Rafael Reyes e o rio Putumayo ou Içá: Explorações amazônicas, cartografia e diplomacia (1874-1907)

TL;DR

The article reconstructs Rafael Reyes’s Amazonian explorations of the Putumayo/Içá River (1874–1884) and his later presidency (1904–1909), arguing that his navigation, cartography, and diplomacy reshaped Colombia–Peru–Brazil boundary disputes. It combines Reyes’s memoirs, Brazilian press, diplomatic documents, and map comparison to show how his 1877 map and 1907 treaty helped fix the Putumayo as a border.

Key findings

• In 1874 Reyes left Pasto on 5 February, crossed the Bordoncillo páramo, descended the Putumayo/Içá by canoe to the Amazon, and reached Belém almost a year later; the paper says he certified steam navigability of the full Putumayo up to its upper course and disturbed Peru–Brazil boundary arrangements around the Tabatinga-Apapóris line.
• In Rio de Janeiro, Reyes obtained from Dom Pedro II an authorization, dated 2 September 1875, to navigate/trade on the Putumayo in “Brazilian ships”; Brazil notified Peru, and the two signed a Putumayo Navigation Agreement. The paper argues this Brazilian authorization helped limit Peru’s aspirations to the Putumayo rather than the Caquetá.
• Reyes’s 1877 map, *Mapa del rio Putumayo o Içá*, made with Francisco A. Bissau, has five sheets; its first sheet is a simplified copy of Codazzi’s 1865 map, while the other four detail the river, tributaries, lakes, islands, and riparian tribes, without marking borders or boundary disputes and without La Sofía or San José de Guamués.
• As president (1904–1909), Reyes divided the eight remaining departments into up to 34 new departments, signed modus vivendi with Peru in 1905 and 1906 recognizing the Putumayo as the border, and in 1907 signed a treaty with Brazil, represented by Barão do Rio Branco, which according to Andrade recovered Colombian navigation of the Caquetá and Putumayo; successors annulled his territorial dispositions and returned to the 1865 map.

Methods

• Historical reconstruction of 1874–1907 using Reyes’s *Memorias*, his 1901–1902 II Pan-American Conference report, Brazilian Hemeroteca Digital newspapers, Colombia’s *Diário Oficial*, Lemaitre’s biography, and works by Andrade, Villafañe, and Novak & Namihas.
• Cartographic comparison and proposed georeferencing of maps including Mosquera 1852, Codazzi 1865, Reyes/Bissau 1877, and Crevaux 1881.
• Chronological division into three periods: 1874–1884 explorations and boundary controversies; 1885–1904 withdrawal from the Amazon; 1904–1909 Reyes presidency, extended to the 1930s treaties.

Limitations

• The paper states that the chronology is difficult to organize because available data contain contradictions, including divergences between Reyes’s *Memorias* and his 1901–1902 account about the duration and timing of the first exploration; one newspaper source, *O Liberal do Pará* of 05/06/1875, is mutilated.
• It relies heavily on Reyes’s own memoirs and Lemaitre’s biography, and the author repeatedly frames key claims as hypotheses or research objectives rather than settled conclusions.
• Evident from the text: the cartographic georeferencing is presented as a future objective, and several causal claims about Reyes’s decisive impact on boundary outcomes remain to be fully demonstrated.