 Section 14 of the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition and the Telegraph Line Commission. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition and the Telegraph Line Commission by Kanju Duhondon, translated by R. G. Reidy and Edwin Murray. Third Lecture, Part 1 The work dealt with in our preceding lectures, and which was carried out by the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition in the River Papagayo and in the rivers formally known under the names of Dúvida and Castanha, must be considered as an integral part of the series of geographical explorations resulted in the construction of the Telegraph Line, projected and caused to be constructed by the government under President Pena to connect Cuiabá and Santo António do Madeira. It is therefore but natural that the exposition of the results of this work be followed up with another, specially devoted to presenting the resume formed by the combination of all these explorations. In this way alone shall we possess all the elements required in order to be able to form an idea of the importance of the most extensive region and of the numerous population of the interior of our country, which lay unknown and deserted, without supporting us with the cooperation of their resources and of their forces and without receiving the benefits of our industry and our civilization. Besides this, which I'll be in a position to see certain of our countrymen, almost devoid of other resources beyond their own courage, perform the same feats which we admire and praise when performed by men of other ages and of other countries, were it given to me to expect to impress upon the minds of my audience any strong and lasting impression with my words that which I would most desire to produce at the present moment would be to make it quite clear that the campaign of discredit maintained in this country and abroad against the character and the nature of the Brazilian people is nothing short of a master's heap of falsehood and of injustice that must be opposed and destroyed before it manages to complete the nefarious task of precipitating the soul of the nation into a dim and vile sorrow similar to that which gulped the latter days of the great Portuguese. In this lecture, I shall consequently make a summary exposition of the work carried out by the Commission of the Telegraph and Strategic Lines from Mato Grosso to Amazonas during the years that followed that of 1909 as far as the others are concerned, in as much as their results were already published in 1911 in this city and in São Paulo, I shall simply recall them very rapidly. It is a known fact that according to the route traced out for the audacious enterprise of establishing telegraphic communications between the seat of the government of the Republic and the most distant regions of the far northwest of the territory of our country, the commission which was created to carry it into execution was obliged to operate to an enormous extent in unknown territory where no other resources were to be obtained beyond those proper to the uncultured nature of our forests and where no other dwellers were to be found except the inhabitants of the Indian villages who had settled there since times immemorial. The commission was formed in 1907 and in that same year it began its field work by commencing simultaneously the works of the construction of the branch line from São Luís de Cáceres to the town of Mato Grosso, these of the main line starting from Cuiabá towards Guia, Brotas, Rosario and Jamantino and those of the reconnaissance of the forests of the Parecis which were made necessary in order to discover the direction to be followed so as to reach the banks of the Juruena where the forests continue to be victoriously defended by the inflexible warriors of the Nyambiquara Nation. In the following year, having completed the construction of the branch line to the town of Mato Grosso and proceeding with the work of the main line from Jamantino to the highlands of the Parecis, the work of reconnoitering the forests was continued with the idea of pushing it on as far as the Madeira. However, as certain difficulties arose which could not be foreseen by the party entrusted with the construction, the pioneers who had pushed on beyond the Juruena and carry on their reconnaissance were only able to reach the place where a formidable excavation produced by the action of the current of numerous rivers interrupts the continuity of the plateau and causes to appear the geographical feature which we identified with that which the Portuguese cartographers perhaps meant to indicate under the name of Serra do Norte. After reorganizing the services of transportation and of supplies for which the construction had been paralyzed, in 1909 we again took up the road opened in the preceding years across the dominions of the Parecis and of the Nyambiquaras and crossing the Serra do Norte we proceeded on a route almost invariably from northwest until we came out at the Madeira. After a continuous march of 237 days having traveled 1,297 kilometers in the sense of the main route without taking into account 240 kilometers of several by routes and 866 of fluvial navigation. The general outline of the Main Line being thus ascertained, the work of construction proceeded until towards the end of 1914 and the inauguration of the traffic along the portion last completed took place on the first day of the current year, 1915. Thus the carrying out of the great scheme proposed and started by President Pena became dependent upon the continued efforts of the administrations of Dr. Nilupe Sanha, of Marshal Hermes da Fonseca and of Dr. Wenceslau Breis, all of whom show their determination to maintain them in due correspondence with the important interests of the nation, economical as well as political and social connected with the destinies of that enterprise. In its more general outlines this was the routine followed by the work of the commission of the telegraph lines from Mato Grosso to Amazonas, as far as the construction is concerned. However, it could not be carried to an end without the expenditure of troubled efforts demanded by the necessity under which we were placed to overcome in the course of an endless struggle, the ever recurring difficulties proper to the uncouth and wild nature of the region in which we had to operate. Of all that we required for our work, the region could only supply us with lumber. The remaining necessities from tools to the most simple and urgent provisions had to be brought from elsewhere. If we add to these the telegraph material proper such as zinc wire, insulators, metal brackets and accessory hardware, which we could only obtain from abroad, we shall have an idea of the enormous amount of extremely heavy packages for which we had to provide the necessary means of transportation into the interior of the forests with the most careful and diligent attention. But in this regard, the ever increasing distances to be covered, the complexity of the equipment of a variety of systems to be utilized, some for river navigation, others for overland transportation and above all the absence of pasture lands and the bad quality of the grass on the Patecis Plateau, the fatigue, the loss of energy and the sicknesses which played havoc with the pack animals, destroying whole troops of mules and of bullocks. Everything in short seemed to combine in a conspiracy to bring about the failure of the measures which we had adopted as the result of the surest forethought based upon long experience. In order to partly obviate these great difficulties, we divided the duties of the construction between two parties. One was already then operating since 1907 from Corumbá towards the interior of the forest. The other, created in 1910, was destined to start from Santo Antônio do Madeira and to follow towards the first until they should effect their meeting. Thus the operations could proceed and develop more freely, not only because greater advantage could be taken of the efforts of a more numerous personnel, but also on account of the fact that the roads and the means of supplies of each party were independent of those of the other. Our party constituted with the title of North Section and successively placed under the leadership of the then-major Gomes de Castro, of Captain Neste Torcese Fredo, of Lieutenant Sebastião Pinto, of Captain Costa Pinheiro and of Lieutenant Mário Cardoso Barata, obtained supplies from Manaus through the Madeira and the Jamarí. The other party, called South Section, utilized navigation facilities on the Paraguay as far as São Luís de Cáceres. Hence, the transportation proceeded and even now does proceed up the Seputuba, as far as this river can be navigated by launches and small craft, and where we opened up, in 1908, the so-called Port of Tapirapuã, situated 91 kilometers above another port called dos Búgris. From the latter, the journey overland is commenced along a road which winds up the slopes of the Serra dos Pareciches, enters the plateau and continues in the direction of Aldeia Queimada, whence it throws off different branches to Juruena, Ucheriti, and other points of the telegraph line. From Juruena onwards, the same way, Picadão, cut out for the passage of the line, serves as a road for the pack animals employed in the service of the supplies and for travelers. The south section suffered the greatest difficulties from the fact that it had to depend for its supplies upon the journey across this road. The first was the enormous distance which had to be covered, from Tapirapuã to Aldeia Queimada, 80 kilometers, from the said Aldeia to Ucheriti, some 200, and to Juruena, 272. Besides, for each convoy, these distances must be reckoned twofold, owing to the return march. Then we have the lack of pasture, to which I have already referred. Before completing one march, already the greater part of the beasts were knocked up, and of the small number that managed to withstand the fatigue and the bad quality of the fodder, we could at the most expect them to do a second march. If they did not die, they had to remain inactive for months and months in the pastures, to restore their forces at the cost of much care and heavy expense. Two measures were adopted by us in order to remove such important difficulties, one of immediate effect, and the other longer in producing its results, but certainly of a greater bearing on the development of those wilds by new elements of our civilization, which even now are already seeking them out and will not fail to fill them shortly with agricultural establishments and cattle farms, besides other centers destined to the extraction of the resources of forests and mineral wealth which they contain in abundance. The measures to which