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THE MINERVA LIBRARY OF FAMOUS BOOKS.
Edited by G. T. BETTANY, M.A., B.Sc.
A NARRATIVE OF TRAVELS
ON TIIE
AMAZON AND RIO NEGRO,
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE NATIVE TRIBES,
AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE CLIMATE, GEOLOGY, AND NATURAL
HISTORY OF THE AMAZON VALLEY.
BY
ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, LL.D.,
Author of “The Malay A rchipelago,” “Darwinism,” etc., etc
*ith a #ortrait of the 31ſthor, a $ag, alſº juſ-page šIlustrations,
WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR,
SECOND EDITION.
WAR D, LOCK AND CO.,
LON DO N, NEW YORK, AND ME LBOURNE
1889.
Ynysevm
Swiſs meroub
7-14-26
BUOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
(BP THE EDITOR.)
R. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, the co-discoverer
with Mr. Darwin of the principle of natural selec-
tion as the main agent in the evolution of species, has in
his published works travelled over a much more diversified
range of subjects than Mr. Darwin. To books of travel, of
philosophical and of systematic natural history, he has added
others dealing with the causes of depression of trade, proposing
land nationalisation, defending belief in miracles and in
modern spiritualism, and attacking vaccination. Although it
would not be right here to enter into a criticism of such con-
troversial works, enough may be said to indicate that their
author, admittedly a master-mind in regard to the philosophy
and the details of evolution, is widely qualified in regard to
political and social questions.
Born at Usk in Monmouthshire on the 8th of January, 1823,
and educated at Hertford Grammar School, the future adven-
turous traveller early became a voyager on a small scale, during
his residence with an elder brother, a land surveyor and archi-
tect. From 1836 to 1848 while so occupied he resided in
various parts of England and Wales, and acquired some
knowledge of agriculture and of the social and economic
conditions of the labouring classes. While living in South
Wales, about 1840, he first turned his attention to natural
history, devoting all his spare time to collecting and preserving
the native plants, and eagerly reading books of travel. While
residing at Leicester in 1844-5 (as an English master in the
Collegiate School), he made the acquaintance of Mr. H. W.
Bates, an ardent entomologist, and when, some years later,
the desire to visit tropical countries became too strong to be
1W AAV7'ROZ)&/CTION.
resisted, he proposed to Mr. Bates a joint expedition to the
Amazons, one of the objects, in addition to the collection of
natural history specimens, being to gather facts, as Mr. Wallace
expressed it in one of his letters to Mr. Bates, “towards solving
the problem of the origin of species,” a subject on which they
had already conversed and corresponded extensively. The
two friends met in London early in 1848 to study the collec-
tions of South American animals and plants already there;
and they embarked at Liverpool in a small trading vessel on
the 20th of April, 1848, reaching the mouth of the Amazons
just a month later. From this date the present volume speaks
for itself. We will merely note that Mr. Bates took a different
route of exploration from Mr. Wallace from March 1850; he
remained seven years longer in the country, and in 1863 pub.
lished his most attractive “Naturalist on the Amazons.”
\ Mr. Wallace's travels on the Rio Negro and to the upper
waters of the Orinoco, his adventurous ascent of the rapid river
Uaupés, his observations on the natural history and the native
tribes of the Amazon valley, are simply and naturally recorded
in this volume. His assemblage of facts will be seen to form
a broad basis for induction as to causes and modes of trans-
formation of species. His return voyage bade fair to be his
last, for the vessel in which he sailed took fire, and was com-
pletely destroyed, with a large proportion of Mr. Wallace's
live animals and valuable specimens. Ten anxious days had
to be spent in boats, tortured not only by shortness of food
but by remembrances of the dangers encountered in obtaining
valued specimens, now irretrievably lost. It was only after an
eighty days' voyage that Mr. Wallace landed at Deal on the
18th of October, 1852. His “Travels on the Amazon and Rio
Negro,” published in the autumn of 1853, had an excellent
reception, and after disposing of the collections which had
been sent home previous to his return Mr. Wallace started for
another tropical region, the Malay archipelago.
From July 1854, when he arrived in Singapore, to the early
part of 1862, Mr. Wallace travelled many thousand miles,
mostly in regions little explored before, especially for natural
history purposes. Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Timor, Celebes, the
Moluccas, the Aru and Ké Islands, and even New Guinea were
visited, some more than once, and long sojourns were made in
the most interesting regions. Even those who have read his
ANZRODUCTION. v
delightful “Malay Archipelago,” first published in 1869, cannot
know all the treasures given to science by Mr. Wallace's eight
years’ expatriation, for before writing his travels he had con-
tributed no fewer than eighteen papers to the transactions or
journals of the Linnean, Zoological, and Entomological Societies,
and twelve articles to various scientific periodicals, while in his
subsequent volumes on “Natural Selection,” 1871, his monumen-
tal work on the “Geographical Distribution of Animals,” 1876,
on “Tropical Nature,” 1878, and on “Island Life,” 1880, he laid
open still more fully his accumulations of travel and thought in
both hemispheres. One of the most valuable results of his travels
in Malaysia was the establishment of a line dividing the archi-
pelago into two main groups, Indo-Malaysia and Austro-
Malaysia, marked by peculiar species and groups of animals.
This line, now everywhere known as Wallace's line, is marked
by a deep sea belt between Celebes and Borneo, and Lombok
and Bali respectively; and it is curious that a similar line, but
somewhat further east, divides on the whole the Malay from
the Papuan races of man. ' The new facts on butterflies, on
birds of paradise, on mimicry between various animals and
plants, and on the Malay and Papuan races are only a few of
the subjects of intense interest illuminated by Mr. Wallace as
the result of his travels in Malaysia.
In a paper in the Annals and Magazine of Watural History
for September, 1855, “On the Law that has regulated the Intro-
duction of New Species,” Mr. Wallace had already drawn the
conclusion that every species has come into existence coinci-
dent both in space and time with a pre-existing closely allied
species. In the same paper is a brief expression of the
idea which Mr. Darwin expanded into one of his fine
passages comparing all members of the same class of beings
to a great tree. The varied facts of the distribution of animal
and plant life, set forth and explained in this paper, foreshadow
the author's future great work on the subject. Mr. Darwin,
already an observer and student of long standing on the
question of the origin of species, had noted this paper and
agreed to the truth of almost every word of it. In October
1856, Mr. Wallace wrote to Mr. Darwin from Celebes, and
in replying to his letter Mr. Darwin, on May 1st, 1857, said
he could plainly see that they had thought much alike, and
had to a certain extent come to similar conclusions; and later
V1 IWTRODUCTION.
in the same year he wrote to Mr. Wallace, “I infinitely admire
and honour your zeal and courage in the good cause of .
Natural Science.” * -
In February 1858 Mr. Wallace wrote an essay at Ternate,
“On the Tendency of Varieties to depart indefinitely from the
original Type,” which proved to be the proximate cause of
the publication of Mr. Darwin's “Origin of Species.” The
manuscript of this paper was sent to Mr. Darwin, and reached
him on June 18th, 1858, and the views it expressed coincided
remarkably with those developed in Mr. Darwin's mind by
many different lines of investigation. He proposed to get Mr.
Wallace's consent to publish it as soon as possible; but on the
urgent persuasion of Sir Joseph Hooker and Sir Charles Lyell,
a joint communication of some extracts from a manuscript
written by Mr. Darwin in 1839—1844, and a letter written by
him to Professor Asa Gray of Boston, U.S., in 1857, together
with Mr. Wallace's paper, was made to the Linnean Society on
July 1st, 1858. As Sir Joseph Hooker wrote, “The interest
excited was intense, but the subject was too novel and too
ominous for the old school to enter the lists before armouring;”
and there was no attempt at discussion. The further history
of the “Origin of Species” controversy is well known, and has
previously been sketched in the first volume of this library.
What deserves repeating and emphasizing is that Mr. Wallace
must rank as a completely independent and original discoverer
of the essential feature of the “Origin of Species.” Mr. Wallace
originally termed his view one of progression and continued
divergence. “This progression,” he wrote in the Linnean essay,
“by minute steps, in various directions, but always checked
and balanced by the necessary conditions, subject to which
alone existence can be preserved, may, it is believed, be followed
out so as to agree with all the phenomena presented by
organized beings, their extinction and succession in past ages,
and all the extraordinary modifications of form, instinct, and
habits which they exhibit.” Nothing in scientific history is
more interesting or more admirable than the way in which
the two great discoverers in biological evolution fully admired
and recognized each other's independent work; and continued
their intercourse through life untinged by any shadow of un-
worthy feeling. Mr. Darwin wrote to Mr Wallace on January
25th, 1859, “Most cordially do I wish you health and entire
Iwſroovcz.Iow. vii
success in all your pursuits, and, God knows, if admirable
zeal and energy deserve success, most amply do you deserve
it;” and in 1876 he wrote to him, “You have paid me the
highest conceivable compliment by what you say of your
work in relation to my chapters on distribution in the “Origin,’
and I heartily thank you for it.”
In one important point Mr. Wallace early found himself
in divergence from Mr. Darwin. This was as to the limits
of natural selection as applied to man. Mr. Darwin saw no
reason to imagine a break or a new force or kind of action in
regard to the development of man, and especially of his brain
and mind; while Mr. Wallace, from the belief that savage man
possesses a brain too large for his actual requirements, from the
absence of a general hairy covering in lower men, from the
difficulty of conceiving the origin of some of man's physical
and mental faculties by natural selection, and from the nature
of the moral sense, came to the conclusion that a superior
intelligence, acting nevertheless through natural and universal
laws, has guided the development of man in a definite direction
and for a special purpose.
This divergence of view from that of Darwinism pure and
simple may be interestingly illustrated from an autobiographi-
cal passage in Mr. Wallace's Essays “On Miracles and Modern
Spiritualism,” 1881. He says: “From the age of fourteen I
lived with an elder brother, of advanced liberal and philosophi-
cal opinions, and I soon lost (and have never since regained)
all capacity of being affected in my judgments, either by clerical
influence or religious prejudice. Up to the time when I first
became acquainted with the facts of spiritualism, I was a con-
firmed philosophical sceptic, rejoicing in the works of Voltaire,
Strauss, and Carl Vogt, and an ardent admirer (as I am still)
of Herbert Spencer. I was so thorough and confirmed a
materialist that I could not at that time find a place in my
mind for the conception of spiritual existence, or for any other
agencies in the universe than matter and force. Facts, how-
ever, are stubborn things. My curiosity was at first excited by
some slight but inexplicable phenomena occurring in a friend's
family, and my desire for knowledge and love of truth forced
me to continue the inquiry. The facts became more and
more assured, more and more varied, more and more removed
from anything that modern science taught, or modern philo-
viii ANTROZ) UCTIOM.
sophy speculated on. The facts beat me.” By slow degrees he
came to believe in the existence of a number of preterhuman
intelligences of various grades, and that some of these, though
invisible and intangible to us, can and do act on matter and
influence our minds. He was thus led to attack the d priori
arguments against miracles, and to believe that many of the
so-called spiritualistic phenomena are genuine and occasioned
by unseen beings. He further championed spiritualism as
teaching valuable moral lessons, and leading to moral and
spiritual improvement, when rightly followed out. Here he
claims that he does not depart in any way from Scientific
principle. “The cardinal maxim of spiritualism,” he says, “is
that every one must find out the truth for himself. It makes
no claim to be received on hearsay evidence; but on the other
hand it demands that it be not rejected without patient, honest,
and fearless inquiry.” -
In yet another field Mr. Wallace has proved himself a bold
originator. His early gained knowledge of land-tenure and the
condition of tenants and labourers gave him an experience
which with riper years produced the conviction that there was
no way to remedy the evils resulting from landlordism but
the adoption of a properly guarded system of occupying owner-
ship under the State as landlord. He has endeavoured to
show the necessity and the practicability of his views in his
work entitled “Land Nationalisation, its Necessity and its
Aims,” first published in 1882. In a third edition he has added
an appendix on the nationalisation of house property, the State
being destined, he believes, to become sole ground landlord.
A later work of his on “Bad Times,” 1885, is an essay on the
then existing depression of trade, tracing it to the evils caused
by great foreign loans, excessive war expenditure, the increase
of speculation, and of millionaires, and the depopulation of the
rural districts. Among other remedies he is strongly in favour
of the increase of labourers’ allotments, and of personal culture
of the land by the occupier. In the same year his zeal and
fearlessness in championing causes which he identifies with
that of liberty, were exhibited in a pamphlet entitled “Forty-
five Years of Registration Statistics,” in which he sought to
prove vaccination both useless and dangerous. Beside all this,
Mr. Wallace has been a frequent contributor to scientific trans-
actions, and to the leading magazines and reviews. Finally,
AAV7'RO/DUCTIOAV. ix
this year he has produced a standard work on “Darwinism,”
which is the most perfect as well as the most readable form in
which the subject has yet been presented.
Such worthy work has not been without recognition. Mr.
Wallace was awarded in 1868 the Royal Medal of the Royal
Society for his many contributions to theoretical and practical
zoology, among which his discussion of the conditions which
have determined the distribution of animals in the Malay
archipelago, as well as his writings on the origin of species,
found prominent mention. In 1870, he received the Gold
Medal of the Société de Géographie of Paris. In 1876 he was
President of the Biological Section at the Glasgow meeting of
the British Association. After the publication of his work
on land nationalisation a Land Nationalisation Society was
formed, of which Mr. Wallace is President. In 1881 he was
awarded a Civil List pension of 4,200 a year, in recognition
of the amount and value of his scientific work ; and in 1882
the University of Dublin conferred upon him the honorary
degree of LL.D.
On all occasions Mr. Wallace has persistently exalted Mr.
Darwin's work, and, comparatively speaking, made light of his
own. Full well may we say with Mr. Darwin, “You are the
only man I ever heard of who persistently does himself an
injustice, and never demands justice. But you cannot burke
yourself, however much you may try.” The intelligent minds
which honour the name of Darwin, will not forget to honour
that of his fellow-discoverer, Alfred Russel Wallace.
G. T. B.
PR E FA C E .
N earnest desire to visit a tropical country, to behold the
luxuriance of animal and vegetable life said to exist
there, and to see with my own eyes all those wonders which
I had so much delighted to read of in the narratives of
travellers, were the motives that induced me to break through
the trammels of business and the ties of home, and start for
“Some far land where endless summer reigns.”
My attention was directed to Pará and the Amazon by Mr.
Edwards's little book, “A Voyage up the Amazon,” and I
decided upon going there, both on account of its easiness of
access and the little that was known of it compared with most
other parts of South America.
I proposed to pay my expenses by making collections in
Natural History, and I have been enabled to do so; and the
/ pleasures I have found in the contemplation of the strange
and beautiful objects continually met with, and the deep
interest arising from the study in their native wilds of the
varied races of mankind, have been such as to determine my
continuing in the pursuit I have entered upon, and to cause
me to look forward with pleasure to again visiting the wild and
luxuriant scenery and the sparkling life of the tropics. &
In the following pages I have given a narrative of my
journeys and of the impressions excited at the time. The
first and last portions are from my journals, with little altera-
tion; but all the notes made during two years, with the
xii AREFA CE.
greater part of my collections and sketches, wº by the
burning of the ship on my homeward voyage. " From the
fragmentary notes and papers which I have saved I have
written the intermediate portion, and the four last chapters
on the Natural History of the country and on the Indian
tribes, which, had I saved all my materials, were intended to
form a separate work on the Physical History of the Amazon.
In conclusion, I trust that the great loss of materials which
I have suffered, and which every naturalist and traveller will
fully appreciate, may be taken into consideration, to explain
the inequalities and imperfections of the narrative, and the
meagreness of the other part of the work, so little proportionate
to what might be expected from a four years' residence in such
an interesting and little-known country.
LoNDoN, October, 1853.
***
** *** * *
PREFACE TO NEW EDITION.
This issue is substantially a reprint of the original work, but
the proof sheets have been carefully revised and many verbal
corrections made. A few notes have been added, and English
names have in many cases been substituted for the local terms
which were used too freely in the first edition. The only
omissions are the vocabularies of Indian languages and Dr.
Latham's observations on them, which were thought to be
unsuitable to the general reader. The publishers have sup-
plied a few additional woodcuts which give a fair idea of
Amazonian scenery. A. R. W.
PARKSTONE, DoRSET, October, 1889.
C O N T E N T S.
CHAPTER I.
PARA.
Arrival at Pará–Appearance of the city and
its environs—The inhabitants and their
costumes—Vegetation—Sensitive plants
–Lizards—Ants and other insects—Birds
—Climate–Food of the inhabitants...... I
CHAPTER II.
PARA.
Festas–Portuguese and Brazilian currency
—M. Borlaz' estate—Walk to the rice-
mills—The virgin forest, its plants and
insects—Milk-tree—Saw and rice-mills—
Caripé or pottery-tree—India-rubber-tree
—Flowers and trees in blossom—Saúba
ants, wº and chegoes—Journey by
water to Magoary—The monkeys—The
commandante at Laranjeiras–Vampire
bats—The timber-trade—Boa constrictor
and sloth I3
CHAPTER III.
THE Tocantíns.
Canoe, stores, and crew-River Mojú—
Igaripé Miri–Cametá–Senhor Gomez
and his establishment—Search for a din-
ner—Jambouassú–Polite letter — Baião
and its inhabitants—A swarm of wasps—
Enter the rocky district—The Mutuca—
Difficulty of getting men—A village with-
out houses—Catching an alligator—Duck-
shooting—Aroyas, and the Falls—A noc-
turnal concertºlue macaws—Turtles'
eggs—A slight accident—Capabilities of
the country—Return to Pará ............ 35
CHAPTER IV.
MExIANA AND MARaj6.
Visit to Oleria—Habits of birds—Voyage
to Mexiana—Arrival—Birds—Description
of the island—Population—Slaves, their
treatment and habits—Journey to the
Lake—Beautiful stream—Fish and birds
at the lake — Catching , alligators —
Strange sounds, and abundance of ani-
mal life—Walk back—Jaguar meat—Visit
to |. in Marajó–Embarking cattle
—I ha das Frechas * * * c e s tº e º 'º e º 'º e º 'º e º e e g º e º se e 57
CHAPTER V.
THE GUAMA AND CAPIM Rivers.
Natterer's hunter, Luiz–Birds and insects
—Prepare for a journey—First sight of
the Piroróco—St. Domingo — Senhor
Calistro—Slaves and slavery—Anecdote
-Cane-field–Journey into the forest—
Game—Explanation of , the Piroróco—
Return to Pará–Bell-birds and yellow
parrots 77
CHAPTER VI.
SANTAREM AND MONTEALEGRE.
Leave Pará–Enter the Amazon—Its pecu-
liar features—Arrive at Santarem—The
town and its inhabitants—Voyage to Mon-
tealegre—Mosquito plague and its remedy
—Journey to the Serras—A cattle estate—
Rocks, picture writings, and cave—The
Victoria regia—Mandiocca fields—A festa
—Return to Santarem—Beautiful insects
-Curious tidal phenomenon—Leave
Santarem—Obydos-Villa Nova–A kind
priest—Serpa—Christmas Day on the
Amazon • e 92
CHAPTER VII.
BARRA Do Rio NEGRO AND THE solimóEs.
Appearance of the Rio Negro–The city of
arra, its trade and its inhabitants—
§.º. up the Rio Negro-The º
eral—The umbrella bird—Mode of life
of the Indians — Return to Barra —
Strangers in the city—Visit to the
Solimões – The Gapó–Manaquery —
xiv
COAVTEAVTS.

Country life — Curl-crested Araçaris—
Vultures and Onças—Tobacco growing
and manufacture—The Cow-fish—Senhor
Brandão—A fishing party with Senhor
Henrique—Letters from England ... 112
CHAPTER VIII.
THE UPPER RIO NEGRO.
Quit Barra for the Upper Rio Negro–
Canoe and cargo—Great width of the
river—Carvoeiro and Barcellos—Granite
rocks—Castanheiro–A polite old gentle-
man—São Jozé—A new language—The
cataracts-São Gabriel-Nossa Senhora
Ja Guia—Senhor L., and, his family—
Visit to the river Cobati—An Indian
village–The Serra—Cocks of the rock—
Return to Guia—Frei Jozé dos Santos
Innocentos I33
CHAPTER IX.
JAVITA.
Leave Guía—Marabitänas—Serra de Cocol
—Enter Venezuela—São Carlos—Pass
the Cassiquiare—Antonio. Dias–Indian
shipbuilders—Feather-work—Maróa and
Pimichin—A black jaguar—Poisonous
serpents—Fishing—Walk to Javita—Resi-
dence there—Indian road-makers—Lan-
uage and customs-A description of
avita—Runaway Indians—Collections at
avita—Return to Tómo–A domestic
roil–Marabitánas and its inhabitants—
Reach Guia • I59
CHAPTER X.
FIRST Ascent of THE River UAUPás.
Rapid current—An Indian Malcoca—The
Inmates—A Festival—Paint and orna-
ments—Illness—São Jeronymo–Passing
the cataracts—Jauarité—The , Tushalía
Calistro–Singular palm—Birds—Cheap
provisions—Edible ants, and earth-
worms—A grand dance—Feather orna-
ments—The snake-dance—The Capi–A
State cigar–Ananārapicóma — Fish-
Chegoes—Pass down the falls—Tame
birds—Orchids—Piuñs—Eating dirt-
I'oisoning — Return to Guia—Manoel
Joaquim-Annoying delays ............ 188
CHAPTER XI.
ON THE RIO NEGROe
Difficulties of , starting—Descending, the
falls — Catching an alligator — Tame
rrots—A fortnight in Barra—Frei
ozé's diplomacy—Pickling a cow-fish—
A river storm—Brazilian veracity—Wana-
wäca—Productiveness of the country—
A large snake—São Gabriel—São Joaquim
-Fever and ague ........................... 218

CHAPTER XII.
THE cataRActs of THE UAUPfs.
Start for the Uaupés—São Jeronymo and
Jauarité—Indians run away—Numerous
cataracts—Reach Caruru-Difficult pas-
sage—Painted Malocca—Devil music–
More falls — Ocoki — Curious rocks —
Reach Uarucapuri-Cobeu Indians–-
Reach Muctira—An Indian's house and
family—Height above, the sea—Tenente
Jesuino—-Return to Uarucapuri-Indian
prisoners-Voyage to Jauarité-Correct-
ing the calendar-Delay at São Jeronymo
236
CHAPTER XIII.
sžo JERoNYMo To THE Downs.
Voyage down, the Rio Negro–Arrive at
arra—Obtaining a ;: of
the city—Portuguese and Brazilian enter-
prise—System of credit-Trade-Immo-
rality, and its causes—Leave Barra—A
storm on the Amazon-Salsaparilha—A
tale about Death—Pará–The yellow fever
—Sail for England—Ship takes fire—Ten
days in the boats—Get picked up—Heavy
§ es–Short of provisions—Storm in the
hannel–Arrive at Deal
e & 8 ſº 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 90 256
PAGE
CHAPTER XIV.
THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF THE AMAZON VALLEY ........................... 280
!
CHAPTER XV.
VEGETATION OF THE AMAZON VALLEY 3OO
CHAPTER XVI.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE ZOOLOGY OF THE AMAZON DISTRICT 3IO
CHAPTER XVII.
331
LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
*
I.-PORTRAIT OF MP, WALLACE . . tº e Facing Title
2.—MAP OF THE AMAZON AND PARTs of ITs
BASIN VISITED BY MR, WALLACE * . Facing page 1
3—CHAPEL AT NAZAR# NEAR PARA . . . , , 14
4.—A BRAZILIAN PLANTATION ON THE LOWER
AMAZONS . & tº tº & • * 99 99 95
5.—ON THE RIO NEGRO . tº • * ~ 99 * I 3
6.—A village ON THE RIO NEGRO . e e i ! n 138
7.—A STREAM IN THE FOREST . • * * * * , I'99
8.—AN INDIAN VILLAGE ON THE RIO NEGRO . , 1, 232
9.—GRANITE ROCKS AND VEINS, ETC. • * : y 1, 293
IO,-FORMS OF GRANITE ROCKS . . • e py 1, 294
II.-CoMPARATIVE CURVES OF TEMPERATURE,
PARA AND LONDON . gº º & • ?? 1, 297
12-CURVES OF PRESSURE AND RAIN AT PARA . , , 298
13.—INDIAN IMPLEMENTS AND DOMESTIC ARTICLES 1, 1, 350
I4.— 99 9 y 99 } % p? 99 352
15.-FIGURES ON THE GRANITE ROCKS, RIVER
UAUPfs o e o * Q © e 90 29 360
16–FIGURES ON THE GRANITE ROCKS, RIVER
UAUPés . tº © e s e o 99 in 362
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T R A V E L S
ON THE
AMAZON AND RIO NEGRO.
CHAPTER I.
PARA.
Arrival at Pará–Appearance of the City and its Environs—The
Inhabitants and their Costume—Vegetation—Sensitive Plants-—
Lizards—Ants and other Insects—Birds—Climate—Food of the
Inhabitants.
º º: T was on the morning of the 26th of May, 1848, that
9 :)| after a short passage of twenty-nine days from Liver-
ºš pool, we came to anchor opposite the Southern
entrance to the River Amazon, and obtained our
, first view of South America. In the afternoon the pilot came
on board, and the next morning we sailed with a fair wind up
the river, which for fifty miles could only be distinguished from
the ocean by its calmness and discoloured water, the northern
shore being invisible, and the southern at a distance of ten or
twelve miles. Early on the morning of the 28th we again
anchored ; and when the sun rose in a cloudless sky, the city
of Pará, surrounded by the dense forest, and overtopped by
palms and plantains, greeted our sight, appearing doubly
beautiful from the presence of those luxuriant tropical produc-
tions in a state of nature, which we had so often admired in
the conservatories of Kew and Chatsworth. The canoes

I
2 TRA VELS OW ZEAEIAE AMAZOAV. [May,
passing with their motley crews of Negroes and Indians, the
vultures soaring overhead or walking lazily about the beach,
and the crowds of swallows on the churches and house-tops,
all served to occupy our attention till the Custom-house officers
visited us, and we were allowed to go on shore.
Pará contains about 15,000 inhabitants, and does not cover
a great extent of ground; yet it is the largest city on the
greatest river in the world, the Amazon, and is the capital of a
province equal in extent to all Western Europe. It is the
residence of a President appointed by the Emperor of Brazil,
and of a Bishop whose see extends two thousand miles into
the interior, over a country peopled by countless tribes of uncon-
verted Indians. The province of Pará is the most northern
portion of Brazil, and though it is naturally the richest part of
that vast empire, it is the least known, and at present of the
least commercial importance.
The appearance of the city from the river, which is the best
view that can be obtained of it, is not more foreign than that
of Calais or Boulogne. The houses are generally white, and
several handsome churches and public buildings raise their
towers and domes above them. The vigour of vegetation is
everywhere apparent. The ledges and mouldings support a
growth of small plants, and from the wall-tops and window-
openings of the churches often spring luxuriant weeds and
sometimes small trees. Above and below and behind the city,
as far as the eye can reach, extends the unbroken forest; all
the small islands in the river are wooded to the water's edge,
and many sandbanks flooded at high-water are covered with
shrubs and small trees, whose tops only now appeared above
the surface. The general aspect of the trees was not different
from those of Europe, except where the “feathery palm-trees”
raised their graceful forms; but our imaginations were busy
picturing the wonderful scenes to be beheld in their dark
recesses, and we longed for the time when we should be at
liberty to explore them.
On landing, we proceeded to the house of Mr. Miller, the
consignee of our vessel, by whom we were most kindly
received, and invited to remain till we could settle ourselves
as we should find most convenient. We were here introduced
to most of the English and American residents, who are all
engaged in trade, and are few in number. For the four
&
1848.] ARRIVAZ AZ PARA. 3
following days we were occupied in walking in the neighbour-
hood of the city, presenting our passports and obtaining license
to reside, familiarising ourselves with the people and the
vegetation, and endeavouring to obtain a residence fitted for
our pursuits. Finding that this could not be immediately
done, we removed to Mr. Miller’s “rosinha,” or country-house,
situated about half a mile from the city, which he kindly gave
us the use of till we could find more convenient quarters.
Beds and bedsteads are not wanted here, as cotton woven
hammocks are universally used for sleeping in, and are very
convenient on account of their portability. These, with a few
chairs and tables and our boxes, are all the furniture we had
or required. We hired an old Negro man named Isidora for
a cook and servant of all work, and regularly commenced
house-keeping, learning Portuguese, and investigating the
natural productions of the country.
My previous wanderings had been confined to England and
a short trip on the Continent, so that everything here had the
charm of perfect novelty. Nevertheless, on the whole I was
disappointed. The weather was not so hot, the people were
not so peculiar, the vegetation was not so striking, as the
glowing picture I had conjured up in my imagination, and had
been brooding over during the tedium of a sea-voyage. And
this is almost always the case with everything but a single view
of some one definite object. A piece of fine scenery, as
beheld from a given point, can scarcely be overdrawn; and
there are many such, which will not disappoint even the most
expectant beholder. It is the general effect that strikes at
once and commands the whole attention : the beauties have
not to be sought, they are all before you. With a district or
a country the case is very different. There are individual
objects of interest, which have to be sought out and observed
and appreciated. The charms of a district grow upon one in
proportion as the several parts come successively into view,
and in proportion as our education and habits lead us to
understand and admire them. This is particularly the case
with tropical countries. Some such places will no doubt strike
at once as altogether unequalled, but in the majority of cases
1t is only in time that the various peculiarities, the costume of
the people, the strange forms of vegetation, and the novelty of
the animal world, will present themselves so as to form a con-
4 TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. [June,
nected and definite impression on the mind. Thus it is that
travellers who crowd into one description all the wonders and
novelties which it took them weeks and months to observe, must
produce an erroneous impression on the reader, and cause him,
when he visits the spot, to experience much disappointment.
As one instance of what is meant, it may be mentioned that
during the first week of our residence in Pará, though constantly
in the forest in the neighbourhood of the city, I did not see a
single humming-bird, parrot, or monkey. And yet, as I
afterwards found, humming-birds, parrots, and monkeys are
plentiful enough in the neighbourhood of Pará; but they
require looking for, and a certain amount of acquaintance
with them is necessary in order to discover their haunts, and
Some practice is required to see them in the thick forest, even
when you hear them close by you.
But still Pará has quite enough to redeem it from the
imputations we may be supposed to have cast upon it. Every
day showed us something fresh to admire, some new wonder
we had been taught to expect as the invariable accompaniment a
of a luxuriant country within a degree of the equator. Even .
now, while writing by the last glimmer of twilight, the vampire
bat is fluttering about the room, hovering among the timbers
of the roof (for there are no ceilings), and now and then
whizzing past my ears with a most spectral noise.”
The city has been laid out on a most extensive plan; many
of the churches and public buildings are very handsome, but
decay and incongruous repairs have injured some of them,
and bits of gardens and waste ground intervening between the
houses, fenced in with rotten palings, and filled with rank
weeds and a few banana-plants, look strange and unsightly to
a European eye. The squares and public places are pictur-
esque, either from the churches and pretty houses which
surround them, or from the elegant palms of various species,
which with the plantain and banana everywhere occur; but
they bear more resemblance to village-greens than to parts
of a great city. A few paths lead across them in different
directions through a tangled vegetation of weedy Cassias,
shrubby convolvuli, and the pretty Orange-flowered Asclepias
curassavica, plants which here take the place of the rushes,
docks, and nettles of England. The principal street, the
“Rua dos Mercadores” (Street of Merchants), contains almost
1848.] zwVIRONS OF PARA. 5
the only good shops in the city. The houses are many of
them only one storey high, but the shops, which are often
completely open in front, are very neatly and attractively
furnished, though with rather a miscellaneous assortment of
articles. Here are seen at intervals a few yards of foot-paving,
though so little as only to render the rest of your walk over
rough stones or deep sand more unpleasant by comparison.
The other streets are all very narrow. They consist either
of very rough stones, apparently the remains of the original
paving, which has never been repaired, or of deep sand and
mud-holes. The houses are irregular and low, mostly built
of a coarse ferruginous sandstone, common in the neighbour-
hood, and plastered over. The windows, which have no glass,
have the lower part filled with lattice, hung above, so that the
bottom may be pushed out and a peep obtained sideways in
either direction, and from these many dark eyes glanced at us
as we passed. Yellow and blue wash are liberally used about
most of the houses and churches in decorating the pilasters
and door and window openings, which are in a debased but
picturesque style of Italian architecture. The building now
used as custom-house and barracks, formerly a convent, is
handsome and very extensive. &
Beyond the actual streets of the city is a large extent of
ground covered with roads and lanes intersecting each other
at right angles. In the spaces formed by these are the
“rosinhas,” or eountry-houses, one, two, or more on each
block. They are of one storey, with several spacious rooms
and a large verandah, which is generally the dining-room and
most pleasant sitting and working apartment. The ground
attached is usually a swamp or a wilderness of weeds or fruit-
trees. Sometimes a portion is formed into a flower-garden,
but seldom with much care or taste, and the plants and flowers
of Europe are preferred to the splendid and ornamental pro-
ductions of the country. The general impression of the city
to a person fresh from England is not very favourable. There
is such a want of neatness and order, such an appearance of
neglect and decay, such evidences of apathy and indolence,
as to be at first absolutely painful. But this soon wears off,
and some of these peculiarities are seen to be dependent on
the climate. The large and lofty rooms, with boarded floors
and scanty furniture, and with half-a-dozen doors and windows
6 TRAVELS OW THE AMAZON. [June,
in each, look at first comfortless, but are nevertheless exactly
adapted to a tropical country, in which a carpeted, curtained,
and cushioned room would be unbearable.
The inhabitants of Pará present a most varied and interesting
mixture of races. There is the fresh-coloured Englishman,
who seems to thrive as well here as in the cooler climate of
his native country, the sallow American, the swarthy Portuguese,
the more corpulent Brazilian, the merry Negro, and the
apathetic but finely formed Indian ; and between these a
hundred shades and mixtures, which it requires an experienced
eye to detect. The white inhabitants generally dress with
great neatness in linen clothes of spotless purity. Some adhere
to the black cloth coat and cravat, and look most uncom-
fortably clad with the thermometer from 85° to 90° in the
shade. The men's dress, whether Negro or Indian, is simply
a pair of striped or white cotton trousers, to which they some-
times add a shirt of the same material. The women and girls
on most gala occasions dress in pure white, which, contrasting
with their glossy black or tº skins, has a very pleasing
effect; and it is then that the stranger is astonished to behold
the massy gold chains and ornaments worn by these women,
many of whom are slaves. Children are seen in every degree
of clothing, down to perfect nudity, which is the general
condition of all the male coloured population under eight or
ten years of age. Indians fresh from the interior are sometimes
seen looking very mild and mannerly, and, except for holes
in their ears large enough to put a cart-rope through, and a
peculiar wildness with which they gaze at all around them,
they would hardly be noticed among the motley crowd of
regular inhabitants.
I have already stated that the natural productions of the
tropics did not at first realise my expectations. This is princi-
pally owing to the accounts of picture-drawing travellers, who,
by only describing the beautiful, the picturesque, and the
magnificent, would almost lead a person to believe that nothing
of a different character could exist under a tropical sun. Our
having arrived at Pará at the end of the wet season, may also
explain why we did not at first see all the glories of the vegeta-
tion. The beauty of the palm-trees can scarcely be too highly
drawn; they are peculiarly characteristic of the tropics, and
their varied and elegant forms, their beautiful foliage, and
1848.] - SEAVS/ZYVE PAEAAVZ.S. 7
their fruits, often useful to man, give them a never-failing.
interest to the naturalist, and to all who are familiar with
descriptions of the countries where they most abound. The
rest of the vegetation was hardly what I expected. We found
many beautiful flowers and climbing plants, but there are also
many places which are just as weedy in their appearance as in
our own bleak climate. But very few of the forest-trees were
in flower, and most of them had nothing very peculiar in their
appearance. The eye of the botanist, indeed, detects numer-
ous tropical forms in the structure of the stems, and the form
and arrangement of the leaves; but most of them produce an
effect in the landscape remarkably similar to that of our own
oaks, elms, and beeches. These remarks apply only to the
immediate vicinity of the city, where the whole surface has
been cleared, and the present vegetation is a second growth.
On proceeding a few miles out of the town into the forest
which everywhere surrounds it, a very different scene is beheld.
Trees of an enormous height rise on every side. The foliage
varies from the most light and airy to the darkest and most
massive. Climbing and parasitic plants, with large shining
leaves, run up the trunks, and often mount even to the highest
branches, while others, with fantastic stems, hang like ropes
and cables from their summits. Many curious seeds and
fruits are here seen scattered on the ground ; and there is
enough to engage the wonder and admiration of every lover
of nature. But even here there is something wanting that we
expected to find. The splendid Orchideous plants, so much
sought after in Europe, we had thought must abound in every
luxuriant tropical forest; yet here are none but a few small
species with dull brown or yellow flowers. Most of the
parasitic plants which clothe the stems of every old or fallen
tree with verdure, are of quite a different character, being ferns,
Złllandsias, and species of Pothos and Caladium, plants
resembling the Ethiopian lily so commonly cultivated in
houses. Among the shrubs near the city that immediately
attracted our attention were several Solanums, which are allied
to our potato. One of these grows from eight to twelve feet
high, with large woolly leaves, spines on both leaves and stem,
and handsome purple flowers larger than those of the potato.
Some other species have white flowers, and one much resembles
our bitter-sweet (Solanum Dulcamara). Many handsome
8 TRAVEL's ow THE AMAzow LJune,
convolvuluses climb over the hedges, as well as several most
beautiful Bignonias or trumpet-flowers, with yellow, orange, or
purple blossoms. But most striking of all are the passion-
flowers, which are abundant on the skirts of the forest, and are
of various colours, purple, scarlet, or pale pink: the purple
ones have an exquisite perfume, and they all produce an
agreeable fruit—the grenadilla of the West Indies. There are
besides many other elegant flowers, and numbers of less con-
spicuous ones. The papilionaceous flowers, or peas, are
common; cassias are very numerous, some being mere weeds,
others handsome trees, having a profusion of bright yellow
blossoms. Then there are the curious sensitive plants
(Mimosa), looked upon with such interest in our greenhouses,
but which here abound as common wayside weeds. Most of
them have purple or white globular heads of flowers. Some
are very sensitive, a gentle touch causing many leaves to drop
and fold up; others require a ruder hand to make them exhibit
their peculiar properties; while others again will scarcely show
any signs of feeling, though ever so roughly treated. They
are all more or less armed with sharp prickles, which may
partly answer the purpose of guarding their delicate frames
from some of the numerous shocks they would otherwise
receive.
The immense number of orange-trees about the city is an
interesting feature, and renders that delicious fruit always
abundant and cheap. Many of the public roads are lined
with them, and every garden is well stocked, so that the cost
is merely the trouble of gathering and taking to market. The
mango is also abundant, and in some of the public avenues is
planted alternately with the Mangabeira, or silk cotton-tree,
which grows to a great size, though, as its leaves are deciduous,
it is not so well adapted to produce the shade so much
required as some evergreen trees. On almost every roadside,
thicket, or waste, the coffee-tree is seen growing, and generally
with flower or fruit, and often both ; yet such is the scarcity of
labour or indolence of the people, that none is gathered but a
little for private consumption, while the city is almost entirely
supplied with coffee grown in other parts of Brazil.
Turning our attention to the world of animal life, what first
attract notice are the lizards. They abound everywhere. In
the city they are seen running along the walls and palings,
1848.] AMW 7 S. 9
sunning themselves on logs of wood, or creeping up to the
eaves of the lower houses. In every garden, road, and dry
sandy situation they are scampering out of the way as we walk
along. Now they crawl round the trunk of a tree, watching
us as we pass, and keeping carefully out of sight, just as a
squirrel will do under similar circumstances; now they walk
up a smooth wall or paling as composedly and securely as if
they had the plain earth beneath them. Some are of a dark
coppery colour, some with backs of the most brilliant silky
green and blue, and others marked with delicate shades and
lines of yellow and brown. On this sandy soil, and beneath
this bright sunshine, they seem to enjoy every moment of their
existence, basking in the hot sun with the most indolent
satisfaction, then scampering off as if every ray had lent
vivacity and vigour to their chilly constitutions. Far different
from the little lizards with us, which cannot raise their body
from the ground, and drag their long tails like an encumbrance
after them, these denizens of a happier clime carry their tails
stuck out in the air, and gallop away on their four legs with as
much freedom and muscular power as a warm-blooded quad-
ruped. To catch such lively creatures was of course no easy
matter, and all our attempts utterly failed ; but we soon got
the little Negro and Indian boys to shoot them for us with
their bows and arrows, and thus obtained many specimens.
Next to the lizards, the ants cannot fail to be noticed. They
startle you with the apparition of scraps of paper, dead leaves,
and feathers, endued with locomotive powers; processions
engaged in some abstruse engineering operations stretch across
the public paths ; the flowers you gather or the fruit you pluck
is covered with them, and they spread over your hand in such
Swarms as to make you hastily drop your prize. At meals
they make themselves quite at home upon the tablecloth, in
your plate, and in the Sugar-basin, though not in such numbers
as to offer any serious obstruction to your meal. In these
situations, and in many others, you will find them, and in each
situation it will be a distinct kind. Many plants have ants
peculiar to them. Their nests are seen forming huge black
masses, several feet in diameter, on the branches of trees. In
paths in woods and gardens we often see a gigantic black
species wandering about singly or in pairs, measuring near an
inch and a half long; while some of the species that frequent
HO TRA VELS OW THE AMAZOAV. [June,
houses are so small as to require a box-lid to fit very closely in
order to keep them out. They are great enemies to any dead
animal matter, especially insects and small birds. In drying
the specimens of insects we procured, we found it necessary to
hang up the boxes containing them to the roof of the verandah;
but even then a party got possession by descending the string,
as we caught them in the act, and found that in a few hours
they had destroyed several fine insects. We were then in-
formed that the Andiroba oil of the country, which is very
bitter, would keep them away, and by well soaking the suspend-
ing string we have since been free from their incursions.
Having at first employed ourselves principally in collecting
insects, I am enabled to say something about the other families
of that numerous class. None of the orders of insects were so
numerous as I expected, with the exception of the diurnal
Alepidoptera, or butterflies; and even these, though the number
of different species was very great, did not abound in in-
dividuals to the extent I had been led to anticipate. In about
three weeks Mr. B. and myself had captured upwards of a
hundred and fifty distinct species of butterflies. Among them
were eight species of the handsome genus Papilio, and three
Morphos, those splendid large metallic-blue butterflies which
are always first noticed by travellers in South America, in
which country alone they are found, and where, flying lazily
along the paths in the forest, alternately in deep shade and
bright sunshine, they present one of the most striking sights
the insect world can produce. Among the smaller species the
exquisite colouring and variety of marking is wonderful. The
species seem inexhaustible, and probably not one-half of those
which exist in this country are yet discovered. We did not
fall in with any of the large and remarkable insects of South
America, such as the rhinoceros or harlequin beetles, but saw
numerous specimens of a large Mantis, or praying insect, and
also several of the large Mygale, or bird-catching spiders,
which are here improperly called “tarantulas,” and are said to be
very venomous. We found one which had a nest on a silk
cotton-tree, formed like the web of some of our house-spiders,
as a place of concealment, but of a very strong texture, almost
like silk. Other species live in holes in the ground. Beetles
and flies were generally very scarce, and, with few exceptions,
of small size, but bees and wasps were abundant, and many of
1848.j PZRDS, - II
them very large and handsome. Mosquitoes, in the low parts
of the city and on shipboard, are very annoying, but on the
higher grounds and in the suburbs there are none. The
moqueen, a small red tick, scarcely visible—the “bète rouge.”
of Cayenne—abounds in the grass, and, getting on the legs, is
very irritating ; but these are trifles which one soon gets used
to, and in fact would hardly think oneself in the tropics with-
out them.
Of birds we at first saw but few, and those not very remark-
able ones. The only brilliant-coloured bird common about
the city is the yellow troupial (Cassicus icteronotus), which
builds its nests in colonies, suspended from the ends of the
branches of trees. A tree is sometimes covered with their
long purse-like nests, and the brilliant black and yellow birds
flying in and out have a pretty effect. This bird has a variety
of loud clear notes, and has an extraordinary power of imitating
the song of other birds, so as to render it worthy of the title of
the South American mocking-bird. Besides this, the common
silver-beak tanager (Rhamphocaelus facapa), some pale blue
tanagers, called here “Sayis,” and the yellow-breasted tyrant
flycatchers are the only conspicuous birds common in the
suburbs of Pará. In the forest are constantly heard the curious
notes of the bush-shrikes, tooo-too-to-to-t-t-t, each succeeding
sound quicker and quicker, like the successive reboundings of
a hammer from an anvil. In the dusk of the evening many
goat-suckers fly about and utter their singular and melancholy
cries. One says “Whip-poor-will,” just like the North American
bird so called, and another with remarkable distinctness keeps
asking, “Who are you ?” and as their voices often alternate,
an interesting though rather monotonous conversation takes
place between them. -
The climate, so far as we had yet experienced, was delightful.
The thermometer did not rise above 87° in the afternoon, nor
sink below 74° during the night. The mornings and evenings
were most agreeably cool, and we had generally a shower and
a fine breeze in the afternoon, which was very refreshing, and
purified the air. On moonlight evenings till eight o'clock
ladies walk about the streets and suburbs without any head-
dress and in ball-room attire, and the Brazilians, in their
rosinhas, sit outside their houses bareheaded and in their
shirt-sleeves till nine or ten o'clock, quite unmindful of the
I2 TRA VEZS OAV 7"HA. AMAZOAV. [June, 1848.
night airs and heavy dews of the tropics, which we have
been accustomed to consider so deadly.
We will now add a few words on the food of the people.
Beef is almost the only meat used. The cattle are kept on
estates some days’ journey across and up the river, whence
they are brought in canoes; they refuse food during the
voyage, and so lose most of their fat, and arrive in very poor
condition. They are killed in the morning for the day's
consumption, and are cut up with axes and cutlasses, with a
total disregard to appearance, the blood being allowed to run
all over the meat. About six every morning a number of
loaded carts may be seen going to the different butchers'
shops, the contents bearing such a resemblance to horse-flesh
going to a kennel of hounds, as to make a person of delicate
stomach rather uneasy when he sees nothing but beef on the
table at dinner-time. Fish is sometimes obtained, but it is
very dear, and pork is killed only on Sundays. Bread made
from United States flour, Irish and American butter, and other
foreign products, are in general use among the white population;
but farinha, rice, salt-fish, and fruits are the principal food of
the Indians and Negroes. Farinha is a preparation from the
root of the mandiocca or cassava plant, of which tapioca is
also made; it looks something like coarsely ground peas, or
perhaps more like Sawdust, and when soaked in water or broth
is rather glutinous, and is a very nutritious article of food.
This, with a little salt-fish, chili peppers, bananas, oranges, and
assai (a preparation from a palm fruit), forms almost the entire
subsistence of a great part of the population of the city. Our
own bill of fare comprised coffee, tea, bread, butter, beef, rice,
farinha, pumpkins, bananas, and Oranges. Isidora was a good
cook, and made all sorts of roasts and stews out of our daily
lump of tough beef; and the bananas and oranges were such
a luxury to us, that, with the good appetite which our walks in
the forest always gave us, we had nothing to complain of
CHAPTER II.
PARA.
Festas–Portuguese and Brazilian Currency—M. Borlaz' Estate—Walk
to the Rice-mills—The Virgin Forest, its Plants and Insects—Milk-
tree—Saw and Rice Mills—Caripé or Pottery-tree—India-rubber-tree
—Flowers and Trees in Blossom—Saiiba Ants, Wasps, and Chegoes—
Journey by Water to Magoary—The Monkeys—The Commandante
at Laranjeiras—Vampire Bats—The Timber-trade—Boa Constrictor
and Sloth.
ABOUT a fortnight after our arrival at Pará there were several
holidays, or “festas,” as they are called. Those of the
“Espirito Santo” and the “Trinidade” lasted each nine days.
The former was held at the cathedral, the latter at one of the
smaller churches in the suburbs. The general character of
these festas is the same, some being more celebrated and more
attractive than others. They consist of fireworks every night
before the church; Negro girls selling “doces,” or sweetmeats,
cakes, and fruit; processions of saints and crucifixes; the
church open, with regular services; kissing of images and
relics; and a miscellaneous crowd of Negroes and Indians, all
dressed in white, thoroughly enjoying the fun, and the women
in all the glory of their massive gold chains and earrings.
Besides these, a number of the higher classes and foreign
residents grace the scene with their presence; showy pro-
cessions are got up at the commencement and termination,
and on the last evening a grand display of fireworks takes
place, which is generally provided by some person who is
chosen or volunteers to be “Juiz da festa,” or governor of the
feast,--a rather expensive honour among people who, not
content with an unlimited supply of rockets at night, amuse
themselves by firing off great quantities during the day for the
sake of the whiz and the bang that accompany them. The
I4 TRA VEZS OW ZEZE AMAZON. [June,
rockets are looked upon as quite a part of the religious
ceremony: on asking an old Negro why they were let off in
the morning, he looked up to the sky and answered very,
gravely, “Por Deos” (for God). Music, noise, and fireworks
are the three essentials to please a Brazilian populace; and for
a fortnight we had enough of them, for besides the above-
mentioned amusements, they fire off guns, pistols, and cannon
from morning to night.
After many inquiries, we at last succeeded in procuring a
house to suit us. It was situated at Nazaré, about a mile and
a half south of the city, just opposite a pretty little chapel.
Close behind, the forest commences, and there are many good
localities for birds, insects, and plants in the neighbourhood.
The house consisted of a ground-floor of four rooms, with a
verandah extending completely round it, affording a rather
extensive and very pleasant promenade. The grounds contained
Oranges and bananas, and a great many forest and fruit trees,
with coffee and mandiocca plantations. We were to pay
twenty milreis a month rent (equal to 42 5s.), which is very
dear for Pará, but we could get no other house so convenient.
Isidora took possession of an old mud-walled shed as the
domain of his culinary operations; we worked and took our
meals in the verandah, and seldom used the inner rooms but
as sleeping apartments.
We now found much less difficulty in mustering up sufficient
Portuguese to explain our various wants. We were some time
getting into the use of the Portuguese, or rather Brazilian,
money, which is peculiar and puzzling. It consists of paper,
silver, and copper. The rey is the unit or standard, but the
milrey, or thousand reis, is the value of the lowest note, and
serves as the unit in which accounts are kept; so that the
system is a decimal one, and very easy, were it not complicated
by several other coins, which are used in reckoning; as the
vintem, which is twenty reis, the patac, three hundred and
twenty, and the crusado, four hundred, in all of which coins
sums of money are often reckoned, which is puzzling to a
beginner, because the patac is not an integral part of the
milrey (three patacs and two vintems making a milrey), and
the Spanish dollars which are current here are worth six patacs.
The milrey was originally worth 5s. 73d, but now fluctuates
from 2s. 1d. to 2s. 4d, or not quite half, owing probably to the

