred birds, about five hundred +mammals, and a few reptiles, batrachians, and fishes. Many of them +were new to science; for much of the region traversed had never +previously been worked by any scientific collector. + +Of course, the most important work we did was the geographic work, the +exploration of the unknown river, undertaken at the suggestion of the +Brazilian Government, and in conjunction with its representatives. No +piece of work of this kind is ever achieved save as it is based on +long continued previous work. As I have before said, what we did was +to put the cap on the pyramid that had been built by Colonel Rondon +and his associates of the Telegraphic Commission during the six +previous years. It was their scientific exploration of the chapadao, +their mapping the basin of the Juruena, and their descent of the Gy- +Parana that rendered it possible for us to solve the mystery of the +River of Doubt. + +The work of the commission, much the greatest work of the kind ever +done in South America, is one of the many, many achievements which the +republican government of Brazil has to its credit. Brazil has been +blessed beyond the average of her Spanish-American sisters because she +won her way to republicanism by evolution rather than revolution. They +plunged into the extremely difficult experiment of democratic, of +popular, self-government, after enduring the atrophy of every quality +of self-control, self-reliance, and initiative throughout three +withering centuries of existence under the worst and most foolish form +of colonial government, both from the civil and the religious +standpoint, that has ever existed. The marvel is not that some of them +failed, but that some of them have eventually succeeded in such +striking fashion. Brazil, on the contrary, when she achieved +independence, first exercised it under the form of an authoritative +empire, then under the form of a liberal empire. When the republic +came, the people were reasonably ripe for it. The great progress of +Brazil--and it has been an astonishing progress--has been made under +the republic. I could give innumerable examples and illustrations of +this. The change that has converted Rio Janeiro from a picturesque +pest-hole into a singularly beautiful, healthy, clean, and efficient +modern great city is one of these. Another is the work of the +Telegraphic Commission. + +We put upon the map a river some fifteen hundred kilometres in length, +of which the upper course was not merely utterly unknown to, but +unguessed at by, anybody; while the lower course, although known for +years to a few rubbermen, was utterly unknown to cartographers. It is +the chief affluent of the Madeira, which is itself the chief affluent +of the Amazon. + +The source of this river is between the 12th and 13th parallels of +latitude south and the 59th and 60th degrees of longitude west from +Greenwich. We embarked on it at about latitude 12 degrees 1 minute +south, and about longitude 60 degrees 15 minutes west. After that its +entire course lay between the 60th and 61st degrees of longitude, +approaching the latter most closely about latitude 8 degrees 15 +minutes. The first rapids we encountered were in latitude 11 degrees +44 minutes, and in uninterrupted succession they continued for about a +degree, without a day's complete journey between any two of them. At +11 degrees 23 minutes the Rio Kermit entered from the left, at 11 +degrees 22 minutes the Rio Marciano Avila from the right, at 11 +degrees 18 minutes the Taunay from the left, at 10 degrees 58 minutes +the Cardozo from the right. In 10 degrees 24 minutes we encountered +the first rubbermen. The Rio Branco entered from the left at 9 degrees +38 minutes. Our camp at 8 degrees 49 minutes was nearly on the +boundary between Matto Grosso and Amazonas. The confluence with the +Aripuanan, which joined from the right, took place at 7 degrees 34 +minutes. The entrance into the Madeira was at about 5 degrees 20 +minutes (this point we did not determine by observation, as it is +already on the maps). The stream we had followed down was from the +river's highest sources; we had followed its longest course. + + + + APPENDIX A. + + The Work of the Field Zoologist + and Field Geographer in South America + +Portions of South America are now entering on a career of great social +and industrial development. Much remains to be known, so far as the +outside world is concerned, of the social and industrial condition in +the long-settled interior regions. More remains to be done, in the way +of pioneer exploring and of scientific work, in the great stretches of +virgin wilderness. The only two other continents where such work, of +like volume and value, remains to be done are Africa and Asia; and +neither Africa nor Asia offers a more inviting field for the best kind +of field worker in geographical exploration and in zoological, +geological, and paleontological investigation. The explorer is merely +the most adventurous kind of field geographer; and there are two or +three points worth keeping in mind in dealing with the South American +work of the field geographer and field zoologist. + +Roughly, the travellers who now visit (like those who for the past +century have visited) South America come in three categories-- +although, of course, these categories are not divided by hard-and-fast +lines. + +First, there are the travellers who skirt the continent in comfortable +steamers, going from one great seaport to another, and occasionally +taking a short railway journey to some big interior city not too far +from the coast. This is a trip well worth taking by all intelligent +men and women who can afford it; and it is being taken by such men and +women with increasing frequency. It entails no more difficulty than a +similar trip to the Mediterranean--than such a trip which to a learned +and broad-minded observer offers the same chance for acquiring +knowledge and, if he is himself gifted with wisdom, the same chance of +imparting his knowledge to others that is offered by a trip of similar +length through the larger cities of Europe or the United States. +Probably the best instance of the excellent use to which such an +observer can put his experience is afforded by the volume of Mr. +Bryce. Of course, such a trip represents travelling of essentially the +same kind as travelling by railroad from Atlanta to Calgary or from +Madrid to Moscow. + +Next there are the travellers who visit the long-settled districts and +colonial cities of the interior, travelling over land or river +highways which have been traversed for centuries but which are still +primitive as regards the inns and the modes of conveyance. Such +travelling is difficult in the sense that travelling in parts of Spain +or southern Italy or the Balkan states is difficult. Men and women who +have a taste for travel in out-of-way places and who, therefore, do +not mind slight discomforts and inconveniences have the chance +themselves to enjoy, and to make others profit by, travels of this +kind in South America. In economic, social, and political matters the +studies and observations of these travellers are essential in order to +supplement, and sometimes to correct, those of travellers of the first +category; for it is not safe to generalize overmuch about any country +merely from a visit to its capital or its chief seaport. These +travellers of the second category can give us most interesting and +valuable information about quaint little belated cities; about +backward country folk, kindly or the reverse, who show a mixture of +the ideas of savagery with the ideas of an ancient peasantry; and +about rough old highways of travel which in comfort do not differ much +from those of mediaeval Europe. The travellers who go up or down the +highway rivers that have been travelled for from one to four hundred +years--rivers like the Paraguay and Parana, the Amazon, the Tapajos, +the Madeira, the lower Orinoco--come in this category. They can add +little to our geographical knowledge; but if they are competent +zoologists or archaeologists, especially if they live or sojourn +long in a locality, their work may be invaluable from the scientific +standpoint. The work of the archaeologists among the immeasurably +ancient ruins of the low-land forests and the Andean plateaux is of +this kind. What Agassiz did for the fishes of the Amazon and what +Hudson did for the birds of the Argentine are other instances of the +work that can thus be done. Burton's writings on the interior of +Brazil offer an excellent instance of the value of a sojourn or trip +of this type, even without any especial scientific object. + +Of course travellers of this kind need to remember that their +experiences in themselves do not qualify them to speak as wilderness +explorers. Exactly as a good archaeologist may not be competent to +speak of current social or political problems, so a man who has done +capital work as a tourist observer in little-visited cities and along +remote highways must beware of regarding himself as being thereby +rendered fit for genuine wilderness work or competent to pass judgment +on the men who do such work. To cross the Andes on mule-back along the +regular routes is a feat comparable to the feats of the energetic +tourists who by thousands traverse the mule trails in out-of-the-way +nooks of Switzerland. An ordinary trip on the highway portions of the +Amazon, Paraguay, or Orinoco in itself no more qualifies a man to +speak of or to take part in exploring unknown South American rivers +than a trip on the lower Saint Lawrence qualifies a man to regard +himself as an expert in a canoe voyage across Labrador or the Barren +Grounds west of Hudson Bay. + +A hundred years ago, even seventy or eighty years ago, before the age +of steamboats and railroads, it was more difficult than at present to +define the limits between this class and the next; and, moreover, in +defining these limits I emphatically disclaim any intention of thereby +attempting to establish a single standard of value for books of +travel. Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle" is to me the best book of the +kind ever written; it is one of those classics which decline to go +into artificial categories, and which stand by themselves; and yet +Darwin, with his usual modesty, spoke of it as in effect a yachting +voyage. Humboldt's work had a profound effect on the thought of the +civilized world; his trip was one of adventure and danger; and yet it +can hardly be called exploration proper. He visited places which had +been settled and inhabited for centuries and traversed places which +had been travelled by civilized men for years before he followed in +their footsteps. But these places were in Spanish colonies, and access +to them had been forbidden by the mischievous and intolerant tyranny-- +ecclesiastical, political, and economic--which then rendered Spain the +most backward of European nations; and Humboldt was the first +scientific man of intellectual independence who had permission to +visit them. To this day many of his scientific observations are of +real value. Bates came to the Amazon just before the era of Amazonian +steamboats. He never went off the native routes of ordinary travel. +But he was a devoted and able naturalist. He lived an exceedingly +isolated, primitive, and laborious life for eleven years. Now, half a +century after it was written, his "Naturalist on the Amazon" is as +interesting and valuable as it ever was, and no book since written has +in any way supplanted it. + +Travel of the third category includes the work of the true wilderness +explorers who add to our sum of geographical knowledge and of the +scientific men who, following their several bents, also work in the +untrodden wilds. Colonel Rondon and his associates have done much in +the geographical exploration of unknown country, and Cherrie and +Miller have penetrated and lived for months and years in the wastes, +on their own resources, as incidents to their mammalogical and +ornithological work. Professor Farrabee, the anthropologist, is a +capital example of the man who does this hard and valuable type of +work. + +An immense amount of this true wilderness work, geographical and +zoological, remains to be done in South America. It can be +accomplished with reasonable thoroughness only by the efforts of very +many different workers, each in his own special field. It is desirable +that here and there a part of the work should be done in outline by +such a geographic and zoological reconnaissance as ours; we would, for +example, be very grateful for such work in portions of the interior of +the Guianas, on the headwaters of the Xingu, and here and there along +the eastern base of the Andes. + +But as a rule the work must be specialized; and in its final shape it +must be specialized everywhere. The first geographical explorers of +the untrodden wilderness, the first wanderers who penetrate the wastes +where they are confronted with starvation, disease, and danger and +death in every from, cannot take with them the elaborate equipment +necessary in order to do the thorough scientific work demanded by +modern scientific requirements. This is true even of exploration done +along the courses of unknown rivers; it is more true of the +exploration, which must in South America become increasingly +necessary, done across country, away from the rivers. + +The scientific work proper of these early explorers must be of a +somewhat preliminary nature; in other words the most difficult and +therefore ordinarily the most important pieces of first-hand exploration +are precisely those where the scientific work of the accompanying +cartographer, geologist, botanist, and zoologist must be furthest +removed from finality. The zoologist who works to most advantage in +the wilderness must take his time, and therefore he must normally +follow in the footsteps of, and not accompany, the first explorers. +The man who wishes to do the best scientific work in the wilderness +must not try to combine incompatible types of work nor to cover too +much ground in too short a time. + +There is no better example of the kind of zoologist who does first- +class field-work in the wilderness than John D. Haseman, who spent +from 1907 to 1910 in painstaking and thorough scientific investigation +over a large extent of South American territory hitherto only +partially known or quite unexplored. Haseman's primary object was to +study the characteristics and distribution of South American fishes, +but as a matter of fact he studied at first hand many other more or +less kindred subjects, as may be seen in his remarks on the Indians +and in his excellent pamphlet on "Some Factors of Geographical +Distribution in South America." + +Haseman made his long journey with a very slender equipment, his +extraordinarily successful field-work being due to his bodily health +and vigor and his resourcefulness, self-reliance, and resolution. His +writings are rendered valuable by his accuracy and common sense. The +need of the former of these two attributes will be appreciated by +whoever has studied the really scandalous fictions which have been +published as genuine by some modern "explorers" and adventurers in +South America; and the need of the latter by whoever has studied +some of the wild theories propounded in the name of science concerning +the history of life on the South American continent. There is, +however, one serious criticism to be made on Haseman: the extreme +obscurity of his style--an obscurity mixed with occasional bits of +scientific pedantry, which makes it difficult to tell whether or not +on some points his thought is obscure also. Modern scientists, like +modern historians and, above all, scientific and historical educators, +should ever keep in mind that clearness of speech and writing is +essential to clearness of thought and that a simple, clear, and, if +possible, vivid style is vital to the production of the best work in +either science or history. Darwin and Huxley are classics, and they +would not have been if they had not written good English. The thought +is essential, but ability to give it clear expression is only less +essential. Ability to write well, if the writer has nothing to write +about, entitles him to mere derision. But the greatest thought is +robbed of an immense proportion of its value if expressed in a mean or +obscure manner. Mr. Haseman has such excellent thought that it is a +pity to make it a work of irritating labor to find out just what the +thought is. Surely, if he will take as much pains with his writing as +he has with the far more difficult business of exploring and +collecting, he will become able to express his thought clearly and +forcefully. At least he can, if he chooses, go over his sentences +until he is reasonably sure that they can be parsed. He can take pains +to see that his whole thought is expressed, instead of leaving +vacancies which must be filled by the puzzled and groping reader. His +own views and his quotations from the views of others about the static +and dynamic theories of distribution are examples of an important +principle so imperfectly expressed as to make us doubtful whether it +is perfectly apprehended by the writer. He can avoid the use of those +pedantic terms which are really nothing but offensive and, +fortunately, ephemeral scientific slang. There has been, for instance, +a recent vogue for the extensive misuse, usually tautological misuse, +of the word "complexus"--an excellent word if used rarely and for +definite purposes. Mr. Haseman drags it in continually when its use is +either pointless and redundant or else serves purely to darken wisdom. +He speaks of the "Antillean complex" when he means the Antilles, of +the "organic complex" instead of the characteristic or bodily +characteristics of an animal or species, and of the "environmental +complex" when he means nothing whatever but the environment. In short, +Mr. Haseman and those whose bad example he in this instance follows +use "complexus" in much the same spirit as that displayed by the +famous old lady who derived religious--instead of scientific-- +consolation from the use of "the blessed word Mesopotamia." + +The reason that it is worth while to enter this protest against Mr. +Haseman's style is because his work is of such real and marked value. +The pamphlet on the distribution of South American species shows that +to exceptional ability as a field worker he adds a rare power to draw, +with both caution and originality, the necessary general conclusions +from the results of his own observations and from the recorded studies +of other men; and there is nothing more needed at the present moment +among our scientific men than the development of a school of men who, +while industrious and minute observers and collectors and cautious +generalizers, yet do not permit the faculty of wise generalization to +be atrophied by excessive devotion to labyrinthine detail. + +Haseman upholds with strong reasoning the theory that since the +appearance of all but the lowest forms of life on this globe there +have always been three great continental masses, sometimes solid +sometimes broken, extending southward from the northern hemisphere, +and from time to time connected in the north, but not in the middle +regions or the south since the carboniferous epoch. He holds that life +has been intermittently distributed southward along these continental +masses when there were no breaks in their southward connection, and +intermittently exchanged between them when they were connected in the +north; and he also upholds the view that from a common ancestral form +the same species has been often developed in entirely disconnected +localities when in these localities the conditions of environment were +the same. + +The opposite view is that there have been frequent connections between +the great land masses, alike in the tropics, in the south temperate +zone, and in the Antarctic region. The upholders of this theory base +it almost exclusively on the distribution of living and fossil forms +of life; that is, it is based almost exclusively on biological and not +geological considerations. Unquestionably, the distribution of many +forms of life, past and present, offers problems which with our +present paleontological knowledge we are wholly unable to solve. If we +consider only the biological facts concerning some one group of +animals it is not only easy but inevitable to conclude that its +distribution must be accounted for by the existence of some former +direct land bridge extending, for instance, between Patagonia and +Australia, or between Brazil and South Africa, or between the West +Indies and the Mediterranean, or between a part of the Andean region +and northeastern Asia. The trouble is that as more groups of animals +are studied from the standpoint of this hypothesis the number of such +land bridges demanded to account for the existing facts of animal +distribution is constantly and indefinitely extended. A recent book by +one of the most learned advocates of this hypothesis calls for at +least ten such land bridges between South America and all the other +continents, present and past, of the world since a period geologically +not very remote. These land bridges, moreover, must, many of them, +have been literally bridges; long, narrow tongues of land thrust in +every direction across the broad oceans. According to this view the +continental land masses have been in a fairly fluid condition of +instability. By parity of reasoning, the land bridges could be made a +hundred instead of merely ten in number. The facts of distribution are +in many cases inexplicable with our present knowledge; yet if the +existence of widely separated but closely allied forms is habitually +to be explained in accordance with the views of the extremists of this +school we could, from the exclusive study of certain groups of +animals, conclude that at different periods the United States and +almost every other portion of the earth were connected by land and +severed from all other regions by water--and, from the study of +certain other groups of animals, arrive at directly opposite and +incompatible conclusions. + +The most brilliant and unsafe exponent of this school was Ameghino, +who possessed and abused two gifts, both essential to the highest type +of scientist, and both mischievous unless this scientist possess a +rare and accurate habit of thought joined to industry and mastery of +detail:--namely, the gift of clear and interesting writing, and the +gift of generalization. Ameghino rendered marked services to +paleontology. But he generalized with complete recklessness from the +slenderest data; and even these data he often completely misunderstood +or misinterpreted. His favorite thesis included the origin of +mammalian life and of man himself in southernmost South America, with, +as incidents, the belief that the mammalian-bearing strata of South +America were of much greater age than the strata with corresponding +remains elsewhere; that in South America various species and genera of +men existed in tertiary times, some of them at least as advanced as +fairly well advanced modern savages; that there existed various land +bridges between South America and other southern continents, including +Africa; and that the ancestral types of modern mammals and of man +himself wandered across one of these bridges to the old world, and +that thence their remote descendants, after ages of time, returned to +the new. In addition to valuable investigations of fossil-bearing beds +in the Argentine, he made some excellent general suggestions, such as +that the pithecoid apes, like the baboons, do not stand in the line of +man's ancestral stem but represent a divergence from it away from +humanity and toward a retrogressive bestialization. But of his main +theses he proves none, and what evidence we have tells against them. +At the Museum of La Plata I found that the authorities were +practically a unit in regarding his remains of tertiary men and proto- +men as being either the remains of tertiary American monkeys or of +American Indians from strata that were long post-tertiary. The +extraordinary discovery, due to that eminent scientist and public +servant Doctor Moreno, of the remains of man associated with the +remains of the great extinct South American fauna, of the mylodon, of +a giant ungulate, of a huge cat like the lion, and of an extraordinary +aberrant horse (of a wholly different genus from the modern horse) +conclusively shows that in its later stages the South American fauna +consisted largely of types that elsewhere had already disappeared and +that these types persisted into what was geologically a very recent +period only some tens of thousands of years ago, when savage man of +practically a modern type had already appeared in South America. The +evidence we have, so far as it goes, tends to show that the South +American fauna always has been more archaic in type than the arctogeal +fauna of the same chronological level. + +To loose generalizations, and to elaborate misinterpretations of +paleontological records, the kind of work done by Mr. Haseman +furnishes an invaluable antiscorbutic. To my mind, he has established +a stronger presumption in favor of the theory he champions than has +been established in favor of the theories of any of the learned and +able scientific men from whose conclusions he dissents. Further +research, careful, accurate, and long extended, can alone enable us to +decide definitely in the matter; and this research, to be effective, +must be undertaken by many men, each of whom shall in large measure +possess Mr. Haseman's exceptional power of laborious work both in the +field and in the study, his insight and accuracy of observation, and +his determination to follow truth with inflexible rectitude wherever +it may lead--one of the greatest among the many great qualities which +lifted Huxley and Darwin above their fellows. + + + + APPENDIX B. + + The Outfit for Travelling in the South American Wilderness + +South America includes so many different kinds of country that it is +impossible to devise a scheme of equipment which shall suit all. A +hunting-trip in the pantanals, in the swamp country of the upper +Paraguay, offers a simple problem. An exploring trip through an +unknown tropical forest region, even if the work is chiefly done by +river, offers a very difficult problem. All that I can pretend to do +is to give a few hints as the results of our own experience. + +For bedding there should be a hammock, mosquito-net, and light +blanket. These can be obtained in Brazil. For tent a light fly is +ample; ours were brought with us from New York. In exploring only the +open fly should be taken; but on trips where weight of luggage is no +objection, there can be walls to the tent and even a canvas floor- +cloth. Camp-chairs and a camp table should be brought--any good +outfitter in the United States will supply them--and not thrown away +until it becomes imperative to cut everything down. On a river trip, +first-class pulleys and ropes--preferably steel, and at any rate very +strong--should be taken. Unless the difficulties of transportation are +insuperable, canvas-and-cement canoes, such as can be obtained from +various firms in Canada and the United States, should by all means be +taken. They are incomparably superior to the dugouts. But on different +rivers wholly different canoes, of wholly different sizes, will be +needed; on some steam or electric launches may be used; it is not +possible to lay down a general rule. + +As regards arms, a good plain 12-bore shotgun with a 30-30 rifle- +barrel underneath the others is the best weapon to have constantly in +one's hand in the South American forests, where big game is rare and +yet may at any time come in one's path. When specially hunting the +jaguar, marsh-deer, tapir, or big peccary, an ordinary light repeating +rifle--the 30-30, 30-40, or 256--is preferable. No heavy rifle is +necessary for South America. Tin boxes or trunks are the best in which +to carry one's spare things. A good medicine-chest is indispensable. +Nowadays doctors know so much of tropical diseases that there is no +difficulty in fitting one out. It is better not to make the trip at +all than to fail to take an ample supply of quinine pills. Cholera +pills and cathartic pills come next in importance. In liquid shape +there should be serum to inject for the stoppage of amoebic dysentery, +and anti-snake-venom serum. Fly-dope should be taken in quantities. + +For clothing Kermit and I used what was left over from our African +trip. Sun helmets are best in the open; slouch-hats are infinitely +preferable in the woods. There should be hobnailed shoes--the nails +many and small, not few and large; and also moccasins or rubber-soled +shoes; and light, flexible leggings. Tastes differ in socks; I like +mine of thick wool. A khaki-colored shirt should be worn, or, as a +better substitute, a khaki jacket with many pockets. Very light +underclothes are good. If one's knees and legs are unfortunately +tender, knickerbockers with long stockings and leggings should be worn; +ordinary trousers tend to bind the knee. Better still, if one's legs +will stand the exposure, are shorts, not coming down to the knee. A +kilt would probably be best of all. Kermit wore shorts in the +Brazilian forest, as he had already worn them in Africa, in Mexico, +and in the New Brunswick woods. Some of the best modern hunters always +wear shorts; as for example, that first-class sportsman the Duke of +Alva. + +Mr. Fiala, after the experience of his trip down the Papagaio, the +Juruena, and the Tapajos, gives his judgment about equipment and +provisions as follows: + +The history of South American exploration has been full of the losses +of canoes and cargoes and lives. The native canoe made from the single +trunk of a forest giant is the craft that has been used. It is durable +and if lost can be readily replaced from the forest by good men with +axes and adzes. But, because of its great weight and low free-board, +it is unsuitable as a freight carrier and by reason of the limitations +of its construction is not of the correct form to successfully run the +rapid and bad waters of many of the South American rivers. The North +American Indian has undoubtedly developed a vastly superior craft in +the birch-bark canoe and with it will run rapids that a South American +Indian with his log canoe would not think of attempting, though, as a +general thing, the South American Indian is a wonderful waterman, the +equal and, in some ways, the superior of his northern contemporary. At +the many carries or portages the light birch-bark canoe or its modern +representative, the canvas-covered canoe, can be picked up bodily and +carried by from two to four men for several miles, if necessary, while +the log canoe has to be hauled by ropes and back-breaking labor over +rollers that have first to be cut from trees in the forest, or at +great risk led along the edge of the rapids with ropes and hooks and +poles, the men often up to their shoulders in the rushing waters, +guiding the craft to a place of safety. + +The native canoe is so long and heavy that it is difficult to navigate +without some bumps on the rocks. In fact, it is usually dragged over +the rocks in the shallow water near shore in preference to taking the +risk of a plunge through the rushing volume of deeper water, for +reasons stated above. The North American canoe can be turned with +greater facility in critical moments in bad water. Many a time I heard +my steersman exclaim with delight as we took a difficult passage +between two rocks with our loaded Canadian canoe. In making the same +passage the dugout would go sideways toward the rapid until by a +supreme effort her three powerful paddlers and steersman would right +her just in time. The native canoe would ship great quantities of +water in places the Canadian canoe came through without taking any +water on board. We did bump a few rocks under water, but the canoe was +so elastic that no damage was done. + +Our nineteen-foot canvas-covered freight canoe, a type especially +built for the purpose on deep, full lines with high free-board, +weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds and would carry a ton of +cargo with ease--and also take it safely where the same cargo +distributed among two or three native thirty or thirty-five foot +canoes would be lost. The native canoes weigh from about nine hundred +to two thousand five hundred pounds and more. + +In view of the above facts the explorer-traveller is advised to take +with him the North American canoe if he intends serious work. Two +canoes would be a good arrangement for from five to seven men, with +at least one steersman and two paddlers to each canoe. The canoes can +be purchased in two sizes and nested for transportation, an +arrangement which would save considerable expense in freight bills. At +least six paddles should be packed with each boat, in length four and +one half, four and three fourths, and five feet. Other paddles from +six and one half feet to eight and one half feet should be provided +for steering oars. The native paddler, after he has used the light +Canadian paddle, prefers it to the best native make. My own paddlers +lost or broke all of their own paddles so as to get the North American +ones, which they marked with their initials and used most carefully. + +To each canoe it would be well to have two copper air tanks, one fore, +one aft, a hand-hole in each with a water-tight screw cover on hatch. +In these tanks could be kept a small supply of matches, the +chronometer or watch which is used for position, and the scientific +records and diary. Of course, the fact should be kept in mind that +these are air tanks, not to be used so as to appreciably diminish +their buoyancy. Each canoe should also carry a small repair kit +attached to one of the thwarts, containing cement, a piece of canvas +same as cover of canoe, copper tacks, rivets, and some galvanized +nails; a good hatchet and a hammer; a small can of canoe paint, spar +varnish, and copper paint for worn places would be a protection +against termites and torrential downpours. In concluding the subject +of canoes I can state that the traveller in South America will find no +difficulty in disposing of his craft at the end of his trip. + +MOTORS--We had with us a three and one half horse-power motor which +could be attached to stern or gunwale of canoe or boat. It was made by +the Evinrude Motor Company, who had a magneto placed in the flywheel +of the engine so that we never had to resort to the battery to run the +motor. Though the motor was left out in the rain and sun, often +without a cover, by careless native help, it never failed us. We found +it particularly valuable in going against the strong current of the +Sepotuba River where several all-night trips were made up-stream, the +motor attached to a heavy boat. For exploration up-stream it would be +valuable, particularly as it is easily portable, weighing for the two +horse-power motor fifty pounds, for three and one half horse-power one +hundred pounds. If a carburetor could be attached so that kerosene +could be used it would add to its value many times, for kerosene can +be purchased almost anywhere in South America. + +TENTS--There is nothing better for material than the light waterproof +Sea Island cotton of American manufacture, made under the trade name +of waterproof silk. It keeps out the heaviest rain and is very light. +Canvas becomes water-soaked, and cravenetted material lets the water +through. A waterproof canvas floor is a luxury, and, though it adds to +the weight, it may with advantage be taken on ordinary trips. The tent +should be eight by eight or eight by nine feet, large enough to swing +a comfortable hammock. A waterproof canvas bag, a loose-fitting +envelope for the tent should be provided. Native help is, as a rule, +careless, and the bag would save wear and tear. + +HAMMOCKS--The hammock is the South American bed, and the traveller +will find it exceedingly comfortable. After leaving the larger cities +and settlements a bed is a rare object. All the houses are provided +with extra hammock hooks. The traveller will be entertained hospitably +and after dinner will be given two hooks upon which to hang his +hammock, for he will be expected to have his hammock and, in insect +time, his net, if he has nothing else. As a rule, a native hammock and +net can be procured in the field. But it is best to take a comfortable +one along, arranged with a fine-meshed net. + +In regard to the folding cot: It is heavy and its numerous legs form a +sort of highway system over which all sorts of insects can crawl up to +the sleeper. The ants are special pests and some of them can bite with +the enthusiastic vigor of beasts many times their size. The canvas +floor in a tent obviates to a degree the insect annoyance. + +The headwaters of the rivers are usually reached by pack-trains of +mules and oxen. The primitive ox-cart also comes in where the trail is +not too bad. One hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty pounds is +a good load for the pack-animals, and none of the cases should weigh +more than fifty or sixty pounds. Each case should be marked with its +contents and gross and net weight in kilos. + +For personal baggage the light fibre sample case used by travelling +men in the United States does admirably. The regulation fibre case +with its metal binding sold for the purpose is too heavy and has the +bad feature of swelling up under the influence of rain and dampness, +often necessitating the use of an axe or heavy hammer to remove cover. + +The ordinary fibre trunk is good for rail and steamer travel, but it +is absolutely unpractical for mule-back or canoe. The fibre sample +case could be developed into a container particularly fitted for +exploration. The fibre should be soaked in hot paraffin and then hot- +calendered or hot-pressed. This case could then be covered with +waterproof canvas with throat opening like a duffel-bag. + +The waterproof duffel-bags usually sold are too light in texture and +wear through. A heavier grade should be used. The small duffel-bag is +very convenient for hammock and clothing, but generally the thing +wanted will be at the bottom of the bag! We took with us a number of +small cotton bags. As cotton is very absorbent, I had them paraffined. +Each bag was tagged and all were placed in the large duffel-bag. The +light fibre case described above, made just the right size for mule +pack, divided by partitions, and covered with a duffel-bag, would +prove a great convenience. + +The light steel boxes made in England for travellers in India and +Africa would prove of value in South American exploration. They have +the advantage of being insect and water proof and the disadvantage of +being expensive. + +It would be well if the traveller measured each case for personal +equipment and computed the limit of weight that it could carry and +still float. By careful distribution of light and heavy articles in +the different containers, he could be sure of his belongings floating +if accidentally thrown into the water. + +It is not always possible to get comfortable native saddles. They are +all constructed on heavy lines with thick padding which becomes water- +soaked in the rainy season. A United States military saddle, with +Whitman or McClellan tree, would be a positive luxury. Neither of them +is padded, so would be the correct thing for all kinds of weather. The +regulation army saddle-blanket is also advised as a protection for the +mule's back. The muleteer should wash the saddle-blanket often. For a +long mule-back trip through a game country, it would be well to have a +carbine boot on the saddle (United States Army) and saddle-bags with +canteen and cup. In a large pack-train much time and labor are lost +every morning collecting the mules which strayed while grazing. It +would pay in the long run to feed a little corn at a certain hour +every morning in camp, always ringing a bell or blowing a horn at the +time. The mules would get accustomed to receiving the feed and would +come to camp for it at the signal. + +All the rope that came to my attention in South America was three- +strand hemp, a hard material, good for standing rigging but not good +for tackle or for use aboard canoes. A four-ply bolt rope of best +manilla, made in New Bedford, Mass., should be taken. It is the finest +and most pliable line in the world, as any old whaler will tell you. +Get a sailor of the old school to relay the coils before you go into +the field so that the rope will be ready for use. Five eighths to +seven eighths inch diameter is large enough. A few balls of marline +come in conveniently as also does heavy linen fish-line. + +A small-sized duffel-bag should be provided for each of the men as a +container for hammock and net, spare clothing, and mess-kit. A very +small waterproof pouch or bag should be furnished also for matches, +tobacco, etc. + +The men should be limited to one duffel-bag each. These bags should be +numbered consecutively. In fact, every piece in the entire equipment +should be thus numbered and a list kept in detail in a book. + +The explorer should personally see that each of his men has a hammock, +net, and poncho; for the native, if left unsupervised, will go into +the field with only the clothing he has on. + +FOOD--Though South America is rich in food and food possibilities, +she has not solved the problem of living economically on her +frontiers. The prices asked for food in the rubber districts we passed +through were amazing. Five milreis (one dollar and fifty cents) was +cheap for a chicken, and eggs at five hundred reis (fifteen cents) +apiece were a rarity. Sugar was bought at the rate of one to two +milreis a kilo--in a country where sugar-cane grows luxuriantly. The +main dependence is the mandioc, or farina, as it is called. It is the +bread of the country and is served at every meal. The native puts it +on his meat and in his soup and mixes it with his rice and beans. When +he has nothing else he eats the farina, as it is called, by the +handful. It is seldom cooked. The small mandioc tubers when boiled are +very good and are used instead of potatoes. Native beans are nutritious +and form one of the chief foods. + +In the field the native cook wastes much time. Generally provided with +an inadequate cooking equipment, hours are spent cooking beans after +the day's work, and then, of course, they are often only partially +cooked. A kettle or aluminum Dutch oven should be taken along, large +enough to cook enough beans for both breakfast and dinner. The beans +should be cooked all night, a fire kept burning for the purpose. It +would only be necessary then to warm the beans for breakfast and +dinner, the two South American meals. + +For meat the rubber hunter and explorer depends upon his rifle and +fish-hook. The rivers are full of fish which can readily be caught, +and, in Brazil, the tapir, capybara, paca, agouti, two or three +varieties of deer, and two varieties of wild pig can occasionally be +shot; and most of the monkeys are used for food. Turtles and turtle +eggs can be had in season and a great variety of birds, some of them +delicious in flavor and heavy in meat. In the hot, moist climate fresh +meat will not keep and even salted meat has been known to spoil. For +use on the Roosevelt expedition I arranged a ration for five men for +one day packed in a tin box; the party which went down the Duvida made +each ration do for six men for a day and a half, and in addition gave +over half the bread or hardtack to the camaradas. By placing the day's +allowance of bread in this same box, it was lightened sufficiently to +float if dropped into water. There were seven variations in the +arrangement of food in these boxes and they were numbered from 1 to 7, +so that a different box could be used every day of the week. In +addition to the food, each box contained a cake of soap, a piece of +cheese-cloth, two boxes of matches, and a box of table salt. These tin +boxes were lacquered to protect from rust and enclosed in wooden cases +for transportation. A number in large type was printed on each. No. 1 +was cased separately; Nos. 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7 were cased +together. For canoe travel the idea was to take these wooden cases +off. I did not have an opportunity personally to experience the +management of these food cases. We had sent them all ahead by pack- +train for the explorers of the Duvida River. The exploration of the +Papagaio was decided upon during the march over the plateau of Matto +Grosso and was accomplished with dependence upon native food only. + + DAILY RATION FOR FIVE MEN + + SUN. MON. TUES. WED. THUR. FRI. SAT. + Rice 16 16 16 + Oatmeal 13 13 13 + Bread 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 + Tea-biscuits 18 18 18 + Gingersnaps 21 21 21 21 + Dehydrated potatoes 11 11 11 11 11 11 + Dehydrated onions 5 5 5 5 5 5 + Erbswurst 8 8 8 + Evaporated soups 6 6 6 + Baked beans 25 25 + Condensed milk 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 + Bacon 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 + Roast beef 56 + Braised beef 56 56 + Corned beef 70 + Ox tongue 78 + Curry and chicken 72 + Boned chicken 61 + Fruits: evaporated berries 5 5 5 5 + Figs 20 20 + Dates 16 + Sugar 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 + Coffee 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 + Tea 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 + Salt 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 + Sweet chocolate 16 + + EACH BOX ALSO CONTAINED + + Muslin, one yard 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 + Matches, boxes 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 + Soap, one cake 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 + +Above weights of food are net in avoirdupois ounces. Each complete +ration with its tin container weighed nearly twenty-seven pounds. The +five pounds over net weight of daily ration was taken up in tin +necessary for protection of food. The weight of component parts of +daily ration had to be governed to some extent by the size of the +commercial package in which the food could be purchased on short +notice. Austin, Nichols & Co., of New York, who supplied the food +stores for my polar expedition, worked day and night to complete the +packing of the rations on time. + +The food cases described above were used on Colonel Roosevelt's +descent of the Rio da Duvida and also by the party who journeyed down +the Gy-Parana and Madeira Rivers. Leo Miller, the naturalist, who was +a member of the last-named party, arrived in Manaos, Brazil, while I +was there and, in answer to my question, told me that the food served +admirably and was good, but that the native cooks had a habit of +opening a number of cases at a time to satisfy their personal desire +for special delicacies. Bacon was the article most sought for. +Speaking critically, for a strenuous piece of work like the +exploration of the Duvida, the food was somewhat bulky. A ration +arrangement such as I used on my sledge trips North would have +contained more nutritious elements in a smaller space. We could have +done without many of the luxuries. But the exploration of the Duvida +had not been contemplated and had no place in the itinerary mapped out +in New York. The change of plan and the decision to explore the Duvida +River came about in Rio Janeiro, long after our rations had been made +out and shipped. + +"Matte" the tea of Brazil and Paraguay, used in most of the states of +South America, should not be forgotten. It is a valuable beverage. +With it a native can do a wonderful amount of work on little food. +Upon the tired traveller it has a very refreshing effect. + +Doctor Peckolt, celebrated chemist of Rio de Janeiro, has compared the +analysis of matte with those of green tea, black tea, and coffee and +obtained the following result: + + IN 1,000 PARTS OF GREEN TEA BLACK TEA COFFEE MATTE + Natural oil 7.90 0.06 0.41 0.01 + Chlorophyl 22.20 18.14 13.66 62.00 + Resin 22.20 34.40 13.66 20.69 + Tannin 178.09 128.80 16.39 12.28 + Alkaloids: + Mateina 4.50 4.30 2.66 2.50 + Extractive substances 464.00 390.00 270.67 238.83 + Cellulose and fibres 175.80 283.20 178.83 180.00 + Ashes 85.60 25.61 25.61 38.11 + +Manner of preparation: The matte tea is prepared in the same manner as +the Indian tea, that is to say, by pouring upon it boiling water +during ten to fifteen minutes before using. To obtain a good infusion +five spoonfuls of matte are sufficient for a litre of water. + +Some experiments have been made lately with the use of matte in the +German army, and probably it would be a valuable beverage for the use +of our own troops. Two plates and a cup, knife, fork, and spoon should +be provided for each member of the party. The United States Army mess- +kit would serve admirably. Each man's mess-kit should be numbered to +correspond with the number on his duffel-bag. + +An aluminum (for lightness) cooking outfit, or the Dutch oven +mentioned, with three or four kettles nested within, a coffee pot or a +teapot would suffice. The necessary large spoons and forks for the +cook, a small meat grinder, and a half dozen skinning knives could all +be included in the fibre case. These outfits are usually sold with the +cups, plates, etc., for the table. As before suggested, each member of +the party should have his own mess-kit. It should not be carried with +the general cooking outfit. By separating the eating equipments thus, +one of the problems of hygiene and cleanliness is simplified. + +RIFLES--AMMUNITION--A heavy rifle is not advised. The only animals +that can be classed as dangerous are the jaguar and white-jawed +peccary, and a 30-30 or 44 calibre is heavy enough for such game. The +44-calibre Winchester or Remington carbine is the arm generally used +throughout South America, and 44 calibre is the only ammunition that +one can depend upon securing in the field. Every man has his own +preference for an arm. However, there is no need of carrying a nine or +ten pound weapon when a rifle weighing only from six and three fourths +to seven and one half pounds will do all that is necessary. I, +personally, prefer the small-calibre rifle, as it can be used for +birds also. The three-barrelled gun, combining a double shotgun and a +rifle, is an excellent weapon, and it is particularly valuable for the +collector of natural-history specimens. A new gun has just come on the +market which may prove valuable in South America where there is such a +variety of game, a four-barrel gun, weighing only eight and one fourth +pounds. It has two shotgun barrels, one 30 to 44 calibre rifle and the +rib separating the shotgun barrels is bored for a 22-calibre rifle +cartridge. The latter is particularly adapted for the large food +birds, which a heavy rifle bullet might tear. Twenty-two calibre +ammunition is also very light and the long 22 calibre exceedingly +powerful. Unless in practice it proves too complicated, it would seem +to be a good arm for all-round use--sixteen to twenty gauge is large +enough for the shotgun barrels. Too much emphasis cannot be placed +upon the need of being provided with good weapons. After the loss of +all our arms in the rapids we secured four poor, rusty rifles which +proved of no value. We lost three deer, a tapir, and other game, and +finally gave up the use of the rifles, depending upon hook and line. A +25 or 30 calibre high power automatic pistol with six or seven inch +barrel would prove a valuable arm to carry always on the person. It +could be used for large game and yet would not be too large for food +birds. It is to be regretted that there is nothing in the market of +this character. + +We had our rifle ammunition packed by the U. M. C. Co. in zinc cases +of one hundred rounds each, a metallic strip with pull ring closing +the two halves of the box. Shot-cartridge, sixteen gauge, were packed +the same way, twenty-five to the box. + +The explorer would do well always to have on his person a compass, a +light waterproof bag containing matches, a waterproof box of salt, and +a strong, light, linen or silk fish-line with several hooks, a knife, +and an automatic at his belt, with several loaded magazines for the +latter in his pocket. Thus provided, if accidentally lost for several +days in the forest (which often happens to the rubber hunters in +Brazil), he will be provided with the possibility of getting game and +making himself shelter and fire at night. + +FISH--For small fish like the pacu and piranha an ordinary bass hook +will do. For the latter, because of its sharp teeth, a hook with a +long shank and phosphor-bronze leader is the best; the same character +of leader is best on the hook to be used for the big fish. A tarpon +hook will hold most of the great fish of the rivers. A light rod and +reel would be a convenience in catching the pacu. We used to fish for +the latter variety in the quiet pools while allowing the canoe to +drift, and always saved some of the fish as bait for the big fellows. +We fished for the pacu as the native does, kneading a ball of mandioc +farina with water and placing it on the hook as bait. I should not be +surprised, though, if it were possible, with carefully chosen flies, +to catch some of the fish that every once in a while we saw rise to +the surface and drag some luckless insect under. + +CLOTHING--Even the experienced traveller when going into a new field +will commit the crime of carrying too much luggage. Articles which he +thought to be camp necessities become camp nuisances which worry his +men and kill his mules. The lighter one can travel the better. In the +matter of clothing, before the actual wilderness is reached the +costume one would wear to business in New York in summer is practical +for most of South America, except, of course, the high mountain +regions, where a warm wrap is necessary. A white or natural linen suit +is a very comfortable garment. A light blue unlined serge is desirable +as a change and for wear in rainy weather. + +Strange to relate, the South American seems to have a fondness for +stiff collars. Even in Corumba, the hottest place I have ever been in, +the native does not think he is dressed unless he wears one of these +stiff abominations around his throat. A light negligee shirt with +interchangeable or attached soft collars is vastly preferable. In the +frontier regions and along the rivers the pajama seems to be the +conventional garment for day as well as night wear. Several such suits +of light material should be carried--the more ornamented and +beautifully colored the greater favor will they find along the way. A +light cravenetted mackintosh is necessary for occasional cool evenings +and as a protection against the rain. It should have no cemented +rubber seams to open up in the warm, moist climate. Yachting oxfords +and a light pair of leather slippers complete the outfit for steamer +travel. For the field, two or three light woollen khaki-colored +shirts, made with two breast pockets with buttoned flaps, two pairs +of long khaki trousers, two pairs of riding breeches, a khaki coat cut +military fashion with four pockets with buttoned flaps, two suits of +pajamas, handkerchiefs, socks, etc., would be necessary. The poncho +should extend to below the knees and should be provided with a hood +large enough to cover the helmet. It should have no cemented seams; +the material recently adopted by the United States Army for ponchos +seems to be the best. For footgear the traveller needs two pairs of +stout, high hunting shoes, built on the moccasin form with soles. Hob +nails should be taken along to insert if the going is over rocky +places. It is also advisable to provide a pair of very light leather +slipper boots to reach to just under the knee for wear in camp. They +protect the legs and ankles from insect stings and bites. The +traveller who enters tropical South America should protect his head +with a wide-brimmed soft felt hat with ventilated headband, or the +best and lightest pith helmet that can be secured, one large enough to +shade the face and back of neck. There should be a ventilating space +all around the head-band; the wider the space the better. These +helmets can be secured in Rio and Buenos Aires. Head-nets with face +plates of horsehair are the best protection against small insect +pests. They are generally made too small and the purchaser should be +careful to get one large enough to go over his helmet and come down to +the breast. Several pairs of loose gloves rather long in the wrist +will be needed as protection against the flies, piums and boroshudas +which draw blood with every bite and are numerous in many parts of +South America. A waterproof sun umbrella, with a jointed handle about +six feet long terminating in a point, would be a decided help to the +scientist at work in the field. A fine-meshed net fitting around the +edge of the umbrella would make it insect proof. When folded it would +not be bulky and its weight would be negligible. Such an umbrella +could also be attached, with a special clamp, to the thwart of a canoe +and so prove a protection from both sun and rain. + +There are little personal conveniences which sometimes grow into +necessities. One of these in my own case was a little electric flash- +light taken for the purpose of reading the verniers of a theodolite or +sextant in star observations. It was used every night and for many +purposes. As a matter of necessity, where insects are numerous one +turns to the protection of his hammock and net immediately after the +evening meal. It was at such times that I found the electric lamp so +helpful. Reclining in the hammock, I held the stock of the light under +my left arm and with diary in my lap wrote up my records for the day. +I sometimes read by its soft, steady light. One charge of battery, to +my surprise, lasted nearly a month. When forced to pick out a camping +spot after dark, an experience which comes to every traveller in the +tropics in the rainy season, we found its light very helpful. Neither +rain nor wind could put it out and the light could be directed +wherever needed. The charges should be calculated on the plan of one +for every three weeks. The acetylene lamp for camp illumination is an +advance over the kerosene lantern. It has been found that for equal +weight the carbide will give more light than kerosene or candle. The +carbide should be put in small containers, for each time a box is +opened some of the contents turns into gas from contact with the moist +air. + +TOOLS--Three or four good axes, several bill-hooks, a good hatchet +with hammer head and nail-puller should be in the tool kit. In +addition, each man should be provided with a belt knife and a machete +with sheath. Collins makes the best machetes. His axes, too, are +excellent. The bill-hook, called foice in Brazil, is a most valuable +tool for clearing away small trees, vines, and under-growths. It is +marvellous how quickly an experienced hand can clear the ground in a +forest with one of these instruments. All of these tools should have +handles of second-growth American hickory of first quality; and +several extra handles should be taken along. The list of tools should +be completed with a small outfit of pliers, tweezers, files, etc.--the +character, of course, depending upon the mechanical ability of the +traveller and the scientific instruments he has with him that might +need repairs. + +SURVEY INSTRUMENTS--The choice of instruments will depend largely +upon the character of the work intended. If a compass survey will +suffice, there is nothing better than the cavalry sketching board used +in the United States Army for reconnaissance. With a careful hand it +approaches the high degree of perfection attained by the plane-table +method. It is particularly adapted for river survey and, after one +gets accustomed to its use, it is very simple. If the prismatic +compass is preferred, nothing smaller than two and one half inches in +diameter should be used. In the smaller sizes the magnet is not +powerful enough to move the dial quickly or accurately. + +Several good pocket compasses must be provided. They should all have +good-sized needles with the north end well marked and degrees engraved +in metal. If the floating dial is preferred it should be of aluminum +and nothing smaller than two and one half inches, for the same reason +as mentioned above regarding the prismatic compass. + +Expense should not be spared if it is necessary to secure good +compasses. Avoid paper dials and leather cases which absorb moisture. +The compass case should allow taking apart for cleaning and drying. + +The regular chronometer movement, because of its delicacy, is out of +the question for rough land or water travel. We had with us a small- +sized half-chronometer movement recently brought out by the Waltham +Company as a yacht chronometer. It gave a surprisingly even rate under +the most adverse conditions. I was sorry to lose it in the rapids of +the Papagaio when our canoes went down. + +The watches should be waterproof with strong cases, and several should +be taken. It would be well to have a dozen cheap but good watches and +the same number of compasses for use around camp and for gifts or +trade along the line of travel. Money is of no value after one leaves +the settlements. I was surprised to find that many of the rubber +hunters were not provided with compasses, and I listened to an +American who told of having been lost in the depths of the great +forest where for days he lived on monkey meat secured with his rifle +until he found his way to the river. He had no compass and could not +get one. I was sorry I had none to give; I had lost mine in the +rapids. + +For the determination of latitude and longitude there is nothing +better than a small four or five inch theodolite not over fifteen +pounds in weight. It should have a good prism eyepiece with an angle +tube attached so it would not be necessary to break one's neck in +reading high altitudes. For days we travelled in the direction the sun +was going, with altitudes varying from 88° to 90°. Because of these +high altitudes of the sun the sextant with artificial horizon could +not be used unless one depended upon star observations altogether, an +uncertain dependence because of the many cloudy nights. + +BAROMETERS--The Goldsmith form of direct-reading aneroid is the most +accurate portable instrument and, of course, should be compared with a +standard mercurial at the last weather-bureau station. + +THERMOMETERS--A swing thermometer, with wet and dry bulbs for +determination of the amount of moisture in the air, and the maximum +and minimum thermometer of the signal-service or weather-bureau type +should be provided, with a case to protect them from injury. + +A tape measure with metric scale of measurements on one side and feet +and inches on the other is most important. Two small, light waterproof +cases could be constructed and packed with scientific instruments, +data, and spare clothing and yet not exceed the weight limit of +flotation. In transit by pack-train these two cases would form but one +mule load. + +PHOTOGRAPHIC--From the experience gained in several fields of +exploration it seems to me that the voyager should limit himself to +one small-sized camera, which he can always have with him, and then +carry a duplicate of it, soldered in tin, in the baggage. The +duplicate need not be equipped with as expensive a lens and shutter as +the camera carried for work; 31/4 x 41/4 is a good size. Nothing +larger than 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 is advised. We carried the 3A special Kodak +and found it a light, strong, and effective instrument. It seems to me +that the ideal form of instrument would be one with a front board +large enough to contain an adapter fitted for three lenses. For the +3 1/4 x 4 1/4: + + One lens 4 or 4 1/2 focus + One lens 6 or 7 focus + One lens telephoto or telecentric 9 to 12 focus + +The camera should be made of metal and fitted with focal-plane shutter +and direct view-finder. + +A sole leather case with shoulder-strap should contain the camera and +lenses, with an extra roll of films, all within instant reach, so that +a lens could be changed without any loss of time. + +Plates, of course, are the best, but their weight and frailty, with +difficulty of handling, rule them out of the question. The roll film +is the best, as the film pack sticks together and the stubs pull off +in the moist, hot climate. The films should be purchased in rolls of +six exposures, each roll in a tin, the cover sealed with surgical +tape. Twelve of these tubes should be soldered in a tin box. In places +where the air is charged with moisture a roll of films should not be +left in a camera over twenty-four hours. + +Tank development is best for the field. The tanks provided for +developing by the Kodak Company are best for fixing also. A nest of +tanks would be a convenience; one tank should be kept separate for the +fixing-bath. As suggested in the Kodak circular, for tropical +development a large-size tank can be used for holding the freezing +mixture of hypo. This same tank would become the fixing tank after +development. In the rainy season it is a difficult matter to dry +films. Development in the field, with washing water at 80 degrees F., +is a patience-trying operation. It has occurred to me that a small +air-pump with a supply of chloride of calcium in small tubes might +solve the problem of preserving films in the tropics. The air-pump and +supply of chloride of calcium would not be as heavy or bulky as the +tanks and powders needed for development. By means of the air-pump the +films could be sealed in tin tubes free from moisture and kept thus +until arrival at home or at a city where the air was fairly dry and +cold water for washing could be had. + +While I cordially agree with most of the views expressed by Mr. Fiala, +there are some as to which I disagree; for instance, we came very +strongly to the conclusion, in descending the Duvida, where bulk was +of great consequence, that the films should be in rolls of ten or +twelve exposures. I doubt whether the four-barrel gun would be +practical; but this is a matter of personal taste. + + + + APPENDIX C. + + My Letter of May 1 to General Lauro Muller + +The first report on the expedition, made by me immediately after my +arrival at Manaos, and published in Rio Janeiro upon its receipt, is +as follows: + + MAY 1st, 1914. + + TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE MINISTER OF + FOREIGN AFFAIRS, + RIO-DE-JANEIRO. + MY DEAR GENERAL LAURO MULLER: + + I wish first to express my profound acknowledgments to you personally + and to the other members of the Brazilian Government whose generous + courtesy alone rendered possible the Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt- + Rondon. I wish also to express my high admiration and regard for + Colonel Rondon and his associates who have been my colleagues in this + work of exploration. In the third place I wish to point out that what + we have just done was rendered possible only by the hard and perilous + labor of the Brazilian Telegraphic Commission in the unexplored + western wilderness of Matto Grosso during the last seven years. We + have had a hard and somewhat dangerous but very successful trip. No + less than six weeks were spent in slowly and with peril and exhausting + labor forcing our way down through what seemed a literally endless + succession of rapids and cataracts. For forty-eight days we saw no + human being. In passing these rapids we lost five of the seven canoes + with which we started and had to build others. One of our best men + lost his life in the rapids. Under the strain one of the men went + completely bad, shirked all his work, stole his comrades' food and + when punished by the sergeant he with cold-blooded deliberation + murdered the sergeant and fled into the wilderness. Colonel Rondon's + dog running ahead of him while hunting, was shot by two Indians; by + his death he in all probability saved the life of his master. We have + put on the map a river about 1500 kilometres in length running from + just south of the 13th degree to north of the 5th degree and the + biggest affluent of the Madeira. Until now its upper course has been + utterly unknown to every one, and its lower course although known for + years to the rubbermen utterly unknown to all cartographers. Its + source is between the 12th and 13th parallels of latitude south, and + between longitude 59 degrees and longitude 60 degrees west from + Greenwich. We embarked on it about at latitude 12 degrees 1 minute + south and longitude 60 degrees 18 west. After that its entire course + was between the 60th and 61st degrees of longitude approaching the + latter most closely about in latitude 8 degrees 15 minutes. The first + rapids were at Navaite in 11 degrees 44 minutes and after that they + were continuous and very difficult and dangerous until the rapids + named after the murdered sergeant Paishon in 11 degrees 12 minutes. At + 11 degrees 23 minutes the river received the Rio Kermit from the left. + At 11 degrees 22 minutes the Marciano Avila entered it from the right. + At 11 degrees 18 minutes the Taunay entered from the left. At 10 + degrees 58 minutes the Cardozo entered from the right. At 10 degrees + 24 minutes we encountered the first rubberman. The Rio Branco entered + from the left at 9 degrees 38 minutes. We camped at 8 degrees 49 + minutes or approximately the boundary line between Matto Grosso and + Amazonas. The confluence with the upper Aripuanan, which entered from + the right, was in 7 degrees 34 minutes. The mouth where it entered the + Madeira was in about 5 degrees 30 minutes. The stream we have followed + down is that which rises farthest away from the mouth and its general + course is almost due north. + + My dear Sir, I thank you from my heart for the chance to take part in + this great work of exploration. + + With high regard and respect, believe me + + Very sincerely yours, + THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Through the Brazilian Wilderness +by Theodore Roosevelt + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11746 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Through the Brazilian Wilderness + +Author: Theodore Roosevelt + +Release Date: March 28, 2004 [EBook #11746] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS *** + + + + +Etext prepared by John Bickers and Dagny + + + + +THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS +By Theodore Roosevelt + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnypg@yahoo.com + and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz + + + + THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS + + BY + + THEODORE ROOSEVELT + + + + PREFACE + + This is an account of a zoo-geographic reconnaissance through the + Brazilian hinterland. + + The official and proper title of the expedition is that given it + by the Brazilian Government: Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt- + Rondon. When I started from the United States, it was to make an + expedition, primarily concerned with mammalogy and ornithology, + for the American Museum of Natural History of New York. This was + undertaken under the auspices of Messrs. Osborn and Chapman, + acting on behalf of the Museum. In the body of this work I + describe how the scope of the expedition was enlarged, and how it + was given a geographic as well as a zoological character, in + consequence of the kind proposal of the Brazilian Secretary of + State for Foreign Affairs, General Lauro Muller. In its altered + and enlarged form the expedition was rendered possible only by the + generous assistance of the Brazilian Government. Throughout the + body of the work will be found reference after reference to my + colleagues and companions of the expedition, whose services to + science I have endeavored to set forth, and for whom I shall + always feel the most cordial friendship and regard. + + THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + SAGAMORE HILL, + September 1, 1914 + + + + + + THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS + + + + I. THE START + +One day in 1908, when my presidential term was coming to a close, +Father Zahm, a priest whom I knew, came in to call on me. Father Zahm +and I had been cronies for some time, because we were both of us fond +of Dante and of history and of science--I had always commended to +theologians his book, "Evolution and Dogma." He was an Ohio boy, and +his early schooling had been obtained in old-time American fashion in +a little log school; where, by the way, one of the other boys was +Januarius Aloysius MacGahan, afterward the famous war correspondent +and friend of Skobeloff. Father Zahm told me that MacGahan even at +that time added an utter fearlessness to chivalric tenderness for the +weak, and was the defender of any small boy who was oppressed by a +larger one. Later Father Zahm was at Notre Dame University, in +Indiana, with Maurice Egan, whom, when I was President, I appointed +minister to Denmark. + +On the occasion in question Father Zahm had just returned from a trip +across the Andes and down the Amazon, and came in to propose that +after I left the presidency he and I should go up the Paraguay into +the interior of South America. At the time I wished to go to Africa, +and so the subject was dropped; but from time to time afterward we +talked it over. Five years later, in the spring of 1913, I accepted +invitations conveyed through the governments of Argentina and Brazil +to address certain learned bodies in these countries. Then it occurred +to me that, instead of making the conventional tourist trip purely by +sea round South America, after I had finished my lectures I would come +north through the middle of the continent into the valley of the +Amazon; and I decided to write Father Zahm and tell him my intentions. +Before doing so, however, I desired to see the authorities of the +American Museum of Natural History, in New York City, to find out +whether they cared to have me take a couple of naturalists with me +into Brazil and make a collecting trip for the museum. + +Accordingly, I wrote to Frank Chapman, the curator of ornithology of +the museum, and accepted his invitation to lunch at the museum one day +early in June. At the lunch, in addition to various naturalists, to my +astonishment I also found Father Zahm; and as soon as I saw him I told +him I was now intending to make the South American trip. It appeared +that he had made up his mind that he would take it himself, and had +actually come on to see Mr. Chapman to find out if the latter could +recommend a naturalist to go with him; and he at once said he would +accompany me. Chapman was pleased when he found out that we intended +to go up the Paraguay and across into the valley of the Amazon, +because much of the ground over which we were to pass had not been +covered by collectors. He saw Henry Fairfield Osborn, the president of +the museum, who wrote me that the museum would be pleased to send +under me a couple of naturalists, whom, with my approval, Chapman +would choose. + +The men whom Chapman recommended were Messrs. George K. Cherrie and +Leo E. Miller. I gladly accepted both. The former was to attend +chiefly to the ornithology and the latter to the mammalogy of the +expedition; but each was to help out the other. No two better men for +such a trip could have been found. Both were veterans of the tropical +American forests. Miller was a young man, born in Indiana, an +enthusiastic with good literary as well as scientific training. He was +at the time in the Guiana forests, and joined us at Barbados. Cherrie +was an older man, born in Iowa, but now a farmer in Vermont. He had a +wife and six children. Mrs. Cherrie had accompanied him during two or +three years of their early married life in his collecting trips along +the Orinoco. Their second child was born when they were in camp a +couple of hundred miles from any white man or woman. One night a few +weeks later they were obliged to leave a camping-place, where they had +intended to spend the night, because the baby was fretful, and its +cries attracted a jaguar, which prowled nearer and nearer in the +twilight until they thought it safest once more to put out into the +open river and seek a new resting-place. Cherrie had spent about +twenty-two years collecting in the American tropics. Like most of the +field-naturalists I have met, he was an unusually efficient and +fearless man; and willy-nilly he had been forced at times to vary his +career by taking part in insurrections. Twice he had been behind the +bars in consequence, on one occasion spending three months in a prison +of a certain South American state, expecting each day to be taken out +and shot. In another state he had, as an interlude to his +ornithological pursuits, followed the career of a gun-runner, acting +as such off and on for two and a half years. The particular +revolutionary chief whose fortunes he was following finally came into +power, and Cherrie immortalized his name by naming a new species of +ant-thrush after him--a delightful touch, in its practical combination +of those not normally kindred pursuits, ornithology and gun-running. + +In Anthony Fiala, a former arctic explorer, we found an excellent man +for assembling equipment and taking charge of its handling and +shipment. In addition to his four years in the arctic regions, Fiala +had served in the New York Squadron in Porto Rico during the Spanish +War, and through his service in the squadron had been brought into +contact with his little Tennessee wife. She came down with her four +children to say good-by to him when the steamer left. My secretary, +Mr. Frank Harper, went with us. Jacob Sigg, who had served three years +in the United States Army, and was both a hospital nurse and a cook, +as well as having a natural taste for adventure, went as the personal +attendant of Father Zahm. In southern Brazil my son Kermit joined me. +He had been bridge building, and a couple of months previously, while +on top of a long steel span, something went wrong with the derrick, he +and the steel span coming down together on the rocky bed beneath. He +escaped with two broken ribs, two teeth knocked out, and a knee +partially dislocated, but was practically all right again when he +started with us. + +In its composition ours was a typical American expedition. Kermit and +I were of the old Revolutionary stock, and in our veins ran about +every strain of blood that there was on this side of the water during +colonial times. Cherrie's father was born in Ireland, and his mother +in Scotland; they came here when very young, and his father served +throughout the Civil War in an Iowa cavalry regiment. His wife was of +old Revolutionary stock. Father Zahm's father was an Alsacian +immigrant, and his mother was partly of Irish and partly of old +American stock, a descendant of a niece of General Braddock. Miller's +father came from Germany, and his mother from France. Fiala's father +and mother were both from Bohemia, being Czechs, and his father had +served four years in the Civil War in the Union Army--his Tennessee +wife was of old Revolutionary stock. Harper was born in England, and +Sigg in Switzerland. We were as varied in religious creed as in ethnic +origin. Father Zahm and Miller were Catholics, Kermit and Harper +Episcopalians, Cherrie a Presbyterian, Fiala a Baptist, Sigg a +Lutheran, while I belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church. + +For arms the naturalists took 16-bore shotguns, one of Cherrie's +having a rifle barrel underneath. The firearms for the rest of the +party were supplied by Kermit and myself, including my Springfield +rifle, Kermit's two Winchesters, a 405 and 30-40, the Fox 12-gauge +shotgun, and another 16-gauge gun, and a couple of revolvers, a Colt +and a Smith & Wesson. We took from New York a couple of canvas canoes, +tents, mosquito-bars, plenty of cheesecloth, including nets for the +hats, and both light cots and hammocks. We took ropes and pulleys +which proved invaluable on our canoe trip. Each equipped himself with +the clothing he fancied. Mine consisted of khaki, such as I wore in +Africa, with a couple of United States Army flannel shirts and a +couple of silk shirts, one pair of hob-nailed shoes with leggings, and +one pair of laced leather boots coming nearly to the knee. Both the +naturalists told me that it was well to have either the boots or +leggings as a protection against snake-bites, and I also had gauntlets +because of the mosquitoes and sand-flies. We intended where possible +to live on what we could get from time to time in the country, but we +took some United States Army emergency rations, and also ninety cans, +each containing a day's provisions for five men, made up by Fiala. + +The trip I proposed to take can be understood only if there is a +slight knowledge of South American topography. The great mountain +chain of the Andes extends down the entire length of the western +coast, so close to the Pacific Ocean that no rivers of any importance +enter it. The rivers of South America drain into the Atlantic. +Southernmost South America, including over half of the territory of +the Argentine Republic, consists chiefly of a cool, open plains +country. Northward of this country, and eastward of the Andes, lies +the great bulk of the South American continent, which is included in +the tropical and the subtropical regions. Most of this territory is +Brazilian. Aside from certain relatively small stretches drained by +coast rivers, this immense region of tropical and subtropical America +east of the Andes is drained by the three great river systems of the +Plate, the Amazon, and the Orinoco. At their headwaters the Amazon and +the Orinoco systems are actually connected by a sluggish natural +canal. The headwaters of the northern affluents of the Paraguay and +the southern affluents of the Amazon are sundered by a stretch of high +land, which toward the east broadens out into the central plateau of +Brazil. Geologically this is a very ancient region, having appeared +above the waters before the dawning of the age of reptiles, or, +indeed, of any true land vertebrates on the globe. This plateau is a +region partly of healthy, rather dry and sandy, open prairie, partly +of forest. The great and low-lying basin of the Paraguay, which +borders it on the south, is one of the largest, and the still greater +basin of the Amazon, which borders it on the north, is the very +largest of all the river basins of the earth. + +In these basins, but especially in the basin of the Amazon, and thence +in most places northward to the Caribbean Sea, lie the most extensive +stretches of tropical forest to be found anywhere. The forests of +tropical West Africa, and of portions of the Farther-Indian region, +are the only ones that can be compared with them. Much difficulty has +been experienced in exploring these forests, because under the +torrential rains and steaming heat the rank growth of vegetation +becomes almost impenetrable, and the streams difficult of navigation; +while white men suffer much from the terrible insect scourges and the +deadly diseases which modern science has discovered to be due very +largely to insect bites. The fauna and flora, however, are of great +interest. The American Museum was particularly anxious to obtain +collections from the divide between the headwaters of the Paraguay and +the Amazon, and from the southern affluents of the Amazon. Our purpose +was to ascend the Paraguay as nearly as possible to the head of +navigation, thence cross to the sources of one of the affluents of the +Amazon, and if possible descend it in canoes built on the spot. The +Paraguay is regularly navigated as high as boats can go. The starting- +point for our trip was to be Asuncion, in the state of Paraguay. + +My exact plan of operations was necessarily a little indefinite, but +on reaching Rio de Janeiro the minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Lauro +Muller, who had been kind enough to take great personal interest in my +trip, informed me that he had arranged that on the headwaters of the +Paraguay, at the town of Caceres, I would be met by a Brazilian Army +colonel, himself chiefly Indian by blood, Colonel Rondon. Colonel +Rondon has been for a quarter of a century the foremost explorer of +the Brazilian hinterland. He was at the time in Manaos, but his +lieutenants were in Caceres and had been notified that we were coming. + +More important still, Mr. Lauro Muller--who is not only an efficient +public servant but a man of wide cultivation, with a quality about him +that reminded me of John Hay--offered to help me make my trip of much +more consequence than I had originally intended. He has taken a keen +interest in the exploration and development of the interior of Brazil, +and he believed that my expedition could be used as a means toward +spreading abroad a more general knowledge of the country. He told me +that he would co-operate with me in every way if I cared to undertake +the leadership of a serious expedition into the unexplored portion of +western Matto Grosso, and to attempt the descent of a river which +flowed nobody knew whither, but which the best-informed men believed +would prove to be a very big river, utterly unknown to geographers. I +eagerly and gladly accepted, for I felt that with such help the trip +could be made of much scientific value, and that a substantial +addition could be made to the geographical knowledge of one of the +least-known parts of South America. Accordingly, it was arranged that +Colonel Rondon and some assistants and scientists should meet me at or +below Corumba, and that we should attempt the descent of the river, of +which they had already come across the headwaters. + +I had to travel through Brazil, Uruguay, the Argentine, and Chile for +six weeks to fulfil my speaking engagements. Fiala, Cherrie, Miller, +and Sigg left me at Rio, continuing to Buenos Aires in the boat in +which we had all come down from New York. From Buenos Aires they went +up the Paraguay to Corumba, where they awaited me. The two naturalists +went first, to do all the collecting that was possible; Fiala and Sigg +travelled more leisurely, with the heavy baggage. + +Before I followed them I witnessed an incident worthy of note from the +standpoint of a naturalist, and of possible importance to us because +of the trip we were about to take. South America, even more than +Australia and Africa, and almost as much as India, is a country of +poisonous snakes. As in India, although not to the same degree, these +snakes are responsible for a very serious mortality among human +beings. One of the most interesting evidences of the modern advance in +Brazil is the establishment near Sao Paulo of an institution +especially for the study of these poisonous snakes, so as to secure +antidotes to the poison and to develop enemies to the snakes +themselves. We wished to take into the interior with us some bottles +of the anti-venom serum, for on such an expedition there is always a +certain danger from snakes. On one of his trips Cherrie had lost a +native follower by snake-bite. The man was bitten while out alone in +the forest, and, although he reached camp, the poison was already +working in him, so that he could give no intelligible account of what +had occurred, and he died in a short time. + +Poisonous snakes are of several different families, but the most +poisonous ones, those which are dangerous to man, belong to the two +great families of the colubrine snakes and the vipers. Most of the +colubrine snakes are entirely harmless, and are the common snakes that +we meet everywhere. But some of them, the cobras for instance, develop +into what are on the whole perhaps the most formidable of all snakes. +The only poisonous colubrine snakes in the New World are the ring- +snakes, the coral-snakes of the genus elaps, which are found from the +extreme southern United States southward to the Argentine. These +coral-snakes are not vicious and have small teeth which cannot +penetrate even ordinary clothing. They are only dangerous if actually +trodden on by some one with bare feet or if seized in the hand. There +are harmless snakes very like them in color which are sometimes kept +as pets; but it behooves every man who keeps such a pet or who handles +such a snake to be very sure as to the genus to which it belongs. + +The great bulk of the poisonous snakes of America, including all the +really dangerous ones, belong to a division of the widely spread +family of vipers which is known as the pit-vipers. In South America +these include two distinct subfamilies or genera--whether they are +called families, subfamilies, or genera would depend, I suppose, +largely upon the varying personal views of the individual describer on +the subject of herpetological nomenclature. One genus includes the +rattlesnakes, of which the big Brazilian species is as dangerous as +those of the southern United States. But the large majority of the +species and individuals of dangerous snakes in tropical America are +included in the genus lachecis. These are active, vicious, aggressive +snakes without rattles. They are exceedingly poisonous. Some of them +grow to a very large size, being indeed among the largest poisonous +snakes in the world--their only rivals in this respect being the +diamond rattlesnake of Florida, one of the African mambas, and the +Indian hamadryad, or snake-eating cobra. The fer-de-lance, so dreaded +in Martinique, and the equally dangerous bushmaster of Guiana are +included in this genus. A dozen species are known in Brazil, the +biggest one being identical with the Guiana bushmaster, and the most +common one, the jararaca, being identical, or practically identical +with the fer-de-lance. The snakes of this genus, like the rattlesnakes +and the Old World vipers and puff-adders, possess long poison-fangs +which strike through clothes or any other human garment except stout +leather. Moreover, they are very aggressive, more so than any other +snakes in the world, except possibly some of the cobras. As, in +addition, they are numerous, they are a source of really frightful +danger to scantily clad men who work in the fields and forests, or who +for any reason are abroad at night. + +The poison of venomous serpents is not in the least uniform in its +quality. On the contrary, the natural forces--to use a term which is +vague, but which is as exact as our present-day knowledge permits-- +that have developed in so many different families of snakes these +poisoned fangs have worked in two or three totally different fashions. +Unlike the vipers, the colubrine poisonous snakes have small fangs, +and their poison, though on the whole even more deadly, has entirely +different effects, and owes its deadliness to entirely different +qualities. Even within the same family there are wide differences. In +the jararaca an extraordinary quantity of yellow venom is spurted from +the long poison-fangs. This poison is secreted in large glands which, +among vipers, give the head its peculiar ace-of-spades shape. The +rattlesnake yields a much smaller quantity of white venom, but, +quantity for quantity, this white venom is more deadly. It is the +great quantity of venom injected by the long fangs of the jararaca, +the bushmaster, and their fellows that renders their bite so generally +fatal. Moreover, even between these two allied genera of pit-vipers, +the differences in the action of the poison are sufficiently marked to +be easily recognizable, and to render the most effective anti-venomous +serum for each slightly different from the other. However, they are +near enough alike to make this difference, in practice, of +comparatively small consequence. In practice the same serum can be +used to neutralize the effect of either, and, as will be seen later +on, the snake that is immune to one kind of venom is also immune to +the other. + +But the effect of the venom of the poisonous colubrine snakes is +totally different from, although to the full as deadly as, the effect +of the poison of the rattlesnake or jararaca. The serum that is an +antidote as regards the colubrines. The animal that is immune to the +bite of one may not be immune to the bite of the other. The bite of a +cobra or other colubrine poisonous snake is more painful in its +immediate effects than is the bite of one of the big vipers. The +victim suffers more. There is a greater effect on the nerve-centres, +but less swelling of the wound itself, and, whereas the blood of the +rattlesnake's victim coagulates, the blood of the victim of an elapine +snake--that is, of one of the only poisonous American colubrines-- +becomes watery and incapable of coagulation. + +Snakes are highly specialized in every way, including their prey. Some +live exclusively on warm-blooded animals, on mammals, or birds. Some +live exclusively on batrachians, others only on lizards, a few only on +insects. A very few species live exclusively on other snakes. These +include one very formidable venomous snake, the Indian hamadryad, or +giant cobra, and several non-poisonous snakes. In Africa I killed a +small cobra which contained within it a snake but a few inches shorter +than itself; but, as far as I could find out, snakes were not the +habitual diet of the African cobras. + +The poisonous snakes use their venom to kill their victims, and also +to kill any possible foe which they think menaces them. Some of them +are good-tempered, and only fight if injured or seriously alarmed. +Others are excessively irritable, and on rare occasions will even +attack of their own accord when entirely unprovoked and unthreatened. + +On reaching Sao Paulo on our southward journey from Rio to Montevideo, +we drove out to the "Instituto Serumtherapico," designed for the study +of the effects of the venom of poisonous Brazilian snakes. Its +director is Doctor Vital Brazil, who has performed a most +extraordinary work and whose experiments and investigations are not +only of the utmost value to Brazil but will ultimately be recognized +as of the utmost value for humanity at large. I know of no institution +of similar kind anywhere. It has a fine modern building, with all the +best appliances, in which experiments are carried on with all kinds of +serpents, living and dead, with the object of discovering all the +properties of their several kinds of venom, and of developing various +anti-venom serums which nullify the effects of the different venoms. +Every effort is made to teach the people at large by practical +demonstration in the open field the lessons thus learned in the +laboratory. One notable result has been the diminution in the +mortality from snake-bites in the province of Sao Paulo. + +In connection with his institute, and right by the laboratory, the +doctor has a large serpentarium, in which quantities of the common +poisonous and non-poisonous snakes are kept, and some of the rarer +ones. He has devoted considerable time to the effort to find out if +there are any natural enemies of the poisonous snakes of his country, +and he has discovered that the most formidable enemy of the many +dangerous Brazilian snakes is a non-poisonous, entirely harmless, +rather uncommon Brazilian snake, the mussurama. Of all the interesting +things the doctor showed us, by far the most interesting was the +opportunity of witnessing for ourselves the action of the mussurama +toward a dangerous snake. + +The doctor first showed us specimens of the various important snakes, +poisonous and non-poisonous, in alcohol. Then he showed us +preparations of the different kinds of venom and of the different +anti-venom serums, presenting us with some of the latter for our use +on the journey. He has been able to produce two distinct kinds of +anti-venom serum, one to neutralize the virulent poison of the +rattlesnake's bite, the other to neutralize the poison of the +different snakes of the lachecis genus. These poisons are somewhat +different and moreover there appear to be some differences between the +poisons of the different species of lachecis; in some cases the poison +is nearly colorless, and in others, as in that of the jararaca, whose +poison I saw, it is yellow. + +But the vital difference is that between all these poisons of the pit- +vipers and the poisons of the colubrine snakes, such as the cobra and +the coral-snake. As yet the doctor has not been able to develop an +anti-venom serum which will neutralize the poison of these colubrine +snakes. Practically this is a matter of little consequence in Brazil, +for the Brazilian coral-snakes are dangerous only when mishandled by +some one whose bare skin is exposed to the bite. The numerous +accidents and fatalities continually occurring in Brazil are almost +always to be laid to the account of the several species of lachecis +and the single species of rattlesnake. + +Finally, the doctor took us into his lecture-room to show us how he +conducted his experiments. The various snakes were in boxes, on one +side of the room, under the care of a skilful and impassive assistant, +who handled them with the cool and fearless caution of the doctor +himself. The poisonous ones were taken out by means of a long-handled +steel hook. All that is necessary to do is to insert this under the +snake and lift him off the ground. He is not only unable to escape, +but he is unable to strike, for he cannot strike unless coiled so as +to give himself support and leverage. The table on which the snakes +are laid is fairly large and smooth, differing in no way from an +ordinary table. + +There were a number of us in the room, including two or three +photographers. The doctor first put on the table a non-poisonous but +very vicious and truculent colubrine snake. It struck right and left +at us. Then the doctor picked it up, opened its mouth, and showed that +it had no fangs, and handed it to me. I also opened its mouth and +examined its teeth, and then put it down, whereupon, its temper having +been much ruffled, it struck violently at me two or three times. In +its action and temper this snake was quite as vicious as the most +irritable poisonous snakes. Yet it is entirely harmless. One of the +innumerable mysteries of nature which are at present absolutely +insoluble is why some snakes should be so vicious and others +absolutely placid and good-tempered. + +After removing the vicious harmless snake, the doctor warned us to get +away from the table, and his attendant put on it, in succession, a +very big lachecis--of the kind called bushmaster--and a big +rattlesnake. Each coiled menacingly, a formidable brute ready to +attack anything that approached. Then the attendant adroitly dropped +his iron crook on the neck of each in succession, seized it right +behind the head, and held it toward the doctor. The snake's mouth was +in each case wide open, and the great fangs erect and very evident. It +would not have been possible to have held an African ring-necked cobra +in such fashion, because the ring-neck would have ejected its venom +through the fangs into the eyes of the onlookers. There was no danger +in this case, and the doctor inserted a shallow glass saucer into the +mouth of the snake behind the fangs, permitted it to eject its poison, +and then himself squeezed out the remaining poison from the poison- +bags through the fangs. From the big lachecis came a large quantity of +yellow venom, a liquid which speedily crystallized into a number of +minute crystals. The rattlesnake yielded a much less quantity of white +venom, which the doctor assured us was far more active than the yellow +lachecis venom. Then each snake was returned to its box unharmed. + +After this the doctor took out of a box and presented to me a fine, +handsome, nearly black snake, an individual of the species called the +mussurama. This is in my eyes perhaps the most interesting serpent in +the world. It is a big snake, four or five feet long, sometimes even +longer, nearly black, lighter below, with a friendly, placid temper. +It lives exclusively on other snakes, and is completely immune to the +poison of the lachecis and rattlesnake groups, which contain all the +really dangerous snakes of America. Doctor Brazil told me that he had +conducted many experiments with this interesting snake. It is not very +common, and prefers wet places in which to live. It lays eggs, and the +female remains coiled above the eggs, the object being apparently not +to warm them, but to prevent too great evaporation. It will not eat +when moulting, nor in cold weather. Otherwise it will eat a small +snake every five or six days, or a big one every fortnight. + +There is the widest difference, both among poisonous and non-poisonous +snakes, not alone in nervousness and irascibility but also in ability +to accustom themselves to out-of-the-way surroundings. Many species of +non-poisonous snakes which are entirely harmless, to man or to any +other animal except their small prey, are nevertheless very vicious +and truculent, striking right and left and biting freely on the +smallest provocation--this is the case with the species of which the +doctor had previously placed a specimen on the table. Moreover, many +snakes, some entirely harmless and some vicious ones, are so nervous +and uneasy that it is with the greatest difficulty they can be induced +to eat in captivity, and the slightest disturbance or interference +will prevent their eating. There are other snakes, however, of which +the mussurama is perhaps the best example, which are very good +captives, and at the same time very fearless, showing a complete +indifference not only to being observed but to being handled when they +are feeding. + +There is in the United States a beautiful and attractive snake, the +king-snake, with much the same habits as the mussurama. It is friendly +toward mankind, and not poisonous, so that it can be handled freely. +It feeds on other serpents, and will kill a rattlesnake as big as +itself, being immune to the rattlesnake venom. Mr. Ditmars, of the +Bronx Zoo, has made many interesting experiments with these king- +snakes. I have had them in my own possession. They are good-natured +and can generally be handled with impunity, but I have known them to +bite, whereas Doctor Brazil informed me that it was almost impossible +to make the mussurama bite a man. The king-snake will feed greedily on +other snakes in the presence of man--I knew of one case where it +partly swallowed another snake while both were in a small boy's +pocket. It is immune to viper poison but it is not immune to colubrine +poison. A couple of years ago I was informed of a case where one of +these king-snakes was put into an enclosure with an Indian snake- +eating cobra or hamadryad of about the same size. It killed the cobra +but made no effort to swallow it, and very soon showed the effects of +the cobra poison. I believe it afterward died, but unfortunately I +have mislaid my notes and cannot now remember the details of the +incident. + +Doctor Brazil informed me that the mussurama, like the king-snake, was +not immune to the colubrine poison. A mussurama in his possession, +which had with impunity killed and eaten several rattlesnakes and +representatives of the lachecis genus, also killed and ate a venomous +coral-snake, but shortly afterward itself died from the effects of the +poison. It is one of the many puzzles of nature that these American +serpents which kill poisonous serpents should only have grown immune +to the poison of the most dangerous American poisonous serpents, the +pit-vipers, and should not have become immune to the poison of the +coral-snakes which are commonly distributed throughout their range. +Yet, judging by the one instance mentioned by Doctor Brazil, they +attack and master these coral-snakes, although the conflict in the end +results in their death. It would be interesting to find out whether +this attack was exceptional, that is, whether the mussurama has or has +not as a species learned to avoid the coral-snake. If it was not +exceptional, then not only is the instance highly curious in itself, +but it would also go far to explain the failure of the mussurama to +become plentiful. + +For the benefit of those who are not acquainted with the subject, I +may mention that the poison of a poisonous snake is not dangerous to +its own species unless injected in very large doses, about ten times +what would normally be injected by a bite; but that it is deadly to +all other snakes, poisonous or non-poisonous, save as regards the very +few species which themselves eat poisonous snakes. The Indian +hamadryad, or giant cobra, is exclusively a snake-eater. It evidently +draws a sharp distinction between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes, +for Mr. Ditmars has recorded that two individuals in the Bronx Zoo +which are habitually fed on harmless snakes, and attack them eagerly, +refused to attack a copperhead which was thrown into their cage, being +evidently afraid of this pit-viper. It would be interesting to find +out if the hamadryad is afraid to prey on all pit-vipers, and also +whether it will prey on its small relative, the true cobra--for it may +well be that, even if not immune to the viper poison, it is immune to +the poison of its close ally, the smaller cobra. + +All these and many other questions would be speedily settled by Doctor +Brazil if he were given the opportunity to test them. It must be +remembered, moreover, that not only have his researches been of +absorbing value from the standpoint of pure science but that they also +have a real utilitarian worth. He is now collecting and breeding the +mussurama. The favorite prey of the mussurama is the most common and +therefore the most dangerous poisonous snake of Brazil, the jararaca, +which is known in Martinique as the fer-de-lance. In Martinique and +elsewhere this snake is such an object of terror as to be at times a +genuine scourge. Surely it would be worth while for the authorities of +Martinique to import specimens of the mussurama to that island. The +mortality from snake-bite in British India is very great. Surely it +would be well worth while for the able Indian Government to copy +Brazil and create such an institute as that over which Doctor Vital +Brazil is the curator. + +At first sight it seems extraordinary that poisonous serpents, so +dreaded by and so irresistible to most animals, should be so utterly +helpless before the few creatures that prey on them. But the +explanation is easy. Any highly specialized creature, the higher its +specialization, is apt to be proportionately helpless when once its +peculiar specialized traits are effectively nullified by an opponent. +This is eminently the case with the most dangerous poisonous snakes. +In them a highly peculiar specialization has been carried to the +highest point. They rely for attack and defence purely on their +poison-fangs. All other means and methods of attack and defence have +atrophied. They neither crush nor tear with their teeth nor constrict +with their bodies. The poison-fangs are slender and delicate, and, +save for the poison, the wound inflicted is of a trivial character. In +consequence they are helpless in the presence of any animal which the +poison does not affect. There are several mammals immune to snake- +bite, including various species of hedgehog, pig, and mongoose--the +other mammals which kill them do so by pouncing on them unawares or by +avoiding their stroke through sheer quickness of movement; and +probably this is the case with most snake-eating birds. The mongoose +is very quick, but in some cases at least--I have mentioned one in the +"African Game Trails"--it permits itself to be bitten by poisonous +snakes, treating the bite with utter indifference. There should be +extensive experiments made to determine if there are species of +mongoose immune to both cobra and viper poison. Hedgehogs, as +determined by actual experiments, pay no heed at all to viper poison +even when bitten on such tender places as the tongue and lips and eat +the snake as if it were a radish. Even among animals which are not +immune to the poison different species are very differently affected +by the different kinds of snake poisons. Not only are some species +more resistant than others to all poisons, but there is a wide +variation in the amount of immunity each displays to any given venom. +One species will be quickly killed by the poison from one species of +snake, and be fairly resistant to the poison of another; whereas in +another species the conditions may be directly reversed. + +The mussurama which Doctor Brazil handed me was a fine specimen, +perhaps four and a half feet long. I lifted the smooth, lithe bulk in +my hands, and then let it twist its coils so that it rested at ease in +my arms; it glided to and fro, on its own length, with the sinuous +grace of its kind, and showed not the slightest trace of either +nervousness or bad temper. Meanwhile the doctor bade his attendant put +on the table a big jararaca, or fer-de-lance, which was accordingly +done. The jararaca was about three feet and a half, or perhaps nearly +four feet long--that is, it was about nine inches shorter than the +mussurama. The latter, which I continued to hold in my arms, behaved +with friendly and impassive indifference, moving easily to and fro +through my hands, and once or twice hiding its head between the sleeve +and the body of my coat. The doctor was not quite sure how the +mussurama would behave, for it had recently eaten a small snake, and +unless hungry it pays no attention whatever to venomous snakes, even +when they attack and bite it. However, it fortunately proved still to +have a good appetite. + +The jararaca was alert and vicious. It partly coiled itself on the +table, threatening the bystanders. I put the big black serpent down on +the table four or five feet from the enemy and headed in its +direction. As soon as I let go with my hands it glided toward where +the threatening, formidable-looking lance-head lay stretched in a half +coil. The mussurama displayed not the slightest sign of excitement. +Apparently it trusted little to its eyes, for it began to run its head +along the body of the jararaca, darting out its flickering tongue to +feel just where it was, as it nosed its way up toward the head of its +antagonist. So placid were its actions that I did not at first suppose +that it meant to attack, for there was not the slightest exhibition of +anger or excitement. + +It was the jararaca that began the fight. It showed no fear whatever +of its foe, but its irritable temper was aroused by the proximity and +actions of the other, and like a flash it drew back its head and +struck, burying its fangs in the forward part of the mussurama's body. +Immediately the latter struck in return, and the counter-attack was so +instantaneous that it was difficult to see just what had happened. +There was tremendous writhing and struggling on the part of the +jararaca; and then, leaning over the knot into which the two serpents +were twisted, I saw that the mussurama had seized the jararaca by the +lower jaw, putting its own head completely into the wide-gaping mouth +of the poisonous snake. The long fangs were just above the top of the +mussurama's head; and it appeared, as well as I could see, that they +were once again driven into the mussurama; but without the slightest +effect. Then the fangs were curved back in the jaw, a fact which I +particularly noted, and all effort at the offensive was abandoned by +the poisonous snake. + +Meanwhile the mussurama was chewing hard, and gradually shifted its +grip, little by little, until it got the top of the head of the +jararaca in its mouth, the lower jaw of the jararaca being spread out +to one side. The venomous serpent was helpless; the fearsome master of +the wild life of the forest, the deadly foe of humankind, was itself +held in the grip of death. Its cold, baleful serpent's eyes shone, as +evil as ever. But it was dying. In vain it writhed and struggled. +Nothing availed it. + +Once or twice the mussurama took a turn round the middle of the body +of its opponent, but it did not seem to press hard, and apparently +used its coils chiefly in order to get a better grip so as to crush +the head of its antagonist, or to hold the latter in place. This +crushing was done by its teeth; and the repeated bites were made with +such effort that the muscles stood out on the mussurama's neck. Then +it took two coils round the neck of the jararaca and proceeded +deliberately to try to break the backbone of its opponent by twisting +the head round. With this purpose it twisted its own head and neck +round so that the lighter-colored surface was uppermost; and indeed at +one time it looked as if it had made almost a complete single spiral +revolution of its own body. It never for a moment relaxed its grip +except to shift slightly the jaws. + +In a few minutes the jararaca was dead, its head crushed in, although +the body continued to move convulsively. When satisfied that its +opponent was dead, the mussurama began to try to get the head in its +mouth. This was a process of some difficulty on account of the angle +at which the lower jaw of the jararaca stuck out. But finally the head +was taken completely inside and then swallowed. After this, the +mussurama proceeded deliberately, but with unbroken speed, to devour +its opponent by the simple process of crawling outside it, the body +and tail of the jararaca writhing and struggling until the last. +During the early portion of the meal, the mussurama put a stop to this +writhing and struggling by resting its own body on that of its prey; +but toward the last the part of the body that remained outside was +left free to wriggle as it wished. + +Not only was the mussurama totally indifferent to our presence, but it +was totally indifferent to being handled while the meal was going on. +Several times I replaced the combatants in the middle of the table +when they had writhed to the edge, and finally, when the photographers +found that they could not get good pictures, I held the mussurama up +against a white background with the partially swallowed snake in its +mouth; and the feast went on uninterruptedly. I never saw cooler or +more utterly unconcerned conduct; and the ease and certainty with +which the terrible poisonous snake was mastered gave me the heartiest +respect and liking for the easy-going, good-natured, and exceedingly +efficient serpent which I had been holding in my arms. + +Our trip was not intended as a hunting-trip but as a scientific +expedition. Before starting on the trip itself, while travelling in +the Argentine, I received certain pieces of first-hand information +concerning the natural history of the jaguar, and of the cougar, or +puma, which are worth recording. The facts about the jaguar are not +new in the sense of casting new light on its character, although they +are interesting; but the facts about the behavior of the puma in one +district of Patagonia are of great interest, because they give an +entirely new side of its life-history. + +There was travelling with me at the time Doctor Francisco P. Moreno, +of Buenos Aires. Doctor Moreno is at the present day a member of the +National Board of Education of the Argentine, a man who has worked in +every way for the benefit of his country, perhaps especially for the +benefit of the children, so that when he was first introduced to me it +was as the "Jacob Riis of the Argentine"--for they know my deep and +affectionate intimacy with Jacob Riis. He is also an eminent man of +science, who has done admirable work as a geologist and a geographer. +At one period, in connection with his duties as a boundary +commissioner on the survey between Chile and the Argentine, he worked +for years in Patagonia. It was he who made the extraordinary discovery +in a Patagonian cave of the still fresh fragments of skin and other +remains of the mylodon, the aberrant horse known as the onohipidium, +the huge South American tiger, and the macrauchenia, all of them +extinct animals. This discovery showed that some of the strange +representatives of the giant South American Pleistocene fauna had +lasted down to within a comparatively few thousand years, down to the +time when man, substantially as the Spaniards found him, flourished on +the continent. Incidentally the discovery tended to show that this +fauna had lasted much later in South America than was the case with +the corresponding faunas in other parts of the world; and therefore it +tended to disprove the claims advanced by Doctor Ameghino for the +extreme age, geologically, of this fauna, and for the extreme +antiquity of man on the American continent. + +One day Doctor Moreno handed me a copy of The Outlook containing my +account of a cougar-hunt in Arizona, saying that he noticed that I had +very little faith in cougars attacking men, although I had explicitly +stated that such attacks sometimes occurred. I told him, Yes, that I +had found that the cougar was practically harmless to man, the +undoubtedly authentic instances of attacks on men being so exceptional +that they could in practice be wholly disregarded. Thereupon Doctor +Moreno showed me a scar on his face, and told me that he had himself +been attacked and badly mauled by a puma which was undoubtedly trying +to prey on him; that is, which had started on a career as a man-eater. +This was to me most interesting. I had often met men who knew other +men who had seen other men who said that they had been attacked by +pumas, but this was the first time that I had ever come across a man +who had himself been attacked. Doctor Moreno, as I have said, is not +only an eminent citizen, but an eminent scientific man, and his +account of what occurred is unquestionably a scientifically accurate +statement of the facts. I give it exactly as the doctor told it; +paraphrasing a letter he sent me, and including one or two answers to +questions I put to him. The doctor, by the way, stated to me that he +had known Mr. Hudson, the author of the "Naturalist on the Plata," and +that the latter knew nothing whatever of pumas from personal +experience and had accepted as facts utterly wild fables. + +Undoubtedly, said the doctor, the puma in South America, like the puma +in North America, is, as a general rule, a cowardly animal which not +only never attacks man, but rarely makes any efficient defence when +attacked. The Indian and white hunters have no fear of it in most +parts of the country, and its harmlessness to man is proverbial. But +there is one particular spot in southern Patagonia where cougars, to +the doctor's own personal knowledge, have for years been dangerous +foes of man. This curious local change in habits, by the way, is +nothing unprecedented as regards wild animals. In portions of its +range, as I am informed by Mr. Lord Smith, the Asiatic tiger can +hardly be forced to fight man, and never preys on him, while +throughout most of its range it is a most dangerous beast, and often +turns man-eater. So there are waters in which sharks are habitual man- +eaters, and others where they never touch men; and there are rivers +and lakes where crocodiles or caymans are very dangerous, and others +where they are practically harmless--I have myself seen this in +Africa. + +In March, 1877, Doctor Moreno with a party of men working on the +boundary commission, and with a number of Patagonian horse-Indians, +was encamped for some weeks beside Lake Viedma, which had not before +been visited by white men for a century, and which was rarely visited +even by Indians. One morning, just before sunrise, he left his camp by +the south shore of the lake, to make a topographical sketch of the +lake. He was unarmed, but carried a prismatic compass in a leather +case with a strap. It was cold, and he wrapped his poncho of guanaco- +hide round his neck and head. He had walked a few hundred yards, when +a puma, a female, sprang on him from behind and knocked him down. As +she sprang on him she tried to seize his head with one paw, striking +him on the shoulder with the other. She lacerated his mouth and also +his back, but tumbled over with him, and in the scuffle they separated +before she could bite him. He sprang to his feet, and, as he said, was +forced to think quickly. She had recovered herself, and sat on her +haunches like a cat, looking at him, and then crouched to spring +again; whereupon he whipped off his poncho, and as she sprang at him +he opened it, and at the same moment hit her head with the prismatic +compass in its case which he held by the strap. She struck the poncho +and was evidently puzzled by it, for, turning, she slunk off to one +side, under a bush, and then proceeded to try to get round behind him. +He faced her, keeping his eyes upon her, and backed off. She followed +him for three or four hundred yards. At least twice she came up to +attack him, but each time he opened his poncho and yelled, and at the +last moment she shrank back. She continually, however, tried, by +taking advantage of cover, to sneak up to one side, or behind, to +attack him. Finally, when he got near camp, she abandoned the pursuit +and went into a small patch of bushes. He raised the alarm; an Indian +rode up and set fire to the bushes from the windward side. When the +cougar broke from the bushes, the Indian rode after her, and threw his +bolas, which twisted around her hind legs; and while she was +struggling to free herself, he brained her with his second bolas. The +doctor's injuries were rather painful, but not serious. + +Twenty-one years later, in April, 1898, he was camped on the same +lake, but on the north shore, at the foot of a basaltic cliff. He was +in company with four soldiers, with whom he had travelled from the +Strait of Magellan. In the night he was aroused by the shriek of a man +and the barking of his dogs. As the men sprang up from where they were +lying asleep they saw a large puma run off out of the firelight into +the darkness. It had sprung on a soldier named Marcelino Huquen while +he was asleep, and had tried to carry him off. Fortunately, the man +was so wrapped up in his blanket, as the night was cold, that he was +not injured. The puma was never found or killed. + +About the same time a surveyor of Doctor Moreno's party, a Swede named +Arneberg, was attacked in similar fashion. The doctor was not with him +at the time. Mr. Arneberg was asleep in the forest near Lake San +Martin. The cougar both bit and clawed him, and tore his mouth, +breaking out three teeth. The man was rescued; but this puma also +escaped. + +The doctor stated that in this particular locality the Indians, who +elsewhere paid no heed whatever to the puma, never let their women go +out after wood for fuel unless two or three were together. This was +because on several occasions women who had gone out alone were killed +by pumas. Evidently in this one locality the habit of at least +occasional man-eating has become chronic with a species which +elsewhere is the most cowardly, and to man the least dangerous, of all +the big cats. + +These observations of Doctor Moreno have a peculiar value, because, as +far as I know, they are the first trustworthy accounts of a cougar's +having attacked man save under circumstances so exceptional as to make +the attack signify little more than the similar exceptional instances +of attack by various other species of wild animals that are not +normally dangerous to man. + +The jaguar, however, has long been known not only to be a dangerous +foe when itself attacked, but also now and then to become a man-eater. +Therefore the instances of such attacks furnished me are of merely +corroborative value. + +In the excellent zoological gardens at Buenos Aires the curator, +Doctor Onelli, a naturalist of note, showed us a big male jaguar which +had been trapped in the Chaco, where it had already begun a career as +a man-eater, having killed three persons. They were killed, and two of +them were eaten; the animal was trapped, in consequence of the alarm +excited by the death of his third victim. This jaguar was very savage; +whereas a young jaguar, which was in a cage with a young tiger, was +playful and friendly, as was also the case with the young tiger. On my +trip to visit La Plata Museum I was accompanied by Captain Vicente +Montes, of the Argentine Navy, an accomplished officer of scientific +attainments. He had at one time been engaged on a survey of the +boundary between the Argentine and Parana and Brazil. They had a +quantity of dried beef in camp. On several occasions a jaguar came +into camp after this dried beef. Finally they succeeded in protecting +it so that he could not reach it. The result, however, was disastrous. +On the next occasion that he visited camp, at midnight, he seized a +man. Everybody was asleep at the time, and the jaguar came in so +noiselessly as to elude the vigilance of the dogs. As he seized the +man, the latter gave one yell, but the next moment was killed, the +jaguar driving his fangs through the man's skull into the brain. There +was a scene of uproar and confusion, and the jaguar was forced to drop +his prey and flee into the woods. Next morning they followed him with +the dogs, and finally killed him. He was a large male, in first-class +condition. The only features of note about these two incidents was +that in each case the man-eater was a powerful animal in the prime of +life; whereas it frequently happens that the jaguars that turn man- +eaters are old animals, and have become too inactive or too feeble to +catch their ordinary prey. + +During the two months before starting from Asuncion, in Paraguay, for +our journey into the interior, I was kept so busy that I had scant +time to think of natural history. But in a strange land a man who +cares for wild birds and wild beasts always sees and hears something +that is new to him and interests him. In the dense tropical woods near +Rio Janeiro I heard in late October--springtime, near the southern +tropic--the songs of many birds that I could not identify. But the +most beautiful music was from a shy woodland thrush, sombre-colored, +which lived near the ground in the thick timber, but sang high among +the branches. At a great distance we could hear the ringing, musical, +bell-like note, long-drawn and of piercing sweetness, which occurs at +intervals in the song; at first I thought this was the song, but when +it was possible to approach the singer I found that these far-sounding +notes were scattered through a continuous song of great melody. I +never listened to one that impressed me more. In different places in +Argentina I heard and saw the Argentine mocking-bird, which is not +very unlike our own, and is also a delightful and remarkable singer. +But I never heard the wonderful white-banded mocking-bird, which is +said by Hudson, who knew well the birds of both South America and +Europe, to be the song-king of them all. + +Most of the birds I thus noticed while hurriedly passing through the +country were, of course, the conspicuous ones. The spurred lapwings, +big, tame, boldly marked plover, were everywhere; they were very noisy +and active and both inquisitive and daring, and they have a very +curious dance custom. No man need look for them. They will look for +him, and when they find him they will fairly yell the discovery to the +universe. In the marshes of the lower Parana I saw flocks of scarlet- +headed blackbirds on the tops of the reeds; the females are as +strikingly colored as the males, and their jet-black bodies and +brilliant red heads make it impossible for them to escape observation +among their natural surroundings. On the plains to the west I saw +flocks of the beautiful rose-breasted starlings; unlike the red-headed +blackbirds, which seemed fairly to court attention, these starlings +sought to escape observation by crouching on the ground so that their +red breasts were hidden. There were yellow-shouldered blackbirds in +wet places, and cow-buntings abounded. + +But the most conspicuous birds I saw were members of the family of +tyrant flycatchers, of which our own king-bird is the most familiar +example. This family is very numerously represented in Argentina, both +in species and individuals. Some of the species are so striking, both +in color and habits, and in one case also in shape, as to attract the +attention of even the unobservant. The least conspicuous, and +nevertheless very conspicuous, among those that I saw was the +bientevido, which is brown above, yellow beneath, with a boldly marked +black and white head, and a yellow crest. It is very noisy, is common +in the neighborhood of houses, and builds a big domed nest. It is +really a big, heavy kingbird, fiercer and more powerful than any +northern kingbird. I saw them assail not only the big but the small +hawks with fearlessness, driving them in headlong flight. They not +only capture insects, but pounce on mice, small frogs, lizards, and +little snakes, rob birds' nests of the fledgling young, and catch +tadpoles and even small fish. + +Two of the tyrants which I observed are like two with which I grew +fairly familiar in Texas. The scissor-tail is common throughout the +open country, and the long tail feathers, which seem at times to +hamper its flight, attract attention whether the bird is in flight or +perched on a tree. It has a habit of occasionally soaring into the air +and descending in loops and spirals. The scarlet tyrant I saw in the +orchards and gardens. The male is a fascinating little bird, coal- +black above, while his crested head and the body beneath are brilliant +scarlet. He utters his rapid, low-voiced musical trill in the air, +rising with fluttering wings to a height of a hundred feet, hovering +while he sings, and then falling back to earth. The color of the bird +and the character of his performance attract the attention of every +observer, bird, beast, or man, within reach of vision. + +The red-backed tyrant is utterly unlike any of his kind in the United +States, and until I looked him up in Sclater and Hudson's ornithology +I never dreamed that he belonged to this family. He--for only the male +is so brightly colored--is coal-black with a dull-red back. I saw +these birds on December 1 near Barilloche, out on the bare Patagonian +plains. They behaved like pipits or longspurs, running actively over +the ground in the same manner and showing the same restlessness and +the same kind of flight. But whereas pipits are inconspicuous, the +red-backs at once attracted attention by the contrast between their +bold coloring and the grayish or yellowish tones of the ground along +which they ran. The silver-bill tyrant, however, is much more +conspicuous; I saw it in the same neighborhood as the red-back and +also in many other places. The male is jet-black, with white bill and +wings. He runs about on the ground like a pipit, but also frequently +perches on some bush to go through a strange flight-song performance. +He perches motionless, bolt upright, and even then his black coloring +advertises him for a quarter of a mile round about. But every few +minutes he springs up into the air to the height of twenty or thirty +feet, the white wings flashing in contrast to the black body, screams +and gyrates, and then instantly returns to his former post and resumes +his erect pose of waiting. It is hard to imagine a more conspicuous +bird than the silver-bill; but the next and last tyrant flycatcher of +which I shall speak possesses on the whole the most advertising +coloration of any small bird I have ever seen in the open country, and +moreover this advertising coloration exists in both sexes and +throughout the year. It is a brilliant white, all over, except the +long wing-quills and the ends of the tail-feathers, which are black. +The first one I saw, at a very long distance, I thought must be an +albino. It perches on the top of a bush or tree watching for its prey, +and it shines in the sun like a silver mirror. Every hawk, cat, or man +must see it; no one can help seeing it. + +These common Argentine birds, most of them of the open country, and +all of them with a strikingly advertising coloration, are interesting +because of their beauty and their habits. They are also interesting +because they offer such illuminating examples of the truth that many +of the most common and successful birds not merely lack a concealing +coloration, but possess a coloration which is in the highest degree +revealing. The coloration and the habits of most of these birds are +such that every hawk or other foe that can see at all must have its +attention attracted to them. Evidently in their cases neither the +coloration nor any habit of concealment based on the coloration is a +survival factor, and this although they live in a land teeming with +bird-eating hawks. Among the higher vertebrates there are many known +factors which have influence, some in one set of cases, some in +another set of cases, in the development and preservation of species. +Courage, intelligence, adaptability, prowess, bodily vigor, speed, +alertness, ability to hide, ability to build structures which will +protect the young while they are helpless, fecundity--all, and many +more like them, have their several places; and behind all these +visible causes there are at work other and often more potent causes of +which as yet science can say nothing. Some species owe much to a given +attribute which may be wholly lacking in influence on other species; +and every one of the attributes above enumerated is a survival factor +in some species, while in others it has no survival value whatever, +and in yet others, although of benefit, it is not of sufficient +benefit to offset the benefit conferred on foes or rivals by totally +different attributes. Intelligence, for instance, is of course a +survival factor; but to-day there exist multitudes of animals with +very little intelligence which have persisted through immense periods +of geologic time either unchanged or else without any change in the +direction of increased intelligence; and during their species-life +they have witnessed the death of countless other species of far +greater intelligence but in other ways less adapted to succeed in the +environmental complex. The same statement can be made of all the many, +many other known factors in development, from fecundity to concealing +coloration; and behind them lie forces as to which we veil our +ignorance by the use of high-sounding nomenclature--as when we use +such a convenient but far from satisfactory term as orthogenesis. + + + + II. UP THE PARAGUAY + +On the afternoon of December 9 we left the attractive and picturesque +city of Asuncion to ascend the Paraguay. With generous courtesy the +Paraguayan Government had put at my disposal the gunboat-yacht of the +President himself, a most comfortable river steamer, and so the +opening days of our trip were pleasant in every way. The food was +good, our quarters were clean, we slept well, below or on deck, +usually without our mosquito-nettings, and in daytime the deck was +pleasant under the awnings. It was hot, of course, but we were dressed +suitably in our exploring and hunting clothes and did not mind the +heat. The river was low, for there had been dry weather for some weeks +--judging from the vague and contradictory information I received +there is much elasticity to the terms wet season and dry season at +this part of the Paraguay. Under the brilliant sky we steamed steadily +up the mighty river; the sunset was glorious as we leaned on the port +railing; and after nightfall the moon, nearly full and hanging high in +the heavens, turned the water to shimmering radiance. On the mud-flats +and sandbars, and among the green rushes of the bays and inlets, were +stately water-fowl; crimson flamingoes and rosy spoonbills, dark- +colored ibis and white storks with black wings. Darters, with +snakelike necks and pointed bills, perched in the trees on the brink +of the river. Snowy egrets flapped across the marshes. Caymans were +common, and differed from the crocodiles we had seen in Africa in two +points: they were not alarmed by the report of a rifle when fired at, +and they lay with the head raised instead of stretched along the sand. + +For three days, as we steamed northward toward the Tropic of +Capricorn, and then passed it, we were within the Republic of +Paraguay. On our right, to the east, there was a fairly well-settled +country, where bananas and oranges were cultivated and other crops of +hot countries raised. On the banks we passed an occasional small town, +or saw a ranch-house close to the river's brink, or stopped for wood +at some little settlement. Across the river to the west lay the level, +swampy, fertile wastes known as the Chaco, still given over either to +the wild Indians or to cattle-ranching on a gigantic scale. The broad +river ran in curves between mud-banks where terraces marked successive +periods of flood. A belt of forest stood on each bank, but it was only +a couple of hundred yards wide. Back of it was the open country; on +the Chaco side this was a vast plain of grass, dotted with tall, +graceful palms. In places the belt of forest vanished and the palm- +dotted prairie came to the river's edge. The Chaco is an ideal cattle +country, and not really unhealthy. It will be covered with ranches at +a not distant day. But mosquitoes and many other winged insect pests +swarm over it. Cherrie and Miller had spent a week there collecting +mammals and birds prior to my arrival at Asuncion. They were veterans +of the tropics, hardened to the insect plagues of Guiana and the +Orinoco. But they reported that never had they been so tortured as in +the Chaco. The sand-flies crawled through the meshes in the mosquito- +nets, and forbade them to sleep; if in their sleep a knee touched the +net the mosquitoes fell on it so that it looked as if riddled by +birdshot; and the nights were a torment, although they had done well +in their work, collecting some two hundred and fifty specimens of +birds and mammals. + +Nevertheless for some as yet inscrutable reason the river served as a +barrier to certain insects which are menaces to the cattlemen. With me +on the gunboat was an old Western friend, Tex Rickard, of the +Panhandle and Alaska and various places in between. He now has a large +tract of land and some thirty-five thousand head of cattle in the +Chaco, opposite Concepcion, at which city he was to stop. He told me +that horses did not do well in the Chaco but that cattle throve, and +that while ticks swarmed on the east bank of the great river, they +would not live on the west bank. Again and again he had crossed herds +of cattle which were covered with the loathsome bloodsuckers; and in a +couple of months every tick would be dead. The worst animal foes of +man, indeed the only dangerous foes, are insects; and this is +especially true in the tropics. Fortunately, exactly as certain +differences too minute for us as yet to explain render some insects +deadly to man or domestic animals, while closely allied forms are +harmless, so, for other reasons, which also we are not as yet able to +fathom, these insects are for the most part strictly limited by +geographical and other considerations. The war against what Sir Harry +Johnston calls the really material devil, the devil of evil wild +nature in the tropics, has been waged with marked success only during +the last two decades. The men, in the United States, in England, +France, Germany, Italy--the men like Doctor Cruz in Rio Janeiro and +Doctor Vital Brazil in Sao Paulo--who work experimentally within and +without the laboratory in their warfare against the disease and death +bearing insects and microbes, are the true leaders in the fight to +make the tropics the home of civilized man. + +Late on the evening of the second day of our trip, just before +midnight, we reached Concepcion. On this day, when we stopped for wood +or to get provisions--at picturesque places, where the women from +rough mud and thatched cabins were washing clothes in the river, or +where ragged horsemen stood gazing at us from the bank, or where dark, +well-dressed ranchmen stood in front of red-roofed houses--we caught +many fish. They belonged to one of the most formidable genera of fish +in the world, the piranha or cannibal fish, the fish that eats men +when it can get the chance. Farther north there are species of small +piranha that go in schools. At this point on the Paraguay the piranha +do not seem to go in regular schools, but they swarm in all the waters +and attain a length of eighteen inches or over. They are the most +ferocious fish in the world. Even the most formidable fish, the sharks +or the barracudas, usually attack things smaller than themselves. But +the piranhas habitually attack things much larger than themselves. +They will snap a finger off a hand incautiously trailed in the water; +they mutilate swimmers--in every river town in Paraguay there are men +who have been thus mutilated; they will rend and devour alive any +wounded man or beast; for blood in the water excites them to madness. +They will tear wounded wild fowl to pieces; and bite off the tails of +big fish as they grow exhausted when fighting after being hooked. +Miller, before I reached Asuncion, had been badly bitten by one. Those +that we caught sometimes bit through the hooks, or the double strands +of copper wire that served as leaders, and got away. Those that we +hauled on deck lived for many minutes. Most predatory fish are long +and slim, like the alligator-gar and pickerel. But the piranha is a +short, deep-bodied fish, with a blunt face and a heavily undershot or +projecting lower jaw which gapes widely. The razor-edged teeth are +wedge-shaped like a shark's, and the jaw muscles possess great power. +The rabid, furious snaps drive the teeth through flesh and bone. The +head with its short muzzle, staring malignant eyes, and gaping, +cruelly armed jaws, is the embodiment of evil ferocity; and the +actions of the fish exactly match its looks. I never witnessed an +exhibition of such impotent, savage fury as was shown by the piranhas +as they flapped on deck. When fresh from the water and thrown on the +boards they uttered an extraordinary squealing sound. As they flapped +about they bit with vicious eagerness at whatever presented itself. +One of them flapped into a cloth and seized it with a bulldog grip. +Another grasped one of its fellows; another snapped at a piece of +wood, and left the teeth-marks deep therein. They are the pests of the +waters, and it is necessary to be exceedingly cautious about either +swimming or wading where they are found. If cattle are driven into, or +of their own accord enter, the water, they are commonly not molested; +but if by chance some unusually big or ferocious specimen of these +fearsome fishes does bite an animal--taking off part of an ear, or +perhaps of a teat from the udder of a cow--the blood brings up every +member of the ravenous throng which is anywhere near, and unless the +attacked animal can immediately make its escape from the water it is +devoured alive. Here on the Paraguay the natives hold them in much +respect, whereas the caymans are not feared at all. The only redeeming +feature about them is that they are themselves fairly good to eat, +although with too many bones. + +At daybreak of the third day, finding we were still moored off +Concepcion, we were rowed ashore and strolled off through the streets +of the quaint, picturesque old town; a town which, like Asuncion, was +founded by the conquistadores three-quarters of a century before our +own English and Dutch forefathers landed in what is now the United +States. The Jesuits then took practically complete possession of what +is now Paraguay, controlling and Christianizing the Indians, and +raising their flourishing missions to a pitch of prosperity they never +elsewhere achieved. They were expelled by the civil authorities +(backed by the other representatives of ecclesiastical authority) some +fifty years before Spanish South America became independent. But they +had already made the language of the Indians, Guarany, a culture- +tongue, reducing it to writing, and printing religious books in it. +Guarany is one of the most wide-spread of the Indian tongues, being +originally found in various closely allied forms not only in Paraguay +but in Uruguay and over the major part of Brazil. It remains here and +there, as a lingua general at least, and doubtless in cases as an +original tongue, among the wild tribes. In most of Brazil, as around +Para and around Sao Paulo, it has left its traces in place-names, but +has been completely superseded as a language by Portuguese. In +Paraguay it still exists side by side with Spanish as the common +language of the lower people and as a familiar tongue among the upper +classes. The blood of the people is mixed, their language dual; the +lower classes are chiefly of Indian blood but with a white admixture; +while the upper classes are predominantly white, with a strong +infusion of Indian. There is no other case quite parallel to this in +the annals of European colonization, although the Goanese in India +have a native tongue and a Portuguese creed, while in several of the +Spanish-American states the Indian blood is dominant and the majority +of the population speak an Indian tongue, perhaps itself, as with the +Quichuas, once a culture-tongue of the archaic type. Whether in +Paraguay one tongue will ultimately drive out the other, and, if so, +which will be the victor, it is yet too early to prophesy. The English +missionaries and the Bible Society have recently published parts of +the Scriptures in Guarany and in Asuncion a daily paper is published +with the text in parallel columns, Spanish and Guarany--just as in +Oklahoma there is a similar paper published in English and in the +tongue which the extraordinary Cherokee chief Sequoia, a veritable +Cadmus, made a literary language. + +The Guarany-speaking Paraguayan is a Christian, and as much an +inheritor of our common culture as most of the peasant populations of +Europe. He has no kinship with the wild Indian, who hates and fears +him. The Indian of the Chaco, a pure savage, a bow-bearing savage, +will never come east of the Paraguay, and the Paraguayan is only +beginning to venture into the western interior, away from the banks of +the river--under the lead of pioneer settlers like Rickard, whom, by +the way, the wild Indians thoroughly trust, and for whom they work +eagerly and faithfully. There is a great development ahead for +Paraguay, as soon as they can definitely shake off the revolutionary +habit and establish an orderly permanence of government. The people +are a fine people; the strains of blood--white and Indian--are good. + +We walked up the streets of Concepcion, and interestedly looked at +everything of interest: at the one-story houses, their windows covered +with gratings of fretted ironwork, and their occasional open doors +giving us glimpses into cool inner courtyards, with trees and flowers; +at the two-wheel carts, drawn by mules or oxen; at an occasional +rider, with spurs on his bare feet, and his big toes thrust into the +small stirrup-rings; at the little stores, and the warehouses for +matte and hides. Then we came to a pleasant little inn, kept by a +Frenchman and his wife, of old Spanish style, with its patio, or inner +court, but as neat as an inn in Normandy or Brittany. We were sitting +at coffee, around a little table, when in came the colonel of the +garrison--for Concepcion is the second city in Paraguay. He told me +that they had prepared a reception for me! I was in my rough hunting- +clothes, but there was nothing to do but to accompany my kind hosts +and trust to their good nature to pardon my shortcomings in the matter +of dress. The colonel drove me about in a smart open carriage, with +two good horses and a liveried driver. It was a much more fashionable +turnout than would be seen in any of our cities save the largest, and +even in them probably not in the service of a public official. In all +the South American countries there is more pomp and ceremony in +connection with public functions than with us, and at these functions +the liveried servants, often with knee-breeches and powdered hair, are +like those seen at similar European functions; there is not the +democratic simplicity which better suits our own habits of life and +ways of thought. But the South Americans often surpass us, not merely +in pomp and ceremony but in what is of real importance, courtesy; in +civility and courtesy we can well afford to take lessons from them. + +We first visited the barracks, saw the troops in the setting-up +exercises, and inspected the arms, the artillery, the equipment. There +was a German lieutenant with the Paraguayan officers; one of several +German officers who are now engaged in helping the Paraguayans with +their army. The equipments and arms were in good condition; the +enlisted men evidently offered fine material; and the officers were +doing hard work. It is worth while for anti-militarists to ponder the +fact that in every South American country where a really efficient +army is developed, the increase in military efficiency goes hand in +hand with a decrease in lawlessness and disorder, and a growing +reluctance to settle internal disagreements by violence. They are +introducing universal military service in Paraguay; the officers, many +of whom have studied abroad, are growing to feel an increased esprit +de corps, an increased pride in the army, and therefore a desire to +see the army made the servant of the nation as a whole and not the +tool of any faction or individual. If these feelings grow strong +enough they will be powerful factors in giving Paraguay what she most +needs, freedom from revolutionary disturbance and therefore the chance +to achieve the material prosperity without which as a basis there can +be no advance in other and even more important matters. + +Then I was driven to the City Hall, accompanied by the intendente, or +mayor, a German long settled in the country and one of the leading men +of the city. There was a breakfast. When I had to speak I impressed +into my service as interpreter a young Paraguayan who was a graduate +of the University of Pennsylvania. He was able to render into Spanish +my ideas--on such subjects as orderly liberty and the far-reaching +mischief done by the revolutionary habit--with clearness and vigor, +because he thoroughly understood not only how I felt but also the +American way of looking at such things. My hosts were hospitality +itself, and I enjoyed the unexpected greeting. + +We steamed on up the river. Now and then we passed another boat--a +steamer, or, to my surprise, perhaps a barkentine or schooner. The +Paraguay is a highway of traffic. Once we passed a big beef-canning +factory. Ranches stood on either bank a few leagues apart, and we +stopped at wood-yards on the west bank. Indians worked around them. At +one such yard the Indians were evidently part of the regular force. +Their squaws were with them, cooking at queer open-air ovens. One +small child had as pets a parrot and a young coati--a kind of long- +nosed raccoon. Loading wood, the Indians stood in a line, tossing the +logs from one to the other. These Indians wore clothes. + +On this day we got into the tropics. Even in the heat of the day the +deck was pleasant under the awnings; the sun rose and set in crimson +splendor; and the nights, with the moon at the full, were wonderful. +At night Orion blazed overhead; and the Southern Cross hung in the +star-brilliant heavens behind us. But after the moon rose the +constellations paled; and clear in her light the tree-clad banks stood +on either hand as we steamed steadily against the swirling current of +the great river. + +At noon on the twelfth we were at the Brazilian boundary. On this day +we here and there came on low, conical hills close to the river. In +places the palm groves broke through the belts of deciduous trees and +stretched for a mile or so right along the river's bank. At times we +passed cattle on the banks or sand-bars, followed by their herders; or +a handsome ranch-house, under a cluster of shady trees, some bearing a +wealth of red and some a wealth of yellow blossoms; or we saw a horse- +corral among the trees close to the brink, with the horses in it and a +barefooted man in shirt and trousers leaning against the fence; or a +herd of cattle among the palms; or a big tannery or factory or a +little native hamlet came in sight. We stopped at one tannery. The +owner was a Spaniard, the manager an "Oriental," as he called himself, +a Uruguayan, of German parentage. The peons, or workers, who lived in +a long line of wooden cabins back of the main building, were mostly +Paraguayans, with a few Brazilians, and a dozen German and Argentine +foremen. There were also some wild Indians, who were camped in the +usual squalid fashion of Indians who are hangers-on round the white +man but have not yet adopted his ways. Most of the men were at work +cutting wood for the tannery. The women and children were in camp. +Some individuals of both sexes were naked to the waist. One little +girl had a young ostrich as a pet. + +Water-fowl were plentiful. We saw large flocks of wild muscovy ducks. +Our tame birds come from this wild species and its absurd misnaming +dates back to the period when the turkey and guinea-pig were misnamed +in similar fashion--our European forefathers taking a large and hazy +view of geography, and including Turkey, Guinea, India, and Muscovy as +places which, in their capacity of being outlandish, could be +comprehensively used as including America. The muscovy ducks were very +good eating. Darters and cormorants swarmed. They waddled on the sand- +bars in big flocks and crowded the trees by the water's edge. +Beautiful snow-white egrets also lit in the trees, often well back +from the river. A full-foliaged tree of vivid green, its round surface +crowded with these birds, as if it had suddenly blossomed with huge +white flowers, is a sight worth seeing. Here and there on the sand- +bars we saw huge jabiru storks, and once a flock of white wood-ibis +among the trees on the bank. + +On the Brazilian boundary we met a shallow river steamer carrying +Colonel Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon and several other Brazilian +members of the expedition. Colonel Rondon immediately showed that he +was all, and more than all, that could be desired. It was evident that +he knew his business thoroughly, and it was equally evident that he +would be a pleasant companion. He was a classmate of Mr. Lauro Muller +at the Brazilian Military Academy. He is of almost pure Indian blood, +and is a Positivist--the Positivists are a really strong body in +Brazil, as they are in France and indeed in Chile. The colonel's seven +children have all been formally made members of the Positivist Church +in Rio Janeiro. Brazil possesses the same complete liberty in matters +religious, spiritual, and intellectual as we, for our great good +fortune, do in the United States, and my Brazilian companions included +Catholics and equally sincere men who described themselves as "libres +penseurs." Colonel Rondon has spent the last twenty-four years in +exploring the western highlands of Brazil, pioneering the way for +telegraph-lines and railroads. During that time he has travelled some +fourteen thousand miles, on territory most of which had not previously +been traversed by civilized man, and has built three thousand miles of +telegraph. He has an exceptional knowledge of the Indian tribes and +has always zealously endeavored to serve them and indeed to serve the +cause of humanity wherever and whenever he was able. Thanks mainly to +his efforts, four of the wild tribes of the region he has explored +have begun to tread the road of civilization. They have taken the +first steps toward becoming Christians. It may seem strange that among +the first-fruits of the efforts of a Positivist should be the +conversion of those he seeks to benefit to Christianity. But in South +America Christianity is at least as much a status as a theology. It +represents the indispensable first step upward from savagery. In the +wilder and poorer districts men are divided into the two great classes +of "Christians" and "Indians." When an Indian becomes a Christian he +is accepted into and becomes wholly absorbed or partly assimilated by +the crude and simple neighboring civilization, and then he moves up or +down like any one else among his fellows. + +Among Colonel Rondon's companions were Captain Amilcar de Magalhaes, +Lieutenant Joao Lyra, Lieutenant Joaquin de Mello Filho, and Doctor +Euzebio de Oliveira, a geologist. + +The steamers halted; Colonel Rondon and several of his officers, spick +and span in their white uniforms, came aboard; and in the afternoon I +visited him on his steamer to talk over our plans. When these had been +fully discussed and agreed on we took tea. I happened to mention that +one of our naturalists, Miller, had been bitten by a piranha, and the +man-eating fish at once became the subject of conversation. Curiously +enough, one of the Brazilian taxidermists had also just been severely +bitten by a piranha. My new companions had story after story to tell +of them. Only three weeks previously a twelve-year-old boy who had +gone in swimming near Corumba was attacked, and literally devoured +alive by them. Colonel Rondon during his exploring trips had met with +more than one unpleasant experience in connection with them. He had +lost one of his toes by the bite of a piranha. He was about to bathe +and had chosen a shallow pool at the edge of the river, which he +carefully inspected until he was satisfied that none of the man-eating +fish were in it; yet as soon as he put his foot into the water one of +them attacked him and bit off a toe. On another occasion while wading +across a narrow stream one of his party was attacked; the fish bit him +on the thighs and buttocks, and when he put down his hands tore them +also; he was near the bank and by a rush reached it and swung himself +out of the water by means of an overhanging limb of a tree; but he was +terribly injured, and it took him six months before his wounds healed +and he recovered. An extraordinary incident occurred on another trip. +The party were without food and very hungry. On reaching a stream they +dynamited it, and waded in to seize the stunned fish as they floated +on the surface. One man, Lieutenant Pyrineus, having his hands full, +tried to hold one fish by putting its head into his mouth; it was a +piranha and seemingly stunned, but in a moment it recovered and bit a +big section out of his tongue. Such a hemorrhage followed that his +life was saved with the utmost difficulty. On another occasion a +member of the party was off by himself on a mule. The mule came into +camp alone. Following his track back they came to a ford, where in the +water they found the skeleton of the dead man, his clothes uninjured +but every particle of flesh stripped from his bones. Whether he had +drowned, and the fishes had then eaten his body, or whether they had +killed him it was impossible to say. They had not hurt the clothes, +getting in under them, which made it seem likely that there had been +no struggle. These man-eating fish are a veritable scourge in the +waters they frequent. But it must not be understood by this that the +piranhas--or, for the matter of that, the New-World caymans and +crocodiles--ever become such dreaded foes of man as for instance the +man-eating crocodiles of Africa. Accidents occur, and there are +certain places where swimming and bathing are dangerous; but in most +places the people swim freely, although they are usually careful to +find spots they believe safe or else to keep together and make a +splashing in the water. + +During his trips Colonel Rondon had met with various experiences with +wild creatures. The Paraguayan caymans are not ordinarily dangerous to +man; but they do sometimes become man-eaters and should be destroyed +whenever the opportunity offers. The huge caymans and crocodiles of +the Amazon are far more dangerous, and the colonel knew of repeated +instances where men, women and children had become their victims. Once +while dynamiting a stream for fish for his starving party he partially +stunned a giant anaconda, which he killed as it crept slowly off. He +said that it was of a size that no other anaconda he had ever seen +even approached, and that in his opinion such a brute if hungry would +readily attack a full-grown man. Twice smaller anacondas had attacked +his dogs; one was carried under water--for the anaconda is a water- +loving serpent--but he rescued it. One of his men was bitten by a +jararaca; he killed the venomous snake, but was not discovered and +brought back to camp until it was too late to save his life. The puma +Colonel Rondon had found to be as cowardly as I have always found it, +but the jaguar was a formidable beast, which occasionally turned man- +eater, and often charged savagely when brought to bay. He had known a +hunter to be killed by a jaguar he was following in thick grass cover. + +All such enemies, however, he regarded as utterly trivial compared to +the real dangers of the wilderness--the torment and menace of attacks +by the swarming insects, by mosquitoes and the even more intolerable +tiny gnats, by the ticks, and by the vicious poisonous ants which +occasionally cause villages and even whole districts to be deserted by +human beings. These insects, and the fevers they cause, and dysentery +and starvation and wearing hardship and accidents in rapids are what +the pioneer explorers have to fear. The conversation was to me most +interesting. The colonel spoke French about to the extent I did; but +of course he and the others preferred Portuguese; and then Kermit was +the interpreter. + +In the evening, soon after moonrise, we stopped for wood at the little +Brazilian town of Porto Martinho. There are about twelve hundred +inhabitants. Some of the buildings were of stone; a large private +house with a castellated tower was of stone; there were shops, and a +post-office, stores, a restaurant and billiard-hall, and warehouses +for matte, of which much is grown in the region roundabout. Most of +the houses were low, with overhanging, sloping caves; and there were +gardens with high walls, inside of which trees rose, many of them +fragrant. We wandered through the wide, dusty streets, and along the +narrow sidewalks. It was a hot, still evening; the smell of the +tropics was on the heavy December air. Through the open doors and +windows we caught dim glimpses of the half-clad inmates of the poorer +houses; women and young girls sat outside their thresholds in the +moonlight. All whom we met were most friendly: the captain of the +little Brazilian garrison; the intendente, a local trader; another +trader and ranchman, a Uruguayan, who had just received his newspaper +containing my speech in Montevideo, and who, as I gathered from what I +understood of his rather voluble Spanish, was much impressed by my +views on democracy, honesty, liberty, and order (rather well-worn +topics); and a Catalan who spoke French, and who was accompanied by +his pretty daughter, a dear little girl of eight or ten, who said with +much pride that she spoke three languages--Brazilian, Spanish, and +Catalan! Her father expressed strongly his desire for a church and for +a school in the little city. + +When at last the wood was aboard we resumed our journey. The river was +like glass. In the white moonlight the palms on the edge of the banks +stood mirrored in the still water. We sat forward and as we rounded +the curves the long silver reaches of the great stream stretched ahead +of us, and the ghostly outlines of hills rose in the distance. Here +and there prairie fires burned, and the red glow warred with the +moon's radiance. + +Next morning was overcast. Occasionally we passed a wood-yard, or +factory, or cabin, now on the eastern, the Brazilian, now on the +western, the Paraguayan, bank. The Paraguay was known to men of +European birth, bore soldiers and priests and merchants as they sailed +and rowed up and down the current of its stream, and beheld little +towns and forts rise on its banks, long before the Mississippi had +become the white man's highway. Now, along its upper course, the +settlements are much like those on the Mississippi at the end of the +first quarter of the last century; and in the not distant future it +will witness a burst of growth and prosperity much like that which the +Mississippi saw when the old men of today were very young. + +In the early forenoon we stopped at a little Paraguayan hamlet, +nestling in the green growth under a group of low hills by the river- +brink. On one of these hills stood a picturesque old stone fort, known +as Fort Bourbon in the Spanish, the colonial, days. Now the Paraguayan +flag floats over it, and it is garrisoned by a handful of Paraguayan +soldiers. Here Father Zahm baptized two children, the youngest of a +large family of fair-skinned, light-haired small people, whose father +was a Paraguayan and the mother an "Oriental," or Uruguayan. No priest +had visited the village for three years, and the children were +respectively one and two years of age. The sponsors included the local +commandante and a married couple from Austria. In answer to what was +supposed to be the perfunctory question whether they were Catholics, +the parents returned the unexpected answer that they were not. Further +questioning elicited the fact that the father called himself a "free- +thinking Catholic," and the mother said she was a "Protestant +Catholic," her mother having been a Protestant, the daughter of an +immigrant from Normandy. However, it appeared that the older children +had been baptized by the Bishop of Asuncion, so Father Zahm at the +earnest request of the parents proceeded with the ceremony. They were +good people; and, although they wished liberty to think exactly as +they individually pleased, they also wished to be connected and to +have their children connected with some church, by preference the +church of the majority of their people. A very short experience of +communities where there is no church ought to convince the most +heterodox of the absolute need of a church. I earnestly wish that +there could be such an increase in the personnel and equipment of the +Catholic Church in South America as to permit the establishment of one +good and earnest priest in every village or little community in the +far interior. Nor is there any inconsistency between this wish and the +further wish that there could be a marked extension and development of +the native Protestant churches, such as I saw established here and +there in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, and of the Y. M. C. +Associations. The bulk of these good people who profess religion will +continue to be Catholics, but the spiritual needs of a more or less +considerable minority will best be met by the establishment of +Protestant churches, or in places even of a Positivist Church or +Ethical Culture Society. Not only is the establishment of such +churches a good thing for the body politic as a whole, but a good +thing for the Catholic Church itself; for their presence is a constant +spur to activity and clean and honorable conduct, and a constant +reflection on sloth and moral laxity. The government in each of these +commonwealths is doing everything possible to further the cause of +education, and the tendency is to treat education as peculiarly a +function of government and to make it, where the government acts, non- +sectarian, obligatory, and free--a cardinal doctrine of our own great +democracy, to which we are committed by every principle of sound +Americanism. There must be absolute religious liberty, for tyranny and +intolerance are as abhorrent in matters intellectual and spiritual as +in matters political and material; and more and more we must all +realize that conduct is of infinitely greater importance than dogma. +But no democracy can afford to overlook the vital importance of the +ethical and spiritual, the truly religious, element in life; and in +practice the average good man grows clearly to understand this, and to +express the need in concrete form by saying that no community can make +much headway if it does not contain both a church and a school. + +We took breakfast--the eleven-o'clock Brazilian breakfast--on Colonel +Rondon's boat. Caymans were becoming more plentiful. The ugly brutes +lay on the sand-flats and mud-banks like logs, always with the head +raised, sometimes with the jaws open. They are often dangerous to +domestic animals, and are always destructive to fish, and it is good +to shoot them. I killed half a dozen, and missed nearly as many more-- +a throbbing boat does not improve one's aim. We passed forests of +palms that extended for leagues, and vast marshy meadows, where +storks, herons, and ibis were gathered, with flocks of cormorants and +darters on the sand-bars, and stilts, skimmers, and clouds of +beautiful swaying terns in the foreground. About noon we passed the +highest point which the old Spanish conquistadores and explorers, +Irala and Ayolas, had reached in the course of their marvellous +journeys in the first half of the sixteenth century--at a time when +there was not a settlement in what is now the United States, and when +hardly a single English sea captain had ventured so much as to cross +the Atlantic. + +By the following day the country on the east bank had become a vast +marshy plain dotted here and there by tree-clad patches of higher +land. The morning was rainy; a contrast to the fine weather we had +hitherto encountered. We passed wood-yards and cattle-ranches. At one +of the latter the owner, an Argentine of Irish parentage, who still +spoke English with the accent of the land of his parents' nativity, +remarked that this was the first time the