we have lastly alluded consists in modifying the conditions of the prairies, so as to adapt them to the development of the different species of forage plants of which we found, even there, some good varieties, and to develop same only required to be freed from the wild vegetation which smothered it. We took with us some seeds of other kinds which quickly sprung up and are growing very well. As a necessary complement to this measure we started plantations of cereals, fruit trees and vegetables, combining with the same, rearing of poultry and cattle, at all the telegraph stations and other places specially selected for the purpose. The measure of an immediate effect to which we refered above consisted in the employment of motor wagons for transportation from Porto dos Bugristus Cerici. This was the route which presented the greatest disadvantages for pack animals, so it was also not adaptable to the transit of those vehicles because, every now and again, the ground presented at intervals large areas of sand in which the wheels of the machines interned themselves and went on skidding so that they could not go ahead. A young and studious officer of our army, the attendant Emmanuel Silvestre do Amaranche, set to work to solve this difficulty and was fortunate enough to quickly discover a completely new device to obviate this. It was due to his invention that the three motor cars of the Telegraph Lines Commission were able to transit on the roads of the Planalto dos Pareciches carrying cargo equal to the maximum weight for which they had been constructed. But all these efforts only succeeded in overcoming some of the difficulties which cropped up at every step to hinder the work of the south section. Amongst others, one presented itself to us which could have had its effects annulled by using wireless telegraphy. This difficulty arose from the fact that our camps were getting further and further away from the city of Saint-Louis-de-Cacéries, the principal base for our purveying which services would have greatly improved if we could have got into direct communication from the serratum with our purveyors. We therefore had recourse to radio telegraphy installing a station in Cacéries and taking along with us another field equipment mounted on a wagon. For some time this installation worked very satisfactorily but an important part of the instruments had been broken and as the spare piece would have to be obtained from the manufacturer in Germany we had no further opportunity to use this installation in as much as the progress of our work had already taken us away from the dependency of Saint-Louis-de-Cacéries. In order to understand how it was possible for us to get out of this dependency we were obliged to detail a little further the different phases through which the construction of the line passed up to the date of my return to the serratum because as you know I was attacked with serious illness at the end of the great reconnaissance of 1909 and which detained me in Rio de Janeiro for more than a year. From 1907 to the beginning of 1910 under the direction of Major Marciano de Oliveira Ávila seconded by Captain Custódio de Sena Braga the work had advanced from Cuiaba to a little beyond do Chariti in a total distance of 505 kilometers in which, besides the stations the names of which I have already mentioned Pareciche, Ponte de Pedra and Barão de Capanema were also established. During the year of 1910 under the attendant Franco Ferreira the construction reached the Juruena with a distance of 101 kilometers counted from the previous station. At this point the construction stopped for a period of one year due to the violent epidemic of Berry Berry which attacked that officer the attendant Candido Cardoso many soldiers and civilians and caused some deaths. In July of the following year the attendant Nicolá Boeno Horta Barbosa assisted by Cadet Tito de Barros recommends the work up to a point beyond the Juruena but soon afterwards they were surprised in the woods by a number of Yambiquara warriors who shot at and seriously wounded them with their arrows. Both however recovered from their wounds thanks to the care and nursing of Dr. Murilo de Campos the physician to the commission. In order to substitute the wounded officers Lieutenant Júlio Caetano Horta Barbosa and Boanerges Lopes de Souza left immediately to take charge of the work and they took the line to Yambiquaras and Chuviliena with a total development of 139 kilometers from Juruena or 730 from Cuiabá we have thus arrived at the Campos de Comemoração de Floriano beyond the Serra do Norte always following the route surveyed by the 1907-1909 expeditions now we had to proceed towards Campos dos Palmares and Maria Molina which according to that route the line should reach by scarcely two tangents but the first of these presented was the view of the situation in which we found ourselves depending on transport by mules and bullocks the grave inconvenience of carrying the line through the woods of the valley of the Rio Tenente Marques de Souza or Ananais as we still called it such a great inconvenience might perhaps be removed by the discovery of new camps analogous to those of Maria de Molina where there is excellent pasture Mimoso Agresti, Milion Praíba and Sapé the reasons for hoping for such a discovery were due to the fact that these camps are the outcome of the destruction of large stretches of primitive forests set on fire by the Yambiquaras in preparing the ground for their plantations now the region into which we had penetrated from the Juruena is all infested with Indians who are distributed in groups of distinct denominations such as the Nenés, Yayas Navaites, Tagananis Tawites and others each one occupying its distinct territory in the valleys of the different rivers and streams therefore it was very natural that in the interior of all those forests many other groups of the same nature and origin would exist and to which we gave the generic name Jijanis I therefore decided to proceed on new explorations in the hope of modifying the 1909 route in the sense which I now mention end of section 14 section 15 the Roosevelt Rondon Scientific Expedition and the Telegraph Line Commission this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Rita Butros the Roosevelt Rondon Scientific Expedition and the Telegraph Line Commission by Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon translation by Richard George Reedy and Edwin Douglas Murray third lecture part 2 I commenced this work on the 6th of November 1911 leaving Viljena towards the northeast and traveling along an Indian track which directs itself from Camemora Sayo de Floriano to the valley of the river Marquez de Sousa passing between the headwaters of the former Duvida and Ike in that valley I reached a small natural prairie of Sarado which I named Mangabal already discovered in 1909 by Lieutenant Leera and where there existed in that year a large village and many plantations belonging to the Nambiquaras of the group which we afterwards learned to be the mama in day I however found nothing else the Indians had abandoned the place and set fire to the village on exploring the region I discovered on the north eastern side through which a tributary of the left bank the former Ananas runs and which I denominated Rebirau Leera just as I had previously named two others respectively Amarante and Tanajura a beautiful prairie just what I was looking for from Mangabal I directed my course to Campo Maria de Molina according to the magnetic course of 50 degrees northwest taken from the plan of the road which I had just traversed combined with that of the survey of 1909 I crossed successively a region of entangled overgrowth a river the Maranda Rebiron two small Campos Indigenas of Capem Gordura two headwaters of which the last was the one called Leera I then entered the region in which the waters run into the present river Roosevelt encountering first a stream the Piranias and afterwards on the date of the decree which instituted our Republican ensign the river called Festa da Bandiera Flag Day also called Coromucharu by the Nambecuaras after crossing the river Piranias I found a beautiful Campo Indigena called the Pardis whence we could see to the north and to the northeast another without end out of sight it was evident that this was the direction through which it was convenient for us to take our align even at the cost of a big detour which would extend same 7 kilometers beyond what we had reckoned upon this sacrifice however would be more than compensated by the incomparable advantage of having secured the maintenance of our emul and ox packs as also our cattle I proceeded on the march to Campo de Maria de Molina always on the initial course of 50 degrees northwest proceeding with the survey with the help of a metric chain and a Salmuragi pocket compass I arrived at those camps after having gone over 36.280 meters counted from the stake at Mangabal or scarcely 18 from Festa da Bandiera in this last stretch the country presented itself to us covered now with entangled overgrowth now with certain special vegetation intermediary between the former and virgin forests the Indians called it Alori and we knew it under the name of Lore because in the midst of same a certain tree is very abundant the wood of which is very strong and lasting and is so called by the Indians the tangent to which I have just referred did not coincide with that of the 1909 survey there was an angular deviation of one degree 15 minutes or of one kilometer between the point of arrival in 1911 and the mark of that survey the study of the modification of the old route was immediately followed by the work of location the line leaving Vilhena on the general course of five degrees northeast inclining itself to beyond the Ribeiro Lira until it reached the great tangent at Mangabal having gone over a small segment of this tangent which runs as we saw to the northwest the location abandoned same before arriving at the Ribeiro Pernies inclining itself anew to the north so as to pass through the campus Indigenes on the right bank of the Festa da Bandiera in the direction the line crosses besides several headwaters of two important streams named by us Nicolao Bueno and Julio Cateño and after this last one it retakes the northwesterly course and crosses the river a little below the mouth of the Ribeiro Alencarliance at a point which was indicated to us by the Nambécuaras as it satisfied the conditions which we for close upon a month had procured in vain vis that it was not swampy as other places after crossing the Festa da Bandiera the route advances parallel to the bed of the Alencarliance in the southwest quadrant across the marginal woods but it soon abandons this route in order to take a