*VºIVJI （IWGIN
‘H’IvzvN Lv Tºàvho

1848.] INSzcz's capTURED. 15
over-issue of paper and its inconvertibility into coin. The
metallic currency, being then of less nominal than real value,
would soon have been melted down, so it became necessary
to increase its value. This was done by restamping it and
making it pass for double. Thus a vintem restamped is two
vintems; a patac with one hundred and sixty on it counts for
three hundred and twenty reis; a two-vintem piece counts for
four. The newer coinage also having been diminished in size
with the depreciation of the currency, there has arisen such a
confusion, that the size of the coin is scarcely any index to its
value, and when two pieces are of exactly the same size one
may be double the value of the other. An accurate examina-
tion of each coin is therefore necessary, which renders the
making up of a large sum a matter requiring much practice.
and attention. .
There were living on the premises three Negroes, who had
the care of the coffee- and fruit-trees, and of the mandiocca.
field. The principal one, named Vincente, was a fine stout
handsome Negro, who was celebrated as a catcher of “bichos,”
as they here call all insects, reptiles, and small animals. He
Soon brought us in several insects. One was a gigantic hairy.
spider, a Mygale, which he skilfully dug out of its hole in the
earth, and caught in a leaf. He told us he was once bitten.
by one, and was bad some time. When questioned on the
matter, he said the “bicho" was “muito mal” (very bad), and
concluded with an expressive “whew-w-w,” which just answers
to a schoolboy’s “Ain’t it though P” and intimates that there.
can be no doubt at all about the matter. It seems probable
therefore that this insect is not armed in vain with such
powerful fangs, but is capable of inflicting with them an
envenomed wound. $ - .
During one of our exploratory rambles we came upon the
Country-house of a French gentleman, M. Borlaz, who is Swiss
Consul in Pará. Much to our surprise he addressed us in
English, and then showed us round his grounds, and pointed
out to us the paths in the woods we should find most practi.
cable. The vegetation here on the banks of the river, a mile
below Pará, was very rich. The Miriti (Mauritia flexuosa),
a fine fan-palm, and a slender species, the Marajá (Bactris
Maraja), a small prickly tree which bears a fruit with a thin
Outer pulp, of a pleasant subacid taste, were both abundant.
16 TRA WEZS OW 7"HE AMAZON. [June,
A mass of cactus, thirty feet high, grew near the house, having
a most tropical aspect, but this was planted. The thickets
were full of curious Bromeliaceae and Arums, and many singular
trees and shrubs, and in their shady recesses we captured some
very fine insects. The splendid blue and orange butterflies
(Epicalia ancea) were abundant, settling on the leaves; and
they would repeatedly return to the same tree, and even to
the same leaf, so that, though very difficult to capture, five
specimens were taken without removing from the spot.
On our return to the house M. Borlaz treated us to some
fine fruits, the berribee, a species of Anoma, with a pleasant
acid custard-like pulp, the nuts of the bread-fruit roasted, very
similar to Spanish chestnuts, and plantains dried in the sun,
and much resembling figs. The situation of the house was
delightful, looking over the river to the opposite islands, yet
sufficiently elevated to be dry and healthy. The moist woods
along the bank of the river were so productive that we often
afterwards availed ourselves of M. Borlaz’ kind invitation to
visit his grounds whenever we felt disposed. As an instance
of the voracity of the ants, I may mention that, having laid
down my collecting-box in the verandah during half-an-hour's
conversation, I was horrified to find, on opening it to put in
a fresh capture, that it swarmed with small red ants, who
had already separated the wings from near a dozen insects,
and were dragging them in different directions about the
box; others were at the process of dismemberment, while
some had buried themselves in the plumpest bodies, where
they were enjoying a delicious repast. I had great difficulty
in making them quit their prey, and gained some useful
experience at the expense of half a successful day's captures,
including some of the splendid Epicalias which I so much
prized.
On the morning of the 23rd of June we started early to
walk to the rice-mills at Magoary, which we had been invited
to visit by the proprietor, Mr. Upton, and the manager, Mr.
Leavens, both American gentlemen. At about two miles from
the city we entered the virgin forest, which the increased
height of the trees and the deeper shade had some time told
us we were approaching. Its striking characteristics were, the
great number and variety of the forest-trees, their trunks rising
frequently for sixty or eighty feet without a branch, and
1848.] THE VIRG/W FOA&AES7. 17
perfectly straight; the huge creepers, which climb about them,
sometimes stretching obliquely from their summits like the
stays of a mast, sometimes winding around their trunks like
immense serpents waiting for their prey. Here, two or three
together, twisting spirally round each other, form a complete
living cable, as if to bind securely these monarchs of the forest;
there, they form tangled festoons, and, covered themselves
with smaller Creepers and parasitic plants, hide the parent stem
from sight.
Among the trees the various kinds that have buttresses
projecting around their base are the most striking and peculiar.
Some of these buttresses are much longer than they are high,
springing from a distance of eight or ten feet from the base,
and reaching only four or five feet high on the trunk, while
others rise to the height of twenty or thirty feet, and can even
be distinguished as ribs on the stem to forty or fifty. They
are complete wooden walls, from six inches to a foot thick,
sometimes branching into two or three, and extending straight
out to such a distance as to afford room for a comfortable hut
in the angle between them. Large square pieces are often
cut out of them to make paddles, and for other uses, the wood
being generally very light and soft.
Other trees, again, appear as if they were formed by a
number of slender stems growing together. They are deeply
furrowed and ribbed for their whole height, and in places these
furrows reach quite through them, like windows in a narrow
tower, yet they run up as high as the loftiest trees of the forest,
with a straight stem of uniform diameter. Another most
curious form is presented by those which have many of their
roots high above the surface of the ground, appearing to stand
on many legs, and often forming archways large enough for
a man to walk beneath.
The stems of all these trees, and the climbers that wind or
wave around them, support a multitude of dependants. Złł.
Zandsias and other Bromeliaceae, resembling wild pine-apples,
large climbing Arums, with their dark green arrowhead-shaped
leaves, peppers in great variety, and large-leaved ferns, shoot
out at intervals all up the stem, to the very topmost branches.
Detween these, creeping ferns and delicate little species like
our Hymenophyllum abound, and in moist dark places the
leaves of these are again covered with minute creeping mosses
2
18 TRAVEZS OW THE AMAZON. L/une,
and Hepatica, so that we have parasites on parasites, and
on these parasites again. On looking upwards, the finely- .
divided foliage, strongly defined against the clear sky, is a
striking characteristic of the tropical forests, as is repeatedly
remarked by Humboldt. Many of the largest forest-trees
have leaves as delicate as those of the trembling Mimosa,
belonging like them to the extensive family of the Zéguminosae,
while the huge palmate leaves of the Cecropias, the oval
glossy leaves of the Clusias, and a hundred others of inter-
mediate forms, afford sufficient variety; and the bright Sun-
shine lighting up all above while a sombre gloom reigns
below, adds to the grandeur and solemnity of the scene.
Flowers were very few and far between, a few small Orchidea
and inconspicuous wayside weeds, with now and then a white-
or green-blossomed shrub, being all that we met with. On
the ground many varieties of fruits lay decaying: Curiously
twisted legumes like peas a yard long, huge broad beans, nuts
of various sizes and forms, and large fruits of the pot-trees,
which have lids like the utensil from which they derive their
name. The herbage consisted principally of ferns, Scitamineae,
a few grasses and small creeping plants; but dead leaves and
rotten wood occupied the greater part of the surface.
We found very few insects, but almost all that we met with
were new to us. Our greatest treasure was the beautiful clear-
winged butterfly, with a bright violet patch on its lower wings,
the Hatera esmeralda, which we now saw and caught for the
first time. Many other rare insects were also obtained, and
the gigantic blue Morphos frequently passed us, but their
undulating flight baffled all our efforts at capturing them. Of
quadrupeds we saw none, and of birds but few, though we
heard enough of the latter to assure us that they were not
altogether wanting. We are inclined to think that the general
statement, that the birds of the tropics have a deficiency of
song proportionate to their brilliancy of plumage, requires to
be modified. Many of the brilliant birds of the tropics belong
to families or groups which have no song; but our most
brilliantly coloured birds, as the goldfinch and Canary, are not
the less musical, and there are many beautiful little birds here
which are equally so. We heard notes resembling those of
the blackbird and the robin, and one bird gave forth three
or four sweet plaintive tones that particularly attracted our
t
|
attention ; while many have peculiar cries, in which words
may easily be traced by the fanciful, and which in the stillness
of the forest have a very pleasing effect.
On reaching the mills we found it was one o'clock, the
interesting objects on the road having caused us to linger for
six hours on a distance of scarcely twelve miles. We were
kindly welcomed by Mr. Leavens, who soon set before us
substantial fare. After dinner we strolled round the premises,
and saw for the first time toucans and paroquets in their native
haunts. They frequent certain wild fruit-trees, and Mr.
Leavens has many specimens which he has shot, and pre-
served in a manner seldom equalled. There are three mills—
a saw-mill and two for cleaning rice. One rice-mill is driven
by steam, the other two by water-power, which is obtained by
damming up two or three small streams, and thus forming
Jº mill-pools. The saw-mill was recently erected by
Mr. Leavens, who is a practical millwright. It is of the kind
commonly used in the United States, and the manner of
applying the water is rather different from which we generally
see in England. There is a fall of water of about ten feet,
which, instead of being applied to an overshot or breast-wheel,
is allowed to rush out of a longitudinal aperture at the bottom,
against the narrow floats of a wheel only twenty inches in
diameter, which thus revolves with great velocity, and com-
municates motion by means of a crank and connecting-rod
directly to the saw, which of course makes a double stroke to
each revolution of the wheel. The expense of a large slow-
motion wheel is thus saved, as well as all the gearing necessary
for producing a sufficiently rapid motion of the saws; and the
whole having a smaller number of working parts, is much less
liable to get out of order, and requires few repairs. The
platform carrying the log is propelled on against the saw in the
usual manner, but the method of carrying it back at the end,
of the cut is ingenious. The water is shut off from the main
wheel, and let on at another shoot against a vertical wheel, on
the top of the upright shaft of which is a cog-wheel working,
into a rack on the frame, which runs it back with great
rapidity, and in the simplest manner. One saw only is used,
the various thicknesses into which the trees are cut rendering
more inconvenient.
We here saw the different kinds of timber used, both in the
1848.] SA W-M/ZZ, I9
2O TRAVELS OW THE AMAZON. [/une,
log and in boards, and were told their various uses by Mr.
Leavens. Some are very hard woods resembling oak, and
others lighter and less durable. What most interested us,
however, were several large logs of the Masseranduba, or
Milk-tree. On our way through the forest we had seen some
trunks much notched by persons who had been extracting the
milk. It is one of the noblest trees of the forest, rising with a
straight stem to an enormous height. The timber is very hard,
fine-grained, and durable, and is valuable for works which are
much exposed to the weather. The fruit is eatable and very
good, the size of a small apple, and full of a rich and very
juicy pulp. But strangest of all is the vegetable milk, which
exudes in abundance when the bark is cut: it has about the
consistence of thick cream, and but for a very slight peculiar
taste could scarcely be distinguished from the genuine product
of the cow. Mr. Leavens ordered a man to tap some logs
that had lain nearly a month in the yard. He cut several
notches in the bark with an axe, and in a minute the rich sap
was running out in great quantities. It was collected in a
basin, diluted with water, strained, and brought up at teatime
and at breakfast next morning. The peculiar flavour of the
milk seemed rather to improve the quality of the tea, and gave
it as good a colour as rich cream ; in coffee it is equally good.
Mr. Leavens informed us that he had made a custard of it,
and that, though it had a curious dark colour, it was very well
tasted. The milk is also used for glue, and is said to be as
durable as that made use of by carpenters. As a specimen of
its capabilities in this line, Mr. Leavens showed us a violin he
had made, the belly-board of which, formed of two pieces, he
had glued together with it applied fresh from the tree without
any preparation. It had been done two years; the instrument
had been in constant use, and the joint was now perfectly good
and sound throughout its whole length. As the milk hardens
by exposure to air, it becomes a very tough, slightly elastic
substance, much resembling gutta-percha ; but, not having the
property of being softened by hot water, is not likely to become
so extensively useful as that article.
After leaving the wood-yard, we next visited the rice-mills,
and inspected the process by which the rice is freed from its
husk. There are several operations to effect this. The grain
first passes between two mill-stones, not cut as for grinding
1848. RICE-MILZ.S. 2I
flour, but worked flat, and by them the outer husk is rubbed
off. It is then conveyed between two boards of similar size
and shape to the stones, set all over with stiff iron wires about
three-eighths of an inch long, so close together that a grain of
rice can just be pushed in between them. The two surfaces
very nearly touch one another, so that the rice is forced
through the spaces of the wires, which rub off the rest of the
husk and polish the grain. A quantity, however, is broken by
this operation, so it is next shaken through sifters of different
degrees of fineness, which separate the dust from the broken
rice. The whole rice is then fanned, to blow off the remaining
dust, and finally passes between rubbers covered with sheep-
skin with the wool on, which clean it thoroughly, and render it
fit for the market. The Pará rice is remarkably fine, being
equal in quality to that of Carolina, but, owing to the careless-
ness with which it is cultivated, it seldom shows so good a
Sample. No care is taken in choosing seed or in preparing
the ground ; and in harvesting, a portion is cut green, because
there are not hands enough to get it in quickly when it is ripe,
and rice is a grain which rapidly falls out of the ear and is
wasted. It is therefore seldom cultivated on a large scale, the
greater portion being the produce of Indians and small land-
holders, who bring it to the mills to sell.
In the morning, after a refreshing shower-bath under the
mill-feeder, we shouldered our guns, insect-nets, and pouches,
and, accompanied by Mr. Leavens, took a walk into the forest.
On Our way we saw the long-toed jacanas on the river-side,
Bemtevſ” flycatchers on the branches of every bare tree, and
toucans flying with out-stretched bills to their morning repast.
Their peculiar creaking note was often heard, with now and
then the loud tapping of the great woodpeckers, and the
extraordinary sounds uttered by the howling monkeys, all
telling us plainly that we were in the vast forests of tropical
America. We were not successful in shooting, but returned
With a good appetite to our coffee and masseranduba milk,
piraructi, and eggs. The piraructi is the dried fish which, with
farinha, forms the chief subsistence of the native population,
and in the interior is often the only thing to be obtained, so we
thought it as well to get used to it at once. It resembles in
appearance nothing eatable, looking as much like a dry cowhide
* “Bemtevi" (I saw you well); the bird’s note resembles this word.
22 TRA VEZS OAV ZAZAZ AMAZOAV. . [June,
grated up into fibres and pressed into cakes, as anything I can
Compare it with. When eaten, it is boiled or slightly roasted,
pulled to pieces, and mixed with vinegar, oil, pepper, onions,
and farinha, and altogether forms a very savoury mess for a
person with a good appetite and a strong stomach.
After breakfast, we loaded our old Negro (who had come
with us to show the way) with plants that we had collected, and
a basket to hold anything interesting we might meet with on
the road, and set out to walk home, promising soon to make
a longer visit. We reached Nazaré with boxes full of insects,
and heads full of the many interesting things we had seen,
among which the milk-giving tree, supplying us with a
necessary of life from so new and strange a source, held a
prominent place.
Wishing to obtain specimens of a tree called Caripé, the
bark of which is used in the manufacture of the pottery of the
country, we inquired of Isidora if he knew such a tree, and
where it grew. He replied that he knew the tree very well,
but that it grew in the forest a long way off. So one fine
morning after breakfast we told him to shoulder his axe and
come with us in search of the Caripé, -he in his usual
dishabille of a pair of trousers, shirt, hat, and shoes being
altogether dispensed with in this fine climate ; and we in our
shirt-sleeves, and with our hunting apparatus across our
shoulders. Our old conductor, though now following the
domestic occupation of cook and servant of all work to two
foreign gentlemen, had worked much in the forest, and was
well acquainted with the various trees, could tell their names,
and was learned in their uses and properties. He was of rather
a taciturn disposition, except when excited by our exceeding
dulness in understanding what he wanted, when he would
gesticulate with a vehemence and perform dumb-show with a
minuteness worthy of a more extensive audience ; yet he was
rather fond of displaying his knowledge on a subject of which
we were in a state of the most benighted ignorance, and at the
same time quite willing to learn. His method of instruction
was by a series of parenthetical remarks on the trees as he
passed them, appearing to speak rather to them than to us,
unless we elicited by questions further information.
“This,” he would say, “is Ocóóba, very good medicine,
good for sore-throat,” which he explained by going through the
1848.] AWDZA-A2&WBBAEAE Z RAEAE. 23
action of gargling, and showed us that a watery sap issued
freely on the bark being cut. The tree, like many others, was
notched all over by the number of patients who came for the
healing juice. “This,” said he, glancing at a magnificent tall
straight tree, “is good wood for houses, good for floors; call
it Quaröðba.” “This,” pointing to one of the curious furrowed
trees that look as if a bundle of enormously long sticks had
grown into one mass, “is wood for making paddles;” and, as
we did not understand this in Portuguese, he imitated rowing
in a canoe; the name of this was Pootiéka. “This,” pointing
to another large forest-tree, “is good wood for burning, to
make charcoal ; good hard wood for everything, makes the
best charcoal for forges,” which he explained by intimating
that the wood made the fire to make the iron of the axe he
held in his hand. This tree rejoiced in the name of Nowará.
Next came the Caripé itself, but it was a young tree with
neither fruit nor flowers, so we had to content ourselves with
specimens of the wood and bark only ; it grew on the edge of
a swamp filled with splendid palm-trees. Here the Assai
Palm, so common about the city, reached an enormous
height. With a smooth stem only four inches in diameter,
some specimens were eighty feet high. Sometimes they are
perfectly straight, sometimes gently curved, and, with the
drooping crowns of foliage, are most beautiful. Here also
grew the Inajá, a fine thick-stemmed species, with a very large
dense head of foliage. The undeveloped leaves of this as
well as many other kinds form an excellent vegetable, called
here palmeto, and probably very similar to that produced by
the cabbage-palm of the West Indies. A prickly-stemmed
fan-leaved palm, which we had observed at the mills, was also
growing here. But the most striking and curious of all was
the Paxiuba, a tall, straight, perfectly smooth-Stemmed palm,
with a most elegant head, formed of a few large curiously-cut
leaves. Its great singularity is, that the greater part of its roots
are above ground, and they successively die away, fresh ones
springing out of the stem higher up, so that the whole tree is
supported on three or four Stout straight roots, sometimes so
high that a person can stand between them with the lofty tree
growing over his head. The main roots often diverge again
before they reach the ground, each into three or more smaller
ones, not an inch each in diameter. Though the stem of
24 TRA VELS OAV THE AMAZOAV. [July,
the tree is quite smooth, the roots are thickly covered with
large tuberculous prickles. Numbers of small trees of a few
feet high grow all around, each standing on spreading legs, a
miniature copy of its parent. Isidora cut down an Assai palm,
to get some palmeto for our dinner; it forms an agreeable
vegetable of a sweetish flavour. Just as we were returning, we
were startled by a quiet remark that the tree close by us was
the Seringa, or India-rubber-tree. We rushed to it, axe in
hand, cut off a piece of bark, and had the satisfaction to see
the extraordinary juice come out. Catching a little in a box
I had with me, I next day found it genuine india-rubber, of a
yellowish colour, but possessing all its peculiar properties.
It being some saint's day, in the evening a fire was lit in
the road in front of our house, and going out we found Isidora
and Vincente keeping it up. Several others were visible in
the street, and there appeared to be a line of them reaching to
the city. They seemed to be made quite as a matter of
business, being a mark of respect to certain of the more
illustrious saints, and, with rockets and processions, form the
greater part of the religion here. The glorious southern con-
stellations, with their crowded nebulae, were shining brilliantly
in the heavens as the fire expired, and we turned into our
hammocks well satisfied with all that we had seen during the
day.
July 4th.-The vegetation now improved in appearance as
the dry season advanced. Plants were successively budding
and bursting their blossoms, and bright green leaves displaced
the half-withered ones of the past season. The climbers were
particularly remarkable, as much for the beauty of their foliage
as for their flowers. Often two or three climb over one tree
or shrub, mingling in the most perplexing though elegant
confusion, so that it is a matter of much difficulty to decide to
which plant the different blossoms belong, and should they be
high up it is impossible. A delicate white and a fine yellow
convolvulus were now plentiful; the purple and yellow trumpet-
flowers were still among the most showy ; and some noble
thick-leaved climbers mounted to the tops of trees, and sent
aloft bright spikes of scarlet flowers. Among the plants not in
flower, the twin-leaved Bauhinias of various forms were most
frequently noticed. The species are very numerous : some are
shrubs, others delicate climbers, and one is the most extra-
1848.] CLIMBING PLAAV7S. 25
ordinary among the extraordinary climbers of the forest, its
broad flattened woody stems being twisted in and out in a
most singular manner, mounting to the summits of the very
loftiest forest-trees, and hanging from their branches in gigantic
festoons, many hundred feet in length. A handsome pink and
white C/usia was now abundant, with large shining leaves, and
flowers having a powerful and very fragrant odour. It grows
not only as a good-sized tree out of the ground, but is also
parasitical on almost every other forest-tree. Its large round
whitish fruits are called “cebola braba” (wild onion), by the
natives, and are much eaten by birds, which thus probably
convey the seeds into the forks of lofty trees, where it seems
most readily to take root in any little decaying vegetable
matter, dung of birds, etc., that may be there ; and when it
arrives at such a size as to require more nourishment than it
can there obtain, it sends down long shoots to the ground,
which take root, and grow into a new stem. At Nazaré there
is a tree by the road-side, out of the fork of which grows a
large Mucujá palm, and on the palm are three or four young
Clusia trees, which no doubt have, or will have, Orchideae and
ferns again growing upon them. A few forest-trees were also
in blossom ; and it was truly a magnificent sight to behold a
great tree covered with one mass of flowers, and to hear the
deep distant hum of millions of insects gathered together to
enjoy the honeyed feast. But all is out of reach of the curious
and admiring naturalist. It is only over the outside of the
great dome of verdure exposed to the vertical rays of the sun
that flowers are produced, and on many of these trees there is
not a single blossom to be found at a less height than a
hundred feet. The whole glory of these forests could only be
seen by Sailing gently in a balloon over the undulating flowery
surface above: such a treat is perhaps reserved for the traveller
of a future age.
A jararáca, said to be one of the most deadly serpents in
Brazil, was killed by a Negro in our garden. It was small,
and not brightly coloured. A fine coral snake was also brought
in ; it was about a yard long, and beautifully marked with
black, red, and yellow bands. Having, perhaps, had some
experience of the lavish manner in which foreigners pay for
such things, the man had the coolness to ask two milreis, or
4s. 6d. for it, so he had to throw it away, and got nothing. A
26 TRA VAZZS ON 7"HE AMAZON. [July,
penny or twopence is enough to give for such things, which
are of no value to the natives; and though they will not search
much after them for such a price, yet they will bring you all
that come in their way when they know you will purchase
them. Snakes were unpleasantly abundant at this time. I
nearly trod on one about ten feet long, which rather startled
me, and it, too, to judge by the rapid manner in which it
glided away. I caught also a small Amphisbena under the
coffee-trees in our garden. Though it is known to have no
poison-fangs, the Negroes declared it was very dangerous, and
that its bite could not be cured. It is commonly known as
the two-headed snake, from the tail being blunt and the head
scarcely visible; and they believe that if it is cut in two, and
the two parts thrown some yards apart, they will come together
again, and join into an entire animal.
Among the curious things we meet with in the woods are
large heaps of earth and sand, sometimes by the roadside, and
sometimes extending quite across the path, making the pedes-
trian ascend and descend (a pleasing variety in this flat
country), and looking just as if some “Pará and Peru direct
Railway Company” had commenced operations. These
mounds are often thirty or forty feet long, by ten or fifteen
wide, and about three or four feet high ; but instead of being
the work of a lot of railway labourers, we find it is all due to
the industry of a native insect, the much-dreaded Saúba ant.
This insect is of a light-red colour, about the size of our largest
English species, the wood-ant, but with much more powerful
jaws. It does great injury to young trees, and will sometimes
strip them of their leaves in a single night. We often see,
hurrying across the pathways, rows of Small green leaves; these
are the Satibas, each with a piece of leaf cut as smoothly as
with scissors, and completely hiding the body from sight. The
orange-tree is very subject to their attacks, and in our garden
the young trees were each planted in the centre of a ring-shaped
earthen vessel, which being filled with water completely sur-
rounded the stem, preventing the ants.from reaching it. Some
places are so infested by them that it is useless planting any-
thing. No means of destroying them are known, their numbers
being so immense, as may readily be seen from the great
quantities of earth they remove. -
Many different kinds of wasps' and bees' nests are constantly
1848.] JoJRWEY TO MAGOARY. 27
met with ; but we were rather shy of meddling with them.
They are generally attached to the undersides of leaves, espe-
cially of the young Tucumá palm, which are broad, and offer
a good shelter. Some are little flat domes, with a single small
opening; others have the cells all exposed. Some have only
two or three cells, others a great number. These are all of a
delicate papery substance; but some have large cylindrical
nests, on high trees, of a material like thick cardboard. Then
again there are nests in hollow trees, and others among their
roots in the earth, while the solitary species make little holes
in the paths, and pierce the mud-walls of the houses, till they
appear as if riddled with shot. Many of these insects sting
very painfully; and some are so fierce, that on their nests being
approached, they will fly out and attack the unwary passer-by.
The larger kinds of wasps have very long stings, and can so
greatly extend their bodies that we were often stung when
endeavouring to secure them for our collections.
I also suffered a little from another of our insect enemies :
the celebrated chigoe at length paid us a visit. I found a
tender pimple on the side of my foot, which Isidora pronounced
to be a “bicho do pe,” or chigoe ; so preferring to extract it
myself, I set to work with a needle, but not being used to the
operation, could not get it out entire. I then rubbed a little
Snuff in the wound, and afterwards felt no more of it. The
insect is a minute flea, which burrows into the skin of the toes,
where it grows into a large bag of eggs as big as a pea, the
insect being just distinguishable as a black speck on one side
of it. When it first enters it causes a slight irritation, and if
found may then be easily extracted ; but when it grows large
it is very painful, and if neglected may produce a serious
wound. With care and attention, however, this dreaded insect
is not so annoying as the mosquito or our own domestic flea.
Having made arrangements for another and a longer visit
to Magoary, we packed up our hammocks, nets, and boxes,
and went on board a canoe which trades regularly to the mills,
bringing the rice and timber, and taking whatever is required
there. We left Pará about nine at night, when the tide served,
and at five the next morning found the vessel lying at anchor,
waiting for the flood. We were to proceed on to the mills in
a montaria, or small Indian canoe, and as we were five with
the Negroes who were to paddle, I felt rather nervous on
28 TRA VELS ON THE AMAZON. [July,
finding that we sank the little boat to within two inches of the
water's edge, and that a slight motion of any one of the party
would be enough to swamp us altogether. However, there was
no help for it, so off we went, but soon found that with its
unusual load our boat leaked so much that we had to keep
baling by turns with a calabash all the time. This was not
very agreeable; but after a few miles we got used to it, and
looked to the safe termination of our voyage as not altogether
improbable. - -
The picturesque and novel appearance of the river's banks,
as the sun rose, attracted all our attention. The stream,
though but an insignificant tributary of the Amazon, was wider
than the Thames. The banks were everywhere clothed with a
dense forest. In places were numerous mangroves, their roots
descending from the branches into the water, having a curious
appearance; on some we saw the fruit germinating on the tree,
sending out a shoot which would descend to the water, and
form another root to the parent. Behind these rose large
forest-trees, mingled with the Assai, Miriti, and other palms
while passion-flowers and convolvuluses hung their festoons to
the water's edge.
As we advanced the river became narrower, and about seven
o'clock we landed, to stretch our cramped limbs, at a sitio,
where there was a tree covered with the hanging nests of the
yellow troupial, with numbers of the birds continually flying in
and out. In an hour more we passed Larangeiras, a pretty
spot, where there are a few huts, and the residence of Senhor C.,
the Commandante of the district. Further on we turned into
a narrow igaripe, which wound about in the forest for a mile or
two, when a sudden turn at length brought us the welcome
sight of the mills. Here a hearty welcome from Mr. Leavens,
and a good breakfast, quite compensated for our four hours'
Cramping in the montaria, and prepared us for an exploring
expedition among the woods, paths, and lakes in the vicinity.
Our daily routine during our stay at the mills was as follows:
—We rose at half-past five, when whoever pleased took a
bath at the mill-stream. We then started, generally with our
guns, into the forest, as early in the morning is the best time
for shooting, and Mr. Leavens often accompanied us, to show
us the best feeding-trees. At eight we returned to breakfast,
and then again started off in search of insects and plants till
1846.] MOAVAK AEWS. 29
dinner-time. After dinner we generally had another walk for
an hour or two ; and the rest of the evening was occupied in
preparing and drying our captures, and in conversation.
Sometimes we would start down the igaripé in the montaria, not
returning till late in the afternoon; but it was in my early
expeditions into the forest that I had my curiosity most
gratified by the sight of many strange birds and other animals.
Toucans and parrots were abundant, and the splendid blue
and purple chatterers were also sometimes met with. Humming-
birds would dart by us, and disappear in the depths of the
forest, and woodpeckers and creepers of various sizes and
colours were running up the trunks and along the branches.
The little red-headed and puff-throated manakins were also
seen, and heard making a loud clapping noise with their wings
which it seemed hardly possible for so small a bird to produce.
But to me the greatest treat was making my first acquaintance
with the monkeys. One morning, when walking alone in the
forest, I heard a rustling of the leaves and branches, as if a
man were walking quickly among them, and expected every
minute to see some Indian hunter make his appearance, when
all at once the sounds appeared to be in the branches above,
and turning up my eyes there, I saw a large monkey looking
down at me, and seeming as much astonished as I was myself.
I should have liked to have had a good look at him, but he
thought it safer to retreat. The next day, being out with Mr.
Leavens, near the same place, we heard a similar sound, and it
was soon evident that a whole troop of monkeys were
approaching. We therefore hid ourselves under some trees,
and, with guns Cocked, waited their coming. Presently, we
caught a glimpse of them skipping about among the trees,
leaping from branch to branch, and passing from one tree to
another with the greatest ease. At last one approached too
near for its safety. Mr. Leavens fired, and it fell, the rest
making off with all possible speed. The poor little animal was
not quite dead, and its cries, its innocent-looking countenance,
and delicate little hands were quite childlike. Having often
heard how good monkey was, I took it home, and had it cut
up and fried for breakfast: there was about as much of it as a
fowl, and the meat something resembled rabbit, without any
very peculiar or unpleasant flavour. Another new dish was
the Cotia or Agouti, a little animal, something between a
3O TRAVEL's ow THE AMAzow. L/uly,
guinea-pig and a hare, but with longer legs. It is abundant,
and considered good eating, but the meat is rather dry and
tasteless. -
One day we took the montaria and started to pay a visit to
the Commandante at Larangeiras. The morning was beautiful;
swallows and kingfishers flew before us, but the beautiful
Žazon (Eurypygia helias), which I most wanted, wisely kept
out of the way. The banks of the igaripé were covered with a
species of Inga, in flower, from which Mr. B. obtained some
fine floral beetles. Among the roots of the mangroves
numbers of “calling crabs” were running about; their one
large claw held up, as if beckoning, having a very grotesque
appearance. At Larangeiras the Commandante welcomed us
with much politeness in his palace of posts and clay, and
offered us wine and bananas. He then produced a large bean,
very thick and hard, on breaking which, with a hammer, the
whole interior was seen to be filled with a farinaceous yellow
substance enveloping the seeds : it has a sweet taste, and is
eaten by the Indians with much relish. On our expressing
a wish to go into the forest, he kindly volunteered to accom-
pany us. We soon reached a lofty forest-tree, under which
lay many of the legumes, of which we collected some fine
specimens. The old gentleman then took us along several
paths, showing us the various trees, some useful as timber,
others as “remedios” for all the ills of life. One tree, which
is very plentiful, produces a substance intermediate between
camphor and turpentine. It is called here white pitch, and
is extensively collected, and when melted up with oil, is used
for pitching boats. Its strong camphor-like odour might,
perhaps, render it useful in some other way.
In the grounds around the house were a breadfruit-tree,
some Cotton-plants, and a fine Castanha, or Brazil-nut tree, on
which were several large fruits, and many nests of the yellow
troupial, which seems to prefer the vicinity of houses. Finding
in Mr. Edwards's book a mention of his having obtained some
good shells from Larangeiras, we spoke to Senhor C. about
them, when he immediately went to a box and produced two
or three tolerable specimens; so we engaged his son, a boy
of eleven or twelve, to get us a lot at a vintem (halfpenny)
each, and send them to Mr. Leavens at the mill, which, how-
ever, he never did.
1848.] TIMBER-TREES. 31
During our makeshift conversation, carried on with our very
slender Portuguese vocabulary, Senhor C. would frequently
ask us what such and such a word was in “Americano” (for
so the English language is here called), and appeared highly
amused at the absurd and incomprehensible terms used by us
in ordinary conversation. Among other things we told him
that we called “rapaz” in Americano “boy,” which word (boi)
in Portuguese means an ox. This was to him a complete
climax of absurdity, and tickled him into roars of laughter,
and he made us repeat it to him several times, that he might
not forget so good a joke; even when we were pulling away
into the middle of the stream, and waving our “adeos,” his
last words were, as loud as he could bawl, “O que se chama
rapaz P” (What do you call rapaz })
A day or two before we left the mills we had an opportunity
of seeing the effects of the vampire's* operations on a young
horse Mr. Leavens had just purchased. The first morning
after its arrival the poor animal presented a most pitiable
appearance, large streams of clotted blood running down from
several wounds on its back and sides. The appearance was,
however, I daresay, worse than the reality, as the bats have
the skill to bleed without giving pain, and it is quite possible
the horse, like a patient under the influence of chloroform,
may have known nothing of the matter. The danger is in the
attacks being repeated every night till the loss of blood
becomes serious. To prevent this, red peppers are usually
rubbed on the parts wounded, and on all likely places; and
this will partly check the sanguinivorous appetite of the bats,
but not entirely, as in spite of this application the poor animal
was again bitten the next night in fresh places.
Mr. Leavens is a native of Canada, and has been much
engaged in the timber-trade of that country, and we had many
Conversations on the possibility of obtaining a good supply of
timber from the Amazons. It seems somewhat extraordinary
that the greater part of our timber should be brought from
countries where the navigation is stopped nearly half the year
by ice, and where the rivers are at all times obstructed by
rapids and subject to storms, which render the bringing down
the rafts a business of great danger; where, too, there is little
* This is a blood-sucking bat (Phyllostoma sp.), misnamed “vampyre,”
while the bats of the genus Vampyrus are fruit-eaters. -
32 TRAVEZS OAV THE AMAZON. [July,
variety of timber, and much of it of such poor quality as only
to be used on account of its cheapness. On the other hand
the valley of the Amazon and its countless tributary streams,
offers a country where the rivers are open all the year, and are
for hundreds and even thousands of miles tunobstructed, by
rapids, and where violent storms at any season seldom occur.
The banks of all these streams are clothed with virgin forests,
containing timber-trees in inexhaustible quantities, and of such
countless varieties that there seems no purpose for which wood
is required but one of a fitting quality may be found. In
particular, there is cedar, said to be so abundant in some
localities, that it could, on account of the advantages before
mentioned, be sent to England at a less price than even the
Canada white pine. It is a wood which works nearly as easy
as pine, has a fine aromatic odour, and is equal in appearance
to common mahogany, and is therefore well adapted for doors
and all internal finishings of houses; yet, owing to the want
of a regular supply, the merchants here are obliged to have pine
from the States to make their packing-cases. For centuries
the woodman’s axe has been the pioneer of civilisation in the
gloomy forests of Canada, while the treasures of this great and
fertile country are still unknown. - -
Mr. Leavens had been informed that plenty of cedar is to
be found on the Tocantins, the first great tributary of the
Amazon from the south, and much wished to make a trip to
examine it, and, if practicable, bring a raft of the timber down
to Pará; in which case we agreed to go with him, for the
purpose of investigating the natural history of that almost
unknown district. We determined to start, if at all, in a few
weeks; so having been nearly a fortnight at the mills, we
returned to Pará on foot, sending our luggage and collections
by the canoe.
Vessels had arrived from the States and from Rio. A law
had been lately passed by the Imperial Government, which
was expected to produce a very beneficial effect on the
commerce and tranquillity of the province. It had hitherto
been the custom to obtain almost all the recruits for the
Brazilian army from this province. Indians, who came down
the rivers with produce, were forcibly seized and carried off
for soldiers. This was called voluntary enlistment, and had
gone on for many years, till the fear of it kept the natives from
1848.] AOA COMSTRICZ'OR. 33
coming down to Pará, and thus seriously checked the trade of
the province. A law had now been passed (in consequence
of the repeated complaints of the authorities here, frightening
the Government with the prospect of another revolution),
forbidding enlistment in the province of Pará for fifteen yeafs;
so we may now hope to be free from any disturbances which
might have arisen from this cause.
Nothing impressed me more than the quiet and orderly
state of the city and neighbourhood. No class of people carry
knives or other weapons, and there is less noise, fighting, or
drunkenness in the streets both day and night, than in any
town in England of equal population. When it is remembered
that the population is mostly uneducated, that it consists of
slaves, Indians, Brazilians, Portuguese, and foreigners, and
that rum is sold at every corner at about twopence per pint, it
says much for the good-nature and pacific disposition of the
people.
August 3rd.—We received a fresh inmate into our verandah
in the person of a fine young boa constrictor. A man who
had caught it in the forest left it for our inspection. It was
tightly tied round the neck to a good-sized stick, which
hindered the freedom of its movements, and appeared nearly
to stop respiration. It was about ten feet long, and very
large, being as thick as a man's thigh. Here it lay writhing
about for two or three days, dragging its clog along with it,
sometimes stretching its mouth open with a most suspicious
yawn, and twisting up the end of its tail into a very tight curl.
At length we agreed with the man to purchase it for two
milreis (4s. 6d.), and having fitted up a box with bars at the
top, got the seller to put it into the cage. It immediately
began making up for lost time by breathing most violently, the
expirations sounding like high-pressure steam escaping from a
Great Western locomotive. This it continued for some hours,
making about four and a half inspirations per minute, and
then settled down into silence, which it afterwards maintained,
unless when disturbed or irritated.
Though it was without food for more than a week, the
birds we gave it were refused, even when alive. Rats are
said to be their favourite food, but these we could not procure.
These serpents are not at all uncommon, even close to the
city, and are considered quite harmless. They are caught by
3
34 TRAVELS OW ZEZE AMAZON. [August, 1848.
pushing a large stick under them, when they twist round it,
and their head being then cautiously seized and tied to the
stick, they are easily carried home. Another interesting little
animal was a young sloth, which Antonio, an Indian boy, who
had enlisted himself in our service, brought alive from the
forest. It was not larger than a rabbit, was covered with
coarse grey and brown hair, and had a little round head and
face resembling the human countenance quite as much as a
monkey's, but with a very sad and melancholy expression. It
could scarcely crawl along the ground, but appeared quite at
home on a chair, hanging on the back, legs, or rails. It was a
most quiet, harmless little animal, submitting to any kind of
examination with no other manifestation of displeasure than
a melancholy whine. It slept hanging with its back down-
wards and its head between its fore-feet. Its favourite food is
the leaf of the Cecropia peltata, of which it sometimes ate a
little from a branch we furnished it with. After remaining
with us three days, we found it dead in the garden, whither it
had wandered, hoping no doubt to reach its forest home. It
had eaten scarcely anything with us, and appeared to have
died of hunger.
We were now busy packing up our first collection of insects
to send to England. In just two months we' had taken the
large number of 553 species of Lepidoptera of which more
than 4oo were butterflies, 45o beetles, and 4oo of other orders,
making in all 1,300 species of insects.
Mr. Leavens decided on making the Tocantins trip, and we
agreed to start in a week, looking forward with much pleasure
to visiting a new and unexplored district.
C H A P T E R III.
THE TOcANTſNS.
Canoe, Stores, and Crew—River Mojú—Igaripé Miri–Cametá–Sennor
Gomez and his Establishment—Search for a Dinner—Jambouassú–
Polite Letter—Baião and its Inhabitants—A Swarm of Wasps—Enter
the Rocky District—The Mutuca—Difficulty of getting Men—A Vil-
lage without Houses—Catching an Alligator—Duck-shooting—
Aroyas, and the Falls—A Nocturnal Concert—Blue Macaws—Turtles'
Eggs—A Slight Accident—Capabilities of the Country—Return to
Pará.
ON the afternoon of the 26th of August we left Pará for the
Tocantins. Mr. Leavens had undertaken to arrange all the
details of the voyage. He had hired one of the country
canoes, roughly made, but in some respects convenient, having
a tolda, or palm-thatched roof, like a gipsy's tent, over the
stern, which formed our cabin ; and in the forepart a similar
one, but lower, under which most of our provisions and
baggage were stowed. Over this was a rough deck of cedar-
boards, where the men rowed, and where we could take our
meals when the sun was not too hot. The canoe had two
masts and fore and aft sails, and was about twenty-four feet
long and eight wide. - -
Besides our guns, ammunition, and boxes to preserve our
collections in, we had a three months’ stock of provisions,
consisting of farinha, fish, and caxaça for the men; with the
addition of tea, coffee, biscuits, sugar, rice, salt beef, and
cheese, for ourselves. This, with clothes, crockery, and about
a bushel sack of copper money—the only coin current in the
interior—pretty well loaded our little craft. Our crew consisted
of old Isidora, as cook; Alexander, an Indian from the mills,
who was named Captain; Domingo, who had been up the
river, and was therefore to be our pilot; and Antonio, the boy
36 . TRAVELS ON THE AMAZOM. [August,
before mentioned. Another Indian deserted when we were
about to leave, so we started without him, trusting to get two
or three more as we went along. - -
Though in such a small boat, and going up a river in the
same province, we were not allowed to leave Pará without
passports and clearances from the custom-house, and as much
difficulty and delay as if we had been taking a two hundred
ton ship into a foreign country. But such is the rule here,
even the internal trade of the province, carried on by Brazilian
subjects, not being exempt from it. The forms to be filled up,
the signing and countersigning at different offices, the applica-
tions to be made and formalities to be observed, are so nu-
merous and complicated, that it is quite impossible for a
stranger to go through them; and had not Mr. Leavens
managed all this part of the business, we should probably have
been obliged, from this cause alone, to have given up our
projected journey.
Soon after leaving the city night came on, and the tide turn-
ing against us, we had to anchor. We were up at five the next
morning, and found that we were in the Mojú, up which our
way lay, and which enters the Pará river from the south. The
morning was delightful; the Suacuras, a kind of rail, were
tuning their melancholy notes, which are always to be heard on
the river-banks night and morning; lofty palms rose on either
side, and when the sun appeared all was fresh and beautiful.
About eight, we passed Jaguararſ, an estate belonging to Count
Brisson, where there are a hundred and fifty slaves engaged
principally in cultivating mandiocca. We breakfasted on board,
and about two in the afternoon reached Jighery, a very pretty
spot, with steep grassy banks, cocoa and other palms, and
oranges in profusion. Here we stayed for the tide, and dined on
shore, and Mr. B. and myself went in search of insects. We
found them rather abundant, and immediately took two species
of butterflies we had never seen at Pará. We had not expected
to find, in so short a distance, such a difference in the insects;
though, as the same thing takes place in England, why should
it not here? I saw a very long and slender snake, of a brown
colour, twining among the bushes, so that till it moved it was
hardly distinguishable from the stem of a climbing plant. Our
men had caught a sloth in the morning, as it was swimming
across the river, which was about half a mile wide; it was
1848.] ZGARIPE MIRA. 37
different from the species we had had alive at Pará, having a
patch of short yellow and black fur on the back. The Indians
stewed it for their dinner, and as they consider the meat a great
delicacy, I tasted it, and found it tender and very palatable.
In the evening, at sunset, the scene was lovely. The groups
of elegant palms, the large cotton-trees relieved against the
golden sky, the Negro houses surrounded with Orange and
mango trees, the grassy bank, the noble river, and the back-
ground of eternal forest, all softened by the mellowed light of
the magical half-hour after sunset, formed a picture indescrib-
ably beautiful.
At nine A.M., on the 28th, we entered the Igaripé Mirſ,
which is a cut made for about half a mile, connecting the Mojtí
river with a stream flowing into the Tocantins, nearly opposite
Cametá; thus forming an inner passage, safer than the naviga-
tion by the Pará river, where vessels are at times exposed to a
heavy swell and violent gales, and where there are rocky shoals,
very dangerous for the small canoes by which the Cametá
trade is principally carried on. When about halfway through,
we found the tide running against us, and the water very
shallow, and were obliged to wait, fastening the canoe to a tree.
In a short time the rope by which we were moored broke, and
we were drifted broadside down the stream, and should have
been upset by coming against a shoal, but were luckily able to
turn into a little bay where the water was still. On getting out
of the canal, we sailed and rowed along a winding river, often,
completely walled in with a luxuriant vegetation of trees and
climbing plants. A handsome tree with a mass of purple
blossoms was not uncommon, and a large aquatic Arum, with
its fine white flowers and curious fruits, grew on all the mud-
banks along the shores. The Miriti palm here covered exten-
sive tracts of ground, and often reached an enormous height.
At five P.M. we arrived at Santa Anna, a village with a pretty
church in the picturesque Italian architecture usual in Pará.
We had anticipated some delay here with our passports; but
finding there was no official to examine them we continued our
journey.
The 29th was spent in progressing slowly among intricate
channels and shoals, on which we several times got aground,
till we at last reached the main stream of the Tocantíns, studded
with innumerable palm-covered islands,
38 7 RA VEZS OW THE AMAZOAV. [September,
On the 30th, at daylight, we crossed over the river, which is
five or six miles wide, to Cametá, one of the principal towns in
the province. Its trade is in Brazil-nuts, cacao, india-rubber,
and cotton, which are produced in abundance by the surround-
ing district. It is a small straggling place, and though there are
Several shops, such a thing as a watch-key, which I required,
was not to be obtained. It has a picturesque appearance,
being situated on a bank thirty or forty feet high ; and the
view from it, of the river studded with island beyond island, as
far as the eye can reach, is very fine. We breakfasted here
with Senhor Le Roque, a merchant with whom Mr. Leavens is
acquainted, and who showed us round the place, and then
offered to accompany us in his boat to the sitio of Senhor
Gomez, about thirty miles up the river, to whom we had an
introduction, and who we hoped would be able to furnish us
with some more men.
On going to our canoe, however, one of our men, Domingo,
the pilot, was absent; but the tide serving, Senhor Le Roque
set off, and we promised to follow as soon as we could find our
pilot, who was, no doubt, hidden in some taverna, or liquor-shop,
in the town. But after making every inquiry and search for
him in vain, waiting till the tide was almost gone, we determined
to start without him, and send back word by Senhor Le Roque,
that he was to come on in a montaria the next day. If we had
had more experience of the Indian character, we should have
waited patiently till the following morning, when we should, no
doubt, have found him. As it was, we never saw him during
the rest of the voyage, though he had leſt clothes and several
other articles in the canoe.
In consequence of our delay we lost the wind, and our re-
maining man and boy had to row almost all the way, which
put them rather out of humour; and before we arrived, we
met Senhor Le Roque returning. Senhor Gomez received us
kindly, and we stayed with him two days, waiting for men he
was trying to procure for us. We amused ourselves very well,
shooting and entomologising. Near the house was a large
leguminous tree loaded with yellow blossoms, which were fre-
quented by paroquets and humming-birds. Up the igaripé
were numbers of the curious and handsome birds, called
“Ciganos,” or Gipsies (Opisthocomus cristatus). They are as
large as a fowl, have an elegant movable crest on their head,
1848.] * CIGAAWOS.” - 39
and a varied brown and white plumage. I shot two, but they
were not in good condition; and as they are plentiful on all
these streams, though not found at Pará, it was with less
regret that I threw them away. They keep in flocks on low
trees and bushes on the banks of the river, feeding on the
fruits and leaves of the large Arum before mentioned. They
never descend to the ground, and have a slow and unsteady
flight.
In the Campos, about a mile through the forest, I found wax-
bills, pigeons, toucans, and white-winged and blue chatterers.
In the forest we found some fine new Azeliconias and
Erycinidae, and I took two Cicadas sitting on the trunk of
a tree: when caught they make a noise almost deafening;
they generally rest high up on the trees, and though daily and
hourly heard, are seldom seen or captured. As I was re-
turning to the house, I met a little Indian boy, and at the same
time a large iguana at least three feet long, with Crested back
and hanging dewlap, looking very fierce, ran across the path.
The boy immediately rushed after it, and seizing the tail with
both hands, dashed the creature's head against a tree, killing
it on the spot, and then carried it home, where it no doubt
made a very savoury supper.
We here had an opportunity of seeing something of the
arrangements and customs of a Brazilian country-house. The
whole edifice in this case was raised four or five feet on piles,
to keep it above water at the high spring tides. Running out
to low-water mark was a substantial wooden pier, terminated
by a flight of steps. This leads from a verandah, opening out
of which is a room where guests are received and business
transacted, and close by is the sugar-mill and distillery. Quite
detached is the house where the mistress, children, and servants
reside, the approach to it being through the verandah, and
along a raised causeway forty or fifty feet in length. We took
our meals in the verandah with Senhor Gomez, never once
being honoured by the presence of the lady or her grown-up
daughters. At six A.M. we had coffee ; at nine, breakfast, Con-
sisting of beef and dried fish, with farinha, which supplies the
place of bread; and, to finish, coffee and farinha cakes, and
the rather unusual luxury of butter. We dined at three, and
had rice or shrimp soup, a variety of meat, game or fresh fish,
terminating with fruit, principally pine-apples and oranges,
40 TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. [September,
cut up in slices and served in saucers; and at eight in the
evening we had tea and farinha cakes. Two or three Negro
and Indian boys wait at table, constantly changing the plates,
which, as soon as empty, are whipped of the table, and re-
placed by clean ones, a woman just behind being constantly
at work washing them.
Our boy Antonio had here turned lazy, disobeyed orders,
and was discharged on the spot, going off with a party who
were proceeding up the Amazon after piraructi. We now had
but one man left, and with two that Senhor Gomez lent us to
go as far as Baião, we left Vista Alegre on the morning of the
2nd of September. The river presented the same appearance
as below, innumerable islands, most of them several miles
long, and the two shores never to be seen at once. As we had
nothing for dinner, I went with Mr. Leavens in the montaria,
which our Indians were to return in, to a house up an igaripé,
to see what we could buy. Cattle and sheep, fowls and ducks
were in plenty, and we thought we had come to the right
place; but we were mistaken, for the following conversation
took place between Mr. Leavens and a Negro woman, the only
person we saw —“Have you any fowls to sell ?”—“No.”
“Any ducks?”—“No.” “Any meat P”—“No.” “What do
you do here then P”—“Nothing.” “Have you any eggs to
sell ?”—“No, the hens don’t lay eggs.” And notwithstanding
our declaration that we had nothing to eat, we were obliged to
go away as empty as we came, because her master was not at
home, and nothing was hers to sell. At another house we
were lucky enough to buy a small turtle, which made us an
excellent meal.
We were to call at Jambouassti, a sitio about fifteen miles
below Baião, where Senhor Seixus, to whom we had a letter,
sometimes resided. The house is situated up a narrow igaripé,
the entrance to which even our Indians had much difficulty in
discovering, as it was night when we reached the place. Mr.
Leavens and myself then went in the montaria up the narrow
stream, which the tall trees, almost meeting overhead, made
intensely dark and gloomy. It was but a few hundred yards
to the house, where we found Senhor Seixus, and delivered the
letter from his partner in Pará; and as it is a very good speci-
men of Portuguese composition and politeness, I will here
give a literal translation of it,
1848.] POLITE LETTER. 4I
“Senhor Jozé Antonio Correio Seixus & Co., Baião.
“FRIENDS AND GENTLEMEN, -
“Knowing that it is always agreeable for you to have
an opportunity of showing your hospitable and generous
feelings towards strangers in general, and more particularly to
those who visit our country for the purpose of making dis-
coveries and extending the sphere of their knowledge ; I do
not hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity which the
journey of Mr. Charles Leavens and his two worthy companions
presents, to recommend them to your friendship and protection
in the scientific enterprise which they have undertaken, in
order to obtain those natural productions which render our
province a classic land in the history of animals and plants.
“In this laborious enterprise, which the illustrious (elites)
travellers have undertaken, I much wish that they may find in
you all that the limited resources of the place allows, not only
that whatever difficulties they encounter may be removed, but
that you may render less irksome the labours and privations
they must necessarily endure; and for men like them, devoted
to science, and whose very aliment is Natural History, in a
country like ours abounding in the most exquisite productions,
it is easy to find means to gratify them.
“I therefore hope, and above all pray you to fulfil my wishes
in the attentions you pay to Senhor Leavens and his com-
panions, and thus give me another proof of your esteem and
friendship.
“Your friend and obedient servant,
“João AUGUSTo CoRREIo.”
After reading the letter Senhor Seixus told us that he was
going to Baião in two or three days, and that we could either
remain here, or have the use of his house there till he arrived.
We determined to proceed, as we wished to send back the
men Senhor Gomez had lent us, and therefore returned to Our
canoe to be ready to start the next tide. In the morning I
went on ahead in the montaria, with Alexander, to shoot some
birds. We saw numbers of kingfishers and small green-backed
swallows, and some pretty red-headed finches (Tanagra gularis),
called here “marinheiros,” or sailors: they are always found
42 TRAVELS OW THE AMAZ OW. [September,
near the water, on low trees and bushes. We landed on an
extensive sandy beach, where many terns and gulls were flying
about, of which, after a good many ineffectual attempts, we
shot two. We reached the canoe again as she came to anchor
at Baião, under a very steep bank about a hundred feet high,
which commences a few miles below. Here we had about a
hundred and twenty irregular steps to ascend, when we found
the village on level ground, and the house of Senhor Seixus
close at hand, which, though the floors and walls were of mud,
was neatly whitewashed. As the house was quite empty, we
had to bring a great many necessaries up from the canoe, which
was very laborious work in the hot sun. We did not see a
floored house in the village, which is not to be wondered at
when it is considered that there is not such a thing as a sawn
board in this part of the country. A tree is cut longitudinally
down the middle with an axe, and the outside then hewn
away, and the surface finished off with an adze, so that a tree
makes but two boards. All the boarded floors at Cametá, and
many at Pará, have been thus formed, without the use of either
saw or plane.
We remained here some days, and had very good sport.
Birds were tolerably plentiful, and I obtained a brown jacamar,
a purple-headed parrot, and some fine pigeons. All round the
village, for some miles, on the dry high land, are coffee-
plantations and second-growth forest, which produced many
butterflies new to us, particularly the whites and yellows, of
which we obtained six or seven species we had not before met
with. While preparing insects or skinning birds in the house,
the window which opened into the street was generally crowded
with boys and men, who would wait for hours, watching my
operations with the most untiring curiosity. The constantly-
repeated remark, on seeing a bird skinned, was, “Oh, the
patience of the whites | * Then one would whisper to another,
“Does he take all the meat out?” “Well, Inever !” “Look,
he makes eyes of cotton l’ And then would come a little
conversation as to what they could possibly be wanted for.
“Para mostrar’ (to show) was the general solution; but they
seemed to think it rather unsatisfactory, and that the English
could hardly be such fools as to want to see a few parrot and
pigeon skins. The butterflies they settled much to their own
Satisfaction, deciding that they were for the purpose of obtain-
1848.] A SWAACM OF WASPS. 43
ing new patterns for printed calicoes and other goods, while the
ugly insects were supposed to be valuable for “remedios,” or
medicine. We found it best quietly to assent to this, as it
Saved us a deal of questioning, and no other explanation that
we could give would be at all intelligible to them.
One day, while I was in the woods pursuing some insects, I
was suddenly attacked by a whole swarm of small wasps, whose
nest, hanging from a leaf, I had inadvertently disturbed. They
covered my face and neck, stinging me severely, while in my
haste to escape, and free myself from them, I knocked off
my spectacles, which I did not perceive till I was at some
distance from the spot, and as I was quite out of any path, and
had not noticed where I was, it was useless to seek them.
The pain of the stings, which was at first very severe, went
off altogether in about an hour; and as I had several more
glasses with me, I did not suffer any inconvenience from my
loss.
The soil here is red clay, in some places of so bright a
colour as to be used for painting earthenware. Igaripés are
much rarer than they were lower down, and where they occur
form little valleys or ravines in the high bank. When Senhor
Seixus arrived, he insisted on our all taking our meals with
him, and was in every way very obliging to us. His son, a
little boy of six or seven, ran about the house completely
naked. -
The neighbours would drop in once or twice a day to see
how the brancos (white people) got on, and have a little
conversation, mostly with Mr. Leavens, who spoke Portuguese
fluently. One inquired if in America (meaning in the United
States) there was any terra fºrma, appearing to have an idea
that it was all a cluster of islands. Another asked if there were
campos, and if the people had mandiocca and seringa. On
being told they had neither, he asked why they did not plant
them, and said he thought it would answer well to plant
seringa-trees, and so have fresh milk every day to make india-
rubber shoes. When told that the climate was too cold for
mandiocca or seringa to grow if planted, he was quite astonished,
and wondered how people could live in a country where such
necessaries of life could not be grown; and he no doubt felt a
kind of superiority over us, on account of our coming to his
country to buy india-rubber and cocoa, just as the inhabitants
44 7 RA VEZS OAV 7"HZ AMAZOAV. [September,
of the Celestial Empire think that we must be very poor
miserable barbarians, indeed, to be obliged to come so far to
buy their tea. •
Even Senhor Seixus himself, an educated Brazilian and the
Commandante of the district, inquired if the government of
England were constitutional or despotic, and was surprised to
hear that our Sovereign was a woman.
We at length procured two men, and proceeded on our
journey up the river, having spent four days very pleasantly at
Baião. As we went slowly along the shore, we saw on a tree
an iguana, called here a chameleon, which Mr. Leavens shot,
and our men cooked for their supper. In the evening, we
anchored under a fine bank, where a large leguminous tree
was covered with clusters of pink and white flowers and large
pale green flat pods. Venus and the moon were shining
brilliantly, and the air was deliciously cool, when, at nine
o'clock, we turned in under our tolda, but mosquitoes and
sand-flies would not allow us to sleep for some hours. The
inext day we had a good wind and went along briskly; the
river was narrower and had fewer islands; palms were less
abundant than below, but the vegetation of the banks was
equally luxuriant. Here were plenty of porpoises, and we saw
some handsome birds like golden Orioles.
On the 9th, early in the morning, we arrived at Jutahi, a
cattle estate, where we expected to get more men; but the
owner of the place being out, we had to wait till he returned.
We obtained here about a gallon of delicious new milk, a great
treat for us. We shot a few birds, and found some small
shells in the river, but none of any size or beauty, and could
see scarcely any insects.
As the man we wanted did not arrive, we left on the Ioth,
hoping to meet him up the river. I walked across an exten-
sive sandbank, where, about noon, it was decidedly hot.
There were numerous little Carabideous beetles on the sand,
very active, and of a pale colour with dark markings, remind-
ing me of insects that frequent similar situations in England.
In the afternoon we reached a house, and made a fire on the
beach to cook our dinner. Here were a number of men and
women, and naked children. The house was a mere open
shed,—a roof of palm-thatch supported on posts, between
which the rédés (hammocks) are hung, which serve the pur-
1848.] - PA 7 O.S. 45
pose of bed and chair. At one end was a small platform,
raised about three feet above the floor, ascended by deep
notches cut in a post, instead of a ladder. This seemed to be
a sort of boudoir, or ladies' room, as they alone occupied it;
and it was useful to keep clothes and food out of the way of
the fowls, ducks, pigs, and dogs, which freely ranged below.
The head of the establishment was a Brazilian, who had come
down from the mines. He had in cultivation cotton, tobacco,
cacao, mandiocca, and abundance of bananas. He wanted
powder and shot, which Mr. Leavens furnished him with in
exchange for tobacco. He said they had not had any rain
for three months, and that the crops were much injured in
consequence. At Pará, from which we were not distant more
than one hundred and fifty miles, there had never been more
than three days without rain. The proximity to the great body
of water of the Amazon and the ocean, together with the
greater extent of lowland and dense forest about the city, are
probably the causes of this great difference of climate in so
short a distance.
Proceeding on our way, we still passed innumerable islands,
the river being four or five miles wide. About four in the
afternoon, we came in sight of the first rocks we met with on
the river, on a projecting point, rugged and volcanic in appear-
ance, with little detached islands in the stream, and great
blocks lying along the shore. After so much flat alluvial
country, it had quite a picturesque effect. A mile further, we
reached Patos, a small village, were we hoped to get men,
and anchored for the night. I took a walk along the shore
to examine the rocks, and found them to be decidedly volcanic,
of a dark colour, and often as rugged as the scoriae of an iron-
furnace. There was also a coarse conglomerate, containing
blackened quartz pebbles, and in the hollows a very fine white
quartz sand.
We remained here two days; Mr. Leavens going up the
igaripé to look for cedar, while we remained hunting for birds,
insects, and shells. I shot several pretty birds, and saw, for
the first time, the beautiful blue macaws, which we had been
told we should meet with up the Tocantins. They are
entirely of a fine indigo-blue, with a whitish beak; but they
flew very high, and we could not find their feeding-place.
The insects most abundant were the yellow butterflies, which
46 TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. [September,
often settled in great numbers on the beach, and when dis-
turbed rose in a body, forming a complete yellow and orange
fluttering cloud. Shells were tolerably plentiful, and we
added some new ones to our small stock. Since leaving
|Baião, a small fly, with curiously marked black and white
Wings, had much annoyed us, setting on our hands and faces
in the quietest manner, and then suddenly piercing them like
the prick of a needle. The people call it the Muttica, and say
it is one of the torments of the interior, being in many parts
much more abundant than it is here.
Mr. Leavens having ascertained that there was no cedar
within a mile of the water, we arranged to proceed the next
day, when a pilot and two men from Patos had agreed to
accompany us to the Falls. In the morning we waited till
eight o'clock, and no one making their appearance, we sent
to them, when they replied, they could not come ; so after
having waited a day, we were at last obliged to go on without
them, hoping to be able to get as far as the Falls, and then
return. Cedar was quite out of the question, as men could
not be got to work the canoe, much less to cut timber. We
had now altogether been delayed nine or ten days waiting for
men, and in only one instance had got them after all. This is
one of the greatest difficulties travellers here have to encounter.
All the men you want must be taken from Pará, and if they
choose to run away, as they are almost sure to do, others
\ cannot be procured. -
At ten in the morning we reached Troquera, on the west
bank of the river, where there is a small igaripé, on which
there are some falls. There were several families living here,
yet they had not a house among them, but had chosen a nice
clear space under some trees, between the trunks and from
the branches of which they hung their rédés. Numbers of
children were rolling about naked in the sand, while the
women and some of the men were lounging in their hammocks.
Their canoes were pulled up on the beach, their guns were
leaning against the trees, a couple of large earthen pots were
on the fire, and they seemed to possess, in their own estima-
tion, every luxury that man can desire. As in the winter the
place is all under water, it is only a summer encampment;
during which season they collect seringa, grow a little cotton,
mandiocca, and maize, catch fish and hunt. All they wanted
1848.1 CATCHING AMV AZZ/GATOR. 47
of us was ammunition and caxaça (rum), which Mr. Leavens
supplied them with, taking rubber in exchange.
We walked about a mile through the forest to the Falls on
the igaripé. Black slaty rocks rose up at a high angle in the
bed of the brook, in irregular stratified masses, among which
the water foams and dashes for about a quarter of a mile : “a
splendid place for a sawmill,” said Mr. Leavens. There were
no palms here, or any striking forms of tropical vegetation;
the mosses and small plants had nothing peculiar in them;
and, altogether, the place was very like many I have seen at
home. The depths of the virgin forest are Solemn and grand,
but there is nothing in this country to surpass the beauty of our
river and woodland scenery. Here and there some exquisite
clump of plants covered with blossoms, or a huge tree overrun
with flowering climbers, strikes us as really tropical; but this is
not the general character of the scenery. In the second-growth
woods, in the campos, and in many other places, there is
nothing to tell any one but a naturalist that he is out of Europe.
Before leaving Troquera, I shot some goat-Suckers, which
were flying about and settling upon the rocks in the hot
sunshine. We went on to Panajá, where there is a house
occupied by some seringa-gatherers, and stayed there for the
night. All along the sandy shore, from Baião to this place,
are trailing prickly cassias, frequently forming an impenetrable
barrier; and, in places, there is a large shrubby species, also
prickly. The large-stemmed arums had now disappeared, and
with them the ciganos. The next morning I went with our
Indian, Alexander, to visit a lake, about a mile through the
woods. There was a small montaria, which would just hold
two, in which we embarked to explore it, and shoot some
birds. Alligators were very abundant, showing their heads
every now and then above water. Alexander fired at one,
which immediately disappeared, but soon came up again, half
turned over, and with one leg out of water; so we thought he
was quite dead, and paddled up to secure him. I seized hold
of the elevated claw, when—dash! Splash!—over he turned,
and dived down under our little boat, which he had half filled
with water and nearly upset. Again he appeared at the
surface, and this time we poked him with a long stick, to see
if he were really dead or shamming, when he again dived
down and appeared no more.
48 TRAVEZS OW THE AMAZON. [September,
We went to the end of the lake, which was about a mile
long, and then returned to the place where we had embarked.
I had shot a kingfisher, and was loading my gun, when
Alexander shot at a small coot or rail, and having a large
charge, the shock threw me off my balance, and to save myself
I dropped my gun into the water and very nearly swamped
the canoe. I thought my shooting for this voyage was all
over; but, luckily, the water was only three or four feet deep,
and we soon hooked the gun up. I employed the rest of the
morning in taking off the locks, and by careful cleaning and
oiling got all right again.
We went on with a fair wind for a few hours, when two of
Our men proposed taking the montaria to go and shoot ducks
at a place near, where they abounded; so Mr. B. and myself
agreed to go with them, while Mr. Leavens proceeded a mile
or two on, to get dinner ready and wait for us. We had
about half a mile of paddling_to reach the shore, then half a
mile of walking over a sandy beach, when our Indians plunged
into the forest along a narrow path, we following in silence.
About a mile more brought us to some open ground, where
there was abundance of fine grass and scattered clumps of
low trees and shrubs, among which were many pretty flowers.
We walked for a mile through this kind of country, along a
track which was often quite imperceptible to us, till at length
we reached an extensive morass covered with aquatic plants,
with some clumps of bushes and blackened clumps of trees.
Our Indians, without saying a word, plunged in up to their
knees, and waded after the ducks, which we could see at a
distance, with egrets and other aquatic birds. As we could
do nothing on shore, we followed them, floundering about in
mud and water, among immersed trees and shrubs, and
tangled roots of aquatic plants, feeling warm and slimy, as if
tenanted by all sorts of creeping things. The ducks were far
from easy to get at, being very wild and shy. After one or
two ineffectual long shots, I saw one sitting on the top of a
stump, and by creeping cautiously along under cover of some
bushes, got within shot and fired. The bird flew away, I
thought unhurt, but soon fell into the water, where I picked it
up dead. It had been shot through the head, and flown, I
suppose, in the same manner that fowls will run after being
decapitated.
1848.] A)AAWGAERS OF THE RIVER, 49
I then came out on to dry land, and waited for the Indians,
who soon appeared, but all empty-handed. A pale yellow
water-lily and some pretty buttercups and bladder-worts were
abundant in the lake. We had a long row to reach the canoe,
which we found at Jucahipuá, where Senhor Joaquim resided,
who, we had been told, would pilot us up to the Falls. After
a good dinner of turtle I skinned my birds, and then took a
walk along the beach : here were fine crystalline sandstone
rocks, in regularly stratified beds. In the evening a small
Aphemera was so abundant about the candle as to fall on the
paper like rain, and get into our hair and down our necks in
such abundance as to be very annoying.
In the morning we passed the locality of the old settlement
of Alcobaza, where there was once a fort and a considerable
village, but now no signs of any habitation. The inhabitants
were murdered by the Indians about fifty years ago, and since
then it has never been re-settled. The river was now about
a mile wide, and had fewer islands. There was a fine flat-
bedded sandstone here, very suitable for building. We were
shown a stone on which is said to be writing which no man
can read, being circular and pothook marks, almost as much
like the work of nature as of art. The water was here
beautifully transparent, and there were many pretty fishes
variously marked and spotted. V
About noon we reached the “Ilha dos Santos,” a small
Sandy island in the middle of the river, where there was a
house, the inhabitants of which continually asked us for caxaça.
We had a land-tortoise for dinner to-day, which was as good as
turtle. Two hours further we landed for the night. The river
was now very full of rocks and eddies, and we were unable to
go in our large canoe. The next morning, having put our
zédés and some provisions into the montaria, we started with
two of our men and Senhor Joaquim, leaving one man and old
Isidora in charge of the canoe till we returned. In about an
hour we all had to get out of the boat for the men to pull it
up a little rapid over some rocks. The whole river is here full
of small rocky islands and masses of rock above and under
water. In the wet season the water is fifteen to twenty feet
higher than it was now, and this part is then safe for large
canoes. We passed the mouth of an igaripé on the west
bank, and another on the opposite side, in both of which gold is
4.
50 TRA VEZS OW ZEZE AMAZOAV. [September,
said to exist. Large silk-cotton-trees appear at intervals,
raising their semi-globular heads above the rest of the forest,
and the castanha, or Brazil-nut, grows on the river-banks,
where we saw many of the trees covered with fruit.
We passed the Ilha das Pacas, which is completely covered
with wood, and very abrupt and rocky. The rocks in the
river were now thicker than ever, and we frequently scraped
against them; but as the bottoms of the montarins are
hollowed out of the trunks of trees and left very thick, they do
not readily receive any injury. At three P.M. we reached
Aroyas, a mile below the Falls. Here the bank of the river
slopes up to a height of about three hundred feet, and is thickly
wooded. There was a house near the river, with numerous
orange-trees, and on the top of the hill were mandiocca and
coffee plantations. We dined here ; and when we had
finished, the mistress handed round a basin of water and a
clean napkin to wash our hands,--a refinement we had hardly
cxpected in a room without walls, and at such a distance from
civilisation.
After dinner we went on to see the Falls. The river was still
about a mile wide, and more wild and rocky than before.
Near the Falls are vast masses of volcanic rock; one in
particular, which we passed close under in the montaria is
of a cubical form, thirty feet on the side and twenty feet high.
There are also small islands composed entirely of scoria-like
rocks, heaped up and containing caves and hollows of a most
picturesque appearance, affording evident proofs of violent
volcanic action at some former period. On both sides of the
river, and as far as the sight extends, is an undulating country,
from four to five hundred feet high, covered with forest, the
commencement of the elevated plains of central Brazil.
On arriving at the Falls we found the central channel about
a quarter of a mile wide, bounded by rocks, with a deep and
very powerful stream rushing down in an unbroken sweep of
dark green waters, and producing eddies and whirlpools below
more dangerous to canoes than the Fall itself. When the
river is full they are much more perilous, the force of the
current being almost irresistible, and much skill is required to
avoid the eddies and sunken rocks. The great cubical block
I have mentioned is then just under water, and has caused the
loss of many canoes. The strata were much twisted and
1848.] A ROYA.S. 51
confused, dipping in various directions about 12°, with
volcanic masses rising up among them. As nearly as we
could judge by the distances we had come, these rapids must
be in about 4° of south latitude, where a considerable bend in
the river occurs. Above are numerous falls and rapids, and
after a time the forest ceases, and open undulating plains are
found. From the point we reached, the country becomes
very interesting, and we much regretted that we were unable
to explore it further.
On our return to Aroyas, our men, while descending the
various smaller rapids, shouted and sang in the most wild and
excited manner, and appeared to enjoy it amazingly. They
had had a hard day's work, having paddled and poled about
twenty miles against a powerful Current, in some places so
strong as to require all their exertions to keep the boat's head
up the stream. At Aroyas we took some coffee, and then
turned into our rédés in an open shed about twelve feet
square, at the back part of the house, where six or eight
other members of the family also found room for themselves.
We were kept awake some time by our pilot, who had got
drunk on caxaça, and was very violent and abusive, so to quiet
him we administered another glass or two, which soon had the
desired sedative effect. The next morning he looked very dull
and sheepish ; in fact, most of the Tapuyas, or half-civilised
Indians, consider it disgraceful to get drunk, and seem ashamed
afterwards.
After paying our hostess in biscuit, tea, and sugar, which
were great luxuries to her, we started on our return to the
canoe, which we reached about noon, having stayed an hour to
explore the igaripe for gold, but without the smallest success.
At the canoe we found that Isidora had some turtle stew ready,
to which we did ample justice, and, finding the man we had
left with him very ill, went on immediately to Jucahipuah,
where he could have some “remedios” given him by the
women. We found there a canoe going to Baião, and sent
him by it, as he would thus get home sooner than if he
remained with us.
While walking on the beach I saw a tall, narrow-leaved,
white-flowered Polygonum, so like some of our British species
as to call up thoughts of home and of my botanical rambles
there. Many curious land-shells were found, but all dead and
52 TRA VELS OW THE AMAZON. [September,
bleached, and though we searched repeatedly we could find no
living specimens. The feathers of the blue macaw were lying
about the ground where the people had been feasting off their
flesh, but we could not succeed in obtaining any specimens.
Every night, while in the upper part of the river, we had a
concert of frogs, which made most extraordinary noises.
There are three kinds, which can frequently be all heard at
once. One of these makes a noise something like what one
would expect a frog to make, namely a dismal croak, but the
sounds uttered by the others were like no animal noise that
I ever heard before. A distant railway-train approaching, and
a blacksmith hammering on his anvil, are what they exactly
resemble. They are such true imitations, that when lying
half-dozing in the canoe I have often fancied myself at home,
hearing the familiar sounds of the approaching mail-train, and
the hammering of the boiler-makers at the iron-works. Then
we often had the “guarhibas,” or howling monkeys, with their
terrific noises, the shrill grating whistle of the cicadas and
locusts, and the peculiar notes of the suacuiras and other
aquatic birds; add to these the loud unpleasant hum of the
mosquito in your immediate vicinity, and you have a pretty
good idea of our nightly concert on the Tocantíns.
On the morning of the 19th, at Panajá, where we had passed
the night, I took my gun and went into the forest, but found
nothing. I saw, however, an immense silk-cotton-tree, one of
the buttresses of which ran out twenty feet from the trunk.
On the beach was a pretty yellow CEnothera, which is common
all along this part of the river, as well as a small white passion-
flower. Mr. Leavens here bought some rubber, and we then
rowed or sailed on for the rest of the day. In the afternoon I
took the montaria, with Isidora, to try and shoot some of the
pretty yellow orioles. I killed one, but it stuck in a thick
prickly tree, and we were obliged to come away without it.
We passed Patos in the afternoon; near it was a tree covered
with a mass of bright yellow blossoms, more brilliant than
laburnum, and a really gorgeous sight.
The next day we left the land of the blue macaw without a
single specimen. From this place to the Falls we had seen
them every day, morning and evening, flying high over the
river. At almost every house feathers were on the ground,
showing that this splendid bird is often shot for food. Alex-
1848.] BLUE MACA WS. 53
ander once had a chance at them, but his gun missed fire, and
they immediately flew off. Lower down the river they are
scarcely ever seen, and never below Baião, while from this
place up they are very abundant. What can be the causes
which so exactly limit the range of such a strongly-flying bird?
It appears with the rock, and with this there is no doubt a
corresponding change in the fruits on which the birds feed.
Our Indians seeing a likely place on the beach for turtles’
eggs, went on shore in the montaria, and were fortunate
enough to find a hundred and twenty-three buried in the sand.
They are oily and very savoury, and we had an immense
omelet for dinner. The shell is leathery, and the white never
coagulates, but is thrown away, and the yolk only eaten. The
Indians eat them also raw, mixed with farinha. We dined on
the beach, where there was abundance of a plant much resem-
bling chamomile. The sands were very hot, so that it was
almost impossible to walk over them barefooted. The Indians,
in crossing extensive beaches, stop and dig holes in the sand
to cool their feet in. We now got on very slowly, having to
tack across and across the river, the wind blowing up it, as it
always does at this season.
Where we stopped for breakfast on the 21st, I shot a very
prettily-marked small hawk. Insects were also rather abundant,
and we captured some fine Papilios, and two or three new
species of clear-winged Heliconia. Alexander found a bees'-
nest in a hole in a tree, and got about two quarts of honey,
which when strained was very sweet, but with a hot waxy taste.
The comb consists of oval cells of black wax, very irregular in
shape and size, and displaying little of the skill of our bees at
home. The next night, rather late, we arrived at Jambouassu,
the sitio of Senhor Seixus, where we were kindly received, and,
about nine o'clock, turned into our rédés in his verandah.
The next morning I walked out to examine the premises.
The whole of the forest, for some miles round the house, is a
cacao plantation, there being about sixty thousand trees, which
have all been planted ; the small trees and brush having been
cleared from the forest, but all the seringa and other large
forest-trees left for shade, which the cacao requires. The
milk from the seringa-trees is collected every morning in
large univalve shells, which are stuck with clay to the tree, and
a small incision made in the bark above. It is formed into
ſ
54 7TRA PAEZS OW 7A/E AMAZON. [September,
shoes or bottles; on moulds of clay, or into flat cakes. It
hardens in a few hours, and is blackened with a smoke pro-
duced by burning the nuts of the Urucurſ palm, and is then
india-rudder. Just before leaving this place I met with an
accident, which might have been very serious. My gun was
lying loaded on the top of the canoe, and wishing to shoot
some small birds near the house, I drew it towards me by the
muzzle, which, standing on the steps of the landing-place, was
the only part I could reach. The hammer, however, lay in a
joint of the boards, and as I drew the gun towards me it was
raised up, and let fall on the cap, firing off the gun, the charge
carrying off a small piece of the under-side of my hand near
the wrist, and, passing under my arm within a few inches of
my body luckily missed a number of people who were behind
me. I felt my hand violently blown away, and looking at it,
saw a stream of blood, but felt no pain for some minutes. As
we had nothing to put to it, I tied it up with a quantity of
cotton ; and about twelve o'clock, the tide serving, we bade
adieu to Senhor Seixus, who had treated us very kindly both
here and at Baião. -
On the 24th we stayed for the tide, at a house on an island
abounding in cacao and seringa. The water of the river had
become muddy, but not ill-tasted. On the 25th we stayed at a
sugar estate, where there was a tree full of the hanging nests
of the japims, or yellow troupials. Seeing a number of the
large frigate-bird pelican over the river, I went out with
Alexander in the montaria to try and shoot one, and, after a
few ineffectual shots, Alexander succeeded in doing so. It
measured seven feet from wing to wing; the feet were very
small and webbed, and the bill long and hooked at the end.
They appear almost to live upon the wing, going in small
flocks over the river, and darting down to seize any fish which
may appear near the surface. The neck is partly bare, and
very extensible, like that of the true pelicans. There are two
kinds, which fly together, one with the body entirely black,
the other with the head and neck white, which are said to be
the male and female of the same species. t
On the 26th we stayed for the tide at a low island covered
with palms and underwood. Just as we were going to step on
shore we saw a large snake twisted on a branch overhead, so
we hung back a little till Mr. Leavens, shot it. It was about
1848.] AºA'UZZ OF THE ASSA/ PAZM. 55
ten feet long, and very handsomely marked with yellow and
Black slanting lines. In the wood we got some assai, and
made a quantity of the drink so much liked by the people
here, and which is very good when you are used to it. The
fruit grows in large bunches on the summit of a graceful palm,
and is about the size and colour of a sloe. On examining it,
a person would think that it contained nothing eatable, as
immediately under the skin is a hard stone. The very thin,
hardly perceptible pulp, between the skin and the stone, is
what is used. To prepare it, the fruit is soaked half an hour
in water, just warm enough to bear the hand in. It is next
rubbed and kneaded with the hands, till all the skin and pulp
is worn off the stones. The liquid is then poured off, and
strained, and is of the consistence of cream, and of a fine
purple colour. It is eaten with sugar and farinha; with use
it becomes very agreeable to the taste, something resembling
nuts and cream, and is no doubt very nourishing; it is much
used in Pará, where it is constantly sold in the streets, and,
owing to the fruit ripening at different seasons, according to
the locality, is to be had there all the year round.
On the east side of the river, along which we had kept in
our descent, there was more cultivation than on the side we
went up. A short distance from the shore the land rises, and
most of the houses are situated on the slope, with the ground
cleared down to the river. Some of the places are kept in
tolerable order, but there are numbers of houses and cottages
unoccupied and in ruins, with land once cultivated, overgrown
with weeds and brushwood. Rubber-making and gathering
cacao and Brazil-nuts are better liked than the regular cultiva-
tion of the soil.
In the districts we passed through, sugar, cotton, coffee,
and rice might be grown in any quantity and of the finest
quality. The navigation is always safe and uninterrupted, and
the whole country is so intersected by igaripés and rivers that
every estate has water-carriage for its productions. But the
indolent disposition of the people, and the scarcity of labour,
will prevent the capabilities of this fine country from being
developed till European or North American colonies are
ſormed. There is no country in the world where people can
produce for themselves so many of the necessaries and luxuries
of life. Indian corn, rice, mandiocca, sugar, coffee, and cotton,
56 TRAVELS OW THE AMAZON. [September, 1848.
beef, poultry, and pork, with oranges, bananas, and abundance
of other fruits and vegetables, thrive with little care. With
these articles in abundance, a house of wood, calabashes, cups
and pottery of the country, they may live in plenty without
a single exotic production. And then what advantages there
are in a country where there is no stoppage of agricultural
operations during winter, but where crops may be had, and
poultry be reared, all the year round ; where the least possible
amount of clothing is the most comfortable, and where a
hundred little necessaries of a cold region are altogether
superfluous. With regard to the climate I have said enough
already; and I repeat, that a man can work as well here as
in the hot summer months in England, and that if he will only
work three hours in the morning and three in the evening, he
will produce more of the necessaries and comforts of life than
by twelve hours’ daily labour at home.
ſ Nothing more of importance occurred, and we arrived safely
at Pará on the 3oth of September, just five weeks from the
day we left. We had not had a wet day the whole voyage,
yet found to our surprise that it had been there the same as
usual—a shower and a thunderstorm every second or third
day.
CHAPTER IV.
MEXIANA AND MARAJO'.
Visit to Oleria—Habits of Birds—Voyage to Mexiana—Arrival—Birds—
Description of the Island–Population—Slaves, their Treatment and
Habits—Journey to the Lake—Beautiful Stream—Fish and Birds at
the Lake—Catching Alligators—Strange Sounds, and Abundance of
Animal Life—Walk back—Jaguar Meat—Visit to Jungcal in Marajó
—Embarking Cattle—Ilha das Frechas.
Soon after our return to Pará, my hand became so much
inflamed, that I was obliged to put my arm in a sling, and
go to a doctor, under whose treatment I remained a fortnight,
unable to do anything, not even pin an insect, and conse-
quently rather miserable. As I intended, as soon as possible,
going to the great island of Marajó, in search of some of the
curious and rare water-birds which abound there, I obtained
permission from Mr. C., an English gentleman, to visit his
cattle estates; but as there was no canoe going there for some
weeks, I spent the interim at Olería, where M. Borlaz kindly
offered me a room and a place at his table.
I found plenty of occupation in procuring specimens of the
various small birds, and making myself acquainted with their
habits. None were more abundant, both in species and
individuals, than the bush-shrikes, which are all remarkable
for the same kind of falling note I have already alluded to,
though each one has some slight peculiarity by which it may
be distinguished. They generally hide themselves in the very
thickest and most impenetrable bushes, where it is impossible
to see them except by creeping up within a distance of two
yards, when it is difficult to shoot without blowing them to
pieces. They are small birds with very loose, long, silky
feathers, prettily banded or spotted with black and white, and
ài
*
58 TRA VZZS OAV ZAZ AMAZOAV. [October,
are constantly hopping about the bushes and twigs, picking off
whatever small insects they fall in with.
The ant-thrushes are another closely allied group, which are
equally abundant. They have stronger legs and very short
tails, and walk more on the ground, picking up insects, espe-
cially ants, very much after the manner of poultry. When one
is shot, it is often a dangerous matter to go and fetch it, for
the ground generally swarms with ants, which attack an
intruder most unmercifully both with stings and jaws. Many
times, after a fruitless attempt, have I been obliged to leave
the dead body on the field, and beat an inglorious retreat.
In all works on Natural History, we constantly find details
of the marvellous adaptation of animals to their food, their
habits, and the localities in which they are found. But
naturalists are now beginning to look beyond this, and to see
that there must be some other principle regulating the infinitely
varied forms of animal life. It must strike every one, that
the numbers of birds and insects of different groups, having
scarcely any resemblance to each other, which yet feed on the
same food and inhabit the same localities, cannot have been
so differently constructed and adorned for that purpose alone.
Thus the goat-suckers, the swallows, the tyrant fly-catchers, and
the jacamars, all use the same kind of food, and procure it
in the same manner: they all capture insects on the wing, yet
how entirely different is the structure and the whole appearance
of these birds ! The swallows, with their powerful wings, are
almost entirely inhabitants of the air; the goat-suckers, nearly
allied to them, but of a much weaker structure, and with
largely developed eyes, are semi-nocturnal birds, sometimes
flying in the evening in company with the swallows, but most
frequently settling on the ground, seizing their prey by short
flights from it, and then returning to the same spot. The
fly-catchers are strong-legged, but short-winged birds, which
can perch, but cannot fly with the ease of the swallows: they
generally seat themselves on a bare tree, and from it watch
for any insects which may come within reach of a short swoop,
and which their broad bills and wide gape enable them to
seize. But with the jacamars this is not the case: their bills
are long and pointed—in fact, a weak kingfisher's bill—yet
they have similar habits to the preceding: they sit on branches
in open parts of the forest, from thence flying after insects,
1848.] AABA 7'S OF BIRDS, 59
which they catch on the wing, and then return to their former
station to devour them. Then there are the trogons, with a
strong serrated bill, which have similar habits; and the little
humming-birds, though they generally procure insects from
the flowers, often take them on the wing, like any other fissi-
rostral bird.
What birds can have their bills more peculiarly formed than
the ibis, the spoonbill, and the heron P. Yet they may be seen
side by side, picking up the same food from the shallow
water on the beach ; and on opening their stomachs, we find
the same little crustacea and shell-fish in them all. Then
among the fruit-eating birds, there are pigeons, parrots, toucans,
and chatterers, families as distinct and widely separated as
possible, which yet may be often seen feeding all together on
the same tree; for in the forests of South America, certain
fruits are favourites with almost every kind of fruit-eating bird.
It has been assumed by some writers on Natural History, that
every wild fruit is the food of some bird or animal, and that
the varied forms and structure of their mouths may be neces-
sitated by the peculiar character of the fruits they are to feed
on ; but there is more of imagination than fact in this
statement: the number of wild fruits furnishing food for birds
is very limited, and birds of the most varied structure and of
every size will be found visiting the same tree.
Insects were now more abundant than ever, and new kinds
were met with almost every day. Lovely little butterflies,
spangled with gold, or glittering with the most splendid
metallic tints, hid themselves under leaves or expanded their
wings in the morning sun; while the larger and more majestic
kinds flew lazily along the shaded forest paths. The more
sombre Hesperidae were the most abundant, and it would often
happen that, of a dozen specimens taken in a day's excursion,
no two were alike.
At length the canoe, for which I had been waiting, was
ready to sail; and on the 3rd of November we left Pará for
the island of Mexiana, situated in the main stream of the
Amazon, between the great island of Marajó and the northern
shore. We had to go down the Pará river, and round the
eastern point of Marajó, where we were quite exposed to the
Ocean; and, though most of the time in fresh water, I was very
sea-sick all the voyage, which lasted four days. The canoe was
60 TRAVEZS OW ZEZE AMAZOAV. [November,
*
intended for the conveyance of cattle, and therefore had no
particular accommodation for human passengers. There was
certainly a little cabin, with two berths just five feet long, but
not at all suitable for me (I am six feet two inches high),
so I preferred the hold. Our crew consisted of eight young
Tapuyas, fine active fellows, from fifteen to twenty years of age.
Each wore a tight-fitting pair of trousers and a very short shirt, so
that six inches of red skin appeared between the two garments.
The shrouds of the canoe consisted of the stay-ropes only,
without any rattlins or cross-steps, yet up these they would run
like monkeys, holding on with their toes. -
The island of Mexiana is about twenty-five miles long by
twelve broad, of a regular Oval shape, and is situated exactly
on the equator. It is quite flat, and is all campo, or open
ground, but dotted with scattered trees and bushes, and with
a little forest at the water's edge. It is celebrated for its birds,
alligators, and ongas, and is used as a cattle estate by the pro-
prietor. The alligators abound in a lake in the centre of the
island, where they are killed in great numbers for their fat,
which is made into oil.
I was accompanied by Mr. Yates, a collector of Orchids,
who, after a few weeks' stay, not finding much variety of those
plants, returned to Pará. On our arrival we were received by
Senhor Leonardo, a German, who is the overseer, to whom we
presented our letter from Mr. C. We were then shown the
rooms we were to occupy in the house, which is spacious and
has an upper story; and having got our luggage on shore, we
soon made ourselves at home. Round the house are a good
many orange and mango trees, behind which is a row of
cottages, where reside the vaqueiros or herdsmen, who are
mostly Negroes and slaves; and beyond, as far as the eye can
reach, is the flat campo, dotted over with cattle and horses.
On inquiring about the best localities for insects, birds, and
plants, we were rather alarmed by being told that ongas were
very numerous, even near the house; and that it was dangerous
to walk out alone or unarmed. We Soon found, however, that
no one had been actually attacked by them ; though they,
poor animals, are by no means unmolested, as numerous
handsome skins drying in the Sun, and teeth and skulls lying
about, sufficiently proved. There is no doubt but they are
unpleasant animals to encounter, and their teeth and claws are
1848.] MEX/AAWA, 61
so fearfully adapted to destroy whatever may come within their
reach, that it is much better to be a little cautious, than to run
any risk: I therefore put half-a-dozen bullets in my game-bag,
in case of an encounter.
Some of the horses and cattle were miserable-looking objects,
from wounds inflicted by the bats, which cause them to lose
much blood, and sometimes, by successive attacks, kill them.
Senhor Leonardo informed us that they particularly abounded
in some parts of the island, and that he often has bat-hunts,
when several thousands are killed. It is a large species, of
coffee-brown colour, probably the AEhyllostoma hastatum.
The morning after my arrival I took my gun, and walked
out to see what sport the island afforded. First going to a
tree near the house, which Senhor Leonardo pointed out to
me, I found numerous humming-birds fluttering about the
leaves (which were still wet with dew), and seeming to wash
and cool themselves with the moisture: they were of a blue
and green colour, with a long forked tail (Campylopterus hirun-
dimaceus). Walking on in the campo, I found abundance of
Bemteví fly-catchers, cuckoos, and tanagers, and also shot a
buzzard and a black eagle different from any I had seen
at Pará. Insects were very scarce, owing to the dryness of
the season and the absence of forest; so I soon gave up
collecting them, and attended entirely to birds, which were
rather plentiful, though not very rare or handsome. In ten
days I obtained seventy specimens, among which were fourteen
hawks and eaglés, Severaſ.Therons, egrets, paroquets, wood-
peckers, and one of the large yellow-billed toucans (Rham-
Ż%astos Zoco), which are not found at Pará.
Having made several excursions for some miles into the
interior of the island and along the coast, I obtained a
tolerable idea of its geography. It is everywhere a perfect flat,
the greatest elevations being a very few feet. Along the shore
in most places, and extending along the banks of the creeks
inland, is a belt of forest, varying in width from a hundred
yards to half a mile, containing a few palms and lofty trees,
and abundance of bamboos and climbers, rendering it almost
impassable. The whole of the interior is campo, or open
plain, covered with a coarse herbage, and in places sprinkled
with round-headed palms, and with low branching trees bearing
a profusion of yellow flowers. Scattered about, at intervals of
62 7 RA VELS OW ZEA, AMAZON. [November,
a few miles, are clumps of trees and bushes, some very small,
but others sufficiently extensive to form little forests. These
are generally known as “ilhas,” or islands, and many of them
have separate names, as, “Ilha do São Pedro,” “Ilha dos
Urubus.” In the wet season a great part of the island appears
to be flooded, and dead crabs and fresh-water shells are found
a long way inland: these groves are then probably real islands,
though not perceptibly above the general level.
A phenomenon, which is seen on the banks of the Mississippi
and most other rivers which overflow their banks, also occurs
here. The land is highest near the water's edge, and gradually
falls inland, caused by the heavier sediment being deposited
during floods at the shortest distance, while the lighter matter
only is carried inland, and spread over a larger area. The
surface of the campos is very uneven for walking, being in
little clumps or hillocks, so that it is equally tiresome and
fatiguing to walk on their summits or between them. The
stems of the palms were all covered with orchideous plants,
but they had now generally neither leaves nor flowers, and
seemed to be of very little variety of species. In the marshy
places shrubby convolvuli are abundant, and in others are large
beds of cassias and mimosas, while scattered among them are
many delicate little flowers.
Long-tailed, light-coloured cuckoos were continually flying
about from tree to tree, uttering their peculiar note, not at all
like that of our cuckoo, but more like the creaking of a rusty
hinge, which the name given to them, Carerić, is intended to
resemble. Equally abundant are the black hornbill cuckoos,
called Anús; and on almost every tree may be seen sitting a
hawk or buzzard, the variety of which is very great, as in a few
weeks I obtained eight different kinds. Pretty paroquets, with
white and orange bands on their wings, and others with an
orange-coloured crown, were very plentiful, and it was amusing
to watch the activity with which they climbed about over the
trees, and how suddenly and simultaneously they flew away
when alarmed. Their plumage is so near the colour of the
foliage, that it is sometimes impossible to see them, though
you may have watched a whole flock enter a tree, and can hear
them twittering overhead, when, after gazing until your patience
is exhausted, they will suddenly fly off with a scream of
triumph.
1848.] MAEX/AAWA. se 63
Then among the bushes there were flocks of the beautiful
red-breasted oriole, Icterus militaris ; but they were unfortu-
nately not in good plumage at the time of my visit. The
common black vulture is generally to be seen sailing over-
head, or seated on some dead tree; and great Muscovy ducks
fly past with a rushing sound, like some great aerial machine
beating the air violently to support its ponderous body, and
offering a striking contrast to the great wood-ibis, which sails
along with noiseless wings in flocks of ten or a dozen. In the
skirts of forest and in the larger “ilhas,” black and spotted
jaguars are often found, while pacas, cotias, tatus or armadillos,
deer, and other small game are plentiful.
The whole population of the island consists of about forty
persons, of whom twenty are slaves, and the remainder free
Indians and Negroes in the employ of the proprietors. These
are all engaged in attending to the cattle and horses on the
island, which vary in number, and were much more numerous
three or four years ago; the horses in particular having been
almost exterminated by a disease which suddenly appeared
among them. There were now about fifteen hundred head of
cattle, besides a great number of wild ones, which keep in the
remote parts of the island, and four hundred horses. The
slaves and labourers are allowed farinha only; but they can
cultivate Indian corn and vegetables for themselves, and have
powder and shot given them for hunting, so that they do not
fare so badly. They also have tobacco allowed them, and
most of them earn money by making baskets or other trifles,
or by killing oncas, the skin being worth from five to ten
shillings. Besides attending to the cattle and horses, they
have to build houses and corrals, to hunt alligators for oil, and
kill bats, which do great injury to the cattle by sucking their
blood night after night. The bats live in holes in trees, where
they are killed in considerable numbers, Senhor Leonardo
informing me that they had destroyed about seven thousand
during the last six months. Many hundreds of cattle are said
to have been killed by them in a few years.
The slaves appeared contented and happy, as slaves generally
do. Every evening at sunset they came to bid good-night to
Senhor Leonardo and myself, a similar salutation taking place
when they first met us in the morning. If a negro goes out for
the day to any distance, he bids adieu to all he may meet, as
64 * TRA VEZS OW 7'HE AMAZOM. [November,
if he were parting from his dearest friends on the eve of a long
journey; contrasting strongly with the apathy of the Indian,
who scarcely ever exhibits any feelings of regret on parting, or
of pleasure on his return. In the evening they play and sing
in their own houses: their instrument is a home-made guitar,
from which they obtain three or four notes, which are repeated
for hours with the most wearisome monotony. To this music
they join an extempore song, generally relating to some events
of the day; and the doings of the “brancos,” or white people,
have often a considerable share in it. Many of them keep
fowls and ducks, which they sell, to buy any little luxuries they
may require, and they often go fishing to supply the house,
when they have a share for themselves.
Every Saturday evening they meet for Divine service, which
is performed in a room fitted up as a chapel, with an altar
gaily decorated with figures of the Virgin and Child, and
several Saints painted and gilt in a most brilliant manner.
Some of these figures are the work of Senhor Leonardo, who
is an excellent self-taught carver; and when the candles are
lit, and all is in order, the effect is equal to that of many village
churches. Two of the oldest Negroes conduct the service,
kneeling at the altar ; the rest kneel or stand about the room.
What they chant is, I believe, part of the vesper service of the
Roman Catholic Church, and all join in the responses with
much fervour, though without understanding a word. Sunday
is their own day, for working in their gardens, hunting, or
idleness, as they choose ; and in the evening they often
assemble in the verandah to dance, and sometimes keep it
up all night.
While I was on the island a child of a few weeks old was to
be baptized. This they consider a most important ceremony;
so the father and mother, with godfathers and godmothers, set
out in a canoe for Chaves, on the island of Marajó, the nearest
place where there is a priest. They were absent three days,
and then returned with the news that the Padre was ill, and
could not perform the ceremony; so they were obliged to bring
back the poor little unsanctified creature, liable, according to
their ideas, should it die, to eternal perdition. The same
evening they sang for three hours to their usual music the
whole history of their journey, judging from the portions which
were here and there intelligible. -
1848.] voyage to THE ZAKE. 65
They made every fact into a verse, which was several times
repeated. Thus one would suddenly burst out, -
“The Padre was ill, and could not come,
The Padre was ill, and could not come.”
CHORUS,
“The Padre was ill, and could not come.”
Then for a time the music continued without the voices, while
they were trying to find another fact to found a verse upon.
At length some one continued the subject:-
“He told us to come the next day,
To see if he was better.”
CHORUS,
“He told us to come the next day,
To see if he was better.”
And so on to the end of the history, which struck me as being
probably very similar to the unwritten lays of the ancient bards,
who could thus make well-known facts interesting by being
sung to music in an appropriate and enthusiastic manner. In
a warlike nation, what more would at first be necessary than to
relate the bold deeds of the warriors, the discomfiture of the
enemy, and the trophies of victory, in order to raise the enthu-
siasm of the audience to the highest pitch P Some of these
would be handed down from generation to generation, the
language improved, and when they came to be reduced to
writing, rhyme would be added, and a regular poem constructed.
Having now arrived at the height of the dry season, and the
waters of the lake before mentioned being sufficiently low, the
German steward informed me that he should make an excursion
there to kill alligators, and I determined to accompany him.
There are two ways to reach the place—overland in nearly a
direct line, or round to the other side of the island in a boat
and up a stream, which can be ascended to within a few miles
of the lake, with which indeed in the wet season it commu-
nicates. The tide served for the boat to start about midnight,
and I decided on going in it, as I thought I should thus see
more of the island. The overseer was to go by land in the
morning. Being roused up at midnight, I got into the canoe
with three Negroes, and tried to compose myself for a nap as
well as I could upon the baskets of farinha and salt with which
5
66 TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. [November,
it was loaded. It was a large clumsy canoe, and with a sail
and the tide we went on pretty well; but as morning dawned
we got out rather far from land into the ocean-like river, and
the swell beginning to be disagreeable, I arose from my uneven
Couch very qualmish and uncomfortable. .#
However, about ten o’clock we reached the mouth of the
igaripé, or small stream we were to ascend, and I was very glad
to get into still water. We stayed for breakfast in a little clear
space under a fine tree, and I enjoyed a cup of coffee and a
little biscuit, while the men luxuriated on fish and farinha.
We then proceeded up the stream, which was at its commence-
ment about two hundred yards wide, but soon narrowed to fifty
or eighty. I was much delighted with the beauty of the vege-
tation, which surpassed anything I had seen before : at every
bend of the stream some new object presented itself-now a
huge cedar hanging over the water, or a great silk-Cotton-tree
standing like a giant above the rest of the forest. The graceful
assaſ palms occurred continually, in clumps of various sizes,
Sometimes raising their stems a hundred feet into the air, or
bending in graceful curves till they almost met from the opposite
banks. The majestic murutſ palm was also abundant, its
straight and cylindrical stems like Grecian columns, and with
its immense fan-shaped leaves and gigantic bunches of fruit,
produced an imposing spectacle. Some of these bunches were
larger than any I had before seen, being eight or ten feet in
length, weighing probably two or three hundredweight: each
consisted of several bushels of a large reticulated fruit. These
palms were often clothed with creepers, which ran up to the
Summits, and there put forth their blossoms. Lower down, on
the water's edge, were numerous flowering shrubs, often com-
pletely covered with convolvuluses, passion-flowers, or bignonias.
Every dead or half-rotten tree was clothed with parasites of
singular forms or bearing beautiful flowers, while Smaller palms,
Curiously-shaped stems, and twisting climbers, formed a back-
ground in the interior of the forest.
Nor were there wanting animated figures to complete the
picture. Brilliant scarlet and yellow macaws flew continually
overhead, while screaming parrots and paroquets were passing
from tree to tree in search of food. Sometimes from a branch
over the water were suspended the hanging nests of the black
and yellow troupial (Cassicus icteronotus), into which those
1848.] VOYAGE 7"O ZłżE Z.A.A.A. 67
handsome birds were continually entering. The effect of the
scene was much heightened by the river often curving to one
side or the other, so as to bring to view a constant variety of
objects. At every bend we would see before us a flock of the
elegant white heron, seated on some dead tree overhanging the
water; but as soon as we came in sight of them, they would
take flight, and on passing another bend we would find them
again perched in front of us, and so on for a considerable dis-
tance. On many of the flowering shrubs gay butterflies were
Settled, and sometimes on a muddy bank a young alligator
would be seen comfortably reposing in the sun.
We continued our journey thus for several hours, the men
rowing vigoro'..sly for fear of the tide turning against us before
we reached our destination : this, however, happened just as
we entered a narrower part of the stream. The scenery was
now much more gloomy; the tall trees closed overhead so as
to keep out every Sunbeam. The palms twisted and bent in
various contortions, so that we sometimes could hardly pass
beneath, and sunken logs often lay across from bank to bank,
Compelling us to get out of the canoe, and use all our exertions
to force it over. Our progress was therefore very slow, and
the stream was every minute running stronger against us.
Here was a building-place for various aquatic birds: the wood-
ibis and numerous cranes and herons had their nests on the
summits of the lofty trees over the water, while lower down
was the station chosen by the boat-bill. There was a continual
rustle and flapping of wings as these long-legged, clumsy birds
flew about, startled at our approach ; and when I shot one
of the large wood-ibises, the confusion was at its height.
Numerous kingfishers were continually passing up and down, or
darting from some dead stick into the water to seize their prey.
After about two hours of very hard and disagreeable work,
we reached the landing-place, where there was an old deserted
cottage, and the overseer and several Negroes with horses were
waiting to convey the provisions we had brought to the Lake.
We immediately set off on foot over an extensive plain, which
was in places completely bare, and in others thinly clothed
with low trees. There could not be a greater contrast than
between the scene we had just left, and that which we now
entered upon. The one was all luxuriance and verdure, the
other as brown and barren as could be, a dreary waste of
68 TRA VAZZS OAV ZAZ AMAZOAV. [November,
marsh, now parched up by the burning sun, and covered with
tufts of a wiry grass, with here and there rushes and prickly
sensitive plants, and a few pretty little flowers occasionally
growing up among them. The trees, which in some places
were abundant, did not much diminish the general dreariness
of the prospect, for many of the leaves had fallen off owing
to the continued drought, and those that were left were brown
and half-shrivelled. The ground was very disagreeable for
walking, being composed of numerous little clumps and ridges,
placed so closely together that you could neither step securely
upon nor between them : they appeared to be caused by the
rains and floods in the wet season washing away the earth
from between the roots of the grass-tufts, the whole being
afterwards hardened by the excessive heat of the sun, and the
grass almost entirely burnt away.
After walking over four or five miles of such ground, we
arrived at the Lake just as it was getting dark. The only
building there was a small shed without any walls, under
which we hung our hammocks, while the Negroes used the
neighbouring trees and bushes for the same purpose. A
large fire was blazing, and round it were numerous wooden
Spits, containing pieces of fresh fish and alligator's tail for our
Supper. While it was getting ready, we went to look at some
fish which had just been caught, and lay ready for salting and
drying the next day: they were the piraructi (Sudis gigas), a
splendid species, five or six feet long, with large scales of more
than an inch in diameter, and beautifully marked and spotted
with red. The Lake contains great quantities of them, and
they are salted and dried for the Pará market. It is a very
fine-flavoured fish, the belly in particular being so fat and rich
that it cannot be cured, and is therefore generally eaten fresh.
This, with farinha and some coffee, made us an excellent
Supper, and the alligator's tail, which I now tasted for the first
time, was by no means to be despised. We soon turned into
our hammocks, and slept soundly after the fatigue of the day.
Jaguars were abundant, and had carried off some fish a night
or two before ; the alligators too were plunging and snorting
within twenty yards of us: but we did not suffer such trifles
to disturb our slumbers.
Before daybreak I had my gun upon my shoulder, eager
to make an attack upon the ducks and other aquatic birds
1848.] A ZZ/GATORS. 69
which swarmed about the lake. I soon found plenty of them,
and, my gun being loaded with small shot, I killed seven or
eight at the first fire. They were very pretty little birds, with
metallic-green and white wings, and besides forming good
specimens, provided us with an excellent breakfast. After the
first discharge, however, they became remarkably shy, so I went
after the roseate spoonbills, white herons, and long-legged
plovers, which I saw on the other side : they also seemed to
have taken warning by the fate of their Companions, for I
could not get near enough for a shot, as there was no means
of concealing my approach.
What is called the Lake is a long, winding piece of water,
from thirty to fifty yards wide and of little depth. It is
bordered with aquatic plants and shrubs, and in some parts
is thickly covered with floating grass and duckweed. It is
inhabited by immense numbers of the fish already mentioned,
and alligators, which are so thick that there is scarcely any
place where you may not stir one up. There are also great
quantities of very small fish about two inches long, which I
suppose serve as food for the larger ones, which in their turn
are probably sometimes devoured by the alligators; though
it appears almost a mystery how so many large animals can
find a subsistence, crowded together in such a small space.
After breakfast the overseer commenced the alligator-hunt.
A number of Negroes went into the water with long poles,
driving the animals to the side, where others awaited them
with harpoons and lassos.
Sometimes the lasso was at once thrown over their heads,
or, if first harpooned, a lasso was then secured to them, either
over the head or the tail; and they were easily dragged to the
shore by the united force of ten or twelve men. Anothes
lasso was fixed, if necessary, so as to fasten them at both ends,
and on being pulled out of the water a Negro cautiously
approached with an axe, and cut a deep gash across the root
of the tail, rendering that formidable weapon useless ; another
blow across the neck disabled the head, and the animal was
then left, and pursuit of another commenced, which was speedily
reduced to the same condition. Sometimes the cord would
break, or the harpoon get loose, and the Negroes had often
to wade into the water among the ferocious animals in a very
hazardous manner. They were from ten to eighteen feet long,
7o 7 RA VEZS OAV 7"HA: AMAZOM. [November,
sometimes even twenty, with enormous mis-shapen heads, and
fearful rows of long sharp teeth. When a number were out
on the land, dead or dying, they were cut open, and the fat
which accumulates in considerable quantities about the intes-
tines was taken out, and made up into packets in the skins
of the smaller ones, taken off for the purpose. There is
another smaller kind, here called Jacaré-tinga, which is the
one eaten, the flesh being more delicate than in the larger
species. After killing twelve or fifteen, the overseer and his
party went off to another lake at a short distance, where the
alligators were more plentiful, and by night had killed near
fifty. The next day they killed twenty or thirty more, and got
out the fat from the others.
I amused myself very well with my gun, creeping among the
long grass, to get a shot at the shy aquatic birds, and some-
times wandering about the campo, where a woodpecker or a
macaw rewarded my perseverance. I was much pleased when
I first brought down a splendid blue and yellow macaw, but
it gave me some hours of hard work to skin and prepare it, for
the head is so fleshy and muscular, that it is no trifling matter
to clean it thoroughly. The great tuyuyū (Mycteria Americana)
was often seen stalking about ; but, with every precaution, I
could not get within gunshot of it. The large and small white.
herons were abundant, as well as black and grey ibises, boat-
bills, blue storks, and ducks of several species; there were also
many black and yellow orioles, and a glossy starling, of all of
which I procured specimens. -
I had an opportunity of seeing the manner of curing fish
practised here. They are partially skinned, and a large piece
of meat cut out from each side, leaving the backbone with the
head and skin attached. Each piece of meat is then cut
lengthways, so as to unfold into a large flat slab, which is then
slightly sprinkled with salt and laid upon a board. Other
slices are laid on this, and, when the salt has penetrated
sufficiently, they are hung upon poles or laid upon the ground
in the sun to dry, which does not occupy more than two or
three days. They are then packed up in bundles of about a
hundred pounds each, and are ready for market. The bones
and heads furnish a fine feast for the vultures, and sometimes
a jaguar will carry them away in the night, but he prefers an
entire fish if one is left in his way.
1848.] AAVIMAL LAFAE. 71
Immediately on the fish being cut up, every part of it is
blackened by thousand of flies, which keep up a continual hum
the whole day. In fact, the sound of animal life never ceases.
Directly after sunset, the herons, bitterns, and cranes begin
their discordant cries, and the boat-bills and frogs set up a
dismal croaking. The note of one frog deserves a better
name: it is an agreeable whistle, and, could it be brought into
civilised society, would doubtless have as many admirers as
the singing mouse, or the still more marvellous whistling oyster
described by Punch. All night long, the alligators and fish
keep up a continual plunging; but, with the grey of morning,
commence the most extraordinary noises. All of a sudden ten
thousand, white-winged paroquets begin their morning song
with such a confusion of piercing shrieks as it is quite im-
possible to describe: a hundred knife-grinders at full work
would give but a faint idea of it. A little later, and another
noise is heard : the flies, which had weighed down every blade
of grass, now wake up, and, with a sounding hum, Commence
their attack upon the fish: every piece that has lain a few
hours upon the ground has deposited around it masses of their
eggs as large as walnuts. In fact, the abundance of every kind
of animal life crowded into a small space was here very striking,
compared with the sparing manner in which it is scattered in
the virgin forests. It seems to force us to the conclusion, that
the luxuriance of tropical vegetation is not favourable to the
production and support of animal life. The plains are always
more thickly peopled than the forest; and a temperate zone,
as has been pointed out by Mr. Darwin, seems better adapted
to the support of large land-animals than the tropics. &
In this lake the overseer informed me he had killed as many
as a hundred alligators in a few days, whereas in the Amazon
or Pará rivers it would be difficult to procure as many in a
year. Geologists, judging from the number of large reptiles,
the remains of which are found in considerable quantities in
certain strata, tell us of a time when the whole world was
peopled by such animals, before a sufficient quantity of dry
land had been formed to support land quadrupeds. But, as it
is evident that the remains of these alligators would be found
accumulated together should any revolution of the earth cause
their death, it would appear that such descriptions are founded
upon insufficient data, and that considerable portions of the
72 7 RA VELS ON THE AMAZOAV. [December.
earth might have been as much elevated as they are at present,
notwithstanding the numerous remains of aquatic reptiles,
which would seem to indicate a great extent of shallow water
for their abode.
The alligator fat and a quantity of fish were now ready, so
we prepared to return home. I determined this time to walk
overland, so as to see the character of the interior of the
island. I returned with the two Negroes to the ruined cottage
before mentioned, so as to be ready to start the next morning
for a walk of some ten or twelve miles across the campo. On
our way to the hut we passed over a part which was burning,
and saw the curious phenomenon of the fire proceeding in
two opposite directions at once. The wind carried the fire
rapidly in a westerly direction, while, at the same time,
by causing the tall grass to bend over into the flames, they
progressed, though at a slower rate, towards the east. The
Campos are set on fire purposely every summer, as the coarse
grass being burnt down, leaves room for a fine crop to spring
up afresh with the first rains. Near the hut I shot a large
grey heron, which made us a very good supper; and we then
hung up our hammocks for the night in the little dirty ruined
hut, from which a short time before a jaguar had carried away
a large bundle of fish.
In the morning the canoe was loaded to return, and I
proceeded along a faint track homewards. The scene was
generally very desolate and barren. Sometimes there was
not a blade of grass for miles. Then would come a wide bed
of gigantic rushes, which extends across the island nearly from
One side to the other. In other places were large beds of
prickly mimosas, and, at intervals, considerable tracts covered
with leafless trees about which numbers of woodpeckers were
busily at work. Hawks and vultures were also seen, and the
great red-billed toucan (Rhamphastos Toco) flew by in an undu-
lating course in parties of three or four. It was cloudy, and
there was a good deal of wind; but at this time of the year no
rain ever falls here, so I did not hurry myself on that account,
and, early in the afternoon, reached the house, rather tired,
but much interested with my walk. I forgot to mention that
in the evening, after the alligator-hunt, the Negroes sang
Several hymns, as a thanksgiving for having escaped their jaws.
The next day all were busily employed boiling the fat into oil,
1848.1 AºA 7'0 RAW FÅ'OM / THE ZAKE. 73
which supplies the lamps on all Mr. C.’s estates. It has rather
a disagreeable smell, but not worse than train-oil. I now went
out every day with my gun about the campo, or to the clumps
of wood called islands, on the banks of the small streams.
The principal birds I procured were toucans, parrots, hawks,
and buzzards, the red-headed manakin, and numerous small
finches and fly-catchers. The mango-trees were loaded with
ripe fruit, and attracted many small tanagers and paroquets.
I now ate the mango for the first time, and soon got to like it
very much. It is not generally eaten in Pará except by the
Negroes, who seem very fond of it, to judge by the certainty
with which every fruit disappeared the moment it became
ripe. There seems to be scarcely an animal that is not fond
of it, cattle, sheep, pigs, ducks, and fowls, all rush to secure
every fruit that falls.
Soon after Christmas we had a few showers at intervals, and
the grass began to grow more greenly—a sign that the summer
was nearly at an end. Some butterflies and moths now made
their appearance, and the skirts of the forest were covered
with passion-flowers, convolvuluses, and many other flowers.
Bees and wasps also began to abound, and several aquatic birds
I had not before seen made their appearance. In January,
Mr. C. and his family and some visitors arrived to spend a few
weeks on the island, and the time passed more pleasantly.
Several of the Negroes were sent hunting, and wild ducks of
various species, deer, armadillos, and fish, with beef and
mutton, gave us plenty for our table. Several jaguars were
killed, as Mr. C. pays about eight shillings each for their skins:
one day we had some steaks at the table, and found the meat
very white, and without any bad taste.
It appears evident to me that the common idea of the
food of an animal determining the quality of its meat is quite
erroneous. Domestic poultry and pigs are the most unclean
animals in their food, yet their flesh is very highly esteemed,
while rats and squirrels, which eat only vegetable food, are in
general disrepute. Carnivorous fish are not less delicate eating
than herbivorous ones, and there appears no reason why some
Carnivorous animals should not furnish wholesome and palatable
food. Venison, so highly esteemed at home, is here the most
dry and tasteless meat that can be had, as it must be cooked
within twelve hours after it is killed.
74 TKA WEZS OW THE AMAZOAV. [January,
A great deal more rain now fell, and small pools were
formed in some parts of the campos. About these, plovers
and other birds were to be seen wading, and a small flock of
the elegant long-legged plover (Himantopus). After much
difficulty I succeeded in killing three or four of them. The
Curious razor-bill was also often seen skimming over the water,
and the great tuyuyū occasionally approached near the house,
but always kept out of gunshot, and although I crawled
along prostrate to get within reach of him, he always found me
out in time for his own safety.
As I was getting scarcely any insects here, and the birds
were not very valuable, I determined to return to Pará with
Mr. C., who was going to pass a week at his other estate on
the island of Marajó by the way.
The journey across in Mr. C.’s schooner occupied but a few
hours, and we then entered a river which leads up to the
estate called Jungcal. On arriving we found a mud-walled
house not quite finished, which was to be our abode while we
stayed. At the back of the house stretched out, as far as the eye
could reach, a perfectly flat plain or campo, on which fed
numerous herds of cattle. Round about were “corrals” fenced
in for collecting the cattle, and huts for the “vaqueiros,” or
cowherds; and along the banks of the river were patches of
wood, and thickets of a great prickly bamboo. About the
campo were numerous marshes and narrow streams or ditches,
which contained many curious and pretty aquatic plants.
Mosquitoes were plentiful, and annoyed us much in the
evenings, when we wished to enjoy the cool air in the
verandah.
The Negroes and Mulattoes employed about the estate were
mostly fine young men, and led a life of alternate idleness and
excitement, which they seemed to enjoy very much. All their
work is done on horseback, where they showed to great
advantage, only wearing a pair of trousers and a cap with a
tassel, displaying the fine symmetry of their bodies. We were
much amused by seeing them bring in the cattle, driving them
into the corral, or using the lasso when one was to be
slaughtered. For this purpose they generally get two lassos
on the head or legs of the animal, the end of each of which is
held by a horseman. The “matador” then goes up and
hamstrings the poor animal with a cutlass. This quite disables
1849.] WNZZO CATZZAZ. 75
him : in vain he tries to rise on his legs and run at his
merciless assailants, till the cutlass is thrust into his neck and
deep down into his chest. He is hardly dead when he is
skinned and cut up, and the dogs and vultures rush to feast
upon the pool of blood and entrails which mark the spot.
The sight was a sickening one, and I did not care to witness
it more than once.
There were few birds or insects worth catching, and it was
not the time of the year for the spoonbills and ibises, which
have a building-place near, and arrive in immense numbers in
the month of June.
After spending about a week at Jungcal, we embarked to
return to Pará. A cattle-canoe was to accompany us, and we
were to take some of the animals on board our schooner. We
started early in the morning, and in about an hour arrived at a
corral on the river-side, where the cattle were. The boat was
anchored about twenty yards from the shore, and a block and
fall rigged to haul them up on deck. In the corral were
twenty or thirty wild cattle, which had been kicking and plunging
about till they had filled the place with mud knee-deep.
Several men with lassos were trying to secure them, by
throwing the loops over their horns. The cattle used all their
endeavours to avoid being caught, by shaking their heads and
throwing the cords off before they could be pulled tight. Each
man kept his attention directed to one animal, following it
about to every part of the corral. After a few attempts he
generally succeeded in getting the loop fixed over the horns,
and then half a dozen came to his assistance, to get the Ox Out
of the corral into the water. This was done by some pulling
at the lassos, while others poked and beat the animal with long
poles, which would so irritate it that it would roll itself
on the ground and rush at the men with all its force. At this
they did not seem to be much alarmed, but jumped on One
side or sprang on to the rails of the corral, and then imme-
diately returned to the attack. At length the creature would
be either pulled or driven into the water, and the end of the
rope being quickly thrown on board the canoe, the Ox was
towed up to the vessel's side. A strong rope was then noosed
over its horns, by which it was lifted into the air, struggling as
helplessly as a kitten held by the skin of its neck; it was then
lowered into the hold, where, after a little disturbance, it soon
76 TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. [March, 1849.
became quiet. One after another were put on board in this
manner, each offering something interesting, arising from the
fury of the animal or the great skill and coolness of the
vaqueiros. Once or twice the lasso, which is made of twisted
hide, was thrown short of the canoe, and I then admired the
rapidity with which an Indian plunged head foremost after it,
not stopping even to take the cap from his head; he then gave
the rope to those on board, and mounting on the back of the
swimming ox, rode in triumph to the canoe.
We did not get them all on board without an accident. The
principal herdsman, a strong and active Mulatto, was in the
corral, driving the cattle to one end of it, when a furious Ox
rushed at him, and with the rapidity of lightning he was
stretched, apparently dead, upon the ground. The other men
immediately carried him out, and Mr. and Mrs. C. went on
shore to attend to him. In about half an hour he revived a
little. He appeared to have been struck in the chest by the
animal's head, the horns not having injured him. In a very
short time he was in the corral again, as if nothing had hap-
pened, and when all were embarked he came on board and
made a hearty dinner, his appetite not having suffered by the
accident.
We then proceeded on our voyage, and as soon as we got
into the Amazon I again experienced the uncomfortable sensa-
tion of sea-sickness, though in fresh-water. The next night we
had a very strong wind, which split our mainsail all to pieces.
The following day we landed at a little island called Ilha das
Frechas (the Isle of Arrows), on account of the quantity of a
peculiar kind of reed, used by the Indians for making their
arrows, which grows there. We stayed nearly the whole day,
dining under the shade of the trees, and roaming about, picking
a wild fruit, like a small plum, which grew there in abundance;
there were also many curious fruits and handsome flowers
which attracted our attention. Some years ago the island is
said to have swarmed with wild hogs, but they are now nearly
exterminated. The next day we passed the eastern point of
the island of Marajó, where there is a sudden change from the
waters of the Amazon to those of the Pará river, the former
being yellow and fresh, the latter green and salt: they mix but
little at the junction, so that we passed in a moment from one
kind of water to the other. In two days more we reached Pará.
CHAPTER V.
THE GUAMA AND CAPIM RIVERS.
Natterer's Hunter, Luiz—Birds and Insects—Prepare for a Journey—
First Sight of the Piroróco—St. Domingo—Senhor Calistro—Slaves
and Slavery—Anecdote—Cane-field—Journey into the Forest—
Game—Explanation of the Piroróco—Return to Pará—Bell-birds
and Yellow Parrots.
I HAD written to Mr. Miller to get me a small house at Nazaré,
and I now at once moved into it, and set regularly to work in
the forest, as much as the showery and changeable weather
would allow me. An old Portuguese, who kept a kind of
tavern next door, supplied my meals, and I was thus enabled
to do without a servant. The boys in the neighbourhood soon
got to know of my arrival, and that I was a purchaser of all
kinds of “bichos.” Snakes were now rather abundant, and
almost every day I had some brought me, which I preserved
in Spirits.
As insects were not very plentiful at this season, I wished to
get a hunter to shoot birds for me, and came to an arrange-
ment with a Negro named Luiz, who had had much experience.
He had been with Dr. Natterer during the whole of his
seventeen years’ residence in Brazil, having been purchased by
him in Rio de Janeiro when a boy; and when the doctor left
Pará, in 1835, he gave him his freedom. His whole occupation
while with Dr. Natterer was shooting and assisting to skin birds
and animals. He had now a little land, and had saved enough
to purchase a couple of slaves himself-a degree of providence
that the less careful Indian seldom attains to. He is a native
of Congo, and a very tall and handsome man. I agreed to
give him a milrei (2s. 3d) a day and his living. He used to
amuse me much by his accounts of his travels with the doctor,
as he always called Natterer. He said he treated him very
78 TRA VAZZS ON THE AMAZOAV. [April,
. and gave him a small present whenever he brought a new
ird.
Luiz was an excellent hunter. He would wander in the
woods from morning to night, going a great distance, and
generally bringing home some handsome bird. He soon got
me several fine cardinal chatterers, red-breasted trogons,
toucans, etc. He knew the haunts and habits of almost every
bird, and could imitate their several notes so as to call them to
him.
In this showery weather the pretty little esmeralda butterfly
(Haefera Esmeralda) seemed to delight, for almost every wet
day I got one or two specimens in a certain narrow gloomy
path in the forest, though I never found but one in any other
place. Once or twice I walked over to the rice-mills, to see
my friend Mr. Leavens, and get some of the curious insects
which were seldom met with near the city. Several young
men in Pará were now making collections, and it is a proof of
the immense abundance and luxuriance of insect life in this
country, that in every collection, however small, I almost
always saw something new to me.
Having heard much of the “Piroróco,” or bore, that occurs
in the Guamá River at spring-tides, I determined to take a
little trip in order to see it, and make some variation from my
rather monotonous life at Pará. I wished to go in a canoe of
my own, so as to be able to stop where and when I liked, and
I also thought it would be useful afterwards in ascending the
Amazon. I therefore agreed to purchase one that I thought
would suit me, of a Frenchman in Pará, and having paid part
of the purchase-money, got it fitted up and laid in a stock of
requisites for the voyage. I took a barrel and a quantity of
spirits for preserving fish, and everything necessary for collecting
and preparing birds and insects. As the canoe was small, I
did not want many men, for whom there would not indeed
have been room, so determined to manage with only a pilot,
and one man or boy besides Luiz.
I soon found a boy who lived near, and had been accustomed
to bring me insects. To all appearance he was an Indian, but
his mother had Negro blood in her, and was a slave, so her
Son of course shared her fate. I had, therefore, to hire him of
his master, an officer, and agreed for three milreis (about seven
shillings) a month. People said that the boy's master was his
1849.] THE JOURNEY COMMENCED, 79
father, which, as he certainly resembled him, might have been
the case. He generally had a large chain round his body
and leg as a punishment, and to prevent his running away;
he wore it concealed under his trousers, and it clanked very
disagreeably at every step he took. Of course this was taken
off when he was delivered over to me, and he promised to be
very faithful and industrious if I took him with me. I also
agreed with a lame Spaniard to go as pilot, because he said he
knew the river, and some little experience is required at the
time of the Piroróco. He begged for a few milreis beforehand
to purchase some clothes; and when I wanted him to assist
me in loading the canoe he was feasting on biscuit and cheese,
with oil, vinegar, and garlic, washing it down so plentifully
with caxaça that he was quite intoxicated, so I was obliged to
wait till the next day, when, having spent all his money and
got a little sober, he was very quiet and submissive.
At length, all being ready, we started, rowing along quietly
with the flood-tide, as there was no wind, and at night, when
the tide turned, anchoring a few miles up the Guamá. This is
a fine stream, about half a mile wide in the lower part. A
short distance up, the banks are rather undulating, with many
pretty sitios. During ebb-tide we managed generally to anchor
near some house or cottage, where we could get on shore and
make a fire under a tree to cook our dinner or supper. Luiz
would then take his gun and I my insect-net, and start off into
the forest to make the most of our time till the tide turned
again, when we would continue our voyage, and I generally had
occupation skinning birds or setting out insects till the evening.
About thirty miles above Pará the Piroróco commences.
There was formerly an island in the river at this point, but it is
said to have been completely washed away by the continual
action of the bore, which, after passing this place, we rather
expected to see, now being the time of the highest tides,
though at this season (May) they are not generally high enough
to produce it with any great force. It came, however, with a
sudden rush, a wave travelling rapidly up the stream, and
breaking in foam all along the shore and on the shallows. It
lifted our canoe just as a great rolling ocean-wave would do,
but, being deep water, did no harm, and was past in an instant,
the tide then continuing to flow up with very great velocity.
The highest tide was now past, so at the next we had no wave,
8o TRA VEZS OAV ZAZE AMAZOAV. [May,
but the flood began running up, instantaneously, and not
gradually, as is generally the case.
The next day we arrived at São Domingo, a little village at
the junction of the Guamá and Capim rivers. I had a letter
of introduction to a Brazilian trader residing here, on present-
ing which he placed his house at my disposal. I took him at
his word, and said I should stay a few days. Luiz went into
the woods every day, generally bringing home some birds, and
I wandered about in search of insects, which I did not find
very abundant, the dry season having scarcely begun; there
were, however, plenty of pleasant paths about the woods to the
rice and mandiocca-fields, and abundance of oranges and other
fruit. Our food was principally fish from the river and some
jerked beef, with beans and rice. The house was little better
than a mud hovel, with a bench, a rickety table, and a few
hammocks for furniture ; but in this country the people away
from the towns never think of expending any great labour or
going to any expense to make a comfortable house.
After staying nearly a week, with not much success in my
collections, I proceeded up the west branch of the river, called
the Capim. My canoe was a very unsteady and top-heavy
One, and soon after leaving the village a sudden squall nearly
upset us, the water pouring in over the side, and it was with
Some difficulty we got the sail down and secured the boat to
a bush on the river's bank till the storm had passed over. We
went pleasantly along for two or three days, the country being
prettily diversified with cane-fields, rice-grounds, and houses
built by the early Portuguese settlers, with elegant little chapels
attached, and Cottages for the Negroes and Indians around, all
much superior in appearance and taste to anything erected
now. At length we reached São Jozé, the estate of Senhor
Calistro, to whom I brought letters of introduction. He re-
ceived me very kindly, and on my telling him the purpose of
my visit he invited me to stay with him as long as I liked, and
promised to do all he could to assist me. He was a stout,
good-humoured looking man, of not much more than thirty.
He had recently built a rice-mill and warehouses, one of the
best modern buildings I had seen in the country. It was
entirely of stone; the mill was approached by arches in the
Centre, and the warehouses, offices, and dwelling apartments
were at the sides. There was a gallery or verandah on the
1849.] TRACA 7TMENT OF SLA WES. 8I
first floor connecting the two ends of the building, and looking
down upon the mill, with its great water-wheel in the centre,
and out through the windows on to the river, and a handsome
stone quay which ran along the whole front of the building.
It was all substantially constructed, and had cost him several
thousand pounds.
He had about fifty slaves of all ages, and about as many
Indians, employed in his cañé and rice-fields, and in the mills,
ândſon board his canoes. He made sugar and caxaça, but
most of the latter as it paid best. Every kind of work was
done on the premises : he had shoemakers, tailors, carpenters,
smiths, boat-builders, and masons, either slaves or Indians,
some of whom could make good locks for doors and boxes,
and tin and copper articles of all kinds. He told me that by
having slaves and Indians working together he was enabled to
get more work out of the latter than by any other system.
Indians will not submit to strict rules when working by them-
selves, but when with slaves, who have regular hours to com-
mence and leave off work, and stated tasks to perform, they
submit to the same regulations and cheerfully do the same
work. Every evening at sunset all the workpeople come up to
Senhor Calistro to say good-night or ask his blessing. He was
seated in an easy chair in the verandah, and each passed by
with a salutation suited to his age or station. The Indians
would generally be content with “Boa noite” (good-night);
the younger ones, and most of the women and children, both
Indians and slaves, would hold out their hand, saying, “Sua
benção" (your blessing), to which he would reply, “Deos te
bençoe" (God bless you), making at the same time the sign
of the Cross. Others—and these were mostly the old Negroes
—would gravely repeat, “Louvado seja o nome do Senhor
Jesu Christo’’ (blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ), to which he would reply, with equal gravity, “Para
sempre” (for ever).
Children. of all classes never meet their parents in the
morning or leave them at night without in the same manner
asking their blessing, and they do the same invariably of
every stranger who enters the house. In fact, it is the common
salutation of children and inferiors, and has a very pleasing
effect.
The slaves here were treated remarkably well. Senhor

