2 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



South America. At the time I wished to go to Africa, and 

 so the subject was dropped; but from time to time after- 

 ward we talked it over. Five years later, in the spring of 

 191 3, I accepted invitations conveyed through the govern- 

 ments of Argentina and Brazil to address certain learned 

 bodies in these countries. Then it occurred to me that, 

 instead of making the conventional tourist trip purely by 

 sea round South America, after I had finished my lectures 

 I would come north through the middle of the continent 

 into the valley of the Amazon; and I decided to write 

 Father Zahm and tell him my intentions. Before doing so, 

 however, I desired to see the authorities of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, in New York City, to find 

 out whether they cared to have me take a couple of nat- 

 uralists with me into Brazil and make a collecting trip for 

 the museum. 



Accordingly, I wrote to Frank Chapman, the curator of 

 ornithology of the museum, and accepted his invitation to 

 lunch at the museum one day early in June. At the lunch, 

 in addition to various naturalists, to my astonishment I 

 also found Father Zahm; and as soon as I saw him I told 

 him I was now intending to make the South American 

 trip. It appeared that he had made up his mind that he 

 would take it himself, and had actually come on to see 

 Mr. Chapman to find out if the latter could recommend 

 a naturalist to go with him; and he at once said he would 

 accompany me. Chapman was pleased when he found 

 out that we intended to go up the Paraguay and across 

 into the valley of the Amazon, because much of the ground 

 over which we were to pass had not been covered by col- 

 lectors. He saw Henry Fairfield Osborn, the president of 



