UNKNOWN AMERICA

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 November 1929, Page 2

UNKNOWN AMERICA

PENETRATED BY WHITE MEN ' Amazon jungles, said by Indian natives never before to have been penetrated by any white man, have been explored by Llewellyn Williams, of the botanical staff of Field Museum of Natural History. Accompanied by several Inca Indians, Mr Williams made a trip by canoe and afoot 325 miles into the interior of the Nanay region of the Amazon and its tributary the Rio Nanay. Coming back to Iquitos, Peru, by a roundabout route through even greater obstacles, his return journey was probably more than 400 miles\ Mr. Williams and his party pushed up the Nanay River steadily for six days. Camps w'ere made in abandoned Indian huts of palm leaves. Bushknives frequently were used to cut a path through tangles of tropical vegetation, and it was necessary to wade for miles knee deep in mud and water. Frequently it was necessary to swim across streams.

Arriving finally at a good ground for botanical collecting, camp was pitched. Provisions ran short. Monkeys, tapirs, squirrels and various birds were shot for food. “I was surprised to find monkey meat so appetising. -The Indians regard it as a delicacy,” writes Mr. Williams.

Outstanding among the trees from which specimens were obtained are the “palo de asucar,” or “sugar tree”, so called because of the presence in the bark of a sweet edible resin with the consistency of real sugar,, and the “palo de aceite,” or “palo de manteoa,” which means “lard tree.” The latter, previously known only to the Indians, excretes an oily substance which in appearance, taste, consistency and other properties is a close affinity to lard rendered from animal fats, Mr. Williams writes.

“A remarkable number of medicinal plants grow in the forests, and the Indians possess a wealth of knowledge of theii* properties for curing various ailments, ranging from simple nervous diseases to complications of the internal organs,” says Mr. Williams’ report. “They have developed fish poisons which, thrown on the water, kill all the fish in the vicinity and make the obtaining of a fish dinner- easy. Poisoned fish do not harm the human consumer.”

Mr. Williams and his party suffered minor injuries when their, canoe collided with a log while shooting some rapids in the Nanay River. On another occasion while sawing the trunk of a rare tree they were attacked by a swarm of ants whose sting caused a severe fever for two days. At' another camp they were attacked while asleep by vampire bats. >