The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-15

z ter the sombre precincts of the terra | incOgnita. Yet TumOrs of Listas loss had not more than begun to reach Eu- rope and North America. and already another expedition was preparing. Colonel Enrique de Ibarreta of Spain was the man to lead it. He made his start from San Antonio in Bolivia with party equipped as if for contest rath- CT than for exploration. He had a 1 fotilla of Indian canoes, each holding twelve men, and with him were six Ar genuine, two Bolivian and one Spaniard all well fitted by knowledge and experi- ence for the work of carrying out the task of forcing the passage through the River of Death. The canoes were cov- l cred with heavy sails and skins. which were pierced with Ioopholes for rifles. At Fort Creveaux, named in honor of 1 Dr. Creveaux. he got additional force in the form of two friendly Pilagas In- dians and an Indian boy, who proved invaluable through his knowledge of the ] many languages and dialects of the 1 tribes that were encountered during the voyage. Colonel Suarez, acting in com mand at the fort, provided this escort under orders from the Bolivian Govern ment, but personally begged Colonel Ibarreta to desist.
 His arguments were vain and early in June the party started down the Pill comayo. And scarcely had they passed from the sight of the soldiers in the frontier fort before the forest was alive with dangers all around them. Men dared not leave their covered canoes, even in the daytime.
 l Game vanished strangely before them. At first it seemed unaccountable, until they found that the Indians. invisible, but ever present, were driving it away to starve the explorers out, so that they should venture into the forests to hunt, when they could be killed easily.
 When the expedition reached Lagune Pitano, less than three hundred miles from the place where they had started, l it was September. It had taken them more than three months to get there, and yet the mysterious land had scarce 1 ly been entered
 And the men were then in such ex- | tremities that Ibarreta saw that they could not hope to get out alive unless help reached them. They were encom- passed by savages. Food was reduced to minimum.
 In this crisis Colonel Ibarreta called l for volunteers to break through the si- lent, hidden cordon of foes and try to reach Fornosa, on the Paraguayan boundary to get help Eight men off, fered themselves for this service. l Of these eight men nothing has been | learned to this day with the exception of two, who were found wandering in the thickets with barely strength enough left to tell even the briefest story They had been hunted headlong from mile to mile. Six of the fugitives were killed before day had passed. l The two survivors said that they had 1 left the Ibarreta party in dire need, l falls of the Picomayo River, the hith- Just before passing certain great water I erto deserted banks of the gloomy | stream suddenly were filled with tall men, hideously painted and armed with huge knotted clubs and with spears. 1 Their faces, painted coal black, with | circles of light blue over the cheek bones and three blue streaks, radiating | from the corners of their mouths. made 1 them look like devils. Indeed, the Pilagas Indians-a friendly tribe living near the borders-affirm that these are devils and not men that haunt the dark, l impenetrable forests of the River of | Death.
 l The Indians made an attack in force on the expedition and were beaten i off only after desperate efforts. They l withdrew then into the cover of the 1 overhanging vegetation on the banks, but they never ceased harassing the i explorers.
 l To go ashore for food was out of the question. The only hope that was left | when the men started for relief was to press on slowly to find landing place in open country, where the Indians might be at disadvantage.
 The two men did not live to reach civ ilization, but died near where the friendly Indian hunters had found them. These carried the news to Colonel | Carmelo Uriarte, who quickly formed relief party and advanced toward the Pilcomayo.
 For twenty days he marched and pad- dled and for all these twenty days he had to fight the savages who attacked him from every hiding place along the line. His Indian guides found friends who told them that the Ibarreta party had been annihilated, and they led Uriarte and his men to the spot where Colonel Ibarreta, the last man to yield, had made his final fight
 The murderous Indians were members of the Chorotis and Orejude tribes. of whom little is known except that they live a life of constant warfare between themselves, sinking their differences only when strangers enter the country Uriartes spies found the graves of various members of te Ibarreta party and returned with stories of courage and devotion. They learned how one member of the expedition after another
 had died, either from starvation or wounds, and how the survivors had
 buried their comrades and planted a rude cross on each grave
 At last there were left with Ibarreta only single Indian and the boy. These three worked their way on, ever suffer-
 ing more, until they were unable tc
 wield either paddle or poe
 Then they crawled out on. the bank
 and while they were plodding on shore
 entirely exhausted the Indians stole on
 them and killed them with axes, Ibar.
 reta fighting until the last and not yielding until he was powerless to