In the field the native cook wastes much time. Generally provided with an inadequate cooking equipment, hours are spent cooking beans after the day's work, and then, of course, they are often only partially cooked. A kettle or aluminum Dutch oven should be taken along, large enough to cook enough beans for both breakfast and dinner. The beans should be cooked all night, a fire kept burning for the purpose. It would only be necessary then to warm the beans for breakfast and dinner, the two South American meals.
For meat the rubber hunter and explorer depends upon his rifle and fish-hook. The rivers are full of fish which can readily be caught, and, in Brazil, the tapir, capybara, paca, agouti, two or three varieties of deer, and two varieties of wild pig can occasionally be shot; and most of the monkeys are used for food. Turtles and turtle eggs can be had in season and a great variety of birds, some of them delicious in flavor and heavy in meat. In the hot, moist climate fresh meat will not keep and even salted meat has been known to spoil. For use on the Roosevelt expedition I arranged a ration for five men for one day packed in a tin box; the party which went down the Duvida made each ration do for six men for a day and a half, and in addition gave over half the bread or hardtack to the camaradas. By placing the day's allowance of bread in this same box, it was lightened sufficiently to float if dropped into water. There were seven variations in the arrangement of food in these boxes and they were numbered from 1 to 7, so that a different box could be used every day of the week. In addition to the food, each box contained a cake of soap, a piece of cheese-cloth, two boxes of matches, and a box of table salt. These tin boxes were lacquered to protect from rust and enclosed in wooden cases for transportation. A number in large type was printed on each. No. 1 was cased separately; Nos. 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7 were cased together. For canoe travel the idea was to take these wooden cases off. I did not have an opportunity personally to experience the management of these food cases. We had sent them all ahead by pack- train for the explorers of the Duvida River. The exploration of the Papagaio was decided upon during the march over the plateau of Matto Grosso and was accomplished with dependence upon native food only.
DAILY RATION FOR FIVE MEN
SUN. MON. TUES. WED. THUR. FRI. SAT.
Rice 16 16 16
Oatmeal 13 13 13
Bread 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Tea-biscuits 18 18 18
Gingersnaps 21 21 21 21
Dehydrated potatoes 11 11 11 11 11 11
Dehydrated onions 5 5 5 5 5 5
Erbswurst 8 8 8
Evaporated soups 6 6 6
Baked beans 25 25
Condensed milk 17 17 17 17 17 17 17
Bacon 44 44 44 44 44 44 44
Roast beef 56
Braised beef 56 56
Corned beef 70
Ox tongue 78
Curry and chicken 72
Boned chicken 61
Fruits: evaporated berries 5 5 5 5
Figs 20 20
Dates 16
Sugar 32 32 32 32 32 32 32
Coffee 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Tea 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Salt 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
Sweet chocolate 16
EACH BOX ALSO CONTAINED
Muslin, one yard 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Matches, boxes 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Soap, one cake 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Above weights of food are net in avoirdupois ounces. Each complete ration with its tin container weighed nearly twenty-seven pounds. The five pounds over net weight of daily ration was taken up in tin necessary for protection of food. The weight of component parts of daily ration had to be governed to some extent by the size of the commercial package in which the food could be purchased on short notice. Austin, Nichols & Co., of New York, who supplied the food stores for my polar expedition, worked day and night to complete the packing of the rations on time.
The food cases described above were used on Colonel Roosevelt's descent of the Rio da Duvida and also by the party who journeyed down the Gy-Parana and Madeira Rivers. Leo Miller, the naturalist, who was a member of the last-named party, arrived in Manaos, Brazil, while I was there and, in answer to my question, told me that the food served admirably and was good, but that the native cooks had a habit of opening a number of cases at a time to satisfy their personal desire for special delicacies. Bacon was the article most sought for. Speaking critically, for a strenuous piece of work like the exploration of the Duvida, the food was somewhat bulky. A ration arrangement such as I used on my sledge trips North would have contained more nutritious elements in a smaller space. We could have done without many of the luxuries. But the exploration of the Duvida had not been contemplated and had no place in the itinerary mapped out in New York. The change of plan and the decision to explore the Duvida River came about in Rio Janeiro, long after our rations had been made out and shipped.
"Matte" the tea of Brazil and Paraguay, used in most of the states of
South America, should not be forgotten. It is a valuable beverage.
With it a native can do a wonderful amount of work on little food.
Upon the tired traveller it has a very refreshing effect.
Doctor Peckolt, celebrated chemist of Rio de Janeiro, has compared the analysis of matte with those of green tea, black tea, and coffee and obtained the following result: