Maps, Texts, and History - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 289

narrative of an emergent Brazilian civilization countering a sparse, moribund Peruvian
barbarism destined to extinction with the last caucho tree.
Varadouros
The reconnaissance of the Purús was under specific orders to explore the varadour-
os —the land shortcuts—to the Ucayali. These routes were of military interest to both
camps,duetothePeruviangarrisonsbasedinIquitosaswellastheeconomicusefulness
ofoverland access tothe deep-water portinIquitos andthe connections among the great
rubber rivers of the Upper Amazon. Further, there seemed to be more administrative
penetrationintheUpperPurusbyPeruviansthanBrazilmighthaveliked.Onemightre-
call from da Cunha's informal report of the voyage to the Baron in his that the Peruvian
commission was able to commandeer ubás “from mail service from Iquitos.” The route
of this tropical “pony express” with its sodden letters was not down the main channel
of the Amazon, some 1,000 km, and then 2,500 km up the Purús to deliver mail at the
headwaters. The post relied instead on the system of varadouros to go from the Upper
Ucayali to the Juruá or the Purús in a fraction of the distance and time. The implica-
tions of this were clear. An ability to shift quickly from one watershed to the next in that
landscapeofendlessmeanderswouldprovideacleareconomic,administrative,andmil-
itary advantage. This strategic geography was made more obvious as tensions heated up
after da Cunha's return to Rio, when the State of Amazonas requested a more detailed
setofmaps,onewithallthe varadouros onit,notjustafewobviousones,thatledtothe
Ucayali. 19 These passages themselves were elements in the arsenal of claiming territor-
ies; they had economic importance as substantial infrastructure works, as the image of a
varadouro on the Madre de Dios reveals ( fig. 19.1 ).