South America
In April 1903 the two brothers left for Rio de Janeiro in Brazil with the intention of entering areas that were at that time unknown, to establish traveling and trade routes and permanent posts. The government of Brazil was interested in enhancing trading and development going from the east to the west. During 1903, they established the Croatian Scientific Mission (Misión Científica Croata). They made contacts with the Guaraní Indian tribe around the Aguapehu river and intensively mapped the area. At the end of 1903 they were on their way from Salta Grande to Asunción in Paraguay, ending their journey on the Paraná River in Argentina. The expedition is described in the book El Salto del Guayran, published in 1905 in Buenos Aires. In 1905 they left for the waterfalls of Iguaçu and later conducted research for the state of Santa Catarina.
At the beginning of 1905, after crossing the Andes by foot and with mules from Argentina, the Seljans arrived in Chile. In Valparaíso as well in Santiago they planned a new expedition to approach the area of the Amazon River from the south side. Here, they met immigrants from the old country and established the Sociedad Slava Explotadora de Mato Grosso (Slavic Society for the Exploration of Mato Grosso), which was supposed to provide public relations and support expeditions. In May of the same year, they left for Montevideo in Uruguay with their new friend and new explorer Franjo Pommer. Since more time was needed to be properly ready for the journey, they started rather late, in 1908, focusing on the Rio Branco and Rio Maraca rivers in the Amazon delta. Exhausted and discouraged by delays in obtaining permits from the government, they returned to Chile hoping to see Peru and Bolivia. They spent 1911 exploring the Atacama desert and the area of Tarapacá. In that year, for the first time, they entered Peru. They established Hrvatsko dionicarsko drustvo (Croatian Brokerage Society) with the purpose of helping the government of Peru to plan, finance and build roads connecting two parts of the country, from the Andes to the Amazon basin.
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Famous quotes related to south america:
“I need not tell you of the inadequacy of the American shipping marine on the Pacific Coast.... For this reason it seems to me that there is no subject to which Congress can better devote its attention in the coming session than the passage of a bill which shall encourage our merchant marine in such a way as to establish American lines directly between New York and the eastern ports and South American ports, and both our Pacific Coast ports and the Orient and the Philippines.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)