Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 246, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1912 — Down the Amazon on a Raft [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Down the Amazon on a Raft

Ravenous whirlpools, tigers, sharks, cannibals and malaria are incidents of an amazing voyage of 4,000 miles made by a St. Louisan, part of the way on a fragile raft from near the source to the mouth of the Amazon, which Is the longest river in the world. The marvel of the trip Is increased by the fact that ,for most of the journey he was without money. The hero of the adventure is Frank B. Farrar of St. Louis, a mining engineer. His thrilling story, with humorous episodes, is told In his own words. I left home in February, -906, under contract to take charge of placer mines in the interior of Bolivia. The company by which I was employed left me stranded and unpaid at La Pax, Bolivia, in debt to a hotel S2OO for board and lodging. Unable to pay, I stole off in the night, stowed away on a boat crossing Lake Titicaca (which, 11,000 feet above the sea level, Is said to be the highest lake In the world), and so made my way to Peru. Here, with varying fortunes, I obtained work which occupied me for more than three years. I was employed at various times by the Peruvian Railroad corporation and by different mining companies. I was at one time superintendent of the Yardmlna camp, 16,600 feet above sea level, In the Andes, and rich In copper and silver. 1 In the fall of 1910 I wont to Lima, the Paris of South America, and passed three months. I also spent all ot the money I had saved, not foreboding that I was soon to fall ill. I obtained work in a lead smelter at Huancayo and became poisoned with the metal. It was then that I determined to make my way to Yquitos, a city on the upper Amazon, to which, although S.fiOOO miles from the coast, ocean steamers penetrate. I expected there to obtain passage to New York. It was 1,000 miles from Oroya, where my journey started, to Yquitos. Two Hundred Mlles Through Forest. At Oroya I met a locomotive engineer named Paddy O’Neil, who was out of employment, and, like myself, without a penny. He decided to go with me to Yquitos, where he had heard there was plenty of work. The first leg of the trip was a 200mlle walk over the mountains to the Pachitea river, which is the beginning of the Amazon. This tramp was 15 days of nightmare. We followed a government trail through the impenetrable forests, in which at nights we could hear the roars of tigers and jaguars. We subsisted by begging from the natives whose huts we encountered. On the ninth day we were so nearly famished that I took O’Neil’s watch, walked back ten miles on the trail and sold it for $4. With the money I bought a bag of corn and lima beans, on which we lived for the rest of the "hike."

We passed several “tambos," or government posts, in which we were permitted to sleep, but the officers of which never thought of Inviting us to eat At last we reached the river, and O’Neil built a raft of logs twelve feet long and five feet wide, surmounted by a bamboo platform, on which we were to sit to keep ourselves dry. The logs were tied together with the bark of the balsa tree. We had no paddles, but only long poles. The Pachitea river at that time was narrow, but very swift, and there were many logs floating on its surface. It seemed as if our raft perversely insisted upon striking every one of these logs, and at each collision I feared that the craft would go to pieces. Once it struck a stump and turned a complete somersault, flinging us into the water. Our danger was extreme. The water was infested with venomous snakes, alligators and fresh water sharks. It was impracticable to swim ashore, because the dense tropical bamboo forests would not permit us to land, so thickly did they grow. But if we could hare landed we should have been at the mercy of wild beasts. There was nothing to do but swim after the raft, which was floating swiftly down the current After great efforts we overtook it and in a few days reached Porto Vermudls, where there is the first of a string of wirelees telegraph stations extending to the coast Here P'Nell and I both fell 11l of malaria. Despite the fact that we could scarcely lift our heads, the native hotelkeeper made us cut down trees to pay for the scraps of food he doled out to us. There was no medicine available- A native woman,

struck with pity for me, took up a collection of money to buy me a ticket to the village of Marecasas, 50 miles down the river. O’Neil got a job as engineer on the same launch on which I traveled, but was put ashore because he was too ill to perform his duties. Monkey Saved Farrar's Life. & Here I should have died but for a monkey, the property of an unfeeling native, the'keeper of a hotel into whose tender mercies I fell. Although I was “shaking violently with chills, he said to me: “You’ve got to go to work." I protested and begged for quinine. "If you don’t work," he replied, "I’ll put you in the stocks.” I was too sick to care, and told him to go ahead. The stock, an instrument of torture, consisted of a framework with holes through which my feet, arms and head were thrust. For two days and nights I sat In this machine, alternately freezing with chills and consuming with fever. The time passed like an evil dream. It was the custom of the people to pelt with missiles the unfortunate occupants of the stocks. But the natives pitied me, and some of them even gave me tea and food by stealth. Finally the hotelkeeper, muttering that he didn't want, me to "die on him" set me free and ordered the cook to give me the water In which he boiled the rice, so that I would not starve. The monkey of which I have spoken was a prodigious thief. It stole everything It could lay paws on. It occurred to me that it would be safe for me to steal what food I needed and blame the thefts on the monkey. Thereupon the monkey’s pilfering activity doubled, It seemed to its master. One day the hotelkeeper, missing two eggs, which he had intended for breakfast and which, without his knowledge, were In my pockets, said to me: “That monkey Is a thief." "He sure is,” said I, and stole away to eat my eggs unobserved. One day several natives, painted hideously, with thorns thrust through their noses, came to the river to trade. They were peaceful, but Imagine my feelings, after seeing them eye me hungrily, to be told to a whisper: "Those men are cannibals.” When my health was a bit better I revenged myself on the hotel man by appropriating his canoe one night and paddling away down the river. O'Neil, who had been almost as ill as myself, went with me. We made our way to 15 daysto Cantumayo, begging our food as we went. The natives were more than kind to us. The trip was made hideous by millions of huge mosquitoes which swarmed down on us until our feet and hands were black with the insects. The natives do nqt even take the trouble to brush them off, but they tormented us terribly. At last, In payment for my repairing her sewing machine, a woman gave us a strip of mosquito netting, which we spread over the canoe at night while we slept It happened that the chief of police at Cantumayo was an acquaintance of mine. He permitted me to sleep In the police station and paid for my meals at a neighboring house. The mistress of this house had a mania for medicine and Insisted upon dosing me with a horrible mixture until I was sicker than ever. This decoction -Fas a bowl of strong liquor made from sugar cane, lemon juice and salt. I Implored her to give me quinine, but she refused ano felt that I had insulted her. nostrum. I believe I should have died had 1 not met an American »egro named Tolblt • He gave me a pound, or $4.86, with which I bought quinine and cognac In four days the fever was broken, Tolblt obtained a canoe (I suspect he stole it) and we floated down the river for seven days, stopping at villages for the nights. But on the seventh night the negro disappeared. I was picked up by a tall and pompous personage who called hmiself by the resounding name of Don Pedro Segunda La Jera, and who made an average of SIOO a day by selling phony jewelry to the natives took me along to paddle his canoeHe was so stingy that he would not permit me to use the condensedmffk he carried for his coffee, and refused to pay for the provisions he purchased unless compelled by force. I left him at Porto San Francisco, where I got work cutting down trees for 7s cents a day. Here I remained 15 days and •t f- ■.?- ■" '4—z • t