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Many travelers devoted lots of time to deciphering the natural aspects of Mexico and Brazil during 1850-1950. How nature is portrayed can vary from person to person depending on the motive of travel. For example, someone traveling with political motives may not pay as much attention to the flora and fauna of a country as much as a person traveling for scientific reasons as did Konrad Guenther in the early 1920's. Despite the motivation, the observations made by travelers William Marshall Anderson, Harry Franck, Wallace Gilpratick, Bess Garner, Louis Agassiz, David Maburry Lewis, and Theodore Roosevelt were very important because they informed many other travelers and explorers about they countries they visited. Since most of these travelers, with the exception of Konrad Guenther and at times Roosevelt did not speak of nature in a scientific manner, instead they talked about it in relation to beauty. They were fascinated by the tropical scenery and expressed it in their writing. Writers also addressed land when speaking about the use of it. Land was used for the cultivation of food, travel, and as a place to live. These uses were very important for the indigenous people who inhabited the land.
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"...narrow but very level valleys, bounded by high and beautifully varying mountains. I counted thirteen long ridges, which ran down from the main-mountain range and terminated in the valley's edge, as so many braces against natures ague fits." (17) -William Marshall Anderson |
Beauty When in foreign lands, people tend to find beauty in different things. One traveler might find his idea of beauty in the people, while the forest and great rivers he/she sees might fascinate the other. Yet it seems that despite the person, motivation or any other factor, the theme of beauty about Mexico and Brazil continues to arise. William Marshall Anderson and Harry A. Franck found their idea of beauty when traveling though the mountains of Brazil. While a constant theme in the writing of Guenther was how beautiful all the flowers were that he encountered while traveling. The idea of finding beauty completely dependent on the likings of the observer, yet finding it in the tropical lands of Mexico and Brazil is something most observers easily saw. |
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Konrad Guenther and Theodore Roosevelt also found much beauty in the tropical lands of Brazil, but because of their motives, Guenther writing to produce an informative guide about the flora and fauna of Brazil, and Roosevelt writing about an expedition to map the Brazil Amazon, they write about land differently. For example, Guenther or Roosevelt may write about and explain the beauty of a forest, but at the same time they will be carefully outline all that makes up the flora and fauna of the particular area they are observing.
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"Then for miles we rode through a beautiful open forest of tall, slender carandá palms, with other trees scattered among them. Green parakeets with black heads chattered as they flew; noisy green and red parrots climbed among the palms; and huge macaws, some entirely blue, others almost entirely red, screamed loudly as they perched in the trees or took wing at our approach" (Roosevelt, Through the Brazilian Wilderness on Bartleby) |
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Use Several writers also chose to speak about land in the sense of the purpose it served. Bess Garner for example observed how land is used for farming in the production of food. "There I saw great fields of a sort of plant looking like yucca--sisal plantations..." The illustration to the right shows how the sissal is farmed.
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Nature
