In the Wilds of South America

John Stuart Mill · en
Our party consisted of Captain Amilcar de Magalhães, a remarkably
skilful and wholly tireless leader, and Lieutenant Joaquim de Melho,
of the Brazilian Army, Doctor Euzebio Paulo de Oliveira, a geologist,
and Señor Henrique Heinisch, a taxidermist, all of the Brazilian
Telegraph Commission, besides myself; then there were some thirty-odd
_camaradas_, or native assistants. We had a very large pack-train of
mules and oxen, as that wing of the expedition, in charge of Captain
Amilcar, which had hitherto travelled ahead of the main party, was to
proceed with us from this point. Our plan was to continue overland
to the headwaters of the Gy-Paraná and to descend that stream to the
Madeira, taking observations as we went, for, in common with many of
the rivers of the South American continent, the course of this stream
has not been accurately mapped.[1] Zoologically speaking, we were in a
most interesting and almost unknown country, and no opportunity could
be lost to add to our already large and constantly growing collection
of both mammals and birds.

    [1] The Gy-Paraná had been descended by two parties which
        Colonel Rondon detached for this purpose from his main
        expedition of 1909. The first, under the zoologist Alipio
        de Mirando Ribeiro, went down the Pimentá Bueno and the
        Gy-Paraná to the Madeira; the second, under Lieutenant
        Antonio Pyrineus de Souza, descended the Jarú and the
        Gy-Paraná (see map). It was the reconnoissance survey made
        by the first party that established the fact that the
        Gy-Paraná, instead of flowing northwest throughout its
        course, as until then supposed, turns abruptly north in
        11½° south latitude, and flows in this direction for nearly
        three degrees, until, at another abrupt bend in 9° south,
        it turns west and empties into the Madeira.

We left the Duvida (now Rio Theodoro) shortly before noon; but it had
rained nearly the entire day and the trail was indescribably bad;
besides, the animals had completed their thirty-eighth day of travel
without proper food or rest. That night we camped beside the trail on
a site cleared for the purpose by the _camaradas_; we had taken
only the canvas flies, as it had been found necessary to abandon the
wall-tents some little distance back on account of their great weight.
There was no feed for the animals, but the men had cut a quantity of
palm-leaves growing abundantly in the forest, which the oxen refused to
eat, however.

[Illustration: Camp on the Rio da Duvida.

From this point the exploration of the river was undertaken by Col.
Roosevelt.]