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smoking cigarettes made from cornhusks and rough tobacco.” Both were insomniacs;
later, according to da Gama, they would extend long workdays at Westfália into nights
ofspeculation:daCunhainbedwiththesheetuptohisneckandtheBaronsprawledout
on a nearby chair, a lit cheroot to hand.
32
Figure 11.1.
Rio Branco and da Cunha (upper left), as well as the main international aides at Itamaratí.
TheBaronapparentlyapprovedofthecandidate:insteadofamereassistant,daCunha
was made head of the Brazilian delegation to the binational Commission for Reconnais-
sanceoftheUpperPurús.AlthoughdaCunhawouldneverovercomehisshynessaround
the Baron, they had begun an abiding and powerful intellectual connection.
Da Cunha was delighted, as he wrote to Veríssimo: “To leave for the Purús is still my
greatest, most beautiful, my boldest ideal. I leave without fears, and absolutely nothing,
(unless it were a physical disaster that made me an invalid), nothing can deter me from
this purpose.”
33
This progress on the professional front was not matched by improvements in his
private life. He had hoped that Ana and his three sons could be installed in the lovely
neighborhoodofLaranjeiras,withAna'snowwidowedmotherinattendance.Butthings
were not going smoothly at all. He wrote his father in desperation:
I see now that it's impossible to proceed as I had planned. . . . Not because of me, but because of the
unhealthy disharmony between Saninha [that is, Ana] and her siblings. I won't waste time in telling
you of the deplorable incidents. It's enough to say that small differences exploded yesterday when I
was away: one of Dona Tulia's sons (married, who is staying with us with his wife, in the most abso-
lute indolence) spewed every impropriety at Saninha that came to his mind. On coming home, I was
informed of the fact, and had to contain myself. I cannot continue here. I am truly distressed by the
scenes in this family. My mother-in-law is profoundly unhappy with her children. I need to get away
immediately from all this. But I have no door to knock on other than yours. I ask you to take in my
family, and that you save me from a very unhappy situation to which I contributed nothing except my
good faith and my belief in the human heart. If you deny me, which I absolutely know you will not, I
will be obliged to turn down my commission, and as I cannot stay here nor can I return to São Paulo,
I will be irredeemably lost.
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