216 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



the source and the mouth; to descend it did not repre- 

 sent a plunge into the unknown, as in the case of the Du- 

 vida or the Ananas; but the actual water work, over the 

 part that was unexplored, offered the same possibilities of 

 mischance and disaster. It is a hazardous thing to descend 

 a swift, unknown river rushing through an uninhabited 

 wilderness. To descend or ascend the ordinary great high- 

 way rivers of South America, such as the Amazon, Paraguay, 

 Tapajos, and, in its lower course, the Orinoco, is now so safe 

 and easy, whether by steamboat or big, native cargo-boat, 

 that people are apt to forget the very serious difficulties 

 offered by the streams, often themselves great rivers, which 

 run into or form the upper courses of these same water 

 highways. Few things are easier than the former feat, 

 and few more difficult than the latter; and experience in 

 ordinary travelling on the lower courses of the rivers is of 

 no benefit whatever in enabling a man to form a judgment 

 as to what can be done, and how to do it, on the upper 

 courses. Failure to remember this fact is one of the ob- 

 stacles in the way of securing a proper appreciation of the 

 needs, and the results, of South American exploration. 



At the Juruena we met a party of Nhambiquaras, very 

 friendly and sociable, and very glad to see Colonel Rondon. 

 They were originally exceedingly hostile and suspicious, 

 but the colonel's unwearied thoughtfulness and good tem- 

 per, joined with his indomitable resolution, enabled him 

 to avoid war and to secure their friendship and even their 

 aid. He never killed one. Many of them are known to 

 him personally. He is on remarkably good terms with 

 them, and they are very fond of him — although this does 

 not prevent them from now and then yielding to tempta- 



