THE HIGHLAND WILDERNESS 173 



to visit out-of-the-way towns that date from colonial days, 

 to traverse old, even if uncomfortable, routes of travel, 

 or to ascend or descend highway rivers like the Amazon, 

 the Paraguay, and the lower Orinoco — all of these exploits 

 are well worth performing, but they in no sense represent 

 exploration or adventure, and they do not entitle the per- 

 former, no matter how well he writes and no matter how 

 much of real value he contributes to human knowledge, 

 to compare himself in any way with the real wilderness 

 wanderer, or to criticise the latter. Such a performance 

 entails no hardship or difficulty worth heeding. Its value 

 depends purely on observation, not on action. The man 

 does little; he merely records what he sees. He is only 

 the man of the beaten routes. The true wilderness wan- 

 derer, on the contrary, must be a man of action as well 

 as of observation. He must have the heart and the body 

 to do and to endure, no less than the eye to see and the 

 brain to note and record. 



Let me make it clear that I am not depreciating the 

 excellent work of so many of the men who have not gone 

 off the beaten trails. I merely wish to make it plain that 

 this excellent work must not be put in the class with that 

 of the wilderness explorer. It is excellent work, neverthe- 

 less, and has its place, just as the work of the true explorer 

 has its place. Both stand in sharpest contrast with the 

 actions of those alleged explorers, among whom Mr. 

 Savage Landor stands in unpleasant prominence. 



From the Sepotuba rapids our course at the outset lay 

 westward. The first day's march away from the river 

 lay through dense tropical forest. Away from the broad, 

 beaten route every step of a man's progress represented 



