p. 11 | Unexplored Regions

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 25, 1910

Unexplored Regions

AFTER the two poles have been definitely reached, our explorers will have to cast about for some other portion of this earth of ours to conquer. Australia and Africa have been traversed from east to west and from north to south, and perhaps the continent which is least explored country, extending for many live. There is still a large tract of unexplored country extending for many thousands of miles, and situated not so very far away from Argentina. This is not barren country, where nothing will grow and thrive; on the contrary, it is one of the most fertile tracts of land in the world, where anything will grow.

This land is situated at the junction of Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, and though our atlases mark a clear boundary between the three, none such really exists. Several expeditions have been sent into the country by the three respective governments, but not a single man has returned to tell what he found there.

Lianas hang from tree to tree, and everywhere are rubber trees. In days to come, if rubber keeps up its present price, this land will become one of the richest in the world; but at present, until it is opened up, it would not pay for the heavy cost of transporting it to the coast. For thousands of miles on every hand this impenetrable mass of vegetation stretches, and there are no human inhabitants except for a few wandering tribes of Indians. These Indians live (as is supposed) by hunting and fishing, and yet this is mere conjecture; for no one knows what animal, fish, or bird lives here. Any white man who ventures beyond the outskirts of this wild land is sure to fall a prey to the poisoned arrows of the Indians, who are scarcely superior to the animals among which they live, or possibly to the deadly fevers lurking in its tropical forests."—The Standard, Buenos Aires, Argentina.