50 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



same complete liberty in matters religious, spiritual, and 

 intellectual as we, for our great good fortune, do in the 

 United States, and my Brazilian companions included 

 Catholics and equally sincere men who described them- 

 selves as "libres penseurs." Colonel Rondon has spent 

 the last twenty-four years in exploring the western high- 

 lands of Brazil, pioneering the way for telegraph-lines and 

 railroads. During that time he has travelled some four- 

 teen thousand miles, on territory most of which had not 

 previously been traversed by civilized man, and has built 

 three thousand miles of telegraph. He has an exceptional 

 knowledge of the Indian tribes and has always zealously 

 endeavored to serve them and indeed to serve the cause 

 of humanity wherever and whenever he was able. Thanks 

 mainly to his efforts, four of the wild tribes of the region 

 he has explored have begun to tread the road of civiliza- 

 tion. They have taken the first steps toward becoming 

 Christians. It may seem strange that among the first- 

 fruits of the efforts of a Positivist should be the conver- 

 sion of those he seeks to benefit to Christianity. But in 

 South America Christianity is at least as much a status as 

 a theology. It represents the indispensable first step up- 

 ward from savagery. In the wilder and poorer districts 

 men are divided into the two great classes of "Christians" 

 and "Indians." When an Indian becomes a Christian he 

 is accepted into and becomes wholly absorbed or partly 

 assimilated by the crude and simple neighboring civiliza- 

 tion, and then he moves up or down like any one else 

 among his fellows. 



Among Colonel Rondon's companions were Captain 

 Amilcar de Magalhaes, Lieutenant Joao Lyra, Lieutenant 



