 Section 10 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 Candido Rondon, translated by R. G. Reidy and Edwin Murray. Second Lecture, Part 4 In order to attend to the already mentioned solicitations to accelerate our march, we did not continue to proceed with the necessary measuring in order to ascertain the different technical data relative to the entire definition of the towne. The transport of the baggage to the 17th camp below the fall terminated on the same day. But the portaging of the canoes demanded efforts which lasted until two o'clock in the afternoon of the twenty-fifth. We recommend immediately afterwards to descend the river, but we did not succeed in traversing more than one thousand one hundred ten meters. Now we came across an outcrop of granite which hindered our passage in a length of over one thousand meters. These repeated stoppages, although they did not succeed in overcoming the resistance and the vigor of our admirable canoe men, were, however, now trying the patience of the members of the American Commission. We had completed twenty-seven days' navigation, but we had nevertheless not advanced more than one hundred fifty-seven thousand four hundred ten meters, corresponding to a daily run of below six kilometers. This speed would really be ludicrous were it not rather an eloquent testimony of the enormity of the work which the constantly embarrassing falls were causing us. With all, were it not for the annoyance resulting from the delay, everything else was going on favorably. The sanitary condition of the expedition was good, and the quantity of provisions still existing was sufficient to assure us the termination of the voyage without scarcity of food. If it were not for the most special conditions of this expedition, these hindrances would constitute for us a good occasion to extend with greater leisure our explorations into the interior of these lands, which in reality greatly interested us in virtue of the exuberance of its formidable vegetation. The rubber tree became more and more profuse and of a better quality. The hardwoods were numerous and of great variety. Proceeding along the banks of the new waterfall, we observed the following trees. Arora, Piyuva, Enjiko, Paroba, Seidro, La Ranguera Silvestre, Cajueiro, and many other equally precious specimens, which form a forest so high and dense that the river below has a dark and shaded aspect. We also found vestiges of Indians, but not of recent date. On the following day I formed our men into two parties, one under the direction of Lieutenant Lyra, who took charge of portaging the canoes by the channels, and the other took our baggage to the nineteenth camp, pitched at the bar of a small stream, which flows into the river from the right bank of the Roosevelt. This work took us the whole day. At first we gave the name of Tokari to the waterfall, on account of one of those trees which furnished us with a great quantity of nuts. Later on, however, we changed this name to Dasen Scrippsioes, in remembrance of the fact that Mr. Cherry had discovered a slab with geometrical figures, naturally carved on same by the Indians of that region. Unfortunately the American naturalist was not able to photograph these interesting ethnographic documents. Neither did he copy the designs. Nevertheless he informed us that they consisted of a series of three sets or combinations of concentric circles, each one constituted by four lines, the position of the common center being marked in each one. Below the first set of figures, three others existed, each one formed of five m's overlapping each other so that the strokes of the m remained parallel to one another. The design was headed by a line which ran from right to left of the slab, at first rectilineous, then curved upwards, and finally descending again and continuing on the other side in the initial direction. In the highest point of this line three small circles were carved, each one with its center clearly visible. Other designs, which existed on the face of the slab, turned towards the current of the river Mr. Cherry could not distinctly see. We left this camp on the morning of the twenty-seventh and descended five thousand four hundred twenty-five meters more, still surrounded by mountains which were accompanying us from the quartzite waterfall. Twice we were obliged to unload our craft in order to traverse the current, and on one of these occasions we almost lost the canoes forming the ferry which capsized. We installed our twentieth camp under an enormous rainstorm, and from there we left on the following morning, having made the insignificant run of one thousand five hundred fifty meters. Whilst dispensing myself of further reference to three rapids which gave us the usual trouble, I will say that a little before we had discovered on the left bank a small river, to which I gave the name of Cherry, after the American naturalist, and that our halt was made on the side of a big waterfall. Taken on the whole, it caused a change of level in the bed of the river to a total extent of thirty-three meters, but in detail it was recognized as being constituted of six successive steps, the intervals between them rapidly increasing from the fourth to the sixth, where the waters make a drop of ten meters. From both sides of the three last steps, large rocks jut out, assigning the spot where the mountain allowed itself to be torn asunder by the impetus of the current, when this was endeavoring to secure a passage through its compact and solid mass. After the last fall, the river continues in a deep and narrow bed enclosed between the mountains, flowing swiftly, and only at the end of two stretches does it regain its customary aspect. With regard to the predominating nature of the rock, it appeared to me at the moment that it was of a calcareous formation, and for this reason I named this place Cachuera de Pedro de Cal. Later on, however, the geologist Dr. Eusebio de Oliveira verified from the samples that I gave him that there was a mistake in that classification for the mineral there existing is called hornfels, in which there are only slight traces of calcium. I leave this rectification consigned in the hope that it may serve to avoid possible mistakes which might arise from the erroneous designation. The embarrassment which this waterfall caused to the progress of our march was most serious. We would not have overcome same except at the cost of enormous efforts employed during some days. It was necessary to open up a road on the top of the hill, on the left bank, in the direction of the first navigable point on the lower part of the river, and we should have to transport all the baggage of the expedition by it. As for the canoes, we would endeavor to pass them by the less dangerous channel, guiding them and sustaining them by means of hazers. At the places where this maneuver was absolutely impracticable, we would drag them overland until we could launch them ahead of us in analogous conditions to the proceeding. We admitted the possibility of the five smaller craft not resisting the shocks to which they would be exposed, and in case we lost them, we should be obliged to build others to replace same. On the morning of the twenty-ninth we separated into three parties. The first with Mr. Roosevelt, Cherry, and Dr. Cajazera remained in the camp, the twenty-first. The second, under Lieutenant Leera and Mr. Kermit, took charge of the work of descending the canoes, and the other accompanied me in reconnoitering the road overland. I left in a north-northwest direction across small ridges which sloped toward the river. I crossed the valley of some headwaters of little importance, and then commenced to climb the side of the hill. On reaching the summit, at ten-thirty a.m., I ascertained that the barometer showed a pressure of seven hundred forty-two point five millimeters, corresponding to a height of one hundred four meters, in relation to the level of the twenty-first camp. By this evaluation, the top of the hill where we stood, and the Salto Nivite, which was more than one hundred kilometers distant, were so situated that if an imaginary straight line were drawn from one to the other it would be horizontal. Therefore, following all the route traversed from that fall to the mouth of the river Cherry, we had descended from waterfall to waterfall, as much as we would descend in a few minutes from the top of this hill to our twenty-first camp. Desirous of seeing the panorama which was displayed from this height, I ordered a few trees to be cut down on the northern side, at the place where the slope drops abruptly, forming a precipice. After having terminated the cutting down, we could then gaze on the distant horizon, looking in beautiful scenery in which the dark ridge of the mountains stood out, and below, winding between the mountains until it disappeared behind them in a northerly direction, the river, which we had been exploring with so much fatigue, and now seemed to us to be reduced to the insignificant proportions of a rivulet. Proceeding with the work of opening up the road, we arrived at the bank of the river below the last falls, at two-thirty, where we were to establish our twenty-second camp, which was two-thousand two-hundred-fifty meters away from the previous one. By this road, our valiant cablocos transported the whole of the baggage of the expedition, working for this purpose during the thirtieth and the thirty-first. On the last day, we were installed at our new camp. The descent of the canoes required time and more earnest efforts. On the first day, in spite of the fact that Lieutenant Lyra and Mr. Kermit had prolonged the work up to six o'clock in the afternoon, they only succeeded to pass the first three falls with one canoe. The other canoe only got over two falls. On the following day, employing great efforts, they got down the falls not only these canoes but two others, bringing them to the upper level of the last fall, and were obliged to proceed by land. It was still necessary to employ the whole day of the thirty-first in descending the five first terraces with the larger canoe, but one was lost and we now remained with five only. Finally, from two to five o'clock in the afternoon on the first of April, they successively arrived at the port of the twenty-second camp, having been dragged overland by the members of the expedition. This hard work during four days caused considerable suffering to our men. Only one of them, the canoe man, Luis Correa, kept up his vigor and good spirits of always. Another one, called Macario, also distinguished himself by his capacity of resistance against fatigue. The others, however, without accepting our excellent pilot, Antonio Correa, broke down, not in spirit, but their physical forces were exhausted. Whilst awaiting the end of this difficult journey, the members of the expedition gave themselves over to their habitual occupations. Mr. Roosevelt divided his time between reading, writing, and correcting his book, and cherry, the naturalist, augmented his ornithological collections by the daily acquisition of fresh specimens. One of these called the attention of the American scientist, because it appeared to him that it was a variety hitherto unknown and therefore not