Part 10 (1/2)

Curiously enough, nearly all the Brazilian Government maps--and all the foreign ones copied, of course, from the Brazilian, all remarkable for their inaccuracies--gave the wrong boundary as the correct one! In any case, both the States of Matto Grosso and Para were in actual occupation of the respective disputed territories, and Goyaz was much too poor to afford fighting for them, so that I fear her most unreasonable claims will ever remain unsatisfied.

The final blow to the financial status of the Province was the loan raised on the Banco do Brazil of Rs. 300,000,000 (20,000 sterling) at an interest of 7 per cent per annum. The Presidente counted on the receipts from the exports as well as on economy in administration in order to pay the interest on this sum--a dream which soon became impossible to realize.

It was then attempted to float an internal loan of Rs. 200,000,000 (about 13,334 sterling) at an interest of 6 per cent; but, as the Presidente pathetically ended his message to the State Congress, ”not a single person presented himself to subscribe to the loan.”

The receipts from the export of cattle from Goyaz State amounted in 1910 to only Rs. 171,901,000 (or 11,460 1_s._ 4_d._ sterling). After all expenses were deducted the State of Goyaz then showed a deficit of Rs.

325,510,743 (21,700 14_s._ 4_d_. sterling).

CHAPTER VIII

Fourteen Long and Weary Days--Disappointment--Criminals as Followers

IT was in the town of Goyaz that I had entertained hopes of finding suitable followers to accompany my expedition. The officials in Rio de Janeiro had given me glowing accounts of the bravery of the people of Goyaz. According to them those settlers of the interior were all daredevils, courageous beyond words, and I should have no difficulty whatever in finding plenty of men who, for a consideration, would join the expedition.

”They will one and all come with you,” a well-known Colonel had exclaimed enthusiastically to me in Rio--”and they will fight like tigers.”

I carried the strongest possible--although somewhat curiously worded--credentials from the Federal Government to the Presidente and other officials of Goyaz, the letters, which had been handed to me open, stating that the Presidente was earnestly requested to do all in his power to help to make the expedition a success. When I presented these doc.u.ments, I explained clearly to the Presidente that all I wished was that he should help me to collect thirty plucky men, whom I would naturally pay, and pay well, out of my own pocket, feed and clothe, during the entire time the expedition lasted, as well as pay all their expenses back and wages up to the day of reaching their original point of departure.

”I cannot help you; you will get n.o.body. Besides, I have received an official but confidential message from Rio requesting me to do all I can to prevent your going on.”

Such treachery seemed inconceivable to me, and I took no notice of it. I again requested the Presidente to endeavour to find me men and animals, as nothing would deter me from going on. If no Brazilians came, I said that I would go alone, but that the value of the expedition would naturally suffer, as I should thus have to leave behind all the instruments, cameras, and other impedimenta, which, single-handed, I could not possibly carry.

It was my intention to travel north-west from Goyaz city as far as the River Araguaya. There I wanted to descend the Araguaya as far as the Tapirapez River--a small tributary on the west side of the Araguaya, shown on some of the very incorrect existing maps approximately in Lat.

11 S., and on others in Lat. 9 and some minutes S. Proceeding westward from that point again, I proposed crossing over to the Xingu River, then to the Tapajoz, and farther to the Madeira River. It was necessary for me to hire or purchase a canoe in order to descend the Araguaya River as far as the Tapirapez.

Believing that perhaps I might be able to find men without the a.s.sistance of the Governor, I tried every possible channel in Goyaz. I sent men all round the town offering high pay. I applied to the commanding officer of the Federal troops. I applied to the Dominican monks, who have more power in Goyaz State than all the officials taken together.

The Father Superior of the Dominicans shook his head at once and told me that, much as he wished to oblige me, I was asking for something impossible. He was right. The people were so scared of the Indians, and of the horrors of camping in the jungle, that no money in the world would ever induce them to move out of their town.

”Are there no young fellows in the town who will come along for the love of adventure as well as the money they will get?” I asked.

”For love! ... love!” said the friar, bursting with laughter. ”I do not believe that such a thing exists in Brazil.”

Having removed ”love or money” from the programme of temptation, there remained little else except patience. In the meantime I endeavoured to hire a canoe. The Presidente kindly undertook to do this for me with the help of a well-known Colonel, one of the most revered men in the city.

”There is only one boat on the Araguaya,” said the Presidente to me. ”You cannot build a raft, as all the woods in these regions are too heavy and not one will float. You must hire that boat or nothing.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: View of Goyaz City from Sta. Barbara.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Author's Men packing Animals.]

The honoured Colonel his friend also impressed that point well upon me.

”Only that boat or nothing.” They also added that they had arranged for me to hire that boat for four days, and it would only cost me 500 sterling. My distinguished friends had taken ten days to arrange that bargain. It took me ten seconds to disarrange it all. All the more as I had heard that a German traveller, Dr. Krause, had the previous year gone down the Araguaya River, where he had done excellent research work, and had also travelled up the tributary Tapirapez, crossing over nearly as far as the Xingu River. He had found in that region no Indians and the country of little interest. Furthermore, on my arrival in Goyaz capital I learnt that a Brazilian Government expedition, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Dr. Pimentel, had already been in Goyaz some six months trying to start on a journey down the Araguaya, and, if possible, also to go up the Tapirapez and other tributaries of that great stream. Moreover, the Araguaya was perhaps, after the Madeira, one of the best known southern tributaries of the Amazon. As we have already seen, during the time of Dom Pedro, the Emperor, there was even steam navigation almost all along the course of the upper Araguaya as far as Leopoldina, the port for Goyaz capital. Several Englishmen and Germans and very many Brazilians had travelled on that river, where even military posts had at one time been established at intervals on its banks.

So that, rather than be imposed upon and travel for hundreds of kilometres in so well-known a region, I decided slightly to alter my route in order to cover ground that was newer and infinitely more interesting and important.

The Presidente's friend, the highly revered Colonel, had also undertaken to purchase a number of horses and mules for me. ”The people of Goyaz,”

said he, ”are terrible thieves; they will swindle you if you buy them yourself. I will purchase them for you and you will then pay me back the money. By to-morrow morning,” he had stated, ”I shall have all the horses and mules you require.”