Notes - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 425

*8. Pongos are narrow channels and rock canyons of rivers as they descend the Andes into the
Amazon.
*9. Peru's first president.
*10. A president of Chile who allied with Gamarra to unravel the Peruvian-Bolivian confederacy.
With Bolivia defeated, Gamarra became president of Peru.
*11. This was a decisive battle in the War of the Pacific.
*12. Castilla was president of Peru four times.
*13. Pedro Portillo was instrumental in the politics of extending Peruvian control on the Purús, Putu-
mayo, and Juruá (see chap. 10 ) .
*14. This would be translated as “Beach of Punishment.”
1. Coutinho and Urbano would both serve as guides for the Agassiz expedition. Coutinho was one of
the unsung heroes of the Upper Amazon and one of the keenest observers of the rubber economy. By
the 1880s he was to note that the production of wild rubber would reach its limits and be replaced by
plantations. See Dean, Brazil and the Struggle for Rubber .
2. Chandless, “Ascent of the River Purús.”
3. Seed, Ceremonies of Possession .
4. Ibid.
5. Hadfield, Brazil and the River Plate .
6. Orton, Andes and the Amazon .
7. For an overview of Haenke, see William Denevan's appreciation, “Tadeo Haenke,.”
8. Da Cunha derives virtually all his discussions of Urbano from the Chandless report, which in-
cluded a synopsis of the Coutinho travels as well. Chandless, “Ascent of the River Purús.”
9. “From the rising of the sun he formed a much better estimate of the general course than I should
have thought possible in so tortuous a river, and not a bad one of the distance of leagues.” See ibid.
10. Wallis's attempts on the river were marred by an unending series of catastrophes, including
drowning.
11. This litany of hardship was clearly experienced by da Cunha.
12. This was more or less the same methodology used by the Da Cunha/Buenaño survey.
13. Chandless, “Ascent of the River Purús.”
14. Fifer, “Empire Builders.” Herzog generally seems to have had a horrible time in Amazonia film-
ing Aguirre but most especially filming Fitzcarraldo . See Herzog and Winston, Conquest of the Use-
less .
15. Davis and Schultes, Lost Amazon .
16. Heath, “Exploration of the River Beni.”
17. His essay in À margem called “A Transacreana” is more or less a meditation on an infrastructure
development program based on the varadouros (see Souza, Land without History ). Da Cunha's more
interesting meditations on the meaning of the land connections are explored in chapter 19 under the
section “ Varadouros .”
18. To clarify the locations, see da Cunha map 11 in chapter 19 .
19. See the already cited studies by Hemming, Langfur, Garfield, and Manuela da Cunha.
20. Rondon would for a short time become the guardian of da Cunha's sons after his death.
21. Rondon is an underappreciated figure in Amazonian history. He founded the Indian protection
service and was one of the Amazon's great surveyors and explorers (including acting as a guide for