Chapter XXV
The Blue Mountains--The Cuyabá River--Inaccurate Maps--A Rebellion in Camp--Infamy of Author's Followers--The Lagõa dos Veados and the Seven Lakes--Falling back on Diamantino--Another Mutiny--Slavery--Descending from the Tableland
WE had gone 96 kil. in four days' marching since leaving the Rio Manso. We were only a few kilometres from the Serra Azul, or Blue Mountains--truly mountains of the most vivid and purest cobalt blue I had ever seen--quite a wonderful spectacle.
We made our camp in a prairie with good grazing for our animals. Although we were at a comparatively low elevation--1,150 ft. above the sea level--the minimum temperature of the atmosphere was 56° Fahr. during the night.
On leaving camp--still proceeding north--we descended to 1,100 ft. into a lovely stretch of magnificent grass with a lagoon. The level of the water was low, as we were then at the end of the dry season. On the flat grassy land were curious semi-spherical mounds, 4 to 6 metres in diameter and from 2 to 6 ft. high. On each of these mounds were a few stunted trees. No trees whatever existed except upon these small mounds, the explanation being, I think, that the mounds had formed around the trees while these were growing, and not that the trees had grown upon the mounds.
As we were getting nearer, the Serra Azul to the north was most impressive. I think that it was partly due to the bluish foliage of the vegetation upon it that the range, even close by, appeared of so vivid a blue, and also to the deep blue shadows cast by the spurs which projected, some to the south-east, others due south--that is, it will be understood, on the southern face of the range.
Thick deposits of cinders lay in the valley. On approaching an intermediate and lower range we cut our way through scrub--chiefly of sciadera trees, seldom growing to a greater height than 7 ft. The domed hills showed through the grass great blocks of volcanic rock, while at the foot of the hills could be noticed huge boulders of consolidated ashes with veins of crystals and marble. There, too, the stratification was vertical. There was lamination in some of the rock, but not in the granite blocks nor in the blocks of marble, which appeared to have been subjected to enormous heat. Some of the rock had been in a state of absolute ebullition.
At the spot where we crossed the range--starting our ascent from an elevation of 1,100 ft.--were immense holes, vents and cracks in the earth's crust. As we rose slightly higher among many chains of low hills, we were upon a horizontal stratum of laminated granite. Higher still we passed a semicircular hill composed of immense blocks of granite. In the centre of the semicircle was a great round hole, 30 ft. in diameter--an extinct crater. Farther on, ascending upon an inclined plane, we came to another similar semicircle--not of rock that time, but of red earth and cinders. When we reached the highest point (elev. 1,270 ft.) of the divide we had to our left huge pinnacles and pillars of rock of the most fantastic shapes, monoliths from 10 to 15 ft. high, and rocks hollowed by the action of fire. Big boulders, which had become perfectly rounded by having been shot through the air and revolved at a great speed while in a half-solid condition, were to be seen scattered all over the inclined planes of the saddle of the divide. Giant cacti grew in abundance in the interstices between rocks. Although most of the rocks were blackened outside, by chipping off the outer surface one found that they contained inside beautiful white marble or else greyish granite. The latter was striated with thin layers--not more than a quarter or half an inch thick--of crystallized matter, forming veins in the blocks or dividing two strata.
Everywhere could be noticed remarkable perforations of all sizes in the rocks, great spherical or ovoid hollows, or cylindrical tubular channels. In the ground were many volcanic vents with lips baked by fire.
On our right, a kilometre or so farther on, after having gone through an extensive stretch of red sand and lapilli, we came across three hills, the central one of which had the appearance of a cylindrical tower of masonry with windows and doors. It was a wonderful freak of nature. Under this huge tower were several caves and grottoes.
Descending upon the opposite side of the range, at an elevation of 1,200 ft. we found the dry bed of a streamlet, which flowed in a northerly direction when it did flow at all. On emerging from the wide hill mass--about 18 kil. across--we found ourselves among a lot of burity palms on the western spur of the Serra Azul. When we were actually upon them, the Blue Mountains lost their blue appearance and were more of a greyish green, owing to the vegetation which covered most of their slopes. The range was formed of three distinct terraces, the lower one being of greater height than the two upper ones. A number of low hill ranges starting from the main range branched off like spurs towards the south. The uppermost terrace of the main range was supported on a high vertical wall of red rock.
On meeting the Rio Coralzinho we skirted it for some distance through the forest, then marched among a great many domes, small and large; after which we crossed a wonderful field of huge monoliths, superposed boulders, and rocks of all kinds of fantastic shapes.
We had marched 30 kil. that day. We encamped on the River Piraputangas--a tributary on the left side of the Cuyabá Grande River--the Cuyabá Grande being in its turn a tributary on the right of the Cuyabá River.
The Cuyabá River described almost an arc of a circle--in fact, quite a semicircle--its birth taking place in the Serra Azul. Where we crossed it we were only a short distance to the west from its point of origin.
Where we had made our camp we were in a large grassy plain about six kilometres long and nearly two kilometres wide. The rainy season was fast approaching. We came in for a regular downpour during the night, accompanied by high wind, which knocked down all our tents, as the pegs would not hold in the soft, moist ground. We had a busy time endeavouring to protect the baggage. We all were absolutely soaked. The minimum temperature was 52° Fahr. In the morning, after the wind had abated and the rain had stopped, we were enveloped in thick fog.
We had descended to so low an altitude as 750 ft. above the sea level on the north side of the Serra Azul--the lowest elevation we had been at for some considerable time. We had descended altogether from the highest part of the great Central Brazilian plateau. From that point all the waters would be flowing to the north-east or north. We were, in fact, within a stone's throw--to be more accurate, within the radius of a few kilometres--of the birthplace of the Rio Novo, the head-waters of the River Arinos, of the Rio Verde (Green River), and of the several sources of the Rio S. Manoel or das Tres Barras, or Paranatinga; and not distant from the sources of the great Xingu River.
The Serra Azul, extending from west to east, was interesting geographically, not only because it marked the northern terminus of the highest terrace of the great central plateau, but also because from it or near it rose two of the greatest rivers of Central Brazil--the Xingu and the Arinos (Tapajoz), the latter the most central and important river of Brazil, crossing the entire Republic from south to north, as far as the Amazon.
On June 21st we crossed the Piraputangas (elev. 750 ft. above the sea level), where, owing to the steep banks, we had much difficulty in taking mules and baggage to the opposite side. We then proceeded across another large plain, skirting the spurs of the Serra Azul. Nine kilometres from camp we came to a stream 80 metres wide, which flowed from north-east to south-west. It had an average depth of 1½ ft. It was, I think, the Cuyabá Grande.
It was not easy to identify those rivers, as the existing maps of that country were absolutely worthless, most of them being filled in with fancy mountains and rivers, which either did not exist at all or were sometimes hundreds of kilometres out of their position. There were frequently mistakes of two, three, and more degrees in the latitudes and longitudes even of important places. As for the tributary rivers, of which merely the mouths were known and named, they had supplied good material for the imagination of more or less artistic cartographers in order to fill in the rest of their course. Even the German map and the American maps of the International Bureau of American Republics, which were the two best, were extremely inaccurate in their representation of that region. For instance, the latter map--and nearly all the other maps--placed the Serra Azul some 180 or 200 kil. south of its actual position. The German map was some 70 kil. out. The Serra Azul could be seen from a great distance, and had been marked approximately and not by actual observations on the spot. Nor, of course, had the tributaries of the Cuyabá been explored or even seen except at their mouths; hence their imaginary courses.
Considering how the maps of those regions had been got together, it was really wonderful that, with all their blunders, they gave as much information as they did. Unhappy, nevertheless, would be the poor traveller who relied on those maps in making a journey across the country. For instance, if you expected to come upon a certain river in one day and did not get there until after ten or fifteen days' hard marching; if you expected to find a mountain range--nearly as high as the Himalayas or at least as high as the Andes, according to the deep shading on the maps--and found instead an interminable flat plain; and if you saw on your map rivers marked navigable, and found rapids instead, in comparison with which the terrible ones of Niagara are mere child's play, you would certainly become rather sceptical of prettily-drawn maps.
On most of the maps of Brazil one saw marked to the east of the Araguaya, in the Goyaz Province, an immense range with no less a name than Cordilheira Geral la Serra do Estrondo--or "General Range of the Mountains of Noise." They were marked as the most prominent range in Brazil--quite as high as the Andes of Peru, Bolivia, and Chili; whereas, as a matter of fact, I was told on good authority that they were mere low hills, where there were any hills at all.
To come to great geographical mistakes which came under my direct observation, I found a very palpable one in the head-waters of the Cuyabá River, which had their source to the north of the Serra Azul and not to the south, as marked on many maps, including the Brazilian official maps.
We had to our left the Serra das Pedra--"Range of Rocks"--an extraordinarily rocky range, which was crossed almost at right angles by the Chapadão das Porcas. We marched through a wonderful growth of palmeiras, some of the palms being as much as 30 ft. high. Buritys were innumerable along a small stream--the Rio Estivado--flowing south-west into the Cubayá River. There were great quantities of mangabeira trees. We proceeded northward along a chapada--a capital Brazilian name which denotes a locality that is neither a forest nor a prairie. The chapada had scanty trees and scrub, but not enough to make it into a forest.
We were marching over low hills with surface deposits of sand and cinders. We gradually reached an elevation of 1,050 ft. some 18 kil. from camp, and shortly after--and only 50 ft. lower--entered a refreshing grove of giant palmeiras and buritys along the Rio das Porcas, flowing westward. There, north of the stream, we went across more clean campos, 1,700 metres wide, bounded to the north by the thickly-wooded hill-range Keboh, extending before us from east to west.
We crossed this range in the centre, during a strong gale from the south-west. The wind cleared the sky, that had been overcast and had made the atmosphere heavy. Again that afternoon, when the wind ceased, I noticed the peculiar striations in the sky--not in straight lines that time, but in great and most regular curves converging to the west.
The valley got narrower as we went along. Two twin conical hills ended the northern extremity of the range (south-east to north-west) which we had on our left--a great mass of granite blocks in the centre of the plain rising higher and higher into regular domes. The plain itself, on an incline, showed two swellings of great magnitude, the one to our right about 120 ft. higher than the plain, the elevation of which was 1,000 ft. On the west side of those two swellings was a confused mass of huge blocks of granite--of all sizes and shapes--which to all appearances had been shot up from underneath by some internal force. They were outwardly much blackened by the action of fire, but internally were of a grey tint. A little farther we were encircled by basaltic columns of great height, many of them fractured, forming a fantastic sky-line. Some resembled the spires of a cathedral; groups of others had the appearance of the ruins of an ancient fortress; others stood up like giant obelisks; while accumulations of others formed more or less regular pyramids.
After leaving that strange basin, we were once more travelling across patches of clean chapada and dirty chapada--according to the soil and quantity of moisture; then over arid campos spreading for 15 kil. without one single drop of water.
At sundown, after having gone over several undulations varying from 850 to 900 ft. above the sea level, we went over a hill slightly higher--950 ft.--with a summit of ashes, red earth, and yellow lava pellets, as well as great sheets of foliated lava.
Under a most wonderful effect of light to the west--three superposed horizontal bands of luminous yellow, violet and brilliant vermilion, over the deep cobalt mountain range in the distance--we arrived, my men being thirsty and tired, at a little rivulet. We had marched 42 kil. that day.
My men felt the cold intensely during the night--the minimum temperature was 48° Fahr., with a high, cutting wind. Yet we were at a low elevation, merely 750 ft. above the sea level. There were, as usual, moans and groans all night, more toothache and rheumatic pains and bones aching in the morning. The discontent among my men had reached a trying point. They worried me continuously to such an extent--indeed, as never in my life I had been worried before--that I was within an ace of breaking my vow of never losing my patience and calm. In my long experience of exploring I have always had to deal with the most troublesome types of men imaginable, but never with any quite so unpleasant as those I had in Brazil.
When, the next morning, I ordered them to pack the animals in order to proceed on our journey, there was an unpleasant scene approaching mutiny. They knocked things about and refused to go on. Then they sat, rifles in hand, a little way off, grumbling and grunting, with vicious expressions upon their faces. They were going to do wonderful things--they were indeed! I overheard them. One man came forward--the spokesman. The men claimed their money up to date since the last payment made to them--only a fortnight before. They all wished to go.
"Certainly," was my immediate reply. Without a moment's hesitation they were each handed over their full pay, and without giving the slightest attention to them, Alcides, who had remained faithful, and I--poor Filippe had been dragged against himself into the plot--collected all the animals and packed them. Without one look or word--as if they had not existed--I started off the troop of animals and got on my saddle to depart last. With the corner of my eye I kept a watch on them--as with men of that kind the chief danger was when you had your back turned.
I had gone only a few yards when I heard some one sobbing behind my mule. As I turned round, the two outstretched hands of Filippe were handing me back the sum of money I had paid a few moments before. He was begging me to keep it safely for him. Then two more hands urged me to take back for safe keeping the wages they had just received. The faces of the owners of those hands were too comic for words: the cheeks shining with abundant tears that streamed down, the eyes red and swollen, the mouths stretched in nervous strain from ear to ear. Behind came two more men, looking as mournful as if they were being led to execution.
They all begged to be re-employed. I let them follow--on foot--for several kilometres without saying a word--struggling through the heavy marching painfully and wading across chest-deep in the streams. We crossed the Riberão Chabo or Guebo, 25 metres wide and 3 ft. deep, at an elevation of 730 ft., then shortly after we waded through another stream flowing south, with a zone of wonderful palmeiras along its banks. We then emerged into a magnificent plain with a barrier of low hills to the north-west. Six kilometres farther we waded across the Planchão stream, 5 metres wide and 6 in. deep. Marching on horseback was delightful, the maximum temperature being only 74° Fahr. in the shade. Another stream, flowing from north to south, the Planchãonzinho, whose foul water was quite disgusting to drink, although beautifully limpid, was then negotiated.
I was delighted at meeting with so many streams, for there was nothing my men hated more than to get into the water. They felt very sorry for themselves, to be struggling along as best they could, following the animals like humble sheep instead of being comfortably mounted on quadrupeds. We travelled a considerable distance through campos, but owing to some baggage which had been lost we eventually had to retrace our steps as far as the Planchãonzinho River, on the banks of which we encamped. This was unfortunate, as the water had a sickening flavour and made even our coffee and tea taste like poison.
Misfortunes never come alone. In overhauling my baggage I discovered, to my dismay, that my men--in order to force me to go back the way we had come--had gradually thrown away most of the provisions, which should have lasted us some six to seven months longer. We had only sufficient food to last us a few days. The men confessed their misdeed. The country provided absolutely nothing to eat, and I had to face the problem of either dying of starvation or falling back on some place where we could purchase fresh provisions. It was out of the question--unless one wished to commit suicide and a quintuple murder--to endeavour to push on towards my goal, Manaos on the Amazon, some 1,600 kil. distant as the crow flies, or at least 4,000 to 5,000 kil. travelling, with possible deviations, without some of which it was not possible to travel. We could certainly not fall back on our point of departure, the terminus of the railway at Araguary, 1,596 kil. distant; nor on Goyaz, the last city we had seen, 1,116 kil. away--so that the only way to escape death was to fall back on the ancient settlement of Diamantino, the farthest village in Central Brazil, a place once established by the first Portuguese settlers of Brazil while in search of diamonds.
Diamantino was practically in the very centre of the thicker part of South America, without counting Patagonia. It was almost equidistant--roughly speaking, some 2,560 kil. as the crow flies--from Pernambuco on the Atlantic Coast to the east, Callao (Lima) in Peru on the Pacific Coast to the west, Georgetown in British Guyana to the north, and Buenos Ayres in the Argentine Republic. Although so far in the interior and almost inaccessible from the north, east, and west, Diamantino could be reached comparatively easily from the south, travelling by river up the Parana, Paraguay, and the Cuyabá Rivers, as far as Rosario--thence by trail to Diamantino. I had heard that the place was once flourishing, but had since become almost totally abandoned. I thought that perhaps I might be able to purchase sufficient provisions to get along; and--hope being one of my everlasting good qualities--I also dreamt that perhaps I might there get fresh men.
It was indeed with a bleeding heart--when I had reached a point some 200 kil. north of the Serra Azul--that I had to alter my course, which had been practically due north, into a south-westerly direction, and endeavour to find Diamantino. My men were delighted at the prospect of seeing human beings again. We had met no one for some weeks. We made terrific marches daily in order to reach that village before the food gave out altogether.
The nights were cold--47° Fahr. being the minimum at our camp on June 23rd.
We crossed a small range of hills over a pass 930 ft. above the sea level, and found ourselves in a spacious cuvette with the usual central line of buritys and thick vegetation (elev. 900 ft.). Soaring over our heads were a number of gavião caboclo (Hetorospidias meridionalis), a kind of falcon, rending the air with their unmusical shrieks.
After leaving the cuvette we began to ascend the Estivado Range, very steep and rocky. Near the summit we struggled through a field of great igneous boulders, chiefly upright pillars of granite and white marble. Upon the pass (elev. 1,400 ft.) was a circular depression some 300 metres in diameter, perfectly flat-bottomed and grassy. It was surrounded by cones from 80 to 100 ft. high. On the south-east side of the range--very steep--was abundant rock, whereas to the north-west side was a padding of brown earth on a gentle incline divided into terraces. Here and there pointed noses of volcanic blocks, similar to those we had found on the opposite side of the range, showed through. We went across a depression where water dripping down the mountain-side had remained stagnant, rendering that spot almost impassable. The animals sank chest-deep into slush, crashing through the thick and much-entangled growth of live and fallen bamboos.
More campos, fairly wide, were found beyond this, and great stretches of foliated slate and sandstone in strata turned over into a vertical position, and quantities of débris. Then again we cut our way through a cool growth of bamboos, handsome palmeiras and akuri palms; after which we emerged into campos once more, rising gradually to an elevation of 1,550 ft. upon an undulating terrace of the second section of the Estivado range.
Pulling and pushing the mules and horses over a lot of boulders and up a steep incline, we reached the highest point of the range on our route--1,800 ft. above the sea level. Again the stratification of red and grey rock in layers from 6 ins. to 1 ft. thick, standing vertically, showed what a geological commotion there must have been in those regions. The summit of the range, extending from north to south, appeared like the teeth of a saw, so broken up was it into repeated undulations. On the west side of the range we found a gentle slope of clear campos with merely a few stunted trees upon them.
Before us to the west stood high the level sky-line of a table-land, showing perfectly straight parallel strata of rock extending all along its face, but slightly undulated near the summit of the range. Otherwise its grassy slopes were quite undisturbed in their virgin smoothness.
In the distance to the north of our course was a great lagoon--the Lagõa dos Veados, "Lagoon of the Deer"--a most important point in South America, for it was there that the great Arinos (Tapajoz) River rose. The lagoon--3 kil. long and less than 1 kil. wide--had no visible outlet, but some hundreds of metres away a spring came out of the earth, forming the Rio Preto (Black River). The Rio Preto, soon joined by the Rio Novo which we had seen descending from the Serra Azul, formed the Arinos River and could certainly be considered the head-waters of that immense tributary of the Amazon.
A short distance south of Diamantino were the Sete Lagoas, or Seven Lakes--as a matter of fact, they numbered more than seven--circular pools only a few yards in diameter but extraordinarily deep, evidently of volcanic origin, and filled with water at a later time. Around their edges a remarkably luxuriant growth of buritys could be admired. A great valley extending south with a central ridge could be distinguished. On it was the meeting-place of the Rio Diamantino and the Rio do Ouro (River of Gold), which, with the Sete Lagoas, formed another most important point of South America, for it was there that the Great Paraguay or Parana River rose.
It was thus interesting to note that within almost a stone's throw rose two of the most powerful rivers of South America--one flowing due north into the Amazon, the other almost due south as far as Buenos Ayres and Montevideo, where it entered the Atlantic Ocean.
A great confusion is made on most maps between those lagoons and the actual birth-places of those important streams. The ancient Jesuits and friars had a fair idea of geography. I have in my possession a remarkable work in Italian published in Rome in 1698 by Father John Joseph of S. Teresa--a barefooted Carmelite. It is entitled The History of the Wars in the Kingdom of Brazil between the Crown of Portugal and the Republic of Holland. The book contains a number of extraordinary maps of Brazil. Those of the principal harbours give a splendid idea of the places represented. The coastline of the continent is indicated with fair accuracy. It is curious to note that the author of that book and the cartographer place the sources of the Amazon and of the River Plate in the same spot, as descending on opposite sides of a range extending from east to west--a range which does not exist, unless it was intended to represent the Central Brazilian plateau. "The River S. Francisco," Father John Joseph goes on to state, "has also its birth in the spot where the Amazon is born, but this is not sure." The cartographer, in fact, places the head-waters of that river close to the head-waters of the Amazon, and makes them flow through a large lagoon in the heart of Brazil--evidently the Great "Lagõa dos Veados" or else the "Sete Lagoas" to which reference has previously been made in this chapter. "The Rio Grande (Rio Parana, Paraguay), one of the most celebrated in Brazil," proceeds the Carmelite Father, "is born already swollen by plentiful waters (sic) in the interior of terra firma! Near its sources it forms a lagoon 20 leagues in circumference." All this is, of course, geographically wrong. The Rio S. Francisco has its birth far to the south-east in Minas Geraes, some hundreds of kilometres distant from that lagoon and several thousand from the real source of the Amazon.