6
82. TRA VEZS OW THE AMAZOAV. [June,
Calistro assured me he buys slaves, but never sells any, except
as the last punishment for incorrigibly bad conduct. They
have holidays on all the principal saints' days and festivals,
which are pretty often, and on these occasions an ox is killed
for them, and a quantity of rum given, to make themselves
merry. Every evening, as they come round, they prefer their
several petitions: one wants a little coffee and sugar for his
wife, who is unwell; another requires a new pair of trousers or
a shirt; a third is going with a canoe to Pará, and asks for
a milrei to buy something. These requests are invariably
granted, and Senhor Calistro told me that he never had cause,
for refusal, because the slaves never begged for anything un-
reasonable, nor asked favours when from bad conduct they did
not deserve them. In fact, all seemed to regard him in quite
a patriarchal view, at the same time he was not to be
trifled with, and was pretty severe against absolute idleness.
When picking rice, all had a regular quantity to bring in, and
any who were considerably deficient several times, from idleness
alone, were punished with a moderate flogging. He told me
of one Negro he had bought, who was incorrigibly lazy, though
quite strong and healthy. The first-day he was set a moderate
task, and did not near complete it, and received a moderate
flogging. The next day he was set a much larger task, with
the promise of a severe flogging if he did not get through it:
he failed, saying it was quite beyond his ability, and received
the flogging. The third day he was set a still larger amount
of work, with the promise of a much severer flogging if he
failed to finish it; and so, finding that the two former promises
had been strictly kept, and that, he was likely to gain nothing
by carrying out his plan any longer, he completed the work
with ease, and had ever since done the same quantity, which
was after all only what every good workman did on the estate.
Every Sunday morning and evening, though they do not work,
they are required to appear before their master, unless they
have special leave to be absent: this, Senhor Calistro told me,
was to prevent their going to a great distance to other planta-
tions to steal, as, if they could go off after work on Saturday
evening, and not return till Monday morning, they might go
to such a distance to commit robbery as to be quite free from
Suspicion.
'In fact, Senhor Calistro attends to his slaves just as he
1849.] SLA VAZR V. 83
would to a large family of children. He gives them amuse-
ment, relaxation, and punishment in the same way, and takes
the same precautions to keep them out of mischief. The
consequence is, they are perhaps as happy as children: they
have no care and no wants, they are provided for in sickness
and old age, their children are never separated from them, nor
are husbands separated from their wives, except under such
circumstances as would render them liable to the same separa-
tion, were they free, by the laws of the country. Here, then,
slavery is perhaps seen under its most favourable aspect, and, in
a mere physical point of view, the slave may be said to be better
off than many a freeman. This, however, is merely one parti-
cular case, it is by no means a necessary consequence of
slavery, and from what we know of human nature, can be but
a -rare OCCUlrrën C6. -
But looking at it in this, its most favourable light, can we
say that slavery is good or justifiable P Can it be right to
keep a number of our fellow-creatures in a state of adult
infancy, of unthinking childhood? It is the responsibility
and self-dependence of manhood that calls forth the highest
powers and energies of our race. It is the struggle for existence,
the “battle of life,” which exercises the moral faculties and
calls forth the latent sparks of genius. The hope of gain, the
love of power, the desire of fame and approbation, excite to
noble deeds, and call into action all those faculties which are
the distinctive attributes of man.
Childhood is the animal part of man's existence, manhood
the intellectual; and when the weakness and imbecility of
childhood remain, without its simplicity and pureness, its grace
and beauty, how degrading is the spectacle ! And this is the
state of the slave when slavery is the best that it can be. He
has no care of providing food for his family, no provision to
make for old age. He has nothing to incite him to labour but
the fear of punishment, no hope of bettering his condition, no
future to look forward to of a brighter aspect. Everything
he receives is a favour; he has no rights, what can he know
therefore of duties? Every desire beyond the narrow circle
of his daily labours is shut out from his acquisition. He has
no intellectual pleasures, and, could he have education and
taste them, they would assuredly embitter his life; for what
hope of increased knowledge, what chance of any further
84 TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. [June,
acquaintance with the wonders of nature or the triumphs of
art, than the mere hearing of them, can exist for one who is
the property of another, and can never hope for the liberty
of working for his own living in the manner that may be most
agreeable to him P
IBut such views as these are of course too refined for a
Brazilian slaveholder, who can see nothing beyond the physical
wants of the slave. And as the teetotalers have declared that
the example of the moderate drinker is more pernicious than
that of the drunkard, so may the philanthropist consider that
a good and kind slave-master does an injury to the cause of
freedom, by rendering people generally unable to perceive the
false principles inherent in the system, and which, whenever
they find a suitable soil in the bad passions of man, are ready
to spring up and produce effects so vile and degrading as to
make honest men blush for disgraced human nature.
Senhor C. was as kind and good-tempered a man as I have
ever met with. I had but to mention anything I should like,
and, if it was in his power, it was immediately got for me.
He altered his dinner-hour to suit my excursions in the forest,
and made every arrangement he could for my accommodation.
A Jewish gentleman called when I was there: he was going
up the river to collect some debts, and brought a letter for
Senhor C. He stayed with us some days, and, as he would
not eat any meat, because it had not been killed according to
the rules of his religion, nor any fish that had not scales, which
include some of the best these rivers produce, he hardly found
anything at table the first day that he could partake of. Every
day afterwards, however, while he was with us, there was a
variety of scaled fish provided, boiled and roasted, stewed and
fried, with eggs, rice, and vegetables in abundance, so that he
could always make an excellent meal. Senhor C. was much
amused at his scruples, though perfectly polite about them,
and delighted to ask him about the rites of his religion, and
me about mine, and would then tell us the Catholic doctrine
on the same questions. He related to us many anecdotes, of
which the following is a specimen, serving to illustrate the
credulity of the Negroes. “There was a Negro,” said he,
“who had a pretty wife, to whom another Negro was rather
attentive when he had the chance. One day the husband
went out to hunt, and the other party thought it a good
1849] AVEGRO CREDUZZTY. 85
opportunity to pay a visit to the lady. The husband, however,
returned rather unexpectedly, and the visitor climbed up on
the rafters to be out of sight among the old boards and baskets
that were stowed away there. The husband put his gun by
in a corner, and called to his wife to get his supper, and then
sat down in his hammock. Casting his eyes up to the rafters,
he saw a leg protruding from among the baskets, and, thinking
it something supernatural, crossed himself, and said, ‘Lord,
deliver us from the legs appearing overhead ' ' The other,
hearing this, attempted to draw up his legs out of sight, but,
losing his balance, came down suddenly on the floor in front
of the astonished husband, who, half frightened, asked, “Where
do you come from ?’ ‘I have just come from heaven,” said
the other, ‘and have brought you news of your little daughter
Maria.” “Oh I wife, wife come and see a man who has
brought us news of our little daughter Maria;' then, turning
to the visitor, continued, “And what was my little daughter
doing when you left P’ ‘Oh! she was sitting at the feet of
the Virgin, with a golden crown on her head, and smoking a
golden pipe a yard long.” “And did she not send any message
to us?’ ‘Oh yes, she sent many remembrances, and begged
you to send her two pounds of your tobacco from the little
rhossa, they have not got any half so good up there.’ ‘Oh !
wife, wife bring two pounds of our tobacco from the little
rhossa, for our daughter Maria is in heaven, and she says they
have not any half so good up there.” So the tobacco was
brought, and the visitor was departing, when he was asked,
‘Are there many white men up there?’ ‘Very few,' he
replied ; “they are all down below with the diabo.’ ‘I thought
So, the other replied, apparently quite satisfied; “good-night !’”
Senhor Calistro had a beautiful canoe made of a single
piece of wood, without a nail, the benches being all notched
in. He often went in it to Pará, near two hundred miles, and,
with twelve good Indians to paddle, and plenty of Caxaça,
reached the city, without stopping, in twenty-four hours. We
Sometimes went out to inspect the cane-fields in this canoe,
with eight little Negro and Indian boys to paddle, who were
always ready for such service. I then took my gun and net,
and shot some birds or caught any insects that we met with,
while Senhor Calistro would send the boys to climb after any
handsome flowers I admired, or to gather the fruit of the
86 . TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. [June,
passion-flowers, which hung like golden apples in the thickets
on the banks. His cane-field this year was a mile and a half
long and a quarter of a mile wide, and very luxuriant; across it
were eight roads, all planted on each side with bananas and
pine-apples. He informed me that when the fruit was in full
season all the slaves and Indians had as much as they liked to
take, and could never finish them all ; but, said he, “It is not
much trouble planting them when setting the cane-field, and I
always do it, for I like to have plenty.” It was altogether a
noble sight, a sample of the over-flowing abundance produced
by a fertile soil and a tropical sun. Having mentioned that I
much wished to get a collection of fish to preserve in spirits, he
set several Indians to work stopping up igaripés to poison the
water, and others to fish at night with line and bow and arrow ;
all that they procured being brought to me to select from, and
the rest sent to the kitchen. The best way of catching a variety
was, however, with a large drag-net fifty or sixty yards long. We
went out one day in two canoes, and with about twenty Negroes
and Indians, who swam with the net in the water, making a
circuit, and then drew it out on to a beach. We had not very
good fortune, but soon filled two half-bushel baskets with a great
variety of fish, large and small, from which I selected a number
of species to increase my collection.
Senhor Calistro was now going to send several Indian
hunters up a small stream into the deep forest to hunt for him,
and salt and dry game, and bring home live tortoises, of which
there are great numbers in the forest. I particularly wanted a
Jarge and handsome species of Złmamus, or Brazilian partridge,
which is found in these forests, but which I have not yet met
with since I saw one being plucked for supper on the Tocantíns;
I was also anxious to procure the hyacinthine macaw : so he
kindly offered to let me go with them, and to lend me a small
canoe and another Indian, to return when I liked, as they were
going to stay two or three months. All the Indians took was
farinha and salt, with powder and shot; but my kind host
loaded my canoe with fowls, roast meat, eggs, plantains, pine-
apples, and cocoa-nuts, so that I went well provided. It was
about half-a-day's journey further up the river, to the mouth of
the narrow stream or igaripé we were to enter; after going up
which a short distance we stayed at the cottage of some acquaint-
ances of our men for the night. The next morning early we
1849.] - THE FORA2S7. 87
proceeded on our journey, and soon passed the last house, and
entered upon the wild, unbroken and uninhabited virgin forest.
The stream was very narrow and very winding, running with
great rapidity round the bends, and often much obstructed by
bushes and fallen trees. The branches almost met overhead,
and it was as dark and gloomy and silent as can be imagined.
In these sombre shades a flower was scarcely ever to be found.
A few of the large blue butterflies (Morphos) were occasionally
seen flitting over the water of Seated upon a leaf on the banks,
and numerous green-backed kingfishers darted along before us.
Early in the afternoon we found a little cleared place where
hunters were accustomed to stay, and here we hung up our
hammocks, lit our fire, and prepared to pass the night. After
an excellent supper and some coffee, I lay down in my
hammock, gazing up through the leafy canopy overhead, to the
skies spangled with brightly shining stars, from which the fire-
flies, flitting among the foliage, could often hardly be distin-
guished. They were a species of Pyrophorus, larger than any
I had seen in Pará. They seemed attracted by the fire, to
which they came in numbers; by moving one over the lines
of a newspaper I was enabled easily to read it. The Indians
amused themselves by recounting their hunting adventures,
their escapes from jaguars and serpents, or of their being lost
in the forest. One told how he had been lost for ten days, and
all that time had eaten nothing, for he had no farinha, and
though he could have killed game he would not eat it alone,
and seemed quite surprised that I should think him capable
of such an action, though I should certainly have imagined “a
week's fast would have overcome any scruples of that sort.
The next day the Indians went hunting, proposing to return
early in the afternoon to proceed on, and I searched the woods
after insects; but in these gloomy forests, and without any
paths along which I could walk with confidence, I met with
little success. In the afternoon some of them returned with
two trumpeters (Psophia viridis) and a monkey, which I skinned;
but as one Indian did not arrive till late, we could not continue
our voyage till the next day. This night we were not so
fortunate as the last, for just about dusk it began to rain, and
our canoes were so small and so loaded with articles that must
be kept dry, that we had little chance of making ourselves
comfortable in them. I managed to crowd in somehow, terribly
88 7 RA VELS ON THE AMAZOAV. [June,
Cramped, hoping the shower would soon pass over; but as it
did not, and we had turned in without our suppers, I began to
feel very hungry. It was pitch-dark, but I groped my way out,
fumbled about for some wood, and with an Indian's assistance
made up the fire, by which I sat with some palm-leaves over
my head, and made a hearty meal of Jacu (a species of Penelope),
which had been stewed in the afternoon. When I had finished, I
was pretty well soaked; but to find or put on dry clothes was out
of the question, so I again rolled myself up uncomfortably into
a ball, and slept pretty well till daybreak, when it had just ceased
raining, and a cup of hot coffee set me all right. We then
resumed our journey, and this day had great difficulties to en-
counter: several sunken logs were passed over with great labour
but at last there was a tree fallen over the stream, which the
canoe could not possibly pass under, so we had to spend more
than an hour cutting it through with axes which we carried for
the purpose. About three in the afternoon we reached another
stopping-place, and as we did not wish to have a repetition of
last night's enjoyment, the Indians set to work making a little
sleeping-hut. They had a long way to go for thatch, as there
was only one palm-tree about a mile off, and this they cut down
to supply us with a roof.
However, as we took the trouble to make a house, we had
fine weather the three days we stayed, and did not want it.
While here we had not much success. The hunters killed
some deer, large birds, and monkeys, but did not meet with
either of those I particularly wanted. Insects also, as at the
former station, were very scarce, and though I got several
curious small birds, I was not very well satisfied with the
Success of my expedition.
Accordingly, after three days, I set out on my return, the
rest of the party proceeding ſurther up into the forest in search
of a better hunting-ground. On the second day we again
reached the open river, and I much enjoyed the change from
the dark forest, the damp foliage and decaying leaves and
branches, to the bright sunshine and the blue sky, with the
chirping birds and the gay flowers on the banks. Passing an
estate of Senhor Calistro's on the opposite side of the river, I
went on shore to shoot a large goat-sucker which was sitting
on the ground in the sunshine, and succeeded in killing two,
which I skinned on cur way to São Jozé, where we arrived
1849.] THE PIRORóco, 89
just in time for supper, and were heartily received by Senhor
Calistro. After a few days more I left his hospitable roof,
loaded with luxuries: eggs, tapioca, a roast pig, pine-apples,
and sweets were sent to my canoe; and I bade adieu with
regret to my kind host.
On our way down I again encountered the “piroróco’
when I hardly expected it. We had gone in shore at a sugar
estate to wait for the tide, when the agent told us we had
better put out further into the stream, as the piroróco beat
there. Though thinking he only wished to frighten us, we
judged it prudent to do as he advised; and while we were
expecting the tide to turn, a great wave came suddenly rushing
along, and breaking on the place where our canoe had been
at first moored. The wave having passed, the water was as
quiet as before, but flowing up with great rapidity. As we
proceeded down the river, we saw everywhere signs of its
devastations in the uprooted trees which lined the shores all
along, and the high mud-banks where the earth had been
washed away. In winter, when the spring-tides are highest,
the “piroróco” breaks with terrific force, and often sinks and
dashes to pieces boats left incautiously in too shallow water.
The ordinary explanations given of this phenomenon are
evidently incorrect. Here there is no meeting of salt and
fresh water, neither is the stream remarkably narrowed where
it commences. I collected all the information I could re-
specting the depth of the river, and the shoals that occur in it.
Where the bore first appears there is a shoal across the river,
and below that, the stream is somewhat contracted. The tide
flows up past Pará with great velocity, and entering the Guamá
river comes to the narrow part of the channel. Here the
body of tidal water will be deeper and flow faster, and coming
suddenly on to the shoal will form a wave, in the same
manner that in a swift brook a large stone at the bottom will
Cause an undulation, while a slow-flowing stream will keep its
smooth surface. This wave will be of great size, and, as there
is a large body of water in motion, will be propagated onwards
unbroken. Wherever there are shallows, either in the bed or
on the margin of the river, it will break, or as it passes over
slight shoals will be increased, and, as the river narrows, will
go on with greater rapidity. When the tides are low, they rise
less rapidly, and at the commencement a much less body of
90 7 RA VEZS OW ZEA, AMAZOAV. [July,
\
water is put in motion: the depth of the moving water is less,
and does not come in contact with the bottom in passing over
the shoal, and so no wave is formed. It is only when the
body of water in motion, as the tide first flows in, is of
sufficient depth, that it comes in contact with the shoal, and
is, as it were, lifted up by it, forming a great rolling wave.
A _--" “..... .....” *~
-
B--- ~~. * - º - * . . . . . . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ~ ** * * * * * * * * * ---------------- B
cº ////// z -
- - % /
O - r - D
wº % %”
The above diagram will show more clearly the manner in
which I suppose the wave to the formed. A A represents the
level of the water when the tide is out; D D the bottom of
the river; B B the depth to which the water is put in motion
at low tides, not reaching so deep as the bottom of the river
at the shoal C, at which time no wave, but a swift current
only, is formed; C'C the depth to which the water is set in
motion at spring-tides, when the mass, coming in contact with
the bottom at C, is lifted up, and forms a wave at E, which is
propagated up the river. It appears, therefore, that there must
exist some peculiar formation of the bottom, and not merely
a narrowing and widening in a tidal river to produce a bore,
otherwise it would occur much more frequently than it does.
In the Mojú and Acarrá the same phenomenon is said to take
place; and, as these rivers all run parallel to each other, it is
probable that the same bed of rock running across produces
a somewhat similar shoal in all of them. It may also easily
be seen why there is only one wave, not a succession of them;
for, when the first wave has passed, the water has risen so
much that the stream now flows clear over the shoal, and is
therefore not affected by it. - \
On arriving at Pará I again took up my abode at Nazaré.
I had found in this voyage that my canoe was far too unsteady
and confined to think of going up the Amazon in it, so I

1849.] AMPERIAL AAA’ RO7.S. 91
returned it to the owner, who had warranted it steady and
adapted for my purpose, but, after much trouble and annoy-
ance, I was obliged to lose the 24, Io I had given in part
payment. In the beginning of July my younger brother H.
came out to Pará to assist me; and by the return of the vessel
in which he arrived, I sent off my collections of fish and
insects up to this time.
We had the good fortune one day to fall in with a small
flock of the rare and curious bell-bird (Chasmorhynchus carum-
culatus), but they were on a very thick lofty tree, and took
flight before we could get a shot at them. Though it was
about four miles off in the forest, we went again the next day,
and found them feeding on the same tree, but had no better
success. On the third day we went to the same spot, but
from that time saw them no more. The bird is of a pure
white colour, the size of a blackbird, has a broad bill, and
feeds on fruits. From the base of the bill above grows a
fleshy tubercle, two to three inches long, and as thick as a
quill, sparingly clothed with minute feathers: it is quite lax,
and hangs down on one side of the bird's head, not stuck up
like a horn, as we see it placed in some stuffed specimens.
This bird is remarkable for its loud clear ringing note, like a
bell, which it utters at midday, when most other birds are
silent.
A few days after, we found feeding on the same tree some
beautiful yellow parrots. They are called here imperial parrots,
and are much esteemed because their colours are those of the
Brazilian flag—yellow and green. I had long been seeking
them, and was much pleased when my brother shot one. It is
the Conurus Carolinea, and is figured by Spix in his expensive
work on the birds of Brazil.
CHAPTER VI.
SANTAREM AND MONTEALEGRE.
Leave Pará—Enter the Amazon—Its Peculiar Features—Arrive at San-
tarem—The Town and its Inhabitants—Voyage to Montealegre—
Mosquito Plague and its Remedy—Journey to the Serras—A Cattle
Estate—Rocks, Picture Writings, and Cave—The Victoria regia—
Mandiocca Fields—A Festa—Return to Santarem—Beautiful Insects
—Curious Tidal Phenomenon—Leave Santarem—Obydos—Villa
Nova–A Kind Priest—Serpa—Christmas Day on the Amazon.
WE now prepared for our voyage up the Amazon ; and, from
information we obtained of the country, determined first to go
as far as Santarem, a town about five hundred miles up the
river, and the seat of a considerable trade. We had to wait a
long time to procure a passage, but at length with some
difficulty agreed to go in a small empty canoe returning to
Santarem.
We were to have the hold to ourselves, and found it very
redolent of salt-fish, and some hides which still remained in it
did not improve the odour. But voyagers on the Amazon
must not be fastidious, so we got our things on board, and
hung up our hammocks as conveniently as we could for the
journey.
Our canoe had a very uneven deck, and, we soon found, a
very leaky one, which annoyed us much by wetting our clothes
and hammocks; and there were no bulwarks, which, in the
quiet waters of the Amazon, are not necessary. We laid in a
good stock of provisions for the voyage, and borrowed some
books from our English and American friends, to help to pass
away the time; and in the beginning of August, left Pará with
a fine wind, which soon carried us beyond the islands opposite
the city into the wide river beyond. The next day we crossed
1849.] VOYAGE 7'O SANZARAEM. 93
the little sea formed opposite the mouth of the Tocantíns, and
sailed up a fine stream till we entered again among islands,
and soon got into the narrow channel which forms the com-
munication between the Pará and Amazon rivers. We passed
the little village of Breves, the trade of which consists princi-
pally of india-rubber, and painted basins and earthenware, very
brilliantly coloured. Some of our Indians went on shore while
we stayed for the tide, and returned rather tipsy, and with
several little clay teapot-looking doves, much valued higher up
the country.
We proceeded for several days in those narrow channels,
which form a network of water—a labyrinth quite unknown,
except to the inhabitants of the district. We had to wait daily
for the tide, and then to help ourselves on by warping along
shore, there being no wind. A small montaria was sent on
ahead, with a long rope, which the Indians fastened to some
projecting tree or bush, and then returned with the other end
to the large canoe, which was pulled up by it. The rope was
then taken on again, and the operation repeated continually
till the tide turned, when we could not make way against the
current. In many parts of the channel I was much pleased
with the bright colours of the leaves, which displayed all the
variety of autumnal tints in England. The cause, however, was
different: the leaves were here budding, instead of falling. On
first opening they were pale reddish, then bright red, brown,
and lastly green; some were yellow, some Ochre, and some
scopper-colour, which, together with various shades of green,
produced a most beautiful appearance.
It was about ten days after we left Pará that the stream
began to widen out and the tide to flow into the Amazon
instead of into the Pará river, giving us the longer ebb to make
way with. In about two days more we were in the Amazon
itself, and it was with emotions of admiration and awe that we
gazed upon the stream of this mighty and far-famed river.
Our imagination wandered to its sources in the distant Andes,
to the Peruvian Incas of old, to the silver mountains of Potosi,
and the gold-seeking Spaniards and wild Indians who now
inhabit the country about its thousand sources. What a grand
idea it was to think that we now saw the accumulated waters
of a course of three thousand miles ; that all the streams that
for a length of twelve hundred miles drained from the snow-
94 TRAVELS ow THE AMAZON. [August,
clad Andes were here congregated in the wide extent of ochre-
coloured water spread out before us! Venezuela, Columbia,
Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil—six mighty states, spread-
ing over a country far larger than Europe—had each contri-,
buted to form the flood which bore us so peacefully on its
bosom. -
We now felt the influence of the easterly wind, which during
the whole of the summer months blows pretty steadily up the
Amazon, and enables vessels to make way against its powerful
current. Sometimes we had thunder-storms, with violent
squalls, which, as they were generally in the right direction,
helped us along the faster ; and twice we ran aground on
shoals, which caused us some trouble and delay. We had
partly to unload the canoe into the montaria, and then, by
getting out anchors in the deep water, managed after some
hard pulling to extricate ourselves. Sometimes we caught fish,
which were a great luxury for us, or went on shore to purchase
fruit at some Indian’s cottage.
The most striking features of the Amazon are—its vast
expanse of smooth water, generally from three to six miles
wide; its pale yellowish-olive colour; the great beds of aquatic
grass which line its shores, large masses of which are often
detached, and form floating islands; the quantity of fruits and
leaves and great trunks of trees which it carries down, and its
level banks clad with lofty unbroken forest. In places the
white stems and leaves of the Cecropias give a peculiar aspect,
and in others the straight dark trunks of lofty forest-trees form
a living wall along the water's edge. There is much animation,
too, on this giant stream. Numerous flocks of parrots, and the
great red and yellow macaws, fly across every morning and
evening, uttering their hoarse cries. Many kinds of herons
and rails frequent the marshes on its banks, and the large
handsome duck (Chenalopez ſubata) is often seen swimming
about the bays and inlets. But perhaps the most characteristic
birds of the Amazon are the gulls and terns, which are in great
abundance: all night long their cries are heard over the sand-
banks, where they deposit their eggs, and during the day they
constantly attracted our attention by their habit of sitting in a
row on a floating log, sometimes a dozen or twenty side by
side, and going for miles down the stream as grave and motion-
less as if they were on some very important business. These
‘AI SILVIÄ
3 N/2
of
/cº
4.

1849.] ARRIVAL AT SANTAREM. 95
birds deposit their eggs in little hollows in the sand, and the
Indians say that during the heat of the day they carry water in
their beaks to moisten them and prevent their being roasted
by the glowing rays of the sun. Besides these there are divers
and darters in abundance, porpoises are constantly blowing in
every direction, and alligators are often seen slowly swimming
across the river.
On the north bank of the Amazon, for about two hundred
miles, are ranges of low hills, which, as well as the country
between them, are partly bare and partly covered with brush
and thickets. They vary from three hundred to one thousand
feet high, and extend inland, being probably connected with the
mountains of Cayenne and Guiana. After passing them there
are no more hills visible from the river for more than two
thousand miles, till we reach the lowest ranges of the Andes :
they are called the Serras de Paru, and terminate in the Serras
de Montealegre, near the little village of Montealegre, about
one hundred miles below Santarem. A few other small villages
were passed, and here and there some Brazilian's country-house
or Indian's cottage, often completely buried in the forest.
Fishermen were sometimes seen in their canoes, and now and
then a large schooner passing down the middle of the river,
while often for a whole day we would not pass a house or see
a human being. The wind, too, was seldom enough for us to
make way against the stream, and then we had to proceed
by the laborious and tedious method of warping already
described.
At length, after a prolonged voyage of twenty-eight days, we
reached Santarem, at the mouth of the river Tapajoz, whose
blue, transparent waters formed a most pleasing contrast to the
turbid stream of the Amazon. We brought letters of introduc-
tion to Captain Hislop, an old Scotchman settled here many
years. He immediately sent a servant to get a house for us,
which after some difficulty was done, and hospitably invited
us to take our meals at his table as long as we should find it
convenient. Our house was by no means an elegant one,
having mud walls and floors, and an open tiled roof, and all
very dusty and ruinous; but it was the best we could get, so
we made ourselves contented. As we thought of going to
Montealegre, three days' voyage down the river, before settling
ourselves for any time at Santarem, we accepted Captain
96 TRAVEZs ow ZHE AMAzow. Isºptember,
Hislop's kind invitation as far as regarded dinner, but managed
to provide breakfast and tea for ourselves.
The town of Santarem is pleasantly situated on a slope at
the mouth of the Tapajoz, with a fine sandy beach, and a little
hill at one end, where a mud fort commands the approach
from the Amazon. The houses are neat and the streets regular,
but, owing to there being no wheeled vehicles and but few
horses, they are overgrown with grass. The church is a
handsome building with two towers, and the houses are mostly
coloured white or yellow, with the doors and windows painted
bright green. There is no quay or wharf of any kind, every-
thing being landed in montarias, so that you can seldom get
on shore without a wet shoe and stocking. There is a fine
beach extending for some miles above and below the town,
where all the washing of the place is done, the linen being
beautifully bleached on the hot sand. At all hours of the day
are plenty of bathers, and the Negro and Indian children are
quite amphibious animals. At the back of the town are
extensive sandy Campos, scattered over with myrtles, cashews,
and many other trees and bushes, and beyond are low hills,
some bare, and others covered with thick forest.
The trade here is principally in Brazil-nuts, Sarsaparilla—
which is the best on the Amazon, farinha, and salt-fish,_
some of which articles are obtained from the Mundructis, an
industrious tribe of Indians inhabiting the Tapajoz. There
are here, as in Pará, many persons who live an idle life, entirely
supported by the labours of a few slaves which they have
inherited. The local executive government consists of a
“Commandante Militar,” who has charge of the fort and a
dozen or two of soldiers; the “Commandante dos trabalha-
dores,” who superintends the Indians engaged in any public
service; the “Juiz de direito,” or civil and criminal judge of
the district ; the “Delegardo de policia,” who has the
management of the passport office, the police, etc., the “Vi-
cario,” or priest, and a few subordinate officers. In the evening
some of these, and a few of the principal traders, used gener-
ally to meet in front of Captain Hislop's house, which was in
an airy situation overlooking the river, where they would sit
and smoke, take snuff, and talk politics and law for an hour or
tWO.
Besides the Captain, there were two Englishmen in San-
1849.] AAW A GRAEAEABLA. AEYCAVYC. 97
tarem, who had resided there many years, and were married to
Brazilian women. A day or two after our arrival they invited
us to take a trip up to a pretty stream which forms a small
lake a mile or two above the town. We went in a neat canoe,
with several Indians and Negros, and plenty of provisions, to
make an agreeable picnic. The place was very picturesque,
with dry sands, old trees, and shady thickets, where we amused
ourselves shooting birds, catching insects, and examining the
new forms of vegetation which were everywhere abundant.
The clear, cool water invited us to a refreshing bathe, after
which we dined, and returned home by moonlight in the
evening. sº
I was acquainted with the “Juiz de direito,” having met him
in Pará, and he now very kindly offered to lend me an excellent
canoe to go to Montealegre, and to give me introductions to
his friends there; but he had no men to spare, so these I had
to obtain as I could. This was, as is always the case here, a
difficult matter. Captain H. went with me to the Command-
ante, who promised to give me three Indians, but after waiting
a whole week we got only two ; the Juiz, however, kindly lent
me one with his canoe, and with these we started. The first
night we stayed at a cacao-plantation, where we got some
excellent fresh fish. In the morning we took a walk among
the cacao-trees, and caught numbers of a butterfly (Didonis
ôiólis), which, though a common South American species, we
had never found either at Santarem or Pará; nor did I ever
after see it until I reached Javſta, near the sources of the Rio
Negro. As another instance of the peculiar distribution of
these insects, I may mention that during four years' collecting
I saw the beautiful Epicalia Mumilius only twice,—once at
Pará, and Once at Javſta, stations two thousand miles apart.
In the afternoon, just as we reached the mouth of the little
river that flows by Montealegre, a violent storm came on
suddenly, producing a heavy sea, and nearly capsizing our
boat, which the men did not very well know how to manage;
but, after being some time in considerable danger, we got
safely into Smooth water, and, after about two hours' rowing
up a winding stream, reached the village. The banks were
mostly open, grassy, and half-flooded, with clumps of trees at
intervals. Near the village was a range of high rocks, of a fine
red and yellow colour, which we afterwards found to be merely
* ...,
2
98 TRAVELS ON THE AMAzow. [September,
indurated clay, in some places very hard, in others soft and
friable: they were clothed with wood to their summits, and
had a very picturesque appearance.
The village of Montealegre is situated on a hill about a
quarter of a mile from the water's edge. The ascent to it is
up a shallow ravine, and the path is entirely covered with deep,
loose sand, which makes the walk a very laborious one. On
each side are numbers of large cactus-plants, of the branched
candelabrum form, and twenty to thirty feet high : they grow
in immense masses, having great woody stems as thick as a
man's body, and were quite a novel feature in the landscape.
The village itself forms a spacious square, in which the most
conspicuous object is the skeleton of a large and handsome
church of dark sandstone, which was commenced about twenty
years ago, when the place was more populous and thriving,
and before the revolutions which did so much injury to the
province ; but there is little prospect of its ever being finished.
The present church is a low, thatched, barn-like edifice, and
most of the houses are equally poor in their appearance.
There are no neat enclosures or gardens,—nothing but weeds
and rubbish on every side, with sometimes a few rotten palings
round a corral for cattle. *
The trade of this place is in cacao, fish, calabashes, and
cattle. The cacao is grown on the low lands along the banks
of the rivers. It is here planted on cleared ground fully
exposed to the sun, and does not seem to thrive so well as
when in the shade of the partially cleared forest, which is the
plan we had seen adopted in the Tocantíns. When an Indian
can get a few thousand cacao-trees planted, he passes an idle,
quiet, contented life : all he has to do is to weed under the
trees two or three times in the year, and to gather and dry the
seeds. The fruit of the cacao-tree is of an oblong shape, about
five inches long, and with faint longitudinal ribs. It is of a
green colour, but turns yellow as it ripens, and it grows on the
stem and larger branches by a short strong stalk, never on the
smaller twigs; it grows so firmly, that it will never fall off, but,
if left, will entirely rot away on the tree. The Outer covering
is hard and rather woody. Within is a mass of seeds, which
are the cacao-nuts, covered with a pure white pulp, which has
a pleasant sub-acid taste, and when rubbed off in water and
sweetened, forms an agreeable and favourite drink. In pre-
1849.1 MOSQUITOFS, 99
paring the cacao, this pulp is not washed off, but the whole is
laid in the sun to dry. This requires some care, for if wetted
by rain or dew it moulds and is spoilt: on large cacao planta-
tions they have a drying-frame running on rollers, so that it
can be pushed under a shed every night or on the approach of
rain. The price of good cacao is about 3s. for an arroba
(thirty-two pounds).
The fish are the piraructi, which abound in all the lakes
here, and give plenty of employment to the Indians in the dry
Season. The cattle estates are situated at the base of the
adjacent serras, where there is a scanty pasture, but in the dry
Season the marshes which extend to the Amazon afford
abundance of herbage. The calabashes, or “cuyas,” are made
in great quantities, and exported to Pará and all parts of the
Amazon. They are very neatly finished, scraped thin, and
either stained of a shining black or painted in brilliant colours
and gilt. The designs are fanciful, with sometimes figures of
birds and animals, and are filled up with much taste and
regularity. The Indian women make the colours themselves
from various vegetable juices or from the yellow earth, and
they are so permanent that the vessels may be constantly
wetted for a long time without injury. There is no other
place on the whole Amazon where painted calabashes are
made with such taste and brilliancy of colour.
We brought a letter of introduction to Senhor Nunez, a
Trenchman from Cayenne, who has a small shop in the village;
and he soon procured us an empty house, to which we had
Our things carried. It consisted of two good parlours, several
small sleeping-rooms, a large verandah, and a closed yard
behind. We were warned that the mosquitoes were here very
annoying, and we soon found them so, for immediately after
Sunset they poured in upon us in swarms, so that we found
them unbearable, and were obliged to rush into our sleeping-
rooms, which we had kept carefully closed. Here we had
some respite for a time, but they soon found their way in at
the cracks and keyholes, and made us very restless and
uncomfortable all the rest of the night.
After a few days’ residence we found them more tormenting
than ever, rendering it quite impossible for us to sit down to
read or write after sunset. The people here all use cow-dung
burnt at their doors to keep away the “praga,” or plague, as
ico TRA VEZS ON 7°FIE AMAZON. [September,
they very truly call them, it being the only thing that has any
effect. Having now got an Indian to cook for us, we every
afternoon sent him to gather a basket of this necessary article,
and just before sunset we lighted an old earthen pan full of it
at our bedroom door, in the verandah, so as to get as much
smoke as possible, by means of which we could, by walking
about, pass an hour pretty comfortably. In the evening every
house and cottage has its pan of burning dung, which gives
rather an agreeable odour ; and as there are plenty of cows
and cattle about, this necessary of life is always to be pro-
cured.
We found the country here an undulating, sandy plain, in
some places thickly covered with bushes, in others with larger
scattered trees. Along the banks of the streams were some
flat places and steep banks, all thickly clothed with wood,
while at a distance of ten or twelve miles were several fine rocky
mountains, on one of which was a curious and conspicuous
pillar of rock, with a flat overhanging cap, something like a tall
mushroom. The cactus before mentioned was everywhere
abundant, and often in the most magnificent and lofty masses.
Pine-apples were found growing wild in large beds in the
thickets, and the cashew was also general. On the rocky
slopes above the river were numerous springs gushing Out,
where on the moistened rock grew curious ferns and mosses
and pretty creeping plants. These shady groves formed our
best collecting-ground for insects. Here we first found the
beautiful indigo-blue butterfly, the Callithea Zeprieurii, sitting
on leaves in the shade, and afterwards more abundantly on
stems from which a black gummy sap was exuding. Here
were also many trogons and jacamars, and a curious creeper,
with a long sickle-shaped bill (Dendrocolapies sp.).
We much wished to visit the serras, which daily seemed
more inviting; and the account we had heard of the Indian
picture-writings which exist there increased our curiosity. We
accordingly borrowed a small montaria of Senhor Nunez, as
we had to go five or six miles by water to a cattle estate
situated at the foot of the mountain. Our canoe was furnished
with a mat sail, made of strips of the bark of a large water-
plant, and as soon as we got away from the village we hoisted
it and were carried briskly along : it was rather nervous work
at times, as the sail was far too heavy for the canoe, and
1849.] . TRIP MAW A MONTARIA. IOI
rendered it very unsteady whenever there came a little extra
puff of wind. Numerous divers and darters were swimming in
the river or seated upon trees on its banks. We tried to shoot
some, but without effect, as these birds are so active in the
water that even when wounded they dive and swim beneath it
so rapidly as to render all attempt to capture them fruitless.
We then entered a narrower branch of the stream, which we
soon found to be much impeded by water-plants growing in
large floating masses. We had now no wind, and had to
paddle, till the weeds blocked up the channel so completely
that we could get on no further. Our Indian then went
ashore, and cut two long poles with forked ends, and with
these we commenced pushing on the canoe by means of the
great masses of weeds, which were so thick and solid as to
afford a tolerable hold to the fork. Now and then we would
emerge into clear water, and could row a little among pretty
Ötricularias and Pontederias. Then, again, we would enter
into a mass of weeds and tall grass, completely filling up the
channel and rising above our heads, through which we almost
despaired to make our way; the grass, too, cut the hands
severely if it merely brushed against them. On the banks
was now to be seen a vast extent of flat, grassy campo, half
water and half land, which in the rainy season is a complete
lake. After forcing our way with great labour for several
miles, we at length reached the cattle estate, where we were
kindly received by the owner, to whom we had a note of
introduction. -
The house was situated close to the great marsh which
extends from the Amazon to the serras. It was built of mud,
with two or three rooms, and an open shed adjoining, used as
kitchen and sleeping-place for the Indians. A corral—a square
enclosed yard for the cattle—was near, and at the back rose
the sloping ground towards the mountain. All around were
interspersed thickets and open ground, and the picturesque
masses of cactus rose in every direction. We strolled about a
littles before dark, and shot a couple of pretty green purple-
shouldered paroquets, one of the smallest species that inhabits
the country. When we returned to the house we were offered
some new milk, and then sat outside the door looking at the
strange accoutrements of some of the herdsmen, who were
going on horseback to some distant part of the estate. Their
to2 TRAVELS OW THE AMAZON. [September,
curious and clumsy-looking wooden saddles, huge stirrups,
long lassos, and leather ammunition-bags, with long guns and
powder-horns of formidable dimensions, made them striking
figures, and the more picturesque from their being dusky
mulattoes. As soon as the sun set the mosquitoes made their
appearance, and the doors of the house were shut, a pan of
cow-dung lighted outside, and a lamp within. After a short
time supper was announced, and we sat down on a mat on the
floor to an excellent repast of turtle, which had been recently
brought from the Amazon. We then turned into our hammocks,
which were hung across the room in every direction. In fact,
the house was pretty well occupied before we came, so that we
were now rather crowded; but a Brazilian thinks nothing of
that, and is used to sleep in company. The doors and
windows were well closed, and though rather warm we did not
suffer from the mosquitoes, an annoyance to which any other is
preferable. . . . , ,
The next morning we prepared for our expedition to the
mountain, and as we did not know whether we should have to
stay the night, we provided ourselves with sufficient provisions,
and a large gourd to carry water. We walked some miles along
the side of the marsh, on which were many curious aquatic
birds, till we arrived at a deserted cottage, where we made our
breakfast, and then turned off by a path through a wood. On
passing this we found ourselves at the foot of a steep slope,
covered with huge blocks of stone, in the greatest confusion,
overgrown with coarse sedges and shrubs, rendering any ascent
among them extremely difficult. Just above was the curious
pillar we had seen from the village, and which we determined
to reach. After a most fatiguing scramble over the rocks and
among innumerable chasms, we found ourselves on the plat-
form below the columnar mass, which rises perpendicularly
thirty or forty feet, and then hangs over at the top all round in
a most curious and fearful manner. Its origin is very plainly
to be seen. The pillar is of friable stone, in horizontal layers,
and is constantly decaying away by the action of the weather.
The top is formed by a stratum of hard crystalline rock, which
resists the rain and sun, and is apparently now of the same
diameter that the pillar which supports it originally was.
"We had thought, looking from below, that we could have
proceeded along the ridge of the mountain to the further end,
1849.] . ASCAEAV7" OA' 7"HAE MOUAV ZAZAV. IO3
where the cave and picture-writings were to be found. Now,
however, we saw the whole summit completely covered with
the same gigantic masses of rock and the same coarse rigid
vegetation which had rendered our ascent so difficult, and
made our proceeding for miles along similar ground quite out
of the question. Our only remedy was to descend on the
other side into the sandy plain which extended along its base.
We first took a good view of the prospect which spread out
before us, a wide undulating plain covered with scattered
trees and shrubs, with a yellow Sandy soil and a brownish
vegetation. Beyond this were seen, stretching out to the
horizon, a succession of low conical and oblong hills, studding
the distant plain in every direction. Not a house was to be
seen, and the picture was one little calculated to impress the
mind with a favourable idea of the fertility of the country or
the beauty of tropical scenery. Our descent was very pre-
cipitous. Winding round chasms, creeping under overhanging
rocks, clinging by roots and branches, we at length reached
the bottom, and had level ground to walk on. - -
We now saw the whole side of the mountain, along its
summit, split vertically into numerous rude columns, in all
of which the action of the atmosphere on the different strata
of which they were composed was more or less discernible.
They diminished and increased in thickness as the soft and
hard beds alternated, and in some places appeared like globes
standing on pedestals, or the heads and bodies of huge giants.
They did not seem to be prismatic, but to be the result of suc-
cessive earthquake shocks, producing vertical cracks in Cross
directions, the action of the sun and rains then widening the
fissures and forming completely detached columns.
As we proceeded along the sands we found the heat very
oppressive. We had finished the water in our gourd, and
knew not where to get more. Our Indian told us there was
a spring halfway up the mountain, a little further on, but it
might now have failed, as it was the height of the dry season.
... We soon came in sight of the spot, and a group of Mauritia
palms, which always grow in damp places, as well as some
patches of brilliant green herbage, gave us hope. On reaching
the palms we found a moist, boggy soil, but such a slow
filtering of water among the weeds that it took nearly half an
hour to fill our gourd. Seeing a mass of green at the very
IO4 TRA VEZS OW THE AMAZOAV. [September,
base of the perpendicular rocks higher up, where the spring
appeared to issue, we proceeded there, and found, to our great
joy, a little trickle of pure and delightfully cool water, and a
shady place where we could rest and eat our lunch in comfort.
We then went on till we arrived where our guide said the
cave was situated; but having been there only once he could
not find it again, among the confused mass of rock which in
several places appeared to present openings, but which on
searching the spot deceived us. After various clamberings we
gave up the search, and determined to return home and get
a better guide another day.
On our way back we passed by a high cliff, on which were
some of the picture-writings I had so much wished to see.
They were executed in a red tint, produced apparently by
rubbing them in with pieces of the rock, which in places is of that
colour. They looked quite fresh, and were not at all obliterated
by the weather, though no one knows their antiquity. They
consisted of various figures, rudely executed, some representing
animals, as the alligator and birds, others like some household
utensils, and others again circles and mathematical figures,
while there were some very complicated and fantastic forms:
all were scattered irregularly over the rock to the height of eight
or ten feet. The size of most of the figures was from one to
two feet.
. I took a general sketch of the whole, and some accurate
tracings of the more curious single figures, which have unfor-
tunately been since lost. The night felt chilly and damp, and
we had nothing to cover ourselves with, or should have slept
on the mountain. As it was, we arrived home very tired about
eight o'clock, and were soon glad to turn into our hammocks.
The next day Senhor Nunez determined to go with us him-
self to show us the cave and some more picture-writings,
situated in another part of the mountain. We now went on
horseback, but could no more find the cave than before, and
were forced to send our Indian for an old man who lived a
couple of miles off, and who knew the place well. While he
was gone, Senhor Nunez went with me to find the picture-
writings, which we did after a fatiguing walk. They were
situated on a perpendicular rock, rising from the top of a steep,
stony slope, which almost deterred me from getting up to them,
as I was very tired and thirsty, and there was no water. How-
^
1849.] 7"HE CA VE. IOS
ever, having come on purpose to see them, I was determined
to persevere, and soon reached the place. They were much
larger than the others, and extended higher up the rock; the
figures, too, were all different, consisting principally of large
concentric circles, called by the natives the sun and moon, and
several others more complicated and three or four feet high.
Among them were two dates of years about 1770, in very
neat well-formed figures, which I have no doubt were the work
of some travellers who wished to show that they knew how the
others were executed, and to record the date of their visit.
Near some of the higher figures were two or three impressions
of hands in the same colour, showing the palm and all the
fingers very distinctly, as if the person executing the upper
figures had stood on another's shoulders and supported himself
with one hand (smeared with the red colour) while he drew with
the other. I also took copies of the figures at this place,
which, being large and exposed, are visible from a considerable
distance round, and are more generally known than the others,
which are in a secluded and out-of-the-way situation, and were
probably not visited by any European traveller before myself.
We walked some distance further, to get some water, before
returning towards the cave. There we found that our guides
had arrived, and they soon led us up a steep path to its mouth,
which is so well concealed by trees and bushes that our failing
to discover it was not to be wondered at. The entrance is a
rude archway, fifteen or twenty feet high; but what is most
curious is a thin piece of rock which runs completely across
the opening, about five feet from the ground, like an irregular
flat board. This stone has not fallen into its present position,
but is a portion of the solid rock harder than the rest, so that
it has resisted the force which cleared away the material above
and below it. Inside there is a large irregularly arched
chamber, with a smooth sandy floor, and at the end there are
openings into other chambers; but as we had not brought
candles we could not explore them. There was nothing about
the cave at all remarkable, except the flat transverse rock at
its mouth. The vegetation around it was by no means
luxuriant or beautiful, nor were there any flowers worth noticing.
In fact, many of our caves in the limestone districts of
England are in every way more picturesque and interesting.
I had heard of a plant growing in the pools in the marsh,
Ioë TRAVEL's ow THE AMAzow. [September,
which I was convinced must be the Victoria regia. Senhor
Nunez told me there were plenty near his house, and early
the next morning he sent an Indian to try and get me one.
After some search the man found one, with a half-opened
flower, and brought it to me. The leaf was about four feet
in diameter, and I was much pleased at length to see this
celebrated plant; but as it has now become comparatively
common in England, it is not necessary for me to describe it.
It is found all over the Amazon district, but rarely or never
in the river itself. It seems to delight in still waters, growing
in inlets, lakes, or very quiet branches of the river, fully exposed
to the sun. Here it grew in the pools left in the bog; but in
June the water would be twenty or thirty feet deeper, so its
leaf and flower-stalks must increase in length rapidly while the
water rises, as they did not seem to be very long now. I took
the leaf home, in order to dry some portions of it. It is called
by the Indians “Uaupé Japóna” (the Jacana's oven), from the
resemblance of the leaf, with its deep rim, to the clay ovens
used for making farinha. +
As we wished to get home that day, we took leave of our
kind host, and again had to pole our way over the grass and
weeds in the small stream. It did not, however, now seem so
tedious as on our ascent, and we soon got into the open river.
Passing along a sandy shore, our Indian saw signs of turtles'
eggs, and immediately jumped out and commenced scraping
away the sand, in a very short time turning up a hatful of eggs
of the small turtle called “Tracaxá.” A little lower down
there was an old tree giving a tempting shade, so we made a
fire under it, boiled our eggs, made some coffee, and with some
farinha and beef we had brought with us made an excellent
breakfast. Proceeding on, we fell in with a great number of
alligators, of a large size, swimming about in all directions.
We fired at some of them, but only succeeded in making them
dive rapidly to the bottom. They are much feared by the
natives, who never venture far into the water when bathing.
In a place where we had bathed a few days previously, we saw
one close in shore, and resolved to be more careful for the
future, as every year some lives are lost by incautiousness.
After a few days more at the village, we paid a visit to a
mandiocca plantation some miles in the interior, where there
is a considerable extent of forest-land, and where we therefore
1849.] SAAWTAREM, to 7
expected to find more insects. We went on foot, carrying our
rédés, guns, boxes, nets, and other necessaries for a week's
stay. On arriving, we found the only accommodation to
consist of a little low thatched hut, just large enough to hang
our hammocks in, and the only inhabitants four or five Negroes
belonging to the place. •
However, we soon made ourselves at home, and our little
coffee-pot supplied us with an unfailing and refreshing luxury.
We found in the forest several scarce butterflies pretty abun-
dant, and among them a new species of Catagramma, which
we had only met with very rarely at Pará; trogons and jacamars
were also plentiful, but there was not any great variety either
of birds or insects. There was no running stream here, but a
kind of moist, marshy flat, in which shallow holes were dug
and soon became filled with water, whence the only supply of
this necessary was obtained.
On returning to the village my brother sprained his leg,
which swelled and formed an abscess above the knee, quite
preventing him from going out for a fortnight. After some
trouble I purchased a small canoe here, in which I intended
to return to Santarem, and afterwards proceed up the Amazon
to Barra, on the Rio Negro.
A festa took place before we left. The church was decorated
with leaves and flowers, and sweetmeats were provided for all
visitors. Dancing and drinking then went on all night and
during the following day, and we were left to cook our own
meals, as our Indian was a performer on the violin, and did
not think it at all necessary to ask us in order to absent himself
two days. The Indians now came in from all the country
round, and I bought a number of the pretty painted calabashes
for which this place is celebrated.
“Soon after we returned to Santarem, where we found our
house occupied, but got another, consisting of two small mud-
floored rooms and a yard at the back, situated at the further
end of the town. We here engaged an old Negro woman to
Cook for us, and soon got into a regular routine of living.
We rose at six, got ready our collecting-boxes, nets, etc.,
while our old cook was preparing breakfast, which we took at
Seven ; and having given her money to buy meat and vegetables
for dinner, started at eight for a walk of about three miles, to a
good collecting-ground we had found below the town.
Io& TRAVELs ow THE AMAzow. [November,
We continued hard at work till about two or three in the
afternoon, generally procuring some new and interesting insects,
Here was the haunt of the beautiful Callithea sapphira, one of
the most lovely of butterflies, and of numerous curious and
brilliant little Frycinidae. As we returned we stayed to bathe in
the Tapajoz, and on arriving at home immediately ate a water-
melon, which was always ready for us, and which at that time
we found most grateful and refreshing. We then changed our
clothes, dined, set out our insects, and in the cool of the
evening took tea, and called on or received visits from our
Brazilian or English friends—among whom was now Mr.
Spruce, the botanist, who arrived here from Pará shortly after
we had returned from Montealegre.
The constant hard exercise, pure air, and good living, not-
withstanding the intense heat, kept us in the most perfect
health, and I have never altogether enjoyed myself so much.
In Santarem there is an abundance of beef, fish, milk, and
fruits, a dry soil, and clear water, a conjunction of advantages
seldom to be met with in this country. There were some
boggy meadows here, more like those of Europe than one often
sees so near the equator, on which were growing pretty small
Melastomas and other flowers. The paths and campos were
covered with flowering myrtles, tall Melastomas, and numbers
of passion-flowers, convolvuluses, and bignonias. At the back
of the town, a mile or two off, were some bare conical hills, to
which I paid some visits. They were entirely formed of
scoriae, and were as barren and uninviting as can possibly be
imagined. A curious tidal phenomenon was to be seen here :
the tide rises in the Amazon to considerably above Santarem,
but it never flows up, the water merely rising and falling. The
river Tapajoz had now very little water, and its surface was
below the level of the Amazon at high water, so that the tide
was every day seen to flow up the Tapajoz, while a hundred
yards out in the stream of the Amazon it was still flowing
rapidly down.
It was now November, and as some rain had fallen, and
gloomy weather had set in, we determined to start for the Rio
Negro as soon as we could. Our canoe was at length ready,
having taken us a long time to repair the bottom, which was
quite rotten. After much delay the Commandante had pro-
cured us three Indians, who were to go with us only to Obydos,
1849.] 4 Å IND PRIES7. 109
about three days up the Amazon, and had given us a letter to
the authorities there, to furnish us with more. Mr. Spruce
had set out for Obydos just a week before us, in a large canoe,
the owner of which had offered him a passage. On our
arrival we found him unpacking his things, and he told us he
had only got there the night previous, having been ten days on
a journey which is frequently performed in a day and a night:
want of wind was the cause, and the owner of the canoe, who
was with them, would not move at night. But to such delays
the unfortunate traveller who ventures on the Amazon must
make up his mind patiently to submit. Captain Hislop had
written to a friend of his to lend us an unoccupied house,
where we had to remain several days quite alone, for our
Indians, after unloading the canoe, went off immediately, and
we could not get others till the Commandante had sent to
fetch them from a considerable distance.
We amused ourselves in the forest, where we found insects
very abundant, but mostly of species we had before obtained.
As our canoe had leaked so much in coming here that we
were almost afraid to venture in it, we had it pulled up on the
beach, and discovered some of the cracks, which we stopped
as well as we could by plugging in cotton dipped in hot pitch.
At length we set off again with two Indians, who were to go
with us only to Villa Nova, the next town, about four days'
voyage from Obydos. As we had only two, we could not do
much with the paddles, one being required at the helm ; but
luckily the wind was strong and steady, and we went on day
and night very briskly. We had to cross the river several
times, generally at night. The wind created a great swell,
and as we dashed along furiously through it, I was rather
doubtful of our rotten boat holding together. In four days,
however, we reached Villa Nova in safety, and I was very glad
to have got so far on our way. We were kindly received on
the beach by the priest of the village, Padre Torquato, who
invited us in such a pressing manner to stay in his house till
we should get men to go on, that we could not refuse. The
Commandante, to whom we brought letters, to give us more
men, was out at his sitio; they therefore had to be sent after
him, and it would probably be several days before we had an
answer, and perhaps much longer before the men were
procured.
I IO TRAVELS ON THE AMAzow. [December,
The Padre was a very well-educated and gentlemanly man,
and made us as comfortable as he could, though, as he had
only two small rooms to share with us, he was putting himself
to much inconvenience on our account. He is already known
to the English reader from having accompanied Prince
Adalbert of Prussia up the Xingu, and he well deserves all the
encomiums the Prince has bestowed upon him. He was very
fond of enigmas, which he amused himself and his friends by
inventing and solving. I much delighted him by turning such
of our best as would bear the process into Portuguese; and I.
also translated for him the old puzzle on the word “tobacco”
—in Portuguese, “tabaco,” which did just as well—and
much pleased him. I took here some fine insects, but it was
too late in the season: from July to October Villa Nova would,
I have no doubt, be a fine locality for an entomologist. s
A week passed away, and the men came not, and as I was
very anxious to be off, the Padre agreed with a trader to let me
have three of his Indians, he taking instead those that the
Commandante would probably soon send for me. One of the
Indians, however, did not choose to come, and was driven to the
canoe by severe lashes, and at the point of the bayonet. He
was very furious and sullen when he came on board, vowing
that he would not go with me, and would take vengeance on
those who had forced him on board. He complained bitterly
of being treated like a slave, and I could not much blame him.
I tried what I could to pacify him, offering him good pay and
plenty to eat and drink, but to no purpose ; he declared he
would go back from the first place we stopped at, and kill the
man who had struck him. At the same time he was very
civil, assuring me that he felt no ill-will against me, as I had
had nothing to do with it. It was afternoon when we started,
and about sunset we stayed to make supper; and then the ill-
used Indian politely wished me good-bye, and taking his
bundle of clothes returned through the forest to the village.
As I could not go on with two only, I sent one of them back
early in the morning to get another in the place of the one who
had run away, which he did, and returning about ten o'clock,
we pursued our journey. - - -
We went along slowly, now and then sailing, but generally
rowing, and suffering much annoyance from the rain, which
was almost incessant. The mosquitoes, too, were a great.
1849.] f/OYAGE TO THE RIO AVEGRO. III
torture: night after night we were kept in a state of feverish
irritation, unable to close our eyes for a moment. Our Indians
suffered quite as much as ourselves: it is a great mistake to
suppose that the mosquitoes do not bite them. You hear
them, all night long, slapping on their bare bodies to drive
...their tormentors off; or they will completely roll themselves up
in the sail, suffering the pangs of semi-suffocation to escape
from the irritating bites. There are particular spots along
the banks of the river where there are no mosquitoes; and no
inducement would make our men paddle so hard as the proba-
bility of reaching one of these places before midnight, and
being enabled to enjoy the comforts of sleep till morning.
Towards the end of December, we reached the little village
of Serpa, where we found a festa or procession going on, a
number of women and girls, with ribands and flowers, dancing
along to the church with the priest at their head, in a most
ludicrous manner. In the evening we went to the house where
the dancing took place, and had some wine and sweetmeats.
We bought here some coffee and a large basket of plantains.
On Christmas day we reached a house where they had just
caught a quantity of fish, and we wanted to buy some, which
was refused, but they gave us a fine fat piece for our dinner.
We bought some eggs, and when we stopped for the day con-
cocted a farinha pudding, and so, with our fish and coffee,
made a very tolerable Christmas dinner, while eating which
our thoughts turned to our distant home, and to dear friends
who at their more luxurious tables would think of us far away
upon the Amazon.
CHAPTER VII.
BARRA Do RIO NEGRO AND THE SOLIMöES.
Appearance of the Rio Negro–The City of Barra, its Trade and its
Inhabitants—Journey up the Rio Negro–The Lingoa Geral—
The Umbrella Bird—Mode of Life of the Indians—Return to Barra
—Strangers in the City—Visit to the Solimões—The Gapó—Mana-
query—Country Life—Curl-crested Araçaris—Vultures and Onças
—Tobacco Growing and Manufacture—The Cow-Fish—Senhor Bran-
dāo—A Fishing Party with Senhor Henrique—Letters from England.
ON the 31st of December, 1849, we arrived at the city of
Barra on the Rio Negro. On the evening of the 3oth the sun
had set on the yellow Amazon, but we continued rowing till
late at night, when we reached some rocks at the mouth of the
Rio Negro, and caught some fine fish in the shallows. In the
morning we looked with surprise at the wonderful change in
the water around us. We might have fancied ourselves on the
river Styx, for it was black as ink in every direction, except
where the white sand, seen at the depth of a few feet through
its dusky wave, appeared of a golden hue. The water itself
is of a pale brown colour, the tinge being just perceptible in
a glass, while in deep water it appears jet black, and well
deserves its name of Rio Negro–“black river.”
We brought letters to Senhor Henrique Antony, an Italian
gentleman settled here many years, and the principal merchant
in the city; who received us with such hearty hospitality as at
Once to make us feel at home. He gave us the use of two
large rooms in a new house of his own not quite finished, and
invited us to take our meals at his table.
The city of Barra do Rio Negro is situated on the east bank
of that river, about twelve miles above its junction with the
Amazon. It is on uneven ground, about thirty feet above the
1850.] THE CATY OF BARA’A. 113
high-water level, and there are two small streams or gullies
running through it, where during the wet season the water
rises to a considerable height, and across which are two
wooden bridges. The streets are regularly laid out, but quite
unpaved, much undulating, and full of holes, so that walking
about at night is very unpleasant. The houses are generally
of one story, with red-tiled roofs, brick floors, white- and yellow-
washed walls, and green doors and shutters; and, when the
sun shines, are pretty enough. The “Barra,” or fort, is now
represented by a fragment of wall and a mound of earth, and
there are two churches, but both very poor and far inferior to
that of Santarem. The population is five or six thousand, of
which the greater part are Indians and half-breeds; in fact,
there is probably not a single person born in the place of pure
European blood, so completely have the Portuguese amalga-
mated with the Indians. The trade is chiefly in Brazil-nuts,
salsaparilha, and fish; and the imports are European cotton-
goods of inferior quality, and quantities of coarse cutlery,
beads, mirrors, and other trimkets for the trade with the Indian
tribes, of which this is the head-quarters. The distance from
Pará is about a thousand miles, and the voyage up in the wet
season often takes from two to three months, so that flour,
cheese, wine, and other necessaries, are always very dear, and
often not to be obtained. The more civilised inhabitants of
Barra are all engaged in trade, and have literally no amuse-
ments whatever, unless drinking and gambling on a small
scale can be so considered : most of them never open a book,
or have any mental occupation.
As might be expected, therefore, etiquette in dress is much
attended to, and on Sunday at mass all are in full costume.
The ladies dress very elegantly in a variety of French muslins
and gauzes; they all have fine hair, which they arrange care-
fully, and ornament with flowers, and never hide it or their
faces under caps or bonnets. The gentlemen, who pass all
the week in dirty warehouses, in their shirt-sleeves and slippers,
are then seen in suits of the finest black, with beaver hats,
Satin Cravats, and patent-leather boots of the smallest dimen-
sions; and then is the fashionable visiting time, when every
One goes to see everybody, to talk over the accumulated
Scandal of the week. Morals in Barra are perhaps at the
lowest ebb possible in any civilised community: you will every
--> 8
114 7 RA VEZS OW 7A/E RAO AVEGAEO. [/anuary,
day hear things commonly talked of, about the most respectable
families in the place, which would hardly be credited of the
inhabitants of the worst parts of St. Giles's. - -
The wet season had now set in, and we soon found there
was little to be done in collecting birds or insects at Barra. I
had been informed that this was the time to find the celebrated
umbrella chatterers in plumage, and that they were plentiful in
the islands about three days' voyage up the Rio Negro. On
communicating to Senhor Henrique my wish tö go there, he
applied to some of the authorities to furnish me with Indians
to make the voyage. When they came, which was after three
or four days, I started in my own canoe, leaving my brother H.
to pay a visit to an estate in another direction. My voyage
occupied three days, and I had a good opportunity of observing
the striking difference between this river and the Amazon.
Here were no islands Öf floating grass, no logs and uprooted
trees, with their cargoes of gulls, scarcely any stream, and few
signs of life in the black and sluggish waters. Yet when there
is a storm, there are greater and more dangerous waves than
on the Amazon. When the dark clouds above cause the water
to appear of a yet more inky blackness, and the rising waves.
break in white foam over the vast expanse, the scene is gloomy
in the extreme.
At Barra the river is about a mile and a half wide. A few
3yr--- . * te ge
miles up it widens considerably, in many places forming deep
bays eight or ten miles across. Further on, again, it separates.
into several channels, divided by innumerable islands, and the
total width is probably not less than twenty miles. We
crossed where it is four or five miles wide; and then keeping
up the left bank we entered among the islands, when the
Opposite shore was no more seen. We passed many sandy
and pebbly beaches, with occasional masses of sandstone and
volcanic rock, and a long extent of high and steep gravelly
banks, everywhere, except in the most precipitous places,
covered with a luxuriant vegetation of shrubs and forest-trees.
We saw several cottages, and a village prettily situated on a
high, grassy slope, and at length reached Castanheiro, the
residence of Senhor Balbino, to whom I brought a letter. After
reading it he asked me my intentions, and then promised to get
me a good hunter to kill birds and any other animals I wanted.
The house of Senhor Balbino is generally known as the

