page_title: James Campbell Besley
section_title: Second expedition to Peru, Bolivia and Argentina
hierarchical_section_title: James Campbell Besley / Besley's filming expeditions / Second expedition to Peru, Bolivia and Argentina
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of James Campbell Besley during his 1914 Second Peruvian Expedition taken from "Moving Picture World" magazine, November 1914
context_page_description: James Campbell Besley also known as "Handsome Jim" Besley, "Captain James Campbell Besley", "Captain Jim", "Captain Besley", "Colonel Besley" was an Australian explorer, amateur anthropologist, film producer, mine owner, polo player, rancher and entrepreneur who traveled the world.
  Besley was also a prodigious charlatan, spinning fanciful stories regarding his birth, upbringing and career. Besley manipulated the media for decades, lying to them during their efforts to report his exploits.
context_section_description: Besley announced another expedition would commence in 1914 so the missing footage could be replaced. In April 1914, Besley, Coates and Holbrook returned to Peru to reshoot the lost footage.
  Arriving in Buenos Aires, Argentina they traveled on the Transandine Railway to Santiago, Chile. They crossed the Puente del Inca, a natural arch bridging the Las Cuevas River, a tributary of the Mendoza River located in Mendoza Province, Argentina. From there, Besley and his team crossed the Andes on foot, claiming to have made the journey in nine days. Besley claimed the team visited Lake Titicaca, on the border of Bolivia and Peru, "the highest navigable lake" in the world.
  During the expedition, Besley claimed to have found "the true source of the Amazon River", claiming the source to be a small spring in Peru "at the uppermost Río Vilcanota–Urubamba–Ucayali".
  In a July 1914 interview Besley said he had "vowed he would cross the mighty Andes on foot, and cross them he did, spite of the wiseacres who said that it meant certain death".
  In another interview, Besley said of the second expedition "We've got some good stuff, and we think some thrilling bits, too, as well as a mass of most informing and educational matters. We have got pictures of wild beasts and snakes, but try your best, you can't get your narrowest escapes on the film. If you knew when danger lurked, if your sun was shining and no trees intervened, and all the thousand and one essentials were in harmony it might be easier to put over the really big stuff. But come over anyway and see what we have to show you. I believe it is the best that has yet to be accomplished in the exploring and adventure line - yes, and educational too".
caption: Photograph of James Campbell Besley during 1914 Second Peruvian Expedition
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