American flag had been seen +on the upper Paraguay; for our gunboat carried it at the masthead. +Early in the afternoon, having reached the part where both banks of +the river were Brazilian territory, we came to the old colonial +Portuguese fort of Coimbra. It stands where two steep hills rise, one +on either side of the river, and it guards the water-gorge between +them. It was captured by the Paraguayans in the war of nearly half a +century ago. Some modern guns have been mounted, and there is a +garrison of Brazilian troops. The white fort is perched on the +hillside, where it clings and rises, terrace above terrace, with +bastion and parapet and crenellated wall. At the foot of the hill, on +the riverine plain, stretches the old-time village with its roofs of +palm. In the village dwell several hundred souls, almost entirely the +officers and soldiers and their families. There is one long street. +The one-story, daub-and-wattle houses have low eaves and steep sloping +roofs of palm-leaves or of split palm-trunks. Under one or two old but +small trees there are rude benches; and for a part of the length of +the street there is a rough stone sidewalk. A little graveyard, some +of the tombs very old, stands at one end. As we passed down the street +the wives and the swarming children of the garrison were at the doors +and windows; there were women and girls with skins as fair as any in +the northland, and others that were predominantly negro. Most were of +intervening shades. All this was paralleled among the men; and the +fusion of the colors was going on steadily. + +Around the village black vultures were gathered. Not long before +reaching it we passed some rounded green trees, their tops covered +with the showy wood-ibis; at the same time we saw behind them, farther +inland, other trees crowded with the more delicate forms of the +shining white egrets. + +The river now widened so that in places it looked like a long lake; it +wound in every direction through the endless marshy plain, whose +surface was broken here and there by low mountains. The splendor of +the sunset I never saw surpassed. We were steaming east toward clouds +of storm. The river ran, a broad highway of molten gold, into the +flaming sky; the far-off mountains loomed purple across the marshes; +belts of rich green, the river banks stood out on either side against +the rose-hues of the rippling water; in front, as we forged steadily +onward, hung the tropic night, dim and vast. + +On December 15 we reached Corumba. For three or four miles before it +is reached the west bank, on which it stands, becomes high rocky +ground, falling away into cliffs. The country roundabout was evidently +well peopled. We saw gauchos, cattle-herders--the equivalent of our +own cowboys--riding along the bank. Women were washing clothes, and +their naked children bathing, on the shore; we were told that caymans +and piranhas rarely ventured near a place where so much was going on, +and that accidents generally occurred in ponds or lonely stretches of +the river. Several steamers came out to meet us, and accompanied us +for a dozen miles, with bands playing and the passengers cheering, +just as if we were nearing some town on the Hudson. + +Corumba is on a steep hillside, with wide, roughly paved streets, some +of them lined with beautiful trees that bear scarlet flowers, and with +well-built houses, most of them of one story, some of two or three +stories. We were greeted with a reception by the municipal council, +and were given a state dinner. The hotel, kept by an Italian, was as +comfortable as possible--stone floors, high ceilings, big windows and +doors, a cool, open courtyard, and a shower-bath. Of course Corumba is +still a frontier town. The vehicles ox-carts and mule-carts; there are +no carriages; and oxen as well as mules are used for riding. The water +comes from a big central well; around it the water-carts gather, and +their contents are then peddled around at the different houses. The +families showed the mixture of races characteristic of Brazil; one +mother, after the children had been photographed in their ordinary +costume, begged that we return and take them in their Sunday clothes, +which was accordingly done. In a year the railway from Rio will reach +Corumba; and then this city, and the country roundabout, will see much +development. + +At this point we rejoined the rest of the party, and very glad we were +to see them. Cherrie and Miller had already collected some eight +hundred specimens of mammals and birds. + + + + III. A JAGUAR-HUNT ON THE TAQUARY + +The morning after our arrival at Corumba I asked Colonel Rondon to +inspect our outfit; for his experience of what is necessary in +tropical travelling has been gained through a quarter of a century of +arduous exploration in the wilderness. It was Fiala who had assembled +our food-tents, cooking-utensils, and supplies of all kinds, and he +and Sigg, during their stay in Corumba, had been putting everything in +shape for our start. Colonel Rondon at the end of his inspection said +he had nothing whatever to suggest; that it was extraordinary that +Fiala, without personal knowledge of the tropics, could have gathered +the things most necessary, with the minimum of bulk and maximum of +usefulness. + +Miller had made a special study of the piranhas, which swarmed at one +of the camps he and Cherrie had made in the Chaco. So numerous were +they that the members of the party had to be exceedingly careful in +dipping up water. Miller did not find that they were cannibals toward +their own kind; they were "cannibals" only in the sense of eating the +flesh of men. When dead piranhas, and even when mortally injured +piranhas, with the blood flowing, were thrown among the ravenous +living, they were left unmolested. Moreover, it was Miller's +experience, the direct contrary of which we had been told, that +splashing and a commotion in the water attracted the piranhas, whereas +they rarely attacked anything that was motionless unless it was +bloody. Dead birds and mammals, thrown whole and unskinned into the +water were permitted to float off unmolested, whereas the skinned +carcass of a good-sized monkey was at once seized, pulled under the +water, and completely devoured by the blood-crazy fish. A man who had +dropped something of value waded in after it to above the knees, but +went very slowly and quietly, avoiding every possibility of +disturbance, and not venturing to put his hands into the water. But +nobody could bathe, and even the slightest disturbance in the water, +such as that made by scrubbing the hands vigorously with soap, +immediately attracted the attention of the savage little creatures, +who darted to the place, evidently hoping to find some animal in +difficulties. Once, while Miller and some Indians were attempting to +launch a boat, and were making a great commotion in the water, a +piranha attacked a naked Indian who belonged to the party and +mutilated him as he struggled and splashed, waist-deep in the stream. +Men not making a splashing and struggling are rarely attacked; but if +one is attacked by any chance, the blood in the water maddens the +piranhas, and they assail the man with frightful ferocity. + +At Corumba the weather was hot. In the patio of the comfortable little +hotel we heard the cicadas; but I did not hear the extraordinary +screaming whistle of the locomotive cicada, which I had heard in the +gardens of the house in which I stayed at Asuncion. This was as +remarkable a sound as any animal sound to which I have listened, +except only the batrachian-like wailing of the tree hyrax in East +Africa; and like the East African mammal this South American insect +has a voice, or rather utters a sound which, so far as it resembles +any other animal sound, at the beginning remotely suggests batrachian +affinities. The locomotive-whistle part of the utterance, however, +resembles nothing so much as a small steam siren; when first heard it +seems impossible that it can be produced by an insect. + +On December 17 Colonel Rondon and several members of our party started +on a shallow river steamer for the ranch of Senhor de Barros, "Las +Palmeiras," on the Rio Taquary. We went down the Paraguay for a few +miles, and then up the Taquary. It was a beautiful trip. The shallow +river--we were aground several times--wound through a vast, marshy +plain, with occasional spots of higher land on which trees grew. There +were many water-birds. Darters swarmed. But the conspicuous and +attractive bird was the stately jabiru stork. Flocks of these storks +whitened the marshes and lined the river banks. They were not shy, for +such big birds; before flying they had to run a few paces and then +launch themselves on the air. Once, at noon, a couple soared round +overhead in wide rings, rising higher and higher. On another occasion, +late in the day, a flock passed by, gleaming white with black points +in the long afternoon lights, and with them were spoonbills, showing +rosy amid their snowy companions. Caymans, always called jacares, +swarmed; and we killed scores of the noxious creatures. They were +singularly indifferent to our approach and to the sound of the shots. +Sometimes they ran into the water erect on their legs, looking like +miniatures of the monsters of the prime. One showed by its behavior +how little an ordinary shot pains or affects these dull-nerved, cold- +blooded creatures. As it lay on a sand-bank, it was hit with a long 22 +bullet. It slid into the water but found itself in the midst of a +school of fish. It at once forgot everything except its greedy +appetite, and began catching the fish. It seized fish after fish, +holding its head above water as soon as its jaws had closed on a fish; +and a second bullet killed it. Some of the crocodiles when shot +performed most extraordinary antics. Our weapons, by the way, were +good, except Miller's shotgun. The outfit furnished by the American +Museum was excellent--except in guns and cartridges; this gun was so +bad that Miller had to use Fiala's gun or else my Fox 12-bore. + +In the late afternoon we secured a more interesting creature than the +jacares. Kermit had charge of two hounds which we owed to the courtesy +of one of our Argentine friends. They were biggish, nondescript +animals, obviously good fighters, and they speedily developed the +utmost affection for all the members of the expedition, but especially +for Kermit, who took care of them. One we named "Shenzi," the name +given the wild bush natives by the Swahili, the semi-civilized African +porters. He was good-natured, rough, and stupid--hence his name. The +other was called by a native name, "Trigueiro." The chance now came to +try them. We were steaming between long stretches of coarse grass, +about three feet high, when we spied from the deck a black object, +very conspicuous against the vivid green. It was a giant ant-eater, or +tamandua bandeira, one of the most extraordinary creatures of the +latter-day world. It is about the size of a rather small black bear. +It has a very long, narrow, toothless snout, with a tongue it can +project a couple of feet; it is covered with coarse, black hair, save +for a couple of white stripes; it has a long, bushy tail and very +powerful claws on its fore feet. It walks on the sides of its fore +feet with these claws curved in under the foot. The claws are used in +digging out ant-hills; but the beast has courage, and in a grapple is +a rather unpleasant enemy, in spite of its toothless mouth, for it can +strike a formidable blow with these claws. It sometimes hugs a foe, +gripping him tight; but its ordinary method of defending itself is to +strike with its long, stout, curved claws, which, driven by its +muscular forearm, can rip open man or beast. Several of our companions +had had dogs killed by these ant-eaters; and we came across one man +with a very ugly scar down his back, where he had been hit by one, +which charged him when he came up to kill it at close quarters. + +As soon as we saw the giant tamandua we pushed off in a rowboat, and +landed only a couple of hundred yards distant from our clumsy quarry. +The tamandua throughout most of its habitat rarely leaves the forest, +and it is a helpless animal in the open plain. The two dogs ran ahead, +followed by Colonel Rondon and Kermit, with me behind carrying the +rifle. In a minute or two the hounds overtook the cantering, shuffling +creature, and promptly began a fight with it; the combatants were so +mixed up that I had to wait another minute or so before I could fire +without risk of hitting a dog. We carried our prize back to the bank +and hoisted it aboard the steamer. The sun was just about to set, +behind dim mountains, many miles distant across the marsh. + +Soon afterward we reached one of the outstations of the huge ranch we +were about to visit, and hauled up alongside the bank for the night. +There was a landing-place, and sheds and corrals. Several of the peons +or gauchos had come to meet us. After dark they kindled fires, and sat +beside them singing songs in a strange minor key and strumming +guitars. The red firelight flickered over their wild figures as they +squatted away from the blaze, where the light and the shadow met. It +was still and hot. There were mosquitoes, of course, and other insects +of all kinds swarmed round every light; but the steamboat was +comfortable, and we passed a pleasant night. + +At sunrise we were off for the "fazenda," the ranch of M. de Barros. +The baggage went in an ox-cart--which had to make two trips, so that +all of my belongings reached the ranch a day later than I did. We rode +small, tough ranch horses. The distance was some twenty miles. The +whole country was marsh, varied by stretches of higher ground; and, +although these stretches rose only three or four feet above the marsh, +they were covered with thick jungle, largely palmetto scrub, or else +with open palm forest. For three or four miles we splashed through the +marsh, now and then crossing boggy pools where the little horses +labored hard not to mire down. Our dusky guide was clad in a shirt, +trousers, and fringed leather apron, and wore spurs on his bare feet; +he had a rope for a bridle, and two or three toes of each foot were +thrust into little iron stirrups. + +The pools in the marsh were drying. They were filled with fish, most +of them dead or dying; and the birds had gathered to the banquet. The +most notable dinner guests were the great jabiru storks; the stately +creatures dotted the marsh. But ibis and herons abounded; the former +uttered queer, querulous cries when they discovered our presence. The +spurred lapwings were as noisy as they always are. The ibis and plover +did not pay any heed to the fish; but the black carrion vultures +feasted on them in the mud; and in the pools that were not dry small +alligators, the jacare-tinga, were feasting also. In many places the +stench from the dead fish was unpleasant. + +Then for miles we rode through a beautiful open forest of tall, +slender caranda palms, with other trees scattered among them. Green +parakeets with black heads chattered as they flew; noisy green and red +parrots climbed among the palms; and huge macaws, some entirely blue, +others almost entirely red, screamed loudly as they perched in the +trees or took wing at our approach. If one was wounded its cries kept +its companions circling around overhead. The naturalists found the +bird fauna totally different from that which they had been collecting +in the hill country near Corumba, seventy or eighty miles distant; and +birds swarmed, both species and individuals. South America has the +most extensive and most varied avifauna of all the continents. On the +other hand, its mammalian fauna, although very interesting, is rather +poor in number of species and individuals and in the size of the +beasts. It possesses more mammals that are unique and distinctive in +type than does any other continent save Australia; and they are of +higher and much more varied types than in Australia. But there is +nothing approaching the majesty, beauty, and swarming mass of the +great mammalian life of Africa and, in a less degree, of tropical +Asia; indeed, it does not even approach the similar mammalian life of +North America and northern Eurasia, poor though this is compared with +the seething vitality of tropical life in the Old World. During a +geologically recent period, a period extending into that which saw man +spread over the world in substantially the physical and cultural stage +of many existing savages, South America possessed a varied and +striking fauna of enormous beasts--sabre-tooth tigers, huge lions, +mastodons, horses of many kinds, camel-like pachyderms, giant ground- +sloths, mylodons the size of the rhinoceros, and many, many other +strange and wonderful creatures. From some cause, concerning the +nature of which we cannot at present even hazard a guess, this vast +and giant fauna vanished completely, the tremendous catastrophe (the +duration of which is unknown) not being consummated until within a few +thousand or a few score thousand years. When the white man reached +South America he found the same weak and impoverished mammalian fauna +that exists practically unchanged to-day. Elsewhere civilized man has +been even more destructive than his very destructive uncivilized +brothers of the magnificent mammalian life of the wilderness; for ages +he has been rooting out the higher forms of beast life in Europe, +Asia, and North Africa; and in our own day he has repeated the feat, +on a very large scale, in the rest of Africa and in North America. But +in South America, although he is in places responsible for the wanton +slaughter of the most interesting and the largest, or the most +beautiful, birds, his advent has meant a positive enrichment of the +wild mammalian fauna. None of the native grass-eating mammals, the +graminivores, approach in size and beauty the herds of wild or half- +wild cattle and horses, or so add to the interest of the landscape. +There is every reason why the good people of South America should +waken, as we of North America, very late in the day, are beginning to +waken, and as the peoples of northern Europe--not southern Europe-- +have already partially wakened, to the duty of preserving from +impoverishment and extinction the wild life which is an asset of such +interest and value in our several lands; but the case against +civilized man in this matter is gruesomely heavy anyhow, when the +plain truth is told, and it is harmed by exaggeration. + +After five or six hours' travelling through this country of marsh and +of palm forest we reached the ranch for which we were heading. In the +neighborhood stood giant fig-trees, singly or in groups, with dense, +dark green foliage. Ponds, overgrown with water-plants, lay about; wet +meadow, and drier pastureland, open or dotted with palms and varied +with tree jungle, stretched for many miles on every hand. There are +some thirty thousand head of cattle on the ranch, besides herds of +horses and droves of swine, and a few flocks of sheep and goats. The +home buildings of the ranch stood in a quadrangle, surrounded by a +fence or low stockade. One end of the quadrangle was formed by the +ranch-house itself, one story high, with whitewashed walls and red- +tiled roof. Inside, the rooms were bare, with clean, whitewashed walls +and palm-trunk rafters. There were solid wooden shutters on the +unglazed windows. We slept in hammocks or on cots, and we feasted +royally on delicious native Brazilian dishes. On another side of the +quadrangle stood another long, low white building with a red-tiled +roof; this held the kitchen and the living-rooms of the upper-grade +peons, the headmen, the cook, and jaguar-hunters, with their families: +dark-skinned men, their wives showing varied strains of white, Indian, +and negro blood. The children tumbled merrily in the dust, and were +fondly tended by their mothers. Opposite the kitchen stood a row of +buildings, some whitewashed daub and wattle, with tin roofs, others of +erect palm-logs with palm-leaf thatch. These were the saddle-room, +storehouse, chicken-house, and stable. The chicken-house was allotted +to Kermit and Miller for the preparation of the specimens; and there +they worked industriously. With a big skin, like that of the giant +ant-eater, they had to squat on the ground; while the ducklings and +wee chickens scuffled not only round the skin but all over it, +grabbing the shreds and scraps of meat and catching flies. The fourth +end of the quadrangle was formed by a corral and a big wooden +scaffolding on which hung hides and strips of drying meat. +Extraordinary to relate, there were no mosquitoes at the ranch; why I +cannot say, as they ought to swarm in these vast "pantanals," or +swamps. Therefore, in spite of the heat, it was very pleasant. Near by +stood other buildings: sheds, and thatched huts of palm-logs in which +the ordinary peons lived, and big corrals. In the quadrangle were +flamboyant trees, with their masses of brilliant red flowers and +delicately cut, vivid-green foliage. Noisy oven-birds haunted these +trees. In a high palm in the garden a family of green parakeets had +taken up their abode and were preparing to build nests. They chattered +incessantly both when they flew and when they sat or crawled among the +branches. Ibis and plover, crying and wailing, passed immediately +overhead. Jacanas frequented the ponds near by; the peons, with a +familiarity which to us seems sacrilegious, but to them was entirely +inoffensive and matter of course, called them "the Jesus Christ +birds," because they walked on the water. There was a wealth of +strange bird life in the neighborhood. There were large papyrus- +marshes, the papyrus not being a fifth, perhaps not a tenth, as high +as in Africa. In these swamps were many blackbirds. Some uttered notes +that reminded me of our own redwings. Others, with crimson heads and +necks and thighs, fairly blazed; often a dozen sat together on a +swaying papyrus-stem which their weight bent over. There were all +kinds of extraordinary bird's-nests in the trees. There is still need +for the work of the collector in South America. But I believe that +already, so far as birds are concerned, there is infinitely more need +for the work of the careful observer, who to the power of appreciation +and observation adds the power of vivid, truthful, and interesting +narration--which means, as scientists no less than historians should +note, that training in the writing of good English is indispensable to +any learned man who expects to make his learning count for what it +ought to count in the effect on his fellow men. The outdoor +naturalist, the faunal naturalist, who devotes himself primarily to a +study of the habits and of the life-histories of birds, beasts, fish, +and reptiles, and who can portray truthfully and vividly what he has +seen, could do work of more usefulness than any mere collector, in +this upper Paraguay country. The work of the collector is +indispensable; but it is only a small part of the work that ought to +be done; and after collecting has reached a certain point the work of +the field observer with the gift for recording what he has seen +becomes of far more importance. + +The long days spent riding through the swamp, the "pantanal," were +pleasant and interesting. Several times we saw the tamandua bandeira, +the giant ant-bear. Kermit shot one, because the naturalists eagerly +wished for a second specimen; afterward we were relieved of all +necessity to molest the strange, out-of-date creatures. It was a +surprise to us to find them habitually frequenting the open marsh. +They were always on muddy ground, and in the papyrus-swamp we found +them in several inches of water. The stomach is thick-walled, like a +gizzard; the stomachs of those we shot contained adult and larval +ants, chiefly termites, together with plenty of black mould and +fragments of leaves, both green and dry. Doubtless the earth and the +vegetable matter had merely been taken incidentally, adhering to the +viscid tongue when it was thrust into the ant masses. Out in the open +marsh the tamandua could neither avoid observation, nor fight +effectively, nor make good its escape by flight. It was curious to see +one lumbering off at a rocking canter, the big bushy tail held aloft. +One, while fighting the dogs, suddenly threw itself on its back, +evidently hoping to grasp a dog with its paws; and it now and then +reared, in order to strike at its assailants. In one patch of thick +jungle we saw a black howler monkey sitting motionless in a tree top. +We also saw the swamp-deer, about the size of our blacktail. It is a +real swamp animal, for we found it often in the papyrus-swamps, and +out in the open marsh, knee-deep in the water, among the aquatic +plants. + +The tough little horses bore us well through the marsh. Often in +crossing bayous and ponds the water rose almost to their backs; but +they splashed and waded and if necessary swam through. The dogs were a +wild-looking set. Some were of distinctly wolfish appearance. These, +we were assured, were descended in part from the big red wolf of the +neighborhood, a tall, lank animal, with much smaller teeth than a big +northern wolf. The domestic dog is undoubtedly descended from at least +a dozen different species of wild dogs, wolves, and jackals, some of +them probably belonging to what we style different genera. The degree +of fecundity or lack of fecundity between different species varies in +extraordinary and inexplicable fashion in different families of +mammals. In the horse family, for instance, the species are not +fertile inter se; whereas among the oxen, species seemingly at least +as widely separated as the horse, ass, and zebra species such as the +domestic ox, bison, yak, and gaur breed freely together and their +offspring are fertile; the lion and tiger also breed together, and +produce offspring which will breed with either parent stock; and tame +dogs in different quarters of the world, although all of them fertile +inter se, are in many cases obviously blood kin to the neighboring +wild, wolf-like or jackal-like creatures which are specifically, and +possibly even generically, distinct from one another. The big red wolf +of the South American plains is not closely related to the northern +wolves; and it was to me unexpected to find it interbreeding with +ordinary domestic dogs. + +In the evenings after dinner we sat in the bare ranch dining-room, or +out under the trees in the hot darkness, and talked of many things: +natural history with the naturalists, and all kinds of other subjects +both with them and with our Brazilian friends. Colonel Rondon is not +simply "an officer and a gentleman" in the sense that is honorably +true of the best army officers in every good military service. He is +also a peculiarly hardy and competent explorer, a good field +naturalist and scientific man, a student and a philosopher. With him +the conversation ranged from jaguar-hunting and the perils of +exploration in the "Matto Grosso," the great wilderness, to Indian +anthropology, to the dangers of a purely materialistic industrial +civilization, and to Positivist morality. The colonel's Positivism was +in very fact to him a religion of humanity, a creed which bade him be +just and kindly and useful to his fellow men, to live his life +bravely, and no less bravely to face death, without reference to what +he believed, or did not believe, or to what the unknown hereafter +might hold for him. + +The native hunters who accompanied us were swarthy men of mixed blood. +They were barefooted and scantily clad, and each carried a long, +clumsy spear and a keen machete, in the use of which he was an expert. +Now and then, in thick jungle, we had to cut out a path, and it was +interesting to see one of them, although cumbered by his unwieldy +spear, handling his half-broken little horse with complete ease while +he hacked at limbs and branches. Of the two ordinarily with us one was +much the younger; and whenever we came to an unusually doubtful- +looking ford or piece of boggy ground the elder man always sent the +younger one on and sat on the bank until he saw what befell the +experimenter. In that rather preposterous book of our youth, the +"Swiss Family Robinson," mention is made of a tame monkey called Nips, +which was used to test all edible-looking things as to the +healthfulness of which the adventurers felt doubtful; and because of +the obvious resemblance of function we christened this younger hunter +Nips. Our guides were not only hunters but cattle-herders. The coarse +dead grass is burned to make room for the green young grass on which +the cattle thrive. Every now and then one of the men, as he rode ahead +of us, without leaving the saddle, would drop a lighted match into a +tussock of tall dead blades; and even as we who were behind rode by +tongues of hot flame would be shooting up and a local prairie fire +would have started. + +Kermit took Nips off with him for a solitary hunt one day. He shot two +of the big marsh-deer, a buck and a doe, and preserved them as museum +specimens. They were in the papyrus growth, but their stomachs +contained only the fine marsh-grass which grows in the water and on +the land along the edges of the swamps; the papyrus was used only for +cover, not for food. The buck had two big scent-glands beside the +nostrils; in the doe these were rudimentary. On this day Kermit also +came across a herd of the big, fierce white-lipped peccary; at the +sound of their grunting Nips promptly spurred his horse and took to +his heels, explaining that the peccaries would charge them, hamstring +the horses, and kill the riders. Kermit went into the jungle after the +truculent little wild hogs on foot and followed them for an hour, but +never was able to catch sight of them. + +In the afternoon of this same day one of the jaguar-hunters--merely +ranch hands, who knew something of the chase of the jaguar--who had +been searching for tracks, rode in with the information that he had +found fresh sign at a spot in the swamp about nine miles distant. Next +morning we rose at two, and had started on our jaguar-hunt at three. +Colonel Rondon, Kermit, and I, with the two trailers or jaguar- +hunters, made up the party, each on a weedy, undersized marsh pony, +accustomed to traversing the vast stretches of morass; and we were +accompanied by a brown boy, with saddle-bags holding our lunch, who +rode a long-horned trotting steer which he managed by a string through +its nostril and lip. The two trailers carried each a long, clumsy +spear. We had a rather poor pack. Besides our own two dogs, neither of +which was used to jaguar-hunting, there were the ranch dogs, which +were well-nigh worthless, and then two jaguar hounds borrowed for the +occasion from a ranch six or eight leagues distant. These were the +only hounds on which we could place any trust, and they were led in +leashes by the two trailers. One was a white bitch, the other, the +best one we had, was a gelded black dog. They were lean, half-starved +creatures with prick ears and a look of furtive wildness. + +As our shabby little horses shuffled away from the ranch-house the +stars were brilliant and the Southern Cross hung well up in the +heavens, tilted to the right. The landscape was spectral in the light +of the waning moon. At the first shallow ford, as horses and dogs +splashed across, an alligator, the jacare-tinga, some five feet long, +floated unconcernedly among the splashing hoofs and paws; evidently at +night it did not fear us. Hour after hour we slogged along. Then the +night grew ghostly with the first dim gray of the dawn. The sky had +become overcast. The sun rose red and angry through broken clouds; his +disk flamed behind the tall, slender columns of the palms, and lit the +waste fields of papyrus. The black monkeys howled mournfully. The +birds awoke. Macaws, parrots, parakeets screamed at us and chattered +at us as we rode by. Ibis called with wailing voices, and the plovers +shrieked as they wheeled in the air. We waded across bayous and ponds, +where white lilies floated on the water and thronging lilac-flowers +splashed the green marsh with color. + +At last, on the edge of a patch of jungle, in wet ground, we came on +fresh jaguar tracks. Both the jaguar hounds challenged the sign. They +were unleashed and galloped along the trail, while the other dogs +noisily accompanied them. The hunt led right through the marsh. +Evidently the jaguar had not the least distaste for water. Probably it +had been hunting for capybaras or tapirs, and it had gone straight +through ponds and long, winding, narrow ditches or bayous, where it +must now and then have had to swim for a stroke or two. It had also +wandered through the island-like stretches of tree-covered land, the +trees at this point being mostly palms and tarumans; the taruman is +almost as big as a live-oak, with glossy foliage and a fruit like an +olive. The pace quickened, the motley pack burst into yelling and +howling; and then a sudden quickening of the note showed that the game +had either climbed a tree or turned to bay in a thicket. The former +proved to be the case. The dogs had entered a patch of tall tree +jungle, and as we cantered up through the marsh we saw the jaguar high +among the forked limbs of a taruman tree. It was a beautiful picture-- +the spotted coat of the big, lithe, formidable cat fairly shone as it +snarled defiance at the pack below. I did not trust the pack; the dogs +were not stanch, and if the jaguar came down and started I feared we +might lose it. So I fired at once, from a distance of seventy yards. I +was using my favorite rifle, the little Springfield with which I have +killed most kinds of African game, from the lion and elephant down; +the bullets were the sharp, pointed kind, with the end of naked lead. +At the shot the jaguar fell like a sack of sand through the branches, +and although it staggered to its feet it went but a score of yards +before it sank down, and when I came up it was dead under the palms, +with three or four of the bolder dogs riving at it. + +The jaguar is the king of South American game, ranking on an equality +with the noblest beasts of the chase of North America, and behind only +the huge and fierce creatures which stand at the head of the big game +of Africa and Asia. This one was an adult female. It was heavier and +more powerful than a full-grown male cougar, or African panther or +leopard. It was a big, powerfully built creature, giving the same +effect of strength that a tiger or lion does, and that the lithe +leopards and pumas do not. Its flesh, by the way, proved good eating, +when we had it for supper, although it was not cooked in the way it +ought to have been. I tried it because I had found cougars such good +eating; I have always regretted that in Africa I did not try lion's +flesh, which I am sure must be excellent. + +Next day came Kermit's turn. We had the miscellaneous pack with us, +all much enjoying themselves; but, although they could help in a +jaguar-hunt to the extent of giving tongue and following the chase for +half a mile, cowing the quarry by their clamor, they were not +sufficiently stanch to be of use if there was any difficulty in the +hunt. The only two dogs we could trust were the two borrowed jaguar +hounds. This was the black dog's day. About ten in the morning we came +to a long, deep, winding bayou. On the opposite bank stood a capybara, +looking like a blunt-nosed pig, its wet hide shining black. I killed +it, and it slid into the water. Then I found that the bayou extended +for a mile or two in each direction, and the two hunter-guides said +they did not wish to swim across for fear of the piranhas. Just at +this moment we came across fresh jaguar tracks. It was hot, we had +been travelling for five hours, and the dogs were much exhausted. The +black hound in particular was nearly done up, for he had been led in a +leash by one of the horsemen. He lay flat on the ground, panting, +unable to catch the scent. Kermit threw water over him, and when he +was thoroughly drenched and freshened, thrust his nose into the +jaguar's footprints. The game old hound at once and eagerly responded. +As he snuffed the scent he challenged loudly, while still lying down. +Then he staggered to his feet and started on the trail, going stronger +with every leap. Evidently the big cat was not far distant. Soon we +found where it had swum across the bayou. Piranhas or no piranhas, we +now intended to get across; and we tried to force our horses in at +what seemed a likely spot. The matted growth of water-plants, with +their leathery, slippery stems, formed an unpleasant barrier, as the +water was swimming-deep for the horses. The latter were very unwilling +to attempt the passage. Kermit finally forced his horse through the +tangled mass, swimming, plunging, and struggling. He left a lane of +clear water, through which we swam after him. The dogs splashed and +swam behind us. On the other bank they struck the fresh trail and +followed it at a run. It led into a long belt of timber, chiefly +composed of low-growing nacury palms, with long, drooping, many- +fronded branches. In silhouette they suggest coarse bamboos; the nuts +hang in big clusters and look like bunches of small, unripe bananas. +Among the lower palms were scattered some big ordinary trees. We +cantered along outside the timber belt, listening to the dogs within; +and in a moment a burst of yelling clamor from the pack told that the +jaguar was afoot. These few minutes are the really exciting moments in +the chase, with hounds, of any big cat that will tree. The furious +baying of the pack, the shouts and cheers of encouragement from the +galloping horsemen, the wilderness surroundings, the knowledge of what +the quarry is--all combine to make the moment one of fierce and +thrilling excitement. Besides, in this case there was the possibility +the jaguar might come to bay on the ground, in which event there would +be a slight element of risk, as it might need straight shooting to +stop a charge. However, about as soon as the long-drawn howling and +eager yelping showed that the jaguar had been overtaken, we saw him, a +huge male, up in the branches of a great fig-tree. A bullet behind the +shoulder, from Kermit's 405 Winchester, brought him dead to the +ground. He was heavier than the very big male horse-killing cougar I +shot in Colorado, whose skull Hart Merriam reported as the biggest he +had ever seen; he was very nearly double the weight of any of the male +African leopards we shot; he was nearly or quite the weight of the +smallest of the adult African lionesses we shot while in Africa. He +had the big bones, the stout frame, and the heavy muscular build of a +small lion; he was not lithe and slender and long like a cougar or +leopard; the tail, as with all jaguars, was short, while the girth of +the body was great; his coat was beautiful, with a satiny gloss, and +the dark-brown spots on the gold of his back, head, and sides were +hardly as conspicuous as the black of the equally well-marked spots +against his white belly. + +This was a well-known jaguar. He had occasionally indulged in cattle- +killing; on one occasion during the floods he had taken up his abode +near the ranch-house and had killed a couple of cows and a young +steer. The hunters had followed him, but he had made his escape, and +for the time being had abandoned the neighborhood. In these marshes +each jaguar had a wide irregular range and travelled a good deal, +perhaps only passing a day or two in a given locality, perhaps +spending a week where game was plentiful. Jaguars love the water. They +drink greedily and swim freely. In this country they rambled through +the night across the marshes and prowled along the edges of the ponds +and bayous, catching the capybaras and the caymans; for these small +pond caymans, the jacare-tinga, form part of their habitual food, and +a big jaguar when hungry will attack and kill large caymans and +crocodiles if he can get them a few yards from the water. On these +marshes the jaguars also followed the peccary herds; it is said that +they always strike the hindmost of a band of the fierce little wild +pigs. Elsewhere they often prey on the tapir. If in timber, however, +the jaguar must kill it at once, for the squat, thick-skinned, wedge- +shaped tapir has no respect for timber, as Colonel Rondon phrased it, +and rushes with such blind, headlong speed through and among branches +and trunks that if not immediately killed it brushes the jaguar off, +the claws leaving long raking scars in the tough hide. Cattle are +often killed. The jaguar will not meddle with a big bull; and is +cautious about attacking a herd accompanied by a bull; but it will at +times, where wild game is scarce, kill every other domestic animal. It +is a thirsty brute, and if it kills far from water will often drag its +victim a long distance toward a pond or stream; Colonel Rondon had +once come across a horse which a jaguar had thus killed and dragged +for over a mile. Jaguars also stalk and kill the deer; in this +neighborhood they seemed to be less habitual deer-hunters than the +cougars; whether this is generally the case I cannot say. They have +been known to pounce on and devour good-sized anacondas. + +In this particular neighborhood the ordinary jaguars molested the +cattle and horses hardly at all except now and then to kill calves. It +was only occasionally that under special circumstances some old male +took to cattle-killing. There were plenty of capybaras and deer, and +evidently the big spotted cats preferred the easier prey when it was +available; exactly as in East Africa we found the lions living almost +exclusively on zebra and antelope, and not molesting the buffalo and +domestic cattle, which in other parts of Africa furnish their habitual +prey. In some other neighborhoods, not far distant, our hosts informed +us that the jaguars lived almost exclusively on horses and cattle. +They also told us that the cougars had the same habits as the jaguars +except that they did not prey on such big animals. The cougars on this +ranch never molested the foals, a fact which astonished me, as in the +Rockies they are the worst enemies of foals. It was interesting to +find that my hosts, and the mixed-blood hunters and ranch workers, +combined special knowledge of many of the habits of these big cats +with a curious ignorance of other matters concerning them and a +readiness to believe fables about them. This was precisely what I had +found to be the case with the old-time North American hunters in +discussing the puma, bear, and wolf, and with the English and Boer +hunters of Africa when they spoke of the lion and rhinoceros. Until +the habit of scientific accuracy in observation and record is achieved +and until specimens are preserved and carefully compared, entirely +truthful men, at home in the wilderness, will whole-heartedly accept, +and repeat as matters of gospel faith, theories which split the +grizzly and black bears of each locality in the United States, and the +lions and black rhinos of South Africa, or the jaguars and pumas of +any portion of South America, into several different species, all with +widely different habits. They will, moreover, describe these imaginary +habits with such sincerity and minuteness that they deceive most +listeners; and the result sometimes is that an otherwise good +naturalist will perpetuate these fables, as Hudson did when he wrote +of the puma. Hudson was a capital observer and writer when he dealt +with the ordinary birds and mammals of the well-settled districts near +Buenos Aires and at the mouth of the Rio Negro; but he knew nothing of +the wilderness. This is no reflection on him; his books are great +favorites of mine, and are to a large degree models of what such books +should be; I only wish that there were hundreds of such writers and +observers who would give us similar books for all parts of America. +But it is a mistake to accept him as an authority on that concerning +which he was ignorant. + +An interesting incident occurred on the day we killed our first +jaguar. We took our lunch beside a small but deep and obviously +permanent pond. I went to the edge to dip up some water, and something +growled or bellowed at me only a few feet away. It was a jacare-tinga +or small cayman about five feet long. I paid no heed to it at the +moment. But shortly afterward when our horses went down to drink it +threatened them and frightened them; and then Colonel Rondon and +Kermit called me to watch it. It lay on the surface of the water only +a few feet distant from us and threatened us; we threw cakes of mud at +it, whereupon it clashed its jaws and made short rushes at us, and +when we threw sticks it seized them and crunched them. We could not +drive it away. Why it should have shown such truculence and +heedlessness I cannot imagine, unless perhaps it was a female, with +eggs near by. In another little pond a jacare-tinga showed no less +anger when another of my companions approached. It bellowed, opened +its jaws, and lashed its tail. Yet these pond jacares never actually +molested even our dogs in the ponds, far less us on our horses. + +This same day others of our party had an interesting experience with +the creatures in another pond. One of them was Commander da Cunha (of +the Brazilian Navy), a capital sportsman and delightful companion. +They found a deepish pond a hundred yards or so long and thirty or +forty across. It was tenanted by the small caymans and by capybaras-- +the largest known rodent, a huge aquatic guinea-pig, the size of a +small sheep. It also swarmed with piranhas, the ravenous fish of which +I have so often spoken. Undoubtedly the caymans were subsisting +largely on these piranhas. But the tables were readily turned if any +caymans were injured. When a capybara was shot and sank in the water, +the piranhas at once attacked it, and had eaten half the carcass ten +minutes later. But much more extraordinary was the fact that when a +cayman about five feet long was wounded the piranhas attacked and tore +it, and actually drove it out on the bank to face its human foes. The +fish first attacked the wound; then, as the blood maddened them, they +attacked all the soft parts, their terrible teeth cutting out chunks +of tough hide and flesh. Evidently they did not molest either cayman +or capybara while it was unwounded; but blood excited them to frenzy. +Their habits are in some ways inexplicable. We saw men frequently +bathing unmolested; but there are places where this is never safe, and +in any place if a school of the fish appear swimmers are in danger; +and a wounded man or beast is in deadly peril if piranhas are in the +neighborhood. Ordinarily it appears that an unwounded man is attacked +only by accident. Such accidents are rare; but they happen with +sufficient frequency to justify much caution in entering water where +piranhas abound. + +We frequently came across ponds tenanted by numbers of capybaras. The +huge, pig-like rodents are said to be shy elsewhere. Here they were +tame. The water was their home and refuge. They usually went ashore to +feed on the grass, and made well-beaten trails in the marsh +immediately around the water; but they must have travelled these at +night, for we never saw them more than a few feet away from the water +in the daytime. Even at midday we often came on them standing beside a +bayou or pond. The dogs would rush wildly at such a standing beast, +which would wait until they were only a few yards off and then dash +into and under the water. The dogs would also run full tilt into the +water, and it was then really funny to see their surprise and +disappointment at the sudden and complete disappearance of their +quarry. Often a capybara would stand or sit on its haunches in the +water, with only its blunt, short-eared head above the surface, quite +heedless of our presence. But if alarmed it would dive, for capybaras +swim with equal facility on or below the surface; and if they wish to +hide they rise gently among the rushes or water-lily leaves with only +their nostrils exposed. In these waters the capybaras and small +caymans paid no attention to one another, swimming and resting in +close proximity. They both had the same enemy, the jaguar. The +capybara is a game animal only in the sense that a hare or rabbit is. +The flesh is good to eat, and its amphibious habits and queer nature +and surroundings make it interesting. In some of the ponds the water +had about gone, and the capybaras had become for the time being beasts +of the marsh and the mud; although they could always find little slimy +pools, under a mass of water-lilies, in which to lie and hide. + +Our whole stay on this ranch was delightful. On the long rides we +always saw something of interest, and often it was something entirely +new to us. Early one morning we came across two armadillos--the big, +nine-banded armadillo. We were riding with the pack through a dry, +sandy pasture country, dotted with clumps of palms, round the trunks +of which grew a dense jungle of thorns and Spanish bayonets. The +armadillos were feeding in an open space between two of these jungle +clumps, which were about a hundred yards apart. One was on all fours; +the other was in a squatting position, with its fore legs off the +ground. Their long ears were very prominent. The dogs raced at them. I +had always supposed that armadillos merely shuffled along, and curled +up for protection when menaced; and I was almost as surprised as if I +had seen a turtle gallop when these two armadillos bounded off at a +run, going as fast as rabbits. One headed back for the nearest patch +of jungle, which it reached. The other ran at full speed--and ran +really fast, too--until it nearly reached the other patch, a hundred +yards distant, the dogs in full cry immediately behind it. Then it +suddenly changed its mind, wheeled in its tracks, and came back like a +bullet right through the pack. Dog after dog tried to seize it or stop +it and turned to pursue it; but its wedge-shaped snout and armored +body, joined to the speed at which it was galloping, enabled it to +drive straight ahead through its pursuers, not one of which could halt +it or grasp it, and it reached in safety its thorny haven of refuge. +It had run at speed about a hundred and fifty yards. I was much +impressed by this unexpected exhibition; evidently this species of +armadillo only curls up as a last resort, and ordinarily trusts to its +speed, and to the protection its build and its armor give it while +running, in order to reach its burrow or other place of safety. Twice, +while laying railway tracks near Sao Paulo, Kermit had accidentally +dug up armadillos with a steam-shovel. + +There were big ant-hills, some of them of huge dimensions, scattered +through the country. Sometimes they were built against the stems of +trees. We did not here come across any of the poisonous or biting ants +which, when sufficiently numerous, render certain districts +uninhabitable. They are ordinarily not very numerous. Those of them +that march in large bodies kill nestling birds, and at once destroy +any big animal unable to get out of their way. It has been suggested +that nestlings in their nests are in some way immune from the attack +of these ants. The experiments of our naturalists tended to show that +this was not the case. They plundered any nest they came across and +could get at. + +Once we saw a small herd of peccaries, one a sow followed by three +little pigs--they are said to have only two young, but we saw three, +although of course it is possible one belonged to another sow. The +herd galloped into a mass of thorny cover the hounds could not +penetrate; and when they were in safety we heard them utter, from the +depths of the jungle, a curious moaning sound. + +On one ride we passed a clump of palms which were fairly ablaze with +bird color. There were magnificent hyacinth macaws; green parrots with +red splashes; toucans with varied plumage, black, white, red, yellow; +green jacmars; flaming orioles and both blue and dark-red tanagers. It +was an extraordinary collection. All were noisy. Perhaps there was a +snake that had drawn them by its presence; but we could find no snake. +The assembly dispersed as we rode up; the huge blue macaws departed in +pairs, uttering their hoarse "ar-rah-h, ar-rah-h." It has been said +that parrots in the wilderness are only noisy on the wing. They are +certainly noisy on the wing; and those that we saw were quiet while +they were feeding; but ordinarily when they were perched among the +branches, and especially when, as in the case of the little parakeets +near the house, they were gathering materials for nest-building, they +were just as noisy as while flying. + +The water-birds were always a delight. We shot merely the two or three +specimens the naturalists needed for the museum. I killed a wood-ibis +on the wing with the handy little Springfield, and then lost all the +credit I had thus gained by a series of inexcusable misses, at long +range, before I finally killed a jabiru. Kermit shot a jabiru with the +Luger automatic. The great, splendid birds, standing about as tall as +a man, show fight when wounded, and advance against their assailants, +clattering their formidable bills. One day we found the nest of a +jabiru in a mighty fig-tree, on the edge of a patch of jungle. It was +a big platform of sticks, placed on a horizontal branch. There were +four half-grown young standing on it. We passed it in the morning, +when both parents were also perched alongside; the sky was then +overcast, and it was not possible to photograph it with the small +camera. In the early afternoon when we again passed it the sun was +out, and we tried to get photographs. Only one parent bird was present +at this time. It showed no fear. I noticed that, as it stood on a +branch near the nest, its bill was slightly open. It was very hot, and +I suppose it had opened its bill just as a hen opens her bill in hot +weather. As we rode away the old bird and the four young birds were +standing motionless, and with gliding flight the other old bird was +returning to the nest. It is hard to give an adequate idea of the +wealth of bird life in these marshes. A naturalist could with the +utmost advantage spend six months on such a branch as that we visited. +He would have to do some collecting, but only a little. Exhaustive +observation in the field is what is now most needed. Most of this +wonderful and harmless bird life should be protected by law; and the +mammals should receive reasonable protection. The books now most +needed are those dealing with the life-histories of wild creatures. + +Near the ranch-house, walking familiarly among the cattle, we saw the +big, deep-billed Ani blackbirds. They feed on the insects disturbed by +the hoofs of the cattle, and often cling to them and pick off the +ticks. It was the end of the nesting season, and we did not find their +curious communal nests, in which half a dozen females lay their eggs +indiscriminately. The common ibises in the ponds near by--which +usually went in pairs, instead of in flocks like the wood ibis--were +very tame, and so were the night herons and all the small herons. In +flying, the ibises and storks stretch the neck straight in front of +them. The jabiru--a splendid bird on the wing--also stretches his neck +out in front, but there appears to be a slight downward curve at the +base of the neck, which may be due merely to the craw. The big slender +herons, on the contrary, bend the long neck back in a beautiful curve, +so that the head is nearly between the shoulders. One day I saw what I +at first thought was a small yellow-bellied kingfisher hovering over a +pond, and finally plunging down to the surface of the water after a +school of tiny young fish; but it proved to be a bien-te-vì king-bird. +Curved-bill wood-hewers, birds the size and somewhat the coloration of +veeries, but with long, slender sickle-bills, were common in the +little garden back of the house; their habits were those of creepers, +and they scrambled with agility up, along, and under the trunks and +branches, and along the posts and rails of the fence, thrusting the +bill into crevices for insects. The oven-birds, which had the carriage +and somewhat the look of wood-thrushes, I am sure would prove +delightful friends on a close acquaintance; they are very individual, +not only in the extraordinary domed mud nests they build, but in all +their ways, in their bright alertness; their interest in and curiosity +about whatever goes on, their rather jerky quickness of movement, and +their loud and varied calls. With a little encouragement they become +tame and familiar. The parakeets were too noisy, but otherwise were +most attractive little birds, as they flew to and fro and scrambled +about in the top of the palm behind the house. There was one showy +kind of king-bird or tyrant flycatcher, lustrous black with a white +head. + +One afternoon several score cattle were driven into a big square +corral near the house, in order to brand the calves and a number of +unbranded yearlings and two-year-olds. A special element of excitement +was added by the presence of a dozen big bulls which were to be turned +into draught-oxen. The agility, nerve, and prowess of the ranch +workmen, the herders or gauchos, were noteworthy. The dark-skinned men +were obviously mainly of Indian and negro descent, although some of +them also showed a strong strain of white blood. They wore the usual +shirt, trousers, and fringed leather apron, with jim-crow hats. Their +bare feet must have been literally as tough as horn; for when one of +them roped a big bull he would brace himself, bending back until he +was almost sitting down and digging his heels into the ground, and the +galloping beast would be stopped short and whirled completely round +when the rope tautened. The maddened bulls, and an occasional steer or +cow, charged again and again with furious wrath; but two or three +ropes would settle on the doomed beast, and down it would go; and when +it was released and rose and charged once more, with greater fury than +ever, the men, shouting with laughter, would leap up the sides of the +heavy stockade. + +We stayed at the ranch until a couple of days before Christmas. +Hitherto the weather had been lovely. The night before we left there +was a torrential tropic downpour. It was not unexpected, for we had +been told that the rainy season was overdue. The following forenoon +the baggage started, in a couple of two-wheeled ox-carts, for the +landing where the steamboat awaited us. Each cart was drawn by eight +oxen. The huge wheels were over seven feet high. Early in the +afternoon we followed on horseback, and overtook the carts as darkness +fell, just before we reached the landing on the river's bank. The last +few miles, after the final reaches of higher, tree-clad ground had +been passed, were across a level plain of low ground on which the +water stood, sometimes only up to the ankles of a man on foot, +sometimes as high as his waist. Directly in front of us, many leagues +distant, rose the bold mountains that lie west of Corumba. Behind them +the sun was setting and kindled the overcast heavens with lurid +splendor. Then the last rose tints faded from the sky; the horses +plodded wearily through the water; on every side stretched the marsh, +vast, lonely, desolate in the gray of the half-light. We overtook the +ox-carts. The cattle strained in the yokes; the drivers wading +alongside cracked their whips and uttered strange cries; the carts +rocked and swayed as the huge wheels churned through the mud and +water. As the last light faded we reached the small patches of dry +land at the landing, where the flat-bottomed side-wheel steamboat was +moored to the bank. The tired horses and oxen were turned loose to +graze. Water stood in the corrals, but the open shed was on dry +ground. Under it the half-clad, wild-looking ox-drivers and horse- +herders slung their hammocks; and close by they lit a fire and +roasted, or scorched, slabs and legs of mutton, spitted on sticks and +propped above the smouldering flame. + +Next morning, with real regret, we waved good-by to our dusky +attendants, as they stood on the bank, grouped around a little fire, +beside the big, empty ox-carts. A dozen miles down-stream a rowboat +fitted for a sprit-sail put off from the bank. The owner, a countryman +from a small ranch, asked for a tow to Corumba, which we gave. He had +with him in the boat his comely brown wife--who was smoking a very +large cigar--their two children, a young man, and a couple of trunks +and various other belongings. On Christmas eve we reached Corumba, and +rejoined the other members of the expedition. + + + + IV. THE HEADWATERS OF THE PARAGUAY + +At Corumba our entire party, and all their belongings, came aboard our +good little river boat, the Nyoac. Christmas Day saw us making our way +steadily up-stream against the strong current, and between the green +and beautiful banks of the upper Paraguay. The shallow little steamer +was jammed with men, dogs, rifles, partially cured skins, boxes of +provisions, ammunition, tools, and photographic supplies, bags +containing tents, cots, bedding, and clothes, saddles, hammocks, and +the other necessaries for a trip through the "great wilderness," the +"Matto Grosso" of western Brazil. + +It was a brilliantly clear day, and, although of course in that +latitude and at that season the heat was intense later on, it was cool +and pleasant in the early morning. We sat on the forward deck, +admiring the trees on the brink of the sheer river banks, the lush, +rank grass of the marshes, and the many water-birds. The two pilots, +one black and one white, stood at the wheel. Colonel Rondon read +Thomas a Kempis. Kermit, Cherrie, and Miller squatted outside the +railing on the deck over one paddle-wheel and put the final touches on +the jaguar skins. Fiala satisfied himself that the boxes and bags were +in place. It was probable that hardship lay in the future; but the day +was our own, and the day was pleasant. In the evening the after-deck, +open all around, where we dined, was decorated with green boughs and +rushes, and we drank the health of the President of the United States +and of the President of Brazil. + +Now and then we passed little ranches on the river's edge. This is a +fertile land, pleasant to live in, and any settler who is willing to +work can earn his living. There are mines; there is water-power; there +is abundance of rich soil. The country will soon be opened by rail. It +offers a fine field for immigration and for agricultural, mining, and +business development; and it has a great future. + +Cherrie and Miller had secured a little owl a month before in the +Chaco, and it was travelling with them in a basket. It was a dear +little bird, very tame and affectionate. It liked to be handled and +petted; and when Miller, its especial protector, came into the cabin, +it would make queer little noises as a signal that it wished to be +taken up and perched on his hand. Cherrie and Miller had trapped many +mammals. Among them was a tayra weasel, whitish above and black below, +as big and blood-thirsty as a fisher-martin; and a tiny opossum no +bigger than a mouse. They had taken four species of opossum, but they +had not found the curious water-opossum which they had obtained on the +rivers flowing into the Caribbean Sea. This opossum, which is black +and white, swims in the streams like a muskrat or otter, catching fish +and living in burrows which open under water. Miller and Cherrie were +puzzled to know why the young throve, leading such an existence of +constant immersion; one of them once found a female swimming and +diving freely with four quite well-grown young in her pouch. + +We saw on the banks screamers--big, crested waders of archaic type, +with spurred wings, rather short bills, and no especial affinities +with other modern birds. In one meadow by a pond we saw three marsh- +deer, a buck and two does. They stared at us, with their thickly +haired tails raised on end. These tails are black underneath, instead +of white as in our whitetail deer. One of the vagaries of the +ultraconcealing-colorationists has been to uphold the (incidentally +quite preposterous) theory that the tail of our deer is colored white +beneath so as to harmonize with the sky and thereby mislead the cougar +or wolf at the critical moment when it makes its spring; but this +marsh-deer shows a black instead of a white flag, and yet has just as +much need of protection from its enemies, the jaguar and the cougar. +In South America concealing coloration plays no more part in the lives +of the adult deer, the tamandua, the tapir, the peccary, the jaguar, +and the puma than it plays in Africa in the lives of such animals as +the zebra, the sable antelope, the wildebeeste, the lion, and the +hunting hyena. + +Next day we spent ascending the Sao Lourenco. It was narrower than the +Paraguay, naturally, and the swirling brown current was, if anything, +more rapid. The strange tropical trees, standing densely on the banks, +were matted together by long bush ropes--lianas, or vines, some very +slender and very long. Sometimes we saw brilliant red or blue flowers, +or masses of scarlet berries on a queer palm-like tree, or an array of +great white blossoms on a much larger tree. In a lagoon bordered by +the taquara bamboo a school of big otters were playing; when they came +to the surface, they opened their mouths like seals, and made a loud +hissing noise. The crested screamers, dark gray and as large as +turkeys, perched on the very topmost branches of the tallest trees. +Hyacinth macaws screamed harshly as they flew across the river. Among +the trees was the guan, another peculiar bird as big as a big grouse, +and with certain habits of the wood-grouse, but not akin to any +northern game-bird. The windpipe of the male is very long, extending +down to the end of the breast-bone, and the bird utters queer guttural +screams. A dead cayman floated down-stream, with a black vulture +devouring it. Capybaras stood or squatted on the banks; sometimes they +stared stupidly at us; sometimes they plunged into the river at our +approach. At long intervals we passed little clearings. In each stood +a house of palm-logs, with a steeply pitched roof of palm thatch; and +near by were patches of corn and mandioc. The dusky owner, and perhaps +his family, came out on the bank to watch us as we passed. It was a +hot day--the thermometer on the deck in the shade stood at nearly 100 +degrees Fahrenheit. Biting flies came aboard even when we were in +midstream. + +Next day we were ascending the Cuyaba River. It had begun raining in +the night, and the heavy downpour continued throughout the forenoon. +In the morning we halted at a big cattle-ranch to get fresh milk and +beef. There were various houses, sheds, and corrals near the river's +edge, and fifty or sixty milch cows were gathered in one corral. +Spurred plover, or lapwings, strolled familiarly among the hens. +Parakeets and red-headed tanagers lit in the trees over our heads. A +kind of primitive houseboat was moored at the bank. A woman was +cooking breakfast over a little stove at one end. The crew were +ashore. The boat was one of those which are really stores, and which +travel up and down these rivers, laden with what the natives most +need, and stopping wherever there is a ranch. They are the only stores +which many of the country-dwellers see from year's end to year's end. +They float down-stream, and up-stream are poled by their crew, or now +and then get a tow from a steamer. This one had a house with a tin +roof; others bear houses with thatched roofs, or with roofs made of +hides. The river wound through vast marshes broken by belts of +woodland. + +Always the two naturalists had something of interest to tell of their +past experience, suggested by some bird or beast we came across. Black +and golden orioles, slightly crested, of two different species were +found along the river; they nest in colonies, and often we passed such +colonies, the long pendulous nests hanging from the boughs of trees +directly over the water. Cherrie told us of finding such a colony +built round a big wasp-nest, several feet in diameter. These wasps are +venomous and irritable, and few foes would dare venture near bird's- +nests that were under such formidable shelter; but the birds +themselves were entirely unafraid, and obviously were not in any +danger of disagreement with their dangerous protectors. We saw a dark +ibis flying across the bow of the boat, uttering his deep, two- +syllabled note. Miller told how on the Orinoco these ibises plunder +the nests of the big river-turtles. They are very skilful in finding +where the female turtle has laid her eggs, scratch them out of the +sand, break the shells, and suck the contents. + +It was astonishing to find so few mosquitoes on these marshes. They +did not in any way compare as pests with the mosquitoes on the lower +Mississippi, the New Jersey coast, the Red River of the North, or the +Kootenay. Back in the forest near Corumba the naturalists had found +them very bad indeed. Cherrie had spent two or three days on a +mountain-top which was bare of forest; he had thought there would be +few mosquitoes, but the long grass harbored them (they often swarm in +long grass and bush, even where there is no water), and at night they +were such a torment that as soon as the sun set he had to go to bed +under his mosquito-netting. Yet on the vast marshes they were not +seriously troublesome in most places. I was informed that they were +not in any way a bother on the grassy uplands, the high country north +of Cuyaba, which from thence stretches eastward to the coastal region. +It is at any rate certain that this inland region of Brazil, including +the state of Matto Grosso, which we were traversing, is a healthy +region, excellently adapted to settlement; railroads will speedily +penetrate it, and then it will witness an astonishing development. + +On the morning of the 28th we reached the home buildings of the great +Sao Joao fazenda, the ranch of Senhor Joao da Costa Marques. Our host +himself, and his son, Dom Joao the younger, who was state secretary of +agriculture, and the latter's charming wife, and the president of +Matto Grosso, and several other ladies and gentlemen, had come down +the river to greet us, from the city of Cuyaba, several hundred miles +farther up-stream. As usual, we were treated with whole-hearted and +generous hospitality. Some miles below the ranch-house the party met +us, on a stern-wheel steamboat and a launch, both decked with many +flags. The handsome white ranch-house stood only a few rods back from +the river's brink, in a grassy opening dotted with those noble trees, +the royal palms. Other trees, buildings of all kinds, flower-gardens, +vegetable-gardens, fields, corrals, and enclosures with high white +walls stood near the house. A detachment of soldiers or state police, +with a band, were in front of the house, and two flagpoles, one with +the Brazilian flag already hoisted. The American flag was run up on +the other as I stepped ashore, while the band played the national +anthems of the two countries. The house held much comfort; and the +comfort was all the more appreciated because even indoors the +thermometer stood at 97 degrees F. In the late afternoon heavy rain +fell, and cooled the air. We were riding at the time. Around the house +the birds were tame: the parrots and parakeets crowded and chattered +in the tree tops; jacanas played in the wet ground just back of the +garden; ibises and screamers called loudly in the swamps a little +distance off. + +Until we came actually in sight of this great ranch-house we had been +passing through a hot, fertile, pleasant wilderness, where the few +small palm-roofed houses, each in its little patch of sugar-cane, +corn, and mandioc, stood very many miles apart. One of these little +houses stood on an old Indian mound, exactly like the mounds which +form the only hillocks along the lower Mississippi, and which are also +of Indian origin. These occasional Indian mounds, made ages ago, are +the highest bits of ground in the immense swamps of the upper Paraguay +region. There are still Indian tribes in this neighborhood. We passed +an Indian fishing village on the edge of the river, with huts, +scaffoldings for drying the fish, hammocks, and rude tables. They +cultivated patches of bananas and sugar-cane. Out in a shallow place +in the river was a scaffolding on which the Indians stood to spear +fish. The Indians were friendly, peaceable souls, for the most part +dressed like the poorer classes among the Brazilians. + +Next morning there was to have been a great rodeo or round-up, and we +determined to have a hunt first, as there were still several kinds of +beasts of the chase, notably tapirs and peccaries, of which the +naturalists desired specimens. Dom Joao, our host, and his son +accompanied us. Theirs is a noteworthy family. Born in Matto Grosso, +in the tropics, our host had the look of a northerner and, although a +grandfather, he possessed an abounding vigor and energy such as very +few men of any climate or surroundings do possess. All of his sons are +doing well. The son who was with us was a stalwart, powerful man, a +pleasant companion, an able public servant, a finished horseman, and a +skilled hunter. He carried a sharp spear, not a rifle, for in Matto +Grosso it is the custom in hunting the jaguar for riflemen and +spearmen to go in at him together when he turns at bay, the spearman +holding him off if the first shot fails to stop him, so that another +shot can be put in. Altogether, our host and his son reminded one of +the best type of American ranchmen and planters, of those planters and +ranchmen who are adepts in bold and manly field sports, who are +capital men of business, and who also often supply to the state +skilled and faithful public servants. The hospitality the father and +son extended to us was patriarchal: neither, for instance, would sit +at table with their guests at the beginning of the formal meals; +instead they exercised a close personal supervision over the feast. +Our charming hostess, however, sat at the head of the table. + +At six in the morning we started, all of us on fine horses. The day +was lowering and overcast. A dozen dogs were with us, but only one or +two were worth anything. Three or four ordinary countrymen, the ranch +hands, or vaqueiros, accompanied us; they were mainly of Indian blood, +and would have been called peons, or caboclos, in other parts of +Brazil, but here were always spoken to and of as "camaradas." They +were, of course, chosen from among the men who were hunters, and each +carried his long, rather heavy and clumsy jaguar-spear. In front rode +our vigorous host and his strapping son, the latter also carrying a +jaguar-spear. The bridles and saddles of the big ranchmen and of the +gentlefolk generally were handsome and were elaborately ornamented +with silver. The stirrups, for instance, were not only of silver, but +contained so much extra metal in ornamented bars and rings that they +would have been awkward for less-practised riders. Indeed, as it was, +they were adapted only for the tips of boots with long, pointed toes, +and were impossible for our feet; our hosts' stirrups were long, +narrow silver slippers. The camaradas, on the other hand, had jim-crow +saddles and bridles, and rusty little iron stirrups into which they +thrust their naked toes. But all, gentry and commonalty alike, rode +equally well and with the same skill and fearlessness. To see our +hosts gallop at headlong speed over any kind of country toward the +sound of the dogs with their quarry at bay, or to see them handle +their horses in a morass, was a pleasure. It was equally a pleasure to +see a camarada carrying his heavy spear, leading a hound in a leash, +and using his machete to cut his way through the tangled vine-ropes of +a jungle, all at the same time and all without the slightest reference +to the plunges, and the odd and exceedingly jerky behavior, of his +wild, half-broken horse--for on such a ranch most of the horses are +apt to come in the categories of half-broken or else of broken-down. +One dusky tatterdemalion wore a pair of boots from which he had +removed the soles, his bare, spur-clad feet projecting from beneath +the uppers. He was on a little devil of a stallion, which he rode +blindfold for a couple of miles, and there was a regular circus when +he removed the bandage; but evidently it never occurred to him that +the animal was hardly a comfortable riding-horse for a man going out +hunting and encumbered with a spear, a machete, and other belongings. + +The eight hours that we were out we spent chiefly in splashing across +the marshes, with excursions now and then into vine-tangled belts and +clumps of timber. Some of the bayous we had to cross were +uncomfortably boggy. We had to lead the horses through one, wading +ahead of them; and even so two of them mired down, and their saddles +had to be taken off before they could be gotten out. Among the marsh +plants were fields and strips of the great caete rush. These caete +flags towered above the other and lesser marsh plants. They were +higher than the heads of the horsemen. Their two or three huge banana- +like leaves stood straight up on end. The large brilliant flowers-- +orange, red, and yellow--were joined into a singularly shaped and +solid string or cluster. Humming-birds buzzed round these flowers; one +species, the sickle-billed hummer, has its bill especially adapted for +use in these queerly shaped blossoms and gets its food only from them, +never appearing around any other plant. + +The birds were tame, even those striking and beautiful birds which +under man's persecution are so apt to become scarce and shy. The huge +jabiru storks, stalking through the water with stately dignity, +sometimes refused to fly until we were only a hundred yards off; one +of them flew over our heads at a distance of thirty or forty yards. +The screamers, crying curu-curu, and the ibises, wailing dolefully, +came even closer. The wonderful hyacinth macaws, in twos and threes, +accompanied us at times for several hundred yards, hovering over our +heads and uttering their rasping screams. In one wood we came on the +black howler monkey. The place smelt almost like a menagerie. Not +watching with sufficient care I brushed against a sapling on which the +venomous fire-ants swarmed. They burnt the skin like red-hot cinders, +and left little sores. More than once in the drier parts of the marsh +we met small caymans making their way from one pool to another. My +horse stepped over one before I saw it. The dead carcasses of others +showed that on their wanderings they had encountered jaguars or human +foes. + +We had been out about three hours when one of the dogs gave tongue in +a large belt of woodland and jungle to the left of our line of march +through the marsh. The other dogs ran to the sound, and after a while +the long barking told that the thing, whatever it was, was at bay or +else in some refuge. We made our way toward the place on foot. The +dogs were baying excitedly at the mouth of a huge hollow log, and very +short examination showed us that there were two peccaries within, +doubtless a boar and sow. However, just at this moment the peccaries +bolted from an unsuspected opening at the other end of the log, dove +into the tangle, and instantly disappeared with the hounds in full cry +after them. It was twenty minutes later before we again heard the pack +baying. With much difficulty, and by the incessant swinging of the +machetes, we opened a trail through the network of vines and branches. +This time there was only one peccary, the boar. He was at bay in a +half-hollow stump. The dogs were about his head, raving with +excitement, and it was not possible to use the rifle; so I borrowed +the spear of Dom Joao the younger, and killed the fierce little boar +therewith. + +This was an animal akin to our collared peccary, smaller and less +fierce than its white-jawed kinsfolk. It is a valiant and truculent +little beast, nevertheless, and if given the chance will bite a piece +the size of a teacup out of either man or dog. It is found singly or +in small parties, feeds on roots, fruits, grass, and delights to make +its home in hollow logs. If taken young it makes an affectionate and +entertaining pet. When the two were in the hollow log we heard them +utter a kind of moaning, or menacing, grunt, long drawn. + +An hour or two afterward we unexpectedly struck the fresh tracks of +two jaguars and at once loosed the dogs, who tore off yelling, on the +line of the scent. Unfortunately, just at this moment the clouds burst +and a deluge of rain drove in our faces. So heavy was the downpour +that the dogs lost the trail and we lost the dogs. We found them again +only owing to one of our caboclos; an Indian with a queer Mongolian +face, and no brain at all that I could discover, apart from his +special dealings with wild creatures, cattle, and horses. He rode in a +huddle of rags; but nothing escaped his eyes, and he rode anything +anywhere. The downpour continued so heavily that we knew the rodeo had +been abandoned, and we turned our faces for the long, dripping, +splashing ride homeward. Through the gusts of driving rain we could +hardly see the way. Once the rain lightened, and half a mile away the +sunshine gleamed through a rift in the leaden cloud-mass. Suddenly in +this rift of shimmering brightness there appeared a flock of beautiful +white egrets. With strong, graceful wing-beats the birds urged their +flight, their plumage flashing in the sun. They then crossed the rift +and were swallowed in the gray gloom of the day. + +On the marsh the dogs several times roused capybaras. Where there were +no ponds of sufficient size the capybaras sought refuge in flight +through the tangled marsh. They ran well. Kermit and Fiala went after +one on foot, full-speed, for a mile and a half, with two hounds which +then bayed it--literally bayed it, for the capybara fought with the +courage of a gigantic woodchuck. If the pack overtook a capybara, they +of course speedily finished it; but a single dog of our not very +valorous outfit was not able to overmatch its shrill-squeaking +opponent. + +Near the ranch-house, about forty feet up in a big tree, was a +jabiru's nest containing young jabirus. The young birds exercised +themselves by walking solemnly round the edge of the nest and opening +and shutting their wings. Their heads and necks were down-covered, +instead of being naked like those of their parents. Fiala wished to +take a moving-picture of them while thus engaged, and so, after +arranging his machine, he asked Harper to rouse the young birds by +throwing a stick up to the nest. He did so, whereupon one young jabiru +hastily opened its wings in the desired fashion, at the same time +seizing the stick in its bill! It dropped it at once, with an air of +comic disappointment, when it found that the stick was not edible. + +There were many strange birds round about. Toucans were not uncommon. +I have never seen any other bird take such grotesque and comic +attitudes as the toucan. This day I saw one standing in the top of a +tree with the big bill pointing straight into the air and the tail +also cocked perpendicularly. The toucan is a born comedian. On the +river and in the ponds we saw the finfoot, a bird with feet like a +grebe and bill and tail like those of a darter, but, like so many +South American birds, with no close affiliations among other species. +The exceedingly rich bird fauna of South America contains many species +which seem to be survivals from a very remote geologic past, whose +kinsfolk have perished under the changed conditions of recent ages; +and in the case of many, like the hoatzin and screamer, their like is +not known elsewhere. Herons of many species swarmed in this +neighborhood. The handsomest was the richly colored tiger bittern. Two +other species were so unlike ordinary herons that I did not recognize +them as herons at all until Cherrie told me what they were. One had a +dark body, a white-speckled or ocellated neck, and a bill almost like +that of an ibis. The other looked white, but was really mauve-colored, +with black on the head. When perched on a tree it stood like an ibis; +and instead of the measured wing-beats characteristic of a heron's +flight, it flew with a quick, vigorous flapping of the wings. There +were queer mammals, too, as well as birds. In the fields Miller +trapped mice of a kind entirely new. + +Next morning the sky was leaden, and a drenching rain fell as we began +our descent of the river. The rainy season had fairly begun. For our +good fortune we were still where we had the cabins aboard the boat, +and the ranch-house, in which to dry our clothes and soggy shoes; but +in the intensely humid atmosphere, hot and steaming, they stayed wet a +long time, and were still moist when we put them on again. Before we +left the house where we had been treated with such courteous +hospitality--the finest ranch-house in Matto Grosso, on a huge ranch +where there are some sixty thousand head of horned cattle--the son of +our host, Dom Joao the younger, the jaguar-hunter, presented me with +two magnificent volumes on the palms of Brazil, the work of Doctor +Barboso Rodriguez, one-time director of the Botanical Gardens at Rio +Janeiro. The two folios were in a box of native cedar. No gift more +appropriate, none that I would in the future value more as a reminder +of my stay in Matto Grosso, could have been given me. + +All that afternoon the rain continued. It was still pouring in +torrents when we left the Cuyaba for the Sao Lourenco and steamed up +the latter a few miles before anchoring; Dom Joao the younger had +accompanied us in his launch. The little river steamer was of very +open build, as is necessary in such a hot climate; and to keep things +dry necessitated also keeping the atmosphere stifling. The German +taxidermist who was with Colonel Rondon's party, Reinisch, a very good +fellow from Vienna, sat on a stool, alternately drenched with rain and +sweltering with heat, and muttered to himself: "Ach, Schweinerei!" + +Two small caymans, of the common species, with prominent eyes, were at +the bank where we moored, and betrayed an astonishing and stupid +tameness. Neither the size of the boat nor the commotion caused by the +paddles in any way affected them. They lay inshore, not twenty feet +from us, half out of water; they paid not the slightest heed to our +presence, and only reluctantly left when repeatedly poked at, and +after having been repeatedly hit with clods of mud and sticks; and +even then one first crawled up on shore, to find out if thereby he +could not rid himself of the annoyance we caused him. + +Next morning it was still raining, but we set off on a hunt, +anyway, going afoot. A couple of brown camaradas led the way, and +Colonel Rondon, Dom Joao, Kermit, and I followed. The incessant +downpour speedily wet us to the skin. We made our way slowly through +the forest, the machetes playing right and left, up and down, at every +step, for the trees were tangled in a network of vines and creepers. +Some of the vines were as thick as a man's leg. Mosquitoes hummed +about us, the venomous fire-ants stung us, the sharp spines of a small +palm tore our hands--afterward some of the wounds festered. Hour after +hour we thus walked on through the Brazilian forest. We saw monkeys, +the common yellowish kind, a species of cebus; a couple were shot for +the museum and the others raced off among the upper branches of the +trees. Then we came on a party of coatis, which look like reddish, +long-snouted, long-tailed, lanky raccoons. They were in the top of a +big tree. One, when shot at and missed, bounced down to the ground, +and ran off through the bushes; Kermit ran after it and secured it. He +came back, to find us peering hopelessly up into the tree top, trying +to place where the other coatis were. Kermit solved the difficulty by +going up along some huge twisted lianas for forty or fifty feet and +exploring the upper branches; whereupon down came three other coatis +through the branches, one being caught by the dogs and the other two +escaping. Coatis fight savagely with both teeth and claws. Miller told +us that he once saw one of them kill a dog. They feed on all small +mammals, birds, and reptiles, and even on some large ones; they kill +iguanas; Cherrie saw a rattling chase through the trees, a coati +following an iguana at full speed. We heard the rush of a couple of +tapirs, as they broke away in the jungle in front of the dogs and +headed, according to their custom, for the river; but we never saw +them. One of the party shot a bush deer--a very pretty, graceful +creature, smaller than our whitetail deer, but kin to it and doubtless +the southernmost representative of the whitetail group. + +The whitetail deer--using the word to designate a group of deer which +can neither be called a subgenus with many species, nor a widely +spread species diverging into many varieties--is the only North +American species which has spread down into and has outlying +representatives in South America. It has been contended that the +species has spread from South America northward. I do not think so; +and the specimen thus obtained furnished a probable refutation of the +theory. It was a buck, and had just shed its small antlers. The +antlers are, therefore, shed at the same time as in the north, and it +appears that they are grown at the same time as in the north. Yet this +variety now dwells in the tropics south of the equator, where the +spring, and the breeding season for most birds, comes at the time of +the northern fall in September, October, and November. That the deer +is an intrusive immigrant, and that it has not yet been in South +America long enough to change its mating season in accordance with the +climate, as the birds--geologically doubtless very old residents--have +changed their breeding season, is rendered probable by the fact that +it conforms so exactly in the time of its antler growth to the +universal rule which obtains in the great arctogeal realm, where deer +of many species abound and where the fossil forms show that they have +long existed. The marsh-deer, which has diverged much further from the +northern type than this bush deer (its horns show a likeness to those +of a blacktail), often keeps its antlers until June or July, although +it begins to grow them again in August; however, too much stress must +not be laid on this fact, inasmuch as the wapiti and the cow caribou +both keep their antlers until spring. The specialization of the marsh- +deer, by the way, is further shown in its hoofs, which, thanks to its +semi-aquatic mode of life, have grown long, like those of such African +swamp antelopes as the lechwe and situtunga. + +Miller, when we presented the monkeys to him, told us that the females +both of these monkeys and of the howlers themselves took care of the +young, the males not assisting them, and moreover that when the young +one was a male he had always found the mother keeping by herself, away +from the old males. On the other hand, among the marmosets he found +the fathers taking as much care of the young as the mothers; if the +mother had twins, the father would usually carry one, and sometimes +both, around with him. + +After we had been out four hours our camaradas got lost; three several +times they travelled round in a complete circle; and we had to set +them right with the compass. About noon the rain, which had been +falling almost without interruption for forty-eight hours, let up, and +in an hour or two the sun came out. We went back to the river, and +found our rowboat. In it the hounds--a motley and rather worthless +lot--and the rest of the party were ferried across to the opposite +bank, while Colonel Rondon and I stayed in the boat, on the chance +that a tapir might be roused and take to the river. However, no tapir +was found; Kermit killed a collared peccary, and I shot a capybara +representing a color-phase the naturalists wished. + +Next morning, January 1, 1914, we were up at five and had a good New +Year's Day breakfast of hardtack, ham, sardines, and coffee before +setting out on an all day's hunt on foot. I much feared that the pack +was almost or quite worthless for jaguars, but there were two or three +of the great spotted cats in the neighborhood and it seemed worth +while to make a try for them anyhow. After an hour or two we found +the fresh tracks of two, and after them we went. Our party consisted +of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Rogaciano--an excellent man, himself a +native of Matto Grosso, of old Matto Grosso stock--two others of the +party from the Sao Joao ranch, Kermit, and myself, together with four +dark-skinned camaradas, cowhands from the same ranch. We soon found +that the dogs would not by themselves follow the jaguar trail; nor +would the camaradas, although they carried spears. Kermit was the one +of our party who possessed the requisite speed, endurance, and +eyesight, and accordingly he led. Two of the dogs would follow the +track half a dozen yards ahead of him, but no farther; and two of the +camaradas could just about keep up with him. For an hour we went +through thick jungle, where the machetes were constantly at work. Then +the trail struck off straight across the marshes, for jaguars swim and +wade as freely as marsh-deer. It was a hard walk. The sun was out. We +were drenched with sweat. We were torn by the spines of the +innumerable clusters of small palms with thorns like needles. We were +bitten by the hosts of fire-ants, and by the mosquitoes, which we +scarcely noticed where the fire-ants were found, exactly as all dread +of the latter vanished when we were menaced by the big red wasps, of +which a dozen stings will disable a man, and if he is weak or in bad +health will seriously menace his life. In the marsh we were +continually wading, now up to our knees, now up to our hips. Twice we +came to long bayous so deep that we had to swim them, holding our +rifles above water in our right hands. The floating masses of marsh +grass, and the slimy stems of the water-plants, doubled our work as we +swam, cumbered by our clothing and boots and holding our rifles aloft. +One result of the swim, by the way, was that my watch, a veteran of +Cuba and Africa, came to an indignant halt. Then on we went, hampered +by the weight of our drenched clothes while our soggy boots squelched +as we walked. There was no breeze. In the undimmed sky the sun stood +almost overhead. The heat beat on us in waves. By noon I could only go +forward at a slow walk, and two of the party were worse off than I +was. Kermit, with the dogs and two camaradas close behind him, +disappeared across the marshes at a trot. At last, when he was out of +sight, and it was obviously useless to follow him, the rest of us +turned back toward the boat. The two exhausted members of the party +gave out, and we left them under a tree. Colonel Rondon and Lieutenant +Rogaciano were not much tired; I was somewhat tired, but was perfectly +able to go for several hours more if I did not try to go too fast; and +we three walked on to the river, reaching it about half past four, +after eleven hours' stiff walking with nothing to eat. We were soon on +the boat. A relief party went back for the two men under the tree, and +soon after it reached them Kermit also turned up with his hounds and +his camaradas trailing wearily behind him. He had followed the jaguar +trail until the dogs were so tired that even after he had bathed them, +and then held their noses in the fresh footprints, they would pay no +heed to the scent. A hunter of scientific tastes, a hunter-naturalist, +or even an outdoors naturalist, or faunal naturalist interested in big +mammals, with a pack of hounds such as those with which Paul Rainey +hunted lion and leopard in Africa, or such a pack as the packs of +Johnny Goff and Jake Borah with which I hunted cougar, lynx, and bear +in the Rockies, or such packs as those of the Mississippi and +Louisiana planters with whom I have hunted bear, wild-cat, and deer in +the cane-brakes of the lower Mississippi, would not only enjoy fine +hunting in these vast marshes of the upper Paraguay, but would also do +work of real scientific value as regards all the big cats. + +Only a limited number of the naturalists who have worked in the +tropics have had any experience with the big beasts whose life- +histories possess such peculiar interest. Of all the biologists who +have seriously studied the South American fauna on the ground, Bates +probably rendered most service; but he hardly seems even to have seen +the animals with which the hunter is fairly familiar. His interests, +and those of the other biologists of his kind, lay in other +directions. In consequence, in treating of the life-histories of the +very interesting big game, we have been largely forced to rely either +on native report, in which acutely accurate observation is invariably +mixed with wild fable, or else on the chance remarks of travellers or +mere sportsmen, who had not the training to make them understand even +what it was desirable to observe. Nowadays there is a growing +proportion of big-game hunters, of sportsmen, who are of the +Schilling, Selous, and Shiras type. These men do work of capital value +for science. The mere big-game butcher is tending to disappear as a +type. On the other hand, the big-game hunter who is a good observer, a +good field naturalist, occupies at present a more important position +than ever before, and it is now recognized that he can do work which +the closest naturalist cannot do. The big-game hunter of this type and +the outdoors, faunal naturalist, the student of the life-histories of +big mammals, have open to them in South America a wonderful field in +which to work. + +The fire-ants, of which I have above spoken, are generally found on a +species of small tree or sapling, with a greenish trunk. They bend the +whole body as they bite, the tail and head being thrust downward. A +few seconds after the bite the poison causes considerable pain; later +it may make a tiny festering sore. There is certainly the most +extraordinary diversity in the traits by which nature achieves the +perpetuation of species. Among the warrior and predaceous insects the +prowess is in some cases of such type as to render the possessor +practically immune from danger. In other cases the condition of its +exercise may normally be the sacrifice of the life of the possessor. +There are wasps that prey on formidable fighting spiders, which yet +instinctively so handle themselves that the prey practically never +succeeds in either defending itself or retaliating, being captured and +paralyzed with unerring efficiency and with entire security to the +wasp. The wasp's safety is absolute. On the other hand, these fighting +ants, including the soldiers even among the termites, are frantically +eager for a success which generally means their annihilation; the +condition of their efficiency is absolute indifference to their own +security. Probably the majority of the ants that actually lay hold on +a foe suffer death in consequence; certainly they not merely run the +risk of but eagerly invite death. + +The following day we descended the Sao Lourenco to its junction with +the Paraguay, and once more began the ascent of the latter. At one +cattle-ranch where we stopped, the troupials, or big black and yellow +orioles, had built a large colony of their nests on a dead tree near +the primitive little ranch-house. The birds were breeding; the old +ones were feeding the young. In this neighborhood the naturalists +found many birds that were new to them, including a tiny woodpecker no +bigger than a ruby-crowned kinglet. They had collected two night +monkeys--nocturnal monkeys, not as agile as the ordinary monkey; these +two were found at dawn, having stayed out too late. + +The early morning was always lovely on these rivers, and at that hour +many birds and beasts were to be seen. One morning we saw a fine marsh +buck, holding his head aloft as he stared at us, his red coat vivid +against the green marsh. Another of these marsh-deer swam the river +ahead of us; I shot at it as it landed, and ought to have got it, but +did not. As always with these marsh-deer--and as with so many other +deer--I was struck by the revealing or advertising quality of its red +coloration; there was nothing in its normal surroundings with which +this coloration harmonized; so far as it had any effect whatever it +was always a revealing and not a concealing effect. When the animal +fled the black of the erect tail was an additional revealing mark, +although not of such startlingly advertising quality as the flag of +the whitetail. The whitetail, in one of its forms, and with the +ordinary whitetail custom of displaying the white flag as it runs, is +found in the immediate neighborhood of the swamp-deer. It has the same +foes. Evidently it is of no survival consequence whether the running +deer displays a white or a black flag. Any competent observer of big +game must be struck by the fact that in the great majority of the +species the coloration is not concealing, and that in many it has a +highly revealing quality. Moreover, if the spotted or striped young +represent the ancestral coloration, and if, as seems probable, the +spots and stripes have, on the whole, some slight concealing value, it +is evident that in the life history of most of these large mammals, +both among those that prey and those that are preyed on, concealing +coloration has not been a survival factor; throughout the ages during +which they have survived they have gradually lost whatever of +concealing coloration they may once have had--if any--and have +developed a coloration which under present conditions has no +concealing and perhaps even has a revealing quality, and which in all +probability never would have had a concealing value in any +"environmental complex" in which the species as a whole lived during +its ancestral development. Indeed, it seems astonishing, when one +observes these big beasts--and big waders and other water-birds--in +their native surroundings, to find how utterly non-harmful their often +strikingly revealing coloration is. Evidently the various other +survival factors, such as habit, and in many cases cover, etc., are of +such overmastering importance that the coloration is generally of no +consequence whatever, one way or the other, and is only very rarely a +factor of any serious weight. + +The junction of the Sao Lourenco and the Paraguay is a day's journey +above Corumba. From Corumba there is a regular service by shallow +steamers to Cuyaba, at the head of one fork, and to Sao Luis de +Caceres, at the head of the other. The steamers are not powerful and +the voyage to each little city takes a week. There are other forks +that are navigable. Above Cuyaba and Caceres launches go up-stream for +several days' journey, except during the dryest parts of the season. +North of this marshy plain lies the highland, the Plan Alto, where the +nights are cool and the climate healthy. But I wish emphatically to +record my view that these marshy plains, although hot, are also +healthy; and, moreover, the mosquitoes, in most places, are not in +sufficient numbers to be a serious pest, although of course there must +be nets for protection against them at night. The country is +excellently suited for settlement, and offers a remarkable field for +cattle-growing. Moreover, it is a paradise for water-birds and for +many other kinds of birds, and for many mammals. It is literally an +ideal place in which a field naturalist could spend six months or a +year. It is readily accessible, it offers an almost virgin field for +work, and the life would be healthy as well as delightfully +attractive. The man should have a steam-launch. In it he could with +comfort cover all parts of the country from south of Corumbra to north +of Cuyaba and Caceres. There would have to be a good deal of +collecting (although nothing in the nature of butchery should be +tolerated), for the region has only been superficially worked, +especially as regards mammals. But if the man were only a collector he +would leave undone the part of the work best worth doing. The region +offers extraordinary opportunities for the study of the life-histories +of birds which, because of their size, their beauty, or their habits, +are of exceptional interest. All kinds of problems would be worked +out. For example, on the morning of the 3rd, as we were ascending the +Paraguay, we again and again saw in the trees on the bank big nests of +sticks, into and out of which parakeets were flying by the dozen. Some +of them had straws or twigs in their bills. In some of the big +globular nests we could make out several holes of exit or entrance. +Apparently these parakeets were building or remodelling communal +nests; but whether they had themselves built these nests, or had taken +old nests and added to or modified them, we could not tell. There was +so much of interest all along the banks that we were continually +longing to stop and spend days where we were. Mixed flocks of scores +of cormorants and darters covered certain trees, both at sunset and +after sunrise. Although there was no deep forest, merely belts or +fringes of trees along the river, or in patches back of it, we +frequently saw monkeys in this riverine tree-fringe--active common +monkeys and black howlers of more leisurely gait. We saw caymans and +capybaras sitting socially near one another on the sandbanks. At night +we heard the calling of large flights of tree-ducks. These were now +the most common of all the ducks, although there were many muscovy +ducks also. The evenings were pleasant and not hot, as we sat on the +forward deck; there was a waxing moon. The screamers were among the +most noticeable birds. They were noisy; they perched on the very tops +of the trees, not down among the branches; and they were not shy. They +should be carefully protected by law, for they readily become tame, +and then come familiarly round the houses. From the steamer we now and +then saw beautiful orchids in the trees on the river bank. + +One afternoon we stopped at the home buildings or headquarters of one +of the great outlying ranches of the Brazil Land and Cattle Company, +the Farquahar syndicate, under the management of Murdo Mackenzie--than +whom we have in the United States no better citizen or more competent +cattleman. On this ranch there are some seventy thousand head of +stock. We were warmly greeted by McLean, the head of the ranch, and +his assistant Ramsey, an old Texan friend. Among the other assistants, +all equally cordial, were several Belgians and Frenchmen. The hands +were Paraguayans and Brazilians, and a few Indians--a hard-bit set, +each of whom always goes armed and knows how to use his arms, for +there are constant collisions with cattle thieves from across the +Bolivian border, and the ranch has to protect itself. These cowhands, +vaqueiros, were of the type with which we were now familiar: dark- +skinned, lean, hard-faced men, in slouch-hats, worn shirts and +trousers, and fringed leather aprons, with heavy spurs on their bare +feet. They are wonderful riders and ropers, and fear neither man nor +beast. I noticed one Indian vaqueiro standing in exactly the attitude +of a Shilluk of the White Nile, with the sole of one foot against the +other leg, above the knee. This is a region with extraordinary +possibilities of cattle-raising. + +At this ranch there was a tannery; a slaughter-house; a cannery; a +church; buildings of various kinds and all degrees of comfort for the +thirty or forty families who made the place their headquarters; and +the handsome, white, two-story big house, standing among lemon-trees +and flamboyants on the river-brink. There were all kinds of pets +around the house. The most fascinating was a wee, spotted fawn which +loved being petted. Half a dozen curassows of different species +strolled through the rooms; there were also parrots of several +different species, and immediately outside the house four or five +herons, with unclipped wings, which would let us come within a few +feet and then fly gracefully off, shortly afterward returning to the +same spot. They included big and little white egrets and also the +mauve and pearl-colored heron, with a partially black head and many- +colored bill, which flies with quick, repeated wing-flappings, instead +of the usual slow heron wing-beats. + +In the warehouse were scores of skins of jaguar, puma, ocelot, and +jaguarundi, and one skin of the big, small-toothed red wolf. These +were all brought in by the cowhands and by friendly Indians, a price +being put on each, as they destroyed the stock. The jaguars +occasionally killed horses and full-grown cows, but not bulls. The +pumas killed the calves. The others killed an occasional very young +calf, but ordinarily only sheep, little pigs, and chickens. There was +one black jaguar-skin; melanism is much more common among jaguars than +pumas, although once Miller saw a black puma that had been killed by +Indians. The patterns of the jaguar-skins, and even more of the +ocelot-skins, showed wide variation, no two being alike. The pumas +were for the most part bright red, but some were reddish gray, there +being much the same dichromatism that I found among their Colorado +kinsfolk. The jaguarundis were dark brownish gray. All these animals, +the spotted jaguars and ocelots, the monochrome black jaguars, red +pumas, and dark-gray jaguarundis, were killed in the same locality, +with the same environment. A glance at the skins and a moment's +serious thought would have been enough to show any sincere thinker that +in these cats the coloration pattern, whether concealing or revealing, +is of no consequence one way or the other as a survival factor. The +spotted patterns conferred no benefit as compared with the nearly or +quite monochrome blacks, reds, and dark grays. The bodily condition of +the various beasts was equally good, showing that their success in +life, that is, their ability to catch their prey, was unaffected by +their several color schemes. Except white, there is no color so +conspicuously advertising as black; yet the black jaguar had been a +fine, well-fed, powerful beast. The spotted patterns in the forests, +and perhaps even in the marshes which the jaguars so frequently +traversed, are probably a shade less conspicuous than the monochrome +red and gray, but the puma and jaguarundi are just as hard to see, and +evidently find it just as easy to catch prey, as the jaguar and +ocelot. The little fawn which we saw was spotted; the grown deer had +lost the spots; if the spots do really help to conceal the wearer, it +is evident that the deer has found the original concealing coloration +of so little value that it has actually been lost in the course of the +development of the species. When these big cats and the deer are +considered, together with the dogs, tapirs, peccaries, capybaras, and +big ant-eaters which live in the same environment, and when we also +consider the difference between the young and the adult deer and +tapirs (both of which when adult have substituted a complete or +partial monochrome for the ancestral spots and streaks), it is evident +that in the present life and in the ancestral development of the big +mammals of South America coloration is not and has not been a survival +factor; any pattern and any color may accompany the persistence and +development of the qualities and attributes which are survival +factors. Indeed, it seems hard to believe that in their ordinary +environments such color schemes as the bright red of the marsh-deer, +the black of the black jaguar, and the black with white stripes of the +great tamandua, are not positive detriments to the wearers. Yet such +is evidently not the case. Evidently the other factors in species- +survival are of such overwhelming importance that the coloration +becomes negligible from this standpoint, whether it be concealing or +revealing. The cats mould themselves to the ground as they crouch or +crawl. They take advantage of the tiniest scrap of cover. They move +with extraordinary stealth and patience. The other animals which try +to sneak off in such manner as to escape observation approach more or +less closely to the ideal which the cats most nearly realize. +Wariness, sharp senses, the habit of being rigidly motionless when +there is the least suspicion of danger, and ability to take advantage +of cover, all count. On the bare, open, treeless plain, whether marsh, +meadow, or upland, anything above the level of the grass is seen at +once. A marsh-deer out in the open makes no effort to avoid +observation; its concern is purely to see its foes in time to leave a +dangerous neighborhood. The deer of the neighboring forest skulk and +hide and lie still in dense cover to avoid being seen. The white- +lipped peccaries make no effort to escape observation by being either +noiseless or motionless; they trust for defence to their +gregariousness and truculence. The collared peccary also trusts to its +truculence, but seeks refuge in a hole where it can face any opponent +with its formidable biting apparatus. As for the giant tamandua, in +spite of its fighting prowess I am wholly unable to understand how +such a slow and clumsy beast has been able through the ages to exist +and thrive surrounded by jaguars and pumas. Speaking generally, the +animals that seek to escape observation trust primarily to smell to +discover their foes or their prey, and see whatever moves and do not +see whatever is motionless. + +By the morning of January 5 we had left the marsh region. There were +low hills here and there, and the land was covered with dense forest. +From time to time we passed little clearings with palm-thatched +houses. We were approaching Caceres, where the easiest part of our +trip would end. We had lived in much comfort on the little steamer. +The food was plentiful and the cooking good. At night we slept on deck +in cots or hammocks. The mosquitoes were rarely troublesome, although +in the daytime we were sometimes bothered by numbers of biting horse- +flies. The bird life was wonderful. One of the characteristic sights +we were always seeing was that of a number of heads and necks of +cormorants and snake-birds, without any bodies, projecting above +water, and disappearing as the steamer approached. Skimmers and thick- +billed tern were plentiful here right in the heart of the continent. +In addition to the spurred lapwing, characteristic and most +interesting resident of most of South America, we found tiny red- +legged plover which also breed and are at home in the tropics. The +contrasts in habits between closely allied species are wonderful. +Among the plovers and bay snipe there are species that live all the +year round in almost the same places, in tropical and subtropical +lands; and other related forms which wander over the whole earth, and +spend nearly all their time, now in the arctic and cold temperate +regions of the far north, now in the cold temperate regions of the +south. These latter wide-wandering birds of the seashore and the river +bank pass most of their lives in regions of almost perpetual sunlight. +They spend the breeding season, the northern summer, in the land of +the midnight sun, during the long arctic day. They then fly for +endless distances down across the north temperate zone, across the +equator, through the lands where the days and nights are always of +equal length, into another hemisphere, and spend another summer of +long days and long twilights in the far south, where the Antarctic +winds cool them, while their nesting home, at the other end of the +world, is shrouded beneath the iron desolation of the polar night. + +In the late afternoon of the 5th we reached the quaint old-fashioned +little town of Sao Luis de Caceres, on the outermost fringe of the +settled region of the state of Matto Grosso, the last town we should +see before reaching the villages of the Amazon. As we approached we +passed half-clad black washerwomen on the river's edge. The men, with +the local band, were gathered at the steeply sloping foot of the main +street, where the steamer came to her moorings. Groups of women and +girls, white and brown, watched us from the low bluff; their skirts +and bodices were red, blue, green, of all colors. Sigg had gone ahead +with much of the baggage; he met us in an improvised motor-boat, +consisting of a dugout to the side of which he had clamped our +Evinrude motor; he was giving several of the local citizens of +prominence a ride, to their huge enjoyment. The streets of the little +town were unpaved, with narrow brick sidewalks. The one-story houses +were white or blue, with roofs of red tiles and window-shutters of +latticed woodwork, come down from colonial days and tracing back +through Christian and Moorish Portugal to a remote Arab ancestry. +Pretty faces, some dark, some light, looked out from these windows; +their mothers' mothers, for generations past, must thus have looked +out of similar windows in the vanished colonial days. But now even +here in Caceres the spirit of the new Brazil is moving; a fine new +government school has been started, and we met its principal, an +earnest man doing excellent work, one of the many teachers who, during +the last few years, have been brought to Matto Grosso from Sao Paulo, +a centre of the new educational movement which will do so much for +Brazil. + +Father Zahm went to spend the night with some French Franciscan +friars, capital fellows. I spent the night at the comfortable house of +Lieutenant Lyra; a hot-weather house with thick walls, big doors, and +an open patio bordered by a gallery. Lieutenant Lyra was to accompany +us; he was an old companion of Colonel Rondon's explorations. We +visited one or two of the stores to make some final purchases, and in +the evening strolled through the dusky streets and under the trees of +the plaza; the women and girls sat in groups in the doorways or at the +windows, and here and there a stringed instrument tinkled in the +darkness. + +From Caceres onward we were entering the scene of Colonel Rondon's +explorations. For some eighteen years he was occupied in exploring and +in opening telegraph lines through the eastern or north middle part of +the great forest state, the wilderness state of the "Matto Grosso"-- +the "great wilderness," or, as Australians would call it, "the bush." +Then, in 1907, he began to penetrate the unknown region lying to the +north and west. He was the head of the exploring expeditions sent out +by the Brazilian Government to traverse for the first time this +unknown land; to map for the first time the courses of the rivers +which from the same divide run into the upper portions of the Tapajos +and the Madeira, two of the mighty affluents of the Amazon, and to +build telegraph-lines across to the Madeira, where a line of Brazilian +settlements, connected by steamboat lines and a railroad, again +occurs. Three times he penetrated into this absolutely unknown, +Indian-haunted wilderness, being absent for a year or two at a time +and suffering every imaginable hardship, before he made his way +through to the Madeira and completed the telegraph-line across. The +officers and men of the Brazilian Army and the civilian scientists who +followed him shared the toil and the credit of the task. Some of his +men died of beriberi; some were killed or wounded by the Indians; he +himself almost died of fever; again and again his whole party was +reduced almost to the last extremity by starvation, disease, hardship, +and the over-exhaustion due to wearing fatigues. In dealing with the +wild, naked savages he showed a combination of fearlessness, wariness, +good judgment, and resolute patience and kindliness. The result was +that they ultimately became his firm friends, guarded the telegraph- +lines, and helped the few soldiers left at the isolated, widely +separated little posts. He and his assistants explored, and mapped for +the first time, the Juruena and the Gy-Parana, two important affluents +of the Tapajos and the Madeira respectively. The Tapajos and the +Madeira, like the Orinoco and Rio Negro, have been highways of travel +for a couple of centuries. The Madeira (as later the Tapajos) was the +chief means of ingress, a century and a half ago, to the little +Portuguese settlements of this far interior region of Brazil; one of +these little towns, named Matto Grosso, being the original capital of +the province. It has long been abandoned by the government, and +practically so by its inhabitants, the ruins of palace, fortress, and +church now rising amid the rank tropical luxuriance of the wild +forest. The mouths of the main affluents of these highway rivers were +as a rule well known. But in many cases nothing but the mouth was +known. The river itself was not known, and it was placed on the map by +guesswork. Colonel Rondon found, for example, that the course of the +Gy-Parana was put down on the map two degrees out of its proper place. +He, with his party, was the first to find out its sources, the first +to traverse its upper course, the first to map its length. He and his +assistants performed a similar service for the Juruena, discovering +the sources, discovering and descending some of the branches, and for +the first time making a trustworthy map of the main river itself, +until its junction with the Tapajos. Near the watershed between the +Juruena and the Gy-Parana he established his farthest station to the +westward, named Jose Bonofacio, after one of the chief republican +patriots of Brazil. A couple of days' march northwestward from this +station, he in 1909 came across a part of the stream of a river +running northward between the Gy-Parana and the Juruena; he could only +guess where it debouched, believing it to be into the Madeira, +although it was possible that it entered the Gy-Parana or Tapajos. The +region through which it flows was unknown, no civilized man having +ever penetrated it; and as all conjecture as to what the river was, as +to its length, and as to its place of entering into some highway +river, was mere guess-work, he had entered it on his sketch maps as +the Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt. Among the officers of the +Brazilian Army and the scientific civilians who have accompanied him +there have been not only expert cartographers, photographers, and +telegraphists, but astronomers, geologists, botanists, and zoologists. +Their reports, published in excellent shape by the Brazilian +Government, make an invaluable series of volumes, reflecting the +highest credit on the explorers, and on the government itself. Colonel +Rondon's own accounts of his explorations, of the Indian tribes he has +visited, and of the beautiful and wonderful things he has seen, +possess a peculiar interest. + + + + V. UP THE RIVER OF TAPIRS + +After leaving Caceres we went up the Sepotuba, which in the local +Indian dialect means River of Tapirs. This river is only navigable for +boats of size when the water is high. It is a swift, fairly clear +stream, rushing down from the Plan Alto, the high uplands, through the +tropical lowland forest. On the right hand, or western bank, and here +and there on the left bank, the forest is broken by natural pastures +and meadows, and at one of these places, known as Porto Campo, sixty +or seventy miles above the mouth, there is a good-sized cattle-ranch. +Here we halted, because the launch, and the two pranchas--native +trading-boats with houses on their decks--which it towed, could not +carry our entire party and outfit. Accordingly most of the baggage and +some of the party were sent ahead to where we were to meet our pack- +train, at Tapirapoan. Meanwhile the rest of us made our first camp +under tents at Porto Campo, to wait the return of the boats. The tents +were placed in a line, with the tent of Colonel Rondon and the tent in +which Kermit and I slept, in the middle, beside one another. In front +of these two, on tall poles, stood the Brazilian and American flags; +and at sunrise and sunset the flags were hoisted and hauled down while +the trumpet sounded and all of us stood at attention. Camp was pitched +beside the ranch buildings. In the trees near the tents grew wonderful +violet orchids. + +Many birds were around us; I saw some of them, and Cherrie and Miller +many, many more. They ranged from party-colored macaws, green parrots, +and big gregarious cuckoos down to a brilliant green-and-chestnut +kingfisher, five and a quarter inches long, and a tiny orange-and- +green manakin, smaller than any bird I have ever seen except a hummer. +We also saw a bird that really was protectively colored; a kind of +whippoorwill which even the sharp-eyed naturalists could only make out +because it moved its head. We saw orange-bellied squirrels with showy +orange tails. Lizards were common. We killed our first poisonous snake +(the second we had seen), an evil lance-headed jararaca that was +swimming the river. We also saw a black-and-orange harmless snake, +nearly eight feet long, which we were told was akin to the mussurama; +and various other snakes. One day while paddling in a canoe on the +river, hoping that the dogs might drive a tapir to us, they drove into +the water a couple of small bush deer instead. There was no point in +shooting them; we caught them with ropes thrown over their heads; for +the naturalists needed them as specimens, and all of us needed the +meat. One of the men was stung by a single big red maribundi wasp. For +twenty-four hours he was in great pain and incapacitated for work. In +a lagoon two of the dogs had the tips of their tails bitten off by +piranhas as they swam, and the ranch hands told us that in this lagoon +one of their hounds had been torn to pieces and completely devoured by +the ravenous fish. It was a further illustration of the uncertainty of +temper and behavior of these ferocious little monsters. In other +lagoons they had again and again left us and our dogs unmolested. They +vary locally in aggressiveness just as sharks and crocodiles in +different seas and rivers vary. + +On the morning of January 9th we started out for a tapir-hunt. Tapirs +are hunted with canoes, as they dwell in thick jungle and take to the +water when hounds follow them. In this region there were extensive +papyrus-swamps and big lagoons, back from the river, and often the +tapirs fled to these for refuge, throwing off the hounds. In these +places it was exceedingly difficult to get them; our best chance was +to keep to the river in canoes, and paddle toward the spot in the +direction of which the hounds, by the noise, seemed to be heading. We +started in four canoes. Three of them were Indian dugouts, very low in +the water. The fourth was our Canadian canoe, a beauty; light, safe, +roomy, made of thin slats of wood and cement-covered canvas. Colonel +Rondon, Fiala with his camera, and I went in this canoe, together with +two paddlers. The paddlers were natives of the poorer class. They were +good men. The bowsman was of nearly pure white blood; the steersman +was of nearly pure negro blood, and was evidently the stronger +character and better man of the two. The other canoes carried a couple +of fazendeiros, ranchmen, who had come up from Caceres with their +dogs. These dugouts were manned by Indian and half-caste paddlers, and +the fazendeiros, who were of nearly pure white blood, also at times +paddled vigorously. All were dressed in substantially similar clothes, +the difference being that those of the camaradas, the poorer men or +laborers, were in tatters. In the canoes no man wore anything save a +shirt, trousers, and hat, the feet being bare. On horseback they wore +long leather leggings which were really simply high, rather flexible +boots with the soles off; their spurs were on their tough bare feet. +There was every gradation between and among the nearly pure whites, +negroes, and Indians. On the whole, there was the most white blood in the +upper ranks, and most Indian and negro blood among the camaradas; but +there were exceptions in both classes, and there was no discrimination +on account of color. All alike were courteous and friendly. + +The hounds were at first carried in two of the dugouts, and then let +loose on the banks. We went up-stream for a couple of hours against +the swift current, the paddlers making good headway with their pointed +paddles--the broad blade of each paddle was tipped with a long point, +so that it could be thrust into the mud to keep the low dugout against +the bank. The tropical forest came down almost like a wall, the tall +trees laced together with vines, and the spaces between their trunks +filled with a low, dense jungle. In most places it could only be +penetrated by a man with a machete. With few exceptions the trees were +unknown to me, and their native names told me nothing. On most of them +the foliage was thick; among the exceptions were the cecropias, +growing by preference on new-formed alluvial soil bare of other trees, +whose rather scanty leaf bunches were, as I was informed, the favorite +food of sloths. We saw one or two squirrels among the trees, and a +family of monkeys. There were few sand-banks in the river, and no +water-fowl save an occasional cormorant. But as we pushed along near +the shore, where the branches overhung and dipped in the swirling +water, we continually roused little flocks of bats. They were hanging +from the boughs right over the river, and when our approach roused +them they zigzagged rapidly in front of us for a few rods, and then +again dove in among the branches. + +At last we landed at a point of ground where there was little jungle, +and where the forest was composed of palms and was fairly open. It was +a lovely bit of forest. The colonel strolled off in one direction, +returning an hour later with a squirrel for the naturalists. Meanwhile +Fiala and I went through the palm wood to a papyrus-swamp. Many trails +led through the woods, and especially along the borders of the swamp; +and, although their principal makers had evidently been cattle, yet +there were in them footprints of both tapir and deer. The tapir makes +a footprint much like that of a small rhinoceros, being one of the +odd-toed ungulates. We could hear the dogs now and then, evidently +scattered and running on various trails. They were a worthless lot of +cur-hounds. They would chase tapir or deer or anything else that ran +away from them as long as the trail was easy to follow; but they were +not stanch, even after animals that fled, and they would have nothing +whatever to do with animals that were formidable. + +While standing by the marsh we heard something coming along one of the +game paths. In a moment a buck of the bigger species of bush deer +appeared, a very pretty and graceful creature. It stopped and darted +back as soon as it saw us, giving us no chance for a shot; but in +another moment we caught glimpses of it running by at full speed, back +among the palms. I covered an opening between two tree-trunks. By good +luck the buck appeared in the right place, giving me just time to hold +well ahead of him and fire. At the report he went down in a heap, the +"umbrella-pointed" bullet going in at one shoulder, and ranging +forward, breaking the neck. The leaden portion of the bullet, in the +proper mushroom or umbrella shape, stopped under the neck skin on the +farther side. It is a very effective bullet. + +Miller particularly wished specimens of these various species of bush +deer, because their mutual relationships have not yet been +satisfactorily worked out. This was an old buck. The antlers were +single spikes, five or six inches long; they were old and white and +would soon have been shed. In the stomach were the remains of both +leaves and grasses, but especially the former; the buck was both a +browser and grazer. There were also seeds, but no berries or nuts such +as I have sometimes found in deer's stomachs. This species, which is +abundant in this neighborhood, is solitary in its habits, not going in +herds. At this time the rut was past, the bucks no longer sought the +does, the fawns had not been born, and the yearlings had left their +mothers; so that each animal usually went by itself. When chased they +were very apt to take to the water. This instinct of taking to the +water, by the way, is quite explicable as regards both deer and tapir, +for it affords them refuge against their present day natural foes, but +it is a little puzzling to see the jaguar readily climbing trees to +escape dogs; for ages have passed since there were in its habitat any +natural foes from which it needed to seek safety in trees. But it is +possible that the habit has been kept alive by its seeking refuge in +them on occasion from the big peccaries, which are among the beasts on +which it ordinarily preys. + +We hung the buck in a tree. The colonel returned, and not long +afterward one of the paddlers who had been watching the river called +out to us that there was a tapir in the water, a good distance up- +stream, and that two of the other boats were after it. We jumped into +the canoe and the two paddlers dug their blades in the water as they +drove her against the strong current, edging over for the opposite +bank. The tapir was coming down-stream at a great rate, only its queer +head above water, while the dugouts were closing rapidly on it, the +paddlers uttering loud cries. As the tapir turned slightly to one side +or the other the long, slightly upturned snout and the strongly +pronounced arch of the crest along the head and upper neck gave it a +marked and unusual aspect. I could not shoot, for it was directly in +line with one of the pursuing dugouts. Suddenly it dived, the snout +being slightly curved downward as it did so. There was no trace of it; +we gazed eagerly in all directions; the dugout in front came alongside +our canoe and the paddlers rested, their paddles ready. Then we made +out the tapir clambering up the bank. It had dived at right angles to +the course it was following and swum under water to the very edge of +the shore, rising under the overhanging tree-branches at a point where +a drinking-trail for game led down a break in the bank. The branches +partially hid it, and it was in deep shadow, so that it did not offer +a very good shot. My bullet went into its body too far back, and the +tapir disappeared in the forest at a gallop as if unhurt, although the +bullet really secured it, by making it unwilling to trust to its speed +and leave the neighborhood of the water. Three or four of the hounds +were by this time swimming the river, leaving the others yelling on +the opposite side; and as soon as the swimmers reached the shore they +were put on the tapir's trail and galloped after it, giving tongue. In +a couple of minutes we saw the tapir take to the water far up-stream, +and after it we went as fast as the paddles could urge us through the +water. We were not in time to head it, but fortunately some of the +dogs had come down to the river's edge at the very point where the +tapir was about to land, and turned it back. Two or three of the dogs +were swimming. We were more than half the breadth of the river away +from the tapir, and somewhat down-stream, when it dived. It made an +astonishingly long swim beneath the water this time, almost as if it +had been a hippopotamus, for it passed completely under our canoe and +rose between us and the hither bank. I shot it, the bullet going into +its brain, while it was thirty or forty yards from shore. It sank at +once. + +There was now nothing to do but wait until the body floated. I feared +that the strong current would roll it down-stream over the river bed, +but my companions assured me that this was not so, and that the body +would remain where it was until it rose, which would be in an hour or +two. They were right, except as to the time. For over a couple of +hours we paddled, or anchored ourselves by clutching branches close to +the spot, or else drifted down a mile and paddled up again near the +shore, to see if the body had caught anywhere. Then we crossed the +river and had lunch at the lovely natural picnic-ground where the buck +was hung up. We had very nearly given up the tapir when it suddenly +floated only a few rods from where it had sunk. With no little +difficulty the big, round black body was hoisted into the canoe, and +we all turned our prows down-stream. The skies had been lowering for +some time, and now--too late to interfere with the hunt or cause us +any annoyance--a heavy downpour of rain came on and beat upon us. +Little we cared, as the canoe raced forward, with the tapir and the +buck lying in the bottom, and a dry, comfortable camp ahead of us. + +When we reached camp, and Father Zahm saw the tapir, he reminded me of +something I had completely forgotten. When, some six years previously, +he had spoken to me in the White House about taking this South +American trip, I had answered that I could not, as I intended to go to +Africa, but added that I hoped some day to go to South America and +that if I did so I should try to shoot both a jaguar and a tapir, as +they were the characteristic big-game animals of the country. "Well," +said Father Zahm, "now you've shot them both!" The storm continued +heavy until after sunset. Then the rain stopped and the full moon +broke through the cloud-rack. Father Zahm and I walked up and down in +the moonlight, talking of many things, from Dante, and our own plans +for the future, to the deeds and the wanderings of the old-time +Spanish conquistadores in their search for the Gilded King, and of the +Portuguese adventurers who then divided with them the mastery of the +oceans and of the unknown continents beyond. + +This was an attractive and interesting camp in more ways than one. The +vaqueiros with their wives and families were housed on the two sides +of the field in which our tents were pitched. On one side was a big, +whitewashed, tile-roofed house in which the foreman dwelt--an olive- +skinned, slightly built, wiry man, with an olive-skinned wife and +eight as pretty, fair-haired children as one could wish to see. He +usually went barefoot, and his manners were not merely good but +distinguished. Corrals and outbuildings were near this big house. On +the opposite side of the field stood the row of steep-roofed, palm- +thatched huts in which the ordinary cowhands lived with their dusky +helpmeets and children. Each night from these palm-thatched quarters +we heard the faint sounds of a music that went far back of +civilization to a savage ancestry near by in point of time and +otherwise immeasurably remote; for through the still, hot air, under +the brilliant moonlight, we heard the monotonous throbbing of a tomtom +drum, and the twanging of some old stringed instrument. The small +black turkey-buzzards, here always called crows, were as tame as +chickens near the big house, walking on the ground or perched in the +trees beside the corral, waiting for the offal of the slaughtered +cattle. Two palm-trees near our tent were crowded with the long, +hanging nests of one of the cacique orioles. We lived well, with +plenty of tapir beef, which was good, and venison of the bush deer, +which was excellent; and as much ordinary beef as we wished, and fresh +milk, too--a rarity in this country. There were very few mosquitoes, +and everything was as comfortable as possible. + +The tapir I killed was a big one. I did not wish to kill another, +unless, of course, it became advisable to do so for food; whereas I +did wish to get some specimens of the big, white-lipped peccary, the +"queixa" (pronounced "cashada") of the Brazilians, which would make +our collection of the big mammals of the Brazilian forests almost +complete. The remaining members of the party killed two or three more +tapirs. One was a bull, full grown but very much smaller than the +animal I had killed. The hunters said that this was a distinct kind. +The skull and skin were sent back with the other specimens to the +American Museum, where after due examination and comparison its +specific identify will be established. Tapirs are solitary beasts. Two +are rarely found together, except in the case of a cow and its spotted +and streaked calf. They live in dense cover, usually lying down in the +daytime and at night coming out to feed, and going to the river or to +some lagoon to bathe and swim. From this camp Sigg took Lieutenant +Lyra back to Caceres to get something that had been overlooked. They +went in a rowboat to which the motor had been attached, and at night +on the way back almost ran over a tapir that was swimming. But in +unfrequented places tapirs both feed and bathe during the day. The +stomach of the one I shot contained big palm-nuts; they had been +swallowed without enough mastication to break the kernel, the outer +pulp being what the tapir prized. Tapirs gallop well, and their tough +hide and wedge shape enable them to go at speed through very dense +cover. They try to stamp on, and even to bite, a foe, but are only +clumsy fighters. + +The tapir is a very archaic type of ungulate, not unlike the non- +specialized beasts of the Oligocene. From some such ancestral type the +highly specialized one-toed modern horse has evolved, while during the +uncounted ages that saw the horse thus develop the tapir has continued +substantially unchanged. Originally the tapirs dwelt in the northern +hemisphere, but there they gradually died out, the more specialized +horse, and even for long ages the rhinoceros, persisting after they +had vanished; and nowadays the surviving tapirs are found in Malaysia +and South America, far from their original home. The relations of the +horse and tapir in the paleontological history of South America are +very curious. Both were, geologically speaking, comparatively recent +immigrants, and if they came at different dates it is almost certain +that the horse came later. The horse for an age or two, certainly for +many hundreds of thousands of years, throve greatly and developed not +only several different species but even different genera. It was much +the most highly specialized of the two, and in the other continental +regions where both were found the horse outlasted the tapir. But in +South America the tapir outlasted the horse. From unknown causes the +various genera and species of horses died out, while the tapir has +persisted. The highly specialized, highly developed beasts, which +represented such a full evolutionary development, died out, while +their less specialized remote kinsfolk, which had not developed, clung +to life and throve; and this although the direct reverse was occurring +in North America and in the Old World. It is one of the innumerable +and at present insoluble problems in the history of life on our +planet. + +I spent a couple of days of hard work in getting the big white-lipped +peccaries--white-lipped being rather a misnomer, as the entire under +jaw and lower cheek are white. They were said to be found on the other +side of, and some distance back from, the river. Colonel Rondon had +sent out one of our attendants, an old follower of his, a full-blood +Parecis Indian, to look for tracks. This was an excellent man, who +dressed and behaved just like the other good men we had, and was +called Antonio Parecis. He found the tracks of a herd of thirty or +forty cashadas, and the following morning we started after them. + +On the first day we killed nothing. We were rather too large a party, +for one or two of the visiting fazendeiros came along with their dogs. +I doubt whether these men very much wished to overtake our game, for +the big peccary is a murderous foe of dogs (and is sometimes dangerous +to men). One of their number frankly refused to come or to let his +dogs come, explaining that the fierce wild swine were "very badly +brought up" (a literal translation of his words) and that respectable +dogs and men ought not to go near them. The other fazendeiros merely +feared for their dogs; a groundless fear, I believe, as I do not think +that the dogs could by any exertion have been dragged into dangerous +proximity with such foes. The ranch foreman, Benedetto, came with us, +and two or three other camaradas, including Antonio, the Parecis +Indian. The horses were swum across the river, each being led beside a +dugout. Then we crossed with the dogs; our horses were saddled, and we +started. + +It was a picturesque cavalcade. The native hunters, of every shade +from white to dark copper, all wore leather leggings that left the +soles of their feet bare, and on their bare heels wore spurs with +wheels four inches across. They went in single file, for no other mode +of travel was possible; and the two or three leading men kept their +machetes out, and had to cut every yard of our way while we were in +the forest. The hunters rode little stallions, and their hounds were +gelded. + +Most of the time we were in forest or swampy jungle. Part of the time +we crossed or skirted marshy plains. In one of them a herd of half- +wild cattle was feeding. Herons, storks, ducks, and ibises were in +these marshes, and we saw one flock of lovely roseate spoonbills. + +In one grove the fig-trees were killing the palms, just as in Africa +they kill the sandalwood-trees. In the gloom of this grove there were +no flowers, no bushes; the air was heavy; the ground was brown with +mouldering leaves. Almost every palm was serving as a prop for a fig- +tree. The fig-trees were in every stage of growth. The youngest ones +merely ran up the palms as vines. In the next stage the vine had +thickened and was sending out shoots, wrapping the palm stem in a +deadly hold. Some of the shoots were thrown round the stem like the +tentacles of an immense cuttlefish. Others looked like claws, that +were hooked into every crevice, and round every projection. In the +stage beyond this the palm had been killed, and its dead carcass +appeared between the big, winding vine-trunks; and later the palm had +disappeared and the vines had united into a great fig-tree. Water +stood in black pools at the foot of the murdered trees, and of the +trees that had murdered them. There was something sinister and evil in +the dark stillness of the grove; it seemed as if sentient beings had +writhed themselves round and were strangling other sentient beings. + +We passed through wonderfully beautiful woods of tall palms, the +ouaouaca palm--wawasa palm, as it should be spelled in English. The +trunks rose tall and strong and slender, and the fronds were branches +twenty or thirty feet long, with the many long, narrow green blades +starting from the midrib at right angles in pairs. Round the ponds +stood stately burity palms, rising like huge columns, with great +branches that looked like fans, as the long, stiff blades radiated +from the end of the midrib. One tree was gorgeous with the brilliant +hues of a flock of party-colored macaws. Green parrots flew shrieking +overhead. + +Now and then we were bitten and stung by the venomous fire-ants, and +ticks crawled upon us. Once we were assailed by more serious foes, in +the shape of a nest of maribundi wasps, not the biggest kind, but +about the size of our hornets. We were at the time passing through +dense jungle, under tall trees, in a spot where the down timber, +holes, tangled creepers, and thorns made the going difficult. The +leading men were not assailed, although they were now and then cutting +the trail. Colonel Rondon and I were in the middle of the column, and +the swarm attacked us; both of us were badly stung on the face, neck, +and hands, the colonel even more severely than I was. He wheeled and +rode to the rear and I to the front; our horses were stung too; and we +went at a rate that a moment previously I would have deemed impossible +over such ground. + +At the close of the day, when we were almost back at the river, the +dogs killed a jaguar kitten. There was no trace of the mother. Some +accident must have befallen her, and the kitten was trying to shift +for herself. She was very emaciated. In her stomach were the remains +of a pigeon and some tendons from the skeleton or dried carcass of +some big animal. The loathsome berni flies, which deposit eggs in +living beings--cattle, dogs, monkeys, rodents, men--had been at it. +There were seven huge, white grubs making big abscess-like swellings +over its eyes. These flies deposit their grubs in men. In 1909, on +Colonel Rondon's hardest trip, every man of the party had from one to +five grubs deposited in him, the fly acting with great speed, and +driving its ovipositor through clothing. The grubs cause torture; but +a couple of cross cuts with a lancet permit the loathsome creatures to +be squeezed out. + +In these forests the multitude of insects that bite, sting, devour, +and prey upon other creatures, often with accompaniments of atrocious +suffering, passes belief. The very pathetic myth of "beneficent +nature" could not deceive even the least wise being if he once saw for +himself the iron cruelty of life in the tropics. Of course "nature"-- +in common parlance a wholly inaccurate term, by the way, especially +when used as if to express a single entity--is entirely ruthless, no +less so as regards types than as regards individuals, and entirely +indifferent to good or evil, and works out her ends or no ends with +utter disregard of pain and woe. + +The following morning at sunrise we started again. This time only +Colonel Rondon and I went with Benedetto and Antonio the Indian. We +brought along four dogs which it was fondly hoped might chase the +cashadas. Two of them disappeared on the track of a tapir and we saw +them no more; one of the others promptly fled when we came across the +tracks of our game, and would not even venture after them in our +company; the remaining one did not actually run away and occasionally +gave tongue, but could not be persuaded to advance unless there was a +man ahead of him. However, Colonel Rondon, Benedetto, and Antonio +formed a trio of hunters who could do fairly well without dogs. + +After four hours of riding, Benedetto, who was in the lead, suddenly +stopped and pointed downward. We were riding along a grassy intervale +between masses of forest, and he had found the fresh track of a herd +of big peccaries crossing from left to right. There were apparently +thirty or forty in the herd. The small peccaries go singly or in small +parties, and when chased take refuge in holes or hollow logs, where +they show valiant fight; but the big peccaries go in herds of +considerable size, and are so truculent that they are reluctant to +run, and prefer either to move slowly off chattering their tusks and +grunting, or else actually to charge. Where much persecuted the +survivors gradually grow more willing to run, but their instinct is +not to run but to trust to their truculence and their mass-action for +safety. They inflict a fearful bite and frequently kill dogs. They +often charge the hunters and I have heard of men being badly wounded +by them, while almost every man who hunts them often is occasionally +forced to scramble up a tree to avoid a charge. But I have never heard +of a man being killed by them. They sometimes surround the tree in +which the man has taken refuge and keep him up it. Cherrie, on one +occasion in Costa Rica, was thus kept up a tree for several hours by a +great herd of three or four hundred of these peccaries; and this +although he killed several of them. Ordinarily, however, after making +their charge they do not turn, but pass on out of sight. Their great +foe is the jaguar, but unless he exercises much caution they will turn +the tables on him. Cherrie, also in Costa Rica, came on the body of a +jaguar which had evidently been killed by a herd of peccaries some +twenty-four hours previously. The ground was trampled up by their +hoofs, and the carcass was rent and slit into pieces. + +Benedetto, as soon as we discovered the tracks, slipped off his horse, +changed his leggings for sandals, threw his rifle over his arm, and +took the trail of the herd, followed by the only dog which would +accompany him. The peccaries had gone into a broad belt of forest, +with a marsh on the farther side. At first Antonio led the colonel and +me, all of us on horseback, at a canter round this belt to the marsh +side, thinking the peccaries had gone almost through it. But we could +hear nothing. The dog only occasionally barked, and then not loudly. +Finally we heard a shot. Benedetto had found the herd, which showed no +fear of him; he had backed out and fired a signal shot. We all three +went into the forest on foot toward where the shot had been fired. It +was dense jungle and stiflingly hot. We could not see clearly for more +than a few feet, or move easily without free use of the machetes. Soon +we heard the ominous groaning of the herd, in front of us, and almost +on each side. Then Benedetto joined us, and the dog appeared in the +rear. We moved slowly forward, toward the sound of the fierce moaning +grunts which were varied at times by a castanet chattering of the +tusks. Then we dimly made out the dark forms of the peccaries moving +very slowly to the left. My companions each chose a tree to climb at +need and pointed out one for me. I fired at the half-seen form of a +hog, through the vines, leaves, and branches; the colonel fired; I +fired three more shots at other hogs; and the Indian also fired. The +peccaries did not charge; walking and trotting, with bristles erect, +groaning and clacking their tusks, they disappeared into the jungle. +We could not see one of them clearly; and not one was left dead. But a +few paces on we came across one of my wounded ones, standing at bay by +a palm trunk; and I killed it forthwith. The dog would not even trail +the wounded ones; but here Antonio came to the front. With eyes almost +as quick and sure as those of a wild beast he had watched after every +shot, and was able to tell the results in each case. He said that in +addition to the one I had just killed I had wounded two others so +seriously that he did not think they would go far, and that Colonel +Rondon and he himself had each badly wounded one; and, moreover, he +showed the trails each wounded animal had taken. The event justified +him. In a few minutes we found my second one dead. Then we found +Antonio's. Then we found my third one alive and at bay, and I killed +it with another bullet. Finally we found the colonel's. I told him I +should ask the authorities of the American Museum to mount his and one +or two of mine in a group, to commemorate our hunting together. + +If we had not used crippling rifles the peccaries might have gotten +away, for in the dark jungle, with the masses of intervening leaves +and branches, it was impossible to be sure of placing each bullet +properly in the half-seen moving beast. We found where the herd had +wallowed in the mud. The stomachs of the peccaries we killed contained +wild figs, palm nuts, and bundles of root fibres. The dead beasts were +covered with ticks. They were at least twice the weight of the smaller +peccaries. + +On the ride home we saw a buck of the small species of bush deer, not +half the size of the kind I had already shot. It was only a patch of +red in the bush, a good distance off, but I was lucky enough to hit +it. In spite of its small size it was a full-grown male, of a species +we had not yet obtained. The antlers had recently been shed, and the +new antler growth had just begun. A great jabiru stork let us ride by +him a hundred and fifty yards off without thinking it worth while to +take flight. This day we saw many of the beautiful violet orchids; and +in the swamps were multitudes of flowers, red, yellow, lilac, of which +I did not know the names. + +I alluded above to the queer custom these people in the interior of +Brazil have of gelding their hunting-dogs. This absurd habit is +doubtless the chief reason why there are so few hounds worth their +salt in the more serious kinds of hunting, where the quarry is the +jaguar or big peccary. Thus far we had seen but one dog as good as the +ordinary cougar hound or bear hound in such packs as those with which +I had hunted in the Rockies and in the cane-brakes of the lower +Mississippi. It can hardly be otherwise when every dog that shows +himself worth anything is promptly put out of the category of +breeders--the theory apparently being that the dog will then last +longer. All the breeding is from worthless dogs, and no dog of proved +worth leaves descendants. + +The country along this river is a fine natural cattle country, and +some day it will surely see a great development. It was opened to +development by Colonel Rondon only five or six years ago. Already an +occasional cattle ranch is to be found along the banks. When railroads +are built into these interior portions of Matto Grosso the whole +region will grow and thrive amazingly--and so will the railroads. The +growth will not be merely material. An immense amount will be done in +education; using the word education in its broadest and most accurate +sense, as applying to both mind and spirit, to both the child and the +man. Colonel Rondon is not merely an explorer. He has been and is now +a leader in the movement for the vital betterment of his people, the +people of Matto Grosso. The poorer people of the back country +everywhere suffer because of the harsh and improper laws of debt. In +practice these laws have resulted in establishing a system of peonage, +such as has grown up here and there in our own nation. A radical +change is needed in this matter; and the colonel is fighting for the +change. In school matters the colonel has precisely the ideas of our +wisest and most advanced men and women in the United States. Cherrie-- +who is not only an exceedingly efficient naturalist and explorer in +the tropics, but is also a thoroughly good citizen at home--is the +chairman of the school board of the town of Newfane, in Vermont. He +and the colonel, and Kermit and I, talked over school matters at +length, and were in hearty accord as to the vital educational needs of +both Brazil and the United States: the need of combining industrial +with purely mental training, and the need of having the wide-spread +popular education, which is and must be supported and paid for by the +government, made a purely governmental and absolutely nonsectarian +function, administered by the state alone, without interference with, +nor furtherance of, the beliefs of any reputable church. The colonel +is also head of the Indian service of Brazil, being what corresponds +roughly with our commissioner of Indian affairs. Here also he is +taking the exact view that is taken in the United States by the +staunchest and wisest friends of the Indians. The Indians must be +treated with intelligent and sympathetic understanding, no less than +with justice and firmness; and until they become citizens, absorbed +into the general body politic, they must be the wards of the nation, +and not of any private association, lay or clerical, no matter how +well-meaning. + +The Sepotuba River was scientifically explored and mapped for the +first time by Colonel Rondon in 1908, as head of the Brazilian +Telegraphic Commission. This was during the second year of his +exploration and opening of the unknown northwestern wilderness of +Matto Grosso. Most of this wilderness had never previously been +trodden by the foot of a civilized man. Not only were careful maps +made and much other scientific work accomplished, but posts were +established and telegraph-lines constructed. When Colonel Rondon began +the work he was a major. He was given two promotions, to lieutenant- +colonel and colonel, while absent in the wilderness. His longest and +most important exploring trip, and the one fraught with most danger +and hardship, was begun by him in 1909, on May 3rd, the anniversary of +the discovery of Brazil. He left Tapirapoan on that day, and he +reached the Madeira River on Christmas, December 25, of the same year, +having descended the Gy-Parana. The mouth of this river had long been +known, but its upper course for half its length was absolutely unknown +when Rondon descended it. Among those who took part under him in this +piece of exploration were the present Captain Amilcar and Lieutenant +Lyra; and two better or more efficient men for such wilderness work it +would be impossible to find. They acted as his two chief assistants on +our trip. In 1909 the party exhausted all their food, including even +the salt, by August. For the last four months they lived exclusively +on the game they killed, on fruits, and on wild honey. Their equipage +was what the men could carry on their backs. By the time the party +reached the Madeira they were worn out by fatigue, exposure, and semi- +starvation, and their enfeebled bodies were racked by fever. + +The work of exploration accomplished by Colonel Rondon and his +associates during these years was as remarkable as, and in its results +even more important than, any similar work undertaken elsewhere on the +globe at or about the same time. Its value was recognized in Brazil. +It received no recognition by the geographical societies of Europe or +the United States. + +The work done by the original explorers of such a wilderness +necessitates the undergoing of untold hardship and danger. Their +successors, even their immediate successors, have a relatively easy +time. Soon the road becomes so well beaten that it can be traversed +without hardship by any man who does not venture from it--although if +he goes off into the wilderness for even a day, hunting or collecting, +he will have a slight taste of what his predecessors endured. The +wilderness explored by Colonel Rondon is not yet wholly subdued, and +still holds menace to human life. At Caceres he received notice of the +death of one of his gallant subordinates, Captain Cardozo. He died +from beriberi, far out in the wilderness along our proposed line of +march. Colonel Rondon also received news that a boat ascending the Gy- +Parana, to carry provisions to meet those of our party who were to +descend that stream, had been upset, the provisions lost, and three +men drowned. The risk and hardship are such that the ordinary men, the +camaradas, do not like to go into the wilderness. The men who go with +the Telegraphic Commission on the rougher and wilder work are paid +seven times as much as they earn in civilization. On this trip of ours +Colonel Rondon met with much difficulty in securing some one who could +cook. He asked the cook on the little steamer Nyoac to go with us; but +the cook with unaffected horror responded: "Senhor, I have never done +anything to deserve punishment!" + +Five days after leaving us, the launch, with one of the native +trading-boats lashed alongside, returned. On the 13th we broke camp, +loaded ourselves and all our belongings on the launch and the house- +boat, and started up-stream for Tapirapoan. All told there were about +thirty men, with five dogs and tents, bedding and provisions; fresh +beef, growing rapidly less fresh; skins--all and everything jammed +together. + +It rained most of the first day and part of the first night. After +that the weather was generally overcast and pleasant for travelling; +but sometimes rain and torrid sunshine alternated. The cooking--and it +was good cooking--was done at a funny little open-air fireplace, with +two or three cooking-pots placed at the stern of the house-boat. + +The fireplace was a platform of earth, taken from anthills, and heaped +and spread on the boards of the boat. Around it the dusky cook worked +with philosophic solemnity in rain and shine. Our attendants, friendly +souls with skins of every shade and hue, slept most of the time, +curled up among boxes, bundles, and slabs of beef. An enormous land +turtle was tethered toward the bow of the house-boat. When the men +slept too near it, it made futile efforts to scramble over them; and +in return now and then one of them gravely used it for a seat. + +Slowly the throbbing engine drove the launch and its unwieldy side- +partner against the swift current. The river had risen. We made about +a mile and a half an hour. Ahead of us the brown water street +stretched in curves between endless walls of dense tropical forest. It +was like passing through a gigantic greenhouse. Wawasa and burity +palms, cecropias, huge figs, feathery bamboos, strange yellow-stemmed +trees, low trees with enormous leaves, tall trees with foliage as +delicate as lace, trees with buttressed trunks, trees with boles +rising smooth and straight to lofty heights, all woven together by a +tangle of vines, crowded down to the edge of the river. Their drooping +branches hung down to the water, forming a screen through which it was +impossible to see the bank, and exceedingly difficult to penetrate to +the bank. Rarely one of them showed flowers--large white blossoms, or +small red or yellow blossoms. More often the lilac flowers of the +begonia-vine made large patches of color. Innumerable epiphytes +covered the limbs, and even grew on the roughened trunks. We saw +little bird life--a darter now and then, and kingfishers flitting from +perch to perch. At long intervals we passed a ranch. At one the large, +red-tiled, whitewashed house stood on a grassy slope behind mango- +trees. The wooden shutters were thrown back from the unglazed windows, +and the big rooms were utterly bare--not a book, not an ornament. A +palm, loaded with scores of the pendulous nests of the troupials, +stood near the door. Behind were orange-trees and coffee-plants, and +near by fields of bananas, rice, and tobacco. The sallow foreman was +courteous and hospitable. His dark-skinned women-folk kept in the +furtive background. Like most of the ranches, it was owned by a +company with headquarters at Caceres. + +The trip was pleasant and interesting, although there was not much to +do on the boat. It was too crowded to move around save with a definite +purpose. We enjoyed the scenery; we talked--in English, Portuguese, +bad French, and broken German. Some of us wrote. Fiala made sketches +of improved tents, hammocks, and other field equipment, suggested by +what he had already seen. Some of us read books. Colonel Rondon, neat, +trim, alert, and soldierly, studied a standard work on applied +geographical astronomy. Father Zahm read a novel by Fogazzaro. Kermit +read Camoens and a couple of Brazilian novels, "O Guarani" and +"Innocencia." My own reading varied from "Quentin Durward" and Gibbon +to the "Chanson de Roland." Miller took out his little pet owl Moses, +from the basket in which Moses dwelt, and gave him food and water. +Moses crooned and chuckled gratefully when he was stroked and tickled. + +Late the first evening we moored to the bank by a little fazenda of +the poorer type. The houses were of palm-leaves. Even the walls were +made of the huge fronds or leafy branches of the wawasa palm, stuck +upright in the ground and the blades plaited together. Some of us went +ashore. Some stayed on the boats. There were no mosquitoes, the +weather was not oppressively hot, and we slept well. By five o'clock +next morning we had each drunk a cup of delicious Brazilian coffee, +and the boats were under way. + +All day we steamed slowly up-stream. We passed two or three fazendas. +At one, where we halted to get milk, the trees were overgrown with +pretty little yellow orchids. At dark we moored at a spot where there +were no branches to prevent our placing the boats directly alongside +the bank. There were hardly any mosquitoes. Most of the party took +their hammocks ashore, and the camp was pitched amid singularly +beautiful surroundings. The trees were wawasa palms, some with the +fronds cresting very tall trunks, some with the fronds--seemingly +longer--rising almost from the ground. The fronds were of great +length; some could not have been less than fifty feet long. Bushes and +tall grass, dew-drenched and glittering with the green of emeralds, +grew in the open spaces between. We left at sunrise the following +morning. One of the sailors had strayed inland. He got turned round +and could not find the river; and we started before discovering his +absence. We stopped at once, and with much difficulty he forced his +way through the vine-laced and thorn-guarded jungle toward the sound +of the launch's engines and of the bugle which was blown. In this +dense jungle, when the sun is behind clouds, a man without a compass +who strays a hundred yards from the river may readily become +hopelessly lost. + +As we ascended the river the wawasa palms became constantly more +numerous. At this point, for many miles, they gave their own character +to the forest on the river banks. Everywhere their long, curving +fronds rose among the other trees, and in places their lofty trunks +made them hold their heads higher than the other trees. But they were +never as tall as the giants among the ordinary trees. On one towering +palm we noticed a mass of beautiful violet orchids growing from the +side of the trunk, half-way to the top. On another big tree, not a +palm, which stood in a little opening, there hung well over a hundred +troupials' nests. Besides two or three small ranches we this day +passed a large ranch. The various houses and sheds, all palm-thatched, +stood by the river in a big space of cleared ground, dotted with +wawasa palms. A native house-boat was moored by the bank. Women and +children looked from the unglazed windows of the houses; men stood in +front of them. The biggest house was enclosed by a stockade of palm- +logs, thrust end-on into the ground. Cows and oxen grazed round about; +and carts with solid wheels, each wheel made of a single disk of wood, +were tilted on their poles. + +We made our noonday halt on an island where very tall trees grew, +bearing fruits that were pleasant to