Also the friar must have mistaken--evidently from information received--the sources of the Arinos for the sources of the Amazon, which are really located some 15° of longitude west. It is nevertheless curious that so far back as 1698 the existence of the lagoon should be known at all--perhaps they had heard of it from the adventurous Paulista Bandeirantes--and that they should have placed it nearly in its proper latitude and longitude on their maps. Apparently Father John Joseph was not aware of the existence of the Great Araguaya and Xingu Rivers. Having compiled his map from information, he confused those rivers into the S. Francisco River.
Upon descending from the Serra into the valley we soon came to a large forest with a luxuriant edge of peroba (a word originating, I believe, from the words ipe and roba in the Tupi language), which was known in four different varieties: viz. the peroba amarella (yellow), parda (brown), revessa (knotty), and rosa (rose-coloured), technically named: Aspidosperma polyneuron M. Arg., Aspidosperma leucomelum Warmg, Aspidosperma sp., Aspidosperma dasycarpon A.
Then there were also plentiful garabu and other tall trees. Before getting to the edge of the forest I noticed among the rocks some beautiful specimens of the apita cactus, 10 ft. and more in height, in appearance not unlike giant artichokes.
Near its beginning, where it was 3 metres wide and 6 in. deep, we crossed the Estivado River, which with a group of other streamlets may share the honour of being one of the sources of the Arinos. It flowed in a north-westerly direction.
We were pushing on for all we were worth, for we had come to the end of our food. Up and down we went over a troublesome series of great elongated ridges--like parallel dunes--the highest elevation on them being 2,050 ft., the depressions 1,950 ft. We came to a sweetly pretty streamlet, the Mollah, flowing north into the Paraguay River, and shortly afterwards to the Caitté and the Corisho (elev. 1,500 ft.). They were the three real and true sources of the Paraguay, within a short distance of the Seven Lakes.
We had marched 50 kil. that day over rough country. My animals were quite exhausted. Yet early next morning we pushed on once more over transverse undulations and across grassy cuvettes, slightly conical, with circular pools of water in the centre and a florid growth of bamboos in the lowest point of the cuvettes. We ascended over more dyke-like obstructions on our way (elev. 1,700 ft.) and descended once more into a vast basin of campos with stunted trees. At its lowest point there was from north-east to south-west a line of magnificent tall trees. The forest was so dense there that when we entered it we were quite in the dark, as if going through a tunnel. There were fine specimens of various kinds of the jua or juaz or jurubeba (solanum), a medicinal plant 5 to 6 ft. high with enormous dentate leaves--shaped not unlike a vine leaf--possessing upright spikes on their dorsal or mid-rib and on the veins of the leaf.
Then there was plentiful "cepa de pappo," a common liana like a huge boa-constrictor winding its way in a spiral up the tallest trees. I saw some of those liane 3 in. in diameter, with a smooth whitish bark.
The soil at the bottom of the valley (1,500 ft. above sea level) was mostly composed of cinders, but up the slopes white sand was predominant, mixed with ashes. We travelled over a lava flow which formed the bed of the River Macucu, flowing eastward. Guided by the noise, we found a most beautiful waterfall, 100 ft. high, over an extinct circular crater with vertical walls. We kept on rising over a gentle incline, and having reached an elevation of 1,750 ft. we found ourselves suddenly on the upper edge of a great crescent-shaped depression extending in a semicircle from north-east to south-west. Its walls were one-tiered to the west, with a flat table-land on their summit, but were divided into two terraces in the northern part where ranges of hills rose on the plateau.
We had a rapid, steep descent among great rectangular blocks of conglomerate (white marble pebbles embedded in iron rock), great sheets of lava, and sediments of red earth, solidified in places into half-formed rock. I noticed extensive lava flows which had run towards the west; then we came upon extraordinary quantities of loose white marble pebbles and chips. We made our way down upon a kind of spur of red lava, frightfully slippery for my animals. The poor beasts were quite worn out with fatigue.
From the round dome of the headland we perceived to the south a second great circle of flat-topped heights. The immense flow of red lava on which we were radiated terrific heat which it had absorbed from the sun's rays. My dogs, being nearer the ground than we were, had great difficulty in breathing. Their heads and tails hung low, and their tongues dangled fully out of their mouths. They stumbled along panting pitifully. Even we on our mounts felt nearly suffocated by the stifling heat from the sun above and the lava below. The dogs were amusing enough, curling down quickly to rest wherever a mangy shrub gave the slightest suspicion of a shade. The men, more stupid always than beasts, were sweating and swearing freely, and thumped mercilessly on the rumps of the tired animals with the butts and muzzles of their rifles in order to urge them along.
The very sound of the mules' neck-bells seemed tired and worn; its brisk tinkling of our days of vigour had given room to a monotonous and feeble, almost dead, ding ... dong, at long intervals--well suggesting the exhaustion of the poor animals, which were just able to drag along. The slightest obstacle--a loose stone, a step in the lava, and now one animal, then another, would collapse and roll down, and we had to dismount and help them up on their feet again--quite a hard job, I can tell you, when the animals were nearly dead and would not get up again.
As we went along more and more headlands of the great plateau appeared before us to the west. We still went on descending on the top of the long spur of lava. When not too busy with our animals--and quite out of breath with the heat and stifling air from the heated rock--I sometimes glanced at the glorious panorama on both sides of us. When we had proceeded farther I ascertained that there were really two crescents contained side by side within a larger crescent. Under us to the south a vast undulating plain stretched as far as the eye could see towards the south-west and west. On describing a revolution upon your heels your eye met the other end of the larger crescent plateau to the north-west. The Serra do Tombador extended in a south-westerly direction from north of Diamantino to S. Luiz de Caceres, to the west of the Paraguay River. The height of the spur on which we were was 1,350 ft. above the sea level.
We had come in a great circle on the upper edge. A trail could be seen crossing the great undulating valley below us. It passed at the western terminus of the spur we were on. Evidently that was the trail connecting Diamantino with Cuyabá (the capital of Matto Grosso) via Rosario. The sight of a trail was most exhilarating to my men. Suddenly and quite unexpectedly we came upon a few wretched, tumble-down houses--if one may call them so--smothered in vegetation which grew everywhere. My animals themselves seemed astonished at the unusual sight. The horses neighed and the mules brayed loudly. Masonry work perhaps suggested to them more substantial meals. Down a precipitous ravine, over large boulders and stumbling into big holes, into which the mules disappeared for a few seconds at a time ... there was the main street of Diamantino.
The village--the local people called it "a city"--was the very picture of misery, yet to us it seemed as if we had dropped into the middle of London or Paris. There were a few resident traders, two or three Brazilians, two Italians, and a Turk. All were most hospitable and kind. The chief industry of the place was rubber, which found its way to the coast via the Paraguay River.
Formerly Diamantino was a flourishing place because diamonds were found in abundance. Even now they can be found along the river, but the difficulty of access, even by the easiest way, and the great expense of living there have gradually depopulated the place, which was quite in an abandoned state when I was there.
Here are some of the minimum prices which the rubber collectors had to pay for articles of necessity: Beans, 1_s._ 6_d._ to 2_s._ per litre,[1] or about 4_s._ a pound; rice, 2_s._ per litre; flour, 1_s._ 4_d._ per litre, about 4_s._ a pound; sugar, 5_s._ per kilo (2 pounds), rapadura, or sugar block, 4_s._ per small cake; tobacco, 5_s._ per metre of twist; salt, 2_s._ 8_d._ to 3_s._ per litre; coffee, 6_s._ 6_d._ per kilo; lard, 6_s._ 6_d._ per kilo; purified lard in tins, 16_s._ to 20_s._ per 2 kilos. Bars of the commonest laundry soap, 4_s._ each bar; chickens 10_s._ to 15_s._ each; eggs, 10_s._ to 12_s._ a dozen; small tins or sardines (containing five sardines) of the most inferior kind, 10_s._ to 15_s._ a tin; a one-pound tin of the commonest French salt butter, 15_s._
A genial banquet was offered me on my arrival. The school-mistress was set to prepare an excellent and plentiful meal. The mayor and all the notabilities of the place in their Sunday clothing came to fetch me at the house of the firm of Orlando Bros., where I had been most hospitably sheltered, and where I had been requested to wait for them. At the appointed time they arrived--in frock-coats, and each carrying an umbrella.
"Is it raining?" I inquired in my astonishment at seeing the array of articles which I had not seen for several months--especially as a few minutes before I had been outside and it was a lovely starlit night.
"Oh no, indeed, it is not raining; we carry the umbrellas in due honour to you!" they replied in a chorus, accompanied by a grand bow.
This was such an extraordinary compliment that it really took me some time before I could grasp the meaning of it. It seemed that according to the social rules of Diamantino, Matto Grosso, no one could be considered fully dressed unless carrying an umbrella. Rain or shine, the people of Diamantino carried their umbrellas on grand occasions.
After that one of the gentlemen pulled out of his pocket a long slip of paper and proceeded to read a speech of welcome. I answered in a few humble words. Another gentleman--there were eight altogether--produced another slip which he duly read in a sonorous voice. Again I replied as best I could. Then, as I was getting really anxious lest some one else should be speechifying again, the mayor of the place offered me his arm, and followed in a most respectful manner by the others, we adjourned to the schoolroom, where the feast was spread upon the table.
More speeches when we entered the room, more speeches before we sat down, speeches in the middle of dinner, speeches after dinner. Unaware of what was coming, I had exhausted all the compliments I could think of in my first speech, and I had to tax my poor brain considerably to reply with grace--especially as I had to speak in Portuguese--to the many charming things which my thoughtful hosts said. The banquet went off well. It is difficult to imagine more considerate, kindly people than those exiles in that far-away spot.
I took careful and repeated astronomical observations for latitude and longitude in order to establish the exact position of that settlement. Lat. 14° 21'·7 S.; Long. 56° 56' W. I purchased all the food I could possibly collect--enough to last us some six months, which cost me a small fortune--as I intended to push out of the place and proceed northward at once.
Four of my men became badly intoxicated upon our arrival. There was another mutiny. They again claimed their pay up to date and wished to leave me. At once they received their money. It was such a relief to me when they went off, even for a few hours, that I was always glad to give them the money and have a short mental rest while they kept away. Unfortunately it was impossible to obtain a single extra man in Diamantino. Labour was scarce, and the few labourers in existence were in absolute slavery. Indeed, slavery existed--it exists to-day--in all Central Brazil, just as it did before slavery was abolished. Only in the old days of legal slavery it was limited to negroes; now the slaves are negroes, mulattoes, white people, even some Europeans. I have seen with my own eyes a German gentleman of refinement in that humble condition.
In the present condition of things the slave, in the first instance, sells himself or is sold by his family. There were indeed few, if any, of the labouring classes in Matto Grosso and Goyaz provinces who were free men or women. All were owned by somebody, and if you wished to employ them--especially to take them away from a village or a city--you had to purchase them from their owners. That meant that if you intended to employ a man--even for a few days--you had to disburse a purchase sum equivalent to two or three hundred pounds sterling, sometimes more. In the following way it was made impossible for the slaves to become free again. Taking advantage of the poverty and vanity of those people, loans of money were offered them in the first instance, and also luxuries in the way of tinned food, clothing, revolvers and rifles. When once they had accepted, and could not repay the sum or value of the articles received, they became the property of the lender, who took good care to increase the debt constantly by supplying cheap articles to them at fifty times their actual cost. The seringueiro, or rubber collector, had a caderneta, or booklet and the master a livro maestro, or account book, in which often double the quantity of articles actually received by the rubber collector were entered. The debt thus increased by leaps and bounds, and in a short time a labourer owed his master, two, three hundred pounds. The rubber collectors tried hard to repay the debt in rubber, which they sold to their masters at a low rate; but it was always easy for the masters to keep the men in debt.
It must be said for the masters that their slaves were not in any way ill-treated; on the contrary--except that a man was seldom given the slightest chance of redeeming himself--they were indeed treated as well as circumstances permitted. Labour, it must be remembered, was so scarce and valuable--it was almost an impossibility to obtain labour in Central Brazil--that it was the care of the master not to lose a labourer.
Much is to be said for the honour of even the worst types of Brazilians. Although many of them would not think twice of murdering or robbing a stranger of all he possessed, they were seldom known to defraud their owners by escaping. A man who ran away from his owner was looked down upon by the entire community. Again, it must be stated that the chances of escape, in those distant regions, were indeed very remote. An escaped slave with no money could not go very far and he would soon die of starvation.
I must confess that, although I tried hard to discover a way by which labour could be obtained and retained in Brazil with the existing laws, I could not find one practicable except that used by the Brazilians, viz. slavery.
The people of Diamantino tried hard to induce one or two men to accompany me--and I was willing to buy them out and eventually would have set them free altogether at the end of the expedition--but they were all so terrified of the Indians if they left the "city" that they preferred to remain slaves.
Alcides had gone round to look for a barber. There was only one in Diamantino, and he was in prison for the murder of his wife, or for some other such trifling matter. Armed with a pair of my scissors, Alcides went to the prison to have his hair cut. Once there he took the opportunity to explain to the prisoner that it could be arranged to procure his escape if he were willing to join the expedition. The barber--who had not inquired which way we should be travelling--jumped at the idea. This necessitated having my hair cut too--rather a trial with scissors that did not cut--in order to arrange matters further in detail. With a special permission from the local authorities the barber was let out accompanied by two policemen--the only two in the place--in order that he might reduce my hair by half its length or more.
While I underwent actual torture in having my hair clipped--as the prisoner's hands were trembling with excitement, and my ears had various narrow escapes--Alcides, who, when he wished, had very persuasive manners, induced not only the prisoner, but the two policemen--all three--to escape and join the expedition. I must say that I did not at all look forward to the prospect of my three new companions; but we were in terrible want of hands. I had visions that my expedition would be entirely wrecked. There was a limit to human endurance and we could not perform miracles. We still had thousands of kilometres to travel over most difficult and dangerous country. Besides, I reflected, after all, I might only be performing an act of kindness by relieving the town of the expense and trouble of keeping its only prisoner, not to speak of the police force.
All was satisfactorily arranged, when the prisoner inquired where we were going. You should have seen his face when I told him.
"No, no, no!" he quickly replied. "No, no, no, no!" and he waved my scissors in the air. "I will not come! I will remain in prison all my life rather than be eaten up by cannibals! No, no, no, no ... no, no, no, no...!" he went on muttering at intervals as he gave the last clipping touches to my hair. He hastened through his job, received his pay in silence, and asked the policemen to take him back quickly to the prison. When the chains, which had temporarily been removed, were put again around his wrists, he departed shaking his head and muttering again--"No, no, no, no...!"
The wise policemen, too, said that naturally, as their prisoner would not escape, they were obliged to remain and keep guard over him ... it was not through lack of courage that they would not come; it was because of their duty!
Of course, Alcides was sadly disappointed, but I was delighted, when it all fell through.
I owe the success of my expeditions to the fact that, no matter what happens, I never will stop anywhere. It is quite fatal, on expeditions of that kind, to stop for any length of time. If you do, the fatigue, the worry, and illness make it generally impossible to start again--all things which you do not feel quite so much as long as you can keep moving. Many a disaster in exploring expeditions could easily have been avoided, had the people known this secret of successful travelling. Push on at all costs--until, of course, you are actually dead.
With my reduced party of two men (Alcides and Filippe) I had to arrange matters differently, and decided to abandon part of my baggage--all things, in fact, which were not absolutely necessary, taking only food, instruments for scientific observations, cameras and photographic plates.
Alcides and Filippe--who by then had become most adventurous--and I were about to start on July 1st, and were making things ready, when two of my deserters returned and begged me to take them along again. They had found living at their own cost rather expensive, and had realized that it would have been an impossibility for them to get out of that place again with the funds at their disposal. Each meal had cost them a small fortune. Animals were extremely expensive, and it was then the wrong season for launches to come up the river as far as Rosario, the nearest port to the south.
"We will come with you," said they, in a sudden outburst of devotion. "We will come. We are brave men. You have always been good and generous to us. We are sorry for what we have done. Order us and we will kill anybody you like for you!"
Brazilians of that class have only one idea in their heads--killing, killing, killing!
That was more devotion than I demanded. In order to spare Alcides and Filippe, and myself--as the work thrown upon us would have indeed been beyond our possible strength--I re-employed the two men on the express condition that they should murder no one while they were with me.
At noon of July 1st, accompanied by a mounted escort of honour of the leading citizens with the Mayor at their head, I left Diamantino (elev. 1,030 ft.), travelling north-east. We ascended to the summit of a table-land--the first terrace of which was at an elevation of 1,250 ft., the higher at 1,600 ft. The last words I had heard from a venerable old man as I rode out of Diamantino still rang in my ears.
"You are going to sure death--good-bye!..." On reaching the top of the plateau the courteous friends who had accompanied me also bade me an affectionate farewell. I could see by their faces and their manner that they were saying good-bye to one they believed a doomed man.
"If by chance you come out alive," said the Mayor, in a tentative way, "we should like to have news of you."
On dismal occasions of that kind the sky is always gloomy and black and there is always drizzling rain. So that day, too, the weather did not fail to add to our depressed spirits.
On leaving our friends we started to plunge once more into the unknown. On reaching the top edge of the plateau we witnessed a wonderful sight, rendered more poetic by the slight vagueness of a veil of mist. To the south of Diamantino was the Serra Tombador, extending as far as S. Luiz de Caceres, about 250 kil. as the crow flies to the south-west. Then below us was the Lagõa dos Veados with no outlet, and close by the head-waters of the Rio Preto (a tributary of the Arinos). The Serra do Tombador was parallel nearly all along with the River Paraguay.
Owing to departing so late in the day from Diamantino, and the time we had wasted on the way with social compliments, we were only able to go 12 kil. that afternoon. We halted near the shed of a seringueiro (rubber collector), at an elevation of 1,530 ft., close to the Chapesà, a streamlet flowing into the Agua Fria (cold water), which in its turn threw itself into the Rio Preto.
It was muggy and warm during the night--min. 65° Fahr.--with swarms of mosquitoes. We were glad to leave the next morning, following a north-westerly course across a wonderfully beautiful meadow with circular groups of trees and a long belt of vegetation along the stream. It was then that I made my first acquaintance in Brazil with the seringueira (Syphonia elastica or Hevea brasiliensis), which was fairly plentiful in that region. As we shall see, that rubber tree, producing the best rubber known, became more and more common as we proceeded north.
In the cuts of rivers, soft red volcanic rock was exposed, with a surface layer of white sand and grey ashes in the flat meadow. The padding of earth was thin. Except close to rivers and in extinct craters where the accumulations of earth and cinders were often deeper with a good supply of moisture from underneath, the trees were feeble and anæmic. There again I was amazed to find how unstable and weak most trees were. One could knock them down with a mere hard push--as the roots had no hold in the ground, where they spread horizontally almost on the surface, owing to the rock underneath which prevented their penetrating farther than the thin upper layer of earth, sand, and ashes. If you happened to lean against a tree 4 or 5 in. in diameter, it was not uncommon to see the tree tumble down and you too. The wood also of those trees was very brittle and watery, with no power of resistance worth mentioning.
Many were the streamlets which flowed into the Rio Preto at elevations from 1,450 to 1,500 ft., viz. the Burity Comprido, the Bujui, the Grinko, the Pomba, the Corgo do Campo, the Riberão Grande, and the Stiva. Many of those streamlets had beautiful beds of white marble pebbles, which made their cool and clear water look and taste perfectly delicious. Others, with soft black mud bottoms--especially in cuvettes--were extremely troublesome to cross.
On the banks of those streams were marvellous pacobeira palms--a kind of giant banana palm, attaining a height of 30 to 40 ft., with a stem, ovoid in section, of great length, and from which shot out paddle-like leaves of immense size and of a gorgeous green, 6 to 7 ft. long and 3 ft. wide.
On July 3rd we went through thick, dirty, low scrub and forest, except along streams, the banks of which were lined with tall anæmic trees 1 inch in diameter with a mere bunch of leaves from branches at the summit. We again met with several cuvettes--very grassy, with the usual florid growth of trees in the centre. Those depressions were 1,400 ft. above the sea level. From many of the trees hung huge globes, like tumours. They were nests of cupim, the destructive white ants (termes album), of which there were swarms everywhere in that region. In one night they ate up the bottoms of most of my wooden boxes and rendered many of our possessions useless. They ate up our clothes, injured our saddles by eating the stitching--anything that was not of metal, glass, or polished leather was destroyed by those little devils.
We were beginning to descend gradually on the northern side of the table-land. After crossing a pass 1,350 ft. above the sea level we arrived on a lagoon to our left. Shortly after we reached the left bank of the Arinos River, separated there from the lagoon by a narrow tongue of high land--some 30 ft. high--between the two waters.
It was thus that on July 4th we encamped on that great tributary of the Amazon. We were still thousands of kilometres away from its mouth. My animals were quite exhausted and were unable to continue. Moreover, the forest near this great river--already, so near its birthplace, over 100 metres wide--would have made their coming along quite impossible, as the grazing was getting scarce, and would be scarcer still as we went on north. Then as the River Arinos took me in the direction in which I intended to travel, I had made up my mind to abandon the animals at that spot and attempt to navigate the river--diabolical as its reputation was.
We had now travelled on horseback some 2,000 kil. from the last railway station, of which about 600 kil. were over absolutely unknown country. Rough as the travelling had been, it was mere child's play compared with the experiences we had to endure from that day on.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: A litre is a cube the sides of which are 3-7/8 in.]
END OF VOL. I
Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney Ltd., London and Aylesbury.
ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA
BY
A. HENRY SAVAGE-LANDOR
WITH 2 MAPS, 8 COLOURED PLATES, AND 260 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. II
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
Printed in 1913
Copyright in the United States of America by A. Henry Savage-Landor
CONTENTS
VOL. II
CHAPTER I The River Arinos--A Rickety Canoe--Mapping the River--The Siphonia Elastica--Rubber and its Collection--An Enormously Rich Country--A German in Slavery pp. 1-15
CHAPTER II Hoisting the British Flag--An Escaped Slave--A Dilemma--Benedicto--The Lutra Brasiliensis--The Seringueiros--A Marvellous River--Rapids pp. 16-32
CHAPTER III Dangerous Navigation--Eddies--Whirlpools--An Extraordinary Creature--The Man X--Pedro de Toledo Island--An Interesting Rodent pp. 33-50
CHAPTER IV Oleo Pardo Trees--Beautiful Palms--The River Bottom--Swarms of Butterflies--Millions of Bees--A Continuous Torture pp. 51-61
CHAPTER V Great Islands--The Trinchão Fish--A Fisherman's Paradise--Alastor Island--Plentiful Rubber--The Civilized Man's Idea of the Tropical Forest--The War-Cries of the Indians--Swarms of Bees and Butterflies pp. 62-75
CHAPTER VI The Tapirus Americanus--Striking Scenery--The Mate Tree--Photography in Camp--Brazilian Way of Reasoning--A New Christopher Columbus--The Selection of our Camps--Beautiful Fruit--A Large Tributary pp. 76-91
CHAPTER VII Ideal Islands--Immense Figueira Trees--The "Spider Monkey"--Great Variety of Fish in the Arinos--The Rocky Gateway into Diabolical Waters--Shooting Dangerous Rapids--Cutting a Way through the Forest--A Nasty Rapid--Plentiful Fish pp. 92-111
CHAPTER VIII Magnificent Basins--Innumerable Rapids--Narrow Escapes--The Destructive Sauba Ants--Disobedient Followers--A Range of Mountains--Inquisitive Monkeys--Luck in Fishing--Rocky Barriers--Venus pp. 112-128
CHAPTER IX Dogs--Macaws--Crocodiles--A Serious Accident: Men flung into a Whirlpool--The Loss of Provisions and Valuable Baggage--More Dangerous Rapids--Wonderful Scenery--Dangerous Work--On the Edge of a Waterfall--A Risky Experience--Bravery of Author's Brazilian Followers--A High Wind from the North-East--A Big Lake pp. 129-150
CHAPTER X The Point of Junction of the Arinos and Juruena Rivers--Elfrida Landor Island--Terrible Days of Navigation--Immense Islands--An Old Indian Camp--A Fight between a Dog and an Ariranha--George Rex Island--A Huge Sucuriú Snake pp. 151-164
CHAPTER XI A Family of Ariranhas--Attacked by them--Three Nasty Rapids--Beautiful Sand Beaches--Exciting Experiences--Going down a Thundering Cataract--Alcides' Narrow Escape--A Night's Work in the Midst of a Foaming Rapid in order to rescue the half-submerged Canoe--Filippe's Courage--Visited by a Snake 20 ft. long pp. 165-181
CHAPTER XII A Tiny Globular Cloudlet warning us--Tossed in a Merciless Manner--Saved by Providence--Vicious Waters--A Diabolical Spot--A Highly Dangerous Crossing--A Terrible Channel--More Bad Rapids--On the Verge of a Fatal Drop down a Waterfall--Saved in Time--A Magnificent Sight--The August Falls--A Mutiny--The Canoe, weighing 2,000 lb., taken across the Forest over a Hill-range pp. 182-206
CHAPTER XIII A Double Whirlpool--Incessant Rapids of Great Magnitude--A Dangerous Channel--Nothing to Eat--Another Disaster pp. 207-219
CHAPTER XIV In the Hands of Providence--A Mutiny--Another Mutiny--Foodless--Hard and Dangerous Work--A Near Approach to Hades--Making an Artificial Channel among Thousands of Boulders--An Awe-inspiring Scene--The Fall of S. Simão--A Revolt pp. 220-234
CHAPTER XV Mutiny and Threats--Wasted Efforts--Awful Waters--The Canoe escapes in a Violent Rapid--Another Mutiny--The Canoe recovered--An Appalling Vortex--The Fall of S. Simão--Cutting an Artificial Channel in the Rocks pp. 235-248
CHAPTER XVI At Death's Door--Mundurucu Indians--All Author's Followers poisoned by Wild Fruit--Anxious Moments--Seringueiros--A Dying Jewish Trader--The Mori Brothers--A New Hat--Where the Tres Barras meets the Arinos-Juruena--The Canoe abandoned pp. 249-265
CHAPTER XVII A Fiscal Agency--Former Atrocities--The Apiacar Indians--Plentiful Rubber--Unexploited Regions--Precious Fossils thrown away by Author's Followers--A Terrific Storm--Author's Canoe dashed to pieces--The Mount St. Benedicto pp. 266-277
CHAPTER XVIII Starting across the Virgin Forest--Cutting the Way incessantly--A Rugged, Rocky Plateau--Author's Men throw away the Supplies of Food--Attacked by Fever--Marching by Compass--Poisoned--Author's Men break down--Author proceeds across Forest endeavouring to reach the Madeira River--A Dramatic Scene pp. 278-298
CHAPTER XIX Benedicto and Filippe show Courage--Confronted with a Mountainous Country--Steep Ravines--No Food--Painful Marches--Starving--Ammunition rendered useless by Moisture--The "Pros" and "Cons" of Smoking--A Faint Hope--A Forged Tin which should have contained Anchovies--Curious Effects of Starvation upon the Brain--Where Money is of no avail--Why there was Nothing to eat in the Forest--The Sauba Ants--Sniffed by a Jaguar--Filippe tries to commit Suicide pp. 299-320
CHAPTER XX Benedicto and the Honey--Constantly collapsing from Exhaustion--A Strange Accident--Finding a River--People's Mistaken Ideas--Sixteen Days of Starvation--An Abandoned Hut--Repairing a Broken-down Canoe--Canoe founders--A Raft constructed of Glass pp. 321-338
CHAPTER XXI The Launching of the Glass Raft--Accidents--The Raft sinking--Saved--Our First Solid Meal--Its Consequences--The Canuma and Secundury Rivers--Marching back across the Forest to the Relief of the Men left behind--A Strange Mishap--A Curious Case of Telepathy pp. 339-364
CHAPTER XXII Baggage Saved--The Journey down the Tapajoz River--Colonel Brazil--Wrecked--From Itaituba to the Amazon--Benedicto and the Man X are discharged pp. 365-385
CHAPTER XXIII Santarem to Belem (Pará)--The Amazon--From Belem to Manaos--The Madeira-Mamore Railway pp. 386-404
CHAPTER XXIV Attacked by Beri-beri--A Journey up the Madeira River to the Relief of Filippe the Negro and Recovery of Valuable Baggage left with him--Filippe paid off--A Journey up the River Solimões--Iquitos pp. 405-418
CHAPTER XXV From Iquitos to the Foot of the Andes up the Rivers Ucayalli, Pachitea and Pichis--The Cashibos or "Vampire Indians" pp. 419-438
XXVI. Across the Andes--The End of the Trans-continental Journey pp. 439-457
CHAPTER XXVII The Peruvian Corporation Railway--The Land of the Incas--Lake Titicaca--Bolivia--Chile--The Argentine--A Last Narrow Escape--Back in England pp. 458-476
APPENDIX Some of the Principal Plants of Brazil--Mammals--Birds--Fish-- Reptiles--Vocabularies pp. 477-496
INDEX pp. 497-504
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOL. II
THE MOUTH OF THE PUTAMAYO RIVER (Coloured Plate) Frontispiece
PAGE RUBBER TREE SHOWING INCISIONS AND THE COLLAR AND TIN CUP FOR THE COLLECTION OF THE LATEX 4 COAGULATING RUBBER INTO A BALL 4 BALLS OF RUBBER OUTSIDE A SERINGUEIRO'S HUT 8 METHOD OF PRESSING RUBBER INTO CAKES, THE ALUM PROCESS OF COAGULATION BEING USED 8 THE UPPER ARINOS RIVER 12 THE ARINOS RIVER ABOVE THE RAPIDS 12 THE FIRST ROCKS IN THE ARINOS RIVER 20 ENORMOUS GLOBULAR ROCKS TYPICAL OF THE ARINOS RIVER 20 A ROCKY BARRIER IN THE RIVER 24 A PICTURESQUE DOUBLE WATERFALL ON THE ARINOS RIVER 24 AN ISLAND OF THE ARINOS RIVER 28 VEGETATION ON AN ISLAND IN THE RIVER ARINOS 28 PREPARING THE CANOE TO DESCEND A RAPID 36 A CATARACT ON THE ARINOS RIVER 36 A RAPID ON THE ARINOS RIVER 44 TAKING THE CANOE THROUGH A NARROW CHANNEL 44 A FORMIDABLE VORTEX 64 GOING DOWN A VIOLENT RAPID IN A NARROW CHANNEL 64 THE RESULT OF HALF AN HOUR'S FISHING ON THE ARINOS-JURUENA 84 LEADING THE CANOE DOWN A RAPID BY ROPE 92 CHARACTERISTIC ROCKY BARRIER ACROSS THE ARINOS RIVER (AUTHOR'S SEXTANT IN FOREGROUND) 92 WHIRLPOOL AT END OF RAPID 100 IN SHALLOW WATER 100 FISHING ON THE ARINOS: A JAHU 104 FISH OF THE ARINOS RIVER 104 A FINE CATARACT ON THE ARINOS-JURUENA RIVER 108 PREPARING THE CANOE PRIOR TO DESCENDING A RAPID 112 A NASTY RAPID 112 A GIANT CENTRAL WAVE EMERGING FROM A NARROW CHANNEL 116 A DANGEROUS RAPID 120 TAKING THE CANOE AND PART OF THE BAGGAGE DOWN A NARROW PASSAGE AMONG ROCKS 120 THE CANOE BEING LED DOWN A RAPID 124 CROCODILE ABOUT TO ATTACK ONE OF THE DOGS OF THE EXPEDITION. PHOTOGRAPHED BY AUTHOR AT A DISTANCE OF THREE METRES (RIO ARINOS-JURUENA) 128 TERRIFYING RAPID SHOT BY AUTHOR AND HIS MEN IN THEIR CANOE 132 AUTHOR'S MEN SHOOTING A CROCODILE 136 A CATARACT IN THE RIVER ARINOS 140 AUTHOR'S CANOE AMONG GREAT VOLCANIC ROCKS 140 PREPARING TO DESCEND A RAPID 144 A CATARACT IN THE ARINOS RIVER 144 LAKE FORMED WHERE THE ARINOS AND JURUENA RIVERS MEET 148 GOING THROUGH A RAPID 148 AUTHOR'S CANOE GOING DOWN A CATARACT 152 THE IMMENSE WAVES ENCOUNTERED BY AUTHOR IN EMERGING FROM THE CHANNEL, IN THE RAPID OF THE INFERNO. (THE CANOE WITH ITS OCCUPANTS SHOT UP VERTICALLY IN THE AIR) 156 A GIANT SUCURÍ SNAKE WITH ENTIRE DEER CONTAINED IN ITS DIGESTIVE ORGANS 160 AN EASY RAPID 164 GOING THROUGH A NARROW CHANNEL 164 A DANGEROUS VORTEX 168 PREPARING THE CANOE TO GO DOWN A RAPID 168 A NARROW PASSAGE IN THE ARINOS RIVER 172 TREBLE VORTEX. (THE WATER REVOLVED IN THREE DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS IN SUCCESSION) 172 AT THE AUGUST FALLS 176 AUTHOR AND HIS MEN IN WATER UP TO THEIR NECKS FOR AN ENTIRE NIGHT ENDEAVOURING TO SAVE THEIR CANOE, WHICH IN SHOOTING A RAPID HAD BECOME STUCK BETWEEN ROCKS (Coloured Plate) 178 THE SALTO AUGUSTO FROM ABOVE 192 THE UPPER TERRACE OF THE AUGUST WATERFALL 184 INTERESTING GEOLOGICAL FORMATION BELOW THE SALTO AUGUSTO 188 THE SALTO AUGUSTO (UPPER TERRACE) 192 FOLIATED ROCK BELOW THE AUGUST FALLS 196 THE WOODEN RAILWAY CONSTRUCTED BY AUTHOR IN ORDER TO TAKE THE CANOE OVERLAND FOR TWO AND A HALF KILOMETRES AT THE AUGUST FALLS 200 FORMATION OF ROCK BELOW THE AUGUST FALLS 200 PHOTOGRAPH SHOWING THE ROAD CUT BY AUTHOR ACROSS THE FOREST IN ORDER TO TAKE THE HEAVY CANOE OVERLAND 204 CONVEYING THE CANOE ACROSS THE FOREST ON IMPROVISED RAILWAY AND ROLLERS 208 PUSHING THE CANOE UPHILL THROUGH THE FOREST. (NOTICE MEN WITH HEADS WRAPPED OWING TO TORTURING INSECTS) 212 CONVEYING THE CANOE, WEIGHING 2,000 LB., OVER A HILL RANGE--THE DESCENT 216 AUTHOR'S CANOE BEING MADE TO TRAVEL ACROSS THE FOREST 220 DISTANT VIEW SHOWING BOTH FALLS AT THE SALTO AUGUSTO 224 LAUNCHING THE CANOE AFTER ITS JOURNEY OVER A HILL RANGE 224 A MOST DANGEROUS RAPID NAVIGATED BY AUTHOR AND HIS MEN 228 LETTING THE CANOE JUMP A RAPID 232 ARTIFICIAL CANAL MADE BY AUTHOR AND HIS MEN IN ORDER TO TAKE THEIR CANOE ALONG WHERE THE RIVER WAS IMPASSABLE 236 RAPID THROUGH WHICH AUTHOR TOOK HIS CANOE 240 CONVEYING THE CANOE BY HAND DOWN A RAPID 244 CANOE BEING TAKEN ALONG AN ARTIFICIAL CANAL MADE BY AUTHOR AND HIS MEN 248 A MOMENT OF SUSPENSE: AUTHOR AND HIS MEN IN THEIR CANOE GOING THROUGH A NARROW CHANNEL BETWEEN VERTICAL WALLS OF ROCK. THE WATER FORCED THROUGH FROM THREE LARGE ARMS OF THE RIVER JOINING AT THAT POINT FORMED A HIGH AND DANGEROUS CENTRAL WAVE (Coloured Plate) 250 CONVEYING THE CANOE THROUGH THE FOREST. (NOTICE THE SIDE OF THE CANOE SPLIT AND STUFFED WITH PIECES OF CLOTH) 252 LEADING THE EMPTY CANOE DOWN A DANGEROUS CHANNEL. (PHOTOGRAPHED A FEW SECONDS BEFORE THE ROPE SNAPPED AND CANOE ESCAPED) 256 THE S. SIMÃO WATERFALL 260 THE HUGE CANOE BEING TAKEN THROUGH A SMALL ARTIFICIAL CANAL MADE IN THE ROCKS BY THE AUTHOR AND HIS MEN 264 MUNDURUCU INDIANS 268 AUTHOR TAKING ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS ON A SANDY BEACH OF THE RIVER ARINOS-JURUENA 272 WHERE THE RIVERS ARINOS-JURUENA AND S. MANOEL MEET 276 JOSÉ MARACATI, CHIEF OF THE MUNDURUCUS, TAPAJOZ 276 APIACAR BOY 280 APIACAR INDIAN 280 APIACAR WOMEN 284 MUNDURUCU WOMEN 288 APIACAR CHILDREN 288 RAFT CONSTRUCTED BY THE AUTHOR IN ORDER TO NAVIGATE THE CANUMA RIVER WITH HIS TWO COMPANIONS OF STARVATION (Coloured Plate) 336 CANOE MADE OF THE BARK OF THE BURITY PALM 340 INDIANS OF THE MADEIRA RIVER 340 CARIPUNA INDIANS 348 INDIAN IDOLS OF THE PUTUMAYO DISTRICT 348 TRADING BOATS LANDING BALLS OF RUBBER, RIVER TAPAJOZ 352 ITAITUBA 356 A TRADING BOAT ON THE TAPAJOZ RIVER 360 THE S.S. "COMMANDANTE MACEDO" 360 COLONEL R. P. BRAZIL AND HIS CHARMING WIFE 364 WHERE THE MADEIRA-MAMORE RAILWAY BEGINS 368 MADEIRA-MAMORE RAILWAY, SHOWING CUT THROUGH TROPICAL FOREST 368 BOLIVIAN RUBBER AT ABUNA STATION ON THE MADEIRA-MAMORE RAILWAY 372 THE INAUGURATION TRAIN ON THE MADEIRA-MAMORE RAILWAY 372 WRECK OF THE "MAMORIA" IN THE CALDERÃO OF THE SOLIMÕES RIVER 376 INDIANS OF THE PUTUMAYO DISTRICT. (DR. REY DE CASTRO, PERUVIAN CONSUL AT MANAOS IN THE CENTRE OF PHOTOGRAPH) 376 A STREET IN IQUITOS 380 THE LAUNCH "RIMAC" ON THE UCAYALLI RIVER 380 A TRAIL IN THE ANDES 384 CAMPAS INDIAN CHILDREN 388 CAMPAS OLD WOMAN AND HER SON 392 CAMPAS INDIAN WOMAN 396 CAMPAS WOMAN 400 CAMPAS MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD 400 THE UCAYALLI RIVER 402 THE LAUNCH ON WHICH AUTHOR TRAVELLED ALMOST TO THE FOOT OF THE ANDES 402 CAMPAS FAMILY WADING ACROSS A STREAM 404 A FARMHOUSE ON THE ANDES 404 ON THE ANDES: AN ELEVATED TRAIL OVERLOOKING A FOAMING TORRENT. (SEE ARCH CUT IN ROCK) 406 LA MERCEDES 410 THE AVENUE OF EUCALYPTI NEAR THE TOWN OF TARMA (ANDES) 410 ON THE ANDES 412 A STREET OF TARMA 412 THE MARKET-PLACE, TARMA 414 THE HIGHEST POINT WHERE AUTHOR CROSSED THE ANDES BEFORE REACHING THE RAILWAY AT OROYA 416 OROYA 420 OROYA, THE HIGHEST RAILWAY STATION IN THE WORLD 420 IN THE ANDES AT 16,000 FEET ABOVE THE SEA LEVEL 422 THE HIGHEST POINT OF THE OROYA RAILWAY: THE GALERA TUNNEL 422 THE OROYA RAILWAY (A GREAT SPRING EMERGING FROM THE MOUNTAIN-SIDE) 424 BEAUTIFUL SCENERY ON THE PERUVIAN CORPORATION RAILWAY TO CUZCO, PERU 424 A. B. LEGUIA, THE PRESIDENT OF THE PERUVIAN REPUBLIC 426 THE AMERICAN OBSERVATORY, AREQUIPA, AND MOUNT MISTI, PERU 428 ON THE PERUVIAN CORPORATION RAILWAY ON THE WAY TO CUZCO 428 A BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLE OF ANCIENT SPANISH WOOD-CARVING, PERU 432 WONDERFUL EXAMPLE OF OLD SPANISH WOOD-CARVING, PERU 434 ON THE WAY TO CUZCO: RAILWAY BRIDGE PARTLY CARRIED AWAY BY SWOLLEN RIVER 436 GREAT SAND DUNES ALONG THE PERUVIAN CORPORATION RAILWAY TO CUZCO 438 INCA BATH OR FOUNTAIN 438 CUZCO: LLAMAS IN FOREGROUND 440 A FAMOUS INCA WALL, CUZCO. (THE VARIOUS ROCKS FIT SO PERFECTLY THAT NO MORTAR WAS USED TO KEEP THEM IN PLACE) 442 INCA THREE-WALLED FORTRESS OF SACSAYHUAMAN, CUZCO 444 THE INCA TEMPLE OF THE SUN, WITH SPANISH SUPERSTRUCTURE 446 INCA DOORWAY, CUZCO 446 INCA STEPS CARVED IN A DOME OF ROCK, CUZCO. (FORTRESS NOTICEABLE IN THE DISTANCE) 448 THE "ROUND TABLE" OF THE INCAS 452 ENTRANCE TO INCA SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGES 452 INCA PLACE OF AMUSEMENT: A TOBOGGAN SLIDE OF ROCK 454 AN INCA GRAVE, BOLIVIA 454 INCA REMAINS NEAR CUZCO 456 WHERE A STONE FIGHT TOOK PLACE IN THE INCA COUNTRY. (NOTICE THE INNUMERABLE ROCKS WHICH HAVE BEEN THROWN DOWN THE HILL FROM THE HIGH INCA STRUCTURE) 458 ENTRANCE TO INCA SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGES 458 THE GREAT INCA RUINS OF VIRACCOCHA, IN TINTA (CUZCO) 460 INCA POTTERY, WEAPONS AND ORNAMENTS OF GOLD AND COPPER 464 INCA TOWERS OF SILLISTAYNI, PUÑO (LAKE TITICACA) 468 AN INCA STATUE, BOLIVIA 468 LAKE TITICACA 470 GUAQUI, THE PORT FOR LA PAZ ON LAKE TITICACA 470 ON THE ANDES 474 LLAMAS IN BOLIVIA 476 BORAX DEPOSITS, BOLIVIA 476
Chapter I
The River Arinos--A Rickety Canoe--Mapping the River--The Siphonia Elastica--Rubber and its Collection--An Enormously Rich Country--A German in Slavery
WE struck the River Arinos at a point called Porto Velho. There were at that place the miserable sheds of three seringueiros (rubber-collectors). I had made for that particular spot because I had heard that a big canoe carved out of the trunk of a tree probably existed there. I was told that the canoe was large enough to carry many people. It had been constructed, it seemed, some ten years previously by a rubber-collecting expedition which came to grief, was abandoned, and had since been taken possession of by seringueiros. I had purchased it on chance from its last owner for Rs. 300,000. With accessories I gave about Rs. 450,000, or roughly, £30. It was the only canoe upon that river.
