Across Unknown South America Part 28

In ecstasy at the beautiful sight, and in a moment of forgetfulness, I drew the attention of my men to the wonderful spectacle.

"That's the moon!" they answered, with a snarl. Talking among themselves, they contemptuously added: "_He_ has never seen the moon before!" and they went on with the never-changing, blood-curdling tales of murders which filled them nightly with delight.

The streamlet flowing south, on the bank of which we camped, took its name of Sapatinho from the many _sapatinho_ trees which were in the neighbourhood. It was a curious watercourse, which disappeared into a tunnel in the rock, to reappear only farther off out of a hole in a red lava-flow.

We had marched until late into the night, and it was not until we arrived and made camp that I noticed that Filippe the negro was missing. Several hours elapsed, and as he had not turned up I feared that something had happened to him. Had he been one of the other men I should have thought it a case of desertion; but Filippe was a good fellow, and I had from the beginning felt that he and Alcides would be the two faithful men on that expedition. I went back alone a mile or two in the moonlight to try and find him, but with no success.

At sunrise I ordered two men to go in search of him. The fellows--who had no mercy whatever even for one another--were loth to go back to look for their companion and his mount. When they eventually started they took a pick each to dig his grave in case they found him dead. Fortunately they had only been gone from camp a few minutes when I perceived Filippe riding down the steep incline.

The minimum temperature was only 55 Fahr. during the night, but it was so damp that my men felt the cold intensely, especially as there were gusts of a sharp breeze from the north-east. Moreover, in the deep hollow with thick gra.s.s in which we camped (elev. 2,200 ft. above the sea level) we suffered absolute torture from the swarms of _carrapatos_ of all sizes, mosquitoes, and flies. The air and earth were thick with them. The water was dirty and almost undrinkable, as it pa.s.sed through a lot of decomposing vegetation.

I was glad when Filippe reappeared and we were able to leave that terrible spot. Great undulations were now met with, 300 ft. and more in height.

Only 1 kil. farther on we came to the Presidente stream, flowing south (elev. 2,100 ft.) over a bed of ashes, while its banks were formed of thick deposits of finely powdered yellow volcanic sand and dust.

We went over a huge dome covered with a stratum of brown sand, exposing on its western side a large wall of igneous rock with much-fissured strata dipping to the north-west. Immense isolated rocks showed vertical strata, demonstrating plainly that they had been considerably disturbed at some epoch or other.

We were on the bank of another stream (elev. 1,950 ft.) flowing south--the Capim Branco. We were then in another great and deep basin extending from north-west to south-east, in the north-western part of which could be seen on the summit of the rounded hill-tops and spurs an overlapping of rock, evidently produced when in a molten condition. In the south-western part of the slope encircling this great valley there stood another great barrier, formed also by a flow of molten rock curling over itself, as it were, and above this stood angular and pointed shoots of molten stuff of a subsequent origin. Large slabs of the latter could be separated easily from the underlying flow.

From the summit of that rocky prominence was obtained a lovely panorama of a great plateau, a portion of which had been eroded into a wall (E.N.E.) with three b.u.t.tresses: another portion was gradually a.s.suming a similar shape. The plateau had a great spur projecting westward. A crater had formed with a broken-up side to the west, leaving the conical-shaped remains of its fragmentary mouth. The plateau ended after describing a sweeping curve--almost a semicircle.

In the centre of the immense basin before us were successions of high undulations--like great waves--extending southward in parallel lines (east to west). From the point of vantage on which I stood I could count as many as eight of those huge lines of waves. Evidently at some remote period--it would be difficult to say how many thousands of years ago--that was a gigantic ma.s.s of molten stuff in commotion. In many places it was apparent that the great waves of molten rock had flowed over and partly overlapped the lower ones. In its higher north-easterly point the basin was wooded.

The great basin extended southward. In that direction all the lower ridges with their arched backs showed a depression or dip. On the S.S.W.

two more great domes of wonderfully perfect curves were to be observed, and on the south-west stood an isolated gigantic quadrangular mountain of solid rock, with the usual b.u.t.tresses in the lower portion typical of that region.

