CHAPTER IX.The rapid of Calderão do Inferno—Attacks of fever and vomiting—Caripuna savages—Death of a Bolivian boy—Earth-eating practised by the Indians—Death of Mariano, a Bolivian boatman—Peculiar custom prevailing amongst the Indians—The Falls of Girão—Miseries of a wet night.
The rapid of Calderão do Inferno—Attacks of fever and vomiting—Caripuna savages—Death of a Bolivian boy—Earth-eating practised by the Indians—Death of Mariano, a Bolivian boatman—Peculiar custom prevailing amongst the Indians—The Falls of Girão—Miseries of a wet night.
The following day we arrived at the foot of the rapid bearing the suggestive name of “Calderão do Inferno,” or “Cauldron of Hell.” This name is given to a succession of six rapids extending over about a mile and a half of the river, the upper one being the principal, with a fall of about eight feet; the lower five are called the “Rabo,” or tail, of the “Calderão.” These were all passed on the left or Bolivian side of the river, the whole of the 4th and part of the 5th being occupied in passing the cargoes over the land portage used for overcoming the upper rapid. This portage is very little short of a mile in length, and the road being very rough and rocky, the men had very hard work. The canoes were hauled up empty through a creek or channel between the islands and the mainland. The mornings now were always foggy, and the sun during the day seemed to be exceptionally powerful, and several of my crew were sickening with fever. I myself had rather a bad attack of vomiting, and had to take as much rest as possible while thecargoes were being carried round the fall. A cup of tea made from some sort of balsam, and given to me by one of the Bolivian patrons, had good effect in allaying the sickness, but I found the most relief from two or three draughts of Lamplough’s “Pyretic Saline,” a medicine that every traveller in South American forests should carry. At the upper portage of this fall we found two of the bark canoes, belonging to the Caripuna savages, who have a “malocal,” or clearing inland, near this rapid. The canoes appeared to have been abandoned for some time, as they were full of mud, having probably been sunk on the bank, according to the custom of these savages, when the river was at its flood height. The savages did not show, and we had no time to spare to search for them in the interior. Travellers must be on their guard in the neighbourhood of this rapid, for the tribe bears a very bad and treacherous character; and although they have been friendly to many passers-by, and were so to the engineers who cut the track for the railway, they have attacked small parties with great ferocity.
On the 6th it was nine o’clock before the last of my packages was carried over, and all the canoes started, the Bolivian patrons having again kindly waited for me. Above the fall we had much roping and pulling up stream by the bushes, although some of the other canoes that had good strong crews were able to get on with paddles only. The sun was terribly hot and overpowering, so at mid-day I ordered my men to stop and finish their breakfasts, which they had had to take very hurriedly before starting in the morning. One of my Bolivian boys,a lad about fourteen or fifteen years old, had been complaining yesterday and to-day of fever, so I had allowed him to leave his paddle and lie down on the top of the cargo, the only available space for idle hands. Just as the canoe touched the bank I saw him fall back from a sitting posture, and to my horror, when I got from my cabin to him, I found he was evidently dying. I applied smelling-salts to his nose, and bathed his forehead with cachaça, the liquor nearest to hand, giving him also a spoonful to drink; but he died quickly, and apparently without pain. This was another blow to add to our misfortunes, especially as we had a man very ill at the time, and with too good reason feared that the shock of poor Bruno’s death would prove too great for him. The boy Bruno had been in my service for nearly eighteen months before leaving San Antonio, and was always a weak and sickly boy, besides being afflicted with the disgusting vice of “earth-eating,” so common to many of the Indian tribes of South America. I had succeeded in keeping him from this practice whilst I had him in regular service at San Antonio, but it appeared that at the rapid of Morinhos he had seen some particular kind of earth that aroused the dormant habit, and, indulging himself too largely, his stomach must have got into a thoroughly disorganized state, so that he was unable to resist the intense heat of the sun.
