8 Through the Brazihan Wilderness 



and the deadly diseases which modern science has dis- 

 covered to be due very largely to insect bites. The 

 fauna and flora, however, are of great interest. The 

 American museum was particularly anxious to obtain 

 collections from the divide between the headwaters of 

 the Paraguay and the Amazon, and from the southern 

 affluents of the Amazon. Our purpose was to ascend 

 the Paraguay as nearly as possible to the head of naviga- 

 tion, thence cross to the sources of one of the affluents of 

 the Amazon, and if possible descend it in canoes built on 

 the spot. The Paraguay is regularly navigated as high 

 as boats can go. The starting-point for our trip was to 

 be Asuncion, in the state of Paraguay. 



My exact plan of operations was necessarily a little 

 indefinite, but on reaching Rio de Janeiro the minister 

 of foreign affairs, Mr. Lauro Muller, who had been kind 

 enough to take great personal interest in my trip, in- 

 formed me that he had arranged that on the headwaters 

 of the Paraguay, at the town of Caceres, I would be met 

 by a Brazilian Army colonel, himself chiefly Indian by 

 blood. Colonel Rondon. Colonel Rondon has been for 

 a quarter of a century the foremost explorer of the Bra- 

 zilian hinterland. He was at the time in Manaos, but 

 his lieutenants were in Caceres and had been notified 

 that we were coming. 



More important still, Mr. Lauro Muller — ^who is not 

 only an efficient public servant but a man of wide culti- 

 vation, with a quality about him that reminded me of 

 John Hay — offered to help me make my trip of much 

 more consequence than I had originally intended. He 

 has taken a keen interest in the exploration and develop- 



