The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-05-27

I mean the standpoint from which 7 am
| speaking by launch and canoe broken
| by falls now and then from 10h degrees
| to So degrees.
Now when we embarked. having gone
some thirty days by mule and OK train
| across this high central plateau Of
| western Brazl. when we embarked, our
party consisted OF twenty-five men. six
| teen camarades, three Brazilian officers,
| Col Rondon. Colonel OF Engineers OF the
| Brazilian army: Lieut.. Lira, Lieutenant
| OF Engineers. Brazilian army, and DR..
| Cajazeira. surgeon Of the Brazilian army.
| and Mr. Cherrie of the American Mu
| scum, my son Kermit and myself"
1--WE said good-by in the 18th degree of
| latitude to the other members OF the
| expedition who had come that far Col.
| Rondon, I believe. affirmed that 1t was the
Aripone which we would come out OF. He
had directed Lieut.. Perrirez TO send the
, boat up on the chance OF meeting us, d.
| rectng him to go up until he found big
| afiuent entering the river and stop there,
| because he could not tell which one we
| would be coming down.
Kept six Diaries.
Exactly sixty days afterward we met
| Lieut.. Perrirez and the little steamboat
which he had at that point On the trip
! OF our six members Mr.. Cherrie. my son.
| the doctor and Lieut.. Lira Kept diaries
| day to day. Col. Rondon kept the record
IN the order OF the days. | kept the rec
| ord In the writing that had to do. My
! son and Mr.. Cherrie took In the ncighbor-
hood OF 100 photographs About every
! half degree we took Astronomical observa-
tons. Those were taken by Lieut. Lira
! The observations as regards latitude he
| felt were entirely accurate. The observa-
tons as regard longitude must be verified
later. and these may be some minutes
wrong but not materially wrong.
THE different portions Of the course
| that We followed varied widely In diff
hculty. We first OF oil ran four days
| surveying the river very accurately and
therefore going very slowly. without en-
| counterinR any rapids or other obstacles.
! The rapids are serious obstacles In cx-
| ploring the upper courses Of South Amer
| lean rivers and make the upper courses
of those rivers absolutely different from
! the low courses.
| For four days we ran. as say, rather
| slowly before encounterlng any rapids
We then struck our first serious rapids
1 After that, which was In about / | de-
| grees IS 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 ! degree OF latitude, going
TO about 10 degrees IS minutes south.
| That is, from IL degrees a. minutes TO
| 10 degrees As minutes, and therefore
making not much more than a mile and
| u half a day In straight line
| I'VE had by that time gone not more
| than a sixth OF the distance that we ex-
pected to go. and had used un about three
\ fourths or four-nfths OF our food had
been on half ratlons pretty much all the
time, eked out with parrots and monkeys,
| which we enjoyed there. But I can as
Il sNf trtNF hl AZ
| they can leave me with entire safety in
| the monkey house without my making
| any assaults llaughterl on any OF the
| inmates | have had all the monkey |
| Wish.
Many Narrow Escapes.
Then during that time OF the seven
| canoes with which We started we lost
five canoes in the rapids. We built three
others and lost one OF those. one man
was drowned In the rapids. There were
| several other very narrow escapes from
drowning and under the strain. which was
very great. one. OF the men went com
pletely mad and murdered another and
fled himself into the wilderness.
Then We came out Of the last sue
lcession of rapids having been gone forty
six days. 1t might have been forty-two
or forty-three days and either forty-slx
or forty-seven days and all our troubles
were over We struck IA long stretch OF
smooth water.
THE river was very broad and very bis
in that part, and after two days more
we struck the uppermOst camp or house
OF any of the rubber men. We were ale
TO get food. sugar cane, mandioca, some
times rice or bananas occasionally q
chicken or n duck, not very often. And
in the eleven days, n ! rememl er rightly
we got eight eggs. which divided amons
the six OF us--they were not divided, hui
II they had been divided would have giver
each man one egg week
but all our difficulties were over and
we made the entire distance--thc remain
Ing distance. having spent forty-siN days
in going from here to here indicating or
mapl in the next fourteen days. We
, went down TO below the junction OF the
, upper Aripona and so-called Castanio
and then In thirty-six hours In tbs
steamer went down to the mouth Of thu
river, down the Amazon and little way
up the Rio Machada TO Manaos. TIT
. serious work was the first n little lest
! than seven weeks going down through th'
r rapids After that. there was no difficulty
2 "On three or four occasions We had [,
r cut roads through the woods. lay dow
a roads and with block and tackle and h!
the severest kind OF bodily labor portag
drag the heavy, clumsy durouts overlan,
= down to the foot OF the rapids.
8 Everybody Had Fever.
THE medicines were almost az impor
: tant as the food. We had TO keep tn
. men and ourselves all dosed with quinn
the whole time In order to keep the feve
Z from US. | think everybody got the feve
O more or less. but II We had not had tn
y Qunine we would have been laid out
n AT the time we were doing this Nj
G Fiala went down the Papaguay, which ma
never been previously descended. into tn
4 TapaJos. on the Papaguay his canoe wa
r swamped and all his belongings were los
G "Mr Mueller. with Capt Amllcar, wen
Q down the Rio Parana TO the MADEIRA. 4
h one OF the rapids, capt. Amilcar's cano
q was upset and all his belongings lost, Ia
a Guiding his instruments maps and note
books, so that he was unable to go O
with any of the work that he was doln
of "a geographical type.
L 1--WE were fortunate enough on our tri
= dnwn the river NOT To lose nnY OF our IL