Connecticut western news., 1914-06-18


 negotiated You can take boats up them. It IS still better if you want tG establish a series. You can have launches above each rapid to go for the 150 or 2OO kiloneters before you come to the next serious obstacle to navigation. There is no difficulty whatever in the navigation. 1 say no difficulty whatever-I mean from the standpoint from which 1 am speak mg-by launch and canoe, broken by falls now and then from 1015 degrees to 51a degrees.
 Tells of the Embarkation.
 Now, when we embarked, having gone some thirty days by mule and OK train across this high central plateau of western BraZil-when we embarked our party consisted of twenty-two men, sixteen camarades and three Brazilian officers, among them Colonel Rcndon and MT. Cherrie of the American mu- scum, my son Kermit and myself. We said goodby in the twelfth degree of latitude to the other members of the expedition who had come that far.
 Colonel Rondon, I believe, affirmed that 1t was the Aripone which we would come out of. He had directed Lieutenant Pyrinez to send the boat up on the chance of meeting us, directing him to go up until he found a big af- fluent entering the river and stop there, because he could not tell which one we would be coming down. And Lieutenant Pyrinez went up to about ' degrees 15 minutes and waited for us. We said goodby to MT. Mueller and his associates here on Feb. 2T. After exactly sixty days of canoeing work we met Lieutenant Pyrinez.
 On the trip of our six members. MT. Cherrie, my son, the doctor and Lieu tenant Lira kept diaries day by day About every half degree or degree we took astronomical observations.
 The different portions of the course that we followed varied widely in diffi- culty. For four days we ran, survey ing for the river very accurately. We ran rather slowly before encountering any rapids. We then struck our first serious rapids. After that, which was in about II degrees 45 minutes south, we spent forty-two days, during which we slept every day at the head or foot of a rapid, and during the forty two days we only covered one degree of latitude, going to about 10 degrees 45 minutes south. We had by that time gone not more than a sixth of the distance that we expected to go and had used up about three-fourths or four-fifths of our. food; had been on half rations pretty much all the time, eked out with parrots and monkeys, which we enjoyed there.
 Then during that time we lost of the seven canoes five in the rapids. We built three others and lost one of those. ta Then we came out the last success sion of rapids, having been gone forty | six days. We struck long stretch of smooth water. The river was very broad and very big in that part, and IIafter two days more we struck the up- permost camp or house of any of the 1 rubber men. We were able to get food-sugarcane; sometimes rice or | bananas, occasionally a chicken or a duck, not very often, and in the eleven days, if I remember rightly, we got eight eggs.
 But ell our difficulties were over. and we made the entire remaining dis tance in fourteen days. We went down to below the junction of the up- per Aripone and the so called Cas- tania, and then in thirty-six hours on l fha Stoa I,yar want douyr +o +bo ,,,o,,4l, of the river, down the Amazon and a i little way up the Rio Machado to Ma naos. The serious work was the first "a little less than seven weeks going down through the rapids. After that there was no difficulty.
 We were fortunate enough on our trips down the river not to lose any of our instruments or any of the speci- | mems or notebooks or anything else that was of consequence to the expe. dition, but we had to cut all our per- sonal belongings down to the bone. l On the upper course of the river there were Indians They were afraid of us and somewhat hostile. think their hostility was due only to timidity RondoV's Dog Shot by Indians.
 Colonel Rondon was nearly shot. He was out hunting for monkeys, because we were hungry, and he had a dog with him. He heard what he thought was the bowling of spider monkeys. The dog went ahead, and he followed. It proved to be couple of Indians who were initiating the calling of the spider monkeys, probably to attrac. him. The first thing he knew about was hearing the dog yell, then coming toward him, then yelling again and then silence, and he was sure-and 1t afterward proved he was right-that it had been killed by Indians. He fired his revolver in the air, and the Indians ran. We afterward went out ourselves and found the dead body of the dog with two arrows through it.
 The camarades, the men who were