General Jose Manuel Pando

 

General Jose Manuel Pando, explorer and also Ex-President of Bolivia, was the first to discover the mouth of the Heath during his 1893 Madre de Dios Expedition. He ascended the river for a short distance but was forced to retreat after native arrows killed several of his men. He named it for a American friend and fellow explorer, Dr. Edwin Heath. 

 

Recent Discoveries in the Basin of the River Madre De Dios (Bolivia and Peru)

The Geographical Journal

Vol. 7, No. 2 (Feb., 1896)

                        Dr. Edwin Heath and Senor Ballivian have now forwarded to us a letter from Colonel Pando to Father Nicolas Armentia, dated April 26, 1893, and an official pamphlet * containing the report of Dr. Ramon Paz, who led an expedition of the river Madre de Dios in 1894.

            “Colonel Jose Manuel Pando, with an engineer named Muller and several young Bolivian volunteers, set out to explore the river Madre de Dios in October, 1892. He was supplied with compass, sextant, and chronometer, and corrected his traverse-survey by daily observations of the sun. After some useful preliminary work on the Beni, Colonel Pando commenced the exploration of the Madre de Dios, in a steam-launch belonging to Messrs. Roca Brothers, on February 2, 1893. But the engine broke down, and they had to continue their course in three canoes. A large affluent on the right bank, in 12deg 24min S.  and 73 deg 47min W. (of Greenwich), was named after Dr. Edwin Heath. Here Colonel Pando formed a camp of seven men, under his assistant Ibarra. The engineer Muller proceeded to explore the river Heath in a canoe, and the colonel himself continued the discovery of the main stream of the Madre de Dios.“