St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-06-01
TRIP FULL OF PERIL,
An Attempt at Exploring the
Mouth Of the Amazon
River.
Fourteen Savages Sent to
Paradise With a Single
Shell.
Throwing a Fuse Shell Into
a Bed of Sleeping Croc-
odiles.
A Jaguar Kills a Seaman
In the Coils Of a
Boa.


photographer, naturalist, an artist,
and two outside civil engineers, who
wanted the experience, and our mission
was to make a thorough exploration.
This was meant to enter every channel
where a steamer could float TO take
sOundings; to observe the tides, cur
rents, floods, etc.; to record the wash
ing away of the banks, changes of chan
nels, and hundred other things, the
knowledge of which might be useful tO
the world.
AT the time the Forward set out there
was strong talk of the British govern
ment gobbling up big slice of the Bra
lillian coast in payment of an old claim
for indemnity, and L suppose the first
object in view was to see whether the
white man could stand the climate and
do business there, and to get an idea OF
what he would have to contend with.
The Forward was propeller, carried
two SiX-pOund cannon as her armament,
and when loaded drew only five feet of
water. We had a crew of fourteen men,
were outfitted with everything which
could be possibly used, and were con-
veyed from Georgetown, III British
Guiana, by man-of-war and brig, the
latter loaded with supplies for us and
under orders to anchor where our cap
tain directed, and remain as store
ship and haven for us i'll
Case of Disaster.
l do not suppose there is a geography
or q marine chart in existence which
gives the actual number of mouths OF
the Amazon. Any attempt to name
them would be gueSswOrk. In the flood
season the great river emptieS its muddy
waters over coast seventy miles long
and through twice as many channels,
and in the dry one may be unable to
Islands are formed one. month to be
washed away the next. Where there is
a bluff ten feet high to-day there will
be nothing in sight but water tO-mOr-
row. The world couldnot raise enough
cash and laborers to straighten the
stream and confine its outlet to one
channel
From what have read of Equatorial
Africa l should call it paradise COM
pared to what used to be termed 1.-The
Spot of Desolation." The line of the
equator crosses the mouth of the Anna
ION, and, as for heat, no white man
could long endure it. | saw the Their
mometer mark from 122 to 127 deg. for
days at a time. and that was on the
water, with more or less breeze stirring.
The variety of insects which annoyed
us at night by biting was something
over score. At times. when we lay
at anchor off jungle, puff of
wind would bring such a cloud of
mosquitoes that their bodies would
A xsrI1j
posed to them on shore could not have
lived an hour. There are seven kinds
of poisonous snakeS,along the Amazon.
the largest crocodiles in the world. five
or six species of beasts, which will at
tack man, and goodness knows how
many kinds of bugs and ants and worms
which make life miserable. The things
we had most to dread, however, were
the jaguar, the serpents, the natives
and the crocodile. They seemed leagued
against us from the very start.
We had steam launch and two yaWls
for exploration where the steamer could
not 90, and there were six of US out in
the launch one day making soundings
in great bend, when monster crocO-
die rose to the surface close beside us,
lunged forward. and had his head and
one leg over the gunwale before any
one saw him. The engineer had a
Ratchet within reach, and with this he
gave the reptile such blow as made
him draw Off and sink out OF sight.
The launch had scarcely righted her
elf, however, when a full dozen more
of the Saurians rose to the attack. We
should have been capSiZed and every
man deyoured alive had we been in one
of the yawlS. AS it was, we drove
ahead at full speed and Outran them,
though some of them pursued us for
half a mile, and we were nearly
swamped with the water splashed into
the boat. A few days later, one after
noon as the steamer came to anchor in q
channel, the anchor must have dropped
among bed of
Sleeping CrOcOdiIes.
They rose all about US, kissing and
splashing, and this excitement brought
up others, until siXty-SiX enormous big
fellows were to be counted at one time.
They attacked the steamer with the ut
most fury, and. while their efforts were
harmless, their struggles rocked her as
il she was at sea in gale. A fuse
she'll was prepared in key, together
with three pounds of loose powder, and
the keg was thrown overheard.
it had drlfted 100 feet astern before they
saw it and made a rush. They had
pulled it about five feet under water
when the explosion came, and a full
dozen of the SaurianS must have been
killed by it. 1t was nearly a month
after that before another one came
about the steamer. and it looked to us
as if couriers had been sent up and
down with the news that we were an
enemy to be avoided,
On another occasion one of these mon.
sters did us a good turn. l had charge
of one yawl. which was sounding a
channel. The men at the oars were pull
ing slowly against the current, while
the one handling the lead was casting
and calling out, when zip! came a dart
from blowgun, passing just over our
heads. We knew what it was from the
sound it made, but we could not tell
from whence it came. Either shore was
too far off for a dart to reach
we pulled ahead was long
thin tongue reaching out from the right
hand shore aud ending in pile of drift
wood. This tongue has been created by
drifting trees grounding on the bottom
and the slit collecting to make bar.
stood up in the boat and took a long
look, but could see nothing. | ought to
have been able to detect even rabbit
anywhere on that tongue or drift, as
there were no bushes, but nothing what
ever was In sight. / was in the act of
sitting down, almost satisfied that we
had all been deceived, when second
arrow whisked so close to my cheek
that 1 thought bird had darted for my
eye.
ssA Close Call,
sir. and it was poisoned dart at thatp'
said one of the men, as dropped back
into my seat.
1.-THE Internal wretch must be in that
driftwood, though l can't see him''
added the man with the lead line.
We held the boat stationary and pre-
pared to signal to the steamer, which
was a mile below, when all of a sudden
fifteen-foot crocodile landed on the
tongue OF land and began crawling to-
ward the driftwood. He had just
reached the pile when a native, who
had been skillfully concealed, rose up