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Excerpt from “Head Hunters of the Amazon,” Fritz W. Up de Graff, 1923. This is just the opening of the somewhat renowned work, Head Hunters of the Amazon, which Up de Graff published in 1923. Up de Graff may have been a member of the Class of 1894 at Union College, and, as the second paragraph makes clear, he was sent from Union after some incident regarding Theta Nu Epsilon. The students went with him to the train station as a sign of solidarity. Although Theta Nu Epsilon cut his collegiate career short, it did start Up de Graff on an adventure up the Amazon. As Up de Graff says “And so began my seven years wanderings in South America.” Chapter I, The Beginning of the Trail. The Call— The “Theta Nu Epsilon”— Colon— The Grand Hotel, Panama— Guayaquil—Alligators— An appointment. I had made the acquaintance of D. Enrique Domingo Córdovez, known among his friends as “the Count,” at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., in the year 1890. He was one among the many rich young South Americans who come to the United States to take advanced courses at the universities, chiefly in the field of engineering. The son of a wealthy Ecuadorian, he was actuated by a very real desire to return to his native land equipped with the technical knowledge which would enable him to install in its primitive towns some of the many modern conveniences which were sadly lacking. And so it came about that his serious nature and his real love of his work enabled him to graduate with honours as a civil engineer. My activities as one of the chiefs of the “Theta Nu Epsilon” led to my “graduating” two years ahead of my class. Well do I remember how the whole of my classmates hauled me down to the station in the College farm wagon on the day of my departure, having refused to work on so memorable an occasion. But although the “Count” did not graduate at the same time as I did, our two years together as members of the same fraternity had sufficed to form a lasting friendship between us. Furthermore, the long descriptions of the backwardness of his country which he had given me from time to time, had fired me with a determination to go there one day and equip the City of Quito with some much-needed modern improvements. In those days, the streets of the capital of Ecuador were lighted by means of candles placed by householders in their front windows. So I kept in touch with Córdovez after I left College, and later he came to see me at my house in Elmira, N. Y. There we finally decided that I would go down to Ecuador as soon as he had had a chance of examining the business possibilities of our proposed ventures, for which he was to find the money and obtain the concessions on arrival home. Then he left the States. Thus it came about that in October, 1894, I received the following letter asking me to confirm our agreement. ...
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