I considered myself lucky, when I arrived at Porto Velho, to find that the canoe actually existed at all. There she was, floating more or less gracefully upon the water. She had a total length of 42 ft., was 3½ ft. wide, and had been roughly scooped out of a giant tree which was not quite straight. Her lines, therefore, were not as elegant as might have been expected. For instance, her starboard and port sides were not absolutely straight lines, but described curves--in fact, the port side almost an angle. That gave the canoe an original appearance, which to my practical mind at once suggested great difficulty of steering. Her sides, coarsely cut with an axe, were from 3 to 5 in. thick; her bottom from 6 in. to 1 ft. thick. The two extremities were solid blocks, so that her weight--she was carved out of unusually heavy wood--was altogether over 2,000 lb.
When I went down to the water to examine my purchase I found that the vessel was in a pitiful condition and needed sound repairing before she could proceed on a long journey. She was sufficiently good for crossing the stream--that was all she was used for by the seringueiros--but it would be a different matter to go down rapids for some thousands of kilometres. It took all the strength of my men, the seringueiros, and myself combined to pull the canoe out of the water upon the beach and to turn her over. We worked hard for two days with saws and hammers, knives, tar and wadding, in order to stop up a gigantic crack which extended from one end of the canoe to the other under her bottom. Although the crack did not go right through, I could well imagine that a hard knock against a rock might be quite sufficient to split the canoe in two. We scraped her and cleaned her; we overhauled and strengthened her thoroughly; we cut rough seats inside, and built an elevated deck upon which the baggage might be comparatively safe from moisture.
We were proud of our work when we launched her. Wiping the dripping perspiration from our foreheads, necks and arms, we looked just as if we had come out of a bath, we sweated so in our efforts to push her back into the water, the heat near the water, screened as it was from the breeze by the high banks and trees, being suffocating! We gazed at her--the queen of the Arinos River. She looked lovely in our eyes. On her stern I fixed the steering gear, a huge paddle 12 ft. long; and upon a neatly-made staff, which I had cut myself, I hoisted the British flag, which had hitherto flown over my tent. It was, I think, the first time the British flag had waved over that river. The canoe was baptized the "Elfrida," after my sister's name.
It will be remembered that only four men remained with me. Not one of them had ever been in a canoe before--except to be ferried across a river, perhaps--not one had the slightest idea of navigation, and it followed, of course, that not one had ever used a paddle or steered a canoe.
As the river had never been surveyed, it was my intention to make an accurate map of its entire course as far as its junction with the Tres Barras, several thousand kils. away, from which point I imagined the river must be slightly better known. Therefore, as I should be busy all day long with the prismatic compass and watch, constantly taking notes of the direction of the stream and the distances covered (checked almost daily by astronomical observations) I should not be able to take an active part in the navigation.
The canoe was undermanned. Imagine her length--42 ft.--with only two men to paddle. A third man was stationed on her bow to punt when possible and be on the look-out for rocks; while Alcides, whom I had promoted to the rank of quartermaster, was in charge of the steering. I had taken the precaution to make a number of extra paddles. We carried a large quantity of fishing-lines with hooks of all sizes, and cartridges of dynamite.
The river was most placid and beautiful, and the water wonderfully clear. Unlike rivers elsewhere, the Arinos did not show a branch or a twig floating on its waters, not a leaf on its mirror-like surface. That did not mean that branches of trees--sometimes even whole trees--did not fall into the river, but, as I have stated already, the specific gravity of woods in that part of Brazil was so heavy that none floated. Hence the ever-clean surface of all the streams.
We were then in a region of truly beautiful forest, with figueira (Ficus of various kinds), trees of immense size, and numerous large cambará. The bark of the latter--reddish in colour--when stewed in boiling water, gave a refreshing decoction not unlike tea and quite good to drink.
Most interesting of all the trees was, however, the seringueira (Siphonia elastica), which was extraordinarily plentiful in belts or zones along the courses of rivers in that region. As is well known, the seringueira, which grows wild in the forest there, is one of the most valuable lactiferous plants in the world. Its latex, properly coagulated, forms the best quality of rubber known.
There are, of course, many latex-giving plants of the Euphorbiæ, Artocarpæ and Lobeliæ families, but no other are perhaps such abundant givers of latex as the Brazilian seringueira (of the Euphorbiæ family), a tree plentiful not only in Matto Grosso on all the head-waters and courses of the rivers flowing into the Amazon, but also abundant in the Provinces of Para and the Amazon. In less quantities the seringueira is also to be found in Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and Maranhão.
The seringueira prevailed chiefly near the water, in swampy places, or in places inundated when the river was high. Never was the tree to be found at a distance away from water.
The height of the seringueira varies from 25 ft. to 50 ft. Its diameter is seldom more than 35 in. Its leaf is composed of three elongated leaflets, smooth-edged and complete in themselves. The seed is smooth-skinned, and of a reddish tone. The fruit consists of a well-rounded wooden capsule enclosing three cells which contain white oily almonds not disagreeable to eat. From the almonds an oil of a light red colour, not unlike the colour of old port wine, can be extracted. That oil can be substituted for linseed oil, and has the further advantage of not desiccating so quickly. Mixed with copal and turpentine it gives a handsome varnish. It can be used advantageously in the manufacture of printing-ink and soap. So that every part of the seringueira can be put to some use or other.
Among the other more important trees which produce rubber may be mentioned the Siphonia brevifoglia, the Siphonia brasiliensis, Siphonia rhytidocarpa, and the Siphonia lutea, all found chiefly in the State of Para. In other parts of Brazil grow the Ficus anthelmintica, the Ficus doliaria (or gameilleira), the Ficus elastica, Ficus indica, Ficus religiosa, Ficus radula, Ficus elliptica, Ficus prinoides, the Plumeria phagedenica, the Plumeria drastica, the Sorveira or Collophora utilis, and the Mangabeira or Harncornia speciosa.
At present we shall be chiefly interested in the seringueira (Siphonia elastica).
The collection of the latex from the seringueira and the subsequent process of coagulation were simple enough. A seringueiro, or rubber-collector, started from his hut early every morning carrying with him a small steel axe or pick, the head of which was 3 in. long and shaped like a bird's beak; a tin bucket, and some barro--soft clay which had been soaked in water. He walked along the estrada or track which he had cleared for himself, leading from one rubber tree to the next. There may be twenty, thirty, fifty or more rubber trees that have been tapped on one estrada, according to the district and the activity of the seringueiro. In the case of a new tree a collar of the fibre of burity palm was in the first instance nailed with pegs of hard wood round the stem, not horizontally, but at an angle: sometimes, when necessary, in a spiral. In other cases a similar band of clay was made to encircle the tree. These collars served as channels, compelling the latex, as it exuded from cuts made in the tree, to flow into a small tin cup suspended at the lowest point of the collar. The incisions were never made lower than 2 or 3 ft. from the ground. They must not penetrate deeper than the entire thickness of the bark of the tree, and they must on no account touch or wound the actual wood, or the tree would suffer greatly--even die. In some regions the incisions were made longitudinally, in others transversely. The operation was repeated by the seringueiro each time on every rubber tree as he went along the estrada, the latex flowing freely enough into the tin cup after each fresh incision had been made.
The seringueiro thus tapped each tree on his way out along the estrada, which in some cases may be several miles long; in other cases, where rubber trees were plentiful, only a few hundred yards in length. On his return journey the seringueiro emptied each small tin cup--by that time filled with latex--into the large bucket which invariably accompanied him on his daily round. Rubber-trees possess in a way at least one characteristic of cows. The more milk or latex one judiciously extracts from them, the more they give, up to a certain point. But, indeed, such a thing is known as exhausting a tree in a short time. A good seringueiro usually gives the trees a rest from the time they are in bloom until the fruit is mature. In some regions even a much longer respite is given to the trees--generally during the entire rainy season. In some localities, too, in order to let the latex flow more freely, a vertical incision is made above and meeting a horizontal one. At intervals oblique incisions are cut next to the vertical ones, but in Matto Grosso I never saw that complicated system of incisions adopted--only vertical incisions parallel to one another at a distance of 0·25 m. (9-7/8 in.) being made there, and in rows one above another. Some of the trees had actually hundreds of those cuts--many, of course, healed. Each cut only exudes latex for a comparatively short time, merely an hour or so.
During the first month after a tree is tapped, the supply of latex is generally plentiful; the second month it gives less; less still the third month. On an average twenty trees give about one litre of latex a day. Three litres of latex are necessary in order to obtain one litre of rubber. At the head-waters of the Arinos River 600 trees gave from 30 to 35 arobas (450 to 525 kils.) of fine rubber in the first month, and about 20 arobas (300 kils.) of sarnambé (second quality with impurities). One aroba is 15 kils.
The latex of the seringueira in the Arinos region was of a beautiful white, quite liquid, and with a pungent, almost sickening, odour. When a new tree was tapped, the lower towards the ground the incisions were made the better. If after considerable tapping the tree did not yield much, it was advisable to incise the tree higher up. In that region the trees exuded latex more abundantly when they began to have new leaves in October. Late in the dry season the latex flowed less freely. When the weather was windy all the latex seemed to contract to the summit of the trees and hardly flowed at all from the incisions. When it rained, on the contrary, it flowed freely, but was spoilt by being mixed with water; so that a good seringueiro must know well not only where and how, but also when to tap the trees, in order to get good results.
Several ways were employed in order to coagulate the latex. The simplest was the one used in Matto Grosso. The latex was poured into a rectangular wooden mould, 0·61 m. long (2 ft.), 0·46 m. wide (1½ ft.), and 0·15 m. deep (about 6 in.). Upon the latex was placed a solution of alum and warm water. Then coagulation took place. In order to compress the coagulating latex into solid cakes, a primitive lever arrangement was used--merely a heavy wooden bar, one end of which was inserted into the cavity of a tree, above the wooden mould, while at the other end of the bar heavy logs of wood were suspended. One night was sufficient for the latex to coagulate thoroughly and be properly compressed into cakes, weighing each about 22½ kils. The cakes were lifted out by belts of liane which had been previously laid into the moulds.
The discoverer of the method of coagulating rubber with alum was Henry S. Strauss. He also found that by keeping the latex in hermetically sealed vessels it could be preserved in a liquid state. The same result could be obtained with ammonia.
In the Amazon and Para Provinces a different process was used. The latex was coagulated by placing it near the fire. The heat evaporated the aqueous part and coagulated the vegetable albumen. In order to make what was called a garrafa, or large ball of rubber--some weighed 20, 30, 40 kils. and more--a small ball of latex was made to coagulate round a horizontal bar of wood. That ball was gradually increased in circumference by smearing it over with more latex, which became gradually coagulated and dried by the heat and smoke produced by the burning of certain woods, and of the oily seeds of the urucuri palm, technically known as the Attalea excelsa. In this process the rubber did not remain white, as with the alum process; in fact, it became dark brown, almost black, owing, of course, to the smoke. Locally, the smoking process was said to be the better of the two, for the coagulation with alum took away somewhat from the elasticity of the rubber.
Interesting was the sorveira (Collophora utilis), a tree which gave latex that was quite delicious to drink, but could not be coagulated. The trees, to any untrained person, closely resembled the seringueira, only the leaves were more minute and differently shaped. It must be remembered that nearly all the trees of the Brazilian forest had leaves only at a very great height above the ground, and it was not always easy to see their shape, especially when close to other trees where the foliage got interwoven into an almost solid mass. We frequently enjoyed the sweet milk of the sorveira--it tasted slightly of fresh walnuts with sugar on them. It was unsafe to drink too much of it, as it had injurious effects upon one's digestive organs.
There was there also the leiteiro (or producer of milk), a smaller tree, and the liana macaco, which both produced abundant milk, but in neither case had a way, so far, been found to coagulate it.
The two days spent at Porto Velho were interesting. The four men who had remained with me behaved fairly well, principally owing to the prospect, that, in drifting down stream, they would not have to work, and would be saved the heavy trouble of grooming, packing and unpacking the animals, and the tedious job every morning of riding miles through the country in order to recover those that had strayed away during the night.
"Thank heaven!" exclaimed Antonio, as he gazed at the canoe, "we shall not have to hunt for her every morning!"
"Yes," answered Filippe, "no more pack-saddles to fix, no more leading the animals to drink. She"--pointing to the canoe--"can drink all the time if she likes...."
Filippe was a prophet. The canoe did "drink" all the time, much to our concern. Little did my men suspect before we started that they would have the hardest time of their lives--so hard, indeed, that it was amazing humans could endure it at all.
One of the three seringueiros at Porto Velho interested me greatly. He was a tall, gentlemanly, refined person, who seldom uttered a word. I noticed that he avoided meeting me, and, although extremely civil, seemed afraid to enter into conversation. The little shed he had built himself (7 ft. by 4 ft., and 7 ft. high) was extraordinarily neat, and open on all sides--quite unlike the sheds Brazilian rubber collectors build themselves.
From my tent I watched him. The man got up before sunrise every day, going at once to the river for a swim. Humming some sort of a song, he would then go through a series of gymnastic exercises, interrupted by sonorous slaps upon different parts of his anatomy to kill impertinent mosquitoes, of which there were swarms on the Arinos River. That done, he would assume a suit of working-clothes, and, returning to his shed, would pick up his tools and noiselessly depart, so as not to disturb our sleep! At sunset, when he returned, he immediately proceeded to the river to have another swim and to get rid of the many insects which always collected upon one's person in going through the forest. Then he put on a clean suit of clothes, and, saluting us from a distance, went to his shed to rest.
I was certain the man was not a Brazilian, but as curiosity is not one of my chief characteristics I took no special notice of him. This brought him round to my tent one evening. The man was a German by birth, of a good family and excellent education. He could speak German, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese to perfection, and was well versed in the literature of those languages. He had evidently drifted about for many years in many parts of South America in search of a fortune, in the Argentine, in Uruguay, and had ended by becoming a slave in Brazil. Yes, the poor old man was a voluntary slave. He had borrowed from his employer and was unable to repay. He was therefore a slave in the true sense of the word, as his employer could, according to local custom, sell him to any one he chose.
I was terribly upset to see a European in such a position, and, what was worse, I was not in a position to help. Nor indeed was help asked for or wanted. The old fellow bore the burden bravely, and said he had never been happier in his life. Supposing he were made to return to his own country--from which he had been absent so many years--he philosophically argued, what could he be, with no money and no friends, but a most unhappy man? All his relatives and friends must have died; the habits he had acquired in the wilds were not suitable for European cities; he was too old to change them. The German was an extraordinarily fine type of a man, honest, straightforward, brave. He spoke in the kindest and fairest way of his master. He had sold himself because of necessity. It was now a matter of honour, and he would remain a slave until it was possible to repay the purchase money--some four hundred pounds sterling, if I remember rightly--which he never expected to be able to repay at all.
The German told me some interesting things about the immediate neighbourhood of the camp. The Indians of the Cayapo tribe, who lived close by, did not interfere with the seringueiros. He had been there several years in succession, and he had never seen an Indian. The seringueiros only went to collect rubber during some three or four months each year, after which time they returned to the distant towns south as far as Cuyabá and Corumbá. At the beginning of the rainy season, when the time came for them to retire, the Indians generally began to remind the seringueiros that it was time to go, by placing obstacles on the estrada, by removing cups or even the collars from the rubber trees. But so far in that region, although footmarks of Indians and other signs of them had been noticed, not one individual had been actually seen. Their voices were frequently heard in the distance singing war songs.
"Hark!" said the German to me, "do you hear them?"
I listened attentively. Far, far down the river a faint chorus of voices could just be heard--intermittent sounds of "huá ... huá ... huá ... huá." In the stillness of the night the sound could be distinguished clearly. It went on until sunrise, when it gradually died out.
There was a big lagoon to the west of Porto Velho, formed by the river at high water. The lagoon dried up during the dry season. It was separated from the river only by a narrow tongue of land, 80 ft. high.
I took careful and repeated observations for latitude, longitude, and altitude, the latter by a boiling-point thermometer, from our point of departure at the headwaters of the Arinos River. The elevation of the river was there 1,200 ft. by aneroid, 1,271 ft. by the hypsometrical apparatus. The latitude was 14° 2'·2 South; the longitude 56° 17' West of Greenwich.
We were having beautiful, clear skies. Only on July 4th at sunset a solitary streak of mist extended to the summit of the sky.
I had two plans in my mind when I decided to descend the Arinos River. One was to abandon that river at the point where it met the Juruena River and strike across country westward until the Madeira-Mamore Railway was met. The other plan--even more difficult--was to continue down the river as far as its junction with the Tres Barras, from which place I would strike across the virgin forest as far as the Madeira River. I had not the faintest idea how I could realize either plan with the ridiculously meagre resources at my disposal. I had money enough, but unfortunately that was one of the few spots on earth where money was of little use. Again I trusted in Providence to come to our help. Both plans involved thousands of kilometres of navigation of a diabolical river, in an almost uncontrollable canoe, with an insufficient and absolutely incapable crew. Then would come the crossing of the virgin forest on foot, for some hundreds of kilometres--nobody knew how many. The least number of men necessary in order to be able to carry provisions sufficient to execute either plan was thirty. I only had four. Yet I started. The second plan was successfully carried out, but necessarily at the cost almost of all our lives, and with sufferings unimaginable.
Chapter II
Hoisting the British Flag--An Escaped Slave--A Dilemma--Benedicto--The Lutra Brasiliensis--The Seringueiros--A Marvellous River--Rapids
ON July 6th we packed the canoe with our baggage and dogs. The British flag was hoisted at the stern of the canoe, and with tender embraces from the seringueiros, whose eyes were wet with tears--they imagined that we were going to certain death--we pulled out of Porto Velho at seven minutes to eleven o'clock a.m.
"We will pray with all our hearts that you may reach the end of your journey safely!... Beware of the rapids; they are terrible.... Be careful because the canoe does not steer true.... Do not let the canoe knock too hard against rocks, or she may split in two!... Good-bye!... good-bye!"
With those encouraging remarks from the seringueiros, who were sobbing bitterly, we drifted with the current, Antonio and Filippe the negro paddling in the style generally adopted for scooping soup with a spoon out of a dish.
I had provided the canoe with a number of improvised paddles we had cut ourselves. There were no two of equal size, shape, or weight. We had chopped them with an axe from sections of a tree. They were originally all intended to be the same, but what we intended to have and what we got were two different matters, as the five of us each worked on a separate paddle.
The seringueiros stood on the high bank, waving their arms in the air. One of them blew plaintive sounds on one of the horns used by them for calling their companions while in the forest. Those horns could be heard enormous distances. Filippe the white man, who was not paddling, fired back a salute of ten shots. There was nothing my men loved more than to waste ammunition. Fortunately we had plenty.
The average width of the river was there from 80 to 100 metres, with a fairly swift current. It was lucky that ours was the only boat on that river, for indeed we needed all that breadth of water in our snake-like navigation. I remonstrated with Alcides, who was at the helm, and advised him to keep the nose of the canoe straight ahead, as we were coming to a corrideira or small rapid.
Alcides, who could never be told anything, became enraged at my words of warning, and also at the derision of the other men, as we were drifting side on and he could not straighten her course. Just as we were entering the rapid, in his fury Alcides, in disgust, let go the steering-gear, which he said was useless. We were seized by the current and swung round with some violence, dashing along, scraping the bottom of the canoe on rocks, and bumping now on one side, now on the other, until eventually we were dashed violently over a lot of submerged trees, where the bank had been eroded by the current and there had been a landslide. The canoe nearly capsized, the three dogs and some top baggage being thrown out into the water by the impact. We got stuck so hard among the branches of the trees that we all had to remove our lower garments and get into the water trying to get the canoe off.
My men used pretty language. That small accident was lucky for us. The shouts of my men attracted to the bank a passing man. Half-scared, a wild figure of a mulatto with long, unkempt hair and beard, his body covered by what must have once been a suit of clothes, stood gazing at us, clutching a double-barrelled gun in his hands.
"Is there a revolution in Matto Grosso?" he inquired when I caught sight of him. "Why do you fly the red flag?"
"That is not the flag of revolution, that is the flag of peace. It is the English flag."
"The English flag! The English flag!" he exclaimed, running down the slope of the river bank. "You are English!... Oh, sir, take me with you! I entreat you take me with you! I am an escaped slave.... I owe my master much money.... I can never repay it.... I am a seringueiro. My estrada is some miles down the river. I have been there alone suffering for months. I had no more food, nothing. There is very little fish in the river. The life is too terrible. I can stand it no more. If you do not take me with you I shall kill myself."
I tried to persuade the strange figure to return to his master--the master lived in comfort in the city of Cuyabá. "If you chose to borrow money and sell yourself, it was only right that you should repay your debt." That was the only way I could look at it. But the man would not hear of it. If I did not take him he would kill himself--there, before me, he repeated; that was all.
So difficult a dilemma to solve--at so inconvenient a moment, when we were as busy as busy could be, trying to disentangle the canoe--was rather tiresome. The strange man, having laid his gun upon the ground, helped us with all his might in our work. When the canoe got off, the strange man, gun and all, jumped clumsily into her and nearly capsized her a second time. He implored me with tears in his eyes to take him along. He would work day and night; he would present me with his double-barrelled gun (an old muzzle-loader); he did not want pay--he only wanted to get freed from his master, who, he said, robbed and ill-treated him.
