Review of One River
by Robert Mykle

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One River is an engrossing story of botanical exploration in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins. In 1941, with the Japanese in firm control of Malaysia, the United States lost the source of 85% of it natural rubber. A frantic search was begun to collect seeds, build rubber plantations and find varieties of trees that would produce the best quality of rubber. The government hired, Dr. Richard Schultes, a young botanist from Harvard, to initiate this search. Mostly alone, and far from support bases, Dr. Schultes ventured off into the Colombian Amazon for the next twelve years. He cultivated the Indian tribes who, after the Spanish conquistadores and the depredations of the rubber barons, had well founded suspicion of all Caucasians. He lived among Indian tribes. Partook in their sacred rites and their scared plants. He gained the trust of the Indians. They in turn helped Dr. Schultes collect over 20,000 different plants and discover 300 new species unknown to science. Through his efforts of reconciling Indian plant lure with practical applications, Dr. Schultes, single-handedly, founded the new discipline of ethno-botany.

Wade Davis, author of The Serpent and the Rainbow, 1986, spent six years writing this account of his professor and mentor. In Colombia, Davis traces Dr. Schultes's steps through much of the Amazon then steps out on his own. Davis ventures into the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, crosses the Darien Gap, and visits the Sierra de la Macarena. He hunts for plants in the Colombian Amazon as well as spends time in the urban centers of Bogota, Cali, and Medellin. From the Medellin Botanical Gardens he began his journey to Panama across the Darien Gap. His explorations also take him to the jungles of Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. He investigates the mysteries of shamans and charlatans and their godhead plants, in this tale of botanical who done it and why. We are also shown the uncertain future as the singularly precious Piedmont forest of the Colombian Putumayo and Caqueta is burned away.

Through out their extensive travels both Shcultes and Davis partake in the sacred plants of the Indians. As one reader verbalized, "This is Kerouac in the jungle, a PhD on LSD."

This fascinating tale is told in the great tradition of a scientific adventure. Through thirty years apart, both Schultes and Davis travel and explore in the Victorian manner. Alone, or accompanied a trusted native companion, they delve into the vastness of the Amazon and Orinoco jungles armed with their faith that around the next tree there may lurk an unknown species with a cure for one of the hundreds of diseases plaguing mankind. Risking life and health they pushed the final frontier one step back.

One River is one of the most important books on Amazonian botanical exploration to have been published in the last twenty years. It is must reading for all who know or want to know more about the Amazon and those that first ventured into its depths in search of knowledge. The book is available in hardcover (Simon and Schuster) and paperback. A Spanish edition is soon to be released in Colombia.

You can order One River from your local bookstore or via Amazon.com.

Robert Mykle has lived in South America for twenty years. See his previous Planeta.com articles, The Emberas: Colombia's Tenacious Indians Under Siege and Colombia's Sierra de la Macarena. He has published articles on the rain forests of South America, treasure hunting, and traveling and is the author of SAFARI, a novel due out next year.

For more information, contact the author at PO Box 19513, Alexandria, Virginia 22320-0513; Email: velasquez100@erols.com.

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