the taste. Other trees on the +island were covered with rich red and yellow blossoms; and masses of +delicate blue flowers and of star-shaped white flowers grew underfoot. +Hither and thither across the surface of the river flew swallows, with +so much white in their plumage that as they flashed in the sun they +seemed to have snow-white bodies, borne by dark wings. The current of +the river grew swifter; there were stretches of broken water that were +almost rapids; the laboring engine strained and sobbed as with +increasing difficulty it urged forward the launch and her clumsy +consort. At nightfall we moored beside the bank, where the forest was +open enough to permit a comfortable camp. That night the ants ate +large holes in Miller's mosquito-netting, and almost devoured his +socks and shoe-laces. + +At sunrise we again started. There were occasional stretches of swift, +broken water, almost rapids, in the river; everywhere the current was +swift, and our progress was slow. The prancha was towed at the end of +a hawser, and her crew poled. Even thus we only just made the riffle +in more than one case. Two or three times cormorants and snake-birds, +perched on snags in the river or on trees alongside it, permitted the +boat to come within a few yards. In one piece of high forest we saw a +party of toucans, conspicuous even among the tree tops because of +their huge bills and the leisurely expertness with which they crawled, +climbed, and hopped among the branches. We went by several fazendas. + +Shortly before noon--January 16--we reached Tapirapoan, the +headquarters of the Telegraphic Commission. It was an attractive +place, on the river-front, and it was gayly bedecked with flags, not +only those of Brazil and the United States, but of all the other +American republics, in our honor. There was a large, green square, +with trees standing in the middle of it. On one side of this square +were the buildings of the Telegraphic Commission, on the other those +of a big ranch, of which this is the headquarters. In addition, there +were stables, sheds, outhouses, and corrals; and there were cultivated +fields near by. Milch cows, beef-cattle, oxen, and mules wandered +almost at will. There were two or three wagons and carts, and a +traction automobile, used in the construction of the telegraph-line, +but not available in the rainy season, at the time of our trip. + +Here we were to begin our trip overland, on pack-mules and pack-oxen, +scores of which had been gathered to meet us. Several days were needed +to apportion the loads and arrange for the several divisions in which +it was necessary that so large a party should attempt the long +wilderness march, through a country where there was not much food for +man or beast, and where it was always possible to run into a district +in which fatal cattle or horse diseases were prevalent. Fiala, with +his usual efficiency, took charge of handling the outfit of the +American portion of the expedition, with Sigg as an active and useful +assistant. Harper, who like the others worked with whole-hearted zeal +and cheerfulness, also helped him, except when he was engaged in +helping the naturalists. The two latter, Cherrie and Miller, had so +far done the hardest and the best work of the expedition. They had +collected about a thousand birds and two hundred and fifty mammals. It +was not probable that they would do as well during the remainder of +our trip, for we intended thenceforth to halt as little, and march as +steadily, as the country, the weather, and the condition of our means +of transportation permitted. I kept continually wishing that they had +more time in which to study the absorbingly interesting life-histories +of the beautiful and wonderful beasts and birds we were all the time +seeing. Every first-rate museum must still employ competent +collectors; but I think that a museum could now confer most lasting +benefit, and could do work of most permanent good, by sending out into +the immense wildernesses, where wild nature is at her best, trained +observers with the gift of recording what they have observed. Such men +should be collectors, for collecting is still necessary; but they +should also, and indeed primarily, be able themselves to see, and to +set vividly before the eyes of others, the full life-histories of the +creatures that dwell in the waste spaces of the world. + +At this point both Cherrie and Miller collected a number of mammals +and birds which they had not previously obtained; whether any were new +to science could only be determined after the specimens reached the +American Museum. While making the round of his small mammal traps one +morning, Miller encountered an army of the formidable foraging ants. +The species was a large black one, moving with a well-extended front. +These ants, sometimes called army-ants, like the driver-ants of +Africa, move in big bodies and destroy or make prey of every living +thing that is unable or unwilling to get out of their path in time. +They run fast, and everything runs away from their advance. Insects +form their chief prey; and the most dangerous and aggressive lower- +life creatures make astonishingly little resistance to them. Miller's +attention was first attracted to this army of ants by noticing a big +centipede, nine or ten inches long, trying to flee before them. A +number of ants were biting it, and it writhed at each bite, but did +not try to use its long curved jaws against its assailants. On other +occasions he saw big scorpions and big hairy spiders trying to escape +in the same way, and showing the same helpless inability to injure +their ravenous foes, or to defend themselves. The ants climb trees to +a great height, much higher than most birds' nests, and at once kill +and tear to pieces any fledglings in the nests they reach. But they +are not as common as some writers seem to imagine; days may elapse +before their armies are encountered, and doubtless most nests are +never visited or threatened by them. In some instances it seems likely +that the birds save themselves and their young in other ways. Some +nests are inaccessible. From others it is probable that the parents +remove the young. Miller once, in Guiana, had been watching for some +days a nest of ant-wrens which contained young. Going thither one +morning, he found the tree, and the nest itself, swarming with +foraging ants. He at first thought that the fledglings had been +devoured, but he soon saw the parents, only about thirty yards off, +with food in their beaks. They were engaged in entering a dense part +of the jungle, coming out again without food in their beaks, and soon +reappearing once more with food. Miller never found their new nests, +but their actions left him certain that they were feeding their young, +which they must have themselves removed from the old nest. These ant- +wrens hover in front of and over the columns of foraging ants, feeding +not only on the other insects aroused by the ants, but on the ants +themselves. This fact has been doubted; but Miller has shot them with +the ants in their bills and in their stomachs. Dragon-flies, in +numbers, often hover over the columns, darting down at them; Miller +could not be certain he had seen them actually seizing the ants, but +this was his belief. I have myself seen these ants plunder a nest of +the dangerous and highly aggressive wasps, while the wasps buzzed +about in great excitement, but seemed unable effectively to retaliate. +I have also seen them clear a sapling tenanted by their kinsmen, the +poisonous red ants, or fire-ants; the fire-ants fought and I have no +doubt injured or killed some of their swarming and active black foes; +but the latter quickly did away with them. I have only come across +black foraging ants; but there are red species. They attack human +beings precisely as they attack all animals, and precipitate flight is +the only resort. + +Around our camp here butterflies of gorgeous coloring swarmed, and +there were many fungi as delicately shaped and tinted as flowers. The +scents in the woods were wonderful. There were many whippoorwills, or +rather Brazilian birds related to them; they uttered at intervals +through the night a succession of notes suggesting both those of our +whippoorwill and those of our big chuck-will's-widow of the Gulf +States, but not identical with either. There were other birds which +were nearly akin to familiar birds of the United States: a dull- +colored catbird, a dull-colored robin, and a sparrow belonging to the +same genus as our common song-sparrow and sweetheart sparrow; Miller +had heard this sparrow singing by day and night, fourteen thousand +feet up on the Andes, and its song suggested the songs of both of our +sparrows. There were doves and woodpeckers of various species. Other +birds bore no resemblance to any of ours. One honey-creeper was a +perfect little gem, with plumage that was black, purple, and +turquoise, and brilliant scarlet feet. Two of the birds which Cherrie +and Miller procured were of extraordinary nesting habits. One, a +nunlet, in shape resembles a short-tailed bluebird. It is plumbeous, +with a fulvous belly and white tail coverts. It is a stupid little +bird, and does not like to fly away even when shot at. It catches its +prey and ordinarily acts like a rather dull flycatcher, perching on +some dead tree, swooping on insects and then returning to its perch, +and never going on the ground to feed or run about. But it nests in +burrows which it digs itself, one bird usually digging, while the +other bird perches in a bush near by. Sometimes these burrows are in +the side of a sand-bank, the sand being so loose that it is a marvel +that it does not cave in. Sometimes the burrows are in the level +plain, running down about three feet, and then rising at an angle. The +nest consists of a few leaves and grasses, and the eggs are white. The +other bird, called a nun or waxbill, is about the size of a thrush, +grayish in color, with a waxy red bill. It also burrows in the level +soil, the burrow being five feet long; and over the mouth of the +burrow it heaps a pile of sticks and leaves. + +At this camp the heat was great--from 91 to 104 Fahrenheit--and the +air very heavy, being saturated with moisture; and there were many +rain-storms. But there were no mosquitoes, and we were very +comfortable. Thanks to the neighborhood of the ranch, we fared +sumptuously, with plenty of beef, chickens, and fresh milk. Two of the +Brazilian dishes were delicious: canja, a thick soup of chicken and +rice, the best soup a hungry man ever tasted; and beef chopped in +rather small pieces and served with a well-flavored but simple gravy. +The mule allotted me as a riding-beast was a powerful animal, with +easy gaits. The Brazilian Government had waiting for me a very +handsome silver-mounted saddle and bridle; I was much pleased with +both. However, my exceedingly rough and shabby clothing made an +incongruous contrast. + +At Tapirapoan we broke up our baggage--as well as our party. We sent +forward the Canadian canoe--which, with the motor-engine and some +kerosene, went in a cart drawn by six oxen--and a hundred sealed tin +cases of provisions, each containing rations for a day for six men. +They had been put up in New York under the special direction of Fiala, +for use when we got where we wished to take good and varied food in +small compass. All the skins, skulls, and alcoholic specimens, and all +the baggage not absolutely necessary, were sent back down the Paraguay +and to New York, in charge of Harper. The separate baggage-trains, +under the charge of Captain Amilcar, were organized to go in one +detachment. The main body of the expedition, consisting of the +American members, and of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Lyra, and Doctor +Cajazeira, with their baggage and provisions, formed another +detachment. + + + + VI. THROUGH THE HIGHLAND WILDERNESS OF WESTERN BRAZIL + +We were now in the land of the bloodsucking bats, the vampire bats +that suck the blood of living creatures, clinging to or hovering +against the shoulder of a horse or cow, or the hand or foot of a +sleeping man, and making a wound from which the blood continues to +flow long after the bat's thirst has been satiated. At Tapirapoan +there were milch cattle; and one of the calves turned up one morning +weak from loss of blood, which was still trickling from a wound, +forward of the shoulder, made by a bat. But the bats do little damage +in this neighborhood compared to what they do in some other places, +where not only the mules and cattle but the chickens have to be housed +behind bat-proof protection at night or their lives may pay the +penalty. The chief and habitual offenders are various species of +rather small bats; but it is said that other kinds of Brazilian bats +seem to have become, at least sporadically and locally, affected by +the evil example and occasionally vary their customary diet by +draughts of living blood. One of the Brazilian members of our party, +Hoehne, the botanist, was a zoologist also. He informed me that he had +known even the big fruit-eating bats to take to bloodsucking. They did +not, according to his observations, themselves make the original +wound; but after it had been made by one of the true vampires they +would lap the flowing blood and enlarge the wound. South America makes +up for its lack, relatively to Africa and India, of large man-eating +carnivores by the extraordinary ferocity or bloodthirstiness of +certain small creatures of which the kinsfolk elsewhere are harmless. +It is only here that fish no bigger than trout kill swimmers, and bats +the size of the ordinary "flittermice" of the northern hemisphere +drain the life-blood of big beasts and of man himself. + +There was not much large mammalian life in the neighborhood. Kermit +hunted industriously and brought in an occasional armadillo, coati, or +agouti for the naturalists. Miller trapped rats and a queer opossum +new to the collection. Cherrie got many birds. Cherrie and Miller +skinned their specimens in a little open hut or shed. Moses, the small +pet owl, sat on a cross-bar overhead, an interested spectator, and +chuckled whenever he was petted. Two wrens, who bred just outside the +hut, were much excited by the presence of Moses, and paid him visits +of noisy unfriendliness. The little white-throated sparrows came +familiarly about the palm cabins and whitewashed houses and trilled on +the rooftrees. It was a simple song, with just a hint of our northern +white-throat's sweet and plaintive melody, and of the opening bars of +our song-sparrow's pleasant, homely lay. It brought back dear memories +of glorious April mornings on Long Island, when through the singing of +robin and song-sparrow comes the piercing cadence of the meadowlark; +and of the far northland woods in June, fragrant with the breath of +pine and balsam-fir, where sweetheart sparrows sing from wet spruce +thickets and rapid brooks rush under the drenched and swaying alder- +boughs. + +From Tapirapoan our course lay northward up to and across the Plan +Alto, the highland wilderness of Brazil. From the edges of this +highland country, which is geologically very ancient, the affluents of +the Amazon to the north, and of the Plate to the south, flow, with +immense and devious loops and windings. + +Two days before we ourselves started with our mule-train, a train of +pack-oxen left, loaded with provisions, tools, and other things, which +we would not need until, after a month or six weeks, we began our +descent into the valley of the Amazon. There were about seventy oxen. +Most of them were well broken, but there were about a score which were +either not broken at all or else very badly broken. These were loaded +with much difficulty, and bucked like wild broncos. Again and again +they scattered their loads over the corral and over the first part of +the road. The pack-men, however--copper-colored, black, and dusky- +white--were not only masters of their art, but possessed tempers that +could not be ruffled; when they showed severity it was because +severity was needed, and not because they were angry. They finally got +all their longhorned beasts loaded and started on the trail with them. + +On January 21 we ourselves started, with the mule-train. Of course, as +always in such a journey, there was some confusion before the men and +the animals of the train settled down to the routine performance of +duty. In addition to the pack-animals we all had riding-mules. The +first day we journeyed about twelve miles, then crossing the Sepotuba +and camping beside it, below a series of falls, or rather rapids. The +country was level. It was a great natural pasture, covered with a very +open forest of low, twisted trees, bearing a superficial likeness to +the cross-timbers of Texas and Oklahoma. It is as well fitted for +stock-raising as Oklahoma; and there is also much fine agricultural +land, while the river will ultimately yield electric power. It is a +fine country for settlement. The heat is great at noon; but the nights +are not uncomfortable. We were supposed to be in the middle of the +rainy season, but hitherto most of the days had been fine, varied with +showers. The astonishing thing was the absence of mosquitoes. Insect +pests that work by day can be stood, and especially by settlers, +because they are far less serious foes in the clearings than in the +woods. The mosquitoes and other night foes offer the really serious +and unpleasant problem, because they break one's rest. Hitherto, +during our travels up the Paraguay and its tributaries, in this level, +marshy tropical region of western Brazil, we had practically not been +bothered by mosquitoes at all, in our home camps. Out in the woods +they were at times a serious nuisance, and Cherrie and Miller had been +subjected to real torment by them during some of their special +expeditions; but there were practically none on the ranches and in our +camps in the open fields by the river, even when marshes were close +by. I was puzzled--and delighted--by their absence. Settlers need not +be deterred from coming to this region by the fear of insect foes. + +This does not mean that there are not such foes. Outside of the +clearings, and of the beaten tracks of travel, they teem. There are +ticks, poisonous ants, wasps--of which some species are really serious +menaces--biting flies and gnats. I merely mean that, unlike so many +other tropical regions, this particular region is, from the standpoint +of the settler and the ordinary traveller, relatively free from insect +pests, and a pleasant place of residence. The original explorer, and +to an only less degree the hardworking field naturalist or big-game +hunter, have to face these pests, just as they have to face countless +risks, hardships, and difficulties. This is inherent in their several +professions or avocations. Many regions in the United States where +life is now absolutely comfortable and easygoing offered most +formidable problems to the first explorers a century or two ago. We +must not fall into the foolish error of thinking that the first +explorers need not suffer terrible hardships, merely because the +ordinary travellers, and even the settlers who come after them, do not +have to endure such danger, privation, and wearing fatigue--although +the first among the genuine settlers also have to undergo exceedingly +trying experiences. The early explorers and adventurers make fairly +well-beaten trails; but it is incumbent on them neither to boast of +their own experiences nor to misjudge the efforts of the pioneers +because, thanks to these very efforts, their own lines fall in +pleasant places. The ordinary traveller, who never goes off the beaten +route and who on this beaten route is carried by others, without +himself doing anything or risking anything, does not need to show much +more initiative and intelligence than an express package. He does +nothing; others do all the work, show all the forethought, take all +the risk--and are entitled to all the credit. He and his valise are +carried in practically the same fashion; and for each the achievement +stands about on the same plane. If this kind of traveller is a writer, +he can of course do admirable work, work of the highest value; but the +value comes because he is a writer and observer, not because of any +particular credit that attaches to him as a traveller. We all +recognize this truth as far as highly civilized regions are concerned: +when Bryce writes of the American commonwealth, or Lowell of European +legislative assemblies, our admiration is for the insight and thought +of the observer, and we are not concerned with his travels. When a man +travels across Arizona in a Pullman car, we do not think of him as +having performed a feat bearing even the most remote resemblance to +the feats of the first explorers of those waterless wastes; whatever +admiration we feel in connection with his trip is reserved for the +traffic-superintendent, engineer, fireman, and brakeman. But as +regards the less-known continents, such as South America, we sometimes +fail to remember these obvious truths. There yet remains plenty of +exploring work to be done in South America, as hard, as dangerous, and +almost as important as any that has already been done; work such as +has recently been done, or is now being done, by men and women such as +Haseman, Farrabee, and Miss Snethlage. The collecting naturalists who +go into the wilds and do first-class work encounter every kind of risk +and undergo every kind of hardship and exertion. Explorers and +naturalists of the right type have open to them in South America a +field of extraordinary attraction and difficulty. But to excavate +ruins that have already long been known, to visit out-of-the-way towns +that date from colonial days, to traverse old, even if uncomfortable, +routes of travel, or to ascend or descend highway rivers like the +Amazon, the Paraguay, and the lower Orinoco--all of these exploits are +well worth performing, but they in no sense represent exploration or +adventure, and they do not entitle the performer, no matter how well +he writes and no matter how much of real value he contributes to human +knowledge, to compare himself in anyway with the real wilderness +wanderer, or to criticise the latter. Such a performance entails no +hardship or difficulty worth heeding. Its value depends purely on +observation, not on action. The man does little; he merely records +what he sees. He is only the man of the beaten routes. The true +wilderness wanderer, on the contrary, must be a man of action as well +as of observation. He must have the heart and the body to do and to +endure, no less than the eye to see and the brain to note and record. + +Let me make it clear that I am not depreciating the excellent work of +so many of the men who have not gone off the beaten trails. I merely +wish to make it plain that this excellent work must not be put in the +class with that of the wilderness explorer. It is excellent work, +nevertheless, and has its place, just as the work of the true explorer +has its place. Both stand in sharpest contrast with the actions of +those alleged explorers, among whom Mr. Savage Landor stands in +unpleasant prominence. + +From the Sepotuba rapids our course at the outset lay westward. The +first day's march away from the river lay through dense tropical +forest. Away from the broad, beaten route every step of a man's +progress represented slashing a trail with the machete through the +tangle of bushes, low trees, thorny scrub, and interlaced creepers. +There were palms of new kinds, very tall, slender, straight, and +graceful, with rather short and few fronds. The wild plantains, or +pacovas, thronged the spaces among the trunks of the tall trees; their +boles were short, and their broad, erect leaves gigantic; they bore +brilliant red-and-orange flowers. There were trees whose trunks +bellied into huge swellings. There were towering trees with buttressed +trunks, whose leaves made a fretwork against the sky far overhead. +Gorgeous red-and-green trogons, with long tails, perched motionless on +the lower branches and uttered a loud, thrice-repeated whistle. We +heard the calling of the false bellbird, which is gray instead of +white like the true bellbirds; it keeps among the very topmost +branches. Heavy rain fell shortly after we reached our camping-place. + +Next morning at sunrise we climbed a steep slope to the edge of the +Parecis plateau, at a level of about two thousand feet above the sea. +We were on the Plan Alto, the high central plain of Brazil, the +healthy land of dry air, of cool nights, of clear, running brooks. The +sun was directly behind us when we topped the rise. Reining in, we +looked back over the vast Paraguayan marshes, shimmering in the long +morning lights. Then, turning again, we rode forward, casting shadows +far before us. It was twenty miles to the next water, and in hot +weather the journey across this waterless, shadeless, sandy stretch of +country is hard on the mules and oxen. But on this day the sky +speedily grew overcast and a cool wind blew in our faces as we +travelled at a quick, running walk over the immense rolling plain. The +ground was sandy; it was covered with grass and with a sparse growth +of stunted, twisted trees, never more than a few feet high. There were +rheas--ostriches--and small pampas-deer on this plain; the coloration +of the rheas made it difficult to see them at a distance, whereas the +bright red coats of the little deer, and their uplifted flags as they +ran, advertised them afar off. We also saw the footprints of cougars +and of the small-toothed, big, red wolf. Cougars are the most +inveterate enemies of these small South American deer, both those of +the open grassy plain and those of the forest. + +It is not nearly as easy to get lost on these open plains as in the +dense forest; and where there is a long, reasonably straight road or +river to come back to, a man even without a compass is safe. But in +these thick South American forests, especially on cloudy days, a +compass is an absolute necessity. We were struck by the fact that the +native hunters and ranchmen on such days continually lost themselves +and, if permitted, travelled for miles through the forest either in +circles or in exactly the wrong direction. They had no such sense of +direction as the forest-dwelling 'Ndorobo hunters in Africa had, or as +the true forest-dwelling Indians of South America are said to have. On +certainly half a dozen occasions our guides went completely astray, +and we had to take command, to disregard their assertions, and to lead +the way aright by sole reliance on our compasses. + +On this cool day we travelled well. The air was wonderful; the vast +open spaces gave a sense of abounding vigor and freedom. Early in the +afternoon we reached a station made by Colonel Rondon in the course of +his first explorations. There were several houses with whitewashed +walls, stone floors, and tiled or thatched roofs. They stood in a +wide, gently sloping valley. Through it ran a rapid brook of cool +water, in which we enjoyed delightful baths. The heavy, intensely +humid atmosphere of the low, marshy plains had gone; the air was clear +and fresh; the sky was brilliant; far and wide we looked over a +landscape that seemed limitless; the breeze that blew in our faces +might have come from our own northern plains. The midday sun was very +hot; but it was hard to realize that we were in the torrid zone. There +were no mosquitoes, so that we never put up our nets when we went to +bed; but wrapped ourselves in our blankets and slept soundly through +the cool, pleasant nights. Surely in the future this region will be +the home of a healthy highly civilized population. It is good for +cattle-raising, and the valleys are fitted for agriculture. From June +to September the nights are often really cold. Any sound northern race +could live here; and in such a land, with such a climate, there would +be much joy of living. + +On these plains the Telegraphic Commission uses motor-trucks; and +these now to relieve the mules and oxen; for some of them, especially +among the oxen, already showed the effects of the strain. Travelling +in a wild country with a pack-train is not easy on the pack-animals. +It was strange to see these big motor-vans out in the wilderness where +there was not a settler, not a civilized man except the employees of +the Telegraphic Commission. They were handled by Lieutenant Lauriado, +who, with Lieutenant Mello, had taken special charge of our transport +service; both were exceptionally good and competent men. + +The following day we again rode on across the Plan Alto. In the early +afternoon, in the midst of a downpour of rain, we crossed the divide +between the basins of the Paraguay and the Amazon. That evening we +camped on a brook whose waters ultimately ran into the Tapajos. The +rain fell throughout the afternoon, now lightly, now heavily, and the +mule-train did not get up until dark. But enough tents and flies were +pitched to shelter all of us. Fires were lit, and--after a fourteen +hours' fast we feasted royally on beans and rice and pork and beef, +seated around ox-skins spread upon the ground. The sky cleared; the +stars blazed down through the cool night; and wrapped in our blankets +we slept soundly, warm and comfortable. + +Next morning the trail had turned, and our course led northward and at +times east of north. We traversed the same high, rolling plains of +coarse grass and stunted trees. Kermit, riding a big, iron-mouthed, +bull-headed white mule, rode off to one side on a hunt, and rejoined +the line of march carrying two bucks of the little pampas-deer, or +field deer, behind his saddle. These deer are very pretty and +graceful, with a tail like that of the Colombian blacktail. Standing +motionless facing one, in the sparse scrub, they are hard to make out; +if seen sideways the reddish of their coats, contrasted with the +greens and grays of the landscape, betrays them; and when they bound +off the upraised white tail is very conspicuous. They carefully avoid +the woods in which their cousins the little bush deer are found, and +go singly or in couples. Their odor can be made out at quite a +distance, but it is not rank. They still carried their antlers. Their +venison was delicious. + +We came across many queer insects. One red grasshopper when it flew +seemed as big as a small sparrow; and we passed in some places such +multitudes of active little green grasshoppers that they frightened +the mules. At our camping-place we saw an extraordinary colony of +spiders. It was among some dwarf trees, standing a few yards apart +from one another by the water. When we reached the camping-place, +early in the afternoon--the pack-train did not get in until nearly +sunset, just ahead of the rain--no spiders were out. They were under +the leaves of the trees. Their webs were tenantless, and indeed for +the most part were broken down. But at dusk they came out from their +hiding-places, two or three hundred of them in all, and at once began +to repair the old and spin new webs. Each spun its own circular web, +and sat in the middle; and each web was connected on several sides +with other webs, while those nearest the trees were hung to them by +spun ropes, so to speak. The result was a kind of sheet of web +consisting of scores of wheels, in each of which the owner and +proprietor sat; and there were half a dozen such sheets, each +extending between two trees. The webs could hardly be seen; and the +effect was of scores of big, formidable-looking spiders poised in +midair, equidistant from one another, between each pair of trees. When +darkness and rain fell they were still out, fixing their webs, and +pouncing on the occasional insects that blundered into the webs. I +have no question that they are nocturnal; they certainly hide in the +daytime, and it seems impossible that they can come out only for a few +minutes at dusk. + +In the evenings, after supper or dinner--it is hard to tell by what +title the exceedingly movable evening meal should be called--the +members of the party sometimes told stories of incidents in their past +lives. Most of them were men of varied experiences. Rondon and Lyra +told of the hardship and suffering of the first trips through the +wilderness across which we were going with such comfort. On this very +plateau they had once lived for weeks on the fruits of the various +fruit-bearing trees. Naturally they became emaciated and feeble. In +the forests of the Amazonian basin they did better because they often +shot birds and plundered the hives of the wild honey-bees. In cutting +the trail for the telegraph-line through the Juruena basin they lost +every single one of the hundred and sixty mules with which they had +started. Those men pay dear who build the first foundations of empire! +Fiala told of the long polar nights and of white bears that came round +the snow huts of the explorers, greedy to eat them, and themselves +destined to be eaten by them. Of all the party Cherrie's experiences +had covered the widest range. This was partly owing to the fact that +the latter-day naturalist of the most vigorous type who goes into the +untrodden wastes of the world must see and do many strange things; and +still more owing to the character of the man himself. The things he +had seen and done and undergone often enabled him to cast the light of +his own past experience on unexpected subjects. Once we were talking +about the proper weapons for cavalry, and some one mentioned the +theory that the lance is especially formidable because of the moral +effect it produces on the enemy. Cherrie nodded emphatically; and a +little cross-examination elicited the fact that he was speaking from +lively personal recollection of his own feelings when charged by +lancers. It was while he was fighting with the Venezuelan insurgents +in an unsuccessful uprising against the tyranny of Castro. He was on +foot, with five Venezuelans, all cool men and good shots. In an open +plain they were charged by twenty of Castro's lancers, who galloped +out from behind cover two or three hundred yards off. It was a war in +which neither side gave quarter and in which the wounded and the +prisoners were butchered--just as President Madero was butchered in +Mexico. Cherrie knew that it meant death for him and his companions if +the charge came home; and the sight of the horsemen running in at full +speed, with their long lances in rest and the blades glittering, left +an indelible impression on his mind. But he and his companions shot +deliberately and accurately; ten of the lancers were killed, the +nearest falling within fifty yards; and the others rode off in +headlong haste. A cool man with a rifle, if he has mastered his +weapon, need fear no foe. + +At this camp the auto-vans again joined us. They were to go direct to +the first telegraph station, at the great falls of the Utiarity, on +the Rio Papagaio. Of course they travelled faster than the mule-train. +Father Zahm, attended by Sigg, started for the falls in them. Cherrie +and Miller also went in them, because they had found that it was very +difficult to collect birds, and especially mammals, when we were +moving every day, packing up early each morning and the mule-train +arriving late in the afternoon or not until nightfall. Moreover, there +was much rain, which made it difficult to work except under the tents. +Accordingly, the two naturalists desired to get to a place where they +could spend several days and collect steadily, thereby doing more +effective work. The rest of us continued with the mule-train, as was +necessary. + +It was always a picturesque sight when camp was broken, and again at +nightfall when the laden mules came stringing in and their burdens +were thrown down, while the tents were pitched and the fires lit. We +breakfasted before leaving camp, the aluminum cups and plates being +placed on ox-hides, round which we sat, on the ground or on camp- +stools. We fared well, on rice, beans, and crackers, with canned +corned beef, and salmon or any game that had been shot, and coffee, +tea, and matte. I then usually sat down somewhere to write, and when +the mules were nearly ready I popped my writing-materials into my +duffel-bag/war-sack, as we would have called it in the old days on the +plains. I found that the mules usually arrived so late in the +afternoon or evening that I could not depend upon being able to write +at that time. Of course, if we made a very early start I could not +write at all. At night there were no mosquitoes. In the daytime gnats +and sand-flies and horse-flies sometimes bothered us a little, but not +much. Small stingless bees lit on us in numbers and crawled over the +skin, making a slight tickling; but we did not mind them until they +became very numerous. There was a good deal of rain, but not enough to +cause any serious annoyance. + +Colonel Rondon and Lieutenant Lyra held many discussions as to whither +the Rio da Duvida flowed, and where its mouth might be. Its +provisional name--"River of Doubt"--was given it precisely because of +this ignorance concerning it; an ignorance which it was one of the +purposes of our trip to dispel. It might go into the Gy-Parana, in +which case its course must be very short; it might flow into the +Madeira low down, in which case its course would be very long; or, +which was unlikely, it might flow into the Tapajos. There was another +river, of which Colonel Rondon had come across the head-waters, whose +course was equally doubtful, although in its case there was rather +more probability of its flowing into the Juruena, by which name the +Tapajos is known for its upper half. To this unknown river Colonel +Rondon had given the name Ananas, because when he came across it he +found a deserted Indian field with pineapples, which the hungry +explorers ate greedily. Among the things the colonel and I hoped to +accomplish on the trip was to do a little work in clearing up one or +the other of these two doubtful geographical points, and thereby to +push a little forward the knowledge of this region. Originally, as +described in the first chapter, my trip was undertaken primarily in +the interest of the American Museum of Natural History of New York, to +add to our knowledge of the birds and mammals of the far interior of +the western Brazilian wilderness; and the labels of our baggage and +scientific equipment, printed by the museum, were entitled "Colonel +Roosevelt's South American Expedition for the American Museum of +Natural History." But, as I have already mentioned, at Rio the +Brazilian Government, through the secretary of foreign affairs, Doctor +Lauro Muller, suggested that I should combine the expedition with one +by Colonel Rondon, which they contemplated making, and thereby make +both expeditions of broader scientific interest. I accepted the +proposal with much pleasure; and we found, when we joined Colonel +Rondon and his associates, that their baggage and equipment had been +labelled by the Brazilian Government "Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt- +Rondon." This thenceforth became the proper and official title of the +expedition. Cherrie and Miller did the chief zoological work. The +geological work was done by a Brazilian member of the expedition, +Euzebio Oliveira. The astronomical work necessary for obtaining the +exact geographical location of the rivers and points of note was to be +done by Lieutenant Lyra, under the supervision of Colonel Rondon; and +at the telegraph stations this astronomical work would be checked by +wire communications with one of Colonel Rondon's assistants at Cuyaba, +Lieutenant Caetano, thereby securing a minutely accurate comparison of +time. The sketch-maps and surveying and cartographical work generally +were to be made under the supervision of Colonel Rondon by Lyra, with +assistance from Fiala and Kermit. Captain Amilcar handled the worst +problem--transportation; the medical member was Doctor Cajazeira. + +At night around the camp-fire my Brazilian companions often spoke of +the first explorers of this vast wilderness of western Brazil--men +whose very names are now hardly known, but who did each his part in +opening the country which will some day see such growth and +development. Among the most notable of them was a Portuguese, Ricardo +Franco, who spent forty years at the work, during the last quarter of +the eighteenth and the opening years of the nineteenth centuries. He +ascended for long distances the Xingu and the Tapajos, and went up the +Madeira and Guapore, crossing to the head-waters of the Paraguay and +partially exploring there also. He worked among and with the Indians, +much as Mungo Park worked with the natives of West Africa, having none +of the aids, instruments, and comforts with which even the hardiest of +modern explorers are provided. He was one of the men who established +the beginnings of the province of Matto Grosso. For many years the +sole method of communication between this remote interior province and +civilization was by the long, difficult, and perilous route which led +up the Amazon and Madeira; and its then capital, the town of Matto +Grosso, the seat of the captain-general, with its palace, cathedral, +and fortress, was accordingly placed far to the west, near the +Guapore. When less circuitous lines of communication were established +farther eastward the old capital was abandoned, and the tropic +wilderness surged over the lonely little town. The tomb of the old +colonial explorer still stands in the ruined cathedral, where the +forest has once more come to its own. But civilization is again +advancing to reclaim the lost town and to revive the memory of the +wilderness wanderer who helped to found it. Colonel Rondon has named a +river after Franco; a range of mountains has also been named after +him; and the colonel, acting for the Brazilian Government, has +established a telegraph station in what was once the palace of the +captain-general. + +Our northward trail led along the high ground a league or two to the +east of the northward-flowing Rio Sacre. Each night we camped on one +of the small tributary brooks that fed it. Fiala, Kermit, and I +occupied one tent. In the daytime the "pium" flies, vicious little +sand-flies, became bad enough to make us finally use gloves and head- +nets. There were many heavy rains, which made the travelling hard for +the mules. The soil was more often clay than sand, and it was slippery +when wet. The weather was overcast, and there was usually no +oppressive heat even at noon. At intervals along the trail we came on +the staring skull and bleached skeleton of a mule or ox. Day after day +we rode forward across endless flats of grass and of low open scrubby +forest, the trees standing far apart and in most places being but +little higher than the head of a horseman. Some of them carried +blossoms, white, orange, yellow, pink; and there were many flowers, +the most beautiful being the morning-glories. Among the trees were +bastard rubber-trees, and dwarf palmetto; if the latter grew more than +a few feet high their tops were torn and dishevelled by the wind. +There was very little bird or mammal life; there were few long vistas, +for in most places it was not possible to see far among the gray, +gnarled trunks of the wind-beaten little trees. Yet the desolate +landscape had a certain charm of its own, although not a charm that +would be felt by any man who does not take pleasure in mere space, and +freedom and wildness, and in plains standing empty to the sun, the +wind, and the rain. The country bore some resemblance to the country +west of Redjaf on the White Nile, the home of the giant eland; only +here there was no big game, no chance of seeing the towering form of +the giraffe, the black bulk of elephant or buffalo, the herds of +straw-colored hartebeests, or the ghostly shimmer of the sun glinting +on the coats of roan and eland as they vanished silently in the gray +sea of withered scrub. + +One feature in common with the African landscape was the abundance of +ant-hills, some as high as a man. They were red in the clay country, +gray where it was sandy; and the dirt houses were also in trees, while +their raised tunnels traversed trees and ground alike. At some of the +camping-places we had to be on our watch against the swarms of leaf- +carrying ants. These are so called in the books--the Brazilians call +them "carregadores," or porters--because they are always carrying bits +of leaves and blades of grass to their underground homes. They are +inveterate burden-bearers, and they industriously cut into pieces and +carry off any garment they can get at; and we had to guard our shoes +and clothes from them, just as we had often had to guard all our +belongings against the termites. These ants did not bite us; but we +encountered huge black ants, an inch and a quarter long, which were +very vicious, and their bite was not only painful but quite poisonous. +Praying-mantes were common, and one evening at supper one had a +comical encounter with a young dog, a jovial near-puppy, of Colonel +Rondon's, named Cartucho. He had been christened the jolly-cum-pup, +from a character in one of Frank Stockton's stories, which I suppose +are now remembered only by elderly people, and by them only if they +are natives of the United States. Cartucho was lying with his head on +the ox-hide that served as table, waiting with poorly dissembled +impatience for his share of the banquet. The mantis flew down on the +ox-hide and proceeded to crawl over it, taking little flights from one +corner to another; and whenever it thought itself menaced it assumed +an attitude of seeming devotion and real defiance. Soon it lit in +front of Cartucho's nose. Cartucho cocked his big ears forward, +stretched his neck, and cautiously sniffed at the new arrival, not +with any hostile design, but merely to find out whether it would prove +to be a playmate. The mantis promptly assumed an attitude of prayer. +This struck Cartucho as both novel and interesting, and he thrust his +sniffing black nose still nearer. The mantis dexterously thrust +forward first one and then the other armed fore leg, touching the +intrusive nose, which was instantly jerked back and again slowly and +inquiringly brought forward. Then the mantis suddenly flew in +Cartucho's face, whereupon Cartucho, with a smothered yelp of dismay, +almost turned a back somersault; and the triumphant mantis flew back +to the middle of the ox-hide, among the plates, where it reared erect +and defied the laughing and applauding company. + +On the morning of the 29th we were rather late in starting, because +the rain had continued through the night into the morning, drenching +everything. After nightfall there had been some mosquitoes, and the +piums were a pest during daylight; where one bites it leaves a tiny +black spot on the skin which lasts for several weeks. In the slippery +mud one of the pack-mules fell and injured itself so that it had to be +abandoned. Soon after starting we came on the telegraph-line, which +runs from Cuyaba. This was the first time we had seen it. Two Parecis +Indians joined us, leading a pack-bullock. They were dressed in hat, +shirt, trousers, and sandals, precisely like the ordinary Brazilian +caboclos, as the poor backwoods peasants, usually with little white +blood in them, are colloquially and half-derisively styled--caboclo +being originally a Guarany word meaning "naked savage." These two +Indians were in the employ of the Telegraphic Commission, and had been +patrolling the telegraph-line. The bullock carried their personal +belongings and the tools with which they could repair a break. The +commission pays the ordinary Indian worker 66 cents a day; a very good +worker gets $1, and the chief $1.66. No man gets anything unless he +works. Colonel Rondon, by just, kindly, and understanding treatment of +these Indians, who previously had often been exploited and maltreated +by rubber-gatherers, has made them the loyal friends of the +government. He has gathered them at the telegraph stations, where they +cultivate fields of mandioc, beans, potatoes, maize, and other +vegetables, and where he is introducing them to stock-raising; and the +entire work of guarding and patrolling the line is theirs. + +After six hours' march we came to the crossing of the Rio Sacre at the +beautiful waterfall appropriately called the Salto Bello. This is the +end of the automobile road. Here there is a small Parecis village. The +men of the village work the ferry by which everything is taken across +the deep and rapid river. The ferry-boat is made of planking placed on +three dugout canoes, and runs on a trolley. Before crossing we enjoyed +a good swim in the swift, clear, cool water. The Indian village, where +we camped, is placed on a jutting tongue of land round which the river +sweeps just before it leaps from the over-hanging precipice. The falls +themselves are very lovely. Just above them is a wooded island, but +the river joins again before it races forward for the final plunge. +There is a sheer drop of forty or fifty yards, with a breadth two or +three times as great; and the volume of water is large. On the left or +hither bank a cliff extends for several hundred yards below the falls. +Green vines have flung themselves down over its face, and they are met +by other vines thrusting upward from the mass of vegetation at its +foot, glistening in the perpetual mist from the cataract, and clothing +even the rock surfaces in vivid green. The river, after throwing +itself over the rock wall, rushes off in long curves at the bottom of +a thickly wooded ravine, the white water churning among the black +boulders. There is a perpetual rainbow at the foot of the falls. The +masses of green water that are hurling themselves over the brink +dissolve into shifting, foaming columns of snowy lace. + +On the edge of the cliff below the falls Colonel Rondon had placed +benches, giving a curious touch of rather conventional tourist- +civilization to this cataract far out in the lonely wilderness. It is +well worth visiting for its beauty. It is also of extreme interest +because of the promise it holds for the future. Lieutenant Lyra +informed me that they had calculated that this fall would furnish +thirty-six thousand horse-power. Eight miles off we were to see +another fall of much greater height and power. There are many rivers +in this region which would furnish almost unlimited motive force to +populous manufacturing communities. The country round about is +healthy. It is an upland region of good climate; we were visiting it +in the rainy season, the season when the nights are far less cool than +in the dry season, and yet we found it delightful. There is much +fertile soil in the neighborhood of the streams, and the teeming +lowlands of the Amazon and the Paraguay could readily--and with +immense advantage to both sides--be made tributary to an industrial +civilization seated on these highlands. A telegraph-line has been +built to and across them. A rail-road should follow. Such a line could +be easily built, for there are no serious natural obstacles. In +advance of its construction a trolley-line could be run from Cuyaba to +the falls, using the power furnished by the latter. Once this is done +the land will offer extraordinary opportunities to settlers of the +right kind: to home-makers and to enterprising business men of +foresight, coolness, and sagacity who are willing to work with the +settlers, the immigrants, the home-makers, for an advantage which +shall be mutual. + +The Parecis Indians, whom we met here, were exceedingly interesting. +They were to all appearance an unusually cheerful, good-humored, +pleasant-natured people. Their teeth were bad; otherwise they appeared +strong and vigorous, and there were plenty of children. The colonel +was received as a valued friend and as a leader who was to be followed +and obeyed. He is raising them by degrees--the only way by which to +make the rise permanent. In this village he has got them to substitute +for the flimsy Indian cabins houses of the type usual among the poorer +field laborers and back-country dwellers in Brazil. These houses have +roofs of palm thatch, steeply pitched. They are usually open at the +sides, consisting merely of a framework of timbers, with a wall at the +back; but some have the ordinary four walls, of erect palm-logs. The +hammocks are slung in the houses, and the cooking is also done in +them, with pots placed on small open fires, or occasionally in a kind +of clay oven. The big gourds for water, and the wicker baskets, are +placed on the ground, or hung on the poles. + +The men had adopted, and were wearing, shirts and trousers, but the +women had made little change in their clothing. A few wore print +dresses, but obviously only for ornament. Most of them, especially the +girls and young married women, wore nothing but a loin-cloth in +addition to bead necklaces and bracelets. The nursing mothers--and +almost all the mothers were nursing--sometimes carried the child slung +against their side of hip, seated in a cloth belt, or sling, which +went over the opposite shoulder of the mother. The women seemed to be +well treated, although polygamy is practised. The children were loved +by every one; they were petted by both men and women, and they behaved +well to one another, the boys not seeming to bully the girls or the +smaller boys. Most of the children were naked, but the girls early +wore the loin-cloth; and some, both of the little boys and the little +girls, wore colored print garments, to the evident pride of themselves +and their parents. In each house there were several families, and life +went on with no privacy but with good humor, consideration, and +fundamentally good manners. The man or woman who had nothing to do lay +in a hammock or squatted on the ground leaning against a post or wall. +The children played together, or lay in little hammocks, or tagged +round after their mothers; and when called they came trustfully up to +us to be petted or given some small trinket; they were friendly little +souls, and accustomed to good treatment. One woman was weaving a +cloth, another was making a hammock; others made ready melons and +other vegetables and cooked them over tiny fires. The men, who had +come in from work at the ferry or along the telegraph-lines, did some +work themselves, or played with the children; one cut a small boy's +hair, and then had his own hair cut by a friend. But the absorbing +amusement of the men was an extraordinary game of ball. + +In our family we have always relished Oliver Herford's nonsense +rhymes, including the account of Willie's displeasure with his goat: + + "I do not like my billy goat, + I wish that he was dead; + Because he kicked me, so he did, + He kicked me with his head." + +Well, these Parecis Indians enthusiastically play football with their +heads. The game is not only native to them, but I have never heard or +read of its being played by any other tribe or people. They use a +light hollow rubber ball, of their own manufacture. It is circular and +about eight inches in diameter. The players are divided into two +sides, and stationed much as in association football, and the ball is +placed on the ground to be put in play as in football. Then a player +runs forward, throws himself flat on the ground, and butts the ball +toward the opposite side. This first butt, when the ball is on the +ground, never lifts it much and it rolls and bounds toward the +opponents. One or two of the latter run toward it; one throws himself +flat on his face and butts the ball back. Usually this butt lifts it, +and it flies back in a curve well up in the air; and an opposite +player, rushing toward it, catches it on his head with such a swing of +his brawny neck, and such precision and address that the ball bounds +back through the air as a football soars after a drop-kick. If the +ball flies off to one side or the other it is brought back, and again +put in play. Often it will be sent to and fro a dozen times, from head +to head, until finally it rises with such a sweep that it passes far +over the heads of the opposite players and descends behind them. Then +shrill, rolling cries of good-humored triumph arise from the victors; +and the game instantly begins again with fresh zest. There are, of +course, no such rules as in a specialized ball-game of civilization; +and I saw no disputes. There may be eight or ten, or many more, +players on each side. The ball is never touched with the hands or +feet, or with anything except the top of the head. It is hard to decide +whether to wonder most at the dexterity and strength with which it is +hit or butted with the head, as it comes down through the air, or at +the reckless speed and skill with which the players throw themselves +headlong on the ground to return the ball if it comes low down. Why +they do not grind off their noses I cannot imagine. Some of the +players hardly ever failed to catch and return the ball if it came in +their neighborhood, and with such a vigorous toss of the head that it +often flew in a great curve for a really astonishing distance. + +That night a pack-ox got into the tent in which Kermit and I were +sleeping, entering first at one end and then at the other. It is +extraordinary that he did not waken us; but we slept undisturbed while +the ox deliberately ate our shirts, socks, and underclothes! It chewed +them into rags. One of my socks escaped, and my undershirt, although +chewed full of holes, was still good for some weeks' wear; but the +other things were in fragments. + +In the morning Colonel Rondon arranged for us to have breakfast over +on the benches under the trees by the waterfall, whose roar, lulled to +a thunderous murmur, had been in our ears before we slept and when we +waked. There could have been no more picturesque place for the +breakfast of such a party as ours. All travellers who really care to +see what is most beautiful and most characteristic of the far interior +of South America should in their journey visit this region, and see +the two great waterfalls. They are even now easy of access; and as +soon as the traffic warrants it they will be made still more so; then, +from Sao Luis Caceres, they will be speedily reached by light +steamboat up the Sepotuba and by a day or two's automobile ride, with +a couple of days on horse-back in between. + +The colonel held a very serious council with the Parecis Indians over +an incident which caused him grave concern. One of the commission's +employees, a negro, had killed a wild Nhambiquara Indian; but it +appeared that he had really been urged on and aided by the Parecis, as +the members of the tribe to which the dead Indian belonged were much +given to carrying off the Parecis women and in other ways making +themselves bad neighbors. The colonel tried hard to get at the truth +of the matter; he went to the biggest Indian house, where he sat in a +hammock--an Indian child cuddling solemnly up to him, by the way-- +while the Indians sat in other hammocks, and stood round about; but it +was impossible to get an absolutely frank statement. + +It appeared, however, that the Nhambiquaras had made a descent on the +Parecis village in the momentary absence of the men of the village; +but the latter, notified by the screaming of the women, had returned +in time to rescue them. The negro was with them and, having a good +rifle, he killed one of the aggressors. The Parecis were, of course, +in the right, but the colonel could not afford to have his men take +sides in a tribal quarrel. + +It was only a two hours' march across to the Papagaio at the Falls of +Utiarity, so named by their discoverer, Colonel Rondon, after the +sacred falcon of the Parecis. On the way we passed our Indian friends, +themselves bound thither; both the men and the women bore burdens--the +burdens of some of the women, poor things, were heavy--and even the +small naked children carried the live hens. At Utiarity there is a big +Parecis settlement and a telegraph station kept by one of the +employees of the commission. His pretty brown wife is acting as +schoolmistress to a group of little Parecis girls. The Parecis chief +has been made a major and wears a uniform accordingly. The commission +has erected good buildings for its own employees and has superintended +the erection of good houses for the Indians. Most of the latter still +prefer the simplicity of the loin-cloth, in their ordinary lives, but +they proudly wore their civilized clothes in our honor. When in the +late afternoon the men began to play a regular match game of head- +ball, with a scorer or umpire to keep count, they soon discarded most +of their clothes, coming down to nothing but trousers or a loin-cloth. +Two or three of them had their faces stained with red ochre. Among the +women and children looking on were a couple of little girls who +paraded about on stilts. + +The great waterfall was half a mile below us. Lovely though we had +found Salto Bello, these falls were far superior in beauty and +majesty. They are twice as high and twice as broad; and the lay of the +land is such that the various landscapes in which the waterfall is a +feature are more striking. A few hundred yards above the falls the +river turns at an angle and widens. The broad, rapid shallows are +crested with whitecaps. Beyond this wide expanse of flecked and +hurrying water rise the mist columns of the cataract; and as these +columns are swayed and broken by the wind the forest appears through +and between them. From below the view is one of singular grandeur. The +fall is over a shelving ledge of rock which goes in a nearly straight +line across the river's course. But at the left there is a salient in +the cliff-line, and here accordingly a great cataract of foaming water +comes down almost as a separate body, in advance of the line of the +main fall. I doubt whether, excepting, of course, Niagara, there is a +waterfall in North America which outranks this if both volume and +beauty are considered. Above the fall the river flows through a wide +valley with gently sloping sides. Below, it slips along, a torrent of +white-green water, at the bottom of a deep gorge; and the sides of the +gorge are clothed with a towering growth of tropical forest. + +Next morning the cacique of these Indians, in his major's uniform, +came to breakfast, and bore himself with entire propriety. It was +raining heavily--it rained most of the time--and a few minutes +previously I had noticed the cacique's two wives, with three or four +other young women, going out to the mandioc fields. It was a +picturesque group. The women were all mothers, and each carried a +nursing child. They wore loin-cloths or short skirts. Each carried on +her back a wickerwork basket supported by a head-strap which went +around her forehead. Each carried a belt slung diagonally across her +body, over her right shoulder; in this the child was carried, against +and perhaps astride of her left hip. They were comely women, who did +not look jaded or cowed; and they laughed cheerfully and nodded to us +as they passed through the rain, on their way to the fields. But the +contrast between them and the chief in his soldier's uniform seated at +breakfast was rather too striking; and incidentally it etched in bold +lines the folly of those who idealize the life of even exceptionally +good and pleasant-natured savages. + +Although it was the rainy season, the trip up to this point had not +been difficult, and from May to October, when the climate is dry and +at its best, there would be practically no hardship at all for +travellers and visitors. This is a healthy plateau. But, of course, +the men who do the first pioneering, even in country like this, +encounter dangers and run risks; and they make payment with their +bodies. At more than one halting-place we had come across the forlorn +grave of some soldier or laborer of the commission. The grave-mound +lay within a rude stockade; and an uninscribed wooden cross, gray and +weather-beaten, marked the last resting-place of the unknown and +forgotten man beneath, the man who had paid with his humble life the +cost of pushing the frontier of civilization into the wild savagery of +the wilderness. Farther west the conditions become less healthy. At +this station Colonel Rondon received news of sickness and of some +deaths among the employees of the commission in the country to the +westward, which we were soon to enter. Beriberi and malignant malarial +fever were the diseases which claimed the major number of the victims. + +Surely these are "the men who do the work for which they draw the +wage." Kermit had with him the same copy of Kipling's poems which he +had carried through Africa. At these falls there was one sunset of +angry splendor; and we contrasted this going down of the sun, through +broken rain-clouds and over leagues of wet tropical forest, with the +desert sunsets we had seen in Arizona and Sonora, and along the Guaso +Nyiro north and west of Mount Kenia, when the barren mountains were +changed into flaming "ramparts of slaughter and peril" standing above +"the wine-dark flats below." + +It rained during most of the day after our arrival at Utiarity. +Whenever there was any let-up the men promptly came forth from their +houses and played head-ball with the utmost vigor; and we would listen +to their shrill undulating cries of applause and triumph until we also +grew interested and strolled over to look on. They are more infatuated +with the game than an American boy is with baseball or football. It is +an extraordinary thing that this strange and exciting game should be +played by, and only by, one little tribe of Indians in what is almost +the very centre of South America. If any traveller or ethnologist +knows of a tribe elsewhere that plays a similar game, I wish he would +let me know. To play it demands great activity, vigor, skill, and +endurance. Looking at the strong, supple bodies of the players, and at +the number of children roundabout, it seemed as if the tribe must be +in vigorous health; yet the Parecis have decreased in numbers, for +measles and smallpox have been fatal to them. + +By the evening the rain was coming down more heavily than ever. It was +not possible to keep the moisture out of our belongings; everything +became mouldy except what became rusty. It rained all that night; and +day-light saw the downpour continuing with no prospect of cessation. +The pack-mules could not have gone on with the march; they were +already rather done up by their previous ten days' labor through rain +and mud, and it seemed advisable to wait until the weather became +better before attempting to go forward. Moreover, there had been no +chance to take the desired astronomical observations. There was very +little grass for the mules; but there was abundance of a small-leaved +plant eight or ten inches high--unfortunately, not very nourishing--on +which they fed greedily. In such weather and over such muddy trails +oxen travel better than mules. + +In spite of the weather Cherrie and Miller, whom, together with Father +Zahm and Sigg, we had found awaiting us, made good collections of +birds and mammals. Among the latter were opossums and mice that were +new to them. The birds included various forms so unlike our home birds +that the enumeration of their names would mean nothing. One of the +most interesting was a large black-and-white woodpecker, the white +predominating in the plumage. Several of these woodpeckers were +usually found together. They were showy, noisy, and restless, and +perched on twigs, in ordinary bird fashion, at least as often as they +clung to the trunks in orthodox woodpecker style. The prettiest bird +was a tiny manakin, coal-black, with a red-and-orange head. + +On February 2 the rain let up, although the sky remained overcast and +there were occasional showers. I walked off with my rifle for a couple +of leagues; at that distance, from a slight hillock, the mist columns +of the falls were conspicuous in the landscape. The only mammal I saw +on the walk was a rather hairy armadillo, with a flexible tail, which +I picked up and brought back to Miller--it showed none of the speed of +the nine-banded armadillos we met on our jaguar-hunt. Judging by its +actions, as it trotted about before it saw me, it must be diurnal in +habits. It was new to the collection. + +I spent much of the afternoon by the waterfall. Under the overcast sky +the great cataract lost the deep green and fleecy-white of the sunlit +falling waters. Instead it showed opaline hues and tints of topaz and +amethyst. At all times, and under all lights, it was majestic and +beautiful. + +Colonel Rondon had given the Indians various presents, those for the +women including calico prints, and, what they especially prized, +bottles of scented oil, from Paris, for their hair. The men held a +dance in the late afternoon. For this occasion most, but not all, of +them cast aside their civilized clothing, and appeared as doubtless +they would all have appeared had none but themselves been present. +They were absolutely naked except for a beaded string round the waist. +Most of them were spotted and dashed with red paint, and on one leg +wore anklets which rattled. A number carried pipes through which they +blew a kind of deep stifled whistle in time to the dancing. One of +them had his pipe leading into a huge gourd, which gave out a hollow, +moaning boom. Many wore two red or green or yellow macaw feathers in +their hair, and one had a macaw feather stuck transversely through the +septum of his nose. They circled slowly round and round, chanting and +stamping their feet, while the anklet rattles clattered and the pipes +droned. They advanced to the wall of one of the houses, again and +again chanting and bowing before it; I was told this was a demand for +drink. They entered one house and danced in a ring around the cooking- +fire in the middle of the earth floor; I was told that they were then +reciting the deeds of mighty hunters and describing how they brought +in the game. They drank freely from gourds and pannikins of a +fermented drink made from mandioc which were brought out to them. +During the first part of the dance the women remained in the houses, +and all the doors and windows were shut and blankets hung to prevent +the possibility of seeing out. But during the second part all the +women and girls came out and looked on. They were themselves to have +danced when the men had finished, but were overcome with shyness at +the thought of dancing with so many strangers looking on. The children +played about with unconcern throughout the ceremony, one of them +throwing high in the air, and again catching in his hands, a loaded +feather, a kind of shuttlecock. + +In the evening the growing moon shone through the cloud-rack. Anything +approaching fair weather always put our men in good spirits; and the +muleteers squatted in a circle, by a fire near a pile of packs, and +listened to a long monotonously and rather mournfully chanted song +about a dance and a love-affair. We ourselves worked busily with our +photographs and our writing. There was so much humidity in the air +that everything grew damp and stayed damp, and mould gathered quickly. +At this season it is a country in which writing, taking photographs, +and preparing specimens are all works of difficulty, at least so far +as concerns preserving and sending home the results of the labor; and +a man's clothing is never really dry. From here Father Zahm returned +to Tapirapoan, accompanied by Sigg. + + + + VII. WITH A MULE TRAIN ACROSS NHAMBIQUARA LAND + +From this point we were to enter a still wilder region, the land of +the naked Nhambiquaras. On February 3 the weather cleared and we +started with the mule-train and two ox-carts. Fiala and Lieutenant +Lauriado stayed at Utiarity to take canoes and go down the Papagaio, +which had not been descended by any scientific party, and perhaps by +no one. They were then to descend the Juruena and Tapajos, thereby +performing a necessary part of the work of the expedition. Our +remaining party consisted of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Lyra, the +doctor, Oliveira, Cherrie, Miller, Kermit, and myself. On the Juruena +we expected to meet the pack ox-train with Captain Amilcar and +Lieutenant Mello; the other Brazilian members of the party had +returned. We had now begun the difficult part of the expedition. The +pium flies were becoming a pest. There was much fever and beriberi in +the country we were entering. The feed for the animals was poor; the +rains had made the trails slippery and difficult; and many, both of +the mules and the oxen, were already weak, and some had to be +abandoned. We left the canoe, the motor, and the gasolene; we had +hoped to try them on the Amazonian rivers, but we were obliged to cut +down everything that was not absolutely indispensable. + +Before leaving we prepared for shipment back to the museum some of the +bigger skins, and also some of the weapons and utensils of the +Indians, which Kermit had collected. These included woven fillets, and +fillets made of macaw feathers, for use in the dances; woven belts; a +gourd in which the sacred drink is offered to the god Enoerey; +wickerwork baskets; flutes or pipes; anklet rattles; hammocks; a belt +of the kind used by the women in carrying the babies, with the +weaving-frame. All these were Parecis articles. He also secured from +the Nhambiquaras wickerwork baskets of a different type and bows and +arrows. The bows were seven feet long and the arrows five feet. There +were blunt-headed arrows for birds, arrows with long, sharp wooden +blades for tapir, deer, and other mammals; and the poisoned war- +arrows, with sharp barbs, poison-coated and bound on by fine thongs, +and with a long, hollow wooden guard to slip over the entire point and +protect it until the time came to use it. When people talk glibly of +"idle" savages they ignore the immense labor entailed by many of their +industries, and the really extraordinary amount of work they +accomplish by the skilful use of their primitive and ineffective +tools. + +It was not until early in the afternoon that we started into the +"sertao,"[*] as Brazilians call the wilderness. We drove with us a +herd of oxen for food. After going about fifteen miles we camped +beside the swampy headwaters of a little brook. It was at the spot +where nearly seven years previously Rondon and Lyra had camped on the +trip when they discovered Utiarity Falls and penetrated to the +Juruena. When they reached this place they had been thirty-six hours +without food. They killed a bush deer--a small deer--and ate literally +every particle. The dogs devoured the entire skin. For much of the +time on this trip they lived on wild fruit, and the two dogs that +remained alive would wait eagerly under the trees and eat the fruit +that was shaken down. + +[*] Pronounced "sairtown," as nearly as, with our preposterous methods + of spelling and pronunciation, I can render it. + +In the late afternoon the piums were rather bad at this camp, but we +had gloves and head-nets, and were not bothered; and although there +were some mosquitoes we slept well under our mosquito-nets. The frogs +in the swamp uttered a peculiar, loud shout. Miller told of a little +tree-frog in Colombia which swelled itself out with air until it +looked like the frog in Aesop's fables, and then brayed like a mule; +and Cherrie told of a huge frog in Guiana that uttered a short, loud +roar. + +Next day the weather was still fair. Our march lay through country +like that which we had been traversing for ten days. Skeletons of +mules and oxen were more frequent; and once or twice by the wayside we +passed the graves of officers or men who had died on the road. Barbed +wire encircled the desolate little mounds. We camped on the west bank +of the Burity River. Here there is a balsa, or ferry, run by two +Parecis Indians, as employees of the Telegraphic Commission, under the +colonel. Each had a thatched house, and each had two wives--all these +Indians are pagans. All were dressed much like the poorer peasants of +the Brazilian back country, and all were pleasant and well-behaved. +The women ran the ferry about as well as the men. They had no +cultivated fields, and for weeks they had been living only on game and +honey; and they hailed with joy our advent and the quantities of beans +and rice which, together with some beef, the colonel left with them. +They feasted most of the night. Their houses contained their hammocks, +baskets, and other belongings, and they owned some poultry. In one +house was a tiny parakeet, very much at home, and familiar, but by no +means friendly, with strangers. There are wild Nhambiquaras in the +neighborhood, and recently several of these had menaced the two +ferrymen with an attack, even shooting arrows at them. The ferrymen +had driven them off by firing their rifles in the air; and they +expected and received the colonel's praise for their self-restraint; +for the colonel is doing all he can to persuade the Indians to stop +their blood feuds. The rifles were short and light Winchester +carbines, of the kind so universally used by the rubber-gatherers and +other adventurous wanderers in the forest wilderness of Brazil. There +were a number of rubber-trees in the neighborhood, by the way. + +We enjoyed a good bath in the Burity, although it was impossible to +make headway by swimming against the racing current. There were few +mosquitoes. On the other hand, various kinds of piums were a little +too abundant; they vary from things like small gnats to things like +black flies. The small stingless bees have no fear and can hardly be +frightened away when they light on the hands or face; but they never +bite, and merely cause a slight tickling as they crawl over the skin. +There were some big bees, however, which, although they crawled about +harmlessly after lighting if they were undisturbed, yet stung fiercely +if they were molested. The insects were not ordinarily a serious +bother, but there were occasional hours when they were too numerous +for comfort, and now and then I had to do my writing in a head-net and +gauntlets. + +The night we reached the Burity it rained heavily, and next day the +rain continued. In the morning the mules were ferried over, while the +oxen were swum across. Half a dozen of our men--whites, Indians, and +negroes, all stark naked and uttering wild cries, drove the oxen into +the river and then, with powerful overhand strokes, swam behind and +alongside them as they crossed, half breasting the swift current. It +was a fine sight to see the big, long-horned, staring beasts swimming +strongly, while the sinewy naked men urged them forward, utterly at +ease in the rushing water. We made only a short day's journey, for, +owing to the lack of grass, the mules had to be driven off nearly +three miles from our line of march, in order to get them feed. We +camped at the headwaters of a little brook called Huatsui, which is +Parecis for "monkey." + +Accompanying us on this march was a soldier bound for one of the +remoter posts. With him trudged his wife. They made the whole journey +on foot. There were two children. One was so young that it had to be +carried alternately by the father and mother. The other, a small boy +of eight, and much the best of the party, was already a competent +wilderness worker. He bore his share of the belongings on the march, +and when camp was reached sometimes himself put up the family shelter. +They were mainly of negro blood. Struck by the woman's uncomplaining +endurance of fatigue, we offered to take her and the baby in the +automobile, while it accompanied us. But, alas! this proved to be one +of those melancholy cases where the effort to relieve hardship well +endured results only in showing that those who endure the adversity +cannot stand even a slight prosperity. The woman proved a querulous +traveller in the auto, complaining that she was not made as +comfortable as apparently she had expected; and after one day the +husband declared he was not willing to have her go unless he went too; +and the family resumed their walk. + +In this neighborhood there were multitudes of the big, gregarious, +crepuscular or nocturnal spiders which I have before mentioned. On +arriving in camp, at about four in the afternoon, I ran into a number +of remains of their webs, and saw a very few of the spiders themselves +sitting in the webs midway between trees. I then strolled a couple of +miles up the road ahead of us under the line of telegraph-poles. It +was still bright sunlight and no spiders were out; in fact, I did not +suspect their presence along the line of telegraph-poles, although I +ought to have done so, for I continually ran into long strings of +tough fine web, which got across my face or hands or rifle barrel. I +returned just at sunset and the spiders were out in force. I saw +dozens of colonies, each of scores or hundreds of individuals. Many +were among the small trees alongside the broad, cleared trail. But +most were dependent from the wire itself. Their webs had all been made +or repaired since I had passed. Each was sitting in the middle of his +own wheel, and all the wheels were joined to one another; and the +whole pendent fabric hung by fine ropes from the wire above, and was +in some cases steadied by guy-ropes, thrown thirty feet off to little +trees alongside. I watched them until nightfall, and evidently, to +them, after their day's rest, their day's work had just begun. Next +morning--owing to a desire to find out what the facts were as regards +the ox-carts, which were in difficulties--Cherrie, Miller, Kermit, and +I walked back to the Burity River, where Colonel Rondon had spent the +night. It was a misty, overcast morning, and the spiders in the webs +that hung from the telegraph-wire were just going to their day homes. +These were in and under the big white china insulators on the +telegraph-poles. Hundreds of spiders were already climbing up into +these. When, two or three hours later, we returned, the sun was out, +and not a spider was to be seen. + +Here we had to cut down our baggage and rearrange the loads for the +mule-train. Cherrie and Miller had a most workmanlike equipment, +including a very light tent and two light flies. One fly they gave for +the kitchen use, one fly was allotted to Kermit and me, and they kept +only the tent for themselves. Colonel Rondon and Lyra went in one +tent, the doctor and Oliveira in another. Each of us got rid of +everything above the sheer necessities. This was necessary because of +the condition of the baggage-animals. The oxen were so weak that the +effort to bring on the carts had to be abandoned. Nine of the pack- +mules had already been left on the road during the three days' march +from Utiarity. In the first expeditions into this country all the +baggage animals had died; and even in our case the loss was becoming +very heavy. This state of affairs is due to the scarcity of forage and +the type of country. Good grass is scanty, and the endless leagues of +sparse, scrubby forest render it exceedingly difficult to find the +animals when they wander. They must be turned absolutely loose to roam +about and pick up their scanty subsistence, and must be given as long +a time as possible to feed and rest; even under these conditions most +of them grow weak when, as in our case, it is impossible to carry +corn. They cannot be found again until after daylight, and then hours +must be spent in gathering them; and this means that the march must be +made chiefly during the heat of the day, the most trying time. Often +some of the animals would not be brought in until so late that it was +well on in the forenoon, perhaps midday, before the bulk of the pack- +train started; and they reached the camping-place as often after night +fall as before it. Under such conditions many of the mules and oxen +grew constantly weaker and ultimately gave out; and it was imperative +to load them as lightly as possible, and discard all luxuries, +especially heavy or bulky luxuries. Travelling through a wild country +where there is little food for man or beast is beset with difficulties +almost inconceivable to the man who does not himself know this kind of +wilderness, and especially to the man who only knows the ease of +civilization. A scientific party of some size, with the equipment +necessary in order to do scientific work, can only go at all if the +men who actually handle the problems of food and transportation do +their work thoroughly. + +Our march continued through the same type of high, nearly level +upland, covered with scanty, scrubby forest. It is the kind of country +known to the Brazilians as chapadao--pronounced almost as if it were a +French word and spelled shapadon. Our camp on the fourth night was in +a beautiful spot, an open grassy space, beside a clear, cool, rushing +little river. We ourselves reached this, and waded our beasts across +the deep, narrow stream in the late afternoon; and we then enjoyed a +bath and swim. The loose bullocks arrived at sunset, and with shrill +cries the mounted herdsmen urged them into and across the swift water. +The mule-train arrived long after night fall, and it was not deemed +wise to try to cross the laden animals. Accordingly the loads were +taken off and brought over on the heads of the men; it was fine to see +the sinewy, naked figures bearing their burdens through the broken +moonlit water to the hither bank. The night was cool and pleasant. We +kindled a fire and sat beside the blaze. Then, healthily hungry, we +gathered around the ox-hides to a delicious dinner of soup, beef, +beans, rice, and coffee. + +Next day we made a short march, crossed a brook, and camped by another +clear, deep, rapid little river, swollen by the rains. All these +rivers that we were crossing run actually into the Juruena, and +therefore form part of the headwaters of the Tapajos; for the Tapajos +is a mighty river, and the basin which holds its headwaters covers an +immense extent of country. This country and the adjacent regions, +forming the high interior of western Brazil, will surely some day +support a large industrial population; of which the advent would be +hastened, although not necessarily in permanently better fashion, if +Colonel Rondon's anticipations about the development of mining, +especially gold mining, are realized. In any event the region will be +a healthy home for a considerable agricultural and pastoral +population. Above all, the many swift streams with their numerous +waterfalls, some of great height and volume, offer the chance for the +upgrowth of a number of big manufacturing communities, knit by rail- +roads to one another and to the Atlantic coast and the valleys of the +Paraguay, Madeira, and Amazon, and feeding and being fed by the +dwellers in the rich, hot, alluvial lowlands that surround this +elevated territory. The work of Colonel Rondon and his associates of +the Telegraphic Commission has been to open this great and virgin land +to the knowledge of the world and to the service of their nation. In +doing so they have incidentally founded the Brazilian school of +exploration. Before their day almost all the scientific and regular +exploration of Brazil was done by foreigners. But, of course, there +was much exploration and settlement by nameless Brazilians, who were +merely endeavoring to make new homes or advance their private +fortunes: in recent years by rubber-gatherers, for instance, and a +century ago by those bold and restless adventurers, partly of +Portuguese and partly of Indian blood, the Paolistas, from one of whom +Colonel Rondon is himself descended on his father's side. + +The camp by this river was in some old and grown-up fields, once the +seat of a rather extensive maize and mandioc cultivation by the +Nhambiquaras. On this day Cherrie got a number of birds new to the +collection, and two or three of them probably new to science. We had +found the birds for the most part in worn plumage, for the breeding +season, the southern spring and northern fall, was over. But some +birds were still breeding. In the tropics the breeding season is more +irregular than in the north. Some birds breed at very different times +from that chosen by the majority of their fellows; some can hardly be +said to have any regular season; Cherrie had found one species of +honey-creeper breeding in every month of the year. Just before sunset +and just after sunrise big, noisy, blue-and-yellow macaws flew over +this camp. They were plentiful enough to form a loose flock, but each +pair kept to itself, the two individuals always close together and +always separated from the rest. Although not an abundant, it was an +interesting, fauna which the two naturalists found in this upland +country, where hitherto no collections of birds and mammals had been +made. Miller trapped several species of opossums, mice and rats which +were new to him. Cherrie got many birds which he did not recognize. At +this camp, among totally strange forms, he found an old and familiar +acquaintance. Before breakfast he brought in several birds; a dark +colored flycatcher, with white forehead and rump and two very long +tail-feathers; a black and slate-blue tanager; a black ant-thrush with +a concealed white spot on its back, at the base of the neck, and its +dull-colored mate; and other birds which he believed to be new to +science, but whose relationships with any of our birds are so remote +that it is hard to describe them save in technical language. Finally, +among these unfamiliar forms was a veery, and the sight of the rufous- +olive back and faintly spotted throat of this singer of our northern +Junes made us almost homesick. + +Next day was brilliantly clear. The mules could not be brought in +until quite late in the morning, and we had to march twenty miles +under the burning tropical sun, right in the hottest part of the day. +From a rise of ground we looked back over the vast, sunlit landscape, +the endless rolling stretches of low forest. Midway on our journey we +crossed a brook. The dogs minded the heat much. They continually ran +off to one side, lay down in a shady place, waited until we were +several hundred yards ahead, and then raced after us, overtook us, and +repeated the performance. The pack-train came in about sunset; but we +ourselves reached the Juruena in the middle of the afternoon. + +The Juruena is the name by which the Tapajos goes along its upper +course. Where we crossed, it was a deep, rapid stream, flowing in a +heavily wooded valley with rather steep sides. We were ferried across +on the usual balsa, a platform on three dugouts, running by the force +of the current on a wire trolley. There was a clearing on each side +with a few palms, and on the farther bank were the buildings of the +telegraph station. This is a wild country, and the station was guarded +by a few soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Marino, a native of +Rio Grande do Sul, a blond man who looked like an Englishman--an +agreeable companion, and a good and resolute officer, as all must be +who do their work in this wilderness. The Juruena was first followed +at the end of the eighteenth century by the Portuguese explorer +Franco, and not again until over a hundred years had elapsed, when the +Telegraphic Commission not only descended, but for the first time +accurately placed and mapped its course. + +There were several houses on the rise of the farther bank, all with +thatched roofs, some of them with walls of upright tree-trunks, some +of them daub and wattle. Into one of the latter, with two rooms, we +took our belongings. The sand-flies were bothersome at night, coming +through the interstices in the ordinary mosquito-nets. The first night +they did this I got no sleep until morning, when it was cool enough +for me to roll myself in my blanket and put on a head-net. Afterward +we used fine nets of a kind of cheese-cloth. They were hot, but they +kept out all, or almost all, of the sand-flies and other small +tormentors. + +Here we overtook the rearmost division of Captain Amilcar's bullock- +train. Our own route had diverged, in order to pass the great falls. +Captain Amilcar had come direct, overtaking the pack-oxen, which had +left Tapirapoan before we did, laden with material for the Duvida +trip. He had brought the oxen through in fine shape, losing only three +beasts with their loads, and had himself left the Juruena the morning +of the day we reached there. His weakest animals left that evening, to +make the march by moonlight; and as it was desirable to give them +thirty-six hours' start, we halted for a day on the banks of the +river. It was not a wasted day. In addition to bathing and washing our +clothes, the naturalists made some valuable additions to the +collection--including a boldly marked black, blue, and white jay--and +our photographs were developed and our writing brought abreast of the +date. Travelling through a tropical wilderness in the rainy season, +when the amount of baggage that can be taken is strictly limited, +entails not only a good deal of work, but also the exercise of +considerable ingenuity if the writing and photographing, and +especially the preservation, of the specimens are to be done in +satisfactory shape. + +At the telegraph office we received news that the voyage of Lauriado +and Fiala down the Papagaio had opened with a misadventure. In some +bad rapids, not many miles below the falls, two of the canoes had been +upset, half of their provisions and all of Fiala's baggage lost, and +Fiala himself nearly drowned. The Papagaio is known both at the source +and the mouth; to descend it did not represent a plunge into the +unknown, as in the case of the Duvida or the Ananas; but the actual +water work, over the part that was unexplored, offered the same +possibilities of mischance and disaster. It is a hazardous thing to +descend a swift, unknown river rushing through an uninhabited +wilderness. To descend or ascend the ordinary great highway rivers of +South America, such as the Amazon, Paraguay, Tapajos, and, in its +lower course, the Orinoco, is now so safe and easy, whether by steam- +boat or big, native cargo-boat, that people are apt to forget the very +serious difficulties offered by the streams, often themselves great +rivers, which run into or form the upper courses of these same water +highways. Few things are easier than the former feat, and few more +difficult than the latter; and experience in ordinary travelling on +the lower courses of the rivers is of no benefit whatever in enabling +a man to form a judgement as to what can be done, and how to do it, on +the upper courses. Failure to remember this fact is one of the +obstacles in the way of securing a proper appreciation of the needs +and the results, of South American exploration. + +At the Juruena we met a party of Nhambiquaras, very friendly and +sociable, and very glad to see Colonel Rondon. They were originally +exceedingly hostile and suspicious, but the colonel's unwearied +thoughtfulness and good temper, joined with his indomitable +resolution, enabled him to avoid war and to secure their friendship +and even their aid. He never killed one. Many of them are known to him +personally. He is on remarkably good terms with them, and they are +very fond of him--although this does not prevent them from now and +then yielding to temptation, even at his expense, and stealing a dog +or something else which strikes them as offering an irresistible +attraction. They cannot be employed at steady work; but they do +occasional odd jobs, and are excellent at hunting up strayed mules or +oxen; and a few of the men have begun to wear clothes, purely for +ornament. Their confidence and bold friendliness showed how well they +had been treated. Probably half of our visitors were men; several were +small boys; one was a woman with a baby; the others were young married +women and girls. + +Nowhere in Africa did we come across wilder or more absolutely +primitive savages, although these Indians were pleasanter and better- +featured than any of the African tribes at the same stage of culture. +Both sexes were well-made and rather good-looking, with fairly good +teeth, although some of them seemed to have skin diseases. They were a +laughing, easy-tempered crew, and the women were as well-fed as the +men, and were obviously well-treated, from the savage standpoint; +there was no male brutality like that which forms such a revolting +feature in the life of the Australian black fellows and, although to a +somewhat less degree, in the life of so many negro and Indian tribes. +They were practically absolutely naked. In many savage tribes the men +go absolutely naked, but the women wear a breech-clout or loincloth. +In certain tribes we saw near Lake Victoria Nyanza, and on the upper +White Nile, both men and women were practically naked. Among these +Nhambiquaras the women were more completely naked than the men, +although the difference was not essential. The men wore a string +around the waist. Most of them wore nothing else, but a few had +loosely hanging from this string in front a scanty tuft of dried +grass, or a small piece of cloth, which, however, was of purely +symbolic use so far as either protection or modesty was concerned. The +women did not wear a stitch of any kind anywhere on their bodies. They +did not have on so much as a string, or a bead, or even an ornament in +their hair. They were all, men and women, boys and well-grown young +girls, as entirely at ease and unconscious as so many friendly +animals. All of them--men, women, and children, laughing and talking-- +crowded around us, whether we were on horseback or on foot. They +flocked into the house, and when I sat down to write surrounded me so +closely that I had to push them gently away. The women and girls often +stood holding one another's hands, or with their arms over one +another's shoulders or around one another's waists, offering an +attractive picture. The men had holes pierced through the septum of +the nose and through the upper lip, and wore a straw through each +hole. The women were not marked or mutilated. It seems like a +contradiction in terms, but it is nevertheless a fact that the +behavior of these completely naked women and men was entirely modest. +There was never an indecent look or a consciously indecent gesture. +They had no blankets or hammocks, and when night came simply lay down +in the sand. Colonel Rondon stated that they never wore a covering by +night or by day, and if it was cool slept one on each side of a small +fire. Their huts were merely slight shelters against the rain. + +The moon was nearly full, and after nightfall a few of the Indians +suddenly held an improvised dance for us in front of our house. There +were four men, a small boy, and two young women or grown girls. Two of +the men had been doing some work for the commission, and were dressed, +one completely and one partially, in ordinary clothes. Two of the men +and the boy were practically naked, and the two young women were +absolutely so. All of them danced in a circle, without a touch of +embarrassment or impropriety. The two girls kept hold of each other's +hands throughout, dancing among the men as modestly as possible, and +with the occasional interchange of a laugh or jest, in as good taste +and temper as in any dance in civilization. The dance consisted in +slowly going round in a circle, first one way then the other, +rhythmically beating time with the feet to the music of the song they +were chanting. The chants--there were three of them, all told--were +measured and rather slowly uttered melodies, varied with an occasional +half-subdued shrill cry. The women continually uttered a kind of long- +drawn wailing or droning; I am not enough of a musician to say whether +it was an overtone or the sustaining of the burden of the ballad. The +young boy sang better than any of the others. It was a strange and +interesting sight to see these utterly wild, friendly savages circling +in their slow dance, and chanting their immemorial melodies, in the +brilliant tropical moonlight, with the river rushing by in the +background, through the lonely heart of the wilderness. + +The Indians stayed with us, feasting, dancing, and singing until the +early hours of the morning. They then suddenly and silently +disappeared in the darkness, and did not return. In the morning we +discovered that they had gone off with one of Colonel Rondon's dogs. +Probably the temptation had proved irresistible to one of their +number, and the others had been afraid to interfere, and also afraid +to stay in or return to our neighborhood. We had not time to go after +them; but Rondon remarked that as soon as he again came to the +neighborhood he would take some soldiers, hunt up the Indians, and +reclaim the dog. It has been his mixture of firmness, good nature, and +good judgment that has enabled him to control these bold, warlike +savages, and even to reduce the warfare between them and the Parecis. +In spite of their good nature and laughter, their fearlessness and +familiarity showed how necessary it was not to let them get the upper +hand. They are always required to leave all their arms a mile or two +away before they come into the encampment. They are much wilder and +more savage, and at a much lower cultural level, than the Parecis. + +In the afternoon of the day following our arrival there was a heavy +rain-storm which drove into the unglazed windows, and here and there +came through the roof and walls of our daub-and-wattle house. The heat +was intense and there was much moisture in this valley. During the +downpour I looked out at the dreary little houses, showing through the +driving rain, while the sheets of muddy water slid past their door- +sills; and I felt a sincere respect for the lieutenant and his +soldiers who were holding this desolate outpost of civilization. It is +an unhealthy spot; there has been much malarial fever and beriberi--an +obscure and deadly disease. + +Next morning we resumed our march. It soon began to rain and we were +drenched when, some fifteen miles on, we reached the river where we +were to camp. After the great heat we felt quite cold in our wet +clothes, and gladly crowded round a fire which was kindled under a +thatched shed, beside the cabin of the ferryman. This ferry-boat was +so small that it could only take one mule, or at most two, at a time. +The mules and a span of six oxen dragging an ox-cart, which we had +overtaken, were ferried slowly to the farther side that afternoon, as +there was no feed on the hither bank, where we ourselves camped. The +ferryman was a soldier in the employ of the Telegraphic Commission. +His good-looking, pleasant-mannered wife, evidently of both Indian and +negro blood, was with him, and was doing all she could do as a +housekeeper, in the comfortless little cabin, with its primitive +bareness of furniture and fittings. + +Here we saw Captain Amilcar, who had come back to hurry up his rear- +guard. We stood ankle-deep in mud and water, by the swollen river, +while the rain beat on us, and enjoyed a few minutes' talk with the +cool, competent officer who was doing a difficult job with such +workman-like efficiency. He had no poncho, and was wet through, but +was much too busy in getting his laden oxen forward to think of +personal discomfort. He had had a good deal of trouble with his mules, +but his oxen were still in fair shape. + +After leaving the Juruena the ground became somewhat more hilly, and +the scrubby forest was less open, but otherwise there was no change in +the monotonous, and yet to me rather attractive, landscape. The ant- +hills, and the ant-houses in the trees--arboreal ant-hills, so to +speak were as conspicuous as ever. The architects of some were red +ants, of others black ants; and others, which were on the whole the +largest, had been built by the white ants, the termites. The latter +were not infrequently taller than a horseman's head. + +That evening round the camp-fire Colonel Rondon happened to mention +how the brother of one of the soldiers with us--a Parecis Indian--had +been killed by a jararaca snake. Cherrie told of a narrow escape he +had from one while collecting in Guiana. At night he used to set traps +in camp for small mammals. One night he heard one of these traps go +off under his hammock. He reached down for it, and as he fumbled for +the chain he felt a snake strike at him, just missing him in the +darkness, but actually brushing his hand. He lit a light and saw that +a big jararaca had been caught in the trap; and he preserved it as a +specimen. Snakes frequently came into his camp after nightfall. He +killed one rattlesnake which had swallowed the skinned bodies of four +mice he had prepared as specimens; which shows that rattlesnakes do +not always feed only on living prey. Another rattlesnake which he +killed in Central America had just swallowed an opossum which proved +to be of a species new to science. Miller told how once on the Orinoco +he saw on the bank a small anaconda, some ten feet long, killing one +of the iguanas, big, active, truculent, carnivorous lizards, equally +at home on the land and in the water. Evidently the iguanas were +digging out holes in the bank in which to lay their eggs; for there +were several such holes, and iguanas working at them. The snake had +crushed its prey to a pulp; and not more than a couple of feet away +another iguana was still busily, and with entire unconcern, engaged in +making its burrow. At Miller's approach the anaconda left the dead +iguana and rushed into the water, and the live iguana promptly +followed it. Miller also told of the stone gods and altars and temples +he had seen in the great Colombian forests, monuments of strange +civilizations which flourished and died out ages ago, and of which all +memory has vanished. He and Cherrie told of giant rivers and +waterfalls, and of forests never penetrated, and mountains never +ascended by civilized man; and of bloody revolutions that devastated +the settled regions. Listening to them I felt that they could write +"Tales of Two Naturalists" that would be worth reading. + +They were short of literature, by the way--a party such as ours always +needs books--and as Kermit's reading-matter consisted chiefly of +Camoens and other Portuguese, or else Brazilian, writers, I strove to +supply the deficiency with spare volumes of Gibbon. At the end of our +march we were usually far ahead of the mule-train, and the rain was +also usually falling. Accordingly we would sit about under trees, or +under a shed or lean-to, if there was one, each solemnly reading a +volume of Gibbon--and no better reading can be found. In my own case, +as I had been having rather a steady course of Gibbon, I varied him +now and then with a volume of Arsene Lupin lent me by Kermit. + +There were many swollen rivers to cross at this point of our journey. +Some we waded at fords. Some we crossed by rude bridges. The larger +ones, such as the Juina, we crossed by ferry, and when the approaches +were swampy, and the river broad and swift, many hours might be +consumed in getting the mule-train, the loose bullocks, and the ox- +cart over. We had few accidents, although we once lost a ferry-load of +provisions, which was quite a misfortune in a country where they could +not be replaced. The pasturage was poor, and it was impossible to make +long marches with our weakened animals. + +At one camp three Nhambiquaras paid us a visit at breakfast time. They +left their weapons behind them before they appeared, and shouted +loudly while they were still hid by the forest, and it was only after +repeated answering calls of welcome that they approached. Always in +the wilderness friends proclaim their presence; a silent advance marks +a foe. Our visitors were men, and stark naked, as usual. One seemed +sick; he was thin, and his back was scarred with marks of the grub of +the loathsome berni fly. Indeed, all of them showed scars, chiefly +from insect wounds. But the other two were in good condition, and, +although they ate greedily of the food offered them, they had with +them a big mandioc cake, some honey, and a little fish. One of them +wore a high helmet of puma-skin, with the tail hanging down his back-- +handsome head-gear, which he gladly bartered for several strings of +bright coral-red beads. Around the upper arms of two of them were +bands bound so tightly as to cut into and deform the muscles--a +singular custom, seemingly not only purposeless but mischievous, which +is common among this tribe and many others. + +The Nhambiquaras are a numerous tribe, covering a large region. But +they have no general organization. Each group of families acts for +itself. Half a dozen years previously they had been very hostile, and +Colonel Rondon had to guard his camp and exercise every precaution to +guarantee his safety, while at the same time successfully endeavoring +to avoid the necessity of himself shedding blood. Now they are, for +the most part, friendly. But there are groups or individuals that are +not. Several soldiers have been killed at these little lonely +stations; and while in some cases the attack may have been due to the +soldiers having meddled with Nhambiquara women, in other cases the +killing was entirely wanton and unprovoked. Sooner or later these +criminals or outlaws will have to be brought to justice; it will not +do to let their crimes go unpunished. Twice soldiers have deserted and +fled to the Nhambiquaras. The runaways were well received, were given +wives, and adopted into the tribe. + +The country when opened will be a healthy abode for white settlers. +But pioneering in the wilderness is grim work for both man and beast. +Continually, as we journeyed onward, under the pitiless glare of the +sun or through blinding torrents of rain, we passed desolate little +graves by the roadside. They marked the last resting places of men who +had died by fever, or dysentery, or Nhambiquara arrows. We raised our +hats as our mules plodded slowly by through the sand. On each grave +was a frail wooden cross, and this and the paling round about were +already stained by the weather as gray as the tree trunks of the +stunted forest that stretched endlessly on every side. + +The skeletons of mules and oxen were frequent along the road. Now and +then we came across a mule or ox which had been abandoned by Captain +Amilcar's party, ahead of us. The animal had been left with the hope +that when night came it would follow along the trail to water. +Sometimes it did so. Sometimes we found it dead, or standing +motionless waiting for death. From time to time we had to leave behind +one of our own mules. + +It was not always easy to recognize what pasturage the mules would +accept as good. One afternoon we pitched camp by a tiny rivulet, in +the midst of the scrubby upland forest; a camp, by the way, where the +piums, the small, biting flies, were a torment during the hours of +daylight, while after dark their places were more than taken by the +diminutive gnats which the Brazilians expressively term "polvora," or +powder, and which get through the smallest meshes of a mosquito-net. +The feed was so scanty, and the cover so dense, at this spot that I +thought we would have great difficulty in gathering the mules next +morning. But we did not. A few hours later, in the afternoon, we +camped by a beautiful open meadow; on one side ran a rapid brook, with +a waterfall eight feet high, under which we bathed and swam. Here the +feed looked so good that we all expressed pleasure. But the mules did +not like it, and after nightfall they hiked back on the trail, and it +was a long and arduous work to gather them next morning. + +I have touched above on the insect pests. Men unused to the South +American wilderness speak with awe of the danger therein from jaguars, +crocodiles, and poisonous snakes. In reality, the danger from these +sources is trivial, much less than the danger of being run down by an +automobile at home. But at times the torment of insect plagues can +hardly be exaggerated. There are many different species of mosquitoes, +some of them bearers of disease. There are many different kinds of +small, biting flies and gnats, loosely grouped together under various +titles. The ones more especially called piums by my companions were +somewhat like our northern black flies. They gorged themselves with +blood. At the moment their bites did not hurt, but they left an +itching scar. Head-nets and gloves are a protection, but are not very +comfortable in stifling hot weather. It is impossible to sleep without +mosquito-biers. When settlers of the right type come into a new land +they speedily learn to take the measures necessary to minimize the +annoyance caused by all these pests. Those that are winged have plenty +of kinsfolk in so much of the northern continent as has not yet been +subdued by man. But the most noxious of the South American ants have, +thank heaven, no representatives in North America. At the camp of the +piums a column of the carnivorous foraging ants made its appearance +before nightfall, and for a time we feared it might put us out of our +tents, for it went straight through camp, between the kitchen-tent and +our own sleeping tents. However, the column turned neither to the +right nor the left, streaming uninterruptedly past for several hours, +and doing no damage except to the legs of any incautious man who +walked near it. + +On the afternoon of February 15 we reached Campos Novos. This place +was utterly unlike the country we had been traversing. It was a large +basin, several miles across, traversed by several brooks. The brooks +ran in deep swampy valleys, occupied by a matted growth of tall +tropical forest. Between them the ground rose in bold hills, bare of +forest and covered with grass, on which our jaded animals fed eagerly. +On one of these rounded hills a number of buildings were ranged in a +quadrangle, for the pasturage at this spot is so good that it is +permanently occupied. There were milch cows, and we got delicious +fresh milk; and there were goats, pigs, turkeys, and chickens. Most of +the buildings were made of upright poles with roofs of palm thatch. +One or two were of native brick, plastered with mud, and before these +there was an enclosure with a few ragged palms, and some pineapple +plants. Here we halted. Our attendants made two kitchens: one was out +in the open air, one was under a shelter of ox-hide. The view over the +surrounding grassy hills, riven by deep wooded valleys, was lovely. +The air was cool and fresh. We were not bothered by insects, although +mosquitoes swarmed in every belt of timber. Yet there has been much +fever at this beautiful and seemingly healthy place. Doubtless when +settlement is sufficiently advanced a remedy will be developed. The +geology of this neighborhood was interesting--Oliveira found fossil +tree-trunks which he believed to be of cretaceous age. + +Here we found Amilcar and Mello, who had waited for us with the rear- +guard of their pack-train, and we enjoyed our meeting with the two +fine fellows, than whom no military service of any nation could +produce more efficient men for this kind of difficult and responsible +work. Next morning they mustered their soldiers, muleteers, and pack- +ox men and marched off. Reinisch the taxidermist was with them. We +followed in the late afternoon, camping after a few miles. We left the +oxcart at Campos Novos; from thence on the trail was only for pack- +animals. + +In this neighborhood the two naturalists found many birds which we had +not hitherto met. The most conspicuous was a huge oriole, the size of +a small crow, with a naked face, a black-and-red bill, and gaudily +variegated plumage of green, yellow, and chestnut. Very interesting +was the false bellbird, a gray bird with loud, metallic notes. There +was also a tiny soft-tailed woodpecker, no larger than a kinglet; a +queer humming-bird with a slightly flexible bill; and many species of +ant-thrush, tanager, manakin, and tody. Among these unfamiliar forms +was a vireo looking much like our solitary vireo. At one camp Cherrie +collected a dozen perching birds; Miller a beautiful little rail; and +Kermit, with the small Luger belt-rifle, a handsome curassow, nearly +as big as a turkey--out of which, after it had been skinned, the cook +made a delicious canja, the thick Brazilian soup of fowl and rice than +which there is nothing better of its kind. All these birds were new to +the collection--no naturalists had previously worked this region--so +that the afternoon's work represented nine species new to the +collection, six new genera, and a most excellent soup. + +Two days after leaving Campos Novos we reached Vilhena, where there is +a telegraph station. We camped once at a small river named by Colonel +Rondon the "Twelfth of October," because he reached it on the day +Columbus discovered America--I had never before known what day it +was!--and once at the foot of a hill which he had named after Lyra, +his companion in the exploration. The two days' march--really one full +day and part of two others--was through beautiful country, and we +enjoyed it thoroughly, although there were occasional driving rain- +storms, when the rain came in almost level sheets and drenched every +one and everything. The country was like that around Campos Novos, and +offered a striking contrast to the level, barren, sandy wastes of the +chapadao, which is a healthy region, where great industrial centres +can arise, but not suited for extensive agriculture as are the lowland +flats. For these forty-eight hours the trail climbed into and out of +steep valleys and broad basins and up and down hills. In the deep +valleys were magnificent woods, in which giant rubber-trees towered, +while the huge leaves of the low-growing pacova, or wild banana, were +conspicuous in the undergrowth. Great azure butterflies flitted +through the open, sunny glades, and the bellbirds, sitting +motionless, uttered their ringing calls from the dark stillness of the +columned groves. The hillsides were grassy pastures or else covered +with low, open forest. + +A huge frog, brown above, with a light streak down each side, was +found hiding under some sticks in a damp place in one of the +improvised kitchens; and another frog, with disks on his toes, was +caught on one of the tents. A coral-snake puzzled us. Some coral- +snakes are harmless; others are poisonous, although not aggressive. +The best authorities give an infallible recipe for distinguishing them +by the pattern of the colors, but this particular specimen, although +it corresponded exactly in color pattern with the description of the +poisonous snakes, nevertheless had no poison-fangs that even after the +most minute examination we could discover. Miller and one of the dogs +caught a sariema, a big, long-legged, bustard-like bird, in rather a +curious way. We were on the march, plodding along through as heavy a +tropic downpour as it was our ill fortune to encounter. The sariema, +evidently as drenched and uncomfortable as we were, was hiding under a +bush to avoid the pelting rain. The dog discovered it, and after the +bird valiantly repelled him, Miller was able to seize it. Its stomach +contained about half a pint of grass-hoppers and beetles and young +leaves. At Vilhena there was a tame sariema, much more familiar and at +home than any of the poultry. It was without the least fear of man or +dog. The sariema (like the screamer and the curassow) ought to be +introduced into our barnyards and on our lawns, at any rate in the +Southern States; it is a good-looking, friendly, and attractive bird. +Another bird we met is in some places far more intimate, and +domesticates itself. This is the pretty little honey-creeper. In +Colombia Miller found the honey-creepers habitually coming inside the +houses and hotels at meal-times, hopping about the table, and climbing +into the sugar-bowl. + +Along this part of our march there was much of what at a hasty glance +seemed to be volcanic rock; but Oliveira showed me that it was a kind +of conglomerate, with bubbles or hollows in it, made of sand and iron- +bearing earth. He said it was a superficial quaternary deposit formed +by erosion from the cretaceous rocks, and that there were here no +tertiary deposits. He described the geological structure of the lands +through which we had passed as follows: The pantanals were of +Pleistocene age. Along the upper Sepotuba, in the region of the +rapids, there were sandstones, shales, and clays of Permian age. The +rolling country east of this contained eruptive rocks--a porphyritic +disbase, with zeolite, quartz, and agate of Triassic age. With the +chapadao of the Parecis plateau we came to a land of sand and clay, +dotted with lumps of sandstone and pieces of petrified wood; this, +according to Oliveira, is of Mesozoic age, possibly cretaceous and +similar to the South African formation. There are geologists who +consider it as of Permian age. + +At Vilhena we were on a watershed which drained into the Gy-Parana, +which itself runs into the Madeira nearly midway between its sources +and its mouth. A little farther along and northward we again came to +streams running ultimately into the Tapajos; and between them, and +close to them, were streamlets which drained into the Duvida and +Ananas, whose courses and outlets were unknown. This point is part of +the divide between the basins of the Madeira and Tapajos. A singular +topographical feature of the Plan Alto, the great interior sandy +plateau of Brazil, is that at its westernmost end the southward +flowing streams, instead of running into the Paraguay as they do +farther east, form the headwaters of the Guapore, which may, perhaps, +be called the upper main stream of the Madeira. These westernmost +streams from the southern edge of the plateau, therefore, begin by +flowing south; then for a long stretch they flow southwest; then +north, and finally northeast into the Amazon. According to some +exceptionally good geological observers, this is probably due to the +fact that in a remote geologic past the ocean sent in an arm from the +south, between the Plan Alto and what is now the Andean chain. These +rivers then emptied into the Andean Sea. The gradual upheaval of the +soil has resulted in substituting dry land for this arm of the ocean +and in reversing the course of what is now the Madeira, just as, +according to these geologists, in somewhat familiar fashion the Amazon +has been reversed, it having once been, at least for the upper two +thirds of its course, an affluent of the Andean Sea. + +From Vilhena we travelled in a generally northward direction. For a +few leagues we went across the chapadao, the sands or clays of the +nearly level upland plateau, grassy or covered with thin, stunted +forest, the same type of country that had been predominant ever since +we ascended the Parecis table-land on the morning of the third day +after leaving the Sepotuba. Then, at about the point where the trail +dipped into a basin containing the head-springs of the Ananas, we left +this type of country and began to march through thick forest, not very +high. There was little feed for the animals on the Chapadao. There was +less in the forest. Moreover, the continual heavy rains made the +travelling difficult and laborious for them, and they weakened. +However, a couple of marches before we reached Tres Burity, where +there is a big ranch with hundreds of cattle, we were met by ten fresh +pack-oxen, and our serious difficulties were over. + +There were piums in plenty by day, but neither mosquitoes nor sand-flies +by night; and for us the trip was very pleasant, save for moments of +anxiety about the mules. The loose bullocks furnished us abundance of +fresh beef, although, as was inevitable under the circumstances, of a +decidedly tough quality. One of the biggest of the bullocks was +attacked one night by a vampire bat, and next morning his withers were +literally bathed in blood. + +With the chapadao we said good-by to the curious, gregarious, and +crepuscular or nocturnal spiders which we found so abundant along the +line of the telegraph wire. They have offered one of the small +problems with which the commission has had to deal. They are not +common in the dry season. They swarm during the rains; and, when their +tough webs are wet, those that lead from the wire to the ground +sometimes effectually short circuit the wire. They have on various +occasions caused a good deal of trouble in this manner. + +The third night out from Vilhena we emerged for a moment from the +endless close-growing forest in which our poor animals got such scanty +pickings, and came to a beautiful open country, where grassy slopes, +dotted with occasional trees, came down on either side of a little +brook which was one of the headwaters of the Duvida. It was a pleasure +to see the mules greedily bury their muzzles in the pasturage. Our +tents were pitched in the open, near a shady tree, which sent out its +low branches on every side. At this camp Cherrie shot a lark, very +characteristic of the open upland country, and Miller found two bats +in the rotten wood of a dead log. He heard them squeaking and dug them +out; he could not tell by what method they had gotten in. + +Here Kermit, while a couple of miles from our tents, came across an +encampment of Nhambiquaras. There were twenty or thirty of them--men, +women, and a few children. Kermit, after the manner of honest folk in +the wilderness, advanced ostentatiously in the open, calling out to +give warning of his coming. Like surroundings may cause like manners. +The early Saxons in England deemed it legal to kill any man who came +through the woods without shouting or blowing a horn; and in +Nhambiquara land at the present time it is against etiquette, and may +be very unhealthy, to come through the woods toward strangers without +loudly announcing one's presence. The Nhambiquaras received Kermit +with the utmost cordiality, and gave him pineapple-wine to drink. They +were stark naked as usual; they had no hammocks or blankets, and their +huts were flimsy shelters of palm-branches. Yet they were in fine +condition. Half a dozen of the men and a couple of boys accompanied +Kermit back to our camp, paying not slightest heed to the rain which +was falling. They were bold and friendly, good-natured--at least +superficially--and very inquisitive. In feasting, the long reeds +thrust through holes in their lips did not seem to bother them, and +they laughed at the suggestion of removing them; evidently to have +done so would have been rather bad manners--like using a knife as an +aid in eating ice-cream. They held two or three dances, and we were +again struck by the rhythm and weird, haunting melody of their +chanting. After supper they danced beside the camp-fire; and finally, +to their delight, most of the members of our own party, Americans and +Brazilians, enthusiastically joined the dance, while the colonel and I +furnished an appreciative and applauding audience. Next morning, when +we were awakened by the chattering and screaming of the numerous +macaws, parrots, and parakeets, we found that nearly all the Indians, +men and women, were gathered outside the tent. As far as clothing was +concerned, they were in the condition of Adam and Eve before the fall. +One of the women carried a little squirrel monkey. She put it up the +big tree some distance from the tents; and when she called, it came +scampering to her across the grass, ran up her, and clung to her neck. +They would have liked to pilfer; but as they had no clothes it was +difficult for them to conceal anything. One of the women was observed +to take a fork; but as she did not possess a rag of clothing of any +kind all she did do was to try to bury the fork in the sand and then +sit on it; and it was reclaimed without difficulty. One or two of the +children wore necklaces and bracelets made of the polished wood of the +tucum palm, and of the molars of small rodents. + +Next day's march led us across a hilly country of good pastureland. +The valleys were densely wooded, palms of several kinds being +conspicuous among the other trees; and the brooks at the bottoms we +crossed at fords or by the usual rude pole bridges. On the open +pastures were occasional trees, usually slender bacaba palms, with +heads which the winds had dishevelled until they looked like mops. It +was evidently a fine natural cattle country, and we soon began to see +scores, perhaps hundreds, of the cattle belonging to the government +ranch at Tres Burity, which we reached in the early afternoon. It is +beautifully situated: the view roundabout is lovely, and certainly the +land will prove healthy when settlements have been definitely +established. Here we revelled in abundance of good fresh milk and +eggs; and for dinner we had chicken canja and fat beef roasted on big +wooden spits; and we even had watermelons. The latter were from seeds +brought down by the American engineers who built the Madeira Marmore +Railroad--a work which stands honorably distinguished among the many +great and useful works done in the development of the tropics of +recent years. + +Amilcar's pack-oxen, which were nearly worn out, had been left in +these fertile pastures. Most of the fresh oxen which he took in their +places were unbroken, and there was a perfect circus before they were +packed and marched off; in every direction, said the gleeful +narrators, there were bucking oxen and loads strewed on the ground. +This cattle ranch is managed by the colonel's uncle, his mother's +brother, a hale old man of seventy, white-haired but as active and +vigorous as ever; with a fine, kindly, intelligent face. His name is +Miguel Evangalista. He is a native of Matto Grosso, of practically +pure Indian blood, and was dressed in the ordinary costume of the +Caboclo--hat, shirt, trousers, and no shoes or stockings. Within the +last year he had killed three jaguars, which had been living on the +mules; as long as they could get mules they did not at this station +molest the cattle. + +It was with this uncle's father, Colonel Rondon's own grandfather, +that Colonel Rondon as an orphan spent the first seven years of his +life. His father died before he was born, and his mother when he was +only a year old. He lived on his grandfather's cattle-ranch, some +fifty miles from Cuyaba. Then he went to live in Cuyaba with a kinsman +on his father's side, from whom he took the name of Rondon; his own +father's name was DaSilva. He studied in the Cuyaba Government School, +and at sixteen was inscribed as one of the instructors. Then he went +to Rio, served for a year in the army as an enlisted man in the ranks, +and succeeded finally in getting into the military school. After five +years as pupil he served three years as professor of mathematics in +this school; and then, as a lieutenant of engineers in the Brazilian +army, he came back to his home in Matto Grosso and began his life-work +of exploring the wilderness. + +Next day we journeyed to the telegraph station at Bonofacio, through +alternate spells of glaring sunshine and heavy rain. On the way we +stopped at an aldea-village of Nhambiquaras. We first met a couple of +men going to hunt, with bows and arrows longer than themselves. A +rather comely young woman, carrying on her back a wickerwork basket, +or creel, supported by a forehead band, and accompanied by a small +child, was with them. At the village there were a number of men, +women, and children. Although as completely naked as the others we had +met, the members of this band were more ornamented with beads, and +wore earrings made from the inside of mussel-shells or very big snail- +shells. They were more hairy than the ones we had so far met. The +women, but not the men, completely remove the hair from their bodies-- +and look more, instead of less, indecent in consequence. The chief, +whose body was painted red with the juice of a fruit, had what could +fairly be styled a mustache and imperial; and one old man looked +somewhat like a hairy Ainu, or perhaps even more like an Australian +black fellow. My companion told me that this probably represented an +infusion of negro blood, and possibly of mulatto blood, from runaway +slaves of the old days, when some of the Matto Grosso mines were +worked by slave labor. They also thought it possible that this +infiltration of African negroes might be responsible for the curious +shape of the bigger huts, which were utterly unlike their flimsy, +ordinary shelters, and bore no resemblance in shape to those of the +other Indian tribes of this region; whereas they were not unlike the +ordinary beehive huts of the agricultural African negroes. There were +in this village several huts or shelters open at the sides, and two of +the big huts. These were of closely woven thatch, circular in outline, +with a rounded dome, and two doors a couple of feet high opposite each +other, and no other opening. There were fifteen or twenty people to +each hut. Inside were their implements and utensils, such as wicker +baskets (some of them filled with pineapples), gourds, fire-sticks, +wooden knives, wooden mortars, and a board for grating mandioc, made +of a thick slab of wood inset with sharp points of a harder wood. From +the Brazilians one or two of them had obtained blankets, and one a +hammock; and they had also obtained knives, which they sorely needed, +for they are not even in the stone age. One woman shielded herself +from the rain by holding a green palm-branch down her back. Another +had on her head what we at first thought to be a monkey-skin head- +dress. But it was a little, live, black monkey. It stayed habitually +with its head above her forehead, and its arms and legs spread so that +it lay moulded to the shape of her head; but both woman and monkey +showed some reluctance about having their photographs taken. + +Bonofacio consisted of several thatched one-room cabins, connected by +a stockade which was extended to form an enclosure behind them. A +number of tame parrots and parakeets, of several different species, +scrambled over the roofs and entered the houses. In the open pastures +near by were the curious, extensive burrows of a gopher rat, which ate +the roots of grass, not emerging to eat the grass but pulling it into +the burrows by the roots. These burrows bore a close likeness to those +of our pocket gophers. Miller found the animals difficult to trap. +Finally, by the aid of Colonel Rondon, several Indians, and two or +three of our men, he dug one out. From the central shaft several +surface galleries radiated, running for many rods about a foot below +the surface, with, at intervals of half a dozen yards, mounds where +the loose earth had been expelled. The central shaft ran straight down +for about eight feet, and then laterally for about fifteen feet, to a +kind of chamber. The animal dug hard to escape, but when taken and put +on the surface of the ground it moved slowly and awkwardly. It showed +vicious courage. In looks it closely resembled our pocket gophers, but +it had no pockets. This was one of the most interesting small mammals +that we secured. + +After breakfast at Bonofacio a number of Nhambiquaras--men, women, and +children--strolled in. The men gave us an exhibition of not very good +archery; when the bow was bent, it was at first held so that the arrow +pointed straight upwards and was then lowered so that the arrow was +aimed at the target. Several of the women had been taken from other +tribes, after their husbands or fathers had been killed; for the +Nhambiquaras are light-hearted robbers and murderers. Two or three +miserable dogs accompanied them, half-starved and mangy, but each +decorated with a collar of beads. The headmen had three or four wives +apiece, and the women were the burden-bearers, but apparently were not +badly treated. Most of them were dirty, although well-fed looking, and +their features were of a low type; but some, especially among the +children, were quite attractive. + +From Bonofacio we went about seven miles, across a rolling prairie +dotted with trees and clumps of shrub. There, on February 24, we +joined Amilcar, who was camped by a brook which flowed into the +Duvida. We were only some six miles from our place of embarkation on +the Duvida, and we divided our party and our belongings. Amilcar, +Miller, Mello, and Oliveira were to march three days to the Gy-Parana, +and then descend it, and continue down the Madeira to Manaos. Rondon, +Lyra, the doctor, Cherrie, Kermit, and I, with sixteen paddlers, in +seven canoes, were to descend the Duvida, and find out whether it led +into the Gy-Parana, our purpose was to return and descend the Ananas, +whose outlet was also unknown. Having this in view, we left a +fortnight's provisions for our party of six at Bonofacio. We took with +us provisions for about fifty days; not full rations, for we hoped in +part to live on the country--on fish, game, nuts, and palm-tops. Our +personal baggage was already well cut down: Cherrie, Kermit, and I +took the naturalist's fly to sleep under, and a very light little tent +extra for any one who might fall sick. Rondon, Lyra, and the doctor +took one of their own tents. The things that we carried were +necessities--food, medicines, bedding, instruments for determining the +altitude and longitude and latitude--except a few books, each in small +compass: Lyra's were in German, consisting of two tiny volumes of +Goethe and Schiller; Kermit's were in Portuguese; mine, all in +English, included the last two volumes of Gibbon, the plays of +Sophocles, More's "Utopia," Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus, the two +latter lent me by a friend, Major Shipton of the regulars, our +military attaché at Buenos Aires. + +If our canoe voyage was prosperous we would gradually lighten the +loads by eating the provisions. If we met with accidents, such as +losing canoes and men in the rapids, or losing men in encounters with +Indians, or if we encountered overmuch fever and dysentery, the loads +would lighten themselves. We were all armed. We took no cartridges for +sport. Cherrie had some to be used sparingly for collecting specimens. +The others were to be used--unless in the unlikely event of having to +repel an attack--only to procure food. The food and the arms we +carried represented all reasonable precautions against suffering and +starvation; but, of course, if the course of the river proved very +long and difficult, if we lost our boats over falls or in rapids, or +had to make too many and too long portages, or were brought to a halt +by impassable swamps, then we would have to reckon with starvation as +a possibility. Anything might happen. We were about to go into the +unknown, and no one could say what it held. + + NOTE: + The first four days, before we struck the upper rapids, and during + which we made nearly seventy kilometres, are of course not included + when I speak of our making our way down the rapids. + +I hope that this year the Ananas, or Pineapple, will also be put on +the map. One of Colonel Rondon's subordinates is to attempt the +descent of the river. We passed the headwaters of the Pineapple on the +high plateau, very possibly we passed its mouth, although it is also +possible that it empties into the Canama or Tapajos. But it will not +be "put on the map" until some one descends and finds out where, as a +matter of fact, it really does go. + +It would be well if a geographical society of standing would +investigate the formal and official charges made by Colonel Rondon, an +officer and gentleman of the highest repute, against Mr. Savage +Landor. Colonel Rondon, in an official report to the Brazilian +Government, has written a scathing review of Mr. Landor. He states +that Mr. Savage Landor did not perform, and did not even attempt to +perform, the work he had contracted to do in exploration for the +Brazilian Government. Mr. Landor had asserted and promised that he +would go through unknown country along the line of eleven degrees +latitude south, and, as Colonel Rondon states, it was because of this +proposal of his that the Brazilian Government gave him material +financial assistance in advance. However, Colonel Rondon sets forth +that Mr. Landor did not keep his word or make any serious effort to +fulfil his moral obligation to do as he had said he would do. In a +letter to me under date of May 1, 1914--a letter which has been +published in full in France--Colonel Rondon goes at length into the +question of what territory Mr. Landor had traversed. Colonel Rondon +states that--excepting on one occasion, when Mr. Landor, wandering off +a beaten trail, immediately got lost and shortly returned to his +starting-point without making any discoveries--he kept to old, well- +travelled routes. One sentence of the colonel's letter to me runs as +follows: "I can guarantee to you that in Brazil Mr. Landor did not +cross a hand's breadth of land that had not been explored, the greater +part of it many centuries ago." As regards Mr. Landor's sole and brief +experience in leaving a beaten route, Colonel Rondon states that at +Sao Manoel Mr. Landor engaged from Senhor Jose Sotero Barreto (the +revenue officer of Matto Grosso, at Sao Manoel) a guide to lead him +across a well-travelled trail which connects the Tapajos with the +Madeira via the Canama. The guide, however, got lost, and after a few +days they all returned to the point of departure instead of going +through to the Canama. + +Senhor Barreto, a gentleman of high standing, related this last +incident to Fiala when Fiala descended the Tapajos (and, by the way, +Fiala's trip down the Papagaio, Juruena, and Tapajos was infinitely +more important than all the work Mr. Landor did in South America put +together). Lieutenants Pyrineus and Mello, mentioned in the body of +this work, informed me that they accompanied Mr. Landor on most of his +overland trip before he embarked on the Arinos, and that he simply +followed the highroad or else the telegraph-line, and furthermore, +Colonel Rondon states that the Indians whom Mr. Landor encountered and +photographed were those educated at the missions. + +Colonel Rondon's official report to the Brazilian Government and his +letter to me are of interest to all geographers and other scientific +men who have any concern with the alleged discoveries of Mr. Landor. +They contain very grave charges, with which it is not necessary for me +to deal. Suffice it to say that Mr. Landor's accounts of his alleged +exploration cannot be considered as entitled to the slightest serious +consideration until he has satisfactorily and in detail answered +Colonel Rondon; and this he has thus far signally failed to do. + +Fortunately, there are numerous examples of exactly the opposite type +of work. From the days of Humboldt and Spix and Martius to the present +time, German explorers have borne a conspicuous part in the +exploration of South America. As representatives of the men and women +who have done such capital work, who have fronted every hazard and +hardship and labored in the scientific spirit, and who have added +greatly to our fund of geographic, biologic, and ethnographic +knowledge, I may mention Miss Snethlage and Herr Karl von den Steinen. + + + + VIII. THE RIVER OF DOUBT + +On February 27, 1914, shortly after midday, we started down the River +of Doubt into the unknown. We were quite uncertain whether after a +week we should find ourselves in the Gy-Parana, or after six weeks in +the Madeira, or after three months we knew not where. That was why the +river was rightly christened the Duvida. + +We had been camped close to the river, where the trail that follows +the telegraph line crosses it by a rough bridge. As our laden dugouts +swung into the stream, Amilcar and Miller and all the others of the +Gy-Parana party were on the banks and the bridge to wave farewell and +wish us good-by and good luck. It was the height of the rainy season, +and the swollen torrent was swift and brown. Our camp was at about 12 +degrees 1 minute latitude south and 60 degrees 15 minutes longitude +west of Greenwich. Our general course was to be northward toward the +equator, by waterway through the vast forest. + +We had seven canoes, all of them dugouts. One was small, one was +cranky, and two were old, waterlogged, and leaky. The other three were +good. The two old canoes were lashed together, and the cranky one was +lashed to one of the others. Kermit with two paddlers went in the +smallest of the good canoes; Colonel Rondon and Lyra with three other +paddlers in the next largest; and the doctor, Cherrie, and I in the +largest with three paddlers. The remaining eight camaradas--there were +sixteen in all--were equally divided between our two pairs of lashed +canoes. Although our personal baggage was cut down to the limit +necessary for health and efficiency, yet on such a trip as ours, where +scientific work has to be done and where food for twenty-two men for +an unknown period of time has to be carried, it is impossible not to +take a good deal of stuff; and the seven dugouts were too heavily +laden. + +The paddlers were a strapping set. They were expert rivermen and men +of the forest, skilled veterans in wilderness work. They were lithe as +panthers and brawny as bears. They swam like waterdogs. They were +equally at home with pole and paddle, with axe and machete; and one +was a good cook and others were good men around camp. They looked like +pirates in the pictures of Howard Pyle or Maxfield Parrish; one or two +of them were pirates, and one worse than a pirate; but most of them +were hard-working, willing, and cheerful. They were white,--or, +rather, the olive of southern Europe,--black, copper-colored, and of +all intermediate shades. In my canoe Luiz the steersman, the headman, +was a Matto Grosso negro; Julio the bowsman was from Bahia and of pure +Portuguese blood; and the third man, Antonio, was a Parecis Indian. + +The actual surveying of the river was done by Colonel Rondon and Lyra, +with Kermit as their assistant. Kermit went first in his little canoe +with the sighting-rod, on which two disks, one red and one white, were +placed a metre apart. He selected a place which commanded as long +vistas as possible up-stream and down, and which therefore might be at +the angle of a bend; landed; cut away the branches which obstructed +the view; and set up the sighting-pole--incidentally encountering +maribundi wasps and swarms of biting and stinging ants. Lyra, from his +station up-stream, with his telemetre established the distance, while +Colonel Rondon with the compass took the direction, and made the +records. Then they moved on to the point Kermit had left, and Kermit +established a new point within their sight. The first half-day's work +was slow. The general course of the stream was a trifle east of north, +but at short intervals it bent and curved literally toward every point +of the compass. Kermit landed nearly a hundred times, and we made but +nine and a third kilometres. + +My canoe ran ahead of the surveying canoes. The height of the water +made the going easy, for most of the snags and fallen trees were well +beneath the surface. Now and then, however, the swift water hurried us +toward ripples that marked ugly spikes of sunken timber, or toward +uprooted trees that stretched almost across the stream. Then the +muscles stood out on the backs and arms of the paddlers as stroke on +stroke they urged us away from and past the obstacle. If the leaning +or fallen trees were the thorny, slender-stemmed boritana palms, which +love the wet, they were often, although plunged beneath the river, in +full and vigorous growth, their stems curving upward, and their frond- +crowned tops shaken by the rushing water. It was interesting work, for +no civilized man, no white man, had ever gone down or up this river or +seen the country through which we were passing. The lofty and matted +forest rose like a green wall on either hand. The trees were stately +and beautiful. The looped and twisted vines hung from them like great +ropes. Masses of epiphytes grew both on the dead trees and the living; +some had huge leaves like elephants' ears. Now and then fragrant +scents were blown to us from flowers on the banks. There were not many +birds, and for the most part the forest was silent; rarely we heard +strange calls from the depths of the woods, or saw a cormorant or +ibis. + +My canoe ran only a couple of hours. Then we halted to wait for the +others. After a couple of hours more, as the surveyors had not turned +up, we landed and made camp at a spot where the bank rose sharply for +a hundred yards to a level stretch of ground. Our canoes were moored +to trees. The axemen cleared a space for the tents; they were pitched, +the baggage was brought up, and fires were kindled. The woods were +almost soundless. Through them ran old tapir trails, but there was no +fresh sign. Before nightfall the surveyors arrived. There were a few +piums and gnats, and a few mosquitoes after dark, but not enough to +make us uncomfortable. The small stingless bees, of slightly aromatic +odor, swarmed while daylight lasted and crawled over our faces and +hands; they were such tame, harmless little things that when they +tickled too much I always tried to brush them away without hurting +them. But they became a great nuisance after a while. It had been +raining at intervals, and the weather was overcast; but after the sun +went down the sky cleared. The stars were brilliant overhead, and the +new moon hung in the west. It was a pleasant night, the air almost +cool, and we slept soundly. + +Next morning the two surveying canoes left immediately after +breakfast. An hour later the two pairs of lashed canoes pushed off. I +kept our canoe to let Cherrie collect, for in the early hours we could +hear a number of birds in the woods near by. The most interesting +birds he shot were a cotinga, brilliant turquoise-blue with a magenta- +purple throat, and a big woodpecker, black above and cinnamon below +with an entirely red head and neck. It was almost noon before we +started. We saw a few more birds; there were fresh tapir and paca +tracks at one point where we landed; once we heard howler monkeys from +the depth of the forest, and once we saw a big otter in midstream. As +we drifted and paddled down the swirling brown current, through the +vivid rain-drenched green of the tropic forest, the trees leaned over +the river from both banks. When those that had fallen in the river at +some narrow point were very tall, or where it happened that two fell +opposite each other, they formed barriers which the men in the leading +canoes cleared with their axes. There were many palms, both the burity +with its stiff fronds like enormous fans, and a handsome species of +bacaba, with very long, gracefully curving fronds. In places the palms +stood close together, towering and slender, their stems a stately +colonnade, their fronds an arched fretwork against the sky. +Butterflies of many hues fluttered over the river. The day was +overcast, with showers of rain. When the sun broke through rifts in +the clouds, his shafts turned the forest to gold. + +In mid-afternoon we came to the mouth of a big and swift affluent +entering from the right. It was undoubtedly the Bandeira, which we had +crossed well toward its head, some ten days before, on our road to +Bonofacio. The Nhambiquaras had then told Colonel Rondon that it +flowed into the Duvida. After its junction, with the added volume of +water, the river widened without losing its depth. It was so high that +it had overflowed and stood among the trees on the lower levels. Only +the higher stretches were dry. On the sheer banks where we landed we +had to push the canoes for yards or rods through the branches of the +submerged trees, hacking and hewing. There were occasional bays and +ox-bows from which the current had shifted. In these the coarse marsh +grass grew tall. + +This evening we made camp on a flat of dry ground, densely wooded, of +course, directly on the edge of the river and five feet above it. It +was fine to see the speed and sinewy ease with which the choppers +cleared an open space for the tents. Next morning, when we bathed +before sunrise, we dived into deep water right from the shore, and +from the moored canoes. This second day we made sixteen and a half +kilometres along the course of the river, and nine kilometres in a +straight line almost due north. + +The following day, March 1, there was much rain--sometimes showers, +sometimes vertical sheets of water. Our course was somewhat west of +north and we made twenty and a half kilometres. We passed signs of +Indian habitation. There were abandoned palm-leaf shelters on both +banks. On the left bank we came to two or three old Indian fields, +grown up with coarse fern and studded with the burned skeletons of +trees. At the mouth of a brook which entered from the right some +sticks stood in the water, marking the site of an old fish-trap. At +one point we found the tough vine hand-rail of an Indian bridge +running right across the river, a couple of feet above it. Evidently +the bridge had been built at low water. Three stout poles had been +driven into the stream-bed in a line at right angles to the current. +The bridge had consisted of poles fastened to these supports, leading +between them and from the support at each end to the banks. The rope +of tough vines had been stretched as a hand-rail, necessary with such +precarious footing. The rise of the river had swept away the bridge, +but the props and the rope hand-rail remained. In the afternoon, from +the boat, Cherrie shot a large dark-gray monkey with a prehensile +tail. It was very good eating. + +We camped on a dry level space, but a few feet above, and close +beside, the river--so that our swimming-bath was handy. The trees were +cleared and camp was made with orderly hurry. One of the men almost +stepped on a poisonous coral-snake, which would have been a serious +thing, as his feet were bare. But I had on stout shoes, and the fangs +of these serpents--unlike those of the pit-vipers--are too short to +penetrate good leather. I promptly put my foot on him, and he bit my +shoe with harmless venom. It has been said that the brilliant hues of +the coral-snake when in its native haunts really confer on it a +concealing coloration. In the dark and tangled woods, and to an only +less extent in the ordinary varied landscape, anything motionless, +especially if partially hidden, easily eludes the eye. But against the +dark-brown mould of the forest floor on which we found this coral- +snake its bright and varied coloration was distinctly revealing; +infinitely more so than the duller mottling of the jararaca and other +dangerous snakes of the genus lachecis. In the same place, however, we +found a striking example of genuine protective or mimetic coloration +and shape. A rather large insect larva--at least we judged it to be a +larval form, but we were none of us entomologists--bore a resemblance +to a partially curled dry leaf which was fairly startling. The tail +exactly resembled the stem or continuation of the midrib of the dead +leaf. The flattened body was curled up at the sides, and veined and +colored precisely like the leaf. The head, colored like the leaf, +projected in front. + +We were still in the Brazilian highlands. The forest did not teem with +life. It was generally rather silent; we did not hear such a chorus of +birds and mammals as we had occasionally heard even on our overland +journey, when more than once we had been awakened at dawn by the +howling, screaming, yelping, and chattering of monkeys, toucans, +macaws, parrots, and parakeets. There were, however, from time to +time, queer sounds from the forest, and after nightfall different +kinds of frogs and insects uttered strange cries and calls. In volume +and frequency these seemed to increase until midnight. Then they died +away and before dawn everything was silent. + +At this camp the carregadores ants completely devoured the doctor's +undershirt, and ate holes in his mosquito-net; and they also ate the +strap of Lyra's gun-case. The little stingless bees, of many kinds, +swarmed in such multitudes, and were so persevering, that we had to +wear our head-nets when we wrote or skinned specimens. + +The following day was almost without rain. It was delightful to drift +and paddle slowly down the beautiful tropical river. Until mid- +afternoon the current was not very fast, and the broad, deep, placid +stream bent and curved in every direction, although the general course +was northwest. The country was flat, and more of the land was under +than above water. Continually we found ourselves travelling between +stretches of marshy forest where for miles the water stood or ran +among the trees. Once we passed a hillock. We saw brilliantly colored +parakeets and trogons. At last the slow current quickened. Faster it +went, and faster, until it began to run like a mill-race, and we heard +the roar of rapids ahead. We pulled to the right bank, moored the +canoes, and while most of the men pitched camp two or three of them +accompanied us to examine the rapids. We had made twenty kilometres. + +We soon found that the rapids were a serious obstacle. There were many +curls, and one or two regular falls, perhaps six feet high. It would +have been impossible to run them, and they stretched for nearly a +mile. The carry, however, which led through woods and over rocks in a +nearly straight line, was somewhat shorter. It was not an easy portage +over which to carry heavy loads and drag heavy dugout canoes. At the +point where the descent was steepest there were great naked flats of +friable sandstone and conglomerate. Over parts of these, where there +was a surface of fine sand, there was a growth of coarse grass. Other +parts were bare and had been worn by the weather into fantastic +shapes--one projection looked like an old-fashioned beaver hat upside +down. In this place, where the naked flats of rock showed the +projection of the ledge through which the river had cut its course, +the torrent rushed down a deep, sheer-sided, and extremely narrow +channel. At one point it was less than two yards across, and for quite +a distance not more than five or six yards. Yet only a mile or two +above the rapids the deep, placid river was at least a hundred yards +wide. It seemed extraordinary, almost impossible, that so broad a +river could in so short a space of time contract its dimensions to the +width of the strangled channel through which it now poured its entire +volume. + +This has for long been a station where the Nhambiquaras at intervals +built their ephemeral villages and tilled the soil with the rude and +destructive cultivation of savages. There were several abandoned old +fields, where the dense growth of rank fern hid the tangle of burnt +and fallen logs. Nor had the Nhambiquaras been long absent. In one +trail we found what gypsies would have called a "pateran," a couple of +branches arranged crosswise, eight leaves to a branch; it had some +special significance, belonging to that class of signals, each with +some peculiar and often complicated meaning, which are commonly used +by many wild peoples. The Indians had thrown a simple bridge, +consisting of four long poles, without a hand-rail, across one of the +narrowest parts of the rock gorge through which the river foamed in +its rapid descent. This sub-tribe of Indians was called the Navaite; +we named the rapids after them, Navaite Rapids. By observation Lyra +found them to be (in close approximation to) latitude 11 degrees 44 +minutes south and longitude 60 degrees 18 minutes west from Greenwich. + +We spent March 3 and 4 and the morning of the 5th in portaging around +the rapids. The first night we camped in the forest beside the spot +where we had halted. Next morning we moved the baggage to the foot of +the rapids, where we intended to launch the canoes, and pitched our +tents on the open sandstone flat. It rained heavily. The little bees +were in such swarms as to be a nuisance. Many small stinging bees were +with them, which stung badly. We were bitten by huge horse-flies, the +size of bumblebees. More serious annoyance was caused by the pium and +boroshuda flies during the hours of daylight, and by the polvora, the +sand-flies, after dark. There were a few mosquitoes. The boroshudas +were the worst pests; they brought the blood at once, and left marks +that lasted for weeks. I did my writing in head-net and gauntlets. +Fortunately we had with us several bottles of "fly dope"--so named on +the label--put up, with the rest of our medicine, by Doctor Alexander +Lambert; he had tested it in the north woods and found it excellent. I +had never before been forced to use such an ointment, and had been +reluctant to take it with me; but now I was glad enough to have it, +and we all of us found it exceedingly useful. I would never again go +into mosquito or sand-fly country without it. The effect of an +application wears off after half an hour or so, and under many +conditions, as when one is perspiring freely, it is of no use; but +there are times when minute mosquitoes and gnats get through head-nets +and under mosquito-bars, and when the ointments occasionally renewed +may permit one to get sleep or rest which would otherwise be +impossible of attainment. The termites got into our tent on the sand- +flat, ate holes in Cherrie's mosquito-net and poncho, and were +starting to work at our duffel-bags, when we discovered them. + +Packing the loads across was simple. Dragging the heavy dugouts was +labor. The biggest of the two water-logged ones was the heaviest. Lyra +and Kermit did the job. All the men were employed at it except the +cook, and one man who was down with fever. A road was chopped through +the forest and a couple of hundred stout six-foot poles, or small +logs, were cut as rollers and placed about two yards apart. With block +and tackle the seven dugouts were hoisted out of the river up the +steep banks, and up the rise of ground until the level was reached. +Then the men harnessed themselves two by two on the drag-rope, while +one of their number pried behind with a lever, and the canoe, bumping +and sliding, was twitched through the woods. Over the sandstone flats +there were some ugly ledges, but on the whole the course was down-hill +and relatively easy. Looking at the way the work was done, at the +good-will, the endurance, and the bull-like strength of the camaradas, +and at the intelligence and the unwearied efforts of their commanders, +one could but wonder at the ignorance of those who do not realize the +energy and the power that are so often possessed by, and that may be +so readily developed in, the men of the tropics. Another subject of +perpetual wonder is the attitude of certain men who stay at home, and +still more the attitude of certain men who travel under easy +conditions, and who belittle the achievements of the real explorers +of, the real adventures in, the great wilderness. The impostors and +romancers among explorers or would-be explorers and wilderness +wanderers have been unusually prominent in connection with South +America (although the conspicuous ones are not South Americans, by the +way); and these are fit subjects for condemnation and derision. But +the work of the genuine explorer and wilderness wanderer is fraught +with fatigue, hardship, and danger. Many of the men of little +knowledge talk glibly of portaging as if it were simple and easy. A +portage over rough and unknown ground is always a work of difficulty +and of some risk to the canoe; and in the untrodden, or even in the +unfrequented, wilderness risk to the canoe is a serious matter. This +particular portage at Navaite Rapids was far from being unusually +difficult; yet it not only cost two and a half days of severe and +incessant labor, but it cost something in damage to the canoes. One in +particular, the one in which I had been journeying, was split in a +manner which caused us serious uneasiness as to how long, even after +being patched, it would last. Where the canoes were launched, the bank +was sheer, and one of the water-logged canoes filled and went to the +bottom; and there was more work in raising it. + +We were still wholly unable to tell where we were going or what lay +ahead of us. Round the camp-fire, after supper, we held endless +discussions and hazarded all kinds of guesses on both subjects. The +river might bend sharply to the west and enter the Gy-Parana high up +or low down, or go north to the Madeira, or bend eastward and enter +the Tapajos, or fall into the Canuma and finally through one of its +mouths enter the Amazon direct. Lyra inclined to the first, and +Colonel Rondon to the second, of these propositions. We did not know +whether we had one hundred or eight hundred kilometres to go, whether +the stream would be fairly smooth or whether we would encounter +waterfalls, or rapids, or even some big marsh or lake. We could not +tell whether or not we would meet hostile Indians, although no one of +us ever went ten yards from camp without his rifle. We had no idea how +much time the trip would take. We had entered a land of unknown +possibilities. + +We started down-stream again early in the afternoon of March 5. Our +hands and faces were swollen from the bites and stings of the insect +pests at the sand-flat camp, and it was a pleasure once more to be in +the middle of the river, where they did not come, in any numbers, +while we were in motion. The current was swift, but the river was so +deep that there were no serious obstructions. Twice we went down over +slight riffles, which in the dry season were doubtless rapids; and +once we struck a spot where many whirlpools marked the presence +underneath of boulders which would have been above water had not the +river been so swollen by the rains. The distance we covered in a day +going down-stream would have taken us a week if we had been going up. +The course wound hither and thither, sometimes in sigmoid curves; but +the general direction was east of north. As usual, it was very +beautiful; and we never could tell what might appear around any curve. +In the forest that rose on either hand were tall rubber-trees. The +surveying canoes, as usual, went first, while I shepherded the two +pairs of lashed cargo canoes. I kept them always between me and the +surveying canoes--ahead of me until I passed the surveying canoes, +then behind me until, after an hour or so, I had chosen a place to +camp. There was so much overflowed ground that it took us some little +time this afternoon before we found a flat place high enough to be +dry. Just before reaching camp Cherrie shot a jacu, a handsome bird +somewhat akin to, but much smaller than, a turkey; after Cherrie had +taken its skin, its body made an excellent canja. We saw parties of +monkeys; and the false bellbirds uttered their ringing whistles in +the dense timber around our tents. The giant ants, an inch and a +quarter long, were rather too plentiful around this camp; one stung +Kermit; it was almost like the sting of a small scorpion, and pained +severely for a couple of hours. This half-day we made twelve +kilometres. + +On the following day we made nineteen kilometres, the river twisting +in every direction, but in its general course running a little west of +north. Once we stopped at a bee-tree, to get honey. The tree was a +towering giant, of the kind called milk-tree, because a thick milky +juice runs freely from any cut. Our camaradas eagerly drank the white +fluid that flowed from the wounds made by their axes. I tried it. The +taste was not unpleasant, but it left a sticky feeling in the mouth. +The helmsman of my boat, Luiz, a powerful negro, chopped into the +tree, balancing himself with springy ease on a slight scaffolding. The +honey was in a hollow, and had been made by medium-sized stingless +bees. At the mouth of the hollow they had built a curious entrance of +their own, in the shape of a spout of wax about a foot long. At the +opening the walls of the spout showed the wax formation, but elsewhere +it had become in color and texture indistinguishable from the bark of +the tree. The honey was delicious, sweet and yet with a tart flavor. +The comb differed much from that of our honey-bees. The honey-cells +were very large, and the brood-cells, which were small, were in a +single instead of a double row. By this tree I came across an example +of genuine concealing coloration. A huge tree-toad, the size of a +bullfrog, was seated upright--not squatted flat--on a big rotten limb. +It was absolutely motionless; the yellow brown of its back, and its +dark sides, exactly harmonized in color with the light and dark +patches on the log; the color was as concealing, here in its natural +surroundings, as is the color of our common wood-frog among the dead +leaves of our woods. When I stirred it up it jumped to a small twig, +catching hold with the disks of its finger-tips, and balancing itself +with unexpected ease for so big a creature, and then hopped to the +ground and again stood motionless. Evidently it trusted for safety to +escaping observation. We saw some monkeys and fresh tapir sign, and +Kermit shot a jacu for the pot. + +At about three o'clock I was in the lead, when the current began to +run more quickly. We passed over one or two decided ripples, and then +heard the roar of rapids ahead, while the stream began to race. We +drove the canoe into the bank, and then went down a tapir trail, which +led alongside the river, to reconnoiter. A quarter of a mile's walk +showed us that there were big rapids, down which the canoes could not +go; and we returned to the landing. All the canoes had gathered there, +and Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit started down-stream to explore. They +returned in an hour, with the information that the rapids continued +for a long distance, with falls and steep pitches of broken water, and +that the portage would take several days. We made camp just above the +rapids. Ants swarmed, and some of them bit savagely. Our men, in +clearing away the forest