It was melancholy work, paddling up stream all day with the dead body of the boy on board, and another of the Indians in a dangerous state; but the longest day comes to an end, and at 3.30 p.m. we crossed over to the Brazilian side of the river, justbelow the last rock of the Girão Falls. The hills near this fall show bold and high as one ascends the river, and we arrived at the port, a small bay at the foot of the fall, about seven o’clock. During the night my forebodings as to losing the other sick man, Mariano, were verified, as he died about daybreak. This was the man who at Morinhos stole liquor, and fell into the river during the night; he then caught cold, and had been ailing ever since. I gave him the best remedies that I had at hand, also wine, arrowroot, and beef-tea, made from Liebig’s “Extract,” and I could not see that there was any sickness that should cause his death; but, about a couple of days ago, his squaw and other relations evidently made up their minds that he ought not to recover, and in accordance with a custom that exists with many of the Indian tribes, they gave him numerous commissions to those members of his family and other friends that had preceded him in their last journey. I have frequently observed the existence of this custom amongst Bolivian Indians of the Beni: when one of them falls sick, his immediate friends and companions seem to settle amongst themselves whether the sick man shall recover or not; and if their verdict is unfavourable, the poor man gets no remedies and very little, if any, food or care. The prediction is therefore brought to realization, and as the fatal moment is seen to draw near, the friends deliver to the moribund messages to their relatives or acquaintances that have beforehand joined the majority.[2]It is quite useless to leavea sick Indian to the care of his fellows only, and in all cases where these Indians are brought together in numbers, attendants and nurses of other races must be provided for the care of the sick. I myself was very unwell about this time, and was quite unable to do more for my sick than give out medicines and wine, or arrowroot, etc., for them. I could not sit up with them at nights, and, unfortunately, I had no companion or head man that could be depended upon.
The next day, the 7th of May, we buried poor Bruno and Mariano at about mid-day, side by side, at the foot of the fall, and setting up a rough wooden cross over the graves, left them to the solitudes of the forest. The crew in consequence of these deaths were very downhearted, and not much work could be got out of them this day; the canoes were, however,emptied of their cargoes, and hauled over the land portage, to the upper side of the fall. This portage is nearly half a mile in length, and is over very rocky ground; the canoes are therefore exposed to suffer damage if the men are not careful to keep them on the rollers. The whole of the 8th of May was taken up in repairing the canoes, and in getting the cargoes transported over the portage, and put on board again above the fall, ready for a start on the following day. The night of the 8th was very wet and miserable, the rain coming down in torrents nearly the whole night long. It was very late in the evening before we got all our baggage re-embarked in the canoes, and as we should have lost some time in the morning if I had ordered my tent and camp bedstead to be set up for the night, I had decided to pass the night on a hide with a waterproof sheet stretched on sticks and strings overhead, little guessing that we were to have such a wet night. I shall not easily forget the wretched night I passed. To have any light was impossible, and so I had to keep my blankets tucked in under the waterproof awning as well as I could in the dark. With all my efforts I could not keep the drippings of the sheet overhead clear of the outstretched hide, so after a very little time I found myself laying in a hide full of water, my gun and revolvers alongside of me also coming in for a good wetting. The men must have suffered far more than I did, for they had not put up any shelters at all, and were simply laying on the bank of the river, exposed to the full fury of the storm. I therefore looked forward to a fresh succession of fevers and other illnesses amongst them.
