. Recollections of an ill-fated expedition to the headwaters of the Madeira River in Brazil . of the two large tugs. I mention this only asan illustration, possibly unnecessary, of the spiritwhich pervaded our entire organization, and is happilyusual in all but the worst managed American enter-prises, conducted under novel circumstances and inremote corners of the earth. The long existence of theMadeira and Mamore Association itself bears testi-mony to the prevalence of the same qualities, on alarger scale, in the railroad branch of the undertaking. ^^When the time came for us to disband the e
. Recollections of an ill-fated expedition to the headwaters of the Madeira River in Brazil . of the two large tugs. I mention this only asan illustration, possibly unnecessary, of the spiritwhich pervaded our entire organization, and is happilyusual in all but the worst managed American enter-prises, conducted under novel circumstances and inremote corners of the earth. The long existence of theMadeira and Mamore Association itself bears testi-mony to the prevalence of the same qualities, on alarger scale, in the railroad branch of the undertaking. ^^When the time came for us to disband the expedi-tion and for its members to return to the States, itwas with the sincere hope that the difficulties in Eng-land and at home might be soon settled, so that ourlabors could be renewed. This was not to be, and thebreak-up proved to be final. * * Even in those days of deepest disappointment andregret, incidents were occurring which made us for-get our troubles. One was the departure of our younginterpreter, Ernest Morris, known to newspaper read-ers as The Boy Naturalist of the AN ILL-FATED EXPEDITION 429 **He had originally gone to South America fromIndiana, as an orchid hunter for a wealthy gentlemanof Troy, New York, via the Wabash, Ohio and Missis-sippi rivers, over the Gulf of Mexico and the CaribbeanSea, up the Orinoco and down the Rio Negro to theAmazon. He had been quite successful and was em-ployed by us, not only on account of his familiaritywith the language of the country, but, also, for hisgeographical knowledge of a then almost unexploredregion. When the end came, he decided to go up theriver to collect orchids and trade for rubber on hispersonal account. To assist him in this, he appliedfor such portion of our stock of gimcracks and tradersstuff, as we could spare, and was given a free hand inmaking the selection. This completed, we found hehad taken all the playing cards, intended for our owndiversion. When asked as to the use he intended tomake of th
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