Across Unknown South America 
CHAPTER i 
The River Arinos — A Rickety Canoe — Mapping the River — The 
Siphonia Elastic a — Rubber and its Collection — An Enor¬ 
mously Rich Country — A German in Slavery 
XTK’TE struck the river Arinos at a point called Porto 
VV Velho. There were at that place the miserable 
sheds of three seringueiros (rubber collectors). 
I had made for that particular spot because I had heard 
that a big canoe, carved out of the trunk of a tree, 
probably existed there. I was told that the canoe was 
large enough to carry many people. It had been con¬ 
structed, it seemed, some ten years previously, by a 
rubber-collecting expedition which came to grief, was 
abandoned, and had since been taken possession of by 
seringueiros. I had purchased it on chance from its last 
owner, with accessories, for about £30. It was the only 
canoe upon that river. 
I considered myself lucky, when I arrived at Porto 
Velho, to find that the canoe actually existed at all. 
There she was, floating more or less gracefully upon the 
water. She had a total length of 42 feet, was feet 
wide, and had been roughly scooped out of a giant tree 
which was not quite straight. Her lines, therefore, were 
not as elegant as might have been expected. For instance, 
her starboard and port sides were not absolutely straight 
lines, but described curves; in fact, the port side almost 
an angle. That gave the canoe an original appearance, 
VOL. II. —1 1 