1850.] COUNTRY QUARTERS. II5
“Sobrado,” or upper-storied house, being the only one of
the kind out of Barra. It was, however, in rather a dilapidated
condition, the ladder which served for stairs wanting two steps,
and requiring a great exertion of the muscles of the leg to
ascend it. This, Senhor Henrique afterwards informed me,
had been in the same state for several years, though Balbino
has always a carpenter at work making canoes, who might put
in a couple of boards in an hour.
An Indian living near now arrived, and we accompanied
him to his house, where I was to find a lodging. It was about
half a mile further up the river, at the mouth of a small stream,
where there was a little settlement of two or three families.
The part which it was proposed I should occupy was a small
room with a very steep hill for a floor, and three doorways,
two with palm-leaf mats and the other doing duty as a window.
No choice being offered me, I at once accepted the use of
this apartment, and, my men having now brought on my canoe,
I ordered my boxes on shore, hung up my hammock, and at
once took possession. The Indians then left me; but a boy.
lent me by Senhor Henrique remained with me to light a fire
and boil my coffee, and prepare dinner when we were so
fortunate as to get any. I borrowed a table to work at, but,
owing to the great inclination of the ground, nothing that had
not a very broad base would stay upon it. The houses here
were imbedded in the forest, so that although there were four
not twenty yards apart, they were not visible from each other,
the space where the forest had been cut down being planted
with fruit-trees.
Only one of the men here could speak Portuguese, all the
rest using the Indian language, called Lingoa Geral, which I
found very difficult to get hold of without any books, though
it is an easy and simple language. The word igaripé, applied
to all Small streams, means “path of the canoe”; tatatinga,
Smoke, is literally “white fire.” Many of the words sound like
Greek, as Sapucaía, a fowl; apegåua, a man. In the names
of animals the same vowel is often repeated, producing a very
euphonious effect; as parawd, a parrot; maracajá, a tiger-cat;
sucurujū, apoisonous snake. My Indian boy spoke Lingoa Geral
and Portuguese, and so with his assistance I got on very well.
The next morning my hunter arrived, and immediately went
out in his canoe among the islands, where the umbrella-birds
116 TRAVELS OW THE RIO MEGRO. [January,
are found. In the evening after dark he returned, bringing
one fine specimen. This singular bird is about the size of
a raven, and is of a similar colour, but its feathers have a
more scaly appearance, from being margined with a different
shade of glossy blue. It is also allied to the crows in its
structure, being very similar to them in its feet and bill. On
its head it bears a crest, different from that of any other bird.
It is formed of feathers more than two inches long, very thickly
set, and with hairy plumes curving over at the end. These can
be laid back so as to be hardly visible, or can be erected and
spread out on every side, forming a hemispherical, or rather a
hemi-ellipsoidal dome, completely covering the head, and even
reaching beyond the point of the beak: the individual feathers
then stand out something like the down-bearing seeds of the
dandelion. Besides this, there is another ornamental appendage
on the breast, formed by a fleshy tubercle, as thick as a quill
and an inch and a half long, which hangs down from the neck,
and is thickly covered with glossy feathers, forming a large
pendent plume or tassel. This also the bird can either press to
its breast, so as to be scarcely visible, or can swell out, so as
almost to conceal the forepart of its body. In the female the
crest and the neck-plume are less developed, and she is al-
together a smaller and much less handsome bird. It inhabits
the flooded islands of the Rio Negro and the Solimóes, never
appearing on the mainland. It feeds on fruits, and utters a
loud, hoarse cry, like some deep musical instrument; whence
its Indian name, Ueramimbé, “trumpet-bird.” The whole of
the neck, where the plume of feathers springs from, is covered
internally with a thick coat of hard, muscular fat, very difficult
to be cleaned away,+which, in preparing the skins, must be
done, as it would putrefy, and cause the feathers to drop off.
The birds are tolerably abundant, but are shy, and perch on
the highest trees, and, being very muscular, will not fall unless
severely wounded. My hunter worked very perseveringly to get
them, going out before daylight and often not returning till nine
or ten at night, yet he never brought me more than two at a
time, generally only one, and sometimes none.
The only other birds found in the islands were the beautiful
and rare little bristle-tailed manakin, and two species of curassow-
bird. On the mainland, the white bell-bird was found on the
loftiest trees of the forest, almost out of gunshot. Three were
1850.] AWOOD OF THE ZAVIDIAAWS. 117.
brought me, much disfigured with blood, having been shot at
four or five times each before they fell. The beautiful trumpeter
(Psophia crepitans), a different species from that found at Pará,
was plentiful here. A rare little toucan (Pteroglossus Azarae),
and a few parrots, hawks, and Brazilian partridges, were the
only other birds we met with.
Insects were by no means abundant, there being few paths in
the woods in which to hunt for them or to cause them to ac-
cumulate together; for I have invariably found that in an open
path through the forest the chequered light and shade causes
a variety of plants to spring up and flowers to blow, which in
their turn attract a great variety of insects. An open pathway
seems to have similar attractions for many kinds of insects to
what it has for ourselves. The great blue butterflies, and many
smaller ones, will course along it for miles, and if driven into
the forest will generally soon return to it again. The gleams
of sunshine and the free current of air attract some; others seek
the blossoms which there abound; while every particle of animal
matter in the pathway is sure to be visited by a number of dif-
ferent species: so that upon the number and extent of the paths
and roads which traverse the forest will depend in agreat measure
the success of the entomologist in these parts of South America.
There were two other rooms in the house where I lived,
inhabited by three families. The men generally wore nothing
but a pair of trousers, the women only a petticoat, and the
children nothing at all. They all lived in the poorest manner,
and at first I was quite puzzled to find out when they had their
meals. In the morning early they would each have a cuya of
mingau"; then about mid-day they would eat some dry farinha
cake or a roasted yam ; and in the evening some more mingau
of farinha or plantains. I could not imagine that they really had
nothing else to eat, but at last was obliged to come to the con-
clusion that various preparations of mandiocca and water formed
their only food. About once a week they would get a few
small fish or a bird, but then it would be divided among so
many as only to serve as a relish to the cassava bread. My
hunter never took anything out with him but a bag of dry
farinha, and after being away fourteen hours in his canoe would
come home and sit down in his hammock, and converse as if
* Mingau is a kind of porridge made either of farinha or of the large
plantain called pacova.
I 18 TRAVEZs ow THE R10 WEGro. [Fºruary,
his thoughts were far from eating, and then, when a cuya of
mingau was offered him, would quite contentedly drink it, and
be ready to start off before daybreak the next morning. Yet
he was as stout and jolly-looking as John Bull himself, fed daily
on fat beef and mutton.
Most of the wild fruits—which are great favourites with these
people, especially the women and children—are of an acrid or
bitter taste, to which long practice only can reconcile a foreigner.
Often, when seeing a little child gnawing away at some strange
fruit, I have asked to taste it, thinking that it must be sweet to
please at that lollipop-loving age, and have found a flavour like
aloes or quassia, that I could not get out of my mouth for an
hour; others equally relished are like yellow soap, and some as
Sour as verjuice.
These people almost always seem at work, but have very little
to show for it. The women go to dig up mandiocca or yams,
or they have weeding or planting to do, and at other times have
earthen pots to make, and their scanty clothing to mend and
wash. The men are always busy, either clearing the forest or
cutting down timber for a canoe or for paddles, or to make a
board for some purpose or other ; and their houses always
want mending, and then there is thatch to be brought from a
long distance; or they want baskets, or bows and arrows, or
some other thing which occupies nearly their whole time, and
yet does not produce them the bare necessaries of life, or allow
them leisure to hunt the game that abounds in the forest around
them. This is principally the result of everybody doing every-
thing for himself, slowly and with much unnecessary labour,
instead of occupying himself with one kind of industry, and
exchanging its produce for the articles he requires. An Indian
spends a week in cutting down a tree in the forest, and fashion-
ing an article which, by the division of labour, can be made for
sixpence: the consequence is, that his work produces but six-
pence a week, and he is therefore all his life earning a scanty
supply of clothing, in a country where food may be had almost
for nothing.
Having remained here a month, and obtained twenty-five
specimens of the umbrella-bird, I prepared to return to Barra.
On the last day my hunter went out he brought me a fine male
bird alive. It had been wounded slightly on the head, just
behind the eye, and had fallen to the ground stunned, for in
1850.] AºA:27'URAW 7'O BARAEA. II9
a short time it became very active, and when he brought it me
was as strong and fierce as if it was quite uninjured. I put it
in a large wicker basket, but as it would take no food during
two days I fed it by thrusting pieces of banana down its
throat; this I continued for several days, with much difficulty,
as its claws were very sharp and powerful. On our way to Barra
I found by the river-side a small fruit which it ate readily;
this fruit was about the size of a cherry, of an acid taste, and was
swallowed whole. The bird arrived safely in the city, and
lived a fortnight; when one day it suddenly fell off its perch
and died. On skinning it, I found the shot had broken the
skull and entered to the brain, though it seems surprising that
it should have remained so long apparently in perfect health.
I had had, however, an excellent opportunity of observing its
habits, and its method of expanding and closing its beautiful
crest and neck-plume.
I had now a dull time of it in Barra. The wet season had
regularly set in ; a day hardly ever passed without rain, and
on many days it was incessant. We seized every opportunity
for a walk in the forest, but scarcely anything was to be found
when we got there, and what we did get was with the greatest
difficulty preserved; for the atmosphere was so saturated with
moisture that insects moulded, and the feathers and hair
dropped from the skins of birds and animals so as to render
them quite unserviceable. Luckily, however, there were a good
number of foreigners in Barra, so we had a little company.
Two traders on the Amazon, an American and an Irishman,
had arrived. Mr. Bates had reached Barra a few weeks after
me, and was now here, unwilling, like myself, to go further up
the country in such uninviting weather. There were also three
Germans, one of whom spoke English well and was a bit of a
naturalist, and all were good singers, and contributed a little
amusement.
There was also a deaf and dumb American, named Baker, a
very humorous and intelligent fellow, who was a constant fund
of amusement both for the Brazilians and ourselves. He had
been educated in the same institution with Laura Bridgman,
as a teacher of the deaf and dumb. He seemed to have a
passion for travelling, probably as the only means of furnishing
through his one sense the necessary amount of exercise and
stimulus to his mind. He had travelled alone through Peru
I2O TRA VEZS ON 7"HE RIO AVEGA’O. [May,
and Chile, across to Brazil, through Pará to Barra, and now
proposed going by the Rio Branco to Demerara, and so to the
United States. He supported himself by selling the deaf and
dumb alphabet, with explanations in Spanish and Portuguese.
He carried a little slate, on which he could write anything in
English or French, and also a good deal in Spanish, so that
he could always make his wants known. He made himself at
home in every house in Barra, walking in and out as he liked,
and asking by signs for whatever he wanted. He was very
merry, fond of practical jokes, and of making strange gesticu-
lations. He pretended to be a phrenologist; and on feeling
the head of a Portuguese or Brazilian would always write down
on his slate, “Very fond of the ladies; ” which on being trans-
lated would invariably elicit, “He verdade” (that's very true),
and signs of astonishment at his penetration. He was a great
smoker, and would drink wine and spirits so freely as some-
times to make him carry his antics to a great length ; still he
was much liked, and will be long remembered by the people
of Barra. But, poor fellow ! he was never to see his native
land again : he died a few months after, at the ſortress of São
Joaquim, on the Rio Branco, it was said, of jaundice.
Notwithstanding all this, the time passed heavily enough ;
and though Mr. Hauxwell soon after arrived to add to our
party, still nothing could make up for the desolation and death
which the incessant rains appeared to have produced in all
animated nature. Between two and three months passed away
in this unexciting monotony, when, the river having nearly
risen to its height, and there being some appearance of the
weather improving, I determined on taking a journey to the
Solimões (as the Amazon is called above the entrance of the
Rio Negro), to the estate of Senhor Brandão, my kind host's
father-in-law.
The river was now so high that a great portion of the low-
lands between the Rio Negro and the Amazon was flooded,
being what is called “Gapó.” This is one of the most singular
features of the Amazon. It extends from a little above San-
tarem up to the confines of Peru—a distance of about seven-
teen hundred miles—and varies in width on each side of the
river from one to ten or twenty miles. From Santarem to
Coarſ, a little town on the Solimóes, a person may go by canoe
in the wet season without once entering into the main river,
1850.] scenery IN THE GAPO. I2I
He will pass through small streams, lakes, and swamps, and
everywhere around him will stretch out an illimitable waste of
waters, but all covered with a lofty virgin forest. For days he
will travel through this forest, scraping against tree-trunks, and
stooping to pass beneath the leaves of prickly palms, now level
with the water, though raised on stems forty feet high. In
this trackless maze the Indian finds his way with unerring
certainty, and by slight indications of broken twigs or scraped
bark, goes on day by day as if travelling on a beaten road. In
the Gapó peculiar animals are found, attracted by the fruits of
trees which grow only there. In fact, the Indians assert that
every tree that grows in the Gapó is distinct from all those
found in other districts; and when we consider the extra-
ordinary conditions under which these plants exist, being sub-
merged for six months of the year till they are sufficiently lofty
to rise above the highest water-level, it does not seem impro-
bable that such may be the case. Many species of trogons
are peculiar to the Gapó, others to the dry virgin forest. The
umbrella chatterer is entirely confined to it, as is also the little
bristle-tailed manakin. Some monkeys are found there only
in the wet season, and whole tribes of Indians, such as the
Purupuriis and Muiras, entirely inhabit it, building small, easily-
removable huts on the sandy shores in the dry season, and on
rafts in the wet; spending a great part of their lives in canoes,
sleeping suspended in rude hammocks from trees over the deep
water, cultivating no vegetables, but subsisting entirely on the
fish, turtle, and cow-fish which they obtain from the river.
On crossing the Rio Negro from the city of Barra, we entered
into a tract of this description. Our canoe was forced under
branches and among dense bushes, till we got into a part
where the trees were loftier, and a deep gloom prevailed.
Here the lowest branches of the trees were level with the
surface of the water, and were many of them putting forth
flowers. As we proceeded we sometimes came to a grove of
Small palms, the leaves being now only a few feet above us,
and among them was the marajá, bearing bunches of agreeable
fruit, which, as we passed, the Indians cut off with their long
knives. Sometimes the rustling of leaves overhead told us
that monkeys were near, and we would soon perhaps discover
them peeping down from among the thick foliage, and then
bounding rapidly away as soon as we had caught a glimpse of
I22 TRAVEZs ow THE RIo wegro. [May,
them. Presently we came out into the sunshine, in a grassy
lake filled with lilies and beautiful water-plants, little yellow
bladder-worts (Ulricularia), and the bright-blue flowers and
curious leaves with swollen stalks of the Ponfederias. Again
in the gloom of the forest, among the lofty cylindrical trunks
rising like columns out of the deep water : now a splashing of
falling fruit around us would announce that birds were feeding
overhead, and we could discover a flock of paroquets, or some
bright-blue chatterers, or the lovely pompadour, with its delicate
white wings and claret-coloured plumage; now with a whirr a
trogon would seize a fruit on the wing, or some clumsy toucan
make the branches shake as he alighted. -
But what lovely yellow flower is that suspended in the air
between two trunks, yet far from either ? It shines in the
gloom as if its petals were of gold. Now we pass close by it,
and see its stalk, like a slender wire a yard and a half long,
springing from a cluster of thick leaves on the bark of a tree.
It is an Oncidium, one of the lovely orchis tribe, making these
gloomy shades gay with its airy and brilliant flowers. Presently
there are more of them, and then others appear, with white and
spotted and purple blossoms, some growing on rotten logs
floating in the water, but most on moss and decaying bark just
above it. There is one magnificent species, four inches across,
called by the natives St. Ann's flower (Flor de Santa Anna), of
a brilliant purple colour, and emitting a most delightful odour;
it is a new species, and the most magnificent flower of its kind
in these regions; even the natives will sometimes deign to
admire it, and to wonder how such a beautiful flower grows
“atóa' (uselessly) in the Gapó. g
At length, after about eight hours' paddling, we came out
again into the broad waters of the Solimões. How bright
shone the sun how gay flowed the stream how pleasant it
was again to see the floating grass islands, and the huge logs
and trees, with their cargoes of gulls sitting gravely upon them 1
These, with the white-leaved and straggling umboðbas (Cecro-
pia), give an aspect to the Amazon quite distinct from that of
the Rio Negro, independently of their differently-coloured
waters. Now, however, there was no land to be reached, and
we feared we should have to sup on farinha and water, but
luckily found a huge floating trunk fast moored amongst some
grass near the side, and on it, with the assistance of a few
1850.] MAMAQUERY. 123
dead twigs, we soon made a fire, roasted our fish, and boiled
some coffee. But we had intruded on a colony of stinging
ants, who, not liking the vicinity of fire, and not choosing to
take to the water, swarmed into our canoe and made us pay for
our supper in a very unpleasant manner. Dusk soon came
on, and we had to stay for the night; but the mosquitoes made
their presence known, and we lay uncomfortable and feverish
till the morning. By the next night we had reached the mouth
of the small stream that leads us to Manaquery, and had few
mosquitoes to annoy us. In the morning we went on, and
soon plunged again into the Gapó, passing through some small
lakes so choked up with grass that the canoe could hardly be
forced over it. Again we emerged into the igaripé—here
about a quarter of a mile wide—and at ten in the morning
reached Manaquery. -
The estate is situated on the south side of the Solimóes,
about a hundred miles above its junction with the Rio Negro.
The whole tract of country round it consists of igaripés, or
small streams, lakes, gapó, and patches of high and dry land,
so scattered and mixed together that it is very difficult to tell
whether any particular portion is an island or not. The land,
for a short distance on the banks of the stream, rises in an
abrupt, rocky cliff, thirty or forty feet above high-water mark:
the rocks are of a volcanic nature, being a coarse and often
vitreous scoria. On ascending by some rude steps, I found
myself in a flat grassy meadow, scattered over with orange-
trees, mangoes, and some noble tamarind and calabash trees,
and at the back a thicket of guavas.
Cattle and sheep were grazing about, and pigs and poultry
were seen nearer the house. This was a large thatched shed,
half of which contained the cane-mill, and was only enclosed
by a railing instead of a wall; the other half had coarse mud
walls, with small windows and thatch shutters. The floor was
of earth only, and very uneven, yet here resided Senhor
Brandão and his daughter, whom I had met at Barra. The fact
was that some ten or twelve years before, during the Revolu-
tion, a party of Indians burnt down his house, and completely
destroyed his garden and fruit-trees, killing several of his
servants and cattle, and would have killed his wife and
children, had they not, at a moment's notice, escaped to the
forest, where they remained three days, living on Indian corn
I24 TRA VELS ON THE RIO AVEGRO, [May,
and wild fruits. Senhor B. was at the time in the city,
and while the Revolution lasted, which was several years, he
was glad to have his family with him in safety, and could not
think of rebuilding his house. Afterwards he was engaged as
Delegarde de Policia for some years, and he had now only just
returned to live on his estate with one unmarried daughter,
and of course had plenty to do to get things a little in order.
His wife being dead, he did not feel the pleasure he had
formerly done in improving his place, and it is, I think, not
improbable that, after having lived here a few years, he will
get so used to it that he will think it quite unnecessary to go
to the expense of rebuilding his house. Still it seemed rather
strange to see a nicely-dressed young lady sitting on a mat on
a very mountainous mud-floor, and with half-a-dozen Indian
girls around her engaged in making lace and in needlework.
She introduced me to an elder married sister who was staying
with them, and soon Senhor B. came in from his cane-field,
and heartily welcomed me. About twelve we sat down to
dinner, consisting of tambaki, the most delicious of fish, with
rice, beans, and Indian-meal bread, and afterwards oranges
ad libiţum.
I stayed here nearly two months, enjoying a regular country
life, and getting together a tolerable collection of birds and
1nSeCtS.
In a few days a hunter I had engaged in Barra arrived, and
forthwith commenced operations. In the afternoon he generally
brought me some birds or monkeys, which were very plentiful.
We rose about half-past five, and by six had a cup of hot coffee;
I then sat down to skin birds, if any had been brought late
Over-night, or, if not, took my gun and walked out in search
of some. At seven or half-past we had a basin of Indian-
meal porridge, or chocolate, with new milk, as a sort of
breakfast. At twelve punctually we dined, the standing dish
being tambaki, varied occasionally with fowl, cow-fish, deer, or
other game. At four we had another cup of coffee, with
biscuit or fruit, and at seven we took supper of fish like our
dinner, if the fisherman had arrived. In the morning, for a
couple of hours, I generally went with my net in search of
insects. Several rare butterflies were found sitting on the
river's side, on the margin of mud left by the retiring waters.
Small toucans or araçaris of several species were very abundant,
*
1850.] CO UAV ZAZ V Z/AEAE. 125
the rarest and most beautiful being the “curl-crested,” whose
head is covered with little glossy curls of a hard substance,
more like quill or metallic shavings than feathers. These are
at times plentiful, but did not appear till some weeks later than
the other species, when I was at last rewarded for my patience
by obtaining several beautiful specimens.
The common black vultures were abundant, but were rather
put to it for food, being obliged to eat palm-fruits in the forest
when they could find nothing else. Every morning it was an
amusing sight to see them run after the pigs the moment they
got up, three or four following close at the heels of each
animal, for the purpose of devouring its dung the moment it
was dropped. The pigs seemed to be very much annoyed at
such indecent behaviour, and would frequently turn round and
take a run at the birds, who would hop out of the way or fly
a short distance, but immediately resume their positions as
soon as the pig continued his walk.
I am convinced, from repeated observations, that the
vultures depend entirely on sight, and not at all on smell, in
seeking out their food. While skinning a bird, a dozen of them
used to be always waiting attendance at a moderate distance.
The moment I threw away a piece of meat they would all run
up to seize it; but it frequently happened to fall in a little
hollow of the ground or among some grass, and then they would
hop about, searching within a foot of it, and very often go away
without finding it at all. A piece of stick or paper would bring
them down just as rapidly, and after seeing what it was they would
quietly go back to their former places. They always choose
elevated stations, evidently to see what food they can discover;
and when soaring at an immense height in the air, they will
descend into the forest where a cow has died or been killed,
long before it becomes putrid or emits any strong smell. I
have often wrapped a piece of half-putrid meat in paper and
thrown it to them, and even then, after hopping up to it, they
will retire quite satisfied that it is only paper, and nothing at
all éatable.
Senhor B. had two fine sows, very fat, and each was expected
to bring forth a litter of pigs in a few days. There were no
pig-sties or sheds of any kind; and all animals retire into the
forest on such occasions, and in a few days return with their
young family, just as cats do with us. These sows had both
126 TRA PEZS ON THE RIO MEGA’O. [June,
disappeared for some days, and had not returned, and we
began to be afraid that a jaguar which had been heard near
the house, and whose track had been seen, had destroyed
them. A search was accordingly made, and the remains of a
Sow were discovered in a thicket not far from the house. The
next night we heard the jaguar roaring within fifty yards of us,
as we lay in our hammocks in the open shed ; but there being
plenty of cattle, pigs, and dogs about, we did not feel much
alarmed. Presently we heard a report of a gun from an
Indian's cottage near, and made sure the animal was dead.
The next morning we found that it had passed within sight of
the door, but the man was so frightened that he had fired at
random and missed, for there are some Indians who are as
much cowards in this respect as any one else. For two or
three days more we heard reports of the animal at different
parts of the estate, so my hunter went out at night to lie in
wait for it, and succeeded in killing it with a bullet. It was an
Onça of the largest size, and was believed to have killed,
besides the sow, a cow which had disappeared some weeks
previously. -
The weather was now very dry : no rain had fallen for some
time; the Oranges were fully ripe, and the grass, so green and
fresh when I arrived, was beginning to assume a brownish-
yellow tinge. Tobacco-picking had begun, and I saw the
process of the manufacture as carried on here. Tobacco is
Sown thickly on a small patch of ground, and the young plants
are then set in rows, just as we do cabbages. They are much
attacked by the caterpillar of a sphinx moth, which grows to a
large size, and would completely devour the crop unless care-
fully picked off. Old men, and women, and children are
therefore constantly employed going over a part of the field
every day, and carefully examining the plants leaf by leaf till
the insects are completely exterminated. When they show
any inclination to flower, the buds are nipped off; and as soon
as the leaves have reached their full size, they are gathered in
strong wicker baskets, and are laid out in the house or a shed,
on poles supported by uprights from the floor to the ceiling. In
a few days they dry, and during the hot days become quite
crisp ; but the moisture of the night softens them, and early in
the morning they are flaccid. When they are judged sufficiently
dry, every leaf must have the strong fibrous midrib taken out
1850.] THA. CO W-AE/SAP. 127
of it. For this purpose all the household—men, women, and
children—are called up at four in the morning, and are set to
work tearing out the midrib, before the heat of the day makes
the leaves too brittle to allow of the operation. A few of the
best leaves are sometimes selected to make cigars, but the
whole is generally manufactured into rolls of two or four pounds
each. The proper quantity is weighed out, and placed
regularly in layers on a table in a row about a yard long, rather
thicker in the middle. Beginning at one end, this is carefully
rolled up and wound round with a cord as tightly as possible.
In a few days these rolls are opened out, to see if there is any
tendency to heat or mould, and if all is right they are again
made up with greater care. Every day they are rebound
tighter and tighter, the operator sitting on the ground with the
cord twisted round a post, and winding and tightening with all
his strength, till at length the roll has become compressed into
a solid mass about an inch in diameter, and gradually tapering
towards each end. It is then wound closely from end to end
with a neat strip of the rind of the Uarumã (a water-rush), and
tied up in bundles of an arroba and half an arroba (thirty-two
and sixteen pounds), and is ready for sale. When the tobacco
is good, or has, as they term it, “much honey in it,” it will cut
as smooth and solid as a piece of Spanish liquorice, and can be
bent double without cracking. The price varies according to
the quality and the supply, from 4d. to Is. per pound.
One day the fisherman brought us in a fine “peixe boi,” or
Cow-fish, a species of Manatus, which inhabits the Amazon,
and is particularly abundant in the lakes in this part of the
river. It was a female, about six feet long, and near five in
circumference in the thickest part. The body is perfectly
Smooth, and without any projections or inequalities, gradually
changing into a horizontal semicircular flat tail, with no
appearance whatever of hind limbs. There is no distinct neck;
the head is not very large, and is terminated by a large mouth
and fleshy lips, somewhat resembling those of a cow. There
are stiff bristles on the lips, and a few distantly scattered hairs
over the body. Behind the head are two powerful oval fins,
and just beneath them are the breasts, from which, on pressure
being applied, flows a stream of beautiful white milk. The
ears are minute holes, and the eyes very small. The dung
resembles that of a horse. The colour is a dusky lead, with
f 28 7 RA VELS ON 7:HE R/O AWEGA’O. [July,
Some large pinkish-white marbled blotches on the belly. The
skin is about an inch thick on the back, and a quarter of an
inch on the belly. Beneath the skin is a layer of fat of a
greater or less thickness, generally about an inch, which is
boiled down to make an oil used for light and for cooking.
The intestines are very voluminous, the heart about the size of
a sheep's, and the lungs about two feet long, and six or seven
inches wide, very cellular and spongy, and can be blown out
like a bladder. The skull is large and solid, with no front
teeth; the vertebrae extend to the very tip of the tail, but
show no rudiments of posterior limbs; the fore limbs, on the
contrary, are very highly developed, the bones exactly corre-
sponding to those of the human arm, having even the five
fingers, with every joint distinct, yet enclosed in a stiff inflexible
skin, where not a joint can have any motion.
The cow-fish feeds on grass at the borders of the rivers and
lakes, and swims quickly with the tail and paddles; and though
the external organs of sight and hearing are so imperfect, these
senses are said by the hunters to be remarkably acute, and to
render necessary all their caution and skill to capture the
animals. They bring forth one, or rarely two, young ones, which
they clasp in their arms or paddles while giving suck. They
are harpooned, or caught in a strong net, at the narrow
entrance of a lake or stream, and are killed by driving a
wooden plug with a mallet up their nostrils. Each yields from
five to twenty-five gallons of oil. The flesh is very good,
being something between beef and pork, and this one furnished
us with several meals, and was an agreeable change from our
fish diet,
As I now expected a canoe shortly to arrive, bringing me
letters and remittances from England, after which I was
anxious to set off for the Upper Rio Negro as soon as possible,
I determined to return to Barra, and having agreed for a
passage in a canoe going there, I took leave of my kind host.
I must, however, first say a few words about him. Senhor José
.###". over from Portugal when very
young, and had married early and settled, with the intention
of spending his life here. Very singularly for a Portuguese,
he entirely devoted himself to agriculture. He built himself
a country-house at Manaquery, on a lake near the main river,
brought Indians from a distance to settle with him, cleared the

1850.] SEWHOR BRANDAo. 129
forest, planted orange, tamarind, mango, and many other fruit-
bearing trees, made pleasant avenues, gardens, and pastures,
stocked them well with cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry, and set
himself down to the full enjoyment of a country life. But
about twenty years ago, while his family were yet young,
disturbances and revolutions broke out, and he, as well as all
natives of Portugal, though he had signed the constitution of
the Empire, and was in heart a true Brazilian, became an
object of dislike and suspicion to many of the more violent
of the revolutionists. A tribe of Indians who resided near
him, and to whom he had shown constant kindness, were
incited to burn down his house and destroy his property.
This they did effectually, rooting up his fruit-trees, burning his
crops, killing his cattle and his servants, and his wife and
family only escaped from their murderous arrows by timely
flight to the forest. During the long years of anarchy and
confusion which followed, he was appointed a magistrate in
Barra, and was unable to look after his estate. His wife died,
his children married, and he of course felt then little interest
in restoring things to their former state. .
He is a remarkably intelligent man, fond of reading, but
without books, and with a most tenacious memory. He has
taught himself French, which he now reads with ease, and
through it he has got much information, though of course
rather tinged with French prejudice. He has several huge
quarto volumes of Ecclesiastical History, and is quite learned
in all the details of the Councils, and in the history of the
Reformation. He can tell you, from an old work on geography,
without maps, the length and breadth of every country in
Europe, and the main particulars respecting it. He is about
Seventy years of age, thirsting for information, and has never
seen a map ! Think of this, ye who roll in intellectual luxury.
In this land of mechanics’ institutions and cheap literature few
have an idea of the real pursuit of knowledge under difficulties,
—of the longing thirst for information which there is no
fountain to satisfy. In his conversation there was something
racy and refreshing: such an absence of information, but such
a fertility of ideas. He had read the Bible in Portuguese, as
a forbidden book, though the priests make no very great
objection to it here ; and it was something new to hear a
man's opinions of it who had first read it at a mature age, and
9
130 Zºº A VAEAES OW THE R/O AVEGA’O. [August,
solely from a desire for information. The idea had not entered
his mind that it was all inspired, so he made objections to any
parts which he thought incredible, or which appeared to him
to be capable of a simple explanation; and, as might have
been expected, he found of his own accord confirmation of the
doctrines of the religion in which he had been brought up
from childhood. * }
On arriving—at-Barra, the expected canoe had not arrived,
and many weeks passed wearily away. The weather was fine,
but Barra is a very poor locality for making collections.
Insects were remarkably scarce and uninteresting, and I looked
forward anxiously to the time when I could start for some
distant and more promising district. The season was very
dry and hot : the thermometer, at two, every afternoon,
reaching 94° and 95° in the shade, and not often sinking below
75° during the night. The lowest which I observed, just
before sunrise, was 70°, and the highest in the afternoon, 96°.
There was scarcely any rain during the months of July and
August, so the grass about the city was completely burnt up.
The river was now falling rapidly, and the sandbanks in the
Amazon were, some of them, just rising above the water.
One day, Senhor Henrique made a party to go fishing, with
a large drag-net, in the Solimões. We started in the afternoon
in a good canoe, with a party of about a dozen, and eight or
ten Indian rowers; and just before sunset, reached the mouth
of the Rio Negro, and turned up into the strong and turbid
waters of the Solimóes. There was a bright moon, and we
kept on talking and singing, while passing the narrow channels
and green islands on the north side of the river which looked
most picturesquely wild and solitary by the pale silvery moon-
light, and amid the solemn silence of the forest. By about
midnight, we reached a large Sandbank, just rising out of the
water. Most of the party turned up their trousers, and waded
though the shallows, till they reached the bank, where they
began searching for small turtles' eggs, and those of gulls and
other water-birds, which lay them in little hollows scraped in
the sand. Gulls, divers, ducks, and sandpipers flew screaming
about as we landed, and the splash of fish in the shallow water
told us that there was abundance of sport for us. Senhor
Henrique soon ordered the Indians to get out the net, and
commenced dragging, Every time the net was drawn on
1850.] - A FISHING PARTY. . . I31.
shore we nearly filled a basket with numerous small fishes,
and a few of larger size. There were quantities of little ones
armed with spines, which inflict a serious wound if trodden on,
so we had to be cautious with our bare feet. I was much
interested in the great variety and the curious forms that every
basketful contained. There were numbers of a little fish,
º to the Amazon, which inflates the fore part of the
body into a complete ball, and when stamped upon explodes
with a noise similar to that produced by the bursting of an
inflated paper bag.
After two or three hours, we felt rather tired, so we made a
fire, and cooked some of our fish for a meal,—which we might
call supper or breakfast, as we pleased, for dawn was now
appearing. We then again went on fishing, while others got
their guns, and endeavoured to shoot some of the wild ducks.
One gentleman, with a rifle, made an extraordinary shot,
bringing down a single duck flying, at a long distance, with a
bullet. Now it was daylight, I endeavoured to sketch some
of the curious fish, but they were so numerous, and the sun
was so hot, that I could do but little ; and as they became
putrid in a few hours, I could not keep them for the purpose
till we returned home. About ten in the morning we left off
fishing, and began cooking. We had roasted, broiled, and
stewed fish, and with oil and vinegar, and plenty of pepper and
salt, made a very excellent breakfast. We also had wine,
bread, and farinha, and coffee for those who preferred it.
While we were at breakfast, our Indians lay down on the sand,
in the Sun, to take a nap, as they had been hard at work for
two days without sleep. In about an hour they were roused
to breakfast, and then at noon we started on our way home. -
At five in the afternoon we reached a place at the mouth of
the Rio Negro, where there are some flat rocks, and generally
abundance of fish. Here most of the party began fishing
again with rod and line, and were pretty successful ; and a
fisherman coming in with a fine piraructi, weighing thirty or
forty pounds, Senhor Henrique bought it of him, in order to
have something worth showing from our excursion.
We then proceeded homewards, many of us dozing; and
our Indians rowing hard, but hardly able to keep their eyes
open. Now and then, one would regularly drop off to sleep,
but keep on paddling mechanically, without pulling very hard,
132 ZRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [August, 1850.
One of his companions would then tickle his nose, and rouse
him up, and his look of astonishment to find he had been
sleeping would set all in a roar of laughter at his expense. It
was midnight when we reached Barra, and we were all pretty
glad to seek our hammocks.
Several weeks more passed wearily, till at length we had
news of the long-expected canoe; one of the owners, having
arrived beforehand in a montaria, informing us that it would
be up in two days more. There was at this time in the city a
trader from the upper Rio Negro, a Portuguese, and generally
considered a very good sort of fellow. He was to start the
next day, but on Senhor Henrique's representation, he agreed
to stay till Senhor Neill Bradley's canoe arrived, and then give
me a passage up to the Falls of the Rio Negro, or to any other
place I might wish to go to. The next afternoon the expected
vessel reached Barra ; about six in the evening I got a long
arrear of letters from Pará, from England, from California, and
Australia, Some twenty in number, and several dated more than
a year back. I sat up till two in the morning reading them, lay
down, but slept little till five in the morning; I then com-
menced answering the most important of them,-packing up—
buying forgotten necessaries for the voyage—making up a box
for England—giving instructions to my brother H., who was
to stay in Barra, and, in six months, return to England,-and
by noon was ready to start on a voyage of seven hundred miles,
and, probably, for a year's absence. The Juiz de Direito, or
Judge of the district, had kindly sent me a turkey and a
sucking-pig; the former of which I took alive, and the latter
roasted ; so I had a stock of provisions to commence the
Voyage.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE UPPER RIO NEGRO,
Quit Barra for the Upper Rio Negro–Canoe and Cargo—Great Width
of the River—Carvoeiro and Barcellos—Granite Rocks—Castanheiro
—A Polite Old Gentleman—S. Jozé—A New Language—The Cataracts
—S. Gabriel—Nossa Senhora da Guía—Senhor L. and his Family—
• Visit to the River Cobati-An Indian Village—The Serra—Cocks of
the Rock—Return to Guia—Frei Jozé dos Santos Innocentos.
IT was on the last day of August, 1850, at about two o'clock
on a fine bright afternoon, that I bade adieu to Barra, looking
forward with hope and expectation to the distant and little-
known regions I was now going to visit. I found our canoe a
tolerably roomy one, it being about thirty-five feet long and
seven broad. The after-part had a rough deck, made of split
palm-stems, covered with a tolda, or semicircular roof, high
enough to sit up comfortably within it, and well thatched with
palm-leaves. A part of the front opening was stopped up on
each side, leaving a doorway about three feet wide. The
forepart was covered with a similar tolda, but much lower,
and above it was a flat deck, formed like the other, and
supported by upright poles along the sides. This is called
the jangāda, or raft, and serves for the Indians to stand
on, while rowing with oars formed of paddle-blades fixed to
long poles. The canoe was well loaded with all the articles
most desired by the semi-civilised and savage inhabitants of
the Upper Rio Negro. There were bales of coarse cotton
cloth and of the cómmonest calico, of flimsy but brilliantly-
coloured prints, of checked and striped cottons, and of blue
or red handkerchiefs. Then there were axes and cutlasses,
and coarse pointed knives in great profusion, fish-hooks by
thousands, flints and steels, gunpowder, shot, quantities of blue,
I34 7RAVELs ow THE Rio Negro. (September,
black, and white beads, and countless little looking-glasses;
needles and thread, and buttons and tape were not forgotten.
There was plenty of caxaça (the rum of the country), and wine
for the trader's own use, as well as a little brandy for
“medicine,” and tea, coffee, sugar, vinegar, oil for cooking and
for light, biscuits, butter, garlic, black pepper, and other little
household luxuries, sufficient to last the family for at least
six months, and supply the pressing wants of any famishing
traveller. - -
My host, Senhor João Antonio de Lima, was a middle-sized,
grizzly man, with a face something like that of the banished lord
in the National Gallery. He had, however, all the politeness
of his countrymen, placed the canoe and everything in it “at
my orders,” and made himself very agreeable. Our tolda
contained numerous boxes and packages of his and my own,
but still left plenty of room for us to sit or lie down comfort-
ably; and in the cool of the morning and evening we stood
upon the plank at its mouth, or sat upon its top, enjoying the
fresh air and the cool prospect of dark waters around us. For
the first day or two we found no land, all the banks of the
river being flooded, but afterwards we had plenty of places on
which to go on shore and make our fire. Generally, as soon
after daylight as we could discover a convenient spot, we
landed and made coffee, into which we broke some biscuit and
put a piece of butter, which I soon found to be a very great
improvement in the absence of milk. About ten or eleven we
stopped again for breakfast—the principal meal for the Indians.
We now cooked a fowl, or some fish if we had caught any
during the night. About six we again landed to prepare
supper and coffee, which we sat sipping on the top of the
tolda, while we proceeded on our way, till eight or nine at
night, when the canoe was moored in a place where we could
hang up our hammocks on shore, and sleep comfortably till
four or five in the morning. Sometimes this was varied by
stopping for the night at six o'clock, and then we would start
again by midnight, or by one or two in the morning. We
would often make our stoppages at a cottage, where we could
buy a fowl or some eggs, or a bunch of bananas or some
oranges; or at another time at a pretty opening in the forest,
where some would start off with a gun, to shoot a curassow or
a guan, and others would drop their line into the water, and
§
1850.] A YRAO AND PEDREIRO. 135
soon have some small but delicious-fish to broil. Senhor L.
was an old hand at canoe-travelling, and was always well
provided with hooks and lines. Bait was generally carefully
prepared during the day, and at night the lines would be
thrown in ; and we were often rewarded with a fine pirahſba
of twenty or thirty pounds weight, which made us a breakfast
and supper for the next day.
A little above Barra the river spreads out into great bays on
each side, so as to be from Six to ten miles wide; and here,
when there is much wind, a heavy sea rises, which is very
dangerous for small canoes. Above this the river again
narrows to about a mile and a half, and soon afterwards
branches out into diverging channels, with islands of every
size between them. For several hundred miles after this the
two banks of the river can never be seen at once: they are
probably from ten to twenty-five miles apart. Some of the
islands are of great size, reaching to thirty or forty miles in
length, and with others often intervening between them and
the shore. g
On the second and third day after we left Barra, there were
high, picturesque, gravelly banks to the river. A little further
on, a few isolated rocks appear, and at the little village of
Ayrão, which we reached in a week, there were broken ledges
of sandstone rock of rather a crystalline texture. A little
lower we had passed points of a soft sandstone, worn into
caves and fantastic hollows by the action, of the water.
Further on, at Pedreiro, the rock was perfectly crystalline;
while a little further still, at the mouth of the Rio Branco, a
real granitic rock appears.
At Pedreiro we stayed for the night with a friend of Senhor
L.'s, where the news of the city was discussed, and the prices
of fish, Salsaparilha, piassaba, etc., communicated. The next
day we passed some picturesque granite rocks opposite the
mouth of the Rio Branco, where again the two shores of the
river are seen at one view. On a little island there are some
curious Indian picture-writings, being representations of
numerous animals and men, roughly picked out of the hard
granite. I made careful drawings of these at the time, and
took specimens of the rock.
The next day we reached Carvoeiro, a village desolate and
half deserted, as are all those on the Rio Negro. We found
f36 TRAVEZs ow. The Rio wagro. (Seemler,
only two families inhabiting it, a blacksmith, and a Brazilian,
who bore the title of Capitão Vasconcellos, a good-humoured,
civil man, who treated us very well the day we remained with
him. For dinner we had turtle, with silver knives and forks,
but our table was a mat on the ground. In the afternoon the
Capitão got drunk with his old friend Senhor L., and then
became very violent, and abused him as a vile, unworthy,
skulking Portuguese villain, and used many more epithets, of
which the language has a copious store. Senhor L., who
prides himself on never getting intoxicated, took it very coolly,
and the next morning the Capitão expressed his heartfelt
contrition, vowed eternal friendship, and regretted much that
he should have given the “estrangeiro” so much reason to
think ill of his countrymen. -
Proceeding on our journey, we entered on a labyrinth of
small islands, so flooded that they appeared like masses of
bushes growing out of the water. Though Senhor L. is well
acquainted with the river, we here almost lost our way, and
met another canoe which had quite done so. As it was late,
we stayed at a point of dry land for the night, and hung our
hammocks under the trees. The next day we called at the
house of a man who owed Senhor L. some money, and who
paid him in turtles, eight or nine of which we embarked. -
The two shores of the river had only been seen for a
moment. Again we plunged into a sea of islands, and channels
Opening among them often stretched out to the horizon. Some-
times a distant shore continued for days unbroken, but was at
last found to be but a far-stretching island. All was now again
alluvial soil, and we sometimes had a difficulty in finding dry
land to cook our meals on. In a few days more we reached
Barcellos, once the capital of the Rio Negro, but now depopu-
lated and almost deserted. On the shore lie several blocks of
marble, brought from Portugal for some public buildings which
were never erected. The lines of the old streets are now
paths through a jungle, where orange and other fruit-trees are
mingled with cassias and tall tropical weeds. The houses that
remain are mostly ruinous mud-huts, with here and there one
more neatly finished and white-washed. -
We called on an old Italian, who has the reputation of being
rich, but a great miser. He was, however, merry enough. He
gave us coffee sweetened with molasses, and pressed us to stay
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1850.1 . w BARCAEZZO.S. -- 137
breakfast with him, which meal was served in an old store-
house filled with cables, anchors, cordage, Casks, and demi-
johns. We had silver forks and spoons, and a dirty towel for
a tablecloth, and raw spirits and tough curassow-bird was the
fare placed upon it. He, however, gave us a basket of oranges
to take to the canoe.
In a day or two more we passed another decayed village,
called Cabuqueno. About Barcellos had first appeared a very
pretty little palm growing at the water’s edge, a new species of
Mauritia, which was afterwards abundant all the way up. Fish
were now more plentiful than in the lower part of the river,
and several species occurred not found below. Senhor L.
often sent two men in a small canoe to fish early in the morn-
ing, and they would by ten o'clock generally come up with
sufficient for our breakfast and supper. I began now to take
a great interest in the beauty and variety of the species, and,
whenever I could, made accurate drawings and descriptions of
them. Many are of a most excellent flavour, surpassing any-
thing I have tasted in England, either from the fresh or the
salt waters; and many species have real fat, which renders the
water they are boiled in a rich and agreeable broth. Not a
drop of this is wasted, but, with a little pepper and farinha, is
all consumed, with as much relish as if it were the most
delicate soup. Our tolda was pretty hot during the day,
generally being from 95° to Ioo” inside. Early in the morning
the temperature was about 75°, the water at the same time
being 85° and feeling quite warm ; at noon or in the afternoon
the water would be about 86°, and then feel delightfully cool
from its contrast with the heated air.
We had altogether very fine weather ; but every afternoon, .
or at least four or five times in a week, we had a “trovoádo,”
or storm, which came on suddenly, with violent gusts of wind,
and often thunder and rain, but passed over in about an hour
or two, leaving the atmosphere beautifully mild and clear. A
great luxury of this river is the absence of mosquitoes. Sunset,
instead of being the signal for discomfort and annoyance,
‘brought us the pleasantest part of the day. We could sit on
the top of the tolda, enjoying the cool evening breeze, and
sipping a cup of coffee—our greatest luxury—till the glories of
sunset faded rapidly away and the stars shone brightly out
above us. At this quiet hour the goat-suckers came out to
138 ZTRA VEZS OW THE R/O AVEGRO. [September,
hunt their insect prey over the stream, and amused us with
their rapid evolutions ; the tree-frogs commenced their mournful
chants, a few lingering parrots would cross the river to their
nests, and the guarhibas fill the air with their howling voices.
When at length the dews of evening fell thick upon us, I would
turn in beneath the tolda, while Senhor L., wrapping himself
in a sheet, preferred taking his repose outside.
On September 30th, just a month after we had left Barra,
we again saw the opposite side of the river, and crossed over
where it is about four miles wide. The next day we reached
a part where the granitic rocks commence, and I was delighted
to step out of the canoe on to a fine sloping table of granite,
with quartz-veins running across it in various directions. From
this point the river became more picturesque. Small rocky
islands abounded, and fine granite beaches were frequent, offer-
ing delightful places to take our picnic meals. Fish too
became yet more abundant, and we were seldom without this
luxury. t
On the 3rd of October we reached a sitio, where resided a
half-breed Brazilian named João Cordeiro (John Lamb), who
was a friend of Senhor L. as well as a customer. We stayed
here two days, while a good part of the cargo of the canoe was
taken out for Senhor João to choose what he liked best.
Here, for the second time since we left Barra, we saw a few
cows, and had milk to our coffee. I amused myself by walking
in the forest and catching some insects, of which I found many
new species. At length, the gay cottons and gauzes, the beads
and cutlery, wines and spirits, sugar and butter, having been
selected, we went on our way, Senhor João promising to get
plenty of piassaba, Salsa, and other products, ready to pay
Senhor L. by the time he next sent to the city.
The following day we reached St. Isabel, a miserable village
overgrown with weeds and thickets, and having at this time but
a single inhabitant, a Portuguese, with whom we took a cup of
coffee, sweetening it, however, with our own Sugar, as he had no
such luxury. He was one of the many decent sort of men
who drag on a miserable existence here, putting up with hard-
ships and deprivations which in a civilised community would
be only the result of the most utter poverty.
On the 8th we reached Castanheiro, and stayed a day with
another Portuguese, one of the richest traders on the river.
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1850.] A POZZTE O//) GZAV7'ZZMAAV. 139
He owed his wealth principally to having steadily refused to
take goods on credit, which is the curse of this country: he
thus was always his own master, instead of being the slave of
the Barra and Pará merchants, and could buy in the cheapest
and sell in the dearest market. With economy and a character
for closeness, he had accumulated some five or six thousand
pounds, which went on rapidly increasing, as in this country
living costs a man nothing, unless he drinks or gambles. He
trades with the Indians, takes the product in his own Canoe to
Pará, buys the articles he knows are most Saleable, and gets a
profit of about a hundred per cent, on all the business he does.
It may give some insight into the state of this country to know
that, though this man is distinguished from almost all other
traders by his strict integrity and fairness, which all allow, yet
he is seldom spoken well of, because he does not enter into
the extravagance and debauchery which it is thought he ca
well afford. -
A little further on we passed some more curious Indian
picture-writings on a granite rock, of which I took a sketch.
On the IIth we reached Wanawacá, the seat of a Brazilian
from Pernambuco, banished to the Rio Negro for joining in
some insurrection. I had heard the most horrible stories of
this man's crimes. He had murdered the Indians, carried
away their wives and daughters, and committed barbarities
that are too disgusting to mention. Yet, as I had a letter
of introduction to him, and he was a friend of Senhor L., we
went to call upon him. I found him a mild, quiet, polite,
white-haired old gentleman, who received us with great civility,
gave us a very good breakfast, and conversed in an unusually
rational manner. When we had gone, Senhor L. asked me
if I was not surprised to see such a mild-looking man. “But,”
said he, “these soft-spoken ones are always the worst. He is
a regular hypocrite, and he will stick at nothing. Among his
friends he will boast of his crimes, and he declares there is
nothing that he will not do for his own pleasure or profit.”
The next day we stayed at another village, São Jozé, where
we were to leave our little vessel, and proceed in two smaller
ones, as the stream was now so rapid that we could not make
much way, and the Falls a little higher up were quite impass-
able for our larger canoe. Here we stayed two days, unloading
and loading. I found plenty to do capturing the butterflies,
140 TRA VEZS OW Zºº A*/O AWAEGA’O. [October,
several rare species of which were abundant on the hot rocks
by the river's side. At length all was right, and we proceeded
On our way in two heavily-laden canoes, and rather Cramped
for room compared to what we had been before. We had
several little rapids to pass, round projecting points of rock,
where the Indians had to jump into the water and push the
Canoe past the difficulty. In two days more we reached the
village of São Pedro, where Senhor L. borrowed another canoe,
much better and more convenient, so that we had again half
a day's delay. The owner was a young Brazilian trader, a very
hospitable and civil fellow, with whom we spent a pleasant
evening. He and Senhor L. were old cronies, and began
talking in a language I could not understand, though I knew
it was some kind of Portuguese. I soon, however, found out
what it was, and Senhor L. afterwards told me that he had
learnt it when a boy at school. It consisted in adding to
every syllable another, rhyming with it, but beginning with
p; thus to say, “Venha ca” (come here), he would say,
“Venpenhapa capa,” or if in English “Comepum herepere;”
and this, when spoken rapidly, is quite unintelligible to a
person not used to it. This Senhor was a bit of a musician,
and amused us with some simple tunes on the guitar, almost
the only instrument used in this part of the country.
Leaving this place, we passed the mouth of the small river
Curicuriarſ, from which we had a fine view of the Serras of the
same name. These are the finest mountains I had yet seen,
being irregular conical masses of granite about three thousand
feet high. They are much jagged and peaked, clothed with
forest in all the sloping parts, but with numerous bare pre-
cipices, on which shine huge white veins and masses of quartz,
putting me in mind of what must be the appearance of the
Snow-capped Andes. Lower down, near St. Isabel, we had
passed several conical peaks, but none more than a thousand
feet high : these all rise abruptly from a perfectly level plain,
and are not part of any connected range of hills.
On the same day, the 19th of October, we reached the
celebrated Falls of the Rio Negro. Small rocky islands and
masses of bare rock now began to fill the river in every part.
The stream flowed rapidly round projecting points, and the
main channel was full of foam and eddies. We soon arrived
at the commencement of the actual rapids. Beds and ledges
1850.] * THE FAZZ.S. I4I
of rock spread all across the river, while through the openings
between them the water rushed with terrific violence, forming
dangerous whirlpools and breakers below. Here it was neces-
sary to cross to the other side, in order to get up. We dashed
into the current, were rapidly Carried down, got among the
boiling waves, then passed suddenly into still water under
shelter of an island; whence starting again, we at length
reached the other side, about a mile across. Here we found
ourselves at the foot of a great rush of water, and we all got
out upon the rocks, while the Indians, with a strong rope,
partly in the water, and partly on land, pulled the canoe up,
and we again proceeded. As we went on we constantly
encountered fresh difficulties. Sometimes we had to cross
into the middle of the stream, to avoid some impassable mass
of rocks; at others, the canoe was dragged and pushed in
narrow channels, which hardly allowed it to pass. The Indians,
all naked, with their trousers tied round their loins, plunged
about in the water like fishes. Sometimes a projecting crag
had to be reached with the tow-rope. An Indian takes it in
his hand, and leaps into the rapid current: he is carried down
by its irresistible force. Now he dives to the bottom, and
there swims and crawls along where the stream has less
power. After two or three trials he reaches the rock, and tries
to mount upon it; but it rises high and abruptly out of the
water, and after several efforts he falls back exhausted, and
floats down again to the canoe amid the mirth and laughter
of his comrades. Another now tries, with the same result.
Then another plunges in without the rope, and thus unen-
cumbered mounts on the rock and gives a helping hand to his
companion; and then all go to work, and we are pulled up past
the obstacle.
But a little ahead of us is an extensive mass of rocks. There
is no passage for the canoe, and we must cross to yonder islet
far in the middle of the stream, where, by the height of the
water, Senhor L. and the pilot judge we shall find a passage.
Every stone, even those under water, form eddies or returning
currents, where a canoe can rest in its passage. Off we go, to
try to reach one of them. In a moment we are in a stream
running like a mill-race. “Pull away, boys | * shouts Senhor
L. We are falling swiftly down the river. There is a strong
rapid carrying us, and we shall be dashed against those black
I42 TRA VEZS OW THE RIO AVEGA’O. [October,
masses just rising above the foaming waters. “All right,
boys | * cries Senhor L.; and just as we seemed in the greatest
danger, the canoe wheels round in an eddy, and we are safe
under the shelter of a rock. We are in still water, but close
on each side of us it rages and bubbles, and we must cross
again. Now the Indians are rested; and so off we go, down
drops the canoe, again the men strain at their paddles,
again we are close on Sôme foaming breakers : I see no escape,
but in a moment we are in an eddy caused by a sunken mass
above us; again we go on, and reach at length our object, a
rocky island, round which we pull and push our canoe, and
from the upper point cross to another, and so make a zigzag
course, until, after some hours' hard work, we at length reach
the bank, perhaps not fifty yards above the obstacle which had
obliged us to leave it.
Thus we proceeded, till, reaching a good resting-place about
five in the afternoon, we stayed for the night to rest the Indians
well, against the further fatigues to be encountered the follow-
ing day. -
, Most of the principal rapids and falls have names. There
are the “Furnos " (ovens), “Tabocal” (bamboo), and many
Others. The next day we went on in a similar manner to the
day before, along a most picturesque part of the river. The
brilliant Sun, the sparkling waters, the strange fantastic rocks,
and broken woody islands, were a constant source of interest
and enjoyment to me. Early in the afternoon we reached the
village of São Gabriel, where are the principal falls. Here the
river is narrower, and an island in the middle divides it into
two channels, along each of which rolls a tremendous flood of
water down an incline formed by submerged rocks. Below,
the water boils up in great rolling breakers, and, a little further
down, forms dangerous eddies and whirlpools. Here we could
only pass by unloading the canoe almost entirely, and then
pulling it up amidst the foaming water as near as possible to
the shore. This done, Senhor L. and myself dressed, and
proceeded up the hill to the house of the Commandante, who
must give permission before any one can pass above the fort.
He was a friend of Senhor L., and I brought him a letter of
introduction ; so he was pretty civil, gave us some coffee,
chatted of the news of the river and the city for an hour or
two, and invited us to breakfast with him before we left the
1850] NOSSA SEWHORA DA GUžA. . 143
next morning. We then went to the house of an old Por-
tuguese trader, whom I had met in Barra, with whom we
Supped and spent the evening. -
The next morning, after breakfasting with the Commandante,
we proceeded on our way. Above São Gabriel the rapids are
perhaps more numerous than below. We twisted about the
river, round islands and from rock to rock, in a most complicated
manner. On a point where we stayed for the night I saw the
first tree-fern I had yet met with, and looked on it with much
pleasure, as an introduction to a new and interesting district:
it was a small, thin-stemmed, elegant species, about eight or
ten feet high. At night, on the 22nd, we passed the last rapid,
and now had smooth water before us for the rest of our journey.
We had thus been four days ascending these rapids, which are
about thirty miles in length. The next morning we entered
the great and unknown river “Uaupés,” from which there is
another branch into the Rio Negro, forming a delta at its
mouth. During our voyage I had heard much of this river
from Senhor L., who was an old trader up it, and well acquainted
with the numerous tribes of uncivilised Indians which inhabit
its banks, and with the countless cataracts and rapids which
render its navigation so dangerous and toilsome. Above the
Uaupés the Rio Negro was calm and placid, about a mile, or
sometimes two to three miles wide, and its waters blacker
than ever. -
On the 24th of October, early in the morning, we reached
the little village of Nossa Senhora da Guía, where Senhor L.
resided, and where he invited me to remain with him as long
as I felt disposed.
The village is situated on high ground sloping down suddenly
to the river. It consists of a row of thatched mud-huts, some
of them whitewashed, others the colour of the native earth.
Immediately behind are some patches of low sandy ground,
covered with a shrubby vegetation, and beyond is the virgin
forest. Senhor L.'s house had wooden doors, and shutters to
the windows, as had also one or two others. In fact, Guía was
Once a very populous and decent village, though now as poor
and miserable as all the others of the Rio Negro. Going up
to the house I was introduced to Senhor L.'s family, which
consisted of two grown-up daughters, two young ones, and a
little boy of eight years old. A good-looking “mameltica,” or
I44 TRA VEZS OW ZEAE RAO AVEGRO. [November,
half-breed woman, of about thirty, was introduced as the
“mother of his younger children.” Senhor L. had informed
me during the voyage that he did not patronise marriage, and
thought everybody a great fool who did. He had illustrated
the advantages of keeping oneself free of such ties by informing
me that the mother of his two elder daughters having grown
old, and being unable to bring them up properly or teach them
Portuguese, he had turned her out of doors, and got a younger
and more civilised person in her place. The poor woman had
since died of jealousy, or “passion,” as he termed it. When
young, she had nursed him during an eighteen months' illness
and saved his life; but he seemed to think he had performed
a duty in turning her away,+for, said he, “She was an Indian,
and could only speak her own language, and, so long as she
was with them, my children would never learn Portuguese.”
The whole family welcomed him in a very cold and timid
manner, coming up and asking his blessing as if they had
parted from him the evening before, instead of three months
since. We then had some coffee and breakfast; after which
the canoe was unloaded, and a little house just opposite his,
which happened to be unoccupied, was swept out for me. My
boxes were placed in it, my hammock hung up, and I soon
made myself comfortable in my new quarters, and then walked
out to look about me. - , ... -
In the village were about a dozen houses belonging to Indians,
all of whom had their sitios, or country-houses, at from a few
hours' to some days' distance up or down the river, or on some
of the small tributary streams. They only inhabit the village
at times of festas, or on the arrival of a merchant like Senhor
L., when they bring any produce they may have to dispose of
or, if they have none, get what goods they can on credit, with
the promise of payment at some future time.
There were now several families in the village to welcome
their sons and husbands, who had formed our crew; and for some
days there was a general drinking and dancing from morning
to night. During this time, I took my gun into the woods, in
order to kill a few birds. Immediately behind the house were
some fruit-trees, to which many chatterers and other pretty
birds resorted, and I managed to shoot some every day.
Insects were very scarce in the forest; but on the river-side
there were often to be found rare butterflies, though not in
1850.] ONWZZZZAWG SERVAAV7.S. I45
sufficient abundance to give me much occupation. In a few
days, Senhor L. got a couple of Indians to come and hunt for
me, and I hoped then to have plenty of birds. They used the
gravatána, or blow-pipe, a tube ten to fifteen feet in length,
through which they blow small arrows with such force and
precision, that they will kill birds or other game as far off, and
with as much certainty, as with a gun. The arrows are all
poisoned, so that a very small wound is sufficient to bring
down a large bird. I soon found that my Indians had come at
Senhor L.'s bidding, but did not much like their task; and they
frequently returned without any birds, telling me they could
not find any, when I had very good reason to believe they had
spent the day at some neighbouring sitio. At other times,
after a day in the forest, they would bring a little worthless
bird, which can be found around every cottage. As they had
to go a great distance in search of good birds, I had no hold
upon them, and was obliged to take what they brought me, and
be contented. It was a great annoyance here, that there were
no good paths in the forest, so that I could not go far myself,
and in the immediate vicinity of the village there is little to be
obtained.
I found it more easy to procure fishes, and was much pleased
by being frequently able to add to my collection of drawings.
The smaller species I also preserved in spirits. The electrical
eel is common in all the streams here; it is caught with a
hook, or in weirs, and is eaten, though not much esteemed.
When the water gets low, and leaves pools among the rocks,
many fish are caught by poisoning the waters with a root called
“ timbo.” The mouths of the small streams are also staked
across, and large quantities of all kinds are obtained. The
fish thus caught are very good when fresh, but putrefy sooner
than those caught in weirs or hooked.
Not being able to do much here, I determined to take a
trip up a small stream to a place where, on a lonely granite
mountain, the “Cocks of the Rock” are found. An Indian,
who could speak a little Portuguese, having come from a
village near it, I agreed to return with him. Senhor L. lent
me a small canoe ; and my two hunters, one of whom lived
there, accompanied me. I took with me plenty of ammunition,
a great box for my birds, some salt, hooks, mirrors, knives, etc.,
for the Indians, and left Guía early one morning. Just
IO
I46 TRAVELS OW THE RIO NEGRO. [AVovember,
below the village we turned into the river Isanna, a fine
stream, about half a mile wide, and in the afternoon reached
the mouth of the small river Cobati (fish), on the south side,
which we entered. We had hitherto seen the banks clothed
with thick virgin forest, and here and there were some low
hills covered entirely with lofty trees. Now the country became
very bushy and Scrubby ; in parts sandy and almost open;
perfectly flat, and apparently inundated at the high floods.
The water was of a more inky blackness; and the little stream,
not more than fifty yards wide, flowed with a rapid current,
and turned and doubled in a manner that made our progress
both difficult and tedious. At night we stopped at a little
piece of open sandy ground, where we drove stakes in the
earth to hang our hammocks. The next morning at daybreak
we continued our journey. The whole day long we wound
about, the stream keeping up exactly the same bleak character
as before ;-not a tree of any size visible, and the vegetation of
a most monotonous and dreary character, At night we stayed
near a lake, where the Indians caught some fine fish, and we
made a good supper. The next day we wound about more
than ever; often, after an hour's hard rowing, returning
to within fifty yards of a point we had started from. At
length, however, early in the afternoon, the aspect of the
country suddenly changed; lofty trees sprang up on the
banks, the characteristic creepers hung in festoons over them ;
moss-covered rocks appeared ; and from the river gradually
rose up a slope of luxuriant virgin forest, whose varied shades
of green and glistening foliage were most grateful to the eye
and the imagination, after the dull, monotonous vegetation of
the previous days.
. In half an hour more we were at the village, which consisted
of five or six miserable little huts imbedded in the forest.
Here I was introduced to my conductor's house. It contained
two rooms, with a floor of earth, and Smoky thatch overhead.
There were three doors, but no windows. Near one of these I
placed my bird-box, to serve as a table, and on the other side
swung my hammock. We then took a little walk to look
about us. Paths led to the different cottages, in which were
large families of naked children, and their almost naked
parents. Most of the houses had no walls, but were mere
thatched sheds supported on posts, and with sometimes a small
1850.] BLOW-PIPE AND ARROWS. I47
room enclosed with a palm-leaf fence, to make a sleeping
apartment. There were several young boys here of from ten
to fifteen years of age, who were my constant attendants when
I went into the forest. None of them could speak a single
word of Portuguese, so I had to make use of my slender stock
of Lingoa Geral. But Indian boys are not great talkers, and
a few monosyllables would generally suffice for our communi-
cations. One or two of them had blow-pipes, and shot
numbers of small birds for me, while others would creep along
by my side and silently point out birds, or small animals, before
I could catch sight of them. When I fired, and, as was often
the case, the bird flew away wounded, and then fell far off in
the forest, they would bound away after it, and seldom search
in vain. Even a little humming-bird, falling in a dense thicket
of creepers and dead leaves, which I should have given up
looking for in despair, was always found by them.
One day I accompanied the Indian with whom I lived into
the forest, to get stems for a blow-pipe. We went, about a
mile off, to a place where numerous small palms were growing:
they were the Iriartea setigera of Martius, from ten to fifteen
feet high, and varying from the thickness of one's finger to two
inches in diameter. They appear jointed outside, from the
scars of the fallen leaves, but within have a soft pith, which,
when cleared out, leaves a smooth, polished bore. My com-
panion selected several of the straightest he could find, both
of the smallest and largest diameter. These stems were
carefully dried in the house, the pith cleared out with a long
rod made of the wood of another palm, and the bore rubbed
clean and polished with a little bunch of roots of a tree-fern,
pulled backwards and forwards through it. Two stems are
selected of such a size, that the smaller can be pushed inside
the larger; this is done, so that any curve in the one may
counteract that in the other ; a conical wooden mouthpiece is
then fitted on to one end, and sometimes the whole is spirally
bound with the smooth, black, shining bark of a creeper.
Arrows are made of the spinous processes of the Patawā
(OEnocarpus Batawa) pointed, and anointed with poison, and
with a little conical tuft of tree cotton (the silky covering of
the seeds of a Bombax) at the other end, to fill up exactly, but
not tightly, the bore of the tube : these arrows are carried in
a wicker quiver, well covered with pitch at the lower part, so
148 TRAVELs ow THE RIo WEcko, [November,
that it can be inverted in wet weather to keep the arrows dry.
The blow-pipe, or gravatána, is the principal weapon here.
Every Indian has one, and seldom goes into the forest, or on
the rivers, without it. -
I soon found that the Cocks of the Rock, to obtain which
was my chief object in coming here, were not to be found near
the village. Their principal resort was the Serra de Cobāti,
or mountain before mentioned, situated some ten or twelve
miles off in the forest, where I was informed they were very
abundant. I accordingly made arrangements for a trip to the
Serra, with the intention of staying there a week. By the
promise of good payment for every “Gallo” they killed for
me, I persuaded almost the whole male population of the
village to accompany me. As our path was through a dense
forest for ten miles, we could not load ourselves with much
baggage: every man had to carry his gravatána, bow and
arrows, rédé, and some farinha; which, with salt, was all the
provisions we took, trusting to the forest for our meat; and I
even gave up my daily and only luxury of coffee.
We started off, thirteen in number, along a tolerable path.
In about an hour we came to a mandiocca-field and a house,
the last on the road to the Serra. Here we waited a short
time, took some “mingau,” or gruel, made of green plantains,
and got a volunteer to join our company. I was much struck
with an old woman whose whole body was one mass of close
deep wrinkles, and whose hair was white, a sure sign of very
great age in an Indian ; from information I obtained, I believe
she was more than a hundred years old. There was also a
young “mameltica,” very fair and handsome, and of a particu-
larly intelligent expression of countenance, very rarely seen in
that mixed race. The moment I saw her I had little doubt of
her being a person of whom I had heard Senhor L. speak
as the daughter of the celebrated German naturalist, Dr.
Natterer, by an Indian woman. I afterwards saw her at Guía,
and ascertained that my supposition was correct. She was
about seventeen years of age, was married to an Indian, and
had several children. She was a fine specimen of the noble
race produced by the mixture of the Saxon and Indian blood.
Proceeding onwards, we came to another recently-cleared
mandiocca-field. Here the path was quite obliterated, and we
had to cross over it as we could. Imagine the trees of a virgin
1850.] yovrazy THROUGH THE FOREST: I49
forest cut down so as to fall across each other in every
conceivable direction. After lying a few months they are
burnt; the fire, however, only consumes the leaves and fine
twigs and branches; all the rest remains entire, but blackened
and charred. The mandiocca is then planted without any
further preparation; and it was across such a field that we, all
heavily laden, had to find our way. Now climbing on the
top of some huge trunk, now walking over a shaking branch
or creeping among a confused thicket of charcoal, few journeys
require more equanimity of temper than one across an
Amazonian clearing.
Passing this, we got into the forest. At first the path was
tolerable ; soon, however, it was a mere track a few inches
wide, winding among thorny Creepers, and over deep beds of
decaying leaves. Gigantic buttress trees, tall fluted stems,
strange palms, and elegant tree-ferns were abundant on every
side, and many persons may suppose that our walk must
necessarily have been a delightful one ; but there were many
disagreeables. Hard roots rose up in ridges along our path,
swamp and mud alternated with quartz pebbles and rotten
leaves; and as I floundered along in the barefooted enjoyment
of these, some overhanging bough would knock the cap from
my head or the gun from my hand; or the hooked spines
of the climbing palms would catch in my shirt-sleeves, and
oblige me either to halt and deliberately unhook myself, or
leave a portion of my unlucky garment behind. The Indians
were all naked, or, if they had a shirt or trousers, carried them
in a bundle on their heads, and I have no doubt looked upon
me as a good illustration of the uselessness and bad conse.
quences of wearing clothes upon a forest journey. 4.
After four or five hours’ hard walking, at a pace which would
not have been bad upon clear level ground, we came to a
small stream of clear water, which had its source in the Serra
to which we were going. Here we waited a few moments to
rest and drink, while doing which we heard a strange rush and
distant grunt in the forest. The Indians started up, all
excitement and animation: “Tyeassti!” (wild hogs) they cried,
seizing their bows and arrows, tightening the strings, and
grasping their long knives. I cocked my gun, dropped in a
bullet, and hoped to get a shot at a “porco; ” but being afraid,
if I went with them, of losing myself in the forest, I waited with
150 TRAVEZs ow THE R10 WEGRO. [November,
the boys in hopes the game would pass near me. After a
little time we heard a rushing and fearful gnashing of teeth,
which made me stand anxiously expecting the animals to
appear; but the sound went further off, and died away at
length in the distance.
The party now appeared, and said that there was a large
herd of fine pigs, but that they had got away. They, however,
directed the boys to go on with me to the Serra, and they
would go again after the herd. We went on accordingly over
very rough, uneven ground, now climbing up steep ascents
over rotting trunks of fallen trees, now descending into gullies,
till at length we reached a curious rock—a huge table twenty
or thirty feet in diameter, supported on two points only, and
forming an excellent cave; round the outer edge we could
stand upright under it, but towards the centre the roof was so
low that one could only lie down. The top of this singular
rock was nearly flat, and completely covered with forest-trees,
and it at first seemed as if their weight must overbalance it
from its two small supports ; but the roots of the trees, not
finding nourishment enough from the little earth on the top of
the rock, ran along it to the edge, and there dropped down
vertically and penetrated among the broken fragments below,
thus forming a series of columns of various sizes supporting
the table all round its outer edge. Here, the boys said, was
to be our abode during our stay, though I did not perceive
any water near it. Through the trees we could see the moun-
tain a quarter or half a mile from us, a bare, perpendicular
mass of granite, rising abruptly from the forest to a height of
several hundred feet.
We had hung up our rédés and waited about half an hour,
when three Indians of our party made their appearance,
staggering under the weight of a fine hog they had killed, and
had slung on a strong pole. I then found the boys had
mistaken our station, which was some distance further on, at
the very foot of the Serra, and close to a running stream of
water, where was a large roomy cave formed by an immense
overhanging rock. Over our heads was growing a forest, and
the roots again hung down over the edge, forming a sort of
screen to our cave, and the stronger ones serving for posts to
hang our redes. Our luggage was soon unpacked, our rédés
hung, a fire lighted, and the pig taken down to the brook,
*
1850] “cocks of THE Rock.” I51
which ran at the lower end of the cave, to be skinned and
prepared for cooking.
The animal was very like a domestic pig, but with a higher
back, coarser and longer bristles, and a most penetrating
odour. This I found proceeded from a gland situated on the
back, about six inches above the root of the tail : it was a
swelling, with a large pore in the centre, from which exuded
an oily matter, producing a most intense and unbearable pig-
sty smell, of which the domestic animal can convey but a faint
idea. The first operation of the Indians was to cut out this
part completely, and the skin and flesh for some inches all
round it, and throw the piece away. If this were not done, they
say, the “pititi” (catinga, Port.), or bad smell, would render all
the meat uneatable. The animal was then skinned, cut up into
pieces, some of which were put into an earthen pot to stew,
while the legs and shoulders were kept to smoke over the fire
till they were thoroughly dry, as they can thus be preserved
several weeks without salt.
The greater number of the party had not yet arrived, so we
ate our suppers, expecting to see them soon after Sunset.
However, as they did not appear, we made up our fires, put
the meat on the “mogueen,” or smoking stage, and turned
comfortably into our rédés. The next morning, while we were
preparing breakfast, they all arrived, with the produce of their
hunting expedition. They had killed three hogs, but as it was
late and they were a long way off, they encamped for the night,
cut up the animals, and partially smoked all the prime pieces,
which they now brought with them carefully packed up in palm-
leaves. The party had no bows and arrows, but had killed the
game with their blow-pipes, and little poisoned arrows about
ten inches long.
After breakfast was over we prepared for an attack upon the
“Gallos.” We divided into three parties, going in different
directions. The party which I accompanied went to ascend
the Serra itself as far as practicable. We started out at the
back of our cave, which was, as I have stated, formed by the
base of the mountain itself. We immediately commenced the
ascent up rocky gorges, over huge fragments, and through
gloomy caverns, all mixed together in the most extraordinary
confusion. Sometimes we had to climb up precipices by roots
and Creepers, then to crawl over a surface formed by angular
I52 TRA VEZS OW ZEATE RIO AWAEGRO. [Nozember,
rocks, varying from the size of a wheelbarrow to that of a
house. I could not have imagined that what at a distance
appeared so insignificant, could have presented such a gigantic
and rugged scene. All the time we kept a sharp look-out, but
saw no birds. At length, however, an old Indian caught hold
of my arm, and whispering gently, “Gallo !” pointed into a
dense thicket. After looking intently a little while, I caught.
a glimpse of the magnificent bird sitting amidst the gloom,
shining out like a mass of brilliant flame. I took a step to get
a clear view of it, and raised my gun, when it took alarm and
flew off before I had time to fire. We followed, and soon it
was again pointed out to me. This time I had better luck,
fired with a steady aim, and brought it down. The Indians
rushed forward, but it had fallen into a deep gully between
steep rocks, and a considerable circuit had to be made to get
it. In a few minutes, however, it was brought to me, and I
was lost in admiration of the dazzling brilliancy of its soft
downy feathers. Not a spot of blood was visible, not a feather
was ruffled, and the soft, warm, flexible body set off the fresh
Swelling plumage in a manner which no stuffed specimen can
approach. After some time, not finding any more gallos, most
of the party set off on an excursion up a more impracticable
portion of the rock, leaving two boys with me till they returned.
We soon got tired of waiting, and as the boys made me under-
stand that they knew the path back to our cave, I determined
to return. We descended deep chasms in the rocks, climbed
up steep precipices, descended again and again, and passed
through caverns with huge masses of rocks piled above our
heads. Still we seemed not to get out of the mountain, but
fresh ridges rose before us, and more fearful fissures were to
be passed. We toiled on, now climbing by roots and creepers
up perpendicular walls, now Creeping along a narrow ledge,
with a yawning chasm on each side of us. I could not have
imagined such serrated rocks to exist. It appeared as if a
steep mountain-side had been cut and hacked by some gigantic
force into fissures and ravines, from fifty to a hundred feet
deep. My gun was a most inconvenient load when climbing
up these steep and slippery places, and I did it much damage
by striking its muzzle against the hard granite rock. At length
we appeared to have got into the very heart of the mountain:
no outlet was visible, and through the dense forest and matted
1850.] AAPAEAA’AAWCE OF 77HE SEA’AºA. I53
underwood, with which every part of these rocks were covered,
we could only see an interminable succession of ridges, and
chasms, and gigantic blocks of stone, with no visible termina-
tion. As it was evident the boys had lost their way, I resolved
to turn back. It was a weary task. I was already fatigued
enough, and the prospect of another climb over these fearful
ridges, and hazardous descent into those gloomy chasms, was
by no means agreeable. However, we persevered, one boy
taking my gun ; and after about an hour's hard work we got
back to the place whence we had started, and found the rest
of the party expecting us. We then went down by the proper
º Qºş
C
º
path, which they told me was the only known way of ascending
and descending the mountain, and by which we soon arrived
at Ollr CaVe. -
The accompanying sketch gives a section of this mountain,
as near as I can make it out. The extraordinary jaggedness
of the rocks is not at all exaggerated, and is the more surprising
when you get into it, because from a distance it appears one
smooth forest-covered hill, of very inconsiderable height, and
of a gradual slope. Besides the great caverns and ridges
shown above, the surfaces of each precipice are serrated in a
most extraordinary manner, forming deep sloping gutters, cut
out of the smooth face of the rock, or sometimes vertical
channels, with angular edges, such as might be supposed to

