Attacked by Beri-beri--A Journey up the Madeira River to the
Relief of Filippe the Negro and Recovery of Valuable Baggage left
with him--Filippe paid off--A Journey up the River
Solimeõs--Iquitos
I ARRIVED in Manaos in the evening of November 15th. I was very ill
indeed, my right foot so swollen that I could hardly stand on it, and so
painful that I could not put on a shoe or even a slipper, so that I had
to hop about with only a sock over it. The doctor on board had told me
that I was suffering from beri-beri, and although I tried not to believe
him I was gradually forced to the conclusion that he was right. In fact,
atrophy set in by degrees--one of the characteristics of beri-beri being
that after a time you feel no pain at all. You can dig a pin into the
affected part, or pluck off all the hairs without feeling the slightest
pain. I was in a bad way, although I never laid up for an entire day.
From the moment I arrived I "got busy," to use an American expression, in
order to go to the rescue of Filippe the negro and another man I had left
in charge of my valuable baggage near the mouth of the Canuma River, a
tributary of the Madeira. It was necessary for me to borrow or charter a
steam launch for one or two days, so that I could save men and baggage. I
applied to the Governor of the Amazonas, who had received telegraphic
instructions from the Central Government to give me every possible
assistance. When I called upon him he said he was not the "black servant"
of the President of the Republic; that he was practically an independent
ruler, and would obey nobody's orders or instructions, especially from
the Central Government.
[Illustration: an Elevated Trail overlooking a Foaming Torrent.
(See arch cut in the rock.)]
I told him that the work I had done was principally for the good of
Brazil; that all I asked him was to help me to save the lives of two
Brazilian citizens, and the maps, photographs, etc., which would be
useful chiefly to Brazilians, whatever their political views were. I
would gladly pay out of my own pocket, within reasonable bounds, all
expenses in connection with the trip. If I had applied to him it was only
because I had found it impossible at Manaos to charter a steam launch.
I spread out before the Governor a map of South America, showing the
journey I had taken from Rio de Janeiro to Manaos marked in red. The
Governor, who had evidently never seen a map before, turned it upside
down, mistook the entire map of South America for a map of his own
Province, and seemed to be under the impression that the Amazon had its
birth close to Rio de Janeiro.
A bitter enemy of all foreigners, especially Englishmen, the Governor was
detested by everybody, and was at open war with the Commandante of the
Federal troops in the town. All the money which should have been spent in
embellishing or improving the town, was mis-spent in keeping a large army
of police--over 2,000 men, I believe--for his personal protection.
My audience with the Governor did not last long, and I paid him back in
his own coin. He immediately turned round then, with great courtesy
begging me to stay and talk matters over, and said that he would be
delighted to be of use to me in showing me around the city. I merely
turned my back upon him, as I would on any nonentity, and limped out of
the palace. Several messages were sent to me afterwards, which I treated
with the contempt they deserved.
As nearly all the launches in the place belonged to the Government, I had
then to apply to the Commandante of the flotilla of the Government boats.
It will be easily understood that my anxiety was great to go and rescue
my men; so that on leaving the palace I immediately proceeded to the
private house of this gentleman--a great friend of the Governor, I
learned afterwards. On sending in my card at five o'clock in the
afternoon I was kept waiting a little time, then there appeared a
yellow-faced individual in his pyjamas, muttering words which I should
not like to repeat.
"What do you want?" he said to me. "Do you not know that I sleep from
twelve to six every afternoon? What do you mean by disturbing me? I am
sure you would not disturb officers of your own Navy in this way!"
I very politely answered that the officers of my Navy were well known for
being wide awake at all times, and not for sleeping the whole day as well
as the entire night. When I explained to him, and presented the order
from the Minister of Marine requesting any officer of the Brazilian Navy
to give every possible assistance, he told me that none of his boats
were in a condition to move out; furthermore they were needed, as great
political trouble was expected in the city.
I was beginning to feel anxious, as in my weak state it would have been a
serious matter for me to undertake the river journey in a small
rowing-boat, which journey would have occupied several weeks, when I
could have done the whole thing in two or three days at the most in a
steam launch. Even a rowing-boat was not obtainable unless you purchased
it outright, and if you obtained the boat you could not obtain the men to
row it.
It is extraordinary how many things in the world depend on absolute
chance. When I returned, sadly disappointed, to the hotel, I met a Swiss
gentleman, Dr. Alberto Maso, who was in the employ of the Brazilian
Government as delegate of the Minister of Agriculture for the Territory
of the Acre. I had met him in Rio de Janeiro a year before. I told him
what had happened that day with the Governor and the Commandante of the
Flotilla. Dr. Maso immediately took the matter in hand.
That same evening there was a meeting of the Associação Commercial do
Amazonas, a most useful society in Manaos composed of the cleverest and
soundest business men of that place. I was presented to the President,
Mr. J. G. Araujo, and to Dr. Bertino Miranda, the honorary secretary--the
latter a man of letters of great distinction, well known not only in his
own country but in Latin countries all over Europe as well.
I was received by these gentlemen and the other members of the
Association with the greatest consideration, and before I left that
evening they assured me that they would procure a launch for me with
which to go and rescue my men.
The next morning, in fact, I was taken to call on the Commandante of the
Federal troops, who willingly and most courteously placed at my disposal
his steam launch. A delay of several days took place, as unfortunately
the steam launch had lost her propeller and it was necessary to make a
new one. Also the engine had to be repaired, and a crew had to be
engaged--a task which gave all those concerned a considerable amount of
trouble.
I had, of course, to pay for the maintenance of the crew during the
journey, and it cost me nearly a hundred pounds to fit her out with all
the plates, knives, cooking utensils, and other paraphernalia necessary
for her crew of sixteen men. In any other country three men would have
been more than sufficient to run a launch of that size.
I also had to employ at my own expense a pilot--no steamboat was allowed
to go without one--whom I had to pay at the rate of £7 15_s._ sterling a
day. A cook had to be employed for the crew, as none of the sailors could
be induced to condescend to be the chef. Two applicants were eventually
found. One who was willing to do the cooking at a salary of £3 10_s._ a
day, his chief ability, said he, consisting in boiling rice and fish.
Another fellow eventually undertook the job at a salary of £1 10_s._ a
day, he being willing to do the cooking at such a small salary as he
said he had never in his life cooked before, and he did not know whether
we should care for his cooking or not. It must not for one moment be
believed that these men were trying to cheat me, and putting on prices,
for indeed these are the current rates for everybody who wishes to travel
in those regions. The cost of commodities of any kind in Manaos was
excessive, and went beyond even the limits of robbery. I went into a
chemist's shop to purchase a small bottle of quinine tablets, worth in
England perhaps eightpence or a shilling. The price charged there was £2
10_s._
Principally owing to the Booth Line Steamship Company and the allied
companies, Manaos has become a good-sized place. The Harbour Works and
the works made by the Manaos Improvements, Ltd., have been a great boon
to that place, and have made it almost as civilized as a third-class
European city. But obstacles have been placed in the way of honest
foreign companies carrying on their work successfully, the unscrupulous
behaviour of the Governor and the attitude of the mob having proved
serious drawbacks to the development of the place.
[Illustration: La Mercedes.]
[Illustration: The Avenue of Eucalypti near the Town of Tarma (Andes).]
Large sums of money have been wasted in building a strawberry-coloured
theatre of immense size and of appalling architectural lines, on the top
of which has been erected a tiled dome of gigantic proportions over an
immense water-tank in order to protect the theatre against fire. The
water-tank was calculated to let down a great cascade of water, a regular
Niagara, on the flames--as well as on the spectators, I presume. After it
had been built it was discovered that if water were let into the tank,
its weight would be enough to bring down the entire upper part of the
theatre; so that it could never be filled at all.
Except for one or two short avenues, which reminded one of the suburbs of
new North American cities, there was nothing worth seeing in Manaos. The
shops were almost entirely those of jewellers, gunsmiths, sweet-sellers,
and chemists. It was in this place that the poor _seringueiros_, on their
return from rubber collecting, were in a few hours robbed of all the
money they had made during several months' hard work. There was only one
redeeming feature in Manaos: the British and American business men in the
place were most charming and hospitable in every possible way.
It was on December 3rd, 1911, that everything was ready. The hour of
departure had been fixed for ten o'clock in the evening. I went on board
at the appointed time, but the captain of the launch and the crew refused
to put out of the anchorage, as they said they would not go unless some
extra men were employed. One of the pipes of the engine had been wilfully
damaged, so that delay was caused, and we could not possibly start until
it had been repaired. The captain of the launch had worried me for
several days. He was in a constant state of intoxication.
* * * * *
On December 4th, at 11 p.m., I was actually able to make my departure
from Manaos on the launch _Amazonas_. I took in tow a rowing-boat which
had been lent me by the representative of the Minister of Agriculture in
Manaos.
