Our
friends at home may well rejoice
with us, for we are at our goal,
and up to a point, at least,
we have shown that the statement
of Professor Challenger can be
verified. We have not, it is
true, ascended the plateau, but
it lies before us, and even Professor
Summerlee is in a more chastened
mood. Not that he will for an
instant admit that his rival
could be right, but he is less
persistent in his incessant objections,
and has sunk for the most part
into an observant silence. I
must hark back, however, and
continue my narrative from where
I dropped it. We are sending
home one of our local Indians
who is injured, and I am committing
this letter to his charge, with
considerable doubts in my mind
as to whether it will ever come
to hand.
When
I wrote last
we were about
to leave the Indian village where
we had been deposited by the
Esmeralda. I have to begin my
report by bad news, for the first
serious personal trouble (I pass
over the incessant bickerings
between the Professors) occurred
this evening, and might have
had a tragic ending. I have spoken
of our English-speaking half-breed,
Gomez--a fine worker and a willing
fellow, but afflicted, I fancy,
with the vice of curiosity, which
is common enough among such men.
On the last evening he seems
to have hid himself near the
hut in which we were discussing
our plans, and, being observed
by our huge negro Zambo, who
is as faithful as a dog and has
the hatred which all his race
bear to the half-breeds, he was
dragged out and carried into
our presence. Gomez whipped out
his knife, however, and but for
the huge strength of his captor,
which enabled him to disarm him
with one hand, he would certainly
have stabbed him. The matter
has ended in reprimands, the
opponents have been compelled
to shake hands, and there is
every hope that all will be well.
As to the feuds of the two learned
men, they are continuous and
bitter. It must be admitted that
Challenger is provocative in
the last degree, but Summerlee
has an acid tongue, which makes
matters worse. Last night Challenger
said that he never cared to walk
on the Thames Embankment and
look up the river, as it was
always sad to see one's own eventual
goal. He is convinced, of course,
that he is destined for Westminster
Abbey. Summerlee rejoined, however,
with a sour smile, by saying
that he understood that Millbank
Prison had been pulled down.
Challenger's conceit is too colossal
to allow him to be really annoyed.
He only smiled in his beard and
repeated "Really! Really!" in
the pitying tone one would use
to a child. Indeed, they are
children both--the one wizened
and cantankerous, the other formidable
and overbearing, yet each with
a brain which has put him in
the front rank of his scientific
age. Brain, character, soul--only
as one sees more of life does
one understand how distinct is
each.
The very next day we did actually
make our start upon this remarkable
expedition. We found that all
our possessions fitted very easily
into the two canoes, and we divided
our personnel, six in each, taking
the obvious precaution in the
interests of peace of putting
one Professor into each canoe.
Personally, I was with Challenger,
who was in a beatific humor,
moving about as one in a silent
ecstasy and beaming benevolence
from every feature. I have had
some experience of him in other
moods, however, and shall be
the less surprised when the thunderstorms
suddenly come up amidst the sunshine.
If it is impossible to be at
your ease, it is equally impossible
to be dull in his company, for
one is always in a state of half-tremulous
doubt as to what sudden turn
his formidable temper may take.
For two days we made our way
up a good-sized river some hundreds
of yards broad, and dark in color,
but transparent, so that one
could usually see the bottom.
The affluents of the Amazon are,
half of them, of this nature,
while the other half are whitish
and opaque, the difference depending
upon the class of country through
which they have flowed. The dark
indicate vegetable decay, while
the others point to clayey soil.
Twice we came across rapids,
and in each case made a portage
of half a mile or so to avoid
them. The woods on either side
were primeval, which are more
easily penetrated than woods
of the second growth, and we
had no great difficulty in carrying
our canoes through them. How
shall I ever forget the solemn
mystery of it? The height of
the trees and the thickness of
the boles exceeded anything which
I in my town-bred life could
have imagined, shooting upwards
in magnificent columns until,
at an enormous distance above
our heads, we could dimly discern
the spot where they threw out
their side-branches into Gothic
upward curves which coalesced
to form one great matted roof
of verdure, through which only
an occasional golden ray of sunshine
shot downwards to trace a thin
dazzling line of light amidst
the majestic obscurity. As we
walked noiselessly amid the thick,
soft carpet of decaying vegetation
the hush fell upon our souls
which comes upon us in the twilight
of the Abbey, and even Professor
Challenger's full-chested notes
sank into a whisper. Alone, I
should have been ignorant of
the names of these giant growths,
but our men of science pointed
out the cedars, the great silk
cotton trees, and the redwood
trees, with all that profusion
of various plants which has made
this continent the chief supplier
to the human race of those gifts
of Nature which depend upon the
vegetable world, while it is
the most backward in those products
which come from animal life.
