Adventure Magazine Cover, October 1911 — page 92: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

1038 low for cholos to carry our packs, we met only refusal and hints that such a trip was a piece of folly bordering on madness. Viewed from the point of view of the aver- age, submissive, coca-chewing cholo who doesn’t want to fight anybody, cannibals least of all, this was probably true. And yet I do not think that the Cashibos are entirely to blame for the harshness with which they have met those who have in- fringed on their domain. Self-preservation is the first law, and when the wave of ad- vancing civilization begins to wash the -weaker peoples back and confine them in smaller territories they fight with tooth and nail to preserve a home and fireside which mean quite as much to them as ours” to us, however migratory a hearth-stone it may prove to be. Probably the gaucheros have done more than any others to enrage this tribe of Indians, for the rubber-hunters on the upper reaches of the Amazon and it’s affluents have been guilty of atrocities equalled only by those of the Congo region. Again let me impress on the reader the immensity of this vast ‘‘twilight zone” where, lacking railroad communication, such things as slavery, cannibalism and wholesale destruction can occur without fear of reprisal or interference on the part of either Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia or Brazil. Here, and in that jutting corner of Brazil where Ecuador and Peru meet it on the west and Bolivia furnishes the southern boundary, is the one dark spot on the South American continent where at present neither laws nor magistrates can avail, where not the faintest spark of humanness. enters into the relations between the rub- ber-pirates and the ignorant tribes whom they are steadily driving back against the eastern wall of the Andes. Ponder awhile, gentle reader, ensconced in your comfortable chair beside the study lamp. A piece of your world a thousand miles wide by five hundred long, or eleven times the size of Pennsylvania, where Chris- tianity has left no visible trace, where men with rifles shoot down other men armed only with arrows and blow-guns and sell their women and children into slavery and where the cannibal vies with the head- hunter for revenge upon the enemies now pressing upon them from every side! Take any good map of South America and find Manaos on the Amazon. Draw a line west for a thousand miles. It carries you into Adventure Ecuador. Turn south at an angle of ninety degrees for half that distance, then east for another thousand miles. After that re- trace your weary steps to Manaos. You have covered the very heart of South Amer- ica, the last of the virgin rubber-forests, the last unclaimed placer ground and the one spot in the Western hemisphere where in Kipling’s phrase, “‘There’s never a law of God nor Man.” Thus it will be seen that the Huanuco people, from the Prefect down, had grounds for their fears when they described our route to us, and as the days passed and our list of packers failed to grow, it began to look as if our expedition would die a-born- ing. In this situation there was nothing te do but secure Government aid and util- ize what may be described as the police power of the Department. As a result, twenty cholos were impressed into our service in a short time and our most serious problem was solved for the time being. In general, it might be said that we were a scouting party, or skirmish line, seeking out a way by which others might come later. For this reason few instruments were necessary and we traveled very light, with provisions for two weeks. ‘The rifles and ammunition for the packers were to be forwarded to us with the first provision party, as I knew we would not need them until we neared the cannibal country. JUST WHAT A JUNGLE IS | Wee the Hacienda of San Juan, a 4 point on the Huallaga River a short distance from Huanuco, on the morning of September 29, 1909, we spent the day in transferring our outfit across the river on a raft which we had constructed, and sun- down found us established in our first camp. The next morning early we were at work cutting a trail into the jungle. This proved to be so dense that in two day’s time we covered only four miles. In order that the reader may appreciate what an obstacle this jungle offers let him imagine a trackless region densely forested with trees which grow to two hundred feet in height and whose foliage interlaces so closely as to shut off a view of either sky or sun. Many ‘of these trees are eight to ten feet in diameter and ribbed at the foot with buttressing roots. From tree to tree run vine cables from two to six inches in thick- CO MICLOOOKS CO S|