On November 18, 1894, Fritz Up De Graff of Elmira
sailed from New York City on the SS Advance bound for Ecuador. The young man
had recently graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York with an engineering
degree. While a student, he met Domingo Cordovez, the son of a wealthy
Ecuadoran. The pair became fast friends and spoke about going into business
together to bring much-needed modern improvements to the City of Quito. Fritz
had always had an adventurous spirit – he was an original member of Rufus
Stanley’s Rambling Club – so, with $100 in his pocket, Fritz left his
home in search of adventure and profit in South America.
Fritz Up de Graff, 1923 |
In January 1897, after a falling-out with the
Cordovez family regarding their treatment of workers, Fritz decided he was
ready to move on. Instead of shipping back to the United States, he chose to do
some exploring. He sent a letter home to his mother and sisters telling them
that he and ten natives were striking out for the Napo River, one of the
western tributaries of the Amazon River. They would take a dugout canoe some
3,000 miles through some of the wildest parts of South America. He expected
they would arrive in Para, Brazil by March or April where he could take a
steamer back to New York City.
The Star-Gazette
in July 1897 called Fritz’s expedition into the Amazon “the most exciting and
novel trip ever attempted by any Elmiran” and declared that “never was a
similar trip with more hazardous undertakings attempted by any white man of his
age.” These glowing words came in the same article that described how his
family had not heard from him in nearly eight months and how they had been
writing letters to the US consul in Para with the fears that he was dead.
Elmira Star-Gazette, July 26, 1897
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On the positive side of their adventures, they
profited from the rubber trade, ate new, exotic things like monkeys and
anteaters, killed at least one man without consequences, and rescued a young
native woman who had been captured by a rival tribe (though she seemed to help
them almost more than they helped her). The pair also successfully lived with
several tribes of the Jivaro people, or Shuar
as they call themselves, who were known for their practice of shrinking human
heads.
Fritz and Jack parted ways in April 1900 after
many adventures. Jack was ready to leave South America but Fritz was not yet prepared
to return home. He got involved in a couple more money-making schemes – one in
the rubber trade and one involving cattle and cedar. Finally, he had had enough
travel and boarded a steamship back to the United State. On November 18, 1901,
he arrived back in New York City; exactly seven years to the day that he had
left.
In 1921, after years of telling his stories to
family, friends, and other enthralled audiences, Fritz wrote Head Hunters of the Amazon. The book was
first published in November 1922 by Duffield & Co. in the United Kingdom
and then in February 1923 in the United States. Eventually it was translated
into 13 languages. The book, with a forward written by Kermit Roosevelt, was
wildly popular with readers and critics. A reviewer at the New York Times wrote: “The dominant note of Mr. Updegraff’s volume,
and at the same time its potent charm, is its personal, straightforward manner
of presentation.… His is the easy intimate style of a fluent narrator; his is
the art of transforming his thoughts into written words with a sure freedom
from hesitancy or affectation.” It is still available in print from several
online booksellers and is truly an enthralling read.
Head Hunters of the Amazon by Fritz Up de Graff, 1923
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