Up the Amazon and Madeira Rivers

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. Edward D. Mathews' travel narrative follows a perilous expedition through the Amazon basin and across Bolivia, blending adventure, geography, and sharp-eyed social observation. From the crowded ports of Pará and the shifting banks of the lower Amazon to the rapids of the Madeira and the high roads of the Andes, he records a world shaped by river navigation, mule tracks, fever, rain, and uncertainty. Along the way, he describes bustling commercial hubs, unhealthy frontier towns, rubber camps, missions, and settlements where trade, climate, and terrain decide who thrives and who fails. Mathews also offers vivid encounters with Indigenous peoples, including the Caripuna, Pacaguara, and Yuracaré, noting their customs, labor, hospitality, and the pressures they face from commerce and expansion. His route takes him through Trinidad, Cochabamba, Sucre, Potosí, and Oruro, revealing striking contrasts between lowland rivers and mountain cities, poverty and prosperity, isolation and ambition. With reflections on Bolivia's trade routes, political instability, and the promise of the Madeira and Mamoré Railway, the book becomes both a gripping travel account and a vision of a region on the edge of transformation.