182 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



Parana, in which case its course must be very short; it 

 might flow into the Madeira low down, in which case its 

 course would be very long; or, which was unlikely, it 

 might flow into the Tapajos. There was another river, of 

 which Colonel Rondon had come across the headwaters, 

 whose course was equally doubtful, although in its case 

 there was rather more probability of its flowing into the 

 Juruena, by which name the Tapajos is known for its 

 upper half. To this unknown river Colonel Rondon had 

 given the name Ananas, because when he came across it 

 he found a deserted Indian field with pineapples, which 

 the hungry explorers ate greedily. Among the things the 

 colonel and I hoped to accomplish on the trip was to do 

 a little work in clearing up one or the other of these two 

 doubtful geographical points, and thereby to push a little 

 forward the knowledge of this region. Originally, as de- 

 scribed in the first chapter, my trip was undertaken pri- 

 marily in the interest of the American Museum of Natural 

 History of New York, to add to our knowledge of the 

 birds and mammals of the far interior of the western Bra- 

 zilian wilderness; and the labels of our baggage and scien- 

 tific equipment, printed by the museum, were entitled 

 "Colonel Roosevelt's South American Expedition for the 

 American Museum of Natural History." But, as I have 

 already mentioned, at Rio the Brazilian Government, 

 through the secretary of foreign affairs, Doctor Lauro 

 Miiller, suggested that I should combine the expedition 

 with one by Colonel Rondon, which they contemplated 

 making, and thereby make both expeditions of broader 

 scientific interest. I accepted the proposal with much 

 pleasure; and we found, when we joined Colonel Rondon 