By 8.30 in the morning of December 5th we entered the mouth of the
Madeira River. I was surprised at the sudden change in the appearance of
the two rivers. We saw in the Madeira high, gently sloping banks, covered
with verdant grass and neat trees and palms along the top of them;
whereas along the Amazon the trees stood almost in the water on the
recently formed islands and banks. The left bank of the Madeira was of
grey and reddish clay (grey below, red above), cut vertically, sometimes
actually in steps. Blocks of a rectangular shape, in getting dried up,
split and fell over, leaving the banks vertical. The right bank, on the
contrary, was gently sloping, descending with a beautiful carpet of green
grass into the stream. The islands were charming, with lovely lawns all
round. Blackish and deep red rock, vertical and fluted, and with
innumerable perforations, could be seen here and there, covered over with
a padding of earth from ten to twenty feet deep.
The journey up the Madeira River had no great interest. By seven o'clock
in the evening we arrived at the mouth of the Canuma River--or rather at
a channel connecting the Madeira River with the river Canuma, which river
actually has its proper mouth about half-way between Itaquatiara and
Santarem, at a place called Parintins. By way of the connecting channel
the two rivers were only a short distance apart, but that channel was not
always navigable. The steam launch, which drew little water, would have
difficulty in going through, even at that time, when the water was fairly
high.
[Illustration: On the Andes.]
[Illustration: A Street of Tarma.]
We therefore thought we would stay for the night at the mouth of the
channel, and start on our journey by that difficult passage in broad
daylight the next day. There was a house on the right-hand side of the
mouth of the channel. While we made preparations to make ourselves
comfortable for the night on the launch, the pilot went up to the house
in order to get an expert at that place to take us through the dangerous
channel.
I was just in the middle of my dinner when the pilot sent down a message
for me to go up to the house at once, as my presence was required
immediately. I struggled up the steep incline, not knowing what was up.
Much to my amazement, on reaching the house, I saw before me my man
Filippe the negro, who rushed at me and embraced me tenderly, and the
other man I had left with him in charge of the baggage. The two men had
been picked up by a boat two days up the river Canuma, where I had left
them with my baggage, and they had come down expecting to meet me in
Manaos. They had got stranded at that place, and although they had hailed
one or two steamers which had gone down the river, no one had paid any
attention to them, and there they had remained.
"Have you saved the photographs and the baggage, Filippe?" I immediately
asked, when I had made certain that both men were in good condition.
"Yes," said Filippe. "I have everything with me. I have taken the
greatest care of everything."
That was for me a happy moment, after all the vicissitudes we had had of
late. The most important part of my baggage was saved. I had taken all my
men back alive--if perhaps not very much alive--after so fateful an
expedition. I felt happy beyond words.
The man who owned the house was the trader who had taken Filippe and the
other man down the river in his boat, so I gave him a present of money
and also a lot of provisions which I had on board and which we should not
now need any more, as we should return at once to Manaos.
[Illustration: The Market Place, Tarma.]
Next morning, all as happy as possible, we steamed down full speed on our
way back to Manaos. We came in for dirty weather all the time, which
obliged us to halt for several hours and put into Itaquatiara for
shelter. A few hours later we were once more in the capital of the
Amazonas, in the city of jewellers' shops and filthy food. On landing I
found Maxim guns and artillery on one side of the principal square, with
police troops in charge of them ready to fire; while on the other side
were the Federal troops, also with their artillery ready for battle. It
was with some concern that I found myself obliged to pass between those
warlike bodies in order to enter the hotel. I was not so anxious for
myself as I was for my photographic negatives and note-books, after I had
taken all that trouble to save them.
However, the Governor at the last moment became scared, and went
personally to call on the Commandante of the Federal troops in order to
assure him of his friendship and affection, so that after all no battle
took place that day.
Only a short time previously the flotilla had bombarded the town. The
people of Manaos had got so accustomed to those little excitements that
they thought nothing of them. There were occasionally a few people
killed, but that was all.
It will be remembered that the _idée fixe_ of Filippe the negro was to
buy himself a _mallettinha_ (a little trunk). The first thing he had
asked me after I had rescued him was if I had seen any good
_mallettinhas_ in Manaos. So after landing we at once proceeded to buy a
tin _mallettinha_ with a strong lock. Then I paid him off and gave him an
ample reward, as he had been the pluckiest and most faithful of all my
men. He was certainly the man who had given me the least trouble of the
entire lot.
Filippe had tears in his eyes when he received his pay and present. He
embraced me and thanked me a million times for having made him a rich
man.
"After all," said he, "we have suffered a great deal, but now I shall be
happy for ever. I shall marry the girl who is waiting for me at home."
"If ever I come out on another journey, Filippe, will you go with me
again?" I asked him.
