^^6 Through the BraziHan Wilderness 



rough. Met with for the first time, it would doubtless 

 have taken several days to explore a passage and, with 

 danger and labor, get the boats down. But we were no 

 longer exploring, pioneering, over unknown country. It 

 is easy to go where other men have prepared the way. 

 We had a guide ; we took our baggage down by a carry 

 three-quarters of a kilometre long ; and the canoes were 

 run through known channels the following morning. At 

 the foot of the rapids was a big house and store; and 

 camped at the head were a number of rubber-workers, 

 waiting for the big boats of the head rubber-men to work 

 their way up from below. They were a reckless set of 

 brown daredevils. These men lead hard lives of labor 

 and peril; they continually face death themselves, and 

 they think little of it in connection with others. It is 

 small wonder that they sometimes have difficulties with 

 the tribes of utterly wild Indians with whom they are 

 brought in contact, although there is a strong Indian 

 strain in their own blood. 



The following morning, after the empty canoes had 

 been run down, we started, and made a rather short after- 

 noon's journey. We had to take the baggage by one 

 rapids. We camped in an empty house, in the rain. 

 Next day we ran nearly fifty kilometres, the river making 

 a long sweep to the west. We met half a dozen batelaos 

 making their way up-stream, each with a crew of six or 

 eight men, and two of them with women and children in 

 addition. The crew were using very long poles, with 

 crooks, or rather the stubs of cut branches which served 

 as crooks, at the upper end. With these they hooked 

 into the branches and dragged themselves up along the 