for our tents, left several very tall and +slender accashy palms; the bole of this palm is as straight as an +arrow and is crowned with delicate, gracefully curved fronds. We had +come along the course of the river almost exactly a hundred +kilometres; it had twisted so that we were only about fifty-five +kilometres north of our starting-point. The rock was porphyritic. + +The 7th, 8th, and 9th we spent in carrying the loads and dragging and +floating the dugouts past the series of rapids at whose head we had +stopped. + +The first day we shifted camp a kilometre and a half to the foot of +this series of rapids. This was a charming and picturesque camp. It +was at the edge of the river, where there was a little, shallow bay +with a beach of firm sand. In the water, at the middle point of the +beach, stood a group of three burity palms, their great trunks rising +like columns. Round the clearing in which our tents stood were several +very big trees; two of them were rubber-trees. Kermit went down-stream +five or six kilometres, and returned, having shot a jacu and found +that at the point which he had reached there was another rapids, +almost a fall, which would necessitate our again dragging the canoes +over a portage. Antonio, the Parecis, shot a big monkey; of this I was +glad because portaging is hard work, and the men appreciated the +meat. So far Cherrie had collected sixty birds on the Duvida, all of +them new to the collection, and some probably new to science. We saw +the fresh sign of paca, agouti, and the small peccary, and Kermit with +the dogs roused a tapir, which crossed the river right through the +rapids; but no one got a shot at it. + +Except at one or perhaps two points a very big dugout, lightly loaded, +could probably run all these rapids. But even in such a canoe it would +be silly to make the attempt on an exploring expedition, where the +loss of a canoe or of its contents means disaster; and moreover such a +canoe could not be taken, for it would be impossible to drag it over +the portages on the occasions when the portages became inevitable. Our +canoes would not have lived half a minute in the wild water. + +On the second day the canoes and loads were brought down to the foot +of the first rapids. Lyra cleared the path and laid the logs for +rollers, while Kermit dragged the dugouts up the bank from the water +with block and tackle, with strain of rope and muscle. Then they +joined forces, as over the uneven ground it needed the united strength +of all their men to get the heavy dugouts along. Meanwhile the colonel +with one attendant measured the distance, and then went on a long +hunt, but saw no game. I strolled down beside the river for a couple +of miles, but also saw nothing. In the dense tropical forest of the +Amazonian basin hunting is very difficult, especially for men who are +trying to pass through the country as rapidly as possible. On such a +trip as ours getting game is largely a matter of chance. + +On the following day Lyra and Kermit brought down the canoes and +loads, with hard labor, to the little beach by the three palms where +our tents were pitched. Many pacovas grew round about. The men used +their immense leaves, some of which were twelve feet long and two and +a half feet broad, to roof the flimsy shelters under which they hung +their hammocks. I went into the woods, but in the tangle of vegetation +it would have been a mere hazard had I seen any big animal. Generally +the woods were silent and empty. Now and then little troops of birds +of many kinds passed--wood-hewers, ant-thrushes, tanagers, +flycatchers; as in the spring and fall similar troops of warblers, +chickadees, and nuthatches pass through our northern woods. On the +rocks and on the great trees by the river grew beautiful white and +lilac orchids, the sobralia, of sweet and delicate fragrance. For the +moment my own books seemed a trifle heavy, and perhaps I would have +found the day tedious if Kermit had not lent me the Oxford Book of +French Verse. Eustache Deschamp, Joachim du Bellay, Ronsard, the +delightful La Fontaine, the delightful but appalling Villon, Victor +Hugo's "Guitare," Madame Desbordes-Valmore's lines on the little girl +and her pillow, as dear little verses about a child as ever were +written--these and many others comforted me much, as I read them in +head-net and gauntlets, sitting on a log by an unknown river in the +Amazonian forest. + +On the 10th we again embarked and made a kilometre and a half, +spending most of the time in getting past two more rapids. Near the +first of these we saw a small cayman, a jacare-tinga. At each set of +rapids the canoes were unloaded and the loads borne past on the +shoulders of the camaradas; three of the canoes were paddled down by a +couple of naked paddlers apiece; and the two sets of double canoes +were let down by ropes, one of one couple being swamped but rescued +and brought safely to shore on each occasion. One of the men was upset +while working in the swift water, and his face was cut against the +stones. Lyra and Kermit did the actual work with the camaradas. +Kermit, dressed substantially like the camaradas themselves, worked in +the water, and, as the overhanging branches were thronged with crowds +of biting and stinging ants, he was marked and blistered over his +whole body. Indeed, we all suffered more or less from these ants; +while the swarms of biting flies grew constantly more numerous. The +termites ate holes in my helmet and also in the cover of my cot. Every +one else had a hammock. At this camp we had come down the river about +102 kilometres, according to the surveying records, and in height had +descended nearly 100 metres, as shown by the aneroid--although the +figure in this case is only an approximation, as an aneroid cannot be +depended on for absolute accuracy of results. + +Next morning we found that during the night we had met with a serious +misfortune. We had halted at the foot of the rapids. The canoes were +moored to trees on the bank, at the tail of the broken water. The two +old canoes, although one of them was our biggest cargo-carrier, were +water-logged and heavy, and one of them was leaking. In the night the +river rose. The leaky canoe, which at best was too low in the water, +must have gradually filled from the wash of the waves. It sank, +dragging down the other; they began to roll, bursting their moorings; +and in the morning they had disappeared. A canoe was launched to look +for them; but, rolling over the boulders on the rocky bottom, they had +at once been riven asunder, and the big fragments that were soon +found, floating in eddies, or along the shore, showed that it was +useless to look farther. We called these rapids Broken Canoe Rapids. + +It was not pleasant to have to stop for some days; thanks to the +rapids, we had made slow progress, and with our necessarily limited +supply of food, and no knowledge whatever of what was ahead of us, it +was important to make good time. But there was no alternative. We had +to build either one big canoe or two small ones. It was raining +heavily as the men started to explore in different directions for good +canoe trees. Three--which ultimately proved not very good for the +purpose--were found close to camp; splendid-looking trees, one of them +five feet in diameter three feet from the ground. The axemen +immediately attacked this one under the superintendence of Colonel +Rondon. Lyra and Kermit started in opposite directions to hunt. Lyra +killed a jacu for us, and Kermit killed two monkeys for the men. +Toward night fall it cleared. The moon was nearly full, and the +foaming river gleamed like silver. + +Our men were "regional volunteers," that is, they had enlisted in the +service of the Telegraphic Commission especially to do this wilderness +work, and were highly paid, as was fitting, in view of the toil, +hardship, and hazard to life and health. Two of them had been with +Colonel Rondon during his eight months' exploration in 1909, at which +time his men were regulars, from his own battalion of engineers. His +four aides during the closing months of this trip were Lieutenants +Lyra, Amarante, Alencarliense, and Pyrineus. The naturalist Miranda +Ribeiro also accompanied him. This was the year when, marching on foot +through an absolutely unknown wilderness, the colonel and his party +finally reached the Gy-Parana, which on the maps was then (and on most +maps is now) placed in an utterly wrong course, and over a degree out +of its real position. When they reached the affluents of the Gy-Parana +a third of the members of the party were so weak with fever that they +could hardly crawl. They had no baggage. Their clothes were in +tatters, and some of the men were almost naked. For months they had +had no food except what little game they shot, and especially the wild +fruits and nuts; if it had not been for the great abundance of the +Brazil-nuts they would all have died. At the first big stream they +encountered they built a canoe, and Alencarliense took command of it +and descended to map the course of the river. With him went Ribeiro, +the doctor Tanageira, who could no longer walk on account of the +ulceration of one foot, three men whom the fever had rendered unable +longer to walk, and six men who were as yet well enough to handle the +canoe. By the time the remainder of the party came to the next +navigable river eleven more fever-stricken men had nearly reached the +end of their tether. Here they ran across a poor devil who had for +four months been lost in the forest and was dying of slow starvation. +He had eaten nothing but Brazil-nuts and the grubs of insects. He +could no longer walk, but could sit erect and totter feebly for a few +feet. Another canoe was built, and in it Pyrineus started down-stream +with the eleven fever patients and the starving wanderer. Colonel +Rondon kept up the morale of his men by still carrying out the forms +of military discipline. The ragged bugler had his bugle. Lieutenant +Pyrineus had lost every particle of his clothing except a hat and a +pair of drawers. The half-naked lieutenant drew up his eleven fever +patients in line; the bugle sounded; every one came to attention; and +the haggard colonel read out the orders of the day. Then the dugout +with its load of sick men started down-stream, and Rondon, Lyra, +Amarante, and the twelve remaining men resumed their weary march. When +a fortnight later they finally struck a camp of rubber-gatherers three +of the men were literally and entirely naked. Meanwhile Amilcar had +ascended the Jacyparana a month or two previously with provisions to +meet them; for at that time the maps incorrectly treated this river as +larger, instead of smaller, than the Gy-Parana, which they were in +fact descending; and Colonel Rondon had supposed that they were going +down the former stream. Amilcar returned after himself suffering much +hardship and danger. The different parties finally met at the mouth of +the Gy-Parana, where it enters the Madeira. The lost man whom they had +found seemed on the road to recovery, and they left him at a ranch, on +the Madeira, where he could be cared for; yet after they had left him +they heard that he had died. + +On the 12th the men were still hard at work hollowing out the hard +wood of the big tree, with axe and adze, while watch and ward were +kept over them to see that the idlers did not shirk at the expense of +the industrious. Kermit and Lyra again hunted; the former shot a +curassow, which was welcome, as we were endeavoring in all ways to +economize our food supply. We were using the tops of palms also. I +spent the day hunting in the woods, for the most part by the river, +but saw nothing. In the season of the rains game is away from the +river and fish are scarce and turtles absent. Yet it was pleasant to +be in the great silent forest. Here and there grew immense trees, and +on some of them mighty buttresses sprang from the base. The lianas and +vines were of every size and shape. Some were twisted and some were +not. Some came down straight and slender from branches a hundred feet +above. Others curved like long serpents around the trunks. Others were +like knotted cables. In the shadow there was little noise. The wind +rarely moved the hot, humid air. There were few flowers or birds. +Insects were altogether too abundant, and even when travelling slowly +it was impossible always to avoid them--not to speak of our constant +companions the bees, mosquitoes, and especially the boroshudas or +bloodsucking flies. Now while bursting through a tangle I disturbed a +nest of wasps, whose resentment was active; now I heedlessly stepped +among the outliers of a small party of the carnivorous foraging ants; +now, grasping a branch as I stumbled, I shook down a shower of fire- +ants; and among all these my attention was particularly arrested by +the bite of one of the giant ants, which stung like a hornet, so that +I felt it for three hours. The camarades generally went barefoot or +only wore sandals; and their ankles and feet were swollen and inflamed +from the bites of the boroshudas and ants, some being actually +incapacitated from work. All of us suffered more or less, our faces +and hands swelling slightly from the boroshuda bites; and in spite of +our clothes we were bitten all over our bodies, chiefly by ants and +the small forest ticks. Because of the rain and the heat our clothes +were usually wet when we took them off at night, and just as wet when +we put them on again in the morning. + +All day on the 13th the men worked at the canoe, making good progress. +In rolling and shifting the huge, heavy tree-trunk every one had to +assist now and then. The work continued until ten in the evening, as +the weather was clear. After nightfall some of the men held candles +and the others plied axe or adze, standing within or beside the great, +half-hollowed logs, while the flicker of the lights showed the tropic +forest rising in the darkness round about. The night air was hot and +still and heavy with moisture. The men were stripped to the waist. +Olive and copper and ebony, their skins glistened as if oiled, and +rippled with the ceaseless play of the thews beneath. + +On the morning of the 14th the work was resumed in a torrential tropic +downpour. The canoe was finished, dragged down to the water, and +launched soon after midday, and another hour or so saw us under way. +The descent was marked, and the swollen river raced along. Several +times we passed great whirlpools, sometimes shifting, sometimes +steady. Half a dozen times we ran over rapids, and, although they were +not high enough to have been obstacles to loaded Canadian canoes, two +of them were serious to us. Our heavily laden, clumsy dugouts were +sunk to within three or four inches of the surface of the river, and, +although they were buoyed on each side with bundles of burity-palm +branch-stems, they shipped a great deal of water in the rapids. The +two biggest rapids we only just made, and after each we had hastily to +push ashore in order to bail. In one set of big ripples or waves my +canoe was nearly swamped. In a wilderness, where what is ahead is +absolutely unknown, alike in terms of time, space, and method--for we +had no idea where we would come out, how we would get out, or when we +would get out--it is of vital consequence not to lose one's outfit, +especially the provisions; and yet it is of only less consequence to +go as rapidly as possible lest all the provisions be exhausted and the +final stages of the expedition be accomplished by men weakened from +semi-starvation, and therefore ripe for disaster. On this occasion, of +the two hazards, we felt it necessary to risk running the rapids; for +our progress had been so very slow that unless we made up the time, it +was probable that we would be short of food before we got where we +could expect to procure any more except what little the country in the +time of the rains and floods, might yield. We ran until after five, so +that the work of pitching camp was finished in the dark. We had made +nearly sixteen kilometres in a direction slightly east of north. This +evening the air was fresh and cool. + +The following morning, the 15th of March, we started in good season. +For six kilometres we drifted and paddled down the swift river without +incident. At times we saw lofty Brazil-nut trees rising above the rest +of the forest on the banks; and back from the river these trees grow +to enormous proportions, towering like giants. There were great +rubber-trees also, their leaves always in sets of threes. Then the +ground on either hand rose into boulder-strewn, forest-clad hills and +the roar of broken water announced that once more our course was +checked by dangerous rapids. Round a bend we came on them; a wide +descent of white water, with an island in the middle, at the upper +edge. Here grave misfortune befell us, and graver misfortune was +narrowly escaped. + +Kermit, as usual, was leading in his canoe. It was the smallest and +least seaworthy of all. He had in it little except a week's supply of +our boxed provisions and a few tools; fortunately none of the food for +the camaradas. His dog Trigueiro was with him. Besides himself, the +crew consisted of two men: Joao, the helmsman, or pilot, as he is +called in Brazil, and Simplicio, the bowsman. Both were negroes and +exceptionally good men in every way. Kermit halted his canoe on the +left bank, above the rapids, and waited for the colonel's canoe. Then +the colonel and Lyra walked down the bank to see what was ahead. +Kermit took his canoe across to the island to see whether the descent +could be better accomplished on the other side. Having made his +investigation, he ordered the men to return to the bank he had left, +and the dugout was headed up-stream accordingly. Before they had gone +a dozen yards, the paddlers digging their paddles with all their +strength into the swift current, one of the shifting whirlpools of +which I have spoken came down-stream, whirled them around, and swept +them so close to the rapids that no human power could avoid going over +them. As they were drifting into them broadside on, Kermit yelled to +the steersman to turn her head, so as to take them in the only way +that offered any chance whatever of safety. The water came aboard, +wave after wave, as they raced down. They reached the bottom with the +canoe upright, but so full as barely to float, and the paddlers urged +her toward the shore. They had nearly reached the bank when another +whirlpool or whirling eddy tore them away and hurried them back to +midstream, where the dugout filled and turned over. Joao, seizing the +rope, started to swim ashore; the rope was pulled from his hand, but +he reached the bank. Poor Simplicio must have been pulled under at +once and his life beaten out on the boulders beneath the racing +torrent. He never rose again, nor did we ever recover his body. Kermit +clutched his rifle, his favorite 405 Winchester with which he had done +most of his hunting both in Africa and America, and climbed on the +bottom of the upset boat. In a minute he was swept into the second +series of rapids, and whirled away from the rolling boat, losing his +rifle. The water beat his helmet down over his head and face and drove +him beneath the surface; and when he rose at last he was almost +drowned, his breath and strength almost spent. He was in swift but +quiet water, and swam toward an overhanging branch. His jacket +hindered him, but he knew he was too nearly gone to be able to get it +off, and, thinking with the curious calm one feels when death is but a +moment away, he realized that the utmost his failing strength could do +was to reach the branch. He reached, and clutched it, and then almost +lacked strength to haul himself out on the land. Good Trigueiro had +faithfully swum alongside him through the rapids, and now himself +scrambled ashore. It was a very narrow escape. Kermit was a great +comfort and help to me on the trip; but the fear of some fatal +accident befalling him was always a nightmare to me. He was to be +married as soon as the trip was over; and it did not seem to me that I +could bear to bring bad tidings to his betrothed and to his mother. + +Simplicio was unmarried. Later we sent to his mother all the money +that would have been his had he lived. The following morning we put on +one side of the post erected to mark our camping-spot the following +inscription, in Portuguese: + + "IN THESE RAPIDS DIED POOR SIMPLICIO." + +On an expedition such as ours death is one of the accidents that may +at any time occur, and narrow escapes from death are too common to be +felt as they would be felt elsewhere. One mourns sincerely, but +mourning cannot interfere with labor. We immediately proceeded with +the work of the portage. From the head to the tail of this series of +rapids the distance was about six hundred yards. A path was cut along +the bank, over which the loads were brought. The empty canoes ran the +rapids without mishap, each with two skilled paddlers. One of the +canoes almost ran into a swimming tapir at the head of the rapids; it +went down the rapids, and then climbed out of the river. Kermit +accompanied by Joao, went three or four miles down the river, looking +for the body of Simplicio and for the sunk canoe. He found neither. +But he found a box of provisions and a paddle, and salvaged both by +swimming into midstream after them. He also found that a couple of +kilometres below there was another stretch of rapids, and following +them on the left-hand bank to the foot he found that they were worse +than the ones we had just passed, and impassable for canoes on this +left-hand side. + +We camped at the foot of the rapids we had just passed. There were +many small birds here, but it was extremely difficult to see or shoot +them in the lofty tree tops, and to find them in the tangle beneath if +they were shot. However, Cherrie got four species new to the +collection. One was a tiny hummer, one of the species known as +woodstars, with dainty but not brilliant plumage; its kind is never +found except in the deep, dark woods, not coming out into the +sunshine. Its crop was filled with ants; when shot it was feeding at a +cluster of long red flowers. He also got a very handsome trogon and an +exquisite little tanager, as brilliant as a cluster of jewels; its +throat was lilac, its breast turquoise, its crown and forehead topaz, +while above it was glossy purple-black, the lower part of the back +ruby-red. This tanager was a female; I can hardly imagine that the +male is more brilliantly colored. The fourth bird was a queer hawk of +the genus ibycter, black, with a white belly, naked red cheeks and +throat and red legs and feet. Its crop was filled with the seeds of +fruits and a few insect remains; an extraordinary diet for a hawk. + +The morning of the 16th was dark and gloomy. Through sheets of +blinding rain we left our camp of misfortune for another camp where +misfortune also awaited us. Less than half an hour took our dugouts to +the head of the rapids below. As Kermit had already explored the left- +hand side, Colonel Rondon and Lyra went down the right-hand side and +found a channel which led round the worst part, so that they deemed it +possible to let down the canoes by ropes from the bank. The distance +to the foot of the rapids was about a kilometre. While the loads were +being brought down the left bank, Luiz and Antonio Correa, our two +best watermen, started to take a canoe down the right side, and +Colonel Rondon walked ahead to see anything he could about the river. +He was accompanied by one of our three dogs, Lobo. After walking about +a kilometre he heard ahead a kind of howling noise, which he thought +was made by spider-monkeys. He walked in the direction of the sound +and Lobo ran ahead. In a minute he heard Lobo yell with pain, and +then, still yelping, come toward him, while the creature that was +howling also approached, evidently in pursuit. In a moment a second +yell from Lobo, followed by silence, announced that he was dead; and +the sound of the howling when near convinced Rondon that the dog had +been killed by an Indian, doubtless with two arrows. Probably the +Indian was howling to lure the spider-monkeys toward him. Rondon fired +his rifle in the air, to warn off the Indian or Indians, who in all +probability had never seen a civilized man, and certainly could not +imagine that one was in the neighborhood. He then returned to the foot +of the rapids, where the portage was still going on, and, in company +with Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Parecis, the Indian, walked back to +where Lobo's body lay. Sure enough he found him, slain by two arrows. +One arrow-head was in him, and near by was a strange stick used in the +very primitive method of fishing of all these Indians. Antonio +recognized its purpose. The Indians, who were apparently two or three +in number, had fled. Some beads and trinkets were left on the spot to +show that we were not angry and were friendly. + +Meanwhile Cherrie stayed at the head and I at the foot of the portage +as guards. Luiz and Antonio Correa brought down one canoe safely. The +next was the new canoe, which was very large and heavy, being made of +wood that would not float. In the rapids the rope broke, and the canoe +was lost, Luiz being nearly drowned. + +It was a very bad thing to lose the canoe, but it was even worse to +lose the rope and pulleys. This meant that it would be physically +impossible to hoist big canoes up even small hills or rocky hillocks, +such as had been so frequent beside the many rapids we had +encountered. It was not wise to spend the four days necessary to build +new canoes where we were, in danger of attack from the Indians. +Moreover, new rapids might be very near, in which case the new canoes +would hamper us. Yet the four remaining canoes would not carry all the +loads and all the men, no matter how we cut the loads down; and we +intended to cut everything down at once. We had been gone eighteen +days. We had used over a third of our food. We had gone only 125 +kilometres, and it was probable that we had at least five times, +perhaps six or seven times, this distance still to go. We had taken a +fortnight to descend rapids amounting in the aggregate to less than +seventy yards of fall; a very few yards of fall makes a dangerous +rapid when the river is swollen and swift and there are obstructions. +We had only one aneroid to determine our altitude, and therefore could +make merely a loose approximation to it, but we probably had between +two and three times this descent in the aggregate of rapids ahead of +us. So far the country had offered little in the way of food except +palm-tops. We had lost four canoes and one man. We were in the country +of wild Indians, who shot well with their bows. It behooved us to go +warily, but also to make all speed possible, if we were to avoid +serious trouble. + +The best plan seemed to be to march thirteen men down along the bank, +while the remaining canoes, lashed two and two, floated down beside +them. If after two or three days we found no bad rapids, and there +seemed a reasonable chance of going some distance at decent speed, we +could then build the new canoes--preferably two small ones, this time, +instead of one big one. We left all the baggage we could. We were +already down as far as comfort would permit; but we now struck off +much of the comfort. Cherrie, Kermit, and I had been sleeping under a +very light fly; and there was another small light tent for one person, +kept for possible emergencies. The last was given to me for my cot, +and all five of the others swung their hammocks under the big fly. +This meant that we left two big and heavy tents behind. A box of +surveying instruments was also abandoned. Each of us got his personal +belongings down to one box or duffel-bag--although there was only a +small diminution thus made; because we had so little that the only way +to make a serious diminution was to restrict ourselves to the clothes +on our backs. + +The biting flies and ants were to us a source of discomfort and at +times of what could fairly be called torment. But to the camaradas, +most of whom went barefoot or only wore sandals--and they never did or +would wear shoes--the effect was more serious. They wrapped their legs +and feet in pieces of canvas or hide; and the feet of three of them +became so swollen that they were crippled and could not walk any +distance. The doctor, whose courage and cheerfulness never flagged, +took excellent care of them. Thanks to him, there had been among them +hitherto but one or two slight cases of fever. He administered to each +man daily a half-gram--nearly eight grains--of quinine, and every +third or fourth day a double dose. + +The following morning Colonel Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, Cherrie, and nine +of the camaradas started in single file down the bank, while the +doctor and I went in the two double canoes, with six camaradas, three +of them the invalids with swollen feet. We halted continually, as we +went about three times as fast as the walkers; and we traced the +course of the river. After forty minutes' actual going in the boats we +came to some rapids; the unloaded canoes ran them without difficulty, +while the loads were portaged. In an hour and a half we were again +under way, but in ten minutes came to other rapids, where the river +ran among islands, and there were several big curls. The clumsy, +heavily laden dugouts, lashed in couples, were unwieldy and hard to +handle. The rapids came just round a sharp bend, and we got caught in +the upper part of the swift water and had to run the first set of +rapids in consequence. We in the leading pair of dugouts were within +an ace of coming to grief on some big boulders against which we were +swept by a cross current at the turn. All of us paddling hard-- +scraping and bumping--we got through by the skin of our teeth, and +managed to make the bank and moor our dugouts. It was a narrow escape +from grave disaster. The second pair of lashed dugouts profited by our +experience, and made the run--with risk, but with less risk--and +moored beside us. Then all the loads were taken out, and the empty +canoes were run down through the least dangerous channels among the +islands. + +This was a long portage, and we camped at the foot of the rapids, +having made nearly seven kilometres. Here a little river, a rapid +stream of volume equal to the Duvida at the point where we first +embarked, joined from the west. Colonel Rondon and Kermit came to it +first, and the former named it Rio Kermit. There was in it a waterfall +about six or eight feet high, just above the junction. Here we found +plenty of fish. Lyra caught two pacu, good-sized, deep-bodied fish. +They were delicious eating. Antonio the Parecis said that these fish +never came up heavy rapids in which there were falls they had to jump. +We could only hope that he was correct, as in that case the rapids we +would encounter in the future would rarely be so serious as to +necessitate our dragging the heavy dugouts overland. Passing the +rapids we had hitherto encountered had meant severe labor and some +danger. But the event showed that he was mistaken. The worst rapids +were ahead of us. + +While our course as a whole had been almost due north, and sometimes +east of north, yet where there were rapids the river had generally, +although not always, turned westward. This seemed to indicate that to +the east of us there was a low northward projection of the central +plateau across which we had travelled on mule-back. This is the kind +of projection that appears on the maps of this region as a sierra. +Probably it sent low spurs to the west, and the farthest points of +these spurs now and then caused rapids in our course (for the rapids +generally came where there were hills) and for the moment deflected +the river westward from its general downhill trend to the north. There +was no longer any question that the Duvida was a big river, a river of +real importance. It was not a minor affluent of some other affluent. +But we were still wholly in the dark as to where it came out. It was +still possible, although exceedingly improbable, that it entered the +Gy-Parana, as another river of substantially the same size, near its +mouth. It was much more likely, but not probable, that it entered the +Tapajos. It was probable, although far from certain, that it entered +the Madeira low down, near its point of junction with the Amazon. In +this event it was likely, although again far from certain, that its +mouth would prove to be the Aripuanan. The Aripuanan does not appear +on the maps as a river of any size; on a good standard map of South +America which I had with me its name does not appear at all, although +a dotted indication of a small river or creek at about the right place +probably represents it. Nevertheless, from the report of one of his +lieutenants who had examined its mouth, and from the stories of the +rubber-gatherers, or seringueiros, Colonel Rondon had come to the +conclusion that this was the largest affluent of the Madeira, with +such a body of water that it must have a big drainage basin. He +thought that the Duvida was probably one of its head streams--although +every existing map represented the lay of the land to be such as to +render impossible the existence of such a river system and drainage +basin. The rubber-gatherers reported that they had gone many days' +journey up the river, to a point where there was a series of heavy +rapids with above them the junction point of two large rivers, one +entering from the west. Beyond this they had difficulties because of +the hostility of the Indians; and where the junction point was no one +could say. On the chance Colonel Rondon had directed one of his +subordinate officers, Lieutenant Pyrineus, to try to meet us, with +boats and provisions, by ascending the Aripuanan to the point of entry +of its first big affluent. This was the course followed when Amilcar +had been directed to try to meet the explorers who in 1909 came down +the Gy-Parana. At that time the effort was a failure, and the two +parties never met; but we might have better luck, and in any event the +chance was worth taking. + +On the morning following our camping by the mouth of the Rio Kermit, +Colonel Rondon took a good deal of pains in getting a big post set up +at the entry of the smaller river into the Duvida. Then he summoned +me, and all the others, to attend the ceremony of its erection. We +found the camaradas drawn up in line, and the colonel preparing to +read aloud "the orders of the day." To the post was nailed a board +with "Rio Kermit" on it; and the colonel read the orders reciting that +by the direction of the Brazilian Government, and inasmuch as the +unknown river was evidently a great river, he formally christened it +the Rio Roosevelt. This was a complete surprise to me. Both Lauro +Miller and Colonel Rondon had spoken to me on the subject, and I had +urged, and Kermit had urged, as strongly as possible, that the name be +kept as Rio da Duvida. We felt that the "River of Doubt" was an +unusually good name; and it is always well to keep a name of this +character. But my kind friends insisted otherwise, and it would have +been churlish of me to object longer. I was much touched by their +action, and by the ceremony itself. At the conclusion of the reading +Colonel Rondon led in cheers for the United States and then for me and +for Kermit; and the camaradas cheered with a will. I proposed three +cheers for Brazil and then for Colonel Rondon, and Lyra, and the +doctor, and then for all the camaradas. Then Lyra said that everybody +had been cheered except Cherrie; and so we all gave three cheers for +Cherrie, and the meeting broke up in high good humor. + +Immediately afterward the walkers set off on their march downstream, +looking for good canoe trees. In a quarter of an hour we followed with +the canoes. As often as we overtook them we halted until they had +again gone a good distance ahead. They soon found fresh Indian sign, +and actually heard the Indians; but the latter fled in panic. They +came on a little Indian fishing village, just abandoned. The three +low, oblong huts, of palm leaves, had each an entrance for a man on +all fours, but no other opening. They were dark inside, doubtless as a +protection against the swarms of biting flies. On a pole in this +village an axe, a knife, and some strings of red beads were left, with +the hope that the Indians would return, find the gifts, and realize +that we were friendly. We saw further Indian sign on both sides of the +river. + +After about two hours and a half we came on a little river entering +from the east. It was broad but shallow, and at the point of entrance +rushed down, green and white, over a sharply inclined sheet of rock. +It was a lovely sight and we halted to admire it. Then on we went, +until, when we had covered about eight kilometres, we came on a +stretch of rapids. The canoes ran them with about a third of the +loads, the other loads being carried on the men's shoulders. At the +foot of the rapids we camped, as there were several good canoe trees +near, and we had decided to build two rather small canoes. After dark +the stars came out; but in the deep forest the glory of the stars in +the night of the sky, the serene radiance of the moon, the splendor of +sunrise and sunset, are never seen as they are seen on the vast open +plains. + +The following day, the 19th, the men began work on the canoes. The +ill-fated big canoe had been made of wood so hard that it was +difficult to work, and so heavy that the chips sank like lead in the +water. But these trees were araputangas, with wood which was easier to +work, and which floated. Great buttresses, or flanges, jutted out from +their trunks at the base, and they bore big hard nuts or fruits which +stood erect at the ends of the branches. The first tree felled proved +rotten, and moreover it was chopped so that it smashed a number of +lesser trees into the kitchen, overthrowing everything, but not +inflicting serious damage. Hardworking, willing, and tough though the +camaradas were, they naturally did not have the skill of northern +lumberjacks. + +We hoped to finish the two canoes in three days. A space was cleared +in the forest for our tents. Among the taller trees grew huge-leafed +pacovas, or wild bananas. We bathed and swam in the river, although in +it we caught piranhas. Carregadores ants swarmed all around our camp. +As many of the nearest of their holes as we could we stopped with +fire; but at night some of them got into our tents and ate things we +could ill spare. In the early morning a column of foraging ants +appeared, and we drove them back, also with fire. When the sky was not +overcast the sun was very hot, and we spread out everything to dry. +There were many wonderful butterflies round about, but only a few +birds. Yet in the early morning and late afternoon there was some +attractive bird music in the woods. The two best performers were our +old friend the false bellbird, with its series of ringing whistles, +and a shy, attractive ant-thrush. The latter walked much on the +ground, with dainty movements, curtseying and raising its tail; and in +accent and sequence, although not in tone or time, its song resembled +that of our white-throated sparrow. + +It was three weeks since we had started down the River of Doubt. We +had come along its winding course about 140 kilometres, with a descent +of somewhere in the neighborhood of 124 metres. It had been slow +progress. We could not tell what physical obstacles were ahead of us, +nor whether the Indians would be actively hostile. But a river +normally describes in its course a parabola, the steep descent being +in the upper part; and we hoped that in the future we should not have +to encounter so many and such difficult rapids as we had already +encountered, and that therefore we would make better time--a hope +destined to failure. + + + + IX. DOWN AN UNKNOWN RIVER INTO THE EQUATORIAL FOREST + +The mightiest river in the world is the Amazon. It runs from west to +east, from the sunset to the sunrise, from the Andes to the Atlantic. +The main stream flows almost along the equator, while the basin which +contains its affluents extends many degrees north and south of the +equator. The gigantic equatorial river basin is filled with an immense +forest, the largest in the world, with which no other forest can be +compared save those of western Africa and Malaysia. We were within the +southern boundary of this great equatorial forest, on a river which +was not merely unknown but unguessed at, no geographer having ever +suspected its existence. This river flowed northward toward the +equator, but whither it would go, whether it would turn one way or +another, the length of its course, where it would come out, the +character of the stream itself, and the character of the dwellers +along its banks--all these things were yet to be discovered. + +One morning while the canoes were being built Kermit and I walked a +few kilometres down the river and surveyed the next rapids below. The +vast still forest was almost empty of life. We found old Indian signs. +There were very few birds, and these in the tops of the tall trees. We +saw a recent tapir track; and under a cajazeira tree by the bank there +were the tracks of capybaras which had been eating the fallen fruit. +This fruit is delicious and would make a valuable addition to our +orchards. The tree although tropical is hardy, thrives when +domesticated, and propagates rapidly from shoots. The Department of +Agriculture should try whether it would not grow in southern +California and Florida. This was the tree from which the doctor's +family name was taken. His parental grandfather, although of +Portuguese blood, was an intensely patriotic Brazilian. He was a very +young man when the independence of Brazil was declared, and did not +wish to keep the Portuguese family name; so he changed it to that of +the fine Brazilian tree in question. Such change of family names is +common in Brazil. Doctor Vital Brazil, the student of poisonous +serpents, was given his name by his father, whose own family name was +entirely different; and his brother's name was again different. + +There were tremendous downpours of rain, lasting for a couple of hours +and accompanied by thunder and lightning. But on the whole it seemed +as if the rains were less heavy and continuous than they had been. We +all of us had to help in building the canoes now and then. Kermit, +accompanied by Antonio the Parecis and Joao, crossed the river and +walked back to the little river that had entered from the east, so as +to bring back a report of it to Colonel Rondon. Lyra took +observations, by the sun and by the stars. We were in about latitude +11 degrees 2 minutes south, and due north of where we had started. The +river had wound so that we had gone two miles for every one we made +northward. Our progress had been very slow; and until we got out of +the region of incessant rapids, with their attendant labor and hazard, +it was not likely that we should go much faster. + +On the morning of March 22 we started in our six canoes. We made ten +kilometres. Twenty minutes after starting we came to the first rapids. +Here every one walked except the three best paddlers, who took the +canoes down in succession--an hour's job. Soon after this we struck a +bees' nest in the top of a tree overhanging the river; our steersman +climbed out and robbed it, but, alas! lost the honey on the way back. +We came to a small steep fall which we did not dare run in our over- +laden, clumsy, and cranky dugouts. Fortunately, we were able to follow +a deep canal which led off for a kilometre, returning just below the +falls, fifty yards from where it had started. Then, having been in the +boats and in motion only one hour and a half, we came to a long +stretch of rapids which it took us six hours to descend, and we camped +at the foot. Everything was taken out of the canoes, and they were run +down in succession. At one difficult and perilous place they were let +down by ropes; and even thus we almost lost one. + +We went down the right bank. On the opposite bank was an Indian +village, evidently inhabited only during the dry season. The marks on +the stumps of trees showed that these Indians had axes and knives; and +there were old fields in which maize, beans, and cotton had been +grown. The forest dripped and steamed. Rubber-trees were plentiful. At +one point the tops of a group of tall trees were covered with yellow- +white blossoms. Others bore red blossoms. Many of the big trees, of +different kinds, were buttressed at the base with great thin walls of +wood. Others, including both palms and ordinary trees, showed an even +stranger peculiarity. The trunk, near the base, but sometimes six or +eight feet from the ground, was split into a dozen or twenty branches +or small trunks which sloped outward in tent-like shape, each becoming +a root. The larger trees of this type looked as if their trunks were +seated on the tops of the pole frames of Indian tepees. At one point +in the stream, to our great surprise, we saw a flying fish. It skimmed +the water like a swallow for over twenty yards. + +Although we made only ten kilometres we worked hard all day. The last +canoes were brought down and moored to the bank at nightfall. Our +tents were pitched in the darkness. + +Next day we made thirteen kilometres. We ran, all told, a little over +an hour and three-quarters. Seven hours were spent in getting past a +series of rapids at which the portage, over rocky and difficult +ground, was a kilometre long. The canoes were run down empty--a +hazardous run, in which one of them upset. + +Yet while we were actually on the river, paddling and floating +downstream along the reaches of swift, smooth water, it was very +lovely. When we started in the morning the day was overcast and the +air was heavy with vapor. Ahead of us the shrouded river stretched +between dim walls of forest, half seen in the mist. Then the sun +burned up the fog, and loomed through it in a red splendor that +changed first to gold and then to molten white. In the dazzling light, +under the brilliant blue of the sky, every detail of the magnificent +forest was vivid to the eye: the great trees, the network of bush +ropes, the caverns of greenery, where thick-leaved vines covered all +things else. Wherever there was a hidden boulder the surface of the +current was broken by waves. In one place, in midstream, a pyramidal +rock thrust itself six feet above the surface of the river. On the +banks we found fresh Indian sign. + +At home in Vermont Cherrie is a farmer, with a farm of six hundred +acres, most of it woodland. As we sat at the foot of the rapids, +watching for the last dugouts with their naked paddlers to swing into +sight round the bend through the white water, we talked of the +northern spring that was just beginning. He sells cream, eggs, +poultry, potatoes, honey, occasionally pork and veal; but at this +season it was the time for the maple sugar crop. He has a sugar +orchard, where he taps twelve hundred trees and hopes soon to tap as +many more in addition. Said Cherrie: "It's a busy time now for Fred +Rice"--Fred Rice is the hired man, and in sugar time the Cherrie boys +help him with enthusiasm, and, moreover, are paid with exact justice +for the work they do. There is much wild life about the farm, although +it is near Brattleboro. One night in early spring a bear left his +tracks near the sugar house; and now and then in summer Cherrie has +had to sleep in the garden to keep the deer away from the beans, +cabbages, and beets. + +There was not much bird life in the forest, but Cherrie kept getting +species new to the collection. At this camp he shot an interesting +little ant-thrush. It was the size of a warbler, jet-black, with white +under-surfaces of the wings and tail, white on the tail-feathers, and +a large spot of white on the back, normally almost concealed, the +feathers on the back being long and fluffy. When he shot the bird, a +male, it was showing off before a dull-colored little bird, doubtless +the female; and the chief feature of the display was this white spot +on the back. The white feathers were raised and displayed so that the +spot flashed like the "chrysanthemum" on a prongbuck whose curiosity +has been aroused. In the gloom of the forest the bird was hard to see, +but the flashing of this patch of white feathers revealed it at once, +attracting immediate attention. It was an excellent example of a +coloration mark which served a purely advertising purpose; apparently +it was part of a courtship display. The bird was about thirty feet up +in the branches. + +In the morning, just before leaving this camp, a tapir swam across +stream a little way above us; but unfortunately we could not get a +shot at it. An ample supply of tapir beef would have meant much to us. +We had started with fifty days' rations; but this by no means meant +full rations, in the sense of giving every man all he wanted to eat. +We had two meals a day, and were on rather short commons--both our +mess and the camaradas'--except when we got plenty of palm-tops. For +our mess we had the boxes chosen by Fiala, each containing a day's +rations for six men, our number. But we made each box last a day and a +half, or at times two days, and in addition we gave some of the food +to the camaradas. It was only on the rare occasions when we had killed +some monkeys or curassows, or caught some fish, that everybody had +enough. We would have welcomed that tapir. So far the game, fish, and +fruit had been too scarce to be an element of weight in our food +supply. In an exploring trip like ours, through a difficult and +utterly unknown country, especially if densely forested, there is +little time to halt, and game cannot be counted on. It is only in +lands like our own West thirty years ago, like South Africa in the +middle of the last century, like East Africa to-day that game can be +made the chief food supply. On this trip our only substantial food +supply from the country hitherto had been that furnished by the +palmtops. Two men were detailed every day to cut down palms for food. + +A kilometre and a half after leaving this camp we came on a stretch of +big rapids. The river here twists in loops, and we had heard the +roaring of these rapids the previous afternoon. Then we passed out of +earshot of them; but Antonio Correa, our best waterman, insisted all +along that the roaring meant rapids worse than any we had encountered +for some days. "I was brought up in the water, and I know it like a +fish, and all its sounds," said he. He was right. We had to carry the +loads nearly a kilometre that afternoon, and the canoes were pulled +out on the bank so that they might be in readiness to be dragged +overland next day. Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Correa explored +both sides of the river. On the opposite or left bank they found the +mouth of a considerable river, bigger than the Rio Kermit, flowing in +from the west and making its entrance in the middle of the rapids. +This river we christened the Taunay, in honor of a distinguished +Brazilian, an explorer, a soldier, a senator, who was also a writer of +note. Kermit had with him two of his novels, and I had read one of his +books dealing with a disastrous retreat during the Paraguayan +war. + +Next morning, the 25th, the canoes were brought down. A path was +chopped for them and rollers laid; and half-way down the rapids Lyra +and Kermit, who were overseeing the work as well as doing their share +of the pushing and hauling, got them into a canal of smooth water, +which saved much severe labor. As our food supply lowered we were +constantly more desirous of economizing the strength of the men. One +day more would complete a month since we had embarked on the Duvida as +we had started in February, the lunar and calendar months coincided. +We had used up over half our provisions. We had come only a trifle +over 160 kilometres, thanks to the character and number of the rapids. +We believed we had three or four times the distance yet to go before +coming to a part of the river where we might hope to meet assistance, +either from rubber-gatherers, or from Pyrineus, if he were really +coming up the river which we were going down. If the rapids continued +to be as they had been it could not be much more than three weeks +before we were in straits for food, aside from the ever-present danger +of accident in the rapids; and if our progress were no faster than it +had been--and we were straining to do our best--we would in such event +still have several hundreds of kilometres of unknown river before us. +We could not even hazard a guess at what was in front. The river was +now a really big river, and it seemed impossible that it could flow +either into the Gy-Parana or the Tapajos. It was possible that it went +into the Canuma, a big affluent of the Madeira low down, and next to +the Tapajos. It was more probable that it was the headwaters of the +Aripuanan, a river which, as I have said, was not even named on the +excellent English map of Brazil I carried. Nothing but the mouth had +been known to any geographer; but the lower course had long been known +to rubber-gatherers, and recently a commission from the government of +Amazonas had partway ascended one branch of it--not as far as the +rubber-gatherers had gone, and, as it turned out, not the branch we +came down. + +Two of our men were down with fever. Another man, Julio, a fellow of +powerful frame, was utterly worthless, being an inborn, lazy shirk +with the heart of a ferocious cur in the body of a bullock. The others +were good men, some of them very good indeed. They were under the +immediate supervision of Pedrinho Craveiro, who was first-class in +every way. + +This camp was very lovely. It was on the edge of a bay, into which the +river broadened immediately below the rapids. There was a beach of +white sand, where we bathed and washed our clothes. All around us, and +across the bay, and on both sides of the long water-street made by the +river, rose the splendid forest. There were flocks of parakeets +colored green, blue, and red. Big toucans called overhead, lustrous +green-black in color, with white throats, red gorgets, red-and-yellow +tail coverts, and huge black-and-yellow bills. Here the soil was +fertile; it will be a fine site for a coffee-plantation when this +region is open to settlement. Surely such a rich and fertile land +cannot be permitted to remain idle, to lie as a tenantless wilderness, +while there are such teeming swarms of human beings in the +overcrowded, over-peopled countries of the Old World. The very rapids +and waterfalls which now make the navigation of the river so difficult +and dangerous would drive electric trolleys up and down its whole +length and far out on either side, and run mills and factories, and +lighten the labor on farms. With the incoming of settlement and with +the steady growth of knowledge how to fight and control tropical +diseases, fear of danger to health would vanish. A land like this is a +hard land for the first explorers, and perhaps for their immediate +followers, but not for the people who come after them. + +In mid-afternoon we were once more in the canoes; but we had paddled +with the current only a few minutes, we had gone only a kilometre, +when the roar of rapids in front again forced us to haul up to the +bank. As usual, Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit, with Antonio Correa, +explored both sides while camp was being pitched. The rapids were +longer and of steeper descent than the last, but on the opposite or +western side there was a passage down which we thought we could get +the empty dugouts at the cost of dragging them only a few yards at one +spot. The loads were to be carried down the hither bank, for a +kilometre, to the smooth water. The river foamed between great rounded +masses of rock, and at one point there was a sheer fall of six or +eight feet. We found and ate wild pineapples. Wild beans were in +flower. At dinner we had a toucan and a couple of parrots, which were +very good. + +All next day was spent by Lyra in superintending our three best +watermen as they took the canoes down the west side of the rapids, to +the foot, at the spot to which the camp had meantime been shifted. In +the forest some of the huge sipas, or rope vines, which were as big as +cables, bore clusters of fragrant flowers. The men found several +honey-trees, and fruits of various kinds, and small cocoanuts; they +chopped down an ample number of palms, for the palm-cabbage; and, most +important of all, they gathered a quantity of big Brazil-nuts, which +when roasted tasted like the best of chestnuts and are nutritious; and +they caught a number of big piranhas, which were good eating. So we +all had a feast, and everybody had enough to eat and was happy. + +By these rapids, at the fall, Cherrie found some strange carvings on a +bare mass of rock. They were evidently made by men a long time ago. As +far as is known, the Indians thereabouts make no such figures now. +They were in two groups, one on the surface of the rock facing the +land, the other on that facing the water. The latter were nearly +obliterated. The former were in good preservation, the figures sharply +cut into the rock. They consisted, upon the upper flat part of the +rock, of four multiple circles with a dot in the middle (O), very +accurately made and about a foot and a half in diameter; and below +them, on the side of the rock, four multiple m's or inverted w's (M). +What these curious symbols represented, or who made them, we could +not, of course, form the slightest idea. It may be that in a very +remote past some Indian tribes of comparatively advanced culture had +penetrated to this lovely river, just as we had now come to it. Before +white men came to South America there had already existed therein +various semi-civilizations, some rude, others fairly advanced, which +rose, flourished, and persisted through immemorial ages, and then +vanished. The vicissitudes in the history of humanity during its stay +on this southern continent have been as strange, varied, and +inexplicable as paleontology shows to have been the case, on the same +continent, in the history of the higher forms of animal life during +the age of mammals. Colonel Rondon stated that such figures as these +are not found anywhere else in Matto Grosso where he has been, and +therefore it was all the more strange to find them in this one place +on the unknown river, never before visited by white men, which we were +descending. + +Next morning we went about three kilometers before coming to some +steep hills, beautiful to look upon, clad as they were in dense, tall, +tropical forest, but ominous of new rapids. Sure enough, at their foot +we had to haul up and prepare for a long portage. The canoes we ran +down empty. Even so, we were within an ace of losing two, the lashed +couple in which I ordinarily journeyed. In a sharp bend of the rapids, +between two big curls, they were swept among the boulders and under +the matted branches which stretched out from the bank. They filled, +and the racing current pinned them where they were, one partly on the +other. All of us had to help get them clear. Their fastenings were +chopped asunder with axes. Kermit and half a dozen of the men, +stripped to the skin, made their way to a small rock island in the +little falls just above the canoes, and let down a rope which we tied +to the outermost canoe. The rest of us, up to our armpits and barely +able to keep our footing as we slipped and stumbled among the boulders +in the swift current, lifted and shoved while Kermit and his men +pulled the rope and fastened the slack to a half-submerged tree. Each +canoe in succession was hauled up the little rock island, baled, and +then taken down in safety by two paddlers. It was nearly four o'clock +before we were again ready to start, having been delayed by a rain- +storm so heavy that we could not see across the river. Ten minutes' +run took us to the head of another series of rapids; the exploring +party returned with the news that we had an all day's job ahead of us; +and we made camp in the rain, which did not matter much, as we were +already drenched through. It was impossible, with the wet wood, to +make a fire sufficiently hot to dry all our soggy things, for the rain +was still falling. A tapir was seen from our boat, but, as at the +moment we were being whisked round in a complete circle by a +whirlpool, I did not myself see it in time to shoot. + +Next morning we went down a kilometre, and then landed on the other +side of the river. The canoes were run down, and the loads carried to +the other side of a little river coming in from the west, which +Colonel Rondon christened Cherrie River. Across this we went on a +bridge consisting of a huge tree felled by Macario, one of our best +men. Here we camped, while Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Correa +explored what was ahead. They were absent until mid-afternoon. Then +they returned with the news that we were among ranges of low +mountains, utterly different in formation from the high plateau region +to which the first rapids, those we had come to on the 2nd of March, +belonged. Through the first range of these mountains the river ran in +a gorge, some three kilometres long, immediately ahead of us. The +ground was so rough and steep that it would be impossible to drag the +canoes over it and difficult enough to carry the loads; and the rapids +were so bad, containing several falls, one of at least ten metres in +height, that it was doubtful how many of the canoes we could get down +them. Kermit, who was the only man with much experience of rope work, +was the only man who believed we could get the canoes down at all; and +it was, of course, possible that we should have to build new ones at +the foot to supply the place of any that were lost or left behind. In +view of the length and character of the portage, and of all the +unpleasant possibilities that were ahead, and of the need of keeping +every pound of food, it was necessary to reduce weight in every +possible way and to throw away everything except the barest +necessities. + +We thought we had reduced our baggage before; but now we cut to the +bone. We kept the fly for all six of us to sleep under. Kermit's shoes +had gone, thanks to the amount of work in the water which he had been +doing; and he took the pair I had been wearing, while I put on my +spare pair. In addition to the clothes I wore, I kept one set of +pajamas, a spare pair of drawers, a spare pair of socks, half a dozen +handkerchiefs, my wash-kit, my pocket medicine-case, and a little bag +containing my spare spectacles, gun-grease, some adhesive plaster, +some needles and thread, the "fly-dope," and my purse and letter of +credit, to be used at Manaos. All of these went into the bag +containing my cot, blanket, and mosquito-net. I also carried a +cartridge-bag containing my cartridges, head-net, and gauntlets. +Kermit cut down even closer; and the others about as close. + +The last three days of March we spent in getting to the foot of the +rapids in this gorge. Lyra and Kermit, with four of the best watermen, +handled the empty canoes. The work was not only difficult and +laborious in the extreme, but hazardous; for the walls of the gorge +were so sheer that at the worst places they had to cling to narrow +shelves on the face of the rock, while letting the canoes down with +ropes. Meanwhile Rondon surveyed and cut a trail for the burden- +bearers, and superintended the portage of the loads. The rocky sides +of the gorge were too steep for laden men to attempt to traverse them. +Accordingly the trail had to go over the top of the mountain, both the +ascent and the descent of the rock-strewn, forest-clad slopes being +very steep. It was hard work to carry loads over such a trail. From +the top of the mountain, through an opening in the trees on the edge +of a cliff, there was a beautiful view of the country ahead. All +around and in front of us there were ranges of low mountains about the +height of the lower ridges of the Alleghenies. Their sides were steep +and they were covered with the matted growth of the tropical forest. +Our next camping-place, at the foot of the gorge, was almost beneath +us, and from thence the river ran in a straight line, flecked with +white water, for about a kilometre. Then it disappeared behind and +between mountain ridges, which we supposed meant further rapids. It +was a view well worth seeing; but, beautiful although the country +ahead of us was, its character was such as to promise further +hardships, difficulty, and exhausting labor, and especially further +delay; and delay was a serious matter to men whose food supply was +beginning to run short, whose equipment was reduced to the minimum, +who for a month, with the utmost toil, had made very slow progress, +and who had no idea of either the distance or the difficulties of the +route in front of them. + +There was not much life in the woods, big or little. Small birds were +rare, although Cherrie's unwearied efforts were rewarded from time to +time by a species new to the collection. There were tracks of tapir, +deer, and agouti; and if we had taken two or three days to devote to +nothing else than hunting them we might perchance have killed +something; but the chance was much too uncertain, the work we were +doing was too hard and wearing, and the need of pressing forward +altogether too great to permit us to spend any time in such manner. +The hunting had to come in incidentally. This type of well nigh +impenetrable forest is the one in which it is most difficult to get +even what little game exists therein. A couple of curassows and a big +monkey were killed by the colonel and Kermit. On the day the monkey +was brought in Lyra, Kermit, and their four associates had spent from +sunrise to sunset in severe and at moments dangerous toil among the +rocks and in the swift water, and the fresh meat was appreciated. The +head, feet, tail, skin, and entrails were boiled for the gaunt and +ravenous dogs. The flesh gave each of us a few mouthfuls; and how good +those mouthfuls tasted! + +Cherrie, in addition to being out after birds in every spare moment, +helped in all emergencies. He was a veteran in the work of the tropic +wilderness. We talked together often, and of many things, for our +views of life, and of a man's duty to his wife and children, to other +men, and to women, and to the state in peace and war, were in all +essentials the same. His father had served all through the Civil War, +entering an Iowa cavalry regiment as a private and coming out as a +captain; his breast-bone was shattered by a blow from a musket-butt, +in hand-to-hand fighting at Shiloh. + +During this portage the weather favored us. We were coming toward the +close of the rainy season. On the last day of the month, when we moved +camp to the foot of the gorge, there was a thunder-storm; but on the +whole we were not bothered by rain until the last night, when it +rained heavily, driving under the fly so as to wet my cot and bedding. +However, I slept comfortably enough, rolled in the damp blanket. +Without the blanket I should have been uncomfortable; a blanket is a +necessity for health. On the third day Lyra and Kermit, with their +daring and hard-working watermen, after wearing labor, succeeded in +getting five canoes through the worst of the rapids to the chief fall. +The sixth, which was frail and weak, had its bottom beaten out on the +jagged rocks of the broken water. On this night, although I thought I +had put my clothes out of reach, both the termites and the +carregadores ants got at them, ate holes in one boot, ate one leg of +my drawers, and riddled my handkerchief; and I now had nothing to +replace anything that was destroyed. + +Next day Lyra, Kermit, and their camaradas brought the five canoes +that were left down to camp. They had in four days accomplished a work +of incredible labor and of the utmost importance; for at the first +glance it had seemed an absolute impossibility to avoid abandoning the +canoes when we found that the river sank into a cataract broken +torrent at the bottom of a canyon-like gorge between steep mountains. +On April 2 we once more started, wondering how soon we should strike +other rapids in the mountains ahead, and whether in any reasonable +time we should, as the aneroid indicated, be so low down that we +should necessarily be in a plain where we could make a journey of at +least a few days without rapids. We had been exactly a month going +through an uninterrupted succession of rapids. During that month we +had come only about 110 kilometres, and had descended nearly 150 +metres--the figures are approximate but fairly accurate. We had lost +four of the canoes with which we started, and one other, which we had +built, and the life of one man; and the life of a dog which by its +death had in all probability saved the life of Colonel Rondon. In a +straight line northward, toward our supposed destination, we had not +made more than a mile and a quarter a day; at the cost of bitter toil +for most of the party, of much risk for some of the party, and of some +risk and some hardship for all the party. Most of the camaradas were +downhearted, naturally enough, and occasionally asked one of us if we +really believed that we should ever get out alive; and we had to cheer +them up as best we could. + +There was no change in our work for the time being. We made but three +kilometres that day. Most of the party walked all the time; but the +dugouts carried the luggage until we struck the head of the series of +rapids which were to take up the next two or three days. The river +rushed through a wild gorge, a chasm or canyon, between two mountains. +Its sides were very steep, mere rock walls, although in most places so +covered with the luxuriant growth of the trees and bushes that clung +in the crevices, and with green moss, that the naked rock was hardly +seen. Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit, who were in front, found a small level +spot, with a beach of sand, and sent back word to camp there, while +they spent several hours in exploring the country ahead. The canoes +were run down empty, and the loads carried painfully along the face of +the cliffs; so bad was the trail that I found it rather hard to +follow, although carrying nothing but my rifle and cartridge bag. The +explorers returned with the information that the mountains stretched +ahead of us, and that there were rapids as far as they had gone. We +could only hope that the aneroid was not hopelessly out of kilter, and +that we should, therefore, fairly soon find ourselves in comparatively +level country. The severe toil, on a rather limited food supply, was +telling on the strength as well as on the spirits of the men; Lyra and +Kermit, in addition to their other work, performed as much actual +physical labor as any of them. + +Next day, the 3rd of April, we began the descent of these sinister +rapids of the chasm. Colonel Rondon had gone to the summit of the +mountain in order to find a better trail for the burden-bearers, but +it was hopeless, and they had to go along the face of the cliffs. Such +an exploring expedition as that in which we were engaged of necessity +involves hard and dangerous labor, and perils of many kinds. To follow +down-stream an unknown river, broken by innumerable cataracts and +rapids, rushing through mountains of which the existence has never +been even guessed, bears no resemblance whatever to following even a +fairly dangerous river which has been thoroughly explored and has +become in some sort a highway, so that experienced pilots can be +secured as guides, while the portages have been pioneered and trails +chopped out, and every dangerous feature of the rapids is known +beforehand. In this case no one could foretell that the river would +cleave its way through steep mountain chains, cutting narrow clefts in +which the cliff walls rose almost sheer on either hand. When a rushing +river thus "canyons," as we used to say out West, and the mountains +are very steep, it becomes almost impossible to bring the canoes down +the river itself and utterly impossible to portage them along the +cliff sides, while even to bring the loads over the mountain is a task +of extraordinary labor and difficulty. Moreover, no one can tell how +many times the task will have to be repeated, or when it will end, or +whether the food will hold out; every hour of work in the rapids is +fraught with the possibility of the gravest disaster, and yet it is +imperatively necessary to attempt it; and all this is done in an +uninhabited wilderness, or else a wilderness tenanted only by +unfriendly savages, where failure to get through means death by +disease and starvation. Wholesale disasters to South American +exploring parties have been frequent. The first recent effort to +descend one of the unknown rivers to the Amazon from the Brazilian +highlands resulted in such a disaster. It was undertaken in 1889 by a +party about as large as ours under a Brazilian engineer officer, +Colonel Telles Peres. In descending some rapids they lost everything-- +canoes, food, medicine, implements--everything. Fever smote them, and +then starvation. All of them died except one officer and two men, who +were rescued months later. Recently, in Guiana, a wilderness veteran, +Andre, lost two-thirds of his party by starvation. Genuine wilderness +exploration is as dangerous as warfare. The conquest of wild nature +demands the utmost vigor, hardihood, and daring, and takes from the +conquerors a heavy toll of life and health. + +Lyra, Kermit, and Cherrie, with four of the men, worked the canoes +half-way down the canyon. Again and again it was touch and go whether +they could get by a given point. At one spot the channel of the +furious torrent was only fifteen yards across. One canoe was lost, so +that of the seven with which we had started only two were left. +Cherrie labored with the other men at times, and also stood as guard +over them, for, while actually working, of course no one could carry a +rifle. Kermit's experience in bridge building was invaluable in +enabling him to do the rope work by which alone it was possible to get +the canoes down the canyon. He and Lyra had now been in the water for +days. Their clothes were never dry. Their shoes were rotten. The +bruises on their feet and legs had become sores. On their bodies some +of the insect bites had become festering wounds, as indeed was the +case with all of us. Poisonous ants, biting flies, ticks, wasps, bees +were a perpetual torment. However, no one had yet been bitten by a +venomous serpent, a scorpion, or a centipede, although we had killed +all of the three within camp limits. + +Under such conditions whatever is evil in men's natures comes to the +front. On this day a strange and terrible tragedy occurred. One of the +camaradas, a man of pure European blood, was the man named Julio, of +whom I have already spoken. He was a very powerful fellow and had been +importunately eager to come on the expedition; and he had the +reputation of being a good worker. But, like so many men of higher +standing, he had had no idea of what such an expedition really meant, +and under the strain of toil, hardship, and danger his nature showed +its true depths of selfishness, cowardice, and ferocity. He shirked +all work. He shammed sickness. Nothing could make him do his share; +and yet unlike his self-respecting fellows he was always shamelessly +begging for favors. Kermit was the only one of our party who smoked; +and he was continually giving a little tobacco to some of the +camaradas, who worked especially well under him. The good men did not +ask for it; but Julio, who shirked every labor, was always, and always +in vain, demanding it. Colonel Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit each tried to +get work out of him, and in order to do anything with him had to +threaten to leave him in the wilderness. He threw all his tasks on his +comrades; and, moreover, he stole their food as well as ours. On such +an expedition the theft of food comes next to murder as a crime, and +should by rights be punished as such. We could not trust him to cut +down palms or gather nuts, because he would stay out and eat what +ought to have gone into the common store. Finally, the men on several +occasions themselves detected him stealing their food. Alone of the +whole party, and thanks to the stolen food, he had kept in full flesh +and bodily vigor. + +One of our best men was a huge negro named Paixao Paishon--a corporal +and acting sergeant in the engineer corps. He had, by the way, +literally torn his trousers to pieces, so that he wore only the +tatters of a pair of old drawers until I gave him my spare trousers +when we lightened loads. He was a stern disciplinarian. One evening he +detected Julio stealing food and smashed him in the mouth. Julio came +crying to us, his face working with fear and malignant hatred; but +after investigation he was told that he had gotten off uncommonly +lightly. The men had three or four carbines, which were sometimes +carried by those who were not their owners. + +On this morning, at the outset of the portage, Pedrinho discovered +Julio stealing some of the men's dried meat. Shortly afterward Paishon +rebuked him for, as usual, lagging behind. By this time we had reached +the place where the canoes were tied to the bank and then taken down +one at a time. We were sitting down, waiting for the last loads to be +brought along the trail. Pedrinho was still in the camp we had left. +Paishon had just brought in a load, left it on the ground with his +carbine beside it, and returned on the trail for another load. Julio +came in, put down his load, picked up the carbine, and walked back on +the trail, muttering to himself but showing no excitement. We thought +nothing of it, for he was always muttering; and occasionally one of +the men saw a monkey or big bird and tried to shoot it, so it was +never surprising to see a man with a carbine. + +In a minute we heard a shot; and in a short time three or four of the +men came up the trail to tell us that Paishon was dead, having been +shot by Julio, who had fled into the woods. Colonel Rondon and Lyra +were ahead; I sent a messenger for them, directed Cherrie and Kermit +to stay where they were and guard the canoes and provisions, and +started down the trail with the doctor--an absolutely cool and plucky +man, with a revolver but no rifle--and a couple of the camaradas. We +soon passed the dead body of poor Paishon. He lay in a huddle, in a +pool of his own blood, where he had fallen, shot through the heart. I +feared that Julio had run amuck, and intended merely to take more +lives before he died, and that he would begin with Pedrinho, who was +alone and unarmed in the camp we had left. Accordingly I pushed on, +followed by my companions, looking sharply right and left; but when we +came to the camp the doctor quietly walked by me, remarking, "My eyes +are better than yours, colonel; if he is in sight I'll point him out +to you, as you have the rifle." However, he was not there, and the +others soon joined us with the welcome news that they had found the +carbine. + +The murderer had stood to one side of the path and killed his victim, +when a dozen paces off, with deliberate and malignant purpose. Then +evidently his murderous hatred had at once given way to his innate +cowardice; and, perhaps hearing some one coming along the path, he +fled in panic terror into the wilderness. A tree had knocked the +carbine from his hand. His footsteps showed that after going some rods +he had started to return, doubtless for the carbine, but had fled +again, probably because the body had then been discovered. It was +questionable whether or not he would live to reach the Indian +villages, which were probably his goal. He was not a man to feel +remorse--never a common feeling; but surely that murderer was in a +living hell, as, with fever and famine leering at him from the +shadows, he made his way through the empty desolation of the +wilderness. Franca, the cook, quoted out of the melancholy proverbial +philosophy of the people the proverb: "No man knows the heart of any +one"; and then expressed with deep conviction a weird ghostly belief I +had never encountered before: "Paishon is following Julio now, and +will follow him until he dies; Paishon fell forward on his hands and +knees, and when a murdered man falls like that his ghost will follow +the slayer as long as the slayer lives." + +We did not attempt to pursue the murderer. We could not legally put +him to death, although he was a soldier who in cold blood had just +deliberately killed a fellow soldier. If we had been near civilization +we would have done our best to bring him in and turn him over to +justice. But we were in the wilderness, and how many weeks' journey +were ahead of us we could not tell. Our food was running low, sickness +was beginning to appear among the men, and both their courage and +their strength were gradually ebbing. Our first duty was to save the +lives and the health of the men of the expedition who had honestly +been performing, and had still to perform, so much perilous labor. If +we brought the murderer in he would have to be guarded night and day +on an expedition where there were always loaded firearms about, and +where there would continually be opportunity and temptation for him to +make an effort to seize food and a weapon and escape, perhaps +murdering some other good man. He could not be shackled while climbing +along the cliff slopes; he could not be shackled in the canoes, where +there was always chance of upset and drowning; and standing guard +would be an additional and severe penalty on the weary, honest men +already exhausted by overwork. The expedition was in peril, and it was +wise to take every chance possible that would help secure success. +Whether the murderer lived or died in the wilderness was of no moment +compared with the duty of doing everything to secure the safety of the +rest of the party. For the two days following we were always on the +watch against his return, for he could have readily killed some one +else by rolling rocks down on any of the men working on the cliff +sides or in the bottom of the gorge. But we did not see him until the +morning of the third day. We had passed the last of the rapids of the +chasm, and the four boats were going down-stream when he appeared +behind some trees on the bank and called out that he wished to +surrender and be taken aboard; for the murderer was an arrant craven +at heart, a strange mixture of ferocity and cowardice. Colonel +Rondon's boat was far in advance; he did not stop nor answer. I kept +on in similar fashion with the rear boats, for I had no intention of +taking the murderer aboard, to the jeopardy of the other members of +the party, unless Colonel Rondon told me that it would have to be done +in pursuance of his duty as an officer of the army and a servant of +the Government of Brazil. At the first halt Colonel Rondon came up to +me and told me that this was his view of his duty, but that he had not +stopped because he wished first to consult me as the chief of the +expedition. I answered that for the reasons enumerated above I did not +believe that in justice to the good men of the expedition we should +jeopardize their safety by taking the murderer along, and that if the +responsibility were mine I should refuse to take him; but that he, +Colonel Rondon, was the superior officer of both the murderer and of +all the other enlisted men and army officers on the expedition, and in +return was responsible for his actions to his own governmental +superiors and to the laws of Brazil; and that in view of this +responsibility he must act as his sense of duty bade him. Accordingly, +at the next camp he sent back two men, expert woodsmen, to find the +murderer and bring him in. They failed to find him. + + NOTE: + The above account of all the circumstances connected with the murder + was read to and approved as correct by all six members of the + expedition. + +I have anticipated my narrative because I do not wish to recur to the +horror more than is necessary. I now return to my story. After we +found that Julio had fled, we returned to the scene of the tragedy. +The murdered man lay with a handkerchief thrown over his face. We +buried him beside the place where he fell. With axes and knives the +camaradas dug a shallow grave while we stood by with bared heads. Then +reverently and carefully we lifted the poor body which but half an +hour before had been so full of vigorous life. Colonel Rondon and I +bore the head and shoulders. We laid him in the grave, and heaped a +mound over him, and put a rude cross at his head. We fired a volley +for a brave and loyal soldier who had died doing his duty. Then we +left him forever, under the great trees beside the lonely river. + +That day we got only half-way down the rapids. There was no good place +to camp. But at the foot of one steep cliff there was a narrow, +boulder-covered slope where it was possible to sling hammocks and +cook; and a slanting spot was found for my cot, which had sagged until +by this time it looked like a broken-backed centipede. It rained a +little during the night, but not enough to wet us much. Next day Lyra, +Kermit, and Cherrie finished their job, and brought the four remaining +canoes to camp, one leaking badly from the battering on the rocks. We +then went down-stream a few hundred yards, and camped on the opposite +side; it was not a good camping-place, but it was better than the one +we left. + +The men were growing constantly weaker under the endless strain of +exhausting labor. Kermit was having an attack of fever, and Lyra and +Cherrie had touches of dysentery, but all three continued to work. +While in the water trying to help with an upset canoe I had by my own +clumsiness bruised my leg against a boulder; and the resulting +inflammation was somewhat bothersome. I now had a sharp attack of +fever, but thanks to the excellent care of the doctor, was over it in +about forty-eight hours; but Kermit's fever grew worse and he too was +unable to work for a day or two. We could walk over the portages, +however. A good doctor is an absolute necessity on an exploring +expedition in such a country as that we were in, under penalty of a +frightful mortality among the members; and the necessary risks and +hazards are so great, the chances of disaster so large, that there is +no warrant for increasing them by the failure to take all feasible +precautions. + +The next day we made another long portage round some rapids, and +camped at night still in the hot, wet, sunless atmosphere of the +gorge. The following day, April 6, we portaged past another set of +rapids, which proved to be the last of the rapids of the chasm. For +some kilometres we kept passing hills, and feared lest at any moment +we might again find ourselves fronting another mountain gorge; with, +in such case, further days of grinding and perilous labor ahead of us, +while our men were disheartened, weak, and sick. Most of them had +already begun to have fever. Their condition was inevitable after over +a month's uninterrupted work of the hardest kind in getting through +the long series of rapids we had just passed; and a long further +delay, accompanied by wearing labor, would have almost certainly meant +that the weakest among our party would have begun to die. There were +already two of the camaradas who were too weak to help the others, +their condition being such as to cause us serious concern. + +However, the hills gradually sank into a level plain, and the river +carried us through it at a rate that enabled us during the remainder +of the day to reel off thirty-six kilometres, a record that for the +first time held out promise. Twice tapirs swam the river while we +passed, but not near my canoe. However, the previous evening, Cherrie +had killed two monkeys and Kermit one, and we all had a few mouthfuls +of fresh meat; we had already had a good soup made out of a turtle +Kermit had caught. We had to portage by one short set of rapids, the +unloaded canoes being brought down without difficulty. At last, at +four in the afternoon, we came to the mouth of a big river running in +from the right. We thought it was probably the Ananas, but, of course, +could not be certain. It was less in volume than the one we had +descended, but nearly as broad; its breadth at this point being +ninety-five yards as against one hundred and twenty for the larger +river. There were rapids ahead, immediately after the junction, which +took place in latitude 10 degrees 58 minutes south. We had come 216 +kilometres all told, and were nearly north of where we had started. We +camped on the point of land between the two rivers. It was +extraordinary to realize that here about the eleventh degree we were +on such a big river, utterly unknown to the cartographers and not +indicated by even a hint on any map. We named this big tributary Rio +Cardozo, after a gallant officer of the commission who had died of +beriberi just as our expedition began. We spent a day at this spot, +determining our exact position by the sun, and afterward by the stars, +and sending on two men to explore the rapids in advance. They returned +with the news that there were big cataracts in them, and that they +would form an obstacle to our progress. They had also caught a huge +iluroid fish, which furnished an excellent meal for everybody in camp. +This evening at sunset the view across the broad river, from our camp +where the two rivers joined, was very lovely; and for the first time +we had an open space in front of and above us, so that after nightfall +the stars, and the great waxing moon, were glorious over-head, and +against the rocks in midstream the broken water gleamed like tossing +silver. + +The huge catfish which the men had caught was over three feet and a +half long, with the usual enormous head, out of all proportions to the +body, and the enormous mouth, out of all proportion to the head. Such +fish, although their teeth are small, swallow very large prey. This +one contained the nearly digested remains of a monkey. Probably the +monkey had been seized while drinking from the end of a branch; and +once engulfed in that yawning cavern there was no escape. We Americans +were astounded at the idea of a catfish making prey of a monkey; but +our Brazilian friends told us that in the lower Madeira and the part +of the Amazon near its mouth there is a still more gigantic catfish +which in similar fashion occasionally makes prey of man. This is a +grayish-white fish over nine feet long, with the usual +disproportionately large head and gaping mouth, with a circle of small +teeth; for the engulfing mouth itself is the danger, not the teeth. It +is called the piraiba--pronounced in four syllables. While stationed +at the small city of Itacoatiara, on the Amazon, at the mouth of the +Madeira, the doctor had seen one of these monsters which had been +killed by the two men it had attacked. They were fishing in a canoe +when it rose from the bottom--for it is a ground fish--and raising +itself half out of the water lunged over the edge of the canoe at +them, with open mouth. They killed it with their falcons, as machetes +are called in Brazil. It was taken round the city in triumph in an +oxcart; the doctor saw it, and said it was three metres long. He said +that swimmers feared it even more than the big cayman, because they +could see the latter, whereas the former lay hid at the bottom of the +water. Colonel Rondon said that in many villages where he had been on +the lower Madeira the people had built stockaded enclosures in the +water in which they bathed, not venturing to swim in the open water +for fear of the piraiba and the big cayman. + +Next day, April 8, we made five kilometres only, as there was a +succession of rapids. We had to carry the loads past two of them, but +ran the canoes without difficulty, for on the west side were long +canals of swift water through the forest. The river had been higher, +but was still very high, and the current raced round the many islands +that at this point divided the channel. At four we made camp at the +head of another stretch of rapids, over which the Canadian canoes +would have danced without shipping a teaspoonful of water, but which +our dugouts could only run empty. Cherrie killed three monkeys and +Lyra caught two big piranhas, so that we were again all of us well +provided with dinner and breakfast. When a number of men, doing hard +work, are most of the time on half-rations, they grow to take a lively +interest in any reasonably full meal that does arrive. + +On the 10th we repeated the proceedings: a short quick run; a few +hundred metres' portage, occupying, however, at least a couple of +hours; again a few minutes' run; again other rapids. We again made +less than five kilometres; in the two days we had been descending +nearly a metre for every kilometre we made in advance; and it hardly +seemed as if this state of things could last, for the aneroid showed +that we were getting very low down. How I longed for a big Maine +birch-bark, such as that in which I once went down the Mattawamkeag at +high water! It would have slipped down these rapids as a girl trips +through a country dance. But our loaded dugouts would have shoved +their noses under every curl. The country was lovely. The wide river, +now in one channel, now in several channels, wound among hills; the +shower-freshened forest glistened in the sunlight; the many kinds of +beautiful palm-fronds and the huge pacova-leaves stamped the peculiar +look of the tropics on the whole landscape--it was like passing by +water through a gigantic botanical garden. In the afternoon we got an +elderly toucan, a piranha, and a reasonably edible side-necked river- +turtle; so we had fresh meat again. We slept as usual in earshot of +rapids. We had been out six weeks, and almost all the time we had been +engaged in wearily working our own way down and past rapid after +rapid. Rapids are by far the most dangerous enemies of explorers and +travellers who journey along these rivers. + +Next day was a repetition of the same work. All the morning was spent +in getting the loads to the foot of the rapids at the head of which we +were encamped, down which the canoes were run empty. Then for thirty +or forty minutes we ran down the swift, twisting river, the two lashed +canoes almost coming to grief at one spot where a swirl of the current +threw them against some trees on a small submerged island. Then we +came to another set of rapids, carried the baggage down past them, and +made camp long after dark in the rain--a good exercise in patience for +those of us who were still suffering somewhat from fever. No one was +in really buoyant health. For some weeks we had been sharing part of +the contents of our boxes with the camaradas; but our food was not +very satisfying to them. They needed quantity and the mainstay of each +of their meals was a mass of palmitas; but on this day they had no +time to cut down palms. We finally decided to run these rapids with +the empty canoes, and they came down in safety. On such a trip it is +highly undesirable to take any save necessary risks, for the +consequences of disaster are too serious; and yet if no risks are +taken the progress is so slow that disaster comes anyhow; and it is +necessary perpetually to vary the terms of the perpetual working +compromise between rashness and over-caution. This night we had a very +good fish to eat, a big silvery fellow called a pescada, of a kind we +had not caught before. + +One day Trigueiro failed to embark with the rest of us, and we had to +camp where we were next day to find him. Easter Sunday we spent in the +fashion with which we were altogether too familiar. We only ran in a +clear course for ten minutes all told, and spent eight hours in +portaging the loads past rapids down which the canoes were run; the +balsa was almost swamped. This day we caught twenty-eight big fish, +mostly piranhas, and everybody had all he could eat for dinner, and +for breakfast the following morning. + +The forenoon of the following day was a repetition of this wearisome +work; but late in the afternoon the river began to run in long quiet +reaches. We made fifteen kilometres, and for the first time in several +weeks camped where we did not hear the rapids. The silence was +soothing and restful. The following day, April 14, we made a good run +of some thirty-two kilometres. We passed a little river which entered +on our left. We ran two or three light rapids, and portaged the loads +by another. The river ran in long and usually tranquil stretches. In +the morning when we started the view was lovely. There was a mist, and +for a couple of miles the great river, broad and quiet, ran between +the high walls of tropical forest, the tops of the giant trees showing +dim through the haze. Different members of the party caught many fish, +and shot a monkey and a couple of jacare-tinga birds kin to a turkey, +but the size of a fowl--so we again had a camp of plenty. The dry +season was approaching, but there were still heavy, drenching rains. +On this day the men found some new nuts of which they liked the taste; +but the nuts proved unwholesome and half of the men were very sick and +unable to work the following day. In the balsa only two were left fit +to do anything, and Kermit plied a paddle all day long. + +Accordingly, it was a rather sorry crew that embarked the following +morning, April 15. But it turned out a red-letter day. The day before, +we had come across cuttings, a year old, which were probably but not +certainly made by pioneer rubbermen. But on this day--during which we +made twenty-five kilometres--after running two hours and a half we +found on the left bank a board on a post, with the initials J. A., to +show the farthest up point which a rubberman had reached and claimed +as his own. An hour farther down we came on a newly built house in a +little planted clearing; and we cheered heartily. No one was at home, +but the house, of palm thatch, was clean and cool. A couple of dogs +were on watch, and the belongings showed that a man, a woman, and a +child lived there, and had only just left. Another hour brought us to +a similar house where dwelt an old black man, who showed the innate +courtesy of the Brazilian peasant. We came on these rubbermen and +their houses in about latitude 10 degrees 24 minutes. + +In mid-afternoon we stopped at another clean, cool, picturesque house +of palm thatch. The inhabitants all fled at our approach, fearing an +Indian raid; for they were absolutely unprepared to have any one come +from the unknown regions up-stream. They returned and were most +hospitable and communicative; and we spent the night there. Said +Antonio Correa to Kermit: "It seems like a dream to be in a house +again, and hear the voices of men and women, instead of being among +those mountains and rapids." The river was known to them as the +Castanho, and was the main affluent or rather the left or western +branch, of the Aripuanan; the Castanho is a name used by the rubber- +gatherers only; it is unknown to the geographers. We were, according +to our informants, about fifteen days' journey from the confluence of +the two rivers; but there were many rubbermen along the banks, some of +whom had become permanent settlers. We had come over three hundred +kilometres, in forty-eight days, over absolutely unknown ground; we +had seen no human being, although we had twice heard Indians. Six +weeks had been spent in steadily slogging our way down through the +interminable series of rapids. It was astonishing before, when we were +on a river of about the size of the upper Rhine or Elbe, to realize +that no geographer had any idea of its existence. But, after all, no +civilized man of any grade had ever been on it. Here, however, was a +river with people dwelling along the banks, some of whom had lived in +the neighborhood for eight or ten years; and yet on no standard map +was there a hint of the river's existence. We were putting on the map +a river, running through between five and six degrees of latitude--of +between seven and eight if, as should properly be done, the lower +Aripuanan is included as part of it--of which no geographer, in any +map published in Europe, or the United States, or Brazil had even +admitted the possibility of the existence; for the place actually +occupied by it was filled, on the maps, by other--imaginary--streams, +or by mountain ranges. Before we started, the Amazonas Boundary +Commission had come up the lower Aripuanan and then the eastern +branch, or upper Aripuanan, to 8 degrees 48 minutes, following the +course which for a couple of decades had been followed by the +rubbermen, but not going as high. An employee, either of this +commission or of one of the big rubbermen, had been up the Castanho, +which is easy of ascent in its lower course, to about the same +latitude, not going nearly as high as the rubbermen had gone; this we +found out while we ourselves were descending the lower Castanho. The +lower main stream, and the lower portion of its main affluent, the +Castanho, had been commercial highways for rubbermen and settlers for +nearly two decades, and, as we speedily found, were as easy to +traverse as the upper stream, which we had just come down, was +difficult to traverse; but the governmental and scientific +authorities, native and foreign, remained in complete ignorance; and +the rubbermen themselves had not the slightest idea of the headwaters, +which were in country never hitherto traversed by civilized men. +Evidently the Castanho was, in length at least, substantially equal, +and probably superior, to the upper Aripuanan; it now seemed even more +likely that the Ananas was the headwaters of the main stream than of +the Cardozo. + +For the first time this great river, the greatest affluent of the +Madiera, was to be put on the map; and the understanding of its real +position and real relationship, and the clearing up of the complex +problem of the sources of all these lower right-hand affluents of the +Madiera, was rendered possible by the seven weeks of hard and +dangerous labor we had spent in going down an absolutely unknown +river, through an absolutely unknown wilderness. At this stage of the +growth of world geography I esteemed it a great piece of good fortune +to be able to take part in such a feat--a feat which represented the +capping of the pyramid which during the previous seven years had been +built by the labor of the Brazilian Telegraphic Commission. + +We had passed the period when there was a chance of peril, of +disaster, to the whole expedition. There might be risk ahead to +individuals, and some difficulties and annoyances for all of us; but +there was no longer the least likelihood of any disaster to the +expedition as a whole. We now no longer had to face continual anxiety, +the need of constant economy with food, the duty of labor with no end +in sight, and bitter uncertainty as to the future. + +It was time to get out. The wearing work, under very unhealthy +conditions, was beginning to tell on every one. Half of the camaradas +had been down with fever and were much weakened; only a few of them +retained their original physical and moral strength. Cherrie and +Kermit had recovered; but both Kermit and Lyra still had bad sores on +their legs, from the bruises received in the water work. I was in +worse shape. 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. But "there aren't no 'stop, conductor,' while +a battery's changing ground." No man has any business to go on such a +trip as ours unless he will refuse to jeopardize the welfare of his +associates by any delay caused by a weakness or ailment of his. It is +his duty to go forward, if necessary on all fours, until he drops. +Fortunately, I was put to no such test. I remained in good shape until +we had passed the last of the rapids of the chasms. When my serious +trouble came we had only canoe-riding ahead of us. It is not ideal for +a sick man to spend the hottest hours of the day stretched on the +boxes in the bottom of a small open dugout, under the well-nigh +intolerable heat of the torrid sun of the mid-tropics, varied by +blinding, drenching downpours of rain; but I could not be sufficiently +grateful for the chance. Kermit and Cherrie took care of me as if they +had been trained nurses; and Colonel Rondon and Lyra were no less +thoughtful. + +The north was calling strongly to the three men of the north--Rocky +Dell Farm to Cherrie, Sagamore Hill to me; and to Kermit the call was +stronger still. After nightfall we could now see the Dipper well above +the horizon--upside down, with the two pointers pointing to a north +star below the world's rim; but the Dipper, with all its stars. In our +home country spring had now come, the wonderful northern spring of +long glorious days, of brooding twilights, of cool delightful nights. +Robin and bluebird, meadow-lark and song sparrow, were singing in the +mornings at home; the maple-buds were red; windflowers and bloodroot +were blooming while the last patches of snow still lingered; the +rapture of the hermithrush in Vermont, the serene golden melody of the +woodthrush on Long Island, would be heard before we were there to +listen. Each man to his home, and to his true love! Each was longing +for the homely things that were so dear to him, for the home people +who were dearer still, and for the one who was dearest of all. + + + + X. TO THE AMAZON AND HOME; ZOOLOGICAL + AND GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION + +Our adventures and our troubles were alike over. We now experienced +the incalculable contrast between descending a known and travelled +river, and one that is utterly unknown. After four days we hired a +rubberman to go with us as guide. We knew exactly what channels were +passable when we came to the rapids, when the canoes had to unload, +and where the carry-trails were. It was all child's play compared to +what we had gone through. We made long days' journeys, for at night we +stopped at some palm-thatched house, inhabited or abandoned, and +therefore the men were spared the labor of making camp; and we bought +ample food for them, so there was no further need of fishing and +chopping down palms for the palmtops. The heat of the sun was blazing; +but it looked as if we had come back into the rainy season, for there +were many heavy rains, usually in the afternoon, but sometimes in the +morning or at night. The mosquitoes were sometimes rather troublesome +at night. In the daytime the piums swarmed, and often bothered us even +when we were in midstream. + +For four days there were no rapids we could not run without unloading. +Then, on the 19th, we got a canoe from Senhor Barboso. He was a most +kind and hospitable man, who also gave us a duck and a chicken and +some mandioc and six pounds of rice, and would take no payment; he +lived in a roomy house with his dusky, cigar-smoking wife and his many +children. The new canoe was light and roomy, and we were able to rig +up a low shelter under which I could lie; I was still sick. At noon we +passed the mouth of a big river, the Rio Branco, coming in from the +left; this was about in latitude 9 degrees 38 minutes. Soon afterward +we came to the first serious rapids, the Panela. We carried the boats +past, ran down the empty canoes, and camped at the foot in a roomy +house. The doctor bought a handsome trumpeter bird, very friendly and +confiding, which was thenceforth my canoe companion. + +We had already passed many inhabited--and a still larger number of +uninhabited--houses. The dwellers were rubbermen, but generally they +were permanent settlers also, homemakers, with their wives and +children. Some, both of the men and women, were apparently of pure +negro blood, or of pure Indian or south European blood; but in the +great majority all three strains were mixed in varying degrees. They +were most friendly, courteous, and hospitable. Often they refused +payment for what they could afford, out of their little, to give us. +When they did charge, the prices were very high, as was but just, for +they live back of the beyond, and everything costs them fabulously, +save what they raise themselves. The cool, bare houses of poles and +palm thatch contained little except hammocks and a few simple cooking +utensils; and often a clock or sewing machine, or Winchester rifle, +from our own country. They often had flowers planted, including +fragrant roses. Their only live stock, except the dogs, were a few +chickens and ducks. They planted patches of mandioc, maize, sugarcane, +rice, beans, squashes, pineapples, bananas, lemons, oranges, melons, +peppers; and various purely native fruits and vegetables, such as the +kniabo--a vegetable-fruit growing on the branches of a high bush-- +which is cooked with meat. They get some game from the forest, and +more fish from the river. There is no representative of the government +among them--indeed, even now their very existence is barely known to +the governmental authorities; and the church has ignored them as +completely as the state. When they wish to get married they have to +spend several months getting down to and back from Manaos or some +smaller city; and usually the first christening and the marriage +ceremony are held at the same time. They have merely squatter's right +to the land, and are always in danger of being ousted by unscrupulous +big men who come in late, but with a title technically straight. The +land laws should be shaped so as to give each of these pioneer +settlers the land he actually takes up and cultivates, and upon which +he makes his home. The small homemaker, who owns the land which he +tills with his own hands, is the greatest element of strength in any +country. + +These are real pioneer settlers. They are the true wilderness-winners. +No continent is ever really conquered, or thoroughly explored, by a +few leaders, or exceptional men, although such men can render great +service. The real conquest, the thorough exploration and settlement, +is made by a nameless multitude of small men of whom the most +important are, of course, the home-makers. Each treads most of the +time in the footsteps of his predecessors, but for some few miles, at +some time or other, he breaks new ground; and his house is built where +no house has ever stood before. Such a man, the real pioneer, must +have no strong desire for social life and no need, probably no +knowledge, of any luxury, or of any comfort save of the most +elementary kind. The pioneer who is always longing for the comfort and +luxury of civilization, and especially of great cities, is no real +pioneer at all. These settlers whom we met were contented to live in +the wilderness. They had found the climate healthy and the soil +fruitful; a visit to a city was a very rare event, nor was there any +overwhelming desire for it. + +In short, these men, and those like them everywhere on the frontier +between civilization and savagery in Brazil, are now playing the part +played by our backwoodsmen when over a century and a quarter ago they +began the conquest of the great basin of the Mississippi; the part +played by the Boer farmers for over a century in South Africa, and by +the Canadians when less than half a century ago they began to take +possession of their Northwest. Every now and then some one says that +the "last frontier" is now to be found in Canada or Africa, and that +it has almost vanished. On a far larger scale this frontier is to be +found in Brazil--a country as big as Europe or the United States--and +decades will pass before it vanishes. The first settlers came to +Brazil a century before the first settlers came to the United States +and Canada. For three hundred years progress was very slow--Portuguese +colonial government at that time was almost as bad as Spanish. For the +last half-century and over there has been a steady increase in the +rapidity of the rate of development; and this increase bids fair to be +constantly more rapid in the future. + +The Paolistas, hunting for lands, slaves, and mines, were the first +native Brazilians who, a hundred years ago, played a great part in +opening to settlement vast stretches of wilderness. The rubber hunters +have played a similar part during the last few decades. Rubber dazzled +them, as gold and diamonds have dazzled other men and driven them +forth to wander through the wide waste spaces of the world. Searching +for rubber they made highways of rivers the very existence of which +was unknown to the governmental authorities, or to any map-makers. +Whether they succeeded or failed, they everywhere left behind them +settlers, who toiled, married, and brought up children. Settlement +began; the conquest of the wilderness entered on its first stage. + +On the 20th we stopped at the first store, where we bought, of course +at a high price, sugar and tobacco for the camaradas. In this land of +plenty the camaradas over-ate, and sickness was as rife among them as +ever. In Cherrie's boat he himself and the steersman were the only men +who paddled strongly and continuously. The storekeeper's stock of +goods was very low, only what he still had left from that brought in +nearly a year before; for the big boats, or batelaos-batelons--had not +yet worked as far up-stream. We expected to meet them somewhere below +the next rapids, the Inferno. The trader or rubberman brings up his +year's supply of goods in a batelao, starting in February and reaching +the upper course of the river early in May, when the rainy season is +over. The parties of rubber-explorers are then equipped and +provisioned; and the settlers purchase certain necessities, and +certain things that strike them as luxuries. This year the Brazil-nut +crop on the river had failed, a serious thing for all explorers and +wilderness wanderers. + +On the 20th we made the longest run we had made, fifty-two kilometres. +Lyra took observations where we camped; we were in latitude 8 degrees +49 minutes. At this camping-place the great, beautiful river was a +little over three hundred metres wide. We were in an empty house. The +marks showed that in the high water, a couple of months back, the +river had risen until the lower part of the house was flooded. The +difference between the level of the river during the floods and in the +dry season is extraordinary. + +On the 21st we made another good run, getting down to the Inferno +rapids, which are in latitude 8 degrees 19 minutes south. Until we +reached the Cardozo we had run almost due north; since then we had +been running a little west of north. Before we reached these rapids we +stopped at a large, pleasant thatch house, and got a fairly big and +roomy as well as light boat, leaving both our two smaller dugouts +behind. Above the rapids a small river, the Madeirainha, entered from +the left. The rapids had a fall of over ten metres, and the water was +very wild and rough. Met with for the first time, it would doubtless +have taken several days to explore a passage and, with danger and +labor, get the boats down. But we were no longer exploring, +pioneering, over unknown country. It is easy to go where other men +have prepared the way. We had a guide; we took our baggage down by a +carry three-quarters of a kilometre long; and the canoes were run +through known channels the following morning. At the foot of the +rapids was a big house and store; and camped at the head were a number +of rubber-workers, waiting for the big boats of the head rubbermen to +work their way up from below. They were a reckless set of brown +daredevils. These men lead hard lives of labor and peril; they +continually face death themselves, and they think little of it in +connection with others. It is small wonder that they sometimes have +difficulties with the tribes of utterly wild Indians with whom they +are brought in contact, although there is a strong Indian strain in +their own blood. + +The following morning, after the empty canoes had been run down, we +started, and made a rather short afternoon's journey. We had to take +the baggage by one rapids. We camped in an empty house, in the rain. +Next day we ran nearly fifty kilometres, the river making a long sweep +to the west. We met half a dozen batelaos making their way up-stream, +each with a crew of six or eight men; and two of them with women and +children in addition. The crew were using very long poles, with +crooks, or rather the stubs of cut branches which served as crooks, at +the upper end. With these they hooked into the branches and dragged +themselves up along the bank, in addition to poling where the depth +permitted it. The river was as big as the Paraguay at Corumba; but, in +striking contrast to the Paraguay, there were few water-birds. We ran +some rather stiff rapids, the Infernino, without unloading, in the +morning. In the evening we landed for the night at a large, open, +shed-like house, where there were two or three pigs, the first live +stock we had seen other than poultry and ducks. It was a dirty place, +but we got some eggs. + +The following day, the 24th, we ran down some fifty kilometres to the +Carupanan rapids, which by observation Lyra found to be in latitude 7 +degrees 47 minutes. We met several batelaos, and the houses on the +bank showed that the settlers were somewhat better off than was the +case farther up. At the rapids was a big store, the property of Senhor +Caripe, the wealthiest rubberman who works on this river; many of the +men we met were in his employ. He has himself risen from the ranks. He +was most kind and hospitable, and gave us another boat to replace the +last of our shovel-nosed dugouts. The large, open house was cool, +clean, and comfortable. + +With these began a series of half a dozen sets of rapids, all coming +within the next dozen kilometres, and all offering very real +obstacles. At one we saw the graves of four men who had perished +therein; and many more had died whose bodies were never recovered; the +toll of human life had been heavy. Had we been still on an unknown +river, pioneering our own way, it would doubtless have taken us at +least a fortnight of labor and peril to pass. But it actually took +only a day and a half. All the channels were known, all the trails +cut. Senhor Caripe, a first-class waterman, cool, fearless, and brawny +as a bull, came with us as guide. Half a dozen times the loads were +taken out and carried down. At one cataract the canoes were themselves +dragged overland; elsewhere they were run down empty, shipping a good +deal of water. At the foot of the cataract, where we dragged the +canoes overland, we camped for the night. Here Kermit shot a big +cayman. Our camp was alongside the graves of three men who at this +point had perished in the swift water. + +Senhor Caripe told us many strange adventures of rubber-workers he had +met or employed. One of his men, working on the Gy-Parana, got lost +and after twenty-eight days found himself on the Madeirainha, which he +thus discovered. He was in excellent health, for he had means to start +a fire, and he found abundance of Brazil-nuts and big land-tortoises. +Senhor Caripe said that the rubbermen now did not go above the ninth +degree, or thereabouts, on the upper Aripuanan proper, having found +the rubber poor on the reaches above. A year previously five +rubbermen, Mundurucu Indians, were working on the Corumba at about +that level. It is a difficult stream to ascend or descend. They made +excursions into the forest for days at a time after caoutchouc. On one +such trip, after fifteen days they, to their surprise, came out on the +Aripuanan. They returned and told their "patron" of their discovery; +and by his orders took their caoutchouc overland to the Aripuanan, +built a canoe, and ran down with their caoutchouc to Manaos. They had +now returned and were working on the upper Aripuanan. The Mundurucus +and Brazilians are always on the best terms, and the former are even +more inveterate enemies of the wild Indians than are the latter. + +By mid-forenoon on April 26 we had passed the last dangerous rapids. +The paddles were plied with hearty good will, Cherrie and Kermit, as +usual, working like the camaradas, and the canoes went dancing down +the broad, rapid river. The equatorial forest crowded on either hand +to the water's edge; and, although the river was falling, it was still +so high that in many places little islands were completely submerged, +and the current raced among the trunks of the green trees. At one +o'clock we came to the mouth of the Castanho proper, and in sight of +the tent of Lieutenant Pyrineus, with the flags of the United States +and Brazil flying before it; and, with rifles firing from the canoes +and the shore, we moored at the landing of the neat, soldierly, well +kept camp. The upper Aripuanan, a river of substantially the same +volume as the Castanho, but broader at this point, and probably of +less length, here joined the Castanho from the east, and the two +together formed what the rubbermen called the lower Aripuanan. The +mouth of this was indicated, and sometimes named, on the maps, but +only as a small and unimportant stream. + +We had been two months in the canoes; from the 27th of February to the +26th of April. We had gone over 750 kilometres. The river from its +source, near the thirteenth degree, to where it became navigable and +we entered it, had a course of some 200 kilometres--probably more, +perhaps 300 kilometres. Therefore we had now put on the map a river +nearly 1,000 kilometres in length of which the existence was not +merely unknown but impossible if the standard maps were correct. But +this was not all. It seemed that this river of 1,000 kilometres in +length was really the true upper course of the Aripuanan proper, in +which case the total length was nearly 1,500 kilometres. Pyrineus had +been waiting for us over a month, at the junction of what the +rubbermen called the Castanho and of what they called the upper +Aripuanan. (He had no idea as to which stream we would appear upon, or +whether we would appear upon either.) On March 26 he had measured the +volume of the two, and found that the Castanho, although the narrower, +was the deeper and swifter, and that in volume it surpassed the other +by 84 cubic metres a second. Since then the Castanho had fallen; our +measurements showed it to be slightly smaller than the other; the +volume of the river after the junction was about 4,500 cubic metres a +second. This was in 7 degrees 34 minutes. + +We were glad indeed to see Pyrineus and be at his attractive camp. We +were only four hours above the little river hamlet of Sao Joao, a port +of call for rubber-steamers, from which the larger ones go to Manaos +in two days. These steamers mostly belong to Senhor Caripe. From +Pyrineus we learned that Lauriado and Fiala had reached Manaos on +March 26. On the swift water in the gorge of the Papagaio Fiala's boat +had been upset and all his belongings lost, while he himself had +narrowly escaped with his life. I was glad indeed that the fine and +gallant fellow had escaped. The Canadian canoe had done very well. We +were no less rejoiced to learn that Amilcar, the head of the party +that went down the Gy-Parana, was also all right, although his canoe +too had been upset in the rapids, and his instruments and all his +notes lost. He had reached Manaos on April 10. Fiala had gone home. +Miller was collecting near Manaos. He had been doing capital work. + +The piranhas were bad here, and no one could bathe. Cherrie, while +standing in the water close to the shore, was attacked and bitten; but +with one bound he was on the bank before any damage could be done. + +We spent a last night under canvas, at Pyrineus' encampment. It rained +heavily. Next morning we all gathered at the monument which Colonel +Rondon had erected, and he read the orders of the day. These recited +just what had been accomplished: set forth the fact that we had now by +actual exploration and investigation discovered that the river whose +upper portion had been called the Duvida on the maps of the +Telegraphic Commission and the unknown major part of which we had just +traversed, and the river known to a few rubbermen, but to no one else, +as the Castanho, and the lower part of the river known to the +rubbermen as the Aripuanan (which did not appear on the maps save as +its mouth was sometimes indicated, with no hint of its size) were all +parts of one and the same river; and that by order of the Brazilian +Government this river, the largest affluent of the Madeira, with its +source near the 13th degree and its mouth a little south of the 5th +degree, hitherto utterly unknown to cartographers and in large part +utterly unknown to any save the local tribes of Indians, had been +named the Rio Roosevelt. + +We left Rondon, Lyra, and Pyrineus to take observations, and the rest +of us embarked for the last time on the canoes, and, borne swiftly on +the rapid current, we passed over one set of not very important rapids +and ran down to Senhor Caripe's little hamlet of Sao Joao, which we +reached about one o'clock on April 27, just before a heavy afternoon +rain set in. We had run nearly eight hundred kilometres during the +sixty days we had spent in the canoes. Here we found and boarded +Pyrineus's river steamer, which seemed in our eyes extremely +comfortable. In the senhor's pleasant house we were greeted by the +senhora, and they were both more than thoughtful and generous in their +hospitality. Ahead of us lay merely thirty-six hours by steamer to +Manaos. Such a trip as that we had taken tries men as if by fire. +Cherrie had more than stood every test; and in him Kermit and I had +come to recognize a friend with whom our friendship would never falter +or grow less. + +Early the following afternoon our whole party, together with Senhor +Caripe, started on the steamer. It took us a little over twelve hours' +swift steaming to run down to the mouth of the river on the upper +course of which our progress had been so slow and painful; from source +to mouth, according to our itinerary and to Lyra's calculations, the +course of the stream down which we had thus come was about 1,500 +kilometres in length--about 900 miles, perhaps nearly 1,000 miles-- +from its source near the 13th degree in the highlands to its mouth in +the Madeira, near the 5th degree. Next morning we were on the broad +sluggish current of the lower Madeira, a beautiful tropical river. +There were heavy rainstorms, as usual, although this is supposed to be +the very end of the rainy season. In the afternoon we finally entered +the wonderful Amazon itself, the mighty river which contains one tenth +of all the running water of the globe. It was miles across, where we +entered it; and indeed we could not tell whether the farther bank, +which we saw, was that of the mainland or an island. We went up it +until about midnight, then steamed up the Rio Negro for a short +distance, and at one in the morning of April 30 reached Manaos. + +Manaos is a remarkable city. It is only three degrees south of the +equator. Sixty years ago it was a nameless little collection of +hovels, tenanted by a few Indians and a few of the poorest class of +Brazilian peasants. Now it is a big, handsome modern city, with Opera +house, tramways, good hotels, fine squares and public buildings, and +attractive private houses. The brilliant coloring and odd architecture +give the place a very foreign and attractive flavor in northern eyes. +Its rapid growth to prosperity was due to the rubber trade. This is +now far less remunerative than formerly. It will undoubtedly in some +degree recover; and in any event the development of the immensely rich +and fertile Amazonian valley is sure to go on, and it will be +immensely quickened when closer connections are made with the +Brazilian highland country lying south of it. + +Here we found Miller, and glad indeed we were to see him. He had made +good collections of mammals and birds on the Gy-Parana, the Madeira, +and in the neighborhood of Manaos; his entire collection of mammals +was really noteworthy. Among them was the only sloth any of us had +seen on the trip. The most interesting of the birds he had seen was +the hoatzin. This is a most curious bird of very archaic type. Its +flight is feeble, and the naked young have spurs on their wings, by +the help of which they crawl actively among the branches before their +feathers grow. They swim no less easily, at the same early age. Miller +got one or two nests, and preserved specimens of the surroundings of +the nests; and he made exhaustive records of the habits of the birds. +Near Megasso a jaguar had killed one of the bullocks that were being +driven along for food. The big cat had not seized the ox with its +claws by the head, but had torn open its throat and neck. + +Every one was most courteous at Manaos, especially the governor of the +state and the mayor of the city. Mr. Robiliard, the British consular +representative, and also the representative of the Booth line of +steamers, was particularly kind. He secured for us passages on one of +the cargo boats of the line to Para, and thence on one of the regular +cargo-and-passenger steamers to Barbados and New York. The Booth +people were most courteous to us. + +I said good-by to the camaradas with real friendship and regret. The +parting gift I gave to each was in gold sovereigns; and I was rather +touched to learn later that they had agreed among themselves each to +keep one sovereign as a medal of honor and token that the owner had +been on the trip. They were a fine set, brave, patient, obedient, and +enduring. Now they had forgotten their hard times; they were fat from +eating, at leisure, all they wished; they were to see Rio Janeiro, +always an object of ambition with men of their stamp; and they were +very proud of their membership in the expedition. + +Later, at Belen, I said good-by to Colonel Rondon, Doctor Cajazeira, +and Lieutenant Lyra. Together with my admiration for their hardihood, +courage, and resolution, I had grown to feel a strong and affectionate +friendship for them. I had become very fond of them; and I was glad to +feel that I had been their companion in the performance of a feat +which possessed a certain lasting importance. + +On May 1 we left Manaos for Belen-Para, as until recently it was +called. The trip was interesting. We steamed down through tempest and +sunshine; and the towering forest was dwarfed by the giant river it +fringed. Sunrise and sunset turned the sky to an unearthly flame of +many colors above the vast water. It all seemed the embodiment of +loneliness and wild majesty. Yet everywhere man was conquering the +loneliness and wresting the majesty to his own uses. We passed many +thriving, growing towns; at one we stopped to take on cargo. +Everywhere there was growth and development. The change since the days +when Bates and Wallace came to this then poor and utterly primitive +region is marvellous. One of its accompaniments has been a large +European, chiefly south European, immigration. The blood is everywhere +mixed; there is no color line, as in most English-speaking countries, +and the negro and Indian strains are very strong; but the dominant +blood, the blood already dominant in quantity, and that is steadily +increasing its dominance, is the olive-white. + +Only rarely did the river show its full width. Generally we were in +channels or among islands. The surface of the water was dotted with +little islands of floating vegetation. Miller said that much of this +came from the lagoons such as those where he had been hunting, beside +the Solimoens--lagoons filled with the huge and splendid Victoria +lily, and with masses of water hyacinths. Miller, who was very fond of +animals and always took much care of them, had a small collection +which he was bringing back for the Bronx Zoo. An agouti was so bad- +tempered that he had to be kept solitary; but three monkeys, big, +middle-sized, and little, and a young peccary formed a happy family. +The largest monkey cried, shedding real tears, when taken in the arms +and pitied. The middle-sized monkey was stupid and kindly, and all the +rest of the company imposed on it; the little monkey invariably rode +on its back, and the peccary used it as a head pillow when it felt +sleepy. + +Belen, the capital of the state of Para, was an admirable illustration +of the genuine and almost startling progress which Brazil has been +making of recent years. It is a beautiful city, nearly under the +equator. But it is not merely beautiful. The docks, the dredging +operations, the warehouses, the stores and shops, all tell of energy +and success in commercial life. It is as clean, healthy, and well +policed a city as any of the size in the north temperate zone. The +public buildings are handsome, the private dwellings attractive; there +are a fine opera-house, an excellent tramway system, and a good museum +and botanical gardens. There are cavalry stables, where lights burn +all night long to protect the horses from the vampire bats. The parks, +the rows of palms and mango-trees, the open-air restaurants, the gay +life under the lights at night, all give the city its own special +quality and charm. Belen and Manaos are very striking examples of what +can be done in the mid-tropics. The governor of Para and his charming +wife were more than kind. + +Cherrie and Miller spent the day at the really capital zoological +gardens, with the curator, Miss Snethlage. Miss Snethlage, a German +lady, is a first rate field and closet naturalist, and an explorer of +note, who has gone on foot from the Xingu to the Tapajos. Most wisely +she has confined the Belen zoo to the animals of the lower Amazon +valley, and in consequence I know of no better local zoological +gardens. She has an invaluable collection of birds and mammals of the +region; and it was a privilege to meet her and talk with her. + +We also met Professor Farrabee, of the University of Pennsylvania, the +ethnologist. He had just finished a very difficult and important trip, +from Manaos by the Rio Branco to the highlands of Guiana, across them +on foot, and down to the seacoast of British Guiana. He is an +admirable representative of the men who are now opening South America +to scientific knowledge. + +On May 7 we bade good-by to our kind Brazilian friends and sailed +northward for Barbados and New York. + +Zoologically the trip had been a thorough success. Cherrie and Miller +had collected over twenty-five hundred birds, about five hundred +mammals, and a few reptiles, batrachians, and fishes. Many of them +were new to science; for much of the region traversed had never +previously been worked by any scientific collector. + +Of course, the most important work we did was the geographic work, the +exploration of the unknown river, undertaken at the suggestion of the +Brazilian Government, and in conjunction with its representatives. No +piece of work of this kind is ever achieved save as it is based on +long continued previous work. As I have before said, what we did was +to put the cap on the pyramid that had been built by Colonel Rondon +and his associates of the Telegraphic Commission during the six +previous years. It was their scientific exploration of the chapadao, +their mapping the basin of the Juruena, and their descent of the Gy- +Parana that rendered it possible for us to solve the mystery of the +River of Doubt. + +The work of the commission, much the greatest work of the kind ever +done in South America, is one of the many, many achievements which the +republican government of Brazil has to its credit. Brazil has been +blessed beyond the average of her Spanish-American sisters because she +won her way to republicanism by evolution rather than revolution. They +plunged into the extremely difficult experiment of democratic, of +popular, self-government, after enduring the atrophy of every quality +of self-control, self-reliance, and initiative throughout three +withering centuries of existence under the worst and most foolish form +of colonial government, both from the civil and the religious +standpoint, that has ever existed. The marvel is not that some of them +failed, but that some of them have eventually succeeded in such +striking fashion. Brazil, on the contrary, when she achieved +independence, first exercised it under the form of an authoritative +empire, then under the form of a liberal empire. When the republic +came, the people were reasonably ripe for it. The great progress of +Brazil--and it has been an astonishing progress--has been made under +the republic. I could give innumerable examples and illustrations of +this. The change that has converted Rio Janeiro from a picturesque +pest-hole into a singularly beautiful, healthy, clean, and efficient +modern great city is one of these. Another is the work of the +Telegraphic Commission. + +We put upon the map a river some fifteen hundred kilometres in length, +of which the upper course was not merely utterly unknown to, but +unguessed at by, anybody; while the lower course, although known for +years to a few rubbermen, was utterly unknown to cartographers. It is +the chief affluent of the Madeira, which is itself the chief affluent +of the Amazon. + +The source of this river is between the 12th and 13th parallels of +latitude south and the 59th and 60th degrees of longitude west from +Greenwich. We embarked on it at about latitude 12 degrees 1 minute +south, and about longitude 60 degrees 15 minutes west. After that its +entire course lay between the 60th and 61st degrees of longitude, +approaching the latter most closely about latitude 8 degrees 15 +minutes. The first rapids we encountered were in latitude 11 degrees +44 minutes, and in uninterrupted succession they continued for about a +degree, without a day's complete journey between any two of them. At +11 degrees 23 minutes the Rio Kermit entered from the left, at 11 +degrees 22 minutes the Rio Marciano Avila from the right, at 11 +degrees 18 minutes the Taunay from the left, at 10 degrees 58 minutes +the Cardozo from the right. In 10 degrees 24 minutes we encountered +the first rubbermen. The Rio Branco entered from the left at 9 degrees +38 minutes. Our camp at 8 degrees 49 minutes was nearly on the +boundary between Matto Grosso and Amazonas. The confluence with the +Aripuanan, which joined from the right, took place at 7 degrees 34 +minutes. The entrance into the Madeira was at about 5 degrees 20 +minutes (this point we did not determine by observation, as it is +already on the maps). The stream we had followed down was from the +river's highest sources; we had followed its longest course. + + + + APPENDIX A. + + The Work of the Field Zoologist + and Field Geographer in South America + +Portions of South America are now entering on a career of great social +and industrial development. Much remains to be known, so far as the +outside world is concerned, of the social and industrial condition in +the long-settled interior regions. More remains to be done, in the way +of pioneer exploring and of scientific work, in the great stretches of +virgin wilderness. The only two other continents where such work, of +like volume and value, remains to be done are Africa and Asia; and +neither Africa nor Asia offers a more inviting field for the best kind +of field worker in geographical exploration and in zoological, +geological, and paleontological investigation. The explorer is merely +the most adventurous kind of field geographer; and there are two or +three points worth keeping in mind in dealing with the South American +work of the field geographer and field zoologist. + +Roughly, the travellers who now visit (like those who for the past +century have visited) South America come in three categories-- +although, of course, these categories are not divided by hard-and-fast +lines. + +First, there are the travellers who skirt the continent in comfortable +steamers, going from one great seaport to another, and occasionally +taking a short railway journey to some big interior city not too far +from the coast. This is a trip well worth taking by all intelligent +men and women who can afford it; and it is being taken by such men and +women with increasing frequency. It entails no more difficulty than a +similar trip to the Mediterranean--than such a trip which to a learned +and broad-minded observer offers the same chance for acquiring +knowledge and, if he is himself gifted with wisdom, the same chance of +imparting his knowledge to others that is offered by a trip of similar +length through the larger cities of Europe or the United States. +Probably the best instance of the excellent use to which such an +observer can put his experience is afforded by the volume of Mr. +Bryce. Of course, such a trip represents travelling of essentially the +same kind as travelling by railroad from Atlanta to Calgary or from +Madrid to Moscow. + +Next there are the travellers who visit the long-settled districts and +colonial cities of the interior, travelling over land or river +highways which have been traversed for centuries but which are still +primitive as regards the inns and the modes of conveyance. Such +travelling is difficult in the sense that travelling in parts of Spain +or southern Italy or the Balkan states is difficult. Men and women who +have a taste for travel in out-of-way places and who, therefore, do +not mind slight discomforts and inconveniences have the chance +themselves to enjoy, and to make others profit by, travels of this +kind in South America. In economic, social, and political matters the +studies and observations of these travellers are essential in order to +supplement, and sometimes to correct, those of travellers of the first +category; for it is not safe to generalize overmuch about any country +merely from a visit to its capital or its chief seaport. These +travellers of the second category can give us most interesting and +valuable information about quaint little belated cities; about +backward country folk, kindly or the reverse, who show a mixture of +the ideas of savagery with the ideas of an ancient peasantry; and +about rough old highways of travel which in comfort do not differ much +from those of mediaeval Europe. The travellers who go up or down the +highway rivers that have been travelled for from one to four hundred +years--rivers like the Paraguay and Parana, the Amazon, the Tapajos, +the Madeira, the lower Orinoco--come in this category. They can add +little to our geographical knowledge; but if they are competent +zoologists or archaeologists, especially if they live or sojourn +long in a locality, their work may be invaluable from the scientific +standpoint. The work of the archaeologists among the immeasurably +ancient ruins of the low-land forests and the Andean plateaux is of +this kind. What Agassiz did for the fishes of the Amazon and what +Hudson did for the birds of the Argentine are other instances of the +work that can thus be done. Burton's writings on the interior of +Brazil offer an excellent instance of the value of a sojourn or trip +of this type, even without any especial scientific object. + +Of course travellers of this kind need to remember that their +experiences in themselves do not qualify them to speak as wilderness +explorers. Exactly as a good archaeologist may not be competent to +speak of current social or political problems, so a man who has done +capital work as a tourist observer in little-visited cities and along +remote highways must beware of regarding himself as being thereby +rendered fit for genuine wilderness work or competent to pass judgment +on the men who do such work. To cross the Andes on mule-back along the +regular routes is a feat comparable to the feats of the energetic +tourists who by thousands traverse the mule trails in out-of-the-way +nooks of Switzerland. An ordinary trip on the highway portions of the +Amazon, Paraguay, or Orinoco in itself no more qualifies a man to +speak of or to take part in exploring unknown South American rivers +than a trip on the lower Saint Lawrence qualifies a man to regard +himself as an expert in a canoe voyage across Labrador or the Barren +Grounds west of Hudson Bay. + +A hundred years ago, even seventy or eighty years ago, before the age +of steamboats and railroads, it was more difficult than at present to +define the limits between this class and the next; and, moreover, in +defining these limits I emphatically disclaim any intention of thereby +attempting to establish a single standard of value for books of +travel. Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle" is to me the best book of the +kind ever written; it is one of those classics which decline to go +into artificial categories, and which stand by themselves; and yet +Darwin, with his usual modesty, spoke of it as in effect a yachting +voyage. Humboldt's work had a profound effect on the thought of the +civilized world; his trip was one of adventure and danger; and yet it +can hardly be called exploration proper. He visited places which had +been settled and inhabited for centuries and traversed places which +had been travelled by civilized men for years before he followed in +their footsteps. But these places were in Spanish colonies, and access +to them had been forbidden by the mischievous and intolerant tyranny-- +ecclesiastical, political, and economic--which then rendered Spain the +most backward of European nations; and Humboldt was the first +scientific man of intellectual independence who had permission to +visit them. To this day many of his scientific observations are of +real value. Bates came to the Amazon just before the era of Amazonian +steamboats. He never went off the native routes of ordinary travel. +But he was a devoted and able naturalist. He lived an exceedingly +isolated, primitive, and laborious life for eleven years. Now, half a +century after it was written, his "Naturalist on the Amazon" is as +interesting and valuable as it ever was, and no book since written has +in any way supplanted it. + +Travel of the third category includes the work of the true wilderness +explorers who add to our sum of geographical knowledge and of the +scientific men who, following their several bents, also work in the +untrodden wilds. Colonel Rondon and his associates have done much in +the geographical exploration of unknown country, and Cherrie and +Miller have penetrated and lived for months and years in the wastes, +on their own resources, as incidents to their mammalogical and +ornithological work. Professor Farrabee, the anthropologist, is a +capital example of the man who does this hard and valuable type of +work. + +An immense amount of this true wilderness work, geographical and +zoological, remains to be done in South America. It can be +accomplished with reasonable thoroughness only by the efforts of very +many different workers, each in his own special field. It is desirable +that here and there a part of the work should be done in outline by +such a geographic and zoological reconnaissance as ours; we would, for +example, be very grateful for such work in portions of the interior of +the Guianas, on the headwaters of the Xingu, and here and there along +the eastern base of the Andes. + +But as a rule the work must be specialized; and in its final shape it +must be specialized everywhere. The first geographical explorers of +the untrodden wilderness, the first wanderers who penetrate the wastes +where they are confronted with starvation, disease, and danger and +death in every from, cannot take with them the elaborate equipment +necessary in order to do the thorough scientific work demanded by +modern scientific requirements. This is true even of exploration done +along the courses of unknown rivers; it is more true of the +exploration, which must in South America become increasingly +necessary, done across country, away from the rivers. + +The scientific work proper of these early explorers must be of a +somewhat preliminary nature; in other words the most difficult and +therefore ordinarily the most important pieces of first-hand exploration +are precisely those where the scientific work of the accompanying +cartographer, geologist, botanist, and zoologist must be furthest +removed from finality. The zoologist who works to most advantage in +the wilderness must take his time, and therefore he must normally +follow in the footsteps of, and not accompany, the first explorers. +The man who wishes to do the best scientific work in the wilderness +must not try to combine incompatible types of work nor to cover too +much ground in too short a time. + +There is no better example of the kind of zoologist who does first- +class field-work in the wilderness than John D. Haseman, who spent +from 1907 to 1910 in painstaking and thorough scientific investigation +over a large extent of South American territory hitherto only +partially known or quite unexplored. Haseman's primary object was to +study the characteristics and distribution of South American fishes, +but as a matter of fact he studied at first hand many other more or +less kindred subjects, as may be seen in his remarks on the Indians +and in his excellent pamphlet on "Some Factors of Geographical +Distribution in South America." + +Haseman made his long journey with a very slender equipment, his +extraordinarily successful field-work being due to his bodily health +and vigor and his resourcefulness, self-reliance, and resolution. His +writings are rendered valuable by his accuracy and common sense. The +need of the former of these two attributes will be appreciated by +whoever has studied the really scandalous fictions which have been +published as genuine by some modern "explorers" and adventurers in +South America; and the need of the latter by whoever has studied +some of the wild theories propounded in the name of science concerning +the history of life on the South American continent. There is, +however, one serious criticism to be made on Haseman: the extreme +obscurity of his style--an obscurity mixed with occasional bits of +scientific pedantry, which makes it difficult to tell whether or not +on some points his thought is obscure also. Modern scientists, like +modern historians and, above all, scientific and historical educators, +should ever keep in mind that clearness of speech and writing is +essential to clearness of thought and that a simple, clear, and, if +possible, vivid style is vital to the production of the best work in +either science or history. Darwin and Huxley are classics, and they +would not have been if they had not written good English. The thought +is essential, but ability to give it clear expression is only less +essential. Ability to write well, if the writer has nothing to write +about, entitles him to mere derision. But the greatest thought is +robbed of an immense proportion of its value if expressed in a mean or +obscure manner. Mr. Haseman has such excellent thought that it is a +pity to make it a work of irritating labor to find out just what the +thought is. Surely, if he will take as much pains with his writing as +he has with the far more difficult business of exploring and +collecting, he will become able to express his thought clearly and +forcefully. At least he can, if he chooses, go over his sentences +until he is reasonably sure that they can be parsed. He can take pains +to see that his whole thought is expressed, instead of leaving +vacancies which must be filled by the puzzled and groping reader. His +own views and his quotations from the views of others about the static +and dynamic theories of distribution are examples of an important +principle so imperfectly expressed as to make us doubtful whether it +is perfectly apprehended by the writer. He can avoid the use of those +pedantic terms which are really nothing but offensive and, +fortunately, ephemeral scientific slang. There has been, for instance, +a recent vogue for the extensive misuse, usually tautological misuse, +of the word "complexus"--an excellent word if used rarely and for +definite purposes. Mr. Haseman drags it in continually when its use is +either pointless and redundant or else serves purely to darken wisdom. +He speaks of the "Antillean complex" when he means the Antilles, of +the "organic complex" instead of the characteristic or bodily +characteristics of an animal or species, and of the "environmental +complex" when he means nothing whatever but the environment. In short, +Mr. Haseman and those whose bad example he in this instance follows +use "complexus" in much the same spirit as that displayed by the +famous old lady who derived religious--instead of scientific-- +consolation from the use of "the blessed word Mesopotamia." + +The reason that it is worth while to enter this protest against Mr. +Haseman's style is because his work is of such real and marked value. +The pamphlet on the distribution of South American species shows that +to exceptional ability as a field worker he adds a rare power to draw, +with both caution and originality, the necessary general conclusions +from the results of his own observations and from the recorded studies +of other men; and there is nothing more needed at the present moment +among our scientific men than the development of a school of men who, +while industrious and minute observers and collectors and cautious +generalizers, yet do not permit the faculty of wise generalization to +be atrophied by excessive devotion to labyrinthine detail. + +Haseman upholds with strong reasoning the theory that since the +appearance of all but the lowest forms of life on this globe there +have always been three great continental masses, sometimes solid +sometimes broken, extending southward from the northern hemisphere, +and from time to time connected in the north, but not in the middle +regions or the south since the carboniferous epoch. He holds that life +has been intermittently distributed southward along these continental +masses when there were no breaks in their southward connection, and +intermittently exchanged between them when they were connected in the +north; and he also upholds the view that from a common ancestral form +the same species has been often developed in entirely disconnected +localities when in these localities the conditions of environment were +the same. + +The opposite view is that there have been frequent connections between +the great land masses, alike in the tropics, in the south temperate +zone, and in the Antarctic region. The upholders of this theory base +it almost exclusively on the distribution of living and fossil forms +of life; that is, it is based almost exclusively on biological and not +geological considerations. Unquestionably, the distribution of many +forms of life, past and present, offers problems which with our +present paleontological knowledge we are wholly unable to solve. If we +consider only the biological facts concerning some one group of +animals it is not only easy but inevitable to conclude that its +distribution must be accounted for by the existence of some former +direct land bridge extending, for instance, between Patagonia and +Australia, or between Brazil and South Africa, or between the West +Indies and the Mediterranean, or between a part of the Andean region +and northeastern Asia. The trouble is that as more groups of animals +are studied from the standpoint of this hypothesis the number of such +land bridges demanded to account for the existing facts of animal +distribution is constantly and indefinitely extended. A recent book by +one of the most learned advocates of this hypothesis calls for at +least ten such land bridges between South America and all the other +continents, present and past, of the world since a period geologically +not very remote. These land bridges, moreover, must, many of them, +have been literally bridges; long, narrow tongues of land thrust in +every direction across the broad oceans. According to this view the +continental land masses have been in a fairly fluid condition of +instability. By parity of reasoning, the land bridges could be made a +hundred instead of merely ten in number. The facts of distribution are +in many cases inexplicable with our present knowledge; yet if the +existence of widely separated but closely allied forms is habitually +to be explained in accordance with the views of the extremists of this +school we could, from the exclusive study of certain groups of +animals, conclude that at different periods the United States and +almost every other portion of the earth were connected by land and +severed from all other regions by water--and, from the study of +certain other groups of animals, arrive at directly opposite and +incompatible conclusions. + +The most brilliant and unsafe exponent of this school was Ameghino, +who possessed and abused two gifts, both essential to the highest type +of scientist, and both mischievous unless this scientist possess a +rare and accurate habit of thought joined to industry and mastery of +detail:--namely, the gift of clear and interesting writing, and the +gift of generalization. Ameghino rendered marked services to +paleontology. But he generalized with complete recklessness from the +slenderest data; and even these data he often completely misunderstood +or misinterpreted. His favorite thesis included the origin of +mammalian life and of man himself in southernmost South America, with, +as incidents, the belief that the mammalian-bearing strata of South +America were of much greater age than the strata with corresponding +remains elsewhere; that in South America various species and genera of +men existed in tertiary times, some of them at least as advanced as +fairly well advanced modern savages; that there existed various land +bridges between South America and other southern continents, including +Africa; and that the ancestral types of modern mammals and of man +himself wandered across one of these bridges to the old world, and +that thence their remote descendants, after ages of time, returned to +the new. In addition to valuable investigations of fossil-bearing beds +in the Argentine, he made some excellent general suggestions, such as +that the pithecoid apes, like the baboons, do not stand in the line of +man's ancestral stem but represent a divergence from it away from +humanity and toward a retrogressive bestialization. But of his main +theses he proves none, and what evidence we have tells against them. +At the Museum of La Plata I found that the authorities were +practically a unit in regarding his remains of tertiary men and proto- +men as being either the remains of tertiary American monkeys or of +American Indians from strata that were long post-tertiary. The +extraordinary discovery, due to that eminent scientist and public +servant Doctor Moreno, of the remains of man associated with the +remains of the great extinct South American fauna, of the mylodon, of +a giant ungulate, of a huge cat like the lion, and of an extraordinary +aberrant horse (of a wholly different genus from the modern horse) +conclusively shows that in its later stages the South American fauna +consisted largely of types that elsewhere had already disappeared and +that these types persisted into what was geologically a very recent +period only some tens of thousands of years ago, when savage man of +practically a modern type had already appeared in South America. The +evidence we have, so far as it goes, tends to show that the South +American fauna always has been more archaic in type than the arctogeal +fauna of the same chronological level. + +To loose generalizations, and to elaborate misinterpretations of +paleontological records, the kind of work done by Mr. Haseman +furnishes an invaluable antiscorbutic. To my mind, he has established +a stronger presumption in favor of the theory he champions than has +been established in favor of the theories of any of the learned and +able scientific men from whose conclusions he dissents. Further +research, careful, accurate, and long extended, can alone enable us to +decide definitely in the matter; and this research, to be effective, +must be undertaken by many men, each of whom shall in large measure +possess Mr. Haseman's exceptional power of laborious work both in the +field and in the study, his insight and accuracy of observation, and +his determination to follow truth with inflexible rectitude wherever +it may lead--one of the greatest among the many great qualities which +lifted Huxley and Darwin above their fellows. + + + + APPENDIX B. + + The Outfit for Travelling in the South American Wilderness + +South America includes so many different kinds of country that it is +impossible to devise a scheme of equipment which shall suit all. A +hunting-trip in the pantanals, in the swamp country of the upper +Paraguay, offers a simple problem. An exploring trip through an +unknown tropical forest region, even if the work is chiefly done by +river, offers a very difficult problem. All that I can pretend to do +is to give a few hints as the results of our own experience. + +For bedding there should be a hammock, mosquito-net, and light +blanket. These can be obtained in Brazil. For tent a light fly is +ample; ours were brought with us from New York. In exploring only the +open fly should be taken; but on trips where weight of luggage is no +objection, there can be walls to the tent and even a canvas floor- +cloth. Camp-chairs and a camp table should be brought--any good +outfitter in the United States will supply them--and not thrown away +until it becomes imperative to cut everything down. On a river trip, +first-class pulleys and ropes--preferably steel, and at any rate very +strong--should be taken. Unless the difficulties of transportation are +insuperable, canvas-and-cement canoes, such as can be obtained from +various firms in Canada and the United States, should by all means be +taken. They are incomparably superior to the dugouts. But on different +rivers wholly different canoes, of wholly different sizes, will be +needed; on some steam or electric launches may be used; it is not +possible to lay down a general rule. + +As regards arms, a good plain 12-bore shotgun with a 30-30 rifle- +barrel underneath the others is the best weapon to have constantly in +one's hand in the South American forests, where big game is rare and +yet may at any time come in one's path. When specially hunting the +jaguar, marsh-deer, tapir, or big peccary, an ordinary light repeating +rifle--the 30-30, 30-40, or 256--is preferable. No heavy rifle is +necessary for South America. Tin boxes or trunks are the best in which +to carry one's spare things. A good medicine-chest is indispensable. +Nowadays doctors know so much of tropical diseases that there is no +difficulty in fitting one out. It is better not to make the trip at +all than to fail to take an ample supply of quinine pills. Cholera +pills and cathartic pills come next in importance. In liquid shape +there should be serum to inject for the stoppage of amoebic dysentery, +and anti-snake-venom serum. Fly-dope should be taken in quantities. + +For clothing Kermit and I used what was left over from our African +trip. Sun helmets are best in the open; slouch-hats are infinitely +preferable in the woods. There should be hobnailed shoes--the nails +many and small, not few and large; and also moccasins or rubber-soled +shoes; and light, flexible leggings. Tastes differ in socks; I like +mine of thick wool. A khaki-colored shirt should be worn, or, as a +better substitute, a khaki jacket with many pockets. Very light +underclothes are good. If one's knees and legs are unfortunately +tender, knickerbockers with long stockings and leggings should be worn; +ordinary trousers tend to bind the knee. Better still, if one's legs +will stand the exposure, are shorts, not coming down to the knee. A +kilt would probably be best of all. Kermit wore shorts in the +Brazilian forest, as he had already worn them in Africa, in Mexico, +and in the New Brunswick woods. Some of the best modern hunters always +wear shorts; as for example, that first-class sportsman the Duke of +Alva. + +Mr. Fiala, after the experience of his trip down the Papagaio, the +Juruena, and the Tapajos, gives his judgment about equipment and +provisions as follows: + +The history of South American exploration has been full of the losses +of canoes and cargoes and lives. The native canoe made from the single +trunk of a forest giant is the craft that has been used. It is durable +and if lost can be readily replaced from the forest by good men with +axes and adzes. But, because of its great weight and low free-board, +it is unsuitable as a freight carrier and by reason of the limitations +of its construction is not of the correct form to successfully run the +rapid and bad waters of many of the South American rivers. The North +American Indian has undoubtedly developed a vastly superior craft in +the birch-bark canoe and with it will run rapids that a South American +Indian with his log canoe would not think of attempting, though, as a +general thing, the South American Indian is a wonderful waterman, the +equal and, in some ways, the superior of his northern contemporary. At +the many carries or portages the light birch-bark canoe or its modern +representative, the canvas-covered canoe, can be picked up bodily and +carried by from two to four men for several miles, if necessary, while +the log canoe has to be hauled by ropes and back-breaking labor over +rollers that have first to be cut from trees in the forest, or at +great risk led along the edge of the rapids with ropes and hooks and +poles, the men often up to their shoulders in the rushing waters, +guiding the craft to a place of safety. + +The native canoe is so long and heavy that it is difficult to navigate +without some bumps on the rocks. In fact, it is usually dragged over +the rocks in the shallow water near shore in preference to taking the +risk of a plunge through the rushing volume of deeper water, for +reasons stated above. The North American canoe can be turned with +greater facility in critical moments in bad water. Many a time I heard +my steersman exclaim with delight as we took a difficult passage +between two rocks with our loaded Canadian canoe. In making the same +passage the dugout would go sideways toward the rapid until by a +supreme effort her three powerful paddlers and steersman would right +her just in time. The native canoe would ship great quantities of +water in places the Canadian canoe came through without taking any +water on board. We did bump a few rocks under water, but the canoe was +so elastic that no damage was done. + +Our nineteen-foot canvas-covered freight canoe, a type especially +built for the purpose on deep, full lines with high free-board, +weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds and would carry a ton of +cargo with ease--and also take it safely where the same cargo +distributed among two or three native thirty or thirty-five foot +canoes would be lost. The native canoes weigh from about nine hundred +to two thousand five hundred pounds and more. + +In view of the above facts the explorer-traveller is advised to take +with him the North American canoe if he intends serious work. Two +canoes would be a good arrangement for from five to seven men, with +at least one steersman and two paddlers to each canoe. The canoes can +be purchased in two sizes and nested for transportation, an +arrangement which would save considerable expense in freight bills. At +least six paddles should be packed with each boat, in length four and +one half, four and three fourths, and five feet. Other paddles from +six and one half feet to eight and one half feet should be provided +for steering oars. The native paddler, after he has used the light +Canadian paddle, prefers it to the best native make. My own paddlers +lost or broke all of their own paddles so as to get the North American +ones, which they marked with their initials and used most carefully. + +To each canoe it would be well to have two copper air tanks, one fore, +one aft, a hand-hole in each with a water-tight screw cover on hatch. +In these tanks could be kept a small supply of matches, the +chronometer or watch which is used for position, and the scientific +records and diary. Of course, the fact should be kept in mind that +these are air tanks, not to be used so as to appreciably diminish +their buoyancy. Each canoe should also carry a small repair kit +attached to one of the thwarts, containing cement, a piece of canvas +same as cover of canoe, copper tacks, rivets, and some galvanized +nails; a good hatchet and a hammer; a small can of canoe paint, spar +varnish, and copper paint for worn places would be a protection +against termites and torrential downpours. In concluding the subject +of canoes I can state that the traveller in South America will find no +difficulty in disposing of his craft at the end of his trip. + +MOTORS--We had with us a three and one half horse-power motor which +could be attached to stern or gunwale of canoe or boat. It was made by +the Evinrude Motor Company, who had a magneto placed in the flywheel +of the engine so that we never had to resort to the battery to run the +motor. Though the motor was left out in the rain and sun, often +without a cover, by careless native help, it never failed us. We found +it particularly valuable in going against the strong current of the +Sepotuba River where several all-night trips were made up-stream, the +motor attached to a heavy boat. For exploration up-stream it would be +valuable, particularly as it is easily portable, weighing for the two +horse-power motor fifty pounds, for three and one half horse-power one +hundred pounds. If a carburetor could be attached so that kerosene +could be used it would add to its value many times, for kerosene can +be purchased almost anywhere in South America. + +TENTS--There is nothing better for material than the light waterproof +Sea Island cotton of American manufacture, made under the trade name +of waterproof silk. It keeps out the heaviest rain and is very light. +Canvas becomes water-soaked, and cravenetted material lets the water +through. A waterproof canvas floor is a luxury, and, though it adds to +the weight, it may with advantage be taken on ordinary trips. The tent +should be eight by eight or eight by nine feet, large enough to swing +a comfortable hammock. A waterproof canvas bag, a loose-fitting +envelope for the tent should be provided. Native help is, as a rule, +careless, and the bag would save wear and tear. + +HAMMOCKS--The hammock is the South American bed, and the traveller +will find it exceedingly comfortable. After leaving the larger cities +and settlements a bed is a rare object. All the houses are provided +with extra hammock hooks. The traveller will be entertained hospitably +and after dinner will be given two hooks upon which to hang his +hammock, for he will be expected to have his hammock and, in insect +time, his net, if he has nothing else. As a rule, a native hammock and +net can be procured in the field. But it is best to take a comfortable +one along, arranged with a fine-meshed net. + +In regard to the folding cot: It is heavy and its numerous legs form a +sort of highway system over which all sorts of insects can crawl up to +the sleeper. The ants are special pests and some of them can bite with +the enthusiastic vigor of beasts many times their size. The canvas +floor in a tent obviates to a degree the insect annoyance. + +The headwaters of the rivers are usually reached by pack-trains of +mules and oxen. The primitive ox-cart also comes in where the trail is +not too bad. One hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty pounds is +a good load for the pack-animals, and none of the cases should weigh +more than fifty or sixty pounds. Each case should be marked with its +contents and gross and net weight in kilos. + +For personal baggage the light fibre sample case used by travelling +men in the United States does admirably. The regulation fibre case +with its metal binding sold for the purpose is too heavy and has the +bad feature of swelling up under the influence of rain and dampness, +often necessitating the use of an axe or heavy hammer to remove cover. + +The ordinary fibre trunk is good for rail and steamer travel, but it +is absolutely unpractical for mule-back or canoe. The fibre sample +case could be developed into a container particularly fitted for +exploration. The fibre should be soaked in hot paraffin and then hot- +calendered or hot-pressed. This case could then be covered with +waterproof canvas with throat opening like a duffel-bag. + +The waterproof duffel-bags usually sold are too light in texture and +wear through. A heavier grade should be used. The small duffel-bag is +very convenient for hammock and clothing, but generally the thing +wanted will be at the bottom of the bag! We took with us a number of +small cotton bags. As cotton is very absorbent, I had them paraffined. +Each bag was tagged and all were placed in the large duffel-bag. The +light fibre case described above, made just the right size for mule +pack, divided by partitions, and covered with a duffel-bag, would +prove a great convenience. + +The light steel boxes made in England for travellers in India and +Africa would prove of value in South American exploration. They have +the advantage of being insect and water proof and the disadvantage of +being expensive. + +It would be well if the traveller measured each case for personal +equipment and computed the limit of weight that it could carry and +still float. By careful distribution of light and heavy articles in +the different containers, he could be sure of his belongings floating +if accidentally thrown into the water. + +It is not always possible to get comfortable native saddles. They are +all constructed on heavy lines with thick padding which becomes water- +soaked in the rainy season. A United States military saddle, with +Whitman or McClellan tree, would be a positive luxury. Neither of them +is padded, so would be the correct thing for all kinds of weather. The +regulation army saddle-blanket is also advised as a protection for the +mule's back. The muleteer should wash the saddle-blanket often. For a +long mule-back trip through a game country, it would be well to have a +carbine boot on the saddle (United States Army) and saddle-bags with +canteen and cup. In a large pack-train much time and labor are lost +every morning collecting the mules which strayed while grazing. It +would pay in the long run to feed a little corn at a certain hour +every morning in camp, always ringing a bell or blowing a horn at the +time. The mules would get accustomed to receiving the feed and would +come to camp for it at the signal. + +All the rope that came to my attention in South America was three- +strand hemp, a hard material, good for standing rigging but not good +for tackle or for use aboard canoes. A four-ply bolt rope of best +manilla, made in New Bedford, Mass., should be taken. It is the finest +and most pliable line in the world, as any old whaler will tell you. +Get a sailor of the old school to relay the coils before you go into +the field so that the rope will be ready for use. Five eighths to +seven eighths inch diameter is large enough. A few balls of marline +come in conveniently as also does heavy linen fish-line. + +A small-sized duffel-bag should be provided for each of the men as a +container for hammock and net, spare clothing, and mess-kit. A very +small waterproof pouch or bag should be furnished also for matches, +tobacco, etc. + +The men should be limited to one duffel-bag each. These bags should be +numbered consecutively. In fact, every piece in the entire equipment +should be thus numbered and a list kept in detail in a book. + +The explorer should personally see that each of his men has a hammock, +net, and poncho; for the native, if left unsupervised, will go into +the field with only the clothing he has on. + +FOOD--Though South America is rich in food and food possibilities, +she has not solved the problem of living economically on her +frontiers. The prices asked for food in the rubber districts we passed +through were amazing. Five milreis (one dollar and fifty cents) was +cheap for a chicken, and eggs at five hundred reis (fifteen cents) +apiece were a rarity. Sugar was bought at the rate of one to two +milreis a kilo--in a country where sugar-cane grows luxuriantly. The +main dependence is the mandioc, or farina, as it is called. It is the +bread of the country and is served at every meal. The native puts it +on his meat and in his soup and mixes it with his rice and beans. When +he has nothing else he eats the farina, as it is called, by the +handful. It is seldom cooked. The small mandioc tubers when boiled are +very good and are used instead of potatoes. Native beans are nutritious +and form one of the chief foods. + +In the field the native cook wastes much time. Generally provided with +an inadequate cooking equipment, hours are spent cooking beans after +the day's work, and then, of course, they are often only partially +cooked. A kettle or aluminum Dutch oven should be taken along, large +enough to cook enough beans for both breakfast and dinner. The beans +should be cooked all night, a fire kept burning for the purpose. It +would only be necessary then to warm the beans for breakfast and +dinner, the two South American meals. + +For meat the rubber hunter and explorer depends upon his rifle and +fish-hook. The rivers are full of fish which can readily be caught, +and, in Brazil, the tapir, capybara, paca, agouti, two or three +varieties of deer, and two varieties of wild pig can occasionally be +shot; and most of the monkeys are used for food. Turtles and turtle +eggs can be had in season and a great variety of birds, some of them +delicious in flavor and heavy in meat. In the hot, moist climate fresh +meat will not keep and even salted meat has been known to spoil. For +use on the Roosevelt expedition I arranged a ration for five men for +one day packed in a tin box; the party which went down the Duvida made +each ration do for six men for a day and a half, and in addition gave +over half the bread or hardtack to the camaradas. By placing the day's +allowance of bread in this same box, it was lightened sufficiently to +float if dropped into water. There were seven variations in the +arrangement of food in these boxes and they were numbered from 1 to 7, +so that a different box could be used every day of the week. In +addition to the food, each box contained a cake of soap, a piece of +cheese-cloth, two boxes of matches, and a box of table salt. These tin +boxes were lacquered to protect from rust and enclosed in wooden cases +for transportation. A number in large type was printed on each. No. 1 +was cased separately; Nos. 