IN THE HEART OF SOUTH AMERICA.

Otago Witness, 1 June 1910, Page 79

IN THE HEART OF SOUTH AMERICA.

AN UNEXPLORED REGION. (By P. H. Fawcett, in the Field.) The heart of South America is so wild, so -unknown, so difficult to penetrate. and so utterly different from any, other continent of the world, that it may well

appear strange. Nature seems to be jealous of its last geographical fastnesses, and has surrounded them with her most formidable barriers. It is clear that were conditions easy and supplies plentiful, and were the comforts possible of, say, African, exploration, with its army of carriers, the problems hidden in the heart of South America -would long ago have been solved ; but from its earliest historical days the interior of the Continent has offered the almost insuperable difficulties of starvation and disease. The old Portuguese explorers were forced to arrest their journeys ir order to plant grain and vegetables. Today must be added the danger of treacherous savages, who have a revengeful hand against all men. Land of Mystery.— It cannot, however, be too strongly impressed upon those who have been inoculated with the germ of exploration, and who have the leisure to pursue the disease, that the Continent holds many mysteries, from the strange White Indians to unheard-of insects. The naturalist can be in his .glory. I have told of the rumours of strange animals. There are other curious animals and insects, knowledge of which does not depend upon so precarious a source of information; for instance, the white monkey of the Acre—a yellowish-white, to be accurate—which is too delicate to live in captivity ; that magnificent and fierce trophy, the black panther; the " bebora voladora " ; fireflies, or beetles perhaps, whose light, thrown below them, is as strong as an ordinary bull's-eye lantern, to which the common firefly is as a fourth magnitude star to the planet Jupiter; huge black spiders ; giant mosquitoes. These are not fables. I do not say they are common, but they exist. As with the huge anacondas, people whose life is passed in the forest do not see anything extraordinary in these things. There are herbs of certain medicinal value used by the forest people. Cocaine was long an Indian remedy before it became appreciated by civilised medicine, for the crude coca leaf preserves an Indian's strength for days without food, albeit its excess is supposed to produce hallucinations. Various herbs and roots are employed as antidotes for poison, though a more common and potent remedy for poisoned wounds or contusions is said to be the fat of the liver _ of the stingray, so prolific in all Amazonian rivers. In the Beni the Indians and savages habitually use a certain plant to arrest indefinitely gestation, and they have also an antidote to its effects. Old ruins are talked about, and there are certainly plenty unrecognised on the East Andean slopes bordering the forests. It was only last year that an unknown Inca city was discovered. There is, indeed, in. tropical South America a new world for the naturalist, the archaeologist, and the scientific explorer. I do not suppose for one moment that my limited travels even hint at all that awaits intrepid exploration. The secrets are guarded by very real difficulties, and the pleasures of exploration are greatly modified by its trials —the curse of insect life in the lower forests; the need of constant vicilance; short rations; and the risks incidental to every dav of travelling to reach these distant solitudes. Yet to-day is the psychological moment; to-morrow the romance will have vanished, before the sea of immigration which is goinsc to engulf this wonderful Continent, and the pioneers of discovery will have erected their temporary pedestals of fame. Here in England one can ha.rdlv induce people to realise that some 40 millions of civilised people, to sav nothing of the savages, inhabit South America, and that there is ample room for four hundred millions, with everv class of natural resources at their disposal. Nor will people be rid of the fatuous idea that South America is racked by perpetual revolution. Except in such comparatively backward States as Columbia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Paraguay

