Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 43051-h.htm or 43051-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/43051/pg43051-images.html)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43051/43051-h.zip)
Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive. See
https://archive.org/details/upmazarunifordia00lavarich
UP THE MAZARUNI FOR DIAMONDS
by
WILLIAM J. LAVARRE
Veteran Scout
Boston
Marshall Jones Company
1919
Copyright · 1919
By Marshall Jones Company
The·Plimpton·Press
Norwood·Mass·U·S·A
_To My Mother and Father_
_FOREWORD_
LaVarre is adventuring in the right spirit. His diamond hunting is
instructive as well as interesting. He has brought back from the field
information which will help others who intend to traverse similar
trails.
Though younger than most explorers he has carefully endeavored to
prepare himself for the field by study and travel. He believes in the
theory of hard work and preparedness, the essentials of the successful
explorer.
In these days when there is so much endeavor which seems to be for the
acclaim of the crowds and the deification of self, it is refreshing to
meet one who seems to be in it for the love of the work and the good
which he may open up for others in the field of exploration.
William J. LaVarre was born in Richmond, Va., August 4, 1898. His love
for the outdoors was demonstrated early, for he camped in the open at
the age of ten and as a boy scout a few years later won a contest for
leadership of the Honor Patrol of the New York City organization of
the Boy Scouts of America. He also won sixteen merit badges in the
same scout order. He was one of twenty-four scouts chosen from the
East to build a trail in Maine for the Forestry Department of the
United States in 1914.
He has specialized in Geology and Mineralogy and shown considerable
skill in the use of the camera. He is now in the field as scientific
assistant and photographer of the Rice Amazon Expedition. His diamond
hunting trip was a success.
We look forward to his return from the Amazon with an interesting
experience and a successful exploration.
ANTHONY FIALA
AUGUST 11, 1919.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
"ARE YOU GAME TO TRY IT?" 1
CHAPTER II
"IN THE LAND O' MAZARUNI" 7
CHAPTER III
A FIRE BOAT AND A NATIVE WEDDING 14
CHAPTER IV
JUNGLE DAYS BEGIN 18
CHAPTER V
GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH THE NATIVES 22
CHAPTER VI
LIFE ON THE RIVER 29
CHAPTER VII
MUTINY AMONG THE CREW 34
CHAPTER VIII
THE GLORIOUS FOURTH 39
CHAPTER IX
BABOON FOR DINNER 43
CHAPTER X
IN THE INDIAN COUNTRY 48
CHAPTER XI
"UNCIVILIZED," BUT COURTEOUS, QUIET AND CLEAN 56
CHAPTER XII
A VISIT TO A NATIVE HOME 62
CHAPTER XIII
THE SNAKE THAT DISAPPEARED 68
CHAPTER XIV
DIFFICULTIES OF JUNGLE TRAVEL 72
CHAPTER XV
HOSPITALITY OF THE JUNGLE FOLK 82
CHAPTER XVI
CASSAVA CAKES AND BLOW-PIPES 93
CHAPTER XVII
ON THE MARCH AGAIN 101
CHAPTER XVIII
ARRIVAL AT THE DIAMOND FIELDS 107
CHAPTER XIX
HOW THE NATIVES HUNT AND FISH 113
CHAPTER XX
PICKING UP JUNGLE LORE 121
CHAPTER XXI
THE FIRST DIAMOND! 128
CHAPTER XXII
HOW THE PRECIOUS STONES ARE FOUND 133
CHAPTER XXIII
GOOD-BYE TO THE JUNGLE 137
ILLUSTRATIONS
Sketch map _Frontispiece_
"Jimmy" _facing page_ 4
We Worked Steadily up the Dangerous River 20
A Jungle "Hotel" 20
Once in a While a Boat Shot Past Us 46
At Times a Portage Must be Made 46
The First Jungle Indians We Saw 52
An Indian Fisherman 52
"Bringing Home the Bacon" 60
They Seemed Glad to Pose for Us 84
Jungle Huntsmen 84
At Fourteen an Indian Girl Must Be Able to Cook Cassava 94
A Primitive Sugar Cane Press 94
Two Quick Puffs, a Flutter, and the Bird Drops to Earth 98
My Jungle Friends 104
Usually Our Hunters Were Successful 116
The Toucan Makes an Interesting Pet 118
Abraham, Felling a Woodskin Tree 122
Preparing Woodskin Bark for Canoe 124
Finished Woodskin Canoe with Ends Open 124
Our Jungle Home 128
An Interior View of Our "Logie" 132
A Long Tom Diamond Washer 134
Jiggers Separating Diamonds from Gravel 134
UP THE MAZARUNI FOR DIAMONDS
CHAPTER I
"_ARE YOU GAME TO TRY IT?_"
"Here's a queer looking letter," I said to myself one day early in the
spring of 1917. I could hardly make out the postmark. It was something
of a surprise to receive a letter from British Guiana, as I finally
deciphered it, but the contents were even more surprising.
