Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-06-27

Well, if they will so restless be,
l will not let it trouble me,
But leave these little pollwogs
Iowrlggle till they turn to frogs!
--Nausery.
Ernest Norris Thrilling Adventure.
in the Forests Of Brazil.
The young Brazilian explorer, Ernes
Morris, gave an account of his expedi
ton up the river Tapaios at a meeting
Of the Long Island Historical society il
Brooklyn recently. The New York
World says: Morris is only q years old
and looks younger than that Although
a boy still in appearance and temper
ament, ardent, excitable, of irrepressi
BILE spirits, he has shown during the
whole of the expedition the courage, pa.
thence, and perseverance of the trained
explorer. His education is, of course
desultary in it's character, but he is sur.
prlsingly well-read in the history of both
African and South American travels
He converses fuently in both Spanish
and Portuguese, and has passable ac-
! quaintance with several of the South
American native dialects. At his home
in indianapolis he has received from pro-
fessors resident in the city considerable
instruction in natural history, botany,
and mineralogy, and his study in these
branches has been carried to the limit of
his opportunities, in books and by per-
sOna observation. The notes which he
has taken in the course of his explora-
ton would fill several large volumes,
but his memory is so strong and his i'm
pressiOns Of scenes through which he
/ bo, i /
for hours, giving dates, names and facts,
without once referring to his written
pages. He describes his adventures with
the freshness and vivacity of bright
boy, and with the spirit of a natural ac-
| tor.
Cutting out the geographical details
and matters of interest to scientists alone,
and this story of the ascent of the
Tapajos runs as follows: Imagine the
speaker, now seated on the floor handling
his Indian beads in his hands, and now
springing' to his feet, tugging at the
ropes of his canoe, wading through a
swamp with the water up to his neck,
and surrounded by Indians with their
arrows drawn to the head
The river Tapajos flows into the
1AihttLOh dDOuU oIA ulItlICll 1lllcS 1IOIl
the sea. The Portuguese call it the Rio
Preto, or Black Water. Along it's banks
a different vegetation is found from that
which lines the banks of the Amazon
Now, the country through which this
Tapajos flows is quite high and billy, and
its shoals are white, sandy beaches. You
never see these beaches on the river
Amazon. 1 tell you that it is a fine
place to battle on the white sand. It is
two and half miles broad at its mouth,
but when you pass the great bay of
Maparie, not far from the Amazon the
river widens. No naturalist, strictly
speaking, has ever been more than eight
miles up the Tapajos, though Prof. Hart
pushed his exploration for the govern
ment as high as Itaituba, one hundred
and sixty miles up the river. Beyond
Itaituba the river narrows. Indians live
along its banks whose staple diet is
pararrocu, sailed fish Of the river and
when there is no fish they eat only farina
the ground root Of the mandioca.
Itaituba is the headquarters for all the
rubber gathered, and great quantities of
tapioca are made there. Twenty miles
above the village is the beginning of the
great chain of falls. From there up the
whole way, it is almost one continuous
rapid. l went up in boat with eight or
ten Indians, now pulling our hearts out
with cord, now pushing with hooked
poles, throwing ourselves down at night
and sleeping like logs in our wet clothes.
There wasn't a day when [ had a dry
stitch on me. Like all the Indian boats,
our boat was made very clumsy and fat
at both ends. The Indians had little
paddles resembling a grocery scoop, but
they got very little chance to use them
We tugged along sometimes when the
water came up to our necks. Gracious,
how we did push and pull, push and pull
up those places. I tell you, if we had
got into one of them-those great whirl-
pools-we would never have got out
Above these falls there was little insect
called the plum. It just fills the air in
millions. never cursed in my life, but
| just wished that [ could, to express my
feelings. Yellow mosquitoes, too, what
do you think Of that? great yellow fell
lows. All day long tormented by these
piums and all night by mosquitoes. The
only comfort had up there was smoking
paper cigarettes just like this with a
nervous pulD.
Now you have got me past only one
chain of falls. You go on and you come
to another chain Of falls. At their foot
is one of the largest tributaries of the
Tapajos, the Jouenchien. When we
crossed the mouth Of this we had to put
out our fires on the banks, for hostile
Indians were in the forest all about u.s.
Now you keep ascending and ascending,
going up all the time, and bitten by
those cussed piums One night we
camped on a tributary where the mos
quitoes were the thickest, I believe. I
went out to get meat for supper. One
Of these quata, the largest monkey in
Brazil, came swinging toward me. |
just raised my gun and knocked him
over. I tell you how the guides cook
these monkeys! They throw them on a
fire and SINCE the hair off them, and not
all off either, I tell you. Then they cut
them open and just clean them roughly,
and stick split piece of wood through
them and put them on the fire to cook.
Over the fire the monkey looked like a