THE NORTH-WEST AMAZONS
[Illustration: BORO MEDICINE MAN, WITH MY RIFLE]
THE NORTH-WEST
AMAZONS
NOTES OF SOME MONTHS SPENT
AMONG CANNIBAL TRIBES
BY
THOMAS WHIFFEN
F.R.G.S., F.R.A.I.
CAPTAIN H.P. (14TH HUSSARS)
NEW YORK
DUFFIELD AND COMPANY
1915
_Printed in Great Britain_
TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE
DR. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, O.M.
THESE NOTES ARE DEDICATED
PREFACE
In presenting to the public the results of my journey through the lands
about the upper waters of the Amazon, I make no pretence of challenging
conclusions drawn by such experienced scientists as Charles Waterton,
Alfred Russel Wallace, Richard Spruce, and Henry Walter Bates, nor to
compete with the indefatigable industry of those recent explorers Dr.
Koch-Grünberg and Dr. Hamilton Rice.
Some months of the years 1908 and 1909 were passed by me travelling in
regions between the River Issa and the River Apaporis where white men had
scarcely penetrated previously. In the remoter parts of these districts
the tribes of nomad Indians are frankly cannibal on occasion, and provide
us with evidence of a condition of savagery that can hardly be found
elsewhere in the world of the twentieth century. It will be noted that
this area includes the Putumayo District.
With regard to the references in footnotes and appendices, I have
inserted them to suggest where similarities of culture or variations of
a given custom are to be found. These notes may be of some use to the
student of such problems as the question of cultural contact with Pacific
peoples, and at the least they represent the evidence on which I have
based my own conclusions.
THOMAS WHIFFEN.
