Life of Rear Admiral John Randolph Tucker

by James Henry Rochelle

Two new rivers were discovered by the Commission flowing into the Pichis. One of them was named the Trinidad, from having been discovered on Trinity Sunday, and the other was called Herrera-yacu, after Major Ramon Herrera, of the Peruvian Army, who commanded the escort of the Commission. The supplies of the expedition were running too short to allow of any but a cursory examination of these two rivers. The Trinidad, trending to the westward, can only be of value as affording a water route to the plains lying between the Pichis and the Ucayali, but it is possible that the Herrera-yacu may furnish a nearer water route to Cerro de Pasco than any yet known.

Whilst the canoes of the Commission were descending the Pachitea, they were attacked by the Cashibos, who assembled on the banks of the river, and, waiting until the leading canoes had passed, let fly flights of arrows at the canoe which brought up the rear. The Cashibos were dispersed by a few rounds from the Remington rifles of the Commission, and the explorers met with no further forcible opposition on the way to the steamers awaiting them at the mouth of the Pachitea, where they arrived after a canoe voyage of forty-one days, during which many difficulties and some dangers were encountered and overcome. Not a single person under Tucker's command was killed, or died from sickness, during this expedition, and, singular to relate, after all the hardships and exposure endured the explorers were in much better health when they returned to their steamers than when they left them at the beginning of the expedition.

On the 15th of July, 1873, the steamers Tambo and Mayro, comprising the exploring squadron, reached Iquitos after an absence of three months and ten days. From the 15th of July to the 18th of September the Hydrographical Commission was on shore at Iquitos, employed making charts of the surveys of the late expedition, whilst the steamers were being refitted for further service.

On the 18th of September the Commission again embarked and proceeded to the mouth of the Yavari river, which forms the boundary between Peru and Brazil. The greatest pains were taken to properly establish this point. On a small island in the middle of the river, and very near its confluence with the Amazon, many astronomical observations were taken, resulting in giving the latitude 4° 18' 45" south, longitude 69° 53' 10" west of Greenwich, the distance from the Atlantic coast by the courses of the Amazon being one thousand eight hundred and eleven miles. From the Brazilian frontier the main stream of the Amazon was surveyed and its tributaries examined by the Commission up to Borja, where the river rushes from a narrow gorge of the mountains and leaps into the lowlands. Borja is in latitude 4° 31' 37" south, longitude 77° 29' 43" west of Greenwich. From the Atlantic coast to Borja, a distance of two thousand six hundred and sixty miles, the Amazon is navigable, without serious obstruction or difficulty, for either river or sea-going steamers of several hundred tons burthen.

It would take many long years to make a thorough survey of the waters of the Amazon, which is, in fact, more of an inland sea than a river, with hundreds of branches forming a network of communicating channels extending for sixty or seventy miles on each side of the main stream. At the height of the annual floods the whole country, with the exception of the highest land, on which the towns are invariably built, is covered with water, forming a vast swamp and jungle, traversed in every direction by navigable channels, which at the season of low waters become rivers or natural canals.

The principal object for which the Commission presided over by Tucker had been instituted was accomplished when the main channels of the river and of its affluents was traced from the Peruvian and Brazilian frontiers to the head of navigation of the main river and of its tributaries, so as to show the nearest approach by water communication to the eastern terminus of the trans-Andean railway. This duty having been executed, Tucker was ordered to proceed to Lima for conference with the Government as to the results of the explorations and surveys he had made.

After consultation with Tucker, Señor Pardo, the President of the Republic, directed that charts of the surveys made by the Hydrographical Commission should be published in New York, and that Tucker and two members of the Commission should be detailed to prepare the work for the press and superintend the engraving of the plates. The other members of the Commission returned to their homes, having completed the duty for which they were engaged.

There were some changes from time to time in the Peruvian Hydrographical Commission of the Amazon, but the following list of its members may be taken as correct:

President—John Randolph Tucker. Members—James Henry Rochelle, David Porter McCorkle, Walter Raleigh Butt. Secretaries—Timotéo Smith, Maurice Mesnier. Surgeon—Francis Land Galt. Civil Engineers—Manuel Charron, Manuel Rosas, Thomas Wing Sparrow, Nelson Berkeley Noland. Steam Engineers—John W. Durfey, David W. Bains.

On arriving in the United States, Tucker established an office in New York, and, assisted by Captain Rochelle and Mr. Sparrow, soon had the charts and plans, with explanatory notes, ready for the hands of the printers and engravers; but in consequence of the financial difficulties into which Peru had fallen, the publication was delayed from time to time and finally abandoned altogether, as is shown by the following letter from Señor Pardo, President of the Republic: