Strange Story of the Amazonian Telegraph

nivek

As Above So Below
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In the annals of great explorers of the uncharted domains of our world, the name James Campbell Besley may not ring a bell for many. Besley was a mostly obscure British hunter and explorer, who was born in London in 1874 and eventually educated at educated at Eton and Oxford, who despite his relatively unknown nature had a rather colorful life.

He got it into his head to make a bold expedition down to the Amazon rainforests of Peru, departing from New York City to make his way to the jungles of Peru in 1913 to raft nearly 4,000 miles from Lima along it all the way from its source to the Atlantic Ocean over the course of 5 months, and make a myriad of amazing discoveries in the uncharted wilderness along the way.

Besides all of the groundbreaking new footage and interesting items Besley brought back with him, there was also a rather strange curiosity of a tale that he relayed.

He noticed during his expedition that the natives of the Amazon always seemed to know when he was coming, no matter how far or how fast he traveled, which piqued Besley’s curiosity to no end.

When Besley inquired as to how the natives so quickly knew of his arrival without ere, the locals explained that the natives of the region had long ago developed a complex system of communicating instantaneously for miles around, essentially a wireless system, of which Becksley himself would would write:

It was in the Juamara region that we first learned of this wireless system. We were met at the entrance of the village by a number of natives. They had evidently been expecting us, and when we asked how they knew that we were coming they pointed to a crude looking arrangement suspended between two tree stumps on a horizontal bar.

Through our Indian interpreter we learned that it was a wireless apparatus for sending and receiving messages from the various tribes throughout the Amazon Valley. The transmitter was a hollowed trunk of a tree suspended from the pole so that the base was slightly off the ground. Inside it had been arranged very much like our violins.

It was explained that when the instrument was struck smartly with a small rubber hammer a vibration was created that carried for miles over the hills. The receiver is very similar to the transmitter, except that it is placed on a hardwood platform, the base of the hollow tree trunk being grounded on the platform.

When the message is struck in the neighboring village, sometimes 30 miles away, this receiver catches the vibrations, causing a jerky, singing sound. I understand that this sound system can be read by the members of the tribe and that in this way news of victories and other happenings are told throughout the countryside.

In this way the Indians all along our route heralded our approach and we were met by the inhabitants all through the Putamayo, Nappo, Beni, Madri de Dios and Lower Eucalaya Valleys, the tributaries to the great Amazon. We learned also from the Maratos and the Haumbaisus tribes that this method of telegraphy has been used by the various tribes in that district for thousands of years.


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The Strange Story of the Amazonian Telegraph
 

Sheltie

Fratty and out of touch.
Interesting! I've never heard this story. Coincidentally, I just watched The Lost City of Z, a movie based on historical accounts of the exploration of the Amazon by Percival Fawcett.

The Lost City of Z (2016) - IMDb
 

nivek

As Above So Below
It's a fascinating story, I wonder if something like this is still in use with the remote natives that do not have contact with outsiders?...
 

nivek

As Above So Below
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