"Do you swear upon all that is most sacred that you have made up your mind not to go back to your master?"
"Yes. If you say 'No' to me, I shall kill myself now."
Benedicto--that was his name--spoke with quiet determination.
"Very good, Benedicto. You can remain. What is more, you shall receive from this moment the same pay as the other men. You can keep your old gun, too."
Benedicto embraced and kissed my hands, then my feet. The poor man's joy was so great that it was really worth living to see that such moments of happiness could be procured in a man's lifetime.
Benedicto was a free man again, and for the first time in his life was earning genuine money! He was handed a paddle, and he paddled away for all he was worth, splashing with water those in front and behind him. He was in a state of great excitement, tears flowing freely down his cheeks and beard, and dripping on to his knees as he sat in the bottom of the canoe. He sobbed to his heart's content, and kept on splashing us all over with his paddle. We were all so touched by that pathetic scene that we preferred getting wet to remonstrating.
Fortunately the river was placid enough under the corrideira. When things had quieted down a little, I taught Benedicto and the others how to paddle properly, and Alcides how to steer straight. I had then five men. That improved matters greatly, as four could paddle while the fifth was steering.
The Arinos River flowed from Porto Velho in a south-westerly, then in a due westerly direction, then north, then again west, from which last point it doubled, as it were, and proceeded east and south-east, returning to within quite a short distance of our original point of departure. We sounded our horn, and immediately heard in reply the horn of the seringueiros at Porto Velho. Judging by the sound, the distance could not have been more than a few hundred metres, although we had travelled some six thousand metres down stream.
For the first time I noticed swallows flying swiftly over the river, close to the water. Another easy corrideira was encountered. When we had been out several hours my men were already beginning to get into the right way of paddling, and Alcides was commencing to understand the capricious mysteries of the steering-gear.
On account of my men's inexperience--and due credit being given to the current--we went at the rate of 13 kils. an hour. Innumerable were the rubber trees all along the banks. Occasionally small sand beaches were met with. Here and there a fallen giant tree obstructed part of the river. Families of ariranhas (Lutra brasiliensis) played in the water. The pretty little animals--not unlike otters--raised their heads above water, and, hissing loudly, frequently came to attack the canoe. They were extraordinarily brave. They were greatly attracted by the vivid red of the British flag, which in their imagination suggested blood. They became wildly excited when I waved the flag at them, and when I placed it near the water they would charge the canoe--so much so that two or three times my men were able to kill them by striking them on the head with the heavy wooden paddles.
The river was at its lowest when I descended it, which made it all the more difficult for us, as we were treated to innumerable small rapids which would otherwise have been entirely covered over with water. A great island (80 m. long) of pebbles and beautiful crystals was passed in the centre of the stream, which there formed two channels; one entirely blocked by fallen trees and accumulated rolling material, the other, 40 m. wide, very deep and swift.
The banks of the river were about 20 ft. high, generally of red earth, with a stratum of white sand above. The vegetation was luxuriant and extraordinarily tidy along the summit of the banks. The water was quite crystal-like, it was so clear. All the time our nostrils were fully expanded to inhale the delicious scent of the forest, which closely resembled that of jessamine. Masses of violet-coloured convolvuli were festooned from the trees. That was a great treat for me, after the months I had gone through when my entire days were spent eating up dust raised in clouds by the troop of animals marching in front of me.
When you came to survey a river it was really amazing what zigzags water could make in cutting its way through a country. From north-west the Arinos veered south-west, and from south-west to north-east.
By one o'clock we were in a spacious basin, 200 m. in diameter, close to which a small tributary, 2 m. wide, entered the Arinos on the left bank. Farther down on the right bank were neat beaches of white and red sand. We stopped for a few moments at a seringueiro's shed. The poor fellow--a negro--was in a pitiable condition from malarial fever.
Those martyrs of labour were much to be pitied, and also admired. There, hundreds of miles away from everybody, they stayed, abandoned in the forest until the agents of their masters who had dropped them there found it convenient to come and fetch them back again. If they came back at all and never failed, it was not, you can be sure, for the interest they took in human life, but because of the quantity of valuable rubber which they expected would be collected before their return. Those poor creatures had no possible way of escape, except under extraordinary circumstances. They were conveyed to their stations overland by means of pack animals, which at once were sent back and did not return until the end of the collecting season. Even then, if the seringueiro wanted to get away, he was frequently compelled to purchase an animal from his employer at three or four times its actual value--that is to say, perhaps sixty or eighty pounds sterling. So that the more a man worked or earned the more he became indebted to his master.
Like all men who have lived a great deal in exile and solitude, the seringueiros--nearly all blacks or mulattos--were extraordinarily generous. They always wanted to give you all they possessed--which was next to nothing, but meant a fortune to them. They would deprive themselves of anything if they thought they could give the slightest pleasure.
We left the seringueiro. I feared the poor man could not live long in his broken-down condition. He was most grateful for some medicine and provisions I left with him. His farewell to us was in so melancholy a voice, as he tried to lift himself out of an improvised bamboo couch, that for days it rang in my ears, and before my eyes constantly remained his skeleton-like, sunken features as he waved his farewell and fell back exhausted.
Behind a narrow barrier of sand, about 10 ft. high, as we proceeded down stream in a north-westerly direction, was a large lagoon.
The river was really too beautiful for words, the clear green water reflecting with precision in deeper tones the view before us. Only when its course was disturbed and diverted by a sharp rock or by the branches of a fallen and dying tree, the successive angular ridges of the troubled water shone like polished silver in parallel lines from the reflected light of the sun, just like a huge luminous skeleton of a fish.
The trees were truly wonderful along the river--tall and healthy, with dense deep green foliage. But Nature seemed absolutely asleep. Barring the few swallows we had seen soon after our departure, and the ariranhas, we went the whole day without hearing the song of a bird, or the howling of a wild animal. We did hear a noise resembling the bark of a dog--so much did it resemble it that my dogs barked back. But it came not from a dog at all. The peculiar noise was made by a large bird.
After passing a handsome beach of white sand on our left, the river described sharp angles, west, north-west, north-east, then north. There were rapids, fairly strong, although not dangerous in any way. The river was forced through a channel 50 m. wide, in which the current was very strong. To make things worse, a giant tree had fallen and obstructed much of the passage, compelling us to negotiate the rapid in its worst part. A large bay, 180 m. in diameter, opened out below that point. Farther came a perfectly straight stretch of water for 3,000 m. Halfway down that stretch, to the right, we passed the mouth of the Agua Clara, a charming rivulet of crystalline water, 10 m. wide. A conglomerate stratum of alluvial formation, composed of well-rounded pebbles held together by red earth, and crumbling easily under pressure of the fingers, showed through in many places. The beaches of handsome, fine white sand were most interesting.
The forest was getting thin on both sides. In fact, late in the afternoon we had open country on the left bank--only a few trees being visible near the water's edge, and an occasional giant jatobá (Hymencoea Courbaril L.), the latter chiefly on the right bank. The right bank was sparsely wooded, and at one time we had open campos on both sides of us.
A streamlet 3 m. wide entered the Arinos on the left. We got to one point where the river proved treacherous, although apparently almost tranquil on the surface. The Brazilians have an excellent name for such places--rebojo, or a curve formed by sudden deviation of a current. If we had not been careful in going across such places, it would have been easy for the canoe to have been turned over and sucked under.
Patches of thick forest were met on either bank, and in those patches numerous indeed were the rubber trees. In the afternoon we saw chiefly campos and chapada, or thin scrub.
Considering all, we did well--chiefly owing to the strong current--on our first day of navigation. We had gone some 70 kils. when we halted at sunset, at the junction of the very deep streamlet Quarustera with the Arinos. The elevation of our camp, 60 ft. above the river, was 1,200 ft.
The nights were cool enough--minimum 55° Fahr. on the night of June 6th--7th. There was a thick haze over the river in the morning, and as we did not know what we might be coming upon suddenly we did not make a start until 7.15. After crossing a large and shallow bay the stream was forced into a channel 50 m. wide. There was open country--campos--on the right bank. A curious isolated volcanic boulder split in two was then observed in the stream, while the banks were of alluvially deposited conglomerate. From that spot luxuriant forest was on the right bank once more, while open country was on the left. Upon examination I found that the thick forest was merely a band or zone near the water--behind was open country.
Farther, the river went through a neck 40 m. wide where the current was very swift. The banks almost all along were from 10 to 20 ft. high. Slender tucuma or tucuman palms were to be seen, which had stems only 3 to 4 in. in diameter, but were 30 to 40 ft. high, and had a ball-like tuft of leaves at the top. We then came upon open country (chapada) on both sides, and went over small corrideiras, which we got to like, as we travelled along on them at a greater speed than in the still waters, with a minimum of exertion. The river seemed to be getting narrower all the time that day, and, of course, deeper. In many spots it went through a channel not more than 30 m. wide.
We heard--but not for long--the cackling of the jacu (Penelope cristata), a handsome gallinaceous bird. The jacu made most delicious eating. Then that day flocks of small green parrots flew over our heads on several occasions.
Ariranhas gave us once more a good deal of amusement and sport. It was seldom one found such cheeky and inquisitive animals. They would pop their heads out of the water quite close to the canoe and sniff and grind their teeth at us. They had beautiful little heads--something between a cat and a seal--with lovely, but wicked, black eyes of wonderful luminosity. They had a perfect craving for blood. The Brazilians have strange tales about them--not exactly fit for publication.
The sand beaches were not so frequent as we advanced on our journey. We noticed instead extensive beaches of gravel. Another tributary stream, 10 m. wide at its mouth, entered the Arinos from the east. There was heavy forest there with plenty of rubber-trees on the right bank, whereas the country was open on the left bank.
Farther down, the banks became low, so that the slightest rise in the river would inundate the country. The forest was particularly thick, and the rubber trees plentiful, along a stretch of 4,300 m. of river in a perfectly straight line.
The river was getting more and more beautiful at every turn. We emerged into a bay 300 m. in diameter. Great blocks of conglomerate were strewn about. A great spur projected to the centre of the bay. The richness in rubber of that region was amazing. Wonderful giant trees, heavily laden with dark green foliage, were reflected in deeper tones in the water of the river--there almost stagnant because held up by some obstacle lower down. Innumerable festoons of creepers hung down from those trees. The stream was there 80 m. wide, and beautiful that day in great stretches of 4,300 m., 1,400 m., 1,000 m., 3,000 m., 1,500 m., and 1,200 m.--in a perfectly straight line. The forest was occasionally interrupted on one side or the other by great expanses of chapada.
Immense bacabeira palms, 40 to 50 ft. high, were numerous, most graceful to look at, with their ten or eleven huge compound leaves placed like an open fan. Yellow filaments of some length hung in a cluster where the petiole of the leaves met.
We arrived at a pedreria--an accumulation of rocks--extending almost right across the stream, and which was the cause of the placidity of the waters above it. There were two channels--one to bearings magnetic 330°, the other to 360°--on either side of a central island. We followed the first and larger channel. The island, which had a most luxuriant growth of trees upon it, was subdivided into two by a channel 10 m. wide at its south-eastern end.
For purposes of identification I named all the islands we saw. The larger of these two I called Esmeralda Island. In order to establish its exact position I landed and took observations for latitude and longitude. Lat. 13° 15'·6 S.; long. 56° 46' W.
We were then at an elevation of 1,150 ft. The temperature in the shade was 77° Fahr. and 98° in the sun. Six-tenths of the sky was covered with thick globular clouds, which made the air heavy, although the temperature was not excessively high. It must be remembered that we in the canoe were in the sun all the time and suffered a good deal in the morning and afternoon, when the sun was not high, by the refraction of the sun's rays from the water. The refracted light was so powerful that it interfered a good deal with the navigation. The river looked like a molten surface of boiling silver, which absolutely blinded us at times, and made it impossible to see what was ahead in the water.
Esmeralda Island was formerly joined at its most south-westerly point to the western bank of the river. From that point the river described an arc of a circle as far as bearings magnetic 20° (N.N.E.). We negotiated successfully two small rapids with large volcanic rocks just under the surface of the water. We just escaped going over one of them, which would have certainly capsized the canoe. As it was we merely scraped the side of the canoe against it.
The left bank, which had crumbled down, showed strata of conglomerate and yellow sand, with upper alluvial deposits of a light grey colour.
We were travelling due north in a straight line of 1,800 m. when we came upon the entrance of a lakelet on the west side of an islet. A huge fish--some 5 ft. in length--unaccustomed to the unusual sight of human beings, played about under our canoe for some time, much to the excitement of my men. Birds of superb metallic blue, vivid yellow, and iridescent plumage played about among the trees. On the left bank farther down was a great growth of high bamboos, then again forest with plenty of vigorous rubber trees.
Again small and fairly swift rapids were encountered in a turn of the river from bearings magnetic 70° to 250°. A tributary stream which came from the south entered the Arinos on its left bank. Then we came to another island forming two channels--one (N.W.) 20 m. wide, with some rough-looking rapids; the other channel (N.), larger and shallower, divided in its turn in two by a mound of yellow gravel.
Alcides, who steered, had an idea that in going down rapids you should always send the canoe over places where the water broke and foamed, which meant rocks underneath, and not keep her in the centre of the channel where the water was deeper. This idea was, I think, suggested by his inability to swim, and the hope that if we got wrecked he could touch bottom with his feet, so that his life might be in comparative safety. I tried to argue the point with him, but it was no use. It invariably led to such unpleasantness that once more I decided to trust in Providence, as long as we went forward.
I had just shouted to Alcides to keep in the centre of the channel. Of course he disobeyed. We were caught in the strong current. One moment later there was a violent bump which knocked us all off our seats and sent us sprawling in the bottom of the canoe. We had stuck fast between two rocks. The canoe, being of such great length, vibrated to and fro with the current forcing it at the side. Laden as she was with baggage, in a few moments she became filled with water, and it was only after working hard for the best part of an hour that we were able to extricate ourselves from our position. We had hardly finished baling the water out on resuming our course than, 1,500 m. farther, we came to more rapids, then 700 m. beyond yet other rapids.
The forest was fairly thick all along on both banks, with innumerable healthy rubber trees. Although the forest seemed impenetrable at first sight, I always found that it was easy enough to go through it if one knew how. Quite close to the water naturally the vegetation was somewhat entangled. In many places were extensive patches of bamboos of considerable height; but there is a way of disentangling the most confused growth, if you happen to understand how those plants and liane grow and get twisted. Any one with a keen sense of observation should experience no difficulty whatever in going through the densest forest anywhere in the world--even without using a knife--although, of course, the latter is useful when you wish to keep up a certain speed in your marching.
Eleven kilometres and a half from the last rapids--having travelled north-west, south-west, east, and even due south, so winding was the course of the river--we came to a tributary stream 10 m. wide, on the left side of the Arinos. Eight kilometres farther we passed the inlet--then dry--of a small lagoon fed by the stream. The river banks, where eroded by the water, showed a lower layer of reddish-brown rock with a bright red ferruginous stratum above it. The top layer, 10 ft. thick, seemed formed of lime and alluvial deposits.
We emerged into a large basin 200 m. across, with a charming little island in the centre forming two channels with fairly strong rapids. We followed the channel on the right. At that point the river folded over itself into a great elbow. A cliff, 120 ft. high, towered on one side in brilliant red and yellow. The lower half of the strata was perfectly horizontal; the upper half at an angle of 45° to the lower. The vivid colouring was intensified by contrast with a beautiful beach of immaculate white sand on the left side of the great elbow.
I observed a wonderful double lunar halo on the night of July 7-8, the outer circle in successive tints of most delicate yellow, orange, pale blue and white--the yellow being nearest the centre.
Chapter III
Dangerous Navigation--Eddies--Whirlpools--An Extraordinary Creature--The Man X.--Pedro de Toledo Island--An Interesting Rodent
WE were rather proud of ourselves, as we had gone 69 kils. on July 7th, paddling away--barring the interval for lunch--from 7.15 in the morning until 7.30 at night.
The night was fairly cold--minimum 57° Fahr.; the elevation 1,100 ft. Where I made camp at the elbow of the stream (on the left bank) there were innumerable rubber trees. A similar wealth of Siphonia elastica appeared to be on the opposite bank, where the forest was luxuriant.
On July 8th we began our journey by going down rapids. Then after some 15,300 m. of fairly smooth navigation we crossed a basin 130 m. wide, where we encountered strong eddies--most unpleasant, as they swerved the canoe about in a way that was alarming. Lower down a swift corrideira and more eddies gave us some trouble.
A beautiful ariranha peeped out of the water close to the canoe, spitting angrily at us. It was attracted by the blood-red of the English flag, which it evidently wanted to bite. My men fired and wounded it; but so vicious were those little otters, and so great their craving for blood, that it still came on to within a foot or two of the canoe, when my men killed it.
The river was there compressed into a deep channel, 85 m. wide, with a strong current, after which it split into two arms--one north-west, 25 m. wide; the other north-east, 30 m. broad. The island thus formed between the two arms was 2,500 m. long. We called it Ariranha Island.
A streamlet 3 m. wide entered the Arinos on the right bank. Where the banks were free from vegetation an undulating stratum of red earth was exposed, directly above which was a stratum from 1 to 2 ft. thick of a brilliant yellow colour. Above that rested the usual grey alluvial deposits from 6 to 8 ft. thick.
From a direction due west the stream suddenly turned north, between high banks. A strong corrideira was found before the stream divided itself into three arms--two of those arms flowing north-east, the other north-west. We followed the latter--a channel 20 m. wide, with a high bank of gravel on its left side. Where those arms met again--some 500 m. farther--a basin 200 m. in diameter was formed. A hill 150 ft. high, covered with dense vegetation, faced us to the north. It was quite an unusual sight in such flat country. The stream took a sharp turn at that spot--it positively doubled. Strong eddies were encountered. The greatest care should have been taken in going over places of that kind, but "care" was a word I had absolutely scratched out of my vocabulary as useless in my journey across Brazil. How and why we ever got across those places with the crew I had on board, would indeed be beyond me to explain--unless, as on preceding occasions, it was due to the unceasing protection of a guardian angel.
After crossing a circular basin 200 m. in diameter, the river became suddenly squeezed into a channel 30 m. wide, much strewn with rocks. A somewhat troublesome rapid had to be negotiated there, rendered more difficult by the recent fall, across the best part of the stream, of a giant tree. The branches which stuck out of the water formed a regular barrier and waved to and fro with the violent pressure of the water. Before we could realize where we were, Alcides steered us straight into the branches and foliage of the fallen tree. As we were travelling at an accelerated speed with the strong current, all our hats were scraped off our heads, and, what was worse, our scalps, faces, and arms had patches of skin torn off as we crashed among the branches. It took us some time before we were able to disentangle ourselves, resume navigation, and recover as we went along the various headgear floating independently down the stream.
Another little tributary, 2 m. wide, entered the Arinos on the left side. No sooner had we freed ourselves from the rapids than we were in a circle 80 m. across, with nasty-looking eddies, which swung the undermanned canoe now to one side, then violently to the other, in a dangerous way. We could not have struck a worse time for navigating the river. It was then the end of the dry season and the water at its lowest, so that every possible obstacle that could be found in that river stood to impede our progress. This would not have been the case at high water when navigation in that portion of the stream would have been comparatively smooth and easy. We were thanking our stars that we had passed the vicious eddies safely, when we were confronted by more rapids, with treacherous submerged rocks. Yet another basin, 150 m. wide, was crossed, with large blocks of black rock showing through on the left bank. More rapids were met--quite easy to negotiate. The sky was half covered with feathery radiations from the south.
To the north another hill, 120 ft. high, eroded by water, stood on the left bank of the stream, where red volcanic rock was also visible in a stratum 15 ft. thick, covered by a thick layer of yellow earth. Strong rapids came next. We had had so much luck in the descent of the rapids--which, bad as they were, really were so far quite unimportant as compared to what we were to find later--that my men began to be quite adventurous. Saving trifling mishaps, we were getting on well. The tributaries of the Arinos we had seen so far that day were small streamlets 1 m. wide on the right; another, 2 m. wide--a limpid stream--coming from the south-west on the left. Several springs of clear water filtered through the left bank. In the centre of the river was an extensive bank of gravel held up by blocks of volcanic rock.
In a basin 150 m. wide rose a pretty island. Rapids were found in the channels, of which the western was wider and more free from obstacles. For one entire kilometre there were strong eddies and rapids in succession; then came 3,500 m. of fairly easy travelling. The river for 23,500 m. had been flowing almost in a straight line due north, with slight variations of a few degrees to the north-east and once to the north-west. Plenty of tucum or tucuma palms adorned the right bank; whereas on the left bank was fairly open country.
Again, after some more rapids, the river was squeezed into a neck only 25 m. wide, gradually widening to some 150 m., where whirlpools and eddies of considerable magnitude were formed. On several occasions the canoe was caught in them and swerved right round, describing one or more circles upon herself. Two islets were passed, then a tributary 10 m. wide coming from the east on the right side of us.
A great number of submerged rocks close to the surface formed a ridge 200 m. in length all along the centre of the stream. In a wonderful stretch 4,000 m. long in a perfectly straight line north, the river was from 50 to 100 m. wide. A small tributary rivulet entered it on the west. At the end of that long stretch a wall, 100 ft. high, of brilliantly yellow rock in its lower part, with 15 ft. of vivid red rock above, diverted the stream almost at a right angle toward the west. Rapids and eddies were encountered after passing an obstruction of accumulated gravel in the centre of the river, there 50 m. wide.
Giant trees, not unlike weeping willows, bent over the river, their streamers touching the water. A rocky barrier extended as far as the centre of the stream, leaving only one safe passage on the left side close to the bank. The stream was at that point 100 m. broad, and of great beauty, in a straight line north for 7,400 m.