classified. On one of these days I myself had my own little surprise. Naturally it was not one of those things that would increase the wealth of the compiled knowledge of works on natural history. But it was a modest observation of mine, relative to the first representative of the large family of turkey buzzards, which allowed itself to be seen in the forests of this river. The animal which gave me the occasion to register this note did not belong to the species of those who feed themselves on decomposed carnage. It was a more noble animal, one of those who knows how to hunt his prey and prides himself so much that he has a surname, for he is called Urubu Mathias. Besides, the whole district of the waterfalls which we were traversing right away from Naivete was completely devoid of game. It is possible that this was due to the fact that at this time of year the birds and quadrupeds had taken refuge into the interior on the highlands. It is true that I could rarely determine the existence of search and birds. Once or twice I heard the red-headed Makukko chirp, but I never succeeded in getting to hear the real Makukko. I heard also, but rarely, the song of the Urubu and of the Miatire. There were no signs, however, of the Mauiikire. As for the mammals, we saw a deer twice, once at the Simplicio waterfall and then at the bar of the Marciano Avila. The tapir was once or twice surprised by us when crossing the river, but the K-2 and the peccary we never met. Of the quadremains, the one which we most frequently met was the Barigudo, and then the Kohiu, and, more rarely than these, the Makukko Prego. The Kohata made its appearance very seldom, and only on one occasion did we see the white-faced monkey with a light-colored body. At the end of the last day of the work which I have above referred to, a tempestuous night followed, during which it rained so much that our canvas awnings gave way under the weight of the water, and the canoes threatened to be sunk. In spite of the fact that the members of the expedition had not had the sleep which they so much required, on the following day we recommend our journey on a ferry and three separate canoes. The river continued to flow with impetuous velocity, forced between rocky hills, obliging us to transport the baggage by difficult roads, regular goat tracks, in order to be able to descend the canoes through the rapids. In this way we covered 2,850 metres, at the end of which we encamped close to a high rock, through which the waters had opened a deep channel forming almost vertical walls, as if the rock had been worked by stone masons. The exploration of the road to get around by the left, the enormous obstacle created by this incident, was realized on the same day and had to be prolonged until reaching to more than 2,200 metres, the base of a rock where the falls ended. This was the place picked out to establish our 24th camp, in which we hoped would be known as the Quejada de Anta, in view of the fact that we had there found a jawbone of the well-known Pachydermada brasiliensis. Unfortunately, a great disaster obliged us a few hours afterwards to change this name for another. In the morning of the 3rd we commenced our work. Lieutenant Lyra and Mr. Kermit were going to descend the canoes by the waterfalls, and I went to open the portage road. This work was almost terminated, and now a third party, under the direction of Sergeant Pixar, had commenced the transportation of the baggage when the canoe man Luis Correa came to advise me, on behalf of Lieutenant Lyra, that the soldier Julio of the 38th Italian of Infantry had just then assassinated that sergeant. I left the men of my party continuing the work which they were doing, and set off to the place of this sad mishap. I found the body of my unfortunate camarada lying down close to a big tree, a little distance off the spot where the baggage of the expedition was accumulated. He had been hit in the right axilia by a bullet of a Winchester-44 which caused immediate death. I directed myself to the camp where I found Mr. Roosevelt and Dr. Cajazera, who had taken the first steps, unfortunately, of no avail, to succour the wounded man and arrest the assassin. He, after having committed the crime, had run into the interior of the wood where he had disappeared with his murderous gun. The criminal was a healthy man of strong constitution. We had included him in the expedition, because of these qualities verified by Dr. Cajazera, on the medical inspection made it to Pira Puan, for the picking out of our men, and added to this was the fact that he had manifested the desire to accompany us. Unfortunately such favourable appearances only served to disguise a nature of the most unfortunate morality, which soon revealed itself at the first waterfall. But when we were able to discover his bad qualities, his cowardice, and complete incapacity to follow up the continuous efforts of his fellow companions, we were so far advanced in the river that it was impossible for us to rid ourselves of his presence, and we therefore had to resign ourselves to keeping him with us until the end of the journey. Nevertheless, not one of our parties suspected that we would have to lament the consequences of such a wicked act as that which he had just committed, because the most accentuated trace of that sad soul was his pusillanimity, not only in facing danger but also in sustaining any continuous and energetic action. In the expedition no one relied upon the assistance of his strength, and least of all of his will. Nevertheless it would not have been right for us to have left him unoccupied. He was therefore employed in the transportation of the baggage, and more than usually excelled in showing the despondency and carelessness with which he did his work. Sergeant Piquceau reprehended him for this. He, without saying a word, went to the camp, got hold of one of the expedition's four carbines, came back to the spot where the sergeant was, and treacherously murdered him. We set above that the criminal had taken refuge in the wood carrying that gun with him. There was therefore a sufficient reason for us to fear, lest he should commit other crimes, and in order to avoid this it was imperative to follow on his track, disarm, and if possible arrest him. With this end in view I gave the necessary instructions to the canoe man Antonio Correa, and to the Parisi Indian Antonio, who, following up the trail of the fugitive, were not long in discovering the firearm abandoned at the first obstacle which he met in the rapidity of his flight into the dense vegetation of the forest. With our minds at ease on this score, we desisted from the almost impracticable purpose of pursuing the assassin in order to arrest him, and we turned all our attention to the arrangements for the funeral of our poor fellow worker. Sergeant Piquceau, of the Fifth Battalion of Engineers, was a veteran of the campaign waged by the Telegraph Line Commission against the hardships of the wilderness in the highlands of the Parisi. He was in command of a military post installed by me at Juhina, to serve as a base for our animals which became interned beyond the Huruena in the direction of the northern range of mountains. There he had the fortunate opportunity of receiving, in 1911, the friendly visit of the representatives of a group of Nambiquaras from the valley of that river, and he acquitted himself so well on this occasion that in a very short space of time he succeeded in conquering the confidence of these Indians and acquiring great prestige amongst them. From the Juhina post, Piquceau had passed to serve at the general construction camp where he rendered relevant services which obtained for him his promotion as sergeant, for his effective post was that of a corporal. A few years ago, having finished his time of first engagement in the ranks of the army, he was immediately re-engaged. It was in this position that he continued to render to the Fifth Battalion of Engineers, to the Commission of the Telegraph Lines, and now to the Roosevelt Rondon Expedition, his assistance and excessive goodwill, serving as an example to his comrades by his spirit of discipline which he impressed to all his acts, and above all by the morality of his life as a soldier and as a man. The grave was opened on the same spot where he fell, close to the road with his head towards the mountain and his feet towards the river. Then Mr. Roosevelt, Lieutenant Lyra and myself carried the body of our unfortunate companion and laid it at the bottom of this modest grave, marked by the symbolic cross of his religious creed. We completed these pious duties with a military funeral salvo in which Mr. Roosevelt seconded by Mr. Cherry, two soldiers and myself, took part. It was this sad occurrence which made us adopt a new denomination to mark out the mountain range and the falls which had had the bad destiny of being its indirect cause and theatre. They both received the name of Pixar, as a last homage due by us to the companion whose devotion to the common cause and to his chiefs, his kindness to his comrades and subalterns, conquered not only the esteem, but the gratitude of the discoverers of the Roosevelt. In spite of actively proceeding with the moving of the camp, we could not finish same on that day. For this reason, at the end of the portage road below the falls, we could only make a hasty bivouac with part of our baggage. By five-thirty p.m. Mr. Roosevelt arrived breathless with the great effort which he had made to climb up the slopes of the Rocky Mountain. That violent exercise was too excessive for his state of health, and made him suffer very much. On the following morning, the fourth of April, we commenced the exhaustive work of the previous day so as to terminate the transportation of the baggage and canoes. At about four p.m., this work was so far advanced as to make it possible to finally install our twenty-fourth camp. At the moment that we left the bivouac, Mr. Roosevelt felt himself suddenly attacked with high fever, his temperature rising quickly to more than thirty-nine degrees centigrade. On the road we had been cut by a heavy hailstorm, which drenched us and greatly increased the sufferings of our sick friend. Dr. Cajazera gave him an injection of half a gram of quinine, and during the night Mr. Kermit and Dr. Cajazera kept watch over him in turn until two o'clock in the morning, and from that hour onwards I took their place. Although on the morning of the fifth Mr. Roosevelt was feeling better, I decided to transfer the camp to another place which was not so damp as where we had passed the night. In order to do this I crossed over to the right bank, which I explored at a distance of one thousand six hundred meters, where we came across a large creek to which we gave the name of Boa Esperanza, for we saw that the river from that place flowed down apparently with no obstacles to oppose our march. I did not change the camp to this spot in view of Mr. Roosevelt's bad state of health. I limited myself to install it at nine hundred fifty meters from the place where we wished to get out. On this day we finished the work of passing the canoes across the waterfalls, in which our canoe men, under the direction of Lieutenant Lyra and Mr. Kermit, animated