A Golden Legend

Chapter 18

A couple of hours later they resumed the navigation. The aquatic landscape did not repeat itself and each bend renewed the admiration of the people onboard. Marcelo had switched places with Lupita and was now in the same canoe as Teresa. He had passed his arm over the shoulders of the young woman and both, sitting on the gunwale of the canoe, with bare feet in the water, watched the shore in front of them. Each bend, each turn of the river opened up a different picture. In the few sandy beaches alternating with the forested bank, small groups of houses of cane wood with roofs of broad leaves or tin sheets emerged among the palms.

“Is incredible the size the potus reaches here, in Buenos Aires they are indoor plants “declared Marcelo.

“The tropics are a veritable living laboratory” said McPherson “unfortunately it's an extremely fragile laboratory, composed of very sensitive biological chains, whose alteration causes devastation in the organisms that live in each habitat.”

“The problem is massive deforestation to free places for the planting of soybeans or growing cattle “concluded the man “thousands of square miles are lost every year, irreplaceable as sources of oxygen and collecting carbon dioxide.”

After four additional hours of navigation the canoe going first, where Rangel, Francisco and an Indian who had climbed in the Matsés village as a guide traveled, was introduced in a one of the river tributaries opening to the left. It was a narrower creek with far less depth than the Javari River, over which the tall trees on both sides closed their tops forming a real tunnel or green gallery within which the sunlight hardly entered. Navigation became slower, because of the need to keep some distance to the shores, now much closer and with shallower waters, and to avoid the numerous logs and other obstacles to the advancement of the canoes. Once in a while one or other of the boats propellers entangled with floating vegetation and they were forced to stop all the convoy to solve the problem. The banks on both sides of the river  were completely desolate, since even if there had been some human dwelling a short distance from the shore, they would had failed to spot it from the brook by the tangle that covered it. Marcelo saw that in the first canoe Rangel raised his arm pointing to a site of the shore, and the men prepared their long guns pointing in the direction marked.

 “The Indians are observing us” said in a soft voice one of the Peruvian members of the crew, close to Teresa.

“And what you think that their intentions are?”asked the woman.

“We cannot know it. It is possible that we are the first outsiders that they see in their life.”  said the man, while he drew a revolver from his clothes. Marcelo whispered in the ear of Teresa:

“There seems to be many more armed men than we knew.”

The finding of these facts resulted in a tense situation, which replaced the relaxed atmosphere which had prevailed until then. In the minds of the archaeologists and their companions, what had been a picnic turned into an adventure. The voices were silenced, and the silence was only broken by the rumble of the engines and its echo in the jungle in gallery.

The first canoe disappeared behind the following river bend, especially narrow, which mobilized even further the sense of alert of the members of the expedition. Suddenly, a higher pitched hum imposed above the noise of the engines. Teresa saw how a man of the canoe that preceded them opened his arms and fell down on the gunwale of the boat. He had had been pierced by a long arrow that emerged both from his chest and back. There was no doubt that he was dead. He was one of the local laborers who had ascended in the town. A volley of shots came from the aggrieved canoe, in an unlikely response towards invisible attackers. The voice ran quickly by the ships of the convoy through the radio, and while the bulk of the canoes was still sailing Teresa and Marcelo realized that the first of the boats moored in the left bank, and Rangel, Francisco and two more men descended with long arms and penetrated in the thicket. The convoy continued at reduced speed in order not straying too far from the leading canoe and disrupt the expedition; for this reason they could hear furious rifle shots coming from the forest. Everyone kept an agonizing silence, that none dared to break.

Within minutes the leading canoe passed the others, placing itself again in the front of the expedition. Teresa saw with relief that the men who had descended were once again on board of the canoe. There were no comments on the outcome of the punitive excursion, which was left to the imagination of everyone.

After an hour and half, the forefront canoe docked on a narrow and short beach, and several armed men got down to explore the surroundings. After a radio message broadcasted by Rangel the canoe carrying the dead man also approached the beach and two pawns carried the body to it; with shovels they proceeded to dig a hole and improvise a tomb while the other ships remained pending, with outcries and silent crew.

“Poor man, buried in this unknown place” Teresa said.

“And plight of their families, who may never visit his tomb.”  answered one of the Mexicans – he will be forgotten in a short time.

“In this forest so prolific all seems ephemeral” ended the girl “even putrefaction processes are accelerated.”