Octavie Coudreau

On behalf of the State of Pará, Henri Coudreau was charged with exploring the Trombetas River, shortly after Octavie married him.

Their first expedition in 1899 ended tragically, as detailed in the book Voyage au Trombetas begun by Henri Coudreau.

Aided by his traveling companions, she made a coffin from the planks of the boat and prepared a burial on a promontory overlooking Lake Tapagem.

(Voyage au Cumina, 1900)[3]From 1899 to 1906, she worked as an official explorer for the French government, a role not normally open to women at the time.

Enduring the same levels of hardship that had eventually killed her husband, she made pioneering contributions to the knowledge of the Amazon tropical area.

A waterfall on the Rio Curua, in Brazil. Coudreau wrote of her expedition on the river in Voyage Au Rio Curua (1903).