by the example of tenacity which these two gave them, developed efforts which appeared to exceed the resisting capacity of the human organism. Mr. Roosevelt was amazed at the exceptional physical and moral energy of our officers and men, and whilst talking to me said the following, They say that the Brazilians are indolent. Well, my dear Colonel, a country that has men like these has assured a great future for itself, and will certainly carry out the biggest undertakings in the world. We passed a relatively quiet night. The fever did not continue its attacks on Mr. Roosevelt but attacked Mr. Kermit. On the morning of the sixth we left the twenty-fifth camp, taking the canoes still lightened of their burden to the Boa Esperanza Creek, where we recommend the navigation which continued unhindered through long stretches of the river, until we had completed twenty-eight thousand three hundred twenty-five meters. And descending the Pixar waterfall we lost a canoe. With our craft reduced to four canoes we could not continue on the topographical survey with the methods previously used, and it became necessary therefore to content ourselves with the elements furnished by the measures of time and of the average velocity deducted from the values obtained in regard to the rectilineal tracks of the river with the assistance of the telemeter. The place at which we arrived and where we installed our twenty-sixth camp, two hundred one thousand nine hundred fifty meters from Paso D'Alene Ha Telegrafica, was the mouth of a new tributary which flows into the Roosevelt by the right bank, with the azimuth of two hundred sixty-three degrees east-southeast coming almost from east. Its width was ninety-five meters and its waters flowed with great rapidity over a rock of porphyritic quartzite. At the bar there are two islands, and the river Roosevelt after receiving that affluent takes a width of one hundred twenty meters and continues with the previous azimuth of thirteen degrees north-west. The forest formation which had commenced to change a little before this spot with the appearance of the Uawasu Palms becomes very abundant here with this Atalea as well as the heavy Abrecelensis, rubber tree. Since leaving the Pedro de Cal Fall however, we no longer saw the Bertholetia Excelsa. It perhaps exists in the interior of these lands. To the new river, thus discovered in latitude south ten degrees fifty-nine minutes, zero point three seconds, and in longitude west of Rio, seventeen degrees five minutes fifty-four seconds, I gave the name Capitao Cardoso, a modest homage of the gratitude and of the saudade which I owe to an old and constant companion in my work in the wilderness. From the time of the construction of the telegraph line from Mato Grosso to Cuyabá, up to the day in the month of January nineteen fourteen, on which he died at the Barão de Málgasso station, where he had come to organize and proceed with the work which Lieutenant Nicolau Bueno Horta Barbosa and Paolo Vasconcellos had been, months previously, forced to suspend so as to save their lives threatened by malaria. Unfortunately my old and dedicated companion of strife had no time to protect himself against a violent attack of these deadly fevers, and at the end of two days' sickness, for the first time his body rested from the work of serving the public cause, and his great heart stopped loving the country which gave him birth and the friends he had conquered by the beauty of his manly and kind character. The possibility which expeditions of discovering unknown lands give us to perpetuate in the new geographical features the memory of the devoted servants of the nation, real heroes not of some brilliant feat executed in a moment of excitement in the presence of thousands of spectators, but rather of an uninterrupted series of sacrifices and unheard of hardships, is no consolation for those who meet and realize same. It is simply a mitigation of the pain which remains of knowing that one of its sons is lost to the nation, who knew how to honor it and serve it, and for our friendship the object of an affection which sees itself frustrated in the hope of adding to the qualities already received, other fresh qualities, and has to resign itself to the fate of only nourishing the recollection of the past and the emotions of the saudade. How often would we wish that destiny should spare us the painful duty of seeking a spot in the grand soil of our country to receive and preserve the memory of our companions of strife, so as to transmit it to the future generations in which we deposit serene faith that they will know how to retribute, with much love, the devotion of those who had previously loved and served it so well? In front of the river Capitao Cardoso on that afternoon of the 6th of April 1914, far from our minds was it to imagine that little more or less than a year having passed, one of its affluence, whose existence was not even then suspected, would give us the occasion to renew these melancholic recollections. We had left in the highlands the headwaters of the Ananas, to which we have already referred, saying that Mr. Roosevelt, participating in the doubt relative to the course of the river, which finally received his name, had chosen to explore it in case the hypothesis that this was a simple tributary of the Gaiparana were verified. The reconnaissance which we were making dismissed all the opinions contrary to that of the former river Duvida, being the upper part of the biggest of all the feeders of the right bank of the Madeira. And the result of this fact was that the Ananas continues wrapped up in its mystery, giving rise to new suppositions with regard to the Potamagraphic system to which its waters should belong. It appeared to us very probable that they flowed to the eastern branch of the Arapwana, but we could not definitely reject the supposition that they flowed towards the Tapahos or directly enter into the Amazon by the mouth already known under the name of Kanuma. In order to solve these difficulties once in Feral, a new expedition was organized in the present year, which whilst descending the Ananas concluded that it was one of the two formers of another river, whose identity the members of the expedition were only able to discover when they reached the mouth, because there they met the mark of 1914 with the indication which we had left, namely Rio Capatão Cardoso. Unfortunately, however, the intrepid chief of this expedition, Lieutenant Marquese de Sousa and one of his canoemen a few days previously had lost their lives from an attack which they had suffered from the Indians who inhabit that wild country. End of section 10. Section 11. 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. Second lecture, part five. Let us return, however, to our 26th camp installed at a pontal of the confluence of the river Capatão Cardoso and the Roosevelt. Two unforeseen events obliged us to pass the 7th of April there. One was the appearance of the assassin of Sargent Pacseo and the other the discovery of a new fall which appeared in such low land, the aneroid registered a corresponding pressure of 754.9 millibars and caused admiration in finding it there. The canoe in which Lieutenant Lyra and I were traveling was ahead of the party running at a good speed. We were still two leagues distant from the spot in which we afterwards discovered the mouth of the Capatão Cardoso. When suddenly we heard the voice of someone who from land exclaimed, Tenente, Lieutenant. Very much surprised, we could not at once realize who was calling. Neither were we thinking of the criminal because we all accepted the hypothesis that he had taken the resolution to return upriver walking by the bank until he discovered the tracks of the Navetes by which he could easily arrive at the telegraph station of José Bonifacio. Nevertheless, it was he who was there having climbed onto the branches of a tree hanging over the river imploring for mercy and asking us to receive him on board. We did not attend to him immediately. We had first to communicate to Mr. Roosevelt that it was our duty to take that man into our canoe in order to deliver him over to the law courts of the country and this is what we told him once we found ourselves altogether at the spot where we had fixed our new camp. Mr. Roosevelt said that he and his companions in the canoe were as much amazed as we were with regard to taking the criminal into our canoe. He replied that there was nothing else for him to do than to conform to same seeing that I wish to comply with what I said was the duty of a Brazilian officer and of a man. But that were not for this fact no other consideration would make him decide if it depended on him to reincorporate into the expedition an individual who had excluded himself from same by his wicked instinct. Besides the clamorous injustice which would be imposed on the other members of the expedition by increasing their work and the risks of suffering hunger for the purpose of saving the existence of a man who had revealed himself so unworthy of living in our society. We waited for the rest of the afternoon and the night of the sixth so that the unfortunate wretch should reach us in the camp as this did not take place on the following day I sent the canoe man Luis Correa and Antonio Parisi overland upstream to look for him. On this mission the two men spent the whole day and came back at night with the news that they had not found him. Although the shouts of the men calling him the firing of arms and the smoke from the camp were sufficient signs to assist anyone who might have been lost in the woods to direct themselves within a circle with a radius of many kilometers. To take the greatest advantage possible of this stoppage which had been imposed upon us Lieutenant Lyra and I occupied ourselves with the measurement of the rivers and the necessary astronomical observations for the calculation of the geographical coordinates of our position whilst Antonio Correa and another canoe man went to explore the waterfall with the intention of discovering the channels by which they could descend the canoes on the next day. The ladder was done first on the right bank with a negative result because the river after dividing itself into several channels through the rock ended by taking a huge leap bigger than any of those which we had met up to the present. The two canoe men therefore crossed over to the left bank where they were more fortunate. A channel permitted the passage of the canoes unloaded but the rapids prolonged themselves to a great extension spotted with small islands here and there which forced the river to widen its bed and at the same time to take a westerly southwest course deviating it from a hill existing on the north side. On the following day courageously struggling against the difficulties caused by the waterfall which received the name of Sete de Abril and others further on we did not succeed in advancing more than 6.655 meters in spite of having worked from 8 a.m. until close upon four o'clock in the afternoon. We stopped at the edge of another waterfall and to the camp established there we gave the name of Piranas in remembrance of a few of these fish caught by Lieutenant Lira. From this camp we descended on the following day the 9th of April 4.575 meters crossing two waterfalls which obliged our valiant workmen to carry the baggage over two extremely bad roads the first 700 meters and the second 400 meters in length. These men already presented the appearance of having their constitutions worn out by the excess of work which they had had during 42 days incessantly in a terrible struggle against the formidable resistance of the wild nature of the backwoods and the rivers full of obstacles capable of rendering navigation difficult in the extreme. Nevertheless no sign of moral depression was manifested in them and nothing could make us foresee the possibility of their losing determination to face and conquer new obstacles and resist the shocks of the greatest misadventures and sufferings. Of the three following days we spent one the second in the 29th camp awaiting the return of the party sent to our previous camp in search of the dog named Treguero belonging to Mr. Kermit and which we had forgotten to embark in the canoes and on the last day we installed our new camp number 30 which we called Doppiexe. During the two days in which we navigated we had made a run of 8.250 meters by itself sufficiently eloquent to give an idea of the enormous obstacles which we had to overcome. On the following morning the 13th of April after having crossed a dangerous rapid where we lost two oars of the ferry we came into a stretch which was favorable to navigation as the river had commenced to show a tendency to enclose its water in a regular bed which from the 7th of April fall came dispersed through enumerous channels some smooth and others full of boulders. Thus we managed to advance 13.400 meters when we saw that the marginal vegetation was recovering its aspect of an amazon forest severed by the low rocky ground of the Cachoeira de Esperanas. We departed from our 31st camp on the morning of the 13th of April a date which served us to designate a new tributary on the left bank of the Roosevelt at a distance of 252.475 meters from Paso de Alenja and we proceeded on our march until we had completed on that day a run of 31.350 meters at the end of which we encamped. On the 15th as Mr. Roosevelt's ailments had become more serious for his right leg showed signs of ericipilus we were only able to recommence our work at 8 a.m. We passed by a range of hills existing on the left bank to which we gave the name of Serra de Sigana sighting afterwards on the same bank a wooden mark with the initials J.A. burnt in same. On examining this place we discovered another mark similar to the above on the opposite bank. This was the first sign of civilization which was found on this river by the members of the expedition who had left from the telegraph line commission's bridge on the 27th of February and had since that date traveled 270.200 meters across entirely unknown and deserted regions. Nevertheless those marks did not express the importance of the knowledge which they revealed to exist among civilized people regarding their stay there because they're still remained to be ascertained whether the lands thus marked belonged to some proprietor who had made a regular survey of same or whether they were simply occupied by energetic rubber tappers who had pushed into the wilderness and there established themselves on their own initiative without any dependence or connection with the public authorities and practically isolated from the rest of the world. Proceeding on our voyage we discovered at 2.600 meters from these marks a large well-built ranch having at the side of it another smaller one destined for the work of smoking the latex of the rubber tree. The proprietor Joachim Antonio whose name corresponds to the initials of the marks was absent probably for a short space of time in view of the fact that there existed in the interior of the ranch many domestic utensils and a great quantity of food stuffs. We there left our names and the indication of the place once we had come and continued to descend the river. Having gone another 3.600 meters we found a small canoe manned by an old nigger who as soon as he saw the flotilla maneuvered his craft in such a way as to gain refuge on land. Seeing this I got up in my canoe and waving my cap shouted to him. It was only then that he realized that there was no reason for flight and without fear he came up to us. He explained to us that he had become frightened because it was quite impossible for him to expect the arrival of civilized people descending the river from its source. The same surprise would be felt by other dwellers that we were to meet below his house. In order to avoid them the fright of supposing that we were Indians, we were to advise them of our proximity by three shots from our guns combined with the sound produced from a bamboo busina which he gave us. On inviting us to visit his house the old man said that his name was Ramondo Jose Marquez, a native of the state of Maranhayo. I introduced him to Mr. Roosevelt who had not got out of the canoe on account of his ailments. On this occasion, having made allusion to our guest as ex-president, old Ramondo asked me in the most astonished manner, but is he really a president? I explained to him that he was not a president now but that he had been. Ah! said the old man, he who has once been a king has always the right of majesty. Mr. Roosevelt hearing this comment manifested great admiration at seeing so much wit and courtesy in a man who lived in turned in the wilderness away from the culture of the great populous centers and assured us that the Matuto of the United States under equal conditions would be quite incapable of manifesting himself with the grace and intelligence of this Sartanejo. We took leave of the old Madanhans and continued navigation downstream. We passed by another rubber tappers hut whose proprietor was absent and came up to another one belonging to a man called Honorato situated at 11.450 meters away from Ramondos. In all we had made on that day a run of 24.800 meters. Following the advice of old Ramondo, we fired off the shots of our rifle and blew our taquara businas immediately we saw that we were in the neighborhood of the new hut. Unfortunately this precaution did not have the desired effect. Honorato's wife no sooner saw the canoes than she immediately began to run terribly frightened along the bank of the river carrying a child in her arms. The road by which she fled was caught at some distance by an Igarape stream. In the anxiety of saving herself from the imaginary danger the poor woman threw herself down into it. She succeeded in getting up with her clothes drenched and continued her wild race until she arrived at the house of a neighbor where she fainted. The other family was also taken with panic. Fortunately Honorato was there and with him three more men. They all armed themselves, took a canoe and came upstream fully prepared for a fight. We were in the terrace of the abandoned house where we had lit a fire for our cooking. At a certain distance Honorato and his companions could see us and they recognized then that we were not the Indians. They came to meet us and were much surprised that we had arrived covering a completely unknown route to the dwellers of the river. We then had a friendly chat. We learned that this river was the western branch of the Arapuana. Its dwellers gave it the name of Castanja and they had established themselves there in common accord each working for his own account and profit. In case any of them required assistance they all got together to render the same. In the distribution of the lands they followed the rule of the new occupant going up river in a canoe for a space of time corresponding to two hours navigation from the last hut. At the point attained they sank marks identical to those we had met and described above and from that moment onwards the lands thus marked were considered and respected as the legitimate property of the person whose name corresponded to the initials therein carved. They all recognized that the lands belong to the government but do not consider that this may in any way upset the right of possession resulting from the fact of occupation. With regard to the indigenous dwellers of which we had not found any signs after passing the Paxayo waterfall the rubber tappers informed us that at long intervals they had news of the appearance of some now at one place and then at another. Some time ago they appeared and were welcomed with some shot from the guns from a hut a little above Honorato's property. The reprisal was not long in coming and the consequence was that the owner of that hut a caboclo named Manuel Viera fell wounded by their arrows. After this no other of such gravity had occurred but the rubber tappers did not deceive themselves with regard to the tranquility which they were enjoying for they knew that they would forcibly have to enter into a conflict with the original owners of those lands of which they could not become possessors without a struggle. The panic caused by our arrival clearly shows the degree of nervous tension in which those people live constantly tormented by the expectation of seeing the warlike Indians springing forth from the wilderness. Honorato's wife told us afterwards that she not only distinctly saw the canoes in which we came full of Indians but also whilst running heard their terrible yells and felt herself pursued by them and this hallucination made her suffer so much that at nighttime she had an attack of fever which was abased by Dr. Cajazera. From Honorato's branch downstream we met successively other rubber tappers establishments and even a store where we bought a few goods the prices we paid were 15 mill rays for five kilos of rice 12 mil 500 rays for five kilos of sugar and 17 mil 500 rays for two kilos of tobacco and a fowl cost us 10 mil rays. Navigation continued comparatively easy at least for those who had experienced the difficulties of the previous stretch so it was that in five days between the 16th and 20th of April we were able to run 185.400 meters in spite of the fact that we had crossed a few rapids the most important of which was the one known by the name of Panelas. On this course we noted a great number of Igarapes from one and the other bank of the Roosevelt and an important tributary the Rio Branco the mouth of which is to be found on the left bank at 368,275 meters from Paso de la Inja de la Grafica with regard to the nature of the soil characterized by the rocks therein contained we found at the first mark that is to say Joaquim Antonio's property porphyrite and orthos to which followed corzo biotite which reached as far as the Rio Branco and thence downwards outcrops of ortho nice. The width of the river attained 310 meters on the 21st we left Mr. Benvenuto's store and passed by the old Baraca do Bagasso a place close to the parallel 8 degrees 48 minutes through which ran the boundary line of the states of Mato Grosso and Amazonas ideally traced from Santo Antonio do Madeira to the source of the Uruguatas an affluent of the Tapagyos following on our voyage at 4 p.m. we sighted on the left bank the mouth of the Madrenja another affluent of the river Roosevelt situated at 519.875 meters from the telegraph line at this