Adventure Magazine Cover — page 89: what you’re looking at

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

™~ Jungle Business ‘carrying of a pistol, I gave it to another ‘gringo who was traveling back north.” “What is that?” I exclaimed. “What do you tell me? Do ‘you mean to say that when you answered back to that captain you had no pistol in your back pocket?” His grin was that of an infant without sense or care. “Nary gun,” said he. “But how was he to know that?” “Celestes,”’ I grumbled. “A fool like you needs two pistols at the least.” So we bought them. Great pistols of Colt, which are as good currency as the rifles of Winchester; and we called Indians and conveyed the whole mass into the aged rubber shed where I set a man of my own. to watch over it. “Now,” I said. “All that you need is a batelao; and you are established. But that will take some little time to be built.” But in this matter we were fortunate. With all that pile of goods in the rubber shed it was evident to all the world that a boat would be needed to carry it in. And so in the course of a day or so there came to me a padrado of nut gatherers who told me that his partner had been bitten by a jara- raca while dipping his hand foolishly to draw water, and that his boat was therefore for sale. So we went to look it over, and found a very satisfactory craft; a bateléo much like my own, stoutly built of hand-hewn planks of mahogany; some ten meters in length, having the stern half-covered over with a funnel-shaped roof of palm thatch to afford dry accommodation for goods and gear, and hammock room for the owner; amidships a small deck upon which he might recline while directing the craft; and the forward part half-decked with slats of split cane whereon the paddle men would squat, three to each side. The rogue of a padrdo immediately asked a gringo price. But the Pelloroxo told him swiftly: “Name of a ——! What is this? I am an up-river man and the partner of Theo- philo.”’ So the fellow accepted the half and was well satisfied. As was I also; for my own business demanded my time; and I had been wondering how this lad with no experi- ence would be able to make his first ap- proaches to the up-creek Indians without some guidance. Now I would be able to ing spent a long day, we slept. , — ee eee . - eet A Re a : : : bs “ mc See oo Pate take him up with me and introduce him into the business personally. He would need only an interpreter who .. would be his mouth until such time as he could master sufficient of the Geral—which is a very simple language and easily learned —and a temporary paddle crew whom he would dismiss after having established ~~ friendly relations with the local Indians. So I found for him a filoto, a reliable man who knew something of the management of a batelao in the currents and who could also cook a little in the batelero style; and, hav- He, for the first time in his own bateldo, and as pleased as an infant with a new toy. I, satisfied that a profitable day had been spent and that nothing had been omitted. On the very morrow we would start. A propitious morning. For nothing oc- curred to occasion delay—which among us of the south is unusual. The Pelloroxo ap- peared in the formal Americano dress for the trip into the wilderness. A shirt of khaki, open at the neck; breeches of cord; high yellow boots, All complete and all new, with one of his new pistols hanging at his hip from a loose belt. “Mira qué magnifico!’ I congratulated him as I laughed. And the bystanders who had gathered to see us off murmered appro- bation. Collectors of the castanha and their padraos they were, with several ox-faced Indians; and they had never seen such mag- nificence of fashion. Old Tio Romeiro, a batelero of forty years’ standing in the upper: rivers, spat his chew of zpadu leaf upon the prow of the new boat for luck and said: “Let be. Let him persevere till he reaches the creeks; and the Indians will surely think that he is a very great chief; fér never have they seen such a white man. And within that time he will have learned from experience that breeches are good when one rides upon a horse and when one stands upright; but for all other purposes in the world they bind at the knee where they sweat and itch like the very cane lice them- selves.”’ But he laughed in turn and told me: ““Por Deus, these are what I purchased at” great expense in my home town at the ad- vice of the camp-goods dealer who told me that such would be the appropriate costume for Manaos City. So wear them now If must.” co micboo (E) a CS