The rapid of Calderão do Inferno—Attacks of fever and
vomiting—Caripuna savages—Death of a Bolivian boy—Earth-eating
practised by the Indians—Death of Mariano, a Bolivian
boatman—Peculiar custom prevailing amongst the Indians—The
Falls of Girão—Miseries of a wet night.
The following day we arrived at the foot of the rapid bearing the
suggestive name of “Calderão do Inferno,” or “Cauldron of Hell.” This
name is given to a succession of six rapids extending over about a mile
and a half of the river, the upper one being the principal, with a fall
of about eight feet; the lower five are called the “Rabo,” or tail, of
the “Calderão.” These were all passed on the left or Bolivian side of the
river, the whole of the 4th and part of the 5th being occupied in passing
the cargoes over the land portage used for overcoming the upper rapid.
This portage is very little short of a mile in length, and the road being
very rough and rocky, the men had very hard work. The canoes were hauled
up empty through a creek or channel between the islands and the mainland.
The mornings now were always foggy, and the sun during the day seemed to
be exceptionally powerful, and several of my crew were sickening with
fever. I myself had rather a bad attack of vomiting, and had to take as
much rest as possible while the cargoes were being carried round the
fall. A cup of tea made from some sort of balsam, and given to me by one
of the Bolivian patrons, had good effect in allaying the sickness, but I
found the most relief from two or three draughts of Lamplough’s “Pyretic
Saline,” a medicine that every traveller in South American forests should
carry. At the upper portage of this fall we found two of the bark canoes,
belonging to the Caripuna savages, who have a “malocal,” or clearing
inland, near this rapid. The canoes appeared to have been abandoned
for some time, as they were full of mud, having probably been sunk on
the bank, according to the custom of these savages, when the river was
at its flood height. The savages did not show, and we had no time to
spare to search for them in the interior. Travellers must be on their
guard in the neighbourhood of this rapid, for the tribe bears a very
bad and treacherous character; and although they have been friendly to
many passers-by, and were so to the engineers who cut the track for the
railway, they have attacked small parties with great ferocity.
On the 6th it was nine o’clock before the last of my packages was carried
over, and all the canoes started, the Bolivian patrons having again
kindly waited for me. Above the fall we had much roping and pulling
up stream by the bushes, although some of the other canoes that had
good strong crews were able to get on with paddles only. The sun was
terribly hot and overpowering, so at mid-day I ordered my men to stop
and finish their breakfasts, which they had had to take very hurriedly
before starting in the morning. One of my Bolivian boys, a lad about
fourteen or fifteen years old, had been complaining yesterday and to-day
of fever, so I had allowed him to leave his paddle and lie down on the
top of the cargo, the only available space for idle hands. Just as the
canoe touched the bank I saw him fall back from a sitting posture, and
to my horror, when I got from my cabin to him, I found he was evidently
dying. I applied smelling-salts to his nose, and bathed his forehead
with cachaça, the liquor nearest to hand, giving him also a spoonful
to drink; but he died quickly, and apparently without pain. This was
another blow to add to our misfortunes, especially as we had a man very
ill at the time, and with too good reason feared that the shock of poor
Bruno’s death would prove too great for him. The boy Bruno had been in my
service for nearly eighteen months before leaving San Antonio, and was
always a weak and sickly boy, besides being afflicted with the disgusting
vice of “earth-eating,” so common to many of the Indian tribes of South
America. I had succeeded in keeping him from this practice whilst I had
him in regular service at San Antonio, but it appeared that at the rapid
of Morinhos he had seen some particular kind of earth that aroused the
dormant habit, and, indulging himself too largely, his stomach must have
got into a thoroughly disorganized state, so that he was unable to resist
the intense heat of the sun.
It was melancholy work, paddling up stream all day with the dead body
of the boy on board, and another of the Indians in a dangerous state;
but the longest day comes to an end, and at 3.30 p.m. we crossed over
to the Brazilian side of the river, just below the last rock of the
Girão Falls. The hills near this fall show bold and high as one ascends
the river, and we arrived at the port, a small bay at the foot of the
fall, about seven o’clock. During the night my forebodings as to losing
the other sick man, Mariano, were verified, as he died about daybreak.
This was the man who at Morinhos stole liquor, and fell into the river
during the night; he then caught cold, and had been ailing ever since.
I gave him the best remedies that I had at hand, also wine, arrowroot,
and beef-tea, made from Liebig’s “Extract,” and I could not see that
there was any sickness that should cause his death; but, about a couple
of days ago, his squaw and other relations evidently made up their minds
that he ought not to recover, and in accordance with a custom that exists
with many of the Indian tribes, they gave him numerous commissions to
those members of his family and other friends that had preceded him in
their last journey. I have frequently observed the existence of this
custom amongst Bolivian Indians of the Beni: when one of them falls sick,
his immediate friends and companions seem to settle amongst themselves
whether the sick man shall recover or not; and if their verdict is
unfavourable, the poor man gets no remedies and very little, if any, food
or care. The prediction is therefore brought to realization, and as the
fatal moment is seen to draw near, the friends deliver to the moribund
messages to their relatives or acquaintances that have beforehand joined
the majority.[2] It is quite useless to leave a sick Indian to the care
of his fellows only, and in all cases where these Indians are brought
together in numbers, attendants and nurses of other races must be
provided for the care of the sick. I myself was very unwell about this
time, and was quite unable to do more for my sick than give out medicines
and wine, or arrowroot, etc., for them. I could not sit up with them at
nights, and, unfortunately, I had no companion or head man that could be
depended upon.
The next day, the 7th of May, we buried poor Bruno and Mariano at about
mid-day, side by side, at the foot of the fall, and setting up a rough
wooden cross over the graves, left them to the solitudes of the forest.
The crew in consequence of these deaths were very downhearted, and not
much work could be got out of them this day; the canoes were, however,
emptied of their cargoes, and hauled over the land portage, to the upper
side of the fall. This portage is nearly half a mile in length, and is
over very rocky ground; the canoes are therefore exposed to suffer damage
if the men are not careful to keep them on the rollers. The whole of
the 8th of May was taken up in repairing the canoes, and in getting the
cargoes transported over the portage, and put on board again above the
fall, ready for a start on the following day. The night of the 8th was
very wet and miserable, the rain coming down in torrents nearly the whole
night long. It was very late in the evening before we got all our baggage
re-embarked in the canoes, and as we should have lost some time in the
morning if I had ordered my tent and camp bedstead to be set up for
the night, I had decided to pass the night on a hide with a waterproof
sheet stretched on sticks and strings overhead, little guessing that we
were to have such a wet night. I shall not easily forget the wretched
night I passed. To have any light was impossible, and so I had to keep
my blankets tucked in under the waterproof awning as well as I could
in the dark. With all my efforts I could not keep the drippings of the
sheet overhead clear of the outstretched hide, so after a very little
time I found myself laying in a hide full of water, my gun and revolvers
alongside of me also coming in for a good wetting. The men must have
suffered far more than I did, for they had not put up any shelters at
all, and were simply laying on the bank of the river, exposed to the full
fury of the storm. I therefore looked forward to a fresh succession of
fevers and other illnesses amongst them.
FOOTNOTES
[2] This custom of the Indians, seems by the following extract from
Josephus to have had its prototype in eastern lands in times of very
ancient date.
Josephus, “Wars of the Jews,” book 7, chap. 8, s. 7. In Eleazar’s
speech to the Sicarii, when advising his followers to put themselves to
death rather than fall alive into the hands of the Romans, occur these
words:—“We, therefore, who have been brought up in a discipline of our
own, ought to become an example to others of our readiness to die; yet if
we do not stand in need of foreigners to support us in this matter, let
us regard those Indians who profess the exercise of philosophy; for these
good men do but unwillingly undergo the time of life, and look upon it as
a necessary servitude, and make haste to let their souls loose from their
bodies; nay, when no misfortune presses them to it, nor drives them upon
it, these have such a desire of a life of immortality, that they tell
other men beforehand that they are about to depart; and nobody hinders
them, but every one thinks them happy men, and gives them letters to be
carried to their familiar friends that are dead; so firmly and certainly
do they believe that souls converse with one another in the other world.
So when these men have heard all such commands that were to be given
them, they deliver their body to the fire; and, in order to their getting
their soul a separation from the body in the greatest purity, they die
in the midst of hymns of commendations made to them; for their dearest
friends conduct them to their death more readily than do any of the rest
of mankind conduct their fellow-citizens when they are going on a very
long journey, who, at the same time, weep on their own account, but look
upon the others as happy persons, as so soon to be made partakers of the
immortal order of beings. Are not we, therefore, ashamed to have lower
notions than the Indians?”