FOOTNOTES[2]This custom of the Indians, seems by the following extract from Josephus to have had its prototype in eastern lands in times of very ancient date.Josephus, “Wars of the Jews,” book 7, chap. 8, s. 7. In Eleazar’s speech to the Sicarii, when advising his followers to put themselves to death rather than fall alive into the hands of the Romans, occur these words:—“We, therefore, who have been brought up in a discipline of our own, ought to become an example to others of our readiness to die; yet if we do not stand in need of foreigners to support us in this matter, let us regard those Indians who profess the exercise of philosophy; for these good men do but unwillingly undergo the time of life, and look upon it as a necessary servitude, and make haste to let their souls loose from their bodies; nay, when no misfortune presses them to it, nor drives them upon it, these have such a desire of a life of immortality, that they tell other men beforehand that they are about to depart; and nobody hinders them, but every one thinks them happy men, and gives them letters to be carried to their familiar friends that are dead; so firmly and certainly do they believe that souls converse with one another in the other world. So when these men have heard all such commands that were to be given them, they deliver their body to the fire; and, in order to their getting their soul a separation from the body in the greatest purity, they die in the midst of hymns of commendations made to them; for their dearest friends conduct them to their death more readily than do any of the rest of mankind conduct their fellow-citizens when they are going on a very long journey, who, at the same time, weep on their own account, but look upon the others as happy persons, as so soon to be made partakers of the immortal order of beings. Are not we, therefore, ashamed to have lower notions than the Indians?”
[2]This custom of the Indians, seems by the following extract from Josephus to have had its prototype in eastern lands in times of very ancient date.Josephus, “Wars of the Jews,” book 7, chap. 8, s. 7. In Eleazar’s speech to the Sicarii, when advising his followers to put themselves to death rather than fall alive into the hands of the Romans, occur these words:—“We, therefore, who have been brought up in a discipline of our own, ought to become an example to others of our readiness to die; yet if we do not stand in need of foreigners to support us in this matter, let us regard those Indians who profess the exercise of philosophy; for these good men do but unwillingly undergo the time of life, and look upon it as a necessary servitude, and make haste to let their souls loose from their bodies; nay, when no misfortune presses them to it, nor drives them upon it, these have such a desire of a life of immortality, that they tell other men beforehand that they are about to depart; and nobody hinders them, but every one thinks them happy men, and gives them letters to be carried to their familiar friends that are dead; so firmly and certainly do they believe that souls converse with one another in the other world. So when these men have heard all such commands that were to be given them, they deliver their body to the fire; and, in order to their getting their soul a separation from the body in the greatest purity, they die in the midst of hymns of commendations made to them; for their dearest friends conduct them to their death more readily than do any of the rest of mankind conduct their fellow-citizens when they are going on a very long journey, who, at the same time, weep on their own account, but look upon the others as happy persons, as so soon to be made partakers of the immortal order of beings. Are not we, therefore, ashamed to have lower notions than the Indians?”
[2]This custom of the Indians, seems by the following extract from Josephus to have had its prototype in eastern lands in times of very ancient date.
Josephus, “Wars of the Jews,” book 7, chap. 8, s. 7. In Eleazar’s speech to the Sicarii, when advising his followers to put themselves to death rather than fall alive into the hands of the Romans, occur these words:—“We, therefore, who have been brought up in a discipline of our own, ought to become an example to others of our readiness to die; yet if we do not stand in need of foreigners to support us in this matter, let us regard those Indians who profess the exercise of philosophy; for these good men do but unwillingly undergo the time of life, and look upon it as a necessary servitude, and make haste to let their souls loose from their bodies; nay, when no misfortune presses them to it, nor drives them upon it, these have such a desire of a life of immortality, that they tell other men beforehand that they are about to depart; and nobody hinders them, but every one thinks them happy men, and gives them letters to be carried to their familiar friends that are dead; so firmly and certainly do they believe that souls converse with one another in the other world. So when these men have heard all such commands that were to be given them, they deliver their body to the fire; and, in order to their getting their soul a separation from the body in the greatest purity, they die in the midst of hymns of commendations made to them; for their dearest friends conduct them to their death more readily than do any of the rest of mankind conduct their fellow-citizens when they are going on a very long journey, who, at the same time, weep on their own account, but look upon the others as happy persons, as so soon to be made partakers of the immortal order of beings. Are not we, therefore, ashamed to have lower notions than the Indians?”