Across Unknown South America Part 29

On June 10th Alcides and I were making ready to depart, with all the animals and baggage, when the four mutinous followers and Filippe the negro--most penitent--begged to be re-employed. Under ordinary circ.u.mstances I should certainly never have taken them back; but when one was hundreds of miles from everywhere, and had no possible way of finding a man, one had to be patient and make the best of what one could get. I gave them another chance--princ.i.p.ally in order to save what I could of my baggage, most of which I was certain I should have had to abandon had I proceeded alone with Alcides.

The Capim Branco river was situated between two undulating ridges of lava.

I steered a course of 300 bearings magnetic (N.W.), beginning a steep climb at once through the thin forest of the plateau to the north. In many places the mules slid and rolled down the precipitous slope of igneous rock and marble debris, scattering the packs in every direction.

It was a wonder they were not killed. We urged the animals on, we pushed and pulled them, we held them with all our might by the bridles when they began to slide. After many narrow escapes we reached the summit--an immense flat stretch of campos with stunted trees and delicious crisp air--quite delightful after the stifling atmosphere of the Capim Branco basin. The elevation above the sea level was 2,300 ft. On the summit of the plateau was a deep stratum of red soil. Having marched across the entire width of the plateau, we found, on descending on the opposite side, another series of dome-like mounds of crimson volcanic rock, with hardly any vegetation on them--joined together, and forming many headlands, as it were. Beyond an empty s.p.a.ce--an opening in the landscape--a great barrier crossed the range of domes almost at right angles.

We descended through thick undergrowth, under big _jatoba do matto_ (_Hymencaea Courbaril_ L.) trees. The _jatoba_ or _jatahy_ wood has a high specific gravity, and is considered one of the woods with the highest resistance to disintegration in Brazil--as high as 1 kg. 315 gr. per square centimetre.

At 2,050 ft. we found a streamlet flowing southward. We were then in a gra.s.sy basin--another _cuvette_ with two central tufts of thickly packed trees. We were lucky enough to see some _coco babento_ palms, from which we shook down dates which were excellent, although somewhat troublesome to eat, owing to the innumerable filaments protecting the central large stone. These filaments stuck between one's teeth, and were most difficult to remove. The dates were the size and shape of an ordinary English walnut and extremely oily.

It was a real joy to see fine healthy trees again, after the miserable specimens we had seen of late. Even there, too, the powerful trees which emerged from the lower entangled scrub and dense foliage were greatly contorted, as if they had gone through a terrific effort in order to push their way through to reach the light and air. Liane innumerable and of all sizes hung straight or festooned from the highest trees or coiled in a deadly embrace round their branches like snakes. Nor were they the only enemies of trees. Large swellings could be noticed around most of the trees, caused by the terrible _cupim_ (_termes alb.u.m_) or white ants, carrying out their destructive work just under the bark. Many indeed were the trees absolutely killed by those industrious little devils.

As we marched through the _matto_, using the large knives freely to open our way, we had to make great deviations in our course--now because of a giant _jatoba_ lying dead upon the ground, then to give a wide berth to a group of graceful _akuri_ palms, with their huge spiky leaves. Those palms had great bunches of fruit. We were beginning now to find trees with fan-like extensions at the roots and base, such as I had frequently met with in the forests of Mindanao Island (Philippine Archipelago), where they were called _caripapa_ and _nonoko_ trees. The _vines_ or _liane_ were getting interesting, some being of great length and of colossal size, twisted round like a ship's cable.

We rose again to an elevation of 2,600 ft. On emerging from the cool dark forest and its refreshing green light, we found ourselves on another plateau with a slightly arched summit, of beautiful campos. From that height we looked over the immense undulating plain to the south. To the south-east we gazed upon a lower flat-topped plateau bounding the valley which, in great sweeping undulations from south-east to north-west, resembled an ocean with waves of colossal magnitude. We travelled across the slightly domed gra.s.sy plateau, and found on it a _cuvette_--only slightly depressed this time, but with the usual central line of tall trees with luxuriant foliage, _burity_ palms and _pintahyba_ trees.