westerly direction with which it penetrates into the basin of the old Duvida cutting through the bush of the divisor valleys of the two rivers and thus arrives at the Campo de Maria de Molina where the Telegraph Line Commission had equipped a station called José Bonifacio more than 83 km from Viljena before however terminating this work whilst I was still studying the region in which we were locating the alternative route on the right bank of the Carumicharu or Festa da Bandiera to ascertain how far the Campo's indigenous extended an accident occurred which will serve to give an idea of the habits of the Numbacuaras various partial explorations had convinced me that in the northwest quadrant those camps terminated in the river and in a stream an affluent of same on the right bank which I discovered and called Joaquim Gomez I therefore decided to make further surveys in a northerly and north easterly direction for this purpose on the 13th of April 1912 my uncle Miguel Lucas Evangelista an old man of 76 years of age whose robustness and endurance would surprise a man of 40 years and his nephew Bellarmino accompanied me and we took the Indian trail which after crossing a jungle penetrated into one of those forests of Loree to which I have above referred in the interior of the woods after four hours of slow marching for we were on horseback and the trail was a footpath we saw many signs of the recent passage of Indians and suddenly heard the sharp and angry sounds of their jabber I therefore took the lead in the place of my cousin and soon after was able to discern at a distance of 50 meters all young and strong fellows completely disarmed they were directing themselves slowly towards us talking aloud and gesticulating frantically I had not at the moment a single weapon with me and recommended my companions to hide theirs directing my animal towards the Indians these however commenced to retire in spite of the fact that one of them probably the chief to me in a long and enthusiastic discourse the thought then struck me that our mounts were unknown and strange animals to them and this caused them some suspicion this was therefore the reason for their retirement I dismounted and walked resolutely and full of confidence towards the group for I had made myself sure that they were acting in good faith and were not laying a trap for us in a few moments we all formed one friendly group in which all talked and no one understood one another finally as the good will was general and sincere I succeeded in making them understand that my desire was to accompany them to their village this caused them visible satisfaction and calmed the loquacity of the orator who only then finished the discourse which he had been declaiming in a very high pitched and most energetic tone I inferred from this fact that the meaning of the harangue was nothing more or less than to convince me that I should make this visit and it only then occurred to me that in international diplomacy the tone of the communications is never in accordance with the sentiments and the intentions of the communicators among some people it is gentle and soft exactly when the intention is malicious and aggressive in others as we have just seen it is boisterous and unrestrained when it hides the thought of much good and sincere friendship we mounted and got ourselves into marching order the nambakwaras going on foot here a great difficulty turned up perhaps due to the customs of the Indians or to the old prejudice reigning amongst us that all Indians must necessarily be on every occasion and circumstance of life was disloyal and treacherous the case was that the five nambakwaras wished to divide themselves into two groups one to go ahead of the small column the other behind us my uncle who had only decided to go to the village moved by the conviction that he would have to defend my life deduced from this distribution that his suspicions were being confirmed and peremptorily declared that he would not give up the advantage of occupying the rear guard once he could watch the movements of our supposed enemies and in case of necessity assist us with his rifle in their turn the Indians insisted in arranging the column as they had desired we in the center three of them in front and two immediately in the rear contending with the difficulties of this gesture language I was forced to employ the greatest efforts and the most trying patience to convince them without offense that the two last ones should march in front of my uncle and behind my cousin and me in this way we went ahead finally the Indians in the vanguard leading us by their trails walked very quickly and soon got ahead of us not only on account of the many sepals lianas branches and trunks of trees laying across our path above the height of a man causing us delay for we were mounted but also because the animals were now tired out by the march which had lasted from dawn up to past two o'clock in the afternoon at the spot where these scenes took place there was a small stream of water which was called El Cantro Feliz a little ahead of this place we saw leaning against the trees on the left side of the road the bows and arrows of our friends without taking them up and continued as they had come entirely disarmed truly and unmistakably characteristic of their gentility, courage and tact still more noteworthy is the fact that they had not asked us to give them identical proof of confidence and friendliness by deposing the arms which we were carrying we were marching now for fifteen minutes when one of them in the vanguard hastened his pace and in a short time was out of sight to my uncle this movement could not pass imperceived and with his mode of seeing things cried out now we are in it this indian had gone ahead in order to advise those who are in ambush waiting for us that we are close by we will surely all die but not like a lot of stupid sheep I am going to fight however the developments were not long in allaying our suspicions because a little ahead we found our host awaiting our arrival with a large quantity of naru kagwininde a refreshing drink much used by the nambikwaras who prepares same with water and the juice of the wild pineapple which is very abundant in their country and is cultivated to a great extent in the numerous clearings in the interior of the woods opened up by fire it was now four o'clock in the afternoon and we had got out of the forest of loray into a new jungle at dawn when we left our camp we had no intention of prolonging our reconnaissance so much for this reason we were without breakfast and were very hungry the resolution taken by our guides to get us to dismount was very opportune and we accepted the large calabashes of that refreshment cakes made out of manioc which is cultivated plantations toasted larvae of various insects provisions which all the nambikwaras take with them in large pots during their excursions we accepted this food and on finishing the repast continued on our journey under a terrible fall of rain which had suddenly overtaken us from the jungle we passed into another wood not very extensive covering a small headwater there we found a few small open huts which the nambikwaras construct in their ikedas or temporary villages used for hunting purposes our guides thought that it would be agreeable to us to take shelter there from the rain and as our clothes dripping with water were stuck to our bodies they understood that beyond shelter we required the heat of a good fire consequently they took into the interior of one of the huts the small pieces of wood which they used to make fire and rubbing one piece against the other they commenced this patient operation however it was not convenient for us to stay away from our camp too long I insisted therefore on the Indians continuing the journey and to this they agreed soon afterwards we got out of the woods into some country where the vegetation was low and scant and from here into an open camp of alochitu the name of the grass which grows in the campos indigenous in the yellow background of which the outline of the big conical huts of the chisis or nambikwara villages could be discerned again one of the Indians from the vanguard fell out and with a hurried step went towards the village and once again in the mind of my uncle full of false traditional notions amongst white people with regard to the character and sentiments of the Indians the suspicion arose that we were going to be betrayed and killed with all our march continued we were still far off from the village when we saw a man coming out to meet us carrying a large basket on his shoulders dropping from a sling of fiber which was tied around his forehead like a wide sash on coming close up to us he stopped and commenced a long discourse which we heard with the greatest interest and respectful attention it was certainly not the first time that such diplomatic discourses had been heard however the reply to same was not given by us but by one of our guides who spoke almost as much as the other having terminated the discourses the Indian relieved himself of his load placing the basket on the ground from inside same he took out a large pot full of naru kagwininde pineapple water and a small kalabash we once more helped ourselves to the nambakwata beverage after this ceremony our hosts drew near to us and taking our hands and theirs led us into the village the Indian who had come to meet us with all the ceremony was the kakik Indian chief in him one could see the influence of african blood which had been already noted by the groups dwelling in the valleys of the jorwanya and of the juhina and in campos novostasera donot the hair slightly curled a moustache and a kavanya it is a fact that the North American Indians of pure blood possess a large quantity of very smooth straight black hair and very little beard which grows badly it appears to me therefore that the hypothesis formulated by me in 1908-1909 is demonstrated and brought to light in the public lectures which I delivered in 1911 in the manro palace to explain the origin of the conical form of the great ranches pertaining to the nambakwaras this that these Indians have been in contact with the negroes who escaped from the old gold diggings of the guapore and principally with those who founded a quilombo in the guaratize an affluent of the right bank of that river in the village which was formed of one of those conical ranches entirely closed and of many others with a simple flat roof without walls we saw on our arrival some 30 individuals which we afterwards learned belong to two distinct groups they were all under shelter in their huts and sitting around their respective fires for it continued to rain there however were only men we did not see any women or children