Vivid orchids and wonderful colored
lichens smoldered upon the swarthy
tree-trunks and where a wandering
shaft of light fell full upon
the golden allamanda, the scarlet
star-clusters of the tacsonia,
or the rich deep blue of ipomaea,
the effect was as a dream of
fairyland. In these great wastes
of forest, life, which abhors
darkness, struggles ever upwards
to the light. Every plant, even
the smaller ones, curls and writhes
to the green surface, twining
itself round its stronger and
taller brethren in the effort.
Climbing plants are monstrous
and luxuriant, but others which
have never been known to climb
elsewhere learn the art as an
escape from that somber shadow,
so that the common nettle, the
jasmine, and even the jacitara
palm tree can be seen circling
the stems of the cedars and striving
to reach their crowns. Of animal
life there was no movement amid
the majestic vaulted aisles which
stretched from us as we walked,
but a constant movement far above
our heads told of that multitudinous
world of snake and monkey, bird
and sloth, which lived in the
sunshine, and looked down in
wonder at our tiny, dark, stumbling
figures in the obscure depths
immeasurably below them. At dawn
and at sunset the howler monkeys
screamed together and the parrakeets
broke into shrill chatter, but
during the hot hours of the day
only the full drone of insects,
like the beat of a distant surf,
filled the ear, while nothing
moved amid the solemn vistas
of stupendous trunks, fading
away into the darkness which
held us in. Once some bandy-legged,
lurching creature, an ant-eater
or a bear, scuttled clumsily
amid the shadows. It was the
only sign of earth life which
I saw in this great Amazonian
forest.
And yet there were indications
that even human life itself was
not far from us in those mysterious
recesses. On the third day out
we were aware of a singular deep
throbbing in the air, rhythmic
and solemn, coming and going
fitfully throughout the morning.
The two boats were paddling within
a few yards of each other when
first we heard it, and our Indians
remained motionless, as if they
had been turned to bronze, listening
intently with expressions of
terror upon their faces.
"What is it, then?" I
asked.
"Drums," said Lord John, carelessly; "war
drums. I have heard them before."
"Yes, sir, war drums," said
Gomez, the half-breed. "Wild
Indians, bravos, not mansos;
they watch us every mile of the
way; kill us if they can."
"How can they watch us?" I
asked, gazing into the dark,
motionless void.
The half-breed shrugged his
broad shoulders.
"The
Indians know.
They have their
own way. They
watch us.
They talk the drum talk to each
other. Kill us if they can."
By
the afternoon
of that day--my
pocket diary shows me that it
was Tuesday, August 18th--at
least six or seven drums were
throbbing from various points.
Sometimes they beat quickly,
sometimes slowly, sometimes in
obvious question and answer,
one far to the east breaking
out in a high staccato rattle,
and being followed after a pause
by a deep roll from the north.
There was something indescribably
nerve-shaking and menacing in
that constant mutter, which seemed
to shape itself into the very
syllables of the half-breed,
endlessly repeated, "We will
kill you if we can. We will kill
you if we can." No one ever moved
in the silent woods. All the
peace and soothing of quiet Nature
lay in that dark curtain of vegetation,
but away from behind there came
ever the one message from our
fellow-man. "We will kill you
if we can," said the men in the
east. "We will kill you if we
can," said the men in the north.
All day the drums rumbled and
whispered, while their menace
reflected itself in the faces
of our colored companions. Even
the hardy, swaggering half-breed
seemed cowed. I learned, however,
that day once for all that both
Summerlee and Challenger possessed
that highest type of bravery,
the bravery of the scientific
mind. Theirs was the spirit which
upheld Darwin among the gauchos
of the Argentine or Wallace among
the head-hunters of Malaya. It
is decreed by a merciful Nature
that the human brain cannot think
of two things simultaneously,
so that if it be steeped in curiosity
as to science it has no room
for merely personal considerations.
All day amid that incessant and
mysterious menace our two Professors
watched every bird upon the wing,
and every shrub upon the bank,
with many a sharp wordy contention,
when the snarl of Summerlee came
quick upon the deep growl of
Challenger, but with no more
sense of danger and no more reference
to drum-beating Indians than
if they were seated together
in the smoking-room of the Royal
Society's Club in St. James's
Street. Once only did they condescend
to discuss them.