point where we saw it this tributary has a width of 80 meters and its waters in the rainy season can be navigated by canoes as far as the waterfalls further up on this river there are various rubber tappers establishments and the Indians who inhabit same the Urumis are good-natured and accept the society of the civilized people a little below the bar of the Madrenja there exists a waterfall called Infernaio formed by an outcrop of granite there the canoes must be unloaded and the baggage transported by land to facilitate this operation there is at the upper part of the waterfall a store Baraseo whose administrator had been a soldier further we found at this place a note from the engineer Ignacio Morbeck placing the latitude at 8 degrees 19 minutes 29 seconds and the longitude west of Rio 18 degrees 24 minutes 58 seconds and 2 degrees 35 minutes 19 seconds from Maneos sextant and a chronometer n 5.607 Kasella our observations however registered the latitude as 8 degrees 29 minutes 27 seconds 4 and for the longitude west of Rio 17 degrees 29 minutes 39 seconds we passed the night at the store called Infernaio 523.325 meters from Paso da Linha Telegrafica as it was not possible to pass the canoes over on this same afternoon at 11 30 on the morning of the 22nd as the work of portaging the canoes was completed we proceeded on our voyage from this point downward we had to struggle against important obstacles such as the Gloria waterfall which demands a portage road to the extent of 5 2 8 meters and also the Inferno waterfall but in spite of the fact that these obstacles were aggravated by the bad state of health of Mr. Roosevelt who was scarcely able to stand up on his sick leg we were able to cover in four successive days marching until the afternoon of the 25th a distance of 129.300 meters during this journey beyond the numerous feeders of lesser importance the river Roosevelt receives by its left bank the waters of the Igarapé Machadinho and in its bed appears the porphyritic granite which forms the Gloria waterfall a little below however orthognize is again found in the waterfalls respectively called Carapania and Galinja these denominations date as far back as the first establishment of the rubber tappers on this river judging from the information collected by me at the baracayo Carapania the ascent beyond the point of the confluence of the former Castanja with the Arapuania commenced in 1879 in this year Raimondo Gatto the nigger whom I saw and heard in the above alluded to baracayo went with some companions as far as the waterfall of Infernaio and during the whole of this journey he did not meet any other inhabitants except those belonging to the villages of the Indians and even the name of Castanja was given to this river by the Campanero Indians who are none other than the Mandurusos after this period the movement of invasion continued new establishments of rubber tappers being formed more and more upriver having come from Sierra Piahui, Madanayo and other places whilst the invaders progressed the Indians were pushed back into the interior from some places they were expelled more violently than from others thus at the place where one today sees the village called Terra Preta there was a settlement belonging to the Matanueys which was destroyed some 30 years ago by a few people from the state of Sierra the mention here of the name of the Matanueys tribe requires special explanation to elucidate the intermingling which exists between the inhabitants of the valley of the river Roosevelt and those of the Giparana and of the Igarape, Dos Marmeos for this reason we must state that between the two first rivers the Roosevelt Rondon commission noted the existence of a range of mountains until then unknown the direction of which is southeast to northwest it was this range of mountains which cut by the course of the explored river gave rise to the troublesome waterfalls called Pacseo a name which we adopted to designate same amongst these ridges the most important is known by the name of Cera de Providencia in the slopes of which rise on the northern side the river Marmeos a direct tributary of the Madiera and on the east the Madierenja an affluent already mentioned of the Roosevelt in the western part of the basin of the river Marmeos the Patentintins Indians live their villages extending toward the Giparana and are not far from the Madiera a little further up we meet the Yorupas the Ararunas the Muras the Turas and the Matanueys Indians still from the same ridges of the river Tarumah the waters of a feeder of the Ghee descend at the headwaters of which the Urumi Indians built their villages this geographical distribution and the contiguity of the territories determine the above mentioned intermingling of the tribes inhabiting the valleys in question so the Matanueys extend from the Roosevelt very far up the river and the Urumis possess villages at the headwaters of the Madierenja the Indians which with their arrows on the 16th of March killed the dog Lobo probably belonged to the first of these two tribes besides those which we have mentioned above the existence of a group in the river Brunkel is further to be noted of which I did not succeed in obtaining any other notice beyond the fact that their arrows were badly made and therefore did not appear to be like those of the Urumi Indians who make them well finished and very artistically besides this they are brave warriors and hostileized the rubber tappers who endeavor to invade their domains finally in order to terminate the enumeration of the Indians of the river Roosevelt we must remember that from Salto Navite upwards until its highest headwaters the Nambiquaras live end of section 11 section 12 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 Mariano da Silva Rondon translation by Richard George Reedy and Edwin Douglas Murray second lecture part six on the morning of the 26th of April we left our camp of Samona latitude south seven degrees 40 minutes 55 seconds point six and longitude west of Rio 17 degrees 24 minutes 22 seconds continuing to descend the river formally known under the name of Castanja we crossed the waterfall called Galinha with the canoes unloaded and after that the Araras which was completely submerged on this occasion as is always the case during the rainy season shortly afterwards we passed by the mouth of the Igarape do Uro so called as it is believed to be a place where there is a layer of gold sands years ago secretly explored by an African nigger who used to appear with this mineral and sell it to a portuguese merchant on the Arapuana proceeding on our voyage at one o'clock in the afternoon we arrived at the point of the confluence of the river which we were navigating with the Arapuana which descended southeast there we found in camp awaiting us since the 21st of March Lieutenant Parinias with his auxiliary party composed of six persons to this place the party had arrived embarked in canoes as it was impossible for them to cross with the scout Cidade de Manaos over the Matamata waterfall 7.900 meters away from there it was now 59 days since we had left the bridge of the telegraph line with our flotilla of seven canoes cutting through the waters of the river whose name resumed all the indecisions resulting from the mystery of its course and from the unknown region traversed by same during this period we covered 686.360 meters the first 276.000 of which were so full of hardships that to overcome them we had to struggle during 48 days continuously without allowing ourselves to be either depressed by any sort of fatigue or through the sad circumstances which embittered our hearts and for some moments astonished our souls in the contemplation of the unfathomable fate of the things of this life we arrived at the end of this hard crossing almost all of us ill and exhausted the eminent chief of the american commission after his attack of malaria which he had caught at the Paxel waterfall never was himself again his son kermit was also very much shaken in health by the lengthy attack of fever which tormented him for many days and after the irksome work of portaging the canoes at that same waterfall lieutenant bleera and mr cherry had had long gastric complaints and the men of the crew attacked with fever and tired to death were themselves in a very weak state of health and would have been literally defeated if it were not for the endurance of these admirable capoclos and certain ahos but the pleasure of seeing the fortunate results which our efforts and work had affected always with the hope of attaining this prize this alone made us forget all the attribulations of the past and after calming the excitement of our meeting there was only one point on which we concentrated our attention we wished to examine at a glance the importance of the results which we had just obtained from our camp we could see the confluence of the former castanja bringing its waters from a south easterly direction with an average velocity of 776 meters per minute flowing between two banks separated one from the other by 470 meters by contemplating these data with the result of our soundings which gave a depth on an average of 639 cubic meters it can be concluded that in every second its mouth allows to pass through the area of 3.000 square meters a flow equivalent to a volume of 2331 cubic meters this was the river whose course the rubber tappers imagined prolonged itself below the point of the confluence with the castanja until it flowed into the madiera under the name of adepuana according to this mode of thinking it would therefore be the principal river and the other the castanja would simply be its tributary very important in reality but not so important as to make it lose its individuality and with it its name also i will rapidly examine whether this opinion corresponds to the real facts observed and noted by the roosevelt randon expedition or if on the contrary it would be more legitimate to attribute the precedents in question to the recently explored river but before doing so i will give some other information endeavoring to show how far our present knowledge reaches in regard to the former castanja and for the facility of this lecture it must be understood that hence forth i shall call this confluent and it alone by the name of adepuana from this name i systematically exclude the part of the course of the two rivers united from their point or union to its mouth in the madiera all the rubber teppers whom since the 15th of april we had met along the banks of the river roosevelt agreed in informing me that no other explorer had gone up the adepuana beyond a certain waterfall known by the name of infarnayo the same as we saw in the former castanja the first man who there attempted to establish himself did not succeed in resisting the indians whose hostilities he had awakened by persecuting them without pity and without any trace of reason or justice after they had expelled this man the indians of the adepuana continued to wage war against all civilized men who attempted to venture through their lands and they still do so with such ardor that the river may practically be considered closed to the rubber teppers who therefore seldom frequent it there is however below the said waterfall