The letter was from my friend Dudley P. Lewis.
"I need a partner in a diamond mining venture," he wrote. "Are you
game to try it out with me? It will be a long trip full of adventures
and dangers, but there are diamonds here to be had for the digging."
He wrote much more. I became enthusiastic on the moment and was
determined to go if possible. I had little trouble in arranging this
and wrote him that I would come.
On the tenth of May I sailed from New York on the steamship _Saga_ to
Barbados, where Lewis met me. He was delighted and quite as
enthusiastic as I. He had been in Georgetown, British Guiana, for a
while on other business and had learned about the diamond fields away
up the famous, and treacherous, Mazaruni River.
From Barbados we sailed away to South America on the steamer _Parima_.
I was surprised to find Georgetown such a large city, 60,000
inhabitants, and, as the buildings were all one and two stories, one
can imagine how it spread out.
"Can we start to-morrow?" I asked, after we had reached our hotel.
Lewis laughed.
"Hardly," he said. "This isn't like a trip back home where you can
toss some clothes and clean collars in a bag, buy your ticket, catch
your train and be off."
I had not given much thought to exactly how we were to travel. But I
soon learned that to journey up a great river for hundreds of miles
with a score of natives, taking all the food for a six months' stay,
was a matter that could not be arranged in a moment.
The starting out place for the trip was twenty miles from Georgetown
at a town upriver called Bartica. But as Bartica has only twenty
inhabitants we bought everything in Georgetown. There we busied
ourselves with the preparations. It seemed as though there were a
million details to look after, and I got an idea of what an explorer
is up against, as we had to outfit ourselves about the same as an
exploring party would.
"We must get lead guns, beads, mirrors and other trinkets," said
Lewis.
"What's the big idea?" I asked. "Are we to open a five and ten cent
store for the native Indians up there?"
"Not exactly," laughed Lewis, "but we must have something to trade
with. What use is a silver or gold coin to a native back hundreds of
miles in the jungle? He'd rather have a twenty-five cent kitchen knife
than a fifty dollar gold piece."
The "lead guns" are not lead, as I learned, but the very cheapest sort
of cheap guns, manufactured in England solely for trading with
semi-civilized and uncivilized people. No live American boy would take
one as a gift, but I found that the natives treasured them above
everything else they possessed.
We were fortunate in finding a Dutch captain, a man who has navigated
the turbulent waters of the Mazaruni for twenty years. And he picked
out a skilled "bowman," a native who stands at the bow of your boat,
with an immense paddle, and fends it off rocks, gives steering
directions and acts generally as a sort of life preserver for the
boat.
Then there was "Jimmy." He was a negro, rather undersized and as black
as the inside of a lump of coal. He appointed himself our special
guardian, a sort of valet, overseer and servant. He looked after our
personal belongings, cooked our food, made our tea and devoted himself
exclusively to us.
Twenty paddlemen were also engaged. Sixteen of them were quite as
black as our Jimmy, and four of them were in varying shades from
tobacco brown to light molasses candy tint. These latter were of mixed
Dutch and Negro blood.
"They are 'Bovianders,'" said the captain.
"Queer tribal name," I commented.
The captain laughed. "Not exactly a tribal name," he explained.
"They live up the river quite a distance and so it is said that they
come from 'above yonder.' They have twisted that into 'Boviander,' so
that the word always means people who live up the river."
[Illustration: "JIMMY"]
While we were engaging our staff the captain was getting boats for us.
He selected a great fifty-foot boat seemingly as heavy as a
locomotive. It looked like a crude craft, made of great thick planks.
I soon learned the necessity of such a heavy boat. We also had a small
boat for emergency and for little side trips here and there.
Next came the "eats." We had to take enough food for ourselves, our
twenty-two helpers and partly enough for the native Indians that we
were to employ later. When the big boat was finally loaded properly
under the skillful direction of the captain, we had five tons of food
aboard and this included no meat at all except salt fish. There was no
need to take meat, for game and fresh fish were so plentiful that we
were never without them.
There was a queer, tent-shaped rig amidships of our big craft.
Beneath this was room enough for us to stay sheltered during the heat
of the day. White men can seldom stand the midday heat in British
Guiana.
Packed all about us was the food. Jimmy climbed to the top of the
pile. The captain took his position aft. The sturdy Boviander bowman
took his place at the bow with his immense paddle, the twenty paddle
men took their places in four groups of five, one group on each side,
forward and aft of the cargo.
Then they shoved off and began their peculiar, noisy paddling.
The little town of Bartica fell away behind us as we slid out into the
broad expanse of the old Mazaruni.
We were off at last, on our great diamond mining adventure!