There, too, we had a surface stratum of red earth and fine brown dust, with an under stratum of grey ashes. Soon after we came to a second _cuvette_, and farther north a third could be perceived. In fact, the summit of that particular table-land was made up of subsidiary domes dividing _cuvette_ from _cuvette_ in succession.

In going down to 2,550 ft. we found a streamlet flowing northwest into the Rio das Mortes--or "River of Death." We were there on the great divide between the waters flowing south into the S. Lourenco and eventually into the Parana, and those flowing north--after thousands of kilometres--into the Amazon. This little rivulet was therefore interesting to me, for it was the first one I had met flowing north since leaving the Araguaya--although not the first whose waters eventually flowed in a circuitous way into the Amazon.

That was a day of great domes--all of them with perfect curves. On them the grazing was magnificent. To the north a wonderful green dome, larger than the others (elev. 2,650 ft.), would have been splendid for cattle raising. Not a sign of life could be seen anywhere. Seldom have I seen nature so still and devoid of animal life. What immensity of rich land wasted! It made one's heart bleed to see it. There was everything there to make the fortunes of a hundred thousand farmers--yet there was not a soul! There was good grazing, plenty of water. There were no roads, no trails, it is true, but with a little enterprise it would be easy to make them. With a railway pa.s.sing through, that now wasted land should become the richest on earth.

In a depression (elev. 2,450 ft.) we came to a streamlet also flowing north, which had made the soil extremely swampy. We had endless trouble in getting across, the animals sinking and sticking in the black mud up to their necks. One of the mules--more reckless than the others--actually disappeared, baggage and all, while madly struggling to extricate itself from the sucking slush and mud. It took all our efforts combined to save that animal. By the time we had all got across, men, animals, and baggage were a sight worth looking at--all filthy, absolutely smothered in black mud.

We rose upon yet another dome, and then descended to the Rio Manso or Rio das Mortes, the head-waters of which were not far from there, to the south-west, in the Serra da Chapada. The river was there only 15 metres wide, but too deep and rapid for the animals to ford, so we had to follow its bank in order to find a suitable spot. The River das Mortes flowed, roughly, first in an easterly then in a north-easterly direction, and soon, swollen by innumerable streams, became the most powerful tributary of the Araguaya River, which it met almost opposite the centre of the great island of Bana.n.a.l. In fact, one might almost consider the head-waters of the Rio das Mortes as the secondary sources of the great Araguaya. The Rio das Mortes flowed, at the particular spot where we met it, due north, along the edge of the great dome. The elevation of the top edge was 2,470 ft.

We camped that night on the Ribero do Boi, a swift torrent tributary of the Rio das Mortes (elev. 2,250 ft.), having marched 30 kil. that day.

The cold was relatively severe during the night--the thermometer registering a minimum of 48 Fahr.

We were travelling entirely by prismatic compa.s.s. My men--who had no faith whatever in what they called the _agulha_ (compa.s.s)--swore that we were going to sure perdition.

"How can that _agulha_," said they, "possibly tell you where we can find beans (_feijo_), lard (_toucinho_), and sugar bricks (_rapadura_)?" "It is the invention of some madman!" said one. "It will bring us to our death," sadly reflected another. "If I had only known that we should be entrusting our lives all the time to that _agulha_," murmured a third, pointing contemptuously to the compa.s.s, "I should have never come. Oh, my poor mother and wife! And my dear little daughter six months old! Oh, shall I ever see them again ... shall I ever see them again?" Here followed a stream of bitter tears, wiped with the ragged sleeve of his shirt.

I thought that a cold bath would do them all good. I ordered them to take all the animals and baggage across the stream. It was a job of some difficulty, owing to the very swift current. A rough bridge had to be constructed over the most dangerous part. The water was freezingly cold.

