44° 



The National Geographic Magazine 



THROUGH AN UNKNOWN COUNTRY 



The party which I joined for the trip 

 down the rivers was under the direc- 

 tion of Mr Chester Brown, the general 

 manager of the Inca Rubber Company. 

 To him and to his genial brother 

 ''Fred" I am indebted for some of the 

 most interesting experiences which the 

 present day furnishes. "The'route- we 

 took to the Madre de Dios had been 

 traversed but once previously by a 

 white man, and then only a few weeks 

 before by an engineer in the employ of 

 the company. At the place where we 

 embarked on the River Tavora we were 

 still well up among the foot-hills of the 

 Andes, and navigation, even in canoes 

 and rafts, was attended by many diffi- 

 culties and some dangers, owing to the 

 numerous rapids. 



The canoes are dugouts shaped from 

 a single log. They are from twenty to 

 twenty-five feet long, two or three feet 

 broad, and readily carry half a dozen 

 men and several hundred pounds of 

 freight. For the passage up-stream 

 only canoes are used, and they are 

 propelled by paddles or by poles, ac- 

 cording to the depth and swiftness of 

 the water. For the journey down the 

 river, however, rafts are also used, 

 since the rapid current renders great 

 exertion unnecessary. Many of the 

 native woods are too heavy for rafts ; 

 indeed, a number of varieties sink at 

 once, so great is their specific gravity. 

 The variety used for rafts is nearly as 

 light as cork. A number of logs of this 

 raft-wood are fastened together by 

 driving through them long wood pins, 

 made of a kind of palm which is so 

 hard that it takes the place of iron. 

 Cross-pieces are then fastened on in the 

 same way, and the front end is made 

 pointed, so that the craft shall not be 

 stopped by collision with driftwood or 

 boulders. When finished the raft con- 

 sists entirely of wood, and no tool has 

 been used in its construction except an 

 axe. 



With two rafts and two canoes, our 

 party set out one day about noon. The 



trip began with the running of a swift 

 rapid, which was one of many to follow. 

 The canoes generally led the way and 

 pointed out the best route. In many 

 cases there were sharp curves, with 

 here and there the stranded trunks of 

 great trees and huge boulders. Many 

 of our experiences were sufficiently ex- 

 citing, and a fall into the river was a 

 common incident of the trip. Our 

 company included a crew of ten men, a 

 motley crowd of various colors and 

 nationalities. A nearly continuous 

 stream of profanity attended the vari- 

 ous maneuvers of our fleet, which 

 reached its climax in intensity and pic- 

 turesqueness when some sudden jar 

 projected one or more of the boatmen 

 into the water. At such times familiar- 

 ity with the language of the boatmen 

 would have been a misfortune. In the 

 swifter and shallower rapids of the 

 upper streams it was often necessary to 

 lighten the load by wading in the water 

 beside the canoes, which were guided 

 by hand or even by a rope carried along 

 the bank. This sort of travel, together 

 with frequent rains, caused all the 

 party to be soaked with water from 

 morning to night, and we were for- 

 tunate when the kits were kept dry, so 

 that the night could be passed in com- 

 fort. Ait one time during the expedi- 

 tion rain fell in prodigious quantities, 

 causing the river to rise nearly ten feet 

 within twenty-four hours. Progress 

 became difficult and extremely danger- 

 ous, owing to the swiftness of the cur- 

 rent and the trunks of trees carried 

 along on its surface. We were obliged 

 to make camp and wait. This we did 

 at a place which seemed sufficiently 

 elevated above the surface of the river. 

 The following night, however, the 

 water reached our camping ground and 

 compelled us to change quarters in the 

 darkness. Pitching a new camp at mid- 

 night, in a tropical jungle, in a pouring 

 rain, is a far from cheerful occupation. 

 The Tavora, a river found on no map 

 yet published, is one of the branches of 

 the Tambopata, a stately stream but 



