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258 pages, Hardcover
First published June 12, 1982
“Several years ago, I resolved to celebrate my thirtieth birthday in the Amazon. I would leave civilization for a while, get lost in the jungle, and taste the world pure and uncorrupted by its influence.” [p.vii]
“I proposed to spend eight months in research and preparation, eight months in the field, and eight months analyzing and writing up my findings. The proposal was accepted and I started to work immediately.” [ibid]
“I was fortunate in having Danny Delaney, a friend from my hometown, to go with me. He had just gotten out of the army, where his training as a medic would prove invaluable for me and the many people we would meet who needed attention.” [p.viii]
“...then we found ourselves standing on the manager’s porch. If Meester Charles was at all puzzled by our sudden appearance, he kept it to himself. Shaking our hands warmly, he brought us chairs and called to someone inside...” [p.18]
“had to leave in 1970 after a malaria epidemic in which 40 Indians were killed, both Schneider and his wife became comatose, the radio broke down, and their eight-year old daughter was left with the medical and missionary responsibilities.” [p.70]
“That afternoon three boys stoned a dog to death. Two held it down, and the third kept on coshing it over the head with a rock. It struggled free and they ran after it, beating it with sticks. It was nobody’s dog, so nobody stopped them.” [p.75]
“The child who died [of diarrhea] was a twin. Her sister had been ‘allowed’ to die some months before, probably clubbed to death by her mother.” [p.80]
“For me, at least, the leaving was emotional. I had learned that people who live in harmony with nature still exist, and after this brief exposure to their existence, my life would never be the same.” [p.82]
“Later at the mission I would learn that Peruano had tuberculosis. Unknown to the Aika, and probably to himself, it was probably he who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Indians who regarded him as their benefactor.” [p.154]
“That night, as I lay in my hammock, I felt as if I had accomplished my mission in coming to the Amazon: I had found in Leonça the natural man I had wanted to meet. ...I was in an another, earlier time, where people where still part of nature and close to it.” [p.158]
“An archaic, almost completely uncontrolled collection of exploitative activities, most of them inappropriate and doomed to failure, is gradually and relentlessly destroying the largest, most mysterious, and biologically diverse wilderness in the world.” [p.xii]
“...if the clearing continues at its present exponential rate, doubling every two years, the whole thing could be gone by 1991.” [ibid]
“For a number of reasons, the original hardcover edition of The Rivers Amazon was riddled with errors in Portuguese, and in the scientific and local names of the flora and fauna. I hope these have all been corrected.” [p.xvi]