Identifier: recollectionsofi00crai (find matches)
Title: Recollections of an ill-fated expedition to the headwaters of the Madeira River in Brazil
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Craig, Neville B., 1847-1926 Madeira and Mamoré Association
Subjects: Madeira-Mamoré Railway Mercedita (Ship) Collins Expedition (1878-1879) Brazil -- Description and travel
Publisher: Philadelphia & London : J.B. Lippincott
Contributing Library: Brown University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brown University

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variegated as thepopulation. French, Spanish, and Portuguese wouldserve a stranger about equally well in intercourse withthe natives. Fred Lorenz, who had been struggling during thevoyage to obtain a working knowledge of English,on being confronted with so many other languages,remarked, in a sad and discouraged tone of voice, ^7ken not lam so meny dem lenguages.^ The writerattempted to obtain at a store an article of suchpeculiar character that a very intimate knowledge ofat least one of the above mentioned languages wasrequired to describe it. After a vain attempt to makehimself understood in French and Portuguese, thestore-keeper finally asked, in Spanish, ^What lan-guage do you speak r^ On receiving the informationthat English was about the only language his customercould speak with the requisite degree of fluency, hereplied, in English, ^Well, go ahead; I ivas horn inNew York/ The market, with its wonderful display of tropicalfruits, pottery, and curiosities, was a place of never-
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AN ILL-FATED EXPEDITION 109 failing interest to the stranger. There for the firsttime we tasted the far-famed bananas and pineapplesof Para. The bananas, about three inches in lengthand encased in a skin hardly thicker than the kid ina ladys glove, had a flavor unequalled by any other inany part of the globe. The pineapples, when cut, wereof a golden-yellow color, and sugar could not in theslightest degree increase their sweetness. As the natives did not use milk or cream in coffee,there was but a small quantity of the lacteal fluid con-sumed. That required for culinary use was generallysold in the form of condensed milk, but, to feed youngchildren and for some other purposes, a small quantityof the natural product was peddled about the streets bydriving the cow from door to door, with small tin pailshanging to her horns, and milking her as the demandmight require. The cow was generally followed by acalf, whose age was supposed to indicate the freshnessof its mother and which fed upon

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