To the south-east a lovely square-shaped plateau of marvellously graceful lines stood prominent in the centre of the basin. In the same direction, only a few hundred yards off, was a most peculiar angular rock, which looked exactly like the magnified crest of an immense wave. That was just what it had been formerly--the wave, of course, of a gigantic molten ma.s.s of rock, set in violent motion by an immeasurable force. It was the terminal point of the great succession of rocky waves which we had skirted to the north in order to arrive at that point, and which extended from the great semicircle we had pa.s.sed the previous day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Strange Rock-Carvings of Matto Grosso.]

At the terminal point of those rocky waves--or wherever the rock was exposed--it was evident that all those undulations had received a similar movement and had formed the great backbone range of rock, fully exposed in the last undulation. I had observed the continuation of this great rock crest the previous day in the basin previous to reaching the Capim Branco valley. There it crossed the spur on which I was--"Observation Spur," I shall call it for purposes of identification--almost at right angles. It seemed as if two forces had been acting simultaneously but in different directions, and at various points had come into conflict and eventually had overrun each other.

The last great rocky crest at Capim Branco, when seen in profile, looked like a huge monolith with a slight inclination to the south-east. The formation of the rock itself showed a frothy appearance, such as is common with any liquefied matter while in a state of ebullition.

It is quite possible, too, that the great wave of molten matter travelling from north-east to south-west, upon encountering some obstacle, had its run interrupted and had cooled down, while the upper portion of it, from the impetus received, curled over the summit of the arrested solidified rock below.

In fact, there was plenty of evidence to show that while the lower stratum cooled down other sheets of lava flowed above it, forming many successive layers. In the eastern part, where they were at an angle of 40, these had cracked considerably in cooling. The central part of the great wave was entirely made up of vertically fissured strata. The lower half of the ma.s.s of rock showed markedly that it was an anterior wave to the upper.

There was a wide gap formed by the volcanic crack between this and the continuation of the undulations to the south-west, which got lower and lower. Perhaps before the crack occurred that hill was like the others on the east and west of it, padded with red earth. It must have become barren by the great shock which caused the surface of the earth to divide, and which no doubt shook the surface deposits down. In examining its north-eastern neighbour it could be seen that it actually tumbled over when the subsidence occurred, leaving a gap a few hundred metres wide.

A short distance beyond, on the S.S.E., was an interesting table-land sloping to the north-east, on the north side of which could be observed yet one more beautiful semicircular extinct crater. The rim, or lip of lava of this crater, had fissured in such a peculiar way as to give the appearance of a row of rectangular windows. The sections of the crater which remained standing showed two conical b.u.t.tresses above ma.s.sive cylindrical bases. From the crater started a huge, deep crack, 30 to 50 ft. deep and 20 to 100 ft. wide, which farther down became the actual bed of the stream. On both sides of this crack was a deep deposit of red earth and sand, the stratum below this being a solid ma.s.s of lava. The crater on the north-east side of the mountain had an inclination to the north, but was quite vertical on the south side.

Beautiful crystals were to be found in abundance on this mound, as well as great quant.i.ties of marble chips and crystallized rock in various forms.

On the side of this strange mound of rock I found some curious shallow caves, formed by great fissures in the rock. The vertical outer walls of these caves were painted white with lime dissolved in water. There were some puzzling carvings, which interested me greatly. I could not quite make up my mind at first whether those carvings had been made by Indians or whether they were the work of escaped negro slaves who had found shelter in those distant caves. In character they appeared to me Indian.

Negroes, as a rule, are not much given to rock-carving in order to record thoughts or events. Moreover, those primitive carvings showed strong characteristics of hunting people, such as the Indians were. There were conventional attempts at designing human figures--both male and female--by mere lines such as a child would draw: one round dot for the head and one line each for the body, arms, and legs. Curiously enough--and this persuaded me that the drawings had been done by Indians--none of the figures possessed more than three fingers or toes to any extremity. As we have seen, the Indians cannot count beyond three--unlike members of most African tribes, who can all count at least up to five. This, nevertheless, did not apply to representations of footmarks, both human and animal--which were reproduced with admirable fidelity, I think because the actual footprints on the rock itself had been used as a guide before the carving had been made. I saw the representation of a human footmark, the left, with five toes, and the shape of the foot correctly drawn. Evidently the artist or a friend had stood on his right foot while applying the left to the side of the rock.