I54 TRAVEZs ow 7:HE RIO wegro. [November,
be formed were the granite in a plastic state forced up against
hard angular masses. -
On reaching the cave I immediately skinned my prize
before it was dark, and we then got our supper. No more
“gallos” were brought in that day. The fires were made up,
the pork put to smoke over them, and around me were thirteen
naked Indians, talking in unknown tongues. Two only could
speak a little Portuguese, and with them I conversed,
answering their various questions about where iron came from,
and how calico was made, and if paper grew in my Country,
and if we had much mandiocca and plantains ; and they were
greatly astonished to hear that all were white men there, and
could not imagine how white men could work, or how there
could be a country without forest. They would ask strange
questions about where the wind came from, and the rain, and
how the sun and moon got back to their places again after
disappearing from us ; and when I had tried to satisfy them
on these points, they would tell me forest tales of jaguars and
pumas, and of the fierce wild hogs, and of the dreadful Curupuri,
the demon of the woods, and of the wild man with a long tail,
found far in the centre of the forest. They told me also a
curious tale about the tapir, which, however, others have assured
me is not true. &
The tapir, they say, has a peculiar fancy for dropping his
dung only in the water, and they never find it except in brooks
and springs, though it is so large and abundant that it could
not be overlooked in the forest. If there is no water to be
found, the animal makes a rough basket of leaves and carries
it to the nearest stream, and there deposits it. The Indians’
tale goes, that one tapir met another in the forest with a basket
in his mouth. “What have you in your basket?” said the
one. “Fruit,” answered the other. “Let me have some,”
said the first. “I won’t,” said the other ; upon which the first
tapir pulled the basket from the other's mouth, broke it open,
and on seeing the contents both turned tail, quite ashamed of
themselves, ran away in opposite directions, and never came
near the spot again all their lives. -
With such conversation we passed the time till we fell asleep.
We rose with the earliest dawn, for the naked Indian feels the
chill morning air, and gets up early to renew his fire, and
make some mingau to warm himself. Having no coffee, I had
1850.] A WIGHT IN A SHED. I55
to put up also with “mingau” (farinha gruel), and we then all
started off again in search of game. This time I took the forest,
having had enough of the Serra, and the two boys came with
me for guides and companions. After wandering about a good
way we found some fine curassow-birds high up in lofty trees,
and succeeded in shooting one. This, with a large jacamar,
was all we could find, so we returned to the cave, skinned the
jacamar, and put the “mutun” (curassow-bird) on the fire for
breakfast.
In the afternoon the other parties returned unsuccessful, one
only bringing in a gallo. The next day nothing at all was met
with, and it was therefore agreed to move our camp to a spot
some miles off on the other side of the Serra, where was a
feeding-place of the gallos. We accordingly started ; and if
our former path was bad enough, this was detestable. It was
principally through second-growth woods, which are much
thicker than the virgin forest, full of prickly plants, entangled
creepers, and alternations of soft mud and quartz pebbles
under foot. As our farinha was getting low, we had sent half
our party home, to bring such a supply as would enable us to
remain a week in our new camp. A
On reaching the place we found a pleasant open glade and
low woods, where there had formerly been a small Indian
Settlement. . It was much more airy and agreeable than our
cave, so closely surrounded by the tall dense forest that scarcely
a straggling ray of sunshine could enter. Here were numerous
trees of a species of Melastoma, bearing purple berries, of
which the gallos and many other birds are very fond. There
was a little shed, just large enough to hang my hammock under;
this we repaired and thatched, and made our head-quarters,
where I soon established myself comfortably. We had not
been here long before we heard the shrill cry of a gallo near
us. All immediately started off, and I soon had the pleasure
of again seeing this living flame darting among the foliage.
My gun, however, had been wetted in walking so far through
the dripping underwood, and missed fire. In the evening two
fine birds were brought in, a very satisfactory commence-
ment. The next evening the party who had gone to the
village returned with farinha, salt, and a few mammee apples,
which were very refreshing. -
We stayed here four days longer, with various success:
2’’
156 TRAVEZs ow ZHE RIO wegro. [December,
some days we had not a bird; others, plenty of game, and
one or two gallos. What with monkeys, guans, and mutuns,
we had pretty good fare in the meat way. One day I went
out alone, and by patiently watching under a fruit-tree, in a
drenching shower, was rewarded by obtaining another beautiful
gallo. Two were brought in alive: one of them I killed and
skinned at once, knowing the great risk of attempting to keep
them alive; the other was kept by the Indian who caught it,
but a few weeks afterwards it died. They are caught by snares
at certain places, where the males assemble to play. These
places are on rocks, or roots of trees, and are worn quite
smooth and clean. Two or three males meet and perform a
kind of dance, walking and jigging up and down. The females
and young are never seen at these places, so that you are sure
of catching only full-grown fine-plumaged males. I am not
aware of any other bird that has this singular habit. On the
last day of our stay, we were rather short of provisions. The
Indians supped well off a young alligator they had caught in
a brook near; but the musky odour was so strong that I could
not stomach it, and, after getting down a bit of the tail, finished
my supper with mingau.
The next day we returned home to the little village. With
twelve hunters, nine days in the forest, I had obtained twelve
gallos, two of which I had shot myself; I had, besides, two
fine trogons, several little blue-capped manakins, and some
curious barbets, and ant-thrushes.
At the village I spent nearly a fortnight more, getting
together a good many small birds, but nothing very rare. I
shot a specimen of the curious bald-headed brown crow
(Gymnocephalus calvus), which, though common in Cayenne,
is very rare in the Rio Negro district; nobody, in fact, but the
Indians, had ever seen the bird, and they regarded it as my
greatest curiosity. I also skinned a black agouti, and made
drawings of many curious fish.
The Padre having come to Guía, most of the Indians
returned with me to attend the festa, and get their children
baptized. When we arrived, however, we found that he had
left for the villages higher up, and was to call on his return.
I now wished to set off as soon as possible for the Upper Rio
Negro, in Venezuela; but of course no Indian could be got
to go with me till the Padre returned, and I was obliged to
1850.] FREI /Ozá. I57
wait patiently and idly at Guia. For days I would go out into
the forest, and not get a bird worth skinning; insects were
equally scarce. The forest was gloomy, damp, and silent as
death. Every other day was wet, and almost every afternoon
there was a thunderstorm : and on these dull days and weary
evenings, I had no resource but the oft-told tales of Senhor L.,
and the hackneyed conversation on buying and selling Calico,
on digging Salsa, and cutting piassaba.
At length, however, the Padré, Frei Jozé, arrived with Senhor
Tenente Filisberto, the Commandante of Marabitanas. Frei
Jozé dos Santos Innocentos was a tall, thin, prematurely old
man, thoroughly worn out by every kind of debauchery, his
hands crippled, and his body ulcerated ; yet he still delighted
in recounting the feats of his youth, and was celebrated as the
most original and amusing story-teller in the province of Pará.
He was carried up the hill, from the river-side, in a hammock;
and took a couple of days to rest, before he commenced his
ecclesiastical operations. I often went with Senhor L. to visit
him, and was always much amused with his inexhaustible fund
of anecdotes: he seemed to know everybody and everything
in the Province, and had always something humorous to tell
about them. His stories were, most of them, disgustingly
coarse; but so cleverly told, in such quaint and expressive
language, and with such amusing imitations of voice and
manner, that they were irresistibly ludicrous. There is always,
too, a particular charm in hearing good anecdotes in a foreign
language. The point is the more interesting, from the obscure
method of arriving at it ; and the knowledge you acquire of
the various modes of using the peculiar idioms of the language,
causes a pleasure quite distinct from that of the story itself.
Frei Jozé never repeated a story twice in the week he was
with us; and Senhor L., who has known him for years, says
he had never before heard many of the anecdotes he now
related. He had been a soldier, then a friar in a convent, and
afterwards a parish priest: he told tales of his convent life,
just like what we read in Chaucer of their doings in his time.
Don Juan was an innocent compared with Frei Jozé; but he
told us he had a great respect for his cloth, and never did
anything disreputable—during the day /
At length the baptisms took place: there were some fifteen
or twenty Indian children of all ages, to undergo the operation
158 - TRAVELS OW ZEE RIO AVEGRO, LVanuary, 1851.
at once. There are seven or eight distinct processes in the
Roman Catholic baptism, well calculated to attract the attention
of the Indians: there is water and holy oil,-and Spittle rubbed
on the eyes, and crosses on the eyes, nose, mouth, and body,
—and kneeling and prayers in between, which all bear suffi-
cient resemblance to the complicated operations of their own
“pagés” (conjurors), to make them think they have got
something very good, in return for the shilling they pay for
the ceremony.
The next day there were a few weddings, the ceremony of
which is very like our own. After it was over, Frei Jozé gave
the newly married people a very good and practical homily
on the duties of the married state, which might have done
some good, had the parties to whom it was addressed under-
stood it; which, as it was in Portuguese, they did not. He at
all times strenuously exhorted the Indians to get married, and
thus save their souls, and fill his pocket. The only two
white men, besides myself, were, however, bad examples, for
they were not, nor would be married, though they both had
large families; which the Padré got over by saying, “Never
mind what these white people do, they will all go to purgatory,
but don't you be such fools as to go too !” at which Senhor
L. and the Commandante laughed heartily, and the poor
Indians looked much astonished.
CHAPTER IX.
JAVITA.
Leave Guia—Marabitänas—Serra de Cocoſ—Enter Venezuela—São
Carlos—Pass the Cassiquiare—Antonio Dias—Indian Shipbuilders
—Feather-work—Maróa and Pimichin—A Black Jaguar—Poisonous
Serpents—Fishing—Walk to Javita—Residence there—Indian Road-
makers—Language and Customs—A Description of Javita—Run-
away Indians—Collections at Javita—Return to Tómo—A Domestic
Broil–Marabitánas, and its Inhabitants—Reach Guia.
WHEN at length our visitors were gone, I commenced
arrangements for my voyage further up the country.
Senhor L. lent me a canoe, and I had four Indians to go
with me, only one of whom, an old man named Augustinho,
could speak a little broken Portuguese. I took with me my
watch, sextant, and compass, insect- and bird-boxes, gun and
ammunition, with salt, beads, fish-hooks, calico, and coarse
cotton cloth for the Indians. My men all had their gravatánas
and quivers of poisoned arrows, a pair of trousers, shirt,
paddle, knife, tinder-box, and rédé, which comprise the whole
assortment of an Indian's baggage.
On the 27th of January, 1851, we left Guía, paddling up
against the stream. The canoe had been fresh caulked, but
still I found it leaking so much, as to keep me constantly
baling ; and in the afternoon, when we stayed for dinner, I made
an examination, and found out the cause of the leakage. The
cargo was heavy and was supported on a little stage, or floor,
resting upon cross-bearers in the bottom of the canoe; the
ends of these bearers had been carelessly placed just on a seam,
so that the whole weight of the cargo tended to force out the
plank, and thus produce the leak. I was accordingly obliged
to unload the boat entirely, and replace the bearers in a better
position, after which I was glad to find the leak much
gliminished, -
16o TRAVEZs ow THE R10 NBGRO. LJanuary,
On the 28th, in the afternoon, we arrived at the little village
of Mabé, which we reached in very good time, for the inhabit-
ants had just returned from a fishing expedition: they had
procured a great quantity of fish by poisoning an igaripé near,
and I purchased enough for our supper and breakfast. I found
several which I had not seen before; among them, a most
curious little species allied to Centrarcus, called the butterfly
fish, from the extraordinary development of its fins, and pretty
banded markings.
On the 29th, about noon, we passed the mouth of the
river Xié, a black-water stream of moderate size and no great
length. There is little trade up it, and the Indians inhabiting
it are uncivilised and almost unknown.
On the 3oth we came in sight of the Serras of the Caba-
burís, and the long row of hills called Pirapucó (the long
fish): they consist of lofty and isolated granite peaks, like
those generally found in this district. The next day we reached
Marabitánas, the frontier fort of Brazil: there is now only the
remnant of a mud entrenchment, and a small detachment of
soldiers. As the Commandante was not there, we did not stay,
except to purchase a few plantains.
On the 1st of February we reached the Serra of Cocoſ, which
marks the boundary between Brazil and Venezuela. This is a
granite rock, very precipitous and forming nearly a square
frustum of a prism, about a thousand feet high. It rises at
once out of the forest plain, and is itself, on the summit and
the less precipitous portions, covered with thick wood. Here
the piums, or little biting flies, swarm and made us very
uncomfortable for the rest of the day. We had now beautiful
weather, and in the evening slept on a fine granite beach very
comfortably. The next night we stayed at a rock on which we
found some curious figures engraven below high-water mark.
Here having a clear horizon up the river to the north, I saw
my old friend the pole-star, though I was only in 19 20' north
latitude. We had now every day fine rocky beaches, along
which I often walked, while young Luiz would shoot fish for
us with his bow and arrow. He was very skilful, and always
had his bow by his side, and as we approached a rock or
shallow would fit his arrow and send it into some glittering
acarrá or bright-coloured tucunaré.
At length, on the afternoon of the 4th of February, we
1851.] THE CASS/QUIAA-A2. 161
arrived at São Carlos, the principal Venezuelan village on the
Rio Negro. This was the furthest point reached by Humboldt
from an opposite direction, and I was therefore now entering
upon ground gone over fifty years before by that illustrious
traveller. At the landing-place I was agreeably surprised to
see a young Portuguese I had met at Guia, and as he was
going up the river to Tomo in a day or two, I agreed to wait
and take him with me. I went with him to the house of the
Commissario, got introduced, and commenced my acquaintance
with the Spanish language. I was civilly received, and found
myself in the midst of a party of loosely-dressed gentlemen,
holding a conversation on things in general. I found some
difficulty in making out anything, both from the peculiarity of
accent and the number of new words constantly occurring; for
though Spanish is very similar to Portuguese in the verbs,
pronouns, and adjectives, the nouns are mostly different, and
the accent and pronunciation peculiar.
We took our meals at the Commissario's table, and with
every meal had coffee, which custom I rather liked. The
next day I walked into the forest along the road to Soláno,
a villageon the Cassiquiare. I found a dry, sandy soil, but
with very few insects. The village of São Carlos is laid out
with a large Square, and parallel streets. The principal house,
called the Convento, where the priests used to reside, is now
occupied by the Commissario. The square is kept clean, the
houses whitewashed, and altogether the village is much neater
than those of Brazil. Every morning the bell rings formatins,
and the young girls and boys assemble in the church and sing
a few hymns; the same takes place in the evening ; and on
Sundays the church is always opened, and service performed
by the Commissario and the Indians.
Soon after leaving the village we passed the mouth of the
Cassiquiare, that singular stream which connects the Rio Negro
with the Orinooko near the sources of both. It is a mixture
of white and black water, and swarms with piums, which are
abundant down to São Carlos ; but on passing the mouth of
the Cassiquiare they cease immediately, and up to the sources
of the Rio Negro there is a freedom at least from this pest.
In the evening we stayed at an Indian cottage, and bought a
fine cabeçudo, or big-headed turtle, for a basin of salt: it
furnished us with an excellent supper for eight persons, and
II
162 TRAVELS ow THE R10 WEGRO. - [February,
even the next day we did not finish it all. The weather was
now hot, and brilliantly fine, contrasting much with the con-
stant rains of Guia; and, marvellous to relate, the people here
told us they had not had any rain for three months past. The
effects were seen in the river, which was very low and still
falling, and so full of rocks and shallows as to render it some-
times difficult for us to find a passage for our canoes.
After passing the village of São Miguel these difficulties
increased, till we came to a place where the whole channel, a
mile wide, appeared but one bed of rocks, with nowhere water
enough for our canoe to pass, though eighteen inches would
have sufficed. We went wandering about over this rocky plain
in search of some opening, and after much difficulty succeeded
in pushing and dragging our boat over the rocks. We passed
by two or three “Caños,” or channels leading to the Cassi-
quiare, up which many of the inhabitants were now going, to
lay in a stock of fish and cabeçudos against the “tiempo del
faminto * (time of famine), as the wet season is called, when
but little fish and game are to be obtained. -
On the Ioth of February we reached Tómo, a village at the
mouth of a stream of the same name. The inhabitants are all
Indians, except one white man, a Portuguese, named Antonio
Dias, of whom I had heard much at Barra. I found him in
his shirt and trousers, covered with dust and perspiration,
having just been assisting his men at their work at some canoes
he was building. He received me kindly, with a strange
mixture of Portuguese and Spanish, and got the “casa de
nação,” or stranger's house, a mere dirty shed, swept out for
my accommodation for a few days. Like most of the white
men in this neighbourhood, he is occupied entirely in building
large canoes and schooners for the Rio Negro and Amazon
trade. When finished, the hulls alone are taken down to Barra
or to Pará, generally with a cargo of piassába or farinha, and
there sold. He had now one on the stocks, of near two
hundred tons burden; but most of them are from thirty to a
hundred tons. . These large vessels have to be taken down the
Cataracts of the Rio Negro, which can only be done in the wet
season, when the water is deep.
It seems astonishing how such large vessels can be con-
structed by persons entirely ignorant of the principles of naval
architecture. They are altogether made by the Indians with-
1851.] AOA 7. B&WZZO/WG. - 163
out drawing or design. During the time when Brazil and
Venezuela were under the Portuguese and Spanish govern-
ments, building-yards were established in several places where
good timber was to be found, and the Indians were employed,
under naval architects from Spain and Portugal, in the con-
struction of vessels for the coast and inland trade. When the
independence of these countries took place, all such establish-
ments were broken up, and a long succession of revolutions
and disturbances occurred. The Indians employed had, how-
ever, learnt an art they did not forget, but taught it to their
children and countrymen. By eye and hand alone they will
form the framework and fit on the planks of fine little vessels
of a hundred tons or more, with no other tools than axe, adze,
and hammer. Many a Portuguese, who has scarcely ever seen
a boat except during his passage to Brazil, gets together half-
a-dozen Indians with some old Indian carpenter at their head,
buys a dozen axes and a few thousands of nails, and sets up as
a shipbuilder. The products of the Upper Rio Negro, princi-
pally piassába, pitch, and farinha, are bulky, and require large
vessels to take them down, but their value in iron and cotton
goods can be brought up again in a very small canoe. Large
vessels, too, cannot possibly return up the cataracts. Those
made on the Upper Rio Negro, therefore, never return there,
and the small traders require a new one annually. They are
used below in the navigation of the Amazon, and of all its
branches not obstructed by falls or rapids. The vessels are
made very cheaply and roughly, and seldom of the best timbers,
which, are difficult to obtain in sufficient quantity. On an
average these canoes do not last more than six or eight years,
many not more than two or three, though there are woods
which will stand for thirty years perfectly sound. Owing to
these peculiar circumstances, there is a constant demand for
these Spanish vessels, as they are called ; and the villages of
São Carlos, Tiriquím, São Miguel, Tómo, and Maróa are
entirely inhabited by builders of canoes. -
While I was at Tómo the village was being cleaned, by
scraping off the turf and weeds wherever they appeared within
the limits of the houses. The people show an instance of
their peculiar delicacy in this work: they will not touch any
spot on which there lies a piece of dung of a dog or any animal,
or the body of any dead bird or reptile, but hoe carefully
164 TRA VEZS OW THE RIO. WEGRO. [February,
around it, and leave a little circular tuft of grass marking the
spot where all such impurities exist. This is partly owing to
a kind of superstition; but in many other ways they show a
dislike to touch, however remotely, any offensive animal sub-
stance. This idea is carried so far as to lead them sometimes
to neglect the sick in any offensive disease. It seems to be
a kind of feeling very similar to that which exists in many
animals, with regard to the sick and the dying. -
Senhor Antonio Dias was rather notorious, even in this
country of loose morals, for his patriarchal propensities, his
, harem consisting of a mother and daughter and two Indian
girls, all of whom he keeps employed at feather-work, which
they do with great skill,—Senhor Antonio himself, who has
Some taste in design, making out the patterns. The cocks of
the rock, white herons, roseate spoonbills, golden jacamars,
metallic trogons, and exquisite little seven-coloured tanagers,
with many gay parrots, and other beautiful birds, offer an
assortment of colours capable of producing the most exquisite
effects. The work is principally applied to the borders or
fringes of hammocks. The hammocks themselves are of finely
netted palm-fibre string, dyed of red, yellow, green, and other
brilliant colours. The fringes are about a foot deep, also finely
netted, of the same material, and on these are stuck, with the
milk of the cow-tree, sprays and stars and flowers of feather-
work. In the best he puts in the centre the arms of Portugal
or Brazil beautifully executed; and the whole, on a ground of
the snowy white heron's feathers, has a very pleasing effect.
Senhor Antonio informed me, that, owing to the lowness
of the water, I could not go on any further in my canoe, and must
therefore get an Indian obá, of one piece of wood, to stand the
scraping over the rocks up to Pimichin ; so, on the 13th, I left
Tómo with Senhor Antonio in his canoe, for Maroa, a village
a few miles above, where I hoped to get an obá suited for, the
remainder of the journey. This was a large village, entirely
inhabited by Indians, and with an Indian Commissario, who
could read and write, and was quite fashionably dressed in patent-
leather boots, trousers, and straps. I here got an obá, lent me
by a Gallician trader, and took two Indians with me from the
place to bring it back. Senhor Antonio returned to Tómo,
and about three P.M. I started on my journey in my little
tottering canoe. •
1851.] THE PIMICHAEW RIVER, 165
About a mile above Maróa, we reached the entrance of the
little river Pimichſn, up which we were to ascend. At the very
mouth was a rock filling up the channel, and we had great
difficulty in passing. We then had deep water for some
distance, but came again to rocks and reedy shallows, where
our heavily-laden canoe was only got over by great exertions. At
night we reached a fine sandy beach, where we stayed, but had
not been fortunate enough to get any fish, so had nothing for
supper but farinha mingau and a cup of coffee; and I then
hung my hammock under a little palm-leaf shed, that had been
made by some former traveller.
Our breakfast was a repetition of our Supper, and we again
started onwards, but every half hour had to stop and partly
unload our boat, and drag it over some impediment. In many
places there was a smooth ledge of rock with only a little water
trickling over it, or a series of steps forming minature cascades.
The stream was now sunk in a little channel or ravine fifteen
or twenty feet deep, and with an interminable succession of
turnings and windings towards every point of the compass.
At length, late in the evening, we reached the port of Pimichín,
formerly a village, but now containing only two houses. We
found an old shed without doors and with a leaky roof–the
traveller's house—of which we took possession.
Our canoe being unloaded, I went to one of the cottages to
forage, and found a Portuguese deserter, a very civil fellow,
who gave me the only eatable thing he had in the house,
which was a piece of smoke-dried fish, as hard as a board and
as tough as leather. This I gave to the Indians, and got him
to come and take a cup of coffee with me, which, though he
had some coffee-trees around his house, was still quite a treat,
as he had no sugar or molasses. From this place a road leads
overland about ten miles through the forest to Javíta, a
village on the Témi, a branch of the Atabapo, which flows
into the Orinooko. Finding that I could get nothing to eat
here, I could not remain, as I had at first intended, but was
obliged to get my things all carried by road to Javita, and
determined to walk over the next day to see about getting men
to do it. In the evening I took my gun, and strolled along the
road a little way into the forest, at the place I had so long looked
forward to reaching, and was rewarded by falling in with one
of the lords of the soil, which I had long wished to encounter,
I66 TRA VEZS OAV ZAZE A*/O AVEGA’O. [February
As I was walking quietly along I saw a large jet-black
animal come out of the forest about twenty yards before me,
which took me so much by surprise that I did not at first
imagine what it was. As it moved slowly on, and its whole
body and long curving tail came into full view in the middle
of the road, I saw that it was a fine black jaguar. I involun-
tarily raised my gun to my shoulder, but remembering that
both barrels were loaded with small shot, and that to fire would
exasperate without killing him, I stood silently gazing. In the
middle of the road he turned his head, and for an instant
paused and gazed at me, but having, I suppose, other business
of his own to attend to, walked steadily on, and disappeared in
the thicket. As he advanced, I heard the scampering of small
animals, and the whizzing flight of ground birds, clearing the
path for their dreaded enemy.
This encounter pleased me much. I was too much surprised,
and occupied too much with admiration, to feel fear. I had
at length had a full view, in his native wilds, of the rarest
variety of the most powerful and dangerous animal inhabiting
the American continent. I was, however, by no means desirous
of a second meeting, and, as it was near Sunset, thought it most
prudent to turn back towards the village.
The next morning I sent all my Indians to fish, and walked
myself along the road to Javita, and thus crossed the division
between the basins of the Amazon and the Orinooko. The
road is, generally speaking, level, consisting of a series of
slight ascents and descents, nowhere probably varying more
than fifty feet in elevation, and a great part of it being over
swamps and marshes, where numerous small streams intersect
it. At those places roughly squared trunks of trees are laid
down longitudinally, forming narrow paths or bridges, over
which passengers have to walk.
The road is about twenty or thirty feet wide, running nearly
straight through a lofty forest. On the sides grow numbers of
the Inajá palm (Maximiliana regia), the prickly Mauritia
(M. aculeata) in the marshes, and that curious palm the
Piassába, which produces the fibrous substance now used for
making brooms and brushes in this country for street-sweeping
and domestic purposes. This is the first and almost the only
point where this curious tree can be seen, while following any
regular road or navigation. From the mouth of the Padauarí
1851.] THE PIASSABA PAZM. 167
(a branch of the Rio Negro about five hundred miles above
Barra), it is found on several rivers, but never on the banks
of the main stream itself. A great part of the population of
the Upper Rio Negro is employed in obtaining the fibre
for exportation; and I thus became acquainted with all the
localities in which it is found. These are the rivers Padauarí,
Jahá, and Darahá on the north bank of the Rio Negro, and
the Marié and Xié on the south. The other two rivers, the
Maravihá and Cababuris, on the north, have not a tree ;
neither have the Curicuriarſ, Uaupés, and Isánna, on the
south, though they flow between the Marié and the Xié, where
it abounds. In the whole of the district about the Upper Rio
Negro above São Carlos, and about the Atabapo and its
branches, it is abundant, and just behind the village of Tómo
was where I first saw it. It grows in moist places, and is
about twenty or thirty feet high, with the leaves large, pinnate,
shining, and very smooth and regular. The whole stem is
covered with a thick coating of the fibres, hanging down like
coarse hair, and growing from the bases of the leaves, which
remain attached to the stem. Large parties of men, women,
and children go into the forests to cut this fibre. It is exten-
sively used in its native country for cables and small ropes for
all the canoes and larger vessels on the Amazon. Humboldt
alludes to this plant by the native Venezuelan name of
Chiquichiqui, but does not appear to have seen it, though he
passed along this road. I believe it to be a species of Zeo-
Żoldinia, of which two other kinds occur in the Rio Negro
and, like this tree, are found there only. I could not find
it in flower or fruit, but took a sketch of its general appearance,
and have called it Leopoldinia Piassaba, from its native name,
in the greater part of the district which it inhabits.
On approaching the end of the road I came to a “rhossa,”
or cleared field, where I found a tall, stout Indian planting
cassáva. He addressed me with “Buenos dias,” and asked
me where I was going, and if I wanted anything at the village,
for that the Commissario was away, and he was the Capitão.
I replied in the best Spanish I could muster up for the
occasion, and we managed to understand each other pretty
well. He was rather astonished when I told him I was going
to stay at the village, and seemed very doubtful of my inten-
tions. I informed him, however, that I was a “Naturalista,”
w
I68 ZRAVEL's ow THE RIo weeko, [February,
t
and wanted birds, insects, and other animals; and then he
began to comprehend, and at last promised to send me some
men the day after the next, to carry over my luggage. I
accordingly turned back without going to the village, which
was still nearly a mile off.
On my return to Pimichin I found that my Indians had
had but little success in fishing, three or four small perch being
all we could muster for supper. As we had the next day to
spare, I sent them early to get some “timbo” to poison the
water, and thus obtain some more fish. While they were gone,
I amused myself with walking about the village, and taking
notes of its peculiarities. Hanging up under the eaves of our
shed was a dried head of a snake, which had been killed a
short time before. It was a jararáca, a species of Cras-
Żedocephalus, and must have been of a formidable size, for its
poison-fangs, four in number, were nearly an inch long. My
friend the deserter informed me that there were plenty like it
in the mass of weeds close to the house, and that at night they
came out, so that it was necessary to keep a sharp watch in
and about the house. The bite of such a one as this would
be certain death.
At Tómo I had observed signs of stratified upheaved rocks
close to the village. Here the flat granite pavement presented
a Curious appearance: it contained, imbedded in it, fragments
of rock, of an angular shape, of sandstone crystallized and
stratified, and of quartz. Up to São Carlos I had constantly
registered the boiling-point of water with an accurate ther.
mometer, made for the purpose, in order to ascertain the height
above the level of the sea. There I had unfortunately broken
it, before arriving at this most interesting point, the watershed
between the Amazon and the Orinooko. I am, however,
inclined to think that the height given by Humboldt for São
Carlos is too great. He himself says it is doubtful, as his
barometer had got an air-bubble in it, and was emptied and re-
filled by him, and before returning to the coast was broken, so
as to render a comparison of its indications impossible. Under
these circumstances, I think little weight can be attached to the
observations. He gives, however, eight hundred and twelve feet
as the height of São Carlos above the sea. My observations
made a difference of o'5° of Fahrenheit in the temperature of
boiling water between Barra and São Carlos, which would give
1851.] AVD/AAW CARRAERS. 169
a height of two hundred and fifty feet, to which may be added
fifty feet for the height of the station at which the observations
were made at Barra, making three hundred feet. Now the
height of Barra above the sea I cannot consider to be more than
a hundred feet, for both my own observations and those of Mr.
Spruce with the aneroid would make Barra lower than Pará, if
the difference of pressure of the atmosphere was solely owing
to height, the barometer appearing to stand regularly higher at
Barra than at Pará, -a circumstance which shows the total
inapplicability of that instrument to determine small heights at
very great distances. I cannot therefore think that São Carlos
is more than four hundred, or at the outside five hundred feet,
above the level of the sea. Should, as I suspect, the mean
pressure of the atmosphere in the interior and on the coasts of
South America differ from other causes than the elevation, it
will be a difficult point ever accurately to ascertain the levels
of the interior of this great continent, for the distances are too
vast and the forests too impenetrable to allow a line of levels
to be carried across it.
When my Indians returned with the roots of timbo, we all
set to work beating it on the rocks with hard pieces of wood,
till we had reduced it to fibres. It was then placed in a small
canoe, filled with water and clay, and well mixed and squeezed,
till all the juice had come out of it. This being done, it was
carried a little way up the stream, and gradually tilted in, and
mixed with the water. It soon began to produce its effects:
small fish jumped up out of the water, turned and twisted about
on the surface, or even lay on their backs and sides. The
Indians were in the stream with baskets, hooking out all that
came in the way, and diving and swimming after any larger
ones that appeared at all affected. In this way, we got in an
hour or two a basketful of fish, mostly small ones, but contain-
ing many curious species I had not before met with. Numbers
escaped, as we had no weir across the stream ; and the next
day several were found entangled at the sides, and already
putrefying. I now had plenty to do. I selected about half a
dozen of the most novel and interesting species to describe
and figure, and gave the rest to be cleaned and put in the pot,
to provide us a rather better supper than we had had for some
days past. -
The next morning early our porters appeared, consisting of
17o 7RAVEZs ow THE Rio weeko. Fºruary
one man and eight or ten women and girls. We accordingly
made up loads for each of them. There was a basket of salt
about a hundred pounds weight, four baskets of farinha,
besides boxes, baskets, a jar of oil, a demijohn of molasses, a
portable cupboard, and numerous other articles. The greater
part of these were taken, in loads proportioned to the strength
of the bearers, and two of my Indians accompanied them,
and were to return in the evening, and then go with me the
next day. Night came, however, and they did not appear ;
but near midnight they came in, telling me that they could
not keep up with the Javita Indians, and night coming on
while they were in the middle of the road, they had hid their
burdens in the forest and returned. So the next morning they
had to go off again to finish their journey, and I was obliged
to wait till they came back, and was delayed another day before
I could get all my things taken.
I occupied myself in the forest catching a few insects, which,
however, were not very numerous. The following morning we
had nothing for breakfast, so I sent the Indians off early to
fish, with positive instructions to return by ten o’clock, in order
that we might get to Javita before night. They chose, how-
ever, to stay till past noon, and then came with two or three
small fish, which did not give us a mouthful apiece. It was .
thus two o'clock before we started. I was pretty well loaded
with gun, ammunition, insect-boxes, etc., but soon got on
ahead, with one Indian boy, who could not understand a
single word of Portuguese. About halfway I saw a fine mutun,
a little way off the road, and went after it; but I had only
small shot in my gun, and wounded it, but did not bring it
down. I still followed, and fired several times but without
effect, and as it had suddenly got dark I was obliged to leave
it. We had still some miles to go. The sun had set, so we
pushed on quickly, my attendant keeping close at my heels.
In the marshes and over the little streams we had now some
difficulty in finding our way along the narrow trunks laid for
bridges. I was barefoot, and every minute stepped on some
projecting root or stone, or trod sideways upon something
which almost dislocated my ankle. It was now pitch-dark:
dull clouds could just be distinguished through the openings
in the high arch of overhanging trees, but the road we were
walking on was totally invisible. Jaguars I knew abounded
1851.] ARRIVAL AT JAV/74. 171
here, deadly serpents were plentiful, and at every step I almost
expected to feel a cold, gliding body under my feet, or deadly
fangs in my leg. Through the darkness I gazed, expecting
momentarily to encounter the glaring eyes of a jaguar, or to
hear his low growl in the thicket. But to turn back or to stop
were alike useless : I knew that we could not be very far from
the village, and so pressed on, with a vague confidence that
after all nothing disagreeable would happen, and that the next
day I should only laugh at my fears overnight. Still the sharp
fangs of the dried snake's head at Pimichin would come across
my memory, and many a tale of the fierceness and cunning of
the jaguar were not to be forgotten. At length we came to
the clearing I had reached two days before, and I now knew
that we had but a short distance to go. There were, however,
several small streams to cross. Suddenly we would step into
water, which we felt but could not see, and then had to find
the narrow bridge crossing it. Of the length of the bridge, its
height above the water, or the depth of the stream, we were
entirely ignorant; and to walk along a trunk four inches wide
under such circumstances, was rather a nervous matter. We
proceeded, placing one foot before the other, and balancing
steadily, till we again felt ourselves on firm ground. On one
or two occasions I lost my balance, but it was luckily only a
foot or two to the ground and water below, though if it had been
twenty it would have been all the same. Some half dozen of
brooks and bridges like this had to be passed, and several
little up and downs in the road, till at length, emerging from
the pitchy shade upon an open space, we saw twinkling lights,
which told us the village was before us.
In about a quarter of an hour more we reached it, and,
knocking at a door, asked where the Commissario lived. We
were directed to a house on the other side of the square, where
an old man conducted us to the “Casa de nação" (a shed with
a door), in which were all my goods. On asking him if he
could furnish me something for supper, he gave us some
Smoked turtles' eggs and a piece of salt fish, and then left
us. We soon made a fire with some sticks we found, roasted
our fish, and made a supper with the eggs and some farinha;
I then hung up my hammock, and my companion lay on the .
ground by the side of the fire; and I slept well, undisturbed
by dreams of snakes or jaguars. -
172 TRAVEZs ow THE RIo weeko, [February,
The next morning I called on the Commissario, for the old
man I had seen the evening before was only a capitão. I
found him in his house : he was an Indian who could read
and write, but not differing in any other respect from the
Indians of the place. He had on a shirt and a pair of short-
legged trousers, but neither shoes nor stockings. I informed
him why I had come there, showed him my Brazilian passport,
and requested the use of the Convento (a house formerly
occupied by the priests, but now kept for travellers) to live in.
After a little demur, he gave me the key of the house, and so
I said good-morning, and proceeded to take possession.
About the middle of the day, the Indians who had started
with me the day before arrived; they had been afraid to come
on in the dark, so had encamped in the road. I now got the
house swept out, and my things taken into it. It consisted of
two small rooms, and a little verandah at the back; the larger
room contained a table, chair, and bench, and in the smaller I
hung up my hammock. My porters then came to be paid for
bringing over my goods. All wanted salt, and I gave them a
basinful each and a few fish-hooks, for carrying a heavy load
ten miles: this is about their regular payment.
I had now reached the furthest point in this direction that I
had wished to attain. I had passed the boundary of the mighty
Amazon valley, and was among the streams that go to swell
another of the world's great waters—the Orinooko. A deficiency
in all other parts of the Upper Amazon district was here
supplied,—a road through the virgin forest, by which I could
readily reach its recesses, and where I was more sure of
obtaining the curious insects of so distant a region, as well as the
birds and other animals which inhabit it ; so I determined to
remain here at least a month, steadily at work. Every day I
went myself along the road, and sent my Indians, some to fish
in the little black river Temi, others with their gravatánas to
seek for the splendid trogons, monkeys, and other curious birds
and animals in the forest.
Unfortunately, however, for me, on the very night I reached
the village it began to rain, and day after day cloudy and
showery weather continued. For three months Javſta had
enjoyed the most splendid summer weather, with a clear sky
and hardly a shower. I had been wasting all this time in the
rainy district of the cataracts of the Rio Negro. No one there
1851.] EAST DAY OF SUMMER. 173
could tell me that the seasons, at such a short distance, differed
so completely, and the consequence was that I arrived at Javita
on the very last day of summer.
The winter or rainy season commenced early this year. The
river kept rapidly rising. The Indians constantly assured me
that it was too soon for the regular rains to commence,—that
we should have fine weather again,_the river would fall, and
the winter not set in for two or three weeks. However, such
was not the case. Day after day the rain poured down ; every
afternoon or night was wet, and a little sunshine in the morning
was the most we were favoured with. Insects consequently
were much more scarce than they otherwise would have been,
and the dampness of the atmosphere rendered it extremely
difficult to dry and preserve those that I obtained. How-
ever, by perseverance I amassed a considerable number of
specimens ; and what gave me the greatest pleasure was, that
I almost daily obtained some new species which the Lower
Amazon and Rio Negro had not furnished me with. During
the time I remained here (forty days), I procured at least forty
species of butterflies quite new to me, besides a considerable
collection of other orders; and I am sure that during the dry
season Javita would be a most productive station for any per-
severing entomologist. I never saw the great blue butterflies,
Morpho Menelaus, M. Helenor, etc., so abundant as here. In
certain places in the road I found them by dozens sitting on
the ground or on twigs by the roadside, and could easily have
captured a dozen or twenty a day if I had wanted them. In
birds and mammalia I did not do much, for my Indians wanted
to get back, and were lazy and would not hunt after them.
During my walks in the forest, I myself saw wild-pigs, agoutis,
Coatis, monkeys, numerous beautiful trogons, and many other
fine birds, as well as many kinds of serpents.
One day I had brought to me a curious little alligator of a
rare species, with numerous ridges and conical tubercles
(Caiman gibbus), which I skinned and stuffed, much to the
amusement of the Indians, half a dozen of whom gazed in-
tently at the operation. *
Of fish, too, I obtained many new species, as my Indians were
out fishing every day to provide our supper, and I generally
had some to figure and describe in the afternoon. I formed a
good collection of the smaller kinds in spirits. My drawings here
174 TRAVEZs ow THE RIO wegro. [March,
were made under great difficulties. I generally returned from
the forest about three or four in the afternoon, and if I found
a new fish, had to set down immediately to figure it before
dark. I was thus exposed to the pest of the sand-flies, which,
every afternoon, from four to six, swarm in millions, causing
by their bites on the face, ears, and hands, the most painful
irritation. Often have I been obliged to start up from my seat,
dash down my pencil, and wave my hands about in the cool
air to get a little relief. But the sun was getting low, and I
must return to my task, till, before I had finished, my hands
would be as rough and as red as a boiled lobster, and violently
inflamed. Bathing them in cold water, however, and half an
hour's rest, would bring them to their natural state ; in which
respect the bite of this little insect is far preferable to that of
the mosquito, the pium, or the muttica, the effects of whose
bites are felt for days. - -
The village of Javíta is rather a large one, regularly laid out,
and contains about two hundred inhabitants: they are all
Indians of pure blood; I did not see a white man, a mulatto,
or a half-breed among them. Their principal occupation is in
cutting piassába in the neighbouring forests, and making cables
and cordage of it. They are also the carriers of all goods
across the “Estrada de Javita,” and, being used to this service
from childhood, they will often take two loads a day ten miles
each way, with less fatigue than a man not accustomed to the
work can carry one. When my Indians accompanied the
Javítanos the first time from Pimichin, they could not at all
keep up with them, but were, as I have related, obliged to stop
halfway. They go along the road at a sort of run, stopping to
rest twice only for a few minutes each time. They go over the
narrow bridges with the greatest certainty, often two together,
carrying heavy loads suspended from a pole between them.
Besides this, once or twice a year they will go in a body to
clean the road as far as the middle, where there is a cross
erected. The inhabitants of Maróa, Tómo, and other villages
of the Rio Negro assemble to clean the other half. One of
these cleanings occurred while I was there. The whole village,
men, women, and children, turned out, the former carrying
axes and cutlasses, the latter bundles of switches to serve as
brooms. They divided themselves into parties, going on to
different parts of the road, and then worked to meet each
1851.] RESIDENCE AT JAVf74. 175
other. The men cut down all overhanging or fallen trees
which obstructed the way, and cleared off all the brushwood
and weeds which were growing up on the sides. The women
and girls and boys carried these away, and swept clean with
their switch brooms all the dead leaves and twigs, till the
whole looked quite neat and respectable. To clear up a road
five miles in length in this manner was no trifle, but they
accomplished it easily and very thoroughly in two days.
A little while after the men again turned out, to make new
bridges in several places where they had become decayed.
This was rather a laborious task. Large trees had to be cut
down, often some distance from the spot; they were then
roughly squared or flattened on top and bottom, and with
cords of withes and creepers, and with numerous long sticks
and logs placed beneath for rollers, were dragged by twenty
or thirty men to the spot, placed in a proper position over the
marsh or stream, propped and wedged securely, and the upper
surface roughed with the axe to make the footing more sure.
In this way eight or ten of these bridges were made in a few days,
and the whole road put in complete order. This work is done
by order of the Commissario Geral at São Fernando, without
any kind of payment, or even rations, and with the greatest
cheerfulness and good humour.
The men of Javſta when at work wear only the “tanga,” in
other respects being entirely naked. The women wear usually
a large wrapping dress passing over the left shoulder but leaving
the right arm perfectly free, and hanging loosely over their
whole person. On Sundays and festivals they have well-made
cotton gowns, and the men a shirt and trousers. Here exists
the same custom as at São Carlos, of the girls and boys assem-
bling morning and evening at the church to sing a hymn or
psalm. The village is kept remarkably clean and free from
weeds by regular weekly hoeings and weedings, to which the
people are called by the Capitãos, who are the executive officers
under the Commissario.
My evenings were very dull, having few to converse with,
and no books. Now and then I would talk a little with the
Commissario, but our stock of topics was soon exhausted.
One or two evenings I went to their festas, when they had
made a quantity of “xirac”—the caxirſ of the Brazilian Indians
—and were very merry. They had a number of peculiar
176 TRAVELS OW Zºº RZO AVEGRO. [March,'
monotonous dances, accompanied by strange figures and con-
tortions. The young girls generally came neatly dressed, their
glossy hair beautifully plaited, and with gay ribbons or flowers
to set it off. The moment the xirac is finished the party
breaks up, as they do not seem to think it possible to dance
without it: sometimes they make enough to last two or three
days. Their dances appear quite national, but they have appa-
rently left off paint, as I saw very little used.
The language spoken by these people is called the Maniva
or Baniwa, but it differs Óonsiderably from the Baniwa of the
Rio Negro, and is not so harsh and guttural. At Tómo and
Maróa another language is spoken, quite distinct from this, but
still called the Baniwa ; a little further down, at São Carlos,
the Barré is used ; so that almost every village has its language.
Here the men and old women all speak Spanish tolerably,
there having formerly been priests living at the Convento, who
instructed them. The younger women and the boys and girls,
not having had this advantage, speak only the native tongue ;
but many of them can understand a little Spanish. I found
considerable difficulty in making myself intelligible here. The
white men, who are called “rationáles” (rationals), could
understand my mixed Portuguese and Spanish very well, but
the Indians, knowing but little Spanish themselves, cannot of
course comprehend any deviations from the ordinary method
of speaking. I found it necessary, therefore, to keep my Spanish
by itself, as they could better understand a little and good,
than a great deal of explanation in the mixed tongue.
Some of my dull and dreary evenings I occupied in writing
a description of the village and its inhabitants, in what may
probably be very dreary blank verse; but as it shows my ideas
and thoughts at the time, I may as well give it the reader in
place of the more sober and matter-of-fact view of the matter I
should probably take now. I give it as I wrote it, in a state of
excited indignation against civilised life in general, got up to
relieve the monotony of my situation, and not altogether as my
views when writing in London in 1853.
A DESCRIPTION OF JAvíTA.
“”Tis where the streams divide, to swell the floods
Of the two mighty rivers of our globe;
Where gushing brooklets in their narrow beds
1851.]
A DESCRIPTION OF JAV/TA. 177
Lie hid, o'ershadow’d by th’ eternal woods,
And trickle onwards,-these to increase the wave
Of turbid Orinooko ; those, by a longer course
In the Black River's isle-strewn bed, flow down
To mighty Amazon, the river-king,
And, mingled with his all-engulfing stream,
Go to do battle with proud Ocean's self,
And drive him back even from his own domain.
There is an Indian village; all around,
The dark, eternal, boundless forest spreads
Its varied foliage. Stately palm-trees rise
On every side, and numerous trees unknown
Save by strange names uncouth to English ears.
Here I dwelt awhile the one white man
Among perhaps two hundred living souls.
They pass a peaceful and contented life,
These black-hair'd, red-skinn'd, handsome, half-wild men.
Directed by the sons of Old Castile,
They keep their village and their houses clean;
And on the eve before the Sabbath-day
Assemble all at summons of a bell,
To sweep within and all around their church,
In which next morn they meet, all neatly dress'd,
To pray as they've been taught unto their God.
It was a pleasing sight, that Sabbath morn,
Reminding me of distant, dear-loved home.
On one side knelt the men, their simple dress
A shirt and trousers of coarse cotton cloth :
On the other side were women and young girls,
Their glossy tresses braided with much taste,
And on their necks all wore a kerchief gay,
And some a knot of riband in their hair. -
How like they look'd, save in their dusky skin,
To a fair group of English village maids !
Yet far superior in their graceful forms;
For their free growth no straps or bands impede,
But simple food, free air, and daily baths
And exercise, give all that Nature asks
To mould a beautiful and healthy frame.
“Each day some labour calls them. Now they go
To fell the forest's pride, or in canoe
With hook, and spear, and arrow, to catch fish;
Or seek the various products of the wood,
To make their baskets or their hanging beds.
The women dig the mandiocca root,
And with much labour make of it their bread.
These plant the young shoots in the fertile earth–
Earth all untill'd, to which the plough, or spade,
Or rake, or harrow, are alike unknown.
I2
178
TRAVEZs ow THE R10 MEGRO, fMarch,
The young girls carry water on their heads
In well-formed pitchers, just like Cambrian maids;
And all each morn and eve wash in the stream,
And sport like mermaids in the sparkling wave.
“The village is laid out with taste and skill :
In the midst a spacious square, where stands the church,
And narrow streets diverging all around.
Between the houses, filling up each space, -
The broad, green-leaved, luxuriant plantain grows,
Bearing huge bunches of most wholesome fruit;
The orange too is there, and grateful lime;
The Inga pendent hangs its yard-long pods
(Whose flowers attract the fairy humming-birds);
The guava, and the juicy, Sweet cashew,
And a most graceful palm, which bears a fruit
In bright red clusters, much esteem'd for food;
And there are many more which Indians
Esteem, and which have only Indian names.
The houses are of posts fill'd up with mud,
Smooth'd, and wash'd over with a pure white clay;
A palm-tree's spreading leaves supply a thatch
Impervious to the winter’s storms and rain.
No nail secures the beams or rafters, all
Is from the forest, whose lithe, pendent cords
Bind them into a firm enduring mass.
From the tough fibre of a fan-palm's leaf
They twist a cord to make their hammock-bed,
Their bow-string, line, and net for catching fish.
Their food is simple—fish and cassava-bread,
With various fruits, and sometimes forest game,
All season'd with hot, pungent, fiery peppers.
Sauces and seasonings too, and drinks they have,
Made from the mandiocca's poisonous juice;
And but one foreign luxury, which is salt.
Salt here is money : daily they bring to me
Cassava cakes, or fish, or ripe bananas, -
Or birds or insects, fowls or turtles' eggs,
And still they ask for salt. Two teacups—full
Buy a large basket of cassava cakes,
A great bunch of bananas, or a fowl.
“One day they made a festa, and, just like
Our villagers at home, they drank much beer,
(Beer made from roasted mandiocca cakes,)
Call'd here “shirac,” by others “caxiri,”
But just like beer in flavour and effect;
And then they talked much, shouted and sang,
And men and maids all danced in a ring
With much delight, like children at their play.
1851.] .
A DESCRIPTION OF JAVſ/A. . 179
For music they've small, drums and reed-made fifes,
And vocal chants, monotonous and shrill,
To which they'll dance for hours without fatigue.
The children of small growth are naked, and
The boys and men wear but a narrow cloth.
How I delight to see those naked boys!
Their well-form'd limbs, their bright, smooth, red-brown skin,
And every motion full of grace and health;
And as they run, and race, and shout, and leap,
Or swim and dive beneath the rapid stream,
Or, all bareheaded in the noonday Sun,
Creep stealthily, with blowpipe or with bow,
To shoot small birds or swiftly gliding fish,
I pity English boys; their active limbs
Cramp'd and confined in tightly-fitting clothes;
Their toes distorted by the shoemaker,
Their foreheads aching under heavy hats,
And all their frame by luxury enervate.
But how much more I pity English maids,
Their waist, and chest, and bosom all confined
By that vile torturing instrument called stays l
“And thus these people pass their simple lives.
They are a peaceful race; few serious crimes
Are known among them; they nor rob nor murder,
And all the complicated villanies
Of man called civilised are here unknown.
Yet think not l would place, as some would do,
The civilised below the savage man;
Or wish that we could retrograde, and live
As did our forefathers ere Caesar came.
'Tis true the miseries, the wants and woes,
Thepoverty, the crimes, the broken hearts,
The intense mental agonies that lead
Some men to self-destruction, some
To end their days within a madhouse cell,
The thousand curses that gold brings upon us,
The long death-struggle for the means to live,
All these the savage knows and suffers not.
But then the joys, the pleasures and delights,
That the well-cultivated mind enjoys;
The appreciation of the beautiful
In nature and in art; the boundless range
Of pleasure and of knowledge books afford;
The constant change of incident and scene
That makes us live a life in every year;--
All these the savage knows not and enjoys not.
Still we may ask, “Does stern necessity
Compel that this great good must co-exist
For ever with that monstrous mass of ill ?
V.
18o TRAVEZS OW THE RIO NEGRO. [March,
Must millions suffer these dread miseries,
While but a few enjoy the grateful fruits?’
For are there not, confined in our dense towns,
And scattered over our most fertile fields,
Millions of men who live a lower life—
Lower in physical and moral health—
Than the Red Indian of these trackless wilds?
Have we not thousands too who live a life
More low, through eager longing after gold,—
Whose thoughts, from morn to night, from night to morn,
Are—how to get more gold 7
What know such men of intellectual joys 2
They've but one joy—the joy of getting gold.
In nature's wondrous charms they've no delight,
The one thing beautiful for them is—gold.
Thoughts of the great of old which books contain,
The poet's and the historian's fervid page,
Or all the wonders science brings to light,
For them exist not. They've no time to spend
In such amusements: “Time,’ say they, “is gold.”
And if they hear of some immortal deed,
Some noble sacrifice of power or fortune
To save a friend or spotless reputation,--
A deed that moistens sympathetic eyes,
And makes us proud we have such fellow-men,
They say, ‘Who make such sacrifice are fools,
For what is life without one's hard-earn'd gold 7"
Rather than live a man like one of these,
I'd be an Indian here, and live content
To fish, and hunt, and paddle my canoe,
And see my children grow, like young wild fawns,
In health of body and in peace of mind,
Rich without wealth, and happy without gold !”
JAvſta, March, 1851. A. W.
I had gone on here in my regular routine some time, when
one morning, on getting up, I found none of the Indians, and
no fire in the verandah. Thinking they had gone out early
to hunt or fish, as they sometimes did, I lit the fire and got
my breakfast, but still no sign of any of them. Looking about,
I found that their hammocks, knives, an earthen pan, and
a few other articles, were all gone, and that nothing was left
in the house but what was my own. I was now convinced
that they had run away in the night, and left me to get on
as I could. They had been rather uneasy for some days past,
asking me when I meant to go back. They did not like being
among people whose language they could not speak, and had
1851.] AVEW COFFEE. 181
been lately using up an enormous quantity of farinha, hoping
when they had finished the last basket that I should be unable
to purchase any more in the village, and should therefore be
obliged to return. The day before I had just bought a fresh
basket, and the sight of that appears to have supplied the last
stimulus necessary to decide the question, and make them fly
from the strange land and still stranger white man, who spent
all his time in catching insects, and wasting good Caxaça by
putting fish and snakes into it. However, there was now
nothing to be done, so I took my insect-net, locked up my
house, put the key (an Indian-made wooden one) in my pocket,
and started off for the forest.
I had luckily, a short time before, bought a fine Venezuelan
cheese and some dried beef, so that, with plenty of cassava-
bread and plantains, I could get on very well. In the evening
some of my usual visitors among the Indians dropped in, and
were rather surprised to see me lighting my fire and preparing
my dinner; and on my explaining the circumstances to them,
they exclaimed that my Indians were “mala gente” (bad
fellows), and intimated that they had always thought them no
better than they should be. I got some of the boys to fetch
me water from the river, and to bring me in a stock of fuel,
and then, with coffee and cheese, roasted plantains and cassava-
bread, I lived luxuriously. My coffee, however, was just
finished, and in a day or two I had none. This I could hardly
put up with without a struggle, so I went down to the cottage
of an old Indian who could speak a little Spanish, and begged
him, “por amor de Dios,” to get me some coffee from a small
plantation he had. There were some ripe berries on the trees,
the sun was shining out, and he promised to set his little girl
to work. immediately. This was about ten in the morning.
I went into the forest, and by four returned, and found that
my coffee was ready. . . It had been gathered, the pulp washed
off, dried in the Sun (the longest part of the business), husked,
roasted, and pounded in a mortar; and in half an hour more
I enjoyed one of the most delicious cups of coffee I have ever
tasted.
As I wanted to remain a fortnight longer, I tried to persuade
one of the brown damsels of the village to come and make my
fire and cook for me; but, strange to say, not one would
venture, though in the other villages of the Rio Negro I might
182 TRAVEL's ow THE RIO wegro. [March,
at any moment have had my choice of half a dozen; and I was
forced to be my own cook and housemaid for the rest of my
stay in Javita.
There was now in the village an old Indian trader who had
come from Medina, a town at the foot of the Andes, near
Bogotá, and from him and some other Indians I obtained
much information relative to that part of the country, and the
character of the streams that flow from the mountains down to
the Orinooko. He informed me that he had ascended by the
river Muco, which enters the Orinooko above the Falls of
‘Maypures, and by which he had reached a point within twenty
miles of the upper waters of the Meta, opposite Medina. The
river Muco had no falls or obstructions to navigation, and all
the upper part of its course flowed through an open country,
and had fine sandy beaches; so that between this river and
the Guaviare is the termination of the great forest of the
Amazon valley. *
The weather was now terribly wet. For successive days
and nights rain was incessant, and a few hours of sunshine was
a rarity. Insects were few, and those I procured it was almost
impossible to dry. In the drying box they got destroyed by
mould, and if placed in the open air and exposed to the sun
minute flies laid eggs upon them, and they were soon eaten up
y maggots. The only way I could preserve them was to
hang them up some time every evening and morning over my
fire. I now began to regret more than ever my loss of the
fine season, as I was convinced that I could have reaped a
splendid harvest. I had, too, just began to initiate the Indian
boys into catching beetles for me, and was accumulating a very
nice collection. Every evening three or four would come in
with their treasures in pieces of bamboo, or carefully tied up
in leaves. I purchased all they brought, giving a fish-hook
each; and among many common I generally found some
curious and rare species. Coleoptera, generally so scarce in
the forest districts of the Amazon and Rio Negro, seemed
here to become more abundant, owing perhaps to our approach
to the margins of the great forest, and the plains of the
Orinooko.
I prepared to leave Javſta with much regret. Although,
considering the season, I had done well, I knew that had I
een earlier I might have done much better. In April I-had
1851.] A.OCA/ATV FOR A WA 7'URAZZST. 183
arranged to go up the unexplored Uaupés with Senhor L., and
even the prospect of his conversation was agreeable after the
weary solitude I was exposed to here. *
I would, however, strongly recommend Javita to any natural-
ist wishing for a good unexplored locality in South America
It is easily reached from the West Indies to Angostura, and
thence up the Orinooko and Atabápo. A pound's worth of
fish-hooks, and five pounds laid out in salt, beads, and calico,
will pay all expenses there for six months. The traveller should
arrive in September, and can then stay till March, and will have
the full benefit of the whole of the dry season. The insects
alone would well repay any one ; the fishes are also abundant,
and very new and interesting ; and, as my collections were lost
on the voyage home, they would have all the advantage of
novelty.
On the 31st of March I left Javita, the Commissario having
sent five or six Indians to carry my luggage, four of whom
were to proceed with me to Tómo. The Indians of São Carlos,
Tömo, and Maróa had been repairing their part of the road,
and were returning home, so some of them agreed to go with
me in the place of the Javítanos. They had found in the
forest a number of the harlequin beetles (Acrocinus longima-
nus), which they offered me, carefully wrapped up in leaves; I
bought five for a few fish-hooks each. On arriving at Pimichin
the little river presented a very different appearance from what
it had when I last saw it. It was now brim-full, and the water
almost reached up to our shed, which had before been forty
yards off, up a steep rocky bank. Before my men ran away I
had sent two of them to Tómo to bring my canoe to Pimichin,
the river having risen enough to allow it to come up, and I
now found it here. They had taken a canoe belonging to
Antonio Dias, who had passed Javita a few days before on his
way to São Fernando, so that when he returned he had to
borrow another to go home in.
We descended the little river rapidly, and now saw the
extraordinary number of bends in it. I took the bearings of
thirty with the compass, but then there came on a tremendous
storm of wind and rain right in our faces, which rendered it
quite impossible to see ahead. Before this had cleared off
night came on, so that the remainder of the bends and doubles
of the Pimichin river must still remain in obscurity. The
184 TRAVEzs ow THE RIo wegro. [April,
country it flows through appears to be a flat sandy tract,
covered with a low scrubby vegetation, very like that of the
river Cobāti, up which I ascended to the Serra to obtain the
cocks of the rock. -
It was night when we reached Maróa, and we were nearly
passing the village without seeing it. We went to the “casa
de nação,” rather a better kind of shed than usual, and, making
a good fire, passed a comfortable night. The next morning I
called on Senhor Carlos Bueno (Charles Good), the dandy
Indian Commissario, and did a little business with him. I
bought a lot of Indian baskets, gravatánas, quivers, and ururi
or curarí poison, and in return gave him some fish-hooks and
calico, and, having breakfasted with him, went on to Tómo.
Senhor Antonio Dias was not there, having gone to São Carlos,
so I determined to wait a few days for his return, as he had
promised to send men with me to Guia. I took up my abode
with Senhor Domingos, who was busy superintending the
completion of the large vessel before mentioned, in order to
get it launched with the high water, which was now within a
foot or two of its bottom. I amused myself walking about the
campo with my gun, and succeeded in shooting one of the
beautiful little black-headed parrots, which have the most
brillant green plumage, Crimson under-wings, and yellow
cheeks; they are only found in these districts, and are rather
difficult to obtain. I also got some curious fish to figure,
in particular two large species of Gymnotus, of the group which
are not electric.
The Indians had a festa while I was here. They made
abundance of “shirac,” and kept up their dancing for thirty
hours. The principal peculiarity of it was that they mixed up
their civilised dress and their Indian decorations in a most
extraordinary manner. They all wore clean trousers and white
or striped shirts; but they had also feather-plumes, bead neck-
laces, and painted faces, which made altogether a rather queer
mixture. They also carried theirh ammocks like Scarfs over
their shoulders, and had generally hollow cylinders in their
hands, used to beat upon the ground in time to the dancing.
Others had lances, bows, and wands, ornamented with feathers,
producing as they danced in the moonlight a singular and
wild appearance.
Senhor Antonio Dias delayed his return, and rather a scene
1851.] pepARTURE FROM TOMo. 185
in his domestic circle took place in consequence. As might
be expected, the ladies did not agree very well together. The
elder one in particular was very jealous of the Indian girls,
and took every opportunity of ill-treating them, and now that
the master was absent went, I suppose, to greater lengths than
usual ; and the consequence was, one of the girls ran away.
This was an unexpected dénouement, and they were in a great
state of alarm, for the girl was a particular favourite of Senhor
Antonio's, and if he returned before she came back he was not
likely to be very delicate in showing his displeasure. The girl
had gone off in a canoe with a child about a year old; the
night had been stormy and wet, but that sort of thing will not
stop an Indian. Messengers were sent after her, but she was
not to be found; and then the old lady and her daughter
went off themselves in a tremendous rain, but with no better
success. One resource more, however, remained, and they
resolved to apply to the Saints. Senhor Domingos was sent
to bring the image of St. Antonio from the church. This saint
is supposed to have especial power over things lost, but the
manner of securing his influence is rather singular:-the poor
Saint is tied round tightly with a cord and laid on his back on
the floor, and it is believed that in order to obtain deliverance
from such durance vile he will cause the lost sheep to return.
Thus was the unfortunate St. Antony of Tómo now treated,
and laid ignominiously on the earthen floor all night, but
without effect; he was obstinate, and nothing was heard of the
wanderer. More inquiries were made, but with no result, till
two days afterwards Senhor Antonio himself returned accom-
panied by the girl. She had hid herself in a sitio a short
distance from the village, waited for Senhor Antonio's passing,
and then joined him, and told her own story first ; and so the
remainder of the harem got some hard words, and I am inclined
to think some hard blows too.
Before leaving Tómo, I purchased a pair of the beautiful
feather-work borders, before alluded to, for which I paid £3
in silver dollars. Five Indians were procured to go with me,
and at the same time take another small canoe, in which to
bring back several articles that Senhor Antonio was much in
want of. We paid the men between us, before going, with
calicoes and cotton cloth, worth in England about twopence a
yard, but here valued at 2s. 6d., and soap, beads, knives, and
186 TRAVELS ow THE R10 WEGRO. [April,
axes, in the same proportion. On the way, I got these Tómo
Indians to give me a vocabulary of their language, which differs .
from that of the villages above and below them. We paddled
by day, and floated down by night; and as the current was
now tremendous, we got on so quickly, that in three days we
reached Marabitanas, a distance which had taken us nine in
going up. -
Here I stayed a week with the Commandante, who had
invited me when at Guia. I, however, did little in the collect-
ing way: there were no paths in the forest, and no insects, and
very few birds worth shooting. I obtained some very Curious
half-spiny rodent animals, and a pretty white-marked bird,
allied to the starlings, which appears here only once a year in
flocks, and is called “Ciuci uera” (the star-bird).
The inhabitants of Marabitanas are celebrated for their
festas: their lives are spent, half at their festas, and the other
half in preparing for them. They consume immense quantities
of raw spirit, distilled from cane-juice and from the mandiocca:
at a festa which took place while I was here, there was about a
hogshead of strong spirit consumed, all drunk raw. In every
house, where the dancing takes place, there are three or four
persons constantly going round with a bottle and glass, and no
one is expected ever to refuse ; they keep on the whole night,
and the moment you have tasted one glass, another succeeds,
and you must at least take a sip of it. The Indians empty the
glass every time; and this continues for two or three days.
When all is finished, the inhabitants return to their sitios, and
commence the preparation of a fresh lot of spirit for the next
occasion.
About a fortnight before each festa—which is always on a
Saint's day of the Roman Catholic Church—a party of ten or
a dozen of the inhabitants go round, in a canoe, to all the sitios
and Indian villages within fifty or a hundred miles, carrying
the image of the saint, flags, and music. They are entertained
at every house, the saint is kissed, and presents are made for
the feast; one gives a fowl, another some eggs or a bunch of
plantains, another a few coppers. The live animals are fre-
quently promised beforehand for a particular Saint; and often,
when I have wanted to buy some provisions, I have been
assured that “that is St. John's pig,” or that “those fowls
belong to the Holy Ghost.” -
1851.] ARR/VA/. A 7" GUIA. 187
Bidding adieu to the Commandante, Senhor Tenente Anto-
nio Filisberto Correio de Araujo, who had treated me with the
greatest kindness and hospitality, I proceeded on to Guia,
where I arrived about the end of April, hoping to find Senhor
L. ready, soon to start for the river Uaupés ; but I was again
doomed to delay, for a canoe which had been sent to Barra
had not yet returned, and we could not start till it came. It
was now due, but as it was manned by Indians, only who had
no particular interest in hurrying back, it might very well be a
month longer. And so it proved, for it did not arrive till the
end of May. All that time I could do but little; the season
was very wet, and Guia was a poor locality. Fishes were my
principal resource, as Senhor L. had a fisherman out every
day, to procure us Our Suppers, and I always had the day's
sport brought to me first, to select any species I had not yet
seen. In this way I constantly got new kinds, and became
more than ever impressed with the extraordinary variety and
abundance of the inhabitants of these rivers. I had now
figured and described a hundred and sixty species from the Rio
Negro alone; I had besides seen many others; and fresh varie-
ties still occurred as abundantly as ever in every new locality.
I am convinced that the number of species in the Rio Negro
and its tributaries alone would be found to amount to five or
six hundred. But the Amazon has most of its fishes peculiar
to itself, and so have all its numerous tributaries, especially in
their upper waters; so that the number of distinct kinds
inhabiting the whole basin of the Amazon must be immense.
CHAPTER X.
*
FIRST ASCENT OF THE RIVER UAUPés.
Rapid Current—An Indian Malocca—The Inmates—A Festival–Paint
and Ornaments—Illness—São Jeronymo–Passing the Cataracts—
Jauarité—The Tushalía Calistro—Singular Palm—Birds—Cheap
Provisions—Edible Ants, and Earthworms—A Grand Dance—Feather
Ornaments—The Snake-dance—The Capi–A State Cigar—Ananá-
rapicóma—Fish—Chegoes—Pass down the Falls—Tame Birds—
Orchids—Piuñs—Eating Dirt—Poisoning—Return to Guia—Manoel
Joaquim—Annoying Delays.
AT length the long-looked-for canoe arrived, and we immedi-
ately made preparations for our voyage. Fish-hooks and
knives and beads were looked out to suit the customers we
were going among, and from whom Senhor L. hoped to obtain
farinha and Sarsaparilla: and I, fish, insects, birds, and all
sorts of bows, arrows, blowpipes, baskets, and other Indian
curiosities.
On the 3rd of June, at six in the morning, we started. The
weather had cleared up a few days before, and was now very
fine. We had only two Indians with us, the same who had
run away from Javſta, and who had been paid their wages
beforehand, so we now made them work it out. Those who
had just returned from Barra were not willing to go out again
immediately, but we hoped to get plenty on entering the
Uaupés. The same afternoon we reached São Joaquim, at
the mouth of that river; but as there were no men there, we
were obliged to go on, and then commenced our real difficulties,
for we had to encounter the powerful current of the over-
flowing stream. At first some bays, in which there were
counter-currents, favoured us; but in more exposed parts, the
waters rushed along with such violence, that our two paddles
could not possibly move the canoe,
1851.] AAV ZAVD/AAW MAZOCCA. 189
We could only get on by pulling the bushes and creepers
and tree-branches which line the margin of the river, now that
almost all the adjacent lands were more or less flooded. The
next day we cut long hooked poles, by which we could pull
and push ourselves along at all difficult points, with more
advantage. Sometimes, for miles together, we had to proceed
thus, getting the canoe filled, and ourselves covered, with
stinging and biting ants of fifty different species, each produc-
ing its own peculiar effect, from a gentle tickle to an acute
sting ; and which, getting entangled in our hair and beards,
and creeping over all parts of our bodies under our clothes,
were not the most agreeable companions. Sometimes, too,
we would encounter Swarms of wasps, whose nests were
Concealed among the leaves, and who always make a most
furious attack upon intruders. The naked bodies of the
Indians offered no defence against their stings, and they several
times suffered while we escaped. Nor are these the only
inconveniences attending an up-stream voyage in the time of
high flood, for all the river-banks being overflowed, it is only at
Some rocky point which still keeps above water that a fire can
be made; and as these are few and far between, we frequently
had to pass the whole day on farinha and water, with a piece
of cold fish or a pacova, if we were so lucky as to have any.
All these points, or sleeping places, are well known to the
traders in the river, so that whenever we reached one, at
whatever hour of the day or night, we stopped to make our
Coffee, and rest a little, knowing that we should only get to
another haven after eight or ten hours of hard pulling and
paddling.
On the second day we found a small “Sucurujú” (Eunecies
murinus), about a yard long, sunning itself on a bush over
the water; one of our Indians shot it with an arrow, and when
we stayed for the night roasted it for supper. I tasted a piece,
and found it excessively tough and glutinous, but without any
disagreeable flavour; and well stewed, it would, I have no
doubt, be very good. Having stopped at a sitio we purchased
a fowl, which, boiled with rice, made us an excellent supper.
On the 7th we entered a narrow winding channel, branching
from the north bank of the river, and in about an hour reached
a “malocca,” or native Indian lodge, the first we had en-
countered. It was a large, substantial building, near a hundred
190- TRA VA2 LS -OAV. 7'EAE Ae/O AWAEGA2O. [June,
feet long, by about forty wide and thirty high, very strongly
constructed of round, smooth, barked timbers, and thatched,
with the fan-shaped leaves of the Caraná palm. One end was
square, with a gable, the other circular; and the eaves, hang-
ing over the low walls, reached nearly to the ground. In the
middle was a broad aisle, formed by the two rows of the
principal columns supporting the roof, and between these
and the sides were other rows of smaller and shorter timbers;
the whole of them were firmly connected by longitudinal and
transverse beams at the top, supporting the rafters, and were
all bound together with much symmetry by sipós. -
Projecting inwards from the walls on each side were short
partitions of palm-thatch, exactly similar in arrangement to the
boxes in a London eating-house, or those of a theatre. Each
of these is the private apartment of a separate family, who thus
live in a sort of patriarchal community. In the side aisles are
the farinha ovens, tipitſs for squeezing the mandiocca, huge
pans and earthen vessels for making caxirſ, and other large
articles, which appear to be in common; while in every
separate apartment are the small pans, stools, baskets, redes,
water-pots, weapons, and ornaments of the occupants. The
Centre aisle remains unoccupied, and forms a fine walk through
the house. At the circular end is a cross partition or railing
about five feet high, cutting off rather more than the semicircle,
but with a wide opening in the centre: this forms the residence
of the chief or head of the malocca, with his wives and
children; the more distant relations residing in the other part
of the house. The door at the gable end is very wide and
lofty, that at the circular end is smaller, and these are the
only apertures to admit light and air. The upper part of the
gable is loosely covered with palm-leaves hung vertically,
through which the smoke of the numerous wood fires slowly
percolates, giving, however, in its passage a jetty lustre to the
whole of the upper part of the roof. -
. On entering this house, I was delighted to find myself at
length in the presence of the true denizens of the forest. An
old and a young man and two women were the only occupiers,
the rest being out on their various pursuits. The women were
absolutely naked ; but on the entrance of the “brancos” they
slipped on a petticoat, with which in these lower parts of the
river they are generally provided but never use except on
1851.] AAWMA 7'ES OF 7"HAE MAZOCCA. . 191
such occasions. Their hair was but moderately long, and they
were without any ornament but strongly knitted garters, tightly
laced immediately below the knee.
It was the men, however, who presented the most novel
appearance, as different from all the half-civilised races among
whom I had been so long living, as they could be if I had been
suddenly transported to another quarter of the globe. Their
hair was carefully parted in the middle, combed behind the
ears, and tied behind in a long tail reaching a yard down the
back. The hair of this tail was firmly bound with a long cord
formed of monkeys’ hair, very soft and pliable. On the top
of the head was stuck a comb, ingeniously constructed of
palm-wood and grass, and ornamented with little tufts of
toucans' rump feathers at each end; and the ears were pierced,
and a small piece of straw stuck in the hole ; altogether giving
a most feminine appearance to the face, increased by the
total absence of beard or whiskers, and by the hair of the
eyebrows being almost entirely plucked out. A small strip
of “tururí” (the inner bark of a tree) passed between the
legs, and secured to a string round the waist, with a pair of
knitted garters, constituted their simple dress.
The young man was lazily swinging in a maqueira, but dis-
appeared soon after we entered; the elder one was engaged
making one of the flat hollow baskets, a manufacture peculiar to
this district. He continued quietly at his occupation, answering
the questions Senhor L. put to him about the rest of the
inhabitants in a very imperfect “Lingoa Geral,” which language
is comparatively little known in this river, and that only in the
lower and more frequented parts. As we wanted to procure
one or two men to go with us, we determined to stay here for the
night. We succeeded in purchasing for a few fish-hooks some
fresh fish, which another Indian brought in : and then prepared
our dinner and coffee, and brought our maqueiras up to the
house, hanging them in the middle aisle, to pass the night
there. About dusk many more Indians, male and female,
arrived; fires were lighted in the several compartments, pots
put on with fish or game for supper, and fresh mandiocca
cakes made. I now saw several of the men with their most
peculiar and valued ornament—a cylindrical, opaque, white
stone, looking like marble, but which is really quartz imperfectly
crystallized. These stones are from four to eight inches long,
192 TRAVEZS OW THE RIO AWEGRO. . [June,
and about an inch in diameter. They are ground round, and
flat at the ends, a work of great labour, and are each pierced
with a hole at one end, through which a string is inserted, to
suspend it round the neck. It appears almost incredible that
they should make this hole in so hard a substance without any
iron instrument for the purpose. What they are said to use is
the pointed flexible leaf-shoot of the large wild plantain,
triturating with fine sand and a little water; and I have no
doubt it is, as it is said to be, a labour of years. Yet it must
take a much longer time to pierce that which the Tushalía
wears as the symbol of his authority, for it is generally of the
largest size, and is worn transversely across the breast, for
which purpose the hole is bored lengthways from one end to
the other, an operation which I was informed sometimes
occupies two lives. The stones themselves are procured from
a great distance up the river, probably from near its sources at
the base of the Andes; they are therefore highly valued, and
it is seldom the owners can be induced to part with them, the
chiefs scarcely ever. I here purchased a club of hard red wood
for a small mirror, a comb for half-a-dozen small fish-hooks, and
Some other trifling articles. --
A portion only of the inhabitants arrived that night, as when
traders come they are afraid of being compelled to go with
them, and so hide themselves. Many of the worst characters
in the Rio Negro come to trade in this river, force the Indians,
by threats of shooting them, into their canoes, and sometimes
even do not scruple to carry their threats into execution, they
being here quite out of reach of even that minute portion of
the law which still struggles for existence in the Rio Negro.
We passed the night in the malocca, surrounded by the
naked Indians hanging round their fires, which sent a fitful
light up into the dark smoke-filled roof. A torrent of rain
poured without, and I could not help admiring the degree of
sociality and comfort in numerous families thus living together
in patriarchal harmony. The next morning Senhor L. suc-
ceeded in persuading one Indian to earn a “Safa” (petti-
coat) for his wife, and embark with us, and so we bade adieu to
Assaſ Paraná (Assaí river). On lifting up the mat covering
of our canoe, I found lying comfortably coiled up on the top
of my box a fine young boa, of a species of which I possessed
two live specimens at Guſa : he had probably fallen in unper-
1851.] A WIGHT IN THE MAZOCCA. I93
ceived during our passage among the bushes on the river-side.
In the afternoon we reached another village, also situated up
a narrow igaripé, and consisting of a house and two maloccas
at some distance from it. The inhabitants had gone to a
neighbouring village, where there was caxirſ and dancing, and
two women only were left behind with some children. About
these houses were several parrots, macaws, and curassow-birds,
which all these Indians breed in great numbers. The next
day we reached Ananárapicóma, or “Pine-apple Point,” the
village where the dance was taking place. It consisted of
several small houses besides the large malocca, many of the
Indians who have been with traders to the Rio Negro imitating
them in using separate dwellings.
On entering the great malocca a most extraordinary and
novel scene presented itself. Some two hundred men, women,
and children were scattered about the house, lying in the
maqueiras, squatting on the ground, or sitting on the small
painted stools, which are made only by the inhabitants of this
river. Almost all were naked and painted, and wearing their
various feathers and other ornaments. Some were walking or
conversing, and others were dancing, or playing small fifes
and whistles. The regular festa had been broken up that
morning; the chiefs and principal men had put off their
feather head-dresses, but as caxirſ still remained, the young
men and women continued dancing. They were painted over
their whole bodies in regular patterns of a diamond or diagonal
character, with black, red, and yellow colours; the former, a
purple or blue black, predominating. The face was orna-
mented in various styles, generally with bright red in bold
stripes or spots, a large quantity of the colour being applied
to each ear, and running down on the sides of the cheeks and
neck, producing a very fearful and sanguinary appearance.
The grass in the ears was now decorated with a little tuft of
white downy feathers, and some in addition had three little
strings of beads from a hole pierced in the lower lip. All
wore the garters, which were now generally painted yellow.
Most of the young women who danced had besides a small
apron of beads of about eight inches by six inches, arranged
in diagonal patterns with much taste; besides this, the paint
on their naked bodies was their only ornament; they had not
even the comb in their hair, which the men are never without.
I3
I94 . TRAVELS OAW THE R/O AVEGRO, [June,
The men and boys appropriated all the ornaments, thus
reversing the custom of civilised countries and imitating nature,
who invariably decorates the male sex with the most brilliant
colours and most remarkable ornaments. On the head all
wore a coronet of bright red and yellow toucans’ feathers, set
in a circlet of plaited straw. The comb in the hair was
ornamented with feathers, and frequently a bunch of white
heron's plumes attached to it fell gracefully down the back.
Round the neck or over one shoulder were large necklaces of
many folds of white or red beads, as well as the white
cylindrical stone hung on the middle of a string of some black
shining seeds.
The ends of the monkey-hair cords which tied the hair were
ornamented with little plumes, and from the arm hung a
bunch of Curiously-shaped seeds, ornamented with bright
coloured feathers attached by strings of monkeys' hair. Round
the waist was one of their most valued ornaments, possessed
by comparatively few, the girdle of ongas' teeth. And lastly,
tied round the ankles were large bunches of a curious hard
fruit, which produce a rattling sound in the dance. In their
'hands some carried a bow and a bundle of curabís, or war-
arrows; others a muructi, or spear of hard polished wood, or
an oval painted gourd, filled with small stones and attached
to a handle, which, being shaken at regular intervals in the
dance, produced a rattling accompaniment to the leg ornaments
and the song.
The wild and strange appearance of these handsome, naked,
painted Indians, with their curious ornaments and weapons,
the stamp and song and rattle which accompanies the dance,
the hum of conversation in a strange language, the music of
fifes and flutes and other instruments of reed, bone, and
turtles' shells, the large calabashes of caxirſ constantly carried
about, and the great Smoke-blackened gloomy house, produced
an effect to which no description can do justice, and of which
the sight of half-a-dozen Indians going through their dances
for show, gives but a very faint idea.
I stayed looking on a considerable time, highly delighted
at such an opportunity of Seeing these interesting people in
their most characteristic festivals. I was myself a great object
of admiration, principally on account of my spectacles, which
they saw for the first time and could not at all understand.
1851.] G/AAV7' C/GARS, I95
A hundred bright pairs of eyes were continually directed on
me from all sides, and I was doubtless the great subject of
conversation. An old man brought me three ripe pine-apples,
for which I gave him half-a-dozen small hooks, and he was
very well contented.
Senhor L. was conversing with many of the Indians, with
whom he was well acquainted, and was arranging with one to
go up a branch of the river, several days’ journey, to purchase
some salsa and farinha for him. I succeeded in buying a
beautiful ornamented muructi, the principal insignia of the
Tushatia, or chief. He was very loth to part with it, and I
had to give an axe and a large knife, of which he was much
in want. I also bought two cigar-holders, about two feet long,
in which a gigantic cigar is placed and handed round on these
occasions. The next morning, after making our payments for
the articles we had purchased, we went to bid our adieus to
the chief. A small company who had come from some
distance were taking their leave at the same time, going round
the great house in Indian file, and speaking in a muttering
tone to each head of a family. First came the old men bearing
lances and shields of strong wicker-work, then the younger
ones with their bows and arrows, and lastly the old and young
women Carrying their infants and the few household utensils
they had brought with them. At these festivals drink alone
is provided, in immense quantities, each party bringing a little
mandiocca-cake or fish for its consumption, which, while the
caxirſ lasts, is very little. The paint on their bodies is very
durable, for though they never miss washing two or three
times a day, it lasts a week or a fortnight before it quite
disappears.
Leaving Ananárapicóma, we arrived the same evening at
Mandii Paraná, where there was also a malocca, which, owing
to the great rise of the river, could only be reached by wading
up to the middle through the flooded forest. I accordingly
stayed to superintend the making of a fire, which the soaking
rain we had had all the afternoon rendered a somewhat difficult
matter, while Senhor L. went with an Indian to the house to
arrange some “negocio” and obtain fish for supper. We
stayed here for the night, and the next morning the Indians
came down in a body to the canoe, and made some purchases
of fish-hooks, beads, mirrors, cloth for trousers, etc., of Senhor
196 TRA VEZS ON THE RIO AVEGRO. [June,
L., to be paid in farinha, fowls, and other articles on our
return. I also ordered a small canoe as a specimen, and some
sieves and fire-fanners, which I paid for in similar trifles; for
these Indians are so accustomed to receive payment before-
hand, that without doing so you cannot depend upon their
making anything. The next day, the 12th of June, we reached
São Jeronymo, situated about a mile below the first and most
dangerous of the Falls of the Uaupés.
For the last five days I had been very ill with dysentery and
continual pains in the stomach, brought on, I believe, by
eating rather incautiously of the fat and delicious fish, the
white Pirahiba or Laulau, three or four times consecutively
without vegetable food. Here the symptoms became rather
aggravated, and though not at all inclined to despond in
sickness, yet as I knew this disease to be a very fatal one in
tropical climates, and I had no medicines or even proper food
of any kind, I certainly did begin to be a little alarmed. The
worst of it was that I was continually hungry, but could not
eat or drink the smallest possible quantity of anything without
pains of the stomach and bowels immediately succeeding,
which lasted several hours. The diarrhoea too was continual,
with evacuations of slime and blood, which my diet of the last
few days, of tapioca-gruel and coffee, seemed rather to have
increased. *
I remained here most of the day in my maqueira, but in the
afternoon some fish were brought in, and finding among them
a couple of new species, I set to work figuring them, determined
to let no opportunity pass of increasing my collections. This
village has no malocca, but a number of small houses; having
been founded by the Portuguese before the Independence.
It is pleasantly situated on the sloping bank of the river, which
is about half a mile wide, with rather high land opposite, and
a view up to the narrow channel, where the waters are bound-
ing and foaming and leaping high in the air with the violence
of the fall, or more properly rapid.
There was a young Brazilian “negociamte" and his wife
residing in this village, and as he was also about ascending the
river to fetch farinha, we agreed to go together. The next
morning we accordingly started, proceeding along the shore
to near the fall, where we crossed among boiling foam and
whirling eddies, and entered into a small igaripé, where the
1851.] FAZZs ow THE UAUPās. 197
Canoe was entirely unloaded, all the cargo carried along a
rugged path through the forest, and the canoe taken round
a projecting point, where the violence of the current and the
heaving waves of the fall render it impossible for anything
but a small empty obá to pass, and even that with great
difficulty,
The path terminated at a narrow channel, through which a
part of the river in the wet season flows, but which in the
Summer is completely dry. Were it not for this stream, the
passage of the rapids in the wet season would be quite
impossible; for though the actual fall of the water is trifling,
its violence is inconceivable. The average width of the river
may be stated at near three times that of the Thames at
London; and it is in the wet season very deep and rapid. At
the fall it is enclosed in a narrow sloping rocky gorge, about
the width of the middle arch of London Bridge, or even less.
I need say no more to prove the impossibility of ascending
such a channel. There are immense whirlpools which engulf
large canoes. The waters roll like ocean waves, and leap up
at intervals, forty or fifty feet into the air, as if great subaqueous
explosions were taking place.
Presently the Indians appeared with our canoe, and, assisted
by a dozen more who came to help us, pulled it up through
the shallows, where the water was less violent. Then came
another difficult point; and we plunged again into the forest
with half the Indians carrying our cargo, while the remainder
went with the canoe. There were several other dangerous
places, and two more disembarkations and land carriages, the
last for a considerable distance. Above the main fall the
river is suddenly widened out into a kind of a lake, filled with
rocky islands, among which are a confusion of minor falls and
rapids. However, having plenty of Indians to assist us, we
passed all these dangers by a little after midday, and reached
a malocca, where we stayed for the afternoon repairing the
wear and tear of the palm-mats and toldas, and cleaning our
canoe and arranging our cargo, ready to start the next
morning.
In two days more we reached another village, called Jukeſra
Picóma, or Salt Point, where we stayed a day. I was well
satisfied to find myself here considerably better, owing, I
believe, to my having tried fasting as a last resource: for two
198 7?A WEZS OW 7"HE RIO AVEGRO. [June,
days I had only taken a little farinha gruel once in the twenty-
four hours. In a day and a half from Jukeſra we reached
Jauarité, a village situated just below the caxoeira of the same
name, the second great rapid on the Uaupés. Here we had
determined to stay some days and then return, as the Caxoeira
is very dangerous to pass, and above it the river, for many
days’ journey, is a succession of rapids and strong currents,
which render the voyage up at this season in the highest
degree tedious and disagreeable. We accordingly disembarked
our cargo into a house, or rather shed, near the shore, made
for the accommodation of traders, which we cleaned and took
possession of, and felt ourselves quite comfortable after the
annoyances we had been exposed to in reaching this place.
We then walked up to the malocca, to pay a visit to the
Tushalía. This house was a noble building of its kind, being
one hundred and fifteen feet long, seventy-five wide, and about
twenty-five feet high, the roof and upper timbers being black
as jet with the smokes of many years. There were besides
about a dozen private cottages, forming a small village. Scat-
tered around were immense numbers of the Pupunha Palm
(Guilielma speciosa), the fruit of which forms an important
part of the food of these people during the season; it was now
just beginning to ripen. The Tushatia was rather a respect-
able-looking man, the possessor of a pair of trousers and a
shirt, which he puts on in honour of white visitors. Senhor
L., however, says he is one of the greatest rogues on the river,
and will not trust him, as he does most of the other Indians,
with goods beforehand. He rejoices in the name of Calistro,
and pleased me much by his benevolent countenance and
quiet dignified manner. He is said to be the possessor of
great riches in the way of oncas’ teeth and feathers, the result
of his wars upon the Macús and other tribes of the tributary
rivers ; but these he will not show to the whites, for fear of
being made to sell them. Behind the malocca I was pleased
to see a fine broad path, leading into the forest to the several
mandiocca rhossas. The next morning early I went with my
net to explore it, and found it promise pretty well for insects,
considering the season. I was greatly delighted at meeting in
it the lovely clear-winged butterfly allied to the Esmeralda,
that I had taken so sparingly at Javíta; and I also took a
specimen of another of the same genus, quite new to me. A
-º
f
º-
º
A STREAM IN THE FOREST.
PLATE WII.