My men were beginning to paddle a little better, and we were travelling at a considerable speed with the current. We had glorious weather, and although the heat was great our travelling was perfectly delightful. In the daytime we were not worried much by insects. The canoe now and then stuck fast in shallow places or upon rocks, but we all jumped gaily into the water and pushed her along until she floated again. Those baths in the deliciously clear water were quite refreshing. We generally jumped in clothes and all, and left it to the sun to dry the garments upon our backs and legs. I usually wore pyjamas while travelling in the canoe, as they were more comfortable than other clothes and dried quicker when we came out of the water again.
Many sharp successive turns were met next in the course of the river, which then showed stunted vegetation on the right bank and thick forest on the left. A high natural wall, 100 ft. high, of bright cadmium yellow for 30 ft. in its lower part, of vivid red for 50 ft. above that, and darker red above, barred our way in front (north). On its summit were peculiar white-barked slender trees--so white that they looked almost as if they had been painted, but of course they had not. The entire centre of the river, forming there an extensive basin, was blocked by a high bank of gravel, leaving merely narrow channels close to the banks. The high wall deflected the stream from 290° to bearings magnetic 30°. A range of hills some 300 ft. high then appeared before us, extending from N.N.W. to S.S.E.
We went over a stony place which obstructed almost the entire river, except a narrow channel close to the banks. That was followed by rapids. Some 2 kil. 300 m. farther, a hill range to the north switched the stream sharply from north to north-west, which direction it kept with a mere deviation of 20° for 6,500 m.
The stream was then 100 metres wide nearly all along, and of amazing beauty. Yet another stony place disturbed the placidity of the transparent crystal-like water. At the end of that wonderful stretch of river came another great vertical wall, on the left side--of most brilliant colouring, a stratum of vivid red 60 ft. deep with thin bright horizontal yellow streaks, and an upper stratum 18 ft. thick of a similar dazzling yellow. The northern portion of the cliff differed in colouring, and had a brown lower stratum 30 ft. thick, followed upwards by a yellow stratum 2 ft. thick, and a red stratum--a most brilliant vermilion--15 ft. thick. Above was a pink layer 15 ft. thick and a summit deposit of brown earth 45 ft. deep. There again the river was shifted by that obstacle from b.m. 290° to due north. A charming island--which I baptized Bridget Island--700 m. long and 100 m. wide, absolutely smothered in vegetation, was found there. It had an extensive spur of yellow sand and gravel. The right bank was sparsely wooded with open country behind. Two channels were found, one flowing north-west, 40 m. wide, the other north-east, 30 m. broad. We followed the latter, where the rapids seemed less fearsome than in the broader channel.
At the end of Bridget Island another island, 500 m. long, was found, which we called Lucky Island. This second island was 200 m. down stream from the first, and was situated at the junction of the River dos Patos ("river of ducks") with the River Arinos on the right side of the latter stream.
We were amazed to see opposite the island on the right bank a fishing tackle and some clothes. As we had already gone 89 kil. 850 m. that day, having kept an average speed of 11 kil. 250 m. an hour, and the sun was about to set, we decided to halt on "Lucky Island" for the night. We were busy preparing our dinner when a strange figure appeared on the right bank, rifle in hand. His astonishment at seeing us was no greater than ours at seeing him.
"Who were we?" "Where did we come from?" "What did we want there?" "Where were we going?"
All those questions having been duly answered, I sent my canoe over to ferry the fellow across. He was one of the queerest men I have ever met. His eyes constantly roamed about like those of a wild feline animal. He never kept still a moment, springing up unexpectedly to his feet when he was sitting down, and squatting himself down when he had been standing up. All the time he was handling his rifle--a very handsome one--and with rapid movements watched intently now one then another of our party. He seemed in a state of great nervous strain and excitement. He appeared to be a first or second cross of Indians and negroes--quite young, some twenty-four years of age. He had very little clothing upon his person, which showed limbs of extraordinary muscular strength. Seldom is it given to one to see so cruel a face, seldom were criminal characteristics so clearly marked on any one's countenance and in the formation of the skull. A man with a face like that could be capable of any crime. His conversation supplied ample further testimony that his physiognomy had not deceived me. I had so far thought that my men were the coarsest, the most brutal individuals I had ever met, but they were not in it at all with the strange figure we had before us. The conversation of my men had seemed to me disgustingly vulgar, but it now appeared the acme of refinement when the new man opened his mouth to talk. Good gracious me! what extraordinary oaths--what perversion of ideas--what foaming hatred for the Creator, our Saviour, all the saints imaginable, and humanity in general! Evidently the poor man had a screw loose somewhere within his brain-case.
I gave him some tobacco, a quantity of which I carried for my men. Without a word of acknowledgment he seized it, and, with paper my men gave him, proceeded to make himself a cigarette.
"I am tired of this life," said he, as he rolled the tobacco. "I am a slave. I owe my master 1 conto 200 milreis (£80). He sold me this rifle, and some cartridges, and I cannot repay him. I am rotting away with fever. I am dying of starvation, I am going mad in this place.... I have no more food, and have been unable for three days to catch fish. Do not let me die here. Take me with you. I will give you my rifle, this ring"--a cheap ring which he proceeded to take from his finger--"I shall work hard and require no pay if you will save me from death."
I told him that he had better consider his position seriously before doing anything rash. We should not be leaving until the next morning.
The man, whom we shall call X, as I do not wish to divulge his real name, sat up the entire night talking to my men. His excitement was great--at least, judging by the loudness of his voice. During those long sleepless hours--with all of them shouting at the top of their voices it was impossible to sleep--I overheard the entire history of his life. What a life! I prayed my stars that X would change his mind and decide to stay where he was, for though I needed extra men badly I feared that his company would not be a welcome addition to our party, bad as it was. Like all men who have lived much in seclusion, he possessed marvellous vitality and magnetism. My men were simply hypnotised by the remarkable tales of his deeds, or rather misdeeds.
Long before we were ready to start, X went to seat himself in the canoe to make sure we should not leave him behind. When I asked him to reconsider once more what he was doing, which was not fair to his master, no matter how bad he may have been, X positively refused to remain there.
"If you do not want me to come," he said with determination, "you will have to fling me into the water and keep my head under until I am drowned."
That was rather a trying dilemma. Much as I disapprove of slavery, I did not like the idea of taking matters into my own hands and freeing other people's slaves; yet it was impossible to refuse assistance to a suffering man when he asked for it. In any case I had no wish to be responsible for his death.
"X," I said to him, "you have quite made up your mind to go with us?"
"Yes."
"Will you promise faithfully that you will work and give no trouble?"
"May my old father and mother be struck by lightning this moment if I shall give you trouble!" was his reply.
"Very good, X. You can keep your rifle and cartridges and your ring"--he had just deposited them at my feet--"they are your own property. I do not want them. You shall receive the same salary as the other men from this day as long as you do your work satisfactorily."
X jumped out of the canoe to embrace me. On his brutal face was for a moment an expression of gratitude ... he rested his head upon my shoulder and sobbed for many minutes.
With a crew of six men, things were a little better for us. Four could paddle while one steered, and the sixth stood on the prow with a long pole punting, or on the look-out for dangerous obstacles.
X paddled with such vigour that Alcides at the helm had the greatest difficulty in keeping the canoe straight. It had a good effect on the other men, who also paddled away with all their might, and we were speeding along with the strong current almost as fast as a steam launch.
The minimum temperature during the night (July 8th-9th) had been 57° Fahr. The elevation above the sea level of Lucky Island was 1,100 ft.
The River dos Patos came from the S.S.E., then bent to the east where its sources were.
Lucky Island was 250 m. in length. The river had an average width of 80 m. As we went along my men sang gaily, particularly X, who seemed like a bird let out of its cage, so happy did he feel at being a free man again. His répertoire was not of the choicest kind, but what was lacking in quality was made up in quantity. For some hours we were treated to a vocal concert, X's solos sending my men into fits of merriment. His wit--of the crudest kind--was sometimes funny.
This great gaiety seemed most weird in that region where silence reigned supreme always. The voices seemed to travel immense distances, echoed from one side to the other of the river. Words were reproduced with great clearness by the echo two or three times over. Especially when we had forest on both sides of the stream was the echo particularly perfect.
Quantities of rubber trees--absolutely going to waste--were to be seen now on one side, then on the other, of the river where the banks were wooded.
Another most beautiful island, 800 m. long and 80 m. wide--Pedro de Toledo Island--was passed. It had a channel 10 m. wide in a north-westerly direction, another, which we followed, 50 m. broad, north-east. On emerging from this channel at the end of the island we were in a basin 140 m. in diameter. Some 3 kils. farther, another great basin was crossed--very shallow, only 2 ft. deep--with a gravel bottom. The current was swift. Then, 2 kils. beyond, yet another basin, 100 metres wide, 1½ ft. deep, with strong eddies, was crossed. The river, which had so far kept more or less in a northerly direction, at that point actually swung round in two consecutive angles from 350° north to due south, in which direction it flowed for 1,000 m. An immaculately white beach was on the right of us, on which we duly stranded. It was quite enough for Alcides to see an obstacle of any kind in the river for him to send the canoe right over it. I seized that opportunity to land and commence a most interesting collection of the innumerable minute sand plants which were to be found on those beaches.
Where the river turned north once more there stood a hill 100 ft. high, the lower half of which was of red volcanic rock, the upper half of yellow earth. Along the water's edge a thick and florid growth of bamboo could be seen in many places, while on the edge of the forest hung myriads of purple convolvuli. For hundreds of kilometres the Arinos was indeed one of the most ideally beautiful rivers I have ever seen. Its banks of alluvial formation, 25 to 30 ft. high, had chapada on their tops. Farther on the chapada gave way once more to dense forest with plentiful rubber trees. Another basin, 150 m. in diameter, was met with, after which we entered a channel from 40 to 50 m. wide, through which the stream was compressed.
A pretty little islet of gravel, 100 m. long, 20 m. wide, and rising 6 ft. above the water, had a tuft of trees growing on it, and a spur, also of gravel, extending westward for more than another 100 m. The river in that section flowed in a W.N.W. direction for 1,400 m.
We soon after came to a shallow basin (1 ft. deep) 100 m. wide, in which eddies were strong and troublesome. There were many pointed rocks scattered about in its bed of gravel, as well as three parallel rocky barriers right across the basin.
A rivulet 2 m. wide at the mouth entered the Arinos on the right side, while on the left side we had an island 800 m. long, leaving two channels, one 10 m. wide, the other 40 m. A tiny streamlet flowed into the main stream on the left. Banks, regular dunes of gravel, were formed where the river broadened into basins. We came to a basin 400 m. wide and extremely shallow. Three channels--W.N.W., N.W., and N.N.E.--were formed in the river by two islands, each 400 m. long--the Two Sisters Islands--which were in the centre. We found the N.N.E. channel the best. Where the river narrowed again to a width of 50 m. huge rocks stood in the centre. From that point for some 300 m. we went over a succession of gravel banks and nasty rocks forming barriers across the stream.
Small streamlets entered the Arinos, one on the left, the other on the right. A cluster of high rocks was on the right bank. On both sides were extensive white sand beaches. The river soon widened to 100 m. in a basin with an islet 12 ft. high, and a cluster of trees on its north-east side. Another island 6 ft. high, 80 m. long--Mosquito Island--with a spit of gravel to the south, was near it.
Rubber trees were most plentiful on the right bank where the forest was thick, whereas on the left bank was chapada. Huge gorgeous butterflies with black-striped brown wings and velvety bodies flew in great numbers around the canoe. Some settled on my hat, hands, and on the sleeves of my white shirt. They were so unaccustomed to see human beings that when touched they did not attempt to fly away.
The river was getting more and more wonderful every hour as we went along--in great straight lines of 3,500 m., 3,000 m., 2,200 m., 2,000 m., 4,000 m., in length.
Some ducks rose from the water only a few yards in front of the canoe. The man who was behind me fired with his carbine close to my head. The bullet grazed my right ear. It was a trifle trying to be travelling with such careless sportsmen, but the best thing was to say nothing and go on.
A big island--Passos Island--300 m. long, preceded by a smaller islet 80 m. long--Passos Junior I.--was subsequently passed, where the river formed a channel (N.W.) 50 m. wide and a minor one (W.) 30 m.
The river there changed from a westerly course to W.S.W. Once more we had before us a great wall of red rock which at first seemed to bar our way. In the lower section of the wall was a cave eroded by water and extending some way back. It was too low to be entered by the canoe. The lower stratum of the wall was at an angle--in other words, had a dip of 21°--while the stratum above it, 30 ft. in thickness, intersected by a yellow band, was perfectly horizontal. On the left side of this high natural wall was a charming waterfall of limpid water. Farther on a great land-slip displayed for a length of 40 m. brilliant red earth over a stratum 60 ft. thick of white chalk. The river, which described a number of turns, was bordered on the left side by a hill range covered with handsome trees.
The ardour of my men for rowing had already passed away. They smoked and sang the whole time, and let the current--fortunately strong--carry us along. Whenever I remonstrated they scooped the water carelessly with their paddles for a few minutes. As is the case with individuals mentally deficient, everything seemed to distract them. One moment it was the flight of a jacutinga--a handsome black gallinaceous bird with a white crest. Another moment it was the jump of an inquisitive fish. Many mergulhão commun (Podiceps Americanus), wonderfully graceful, velvety black birds with long beaks, flew about unconcerned from tree to tree. Whenever anything moved about anywhere, the paddles were abandoned, the rifles were seized, and there was a regular fusillade. The men seldom hit anything, although on many occasions, with the unsteady canoe, we all of us had narrow escapes. One day the man in front of me fired a shot at a bird--but so close to my head, not more than one foot away, that the concussion blinded me for several seconds. On other occasions the rifles went off when they were not expected to. I had ceased to give orders of any kind about the careful use of the weapons. It was time and lung-power absolutely wasted, and only made things worse.
After floating down a beautiful stretch of 3,000 m., two more islands were reached within a great circle over 200 m. wide. A small tributary entered the Arinos on the right bank. Another island, 500 m. long, was seen farther down, at the end of which, where two channels met again, violent eddies were produced by the meeting of the two strong currents.
Immense quantities of Siphonia elastica were there to be seen on both sides of the stream in the forest, which was getting more and more luxuriant as we proceeded on our journey farther north. Many wild banana palms (bananeira do matto) were to be seen here and there along the lovely, deliciously clean river, with its extraordinarily tidy banks.
Another great basin, 300 m. in diameter, was met, with three islands and two gravel beaches in its centre. The two principal islands--Paolo and Francesca--were each 100 m. long and 50 m. wide.
We now made the acquaintance of the capivara (Hydrochoerus capibara), a rodent which we found common farther down in those waters. It was a stupid animal. When fired at several times by my men it remained perfectly still, gazing at its enemies. It was only when a bullet hit the ground too near that it would move away, surprised more than concerned.
After going down a corrideira (small rapid) we encountered thousands of white and lemon-yellow butterflies. On islets of red earth swarms of them were basking in the sun--which was getting hotter and hotter as we got farther north.
Again we were soon after faced by a high natural wall of brilliant yellow and red colouring. In its western part it showed a white stratum 3 ft. thick upon a layer of yellow lava of an equal thickness. A stratum of lighter yellow was nearest the surface of the water, while above was a thick layer of grey earth. On the right side, at this point, a tributary streamlet flowed into the Arinos. The basin formed by the crescent-shaped wall was perfectly circular. When the river emerged from it, it folded back from 40° b.m. to 290°.
Owing to the steepness of the banks we experienced difficulty in finding a suitable camping place for the night. Eventually at sunset we had to clear with our big knives a patch in the dirty forest on the edge of the stream. I never liked to camp out of sight of the canoe in case anything happened during the night--an attack, a flood, a forest fire, or anybody trying to steal or get away with the canoe; the danger from my own men being quite as great as from any enemy I could have found. I well knew that if we lost that canoe we were done for entirely.
There was a great falling off in the distance covered that day owing to the laziness of my men. We had only gone 67 kil. 600 m.--or 22 kil. 250 m. less than the previous day, when we had travelled less hours and gone easily over a distance of 89 kil. 850 m.
Chapter IV
Oleo Pardo Trees--Beautiful Palms--The River Bottom--Swarms of Butterflies--Millions of Bees--A Continuous Torture
THE night of July 10th was cool--minimum temperature 58° F. When we departed at 7.10 in the morning the river was extremely tortuous at first--in one place actually veering from north to due south. On the right side of us was a lake divided by a low bank, 3 to 5 ft. high, from the river by which it was fed. The entrance into the lake was narrow. We had hardly gone 1 kil. when we found ourselves in a great basin 300 m. long, 200 m. wide, with one large island--Nellie Island--150 m. in length, and several other small islets in its centre.
Another lagoon was shortly after reached on the right bank, its inlet being 10 m. wide.
The waters of the Arinos were, at this point, of a leaden placidity. We seemed to travel slowly now that the current did not help us. The river was again compressed into a deep channel 50 m. wide. Before us loomed a cliff 100 ft. high, reflected with irreproachable faithfulness in the almost still waters of the stream. There was not a breath of wind to disturb the mirror-like surface, nor to cool our sweating brows in the stifling heat of the broiling sun. The lower 40 to 60 ft. of the cliff was red, the upper light yellow--almost white. Where we reached this rocky wall there was a circle 150 m. in diameter, with a low, thickly-wooded triangular island, 80 m. long, 100 m. wide--Eleonora Island.
The north-eastern passage was shallow, with a stony bottom. We followed the northern channel along the vertical wall. On leaving the island we came to a stretch 2,500 m. long of beautiful water flowing due north, with ideally fascinating banks embellished by dense vegetation--neat, clean, and healthy--of the richest green.
After crossing a bay, 100 m. wide, with volcanic rocks showing through on both banks and in the river bed, the stream was squeezed through a rocky neck 25 m. wide, and spread again immediately afterwards to its normal width of 50 m. We were beginning to find big rocks more frequently, many in the river channel--a bad sign for us, for I feared we might soon encounter rapids.
Wonderful oleo pardo trees (Myrocarpus frondosus Fr. All.), with their octopus-like branches hanging down to the water, were fairly common in that region. There were two kinds of oleo trees in Brazil--the brown or oleo pardo and the red or oleo vermelho, the latter technically known as Myrospermum erytroxylon Fr. All.
We subsequently entered a basin 150 m. wide which contained a circular island 100 m. in diameter--Horus Island.
Eight hundred metres farther we came to another large circular bay with a large globular mass of lava on its left side. The current was very swift over a nasty rocky bottom. The canoe was suddenly flung by the current between an accumulation of rocks and an island, and, as we found it impossible to turn, floated down at an uncomfortable speed through a narrow channel, dodging as best we could the many ugly rocks just below the surface of the water. At the end of this channel we encountered violent eddies forming wide circles of most treacherous water--although on the surface it looked placid enough.
The tributary Sumidoro, 30 m. wide at its mouth, entered the Arinos from the west-south-west at this point. Its water was deliciously clear. A little way off to the left we could hear the noise of a waterfall on the Sumidoro, before it joined the Arinos.
The river, after the meeting of this important tributary, became even more exquisitely beautiful than before. Rocks strewn about added to the picturesqueness of the landscape as well as to the dangers of navigation, while springs of crystalline water, cool and quite delicious to drink, descended here and there from the banks.
The river had an average width of 60 m. in this part, and was much strewn with broken-up volcanic boulders, especially on the left bank. On the right bank was a beach of immaculate white sand. For 300 m. we went over a great stony place with shallow water. We had to be careful, but all the same many times did we bump with great force and get stuck upon submerged rocks--which we could not see owing to the blinding, glittering refraction of the sun upon the troubled waters.
A tributary 4 m. wide, coming from the north-east, entered the Arinos on the right bank. A great number of rubber trees were to be seen on the right bank, where the forest was luxuriant; but not on the left bank, where the growth of trees was scanty. Carandá or burity or tucuman palms were plentiful along the water's edge near the spot where a small rivulet entered the Arinos on the left bank. Two thousand metres farther down we came upon denuded country, low, and liable to inundation when the river rose. Farther on were campos and open country, with the exception of a thin row of trees immediately along the river. On the left we had luxuriant forest, wonderfully healthy, neat and clean. The stream was there beautiful--60 to 70 m. wide.
When we had gone 10 kils. 800 m. more the entire channel became strewn with rocks and mounds only 1 ft. below the surface of the water, and not unlike parallel small dunes of sand with a deposit of gravel upon them. For 700 m. the river was obstructed and navigation rendered somewhat troublesome.
Where the river turned from bearings magnetic 310° to 360° (due N.) we went over a nasty stony place with a strong corrideira above it, and we were confronted with a rocky barrier almost the entire width across the stream. We kept on the west side, the only way where it was possible to get the canoe through. A little farther another corrideira, stronger than the first, obliged us to find a passage on the east side of the river--which bore upon its bank campos and chapada. Curious mounds of white sand and gravel were visible in the centre of the river, and also near the left bank below the second corrideira; then we came to parallel ridges of white sand and gravel right across the river bottom at an angle of 45° in relation to the general direction of the stream.
Two tributaries, one 3 m. wide on the left bank, the other 4 m. wide on the right side (the latter coming from the north-east), swelled the Arinos from that point. The width of the stream was now increased to 80 m., the water being shallow. The bed of the river was ever changing, and supplied me with constant interest. It was adorned with strangely precise triangles of beautiful white sand exposed through a layer of gravel which covered most of the river bottom.
