Across Unknown South America

by Arnold Henry Savage Landor

We went down another strong rapid between great and dangerously situated rocks and a large island. Then came another wonderful group of high domed rocks, one of the great domes displaying a sharp northern spur like the ram of a battleship. Next to it were three cylindrical rocks, just like towers, one of which leant over the dome.

Yet another rapid was shot through with no misadventure, and when we came to the end of a large island 4,500 m. long and 80 m. wide—Priscilla Island—preceded by a smaller islet of sand and gravel, we arrived at a direct stretch of 4,000 m. of river, flowing to the west. Another rocky islet with an accumulation of sand and a lot of scattered rocks by its side, then a high island, were passed on our right, and farther on we found another great group of globular rocks at the point where Daphne Island, 350 m. in length, began.

I hardly had time to map out the numberless rocks and islands we met before we came upon others. There again we saw three more islands in succession—Mars Island, 500 m. long and 100 m. wide; Jupiter Island, 250 m. long; and a third and smaller one, separated from the second by a channel strewn with huge boulders.

To the N.N.W., at 340° b.m., we saw a hill 300 ft. high, some distance from the stream. Innumerable rocks again occurred in the centre of the channel, and then we came to an extensive triangular island—Barretos Island—the base of which was 300 m. Its left side was 2,000 m. long, its eastern or right side about 1,500 m. A hill range some 300 ft. high was looming before us to the north-east. The second island—Antonio Prado Island—had a total length of 2,000 m. with an average width of 200 m.

On this magnificent island we halted at five o'clock in the afternoon, and I took altitude observations with the hypsometrical apparatus: 1,062 ft. above the sea level.

We were again lucky in fishing that evening. We caught six trahiras, several pacus, and two young jahus—altogether some 120 lb. in weight. My men had wasted so much food, and so much had been spoiled by constant immersions—many of the tinned meats had been altogether spoiled by the tins having got rusty and gradually perforated—that I was beginning to feel rather anxious in case our journey should last longer than I expected. Unfortunately, we had lost most of our salt, and we had no way of preserving the fish, which we had to leave on the banks, absolutely wasted. In order, however, to show how lazy my men were, it is enough to say that, rather than take the slight trouble of placing some pieces of the excellent fish on board the canoe instead of trusting entirely to the luck we might have in fishing the next evening, they had to go the entire day without food. For some reason or other we could not get a single fish to bite, and we did not find a single bird or monkey to shoot.

I was rather interested to observe, in looking over my notes, that nearly all the rocky barriers we had met stretching across the river extended from south-east to north-west. I believe that similar barriers stretched in the same direction in the other southern tributaries of the Amazon, the Xingu and the Madeira Rivers, but, curiously enough, this was not the case with the River Araguaya.

We had made our camp that particular night on a lovely beach of white sand, which I found perfectly delicious, but which my men hated, as there were no trees on which they could hang their hammocks. They did not like to go into the luxuriant forest of the beautiful island, as they were afraid to go too far away from me, and I did not wish to go too far away from the canoe, which we had beached on the gravel bank, in case the river should rise suddenly or something should happen to make her float away. As I have said, I never, during the entire journey, let that canoe go out of my sight for one single moment. The men, therefore, went into the forest to cut big poles, which they afterwards planted with much exertion, in the sand near my camp-bed.

Some amusing scenes happened during the night, when the poles gradually gave way with the weight of the men in the hammocks, and, tumbling down altogether, gave them severe blows on their heads and bodies.