1851.] 7A7A. AEA Y/UBA AA/M. 199
plain-coloured Acraea, that I had first met with at Jukeſra, was
here also very abundant.
In a hollow near a small stream that crossed the path I
found growing the singular palm called “Paxiùba barriguda”
(the big-bellied paxiuba). It is a fine, tall, rather slender tree,
with a head of very elegant curled leaves. At the base of the
stem is a conical mass of air-roots, five or six feet high, more
or less developed in all the species of this genus. But the
peculiar character from which it derives its name is, that the
stem at rather more than halfway up swells suddenly out to
double its former thickness or more, and after a short distance
again contracts, and continues cylindrical to the top. It is
only by seeing great numbers of these trees, all with this
character more or less palpable, that one can believe it is not
an accidental circumstance in the individual tree, instead of
being truly characteristic of the species. It is the Iriartea
zentricosa of Martius.
I tried here to procure some hunters and fishermen, but
was not very successful. I had a few fish brought me, and
now and then a bird. A curious bird, called anambé, was
flying in flocks about the pupunha palms, and after much
trouble I succeeded in shooting one, and it proved, as I had
anticipated, quite different from the Gymnoderus nudicollis,
which is a species much resembling it in its flight, and common
in all parts of the Rio Negro. I went after them several times,
but could not succeed in shooting another; for though they
take but short flights, they remain at rest scarcely an instant.
About the houses here were several trumpeters, curassow-birds,
and those beautiful parrots, the anacás (Derotypus accipitrinus),
which all wander and fly about at perfect liberty, but being
bred from the nest, always return to be fed. The Uaupés
Indians take much delight, and are very successful, in breeding
birds and animals of all kinds.
We stayed here a week, and I went daily into the forest
when the weather was not very wet, and generally obtained
something interesting. I frequently met parties of women and
boys, going to and returning from the rhossas. Sometimes
they would run into the thicket till I had passed; at other
times they would merely stand on one side of the path, with a
kind of bashful fear at encountering a white man while in that
state of complete nudity, which they know is strange to us.
w
200 TRA PEES ON 7°HAE A*/O AVEGA’O. [June,
When about the houses in the village however, or coming to
fill their water-pots or bathe in the river close to our habitation,
ithey were quite unembarrassed, being, like Eve, “naked and not
ashamed.” Though some were too fat, most of them had
splendid figures, and many of them were very pretty. Before
daylight in the morning all were astir, and came to the river to
wash. It is the chilliest hour of the twenty-four, and when we
were wrapping our sheet or blanket more closely around us,
we could hear the plunges and splashings of these early bathers.
Rain or wind is all alike to them : their morning bath is never
dispensed with.
Fish were here very scarce, and we were obliged to live
almost entirely on fowls, which, though very nice when well
roasted and with the accompaniment of ham and gravy, are
rather tasteless simply boiled or stewed, with no variation in
the cookery, and without vegetables. I had now got so
thoroughly into the life of this part of the country, that, like
everybody else here, I preferred fish to every other article of
food. One never tires of it; and I must again repeat that I
believe there are fish here superior to any in the world.
Our fowls cost us about a penny each, paid in fish-hooks
or salt, so that they are not such expensive food as they
would be at home. In fact, if a person buys his hooks,
salt, and other things in Pará, where they are about half the
price they are at Barra, the price of a fowl will not exceed a
halfpenny; and fish, pacovas, and other eatables that the
country produces, in the same proportion. A basket of farinha,
that will last one person very well a month, will cost about
threepence; so that with a small expenditure a man may obtain
enough to live on. The Indians here made their mandiocca
bread very differently from, and very superior to, those of the
adjacent rivers. The greater part is tapioca, which they mix
with a small quantity of the prepared mandiocca-root, and form
a white, gelatinous, granular cake, which with a little use is
very agreeable, and is much sought after by all the white
traders on the river. Farinha they scarcely ever eat themselves,
but make it only to sell; and as they extract the tapioca, which
is the pure glutinous portion of the root, to make their own
bread, they mix the refuse with a little fresh mandiocca to
make farinha, which is thus of a very poor quality; yet such is
the state of agriculture on the Rio Negro, that the city of Barra
1851.] A GRAND DAMCE, 201
depends in a great measure upon this refuse food of the Indians,
and several thousand alqueires are purchased, and most of it
sent there, annually.
The principal food of these Indians is fish, and when they
have neither this nor any game, they boil a quantity of peppers,
in which they dip their bread. At several places where we
stopped this was offered to our men, who ate with a relish the
intensely burning mess. Yams and sweet potatoes are also
abundant, and with pacovas form a large item in their stock of
eatables. Then they have the delicious drinks made from the
fruits of the assaſ, baccába, and patawā palms, as well as
several other fruits.
The large Saúbas and white ants are an occasional luxury,
and when nothing else is to be had in the wet season they eat
large earth-worms, which, when the lands in which they live
are flooded, ascend trees, and take up their abode in the
hollow leaves of a species of Tillandsia, where they are often
found accumulated by thousands. Nor is it only hunger that
makes them eat these worms, for they sometimes boil them
with their fish to give it an extra relish.
They consume great quantities of mandiocca in making
caxiri for their festas, which are continually taking place. As
I had not seen a regular dance, Senhor L. asked the Tushatia
to make some caxirſ and invite his friends and vassals to dance,
for the white stranger to see. He readily consented, and, as
we were to leave in two or three days, immediately sent round
a messenger to the houses of the Indians near, to make known
the day and request the honour of their company. As the
notice was so short, it was only those in the immediate neigh-
bourhood who could be summoned.
On the appointed day numerous preparations were taking
place. The young girls came repeatedly to fill their pitchers
at the river early in the morning, to complete the preparation
of the caxirſ. In the forenoon they were busy weeding all
round the malocca, and sprinkling water, and sweeping within
it. The women were bringing in dry wood for the fires, and
the young men were scattered about in groups, plaiting straw
coronets or arranging some other parts of their ornaments.
In the afternoon, as I came from the forest, I found several
engaged in the operation of painting, which others had already
completed. The women had painted themselves or each
2O2 7 RAVEL's ow THE RIO wegro. [June,
other, and presented a neat pattern in black and red all over
their bodies, some circles and curved lines occurring on their
hips and breasts, while on their faces round spots of a bright
vermilion seemed to be the prevailing fashion. The juice of
a fruit which stains of a fine purplish-black is often poured on
the back of the head and neck, and, trickling all down the
back, produces what they, no doubt, consider a very elegant
dishabille. These spotted beauties were now engaged in
performing the same operation for their husbands and sweet-
hearts, some standing, others sitting, and directing the fair
artists how to dispose the lines and tints to their liking.
We prepared our supper rather early, and about sunset, just
as we had finished, a messenger came to notify to us that the
dance had begun, and that the Tushatia had sent to request
Our Company. We accordingly at once proceeded to the
malocca, and entering the private apartment at the circular
end, were politely received by the Tushatia, who was dressed in
his shirt and trousers only, and requested us to be seated in
maqueiras. After a few minutes’ conversation I turned to look
at the dancing, which was taking place in the body of the
house, in a large clear space round the two central columns.
A party of about fifteen or twenty middle-aged men were
dancing; they formed a semicircle, each with his left hand on
his neighbour's right shoulder. They were all completely
furnished with their feather ornaments, and I now saw for the
first time the head-dress, or acangatára, which they value highly.
This consists of a coronet of red and yellow feathers disposed
in regular rows, and firmly attached to a strong woven or plaited
band. The feathers are entirely from the shoulders of the
great red macaw, but they are not those that the bird naturally
possesses, for these Indians have a curious art by which they
change the colours of the feathers of many birds. -
They pluck out those they wish to paint, and in the fresh
wound inoculate with the milky secretion from the skin of a
Small frog or toad. When the feathers grow again they are of
a brilliant yellow or orange colour, without any mixture of blue
or green, as in the natural state of the bird; and on the new
plumage being again plucked out, it is said always to come of
the same colour without any fresh operation. The feathers
are renewed but slowly, and it requires a great number of them,
to make a coronet, so we see the reason why the owner esteems
1851.] - OA'AVAMEAVTS. - 203
it so highly, and only in the greatest necessity will part with
it.
Attached to the comb on the top of the head is a fine broad
plume of the tail-coverts of the white egret, or more rarely of
the under tail-coverts of the great harpy eagle. These are
large, snowy white, loose and downy, and are almost equal in
beauty to a plume of white ostrich feathers. The Indians
keep these noble birds in great open houses or cages, feeding
them with fowls (of which they will consume two a day), solely
for the sake of these feathers; but as the birds are rare, and
the young with difficulty secured, the ornament is one that
few possess. From the ends of the comb cords of monkeys'
hair, decorated with small feathers, hang down the back, and
in the ears are the little downy plumes, forming altogether a
most imposing and elegant head-dress. All these dancers had
also the cylindrical stone of large size, the necklace of white
beads, the girdle of ongas' teeth, the garters, and ankle-rattles.
A very few had besides a most curious ornament, the nature
of which completely puzzled me: it was either a necklace or a
circlet round the forehead, according to the quantity pos-
sessed, and consisted of small curiously curved pieces of a
white colour with a delicate rosy tinge, and appearing like shell
or enamel. They say they procure them from the Indians of
the Japurá and other rivers, and that they are very expensive,
three or four pieces only costing an axe. They appear to me
more like portions of the lip of a large shell cut into perfectly
regular pieces than anything else, but so regular in size and
shape, as to make me doubt again that they can be shell, or
that Indians can form them.
In their hands each held a lance, or bundle of arrows, or
the painted calabash-rattle. The dance consisted simply of a
regular sideway step, carrying the performers round and round
in a circle; the simultaneous stamping of the feet, the rattle
and clash of the leg ornaments and calabashes, and a chant of
a few words repeated in a deep tone, producing a very martial
and animated effect. At certain intervals the young women
joined in, each one taking her place between two men, whom
she clasped with each arm round the waist, her head bending
forward beneath the outstretched arm above, which, as the
women were all of low stature, did not much interfere with
their movements. They kept their places for one or two
2O4 7 RA VEZS OAV ZAZZ RAO AWAEGRO. [/une,
rounds, and then, at a signal of some sort, all left and retired
to their seat on stools or on the ground, till the time should
come for them again to take their places. The greater part of
them wore the “tanga,” or small apron of beads, but some
were perfectly naked. Several wore large cylindrical copper
earrings, so polished as to appear like gold. These and the
garters formed their only ornaments, necklaces, bracelets,
and feathers being entirely monopolised by the men. The
paint with which they decorate their whole bodies has a very
neat effect, and gives them almost the appearance of being
dressed, and as such they seem to regard it; and however
much those who have not witnessed this strange scene may
be disposed to differ from me, I must record my opinion that
there is far more immodesty in the transparent and flesh-
coloured garments of our stage-dancers, than in the perfect
nudity of these daughters of the forest.
In the open space outside the house, a party of young men
and boys, who did not possess the full costume, were dancing
in the same manner. They soon, however, began what may be
called the snake dance. They had made two huge artificial
snakes of twigs and bushes bound together with sipós, from
thirty to forty feet long and about a foot in diameter, with a
head of a bundle of leaves of the Umbočba (Cecropia), painted
with bright red colour, making altogether a very formidable-
looking reptile. They divided themselves into two parties of
twelve or fifteen each, and lifting the snakes on their shoulders,
began dancing.
In the dance they imitated the undulations of the serpent,
raising the head and twisting the tail. They kept advancing
and retreating, keeping parallel to each other, and every time
coming nearer to the principal door of the house. At length
they brought the heads of the snakes into the very door, but
still retreated several times. Those within had now concluded
their first dance, and after several more approaches, in came
the Snakes with a sudden rush, and, parting, went one on the
right side and one on the left. They still continued the
advancing and retreating step, till at length, each having tra-
versed a semicircle, they met face to face. Here the two
Snakes seemed inclined to fight, and it was only after many
retreatings and brandishings of the head and tail, that they
could muster resolution to rush past each other. After one or
1851.] p/STRIBUTION OF CAXIRI. 2O5
two more rounds, they passed out to the outside of the house,
and the dance, which had apparently much pleased all the
spectators, was concluded.
During all this time caxirſ was being abundantly supplied,
three men being constantly employed carrying it to the guests.
They came one behind the other down the middle of the
house, with a large calabash-full in each hand, half stooping
down, with a kind of running dance, and making a curious
whirring, humming noise : on reaching the door they parted on .
each side, distributing their calabashes to whoever wished to
drink. In a minute or two they were all empty, and the cup-
bearers returned to fill them, bringing them every time with
the same peculiar forms, which evidently constitute the etiquette
of the caxiri-servers. As each of the calabashes holds at least
two quarts, the quantity drunk during a whole night that this
process is going on must be very great.
Presently the Capí was introduced, an account of which I
had had from Senhor L. An old man comes forward with a
large newly-painted earthen pot, which he sets down in the
middle of the house. He then squats behind it, stirs it about,
and takes out two small calabashes-full, which he holds up in
each hand. After a moment's pause, two Indians advance
with bows and arrows or lances in their hands. Each takes
the proffered cup and drinks, makes a wry face, for it is
intensely bitter, and stands motionless perhaps half a minute.
They then with a start twang their bows, shake their lances,
stamp their feet, and return to their seats. The little bowls
are again filled, and two others succeed them, with a similar
result. Some, however, become more excited, run furiously,
lance in hand, as if they would kill an enemy, shout and stamp
savagely, and look very warlike and terrible, and then, like the
others, return quietly to their places. Most of these receive a
hum or shake of applause from the spectators, which is also
given at times during the dances.
The house at this time contained at least three hundred
men, women, and children; a continual murmuring conversa-
tion was kept up, and fifty little fifes and flutes were constantly
playing, each on its own account, producing a not very harmo-
nious medley. After dark a large fire was lighted in the middle
of the house, and as it blazed up brightly at intervals, illumi-
nating the painted and feather-dressed dancers and the numerous
2O6 TRA VAZZS OAV ZAZ A*/O AWAE GRO. [June,
strange groups in every variety of posture scattered about the
great house, I longed for a skilful painter to do justice to a
scene so novel, picturesque, and interesting.
A number of fires were also made outside the house, and the
young men and boys amused themselves by jumping over
them when flaming furiously, an operation which, with their
naked bodies, appeared somewhat hazardous. Having been
now looking on about three hours, we went to bid adieu to the
Tushatia, previous to retiring to our house, as I did not feel
much inclined to stay with them all night. We found him
with a few visitors, smoking, which on these occasions is per-
formed in a very ceremonious manner. The cigar is eight or
ten inches long and an inch in diameter, made of tobacco
pounded and dried, and enclosed in a cylinder made of a large
leaf spirally twisted. It is placed in a cigar-holder about two
feet long, like a great two-pronged fork. The bottom is pointed,
so that when not in use it can be stuck in the ground. This
cigar was offered to us, and Senhor L. took a few whiffs for us
both, as he is a confirmed smoker. The caxirſ was exceed-
ingly good (although the mandiocca-cake of which it is made
is chewed by a parcel of old women), and I much pleased the
lady of the Tushatia by emptying the calabash she offered me,
and pronouncing it to be “purángareté” (excellent). We then
said “Eré” (adieu), and groped our way down the rough path
to our river-side house, to be sung to sleep by the hoarse
murmur of the Cataract. The next morning the dance was
still going on, but, as the Caxirí was nearly finished, it termi-
nated about nine o'clock, and the various guests took their leave.
During the dance, Bernardo, an Indian of São Jeronymo,
arrived from the Rio Apaporis. Senhor L. had sent a message
to him by his son (who had come with us) to procure some
Indian boys and girls for him, and he now came to talk over
the business. The procuring consists in making an attack on
Some malocca of another nation, and capturing all that do
not escape or are not killed. Senhor L. has frequently been
on these expeditions, and has had some narrow escapes from
lances and poisoned arrows. At Ananārapicóma there was an
Indian dreadfully scarred all over one shoulder and part of his
back, the effects of a discharge of B.B. shot which Senhor L.
had given him, just as he was in the act of turning with his
bow and arrow : they are now excellent friends, and do business
1851.] A VDAVAAPA’/AWG ZTV/E ZAVD/AAVS. 207
together. The “negociantes” and authorities in Barra and
Pará, ask the traders among the Indians to procure a boy or
girl for them, well knowing the only manner in which they can
be obtained; in fact, the Government in some degree authorise
the practice. There is something to be said too in its favour,
for the Indians make war on each other, principally the
natives of the margin of the river on those in the more distant
igaripés, for the sake of their weapons and ornaments, and
for revenge of any injury, real or imaginary, and then kill all
they can, reserving only some young girls for their wives. The
hope of selling them to the traders, however, induces them to
spare many who would otherwise be murdered. These are
brought up to some degree of civilisation (though I much doubt
if they are better or happier than in their native forests), and
though at times ill-treated, they are free, and can leave their
masters whenever they like, which, however, they seldom do
when taken very young. Senhor L. had been requested by
two parties at Barra—one the Delegarde de Policia—to furnish
them each with an Indian girl, and as this man was an old
hand at the business, he was now agreeing with him, furnish-
ing him with powder and shot—for he had a gun—and giving
bim some goods, to pay other Indians for assisting him, and to
do a little business at the same time if he had the opportunity.
He was to return at the furthest in a fortnight, and we were to
wait for him in São Jeronymo.
The Tushatia came to pay us a visit almost every day, to
talk a little, and sometimes drink a cup of coffee. His wife
and some of his daughters, who possessed a “saſa,” also often
came, bringing us pacovas, mandiocca-cake, and other things,
for which they always expected to be paid. We bought here a
good number of stools and baskets, which cost five or six
hooks each ; also fowls, parrots, trumpeters, and some other
tame birds. When we first arrived, almost the whole body of
the inhabitants came to visit us, requesting to see what we had
brought to sell ; accordingly we spread out our whole stock of
fish-hooks, knives, axes, mirrors, beads, arrow-heads, cottons
and calicoes, which they handled and admired in unintelligible
languages,"for about two hours. It is necessary to make this ex-
position in every village, as they will bring nothing to sell un-
less they first know that you have what they want in exchange.
Two days after the dance we bade adieu to Jauarité, and by
208 TRA VEZS OW Zºº RZO WAEGA’O. [June,
midday reached Jukeſra, where we had determined to spend
another week. There was no regular house here for the
accommodation of travellers, so we had to take possession of
an unoccupied shed, which the Tushalía had prepared for us,
and where we soon found we were exposed to a pest abundant
in all Indians' houses, the “bichos do pe,” or chegoes. Nor
was this all, for the blood-sucking bats were abundant, and the
very first night bit Senhor L., as well as his little boy, who in
the morning presented a ghastly sight, both legs being thickly
smeared and blotched with blood. There was only one bite
on the toe, but the blood flows plentifully, and as the boy was
very restless at night, he had managed to produce the sangui-
nary effect I have mentioned. Several of the Indians were
also bitten, but I escaped by always well wrapping my feet in
my blanket.
The paths in the forest here were not so good as those at
Jauarité, and produced me very few insects; the Indians, how-
ever, were rather better in bringing me birds and fish. I
obtained some very pretty little tanagers, and several new fish.
In one lot of Small fish brought to me in a calabash were
seven different species, five of which were quite new to me.
A species of Chalceus, called Jatuarána, was abundant here,
and most delicious eating, almost, if not quite, equal to the
Waracti, but like it very full of forked spines, which require
practice and delicate handling to extract, or they may produce
dangerous effects. Several Indians of the Coveu nation, from
considerably higher up the river, were staying here. They are
distinguished by the ear-lobe being pierced with so large a hole
as to be plugged with a piece of wood the size of a common
bottle-cork. When we entered their house they set before us,
on the ground, Smoked fish and madiocca-cake, which Senhor
L. informs me is the general custom higher up the river, where
the Indians have not lost any of their primitive customs by in-
tercourse with the whites. Senhor L. had bought a quantity of
“coroá” (the fibres of a species of Bromelia, very like flax), and
he set these and several other Indians to twist it into thread,
which they do by rolling it on their breasts, and form a fine well-
twisted two-strand string, of which fine maqueiras are netted.
Each one in two or three days produced a ball of string of a
quarter of a pound weight, and they were well satisfied with a
small basin of salt or half-a-dozen hooks in payment.
1851.1 PASS THE FALZ.S. - 209
On one or two days of bright sunshine, a beautiful Papilio
came about the house, settling on the ground in moist places:
I succeeded in taking two specimens; it is allied to P. Thoas,
and will probably prove a new species. This was my
only capture worth mentioning at Jukeſra. I had seen the
same species at Jauarité, but could not take a specimen. I
purchased one of the red macaws painted as I have mentioned
above. Senhor L. was here quite a martyr to the chegoes, fre-
quently extracting ten or a dozen in a day, which made his
feet so full of holes and wounds as to render walking painful,
as I had experienced at Cobáti and Javita. I, however, escaped
pretty well, seldom having to take out more than two or three
at a time, partly I believe owing to my being a good deal in
the forest and to my always wearing slippers in the house.
When a person has only one or two now and then, it is a
trifling affair, and one is apt to think, as I for a long time did,
that the dread of chegoes was quite unnecessary, and the
accounts of their persecutions much exaggerated. Let any
One, however, who still thinks so, take a trip into this part of
the country, and live a month in an Indian’s house, and he will
be thoroughly undeceived.
After staying here six days, finding little to be done, we pro-
ceeded on our downward passage to São Jeronymo. On the
second day, in the morning, we reached Urubuquárra, the
malocca of Bernardo, situated just above the falls. There is
a path from this place through the forest, about three miles,
to the village; and as there were no Indians here to assist us
in passing the falls, we set ours to work, carrying part of the
Cargo along it. In the afternoon Bernardo's son, who had re-
turned before us with a canoe-load of farinha, came in, and we
arranged to pass the falls the next morning. The river had
risen considerably since we ascended, and had now reached a
higher point than had been known for several years, and the
rapids were proportionally more dangerous. I therefore pre-
ferred going through the forest, carrying with me two small
boxes, containing the insects I had collected, and my drawings
of fish,_the loss of which would have been irreparable. The
morning was fine, and I had a pleasant walk, though the path
was very rugged in places, with steep descents and ascents at
the crossing of several small brooks. Arrived at São Jeronymo,
I waited for Senhor L., at the house of Senhor Augustinho,
I4.
2IO TRAVEZS OW ZłIE RAO AVEGRO, [July,
the young Brazilian before mentioned, who had returned from
Jauarité before us, with upwards of a hundred alqueires of
farinha. About midday a tremendous storm of wind and rain
came on, and in the afternoon Senhor L. arrived with the
canoe, thoroughly soaked; and informed me that they had had
a most dangerous passage, a portion of the path where the
cargo had to be carried through the forest being breast-deep in
water; and at some of the points, the violence of the current
was so great that they narrowly escaped being carried down to
the great fall, and dashed to pieces on the rocks.
Here was a good house for travellers, (though without
doors,) and we took possession and settled ourselves for a
week or ten days’ stay. We nearly filled the house with
farinha, pitch, baskets, stools, earthen pots and pans, maqueiras,
etc.; we had also near a hundred fowls, which had been
brought crammed into two huge square baskets, and were now.
much pleased to be set at liberty,+as well as a large collection
of tame birds, parrots, macaws, paroquets, etc., which kept up a
continual cawing and crying, not always very agreeable. All
these birds were loose, flying about the village, but returning
generally to be fed. The trumpeters and curassow-birds
wandered about the houses of the Indians, and sometimes did
not make their appearance for several days; but being brought
up from the nest, or even sometimes from the egg, there was
little danger of their escaping to the forest. We had nine
pretty little black-headed parrots, which every night would go
of their own accord into a basket prepared for them to sleep
1I].
From what I had seen on this river, there is no place equal
to it for procuring a fine collection of live birds and animals;
and this, together with the desire to see more of a country so
interesting and so completely unknown, induced me, after
mature deliberation, to give up for the present my intended
journey to the Andes, and to substitute another voyage up the
river Uaupés, at least to the Juruparſ (Devil) cataract, the
“ultima Zhule” of most of the traders, and about a month's
voyage up from its mouth. Several traders who had arrived at
São Jeronymo on the way up, as well as the more intelligent
Indians, assured me that in the upper districts there are many
birds and animals not met with below. But what above all
attracted me, was the information that a white species of the
1851.] 7Hovgºſz's of Houſe. - 2II
celebrated umbrella-chatterer was to be found there. The
information on this point from several parties was so positive,
that, though much inclined to doubt the existence of such a
bird at all, I could not rest satisfied without one more trial, as,
even if I did not find it, I had little doubt of obtaining many
new species to reward me. The worst of it was, that I must go
to Barra and return—a voyage of fifteen hundred miles—
which was very disagreeable. But there was no remedy, for I
had a considerable lot of miscellaneous collections here and at
Guia, as well as what I left at Barra, which must be packed
and sent off to England, or they might be destroyed by damp
and insects. Besides which I could not undertake a voyage
on this wild river for several months, without being well
supplied with necessaries, and articles for barter with the
Indians, which could only be obtained at Barra ; moreover, the
best season for ascending would not arrive for two or three
months, so that I could do scarcely anything if I remained
here. The months of November, December, January, and
February, are the “vasante,” or low water, and then is the
summer-season, when the river presents a totally different and
a much more agreeable aspect, being everywhere bordered with
fine sandy or rocky beaches, on which one can eat and sleep
with comfort at any hour. Fish are then much more
abundant; turtles of a new species are said to be found on the
Sands, in the upper part of the river, and to lay abundance of
eggs; the delicious fruit of the baccába and patawá palms are
then ripe, and birds and insects of all kinds more easily
procurable. These four months I hoped, therefore, to spend
there, so as to be able to descend to Barra, and thence to
Pará, in time to return to England by July or August, with a
numerous and valuable collection of live animals. It was on
account of these, principally, that I determined to return to
England a year before the time I had fixed upon, as it was
impossible to send them without personal care and attendance.
And so, having once made up my mind to this course, with
what delight I thought upon the sweets of home ! What a
paradise did that distant land seem to me! How I thought of
the many simple pleasures, so long absent, the green fields,
the pleasant woods, the flowery paths, the neat gardens,—all so
unknown here ! What visions of the fireside did I conjure
up, of the social tea-table, with familiar faces around it !
2I2 TRAVELS OW THE R/O AVEGRO. [July,
What a luxury seemed simple bread and butter ſ—and to think
that, perhaps in one short year, I might be in the midst of all
this There was a pleasure in the mere thought, that made me
leap over the long months, the weary hours, the troubles and
annoyances of tedious journeys, that had first to be endured.
I passed hours in solitary walks thinking of home ; and never
did I in former years long to be away in this tropic-land, with
half the earnestness with which I now looked forward to
returning back again. -
Our stay at São Jeronymo was prolonged by the non-
appearance of Bernardo. Insects were not so plentiful even as
at Jauarité; but I generally found something in my walks, and
obtained two fine species of Satyridae quite new to me. In a
little patch of open bushy campo, which occurs about a mile
back from the village, I was delighted to find abundance
of orchids. I had never seen so many collected in one place;
it was a complete natural orchid-house. In an hour's ramble,
I noticed about thirty different species;–some, minute plants
scarcely larger than mosses, and one large semi-terrestrial
species, which grew in clumps eight or ten feet high. There
were but few in flower, and most of them were very small,
though pretty. One day, however, I was much delighted to
come suddenly upon a magnificent flower: growing out of a
rotten stem of a tree, just level with my eye, was a bunch of
five or six blossoms, which were three inches in diameter,
nearly round, and varying from a pale delicate straw-colour to
a rich deep yellow, on the basal portion of the labellum. How
exquisitely beautiful did it appear in that wild, sandy, barren
spot A day or two afterwards I found another handsome
species, the flowers of which, unlike those of most of the family,
were of very short duration, opening in the morning, and lasting
but a single day. The sight of these determined me to try
and send some to England, as from such a distant and
unexplored locality there would probably be many new species.
I accordingly began bringing a few home every day, and,
packing them in empty farinha-baskets, placed them under a
rough stage, with some plantain-leaves to defend them from
the heat of the sun, till we should be ready to embark. I was
rather doubtful of the result, as they could not arrive in
England before the winter, which might be injurious ; but on
my next voyage, I looked forward to bringing a larger collection
1851.] - VAA"/E7"Y OF AZSA/ES. 213
of these beautiful and interesting plants, as they would then
arrive in a good season of the year.
São Jeronymo is celebrated for its abundance of fish, but
at this season they are in all places difficult to take. However,
we had on most days enough for breakfast and supper, and
scarcely a day passed but I had some new and strange kinds
to add to my collection. The small fishes of these rivers are
in wonderful variety, and the large proportion of the species
here, different from those I had observed in the Rio Negro,
led me to hope that in the upper parts of the river I should
find them almost entirely new.
Here we were tolerably free from chegoes, but had another
plague, far worse, because more continual. We had suffered
more or less from piums in all parts of the river, but here they
were in such countless myriads, as to render it almost impos- .
sible to sit down during the day. It was most extraordinary
that previously to this year they had never been known in the
river. Senhor L. and the Indians all agreed that a pium had
hitherto been a rarity, and now they were as plentiful as in
their very worst haunts. Having long discarded the use of
stockings in these “altitudes,” and not anticipating any such
pest, I did not bring a pair, which would have been useful
to defend my feet and ankles in the house, as the pium,
unlike the mosquito, does not penetrate any covering, however
thin.
As it was, the torments I suffered when skinning a bird or
drawing a fish, can scarcely be imagined by the unexperienced.
My feet were so thickly covered with the little blood-spots
produced by their bites, as to be of a dark purplish-red colour,
and much swelled and inflamed. My hands suffered similarly,
but in a less degree, being more constantly in motion. The
only means of taking a little rest in the day, was by wrapping
up hands and feet in a blanket. The Indians close their
houses, as these insects do not bite in the dark, but ours
having no door, we could not resort to this expedient. Whence
these pests could thus suddenly appear in such vast numbers
is a mystery which I am quite unable to explain.
When we had been here about a week, some Indians who
had been sent to Guia with a small cargo of farinha, returned
and brought us news of two deaths, which had taken place in
the village since we had left, One was of Jozé, a little Indian
214 - TRA VA2ZS OW 7"HAE RATO AVEGRO. [July,
boy in Senhor L.'s house, who had killed himself by eating
dirt, a very common and destructive habit among Indians
and half-breeds in the houses of the whites. All means had
been tried to cure him of the habit; he had been physicked
and whipped, and confined indoors, but when no other
opportunity offered he would find a plentiful supply in the
mud-walls of the house. The symptoms produced were
swelling of the whole body, face, and limbs, so that he could
with difficulty walk, and not having so much care taken of him
after we left, he ate his fill and died.
The other was an old Indian, the Juiz of the festa of St.
Antonio, which took place shortly after we left. He was
poisoned with caxirſ, into which had been put the juice of
a root which produces the most dreadful effects: the tongue
and throat swell, putrefy, and rot away, and the same effects
seem to take place in the stomach and intestines, till, in two
or three days, the patient dies in great agony. The poisoner
was not known, but it was suspected to be a young woman,
sister of an Indian who died in the village a short time before,
and whose death they imagined to be caused by charms or
witchcraft ; and the present murder was probably in revenge
for this supposed injury. Coroners' inquests are here unknown,
and the poor old man was buried, and nothing more thought
about the matter; perhaps, however, his friends may resort to
the same means to repay the suspected parties.
A few days afterwards a boy died in São Jeronymo, and
for several hours a great crying and wailing was made over the
body. His maqueira, and bow and arrows, were burnt in a
fire made at the back of the house, within which, according to
the universal custom of these Indians, he was buried, and the
mother continued her mournful wailing for several days.
The only additions I made to my collections during the
time I stayed here, were a prehensile-tailed ant-eater, and one
of the small nocturnal monkeys called “Juruparſ Macaco,” or
Devil Monkey, a species very closely allied to that called “Iá,”
which inhabits the Solimóes. After waiting anxiously a
fortnight, Bernado made his appearance with three of his
wives and a host of children: he had been unsuccessful in his
projected attack, the parties having obtained notice of his
motions and absconded, . He had taken every precaution, by
entering in a different river from that in which the attack was
1851.] - MANOEL JOAQUIM. 215
to be made, and penetrating through the forest; but his
movements were, no doubt, thought suspicious, and it was
considered safer to get out of his way; he was, however, con-
fident of succeeding next time in another place, where he
thought he could arrive unawares.
Having now no further cause for delay, we loaded our
canoes, and the next morning left São Jeronymo, on Our return
to Guia, where we arrived on the morning of the 24th, having
been absent on our trip fifty days.
The most important event that had occurred in the village
was the arrival from Barra of Manoel, Joaquim, a half-breed
Brazilian, some time resident at Guia. This man was a
specimen of the class of white men found in the Rio Negro.
He had been a soldier, and had been engaged in some of the
numerous revolutions which had taken place in Brazil. It was
said he had murdered his wife, and for that, or some other
crimes, had been banished to the Rio Negro, instead of being
hung, as he deserved. Here he was accustomed to threaten
and shoot at the Indians, to take their daughters and wives
from them, and to beat the Indian woman who lived with him,
so that she was obliged to hide for days in the forest. The
people of Guia declared he had murdered two Indian girls,
and had committed many other horrible crimes. He had
formerly been friendly with Senhor L., but, a year or two ago,
had quarrelled with him, and had attempted to set fire to his
house ; he had also attempted to shoot an old Mulatto soldier,
who was friendly with Senhor L. For these and other crimes,
the Subdelegarde de Policia of the district had indicted him,
and after taking the depositions of the Indians and of Senhor
L. against him, had wished to send him prisoner to Barra, but
could not do so, because he had no force at his command.
He therefore applied to the Commandante of Marabitanas,
who was at Guia at the time; but he was Manoel Joaquim’s
“compadre,” and took his part, and would not send him as a
prisoner, but let him go in his own canoe, accompanied by two
soldiers, bearing a recommendation from the Commandante
in his favour. -
This had happened shortly before we left for the Uaupés;
and now we found that Manoel Joaquim had returned in great
triumph—firing salutes and sending up rockets at every village
he passed through. He had gone on to Marabitánas; but in
216 TRAVELS ow THE RIO wecro. [August,
a day or two more returned, and brought me some letters and
papers from Barra. There also came a letter to Senhor L.
from the Delegarde de Policia in Barra, saying, that Manoel
Joaquim had presented himself, and that he (the Delegarde)
had asked him if he came a prisoner; that he replied, “No ;
he came to attend to his own business.” “Well, then,” said
the Delegarde, “as you have not been incommoded by this .
indictment, it is better to treat these slanders and quarrels with
disdain; ” and said he to Senhor L., “I would advise you to
do the same.” And so ended the attempt to punish a man
who, if one-half the crimes imputed to him were true, ought, by
the laws of Brazil, to have been hung, or imprisoned for life.
The poor Subdelegarde, it seems, through pure ignorance,
committed some informalities, and this was the reason why
Manoel Joaquim so easily and gloriously escaped. -
The best of it is that there is a special officer in Barra and
in every other city, called the “Promotor Publico,” whose sole
duty it is to see that all the other officers of justice and of
police do their duty, so that no criminal may escape or injustice
be done, by the laxity or connivance of any of these parties.
Yet, with all this, nothing is easier in the Rio Negro, than for
any person possessed of friends or money, to defeat the ends
of justice. \ -
I now found another unavoidable delay in my projected
voyage to Barra. A canoe that was making for me was not
yet ready, and I did not know where to obtain one sufficiently
capacious to take all my luggage and collections: but, a few
days after, a Spaniard, or Venezuelano, arrived at Guia with a
canoe for Manoel Joaquim ; and as he was to return by Mara-
bitánas, I took the opportunity of writing to the Commandante,
asking the loan of his igarité, for the voyage to Barra and back.
He very kindly consented, and in about a week I received it;
but I was as badly off as ever, for a canoe without men was of
no use; and the Indians, fearing the results of Manoel Joaquim’s
return, had all left Guia, and retired to their sitios in distant
igaripés, and in the most inaccessible depths of the forest.
The Commandante had sent orders to two Indians to go with
me, but these were not sufficient to descend the falls with safety;
so, as Senhor L. was about to remove to São Joaquim, at the
mouth of the Uaupés, I agreed to go with him, and try and
procure more men there. My Indians took nearly a fortnight
1851.] AAWAVOYZWG ZXEZA Y.S. 217
to prepare the canoe with new toldas—about two days work;
but then, though I was in a hurry, they were not.
Senhor L. had not a single man left with him, and had to
take his canoe down himself, and bring back Indians to assist
him to remove his goods and his family, when we went all
together to São Joaquim, where he intended to reside some
time. I now thought I should be able to leave immediately,
but found it not such an easy matter, for every Indian I applied
to had some business of his own to attend to, before he could
possibly go with me to Barra. One said, his house was very
much out of repair, and he must first mend it; another had
appointed a dance to take place in a week or two, and when
that was over, he was at my service; so I still had to wait a
little longer, and try the Brazilian remedy for all such annoy-
ances—“paciencia.”
CHAPTER XI.
O N T H E R I O N E G R O ,
Difficulties of Starting—Descending the Falls—Catching an Alligator
—Tame Parrots—A Fortnight in Barra—Frei Jozé's Diplomacy—
Picklinga Cow-Fish—A River Storm—Brazilian Veracity—Wanawáca
—Productiveness of the Country—A Large Snake—São Gabriel—
São Joaquim—Fever and Ague.
AT length, on the 1st of September, after another week's delay,
having succeeded in procuring two more Indians and a pilot, I left
on my long-desired voyage. One Indian I could only persuade
to go, by sending four others to assist him for three days in
clearing his mandiocca rhossa, without doing which he would
not leave. My canoe went fully loaded, as I took a quantity
of farinha and miscellaneous goods for Senhor L., and I had
some little fear of the passage of the falls, which was not
diminished by my pilot's being completely stupefied with his
parting libations of Caxirſ. He was also rather fearful, saying,
that the canoe was overloaded, and that he did not know the
channel well below São Gabriel; and that from there to Camanatí
I must get another pilot.
The rapids, before arriving at São Gabriel, are not very
dangerous, and much to my satisfaction we arrived there in
safety, about four in the afternoon. We there partially un-
loaded, to pass the narrow channel at the Fort, which was also
accomplished with safety; though not without danger at one
point, where the canoe got out of the proper course, and the
waves dashed in rather fearfully. I then succeeded in agreeing
with a good pilot to take us down the next morning, and was
much relieved by his informing me, that, the river being very
full, the falls were not dangerous, and the canoe would pass
with perfect safety without more unloading. I therefore will-
1851.] DESCENDING THE FAZZS. 219
ingly paid him what he asked, four milreis (about nine
shillings); and the next morning, having got the canoe properly
reloaded, we bade adieu to the Commandante, and in two
hours had passed safely down to Camanatí.
The navigation of these falls is of a character quite distinct
from anything in our part of the world. A person looking at
the river sees only a rapid current, a few eddies, swells, and
small breakers, in which there appears nothing very formidable.
When, however, you are in the midst of them, you are quite
bewildered with the conflicting motions of the waters. Whirl-
ing and boiling eddies, which burst up from the bottom at
intervals, as if from some subaqueous explosion, with short
cross-waves, and smooth intervening patches, almost make one
giddy. On one side of the canoe there is often a strong down-
current; while, on the other, it flows in an opposite direction.
Now there is a cross stream at the bows, and a diagonal one at
the stern, with a foaming Scylla on one side and a whirling
Charybdis on the other. All depends upon the pilot, who,
well acquainted with every sunken rock and dangerous whirl-
pool, steers clear of all perils, now directing the crew to pull
hard, now to slacken, as circumstances require, and skilfully
preparing the canoe to receive the impetus of the cross currents
that he sees ahead. I imagine that the neighbourhood of
the arches of Old London Bridge, at certain states of the tide,
must have presented on a small scale somewhat similar dangers.
When the river is low, the descent is more perilous; for, though
the force of the waters is not so great, they are so crammed with
rocks in all stages of submersion, that to avoid them becomes
a work requiring the greatest knowledge and care on the part
of the pilot. Having passed these much-dreaded rapids, we
proceeded pleasantly to São Jozé, where I stayed a day, to
take out part of Senhor's L.'s cargo, and reload the canoe
properly for the voyage to Barra. -
In the afternoon, a fine specimen of one of the smaller species
of alligator, or Jacaré, was brought in, and preparations were
made to cut it up for supper. I, however, immediately deter-
mined to skin it, and requested to be allowed to do so, promising
to get out the tail and body, for culinary purposes, in a very
short time. After about an hour's hard work, I extracted the
most meaty part of the tail, which is considered the best ; and
in another hour delivered up the body, leaving the head and
22O TRAVELS OW THE RIO NEGRO. [September,
legs to be cleaned the next day in the canoe. The animal was
nearly six feet long, and the scales of the belly could only be
cut by heavy blows with a hammer on a large knife. It was
caught with a line, to which was attached, by the middle, a
short strong pointed stick baited with fish ; when swallowed,
the stick remains firmly fixed across the stomach of the animal.
The flesh has a very strong but rather agreeable odour, like
guavas or some musky fruit, and is much esteemed by Indians
and many whites; but it requires to be young, fat, and well
dressed, to form, in my opinion, a palatable meal. I had
plenty of work the next day, cleaning the head and limbs, and
these furnished a supply of meat for my Indians' supper.
I called at the sitio of Senhor Chagas, whom I had met at
Guia, and from him I again received the most positive infor-
mation of the existence, on the river Uaupés, of a white
umbrella-bird, having himself seen a specimen, which one of
his Indians had killed. -
On the 6th I reached the sitio of Senhor João Cordeiro, the
Subdelegarde, where I stopped to breakfast; and arranged
with him to remain a few days at his house, on my return
voyage, in order to skin and prepare the skeleton of a cow-fish,
which he promised to procure for me, as they are very abundant
in the river Urubaxi, which enters the Rio Negro just above his
house, and where he, every year, takes great numbers with the
net and harpoon. At breakfast we had some of the meat,
preserved, by being boiled or fried in its own oil; it is then
put into large pots, and will keep many months. On taking
my leave, he sent me a plate of the meat, and some sausages
for my voyage.
I here finished stuffing my Jacaré, and was obliged to
borrow a drill to make the holes to sew up the skin. I had no
box to put it in, and no room for it in the canoe, so I tied it
on a board, and had a palm-leaf mat made to cover it from
rain, on the top of the tolda. Senhor João told us to visit his
“cacoarie,” or fish-weir, on our way down, and take what we
found in it. We did so, and of fish only got one,—a curious
mailed species, quite new to me, and which gave me an
afternoon’s work to figure and describe. There were also five
small red-headed turtles, which were very acceptable, and
furnished us with dinner for several days.
We proceeded pleasantly on our voyage, sometimes with rain
1851.1 7AME AEARROTS. 221
and sometimes with sunshine, and often obliged to make a
Supper of farinha and water, on account of there being no land
on which to make a fire; but to all these inconveniences I was
by this time well inured, and thought nothing of what, a year
before, was a very great hardship. At the different sitios
where I called, I often received orders for Barra; for everybody
whom I had once seen was, on a second encounter, an old
friend, and would take a friend's privilege. One requested me
to bring him a pot of turtle oil,-another, a garafāo of wine;
the Delegarde wanted a couple of cats, and his clerk a couple
of ivory small-tooth combs; another required gimlets, and
another, again, a guitar. For all these articles I received not
a vintem of payment, but was promised the money certain on
my return, or an equivalent in coffee or tobacco, or some
other article current in the Rio Negro. To many persons,
with whom I had never spoken, I was nevertheless well known,
and addressed by name ; and these would often hint that such
and such an article they were much in want of, and, without
directly requesting me to get it for them, would intimate that
if I should bring it, they would be happy to purchase it of me.
The only live animals I had with me were a couple of parrots,
which were a never-failing source of amusement. One was a
little “Marianna,” or Macaſ of the Indians, a small black-
headed, white-breasted, orange-neck and thighed parrot ; the
other, an Anacá, a most beautiful bird, banded on the breast
and belly with blue and red, and the back of the neck and
head covered with long bright red feathers margined with
blue, which it would elevate when angry, forming a hand-
some crest somewhat similar to that of the harpy eagle ; its
ornithological name is ZXerotypus accipitrinus, the hawk-headed
parrot. There was a remarkable difference in the characters of
these birds. The Anacá was of a rather solemn, morose, and
irritable disposition ; while the Mariánna was a lively little
creature, inquisitive as a monkey, and playful as a kitten. It
was never quiet, running over the whole canoe, climbing into
every Crack and cranny, diving into all the baskets, pans, and
pots it could discover, and tasting everything they contained.
It was a most omnivorous feeder, eating rice, farinha, every kind
of fruit, fish, meat, and vegetable, and drinking coffee too as well
as myself; and as soon as it saw me with basin in hand, would
climb up to the edge, and not be quiet without having a share,
222 TRAVEZs ow THE Rio Negro. (September,
which it would lick up with the greatest satisfaction, stopping
now and then, and looking knowingly round, as much as to say,
“This coffee is very good,” and then sipping again with increased
gusto. The bird evidently liked the true flavour of the coffee,
and not that of the sugar, for it would climb up to the edge of
the coffee-pot, and hanging on the rim plunge boldly down
till only its little tail appeared above, and then drink the coffee-
grounds for five minutes together. The Indians in the canoe
delighted to imitate its pretty clear whistle, making it reply and
stare about, in a vain search after its companions. Whenever
we landed to cook, the Marianna was one of the first on shore,
—not with any view to an escape, but merely to climb up some
bush or tree and whistle enjoyment of its elevated position, for
as soon as eating commenced, it came down for a share of fish
or coffee. The more sober Anacá would generally remain
quietly in the canoe, till, lured by the cries and whistles of
its lively little companion, it would venture out to join it;
for, notwithstanding their difference of disposition, they were
great friends, and would sit for hours side by side, scratching
each other's heads, or playing together just like a cat and
a kitten ; the Marianna sometimes so exasperating the Anacá by
scratches and peckings, and by jumping down upon it, that a
regular fight would ensue, which, however, soon terminated,
when they would return to their former state of brotherhood.
I intended them as presents to two friends in Barra, but was
almost sorry to part them. -
On the 15th of September, exactly a fortnight after leaving
São Joaquim, we arrived safely at Barra. The whitened houses
and open situation of the city appeared quite charming, after
being so long accustomed to the mud-walled, forest-buried
villages of Rio Negro. I found that my friend Mr. Spruce
was in the city, being a prisoner there, as I had been at Guia,
for want of men. He occupied a house, made classic to the
Naturalist by having been the abode of Dr. Natterer, where he
kindly accommodated me during my stay, which I intended
should be as short as possible. -
Bad news was awaiting me from Pará. Letters, dated
more than three months back, from my correspondent, Mr.
Miller, informed me of the dangerous illness of my brother,
who had been attacked by yellow fever; and when the canoe
left, which brought the letter, was exhibiting such symptoms as
1851.] - AAD MEWS. 223
left little hope of his recovery. The only additional informa-
tion brought since, was that the Princess Victoria, with a
valuable cargo, had been lost entering Pará; and that the con-
sequent excitement and anxiety of Mr. Miller, had led to an
attack of brain fever, which had terminated in his death. From
no one could I obtain a word of information about my brother,
and so remained in a state of the greatest suspense. Had he
recovered, he would himself, of course, have written ; but, on
the other hand, it was strange that none of the English resi-
dents in Pará had sent me a line to inform me of his death,
had it occurred. -
I was a fortnight in Barra, busily occupied buying and sell-
ing, and arranging and packing my miscellaneous collections.
I had to make insect-boxes and packing-cases, the only car-
penter in the place having taken it into his head to leave a
good business, and, like everybody else, go trading about the
ITVerS.
In the evening, and at all spare moments, we luxuriated in
the enjoyments of rational conversation,--to me, at least, the
greatest, and here the rarest of pleasures. Mr. Spruce, as well
as myself, much wished that we could ascend together ; but
my canoe was too small to accommodate us both, and my men
were too few for his, loaded, as it would be, with our combined
cargoes. No men were to be obtained at Barra for love or
money. Even the authorities, when they require to make
some journey on official business, are obliged, frequently, to
beg men of Senhor Henrique or some other negociante. To
such a state is this fine country reduced by Brazilian misrule
and immorality
Just as I was about to start, the Subdelegarde sent to inform
me I must take a passport, an annoyance I had quite forgotten.
However, there was no remedy, as the clerk does not like to
lose his fee of a “crusado.” I had first to get paper stamped
(and the Stamp-office was not open), and then to go the other
end of the city to where the clerk lived, to get the passport.
As everything was on board and all ready, this was a great
bore, and Senhor Henrique advised me to go without a pass-
port, and he would send it after me. As I knew the Subdele-
garde would not send after me to fetch me back, I took his
advice and started. Mr. Spruce came with me for a day's trip,
taking a couple of boys and a montaría to return in. We had
224 TRAVELS OW THE Rio NEGRO. [September,
a fine wind, which took us across the great bays above Barra;
and about four in the afternoon we landed on a sandy beach,
near which were a couple of cottages. Here Mr. S. found
Some handsome new flowering shrubs and trees, and I obtained
five specimens of a small fish, a pacú new to me, so we both
had work till supper-time; after which meal we hung our redes
under the bushes as we best could, and passed an agreeable
night. The next morning we bade each other farewell; Mr.
S. returning to Barra, and I pursuing my voyage up the river.
On arriving at a sitio, where I had on the way down left my
montaría in order that it might not be stolen in Barra, I found
my precaution had been of no avail, as it had been stolen a
few days before by an Indian of the Rio Branco. He had had
his own canoe taken from him near that place, by a man going
to the Solimóes, who tried to compel the owner to go also, and
so, in Self-defence, the Indian took mine to pursue his journey.
I had no remedy, so we went on, trusting to buy a montaría
somewhere shortly. We had several strong “trovočdos,” which
were rather dangerous, owing to my canoe being very much
loaded. One came on with great violence from the other side
of the river, raising tremendous waves, which would have
driven us on shore and broken our boat all to pieces, had there
not luckily been some bushes in the water, to which we fastened
prow and poop, and remained tossing and rolling about more
than an hour, baling out the water as fast as it came in, and in
constant fear of shipping a sea that would send us to the
bottom. . -
The same evening I overtook Frei Joze, who was on a
pastoral and trading visit to Pedreiro. We stayed at the same
place to sleep, and I went to converse a little with him in his
Canoe, which was large and commodious. Our conversation
turning on the prevalence of the small-pox in Pará, he related
an anecdote of his own diplomatic powers with respect to that
dreadful disease, on which he appeared to pride himself con-
siderably.
“When I was in Bolivia,” said he, “there were several nations
of very warlike Indians, who plundered and murdered travellers
on the way to St". Cruz. The President sent the soldiers after
them, and spent much money in powder and ball, but with
very little effect. The small-pox was in the city at the time,
and the clothes of all who died of it were ordered to be burnt,
1851.] AAW. A 7"TACK OF FE VER. 225
to prevent infection. One day conversing with his Excellency
about the Indians, I put him up to a much cheaper way than
powder and ball for exterminating them. “Instead of burning
the clothes,” said I, “just order them to be put in the way of
the Indians: they are sure to take possession of them, and
they'll die off like wildfire. He followed my advice, and in a
few months there was no more heard of the depredations of
the Indians. Four or five nations were totally destroyed.”
“For,” added he, “the bixiga plays the devil among the
Indians.” I could hardly help a shudder at this cool account
of such a cold-blooded massacre, but said nothing, consoling
myself with the idea that it was probably one of the ingenious
fabrications of Frei Jozé's fertile brain; though it showed that
he would look upon the reality as a very politic and laudable
action.
At Pedreiro I bought a couple of fine turtles, and stayed half
a day to kill and cook one. It was very fat, so we fried almost
all the meat and put it in a large pot with the oil, as it keeps
a long time, and, boiled up with a little rice, makes an excellent
dinner when fish are not to be had. The insides, all of which
are eatable, together with the meat adhering to the upper and
lower shell, and some of the eggs (of which there were near two
hundred) were sufficient for all the crew for two days. At
Carvoeiro I stayed a day to get my guns mended, some large
hooks made, and the tolda (which the Indians had made very
badly in Barra) repaired. Senhor Vasconcellos gave me a
curious flat-headed species of river-tortoise I had not before
met with ; he had kept it in a small pond two years, having
brought it from the lower Amazon. Here I had strong
symptoms of fever, and expected I was going to have an
attack of the much-dreaded “seizãos,’ for which Carvoeiro
is a noted locality. Looking after the arrangement of the
canoe in the hot sun did not do me much good; and
shortly after leaving, I found myself quite knocked up, with
headache, pains in the back and limbs, and violent fever. I
had commenced operations that morning by taking some
purgative medicine, and the next day I began taking doses of
quinine, drinking plentifully cream-of-tartar water, though I
was so weak and apathetic that at times I could hardly muster
resolution to move myself to prepare them. It is at such
times that one feels the want of a friend or attendant; for of
I5
a
226. 7"RA VAZZS OW Zºº A&AEO AWAEGA’O. [October,
course it is impossible to get the Indians to do these little things
without so much explanation and showing as would require
more exertion than doing them oneself. By dint, however, of
another purge, an emetic, washing and bathing, and quinine
three times a day, I succeeded in subduing the fever; and in
about four days had only a little weakness left, which in a day
or two more quite passed away. All this time the Indians
went on with the canoe as they liked; for during two days and
nights I hardly cared if we sank or swam. While in that
apathetic state I was constantly half-thinking, half-dreaming, of
all my past life and future hopes, and that they were perhaps
all doomed to end here on the Rio Negro. And, then I
thought of the dark uncertainty of the fate of my brother
Herbert, and of my only remaining brother in California, who
might perhaps ere this have fallen a victim to the cholera,
which according to the latest accounts was raging there. But
with returning health these gloomy thoughts passed away, and
I again went on, rejoicing in this my last voyage, and looking
forward with firm hope to home, sweet home ! I, however,
made an inward vow never to travel again in such wild,
unpeopled districts without some civilised companion or
attendant.
I had intended to skin the remaining turtle on the voyage
and had bought a large packing-case to put it in ; but not
having room in the canoe, it had been secured edgeways, and
one of its feet being squeezed had begun to putrefy, so we
were obliged to kill it at once and add the meaty parts to our
stock of “mixira” (as meat perserved in oil is called), for
the voyage.
We continued our progress with a most tedious slowness,
though without accident, till we arrived on the 29th of
October at the sitio of João Cordeiro, the Subdelegarde, where
I intended staying some days, to preserve the skin and skeleton
of a cow-fish. I found here an old friend, Senhor Jozé de
Azevedos, who had visited us at Guia, now ill with ague, from
which he had been suffering severely for several days, having
violent attacks of vomiting and dysentery. As usual, he was quite
without any proper remedies, and even such simple ones as
cooling drinks during the fever were shunned as poison;
hot broths, or caxaça and peppers, being here considered the
appropriate medicines. With the help of a few sudorifics and
1851.] THE MA 7AMATA. 227
purgatives, and cooling drinks and baths, with quinine between
the fits, he soon got better, much to his astonishment, as he
was almost afraid to submit himself to the treatment I recom-
mended.
I spent a whole week here, for the fishermen were unsuccess-
ful, and for five days no Peixe boi appeared. I, however, had
plenty to do, as I skinned a small turtle and a “matamatá
(Chelys Matamata), that Senhor João gave me. This is an
extraordinary river-tortoise, with a deeply-keeled and tubercled
shell, and a huge flat broad head and neck, garnished with
Curious lobed fleshy appendages; the nostrils are prolonged
into a tube, giving the animal altogether a most singular
appearance. Some of our Indians went every day to fish, and
I several times sent the net, and thus procured many new
Species to figure and describe, which kept me pretty constantly
at work, the intervals being filled up by visits to my patient,
eating water-melons, and drinking coffee. This is a fine
locality for fish, and as far as they are concerned I should have
liked to stay a month or two, as there were many curious and
interesting species to be found here, which I had not yet
obtained. - º,
At length one morning the Peixi boi we had been so long
expecting, arrived. It had been caught the night before, with
a net, in a lake at some distance. It was a nearly full-grown.
male, seven feet long and five in circumference. By the help
of a long pole and cords four Indians carried it to a shed,
where it was laid on a bed of palm-leaves, and two or three
men set to work skinning it; I myself operating on the
paddles and the head, where the greatest delicacy is required,
which the Indians are not accustomed to. After the skin was
got off, a second operation was gone through, to take away the
layer of fat beneath it, with which to fry the meat I intended to
preserve ; the inside was then taken out, and the principal
mass of meat at once obtained from the belly, back, and sides
of the tail. This was all handed over to Senhor João, who
undertook to prepare it for me; his men being used to the
work, from having some scores to operate upon every year.
My Indians then cut away the remaining meat from the ribs,
head, and arms for their own saucepans, and in a very short time
left the skeleton tolerably bare. All this time I was at work
myself at the paddles, and looking on to see that no bones
228 TRA VEZS OW 7"HE RAO WAE GRO. [November,
were injured or carried away. I separated the skeleton into
convenient pieces for entering into the barrel, cleaned out the
spinal marrow, cleared off some more of the meat, and having
sprinkled it over with salt, put it with the skin into the barrel
to drain for the night, and left the Indians to make a good
supper, and stuff themselves till contented. The next day,
after arranging the skin and the bones afresh, I with some
trouble fastened in the head of the barrel, when I found the
brine that was in it oozing out in every direction, and soon
discovered that the cask was riddled by little wood-boring
beetles. The holes seemed innumerable, but I immediately
set to work with two of my Indians, stopping them up with
little wooden pegs. We were occupied at this some hours, and
had pegged up I don't know how many hundred holes, till we
could not by the closest examination discover any more. A
huge pan of brine had been made by dissolving salt in boiling
water, and as some of it was now cool I commenced filling
with a funnel; when instantly, notwithstanding all our labour,
out trickled the liquid by a dozen unperceived holes, most of
them situated close to, or beneath the hoops. These last
could not be plugged, so I pushed in tow and rag under the
hoops, to be afterwards pitched over. With the filling and
plugging we were occupied all day; holes constantly appearing
in fresh places and obstinately refusing to be stopped. No-
thing would adhere to the wet surface, so the upper part of
the cask had to be dried, covered with pitch, then with cloth,
and then again well pitched over. Then rolling over the
barrel, another leaky portion was brought to the top, and
treated in the same manner. After great labour, all seemed
Complete, yet numerous little streams still appeared ; but as
they were very small, and their sources quite undiscoverable,
I left them in despair, trusting that the salt or the swelling of
the wood would stop them. By the time I got the cask carried
up to the house and deposited in charge of Senhor João till
my return, it was dusk; and so finished two most disagree-
able days’ work with the Peixe boi. Senhor João had prepared
me a pot of meat and sausages preserved in the oil, which
I embarked, and got all ready to leave the next morning, as
I had now been delayed a week of most valuable time. I left
him also a box containing four species of turtles, which I had
stuffed either here or on my voyage.
1851. - AAAZZZZAAW VERA C/7"P. 229
Continuing our journey, nothing particular occurred but
several storms of rain and wind, accompanied with thunder,
which sometimes retarded us, and sometimes helped us on.
Many of them were complete hurricanes, the wind shifting
round suddenly, through every point of the compass; so that,
if our little canoe had not been well ballasted with her cargo
of salt and iron, she would have capsized. Once, in particular,
at about four in the morning, we experienced one of these
storms in a wide part of the river, where the waves raised were
very great, and tossed us about violently. A sudden shift of
the wind took our sail aback, and we had great difficulty in
getting it in. The rain was driving thickly against us, and
rendered it bitterly cold ; our montaria, which was towed
astern, got water-logged,—plunged, and dashed against the
canoe, tore out its benches, and lost its paddles. I gave
orders to cast it loose, thinking it impossible to save it; but
the Indians thought otherwise, for one of them plunged in
after it, and succeeded in guiding it to the shore, where we
also with much difficulty arrived, and managed to fasten our
bows to some bushes, and get a rope out from our stern to
a tree growing in the water, so as to prevent the canoe from
getting broadside to the waves, which rolled in furiously,
keeping one of our men constantly baling out water ; and thus
we waited for daylight. I then gave the men a cup of caxaça
each ; and when the sea had subsided sufficiently to allow of
rowing, we continued our passage. These storms are the only
things that make travelling here disagreeable: they are very
frequent, but each succeeding one, instead of reconciling me
to them, made me more fearful than before. It is by no
means an uncommon thing for canoes to be swamped by them,
or dashed to pieces on the sands; and the Rio Negro has
such a disagreeable notoriety for the suddenness and fury of
its trovoãdos, that many persons will never put up a sail when
there is a sign of one approaching, but seek some safe port,
to wait till it has passed.
On the 12th of November I reached the sitio of Senhor Chágas,
where I stopped for the night: he gave me some letters to
take up to São Gabriel, and just as I was going, requested me,
as a favour, to tell everybody that I had not found him at his
sitio, but that he was gone to the “mato” to get salsa. As I
was on familiar terms with him, I told him that really I was very
23o TRAVELS OW THE RIO WEGRO [November,
sorry I could not oblige him, but that, as I was not accustomed
to lying, I should be found out immediately if I attempted it :
he, however, insisted that I might surely try, and I should soon
learn to lie as well as the best of them. So I told him at once,
that in my country a liar was considered as bad as a thief; at
which he seemed rather astonished. I gave him a short
account of the pillory, as a proof of how much our ancestors
detested lying and perjury, which much edified him, and he
called his son (a nice boy of twelve or fourteen, just returned
from school), to hear and profit by the example; showing, I
think, that the people here are perfectly aware of the moral
enormity of the practice, but that constant habit and universal
custom, and above all, that false politeness which renders
them unable verbally to deny anything, has rendered it almost
a necessary evil. Any native of the country would have
instantly agreed to Senhor Chágas's request, and would then
have told every one of it up the river, always begging them
not to say he told them,-thus telling a lie for themselves
instead of for Senhor Chágas.
The next morning I reached Wanawāca, the sitio of Manoel
Jacinto, and stayed to breakfast with him, luxuriating in milk
with my coffee, and “coalhado,” or curdled milk, pine-apple,
and pacovas with cheese, luxuries which, though every one
might have, are seldom met with in the Rio Negro. His sitio
is, perhaps, the prettiest on the river; and this, simply because
there is an open space of grass around the house, with some
forest and fruit-trees scattered about it, affording shade for the
cattle and sheep, and a most agreeable relief to the eye, long
fatigued with eternal forest.
When I consider the excessively small amount of labour
required in this country, to convert the virgin forest into green
meadows and fertile plantations, I almost long to come over
with half-a-dozen friends, disposed to work, and enjoy the
Country; and show the inhabitants how soon an earthly
paradise might be created, which they had never even con-
ceived capable of existing. .
It is a vulgar error, copied and repeated from one book to
another, that in the tropics the luxuriance of the vegetation
overpowers the efforts of Inan. Just the reverse is the case:
nature and the climate are nowhere so favourable to the
labourer, and I fearlessly assert, that here, the “primeval”
1851.] FERZILITY OF THE COUNTRY. 23.
forest can be converted into rich pasture and meadow land,
into cultivated fields, gardens, and Orchards, containing every
variety of produce, with half the labour, and, what is of more
importance, in less than half the time than would be required
at home, even though there we had clear, instead of forest
ground to commence upon. It is true that ground once
rudely cleared, in the manner of the country, by merely
cutting down the wood and burning it as it lies, will, if left to
itself, in a single year, be covered with a dense shrubby
vegetation; but if the ground is cultivated and roughly weeded,
the trunks and stumps will have so rotted in two or three
years, as to render their complete removal an easy matter, and
then a fine crop of grass succeeds; and, with cattle upon it, no
more care is required, as no shrubby vegetation again appears.
Then, whatever fruit-trees are planted will reach a large size in
five or six years, and many of them give fruit in two or three.
Coffee and cacao both produce abundantly with the mimimum
of attention; orange and other fruit-trees never receive any
attention, but, if pruned, would no doubt yield fruit of a
Superior quality, in greater quantity. Pine-apples, melons, and
water-melons are planted, and when ripe the fruit is gathered,
there being no intermediate process whatever. Indian corn
and rice are treated nearly in the same manner. Onions,
beans, and many other vegetables, thrive luxuriantly. The
ground is never turned up, and manure never applied; if both
were done, it is probable that the labour would be richly
repaid. Cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs may be kept to any
extent; nobody ever gives them anything to eat, and they
always do well. Poultry of all kinds thrive. Molasses may
be easily made in any quantity, for cane put into the ground
grows, and gives no trouble ; and I do not see why the
domestic process used in the United States for making maple-
sugar should not be applied here. Now, I unhesitatingly
affirm, that two or three families, containing half-a-dozen
working and industrious men and boys, and being able to
bring a capital in goods of fifty pounds, might, in three years,
find themselves in the possession of all I have mentioned.
Supposing them to get used to the mandiocca and Indian-corn
bread, they would, with the exception of clothing, have no one
necessary or luxury to purchase: they would be abundantly
Supplied with pork, beef and mutton, poultry, eggs, butter,
232 . TRAVELS OW THE RIO MEGRO. [November,
milk and cheese, . coffee and cacao, molasses and, sugar;
delicious fish, turtles and turtles' eggs, and a great variety of
game, would furnish their table with constant variety, while
vegetables would not be wanting, and fruits, both cultivated
and wild, in superfluous abundance, and of a quality that none
but the wealthy of our land can afford. Oranges and lemons,
figs and grapes, melons and water-melons, jack-fruits, custard-
apples, pine-apples, cashews, alligator pears, and mammee
apples are some of the commonest, whilst numerous palm and
other forest fruits furnish delicious drinks, which everybody
soon gets very fond of. Both animal and vegetable oils can be
procured in abundance for light and cooking. And then,
having provided for the body, what lovely gardens and shady
walks might not be made How easy to construct a natural
orchid-house, beneath a clump of forest-trees, and collect the
most beautiful species found in the neighbourhood | What
elegant avenues of palms might be formed ! What lovely
climbers abound, to train over arbours, or up the walls of the
house ! . • -
In the whole Amazon, no such thing as neatness or cultiva-
tion has ever been tried. Walks, and avenues, and gardens
have never been made; but I can imagine how much beauty
and variety might be called into existence from the gloomy
monotony of the forest.
“England 1 my heart is truly thine,—my loved, my native earth !”
But the idea of the glorious life which might be led here, free
from all the money-matter cares and annoyances of civilisation,
makes me sometimes doubt, if it would not be wiser to bid thee
adieu for ever, and come and live a life of ease and plenty in
the Rio Negro.
This district is superior to any other part of the Amazon,
and perhaps any other part of Brazil, in having a climate free
from long droughts. In fact, the variableness of rain and
sunshine, all the year round, is as great as in England itself;
but it is this very thing which produces a perennial verdure.
There are parts of the Rio Negro where the turtle, the peixe
boi, and all sorts of fish abound; advantages, for which many
Fº endure the tormenting “carapanás" of the Solimóes,
ut which can be had here without any insect torment, and
with a far superior climate for agricultural purposes,
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1851.] A ZARGE SAVAKE. 233
All cultivated products of the soil are so scarce that they
meet with a ready sale at good prices, not only in the city of
Barra, but also to passing traders, who have no time or means
for cultivating them themselves. Tobacco, coffee, molasses,
cotton, castor-oil, rice, maize, eggs, poultry, salt-meat, and fish,
all kinds of oils, cheese, and butter, can always be sold,—the
supply being invariably below the demand,-and, besides
providing clothing and other extras, which in this climate are a
mere trifle, might be made to produce a handsome profit. To
do all this requires some experience and some industry; but
not a tithe of either which are necessary to get a bare living at
home. -
Leaving this pleasant place about midday, we proceeded
slowly on. One of my best Indians fell ill of fever and ague ;
and, a few days after, another was attacked. It was in vain
attempting, at any sitio or village, to get men to help me on
the rest of my voyage; no offer of extra wages would induce
them to leave their houses; all had some excuse of occupation
or illness, so we were forced to creep on as well as we could.
Two days below the Falls I bought a smaller canoe of
a Portuguese trader, to ascend the Uaupés, and moved my
cargo into it, leaving that of Senhor Lima with the other canoe,
to be sent for afterwards. At Camanatí, I with much difficulty,
and some delay, procured a pilot and another Indian, to go
with me to São Gabriel. There, after another day’s delay, I
found two Indians, who agreed to go as far as São Joaquim ;
and after keeping me waiting three or four hours beyond the
time appointed, absconded at night from the sitio where we
slept, having been previously paid double wages for the whole
distance. Here, however, I was lucky enough to get three
more in place of the two rogues; but as another of my Indians
had now fallen ill, we still had few enough for passing the
numerous rapids and rocks with which the river is obstructed.
One day we found, coiled up on the bank, a large Sucurujū,
the first large snake I had met with, and as I was very anxious
to secure it, to preserve the skin, I loaded my gun, and telling
my Indians not to let it escape, fired. It remained motionless
some time, as if stunned by the shock, and then slowly
began to uncoil, turning its head down towards the water,
but evidently so much injured as to be unable to move
its body on land, In vain I cried to the Indians to secure it :
234 TRAVELS ON THE RIO AVEGRO. [November,
the pilot had been severely bitten by one some time before,
and was afraid; and so, instead of obeying me, they kept
striking it with a thick stick, which only hastened its descent
down the bank into the water, where, sinking to the bottom
among dead trees, it was quite out of our power. As near as
I could judge, the snake was fifteen or twenty feet long, and
as thick as my thigh. At São Gabriel I saw also, on the
rocks, asleep, one of the most deadly serpents of South
America, the Surucucti (Zachesis mutus). It is very hand-
somely marked with rich umber-brown, and armed with terrific
poison-fangs, two on each side; it is much dreaded, as its bite
is said to be incurable.
On leaving São Gabriel I was again attacked with fever,
and on arriving at São Joaquim I was completely laid up.
My Indians, took the opportunity to steal a quantity of the
caxaga I had brought for preserving the fishes, and anything
else they could lay their hands on ; so I was glad, on the
occasion of a slight remission of the fever, to pay their wages
and send them off. After a few days, the violence of the fever
abated, and I thought I was going to get over it very easily;
but such was not the case, for every alternate day I experienced
a great depression, with disinclination to motion: this always
followed a feverish night, in which I could not sleep. The
next night I invariably slept well perspiring profusely, and, the
succeeding day, was able to move about, and had a little
appetite. The weakness and fever, however, increased, till I
was again confined to my rédé-could eat nothing, and was
so torpid and helpless, that Senhor L., who attended me, did
not expect me to live. I could not speak intelligibly, and had
not strength to write, or even to turn over in my hammock.
A few days after this, I was attacked with severe ague, which
recurred every two days. I took quinine for some time with-
out any apparent effect, till, after nearly a fortnight, the fits
ceased, and I only suffered from extreme emaciation and
weakness. In a few days, however, the fits of ague returned,
and now came every day. Their visits, thus frequent, were by
no means agreeable; as, what with the succeeding fever and
perspiration, which lasted from before noon till night, I had
little quiet repose. In this state I remained till the beginning
of February, the ague continuing, but with diminished force;
and though with an increasing appetite, and eating heartily,
1851.] FEPAER AAWD AGUE. 235
yet gaining so little strength, that I could with difficulty stand
alone, or walk across the room with the assistance of two
sticks. The ague, however, now left me, and in another week,
as I could walk with a stick down to the river-side, I went to
São Gabriel, to see Mr. Spruce, who had arrived there, and
had kindly been to see me a short time before. I purchased
some wine and biscuits of the Commandante, and then
returned to São Joaquim, determined, though the wet season
was now again beginning, to set off for the Upper Uaupés, as
soon as I could procure men, and get my canoe ready.
CHAPTER XII.
THE CATARACTs of THE UAUPés.
Start for the Uaupés—São Jeronymo and Jauarité—Indians run Away--
Numerous Cataracts—Reach Carurul—Difficult Passage—Painted
Malocca—Devil Music—More Falls—Ocoki—Curious Rocks—Reach
Uarucapuri—Cobeu Indians—Reach Mucura—An Indian's House
and Family—Height above the Sea—Tenente Jesuino—Return to
Uarucapuri—Indian Prisoners—Voyage to Jauarité—Correcting the
Calendar—Delay at São Jeronymo.
AT length, on the 16th of February, two months and twenty-three
days after my arrival at São Joaquim, I left on my voyage up
the Uaupés. I was still so weak that I had great difficulty
in getting in and out of the canoe; but I thought I should be
as well there as confined in the house; and as I now longed
more than ever to return home, I wished first to make this
voyage, and get a few living birds and animals to take with me.
I had seven Uaupés Indians that Senhor L. had brought from
São Jeronymo, in order to take me up the river. Three more,
who had already received payment for the voyage, did not
appear; and, though they knew very well the time of my
leaving, had fixed on that very day to give a feast of fish and
caxirſ. Antonio, my former pilot to Barra, was one. I met
him coming to the village from his sitio, and he flatly refused
to come with me, unless I waited some days more for him; I
therefore made him send his Macu boy, João, instead, to go
and return, and so pay for what both owed. This he did, and
we went on our way rejoicing, for Antonio was what they call
an Indian “ladino,” or crafty; he could speak Portuguese, and,
strongly suspecting him of being an expert thief, I was not
sorry to be without his company.
On Saturday evening, the 21st, we arrived at São Jeronymo,
where I was cordially received by Senhor Augustinho. The
1851.] p/RF/cv/TIES WITH INDIANS. 237
next day was occupied in paying my men, and sending for
Bernardo to conduct my canoe up the falls, and get me more
Indians for the voyage. -
On Monday he arrived, and I let him take the canoe, but
did not go with him, as, for some days past, the ague had again
attacked me, and this was the day of the fit; so I sent the two
guardas, my head men, who could speak Portuguese, to take
charge of the canoe and cargo, and remained myself till the
next day. In the evening a small trader arrived from above,
very tipsy, and an Indian informed Senhor Augustinho that it
was with my caxaça, which the men whom I had brought
speciaſly to take charge of my cargo, had opened. This I next
day found to be the case, as the seals had been broken, and
clumsily refastened with a burning stick. These men were
half-civilised Indians, who came with me as hunters, to inter-
pret for me with the Indians and take charge of my goods, on
account of which I paid them extra wages. They ate with me,
and did not row with the other Indians; but the temptation of
being left alone for nearly a day, with a garafāo of caxaça, was
too strong for them. Of course I passed all over in silence,
appearing to be perfectly ignorant of what had taken place, as,
had I done otherwise, they would probably both have left me,
after having received the greater part of their payment before-
hand, and I should have been unable to proceed on my
voyage.
With Bernardo's assistance, I soon got ten paddles in my
canoe; and having paid most of them out of my stock of axes,
mirrors, knives, beads, etc., we went along very briskly to
Jauarité, where we arrived on the morning of the 28th. I was
anxious to pass the caxoeira immediately, but was delayed,—
paying two Indians, who left me here, and procuring others;
so my ague fit fell upon me before we left the village, and I
was very weak and feverish when we went to pass the falls.
We unloaded the whole of the cargo, which had to be carried
a considerable distance through the forest; and even then,
pulling the canoe up the falls was a matter of great difficulty.
There are two falls, at some distance from each other, which
make the land-carriage very long.
We then re-embarked, when Bernardo coolly informed me
that he could go no further, after having received payment for
the whole voyage. His brother, he said, should go in his
238 TRAVEES ON THE RZO NEGRO. [March,
place; and when I returned, he would pay me what he owed
me. So I was forced to make the best of it; but shortly after
I found that his brother would only go to Jacaré caxoeira, and
thus I was a second time deceived.
On starting, I missed João, and found that he had left us
in the village, telling the guardas that he had only agreed with
me to come so far, and they had never said a word to me
about it till now, that it was too late. Antonio's debt therefore
still remained unpaid, and was even increased by a knife which
João had asked for, and I had given him, in order that he
might go on the voyage satisfied.
The river now became full of rocks, to a degree to which
even the rockiest part of the Rio Negro was a trifle. All were
low, and would be covered at high-water, while numbers more
remained below the surface, and we were continually striking
against them. That afternoon we passed four more falls, the
“Uacú” (a fruit), “Uacará'' (Egret), “Muctira” (Opossum),
and “Japóna” (oven) caxoeiras. At Uacará there was a
malocca of the same name ; and at Japóna another, where we
passed the night. All these rapids we ascended without un-
loading; but the Uacará was very bad, and occasioned us
much trouble and delay. The next morning, when about to
start, we found that another Indian was missing: he had
absconded in the night, and it was useless attempting to seek
him, though we knew he had gone to Uacará Malocca, where
he wished to stay the day before, but where all knowledge of
him would be denied and he well hidden, had we returned to
fetch him. He was one who had received full payment, making
three who had already gone away in my debt; a not very
encouraging beginning for my voyage.
We passed the “Tyeassu’’ (Pig) caxoeira early, and then had
a good stretch of quiet water till midday, when we reached
the “Oomarie” (a fruit) caxoeira, where there is a sitio. Here
we dined off a fine fresh Tucunaré, which an old man sold
me; and I agreed with his son, by the temptation of an axe,
to go with me. We pulled the canoe up this rapid without
unloading, which is seldom done, except when the river is
low, as it now was. The rest of the day we had quiet water,
and stopped at a rock to make our supper and sleep. -
March 1st.—We passed the “Macáco” (monkey) caxoeira
early. The rocks here, and particularly about Oomarie
g
1852.] AWUMAEROUS CATAAA C7S. 239
Caxoeira, were so full of parallel veins, as to give them the
appearance of being stratified and thrown up nearly vertically;
whereas they are granitic, and similar to those we had already
seen. We then soon reached the “Irá” (Honey) and
“Baccába” (a Palm) caxoeiras; at both of which there are
figures or picture-writings on the rocks, which I stayed to
sketch. In passing the latter rapid, we knocked off one of
the false keels I had had put to the canoe previous to starting,
to preserve the bottom in the centre, where it was worn very
thin by being dragged over the rocks by its former owner.
We therefore stopped at a sandbank, unloaded the canoe,
and plugged up the nail-holes, which were letting in water very
fast.
The next day we passed in succession the “Arára Mirí”
(Little Macaw), “Tamaquerié” (Gecko), “Paroquet,” “Japod’”
(a bird), “Arāra " (Macaw), “Tatti” (Armadillo), “Amâna"
(Rain), “Camóa * (?), “Yauti" (Tortoise); and, finally, about
three P.M., arrived at “Carurti " (a water-plant) caxoeira. The
last five of these, before arriving at Carurti, were exceedingly
bad; the passage being generally in the middle of the river,
among rocks, where the water rushes furiously. The falls
were not more than three or four feet each ; but, to pull a
loaded Canoe up these, against the foaming waters of a large
river, was a matter of the greatest difficulty for my dozen
Indians, their only resting-place being often breast-deep in
water, where it was a matter of wonder that they could stand
against the current, much less exert any force to pull the
canoe. At Arára fall, the usual passage is over the dry rock,
and we unloaded for that purpose; but all the efforts of the
Indians could not get the heavy canoe up the steep and rugged
ascent which was the only pathway. Again and again they
exerted themselves, but to no purpose; and I was just sending
by an old man, who was passing in a small canoe, to Caruru
for assistance, when he suggested that by getting a long sipó
(the general cable in these rivers) we might obtain a good
purchase, to pull the canoe up the margin of the fall, which
we had previously tried without success. We accordingly did
so, and by great exertions the difficulty was passed,—much to
my satisfaction, as sending to Caruru would have occasioned
a great and very annoying delay.
The river from Jauarité may be said to average about a
240 TRAVELS OAV ZALE RAO WEGRO. [March,
third of a mile wide, but the bends and turns are innumerable;
and at every rapid it almost always spreads out into such deep
bays, and is divided into channels by so many rocks and
islands, as to make one sometimes think that the water is
suddenly flowing back in a direction contrary to that it had
previously been taking. Caruruſ caxoeira itself is greater than
any we had yet seen, rushing amongst huge rocks down a
descent of perhaps fifteen or twenty feet. The only way of
passing this, was to pull the canoe over the dry rock, which
rose considerably above the level of the water, and was rather
rugged, being interrupted in places by breaks or steps two
or three feet high. The canoe was accordingly unloaded,
quantities of poles and branches cut and laid in the path to
prevent the bottom being much injured by the rocks, and a
messenger sent to the village on the other side of the river
to request the Tushalía to come with plenty of men to our
assistance. He soon arrived with eleven Indians, and all
hands set to work pushing the canoe, or pulling at the sipós ;
and even then, the strength of five-and-twenty persons could
only move it by steps, and with great difficulty. However, it
was at length passed, and we then proceeded to the village,
where the Tushatia lent us a house.
The canoe was so weak in the bottom in one place, that
I was fearful of some accident in my descent, so I determined
to stay here two or three days, to cut out the weak part and
put in a strong board. I now also saw that this canoe was
much too heavy to proceed further up the river, as at many
of the falls there was no assistance to be obtained, even in
places as difficult to pass as Carurú ; so I opened negotiations
to purchase a very large “obá’’ of the Tushaāa, which, before
leaving, I effected for an axe, a shirt and trousers, two cutlasses,
and some beads. We were delayed here five entire days, owing
to the difficulty of finding a tree of good wood sufficiently
large to give a board of twelve or fourteen inches wide; and
at last I was obliged to be content with two narrow boards,
clumsily inserted, rather than be exposed to more delay.
There was a large malocca here, and a considerable number
of houses. The front of the malocca was painted very taste-
fully in diamonds and circles, with red, yellow, white, and
black. On the rocks were a series of strange figures, of which
I took a sketch. The Indians were of the “Ananās" or Pine-
1852.] ZXAZ V/Z-MUSIC. 24I
apple tribe; I bought some dresses and feather ornaments of
them ; and fish, mandiocca-cakes, etc., were brought me in
considerable quantities, the articles most coveted in return
being fish-hooks and red beads, of both of which I had a large
stock. Just below the fall, the river is not more than two or
three hundred yards wide; while above, it is half a mile, and
contains several large islands.
The large black pacu was abundant here, and, with other
Small fish, was generally brought us in sufficient quantity to
prevent our recurring to fowls, which are considered by the
traders to be the most ordinary fare a man can live on. I
now ate for the first time the curious river-weed, called carurū,
that grows on the rocks. We tried it as a salad, and also
boiled with fish ; and both ways it was excellent;-boiled, it
much resembled spinach.
Here, too, I first saw and heard the “Juripari,” or Devil-
music of the Indians. One evening there was a caxiri-drinking;
and a little before dusk a sound as of trombones and bassoons
was heard coming on the river towards the village, and
presently appeared eight Indians, each playing on a great
bassoon-looking instrument. They had four pairs, of different
sizes, and produced a wild and pleasing sound. They blew
them all together, tolerably in concert, to a simple tune, and
showed more taste for music than I had yet seen displayed
among these people. The instruments are made of bark
spirally twisted, and with a mouthpiece of leaves.
In the evening I went to the malocca, and found two old
men playing on the largest of the instruments. They waved
them about in a singular manner, vertically and sideways,
accompanied by corresponding contortions of the body, and
played a long while in a regular tune, accompanying each other
very correctly. From the moment the music was first heard,
not a female, old or young, was to be seen ; for it is one of the
strangest Superstitions of the Uaupés Indians, that they con-
sider it so dangerous for a woman ever to see one of these
instruments, that having done so is punished with death,
generally by poison. Even should the view be perfectly
accidental, or should there be only a suspicion that the pro-,
scribed articles have been seen, no mercy is shown ; and it is
said that fathers have been the executioners of their own
daughters, and husbands of their wives, when such has been
I6
*
*J
º
242 TRAVEL's ow THE RIo Wegro. [March,
the case. I was of course anxious to purchase articles to
which such curious customs belong, and spoke to the Tushatia
on the subject. He at length promised to sell them me on
my return, stipulating that they were to be embarked at some
distance from the village, that there might be no danger of
their being seen by the women. *
On the morning previous to that on which we were to leave,
two more of our Indians who had received full payment on
starting, were discovered to have left us. They had taken
possession of a canoe, and absconded in the night; leaving me
no remedy, but the chance of finding them in their houses on
my return, and the still more remote chance of their having
anything to pay me with.
The Indians here have but little characteristic distinction
from those below. The women wear more beads around their
necks and arms. The lower lip is often pierced, and two or
three little strings of white beads inserted; but as the nations
are so mixed by inter-marriages, this custom is probably derived
from the Tucanos. Some of the women and children wore
two garters, one above the ankle and one below the knee—
swelling out the calf enormously, which they consider a very
great beauty. I did not see here so many long tails of hair;
most of the men having probably been to the Rio Negro with
some trader, and thence worn their hair like Christians; or
perhaps because the last Tushalía was a “homen muito
civilizado * (a very well-bred person).
After four days’ delay, we at length started, with a com-
paratively small complement of Indians, but with some extra
men to assist us in passing several caxoeiras, which occur near
at hand. These are the “Piréwa ” (Wound), “Uacorouá”
(Goat-sucker), “Maniwára” (White Ant), “Matapſ” (Fish-
trap), “Amāna” (Rain), “Tapfractinga” (Tapir's head),
“Tapira eura” (Tapir's mouth), and “Jacaré” (Alligator).
Three of these were very bad, the canoe having to be unloaded
entirely, and pulled over the dry and uneven rocks. The last
was the highest; the river rushing furiously about twenty feet
down a rugged slope of rock. The loading and unloading of
the canoe three or four times in the course of as many hours,
is a great annoyance. Baskets of farinha and salt, of mandiocca-
cakes and pacovas, are strewn about. Panellas are often
broken; and when there comes a shower of rain, everything
1852.] AWWOVAWCES OF THE JOURNEY. 243
has to be heaped together in a hurry, palm-leaves cut, and
the more perishable articles covered ; but boxes, rédés, and
numerous other articles are sure to be wetted, rendering us
very uncomfortable when again hastily tumbled into the over-
crowded canoe. If I had birds or insects out drying, they were
sure to be overturned, or blown by the wind, or wetted by the
rain, and the same fate was shared by my note-books and
papers. Articles in boxes, unless packed tight, were shaken
and rumpled by not being carried evenly; so that it was an
excellent lesson in patience, to bear all with philosophical
serenity. We had passed all these falls by midday; and at
night slept on a rock, where there was a small rapid and a
house without inhabitants.
On the 8th we had tolerably quiet water, with only two
small rapids, the “Taiéna’’ (Child), and “Paroquet” caxoeiras.
On the 9th, in the morning, we reached the “Pacu” fall, and
then had a quiet stream, though full of rocks, till the afternoon,
when we passed the “Macucti " (a tree), “Anacás" (Pine-
apple), and “Uacú” (a fruit) caxoeiras; all very bad and
difficult ones. We had left Carurú with very little farinha, as
none was to be had there, and we had seen no inhabited sitios
where any could be purchased ; so our Indians were now on
short allowance of “beijú,” which they had brought with them.
Of a passing Indian I bought a basket of Ocoki, and some
fish. The Ocokſ is a large pear-shaped fruit, with a hard thick
Outer skin of almost a woody texture, then a small quantity of
very Sweet pulpy matter, and within a large black oval stone.
The pulp is very luscious, but is so acrid as to make the mouth
and throat sore, if more than two or three are eaten. When,
however, the juice is boiled it loses this property; and when
made into mingau with tapioca, is exceedingly palatable and
very highly (steemed in the Upper Rio Negro, where it is
abundant. It takes at least a peck of fruit to give one small
panella of mingau.
On the next day, the Ioth, in the afternoon, the Indians all
Suddenly sprang like otters into the water, swam to the shore,
and disappeared in the forest. “Ocoki,” was the answer to my
inquiries as to the cause of their sudden disappearance; and I
Soon found they had discovered an ocoki-tree, and were load-
ing themselves with the fruit to satisfy the cravings of hunger,
for an Indian's throat and mouth seem invulnerable to all those
244. 7"RA VEZS OW 7"HE RIO AVEGRO. [March,
scarifying substances which act upon civilised man. The tree
is one of the loftiest in the forest, but the fruit falls as soon as
ripe, and its hard woody coating preserves it from injury.
Paskets, shirts, trousers, etc., were soon filled with the fruit
and emptied into the canoe; and I made each of the Indians
bring a small basketful for me; so that we had “mingau de
ocoki” for three succeeding mornings.
The rocks from Caruru often present a scoriaceous appear-
ance, as if the granite had been remelted. Sometimes they
are a mass of burnt fragments, sometimes a honeycombed rock
with a shining surface. In some places there are enclosed
fragments of a finer-grained rock, apparently sandstone, and
numerous veins and dykes, which often cross each other in
three or four sets. The rocks are, in many places, so broken
and cleft vertically, as to appear stratified and thrown up on
end. The rounded form and concentric arrangement, observed
in the Rio Negro, is here also constantly met with. The
interstices of the rounded and angular masses of rock are often
filled with a curious volcanic substance, which outwardly re-
sembles pitch, but consists of scoriae, sand, clays, etc., variously
cemented together.
On the Ioth we passed the “Tapioca,” “Tucáno” (Toucan),
“Tucunaré” (a fish), “Uaractipiními” (a fish), and “Tyeassii”
(Pig) caxoeiras. The first was very bad, and both difficult and
dangerous to pass; it consisted of many distinct falls among
huge masses of rock. At one place the canoe remained stuck
fast, amidst foaming waters, on the very edge of a fall, for
nearly an hour; all the efforts of the Indians could not move
it forward. They heaved it over from one side to the other,
but with no effect; till I began to despair of getting out of the
difficulty before night. At last the canoe suddenly moved on,
with apparently not so much force as had been before applied
to it; but my Indians, being of several nations, did not under-
stand any common language, and it was impossible to get them
to act in concert, or obey any leader. It was probably some
chance combination of forces, that at last extricated us from
our unpleasant situation. At this fall, on the rocks, were very
numerous figures, or picture-writings, and I stopped to make
drawings of them; of which I had by this time a rather ex-
tensive collection.
The next three falls were small rapids; but the last, which
1852.] CURIOUS ROCKS. 245
we reached late in the evening, was fearful. The river makes
a sudden bend, and is confined in a very narrow channel, which
is one confused mass of rocks of every size and shape, piled on
one another, and heaped up in the greatest possible confusion.
Every stone which rises above high-water mark is covered
with vegetation; and among the whole the river rushes and
foams, so as to make the task of pilot one of no ordinary
difficulty. Just as it was getting dark, we passed out of these
gloomy narrows into a wider and more cheerful part of the
river, and stayed at a rock to sup and sleep.
On the 11th, early, we reached Uarucapurí, where are a
village and several maloccas. The first which we entered was
inhabited by people of the Cobeu nation. There were about
a dozen handsome men, all clean-limbed and well painted, with
armlets and necklaces of white beads, and with the ears plugged
with a piece of wood the size of a common bottle-cork, to the
end of which was glued a piece of porcelain presenting a white
shining surface. We agreed with these men to help to pass
our canoe up the falls, and then proceeded on our walk
through the village. My old friend Senhor Chagas was here,
and with him I breakfasted off a fine pirahíba which his men
had caught that morning, and which was the first I had eaten
since my illness.
With some difficulty I succeeded in buying two or three
baskets of farinha; and being anxious to get to my journey's
end, which was now near at hand, about midday we proceeded.
Our pilot and his son left us, and we had now only six paddles;
but four or five additional men came with us to pass the re-
maining caxoeiras, which were near. Close to the village we
passed the “Cururti” (a toad), and “Murucututú” (an owl) falls,
both rather bad; and, soon after, arrived at the “Uacoroúa ’’
(Goatsucker), the last great fall on the river below the “Juru-
parſ,” which is many days further up. Here the river is
precipitated over a nearly vertical rock, about ten feet high,
and much broken in places. The canoe had to be entirely
unloaded, and then pulled up over the rocks on the margin
of the fall, a matter of considerable difficulty. To add to our
discomfort, a shower of rain came on while the canoe was
passing; and the Indians, as usual, having scattered the cargo
about in great confusion, it had to be huddled together and
covered with mats and palm-leaves, till the shower, which was
246 TRA VEZS ON 7°E/E RZO WAE GRO, [March,
luckily a short one, passed over. Loading again and proceeding
onwards, we passed three small rapids, the “Tatu " (Armadillo),
“Ocokſ” (a fruit), and “Piranterá" (a fish) caxoeiras; and our
additional Indians here left us, with their payment of fish-hooks
and arrow-heads, as we now had only smooth water before us. In
the afternoon we passed a malocca, where one of the Indians
wished to land to see his friends; and as we did not stay, at
night he took his departure, and we saw no more of him.
Early the next morning we reached Muciira, where two
young Brazilians, whom I had met with below, were residing,
trading for salsa. I was now in the country of the painted
turtle and the white umbrella-bird, and I determined to make
a stay of at least a fortnight, to try and obtain these much-
desired rarities. tº.
Messrs. Nicoláu and Bellarmine were both out, and their little
palm-leaf huts were evidently quite inadequate to my accom-
modation. The only other house was a small Indian malocca,
also made entirely of “palha; ” and I agreed with the owner
to let me have half of it, giving him a small knife and mirror
in payment, with which he was well contented. We accordingly
cleared and swept out our part of the house, unloaded and
arranged our things, and I then sent my guardas to a malocca,
in which there were said to be plenty of Indians, to see if they
had any farinha or pacovas to dispose of; and also to let them
know that I would purchase birds, or fish, or any other
animals they could obtain for me. The men were all out;
but the same afternoon they came in great, force to see the
“Branco,” and make an attack on my fish-hooks and beads,
bringing me fish, pacovas, farinha, and mandiocca-cake, for all
of which one of these two articles was asked in exchange.
I was now settled at the limit of my expedition, for I could
not think of going a week further up only to see Juruparſ
caxoeira, wasting the little time I had to rest, before again
descending. We had made a favourable voyage, without any
serious accident, up a river perhaps unsurpassed for the
difficulties and dangers of its navigation. We had passed fifty
caxoeiras, great and small ; some mere rapids, others furious
cataracts, and some nearly perpendicular falls. About twenty
were rapids, up which, by the help of a long sipó attached to
the canoe, instead of a rope, we were pulled without much
difficulty. About eighteen were very bad and dangerous, re-
1852.] AAW ZWD/AAW FAM/ZZ V. 247
quiring the canoe to be partially unloaded where practicable,
and all the exertions of my Indians, often with additional
assistance, to pass; and twelve were so high and furious as to
require the canoe to be entirely unloaded, and either pulled
over the dry and often very precipitous rocks, or with almost
equal difficulty up the margin of the fall. At Caruru, as I
have said, four-and-twenty men were scarcely able to pull my
empty canoe over the rock, though plentifully strewn with
branches and bushes, to smooth the asperities which would
otherwise much damage the bottom: this was the reason why
I purchased the Tushalía's smaller, obá, to proceed; and it
was well I did, or I might otherwise have had to return without
ever reaching the locality I had at length attained.
The next day, the 13th, I was employed drawing some
new fish brought me the preceding evening. My hunters
went out and brought me nothing but a common hawk. In
the afternoon, the father and brother of the Indian I had
found in the house, arrived, with their wives and families; so
now, with my six Indians and two hunters, we were pretty
full; some of them, however, slept in a shed, and we were as
comfortably accommodated as could be expected. The wives
of the father and two sons were perfectly naked, and were,
moreover, apparently quite unconscious of the fact. The old
woman possessed a “saſa,” or petticoat, which she sometimes
put on, and seemed then almost as much ashamed of herself
as civilised people would be if they took theirs off. So power-
ful is the effect of education and habit !
Having been told by Senhor Chagas that there was an
excellent hunter in the Codiari, a river which enters from the
north a short distance above Muctira, I sent Philippe, one of
my guardas, to try and engage him, and also to buy all the
living birds and animals he could meet with. The following
day he returned, bringing with him one “Macaco barrigudo”
(Lagothrix Humboldtii), and a couple of parrots. On most
days I had a new fish or two to figure, but birds and insects
were very scarce. This day Senhor Nicoláu returned. On
my first arrival I had been told that he had a “tataruga
pintata” (painted turtle) for me, but that he would give it me
himself on his arrival; so I did not meddle with it, though my
Indians saw it in a “corrál,” in a small stream near the house.
On arriving, he sent to fetch it, but found it had escaped,
248 TRA VELS OW THE R/O AVEGRO. [March,
though it had been seen in its cage on the preceding day. I
thus lost perhaps my only chance of obtaining a much-desired
and probably undescribed river turtle, as the time of egg-laying
was past, and they had now retired into the lakes, and become
very scarce and difficult to be met with.
As my Indians were here doing nothing, I sent three of
them with Sebastião up the Codiari, with beads, hooks, mirrors,
etc., to buy monkeys, parrots, or whatever else they could
meet with, as well as some farinha, which I did not wish to be
in want of again. I sent them with instructions to go for five
or six days, in order to reach the last stitio, and purchase all
that was to be had. In two days, however, they returned,
having been no further than Philippe had gone, Sebastião
saying that his companions would not go on. He brought me
Some parrots and small birds, bows, bird-skins, and more
farinha than my canoe would carry, all purchased very dearly,
judging by the remnant of articles brought back.
Being now in a part of the country that no European
traveller had ever before visited, I exceedingly regretted my
want of instruments to determine the latitude, longitude, and
height above the sea. The two last I had no means whatever
of ascertaining, having broken my boiling-point thermometer,
and lost my Smaller one, without having been able to replace
either. I once thought of sealing up a flask of air, by accurately
weighing which on my return, the density of air at that
particular time would be obtained, and the height at which a
barometer would have stood might be deduced. But, besides
that this would only give a result equal to that of a single
barometer observation, there were insuperable difficulties in
the way of sealing up the bottle, for whether sealing-wax or
pitch were used, or even should the bottle be hermetically
sealed, heat must be applied, and at the moment of application
would, of course, rarefy the air within the bottle, and so produce
in such a delicate operation very erroneous results. My
observations, however, on the heights of the falls we passed,
would give their sum as about two hundred and fifty feet; now
if we add fifty for the fall of the river between them, we shall
obtain three hundred feet, as the probable height of the point
I reached above the mouth of the river; and, as I have every
reason to believe that that is not five hundred feet above the
Sea, we shall obtain eight hundred feet as the probable limit of
1852.] AXISAAPO/W7MEAVZ.S. 249
the height of the river above the sea-level, at the point I
reached. Nothing, however, can accurately determine this fact,
but a series of barometer or “boiling-point” observations; and
to determine this height above the next great fall, and ascertain
the true course and sources of this little-known but interesting
and important river, would be an object worth the danger and
expense of the voyage.
There is said to be a week's smooth water above this place,
to the Juruparſ caxoeira, which is higher than any below it;
and above this no other fall has been found, though traders
have been ten or fifteen days up. They say the river still keeps
as wide or wider than below, that the water is as “white,” or
muddy, as that of the Solimões, that many trees, birds, and
fish peculiar to the Solimóes are there found,-that the Indians
have Spanish knives, ponchos, and coins,—and relate that,
higher up, there are extensive “campos,” with cattle, and men
on horseback. All these interesting particulars seem to show
that the river has its sources in the great plains which extend
to the base of the Andes, somewhere near where the sources of
the Guaviare are placed in most maps; but the latter river,
from all the information I can obtain, is much smaller, and
has a much shorter course. Having only a pocket surveying
sextant, without any means of viewing two objects much
differing in brilliancy, I endeavoured to obtain the latitude as
accurately as I could, first by means of the zenith-distance at
noon, obtained by a plumb-line and image of the sun, formed
by a lens of about fifteen inches focus ; and afterwards, by the
meridian altitude of a star, obtained on a calm night, by
reflection in a cuya of water. I took much care to ensure an
accurate result, and have every reason to believe that the mean
of the two observations will not be more than two or three
minutes from the truth.
My expectations of finding rare and handsome birds here
were quite disappointed. My hunter and Senhor Nicoláu
killed a few umbrella-birds of the Rio Negro species; but of
the white bird such contradictory statements were given,
many knowing nothing whatever about it, others saying that it
was sometimes, but very rarely seen, that I am inclined to
think it is a mere white variety, such as occurs at times with
our blackbirds and starlings at home, and as are sometimes
found among the curassow-birds and agoutis. Another bird,

