EARLY PIONEERS 177' 



panions often spoke of the first explorers of this vast 

 wilderness of western Brazil — men whose very names 

 are now hardly known, but who did each his part in 

 opening the country which will some day see such 

 growth and development. Among the most notable 

 of them was a Portuguese, Ricardo Franco, who spent 

 forty years at the work, during the last quarter of the 

 eighteenth and the opening years of the nineteenth 

 centuries. He ascended for long distances the Xingu 

 and the Tapajos, and went up the Madeira and Guapor^, 

 crossing to the headwaters of the Paraguay and partially 

 exploring there also. He worked among and with the 

 Indians, much as Mungo Park worked with the natives 

 of West Africa, having none of the aids, instruments, 

 and comforts with which even the hardiest of modern 

 explorers are provided. He was one of the men who 

 established the beginnings of the province of Matto 

 Grosso. For many years the sole method of communi- 

 cation between this remote interior province and civi- 

 lization was by the long, difficult, andperilous route which 

 led up the Amazon and Madeira ; and its then capital, 

 the town of Matto Grosso, the seat of the Captain- 

 General, with its palace, cathedral, and fortress, was 

 accordingly placed far to the west, near the Guapor^. 

 When less circuitous lines of communication were 

 established farther eastward the old capital was 

 abandoned, and the tropic wilderness surged over the 

 lonely little town. The tomb of the old colonial 

 explorer stiU stands in the ruined cathedral, where the 

 forest has once more come to its own. But civilization 

 is again advancing to j-eclaim the lost town and to 

 revive the memory of the wilderness wanderer who 

 helped to found it. Colonel Rondon has named 

 a river after Franco — a range of mountains has also been 



12 



