21-07-022.Tewkesbury.0001-012-002 |
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e 0 P Y (made Nov. 13, 1941, from dbssier loaned by E. W. James) Mr. E. W ... T&mes Bureau of Public Roads, Washington, D. C. Dear Mr. James: Hotel Martinique Eroadw~ at 32d St. p !~ew York C1 ty . B-JIL- \ }rovemb~r 5. 1940 Yesterday I had a long talk with Mr. L. S. Ross , Director of Pan American Highway autocades, regarding an article published in the Prul American Highway ·System - Travel Division, Pan American Union. The article states that no white man hal:l ever traveled beh'seE Central and South America overland. This is wron~. In 1937 I formed an expedition in Panama to cross the divide through the CUlla Indian country. The party was made up of Mr. and~. James Moore. Henry Dyer (Mrs. Moorets brother) and myself. We left Panama, R.P. via Pearl Islands (Pacific side of Isthmus) and to the Gulf of San Miguel- here we entered the Tuira River to El Real de Santa Marfa. Darien Province. Here I contacted Pablo Othan, Senator from the Darien Province, and Othon got two dugouts and negroes to .take us to the village of <P Boca. de Cupe. From here (:Boca de CUpEn we took a smaller dugout because of rapids and proceeded up the Tuira to the Pucro River and to the first Guna Indian Village t Pucro by name. We were a little uneasy because of the wild rumors we had heard of the Indians, however I had. had experience with the same tribe on the upper reaches of the Chucunaque River. We arrived at Pucro in the early afternoon and were invited to stay in the Chief's house. (His name is Castilla.) The Chief was no"t at home and did not arrive until the following late afternoon. I tried to get packers to leave the following morning after arrival there~ , but the Chief's sons~ daughters and wife would not help us to get the necessary ten packers we needed. I found out later that the reason they would not help us was because they wanted Castilla to see ·our white woman (.AI ice Moore). Castilla turned out to be very friendly and helpful; he got ten packers for us. among them a Cuna woman who became attached to .Alice Moore. He would not take any silver money - only a few presents, cloth and beads. etc. We left Pucro after two days of rest for Paya. This is about 2~1/2 to 3 hours walking. However~ it took us all day. Our head guide took us by way of Goya to show our Alice off to the \Yomen of his town. The going WB-S fair, not too many hills between Pucro and Payat but one creek and small river after another. (James L. Price) We spent five days in Pucro t delving into their religious and every day mode of life. etc. The Indians here (Paya) seem to be more shiftless and not helpful at all. They gave us a house to live in and Ipdians by the dozens came from all directions to see our white woman. 1.1e did not realize how easy the going had be.en until we reached Tubum mountain, .. We spe~t _,several days with ou:r; aoses a1.most::against the mountain, climbing up and down. following the "hog back"of the Tubum. We found thrown up maraca palm shelters every afternoon at the end of a day's work - put there by the Indians. At the top of Tubum mountain we cut away small trees to see to both sides- here we saw the Atrato River flowing to the Atlantic and the Tapalisa and Paya Rivers below us rambling over the rocks to the Pacific or rather to the Tuira which flows into the Pacific. On down to the Atrato we came upon a number of workmen building thatched houses for some of the Panama and Colombia engineers, who were at tha.t time working on the Panama-Colombia. Limit Commission (fixing the Panama-Colombia Border). The engineers were at Ungula. Colombia - a Just negro village about 10 miles from the Atrato River. we were told by the workmen. Vie finally reached Arquia. a Cuna Indian village on the Colombian side. Rere we met a Catholic priest &lld four sisters who live in this village (Arquia). They seemed to be very poor. collecting chickens and other food from - the Indians. The priest is house was very dirty and so was the priest •. However, I had a long talk with him and obtained valuable information .. from him regarding religion and. hab! ts of the Cunas. He had never been over the divide. After the most horrible night fighting mosquitos we left Arquia. for the negro village of Unguia - here I asked for the chief eng;ip.eer of the Panama border commi ssion. and was shown a house where th:!y' had offices. I walked into the house and to my surprise saw one of my gest Panameno friends. Dr. Jua.Yl Galindo. who is an engineer working now in Panama Ci ty. We spent one night in Unguia. Dr. Galindo gave us two boatmen and we proceeded to the Atrato River to a place called Palo Blanco (and there is a large white celba tree there and nothing else) through a canal that was buil t about 50 years ago. It took us all da.v to reach the !