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MAA 1 in flBiOffl IN 11 • m<^-• !U Ie ne fay rien sans Gayete (Montaigne, Des livres) Ex Libris Jose Mindlin By Algot Lange In the Amazon Jungle The Lower Amazon Overhead tapping " Sometimes the rubber-worker finds it necessary to tap his tree to a height of twenty to thirty feet."—(Page 55) (Photographed for the Brazilian Rubber Exposition) The Lower Amazon A Narrative of Explorations in the Little Known Regions of the State of Para1, on the Lower Amazon, 'with a Record of Archaeological Excavations on Marajo Island at the Mouth of the Amazon River, and Observations on the General Resources of the Country By Algot Lange Author of " In the Amazon Jungle " Late Officially Connected with the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Brazilian federal Government With an Introduction by FredericK S. Dellenbaug'K With 109 Illustrations and 6 Maps G. P. Putnam's Sons New Yorh and London Gbe fmicfterbocher press 1914 COPYRIGHT, 1914 BY ALGOT LANGE Ube TRnfcfcerbocfcer press, mew JBortt INTRODUCTION ITHIN recent years the attention of Americans of the United States has been turned to South America, and r**w it has been discovered that the possi­ bilities there are immense. De­ velopment has been going on, and to-day the second city of the Western Hemisphere, and one of the finest cities of the world, is the capital of Argentina: Buenos Aires. But the largest country of South America, Brazil, has been hardly de­ veloped at all, and it is a vast country with limit­ less possibilities. It has an area greater than that of the United States by some 250,000 square miles, while its population, of which a large proportion is negro and Indian, amounts to only about 22,000,000. The monarch of all rivers, the Amazon, is comprised almost entirely in Brazil even to its numerous head­ waters. The trunk river is a huge inland reservoir, rising and falling because of the enormous flood- waters poured into it, and periodically inundating the forest to such an extent that there is no shore line apparent—nothing but water spreading amidst the tree trunks. The really salubrious part of the country lies south of about 8° south latitude, and along the coast. This region, besides being iv INTRODUCTION within more temperate bounds, is also elevated. The rivers flowing to the Amazon are broken by rapids and falls, and navigation even by canoes is difficult and hazardous in many places. But while the immediate region of the trunk river is not salubrious and there are at present fevers and myriads of insects to contend with, to say nothing about poisonous reptiles, it is there, in North Brazil, that perhaps the most important commercial development will eventually take place, and in time the fevers, the insects, and the snakes will be controlled. There are no dangerous large land mammals, though animals of a size to be a mark for a rifle-ball are of small consequence in any country as retarders of exploration or devel­ opment; it is not long before societies and laws must be created for their protection. The region bordering the Amazon on the south from Peru to the Atlantic is called Amazonia, and it covers two of the Brazilian States—Amazonas and Para. On his former expedition Mr. Lange explored in the region of the Javary tributary, at the extreme west of Amazonia. The results were published in his book In the Amazon Jungle. The journeys described in the present volume were made in the extreme east of Amazonia, the Lower Amazon regions, in the State of Para. His principal oper­ ations were three: a trip up the Tocantins River, another to the headwaters of the Rio Moju, and INTRODUCTION a third (two in fact) to the interior of the island of Maraj6 at the very mouth of the Amazon. The Tocantins is a very large stream generally rated as a part of the Amazon system but actually an independent river. It does not join the Ama­ zon at all, though at its mouth their waters are mingled, the Amazon sending, through channels behind Maraj6 Island, a portion, a small portion, of its volume to the sea by what is called the Para River, which is, in reality, the mouth of the Tocan­ tins. Between this estuary, or river, of Para and the true mouth of the Amazon far to the north, lies the island called Maraj6, somewhat larger than Jamaica, occupied in prehistoric times by an Amerindian tribe which, vanishing, left, to mark their former presence, a quantity of pottery of an excellence of design and ornament which indicates that here was a centre of advanced Amerindian culture. These people have generally been assigned to the Tupi (Indian) stock, but some archaeologists believe they were Arawak, a people who were widely spread in Brazil and beyond. Representa­ tives of the Tupi are still numerous in Brazil, and originally they were all along the coast and up the Amazon