Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-05
AN UNKNOWN LAND
Gran Chaco a Spot Of Mystery
in America.
DEFIES ALL EXPLORERS
FIVE NATIONS HAVE CONTRIB
UTED PLUCKY MEN.
All Have Perished in This Country of
Awe-"DeviIs of the
Woods.


the American continent and possibly in
| the world, has claimed another band of
victims; again the Pilcomayo river has
proved itself deserving of the title given to
| 1t by the natives of Paraguay, Argentina
and Bolivia-River of Death
The last victims of the unknown place
are the famous Italian explorer. Guida
Bogsiano. and his party. From Asuncion
in Paraguay the news has reached Ameri-
can geographers that the party has been
officially pronounced dead.
With the Staying of Boggiano Gran Cha
| CO, triumphantly keeping it's secret, has
successfully defied five nations-France
Spain, Germany, Italy and Paraguay Each
| of them sent its best explorers, and to none
| did their men return alive.
| Creveaux of France Ibarreta of Spain,
| Lista Of Paraguay. sirvent Of Germany
| and Boggiano of Italy, all started from the
borders. dived into the primeval forests of
| Ell Gran Chaco. reached the Pilcomayo
river and disappeared for ever.
No man has gone in and emerged alive.
what turks in its twilight forests that
Stays so surely?
| Look on the map of South America.
Between the Tropic of Capricorn and lat
itude 30 south, and between longitude So
and 90 west Is a patch that is left almost
| entirely blank. That patch contains more
| than 10000 square miles about which man
knows nothing.
1t is the terra incognita of the American
continent.
Guido Boggiano.
Five months ago Guido Boggiano started
| from Asuncion with an expedition of six
| Indians and peon to follow the path that
SO many others had taken before him and
| that had led them to death. Friends had
| urged him in vain to desist. Local officials
had added their warnings without effect.
Men heard from him only once after he had
left civilization. as he passed through
|. Puerto Casado. Then came week of 81
| lence, broken by the arrival of two of the
expedition. Even in that one week hard
ships and terrors had become too much for
them. and they had fled toward settled
country. They reported that the line of
| march had been through constant dangers
and through constant mystery. Unseen
enemies had attacked them by day and by
night. Unseen animals had prOwled on
/ their trail Unseen things had terrified the
Indian helpers SO that even then Boggiano
was finding it almost impossible to force
them on.
That is the last that has been heard by
man of Guido Boggiano and his party. A
month ago an expedition under local Off
Gals started out from Puerto Casado to
search for news Of the lost men. 1t pene-
trated only a few miles into the unknown
land-not far enough to find even a trail.
but far enough to learn that there was no
doubt that the entire expedition had been
destroyed presumably by the fierce, prac-
tically unknown TOBIAS Indians.
This makes the second expedition to van
ish within a year.
How CreveauX Died.
First to meet fate in Gran Chaco was Dr.
Creveaux. He started into the interior in
1886 with a large and well-armed party,
fired with wonderful stories of strange, tall,
savage men. strange wild beasts of huge
size and a profusion of new orchids and
other fantastic plants and creatures that
were said to be in abundance there. He
forced his way for several months through
the wilderness along the Pilcomayo until he
penetrated into the TOBIAS country. near the
Bolivian boundary, where the expedition,
worn and thinned out by constant fighting
and hardships, fell into the hands of the
Indians, who suddenly appeared from all
quarters and masSa cred all.
The fate of the CreveauX expedition only
served to increase the eagerness of eX-
plorers to tear the veil that hid the IN
known land.
life of one of the most successful and earn
est and daring explorers that ever was in
South America. He was Ramon Lista. to
whom the world today owes much of its
knowledge of Paraguay, Argentina and
Patagonia. For many years he had lived
almost constantly in the widest parts of
the continent He was the first man to
send out from the depths of Patag onia the
report of the possible existence there of a
monstrous animal, the mylodon giant
sloth as great as an OK, that still survived
from prehistoric days. He reported subse-
quently that one evening he had even shot
at some huge creature that might have
been it. But its hide turned his bullet. and
the gloom of the forest made pursuit i'm
possible.
Ramon Lista's Doom
Ramon Lista thus on the threshold, pos
sibly. of an epochal discovery in modern
hi l.;
Chaco. He passed beyond the uttermost
frontier of human dwellers, and with canoe
and men padded away to reach the Pilco-
mayo river And when he padded thus
away he passed out of human sight forever
For the River of Death has never given
him up.
Fragments of his story have drifted to
the outer world and from the stories told
by boastful Indians and the scattered
rumors brought to Bolivian and Paraguay
an and Argentinian frontier posts it is
known that he forced his way far up the
river. contendng against nature and wild
beasts and wild men alike. until, thoroughly
worn out and sadly diminished in numbers
the expedition found itself cut off from
either retreat or advance by the allied
forces of human foes and hunger For the
Indians. rarely showing themselves, but
constantly lurking around the party not
only picked off any members of the expedi-
ton who strayed even slightly from the
main body, but prevented all hunting. AT
last the party was reduced by privations
that panic seized some and despair others.
And then came humiliation, SO that none
returned. Lista himself. men have
learned since then. one of the last to
die He was Drained while he lay starving
And scattered over many miles of forest
trails lie his companions, pursued and kill
ed in fight.
Ibarreta Seeks the Mystery.
Ramon Listas fate well might have de-
tered other men from seeking to enter the
somber precincts of the terra incognita
Yet rumors OF Ltsta's loss had not more
than begun to reach Europe and North
America, and already another expedition
was preparing to hew its way into the
place Of doom.
Colonel Enrique de Ibarreta of Spain was
the man to lead it. He made his start
from San Antonio in Bolivia with a party
singuiariy well equipped-equipped, indeed.
as If for conquest rather than for explora-
ton. He had fiotilla of Indian canoes
each holding twelve men, and with him
were six Argentine, two Bolivian and one
Spanish companion. all well fitted by knowl-