of more than a brief
mention of his experiences. His first objective point was Quito, about
five hundred miles away, which he proposed to reach on foot and by means
of canoeing on the Napo River through a wild and comparatively unknown
country teeming with tribes of hostile natives. The dangers of the
expedition were pictured to him in glowing colors, but spurning
prophecies of dire disaster, he engaged some native Indians and a canoe
and started on his explorations, reaching Quito in eighty-seven days,
after a thorough search of the country on both sides of the Napo River.
From Quito he went to Guayaquil, from there by steamer to Buenaventura,
and thence by rail, twelve miles, to Cordova. From this point he set out
on foot to explore the Cauca Valley and the Cordilleras.

Mr. McGowan found in these regions a great variety of bamboo, small and
large, some species growing seventy-five to one hundred feet in height,
and from six to nine inches in diameter. He collected a large number
of specimens, which were subsequently sent to Orange for Edison's
examination. After about fifteen months of exploration attended by much
hardship and privation, deserted sometimes by treacherous guides, twice
laid low by fevers, occasionally in peril from Indian attacks, wild
animals and poisonous serpents, tormented by insect pests, endangered
by floods, one hundred and nineteen days without meat, ninety-eight days
without taking off his clothes, Mr. McGowan returned to America, broken
in health but having faithfully fulfilled the commission intrusted to
him. The Evening Sun, New York, obtained an interview with him at that
time, and in its issue of May 2, 1889, gave more than a page to a brief
story of his interesting adventures, and then commented editorially upon
them, as follows:

"A ROMANCE OF SCIENCE"

"The narrative given elsewhere in the Evening Sun of the wanderings of
Edison's missionary of science, Mr. Frank McGowan, furnishes a new proof
that the romances of real life surpass any that the imagination can
frame.

"In pursuit of a substance that should meet the requirements of the
Edison incandescent lamp, Mr. McGowan penetrated the wilderness of the
Amazon, and for a year defied its fevers, beasts, reptiles, and deadly
insects in his quest of a material so precious that jealous Nature has
hidden it in her most secret fastnesses.

"No hero of mythology or fable ever dared such dragons to rescue some
captive goddess as di