LONDON, 1914.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
Introductory 1
CHAPTER II
Topography--Rivers--Floods and rainfall--Climate--Soil--Animal
and vegetable life--Birds--Flowers--Forest
scenery--Tracks--Bridges--Insect pests--Reptiles--Silence in
the forest--Travelling in the bush--Depressing effects of the
forest--Lost in the forest--Starvation the crowning horror 17
CHAPTER III
The Indian homestead--Building--Site and plan of
_maloka_--Furniture--Inhabitants of the house--Fire--Daily
life--Insect inhabitants--Pets 40
CHAPTER IV
Classification of Indian races--Difficulties of
tabulating--Language-groups and tribes--Names--Sources
of confusion--Witoto and Boro--Localities of
language-groups--Population of districts--Intertribal
strife--Tribal enemies and friends--Reasons
for endless warfare--Intertribal trade and
communications--Relationships--Tribal organisation--The
chief, his position and powers--Law--Tribal
council--Tobacco-drinking--Marriage system and
regulations--Position of women--Slaves 53
CHAPTER V
Dress and ornament--Geographical and tribal
differentiations--Festal attire--Feather
ornaments--Hair-dressing--Combs--Dance
girdles--Beads--Necklaces--Bracelets--Leg
rattles--Ligatures--Ear-rings--Use of labret--Nose
pins--Scarification--Tattoo--Tribal marks--Painting 71
CHAPTER VI
Occupations--Sexual division and tabu--Tribal manufactures--Arts
and crafts--Drawing--Carving--Metals--Tools and implements--No
textile fabrics--Pottery--Basket-making--Hammocks--Cassava-squeezer
and grater--Pestle and mortar--Wooden vessels--Stone axes--Methods
of felling trees--Canoes--Rafts--Paddles 90
CHAPTER VII
Agriculture--Plantations--Preparation of ground in
the forest--Paucity of agricultural instruments--Need
for diligence--Women’s incessant toil--No special
harvest-time--Maize the only grain grown--No use for
sugar--Manioc cultivation--Peppers--Tobacco--Coca
cultivation--Tree-climbing methods--Indian wood-craft--Indian
tracking--Exaggerated sporting yarns--Indian sense of locality
and accuracy of observation--Blow-pipes--Method of making
blow-pipes--Darts--Indian improvidence--Migration of game--Traps
and snares--Javelins--Hunting and fishing rights--Fishing--Fish
traps--Spearing and poisoning fish 102
CHAPTER VIII
The Indian armoury--Spears--Bows and arrows--Indian
strategy--Forest tactics and warfare--Defensive measures--Secrecy
and safety--The Indian’s science of war--Prisoners--War
and anthropophagy--Cannibal tribes--Reasons for cannibal
practices--Ritual of vengeance--Other causes--No intra-tribal
cannibalism--The anthropophagous feast--Human relics--Necklaces
of teeth--Absence of salt--Geophagy 115
CHAPTER IX
The food quest--Indians omnivorous eaters--Tapir and other animals
used for food--Monkeys--The peccary--Feathered game--Vermin--Eggs,
carrion, and intestines not eaten--Honey--Fish--Manioc--Preparation
of cassava--Peppers--The Indian hot-pot--Lack of salt--Indian
meals--Cooking--Fruits--Cow-tree milk 126
CHAPTER X
Drinks, drugs, and poisons: their use and preparation--Unfermented
drinks--_Caapi_--Fermented drinks--_Cahuana_--Coca: its
preparation, use, and abuse--_Parica_--Tobacco--Poison and
poison-makers 138
CHAPTER XI
Small families--Birth tabu--Birth customs--Infant
mortality--Infanticide--Couvade--Name-giving--Names--Tabu on
names--Childhood--Lactation--Food restrictions--Child-life and
training--Initiation 146
CHAPTER XII
Marriage regulations--Monogamy--Wards and
wives--Courtship--Qualifications for matrimony--Preparations
for marriage--Child marriages--Exception to patrilocal
custom--Marriage ceremonies--Choice of a mate--Divorce--Domestic
quarrels--Widowhood 159
CHAPTER XIII
Sickness--Death by poison--Infectious diseases--Cruel treatment of
sick and aged--Homicide--Retaliation for murder--Tribal and
personal quarrels--Diseases--Remedies--Death--Mourning--Burial 168
CHAPTER XIV
The medicine-man, a shaman--Remedies and cures--Powers and
duties of the medicine-man--Virtue of breath--Ceremonial
healing--Hereditary office--Training--Medicine-man and
tigers--Magic-working--Properties--Evil always due to bad
magic--Influence of medicine-man--Method of magic-working--Magical
cures 178
CHAPTER XV
Indian dances--Songs without meaning--Elaborate preparations--The
Chief’s invitation--Numbers assembled--Dance step--Reasons
for dances--Special dances--Dance staves--Arrangement of
dancers--Method of airing a grievance--Plaintiff’s song of
complaint--The tribal “black list”--Manioc-gathering dance and
song--Muenane Riddle Dance--A discomfited dancer--Indian riddles
and mimicry--Dance intoxication--An unusual incident--A favourite
dance--The cannibal dance--A mad festival of savagery--The strange
fascination of the Amazon 190
CHAPTER XVI
Songs the essential element of native dances--Indian
imagination and poetry--Music entirely ceremonial--Indian
singing--Simple melodies--Words without meaning--Sense
of time--Limitations of songs--Instrumental
music--Pan-pipes--Flutes and fifes--Trumpets--Jurupari music and
ceremonial--Castanets--Rattles--Drums--The _manguare_--Method of
fashioning drums--Drum language--Signal and conversation--Small
hand-drums 206
CHAPTER XVII
The Indians’ magico-religious system--The Good Spirit and the Bad
Spirit--Names of deities--Character of Good Spirit--His visit
to earth--Question of missionary influence--Lesser subordinate
spirits--Child-lifting--No prayer or supplication--Classification
of spirits--Immortality of the soul--Land of the After-Life--Ghosts
and name tabu--Temporary disembodied spirits--Extra-mundane
spirits--Spirits of particularised evils--Spirits of inanimate
objects--The jaguar and anaconda magic beasts--Tiger folk--Fear of
unknown--Suspicions about camera--Venerated objects--Charms--Magic
against magic--Omens 218
CHAPTER XVIII
Darkness feared by Indians--Story-telling--Interminable
length of tales--Variants--Myths--Sun and moon--Deluge
traditions--Tribal stories--Amazons--White Indians tradition--Boro
tribal tale--Amazonian equivalents of many world-tales--Beast
stories--Animal characteristics--Difference of animal
characteristics in tale and tabu--No totems--Indian hatred of
animal world 236
CHAPTER XIX
Limitations of speech--Differences of
dialect--Language-groups--Tribal names--Difficulties of
languages--Method of transliteration--Need of a common
