The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-24
SECRET OF GRAN CnACO
A LOCALITY FROM WHICH NO WHITE
MAN HAS EVER COME ALIVE.
Continent Has Claimed Many Vic
tims-CaIIed River of Death.

comayo river has proved itself deserving
of the title given to ii by the natives OF
Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia-River Of
Death. The last victims of the unknown
place the famous Italian explorer Gui-
do Boggiano, and his party. From Asun-
cion in Paraguay the news has reached
American geographers that the party has
been officially pronounced dead.
With the Staying of Boggiano, Gran Cha
co. triumphantly keeping its secret. has
successfully defed five nations-France,
Spain. Germany, Italy and Paraguay. Each
of them sent its best explorers and to none
did their men return alive. Cerveaux, Of
France, Ibarreta, of Spain. Lista, of Para
quay, Sivernt, 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 dsap-
peared forever.
Look on the map of South America. Be-
tween the Tropic of Capricorn and latitude
80 south, and between longitude IS and 65
west is patch that is left almost entirely
blank. That patch contains than
1900 square miles about which man knows
nothing.
1t is the terra incognita of the Americas.
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 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 silence, brok-
en- by the arrival of two of the expedition.
Even in that one week hardships and ter
hn6 hnn d, For thnr, and
they had fed toward settled country. They
reported that the line of march had been
through constant dangers and through con-
slant mystery. Unseen enemies had at
tackled them by day and by night. I'm
seen animals had prowled on their trail.
Unseen things had terrified the Indian help
ing ii almost impossible to force them on.
THE LAST HEARD OF HIM.
That is the last that has been heard by
man of Guido Boggiano and his party. A
month ago an expedition under local Of
ficials started out from Puerto Cascade 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
First to meet fate in Gran Chaco was DR..
Creveneaux. He started into the interior
in 1886 with large and well-armed party,
fired with wonderful stories of strange, tall,
savage men, strange wild beasts of huge
size and 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
" no l.
ton, worn and thinned out by constant
fighting and hardships, fell into the hands
OF the Indians, who suddenly appeared
from all quarters and massacred all.
The fate of the CreveauX expedition only
served to increase the eagerness of expior-
ers to tear the veil that hid tn unknown
land. That eaSernesS next was to cost the
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 to-day owes much of it's
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 Patagonia the
report of the possible existence there of a
monstrous aniaml, the myloden, a giant
sloth as great as an OK, that still survived
from prehistoric days. He reported sub
sequently that one evening he had even
shot at some huge creature that might
have been it. But it's hide turned his bull
| let, and the gloom of the forest made pur-
suit impossible.
| RAMON LISTA'S DOOM
Ramon Lista, thus on the threshold, pos
sibly, of an epochal discovery in modern
world history, set his face toward Ell Gran
| Chaco. He passed beyond the uttermost
| frontier of human jewellers, and with canoe
and men padded away to reach the Piico-
mayo river And when he padded thus
| away he passed out of human sight for
~. ID
| given him up.
Fragments of his story have drifted to
| the outer world and from the stories told
by boastful Indians and the scattered ru-
mors brought to Bolivian and Para guayan
and Argentinian frontier posts, it is known
| that he forced his way far UP the river
| contendlng against nature and wild beasts
ana 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 expedition who
! strayed even slightly from the main body
| but prevented all hunting. At last the
! party was so reduced by privations that
/ panic seized some and despair others And
| then came humiliation, so that none re-
turned. Lista himself, so men have learned
| since then, was of the last to die He
| was Drained while he lay starving And
scattered over many miles of forest trails
/
flight.
IBARRETA SEEKS THE MYSTERY.
| Rumors of Lista'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 singularly well equipped-equipped
| indeed, as if for conquest rather than fol-
exploration. He had a hotilla of Indian
canoes each holding twelve men, and with
| him were six Argentine, two Bolivian and
| one Spanish companions, all well fitted BY
| knowledge and experience for the work OF
! CARRYING out the task of forcing the pas
| sage through the River of Death. The ca
| noes were covered with heavy sails and
| skins. which were pierced with loop holes
| for rifles
At Fort Creveaux, named in honor of DR.
/ form of two friendly Plagas Indians and
an Indian boy, who proved invalua bic
! through his knowledge of the many Ian
| guageS and dialects of the unknown tribes
| that were encountered during the VOYAGE
| Colonel Suarez acting in command at the
| fort provided this escort under orders from
| the Bolivian government, but personally
| begged Colonel Ibarreta TO desist.
| His arguments were vain, and early in
| June the party started down the Pilcom.
| ayo And scarcely had they passed from
| fort before the forest was alive with dan.
| all md rhnrf. Ne, 1ar