an affluent the guariba fairly populated by our people in spite of the fact that therein exist many indians according to the information of mr carpe who is the largest proprietor on the roosevelt the indians on this affluent belong to a different tribe than that which hostilizes the rubber teppers on the principal river those are called the araras and the others would probably belong to another tribe of the great nation of the muras a part of which are on friendly terms with the civilized people on the other rivers besides this fact we may register another with regard to gold deposits in the adepuana the first of which is to be found in the agarapé taboka and must have been known and explored by the same african nigger to whom we have already referred and the second more recent as it dated from 1913 should be in another agarapé tributary to the guariba the discovery of this last deposit is attributed to a rubber tepper of peruvian origin and it is affirmed that gold of 22 carat was found there from all that we have said above it is clear the result is that the adepuana is little short of being an unknown river the general direction of its course the greatness of its basin the localization of its headwaters without alluding to other elements to be able to consider any river as conveniently identified these are matters still pertaining to the dominion of hypotheses it is true that of these many are excluded from the limits of possibility thanks to the conquest realized by science in the regions which confine with that in which the valley of the river exists but even so the number of those which remain as being plausibly formulated is more than sufficient not to permit to localize in maps in latitude south seven degrees 34 minutes 34 seconds point 07 and longitude west of rio 17 degrees 9 minutes 36 seconds anything beyond the mouth of a confluent of the Roosevelt and marking it with the name of adepuana nevertheless as it is interesting for the geographical conclusions of the Roosevelt Rondon expedition i shall make slight references to the hypotheses which had to be ultimately set aside from the midst of those capable of being admitted the most important of these arose from the ignorance in which we were in regard to the direction followed by the course of the ananas below the small stretch close to the source which we were able to determine as an accessory work to that of the track of the telegraph line between the stations of villana and jose bonifacio one could however admit that this source belonged to the adepuana and as it is situated to the north of the former dubida scarcely 15 kilometers the consequence would be that the course of the river could compete in longitudinal extension with the Roosevelt to which it was inferior only in a few minutes as however it has been verified and my heart bleeds since the day when i heard that this certainty had cost the sacrifice of the life of our much beloved and courageous friend lieutenant marquez de susan that those sources are the headwaters of one of the feeders of river capitao cardoso the conclusion is that there is no more reason to admit the supposition that the adepuana reaches almost as far up to the highlands of the parisies as the roosevelt thus reduced in extension in regard to latitude the said river had forcibly to gain in longitude extending its course eastward of what we know of the hydrographical system formed by the tributaries of the giroania and upper roosevelt and further north of what we could infer from the information relative to the canuma the result is the only acceptable hypothesis with regard to the headwaters of the adepuana having as its watersheds those of the acari and secondori feeders of the above mentioned canuma from which they are separated by the ridges thrown out by the serrador north to the interior which rests itself on the southeast side on the curve of the ike and on the southwest side on the concave branch of the river marquez de susan if we should now wish to compare the two branches which form the stretch which flows into the madiera by the mouth known until 1914 under the name of adepuana with the intention to decide as to which of these shall be considered as an extension of that main river and therefore as the upper part of the principal collector of the respective fluvial system we require before all else to allude to the principles which serve us as a basis for the solution of questions of this nature fortunately we can be brief in the reference to the aspects under which this important geographical problem has been considered by experts in the matter in view of the facility which we have of carrying ourselves back to the work of captain antonio alves ferreira da silva written with reference to the fixing of the frontier with peru and published under the title of rios esus afluentes contribuicio para los estudios de nascente principal in this work captain ferreira da silva basing himself on the opinions of various noted authors such as gaikki hamilton peschel and carlo poro concludes that the conditions which should prevail in the selection of the principal branch of a river are in the first place the conservation of the general direction of the trunk the confluent which takes up its course or that which least diverges from same must be considered as the principal branch in the second place the greater extension or in case the two branches are similar in extension than the greater volume and lastly if there should be a sensible equality in the deflection of the two confluence as well as in their respective extensions and volumes the anthropo geographical data shall prevail that is to say the principal headwaters of a river shall be accepted as being that one which is indicated as such by the primitive inhabitants of the region the argument adduced from the difference of altitude of the source only merits attention when the rivers considered exist in a mountainous country where that difference can attain a really appreciable value this last argument must not bear weight in the judgment which is to be rendered on the relative importance of the two branches of the former lower aripuana all the others however concur to affirm the preeminence of the most western of them this if we commence by the last that of the anthropo geographical order proposed by gaikki and peschel we must acknowledge that the nambiquaras that is to say the inhabitants of the region of the headwaters of the river named by us duvida in 1909 and called castanja by the rubber tappers of the lower part of its course gave it the name of cow and yaro right away from the source to the mouth of the madiera therefore to the minds of the nambiquaras the western branch which we call the aripuana is nothing more or less than the affluent of the cow and yaro into which on entering it loses its name and individuality the same as occurs to all tributaries after they are absorbed by their respective recipients with regard to the extension it is today definitely accepted that that of the alluded western branch exceeds that of the other not only by the 15 kilometers in latitude south which were admitted before the reconnaissance of lieutenant marques de susan but of much more than this perhaps to the extent of one or more degrees of the terrestrial meridian with regard to the volume of water we saw citing the conclusions of captain ferreira da silva this does not decide against the conclusions arrived at from the extension and much less against those deduced from the coincidence of the general direction of the main branch with that of the trunk however in order not to leave without mention this element of value in the characterizing of the river studied by the roosevelt rondon expedition i will say that the surveys made in the confluence by lieutenants lyra and perinius registered a width of 302 meters an average velocity per second of 885 meters per minute and a depth of 828 cubic meters therefore the discharge of the former castanja in each second of time was on that day 2212 cubic meters comparing this volume to that above mentioned of the adipuana we find for the first an inferiority of a little more than 100 cubic meters it is therefore evident that such inferiority beyond being small is nothing more or less than a simple expression of occasional circumstances naturally the adipuana was swollen with the waters of the more copious and lengthy rains than those which had fallen on those days in the valley of the former castanja finally let us consider the first of the conditions enumerated by captain ferreira da silva according to the exact text of the author the title of main branch belongs to the confluent which preserves the general direction of the river or that which approximates itself most to it presenting the least deflection in relation to its trunk now if we take a map in which is figured the route followed by the roosevelt rondon expedition from the moment in which it embarked in the canoes on the river duvidan up to the moment when it came out in the madera the first thing which must strike our attention will certainly be the regularity with which the line representing this journey extends itself from south to north at first a little to the right and then a little to the left of the meridian which passing by the mouth of the former adipuana characterizes the general direction of the main river and in fact it is sufficiently noteworthy that in a fluvial journey of eight nine nine point one seven four meters the expedition should have found itself incessantly enclosed in a stretch of land limited by two meridians those of seventeen and eighteen degrees west of Rio de Janeiro without however touching either of them if to this journey we join the existing track from the telegraph line bridge to the south as far as the highest sources in the parallel approximately 12 degrees 39 minutes we will find another one one zero point zero zero zero meters of which only the last four four point zero zero zero penetrate in the geographical meridian previous to that already mentioned it is therefore certain that the courses formerly called duvida castanja and lower adipuana form one and the same river with an extension of one zero zero nine point one seven four meters flowing uniformly from south to north close upon seven degrees without presenting at any point a deflection which might be considered as the rupture of the continuity of the general direction with less extension than this great central artery and arriving at same coming from the east as we explained above the branch for the designation of which we reserve the use of the name of adipuana presents itself with all the characteristics of the affluence and so as when it penetrates into this artery it loses the general direction of northwest which it had up to the mouth thus also from there onwards the denomination which is proper to it disappears absorbed by that of its recipient on the 27th of April in lieutenant perinus camp close to the bar of the adipuana i as chief of the brazilian commission inaugurated the new commemorative plate of the change of the former names of duvida and castanja to that of river roosevelt just as i had done in all the places of note during our journey starting from the mouth of the kermit mr roosevelt