medium--Ventral ejaculations--Construction--Pronouns as
suffix or prefix--Negatives--Gesture language--Numbers and
reckoning--Indefinite measure--Time--No writing, signs, nor
personal marks--Tribal calls--Drum-language code--Conversational
repetitions--Noisy talkers--Ventriloquists--Falsetto
voice--Conversational etiquette 246
CHAPTER XX
No individualism--Effect of isolation--Extreme reserve of
Indians--Cruelty--Dislike and fear of strangers--Indian
hospitality--Treachery--Theft punished by death--Dualism
of ethics--Vengeance--Moral sense and custom--Modesty
of the women--Jealousy of the men--Hatred of white
man--Ingratitude--Curiosity--Indians retarded but not
degenerate--No evidence of reversion from higher culture--A
neolithic people--Conclusion 255
APPENDICES
I. Physical Characteristics 269
II. Mongoloid Origin 280
III. Depilation 282
IV. Colour Analysis and Measurements 283
V. Articles noted by Wallace as in use among the Uaupes
Indians that are found with the Issa-Japura Tribes 291
VI. Names of Deities 293
VII. Vocabularies and Lists of Names 296
VIII. Poetry 311
LIST OF BOOKS REFERRED TO 313
INDEX 315
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE NO. FACING PAGE
Boro Medicine Man, with my Rifle _Frontispiece_
I. Houses in the “Rubber Belt” of the Issa Valley 4
II. A House in the “Rubber Belt,” Issa Valley 16
III. 1. Typical River View below the Mouth of the Negro River
2. Bank of Main Amazon Stream in the Vicinity of the Mouth
of the Japura River 18
IV. 1. River View on Main Stream near Issa River
2. Landscape on Upper Amazon Main Stream 20
V. The Bulge-stemmed Palm, _Iriartea Venticosa_, showing
portion of Leaf and Fruit 28
VI. Flowers and Section of Leaf of the Bussu Palm. The Leaf is
used for Thatching 44
VII. 1. Self, with Nonuya Tribe
2. Muenane Tribe 46
VIII. 1. Group of Witoto
2. Group of Some of my Carriers 70
IX. Medicine Man and his Wife (Andoke) 72
X. Boro Tribesmen 74
XI. Witoto Feather Head-dresses 76
XII. Groups of Resigero Women 78
XIII. Centre of Dancing Group--Muenane 80
XIV. Boro Comb of Palm Spines set in Pitch and finished with
Basketwork of Split Cane, Fibre Strings, and Tufts of
Parrots’ Feathers 78
XV. 1. Dukaiya (Okaina) Bead Dancing-girdle
2. Condor Claws, used by Andoke Medicine Man of the Upper
Japura River 80
XVI. Necklaces of Human and Tiger Teeth 82
XVII. 1. Necklace of Polished Nutshells.
2. Leg Rattles of Beads and Nutshells.
3, 4, 5, and 6. Bead Necklaces. The Black “Beads” are Bits
of Polished Nutshell, threaded between White Beads 82
XVIII. Boro Ligatures 84
XIX. Boro Leg and Arm Ligatures. Witoto Leg Ligature 84
XX. 1 and 3, Boro. 2, Witoto, Ligatures 86
XXI. Andoke Girls 88
XXII. Witoto Baskets of Split Cane and Fibre 90
XXIII. Boro Necklace of Jaguars’ Teeth with Incised Patterns
Necklace of Jaguar Teeth, Incised, and Flute made of
Human Bone 92
XXIV. Boro Cassava-squeezer. (A) Loop at End 96
XXV. 1. Okaina Group
2. Group of Okaina Women 98
XXVI. 1. Indian Plantation cleared by Fire preparatory to
Cultivation
2. View on Affluent of the Kahuinari River 102
XXVII. _Erythroxylon-Coca_ 106
XXVIII. 1 and 2. Andoke Bamboo Cases with Darts and Cotton.
3. Dart with Cotton attached.
4. Blow-pipe with Dart.
5. Javelin.
6. Fishing Trident.
7. Spears in Bamboo Case.
8. Dance Staff 108
XXIX. Andoke Bamboo Case with Darts for Blow-pipe and Gourd
full of Cotton 110
XXX. 1. Water Jar, Menimehe; (a) Witoto.
2. Drums (Witoto).
3. Pan-pipes, Witoto; (a) Boro.
4. Stone Axe (Andoke).
5. Paddle used on Main Amazon Stream.
6. Paddle used on Issa and Japura Rivers.
7. Menimehe Hand Club.
8. Wooden Sword (Boro).
9. Pestle--Coca, etc. (Boro) 116
XXXI. Bamboo Cases, filled with Darts for Blow-pipe,
showing Fish-jaw Scraper, and Gourd filled
with Raw Cotton. One Dart has Tuft of Cotton
placed ready for Use. These are Andoke Work 118
XXXII. Witoto War Gathering 120
XXXIII. 1. Boro Necklace made of Marmoset Teeth
2. Andoke Necklace of Human Teeth 124
XXXIV. Boro Women making Cassava 132
XXXV. Witoto Cassava-squeezer. Boro Manioc-grater with
Palm-spine Points 134
XXXVI. One of the Ingredients of the Famous Curare Poison 138
XXXVII. Incised Gourds 144
XXXVIII. Karahone Child. Boro Women carrying Children 150
XXXIX. Boro Women carrying Children 154
XL. Okaina Girls 158
XLI. Stone Axe Head (Boro). String of Magic Stones (Andoke) 184
XLII. Anatto, _Bixa Orellana_. A Red Dye, or Paint, is made
from the Seed 190
XLIII. Half Gourds decorated with Incised Patterns, made by
Witoto near the Mouth of the Kara Parana River.
Dukaiya (Okaina) Rattle made of Nutshells 192
XLIV. Okaina Girls painted for Dance 194
XLV. Boro Dancing. Group of Nonuya, Men and Women 196
XLVI. Muenane Dance 200
XLVII. Okaina Dance 202
XLVIII. Okaina Dance 204
XLIX. Pan-pipes 210
L. Group of Witoto Women by Double-stemmed Palm Tree
Group of Witoto Men by Double-stemmed Palm Tree 232
LI. 1 and 2. Witoto Types.
3. Witoto from Kotue River 270
LII. Combs.
1. Andoke Comb with Nutshell Cup for Rubber Latex.
2. Witoto Comb.
3. Boro Comb 272
LIII. Boro Tribesman from the Pama River
A Menimehe Captive 274
LIV. Witoto Types. Witoto Woman with Leg Ligatures 278
MAPS
MAP. 1. Approximate Plan of Route 2
MAP. 2. Sketch Map 10
MAP. 3. Diagrammatic Map of the Issa-Japura Central Watershed,
showing Language Groups 58
Sketch Map of the North-Western Affluents of the Amazon River _At end_
Sketch Map of the Amazon River with its Northern Affluents _At end_
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
In the spring of 1908, having been among the Unemployed on the Active
List for nearly two years on account of ill-health, and wearying not only
of enforced inactivity but also perhaps of civilisation, I decided to go
somewhere and see something of a comparatively unknown and unrecorded
corner of the world. My mind reverted to pleasant days spent in the
lesser known parts of East Africa, and at this moment I happened to come
across Dr. Russel Wallace’s delightful _Travels on the Amazon and Rio
Negro_. His spirited adventures, and the unique character of the country
through which he passed and the peoples he met, fascinated me. I thought
of attempting to complete his unfinished journey up the Uaupes River, and
imagined I would be able to secure in South America all the instruments
and materials such an expedition required. There lay my initial error.