to a considerable distance. A corrup­ tion of their language forms the "trade" language of the country. They were good potters, yet their houses were extremely primitive, and they went entirely naked. The Ararandewaras, whom Mr. Lange found at the headwaters of the Rio Moju, vi INTRODUCTION are of this Tupi stock and were living in primitive shelters of the usual Tupi character. The men wore no clothing and the women only a small kilt or filibeg. In the Appendix, Mr. Lange gives a large number of words he obtained, which, with his photographs and his descriptions, make a valuable contribution to the ethnology of the district. His canoe voyage up the Tocantins presents a clear picture of the very primitive conditions existing there, and of the hospitable nature of the caboclos or mixed-bloods who live here and there along its banks, as well as of the character of this important river itself. Pushing his way by canoe across the Para estuary he proceeded up the Arary River to the lake of the same name, where he met with a small island in the lake which was literally covered with ancient pottery, much of it in fragments. He suc­ ceeded in collecting and bringing to New York some thousands of specimens of the pottery and of the peculiar terra cotta objects called tangas, three cornered, thin, curved and decorated pieces about the size of a human hand, which were used by the women for protection and adornment, probably their only covering. This is perhaps the largest collection of this pottery ever brought out. Another feature of the book is the enumeration of the different kinds of timber available; the various nuts and fruits commercially valuable; fibre INTRODUCTION vii plants suitable for paper making; and a statement of the possibilities of agricultural and grazing de­ velopment. Some attention is paid to showing the defects of the North Brazilians. Criticism by outsiders is always valuable to any people, for even though they may not concur, there is generally a measure of profit in heeding a stranger's remarks. All books of this kind should be welcomed in Brazil and out, for they help to present the features of the region for the consideration of the world, and make intercourse easier. FREDERICK S. DELLENBAUGH. New York, September 5, 1914. PREFACE N past years much has been written on the Amazon country, its people and its conditions. Any attempt, therefore, to-day to present new and exact pictures in this vast field is sure to meet with the disadvantage of comparison with these earlier works, some of which have grown to be almost classic. But times have changed on the Amazon as elsewhere since the days of Bates, for example; and so also have points of view. The most learned works of the tireless investigators of the early part of the last century, Martius, Spix, Humboldt, and Schomburgh, still maintain their rightful places as great authorities on Brazilian flora and fauna, etc. Bates, Wallace, Agassiz, and Herndon have de­ scribed most charmingly the topography, biology, and ethnology of the Amazon Basin, while modern authors like Steinen, Ehrenreich, Koch-Grunberg, have specialized on the ethnology of certain river sections. It is true that the mere aspect of the Amazon and its general conditions have not altered, since the time of the early explorers, but the outer world meanwhile has decidedly changed in its attitude towards this, largely, still unknown terri- x PREFACE tory. The requirements of human life, of business, have transformed methods of production, have created new and huge demands for raw materials, while more practical lines of investigation have superseded those of the olden time. The world, too, now requires to know the whole truth without misleading, though picturesque, exaggerations. The Amazonian territory, whereby is meant the states of Para and Amazonas, is an enormous tract still imperfectly explored in spite of the extensive work carried on down to the present day. Hidden within and behind its forest walls there lies latent wealth in prodigious quantity, not to be picked up like nuggets in a gold-placer or by any get-rich- quick method, but by the usual processes of com­ merce: by cultivating the soil, by developing lumbering, by introducing improved labour con­ ditions. Fortunes are to be found in this region, but it is hardly necessary to remark that they are not to be secured through speculative efforts in high finance, but through common sense, hard work, and strong will. In writing this volume here in the city of Para, I have attempted the production of a consecutive account of this future great Amazonia, analysing as far as possible various phases of the life and conditions in order to present a true picture of what is bound to become, sooner or later, a world centre of industrial activity.

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