4 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



efficient and fearless man; and willy-nilly he had been 

 forced at times to vary his career by taking part in m- 

 surrections. Twice he had been behind the bars in con- 

 sequence, on one occasion spending three months in a 

 prison of a certain South American state, expecting each 

 day to be taken out and shot. In another state he had, 

 as an interlude to his ornithological pursuits, followed 

 the career of a gun-runner, acting as such off and on 

 for two and a half years. The particular revolutionary 

 chief whose fortunes he was following finally came into 

 power, and Cherrie immortalized his name by naming a 

 new species of ant-thrush after him — a delightful touch, 

 in its practical combination of those not normally kin- 

 dred pursuits, ornithology and gun-running. 



In Anthony Fiala, a former arctic explorer, we found 

 an excellent man for assembling equipment and taking 

 charge of its handling and shipment. In addition to his 

 four years in the arctic regions, Fiala had served in the 

 New York Squadron in Porto Rico during the Spanish 

 War, and through his service in the squadron had been 

 brought into contact with his little Tennessee wife. She 

 came down with her four children to say good-by to him 

 when the steamer left. My secretary, Mr. Frank Harper, 

 went with us. Jacob Sigg, who had served three years 

 in the United States Army, and was both a hospital nurse 

 and a cook, as well as having a natural taste for adven- 

 ture, went as the personal attendant of Father Zahm. In 

 southern Brazil my son Kermit joined me. He had been 

 bridge building, and a couple of months previously, while 

 on top of a long steel span, something went wrong with 

 the derrick, he and the steel span coming down together 