~rato. a distance of not more than 10 miles. We arrived about 7 o'clock at night and boarded the motor yacht I!DaboI'ah. II Here we spent seven dtVs - go.1ug to Sal.iktata and to the mouth of the Rio Sucio where it flows into the Atrato. The lII)eborah", Capt. Surgeon owner. brought us back to the Farnel~ mouth ~d here we boarded a banana. boat owned bya Mr. Hamilton in Colon, Panama. We speDt four days with 001. Luis Hernandez in Pox-venir Island. San IHas Islands, and then ended our trip at Colon and Panama City. (James L. Price) .. 3 - It is my belief that the proposed route Pan American Highway should be moved over toward the Pacific after crossing the Tuira or GhicoRi vel" in Darien. It seems that the road cbuldbe built much cheaper through the Marea and Sambu valleys and over the divide and down the Pacific slope of Colombia rather than through the Atrato Valley which is one lagoon and s\'1amp after another. I have just finished a book "Jungle Jimn. published by Doubleday ~ . . Do:r;p. It will be on sale in January. I speak or write of our trip through the Darien and over the divid.e. My business now is escorting tours to out of the way places. This past summer I,toOk some women school teachers as far 'Up as the Yapi River in Darien Province. Panama. I am leaving December 28th with a party to Honduras. Nicaragua and Guatemala. Pve lived in the tropics off and on for t~e past 21 years. There were quite a number of newspaper liwriteupsll about our trip through. It was kno',rm as a IIJungle Jim" expedition. "Jungle Jimll being wished on me several years agoe Rene Belbenoit, the Devil's Island escape, who wrote "Dry Guillotine !~ dld some smuggling over the divide from Panama to Unguia. but they finally made it pretty hot for him and now he cant show his face in Colombia. If at any time I can be of any help to you, please call on me. I believe that I know every trail from the N. coast of Honduras to the Rio 5uc10 in Colombia. ! hope this will interest you and that I have not bored you. Sincerely, James L. (tlJungle Jim") Price The Indians (Gunas) now call the tra.il over the divlde. Alicia Trail - after the first and only white woman to ever cross over.
Object Description
Title | Source Material Relating to Tewkesbury’s trips to the Darien in 1939 and 1940 – Tewkesbury in publicity – controversial material |
Subject |
Exploration Travel Central America Panama Darien |
Description | Box 1: folder 12, Source Material Relating to Richard A. Tewkesbury’s trips to the Darien in 1939 and 1940. Contains controversial material covering Tewkesbury and his travels. |
Creator | Tewkesbury, Richard Albert (1907-1969) |
Date | 1940-42 |
Collection | Richard Albert Tewkesbury Papers, 1934-1976, n.d. http://findingaids.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/arch/rgrp/21-7-22.html |
Location | Iowa State University Library Special Collections and University Archives; http://archives.lib.iastate.edu/ |
Call Number | RS 21/07/022 |
Identifier | 21-07-022.Tewkesbury.0001-012 |
Rights | U.S. and international copyright laws protect this digital image. Commercial use or distribution of the image is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder. For permission to use the digital image, please contact Iowa State University Library Special Collections and University Archives at archives@iastate.edu For reproductions see: http://archives.lib.iastate.edu/using-our-materials/making-copies/photographs-and-documents |
Hardware/Software | Manager's Power Mac G5; Mac OS X; Creo iQsmart3; Kodak oXYgen Scan ver 2.6.1 |
Image Manipulation | none |
Date-Created | 2010-04 |
Description
Title | 21-07-022.Tewkesbury.0001-012-002 |
Collection | Richard Albert Tewkesbury Papers, 1934-1976, n.d. http://findingaids.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/arch/rgrp/21-7-22.html |
Transcription |
e 0 P Y (made Nov. 13, 1941, from dbssier loaned by E. W. James)
Mr. E. W ... T&mes
Bureau of Public Roads,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. James:
Hotel Martinique
Eroadw~ at 32d St. p
!~ew York C1 ty
. B-JIL- \
}rovemb~r 5. 1940
Yesterday I had a long talk with Mr. L. S. Ross , Director of Pan
American Highway autocades, regarding an article published in the Prul
American Highway ·System - Travel Division, Pan American Union.
The article states that no white man hal:l ever traveled beh'seE
Central and South America overland. This is wron~.
In 1937 I formed an expedition in Panama to cross the divide through
the CUlla Indian country. The party was made up of Mr. and~. James Moore.
Henry Dyer (Mrs. Moorets brother) and myself.
We left Panama, R.P. via Pearl Islands (Pacific side of Isthmus)
and to the Gulf of San Miguel- here we entered the Tuira River to El Real
de Santa Marfa. Darien Province.
Here I contacted Pablo Othan, Senator from the Darien Province,
and Othon got two dugouts and negroes to .take us to the village of
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Format | |
File Size | 1907538 Bytes |