Return of the Native - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 275

He was about to embark on another set of battles pertaining to the Peruvian commis-
sion, the lineaments of which would produce the first real diplomatic history of the Up-
per Amazon. But his domestic situation would become unimaginably worse.
. . .
Ana yearned for Dilermando de Assis, and after his departure they corresponded. Ac-
cording to her deposition, 43 Euclides treated her badly, and she begged Dilermando to
comebacktoRio.Shewantedtohaveanotherchildwithhim. 44 Hewasabletoreturnto
Rio, and they met in various places in the city (including at the tomb of the unfortunate
Mauro). She arranged for him to visit her at home when Euclides would be at Petrópolis
working with the Baron. By February 1907, they had resumed their affair. The fecund
Ana was soon pregnant again, and perhaps once more trying to abort.
Euclides wrote this to his brother-in-law in June of that year: “Saninha, in early preg-
nancy, has been very unwell after a threatened miscarriage. She passes days in bed on
the advice of several doctors, and cannot even leave home to visit my mother-in-law.
Travel now would be disastrous for her. Besides our own doctor, others have prescribed
maximum caution for her.” 45
On November 16 young Luis would be born, blond and blue-eyed, “an ear of corn
amidst the coffee.” Luis, as an adult, would later take the surname de Assis in recogni-
tion of his true paternity. From that time forward, Ana stated, “Euclides was regularly
insulting to her and to the young child ('that shit from the big sergeant'), and made Ana
hide the child when they had visitors.” 46 Given this depressing domestic scenario, it is
probably not surprising that he flung himself into the labors for Baron Rio Branco, es-
caping to the archives to reconstruct a past and imagine a new future for a new Amazon.