"Miranha or Amajuaca cannibals," said
Challenger, jerking his thumb
towards the reverberating wood.
"No doubt, sir," Summerlee
answered. "Like all such tribes,
I shall expect to find them of
poly-synthetic speech and of
Mongolian type."
"Polysynthetic certainly," said
Challenger, indulgently. "I am
not aware that any other type
of language exists in this continent,
and I have notes of more than
a hundred. The Mongolian theory
I regard with deep suspicion."
"I should have thought that
even a limited knowledge of comparative
anatomy would have helped to
verify it," said Summerlee, bitterly.
Challenger
thrust out
his aggressive
chin until he was all beard and
hat-rim. "No doubt, sir, a limited
knowledge would have that effect.
When one's knowledge is exhaustive,
one comes to other conclusions." They
glared at each other in mutual
defiance, while all round rose
the distant whisper, "We will
kill you--we will kill you if
we can."
That night we moored our canoes
with heavy stones for anchors
in the center of the stream,
and made every preparation for
a possible attack. Nothing came,
however, and with the dawn we
pushed upon our way, the drum-beating
dying out behind us. About three
o'clock in the afternoon we came
to a very steep rapid, more than
a mile long--the very one in
which Professor Challenger had
suffered disaster upon his first
journey. I confess that the sight
of it consoled me, for it was
really the first direct corroboration,
slight as it was, of the truth
of his story. The Indians carried
first our canoes and then our
stores through the brushwood,
which is very thick at this point,
while we four whites, our rifles
on our shoulders, walked between
them and any danger coming from
the woods. Before evening we
had successfully passed the rapids,
and made our way some ten miles
above them, where we anchored
for the night. At this point
I reckoned that we had come not
less than a hundred miles up
the tributary from the main stream.
It was in the early forenoon
of the next day that we made
the great departure. Since dawn
Professor Challenger had been
acutely uneasy, continually scanning
each bank of the river. Suddenly
he gave an exclamation of satisfaction
and pointed to a single tree,
which projected at a peculiar
angle over the side of the stream.
"What do you make of that?" he
asked.
"It is surely an Assai palm," said
Summerlee.
"Exactly.
It was an Assai
palm which
I took for
my landmark.
The secret opening is half a
mile onwards upon the other side
of the river. There is no break
in the trees. That is the wonder
and the mystery of it. There
where you see light-green rushes
instead of dark-green undergrowth,
there between the great cotton
woods, that is my private gate
into the unknown. Push through,
and you will understand."
It was indeed a wonderful place.
Having reached the spot marked
by a line of light-green rushes,
we poled out two canoes through
them for some hundreds of yards,
and eventually emerged into a
placid and shallow stream, running
clear and transparent over a
sandy bottom. It may have been
twenty yards across, and was
banked in on each side by most
luxuriant vegetation. No one
who had not observed that for
a short distance reeds had taken
the place of shrubs, could possibly
have guessed the existence of
such a stream or dreamed of the
fairyland beyond.
For a fairyland it was--the
most wonderful that the imagination
of man could conceive. The thick
vegetation met overhead, interlacing
into a natural pergola, and through
this tunnel of verdure in a golden
twilight flowed the green, pellucid
river, beautiful in itself, but
marvelous from the strange tints
thrown by the vivid light from
above filtered and tempered in
its fall. Clear as crystal, motionless
as a sheet of glass, green as
the edge of an iceberg, it stretched
in front of us under its leafy
archway, every stroke of our
paddles sending a thousand ripples
across its shining surface. It
was a fitting avenue to a land
of wonders. All sign of the Indians
had passed away, but animal life
was more frequent, and the tameness
of the creatures showed that
they knew nothing of the hunter.
Fuzzy little black-velvet monkeys,
with snow-white teeth and gleaming,
mocking eyes, chattered at us
as we passed. With a dull, heavy
splash an occasional cayman plunged
in from the bank. Once a dark,
clumsy tapir stared at us from
a gap in the bushes, and then
lumbered away through the forest;
once, too, the yellow, sinuous
form of a great puma whisked
amid the brushwood, and its green,
baleful eyes glared hatred at
us over its tawny shoulder. Bird
life was abundant, especially
the wading birds, stork, heron,
and ibis gathering in little
groups, blue, scarlet, and white,
upon every log which jutted from
the bank, while beneath us the
crystal water was alive with
fish of every shape and color.