the days of revolution have (-eased. an>* the various republics have settled down to serious development. There are political factions and eruptions, but revolution in the sense of anarchy and bloodletting has disappeared before foreign capital and enterprise and the general spread of European ideals; moreover, every State has a constantly-increasing travelling public, as fortune fro; t v*et natural resources flows into private pockets. The pilfering of national revenues, which weighed so heavily on many States, is now scarcely possible. Like revolution, it is liable to close the door to the entry of foreign capital, and touches the prosperity of everyone. A Revolution. — The birth of a modern revolution, where it can still occur, as in Paraguay, is interesting. During this past year 1 and my companions were enforced spectators of the phenomenon —birth, development, and well-deserved Nemesis —for the dethroned " Colorado " faction, which had squandered for 30 years the potentialities of a fine country, blew themselves o'ut like the frog of fable and burst. We were on our return from the uninviting regions of Northern Matto Grosso, and, owing to the suspension of the ordinary steamer service between Corumba and Buenos Aires on account of the abnormal dryness of the river, had taken passage from the former port in a rat-infested tug, where we slung our hammocks in the stern, for some days of precarious navigation. People who do not like rats would have gone mad, I think. They fairly swarmed at night; they played Blondin on the hammock ropes, ran impudently over our faces, and one early morning I awoke to find four holding a conversazione on my stomach. However, rumours of revolution intercepted us, so we tied up to a Customs station on the Brazilian bank of the river. Three of us with great difficulty got the loan of a small boat and sailed down river with our baggage to Puerto Murtinho, near the BrazilianParaguayan frontier. When half-way there we were hove to by a piratical-looking revolutionary launch, sand-bagged and bristling with ancient cannon and modern, rifles, and were duly passed into the Spider's Parlour, for once at Puerto Murtinho we could neither pass down nor return up.

Matto 'Grosso State is the bad ijoy of the ' Brazilian family. The Federal Government does not seem to have any control over it. Its governor is State elected, usually by corruption, and is out for aggrandisement. When the public think he has got enough a revolution, is started, and someone else comes in. Sometimes there is a good deal of cold-blooded butchery. As long as there is not_ a governor appointed from Rio de Janeiro this state of affairs is likely to continue. Its people are mostly undesirable, and are not representative of Brazil. The Matto Grossehsians favoured the Colorados, who held at their disposal the resources of Puerto Murtinho. That village was therefore the headquarters of the movement River steamers were seized, principally Paraguayan boats flying the Argentine flag ; local cattle and quebracho concerns were raided and looted, and all Paraguayans working therein forced to join the motley army of some five or six hundred " gauches," armed partly with Winchester carbines and partly with knives. Fourteen of us, of various nationalities, were held up in a small river boat at Puerto Murtinho under the nominal protection of three Brazilian soldiers. The revolutionary forces drilled in the village, and passed in their piratically gathered craft up and down the stretch of river, breathing threats upon us. Ido not know that the threats amounted to much, but we were an embarrassment to them, and the gaucho filled with alcohol is capable of anything. Anyway, we kept'ourselves armed. Serious Fighting.— Fighting took place between the levblutionaries and the Paraguayan forces from Fort Olimpo to the north. Corpses floated down river. By the amount of ammunition expended an army might have been annihilated. We had on board an American, one of those singlar individuals like the celebrated Pistol, only about four times his size. He was always going to kill everybody and perform extraordinary acts of vengeance, but in reality he was a most amazing coward. He afforded us endless amusement, and scares were arranged for his especial benefit. After 14 days of this a Brazilian launch came down, knowing, I suppose, that the flag would pass it through. Some of us immediately went on board to secure passages, but the revolutionary chiefs intervened. I interviewed them, and pointed out the prejudice excited by holding up an international commission at work with Brazil, and we were allowed on board on the understanding that we might be stopped by the flotilla below and lose all our baggage. However, we went. Pistil preferred to stay. The flotilla surrounded, examined, and politely passed us. Next day we met a large force of Paraguayan Government troops on their way up river, and the day after the Colorados took to the woods, leaving the Matto Grossensians feeling no doubt very foolish. Paraguay is by no means to be despised. Her population, it is true, consists mostly of women, and pretty at that, the men having been decimated in a seven years' war with Brazil. Wi.sn political questions over spheres of m'f jance between Argentina and Brazil arrange themselves satisfactorily the country will go forward with the rest of South 'America. At presen* it has little credit and cramped possibilities. Much of the country is not known well. The people are pleasant enough, and it is remarkable for producing the prettiest lace in South America, and for its prolific plantations of oranges and yerba mate, the last of which is a most stimulating beverage, once the is acquired. It i* worth a visit— u\ fact, I do not know any part of South America that is not, from Panama to > uerta Arenas.