On leaving the river we at once rose again over another great dome (elev.

2,350 ft.), from which we obtained a most glorious view of other gra.s.sy domes, smooth-looking and well-rounded, with a fringe of forest in the depressions between. Down below we could see the Rio das Mortes we had left behind. It came at that spot from the south-east, and after describing an angle turned to the north-east. From the north-west, at an elevation of 2,300 ft., descended the Taperinho, a small tributary which entered the Rio das Mortes.

We went over another domed mount, where I found a spring of most delicious water emerging in a gurgle from the very summit of the dome, at an elevation of 2,400 ft. On all sides we had beautiful domed prominences with wonderful grazing land.

Alcides--careless, like all the others, with his rifle--was nearly killed that day. His rifle went off accidentally, and the bullet went right through the brim of his hat, just grazing his forehead. But we were accustomed to this sort of thing--it had happened so often--and I began to wonder when bullets would really wound or kill somebody. Indeed, we had a guardian angel over us.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Picturesque Waterfall on the S. Lourenco River.]

We had descended into the belt of forest in the depression (elev. 2,270 ft.), where a streamlet flowed to the north-east into the Rio das Mortes.

We were travelling in a north-easterly direction, owing to the formation of the country; but finding that it would take me too much away from my intended course I again altered our direction to a course due north. At an elevation of 2,480 ft. we went over an extraordinary natural bridge of solidified ashes and earth--a regular tunnel--under which pa.s.sed a streamlet of delicious water--the Pulado Stream. The river emerged some distance off from under the tunnel. Curiously enough, while the vegetation was quite dense both above and below the natural bridge, there was no vegetation at all along the hundred metres forming the width of the bridge. Perhaps that was due to the lack of evaporation in that section, which supplied the trees elsewhere with moisture.

We rode over many domes of an elevation of 2,550 ft., and then over some that were smaller in diameter but of greater height. In the depressions between we invariably found rows of _burity_ palms amidst other vegetation, and the characteristic heavily foliaged trees.

We encamped near a delicious spring of water on the very summit of a dome. The water emerged from a circular hole and was warm--so much so that the next morning, when my Fahrenheit thermometer registered an atmospheric temperature of 50, steam rose from the water of the spring.

Around the spring a curious conical mound of white finely powdered matter resembling kaolin had formed. This appeared to me to have formerly been a small geyser. The cone was broken on one side and the water did not come out with great force. A few yards down the slope of the dome another similar white cone was to be seen, with a great ma.s.s of granular ash-pellets and tufa, such as are commonly found near geysers or thermal springs. We called that camp Cayambola.

On the night of June 12th the minimum temperature was 50 Fahr., the elevation 2,430 ft. The sky was somewhat clouded, the clouds occupying four-tenths of the heavens. At sunrise we observed radiations in the sky--this time, curiously enough, from north-east to south-west, instead of from east to west. The longest and highest semicircle above us was in double filaments, and resembled an immense fish-bone.

We were supposed to be then in a country infested by cannibal Indians--swarms of them. My men were quite amusing in their fears. Four of them were troublesome and insisted on the whole expedition turning back in order to see them safely out of danger. I remembered on those occasions an old Italian proverb which said that to "women, lunatics, and children" the wisest thing is always to say "Yes."

So when they threatened all kinds of things if we did not return I generally answered that we would continue a little farther, then we would see; and from day to day this went on, making forced marches forward all the time--generally of from 30 to 42 kil. daily. The dissatisfaction among my men grew, nevertheless, considerable, and a constant watch had to be kept over them. Alcides and Filippe the negro showed great courage, and, whatever other failings they may have had, they invariably displayed extraordinary bravery from beginning to end.