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7 were cased +together. For canoe travel the idea was to take these wooden cases +off. I did not have an opportunity personally to experience the +management of these food cases. We had sent them all ahead by pack- +train for the explorers of the Duvida River. The exploration of the +Papagaio was decided upon during the march over the plateau of Matto +Grosso and was accomplished with dependence upon native food only. + + DAILY RATION FOR FIVE MEN + + SUN. MON. TUES. WED. THUR. FRI. SAT. + Rice 16 16 16 + Oatmeal 13 13 13 + Bread 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 + Tea-biscuits 18 18 18 + Gingersnaps 21 21 21 21 + Dehydrated potatoes 11 11 11 11 11 11 + Dehydrated onions 5 5 5 5 5 5 + Erbswurst 8 8 8 + Evaporated soups 6 6 6 + Baked beans 25 25 + Condensed milk 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 + Bacon 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 + Roast beef 56 + Braised beef 56 56 + Corned beef 70 + Ox tongue 78 + Curry and chicken 72 + Boned chicken 61 + Fruits: evaporated berries 5 5 5 5 + Figs 20 20 + Dates 16 + Sugar 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 + Coffee 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 + Tea 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 + Salt 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 + Sweet chocolate 16 + + EACH BOX ALSO CONTAINED + + Muslin, one yard 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 + Matches, boxes 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 + Soap, one cake 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 + +Above weights of food are net in avoirdupois ounces. Each complete +ration with its tin container weighed nearly twenty-seven pounds. The +five pounds over net weight of daily ration was taken up in tin +necessary for protection of food. The weight of component parts of +daily ration had to be governed to some extent by the size of the +commercial package in which the food could be purchased on short +notice. Austin, Nichols & Co., of New York, who supplied the food +stores for my polar expedition, worked day and night to complete the +packing of the rations on time. + +The food cases described above were used on Colonel Roosevelt's +descent of the Rio da Duvida and also by the party who journeyed down +the Gy-Parana and Madeira Rivers. Leo Miller, the naturalist, who was +a member of the last-named party, arrived in Manaos, Brazil, while I +was there and, in answer to my question, told me that the food served +admirably and was good, but that the native cooks had a habit of +opening a number of cases at a time to satisfy their personal desire +for special delicacies. Bacon was the article most sought for. +Speaking critically, for a strenuous piece of work like the +exploration of the Duvida, the food was somewhat bulky. A ration +arrangement such as I used on my sledge trips North would have +contained more nutritious elements in a smaller space. We could have +done without many of the luxuries. But the exploration of the Duvida +had not been contemplated and had no place in the itinerary mapped out +in New York. The change of plan and the decision to explore the Duvida +River came about in Rio Janeiro, long after our rations had been made +out and shipped. + +"Matte" the tea of Brazil and Paraguay, used in most of the states of +South America, should not be forgotten. It is a valuable beverage. +With it a native can do a wonderful amount of work on little food. +Upon the tired traveller it has a very refreshing effect. + +Doctor Peckolt, celebrated chemist of Rio de Janeiro, has compared the +analysis of matte with those of green tea, black tea, and coffee and +obtained the following result: + + IN 1,000 PARTS OF GREEN TEA BLACK TEA COFFEE MATTE + Natural oil 7.90 0.06 0.41 0.01 + Chlorophyl 22.20 18.14 13.66 62.00 + Resin 22.20 34.40 13.66 20.69 + Tannin 178.09 128.80 16.39 12.28 + Alkaloids: + Mateina 4.50 4.30 2.66 2.50 + Extractive substances 464.00 390.00 270.67 238.83 + Cellulose and fibres 175.80 283.20 178.83 180.00 + Ashes 85.60 25.61 25.61 38.11 + +Manner of preparation: The matte tea is prepared in the same manner as +the Indian tea, that is to say, by pouring upon it boiling water +during ten to fifteen minutes before using. To obtain a good infusion +five spoonfuls of matte are sufficient for a litre of water. + +Some experiments have been made lately with the use of matte in the +German army, and probably it would be a valuable beverage for the use +of our own troops. Two plates and a cup, knife, fork, and spoon should +be provided for each member of the party. The United States Army mess- +kit would serve admirably. Each man's mess-kit should be numbered to +correspond with the number on his duffel-bag. + +An aluminum (for lightness) cooking outfit, or the Dutch oven +mentioned, with three or four kettles nested within, a coffee pot or a +teapot would suffice. The necessary large spoons and forks for the +cook, a small meat grinder, and a half dozen skinning knives could all +be included in the fibre case. These outfits are usually sold with the +cups, plates, etc., for the table. As before suggested, each member of +the party should have his own mess-kit. It should not be carried with +the general cooking outfit. By separating the eating equipments thus, +one of the problems of hygiene and cleanliness is simplified. + +RIFLES--AMMUNITION--A heavy rifle is not advised. The only animals +that can be classed as dangerous are the jaguar and white-jawed +peccary, and a 30-30 or 44 calibre is heavy enough for such game. The +44-calibre Winchester or Remington carbine is the arm generally used +throughout South America, and 44 calibre is the only ammunition that +one can depend upon securing in the field. Every man has his own +preference for an arm. However, there is no need of carrying a nine or +ten pound weapon when a rifle weighing only from six and three fourths +to seven and one half pounds will do all that is necessary. I, +personally, prefer the small-calibre rifle, as it can be used for +birds also. The three-barrelled gun, combining a double shotgun and a +rifle, is an excellent weapon, and it is particularly valuable for the +collector of natural-history specimens. A new gun has just come on the +market which may prove valuable in South America where there is such a +variety of game, a four-barrel gun, weighing only eight and one fourth +pounds. It has two shotgun barrels, one 30 to 44 calibre rifle and the +rib separating the shotgun barrels is bored for a 22-calibre rifle +cartridge. The latter is particularly adapted for the large food +birds, which a heavy rifle bullet might tear. Twenty-two calibre +ammunition is also very light and the long 22 calibre exceedingly +powerful. Unless in practice it proves too complicated, it would seem +to be a good arm for all-round use--sixteen to twenty gauge is large +enough for the shotgun barrels. Too much emphasis cannot be placed +upon the need of being provided with good weapons. After the loss of +all our arms in the rapids we secured four poor, rusty rifles which +proved of no value. We lost three deer, a tapir, and other game, and +finally gave up the use of the rifles, depending upon hook and line. A +25 or 30 calibre high power automatic pistol with six or seven inch +barrel would prove a valuable arm to carry always on the person. It +could be used for large game and yet would not be too large for food +birds. It is to be regretted that there is nothing in the market of +this character. + +We had our rifle ammunition packed by the U. M. C. Co. in zinc cases +of one hundred rounds each, a metallic strip with pull ring closing +the two halves of the box. Shot-cartridge, sixteen gauge, were packed +the same way, twenty-five to the box. + +The explorer would do well always to have on his person a compass, a +light waterproof bag containing matches, a waterproof box of salt, and +a strong, light, linen or silk fish-line with several hooks, a knife, +and an automatic at his belt, with several loaded magazines for the +latter in his pocket. Thus provided, if accidentally lost for several +days in the forest (which often happens to the rubber hunters in +Brazil), he will be provided with the possibility of getting game and +making himself shelter and fire at night. + +FISH--For small fish like the pacu and piranha an ordinary bass hook +will do. For the latter, because of its sharp teeth, a hook with a +long shank and phosphor-bronze leader is the best; the same character +of leader is best on the hook to be used for the big fish. A tarpon +hook will hold most of the great fish of the rivers. A light rod and +reel would be a convenience in catching the pacu. We used to fish for +the latter variety in the quiet pools while allowing the canoe to +drift, and always saved some of the fish as bait for the big fellows. +We fished for the pacu as the native does, kneading a ball of mandioc +farina with water and placing it on the hook as bait. I should not be +surprised, though, if it were possible, with carefully chosen flies, +to catch some of the fish that every once in a while we saw rise to +the surface and drag some luckless insect under. + +CLOTHING--Even the experienced traveller when going into a new field +will commit the crime of carrying too much luggage. Articles which he +thought to be camp necessities become camp nuisances which worry his +men and kill his mules. The lighter one can travel the better. In the +matter of clothing, before the actual wilderness is reached the +costume one would wear to business in New York in summer is practical +for most of South America, except, of course, the high mountain +regions, where a warm wrap is necessary. A white or natural linen suit +is a very comfortable garment. A light blue unlined serge is desirable +as a change and for wear in rainy weather. + +Strange to relate, the South American seems to have a fondness for +stiff collars. Even in Corumba, the hottest place I have ever been in, +the native does not think he is dressed unless he wears one of these +stiff abominations around his throat. A light negligee shirt with +interchangeable or attached soft collars is vastly preferable. In the +frontier regions and along the rivers the pajama seems to be the +conventional garment for day as well as night wear. Several such suits +of light material should be carried--the more ornamented and +beautifully colored the greater favor will they find along the way. A +light cravenetted mackintosh is necessary for occasional cool evenings +and as a protection against the rain. It should have no cemented +rubber seams to open up in the warm, moist climate. Yachting oxfords +and a light pair of leather slippers complete the outfit for steamer +travel. For the field, two or three light woollen khaki-colored +shirts, made with two breast pockets with buttoned flaps, two pairs +of long khaki trousers, two pairs of riding breeches, a khaki coat cut +military fashion with four pockets with buttoned flaps, two suits of +pajamas, handkerchiefs, socks, etc., would be necessary. The poncho +should extend to below the knees and should be provided with a hood +large enough to cover the helmet. It should have no cemented seams; +the material recently adopted by the United States Army for ponchos +seems to be the best. For footgear the traveller needs two pairs of +stout, high hunting shoes, built on the moccasin form with soles. Hob +nails should be taken along to insert if the going is over rocky +places. It is also advisable to provide a pair of very light leather +slipper boots to reach to just under the knee for wear in camp. They +protect the legs and ankles from insect stings and bites. The +traveller who enters tropical South America should protect his head +with a wide-brimmed soft felt hat with ventilated headband, or the +best and lightest pith helmet that can be secured, one large enough to +shade the face and back of neck. There should be a ventilating space +all around the head-band; the wider the space the better. These +helmets can be secured in Rio and Buenos Aires. Head-nets with face +plates of horsehair are the best protection against small insect +pests. They are generally made too small and the purchaser should be +careful to get one large enough to go over his helmet and come down to +the breast. Several pairs of loose gloves rather long in the wrist +will be needed as protection against the flies, piums and boroshudas +which draw blood with every bite and are numerous in many parts of +South America. A waterproof sun umbrella, with a jointed handle about +six feet long terminating in a point, would be a decided help to the +scientist at work in the field. A fine-meshed net fitting around the +edge of the umbrella would make it insect proof. When folded it would +not be bulky and its weight would be negligible. Such an umbrella +could also be attached, with a special clamp, to the thwart of a canoe +and so prove a protection from both sun and rain. + +There are little personal conveniences which sometimes grow into +necessities. One of these in my own case was a little electric flash- +light taken for the purpose of reading the verniers of a theodolite or +sextant in star observations. It was used every night and for many +purposes. As a matter of necessity, where insects are numerous one +turns to the protection of his hammock and net immediately after the +evening meal. It was at such times that I found the electric lamp so +helpful. Reclining in the hammock, I held the stock of the light under +my left arm and with diary in my lap wrote up my records for the day. +I sometimes read by its soft, steady light. One charge of battery, to +my surprise, lasted nearly a month. When forced to pick out a camping +spot after dark, an experience which comes to every traveller in the +tropics in the rainy season, we found its light very helpful. Neither +rain nor wind could put it out and the light could be directed +wherever needed. The charges should be calculated on the plan of one +for every three weeks. The acetylene lamp for camp illumination is an +advance over the kerosene lantern. It has been found that for equal +weight the carbide will give more light than kerosene or candle. The +carbide should be put in small containers, for each time a box is +opened some of the contents turns into gas from contact with the moist +air. + +TOOLS--Three or four good axes, several bill-hooks, a good hatchet +with hammer head and nail-puller should be in the tool kit. In +addition, each man should be provided with a belt knife and a machete +with sheath. Collins makes the best machetes. His axes, too, are +excellent. The bill-hook, called foice in Brazil, is a most valuable +tool for clearing away small trees, vines, and under-growths. It is +marvellous how quickly an experienced hand can clear the ground in a +forest with one of these instruments. All of these tools should have +handles of second-growth American hickory of first quality; and +several extra handles should be taken along. The list of tools should +be completed with a small outfit of pliers, tweezers, files, etc.--the +character, of course, depending upon the mechanical ability of the +traveller and the scientific instruments he has with him that might +need repairs. + +SURVEY INSTRUMENTS--The choice of instruments will depend largely +upon the character of the work intended. If a compass survey will +suffice, there is nothing better than the cavalry sketching board used +in the United States Army for reconnaissance. With a careful hand it +approaches the high degree of perfection attained by the plane-table +method. It is particularly adapted for river survey and, after one +gets accustomed to its use, it is very simple. If the prismatic +compass is preferred, nothing smaller than two and one half inches in +diameter should be used. In the smaller sizes the magnet is not +powerful enough to move the dial quickly or accurately. + +Several good pocket compasses must be provided. They should all have +good-sized needles with the north end well marked and degrees engraved +in metal. If the floating dial is preferred it should be of aluminum +and nothing smaller than two and one half inches, for the same reason +as mentioned above regarding the prismatic compass. + +Expense should not be spared if it is necessary to secure good +compasses. Avoid paper dials and leather cases which absorb moisture. +The compass case should allow taking apart for cleaning and drying. + +The regular chronometer movement, because of its delicacy, is out of +the question for rough land or water travel. We had with us a small- +sized half-chronometer movement recently brought out by the Waltham +Company as a yacht chronometer. It gave a surprisingly even rate under +the most adverse conditions. I was sorry to lose it in the rapids of +the Papagaio when our canoes went down. + +The watches should be waterproof with strong cases, and several should +be taken. It would be well to have a dozen cheap but good watches and +the same number of compasses for use around camp and for gifts or +trade along the line of travel. Money is of no value after one leaves +the settlements. I was surprised to find that many of the rubber +hunters were not provided with compasses, and I listened to an +American who told of having been lost in the depths of the great +forest where for days he lived on monkey meat secured with his rifle +until he found his way to the river. He had no compass and could not +get one. I was sorry I had none to give; I had lost mine in the +rapids. + +For the determination of latitude and longitude there is nothing +better than a small four or five inch theodolite not over fifteen +pounds in weight. It should have a good prism eyepiece with an angle +tube attached so it would not be necessary to break one's neck in +reading high altitudes. For days we travelled in the direction the sun +was going, with altitudes varying from 88° to 90°. Because of these +high altitudes of the sun the sextant with artificial horizon could +not be used unless one depended upon star observations altogether, an +uncertain dependence because of the many cloudy nights. + +BAROMETERS--The Goldsmith form of direct-reading aneroid is the most +accurate portable instrument and, of course, should be compared with a +standard mercurial at the last weather-bureau station. + +THERMOMETERS--A swing thermometer, with wet and dry bulbs for +determination of the amount of moisture in the air, and the maximum +and minimum thermometer of the signal-service or weather-bureau type +should be provided, with a case to protect them from injury. + +A tape measure with metric scale of measurements on one side and feet +and inches on the other is most important. Two small, light waterproof +cases could be constructed and packed with scientific instruments, +data, and spare clothing and yet not exceed the weight limit of +flotation. In transit by pack-train these two cases would form but one +mule load. + +PHOTOGRAPHIC--From the experience gained in several fields of +exploration it seems to me that the voyager should limit himself to +one small-sized camera, which he can always have with him, and then +carry a duplicate of it, soldered in tin, in the baggage. The +duplicate need not be equipped with as expensive a lens and shutter as +the camera carried for work; 31/4 x 41/4 is a good size. Nothing +larger than 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 is advised. We carried the 3A special Kodak +and found it a light, strong, and effective instrument. It seems to me +that the ideal form of instrument would be one with a front board +large enough to contain an adapter fitted for three lenses. For the +3 1/4 x 4 1/4: + + One lens 4 or 4 1/2 focus + One lens 6 or 7 focus + One lens telephoto or telecentric 9 to 12 focus + +The camera should be made of metal and fitted with focal-plane shutter +and direct view-finder. + +A sole leather case with shoulder-strap should contain the camera and +lenses, with an extra roll of films, all within instant reach, so that +a lens could be changed without any loss of time. + +Plates, of course, are the best, but their weight and frailty, with +difficulty of handling, rule them out of the question. The roll film +is the best, as the film pack sticks together and the stubs pull off +in the moist, hot climate. The films should be purchased in rolls of +six exposures, each roll in a tin, the cover sealed with surgical +tape. Twelve of these tubes should be soldered in a tin box. In places +where the air is charged with moisture a roll of films should not be +left in a camera over twenty-four hours. + +Tank development is best for the field. The tanks provided for +developing by the Kodak Company are best for fixing also. A nest of +tanks would be a convenience; one tank should be kept separate for the +fixing-bath. As suggested in the Kodak circular, for tropical +development a large-size tank can be used for holding the freezing +mixture of hypo. This same tank would become the fixing tank after +development. In the rainy season it is a difficult matter to dry +films. Development in the field, with washing water at 80 degrees F., +is a patience-trying operation. It has occurred to me that a small +air-pump with a supply of chloride of calcium in small tubes might +solve the problem of preserving films in the tropics. The air-pump and +supply of chloride of calcium would not be as heavy or bulky as the +tanks and powders needed for development. By means of the air-pump the +films could be sealed in tin tubes free from moisture and kept thus +until arrival at home or at a city where the air was fairly dry and +cold water for washing could be had. + +While I cordially agree with most of the views expressed by Mr. Fiala, +there are some as to which I disagree; for instance, we came very +strongly to the conclusion, in descending the Duvida, where bulk was +of great consequence, that the films should be in rolls of ten or +twelve exposures. I doubt whether the four-barrel gun would be +practical; but this is a matter of personal taste. + + + + APPENDIX C. + + My Letter of May 1 to General Lauro Muller + +The first report on the expedition, made by me immediately after my +arrival at Manaos, and published in Rio Janeiro upon its receipt, is +as follows: + + MAY 1st, 1914. + + TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE MINISTER OF + FOREIGN AFFAIRS, + RIO-DE-JANEIRO. + MY DEAR GENERAL LAURO MULLER: + + I wish first to express my profound acknowledgments to you personally + and to the other members of the Brazilian Government whose generous + courtesy alone rendered possible the Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt- + Rondon. I wish also to express my high admiration and regard for + Colonel Rondon and his associates who have been my colleagues in this + work of exploration. In the third place I wish to point out that what + we have just done was rendered possible only by the hard and perilous + labor of the Brazilian Telegraphic Commission in the unexplored + western wilderness of Matto Grosso during the last seven years. We + have had a hard and somewhat dangerous but very successful trip. No + less than six weeks were spent in slowly and with peril and exhausting + labor forcing our way down through what seemed a literally endless + succession of rapids and cataracts. For forty-eight days we saw no + human being. In passing these rapids we lost five of the seven canoes + with which we started and had to build others. One of our best men + lost his life in the rapids. Under the strain one of the men went + completely bad, shirked all his work, stole his comrades' food and + when punished by the sergeant he with cold-blooded deliberation + murdered the sergeant and fled into the wilderness. Colonel Rondon's + dog running ahead of him while hunting, was shot by two Indians; by + his death he in all probability saved the life of his master. We have + put on the map a river about 1500 kilometres in length running from + just south of the 13th degree to north of the 5th degree and the + biggest affluent of the Madeira. Until now its upper course has been + utterly unknown to every one, and its lower course although known for + years to the rubbermen utterly unknown to all cartographers. Its + source is between the 12th and 13th parallels of latitude south, and + between longitude 59 degrees and longitude 60 degrees west from + Greenwich. We embarked on it about at latitude 12 degrees 1 minute + south and longitude 60 degrees 18 west. After that its entire course + was between the 60th and 61st degrees of longitude approaching the + latter most closely about in latitude 8 degrees 15 minutes. The first + rapids were at Navaite in 11 degrees 44 minutes and after that they + were continuous and very difficult and dangerous until the rapids + named after the murdered sergeant Paishon in 11 degrees 12 minutes. At + 11 degrees 23 minutes the river received the Rio Kermit from the left. + At 11 degrees 22 minutes the Marciano Avila entered it from the right. + At 11 degrees 18 minutes the Taunay entered from the left. At 10 + degrees 58 minutes the Cardozo entered from the right. At 10 degrees + 24 minutes we encountered the first rubberman. The Rio Branco entered + from the left at 9 degrees 38 minutes. We camped at 8 degrees 49 + minutes or approximately the boundary line between Matto Grosso and + Amazonas. The confluence with the upper Aripuanan, which entered from + the right, was in 7 degrees 34 minutes. The mouth where it entered the + Madeira was in about 5 degrees 30 minutes. The stream we have followed + down is that which rises farthest away from the mouth and its general + course is almost due north. + + My dear Sir, I thank you from my heart for the chance to take part in + this great work of exploration. + + With high regard and respect, believe me + + Very sincerely yours, + THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Through the Brazilian Wilderness +by Theodore Roosevelt + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS *** + +***** This file should be named 11746-8.txt or 11746-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/7/4/11746/ + +Etext prepared by John Bickers and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Through the Brazilian Wilderness + +Author: Theodore Roosevelt + +Release Date: March 28, 2004 [EBook #11746] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS *** + + + + +Etext prepared by John Bickers and Dagny + + + + +THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS +By Theodore Roosevelt + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnypg@yahoo.com + and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz + + + + THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS + + BY + + THEODORE ROOSEVELT + + + + PREFACE + + This is an account of a zoo-geographic reconnaissance through the + Brazilian hinterland. + + The official and proper title of the expedition is that given it + by the Brazilian Government: Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt- + Rondon. When I started from the United States, it was to make an + expedition, primarily concerned with mammalogy and ornithology, + for the American Museum of Natural History of New York. This was + undertaken under the auspices of Messrs. Osborn and Chapman, + acting on behalf of the Museum. In the body of this work I + describe how the scope of the expedition was enlarged, and how it + was given a geographic as well as a zoological character, in + consequence of the kind proposal of the Brazilian Secretary of + State for Foreign Affairs, General Lauro Muller. In its altered + and enlarged form the expedition was rendered possible only by the + generous assistance of the Brazilian Government. Throughout the + body of the work will be found reference after reference to my + colleagues and companions of the expedition, whose services to + science I have endeavored to set forth, and for whom I shall + always feel the most cordial friendship and regard. + + THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + SAGAMORE HILL, + September 1, 1914 + + + + + + THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS + + + + I. THE START + +One day in 1908, when my presidential term was coming to a close, +Father Zahm, a priest whom I knew, came in to call on me. Father Zahm +and I had been cronies for some time, because we were both of us fond +of Dante and of history and of science--I had always commended to +theologians his book, "Evolution and Dogma." He was an Ohio boy, and +his early schooling had been obtained in old-time American fashion in +a little log school; where, by the way, one of the other boys was +Januarius Aloysius MacGahan, afterward the famous war correspondent +and friend of Skobeloff. Father Zahm told me that MacGahan even at +that time added an utter fearlessness to chivalric tenderness for the +weak, and was the defender of any small boy who was oppressed by a +larger one. Later Father Zahm was at Notre Dame University, in +Indiana, with Maurice Egan, whom, when I was President, I appointed +minister to Denmark. + +On the occasion in question Father Zahm had just returned from a trip +across the Andes and down the Amazon, and came in to propose that +after I left the presidency he and I should go up the Paraguay into +the interior of South America. At the time I wished to go to Africa, +and so the subject was dropped; but from time to time afterward we +talked it over. Five years later, in the spring of 1913, I accepted +invitations conveyed through the governments of Argentina and Brazil +to address certain learned bodies in these countries. Then it occurred +to me that, instead of making the conventional tourist trip purely by +sea round South America, after I had finished my lectures I would come +north through the middle of the continent into the valley of the +Amazon; and I decided to write Father Zahm and tell him my intentions. +Before doing so, however, I desired to see the authorities of the +American Museum of Natural History, in New York City, to find out +whether they cared to have me take a couple of naturalists with me +into Brazil and make a collecting trip for the museum. + +Accordingly, I wrote to Frank Chapman, the curator of ornithology of +the museum, and accepted his invitation to lunch at the museum one day +early in June. At the lunch, in addition to various naturalists, to my +astonishment I also found Father Zahm; and as soon as I saw him I told +him I was now intending to make the South American trip. It appeared +that he had made up his mind that he would take it himself, and had +actually come on to see Mr. Chapman to find out if the latter could +recommend a naturalist to go with him; and he at once said he would +accompany me. Chapman was pleased when he found out that we intended +to go up the Paraguay and across into the valley of the Amazon, +because much of the ground over which we were to pass had not been +covered by collectors. He saw Henry Fairfield Osborn, the president of +the museum, who wrote me that the museum would be pleased to send +under me a couple of naturalists, whom, with my approval, Chapman +would choose. + +The men whom Chapman recommended were Messrs. George K. Cherrie and +Leo E. Miller. I gladly accepted both. The former was to attend +chiefly to the ornithology and the latter to the mammalogy of the +expedition; but each was to help out the other. No two better men for +such a trip could have been found. Both were veterans of the tropical +American forests. Miller was a young man, born in Indiana, an +enthusiastic with good literary as well as scientific training. He was +at the time in the Guiana forests, and joined us at Barbados. Cherrie +was an older man, born in Iowa, but now a farmer in Vermont. He had a +wife and six children. Mrs. Cherrie had accompanied him during two or +three years of their early married life in his collecting trips along +the Orinoco. Their second child was born when they were in camp a +couple of hundred miles from any white man or woman. One night a few +weeks later they were obliged to leave a camping-place, where they had +intended to spend the night, because the baby was fretful, and its +cries attracted a jaguar, which prowled nearer and nearer in the +twilight until they thought it safest once more to put out into the +open river and seek a new resting-place. Cherrie had spent about +twenty-two years collecting in the American tropics. Like most of the +field-naturalists I have met, he was an unusually efficient and +fearless man; and willy-nilly he had been forced at times to vary his +career by taking part in insurrections. Twice he had been behind the +bars in consequence, on one occasion spending three months in a prison +of a certain South American state, expecting each day to be taken out +and shot. In another state he had, as an interlude to his +ornithological pursuits, followed the career of a gun-runner, acting +as such off and on for two and a half years. The particular +revolutionary chief whose fortunes he was following finally came into +power, and Cherrie immortalized his name by naming a new species of +ant-thrush after him--a delightful touch, in its practical combination +of those not normally kindred pursuits, ornithology and gun-running. + +In Anthony Fiala, a former arctic explorer, we found an excellent man +for assembling equipment and taking charge of its handling and +shipment. In addition to his four years in the arctic regions, Fiala +had served in the New York Squadron in Porto Rico during the Spanish +War, and through his service in the squadron had been brought into +contact with his little Tennessee wife. She came down with her four +children to say good-by to him when the steamer left. My secretary, +Mr. Frank Harper, went with us. Jacob Sigg, who had served three years +in the United States Army, and was both a hospital nurse and a cook, +as well as having a natural taste for adventure, went as the personal +attendant of Father Zahm. In southern Brazil my son Kermit joined me. +He had been bridge building, and a couple of months previously, while +on top of a long steel span, something went wrong with the derrick, he +and the steel span coming down together on the rocky bed beneath. He +escaped with two broken ribs, two teeth knocked out, and a knee +partially dislocated, but was practically all right again when he +started with us. + +In its composition ours was a typical American expedition. Kermit and +I were of the old Revolutionary stock, and in our veins ran about +every strain of blood that there was on this side of the water during +colonial times. Cherrie's father was born in Ireland, and his mother +in Scotland; they came here when very young, and his father served +throughout the Civil War in an Iowa cavalry regiment. His wife was of +old Revolutionary stock. Father Zahm's father was an Alsacian +immigrant, and his mother was partly of Irish and partly of old +American stock, a descendant of a niece of General Braddock. Miller's +father came from Germany, and his mother from France. Fiala's father +and mother were both from Bohemia, being Czechs, and his father had +served four years in the Civil War in the Union Army--his Tennessee +wife was of old Revolutionary stock. Harper was born in England, and +Sigg in Switzerland. We were as varied in religious creed as in ethnic +origin. Father Zahm and Miller were Catholics, Kermit and Harper +Episcopalians, Cherrie a Presbyterian, Fiala a Baptist, Sigg a +Lutheran, while I belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church. + +For arms the naturalists took 16-bore shotguns, one of Cherrie's +having a rifle barrel underneath. The firearms for the rest of the +party were supplied by Kermit and myself, including my Springfield +rifle, Kermit's two Winchesters, a 405 and 30-40, the Fox 12-gauge +shotgun, and another 16-gauge gun, and a couple of revolvers, a Colt +and a Smith & Wesson. We took from New York a couple of canvas canoes, +tents, mosquito-bars, plenty of cheesecloth, including nets for the +hats, and both light cots and hammocks. We took ropes and pulleys +which proved invaluable on our canoe trip. Each equipped himself with +the clothing he fancied. Mine consisted of khaki, such as I wore in +Africa, with a couple of United States Army flannel shirts and a +couple of silk shirts, one pair of hob-nailed shoes with leggings, and +one pair of laced leather boots coming nearly to the knee. Both the +naturalists told me that it was well to have either the boots or +leggings as a protection against snake-bites, and I also had gauntlets +because of the mosquitoes and sand-flies. We intended where possible +to live on what we could get from time to time in the country, but we +took some United States Army emergency rations, and also ninety cans, +each containing a day's provisions for five men, made up by Fiala. + +The trip I proposed to take can be understood only if there is a +slight knowledge of South American topography. The great mountain +chain of the Andes extends down the entire length of the western +coast, so close to the Pacific Ocean that no rivers of any importance +enter it. The rivers of South America drain into the Atlantic. +Southernmost South America, including over half of the territory of +the Argentine Republic, consists chiefly of a cool, open plains +country. Northward of this country, and eastward of the Andes, lies +the great bulk of the South American continent, which is included in +the tropical and the subtropical regions. Most of this territory is +Brazilian. Aside from certain relatively small stretches drained by +coast rivers, this immense region of tropical and subtropical America +east of the Andes is drained by the three great river systems of the +Plate, the Amazon, and the Orinoco. At their headwaters the Amazon and +the Orinoco systems are actually connected by a sluggish natural +canal. The headwaters of the northern affluents of the Paraguay and +the southern affluents of the Amazon are sundered by a stretch of high +land, which toward the east broadens out into the central plateau of +Brazil. Geologically this is a very ancient region, having appeared +above the waters before the dawning of the age of reptiles, or, +indeed, of any true land vertebrates on the globe. This plateau is a +region partly of healthy, rather dry and sandy, open prairie, partly +of forest. The great and low-lying basin of the Paraguay, which +borders it on the south, is one of the largest, and the still greater +basin of the Amazon, which borders it on the north, is the very +largest of all the river basins of the earth. + +In these basins, but especially in the basin of the Amazon, and thence +in most places northward to the Caribbean Sea, lie the most extensive +stretches of tropical forest to be found anywhere. The forests of +tropical West Africa, and of portions of the Farther-Indian region, +are the only ones that can be compared with them. Much difficulty has +been experienced in exploring these forests, because under the +torrential rains and steaming heat the rank growth of vegetation +becomes almost impenetrable, and the streams difficult of navigation; +while white men suffer much from the terrible insect scourges and the +deadly diseases which modern science has discovered to be due very +largely to insect bites. The fauna and flora, however, are of great +interest. The American Museum was particularly anxious to obtain +collections from the divide between the headwaters of the Paraguay and +the Amazon, and from the southern affluents of the Amazon. Our purpose +was to ascend the Paraguay as nearly as possible to the head of +navigation, thence cross to the sources of one of the affluents of the +Amazon, and if possible descend it in canoes built on the spot. The +Paraguay is regularly navigated as high as boats can go. The starting- +point for our trip was to be Asuncion, in the state of Paraguay. + +My exact plan of operations was necessarily a little indefinite, but +on reaching Rio de Janeiro the minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Lauro +Muller, who had been kind enough to take great personal interest in my +trip, informed me that he had arranged that on the headwaters of the +Paraguay, at the town of Caceres, I would be met by a Brazilian Army +colonel, himself chiefly Indian by blood, Colonel Rondon. Colonel +Rondon has been for a quarter of a century the foremost explorer of +the Brazilian hinterland. He was at the time in Manaos, but his +lieutenants were in Caceres and had been notified that we were coming. + +More important still, Mr. Lauro Muller--who is not only an efficient +public servant but a man of wide cultivation, with a quality about him +that reminded me of John Hay--offered to help me make my trip of much +more consequence than I had originally intended. He has taken a keen +interest in the exploration and development of the interior of Brazil, +and he believed that my expedition could be used as a means toward +spreading abroad a more general knowledge of the country. He told me +that he would co-operate with me in every way if I cared to undertake +the leadership of a serious expedition into the unexplored portion of +western Matto Grosso, and to attempt the descent of a river which +flowed nobody knew whither, but which the best-informed men believed +would prove to be a very big river, utterly unknown to geographers. I +eagerly and gladly accepted, for I felt that with such help the trip +could be made of much scientific value, and that a substantial +addition could be made to the geographical knowledge of one of the +least-known parts of South America. Accordingly, it was arranged that +Colonel Rondon and some assistants and scientists should meet me at or +below Corumba, and that we should attempt the descent of the river, of +which they had already come across the headwaters. + +I had to travel through Brazil, Uruguay, the Argentine, and Chile for +six weeks to fulfil my speaking engagements. Fiala, Cherrie, Miller, +and Sigg left me at Rio, continuing to Buenos Aires in the boat in +which we had all come down from New York. From Buenos Aires they went +up the Paraguay to Corumba, where they awaited me. The two naturalists +went first, to do all the collecting that was possible; Fiala and Sigg +travelled more leisurely, with the heavy baggage. + +Before I followed them I witnessed an incident worthy of note from the +standpoint of a naturalist, and of possible importance to us because +of the trip we were about to take. South America, even more than +Australia and Africa, and almost as much as India, is a country of +poisonous snakes. As in India, although not to the same degree, these +snakes are responsible for a very serious mortality among human +beings. One of the most interesting evidences of the modern advance in +Brazil is the establishment near Sao Paulo of an institution +especially for the study of these poisonous snakes, so as to secure +antidotes to the poison and to develop enemies to the snakes +themselves. We wished to take into the interior with us some bottles +of the anti-venom serum, for on such an expedition there is always a +certain danger from snakes. On one of his trips Cherrie had lost a +native follower by snake-bite. The man was bitten while out alone in +the forest, and, although he reached camp, the poison was already +working in him, so that he could give no intelligible account of what +had occurred, and he died in a short time. + +Poisonous snakes are of several different families, but the most +poisonous ones, those which are dangerous to man, belong to the two +great families of the colubrine snakes and the vipers. Most of the +colubrine snakes are entirely harmless, and are the common snakes that +we meet everywhere. But some of them, the cobras for instance, develop +into what are on the whole perhaps the most formidable of all snakes. +The only poisonous colubrine snakes in the New World are the ring- +snakes, the coral-snakes of the genus elaps, which are found from the +extreme southern United States southward to the Argentine. These +coral-snakes are not vicious and have small teeth which cannot +penetrate even ordinary clothing. They are only dangerous if actually +trodden on by some one with bare feet or if seized in the hand. There +are harmless snakes very like them in color which are sometimes kept +as pets; but it behooves every man who keeps such a pet or who handles +such a snake to be very sure as to the genus to which it belongs. + +The great bulk of the poisonous snakes of America, including all the +really dangerous ones, belong to a division of the widely spread +family of vipers which is known as the pit-vipers. In South America +these include two distinct subfamilies or genera--whether they are +called families, subfamilies, or genera would depend, I suppose, +largely upon the varying personal views of the individual describer on +the subject of herpetological nomenclature. One genus includes the +rattlesnakes, of which the big Brazilian species is as dangerous as +those of the southern United States. But the large majority of the +species and individuals of dangerous snakes in tropical America are +included in the genus lachecis. These are active, vicious, aggressive +snakes without rattles. They are exceedingly poisonous. Some of them +grow to a very large size, being indeed among the largest poisonous +snakes in the world--their only rivals in this respect being the +diamond rattlesnake of Florida, one of the African mambas, and the +Indian hamadryad, or snake-eating cobra. The fer-de-lance, so dreaded +in Martinique, and the equally dangerous bushmaster of Guiana are +included in this genus. A dozen species are known in Brazil, the +biggest one being identical with the Guiana bushmaster, and the most +common one, the jararaca, being identical, or practically identical +with the fer-de-lance. The snakes of this genus, like the rattlesnakes +and the Old World vipers and puff-adders, possess long poison-fangs +which strike through clothes or any other human garment except stout +leather. Moreover, they are very aggressive, more so than any other +snakes in the world, except possibly some of the cobras. As, in +addition, they are numerous, they are a source of really frightful +danger to scantily clad men who work in the fields and forests, or who +for any reason are abroad at night. + +The poison of venomous serpents is not in the least uniform in its +quality. On the contrary, the natural forces--to use a term which is +vague, but which is as exact as our present-day knowledge permits-- +that have developed in so many different families of snakes these +poisoned fangs have worked in two or three totally different fashions. +Unlike the vipers, the colubrine poisonous snakes have small fangs, +and their poison, though on the whole even more deadly, has entirely +different effects, and owes its deadliness to entirely different +qualities. Even within the same family there are wide differences. In +the jararaca an extraordinary quantity of yellow venom is spurted from +the long poison-fangs. This poison is secreted in large glands which, +among vipers, give the head its peculiar ace-of-spades shape. The +rattlesnake yields a much smaller quantity of white venom, but, +quantity for quantity, this white venom is more deadly. It is the +great quantity of venom injected by the long fangs of the jararaca, +the bushmaster, and their fellows that renders their bite so generally +fatal. Moreover, even between these two allied genera of pit-vipers, +the differences in the action of the poison are sufficiently marked to +be easily recognizable, and to render the most effective anti-venomous +serum for each slightly different from the other. However, they are +near enough alike to make this difference, in practice, of +comparatively small consequence. In practice the same serum can be +used to neutralize the effect of either, and, as will be seen later +on, the snake that is immune to one kind of venom is also immune to +the other. + +But the effect of the venom of the poisonous colubrine snakes is +totally different from, although to the full as deadly as, the effect +of the poison of the rattlesnake or jararaca. The serum that is an +antidote as regards the colubrines. The animal that is immune to the +bite of one may not be immune to the bite of the other. The bite of a +cobra or other colubrine poisonous snake is more painful in its +immediate effects than is the bite of one of the big vipers. The +victim suffers more. There is a greater effect on the nerve-centres, +but less swelling of the wound itself, and, whereas the blood of the +rattlesnake's victim coagulates, the blood of the victim of an elapine +snake--that is, of one of the only poisonous American colubrines-- +becomes watery and incapable of coagulation. + +Snakes are highly specialized in every way, including their prey. Some +live exclusively on warm-blooded animals, on mammals, or birds. Some +live exclusively on batrachians, others only on lizards, a few only on +insects. A very few species live exclusively on other snakes. These +include one very formidable venomous snake, the Indian hamadryad, or +giant cobra, and several non-poisonous snakes. In Africa I killed a +small cobra which contained within it a snake but a few inches shorter +than itself; but, as far as I could find out, snakes were not the +habitual diet of the African cobras. + +The poisonous snakes use their venom to kill their victims, and also +to kill any possible foe which they think menaces them. Some of them +are good-tempered, and only fight if injured or seriously alarmed. +Others are excessively irritable, and on rare occasions will even +attack of their own accord when entirely unprovoked and unthreatened. + +On reaching Sao Paulo on our southward journey from Rio to Montevideo, +we drove out to the "Instituto Serumtherapico," designed for the study +of the effects of the venom of poisonous Brazilian snakes. Its +director is Doctor Vital Brazil, who has performed a most +extraordinary work and whose experiments and investigations are not +only of the utmost value to Brazil but will ultimately be recognized +as of the utmost value for humanity at large. I know of no institution +of similar kind anywhere. It has a fine modern building, with all the +best appliances, in which experiments are carried on with all kinds of +serpents, living and dead, with the object of discovering all the +properties of their several kinds of venom, and of developing various +anti-venom serums which nullify the effects of the different venoms. +Every effort is made to teach the people at large by practical +demonstration in the open field the lessons thus learned in the +laboratory. One notable result has been the diminution in the +mortality from snake-bites in the province of Sao Paulo. + +In connection with his institute, and right by the laboratory, the +doctor has a large serpentarium, in which quantities of the common +poisonous and non-poisonous snakes are kept, and some of the rarer +ones. He has devoted considerable time to the effort to find out if +there are any natural enemies of the poisonous snakes of his country, +and he has discovered that the most formidable enemy of the many +dangerous Brazilian snakes is a non-poisonous, entirely harmless, +rather uncommon Brazilian snake, the mussurama. Of all the interesting +things the doctor showed us, by far the most interesting was the +opportunity of witnessing for ourselves the action of the mussurama +toward a dangerous snake. + +The doctor first showed us specimens of the various important snakes, +poisonous and non-poisonous, in alcohol. Then he showed us +preparations of the different kinds of venom and of the different +anti-venom serums, presenting us with some of the latter for our use +on the journey. He has been able to produce two distinct kinds of +anti-venom serum, one to neutralize the virulent poison of the +rattlesnake's bite, the other to neutralize the poison of the +different snakes of the lachecis genus. These poisons are somewhat +different and moreover there appear to be some differences between the +poisons of the different species of lachecis; in some cases the poison +is nearly colorless, and in others, as in that of the jararaca, whose +poison I saw, it is yellow. + +But the vital difference is that between all these poisons of the pit- +vipers and the poisons of the colubrine snakes, such as the cobra and +the coral-snake. As yet the doctor has not been able to develop an +anti-venom serum which will neutralize the poison of these colubrine +snakes. Practically this is a matter of little consequence in Brazil, +for the Brazilian coral-snakes are dangerous only when mishandled by +some one whose bare skin is exposed to the bite. The numerous +accidents and fatalities continually occurring in Brazil are almost +always to be laid to the account of the several species of lachecis +and the single species of rattlesnake. + +Finally, the doctor took us into his lecture-room to show us how he +conducted his experiments. The various snakes were in boxes, on one +side of the room, under the care of a skilful and impassive assistant, +who handled them with the cool and fearless caution of the doctor +himself. The poisonous ones were taken out by means of a long-handled +steel hook. All that is necessary to do is to insert this under the +snake and lift him off the ground. He is not only unable to escape, +but he is unable to strike, for he cannot strike unless coiled so as +to give himself support and leverage. The table on which the snakes +are laid is fairly large and smooth, differing in no way from an +ordinary table. + +There were a number of us in the room, including two or three +photographers. The doctor first put on the table a non-poisonous but +very vicious and truculent colubrine snake. It struck right and left +at us. Then the doctor picked it up, opened its mouth, and showed that +it had no fangs, and handed it to me. I also opened its mouth and +examined its teeth, and then put it down, whereupon, its temper having +been much ruffled, it struck violently at me two or three times. In +its action and temper this snake was quite as vicious as the most +irritable poisonous snakes. Yet it is entirely harmless. One of the +innumerable mysteries of nature which are at present absolutely +insoluble is why some snakes should be so vicious and others +absolutely placid and good-tempered. + +After removing the vicious harmless snake, the doctor warned us to get +away from the table, and his attendant put on it, in succession, a +very big lachecis--of the kind called bushmaster--and a big +rattlesnake. Each coiled menacingly, a formidable brute ready to +attack anything that approached. Then the attendant adroitly dropped +his iron crook on the neck of each in succession, seized it right +behind the head, and held it toward the doctor. The snake's mouth was +in each case wide open, and the great fangs erect and very evident. It +would not have been possible to have held an African ring-necked cobra +in such fashion, because the ring-neck would have ejected its venom +through the fangs into the eyes of the onlookers. There was no danger +in this case, and the doctor inserted a shallow glass saucer into the +mouth of the snake behind the fangs, permitted it to eject its poison, +and then himself squeezed out the remaining poison from the poison- +bags through the fangs. From the big lachecis came a large quantity of +yellow venom, a liquid which speedily crystallized into a number of +minute crystals. The rattlesnake yielded a much less quantity of white +venom, which the doctor assured us was far more active than the yellow +lachecis venom. Then each snake was returned to its box unharmed. + +After this the doctor took out of a box and presented to me a fine, +handsome, nearly black snake, an individual of the species called the +mussurama. This is in my eyes perhaps the most interesting serpent in +the world. It is a big snake, four or five feet long, sometimes even +longer, nearly black, lighter below, with a friendly, placid temper. +It lives exclusively on other snakes, and is completely immune to the +poison of the lachecis and rattlesnake groups, which contain all the +really dangerous snakes of America. Doctor Brazil told me that he had +conducted many experiments with this interesting snake. It is not very +common, and prefers wet places in which to live. It lays eggs, and the +female remains coiled above the eggs, the object being apparently not +to warm them, but to prevent too great evaporation. It will not eat +when moulting, nor in cold weather. Otherwise it will eat a small +snake every five or six days, or a big one every fortnight. + +There is the widest difference, both among poisonous and non-poisonous +snakes, not alone in nervousness and irascibility but also in ability +to accustom themselves to out-of-the-way surroundings. Many species of +non-poisonous snakes which are entirely harmless, to man or to any +other animal except their small prey, are nevertheless very vicious +and truculent, striking right and left and biting freely on the +smallest provocation--this is the case with the species of which the +doctor had previously placed a specimen on the table. Moreover, many +snakes, some entirely harmless and some vicious ones, are so nervous +and uneasy that it is with the greatest difficulty they can be induced +to eat in captivity, and the slightest disturbance or interference +will prevent their eating. There are other snakes, however, of which +the mussurama is perhaps the best example, which are very good +captives, and at the same time very fearless, showing a complete +indifference not only to being observed but to being handled when they +are feeding. + +There is in the United States a beautiful and attractive snake, the +king-snake, with much the same habits as the mussurama. It is friendly +toward mankind, and not poisonous, so that it can be handled freely. +It feeds on other serpents, and will kill a rattlesnake as big as +itself, being immune to the rattlesnake venom. Mr. Ditmars, of the +Bronx Zoo, has made many interesting experiments with these king- +snakes. I have had them in my own possession. They are good-natured +and can generally be handled with impunity, but I have known them to +bite, whereas Doctor Brazil informed me that it was almost impossible +to make the mussurama bite a man. The king-snake will feed greedily on +other snakes in the presence of man--I knew of one case where it +partly swallowed another snake while both were in a small boy's +pocket. It is immune to viper poison but it is not immune to colubrine +poison. A couple of years ago I was informed of a case where one of +these king-snakes was put into an enclosure with an Indian snake- +eating cobra or hamadryad of about the same size. It killed the cobra +but made no effort to swallow it, and very soon showed the effects of +the cobra poison. I believe it afterward died, but unfortunately I +have mislaid my notes and cannot now remember the details of the +incident. + +Doctor Brazil informed me that the mussurama, like the king-snake, was +not immune to the colubrine poison. A mussurama in his possession, +which had with impunity killed and eaten several rattlesnakes and +representatives of the lachecis genus, also killed and ate a venomous +coral-snake, but shortly afterward itself died from the effects of the +poison. It is one of the many puzzles of nature that these American +serpents which kill poisonous serpents should only have grown immune +to the poison of the most dangerous American poisonous serpents, the +pit-vipers, and should not have become immune to the poison of the +coral-snakes which are commonly distributed throughout their range. +Yet, judging by the one instance mentioned by Doctor Brazil, they +attack and master these coral-snakes, although the conflict in the end +results in their death. It would be interesting to find out whether +this attack was exceptional, that is, whether the mussurama has or has +not as a species learned to avoid the coral-snake. If it was not +exceptional, then not only is the instance highly curious in itself, +but it would also go far to explain the failure of the mussurama to +become plentiful. + +For the benefit of those who are not acquainted with the subject, I +may mention that the poison of a poisonous snake is not dangerous to +its own species unless injected in very large doses, about ten times +what would normally be injected by a bite; but that it is deadly to +all other snakes, poisonous or non-poisonous, save as regards the very +few species which themselves eat poisonous snakes. The Indian +hamadryad, or giant cobra, is exclusively a snake-eater. It evidently +draws a sharp distinction between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes, +for Mr. Ditmars has recorded that two individuals in the Bronx Zoo +which are habitually fed on harmless snakes, and attack them eagerly, +refused to attack a copperhead which was thrown into their cage, being +evidently afraid of this pit-viper. It would be interesting to find +out if the hamadryad is afraid to prey on all pit-vipers, and also +whether it will prey on its small relative, the true cobra--for it may +well be that, even if not immune to the viper poison, it is immune to +the poison of its close ally, the smaller cobra. + +All these and many other questions would be speedily settled by Doctor +Brazil if he were given the opportunity to test them. It must be +remembered, moreover, that not only have his researches been of +absorbing value from the standpoint of pure science but that they also +have a real utilitarian worth. He is now collecting and breeding the +mussurama. The favorite prey of the mussurama is the most common and +therefore the most dangerous poisonous snake of Brazil, the jararaca, +which is known in Martinique as the fer-de-lance. In Martinique and +elsewhere this snake is such an object of terror as to be at times a +genuine scourge. Surely it would be worth while for the authorities of +Martinique to import specimens of the mussurama to that island. The +mortality from snake-bite in British India is very great. Surely it +would be well worth while for the able Indian Government to copy +Brazil and create such an institute as that over which Doctor Vital +Brazil is the curator. + +At first sight it seems extraordinary that poisonous serpents, so +dreaded by and so irresistible to most animals, should be so utterly +helpless before the few creatures that prey on them. But the +explanation is easy. Any highly specialized creature, the higher its +specialization, is apt to be proportionately helpless when once its +peculiar specialized traits are effectively nullified by an opponent. +This is eminently the case with the most dangerous poisonous snakes. +In them a highly peculiar specialization has been carried to the +highest point. They rely for attack and defence purely on their +poison-fangs. All other means and methods of attack and defence have +atrophied. They neither crush nor tear with their teeth nor constrict +with their bodies. The poison-fangs are slender and delicate, and, +save for the poison, the wound inflicted is of a trivial character. In +consequence they are helpless in the presence of any animal which the +poison does not affect. There are several mammals immune to snake- +bite, including various species of hedgehog, pig, and mongoose--the +other mammals which kill them do so by pouncing on them unawares or by +avoiding their stroke through sheer quickness of movement; and +probably this is the case with most snake-eating birds. The mongoose +is very quick, but in some cases at least--I have mentioned one in the +"African Game Trails"--it permits itself to be bitten by poisonous +snakes, treating the bite with utter indifference. There should be +extensive experiments made to determine if there are species of +mongoose immune to both cobra and viper poison. Hedgehogs, as +determined by actual experiments, pay no heed at all to viper poison +even when bitten on such tender places as the tongue and lips and eat +the snake as if it were a radish. Even among animals which are not +immune to the poison different species are very differently affected +by the different kinds of snake poisons. Not only are some species +more resistant than others to all poisons, but there is a wide +variation in the amount of immunity each displays to any given venom. +One species will be quickly killed by the poison from one species of +snake, and be fairly resistant to the poison of another; whereas in +another species the conditions may be directly reversed. + +The mussurama which Doctor Brazil handed me was a fine specimen, +perhaps four and a half feet long. I lifted the smooth, lithe bulk in +my hands, and then let it twist its coils so that it rested at ease in +my arms; it glided to and fro, on its own length, with the sinuous +grace of its kind, and showed not the slightest trace of either +nervousness or bad temper. Meanwhile the doctor bade his attendant put +on the table a big jararaca, or fer-de-lance, which was accordingly +done. The jararaca was about three feet and a half, or perhaps nearly +four feet long--that is, it was about nine inches shorter than the +mussurama. The latter, which I continued to hold in my arms, behaved +with friendly and impassive indifference, moving easily to and fro +through my hands, and once or twice hiding its head between the sleeve +and the body of my coat. The doctor was not quite sure how the +mussurama would behave, for it had recently eaten a small snake, and +unless hungry it pays no attention whatever to venomous snakes, even +when they attack and bite it. However, it fortunately proved still to +have a good appetite. + +The jararaca was alert and vicious. It partly coiled itself on the +table, threatening the bystanders. I put the big black serpent down on +the table four or five feet from the enemy and headed in its +direction. As soon as I let go with my hands it glided toward where +the threatening, formidable-looking lance-head lay stretched in a half +coil. The mussurama displayed not the slightest sign of excitement. +Apparently it trusted little to its eyes, for it began to run its head +along the body of the jararaca, darting out its flickering tongue to +feel just where it was, as it nosed its way up toward the head of its +antagonist. So placid were its actions that I did not at first suppose +that it meant to attack, for there was not the slightest exhibition of +anger or excitement. + +It was the jararaca that began the fight. It showed no fear whatever +of its foe, but its irritable temper was aroused by the proximity and +actions of the other, and like a flash it drew back its head and +struck, burying its fangs in the forward part of the mussurama's body. +Immediately the latter struck in return, and the counter-attack was so +instantaneous that it was difficult to see just what had happened. +There was tremendous writhing and struggling on the part of the +jararaca; and then, leaning over the knot into which the two serpents +were twisted, I saw that the mussurama had seized the jararaca by the +lower jaw, putting its own head completely into the wide-gaping mouth +of the poisonous snake. The long fangs were just above the top of the +mussurama's head; and it appeared, as well as I could see, that they +were once again driven into the mussurama; but without the slightest +effect. Then the fangs were curved back in the jaw, a fact which I +particularly noted, and all effort at the offensive was abandoned by +the poisonous snake. + +Meanwhile the mussurama was chewing hard, and gradually shifted its +grip, little by little, until it got the top of the head of the +jararaca in its mouth, the lower jaw of the jararaca being spread out +to one side. The venomous serpent was helpless; the fearsome master of +the wild life of the forest, the deadly foe of humankind, was itself +held in the grip of death. Its cold, baleful serpent's eyes shone, as +evil as ever. But it was dying. In vain it writhed and struggled. +Nothing availed it. + +Once or twice the mussurama took a turn round the middle of the body +of its opponent, but it did not seem to press hard, and apparently +used its coils chiefly in order to get a better grip so as to crush +the head of its antagonist, or to hold the latter in place. This +crushing was done by its teeth; and the repeated bites were made with +such effort that the muscles stood out on the mussurama's neck. Then +it took two coils round the neck of the jararaca and proceeded +deliberately to try to break the backbone of its opponent by twisting +the head round. With this purpose it twisted its own head and neck +round so that the lighter-colored surface was uppermost; and indeed at +one time it looked as if it had made almost a complete single spiral +revolution of its own body. It never for a moment relaxed its grip +except to shift slightly the jaws. + +In a few minutes the jararaca was dead, its head crushed in, although +the body continued to move convulsively. When satisfied that its +opponent was dead, the mussurama began to try to get the head in its +mouth. This was a process of some difficulty on account of the angle +at which the lower jaw of the jararaca stuck out. But finally the head +was taken completely inside and then swallowed. After this, the +mussurama proceeded deliberately, but with unbroken speed, to devour +its opponent by the simple process of crawling outside it, the body +and tail of the jararaca writhing and struggling until the last. +During the early portion of the meal, the mussurama put a stop to this +writhing and struggling by resting its own body on that of its prey; +but toward the last the part of the body that remained outside was +left free to wriggle as it wished. + +Not only was the mussurama totally indifferent to our presence, but it +was totally indifferent to being handled while the meal was going on. +Several times I replaced the combatants in the middle of the table +when they had writhed to the edge, and finally, when the photographers +found that they could not get good pictures, I held the mussurama up +against a white background with the partially swallowed snake in its +mouth; and the feast went on uninterruptedly. I never saw cooler or +more utterly unconcerned conduct; and the ease and certainty with +which the terrible poisonous snake was mastered gave me the heartiest +respect and liking for the easy-going, good-natured, and exceedingly +efficient serpent which I had been holding in my arms. + +Our trip was not intended as a hunting-trip but as a scientific +expedition. Before starting on the trip itself, while travelling in +the Argentine, I received certain pieces of first-hand information +concerning the natural history of the jaguar, and of the cougar, or +puma, which are worth recording. The facts about the jaguar are not +new in the sense of casting new light on its character, although they +are interesting; but the facts about the behavior of the puma in one +district of Patagonia are of great interest, because they give an +entirely new side of its life-history. + +There was travelling with me at the time Doctor Francisco P. Moreno, +of Buenos Aires. Doctor Moreno is at the present day a member of the +National Board of Education of the Argentine, a man who has worked in +every way for the benefit of his country, perhaps especially for the +benefit of the children, so that when he was first introduced to me it +was as the "Jacob Riis of the Argentine"--for they know my deep and +affectionate intimacy with Jacob Riis. He is also an eminent man of +science, who has done admirable work as a geologist and a geographer. +At one period, in connection with his duties as a boundary +commissioner on the survey between Chile and the Argentine, he worked +for years in Patagonia. It was he who made the extraordinary discovery +in a Patagonian cave of the still fresh fragments of skin and other +remains of the mylodon, the aberrant horse known as the onohipidium, +the huge South American tiger, and the macrauchenia, all of them +extinct animals. This discovery showed that some of the strange +representatives of the giant South American Pleistocene fauna had +lasted down to within a comparatively few thousand years, down to the +time when man, substantially as the Spaniards found him, flourished on +the continent. Incidentally the discovery tended to show that this +fauna had lasted much later in South America than was the case with +the corresponding faunas in other parts of the world; and therefore it +tended to disprove the claims advanced by Doctor Ameghino for the +extreme age, geologically, of this fauna, and for the extreme +antiquity of man on the American continent. + +One day Doctor Moreno handed me a copy of The Outlook containing my +account of a cougar-hunt in Arizona, saying that he noticed that I had +very little faith in cougars attacking men, although I had explicitly +stated that such attacks sometimes occurred. I told him, Yes, that I +had found that the cougar was practically harmless to man, the +undoubtedly authentic instances of attacks on men being so exceptional +that they could in practice be wholly disregarded. Thereupon Doctor +Moreno showed me a scar on his face, and told me that he had himself +been attacked and badly mauled by a puma which was undoubtedly trying +to prey on him; that is, which had started on a career as a man-eater. +This was to me most interesting. I had often met men who knew other +men who had seen other men who said that they had been attacked by +pumas, but this was the first time that I had ever come across a man +who had himself been attacked. Doctor Moreno, as I have said, is not +only an eminent citizen, but an eminent scientific man, and his +account of what occurred is unquestionably a scientifically accurate +statement of the facts. I give it exactly as the doctor told it; +paraphrasing a letter he sent me, and including one or two answers to +questions I put to him. The doctor, by the way, stated to me that he +had known Mr. Hudson, the author of the "Naturalist on the Plata," and +that the latter knew nothing whatever of pumas from personal +experience and had accepted as facts utterly wild fables. + +Undoubtedly, said the doctor, the puma in South America, like the puma +in North America, is, as a general rule, a cowardly animal which not +only never attacks man, but rarely makes any efficient defence when +attacked. The Indian and white hunters have no fear of it in most +parts of the country, and its harmlessness to man is proverbial. But +there is one particular spot in southern Patagonia where cougars, to +the doctor's own personal knowledge, have for years been dangerous +foes of man. This curious local change in habits, by the way, is +nothing unprecedented as regards wild animals. In portions of its +range, as I am informed by Mr. Lord Smith, the Asiatic tiger can +hardly be forced to fight man, and never preys on him, while +throughout most of its range it is a most dangerous beast, and often +turns man-eater. So there are waters in which sharks are habitual man- +eaters, and others where they never touch men; and there are rivers +and lakes where crocodiles or caymans are very dangerous, and others +where they are practically harmless--I have myself seen this in +Africa. + +In March, 1877, Doctor Moreno with a party of men working on the +boundary commission, and with a number of Patagonian horse-Indians, +was encamped for some weeks beside Lake Viedma, which had not before +been visited by white men for a century, and which was rarely visited +even by Indians. One morning, just before sunrise, he left his camp by +the south shore of the lake, to make a topographical sketch of the +lake. He was unarmed, but carried a prismatic compass in a leather +case with a strap. It was cold, and he wrapped his poncho of guanaco- +hide round his neck and head. He had walked a few hundred yards, when +a puma, a female, sprang on him from behind and knocked him down. As +she sprang on him she tried to seize his head with one paw, striking +him on the shoulder with the other. She lacerated his mouth and also +his back, but tumbled over with him, and in the scuffle they separated +before she could bite him. He sprang to his feet, and, as he said, was +forced to think quickly. She had recovered herself, and sat on her +haunches like a cat, looking at him, and then crouched to spring +again; whereupon he whipped off his poncho, and as she sprang at him +he opened it, and at the same moment hit her head with the prismatic +compass in its case which he held by the strap. She struck the poncho +and was evidently puzzled by it, for, turning, she slunk off to one +side, under a bush, and then proceeded to try to get round behind him. +He faced her, keeping his eyes upon her, and backed off. She followed +him for three or four hundred yards. At least twice she came up to +attack him, but each time he opened his poncho and yelled, and at the +last moment she shrank back. She continually, however, tried, by +taking advantage of cover, to sneak up to one side, or behind, to +attack him. Finally, when he got near camp, she abandoned the pursuit +and went into a small patch of bushes. He raised the alarm; an Indian +rode up and set fire to the bushes from the windward side. When the +cougar broke from the bushes, the Indian rode after her, and threw his +bolas, which twisted around her hind legs; and while she was +struggling to free herself, he brained her with his second bolas. The +doctor's injuries were rather painful, but not serious. + +Twenty-one years later, in April, 1898, he was camped on the same +lake, but on the north shore, at the foot of a basaltic cliff. He was +in company with four soldiers, with whom he had travelled from the +Strait of Magellan. In the night he was aroused by the shriek of a man +and the barking of his dogs. As the men sprang up from where they were +lying asleep they saw a large puma run off out of the firelight into +the darkness. It had sprung on a soldier named Marcelino Huquen while +he was asleep, and had tried to carry him off. Fortunately, the man +was so wrapped up in his blanket, as the night was cold, that he was +not injured. The puma was never found or killed. + +About the same time a surveyor of Doctor Moreno's party, a Swede named +Arneberg, was attacked in similar fashion. The doctor was not with him +at the time. Mr. Arneberg was asleep in the forest near Lake San +Martin. The cougar both bit and clawed him, and tore his mouth, +breaking out three teeth. The man was rescued; but this puma also +escaped. + +The doctor stated that in this particular locality the Indians, who +elsewhere paid no heed whatever to the puma, never let their women go +out after wood for fuel unless two or three were together. This was +because on several occasions women who had gone out alone were killed +by pumas. Evidently in this one locality the habit of at least +occasional man-eating has become chronic with a species which +elsewhere is the most cowardly, and to man the least dangerous, of all +the big cats. + +These observations of Doctor Moreno have a peculiar value, because, as +far as I know, they are the first trustworthy accounts of a cougar's +having attacked man save under circumstances so exceptional as to make +the attack signify little more than the similar exceptional instances +of attack by various other species of wild animals that are not +normally dangerous to man. + +The jaguar, however, has long been known not only to be a dangerous +foe when itself attacked, but also now and then to become a man-eater. +Therefore the instances of such attacks furnished me are of merely +corroborative value. + +In the excellent zoological gardens at Buenos Aires the curator, +Doctor Onelli, a naturalist of note, showed us a big male jaguar which +had been trapped in the Chaco, where it had already begun a career as +a man-eater, having killed three persons. They were killed, and two of +them were eaten; the animal was trapped, in consequence of the alarm +excited by the death of his third victim. This jaguar was very savage; +whereas a young jaguar, which was in a cage with a young tiger, was +playful and friendly, as was also the case with the young tiger. On my +trip to visit La Plata Museum I was accompanied by Captain Vicente +Montes, of the Argentine Navy, an accomplished officer of scientific +attainments. He had at one time been engaged on a survey of the +boundary between the Argentine and Parana and Brazil. They had a +quantity of dried beef in camp. On several occasions a jaguar came +into camp after this dried beef. Finally they succeeded in protecting +it so that he could not reach it. The result, however, was disastrous. +On the next occasion that he visited camp, at midnight, he seized a +man. Everybody was asleep at the time, and the jaguar came in so +noiselessly as to elude the vigilance of the dogs. As he seized the +man, the latter gave one yell, but the next moment was killed, the +jaguar driving his fangs through the man's skull into the brain. There +was a scene of uproar and confusion, and the jaguar was forced to drop +his prey and flee into the woods. Next morning they followed him with +the dogs, and finally killed him. He was a large male, in first-class +condition. The only features of note about these two incidents was +that in each case the man-eater was a powerful animal in the prime of +life; whereas it frequently happens that the jaguars that turn man- +eaters are old animals, and have become too inactive or too feeble to +catch their ordinary prey. + +During the two months before starting from Asuncion, in Paraguay, for +our journey into the interior, I was kept so busy that I had scant +time to think of natural history. But in a strange land a man who +cares for wild birds and wild beasts always sees and hears something +that is new to him and interests him. In the dense tropical woods near +Rio Janeiro I heard in late October--springtime, near the southern +tropic--the songs of many birds that I could not identify. But the +most beautiful music was from a shy woodland thrush, sombre-colored, +which lived near the ground in the thick timber, but sang high among +the branches. At a great distance we could hear the ringing, musical, +bell-like note, long-drawn and of piercing sweetness, which occurs at +intervals in the song; at first I thought this was the song, but when +it was possible to approach the singer I found that these far-sounding +notes were scattered through a continuous song of great melody. I +never listened to one that impressed me more. In different places in +Argentina I heard and saw the Argentine mocking-bird, which is not +very unlike our own, and is also a delightful and remarkable singer. +But I never heard the wonderful white-banded mocking-bird, which is +said by Hudson, who knew well the birds of both South America and +Europe, to be the song-king of them all. + +Most of the birds I thus noticed while hurriedly passing through the +country were, of course, the conspicuous ones. The spurred lapwings, +big, tame, boldly marked plover, were everywhere; they were very noisy +and active and both inquisitive and daring, and they have a very +curious dance custom. No man need look for them. They will look for +him, and when they find him they will fairly yell the discovery to the +universe. In the marshes of the lower Parana I saw flocks of scarlet- +headed blackbirds on the tops of the reeds; the females are as +strikingly colored as the males, and their jet-black bodies and +brilliant red heads make it impossible for them to escape observation +among their natural surroundings. On the plains to the west I saw +flocks of the beautiful rose-breasted starlings; unlike the red-headed +blackbirds, which seemed fairly to court attention, these starlings +sought to escape observation by crouching on the ground so that their +red breasts were hidden. There were yellow-shouldered blackbirds in +wet places, and cow-buntings abounded. + +But the most conspicuous birds I saw were members of the family of +tyrant flycatchers, of which our own king-bird is the most familiar +example. This family is very numerously represented in Argentina, both +in species and individuals. Some of the species are so striking, both +in color and habits, and in one case also in shape, as to attract the +attention of even the unobservant. The least conspicuous, and +nevertheless very conspicuous, among those that I saw was the +bientevido, which is brown above, yellow beneath, with a boldly marked +black and white head, and a yellow crest. It is very noisy, is common +in the neighborhood of houses, and builds a big domed nest. It is +really a big, heavy kingbird, fiercer and more powerful than any +northern kingbird. I saw them assail not only the big but the small +hawks with fearlessness, driving them in headlong flight. They not +only capture insects, but pounce on mice, small frogs, lizards, and +little snakes, rob birds' nests of the fledgling young, and catch +tadpoles and even small fish. + +Two of the tyrants which I observed are like two with which I grew +fairly familiar in Texas. The scissor-tail is common throughout the +open country, and the long tail feathers, which seem at times to +hamper its flight, attract attention whether the bird is in flight or +perched on a tree. It has a habit of occasionally soaring into the air +and descending in loops and spirals. The scarlet tyrant I saw in the +orchards and gardens. The male is a fascinating little bird, coal- +black above, while his crested head and the body beneath are brilliant +scarlet. He utters his rapid, low-voiced musical trill in the air, +rising with fluttering wings to a height of a hundred feet, hovering +while he sings, and then falling back to earth. The color of the bird +and the character of his performance attract the attention of every +observer, bird, beast, or man, within reach of vision. + +The red-backed tyrant is utterly unlike any of his kind in the United +States, and until I looked him up in Sclater and Hudson's ornithology +I never dreamed that he belonged to this family. He--for only the male +is so brightly colored--is coal-black with a dull-red back. I saw +these birds on December 1 near Barilloche, out on the bare Patagonian +plains. They behaved like pipits or longspurs, running actively over +the ground in the same manner and showing the same restlessness and +the same kind of flight. But whereas pipits are inconspicuous, the +red-backs at once attracted attention by the contrast between their +bold coloring and the grayish or yellowish tones of the ground along +which they ran. The silver-bill tyrant, however, is much more +conspicuous; I saw it in the same neighborhood as the red-back and +also in many other places. The male is jet-black, with white bill and +wings. He runs about on the ground like a pipit, but also frequently +perches on some bush to go through a strange flight-song performance. +He perches motionless, bolt upright, and even then his black coloring +advertises him for a quarter of a mile round about. But every few +minutes he springs up into the air to the height of twenty or thirty +feet, the white wings flashing in contrast to the black body, screams +and gyrates, and then instantly returns to his former post and resumes +his erect pose of waiting. It is hard to imagine a more conspicuous +bird than the silver-bill; but the next and last tyrant flycatcher of +which I shall speak possesses on the whole the most advertising +coloration of any small bird I have ever seen in the open country, and +moreover this advertising coloration exists in both sexes and +throughout the year. It is a brilliant white, all over, except the +long wing-quills and the ends of the tail-feathers, which are black. +The first one I saw, at a very long distance, I thought must be an +albino. It perches on the top of a bush or tree watching for its prey, +and it shines in the sun like a silver mirror. Every hawk, cat, or man +must see it; no one can help seeing it. + +These common Argentine birds, most of them of the open country, and +all of them with a strikingly advertising coloration, are interesting +because of their beauty and their habits. They are also interesting +because they offer such illuminating examples of the truth that many +of the most common and successful birds not merely lack a concealing +coloration, but possess a coloration which is in the highest degree +revealing. The coloration and the habits of most of these birds are +such that every hawk or other foe that can see at all must have its +attention attracted to them. Evidently in their cases neither the +coloration nor any habit of concealment based on the coloration is a +survival factor, and this although they live in a land teeming with +bird-eating hawks. Among the higher vertebrates there are many known +factors which have influence, some in one set of cases, some in +another set of cases, in the development and preservation of species. +Courage, intelligence, adaptability, prowess, bodily vigor, speed, +alertness, ability to hide, ability to build structures which will +protect the young while they are helpless, fecundity--all, and many +more like them, have their several places; and behind all these +visible causes there are at work other and often more potent causes of +which as yet science can say nothing. Some species owe much to a given +attribute which may be wholly lacking in influence on other species; +and every one of the attributes above enumerated is a survival factor +in some species, while in others it has no survival value whatever, +and in yet others, although of benefit, it is not of sufficient +benefit to offset the benefit conferred on foes or rivals by totally +different attributes. Intelligence, for instance, is of course a +survival factor; but to-day there exist multitudes of animals with +very little intelligence which have persisted through immense periods +of geologic time either unchanged or else without any change in the +direction of increased intelligence; and during their species-life +they have witnessed the death of countless other species of far +greater intelligence but in other ways less adapted to succeed in the +environmental complex. The same statement can be made of all the many, +many other known factors in development, from fecundity to concealing +coloration; and behind them lie forces as to which we veil our +ignorance by the use of high-sounding nomenclature--as when we use +such a convenient but far from satisfactory term as orthogenesis. + + + + II. UP THE PARAGUAY + +On the afternoon of December 9 we left the attractive and picturesque +city of Asuncion to ascend the Paraguay. With generous courtesy the +Paraguayan Government had put at my disposal the gunboat-yacht of the +President himself, a most comfortable river steamer, and so the +opening days of our trip were pleasant in every way. The food was +good, our quarters were clean, we slept well, below or on deck, +usually without our mosquito-nettings, and in daytime the deck was +pleasant under the awnings. It was hot, of course, but we were dressed +suitably in our exploring and hunting clothes and did not mind the +heat. The river was low, for there had been dry weather for some weeks +--judging from the vague and contradictory information I received +there is much elasticity to the terms wet season and dry season at +this part of the Paraguay. Under the brilliant sky we steamed steadily +up the mighty river; the sunset was glorious as we leaned on the port +railing; and after nightfall the moon, nearly full and hanging high in +the heavens, turned the water to shimmering radiance. On the mud-flats +and sandbars, and among the green rushes of the bays and inlets, were +stately water-fowl; crimson flamingoes and rosy spoonbills, dark- +colored ibis and white storks with black wings. Darters, with +snakelike necks and pointed bills, perched in the trees on the brink +of the river. Snowy egrets flapped across the marshes. Caymans were +common, and differed from the crocodiles we had seen in Africa in two +points: they were not alarmed by the report of a rifle when fired at, +and they lay with the head raised instead of stretched along the sand. + +For three days, as we steamed northward toward the Tropic of +Capricorn, and then passed it, we were within the Republic of +Paraguay. On our right, to the east, there was a fairly well-settled +country, where bananas and oranges were cultivated and other crops of +hot countries raised. On the banks we passed an occasional small town, +or saw a ranch-house close to the river's brink, or stopped for wood +at some little settlement. Across the river to the west lay the level, +swampy, fertile wastes known as the Chaco, still given over either to +the wild Indians or to cattle-ranching on a gigantic scale. The broad +river ran in curves between mud-banks where terraces marked successive +periods of flood. A belt of forest stood on each bank, but it was only +a couple of hundred yards wide. Back of it was the open country; on +the Chaco side this was a vast plain of grass, dotted with tall, +graceful palms. In places the belt of forest vanished and the palm- +dotted prairie came to the river's edge. The Chaco is an ideal cattle +country, and not really unhealthy. It will be covered with ranches at +a not distant day. But mosquitoes and many other winged insect pests +swarm over it. Cherrie and Miller had spent a week there collecting +mammals and birds prior to my arrival at Asuncion. They were veterans +of the tropics, hardened to the insect plagues of Guiana and the +Orinoco. But they reported that never had they been so tortured as in +the Chaco. The sand-flies crawled through the meshes in the mosquito- +nets, and forbade them to sleep; if in their sleep a knee touched the +net the mosquitoes fell on it so that it looked as if riddled by +birdshot; and the nights were a torment, although they had done well +in their work, collecting some two hundred and fifty specimens of +birds and mammals. + +Nevertheless for some as yet inscrutable reason the river served as a +barrier to certain insects which are menaces to the cattlemen. With me +on the gunboat was an old Western friend, Tex Rickard, of the +Panhandle and Alaska and various places in between. He now has a large +tract of land and some thirty-five thousand head of cattle in the +Chaco, opposite Concepcion, at which city he was to stop. He told me +that horses did not do well in the Chaco but that cattle throve, and +that while ticks swarmed on the east bank of the great river, they +would not live on the west bank. Again and again he had crossed herds +of cattle which were covered with the loathsome bloodsuckers; and in a +couple of months every tick would be dead. The worst animal foes of +man, indeed the only dangerous foes, are insects; and this is +especially true in the tropics. Fortunately, exactly as certain +differences too minute for us as yet to explain render some insects +deadly to man or domestic animals, while closely allied forms are +harmless, so, for other reasons, which also we are not as yet able to +fathom, these insects are for the most part strictly limited by +geographical and other considerations. The war against what Sir Harry +Johnston calls the really material devil, the devil of evil wild +nature in the tropics, has been waged with marked success only during +the last two decades. The men, in the United States, in England, +France, Germany, Italy--the men like Doctor Cruz in Rio Janeiro and +Doctor Vital Brazil in Sao Paulo--who work experimentally within and +without the laboratory in their warfare against the disease and death +bearing insects and microbes, are the true leaders in the fight to +make the tropics the home of civilized man. + +Late on the evening of the second day of our trip, just before +midnight, we reached Concepcion. On this day, when we stopped for wood +or to get provisions--at picturesque places, where the women from +rough mud and thatched cabins were washing clothes in the river, or +where ragged horsemen stood gazing at us from the bank, or where dark, +well-dressed ranchmen stood in front of red-roofed houses--we caught +many fish. They belonged to one of the most formidable genera of fish +in the world, the piranha or cannibal fish, the fish that eats men +when it can get the chance. Farther north there are species of small +piranha that go in schools. At this point on the Paraguay the piranha +do not seem to go in regular schools, but they swarm in all the waters +and attain a length of eighteen inches or over. They are the most +ferocious fish in the world. Even the most formidable fish, the sharks +or the barracudas, usually attack things smaller than themselves. But +the piranhas habitually attack things much larger than themselves. +They will snap a finger off a hand incautiously trailed in the water; +they mutilate swimmers--in every river town in Paraguay there are men +who have been thus mutilated; they will rend and devour alive any +wounded man or beast; for blood in the water excites them to madness. +They will tear wounded wild fowl to pieces; and bite off the tails of +big fish as they grow exhausted when fighting after being hooked. +Miller, before I reached Asuncion, had been badly bitten by one. Those +that we caught sometimes bit through the hooks, or the double strands +of copper wire that served as leaders, and got away. Those that we +hauled on deck lived for many minutes. Most predatory fish are long +and slim, like the alligator-gar and pickerel. But the piranha is a +short, deep-bodied fish, with a blunt face and a heavily undershot or +projecting lower jaw which gapes widely. The razor-edged teeth are +wedge-shaped like a shark's, and the jaw muscles possess great power. +The rabid, furious snaps drive the teeth through flesh and bone. The +head with its short muzzle, staring malignant eyes, and gaping, +cruelly armed jaws, is the embodiment of evil ferocity; and the +actions of the fish exactly match its looks. I never witnessed an +exhibition of such impotent, savage fury as was shown by the piranhas +as they flapped on deck. When fresh from the water and thrown on the +boards they uttered an extraordinary squealing sound. As they flapped +about they bit with vicious eagerness at whatever presented itself. +One of them flapped into a cloth and seized it with a bulldog grip. +Another grasped one of its fellows; another snapped at a piece of +wood, and left the teeth-marks deep therein. They are the pests of the +waters, and it is necessary to be exceedingly cautious about either +swimming or wading where they are found. If cattle are driven into, or +of their own accord enter, the water, they are commonly not molested; +but if by chance some unusually big or ferocious specimen of these +fearsome fishes does bite an animal--taking off part of an ear, or +perhaps of a teat from the udder of a cow--the blood brings up every +member of the ravenous throng which is anywhere near, and unless the +attacked animal can immediately make its escape from the water it is +devoured alive. Here on the Paraguay the natives hold them in much +respect, whereas the caymans are not feared at all. The only redeeming +feature about them is that they are themselves fairly good to eat, +although with too many bones. + +At daybreak of the third day, finding we were still moored off +Concepcion, we were rowed ashore and strolled off through the streets +of the quaint, picturesque old town; a town which, like Asuncion, was +founded by the conquistadores three-quarters of a century before our +own English and Dutch forefathers landed in what is now the United +States. The Jesuits then took practically complete possession of what +is now Paraguay, controlling and Christianizing the Indians, and +raising their flourishing missions to a pitch of prosperity they never +elsewhere achieved. They were expelled by the civil authorities +(backed by the other representatives of ecclesiastical authority) some +fifty years before Spanish South America became independent. But they +had already made the language of the Indians, Guarany, a culture- +tongue, reducing it to writing, and printing religious books in it. +Guarany is one of the most wide-spread of the Indian tongues, being +originally found in various closely allied forms not only in Paraguay +but in Uruguay and over the major part of Brazil. It remains here and +there, as a lingua general at least, and doubtless in cases as an +original tongue, among the wild tribes. In most of Brazil, as around +Para and around Sao Paulo, it has left its traces in place-names, but +has been completely superseded as a language by Portuguese. In +Paraguay it still exists side by side with Spanish as the common +language of the lower people and as a familiar tongue among the upper +classes. The blood of the people is mixed, their language dual; the +lower classes are chiefly of Indian blood but with a white admixture; +while the upper classes are predominantly white, with a strong +infusion of Indian. There is no other case quite parallel to this in +the annals of European colonization, although the Goanese in India +have a native tongue and a Portuguese creed, while in several of the +Spanish-American states the Indian blood is dominant and the majority +of the population speak an Indian tongue, perhaps itself, as with the +Quichuas, once a culture-tongue of the archaic type. Whether in +Paraguay one tongue will ultimately drive out the other, and, if so, +which will be the victor, it is yet too early to prophesy. The English +missionaries and the Bible Society have recently published parts of +the Scriptures in Guarany and in Asuncion a daily paper is published +with the text in parallel columns, Spanish and Guarany--just as in +Oklahoma there is a similar paper published in English and in the +tongue which the extraordinary Cherokee chief Sequoia, a veritable +Cadmus, made a literary language. + +The Guarany-speaking Paraguayan is a Christian, and as much an +inheritor of our common culture as most of the peasant populations of +Europe. He has no kinship with the wild Indian, who hates and fears +him. The Indian of the Chaco, a pure savage, a bow-bearing savage, +will never come east of the Paraguay, and the Paraguayan is only +beginning to venture into the western interior, away from the banks of +the river--under the lead of pioneer settlers like Rickard, whom, by +the way, the wild Indians thoroughly trust, and for whom they work +eagerly and faithfully. There is a great development ahead for +Paraguay, as soon as they can definitely shake off the revolutionary +habit and establish an orderly permanence of government. The people +are a fine people; the strains of blood--white and Indian--are good. + +We walked up the streets of Concepcion, and interestedly looked at +everything of interest: at the one-story houses, their windows covered +with gratings of fretted ironwork, and their occasional open doors +giving us glimpses into cool inner courtyards, with trees and flowers; +at the two-wheel carts, drawn by mules or oxen; at an occasional +rider, with spurs on his bare feet, and his big toes thrust into the +small stirrup-rings; at the little stores, and the warehouses for +matte and hides. Then we came to a pleasant little inn, kept by a +Frenchman and his wife, of old Spanish style, with its patio, or inner +court, but as neat as an inn in Normandy or Brittany. We were sitting +at coffee, around a little table, when in came the colonel of the +garrison--for Concepcion is the second city in Paraguay. He told me +that they had prepared a reception for me! I was in my rough hunting- +clothes, but there was nothing to do but to accompany my kind hosts +and trust to their good nature to pardon my shortcomings in the matter +of dress. The colonel drove me about in a smart open carriage, with +two good horses and a liveried driver. It was a much more fashionable +turnout than would be seen in any of our cities save the largest, and +even in them probably not in the service of a public official. In all +the South American countries there is more pomp and ceremony in +connection with public functions than with us, and at these functions +the liveried servants, often with knee-breeches and powdered hair, are +like those seen at similar European functions; there is not the +democratic simplicity which better suits our own habits of life and +ways of thought. But the South Americans often surpass us, not merely +in pomp and ceremony but in what is of real importance, courtesy; in +civility and courtesy we can well afford to take lessons from them. + +We first visited the barracks, saw the troops in the setting-up +exercises, and inspected the arms, the artillery, the equipment. There +was a German lieutenant with the Paraguayan officers; one of several +German officers who are now engaged in helping the Paraguayans with +their army. The equipments and arms were in good condition; the +enlisted men evidently offered fine material; and the officers were +doing hard work. It is worth while for anti-militarists to ponder the +fact that in every South American country where a really efficient +army is developed, the increase in military efficiency goes hand in +hand with a decrease in lawlessness and disorder, and a growing +reluctance to settle internal disagreements by violence. They are +introducing universal military service in Paraguay; the officers, many +of whom have studied abroad, are growing to feel an increased esprit +de corps, an increased pride in the army, and therefore a desire to +see the army made the servant of the nation as a whole and not the +tool of any faction or individual. If these feelings grow strong +enough they will be powerful factors in giving Paraguay what she most +needs, freedom from revolutionary disturbance and therefore the chance +to achieve the material prosperity without which as a basis there can +be no advance in other and even more important matters. + +Then I was driven to the City Hall, accompanied by the intendente, or +mayor, a German long settled in the country and one of the leading men +of the city. There was a breakfast. When I had to speak I impressed +into my service as interpreter a young Paraguayan who was a graduate +of the University of Pennsylvania. He was able to render into Spanish +my ideas--on such subjects as orderly liberty and the far-reaching +mischief done by the revolutionary habit--with clearness and vigor, +because he thoroughly understood not only how I felt but also the +American way of looking at such things. My hosts were hospitality +itself, and I enjoyed the unexpected greeting. + +We steamed on up the river. Now and then we passed another boat--a +steamer, or, to my surprise, perhaps a barkentine or schooner. The +Paraguay is a highway of traffic. Once we passed a big beef-canning +factory. Ranches stood on either bank a few leagues apart, and we +stopped at wood-yards on the west bank. Indians worked around them. At +one such yard the Indians were evidently part of the regular force. +Their squaws were with them, cooking at queer open-air ovens. One +small child had as pets a parrot and a young coati--a kind of long- +nosed raccoon. Loading wood, the Indians stood in a line, tossing the +logs from one to the other. These Indians wore clothes. + +On this day we got into the tropics. Even in the heat of the day the +deck was pleasant under the awnings; the sun rose and set in crimson +splendor; and the nights, with the moon at the full, were wonderful. +At night Orion blazed overhead; and the Southern Cross hung in the +star-brilliant heavens behind us. But after the moon rose the +constellations paled; and clear in her light the tree-clad banks stood +on either hand as we steamed steadily against the swirling current of +the great river. + +At noon on the twelfth we were at the Brazilian boundary. On this day +we here and there came on low, conical hills close to the river. In +places the palm groves broke through the belts of deciduous trees and +stretched for a mile or so right along the river's bank. At times we +passed cattle on the banks or sand-bars, followed by their herders; or +a handsome ranch-house, under a cluster of shady trees, some bearing a +wealth of red and some a wealth of yellow blossoms; or we saw a horse- +corral among the trees close to the brink, with the horses in it and a +barefooted man in shirt and trousers leaning against the fence; or a +herd of cattle among the palms; or a big tannery or factory or a +little native hamlet came in sight. We stopped at one tannery. The +owner was a Spaniard, the manager an "Oriental," as he called himself, +a Uruguayan, of German parentage. The peons, or workers, who lived in +a long line of wooden cabins back of the main building, were mostly +Paraguayans, with a few Brazilians, and a dozen German and Argentine +foremen. There were also some wild Indians, who were camped in the +usual squalid fashion of Indians who are hangers-on round the white +man but have not yet adopted his ways. Most of the men were at work +cutting wood for the tannery. The women and children were in camp. +Some individuals of both sexes were naked to the waist. One little +girl had a young ostrich as a pet. + +Water-fowl were plentiful. We saw large flocks of wild muscovy ducks. +Our tame birds come from this wild species and its absurd misnaming +dates back to the period when the turkey and guinea-pig were misnamed +in similar fashion--our European forefathers taking a large and hazy +view of geography, and including Turkey, Guinea, India, and Muscovy as +places which, in their capacity of being outlandish, could be +comprehensively used as including America. The muscovy ducks were very +good eating. Darters and cormorants swarmed. They waddled on the sand- +bars in big flocks and crowded the trees by the water's edge. +Beautiful snow-white egrets also lit in the trees, often well back +from the river. A full-foliaged tree of vivid green, its round surface +crowded with these birds, as if it had suddenly blossomed with huge +white flowers, is a sight worth seeing. Here and there on the sand- +bars we saw huge jabiru storks, and once a flock of white wood-ibis +among the trees on the bank. + +On the Brazilian boundary we met a shallow river steamer carrying +Colonel Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon and several other Brazilian +members of the expedition. Colonel Rondon immediately showed that he +was all, and more than all, that could be desired. It was evident that +he knew his business thoroughly, and it was equally evident that he +would be a pleasant companion. He was a classmate of Mr. Lauro Muller +at the Brazilian Military Academy. He is of almost pure Indian blood, +and is a Positivist--the Positivists are a really strong body in +Brazil, as they are in France and indeed in Chile. The colonel's seven +children have all been formally made members of the Positivist Church +in Rio Janeiro. Brazil possesses the same complete liberty in matters +religious, spiritual, and intellectual as we, for our great good +fortune, do in the United States, and my Brazilian companions included +Catholics and equally sincere men who described themselves as "libres +penseurs." Colonel Rondon has spent the last twenty-four years in +exploring the western highlands of Brazil, pioneering the way for +telegraph-lines and railroads. During that time he has travelled some +fourteen thousand miles, on territory most of which had not previously +been traversed by civilized man, and has built three thousand miles of +telegraph. He has an exceptional knowledge of the Indian tribes and +has always zealously endeavored to serve them and indeed to serve the +cause of humanity wherever and whenever he was able. Thanks mainly to +his efforts, four of the wild tribes of the region he has explored +have begun to tread the road of civilization. They have taken the +first steps toward becoming Christians. It may seem strange that among +the first-fruits of the efforts of a Positivist should be the +conversion of those he seeks to benefit to Christianity. But in South +America Christianity is at least as much a status as a theology. It +represents the indispensable first step upward from savagery. In the +wilder and poorer districts men are divided into the two great classes +of "Christians" and "Indians." When an Indian becomes a Christian he +is accepted into and becomes wholly absorbed or partly assimilated by +the crude and simple neighboring civilization, and then he moves up or +down like any one else among his fellows. + +Among Colonel Rondon's companions were Captain Amilcar de Magalhaes, +Lieutenant Joao Lyra, Lieutenant Joaquin de Mello Filho, and Doctor +Euzebio de Oliveira, a geologist. + +The steamers halted; Colonel Rondon and several of his officers, spick +and span in their white uniforms, came aboard; and in the afternoon I +visited him on his steamer to talk over our plans. When these had been +fully discussed and agreed on we took tea. I happened to mention that +one of our naturalists, Miller, had been bitten by a piranha, and the +man-eating fish at once became the subject of conversation. Curiously +enough, one of the Brazilian taxidermists had also just been severely +bitten by a piranha. My new companions had story after story to tell +of them. Only three weeks previously a twelve-year-old boy who had +gone in swimming near Corumba was attacked, and literally devoured +alive by them. Colonel Rondon during his exploring trips had met with +more than one unpleasant experience in connection with them. He had +lost one of his toes by the bite of a piranha. He was about to bathe +and had chosen a shallow pool at the edge of the river, which he +carefully inspected until he was satisfied that none of the man-eating +fish were in it; yet as soon as he put his foot into the water one of +them attacked him and bit off a toe. On another occasion while wading +across a narrow stream one of his party was attacked; the fish bit him +on the thighs and buttocks, and when he put down his hands tore them +also; he was near the bank and by a rush reached it and swung himself +out of the water by means of an overhanging limb of a tree; but he was +terribly injured, and it took him six months before his wounds healed +and he recovered. An extraordinary incident occurred on another trip. +The party were without food and very hungry. On reaching a stream they +dynamited it, and waded in to seize the stunned fish as they floated +on the surface. One man, Lieutenant Pyrineus, having his hands full, +tried to hold one fish by putting its head into his mouth; it was a +piranha and seemingly stunned, but in a moment it recovered and bit a +big section out of his tongue. Such a hemorrhage followed that his +life was saved with the utmost difficulty. On another occasion a +member of the party was off by himself on a mule. The mule came into +camp alone. Following his track back they came to a ford, where in the +water they found the skeleton of the dead man, his clothes uninjured +but every particle of flesh stripped from his bones. Whether he had +drowned, and the fishes had then eaten his body, or whether they had +killed him it was impossible to say. They had not hurt the clothes, +getting in under them, which made it seem likely that there had been +no struggle. These man-eating fish are a veritable scourge in the +waters they frequent. But it must not be understood by this that the +piranhas--or, for the matter of that, the New-World caymans and +crocodiles--ever become such dreaded foes of man as for instance the +man-eating crocodiles of Africa. Accidents occur, and there are +certain places where swimming and bathing are dangerous; but in most +places the people swim freely, although they are usually careful to +find spots they believe safe or else to keep together and make a +splashing in the water. + +During his trips Colonel Rondon had met with various experiences with +wild creatures. The Paraguayan caymans are not ordinarily dangerous to +man; but they do sometimes become man-eaters and should be destroyed +whenever the opportunity offers. The huge caymans and crocodiles of +the Amazon are far more dangerous, and the colonel knew of repeated +instances where men, women and children had become their victims. Once +while dynamiting a stream for fish for his starving party he partially +stunned a giant anaconda, which he killed as it crept slowly off. He +said that it was of a size that no other anaconda he had ever seen +even approached, and that in his opinion such a brute if hungry would +readily attack a full-grown man. Twice smaller anacondas had attacked +his dogs; one was carried under water--for the anaconda is a water- +loving serpent--but he rescued it. One of his men was bitten by a +jararaca; he killed the venomous snake, but was not discovered and +brought back to camp until it was too late to save his life. The puma +Colonel Rondon had found to be as cowardly as I have always found it, +but the jaguar was a formidable beast, which occasionally turned man- +eater, and often charged savagely when brought to bay. He had known a +hunter to be killed by a jaguar he was following in thick grass cover. + +All such enemies, however, he regarded as utterly trivial compared to +the real dangers of the wilderness--the torment and menace of attacks +by the swarming insects, by mosquitoes and the even more intolerable +tiny gnats, by the ticks, and by the vicious poisonous ants which +occasionally cause villages and even whole districts to be deserted by +human beings. These insects, and the fevers they cause, and dysentery +and starvation and wearing hardship and accidents in rapids are what +the pioneer explorers have to fear. The conversation was to me most +interesting. The colonel spoke French about to the extent I did; but +of course he and the others preferred Portuguese; and then Kermit was +the interpreter. + +In the evening, soon after moonrise, we stopped for wood at the little +Brazilian town of Porto Martinho. There are about twelve hundred +inhabitants. Some of the buildings were of stone; a large private +house with a castellated tower was of stone; there were shops, and a +post-office, stores, a restaurant and billiard-hall, and warehouses +for matte, of which much is grown in the region roundabout. Most of +the houses were low, with overhanging, sloping caves; and there were +gardens with high walls, inside of which trees rose, many of them +fragrant. We wandered through the wide, dusty streets, and along the +narrow sidewalks. It was a hot, still evening; the smell of the +tropics was on the heavy December air. Through the open doors and +windows we caught dim glimpses of the half-clad inmates of the poorer +houses; women and young girls sat outside their thresholds in the +moonlight. All whom we met were most friendly: the captain of the +little Brazilian garrison; the intendente, a local trader; another +trader and ranchman, a Uruguayan, who had just received his newspaper +containing my speech in Montevideo, and who, as I gathered from what I +understood of his rather voluble Spanish, was much impressed by my +views on democracy, honesty, liberty, and order (rather well-worn +topics); and a Catalan who spoke French, and who was accompanied by +his pretty daughter, a dear little girl of eight or ten, who said with +much pride that she spoke three languages--Brazilian, Spanish, and +Catalan! Her father expressed strongly his desire for a church and for +a school in the little city. + +When at last the wood was aboard we resumed our journey. The river was +like glass. In the white moonlight the palms on the edge of the banks +stood mirrored in the still water. We sat forward and as we rounded +the curves the long silver reaches of the great stream stretched ahead +of us, and the ghostly outlines of hills rose in the distance. Here +and there prairie fires burned, and the red glow warred with the +moon's radiance. + +Next morning was overcast. Occasionally we passed a wood-yard, or +factory, or cabin, now on the eastern, the Brazilian, now on the +western, the Paraguayan, bank. The Paraguay was known to men of +European birth, bore soldiers and priests and merchants as they sailed +and rowed up and down the current of its stream, and beheld little +towns and forts rise on its banks, long before the Mississippi had +become the white man's highway. Now, along its upper course, the +settlements are much like those on the Mississippi at the end of the +first quarter of the last century; and in the not distant future it +will witness a burst of growth and prosperity much like that which the +Mississippi saw when the old men of today were very young. + +In the early forenoon we stopped at a little Paraguayan hamlet, +nestling in the green growth under a group of low hills by the river- +brink. On one of these hills stood a picturesque old stone fort, known +as Fort Bourbon in the Spanish, the colonial, days. Now the Paraguayan +flag floats over it, and it is garrisoned by a handful of Paraguayan +soldiers. Here Father Zahm baptized two children, the youngest of a +large family of fair-skinned, light-haired small people, whose father +was a Paraguayan and the mother an "Oriental," or Uruguayan. No priest +had visited the village for three years, and the children were +respectively one and two years of age. The sponsors included the local +commandante and a married couple from Austria. In answer to what was +supposed to be the perfunctory question whether they were Catholics, +the parents returned the unexpected answer that they were not. Further +questioning elicited the fact that the father called himself a "free- +thinking Catholic," and the mother said she was a "Protestant +Catholic," her mother having been a Protestant, the daughter of an +immigrant from Normandy. However, it appeared that the older children +had been baptized by the Bishop of Asuncion, so Father Zahm at the +earnest request of the parents proceeded with the ceremony. They were +good people; and, although they wished liberty to think exactly as +they individually pleased, they also wished to be connected and to +have their children connected with some church, by preference the +church of the majority of their people. A very short experience of +communities where there is no church ought to convince the most +heterodox of the absolute need of a church. I earnestly wish that +there could be such an increase in the personnel and equipment of the +Catholic Church in South America as to permit the establishment of one +good and earnest priest in every village or little community in the +far interior. Nor is there any inconsistency between this wish and the +further wish that there could be a marked extension and development of +the native Protestant churches, such as I saw established here and +there in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, and of the Y. M. C. +Associations. The bulk of these good people who profess religion will +continue to be Catholics, but the spiritual needs of a more or less +considerable minority will best be met by the establishment of +Protestant churches, or in places even of a Positivist Church or +Ethical Culture Society. Not only is the establishment of such +churches a good thing for the body politic as a whole, but a good +thing for the Catholic Church itself; for their presence is a constant +spur to activity and clean and honorable conduct, and a constant +reflection on sloth and moral laxity. The government in each of these +commonwealths is doing everything possible to further the cause of +education, and the tendency is to treat education as peculiarly a +function of government and to make it, where the government acts, non- +sectarian, obligatory, and free--a cardinal doctrine of our own great +democracy, to which we are committed by every principle of sound +Americanism. There must be absolute religious liberty, for tyranny and +intolerance are as abhorrent in matters intellectual and spiritual as +in matters political and material; and more and more we must all +realize that conduct is of infinitely greater importance than dogma. +But no democracy can afford to overlook the vital importance of the +ethical and spiritual, the truly religious, element in life; and in +practice the average good man grows clearly to understand this, and to +express the need in concrete form by saying that no community can make +much headway if it does not contain both a church and a school. + +We took breakfast--the eleven-o'clock Brazilian breakfast--on Colonel +Rondon's boat. Caymans were becoming more plentiful. The ugly brutes +lay on the sand-flats and mud-banks like logs, always with the head +raised, sometimes with the jaws open. They are often dangerous to +domestic animals, and are always destructive to fish, and it is good +to shoot them. I killed half a dozen, and missed nearly as many more-- +a throbbing boat does not improve one's aim. We passed forests of +palms that extended for leagues, and vast marshy meadows, where +storks, herons, and ibis were gathered, with flocks of cormorants and +darters on the sand-bars, and stilts, skimmers, and clouds of +beautiful swaying terns in the foreground. About noon we passed the +highest point which the old Spanish conquistadores and explorers, +Irala and Ayolas, had reached in the course of their marvellous +journeys in the first half of the sixteenth century--at a time when +there was not a settlement in what is now the United States, and when +hardly a single English sea captain had ventured so much as to cross +the Atlantic. + +By the following day the country on the east bank had become a vast +marshy plain dotted here and there by tree-clad patches of higher +land. The morning was rainy; a contrast to the fine weather we had +hitherto encountered. We passed wood-yards and cattle-ranches. At one +of the latter the owner, an Argentine of Irish parentage, who still +spoke English with the accent of the land of his parents' nativity, +remarked that this was the first time the American flag had been seen +on the upper Paraguay; for our gunboat carried it at the masthead. +Early in the afternoon, having reached the part where both banks of +the river were Brazilian territory, we came to the old colonial +Portuguese fort of Coimbra. It stands where two steep hills rise, one +on either side of the river, and it guards the water-gorge between +them. It was captured by the Paraguayans in the war of nearly half a +century ago. Some modern guns have been mounted, and there is a +garrison of Brazilian troops. The white fort is perched on the +hillside, where it clings and rises, terrace above terrace, with +bastion and parapet and crenellated wall. At the foot of the hill, on +the riverine plain, stretches the old-time village with its roofs of +palm. In the village dwell several hundred souls, almost entirely the +officers and soldiers and their families. There is one long street. +The one-story, daub-and-wattle houses have low eaves and steep sloping +roofs of palm-leaves or of split palm-trunks. Under one or two old but +small trees there are rude benches; and for a part of the length of +the street there is a rough stone sidewalk. A little graveyard, some +of the tombs very old, stands at one end. As we passed down the street +the wives and the swarming children of the garrison were at the doors +and windows; there were women and girls with skins as fair as any in +the northland, and others that were predominantly negro. Most were of +intervening shades. All this was paralleled among the men; and the +fusion of the colors was going on steadily. + +Around the village black vultures were gathered. Not long before +reaching it we passed some rounded green trees, their tops covered +with the showy wood-ibis; at the same time we saw behind them, farther +inland, other trees crowded with the more delicate forms of the +shining white egrets. + +The river now widened so that in places it looked like a long lake; it +wound in every direction through the endless marshy plain, whose +surface was broken here and there by low mountains. The splendor of +the sunset I never saw surpassed. We were steaming east toward clouds +of storm. The river ran, a broad highway of molten gold, into the +flaming sky; the far-off mountains loomed purple across the marshes; +belts of rich green, the river banks stood out on either side against +the rose-hues of the rippling water; in front, as we forged steadily +onward, hung the tropic night, dim and vast. + +On December 15 we reached Corumba. For three or four miles before it +is reached the west bank, on which it stands, becomes high rocky +ground, falling away into cliffs. The country roundabout was evidently +well peopled. We saw gauchos, cattle-herders--the equivalent of our +own cowboys--riding along the bank. Women were washing clothes, and +their naked children bathing, on the shore; we were told that caymans +and piranhas rarely ventured near a place where so much was going on, +and that accidents generally occurred in ponds or lonely stretches of +the river. Several steamers came out to meet us, and accompanied us +for a dozen miles, with bands playing and the passengers cheering, +just as if we were nearing some town on the Hudson. + +Corumba is on a steep hillside, with wide, roughly paved streets, some +of them lined with beautiful trees that bear scarlet flowers, and with +well-built houses, most of them of one story, some of two or three +stories. We were greeted with a reception by the municipal council, +and were given a state dinner. The hotel, kept by an Italian, was as +comfortable as possible--stone floors, high ceilings, big windows and +doors, a cool, open courtyard, and a shower-bath. Of course Corumba is +still a frontier town. The vehicles ox-carts and mule-carts; there are +no carriages; and oxen as well as mules are used for riding. The water +comes from a big central well; around it the water-carts gather, and +their contents are then peddled around at the different houses. The +families showed the mixture of races characteristic of Brazil; one +mother, after the children had been photographed in their ordinary +costume, begged that we return and take them in their Sunday clothes, +which was accordingly done. In a year the railway from Rio will reach +Corumba; and then this city, and the country roundabout, will see much +development. + +At this point we rejoined the rest of the party, and very glad we were +to see them. Cherrie and Miller had already collected some eight +hundred specimens of mammals and birds. + + + + III. A JAGUAR-HUNT ON THE TAQUARY + +The morning after our arrival at Corumba I asked Colonel Rondon to +inspect our outfit; for his experience of what is necessary in +tropical travelling has been gained through a quarter of a century of +arduous exploration in the wilderness. It was Fiala who had assembled +our food-tents, cooking-utensils, and supplies of all kinds, and he +and Sigg, during their stay in Corumba, had been putting everything in +shape for our start. Colonel Rondon at the end of his inspection said +he had nothing whatever to suggest; that it was extraordinary that +Fiala, without personal knowledge of the tropics, could have gathered +the things most necessary, with the minimum of bulk and maximum of +usefulness. + +Miller had made a special study of the piranhas, which swarmed at one +of the camps he and Cherrie had made in the Chaco. So numerous were +they that the members of the party had to be exceedingly careful in +dipping up water. Miller did not find that they were cannibals toward +their own kind; they were "cannibals" only in the sense of eating the +flesh of men. When dead piranhas, and even when mortally injured +piranhas, with the blood flowing, were thrown among the ravenous +living, they were left unmolested. Moreover, it was Miller's +experience, the direct contrary of which we had been told, that +splashing and a commotion in the water attracted the piranhas, whereas +they rarely attacked anything that was motionless unless it was +bloody. Dead birds and mammals, thrown whole and unskinned into the +water were permitted to float off unmolested, whereas the skinned +carcass of a good-sized monkey was at once seized, pulled under the +water, and completely devoured by the blood-crazy fish. A man who had +dropped something of value waded in after it to above the knees, but +went very slowly and quietly, avoiding every possibility of +disturbance, and not venturing to put his hands into the water. But +nobody could bathe, and even the slightest disturbance in the water, +such as that made by scrubbing the hands vigorously with soap, +immediately attracted the attention of the savage little creatures, +who darted to the place, evidently hoping to find some animal in +difficulties. Once, while Miller and some Indians were attempting to +launch a boat, and were making a great commotion in the water, a +piranha attacked a naked Indian who belonged to the party and +mutilated him as he struggled and splashed, waist-deep in the stream. +Men not making a splashing and struggling are rarely attacked; but if +one is attacked by any chance, the blood in the water maddens the +piranhas, and they assail the man with frightful ferocity. + +At Corumba the weather was hot. In the patio of the comfortable little +hotel we heard the cicadas; but I did not hear the extraordinary +screaming whistle of the locomotive cicada, which I had heard in the +gardens of the house in which I stayed at Asuncion. This was as +remarkable a sound as any animal sound to which I have listened, +except only the batrachian-like wailing of the tree hyrax in East +Africa; and like the East African mammal this South American insect +has a voice, or rather utters a sound which, so far as it resembles +any other animal sound, at the beginning remotely suggests batrachian +affinities. The locomotive-whistle part of the utterance, however, +resembles nothing so much as a small steam siren; when first heard it +seems impossible that it can be produced by an insect. + +On December 17 Colonel Rondon and several members of our party started +on a shallow river steamer for the ranch of Senhor de Barros, "Las +Palmeiras," on the Rio Taquary. We went down the Paraguay for a few +miles, and then up the Taquary. It was a beautiful trip. The shallow +river--we were aground several times--wound through a vast, marshy +plain, with occasional spots of higher land on which trees grew. There +were many water-birds. Darters swarmed. But the conspicuous and +attractive bird was the stately jabiru stork. Flocks of these storks +whitened the marshes and lined the river banks. They were not shy, for +such big birds; before flying they had to run a few paces and then +launch themselves on the air. Once, at noon, a couple soared round +overhead in wide rings, rising higher and higher. On another occasion, +late in the day, a flock passed by, gleaming white with black points +in the long afternoon lights, and with them were spoonbills, showing +rosy amid their snowy companions. Caymans, always called jacares, +swarmed; and we killed scores of the noxious creatures. They were +singularly indifferent to our approach and to the sound of the shots. +Sometimes they ran into the water erect on their legs, looking like +miniatures of the monsters of the prime. One showed by its behavior +how little an ordinary shot pains or affects these dull-nerved, cold- +blooded creatures. As it lay on a sand-bank, it was hit with a long 22 +bullet. It slid into the water but found itself in the midst of a +school of fish. It at once forgot everything except its greedy +appetite, and began catching the fish. It seized fish after fish, +holding its head above water as soon as its jaws had closed on a fish; +and a second bullet killed it. Some of the crocodiles when shot +performed most extraordinary antics. Our weapons, by the way, were +good, except Miller's shotgun. The outfit furnished by the American +Museum was excellent--except in guns and cartridges; this gun was so +bad that Miller had to use Fiala's gun or else my Fox 12-bore. + +In the late afternoon we secured a more interesting creature than the +jacares. Kermit had charge of two hounds which we owed to the courtesy +of one of our Argentine friends. They were biggish, nondescript +animals, obviously good fighters, and they speedily developed the +utmost affection for all the members of the expedition, but especially +for Kermit, who took care of them. One we named "Shenzi," the name +given the wild bush natives by the Swahili, the semi-civilized African +porters. He was good-natured, rough, and stupid--hence his name. The +other was called by a native name, "Trigueiro." The chance now came to +try them. We were steaming between long stretches of coarse grass, +about three feet high, when we spied from the deck a black object, +very conspicuous against the vivid green. It was a giant ant-eater, or +tamandua bandeira, one of the most extraordinary creatures of the +latter-day world. It is about the size of a rather small black bear. +It has a very long, narrow, toothless snout, with a tongue it can +project a couple of feet; it is covered with coarse, black hair, save +for a couple of white stripes; it has a long, bushy tail and very +powerful claws on its fore feet. It walks on the sides of its fore +feet with these claws curved in under the foot. The claws are used in +digging out ant-hills; but the beast has courage, and in a grapple is +a rather unpleasant enemy, in spite of its toothless mouth, for it can +strike a formidable blow with these claws. It sometimes hugs a foe, +gripping him tight; but its ordinary method of defending itself is to +strike with its long, stout, curved claws, which, driven by its +muscular forearm, can rip open man or beast. Several of our companions +had had dogs killed by these ant-eaters; and we came across one man +with a very ugly scar down his back, where he had been hit by one, +which charged him when he came up to kill it at close quarters. + +As soon as we saw the giant tamandua we pushed off in a rowboat, and +landed only a couple of hundred yards distant from our clumsy quarry. +The tamandua throughout most of its habitat rarely leaves the forest, +and it is a helpless animal in the open plain. The two dogs ran ahead, +followed by Colonel Rondon and Kermit, with me behind carrying the +rifle. In a minute or two the hounds overtook the cantering, shuffling +creature, and promptly began a fight with it; the combatants were so +mixed up that I had to wait another minute or so before I could fire +without risk of hitting a dog. We carried our prize back to the bank +and hoisted it aboard the steamer. The sun was just about to set, +behind dim mountains, many miles distant across the marsh. + +Soon afterward we reached one of the outstations of the huge ranch we +were about to visit, and hauled up alongside the bank for the night. +There was a landing-place, and sheds and corrals. Several of the peons +or gauchos had come to meet us. After dark they kindled fires, and sat +beside them singing songs in a strange minor key and strumming +guitars. The red firelight flickered over their wild figures as they +squatted away from the blaze, where the light and the shadow met. It +was still and hot. There were mosquitoes, of course, and other insects +of all kinds swarmed round every light; but the steamboat was +comfortable, and we passed a pleasant night. + +At sunrise we were off for the "fazenda," the ranch of M. de Barros. +The baggage went in an ox-cart--which had to make two trips, so that +all of my belongings reached the ranch a day later than I did. We rode +small, tough ranch horses. The distance was some twenty miles. The +whole country was marsh, varied by stretches of higher ground; and, +although these stretches rose only three or four feet above the marsh, +they were covered with thick jungle, largely palmetto scrub, or else +with open palm forest. For three or four miles we splashed through the +marsh, now and then crossing boggy pools where the little horses +labored hard not to mire down. Our dusky guide was clad in a shirt, +trousers, and fringed leather apron, and wore spurs on his bare feet; +he had a rope for a bridle, and two or three toes of each foot were +thrust into little iron stirrups. + +The pools in the marsh were drying. They were filled with fish, most +of them dead or dying; and the birds had gathered to the banquet. The +most notable dinner guests were the great jabiru storks; the stately +creatures dotted the marsh. But ibis and herons abounded; the former +uttered queer, querulous cries when they discovered our presence. The +spurred lapwings were as noisy as they always are. The ibis and plover +did not pay any heed to the fish; but the black carrion vultures +feasted on them in the mud; and in the pools that were not dry small +alligators, the jacare-tinga, were feasting also. In many places the +stench from the dead fish was unpleasant. + +Then for miles we rode through a beautiful open forest of tall, +slender caranda palms, with other trees scattered among them. Green +parakeets with black heads chattered as they flew; noisy green and red +parrots climbed among the palms; and huge macaws, some entirely blue, +others almost entirely red, screamed loudly as they perched in the +trees or took wing at our approach. If one was wounded its cries kept +its companions circling around overhead. The naturalists found the +bird fauna totally different from that which they had been collecting +in the hill country near Corumba, seventy or eighty miles distant; and +birds swarmed, both species and individuals. South America has the +most extensive and most varied avifauna of all the continents. On the +other hand, its mammalian fauna, although very interesting, is rather +poor in number of species and individuals and in the size of the +beasts. It possesses more mammals that are unique and distinctive in +type than does any other continent save Australia; and they are of +higher and much more varied types than in Australia. But there is +nothing approaching the majesty, beauty, and swarming mass of the +great mammalian life of Africa and, in a less degree, of tropical +Asia; indeed, it does not even approach the similar mammalian life of +North America and northern Eurasia, poor though this is compared with +the seething vitality of tropical life in the Old World. During a +geologically recent period, a period extending into that which saw man +spread over the world in substantially the physical and cultural stage +of many existing savages, South America possessed a varied and +striking fauna of enormous beasts--sabre-tooth tigers, huge lions, +mastodons, horses of many kinds, camel-like pachyderms, giant ground- +sloths, mylodons the size of the rhinoceros, and many, many other +strange and wonderful creatures. From some cause, concerning the +nature of which we cannot at present even hazard a guess, this vast +and giant fauna vanished completely, the tremendous catastrophe (the +duration of which is unknown) not being consummated until within a few +thousand or a few score thousand years. When the white man reached +South America he found the same weak and impoverished mammalian fauna +that exists practically unchanged to-day. Elsewhere civilized man has +been even more destructive than his very destructive uncivilized +brothers of the magnificent mammalian life of the wilderness; for ages +he has been rooting out the higher forms of beast life in Europe, +Asia, and North Africa; and in our own day he has repeated the feat, +on a very large scale, in the rest of Africa and in North America. But +in South America, although he is in places responsible for the wanton +slaughter of the most interesting and the largest, or the most +beautiful, birds, his advent has meant a positive enrichment of the +wild mammalian fauna. None of the native grass-eating mammals, the +graminivores, approach in size and beauty the herds of wild or half- +wild cattle and horses, or so add to the interest of the landscape. +There is every reason why the good people of South America should +waken, as we of North America, very late in the day, are beginning to +waken, and as the peoples of northern Europe--not southern Europe-- +have already partially wakened, to the duty of preserving from +impoverishment and extinction the wild life which is an asset of such +interest and value in our several lands; but the case against +civilized man in this matter is gruesomely heavy anyhow, when the +plain truth is told, and it is harmed by exaggeration. + +After five or six hours' travelling through this country of marsh and +of palm forest we reached the ranch for which we were heading. In the +neighborhood stood giant fig-trees, singly or in groups, with dense, +dark green foliage. Ponds, overgrown with water-plants, lay about; wet +meadow, and drier pastureland, open or dotted with palms and varied +with tree jungle, stretched for many miles on every hand. There are +some thirty thousand head of cattle on the ranch, besides herds of +horses and droves of swine, and a few flocks of sheep and goats. The +home buildings of the ranch stood in a quadrangle, surrounded by a +fence or low stockade. One end of the quadrangle was formed by the +ranch-house itself, one story high, with whitewashed walls and red- +tiled roof. Inside, the rooms were bare, with clean, whitewashed walls +and palm-trunk rafters. There were solid wooden shutters on the +unglazed windows. We slept in hammocks or on cots, and we feasted +royally on delicious native Brazilian dishes. On another side of the +quadrangle stood another long, low white building with a red-tiled +roof; this held the kitchen and the living-rooms of the upper-grade +peons, the headmen, the cook, and jaguar-hunters, with their families: +dark-skinned men, their wives showing varied strains of white, Indian, +and negro blood. The children tumbled merrily in the dust, and were +fondly tended by their mothers. Opposite the kitchen stood a row of +buildings, some whitewashed daub and wattle, with tin roofs, others of +erect palm-logs with palm-leaf thatch. These were the saddle-room, +storehouse, chicken-house, and stable. The chicken-house was allotted +to Kermit and Miller for the preparation of the specimens; and there +they worked industriously. With a big skin, like that of the giant +ant-eater, they had to squat on the ground; while the ducklings and +wee chickens scuffled not only round the skin but all over it, +grabbing the shreds and scraps of meat and catching flies. The fourth +end of the quadrangle was formed by a corral and a big wooden +scaffolding on which hung hides and strips of drying meat. +Extraordinary to relate, there were no mosquitoes at the ranch; why I +cannot say, as they ought to swarm in these vast "pantanals," or +swamps. Therefore, in spite of the heat, it was very pleasant. Near by +stood other buildings: sheds, and thatched huts of palm-logs in which +the ordinary peons lived, and big corrals. In the quadrangle were +flamboyant trees, with their masses of brilliant red flowers and +delicately cut, vivid-green foliage. Noisy oven-birds haunted these +trees. In a high palm in the garden a family of green parakeets had +taken up their abode and were preparing to build nests. They chattered +incessantly both when they flew and when they sat or crawled among the +branches. Ibis and plover, crying and wailing, passed immediately +overhead. Jacanas frequented the ponds near by; the peons, with a +familiarity which to us seems sacrilegious, but to them was entirely +inoffensive and matter of course, called them "the Jesus Christ +birds," because they walked on the water. There was a wealth of +strange bird life in the neighborhood. There were large papyrus- +marshes, the papyrus not being a fifth, perhaps not a tenth, as high +as in Africa. In these swamps were many blackbirds. Some uttered notes +that reminded me of our own redwings. Others, with crimson heads and +necks and thighs, fairly blazed; often a dozen sat together on a +swaying papyrus-stem which their weight bent over. There were all +kinds of extraordinary bird's-nests in the trees. There is still need +for the work of the collector in South America. But I believe that +already, so far as birds are concerned, there is infinitely more need +for the work of the careful observer, who to the power of appreciation +and observation adds the power of vivid, truthful, and interesting +narration--which means, as scientists no less than historians should +note, that training in the writing of good English is indispensable to +any learned man who expects to make his learning count for what it +ought to count in the effect on his fellow men. The outdoor +naturalist, the faunal naturalist, who devotes himself primarily to a +study of the habits and of the life-histories of birds, beasts, fish, +and reptiles, and who can portray truthfully and vividly what he has +seen, could do work of more usefulness than any mere collector, in +this upper Paraguay country. The work of the collector is +indispensable; but it is only a small part of the work that ought to +be done; and after collecting has reached a certain point the work of +the field observer with the gift for recording what he has seen +becomes of far more importance. + +The long days spent riding through the swamp, the "pantanal," were +pleasant and interesting. Several times we saw the tamandua bandeira, +the giant ant-bear. Kermit shot one, because the naturalists eagerly +wished for a second specimen; afterward we were relieved of all +necessity to molest the strange, out-of-date creatures. It was a +surprise to us to find them habitually frequenting the open marsh. +They were always on muddy ground, and in the papyrus-swamp we found +them in several inches of water. The stomach is thick-walled, like a +gizzard; the stomachs of those we shot contained adult and larval +ants, chiefly termites, together with plenty of black mould and +fragments of leaves, both green and dry. Doubtless the earth and the +vegetable matter had merely been taken incidentally, adhering to the +viscid tongue when it was thrust into the ant masses. Out in the open +marsh the tamandua could neither avoid observation, nor fight +effectively, nor make good its escape by flight. It was curious to see +one lumbering off at a rocking canter, the big bushy tail held aloft. +One, while fighting the dogs, suddenly threw itself on its back, +evidently hoping to grasp a dog with its paws; and it now and then +reared, in order to strike at its assailants. In one patch of thick +jungle we saw a black howler monkey sitting motionless in a tree top. +We also saw the swamp-deer, about the size of our blacktail. It is a +real swamp animal, for we found it often in the papyrus-swamps, and +out in the open marsh, knee-deep in the water, among the aquatic +plants. + +The tough little horses bore us well through the marsh. Often in +crossing bayous and ponds the water rose almost to their backs; but +they splashed and waded and if necessary swam through. The dogs were a +wild-looking set. Some were of distinctly wolfish appearance. These, +we were assured, were descended in part from the big red wolf of the +neighborhood, a tall, lank animal, with much smaller teeth than a big +northern wolf. The domestic dog is undoubtedly descended from at least +a dozen different species of wild dogs, wolves, and jackals, some of +them probably belonging to what we style different genera. The degree +of fecundity or lack of fecundity between different species varies in +extraordinary and inexplicable fashion in different families of +mammals. In the horse family, for instance, the species are not +fertile inter se; whereas among the oxen, species seemingly at least +as widely separated as the horse, ass, and zebra species such as the +domestic ox, bison, yak, and gaur breed freely together and their +offspring are fertile; the lion and tiger also breed together, and +produce offspring which will breed with either parent stock; and tame +dogs in different quarters of the world, although all of them fertile +inter se, are in many cases obviously blood kin to the neighboring +wild, wolf-like or jackal-like creatures which are specifically, and +possibly even generically, distinct from one another. The big red wolf +of the South American plains is not closely related to the northern +wolves; and it was to me unexpected to find it interbreeding with +ordinary domestic dogs. + +In the evenings after dinner we sat in the bare ranch dining-room, or +out under the trees in the hot darkness, and talked of many things: +natural history with the naturalists, and all kinds of other subjects +both with them and with our Brazilian friends. Colonel Rondon is not +simply "an officer and a gentleman" in the sense that is honorably +true of the best army officers in every good military service. He is +also a peculiarly hardy and competent explorer, a good field +naturalist and scientific man, a student and a philosopher. With him +the conversation ranged from jaguar-hunting and the perils of +exploration in the "Matto Grosso," the great wilderness, to Indian +anthropology, to the dangers of a purely materialistic industrial +civilization, and to Positivist morality. The colonel's Positivism was +in very fact to him a religion of humanity, a creed which bade him be +just and kindly and useful to his fellow men, to live his life +bravely, and no less bravely to face death, without reference to what +he believed, or did not believe, or to what the unknown hereafter +might hold for him. + +The native hunters who accompanied us were swarthy men of mixed blood. +They were barefooted and scantily clad, and each carried a long, +clumsy spear and a keen machete, in the use of which he was an expert. +Now and then, in thick jungle, we had to cut out a path, and it was +interesting to see one of them, although cumbered by his unwieldy +spear, handling his half-broken little horse with complete ease while +he hacked at limbs and branches. Of the two ordinarily with us one was +much the younger; and whenever we came to an unusually doubtful- +looking ford or piece of boggy ground the elder man always sent the +younger one on and sat on the bank until he saw what befell the +experimenter. In that rather preposterous book of our youth, the +"Swiss Family Robinson," mention is made of a tame monkey called Nips, +which was used to test all edible-looking things as to the +healthfulness of which the adventurers felt doubtful; and because of +the obvious resemblance of function we christened this younger hunter +Nips. Our guides were not only hunters but cattle-herders. The coarse +dead grass is burned to make room for the green young grass on which +the cattle thrive. Every now and then one of the men, as he rode ahead +of us, without leaving the saddle, would drop a lighted match into a +tussock of tall dead blades; and even as we who were behind rode by +tongues of hot flame would be shooting up and a local prairie fire +would have started. + +Kermit took Nips off with him for a solitary hunt one day. He shot two +of the big marsh-deer, a buck and a doe, and preserved them as museum +specimens. They were in the papyrus growth, but their stomachs +contained only the fine marsh-grass which grows in the water and on +the land along the edges of the swamps; the papyrus was used only for +cover, not for food. The buck had two big scent-glands beside the +nostrils; in the doe these were rudimentary. On this day Kermit also +came across a herd of the big, fierce white-lipped peccary; at the +sound of their grunting Nips promptly spurred his horse and took to +his heels, explaining that the peccaries would charge them, hamstring +the horses, and kill the riders. Kermit went into the jungle after the +truculent little wild hogs on foot and followed them for an hour, but +never was able to catch sight of them. + +In the afternoon of this same day one of the jaguar-hunters--merely +ranch hands, who knew something of the chase of the jaguar--who had +been searching for tracks, rode in with the information that he had +found fresh sign at a spot in the swamp about nine miles distant. Next +morning we rose at two, and had started on our jaguar-hunt at three. +Colonel Rondon, Kermit, and I, with the two trailers or jaguar- +hunters, made up the party, each on a weedy, undersized marsh pony, +accustomed to traversing the vast stretches of morass; and we were +accompanied by a brown boy, with saddle-bags holding our lunch, who +rode a long-horned trotting steer which he managed by a string through +its nostril and lip. The two trailers carried each a long, clumsy +spear. We had a rather poor pack. Besides our own two dogs, neither of +which was used to jaguar-hunting, there were the ranch dogs, which +were well-nigh worthless, and then two jaguar hounds borrowed for the +occasion from a ranch six or eight leagues distant. These were the +only hounds on which we could place any trust, and they were led in +leashes by the two trailers. One was a white bitch, the other, the +best one we had, was a gelded black dog. They were lean, half-starved +creatures with prick ears and a look of furtive wildness. + +As our shabby little horses shuffled away from the ranch-house the +stars were brilliant and the Southern Cross hung well up in the +heavens, tilted to the right. The landscape was spectral in the light +of the waning moon. At the first shallow ford, as horses and dogs +splashed across, an alligator, the jacare-tinga, some five feet long, +floated unconcernedly among the splashing hoofs and paws; evidently at +night it did not fear us. Hour after hour we slogged along. Then the +night grew ghostly with the first dim gray of the dawn. The sky had +become overcast. The sun rose red and angry through broken clouds; his +disk flamed behind the tall, slender columns of the palms, and lit the +waste fields of papyrus. The black monkeys howled mournfully. The +birds awoke. Macaws, parrots, parakeets screamed at us and chattered +at us as we rode by. Ibis called with wailing voices, and the plovers +shrieked as they wheeled in the air. We waded across bayous and ponds, +where white lilies floated on the water and thronging lilac-flowers +splashed the green marsh with color. + +At last, on the edge of a patch of jungle, in wet ground, we came on +fresh jaguar tracks. Both the jaguar hounds challenged the sign. They +were unleashed and galloped along the trail, while the other dogs +noisily accompanied them. The hunt led right through the marsh. +Evidently the jaguar had not the least distaste for water. Probably it +had been hunting for capybaras or tapirs, and it had gone straight +through ponds and long, winding, narrow ditches or bayous, where it +must now and then have had to swim for a stroke or two. It had also +wandered through the island-like stretches of tree-covered land, the +trees at this point being mostly palms and tarumans; the taruman is +almost as big as a live-oak, with glossy foliage and a fruit like an +olive. The pace quickened, the motley pack burst into yelling and +howling; and then a sudden quickening of the note showed that the game +had either climbed a tree or turned to bay in a thicket. The former +proved to be the case. The dogs had entered a patch of tall tree +jungle, and as we cantered up through the marsh we saw the jaguar high +among the forked limbs of a taruman tree. It was a beautiful picture-- +the spotted coat of the big, lithe, formidable cat fairly shone as it +snarled defiance at the pack below. I did not trust the pack; the dogs +were not stanch, and if the jaguar came down and started I feared we +might lose it. So I fired at once, from a distance of seventy yards. I +was using my favorite rifle, the little Springfield with which I have +killed most kinds of African game, from the lion and elephant down; +the bullets were the sharp, pointed kind, with the end of naked lead. +At the shot the jaguar fell like a sack of sand through the branches, +and although it staggered to its feet it went but a score of yards +before it sank down, and when I came up it was dead under the palms, +with three or four of the bolder dogs riving at it. + +The jaguar is the king of South American game, ranking on an equality +with the noblest beasts of the chase of North America, and behind only +the huge and fierce creatures which stand at the head of the big game +of Africa and Asia. This one was an adult female. It was heavier and +more powerful than a full-grown male cougar, or African panther or +leopard. It was a big, powerfully built creature, giving the same +effect of strength that a tiger or lion does, and that the lithe +leopards and pumas do not. Its flesh, by the way, proved good eating, +when we had it for supper, although it was not cooked in the way it +ought to have been. I tried it because I had found cougars such good +eating; I have always regretted that in Africa I did not try lion's +flesh, which I am sure must be excellent. + +Next day came Kermit's turn. We had the miscellaneous pack with us, +all much enjoying themselves; but, although they could help in a +jaguar-hunt to the extent of giving tongue and following the chase for +half a mile, cowing the quarry by their