we dismounted and took our place in the midst of a group by the side of a fire new ceremonies of nambakwarah hospitality then commenced first they favored us with food maniak, cakes roasted corn, toasted larvae fish, monkey meat potatoes and kara the plates were like small trays made out of stems of taboka matted and the cups were kalabashes which were incessantly being filled with the everlasting ananas water pineapple in spite of these delicacies being served up full of the ash and cinders in which they were roasted things went very well and to the satisfaction of all but suddenly cigarettes appeared huge ones extraordinary of all the cigarettes in the world they were excessively long rolled up in rough and coarse leaves and made of roasted tobacco dust the product of nambakwarah agriculture and industry up to this point nothing could be said of them because it did not appear to me that they could be more or less repugnant than those of their civilized similarities and to me the absurdity of smoking them was not more or less than that of smoking any other cigarettes however a surprise was in store for me in order to learn at my own expense that the nambakwarah cigarette has a peculiarity of its own which renders it more detestable than its similarity it must not be refused the other cigarettes wait until people procure or accept them these are imposed upon you the first aggression I suffered from my friend Nuchela which was the name of the kekik having prepared the formidable instrument of torture he presented it to me in the most gentile and hospitable manner imaginable I declined it politely he insisted and I commenced to realize that there is not in the whole world any sort of gesticulation capable of transmitting to a nambakwarah brain this new notion which is to them absolutely unsuspected and inadmissible is that there are men who do not smoke we did our best in this way during some time he offering me the cigarette and I refusing it in the end my host believing perhaps that the only motive I had for refusing same was my bashfulness took upon himself the heroic resolution of pushing the cigarette into my mouth I had to inhale the nauseous smoke the atmosphere around us now became compact and unbreathable so many were the puffs which all these men took from so many cigarettes the most horrible however was that they all wished to repeat to us the same operation made by the kekik in order to avoid such martyrdom I determined to take a walk through the village visiting the other ranches many of them were empty naturally because the dwellers were at their work or hunting the large hut had its doors closed and for this reason we could not see into the interior but we could perceive that therein were fires and people and listening we could hear the voices of the women and children as it appeared to me that the best means of obtaining breathable air would be to remain in camp out on the terrace in the open I asked the kekik to send for some firewood and arrange me a good fire I was promptly satisfied in my request and while the men were busy at this I observed that one of them had a steel axe I then surmised that this group was friendly with those of Campos Novas da Serra da Norte to whom we had already given many of these implements we were preparing to hang our clothes to dry before the heat of the brisk fire when we saw towards the north some ten Indians arriving armed with their bows and arrows they were probably returning from some hunting expedition as soon as we caught sight of them the kekik addressed them with some sharp words and in an energetic tone they immediately disappearing from our sight a few moments afterwards they reappeared at another point now unarmed so they entered the village and directing themselves towards the group in which we were in conversation with Nukela and his people it was evident that they were asking and obtaining information as to who we were whence we had come and how we had arrived there we afterwards learnt that these ten individuals came from a village of Tegananes established in the same camps and not very far off from the one where we were and that besides this one there were several others there about belonging to the Tauuites Minis and Takiovites tribes the kekik Nukela had sent emissaries to the inhabitants of those villages for the purpose of advising them of the great event for this reason fresh groups of Indians were incessantly coming in full of curiosity to see us the women and the children went immediately to the conical hut and shut themselves in there together with those who had preceded them the men however came close to our fire and sat in small groups around other fires which they lit this movement which commenced at the fall of day continued into the night the small fires went on multiplying themselves incessantly and the same time the number of men also who did not tire of talking and went on conversing eagerly and in the middle of all this animation they did not forget for one moment to heap upon us new presents the trays made out of taboka full of cakes karas, manioks, potatoes and roasted corn went on circulating in an endless procession what most impressed us however was the quantity of cigarettes being smoked had the village been set on fire the column of smoke which would rise from the burning huts would perhaps not be greater than that which was formed out of the combination of puffs which incessantly were expelled from the mouths of those indefatigable smokers at last I was already getting tired of talking so much and of paying so much attention in order to guess the meaning of the discourses which I could not understand my cousin Belomino was already sleeping for some time placidly stretched out on a bed of coconut palm leaves with which we had lined the ground which we occupied and the fire came to me of imitating his example and I decided to do so not withstanding the objections of my uncle who founded a double imprudence to go to sleep after having placed ourselves in the midst of such a multitude of unknown Indians whose habits and even their language we ignored close to me many Indians sat in order to give them a further proof of confidence I stretched myself out on my bed of leaves resting my head on the knee of one of them I did not err in doing this for the fellow was so content at having been chosen for this sign of affection and of abandonment that he took the greatest care to avoid the slightest movement that might be taken as a sign of uneasiness or of fatigue not withstanding the sharp odor from the Indians body painted with Urukum I succeeded in falling asleep but it was a short slumber I awoke and it seemed to me that the number of persons assembled on the terrace had received a great reinforcement certainly there were no less than 200 in number furthermore I could hear the sounds of female voices I perceived that the women had left the large closed hut and given to curiosity had approached to see us this curiosity seemed to me to be fully justified so much so that I also arose and went towards the fire to light a torch made out of palm leaves in order to obtain sufficient light to be able to properly distinguish them this occasioned a great flurry from all sides came exclamations of fright and the Indian women began to run off in the direction of their refuge while they ran the men laughed heartily at seeing them so terrified I gave up my project and returned to my bed where I found the Indian on whose knees I had been reclining my head occupying his post of honor I again went off to sleep and did not awake until daybreak my uncle a true representative of the old prejudice of our people with regard to the Indians kept awake during that whole night the Indians likewise passed the night awake they however had another reason for so doing and this could well be surmised adhering as one could on all sides in the midst of their endless conversations the word cocoa which recalls the sound produced by the blunt stone axes striking the trunk of a great tree the satisfaction which they felt in hoping to be able to possess before long the splendid steel axes was so intense that it made them sleepless at daybreak we were already prepared to leave when the Indians invited us to visit some other villages on those camps to which they had given the name of in which I called in memory of the day cherished among the most dear to my heart of a thankful husband forced to live more on so that is then on the perennial enjoyment of the affection with which my good destiny has filled my most loving home having gone over the camps and visited four other villages whose population on the whole we reckoned at more than 300 we returned to our camp where we found our companions already alarmed at our unforeseen absence 34 Indians accompanied us amongst whom there were five from Encontro Feliz who had come to fetch their arms which as we saw had been left on the side of the trail inside the woods all of them I gave axes, machetes and trinkets end of section 15 section 16 the Roosevelt Rondon Scientific expedition and the telegraph line commission this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Rita Butros the Roosevelt Rondon Scientific expedition and the telegraph commission by Candido Mariana da Silva Rondon translation by Richard George Reedy and Edwin Douglas Murray third lecture part 3 from that date onward the visits of the Indians to our camps never ceased and there were times when they arrived in groups of 200 and more the news of such extraordinary success spread rapidly over the whole forest the result being that to these first tribes others soon joined coming more than 20 leagues from the north in this way we made the acquaintance of the Sabanas the Ayayas the Exodus and the Teobes who are the finest men of the whole region not even the old invalids wish to be deprived of the satisfaction of seeing with their own eyes the men who suddenly appeared in this fashion in their territory with the power to produce so deep and radical a modification in their secular habits such as the one that results in substituting their stone implements by others made of steel these events so highly significant in the general work lately initiated for the protection and the civilization of the Indians had to be commemorated by naming the telegraph station which was to be erected in those forests as a result of all the efforts which were being employed thus the idea occurred to me that no other could better satisfy the moral and civic requirements of the emotions and the hopes which had sprung up and which it was desired to see developed and fruptify than that of the great statesmen of our independence in order to further enhance the significance of the homage which we were about to render to the memory