Difference of technique, industry, ability, and scientific knowledge may in the light of future investigations reveal errors or misapprehensions that must bring me into conflict with those who may go there better equipped and with greater understanding. But in any critical appraisement it must be remembered that these tribes are changing day by day, and every year that passes will increase the difference between the Amazonian native as I knew him and as he may be when studied by my successors. So far as in me lies, I have here set forth an account of what he was when I travelled in his forest solitudes and fastnesses.
I left England towards the end of April 1908 and arrived at Manaos on the Negro River on May 27. Incidentally I arrived again at Manaos homeward bound on the same day and almost at the same hour the following year.[1] It may be taken, therefore, that my entire journey covered exactly twelve months.
On arrival at Manaos, I made inquiries as to the facilities for proceeding to S. Gabriel near the junction of the Negro and Uaupes Rivers, and thence up the latter stream.[2] My theory at the time was that it would be possible to ascend this river to its source, and from the vicinity to make a way across country via the Apaporis, Japura, Issa, and Napo Rivers to Iquitos. I soon found that the difficulty of obtaining the necessary men would be immense, and the ascent, in local opinion, impracticable without an expedition on a scale for which I possessed neither the influence nor the pecuniary resources. Persuaded that my line of least resistance, so far as the Uaupes was concerned, would be to reverse the contemplated journey and work from Iquitos to a point on the Uaupes and then descend to Manaos, I proceeded by the Navigation Company’s steamboat to the former town, where I arrived the second week in June.
APPROXIMATE PLAN OF ROUTE
In company with Mr. David Cazes, the British Consul, to whom I am indebted for many kindnesses, I made a trip up the Napo River. It was soon apparent, however, that it would be practically impossible to cross from that river to the Issa. This was not due to the difficulty of porterage, because there is a “recognised route” from a point some way above the mouth of the Curaray to Puerto Barros, but to the impossibility of obtaining men. Rumours were rife at this time of fighting between the Colombian and Peruvian rubber-gatherers on the Issa River, and the Napo Indians would not go in that direction on account of a not unnatural dread lest they be treated as enemies by whichever party of combatants they might happen to meet.
Eventually, through the good offices of the British Consulate, I sailed from Iquitos by way of the main Amazon River and the Issa or Putumayo River to Encanto at the mouth of the Kara Parana, which I reached in the middle of August. It is from this point that my notes on the manners and customs of the Indians really commence.
I saw at once that it would be impossible to gain any insight into the ways and customs of the various tribes unless I spent some considerable time in what one might call a roving commission among them. I had with me at this time John Brown, a Barbadian negro. He had been for some three years previously in the Issa district in the employ of a Rubber Company, and I enlisted him as my personal servant at Iquitos. He had “married” a Witoto woman some two years before, and through this attachment I was able to derive much valuable information. In fact, he was invaluable throughout the whole expedition, and was more loyal and more devoted than a traveller with some experience of the African boy in his native haunts had reason to anticipate of any black servant.
On the 18th of August we started for the Igara Parana, having collected eight Indian carriers, two half-castes, and eight “rationales,” or semi-civilised Indians, armed with Winchesters, together with three Indian women, wives of three of the rationales.
It may here be mentioned that these armed Indians were to be obtained in the Rubber Belt by arrangement with their employers. It is the practice of the rubber-gatherers to train Indian boys and utilise them as escort, and to obtain rubber from the tribes hostile to those to which the boys belong. This is perhaps necessary to avoid collusion. In my experience there was never any question of fixed charge or price when hiring carriers. They expected to be given, at the conclusion of their service, a present of cloth, beads, a shot gun,[3] or such other item of trade as their heart coveted. The line of argument was simple: “You do what I tell you, and when we part I will make you a rich man.” Wealth was represented by cloth, beads, and a knife. A boy I called Jim promised to go to the end of the earth if I would give him a shot gun. This was his sole ambition. He was one of my escort, and although carrying a Winchester, I do not think it ever entered into his head to make off with it. Such is the simple Indian nature. I do not mean that he would not have run away if such a plan suited him, but he would not have done so for the sake and value of the Winchester.