My inability to obtain anything of the sort hampered me in scientific
research, so that these chapters must simply be regarded as impressions
and studies of native ways and doings, noted by a temporary dweller in
their midst.
Difference of technique, industry, ability, and scientific knowledge may
in the light of future investigations reveal errors or misapprehensions
that must bring me into conflict with those who may go there better
equipped and with greater understanding. But in any critical appraisement
it must be remembered that these tribes are changing day by day, and
every year that passes will increase the difference between the Amazonian
native as I knew him and as he may be when studied by my successors. So
far as in me lies, I have here set forth an account of what he was when
I travelled in his forest solitudes and fastnesses.
I left England towards the end of April 1908 and arrived at Manaos on the
Negro River on May 27. Incidentally I arrived again at Manaos homeward
bound on the same day and almost at the same hour the following year.[1]
It may be taken, therefore, that my entire journey covered exactly twelve
months.
On arrival at Manaos, I made inquiries as to the facilities for
proceeding to S. Gabriel near the junction of the Negro and Uaupes
Rivers, and thence up the latter stream.[2] My theory at the time was
that it would be possible to ascend this river to its source, and from
the vicinity to make a way across country _via_ the Apaporis, Japura,
Issa, and Napo Rivers to Iquitos. I soon found that the difficulty of
obtaining the necessary men would be immense, and the ascent, in local
opinion, impracticable without an expedition on a scale for which I
possessed neither the influence nor the pecuniary resources. Persuaded
that my line of least resistance, so far as the Uaupes was concerned,
would be to reverse the contemplated journey and work from Iquitos to
a point on the Uaupes and then descend to Manaos, I proceeded by the
Navigation Company’s steamboat to the former town, where I arrived the
second week in June.
[Illustration: APPROXIMATE PLAN OF ROUTE]
In company with Mr. David Cazes, the British Consul, to whom I am
indebted for many kindnesses, I made a trip up the Napo River. It was
soon apparent, however, that it would be practically impossible to cross
from that river to the Issa. This was not due to the difficulty of
porterage, because there is a “recognised route” from a point some way
above the mouth of the Curaray to Puerto Barros, but to the impossibility
of obtaining men. Rumours were rife at this time of fighting between the
Colombian and Peruvian rubber-gatherers on the Issa River, and the Napo
Indians would not go in that direction on account of a not unnatural
dread lest they be treated as enemies by whichever party of combatants
they might happen to meet.
Eventually, through the good offices of the British Consulate, I sailed
from Iquitos by way of the main Amazon River and the Issa or Putumayo
River to Encanto at the mouth of the Kara Parana, which I reached in the
middle of August. It is from this point that my notes on the manners and
customs of the Indians really commence.
I saw at once that it would be impossible to gain any insight into the
ways and customs of the various tribes unless I spent some considerable
time in what one might call a roving commission among them. I had with me
at this time John Brown, a Barbadian negro. He had been for some three
years previously in the Issa district in the employ of a Rubber Company,
and I enlisted him as my personal servant at Iquitos. He had “married”
a Witoto woman some two years before, and through this attachment I was
able to derive much valuable information. In fact, he was invaluable
throughout the whole expedition, and was more loyal and more devoted than
a traveller with some experience of the African boy in his native haunts
had reason to anticipate of any black servant.
On the 18th of August we started for the Igara Parana, having collected
eight Indian carriers, two half-castes, and eight “rationales,” or
semi-civilised Indians, armed with Winchesters, together with three
Indian women, wives of three of the rationales.
It may here be mentioned that these armed Indians were to be obtained in
the Rubber Belt by arrangement with their employers. It is the practice
of the rubber-gatherers to train Indian boys and utilise them as escort,
and to obtain rubber from the tribes hostile to those to which the boys
belong. This is perhaps necessary to avoid collusion. In my experience
there was never any question of fixed charge or price when hiring
carriers. They expected to be given, at the conclusion of their service,
a present of cloth, beads, a shot gun,[3] or such other item of trade as
their heart coveted. The line of argument was simple: “You do what I tell
you, and when we part I will make you a rich man.” Wealth was represented
by cloth, beads, and a knife. A boy I called Jim promised to go to the
end of the earth if I would give him a shot gun. This was his sole
ambition. He was one of my escort, and although carrying a Winchester, I
do not think it ever entered into his head to make off with it. Such is
the simple Indian nature. I do not mean that he would not have run away
if such a plan suited him, but he would not have done so for the sake and
value of the Winchester.
The two half-breeds were rubber-collectors. They were bound for the Igara
Parana, and were only with me until we reached Chorrera.
The semi-civilised Indians are fairly trustworthy, although discipline
must be strongly enforced to prevent looting if only because of the
danger of reprisals on the part of the indigenous natives. During my
wanderings the carriers were often changed, especially while passing
through the Rubber Belt. Those men will always run if they get the
chance, even if they are in the midst of hostile tribes, when to desert
is more often death than not. In number the party remained approximately
the same throughout my journey.
The carriers must be incessantly shepherded, kept from lagging behind or
going ahead too quickly. They must not be allowed to stop for any length
of time or a forced camp will be a necessity. It is the custom of all
Indians to bathe whenever possible, however heated they may be, and this
will have to be tolerated; but if progress is to be made they must not
stop to eat. It was my custom to eat at daybreak and again at the end of
the day’s march.
