Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ies of the great tropical rivers of the Paraná and the Amazon. Yet these travels incarnate a unifying
historical purpose that will become well understood only when the national spirit is robust enough to
write the epic of these expeditions to the Heart of Brazil.
Our two main lines of penetration to the outback were those from São Paulo and Pará, both of
which converged in Cuiabá. There, strangely, they positioned themselves from the outset as though
seeking every possible impediment, loitering in the western limits of territories that could have been
easily traversed without extraordinary efforts.
. . . The Purús and the Juruá are, after the Paraguay and Amazonas, the most navigable rivers of
thecontinent.AfterdescendingfromtheeasternheightsofthelastAndeanfoothills,wheretherapids
surge and their only cataracts thunder, the waters flow in a soft declivity that even the most precise
instruments cannot always distinguish.
The waters adjust to this rare surface uniformity, so expressively evident in the most casual con-
templationofamap.TheypourintogreatparallelcoursesthatrunbetweentheMadeiraandtheJavari
andslowly drainthesoftregionsthat stretch outfromtheBolivian plains, whereaharmonious nature
veils the opulence of an incomparable flora in the labyrinths of its bayous.
But, oddly, no one sought these immensities. The nation—Brazil—that secured possession of the
lands at the headwaters of the Rio Branco, the Rio Negro, the Solimões, and the Guaporé with pal-
isades and battlements at the old Portuguese fortresses at San Joaquin, Marabitanas, Tabatinga, and
Príncipe da Beira—these four enormous strongholds challenged our traditional rival, Spain—But our
metrópole completely avoided, indeed fled from, those distant western tracts of territory, at least until
someone else revealed them for us. In l851 it was Count Castelenau and the lieutenant of the North
American navy, Frank Maury.
23
It was a revelation. The discovery coincided with a renaissance of national ambition. In the press,
the robust practical spirit of de Sousa Franco allied itself with the dazzling intelligence of Francisco
Otaviano in irresistible propaganda to open Amazonian trade up to all flags. . . . This policy was sup-
ported by the lucid analysis of Agassiz, the studies of Bates, the observations of Brunet, the works of
Silva Coutinho, Costa Azevedo, and Soares Pinto until the civilizing decree of December 6, l866,
*5
was announced.
24
Inthismassiveextensionofnewhorizons,onetenaciousexplorer,theBritisherWilliamChandless,
unexpectedly mapped out the guidelines of a singular ambition: to discover a passage from Acre
River to the Madre de Dios—the old challenge of the link between the basins of the Amazon and
the Paraguay. He didn't merely resolve this question, but indeed transcended it. This enterprise took
him to the remotest stretches where the two great rivers mix their waters in their farthest sources.
Impressed by the natural marvels around him, he transformed himself in to a pioneer of bounding
ambition . . . meanwhile, the efforts of an intrepid backwoodsman, Manoel Urbano de Conceição, an
unsung hero (as are the majority of our true outback conquerors), scouted up the networks of streams
and backwaters to finally reveal the headwaters of the tributaries of the Purús. He prepared a large
part of the lands for the rapid and intense settlement for another master of the wilds, Colonel Rodrig-
ues Labre. . . .
Itwas amagnificent transformation. Shortly after,successive waves ofimmigrants reprised the ex-
citing tumult of the arrivals of the eighteenth century. The latex of rubber trees, cacao, copaiba, and
all sorts of vegetal oils substituted for the gold and diamonds that had nourished the earlier unboun-
ded ambitions of the
bandeirantes
.
The land, until then the domain of nomadic Indians, in less than ten years had more than six thou-
sand souls and was linked by way of the Fluvial Company of the Amazon from the most remote out-
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