of the great author of the Apuntamentos para a Civilizacion dos Indios Bravos do Brasil Notes for the civilizing of the Brazilian Wild Indians I selected his glorious birthday the 13th of June for the date of the inauguration of the new establishment and by quite a coincidence I was able to carry out the solemnity corresponding to this act not only in the presence but also with the cooperation of a group of Taúite Nambiquaras who designated one of their daughters to unfold to the winds of those wild regions the sacred symbol of the Brazilian nationality after inaugurating this station called José Bonifacio and whilst we continued with the location of the line along the general route of the 1909 reconnaissance until we crossed the former Duvida and departed there from some 10 kilometers to the northwest we went on investigating the means of solving the transportation problem which services became day by day more imperfect and uncertain Practically, we had already ceased to rely upon the supplies from Tapirapoen the packs on which they depended and were almost exterminated before they could cover the enormous distances which they had to travel in order to arrive where we were In compensation, we had almost approached the river Pimenta Bueno which we knew since 1909 when we had discovered it and caused it to be reconnoitred by Lieutenant Alen Caliense and Dr. Alipio de Maranda Orebiero to be the main feeder of Maranda Consequently, in order to solve the pressing problem of transportation we should profit by the relative facilities afforded by the river navigation causing our baggage to come down from Maneos along the Mediera up to the mouth of the gui Thence forward it would be carried in barges up this river at the point of the confluence of the Pimenta Bueno with the commemoracio de Floriano After being unloaded from the barges it would be handed over to the packed trains by which it would be finally conveyed to the place where we might be encamping We would still remain dependent naturally on the mules and bullocks whose maintenance would be rendered extremely difficult in those regions where the 1909 expedition had found only the tall and close set trees of the virgin forest But, on the other hand we would have to make sure that the distances to be covered would become shorter and shorter as we progressed with the construction Thus the efforts demanded of the beast would gradually decrease In order to carry out this scheme it was necessary for us to adopt two series of measures The first was the organization of the rivercraft for the navigation on the gui Paraná The second had relation to the preparation of the road and the transit of the packed trains from the terminus of the navigation up to the camp The latter, however, was changeable and accompanied the advance of the construction Consequently, in order to be properly and at all times useful the road should be made in conjunction with the same route which the telegraph wire would follow I committed the opening up of this track to the charge of lieutenant Nicolao Bueno Horta Barbosa who, after leaving Jose Bonifacio with a small gang of men armed with machetes and axes proceeded along clearing the track opened by the 1909 expedition and at the same time carrying out partial explorations intended to improve in certain points the route of that expedition From the point of departure up to the river Pimenta Bueno Lieutenant Nicolao had to successfully cross the river's dubida Comemoracio de Floriano and Barallo de Melgaso In the first named he discovered a new crossing situated at a point 800 meters above that utilized by the 1909 expedition and having over the latter the advantage of not being in swampy ground and in the second which was crossed by the track at a point near a waterfall Salto do Paraizo a beautiful camp was discovered below this point covered with magnificent pasture and which was named Para Benz Then up to Barallo de Melgaso and from the latter to the port of Boa Pasegem on the Pimenta Bueno Lieutenant Nicolao did not depart from the 1909 track From that port up to the confluence there were still some five leagues to be covered The small expedition however which was traveling on foot could not cover this distance in consequence of the state of health of that officer and one of his men who were both suffering with high fever Of the four persons who formed the whole party only two were in a condition to walk they were ordered to proceed along the river until they should come out by the pier at the confluence in order to bring up from there some sort of craft in which the sick might be taken Thus on the 7th of September this small expedition terminated and besides reopening the road from the station of Jose Bonifacio to the river Pimenta Bueno it made the most important discovery of the Campo de Para Benz in the very heart of the virgin forest Another interesting result obtained on this march of Lieutenant Nicolayo was the fact that he was able to ascertain that there existed villages of Indians and their plantations established along that road after crossing the Camemoracio de Floriano In 1909 when the expedition for the reconnaissance from Cuyaba to the Madiera passed along there no signs revealed the fact that the region was inhabited On the other hand the style in which the houses were built, the pottery the musical instruments and other wares seen in the Malocas where at the time there was not a single inhabitant or fires alight differed in form, dimensions and materially from those used by the Nambiquaras it was evident therefore that we had before us a new nation of which we had so far Judging from the information collected among the Nambiquaras adjoining them towards the west there lives an anthropophagic people whom they know under the name of Malotandus The villages and the plantations discovered by Lieutenant Nicolayo could belong to a group of these people certainly after the passage of the 1909 expedition some of them whilst on their customary hunting excursions observed on the felled trees the cut of our implements which are really extraordinary when compared to those made by their stone implements They were most desirous of possessing such admirable axes and had formed the project of lining up on the roadside awaiting the return of the men who had opened up the cutting When this occurred they would employ the best means of entering into a relationship with a much desired axes and so obtain them Afterwards we verified that we had not made a mistake in our suppositions except in the part relative to the identification of the people in question with the Malotandus of the Nambiquaras because Lieutenant Amarante having been entrusted with the opening up of the road which cutting had been cleared again by Lieutenant Nicolayo who had found of three Indians who half hidden amid the vegetation watched him with drawn bows ready to let go their arrows In the face of that imminent risk the distinguished officer did not lose his presence of mind By gesture language he endeavored to make the Indians understand that he did not wish to molest them On the contrary his wish was to treat them kindly and in a friendly manner Then one of the hiding Indians got up and in an energetic tone addressed himself to the others who still persisted in carrying out the aggression and opposed himself to their intent He having succeeded in this the Indians approached with the greatest stealth making the customary introduction discourses and took Lieutenant Amarante together with the only man who accompanied him on this occasion the civilian, Hoayode Dus to the village where they were received with acclamations of great joy for they were looked upon as friends whose visit had for a long time been desired and expected The relations thus established developed very quickly and permitted us to get to know this Indian tribe of which no explorer of the wilderness had noticed before In their own language their name is Kepikiri Uat their domains extend up to the river Komemurasio de Floriano which they call the Tamboroe where the Nambakwara territory commences and includes all the valley of the Pimenta Bueno or Dijaro Urebe which word in the English language signifies the brilliant river Their population is distributed in numerous independent groups each one with its own name such as Beap Uwaps Urapanan Berepitz Uwaparanas Gwep Uwats etc. On many occasions I was in villages belonging to the Kepikiri Uwats whose custom I was able to observe If I wished to relate same here I would have to extend this lecture more than would be convenient I therefore limit myself to saying that they, just as the Nambakwaras use no clothes not even the women in spite of this however they make cloths out of cotton cultivated in their splendid plantations of which they make hammocks in which to sleep In this, as in many other points they are more advanced than the Nambakwaras who make their beds on the ground without any other care beyond that of picking out places covered with sand They do not smoke but they take snuff by means of a most ingenious implement which consists of a tube of thin bamboo about 2 feet long having at one of its extremities a small recipient made out of coconut shell The bowl being filled with tobacco dust the person who is about to sniff brings same to his nostrils and another person making use of the other extremity of the tube blows through same making the snuff penetrate into the nostrils of the snuffer who helps the operation by taking a deep inhalation This instrument to which cannot be denied the merit of a novelty and to which I attribute excellent qualities amongst others that of being less aggressive than the Nambakwaras cigarette is called in the Kepakiri Uat language Narima Kapp Equally curious is the reception ceremony on important visits we were almost saying embassies The salamniti takes place in the yard The men present themselves armed spic and span and remaining standing whilst the women form a group squatting at a small distance off The visitors are placed in the center of the yard The men commence to march arms in hand and thus defile in front of the recent arrivals whose chief must be prepared to receive and retribute the friendly and perhaps somewhat excessive shake hands of the Kepakiri Uats Here is how this part of the ceremony takes place Each Indian when facing that chief stops rests the bow and arrows against his own body and extends his two arms with hands opened and fingers stretched out The visitor must extend his hands in the same fashion and lock his fingers with those of the Indian This done the two friends set to work shaking each other in an extremely cordial manner so much so that it would fill with envy those splendid gentlemen who are accustomed to take the opportunity of