wished to assist at this inauguration and in spite of the fact of the great pain provoked by the effort demanded of his sick leg he came and placed himself by the side of the inaugural mark thus once more joining in the thoughts of international fraternity and in the sentiments of friendship and the personal consideration which we who had the satisfaction and the honor of being his companions of the work during the difficult journey wished by that act to set forth end of section 12 section 13 of the roosevelt rondon scientific expedition and the telegraph line commission this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org the roosevelt rondon scientific expedition and the telegraph line commission by candido rondon translated by rg reedy and edwin murray second lecture part seven but taking into consideration the rapid justification above referred to of the motives which carry us to recognize in the rivers corresponding to their former names the quality of being an extension of the principal collector of the hydrographic basin of the biggest contributor on the right bank of the madera it is clear that the new designation covers the whole of the river's course up to the place where it loses itself in the waters of its majestic recipient and so it must be not only because we lent a just and well earned homage to the eminent statesmen who did not disdain to bring the cooperation of his intelligence courage and his initiative to the efforts with which we continue the great work of the past of discovering and conquering wild regions of the territory of our country as also to avoid the geographical disorder which would result from the fact of giving different names to the consecutive stretches of one in the same river with regard to the second reason it is evident that there are not and cannot be any doubts or allegations capable of affecting it because either the entire course had to be called Duvida a name of an occasional significance which arose from an incident too local or it would be Castana as was remembered by the Moondiruku Indians on account of the abundance of Brazil nuts a common fact in this and many other rivers of the Amazon district or yet one would have to extend the denomination of the trunk by the western branch taking it from the other to which it was already applied or finally we would have to adopt the alternative which we put into execution of rejecting two names relatively recent and not yet much used substituting them by another one highly expressive easy to be made of common and current use by the person and the feat recorded without forgetting however what came to us from the past but only restraining the application of it to a part of its former dominions thus we remained with the river Roosevelt without however losing the traditional aripuana with regard however to the justification of the new name with the fact which we alleged that the Roosevelt Rondon expedition was the first to discover the course of the river which we had called Duvida reconnoitering and surveying at the same time the courses of the formerly called Castana and lower aripuana which only after the work of this expedition were able to be placed on the maps certain contentions arose of all these I shall restrict myself to making a few observations in regard to that which was communicated to the geographical society of Lisbon at their sitting of the eighth of March of the current by Mr. Ernesto de Vasconceios perpetual secretary of that society and in so doing I wish to prove the consideration which we should dispense to that society where the chronicles of the former capitanias of brazil are carefully capped Mr. Vasconceios communication entitled with regard to the river of doubt a proposito de Rio da Duvida is published in a pamphlet printed in Lisbon under the title Investigaciones Geográficas Geographical Investigations on page 22 of this pamphlet the author resuming according to the geographical journal the lecture effected by Mr. Roosevelt in London on the 16th of June 1914 said the following before commencing to descend this river we passed the headwaters of the river Abacaxus pineapple making preparations to descend same after having gone down the Duvida because he thought that in three or four days it would flow into the guy Parana and quote as this did not take place as we saw he said quote and the Abacaxus was not descended and no one knows its course it is not mapped and will not be until someone descends or ascends it it is possible that it flows into the tapahos or into the Kanuma it is more probable that it enters the Castana in latitude 10 degrees 58 minutes as the river Cardoso or which is more natural that it constitutes the headwaters of the Ari Juana proper and quote this is the summary made by Mr. Vasconcellos of what he says he read in the English paper as being Mr. Roosevelt's conference as it will be seen in this resume the name of the river Abacaxus appears to which the translator called attention in parenthesis to the word pineapple it is clear however that there is some inexplicable confusion on the part of Mr. Vasconcellos because as the paper published simultaneously the conference alluded to and the map of the region to which it referred it is not easy to imagine how the Portuguese geographer on reading the reference to the headwaters crossed at the south of the parallel of 12 degrees could understand that he was treating of an existing river all to the north of parallel seven degrees in his care to place at the side of the word Abacaxus the word pineapple so as to indicate that one was the translation of the other the communicator probably had the intention to save himself the responsibility of not having translated the English word for on a nose however he forgot the most important thing and this is that Mr. Roosevelt in describing the march of the expedition said according to the resume of Mr. Vasconcellos himself quote before commencing to descend this river that is to say the duvida he passed the headwaters of the Abacaxus pineapple and quote it is evident therefore that the explorer found himself at parallel 12 degrees south when he passed by the headwaters named pineapple how could one imagine therefore that those headwaters could correspond to a river whose course exists entirely to the north of parallel seven degrees nevertheless it is under this confusion that Mr. Vasconcellos places himself to affirm that the river pointed out by Mr. Roosevelt is to be found quote in the map of Silva Pontes 1798 known by the Portuguese who surveyed same under the name of Carta de Nova Lusitania and quote and Mr. Vasconcellos categorically advances the following quote the Abacaxus pineapple directing itself towards the north and throwing its waters into the furo of the Tupinambaranas to which Silva Pontes gives also the name of Abacaxus and which is nothing more or less than a narrow natural channel which joins the lower course of the Madeira to the Amazon starting from a point above the Madeiro with the Solimoes and quote yes the Abacaxus could have a course just as is mentioned above but the pineapple referred to by Mr. Roosevelt rises south of the parallel 12 degrees in the highlands of the Paracis and flows in a northerly direction until it joins the Capitao Cardoso an affluent of the right bank of the Roosevelt in the southern latitude approximating 10 degrees 59 minutes exactly as the ex-president of North America said this river was unknown it did not appear on any map and if we now know its course and can trace it on the geographical charts it is because there was somebody who after the Roosevelt Rondon expedition descended same we know too well the sacrifice which this cost us because the badly translated pineapple is the river Lieutenant Marques de Sousa the present name of the former Ananas no less fortunate was Mr. Vasconcellos in contesting Mr. Roosevelt's affirmation that the rivers Duvida and Castana were not represented on the geographical charts i.e. the higher portion and the mean portion of the course of the former Ari Poina in order to support his contention the perpetual secretary of the geographical society of Lisbon has recourse quote to an original photograph and quote of the already mentioned Carta de Nova Lucitania and referring to it he asserts that there one can see the Ari Poina running from south to north and bending in the middle of its course to northwest and running towards the right bank of the Madeira between its tributaries Mara Ra he should have said Mata Ra and Kanuma now if we look at the chart in question we will see without very much trouble that it parallels south five degrees and to the left of the meridian of 320 degrees as that of the island of Faro a river island limited to northwest by the small portion of the Madeira to east by the Kanuma and to southwest by the Mata Ra and to south by a channel or furrow joining these two latter rivers in the interior of this island whose latitudinal extension is not greater than three degrees of which little more than two degrees are below parallel five degrees one can see two lines carrying one of them the inscription Rio Ari Poina and the other are Ari Poina the line carrying the epigraph Rio Ari Poina does not run from south to north neither does it present any inflection which may cause it to abandon that direction and take up a northwest early one because it is a continuous curve the concavity of which is turned to southwest having in its interior the are Ari Poina the line in question and with the epigraph Rio Ari Poina terminates in two short fine lines diverging very little from one another the general appearance of the figure reminds one of some two tailed worms of a very long body in relation to the two appendages this is the river Ari Poina of the Cartagia Grafica da Nova Lusitania or America Portuguesa and estados do brazil drawn up in 1798 by a commission of portuguese engineers in which took part Antonio Pires da Silva Pontes Leime captain of the navy and astronomer and geographer of his majesty the king of portugal this river does not exist in the same way the island in the interior of which it is made to appear does not exist however the most astonishing fact is the force of imagination which it must have cost the perpetual secretary of the geographical society of Lisbon to convince first himself and afterwards his co associates that this Ari Poina was nothing more or less than the river mentioned by Mr. Roosevelt a river which we see rising in latitude approximate to 12 degrees 30 minutes south running frankly and constantly in a northerly direction with small deflections to both sides of the meridian 17 degrees 17 minutes 46 seconds west of Rio de Janeiro and finally enters into the Madeira with a length of more than 1000 kilometers of which the greater part or let us say 796 350 meters corresponds to the upper portion designated respectively by the names of duvida and castana but besides all this the courage of the perpetual secretary was not up to the colossal task the difficulties of which he had proposed to overcome it is true that to support the argument that the course of the river roosevelt was first mapped in 1798 by silva ponte's it would be necessary to have constructed a gigantic aqueduct above or