of both Brazil and the United States:  the need of combining industrial with purely mental training, and the need of having the wide-spread popular education, which is and must be supported and paid for by the government, made a purely governmental and absolutely nonsectarian function, administered by the state alone, without interference with, nor furtherance of, the beliefs of any reputable church.  The colonel is also head of the Indian service of Brazil, being what corresponds roughly with our commissioner of Indian affairs.  Here also he is taking the exact view that is taken in the United States by the staunchest and wisest friends of the Indians.  The Indians must be treated with intelligent and sympathetic understanding, no less than with justice and firmness; and until they become citizens, absorbed into the general body politic, they must be the wards of the nation, and not of any private association, lay or clerical, no matter how well-meaning.

The Sepotuba River was scientifically explored and mapped for the first time by Colonel Rondon in 1908, as head of the Brazilian Telegraphic Commission.  This was during the second year of his exploration and opening of the unknown northwestern wilderness of Matto Grosso.  Most of this wilderness had never previously been trodden by the foot of a civilized man.  Not only were careful maps made and much other scientific work accomplished, but posts were established and telegraph-lines constructed.  When Colonel Rondon began the work he was a major.  He was given two promotions, to lieutenant-colonel and colonel, while absent in the wilderness.  His longest and most important exploring trip, and the one fraught with most danger and hardship, was begun by him in 1909, on May 3rd, the anniversary of the discovery of Brazil.  He left Tapirapoan on that day, and he reached the Madeira River on Christmas, December 25, of the same year, having descended the Gy-Parana.  The mouth of this river had long been known, but its upper course for half its length was absolutely unknown when Rondon descended it.  Among those who took part under him in this piece of exploration were the present Captain Amilcar and Lieutenant Lyra; and two better or more efficient men for such wilderness work it would be impossible to find.  They acted as his two chief assistants on our trip.  In 1909 the party exhausted all their food, including even the salt, by August.  For the last four months they lived exclusively on the game they killed, on fruits, and on wild honey.  Their equipage was what the men could carry on their backs.  By the time the party reached the Madeira they were worn out by fatigue, exposure, and semi-starvation, and their enfeebled bodies were racked by fever.

The work of exploration accomplished by Colonel Rondon and his associates during these years was as remarkable as, and in its results even more important than, any similar work undertaken elsewhere on the globe at or about the same time.  Its value was recognized in Brazil.  It received no recognition by the geographical societies of Europe or the United States.