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odic and large distances but also compensated for this by means of double observations of the same
points on the ascent and the descent. 12 In this way he rectified the hydrographic survey and coordin-
ated the topographic and astronomic observations in a rigorous integration.
His maps later required few modifications and became the dominant model for the numerous
geographer-copyists who used, adapted, and, notably, distorted them. Unfortunately, this remarkable
expedition has not had the prominence it merits. Having studied in detail the entire Purús and Acre,
Chandless, because of a slight shift in his route, could not decisively determine the headwaters of the
firstandcouldnotresolvedecisivelythe divortium —thedivision—betweenthoseheadwatersandthe
upper branches of the Madre de Dios and Ucayali, although he deduced it. He did not present it as
sure fact, since only direct observation would serve him:
From the small size of the branches at the farthest points I reached and their rapid diminution, it's
clear they cannot come from a very great distance . . . certainly not from the cordilleira. . . . The
Madre de Dios is certainly not the source of the Purús . . . 13
. . . Comparing the maps of the headwaters with our own, we can show that if the illustrious geo-
grapher, on reaching the last bifurcation of the South Fork (the Cujar), had proceeded to the right on
the Cavaljani, the river with greater water volume that further extends the Cujar and opens into the
southern quadrant, this route would have taken him in less than eight days simultaneously to the val-
leys of the Ucayali and the Madre de Dios, after traversing a small hill which is on our side of the
Pucani River, the southernmost branch of the Purús connecting to the stream called the Machete, one
of the uppermost branches of the Ucayali.
His findings would have been even more astonishing because at the same passage and on a single
day he would have arrived at many extremely valuable conclusions:
1. He would have showed the independence of the Purús and the maximum length of its origins to
the south, without arriving at the 11th parallel.
2. He would have seen that the source of the Madre de Dios and the Ucayali is on those banks that
splitawayfromthenarrowIsthmusofFitzcarraldo:theircloseproximitypartlyjustifiestheolderrors
that persisted over so many years.
3. Comparing these with the Purús, which is separated by a small hill and less than 2 km of
varadouro ,wouldhavenotonlyexplainedthecountlesstimesthatthegreatAmazoniantributarywas
confused with the Madre de Dios but also revealed the stupendous geographic fact that from here, in
an extremely reduced area, originate and radiate out three great fluvial arteries, well outside the zone
of Andean uplift and at a relatively low altitude, perhaps 500 m above sea level.
Inspiteofthis,todayChandless'sexplorationisstillthemostseriousevercarriedoutonthePurús.
Those who followed in no way modifed its general truths. We cite only the great explorations by land
of Labre and Alexandre Haig (1870-1872) in order to mark out a road between the Port of Labré and
that of Florida in the Beni; the merely descriptive travel accounts of Barrington Brown and Lidstone
(1873),whoarrivedonlyatthecliffsofHuitanãa;andthejointBrazilian-Boliviancommission(1897)
to place the marker lines of the Beni-Javari.
Insum,formanyyearsthegeographyofthePurúswasinscribedinthelinesmappedoutbyChand-
less in 1867. Then, what is even more remarkable, it regressed. We cannot explain through what per-
verse enterprise a brilliant case of cartography, the notable map of a famous explorer, copied in a
thousand ways, produced and reproduced without number by mapmakers, ended up completely fals-
ified. The geography of the Purús reverted to the times that preceded Manoel Urbano. To the degree
that new maps—generated by those lacking the courage to face the great river, who then shuffled the
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