shaking hands with us to show us the strength of their wrists Having terminated the masculine compliments then follow those of the women each one of which comes and shakes hands in a friendly way with the visitors After this they retire to the interior of the huts and the men sit down to initiate their conversation with their guests We have said above that these Indians were not those indicated by the Nambikwaras under the name of Malotonduz This verification was made possible by us from the fact that the Kepakiri Uats themselves informed us that nearer its headwaters the Pimenta Bueno possessed a feeder the Dujano Dupurara or Rio Vermelho Red River the valley of which is occupied by a tribe which they call Koeias and the description of these given to us by them coincides exactly with that given by the Nambikwaras relative to the terrible Malotonduz However we saw in the possession of a Kepakiri Uachif a human collar bone which he used as a flute On inquiring of him the origin of this bone the Indian replied saying that it belonged to a Koeia whom he had slain in combat Finally he confessed that his tribe was not entirely exempt from the guilt of cannibalism They limit themselves however to practice same only in regard to the Koeias killed in battle This they do by the desire to vindicate their parents and friends who had been previously eaten by those savages But contrary to the practice of the latter they do not arrive at consuming all the flesh of the victim because each one contents himself with such a small portion that most of the body remains intact and is rejected The flute made out of the collar bone of the Koeia Indian to which I have referred above is now in the National Museum As we have seen the commencement of our relations with the Kepakiri Uachif is due to Lieutenant Amarante who was entrusted with the opening up of the road from Jose Bonifacio to the confluence of the rivers Pimenta Bueno and Comemoracio This work took place in 1913 and after finishing same the transport of the baggage destined to the construction camp and the other services of the line up to Viljana was done along the Gui Perana On arriving at that confluence it was taken over by the pack animals and carried to its destination However, our greatest efforts were employed in the direction of reducing as far as possible on this journey the part which had to be done by land Similar results could be arrived at once the Comemoracio de Floriano proved navigable above its confluence with the Pimenta Bueno To decide this question I again designated Lieutenant Amarante indicating to him that he should leave from Campo de Parabens going along the Comemoracio up to the end of its course Having concluded this expedition the results collected from the same surpassed all our expectations not only because it was ascertained that the river was navigable up to the mouth of a feeder on the right bank to which we gave the name of Francisco Bueno as we learned of the existence of many other camps from that mouth to the confluence with the Pimenta Bueno The immediate consequence of these discoveries was the modification introduced in the route for the telegraph line to which instead of crossing the Comemoracio at Campo de Parabens and continuing through the interior of the woods traversed in 1909 it descended the mouth of the small river Francisco Bueno and from there followed along that river on the left bank Thus we benefited for the construction of the facilities offered by the camp and again we obtained permanent advantage in having guaranteed to us the subsistence of the pack animals which travel between the mouth of that small river and the Viljana station in as much as in the whole of this journey of nearly 25 leaks only less than 10 are devoid of pasture at the bar of the new river we placed the first station after Jose Bonifacio and to which we gave the name of Barreo del Melgaso the distance between these two stations is 67 kilometers but apart from these results Lieutenant Amarante's expedition obtained others of a geographical nature emanating from the precise determination of the commemoracio de Floriano the fixation of the bar of the river Barreo del Melgaso is a demonstration that the hypothesis which gave place to the including of the duvida as one of the tributaries of the basin of the Guy Paraná was incorrect after the bar of the river Francisco Bueno the road studied by Lieutenant Amarante continued along the course of the commemoracio up to the point where later on the station of Pimenta Bueno in the confluence of the river of this name would be equipped from there Lieutenant Amarante prolonged his expedition by the right bank of the upper Guy Paraná until arriving at the store called Yurepa the property of a company of rubber tappers established a little below the mouth of the river of the same name end of section 16 section 17 the Roosevelt Rondon Scientific Expedition and the telegraph line commission this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Rita Butros the Roosevelt Rondon Scientific Expedition and the telegraph line commission by Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon translation by Richard George Reedy and Edwin Douglas Murray third lecture part four in this route of more than 142 kilometers the ground presented technical and economical conditions more favorable to the construction than that studied by the survey in 2009 we decided therefore to abandon the old scheme which consisted in carrying the telegraph line from Pimenta Bueno to Araquemes on the Jammery on the left bank of the Guy across a region of mountains covered with high woods cut by numerous egarapes and important rivers such as the Luis de Albuquerque Rolam de Miura Copa and the Jaru of which the three first had been discovered by the big 1909 expedition on the route surveyed by Lieutenant Amarante we had not to cross more than one course of water of any importance the Rio Sinjo we found large zones of jungles and we remained still in condition to benefit of the navigation of the Guy for the transport of food stuffs and baggage the location obeyed this line in which we opened two stations one in front of the bar of the Ricardo Franco and the other where the Europas store is situated both were concluded in 1914 and named respectively Presidente Hermes and Presidente Pena beyond the results which we have mentioned above obtained by the surveying expedition by Lieutenant Amarante along the upper Guiparana we must register still further the meeting which he had with the Indians of the place belonging to as I afterwards verified a large ethnographic group of the two piece far and away more advanced than the Nambuqueras or the Kepakiri Yuats of whom they are enemies and with whom they are always at war these Indians besides using hammocks had the habit of clothing their women with loincloth and the men with a kind of small drawers made of cotton more important however is the fact observed by us that they are given to the art of navigation which they carry out by means of canoes or Ubas made out of the barks of trees such as the Jetoba the Jeketiba and others which is peeled off entire by the Indians and in which fire plays the principal part very noteworthy also is the system of defense with which they surround their villages for the purpose of preventing the possibility of their being attacked by unknown warriors who might intend to take them by surprise with this object in view they construct among the branches of the trees on both sides of the path whose access they wish to defend platforms of rough wood where the defenders can take up their positions and from above detect and watch the movements of the enemy this resource although very efficient did not appear to them to be sufficient they required a system of defense which would produce effect by itself dispensing with their presence an identical thought to that of the civilized warriors when they invented the automatic explosion of mines destined to close the entrance of ports and canals the Indians of the Upper Giparana utilizing with much industry and intelligence the poor resources of their forests employ rods pointed at the end forming a sort of spiked fence which remains in an oblique position in the paths or roads along which they wish to stop passage covering them up afterwards with the leaves and branches of bushes nearby the point of these steaks are turned in the direction when the enemy is expected to come and besides this they are high enough to spike a man in the stomach these and other things relative to the life of the Indians in question were completely unknown previous to Lieutenant Amarante's expedition such ignorance almost proved fatal to one of the members of the expedition named Hohahu de Dus a valorous veteran of the Graph Line Commission campaigns the case was that after crossing the Rio Sinjo the affluent which I have just referred to of the Giparana Lieutenant Amarante having perceived an Indian path decided to reconnoiter same in the expectation of arriving at the respective village he commenced therefore to advance by that path sending Hohahu de Dus in front of him his duty being to cut a passage with the machete at the points where same might be necessary having gone a small distance Hohahu de Dus suddenly felt that he had been wounded in the upper part of the hip had it been a little higher up the wound would have been most serious probably mortal we thus obtained the first inkling of the system of defense used by these Indians in whose villages we could only enter under their own guidance to friendly relations with the members of the Telegraph Line Commission to whom they spontaneously presented themselves in February 1914 on one of the banks of the Guy in this same year the chief abatera took me to his maloca and during the journey showed me a number of spikes which he had previously caused to be knocked down to facilitate my passage I was thus enabled to learn the customs of this nation who were divided into various groups namely the Parnayuats Takueteps Epoteuats and others I will limit myself to sight here one of their customs, namely the staining of their faces, arms and legs with the juice of the genipapo which blackens their skin I asked one of them why they painted themselves thus he replied that it was a ruse to facilitate the hunting of the coeta because as this monkey is excessively curious a man under this disguise placing himself inside of the monkey and imitating the voice of some animal or other will succeed in bringing him down from the branches of the trees most desirous of investigating at close quarters the novelty which he sees on this occasion the hunter kills it with his unfailing bow and arrow but coming back to the construction I will remind you of what was said in the