Across Unknown South America | Page 9

to the building to
admire a window of gaudy coloured glass half-way up the staircase. In
this way they reason about nearly everything. They have not yet
mastered the importance and due proportion of detail. Frequently what
is to us a trifling detail is placed by them in the forefront as the most
important point of whatever they undertake.
Thanks to the strong credentials I carried--among which were letters
from H.E. Regis de Oliveira, Brazilian Minister in London--I was
received in Rio de Janeiro with the utmost consideration and kindness.
From the President of the Republic to the humblest citizens, all with no
exception treated me with charming civility. My stay in Rio was a
delightful one. The Brazilians of the principal cities were most
courteous and accomplished, and it was a great pleasure to associate
with them. Intense interest was shown by the Government of the
country and by the people in my plan to cross the continent. Dr. Pedro
de Toledo, the Minister of Agriculture, was specially interested in the
scheme, and it was at first suggested that the expedition should be an
Anglo-Brazilian one, and that I should be accompanied by Brazilian
officers and soldiers. Colonel Rondon, a well-known and brave officer,
was ordered by the Government to find suitable volunteers in the army
to accompany my expedition. After a long delay, Colonel Rondon
informed me that his search had been unsuccessful. Colonel Rondon
said he would have gladly accompanied the expedition himself, had he

not been detained in Rio by his duties as Chief of the Bureau for the
Protection and Civilization of the Indians. Another officer offered his
services in a private capacity, but he having become involved in a
lawsuit, the negotiations were suddenly interrupted.
[Illustration: Dr. Pedro de Toledo, Minister of Agriculture, Brazil.]
I endeavoured to find suitable civilians. No one would go. The
Brazilian forest, they all said, was worse, more impenetrable than any
forest in the world. Brazilian rivers were broader, deeper and more
dangerous than any river on earth. Wild beasts in Brazil were more
numerous and wilder than the wildest animals of Africa or Asia. As for
the Indians of Central Brazil, they were innumerable--millions of
them--and ferocious beyond all conception. They were treacherous
cannibals, and unfortunate was the person who ventured among them.
They told stories galore of how the few who had gone had never come
back. Then the insects, the climate, the terrible diseases of Central
Brazil were worse than any insect, any climate, any terrible disease
anywhere. That is more or less the talk one hears in every country when
about to start on an expedition.
I had prepared my expedition carefully, at a cost of some £2,000 for
outfit. Few private expeditions have ever started better equipped. I
carried ample provisions for one year (tinned meats, vegetables, 1,000
boxes of sardines, fruits, jams, biscuits, chocolate, cocoa, coffee, tea,
etc.), two serviceable light tents, two complete sets of instruments for
astronomical and meteorological observations, and all the instruments
necessary for making an accurate survey of the country traversed. Four
excellent aneroids--which had been specially constructed for me--and a
well-made hypsometrical apparatus with six boiling-point
thermometers, duly tested at the Kew Observatory, were carried in
order to determine accurately the altitudes observed. Then I possessed
two prismatic and six other excellent compasses, chronometers, six
photographic cameras, specially made for me, with the very best Zeiss
and Goertz lenses, and some 1,400 glass photographic plates--including
some for colour photography. All articles liable to be injured by heat
and damp were duly packed in air- and water-tight metal cases with

outer covers of wood. Then I carried all the instruments necessary for
anthropometric work, and painting materials for recording views and
scenes in colours when the camera could not be used, as at night or
when the daylight was insufficient. I had a complete supply of spades,
picks, large saws, axes, and heavy-bladed knives (two feet long) for
cutting our way through the forest, making roads and constructing rafts,
canoes and temporary bridges.
I carried, as usual, very little medicine--merely three gallons of castor
oil, a few bottles of iodine, some formiate of quinine, strong carbolic
and arsenical soaps, permanganate and other powerful disinfectants,
caustic--that was about all. These medicines were mostly to be used, if
necessary, upon my men and not upon myself.
I had twelve of the best repeating rifles that are made, as well as
excellent automatic pistols of the most modern type, and several
thousand rounds of ammunition--chiefly soft-nosed bullets. These
weapons were carried in order to arm my followers. Although I had
several first-class rifles for my own use--following my usual custom, I
never myself carried any weapons--not even a penknife--upon my
person except when actually going after game. Again on this
occasion--as on previous