clamor, they were not +sufficiently stanch to be of use if there was any difficulty in the +hunt. The only two dogs we could trust were the two borrowed jaguar +hounds. This was the black dog's day. About ten in the morning we came +to a long, deep, winding bayou. On the opposite bank stood a capybara, +looking like a blunt-nosed pig, its wet hide shining black. I killed +it, and it slid into the water. Then I found that the bayou extended +for a mile or two in each direction, and the two hunter-guides said +they did not wish to swim across for fear of the piranhas. Just at +this moment we came across fresh jaguar tracks. It was hot, we had +been travelling for five hours, and the dogs were much exhausted. The +black hound in particular was nearly done up, for he had been led in a +leash by one of the horsemen. He lay flat on the ground, panting, +unable to catch the scent. Kermit threw water over him, and when he +was thoroughly drenched and freshened, thrust his nose into the +jaguar's footprints. The game old hound at once and eagerly responded. +As he snuffed the scent he challenged loudly, while still lying down. +Then he staggered to his feet and started on the trail, going stronger +with every leap. Evidently the big cat was not far distant. Soon we +found where it had swum across the bayou. Piranhas or no piranhas, we +now intended to get across; and we tried to force our horses in at +what seemed a likely spot. The matted growth of water-plants, with +their leathery, slippery stems, formed an unpleasant barrier, as the +water was swimming-deep for the horses. The latter were very unwilling +to attempt the passage. Kermit finally forced his horse through the +tangled mass, swimming, plunging, and struggling. He left a lane of +clear water, through which we swam after him. The dogs splashed and +swam behind us. On the other bank they struck the fresh trail and +followed it at a run. It led into a long belt of timber, chiefly +composed of low-growing nacury palms, with long, drooping, many- +fronded branches. In silhouette they suggest coarse bamboos; the nuts +hang in big clusters and look like bunches of small, unripe bananas. +Among the lower palms were scattered some big ordinary trees. We +cantered along outside the timber belt, listening to the dogs within; +and in a moment a burst of yelling clamor from the pack told that the +jaguar was afoot. These few minutes are the really exciting moments in +the chase, with hounds, of any big cat that will tree. The furious +baying of the pack, the shouts and cheers of encouragement from the +galloping horsemen, the wilderness surroundings, the knowledge of what +the quarry is--all combine to make the moment one of fierce and +thrilling excitement. Besides, in this case there was the possibility +the jaguar might come to bay on the ground, in which event there would +be a slight element of risk, as it might need straight shooting to +stop a charge. However, about as soon as the long-drawn howling and +eager yelping showed that the jaguar had been overtaken, we saw him, a +huge male, up in the branches of a great fig-tree. A bullet behind the +shoulder, from Kermit's 405 Winchester, brought him dead to the +ground. He was heavier than the very big male horse-killing cougar I +shot in Colorado, whose skull Hart Merriam reported as the biggest he +had ever seen; he was very nearly double the weight of any of the male +African leopards we shot; he was nearly or quite the weight of the +smallest of the adult African lionesses we shot while in Africa. He +had the big bones, the stout frame, and the heavy muscular build of a +small lion; he was not lithe and slender and long like a cougar or +leopard; the tail, as with all jaguars, was short, while the girth of +the body was great; his coat was beautiful, with a satiny gloss, and +the dark-brown spots on the gold of his back, head, and sides were +hardly as conspicuous as the black of the equally well-marked spots +against his white belly. + +This was a well-known jaguar. He had occasionally indulged in cattle- +killing; on one occasion during the floods he had taken up his abode +near the ranch-house and had killed a couple of cows and a young +steer. The hunters had followed him, but he had made his escape, and +for the time being had abandoned the neighborhood. In these marshes +each jaguar had a wide irregular range and travelled a good deal, +perhaps only passing a day or two in a given locality, perhaps +spending a week where game was plentiful. Jaguars love the water. They +drink greedily and swim freely. In this country they rambled through +the night across the marshes and prowled along the edges of the ponds +and bayous, catching the capybaras and the caymans; for these small +pond caymans, the jacare-tinga, form part of their habitual food, and +a big jaguar when hungry will attack and kill large caymans and +crocodiles if he can get them a few yards from the water. On these +marshes the jaguars also followed the peccary herds; it is said that +they always strike the hindmost of a band of the fierce little wild +pigs. Elsewhere they often prey on the tapir. If in timber, however, +the jaguar must kill it at once, for the squat, thick-skinned, wedge- +shaped tapir has no respect for timber, as Colonel Rondon phrased it, +and rushes with such blind, headlong speed through and among branches +and trunks that if not immediately killed it brushes the jaguar off, +the claws leaving long raking scars in the tough hide. Cattle are +often killed. The jaguar will not meddle with a big bull; and is +cautious about attacking a herd accompanied by a bull; but it will at +times, where wild game is scarce, kill every other domestic animal. It +is a thirsty brute, and if it kills far from water will often drag its +victim a long distance toward a pond or stream; Colonel Rondon had +once come across a horse which a jaguar had thus killed and dragged +for over a mile. Jaguars also stalk and kill the deer; in this +neighborhood they seemed to be less habitual deer-hunters than the +cougars; whether this is generally the case I cannot say. They have +been known to pounce on and devour good-sized anacondas. + +In this particular neighborhood the ordinary jaguars molested the +cattle and horses hardly at all except now and then to kill calves. It +was only occasionally that under special circumstances some old male +took to cattle-killing. There were plenty of capybaras and deer, and +evidently the big spotted cats preferred the easier prey when it was +available; exactly as in East Africa we found the lions living almost +exclusively on zebra and antelope, and not molesting the buffalo and +domestic cattle, which in other parts of Africa furnish their habitual +prey. In some other neighborhoods, not far distant, our hosts informed +us that the jaguars lived almost exclusively on horses and cattle. +They also told us that the cougars had the same habits as the jaguars +except that they did not prey on such big animals. The cougars on this +ranch never molested the foals, a fact which astonished me, as in the +Rockies they are the worst enemies of foals. It was interesting to +find that my hosts, and the mixed-blood hunters and ranch workers, +combined special knowledge of many of the habits of these big cats +with a curious ignorance of other matters concerning them and a +readiness to believe fables about them. This was precisely what I had +found to be the case with the old-time North American hunters in +discussing the puma, bear, and wolf, and with the English and Boer +hunters of Africa when they spoke of the lion and rhinoceros. Until +the habit of scientific accuracy in observation and record is achieved +and until specimens are preserved and carefully compared, entirely +truthful men, at home in the wilderness, will whole-heartedly accept, +and repeat as matters of gospel faith, theories which split the +grizzly and black bears of each locality in the United States, and the +lions and black rhinos of South Africa, or the jaguars and pumas of +any portion of South America, into several different species, all with +widely different habits. They will, moreover, describe these imaginary +habits with such sincerity and minuteness that they deceive most +listeners; and the result sometimes is that an otherwise good +naturalist will perpetuate these fables, as Hudson did when he wrote +of the puma. Hudson was a capital observer and writer when he dealt +with the ordinary birds and mammals of the well-settled districts near +Buenos Aires and at the mouth of the Rio Negro; but he knew nothing of +the wilderness. This is no reflection on him; his books are great +favorites of mine, and are to a large degree models of what such books +should be; I only wish that there were hundreds of such writers and +observers who would give us similar books for all parts of America. +But it is a mistake to accept him as an authority on that concerning +which he was ignorant. + +An interesting incident occurred on the day we killed our first +jaguar. We took our lunch beside a small but deep and obviously +permanent pond. I went to the edge to dip up some water, and something +growled or bellowed at me only a few feet away. It was a jacare-tinga +or small cayman about five feet long. I paid no heed to it at the +moment. But shortly afterward when our horses went down to drink it +threatened them and frightened them; and then Colonel Rondon and +Kermit called me to watch it. It lay on the surface of the water only +a few feet distant from us and threatened us; we threw cakes of mud at +it, whereupon it clashed its jaws and made short rushes at us, and +when we threw sticks it seized them and crunched them. We could not +drive it away. Why it should have shown such truculence and +heedlessness I cannot imagine, unless perhaps it was a female, with +eggs near by. In another little pond a jacare-tinga showed no less +anger when another of my companions approached. It bellowed, opened +its jaws, and lashed its tail. Yet these pond jacares never actually +molested even our dogs in the ponds, far less us on our horses. + +This same day others of our party had an interesting experience with +the creatures in another pond. One of them was Commander da Cunha (of +the Brazilian Navy), a capital sportsman and delightful companion. +They found a deepish pond a hundred yards or so long and thirty or +forty across. It was tenanted by the small caymans and by capybaras-- +the largest known rodent, a huge aquatic guinea-pig, the size of a +small sheep. It also swarmed with piranhas, the ravenous fish of which +I have so often spoken. Undoubtedly the caymans were subsisting +largely on these piranhas. But the tables were readily turned if any +caymans were injured. When a capybara was shot and sank in the water, +the piranhas at once attacked it, and had eaten half the carcass ten +minutes later. But much more extraordinary was the fact that when a +cayman about five feet long was wounded the piranhas attacked and tore +it, and actually drove it out on the bank to face its human foes. The +fish first attacked the wound; then, as the blood maddened them, they +attacked all the soft parts, their terrible teeth cutting out chunks +of tough hide and flesh. Evidently they did not molest either cayman +or capybara while it was unwounded; but blood excited them to frenzy. +Their habits are in some ways inexplicable. We saw men frequently +bathing unmolested; but there are places where this is never safe, and +in any place if a school of the fish appear swimmers are in danger; +and a wounded man or beast is in deadly peril if piranhas are in the +neighborhood. Ordinarily it appears that an unwounded man is attacked +only by accident. Such accidents are rare; but they happen with +sufficient frequency to justify much caution in entering water where +piranhas abound. + +We frequently came across ponds tenanted by numbers of capybaras. The +huge, pig-like rodents are said to be shy elsewhere. Here they were +tame. The water was their home and refuge. They usually went ashore to +feed on the grass, and made well-beaten trails in the marsh +immediately around the water; but they must have travelled these at +night, for we never saw them more than a few feet away from the water +in the daytime. Even at midday we often came on them standing beside a +bayou or pond. The dogs would rush wildly at such a standing beast, +which would wait until they were only a few yards off and then dash +into and under the water. The dogs would also run full tilt into the +water, and it was then really funny to see their surprise and +disappointment at the sudden and complete disappearance of their +quarry. Often a capybara would stand or sit on its haunches in the +water, with only its blunt, short-eared head above the surface, quite +heedless of our presence. But if alarmed it would dive, for capybaras +swim with equal facility on or below the surface; and if they wish to +hide they rise gently among the rushes or water-lily leaves with only +their nostrils exposed. In these waters the capybaras and small +caymans paid no attention to one another, swimming and resting in +close proximity. They both had the same enemy, the jaguar. The +capybara is a game animal only in the sense that a hare or rabbit is. +The flesh is good to eat, and its amphibious habits and queer nature +and surroundings make it interesting. In some of the ponds the water +had about gone, and the capybaras had become for the time being beasts +of the marsh and the mud; although they could always find little slimy +pools, under a mass of water-lilies, in which to lie and hide. + +Our whole stay on this ranch was delightful. On the long rides we +always saw something of interest, and often it was something entirely +new to us. Early one morning we came across two armadillos--the big, +nine-banded armadillo. We were riding with the pack through a dry, +sandy pasture country, dotted with clumps of palms, round the trunks +of which grew a dense jungle of thorns and Spanish bayonets. The +armadillos were feeding in an open space between two of these jungle +clumps, which were about a hundred yards apart. One was on all fours; +the other was in a squatting position, with its fore legs off the +ground. Their long ears were very prominent. The dogs raced at them. I +had always supposed that armadillos merely shuffled along, and curled +up for protection when menaced; and I was almost as surprised as if I +had seen a turtle gallop when these two armadillos bounded off at a +run, going as fast as rabbits. One headed back for the nearest patch +of jungle, which it reached. The other ran at full speed--and ran +really fast, too--until it nearly reached the other patch, a hundred +yards distant, the dogs in full cry immediately behind it. Then it +suddenly changed its mind, wheeled in its tracks, and came back like a +bullet right through the pack. Dog after dog tried to seize it or stop +it and turned to pursue it; but its wedge-shaped snout and armored +body, joined to the speed at which it was galloping, enabled it to +drive straight ahead through its pursuers, not one of which could halt +it or grasp it, and it reached in safety its thorny haven of refuge. +It had run at speed about a hundred and fifty yards. I was much +impressed by this unexpected exhibition; evidently this species of +armadillo only curls up as a last resort, and ordinarily trusts to its +speed, and to the protection its build and its armor give it while +running, in order to reach its burrow or other place of safety. Twice, +while laying railway tracks near Sao Paulo, Kermit had accidentally +dug up armadillos with a steam-shovel. + +There were big ant-hills, some of them of huge dimensions, scattered +through the country. Sometimes they were built against the stems of +trees. We did not here come across any of the poisonous or biting ants +which, when sufficiently numerous, render certain districts +uninhabitable. They are ordinarily not very numerous. Those of them +that march in large bodies kill nestling birds, and at once destroy +any big animal unable to get out of their way. It has been suggested +that nestlings in their nests are in some way immune from the attack +of these ants. The experiments of our naturalists tended to show that +this was not the case. They plundered any nest they came across and +could get at. + +Once we saw a small herd of peccaries, one a sow followed by three +little pigs--they are said to have only two young, but we saw three, +although of course it is possible one belonged to another sow. The +herd galloped into a mass of thorny cover the hounds could not +penetrate; and when they were in safety we heard them utter, from the +depths of the jungle, a curious moaning sound. + +On one ride we passed a clump of palms which were fairly ablaze with +bird color. There were magnificent hyacinth macaws; green parrots with +red splashes; toucans with varied plumage, black, white, red, yellow; +green jacmars; flaming orioles and both blue and dark-red tanagers. It +was an extraordinary collection. All were noisy. Perhaps there was a +snake that had drawn them by its presence; but we could find no snake. +The assembly dispersed as we rode up; the huge blue macaws departed in +pairs, uttering their hoarse "ar-rah-h, ar-rah-h." It has been said +that parrots in the wilderness are only noisy on the wing. They are +certainly noisy on the wing; and those that we saw were quiet while +they were feeding; but ordinarily when they were perched among the +branches, and especially when, as in the case of the little parakeets +near the house, they were gathering materials for nest-building, they +were just as noisy as while flying. + +The water-birds were always a delight. We shot merely the two or three +specimens the naturalists needed for the museum. I killed a wood-ibis +on the wing with the handy little Springfield, and then lost all the +credit I had thus gained by a series of inexcusable misses, at long +range, before I finally killed a jabiru. Kermit shot a jabiru with the +Luger automatic. The great, splendid birds, standing about as tall as +a man, show fight when wounded, and advance against their assailants, +clattering their formidable bills. One day we found the nest of a +jabiru in a mighty fig-tree, on the edge of a patch of jungle. It was +a big platform of sticks, placed on a horizontal branch. There were +four half-grown young standing on it. We passed it in the morning, +when both parents were also perched alongside; the sky was then +overcast, and it was not possible to photograph it with the small +camera. In the early afternoon when we again passed it the sun was +out, and we tried to get photographs. Only one parent bird was present +at this time. It showed no fear. I noticed that, as it stood on a +branch near the nest, its bill was slightly open. It was very hot, and +I suppose it had opened its bill just as a hen opens her bill in hot +weather. As we rode away the old bird and the four young birds were +standing motionless, and with gliding flight the other old bird was +returning to the nest. It is hard to give an adequate idea of the +wealth of bird life in these marshes. A naturalist could with the +utmost advantage spend six months on such a branch as that we visited. +He would have to do some collecting, but only a little. Exhaustive +observation in the field is what is now most needed. Most of this +wonderful and harmless bird life should be protected by law; and the +mammals should receive reasonable protection. The books now most +needed are those dealing with the life-histories of wild creatures. + +Near the ranch-house, walking familiarly among the cattle, we saw the +big, deep-billed Ani blackbirds. They feed on the insects disturbed by +the hoofs of the cattle, and often cling to them and pick off the +ticks. It was the end of the nesting season, and we did not find their +curious communal nests, in which half a dozen females lay their eggs +indiscriminately. The common ibises in the ponds near by--which +usually went in pairs, instead of in flocks like the wood ibis--were +very tame, and so were the night herons and all the small herons. In +flying, the ibises and storks stretch the neck straight in front of +them. The jabiru--a splendid bird on the wing--also stretches his neck +out in front, but there appears to be a slight downward curve at the +base of the neck, which may be due merely to the craw. The big slender +herons, on the contrary, bend the long neck back in a beautiful curve, +so that the head is nearly between the shoulders. One day I saw what I +at first thought was a small yellow-bellied kingfisher hovering over a +pond, and finally plunging down to the surface of the water after a +school of tiny young fish; but it proved to be a bien-te-vi king-bird. +Curved-bill wood-hewers, birds the size and somewhat the coloration of +veeries, but with long, slender sickle-bills, were common in the +little garden back of the house; their habits were those of creepers, +and they scrambled with agility up, along, and under the trunks and +branches, and along the posts and rails of the fence, thrusting the +bill into crevices for insects. The oven-birds, which had the carriage +and somewhat the look of wood-thrushes, I am sure would prove +delightful friends on a close acquaintance; they are very individual, +not only in the extraordinary domed mud nests they build, but in all +their ways, in their bright alertness; their interest in and curiosity +about whatever goes on, their rather jerky quickness of movement, and +their loud and varied calls. With a little encouragement they become +tame and familiar. The parakeets were too noisy, but otherwise were +most attractive little birds, as they flew to and fro and scrambled +about in the top of the palm behind the house. There was one showy +kind of king-bird or tyrant flycatcher, lustrous black with a white +head. + +One afternoon several score cattle were driven into a big square +corral near the house, in order to brand the calves and a number of +unbranded yearlings and two-year-olds. A special element of excitement +was added by the presence of a dozen big bulls which were to be turned +into draught-oxen. The agility, nerve, and prowess of the ranch +workmen, the herders or gauchos, were noteworthy. The dark-skinned men +were obviously mainly of Indian and negro descent, although some of +them also showed a strong strain of white blood. They wore the usual +shirt, trousers, and fringed leather apron, with jim-crow hats. Their +bare feet must have been literally as tough as horn; for when one of +them roped a big bull he would brace himself, bending back until he +was almost sitting down and digging his heels into the ground, and the +galloping beast would be stopped short and whirled completely round +when the rope tautened. The maddened bulls, and an occasional steer or +cow, charged again and again with furious wrath; but two or three +ropes would settle on the doomed beast, and down it would go; and when +it was released and rose and charged once more, with greater fury than +ever, the men, shouting with laughter, would leap up the sides of the +heavy stockade. + +We stayed at the ranch until a couple of days before Christmas. +Hitherto the weather had been lovely. The night before we left there +was a torrential tropic downpour. It was not unexpected, for we had +been told that the rainy season was overdue. The following forenoon +the baggage started, in a couple of two-wheeled ox-carts, for the +landing where the steamboat awaited us. Each cart was drawn by eight +oxen. The huge wheels were over seven feet high. Early in the +afternoon we followed on horseback, and overtook the carts as darkness +fell, just before we reached the landing on the river's bank. The last +few miles, after the final reaches of higher, tree-clad ground had +been passed, were across a level plain of low ground on which the +water stood, sometimes only up to the ankles of a man on foot, +sometimes as high as his waist. Directly in front of us, many leagues +distant, rose the bold mountains that lie west of Corumba. Behind them +the sun was setting and kindled the overcast heavens with lurid +splendor. Then the last rose tints faded from the sky; the horses +plodded wearily through the water; on every side stretched the marsh, +vast, lonely, desolate in the gray of the half-light. We overtook the +ox-carts. The cattle strained in the yokes; the drivers wading +alongside cracked their whips and uttered strange cries; the carts +rocked and swayed as the huge wheels churned through the mud and +water. As the last light faded we reached the small patches of dry +land at the landing, where the flat-bottomed side-wheel steamboat was +moored to the bank. The tired horses and oxen were turned loose to +graze. Water stood in the corrals, but the open shed was on dry +ground. Under it the half-clad, wild-looking ox-drivers and horse- +herders slung their hammocks; and close by they lit a fire and +roasted, or scorched, slabs and legs of mutton, spitted on sticks and +propped above the smouldering flame. + +Next morning, with real regret, we waved good-by to our dusky +attendants, as they stood on the bank, grouped around a little fire, +beside the big, empty ox-carts. A dozen miles down-stream a rowboat +fitted for a sprit-sail put off from the bank. The owner, a countryman +from a small ranch, asked for a tow to Corumba, which we gave. He had +with him in the boat his comely brown wife--who was smoking a very +large cigar--their two children, a young man, and a couple of trunks +and various other belongings. On Christmas eve we reached Corumba, and +rejoined the other members of the expedition. + + + + IV. THE HEADWATERS OF THE PARAGUAY + +At Corumba our entire party, and all their belongings, came aboard our +good little river boat, the Nyoac. Christmas Day saw us making our way +steadily up-stream against the strong current, and between the green +and beautiful banks of the upper Paraguay. The shallow little steamer +was jammed with men, dogs, rifles, partially cured skins, boxes of +provisions, ammunition, tools, and photographic supplies, bags +containing tents, cots, bedding, and clothes, saddles, hammocks, and +the other necessaries for a trip through the "great wilderness," the +"Matto Grosso" of western Brazil. + +It was a brilliantly clear day, and, although of course in that +latitude and at that season the heat was intense later on, it was cool +and pleasant in the early morning. We sat on the forward deck, +admiring the trees on the brink of the sheer river banks, the lush, +rank grass of the marshes, and the many water-birds. The two pilots, +one black and one white, stood at the wheel. Colonel Rondon read +Thomas a Kempis. Kermit, Cherrie, and Miller squatted outside the +railing on the deck over one paddle-wheel and put the final touches on +the jaguar skins. Fiala satisfied himself that the boxes and bags were +in place. It was probable that hardship lay in the future; but the day +was our own, and the day was pleasant. In the evening the after-deck, +open all around, where we dined, was decorated with green boughs and +rushes, and we drank the health of the President of the United States +and of the President of Brazil. + +Now and then we passed little ranches on the river's edge. This is a +fertile land, pleasant to live in, and any settler who is willing to +work can earn his living. There are mines; there is water-power; there +is abundance of rich soil. The country will soon be opened by rail. It +offers a fine field for immigration and for agricultural, mining, and +business development; and it has a great future. + +Cherrie and Miller had secured a little owl a month before in the +Chaco, and it was travelling with them in a basket. It was a dear +little bird, very tame and affectionate. It liked to be handled and +petted; and when Miller, its especial protector, came into the cabin, +it would make queer little noises as a signal that it wished to be +taken up and perched on his hand. Cherrie and Miller had trapped many +mammals. Among them was a tayra weasel, whitish above and black below, +as big and blood-thirsty as a fisher-martin; and a tiny opossum no +bigger than a mouse. They had taken four species of opossum, but they +had not found the curious water-opossum which they had obtained on the +rivers flowing into the Caribbean Sea. This opossum, which is black +and white, swims in the streams like a muskrat or otter, catching fish +and living in burrows which open under water. Miller and Cherrie were +puzzled to know why the young throve, leading such an existence of +constant immersion; one of them once found a female swimming and +diving freely with four quite well-grown young in her pouch. + +We saw on the banks screamers--big, crested waders of archaic type, +with spurred wings, rather short bills, and no especial affinities +with other modern birds. In one meadow by a pond we saw three marsh- +deer, a buck and two does. They stared at us, with their thickly +haired tails raised on end. These tails are black underneath, instead +of white as in our whitetail deer. One of the vagaries of the +ultraconcealing-colorationists has been to uphold the (incidentally +quite preposterous) theory that the tail of our deer is colored white +beneath so as to harmonize with the sky and thereby mislead the cougar +or wolf at the critical moment when it makes its spring; but this +marsh-deer shows a black instead of a white flag, and yet has just as +much need of protection from its enemies, the jaguar and the cougar. +In South America concealing coloration plays no more part in the lives +of the adult deer, the tamandua, the tapir, the peccary, the jaguar, +and the puma than it plays in Africa in the lives of such animals as +the zebra, the sable antelope, the wildebeeste, the lion, and the +hunting hyena. + +Next day we spent ascending the Sao Lourenco. It was narrower than the +Paraguay, naturally, and the swirling brown current was, if anything, +more rapid. The strange tropical trees, standing densely on the banks, +were matted together by long bush ropes--lianas, or vines, some very +slender and very long. Sometimes we saw brilliant red or blue flowers, +or masses of scarlet berries on a queer palm-like tree, or an array of +great white blossoms on a much larger tree. In a lagoon bordered by +the taquara bamboo a school of big otters were playing; when they came +to the surface, they opened their mouths like seals, and made a loud +hissing noise. The crested screamers, dark gray and as large as +turkeys, perched on the very topmost branches of the tallest trees. +Hyacinth macaws screamed harshly as they flew across the river. Among +the trees was the guan, another peculiar bird as big as a big grouse, +and with certain habits of the wood-grouse, but not akin to any +northern game-bird. The windpipe of the male is very long, extending +down to the end of the breast-bone, and the bird utters queer guttural +screams. A dead cayman floated down-stream, with a black vulture +devouring it. Capybaras stood or squatted on the banks; sometimes they +stared stupidly at us; sometimes they plunged into the river at our +approach. At long intervals we passed little clearings. In each stood +a house of palm-logs, with a steeply pitched roof of palm thatch; and +near by were patches of corn and mandioc. The dusky owner, and perhaps +his family, came out on the bank to watch us as we passed. It was a +hot day--the thermometer on the deck in the shade stood at nearly 100 +degrees Fahrenheit. Biting flies came aboard even when we were in +midstream. + +Next day we were ascending the Cuyaba River. It had begun raining in +the night, and the heavy downpour continued throughout the forenoon. +In the morning we halted at a big cattle-ranch to get fresh milk and +beef. There were various houses, sheds, and corrals near the river's +edge, and fifty or sixty milch cows were gathered in one corral. +Spurred plover, or lapwings, strolled familiarly among the hens. +Parakeets and red-headed tanagers lit in the trees over our heads. A +kind of primitive houseboat was moored at the bank. A woman was +cooking breakfast over a little stove at one end. The crew were +ashore. The boat was one of those which are really stores, and which +travel up and down these rivers, laden with what the natives most +need, and stopping wherever there is a ranch. They are the only stores +which many of the country-dwellers see from year's end to year's end. +They float down-stream, and up-stream are poled by their crew, or now +and then get a tow from a steamer. This one had a house with a tin +roof; others bear houses with thatched roofs, or with roofs made of +hides. The river wound through vast marshes broken by belts of +woodland. + +Always the two naturalists had something of interest to tell of their +past experience, suggested by some bird or beast we came across. Black +and golden orioles, slightly crested, of two different species were +found along the river; they nest in colonies, and often we passed such +colonies, the long pendulous nests hanging from the boughs of trees +directly over the water. Cherrie told us of finding such a colony +built round a big wasp-nest, several feet in diameter. These wasps are +venomous and irritable, and few foes would dare venture near bird's- +nests that were under such formidable shelter; but the birds +themselves were entirely unafraid, and obviously were not in any +danger of disagreement with their dangerous protectors. We saw a dark +ibis flying across the bow of the boat, uttering his deep, two- +syllabled note. Miller told how on the Orinoco these ibises plunder +the nests of the big river-turtles. They are very skilful in finding +where the female turtle has laid her eggs, scratch them out of the +sand, break the shells, and suck the contents. + +It was astonishing to find so few mosquitoes on these marshes. They +did not in any way compare as pests with the mosquitoes on the lower +Mississippi, the New Jersey coast, the Red River of the North, or the +Kootenay. Back in the forest near Corumba the naturalists had found +them very bad indeed. Cherrie had spent two or three days on a +mountain-top which was bare of forest; he had thought there would be +few mosquitoes, but the long grass harbored them (they often swarm in +long grass and bush, even where there is no water), and at night they +were such a torment that as soon as the sun set he had to go to bed +under his mosquito-netting. Yet on the vast marshes they were not +seriously troublesome in most places. I was informed that they were +not in any way a bother on the grassy uplands, the high country north +of Cuyaba, which from thence stretches eastward to the coastal region. +It is at any rate certain that this inland region of Brazil, including +the state of Matto Grosso, which we were traversing, is a healthy +region, excellently adapted to settlement; railroads will speedily +penetrate it, and then it will witness an astonishing development. + +On the morning of the 28th we reached the home buildings of the great +Sao Joao fazenda, the ranch of Senhor Joao da Costa Marques. Our host +himself, and his son, Dom Joao the younger, who was state secretary of +agriculture, and the latter's charming wife, and the president of +Matto Grosso, and several other ladies and gentlemen, had come down +the river to greet us, from the city of Cuyaba, several hundred miles +farther up-stream. As usual, we were treated with whole-hearted and +generous hospitality. Some miles below the ranch-house the party met +us, on a stern-wheel steamboat and a launch, both decked with many +flags. The handsome white ranch-house stood only a few rods back from +the river's brink, in a grassy opening dotted with those noble trees, +the royal palms. Other trees, buildings of all kinds, flower-gardens, +vegetable-gardens, fields, corrals, and enclosures with high white +walls stood near the house. A detachment of soldiers or state police, +with a band, were in front of the house, and two flagpoles, one with +the Brazilian flag already hoisted. The American flag was run up on +the other as I stepped ashore, while the band played the national +anthems of the two countries. The house held much comfort; and the +comfort was all the more appreciated because even indoors the +thermometer stood at 97 degrees F. In the late afternoon heavy rain +fell, and cooled the air. We were riding at the time. Around the house +the birds were tame: the parrots and parakeets crowded and chattered +in the tree tops; jacanas played in the wet ground just back of the +garden; ibises and screamers called loudly in the swamps a little +distance off. + +Until we came actually in sight of this great ranch-house we had been +passing through a hot, fertile, pleasant wilderness, where the few +small palm-roofed houses, each in its little patch of sugar-cane, +corn, and mandioc, stood very many miles apart. One of these little +houses stood on an old Indian mound, exactly like the mounds which +form the only hillocks along the lower Mississippi, and which are also +of Indian origin. These occasional Indian mounds, made ages ago, are +the highest bits of ground in the immense swamps of the upper Paraguay +region. There are still Indian tribes in this neighborhood. We passed +an Indian fishing village on the edge of the river, with huts, +scaffoldings for drying the fish, hammocks, and rude tables. They +cultivated patches of bananas and sugar-cane. Out in a shallow place +in the river was a scaffolding on which the Indians stood to spear +fish. The Indians were friendly, peaceable souls, for the most part +dressed like the poorer classes among the Brazilians. + +Next morning there was to have been a great rodeo or round-up, and we +determined to have a hunt first, as there were still several kinds of +beasts of the chase, notably tapirs and peccaries, of which the +naturalists desired specimens. Dom Joao, our host, and his son +accompanied us. Theirs is a noteworthy family. Born in Matto Grosso, +in the tropics, our host had the look of a northerner and, although a +grandfather, he possessed an abounding vigor and energy such as very +few men of any climate or surroundings do possess. All of his sons are +doing well. The son who was with us was a stalwart, powerful man, a +pleasant companion, an able public servant, a finished horseman, and a +skilled hunter. He carried a sharp spear, not a rifle, for in Matto +Grosso it is the custom in hunting the jaguar for riflemen and +spearmen to go in at him together when he turns at bay, the spearman +holding him off if the first shot fails to stop him, so that another +shot can be put in. Altogether, our host and his son reminded one of +the best type of American ranchmen and planters, of those planters and +ranchmen who are adepts in bold and manly field sports, who are +capital men of business, and who also often supply to the state +skilled and faithful public servants. The hospitality the father and +son extended to us was patriarchal: neither, for instance, would sit +at table with their guests at the beginning of the formal meals; +instead they exercised a close personal supervision over the feast. +Our charming hostess, however, sat at the head of the table. + +At six in the morning we started, all of us on fine horses. The day +was lowering and overcast. A dozen dogs were with us, but only one or +two were worth anything. Three or four ordinary countrymen, the ranch +hands, or vaqueiros, accompanied us; they were mainly of Indian blood, +and would have been called peons, or caboclos, in other parts of +Brazil, but here were always spoken to and of as "camaradas." They +were, of course, chosen from among the men who were hunters, and each +carried his long, rather heavy and clumsy jaguar-spear. In front rode +our vigorous host and his strapping son, the latter also carrying a +jaguar-spear. The bridles and saddles of the big ranchmen and of the +gentlefolk generally were handsome and were elaborately ornamented +with silver. The stirrups, for instance, were not only of silver, but +contained so much extra metal in ornamented bars and rings that they +would have been awkward for less-practised riders. Indeed, as it was, +they were adapted only for the tips of boots with long, pointed toes, +and were impossible for our feet; our hosts' stirrups were long, +narrow silver slippers. The camaradas, on the other hand, had jim-crow +saddles and bridles, and rusty little iron stirrups into which they +thrust their naked toes. But all, gentry and commonalty alike, rode +equally well and with the same skill and fearlessness. To see our +hosts gallop at headlong speed over any kind of country toward the +sound of the dogs with their quarry at bay, or to see them handle +their horses in a morass, was a pleasure. It was equally a pleasure to +see a camarada carrying his heavy spear, leading a hound in a leash, +and using his machete to cut his way through the tangled vine-ropes of +a jungle, all at the same time and all without the slightest reference +to the plunges, and the odd and exceedingly jerky behavior, of his +wild, half-broken horse--for on such a ranch most of the horses are +apt to come in the categories of half-broken or else of broken-down. +One dusky tatterdemalion wore a pair of boots from which he had +removed the soles, his bare, spur-clad feet projecting from beneath +the uppers. He was on a little devil of a stallion, which he rode +blindfold for a couple of miles, and there was a regular circus when +he removed the bandage; but evidently it never occurred to him that +the animal was hardly a comfortable riding-horse for a man going out +hunting and encumbered with a spear, a machete, and other belongings. + +The eight hours that we were out we spent chiefly in splashing across +the marshes, with excursions now and then into vine-tangled belts and +clumps of timber. Some of the bayous we had to cross were +uncomfortably boggy. We had to lead the horses through one, wading +ahead of them; and even so two of them mired down, and their saddles +had to be taken off before they could be gotten out. Among the marsh +plants were fields and strips of the great caete rush. These caete +flags towered above the other and lesser marsh plants. They were +higher than the heads of the horsemen. Their two or three huge banana- +like leaves stood straight up on end. The large brilliant flowers-- +orange, red, and yellow--were joined into a singularly shaped and +solid string or cluster. Humming-birds buzzed round these flowers; one +species, the sickle-billed hummer, has its bill especially adapted for +use in these queerly shaped blossoms and gets its food only from them, +never appearing around any other plant. + +The birds were tame, even those striking and beautiful birds which +under man's persecution are so apt to become scarce and shy. The huge +jabiru storks, stalking through the water with stately dignity, +sometimes refused to fly until we were only a hundred yards off; one +of them flew over our heads at a distance of thirty or forty yards. +The screamers, crying curu-curu, and the ibises, wailing dolefully, +came even closer. The wonderful hyacinth macaws, in twos and threes, +accompanied us at times for several hundred yards, hovering over our +heads and uttering their rasping screams. In one wood we came on the +black howler monkey. The place smelt almost like a menagerie. Not +watching with sufficient care I brushed against a sapling on which the +venomous fire-ants swarmed. They burnt the skin like red-hot cinders, +and left little sores. More than once in the drier parts of the marsh +we met small caymans making their way from one pool to another. My +horse stepped over one before I saw it. The dead carcasses of others +showed that on their wanderings they had encountered jaguars or human +foes. + +We had been out about three hours when one of the dogs gave tongue in +a large belt of woodland and jungle to the left of our line of march +through the marsh. The other dogs ran to the sound, and after a while +the long barking told that the thing, whatever it was, was at bay or +else in some refuge. We made our way toward the place on foot. The +dogs were baying excitedly at the mouth of a huge hollow log, and very +short examination showed us that there were two peccaries within, +doubtless a boar and sow. However, just at this moment the peccaries +bolted from an unsuspected opening at the other end of the log, dove +into the tangle, and instantly disappeared with the hounds in full cry +after them. It was twenty minutes later before we again heard the pack +baying. With much difficulty, and by the incessant swinging of the +machetes, we opened a trail through the network of vines and branches. +This time there was only one peccary, the boar. He was at bay in a +half-hollow stump. The dogs were about his head, raving with +excitement, and it was not possible to use the rifle; so I borrowed +the spear of Dom Joao the younger, and killed the fierce little boar +therewith. + +This was an animal akin to our collared peccary, smaller and less +fierce than its white-jawed kinsfolk. It is a valiant and truculent +little beast, nevertheless, and if given the chance will bite a piece +the size of a teacup out of either man or dog. It is found singly or +in small parties, feeds on roots, fruits, grass, and delights to make +its home in hollow logs. If taken young it makes an affectionate and +entertaining pet. When the two were in the hollow log we heard them +utter a kind of moaning, or menacing, grunt, long drawn. + +An hour or two afterward we unexpectedly struck the fresh tracks of +two jaguars and at once loosed the dogs, who tore off yelling, on the +line of the scent. Unfortunately, just at this moment the clouds burst +and a deluge of rain drove in our faces. So heavy was the downpour +that the dogs lost the trail and we lost the dogs. We found them again +only owing to one of our caboclos; an Indian with a queer Mongolian +face, and no brain at all that I could discover, apart from his +special dealings with wild creatures, cattle, and horses. He rode in a +huddle of rags; but nothing escaped his eyes, and he rode anything +anywhere. The downpour continued so heavily that we knew the rodeo had +been abandoned, and we turned our faces for the long, dripping, +splashing ride homeward. Through the gusts of driving rain we could +hardly see the way. Once the rain lightened, and half a mile away the +sunshine gleamed through a rift in the leaden cloud-mass. Suddenly in +this rift of shimmering brightness there appeared a flock of beautiful +white egrets. With strong, graceful wing-beats the birds urged their +flight, their plumage flashing in the sun. They then crossed the rift +and were swallowed in the gray gloom of the day. + +On the marsh the dogs several times roused capybaras. Where there were +no ponds of sufficient size the capybaras sought refuge in flight +through the tangled marsh. They ran well. Kermit and Fiala went after +one on foot, full-speed, for a mile and a half, with two hounds which +then bayed it--literally bayed it, for the capybara fought with the +courage of a gigantic woodchuck. If the pack overtook a capybara, they +of course speedily finished it; but a single dog of our not very +valorous outfit was not able to overmatch its shrill-squeaking +opponent. + +Near the ranch-house, about forty feet up in a big tree, was a +jabiru's nest containing young jabirus. The young birds exercised +themselves by walking solemnly round the edge of the nest and opening +and shutting their wings. Their heads and necks were down-covered, +instead of being naked like those of their parents. Fiala wished to +take a moving-picture of them while thus engaged, and so, after +arranging his machine, he asked Harper to rouse the young birds by +throwing a stick up to the nest. He did so, whereupon one young jabiru +hastily opened its wings in the desired fashion, at the same time +seizing the stick in its bill! It dropped it at once, with an air of +comic disappointment, when it found that the stick was not edible. + +There were many strange birds round about. Toucans were not uncommon. +I have never seen any other bird take such grotesque and comic +attitudes as the toucan. This day I saw one standing in the top of a +tree with the big bill pointing straight into the air and the tail +also cocked perpendicularly. The toucan is a born comedian. On the +river and in the ponds we saw the finfoot, a bird with feet like a +grebe and bill and tail like those of a darter, but, like so many +South American birds, with no close affiliations among other species. +The exceedingly rich bird fauna of South America contains many species +which seem to be survivals from a very remote geologic past, whose +kinsfolk have perished under the changed conditions of recent ages; +and in the case of many, like the hoatzin and screamer, their like is +not known elsewhere. Herons of many species swarmed in this +neighborhood. The handsomest was the richly colored tiger bittern. Two +other species were so unlike ordinary herons that I did not recognize +them as herons at all until Cherrie told me what they were. One had a +dark body, a white-speckled or ocellated neck, and a bill almost like +that of an ibis. The other looked white, but was really mauve-colored, +with black on the head. When perched on a tree it stood like an ibis; +and instead of the measured wing-beats characteristic of a heron's +flight, it flew with a quick, vigorous flapping of the wings. There +were queer mammals, too, as well as birds. In the fields Miller +trapped mice of a kind entirely new. + +Next morning the sky was leaden, and a drenching rain fell as we began +our descent of the river. The rainy season had fairly begun. For our +good fortune we were still where we had the cabins aboard the boat, +and the ranch-house, in which to dry our clothes and soggy shoes; but +in the intensely humid atmosphere, hot and steaming, they stayed wet a +long time, and were still moist when we put them on again. Before we +left the house where we had been treated with such courteous +hospitality--the finest ranch-house in Matto Grosso, on a huge ranch +where there are some sixty thousand head of horned cattle--the son of +our host, Dom Joao the younger, the jaguar-hunter, presented me with +two magnificent volumes on the palms of Brazil, the work of Doctor +Barboso Rodriguez, one-time director of the Botanical Gardens at Rio +Janeiro. The two folios were in a box of native cedar. No gift more +appropriate, none that I would in the future value more as a reminder +of my stay in Matto Grosso, could have been given me. + +All that afternoon the rain continued. It was still pouring in +torrents when we left the Cuyaba for the Sao Lourenco and steamed up +the latter a few miles before anchoring; Dom Joao the younger had +accompanied us in his launch. The little river steamer was of very +open build, as is necessary in such a hot climate; and to keep things +dry necessitated also keeping the atmosphere stifling. The German +taxidermist who was with Colonel Rondon's party, Reinisch, a very good +fellow from Vienna, sat on a stool, alternately drenched with rain and +sweltering with heat, and muttered to himself: "Ach, Schweinerei!" + +Two small caymans, of the common species, with prominent eyes, were at +the bank where we moored, and betrayed an astonishing and stupid +tameness. Neither the size of the boat nor the commotion caused by the +paddles in any way affected them. They lay inshore, not twenty feet +from us, half out of water; they paid not the slightest heed to our +presence, and only reluctantly left when repeatedly poked at, and +after having been repeatedly hit with clods of mud and sticks; and +even then one first crawled up on shore, to find out if thereby he +could not rid himself of the annoyance we caused him. + +Next morning it was still raining, but we set off on a hunt, +anyway, going afoot. A couple of brown camaradas led the way, and +Colonel Rondon, Dom Joao, Kermit, and I followed. The incessant +downpour speedily wet us to the skin. We made our way slowly through +the forest, the machetes playing right and left, up and down, at every +step, for the trees were tangled in a network of vines and creepers. +Some of the vines were as thick as a man's leg. Mosquitoes hummed +about us, the venomous fire-ants stung us, the sharp spines of a small +palm tore our hands--afterward some of the wounds festered. Hour after +hour we thus walked on through the Brazilian forest. We saw monkeys, +the common yellowish kind, a species of cebus; a couple were shot for +the museum and the others raced off among the upper branches of the +trees. Then we came on a party of coatis, which look like reddish, +long-snouted, long-tailed, lanky raccoons. They were in the top of a +big tree. One, when shot at and missed, bounced down to the ground, +and ran off through the bushes; Kermit ran after it and secured it. He +came back, to find us peering hopelessly up into the tree top, trying +to place where the other coatis were. Kermit solved the difficulty by +going up along some huge twisted lianas for forty or fifty feet and +exploring the upper branches; whereupon down came three other coatis +through the branches, one being caught by the dogs and the other two +escaping. Coatis fight savagely with both teeth and claws. Miller told +us that he once saw one of them kill a dog. They feed on all small +mammals, birds, and reptiles, and even on some large ones; they kill +iguanas; Cherrie saw a rattling chase through the trees, a coati +following an iguana at full speed. We heard the rush of a couple of +tapirs, as they broke away in the jungle in front of the dogs and +headed, according to their custom, for the river; but we never saw +them. One of the party shot a bush deer--a very pretty, graceful +creature, smaller than our whitetail deer, but kin to it and doubtless +the southernmost representative of the whitetail group. + +The whitetail deer--using the word to designate a group of deer which +can neither be called a subgenus with many species, nor a widely +spread species diverging into many varieties--is the only North +American species which has spread down into and has outlying +representatives in South America. It has been contended that the +species has spread from South America northward. I do not think so; +and the specimen thus obtained furnished a probable refutation of the +theory. It was a buck, and had just shed its small antlers. The +antlers are, therefore, shed at the same time as in the north, and it +appears that they are grown at the same time as in the north. Yet this +variety now dwells in the tropics south of the equator, where the +spring, and the breeding season for most birds, comes at the time of +the northern fall in September, October, and November. That the deer +is an intrusive immigrant, and that it has not yet been in South +America long enough to change its mating season in accordance with the +climate, as the birds--geologically doubtless very old residents--have +changed their breeding season, is rendered probable by the fact that +it conforms so exactly in the time of its antler growth to the +universal rule which obtains in the great arctogeal realm, where deer +of many species abound and where the fossil forms show that they have +long existed. The marsh-deer, which has diverged much further from the +northern type than this bush deer (its horns show a likeness to those +of a blacktail), often keeps its antlers until June or July, although +it begins to grow them again in August; however, too much stress must +not be laid on this fact, inasmuch as the wapiti and the cow caribou +both keep their antlers until spring. The specialization of the marsh- +deer, by the way, is further shown in its hoofs, which, thanks to its +semi-aquatic mode of life, have grown long, like those of such African +swamp antelopes as the lechwe and situtunga. + +Miller, when we presented the monkeys to him, told us that the females +both of these monkeys and of the howlers themselves took care of the +young, the males not assisting them, and moreover that when the young +one was a male he had always found the mother keeping by herself, away +from the old males. On the other hand, among the marmosets he found +the fathers taking as much care of the young as the mothers; if the +mother had twins, the father would usually carry one, and sometimes +both, around with him. + +After we had been out four hours our camaradas got lost; three several +times they travelled round in a complete circle; and we had to set +them right with the compass. About noon the rain, which had been +falling almost without interruption for forty-eight hours, let up, and +in an hour or two the sun came out. We went back to the river, and +found our rowboat. In it the hounds--a motley and rather worthless +lot--and the rest of the party were ferried across to the opposite +bank, while Colonel Rondon and I stayed in the boat, on the chance +that a tapir might be roused and take to the river. However, no tapir +was found; Kermit killed a collared peccary, and I shot a capybara +representing a color-phase the naturalists wished. + +Next morning, January 1, 1914, we were up at five and had a good New +Year's Day breakfast of hardtack, ham, sardines, and coffee before +setting out on an all day's hunt on foot. I much feared that the pack +was almost or quite worthless for jaguars, but there were two or three +of the great spotted cats in the neighborhood and it seemed worth +while to make a try for them anyhow. After an hour or two we found +the fresh tracks of two, and after them we went. Our party consisted +of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Rogaciano--an excellent man, himself a +native of Matto Grosso, of old Matto Grosso stock--two others of the +party from the Sao Joao ranch, Kermit, and myself, together with four +dark-skinned camaradas, cowhands from the same ranch. We soon found +that the dogs would not by themselves follow the jaguar trail; nor +would the camaradas, although they carried spears. Kermit was the one +of our party who possessed the requisite speed, endurance, and +eyesight, and accordingly he led. Two of the dogs would follow the +track half a dozen yards ahead of him, but no farther; and two of the +camaradas could just about keep up with him. For an hour we went +through thick jungle, where the machetes were constantly at work. Then +the trail struck off straight across the marshes, for jaguars swim and +wade as freely as marsh-deer. It was a hard walk. The sun was out. We +were drenched with sweat. We were torn by the spines of the +innumerable clusters of small palms with thorns like needles. We were +bitten by the hosts of fire-ants, and by the mosquitoes, which we +scarcely noticed where the fire-ants were found, exactly as all dread +of the latter vanished when we were menaced by the big red wasps, of +which a dozen stings will disable a man, and if he is weak or in bad +health will seriously menace his life. In the marsh we were +continually wading, now up to our knees, now up to our hips. Twice we +came to long bayous so deep that we had to swim them, holding our +rifles above water in our right hands. The floating masses of marsh +grass, and the slimy stems of the water-plants, doubled our work as we +swam, cumbered by our clothing and boots and holding our rifles aloft. +One result of the swim, by the way, was that my watch, a veteran of +Cuba and Africa, came to an indignant halt. Then on we went, hampered +by the weight of our drenched clothes while our soggy boots squelched +as we walked. There was no breeze. In the undimmed sky the sun stood +almost overhead. The heat beat on us in waves. By noon I could only go +forward at a slow walk, and two of the party were worse off than I +was. Kermit, with the dogs and two camaradas close behind him, +disappeared across the marshes at a trot. At last, when he was out of +sight, and it was obviously useless to follow him, the rest of us +turned back toward the boat. The two exhausted members of the party +gave out, and we left them under a tree. Colonel Rondon and Lieutenant +Rogaciano were not much tired; I was somewhat tired, but was perfectly +able to go for several hours more if I did not try to go too fast; and +we three walked on to the river, reaching it about half past four, +after eleven hours' stiff walking with nothing to eat. We were soon on +the boat. A relief party went back for the two men under the tree, and +soon after it reached them Kermit also turned up with his hounds and +his camaradas trailing wearily behind him. He had followed the jaguar +trail until the dogs were so tired that even after he had bathed them, +and then held their noses in the fresh footprints, they would pay no +heed to the scent. A hunter of scientific tastes, a hunter-naturalist, +or even an outdoors naturalist, or faunal naturalist interested in big +mammals, with a pack of hounds such as those with which Paul Rainey +hunted lion and leopard in Africa, or such a pack as the packs of +Johnny Goff and Jake Borah with which I hunted cougar, lynx, and bear +in the Rockies, or such packs as those of the Mississippi and +Louisiana planters with whom I have hunted bear, wild-cat, and deer in +the cane-brakes of the lower Mississippi, would not only enjoy fine +hunting in these vast marshes of the upper Paraguay, but would also do +work of real scientific value as regards all the big cats. + +Only a limited number of the naturalists who have worked in the +tropics have had any experience with the big beasts whose life- +histories possess such peculiar interest. Of all the biologists who +have seriously studied the South American fauna on the ground, Bates +probably rendered most service; but he hardly seems even to have seen +the animals with which the hunter is fairly familiar. His interests, +and those of the other biologists of his kind, lay in other +directions. In consequence, in treating of the life-histories of the +very interesting big game, we have been largely forced to rely either +on native report, in which acutely accurate observation is invariably +mixed with wild fable, or else on the chance remarks of travellers or +mere sportsmen, who had not the training to make them understand even +what it was desirable to observe. Nowadays there is a growing +proportion of big-game hunters, of sportsmen, who are of the +Schilling, Selous, and Shiras type. These men do work of capital value +for science. The mere big-game butcher is tending to disappear as a +type. On the other hand, the big-game hunter who is a good observer, a +good field naturalist, occupies at present a more important position +than ever before, and it is now recognized that he can do work which +the closest naturalist cannot do. The big-game hunter of this type and +the outdoors, faunal naturalist, the student of the life-histories of +big mammals, have open to them in South America a wonderful field in +which to work. + +The fire-ants, of which I have above spoken, are generally found on a +species of small tree or sapling, with a greenish trunk. They bend the +whole body as they bite, the tail and head being thrust downward. A +few seconds after the bite the poison causes considerable pain; later +it may make a tiny festering sore. There is certainly the most +extraordinary diversity in the traits by which nature achieves the +perpetuation of species. Among the warrior and predaceous insects the +prowess is in some cases of such type as to render the possessor +practically immune from danger. In other cases the condition of its +exercise may normally be the sacrifice of the life of the possessor. +There are wasps that prey on formidable fighting spiders, which yet +instinctively so handle themselves that the prey practically never +succeeds in either defending itself or retaliating, being captured and +paralyzed with unerring efficiency and with entire security to the +wasp. The wasp's safety is absolute. On the other hand, these fighting +ants, including the soldiers even among the termites, are frantically +eager for a success which generally means their annihilation; the +condition of their efficiency is absolute indifference to their own +security. Probably the majority of the ants that actually lay hold on +a foe suffer death in consequence; certainly they not merely run the +risk of but eagerly invite death. + +The following day we descended the Sao Lourenco to its junction with +the Paraguay, and once more began the ascent of the latter. At one +cattle-ranch where we stopped, the troupials, or big black and yellow +orioles, had built a large colony of their nests on a dead tree near +the primitive little ranch-house. The birds were breeding; the old +ones were feeding the young. In this neighborhood the naturalists +found many birds that were new to them, including a tiny woodpecker no +bigger than a ruby-crowned kinglet. They had collected two night +monkeys--nocturnal monkeys, not as agile as the ordinary monkey; these +two were found at dawn, having stayed out too late. + +The early morning was always lovely on these rivers, and at that hour +many birds and beasts were to be seen. One morning we saw a fine marsh +buck, holding his head aloft as he stared at us, his red coat vivid +against the green marsh. Another of these marsh-deer swam the river +ahead of us; I shot at it as it landed, and ought to have got it, but +did not. As always with these marsh-deer--and as with so many other +deer--I was struck by the revealing or advertising quality of its red +coloration; there was nothing in its normal surroundings with which +this coloration harmonized; so far as it had any effect whatever it +was always a revealing and not a concealing effect. When the animal +fled the black of the erect tail was an additional revealing mark, +although not of such startlingly advertising quality as the flag of +the whitetail. The whitetail, in one of its forms, and with the +ordinary whitetail custom of displaying the white flag as it runs, is +found in the immediate neighborhood of the swamp-deer. It has the same +foes. Evidently it is of no survival consequence whether the running +deer displays a white or a black flag. Any competent observer of big +game must be struck by the fact that in the great majority of the +species the coloration is not concealing, and that in many it has a +highly revealing quality. Moreover, if the spotted or striped young +represent the ancestral coloration, and if, as seems probable, the +spots and stripes have, on the whole, some slight concealing value, it +is evident that in the life history of most of these large mammals, +both among those that prey and those that are preyed on, concealing +coloration has not been a survival factor; throughout the ages during +which they have survived they have gradually lost whatever of +concealing coloration they may once have had--if any--and have +developed a coloration which under present conditions has no +concealing and perhaps even has a revealing quality, and which in all +probability never would have had a concealing value in any +"environmental complex" in which the species as a whole lived during +its ancestral development. Indeed, it seems astonishing, when one +observes these big beasts--and big waders and other water-birds--in +their native surroundings, to find how utterly non-harmful their often +strikingly revealing coloration is. Evidently the various other +survival factors, such as habit, and in many cases cover, etc., are of +such overmastering importance that the coloration is generally of no +consequence whatever, one way or the other, and is only very rarely a +factor of any serious weight. + +The junction of the Sao Lourenco and the Paraguay is a day's journey +above Corumba. From Corumba there is a regular service by shallow +steamers to Cuyaba, at the head of one fork, and to Sao Luis de +Caceres, at the head of the other. The steamers are not powerful and +the voyage to each little city takes a week. There are other forks +that are navigable. Above Cuyaba and Caceres launches go up-stream for +several days' journey, except during the dryest parts of the season. +North of this marshy plain lies the highland, the Plan Alto, where the +nights are cool and the climate healthy. But I wish emphatically to +record my view that these marshy plains, although hot, are also +healthy; and, moreover, the mosquitoes, in most places, are not in +sufficient numbers to be a serious pest, although of course there must +be nets for protection against them at night. The country is +excellently suited for settlement, and offers a remarkable field for +cattle-growing. Moreover, it is a paradise for water-birds and for +many other kinds of birds, and for many mammals. It is literally an +ideal place in which a field naturalist could spend six months or a +year. It is readily accessible, it offers an almost virgin field for +work, and the life would be healthy as well as delightfully +attractive. The man should have a steam-launch. In it he could with +comfort cover all parts of the country from south of Corumbra to north +of Cuyaba and Caceres. There would have to be a good deal of +collecting (although nothing in the nature of butchery should be +tolerated), for the region has only been superficially worked, +especially as regards mammals. But if the man were only a collector he +would leave undone the part of the work best worth doing. The region +offers extraordinary opportunities for the study of the life-histories +of birds which, because of their size, their beauty, or their habits, +are of exceptional interest. All kinds of problems would be worked +out. For example, on the morning of the 3rd, as we were ascending the +Paraguay, we again and again saw in the trees on the bank big nests of +sticks, into and out of which parakeets were flying by the dozen. Some +of them had straws or twigs in their bills. In some of the big +globular nests we could make out several holes of exit or entrance. +Apparently these parakeets were building or remodelling communal +nests; but whether they had themselves built these nests, or had taken +old nests and added to or modified them, we could not tell. There was +so much of interest all along the banks that we were continually +longing to stop and spend days where we were. Mixed flocks of scores +of cormorants and darters covered certain trees, both at sunset and +after sunrise. Although there was no deep forest, merely belts or +fringes of trees along the river, or in patches back of it, we +frequently saw monkeys in this riverine tree-fringe--active common +monkeys and black howlers of more leisurely gait. We saw caymans and +capybaras sitting socially near one another on the sandbanks. At night +we heard the calling of large flights of tree-ducks. These were now +the most common of all the ducks, although there were many muscovy +ducks also. The evenings were pleasant and not hot, as we sat on the +forward deck; there was a waxing moon. The screamers were among the +most noticeable birds. They were noisy; they perched on the very tops +of the trees, not down among the branches; and they were not shy. They +should be carefully protected by law, for they readily become tame, +and then come familiarly round the houses. From the steamer we now and +then saw beautiful orchids in the trees on the river bank. + +One afternoon we stopped at the home buildings or headquarters of one +of the great outlying ranches of the Brazil Land and Cattle Company, +the Farquahar syndicate, under the management of Murdo Mackenzie--than +whom we have in the United States no better citizen or more competent +cattleman. On this ranch there are some seventy thousand head of +stock. We were warmly greeted by McLean, the head of the ranch, and +his assistant Ramsey, an old Texan friend. Among the other assistants, +all equally cordial, were several Belgians and Frenchmen. The hands +were Paraguayans and Brazilians, and a few Indians--a hard-bit set, +each of whom always goes armed and knows how to use his arms, for +there are constant collisions with cattle thieves from across the +Bolivian border, and the ranch has to protect itself. These cowhands, +vaqueiros, were of the type with which we were now familiar: dark- +skinned, lean, hard-faced men, in slouch-hats, worn shirts and +trousers, and fringed leather aprons, with heavy spurs on their bare +feet. They are wonderful riders and ropers, and fear neither man nor +beast. I noticed one Indian vaqueiro standing in exactly the attitude +of a Shilluk of the White Nile, with the sole of one foot against the +other leg, above the knee. This is a region with extraordinary +possibilities of cattle-raising. + +At this ranch there was a tannery; a slaughter-house; a cannery; a +church; buildings of various kinds and all degrees of comfort for the +thirty or forty families who made the place their headquarters; and +the handsome, white, two-story big house, standing among lemon-trees +and flamboyants on the river-brink. There were all kinds of pets +around the house. The most fascinating was a wee, spotted fawn which +loved being petted. Half a dozen curassows of different species +strolled through the rooms; there were also parrots of several +different species, and immediately outside the house four or five +herons, with unclipped wings, which would let us come within a few +feet and then fly gracefully off, shortly afterward returning to the +same spot. They included big and little white egrets and also the +mauve and pearl-colored heron, with a partially black head and many- +colored bill, which flies with quick, repeated wing-flappings, instead +of the usual slow heron wing-beats. + +In the warehouse were scores of skins of jaguar, puma, ocelot, and +jaguarundi, and one skin of the big, small-toothed red wolf. These +were all brought in by the cowhands and by friendly Indians, a price +being put on each, as they destroyed the stock. The jaguars +occasionally killed horses and full-grown cows, but not bulls. The +pumas killed the calves. The others killed an occasional very young +calf, but ordinarily only sheep, little pigs, and chickens. There was +one black jaguar-skin; melanism is much more common among jaguars than +pumas, although once Miller saw a black puma that had been killed by +Indians. The patterns of the jaguar-skins, and even more of the +ocelot-skins, showed wide variation, no two being alike. The pumas +were for the most part bright red, but some were reddish gray, there +being much the same dichromatism that I found among their Colorado +kinsfolk. The jaguarundis were dark brownish gray. All these animals, +the spotted jaguars and ocelots, the monochrome black jaguars, red +pumas, and dark-gray jaguarundis, were killed in the same locality, +with the same environment. A glance at the skins and a moment's +serious thought would have been enough to show any sincere thinker that +in these cats the coloration pattern, whether concealing or revealing, +is of no consequence one way or the other as a survival factor. The +spotted patterns conferred no benefit as compared with the nearly or +quite monochrome blacks, reds, and dark grays. The bodily condition of +the various beasts was equally good, showing that their success in +life, that is, their ability to catch their prey, was unaffected by +their several color schemes. Except white, there is no color so +conspicuously advertising as black; yet the black jaguar had been a +fine, well-fed, powerful beast. The spotted patterns in the forests, +and perhaps even in the marshes which the jaguars so frequently +traversed, are probably a shade less conspicuous than the monochrome +red and gray, but the puma and jaguarundi are just as hard to see, and +evidently find it just as easy to catch prey, as the jaguar and +ocelot. The little fawn which we saw was spotted; the grown deer had +lost the spots; if the spots do really help to conceal the wearer, it +is evident that the deer has found the original concealing coloration +of so little value that it has actually been lost in the course of the +development of the species. When these big cats and the deer are +considered, together with the dogs, tapirs, peccaries, capybaras, and +big ant-eaters which live in the same environment, and when we also +consider the difference between the young and the adult deer and +tapirs (both of which when adult have substituted a complete or +partial monochrome for the ancestral spots and streaks), it is evident +that in the present life and in the ancestral development of the big +mammals of South America coloration is not and has not been a survival +factor; any pattern and any color may accompany the persistence and +development of the qualities and attributes which are survival +factors. Indeed, it seems hard to believe that in their ordinary +environments such color schemes as the bright red of the marsh-deer, +the black of the black jaguar, and the black with white stripes of the +great tamandua, are not positive detriments to the wearers. Yet such +is evidently not the case. Evidently the other factors in species- +survival are of such overwhelming importance that the coloration +becomes negligible from this standpoint, whether it be concealing or +revealing. The cats mould themselves to the ground as they crouch or +crawl. They take advantage of the tiniest scrap of cover. They move +with extraordinary stealth and patience. The other animals which try +to sneak off in such manner as to escape observation approach more or +less closely to the ideal which the cats most nearly realize. +Wariness, sharp senses, the habit of being rigidly motionless when +there is the least suspicion of danger, and ability to take advantage +of cover, all count. On the bare, open, treeless plain, whether marsh, +meadow, or upland, anything above the level of the grass is seen at +once. A marsh-deer out in the open makes no effort to avoid +observation; its concern is purely to see its foes in time to leave a +dangerous neighborhood. The deer of the neighboring forest skulk and +hide and lie still in dense cover to avoid being seen. The white- +lipped peccaries make no effort to escape observation by being either +noiseless or motionless; they trust for defence to their +gregariousness and truculence. The collared peccary also trusts to its +truculence, but seeks refuge in a hole where it can face any opponent +with its formidable biting apparatus. As for the giant tamandua, in +spite of its fighting prowess I am wholly unable to understand how +such a slow and clumsy beast has been able through the ages to exist +and thrive surrounded by jaguars and pumas. Speaking generally, the +animals that seek to escape observation trust primarily to smell to +discover their foes or their prey, and see whatever moves and do not +see whatever is motionless. + +By the morning of January 5 we had left the marsh region. There were +low hills here and there, and the land was covered with dense forest. +From time to time we passed little clearings with palm-thatched +houses. We were approaching Caceres, where the easiest part of our +trip would end. We had lived in much comfort on the little steamer. +The food was plentiful and the cooking good. At night we slept on deck +in cots or hammocks. The mosquitoes were rarely troublesome, although +in the daytime we were sometimes bothered by numbers of biting horse- +flies. The bird life was wonderful. One of the characteristic sights +we were always seeing was that of a number of heads and necks of +cormorants and snake-birds, without any bodies, projecting above +water, and disappearing as the steamer approached. Skimmers and thick- +billed tern were plentiful here right in the heart of the continent. +In addition to the spurred lapwing, characteristic and most +interesting resident of most of South America, we found tiny red- +legged plover which also breed and are at home in the tropics. The +contrasts in habits between closely allied species are wonderful. +Among the plovers and bay snipe there are species that live all the +year round in almost the same places, in tropical and subtropical +lands; and other related forms which wander over the whole earth, and +spend nearly all their time, now in the arctic and cold temperate +regions of the far north, now in the cold temperate regions of the +south. These latter wide-wandering birds of the seashore and the river +bank pass most of their lives in regions of almost perpetual sunlight. +They spend the breeding season, the northern summer, in the land of +the midnight sun, during the long arctic day. They then fly for +endless distances down across the north temperate zone, across the +equator, through the lands where the days and nights are always of +equal length, into another hemisphere, and spend another summer of +long days and long twilights in the far south, where the Antarctic +winds cool them, while their nesting home, at the other end of the +world, is shrouded beneath the iron desolation of the polar night. + +In the late afternoon of the 5th we reached the quaint old-fashioned +little town of Sao Luis de Caceres, on the outermost fringe of the +settled region of the state of Matto Grosso, the last town we should +see before reaching the villages of the Amazon. As we approached we +passed half-clad black washerwomen on the river's edge. The men, with +the local band, were gathered at the steeply sloping foot of the main +street, where the steamer came to her moorings. Groups of women and +girls, white and brown, watched us from the low bluff; their skirts +and bodices were red, blue, green, of all colors. Sigg had gone ahead +with much of the baggage; he met us in an improvised motor-boat, +consisting of a dugout to the side of which he had clamped our +Evinrude motor; he was giving several of the local citizens of +prominence a ride, to their huge enjoyment. The streets of the little +town were unpaved, with narrow brick sidewalks. The one-story houses +were white or blue, with roofs of red tiles and window-shutters of +latticed woodwork, come down from colonial days and tracing back +through Christian and Moorish Portugal to a remote Arab ancestry. +Pretty faces, some dark, some light, looked out from these windows; +their mothers' mothers, for generations past, must thus have looked +out of similar windows in the vanished colonial days. But now even +here in Caceres the spirit of the new Brazil is moving; a fine new +government school has been started, and we met its principal, an +earnest man doing excellent work, one of the many teachers who, during +the last few years, have been brought to Matto Grosso from Sao Paulo, +a centre of the new educational movement which will do so much for +Brazil. + +Father Zahm went to spend the night with some French Franciscan +friars, capital fellows. I spent the night at the comfortable house of +Lieutenant Lyra; a hot-weather house with thick walls, big doors, and +an open patio bordered by a gallery. Lieutenant Lyra was to accompany +us; he was an old companion of Colonel Rondon's explorations. We +visited one or two of the stores to make some final purchases, and in +the evening strolled through the dusky streets and under the trees of +the plaza; the women and girls sat in groups in the doorways or at the +windows, and here and there a stringed instrument tinkled in the +darkness. + +From Caceres onward we were entering the scene of Colonel Rondon's +explorations. For some eighteen years he was occupied in exploring and +in opening telegraph lines through the eastern or north middle part of +the great forest state, the wilderness state of the "Matto Grosso"-- +the "great wilderness," or, as Australians would call it, "the bush." +Then, in 1907, he began to penetrate the unknown region lying to the +north and west. He was the head of the exploring expeditions sent out +by the Brazilian Government to traverse for the first time this +unknown land; to map for the first time the courses of the rivers +which from the same divide run into the upper portions of the Tapajos +and the Madeira, two of the mighty affluents of the Amazon, and to +build telegraph-lines across to the Madeira, where a line of Brazilian +settlements, connected by steamboat lines and a railroad, again +occurs. Three times he penetrated into this absolutely unknown, +Indian-haunted wilderness, being absent for a year or two at a time +and suffering every imaginable hardship, before he made his way +through to the Madeira and completed the telegraph-line across. The +officers and men of the Brazilian Army and the civilian scientists who +followed him shared the toil and the credit of the task. Some of his +men died of beriberi; some were killed or wounded by the Indians; he +himself almost died of fever; again and again his whole party was +reduced almost to the last extremity by starvation, disease, hardship, +and the over-exhaustion due to wearing fatigues. In dealing with the +wild, naked savages he showed a combination of fearlessness, wariness, +good judgment, and resolute patience and kindliness. The result was +that they ultimately became his firm friends, guarded the telegraph- +lines, and helped the few soldiers left at the isolated, widely +separated little posts. He and his assistants explored, and mapped for +the first time, the Juruena and the Gy-Parana, two important affluents +of the Tapajos and the Madeira respectively. The Tapajos and the +Madeira, like the Orinoco and Rio Negro, have been highways of travel +for a couple of centuries. The Madeira (as later the Tapajos) was the +chief means of ingress, a century and a half ago, to the little +Portuguese settlements of this far interior region of Brazil; one of +these little towns, named Matto Grosso, being the original capital of +the province. It has long been abandoned by the government, and +practically so by its inhabitants, the ruins of palace, fortress, and +church now rising amid the rank tropical luxuriance of the wild +forest. The mouths of the main affluents of these highway rivers were +as a rule well known. But in many cases nothing but the mouth was +known. The river itself was not known, and it was placed on the map by +guesswork. Colonel Rondon found, for example, that the course of the +Gy-Parana was put down on the map two degrees out of its proper place. +He, with his party, was the first to find out its sources, the first +to traverse its upper course, the first to map its length. He and his +assistants performed a similar service for the Juruena, discovering +the sources, discovering and descending some of the branches, and for +the first time making a trustworthy map of the main river itself, +until its junction with the Tapajos. Near the watershed between the +Juruena and the Gy-Parana he established his farthest station to the +westward, named Jose Bonofacio, after one of the chief republican +patriots of Brazil. A couple of days' march northwestward from this +station, he in 1909 came across a part of the stream of a river +running northward between the Gy-Parana and the Juruena; he could only +guess where it debouched, believing it to be into the Madeira, +although it was possible that it entered the Gy-Parana or Tapajos. The +region through which it flows was unknown, no civilized man having +ever penetrated it; and as all conjecture as to what the river was, as +to its length, and as to its place of entering into some highway +river, was mere guess-work, he had entered it on his sketch maps as +the Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt. Among the officers of the +Brazilian Army and the scientific civilians who have accompanied him +there have been not only expert cartographers, photographers, and +telegraphists, but astronomers, geologists, botanists, and zoologists. +Their reports, published in excellent shape by the Brazilian +Government, make an invaluable series of volumes, reflecting the +highest credit on the explorers, and on the government itself. Colonel +Rondon's own accounts of his explorations, of the Indian tribes he has +visited, and of the beautiful and wonderful things he has seen, +possess a peculiar interest. + + + + V. UP THE RIVER OF TAPIRS + +After leaving Caceres we went up the Sepotuba, which in the local +Indian dialect means River of Tapirs. This river is only navigable for +boats of size when the water is high. It is a swift, fairly clear +stream, rushing down from the Plan Alto, the high uplands, through the +tropical lowland forest. On the right hand, or western bank, and here +and there on the left bank, the forest is broken by natural pastures +and meadows, and at one of these places, known as Porto Campo, sixty +or seventy miles above the mouth, there is a good-sized cattle-ranch. +Here we halted, because the launch, and the two pranchas--native +trading-boats with houses on their decks--which it towed, could not +carry our entire party and outfit. Accordingly most of the baggage and +some of the party were sent ahead to where we were to meet our pack- +train, at Tapirapoan. Meanwhile the rest of us made our first camp +under tents at Porto Campo, to wait the return of the boats. The tents +were placed in a line, with the tent of Colonel Rondon and the tent in +which Kermit and I slept, in the middle, beside one another. In front +of these two, on tall poles, stood the Brazilian and American flags; +and at sunrise and sunset the flags were hoisted and hauled down while +the trumpet sounded and all of us stood at attention. Camp was pitched +beside the ranch buildings. In the trees near the tents grew wonderful +violet orchids. + +Many birds were around us; I saw some of them, and Cherrie and Miller +many, many more. They ranged from party-colored macaws, green parrots, +and big gregarious cuckoos down to a brilliant green-and-chestnut +kingfisher, five and a quarter inches long, and a tiny orange-and- +green manakin, smaller than any bird I have ever seen except a hummer. +We also saw a bird that really was protectively colored; a kind of +whippoorwill which even the sharp-eyed naturalists could only make out +because it moved its head. We saw orange-bellied squirrels with showy +orange tails. Lizards were common. We killed our first poisonous snake +(the second we had seen), an evil lance-headed jararaca that was +swimming the river. We also saw a black-and-orange harmless snake, +nearly eight feet long, which we were told was akin to the mussurama; +and various other snakes. One day while paddling in a canoe on the +river, hoping that the dogs might drive a tapir to us, they drove into +the water a couple of small bush deer instead. There was no point in +shooting them; we caught them with ropes thrown over their heads; for +the naturalists needed them as specimens, and all of us needed the +meat. One of the men was stung by a single big red maribundi wasp. For +twenty-four hours he was in great pain and incapacitated for work. In +a lagoon two of the dogs had the tips of their tails bitten off by +piranhas as they swam, and the ranch hands told us that in this lagoon +one of their hounds had been torn to pieces and completely devoured by +the ravenous fish. It was a further illustration of the uncertainty of +temper and behavior of these ferocious little monsters. In other +lagoons they had again and again left us and our dogs unmolested. They +vary locally in aggressiveness just as sharks and crocodiles in +different seas and rivers vary. + +On the morning of January 9th we started out for a tapir-hunt. Tapirs +are hunted with canoes, as they dwell in thick jungle and take to the +water when hounds follow them. In this region there were extensive +papyrus-swamps and big lagoons, back from the river, and often the +tapirs fled to these for refuge, throwing off the hounds. In these +places it was exceedingly difficult to get them; our best chance was +to keep to the river in canoes, and paddle toward the spot in the +direction of which the hounds, by the noise, seemed to be heading. We +started in four canoes. Three of them were Indian dugouts, very low in +the water. The fourth was our Canadian canoe, a beauty; light, safe, +roomy, made of thin slats of wood and cement-covered canvas. Colonel +Rondon, Fiala with his camera, and I went in this canoe, together with +two paddlers. The paddlers were natives of the poorer class. They were +good men. The bowsman was of nearly pure white blood; the steersman +was of nearly pure negro blood, and was evidently the stronger +character and better man of the two. The other canoes carried a couple +of fazendeiros, ranchmen, who had come up from Caceres with their +dogs. These dugouts were manned by Indian and half-caste paddlers, and +the fazendeiros, who were of nearly pure white blood, also at times +paddled vigorously. All were dressed in substantially similar clothes, +the difference being that those of the camaradas, the poorer men or +laborers, were in tatters. In the canoes no man wore anything save a +shirt, trousers, and hat, the feet being bare. On horseback they wore +long leather leggings which were really simply high, rather flexible +boots with the soles off; their spurs were on their tough bare feet. +There was every gradation between and among the nearly pure whites, +negroes, and Indians. On the whole, there was the most white blood in the +upper ranks, and most Indian and negro blood among the camaradas; but +there were exceptions in both classes, and there was no discrimination +on account of color. All alike were courteous and friendly. + +The hounds were at first carried in two of the dugouts, and then let +loose on the banks. We went up-stream for a couple of hours against +the swift current, the paddlers making good headway with their pointed +paddles--the broad blade of each paddle was tipped with a long point, +so that it could be thrust into the mud to keep the low dugout against +the bank. The tropical forest came down almost like a wall, the tall +trees laced together with vines, and the spaces between their trunks +filled with a low, dense jungle. In most places it could only be +penetrated by a man with a machete. With few exceptions the trees were +unknown to me, and their native names told me nothing. On most of them +the foliage was thick; among the exceptions were the cecropias, +growing by preference on new-formed alluvial soil bare of other trees, +whose rather scanty leaf bunches were, as I was informed, the favorite +food of sloths. We saw one or two squirrels among the trees, and a +family of monkeys. There were few sand-banks in the river, and no +water-fowl save an occasional cormorant. But as we pushed along near +the shore, where the branches overhung and dipped in the swirling +water, we continually roused little flocks of bats. They were hanging +from the boughs right over the river, and when our approach roused +them they zigzagged rapidly in front of us for a few rods, and then +again dove in among the branches. + +At last we landed at a point of ground where there was little jungle, +and where the forest was composed of palms and was fairly open. It was +a lovely bit of forest. The colonel strolled off in one direction, +returning an hour later with a squirrel for the naturalists. Meanwhile +Fiala and I went through the palm wood to a papyrus-swamp. Many trails +led through the woods, and especially along the borders of the swamp; +and, although their principal makers had evidently been cattle, yet +there were in them footprints of both tapir and deer. The tapir makes +a footprint much like that of a small rhinoceros, being one of the +odd-toed ungulates. We could hear the dogs now and then, evidently +scattered and running on various trails. They were a worthless lot of +cur-hounds. They would chase tapir or deer or anything else that ran +away from them as long as the trail was easy to follow; but they were +not stanch, even after animals that fled, and they would have nothing +whatever to do with animals that were formidable. + +While standing by the marsh we heard something coming along one of the +game paths. In a moment a buck of the bigger species of bush deer +appeared, a very pretty and graceful creature. It stopped and darted +back as soon as it saw us, giving us no chance for a shot; but in +another moment we caught glimpses of it running by at full speed, back +among the palms. I covered an opening between two tree-trunks. By good +luck the buck appeared in the right place, giving me just time to hold +well ahead of him and fire. At the report he went down in a heap, the +"umbrella-pointed" bullet going in at one shoulder, and ranging +forward, breaking the neck. The leaden portion of the bullet, in the +proper mushroom or umbrella shape, stopped under the neck skin on the +farther side. It is a very effective bullet. + +Miller particularly wished specimens of these various species of bush +deer, because their mutual relationships have not yet been +satisfactorily worked out. This was an old buck. The antlers were +single spikes, five or six inches long; they were old and white and +would soon have been shed. In the stomach were the remains of both +leaves and grasses, but especially the former; the buck was both a +browser and grazer. There were also seeds, but no berries or nuts such +as I have sometimes found in deer's stomachs. This species, which is +abundant in this neighborhood, is solitary in its habits, not going in +herds. At this time the rut was past, the bucks no longer sought the +does, the fawns had not been born, and the yearlings had left their +mothers; so that each animal usually went by itself. When chased they +were very apt to take to the water. This instinct of taking to the +water, by the way, is quite explicable as regards both deer and tapir, +for it affords them refuge against their present day natural foes, but +it is a little puzzling to see the jaguar readily climbing trees to +escape dogs; for ages have passed since there were in its habitat any +natural foes from which it needed to seek safety in trees. But it is +possible that the habit has been kept alive by its seeking refuge in +them on occasion from the big peccaries, which are among the beasts on +which it ordinarily preys. + +We hung the buck in a tree. The colonel returned, and not long +afterward one of the paddlers who had been watching the river called +out to us that there was a tapir in the water, a good distance up- +stream, and that two of the other boats were after it. We jumped into +the canoe and the two paddlers dug their blades in the water as they +drove her against the strong current, edging over for the opposite +bank. The tapir was coming down-stream at a great rate, only its queer +head above water, while the dugouts were closing rapidly on it, the +paddlers uttering loud cries. As the tapir turned slightly to one side +or the other the long, slightly upturned snout and the strongly +pronounced arch of the crest along the head and upper neck gave it a +marked and unusual aspect. I could not shoot, for it was directly in +line with one of the pursuing dugouts. Suddenly it dived, the snout +being slightly curved downward as it did so. There was no trace of it; +we gazed eagerly in all directions; the dugout in front came alongside +our canoe and the paddlers rested, their paddles ready. Then we made +out the tapir clambering up the bank. It had dived at right angles to +the course it was following and swum under water to the very edge of +the shore, rising under the overhanging tree-branches at a point where +a drinking-trail for game led down a break in the bank. The branches +partially hid it, and it was in deep shadow, so that it did not offer +a very good shot. My bullet went into its body too far back, and the +tapir disappeared in the forest at a gallop as if unhurt, although the +bullet really secured it, by making it unwilling to trust to its speed +and leave the neighborhood of the water. Three or four of the hounds +were by this time swimming the river, leaving the others yelling on +the opposite side; and as soon as the swimmers reached the shore they +were put on the tapir's trail and galloped after it, giving tongue. In +a couple of minutes we saw the tapir take to the water far up-stream, +and after it we went as fast as the paddles could urge us through the +water. We were not in time to head it, but fortunately some of the +dogs had come down to the river's edge at the very point where the +tapir was about to land, and turned it back. Two or three of the dogs +were swimming. We were more than half the breadth of the river away +from the tapir, and somewhat down-stream, when it dived. It made an +astonishingly long swim beneath the water this time, almost as if it +had been a hippopotamus, for it passed completely under our canoe and +rose between us and the hither bank. I shot it, the bullet going into +its brain, while it was thirty or forty yards from shore. It sank at +once. + +There was now nothing to do but wait until the body floated. I feared +that the strong current would roll it down-stream over the river bed, +but my companions assured me that this was not so, and that the body +would remain where it was until it rose, which would be in an hour or +two. They were right, except as to the time. For over a couple of +hours we paddled, or anchored ourselves by clutching branches close to +the spot, or else drifted down a mile and paddled up again near the +shore, to see if the body had caught anywhere. Then we crossed the +river and had lunch at the lovely natural picnic-ground where the buck +was hung up. We had very nearly given up the tapir when it suddenly +floated only a few rods from where it had sunk. With no little +difficulty the big, round black body was hoisted into the canoe, and +we all turned our prows down-stream. The skies had been lowering for +some time, and now--too late to interfere with the hunt or cause us +any annoyance--a heavy downpour of rain came on and beat upon us. +Little we cared, as the canoe raced forward, with the tapir and the +buck lying in the bottom, and a dry, comfortable camp ahead of us. + +When we reached camp, and Father Zahm saw the tapir, he reminded me of +something I had completely forgotten. When, some six years previously, +he had spoken to me in the White House about taking this South +American trip, I had answered that I could not, as I intended to go to +Africa, but added that I hoped some day to go to South America and +that if I did so I should try to shoot both a jaguar and a tapir, as +they were the characteristic big-game animals of the country. "Well," +said Father Zahm, "now you've shot them both!" The storm continued +heavy until after sunset. Then the rain stopped and the full moon +broke through the cloud-rack. Father Zahm and I walked up and down in +the moonlight, talking of many things, from Dante, and our own plans +for the future, to the deeds and the wanderings of the old-time +Spanish conquistadores in their search for the Gilded King, and of the +Portuguese adventurers who then divided with them the mastery of the +oceans and of the unknown continents beyond. + +This was an attractive and interesting camp in more ways than one. The +vaqueiros with their wives and families were housed on the two sides +of the field in which our tents were pitched. On one side was a big, +whitewashed, tile-roofed house in which the foreman dwelt--an olive- +skinned, slightly built, wiry man, with an olive-skinned wife and +eight as pretty, fair-haired children as one could wish to see. He +usually went barefoot, and his manners were not merely good but +distinguished. Corrals and outbuildings were near this big house. On +the opposite side of the field stood the row of steep-roofed, palm- +thatched huts in which the ordinary cowhands lived with their dusky +helpmeets and children. Each night from these palm-thatched quarters +we heard the faint sounds of a music that went far back of +civilization to a savage ancestry near by in point of time and +otherwise immeasurably remote; for through the still, hot air, under +the brilliant moonlight, we heard the monotonous throbbing of a tomtom +drum, and the twanging of some old stringed instrument. The small +black turkey-buzzards, here always called crows, were as tame as +chickens near the big house, walking on the ground or perched in the +trees beside the corral, waiting for the offal of the slaughtered +cattle. Two palm-trees near our tent were crowded with the long, +hanging nests of one of the cacique orioles. We lived well, with +plenty of tapir beef, which was good, and venison of the bush deer, +which was excellent; and as much ordinary beef as we wished, and fresh +milk, too--a rarity in this country. There were very few mosquitoes, +and everything was as comfortable as possible. + +The tapir I killed was a big one. I did not wish to kill another, +unless, of course, it became advisable to do so for food; whereas I +did wish to get some specimens of the big, white-lipped peccary, the +"queixa" (pronounced "cashada") of the Brazilians, which would make +our collection of the big mammals of the Brazilian forests almost +complete. The remaining members of the party killed two or three more +tapirs. One was a bull, full grown but very much smaller than the +animal I had killed. The hunters said that this was a distinct kind. +The skull and skin were sent back with the other specimens to the +American Museum, where after due examination and comparison its +specific identify will be established. Tapirs are solitary beasts. Two +are rarely found together, except in the case of a cow and its spotted +and streaked calf. They live in dense cover, usually lying down in the +daytime and at night coming out to feed, and going to the river or to +some lagoon to bathe and swim. From this camp Sigg took Lieutenant +Lyra back to Caceres to get something that had been overlooked. They +went in a rowboat to which the motor had been attached, and at night +on the way back almost ran over a tapir that was swimming. But in +unfrequented places tapirs both feed and bathe during the day. The +stomach of the one I shot contained big palm-nuts; they had been +swallowed without enough mastication to break the kernel, the outer +pulp being what the tapir prized. Tapirs gallop well, and their tough +hide and wedge shape enable them to go at speed through very dense +cover. They try to stamp on, and even to bite, a foe, but are only +clumsy fighters. + +The tapir is a very archaic type of ungulate, not unlike the non- +specialized beasts of the Oligocene. From some such ancestral type the +highly specialized one-toed modern horse has evolved, while during the +uncounted ages that saw the horse thus develop the tapir has continued +substantially unchanged. Originally the tapirs dwelt in the northern +hemisphere, but there they gradually died out, the more specialized +horse, and even for long ages the rhinoceros, persisting after they +had vanished; and nowadays the surviving tapirs are found in Malaysia +and South America, far from their original home. The relations of the +horse and tapir in the paleontological history of South America are +very curious. Both were, geologically speaking, comparatively recent +immigrants, and if they came at different dates it is almost certain +that the horse came later. The horse for an age or two, certainly for +many hundreds of thousands of years, throve greatly and developed not +only several different species but even different genera. It was much +the most highly specialized of the two, and in the other continental +regions where both were found the horse outlasted the tapir. But in +South America the tapir outlasted the horse. From unknown causes the +various genera and species of horses died out, while the tapir has +persisted. The highly specialized, highly developed beasts, which +represented such a full evolutionary development, died out, while +their less specialized remote kinsfolk, which had not developed, clung +to life and throve; and this although the direct reverse was occurring +in North America and in the Old World. It is one of the innumerable +and at present insoluble problems in the history of life on our +planet. + +I spent a couple of days of hard work in getting the big white-lipped +peccaries--white-lipped being rather a misnomer, as the entire under +jaw and lower cheek are white. They were said to be found on the other +side of, and some distance back from, the river. Colonel Rondon had +sent out one of our attendants, an old follower of his, a full-blood +Parecis Indian, to look for tracks. This was an excellent man, who +dressed and behaved just like the other good men we had, and was +called Antonio Parecis. He found the tracks of a herd of thirty or +forty cashadas, and the following morning we started after them. + +On the first day we killed nothing. We were rather too large a party, +for one or two of the visiting fazendeiros came along with their dogs. +I doubt whether these men very much wished to overtake our game, for +the big peccary is a murderous foe of dogs (and is sometimes dangerous +to men). One of their number frankly refused to come or to let his +dogs come, explaining that the fierce wild swine were "very badly +brought up" (a literal translation of his words) and that respectable +dogs and men ought not to go near them. The other fazendeiros merely +feared for their dogs; a groundless fear, I believe, as I do not think +that the dogs could by any exertion have been dragged into dangerous +proximity with such foes. The ranch foreman, Benedetto, came with us, +and two or three other camaradas, including Antonio, the Parecis +Indian. The horses were swum across the river, each being led beside a +dugout. Then we crossed with the dogs; our horses were saddled, and we +started. + +It was a picturesque cavalcade. The native hunters, of every shade +from white to dark copper, all wore leather leggings that left the +soles of their feet bare, and on their bare heels wore spurs with +wheels four inches across. They went in single file, for no other mode +of travel was possible; and the two or three leading men kept their +machetes out, and had to cut every yard of our way while we were in +the forest. The hunters rode little stallions, and their hounds were +gelded. + +Most of the time we were in forest or swampy jungle. Part of the time +we crossed or skirted marshy plains. In one of them a herd of half- +wild cattle was feeding. Herons, storks, ducks, and ibises were in +these marshes, and we saw one flock of lovely roseate spoonbills. + +In one grove the fig-trees were killing the palms, just as in Africa +they kill the sandalwood-trees. In the gloom of this grove there were +no flowers, no bushes; the air was heavy; the ground was brown with +mouldering leaves. Almost every palm was serving as a prop for a fig- +tree. The fig-trees were in every stage of growth. The youngest ones +merely ran up the palms as vines. In the next stage the vine had +thickened and was sending out shoots, wrapping the palm stem in a +deadly hold. Some of the shoots were thrown round the stem like the +tentacles of an immense cuttlefish. Others looked like claws, that +were hooked into every crevice, and round every projection. In the +stage beyond this the palm had been killed, and its dead carcass +appeared between the big, winding vine-trunks; and later the palm had +disappeared and the vines had united into a great fig-tree. Water +stood in black pools at the foot of the murdered trees, and of the +trees that had murdered them. There was something sinister and evil in +the dark stillness of the grove; it seemed as if sentient beings had +writhed themselves round and were strangling other sentient beings. + +We passed through wonderfully beautiful woods of tall palms, the +ouaouaca palm--wawasa palm, as it should be spelled in English. The +trunks rose tall and strong and slender, and the fronds were branches +twenty or thirty feet long, with the many long, narrow green blades +starting from the midrib at right angles in pairs. Round the ponds +stood stately burity palms, rising like huge columns, with great +branches that looked like fans, as the long, stiff blades radiated +from the end of the midrib. One tree was gorgeous with the brilliant +hues of a flock of party-colored macaws. Green parrots flew shrieking +overhead. + +Now and then we were bitten and stung by the venomous fire-ants, and +ticks crawled upon us. Once we were assailed by more serious foes, in +the shape of a nest of maribundi wasps, not the biggest kind, but +about the size of our hornets. We were at the time passing through +dense jungle, under tall trees, in a spot where the down timber, +holes, tangled creepers, and thorns made the going difficult. The +leading men were not assailed, although they were now and then cutting +the trail. Colonel Rondon and I were in the middle of the column, and +the swarm attacked us; both of us were badly stung on the face, neck, +and hands, the colonel even more severely than I was. He wheeled and +rode to the rear and I to the front; our horses were stung too; and we +went at a rate that a moment previously I would have deemed impossible +over such ground. + +At the close of the day, when we were almost back at the river, the +dogs killed a jaguar kitten. There was no trace of the mother. Some +accident must have befallen her, and the kitten was trying to shift +for herself. She was very emaciated. In her stomach were the remains +of a pigeon and some tendons from the skeleton or dried carcass of +some big animal. The loathsome berni flies, which deposit eggs in +living beings--cattle, dogs, monkeys, rodents, men--had been at it. +There were seven huge, white grubs making big abscess-like swellings +over its eyes. These flies deposit their grubs in men. In 1909, on +Colonel Rondon's hardest trip, every man of the party had from one to +five grubs deposited in him, the fly acting with great speed, and +driving its ovipositor through clothing. The grubs cause torture; but +a couple of cross cuts with a lancet permit the loathsome creatures to +be squeezed out. + +In these forests the multitude of insects that bite, sting, devour, +and prey upon other creatures, often with accompaniments of atrocious +suffering, passes belief. The very pathetic myth of "beneficent +nature" could not deceive even the least wise being if he once saw for +himself the iron cruelty of life in the tropics. Of course "nature"-- +in common parlance a wholly inaccurate term, by the way, especially +when used as if to express a single entity--is entirely ruthless, no +less so as regards types than as regards individuals, and entirely +indifferent to good or evil, and works out her ends or no ends with +utter disregard of pain and woe. + +The following morning at sunrise we started again. This time only +Colonel Rondon and I went with Benedetto and Antonio the Indian. We +brought along four dogs which it was fondly hoped might chase the +cashadas. Two of them disappeared on the track of a tapir and we saw +them no more; one of the others promptly fled when we came across the +tracks of our game, and would not even venture after them in our +company; the remaining one did not actually run away and occasionally +gave tongue, but could not be persuaded to advance unless there was a +man ahead of him. However, Colonel Rondon, Benedetto, and Antonio +formed a trio of hunters who could do fairly well without dogs. + +After four hours of riding, Benedetto, who was in the lead, suddenly +stopped and pointed downward. We were riding along a grassy intervale +between masses of forest, and he had found the fresh track of a herd +of big peccaries crossing from left to right. There were apparently +thirty or forty in the herd. The small peccaries go singly or in small +parties, and when chased take refuge in holes or hollow logs, where +they show valiant fight; but the big peccaries go in herds of +considerable size, and are so truculent that they are reluctant to +run, and prefer either to move slowly off chattering their tusks and +grunting, or else actually to charge. Where much persecuted the +survivors gradually grow more willing to run, but their instinct is +not to run but to trust to their truculence and their mass-action for +safety. They inflict a fearful bite and frequently kill dogs. They +often charge the hunters and I have heard of men being badly wounded +by them, while almost every man who hunts them often is occasionally +forced to scramble up a tree to avoid a charge. But I have never heard +of a man being killed by them. They sometimes surround the tree in +which the man has taken refuge and keep him up it. Cherrie, on one +occasion in Costa Rica, was thus kept up a tree for several hours by a +great herd of three or four hundred of these peccaries; and this +although he killed several of them. Ordinarily, however, after making +their charge they do not turn, but pass on out of sight. Their great +foe is the jaguar, but unless he exercises much caution they will turn +the tables on him. Cherrie, also in Costa Rica, came on the body of a +jaguar which had evidently been killed by a herd of peccaries some +twenty-four hours previously. The ground was trampled up by their +hoofs, and the carcass was rent and slit into pieces. + +Benedetto, as soon as we discovered the tracks, slipped off his horse, +changed his leggings for sandals, threw his rifle over his arm, and +took the trail of the herd, followed by the only dog which would +accompany him. The peccaries had gone into a broad belt of forest, +with a marsh on the farther side. At first Antonio led the colonel and +me, all of us on horseback, at a canter round this belt to the marsh +side, thinking the peccaries had gone almost through it. But we could +hear nothing. The dog only occasionally barked, and then not loudly. +Finally we heard a shot. Benedetto had found the herd, which showed no +fear of him; he had backed out and fired a signal shot. We all three +went into the forest on foot toward where the shot had been fired. It +was dense jungle and stiflingly hot. We could not see clearly for more +than a few feet, or move easily without free use of the machetes. Soon +we heard the ominous groaning of the herd, in front of us, and almost +on each side. Then Benedetto joined us, and the dog appeared in the +rear. We moved slowly forward, toward the sound of the fierce moaning +grunts which were varied at times by a castanet chattering of the +tusks. Then we dimly made out the dark forms of the peccaries moving +very slowly to the left. My companions each chose a tree to climb at +need and pointed out one for me. I fired at the half-seen form of a +hog, through the vines, leaves, and branches; the colonel fired; I +fired three more shots at other hogs; and the Indian also fired. The +peccaries did not charge; walking and trotting, with bristles erect, +groaning and clacking their tusks, they disappeared into the jungle. +We could not see one of them clearly; and not one was left dead. But a +few paces on we came across one of my wounded ones, standing at bay by +a palm trunk; and I killed it forthwith. The dog would not even trail +the wounded ones; but here Antonio came to the front. With eyes almost +as quick and sure as those of a wild beast he had watched after every +shot, and was able to tell the results in each case. He said that in +addition to the one I had just killed I had wounded two others so +seriously that he did not think they would go far, and that Colonel +Rondon and he himself had each badly wounded one; and, moreover, he +showed the trails each wounded animal had taken. The event justified +him. In a few minutes we found my second one dead. Then we found +Antonio's. Then we found my third one alive and at bay, and I killed +it with another bullet. Finally we found the colonel's. I told him I +should ask the authorities of the American Museum to mount his and one +or two of mine in a group, to commemorate our hunting together. + +If we had not used crippling rifles the peccaries might have gotten +away, for in the dark jungle, with the masses of intervening leaves +and branches, it was impossible to be sure of placing each bullet +properly in the half-seen moving beast. We found where the herd had +wallowed in the mud. The stomachs of the peccaries we killed contained +wild figs, palm nuts, and bundles of root fibres. The dead beasts were +covered with ticks. They were at least twice the weight of the smaller +peccaries. + +On the ride home we saw a buck of the small species of bush deer, not +half the size of the kind I had already shot. It was only a patch of +red in the bush, a good distance off, but I was lucky enough to hit +it. In spite of its small size it was a full-grown male, of a species +we had not yet obtained. The antlers had recently been shed, and the +new antler growth had just begun. A great jabiru stork let us ride by +him a hundred and fifty yards off without thinking it worth while to +take flight. This day we saw many of the beautiful violet orchids; and +in the swamps were multitudes of flowers, red, yellow, lilac, of which +I did not know the names. + +I alluded above to the queer custom these people in the interior of +Brazil have of gelding their hunting-dogs. This absurd habit is +doubtless the chief reason why there are so few hounds worth their +salt in the more serious kinds of hunting, where the quarry is the +jaguar or big peccary. Thus far we had seen but one dog as good as the +ordinary cougar hound or bear hound in such packs as those with which +I had hunted in the Rockies and in the cane-brakes of the lower +Mississippi. It can hardly be otherwise when every dog that shows +himself worth anything is promptly put out of the category of +breeders--the theory apparently being that the dog will then last +longer. All the breeding is from worthless dogs, and no dog of proved +worth leaves descendants. + +The country along this river is a fine natural cattle country, and +some day it will surely see a great development. It was opened to +development by Colonel Rondon only five or six years ago. Already an +occasional cattle ranch is to be found along the banks. When railroads +are built into these interior portions of Matto Grosso the whole +region will grow and thrive amazingly--and so will the railroads. The +growth will not be merely material. An immense amount will be done in +education; using the word education in its broadest and most accurate +sense, as applying to both mind and spirit, to both the child and the +man. Colonel Rondon is not merely an explorer. He has been and is now +a leader in the movement for the vital betterment of his people, the +people of Matto Grosso. The poorer people of the back country +everywhere suffer because of the harsh and improper laws of debt. In +practice these laws have resulted in establishing a system of peonage, +such as has grown up here and there in our own nation. A radical +change is needed in this matter; and the colonel is fighting for the +change. In school matters the colonel has precisely the ideas of our +wisest and most advanced men and women in the United States. Cherrie-- +who is not only an exceedingly efficient naturalist and explorer in +the tropics, but is also a thoroughly good citizen at home--is the +chairman of the school board of the town of Newfane, in Vermont. He +and the colonel, and Kermit and I, talked over school matters at +length, and were in hearty accord as to the vital educational needs of +both Brazil and the United States: the need of combining industrial +with purely mental training, and the need of having the wide-spread +popular education, which is and must be supported and paid for by the +government, made a purely governmental and absolutely nonsectarian +function, administered by the state alone, without interference with, +nor furtherance of, the beliefs of any reputable church. The colonel +is also head of the Indian service of Brazil, being what corresponds +roughly with our commissioner of Indian affairs. Here also he is +taking the exact view that is taken in the United States by the +staunchest and wisest friends of the Indians. The Indians must be +treated with intelligent and sympathetic understanding, no less than +with justice and firmness; and until they become citizens, absorbed +into the general body politic, they must be the wards of the nation, +and not of any private association, lay or clerical, no matter how +well-meaning. + +The Sepotuba River was scientifically explored and mapped for the +first time by Colonel Rondon in 1908, as head of the Brazilian +Telegraphic Commission. This was during the second year of his +exploration and opening of the unknown northwestern wilderness of +Matto Grosso. Most of this wilderness had never previously been +trodden by the foot of a civilized man. Not only were careful maps +made and much other scientific work accomplished, but posts were +established and telegraph-lines constructed. When Colonel Rondon began +the work he was a major. He was given two promotions, to lieutenant- +colonel and colonel, while absent in the wilderness. His longest and +most important exploring trip, and the one fraught with most danger +and hardship, was begun by him in 1909, on May 3rd, the anniversary of +the discovery of Brazil. He left Tapirapoan on that day, and he +reached the Madeira River on Christmas, December 25, of the same year, +having descended the Gy-Parana. The mouth of this river had long been +known, but its upper course for half its length was absolutely unknown +when Rondon descended it. Among those who took part under him in this +piece of exploration were the present Captain Amilcar and Lieutenant +Lyra; and two better or more efficient men for such wilderness work it +would be impossible to find. They acted as his two chief assistants on +our trip. In 1909 the party exhausted all their food, including even +the salt, by August. For the last four months they lived exclusively +on the game they killed, on fruits, and on wild honey. Their equipage +was what the men could carry on their backs. By the time the party +reached the Madeira they were worn out by fatigue, exposure, and semi- +starvation, and their enfeebled bodies were racked by fever. + +The work of exploration accomplished by Colonel Rondon and his +associates during these years was as remarkable as, and in its results +even more important than, any similar work undertaken elsewhere on the +globe at or about the same time. Its value was recognized in Brazil. +It received no recognition by the geographical societies of Europe or +the United States. + +The work done by the original explorers of such a wilderness +necessitates the undergoing of untold hardship and danger. Their +successors, even their immediate successors, have a relatively easy +time. Soon the road becomes so well beaten that it can be traversed +without hardship by any man who does not venture from it--although if +he goes off into the wilderness for even a day, hunting or collecting, +he will have a slight taste of what his predecessors endured. The +wilderness explored by Colonel Rondon is not yet wholly subdued, and +still holds menace to human life. At Caceres he received notice of the +death of one of his gallant subordinates, Captain Cardozo. He died +from beriberi, far out in the wilderness along our proposed line of +march. Colonel Rondon also received news that a boat ascending the Gy- +Parana, to carry provisions to meet those of our party who were to +descend that stream, had been upset, the provisions lost, and three +men drowned. The risk and hardship are such that the ordinary men, the +camaradas, do not like to go into the wilderness. The men who go with +the Telegraphic Commission on the rougher and wilder work are paid +seven times as much as they earn in civilization. On this trip of ours +Colonel Rondon met with much difficulty in securing some one who could +cook. He asked the cook on the little steamer Nyoac to go with us; but +the cook with unaffected horror responded: "Senhor, I have never done +anything to deserve punishment!" + +Five days after leaving us, the launch, with one of the native +trading-boats lashed alongside, returned. On the 13th we broke camp, +loaded ourselves and all our belongings on the launch and the house- +boat, and started up-stream for Tapirapoan. All told there were about +thirty men, with five dogs and tents, bedding and provisions; fresh +beef, growing rapidly less fresh; skins--all and everything jammed +together. + +It rained most of the first day and part of the first night. After +that the weather was generally overcast and pleasant for travelling; +but sometimes rain and torrid sunshine alternated. The cooking--and it +was good cooking--was done at a funny little open-air fireplace, with +two or three cooking-pots placed at the stern of the house-boat. + +The fireplace was a platform of earth, taken from anthills, and heaped +and spread on the boards of the boat. Around it the dusky cook worked +with philosophic solemnity in rain and shine. Our attendants, friendly +souls with skins of every shade and hue, slept most of the time, +curled up among boxes, bundles, and slabs of beef. An enormous land +turtle was tethered toward the bow of the house-boat. When the men +slept too near it, it made futile efforts to scramble over them; and +in return now and then one of them gravely used it for a seat. + +Slowly the throbbing engine drove the launch and its unwieldy side- +partner against the swift current. The river had risen. We made about +a mile and a half an hour. Ahead of us the brown water street +stretched in curves between endless walls of dense tropical forest. It +was like passing through a gigantic greenhouse. Wawasa and burity +palms, cecropias, huge figs, feathery bamboos, strange yellow-stemmed +trees, low trees with enormous leaves, tall trees with foliage as +delicate as lace, trees with buttressed trunks, trees with boles +rising smooth and straight to lofty heights, all woven together by a +tangle of vines, crowded down to the edge of the river. Their drooping +branches hung down to the water, forming a screen through which it was +impossible to see the bank, and exceedingly difficult to penetrate to +the bank. Rarely one of them showed flowers--large white blossoms, or +small red or yellow blossoms. More often the lilac flowers of the +begonia-vine made large patches of color. Innumerable epiphytes +covered the limbs, and even grew on the roughened trunks. We saw +little bird life--a darter now and then, and kingfishers flitting from +perch to perch. At long intervals we passed a ranch. At one the large, +red-tiled, whitewashed house stood on a grassy slope behind mango- +trees. The wooden shutters were thrown back from the unglazed windows, +and the big rooms were utterly bare--not a book, not an ornament. A +palm, loaded with scores of the pendulous nests of the troupials, +stood near the door. Behind were orange-trees and coffee-plants, and +near by fields of bananas, rice, and tobacco. The sallow foreman was +courteous and hospitable. His dark-skinned women-folk kept in the +furtive background. Like most of the ranches, it was owned by a +company with headquarters at Caceres. + +The trip was pleasant and interesting, although there was not much to +do on the boat. It was too crowded to move around save with a definite +purpose. We enjoyed the scenery; we talked--in English, Portuguese, +bad French, and broken German. Some of us wrote. Fiala made sketches +of improved tents, hammocks, and other field equipment, suggested by +what he had already seen. Some of us read books. Colonel Rondon, neat, +trim, alert, and soldierly, studied a standard work on applied +geographical astronomy. Father Zahm read a novel by Fogazzaro. Kermit +read Camoens and a couple of Brazilian novels, "O Guarani" and +"Innocencia." My own reading varied from "Quentin Durward" and Gibbon +to the "Chanson de Roland." Miller took out his little pet owl Moses, +from the basket in which Moses dwelt, and gave him food and water. +Moses crooned and chuckled gratefully when he was stroked and tickled. + +Late the first evening we moored to the bank by a little fazenda of +the poorer type. The houses were of palm-leaves. Even the walls were +made of the huge fronds or leafy branches of the wawasa palm, stuck +upright in the ground and the blades plaited together. Some of us went +ashore. Some stayed on the boats. There were no mosquitoes, the +weather was not oppressively hot, and we slept well. By five o'clock +next morning we had each drunk a cup of delicious Brazilian coffee, +and the boats were under way. + +All day we steamed slowly up-stream. We passed two or three fazendas. +At one, where we halted to get milk, the trees were overgrown with +pretty little yellow orchids. At dark we moored at a spot where there +were no branches to prevent our placing the boats directly alongside +the bank. There were hardly any mosquitoes. Most of the party took +their hammocks ashore, and the camp was pitched amid singularly +beautiful surroundings. The trees were wawasa palms, some with the +fronds cresting very tall trunks, some with the fronds--seemingly +longer--rising almost from the ground. The fronds were of great +length; some could not have been less than fifty feet long. Bushes and +tall grass, dew-drenched and glittering with the green of emeralds, +grew in the open spaces between. We left at sunrise the following +morning. One of the sailors had strayed inland. He got turned round +and could not find the river; and we started before discovering his +absence. We stopped at once, and with much difficulty he forced his +way through the vine-laced and thorn-guarded jungle toward the sound +of the launch's engines and of the bugle which was blown. In this +dense jungle, when the sun is behind clouds, a man without a compass +who strays a hundred yards from the river may readily become +hopelessly lost. + +As we ascended the river the wawasa palms became constantly more +numerous. At this point, for many miles, they gave their own character +to the forest on the river banks. Everywhere their long, curving +fronds rose among the other trees, and in places their lofty trunks +made them hold their heads higher than the other trees. But they were +never as tall as the giants among the ordinary trees. On one towering +palm we noticed a mass of beautiful violet orchids growing from the +side of the trunk, half-way to the top. On another big tree, not a +palm, which stood in a little opening, there hung well over a hundred +troupials' nests. Besides two or three small ranches we this day +passed a large ranch. The various houses and sheds, all palm-thatched, +stood by the river in a big space of cleared ground, dotted with +wawasa palms. A native house-boat was moored by the bank. Women and +children looked from the unglazed windows of the houses; men stood in +front of them. The biggest house was enclosed by a stockade of palm- +logs, thrust end-on into the ground. Cows and oxen grazed round about; +and carts with solid wheels, each wheel made of a single disk of wood, +were tilted on their poles. + +We made our noonday halt on an island where very tall trees grew, +bearing fruits that were pleasant to the taste. Other trees on the +island were covered with rich red and yellow blossoms; and masses of +delicate blue flowers and of star-shaped white flowers grew underfoot. +Hither and thither across the surface of the river flew swallows, with +so much white in their plumage that as they flashed in the sun they +seemed to have snow-white bodies, borne by dark wings. The current of +the river grew swifter; there were stretches of broken water that were +almost rapids; the laboring engine strained and sobbed as with +increasing difficulty it urged forward the launch and her clumsy +consort. At nightfall we moored beside the bank, where the forest was +open enough to permit a comfortable camp. That night the ants ate +large holes in Miller's mosquito-netting, and almost devoured his +socks and shoe-laces. + +At sunrise we again started. There were occasional stretches of swift, +broken water, almost rapids, in the river; everywhere the current was +swift, and our progress was slow. The prancha was towed at the end of +a hawser, and her crew poled. Even thus we only just made the riffle +in more than one case. Two or three times cormorants and snake-birds, +perched on snags in the river or on trees alongside it, permitted the +boat to come within a few yards. In one piece of high forest we saw a +party of toucans, conspicuous even among the tree tops because of +their huge bills and the leisurely expertness with which they crawled, +climbed, and hopped among the branches. We went by several fazendas. + +Shortly before noon--January 16--we reached Tapirapoan, the +headquarters of the Telegraphic Commission. It was an attractive +place, on the river-front, and it was gayly bedecked with flags, not +only those of Brazil and the United States, but of all the other +American republics, in our honor. There was a large, green square, +with trees standing in the middle of it. On one side of this square +were the buildings of the Telegraphic Commission, on the other those +of a big ranch, of which this is the headquarters. In addition, there +were stables, sheds, outhouses, and corrals; and there were cultivated +fields near by. Milch cows, beef-cattle, oxen, and mules wandered +almost at will. There were two or three wagons and carts, and a +traction automobile, used in the construction of the telegraph-line, +but not available in the rainy season, at the time of our trip. + +Here we were to begin our trip overland, on pack-mules and pack-oxen, +scores of which had been gathered to meet us. Several days were needed +to apportion the loads and arrange for the several divisions in which +it was necessary that so large a party should attempt the long +wilderness march, through a country where there was not much food for +man or beast, and where it was always possible to run into a district +in which fatal cattle or horse diseases were prevalent. Fiala, with +his usual efficiency, took charge of handling the outfit of the +American portion of the expedition, with Sigg as an active and useful +assistant. Harper, who like the others worked with whole-hearted zeal +and cheerfulness, also helped him, except when he was engaged in +helping the naturalists. The two latter, Cherrie and Miller, had so +far done the hardest and the best work of the expedition. They had +collected about a thousand birds and two hundred and fifty mammals. It +was not probable that they would do as well during the remainder of +our trip, for we intended thenceforth to halt as little, and march as +steadily, as the country, the weather, and the condition of our means +of transportation permitted. I kept continually wishing that they had +more time in which to study the absorbingly interesting life-histories +of the beautiful and wonderful beasts and birds we were all the time +seeing. Every first-rate museum must still employ competent +collectors; but I think that a museum could now confer most lasting +benefit, and could do work of most permanent good, by sending out into +the immense wildernesses, where wild nature is at her best, trained +observers with the gift of recording what they have observed. Such men +should be collectors, for collecting is still necessary; but they +should also, and indeed primarily, be able themselves to see, and to +set vividly before the eyes of others, the full life-histories of the +creatures that dwell in the waste spaces of the world. + +At this point both Cherrie and Miller collected a number of mammals +and birds which they had not previously obtained; whether any were new +to science could only be determined after the specimens reached the +American Museum. While making the round of his small mammal traps one +morning, Miller encountered an army of the formidable foraging ants. +The species was a large black one, moving with a well-extended front. +These ants, sometimes called army-ants, like the driver-ants of +Africa, move in big bodies and destroy or make prey of every living +thing that is unable or unwilling to get out of their path in time. +They run fast, and everything runs away from their advance. Insects +form their chief prey; and the most dangerous and aggressive lower- +life creatures make astonishingly little resistance to them. Miller's +attention was first attracted to this army of ants by noticing a big +centipede, nine or ten inches long, trying to flee before them. A +number of ants were biting it, and it writhed at each bite, but did +not try to use its long curved jaws against its assailants. On other +occasions he saw big scorpions and big hairy spiders trying to escape +in the same way, and showing the same helpless inability to injure +their ravenous foes, or to defend themselves. The ants climb trees to +a great height, much higher than most birds' nests, and at once kill +and tear to pieces any fledglings in the nests they reach. But they +are not as common as some writers seem to imagine; days may elapse +before their armies are encountered, and doubtless most nests are +never visited or threatened by them. In some instances it seems likely +that the birds save themselves and their young in other ways. Some +nests are inaccessible. From others it is probable that the parents +remove the young. Miller once, in Guiana, had been watching for some +days a nest of ant-wrens which contained young. Going thither one +morning, he found the tree, and the nest itself, swarming with +foraging ants. He at first thought that the fledglings had been +devoured, but he soon saw the parents, only about thirty yards off, +with food in their beaks. They were engaged in entering a dense part +of the jungle, coming out again without food in their beaks, and soon +reappearing once more with food. Miller never found their new nests, +but their actions left him certain that they were feeding their young, +which they must have themselves removed from the old nest. These ant- +wrens hover in front of and over the columns of foraging ants, feeding +not only on the other insects aroused by the ants, but on the ants +themselves. This fact has been doubted; but Miller has shot them with +the ants in their bills and in their stomachs. Dragon-flies, in +numbers, often hover over the columns, darting down at them; Miller +could not be certain he had seen them actually seizing the ants, but +this was his belief. I have myself seen these ants plunder a nest of +the dangerous and highly aggressive wasps, while the wasps buzzed +about in great excitement, but seemed unable effectively to retaliate. +I have also seen them clear a sapling tenanted by their kinsmen, the +poisonous red ants, or fire-ants; the fire-ants fought and I have no +doubt injured or killed some of their swarming and active black foes; +but the latter quickly did away with them. I have only come across +black foraging ants; but there are red species. They attack human +beings precisely as they attack all animals, and precipitate flight is +the only resort. + +Around our camp here butterflies of gorgeous coloring swarmed, and +there were many fungi as delicately shaped and tinted as flowers. The +scents in the woods were wonderful. There were many whippoorwills, or +rather Brazilian birds related to them; they uttered at intervals +through the night a succession of notes suggesting both those of our +whippoorwill and those of our big chuck-will's-widow of the Gulf +States, but not identical with either. There were other birds which +were nearly akin to familiar birds of the United States: a dull- +colored catbird, a dull-colored robin, and a sparrow belonging to the +same genus as our common song-sparrow and sweetheart sparrow; Miller +had heard this sparrow singing by day and night, fourteen thousand +feet up on the Andes, and its song suggested the songs of both of our +sparrows. There were doves and woodpeckers of various species. Other +birds bore no resemblance to any of ours. One honey-creeper was a +perfect little gem, with plumage that was black, purple, and +turquoise, and brilliant scarlet feet. Two of the birds which Cherrie +and Miller procured were of extraordinary nesting habits. One, a +nunlet, in shape resembles a short-tailed bluebird. It is plumbeous, +with a fulvous belly and white tail coverts. It is a stupid little +bird, and does not like to fly away even when shot at. It catches its +prey and ordinarily acts like a rather dull flycatcher, perching on +some dead tree, swooping on insects and then returning to its perch, +and never going on the ground to feed or run about. But it nests in +burrows which it digs itself, one bird usually digging, while the +other bird perches in a bush near by. Sometimes these burrows are in +the side of a sand-bank, the sand being so loose that it is a marvel +that it does not cave in. Sometimes the burrows are in the level +plain, running down about three feet, and then rising at an angle. The +nest consists of a few leaves and grasses, and the eggs are white. The +other bird, called a nun or waxbill, is about the size of a thrush, +grayish in color, with a waxy red bill. It also burrows in the level +soil, the burrow being five feet long; and over the mouth of the +burrow it heaps a pile of sticks and leaves. + +At this camp the heat was great--from 91 to 104 Fahrenheit--and the +air very heavy, being saturated with moisture; and there were many +rain-storms. But there were no mosquitoes, and we were very +comfortable. Thanks to the neighborhood of the ranch, we fared +sumptuously, with plenty of beef, chickens, and fresh milk. Two of the +Brazilian dishes were delicious: canja, a thick soup of chicken and +rice, the best soup a hungry man ever tasted; and beef chopped in +rather small pieces and served with a well-flavored but simple gravy. +The mule allotted me as a riding-beast was a powerful animal, with +easy gaits. The Brazilian Government had waiting for me a very +handsome silver-mounted saddle and bridle; I was much pleased with +both. However, my exceedingly rough and shabby clothing made an +incongruous contrast. + +At Tapirapoan we broke up our baggage--as well as our party. We sent +forward the Canadian canoe--which, with the motor-engine and some +kerosene, went in a cart drawn by six oxen--and a hundred sealed tin +cases of provisions, each containing rations for a day for six men. +They had been put up in New York under the special direction of Fiala, +for use when we got where we wished to take good and varied food in +small compass. All the skins, skulls, and alcoholic specimens, and all +the baggage not absolutely necessary, were sent back down the Paraguay +and to New York, in charge of Harper. The separate baggage-trains, +under the charge of Captain Amilcar, were organized to go in one +detachment. The main body of the expedition, consisting of the +American members, and of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Lyra, and Doctor +Cajazeira, with their baggage and provisions, formed another +detachment. + + + + VI. THROUGH THE HIGHLAND WILDERNESS OF WESTERN BRAZIL + +We were now in the land of the bloodsucking bats, the vampire bats +that suck the blood of living creatures, clinging to or hovering +against the shoulder of a horse or cow, or the hand or foot of a +sleeping man, and making a wound from which the blood continues to +flow long after the bat's thirst has been satiated. At Tapirapoan +there were milch cattle; and one of the calves turned up one morning +weak from loss of blood, which was still trickling from a wound, +forward of the shoulder, made by a bat. But the bats do little damage +in this neighborhood compared to what they do in some other places, +where not only the mules and cattle but the chickens have to be housed +behind bat-proof protection at night or their lives may pay the +penalty. The chief and habitual offenders are various species of +rather small bats; but it is said that other kinds of Brazilian bats +seem to have become, at least sporadically and locally, affected by +the evil example and occasionally vary their customary diet by +draughts of living blood. One of the Brazilian members of our party, +Hoehne, the botanist, was a zoologist also. He informed me that he had +known even the big fruit-eating bats to take to bloodsucking. They did +not, according to his observations, themselves make the original +wound; but after it had been made by one of the true vampires they +would lap the flowing blood and enlarge the wound. South America makes +up for its lack, relatively to Africa and India, of large man-eating +carnivores by the extraordinary ferocity or bloodthirstiness of +certain small creatures of which the kinsfolk elsewhere are harmless. +It is only here that fish no bigger than trout kill swimmers, and bats +the size of the ordinary "flittermice" of the northern hemisphere +drain the life-blood of big beasts and of man himself. + +There was not much large mammalian life in the neighborhood. Kermit +hunted industriously and brought in an occasional armadillo, coati, or +agouti for the naturalists. Miller trapped rats and a queer opossum +new to the collection. Cherrie got many birds. Cherrie and Miller +skinned their specimens in a little open hut or shed. Moses, the small +pet owl, sat on a cross-bar overhead, an interested spectator, and +chuckled whenever he was petted. Two wrens, who bred just outside the +hut, were much excited by the presence of Moses, and paid him visits +of noisy unfriendliness. The little white-throated sparrows came +familiarly about the palm cabins and whitewashed houses and trilled on +the rooftrees. It was a simple song, with just a hint of our northern +white-throat's sweet and plaintive melody, and of the opening bars of +our song-sparrow's pleasant, homely lay. It brought back dear memories +of glorious April mornings on Long Island, when through the singing of +robin and song-sparrow comes the piercing cadence of the meadowlark; +and of the far northland woods in June, fragrant with the breath of +pine and balsam-fir, where sweetheart sparrows sing from wet spruce +thickets and rapid brooks rush under the drenched and swaying alder- +boughs. + +From Tapirapoan our course lay northward up to and across the Plan +Alto, the highland wilderness of Brazil. From the edges of this +highland country, which is geologically very ancient, the affluents of +the Amazon to the north, and of the Plate to the south, flow, with +immense and devious loops and windings. + +Two days before we ourselves started with our mule-train, a train of +pack-oxen left, loaded with provisions, tools, and other things, which +we would not need until, after a month or six weeks, we began our +descent into the valley of the Amazon. There were about seventy oxen. +Most of them were well broken, but there were about a score which were +either not broken at all or else very badly broken. These were loaded +with much difficulty, and bucked like wild broncos. Again and again +they scattered their loads over the corral and over the first part of +the road. The pack-men, however--copper-colored, black, and dusky- +white--were not only masters of their art, but possessed tempers that +could not be ruffled; when they showed severity it was because +severity was needed, and not because they were angry. They finally got +all their longhorned beasts loaded and started on the trail with them. + +On January 21 we ourselves started, with the mule-train. Of course, as +always in such a journey, there was some confusion before the men and +the animals of the train settled down to the routine performance of +duty. In addition to the pack-animals we all had riding-mules. The +first day we journeyed about twelve miles, then crossing the Sepotuba +and camping beside it, below a series of falls, or rather rapids. The +country was level. It was a great natural pasture, covered with a very +open forest of low, twisted trees, bearing a superficial likeness to +the cross-timbers of Texas and Oklahoma. It is as well fitted for +stock-raising as Oklahoma; and there is also much fine agricultural +land, while the river will ultimately yield electric power. It is a +fine country for settlement. The heat is great at noon; but the nights +are not uncomfortable. We were supposed to be in the middle of the +rainy season, but hitherto most of the days had been fine, varied with +showers. The astonishing thing was the absence of mosquitoes. Insect +pests that work by day can be stood, and especially by settlers, +because they are far less serious foes in the clearings than in the +woods. The mosquitoes and other night foes offer the really serious +and unpleasant problem, because they break one's rest. Hitherto, +during our travels up the Paraguay and its tributaries, in this level, +marshy tropical region of western Brazil, we had practically not been +bothered by mosquitoes at all, in our home camps. Out in the woods +they were at times a serious nuisance, and Cherrie and Miller had been +subjected to real torment by them during some of their special +expeditions; but there were practically none on the ranches and in our +camps in the open fields by the river, even when marshes were close +by. I was puzzled--and delighted--by their absence. Settlers need not +be deterred from coming to this region by the fear of insect foes. + +This does not mean that there are not such foes. Outside of the +clearings, and of the beaten tracks of travel, they teem. There are +ticks, poisonous ants, wasps--of which some species are really serious +menaces--biting flies and gnats. I merely mean that, unlike so many +other tropical regions, this particular region is, from the standpoint +of the settler and the ordinary traveller, relatively free from insect +pests, and a pleasant place of residence. The original explorer, and +to an only less degree the hardworking field naturalist or big-game +hunter, have to face these pests, just as they have to face countless +risks, hardships, and difficulties. This is inherent in their several +professions or avocations. Many regions in the United States where +life is now absolutely comfortable and easygoing offered most +formidable problems to the first explorers a century or two ago. We +must not fall into the foolish error of thinking that the first +explorers need not suffer terrible hardships, merely because the +ordinary travellers, and even the settlers who come after them, do not +have to endure such danger, privation, and wearing fatigue--although +the first among the genuine settlers also have to undergo exceedingly +trying experiences. The early explorers and adventurers make fairly +well-beaten trails; but it is incumbent on them neither to boast of +their own experiences nor to misjudge the efforts of the pioneers +because, thanks to these very efforts, their own lines fall in +pleasant places. The ordinary traveller, who never goes off the beaten +route and who on this beaten route is carried by others, without +himself doing anything or risking anything, does not need to show much +more initiative and intelligence than an express package. He does +nothing; others do all the work, show all the forethought, take all +the risk--and are entitled to all the credit. He and his valise are +carried in practically the same fashion; and for each the achievement +stands about on the same plane. If this kind of traveller is a writer, +he can of course do admirable work, work of the highest value; but the +value comes because he is a writer and observer, not because of any +particular credit that attaches to him as a traveller. We all +recognize this truth as far as highly civilized regions are concerned: +when Bryce writes of the American commonwealth, or Lowell of European +legislative assemblies, our admiration is for the insight and thought +of the observer, and we are not concerned with his travels. When a man +travels across Arizona in a Pullman car, we do not think of him as +having performed a feat bearing even the most remote resemblance to +the feats of the first explorers of those waterless wastes; whatever +admiration we feel in connection with his trip is reserved for the +traffic-superintendent, engineer, fireman, and brakeman. But as +regards the less-known continents, such as South America, we sometimes +fail to remember these obvious truths. There yet remains plenty of +exploring work to be done in South America, as hard, as dangerous, and +almost as important as any that has already been done; work such as +has recently been done, or is now being done, by men and women such as +Haseman, Farrabee, and Miss Snethlage. The collecting naturalists who +go into the wilds and do first-class work encounter every kind of risk +and undergo every kind of hardship and exertion. Explorers and +naturalists of the right type have open to them in South America a +field of extraordinary attraction and difficulty. But to excavate +ruins that have already long been known, to visit out-of-the-way towns +that date from colonial days, to traverse old, even if uncomfortable, +routes of travel, or to ascend or descend highway rivers like the +Amazon, the Paraguay, and the lower Orinoco--all of these exploits are +well worth performing, but they in no sense represent exploration or +adventure, and they do not entitle the performer, no matter how well +he writes and no matter how much of real value he contributes to human +knowledge, to compare himself in anyway with the real wilderness +wanderer, or to criticise the latter. Such a performance entails no +hardship or difficulty worth heeding. Its value depends purely on +observation, not on action. The man does little; he merely records +what he sees. He is only the man of the beaten routes. The true +wilderness wanderer, on the contrary, must be a man of action as well +as of observation. He must have the heart and the body to do and to +endure, no less than the eye to see and the brain to note and record. + +Let me make it clear that I am not depreciating the excellent work of +so many of the men who have not gone off the beaten trails. I merely +wish to make it plain that this excellent work must not be put in the +class with that of the wilderness explorer. It is excellent work, +nevertheless, and has its place, just as the work of the true explorer +has its place. Both stand in sharpest contrast with the actions of +those alleged explorers, among whom Mr. Savage Landor stands in +unpleasant prominence. + +From the Sepotuba rapids our course at the outset lay westward. The +first day's march away from the river lay through dense tropical +forest. Away from the broad, beaten route every step of a man's +progress represented slashing a trail with the machete through the +tangle of bushes, low trees, thorny scrub, and interlaced creepers. +There were palms of new kinds, very tall, slender, straight, and +graceful, with rather short and few fronds. The wild plantains, or +pacovas, thronged the spaces among the trunks of the tall trees; their +boles were short, and their broad, erect leaves gigantic; they bore +brilliant red-and-orange flowers. There were trees whose trunks +bellied into huge swellings. There were towering trees with buttressed +trunks, whose leaves made a fretwork against the sky far overhead. +Gorgeous red-and-green trogons, with long tails, perched motionless on +the lower branches and uttered a loud, thrice-repeated whistle. We +heard the calling of the false bellbird, which is gray instead of +white like the true bellbirds; it keeps among the very topmost +branches. Heavy rain fell shortly after we reached our camping-place. + +Next morning at sunrise we climbed a steep slope to the edge of the +Parecis plateau, at a level of about two thousand feet above the sea. +We were on the Plan Alto, the high central plain of Brazil, the +healthy land of dry air, of cool nights, of clear, running brooks. The +sun was directly behind us when we topped the rise. Reining in, we +looked back over the vast Paraguayan marshes, shimmering in the long +morning lights. Then, turning again, we rode forward, casting shadows +far before us. It was twenty miles to the next water, and in hot +weather the journey across this waterless, shadeless, sandy stretch of +country is hard on the mules and oxen. But on this day the sky +speedily grew overcast and a cool wind blew in our faces as we +travelled at a quick, running walk over the immense rolling plain. The +ground was sandy; it was covered with grass and with a sparse growth +of stunted, twisted trees, never more than a few feet high. There were +rheas--ostriches--and small pampas-deer on this plain; the coloration +of the rheas made it difficult to see them at a distance, whereas the +bright red coats of the little deer, and their uplifted flags as they +ran, advertised them afar off. We also saw the footprints of cougars +and of the small-toothed, big, red wolf. Cougars are the most +inveterate enemies of these small South American deer, both those of +the open grassy plain and those of the forest. + +It is not nearly as easy to get lost on these open plains as in the +dense forest; and where there is a long, reasonably straight road or +river to come back to, a man even without a compass is safe. But in +these thick South American forests, especially on cloudy days, a +compass is an absolute necessity. We were struck by the fact that the +native hunters and ranchmen on such days continually lost themselves +and, if permitted, travelled for miles through the forest either in +circles or in exactly the wrong direction. They had no such sense of +direction as the forest-dwelling 'Ndorobo hunters in Africa had, or as +the true forest-dwelling Indians of South America are said to have. On +certainly half a dozen occasions our guides went completely astray, +and we had to take command, to disregard their assertions, and to lead +the way aright by sole reliance on our compasses. + +On this cool day we travelled well. The air was wonderful; the vast +open spaces gave a sense of abounding vigor and freedom. Early in the +afternoon we reached a station made by Colonel Rondon in the course of +his first explorations. There were several houses with whitewashed +walls, stone floors, and tiled or thatched roofs. They stood in a +wide, gently sloping valley. Through it ran a rapid brook of cool +water, in which we enjoyed delightful baths. The heavy, intensely +humid atmosphere of the low, marshy plains had gone; the air was clear +and fresh; the sky was brilliant; far and wide we looked over a +landscape that seemed limitless; the breeze that blew in our faces +might have come from our own northern plains. The midday sun was very +hot; but it was hard to realize that we were in the torrid zone. There +were no mosquitoes, so that we never put up our nets when we went to +bed; but wrapped ourselves in our blankets and slept soundly through +the cool, pleasant nights. Surely in the future this region will be +the home of a healthy highly civilized population. It is good for +cattle-raising, and the valleys are fitted for agriculture. From June +to September the nights are often really cold. Any sound northern race +could live here; and in such a land, with such a climate, there would +be much joy of living. + +On these plains the Telegraphic Commission uses motor-trucks; and +these now to relieve the mules and oxen; for some of them, especially +among the oxen, already showed the effects of the strain. Travelling +in a wild country with a pack-train is not easy on the pack-animals. +It was strange to see these big motor-vans out in the wilderness where +there was not a settler, not a civilized man except the employees of +the Telegraphic Commission. They were handled by Lieutenant Lauriado, +who, with Lieutenant Mello, had taken special charge of our transport +service; both were exceptionally good and competent men. + +The following day we again rode on across the Plan Alto. In the early +afternoon, in the midst of a downpour of rain, we crossed the divide +between the basins of the Paraguay and the Amazon. That evening we +camped on a brook whose waters ultimately ran into the Tapajos. The +rain fell throughout the afternoon, now lightly, now heavily, and the +mule-train did not get up until dark. But enough tents and flies were +pitched to shelter all of us. Fires were lit, and--after a fourteen +hours' fast we feasted royally on beans and rice and pork and beef, +seated around ox-skins spread upon the ground. The sky cleared; the +stars blazed down through the cool night; and wrapped in our blankets +we slept soundly, warm and comfortable. + +Next morning the trail had turned, and our course led northward and at +times east of north. We traversed the same high, rolling plains of +coarse grass and stunted trees. Kermit, riding a big, iron-mouthed, +bull-headed white mule, rode off to one side on a hunt, and rejoined +the line of march carrying two bucks of the little pampas-deer, or +field deer, behind his saddle. These deer are very pretty and +graceful, with a tail like that of the Colombian blacktail. Standing +motionless facing one, in the sparse scrub, they are hard to make out; +if seen sideways the reddish of their coats, contrasted with the +greens and grays of the landscape, betrays them; and when they bound +off the upraised white tail is very conspicuous. They carefully avoid +the woods in which their cousins the little bush deer are found, and +go singly or in couples. Their odor can be made out at quite a +distance, but it is not rank. They still carried their antlers. Their +venison was delicious. + +We came across many queer insects. One red grasshopper when it flew +seemed as big as a small sparrow; and we passed in some places such +multitudes of active little green grasshoppers that they frightened +the mules. At our camping-place we saw an extraordinary colony of +spiders. It was among some dwarf trees, standing a few yards apart +from one another by the water. When we reached the camping-place, +early in the afternoon--the pack-train did not get in until nearly +sunset, just ahead of the rain--no spiders were out. They were under +the leaves of the trees. Their webs were tenantless, and indeed for +the most part were broken down. But at dusk they came out from their +hiding-places, two or three hundred of them in all, and at once began +to repair the old and spin new webs. Each spun its own circular web, +and sat in the middle; and each web was connected on several sides +with other webs, while those nearest the trees were hung to them by +spun ropes, so to speak. The result was a kind of sheet of web +consisting of scores of wheels, in each of which the owner and +proprietor sat; and there were half a dozen such sheets, each +extending between two trees. The webs could hardly be seen; and the +effect was of scores of big, formidable-looking spiders poised in +midair, equidistant from one another, between each pair of trees. When +darkness and rain fell they were still out, fixing their webs, and +pouncing on the occasional insects that blundered into the webs. I +have no question that they are nocturnal; they certainly hide in the +daytime, and it seems impossible that they can come out only for a few +minutes at dusk. + +In the evenings, after supper or dinner--it is hard to tell by what +title the exceedingly movable evening meal should be called--the +members of the party sometimes told stories of incidents in their past +lives. Most of them were men of varied experiences. Rondon and Lyra +told of the hardship and suffering of the first trips through the +wilderness across which we were going with such comfort. On this very +plateau they had once lived for weeks on the fruits of the various +fruit-bearing trees. Naturally they became emaciated and feeble. In +the forests of the Amazonian basin they did better because they often +shot birds and plundered the hives of the wild honey-bees. In cutting +the trail for the telegraph-line through the Juruena basin they lost +every single one of the hundred and sixty mules with which they had +started. Those men pay dear who build the first foundations of empire! +Fiala told of the long polar nights and of white bears that came round +the snow huts of the explorers, greedy to eat them, and themselves +destined to be eaten by them. Of all the party Cherrie's experiences +had covered the widest range. This was partly owing to the fact that +the latter-day naturalist of the most vigorous type who goes into the +untrodden wastes of the world must see and do many strange things; and +still more owing to the character of the man himself. The things he +had seen and done and undergone often enabled him to cast the light of +his own past experience on unexpected subjects. Once we were talking +about the proper weapons for cavalry, and some one mentioned the +theory that the lance is especially formidable because of the moral +effect it produces on the enemy. Cherrie nodded emphatically; and a +little cross-examination elicited the fact that he was speaking from +lively personal recollection of his own feelings when charged by +lancers. It was while he was fighting with the Venezuelan insurgents +in an unsuccessful uprising against the tyranny of Castro. He was on +foot, with five Venezuelans, all cool men and good shots. In an open +plain they were charged by twenty of Castro's lancers, who galloped +out from behind cover two or three hundred yards off. It was a war in +which neither side gave quarter and in which the wounded and the +prisoners were butchered--just as President Madero was butchered in +Mexico. Cherrie knew that it meant death for him and his companions if +the charge came home; and the sight of the horsemen running in at full +speed, with their long lances in rest and the blades glittering, left +an indelible impression on his mind. But he and his companions shot +deliberately and accurately; ten of the lancers were killed, the +nearest falling within fifty yards; and the others rode off in +headlong haste. A cool man with a rifle, if he has mastered his +weapon, need fear no foe. + +At this camp the auto-vans again joined us. They were to go direct to +the first telegraph station, at the great falls of the Utiarity, on +the Rio Papagaio. Of course they travelled faster than the mule-train. +Father Zahm, attended by Sigg, started for the falls in them. Cherrie +and Miller also went in them, because they had found that it was very +difficult to collect