When they attempted to draw a human foot on a scale smaller than nature, they limited themselves to carving two lines at a wide angle, to form the heel, and five dots to represent the toes.

The most wonderful of those rock carvings were the footprints of the jaguar (_onca_), reproduced with such perfection that it seemed almost as if they had been left there by the animal itself. Not so happy were the representations of human heads--one evidently of an Indian chief, with an aureole of feathers, showing a painfully distorted vision on the part of the artist. The eyes were formed by two circles in poor alignment, the nose by a vertical line, and the mouth, not under but by the side of the nose, represented by two concentric curves.

A figure in a sitting posture was interesting enough--like a T upside down, with a globe for a head and a cross-bar for arms. The hands had three fingers each, but there were only two toes to each foot.

It was interesting to note how the sculptors of those images caught, in a rudimentary way, the character of the subjects represented. This was chiefly remarkable in the footprints of birds and other animals, such as deer. They seemed particularly fond of representing deer-horns--sometimes with double lines at an angle. That was possibly to commemorate hunting expeditions. A frequent subject of decoration was a crude representation of the female organ; and one a magnified resemblance, angularly drawn, of an Indian male organ garbed in its typical decoration.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Weird Lunar Effect witnessed by Author.]

The face of the rock was absolutely covered with drawings, many being mere reproductions of the same design. Some were so rudimentary that they were absolutely impossible to identify. One fact was certain, that those carvings had been made by men who were trackers by nature and who observed chiefly what they noticed on the ground, instead of around and above them. Thus, there were no representations whatever of foliage or trees, no attempts at reproducing birds, or the sun, the moon, the stars.

The most interesting of all, from an ethnological point of view, were the geometrical designs. They closely resembled the incised lines and punch-marks of the Australian aborigines, and the patterns common in Polynesia. Concentric circles--of more or less perfection--were common, some with a central cross of three and four parallel lines. Coils seemed beyond the drawing powers of Indian artists. Ovals, triangles, squares, the Egyptian cross (T-shaped), series of detached circles (these generally enclosed within a triangle, quadrangle or lozenge) were frequent. Even more frequent were the parallel incised lines, generally used as subsidiary filling or shading of other patterns, such as concentric circles, or sections of triangles or squares.

It may be noted that a certain intelligence was displayed by the artist in dividing circles fairly accurately into four and eight sections, the diameters intersecting pretty well in the centre of the circles. One pattern which seemed to take their fancy was that of an oval or a circle with a number of dots inside.

In examining the cave closely, inside and outside, I also found upon the wall, which was simply covered with those images, some curious marks resembling the letters H P, A P, and W [Symbol: pyramid sign; 2 concentric triangles], which seemed of a more recent date--perhaps left there by some missionary Father or native explorer, or by some escaped slave.

Just below the point where the stream Capim Branco entered the S.

Lourenco River (elev. 1,800 ft. above the sea level), there was a most beautiful waterfall--the Salto Floriano Peixoto. Two minor falls, some 30 ft. high (Salto Benjamin) were also to be seen under arches of luxuriant vegetation, just above the point of junction of the two streams.

The roaring and foaming volume of water of the greater fall rolled over a vertical volcanic rock, about 60 ft. high and 60 ft. wide, with a small terrace half way up its face. The bed of the river--below the fall--was, like all the torrents of that region, of strangely shaped lava blocks.

With the dense foliage, the innumerable _caite_, a medicinal plant with huge leaves, the festooned liane and creepers--all most verdant in the sombre green light filtering through the foliage and the moisture of the abundant spray from the fall--it was indeed a magnificent sight. In order to see it, however, one had to suffer a great deal, because in forcing one's way through the dense vegetation one got literally covered with _carrapatos_ and _carrapatinhos_.