[Illustration: PLATE I.
HOUSES IN THE RUBBER BELT OF THE ISSA VALLEY]
Treachery on the part of the native Indians it is always necessary to
guard against--in the Rubber Belt because of the treatment they have
received in the past; farther afield partly on account of the rumours of
such treatment, and partly on the principle that it’s the nervous dog
that bites. They ask but one question: “Why is the white man here?” They
accord it but one answer: “We know not. It is best to kill.” And it is
not, as is noted elsewhere, the custom of the Indian to attack openly,
but when he has the chance of succeeding with little or no danger to
himself.
We reached Chorrera, or Big Falls, on the 22nd of August, and thence
wended our way by land up the Igara Parana, arriving without much
incident in the Andoke country on the 19th of September. Here, by
arrangement with an Andoke chief, I managed to get a young Karahone
lad, a slave who had been captured some years previously by the Andoke
and who said he would take me to his own people across the great river.
While we were encamped near the banks of the Japura River, and searching
for the bulge-stemmed palm tree with which to make a canoe, we observed
three canoes of Karahone on their way down the river, possibly after some
warlike expedition. We tried to stop them, but in vain. When, eventually,
we crossed the river, we found the occupants of the canoes had given
the alarm. Every house we visited was abandoned, four in all, and the
path was peppered with poisoned stakes sharpened to the finest point and
exposed above ground for perhaps half to three-quarters of an inch. A
carrier who trod on one had to be carried back as he was quite disabled
for the march.
Returning to the Japura River, we made our way to the upper reaches
of the Kahuinari River, visiting different tribes and collecting
information. I was anxious at this time to descend this river and find
out, if possible, the fate of Eugene Robuchon, the French explorer, who
had been missing for some two years.
It may be pertinent here to give in full the story of Robuchon’s
disappearance and my search for traces of his last expedition.
Eugene Robuchon, the adventurous French explorer whose notes on the
Indians of the Putumayo are known to every investigator, left the Great
Falls on the Igara Parana in November 1905. It was his intention to make
for the head waters of the Japura and to explore that river on behalf of
the Peruvian Government throughout its length for traces of rubber. He
started with a party consisting of three negroes, one half-breed, and
five Indians with one Indian woman. He carried supplies barely sufficient
for two months. I carefully examined all the survivors of the expedition
that I encountered, and from them gathered the following account of the
journey:--
Having left the Great Falls, Robuchon proceeded by canoe up the Igara
Parana to a point some ten miles above the mouth of the Fue stream. He
left the river there, struck northward through the Chepei country, and
reached the Japura approximately at 74° W., some thirty miles above
the Kuemani River. The Indians encountered at this spot belonged to a
Witoto-speaking tribe, the Taikene. They were friendly, but either could
not or would not provide Robuchon with a canoe. Three valuable weeks were
spent in the search for a suitable tree and in the construction of a
canoe.
When at length this was finished, the party started down-stream, and for
a time progressed without incident. No natives were seen for several
days. At last Robuchon’s Indians called his attention to a narrow path
that led up from the river-bank on the right. Anxious about his food
supply, he landed and followed the path until he came upon a clearing and
an Indian house. Eventually Robuchon arranged with the inhabitants that
four of them should come down to the canoe with food and receive presents
in exchange. But when a larger number than he expected appeared upon
the bank, the explorer feared treachery and at once pushed off without
waiting for the much-needed provisions. The Indians thereupon manned
their canoes and started in pursuit, shouting the while to him to stop.
But with his small party Robuchon dared take no chances. He pushed on
until the pursuers had been satisfactorily outdistanced.
The boy who told me the tale was convinced that these Indians were
perfectly friendly in intention, and the incident appeared to be proof of
the nervous state of the party. Some time after this, while shooting the
rapids at the Igarape Falls, the canoe was upset and the greater part of
the remaining stores was swept away.
The details of this misadventure I was never able to extract in a
coherent fashion from the followers I interviewed, but they agreed that
very little food of any kind was left, and what was rescued had been
almost entirely destroyed by water.
Short of food, and without a canoe, the boys became mutinous. The three
negroes and the half-breed deserted, and sought to cut a way through the
bush backward in the direction whence they had come. This task was beyond
them, and, a few days later, weary, disheartened, and starving, they
returned to beg Robuchon’s forgiveness. The reunited party improvised
a raft, and, after undergoing the customary hardships of an unequipped
expedition in this hostile country, reached the mouth of the Kahuinari.
The whole party was weak with hunger and fever, Robuchon himself
prostrate and incapable of going farther. He determined to remain where
he was with the Indian woman and the Great Dane hound, Othello. He
ordered the negroes and the half-breed to push on up the Kahuanari to a
rubber-gatherer’s house which he believed was situated somewhere between
the Igara Parana and the Avio Parana. They were to send back relief at
the earliest possible moment. The boys left Robuchon on February 3, 1906.
He was never again seen by any one in touch with civilisation.
The boys had journeyed for but a few hours when they came across a herd
of peccary. They killed more than they could possibly use, but made no
attempt whatever to carry any meat back to the starving and abandoned
Frenchman. Instead they wasted two valuable days in gorging themselves
and smoking the flesh for their own journey.
