The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-02-18
CANNIBALS EAT
TWO EXPLORERS


and everything was apportioned on the
community plan. They cultivated corn as
high M 1900 feet altitude.
After studying and photographihs
there we ,ourneyed on horseback to Cuzcc
and thereafter started out on the word OF
an old Indian that he could show us
ruins older than the Oldest ruin extant.
The man led us to three cities buried In
the matted underground OF centuries, the
like OF which I have never seen on any
continent. We could rot see them when
we reached them but the spade and the
machete soon revealed portions OF them.
There we're wonderful buildings. council
houses. dwellings. streets. forts. temples
and the whole outline OF city. az nearly
az we could Judge, which contained pop
ulatlons OF more than $4,000.
THE building material was stone and
the utensils In common use were a mixed
gold and silver.
Track Cromer.seljan Party.
We returned to Lima for the third
time and then departed last September for
our last expedition. which was to take
us across the continent. Just as We were
about to go United States Minister Henry
Cay Howard AT Lima received Il telegram
from Secretary of State Bryan asking him
TO inquire about the tate OF the Cromer-
Seljan expedition which went into the In
terror in 1911 to locate a grant OF land
awarded to the Peruvian American Cor
poration by the Peruvian Government. We
knew that W. II. Cromer a West Point
graduate. WAS one OF the heads that W.
ii. Page was another member and that
Sejan. whose frs, name we never got,
was q third.
"Holbrook, Coates. dunno and myself
| started soon afterward and after leaving
Cerro de Pasco plunged into country
which white men had never entered and
left before. Mountains gave way TO jun
giles and jungles to mountains which
reached far above the snow line 1t was
| a country OF hostile Indians who were
| cannibals, according to the Indians We
| had with us.
We struck out for the Hullaga River.
down which We were TO raft. and some
! time before this we had our first fight
with bandits They came into our camp
as friends and departed with protesta-
| tons OF friendship They had told US TO
take certain course Seeming trick
Holbrook. Coates and trailed them. We
| found they had prepared an ambush for
Us We fired upon them and the sur
| vivors ran away
Fired Upon by Indiana.
| We reached the river and RATED down
for seven days We wer. fred upon b.
! Indians with poisoned arrows blowguns
| and old fashioned muskets. We ate mon =
| keys. parrots. turtles and some fish. We
| were pretty tired when We reached Ga
liche. an Indian village a, the junction
OF the Juanjui River There We got trace
| OF Seljan and Patrick O'Higgins. an
! American miner who had been with him
| We never got a trace OF Croner or Page
| An Indian girl brought us a letter
written by Seljan to her. II was In Span
| lsh and she could not read IL II was a
| love letter, but Il told us that ne and
l sraV Ip0 IN, % vIS,av
three weeks journey distant He had ther
| six Indians as guides. We found in tina,
| village one or two Indians who had beer
in the party OF six and they said they
had left Seljan because ne had not fed
them. They said that an Indian girl
| Juliano. had continued with the men.
| 1T WAS not so long thereafter that We
| came upon Juuano. She said she had
gone with the men until one evening She
was freed by n bear. near camp While
| she was in the tree she heard some shots
She never stopped to inquire. but when
Jungle for home. We followed tho trail
she indicated seven days and at last a
little distant from the trail We found the
bones OF two men, thigh bones, arm bones
and small bones. with evidences OF a fire
About that same time some Indians
appeared near Iquitos with the guns and
clothing OF the two men. They said they
had bought them from the men them.
selves II in hard TO imagine how there
can be any further inquiry. The natives
speak freely OF eating white men and
they cannot be punished.
! We discovered these relics, buried them
and then retraced our steps until We
struck the upper Amazon again, There
after until We reached navigable waters
We had no further trouble"
Capt Besley will remain In New York
for few days and then will go to Cali
fornia. where he has a home. He will re.
turn to England later in the spring.