below the canal which joins the kanuma to the matau ra so that at parallel seven degrees it might afford a passage for the waters from the firm land of the island figured on the carta de nova lucetania Mr. Vascon seos gave way before the tremendous effort which would be necessary to carry out such a task he resolved therefore to concentrate the whole of his courage and ingenuity in obtaining another objective much more simple that is to shorten the course of the rivers in order to obtain this result it was only necessary to write the following words quote the great length which Mr. Roosevelt attributes to them is not likely to be true end quote and the fact is that Mr. Vascon seos could have been more categoric in this any one of us would have preferred to say in the carta de nova lucetania the course of the river transversed and described by Mr. Roosevelt does not exist and cannot exist in the same way this river does not exist in the carta politica e economica do brazil published by the missau brasilera de aspançao economica in paris twenty eight boulevard d italian and cannot exist unless one makes the bed of the new river cut the beds of the other rivers appearing on this chart and cutting the region in various directions to southeast and to northwest saying this however would at the same time be the truth and to confirm in all the points mr. roosevelt's communication to the geographical society of london therefore mr. vascon seos in order not to depart in the slightest degree from his plan to demonstrate quote that the portuguese undeniably in south america as in africa and in asia maintain the priority of the important terrestrial and maritime discoveries to which others assumed their rights and quote he thought it better to suppress the course of the former aripuana without attending to the loss which would result from the fact to us brazilians of our remaining deprived of a fluvial system of more than seven hundred kilometers or else to oblige us to consider it unlikely it is very painful really that the world must resign to the fatality of only accepting as likely the regions the mountains the valleys and the rivers directly discovered and surveyed by the portuguese but there is no other choice for the perpetual secretary of the geographical society of lisbon insists on this in his determination to oppose in a fantastic struggle the no less fantastic adversaries of the glories of ricardo franco silva ponte's la serda e almeida pedro tejera and many other daring explorers of the wilderness of our country in the colonial days if the gallant champion of these strife's for the re-vindication of memories hitherto unattacked or unforgotten but on the contrary respectfully cultivated and venerated wished to attend a little to the real object of things and of the men of his days he would certainly spare himself the uncomfortable position in which he has placed himself in making such blind assertions as that contained in the following extract of his communication quote of course the courses of the two rivers mr. vascon seos refers to the aripuana and the abacaxus of the cartadenova lucetania are not marked on the map with the rigor which can be obtained with the modern methods and instruments or with the details which a special map demands and the scale permits a few tributaries may even have been omitted end quote without insisting on the concession of lack of rigor resulting from the differences in the methods and instruments a concession which in this fencing to which mr. vascon seos has devoted himself corresponds to a faint let us examine carefully the text of the last phrase quote a few tributaries may even have been omitted end quote by which he certainly means that in the cartadenova lucetania are figured perhaps all the affluence of the river aripuana and abacaxus and if they are not all there there are very few missing nevertheless in the chart under examination the aripuana and the abacaxi do not possess one single affluent there are only marked the hypothetical trunks of these rivers ending in the two small branches to which i have referred above therefore at the last thrust contained in the words a few tributaries may even have been omitted mr. vascon seos receives the reply given by the cartadenova lucetania itself quote all the tributaries have been omitted end quote and we register this reply without giving any further importance to it because even if the aripuana were on that map full of affluence it would not for this reason alone be the river mapped by the roosevelt rondone expedition and constituted by the unified courses of the duvida discovered in 1909 by the telegraph lines commission in the zone of the plateau of the paresis where no portuguese explorer ever penetrated of the castana known and frequented by the rubber tappers and indians but not described by the geographers and of the lower aripuana i am afraid i have dwelt too long on this matter more than convenient in the appreciation of the motives alleged by the geographical society of lisbon to deprive the 1914 scientific expedition of the priority of the reconnaissance and description of the river roosevelt let us therefore return to lieutenant perinius's camp in order to continue to follow the march of our illustrious guest up to the moment when he left brazilian territory having terminated the ceremony of the inauguration of the indicative plate of the new denomination of the river mr roosevelt together with the other members of the american commission and mr kaha sara took to their canoes and directed themselves to a place where the scout sedade de manos was at anchor lieutenant's lira perinius and myself remained in the camp to effect the measurement of the rivers and at night time to make our astronomical observations necessary to calculate the latitude and time on the following morning the 28th of april we proceeded on our voyage downstream making the topographical survey up to the matata waterfall from there to the madera this work had already been effected and terminated by lieutenant perinius continuing to descend we arrived before midday at the place where the sedade de manos was and there we met mr roosevelt who seemed to be in a better state of health three hours later our ship commenced to go ahead and navigating without stopping we reached next morning the mouth of the roosevelt from which we immediately entered the madera descending this great fluvial artery we saw on the morning of the 29th the city of borba in the afternoon we arrived at the amazon telegraph company's station of amarati finally on the following morning we arrived at the port of manos where we went alongside the key on the key were the representatives of the state government who were sent to receive mr roosevelt and offer him their hospitality on shore which he accepted in spite of his sufferings from standing our illustrious guest received the visits of the governor of the state the municipal council and other important people on the first of may after having undergone a surgical operation performed by mr kajazera in the presence of the director of public health department of manos and having presented through my intermediary his farewell to the governor and to the general in command of the military region mr roosevelt left on a merchant ship for the city of para i however and the other members of the brazilian commission still remained in manos where we received news of captain amil car de magahay's party of which miller the naturalist of the american commission and dr ucebio paulo de olivera and dr enrique reinzik respectively the geologist the taxidermist of the brazilian commission formed part after having seen the departure of the other party that descended the former river duvida this party left for the telegraph station of borough del magasso on the river commemor saw de floriano embarked in canoes it descended this river and the guy perana at the mouth of which it transferred itself on board the ships employed in the regular navigation of the madera and thence left for manos where it arrived on the sixth of april besides the work of the naturalists other work was done by the chief of this party for the topographical survey of the first of the rivers navigated and of the portion of the second one lying between the ira gape boa vista and the riachuelo the principal occurrence recorded during this journey was the accident suffered by captain amil car whose canoe was sunk fortunately there was no occasion to regret any loss of life but only of the field books containing the notes of the survey already effected and some material after the completion of all the work which had detained us in the capital of the state of amazonas we returned on board the scout sedade de montaus at five thirty in the afternoon still on that same day the first of may and followed in the way of the dunstan on which mr. roosevelt was embarked in the hope of finding it at anchor in the port of itacoa tiara where we knew it must call but on the morning of the second on arriving at that port we saw that the dunstan had got ahead of us we therefore proceeded down the amazon and only in the evening already at the city of obidos in the state of para did we managed to catch her up we left obidos at noon on the third of may and at dawn on the fifth we laid anchor in the port of bolem and i went immediately on board the ship where mr. roosevelt was at this place the official visits and receptions of the state and federal authorities were repeated and on this occasion mr. roosevelt was invited to attend at a banquet which the governor of para was giving him on the following day finally after this and other acts of the official welcome at bolem the members of the brazilian commission went on board the dunstan on the morning of the seventh of may to bid farewell and to tender our best wishes for a pleasant voyage to mr. roosevelt in whom each one of us recognized not only a statesman of worldwide note a superior mind endowed with rare scientific and literary culture a man of firm resolute and imperative character an honest and most noble soul but also and above all a thoroughly enthusiastic believer in the greatness and the beauty of the future of our country and of our people and a sincere and true friend of all those who had had the good fortune of sharing with him at all times the fatigue and the hardships suffered during the long and irksome march across the wilderness of the plateau of the paresis of the heroina and of the former duvita at eleven o'clock the dunstan weighed anchor and made for the ocean bound for new york we still followed her for a short space of time on board the scout sedade de manos and finally through a midst of saudades which was already enveloping our hearts we threw into space our last farewell and our cheers for the chief of the american commission and for the great republic whose glory it is to possess such a son at eleven o'clock at night on that same day the sedade de manos returned to the capital of amazonas taking me on board from that city i proceeded up the madera and then along the hamari whence i should leave for the station of borough del magaso in order to continue with my work of the construction of the telegraph line from kuyaba to the madera end of section 13