For days they followed the course of the Kahuinari, hugging its right
bank, and in this way happened across a Colombian half-breed, from whom
they sought assistance. The Colombian took them to his house near the
Avio Parana but would not grant them even food until they paid for it
with the rifles they carried. The idea of succouring Robuchon was far
removed from his philosophy. The boys, then, having surrendered their
rifles in return for the stores they so much needed, made the narrow
crossing from the Avio Parana to the Papunya River, and followed that
stream without deviation to its junction with the river Issa. Turning
backward up the left bank of the Issa, they reached the military station
at the mouth of the Igara Parana and there told their tale.
When at last a Relief Expedition was made up, it consisted of three
negroes--John Brown and his comrades--and seventeen half-breeds. The
party left on its search for Robuchon thirty-seven days after he had been
abandoned at the mouth of the Kahuinari. It took ten days to reach the
junction of the Avio Parana and the Kahuinari, and twenty-one days more
to arrive at the camp on the Japura. It had taken ten weeks to bring
help. The relief party found some tools, some clothes, a few tins of
coffee, a little salt, and a camera. There was no trace of Robuchon, of
the Indian woman, or of the dog. On a tree was nailed a paper, but the
written message had been washed by the rain and bleached by the sun till
it was illegible. Robuchon’s last message can never be known.
The relief party divided into two companies for the journey back--one
section of twelve, the other of eight men. The larger party arrived in
the rubber district six weeks later. The smaller party, with the three
blacks, was lost in the bush. Five months and a half afterwards five
survivors attained safety. The story of their misery is a chapter in the
history of Amazonian travel that may never be written.
Two and a half years afterwards I was returning from a disappointing trip
to the Karahone country. There were persistent rumours that Robuchon was
held a prisoner by the Indians north of the Japura. I determined to see
if any evidence could be found to settle his fate. I had in my party one
of the negroes who had accompanied the French explorer. We journeyed
overland southward through the Muenane-Resigero country till we reached
the Kahuinari, thence by canoe to the Japura River. The Japura at this
point is about a rifle-shot in width--2500 to 3000 yards across. Some
three miles below this point on the right bank, a little way back from
the river, was a small clearing. In it were three poles marking the site
of a deserted shelter. John Brown, my servant and formerly Robuchon’s,
said it was the last camp of Eugene Robuchon.
We made camp in the clearing. A little way inland I found an abandoned
Indian house, but all indications pointed to its having been deserted
many years before. Half buried in the clearing I discovered eight broken
photograph plates in a packet, and the eye-piece of a sextant. Other
evidence of civilised occupation there was none. At some little distance
my Indians detected traces of a path, and though to me it seemed only an
old animal track, they maintained it was a man-made road. Cutting along
the line of this path, at the end of a hard day’s work we emerged upon
a second clearing and the ruins of a shelter. After careful searching
we unearthed a rusty and much-hacked machete or trade knife. There our
discoveries ended. The path went no farther.
We encountered no Indians in our search. On further investigation it
appeared that there are none in the vicinity, and the nearest to the
deserted camp on the south of the river are the Boro living on the Pama
River, forty or fifty miles away.
Believing that the most probable route of escape was down the Japura, I
journeyed slowly eastward almost to the mouth of the Apaporis. We then
turned and came back, searching the right bank. Throughout this time we
found no Indians and no signs of Indians. On the bank, about a mile and
a half below Robuchon’s last camp, we found the remains of a broken and
battered raft. It had evidently been carried down in full river, and left
stranded on the fall of the waters. Brown recognised the wreck as that
of the raft which the Frenchman’s party had built after the loss of the
canoe. But it afforded no clue.
Much as I should have liked at this time to pursue my investigations
among the Indians of the left, or north, bank of the river, I had
perforce to give up further progress for the time being on account of
the mutinous hostility of my boys. Nothing would persuade them that they
would not be eaten up if they crossed the great river at this point.
Foiled, therefore, in my attempts to learn anything on the scene of
Robuchon’s disappearance, I determined to prosecute inquiries among the
Boro scattered about the peninsula bounded by the Pama, the Kahuinari,
and the Japura. But here also no amount of examination could elicit any
information as to the explorer, the woman, or the dog. I was particularly
impressed by the fact that the existence of the Great Dane--an object
of awe to the Indians--had left no legend among the natives. Robuchon
himself wrote of his hound: “My dog, as always, entered the house first.
The great size of Othello, his flashing teeth, and close inspection of
strangers, his blood-shot eyes and bristling hair invariably inspired
fear and respect among the Indians.” Had such an animal fallen into the
hands of the Boro, I feel certain its fame would have outlived that of
any chance European who might have become their prisoner, however much
they desired to conceal their participation in his murder. My own Boro
boys could find no record among their compatriots of the presence of
Othello or his master.
After this we proceeded in a northerly direction, and, crossing the
Japura, visited the Boro tribe located on the north bank of the river,
between the Wama and the Ira tributaries. The chief of this tribe had
married a Menimehe woman who, curiously enough, remained on terms of
friendship with her parent tribe. The chief informed me that in the
Long, Long Before--from reference to the size of his son at the time,
I calculated about three years previously--the Menimehe had captured a
white man with face hairy as a monkey’s. As Robuchon was wearing a beard
at the time of his disappearance this seemed to present a clue, but as
the Menimehe refused to confirm the statement, and there was no mention
of the woman or of the dog, it added but little to the evidence of his
fate.
