Across Nhambiquara Land 217 



not necessarily in permanently better fashion, if Colonel 

 Rondon's anticipations about the development of mining, 

 especially gold mining, are realized. In any event the re- 

 gion will be a healthy home for a considerable agricul- 

 tural and pastoral population. Above all, the many swift 

 streams with their numerous waterfalls, some of great 

 height and volume, offer the chance for the upgrowth of a 

 number of big manufacturing communities, knit by rail- 

 roads to one another and to the Atlantic coast and the 

 valleys of the Paraguay, Madeira, and Amazon, and feed- 

 ing and being fed by the dwellers in the rich, hot, alluvial 

 lowlands that surround this elevated territory. The work 

 of Colonel Rondon and his associates of the Telegraphic 

 Commission has been to open this great and virgin land to 

 the knowledge of the world and to the service of their 

 nation. In doing so they have incidentally founded the 

 Brazilian school of exploration. Before their day almost 

 all the scientific and regular exploration of Brazil was 

 done by foreigners. But, of course, there was much ex- 

 ploration and settlement by nameless Brazilians, who were 

 merely endeavoring to make new homes or advance their 

 private fortunes : in recent years by rubber-gatherers, for 

 instance, and a century ago by those bold and restless ad- 

 venturers, partly of Portuguese and partly of Indian 

 blood, the Paolistas, from one of whom Colonel Rondon 

 is himself descended on his father's side. 



The camp by this river was in some old and grown-up 

 fields, once the seat of a rather extensive maize and man- 

 dice cultivation by the Nhambiquaras. On this day 

 Cherrie got a number of birds new to the collection, and 

 two or three of them probably new to science. We had 