250 TRA VAZZS OAV THE RIO AVEGA’O. [March,
|
which I had been long searching for, the “anambé de catinga,”
a species of Cyanurus, was here shot ; and before leaving, I
'obtained four or five specimens of it, and as many of the
commoner black-headed species. One or two small birds, new
to me, were also obtained ; and these, with two or three scarce
butterflies, and about a dozen new species of fish, composed
my natural-history collections in this remote and unvisited
district. This was entirely owing, however, to my unfortunate
and unforeseen illness, for birds in great variety had been very
abundant, but the time of the fruit was now over ; fish and
turtles, too, were in extraordinary plenty at the commencement
of the fall of the river, two months back; and during that
period, constituting the short summer in these districts, while I
lay half dead at São Joaquim, insects were doubtless more
Illll]]CIOUIS.
But as there was now no remedy I made myself as contented
as I could, and endeavoured at least to complete my collection
of the arms, implements, and ornaments of the natives. The
Indians here were mostly “Cobeus,” and I obtained several of
their peculiar ornaments and dresses, to add to my collection.
I also took advantage of the visit of a Tushatia, or chief, who
well understood the Lingoa Geral, to obtain a vocabulary of
their language.
Just as I was about to leave on my voyage down, I received a
note from Senhor Chagas, requesting, in the name of Tenente
Jesuino, the loan of my canoe, to ascend higher up the river;
which, as the time of his stay was very uncertain, I was
obliged to refuse. This Tenente, an ignorant half-breed, was
sent by the new Barra government to bring all the Tushatias,
or chiefs, of the Uaupés and Isanna rivers to Barra, to receive
diplomas and presents. An Indian, sent by him, had arrived at
Carurū caxoeira, and wished to buy the obá of the Tushatia,
after I had paid for and got possession of it, and even had the
impudence to request me to give it back again, in order that
he might purchase or borrow it; and my refusal was, of course,
quite sufficient seriously to offend the said Tenente.
On the 25th, having been just a fortnight at Mucúra, I left,
much disappointed with regard to the collections I had made
there. The same day I reached Uarucapuri, whence I could
not proceed without a pilot, as the falls below are very
dangerous. There was hardly a male in the village, Messrs.
1852.] RETURN TO UARUCAPUR}. 251
Jesuino and Chagas having taken all with them up the river, to
assist in an attack on an Indian tribe, the “Carapanás,” where
they hoped to get a lot of women, boys, and children, to take as
presents to Barra. There was scarcely anything to be had to
eat : fish were not to be caught, though we sent our Indians
out every day; and though fowls were abundant, their owners
were out, and those in charge of them would not sell them.
At length, after four days, I succeeded in persuading the son
of the Tushalía to go with me as pilot to Jauarité, he not being
able to resist the knives, beads, and mirror, which I spread
out before him.
I had collected scarcely anything in this place, but a single
specimen of the beautiful and rare topaz-throated hummer
(Trochilus pyra) and a new butterfly of the genus Callithea.
I heard of the handsome bronze Jacana being found here, but
my hunters searched for it in vain.
On the morning after we left, we saw a fine deer on a sand-
bank near us, so I sent Manoel into the forest to get behind
it, while we remained quietly watching from the canoe. After
walking about the beach a short time, it took to the water to
cross the river, when we followed in pursuit; and, notwith-
standing its turnings and doublings, soon came up, when the
poor animal was despatched by a blow on the head, and pulled
into the canoe. The Indians then went briskly on, rejoicing
in the certainty of a dinner for the next day or two, in which
I heartily joined them. At Tapioca caxoeira we stayed two
hours, to cook and salt the deer, and descended the fall without
any accident.
On April 1st we passed a host of falls, shooting most of
them amidst fearful waves and roaring breakers, and arrived
safely at Carurti, where the Tushatia gave us his house; for,
having two canoes, we were obliged to wait to get more
Indians. I was still too weak to go out into the forest; and,
besides, had my live stock to attend to, which now consisted
of four monkeys, about a dozen parrots, and six or eight Small
birds. It was a constant trouble to get food for them in
sufficient variety, and to prevent them from escaping. Most
of the birds are brought up without being confined, and if
laced in a cage, attempt constantly to get out, and refuse
food till they die; if, on the other hand, they are loose, they
wander about to the Indians' houses, or into the forest, and
252 TRA VEZ.S OW THE A*/O AWAEGRO. [April,
are often lost. I here had two new toldas made to my canoes,
, but all attempts to hire men were fruitless. Fowls and fish
were tolerably abundant, so we were better off than at
Uarucapurí.
On the 4th, in the afternoon, Senhors Jesuino and Chagas
arrived with a whole fleet of canoes, and upwards of twenty
prisoners, all, but one, women and children. Seven men and
one woman had been killed ; the rest of the men escaped ;
but only one of the attacking party was killed. The man was
kept bound, and the women and children well guarded, and
every morning and evening they were all taken down to the
river to bathe. At night there was abundance of caxiri and
Caxaça drunk in honour of the new-comers, and all the
inhabitants assembled in the great house. I spoke to Jesuino
about obtaining some Indians for me, which he promised to
do. Next morning, however, his first act was to summon my
pilot, and scold him for coming with me at all,—frightening
the poor fellow so, that he immediately went off with his
father down the river. Before he had left, however, having
been told by my guardas what was going on, I applied to
Jesuino about the matter, when he denied having said anything
to the pilot, but refused to call him back, or make him fulfil
his engagement with me. Soon after Jesuino left, having first
sent five Indians to take me to Jauarité; so I started immedi-
ately after him. The men, however, had had instructions to go
with me only a short distance, and then leave me where I
could not procure any more; and about noon, much to my
surprise, they got into a little obá, and intimated their intention
to return, saying that they had only been told to come so far.
I had overtaken Jesuino at this place, and now appealed to
him ; but though the men would have immediately obeyed an
Order from him he refused to give it, telling me that he had
put them in my canoe, and now I must arrange with them as
well as I could. I accordingly told the Indians, that if they
came on with me to Jauarité, I would pay them well, but that,
if they left me at this place, they should not have a single
fish-hook; but they knew very well what Senhor Jesuino
wanted, so without another word they paddled off, leaving me
to get on as I could. I had now only one man and one boy
in each canoe, to pass rapids which required six or eight good
paddles to shoot with safety; but staying here was useless, so
1852.] voyage To JAUARITE. 253
we went on, drifting down the stream after Senhor Jesuino,
who, no doubt, rejoiced in the idea that I should probably lose
my canoes, if not my life, in the Caxoeiras, and thought himself
well revenged on the stranger who had dared to buy the canoe
he had wanted to purchase.
In the afternoon we passed a caxoeira with considerable
danger, and then, luckily, persuaded some Indians at a sitio to
come with us to Jauarité. In the afternoon I stayed at several
houses, purchasing fowls, parrots, bows and arrows and
feathers ; and at one of them I found my runaway pilot, and
made him give me two baskets of farinha, instead of the pay-
ment he had received for the voyage from Caruru to Jauarité.
At the last caxoeira, close to Jauarité, we were very near losing
our canoe, which was let down by a rope, I remaining in it;
but just in passing, it got twisted broadside, and the water
rushing up from the bottom, had the curious effect of pushing
it up against the fall, where it remained a considerable time
completely on one side, and appearing as if every minute it
would turn over. However, at last it was got out, and we
reached the village, much to the surprise of Senhor Jesuino,
who had arrived there but a few hours before us. My friend
Senhor Augustinho, of São Jeronymo, was also there, and I
spent the evening pleasantly with them.
I found that we differed in our Calculations of the date,
there being a day's difference in our reckonings of the day of
the week and the day of the month. As I had been three
months up the river, it was to be supposed I was wrong; yet
as I had kept a regular diary all the voyage, I could not at all
make out how I had erred. This, however, is a common thing
in these remote districts. When two parties meet, one going
up and the other coming down the river, the first inquiry of
the latter, after the usual compliments, is, “What day is it
with you?” and it not unfrequently happens, that there are
three parties present, all of whom make it different days ; and
then there is a comparison of authorities, and a determination
of past Saints' days, in order to settle the correction of the
disputed calendar. When at Caturii caxoeira, we had found
that Messrs. Jesuino and Chagas differed from us on this
important particular; but as they had been some time out,
we thought they might have erred as well as ourselves. Now,
however, that Senhor Augustinho, who had recently come from
254 7 RA VAZZS OW Zºº RZO AVEGRO. [April,
São Gabriel, whence he had brought the correct date, agreed
with them, there was no withstanding such authority. A
minute examination of my diary was made, and it was then
found that on our first stay at Carurú we had reckoned our
delay there as five days instead of six. The Indians generally
keep accounts of the time very accurately on a voyage, by
cutting notches on a stick, as boys do at school on the
approach of the holidays. In our case, however, even they
were most of them wrong, for some of them agreed with me,
while others made a day in advance, and others again a day
behind us, so that we got completely confused. Sometmies
the traders residing at the Indian villages pass many months,
without'seeing a person from any civilised part, and get two
or three days out in their reckönings. Even in more populous
places, where all the inhabitants depend on the priest or the
commandante, errors have been made, and Sundays and Saints'
days have been desecrated, while Mondays and common days
have been observed in their place, much to the horror of all
good Catholics. -
The next morning I took a turn round the village, bought
Some paroquets and parrots, and some feather ornaments and
small pots, of the Tushatia; and then, having nothing to keep
me at Jauarité, and having vainly endeavoured to get some
Indians to go with me, I left for São Jeronymo. On arriving
at the first great fall of Pinupintí, we found only one Indian,
and were obliged to send to the village for more. That
afternoon they did not choose to come, and we lost a beautiful
day. The next morning, as was to be expected, commenced
a soaking rain; but as the Indians arrived we went on, and
about noon, the rain clearing off a little, we passed the fall
of Panoré, and arrived safely at the village of São Jeronymo.
Here we disembarked, and unloaded our canoes, taking
possession of the doorless “casa da nação,” and made up our
minds to remain quietly till we should get men to go down
the river.
The same afternoon Jesuino arrived, and the next morning
left-kindly inquiring when I intended to proceed, and saying,
he had spoken with the Tushatia to get me Indians. In two
days, however, the Tushalía also left for Barra, without giving
me a single Indian, notwithstanding the promises and threats
I had alternately employed.
1852.] COA'AºA2C7/WG 7"HE CAZEAVOA R. 255
The two Indians who had remained with me now left, and
the two boys who had come from São Joaquim ran away,
leaving me alone in my glory, with my two “guardas” and
two canoes. In vain I showed my axes, knives, beads, mirrors,
and cloth, to every passing Indian ; not one could be induced
to go with me, and I might probably have remained prisoner
there for months, had not Senhor Victorino, the “Juiz de Paz,”
arrived, and also Bernado, my old pilot, who had left me at
Jauarité, and had now been down to São Joaquim. Between
them, after a delay of several more days, some Indians were
persuaded to receive payment to go with me as far as
Castanheiro, where I hoped to get Capitão Ricardo to order
them on to Barra.
CHAINTER XIII.
sÅo JERONYMt To THE Downs.
Voyage down the Rio Negro–Arrive at Barra—Obtaining a Passport—
State of the City—Portuguese and Brazilian Enterprise—System of
Credit—Trade—Immorality, and its Causes—Leave Barra—A Storm
on the Amazon—Sarsaparilla—A Tale about Death—Pará–The
Yellow Fever—Sail for England—Ship takes Fire—Ten Days in
the Boats—Get picked up—Heavy Gales—Short of Provisions—
Storm in the Channel—Arrive at Deal,
AT length, on the 23rd of April, I bade adieu, with much
pleasure, to São Jeronymo. I stopped at several places to
buy beiju, fish, pacovas, and oriy parrots I could meet with.
My Indians went several times, early in the morning, to the
gapó to catch frogs, which they obtained in great numbers,
stringing them on a sipó, and, boiling them entire, entrails
and all, devoured them with much gusto. The frogs are
mottled of various colours, have dilated toes, and are called
Juſ.
On the 26th we reached São Joaquim, where I stayed a
day, to make some cages for my birds, and embark the things
I had left with Senhor Lima.
On the 28th I went on to São Gabriel, and paid my respects
to the new Commandante, and then enjoyed a little conver-
sation with my friend Mr. Spruce. Several of my birds died
or were lost here, and at São Joaquim. A little black monkey
killed and devoured two which had escaped from their cages,
and one of my most valuable and beautiful parrots (a single
specimen) was lost in passing the falls. I had left São
Joaquim with fifty-two live animals (monkeys, parrots, etc.),
which, in a small canoe, were no little trouble and annoyance.
I was lucky enough to get the Commandante to send a
soldier with me in charge of the Correio, or post, and thus
1852.] ANA2SCAEAVZ)/WG ZTHA. AEA VAZA’. 257
ensured my passage to Barra without further delays, a point
on which I had been rather uneasy. Leaving São Gabriel
I stayed for the night at the house of Senhor Victorino, of
whom I bought several green parrots, and a beautiful “anacá,”
or purple and red-necked crested parrot, in place of the one
which had gone overboard while passing the falls at São
Gabriel. The following day I reached the house of Senhor
Palheta, and thought myself fortunate to purchase of him
another anacá for seven shillings; but the very next morning
it died from cold, having flown into the river, and become
completely chilled before it could be rescued.
On the 2nd of May I arrived at the sitio of my old friend
Senhor Chagas, who made me breakfast with him, and sold
me some farinha, coffee, and a lot of guinea-fowls' eggs; and
embraced me with great affection at parting, wishing me every
happiness. The same night I reached Castanheiro, where
I particularly wished to get a pilot, to take me down the east
bank of the river, for the purpose of making a sketch-survey
of that side, and ascertaining the width of this extraordinary
stream. Senhor Ricardo, who is the Capitão dos Trabalha-
dores, immediately gave me an Order to embark a man, whose
house I should pass the next day, and who, he said, was per
fectly acquainted with that side of the river. After breakfast-
ing with him the next morning, I left, well satisfied to have a
prospect of accomplishing this long-cherished scheme. On
arriving at the house, however, it was empty, and there was no
sign of it having been inhabited for some weeks, so that I had
to give up all hopes of completing my project.
I applied again to the Subdelegarde, João Cordeiro, whose
house I reached the next day, and also to the lieutenant of
Senhor Ricardo, but without effect; all making the usual reply,
“Nāo ha gente nenhum aqui” (there is not a single person
about there); so I was reluctantly compelled to proceed down
the river by the same course which I had already traversed three
times, as, by attempting to go on the other route without a
pilot, I might lose my way, and not get to Barra for a month.
The fever and ague now attacked me again, and I passed
several days very uncomfortably. We had almost constant
rains; and to attend to my numerous birds and animals was a
great annoyance, owing to the crowded state of the canoe, and
the impossibility of properly cleaning them during the rain.
I 7
258 TRAvez's ow THE RIO wegro. [May,
Some died almost every day, and I often wished I had had
nothing whatever to do with them, though, having once taken
them in hand, I determined to persevere. -
On the 8th I reached Barcellos, and here I was annoyed by
having to give an account of what I had in my canoes, and
pay duty, the new Government of Barra not allowing anything
to escape without contributing its share.
On the 11th we passed the mouth of the Rio Branco, and I
noticed for the first time the peculiar colour of the water,
which is a very pale yellow-olive, almost milky, very different
from, and much whiter than, the waters of the Amazon, and
making its name of the “White River” very appropriate. In
the dry season the waters are much clearer.
In the morning I reached Pedreiro, and purchased a turtle,
which we stopped to cook, a short distance below the village ;
it was a very large and fat one, and we fried the greater part
of the meat in fat for the rest of the voyage. At a sitio, in the
evening, I bought two parrots, and the next morning, at Ayrão,
five more ; and in the afternoon, at another sitio, a blue
macaw, a monkey, a toucan, and a pigeon. At night we had
a storm of rain and wind, and for a long time beat about in
the middle of the river, tossed by the waves, without being
able to find the shore.
On the 15th we reached “Ai purusá,” where I bought some
fish and maize. Here was lying a fine harpy eagle, which
Senhor Bagatta had shot the day before, and, having plucked
out some of the wing-feathers, had left it to rot; I thus just
missed, by a day, getting a specimen of this bird, which I so
much desired, and which I had never been able to procure
during a four years’ residence in the country. We had plenty
more rain every night, making the journey very disagreeable ;
and at length, on the 17th, reached Batra do Rio Negro, now
the capital of the new Province of Amazonas.
I was here kindly received by my friend Henrique Antony;
and I spent all the day in searching for some house or lodging,
which was very hard to be procured, every house being occupied,
and rents having much risen, from the influx of strangers and
traders consequent on the arrival of the new Government.
However, by the evening I succeeded in getting a small mud-
floored, leaky-roofed room, which I was glad to hire, as I did
not know how long I might be obliged to remain in Barra,
1852.] AºA27°C/RAV' 7"O PAA’A’A. 259
before I could obtain a passage to Pará. The next morning I
could not disembark my things till the new Custom-house
opened, at nine o'clock; when I had to pay duties on every
article, even on my bird-skins, insects, stuffed alligators, etc.,
and so it was night before I got everything on shore. The
next day I paid off my Indians, and settled myself to wait
patiently and attend to my menagerie, till I could get a passage
to Pará.
For three weeks I had been nearly lame, with a sore and
inflamed toe, into which the chegoes had burrowed under the
nail, and rendered wearing a shoe, or walking, exceedingly pain-
ful; having been compelled to move about the last few days,
it had inflamed and swelled, and I was now therefore glad to
remain quietly at home, and by poultices and plaisters endeavour
to cure it. During the short time the Indians had remained
in charge of my canoe, while I was looking after a house, they
had lost three of my birds; but I soon found I had quite
enough left to keep me constantly employed attending to them.
My parrots, in particular, of which I had more than twenty,
would persist in wandering about into the street, and I lost
several of my best, which were, no doubt, safely domiciled in
some of the adjoining houses. I was much annoyed, too, by
persons constantly coming to me, to sell them parrots or
monkeys; and my repeated assurances, that I myself wanted
to buy more, did not in the least check the pertinacity of my
would-be customers.
The city was now full of fashionably-dressed young men,
who received the public money for services they did not know
how to perform. Many of them could not fill up a few dozen
words in a printed form without making blunders, or in a
shorter time than two or three hours; their contemplations seem-
ing scarcely to rise beyond their polished-leather boots and
gold watch-chains. As it was necessary to get a passport, I
presented myself at the office of the “Chef de Policia,” for the
purpose; but was told that I must first advertise my intention
of leaving in the newspaper. I accordingly did so, and about
a week after went again. I was now requested to bring a
formal application in writing, to have a passport granted me:
I returned, and prepared one, and the next day went with it;
now the Chef was engaged, and he must sign the requisition
before anything else could be done. I called again the next
26o - TRAVELS OW THE AMAZON. [May,
g
day, and now that the requisition was signed, I had a blank
form given me to go and get stamped in another office, in a
distant part of the city. Off I had to go, get the stamp,
which took two clerks to sign, and paid my eight vintems for
it; armed with this, I returned to the police-office, and now,
to my surprise, the passport was actually made out and given
me; and on paying another twelve vintems (sixpence), I was
at liberty to leave Barra whenever I could ; for as to leaving it
whenever I pleased, that was out of the question.
The city of Barra, the capital of the Province and the
residence of the President, was now in a very miserable con-
dition. No vessel had arrived from Pará for five months, and
all supplies were exhausted. Flour had been long since finished,
consequently there was no bread; neither was there biscuit,
butter, sugar, cheese, wine, nor vinegar; molasses even, to
sweeten our coffee, was very scarce; and the spirit of the
country (caxaça) was so nearly exhausted, that it could only be
obtained retail, and in the smallest quantities: everybody was
reduced to farinha and fish, with beef twice a week, and turtle
about as often. This state of destitution was owing to there
having been a vessel lost a month before, near Barra, which
was coming from Pará ; and at this time of the year, when the
river is full, and the winds adverse, the passage frequently
takes from seventy days to three months, having to be per-
formed almost entirely by warping with a rope sent ahead in
a canoe, against the powerful current of the Amazon. It may
therefore be well imagined that Barra was not the most agree-
able place in the world to reside in, when, joined to the total
absence of amusement and society which universally prevails
there, the want of the common necessaries of life had also to
be endured.
Several vessels were leaving for Pará, but all were so com-
pletely filled as not to have room for me or my baggage; and
I had to wait in patience for the arrival of a small canoe from
the Solimões, in which Senhor Henrique guaranteed me a
passage to Pará.
Before proceeding with my journey, I will note the few
observations that occur to me on the character and customs
of the inhabitants of this fine Country. I of course speak solely
of the province of Pará, and it is probable that to the rest of
Brazil my remarks may not in the least apply ; so different in
1852.] AOR7CVG UAESAE Z RADAA’.S. 261
every respect is this part of the Empire from the more southern
and better-known portion. There is, perhaps, no country in
the world so capable of yielding a large return for agricultural
labour, and yet so little cultivated ; none where the earth will
produce such a variety of valuable productions, and where they
are so totally neglected ; none where the facilities for internal
Communication are so great, or where it is more difficult or
tedious to get from place to place ; none which so much
possesses all the natural requisites for an immense trade with
all the world, and where commerce is so limited and insignifi-
Cant.
This may well excite some wonder, when we remember that
the white inhabitants of this country are the Portuguese and
their descendants, the nation which a few centuries ago took
the lead in all great discoveries and commercial enterprises,
which spread its colonies over the whole world, and exhibited
the most chivalric spirit of enterprise in overcoming the dangers
of navigation in unknown seas, and of Opening a commercial
intercourse with barbarous or uncivilised nations.
But yet, as far as I myself have been able to observe, their
national character has not changed. The Portuguese, and
their descendants, exhibit here the same perseverance, the
same endurance of every hardship, and the same wandering
spirit, which led and still leads them to penetrate into the most
desolate and uncivilised regions in pursuit of commerce and in
search of gold. But they exhibit also a distaste for agricultural
and mechanical labour, which appears to have been ever a part
of their national character, and which has caused them to sink
to their present low condition in the scale of nations, in what-
ever part of the world they may be found. When their colonies
were flourishing in every quarter of the globe, and their ships
brought luxuries for the supply of half the civilised world, a
great part of their population found occupation in trade, in the
distribution of that wealth which set in a constant stream from
America, Asia, and Africa, to their shores ; but now that this
stream has been diverted into other channels by the energy
of the Saxon races, the surplus population, averse from agricul-
ture, and unable to find a support in the diminished trade of
the country, swarm to Brazil, in the hope that wealth may be
found there, in a manner more congenial to their tastes.
Thus we find the province of Pará overrun with traders, the
262 TRAVELS ON THE AMAzow. [June,
greater part of whom deserve no better name than pedlars, only
they carry their goods in a canoe instead of upon their backs.
As their distaste for agriculture, or perhaps rather their
passionate love of trade, allows scarcely any of them to settle,
or produce anything for others to trade in, their only resource
is in the indigenous inhabitants of the country; and as these
are also very little given to cultivation except to procure the
mere necessaries of life, it results that the only articles of
Commerce are the natural productions of the country, to catch
or collect which requires an irregular and wandering life,
better suited to an Indian's habits than the settled and continued
exertions of agriculture. These products are principally dried
fish, and oil from the turtles' eggs and cow-fish, for the inland
trade ; and Sarsaparilla, piassaba, india-rubber, Brazil-nuts,
balsam of capivi, and cacao, for the exports. Though the
Coffee-plant and sugar-cane grow everywhere almost sponta-
neously, yet coffee and sugar have to be imported from other
parts of Brazil for home consumption. Beef is everywhere
bad, principally because there are no good pastures near the
towns where cattle brought from a distance can be fattened,
and no one thinks of making them, though it might easily be
done. Vegetables are also very scarce and dear, and so are
all fruits, except such as the Orange and banana, which once
planted only require the produce to be gathered when ripe;
fowls in Pará are 3s. 6d. each, and sugar as dear as in England.
And all this because nobody will make it his business to supply
any one of these articles There is a kind of gambling ex-
citement in trade which outshines all the steady profits of
labour, and regular mechanics are constantly leaving their
business to get a few goods on credit and wander about the
country trading. - - Q.
There is, I should think, no country where such a universal
and insecure system of credit prevails as here. There is
hardly a trader, great or small, in the country, that can be said
to have any capital of his own. The merchants in Pará, who
have foreign correspondents, have goods out on credit; they
sell on credit to the smaller merchants or shopkeepers of Pará;
these again supply on credit the negociantes in the country towns.
From these last the traders up the different rivers get their
supplies also on credit. These traders give small parcels of
goods to half-civilised Indians, or to any one who will take
1852.] IMMORALITY, AAWD ZZS CAUSES. 263
them, to go among the wild Indian tribes and buy up their
produce. They, however, have to give credit to the Indians, who
will not work till they have been paid six months beforehand;
and so they are paid for Sarsaparilla or oil, which is still in the
forest or the lake. And at every step of this credit there is
not the slightest security; and robbery, waste, and a profuse
squandering away of the property of others, is of constant
occurrence. To cover all these chances of loss, the profits are
proportionably great at every step, and the consumer often
has to pay two shillings a yard for Calico worth twopence, and
everything else in like proportion. It is these apparently
enormous profits that lead mechanics and others into trade, as
they do not consider the very small business that can be done
in a given time, owing to the poverty of the country and the
enormous number of traders in proportion to the purchasers.
It seems a very nice and easy way of getting a living, to sell'
goods at double the price you pay for them, and then again to
sell the produce you receive at double what you pay for it;
but as the greater part of the small traders do not get rid of
more than a hundred pounds’ worth of goods in a year, and
the expenses of Indians and canoes, their families and bad
debts, wines and liquors, and the waste which always takes.
place where everything is obtained upon credit, are often
double that sum, it is not to be wondered at that they are
almost all of them constantly in debt to their correspondents,
who, when they have once thus got a hold on them, do not
allow them easily to get free.
It is this universal love of trade which leads, I think, to
three great vices very prevalent here—drinking, gambling, and
lying, besides a whole host of trickeries, cheatings, and
debaucheries of every description. The life of a river trader
admits of little enjoyment to a man who has no intellectual
resources; it is not therefore to be wondered at that the
greater part of these men are more or less addicted to intoxi-
cation; and when they can supply themselves on credit with
as much wine and spirits as they like, there is little inducement
to break through the habit. A man who, if he had to pay
ready money, would never think of drinking wine, when he
can have it on credit takes twenty or thirty gallons with him in
his canoe, which, as it has cost him nothing, is little valued,
and he perhaps arrives at the end of his voyage without a drop.
264 TRA VELS ON THE AMAZON. [June,
In the towns in the interior every shop sells spirits, and
numbers of persons are all day drinking, taking a glass at
every place they go to, and, by this constant dramming,
ruining their health perhaps more than by complete intoxication
at more distant intervals. Gambling is almost universal in a
greater or less degree, and is to be traced to that same desire
to gain money by some easier road than labour, which leads so
many into commerce; and the great number of traders, who
have to get a living out of an amount of business which would
not be properly sufficient for one-third the number, leads to
the general use of trickery and lying of every degree, as fair
means to be employed to entrap a new customer or to ruin a
rival trader. Truth, in fact, in matters of business is so seldom
made use of, that a lie seems to be preferred even when it can
serve no purpose whatever, and where the person addressed
must be perfectly aware of the falsehood of every asseveration
made; but Portuguese politeness does not permit him by word
or look to throw any doubt on his friend's veracity. I have
been often amused to hear two parties endeavouring to cheat
each other, by assertions which each party knew to be perfectly
false, and yet pretended to receive as undoubted fact.
On the subjects of the most prevalent kind of immorality, it
is impossible to enter, without mentioning facts too disgusting
to be committed to paper. Vices of such a description as at
home are never even alluded to, are here the subjects of
common conversation, and boasted of as meritorious acts, and
no opportunity is lost of putting the vilest construction upon
every word or act of a neighbour.
Among the causes which tend to promote the growth of
such wide-spread immorality, we may perhaps reckon the
geographical position and political condition of the country,
and the peculiar state of civilisation in which it now exists.
To a native, a tropical climate certainly offers fewer pleasures,
pursuits, and occupations than a temperate one. The heat in
the dry, and the moisture in the rainy season do not admit of
the outdoor exercise and amusements, in which the inhabitants
of a temperate zone can almost constantly indulge. The
short twilights afford but a few moments between the glare of
the descending sun and the darkness of night. Nature itself,
dressed in an eternal and almost unchangeable garb of verdure,
presents but a monotonous scene to him who has beheld it
1852.] | VIZZA NOVA. 265
from childhood. In the interior of the country there is not a
road or path out of the towns, along which a person can walk
with comfort or pleasure ; all is dense forest, or more impass-
able clearings. Here are no flower-bespangled meadows, no
turfy glades, or smooth shady walks to tempt the lover of
nature ; here are no dry gravelled roads, where, even in the
intervals of rain, we may find healthy and agreeable exercise ;
here are no field-side paths among golden corn or luxuriant
clover. Here are no long summer evenings, to wander in at
leisure, and admire the slowly changing glories of the sunset;
nor long winter nights, with the blazing hearth, which, by
drawing all the members of a family into close contact, pro-
mote a social intercourse and domestic enjoyment, which the
inhabitants of a tropical clime can but faintly realise.
At length the canoe arrived in which I was to go to Pará,
and I soon agreed for my passage, and set to work getting
my things together. I had a great number of cases and boxes,
six large ones which I had left with Senhor Henrique the year
before, being still in his possession, because the great men of
Barra were afraid they might contain contraband articles, and
would not let them pass.
I, now got them embarked, by making a declaration of their
contents, and paying a small duty on them. Out of a hundred
live animals which I had purchased or had had given to me,
there now only remained thirty-four, consisting of five monkeys,
two macaws, twenty parrots and paroquets of twelve different
species, five Small birds, a white-crested Brazilian pheasant,
and a toucan.
On the Ioth of June we left Barra, commencing our voyage
very unfortunately for me; for, on going on board, after bidding
adieu to my friends, I missed my toucan, which had, no doubt,
flown overboard, and not being noticed by any one, was
drowned. This bird I esteemed very highly, as he was full-
grown and very tame, and I had great hopes of bringing him
alive to England. gº
On the 13th we reached Villa Nova, at which place, being
the last in the new Province, we had to disembark to show our
passports, as if entering into another kingdom ; and not content
with this, there is another station half a day further down, on
the exact boundary-line, where all vessels have to stay a second
time, and again present their papers, as if the great object of
266 ZRAVELS OW THE AMAzow. [June,
the Government were to make their regulations as annoying
and expensive as possible. At Villa Nova I was glad to get
Some butter and biscuits; quite a treat, after the scanty luxuries
of Barra. Here, too, I met the kind priest, Padre Torquato,
who had entertained us so hospitably on our ascent of the
river. He received me with great kindness, and regretted I
could not stay longer with him ; he gave me a curious animal,
which I had heard of but never seen before, a forest-dog, an
animal somewhat resembling a fox, in its bushy tail and great
taste for poultry, and apparently very tame and docile.
The next day we passed Obydos, the strong current of the
river, now at its height, carrying us down with great rapidity;
and the succeeding night we had a tremendous storm, which
blew and tossed our little vessel about in a very alarming
manner. The owner of the canoe, an Indian, was much
frightened; he called upon the Virgin, and promised her several
pounds of candles, if she would but save the canoe ; and, open-
ing the door of the little cabin where I was sleeping, cried out
in a most piteous voice, “Oh I meu amigo, estamos perdidos”
(Oh my friend, we are all lost). In vain I tried to comfort
him with assurances that, as the vessel was new and strong,
and not too heavily laden, there was no danger, although the
night was pitch dark, and the wind blew in the most fierce and
furious gusts imaginable. We did not know whether we were
in the middle of the river or near the side, and the only danger
we were exposed to, was of our drifting ashore or running
aground. After about an hour, however, the canoe came to a
stop, without any shock whatever, and remained perfectly still,
although the wind still blew. It was so dark that nothing was
to be seen, and it was only by stretching his arm down over
the side, that the master ascertained that we had drifted into
one of the large compact beds of floating grass which, in many
places, line the banks of the Amazon for hundreds of yards
from the shore. Here, therefore, we were safely moored, and
waited for the morning, sleeping comfortably, with the know-
ledge that we were out of all danger.
The next day, by noon, we reached the mouth of the Tapa-
joz, and went in the montaria to Santarem, to make some
purchases and visit my friends. I found old, Captain Hislop;
but Mr. Bates, whom I most wished to see, had left a week
before on an excursion up the Tapajoz. Having laid in a stock
1852.] SARSA PAR/ZZA. - 267
of sugar, vinegar, oil, biscuits, and fresh bread and meat, we
proceeded on our journey, which we were anxious to complete
as soon as possible.
On the 18th we passed Gurupé; and on the 19th entered
the narrow channels which form the communication with the
Pará river, bidding adieu to the turbid mighty flood of the
never-to-be-forgotten Amazon. -
We here met a vessel from Pará, fifty days out, having made
a much shorter distance than we, descending the river, had
come in five.
On the 22nd we reached Breves, a neat little village with
well-supplied shops, where I bought half a dozen of the pretty
painted basins, for the manufacture of which the place is cele-
brated ; we here also got some oranges, at six for a halfpenny.
The next day we stayed at a sitio built upon piles, for the
whole country about here is covered at spring-tides. The
master of the canoe had a lot of sarsaparilla to put up properly
for the Pará market, and stayed a day to do it. The Sarsa-
parilla is the root of a prickly, climbing plant, allied to our
common black bryony; the roots are dug by the Indians, and
tied up in bundles of various lengths and sizes; but, as it is a
very light cargo, it is necessary to form it into packages of a
convenient and uniform size and length, for closer stowage;—
these are cylindrical, generally of sixteen pounds each, and are
about three and a half feet long and five or six inches in
diameter, cut square and even at the ends, and wound round
closely from end to end with the long flexible roots of a species
of Pothos, which, growing on the tops of lofty trees, hang down
often a hundred feet or more, and, when the outer bark is
scraped off, are universally used for this purpose. It was to
do this binding we stayed here, the sarsa having been already
done up in proper packages; and while the crew were busy
about it, I occupied myself making some sketches of palms,
which were yet wanting to complete my collection.
In two days more we reached the mouth of the Tocantins,
where there is a great bay,+so wide, that the further shore is
not visible. As there are some dangerous Sandbanks here,
there is a pilot who takes canoes over, and we waited all day
in order to start with the morning's tide, which is considered
the most favourable for the passage. While here I got a few
shells, and amused myself by talking with the pilot, his wife,
268 TRAVELS OAW THE AMAZON. [/une,
and two very lively daughters. Our conversation turned upon
the shortness and uncertainty of life; which the old woman
illustrated by a tale, which seemed to be another version of
the “three warnings.” *
“A man and his wife were conversing together, and remark-
ing on the unpleasantness of being subject to death. “I should
like to make friends with Death, some way,” said the man ;
‘then perhaps he will not trouble me.’ ‘That you can easily
do,” said his wife; ‘invite him to be padrinho (godfather) to
our little boy, who is to be baptized next week; you will then
be able to talk to him on the subject, and he will surely not
be able to refuse a slight favour to his “compadre.” So he was
invited accordingly, and came ; and after the ceremony and
the feast were over, as he was going away, the man said to
him, ‘Compadre Death, as there are plenty of people in the
world for you to take, I hope you will never come for me.’
“Really, Compadre,’ replied Death, ‘I cannot promise you
that, for when God sends me for anybody I must go. How-
ever, I will do all I can, and I will at all events promise you a
week's notice, that you may have time to prepare yourself.”
Several years passed on, and Death at last came to pay them a
visit. ‘Good-evening, Compadre,’ says he, “I’m come on a
disagreeable business: I have received orders to fetch you
this day week, so I’m come to give you the notice I promised
you.’ “Oh ! Compadre,’ said the man, ‘you’re come very
soon ; it's exceedingly inconvenient for me to go just now, I’m
getting on very nicely, and shall be a rich man in a few years,
if you will but let me alone : it's very unkind of you, Com-
padre ; I’m sure you can arrange it if you like, and take some
one else instead of me.’ ‘Very sorry,” said Death, ‘but it
can't be done, nohow: I've got my orders, and I must obey
them. Nobody ever gets off when the order's once given, and
very few get so long a notice as I’ve been able to give you.
However, I’ll try all I can, and if I succeed, you won’t see me
this day week; but I don’t think there's any hope, so good-
bye.” * *
“When the day came, the man was in a great fright, for he
did not expect to escape; his wife, however, hit upon a plan,
which they resolved to try. They had an old Negro man in
the house, who used to be generally employed in the kitchen.
They made him exchange clothes with his master, and sent
1852.] Sz. JoHV's DAY. 269
him away out of the house ; the master then blacked his face,
and made himself as much like the old nigger as he could.
On the evening appointed Death came. “Good-evening,
Comadre,” said he ; ‘where is my compadre P-I’m obliged to
take him with me. “Oh Compadre,” said she, “he didn’t at
all expect you, and is gone on some business into the village,
and won’t be back till late.’ ‘Now I’m in a pretty mess,” said
Death; “I did not expect my compadre would have treated
me so ; it's very ungentlemanly of him to get me into this
scrape after all I’ve done for him. However, I must take
somebody;-who is there in the house?' The woman was
rather alarmed at this question, for she expected he would
immediately have started off to the village in search of her
husband: however, she considered it best to be civil, so
replied, “There's only our old nigger, that's in the kitchen,
getting Supper ready. Sit down, Compadre, and take a bit,
and then perhaps my husband will be in ; I’m very sorry he
should give you so much trouble.’ ‘No, I can’t stay,” said
Death; ‘I’ve got a long way to go, and must take somebody,
so let's see if the old nigger will do?’ and he walked into the
kitchen, where the man was pretending to be busily engaged
over the fire. ‘Well, if Compadre won't come, I suppose I
must take the old nigger,’ said Death; and before the wife
could speak a word, he stretched out his hand, and down fell
her husband a corpse.
“So you see,” said the old woman to me, “when a man's
time is come he must go : neither doctors nor anything else
can stop him, and you can’t cheat Death nohow.” To which
sentiment I did not think it worth while to make any objection.
About two days before had been St. John's day, when it is
the custom to make bonfires and jump over and through them,
which act is considered by the common people as an important
religious ceremony. As we were talking about it, the old lady
gravely asked if we knew that animals also passed through the
fire? We replied that we were not aware of the fact; upon
which she informed us that we might hereafter believe it, for
that she had had ocular demonstration of it. “It was last
year,” said she, “on the day after St. John's, my son went out
to hunt, and brought home a cotia and a pacá, and both of
them were completely scorched all along the belly: they had
evidently passed through the fire the night before.” “But
27o TRA VEZS OW 7TP/E AMAZOAV. [July,
where do they get the fire from?” I asked. “Oh ! God
prepares it for them,” said she ; and on my hinting that fires
were not often found in the forest unless lit by human hands,
she at once silenced my objections by triumphantly asking
me, “if anything was impossible with God?” at the same time
observing that perhaps I was a Protestant, and did not believe
in God or the Virgin. So I was obliged to give up the point;
and though I assured her that Protestants did generally
believe in God and went to church, she replied that she did
not know, but had always heard to the contrary.
At length, on the 2nd of July, we reached Pará, where I
was kindly received by my friend Mr. C., and was glad to
learn that there was a vessel in port that would probably Sail
for London in about a week. Several times on the voyage
down I had had fits of ague, and was still very weak and quite
unable to make any exertion. The yellow fever, which the
year before had cut off thousands of the inhabitants, still
attacked new-comers, and scarcely a ship was in port but had
a considerable portion of her crew in the hospital. The
weather was beautiful; the summer or dry season was just
commencing, vegetation was luxuriantly verdant, and the
bright sky and clear fresh atmosphere seemed as if they could
not harbour the fatal miasma which had crowded the cemetery
with funeral crosses, and made every dwelling in the city a
house of mourning. Once or twice I attempted to walk out
into the forest, but the exertion generally brought on shiverings
and sickness, so I thought it best to remain as quiet as
possible till the time of my departure.
Since I had left the city it had been much improved.
Avenues of almond and other trees had been formed along
the road to Nazaré and round the Largo de Palacio; new
roads and drives had been made, and some new buildings
erected: in other respects the city was the same. The dirty,
straggling, uncovered market, the carts of hacked beef, the
loud chanting of the Negro porters, and the good-humoured
smiling faces of the Indian and Negro girls selling their fruits
and “doces,” greeted me as of old. Fowls had risen in price
from about 2s. to 3s. 6d., and fruits and vegetables in about the
same proportion; while in changing English money for
Brazilian I now got about ten per cent, less than I used, and
yet everybody complained of trade being very bad, and prices
1852.] SAA. A.'OR AEAVGZAAVO. 271
quite unremunerative. I heard many stories of miraculous
Cures of the yellow fever, when at its worst stage, and after the
parties had been given up by the doctors. One had been
cured by eating ices, another by drinking a bottle of wine;
ices, in fact, had got into great favour as a fine tonic, and were
taken daily by many persons as a most useful medicine.
I agreed for my passage in the brig Helen, two hundred and
thirty-five tons, Captain John Turner, whose property she was ;
and on the morning of Monday, the 12th of July, we got aboard,
and bade adieu to the white houses and waving palm-trees of
Pará. Our cargo consisted of about a hundred and twenty
tons of india-rubber, and a quantity of cocoa, arnotto, piassaba,
and balsam of capivi. About two days after we left I had
a slight attack of fever, and almost thought that I was still
doomed to be cut off by the dread disease which had sent my
brother and so many of my countrymen to graves upon a
foreign shore. A little calomel and opening medicines, how-
ever, soon set me right again; but as I was very weak, and
suffered much from sea-sickness, I spent most of my time in
the cabin. For three weeks we had very light winds and fine
weather, and on the 6th of August had reached about latitude
30° 30' north, longitude 52° west.
On that morning, after breakfast, I was reading in the cabin,
when the Captain came down and said to me, “I’m afraid the
ship's on fire; come and see what you think of it,” and
proceeded to examine the lazaretto, or small hole under the
floor where the provisions are kept, but no signs of fire were
visible there. We then went on deck to the forepart of the
ship, where we found a dense vapoury smoke issuing from
the forecastle. The fore hatchway was immediately opened,
and, the Smoke issuing there also, the men were set to work
clearing out part of the cargo. After throwing out some
quantity without any symptom of approaching the seat of the
fire, we opened the after hatchway; and here the Smoke was
much more dense, and in a very short time became so suffo-
cating, that the men could not stay in the hold to throw out
more cargo, so they were set to work pouring in water, while
others proceeded to the cabin, and now found abundance of
smoke issuing from the lazaretto, whence it entered through
the joints of the bulkhead which separated it from the hold.
Attempts were now made to break this bulkhead down; but
272 TRAVEZS OAV 7. HA; 24 MAZOAW. [August,
the planks were so thick and the smoke so unbearable that
it could not be effected, as no man could remain in the
lazaretto to make more than a couple of blows. The cabin
table was therefore removed, and a hole attempted to be cut
in the cabin floor, so as to be able to pour water immediately
on the seat of the fire, which appeared to be where the balsam
was stowed. This took some time, owing to the Suffocating
smoke, which also continued to pour in dense volumes out
of the hatchway. Seeing that there was now little chance of
our being able to extinguish the fire, the Captain thought it
prudent to secure our own safety, and called all hands to get
out the boats, and such necessaries as we should want, in case
of being obliged to take to them. The long-boat was stowed
on deck, and of course required some time to get it afloat.
The gig was hung on davits on the quarter, and was easily
let down. All now were in great activity. Many little
necessaries had to be hunted up from their hiding-places.
The cook was sent for corks to plug the holes in the bottoms
of the boats. Now no one knew where a rudder had been
put away; now the thowl-pins were missing. The oars had
to be searched for, and spars to serve as masts, with propor-
tionate sails, spare canvas, twine, Cordage, tow-ropes, sail-
needles, nails and tacks, carpenters’ tools, etc. The Captain
was looking after his chronometer, Sextant, barometer, charts,
compasses, and books of navigation; the Seamen were getting
their clothes into huge canvas bags; all were lugging about
pilot-coats, blankets, south-westers, and oilskin coats and
trousers; and I went down into the cabin, now suffocatingly
hot and full of Smoke, to see what was worth saving. I got
my watch and a small tin box containing some shirts and a
couple of old note-books, with some drawings of plants and
animals, and scrambled up with them on deck. Many clothes
and a large portfolio of drawings and sketches remained in my
berth; but I did not care to venture down again, and in fact
felt a kind of apathy about saving anything, that I can now
hardly account for. On deck the crew were still busy at the
boats; two barrels of bread were got in, a lot of raw pork,
some ham and cases of preserved meats, some wine and a
large cask of water. The cask had to be lowered into the
boat empty, for fear of any accident, and after being securely ,
fixed in its place, filled with buckets from those on board.
I852.] SHZA' 7"A KES APIAEAE. 273
The boats, having been so long drying in a tropical sun,
were very leaky, and were now half full of water, and books,
Coats, blankets, shoes, pork, and cheese, in a Confused mass,
were soaking in them. It was necessary to put two men in
each, to bale ; and everything necessary being now ready, the
rest of the crew were called off again to pour water into the
hatchways and cabin, from which rose volumes of thick yellow
smoke. Now, too, we could hear in the hold the balsam
bubbling, like some great boiling caldron, which told of such
intense heat, that we knew the flames must soon break out.
And so it was, for in less than half an hour the fire burst
through the cabin-floor into the berths, and consuming rapidly
the dry pine-wood, soon flamed up through the skylight.
There was now a scorching heat on the quarter-deck, and we
saw that all hope was over, and that we must in a few minutes
be driven by the terrible element to take refuge on the scarcely
less dangerous one, which heaved and swelled its mighty
billows, a thousand miles on every side of us. The Captain
at length ordered all into the boats, and was himself the last
to leave the vessel. I had to get down over the stern by a
rope into the boat, rising and falling and swaying about with
the swell of the ocean; and, being rather weak, rubbed the
skin considerably off my fingers, and tumbled in among
the miscellaneous articles already soaking there in the greatest
confusion. One sailor was baling with a bucket, and another
with a mug ; but the water not seeming at all to diminish, but
rather the contrary, I set to work helping them, and soon
found the salt-water producing a most intense Smarting and
burning on my scarified fingers.
We now lay astern of the ship, to which we were moored,
watching the progress of the fire. The flames very soon
caught the shrouds and sails, making a most magnificent
conflagration up to the very peak, for the royals were set at
the time. Soon after, the fore rigging and sails also burnt,
and flames were seen issuing from the fore hatchway, showing
how rapidly the fire was spreading through the combustible
cargo. The vessel, having now no sails to steady her, rolled
heavily, and the masts, no longer supported by the shrouds,
bent and creaked, threatening to go overboard every minute.
The main-mast went first, breaking off about twenty feet above
the deck; but the foremast stood for a long time, exciting our
18
274 TRA VAZZS OAV ZAZ AMAZON. [August,
admiration and wonder, at the time it resisted the heavy rolls
and lurches of the vessel; at last, being partly burned at the
bottom, it went over, more than an hour after its companion.
The decks were now a mass of fire, and the bulwarks partly
burnt away. Many of the parrots, monkeys, and other
animals we had on board, were already burnt or Suffocated ;
but several had retreated to the bowsprit out of reach of the
flames, appearing to wonder what was going on, and quite
unconscious of the fate that awaited them. We tried to get
some of them into the boats, by going as near as we could
venture; but they did not seem at all aware of the danger they
were in, and would not make any attempt to reach us. As the
flames caught the base of the bowsprit, some of them ran back
and jumped into the midst of the fire. Only one parrot
escaped: he was sitting on a rope hanging from the bowsprit,
and this burning above him let him fall into the water, where,
after floating a little way, we picked him up.
Night was now coming on. The whole deck was a mass of
fire, giving out an intense heat. We determined to stay by the
vessel all night, as the light would attract any ship passing
within a considerable distance of us. We had eaten nothing
since the morning, and had had plenty to do and to think of,
to prevent our being hungry; but now, as the evening air
began to get cool and pleasant, we all found we had very good
appetites, and Supped well on biscuits and water.
We then had to make our arrangements for the night. Our
mooring ropes had been burnt, and we were thus cast adrift
from the ship, and were afraid of getting out of sight of it
during the night, and so missing any vessel which might chance
to be attracted by its light. A portion of the masts and
rigging were floating near the ship, and to this we fastened our
boats; but so many half-burnt spars and planks were floating
about us, as to render our situation very perilous, for there
was a heavy swell, and our boats might have been in an
instant stove in by coming in contact with them.
We therefore cast loose again, and kept at a distance of a
quarter or half a mile from the ship by rowing when requisite.
We were incessantly baling the whole night. Ourselves and
everything in the boats were thoroughly drenched, so we got
little repose: if for an instant we dozed off into forgetfulness,
we soon woke up again to the realities of our position, and to
1852.] TEAW DA YS IAW THE BOATS. 275
See the red glare which our burning vessel cast over us. It
was now a magnificent spectacle, for the decks had completely
burnt away, and as it heaved and rolled with the swell of the
Sea, presented its interior towards us filled with liquid flame,
a fiery furnance tossing restlessly upon the ocean.
At length morning came ; the dangers of the night were past,
and with hopeful hearts we set up our little masts, and rigged
our sails, and, bidding adieu to the still burning wreck of our
ship, went gaily bounding along before a light east wind. And
then pencils and books were hunted out, and our course and
distance to Bermuda calculated ; and we found that this, the
nearest point of land in the vast waste of waters round us, was
at least seven hundred miles away. But still we went on full
of hope, for the wind was fair, and we reckoned that, if it did
not change, we might make a hundred miles a day, and so in
seven days reach the longed-for haven.
As we had supped but scantily the night before, we had now
good appetites, and got out our ham and pork, biscuit and
wine and water, and made a very hearty meal, finding that
even uncooked meat was not to be despised where no fire
could be got to cook it with.
The day was fine and warm, and the floating seaweed, called
gulf-weed, was pretty abundant. The boats still required
almost incessant baling, and though we did not ship many seas,
yet there was quite enough spray to keep us constantly wet.
At night we got a rope fastened to the long-boat, for her to
tow us, in Order that we might not get separated ; but as we
sailed pretty equally, we kept both sails up. We passed a
tolerable night under the circumstances. The next day, the
8th, was fine, gulf-weed still floated plentifully by us, and there
were numerous flying-fish, some of which fell into our boats,
and others flew an immense distance over the waves. I now
found my hands and face very much blistered by the sun, and
exceedingly sore and painful. At night two boobies, large
dusky sea-birds with very long wings, flew about us. During
the night I saw several meteors, and in fact could not be in a
better position for observing them, than lying on my back in a
small boat in the middle of the Atlantic. We also saw a flock
of small birds fly by, making a chirping noise; the sailors did
not know what they were.
The 9th was again fine and hot, and my blistered hands
276 TRA VEZS OW THE AMAZON. [August,
were very painful. No ship appeared in sight, though we
were crossing the track of the West India vessels. It was
rather squally, and I passed a nervous, uncomfortable night;
our boats did not, however, now leak so much, which was a
great Satisfaction.
The Ioth was squally, and the wind veered to the south-
west, so that we could not make our course for Bermuda, but
were obliged to go to the north of it. The sea ran very high,
and sudden gusts of wind would frequently heel us over in a
manner very alarming to me. We had some heavy showers of
rain, and should have liked to have caught some fresh water,
but could not, as all our clothes and the sails were saturated
with salt. Our position at noon was in latitude 31° 59' north,
longitude 57° 22' west.
The IIth was still rough and squally. There was less gulf-
weed now. The wind got still more to the westward, so that
we were obliged to go nearly north. Our boats had now got
swollen with the water, and leaked very little. This night I
saw some more falling stars.
On the 12th the wind still kept foul, and we were getting
quite out of the track of ships, and appeared to have but little
chance of reaching Bermuda. The long-boat passed over
some green water to-day, a sign of there being soundings,
probably some rock at a moderate depth. Many dolphins
swam about the boats; their colours when seen in the water
are superb, the most gorgeous metallic hues of green, blue, and
gold: I was never tired of admiring them.
On the 13th the wind was due west, blowing exactly from
the point we wanted to go to. The day was very fine, and
there were several stormy petrels, or Mother Cary’s chickens,
flying about us. We had now been a week in the boats, and
were only halfway to the Islands, so we put all hands on short
allowance of water before it was too late. The sun was very
hot and oppressive, and we suffered much from thirst.
The 14th was calm, and we could not get on at all. The
Sun was scorching and we had no shelter, and were parched
with thirst the whole day. Numerous dolphins and pilot-fish
were about the boats. At night there was a very slight favour-
able breeze, and as we had by this time got our clothes pretty
dry we slept well.
On the 15th the wind again died away, and we had another
1852.] A.OSS OF COZAZCZYOM.S. 277
calm. The sea was full of minute Medusae, called “blubber”
by the sailors: some were mere whitish oval or spherical lumps,
others were brown, and beautifully constructed like a little cap,
swimming rapidly along by alternate contractions and expan-
sions, and so expelling the water behind them. The day was
very hot, and we suffered exceedingly from thirst. We were
almost in despair about seeing a ship, or getting on to the
Islands. At about 5 P.M., while taking our dinner, we saw the
long-boat, which was at some distance from us, tack. “She
must see a sail,” said the Captain, and looking round we saw
a vessel coming nearly towards us, and only about five miles
distant. We were saved
The men joyfully drank the rest of their allowance of water,
seized their oars, and pulled with hearty goodwill, and by
seven o’clock we were alongside. The captain received us
kindly on board. The men went first to the water-casks, and
took long and hearty draughts, in which we joined them, and
then enjoyed the almost forgotten luxury of tea. From having
been so long cramped in the boats, I could hardly stand when
I got on board. -
That night I could not sleep. Home and all its pleasures
seemed now within my grasp ; and crowding thoughts, and
hopes and fears, made me pass a more restless night than I
should have done, had we still been in the boats, with dimin-
ished hopes of rescue. The ship was the Jordeson, Captain
Venables, from Cuba, bound for London, with a cargo of
mahogany, fustic, and other woods. We were picked up in
latitude 32° 48' north, longitude 60° 27' west, being still about
two hundred miles from Bermuda.
For several days afterwards we had fine weather and very
light winds, and went creeping along about fifty miles a day.
It was now, when the danger appeared past, that I began to
feel fully the greatness of my loss. With what pleasure had I
looked upon every rare and curious insect I had added to my
collection How many times, when almost overcome by the
ague, had I crawled into the forest and been rewarded by some
unknown and beautiful species How many places, which no
European foot but my own had trodden, would have been
recalled to my memory by the rare birds and insects, they had
furnished to my collection . How many weary days and weeks
had I passed, upheld only by the fond hope of bringing home
278 TRA VAZS OAW THE AMAZOAV. [August
many new and beautiful forms from those wild regions; every
one of which would be endeared to me by the recollections
they would call up, which should prove that I had not wasted
the advantages I had enjoyed, and would give me occupation
and amusement for many years to come ! And now every-
thing was gone, and I had not one specimen to illustrate the
unknown lands I had trod, or to call back the recollection of
the wild scenes I had beheld ! But such regrets I knew were
vain, and I tried to think as little as possible about what might
have been, and to occupy myself with the state of things which
actually existed. g t
On the 22nd of August we saw three water-spouts, the first
time I had beheld that curious phenomenon. I had much
wished once to witness a storm at sea, and I was soon grati-
fied.
Early in September we had a very heavy gale. The baro-
meter had fallen nearly half an inch during the night; and in
the morning it was blowing strong, and we had a good deal of
canvas up when the captain began to shorten sail; but before
it could be taken in, four or five sails were blown to pieces,
and it took several hours to get the others properly stowed.
By the afternoon we were driving along under double-reefed
topsails. The sea was all in a foam, and dashed continually
over us. By night a very heavy sea was up, and we rolled
about fearfully, the water pouring completely over the bul-
warks, deluging the decks, and making the old ship stagger
like a drunken man. We passed an uncomfortable night, for
a great sea broke into the cabin skylight and wetted us all, and
the ship creaked and shook, and plunged so madly, that I
feared something would give way, and we should go to the
bottom after all; all night, too, the pumps were kept going, for
she leaked tremendously, and it was noon the next day before
she was got free of water. The wind had now abated, and we
soon had fine weather again, and all hands were busy bending
new sails and repairing the old ones.
We caught at different times several dolphins, which were
not bad eating. I did not see so much to admire in the
colours of the dying dolphin ; they are not to be compared
with the colours of the living fish seen in the blue transparent
Water. -
We were now getting rather short of provisions, owing to
1852.] ARRIVAZ. A 7" DEAL. 279
the increased number of mouths: our cheese and ham were
finished,—then our peas gave out, and we had no more pea-
soup, next the butter came to an end, and we had to eat our
biscuit dry, our bread and pork, too, got very short, and we
had to be put upon allowance. We then got some supplies
from another ship; but our voyage was so much prolonged,
and we had adverse winds and another heavy gale, so that we
were again in want, finished our last piece of meat, and had to
make some scanty dinners off biscuit and water. Again we
were relieved with a little supply of pork and some molasses,
and so managed pretty well.
We were in the Channel on the night of the 29th of Sep-
tember, when a violent gale occurred, that did great damage to
the shipping, and caused the destruction of many vessels much
more seaworthy than our own. The next morning we had
four feet of water in the hold.
On the 1st of October the pilot came on board, and Captain
Turner and myself landed at Deal, after an eighty days'
voyage from Pará; thankful for having escaped so many
dangers, and glad to tread once more on English ground,
CHAPTER XIV.
THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF THE AMAZON
WALLEY.
THE basin of the Amazon surpasses in dimensions that of any
other river in the world. It is entirely situated in the Tropics,
On both sides of the Equator, and receives over its whole
extent the most abundant rains. The body of fresh water
emptied by it into the ocean, is therefore far greater than that
of any other river ; not only absolutely, but probably also
relatively to its area, for as it is almost entirely covered by dense
virgin forests, the heavy rains which penetrate them do not
suffer so much evaporation as when they fall on the scorched
Llanos of the Orinooko or the treeless Pampas of La Plata.
For richness of vegetable productions and universal fertility
of soil it is unequalled on the globe, and offers to our notice
a natural region capable of supporting a greater population,
and supplying it more completely with the necessaries and
luxuries of life, than any other of equal extent. Of this
wonderful district we will now describe the principal physical
peculiarities.
From about 4° north latitude to 20° south, every stream that
flows down the eastern slope of the Andes is a tributary of the
Amazon. This is as if every river, from St. Petersburg to
Madrid, united their waters into one mighty flood.
The Marañon, which is generally considered the main
stream of the Amazon, deserves that title on several accounts.
It rises to the westward of all the other great tributaries, and it
receives all the waters which flow nearest to the Pacific, and
most remote in a direct line from the mouth of the river. It
flows for a considerable distance in the most westerly valley of
the Andes, separated by one range only from the Pacific, and
at the point where it breaks through the eastern chain of the
AFIPSICAE GEOGRAPH. P. 281
Andes, in 78° west longitude, is already a large river, on a
meridian where all the other streams which can lay a claim to
be considered the head-waters of the Amazon have as yet no
existence. On going up the Amazon from its mouth, it is that
branch on which you can keep longest in the general east and
west direction of the river; and if the actual length of its
course is considered, it still keeps its place, for I find that there
is not more than ten or twenty miles’ difference between it and
the Uaycali, reckoning to the most distant source of the latter ;
and its course is at present so uncertain, that future surveys
may increase or diminish it considerably.
These considerations, I think, decide the question as to the
propriety of considering the Marañon as the true source of the
Amazon. We find that from its origin in the Lake Lauricocha,
to its mouth in longitude 50° west, in length, following the main
curves, but disregarding the minuter windings, is 2,74o English
miles.
Its extent, in a straight line from east to west, is about 2,050
miles ; and from north to south, its tributary streams cover a
space of 1,720 miles.
The whole area of its basin, not including that of the
Tocantins, which I consider a distinct river, is 2,330,000
English square miles, or 1,760,000 nautical square miles.
This is more than a third of all South America, and equal to
two-thirds of all Europe. All western Europe could be placed
in it without touching its boundaries, and it would even con-
tain our whole Indian empire.
The numerous tributary streams of the Amazon, many of
them equal to the largest rivers of Europe, differ remarkably
in the colour of their waters, the character of the vegetation 9n
their banks, and the animals that inhabit them. They may i.
divided into three groups, the white-water rivers, the blue-
water rivers, and the black-water rivers.
The main stream of the Amazon itself is a white-water river,
this name being applied to those waters which are of a pale
yellowish olive-colour. This colour does not seem to depend
entirely on free earthy matter, but rather on some colouring
material held in solution ; for in lakes and inlets, where the
waters are undisturbed and can deposit all their sediment, they
still retain the colour.
The waters of the Amazon continue of the same colour up
282 AF/VS/CAA, GZOGAEAAPHY OF
t
to the mouth of the Uaycali, when they become blue or trans-
parent, and the white waters are extended up that branch.
This has been taken as an evidence of the Uaycáli being the
main stream of the Amazon; but I cannot consider that it has
anything to do with the question. It is evident that if equal
quantities of 'clear and muddy water are mixed together, the
result will differ very little from the latter in colour, and if the
clear water is considerably more in quantity the resulting
mixture will still be muddy. But the difference of colour
between the white- and blue-water rivers, is evidently owing
to the nature of the country they flow through : a rocky and
Sandy district will always have clear-water rivers; an alluvial
or clayey one, will have yellow or olive-coloured streams. A
river may therefore rise in a rocky district, and after some time
flow through an alluvial basin, where the water will of course
change its colour, quite independently of any tributaries which
may enter it near the junctions of the two formations.
The Iga and Japurá have waters very similar in colour to
the Amazon. The Rio Branco, a branch of the Rio Negro from
the north, is remarkable for its peculiar colour: till I saw it, I
had not believed it so well deserved its name. The Indians
and traders had always told me that it was really white, much
more so than the Amazon ; and on descending the Rio Negro
in 1852 I passed its mouth, and found that its waters were of a
milky colour mixed with olive. It seemed as if it had a quan-
tity of chalk in solution, and I have little doubt of there being
on its banks considerable beds of the pure white clay which
occurs in many parts of the Amazon, and which helps to give
the waters their peculiar whiteness. The Madeira and Purús
haye also white waters in the wet season, when their powerful
currents bring down the alluvial soil from their banks; but in
the dry season they are a dark transparent brownish-olive.
All the rivers that rise in the mountains of Brazil have blue
or clear water. The Tocantins, the Xingú, and the Tapajóz,
are the chief of this class. The Tocantins runs over volcanic
and crystalline rocks in the lower parts of its course, and its
waters are beautifully transparent ; the tide, however, enters for
some miles, and renders it turbid, as also the Xingui. The
Tapajóz, which enters the Amazon about five hundred miles
above Pará, is clear to its mouth, and forms a striking contrast
to the yellow flood of that river.
7"HZE AMAZOAV VAZZZZY. 283
It is above the Madeira that we first meet with the curious
phenomenon of great rivers of black water. The Rio Negro
is the largest and most celebrated of these. It rises in about
2° 30' N. lat., and its waters are there much blacker than in
the lower part of its course. All its upper tributaries, the
smaller ones especially, are very dark, and, where they run
over white sand, give it the appearance of gold, from the rich
colour of the water, which, when deep, appears inky black.
The small streams which rise in the same district, and flow
into the Orinooko, are of the same dark colour. The Cassi-
quiare first pours in some white or olive-coloured water.
Lower down, the Cababurís, Maravihā, and some smaller
white-water streams help to dilute it, and then the Rio Branco
adds its flood of milky water. Notwithstanding all this, the
Rio Negro at its mouth still appears as black as ink; only in
shallow water it is seen to be paler than it is up above, and the
sands are not dyed of that pure golden tint so remarkable
there.
On the south of the Amazon there are also some black-
water streams—the Coary, the Teffe, the Juruá, and some
others. The inhabitants have taken advantage of these, to
escape from the plague of the mosquitoes, and the towns of
Coary and Ega are places of refuge for the traveller on the
Upper Amazon, those annoying insects being scarcely ever
found on the black waters. The causes of the peculiar colour
of these rivers are not, I think, very obscure ; it appears to me
to be produced by the solution of decaying leaves, roots, and
other vegetable matter. In the virgin forests, in which most
of these streams have their source, the little brooks and rivulets
are half choked up with dead leaves and rotten branches,
giving various brown tinges to the water. When these rivulets
meet together and accumulate into a river, they of course have
a deep brown hue, very similar to that of our bog or peat
water, if there are no other circumstances to modify it. But
if the streams flow through a district of soft alluvial clay, the
colour will of course be modified, and the brown completely
overpowered; and I think this will account for the anomalies
observed, of streams in the same districts being of different
colours. Those whose sources are pretty well known are seen
to agree with this view. The Rio Negro, the Atabapo, the
Isanna, and several other smaller rivers, have their sources
284 AH/VS/CAA. GEOGRAPH/Y OF
and their whole course in the deep forest; they flow generally
over clean granite rocks and beds of sand, and their streams
are gentle, so as not to wear away the soft parts of their
banks. &
The Iga, Japurá, and Upper Amazon, on the contrary, flow
through a long extent of alluvial country, and, having their
sources on the slopes of the Andes, are much more liable to
sudden floods, and by their greater velocity bring down a
quantity of sediment. In fact, it seems clear, that a thorough
knowledge of the course of each river would enable us to trace
the colour of its waters to the various peculiarities of the
country through which it flows.
With the exception of the streams rising in the Andes, the
boundaries of the Amazon basin, or the most distant sources
of its tributaries on the north and south, are comparatively
little elevated above the level of the sea. The whole basin,
with the exception of a very small portion, is one great plain
of the most perfect and regular character. -
The true altitude of the source in the Lake Lauricocha has
not been ascertained. At Tomependa Humboldt states it to
be 1,320 feet above the sea: this is as near as possible 2,000
miles in a straight line from the mouth ; so that the average
rise is only eight inches in a mile. But if we take the height
at Tabatinga, on the boundary of Brazil, which, according to
Spix and Martius is 670 feet, we shall find, the distance
being about 1,400 miles, that the rise is only five and a half
inches per mile. If we had the height of Barra do Rio Negro
accurately, we should no doubt find the rise to that point not
more than two or three inches in a mile. The distance is, in
a straight line, about 700 miles, and we may therefore probably
cstimate the height at less than 200, and perhaps not more
than 150 feet.
This height I am inclined to believe quite great enough, from
some observations I made with an accurate thermometer,
reading to tenths of a degree, on the temperature of boiling
water. This instrument I received from England, after leaving
Pará. The mean of five observations at Barra, some with river
and some with rain-water, gave 212.5° as the temperature of
boiling water; a remarkable result, showing that the barometer
must stand there at more than thirty inches, and that unless it
is, in the months of May and August, considerably more than
THE AMAZOAV VAZZAZY 285
that at the sea-level, Barra can be but very little elevated above
the sea.
For the height of the country about the sources of the Rio
Negro, Humboldt is our only authority. He gives 812 feet as
the height of São Carlos; he, however, states that the determina-
tion is uncertain, owing to an accident happening to the
barometer; I may, therefore, though with great diffidence,
venture to doubt the result. The distance, in a straight line,
from the mouth of the Rio Negro to São Carlos, is rather less
than from the same point to Tabatinga, whose height is 670
feet. The current, however, from Tabatinga is much more rapid
than down the Rio Negro, the lower part of which has so little
fall, that in the month of January, when the Amazon begins to
rise, the water enters the mouth of the Rio Negro, and renders
that river stagnant for several hundred miles up. The falls of
the Rio Negro I cannot consider to add more than fifty feet to
the elevation, as above and below them the river is not very
rapid. Thus, from this circumstance alone, we should be
disposed to place São Carlos at a rather less elevation than
Tabatinga, or at about 600 feet. My observations up the Rio
Negro gave consistent results. At Castanheiro, about five
hundred miles up, the temperature of boiling water was 212'4°,
at the mouth of the Uaupés 212.2°, and at a point just below
São Carlos, 212°oº. This would not give more than 250 feet
for the height of São Carlos above Barra ; and, as we have
estimated this at 200 feet above the sea, the height of São
Carlos will become 450 feet, which I think will not be found
far from the truth.
The velocity of the current varies with the width of the
stream and the time of the year; we have little accurate infor-
mation on this subject. In a Brazilian work on the Province
of Pará, the Madeira is stated to flow 2,970 braças, or about
three and a half miles, an hour in the wet season. At Obidos
I made an observation in the month of November, when the
Amazon is at the lowest level, and found it four miles an hour;
but this by no means represents the current in the rainy season.
. On descending to Pará, in the month of June, 1852, I found
that we often floated down about five miles an hour, and as
the wind was strong directly up the river, it probably retarded
us, rather than helped us on, our vessel not being rigged in
the best manner.
28b PAE/WSZCA/C GAOGRAPH/Y OF
Martius calculates that 5oo, ooo cubic feet of water per
second pass Obidos. This agrees pretty well with my own
calculations of the quantity in the dry season; when the river
is full, it is probably much greater. If we suppose, on a
moderate calculation, that seventy-two inches, or six feet, of
rain fall annually over the whole Amazon valley, it will amount
to 1,500,ooo cubic feet per second, the whole of which must
either evaporate, or flow out of the mouth of the Amazon; so
that if we increase the amount given by Martius by one half,
to take in the lower part of the Amazon and to allow for the
whole year, we shall have the evaporation as one half of the
rain falling annually.
It is a fact which has been frequently stated, and which
seems fully established, that the Amazon carries its fresh waters
out into the Ocean, which it discolours for a distance of a
hundred and fifty miles from its mouth. It is also generally
stated that the tide flows up the river as far as Obidos, five
hundred miles from the mouth. These two statements appear
irreconcilable, for it is not easy to understand how the tides
can flow up to such a great distance, and yet no salt water enter
the river. But the fact appears to be, that the tide never does
flow up the river at all. The water of the Amazon rises, but
during the flood as well as the ebb the current is running rapidly
down. This takes place even at the very mouth of the river,
for at the island of Mexiana, exposed to the open sea, the
water is always quite fresh, and is used for drinking all the
year round. But as Salt water is heavier than fresh, it might
flow up at the bottom, while the river continued to pour down
above it ; though it is difficult to conceive how this could take
place to any extent without some Salt water appearing at the
margins.
The rising of the water so far up the river can easily be
explained, and goes to prove also that the slope of the river up
to where the tide has any influence cannot be great; for as the
waters of the ocean rose, the river would of course be banked
up, the velocity of its current still forcing its waters onward;
but it is not easy to see how the stream could be thus elevated
to a higher level than the waters of the ocean which caused
the rise, and we should therefore suppose that at Obidos, where
the tidal rise ceases to be felt, the river is just higher than the
surface of the ocean at the highest spring-tides,
THE AMAZON VAZZAZ Y. 287
A somewhat similar phenomenon is seen at the mouth of
the Tapajóz. Here, at the end of the dry season, there is but
a small body of water, and the current is very sluggish. The
Amazon, however, rises considerably with the tides, and its
waters then become higher than those of the Tapajóz, and
they therefore enter into that river and force it back; we then
see the Amazon flowing rapidly down, at the same time that
the Tapajóz is flowing up.
It seems to be still a disputed question among geographers,
whether the Pará river is or is not a branch of the Amazon.
From my own observation, I am decidedly of opinion that it
is not : it appears to me to be merely the outlet of the
Tocantins and of numerous other small streams. The canal
or channel of Tagipurū, which connects it with the Amazon,
and by which all the trade between Pará and the interior is
carried on, is one of a complete network of channels, along
which the tide ebbs and flows, so as in a great measure to
disguise the true direction and velocity of its current. It
seems probable that not a drop of Amazon water finds its way
by this channel into the Pará river, and I ground my opinion
upon the following facts.
It is well known, that in a tidal river the ebb-tide will
continue longer than the flood, because the stream of the river
requires to be overcome, and thus delays the commencement
of the flood, while it facilitates that of the ebb. This is very
remarkable in all the smaller rivers about Pará. Taking this
as our guide, we shall be able to ascertain which way the
current in the Tagipurú sets, independently of the tide.
On may journey from Pará to the Amazon, our canoe could
only proceed with the tide, having to wait moored to the bank
while it was against us, so that we were of course anxious to
find the time of our tedious stoppages diminished. Up to a
certain point, we always had to wait more time than we were
moving, showing that the current set against us and towards
Pará; but after passing that point, where there was a bend,
and several streams met, we had but a short time to wait, and
a long ebb in our favour, showing that the current was with us
or towards the Amazon, whereas it would evidently have been
different had there been any permanent current flowing from
the Amazon through the Tagipurū towards Pará.
I therefore look upon the Tagipurū as a channel formed by
288 AHIVS/CAE GEOGRAPHY OF
the small streams between the Tocantins and Xingú, meeting
together about Melgáco, and flowing through a low swampy
country in two directions, towards the Amazon, and towards
the Pará river.
At high tides the water becomes brackish, even up to the
city of Pará, and a few miles down is quite salt. The tide
flows very rapidly past Pará, up all the adjacent streams, and
as far as the middle of the Tagipurú channel; another proof
that a very small portion, if any, of the Amazon water is there
to oppose it. g
The curious phenomenon of the bore, or “piroróco,” in the
rivers Guamá and Mojú, I have described and endeavoured to
explain in my Journal, and need not now repeat the account
of it. (See page 89.)
Our knowledge of the courses of most of the tributaries of
the Amazon is very imperfect. The main stream is tolerably
well laid down in the maps as far as regards its general course
and the most important bends; the details, however, are very
incorrect. The numerous islands and parallel channels, the
great lakes and offsets,<-the deep bays, and the varying
widths of the stream, are quite unknown. Even the French
survey from Pará to Obidos, the only one which can lay claim
to detailed accuracy, gives no idea of the river, because only
one channel is laid down. I obtained at Santarem a manu-
script map of the lower part of the river, much more correct
than any other I have seen. It was, with most of my other
papers, lost on my voyage home; but I hope to be able to
obtain another copy from the same party. The Madeira and
the Rio Negro are the only other branches of the Amazon
whose courses are at all accurately known, and the maps of
them are very deficient in anything like detail. The other
great rivers, the Xingu, the Tapajóz, the Purús, Coari, Teffe,
Juruá, Jutaí, Jabarſ, IQā, Japuré, etc., though all inserted in
our maps, are put in quite by guess, or from the vaguest
information of the general direction of their course. Between
the Tocantíns and the Madeira, and between the Madeira and
the Uaycali, there are two tracts of country of five hundred
thousand square miles each, or each twice as large as France,
and as completely unexplored as the interior of Africa.
The Rio Negro is one of the most unknown in its charac-
teristic features; although, as before stated, its general course
THE AMAZOAV VAZZA. V. 289
is laid down with tolerable accuracy. I have narrated in my
Journal how I was prevented from descending on the north
side of it, and thus completing my survey of its course.
The most remarkable feature is the enormous width to
which it spreads,-first, between Barra and the mouth of the
Rio Branco, and from thence to near St. Isabel. In some
places, I am convinced, it is between twenty and thirty
miles wide, and, for a very great distance, fifteen to twenty.
The sources of the rivers Uaupés, Isanna, Xié, Rio Negro, and
Guaviare, are very incorrectly laid down. The Serra Tunuhy
is generally represented as a chain of hills cutting off these
rivers; it is, however, a group of isolated granite peaks, about
two thousand feet high, situated on the north bank of the river
Isanna, in about 1° north latitude and 70° west longitude.
The river rises considerably beyond them, in a flat forest-
country, and further west than the Rio Negro, for there is a
path across to the Inirizá, a branch of the Guaviare which does
not traverse any stream, so that the Rio Negro does not there
exist.
My own journey up the Uaupés extended to near 72° west
longitude. Five days further in a small canoe, or about a
hundred miles, is the Jurupari caxoeira, the last fall on the river.
Above that, traders have been twelve days’ journey on a still,
almost currentless river, which, by the colour of its water, and
the aspect of its vegetation, resembles the Upper Amazon. For
all this distance, which must reach very nearly to the base of
the Andes, the river flows through virgin forest. But the
Indians in the upper part say there are campos, or plains,
and cattle, further up ; and they possess Spanish knives
and other articles, showing that they have communications
with the civilised inhabitants of the country to the east of
Bogotá.
I am therefore strongly inclined to believe that the rivers
Ariarſ and others, rising about a hundred miles south of Bogotá,
are not, as shown in all our maps, the sources of the Guaviare,
but of the Uaupés, and that the basin of the Amazon must
therefore be here extended to within sixty miles of the city of
Bogotá. This opinion is strengthened by information obtained
from the Indians of Javita, who annually ascend the Guaviare
to fish in the dry season, and who state that the river is very
Small, and in its upper part, where some hills occur and the
I9
290 AHTYSICAZ GAOGRAAEA Y OF
forest ends, it is not more than a hundred yards wide; whereas
the Uaupés, at the furthest point the traders have reached,
is still a large river, from a quarter of a mile to a mile in width.
The Amazon and all its branches are subject, like most
tropical rivers, to an annual rise and fall of great regularity.
In the main stream, and in all the branches which flow from
the Andes, the waters begin to rise in December or January,
when the rains generally commence, and continue rising till
June, when the fine weather has just set in. The time when
the waters begin to fall is about the 21st of June,—seldom
deviating more than a few days from this date. In branches
which have their sources in a different direction, such as the
Rio Negro, the time of rising does not coincide. On that
river the rains do not commence steadily till February or
March, when the river rises with very great rapidity, and generally
is quite filled by June, and then begins to fall with the Amazon.
It thus happens that in the months of January and February,
when the Amazon is rising rapidly, the Rio Negro is still falling
in its upper part ; the waters of the Amazon therefore flow
into the mouth of the Rio Negro, causing that river to remain
stagnant like a lake, or even occasionally to flow back towards
its source. The total rise of the Amazon between high and
low water mark has not been accurately ascertained, as it
cannot be properly determined without a spirit-level; it is,
however, certainly not less than forty, and;probably often fifty
feet. If therefore we consider the enormous water surface
raised fifty feet annually, we shall gain from another point of
view an idea of the immense quantity of water falling annually
in the Amazon valley. We cannot take the length of the
Amazon with its main tributaries at less than ten thousand
miles, and their average width about two miles; so that there
will be a surface of twenty thousand square miles of water,
raised fifty feet every year. But it is not only this surface that
is raised, for a great extent of land on the banks of all the
rivers is flooded to a great depth at every time of high water.
These flooded lands are called, in the language of the country,
“gapó,” and are one of the most singular features of the
Amazon. Sometimes on One side, sometimes on both, to a
distance of twenty or thirty miles from the main river, these
gapós extend on the Amazon, and on portions of all its great
branches. They are all covered with a dense virgin forest of
THAE AMAZOAV 7AZZZ W. 29I
lofty trees, whose stems are every year, during six months, from
ten to forty feet under water. In this flooded forest the Indians
have paths for their canoes, cutting across from one river to
another, which are much used, to avoid the strong current of the
main stream. From the mouth of the river Tapajoz to Coary,
on the Solimões, a canoe can pass, without once entering the
Amazon : the path lies across lakes, and among narrow inland
channels, and through miles of dense flooded forest, crossing
the Madeira, the Purus, and a hundred other smaller streams.
All along, from the mouth of the Rio Negro to the mouth of
the Iga, is an immense extent of gapó, and it reaches also far up
into the interior; for even near the sources of the Rio Negro,
and on the upper waters of the Uaupés, are extensive tracts
of land which are annually overflowed.
In the whole country around the mouth of the Amazon,
round the great island of Marajó, and about the mouths of
the Tocantíns and Xingli, the diurnal and semi-monthly tides are
most felt, the annual rise and fall being almost lost. Here the
low lands are overflowed at all the spring-tides, or every fort-
night, subjecting all vegetation to another peculiar set of
circumstances. Considerable tracts of land, still covered with
vegetation, are so low, that they are flooded at every high
water, and again vary the conditions of vegetable growth.
GEOLOGY.
|Fully to elucidate the Geology of the Amazon valley, requires
much more time and research than I was able to devote to it.
The area is so vast, and the whole country being covered with
forests renders natural sections so comparatively scarce, that
the few distant observations one person can make will lead to
no definite conclusions.
It is remarkable that I was never able to find any fossil
remains whatever, not even a shell, or a fragment of fossil
wood, or anything that could lead to a conjecture as to the
state in which the valley existed at any former period. We
are thus unable to assign the geological age to which any of
the various beds of rock belong.”
My notes, and a fine series of specimens of the rocks of the Rio
* The sandstone rocks of Montealegre have since been ascertained to be
of cretaceous age. *
292 GEOZOGY OF
Negro, were lost, and I have therefore very few materials to go
upon.
Granite seems to be, in South America, more extensively
developed than in any other part of the world. Darwin and
Gardner found it in every part of the interior of Brazil, in La
Plata, and Chile. Up the Xinguí Prince Adalbert met with
it. Over the whole of Venezuela and New Granada, it was
found by Humboldt. It seems to form all the mountains in
the interior of Guiana, and it was met with by myself over the
whole of the upper part of the Rio Negro, and far up the
Uaupés towards the Andes.
From what I could see of the granitic formation of the
Upper Rio Negro, it appeared to be spread out in immense
undulating areas, the hollows of which, being filled up with
alluvial deposits, form those beds of earth and clay which occur,
of various dimensions, everywhere in the midst of the granite
formation. In these places grow the lofty virgin forests, while
On the scantily covered granite rocks, and where beds of sand
occur, are the more open catinga forests, so different in their
aspect and peculiar in their vegetation. What strikes one
most in this great formation, is its almost perfect flatness.
There are no ranges of mountains, or even slightly elevated
plateaus; all is level, except the abrupt peaks that rise suddenly
from the plain, to a height of from one hundred to three thou-
sand feet. In the Upper Rio Negro these peaks are very
numerous. The first is the Serra de Jacamí, a little above
St. Isabel; it rises immediately from the bank of the river, on
the south side, to a height of about six hundred feet. Several
Others are scattered about, but the Serras de Curicuriarſ are
the most lofty. They consist of a group of three or four moun-
tains, rising abruptly to the height of near three thousand feet;
towards their summits are immense precipices and jagged
peaks. Higher up, on the same river, is another group of
rather less height. On the Uaupés are numerous hills, some
conical, others dome-shaped, but all keeping the same character
of abrupt elevations, quite independent of the general profile
of the country. About the falls of the river Uaupés there are
small hills of granite, broken about in the greatest confusion.
Great chasms or bowls occur, and slender pillars of rock rise
above the surrounding forest like dead trunks of giant trees. Up
the river Isanna, the Tunuhy mountains are a similar isolated
ſ &
= , = , = - -
a Fragments embedded in granite. b. Granite with twi g i-
fied rocks protruded through granite. twisted veins. c. Strati
GRANITE ROCKS AND VEINs, ETC,
PLATE IX.


