1/6 Through the BraziHan Wilderness 



This does not mean that there are not such foes. Out- 

 side of the clearings, and of the beaten tracks of travel, 

 they teem. There are ticks, poisonous ants, wasps — of 

 which some species are really serious menaces — ^biting 

 flies and gnats. I merely mean that, unlike so many other 

 tropical regions, this particular region is, from the stand- 

 point of the settler and the ordinary traveller, relatively 

 free from insect pests, and a pleasant place of residence. 

 The original explorer, and to an only less degree the hard- 

 working field naturalist or big-game hunter, have to face 

 these pests, just as they have to face countless risks, hard- 

 ships, and difficulties. This is inherent in their several 

 professions or avocations. Many regions in the United 

 States where life is now absolutely comfortable and easy- 

 going offered most formidable problems to the first ex- 

 plorers a century or two ago. We must not fall into the 

 foolish error of thinking that the first explorers need not 

 suffer terrible hardships, merely because the ordinary 

 travellers, and even the settlers who come after them, do 

 not have to endure such danger, privation, and wearing 

 fatigue — although the first among the genuine settlers 

 also have to undergo exceedingly trying experiences. The 

 early explorers and adventurers make fairly well-beaten 

 trails at heavy cost to themselves. Ordinary travellers, 

 with little discomfort and no danger, can then traverse 

 these trails ; but it is incumbent on them neither to boast 

 of their own experiences nor to misjudge the efforts of 

 the pioneers because, thanks to these very efforts, their 

 own lines fall in pleasant places. The ordinary traveller, 

 who never goes off the beaten route and who on this 

 beaten route is carried by others, without himself doing 