A thickly-wooded hill range, 150 ft. high and extending from W.S.W. to E.N.E., stood to the north of us. Its slopes, eroded by the water, had caused a landslip, leaving bare vertical red rock for half the height of the hill-range and two much eroded spurs of bright yellow and white earth extending into the stream.
The river at that point turned from north to east. Open country was again on our right after leaving the hill range, and lowlands liable to inundation. Soon afterwards, however, higher land appeared with banks 35 ft. high.
Swarms of small white butterflies played upon the banks on the edge of the water.
Sand and gravel mounds were numerous in the centre of the channel, with occasional basins of shallow water with corrideiras upon them. For instance, in one of those places for 150 m. the river was only from 1 to 3 ft. deep, and we had to drag the long heavy canoe, which drew 2 ft. of water, along the undulating gravel bed. In fact, we spent a good deal of our time every day in the water, pushing or pulling along the canoe over innumerable obstacles, her great length making it difficult to navigate her properly through the many shallow and tortuous passages.
In a circular basin, 120 m. in diameter, beyond that point we encountered strong eddies near the left bank. On the north side big rocks emerged from the water and a corrideira was formed.
An island 50 m. long and two other islets were separated from the mainland by two channels, one 20 m. wide and only 3 in. deep--the other 60 m. wide and 3 ft. deep. The right bank was there 45 ft. high.
Fifteen hundred metres farther down we entered another basin 200 m. in diameter, with an island 80 m. long and eight dry beaches of gravel.
My men were greatly excited in trying to capture a capivara they had wounded. We actually got the animal on board, but my men were so timid in going near it that it jumped overboard again and made its escape.
The right bank, which had been high, was now reduced to only 4 ft. above the water; whereas the left bank rose to a height of 46 ft. A rivulet 3 m. wide coming from the west had cut its way through the latter bank.
The main river was getting more and more magnificent at every turn. I should have enjoyed the journey very much had it not been for the constant attention I had to pay to my men, who left their paddles and steering gear at every moment in order to fire recklessly at birds or ariranhas or capivaras, much to the danger of everybody on board. They would blaze away with their repeating rifles--and bullet cartridges, of course--at parrots and even colibri birds 100 or 200 metres off. They said the rifles were bad because they could never hit anything! I had ceased scolding them. They made me positively ill with pity, I was only praying for our supply of cartridges to come to an end soon, so that if we were to die at all it might not be through being pierced by one of our own bullets.
The river had been flowing, with slight deviations, northwards.
We came to an enchanting island 70 m. wide, with thick vegetation upon it and fine rocks.
The river in that portion flowed practically north in great stretches of 6,000 and 4,000 m. Another large and beautiful island, 250 m. long and 70 wide--Ghislaine Island--was passed, and we admired the gorgeous vegetation upon it.
Below the island the river was 100 m. wide and very shallow--not more than from 1 to 4 ft. in depth. We halted at sunset, having gone that day 92 kil. 300 m.
During the night of July 11th my men suffered a great deal from cold, the thermometer being as low as 45° Fahrenheit. In the morning there was a thick fog over the river--so thick that we had to delay our departure until eight o'clock, as we could not see more than two or three metres ahead.
Two kilometres beyond we came to a rivulet, 2 m. wide, on the left bank, and soon after to a small corrideira with a navigable channel in the centre. Three hundred metres farther down we passed another tributary on the right bank. There was open country with sparse stunted trees on the left of us, thick forest with plenty of rubber trees on the right. I noticed several good specimens of the pao dolce--a tree with a curious cluster of yellow flowers not unlike the flower of wistaria upside down. Not only was the pao dolce pretty to look at, but a most refreshing beverage could be made from a decoction of its leaves.
The course of the river was winding, with basins and rapids of no great importance. Another tributary 2 m. wide was reached on the left bank, and soon after another tiny streamlet entered the Arinos from the same side.
I had a narrow escape. One of the men, who was sitting behind me in the canoe, saw an ariranha (Lutra Brasiliensis) put its head out of the water only ten metres in front of the canoe. In his great hurry to kill the beautiful animal he seized his rifle and emptied the eight shots out of his magazine, firing the first three shots close to my head on the left side, the other five just as close on the other side. The muzzle of his rifle was so near my ear that the noise deafened me for several minutes and my hair was almost singed off. The ariranha, needless to say, escaped unhurt, and luckily so did I.
We went over a long strip of shallow water from 1 to 3 ft. deep. We now had open country on the right bank, with a small streamlet finding its way into the Arinos on that side. The river was flowing again in long straight stretches--3,000 m., 2,000 m., 2,500 m. in length. In the portions where the banks were thickly wooded innumerable rubber trees were to be seen.
In the centre of a basin 150 m. wide we found another island, 100 m. long and 50 m. wide, absolutely smothered in vegetation and with a handsome gravel spit at its southern end. Two kilometres farther another basin, 300 m. broad, appeared. An amazing quantity of rubber trees was to be seen round that basin. Near the water we also found fine specimens of the mate (Ilex Paraguayensis St. Hil.), with its wax-like leaves, much used in certain parts of South America for making a kind of tea.
For close upon 13 kils. the river flowed--with slight deviations--almost always due north, and with its limpid waters was of extraordinary beauty. The country was open on the right side of us. We saw that day two white urubú (Cathartes). The Brazilians have a curious superstition about them. They say that if you write with a quill taken from the wing of one of these birds any business which you may be transacting will go well; in fact, anything you may wish to do and which you set down on paper with one of these quills and ink is sure to turn out successfully.
That day I again suffered much, while taking astronomical observations, from the millions of bees and other insects which settled in swarms upon my hands and face and stung me all over. We were then in lat. 12° 26'·5 S., long. 56° 37' W. The temperature in the sun was not unbearable--merely 85° Fahr.
In the afternoon, after we had enjoyed an excellent lunch of fish, tinned provisions, and rice--my men also enjoying their feijao (boiled beans)--we continued our journey. The river for 9,000 m. displayed first clean campos and chapada on the left bank and dense forest on the right, then campos on the right bank and a belt of forest along the river on the left.
The campos were particularly neat in that region--merely a few burity and tucum palms flourishing on the edge of the water. In other localities a thick growth of beautiful bamboos interspersed with gigantic palms lined the banks.
Where the river turned due east we came to fairly strong rapids. The water was shallow with mounds of gravel, and we bumped about a great deal. Eventually we all had to get into the water and push the canoe along for greater comfort.
The river next formed a huge basin, 900 m. long and 200 m. wide. A small tributary flowed into the Arinos in the crescent-shaped bank on the right. That bank had a height of 80 ft. On its summit quantities of Siphonia elastica were to be admired. Farther down it was on the left side that the river had high banks, some 60 ft. high.
We went over a charming little corrideira. Strong eddies were encountered on emerging from the rapids. Where the right bank became lower--only 40 ft.--chapada replaced the forest. The left bank was but 1 ft. above the level of the river, and the low country beyond (south) was naturally liable to inundation. For 4,000 m. the left bank was never higher than 4 ft. The right bank also suddenly became very low in that region.
Where the river turned from 290° b.m. to 320° b.m., there was a basin 700 m. broad with low banks. An island--Lydia Island--200 m. in circumference, rose within this basin on the north side and was luxuriantly wooded.
We found that day beautiful beaches of gravel, mostly on the right side. Then strong rapids and corrideiras; below these more clean-looking gravel beaches--this time on the left--were visible, and an extensive island of gravel close to the right bank.
For 8,000 m. the gorgeous stream flowed almost in a direct line northward, with dense forest and a wealthy growth of rubber trees on both sides. Wonderful figueira trees with their spotless white branches embellished the landscape.
On the left a tributary of some size entered the Arinos from the south-east in two arms with an island between; the largest arm was 40 m. wide, the smaller 10 m. Then another stream entered the Arinos on the right side.
We were again confronted by a large basin enclosed on the north by a crescent-shaped wall 100 ft. high, at the foot of which at the level of the river was a quantity of débris of yellow rock. The river at that spot turned sharply from 20° b.m. (N.N.E.) to 290° b.m.--that is to say, almost north-west. The width of the Arinos at this point was from 80 to 100 m.
Towards sunset we came to a beautiful island 200 m. long. We cleared a sufficiently large space in the dense and gorgeous vegetation to make our camp for the night.
Chapter V
Great Islands--The Trinchão Fish--A Fisherman's Paradise--Alastor Island--Plentiful Rubber--The Civilized Man's Idea of the Tropical Forest--The War-Cries of the Indians--Swarms of Bees and Butterflies
WE had another cool night on July 12th--minimum temperature 47° F. It was very damp, and in the morning we had, as on the previous day, a thick mist which prevented our starting until it cleared up, at 7.40 a.m. The mist rose in columns and square blocks over the warmish water of the river. The right bank of the Arinos was 40 ft. high.
We had gone some 1,500 m. from our camp when we came to a magnificent island, 400 m. long and 200 m. wide--Griselda Island--which divided the stream into two channels.
All the islands we had seen of late showed on the up-stream side a more or less extensive spit of beautifully coloured gravel and glittering crystals. The latter shone in the sun with such iridescent luminosity that it gave those islands a fairy-like appearance.
We encountered troublesome eddies which swung the canoe about, and in one case actually spun her completely round in a most alarming manner, tearing out of Alcides' hands the steering gear, which we had some trouble in recovering.
There were many handsome large-leafed pacová, somewhat resembling banana palms; also quantities of Siphonia elastica, although these were not quite so plentiful as farther south nor the trees so high. A tiny brook of delicious water descended into the Arinos from the left bank.
Ten thousand five hundred metres farther down from Griselda Island we came to another island, 300 m. long and 50 m. broad--Negrino Island--with the usual spit of gravel and beautiful crystals on the south side. This island was 10 ft. high above the water, with some trees on it, but not such luxuriant vegetation as on most of the other islands we had seen.
A stream 5 m. wide at the mouth, coming from the N.N.W., entered the Arinos on the right side. The main river had a direction of 305° b.m.--that is to say, virtually north-west. Great volcanic slabs of rock and sand-banks were now reached.
The sun was not extraordinarily hot--90° F. at noon. The country on either side was open--chiefly chapada. Beautiful gravel beaches were now seen, extending half-way across the river, particularly from the left side.
Another tributary 5 m. wide coming from the N.N.E. was passed on our right, and beyond this a thick forest with rubber trees was visible, while chapada continued on the left.
Round a big basin 200 m. in diameter, containing shallow water from 1 to 6 ft. deep, stood a mass of gigantic trees with verdant healthy foliage, and innumerable abnormally tall burity palms, over 100 ft. high, and tucum (Astrocaryum tucuma)--also of immense size.
Many huge trinchão fish followed our canoe for some time, gazing curiously at us. They came so impudently near that my men actually hit them on the head with their paddles.
One more streamlet entered the Arinos on the right side just before we reached a big basin, 250 m. in diameter, with wonderful gravel beaches in regular little mounds stretching half-way across the basin. Another little tributary (on the right side) came next, 7,000 m. farther down stream. The vegetation was there so dense and so entangled that we could find nowhere a suitable spot on which to land for our midday halt. About noon, however, chapada and open country again appeared on the right bank for a distance of some 2,000 m.
There we indulged in a plentiful lunch, the country round being as still as death. Not a sign could be seen anywhere of a human being; not a column of smoke indicating the presence of man rose anywhere in the clear sky. Nowhere did we meet disturbed vegetation; nowhere did we notice a trail or a passage through the vegetation coming to the water; nowhere did we meet abandoned camps or any signs whatever that human beings had ever lived there. There was no animal life of fair size on the surface; no parrots, no monkeys, no mammals of any kind--only millions of insects, which made one's life a burden.
It was not so with the river, which was swarming with innocent fish, only too ready to be killed and supply us with excellent meals. The reason, of course, that the river was so full of fish, and that the fish displayed such delightful simplicity, was because there were there no human beings.
Soon after leaving camp--all the happier for an excellent lunch--we came once more to thick, beautiful, clean forest on both sides. Again rubber was plentiful, and absolutely untouched by the collector's hand. The river was getting amazingly beautiful, 200 m. wide all along, the water like a faultless silver mirror irreproachably reflecting each leaf, each branch of the motionless trees on both banks. There was not a breath of wind to disturb the tranquillity of that deliciously restful scene.
Yet one more gorgeous island--Alastor Island--300 m. long and 80 to 100 m. wide, was seen. It was preceded on the south-east side by innumerable gravel mounds just emerging above the water surface, then by a magnificent gravel beach with numberless beautiful crystals. On the left bank a tributary 15 m. wide entered the Arinos from the south-west.
The river was getting more and more entrancing at every turn. Profuse blossoms of the most gorgeous yellow shone resplendent in all their beauty against the background of dark green foliage. The entire edge of the forest was festooned with daintily-leafed creepers and with myriads of convolvuli of the purest amethyst colour.
There was poetry in the scene--frequently disturbed, perhaps, by the inconceivable oaths of the man to whom was entrusted the heavy task of baling out the water from the canoe, which leaked badly. She was fissured from end to end, and we had no effective means of preventing the water coming in; in fact, if the baling were not done quickly and continuously with a bucket, the water soon gained and reached the platform on which we had placed the baggage. Our feet, of course, were in water all day long. We did not mind that so much. In fact, our feet got so soaked with moisture that we could peel off the skin in big patches with the greatest ease.
After travelling across a basin 250 m. broad, we came to a corrideira with shallow water. We dashed with great speed sideways over a bank of gravel, and nearly turned turtle. The gravel was banked up against the lee side of the canoe, and with a strong current pushing her we had the greatest trouble to pull her off again.
There was a great deal of rubber, particularly on the left bank, while on the right, chapada was again observed. The river was so wonderfully tidy that, had it not been for its great breadth, one would have felt as if going through a watercourse in England.
From the east came a little tributary, 2 m. wide, on the right bank. Another beautiful island, 500 m. long and 80 m. wide--Helena Island--a most enchanting place, preceded by the usual gravel mounds and beach, was passed in the afternoon. Small streamlets entered the main stream, one on each side--one 6 kils. beyond Helena Island, the other one a little farther.
The river maintained its average width of 200 m. nearly all the time. Late in the afternoon we passed on the left bank a hill 120 ft. high, belonging to a range that extended from E.S.E. to W.N.W. at an angle to the river, which there flowed in a direction almost north. There was plenty of rubber of excellent quality near the water.
Shortly after leaving this range we came to a lagoon, then to open campos behind a thin row of stunted trees on the left bank. The lagoon was situated at a point where the river described a curve from north to 70° b.m. Two small streamlets entered the Arinos on the right. We made camp near a small lagoon in the forest shortly after sunset.
The distance we had travelled during the last two days was 86 kil. 900 m. on July 11th, and 76 kil. 600 m. on July 12th, or altogether 163 kil. 500 m.
To anybody accustomed to travelling in equatorial countries it seems amazing, on returning to civilization, to find what curious notions people have of the tropical forest. Even in the case of writers of distinction I could quote many passages which are painfully ridiculous. One of the greatest modern Italian writers, for instance--who, by the way, in one of his latest novels, copied almost word for word many pages from my books--added the poetic touch that in the tropical forest flowers were found so large that they could not be picked, and fruit so enormous that no human tooth could bite it! Again, the majority of people believe that it is impossible to go through the forest without cutting your way all the time--the "cutting a way through" meaning to most people the constant chopping down of trees of all sizes, undergrowth, bamboos, liane, and other creepers. As a matter of fact, any experienced traveller has much less trouble in going through the forest than people imagine. This is not the case with people unacquainted with the forest, or with people whose sense of observation is not much developed. One can go sometimes for miles through the dense forest without once using knives at all; although necessarily a knife must be carried, as there are places where a cut from its blade will make passing through more comfortable. This is particularly true of the Brazilian forest. The forests of that country, especially in the central region where I was then travelling, were wonderfully clean, when once you entered them, although, when seen from the river, they appeared impenetrable. Near the water, owing to the moisture, there was frequently a thick but narrow belt--only a few metres wide--of dense growth. Beyond it, when you were in the forest itself, nothing grew under the trees, and the ground was just as clean as the best kept English park. One could walk in comfort without the slightest trouble, an occasional well-applied blow with the heavy-bladed knife disentangling in a second an interfering liana which might stand in one's way.
It must not be forgotten that you can get under or over liane, or shift them on one side, without ever having the trouble of severing them. It is only occasionally, when they are entangled, that it saves time to cut them. Barring an occasional thick belt along the Amazon River, it is almost safe to assert that an experienced man can travel, alone, anywhere in the forests of Brazil without carrying a penknife. This is not the case, of course, when you are travelling with a caravan and with baggage, when a sufficiently large passage has to be opened.
In Africa the equatorial forests are incomparably more difficult to traverse than the Brazilian forests, and those who assert the Brazilian forests to be impenetrable only say so because they do not know what they are talking about. Even when it comes to actually chopping down trees in the Brazilian forests, one blow with the axe or with the knife will easily cut down a fair-sized tree. As I have already stated elsewhere, most of the Brazilian forest trees have no resistance whatever. They are full of water, and, with a judicious blow, can be cut almost as easily as celery. Many are the trees also, the inside of which near the ground has been eaten up entirely by ants, and it was not uncommon when you leant heavily against a tree that you and the tree tumbled down. Ants do not seem to attack lactiferous trees, such as those producing rubber, which therefore flourished in that particular region.
Most of the trees in that particular part of the forest were small in diameter, and only had branches or leaves at a very great height. That was why the forests in Brazil looked so extraordinarily clean beneath, in contrast to the equatorial forest in such countries as Central Africa or the Philippine Islands. The wonderful cleanliness of the river, to which I have so often alluded, was a great contrast to the masses of floating decomposing vegetation which is always to be seen in the African rivers.
The minimum temperature during the night of July 13th was 51° Fahr. During that night we were suddenly roused by our dogs barking furiously. We heard strange noises, as if people were trying to run away quickly through the forest. Indians had, much to our surprise, come quite close to our camp, and had it not been for the alarm given by the dogs we should most likely have been attacked by them. In the morning we heard in the distance their war-cries and piercing ululations, which rent the air. Judging merely by the noise they made, there must have been from thirty to fifty of them. My men were greatly excited over this experience. These Indians belonged, I think, to the Tapanhonas tribe.
We left our camp at 7.45 in the morning. As the river was there in an almost straight line for 8 kil., we continued hearing--more and more faintly, of course, as we went on--for some distance the excited yells of the Indians.
The left bank, through which a streamlet cut its way into the Arinos, was fairly open with chapada. An island, 150 m. wide and 200 m. long--Julia Island--was next seen. It had an extensive beach of gravel at its southern end, and the island itself was covered with dense and very beautiful vegetation. Another streamlet 1 m. wide entered the Arinos opposite the island from the left side. Farther on another streamlet, 3 m. wide at the mouth, and coming from the north, flowed into the main stream on the right side. Three and a half kilometres farther another tributary streamlet, also 3 m. wide, was met on the right. We there saw chapada on both banks as we went along, with merely a thin edge of trees along the river.
Where the river described a graceful elbow, a charming tongue of land, with deliciously green grass upon it, was most refreshing to the eyes. A river 8 m. wide at the mouth was met a little way beyond on the left side. We noticed opposite that place a beautiful spot for making a camp, but it was not a convenient hour for us, and so we went along.
About 1,500 m. farther down a long narrow island (200 m. long, 80 m. wide)--Gemma Island--heavily wooded, was passed and admired. It had the usual gravel spit on its southern or up-stream point, the river in that particular spot flowing due north in a perfectly straight line for 4,000 m. The island stood in the centre of a basin 200 m. broad. There were campos and chapada on the left bank.
We landed on the island, and found most beautifully clean forest, nice and cool in the greenish dim light which penetrated through the dense masses of foliage. Particularly noticeable for their beauty were the handsome large mimosas.
On the right bank of the river was forest with plenty of rubber trees, but occasionally even on that side patches of what the Brazilians call serradão (close forest) were met with.
A hill range 120 ft. high formed a crescent from west to north-west on the left side of the stream. A kilometre and a half farther forest was to be seen on the left side of the river; whereas on the right was chapada and campos, quite open. A picturesque rocky island, 15 m. in diameter, in laminated horizontal and rich brown volcanic rock, rose 3 ft. above the water in the centre of the stream. From that spot for 2 kil. I noticed chapada on the right bank; then after that was beautiful dense forest on both sides, with innumerable vigorous rubber trees.
The river there was 200 m. wide and had shallow water with strong corrideiras over enormous parallel transverse dunes of sand and gravel which formed the bottom. Islets of gravel were exposed, especially near the left bank and in the centre, leaving only a more or less navigable channel near the right bank.
We ran aground many a time along the 500 m. of shallow water, varying from 6 in. to 3 ft. deep. We emerged into a large basin 300 m. wide where eddies of no great strength were formed. On the edge of the beautiful basin we halted for our lunch, and to take the usual astronomical observations at local noon. We were in lat. 12° 26'·5 S.; long. 56° 47' W.
I do not know if I have ever seen such swarms of bees and butterflies as I saw at that place. They seemed to swoop down upon us in myriads from all sides. Taking the solar observations with the sextant and artificial horizon, I endured positive torture with the hundreds of bees which settled on my forehead, nose and hands; while thousands of mosquitoes and ants stung my legs, arms and face in those spots where it was not possible to wrap myself up with towels.
It will be noticed in most of the photographs which were taken along the river, and some of which illustrate this book, that all my men have their heads wrapped up. This was done as a protection against the tantalizing insects. The temperature was warm; that day, for instance, was 105° F. in the sun and 86° in the shade.