lecture relative to the survey of the River Roosevelt in regard to the paralyzation which same suffered at Barayo del Magaso on account of the violent epidemic of fever which caused the death of Captain Cardoso when the work of that survey was finished Lieutenant Vasconcellos had succeeded in organizing the services of the above mentioned station and advanced with the location to Pimento Bueno whence he would continue to Presidente Hermes and Presidente Pena on the other side the work of the north section begun at Santo Antonio Domadiera had progressed along the Jammery and finally attained the highest point of this river at the Baracayo Bomb Futuro where we equip the station called Arakimis a name of an indigenous tribe which I established in a village and whose pacification and customs I will speak of in another place in order to have the line stretched from Cuyabá to Santo Antonio it remained therefore to study the connection between Arakimis and Presidente Pena passing from the valley of the Jammery to that of the Guiparana which should be reached in the waters of the Jaru it's affluent of the left bank I planned out to affect this study in two sections one from Arakimis to Jaru and the other from this river to Presidente Pena for this reason having finished as we have seen the Roosevelt Rondon Scientific Expedition by the departure of the illustrious American statesman from Bolem do Pará to New York I immediately returned to Manaus and from there left for the Madiera making for the mouth of the Jammery I ascended this river up to the bar of its affluent Canaan where the station of Arakimis is situated from there I started the surveying expedition generally towards northeast first by the right bank of the Canaan and afterwards by the left of one of its feeders the river Cuatro Cachoeiras which was followed up to the point of the confluence of another river the Iragape Cachoeira from this confluence the survey took a northeast direction up a mountain and on descending same on the opposite side reached the waters of the basin of the Guiparaná advancing by the right of these waters I perceived that they formed the Igarape de Sao José to which the San Salvador is united forming therefore the river Novo which discharges its waters in Itoc phone and the latter into the Jarú the expedition however did not descend so far because the bar of the San Salvador turns to the southeast crosses the Cerro de San Rosa and enters the valley of the Jarú the left bank of which was attained at a point where there exists a store called Santos Dumont belonging to some rubber tappers this point was picked out to receive the new telegraph station which was intermediary between the two which were intended to be connected ascending the river on leaving this spot it will not be necessary to march more than a league and a half in order to find the place in which the 1909 expedition had encamped and once it left in a westerly direction almost on the parallel of ten degrees in search of the waters of the Jesse finding however those of the pardo and affluent of the Jamarí from the place chosen for the new station the staff returned to Arakimis but they did not cover the previous route except as far as to descend the Cerro to which I have referred where I passed from the valley of the Cuatro Quechahuires to that of the Toqfon this is the Cerro known today as Expedicel on account of its having been for the first time noted in 1909 when it was crossed by the big survey of the main line from Cuyabá to the Madeira after having descended same the expedition of 1914 followed the divisor of the feeders of the right bank of the Cuatro Quechahuires and those of the left bank of the Toqfon noting among the first the headwaters of the Igarapes Andira and Valhamedus and following these more to the east those also of the Río Branco which discharges its waters into the Jamarí by its mouth situated below that of the Canaan according to information gathered amongst the rubber tappers the region where I recognize the headwaters of the Río Branco is occupied by a tribe of warlike Indians who are known to them under the name of Boca Preta these same Indians are again observed in the headwaters of the River Pretau another affluent of the Jamarí below the previous one and as far as those of a feeder of the Guy whose mouth the navigator who enters this river coming from the Madeira finds right in the commencement on the right of one going upstream when we re-entered the Arakimis on our return from these surveys we made a total run of 199.722 meters we designed a topographic plan of the region studied and on the same projected the root of the line between that and the future station of the Jarú with the development of 93.027 the location works of this portion was immediately commenced and terminated in a very short space of time then leaving the new station I directed myself to the Guy Paraná navigating the Jarú downstream making a topographical survey of the part of the course run on arriving at the Guy I continued to navigate ascending it up to the site in which we were to open the station called Presidente Pena there I initiated the opening of the cutting for the laying of the line in the part included between this and the station situated immediately above same leaving this work in charge of Dr. Espiridiao I continued to ascend the Guy until I met a camp of the construction party under the direction of Lieutenant Vaz Conceyos which was already below the Pimenta Bueno and would soon reach Presidente Hermes I proceeded upstream inspecting all the work done after my departure from Barayo del Melgaso on the 4th of October of the previous year when I left to commence the Roosevelt Rondon Scientific Expedition I visited various villages of Paraná Uats and Kepakiri Uat Indians and then returned downstream to the spot where Presidente Pena station exists end of section 17 section 18 the Roosevelt Rondon Scientific Expedition and the Telegraph Line Commission this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Rita Boutros the Roosevelt Rondon Scientific Expedition and the Telegraph Line Commission by Candido Mariana da Silva Rondon translation by Richard George Reedy and Edwin Douglas Murray 3rd lecture part 5 as it can be seen from this rapid account of my inspection tour at the time in which it was made that is to say in August and September of last year the work of construction had alone not been initiated in the portion comprised between the station of Presidente Pena and that of Jadu and even the reconnoitering and survey of the ground necessary for the projection of the route between these two points to be undertaken with all there was no time to lose we were already in the 2nd fortnight of September and it was imperative to have the Telegraphic connection of Cuyaba and Santo Antonio concluded by the last day of December in order to be able to inaugurate same on the 1st of January the ground which was yet to be studied is that comprised between the river Europa from its mouth and Jadu and as far as it could be surmised from the indications deduced from the 1909 reconnaissance the distance to be covered if taken as a straight line would not be more than 70 km notwithstanding that the region was all together covered with thick and high forest we expected to be able to cross same in 4 or 5 days provided this did not require more than a hasty exploration I therefore decided to carry it out and in order to facilitate the march which I commenced on the 20th of September I was determined not to take with me more than two men with no implements not even a machete as I was not disposed to lose time in cutting away each of us carried his own hammock his gun and ammunition besides this only 8 tins of condensed milk and salt our food would have to be supplied by the forest that is, we would have to feed on the game and fruit which we might find we thus travelled inside the forest 88 km generally heading to 60°N until we came across the Jadu at a point intermediary between the mouth of the river Toc-Fone and of the Igarapé-Paraison the latter of which we had crossed after several other smaller rivers such as the Miolo and the Boa Vista direct tributaries of the Guy in this first part of our march we took 9 days the second part which consisted in the ascent of the Jadu from the point of arrival to the telegraph station I undertook to effect it following along the bed of the river which was rendered possible by the fact that it was at the time ebbing and presented numerous and extensive dry strands soon after commencing this new itinerary I became unable to walk having been attacked and wounded in the foot by a skate at first I expected to recover in a short while from the sore which this wound had left me but on realizing after a 4 days rest that the case became worse I sent one of my men up to the Barasayo Santos Dumont in order to bring down a canoe in this I travelled to 4.501 meters up to the store then on recovering I proceeded on with the reconnaissance on foot and connected it to the last station of the Atikemis Jadu location the total march attained a distance of 121 kilometers and allowed a route to be projected closing the circuit between Presidente Pena and Jadu with an extension of 0.061 meters of wire Along the region traversed there are many mountain ranges located in between the small rivers to which I have already referred as well as others relative to the Edgarapes Dochi Bay and the Ponte affluence of the left bank of the Europa besides numerous slopes whence descends some headwaters of lesser importance as well as rubber forests of the whole Giparana no less remarkable for the quality of the latex they produce and for the density of the forest they form are the caucho trees which grow there this is due to the fact that in that stretch of land are combined the two most favourable conditions for the development and the improvement of the Hevea Brasiliensis and the caucho namely the great altitude of the mountains of Granitic rock each rubber tree of the Edgarapes do Paraiso supplies 12 gallons of latex those of the Madiera do not furnish more than 3 and caucho well frequently to be met with in the Granitic soil is never to be found in ground of Aranitic formation as regards the Indian population of this region this is at the present moment located in the valley of the Jadu and is composed of two tribes both of them on good terms with the rubber tappers who utilize their services the first one occupies the headwaters of the river and has settled there recently coming from the Europa whence they take their name the other which is a native of the Jadu itself and bears the name of this river has its villages further down between the said river and the Anari the surveys to which I have alluded above