Argonauts of the Amazon - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 237

for the quality of the maps he generated on the Upper Amazon. While the informa-
tion of chroniclers who were traveling with conquering expeditions are invaluable early
sources,thesewerewhatwewouldcalltoday“rapidappraisals.”Farmoredetailedwork
wascarriedoutbyanarmyofJesuits,Dominicans,andFranciscanbrotherswhotraveled
into the deep interior, stayed put for decades, wrote detailed reports to the Vatican about
their lives and discoveries, and mapped the great domains from the Paraguay, Chiquit-
ania, and the Moxos to the Maynas and the Orinoco missions of the continental interior.
Antonio Vieira (1608-97), João Daniel (1722-76), and José Gumilla (1686-1750) are
among the more prominent of the priests who wrote large tomes and traveled widely
during the “Jesuit century.” 16 This literature includes ethnographies, maps, and resource
studies prepared as part of the administrative structures of the religious world, since for
boththeSpanishandthePortuguese,extendingthefaithwasbydefinitionexpandingthe
empire. 17 The ecclesiastical works were used widely by the other tiers of travelers and
traders, who frequently sought shelter in the missions as they traveled through the “un-
charted Amazon,” usually with amapshowingthelocation ofthenextmission. 18 Emin-
ent scientists like von Humboldt and Herndon regularly followed the mission routes,
since these were places that were reliably secure, and the fathers knew native languages,
were able medics, and could provision and provide labor and guides. They were often
intermediaries at the nexus of the traveling worlds of labor, local administration, and in-
ternational ambition.
Tropical Tourists
Therewerephalanxesofwhatwemighttodaycalladventuretourists,partofnineteenth-
travel fashion, whotoured in edifying searches formasculine adventures that would fuel
their intellectual and artistic enterprises and round out their personal experience. While
some of the young European intelligentsia rushed to Damascus and Tangiers, others set
sail for Brazil or Peru, trading the opulence of the Orient for the exotica of the tropics.
Gustave Flaubert and George Gordon, Lord Byron have become almost clichés associ-
atedwiththissortoftravelintheMiddleEast,wheretheywouldgazeonEgyptianorOt-
toman ruins and acquire the precious artifacts, cultural commentary and revealing anec-
dotes that became the raw materials for “Orientalism.” Von Humboldt and Bonpland ru-
minated on whether it would be better to accompany Napoleon's Nile expedition, which
traveled with a battalion of scholars who would document every aspect of the country
from its plants to its pyramids. Finally they opted for the offer of the Spanish crown and
went off to the New World. 19
The young aristocrats von Spix and von Martius, under the aegis of the king of Bav-
aria, set forth (1817-20) to gaze on nature, experience hard travel, and make collec-
tions and measurements of all types as they mimicked the style if not the substance