For three days we made our
way up this tunnel of hazy green
sunshine. On the longer stretches
one could hardly tell as one
looked ahead where the distant
green water ended and the distant
green archway began. The deep
peace of this strange waterway
was unbroken by any sign of man.
"No Indian here. Too much afraid.
Curupuri," said Gomez.
"Curupuri is the spirit of
the woods," Lord John explained. "It's
a name for any kind of devil.
The poor beggars think that there
is something fearsome in this
direction, and therefore they
avoid it."
On the third day it became
evident that our journey in the
canoes could not last much longer,
for the stream was rapidly growing
more shallow. Twice in as many
hours we stuck upon the bottom.
Finally we pulled the boats up
among the brushwood and spent
the night on the bank of the
river. In the morning Lord John
and I made our way for a couple
of miles through the forest,
keeping parallel with the stream;
but as it grew ever shallower
we returned and reported, what
Professor Challenger had already
suspected, that we had reached
the highest point to which the
canoes could be brought. We drew
them up, therefore, and concealed
them among the bushes, blazing
a tree with our axes, so that
we should find them again. Then
we distributed the various burdens
among us--guns, ammunition, food,
a tent, blankets, and the rest--and,
shouldering our packages, we
set forth upon the more laborious
stage of our journey.
An unfortunate quarrel between
our pepper-pots marked the outset
of our new stage. Challenger
had from the moment of joining
us issued directions to the whole
party, much to the evident discontent
of Summerlee. Now, upon his assigning
some duty to his fellow-Professor
(it was only the carrying of
an aneroid barometer), the matter
suddenly came to a head.
"May I ask, sir," said Summerlee,
with vicious calm, "in what capacity
you take it upon yourself to
issue these orders?"
Challenger glared and bristled.
"I
do it, Professor
Summerlee,
as leader of
this expedition."
"I
am compelled
to tell you,
sir, that I do not recognize
you in that capacity."
"Indeed!" Challenger bowed
with unwieldy sarcasm. "Perhaps
you would define my exact position."
"Yes,
sir. You are
a man whose
veracity is upon trial, and this
committee is here to try it.
You walk, sir, with your judges."
"Dear me!" said Challenger,
seating himself on the side of
one of the canoes. "In that case
you will, of course, go on your
way, and I will follow at my
leisure. If I am not the leader
you cannot expect me to lead."
Thank heaven that there were
two sane men--Lord John Roxton
and myself--to prevent the petulance
and folly of our learned Professors
from sending us back empty-handed
to London. Such arguing and pleading
and explaining before we could
get them mollified! Then at last
Summerlee, with his sneer and
his pipe, would move forwards,
and Challenger would come rolling
and grumbling after. By some
good fortune we discovered about
this time that both our savants
had the very poorest opinion
of Dr. Illingworth of Edinburgh.
Thenceforward that was our one
safety, and every strained situation
was relieved by our introducing
the name of the Scotch zoologist,
when both our Professors would
form a temporary alliance and
friendship in their detestation
and abuse of this common rival.
Advancing in single file along
the bank of the stream, we soon
found that it narrowed down to
a mere brook, and finally that
it lost itself in a great green
morass of sponge-like mosses,
into which we sank up to our
knees. The place was horribly
haunted by clouds of mosquitoes
and every form of flying pest,
so we were glad to find solid
ground again and to make a circuit
among the trees, which enabled
us to outflank this pestilent
morass, which droned like an
organ in the distance, so loud
was it with insect life.
On
the second
day after leaving
our canoes we found that the
whole character of the country
changed. Our road was persistently
upwards, and as we ascended the
woods became thinner and lost
their tropical luxuriance. The
huge trees of the alluvial Amazonian
plain gave place to the Phoenix
and coco palms, growing in scattered
clumps, with thick brushwood
between. In the damper hollows
the Mauritia palms threw out
their graceful drooping fronds.
We traveled entirely by compass,
and once or twice there were
differences of opinion between
Challenger and the two Indians,
when, to quote the Professor's
indignant words, the whole party
agreed to "trust the fallacious
instincts of undeveloped savages
rather than the highest product
of modern European culture." That
we were justified in doing so
was shown upon the third day,
when Challenger admitted that
he recognized several landmarks
of his former journey, and in
one spot we actually came upon
four fire-blackened stones, which
must have marked a camping-place.
The road still ascended, and
we crossed a rock-studded slope
which took two days to traverse.
