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On the eighth day we passed the Brazilian fort and arsenal of Cuimbre, with its brass cannon shining in a sun of brass, and its sleepy inhabitants lolling in the shade. Five weeks after leaving Rio Janeiro we finally anchored in Corumba, an intensely sultry spot. Corumba is a town of 5,000 inhabitants, and often said to be one of the hottest in the world.
Men not making a splashing and struggling are rarely attacked; but if one is attacked by any chance, the blood in the water maddens the piranhas, and they assail the man with frightful ferocity. At Corumba the weather was hot.
In a year the railway from Rio will reach Corumba; and then this city, and the country roundabout, will see much development. At this point we rejoined the rest of the party, and very glad we were to see them. Cherrie and Miller had already collected some eight hundred specimens of mammals and birds.
Corumba contains a few stores of all descriptions, but it would seem that the stock in trade of the chemist is very low, for I overheard a conversation between two women one day, who said they could not get this or that in fact, "he only keeps cures for stabs and such like things." In the armazems liquors are sold, and rice, salt and beans despatched to the customer by the pint.
Accordingly, it was arranged that Colonel Rondon and some assistants and scientists should meet me at or below Corumba, and that we should attempt the descent of the river, of which they had already come across the headwaters. I had to travel through Brazil, Uruguay, the Argentine, and Chile for six weeks to fulfil my speaking engagements.
Evidently the various other survival factors, such as habit, and in many cases cover, etc., are of such overmastering importance that the coloration is generally of no consequence whatever, one way or the other, and is only very rarely a factor of any serious weight. The junction of the Sao Lourenco and the Paraguay is a day's journey above Corumba.
The writer on one occasion was in Rio when a certain mission called him to the town of Corumba, distant perhaps 1,300 miles from the capital. Does the reader wish to journey to that inland town with him? Boarding an ocean steamer at Rio, we sail down the stormy sea-coast for one thousand miles to Montevideo.
Perhaps the day is not far distant when Cuyaba, the most central city of South America, and larger than Corumba, lying hundreds of miles further up the river, will set up a head of its own to rule, or misrule, the province. Brazil is too big, much too big, or the Government is too little, much too little.
He had with him in the boat his comely brown wife who was smoking a very large cigar their two children, a young man, and a couple of trunks and various other belongings. On Christmas eve we reached Corumba, and rejoined the other members of the expedition. At Corumba our entire party, and all their belongings, came aboard our good little river boat, the Nyoac.
It was Fiala who had assembled our food-tents, cooking-utensils, and supplies of all kinds, and he and Sigg, during their stay in Corumba, had been putting everything in shape for our start.
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