The Washington herald., 1908-06-28
INVADING The ANDES
Strange Things Encountered
OH Recent Expedition.
DR.. RICE TELLS OF HIS TRIP
Covers $500 Miles. of Which 500 Are
Made on Foot and the Rest by
Muieb"ck or in CanOeS--Encounters
Destructive Floods in the Noun
tains at Headwaters of Rio Negro.

DIR. Hamilton Rice, back from eighteen
months of adventure and scientific work
/ around the head waters of the Rio Ne
gro. in South America. tells an interest
ing story Of his trip. says the Boston
Transcript
The doctors trip covered about $500
miles, Of which about 500 was on foot.
and the rest either in canoes or by mule
back. He saw no fierce, man-eating na-
tives' such as Bostoniaqs may read about
In old-time tales of South American ex-
ploration and adventure. He says:
There isn't any such thing as a can
nibal down there. They are hardly bona
fide savages. They Will. however. at
! tack and put out Of the way a man
whom they do not fear Within the past
Few years there have been a number Of
white men killed in the region travelled
In, but / had no trouble with any In
dams out OF my own party.
In the course Of the trip 1 was de-
serted six times. That was the greatest
difficulty I encountered Often II was
necessary TO keep the Indians with me
by threats with my firearms, and In
camp ! tied them up to the trees by the
hands and neck 30 they would not depart
during the night
AT other times l would hand them
one OF my big express cartridges for a
nightcap. That would keep them scared
overnight. They knew what a powerful
weapon my rifle was They have great
respect for physical force. and that is
tho only way one can get any influence
over them
once last February on the lower Rio
Jaupes. the Indians left me and l was
marooned for twenty-four hours on an
Island In the river. ! woke up In time
10 near ne Indians going away in their
canoes, and. seeing their lights by the
other shore. I Immediately opened fire
upon them with my rifle. hoping 20 pre-
vent them from travelling up stream, so
that would be able TO get at them again.
But they got away and 1 never saw them
afterward
Made Guest of Honor.
After l had been there t~enty-four
hours I was taken away by a party OF
thirty Indians whom induced TO land on
tho island by the sign language Of laying
down my gun. They took me TO their vii
lage. which. by the way. consisted OF
just one house. and I was the guest OF
honor. From them I got more carriers.
1T was July g. 1901, that I left Bo-
gotta with i've mules. three muleteers.
and a servant Hypoiito acervado. and
crossed the Andes eastward to villa
Nicencion. small village in tho foothills
on the very edge Of the llauos, the great
plains OF Venezuela and Northwest Bra
I'll
This trip through the mountains was
the worst OF my experience, because Of
the floods. In Il we lost three OF our
mules and five oxen. II Is interesting the
way the muleteers have OF getting their
pack mules across the streams. They
hitch rope from one bank TO the neck
of the animal and a rope from the other
bank 20 his tail. Then il is pull on the
head and steer by the tail. II II were
not for the tail rope the mule would be
Sowled over and over. Some OF them
were
The valleys at this time could not be
traversed at all. because they were filled
with great and utterly impossible riv-
ers"
Geographically the region OF the River
Uaupes was the goal OF the trip The
doctor determined the source OF Il and
It's tributaries. In his map-making he
took more than 4 hundred observations
Of latitude and longitude.
Errors or GeOgrRphers.
He finds that there are Just two rivers
IN the region that rise In the Andes the
Unilla and the Caqueta. which start close
by each other near Neiva, and flow out
ward, forming a great triangle OF land
between. All the rivers between these
two which have been mapped By the
greatest Of cartogrnnhers as rising IN the