4 THE START [chap, i 



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 kindred 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 handhng 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-bye 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 adventure, 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 on the rocky 

 bed beneath. He escaped with two broken ribs, two 

 teeth knocked out, and a knee partially dislocated, but 

 was practically all right again when he started with us. 



In its composition ours was a typical American expe- 

 dition. Kermit and I were of the old Revolutionary 

 stock, and in our veins ran about every strain of blood 

 that there was on this side of the water during colonial 



