An office. A desk, covered with papers and books, some of them pushed aside to make way for a tape-recorder. Behind the desk, an American Investigator. Sitting at an angle, facing the microphone nervously, Ataide Pereira, wearing a check shirt and baggy trousers. In his lap a sweat-stained hat.
Investigator Move a little closer.
Now you know what you’re saying here is on your honour.
Just as if you were in court under oath.
Pereira Yes sir.
Yes I do.
The Investigator switches on the tape-recorder.
Investigator How did you come to be involved in all this In the first place?
Pereira Well.
Even after the bombing they were still causing some trouble.
So the Company asked Senhor de Brito to hire some men for an expedition
And I was one of them.
Investigator How did you feel about the mission?
Pereira O.K.
I felt fine.
Look at it this way.
Those Indians are on valuable land
Sitting there doing nothing
And sometimes they can be hostile.
There’s no way you can move them out
So what else can you do?
To be honest I was quite looking forward to it.
Made a change.
And then there was the money of course.
I know it probably seems wrong to you
But to us it’s just like going hunting.
You see we’re taught to think of them as animals.
At least that’s what the boss always calls them.
Animals.
He asked us to bring back a couple for him.
He likes to take then for what he calls
The trip to the dentist.
Open wide he says.
Say aah he says.
Then he puts his pistol in their mouth
And blows their brains out. (Pause.)
Myself I’m a very good shot.
That’s why I was chosen.
Investigator How many of you were there?
Pereira Six.
Including Chico.
He was the leader.
That was the one thing we weren’t too happy about.
Because Chico well
He’d cut your head off soon as say good morning.
Investigator Tell me about the expedition.
Pereira Well it was no picnic
I can tell you that.
First of all we travelled upstream for a few days.
Then we left the launch and set off into the jungle.
Chico had a compass
Japanese it was.
Didn’t stop us getting lost.
We were wandering around for days
And by the time we found somewhere we recognised
We’d run out of food.
Luckily before too long the plane came over
And dropped us some more.
But it wasn’t all that long
Before that ran out as well.
Eventually we found a village.
Investigator What happened then?
Pereira Well nothing really.
Nothing but corpses all over the place
And a terrible stench.
Still we did get some food there
Dug up some manioc
That kind of thing.
Then we pressed on.
By this time we were all pretty jumpy.
For one thing we were in diamond country
And you know what they’re like
Shoot and no questions asked.
Also the rains had started
So every day we got drenched
And the insects that were just hatching out
Ate us alive.
Chico was in a really filthy mood.
So were we all.
Investigator Go on.
Pereira We knew we were warm
So we were very careful very strict
No talking
No smoking
Keeping several yards apart.
And finally
After all that time
One evening
We saw their village through the trees.
Blackout.