In Hostile Territory, Part 2 - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 265

we periodically encountered, we did not transit a similar passage that rose on the left margin of the
river, so that by luck at 3:15, as we arrived at the last pool, we suddenly came upon, straight ahead of
us, the head of the varadouro , positioned above a steep scarp.
There were four paxiuba palm huts where travelers gathered and cached their merchandise. All
around in all directions, empty cans of all sorts, bottles, rags of old clothes, and broken tools revealed
that what passed for relatively heavy traffic passed through this necessary stop. The varadouro , one
meter wide, opened in front to the south. It rose up a bluff, much steeper on our side, but soon sloped
gently down in three small plateaus toward the Ucayali. We were at its culminating point. . . .
. . .
. . . The sun descended to the Urubamba, and in one glance our dazzled eyes took in the three largest
valleysonearthinamarvelousexpanseofhorizon,bathedintheluminosityofanincomparableafter-
noon. What I mainly noted as I gazed at the three quadrants stretching indivisibly was that embracing
them entirely to the south, north, and east was the striking vision of our country, which I had never
imagined so vast. 3
. . .
Da Cunha and his emaciated crew returned more or less triumphantly to Manaus, with
extraordinary amounts of work ahead of them. Most of the intellectual effort would be
taken over by da Cunha. Firmo Dutra reported that da Cunha began to compose his
“Paraiso Perdido” while the experience was still fresh in his mind and the authority
of the travel itself was still powerfully animating. Da Cunha had arrived from anoth-
er world—just barely—one that Manaus refracted, but that was entirely different from
every other place in Brazil. As with his Os Sertões , it was the land that would frame the
narrative, and it was the “austere lexicon of science” that would provide the adjectives.