Alcides' princ.i.p.al faults were his great wastefulness and violent temper and pride, which made it most difficult to deal with him. He had been entrusted with the commissariat, as with all my other occupations I could not be bothered to sort out and weigh the food for each man at each meal.

Alcides would not understand that it was unwise, in a country where absolutely nothing was procurable, to throw away daily little mountains of rice and beans and preserved meat, after the men and our dogs had gorged themselves; and that perhaps it would lead some day to our dying of starvation. In confidence I had told him that we might be several months--perhaps a year--before we should be able to get fresh supplies. A little economy would perhaps save us all from disaster. I wanted everybody to have ample food, but I did not see the use of throwing away daily a larger quant.i.ty than the men actually ate. It was true that we still had ample provisions of all kinds for some eight months, but we must be prepared for all emergencies.

Alcides, who was extremely obstinate, would not hear of this. My remarks only made things worse. The waste from that day doubled, and looking ahead into the future it really broke my heart, as I well saw that we should have hard times in front of us--all because of the lack of common-sense on the part of my followers.

On leaving camp we climbed to the summit of another gigantic dome of green pasture land (elev. 2,500 ft.). We filled our lungs with the delicious air, slightly stirred by a fresh northerly breeze.

Geographically, we were at a most important site, for it was from that point that the division of waters took place between those flowing eastward into the Araguaya and those flowing westward into the Cuyaba River. So that within a distance of a few kilometres we had visited the region--the very heart of Brazil--from which the waters parted to flow toward three different points of the compa.s.s.

From that point we rose still higher to the summit of a great table-land, absolutely flat and waterless for over 30 kil. The soil was red in colour, with slippery dried gra.s.s upon it and spa.r.s.e, stunted vegetation.

The trees seldom reached a height of 5 ft. They were mostly _gomarabia_ or _goma arabica_--a sickly-looking acacia; _pa.s.santo_ with its huge leaves, _piqui_ or _pequia_ (_Aspidosperma sessiliflorum_ and _eburneum_ Fr. All.), the fibrous _piteira_ or _poteira_ (_Fourcroya gigantea_ Vent.), and short _tocun_ or _tuc.u.m_ palms (_Astrocaryum tuc.u.ma_ M.).

Occasionally one saw a _pa.s.santo_ tree slightly taller--perhaps some 10 to 12 ft. high--most anaemic-looking.

After having travelled some 24 kil. from our last camp we came to a great expanse of _taquary_, a kind of shrub 3 ft. high with spiky leaves of a wonderful green colour.

We gazed upon the superb view of an enormous plateau to the west with deep indentations in its vertical sides. Huge spurs or rams of rock stretched out across the deep depression, separating the plateau to the west from the one on which we were standing. Both plateaux were of equal height, and had evidently at one time formed one immense flat surface. On our side the plateau showed a huge slip of red volcanic earth, with a lower stratum parallel to it of baked brown rock. Under it were white lime and ashes, in sections or drifts. In the centre of the valley formed by the separation of the two sections there remained a formidable crater--extinct, of course--with an arc-shaped wall standing erect in its centre, and other lower walls forming an elongated quadrangular channel from south-east to north-west in the bottom of the crater. Two conspicuous monoliths stood up behind the huge lip of the crater to the south-west at the bottom of the valley, and also other remnants of the great convulsion of nature which had once taken place there.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Canon of Matto Grosso.]

Notwithstanding the constant annoyance of my followers, I really enjoyed my journey over the central plateau. The air was fresh and deliciously crisp and clear. One could see for miles and miles and distinguish the smallest detail in the far-away mountain sides, so pure was the atmosphere. This scene was unlike any in other countries. One could describe an entire circle around oneself, and nowhere did the eye meet a column of smoke rising above ground to indicate the presence of man. Not a bird was to be seen or heard, not a footprint upon the ground of any beast or creature of any kind. The silence of that land was most impressive. Our voices--as we spoke--sounded astonishingly and abnormally sonorous, in that region which for thousands of years had not been contaminated by sound. It seemed as if the sound-waves, undisturbed by the myriads of sounds which--as is well known--remain floating in the atmosphere in inhabited countries, were heard there in all their full and absolute purity. So much were we all impressed by this fact--my men unconsciously--that all the men began to sing, so pleased they seemed with the powerful vibration of their own voices.

To the north-west another lovely sight was before us--another huge plateau in dim greyish blue--barring the horizon. In front of it was one more table-land, more broken up, and sloping on the south side.

When we reached the north-east edge of the plateau we were travelling upon, we were treated to a fresh marvellous scene. Straight in front of us, on the opposite side of a deep depression--at 30 bearings magnetic--there stood one of the characteristic two-tiered table-lands stretching from east to west. Below us in the depression was an undulating line from north to south of great bosses or domes of exquisite gra.s.sy land, resting upon a kind of spur or peninsula jutting out from our plateau--but at a lower elevation--of which it formed part.

A formidable crack in the earth's surface extended from north to south on the east of the chain of domes, whereas to the east again of the giant crack was another row of domed hills, forming--when taken as a ma.s.s--an undulating terrace; then a vertical wall, above which rested the sloping side of the plateau on which we stood. It may be observed that the strata in the split vertical wall on our side was absolutely horizontal. On the summit of this rocky stratum lay a deposit, 30 ft. thick, composed of red earth and sand over yellow sandstone and ashes, and, lower, grey ashes compressed and consolidated. The lowest stratum visible on the face of the wall was of bright red-baked rock.

The great depression, taken in its entirety, extended from south-east to north-west. The huge crater was to the south-east. To the south-west there was an immense basin.

CHAPTER XXIII

The Jangada River--Demented Descendants of Slaves--Appalling Degeneration--Giant Monoliths--The River Roncador--Gigantic Natural Gateways--The Discovery of Fossils

WE had reached the end of the comparatively flat plateau, which varied in elevation on its summit from 2,530 ft. to 2,570 ft. above the sea level.

We were next faced by a most precipitous descent in order to go down to the Jangada River--which eventually flowed into the distant Rio Cuyaba.

There was, of course, no trail of any kind, and the course of the descent before us was not unlike trying to take our animals down the almost vertical wall of a fortress. With picks and spades we cut a narrow path for a short distance in order to start the reluctant beasts down. I recommended the greatest care to my men, but instead of following my instructions they drove the rebellious quadrupeds with their whips in a heap along the path--only a few inches wide--which we had cut. Result: Collisions among the animals and against the wall, and, next, five mules and baggage rolled down the mountain-side at a vertiginous speed until they had reached the bottom, some hundreds of feet below. Antonio, the strong man of the party, who tried to go to the rescue of one of the animals, was also dragged down, and came within an ace of losing his life. He was able to embrace a shrub with all his might just before rolling over the precipice, and we rescued him. We had to waste a great deal of time cutting an improvised way in the mountain side. Then we had to unload all the animals and convey the loads down on men's heads. Each animal was then with great difficulty and danger led by hand down to the stream.

Great quant.i.ties of beautiful marble and crystals were met with, and ma.s.ses of lava pellets and ferruginous rock. In the Jangada valley we found two hot springs emerging from the side of the plateau from which we had descended. I discovered there two miserable tiny sheds belonging to a family of escaped negro slaves. They had lived seventeen years in that secluded spot. They grew enough Indian corn to support them. All the members of the family were pitifully deformed and demented. Seldom have I seen such miserable-looking specimens of humanity. One was demented to such an extent that it was impossible to get out of him more than a few disconnected groans. He spent most of his time crouched like an animal, and hardly seemed conscious of what took place round him. Another was a deaf and dumb _cretin_; a third possessed a monstrous hare-lip and a deformed jaw; while two women, dried up and skinny, and a child were badly affected by gotre. For a single family that seemed a melancholy spectacle.