[Illustration: Spot where Eugene Robuchon was last seen]
The testimony was further weakened by the knowledge that about that
time either the Menimehe or the Yahuna destroyed a Colombian settlement
near the mouth of the Apaporis River, and made prisoners of white men.
Whatever the truth of the bearded white man, there was certainly no
memory remaining of the Indian woman nor of Othello, the Great Dane.
On my return to the Rubber Belt I learned that Robuchon had been lost on
a previous expedition for a considerable period, and had lived during
that time with Indians. Although this had occurred in the regions south
of the Amazon on the Peru-Brazil-Bolivian frontier, somewhere in the
neighbourhood of the Acre River, the general haziness of natives with
respect to place and time may have accounted for the rumours of captivity
among the semi-civilised Indians of the Rubber Belt, which set me on a
fruitless search among the Indians of the Kahuinari-Japura.
To sum up the evidence with respect to the fate of Robuchon, it seems
to me that he did not die of starvation at the mouth of the Kahuinari,
because a certain amount of food-stuff was found by the first Relief
Expedition at the site of the camp, but no signs of human remains. The
illegible message nailed to the tree suggests that he vacated the spot
and endeavoured to leave information as to his route for those who might
come to his relief.
Robuchon had five courses open to him once he decided on abandoning the
camp:
1. He could retrace his steps up the Japura. With respect to this means
of escape, I consider it extremely improbable that he would attempt to
return against stream over the route which he had already traversed with
such difficulty when aided by the current and the full strength of his
party.
2. He could proceed across the Japura to the country of the Menimehe. He
was unlikely, however, to cross that river, owing to the bad name enjoyed
by the Menimehe. He could not count upon a relief expedition following
him there.
3. He could journey up the Kahuinari. He could hardly negotiate the
difficulties of the upstream journey though with the inadequate
assistance of a single woman. He was aware of the existence of unfriendly
tribes on the banks. My inquiries among the Pama Boro yielded no trace of
his ever having been seen upon the river. If he had made his way along
the right bank of that river, probably some evidence of him would have
been found by the relief party.
4. He could have voyaged down the Japura in a canoe or upon a raft. It
would have been very hazardous to have attempted this alone--practically
hopeless. In any event, if he did make the attempt, he failed to reach
the nearest rubber settlement.
5. There remains one means of escape--by an overland march. It would
appear that he adopted this method, but only without any idea of
permanent relief, in desperate search of temporary assistance. The line
of the Kahuinari was the obvious route for a rescue party. Robuchon,
however, was starving, and the native track promised a path to a native
house and food.
I presume he was located by a band of visiting Indians, captured, and
either murdered or carried away in captivity to their haunts on the north
bank of the Japura. I suggest the probability of the Indians coming
from the north bank up the Japura, because, so far as I could learn,
it was not the custom of the Pama Boro to journey to the mouth of the
Kahuinari, since they could obtain all they needed from the river at
points more easily and more speedily accessible to them. There were no
Indians resident in the vicinity, but Indians from across the Japura made
excursions at low river in search of game or of turtles and their eggs.[4]
It is upon one of those chance bands that reluctantly I am forced to lay
the responsibility for the death of Eugene Robuchon in March or April
1906.
This was little enough to add to the ascertained fact of Robuchon’s end,
but such as it was it brushed aside some of the mystery, and proved of
interest to the members of the French Geographical Society and to the
relatives of the lost explorer.[5]
After concluding my investigations among the Boro in the vicinity of the
Pama River, I again crossed the Japura River near the Boro settlement
on the north of that river, and proceeded eastward into the country of
the Menimehe. This country appears more sparsely populated than the
Kahuinari districts, and the manners and customs of these people vary
considerably from the tribes inhabiting the country to the south.
From the most easterly point I decided to proceed in a north-westerly
direction with a view to striking the upper waters of the Uaupes River
eventually. It was in this neighbourhood that I developed beriberi; and,
owing to the swelling of my legs, which were covered with wounds and
sores, I was only able to walk with difficulty, although I had no pain.
My brain was numbed as well as my legs. I slept at every opportunity,
did not want to eat, and seemed to be under the effect of some delusive
narcotic. Yet I never failed to take all necessary precautions--it was
mechanical, a mere habit. Stores were running short, owing to their bad
condition, and my boys and carriers were becoming mutinous. Game was
scarce, and the few native houses we encountered were for the most part
deserted; what Indians we came across were surly and sullen, and appeared
latently hostile.
I decided to return, overcome by the argument of Brown that if I did not
do so the boys would go, so we turned back to the east and south of the
original line, and proceeded overland by way of the Kuhuinari River to
the Igara Parana, and thence to the Kara Parana by river. Arriving at
the latter river at the end of February, and finding that the steamer
for Iquitos would not start for some time, I made a short trip among the
tribes of this river.
By reference to the sketch-map it will be seen that from the time I left
Encanto on my arrival from Iquitos to my arrival at the same place, bound
for Iquitos, was approximately seven months.