were followed immediately by the work of location and this was pushed on so intensively that by the end of December we had stretched the 374.235 meters of wire between Paraiso del Malgaco and Ariquemes and finished the line from Cuyobá to Santo Antonio do Madiera forming a continuous circuit of 1.490 kilometers served by 20 intermediate stations this is the main line the official inauguration of which was effected on the first day of January of the current year we had however previously constructed and handed over for service three branch lines with a total extension of 769.946 to one of these from San Luis de Caceras to the town of Mato Grosso I have had occasion to refer in my lectures delivered to the public in this capital in 1911 of the other two I shall now give a short notice the first runs along the road of the Madiera-Mamore railway and connects Santo Antonio to Guajara-Mirem its main object is to answer the requirements of the police of that region where the territory of our country is located with that of Bolivia the extension of this branch is 356 kilometers and its intermediary stations are not more than four in number in laying out the wire we at first utilized the post belonging to the railway but later on we caused others to be erected for the exclusive use of our line on the banks of the Madiera from Santo Antonio to Guajara-Mirem in the area of the Madiera-Mamore railway there is a large number of Indians beyond the Carapunas whose villages are located in the zone comprised between the Mutom-Paraná and Ribeiro these are tame Indians who have been on friendly terms with the civilized men since the colonial days amongst them can be noted a large number of Cabores or a half-breed between African and Indian blood and at times even go out of their way to assist them I can, for instance, state the case which occurred to one of them who necessitated undergoing costly medical treatment in the course of which it became indispensable to amputate both his legs the Indian besides having been operated and carefully bound up received from his benefactor as a present an apparatus sent from the United States to replace the amputated limbs the last branch to which we have to refer is that which was carried from the station of the Parísis to a small village existing at the bar of the Rio dos Biugres an affluent of the left bank of the Sepotuba the construction was under the direction of the inspector of telegraphs Dr. Francisco Xavier assisted by a group of Indians named Terenas who came especially for this purpose from the place where their tribe lived near the town of Miranda the line measures 114.500 meters in extension and possesses the intermediary station of Fonsos situated in the plateau which one follows on descending the Cerro dos Parísis and proceeds that of Tepera Poen after having crossed the two mountain sides it traverses some breeding camps and penetrates into new forests which extend up to the Sepotuba and the Paraguay joining on to those of the Jarul and the Guapore in the last part of the journey indicated there lives a tribe of Indians the Barbados famous in the chronicles of Mato Grosso for their tenacious and sanguineous resistance which from the colonial days they never cease to oppose to the attempts of entering into their territory by persons of our civilization the war which they sustained in the defense of their villages and domains was so merciless that it was not even possible to find out to what ethnographic group they belonged when in 1913 it was decided that the telegraph line commission would be entrusted with the construction of that branch the first measure taken by me to commence the work was the installation of a special service destined to gain the confidence and friendship of that tribe of all the trials in the wilds of Mato Grosso and other states to which the simple and easy method of entering into pacific and friendly relations with the nuclei of the primitive populations of our country had been submitted this was certainly the roughest and of the most doubtful result because no other people of the Indians had as much as the Barbados occasion and motives to confirm the belief that from the civilized people they could expect nothing but persecution, slaughter and cruelty notwithstanding this I organized the service of pacification and having handed over the direction to Mr. Severiano the Albuquerque an old employee of the telegraph line commission whose capacity for carrying out analogous duties had already been demonstrated in Campos Nova where he had succeeded in making peace with a group of Nambacueras I remained fully confident in the successful result which he would obtain it was not long before the facts came to confirm my pre-vision because that employee having fixed his abode on the left bank to the Indians it would be easy for him to find numerous occasions of giving them proofs of his benevolence and kindness by not hostileizing them and leaving them in the interior of the woods presence of axes, machetes and trinkets etc he had the satisfaction in the beginning of August 1913 of receiving in his camp the visit of the first party of Barbados who had procured civilized people with pacific and friendly intentions on Severiano communicating this auspicious achievement to me he described the warriors of this tribe as being most robust and healthy men who had the habit of staining their bodies with genipapo and using out of modesty a small band of coconut leaf rolled up round their necks they hung strings of threaded palm nuts from their ears hung balls of bright colored feathers their hair was long and fell down to their shoulders in small plates or was used in one small and partial chignon on the top of their heads the chiefs were distinguishable by various adornments of feathers one on the head like a helmet and others as bracelets and garters the relations thus established have never since been interrupted the visits to our camp became more and more numerous and frequent and the men were accompanied by their women and children this was evidently a great proof of the modification already operated in their minds by the confidence which we were inspiring in them however the prejudice engraved in their brains for more than a century of wars and merciless persecution is so great that they have not yet decided to take us to their villages a similar state of mind appears to have been turned into a physical gesture which by the prolonged habit through various generations has transformed itself into an irreflexible movement common to all the individuals of the tribe this gesture or tick consists in a quick and wide oscillating movement of the body as would be made by an individual attacked by an enemy who was endeavoring to cite him in order to strike him a death blow and in order to elude the aim bobs incessantly from one side to the other without however giving up the fight and procuring the favorable moment to attack his adversary Barbados act in this way on all occasions when they get into the presence of a civilized man their attitude is always that of men who are awaiting a sudden and treacherous blow on the other hand any one of us civilized people requires to dispose of a good dose of calmness and presence of mind in order to overcome the uneasiness which one feels at the moment of receiving the first greeting of a group of Barbados let us imagine a moment that we find ourselves in the camp of the Rio dos Bugres and that we are informed of the approach of a member of warriors of that race out of curiosity we immediately leave for the yard desirous of seeing the ceremony used by them when they arrive at a strange village let us recollect those of the other tribes already seen the Nambacueras for example yell from afar and now a which cry is immediately answered by those of the village visited Anere they following the entry of the first into the Maloca whose yard they overrun in a large circle each one carrying his bow and arrows in his uplifted hands having finished this circuit they commenced the conversation with the chief of the Maloca what will the Barbados ceremonial be like behold they approach they arrive frowning with a more aggressive than friendly they all bring their bows and arrows on arriving at a certain distance they suddenly stop hold up their bows in a shooting position arm their arrows pointed at us and draw the cords they beat the ground angrily with their right foot they send up a thrilling war whoop and all this so quickly that we had no time to recover from our astonishment and surprise the bows giving way to the strong tension of the cords curve themselves and collect the force destined to be transmitted to the arrows now the cords loosened the bows unbend one hears the dry smack of the cords against the wood of the bows if one of us giving way to natural impulse should close his eyes he would have lost the most unforeseen part and the only one really pleasing in the whole scene the verification that the arrows had not left but remained retained between the fingers which had directed and guided them the cords had been let loose in vain and the whole thing was finally nothing more or less than mere show destined purely and simply to translate the sentiments of cordiality and good wishes of those who had mounted and executed same I admit of the possibility of their existing persons who if they were placed in the conditions of having to receive the homages of this wild greeting would find them little amusing but so that we may be just we must remember that they do not dispose of other elements in order to manifest their joy in their public feasts except those which can be afforded to them by their poor arms if they possessed cannon it is clear that they would thunder the air with formidable discharges when I returned to the side of the Rio dos Bugres already finding peace and friendly relations established with the Barbados from the first words which I heard them speak I immediately recognized them to be a branch of the great nation of the Bororos it is known that of this nation there exists two other groups respectively localized on the river San Lorenzo and on the Garces the first in the basin of the Paraguay and the second in that of the Ataguaya the knowledge which we possess relative to the disposition and the capacity of mental assimilation of the two last groups makes things quite clear to us with regard to what we should expect from the first and authorize us to predict that if the action initiated with such good results is not interrupted from the tribe of the Barbados will come out in a very short time camp men and agriculturists as good and as useful to the general economy of the nation and especially to Mato Grosso as those who have come out of the other two End of section 18