Evening star., 1928-05-20
BY FRANCIS Cow SMITH.

Leader of ReceRf Expedition ia Stadf TIE
fadjaas of Bsast5.
~ AGGED and half-starved bare
- foot but well armed. some 5000
lawleSS adventures are hacking
Il their way this month through
the great forest OF central
BraKil in a desperate race toward the
Araguaya River.
Behind the brief dispatches from Rio
de Janeiro that have brought news Of
the stampede to this modern El Dorado
there lies story of hardship, adventure
and bloody feudS more thrilling in many
ways than the tales of Kimberley, the
klondike or the Forty-ninerS. Indeed,
this months army of frenzied fortune
hunters, filtering through the dim aiSles
of the Matto Crosse iungles, is only the
advance guard Of what may become one
OF the most picturesque diamond rushes
In history.
This new rush for the glittering gem
that has left its trail of suffering and
blood through all the diamond regions
OF the world was caused indirectly by
the revolt of $4,000 poems who worked
the mines of the Rio das Garcss section.
Fleeing for their lives from these en-
ragged iaborers, loyal workmen beat their
way through the jungle to the Ara
guaya River. where one of the fugitiveS
stumbled upon a diamond. A search
revealed others
Short of supplies, the men soon were
forced to return to civilization. Efforts
70 keep their secret were III vain. Word
Of their discovery was noiSed abroad
and reports few about that a So-Carat
diamond. purpliSh black and of great
brilliance-the only stone of its kind in
the world-had been taken from the
river. Immediately the ShiftlesS thou
sands in that part of Brazil began TO
prepare for the long trek to the Ara
guaya.
Only dreams of vast and sudden
wealth could lure them on TO dare the
perils that await them where the blue
Araguaya dashes northward through
rocky gorgeS and uncharted wilder
mesa thousand miles from the settle
ments of Matto Crosse to the Amazon.
But now, where only few weeks ago
was nothing but jungle fastneSs teem-
ing village has sprung into being almost
overnight Each day brings additionA
scores of diamond diggers and buyers,
weary from their 1,000-mile trip to the
new e Dorado: each morning finds
this mushroom town larger than it was
the night before; each night brings a
greater throng to the dance hall gam
bling house.
For this is the diamond boom town
OF Lsgeado, where gambling, dancing
and drinking are the only recreationS;
where diamonds weighed out in i'm
provised scales of clam shells are the
universal legal tender, and where the
six-shooter is the only law.
SOUTHWARK and eastward 1t is 800
~ miles to the nearest settlements.
from which the merchants bring in
their supplies by numbering OK train.
Northward and westward there is
nothing but unmapped wilderness where
warlike Indians poison their arrow tips
and treasure in their wigwamS the dried
heads of their enemies.
The village huts of Lageado rise on
each side Of broad. graSs-grown
street" Their walls are made of
roughly hewn saplings stuck upright in
the ground and chinked with clay. The
roofs are tflatched with grass. The
floors are dirt. The furniture is ham
mock and block of wood.
A motley throng they are-these
garmpeiroS. the diamond diggers, who
are cutting their way through the dense
tropical growth that so quickly closes
the jungle trails Negroes, Indians,
whites. half-breeds, they travel in small
groups. A tattered pair of trousers is
their only bit of clothing, save pair
Of homemade sandals, but from a