126 HEADWATERS OF THE PARAGUAY 



making a trustworthy map of the main river itself, imtil 

 its junction with the Tapajos. Near the watershed 

 between the Juruena and the Gy-Parana he estabhshed 

 his farthest station to the westward, named Josd Boni- 

 facio, after one of the chief repubhcan patriots of Brazil. 

 A couple of days' march north-westward from this 

 station, he in 1909 came across a part of the stream of 

 a river running northward between the Gy-Parana and 

 the Juruena ; he could only guess where it debouched, 

 believing it to be into the Madeira, although it was 

 possible that it entered the Gy-Parana or Tapajos. 

 The region through which it flows was unknown, no 

 civilized man having ever penetrated it ; and as all con- 

 jecture as to what the river was, as to its length, and as 

 to its place of entering into some highway river, was 

 mere guesswork, he had entered it on his sketch-maps 

 as the Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt. Among 

 t;he officers of the Brazihan Army and the scientific 

 civihans who have accompanied him there have been 

 not only expert cartographers, photographers, and tele- 

 graphists, but astronomers, geologists, botanists, and 

 zoologists. Their reports, published in excellent shape 

 by the Brazilian Government, make an invaluable series 

 of volumes, reflecting the highest credit on the explorers, 

 and on the Government itself. Colonel Rondon's own 

 accounts of his explorations, of the Indian tribes he has 

 visited, and of the beautiful and wonderful things he 

 has seen, possess a peculiar interest. 



