Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1914-06-04

~ luIOuBu the WOih III utIdll, dS
cannot go through 1t, and as we could
not when we made our exploration
IL.
Il will come later to tell you what
part Of II had never been traversed
by any civilized man before and what
part of it had already been known to
the rubber gatherers, but absolutely
unknown to any map maker; to these
map makers here that have quoted
to you = English, German, French,
American, or Brazilian-none OF them
know anything about 1t at all.
For four days we ran, as say.
rather slowly before encountering any
rapids. We then struck our first Sc
rious rapids. After that, which was in
about II degrees As minutes south,
we spent AZ days during which we
slept every day at the head or foot
Of rapids, and during the AZ days
we only covered one degree of lati
tude, going to about 10 degrees as
minutes south; that is, from IL de-
grees As minutes to 10 degrees As min
utes, and therefore making not much
more than a mile and a half day in
straight line, the curves of the river
adding greatly to the distance actual
ly travelled.
I'VE had by that time gone not more
than sixth Of the distance that we
expected to go and had used up about
three-fourths or four-fifths of our
food. We had been on half rations
pretty mucl all the time, eked out
with pa ots and monkeys, which we
enjoyed there. But can assure any
of my geological friends that they can
leave me with entire safety in the
monkey house without my making any
assault on any of the inmates. / have
had all the monkey ! wish.
Then, during that time, of the sew
en- canoes and seven dugouts with
which we started we lost five canoes
on the rapids. We built three others
and lost one of those. One man was
drowned in the rapids. There were
several other narrow escapes from
drowning, and under the strain, which
was great, one of the men went COM
pletely mad and murdered another
and himself fed into the wilderness.
Then we came out OF the last sue
cession of rapids, having been gone 46
days. 1t might have been AZ or 43
days, and either 46 or AZ days, and
all Of our troubles were over.
I'VE struck long stretch of smooth
water. The river was broad and big
in that part, and after two days more
we struck the uppermost camp or
house of any of the rubber men. We
were able to get fSod-sugar cane,
manioca, sometimes rice or bananas,
occasionally chicken or a duck. not
very often. And In the IL days, IL
remember rightly, we got eight eggs,
which divided among the six of US
would have given each man one egg a
week
Until men have had experience
they can hardly realize the insuffer-
able difference there is going down a
stream broken by rapids which are
unknown and going down a stream
Just as difficult which Is known.
In the first place you come to the
head of the rapids and you have not
any idea what is ahead. You have to
land and send people forward to ex-
plore.
'If you are overcautious you viii
take so long time that you will ex-
'hAust your food supply and be in dan
ger of starvation. II you are over
risky you may lose the canoes and
what's In them. Then you face star
walton, not in the future, but in the
present.
"The medicines are almost as impor-
tant as the food. We had to keep the
men and ourselves all dosed with qui-
nine the whole time in order to keep
the fever from US. think everybody
got the fever more or less, but II we
had not had the quinine we would
have been laid out.
I'VE were fortunate enough on our
trip 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 to the bone.
"0n the upper course of the river
there were Indians. They were afraid
OF us and somewhat hostile. | think
their hostility was due only to timid-
ity, but If you are shot by a man be-
cause he is afraid Of you It is almost
as unpleasant as IL he shot you be-
cause he disliked you.
I'm the wilderness people portray
you as being in danger from croco-
diles and iaguars and so on. They are
not the things you mind. 1t is the
mosquitoes and the poisonous ants.
II is the ants that eat up your cloth
ing. II is the moribund wasps that
are perfectly awful. 1t is these so
called borochuda and plum flies, which
are like the black flies OF the north
ern woods, only worse, and II is the
insect pests Of that kind that are
really serious drawbacks to work In
the wilderness. The life lacked
good deal of being undiluted pleasure
during the time we spent at that
camp. We were about three DAYS. al.