The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1913-10-01
AMIDST JUNGLES
OF THE AMAZON
Dr. Hamilton Rice, Of Harvard, Re-
turns From Seventeen Months of
Travel in Amazon Jungles
LIVED PARTLY ON MONKEY MEAT
Country Teeming With Jaguare, ara
Rivers Full Of Rayas-Fifty Days
Without Seeing Human Being.

AS full of thrills as any story OF
polar exploration is the narrative OF
DR.. Hamilton Rice, the medical and
scientific explorer of Harvard college
who has just got back from seventeen
months of travel in the jungles about
the headwaters of the Amazon.
Five years ago he finished an ex'
plOration of the then unknown terri
tory adjacent to the Uaupes river turn
ing up at ManaOs Brazil, after rumors
had reached here of his death at the
hands of tabled white Indians. His
companion on his last trip was Lieu
tenant Won Bauer of the Austrian
dragons
1--WE reached the Bogota the latter
part of January, 1872" said DR.. Rice.
"In February, 1912, sent eleven mules
San Martin, in the Andes, which
made my first base. Then early in
May l followed the same route that
had employed in my journey of 1907
to the Uapes At Villovicencion, the
first town east from Bogota on the
1Iafios. or plains, made a stop, and
laid out the ground work for map.
Then | continued on to San Martin.
where | stopped more than month.
MANY days of bad weather pre-
vented good observations, but | had
exceptional opportunities to study ma
laria-Which is prevalent-and the
disease of cattle and mules Both
tertian and subtertian forms of malar
io1 81 y oil 10 inc CT r,,-
ments necessary for scientific study
and examined blood smears of be
tween 500 and 1000 cases.
Paid in Eggs for Surgery.
81 found a man suffering from an
thrax, and performed there operations
on him, single handed, reducing his
temperature by soaking sheets in a
small mountain stream. had to cut
his arm from his shoulder to his hand.
AS result of this successful opera
ton hundreds of cases of all kinds
came to me. Those people are ex-
tremely poor. | made no charge, but
l asked for milk and eggs. Would
you believe it, in all the time | was
there, five weeks. my fees amounted
to six eggs and half pitcher of milk.
"The rubber craze has made that a
poverty stricken region. When | was
there six years ago it was a prosper
Gus country and full of cattle. The
people have sold everything, gone in
for rubber. ard have sunk down to
poor, fever ridden community. The
town was established almost 800 years
ago. but there is still no telegraph.
Having spent two weeks taking
observations to finish my work of five
years ago, | found that DR.. Jaramillo.
the cOmmandante. was about to UNI
dertake government expedition south
in an attempt to reach the Mesava
river, and | accompanied him as to
pOgrapher and surgeon. We had TWEEN
ty-siX men, consisting of caucheros.
or rubber gatherers. and Indians.
Early in September a camp was made
on the Rio Llilla. branch OF the
Uaupes. 1t was necessary to cut a
path through jungle, swamp and for
est.
1--WE found the MeSava river tenn
ing with all kinds of fish. ] saw a nan
in one hour catch with a ho0l: and
line $50 of ten different varieties.
ranging from seven inches to two feet
in length.
81 had opportunity here to study
the HuitotO Indians. They are very
docile and never intermarry. Natural
w inteligent, they learn very rapidly.
The Carijona Indians. on the other
hand, are much more fierce and war
like, and continually intermarry. This
nation has been melted from time to
time by the Peruvians to make war
upon the peaceful Huitotos.
Struggling in Dense Forests.
eve were in a dense forest, filled
with canOS. or small streams, and
swamps. We had to continually fell
trees to get them out of the way. The
waters were filled with rayas. which
int'ict terrible stingS, causing ulcers.
The food got scarce. The Indians re-
fused to proceed, and two had to be
chastised The party was reduced to
six. We had left behind everything
but our instruments and hammOcks
and the cutlasses, which were abso-
lutely necessary to cut a way through
the Jungle The rain poured down
heavily all the time. Finally. On No.
vember 18th, we reached the Ajaju
river at it's source. This was our
definite goal We made observations
for latitude and longitude, christened
the place Puerto Mercedes. left rec
ords under trees and started back.
eve were now without food and
depended uDon meeting supplies which
we had ordered to be sent from our
base. Sometimes we found scraw-
nv monkey. sometimes a bird which
furnished the whole food supply for a
day. Once found a huge land turtle,
on which we Toasted for two days.
Gradually we threw away everything
hut our instruments. We grew weak
or and weaker. Finally Castro, a
giant who had been in the habit of
carving $50 pounds on his back, came
down to motor asphasia.
However, we all got back to our
base alive. there to find that all the
marty we had left had fled, except
those who hadn't been able to get