birds, and especially mammals, when we were +moving every day, packing up early each morning and the mule-train +arriving late in the afternoon or not until nightfall. Moreover, there +was much rain, which made it difficult to work except under the tents. +Accordingly, the two naturalists desired to get to a place where they +could spend several days and collect steadily, thereby doing more +effective work. The rest of us continued with the mule-train, as was +necessary. + +It was always a picturesque sight when camp was broken, and again at +nightfall when the laden mules came stringing in and their burdens +were thrown down, while the tents were pitched and the fires lit. We +breakfasted before leaving camp, the aluminum cups and plates being +placed on ox-hides, round which we sat, on the ground or on camp- +stools. We fared well, on rice, beans, and crackers, with canned +corned beef, and salmon or any game that had been shot, and coffee, +tea, and matte. I then usually sat down somewhere to write, and when +the mules were nearly ready I popped my writing-materials into my +duffel-bag/war-sack, as we would have called it in the old days on the +plains. I found that the mules usually arrived so late in the +afternoon or evening that I could not depend upon being able to write +at that time. Of course, if we made a very early start I could not +write at all. At night there were no mosquitoes. In the daytime gnats +and sand-flies and horse-flies sometimes bothered us a little, but not +much. Small stingless bees lit on us in numbers and crawled over the +skin, making a slight tickling; but we did not mind them until they +became very numerous. There was a good deal of rain, but not enough to +cause any serious annoyance. + +Colonel Rondon and Lieutenant Lyra held many discussions as to whither +the Rio da Duvida flowed, and where its mouth might be. Its +provisional name--"River of Doubt"--was given it precisely because of +this ignorance concerning it; an ignorance which it was one of the +purposes of our trip to dispel. It might go into the Gy-Parana, in +which case its course must be very short; it might flow into the +Madeira low down, in which case its course would be very long; or, +which was unlikely, it might flow into the Tapajos. There was another +river, of which Colonel Rondon had come across the head-waters, whose +course was equally doubtful, although in its case there was rather +more probability of its flowing into the Juruena, by which name the +Tapajos is known for its upper half. To this unknown river Colonel +Rondon had given the name Ananas, because when he came across it he +found a deserted Indian field with pineapples, which the hungry +explorers ate greedily. Among the things the colonel and I hoped to +accomplish on the trip was to do a little work in clearing up one or +the other of these two doubtful geographical points, and thereby to +push a little forward the knowledge of this region. Originally, as +described in the first chapter, my trip was undertaken primarily in +the interest of the American Museum of Natural History of New York, to +add to our knowledge of the birds and mammals of the far interior of +the western Brazilian wilderness; and the labels of our baggage and +scientific equipment, printed by the museum, were entitled "Colonel +Roosevelt's South American Expedition for the American Museum of +Natural History." But, as I have already mentioned, at Rio the +Brazilian Government, through the secretary of foreign affairs, Doctor +Lauro Muller, suggested that I should combine the expedition with one +by Colonel Rondon, which they contemplated making, and thereby make +both expeditions of broader scientific interest. I accepted the +proposal with much pleasure; and we found, when we joined Colonel +Rondon and his associates, that their baggage and equipment had been +labelled by the Brazilian Government "Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt- +Rondon." This thenceforth became the proper and official title of the +expedition. Cherrie and Miller did the chief zoological work. The +geological work was done by a Brazilian member of the expedition, +Euzebio Oliveira. The astronomical work necessary for obtaining the +exact geographical location of the rivers and points of note was to be +done by Lieutenant Lyra, under the supervision of Colonel Rondon; and +at the telegraph stations this astronomical work would be checked by +wire communications with one of Colonel Rondon's assistants at Cuyaba, +Lieutenant Caetano, thereby securing a minutely accurate comparison of +time. The sketch-maps and surveying and cartographical work generally +were to be made under the supervision of Colonel Rondon by Lyra, with +assistance from Fiala and Kermit. Captain Amilcar handled the worst +problem--transportation; the medical member was Doctor Cajazeira. + +At night around the camp-fire my Brazilian companions often spoke of +the first explorers of this vast wilderness of western Brazil--men +whose very names are now hardly known, but who did each his part in +opening the country which will some day see such growth and +development. Among the most notable of them was a Portuguese, Ricardo +Franco, who spent forty years at the work, during the last quarter of +the eighteenth and the opening years of the nineteenth centuries. He +ascended for long distances the Xingu and the Tapajos, and went up the +Madeira and Guapore, crossing to the head-waters of the Paraguay and +partially exploring there also. He worked among and with the Indians, +much as Mungo Park worked with the natives of West Africa, having none +of the aids, instruments, and comforts with which even the hardiest of +modern explorers are provided. He was one of the men who established +the beginnings of the province of Matto Grosso. For many years the +sole method of communication between this remote interior province and +civilization was by the long, difficult, and perilous route which led +up the Amazon and Madeira; and its then capital, the town of Matto +Grosso, the seat of the captain-general, with its palace, cathedral, +and fortress, was accordingly placed far to the west, near the +Guapore. When less circuitous lines of communication were established +farther eastward the old capital was abandoned, and the tropic +wilderness surged over the lonely little town. The tomb of the old +colonial explorer still stands in the ruined cathedral, where the +forest has once more come to its own. But civilization is again +advancing to reclaim the lost town and to revive the memory of the +wilderness wanderer who helped to found it. Colonel Rondon has named a +river after Franco; a range of mountains has also been named after +him; and the colonel, acting for the Brazilian Government, has +established a telegraph station in what was once the palace of the +captain-general. + +Our northward trail led along the high ground a league or two to the +east of the northward-flowing Rio Sacre. Each night we camped on one +of the small tributary brooks that fed it. Fiala, Kermit, and I +occupied one tent. In the daytime the "pium" flies, vicious little +sand-flies, became bad enough to make us finally use gloves and head- +nets. There were many heavy rains, which made the travelling hard for +the mules. The soil was more often clay than sand, and it was slippery +when wet. The weather was overcast, and there was usually no +oppressive heat even at noon. At intervals along the trail we came on +the staring skull and bleached skeleton of a mule or ox. Day after day +we rode forward across endless flats of grass and of low open scrubby +forest, the trees standing far apart and in most places being but +little higher than the head of a horseman. Some of them carried +blossoms, white, orange, yellow, pink; and there were many flowers, +the most beautiful being the morning-glories. Among the trees were +bastard rubber-trees, and dwarf palmetto; if the latter grew more than +a few feet high their tops were torn and dishevelled by the wind. +There was very little bird or mammal life; there were few long vistas, +for in most places it was not possible to see far among the gray, +gnarled trunks of the wind-beaten little trees. Yet the desolate +landscape had a certain charm of its own, although not a charm that +would be felt by any man who does not take pleasure in mere space, and +freedom and wildness, and in plains standing empty to the sun, the +wind, and the rain. The country bore some resemblance to the country +west of Redjaf on the White Nile, the home of the giant eland; only +here there was no big game, no chance of seeing the towering form of +the giraffe, the black bulk of elephant or buffalo, the herds of +straw-colored hartebeests, or the ghostly shimmer of the sun glinting +on the coats of roan and eland as they vanished silently in the gray +sea of withered scrub. + +One feature in common with the African landscape was the abundance of +ant-hills, some as high as a man. They were red in the clay country, +gray where it was sandy; and the dirt houses were also in trees, while +their raised tunnels traversed trees and ground alike. At some of the +camping-places we had to be on our watch against the swarms of leaf- +carrying ants. These are so called in the books--the Brazilians call +them "carregadores," or porters--because they are always carrying bits +of leaves and blades of grass to their underground homes. They are +inveterate burden-bearers, and they industriously cut into pieces and +carry off any garment they can get at; and we had to guard our shoes +and clothes from them, just as we had often had to guard all our +belongings against the termites. These ants did not bite us; but we +encountered huge black ants, an inch and a quarter long, which were +very vicious, and their bite was not only painful but quite poisonous. +Praying-mantes were common, and one evening at supper one had a +comical encounter with a young dog, a jovial near-puppy, of Colonel +Rondon's, named Cartucho. He had been christened the jolly-cum-pup, +from a character in one of Frank Stockton's stories, which I suppose +are now remembered only by elderly people, and by them only if they +are natives of the United States. Cartucho was lying with his head on +the ox-hide that served as table, waiting with poorly dissembled +impatience for his share of the banquet. The mantis flew down on the +ox-hide and proceeded to crawl over it, taking little flights from one +corner to another; and whenever it thought itself menaced it assumed +an attitude of seeming devotion and real defiance. Soon it lit in +front of Cartucho's nose. Cartucho cocked his big ears forward, +stretched his neck, and cautiously sniffed at the new arrival, not +with any hostile design, but merely to find out whether it would prove +to be a playmate. The mantis promptly assumed an attitude of prayer. +This struck Cartucho as both novel and interesting, and he thrust his +sniffing black nose still nearer. The mantis dexterously thrust +forward first one and then the other armed fore leg, touching the +intrusive nose, which was instantly jerked back and again slowly and +inquiringly brought forward. Then the mantis suddenly flew in +Cartucho's face, whereupon Cartucho, with a smothered yelp of dismay, +almost turned a back somersault; and the triumphant mantis flew back +to the middle of the ox-hide, among the plates, where it reared erect +and defied the laughing and applauding company. + +On the morning of the 29th we were rather late in starting, because +the rain had continued through the night into the morning, drenching +everything. After nightfall there had been some mosquitoes, and the +piums were a pest during daylight; where one bites it leaves a tiny +black spot on the skin which lasts for several weeks. In the slippery +mud one of the pack-mules fell and injured itself so that it had to be +abandoned. Soon after starting we came on the telegraph-line, which +runs from Cuyaba. This was the first time we had seen it. Two Parecis +Indians joined us, leading a pack-bullock. They were dressed in hat, +shirt, trousers, and sandals, precisely like the ordinary Brazilian +caboclos, as the poor backwoods peasants, usually with little white +blood in them, are colloquially and half-derisively styled--caboclo +being originally a Guarany word meaning "naked savage." These two +Indians were in the employ of the Telegraphic Commission, and had been +patrolling the telegraph-line. The bullock carried their personal +belongings and the tools with which they could repair a break. The +commission pays the ordinary Indian worker 66 cents a day; a very good +worker gets $1, and the chief $1.66. No man gets anything unless he +works. Colonel Rondon, by just, kindly, and understanding treatment of +these Indians, who previously had often been exploited and maltreated +by rubber-gatherers, has made them the loyal friends of the +government. He has gathered them at the telegraph stations, where they +cultivate fields of mandioc, beans, potatoes, maize, and other +vegetables, and where he is introducing them to stock-raising; and the +entire work of guarding and patrolling the line is theirs. + +After six hours' march we came to the crossing of the Rio Sacre at the +beautiful waterfall appropriately called the Salto Bello. This is the +end of the automobile road. Here there is a small Parecis village. The +men of the village work the ferry by which everything is taken across +the deep and rapid river. The ferry-boat is made of planking placed on +three dugout canoes, and runs on a trolley. Before crossing we enjoyed +a good swim in the swift, clear, cool water. The Indian village, where +we camped, is placed on a jutting tongue of land round which the river +sweeps just before it leaps from the over-hanging precipice. The falls +themselves are very lovely. Just above them is a wooded island, but +the river joins again before it races forward for the final plunge. +There is a sheer drop of forty or fifty yards, with a breadth two or +three times as great; and the volume of water is large. On the left or +hither bank a cliff extends for several hundred yards below the falls. +Green vines have flung themselves down over its face, and they are met +by other vines thrusting upward from the mass of vegetation at its +foot, glistening in the perpetual mist from the cataract, and clothing +even the rock surfaces in vivid green. The river, after throwing +itself over the rock wall, rushes off in long curves at the bottom of +a thickly wooded ravine, the white water churning among the black +boulders. There is a perpetual rainbow at the foot of the falls. The +masses of green water that are hurling themselves over the brink +dissolve into shifting, foaming columns of snowy lace. + +On the edge of the cliff below the falls Colonel Rondon had placed +benches, giving a curious touch of rather conventional tourist- +civilization to this cataract far out in the lonely wilderness. It is +well worth visiting for its beauty. It is also of extreme interest +because of the promise it holds for the future. Lieutenant Lyra +informed me that they had calculated that this fall would furnish +thirty-six thousand horse-power. Eight miles off we were to see +another fall of much greater height and power. There are many rivers +in this region which would furnish almost unlimited motive force to +populous manufacturing communities. The country round about is +healthy. It is an upland region of good climate; we were visiting it +in the rainy season, the season when the nights are far less cool than +in the dry season, and yet we found it delightful. There is much +fertile soil in the neighborhood of the streams, and the teeming +lowlands of the Amazon and the Paraguay could readily--and with +immense advantage to both sides--be made tributary to an industrial +civilization seated on these highlands. A telegraph-line has been +built to and across them. A rail-road should follow. Such a line could +be easily built, for there are no serious natural obstacles. In +advance of its construction a trolley-line could be run from Cuyaba to +the falls, using the power furnished by the latter. Once this is done +the land will offer extraordinary opportunities to settlers of the +right kind: to home-makers and to enterprising business men of +foresight, coolness, and sagacity who are willing to work with the +settlers, the immigrants, the home-makers, for an advantage which +shall be mutual. + +The Parecis Indians, whom we met here, were exceedingly interesting. +They were to all appearance an unusually cheerful, good-humored, +pleasant-natured people. Their teeth were bad; otherwise they appeared +strong and vigorous, and there were plenty of children. The colonel +was received as a valued friend and as a leader who was to be followed +and obeyed. He is raising them by degrees--the only way by which to +make the rise permanent. In this village he has got them to substitute +for the flimsy Indian cabins houses of the type usual among the poorer +field laborers and back-country dwellers in Brazil. These houses have +roofs of palm thatch, steeply pitched. They are usually open at the +sides, consisting merely of a framework of timbers, with a wall at the +back; but some have the ordinary four walls, of erect palm-logs. The +hammocks are slung in the houses, and the cooking is also done in +them, with pots placed on small open fires, or occasionally in a kind +of clay oven. The big gourds for water, and the wicker baskets, are +placed on the ground, or hung on the poles. + +The men had adopted, and were wearing, shirts and trousers, but the +women had made little change in their clothing. A few wore print +dresses, but obviously only for ornament. Most of them, especially the +girls and young married women, wore nothing but a loin-cloth in +addition to bead necklaces and bracelets. The nursing mothers--and +almost all the mothers were nursing--sometimes carried the child slung +against their side of hip, seated in a cloth belt, or sling, which +went over the opposite shoulder of the mother. The women seemed to be +well treated, although polygamy is practised. The children were loved +by every one; they were petted by both men and women, and they behaved +well to one another, the boys not seeming to bully the girls or the +smaller boys. Most of the children were naked, but the girls early +wore the loin-cloth; and some, both of the little boys and the little +girls, wore colored print garments, to the evident pride of themselves +and their parents. In each house there were several families, and life +went on with no privacy but with good humor, consideration, and +fundamentally good manners. The man or woman who had nothing to do lay +in a hammock or squatted on the ground leaning against a post or wall. +The children played together, or lay in little hammocks, or tagged +round after their mothers; and when called they came trustfully up to +us to be petted or given some small trinket; they were friendly little +souls, and accustomed to good treatment. One woman was weaving a +cloth, another was making a hammock; others made ready melons and +other vegetables and cooked them over tiny fires. The men, who had +come in from work at the ferry or along the telegraph-lines, did some +work themselves, or played with the children; one cut a small boy's +hair, and then had his own hair cut by a friend. But the absorbing +amusement of the men was an extraordinary game of ball. + +In our family we have always relished Oliver Herford's nonsense +rhymes, including the account of Willie's displeasure with his goat: + + "I do not like my billy goat, + I wish that he was dead; + Because he kicked me, so he did, + He kicked me with his head." + +Well, these Parecis Indians enthusiastically play football with their +heads. The game is not only native to them, but I have never heard or +read of its being played by any other tribe or people. They use a +light hollow rubber ball, of their own manufacture. It is circular and +about eight inches in diameter. The players are divided into two +sides, and stationed much as in association football, and the ball is +placed on the ground to be put in play as in football. Then a player +runs forward, throws himself flat on the ground, and butts the ball +toward the opposite side. This first butt, when the ball is on the +ground, never lifts it much and it rolls and bounds toward the +opponents. One or two of the latter run toward it; one throws himself +flat on his face and butts the ball back. Usually this butt lifts it, +and it flies back in a curve well up in the air; and an opposite +player, rushing toward it, catches it on his head with such a swing of +his brawny neck, and such precision and address that the ball bounds +back through the air as a football soars after a drop-kick. If the +ball flies off to one side or the other it is brought back, and again +put in play. Often it will be sent to and fro a dozen times, from head +to head, until finally it rises with such a sweep that it passes far +over the heads of the opposite players and descends behind them. Then +shrill, rolling cries of good-humored triumph arise from the victors; +and the game instantly begins again with fresh zest. There are, of +course, no such rules as in a specialized ball-game of civilization; +and I saw no disputes. There may be eight or ten, or many more, +players on each side. The ball is never touched with the hands or +feet, or with anything except the top of the head. It is hard to decide +whether to wonder most at the dexterity and strength with which it is +hit or butted with the head, as it comes down through the air, or at +the reckless speed and skill with which the players throw themselves +headlong on the ground to return the ball if it comes low down. Why +they do not grind off their noses I cannot imagine. Some of the +players hardly ever failed to catch and return the ball if it came in +their neighborhood, and with such a vigorous toss of the head that it +often flew in a great curve for a really astonishing distance. + +That night a pack-ox got into the tent in which Kermit and I were +sleeping, entering first at one end and then at the other. It is +extraordinary that he did not waken us; but we slept undisturbed while +the ox deliberately ate our shirts, socks, and underclothes! It chewed +them into rags. One of my socks escaped, and my undershirt, although +chewed full of holes, was still good for some weeks' wear; but the +other things were in fragments. + +In the morning Colonel Rondon arranged for us to have breakfast over +on the benches under the trees by the waterfall, whose roar, lulled to +a thunderous murmur, had been in our ears before we slept and when we +waked. There could have been no more picturesque place for the +breakfast of such a party as ours. All travellers who really care to +see what is most beautiful and most characteristic of the far interior +of South America should in their journey visit this region, and see +the two great waterfalls. They are even now easy of access; and as +soon as the traffic warrants it they will be made still more so; then, +from Sao Luis Caceres, they will be speedily reached by light +steamboat up the Sepotuba and by a day or two's automobile ride, with +a couple of days on horse-back in between. + +The colonel held a very serious council with the Parecis Indians over +an incident which caused him grave concern. One of the commission's +employees, a negro, had killed a wild Nhambiquara Indian; but it +appeared that he had really been urged on and aided by the Parecis, as +the members of the tribe to which the dead Indian belonged were much +given to carrying off the Parecis women and in other ways making +themselves bad neighbors. The colonel tried hard to get at the truth +of the matter; he went to the biggest Indian house, where he sat in a +hammock--an Indian child cuddling solemnly up to him, by the way-- +while the Indians sat in other hammocks, and stood round about; but it +was impossible to get an absolutely frank statement. + +It appeared, however, that the Nhambiquaras had made a descent on the +Parecis village in the momentary absence of the men of the village; +but the latter, notified by the screaming of the women, had returned +in time to rescue them. The negro was with them and, having a good +rifle, he killed one of the aggressors. The Parecis were, of course, +in the right, but the colonel could not afford to have his men take +sides in a tribal quarrel. + +It was only a two hours' march across to the Papagaio at the Falls of +Utiarity, so named by their discoverer, Colonel Rondon, after the +sacred falcon of the Parecis. On the way we passed our Indian friends, +themselves bound thither; both the men and the women bore burdens--the +burdens of some of the women, poor things, were heavy--and even the +small naked children carried the live hens. At Utiarity there is a big +Parecis settlement and a telegraph station kept by one of the +employees of the commission. His pretty brown wife is acting as +schoolmistress to a group of little Parecis girls. The Parecis chief +has been made a major and wears a uniform accordingly. The commission +has erected good buildings for its own employees and has superintended +the erection of good houses for the Indians. Most of the latter still +prefer the simplicity of the loin-cloth, in their ordinary lives, but +they proudly wore their civilized clothes in our honor. When in the +late afternoon the men began to play a regular match game of head- +ball, with a scorer or umpire to keep count, they soon discarded most +of their clothes, coming down to nothing but trousers or a loin-cloth. +Two or three of them had their faces stained with red ochre. Among the +women and children looking on were a couple of little girls who +paraded about on stilts. + +The great waterfall was half a mile below us. Lovely though we had +found Salto Bello, these falls were far superior in beauty and +majesty. They are twice as high and twice as broad; and the lay of the +land is such that the various landscapes in which the waterfall is a +feature are more striking. A few hundred yards above the falls the +river turns at an angle and widens. The broad, rapid shallows are +crested with whitecaps. Beyond this wide expanse of flecked and +hurrying water rise the mist columns of the cataract; and as these +columns are swayed and broken by the wind the forest appears through +and between them. From below the view is one of singular grandeur. The +fall is over a shelving ledge of rock which goes in a nearly straight +line across the river's course. But at the left there is a salient in +the cliff-line, and here accordingly a great cataract of foaming water +comes down almost as a separate body, in advance of the line of the +main fall. I doubt whether, excepting, of course, Niagara, there is a +waterfall in North America which outranks this if both volume and +beauty are considered. Above the fall the river flows through a wide +valley with gently sloping sides. Below, it slips along, a torrent of +white-green water, at the bottom of a deep gorge; and the sides of the +gorge are clothed with a towering growth of tropical forest. + +Next morning the cacique of these Indians, in his major's uniform, +came to breakfast, and bore himself with entire propriety. It was +raining heavily--it rained most of the time--and a few minutes +previously I had noticed the cacique's two wives, with three or four +other young women, going out to the mandioc fields. It was a +picturesque group. The women were all mothers, and each carried a +nursing child. They wore loin-cloths or short skirts. Each carried on +her back a wickerwork basket supported by a head-strap which went +around her forehead. Each carried a belt slung diagonally across her +body, over her right shoulder; in this the child was carried, against +and perhaps astride of her left hip. They were comely women, who did +not look jaded or cowed; and they laughed cheerfully and nodded to us +as they passed through the rain, on their way to the fields. But the +contrast between them and the chief in his soldier's uniform seated at +breakfast was rather too striking; and incidentally it etched in bold +lines the folly of those who idealize the life of even exceptionally +good and pleasant-natured savages. + +Although it was the rainy season, the trip up to this point had not +been difficult, and from May to October, when the climate is dry and +at its best, there would be practically no hardship at all for +travellers and visitors. This is a healthy plateau. But, of course, +the men who do the first pioneering, even in country like this, +encounter dangers and run risks; and they make payment with their +bodies. At more than one halting-place we had come across the forlorn +grave of some soldier or laborer of the commission. The grave-mound +lay within a rude stockade; and an uninscribed wooden cross, gray and +weather-beaten, marked the last resting-place of the unknown and +forgotten man beneath, the man who had paid with his humble life the +cost of pushing the frontier of civilization into the wild savagery of +the wilderness. Farther west the conditions become less healthy. At +this station Colonel Rondon received news of sickness and of some +deaths among the employees of the commission in the country to the +westward, which we were soon to enter. Beriberi and malignant malarial +fever were the diseases which claimed the major number of the victims. + +Surely these are "the men who do the work for which they draw the +wage." Kermit had with him the same copy of Kipling's poems which he +had carried through Africa. At these falls there was one sunset of +angry splendor; and we contrasted this going down of the sun, through +broken rain-clouds and over leagues of wet tropical forest, with the +desert sunsets we had seen in Arizona and Sonora, and along the Guaso +Nyiro north and west of Mount Kenia, when the barren mountains were +changed into flaming "ramparts of slaughter and peril" standing above +"the wine-dark flats below." + +It rained during most of the day after our arrival at Utiarity. +Whenever there was any let-up the men promptly came forth from their +houses and played head-ball with the utmost vigor; and we would listen +to their shrill undulating cries of applause and triumph until we also +grew interested and strolled over to look on. They are more infatuated +with the game than an American boy is with baseball or football. It is +an extraordinary thing that this strange and exciting game should be +played by, and only by, one little tribe of Indians in what is almost +the very centre of South America. If any traveller or ethnologist +knows of a tribe elsewhere that plays a similar game, I wish he would +let me know. To play it demands great activity, vigor, skill, and +endurance. Looking at the strong, supple bodies of the players, and at +the number of children roundabout, it seemed as if the tribe must be +in vigorous health; yet the Parecis have decreased in numbers, for +measles and smallpox have been fatal to them. + +By the evening the rain was coming down more heavily than ever. It was +not possible to keep the moisture out of our belongings; everything +became mouldy except what became rusty. It rained all that night; and +day-light saw the downpour continuing with no prospect of cessation. +The pack-mules could not have gone on with the march; they were +already rather done up by their previous ten days' labor through rain +and mud, and it seemed advisable to wait until the weather became +better before attempting to go forward. Moreover, there had been no +chance to take the desired astronomical observations. There was very +little grass for the mules; but there was abundance of a small-leaved +plant eight or ten inches high--unfortunately, not very nourishing--on +which they fed greedily. In such weather and over such muddy trails +oxen travel better than mules. + +In spite of the weather Cherrie and Miller, whom, together with Father +Zahm and Sigg, we had found awaiting us, made good collections of +birds and mammals. Among the latter were opossums and mice that were +new to them. The birds included various forms so unlike our home birds +that the enumeration of their names would mean nothing. One of the +most interesting was a large black-and-white woodpecker, the white +predominating in the plumage. Several of these woodpeckers were +usually found together. They were showy, noisy, and restless, and +perched on twigs, in ordinary bird fashion, at least as often as they +clung to the trunks in orthodox woodpecker style. The prettiest bird +was a tiny manakin, coal-black, with a red-and-orange head. + +On February 2 the rain let up, although the sky remained overcast and +there were occasional showers. I walked off with my rifle for a couple +of leagues; at that distance, from a slight hillock, the mist columns +of the falls were conspicuous in the landscape. The only mammal I saw +on the walk was a rather hairy armadillo, with a flexible tail, which +I picked up and brought back to Miller--it showed none of the speed of +the nine-banded armadillos we met on our jaguar-hunt. Judging by its +actions, as it trotted about before it saw me, it must be diurnal in +habits. It was new to the collection. + +I spent much of the afternoon by the waterfall. Under the overcast sky +the great cataract lost the deep green and fleecy-white of the sunlit +falling waters. Instead it showed opaline hues and tints of topaz and +amethyst. At all times, and under all lights, it was majestic and +beautiful. + +Colonel Rondon had given the Indians various presents, those for the +women including calico prints, and, what they especially prized, +bottles of scented oil, from Paris, for their hair. The men held a +dance in the late afternoon. For this occasion most, but not all, of +them cast aside their civilized clothing, and appeared as doubtless +they would all have appeared had none but themselves been present. +They were absolutely naked except for a beaded string round the waist. +Most of them were spotted and dashed with red paint, and on one leg +wore anklets which rattled. A number carried pipes through which they +blew a kind of deep stifled whistle in time to the dancing. One of +them had his pipe leading into a huge gourd, which gave out a hollow, +moaning boom. Many wore two red or green or yellow macaw feathers in +their hair, and one had a macaw feather stuck transversely through the +septum of his nose. They circled slowly round and round, chanting and +stamping their feet, while the anklet rattles clattered and the pipes +droned. They advanced to the wall of one of the houses, again and +again chanting and bowing before it; I was told this was a demand for +drink. They entered one house and danced in a ring around the cooking- +fire in the middle of the earth floor; I was told that they were then +reciting the deeds of mighty hunters and describing how they brought +in the game. They drank freely from gourds and pannikins of a +fermented drink made from mandioc which were brought out to them. +During the first part of the dance the women remained in the houses, +and all the doors and windows were shut and blankets hung to prevent +the possibility of seeing out. But during the second part all the +women and girls came out and looked on. They were themselves to have +danced when the men had finished, but were overcome with shyness at +the thought of dancing with so many strangers looking on. The children +played about with unconcern throughout the ceremony, one of them +throwing high in the air, and again catching in his hands, a loaded +feather, a kind of shuttlecock. + +In the evening the growing moon shone through the cloud-rack. Anything +approaching fair weather always put our men in good spirits; and the +muleteers squatted in a circle, by a fire near a pile of packs, and +listened to a long monotonously and rather mournfully chanted song +about a dance and a love-affair. We ourselves worked busily with our +photographs and our writing. There was so much humidity in the air +that everything grew damp and stayed damp, and mould gathered quickly. +At this season it is a country in which writing, taking photographs, +and preparing specimens are all works of difficulty, at least so far +as concerns preserving and sending home the results of the labor; and +a man's clothing is never really dry. From here Father Zahm returned +to Tapirapoan, accompanied by Sigg. + + + + VII. WITH A MULE TRAIN ACROSS NHAMBIQUARA LAND + +From this point we were to enter a still wilder region, the land of +the naked Nhambiquaras. On February 3 the weather cleared and we +started with the mule-train and two ox-carts. Fiala and Lieutenant +Lauriado stayed at Utiarity to take canoes and go down the Papagaio, +which had not been descended by any scientific party, and perhaps by +no one. They were then to descend the Juruena and Tapajos, thereby +performing a necessary part of the work of the expedition. Our +remaining party consisted of Colonel Rondon, Lieutenant Lyra, the +doctor, Oliveira, Cherrie, Miller, Kermit, and myself. On the Juruena +we expected to meet the pack ox-train with Captain Amilcar and +Lieutenant Mello; the other Brazilian members of the party had +returned. We had now begun the difficult part of the expedition. The +pium flies were becoming a pest. There was much fever and beriberi in +the country we were entering. The feed for the animals was poor; the +rains had made the trails slippery and difficult; and many, both of +the mules and the oxen, were already weak, and some had to be +abandoned. We left the canoe, the motor, and the gasolene; we had +hoped to try them on the Amazonian rivers, but we were obliged to cut +down everything that was not absolutely indispensable. + +Before leaving we prepared for shipment back to the museum some of the +bigger skins, and also some of the weapons and utensils of the +Indians, which Kermit had collected. These included woven fillets, and +fillets made of macaw feathers, for use in the dances; woven belts; a +gourd in which the sacred drink is offered to the god Enoerey; +wickerwork baskets; flutes or pipes; anklet rattles; hammocks; a belt +of the kind used by the women in carrying the babies, with the +weaving-frame. All these were Parecis articles. He also secured from +the Nhambiquaras wickerwork baskets of a different type and bows and +arrows. The bows were seven feet long and the arrows five feet. There +were blunt-headed arrows for birds, arrows with long, sharp wooden +blades for tapir, deer, and other mammals; and the poisoned war- +arrows, with sharp barbs, poison-coated and bound on by fine thongs, +and with a long, hollow wooden guard to slip over the entire point and +protect it until the time came to use it. When people talk glibly of +"idle" savages they ignore the immense labor entailed by many of their +industries, and the really extraordinary amount of work they +accomplish by the skilful use of their primitive and ineffective +tools. + +It was not until early in the afternoon that we started into the +"sertao,"[*] as Brazilians call the wilderness. We drove with us a +herd of oxen for food. After going about fifteen miles we camped +beside the swampy headwaters of a little brook. It was at the spot +where nearly seven years previously Rondon and Lyra had camped on the +trip when they discovered Utiarity Falls and penetrated to the +Juruena. When they reached this place they had been thirty-six hours +without food. They killed a bush deer--a small deer--and ate literally +every particle. The dogs devoured the entire skin. For much of the +time on this trip they lived on wild fruit, and the two dogs that +remained alive would wait eagerly under the trees and eat the fruit +that was shaken down. + +[*] Pronounced "sairtown," as nearly as, with our preposterous methods + of spelling and pronunciation, I can render it. + +In the late afternoon the piums were rather bad at this camp, but we +had gloves and head-nets, and were not bothered; and although there +were some mosquitoes we slept well under our mosquito-nets. The frogs +in the swamp uttered a peculiar, loud shout. Miller told of a little +tree-frog in Colombia which swelled itself out with air until it +looked like the frog in Aesop's fables, and then brayed like a mule; +and Cherrie told of a huge frog in Guiana that uttered a short, loud +roar. + +Next day the weather was still fair. Our march lay through country +like that which we had been traversing for ten days. Skeletons of +mules and oxen were more frequent; and once or twice by the wayside we +passed the graves of officers or men who had died on the road. Barbed +wire encircled the desolate little mounds. We camped on the west bank +of the Burity River. Here there is a balsa, or ferry, run by two +Parecis Indians, as employees of the Telegraphic Commission, under the +colonel. Each had a thatched house, and each had two wives--all these +Indians are pagans. All were dressed much like the poorer peasants of +the Brazilian back country, and all were pleasant and well-behaved. +The women ran the ferry about as well as the men. They had no +cultivated fields, and for weeks they had been living only on game and +honey; and they hailed with joy our advent and the quantities of beans +and rice which, together with some beef, the colonel left with them. +They feasted most of the night. Their houses contained their hammocks, +baskets, and other belongings, and they owned some poultry. In one +house was a tiny parakeet, very much at home, and familiar, but by no +means friendly, with strangers. There are wild Nhambiquaras in the +neighborhood, and recently several of these had menaced the two +ferrymen with an attack, even shooting arrows at them. The ferrymen +had driven them off by firing their rifles in the air; and they +expected and received the colonel's praise for their self-restraint; +for the colonel is doing all he can to persuade the Indians to stop +their blood feuds. The rifles were short and light Winchester +carbines, of the kind so universally used by the rubber-gatherers and +other adventurous wanderers in the forest wilderness of Brazil. There +were a number of rubber-trees in the neighborhood, by the way. + +We enjoyed a good bath in the Burity, although it was impossible to +make headway by swimming against the racing current. There were few +mosquitoes. On the other hand, various kinds of piums were a little +too abundant; they vary from things like small gnats to things like +black flies. The small stingless bees have no fear and can hardly be +frightened away when they light on the hands or face; but they never +bite, and merely cause a slight tickling as they crawl over the skin. +There were some big bees, however, which, although they crawled about +harmlessly after lighting if they were undisturbed, yet stung fiercely +if they were molested. The insects were not ordinarily a serious +bother, but there were occasional hours when they were too numerous +for comfort, and now and then I had to do my writing in a head-net and +gauntlets. + +The night we reached the Burity it rained heavily, and next day the +rain continued. In the morning the mules were ferried over, while the +oxen were swum across. Half a dozen of our men--whites, Indians, and +negroes, all stark naked and uttering wild cries, drove the oxen into +the river and then, with powerful overhand strokes, swam behind and +alongside them as they crossed, half breasting the swift current. It +was a fine sight to see the big, long-horned, staring beasts swimming +strongly, while the sinewy naked men urged them forward, utterly at +ease in the rushing water. We made only a short day's journey, for, +owing to the lack of grass, the mules had to be driven off nearly +three miles from our line of march, in order to get them feed. We +camped at the headwaters of a little brook called Huatsui, which is +Parecis for "monkey." + +Accompanying us on this march was a soldier bound for one of the +remoter posts. With him trudged his wife. They made the whole journey +on foot. There were two children. One was so young that it had to be +carried alternately by the father and mother. The other, a small boy +of eight, and much the best of the party, was already a competent +wilderness worker. He bore his share of the belongings on the march, +and when camp was reached sometimes himself put up the family shelter. +They were mainly of negro blood. Struck by the woman's uncomplaining +endurance of fatigue, we offered to take her and the baby in the +automobile, while it accompanied us. But, alas! this proved to be one +of those melancholy cases where the effort to relieve hardship well +endured results only in showing that those who endure the adversity +cannot stand even a slight prosperity. The woman proved a querulous +traveller in the auto, complaining that she was not made as +comfortable as apparently she had expected; and after one day the +husband declared he was not willing to have her go unless he went too; +and the family resumed their walk. + +In this neighborhood there were multitudes of the big, gregarious, +crepuscular or nocturnal spiders which I have before mentioned. On +arriving in camp, at about four in the afternoon, I ran into a number +of remains of their webs, and saw a very few of the spiders themselves +sitting in the webs midway between trees. I then strolled a couple of +miles up the road ahead of us under the line of telegraph-poles. It +was still bright sunlight and no spiders were out; in fact, I did not +suspect their presence along the line of telegraph-poles, although I +ought to have done so, for I continually ran into long strings of +tough fine web, which got across my face or hands or rifle barrel. I +returned just at sunset and the spiders were out in force. I saw +dozens of colonies, each of scores or hundreds of individuals. Many +were among the small trees alongside the broad, cleared trail. But +most were dependent from the wire itself. Their webs had all been made +or repaired since I had passed. Each was sitting in the middle of his +own wheel, and all the wheels were joined to one another; and the +whole pendent fabric hung by fine ropes from the wire above, and was +in some cases steadied by guy-ropes, thrown thirty feet off to little +trees alongside. I watched them until nightfall, and evidently, to +them, after their day's rest, their day's work had just begun. Next +morning--owing to a desire to find out what the facts were as regards +the ox-carts, which were in difficulties--Cherrie, Miller, Kermit, and +I walked back to the Burity River, where Colonel Rondon had spent the +night. It was a misty, overcast morning, and the spiders in the webs +that hung from the telegraph-wire were just going to their day homes. +These were in and under the big white china insulators on the +telegraph-poles. Hundreds of spiders were already climbing up into +these. When, two or three hours later, we returned, the sun was out, +and not a spider was to be seen. + +Here we had to cut down our baggage and rearrange the loads for the +mule-train. Cherrie and Miller had a most workmanlike equipment, +including a very light tent and two light flies. One fly they gave for +the kitchen use, one fly was allotted to Kermit and me, and they kept +only the tent for themselves. Colonel Rondon and Lyra went in one +tent, the doctor and Oliveira in another. Each of us got rid of +everything above the sheer necessities. This was necessary because of +the condition of the baggage-animals. The oxen were so weak that the +effort to bring on the carts had to be abandoned. Nine of the pack- +mules had already been left on the road during the three days' march +from Utiarity. In the first expeditions into this country all the +baggage animals had died; and even in our case the loss was becoming +very heavy. This state of affairs is due to the scarcity of forage and +the type of country. Good grass is scanty, and the endless leagues of +sparse, scrubby forest render it exceedingly difficult to find the +animals when they wander. They must be turned absolutely loose to roam +about and pick up their scanty subsistence, and must be given as long +a time as possible to feed and rest; even under these conditions most +of them grow weak when, as in our case, it is impossible to carry +corn. They cannot be found again until after daylight, and then hours +must be spent in gathering them; and this means that the march must be +made chiefly during the heat of the day, the most trying time. Often +some of the animals would not be brought in until so late that it was +well on in the forenoon, perhaps midday, before the bulk of the pack- +train started; and they reached the camping-place as often after night +fall as before it. Under such conditions many of the mules and oxen +grew constantly weaker and ultimately gave out; and it was imperative +to load them as lightly as possible, and discard all luxuries, +especially heavy or bulky luxuries. Travelling through a wild country +where there is little food for man or beast is beset with difficulties +almost inconceivable to the man who does not himself know this kind of +wilderness, and especially to the man who only knows the ease of +civilization. A scientific party of some size, with the equipment +necessary in order to do scientific work, can only go at all if the +men who actually handle the problems of food and transportation do +their work thoroughly. + +Our march continued through the same type of high, nearly level +upland, covered with scanty, scrubby forest. It is the kind of country +known to the Brazilians as chapadao--pronounced almost as if it were a +French word and spelled shapadon. Our camp on the fourth night was in +a beautiful spot, an open grassy space, beside a clear, cool, rushing +little river. We ourselves reached this, and waded our beasts across +the deep, narrow stream in the late afternoon; and we then enjoyed a +bath and swim. The loose bullocks arrived at sunset, and with shrill +cries the mounted herdsmen urged them into and across the swift water. +The mule-train arrived long after night fall, and it was not deemed +wise to try to cross the laden animals. Accordingly the loads were +taken off and brought over on the heads of the men; it was fine to see +the sinewy, naked figures bearing their burdens through the broken +moonlit water to the hither bank. The night was cool and pleasant. We +kindled a fire and sat beside the blaze. Then, healthily hungry, we +gathered around the ox-hides to a delicious dinner of soup, beef, +beans, rice, and coffee. + +Next day we made a short march, crossed a brook, and camped by another +clear, deep, rapid little river, swollen by the rains. All these +rivers that we were crossing run actually into the Juruena, and +therefore form part of the headwaters of the Tapajos; for the Tapajos +is a mighty river, and the basin which holds its headwaters covers an +immense extent of country. This country and the adjacent regions, +forming the high interior of western Brazil, will surely some day +support a large industrial population; of which the advent would be +hastened, although not necessarily in permanently better fashion, if +Colonel Rondon's anticipations about the development of mining, +especially gold mining, are realized. In any event the region will be +a healthy home for a considerable agricultural and pastoral +population. Above all, the many swift streams with their numerous +waterfalls, some of great height and volume, offer the chance for the +upgrowth of a number of big manufacturing communities, knit by rail- +roads to one another and to the Atlantic coast and the valleys of the +Paraguay, Madeira, and Amazon, and feeding and being fed by the +dwellers in the rich, hot, alluvial lowlands that surround this +elevated territory. The work of Colonel Rondon and his associates of +the Telegraphic Commission has been to open this great and virgin land +to the knowledge of the world and to the service of their nation. In +doing so they have incidentally founded the Brazilian school of +exploration. Before their day almost all the scientific and regular +exploration of Brazil was done by foreigners. But, of course, there +was much exploration and settlement by nameless Brazilians, who were +merely endeavoring to make new homes or advance their private +fortunes: in recent years by rubber-gatherers, for instance, and a +century ago by those bold and restless adventurers, partly of +Portuguese and partly of Indian blood, the Paolistas, from one of whom +Colonel Rondon is himself descended on his father's side. + +The camp by this river was in some old and grown-up fields, once the +seat of a rather extensive maize and mandioc cultivation by the +Nhambiquaras. On this day Cherrie got a number of birds new to the +collection, and two or three of them probably new to science. We had +found the birds for the most part in worn plumage, for the breeding +season, the southern spring and northern fall, was over. But some +birds were still breeding. In the tropics the breeding season is more +irregular than in the north. Some birds breed at very different times +from that chosen by the majority of their fellows; some can hardly be +said to have any regular season; Cherrie had found one species of +honey-creeper breeding in every month of the year. Just before sunset +and just after sunrise big, noisy, blue-and-yellow macaws flew over +this camp. They were plentiful enough to form a loose flock, but each +pair kept to itself, the two individuals always close together and +always separated from the rest. Although not an abundant, it was an +interesting, fauna which the two naturalists found in this upland +country, where hitherto no collections of birds and mammals had been +made. Miller trapped several species of opossums, mice and rats which +were new to him. Cherrie got many birds which he did not recognize. At +this camp, among totally strange forms, he found an old and familiar +acquaintance. Before breakfast he brought in several birds; a dark +colored flycatcher, with white forehead and rump and two very long +tail-feathers; a black and slate-blue tanager; a black ant-thrush with +a concealed white spot on its back, at the base of the neck, and its +dull-colored mate; and other birds which he believed to be new to +science, but whose relationships with any of our birds are so remote +that it is hard to describe them save in technical language. Finally, +among these unfamiliar forms was a veery, and the sight of the rufous- +olive back and faintly spotted throat of this singer of our northern +Junes made us almost homesick. + +Next day was brilliantly clear. The mules could not be brought in +until quite late in the morning, and we had to march twenty miles +under the burning tropical sun, right in the hottest part of the day. +From a rise of ground we looked back over the vast, sunlit landscape, +the endless rolling stretches of low forest. Midway on our journey we +crossed a brook. The dogs minded the heat much. They continually ran +off to one side, lay down in a shady place, waited until we were +several hundred yards ahead, and then raced after us, overtook us, and +repeated the performance. The pack-train came in about sunset; but we +ourselves reached the Juruena in the middle of the afternoon. + +The Juruena is the name by which the Tapajos goes along its upper +course. Where we crossed, it was a deep, rapid stream, flowing in a +heavily wooded valley with rather steep sides. We were ferried across +on the usual balsa, a platform on three dugouts, running by the force +of the current on a wire trolley. There was a clearing on each side +with a few palms, and on the farther bank were the buildings of the +telegraph station. This is a wild country, and the station was guarded +by a few soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Marino, a native of +Rio Grande do Sul, a blond man who looked like an Englishman--an +agreeable companion, and a good and resolute officer, as all must be +who do their work in this wilderness. The Juruena was first followed +at the end of the eighteenth century by the Portuguese explorer +Franco, and not again until over a hundred years had elapsed, when the +Telegraphic Commission not only descended, but for the first time +accurately placed and mapped its course. + +There were several houses on the rise of the farther bank, all with +thatched roofs, some of them with walls of upright tree-trunks, some +of them daub and wattle. Into one of the latter, with two rooms, we +took our belongings. The sand-flies were bothersome at night, coming +through the interstices in the ordinary mosquito-nets. The first night +they did this I got no sleep until morning, when it was cool enough +for me to roll myself in my blanket and put on a head-net. Afterward +we used fine nets of a kind of cheese-cloth. They were hot, but they +kept out all, or almost all, of the sand-flies and other small +tormentors. + +Here we overtook the rearmost division of Captain Amilcar's bullock- +train. Our own route had diverged, in order to pass the great falls. +Captain Amilcar had come direct, overtaking the pack-oxen, which had +left Tapirapoan before we did, laden with material for the Duvida +trip. He had brought the oxen through in fine shape, losing only three +beasts with their loads, and had himself left the Juruena the morning +of the day we reached there. His weakest animals left that evening, to +make the march by moonlight; and as it was desirable to give them +thirty-six hours' start, we halted for a day on the banks of the +river. It was not a wasted day. In addition to bathing and washing our +clothes, the naturalists made some valuable additions to the +collection--including a boldly marked black, blue, and white jay--and +our photographs were developed and our writing brought abreast of the +date. Travelling through a tropical wilderness in the rainy season, +when the amount of baggage that can be taken is strictly limited, +entails not only a good deal of work, but also the exercise of +considerable ingenuity if the writing and photographing, and +especially the preservation, of the specimens are to be done in +satisfactory shape. + +At the telegraph office we received news that the voyage of Lauriado +and Fiala down the Papagaio had opened with a misadventure. In some +bad rapids, not many miles below the falls, two of the canoes had been +upset, half of their provisions and all of Fiala's baggage lost, and +Fiala himself nearly drowned. The Papagaio is known both at the source +and the mouth; to descend it did not represent a plunge into the +unknown, as in the case of the Duvida or the Ananas; but the actual +water work, over the part that was unexplored, offered the same +possibilities of mischance and disaster. It is a hazardous thing to +descend a swift, unknown river rushing through an uninhabited +wilderness. To descend or ascend the ordinary great highway rivers of +South America, such as the Amazon, Paraguay, Tapajos, and, in its +lower course, the Orinoco, is now so safe and easy, whether by steam- +boat or big, native cargo-boat, that people are apt to forget the very +serious difficulties offered by the streams, often themselves great +rivers, which run into or form the upper courses of these same water +highways. Few things are easier than the former feat, and few more +difficult than the latter; and experience in ordinary travelling on +the lower courses of the rivers is of no benefit whatever in enabling +a man to form a judgement as to what can be done, and how to do it, on +the upper courses. Failure to remember this fact is one of the +obstacles in the way of securing a proper appreciation of the needs +and the results, of South American exploration. + +At the Juruena we met a party of Nhambiquaras, very friendly and +sociable, and very glad to see Colonel Rondon. They were originally +exceedingly hostile and suspicious, but the colonel's unwearied +thoughtfulness and good temper, joined with his indomitable +resolution, enabled him to avoid war and to secure their friendship +and even their aid. He never killed one. Many of them are known to him +personally. He is on remarkably good terms with them, and they are +very fond of him--although this does not prevent them from now and +then yielding to temptation, even at his expense, and stealing a dog +or something else which strikes them as offering an irresistible +attraction. They cannot be employed at steady work; but they do +occasional odd jobs, and are excellent at hunting up strayed mules or +oxen; and a few of the men have begun to wear clothes, purely for +ornament. Their confidence and bold friendliness showed how well they +had been treated. Probably half of our visitors were men; several were +small boys; one was a woman with a baby; the others were young married +women and girls. + +Nowhere in Africa did we come across wilder or more absolutely +primitive savages, although these Indians were pleasanter and better- +featured than any of the African tribes at the same stage of culture. +Both sexes were well-made and rather good-looking, with fairly good +teeth, although some of them seemed to have skin diseases. They were a +laughing, easy-tempered crew, and the women were as well-fed as the +men, and were obviously well-treated, from the savage standpoint; +there was no male brutality like that which forms such a revolting +feature in the life of the Australian black fellows and, although to a +somewhat less degree, in the life of so many negro and Indian tribes. +They were practically absolutely naked. In many savage tribes the men +go absolutely naked, but the women wear a breech-clout or loincloth. +In certain tribes we saw near Lake Victoria Nyanza, and on the upper +White Nile, both men and women were practically naked. Among these +Nhambiquaras the women were more completely naked than the men, +although the difference was not essential. The men wore a string +around the waist. Most of them wore nothing else, but a few had +loosely hanging from this string in front a scanty tuft of dried +grass, or a small piece of cloth, which, however, was of purely +symbolic use so far as either protection or modesty was concerned. The +women did not wear a stitch of any kind anywhere on their bodies. They +did not have on so much as a string, or a bead, or even an ornament in +their hair. They were all, men and women, boys and well-grown young +girls, as entirely at ease and unconscious as so many friendly +animals. All of them--men, women, and children, laughing and talking-- +crowded around us, whether we were on horseback or on foot. They +flocked into the house, and when I sat down to write surrounded me so +closely that I had to push them gently away. The women and girls often +stood holding one another's hands, or with their arms over one +another's shoulders or around one another's waists, offering an +attractive picture. The men had holes pierced through the septum of +the nose and through the upper lip, and wore a straw through each +hole. The women were not marked or mutilated. It seems like a +contradiction in terms, but it is nevertheless a fact that the +behavior of these completely naked women and men was entirely modest. +There was never an indecent look or a consciously indecent gesture. +They had no blankets or hammocks, and when night came simply lay down +in the sand. Colonel Rondon stated that they never wore a covering by +night or by day, and if it was cool slept one on each side of a small +fire. Their huts were merely slight shelters against the rain. + +The moon was nearly full, and after nightfall a few of the Indians +suddenly held an improvised dance for us in front of our house. There +were four men, a small boy, and two young women or grown girls. Two of +the men had been doing some work for the commission, and were dressed, +one completely and one partially, in ordinary clothes. Two of the men +and the boy were practically naked, and the two young women were +absolutely so. All of them danced in a circle, without a touch of +embarrassment or impropriety. The two girls kept hold of each other's +hands throughout, dancing among the men as modestly as possible, and +with the occasional interchange of a laugh or jest, in as good taste +and temper as in any dance in civilization. The dance consisted in +slowly going round in a circle, first one way then the other, +rhythmically beating time with the feet to the music of the song they +were chanting. The chants--there were three of them, all told--were +measured and rather slowly uttered melodies, varied with an occasional +half-subdued shrill cry. The women continually uttered a kind of long- +drawn wailing or droning; I am not enough of a musician to say whether +it was an overtone or the sustaining of the burden of the ballad. The +young boy sang better than any of the others. It was a strange and +interesting sight to see these utterly wild, friendly savages circling +in their slow dance, and chanting their immemorial melodies, in the +brilliant tropical moonlight, with the river rushing by in the +background, through the lonely heart of the wilderness. + +The Indians stayed with us, feasting, dancing, and singing until the +early hours of the morning. They then suddenly and silently +disappeared in the darkness, and did not return. In the morning we +discovered that they had gone off with one of Colonel Rondon's dogs. +Probably the temptation had proved irresistible to one of their +number, and the others had been afraid to interfere, and also afraid +to stay in or return to our neighborhood. We had not time to go after +them; but Rondon remarked that as soon as he again came to the +neighborhood he would take some soldiers, hunt up the Indians, and +reclaim the dog. It has been his mixture of firmness, good nature, and +good judgment that has enabled him to control these bold, warlike +savages, and even to reduce the warfare between them and the Parecis. +In spite of their good nature and laughter, their fearlessness and +familiarity showed how necessary it was not to let them get the upper +hand. They are always required to leave all their arms a mile or two +away before they come into the encampment. They are much wilder and +more savage, and at a much lower cultural level, than the Parecis. + +In the afternoon of the day following our arrival there was a heavy +rain-storm which drove into the unglazed windows, and here and there +came through the roof and walls of our daub-and-wattle house. The heat +was intense and there was much moisture in this valley. During the +downpour I looked out at the dreary little houses, showing through the +driving rain, while the sheets of muddy water slid past their door- +sills; and I felt a sincere respect for the lieutenant and his +soldiers who were holding this desolate outpost of civilization. It is +an unhealthy spot; there has been much malarial fever and beriberi--an +obscure and deadly disease. + +Next morning we resumed our march. It soon began to rain and we were +drenched when, some fifteen miles on, we reached the river where we +were to camp. After the great heat we felt quite cold in our wet +clothes, and gladly crowded round a fire which was kindled under a +thatched shed, beside the cabin of the ferryman. This ferry-boat was +so small that it could only take one mule, or at most two, at a time. +The mules and a span of six oxen dragging an ox-cart, which we had +overtaken, were ferried slowly to the farther side that afternoon, as +there was no feed on the hither bank, where we ourselves camped. The +ferryman was a soldier in the employ of the Telegraphic Commission. +His good-looking, pleasant-mannered wife, evidently of both Indian and +negro blood, was with him, and was doing all she could do as a +housekeeper, in the comfortless little cabin, with its primitive +bareness of furniture and fittings. + +Here we saw Captain Amilcar, who had come back to hurry up his rear- +guard. We stood ankle-deep in mud and water, by the swollen river, +while the rain beat on us, and enjoyed a few minutes' talk with the +cool, competent officer who was doing a difficult job with such +workman-like efficiency. He had no poncho, and was wet through, but +was much too busy in getting his laden oxen forward to think of +personal discomfort. He had had a good deal of trouble with his mules, +but his oxen were still in fair shape. + +After leaving the Juruena the ground became somewhat more hilly, and +the scrubby forest was less open, but otherwise there was no change in +the monotonous, and yet to me rather attractive, landscape. The ant- +hills, and the ant-houses in the trees--arboreal ant-hills, so to +speak were as conspicuous as ever. The architects of some were red +ants, of others black ants; and others, which were on the whole the +largest, had been built by the white ants, the termites. The latter +were not infrequently taller than a horseman's head. + +That evening round the camp-fire Colonel Rondon happened to mention +how the brother of one of the soldiers with us--a Parecis Indian--had +been killed by a jararaca snake. Cherrie told of a narrow escape he +had from one while collecting in Guiana. At night he used to set traps +in camp for small mammals. One night he heard one of these traps go +off under his hammock. He reached down for it, and as he fumbled for +the chain he felt a snake strike at him, just missing him in the +darkness, but actually brushing his hand. He lit a light and saw that +a big jararaca had been caught in the trap; and he preserved it as a +specimen. Snakes frequently came into his camp after nightfall. He +killed one rattlesnake which had swallowed the skinned bodies of four +mice he had prepared as specimens; which shows that rattlesnakes do +not always feed only on living prey. Another rattlesnake which he +killed in Central America had just swallowed an opossum which proved +to be of a species new to science. Miller told how once on the Orinoco +he saw on the bank a small anaconda, some ten feet long, killing one +of the iguanas, big, active, truculent, carnivorous lizards, equally +at home on the land and in the water. Evidently the iguanas were +digging out holes in the bank in which to lay their eggs; for there +were several such holes, and iguanas working at them. The snake had +crushed its prey to a pulp; and not more than a couple of feet away +another iguana was still busily, and with entire unconcern, engaged in +making its burrow. At Miller's approach the anaconda left the dead +iguana and rushed into the water, and the live iguana promptly +followed it. Miller also told of the stone gods and altars and temples +he had seen in the great Colombian forests, monuments of strange +civilizations which flourished and died out ages ago, and of which all +memory has vanished. He and Cherrie told of giant rivers and +waterfalls, and of forests never penetrated, and mountains never +ascended by civilized man; and of bloody revolutions that devastated +the settled regions. Listening to them I felt that they could write +"Tales of Two Naturalists" that would be worth reading. + +They were short of literature, by the way--a party such as ours always +needs books--and as Kermit's reading-matter consisted chiefly of +Camoens and other Portuguese, or else Brazilian, writers, I strove to +supply the deficiency with spare volumes of Gibbon. At the end of our +march we were usually far ahead of the mule-train, and the rain was +also usually falling. Accordingly we would sit about under trees, or +under a shed or lean-to, if there was one, each solemnly reading a +volume of Gibbon--and no better reading can be found. In my own case, +as I had been having rather a steady course of Gibbon, I varied him +now and then with a volume of Arsene Lupin lent me by Kermit. + +There were many swollen rivers to cross at this point of our journey. +Some we waded at fords. Some we crossed by rude bridges. The larger +ones, such as the Juina, we crossed by ferry, and when the approaches +were swampy, and the river broad and swift, many hours might be +consumed in getting the mule-train, the loose bullocks, and the ox- +cart over. We had few accidents, although we once lost a ferry-load of +provisions, which was quite a misfortune in a country where they could +not be replaced. The pasturage was poor, and it was impossible to make +long marches with our weakened animals. + +At one camp three Nhambiquaras paid us a visit at breakfast time. They +left their weapons behind them before they appeared, and shouted +loudly while they were still hid by the forest, and it was only after +repeated answering calls of welcome that they approached. Always in +the wilderness friends proclaim their presence; a silent advance marks +a foe. Our visitors were men, and stark naked, as usual. One seemed +sick; he was thin, and his back was scarred with marks of the grub of +the loathsome berni fly. Indeed, all of them showed scars, chiefly +from insect wounds. But the other two were in good condition, and, +although they ate greedily of the food offered them, they had with +them a big mandioc cake, some honey, and a little fish. One of them +wore a high helmet of puma-skin, with the tail hanging down his back-- +handsome head-gear, which he gladly bartered for several strings of +bright coral-red beads. Around the upper arms of two of them were +bands bound so tightly as to cut into and deform the muscles--a +singular custom, seemingly not only purposeless but mischievous, which +is common among this tribe and many others. + +The Nhambiquaras are a numerous tribe, covering a large region. But +they have no general organization. Each group of families acts for +itself. Half a dozen years previously they had been very hostile, and +Colonel Rondon had to guard his camp and exercise every precaution to +guarantee his safety, while at the same time successfully endeavoring +to avoid the necessity of himself shedding blood. Now they are, for +the most part, friendly. But there are groups or individuals that are +not. Several soldiers have been killed at these little lonely +stations; and while in some cases the attack may have been due to the +soldiers having meddled with Nhambiquara women, in other cases the +killing was entirely wanton and unprovoked. Sooner or later these +criminals or outlaws will have to be brought to justice; it will not +do to let their crimes go unpunished. Twice soldiers have deserted and +fled to the Nhambiquaras. The runaways were well received, were given +wives, and adopted into the tribe. + +The country when opened will be a healthy abode for white settlers. +But pioneering in the wilderness is grim work for both man and beast. +Continually, as we journeyed onward, under the pitiless glare of the +sun or through blinding torrents of rain, we passed desolate little +graves by the roadside. They marked the last resting places of men who +had died by fever, or dysentery, or Nhambiquara arrows. We raised our +hats as our mules plodded slowly by through the sand. On each grave +was a frail wooden cross, and this and the paling round about were +already stained by the weather as gray as the tree trunks of the +stunted forest that stretched endlessly on every side. + +The skeletons of mules and oxen were frequent along the road. Now and +then we came across a mule or ox which had been abandoned by Captain +Amilcar's party, ahead of us. The animal had been left with the hope +that when night came it would follow along the trail to water. +Sometimes it did so. Sometimes we found it dead, or standing +motionless waiting for death. From time to time we had to leave behind +one of our own mules. + +It was not always easy to recognize what pasturage the mules would +accept as good. One afternoon we pitched camp by a tiny rivulet, in +the midst of the scrubby upland forest; a camp, by the way, where the +piums, the small, biting flies, were a torment during the hours of +daylight, while after dark their places were more than taken by the +diminutive gnats which the Brazilians expressively term "polvora," or +powder, and which get through the smallest meshes of a mosquito-net. +The feed was so scanty, and the cover so dense, at this spot that I +thought we would have great difficulty in gathering the mules next +morning. But we did not. A few hours later, in the afternoon, we +camped by a beautiful open meadow; on one side ran a rapid brook, with +a waterfall eight feet high, under which we bathed and swam. Here the +feed looked so good that we all expressed pleasure. But the mules did +not like it, and after nightfall they hiked back on the trail, and it +was a long and arduous work to gather them next morning. + +I have touched above on the insect pests. Men unused to the South +American wilderness speak with awe of the danger therein from jaguars, +crocodiles, and poisonous snakes. In reality, the danger from these +sources is trivial, much less than the danger of being run down by an +automobile at home. But at times the torment of insect plagues can +hardly be exaggerated. There are many different species of mosquitoes, +some of them bearers of disease. There are many different kinds of +small, biting flies and gnats, loosely grouped together under various +titles. The ones more especially called piums by my companions were +somewhat like our northern black flies. They gorged themselves with +blood. At the moment their bites did not hurt, but they left an +itching scar. Head-nets and gloves are a protection, but are not very +comfortable in stifling hot weather. It is impossible to sleep without +mosquito-biers. When settlers of the right type come into a new land +they speedily learn to take the measures necessary to minimize the +annoyance caused by all these pests. Those that are winged have plenty +of kinsfolk in so much of the northern continent as has not yet been +subdued by man. But the most noxious of the South American ants have, +thank heaven, no representatives in North America. At the camp of the +piums a column of the carnivorous foraging ants made its appearance +before nightfall, and for a time we feared it might put us out of our +tents, for it went straight through camp, between the kitchen-tent and +our own sleeping tents. However, the column turned neither to the +right nor the left, streaming uninterruptedly past for several hours, +and doing no damage except to the legs of any incautious man who +walked near it. + +On the afternoon of February 15 we reached Campos Novos. This place +was utterly unlike the country we had been traversing. It was a large +basin, several miles across, traversed by several brooks. The brooks +ran in deep swampy valleys, occupied by a matted growth of tall +tropical forest. Between them the ground rose in bold hills, bare of +forest and covered with grass, on which our jaded animals fed eagerly. +On one of these rounded hills a number of buildings were ranged in a +quadrangle, for the pasturage at this spot is so good that it is +permanently occupied. There were milch cows, and we got delicious +fresh milk; and there were goats, pigs, turkeys, and chickens. Most of +the buildings were made of upright poles with roofs of palm thatch. +One or two were of native brick, plastered with mud, and before these +there was an enclosure with a few ragged palms, and some pineapple +plants. Here we halted. Our attendants made two kitchens: one was out +in the open air, one was under a shelter of ox-hide. The view over the +surrounding grassy hills, riven by deep wooded valleys, was lovely. +The air was cool and fresh. We were not bothered by insects, although +mosquitoes swarmed in every belt of timber. Yet there has been much +fever at this beautiful and seemingly healthy place. Doubtless when +settlement is sufficiently advanced a remedy will be developed. The +geology of this neighborhood was interesting--Oliveira found fossil +tree-trunks which he believed to be of cretaceous age. + +Here we found Amilcar and Mello, who had waited for us with the rear- +guard of their pack-train, and we enjoyed our meeting with the two +fine fellows, than whom no military service of any nation could +produce more efficient men for this kind of difficult and responsible +work. Next morning they mustered their soldiers, muleteers, and pack- +ox men and marched off. Reinisch the taxidermist was with them. We +followed in the late afternoon, camping after a few miles. We left the +oxcart at Campos Novos; from thence on the trail was only for pack- +animals. + +In this neighborhood the two naturalists found many birds which we had +not hitherto met. The most conspicuous was a huge oriole, the size of +a small crow, with a naked face, a black-and-red bill, and gaudily +variegated plumage of green, yellow, and chestnut. Very interesting +was the false bellbird, a gray bird with loud, metallic notes. There +was also a tiny soft-tailed woodpecker, no larger than a kinglet; a +queer humming-bird with a slightly flexible bill; and many species of +ant-thrush, tanager, manakin, and tody. Among these unfamiliar forms +was a vireo looking much like our solitary vireo. At one camp Cherrie +collected a dozen perching birds; Miller a beautiful little rail; and +Kermit, with the small Luger belt-rifle, a handsome curassow, nearly +as big as a turkey--out of which, after it had been skinned, the cook +made a delicious canja, the thick Brazilian soup of fowl and rice than +which there is nothing better of its kind. All these birds were new to +the collection--no naturalists had previously worked this region--so +that the afternoon's work represented nine species new to the +collection, six new genera, and a most excellent soup. + +Two days after leaving Campos Novos we reached Vilhena, where there is +a telegraph station. We camped once at a small river named by Colonel +Rondon the "Twelfth of October," because he reached it on the day +Columbus discovered America--I had never before known what day it +was!--and once at the foot of a hill which he had named after Lyra, +his companion in the exploration. The two days' march--really one full +day and part of two others--was through beautiful country, and we +enjoyed it thoroughly, although there were occasional driving rain- +storms, when the rain came in almost level sheets and drenched every +one and everything. The country was like that around Campos Novos, and +offered a striking contrast to the level, barren, sandy wastes of the +chapadao, which is a healthy region, where great industrial centres +can arise, but not suited for extensive agriculture as are the lowland +flats. For these forty-eight hours the trail climbed into and out of +steep valleys and broad basins and up and down hills. In the deep +valleys were magnificent woods, in which giant rubber-trees towered, +while the huge leaves of the low-growing pacova, or wild banana, were +conspicuous in the undergrowth. Great azure butterflies flitted +through the open, sunny glades, and the bellbirds, sitting +motionless, uttered their ringing calls from the dark stillness of the +columned groves. The hillsides were grassy pastures or else covered +with low, open forest. + +A huge frog, brown above, with a light streak down each side, was +found hiding under some sticks in a damp place in one of the +improvised kitchens; and another frog, with disks on his toes, was +caught on one of the tents. A coral-snake puzzled us. Some coral- +snakes are harmless; others are poisonous, although not aggressive. +The best authorities give an infallible recipe for distinguishing them +by the pattern of the colors, but this particular specimen, although +it corresponded exactly in color pattern with the description of the +poisonous snakes, nevertheless had no poison-fangs that even after the +most minute examination we could discover. Miller and one of the dogs +caught a sariema, a big, long-legged, bustard-like bird, in rather a +curious way. We were on the march, plodding along through as heavy a +tropic downpour as it was our ill fortune to encounter. The sariema, +evidently as drenched and uncomfortable as we were, was hiding under a +bush to avoid the pelting rain. The dog discovered it, and after the +bird valiantly repelled him, Miller was able to seize it. Its stomach +contained about half a pint of grass-hoppers and beetles and young +leaves. At Vilhena there was a tame sariema, much more familiar and at +home than any of the poultry. It was without the least fear of man or +dog. The sariema (like the screamer and the curassow) ought to be +introduced into our barnyards and on our lawns, at any rate in the +Southern States; it is a good-looking, friendly, and attractive bird. +Another bird we met is in some places far more intimate, and +domesticates itself. This is the pretty little honey-creeper. In +Colombia Miller found the honey-creepers habitually coming inside the +houses and hotels at meal-times, hopping about the table, and climbing +into the sugar-bowl. + +Along this part of our march there was much of what at a hasty glance +seemed to be volcanic rock; but Oliveira showed me that it was a kind +of conglomerate, with bubbles or hollows in it, made of sand and iron- +bearing earth. He said it was a superficial quaternary deposit formed +by erosion from the cretaceous rocks, and that there were here no +tertiary deposits. He described the geological structure of the lands +through which we had passed as follows: The pantanals were of +Pleistocene age. Along the upper Sepotuba, in the region of the +rapids, there were sandstones, shales, and clays of Permian age. The +rolling country east of this contained eruptive rocks--a porphyritic +disbase, with zeolite, quartz, and agate of Triassic age. With the +chapadao of the Parecis plateau we came to a land of sand and clay, +dotted with lumps of sandstone and pieces of petrified wood; this, +according to Oliveira, is of Mesozoic age, possibly cretaceous and +similar to the South African formation. There are geologists who +consider it as of Permian age. + +At Vilhena we were on a watershed which drained into the Gy-Parana, +which itself runs into the Madeira nearly midway between its sources +and its mouth. A little farther along and northward we again came to +streams running ultimately into the Tapajos; and between them, and +close to them, were streamlets which drained into the Duvida and +Ananas, whose courses and outlets were unknown. This point is part of +the divide between the basins of the Madeira and Tapajos. A singular +topographical feature of the Plan Alto, the great interior sandy +plateau of Brazil, is that at its westernmost end the southward +flowing streams, instead of running into the Paraguay as they do +farther east, form the headwaters of the Guapore, which may, perhaps, +be called the upper main stream of the Madeira. These westernmost +streams from the southern edge of the plateau, therefore, begin by +flowing south; then for a long stretch they flow southwest; then +north, and finally northeast into the Amazon. According to some +exceptionally good geological observers, this is probably due to the +fact that in a remote geologic past the ocean sent in an arm from the +south, between the Plan Alto and what is now the Andean chain. These +rivers then emptied into the Andean Sea. The gradual upheaval of the +soil has resulted in substituting dry land for this arm of the ocean +and in reversing the course of what is now the Madeira, just as, +according to these geologists, in somewhat familiar fashion the Amazon +has been reversed, it having once been, at least for the upper two +thirds of its course, an affluent of the Andean Sea. + +From Vilhena we travelled in a generally northward direction. For a +few leagues we went across the chapadao, the sands or clays of the +nearly level upland plateau, grassy or covered with thin, stunted +forest, the same type of country that had been predominant ever since +we ascended the Parecis table-land on the morning of the third day +after leaving the Sepotuba. Then, at about the point where the trail +dipped into a basin containing the head-springs of the Ananas, we left +this type of country and began to march through thick forest, not very +high. There was little feed for the animals on the Chapadao. There was +less in the forest. Moreover, the continual heavy rains made the +travelling difficult and laborious for them, and they weakened. +However, a couple of marches before we reached Tres Burity, where +there is a big ranch with hundreds of cattle, we were met by ten fresh +pack-oxen, and our serious difficulties were over. + +There were piums in plenty by day, but neither mosquitoes nor sand-flies +by night; and for us the trip was very pleasant, save for moments of +anxiety about the mules. The loose bullocks furnished us abundance of +fresh beef, although, as was inevitable under the circumstances, of a +decidedly tough quality. One of the biggest of the bullocks was +attacked one night by a vampire bat, and next morning his withers were +literally bathed in blood. + +With the chapadao we said good-by to the curious, gregarious, and +crepuscular or nocturnal spiders which we found so abundant along the +line of the telegraph wire. They have offered one of the small +problems with which the commission has had to deal. They are not +common in the dry season. They swarm during the rains; and, when their +tough webs are wet, those that lead from the wire to the ground +sometimes effectually short circuit the wire. They have on various +occasions caused a good deal of trouble in this manner. + +The third night out from Vilhena we emerged for a moment from the +endless close-growing forest in which our poor animals got such scanty +pickings, and came to a beautiful open country, where grassy slopes, +dotted with occasional trees, came down on either side of a little +brook which was one of the headwaters of the Duvida. It was a pleasure +to see the mules greedily bury their muzzles in the pasturage. Our +tents were pitched in the open, near a shady tree, which sent out its +low branches on every side. At this camp Cherrie shot a lark, very +characteristic of the open upland country, and Miller found two bats +in the rotten wood of a dead log. He heard them squeaking and dug them +out; he could not tell by what method they had gotten in. + +Here Kermit, while a couple of miles from our tents, came across an +encampment of Nhambiquaras. There were twenty or thirty of them--men, +women, and a few children. Kermit, after the manner of honest folk in +the wilderness, advanced ostentatiously in the open, calling out to +give warning of his coming. Like surroundings may cause like manners. +The early Saxons in England deemed it legal to kill any man who came +through the woods without shouting or blowing a horn; and in +Nhambiquara land at the present time it is against etiquette, and may +be very unhealthy, to come through the woods toward strangers without +loudly announcing one's presence. The Nhambiquaras received Kermit +with the utmost cordiality, and gave him pineapple-wine to drink. They +were stark naked as usual; they had no hammocks or blankets, and their +huts were flimsy shelters of palm-branches. Yet they were in fine +condition. Half a dozen of the men and a couple of boys accompanied +Kermit back to our camp, paying not slightest heed to the rain which +was falling. They were bold and friendly, good-natured--at least +superficially--and very inquisitive. In feasting, the long reeds +thrust through holes in their lips did not seem to bother them, and +they laughed at the suggestion of removing them; evidently to have +done so would have been rather bad manners--like using a knife as an +aid in eating ice-cream. They held two or three dances, and we were +again struck by the rhythm and weird, haunting melody of their +chanting. After supper they danced beside the camp-fire; and finally, +to their delight, most of the members of our own party, Americans and +Brazilians, enthusiastically joined the dance, while the colonel and I +furnished an appreciative and applauding audience. Next morning, when +we were awakened by the chattering and screaming of the numerous +macaws, parrots, and parakeets, we found that nearly all the Indians, +men and women, were gathered outside the tent. As far as clothing was +concerned, they were in the condition of Adam and Eve before the fall. +One of the women carried a little squirrel monkey. She put it up the +big tree some distance from the tents; and when she called, it came +scampering to her across the grass, ran up her, and clung to her neck. +They would have liked to pilfer; but as they had no clothes it was +difficult for them to conceal anything. One of the women was observed +to take a fork; but as she did not possess a rag of clothing of any +kind all she did do was to try to bury the fork in the sand and then +sit on it; and it was reclaimed without difficulty. One or two of the +children wore necklaces and bracelets made of the polished wood of the +tucum palm, and of the molars of small rodents. + +Next day's march led us across a hilly country of good pastureland. +The valleys were densely wooded, palms of several kinds being +conspicuous among the other trees; and the brooks at the bottoms we +crossed at fords or by the usual rude pole bridges. On the open +pastures were occasional trees, usually slender bacaba palms, with +heads which the winds had dishevelled until they looked like mops. It +was evidently a fine natural cattle country, and we soon began to see +scores, perhaps hundreds, of the cattle belonging to the government +ranch at Tres Burity, which we reached in the early afternoon. It is +beautifully situated: the view roundabout is lovely, and certainly the +land will prove healthy when settlements have been definitely +established. Here we revelled in abundance of good fresh milk and +eggs; and for dinner we had chicken canja and fat beef roasted on big +wooden spits; and we even had watermelons. The latter were from seeds +brought down by the American engineers who built the Madeira Marmore +Railroad--a work which stands honorably distinguished among the many +great and useful works done in the development of the tropics of +recent years. + +Amilcar's pack-oxen, which were nearly worn out, had been left in +these fertile pastures. Most of the fresh oxen which he took in their +places were unbroken, and there was a perfect circus before they were +packed and marched off; in every direction, said the gleeful +narrators, there were bucking oxen and loads strewed on the ground. +This cattle ranch is managed by the colonel's uncle, his mother's +brother, a hale old man of seventy, white-haired but as active and +vigorous as ever; with a fine, kindly, intelligent face. His name is +Miguel Evangalista. He is a native of Matto Grosso, of practically +pure Indian blood, and was dressed in the ordinary costume of the +Caboclo--hat, shirt, trousers, and no shoes or stockings. Within the +last year he had killed three jaguars, which had been living on the +mules; as long as they could get mules they did not at this station +molest the cattle. + +It was with this uncle's father, Colonel Rondon's own grandfather, +that Colonel Rondon as an orphan spent the first seven years of his +life. His father died before he was born, and his mother when he was +only a year old. He lived on his grandfather's cattle-ranch, some +fifty miles from Cuyaba. Then he went to live in Cuyaba with a kinsman +on his father's side, from whom he took the name of Rondon; his own +father's name was DaSilva. He studied in the Cuyaba Government School, +and at sixteen was inscribed as one of the instructors. Then he went +to Rio, served for a year in the army as an enlisted man in the ranks, +and succeeded finally in getting into the military school. After five +years as pupil he served three years as professor of mathematics in +this school; and then, as a lieutenant of engineers in the Brazilian +army, he came back to his home in Matto Grosso and began his life-work +of exploring the wilderness. + +Next day we journeyed to the telegraph station at Bonofacio, through +alternate spells of glaring sunshine and heavy rain. On the way we +stopped at an aldea-village of Nhambiquaras. We first met a couple of +men going to hunt, with bows and arrows longer than themselves. A +rather comely young woman, carrying on her back a wickerwork basket, +or creel, supported by a forehead band, and accompanied by a small +child, was with them. At the village there were a number of men, +women, and children. Although as completely naked as the others we had +met, the members of this band were more ornamented with beads, and +wore earrings made from the inside of mussel-shells or very big snail- +shells. They were more hairy than the ones we had so far met. The +women, but not the men, completely remove the hair from their bodies-- +and look more, instead of less, indecent in consequence. The chief, +whose body was painted red with the juice of a fruit, had what could +fairly be styled a mustache and imperial; and one old man looked +somewhat like a hairy Ainu, or perhaps even more like an Australian +black fellow. My companion told me that this probably represented an +infusion of negro blood, and possibly of mulatto blood, from runaway +slaves of the old days, when some of the Matto Grosso mines were +worked by slave labor. They also thought it possible that this +infiltration of African negroes might be responsible for the curious +shape of the bigger huts, which were utterly unlike their flimsy, +ordinary shelters, and bore no resemblance in shape to those of the +other Indian tribes of this region; whereas they were not unlike the +ordinary beehive huts of the agricultural African negroes. There were +in this village several huts or shelters open at the sides, and two of +the big huts. These were of closely woven thatch, circular in outline, +with a rounded dome, and two doors a couple of feet high opposite each +other, and no other opening. There were fifteen or twenty people to +each hut. Inside were their implements and utensils, such as wicker +baskets (some of them filled with pineapples), gourds, fire-sticks, +wooden knives, wooden mortars, and a board for grating mandioc, made +of a thick slab of wood inset with sharp points of a harder wood. From +the Brazilians one or two of them had obtained blankets, and one a +hammock; and they had also obtained knives, which they sorely needed, +for they are not even in the stone age. One woman shielded herself +from the rain by holding a green palm-branch down her back. Another +had on her head what we at first thought to be a monkey-skin head- +dress. But it was a little, live, black monkey. It stayed habitually +with its head above her forehead, and its arms and legs spread so that +it lay moulded to the shape of her head; but both woman and monkey +showed some reluctance about having their photographs taken. + +Bonofacio consisted of several thatched one-room cabins, connected by +a stockade which was extended to form an enclosure behind them. A +number of tame parrots and parakeets, of several different species, +scrambled over the roofs and entered the houses. In the open pastures +near by were the curious, extensive burrows of a gopher rat, which ate +the roots of grass, not emerging to eat the grass but pulling it into +the burrows by the roots. These burrows bore a close likeness to those +of our pocket gophers. Miller found the animals difficult to trap. +Finally, by the aid of Colonel Rondon, several Indians, and two or +three of our men, he dug one out. From the central shaft several +surface galleries radiated, running for many rods about a foot below +the surface, with, at intervals of half a dozen yards, mounds where +the loose earth had been expelled. The central shaft ran straight down +for about eight feet, and then laterally for about fifteen feet, to a +kind of chamber. The animal dug hard to escape, but when taken and put +on the surface of the ground it moved slowly and awkwardly. It showed +vicious courage. In looks it closely resembled our pocket gophers, but +it had no pockets. This was one of the most interesting small mammals +that we secured. + +After breakfast at Bonofacio a number of Nhambiquaras--men, women, and +children--strolled in. The men gave us an exhibition of not very good +archery; when the bow was bent, it was at first held so that the arrow +pointed straight upwards and was then lowered so that the arrow was +aimed at the target. Several of the women had been taken from other +tribes, after their husbands or fathers had been killed; for the +Nhambiquaras are light-hearted robbers and murderers. Two or three +miserable dogs accompanied them, half-starved and mangy, but each +decorated with a collar of beads. The headmen had three or four wives +apiece, and the women were the burden-bearers, but apparently were not +badly treated. Most of them were dirty, although well-fed looking, and +their features were of a low type; but some, especially among the +children, were quite attractive. + +From Bonofacio we went about seven miles, across a rolling prairie +dotted with trees and clumps of shrub. There, on February 24, we +joined Amilcar, who was camped by a brook which flowed into the +Duvida. We were only some six miles from our place of embarkation on +the Duvida, and we divided our party and our belongings. Amilcar, +Miller, Mello, and Oliveira were to march three days to the Gy-Parana, +and then descend it, and continue down the Madeira to Manaos. Rondon, +Lyra, the doctor, Cherrie, Kermit, and I, with sixteen paddlers, in +seven canoes, were to descend the Duvida, and find out whether it led +into the Gy-Parana, our purpose was to return and descend the Ananas, +whose outlet was also unknown. Having this in view, we left a +fortnight's provisions for our party of six at Bonofacio. We took with +us provisions for about fifty days; not full rations, for we hoped in +part to live on the country--on fish, game, nuts, and palm-tops. Our +personal baggage was already well cut down: Cherrie, Kermit, and I +took the naturalist's fly to sleep under, and a very light little tent +extra for any one who might fall sick. Rondon, Lyra, and the doctor +took one of their own tents. The things that we carried were +necessities--food, medicines, bedding, instruments for determining the +altitude and longitude and latitude--except a few books, each in small +compass: Lyra's were in German, consisting of two tiny volumes of +Goethe and Schiller; Kermit's were in Portuguese; mine, all in +English, included the last two volumes of Gibbon, the plays of +Sophocles, More's "Utopia," Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus, the two +latter lent me by a friend, Major Shipton of the regulars, our +military attache at Buenos Aires. + +If our canoe voyage was prosperous we would gradually lighten the +loads by eating the provisions. If we met with accidents, such as +losing canoes and men in the rapids, or losing men in encounters with +Indians, or if we encountered overmuch fever and dysentery, the loads +would lighten themselves. We were all armed. We took no cartridges for +sport. Cherrie had some to be used sparingly for collecting specimens. +The others were to be used--unless in the unlikely event of having to +repel an attack--only to procure food. The food and the arms we +carried represented all reasonable precautions against suffering and +starvation; but, of course, if the course of the river proved very +long and difficult, if we lost our boats over falls or in rapids, or +had to make too many and too long portages, or were brought to a halt +by impassable swamps, then we would have to reckon with starvation as +a possibility. Anything might happen. We were about to go into the +unknown, and no one could say what it held. + + NOTE: + The first four days, before we struck the upper rapids, and during + which we made nearly seventy kilometres, are of course not included + when I speak of our making our way down the rapids. + +I hope that this year the Ananas, or Pineapple, will also be put on +the map. One of Colonel Rondon's subordinates is to attempt the +descent of the river. We passed the headwaters of the Pineapple on the +high plateau, very possibly we passed its mouth, although it is also +possible that it empties into the Canama or Tapajos. But it will not +be "put on the map" until some one descends and finds out where, as a +matter of fact, it really does go. + +It would be well if a geographical society of standing would +investigate the formal and official charges made by Colonel Rondon, an +officer and gentleman of the highest repute, against Mr. Savage +Landor. Colonel Rondon, in an official report to the Brazilian +Government, has written a scathing review of Mr. Landor. He states +that Mr. Savage Landor did not perform, and did not even attempt to +perform, the work he had contracted to do in exploration for the +Brazilian Government. Mr. Landor had asserted and promised that he +would go through unknown country along the line of eleven degrees +latitude south, and, as Colonel Rondon states, it was because of this +proposal of his that the Brazilian Government gave him material +financial assistance in advance. However, Colonel Rondon sets forth +that Mr. Landor did not keep his word or make any serious effort to +fulfil his moral obligation to do as he had said he would do. In a +letter to me under date of May 1, 1914--a letter which has been +published in full in France--Colonel Rondon goes at length into the +question of what territory Mr. Landor had traversed. Colonel Rondon +states that--excepting on one occasion, when Mr. Landor, wandering off +a beaten trail, immediately got lost and shortly returned to his +starting-point without making any discoveries--he kept to old, well- +travelled routes. One sentence of the colonel's letter to me runs as +follows: "I can guarantee to you that in Brazil Mr. Landor did not +cross a hand's breadth of land that had not been explored, the greater +part of it many centuries ago." As regards Mr. Landor's sole and brief +experience in leaving a beaten route, Colonel Rondon states that at +Sao Manoel Mr. Landor engaged from Senhor Jose Sotero Barreto (the +revenue officer of Matto Grosso, at Sao Manoel) a guide to lead him +across a well-travelled trail which connects the Tapajos with the +Madeira via the Canama. The guide, however, got lost, and after a few +days they all returned to the point of departure instead of going +through to the Canama. + +Senhor Barreto, a gentleman of high standing, related this last +incident to Fiala when Fiala descended the Tapajos (and, by the way, +Fiala's trip down the Papagaio, Juruena, and Tapajos was infinitely +more important than all the work Mr. Landor did in South America put +together). Lieutenants Pyrineus and Mello, mentioned in the body of +this work, informed me that they accompanied Mr. Landor on most of his +overland trip before he embarked on the Arinos, and that he simply +followed the highroad or else the telegraph-line, and furthermore, +Colonel Rondon states that the Indians whom Mr. Landor encountered and +photographed were those educated at the missions. + +Colonel Rondon's official report to the Brazilian Government and his +letter to me are of interest to all geographers and other scientific +men who have any concern with the alleged discoveries of Mr. Landor. +They contain very grave charges, with which it is not necessary for me +to deal. Suffice it to say that Mr. Landor's accounts of his alleged +exploration cannot be considered as entitled to the slightest serious +consideration until he has satisfactorily and in detail answered +Colonel Rondon; and this he has thus far signally failed to do. + +Fortunately, there are numerous examples of exactly the opposite type +of work. From the days of Humboldt and Spix and Martius to the present +time, German explorers have borne a conspicuous part in the +exploration of South America. As representatives of the men and women +who have done such capital work, who have fronted every hazard and +hardship and labored in the scientific spirit, and who have added +greatly to our fund of geographic, biologic, and ethnographic +knowledge, I may mention Miss Snethlage and Herr Karl von den Steinen. + + + + VIII. THE RIVER OF DOUBT + +On February 27, 1914, shortly after midday, we started down the River +of Doubt into the unknown. We were quite uncertain whether after a +week we should find ourselves in the Gy-Parana, or after six weeks in +the Madeira, or after three months we knew not where. That was why the +river was rightly christened the Duvida. + +We had been camped close to the river, where the trail that follows +the telegraph line crosses it by a rough bridge. As our laden dugouts +swung into the stream, Amilcar and Miller and all the others of the +Gy-Parana party were on the banks and the bridge to wave farewell and +wish us good-by and good luck. It was the height of the rainy season, +and the swollen torrent was swift and brown. Our camp was at about 12 +degrees 1 minute latitude south and 60 degrees 15 minutes longitude +west of Greenwich. Our general course was to be northward toward the +equator, by waterway through the vast forest. + +We had seven canoes, all of them dugouts. One was small, one was +cranky, and two were old, waterlogged, and leaky. The other three were +good. The two old canoes were lashed together, and the cranky one was +lashed to one of the others. Kermit with two paddlers went in the +smallest of the good canoes; Colonel Rondon and Lyra with three other +paddlers in the next largest; and the doctor, Cherrie, and I in the +largest with three paddlers. The remaining eight camaradas--there were +sixteen in all--were equally divided between our two pairs of lashed +canoes. Although our personal baggage was cut down to the limit +necessary for health and efficiency, yet on such a trip as ours, where +scientific work has to be done and where food for twenty-two men for +an unknown period of time has to be carried, it is impossible not to +take a good deal of stuff; and the seven dugouts were too heavily +laden. + +The paddlers were a strapping set. They were expert rivermen and men +of the forest, skilled veterans in wilderness work. They were lithe as +panthers and brawny as bears. They swam like waterdogs. They were +equally at home with pole and paddle, with axe and machete; and one +was a good cook and others were good men around camp. They looked like +pirates in the pictures of Howard Pyle or Maxfield Parrish; one or two +of them were pirates, and one worse than a pirate; but most of them +were hard-working, willing, and cheerful. They were white,--or, +rather, the olive of southern Europe,--black, copper-colored, and of +all intermediate shades. In my canoe Luiz the steersman, the headman, +was a Matto Grosso negro; Julio the bowsman was from Bahia and of pure +Portuguese blood; and the third man, Antonio, was a Parecis Indian. + +The actual surveying of the river was done by Colonel Rondon and Lyra, +with Kermit as their assistant. Kermit went first in his little canoe +with the sighting-rod, on which two disks, one red and one white, were +placed a metre apart. He selected a place which commanded as long +vistas as possible up-stream and down, and which therefore might be at +the angle of a bend; landed; cut away the branches which obstructed +the view; and set up the sighting-pole--incidentally encountering +maribundi wasps and swarms of biting and stinging ants. Lyra, from his +station up-stream, with his telemetre established the distance, while +Colonel Rondon with the compass took the direction, and made the +records. Then they moved on to the point Kermit had left, and Kermit +established a new point within their sight. The first half-day's work +was slow. The general course of the stream was a trifle east of north, +but at short intervals it bent and curved literally toward every point +of the compass. Kermit landed nearly a hundred times, and we made but +nine and a third kilometres. + +My canoe ran ahead of the surveying canoes. The height of the water +made the going easy, for most of the snags and fallen trees were well +beneath the surface. Now and then, however, the swift water hurried us +toward ripples that marked ugly spikes of sunken timber, or toward +uprooted trees that stretched almost across the stream. Then the +muscles stood out on the backs and arms of the paddlers as stroke on +stroke they urged us away from and past the obstacle. If the leaning +or fallen trees were the thorny, slender-stemmed boritana palms, which +love the wet, they were often, although plunged beneath the river, in +full and vigorous growth, their stems curving upward, and their frond- +crowned tops shaken by the rushing water. It was interesting work, for +no civilized man, no white man, had ever gone down or up this river or +seen the country through which we were passing. The lofty and matted +forest rose like a green wall on either hand. The trees were stately +and beautiful. The looped and twisted vines hung from them like great +ropes. Masses of epiphytes grew both on the dead trees and the living; +some had huge leaves like elephants' ears. Now and then fragrant +scents were blown to us from flowers on the banks. There were not many +birds, and for the most part the forest was silent; rarely we heard +strange calls from the depths of the woods, or saw a cormorant or +ibis. + +My canoe ran only a couple of hours. Then we halted to wait for the +others. After a couple of hours more, as the surveyors had not turned +up, we landed and made camp at a spot where the bank rose sharply for +a hundred yards to a level stretch of ground. Our canoes were moored +to trees. The axemen cleared a space for the tents; they were pitched, +the baggage was brought up, and fires were kindled. The woods were +almost soundless. Through them ran old tapir trails, but there was no +fresh sign. Before nightfall the surveyors arrived. There were a few +piums and gnats, and a few mosquitoes after dark, but not enough to +make us uncomfortable. The small stingless bees, of slightly aromatic +odor, swarmed while daylight lasted and crawled over our faces and +hands; they were such tame, harmless little things that when they +tickled too much I always tried to brush them away without hurting +them. But they became a great nuisance after a while. It had been +raining at intervals, and the weather was overcast; but after the sun +went down the sky cleared. The stars were brilliant overhead, and the +new moon hung in the west. It was a pleasant night, the air almost +cool, and we slept soundly. + +Next morning the two surveying canoes left immediately after +breakfast. An hour later the two pairs of lashed canoes pushed off. I +kept our canoe to let Cherrie collect, for in the early hours we could +hear a number of birds in the woods near by. The most interesting +birds he shot were a cotinga, brilliant turquoise-blue with a magenta- +purple throat, and a big woodpecker, black above and cinnamon below +with an entirely red head and neck. It was almost noon before we +started. We saw a few more birds; there were fresh tapir and paca +tracks at one point where we landed; once we heard howler monkeys from +the depth of the forest, and once we saw a big otter in midstream. As +we drifted and paddled down the swirling brown current, through the +vivid rain-drenched green of the tropic forest, the trees leaned over +the river from both banks. When those that had fallen in the river at +some narrow point were very tall, or where it happened that two fell +opposite each other, they formed barriers which the men in the leading +canoes cleared with their axes. There were many palms, both the burity +with its stiff fronds like enormous fans, and a handsome species of +bacaba, with very long, gracefully curving fronds. In places the palms +stood close together, towering and slender, their stems a stately +colonnade, their fronds an arched fretwork against the sky. +Butterflies of many hues fluttered over the river. The day was +overcast, with showers of rain. When the sun broke through rifts in +the clouds, his shafts turned the forest to gold. + +In mid-afternoon we came to the mouth of a big and swift affluent +entering from the right. It was undoubtedly the Bandeira, which we had +crossed well toward its head, some ten days before, on our road to +Bonofacio. The Nhambiquaras had then told Colonel Rondon that it +flowed into the Duvida. After its junction, with the added volume of +water, the river widened without losing its depth. It was so high that +it had overflowed and stood among the trees on the lower levels. Only +the higher stretches were dry. On the sheer banks where we landed we +had to push the canoes for yards or rods through the branches of the +submerged trees, hacking and hewing. There were occasional bays and +ox-bows from which the current had shifted. In these the coarse marsh +grass grew tall. + +This evening we made camp on a flat of dry ground, densely wooded, of +course, directly on the edge of the river and five feet above it. It +was fine to see the speed and sinewy ease with which the choppers +cleared an open space for the tents. Next morning, when we bathed +before sunrise, we dived into deep water right from the shore, and +from the moored canoes. This second day we made sixteen and a half +kilometres along the course of the river, and nine kilometres in a +straight line almost due north. + +The following day, March 1, there was much rain--sometimes showers, +sometimes vertical sheets of water. Our course was somewhat west of +north and we made twenty and a half kilometres. We passed signs of +Indian habitation. There were abandoned palm-leaf shelters on both +banks. On the left bank we came to two or three old Indian fields, +grown up with coarse fern and studded with the burned skeletons of +trees. At the mouth of a brook which entered from the right some +sticks stood in the water, marking the site of an old fish-trap. At +one point we found the tough vine hand-rail of an Indian bridge +running right across the river, a couple of feet above it. Evidently +the bridge had been built at low water. Three stout poles had been +driven into the stream-bed in a line at right angles to the current. +The bridge had consisted of poles fastened to these supports, leading +between them and from the support at each end to the banks. The rope +of tough vines had been stretched as a hand-rail, necessary with such +precarious footing. The rise of the river had swept away the bridge, +but the props and the rope hand-rail remained. In the afternoon, from +the boat, Cherrie shot a large dark-gray monkey with a prehensile +tail. It was very good eating. + +We camped on a dry level space, but a few feet above, and close +beside, the river--so that our swimming-bath was handy. The trees were +cleared and camp was made with orderly hurry. One of the men almost +stepped on a poisonous coral-snake, which would have been a serious +thing, as his feet were bare. But I had on stout shoes, and the fangs +of these serpents--unlike those of the pit-vipers--are too short to +penetrate good leather. I promptly put my foot on him, and he bit my +shoe with harmless venom. It has been said that the brilliant hues of +the coral-snake when in its native haunts really confer on it a +concealing coloration. In the dark and tangled woods, and to an only +less extent in the ordinary varied landscape, anything motionless, +especially if partially hidden, easily eludes the eye. But against the +dark-brown mould of the forest floor on which we found this coral- +snake its bright and varied coloration was distinctly revealing; +infinitely more so than the duller mottling of the jararaca and other +dangerous snakes of the genus lachecis. In the same place, however, we +found a striking example of genuine protective or mimetic coloration +and shape. A rather large insect larva--at least we judged it to be a +larval form, but we were none of us entomologists--bore a resemblance +to a partially curled dry leaf which was fairly startling. The tail +exactly resembled the stem or continuation of the midrib of the dead +leaf. The flattened body was curled up at the sides, and veined and +colored precisely like the leaf. The head, colored like the leaf, +projected in front. + +We were still in the Brazilian highlands. The forest did not teem with +life. It was generally rather silent; we did not hear such a chorus of +birds and mammals as we had occasionally heard even on our overland +journey, when more than once we had been awakened at dawn by the +howling, screaming, yelping, and chattering of monkeys, toucans, +macaws, parrots, and parakeets. There were, however, from time to +time, queer sounds from the forest, and after nightfall different +kinds of frogs and insects uttered strange cries and calls. In volume +and frequency these seemed to increase until midnight. Then they died +away and before dawn everything was silent. + +At this camp the carregadores ants completely devoured the doctor's +undershirt, and ate holes in his mosquito-net; and they also ate the +strap of Lyra's gun-case. The little stingless bees, of many kinds, +swarmed in such multitudes, and were so persevering, that we had to +wear our head-nets when we wrote or skinned specimens. + +The following day was almost without rain. It was delightful to drift +and paddle slowly down the beautiful tropical river. Until mid- +afternoon the current was not very fast, and the broad, deep, placid +stream bent and curved in every direction, although the general course +was northwest. The country was flat, and more of the land was under +than above water. Continually we found ourselves travelling between +stretches of marshy forest where for miles the water stood or ran +among the trees. Once we passed a hillock. We saw brilliantly colored +parakeets and trogons. At last the slow current quickened. Faster it +went, and faster, until it began to run like a mill-race, and we heard +the roar of rapids ahead. We pulled to the right bank, moored the +canoes, and while most of the men pitched camp two or three of them +accompanied us to examine the rapids. We had made twenty kilometres. + +We soon found that the rapids were a serious obstacle. There were many +curls, and one or two regular falls, perhaps six feet high. It would +have been impossible to run them, and they stretched for nearly a +mile. The carry, however, which led through woods and over rocks in a +nearly straight line, was somewhat shorter. It was not an easy portage +over which to carry heavy loads and drag heavy dugout canoes. At the +point where the descent was steepest there were great naked flats of +friable sandstone and conglomerate. Over parts of these, where there +was a surface of fine sand, there was a growth of coarse grass. Other +parts were bare and had been worn by the weather into fantastic +shapes--one projection looked like an old-fashioned beaver hat upside +down. In this place, where the naked flats of rock showed the +projection of the ledge through which the river had cut its course, +the torrent rushed down a deep, sheer-sided, and extremely narrow +channel. At one point it was less than two yards across, and for quite +a distance not more than five or six yards. Yet only a mile or two +above the rapids the deep, placid river was at least a hundred yards +wide. It seemed extraordinary, almost impossible, that so broad a +river could in so short a space of time contract its dimensions to the +width of the strangled channel through which it now poured its entire +volume. + +This has for long been a station where the Nhambiquaras at intervals +built their ephemeral villages and tilled the soil with the rude and +destructive cultivation of savages. There were several abandoned old +fields, where the dense growth of rank fern hid the tangle of burnt +and fallen logs. Nor had the Nhambiquaras been long absent. In one +trail we found what gypsies would have called a "pateran," a couple of +branches arranged crosswise, eight leaves to a branch; it had some +special significance, belonging to that class of signals, each with +some peculiar and often complicated meaning, which are commonly used +by many wild peoples. The Indians had thrown a simple bridge, +consisting of four long poles, without a hand-rail, across one of the +narrowest parts of the rock gorge through which the river foamed in +its rapid descent. This sub-tribe of Indians was called the Navaite; +we named the rapids after them, Navaite Rapids. By observation Lyra +found them to be (in close approximation to) latitude 11 degrees 44 +minutes south and longitude 60 degrees 18 minutes west from Greenwich. + +We spent March 3 and 4 and the morning of the 5th in portaging around +the rapids. The first night we camped in the forest beside the spot +where we had halted. Next morning we moved the baggage to the foot of +the rapids, where we intended to launch the canoes, and pitched our +tents on the open sandstone flat. It rained heavily. The little bees +were in such swarms as to be a nuisance. Many small stinging bees were +with them, which stung badly. We were bitten by huge horse-flies, the +size of bumblebees. More serious annoyance was caused by the pium and +boroshuda flies during the hours of daylight, and by the polvora, the +sand-flies, after dark. There were a few mosquitoes. The boroshudas +were the worst pests; they brought the blood at once, and left marks +that lasted for weeks. I did my writing in head-net and gauntlets. +Fortunately we had with us several bottles of "fly dope"--so named on +the label--put up, with the rest of our medicine, by Doctor Alexander +Lambert; he had tested it in the north woods and found it excellent. I +had never before been forced to use such an ointment, and had been +reluctant to take it with me; but now I was glad enough to have it, +and we all of us found it exceedingly useful. I would never again go +into mosquito or sand-fly country without it. The effect of an +application wears off after half an hour or so, and under many +conditions, as when one is perspiring freely, it is of no use; but +there are times when minute mosquitoes and gnats get through head-nets +and under mosquito-bars, and when the ointments occasionally renewed +may permit one to get sleep or rest which would otherwise be +impossible of attainment. The termites got into our tent on the sand- +flat, ate holes in Cherrie's mosquito-net and poncho, and were +starting to work at our duffel-bags, when we discovered them. + +Packing the loads across was simple. Dragging the heavy dugouts was +labor. The biggest of the two water-logged ones was the heaviest. Lyra +and Kermit did the job. All the men were employed at it except the +cook, and one man who was down with fever. A road was chopped through +the forest and a couple of hundred stout six-foot poles, or small +logs, were cut as rollers and placed about two yards apart. With block +and tackle the seven dugouts were hoisted out of the river up the +steep banks, and up the rise of ground until the level was reached. +Then the men harnessed themselves two by two on the drag-rope, while +one of their number pried behind with a lever, and the canoe, bumping +and sliding, was twitched through the woods. Over the sandstone flats +there were some ugly ledges, but on the whole the course was down-hill +and relatively easy. Looking at the way the work was done, at the +good-will, the endurance, and the bull-like strength of the camaradas, +and at the intelligence and the unwearied efforts of their commanders, +one could but wonder at the ignorance of those who do not realize the +energy and the power that are so often possessed by, and that may be +so readily developed in, the men of the tropics. Another subject of +perpetual wonder is the attitude of certain men who stay at home, and +still more the attitude of certain men who travel under easy +conditions, and who belittle the achievements of the real explorers +of, the real adventures in, the great wilderness. The impostors and +romancers among explorers or would-be explorers and wilderness +wanderers have been unusually prominent in connection with South +America (although the conspicuous ones are not South Americans, by the +way); and these are fit subjects for condemnation and derision. But +the work of the genuine explorer and wilderness wanderer is fraught +with fatigue, hardship, and danger. Many of the men of little +knowledge talk glibly of portaging as if it were simple and easy. A +portage over rough and unknown ground is always a work of difficulty +and of some risk to the canoe; and in the untrodden, or even in the +unfrequented, wilderness risk to the canoe is a serious matter. This +particular portage at Navaite Rapids was far from being unusually +difficult; yet it not only cost two and a half days of severe and +incessant labor, but it cost something in damage to the canoes. One in +particular, the one in which I had been journeying, was split in a +manner which caused us serious uneasiness as to how long, even after +being patched, it would last. Where the canoes were launched, the bank +was sheer, and one of the water-logged canoes filled and went to the +bottom; and there was more work in raising it. + +We were still wholly unable to tell where we were going or what lay +ahead of us. Round the camp-fire, after supper, we held endless +discussions and hazarded all kinds of guesses on both subjects. The +river might bend sharply to the west and enter the Gy-Parana high up +or low down, or go north to the Madeira, or bend eastward and enter +the Tapajos, or fall into the Canuma and finally through one of its +mouths enter the Amazon direct. Lyra inclined to the first, and +Colonel Rondon to the second, of these propositions. We did not know +whether we had one hundred or eight hundred kilometres to go, whether +the stream would be fairly smooth or whether we would encounter +waterfalls, or rapids, or even some big marsh or lake. We could not +tell whether or not we would meet hostile Indians, although no one of +us ever went ten yards from camp without his rifle. We had no idea how +much time the trip would take. We had entered a land of unknown +possibilities. + +We started down-stream again early in the afternoon of March 5. Our +hands and faces were swollen from the bites and stings of the insect +pests at the sand-flat camp, and it was a pleasure once more to be in +the middle of the river, where they did not come, in any numbers, +while we were in motion. The current was swift, but the river was so +deep that there were no serious obstructions. Twice we went down over +slight riffles, which in the dry season were doubtless rapids; and +once we struck a spot where many whirlpools marked the presence +underneath of boulders which would have been above water had not the +river been so swollen by the rains. The distance we covered in a day +going down-stream would have taken us a week if we had been going up. +The course wound hither and thither, sometimes in sigmoid curves; but +the general direction was east of north. As usual, it was very +beautiful; and we never could tell what might appear around any curve. +In the forest that rose on either hand were tall rubber-trees. The +surveying canoes, as usual, went first, while I shepherded the two +pairs of lashed cargo canoes. I kept them always between me and the +surveying canoes--ahead of me until I passed the surveying canoes, +then behind me until, after an hour or so, I had chosen a place to +camp. There was so much overflowed ground that it took us some little +time this afternoon before we found a flat place high enough to be +dry. Just before reaching camp Cherrie shot a jacu, a handsome bird +somewhat akin to, but much smaller than, a turkey; after Cherrie had +taken its skin, its body made an excellent canja. We saw parties of +monkeys; and the false bellbirds uttered their ringing whistles in +the dense timber around our tents. The giant ants, an inch and a +quarter long, were rather too plentiful around this camp; one stung +Kermit; it was almost like the sting of a small scorpion, and pained +severely for a couple of hours. This half-day we made twelve +kilometres. + +On the following day we made nineteen kilometres, the river twisting +in every direction, but in its general course running a little west of +north. Once we stopped at a bee-tree, to get honey. The tree was a +towering giant, of the kind called milk-tree, because a thick milky +juice runs freely from any cut. Our camaradas eagerly drank the white +fluid that flowed from the wounds made by their axes. I tried it. The +taste was not unpleasant, but it left a sticky feeling in the mouth. +The helmsman of my boat, Luiz, a powerful negro, chopped into the +tree, balancing himself with springy ease on a slight scaffolding. The +honey was in a hollow, and had been made by medium-sized stingless +bees. At the mouth of the hollow they had built a curious entrance of +their own, in the shape of a spout of wax about a foot long. At the +opening the walls of the spout showed the wax formation, but elsewhere +it had become in color and texture indistinguishable from the bark of +the tree. The honey was delicious, sweet and yet with a tart flavor. +The comb differed much from that of our honey-bees. The honey-cells +were very large, and the brood-cells, which were small, were in a +single instead of a double row. By this tree I came across an example +of genuine concealing coloration. A huge tree-toad, the size of a +bullfrog, was seated upright--not squatted flat--on a big rotten limb. +It was absolutely motionless; the yellow brown of its back, and its +dark sides, exactly harmonized in color with the light and dark +patches on the log; the color was as concealing, here in its natural +surroundings, as is the color of our common wood-frog among the dead +leaves of our woods. When I stirred it up it jumped to a small twig, +catching hold with the disks of its finger-tips, and balancing itself +with unexpected ease for so big a creature, and then hopped to the +ground and again stood motionless. Evidently it trusted for safety to +escaping observation. We saw some monkeys and fresh tapir sign, and +Kermit shot a jacu for the pot. + +At about three o'clock I was in the lead, when the current began to +run more quickly. We passed over one or two decided ripples, and then +heard the roar of rapids ahead, while the stream began to race. We +drove the canoe into the bank, and then went down a tapir trail, which +led alongside the river, to reconnoiter. A quarter of a mile's walk +showed us that there were big rapids, down which the canoes could not +go; and we returned to the landing. All the canoes had gathered there, +and Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit started down-stream to explore. They +returned in an hour, with the information that the rapids continued +for a long distance, with falls and steep pitches of broken water, and +that the portage would take several days. We made camp just above the +rapids. Ants swarmed, and some of them bit savagely. Our men, in +clearing away the forest for our tents, left several very tall and +slender accashy palms; the bole of this palm is as straight as an +arrow and is crowned with delicate, gracefully curved fronds. We had +come along the course of the river almost exactly a hundred +kilometres; it had twisted so that we were only about fifty-five +kilometres north of our starting-point. The rock was porphyritic. + +The 7th, 8th, and 9th we spent in carrying the loads and dragging and +floating the dugouts past the series of rapids at whose head we had +stopped. + +The first day we shifted camp a kilometre and a half to the foot of +this series of rapids. This was a charming and picturesque camp. It +was at the edge of the river, where there was a little, shallow bay +with a beach of firm sand. In the water, at the middle point of the +beach, stood a group of three burity palms, their great trunks rising +like columns. Round the clearing in which our tents stood were several +very big trees; two of them were rubber-trees. Kermit went down-stream +five or six kilometres, and returned, having shot a jacu and found +that at the point which he had reached there was another rapids, +almost a fall, which would necessitate our again dragging the canoes +over a portage. Antonio, the Parecis, shot a big monkey; of this I was +glad because portaging is hard work, and the men appreciated the +meat. So far Cherrie had collected sixty birds on the Duvida, all of +them new to the collection, and some probably new to science. We saw +the fresh sign of paca, agouti, and the small peccary, and Kermit with +the dogs roused a tapir, which crossed the river right through the +rapids; but no one got a shot at it. + +Except at one or perhaps two points a very big dugout, lightly loaded, +could probably run all these rapids. But even in such a canoe it would +be silly to make the attempt on an exploring expedition, where the +loss of a canoe or of its contents means disaster; and moreover such a +canoe could not be taken, for it would be impossible to drag it over +the portages on the occasions when the portages became inevitable. Our +canoes would not have lived half a minute in the wild water. + +On the second day the canoes and loads were brought down to the foot +of the first rapids. Lyra cleared the path and laid the logs for +rollers, while Kermit dragged the dugouts up the bank from the water +with block and tackle, with strain of rope and muscle. Then they +joined forces, as over the uneven ground it needed the united strength +of all their men to get the heavy dugouts along. Meanwhile the colonel +with one attendant measured the distance, and then went on a long +hunt, but saw no game. I strolled down beside the river for a couple +of miles, but also saw nothing. In the dense tropical forest of the +Amazonian basin hunting is very difficult, especially for men who are +trying to pass through the country as rapidly as possible. On such a +trip as ours getting game is largely a matter of chance. + +On the following day Lyra and Kermit brought down the canoes and +loads, with hard labor, to the little beach by the three palms where +our tents were pitched. Many pacovas grew round about. The men used +their immense leaves, some of which were twelve feet long and two and +a half feet broad, to roof the flimsy shelters under which they hung +their hammocks. I went into the woods, but in the tangle of vegetation +it would have been a mere hazard had I seen any big animal. Generally +the woods were silent and empty. Now and then little troops of birds +of many kinds passed--wood-hewers, ant-thrushes, tanagers, +flycatchers; as in the spring and fall similar troops of warblers, +chickadees, and nuthatches pass through our northern woods. On the +rocks and on the great trees by the river grew beautiful white and +lilac orchids, the sobralia, of sweet and delicate fragrance. For the +moment my own books seemed a trifle heavy, and perhaps I would have +found the day tedious if Kermit had not lent me the Oxford Book of +French Verse. Eustache Deschamp, Joachim du Bellay, Ronsard, the +delightful La Fontaine, the delightful but appalling Villon, Victor +Hugo's "Guitare," Madame Desbordes-Valmore's lines on the little girl +and her pillow, as dear little verses about a child as ever were +written--these and many others comforted me much, as I read them in +head-net and gauntlets, sitting on a log by an unknown river in the +Amazonian forest. + +On the 10th we again embarked and made a kilometre and a half, +spending most of the time in getting past two more rapids. Near the +first of these we saw a small cayman, a jacare-tinga. At each set of +rapids the canoes were unloaded and the loads borne past on the +shoulders of the camaradas; three of the canoes were paddled down by a +couple of naked paddlers apiece; and the two sets of double canoes +were let down by ropes, one of one couple being swamped but rescued +and brought safely to shore on each occasion. One of the men was upset +while working in the swift water, and his face was cut against the +stones. Lyra and Kermit did the actual work with the camaradas. +Kermit, dressed substantially like the camaradas themselves, worked in +the water, and, as the overhanging branches were thronged with crowds +of biting and stinging ants, he was marked and blistered over his +whole body. Indeed, we all suffered more or less from these ants; +while the swarms of biting flies grew constantly more numerous. The +termites ate holes in my helmet and also in the cover of my cot. Every +one else had a hammock. At this camp we had come down the river about +102 kilometres, according to the surveying records, and in height had +descended nearly 100 metres, as shown by the aneroid--although the +figure in this case is only an approximation, as an aneroid cannot be +depended on for absolute accuracy of results. + +Next morning we found that during the night we had met with a serious +misfortune. We had halted at the foot of the rapids. The canoes were +moored to trees on the bank, at the tail of the broken water. The two +old canoes, although one of them was our biggest cargo-carrier, were +water-logged and heavy, and one of them was leaking. In the night the +river rose. The leaky canoe, which at best was too low in the water, +must have gradually filled from the wash of the waves. It sank, +dragging down the other; they began to roll, bursting their moorings; +and in the morning they had disappeared. A canoe was launched to look +for them; but, rolling over the boulders on the rocky bottom, they had +at once been riven asunder, and the big fragments that were soon +found, floating in eddies, or along the shore, showed that it was +useless to look farther. We called these rapids Broken Canoe Rapids. + +It was not pleasant to have to stop for some days; thanks to the +rapids, we had made slow progress, and with our necessarily limited +supply of food, and no knowledge whatever of what was ahead of us, it +was important to make good time. But there was no alternative. We had +to build either one big canoe or two small ones. It was raining +heavily as the men started to explore in different directions for good +canoe trees. Three--which ultimately proved not very good for the +purpose--were found close to camp; splendid-looking trees, one of them +five feet in diameter three feet from the ground. The axemen +immediately attacked this one under the superintendence of Colonel +Rondon. Lyra and Kermit started in opposite directions to hunt. Lyra +killed a jacu for us, and Kermit killed two monkeys for the men. +Toward night fall it cleared. The moon was nearly full, and the +foaming river gleamed like silver. + +Our men were "regional volunteers," that is, they had enlisted in the +service of the Telegraphic Commission especially to do this wilderness +work, and were highly paid, as was fitting, in view of the toil, +hardship, and hazard to life and health. Two of them had been with +Colonel Rondon during his eight months' exploration in 1909, at which +time his men were regulars, from his own battalion of engineers. His +four aides during the closing months of this trip were Lieutenants +Lyra, Amarante, Alencarliense, and Pyrineus. The naturalist Miranda +Ribeiro also accompanied him. This was the year when, marching on foot +through an absolutely unknown wilderness, the colonel and his party +finally reached the Gy-Parana, which on the maps was then (and on most +maps is now) placed in an utterly wrong course, and over a degree out +of its real position. When they reached the affluents of the Gy-Parana +a third of the members of the party were so weak with fever that they +could hardly crawl. They had no baggage. Their clothes were in +tatters, and some of the men were almost naked. For months they had +had no food except what little game they shot, and especially the wild +fruits and nuts; if it had not been for the great abundance of the +Brazil-nuts they would all have died. At the first big stream they +encountered they built a canoe, and Alencarliense took command of it +and descended to map the course of the river. With him went Ribeiro, +the doctor Tanageira, who could no longer walk on account of the +ulceration of one foot, three men whom the fever had rendered unable +longer to walk, and six men who were as yet well enough to handle the +canoe. By the time the remainder of the party came to the next +navigable river eleven more fever-stricken men had nearly reached the +end of their tether. Here they ran across a poor devil who had for +four months been lost in the forest and was dying of slow starvation. +He had eaten nothing but Brazil-nuts and the grubs of insects. He +could no longer walk, but could sit erect and totter feebly for a few +feet. Another canoe was built, and in it Pyrineus started down-stream +with the eleven fever patients and the starving wanderer. Colonel +Rondon kept up the morale of his men by still carrying out the forms +of military discipline. The ragged bugler had his bugle. Lieutenant +Pyrineus had lost every particle of his clothing except a hat and a +pair of drawers. The half-naked lieutenant drew up his eleven fever +patients in line; the bugle sounded; every one came to attention; and +the haggard colonel read out the orders of the day. Then the dugout +with its load of sick men started down-stream, and Rondon, Lyra, +Amarante, and the twelve remaining men resumed their weary march. When +a fortnight later they finally struck a camp of rubber-gatherers three +of the men were literally and entirely naked. Meanwhile Amilcar had +ascended the Jacyparana a month or two previously with provisions to +meet them; for at that time the maps incorrectly treated this river as +larger, instead of smaller, than the Gy-Parana, which they were in +fact descending; and Colonel Rondon had supposed that they were going +down the former stream. Amilcar returned after himself suffering much +hardship and danger. The different parties finally met at the mouth of +the Gy-Parana, where it enters the Madeira. The lost man whom they had +found seemed on the road to recovery, and they left him at a ranch, on +the Madeira, where he could be cared for; yet after they had left him +they heard that he had died. + +On the 12th the men were still hard at work hollowing out the hard +wood of the big tree, with axe and adze, while watch and ward were +kept over them to see that the idlers did not shirk at the expense of +the industrious. Kermit and Lyra again hunted; the former shot a +curassow, which was welcome, as we were endeavoring in all ways to +economize our food supply. We were using the tops of palms also. I +spent the day hunting in the woods, for the most part by the river, +but saw nothing. In the season of the rains game is away from the +river and fish are scarce and turtles absent. Yet it was pleasant to +be in the great silent forest. Here and there grew immense trees, and +on some of them mighty buttresses sprang from the base. The lianas and +vines were of every size and shape. Some were twisted and some were +not. Some came down straight and slender from branches a hundred feet +above. Others curved like long serpents around the trunks. Others were +like knotted cables. In the shadow there was little noise. The wind +rarely moved the hot, humid air. There were few flowers or birds. +Insects were altogether too abundant, and even when travelling slowly +it was impossible always to avoid them--not to speak of our constant +companions the bees, mosquitoes, and especially the boroshudas or +bloodsucking flies. Now while bursting through a tangle I disturbed a +nest of wasps, whose resentment was active; now I heedlessly stepped +among the outliers of a small party of the carnivorous foraging ants; +now, grasping a branch as I stumbled, I shook down a shower of fire- +ants; and among all these my attention was particularly arrested by +the bite of one of the giant ants, which stung like a hornet, so that +I felt it for three hours. The camarades generally went barefoot or +only wore sandals; and their ankles and feet were swollen and inflamed +from the bites of the boroshudas and ants, some being actually +incapacitated from work. All of us suffered more or less, our faces +and hands swelling slightly from the boroshuda bites; and in spite of +our clothes we were bitten all over our bodies, chiefly by ants and +the small forest ticks. Because of the rain and the heat our clothes +were usually wet when we took them off at night, and just as wet when +we put them on again in the morning. + +All day on the 13th the men worked at the canoe, making good progress. +In rolling and shifting the huge, heavy tree-trunk every one had to +assist now and then. The work continued until ten in the evening, as +the weather was clear. After nightfall some of the men held candles +and the others plied axe or adze, standing within or beside the great, +half-hollowed logs, while the flicker of the lights showed the tropic +forest rising in the darkness round about. The night air was hot and +still and heavy with moisture. The men were stripped to the waist. +Olive and copper and ebony, their skins glistened as if oiled, and +rippled with the ceaseless play of the thews beneath. + +On the morning of the 14th the work was resumed in a torrential tropic +downpour. The canoe was finished, dragged down to the water, and +launched soon after midday, and another hour or so saw us under way. +The descent was marked, and the swollen river raced along. Several +times we passed great whirlpools, sometimes shifting, sometimes +steady. Half a dozen times we ran over rapids, and, although they were +not high enough to have been obstacles to loaded Canadian canoes, two +of them were serious to us. Our heavily laden, clumsy dugouts were +sunk to within three or four inches of the surface of the river, and, +although they were buoyed on each side with bundles of burity-palm +branch-stems, they shipped a great deal of water in the rapids. The +two biggest rapids we only just made, and after each we had hastily to +push ashore in order to bail. In one set of big ripples or waves my +canoe was nearly swamped. In a wilderness, where what is ahead is +absolutely unknown, alike in terms of time, space, and method--for we +had no idea where we would come out, how we would get out, or when we +would get out--it is of vital consequence not to lose one's outfit, +especially the provisions; and yet it is of only less consequence to +go as rapidly as possible lest all the provisions be exhausted and the +final stages of the expedition be accomplished by men weakened from +semi-starvation, and therefore ripe for disaster. On this occasion, of +the two hazards, we felt it necessary to risk running the rapids; for +our progress had been so very slow that unless we made up the time, it +was probable that we would be short of food before we got where we +could expect to procure any more except what little the country in the +time of the rains and floods, might yield. We ran until after five, so +that the work of pitching camp was finished in the dark. We had made +nearly sixteen kilometres in a direction slightly east of north. This +evening the air was fresh and cool. + +The following morning, the 15th of March, we started in good season. +For six kilometres we drifted and paddled down the swift river without +incident. At times we saw lofty Brazil-nut trees rising above the rest +of the forest on the banks; and back from the river these trees grow +to enormous proportions, towering like giants. There were great +rubber-trees also, their leaves always in sets of threes. Then the +ground on either hand rose into boulder-strewn, forest-clad hills and +the roar of broken water announced that once more our course was +checked by dangerous rapids. Round a bend we came on them; a wide +descent of white water, with an island in the middle, at the upper +edge. Here grave misfortune befell us, and graver misfortune was +narrowly escaped. + +Kermit, as usual, was leading in his canoe. It was the smallest and +least seaworthy of all. He had in it little except a week's supply of +our boxed provisions and a few tools; fortunately none of the food for +the camaradas. His dog Trigueiro was with him. Besides himself, the +crew consisted of two men: Joao, the helmsman, or pilot, as he is +called in Brazil, and Simplicio, the bowsman. Both were negroes and +exceptionally good men in every way. Kermit halted his canoe on the +left bank, above the rapids, and waited for the colonel's canoe. Then +the colonel and Lyra walked down the bank to see what was ahead. +Kermit took his canoe across to the island to see whether the descent +could be better accomplished on the other side. Having made his +investigation, he ordered the men to return to the bank he had left, +and the dugout was headed up-stream accordingly. Before they had gone +a dozen yards, the paddlers digging their paddles with all their +strength into the swift current, one of the shifting whirlpools of +which I have spoken came down-stream, whirled them around, and swept +them so close to the rapids that no human power could avoid going over +them. As they were drifting into them broadside on, Kermit yelled to +the steersman to turn her head, so as to take them in the only way +that offered any chance whatever of safety. The water came aboard, +wave after wave, as they raced down. They reached the bottom with the +canoe upright, but so full as barely to float, and the paddlers urged +her toward the shore. They had nearly reached the bank when another +whirlpool or whirling eddy tore them away and hurried them back to +midstream, where the dugout filled and turned over. Joao, seizing the +rope, started to swim ashore; the rope was pulled from his hand, but +he reached the bank. Poor Simplicio must have been pulled under at +once and his life beaten out on the boulders beneath the racing +torrent. He never rose again, nor did we ever recover his body. Kermit +clutched his rifle, his favorite 405 Winchester with which he had done +most of his hunting both in Africa and America, and climbed on the +bottom of the upset boat. In a minute he was swept into the second +series of rapids, and whirled away from the rolling boat, losing his +rifle. The water beat his helmet down over his head and face and drove +him beneath the surface; and when he rose at last he was almost +drowned, his breath and strength almost spent. He was in swift but +quiet water, and swam toward an overhanging branch. His jacket +hindered him, but he knew he was too nearly gone to be able to get it +off, and, thinking with the curious calm one feels when death is but a +moment away, he realized that the utmost his failing strength could do +was to reach the branch. He reached, and clutched it, and then almost +lacked strength to haul himself out on the land. Good Trigueiro had +faithfully swum alongside him through the rapids, and now himself +scrambled ashore. It was a very narrow escape. Kermit was a great +comfort and help to me on the trip; but the fear of some fatal +accident befalling him was always a nightmare to me. He was to be +married as soon as the trip was over; and it did not seem to me that I +could bear to bring bad tidings to his betrothed and to his mother. + +Simplicio was unmarried. Later we sent to his mother all the money +that would have been his had he lived. The following morning we put on +one side of the post erected to mark our camping-spot the following +inscription, in Portuguese: + + "IN THESE RAPIDS DIED POOR SIMPLICIO." + +On an expedition such as ours death is one of the accidents that may +at any time occur, and narrow escapes from death are too common to be +felt as they would be felt elsewhere. One mourns sincerely, but +mourning cannot interfere with labor. We immediately proceeded with +the work of the portage. From the head to the tail of this series of +rapids the distance was about six hundred yards. A path was cut along +the bank, over which the loads were brought. The empty canoes ran the +rapids without mishap, each with two skilled paddlers. One of the +canoes almost ran into a swimming tapir at the head of the rapids; it +went down the rapids, and then climbed out of the river. Kermit +accompanied by Joao, went three or four miles down the river, looking +for the body of Simplicio and for the sunk canoe. He found neither. +But he found a box of provisions and a paddle, and salvaged both by +swimming into midstream after them. He also found that a couple of +kilometres below there was another stretch of rapids, and following +them on the left-hand bank to the foot he found that they were worse +than the ones we had just passed, and impassable for canoes on this +left-hand side. + +We camped at the foot of the rapids we had just passed. There were +many small birds here, but it was extremely difficult to see or shoot +them in the lofty tree tops, and to find them in the tangle beneath if +they were shot. However, Cherrie got four species new to the +collection. One was a tiny hummer, one of the species known as +woodstars, with dainty but not brilliant plumage; its kind is never +found except in the deep, dark woods, not coming out into the +sunshine. Its crop was filled with ants; when shot it was feeding at a +cluster of long red flowers. He also got a very handsome trogon and an +exquisite little tanager, as brilliant as a cluster of jewels; its +throat was lilac, its breast turquoise, its crown and forehead topaz, +while above it was glossy purple-black, the lower part of the back +ruby-red. This tanager was a female; I can hardly imagine that the +male is more brilliantly colored. The fourth bird was a queer hawk of +the genus ibycter, black, with a white belly, naked red cheeks and +throat and red legs and feet. Its crop was filled with the seeds of +fruits and a few insect remains; an extraordinary diet for a hawk. + +The morning of the 16th was dark and gloomy. Through sheets of +blinding rain we left our camp of misfortune for another camp where +misfortune also awaited us. Less than half an hour took our dugouts to +the head of the rapids below. As Kermit had already explored the left- +hand side, Colonel Rondon and Lyra went down the right-hand side and +found a channel which led round the worst part, so that they deemed it +possible to let down the canoes by ropes from the bank. The distance +to the foot of the rapids was about a kilometre. While the loads were +being brought down the left bank, Luiz and Antonio Correa, our two +best watermen, started to take a canoe down the right side, and +Colonel Rondon walked ahead to see anything he could about the river. +He was accompanied by one of our three dogs, Lobo. After walking about +a kilometre he heard ahead a kind of howling noise, which he thought +was made by spider-monkeys. He walked in the direction of the sound +and Lobo ran ahead. In a minute he heard Lobo yell with pain, and +then, still yelping, come toward him, while the creature that was +howling also approached, evidently in pursuit. In a moment a second +yell from Lobo, followed by silence, announced that he was dead; and +the sound of the howling when near convinced Rondon that the dog had +been killed by an Indian, doubtless with two arrows. Probably the +Indian was howling to lure the spider-monkeys toward him. Rondon fired +his rifle in the air, to warn off the Indian or Indians, who in all +probability had never seen a civilized man, and certainly could not +imagine that one was in the neighborhood. He then returned to the foot +of the rapids, where the portage was still going on, and, in company +with Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Parecis, the Indian, walked back to +where Lobo's body lay. Sure enough he found him, slain by two arrows. +One arrow-head was in him, and near by was a strange stick used in the +very primitive method of fishing of all these Indians. Antonio +recognized its purpose. The Indians, who were apparently two or three +in number, had fled. Some beads and trinkets were left on the spot to +show that we were not angry and were friendly. + +Meanwhile Cherrie stayed at the head and I at the foot of the portage +as guards. Luiz and Antonio Correa brought down one canoe safely. The +next was the new canoe, which was very large and heavy, being made of +wood that would not float. In the rapids the rope broke, and the canoe +was lost, Luiz being nearly drowned. + +It was a very bad thing to lose the canoe, but it was even worse to +lose the rope and pulleys. This meant that it would be physically +impossible to hoist big canoes up even small hills or rocky hillocks, +such as had been so frequent beside the many rapids we had +encountered. It was not wise to spend the four days necessary to build +new canoes where we were, in danger of attack from the Indians. +Moreover, new rapids might be very near, in which case the new canoes +would hamper us. Yet the four remaining canoes would not carry all the +loads and all the men, no matter how we cut the loads down; and we +intended to cut everything down at once. We had been gone eighteen +days. We had used over a third of our food. We had gone only 125 +kilometres, and it was probable that we had at least five times, +perhaps six or seven times, this distance still to go. We had taken a +fortnight to descend rapids amounting in the aggregate to less than +seventy yards of fall; a very few yards of fall makes a dangerous +rapid when the river is swollen and swift and there are obstructions. +We had only one aneroid to determine our altitude, and therefore could +make merely a loose approximation to it, but we probably had between +two and three times this descent in the aggregate of rapids ahead of +us. So far the country had offered little in the way of food except +palm-tops. We had lost four canoes and one man. We were in the country +of wild Indians, who shot well with their bows. It behooved us to go +warily, but also to make all speed possible, if we were to avoid +serious trouble. + +The best plan seemed to be to march thirteen men down along the bank, +while the remaining canoes, lashed two and two, floated down beside +them. If after two or three days we found no bad rapids, and there +seemed a reasonable chance of going some distance at decent speed, we +could then build the new canoes--preferably two small ones, this time, +instead of one big one. We left all the baggage we could. We were +already down as far as comfort would permit; but we now struck off +much of the comfort. Cherrie, Kermit, and I had been sleeping under a +very light fly; and there was another small light tent for one person, +kept for possible emergencies. The last was given to me for my cot, +and all five of the others swung their hammocks under the big fly. +This meant that we left two big and heavy tents behind. A box of +surveying instruments was also abandoned. Each of us got his personal +belongings down to one box or duffel-bag--although there was only a +small diminution thus made; because we had so little that the only way +to make a serious diminution was to restrict ourselves to the clothes +on our backs. + +The biting flies and ants were to us a source of discomfort and at +times of what could fairly be called torment. But to the camaradas, +most of whom went barefoot or only wore sandals--and they never did or +would wear shoes--the effect was more serious. They wrapped their legs +and feet in pieces of canvas or hide; and the feet of three of them +became so swollen that they were crippled and could not walk any +distance. The doctor, whose courage and cheerfulness never flagged, +took excellent care of them. Thanks to him, there had been among them +hitherto but one or two slight cases of fever. He administered to each +man daily a half-gram--nearly eight grains--of quinine, and every +third or fourth day a double dose. + +The following morning Colonel Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, Cherrie, and nine +of the camaradas started in single file down the bank, while the +doctor and I went in the two double canoes, with six camaradas, three +of them the invalids with swollen feet. We halted continually, as we +went about three times as fast as the walkers; and we traced the +course of the river. After forty minutes' actual going in the boats we +came to some rapids; the unloaded canoes ran them without difficulty, +while the loads were portaged. In an hour and a half we were again +under way, but in ten minutes came to other rapids, where the river +ran among islands, and there were several big curls. The clumsy, +heavily laden dugouts, lashed in couples, were unwieldy and hard to +handle. The rapids came just round a sharp bend, and we got caught in +the upper part of the swift water and had to run the first set of +rapids in consequence. We in the leading pair of dugouts were within +an ace of coming to grief on some big boulders against which we were +swept by a cross current at the turn. All of us paddling hard-- +scraping and bumping--we got through by the skin of our teeth, and +managed to make the bank and moor our dugouts. It was a narrow escape +from grave disaster. The second pair of lashed dugouts profited by our +experience, and made the run--with risk, but with less risk--and +moored beside us. Then all the loads were taken out, and the empty +canoes were run down through the least dangerous channels among the +islands. + +This was a long portage, and we camped at the foot of the rapids, +having made nearly seven kilometres. Here a little river, a rapid +stream of volume equal to the Duvida at the point where we first +embarked, joined from the west. Colonel Rondon and Kermit came to it +first, and the former named it Rio Kermit. There was in it a waterfall +about six or eight feet high, just above the junction. Here we found +plenty of fish. Lyra caught two pacu, good-sized, deep-bodied fish. +They were delicious eating. Antonio the Parecis said that these fish +never came up heavy rapids in which there were falls they had to jump. +We could only hope that he was correct, as in that case the rapids we +would encounter in the future would rarely be so serious as to +necessitate our dragging the heavy dugouts overland. Passing the +rapids we had hitherto encountered had meant severe labor and some +danger. But the event showed that he was mistaken. The worst rapids +were ahead of us. + +While our course as a whole had been almost due north, and sometimes +east of north, yet where there were rapids the river had generally, +although not always, turned westward. This seemed to indicate that to +the east of us there was a low northward projection of the central +plateau across which we had travelled on mule-back. This is the kind +of projection that appears on the maps of this region as a sierra. +Probably it sent low spurs to the west, and the farthest points of +these spurs now and then caused rapids in our course (for the rapids +generally came where there were hills) and for the moment deflected +the river westward from its general downhill trend to the north. There +was no longer any question that the Duvida was a big river, a river of +real importance. It was not a minor affluent of some other affluent. +But we were still wholly in the dark as to where it came out. It was +still possible, although exceedingly improbable, that it entered the +Gy-Parana, as another river of substantially the same size, near its +mouth. It was much more likely, but not probable, that it entered the +Tapajos. It was probable, although far from certain, that it entered +the Madeira low down, near its point of junction with the Amazon. In +this event it was likely, although again far from certain, that its +mouth would prove to be the Aripuanan. The Aripuanan does not appear +on the maps as a river of any size; on a good standard map of South +America which I had with me its name does not appear at all, although +a dotted indication of a small river or creek at about the right place +probably represents it. Nevertheless, from the report of one of his +lieutenants who had examined its mouth, and from the stories of the +rubber-gatherers, or seringueiros, Colonel Rondon had come to the +conclusion that this was the largest affluent of the Madeira, with +such a body of water that it must have a big drainage basin. He +thought that the Duvida was probably one of its head streams--although +every existing map represented the lay of the land to be such as to +render impossible the existence of such a river system and drainage +basin. The rubber-gatherers reported that they had gone many days' +journey up the river, to a point where there was a series of heavy +rapids with above them the junction point of two large rivers, one +entering from the west. Beyond this they had difficulties because of +the hostility of the Indians; and where the junction point was no one +could say. On the chance Colonel Rondon had directed one of his +subordinate officers, Lieutenant Pyrineus, to try to meet us, with +boats and provisions, by ascending the Aripuanan to the point of entry +of its first big affluent. This was the course followed when Amilcar +had been directed to try to meet the explorers who in 1909 came down +the Gy-Parana. At that time the effort was a failure, and the two +parties never met; but we might have better luck, and in any event the +chance was worth taking. + +On the morning following our camping by the mouth of the Rio Kermit, +Colonel Rondon took a good deal of pains in getting a big post set up +at the entry of the smaller river into the Duvida. Then he summoned +me, and all the others, to attend the ceremony of its erection. We +found the camaradas drawn up in line, and the colonel preparing to +read aloud "the orders of the day." To the post was nailed a board +with "Rio Kermit" on it; and the colonel read the orders reciting that +by the direction of the Brazilian Government, and inasmuch as the +unknown river was evidently a great river, he formally christened it +the Rio Roosevelt. This was a complete surprise to me. Both Lauro +Miller and Colonel Rondon had spoken to me on the subject, and I had +urged, and Kermit had urged, as strongly as possible, that the name be +kept as Rio da Duvida. We felt that the "River of Doubt" was an +unusually good name; and it is always well to keep a name of this +character. But my kind friends insisted otherwise, and it would have +been churlish of me to object longer. I was much touched by their +action, and by the ceremony itself. At the conclusion of the reading +Colonel Rondon led in cheers for the United States and then for me and +for Kermit; and the camaradas cheered with a will. I proposed three +cheers for Brazil and then for Colonel Rondon, and Lyra, and the +doctor, and then for all the camaradas. Then Lyra said that everybody +had been cheered except Cherrie; and so we all gave three cheers for +Cherrie, and the meeting broke up in high good humor. + +Immediately afterward the walkers set off on their march downstream, +looking for good canoe trees. In a quarter of an hour we followed with +the canoes. As often as we overtook them we halted until they had +again gone a good distance ahead. They soon found fresh Indian sign, +and actually heard the Indians; but the latter fled in panic. They +came on a little Indian fishing village, just abandoned. The three +low, oblong huts, of palm leaves, had each an entrance for a man on +all fours, but no other opening. They were dark inside, doubtless as a +protection against the swarms of biting flies. On a pole in this +village an axe, a knife, and some strings of red beads were left, with +the hope that the Indians would return, find the gifts, and realize +that we were friendly. We saw further Indian sign on both sides of the +river. + +After about two hours and a half we came on a little river entering +from the east. It was broad but shallow, and at the point of entrance +rushed down, green and white, over a sharply inclined sheet of rock. +It was a lovely sight and we halted to admire it. Then on we went, +until, when we had covered about eight kilometres, we came on a +stretch of rapids. The canoes ran them with about a third of the +loads, the other loads being carried on the men's shoulders. At the +foot of the rapids we camped, as there were several good canoe trees +near, and we had decided to build two rather small canoes. After dark +the stars came out; but in the deep forest the glory of the stars in +the night of the sky, the serene radiance of the moon, the splendor of +sunrise and sunset, are never seen as they are seen on the vast open +plains. + +The following day, the 19th, the men began work on the canoes. The +ill-fated big canoe had been made of wood so hard that it was +difficult to work, and so heavy that the chips sank like lead in the +water. But these trees were araputangas, with wood which was easier to +work, and which floated. Great buttresses, or flanges, jutted out from +their trunks at the base, and they bore big hard nuts or fruits which +stood erect at the ends of the branches. The first tree felled proved +rotten, and moreover it was chopped so that it smashed a number of +lesser trees into the kitchen, overthrowing everything, but not +inflicting serious damage. Hardworking, willing, and tough though the +camaradas were, they naturally did not have the skill of northern +lumberjacks. + +We hoped to finish the two canoes in three days. A space was cleared +in the forest for our tents. Among the taller trees grew huge-leafed +pacovas, or wild bananas. We bathed and swam in the river, although in +it we caught piranhas. Carregadores ants swarmed all around our camp. +As many of the nearest of their holes as we could we stopped with +fire; but at night some of them got into our tents and ate things we +could ill spare. In the early morning a column of foraging ants +appeared, and we drove them back, also with fire. When the sky was not +overcast the sun was very hot, and we spread out everything to dry. +There were many wonderful butterflies round about, but only a few +birds. Yet in the early morning and late afternoon there was some +attractive bird music in the woods. The two best performers were our +old friend the false bellbird, with its series of ringing whistles, +and a shy, attractive ant-thrush. The latter walked much on the +ground, with dainty movements, curtseying and raising its tail; and in +accent and sequence, although not in tone or time, its song resembled +that of our white-throated sparrow. + +It was three weeks since we had started down the River of Doubt. We +had come along its winding course about 140 kilometres, with a descent +of somewhere in the neighborhood of 124 metres. It had been slow +progress. We could not tell what physical obstacles were ahead of us, +nor whether the Indians would be actively hostile. But a river +normally describes in its course a parabola, the steep descent being +in the upper part; and we hoped that in the future we should not have +to encounter so many and such difficult rapids as we had already +encountered, and that therefore we would make better time--a hope +destined to failure. + + + + IX. DOWN AN UNKNOWN RIVER INTO THE EQUATORIAL FOREST + +The mightiest river in the world is the Amazon. It runs from west to +east, from the sunset to the sunrise, from the Andes to the Atlantic. +The main stream flows almost along the equator, while the basin which +contains its affluents extends many degrees north and south of the +equator. The gigantic equatorial river basin is filled with an immense +forest, the largest in the world, with which no other forest can be +compared save those of western Africa and Malaysia. We were within the +southern boundary of this great equatorial forest, on a river which +was not merely unknown but unguessed at, no geographer having ever +suspected its existence. This river flowed northward toward the +equator, but whither it would go, whether it would turn one way or +another, the length of its course, where it would come out, the +character of the stream itself, and the character of the dwellers +along its banks--all these things were yet to be discovered. + +One morning while the canoes were being built Kermit and I walked a +few kilometres down the river and surveyed the next rapids below. The +vast still forest was almost empty of life. We found old Indian signs. +There were very few birds, and these in the tops of the tall trees. We +saw a recent tapir track; and under a cajazeira tree by the bank there +were the tracks of capybaras which had been eating the fallen fruit. +This fruit is delicious and would make a valuable addition to our +orchards. The tree although tropical is hardy, thrives when +domesticated, and propagates rapidly from shoots. The Department of +Agriculture should try whether it would not grow in southern +California and Florida. This was the tree from which the doctor's +family name was taken. His parental grandfather, although of +Portuguese blood, was an intensely patriotic Brazilian. He was a very +young man when the independence of Brazil was declared, and did not +wish to keep the Portuguese family name; so he changed it to that of +the fine Brazilian tree in question. Such change of family names is +common in Brazil. Doctor Vital Brazil, the student of poisonous +serpents, was given his name by his father, whose own family name was +entirely different; and his brother's name was again different. + +There were tremendous downpours of rain, lasting for a couple of hours +and accompanied by thunder and lightning. But on the whole it seemed +as if the rains were less heavy and continuous than they had been. We +all of us had to help in building the canoes now and then. Kermit, +accompanied by Antonio the Parecis and Joao, crossed the river and +walked back to the little river that had entered from the east, so as +to bring back a report of it to Colonel Rondon. Lyra took +observations, by the sun and by the stars. We were in about latitude +11 degrees 2 minutes south, and due north of where we had started. The +river had wound so that we had gone two miles for every one we made +northward. Our progress had been very slow; and until we got out of +the region of incessant rapids, with their attendant labor and hazard, +it was not likely that we should go much faster. + +On the morning of March 22 we started in our six canoes. We made ten +kilometres. Twenty minutes after starting we came to the first rapids. +Here every one walked except the three best paddlers, who took the +canoes down in succession--an hour's job. Soon after this we struck a +bees' nest in the top of a tree overhanging the river; our steersman +climbed out and robbed it, but, alas! lost the honey on the way back. +We came to a small steep fall which we did not dare run in our over- +laden, clumsy, and cranky dugouts. Fortunately, we were able to follow +a deep canal which led off for a kilometre, returning just below the +falls, fifty yards from where it had started. Then, having been in the +boats and in motion only one hour and a half, we came to a long +stretch of rapids which it took us six hours to descend, and we camped +at the foot. Everything was taken out of the canoes, and they were run +down in succession. At one difficult and perilous place they were let +down by ropes; and even thus we almost lost one. + +We went down the right bank. On the opposite bank was an Indian +village, evidently inhabited only during the dry season. The marks on +the stumps of trees showed that these Indians had axes and knives; and +there were old fields in which maize, beans, and cotton had been +grown. The forest dripped and steamed. Rubber-trees were plentiful. At +one point the tops of a group of tall trees were covered with yellow- +white blossoms. Others bore red blossoms. Many of the big trees, of +different kinds, were buttressed at the base with great thin walls of +wood. Others, including both palms and ordinary trees, showed an even +stranger peculiarity. The trunk, near the base, but sometimes six or +eight feet from the ground, was split into a dozen or twenty branches +or small trunks which sloped outward in tent-like shape, each becoming +a root. The larger trees of this type looked as if their trunks were +seated on the tops of the pole frames of Indian tepees. At one point +in the stream, to our great surprise, we saw a flying fish. It skimmed +the water like a swallow for over twenty yards. + +Although we made only ten kilometres we worked hard all day. The last +canoes were brought down and moored to the bank at nightfall. Our +tents were pitched in the darkness. + +Next day we made thirteen kilometres. We ran, all told, a little over +an hour and three-quarters. Seven hours were spent in getting past a +series of rapids at which the portage, over rocky and difficult +ground, was a kilometre long. The canoes were run down empty--a +hazardous run, in which one of them upset. + +Yet while we were actually on the river, paddling and floating +downstream along the reaches of swift, smooth water, it was very +lovely. When we started in the morning the day was overcast and the +air was heavy with vapor. Ahead of us the shrouded river stretched +between dim walls of forest, half seen in the mist. Then the sun +burned up the fog, and loomed through it in a red splendor that +changed first to gold and then to molten white. In the dazzling light, +under the brilliant blue of the sky, every detail of the magnificent +forest was vivid to the eye: the great trees, the network of bush +ropes, the caverns of greenery, where thick-leaved vines covered all +things else. Wherever there was a hidden boulder the surface of the +current was broken by waves. In one place, in midstream, a pyramidal +rock thrust itself six feet above the surface of the river. On the +banks we found fresh Indian sign. + +At home in Vermont Cherrie is a farmer, with a farm of six hundred +acres, most of it woodland. As we sat at the foot of the rapids, +watching for the last dugouts with their naked paddlers to swing into +sight round the bend through the white water, we talked of the +northern spring that was just beginning. He sells cream, eggs, +poultry, potatoes, honey, occasionally pork and veal; but at this +season it was the time for the maple sugar crop. He has a sugar +orchard, where he taps twelve hundred trees and hopes soon to tap as +many more in addition. Said Cherrie: "It's a busy time now for Fred +Rice"--Fred Rice is the hired man, and in sugar time the Cherrie boys +help him with enthusiasm, and, moreover, are paid with exact justice +for the work they do. There is much wild life about the farm, although +it is near Brattleboro. One night in early spring a bear left his +tracks near the sugar house; and now and then in summer Cherrie has +had to sleep in the garden to keep the deer away from the beans, +cabbages, and beets. + +There was not much bird life in the forest, but Cherrie kept getting +species new to the collection. At this camp he shot an interesting +little ant-thrush. It was the size of a warbler, jet-black, with white +under-surfaces of the wings and tail, white on the tail-feathers, and +a large spot of white on the back, normally almost concealed, the +feathers on the back being long and fluffy. When he shot the bird, a +male, it was showing off before a dull-colored little bird, doubtless +the female; and the chief feature of the display was this white spot +on the back. The white feathers were raised and displayed so that the +spot flashed like the "chrysanthemum" on a prongbuck whose curiosity +has been aroused. In the gloom of the forest the bird was hard to see, +but the flashing of this patch of white feathers revealed it at once, +attracting immediate attention. It was an excellent example of a +coloration mark which served a purely advertising purpose; apparently +it was part of a courtship display. The bird was about thirty feet up +in the branches. + +In the morning, just before leaving this camp, a tapir swam across +stream a little way above us; but unfortunately we could not get a +shot at it. An ample supply of tapir beef would have meant much to us. +We had started with fifty days' rations; but this by no means meant +full rations, in the sense of giving every man all he wanted to eat. +We had two meals a day, and were on rather short commons--both our +mess and the camaradas'--except when we got plenty of palm-tops. For +our mess we had the boxes chosen by Fiala, each containing a day's +rations for six men, our number. But we made each box last a day and a +half, or at times two days, and in addition we gave some of the food +to the camaradas. It was only on the rare occasions when we had killed +some monkeys or curassows, or caught some fish, that everybody had +enough. We would have welcomed that tapir. So far the game, fish, and +fruit had been too scarce to be an element of weight in our food +supply. In an exploring trip like ours, through a difficult and +utterly unknown country, especially if densely forested, there is +little time to halt, and game cannot be counted on. It is only in +lands like our own West thirty years ago, like South Africa in the +middle of the last century, like East Africa to-day that game can be +made the chief food supply. On this trip our only substantial food +supply from the country hitherto had been that furnished by the +palmtops. Two men were detailed every day to cut down palms for food. + +A kilometre and a half after leaving this camp we came on a stretch of +big rapids. The river here twists in loops, and we had heard the +roaring of these rapids the previous afternoon. Then we passed out of +earshot of them; but Antonio Correa, our best waterman, insisted all +along that the roaring meant rapids worse than any we had encountered +for some days. "I was brought up in the water, and I know it like a +fish, and all its sounds," said he. He was right. We had to carry the +loads nearly a kilometre that afternoon, and the canoes were pulled +out on the bank so that they might be in readiness to be dragged +overland next day. Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Correa explored +both sides of the river. On the opposite or left bank they found the +mouth of a considerable river, bigger than the Rio Kermit, flowing in +from the west and making its entrance in the middle of the rapids. +This river we christened the Taunay, in honor of a distinguished +Brazilian, an explorer, a soldier, a senator, who was also a writer of +note. Kermit had with him two of his novels, and I had read one of his +books dealing with a disastrous retreat during the Paraguayan +war. + +Next morning, the 25th, the canoes were brought down. A path was +chopped for them and rollers laid; and half-way down the rapids Lyra +and Kermit, who were overseeing the work as well as doing their share +of the pushing and hauling, got them into a canal of smooth water, +which saved much severe labor. As our food supply lowered we were +constantly more desirous of economizing the strength of the men. One +day more would complete a month since we had embarked on the Duvida as +we had started in February, the lunar and calendar months coincided. +We had used up over half our provisions. We had come only a trifle +over 160 kilometres, thanks to the character and number of the rapids. +We believed we had three or four times the distance yet to go before +coming to a part of the river where we might hope to meet assistance, +either from rubber-gatherers, or from Pyrineus, if he were really +coming up the river which we were going down. If the rapids continued +to be as they had been it could not be much more than three weeks +before we were in straits for food, aside from the ever-present danger +of accident in the rapids; and if our progress were no faster than it +had been--and we were straining to do our best--we would in such event +still have several hundreds of kilometres of unknown river before us. +We could not even hazard a guess at what was in front. The river was +now a really big river, and it seemed impossible that it could flow +either into the Gy-Parana or the Tapajos. It was possible that it went +into the Canuma, a big affluent of the Madeira low down, and next to +the Tapajos. It was more probable that it was the headwaters of the +Aripuanan, a river which, as I have said, was not even named on the +excellent English map of Brazil I carried. Nothing but the mouth had +been known to any geographer; but the lower course had long been known +to rubber-gatherers, and recently a commission from the government of +Amazonas had partway ascended one branch of it--not as far as the +rubber-gatherers had gone, and, as it turned out, not the branch we +came down. + +Two of our men were down with fever. Another man, Julio, a fellow of +powerful frame, was utterly worthless, being an inborn, lazy shirk +with the heart of a ferocious cur in the body of a bullock. The others +were good men, some of them very good indeed. They were under the +immediate supervision of Pedrinho Craveiro, who was first-class in +every way. + +This camp was very lovely. It was on the edge of a bay, into which the +river broadened immediately below the rapids. There was a beach of +white sand, where we bathed and washed our clothes. All around us, and +across the bay, and on both sides of the long water-street made by the +river, rose the splendid forest. There were flocks of parakeets +colored green, blue, and red. Big toucans called overhead, lustrous +green-black in color, with white throats, red gorgets, red-and-yellow +tail coverts, and huge black-and-yellow bills. Here the soil was +fertile; it will be a fine site for a coffee-plantation when this +region is open to settlement. Surely such a rich and fertile land +cannot be permitted to remain idle, to lie as a tenantless wilderness, +while there are such teeming swarms of human beings in the +overcrowded, over-peopled countries of the Old World. The very rapids +and waterfalls which now make the navigation of the river so difficult +and dangerous would drive electric trolleys up and down its whole +length and far out on either side, and run mills and factories, and +lighten the labor on farms. With the incoming of settlement and with +the steady growth of knowledge how to fight and control tropical +diseases, fear of danger to health would vanish. A land like this is a +hard land for the first explorers, and perhaps for their immediate +followers, but not for the people who come after them. + +In mid-afternoon we were once more in the canoes; but we had paddled +with the current only a few minutes, we had gone only a kilometre, +when the roar of rapids in front again forced us to haul up to the +bank. As usual, Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit, with Antonio Correa, +explored both sides while camp was being pitched. The rapids were +longer and of steeper descent than the last, but on the opposite or +western side there was a passage down which we thought we could get +the empty dugouts at the cost of dragging them only a few yards at one +spot. The loads were to be carried down the hither bank, for a +kilometre, to the smooth water. The river foamed between great rounded +masses of rock, and at one point there was a sheer fall of six or +eight feet. We found and ate wild pineapples. Wild beans were in +flower. At dinner we had a toucan and a couple of parrots, which were +very good. + +All next day was spent by Lyra in superintending our three best +watermen as they took the canoes down the west side of the rapids, to +the foot, at the spot to which the camp had meantime been shifted. In +the forest some of the huge sipas, or rope vines, which were as big as +cables, bore clusters of fragrant flowers. The men found several +honey-trees, and fruits of various kinds, and small cocoanuts; they +chopped down an ample number of palms, for the palm-cabbage; and, most +important of all, they gathered a quantity of big Brazil-nuts, which +when roasted tasted like the best of chestnuts and are nutritious; and +they caught a number of big piranhas, which were good eating. So we +all had a feast, and everybody had enough to eat and was happy. + +By these rapids, at the fall, Cherrie found some strange carvings on a +bare mass of rock. They were evidently made by men a long time ago. As +far as is known, the Indians thereabouts make no such figures now. +They were in two groups, one on the surface of the rock facing the +land, the other on that facing the water. The latter were nearly +obliterated. The former were in good preservation, the figures sharply +cut into the rock. They consisted, upon the upper flat part of the +rock, of four multiple circles with a dot in the middle (O), very +accurately made and about a foot and a half in diameter; and below +them, on the side of the rock, four multiple m's or inverted w's (M). +What these curious symbols represented, or who made them, we could +not, of course, form the slightest idea. It may be that in a very +remote past some Indian tribes of comparatively advanced culture had +penetrated to this lovely river, just as we had now come to it. Before +white men came to South America there had already existed therein +various semi-civilizations, some rude, others fairly advanced, which +rose, flourished, and persisted through immemorial ages, and then +vanished. The vicissitudes in the history of humanity during its stay +on this southern continent have been as strange, varied, and +inexplicable as paleontology shows to have been the case, on the same +continent, in the history of the higher forms of animal life during +the age of mammals. Colonel Rondon stated that such figures as these +are not found anywhere else in Matto Grosso where he has been, and +therefore it was all the more strange to find them in this one place +on the unknown river, never before visited by white men, which we were +descending. + +Next morning we went about three kilometers before coming to some +steep hills, beautiful to look upon, clad as they were in dense, tall, +tropical forest, but ominous of new rapids. Sure enough, at their foot +we had to haul up and prepare for a long portage. The canoes we ran +down empty. Even so, we were within an ace of losing two, the lashed +couple in which I ordinarily journeyed. In a sharp bend of the rapids, +between two big curls, they were swept among the boulders and under +the matted branches which stretched out from the bank. They filled, +and the racing current pinned them where they were, one partly on the +other. All of us had to help get them clear. Their fastenings were +chopped asunder with axes. Kermit and half a dozen of the men, +stripped to the skin, made their way to a small rock island in the +little falls just above the canoes, and let down a rope which we tied +to the outermost canoe. The rest of us, up to our armpits and barely +able to keep our footing as we slipped and stumbled among the boulders +in the swift current, lifted and shoved while Kermit and his men +pulled the rope and fastened the slack to a half-submerged tree. Each +canoe in succession was hauled up the little rock island, baled, and +then taken down in safety by two paddlers. It was nearly four o'clock +before we were again ready to start, having been delayed by a rain- +storm so heavy that we could not see across the river. Ten minutes' +run took us to the head of another series of rapids; the exploring +party returned with the news that we had an all day's job ahead of us; +and we made camp in the rain, which did not matter much, as we were +already drenched through. It was impossible, with the wet wood, to +make a fire sufficiently hot to dry all our soggy things, for the rain +was still falling. A tapir was seen from our boat, but, as at the +moment we were being whisked round in a complete circle by a +whirlpool, I did not myself see it in time to shoot. + +Next morning we went down a kilometre, and then landed on the other +side of the river. The canoes were run down, and the loads carried to +the other side of a little river coming in from the west, which +Colonel Rondon christened Cherrie River. Across this we went on a +bridge consisting of a huge tree felled by Macario, one of our best +men. Here we camped, while Rondon, Lyra, Kermit, and Antonio Correa +explored what was ahead. They were absent until mid-afternoon. Then +they returned with the news that we were among ranges of low +mountains, utterly different in formation from the high plateau region +to which the first rapids, those we had come to on the 2nd of March, +belonged. Through the first range of these mountains the river ran in +a gorge, some three kilometres long, immediately ahead of us. The +ground was so rough and steep that it would be impossible to drag the +canoes over it and difficult enough to carry the loads; and the rapids +were so bad, containing several falls, one of at least ten metres in +height, that it was doubtful how many of the canoes we could get down +them. Kermit, who was the only man with much experience of rope work, +was the only man who believed we could get the canoes down at all; and +it was, of course, possible that we should have to build new ones at +the foot to supply the place of any that were lost or left behind. In +view of the length and character of the portage, and of all the +unpleasant possibilities that were ahead, and of the need of keeping +every pound of food, it was necessary to reduce weight in every +possible way and to throw away everything except the barest +necessities. + +We thought we had reduced our baggage before; but now we cut to the +bone. We kept the fly for all six of us to sleep under. Kermit's shoes +had gone, thanks to the amount of work in the water which he had been +doing; and he took the pair I had been wearing, while I put on my +spare pair. In addition to the clothes I wore, I kept one set of +pajamas, a spare pair of drawers, a spare pair of socks, half a dozen +handkerchiefs, my wash-kit, my pocket medicine-case, and a little bag +containing my spare spectacles, gun-grease, some adhesive plaster, +some needles and thread, the "fly-dope," and my purse and letter of +credit, to be used at Manaos. All of these went into the bag +containing my cot, blanket, and mosquito-net. I also carried a +cartridge-bag containing my cartridges, head-net, and gauntlets. +Kermit cut down even closer; and the others about as close. + +The last three days of March we spent in getting to the foot of the +rapids in this gorge. Lyra and Kermit, with four of the best watermen, +handled the empty canoes. The work was not only difficult and +laborious in the extreme, but hazardous; for the walls of the gorge +were so sheer that at the worst places they had to cling to narrow +shelves on the face of the rock, while letting the canoes down with +ropes. Meanwhile Rondon surveyed and cut a trail for the burden- +bearers, and superintended the portage of the loads. The rocky sides +of the gorge were too steep for laden men to attempt to traverse them. +Accordingly the trail had to go over the top of the mountain, both the +ascent and the descent of the rock-strewn, forest-clad slopes being +very steep. It was hard work to carry loads over such a trail. From +the top of the mountain, through an opening in the trees on the edge +of a cliff, there was a beautiful view of the country ahead. All +around and in front of us there were ranges of low mountains about the +height of the lower ridges of the Alleghenies. Their sides were steep +and they were covered with the matted growth of the tropical forest. +Our next camping-place, at the foot of the gorge, was almost beneath +us, and from thence the river ran in a straight line, flecked with +white water, for about a kilometre. Then it disappeared behind and +between mountain ridges, which we supposed meant further rapids. It +was a view well worth seeing; but, beautiful although the country +ahead of us was, its character was such as to promise further +hardships, difficulty, and exhausting labor, and especially further +delay; and delay was a serious matter to men whose food supply was +beginning to run short, whose equipment was reduced to the minimum, +who for a month, with the utmost toil, had made very slow progress, +and who had no idea of either the distance or the difficulties of the +route in front of them. + +There was not much life in the woods, big or little. Small birds were +rare, although Cherrie's unwearied efforts were rewarded from time to +time by a species new to the collection. There were tracks of tapir, +deer, and agouti; and if we had taken two or three days to devote to +nothing else than hunting them we might perchance have killed +something; but the chance was much too uncertain, the work we were +doing was too hard and wearing, and the need of pressing forward +altogether too great to permit us to spend any time in such manner. +The hunting had to come in incidentally. This type of well nigh +impenetrable forest is the one in which it is most difficult to get +even what little game exists therein. A couple of curassows and a big +monkey were killed by the colonel and Kermit. On the day the monkey +was brought in Lyra, Kermit, and their four associates had spent from +sunrise to sunset in severe and at moments dangerous toil among the +rocks and in the swift water, and the fresh meat was appreciated. The +head, feet, tail, skin, and entrails were boiled for the gaunt and +ravenous dogs. The flesh gave each of us a few mouthfuls; and how good +those mouthfuls tasted! + +Cherrie, in addition to being out after birds in every spare moment, +helped in all emergencies. He was a veteran in the work of the tropic +wilderness. We talked together often, and of many things, for our +views of life, and of a man's duty to his wife and children, to other +men, and to women, and to the state in peace and war, were in all +essentials the same. His father had served all through the Civil War, +entering an Iowa cavalry regiment as a private and coming out as a +captain; his breast-bone was shattered by a blow from a musket-butt, +in hand-to-hand fighting at Shiloh. + +During this portage the weather favored us. We were coming toward the +close of the rainy season. On the last day of the month, when we moved +camp to the foot of the gorge, there was a thunder-storm; but on the +whole we were not bothered by rain until the last night, when it +rained heavily, driving under the fly so as to wet my cot and bedding. +However, I slept comfortably enough, rolled in the damp blanket. +Without the blanket I should have been uncomfortable; a blanket is a +necessity for health. On the third day Lyra and Kermit, with their +daring and hard-working watermen, after wearing labor, succeeded in +getting five canoes through the worst of the rapids to the chief fall. +The sixth, which was frail and weak, had its bottom beaten out on the +jagged rocks of the broken water. On this night, although I thought I +had put my clothes out of reach, both the termites and the +carregadores ants got at them, ate holes in one boot, ate one leg of +my drawers, and riddled my handkerchief; and I now had nothing to +replace anything that was destroyed. + +Next day Lyra, Kermit, and their camaradas brought the five canoes +that were left down to camp. They had in four days accomplished a work +of incredible labor and of the utmost importance; for at the first +glance it had seemed an absolute impossibility to avoid abandoning the +canoes when we found that the river sank into a cataract broken +torrent at the bottom of a canyon-like gorge between steep mountains. +On April 2 we once more started, wondering how soon we should strike +other rapids in the mountains ahead, and whether in any reasonable +time we should, as the aneroid indicated, be so low down that we +should necessarily be in a plain where we could make a journey of at +least a few days without rapids. We had been exactly a month going +through an uninterrupted succession of rapids. During that month we +had come only about 110 kilometres, and had descended nearly 150 +metres--the figures are approximate but fairly accurate. We had lost +four of the canoes with which we started, and one other, which we had +built, and the life of one man; and the life of a dog which by its +death had in all probability saved the life of Colonel Rondon. In a +straight line northward, toward our supposed destination, we had not +made more than a mile and a quarter a day; at the cost of bitter toil +for most of the party, of much risk for some of the party, and of some +risk and some hardship for all the party. Most of the camaradas were +downhearted, naturally enough, and occasionally asked one of us if we +really believed that we should ever get out alive; and we had to cheer +them up as best we could. + +There was no change in our work for the time being. We made but three +kilometres that day. Most of the party walked all the time; but the +dugouts carried the luggage until we struck the head of the series of +rapids which were to take up the next two or three days. The river +rushed through a wild gorge, a chasm or canyon, between two mountains. +Its sides were very steep, mere rock walls, although in most places so +covered with the luxuriant growth of the trees and bushes that clung +in the crevices, and with green moss, that the naked rock was hardly +seen. Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit, who were in front, found a small level +spot, with a beach of sand, and sent back word to camp there, while +they spent several hours in exploring the country ahead. The canoes +were run down empty, and the loads carried painfully along the face of +the cliffs; so bad was the trail that I found it rather hard to +follow, although carrying nothing but my rifle and cartridge bag. The +explorers returned with the information that the mountains stretched +ahead of us, and that there were rapids as far as they had gone. We +could only hope that the aneroid was not hopelessly out of kilter, and +that we should, therefore, fairly soon find ourselves in comparatively +level country. The severe toil, on a rather limited food supply, was +telling on the strength as well as on the spirits of the men; Lyra and +Kermit, in addition to their other work, performed as much actual +physical labor as any of them. + +Next day, the 3rd of April, we began the descent of these sinister +rapids of the chasm. Colonel Rondon had gone to the summit of the +mountain in order to find a better trail for the burden-bearers, but +it was hopeless, and they had to go along the face of the cliffs. Such +an exploring expedition as that in which we were engaged of necessity +involves hard and dangerous labor, and perils of many kinds. To follow +down-stream an unknown river, broken by innumerable cataracts and +rapids, rushing through mountains of which the existence has never +been even guessed, bears no resemblance whatever to following even a +fairly dangerous river which has been thoroughly explored and has +become in some sort a highway, so that experienced pilots can be +secured as guides, while the portages have been pioneered and trails +chopped out, and every dangerous feature of the rapids is known +beforehand. In this case no one could foretell that the river would +cleave its way through steep mountain chains, cutting narrow clefts in +which the cliff walls rose almost sheer on either hand. When a rushing +river thus "canyons," as we used to say out West, and the mountains +are very steep, it becomes almost impossible to bring the canoes down +the river itself and utterly impossible to portage them along the +cliff sides, while even to bring the loads over the mountain is a task +of extraordinary labor and difficulty. Moreover, no one can tell how +many times the task will have to be repeated, or when it will end, or +whether the food will hold out; every hour of work in the rapids is +fraught with the possibility of the gravest disaster, and yet it is +imperatively necessary to attempt it; and all this is done in an +uninhabited wilderness, or else a wilderness tenanted only by +unfriendly savages, where failure to get through means death by +disease and starvation. Wholesale disasters to South American +exploring parties have been frequent. The first recent effort to +descend one of the unknown rivers to the Amazon from the Brazilian +highlands resulted in such a disaster. It was undertaken in 1889 by a +party about as large as ours under a Brazilian engineer officer, +Colonel Telles Peres. In descending some rapids they lost everything-- +canoes, food, medicine, implements--everything. Fever smote them, and +then starvation. All of them died except one officer and two men, who +were rescued months later. Recently, in Guiana, a wilderness veteran, +Andre, lost two-thirds of his party by starvation. Genuine wilderness +exploration is as dangerous as warfare. The conquest of wild nature +demands the utmost vigor, hardihood, and daring, and takes from the +conquerors a heavy toll of life and health. + +Lyra, Kermit, and Cherrie, with four of the men, worked the canoes +half-way down the canyon. Again and again it was touch and go whether +they could get by a given point. At one spot the channel of the +furious torrent was only fifteen yards across. One canoe was lost, so +that of the seven with which we had started only two were left. +Cherrie labored with the other men at times, and also stood as guard +over them, for, while actually working, of course no one could carry a +rifle. Kermit's experience in bridge building was invaluable in +enabling him to do the rope work by which alone it was possible to get +the canoes down the canyon. He and Lyra had now been in the water for +days. Their clothes were never dry. Their shoes were rotten. The +bruises on their feet and legs had become sores. On their bodies some +of the insect bites had become festering wounds, as indeed was the +case with all of us. Poisonous ants, biting flies, ticks, wasps, bees +were a perpetual torment. However, no one had yet been bitten by a +venomous serpent, a scorpion, or a centipede, although we had killed +all of the three within camp limits. + +Under such conditions whatever is evil in men's natures comes to the +front. On this day a strange and terrible tragedy occurred. One of the +camaradas, a man of pure European blood, was the man named Julio, of +whom I have already spoken. He was a very powerful fellow and had been +importunately eager to come on the expedition; and he had the +reputation of being a good worker. But, like so many men of higher +standing, he had had no idea of what such an expedition really meant, +and under the strain of toil, hardship, and danger his nature showed +its true depths of selfishness, cowardice, and ferocity. He shirked +all work. He shammed sickness. Nothing could make him do his share; +and yet unlike his self-respecting fellows he was always shamelessly +begging for favors. Kermit was the only one of our party who smoked; +and he was continually giving a little tobacco to some of the +camaradas, who worked especially well under him. The good men did not +ask for it; but Julio, who shirked every labor, was always, and always +in vain, demanding it. Colonel Rondon, Lyra, and Kermit each tried to +get work out of him, and in order to do anything with him had to +threaten to leave him in the wilderness. He threw all his tasks on his +comrades; and, moreover, he stole their food as well as ours. On such +an expedition the theft of food comes next to murder as a crime, and +should by rights be punished as such. We could not trust him to cut +down palms or gather nuts, because he would stay out and eat what +ought to have gone into the common store. Finally, the men on several +occasions themselves detected him stealing their food. Alone of the +whole party, and thanks to the stolen food, he had kept in full flesh +and bodily vigor. + +One of our best men was a huge negro named Paixao Paishon--a corporal +and acting sergeant in the engineer corps. He had, by the way, +literally torn his trousers to pieces, so that he wore only the +tatters of a pair of old drawers until I gave him my spare trousers +when we lightened loads. He was a stern disciplinarian. One evening he +detected Julio stealing food and smashed him in the mouth. Julio came +crying to us, his face working with fear and malignant hatred; but +after investigation he was told that he had gotten off uncommonly +lightly. The men had three or four carbines, which were sometimes +carried by those who were not their owners. + +On this morning, at the outset of the portage, Pedrinho discovered +Julio stealing some of the men's dried meat. Shortly afterward Paishon +rebuked him for, as usual, lagging behind. By this time we had reached +the place where the canoes were tied to the bank and then taken down +one at a time. We were sitting down, waiting for the last loads to be +brought along the trail. Pedrinho was still in the camp we had left. +Paishon had just brought in a load, left it on the ground with his +carbine beside it, and returned on the trail for another load. Julio +came in, put down his load, picked up the carbine, and walked back on +the trail, muttering to himself but showing no excitement. We thought +nothing of it, for he was always muttering; and occasionally one of +the men saw a monkey or big bird and tried to shoot it, so it was +never surprising to see a man with a carbine. + +In a minute we heard a shot; and in a short time three or four of the +men came up the trail to tell us that Paishon was dead, having been +shot by Julio, who had fled into the woods. Colonel Rondon and Lyra +were ahead; I sent a messenger for them, directed Cherrie and Kermit +to stay where they were and guard the canoes and provisions, and +started down the trail with the doctor--an absolutely cool and plucky +man, with a revolver but no rifle--and a couple of the camaradas. We +soon passed the dead body of poor Paishon. He lay in a huddle, in a +pool of his own blood, where he had fallen, shot through the heart. I +feared that Julio had run amuck, and intended merely to take more +lives before he died, and that he would begin with Pedrinho, who was +alone and unarmed in the camp we had left. Accordingly I pushed on, +followed by my companions, looking sharply right and left; but when we +came to the camp the doctor quietly walked by me, remarking, "My eyes +are better than yours, colonel; if he is in sight I'll point him out +to you, as you have the rifle." However, he was not there, and the +others soon joined us with the welcome news that they had found the +carbine. + +The murderer had stood to one side of the path and killed his victim, +when a dozen paces off, with deliberate and malignant purpose. Then +evidently his murderous hatred had at once given way to his innate +cowardice; and, perhaps hearing some one coming along the path, he +fled in panic terror into the wilderness. A tree had knocked the +carbine from his hand. His footsteps showed that after going some rods +he had started to return, doubtless for the carbine, but had fled +again, probably because the body had then been discovered. It was +questionable whether or not he would live to reach the Indian +villages, which were probably his goal. He was not a man to feel +remorse--never a common feeling; but surely that murderer was in a +living hell, as, with fever and famine leering at him from the +shadows, he made his way through the empty desolation of the +wilderness. Franca, the cook, quoted out of the melancholy proverbial +philosophy of the people the proverb: "No man knows the heart of any +one"; and then expressed with deep conviction a weird ghostly belief I +had never encountered before: "Paishon is following Julio now, and +will follow him until he dies; Paishon fell forward on his hands and +knees, and when a murdered man falls like that his ghost will follow +the slayer as long as the slayer lives." + +We did not attempt to pursue the murderer. We could not legally put +him to death, although he was a soldier who in cold blood had just +deliberately killed a fellow soldier. If we had been near civilization +we would have done our best to bring him in and turn him over to +justice. But we were in the wilderness, and how many weeks' journey +were ahead of us we could not tell. Our food was running low, sickness +was beginning to appear among the men, and both their courage and +their strength were gradually ebbing. Our first duty was to save the +lives and the health of the men of the expedition who had honestly +been performing, and had still to perform, so much perilous labor. If +we brought the murderer in he would have to be guarded night and day +on an expedition where there were always loaded firearms about, and +where there would continually be opportunity and temptation for him to +make an effort to seize food and a weapon and escape, perhaps +murdering some other good man. He could not be shackled while climbing +along the cliff slopes; he could not be shackled in the canoes, where +there was always chance of upset and drowning; and standing guard +would be an additional and severe penalty on the weary, honest men +already exhausted by overwork. The expedition was in peril, and it was +wise to take every chance possible that would help secure success. +Whether the murderer lived or died in the wilderness was of no moment +compared with the duty of doing everything to secure the safety of the +rest of the party. For the two days following we were always on the +watch against his return, for he could have readily killed some one +else by rolling rocks down on any of the men working on the cliff +sides or in the bottom of the gorge. But we did not see him until the +morning of the third day. We had passed the last of the rapids of the +chasm, and the four boats were going down-stream when he appeared +behind some trees on the bank and called out that he wished to +surrender and be taken aboard; for the murderer was an arrant craven +at heart, a strange mixture of ferocity and cowardice. Colonel +Rondon's boat was far in advance; he did not stop nor answer. I kept +on in similar fashion with the rear boats, for I had no intention of +taking the murderer aboard, to the jeopardy of the other members of +the party, unless Colonel Rondon told me that it would have to be done +in pursuance of his duty as an officer of the army and a servant of +the Government of Brazil. At the first halt Colonel Rondon came up to +me and told me that this was his view of his duty, but that he had not +stopped because he wished first to consult me as the chief of the +expedition. I answered that for the reasons enumerated above I did not +believe that in justice to the good men of the expedition we should +jeopardize their safety by taking the murderer along, and that if the +responsibility were mine I should refuse to take him; but that he, +Colonel Rondon, was the superior officer of both the murderer and of +all the other enlisted men and army officers on the expedition, and in +return was responsible for his actions to his own governmental +superiors and to the laws of Brazil; and that in view of this +responsibility he must act as his sense of duty bade him. Accordingly, +at the next camp he sent back two men, expert woodsmen, to find the +murderer and bring him in. They failed to find him. + + NOTE: + The above account of all the circumstances connected with the murder + was read to and approved as correct by all six members of the + expedition. + +I have anticipated my narrative because I do not wish to recur to the +horror more than is necessary. I now return to my story. After we +found that Julio had fled, we returned to the scene of the tragedy. +The murdered man lay with a handkerchief thrown over his face. We +buried him beside the place where he fell. With axes and knives the +camaradas dug a shallow grave while we stood by with bared heads. Then +reverently and carefully we lifted the poor body which but half an +hour before had been so full of vigorous life. Colonel Rondon and I +bore the head and shoulders. We laid him in the grave, and heaped a +mound over him, and put a rude cross at his head. We fired a volley +for a brave and loyal soldier who had died doing his duty. Then we +left him forever, under the great trees beside the lonely river. + +That day we got only half-way down the rapids. There was no good place +to camp. But at the foot of one steep cliff there was a narrow, +boulder-covered slope where it was possible to sling hammocks and +cook; and a slanting spot was found for my cot, which had sagged until +by this time it looked like a broken-backed centipede. It rained a +little during the night, but not enough to wet us much. Next day Lyra, +Kermit, and Cherrie finished their job, and brought the four remaining +canoes to camp, one leaking badly from the battering on the rocks. We +then went down-stream a few hundred yards, and camped on the opposite +side; it was not a good camping-place, but it was better than the one +we left. + +The men were growing constantly weaker under the endless strain of +exhausting labor. Kermit was having an attack of fever, and Lyra and +Cherrie had touches of dysentery, but all three continued to work. +While in the water trying to help with an upset canoe I had by my own +clumsiness bruised my leg against a boulder; and the resulting +inflammation was somewhat bothersome. I now had a sharp attack of +fever, but thanks to the excellent care of the doctor, was over it in +about forty-eight hours; but Kermit's fever grew worse and he too was +unable to work for a day or two. We could walk over the portages, +however. A good doctor is an absolute necessity on an exploring +expedition in such a country as that we were in, under penalty of a +frightful mortality among the members; and the necessary risks and +hazards are so great, the chances of disaster so large, that there is +no warrant for increasing them by the failure to take all feasible +precautions. + +The next day we made another long portage round some rapids, and +camped at night still in the hot, wet, sunless atmosphere of the +gorge. The following day, April 6, we portaged past another set of +rapids, which proved to be the last of the rapids of the chasm. For +some kilometres we kept passing hills, and feared lest at any moment +we might again find ourselves fronting another mountain gorge; with, +in such case, further days of grinding and perilous labor ahead of us, +while our men were disheartened, weak, and sick. Most of them had +already begun to have fever. Their condition was inevitable after over +a month's uninterrupted work of the hardest kind in getting through +the long series of rapids we had just passed; and a long further +delay, accompanied by wearing labor, would have almost certainly meant +that the weakest among our party would have begun to die. There were +already two of the camaradas who were too weak to help the others, +their condition being such as to cause us serious concern. + +However, the hills gradually sank into a level plain, and the river +carried us through it at a rate that enabled us during the remainder +of the day to reel off thirty-six kilometres, a record that for the +first time held out promise. Twice tapirs swam the river while we +passed, but not near my canoe. However, the previous evening, Cherrie +had killed two monkeys and Kermit one, and we all had a few mouthfuls +of fresh meat; we had already had a good soup made out of a turtle +Kermit had caught. We had to portage by one short set of rapids, the +unloaded canoes being brought down without difficulty. At last, at +four in the afternoon, we came to the mouth of a big river running in +from the right. We thought it was probably the Ananas, but, of course, +could not be certain. It was less in volume than the one we had +descended, but nearly as broad; its breadth at this point being +ninety-five yards as against one hundred and twenty for the larger +river. There were rapids ahead, immediately after the junction, which +took place in latitude 10 degrees 58 minutes south. We had come 216 +kilometres all told, and were nearly north of where we had started. We +camped on the point of land between the two rivers. It was +extraordinary to realize that here about the eleventh degree we were +on such a big river, utterly unknown to the cartographers and not +indicated by even a hint on any map. We named this big tributary Rio +Cardozo, after a gallant officer of the commission who had died of +beriberi just as our expedition began. We spent a day at this spot, +determining our exact position by the sun, and afterward by the stars, +and sending on two men to explore the rapids in advance. They returned +with the news that there were big cataracts in them, and that they +would form an obstacle to our progress. They had also caught a huge +iluroid fish, which furnished an excellent meal for everybody in camp. +This evening at sunset the view across the broad river, from our camp +where the two rivers joined, was very lovely; and for the first time +we had an open space in front of and above us, so that after nightfall +the stars, and the great waxing moon, were glorious over-head, and +against the rocks in midstream the broken water gleamed like tossing +silver. + +The huge catfish which the men had caught was over three feet and a +half long, with the usual enormous head, out of all proportions to the +body, and the enormous mouth, out of all proportion to the head. Such +fish, although their teeth are small, swallow very large prey. This +one contained the nearly digested remains of a monkey. Probably the +monkey had been seized while drinking from the end of a branch; and +once engulfed in that yawning cavern there was no escape. We Americans +were astounded at the idea of a catfish making prey of a monkey; but +our Brazilian friends told us that in the lower Madeira and the part +of the Amazon near its mouth there is a still more gigantic catfish +which in similar fashion occasionally makes prey of man. This is a +grayish-white fish over nine feet long, with the usual +disproportionately large head and gaping mouth, with a circle of small +teeth; for the engulfing mouth itself is the danger, not the teeth. It +is called the piraiba--pronounced in four syllables. While stationed +at the small city of Itacoatiara, on the Amazon, at the mouth of the +Madeira, the doctor had seen one of these monsters which had been +killed by the two men it had attacked. They were fishing in a canoe +when it rose from the bottom--for it is a ground fish--and raising +itself half out of the water lunged over the edge of the canoe at +them, with open mouth. They killed it with their falcons, as machetes +are called in Brazil. It was taken round the city in triumph in an +oxcart; the doctor saw it, and said it was three metres long. He said +that swimmers feared it even more than the big cayman, because they +could see the latter, whereas the former lay hid at the bottom of the +water. Colonel Rondon said that in many villages where he had been on +the lower Madeira the people had built stockaded enclosures in the +water in which they bathed, not venturing to swim in the open water +for fear of the piraiba and the big cayman. + +Next day, April 8, we made five kilometres only, as there was a +succession of rapids. We had to carry the loads past two of them, but +ran the canoes without difficulty, for on the west side were long +canals of swift water through the forest. The river had been higher, +but was still very high, and the current raced round the many islands +that at this point divided the channel. At four we made camp at the +head of another stretch of rapids, over which the Canadian canoes +would have danced without shipping a teaspoonful of water, but which +our dugouts could only run empty. Cherrie killed three monkeys and +Lyra caught two big piranhas, so that we were again all of us well +provided with dinner and breakfast. When a number of men, doing hard +work, are most of the time on half-rations, they grow to take a lively +interest in any reasonably full meal that does arrive. + +On the 10th we repeated the proceedings: a short quick run; a few +hundred metres' portage, occupying, however, at least a couple of +hours; again a few minutes' run; again other rapids. We again made +less than five kilometres; in the two days we had been descending +nearly a metre for every kilometre we made in advance; and it hardly +seemed as if this state of things could last, for the aneroid showed +that we were getting very low down. How I longed for a big Maine +birch-bark, such as that in which I once went down the Mattawamkeag at +high water! It would have slipped down these rapids as a girl trips +through a country dance. But our loaded dugouts would have shoved +their noses under every curl. The country was lovely. The wide river, +now in one channel, now in several channels, wound among hills; the +shower-freshened forest glistened in the sunlight; the many kinds of +beautiful palm-fronds and the huge pacova-leaves stamped the peculiar +look of the tropics on the whole landscape--it was like passing by +water through a gigantic botanical garden. In the afternoon we got an +elderly toucan, a piranha, and a reasonably edible side-necked river- +turtle; so we had fresh meat again. We slept as usual in earshot of +rapids. We had been out six weeks, and almost all the time we had been +engaged in wearily working our own way down and past rapid after +rapid. Rapids are by far the most dangerous enemies of explorers and +travellers who journey along these rivers. + +Next day was a repetition of the same work. All the morning was spent +in getting the loads to the foot of the rapids at the head of which we +were encamped, down which the canoes were run empty. Then for thirty +or forty minutes we ran down the swift, twisting river, the two lashed +canoes almost coming to grief at one spot where a swirl of the current +threw them against some trees on a small submerged island. Then we +came to another set of rapids, carried the baggage down past them, and +made camp long after dark in the rain--a good exercise in patience for +those of us who were still suffering somewhat from fever. No one was +in really buoyant health. For some weeks we had been sharing part of +the contents of our boxes with the camaradas; but our food was not +very satisfying to them. They needed quantity and the mainstay of each +of their meals was a mass of palmitas; but on this day they had no +time to cut down palms. We finally decided to run these rapids with +the empty canoes, and they came down in safety. On such a trip it is +highly undesirable to take any save necessary risks, for the +consequences of disaster are too serious; and yet if no risks are +taken the progress is so slow that disaster comes anyhow; and it is +necessary perpetually to vary the terms of the perpetual working +compromise between rashness and over-caution. This night we had a very +good fish to eat, a big silvery fellow called a pescada, of a kind we +had not caught before. + +One day Trigueiro failed to embark with the rest of us, and we had to +camp where we were next day to find him. Easter Sunday we spent in the +fashion with which we were altogether too familiar. We only ran in a +clear course for ten minutes all told, and spent eight hours in +portaging the loads past rapids down which the canoes were run; the +balsa was almost swamped. This day we caught twenty-eight big fish, +mostly piranhas, and everybody had all he could eat for dinner, and +for breakfast the following morning. + +The forenoon of the following day was a repetition of this wearisome +work; but late in the afternoon the river began to run in long quiet +reaches. We made fifteen kilometres, and for the first time in several +weeks camped where we did not hear the rapids. The silence was +soothing and restful. The following day, April 14, we made a good run +of some thirty-two kilometres. We passed a little river which entered +on our left. We ran two or three light rapids, and portaged the loads +by another. The river ran in long and usually tranquil stretches. In +the morning when we started the view was lovely. There was a mist, and +for a couple of miles the great river, broad and quiet, ran between +the high walls of tropical forest, the tops of the giant trees showing +dim through the haze. Different members of the party caught many fish, +and shot a monkey and a couple of jacare-tinga birds kin to a turkey, +but the size of a fowl--so we again had a camp of plenty. The dry +season was approaching, but there were still heavy, drenching rains. +On this day the men found some new nuts of which they liked the taste; +but the nuts proved unwholesome and half of the men were very sick and +unable to work the following day. In the balsa only two were left fit +to do anything, and Kermit plied a paddle all day long. + +Accordingly, it was a rather sorry crew that embarked the following +morning, April 15. But it turned out a red-letter day. The day before, +we had come across cuttings, a year old, which were probably but not +certainly made by pioneer rubbermen. But on this day--during which we +made twenty-five kilometres--after running two hours and a half we +found on the left bank a board on a post, with the initials J. A., to +show the farthest up point which a rubberman had reached and claimed +as his own. An hour farther down we came on a newly built house in a +little planted clearing; and we cheered heartily. No one was at home, +but the house, of palm thatch, was clean and cool. A couple of dogs +were on watch, and the belongings showed that a man, a woman, and a +child lived there, and had only just left. Another hour brought us to +a similar house where dwelt an old black man, who showed the innate +courtesy of the Brazilian peasant. We came on these rubbermen and +their houses in about latitude 10 degrees 24 minutes. + +In mid-afternoon we stopped at another clean, cool, picturesque house +of palm thatch. The inhabitants all fled at our approach, fearing an +Indian raid; for they were absolutely unprepared to have any one come +from the unknown regions up-stream. They returned and were most +hospitable and communicative; and we spent the night there. Said +Antonio Correa to Kermit: "It seems like a dream to be in a house +again, and hear the voices of men and women, instead of being among +those mountains and rapids." The river was known to them as the +Castanho, and was the main affluent or rather the left or western +branch, of the Aripuanan; the Castanho is a name used by the rubber- +gatherers only; it is unknown to the geographers. We were, according +to our informants, about fifteen days' journey from the confluence of +the two rivers; but there were many rubbermen along the banks, some of +whom had become permanent settlers. We had come over three hundred +kilometres, in forty-eight days, over absolutely unknown ground; we +had seen no human being, although we had twice heard Indians. Six +weeks had been spent in steadily slogging our way down through the +interminable series of rapids. It was astonishing before, when we were +on a river of about the size of the upper Rhine or Elbe, to realize +that no geographer had any idea of its existence. But, after all, no +civilized man of any grade had ever been on it. Here, however, was a +river with people dwelling along the banks, some of whom had lived in +the neighborhood for eight or ten years; and yet on no standard map +was there a hint of the river's existence. We were putting on the map +a river, running through between five and six degrees of latitude--of +between seven and eight if, as should properly be done, the lower +Aripuanan is included as part of it--of which no geographer, in any +map published in Europe, or the United States, or Brazil had even +admitted the possibility of the existence; for the place actually +occupied by it was filled, on the maps, by other--imaginary--streams, +or by mountain ranges. Before we started, the Amazonas Boundary +Commission had come up the lower Aripuanan and then the eastern +branch, or upper Aripuanan, to 8 degrees 48 minutes, following the +course which for a couple of decades had been followed by the +rubbermen, but not going as high. An employee, either of this +commission or of one of the big rubbermen, had been up the Castanho, +which is easy of ascent in its lower course, to about the same +latitude, not going nearly as high as the rubbermen had gone; this we +found out while we ourselves were descending the lower Castanho. The +lower main stream, and the lower portion of its main affluent, the +Castanho, had been commercial highways for rubbermen and settlers for +nearly two decades, and, as we speedily found, were as easy to +traverse as the upper stream, which we had just come down, was +difficult to traverse; but the governmental and scientific +authorities, native and foreign, remained in complete ignorance; and +the rubbermen themselves had not the slightest idea of the headwaters, +which were in country never hitherto traversed by civilized men. +Evidently the Castanho was, in length at least, substantially equal, +and probably superior, to the upper Aripuanan; it now seemed even more +likely that the Ananas was the headwaters of the main stream than of +the Cardozo. + +For the first time this great river, the greatest affluent of the +Madiera, was to be put on the map; and the understanding of its real +position and real relationship, and the clearing up of the complex +problem of the sources of all these lower right-hand affluents of the +Madiera, was rendered possible by the seven weeks of hard and +dangerous labor we had spent in going down an absolutely unknown +river, through an absolutely unknown wilderness. At this stage of the +growth of world geography I esteemed it a great piece of good fortune +to be able to take part in such a feat--a feat which represented the +capping of the pyramid which during the previous seven years had been +built by the labor of the Brazilian Telegraphic Commission. + +We had passed the period when there was a chance of peril, of +disaster, to the whole expedition. There might be risk ahead to +individuals, and some difficulties and annoyances for all of us; but +there was no longer the least likelihood of any disaster to the +expedition as a whole. We now no longer had to face continual anxiety, +the need of constant economy with food, the duty of labor with no end +in sight, and bitter uncertainty as to the future. + +It was time to get out. The wearing work, under very unhealthy +conditions, was beginning to tell on every one. Half of the camaradas +had been down with fever and were much weakened; only a few of them +retained their original physical and moral strength. Cherrie and +Kermit had recovered; but both Kermit and Lyra still had bad sores on +their legs, from the bruises received in the water work. I was in +worse shape. 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. But "there aren't no 'stop, conductor,' while +a battery's changing ground." No man has any business to go on such a +trip as ours unless he will refuse to jeopardize the welfare of his +associates by any delay caused by a weakness or ailment of his. It is +his duty to go forward, if necessary on all fours, until he drops. +Fortunately, I was put to no such test. I remained in good shape until +we had passed the last of the rapids of the chasms. When my serious +trouble came we had only canoe-riding ahead of us. It is not ideal for +a sick man to spend the hottest hours of the day stretched on the +boxes in the bottom of a small open dugout, under the well-nigh +intolerable heat of the torrid sun of the mid-tropics, varied by +blinding, drenching downpours of rain; but I could not be sufficiently +grateful for the chance. Kermit and Cherrie took care of me as if they +had been trained nurses; and Colonel Rondon and Lyra were no less +thoughtful. + +The north was calling strongly to the three men of the north--Rocky +Dell Farm to Cherrie, Sagamore Hill to me; and to Kermit the call was +stronger still. After nightfall we could now see the Dipper well above +the horizon--upside down, with the two pointers pointing to a north +star below the world's rim; but the Dipper, with all its stars. In our +home country spring had now come, the wonderful northern spring of +long glorious days, of brooding twilights, of cool delightful nights. +Robin and bluebird, meadow-lark and song sparrow, were singing in the +mornings at home; the maple-buds were red; windflowers and bloodroot +were blooming while the last patches of snow still lingered; the +rapture of the hermithrush in Vermont, the serene golden melody of the +woodthrush on Long Island, would be heard before we were there to +listen. Each man to his home, and to his true love! Each was longing +for the homely things that were so dear to him, for the home people +who were dearer still, and for the one who was dearest of all. + + + + X. TO THE AMAZON AND HOME; ZOOLOGICAL + AND GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION + +Our adventures and our troubles were alike over. We now experienced +the incalculable contrast between descending a known and travelled +river, and one that is utterly unknown. After four days we hired a +rubberman to go with us as guide. We knew exactly what channels were +passable when we came to the rapids, when the canoes had to unload, +and where the carry-trails were. It was all child's play compared to +what we had gone through. We made long days' journeys, for at night we +stopped at some palm-thatched house, inhabited or abandoned, and +therefore the men were spared the labor of making camp; and we bought +ample food for them, so there was no further need of fishing and +chopping down palms for the palmtops. The heat of the sun was blazing; +but it looked as if we had come back into the rainy season, for there +were many heavy rains, usually in the afternoon, but sometimes in the +morning or at night. The mosquitoes were sometimes rather troublesome +at night. In the daytime the piums swarmed, and often bothered us even +when we were in midstream. + +For four days there were no rapids we could not run without unloading. +Then, on the 19th, we got a canoe from Senhor Barboso. He was a most +kind and hospitable man, who also gave us a duck and a chicken and +some mandioc and six pounds of rice, and would take no payment; he +lived in a roomy house with his dusky, cigar-smoking wife and his many +children. The new canoe was light and roomy, and we were able to rig +up a low shelter under which I could lie; I was still sick. At noon we +passed the mouth of a big river, the Rio Branco, coming in from the +left; this was about in latitude 9 degrees 38 minutes. Soon afterward +we came to the first serious rapids, the Panela. We carried the boats +past, ran down the empty canoes, and camped at the foot in a roomy +house. The doctor bought a handsome trumpeter bird, very friendly and +confiding, which was thenceforth my canoe companion. + +We had already passed many inhabited--and a still larger number of +uninhabited--houses. The dwellers were rubbermen, but generally they +were permanent settlers also, homemakers, with their wives and +children. Some, both of the men and women, were apparently of pure +negro blood, or of pure Indian or south European blood; but in the +great majority all three strains were mixed in varying degrees. They +were most friendly, courteous, and hospitable. Often they refused +payment for what they could afford, out of their little, to give us. +When they did charge, the prices were very high, as was but just, for +they live back of the beyond, and everything costs them fabulously, +save what they raise themselves. The cool, bare houses of poles and +palm thatch contained little except hammocks and a few simple cooking +utensils; and often a clock or sewing machine, or Winchester rifle, +from our own country. They often had flowers planted, including +fragrant roses. Their only live stock, except the dogs, were a few +chickens and ducks. They planted patches of mandioc, maize, sugarcane, +rice, beans, squashes, pineapples, bananas, lemons, oranges, melons, +peppers; and various purely native fruits and vegetables, such as the +kniabo--a vegetable-fruit growing on the branches of a high bush-- +which is cooked with meat. They get some game from the forest, and +more fish from the river. There is no representative of the government +among them--indeed, even now their very existence is barely known to +the governmental authorities; and the church has ignored them as +completely as the state. When they wish to get married they have to +spend several months getting down to and back from Manaos or some +smaller city; and usually the first christening and the marriage +ceremony are held at the same time. They have merely squatter's right +to the land, and are always in danger of being ousted by unscrupulous +big men who come in late, but with a title technically straight. The +land laws should be shaped so as to give each of these pioneer +settlers the land he actually takes up and cultivates, and upon which +he makes his home. The small homemaker, who owns the land which he +tills with his own hands, is the greatest element of strength in any +country. + +These are real pioneer settlers. They are the true wilderness-winners. +No continent is ever really conquered, or thoroughly explored, by a +few leaders, or exceptional men, although such men can render great +service. The real conquest, the thorough exploration and settlement, +is made by a nameless multitude of small men of whom the most +important are, of course, the home-makers. Each treads most of the +time in the footsteps of his predecessors, but for some few miles, at +some time or other, he breaks new ground; and his house is built where +no house has ever stood before. Such a man, the real pioneer, must +have no strong desire for social life and no need, probably no +knowledge, of any luxury, or of any comfort save of the most +elementary kind. The pioneer who is always longing for the comfort and +luxury of civilization, and especially of great cities, is no real +pioneer at all. These settlers whom we met were contented to live in +the wilderness. They had found the climate healthy and the soil +fruitful; a visit to a city was a very rare event, nor was there any +overwhelming desire for it. + +In short, these men, and those like them everywhere on the frontier +between civilization and savagery in Brazil, are now playing the part +played by our backwoodsmen when over a century and a quarter ago they +began the conquest of the great basin of the Mississippi; the part +played by the Boer farmers for over a century in South Africa, and by +the Canadians when less than half a century ago they began to take +possession of their Northwest. Every now and then some one says that +the "last frontier" is now to be found in Canada or Africa, and that +it has almost vanished. On a far larger scale this frontier is to be +found in Brazil--a country as big as Europe or the United States--and +decades will pass before it vanishes. The first settlers came to +Brazil a century before the first settlers came to the United States +and Canada. For three hundred years progress was very slow--Portuguese +colonial government at that time was almost as bad as Spanish. For the +last half-century and over there has been a steady increase in the +rapidity of the rate of development; and this increase bids fair to be +constantly more rapid in the future. + +The Paolistas, hunting for lands, slaves, and mines, were the first +native Brazilians who, a hundred years ago, played a great part in +opening to settlement vast stretches of wilderness. The rubber hunters +have played a similar part during the last few decades. Rubber dazzled +them, as gold and diamonds have dazzled other men and driven them +forth to wander through the wide waste spaces of the world. Searching +for rubber they made highways of rivers the very existence of which +was unknown to the governmental authorities, or to any map-makers. +Whether they succeeded or failed, they everywhere left behind them +settlers, who toiled, married, and brought up children. Settlement +began; the conquest of the wilderness entered on its first stage. + +On the 20th we stopped at the first store, where we bought, of course +at a high price, sugar and tobacco for the camaradas. In this land of +plenty the camaradas over-ate, and sickness was as rife among them as +ever. In Cherrie's boat he himself and the steersman were the only men +who paddled strongly and continuously. The storekeeper's stock of +goods was very low, only what he still had left from that brought in +nearly a year before; for the big boats, or batelaos-batelons--had not +yet worked as far up-stream. We expected to meet them somewhere below +the next rapids, the Inferno. The trader or rubberman brings up his +year's supply of goods in a batelao, starting in February and reaching +the upper course of the river early in May, when the rainy season is +over. The parties of rubber-explorers are then equipped and +provisioned; and the settlers purchase certain necessities, and +certain things that strike them as luxuries. This year the Brazil-nut +crop on the river had failed, a serious thing for all explorers and +wilderness wanderers. + +On the 20th we made the longest run we had made, fifty-two kilometres. +Lyra took observations where we camped; we were in latitude 8 degrees +49 minutes. At this camping-place the great, beautiful river was a +little over three hundred metres wide. We were in an empty house. The +marks showed that in the high water, a couple of months back, the +river had risen until the lower part of the house was flooded. The +difference between the level of the river during the floods and in the +dry season is extraordinary. + +On the 21st we made another good run, getting down to the Inferno +rapids, which are in latitude 8 degrees 19 minutes south. Until we +reached the Cardozo we had run almost due north; since then we had +been running a little west of north. Before we reached these rapids we +stopped at a large, pleasant thatch house, and got a fairly big and +roomy as well as light boat, leaving both our two smaller dugouts +behind. Above the rapids a small river, the Madeirainha, entered from +the left. The rapids had a fall of over ten metres, and the water was +very wild and rough. Met with for the first time, it would doubtless +have taken several days to explore a passage and, with danger and +labor, get the boats down. But we were no longer exploring, +pioneering, over unknown country. It is easy to go where other men +have prepared the way. We had a guide; we took our baggage down by a +carry three-quarters of a kilometre long; and the canoes were run +through known channels the following morning. At the foot of the +rapids was a big house and store; and camped at the head were a number +of rubber-workers, waiting for the big boats of the head rubbermen to +work their way up from below. They were a reckless set of brown +daredevils. These men lead hard lives of labor and peril; they +continually face death themselves, and they think little of it in +connection with others. It is small wonder that they sometimes have +difficulties with the tribes of utterly wild Indians with whom they +are brought in contact, although there is a strong Indian strain in +their own blood. + +The following morning, after the empty canoes had been run down, we +started, and made a rather short afternoon's journey. We had to take +the baggage by one rapids. We camped in an empty house, in the rain. +Next day we ran nearly fifty kilometres, the river making a long sweep +to the west. We met half a dozen batelaos making their way up-stream, +each with a crew of six or eight men; and two of them with women and +children in addition. The crew were using very long poles, with +crooks, or rather the stubs of cut branches which served as crooks, at +the upper end. With these they hooked into the branches and dragged +themselves up along the bank, in addition to poling where the depth +permitted it. The river was as big as the Paraguay at Corumba; but, in +striking contrast to the Paraguay, there were few water-birds. We ran +some rather stiff rapids, the Infernino, without unloading, in the +morning. In the evening we landed for the night at a large, open, +shed-like house, where there were two or three pigs, the first live +stock we had seen other than poultry and ducks. It was a dirty place, +but we got some eggs. + +The following day, the 24th, we ran down some fifty kilometres to the +Carupanan rapids, which by observation Lyra found to be in latitude 7 +degrees 47 minutes. We met several batelaos, and the houses on the +bank showed that the settlers were somewhat better off than was the +case farther up. At the rapids was a big store, the property of Senhor +Caripe, the wealthiest rubberman who works on this river; many of the +men we met were in his employ. He has himself risen from the ranks. He +was most kind and hospitable, and gave us another boat to replace the +last of our shovel-nosed dugouts. The large, open house was cool, +clean, and comfortable. + +With these began a series of half a dozen sets of rapids, all coming +within the next dozen kilometres, and all offering very real +obstacles. At one we saw the graves of four men who had perished +therein; and many more had died whose bodies were never recovered; the +toll of human life had been heavy. Had we been still on an unknown +river, pioneering our own way, it would doubtless have taken us at +least a fortnight of labor and peril to pass. But it actually took +only a day and a half. All the channels were known, all the trails +cut. Senhor Caripe, a first-class waterman, cool, fearless, and brawny +as a bull, came with us as guide. Half a dozen times the loads were +taken out and carried down. At one cataract the canoes were themselves +dragged overland; elsewhere they were run down empty, shipping a good +deal of water. At the foot of the cataract, where we dragged the +canoes overland, we camped for the night. Here Kermit shot a big +cayman. Our camp was alongside the graves of three men who at this +point had perished in the swift water. + +Senhor Caripe told us many strange adventures of rubber-workers he had +met or employed. One of his men, working on the Gy-Parana, got lost +and after twenty-eight days found himself on the Madeirainha, which he +thus discovered. He was in excellent health, for he had means to start +a fire, and he found abundance of Brazil-nuts and big land-tortoises. +Senhor Caripe said that the rubbermen now did not go above the ninth +degree, or thereabouts, on the upper Aripuanan proper, having found +the rubber poor on the reaches above. A year previously five +rubbermen, Mundurucu Indians, were working on the Corumba at about +that level. It is a difficult stream to ascend or descend. They made +excursions into the forest for days at a time after caoutchouc. On one +such trip, after fifteen days they, to their surprise, came out on the +Aripuanan. They returned and told their "patron" of their discovery; +and by his orders took their caoutchouc overland to the Aripuanan, +built a canoe, and ran down with their caoutchouc to Manaos. They had +now returned and were working on the upper Aripuanan. The Mundurucus +and Brazilians are always on the best terms, and the former are even +more inveterate enemies of the wild Indians than are the latter. + +By mid-forenoon on April 26 we had passed the last dangerous rapids. +The paddles were plied with hearty good will, Cherrie and Kermit, as +usual, working like the camaradas, and the canoes went dancing down +the broad, rapid river. The equatorial forest crowded on either hand +to the water's edge; and, although the river was falling, it was still +so high that in many places little islands were completely submerged, +and the current raced among the trunks of the green trees. At one +o'clock we came to the mouth of the Castanho proper, and in sight of +the tent of Lieutenant Pyrineus, with the flags of the United States +and Brazil flying before it; and, with rifles firing from the canoes +and the shore, we moored at the landing of the neat, soldierly, well +kept camp. The upper Aripuanan, a river of substantially the same +volume as the Castanho, but broader at this point, and probably of +less length, here joined the Castanho from the east, and the two +together formed what the rubbermen called the lower Aripuanan. The +mouth of this was indicated, and sometimes named, on the maps, but +only as a small and unimportant stream. + +We had been two months in the canoes; from the 27th of February to the +26th of April. We had gone over 750 kilometres. The river from its +source, near the thirteenth degree, to where it became navigable and +we entered it, had a course of some 200 kilometres--probably more, +perhaps 300 kilometres. Therefore we had now put on the map a river +nearly 1,000 kilometres in length of which the existence was not +merely unknown but impossible if the standard maps were correct. But +this was not all. It seemed that this river of 1,000 kilometres in +length was really the true upper course of the Aripuanan proper, in +which case the total length was nearly 1,500 kilometres. Pyrineus had +been waiting for us over a month, at the junction of what the +rubbermen called the Castanho and of what they called the upper +Aripuanan. (He had no idea as to which stream we would appear upon, or +whether we would appear upon either.) On March 26 he had measured the +volume of the two, and found that the Castanho, although the narrower, +was the deeper and swifter, and that in volume it surpassed the other +by 84 cubic metres a second. Since then the Castanho had fallen; our +measurements showed it to be slightly smaller than the other; the +volume of the river after the junction was about 4,500 cubic metres a +second. This was in 7 degrees 34 minutes. + +We were glad indeed to see Pyrineus and be at his attractive camp. We +were only four hours above the little river hamlet of Sao Joao, a port +of call for rubber-steamers, from which the larger ones go to Manaos +in two days. These steamers mostly belong to Senhor Caripe. From +Pyrineus we learned that Lauriado and Fiala had reached Manaos on +March 26. On the swift water in the gorge of the Papagaio Fiala's boat +had been upset and all his belongings lost, while he himself had +narrowly escaped with his life. I was glad indeed that the fine and +gallant fellow had escaped. The Canadian canoe had done very well. We +were no less rejoiced to learn that Amilcar, the head of the party +that went down the Gy-Parana, was also all right, although his canoe +too had been upset in the rapids, and his instruments and all his +notes lost. He had reached Manaos on April 10. Fiala had gone home. +Miller was collecting near Manaos. He had been doing capital work. + +The piranhas were bad here, and no one could bathe. Cherrie, while +standing in the water close to the shore, was attacked and bitten; but +with one bound he was on the bank before any damage could be done. + +We spent a last night under canvas, at Pyrineus' encampment. It rained +heavily. Next morning we all gathered at the monument which Colonel +Rondon had erected, and he read the orders of the day. These recited +just what had been accomplished: set forth the fact that we had now by +actual exploration and investigation discovered that the river whose +upper portion had been called the Duvida on the maps of the +Telegraphic Commission and the unknown major part of which we had just +traversed, and the river known to a few rubbermen, but to no one else, +as the Castanho, and the lower part of the river known to the +rubbermen as the Aripuanan (which did not appear on the maps save as +its mouth was sometimes indicated, with no hint of its size) were all +parts of one and the same river; and that by order of the Brazilian +Government this river, the largest affluent of the Madeira, with its +source near the 13th degree and its mouth a little south of the 5th +degree, hitherto utterly unknown to cartographers and in large part +utterly unknown to any save the local tribes of Indians, had been +named the Rio Roosevelt. + +We left Rondon, Lyra, and Pyrineus to take observations, and the rest +of us embarked for the last time on the canoes, and, borne swiftly on +the rapid current, we passed over one set of not very important rapids +and ran down to Senhor Caripe's little hamlet of Sao Joao, which we +reached about one o'clock on April 27, just before a heavy afternoon +rain set in. We had run nearly eight hundred kilometres during the +sixty days we had spent in the canoes. Here we found and boarded +Pyrineus's river steamer, which seemed in our eyes extremely +comfortable. In the senhor's pleasant house we were greeted by the +senhora, and they were both more than thoughtful and generous in their +hospitality. Ahead of us lay merely thirty-six hours by steamer to +Manaos. Such a trip as that we had taken tries men as if by fire. +Cherrie had more than stood every test; and in him Kermit and I had +come to recognize a friend with whom our friendship would never falter +or grow less. + +Early the following afternoon our whole party, together with Senhor +Caripe, started on the steamer. It took us a little over twelve hours' +swift steaming to run down to the mouth of the river on the upper +course of which our progress had been so slow and painful; from source +to mouth, according to our itinerary and to Lyra's calculations, the +course of the stream down which we had thus come was about 1,500 +kilometres in length--about 900 miles, perhaps nearly 1,000 miles-- +from its source near the 13th degree in the highlands to its mouth in +the Madeira, near the 5th degree. Next morning we were on the broad +sluggish current of the lower Madeira, a beautiful tropical river. +There were heavy rainstorms, as usual, although this is supposed to be +the very end of the rainy season. In the afternoon we finally entered +the wonderful Amazon itself, the mighty river which contains one tenth +of all the running water of the globe. It was miles across, where we +entered it; and indeed we could not tell whether the farther bank, +which we saw, was that of the mainland or an island. We went up it +until about midnight, then steamed up the Rio Negro for a short +distance, and at one in the morning of April 30 reached Manaos. + +Manaos is a remarkable city. It is only three degrees south of the +equator. Sixty years ago it was a nameless little collection of +hovels, tenanted by a few Indians and a few of the poorest class of +Brazilian peasants. Now it is a big, handsome modern city, with Opera +house, tramways, good hotels, fine squares and public buildings, and +attractive private houses. The brilliant coloring and odd architecture +give the place a very foreign and attractive flavor in northern eyes. +Its rapid growth to prosperity was due to the rubber trade. This is +now far less remunerative than formerly. It will undoubtedly in some +degree recover; and in any event the development of the immensely rich +and fertile Amazonian valley is sure to go on, and it will be +immensely quickened when closer connections are made with the +Brazilian highland country lying south of it. + +Here we found Miller, and glad indeed we were to see him. He had made +good collections of mammals and birds on the Gy-Parana, the Madeira, +and in the neighborhood of Manaos; his entire collection of mammals +was really noteworthy. Among them was the only sloth any of us had +seen on the trip. The most interesting of the birds he had seen was +the hoatzin. This is a most curious bird of very archaic type. Its +flight is feeble, and the naked young have spurs on their wings, by +the help of which they crawl actively among the branches before their +feathers grow. They swim no less easily, at the same early age. Miller +got one or two nests, and preserved specimens of the surroundings of +the nests; and he made exhaustive records of the habits of the birds. +Near Megasso a jaguar had killed one of the bullocks that were being +driven along for food. The big cat had not seized the ox with its +claws by the head, but had torn open its throat and neck. + +Every one was most courteous at Manaos, especially the governor of the +state and the mayor of the city. Mr. Robiliard, the British consular +representative, and also the representative of the Booth line of +steamers, was particularly kind. He secured for us passages on one of +the cargo boats of the line to Para, and thence on one of the regular +cargo-and-passenger steamers to Barbados and New York. The Booth +people were most courteous to us. + +I said good-by to the camaradas with real friendship and regret. The +parting gift I gave to each was in gold sovereigns; and I was rather +touched to learn later that they had agreed among themselves each to +keep one sovereign as a medal of honor and token that the owner had +been on the trip. They were a fine set, brave, patient, obedient, and +enduring. Now they had forgotten their hard times; they were fat from +eating, at leisure, all they wished; they were to see Rio Janeiro, +always an object of ambition with men of their stamp; and they were +very proud of their membership in the expedition. + +Later, at Belen, I said good-by to Colonel Rondon, Doctor Cajazeira, +and Lieutenant Lyra. Together with my admiration for their hardihood, +courage, and resolution, I had grown to feel a strong and affectionate +friendship for them. I had become very fond of them; and I was glad to +feel that I had been their companion in the performance of a feat +which possessed a certain lasting importance. + +On May 1 we left Manaos for Belen-Para, as until recently it was +called. The trip was interesting. We steamed down through tempest and +sunshine; and the towering forest was dwarfed by the giant river it +fringed. Sunrise and sunset turned the sky to an unearthly flame of +many colors above the vast water. It all seemed the embodiment of +loneliness and wild majesty. Yet everywhere man was conquering the +loneliness and wresting the majesty to his own uses. We passed many +thriving, growing towns; at one we stopped to take on cargo. +Everywhere there was growth and development. The change since the days +when Bates and Wallace came to this then poor and utterly primitive +region is marvellous. One of its accompaniments has been a large +European, chiefly south European, immigration. The blood is everywhere +mixed; there is no color line, as in most English-speaking countries, +and the negro and Indian strains are very strong; but the dominant +blood, the blood already dominant in quantity, and that is steadily +increasing its dominance, is the olive-white. + +Only rarely did the river show its full width. Generally we were in +channels or among islands. The surface of the water was dotted with +little islands of floating vegetation. Miller said that much of this +came from the lagoons such as those where he had been hunting, beside +the Solimoens--lagoons filled with the huge and splendid Victoria +lily, and with masses of water hyacinths. Miller, who was very fond of +animals and always took much care of them, had a small collection +which he was bringing back for the Bronx Zoo. An agouti was so bad- +tempered that he had to be kept solitary; but three monkeys, big, +middle-sized, and little, and a young peccary formed a happy family. +The largest monkey cried, shedding real tears, when taken in the arms +and pitied. The middle-sized monkey was stupid and kindly, and all the +rest of the company imposed on it; the little monkey invariably rode +on its back, and the peccary used it as a head pillow when it felt +sleepy. + +Belen, the capital of the state of Para, was an admirable illustration +of the genuine and almost startling progress which Brazil has been +making of recent years. It is a beautiful city, nearly under the +equator. But it is not merely beautiful. The docks, the dredging +operations, the warehouses, the stores and shops, all tell of energy +and success in commercial life. It is as clean, healthy, and well +policed a city as any of the size in the north temperate zone. The +public buildings are handsome, the private dwellings attractive; there +are a fine opera-house, an excellent tramway system, and a good museum +and botanical gardens. There are cavalry stables, where lights burn +all night long to protect the horses from the vampire bats. The parks, +the rows of palms and mango-trees, the open-air restaurants, the gay +life under the lights at night, all give the city its own special +quality and charm. Belen and Manaos are very striking examples of what +can be done in the mid-tropics. The governor of Para and his charming +wife were more than kind. + +Cherrie and Miller spent the day at the really capital zoological +gardens, with the curator, Miss Snethlage. Miss Snethlage, a German +lady, is a first rate field and closet naturalist, and an explorer of +note, who has gone on foot from the Xingu to the Tapajos. Most wisely +she has confined the Belen zoo to the animals of the lower Amazon +valley, and in consequence I know of no better local zoological +gardens. She has an invaluable collection of birds and mammals of the +region; and it was a privilege to meet her and talk with her. + +We also met Professor Farrabee, of the University of Pennsylvania, the +ethnologist. He had just finished a very difficult and important trip, +from Manaos by the Rio Branco to the highlands of Guiana, across them +on foot, and down to the seacoast of British Guiana. He is an +admirable representative of the men who are now opening South America +to scientific knowledge. + +On May 7 we bade good-by to our kind Brazilian friends and sailed +northward for Barbados and New York. + +Zoologically the trip had been a thorough success. Cherrie and Miller +had collected over twenty-five hundred birds, about five hundred +mammals, and a few reptiles, batrachians, and fishes. Many of them +were new to science; for much of the region traversed had never +previously been worked by any scientific collector. + +Of course, the most important work we did was the geographic work, the +exploration of the unknown river, undertaken at the suggestion of the +Brazilian Government, and in conjunction with its representatives. No +piece of work of this kind is ever achieved save as it is based on +long continued previous work. As I have before said, what we did was +to put the cap on the pyramid that had been built by Colonel Rondon +and his associates of the Telegraphic Commission during the six +previous years. It was their scientific exploration of the chapadao, +their mapping the basin of the Juruena, and their descent of the Gy- +Parana that rendered it possible for us to solve the mystery of the +River of Doubt. + +The work of the commission, much the greatest work of the kind ever +done in South America, is one of the many, many achievements which the +republican government of Brazil has to its credit. Brazil has been +blessed beyond the average of her Spanish-American sisters because she +won her way to republicanism by evolution rather than revolution. They +plunged into the extremely difficult experiment of democratic, of +popular, self-government, after enduring the atrophy of every quality +of self-control, self-reliance, and initiative throughout three +withering centuries of existence under the worst and most foolish form +of colonial government, both from the civil and the religious +standpoint, that has ever existed. The marvel is not that some of them +failed, but that some of them have eventually succeeded in such +striking fashion. Brazil, on the contrary, when she achieved +independence, first exercised it under the form of an authoritative +empire, then under the form of a liberal empire. When the republic +came, the people were reasonably ripe for it. The great progress of +Brazil--and it has been an astonishing progress--has been made under +the republic. I could give innumerable examples and illustrations of +this. The change that has converted Rio Janeiro from a picturesque +pest-hole into a singularly beautiful, healthy, clean, and efficient +modern great city is one of these. Another is the work of the +Telegraphic Commission. + +We put upon the map a river some fifteen hundred kilometres in length, +of which the upper course was not merely utterly unknown to, but +unguessed at by, anybody; while the lower course, although known for +years to a few rubbermen, was utterly unknown to cartographers. It is +the chief affluent of the Madeira, which is itself the chief affluent +of the Amazon. + +The source of this river is between the 12th and 13th parallels of +latitude south and the 59th and 60th degrees of longitude west from +Greenwich. We embarked on it at about latitude 12 degrees 1 minute +south, and about longitude 60 degrees 15 minutes west. After that its +entire course lay between the 60th and 61st degrees of longitude, +approaching the latter most closely about latitude 8 degrees 15 +minutes. The first rapids we encountered were in latitude 11 degrees +44 minutes, and in uninterrupted succession they continued for about a +degree, without a day's complete journey between any two of them. At +11 degrees 23 minutes the Rio Kermit entered from the left, at 11 +degrees 22 minutes the Rio Marciano Avila from the right, at 11 +degrees 18 minutes the Taunay from the left, at 10 degrees 58 minutes +the Cardozo from the right. In 10 degrees 24 minutes we encountered +the first rubbermen. The Rio Branco entered from the left at 9 degrees +38 minutes. Our camp at 8 degrees 49 minutes was nearly on the +boundary between Matto Grosso and Amazonas. The confluence with the +Aripuanan, which joined from the right, took place at 7 degrees 34 +minutes. The entrance into the Madeira was at about 5 degrees 20 +minutes (this point we did not determine by observation, as it is +already on the maps). The stream we had followed down was from the +river's highest sources; we had followed its longest course. + + + + APPENDIX A. + + The Work of the Field Zoologist + and Field Geographer in South America + +Portions of South America are now entering on a career of great social +and industrial development. Much remains to be known, so far as the +outside world is concerned, of the social and industrial condition in +the long-settled interior regions. More remains to be done, in the way +of pioneer exploring and of scientific work, in the great stretches of +virgin wilderness. The only two other continents where such work, of +like volume and value, remains to be done are Africa and Asia; and +neither Africa nor Asia offers a more inviting field for the best kind +of field worker in geographical exploration and in zoological, +geological, and paleontological investigation. The explorer is merely +the most adventurous kind of field geographer; and there are two or +three points worth keeping in mind in dealing with the South American +work of the field geographer and field zoologist. + +Roughly, the travellers who now visit (like those who for the past +century have visited) South America come in three categories-- +although, of course, these categories are not divided by hard-and-fast +lines. + +First, there are the travellers who skirt the continent in comfortable +steamers, going from one great seaport to another, and occasionally +taking a short railway journey to some big interior city not too far +from the coast. This is a trip well worth taking by all intelligent +men and women who can afford it; and it is being taken by such men and +women with increasing frequency. It entails no more difficulty than a +similar trip to the Mediterranean--than such a trip which to a learned +and broad-minded observer offers the same chance for acquiring +knowledge and, if he is himself gifted with wisdom, the same chance of +imparting his knowledge to others that is offered by a trip of similar +length through the larger cities of Europe or the United States. +Probably the best instance of the excellent use to which such an +observer can put his experience is afforded by the volume of Mr. +Bryce. Of course, such a trip represents travelling of essentially the +same kind as travelling by railroad from Atlanta to Calgary or from +Madrid to Moscow. + +Next there are the travellers who visit the long-settled districts and +colonial cities of the interior, travelling over land or river +highways which have been traversed for centuries but which are still +primitive as regards the inns and the modes of conveyance. Such +travelling is difficult in the sense that travelling in parts of Spain +or southern Italy or the Balkan states is difficult. Men and women who +have a taste for travel in out-of-way places and who, therefore, do +not mind slight discomforts and inconveniences have the chance +themselves to enjoy, and to make others profit by, travels of this +kind in South America. In economic, social, and political matters the +studies and observations of these travellers are essential in order to +supplement, and sometimes to correct, those of travellers of the first +category; for it is not safe to generalize overmuch about any country +merely from a visit to its capital or its chief seaport. These +travellers of the second category can give us most interesting and +valuable information about quaint little belated cities; about +backward country folk, kindly or the reverse, who show a mixture of +the ideas of savagery with the ideas of an ancient peasantry; and +about rough old highways of travel which in comfort do not differ much +from those of mediaeval Europe. The travellers who go up or down the +highway rivers that have been travelled for from one to four hundred +years--rivers like the Paraguay and Parana, the Amazon, the Tapajos, +the Madeira, the lower Orinoco--come in this category. They can add +little to our geographical knowledge; but if they are competent +zoologists or archaeologists, especially if they live or sojourn +long in a locality, their work may be invaluable from the scientific +standpoint. The work of the archaeologists among the immeasurably +ancient ruins of the low-land forests and the Andean plateaux is of +this kind. What Agassiz did for the fishes of the Amazon and what +Hudson did for the birds of the Argentine are other instances of the +work that can thus be done. Burton's writings on the interior of +Brazil offer an excellent instance of the value of a sojourn or trip +of this type, even without any especial scientific object. + +Of course travellers of this kind need to remember that their +experiences in themselves do not qualify them to speak as wilderness +explorers. Exactly as a good archaeologist may not be competent to +speak of current social or political problems, so a man who has done +capital work as a tourist observer in little-visited cities and along +remote highways must beware of regarding himself as being thereby +rendered fit for genuine wilderness work or competent to pass judgment +on the men who do such work. To cross the Andes on mule-back along the +regular routes is a feat comparable to the feats of the energetic +tourists who by thousands traverse the mule trails in out-of-the-way +nooks of Switzerland. An ordinary trip on the highway portions of the +Amazon, Paraguay, or Orinoco in itself no more qualifies a man to +speak of or to take part in exploring unknown South American rivers +than a trip on the lower Saint Lawrence qualifies a man to regard +himself as an expert in a canoe voyage across Labrador or the Barren +Grounds west of Hudson Bay. + +A hundred years ago, even seventy or eighty years ago, before the age +of steamboats and railroads, it was more difficult than at present to +define the limits between this class and the next; and, moreover, in +defining these limits I emphatically disclaim any intention of thereby +attempting to establish a single standard of value for books of +travel. Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle" is to me the best book of the +kind ever written; it is one of those classics which decline to go +into artificial categories, and which stand by themselves; and yet +Darwin, with his usual modesty, spoke of it as in effect a yachting +voyage. Humboldt's work had a profound effect on the thought of the +civilized world; his trip was one of adventure and danger; and yet it +can hardly be called exploration proper. He visited places which had +been settled and inhabited for centuries and traversed places which +had been travelled by civilized men for years before he followed in +their footsteps. But these places were in Spanish colonies, and access +to them had been forbidden by the mischievous and intolerant tyranny-- +ecclesiastical, political, and economic--which then rendered Spain the +most backward of European nations; and Humboldt was the first +scientific man of intellectual independence who had permission to +visit them. To this day many of his scientific observations are of +real value. Bates came to the Amazon just before the era of Amazonian +steamboats. He never went off the native routes of ordinary travel. +But he was a devoted and able naturalist. He lived an exceedingly +isolated, primitive, and laborious life for eleven years. Now, half a +century after it was written, his "Naturalist on the Amazon" is as +interesting and valuable as it ever was, and no book since written has +in any way supplanted it. + +Travel of the third category includes the work of the true wilderness +explorers who add to our sum of geographical knowledge and of the +scientific men who, following their several bents, also work in the +untrodden wilds. Colonel Rondon and his associates have done much in +the geographical exploration of unknown country, and Cherrie and +Miller have penetrated and lived for months and years in the wastes, +on their own resources, as incidents to their mammalogical and +ornithological work. Professor Farrabee, the anthropologist, is a +capital example of the man who does this hard and valuable type of +work. + +An immense amount of this true wilderness work, geographical and +zoological, remains to be done in South America. It can be +accomplished with reasonable thoroughness only by the efforts of very +many different workers, each in his own special field. It is desirable +that here and there a part of the work should be done in outline by +such a geographic and zoological reconnaissance as ours; we would, for +example, be very grateful for such work in portions of the interior of +the Guianas, on the headwaters of the Xingu, and here and there along +the eastern base of the Andes. + +But as a rule the work must be specialized; and in its final shape it +must be specialized everywhere. The first geographical explorers of +the untrodden wilderness, the first wanderers who penetrate the wastes +where they are confronted with starvation, disease, and danger and +death in every from, cannot take with them the elaborate equipment +necessary in order to do the thorough scientific work demanded by +modern scientific requirements. This is true even of exploration done +along the courses of unknown rivers; it is more true of the +exploration, which must in South America become increasingly +necessary, done across country, away from the rivers. + +The scientific work proper of these early explorers must be of a +somewhat preliminary nature; in other words the most difficult and +therefore ordinarily the most important pieces of first-hand exploration +are precisely those where the scientific work of the accompanying +cartographer, geologist, botanist, and zoologist must be furthest +removed from finality. The zoologist who works to most advantage in +the wilderness must take his time, and therefore he must normally +follow in the footsteps of, and not accompany, the first explorers. +The man who wishes to do the best scientific work in the wilderness +must not try to combine incompatible types of work nor to cover too +much ground in too short a time. + +There is no better example of the kind of zoologist who does first- +class field-work in the wilderness than John D. Haseman, who spent +from 1907 to 1910 in painstaking and thorough scientific investigation +over a large extent of South American territory hitherto only +partially known or quite unexplored. Haseman's primary object was to +study the characteristics and distribution of South American fishes, +but as a matter of fact he studied at first hand many other more or +less kindred subjects, as may be seen in his remarks on the Indians +and in his excellent pamphlet on "Some Factors of Geographical +Distribution in South America." + +Haseman made his long journey with a very slender equipment, his +extraordinarily successful field-work being due to his bodily health +and vigor and his resourcefulness, self-reliance, and resolution. His +writings are rendered valuable by his accuracy and common sense. The +need of the former of these two attributes will be appreciated by +whoever has studied the really scandalous fictions which have been +published as genuine by some modern "explorers" and adventurers in +South America; and the need of the latter by whoever has studied +some of the wild theories propounded in the name of science concerning +the history of life on the South American continent. There is, +however, one serious criticism to be made on Haseman: the extreme +obscurity of his style--an obscurity mixed with occasional bits of +scientific pedantry, which makes it difficult to tell whether or not +on some points his thought is obscure also. Modern scientists, like +modern historians and, above all, scientific and historical educators, +should ever keep in mind that clearness of speech and writing is +essential to clearness of thought and that a simple, clear, and, if +possible, vivid style is vital to the production of the best work in +either science or history. Darwin and Huxley are classics, and they +would not have been if they had not written good English. The thought +is essential, but ability to give it clear expression is only less +essential. Ability to write well, if the writer has nothing to write +about, entitles him to mere derision. But the greatest thought is +robbed of an immense proportion of its value if expressed in a mean or +obscure manner. Mr. Haseman has such excellent thought that it is a +pity to make it a work of irritating labor to find out just what the +thought is. Surely, if he will take as much pains with his writing as +he has with the far more difficult business of exploring and +collecting, he will become able to express his thought clearly and +forcefully. At least he can, if he chooses, go over his sentences +until he is reasonably sure that they can be parsed. He can take pains +to see that his whole thought is expressed, instead of leaving +vacancies which must be filled by the puzzled and groping reader. His +own views and his quotations from the views of others about the static +and dynamic theories of distribution are examples of an important +principle so imperfectly expressed as to make us doubtful whether it +is perfectly apprehended by the writer. He can avoid the use of those +pedantic terms which are really nothing but offensive and, +fortunately, ephemeral scientific slang. There has been, for instance, +a recent vogue for the extensive misuse, usually tautological misuse, +of the word "complexus"--an excellent word if used rarely and for +definite purposes. Mr. Haseman drags it in continually when its use is +either pointless and redundant or else serves purely to darken wisdom. +He speaks of the "Antillean complex" when he means the Antilles, of +the "organic complex" instead of the characteristic or bodily +characteristics of an animal or species, and of the "environmental +complex" when he means nothing whatever but the environment. In short, +Mr. Haseman and those whose bad example he in this instance follows +use "complexus" in much the same spirit as that displayed by the +famous old lady who derived religious--instead of scientific-- +consolation from the use of "the blessed word Mesopotamia." + +The reason that it is worth while to enter this protest against Mr. +Haseman's style is because his work is of such real and marked value. +The pamphlet on the distribution of South American species shows that +to exceptional ability as a field worker he adds a rare power to draw, +with both caution and originality, the necessary general conclusions +from the results of his own observations and from the recorded studies +of other men; and there is nothing more needed at the present moment +among our scientific men than the development of a school of men who, +while industrious and minute observers and collectors and cautious +generalizers, yet do not permit the faculty of wise generalization to +be atrophied by excessive devotion to labyrinthine detail. + +Haseman upholds with strong reasoning the theory that since the +appearance of all but the lowest forms of life on this globe there +have always been three great continental masses, sometimes solid +sometimes broken, extending southward from the northern hemisphere, +and from time to time connected in the north, but not in the middle +regions or the south since the carboniferous epoch. He holds that life +has been intermittently distributed southward along these continental +masses when there were no breaks in their southward connection, and +intermittently exchanged between them when they were connected in the +north; and he also upholds the view that from a common ancestral form +the same species has been often developed in entirely disconnected +localities when in these localities the conditions of environment were +the same. + +The opposite view is that there have been frequent connections between +the great land masses, alike in the tropics, in the south temperate +zone, and in the Antarctic region. The upholders of this theory base +it almost exclusively on the distribution of living and fossil forms +of life; that is, it is based almost exclusively on biological and not +geological considerations. Unquestionably, the distribution of many +forms of life, past and present, offers problems which with our +present paleontological knowledge we are wholly unable to solve. If we +consider only the biological facts concerning some one group of +animals it is not only easy but inevitable to conclude that its +distribution must be accounted for by the existence of some former +direct land bridge extending, for instance, between Patagonia and +Australia, or between Brazil and South Africa, or between the West +Indies and the Mediterranean, or between a part of the Andean region +and northeastern Asia. The trouble is that as more groups of animals +are studied from the standpoint of this hypothesis the number of such +land bridges demanded to account for the existing facts of animal +distribution is constantly and indefinitely extended. A recent book by +one of the most learned advocates of this hypothesis calls for at +least ten such land bridges between South America and all the other +continents, present and past, of the world since a period geologically +not very remote. These land bridges, moreover, must, many of them, +have been literally bridges; long, narrow tongues of land thrust in +every direction across the broad oceans. According to this view the +continental land masses have been in a fairly fluid condition of +instability. By parity of reasoning, the land bridges could be made a +hundred instead of merely ten in number. The facts of distribution are +in many cases inexplicable with our present knowledge; yet if the +existence of widely separated but closely allied forms is habitually +to be explained in accordance with the views of the extremists of this +school we could, from the exclusive study of certain groups of +animals, conclude that at different periods the United States and +almost every other portion of the earth were connected by land and +severed from all other regions by water--and, from the study of +certain other groups of animals, arrive at directly opposite and +incompatible conclusions. + +The most brilliant and unsafe exponent of this school was Ameghino, +who possessed and abused two gifts, both essential to the highest type +of scientist, and both mischievous unless this scientist possess a +rare and accurate habit of thought joined to industry and mastery of +detail:--namely, the gift of clear and interesting writing, and the +gift of generalization. Ameghino rendered marked services to +paleontology. But he generalized with complete recklessness from the +slenderest data; and even these data he often completely misunderstood +or misinterpreted. His favorite thesis included the origin of +mammalian life and of man himself in southernmost South America, with, +as incidents, the belief that the mammalian-bearing strata of South +America were of much greater age than the strata with corresponding +remains elsewhere; that in South America various species and genera of +men existed in tertiary times, some of them at least as advanced as +fairly well advanced modern savages; that there existed various land +bridges between South America and other southern continents, including +Africa; and that the ancestral types of modern mammals and of man +himself wandered across one of these bridges to the old world, and +that thence their remote descendants, after ages of time, returned to +the new. In addition to valuable investigations of fossil-bearing beds +in the Argentine, he made some excellent general suggestions, such as +that the pithecoid apes, like the baboons, do not stand in the line of +man's ancestral stem but represent a divergence from it away from +humanity and toward a retrogressive bestialization. But of his main +theses he proves none, and what evidence we have tells against them. +At the Museum of La Plata I found that the authorities were +practically a unit in regarding his remains of tertiary men and proto- +men as being either the remains of tertiary American monkeys or of +American Indians from strata that were long post-tertiary. The +extraordinary discovery, due to that eminent scientist and public +servant Doctor Moreno, of the remains of man associated with the +remains of the great extinct South American fauna, of the mylodon, of +a giant ungulate, of a huge cat like the lion, and of an extraordinary +aberrant horse (of a wholly different genus from the modern horse) +conclusively shows that in its later stages the South American fauna +consisted largely of types that elsewhere had already disappeared and +that these types persisted into what was geologically a very recent +period only some tens of thousands of years ago, when savage man of +practically a modern type had already appeared in South America. The +evidence we have, so far as it goes, tends to show that the South +American fauna always has been more archaic in type than the arctogeal +fauna of the same chronological level. + +To loose generalizations, and to elaborate misinterpretations of +paleontological records, the kind of work done by Mr. Haseman +furnishes an invaluable antiscorbutic. To my mind, he has established +a stronger presumption in favor of the theory he champions than has +been established in favor of the theories of any of the learned and +able scientific men from whose conclusions he dissents. Further +research, careful, accurate, and long extended, can alone enable us to +decide definitely in the matter; and this research, to be effective, +must be undertaken by many men, each of whom shall in large measure +possess Mr. Haseman's exceptional power of laborious work both in the +field and in the study, his insight and accuracy of observation, and +his determination to follow truth with inflexible rectitude wherever +it may lead--one of the greatest among the many great qualities which +lifted Huxley and Darwin above their fellows. + + + + APPENDIX B. + + The Outfit for Travelling in the South American Wilderness + +South America includes so many different kinds of country that it is +impossible to devise a scheme of equipment which shall suit all. A +hunting-trip in the pantanals, in the swamp country of the upper +Paraguay, offers a simple problem. An exploring trip through an +unknown tropical forest region, even if the work is chiefly done by +river, offers a very difficult problem. All that I can pretend to do +is to give a few hints as the results of our own experience. + +For bedding there should be a hammock, mosquito-net, and light +blanket. These can be obtained in Brazil. For tent a light fly is +ample; ours were brought with us from New York. In exploring only the +open fly should be taken; but on trips where weight of luggage is no +objection, there can be walls to the tent and even a canvas floor- +cloth. Camp-chairs and a camp table should be brought--any good +outfitter in the United States will supply them--and not thrown away +until it becomes imperative to cut everything down. On a river trip, +first-class pulleys and ropes--preferably steel, and at any rate very +strong--should be taken. Unless the difficulties of transportation are +insuperable, canvas-and-cement canoes, such as can be obtained from +various firms in Canada and the United States, should by all means be +taken. They are incomparably superior to the dugouts. But on different +rivers wholly different canoes, of wholly different sizes, will be +needed; on some steam or electric launches may be used; it is not +possible to lay down a general rule. + +As regards arms, a good plain 12-bore shotgun with a 30-30 rifle- +barrel underneath the others is the best weapon to have constantly in +one's hand in the South American forests, where big game is rare and +yet may at any time come in one's path. When specially hunting the +jaguar, marsh-deer, tapir, or big peccary, an ordinary light repeating +rifle--the 30-30, 30-40, or 256--is preferable. No heavy rifle is +necessary for South America. Tin boxes or trunks are the best in which +to carry one's spare things. A good medicine-chest is indispensable. +Nowadays doctors know so much of tropical diseases that there is no +difficulty in fitting one out. It is better not to make the trip at +all than to fail to take an ample supply of quinine pills. Cholera +pills and cathartic pills come next in importance. In liquid shape +there should be serum to inject for the stoppage of amoebic dysentery, +and anti-snake-venom serum. Fly-dope should be taken in quantities. + +For clothing Kermit and I used what was left over from our African +trip. Sun helmets are best in the open; slouch-hats are infinitely +preferable in the woods. There should be hobnailed shoes--the nails +many and small, not few and large; and also moccasins or rubber-soled +shoes; and light, flexible leggings. Tastes differ in socks; I like +mine of thick wool. A khaki-colored shirt should be worn, or, as a +better substitute, a khaki jacket with many pockets. Very light +underclothes are good. If one's knees and legs are unfortunately +tender, knickerbockers with long stockings and leggings should be worn; +ordinary trousers tend to bind the knee. Better still, if one's legs +will stand the exposure, are shorts, not coming down to the knee. A +kilt would probably be best of all. Kermit wore shorts in the +Brazilian forest, as he had already worn them in Africa, in Mexico, +and in the New Brunswick woods. Some of the best modern hunters always +wear shorts; as for example, that first-class sportsman the Duke of +Alva. + +Mr. Fiala, after the experience of his trip down the Papagaio, the +Juruena, and the Tapajos, gives his judgment about equipment and +provisions as follows: + +The history of South American exploration has been full of the losses +of canoes and cargoes and lives. The native canoe made from the single +trunk of a forest giant is the craft that has been used. It is durable +and if lost can be readily replaced from the forest by good men with +axes and adzes. But, because of its great weight and low free-board, +it is unsuitable as a freight carrier and by reason of the limitations +of its construction is not of the correct form to successfully run the +rapid and bad waters of many of the South American rivers. The North +American Indian has undoubtedly developed a vastly superior craft in +the birch-bark canoe and with it will run rapids that a South American +Indian with his log canoe would not think of attempting, though, as a +general thing, the South American Indian is a wonderful waterman, the +equal and, in some ways, the superior of his northern contemporary. At +the many carries or portages the light birch-bark canoe or its modern +representative, the canvas-covered canoe, can be picked up bodily and +carried by from two to four men for several miles, if necessary, while +the log canoe has to be hauled by ropes and back-breaking labor over +rollers that have first to be cut from trees in the forest, or at +great risk led along the edge of the rapids with ropes and hooks and +poles, the men often up to their shoulders in the rushing waters, +guiding the craft to a place of safety. + +The native canoe is so long and heavy that it is difficult to navigate +without some bumps on the rocks. In fact, it is usually dragged over +the rocks in the shallow water near shore in preference to taking the +risk of a plunge through the rushing volume of deeper water, for +reasons stated above. The North American canoe can be turned with +greater facility in critical moments in bad water. Many a time I heard +my steersman exclaim with delight as we took a difficult passage +between two rocks with our loaded Canadian canoe. In making the same +passage the dugout would go sideways toward the rapid until by a +supreme effort her three powerful paddlers and steersman would right +her just in time. The native canoe would ship great quantities of +water in places the Canadian canoe came through without taking any +water on board. We did bump a few rocks under water, but the canoe was +so elastic that no damage was done. + +Our nineteen-foot canvas-covered freight canoe, a type especially +built for the purpose on deep, full lines with high free-board, +weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds and would carry a ton of +cargo with ease--and also take it safely where the same cargo +distributed among two or three native thirty or thirty-five foot +canoes would be lost. The native canoes weigh from about nine hundred +to two thousand five hundred pounds and more. + +In view of the above facts the explorer-traveller is advised to take +with him the North American canoe if he intends serious work. Two +canoes would be a good arrangement for from five to seven men, with +at least one steersman and two paddlers to each canoe. The canoes can +be purchased in two sizes and nested for transportation, an +arrangement which would save considerable expense in freight bills. At +least six paddles should be packed with each boat, in length four and +one half, four and three fourths, and five feet. Other paddles from +six and one half feet to eight and one half feet should be provided +for steering oars. The native paddler, after he has used the light +Canadian paddle, prefers it to the best native make. My own paddlers +lost or broke all of their own paddles so as to get the North American +ones, which they marked with their initials and used most carefully. + +To each canoe it would be well to have two copper air tanks, one fore, +one aft, a hand-hole in each with a water-tight screw cover on hatch. +In these tanks could be kept a small supply of matches, the +chronometer or watch which is used for position, and the scientific +records and diary. Of course, the fact should be kept in mind that +these are air tanks, not to be used so as to appreciably diminish +their buoyancy. Each canoe should also carry a small repair kit +attached to one of the thwarts, containing cement, a piece of canvas +same as cover of canoe, copper tacks, rivets, and some galvanized +nails; a good hatchet and a hammer; a small can of canoe paint, spar +varnish, and copper paint for worn places would be a protection +against termites and torrential downpours. In concluding the subject +of canoes I can state that the traveller in South America will find no +difficulty in disposing of his craft at the end of his trip. + +MOTORS--We had with us a three and one half horse-power motor which +could be attached to stern or gunwale of canoe or boat. It was made by +the Evinrude Motor Company, who had a magneto placed in the flywheel +of the engine so that we never had to resort to the battery to run the +motor. Though the motor was left out in the rain and sun, often +without a cover, by careless native help, it never failed us. We found +it particularly valuable in going against the strong current of the +Sepotuba River where several all-night trips were made up-stream, the +motor attached to a heavy boat. For exploration up-stream it would be +valuable, particularly as it is easily portable, weighing for the two +horse-power motor fifty pounds, for three and one half horse-power one +hundred pounds. If a carburetor could be attached so that kerosene +could be used it would add to its value many times, for kerosene can +be purchased almost anywhere in South America. + +TENTS--There is nothing better for material than the light waterproof +Sea Island cotton of American manufacture, made under the trade name +of waterproof silk. It keeps out the heaviest rain and is very light. +Canvas becomes water-soaked, and cravenetted material lets the water +through. A waterproof canvas floor is a luxury, and, though it adds to +the weight, it may with advantage be taken on ordinary trips. The tent +should be eight by eight or eight by nine feet, large enough to swing +a comfortable hammock. A waterproof canvas bag, a loose-fitting +envelope for the tent should be provided. Native help is, as a rule, +careless, and the bag would save wear and tear. + +HAMMOCKS--The hammock is the South American bed, and the traveller +will find it exceedingly comfortable. After leaving the larger cities +and settlements a bed is a rare object. All the houses are provided +with extra hammock hooks. The traveller will be entertained hospitably +and after dinner will be given two hooks upon which to hang his +hammock, for he will be expected to have his hammock and, in insect +time, his net, if he has nothing else. As a rule, a native hammock and +net can be procured in the field. But it is best to take a comfortable +one along, arranged with a fine-meshed net. + +In regard to the folding cot: It is heavy and its numerous legs form a +sort of highway system over which all sorts of insects can crawl up to +the sleeper. The ants are special pests and some of them can bite with +the enthusiastic vigor of beasts many times their size. The canvas +floor in a tent obviates to a degree the insect annoyance. + +The headwaters of the rivers are usually reached by pack-trains of +mules and oxen. The primitive ox-cart also comes in where the trail is +not too bad. One hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty pounds is +a good load for the pack-animals, and none of the cases should weigh +more than fifty or sixty pounds. Each case should be marked with its +contents and gross and net weight in kilos. + +For personal baggage the light fibre sample case used by travelling +men in the United States does admirably. The regulation fibre case +with its metal binding sold for the purpose is too heavy and has the +bad feature of swelling up under the influence of rain and dampness, +often necessitating the use of an axe or heavy hammer to remove cover. + +The ordinary fibre trunk is good for rail and steamer travel, but it +is absolutely unpractical for mule-back or canoe. The fibre sample +case could be developed into a container particularly fitted for +exploration. The fibre should be soaked in hot paraffin and then hot- +calendered or hot-pressed. This case could then be covered with +waterproof canvas with throat opening like a duffel-bag. + +The waterproof duffel-bags usually sold are too light in texture and +wear through. A heavier grade should be used. The small duffel-bag is +very convenient for hammock and clothing, but generally the thing +wanted will be at the bottom of the bag! We took with us a number of +small cotton bags. As cotton is very absorbent, I had them paraffined. +Each bag was tagged and all were placed in the large duffel-bag. The +light fibre case described above, made just the right size for mule +pack, divided by partitions, and covered with a duffel-bag, would +prove a great convenience. + +The light steel boxes made in England for travellers in India and +Africa would prove of value in South American exploration. They have +the advantage of being insect and water proof and the disadvantage of +being expensive. + +It would be well if the traveller measured each case for personal +equipment and computed the limit of weight that it could carry and +still float. By careful distribution of light and heavy articles in +the different containers, he could be sure of his belongings floating +if accidentally thrown into the water. + +It is not always possible to get comfortable native saddles. They are +all constructed on heavy lines with thick padding which becomes water- +soaked in the rainy season. A United States military saddle, with +Whitman or McClellan tree, would be a positive luxury. Neither of them +is padded, so would be the correct thing for all kinds of weather. The +regulation army saddle-blanket is also advised as a protection for the +mule's back. The muleteer should wash the saddle-blanket often. For a +long mule-back trip through a game country, it would be well to have a +carbine boot on the saddle (United States Army) and saddle-bags with +canteen and cup. In a large pack-train much time and labor are lost +every morning collecting the mules which strayed while grazing. It +would pay in the long run to feed a little corn at a certain hour +every morning in camp, always ringing a bell or blowing a horn at the +time. The mules would get accustomed to receiving the feed and would +come to camp for it at the signal. + +All the rope that came to my attention in South America was three- +strand hemp, a hard material, good for standing rigging but not good +for tackle or for use aboard canoes. A four-ply bolt rope of best +manilla, made in New Bedford, Mass., should be taken. It is the finest +and most pliable line in the world, as any old whaler will tell you. +Get a sailor of the old school to relay the coils before you go into +the field so that the rope will be ready for use. Five eighths to +seven eighths inch diameter is large enough. A few balls of marline +come in conveniently as also does heavy linen fish-line. + +A small-sized duffel-bag should be provided for each of the men as a +container for hammock and net, spare clothing, and mess-kit. A very +small waterproof pouch or bag should be furnished also for matches, +tobacco, etc. + +The men should be limited to one duffel-bag each. These bags should be +numbered consecutively. In fact, every piece in the entire equipment +should be thus numbered and a list kept in detail in a book. + +The explorer should personally see that each of his men has a hammock, +net, and poncho; for the native, if left unsupervised, will go into +the field with only the clothing he has on. + +FOOD--Though South America is rich in food and food possibilities, +she has not solved the problem of living economically on her +frontiers. The prices asked for food in the rubber districts we passed +through were amazing. Five milreis (one dollar and fifty cents) was +cheap for a chicken, and eggs at five hundred reis (fifteen cents) +apiece were a rarity. Sugar was bought at the rate of one to two +milreis a kilo--in a country where sugar-cane grows luxuriantly. The +main dependence is the mandioc, or farina, as it is called. It is the +bread of the country and is served at every meal. The native puts it +on his meat and in his soup and mixes it with his rice and beans. When +he has nothing else he eats the farina, as it is called, by the +handful. It is seldom cooked. The small mandioc tubers when boiled are +very good and are used instead of potatoes. Native beans are nutritious +and form one of the chief foods. + +In the field the native cook wastes much time. Generally provided with +an inadequate cooking equipment, hours are spent cooking beans after +the day's work, and then, of course, they are often only partially +cooked. A kettle or aluminum Dutch oven should be taken along, large +enough to cook enough beans for both breakfast and dinner. The beans +should be cooked all night, a fire kept burning for the purpose. It +would only be necessary then to warm the beans for breakfast and +dinner, the two South American meals. + +For meat the rubber hunter and explorer depends upon his rifle and +fish-hook. The rivers are full of fish which can readily be caught, +and, in Brazil, the tapir, capybara, paca, agouti, two or three +varieties of deer, and two varieties of wild pig can occasionally be +shot; and most of the monkeys are used for food. Turtles and turtle +eggs can be had in season and a great variety of birds, some of them +delicious in flavor and heavy in meat. In the hot, moist climate fresh +meat will not keep and even salted meat has been known to spoil. For +use on the Roosevelt expedition I arranged a ration for five men for +one day packed in a tin box; the party which went down the Duvida made +each ration do for six men for a day and a half, and in addition gave +over half the bread or hardtack to the camaradas. By placing the day's +allowance of bread in this same box, it was lightened sufficiently to +float if dropped into water. There were seven variations in the +arrangement of food in these boxes and they were numbered from 1 to 7, +so that a different box could be used every day of the week. In +addition to the food, each box contained a cake of soap, a piece of +cheese-cloth, two boxes of matches, and a box of table salt. These tin +boxes were lacquered to protect from rust and enclosed in wooden cases +for transportation. A number in large type was printed on each. No. 1 +was cased separately; Nos. 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7 were cased +together. For canoe travel the idea was to take these wooden cases +off. I did not have an opportunity personally to experience the +management of these food cases. We had sent them all ahead by pack- +train for the explorers of the Duvida River. The exploration of the +Papagaio was decided upon during the march over the plateau of Matto +Grosso and was accomplished with dependence upon native food only. + + DAILY RATION FOR FIVE MEN + + SUN. MON. TUES. WED. THUR. FRI. SAT. + Rice 16 16 16 + Oatmeal 13 13 13 + Bread 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 + Tea-biscuits 18 18 18 + Gingersnaps 21 21 21 21 + Dehydrated potatoes 11 11 11 11 11 11 + Dehydrated onions 5 5 5 5 5 5 + Erbswurst 8 8 8 + Evaporated soups 6 6 6 + Baked beans 25 25 + Condensed milk 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 + Bacon 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 + Roast beef 56 + Braised beef 56 56 + Corned beef 70 + Ox tongue 78 + Curry and chicken 72 + Boned chicken 61 + Fruits: evaporated berries 5 5 5 5 + Figs 20 20 + Dates 16 + Sugar 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 + Coffee 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 + Tea 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 + Salt 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 + Sweet chocolate 16 + + EACH BOX ALSO CONTAINED + + Muslin, one yard 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 + Matches, boxes 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 + Soap, one cake 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 + +Above weights of food are net in avoirdupois ounces. Each complete +ration with its tin container weighed nearly twenty-seven pounds. The +five pounds over net weight of daily ration was taken up in tin +necessary for protection of food. The weight of component parts of +daily ration had to be governed to some extent by the size of the +commercial package in which the food could be purchased on short +notice. Austin, Nichols & Co., of New York, who supplied the food +stores for my polar expedition, worked day and night to complete the +packing of the rations on time. + +The food cases described above were used on Colonel Roosevelt's +descent of the Rio da Duvida and also by the party who journeyed down +the Gy-Parana and Madeira Rivers. Leo Miller, the naturalist, who was +a member of the last-named party, arrived in Manaos, Brazil, while I +was there and, in answer to my question, told me that the food served +admirably and was good, but that the native cooks had a habit of +opening a number of cases at a time to satisfy their personal desire +for special delicacies. Bacon was the article most sought for. +Speaking critically, for a strenuous piece of work like the +exploration of the Duvida, the food was somewhat bulky. A ration +arrangement such as I used on my sledge trips North would have +contained more nutritious elements in a smaller space. We could have +done without many of the luxuries. But the exploration of the Duvida +had not been contemplated and had no place in the itinerary mapped out +in New York. The change of plan and the decision to explore the Duvida +River came about in Rio Janeiro, long after our rations had been made +out and shipped. + +"Matte" the tea of Brazil and Paraguay, used in most of the states of +South America, should not be forgotten. It is a valuable beverage. +With it a native can do a wonderful amount of work on little food. +Upon the tired traveller it has a very refreshing effect. + +Doctor Peckolt, celebrated chemist of Rio de Janeiro, has compared the +analysis of matte with those of green tea, black tea, and coffee and +obtained the following result: + + IN 1,000 PARTS OF GREEN TEA BLACK TEA COFFEE MATTE + Natural oil 7.90 0.06 0.41 0.01 + Chlorophyl 22.20 18.14 13.66 62.00 + Resin 22.20 34.40 13.66 20.69 + Tannin 178.09 128.80 16.39 12.28 + Alkaloids: + Mateina 4.50 4.30 2.66 2.50 + Extractive substances 464.00 390.00 270.67 238.83 + Cellulose and fibres 175.80 283.20 178.83 180.00 + Ashes 85.60 25.61 25.61 38.11 + +Manner of preparation: The matte tea is prepared in the same manner as +the Indian tea, that is to say, by pouring upon it boiling water +during ten to fifteen minutes before using. To obtain a good infusion +five spoonfuls of matte are sufficient for a litre of water. + +Some experiments have been made lately with the use of matte in the +German army, and probably it would be a valuable beverage for the use +of our own troops. Two plates and a cup, knife, fork, and spoon should +be provided for each member of the party. The United States Army mess- +kit would serve admirably. Each man's mess-kit should be numbered to +correspond with the number on his duffel-bag. + +An aluminum (for lightness) cooking outfit, or the Dutch oven +mentioned, with three or four kettles nested within, a coffee pot or a +teapot would suffice. The necessary large spoons and forks for the +cook, a small meat grinder, and a half dozen skinning knives could all +be included in the fibre case. These outfits are usually sold with the +cups, plates, etc., for the table. As before suggested, each member of +the party should have his own mess-kit. It should not be carried with +the general cooking outfit. By separating the eating equipments thus, +one of the problems of hygiene and cleanliness is simplified. + +RIFLES--AMMUNITION--A heavy rifle is not advised. The only animals +that can be classed as dangerous are the jaguar and white-jawed +peccary, and a 30-30 or 44 calibre is heavy enough for such game. The +44-calibre Winchester or Remington carbine is the arm generally used +throughout South America, and 44 calibre is the only ammunition that +one can depend upon securing in the field. Every man has his own +preference for an arm. However, there is no need of carrying a nine or +ten pound weapon when a rifle weighing only from six and three fourths +to seven and one half pounds will do all that is necessary. I, +personally, prefer the small-calibre rifle, as it can be used for +birds also. The three-barrelled gun, combining a double shotgun and a +rifle, is an excellent weapon, and it is particularly valuable for the +collector of natural-history specimens. A new gun has just come on the +market which may prove valuable in South America where there is such a +variety of game, a four-barrel gun, weighing only eight and one fourth +pounds. It has two shotgun barrels, one 30 to 44 calibre rifle and the +rib separating the shotgun barrels is bored for a 22-calibre rifle +cartridge. The latter is particularly adapted for the large food +birds, which a heavy rifle bullet might tear. Twenty-two calibre +ammunition is also very light and the long 22 calibre exceedingly +powerful. Unless in practice it proves too complicated, it would seem +to be a good arm for all-round use--sixteen to twenty gauge is large +enough for the shotgun barrels. Too much emphasis cannot be placed +upon the need of being provided with good weapons. After the loss of +all our arms in the rapids we secured four poor, rusty rifles which +proved of no value. We lost three deer, a tapir, and other game, and +finally gave up the use of the rifles, depending upon hook and line. A +25 or 30 calibre high power automatic pistol with six or seven inch +barrel would prove a valuable arm to carry always on the person. It +could be used for large game and yet would not be too large for food +birds. It is to be regretted that there is nothing in the market of +this character. + +We had our rifle ammunition packed by the U. M. C. Co. in zinc cases +of one hundred rounds each, a metallic strip with pull ring closing +the two halves of the box. Shot-cartridge, sixteen gauge, were packed +the same way, twenty-five to the box. + +The explorer would do well always to have on his person a compass, a +light waterproof bag containing matches, a waterproof box of salt, and +a strong, light, linen or silk fish-line with several hooks, a knife, +and an automatic at his belt, with several loaded magazines for the +latter in his pocket. Thus provided, if accidentally lost for several +days in the forest (which often happens to the rubber hunters in +Brazil), he will be provided with the possibility of getting game and +making himself shelter and fire at night. + +FISH--For small fish like the pacu and piranha an ordinary bass hook +will do. For the latter, because of its sharp teeth, a hook with a +long shank and phosphor-bronze leader is the best; the same character +of leader is best on the hook to be used for the big fish. A tarpon +hook will hold most of the great fish of the rivers. A light rod and +reel would be a convenience in catching the pacu. We used to fish for +the latter variety in the quiet pools while allowing the canoe to +drift, and always saved some of the fish as bait for the big fellows. +We fished for the pacu as the native does, kneading a ball of mandioc +farina with water and placing it on the hook as bait. I should not be +surprised, though, if it were possible, with carefully chosen flies, +to catch some of the fish that every once in a while we saw rise to +the surface and drag some luckless insect under. + +CLOTHING--Even the experienced traveller when going into a new field +will commit the crime of carrying too much luggage. Articles which he +thought to be camp necessities become camp nuisances which worry his +men and kill his mules. The lighter one can travel the better. In the +matter of clothing, before the actual wilderness is reached the +costume one would wear to business in New York in summer is practical +for most of South America, except, of course, the high mountain +regions, where a warm wrap is necessary. A white or natural linen suit +is a very comfortable garment. A light blue unlined serge is desirable +as a change and for wear in rainy weather. + +Strange to relate, the South American seems to have a fondness for +stiff collars. Even in Corumba, the hottest place I have ever been in, +the native does not think he is dressed unless he wears one of these +stiff abominations around his throat. A light negligee shirt with +interchangeable or attached soft collars is vastly preferable. In the +frontier regions and along the rivers the pajama seems to be the +conventional garment for day as well as night wear. Several such suits +of light material should be carried--the more ornamented and +beautifully colored the greater favor will they find along the way. A +light cravenetted mackintosh is necessary for occasional cool evenings +and as a protection against the rain. It should have no cemented +rubber seams to open up in the warm, moist climate. Yachting oxfords +and a light pair of leather slippers complete the outfit for steamer +travel. For the field, two or three light woollen khaki-colored +shirts, made with two breast pockets with buttoned flaps, two pairs +of long khaki trousers, two pairs of riding breeches, a khaki coat cut +military fashion with four pockets with buttoned flaps, two suits of +pajamas, handkerchiefs, socks, etc., would be necessary. The poncho +should extend to below the knees and should be provided with a hood +large enough to cover the helmet. It should have no cemented seams; +the material recently adopted by the United States Army for ponchos +seems to be the best. For footgear the traveller needs two pairs of +stout, high hunting shoes, built on the moccasin form with soles. Hob +nails should be taken along to insert if the going is over rocky +places. It is also advisable to provide a pair of very light leather +slipper boots to reach to just under the knee for wear in camp. They +protect the legs and ankles from insect stings and bites. The +traveller who enters tropical South America should protect his head +with a wide-brimmed soft felt hat with ventilated headband, or the +best and lightest pith helmet that can be secured, one large enough to +shade the face and back of neck. There should be a ventilating space +all around the head-band; the wider the space the better. These +helmets can be secured in Rio and Buenos Aires. Head-nets with face +plates of horsehair are the best protection against small insect +pests. They are generally made too small and the purchaser should be +careful to get one large enough to go over his helmet and come down to +the breast. Several pairs of loose gloves rather long in the wrist +will be needed as protection against the flies, piums and boroshudas +which draw blood with every bite and are numerous in many parts of +South America. A waterproof sun umbrella, with a jointed handle about +six feet long terminating in a point, would be a decided help to the +scientist at work in the field. A fine-meshed net fitting around the +edge of the umbrella would make it insect proof. When folded it would +not be bulky and its weight would be negligible. Such an umbrella +could also be attached, with a special clamp, to the thwart of a canoe +and so prove a protection from both sun and rain. + +There are little personal conveniences which sometimes grow into +necessities. One of these in my own case was a little electric flash- +light taken for the purpose of reading the verniers of a theodolite or +sextant in star observations. It was used every night and for many +purposes. As a matter of necessity, where insects are numerous one +turns to the protection of his hammock and net immediately after the +evening meal. It was at such times that I found the electric lamp so +helpful. Reclining in the hammock, I held the stock of the light under +my left arm and with diary in my lap wrote up my records for the day. +I sometimes read by its soft, steady light. One charge of battery, to +my surprise, lasted nearly a month. When forced to pick out a camping +spot after dark, an experience which comes to every traveller in the +tropics in the rainy season, we found its light very helpful. Neither +rain nor wind could put it out and the light could be directed +wherever needed. The charges should be calculated on the plan of one +for every three weeks. The acetylene lamp for camp illumination is an +advance over the kerosene lantern. It has been found that for equal +weight the carbide will give more light than kerosene or candle. The +carbide should be put in small containers, for each time a box is +opened some of the contents turns into gas from contact with the moist +air. + +TOOLS--Three or four good axes, several bill-hooks, a good hatchet +with hammer head and nail-puller should be in the tool kit. In +addition, each man should be provided with a belt knife and a machete +with sheath. Collins makes the best machetes. His axes, too, are +excellent. The bill-hook, called foice in Brazil, is a most valuable +tool for clearing away small trees, vines, and under-growths. It is +marvellous how quickly an experienced hand can clear the ground in a +forest with one of these instruments. All of these tools should have +handles of second-growth American hickory of first quality; and +several extra handles should be taken along. The list of tools should +be completed with a small outfit of pliers, tweezers, files, etc.--the +character, of course, depending upon the mechanical ability of the +traveller and the scientific instruments he has with him that might +need repairs. + +SURVEY INSTRUMENTS--The choice of instruments will depend largely +upon the character of the work intended. If a compass survey will +suffice, there is nothing better than the cavalry sketching board used +in the United States Army for reconnaissance. With a careful hand it +approaches the high degree of perfection attained by the plane-table +method. It is particularly adapted for river survey and, after one +gets accustomed to its use, it is very simple. If the prismatic +compass is preferred, nothing smaller than two and one half inches in +diameter should be used. In the smaller sizes the magnet is not +powerful enough to move the dial quickly or accurately. + +Several good pocket compasses must be provided. They should all have +good-sized needles with the north end well marked and degrees engraved +in metal. If the floating dial is preferred it should be of aluminum +and nothing smaller than two and one half inches, for the same reason +as mentioned above regarding the prismatic compass. + +Expense should not be spared if it is necessary to secure good +compasses. Avoid paper dials and leather cases which absorb moisture. +The compass case should allow taking apart for cleaning and drying. + +The regular chronometer movement, because of its delicacy, is out of +the question for rough land or water travel. We had with us a small- +sized half-chronometer movement recently brought out by the Waltham +Company as a yacht chronometer. It gave a surprisingly even rate under +the most adverse conditions. I was sorry to lose it in the rapids of +the Papagaio when our canoes went down. + +The watches should be waterproof with strong cases, and several should +be taken. It would be well to have a dozen cheap but good watches and +the same number of compasses for use around camp and for gifts or +trade along the line of travel. Money is of no value after one leaves +the settlements. I was surprised to find that many of the rubber +hunters were not provided with compasses, and I listened to an +American who told of having been lost in the depths of the great +forest where for days he lived on monkey meat secured with his rifle +until he found his way to the river. He had no compass and could not +get one. I was sorry I had none to give; I had lost mine in the +rapids. + +For the determination of latitude and longitude there is nothing +better than a small four or five inch theodolite not over fifteen +pounds in weight. It should have a good prism eyepiece with an angle +tube attached so it would not be necessary to break one's neck in +reading high altitudes. For days we travelled in the direction the sun +was going, with altitudes varying from 88 deg. to 90 deg.. Because of these +high altitudes of the sun the sextant with artificial horizon could +not be used unless one depended upon star observations altogether, an +uncertain dependence because of the many cloudy nights. + +BAROMETERS--The Goldsmith form of direct-reading aneroid is the most +accurate portable instrument and, of course, should be compared with a +standard mercurial at the last weather-bureau station. + +THERMOMETERS--A swing thermometer, with wet and dry bulbs for +determination of the amount of moisture in the air, and the maximum +and minimum thermometer of the signal-service or weather-bureau type +should be provided, with a case to protect them from injury. + +A tape measure with metric scale of measurements on one side and feet +and inches on the other is most important. Two small, light waterproof +cases could be constructed and packed with scientific instruments, +data, and spare clothing and yet not exceed the weight limit of +flotation. In transit by pack-train these two cases would form but one +mule load. + +PHOTOGRAPHIC--From the experience gained in several fields of +exploration it seems to me that the voyager should limit himself to +one small-sized camera, which he can always have with him, and then +carry a duplicate of it, soldered in tin, in the baggage. The +duplicate need not be equipped with as expensive a lens and shutter as +the camera carried for work; 31/4 x 41/4 is a good size. Nothing +larger than 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 is advised. We carried the 3A special Kodak +and found it a light, strong, and effective instrument. It seems to me +that the ideal form of instrument would be one with a front board +large enough to contain an adapter fitted for three lenses. For the +3 1/4 x 4 1/4: + + One lens 4 or 4 1/2 focus + One lens 6 or 7 focus + One lens telephoto or telecentric 9 to 12 focus + +The camera should be made of metal and fitted with focal-plane shutter +and direct view-finder. + +A sole leather case with shoulder-strap should contain the camera and +lenses, with an extra roll of films, all within instant reach, so that +a lens could be changed without any loss of time. + +Plates, of course, are the best, but their weight and frailty, with +difficulty of handling, rule them out of the question. The roll film +is the best, as the film pack sticks together and the stubs pull off +in the moist, hot climate. The films should be purchased in rolls of +six exposures, each roll in a tin, the cover sealed with surgical +tape. Twelve of these tubes should be soldered in a tin box. In places +where the air is charged with moisture a roll of films should not be +left in a camera over twenty-four hours. + +Tank development is best for the field. The tanks provided for +developing by the Kodak Company are best for fixing also. A nest of +tanks would be a convenience; one tank should be kept separate for the +fixing-bath. As suggested in the Kodak circular, for tropical +development a large-size tank can be used for holding the freezing +mixture of hypo. This same tank would become the fixing tank after +development. In the rainy season it is a difficult matter to dry +films. Development in the field, with washing water at 80 degrees F., +is a patience-trying operation. It has occurred to me that a small +air-pump with a supply of chloride of calcium in small tubes might +solve the problem of preserving films in the tropics. The air-pump and +supply of chloride of calcium would not be as heavy or bulky as the +tanks and powders needed for development. By means of the air-pump the +films could be sealed in tin tubes free from moisture and kept thus +until arrival at home or at a city where the air was fairly dry and +cold water for washing could be had. + +While I cordially agree with most of the views expressed by Mr. Fiala, +there are some as to which I disagree; for instance, we came very +strongly to the conclusion, in descending the Duvida, where bulk was +of great consequence, that the films should be in rolls of ten or +twelve exposures. I doubt whether the four-barrel gun would be +practical; but this is a matter of personal taste. + + + + APPENDIX C. + + My Letter of May 1 to General Lauro Muller + +The first report on the expedition, made by me immediately after my +arrival at Manaos, and published in Rio Janeiro upon its receipt, is +as follows: + + MAY 1st, 1914. + + TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE MINISTER OF + FOREIGN AFFAIRS, + RIO-DE-JANEIRO. + MY DEAR GENERAL LAURO MULLER: + + I wish first to express my profound acknowledgments to you personally + and to the other members of the Brazilian Government whose generous + courtesy alone rendered possible the Expedicao Scientifica Roosevelt- + Rondon. I wish also to express my high admiration and regard for + Colonel Rondon and his associates who have been my colleagues in this + work of exploration. In the third place I wish to point out that what + we have just done was rendered possible only by the hard and perilous + labor of the Brazilian Telegraphic Commission in the unexplored + western wilderness of Matto Grosso during the last seven years. We + have had a hard and somewhat dangerous but very successful trip. No + less than six weeks were spent in slowly and with peril and exhausting + labor forcing our way down through what seemed a literally endless + succession of rapids and cataracts. For forty-eight days we saw no + human being. In passing these rapids we lost five of the seven canoes + with which we started and had to build others. One of our best men + lost his life in the rapids. Under the strain one of the men went + completely bad, shirked all his work, stole his comrades' food and + when punished by the sergeant he with cold-blooded deliberation + murdered the sergeant and fled into the wilderness. Colonel Rondon's + dog running ahead of him while hunting, was shot by two Indians; by + his death he in all probability saved the life of his master. We have + put on the map a river about 1500 kilometres in length running from + just south of the 13th degree to north of the 5th degree and the + biggest affluent of the Madeira. Until now its upper course has been + utterly unknown to every one, and its lower course although known for + years to the rubbermen utterly unknown to all cartographers. Its + source is between the 12th and 13th parallels of latitude south, and + between longitude 59 degrees and longitude 60 degrees west from + Greenwich. We embarked on it about at latitude 12 degrees 1 minute + south and longitude 60 degrees 18 west. After that its entire course + was between the 60th and 61st degrees of longitude approaching the + latter most closely about in latitude 8 degrees 15 minutes. The first + rapids were at Navaite in 11 degrees 44 minutes and after that they + were continuous and very difficult and dangerous until the rapids + named after the murdered sergeant Paishon in 11 degrees 12 minutes. At + 11 degrees 23 minutes the river received the Rio Kermit from the left. + At 11 degrees 22 minutes the Marciano Avila entered it from the right. + At 11 degrees 18 minutes the Taunay entered from the left. At 10 + degrees 58 minutes the Cardozo entered from the right. At 10 degrees + 24 minutes we encountered the first rubberman. The Rio Branco entered + from the left at 9 degrees 38 minutes. We camped at 8 degrees 49 + minutes or approximately the boundary line between Matto Grosso and + Amazonas. The confluence with the upper Aripuanan, which entered from + the right, was in 7 degrees 34 minutes. The mouth where it entered the + Madeira was in about 5 degrees 30 minutes. The stream we have followed + down is that which rises farthest away from the mouth and its general + course is almost due north. + + My dear Sir, I thank you from my heart for the chance to take part in + this great work of exploration. + + With high regard and respect, believe me + + Very sincerely yours, + THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Through the Brazilian Wilderness +by Theodore Roosevelt + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS *** + +***** This file should be named 11746.txt or 11746.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/7/4/11746/ + +Etext prepared by John Bickers and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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