2. Leasing an inaccessible parcel of land in the jungle he sets off up one river on an old steamship with the deranged plan to pull the 320 ton ship over a mountain to access a parallel river that could allow him to collect the rubber. His crew abandons him, but an indigenous tribe fulfil his plan and the steamship is pulled through the jungle and over a mountain into the adjacent river. As the crew sleeps the indigenous chief, attempting to appease the river gods who would be angered by the defiance exhibited by a boat making its way across land cuts the mooring of the ship and it floats with the remaining crew down river back to the city in the Amazon Basin. Despondent, Fitzcarraldo sells the boat, but not before sending the captain on one last voyage. He returns to port with the entire Italian cast of the first opera production – without an Opera House in sight