We left again at 1.15, my men being--for a change--in a good mood, owing to the amusing time we always had fishing. We had been making excellent progress during the last two or three days. The strange man X enlivened our journey with diabolical songs and with crude wit, which sent his companions into fits of laughter. When they were in a merry mood or excited, I noticed that they paddled along much quicker and better, so I did not try to put a check to the abominable language which would have jarred the feelings of any one not born and bred in the interior of Brazil.
It was quite interesting to me to find in that region so much chapada and open country, as I had fully expected to find thick forest all along. What struck me particularly on the Arinos, and which I could not very well explain, was that nearly invariably, when you had thick forest on one side of the stream, you had open country on the other, and only seldom noticed either forest or campos on both sides of the stream at the same time.
After passing chapada on the left bank we came to a great many rocks just above water. A river 3 m. wide entered the Arinos on the right side, and there was to be seen an immense quantity of beautiful rubber trees--as yet untouched by human being. The river kept its width of 200 m. After going along chapada on the left bank for some 3 kil., we came to magnificent forest--this time on both sides--with a luxuriant growth of rubber trees.
The scene, in its wonderful quietude, was most impressive. It made one's heart bleed to think that such rich land should lie unknown and unexploited in these enlightened and enterprising days of the twentieth century.
The sky above us was always interesting, with its typical filaments of mist, their lengthy radiations faintly marked upon the vivid blue of the sky vault and making a centre in the north. These radiations were in appearance not unlike giant ostrich feathers. They were formed, I think, over the great streams which flowed northwards into the Amazon.
We were troubled that day with numerous eddies and shallow water, owing to the great width of the river. Innumerable mounds of gravel rose in the centre of the stream up to a few inches below the water level.
Another hill range, 100 ft. high, met that day was crescent-shaped, the arc of a circle thus described being from south-east by east to north-east.
The hill range on the north-east side of us was eroded, exposing a red vertical wall 60 ft. high. A small river 2 m. wide coming from the east entered the Arinos on the right bank.
For 3,500 m. from that point the stream had an average width of 250 m., and was really magnificent with the wonderful cleanliness of the water--not the slightest impurity, not a speck of wood or a leaf floating upon its surface.
Fourteen kilometres of heavenly navigation--barring X's language and the comments of his companions--and we came to an ideal triangular island, 1,200 m. long, 200 m. wide at its broadest point, with the usual extensive gravel spit at its southern end--Victor Emmanuel Island. The vegetation upon it was too gorgeous for words, but there was no animal life except insects.
Four kilometres farther a basin 300 m. in diameter and from 1 to 6 ft. deep was crossed, in which a strong corrideira was met. The navigable channel was in the centre of the basin. A stream 10 m. wide, of most beautiful crystalline water, which had its origin from the south-west, threw itself into the Arinos on the left side, some 2,000 m. below the basin.
From this point for 8 kil. the river flowed with a slight deviation of 10° in a northerly direction. The left bank of the river was now quite open, with patches of chapada and somewhat taller but still stunted vegetation beyond; a thin row of tall trees lined the river side. On the right bank was luxuriant forest, and again plenty of beautiful rubber trees. Two islets of gravel were next seen.
We were experiencing great difficulty in getting suitable camping places at the right time when we needed them. By 4.30, having come across a spot which seemed suitable, we halted, having gone that day 85 kil. 700 m.
Chapter VI
The Tapirus Americanus--Striking Scenery--The Mate Tree--Photography in Camp--Brazilian Way of Reasoning--A New Christopher Columbus--The Selection of our Camps--Beautiful Fruit--A Large Tributary
WE were still at an elevation of 1,100 ft. The water was almost stagnant, and was evidently being held up by some obstacle. I feared that we should soon encounter nasty rapids. Watching the sky, I was generally able to foretell what was ahead of us in the river. In fact, a pretty mackerel sky, particularly to the north-west, showed me that the water of our river must be breaking up considerably, either in rapids or waterfalls, in order to produce sufficient moisture in the air to cause the accumulation of those cloudlets. I always noticed that wherever there were heavy rapids farther down clouds of more or less magnitude formed directly above them at a comparatively low elevation, and remained there owing to the perfect stillness of the air.
On the night of July 14th the cold was felt intensely by my men, the thermometer actually showing a minimum of 38° F.
During the night my men had a great excitement. A large pachyderm, an anta (Tapirus Americanus) inquisitively came in the midst of our camp. It was evidently as much astonished at seeing us as we were in discovering its presence. My men had been firing their cartridges away during the day at rocks, at fish in the river, and so on, so that when their rifles were really needed the magazines were all empty, and gave the anta plenty of time to hop away gracefully into the darkness of the forest.
I had given orders to them to keep watch all night, as a precaution against an attack from the Indians, but my orders were, as usual, disobeyed. Personally, I took the first watch every night, sitting up till 2 a.m., which time I occupied in writing up my notes, working out computations of astronomical observations, classifying the botanical and geological specimens collected during the day, and replenishing my cameras with new plates.
My men had eaten up all the supply of beans (feijao) I had purchased at Diamantino, and therefore even the cook could not be kept awake during the night. The first rubber collector I had picked up when coming down the Arinos was now our cook, and diabolical indeed was his cuisine. Several times already his life had been in danger from the angry attacks of his companions, the quantities of pepper he sprinkled on everything he cooked causing us all to cough sometimes for half-hours at a time. He was very fond of pepper himself, and could not understand why none of us liked it.
During the night we still had a mackerel sky, covering one-third of the sky vault, and a clear triangle of mist, the apex of which was to the west, extending towards the east, close upon the horizon line. When we left in the morning at 7.30, we had chapada and campos on the right bank and forest on the other side. We had gone some 8½ kil. from our camp when we came to a hill range, 75 ft. high, on the right bank, encircling the river with its thickly wooded slopes. There was a tributary 25 m. wide, a most beautiful stream, on the right bank. It came from 70° b.m. Its water was deliciously clear. Where it entered the Arinos it had deposited a bank of crystals and marble pebbles--yellow, red, and white--which in the dazzling sun shone with great brilliancy at the bottom of the river. Numberless rubber trees were to be seen at that spot on the banks of the Arinos, and also on those of this new important tributary.
Two kilometres farther, where the Arinos was 280 m. wide, it looked just like a big lake of stagnant water. The country was quite open on the left side, first chapada, then campos.
By 9.30 a.m. we had a most wonderful display of clouds and radiations of what looked like so many mares' tales from the W.S.W. The river at that point flowed for 1 kil. in a direction due south. We came to a basin 300 m. across with a spit of white sand on the north-west side. In this basin was an island--Nattalì Island--200 m. long, 20 m. wide, 10 ft. above water, with a fine beach of sand and gravel on the south side. Gravel mounds were innumerable in the centre of this stream.
After we had gone some 8 kil. farther down my men shot an ariranha. They had a belief that these ariranhas would easily kill a man in the water. As we have already seen, they certainly had a great craving for blood and were always brave in attacking. My men called them "water leopards." In fact, the head of the ariranha was not unlike the head of a cat or a leopard. Although shot through the body two or three times, the ariranha actually came thrice to the attack of the canoe--so that my men were able to seize it by the tail and pull it inside the canoe while it was in a dying condition.
Sixteen kilometres farther down we came to another beautiful tributary with delightfully clear water, 6 m. wide where it met the Arinos. One hundred metres lower down another little tributary, only 4 m. wide, also on the right bank, joined our stream. The first tributary seemed to come from the north-east. At the mouth of this tributary was a spot which would have made a lovely halting place, but as it was too early in the day we reluctantly went on in a north-westerly direction, first for 4 kil., then north-east for 5 kil., passing through a large basin 300 m. wide, containing two islets, then passing charming sand-beaches, and farther on another tributary, 8 m. wide, on the left of us, also with deliciously clear water. When we proceeded on our journey after lunch we found big rocks more frequent in the stream, and went over a field of great boulders just under the surface of the water that stretched half-way across the shallow river.
Eight kilometres from our halting-place we came to an extensive stony place with a strong rapid. One kilometre beyond, a small tributary flowed into the Arinos from the left side. On the left side we had a red and brilliant yellow bank 70 ft. high, part of a small range of hills which turned the river from N.N.W. to N.N.E. Another small tributary 2 m. wide was seen on the left side. Then, 4 kil. farther on, another tributary, also 2 m. wide, and also on the left side, came from the south-west. Three thousand six hundred metres beyond this, we entered a basin 320 m. wide with an island 150 m. long, including its gravel spit. Three more islands were seen a little way beyond--Meraud, Tanis, and Loel Islands, Meraud being the largest. Another island was on the left of the river, leaving a passage 50 m. wide on its west side. The group of islands was of alluvial formation with deposits of gravel below.
The river in that region was too beautiful for words. The foliage of the thick heavy forest on both sides was densely green, the banks most tidy, and running in an almost straight line for 10,000 m. During all that distance the stream was 300 m. wide, and its speckless water reflected with marvellous definition each leaf and branch against the background of deep green. Neat gravel banks occurred frequently in the shallow water.
Some 300 m. down this long straight stretch of river a tributary 8 m. wide, coming from 210° b.m., threw itself into the Arinos. Strong eddies were formed, as many rocks were strewn in the centre of the stream.
One kilometre farther a conglomerate mass of granite and yellow and red lava, with impurities embedded in it, emerged just above the water in the centre of the stream.
Another streamlet, 2 m. wide, and of wonderfully limpid water, joined the Arinos on the right side. It came from the north-east. Then another little streamlet was seen on the left side.
At the end of 10 kil., where the river made a wide angle from 330° b.m. to 350° b.m., and another straight line of 4,000 m. stretched in front of us, we beheld a huge submerged bank of sharp volcanic conglomerate rock. In fact, we unexpectedly almost ran into it. Had we done so at the rate at which we were travelling, our canoe would certainly have been smashed to pieces against the sharp-edged fractured rock--just as sharp at the angles as the blades of knives.
Where the river turned once more from 350° b.m. to 320° b.m. another small tributary appeared on the right bank, and there a lot of handsome mate trees (Ilex paraguayensis) seemed to flourish, and were certainly pretty to look at.
Farther down we again came to chapada on the left bank and heavy foliaged forest with a certain number of rubber trees on the right bank. The left bank, where it described a great sweeping circle, was low and sandy, some 12 ft. above the level of the river. Only a thin fringe of low trees grew there on the edge of the water.
Six kilometres from the last tributary on the right bank another streamlet, 3 m. wide, coming from the S.S.W., cut its way through the left bank. Two thousand five hundred metres farther on another tributary 20 m. wide--a deliciously beautiful stream--flowed gracefully into the Arinos on the right side from the north-east.
We made our camp at the junction of the two streams. The camp was extremely bad. It was already late in the evening and we could find no other suitable spot. We had gone that day 83 kils. I was quite satisfied with the progress we had made during the last few days. During the evening I made an excursion on foot along the tributary river to the north-east for several kilometres, but I found nothing of particular interest.
During the night we received another visit from an anta, but the pachyderm again escaped before my men had time to kill it. We heard cries of Indians in the distance. My men were in a great state of mind for fear we should be attacked. I sat up the entire night in order to be ready in case of emergency.
I took that opportunity of computing and checking many of the astronomical observations I had taken, and developing a great number of photographic glass plates.
In my experience I have found that the fears people have of spoiling negatives unless one is shut up in an absolutely dark room are quite exaggerated. On that particular occasion, for instance, and on many previous and subsequent occasions, I developed the glass plates--and I think with satisfactory results--out in the open, with merely the fly-leaf of the tent sheltering me overhead so as not to have the direct rays of the stars shining upon the photographic plates. Indeed, there was light enough coming in around the tent for me to see quite plainly what was going on outside. I simply covered up the developing trays as an extra precaution, and seldom--in fact, never--spoiled a negative in process of development.
I also found developing tanks quite serviceable when a great number of negatives had to be developed quickly. The red lamp necessary for photographic work was invariably a great nuisance. I do not believe that a compact, practical dark-room lamp has yet been invented which is really serviceable to an explorer. If it is a candle lamp the candle melts quickly in those hot countries, producing an extra large flame which generally cracks the red glass, and makes so much smoke that the upper aperture becomes blocked and puts the light out when you happen to be at the most crucial point of your work.
The oil lanterns would be better, were it not for the difficulty and messy nuisance of carrying and re-filling the lamp each time with oil. Electric lights, which are the only practical ones, of course are out of the question when you have to be away for a year or a year and a half, the storage batteries getting damaged easily by damp and the innumerable accidents which you have when exploring.
The greatest care had to be used in repacking the developed glass plates. I owe to the care I took of them that I was able to bring back 800 excellent negatives out of 800 glass plates exposed.
The night was a little warmer than usual on July 15th--minimum 53° F. There was a heavy mist over the river when we rose in the morning, and we had to delay our departure until 7.30 a.m. When the mist began to rise it hung about in beautiful curves converging to a common radiating centre to the west.
During the night I had noticed a weird lunar effect--a perfect cross of immense proportions intersecting the crescent moon, which had a radiating halo surrounding it.
Four thousand metres from our camp we came to a tributary 3 m. wide on the left side of the river. It came from the W.S.W. Near this a streamlet 1 m. wide entered the Arinos on the right side, and another streamlet of equal size farther down on the left bank. There was fairly thin forest on both sides as we went on, kilometre after kilometre, the water of the river being almost stagnant in that part and heavy to paddle along.
Five hundred metres down the straight stretch of river, 4,000 m. long, we came to another charming affluent, 10 m. wide, coming from the E.S.E. Farther on, another tributary 2 m. wide entered the Arinos on the left side, and formed a shallow bank of gravel extending half-way across the stream.
As I have stated elsewhere, the mentality of Brazilians was somewhat difficult to understand by people of any other nation. They did everything the wrong way, according to our notions. I had been worried a great deal, the reader may remember, at the most unpractical way in which my men loaded the animals when I had my caravan of mules and horses. I had been more than amazed at Brazilian ideas of architecture, sculpture, painting and music. I had on many occasions been dumbfounded at their ideas of honour and truthfulness. Now once more I was sickly amused--I had by then ceased to be amazed or dumbfounded or angry--at the way my men daily packed the baggage in the canoe. The baggage was naturally taken out of the canoe every night when we made our camp, for the canoe leaked so badly that when we arrived anywhere and halted we had to beach her, or else, where this was not possible, we found her in the morning almost entirely submerged. Naturally we invariably selected shallow places where we could bale the water out and float her again.
Returning to the baggage: the men every morning insisted on loading the canoe in front, where the four men were situated paddling, and the three dogs of the expedition were also accommodated. I sat in the centre of the canoe, and Alcides at the helm naturally stood in the stern. The man whose incessant daily occupation it was to bale out the water of course had to be with the group of four men in the bow, since, the canoe being so heavily weighted at that end, the water found its way down there.
Now, loading the canoe in such a fashion, at the bow, had the double drawback of causing a greater resistance against the water, and therefore nearly doubling the work of the men in paddling. Then again, when we ran aground or struck a rock, the impact was more severe on the canoe--not to speak of the difficulty of getting her off again. The steering, too, was also much more difficult with the stern of the canoe so far out of the water.
I pointed out the mistake to my men, but it was no use arguing, and they refused to follow my advice. Like all ignorant people, they thought they knew everything better than anybody else, and as, in a way, they were the chief sufferers for their own conceit, I thought I would avoid unpleasantness and let them do things their own way as long as we kept going forward on our journey.
Alcides, too, who by now had become imbued with the idea that he was as good a navigator as Christopher Columbus or Vasco da Gama, had the strangest notions of navigation. He never avoided grounding the canoe on every bank he saw; he never avoided dashing the canoe into every rock which stood or did not stand in our way. I never could understand exactly why he did that, except for the mischievous pleasure he derived from giving the men who were sitting at the other end of the canoe a violent bump, which often rolled them over altogether.
When we left Goyaz my men insisted on purchasing life-belts in case we should be travelling by water. As only one of the Goyaz men could swim, I had gladly given them the money to purchase those articles. On our first day of navigation the men amused me very much, as they all appeared garbed in their life-belts, as if we had been going to the rescue of a stranded ship in a tempest. I laughed heartily at the sight. The intense heat of the sun made the heavy cork belts so uncomfortable for them, that they discarded them when they saw that the canoe would actually float on the water, and packed them away inside a wooden box, which they then screwed down tight. The belts remained in that box most of the time, except one day when a man put one on, as I had given him instructions to go some way off in the centre of the stream where the current was rather swift. By misadventure he lost his footing, and had we not been quick in going to his rescue he certainly would have been drowned.
We tested the life-belts, and I found that not only would they not float after they had been a minute or two in the water, but they became so heavy when soaked with moisture that they would have dragged to the bottom even a fair swimmer. They were evidently old discarded ship belts. The cork, enclosed in a canvas cover, had got decomposed and pulverized, and therefore rendered useless.
As we are referring to the strange ways of looking at things by different nations, I might as well include the endless arguments I had with my men in selecting our camps. I naturally always selected the cleanest spots with a flat ground, so that the tents could be pitched satisfactorily without extra trouble, where there was little vegetation, and where the water was good. My men always quarrelled over this, and insisted on stopping in the filthiest places, either where some trees, rotted away, had fallen down, where the vegetation on the edge of the river needed cutting, and where the ground had to be levelled before I could pitch my camp bed. They always preferred sleeping under the stifling vegetation to where there was an open space and we had the clear sky over us.
They all slept in hammocks--the favourite resting arrangement of the Brazilian--to my mind the most uncomfortable and absurd fashion of resting, especially in tropical regions. First of all, it is almost an impossibility to assume a perfectly horizontal position for your entire body, except--if you are an expert--diagonally; then there is always a certain amount of swing and you are likely to tumble over at any moment; you can never keep the blankets in position, and you expose your entire body to the stings of the mosquitoes, flies and other insects, and of the ants which crawl into your hammock by hundreds from the trees in which they swarm. It was not uncommon when we camped to hear during the night a crash, followed immediately after by oaths. The tree to which one of the hammocks had been fastened had suddenly broken and let the man down with a bump. Then again, the mischievous ants took the greatest delight during the night in cutting the strings of the hammocks, and on several occasions my followers had nasty falls. Yet the Brazilians swear by hammocks.
Another stream 2 m. wide, coming from the north, entered the Arinos on the right bank. A number of ariranhas, attracted by the vivid red of the British flag which was flying at the stern of the canoe, followed us for some time and came courageously to the attack, showing their teeth fiercely at us and snarling frantically. Entire families of those delightful little creatures were seen, and they invariably gave us a similar hearty greeting. They followed us sometimes for hundreds and hundreds of metres, and became most excited when I took the flag and waved it at them, and sometimes placed it near the water in order to drive them frantic.
We now had most beautiful forest on both sides. A stream 5 m. wide joined the Arinos on the left side from the west, forming a charming little waterfall as it entered the main stream. A little farther on the right was another streamlet, coming from the south-east. Generally, as in this case, when we reached tributary streams of any importance, gravel banks extended and blocked a great part of, sometimes even half, the main stream.
A picturesque stream, 8 m. wide, coming from the north-east, was then reached on the right side. It flowed through a rocky gate. Five or six kilometres farther on a tiny streamlet dribbled into the Arinos, and also another, 1 m. wide, on the left bank.
At noon that day the sky was extraordinarily interesting. From the north-west extended a wonderful succession of loop coils of transparent mist, giving the sky the appearance of a peacock's extended tail.
Just before we halted for lunch we came to a charming streamlet of delicious water, 2 m. wide, on the right bank.
The days were getting warmer as we advanced farther north. It was hot work sitting in the sun--105° F. that day--to take observations for latitude and longitude. In the shade the thermometer registered 89° F. Lat. 12° 21'·3 S.; long. 57° 16' W.
After lunch, 2½ kil. from our camp, we passed on the left bank a delightful tributary coming from the W.S.W. Its mouth was 8 m. wide, and poured forth waters of the most beautiful emerald green.
Five hundred metres farther down another large tributary, 30 m. wide, coming from the north-east, was observed on the right bank. Farther still, the river formed a large basin 300 m. wide. Lovely forest flourished round the sweeping curve of the basin. There was simply a solid mass of marvellously fresh foliage, with hardly a break through which, it seemed, a human being could pass. In that particular part the leaves came right down to the water, but there was no reason to suppose that they grew equally low inland.
The stream, which was 250 m. broad, showed farther on an immense bank of gravel 700 m. long, which rose above the surface in the shape of two long islands--one 300 m., the other 400 m. in length.
We felt the heat considerably going down the river, as we were always in the sun in the centre of the stream, with a temperature seldom less than 105° F. Especially where thick forest was on both sides of us, there seemed to be no air close to the water. When we came to patches of chapada and open country we could breathe a little better. Several were the tributary streamlets to which we came that afternoon. First we saw one rivulet, 1 m. wide, on the right bank, then 13 kil. 500 m. farther on another affluent, 3 m. wide, coming from the north-east, also on the right bank; then 1,500 m. farther a rivulet ½ m. wide, coming from the south-west (left bank); then 4,500 m. farther a charming stream, 6 m. wide, coming from the north, and meeting with the Arinos near an extensive stony place with shallow and troublesome water. Strong eddies formed at that spot. One more streamlet, 1 m. wide, was reached that day on the right. It came from the north-east.
The river had that day flowed almost continuously in directions varying from north-west to north, barring two sections where its course had been 10° east of north.
After passing the last tributary the river described a sweeping curve, gradually turning so far back as to flow in a south-westerly (240° b.m.) direction.
There was there shallow water with gravel banks in the centre of the stream. Curiously enough, we did not notice so much rubber close to the river in that region, but in an excursion a short distance from the water we came upon Siphonia elastica trees, not only along the Arinos but also along the tributaries.
We halted that day at sunset, having gone 73 kil. 400 m.; which, although much less than the previous days, was still fair going for us.