Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-18
ACROSS A CONTINENT
The Remarkable Journey Ac.
cOmpliShed by Major Ker-
bey, of Pittsburg.
BOATING ON THE AMAZON,
Brazilian officers Are the Greatest
TyrantS on Earth.
4 CUSTOM HOUSE AT EACH STOP.
GOnOtOny of the Scenery on the Great
River of the Tropics.
4 CUSTOM HOUSE AT EACH STOP.
HOW THE CURIOUS TOWNS ARE LOCATED
Major Kerbev has done It'll

Brazil, on the Atlantic side The Major
says it was a most eventful trip on steamer,
in canoe, on muleback and on foot up the
Amazon and over the Cordilleros and
the Andes.
No American veteran has accomplished
such a trip and no American journalist, or
Continental either, has done this most in
teresting country. He says his note book
Is full of data and interesting incidents
and adventures
Far from being dishesrtened by the hard
ships of this journey of discovery, the
Major SAYS that instead of returning North
he will go on South to Lima, from which
point he may return over the Southern
Andes trail on the Ucayoli route, or perhaps
go through the Straits of Magellan to Rio
de Janeiro, Buenos Ayres, etc, to the
starting point at Para, Brazil
Out on the Mighty Amazon.
The following letter was written on
board the Joan Alfredo which carried Major
Kerbey out OF Para up the mighty Amazon.
He saws:
As far as typographical appearances CO.
the thousand miles of Alto, or Upper, do
not differ materially from the thousand
miles of Baia, or Lower Amazon. The
American traveller to Brazil who has
aseended the 100 miles of the delta to Para,
has seen from the deck OF the moving ship
precisely the same panorama of low lying,
dense tropical forest tringing broad, yel-
lOwIsh band of water, that extends like
ribbon under bright, hot sky in its tire
come way over . 900 miles due westward.
1t is something like going West in the
earlier DAYS of the Pacific railways, where
you are whirled thousands of miles through
sage bush and sand; each day upon looking
out OF the car windows. one imagines from
the same extensive views that the car had
not been moving since YOUR last observa-
tion. You are out OF the woods there and
can whistle. You see farther if you do not
discover as much of interest as on the
Amazon, where nothing is visible but sky
and forest. The one feature which however
strikes me as remarkable is that the further
toward the source We get, the river seems
TO grow bigger It at least impresses the
traveller as widening. We know that our
steamer draws over ten feet of wSter and
the Indian pilots say there is sufficient
depth for an ocean steamer of IS feet |
draught, even in this the dry season.
Not Very Rapid Journey.
There is a very considerable difference |
however in the speed OF ascending vessels !
Those on the lower river do the thousand |
miles to Man2os in tour and five days,
while the same boat consumes IA DAYS in |
making the same distance from Manaos to
lqultos in Peru This is partly due to
lesser currents below, as the ocean tide /
affects the fow for half the distance to
Manaos. Perhaps, too, the boats on the
upper river make more frequent landings,
z ind u-n 0+ an s. cfa o@o
the most Insignificant hamlet or hacienda
means delay Of at least half day, per-
laps "a hours according TO the social in
clInatIons Of the officers, the business being
generally of q character that an hours work
would finish.
There are but few towns on the upper
Amazon river, such as they are, being gem
orally composed of store and row of bar
rack looking buts, which are almost always
located on some of the little afiluents or
tributaries, SO that the boat must leave the
main river and thread its wav up a narrow,
but always deep river. 1t appears to have
been the practice of the Indians to avoid
settlements Cd the main stream, preferring
for reasons proper enough in their DAYS to
conceal their villages, and the custom is
adhered to by their descendants, who are
now the principal inhabitants Perhaps
another reason is that they were unable to
End any sufficiently high ground on the
banks Of the main stream.
The Capital City of Amazonas.
The capital city of Manaos is located
some six miles off the Amazon proper, on
he Rio Negro. As indicating the absence
1f proper information in regard to the in
eriOr country u recent Government pub
icatiOn issued by the ''Bureau OF Informa-
ion" OF South American Republics at
W Washington contains an illustrated article
which pictures Manaos as an Indian village,
showing only a few thatched huIs and |
,anoes-altog ether a most absurd caricature
IN the capital city of Amazonas, containing
IN intelligent population of some 30, 900 to
., O,OOO-doing an extensive business with
America and the interior, and from whose
,ort steamships sail directly to New York, ]
liverpool and other points weekly
There is not a matched cottage In the
llace, but quite a number of three and four
tory business blocks, numerous storerooms,
theater, cathedral, palacios, the hillside
nd suburbs being dotted with tasty cottage I
Of cultivated people. There is 4
lso q hotel in which French cooks are en-
,loyed, the proprietor of which will charge
he traveller as much as the Fifth Avenue in
Sew York City. There are other hotels,
ot so high in price, but where the tourist !
nay have all his wants gratiied at a figure
0 suit his taste. There is some agitation 9
bout removing this capital city lower down
n the main river to Parantins, vet it will {
srdIy be accomplished, as the harbor is {
uPerior to any that could be found in the
.mazon. :
The Map-Makers Do Not Agree. :
The Brazilians have capricious way of L
hanging the name of the rivers as thev do s
heir governors and the streets of their |
tiles. Some OF the recent Biographies and i
ans from Rio indicate the Amazon as only q
lat part of the river between Manaos and 2
le sea that flows north of the Island of b
Iarajo; all that portion west of the June q
on with the Negro is marked as the Soli- G
oes, yet despite these makers of rivers on
lper, the mighty Amazon will retain its
aim to original distinction from the yerv
cad waters at the base Of the Andes to the q
"a, and at the Bocca, its old gold colored D
aters force path for hundred miles over =
lie bosom of the blue ocean, depositing its :
nds where will some day perhaps arise ;.
lOther continent, or extend the Amazon IL
illey other leagues to the east. r.
Though the Amazon was ostentatiously l.
.clared free to all nations in 1866, yet but e.
W seem TO know that the decree of Dom n
edro II literally applies only to what is n
lown as the Amazon proper, and the nu- W
erous and important tributaries with their q
parste afiuents are in themselves equal in u
ze to the upper Amazon, each separately, u
ing far more valuable in natural Resources cl