The vegetation had again changed,
and only the vegetable ivory
tree remained, with a great profusion
of wonderful orchids, among which
I learned to recognize the rare
Nuttonia Vexillaria and the glorious
pink and scarlet blossoms of
Cattleya and odontoglossum. Occasional
brooks with pebbly bottoms and
fern-draped banks gurgled down
the shallow gorges in the hill,
and offered good camping-grounds
every evening on the banks of
some rock-studded pool, where
swarms of little blue-backed
fish, about the size and shape
of English trout, gave us a delicious
supper.
On the ninth day after leaving
the canoes, having done, as I
reckon, about a hundred and twenty
miles, we began to emerge from
the trees, which had grown smaller
until they were mere shrubs.
Their place was taken by an immense
wilderness of bamboo, which grew
so thickly that we could only
penetrate it by cutting a pathway
with the machetes and billhooks
of the Indians. It took us a
long day, traveling from seven
in the morning till eight at
night, with only two breaks of
one hour each, to get through
this obstacle. Anything more
monotonous and wearying could
not be imagined, for, even at
the most open places, I could
not see more than ten or twelve
yards, while usually my vision
was limited to the back of Lord
John's cotton jacket in front
of me, and to the yellow wall
within a foot of me on either
side. From above came one thin
knife-edge of sunshine, and fifteen
feet over our heads one saw the
tops of the reeds swaying against
the deep blue sky. I do not know
what kind of creatures inhabit
such a thicket, but several times
we heard the plunging of large,
heavy animals quite close to
us. From their sounds Lord John
judged them to be some form of
wild cattle. Just as night fell
we cleared the belt of bamboos,
and at once formed our camp,
exhausted by the interminable
day.
Early next morning we were
again afoot, and found that the
character of the country had
changed once again. Behind us
was the wall of bamboo, as definite
as if it marked the course of
a river. In front was an open
plain, sloping slightly upwards
and dotted with clumps of tree-ferns,
the whole curving before us until
it ended in a long, whale-backed
ridge. This we reached about
midday, only to find a shallow
valley beyond, rising once again
into a gentle incline which led
to a low, rounded sky-line. It
was here, while we crossed the
first of these hills, that an
incident occurred which may or
may not have been important.
Professor Challenger, who with
the two local Indians was in
the van of the party, stopped
suddenly and pointed excitedly
to the right. As he did so we
saw, at the distance of a mile
or so, something which appeared
to be a huge gray bird flap slowly
up from the ground and skim smoothly
off, flying very low and straight,
until it was lost among the tree-ferns.
"Did you see it?" cried Challenger,
in exultation. "Summerlee, did
you see it?"
His colleague was staring at
the spot where the creature had
disappeared.
"What do you claim that it
was?" he asked.
"To
the best of
my belief,
a pterodactyl."
Summerlee
burst into
derisive laughter "A pter-fiddlestick!" said
he. "It was a stork, if ever
I saw one."
Challenger was too furious
to speak. He simply swung his
pack upon his back and continued
upon his march. Lord John came
abreast of me, however, and his
face was more grave than was
his wont. He had his Zeiss glasses
in his hand.
"I focused it before it got
over the trees," said he. "I
won't undertake to say what it
was, but I'll risk my reputation
as a sportsman that it wasn't
any bird that ever I clapped
eyes on in my life."
So there the matter stands.
Are we really just at the edge
of the unknown, encountering
the outlying pickets of this
lost world of which our leader
speaks? I give you the incident
as it occurred and you will know
as much as I do. It stands alone,
for we saw nothing more which
could be called remarkable.
And now, my readers, if ever
I have any, I have brought you
up the broad river, and through
the screen of rushes, and down
the green tunnel, and up the
long slope of palm trees, and
through the bamboo brake, and
across the plain of tree-ferns.
At last our destination lay in
full sight of us. When we had
crossed the second ridge we saw
before us an irregular, palm-studded
plain, and then the line of high
red cliffs which I have seen
in the picture. There it lies,
even as I write, and there can
be no question that it is the
same. At the nearest point it
is about seven miles from our
present camp, and it curves away,
stretching as far as I can see.
Challenger struts about like
a prize peacock, and Summerlee
is silent, but still sceptical.
Another day should bring some
of our doubts to an end. Meanwhile,
as Jose, whose arm was pierced
by a broken bamboo, insists upon
returning, I send this letter
back in his charge, and only
hope that it may eventually come
to hand. I will write again as
the occasion serves. I have enclosed
with this a rough chart of our
journey, which may have the effect
of making the account rather
easier to understand.
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