At the close of the American Civil War renowned
entomologist, naturalist, and explorer William H. Edwards led an
expedition into the Amazon basin. Voyage Up the River Amazon, is
Edwards’ record of his travels in 1846.
Edwards often delights in the simple pleasures of rest and
clever ways to avoid the ever present irritations of jungle life. His
narrative brims with the joy of discovery.
There is one enemy, who, sometimes, approaches even a
hammock, and takes a tribute from the unconscious sleeper, and that is the
vampire bat. …no sooner has the declining sun unloosed the eve, than they
may be seen issuing in long, black streams. Usually, we avoided all their
intimacies by closing the shutters at sunset; but occasionally, some of
them would find entrance through the tiles, and we went forth to battle
them with all the doughty arms with our reach, nor stopped the slaughter
until every presumptuous intruder had bit the dust – or less
metaphorically, had sprawled upon the floor. Several thus captured,
measured, each, upwards of two feet across the wings; but most were
smaller.
A trained observer (and author of Butterflies of North
America), Edwards made important contributions to our understanding of the
dense, lush and wild world of the Amazon jungle and its people; including
their weapons.
The most curious, and the most formidable weapon, is the
blowing-cane. This is eight or ten feet in length – two inches in diameter
at the larger end, and gradually tapering to less than an inch at the
other extremity. … The arrow for this cane, is a splint of a palm, one
foot in length, sharpened, at one end, to a delicate point, and, at the
other, wound with the silky tree-cotton, to the size of the tube. The
point of this is dipped in poison, and slightly cut around, that when
striking an object, it may break by its own weight, leaving the point in
the wound…
This book, for the first time, brought readers into
contact with giant snakes and flesh-eating fish. Voyage Up the River
Amazon also inspired other scientists to further explore this rich and
diverse region. English scientists Henry Bates and Alfred Wallace went to
the Amazon the following year, following in Edwards’ footsteps.
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