Filippe pondered for a moment. "Yes," he said with determination. "I have
proved to you that I am afraid of nothing. You only have to order me, and
I will go with you. Even if we are to suffer again as we have suffered on
this journey!"
Filippe was a good fellow.
The other man when paid off received his money and his reward silently.
He went out into the street, and returned four hours later without one
single penny. He had purchased an expensive suit of clothes, a number of
silk neckties, a gold chain, watch, etc.
The next morning there was a steamer sailing for Rio de Janeiro, so I
packed off the jubilant Filippe, paying a second-class passage for him
on the steamer and a first-class on the railway, as I had done for the
other men, with wages up to the day of his arrival in Araguary, his
native town.
Thus I saw the last of that plucky man--the only one who had remained of
the six who had originally started with me.
On December 16th I left Manaos for good on my way to Peru, escorted to
the good Booth Line steamer _Atahualpa_ by the Commandante of the Federal
troops, the representatives of the Associação Commercial, Dr. Maso, and
some of my English and American friends.
It was with the greatest delight that I saw Manaos vanish away from sight
as we descended the Rio Negro. Rounding the point at its mouth, steaming
towards the west, we entered the Solemões River. This river is navigable
by fairly good-sized boats as far as Iquitos, in the province of Loreto
in Peru.
[Illustration: The Highest Point where Author crossed the Andes
before reaching the Railway at Oroya.]
I was badly in need of rest, and expected to get it on those few days of
navigation up the river, having dreamt of how I could lie on deck and do
nothing, as that part was well known and there was no work for me to do.
But, indeed, on that journey none of my dreams were realized, for, worse
luck, the steamer, which had only accommodation for ten, carried not less
than seventy or eighty passengers, fifty of them forming part of a
Spanish theatrical company which was on its way to Iquitos. The deck of
the ship had been turned into a kind of theatre, where rehearsals went on
day and night. When the rehearsals were not going on, the men and women,
following the usual habits of theatrical people, sang and practised
flights of notes--which was a little trying after the dead silence of the
forest.
However, thanks to the great civility of the managers of the Booth Line
at Manaos, and to the extreme thoughtfulness of the captain of the
_Atahualpa_, I was made quite comfortable in the chart-room of the ship,
which was as far away as possible from the noise. We were most of the
time in mid-stream. The river was so wide that we could not see anything
on either side. We steamed up day after day, occasionally passing islands
of some beauty rising above the muddy waters of the Solimões. Navigation
of that river was difficult, as the navigable channels were constantly
changing, islands disappearing and new islands forming all the time.
Elich Island, in the Timbuctuba group, was fast disappearing, while
another island was forming just below it.
We passed the mouth of the Putumayo River at sunset one day, a most
wonderful effect of clouds being produced over a brilliant cadmium yellow
and vermilion sky, shining with great brightness above the dark green
trees upon a high reddish cliff.
In a drenching morning at five o'clock we reached Esperança, the
Brazilian frontier post, which consisted of half a dozen one-storied
houses with red-tiled roofs, situated on a grassy expanse. Grassy hills
of no great height rose at the mouth of the Javari River, a southern
tributary of the Solimões River, forming there the boundary between
Brazil and Peru. Dark green foliage perched high up on asparagus-like
stems of trees formed a background to that wretchedly miserable place.
Tabatinga, on the left side of the stream, was the Brazilian military
post on the frontier. A neatly-built, loopholed, square blockhouse,
painted white, was situated some fifty feet above the level of the river
on the summit of the bank. It was reached by a long flight of white
cement steps. The Brazilian flag flew gaily upon a flagstaff at this most
westerly point of the great Brazilian Republic on the Amazon (Solimões)
River.
A few soldiers dressed in khaki stood, with their legs wide apart,
watching the arrival of the steamer, while their officers in speckless
white clothes hastily descended the long flight of steps and came on
board, bringing bouquets of flowers to the captain.
There was a pretty garden near the blockhouse. Three mountain guns
pointed viciously at the river from the most exposed position in
Tabatinga at the top of the staircase. According to the account of a
non-commissioned officer, there was a force there of 240 soldiers
"_escondido no matto_"--that is to say, kept hidden in the forest!
After we had passed the frontier on the north side of the river, a tiny
tributary brook, almost hidden by the vegetation and only identified by a
white-barked tree on the left bank and huts on either side, the scenery
made a change for the better.
Leticia was the name of the Peruvian frontier post, which consisted of
two or three brick sheds with corrugated iron roofs.
We arrived at Iquitos on December 23rd, at 8.30 a.m., having employed
seven days and twenty hours on our run from Manaos.