| That I have been able to penetrate into part of [South America's] unexplored interior, and visit tribes of people hitherto untouched and unknown, was urged as sufficient reason for the publishing of this work. In perils oft, through hunger and thirst and fever, consequent on the many wanderings in unhealthy climes herein recorded, the writer has also had many pleasant as well as strange experiences. -from the Preface He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, the 'Livingstone of South America,' and 'Official Explorer for the Bolivian Government'... a title he wrangled for himself. A real-life Indiana Jones and sometime missionary, George Whitfield Ray landed in Bolivia in 1889, the first of many trips across 'the darkest land' of South America, though Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, and Uruguay. In this reproduction of the twenty-fifth edition of his wildly popular adventures, Ray regales us with his own derring-do -- whether he's coming face to face with angry crocodiles over raging rivers, attending audiences with tribal kings in remote villages, coming under attack by vampire bats, or reveling at gaudy street festivals in ancient cities, Ray's enthusiasm for his own audacity and intrepidness is infectiously endearing. |