Above the falls, for some hundreds of yards, there were terrific rapids in the river, which flowed over a steep bed of yellow lava in terraces, over steps and over a fourth minor fall some distance off.

DISTANCES FROM THE ARAGUAYA TO CAPIM BRANCO

Kil. Metres.

Araguaya to Ponte Alto 26 400 Ponte Alto to Fogaca 19 800 Fogaca to Prata 20 Prata to Ponte Queimada 23 700 Ponte Queimada to Bella Vista 19 800 Bella Vista to Agua Quente 26 500 Agua Quente to Barreiros 10 Barreiros to Agua Emeindada 16 500 Agua Emeindada to Tachos 29 700 Tachos to Bugueiro 20 Bugueiro to Paredozinho 20 Paredozinho to Paredo Grande 20 Paredo Grande to Cabeca de Boi 33 100 Cabeca de Boi to Sangrador 33 100 Sangrador to Sangradorzinho 20 Sangradorzinho to Varzen Grande 20 Varzen Grande to Laga Secca 23 Laga Secca to Caxoerinha 26 500 Caxoerinha to Ponte de Pedra 10 Ponte de Pedra to Laga Formosa 20 Laga Formosa to Xico Nunes 20 Xico Nunes to Sapaturo 16 500 Sapaturo to Presidente 17 Presidente to Capim Branco 14 850 ----------- Total 509 450 ===========

CHAPTER XXII

In Search of the Highest Point of the Brazilian Plateau--Mutiny--Great Domes--Travelling by Compa.s.s--A Gigantic Fissure in the Earth's Crust

I MADE up my mind that I would continue my journey westward no farther, and would now proceed due north in order to explore the most important part of the Central Plateau--the very heart of Brazil--precisely where the great Rivers Xingu and Tapajoz had their birth. I believed that we should there find the highest point of the Central Brazilian Plateau. I expected to find in that region the most interesting portion of my journey--from the geographical, anthropological, and geological points of view. I was greatly disappointed from the anthropological aspect, since I met no one at all; but from the geological and geographical I was certainly well repaid for my trouble, great as the trouble was. We had already ridden to a distance of 1,400 kil. from the nearest railway.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Giant Quadrangular Block of Rock.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Rock-Carvings in Matto Grosso.]

My men mutinied on hearing of my plan, which I had kept concealed from them. They acted in a most abject manner. They tried to compel me to return the way we had come instead of going forward. As I flatly refused, they claimed their pay and wished to leave me there and then. Without an instant's hesitation they were handed their pay up to date and told they could go. The men had not quite realized that they would have to walk back some 858 kil. to Goyaz, without food and without animals.

Alcides and Filippe the negro had remained faithful, and on that occasion stood by my side. Unfortunately, Alcides, who had a most violent temper, quarrelled with Filippe over some paltry matter and drove him over to the inimical camp.

So that there I was--with only one man left. I am not much given to losing heart over anything. Alcides showed a strong heart on that occasion. He and I proceeded for three days to rearrange the baggage and mend the saddles, etc., in order that we two alone might take along the entire caravan of animals. I did not at all look forward to the extra work of packing all the animals twice a day, and twice a day unpacking them. The loads weighed about fifty pounds each, and there were some thirty of them. Then we should have to hunt for the animals in the morning--a job which meant that one had to ride sometimes for miles to track them and bring them all back to camp. This prospect, on top of the work I had already in hand of writing, taking astronomical and meteorological observations, photography, developing negatives, drawing, collecting and cla.s.sifying botanical and geological specimens, which occupied all day and the greater part of the night, was a little too much for me. But such was my joy at having got rid of my unpleasant companions that I would have put up with any additional discomfort and inconvenience in order to get on. Alcides behaved splendidly on that occasion.

June 8th and 9th were absolutely wasted. The relief from the mental strain of constantly looking after--and being on my guard against--my companions was great. They were days of great happiness to me.