The difficulties in the way of obtaining information are such that
it is only those who sink for the nonce all inherited and acquired
ideas of superiority, manners, and customs who can be successful. As a
consequence, the stranger will have to journey with savages, eat with
savages, sleep with savages, from the moment he seeks to penetrate their
land. Watchfulness night and day must be the price of any desire to
understand the native in his home. The field-worker must subordinate
every previous and personal conception. Native justice must be his
justice. Almost necessarily native ethics must be his ethics. He is
no missionary seeking to convert those he meets to ideas of his own;
rather is he a learner, an inquirer, eager to understand the thoughts
that inspire them, to analyse the beliefs they themselves have gathered.
Then there is no common medium of language. Sometimes a native speaking
a tongue with which the traveller has a passing acquaintance can make
himself understood in another tribal language whereof the white man is
blankly ignorant, and then some approximation of the truth sought to be
conveyed is arrived at tortuously. For example, I had a Witoto Indian who
understood a little Andoke, and by way of Brown the Barbadian carried to
me much information of these little-known Indians. John Brown was here
invaluable as he knew Witoto well and Boro to some purpose. But much
of the appended vocabularies had to be gathered by the crude method of
pointing to an object. Having noted the word phonetically, one had to get
it confirmed by trial.
Travelling in the bush is a dreary monotony of discomfort and
ever-present danger. There are weary stretches of inundated country,
sweating swamp. You pass with an unexpected plunge from ankle-deep mire
to unbottomed main stream. The eternal sludge, sludge of travel without
a stone or honest yard of solid ground makes one long for the lesser
strain of more definite dangers or of more obtrusive horrors. The horror
of Amazonian travel is the horror of the unseen. It is not the presence
of unfriendly natives that wears one down, it is the absence of all sign
of human life. One happens upon an Indian house or settlement, but it is
deserted, empty, in ruins. The natives have vanished, and it is only the
silent message of a poisoned arrow or a leaf-roofed pitfall that tells of
their existence somewhere in the tangled undergrowth of the neighbourhood.
On the trail one speedily learns the significance of the phrase “Indian
file.” Here are none of the advance guards, flank guards, and rear guards
that are needed to penetrate unfriendly country in other lands. The first
man hacks a way for those who follow, and the bush is left as a wall on
either side that is as inscrutable to the possible enemy on the flank
as to the advancing party. On account of such conditions I should say,
from my experience of bush travel in these regions, that the whole party
should rarely if ever exceed twenty-five in number. On this principle it
will be seen that the smaller the quantity of baggage carried the greater
will be the number of rifles available for the security of the expedition.
The difficulty of an efficient food supply is very great. Game is
always hard to shoot on account of the density of the bush, and in many
parts appears to be non-existent. Preserved goods in sealed cases, of
convenient size for porterage, should be taken from Europe. My failure
to carry out my original intentions was due more than anything else to
the fact that my supplies were purchased in the country, and 50 per
cent proved unfit for consumption. The country where supplies must be
husbanded has little enough of food that is appetising to offer. Fish,
if plentiful, are hard to catch for the uninitiated. One hungers for the
occasional tapir or peccary, the joys of monkey-meat, and an incautious,
though unpalatable, parrot, and in the days of real distress may be
glad to fall back on frogs, snakes, and palm-heart. The real fear of
starvation, after perhaps the ghastly dread of being lost, is the great
cause of anxiety to the traveller in the Amazons.
As for shelter,--a tent is an encumbrance,--an open screen of rough palm
thatch can be erected in a very short time, and is all that is necessary,
although not all that is to be desired. The shelter is a poor one that
does not prevent the dews and the inevitable rain from chilling one to
the bone.
Clothes for the Amazons are not designed with a view to fashion or
appearance. In the past, continental explorers have introduced some
interesting fashions in ducks and khaki, but travelling through a
country where one’s life is passed in a bath of perspiration, their
distinction of appearance yields to the simple comfort of the native’s
nudity. In search of a compromise, I have found that a thin flannel suit
of pyjamas with the trouser-legs tucked into the socks, and a pair of
carpet slippers laced over the instep, best meet the requirements of the
region. Ordinary boots are a positive danger on account of the narrow and
sometimes slippery tree-trunks over which one clambers uneasily. A small
towel round the neck to wipe away the perspiration is a great comfort.
For head-gear a cloth cap or “smasher” hat suffices.
A long knife or cutlass must be carried, and, personally, I invariably
carried a revolver, while the gun-bearer should always be at hand with
a rifle or scatter-gun. A blanket, sleeping-bag, and waterproof sheet
of course must be taken, with the other comforts, medical and hygienic,
common to all expeditions.
The drawings that appear in this volume are either taken from photographs
or from actual trophies and articles in my possession. The photographs
are a record of industry and patience. Films I found useless in this
climate, and plates alone materialised. It must be remembered, also, that
every time plates have to be changed it is necessary to build a small
house, and double thatch and treble thatch to prevent the entrance of any
light. Even then the experienced do their work at night.
The difficulty of posing and overcoming the objection of the native
subject will be at once realised. Too many groups have been draped by
explorers in the unaccustomed decencies of camp equipment, though it has
become an essential of the country--climatic and psychological--that
the women walk abroad naked and the men unembarrassed by more than a
loin-cloth.
The maps cannot pretend to be more than the roughest approximate
sketch-maps. When absence of a horizon and the density of the bush are
realised, it will be obvious that they can be nothing more. It is hoped
that they will suffice to give some idea of the general trend of the
country and the location of the various language-groups.
[Illustration: PLATE II.
A HOUSE IN THE ‘RUBBER BELT,’ ISSA VALLEY]