THE AMAZON VAZZZY. 293
group. The Cocoſ is a quadrangular or cubical mass, about
a thousand feet in elevation, which forms the boundary between
Brazil and Venezuela; and behind it are the Pirapocó, and
the serras of the Cababurís, which seem rather more extensive,
and form something more like a connected range of hills.
But the great peculiarity of them all is, that the country
does not perceptibly rise to their bases; they spring up
abruptly, as if elevated by some local isolated force. I ascended
one of the smaller of these serras as far as practicable, and
have recorded my impressions of it in my Journal. (See
page 153.)
The isolation and abrupt protrusion of these mountains is
not, however, altogether without parallel in the Andes itself.
This mighty range, from all the information I can obtain, rises
with almost equal abruptness from an apparently level plain.
The Andes of Quito, and southward to the Amazon, is like a
hugh rocky rampart, bounding the great plain which extends in
one unbroken imperceptible slope from the Atlantic Ocean to
its base. It is one of the grandest physical features of the
earth,<-this vast unbroken plain,_that mighty and precipitous
mountain-range.
The granitic rocks of the Rio Negro in general contain very
little mica ; in some places, however, that mineral is abundant,
and exists in large plates. Veins of pure quartz are common,
some of very great size ; and numerous veins or dykes of
granite, of a different colour or texture. The direction of
these is generally nearer east and west, than north and
south.
Just below the falls of the Rio Negro are some coarse sand-
stone rocks, apparently protruding through the granite, dipping
at an angle of 60° or 70° south-south-west. (Plate IX. c.) Near
the same place a large slab of granite rock exhibits quantities
of curiously twisted or folded quartz veins (Plate IX. &.), which
vary in size from a line to some inches in diameter, and are
folded in a most minute and regular manner.
On an island in the river, near this place, are finely stratified
crystalline rocks, dipping south from 70° to vertical, and
sometimes waved and twisted.
The granite often exhibits a concentric arrangement of
laminae, particularly in the large dome-shaped masses in the
bed of the river (Plate X, a, c), or in portions protruding from
294 GAEOZOGY OF
the ground (Plate X. 5). Near São Gabriel, and in the
Uaupés, large masses of pure quartz rock occur, and the
shining white precipices of the serras are owing, I have no
doubt, to the same cause. At Pimichin, near the Source of
the Rio Negro, the granite contains numerous fragments of
stratified sandstone rock imbedded in it (Plate IX, a); I did
not notice this so distinctly at any other locality.
High up the river Uaupés there is a very curious formation
All along the river-banks there are irregular fragments of rocks,
with their interstices filled up with a substance that looks
exactly like pitch. On examination, it is found to be a
conglomerate of sand, clay, and scoriae, sometimes very hard,
but often rotten and easily breaking to pieces; its position
immediately suggests the idea of its having been liquid, for the
fragments of rocks appear to have sunk in it.
Coarse volcanic scoriae, with a vitreous surface, are found
over a very wide area. They occur at Caripé, near Pará, -
above Baião, in the Tocantins,—at the mouth of the Tapajóz,
—at Villa Nova, on the Amazon, above Barra, on the Rio
Negro, and again up the Uaupés. A small conical hill behind
the town of Santarem, at the mouth of the Tapajóz, has all the
appearance of being a volcanic cone.
The neighbourhood of Pará consists entirely of a coarse
iron sandstone, which is probably a continuation of the rocks
observed, by Mr. Gardner at Maranham and in the Province of
Piauhy, and which he considered to belong to the chalk
formation. Up the Tocantins we found fine crystalline
stratified rocks, coarse volcanic conglomerates, and fine-grained
slates. At the falls were metamorphic slates and other hard
crystalline rocks; many of these split into flat slabs, well
adapted for building, or even for paving, instead of the stones
now imported from Portugal into Pará. In the serras of
Montealegre, on the north bank of the Amazon, are a great
variety of rocks,—coarse quartz conglomerates, fine crystalline
Sandstones, soft beds of yellow and red sandstones, and
indurated clay rocks. These beds are all nearly horizontal,
but are much cleft and shattered vertically; they are alternately
hard and soft, and by their unequal decay have formed the
hanging stones and curious cave described in my Journal.
The general impression produced by the examination of the
country is, that here we see the last stage of a process that has
z
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PLATE X.











THE AMAZOAW VAZZZZY. 295
been going on, during the whole period of the elevation of the
Andes and the mountains of Brazil and Guiana, from the
ocean. At the commencement of this period, the greater
portion of the valleys of the Amazon, Orinooko, and La Plata
must have formed a part of the ocean, separating the groups of
islands (which those elevated lands formed on their first
appearance) from each other. The sediment carried down
into this sea by the rapid streams, running down the sides of
these mountains, would tend to fill up and level the deeper
and more irregular depressions, forming those large tracts of
alluvial deposits we now find in the midst of the granite
districts. At the same time volcanic forces were in operation,
as shown by the isolated granite peaks which in many places
rise out of the flat forest district, like islands from a sea of
verdure, because their lower slopes, and the valleys between
them, have been covered and filled up by the sedimentary
deposits. This simultaneous action of the aqueous and
volcanic forces, of submarine earthquakes and marine currents,
shaking up, as it were, and levelling the mass of sedimentary
matter brought down from the now increasing surface of dry
land, is what has produced that marvellous regularity of surface,
that gradual and imperceptible slope, which exists over such an
immense area.”
At the point where the mountains of Guiana approach
nearest to the chain of the Andes, the volcanic action appears
to have been continued in the interval between them, throwing
up the serras of Curicuriari, Tunuhy, and the numerous
smaller granite mountains of the Uaupés ; and it is here
probably that dry land first appeared, connecting Guiana and
New Granada, and forming that slightly elevated ridge which
is now the watershed between the basins of the Amazon and
Orinooko. The same thing occurs in the southern part of the
continent, for it is where the mountains of Brazil, and the
eastern range of the Bolivian Andes, stretch out to meet each
other, that the sedimentary deposits in that part appear to have
been first raised above the water, and thus to have determined
the limits of the basin of the Amazon on the south. The
Amazon valley would then have formed a great inland gulf or
* The isolated granite domes and pillars show that the whole area has
been formerly covered with thick sedimentary rocks, which have been
removed by denudation,
296 CZZMATE OF
sea, about two thousand miles long and seven or eight hundred
wide. -
The rivers and mountain-torrents pouring into it on every
side, would gradually fill up this great basin; and the volcanic
action still visible in the scoriae of the Tocantíns and Tapajoz,
and the shattered rocks of Montealegre, would all tend to the
levelling of the vast area, and to determining the channels of
the future rivers. This process, continuing for ages, would at
length narrow this inland sea, almost within the limits of what
is now gapd, or flooded land. Ridges, gradually elevated a
few feet above the waters, would separate the tributary streams;
and then the eddies and currents would throw up sandbanks
as they do now, and gradually define the limits of the river, as
we now see it. And changes are yet going on. New islands
are yearly forming in the stream, large tracts of flooded land
are being perceptibly raised by the deposits upon them, and
the numerous great lakes are becoming choked with aquatic
plants, and filled up with sediment.
The large extent of flat land on the banks of the river will
still continue to be flooded, till some renewed earthquakes
raise it gradually above the waters ; during which time the
stream will work for itself a wider and deeper bed, capable of
containing its accumulated flood. In the course of ages per
haps this might be produced by the action of the river itself,
for at every annual inundation a deposit of sediment is formed,
and these lands must therefore be rising, and would in time
become permanently elevated above the highest rise of the
river. This, however, would take a very long time, for as the
banks rose, the river, unable to spread its waters over the
adjoining country, would swell higher, and flow more rapidly
than before, and so overflow a country elevated above the
level of its former inundations.
The complete history of these changes, the periods of
elevation and of repose, the time when the dividing ridges
first rose above the waters, and the comparative antiquity of
the tributary streams, cannot be ascertained till the country
has been more thoroughly explored, and the organic remains,
which must doubtless exist, be brought forward, to give us
more accurate information respecting the birth and growth of
the Amazon.

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PLATE XI.
THE AMAZO/W VALLEY. 297
CLIMATE.
The climate of the Amazon valley seems remarkable for
uniformity of temperature, and for a regular supply of moisture.
There are, in most parts of it, six months’ wet, and six months’
dry season, neither of which are so severe as in some other
tropical countries. From June to December is the dry, and
from January to May the wet season. In the dry season there
are a few occasional rains, especially about All Saints' day, in
November; and during the wet season there are intervals of
fine weather, and often bright mornings, and many days of
gentle misty rain.
This is the general character of the climate over the whole
of the main stream of the Amazon and its immediate neigh-
bourhood. There are, however, remarkable deviations from
this general routine, in particular localities. Pará itself is one
of these exceptional places. Here the seasons are so modified,
as to render the climate one of the most agreeable in the
world. During the whole of the dry season, scarcely ever
more than three days or a week passes without a slight thunder-
storm and heavy shower, which comes on about four in the
afternoon and by six has cleared off again, leaving the atmo-
sphere delightfully pure and cool and all vegetable and animal
life refreshed and invigorated. Had I only judged of the
climate of Pará from my first residence of a year, I might be
thought to have been impressed by the novelty of the tropical
climate ; but on my return from a three years' sojourn on the
Upper Amazon and Rio Negro, I was equally struck with the
wonderful freshness and brilliancy of the atmosphere, and the
balmy mildness of the evenings, which are certainly not equalled
in any other part I have visited.
The wet season has not so many stormy and cloudy days
as in other parts. Sunshine and rain alternate, and the days
are comparatively bright and cheerful, even when rainy.
Generally, the variation of the thermometer in any one day
does not exceed 15°; 75° being the lowest, and 90° the highest.
The greatest variation in one day is not, I think, ever more
than 20°; and in four years, the lowest and highest tempera-
tures were 70° and 95°, giving only an extreme variation of 25°.
A more equable climate probably does not exist on the earth,
(See Diagram, Plate XI.) -
298 CZIMATE OF
On the Guiana side of the Amazon, in the islands of
Mexiana and Marajo, the seasons are more strongly marked
than even higher up the river. In the dry season, for about
three months, no rain ever falls; and in the wet it is almost
continual. *
But it is in the country about the falls of the Rio Negro
that the most curious modification of the seasons occur.
Here the regular tropical dry season has almost disappeared,
and a constant alternation of showers and sunshine occurs,
almost all the year round. In the months of June, July,
August, and September, when the Amazonian summer is in all
its glory, we have here only a little finer weather about June,
and then rain again as much as ever; till, in January or
February, when the wet season in the Amazon commences,
there is generally here a month or two of fine warm weather.
It is then that the river, which has been very slowly falling
since July, empties rapidly, and in March is generally at its
lowest ebb. In the beginning of April it suddenly begins to
rise, and by the end of May has risen twenty feet, and then
continues slowly rising till July, when it reaches its highest
point, and begins to fall with the Amazon. The district of the
greatest quantity of rain, or rather of the greatest number of
rainy days, seems to be very limited, extending only from a
little below the falls of São Gabriel to Marabitanas at the con-
fines of Brazil, where the Pirapoco and Cocoſ mountains, and
the Serra of Tunuhy, seem to form a separation from the
Venezuela district, where there is a more regular summer in
the months of December, January, and February.
The water of the Rio Negro in the month of September did
not vary in temperature more than two degrees. I unfor-
tunately lost my thermometers, or had intended making a
regular series of observations on the waters of the higher parts
of the rivers I ascended.
The extreme variation of the barometer at Pará for three
years was only three-tenths of an inch (see diagram, Plate
XII.). The mean height, with all the necessary corrections,
would seem to be almost exactly thirty inches; I have, how-
ever, already given my reasons for believing that there is a
considerable difference in the pressure of the atmosphere in
the interior of the country. In the month of May some very
cold days are said to occur annually on the Upper Amazon

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PLATE XII.
THE AMAZON VALLEY. 299
and Rio Negro; but I never myself experienced anything of
the kind worthy of notice. Many intelligent persons have
assured me that the cold is sometimes; so severe that the in-
habitants suffer much, and, what is much more extraordinary,
the fishes in the rivers die of it. Allowing this to be the fact,
I am quite unable to account for it, as it is difficult to conceive
that a diminution of temperature of five or ten degrees, which
is as much as ever takes place, can produce any effect upon
them. •
I have an authentic account of hail having once fallen on
the Upper Amazon, a remarkable occurrence at a place only
three degrees south of the equator, and about two hundred
feet above the level of the sea. The children were out at
play, and brought it to their parents, astonished at a substance
falling from the clouds quite new to them, and which was so
remarkably cold. The person who told me was a Portuguese,
and his information can be perfectly relied on,
CHAPTER XV
VEGETATION OF THE AMAZON WALLEY.
PERHAPs no country in the world contains such an amount of
vegetable matter on its surface.as the valley of the Amazon.
Its entire extent, with the exception of some very small
portions, is covered with one dense and lofty primeval forest,
the most extensive and unbroken which exists upon the earth.
It is the great feature of the country, that which at once
stamps it as a unique and peculiar region. It is not
here as on the coasts of Southern Brazil, or on the shores of
the Pacific, where a few days’ journey suffices to carry us
beyond the forest district, and into the parched plains and
rocky serras of the interior. Here we may travel for weeks
and months inland, in any direction, and find scarcely an acre
of ground unoccupied by trees. It is far up in the interior,
where the great mass of this mighty forest is found; not on the
lower part of the river, near the coast, as is generally supposed.
A line from the mouth of the river Parnaiba, in long. 41°
3o' W., drawn due west towards Guayaquil, will cut the boundary
of the great forest in long. 78° 30', and, for the whole distance
of about 2,600 miles, will have passed through the centre of it,
dividing it into two nearly equal portions.
For the first thousand miles, or as far as long. 56° W., the
width of the forest from north to south is about four hundred
miles ; it then stretches out both to the north and south, so
that in long. 67° W. it extends from 7° N., on the banks of the
Orinoko, to 18° S., on the northern slope of the Andes of
Bolivia, a distance of more than seventeen hundred miles.
From a point about sixty miles south-east of Tabatinga, a circle
may be drawn of 1,1oo miles in diameter, the whole area of
which will be virgin forest.
f
THAE AMAZON VAZZZZY. 301
Along the Andes of Quito, from Pasto to Guancabamba, it
reaches close up to the eastern base of the mountains, and
even ascends their lower slopes. In the moderately elevated
country between the river Huallaga and Marañon, the forest
extends only over the eastern portion, commencing in the
neighbourhood of Moyobamba. Further on, to the east of
Cuzco and La Paz, it spreads high up on the slopes of the
Bolivian Andes, and passing a little to the west of Santa Cruz
de la Sierra, turns off to the north-east, crossing the Tapajóz
and Xingui rivers somewhere about the middle of their course,
and the Tocantins not far above its junction with the Araguaya,
and then passes over to the river Parnaíba, which it follows to
its mouth.
The Island of Marajó, at the mouth of the Amazon, has its
eastern half open plains, while in the western the forest
commences. On the north of the Amazon, from its mouth to
beyond Montealegre, are open plains ; but opposite the mouth
of the Tapajóz at Santarem, the forest begins, and appears to
extend up to the Serras of Carumani, on the Rio Branco, and
thence stretches west, to join the wooded country on the
eastern side of the Orinoko. West of that river, it commences
south of the Vichāda, and, crossing over the upper waters of
the Guaviãre and Uaupés, reach the Andes east of Pasto,
where we commenced our survey.
The forests of no other part of the world are so extensive
and unbroken as this. Those of Central Europe are trifling
in comparison ; nor in India are they very continuous or
extensive; while the rest of Asia seems to be a country of
thinly wooded plains, and steppes, and deserts. Africa
contains some large forests, situated on the east and west
coasts, and in the interior south of the equator; but the whole
of them would bear but a small proportion to that of the
Amazon. In North America alone is there anything approach-
ing to it, where the whole country east of the Mississippi and
about the great lakes, is, or has been, an almost uninterrupted
extent of woodland.
In a general survey of the earth, we may therefore look upon
the New World as pre-eminently the land of forests, contrasting
strongly with the Old, where steppes and deserts are the most
characteristic features.
The boundaries of the Amazonian forest have not hitherto
302 º WEGETATION OF
been ascertained with 'much accuracy. The open plains of
Caguan have been supposed much more extensive than they
really are; but I have very nearly determined their limits to
the south and east, by the observations I made, and the
information I obtained in my voyage up the Uaupés. Again,
on the Uaycáli there is a district marked on the maps as the
“Pampas del Sacramento,” which has been supposed to be an
Open plain; but the banks of the Amazon up to the mouth of
the Uaycáli are clothed with thick forest, and Messrs. Smyth
and Lowe, who crossed the Pampa in two places, found no
Open plains ; and from their observations and those of Lieut.
Mawe we must extend the forest district up to near Moya-
bamba, west of the Huallaga, and to the foot of the mountains
east of Pasco and Tarma. I was informed by a native of
Ecuador, well acquainted with the country, that the Napo,
Tigre, Pastaza, and the adjacent rivers all flow through dense
forest, which extends up even to Baéza and Canélos and over
all the lower slopes of the Andes. Tschudi informs us that
the forest districts commence on all the north and east slopes
of the Andes of Peru, near Huánta, and at Urubémba north
of Cúzco. I have learnt from a gentleman, a native of La Paz,
that immediately on crossing the Bolivian Andes from that
city and from Oropéssa and Santa Cruz, you enter the great
forests, which extend, over all the tributaries of the Madeira.
Traders up the Purús and all the southern branches of the
Upper Amazon, neither meet with, nor hear accounts of, any
open land, so that there is little doubt but that the extent here
pointed out is one vast, ever-verdant, unbroken forest.
The forests of the Amazon are distinguished from those of
most other countries, by the great variety of species Öf trees
Composing them. Instead of extensive tracts covered with
pines, or oaks, or beeches, we Scarcely ever see two individuals
of the same species together, except in certain cases, principally
among the Palms. A great extent of flooded land about the
mouth of the Amazon, is covered with the Miritſ Palms
(Mauritia flexuosa and M. Zinifera), and in many places the
Assaſ (Euterſe edulis) is almost equally abundant. Generally,
however, the same species of tree is repeated only at distant
intervals. On a road for ten miles through the forest near
Pará, there are only two specimens of the Masserandūba, or
Cow-tree, and all through the adjoining district they are
THE AMAZOAV VAZZAZ V. 303
equally scarce. On the Javſta road, on the Upper Rio Negro,
I observed the same thing. On the Uaupés, I once sent
my Indians into the forest to obtain a board of a particular
kind of tree; they searched for three days, and found only a
few young trees, none of them of sufficient size.
Certain kinds of hard woods are used on the Amazon and
Rio Negro, for the construction of canoes and the schooners
used in the navigation of the river. The difficulty of getting
timber of any one kind for these vessels is so great, that they
are often constructed of half-a-dozen different sorts of wood,
and not always of the same colours or degrees of hardness.
Trees producing fruit, or with medicinal properties, are often
so widely scattered, that two or three only are found within a
reasonable distance of a village, and supply the whole population.
This peculiarity of distribution must prevent a great trade in
timber for any particular purpose being carried on here. The
india-rubber and Brazil-nut trees are not altogether exceptions
to this rule, and the produce from them is collected over an
immense extent of country, to which the innumerable lakes
and streams offer a ready access.
The chief district from which india-rubber is procured, is in
the country between Pará and the Xingui. On the Upper
Amazon and the Rio Negro it is also found, but is not yet
collected. -
The Brazil-nuts, from the Berthol/efia excelsa, are brought
chiefly from the interior ; the greater part from the country
around the junction of the Rio Negro and Madeira with the
Amazon rivers. This tree takes more than a whole year to
produce and ripen its fruits. In the month of January I
observed the trees loaded at the same time with flowers and
ripe fruits, both of which were falling from the tree; from these
flowers would be formed the nuts of the following year; so that
they probably require eighteen months for their complete
development from the bud. The fruits, which are nearly as
hard and heavy as cannon-balls, fall with tremendous force
from the height of a hundred feet, crashing through the
branches and undergrowth, and snapping off large boughs
which they happen to strike against. Persons are sometimes
killed by them, and accidents are not unfrequent among the
Indians engaged in gathering them.
The fruits are all procured as they fall from the tree. They
3O4 WEG£7.477ON OF
are collected together in small heaps, where they are opened
with an axe, an operation that requires some practice and skill,
and the triangular nuts are taken out and carried to the canoes
in baskets. Other trees of the same family (Zecythideae) are
very abundant, and are remarkable for their curious fruits,
which have lids, and are shaped like pots or cups, whence they
are called “pot-trees.” Some of the smaller ones are called by
the natives “Cuyas de macaco,”—monkeys’ calabashés.
The next most important vegetable product of the Amazon
district, is the Salsaparilha, the roots of Smilax syphilitica, and
perhaps of other allied species. This plant appears to occur
over the whole forest-district of the Amazon, from Venezuela
to Bolivia, and from the Lower Amazon to Peru. It is not
generally found near the great rivers, but far in the interior, on
the banks of the small streams, and on dry rocky ground. It
is principally dug up by the Indians, often by the most
uncivilised tribes, and is the means of carrying on a consider-
able trade with them.
The Brazilian nutmegs, produced by the Mectandrum Puchury,
grow in the country between the Rio Negro and Japura.
The Cumartí, or Tonquin-beans, are very abundant on the
Upper Rio Negro, and are also found near Santarem on the
Amazon.
A highly odoriferous bark, called by the Portuguese “Cravo
de Maranhão’’ (Cloves of Maranham), is produced by a small
tree growing only on one or two small tributaries of the Rio
Negro. &
A peculiar transparent oil, with an odour of turpentine,
called Sassafras by the Venezuelans, is abundantly obtained by
tapping a tree, common on the Upper Rio Negro, whence it is
exported to Barra, and used for mixing oil-colours. In the
Lower Amazon, a bitter oil, called Andiróba, much used for
lamps, is made from a forest fruit.
A whitish resin, with a strong camphorous smell, is pro-
duced very abundantly in the Rio Negro and the Amazon, and
is commonly used as pitch for the canoes and all the larger
vessels of the country; while the inner bark of young trees of
the Bertholletia excelsa, or Brazil-nut tree, is used instead of
Oakum for caulking.
Among the forest-trees of the Amazon, the Zeguminosae are
much the most abundant in species, and they also most attract
TAZAZ AMAZOAV VAZ.Z.A. Y. 305
attention from their curious bean-like fruits, often of extra-
ordinary size or length. Some of the Ingás, and allied genera,
have pods a yard long, and very slender ; while others are
short, and three or four inches wide. There are some curious
fruits of this family, which grow on a stalk three to five feet
long and very slender, appearing as if some one had suspended
a number of pods from the branches by long strings.
The flowers of this family are among the most brilliant and
conspicuous; and their often finely-cut pinnate foliage has a
very elegant appearance. .
The following is a list of the principal vegetable productions
of commercial value in the Amazon forests:—
India-rubber, from the sap of the Siphonia elastica.
Drazil-nuts, the seeds of the Bertholletia excelsa.
Salsaparilha, the roots of Smilax syphilitica.
Tonquin-beans, the seeds of Differyx odorata.
Puxiri, the fruit of AVecſandrum Puchury.
Sassafras oil, tree not known.
Andiroba oil, from the fruit of an unknown tree.
Crajuru, a red colour prepared from the leaves of Bigmonia
Chica.
Pitch—exudes from a forest tree.
Cacao, the seeds of Zheobroma Cacao and other species.
Cravo, from an unknown tree.
Canella, the bark of Camella a/ba.
Vanilla, the fruits of various species of Vanilla.
Guaraná, a preparation from a fruit, grated in water, to form
an agreeable and medicinal drink.
Piassába, the fibres from the petioles of a palm, Zeo-
Żoldinia n. S.
Balsam Capivi, from the Copaifera officinalis.
Silk cotton, from various species of Bombax.
In many parts of my Journal, I have expressed an opinion'
that travellers have exaggerated the beauty and brilliancy of
tropical vegetation, and on a calm review of all I have seen in
the districts I have visited, I must repeat it. *
There is a grandeur and solemnity in the tropical forest,
but little of beauty or brilliancy of colour. The huge buttress
trees, the fissured trunks, the extraordinary air roots, the
2O
306 VEGAE 7TATIOAW OF
twisted and wrinkled climbers, and the elegant palms, are what
strike the attention and fill the mind with admiration and sur-
prise and awe. But all is gloomy and solemn, and one feels a
relief on again seeing the blue sky, and feeling the scorching
rays of the sun. g
It is on the roadside and on the rivers’ banks that we see
all the beauty of the tropical vegetation. There we find a
mass of bushes and shrubs and trees of every height, rising
Over one another, all exposed to the bright light and the fresh
air ; and putting forth, within reach, their flowers and fruit,
which, in the forest, only grow far up on the topmost branches.
Bright flowers and green foliage combine their charms, and
climbers with their flowery festoons cover over the bare and
decaying stems. Yet, pick out the loveliest spots, where the
most gorgeous flowers of the tropics expand their glowing
petals, and for every scene of this kind, we may find another
at home of equal beauty, and with an equal amount of brilliant
Colour.
Look at a field of buttercups and daisies, a hill-side covered
with gorse and broom, a mountain rich with purple heather,
—or a forest-glade, azure with a carpet of wild hyacinths, and
they will bear a comparison with any scene the tropics can
produce. I have never seen anything more glorious than an
old crab-tree in full blossom ; and the horse-chesnut, lilac, and
laburnum will vie with the choicest tropical trees and shrubs.
In the tropical waters are no more beautiful plants than our
white and yellow water-lilies, our irises, and flowering rush ; for
I cannot consider the flower of the Victoria regia more beautiful
than that of the AVymphaea alba, though it may be larger; nor
is it so abundant an ornament of the tropical waters as the
latter is of ours.
But the question is not to be decided by a comparison of
individual plants, or the effects they may produce in the land-
scape, but on the frequency with which they occur, and the
proportion the brilliantly coloured bear to the inconspicuous
plants. My friend Mr. R. Spruce, now investigating the
botany of the Amazon and Rio Negro, assures me that by far
the greater proportion of plants gathered by him have incon-
spicuous green or white flowers; and with regard to the
frequency of their occurrence, it was not an uncommon thing
for me to pass days travelling up the rivers, without seeing
7"HA2 AMAZOAW WAZZAZ V. 307
any striking flowering tree or shrub. This is partly owing to
the flowers of most tropical trees being quickly deciduous: they
no sooner open, than they begin to fall; the Melastomas in
particular, generally burst into flower in the morning, and the
next day are withered, and for twelve months the tree bears
no more flowers. This will serve to explain why the tropical
flowering trees and shrubs do not make so much show as
might be expected.
From the accounts of eye-witnesses, I believe that the forests
of the southern United States present a more gay and brilliant
appearance than those of tropical America. *
Humboldt, in his “Aspects of Nature,” repeatedly remarks
on the contrast between the steppes of Tartary and the llanos
of the Orinooko. The former, in the temperate zone, are gay
with the most brilliant flowers; while the latter, in the tropics,
produce little but grasses and sedges, and only few and incon-
spicuous flowering plants. Mr. Darwin mentions the brilliancy
of the flowers adorning the plains of Monte Video, which,
with the luxuriant thistles of the Pampas, seems hardly
equalled in the campos of tropical Brazil, where, with some
exceptions, the earth is brown and sterile. The countless
beautiful geraniums and heaths of the Cape cease on entering
the tropics, and we have no account of any plants equally
striking and brilliant supplying their place.
What we may fairly allow of tropical vegetation is, that there
is a much greater number of species, and a greater variety of
forms, than in the temperate zones. Among this great variety
Occur, as we might reasonably expect, the most striking and
brilliant flowers, and the most remarkable forms of stem and
foliage. But there is no evidence to show that the proportion
of species bearing brightly coloured, compared to those bearing
inconspicuous flowers, is any greater in the tropics than in the
temperate regions; and with regard to individuals—which is,
after all, what produces the effects of vegetation—it seems
probable that there is a greater mass of brilliant colouring and
picturesque beauty, produced by plants in the temperate, than
in the tropical regions. - *
There are several reasons which lead us to this conclusion.
In the tropics, a greater proportion of the surface is covered
either with dense forests or with barren deserts, neither of
which can exhibit many flowers. Social plants are less common
308 fºg Ž7"ATIOAW OF
in the tropics, and thus masses of colour are less frequently
produced. Individual objects may be more brilliant and
striking, but the general effect will not be so great, as that of
a smaller number of less conspicuous plants, grouped together
in masses of various colours, so strikingly displayed in the
meadows and groves of the temperate regions.
The changing hues of autumn, and the tender green of
spring, are particular beauties which are not seen in tropical
regions, and which are quite unsurpassed by anything that
exists there. The wide expanse of green meadows and rich
pastures is also wanting ; and, however much individual objects
may please and astonish, the effect of the distant landscape is
decidedly superior in the temperate parts of the world.
* The sensations of pleasure we experience on seeing natural
objects, depends much upon association of ideas with their
uses, their novelty, or their history. What causes the Sensa-
tions we feel on gazing upon a waving field of golden corn ?
Not, surely, the mere beauty of the sight, but the associations
we connect with it. We look on it as a national blessing, as
the staff of life, as the most precious produce of the soil; and
this makes it beautiful in our eyes.
So, in the tropics, the broad-leaved banána, beautiful in
itself, becomes doubly so, when looked upon as producing a
greater quantity of food in a given time, and on a limited
space, than any other plant. We take it as a type of the
luxuriance of the tropics, we look at its broad leaves, the
produce of six months’ growth, we think of its delicious and
wholesome fruit: and all this is beauty, as we gaze upon it.
In the same manner, a field of sugar-cane or an extensive
plantation of cotton produces similar sensations: we think of
the thousands they will feed and clothe, and the thought
clothes them with beauty.
Palms too are subject to the same influence. They are
elegant and graceful in themselves; they are almost all useful
to man; they are associated with the brightness and warmth
of the tropics: and thus they acquire an additional interest, a
new beauty.
To the naturalist everything in the tropics acquires this kind
of interest, for some reason or other. One plant is a tropical
form, and he examines it with curiosity and delight. Another
is allied to some well-known European species, and this too
THE AMAzow WALLEY. 309
attracts his attention. The structure of Some are unknown,
and he is pleased to examine them. The locality of another
is doubtful, and he feels a great pleasure in determining it.
He is ever examining individual objects, and confounds his
own interest in them, from a variety of causes, with the
sensations produced by their beauty, and thus is led to give
exaggerated descriptions of the luxuriance and splendour of
the vegetation.
As most travellers are naturalists, this supposition will
account for the ideas of the tropics generally obtained from
a perusal of their works.
If I have come to a different conclusion, it is not that I am
incapable of appreciating the splendours of tropical scenery,
but because I believe that they are not of the kind usually
represented, and that the scenery of our own land is, of its
own kind, unsurpassed: there is nothing approaching it in the
tropics, nor is the scenery of the tropics to be found with us.
There, singular forms of stems and climbers, gigantic leaves,
elegant palms, and individual plants with brilliant flowers, are
the characteristic features. Here, an endless carpet of
verdure, with masses of gay blossoms, the varying hues of the
foliage, and the constant variety of plain and forest, meadow
and woodland, more than individual objects, are what fill the
beholder with delight.
CHAPTER XVI
OBSERVATIONS ON THE ZOOLOGY OF THE AMAZON DISTRICT.
A. MAMMALIA.
NotwitHSTANDING the luxuriance of the vegetation, which
might be supposed to afford sustenance, directly or indirectly,
to every kind of animal life, the Amazon valley is remarkably
deficient in large animals, and of Mammalia generally has a
smaller number both of species and individuals, than any
other part of the world of equal extent, except Australia.
Three small species of deer, which occur but rarely, are the
only representatives of the vast herds of countless species of
deer and antelopes and buffaloes which swarm in Africa and
Asia, and of the wild sheep and goats of Europe and North
America. The tapir alone takes the place of the elephants
and rhinoceroses of the Old World. Two or three species of
large Felidae, and two wild hogs, with the capybára and pāca,
comprise almost all its large game; and these are all thinly
scattered over a great extent of country, and never occur in
such large numbers as do the animals representing them in
other parts of the world. -
Those singular creatures, the sloths, the armadilloes, and
the ant-anters, are very generally distributed, but only occur
singly and sparingly. The small agoutis are perhaps rather
more plentiful ; but almost the only animals found in any
numbers are the monkeys, which are abundant, both in species
and individuals, and are the only mammalia that give some
degree of life to these trackless forests, which seem peculiarly
fitted for their development and increase.
I met with twenty-one species of these animals, some of
which I had no opportunity of examining. Several others
exist; but it is necessary to reside for some years in each
ZOOZOG V. 3II
locality, in order to meet with all the different kinds. I sub-
join a list of the species, with the localities in which they were
found.
MONKEYS FOUND ON THE AMAZON AND THE RIO NEGRO.
I. Mycetes seniculus, Geoff. ; on the Rio Negro and the
north bank of the Amazon. -
2. Mycetes caraya, Gray; on the Upper Amazon
3. Mycetes bee/Zebub, Br. Mus. ; Pará.
4. Lagothrix Humboldtii, Geoff. ; Upper Amazon and west
of Rio Negro. -
5. Afeles paniscus, Geoff. ; Guiana, north bank of Amazon
and east of Rio Negro.
6. Cebus affel/a, Erxl. (?); Amazon and Rio Negro.
7. Ceòus gracilis, Spix; Rio Negro and Upper Amazon.
8. Callithrix sciureus, Geoff. ; the whole Amazon valley.
9. Callithrix torquatus (amicius, Geoff); Upper Rio Negro.
Io. Callithrix personatus, Geoff. ; south bank of Upper
Amazon. -
II. Myctipithecus trivirgatus, Humb. ; Upper Rio Negro.
12. Myctºpithecus felinus, Spix; Upper Amazon.
13. Pithecia irrorata (hirsuta, Spix); south bank of Upper
Amazon. - -
14. Pithecia , north of Upper Amazon.
15. Brachiurus satanas, Br. Mus. ; Guiana, east bank of
Rio Negro.
I6. Brachiurus oakary, Spix; Upper Rio Negro.
17. Brachiurus rubicundus, Isid. ; Upper Amazon.
18. Brachiurus , south side of Upper Amazon.
19. Jacchus bicolor, Spix; north of the Amazon and Rio
Negro. -
20. Jacchus tamarin, Br. Mus. ; Pará.
2.I. Jacchus n.s., Upper Rio Negro.
Of the above, the first seven have prehensile tails, a character
only found among the monkeys of America. The howlers,
forming the genus Mycetes, are the largest and most powerful.
They have a bony vessel situated beneath the chin, and a strong
muscular apparatus in the throat, which assists in producing the
loud rolling noise from which they derive their name, and
312 ZOOZOGY OF
which appears as if a great number of animals were crying in
Concert. This, however, is not the case; a full-grown male
alone makes the howling, which is generally heard at night, or
on the approach of rain. -
The annexed list of the other larger mammalia of the Amazon
district, will serve to confirm the statement of the extreme
poverty of these regions in that class of animals. Owing to
the loss of my notes and specimens, many of the specific
names are doubtful : such are marked thus—? -
A hyllostoma hastatum.—This is a common bat on the
Amazon, and is, I believe, the one which does much injury to
the horses and cattle by sucking their blood; it also attacks
men, when it has opportunity. The species of blood-sucking
bats seem to be numerous in the interior. They do not inhabit
houses, like many of the frugivorous bats, but enter at dusk
through any aperture they may find. They generally attack
the tip of the toe, or sometimes any other part of the body
that may be exposed. I have myself been twice bitten, orice
on the toe, and the other time on the tip of the nose; in neither
case did I feel anything, but awoke after the operation was com-
pleted: in what way they effect it is still quite unknown. The
wound is a small round hole, the bleeding of which it is very
difficult to stop. It can hardly be a bite, as that would awake
the sleeper; it seems most probable that it is either a succes-
sion of gentle scratches with the sharp edge of the teeth, gradu-
ally wearing away the skin, or a triturating with the point of
the tongue, till the same effect is produced. My brother was
frequently bitten by them, and his opinion was, that the bat
applied one of its long canine teeth to the part, and then flew
round and round on that as a centre, till the tooth, acting as
an awl, bored a small hole; the wings of the bat serving, at
the same time, to fan the patient into a deeper slumber. He
several times awoke while the bat was at work, and though
of course the creature immediately flew away, it was his im-
pression that the operation was conducted in the manner
above described. Many persons are particularly annoyed by
bats, while others are free from their attacks. An old Mulatto
at Guia, on the Upper Rio Negro, was bitten almost every
night, and though there were frequently half-a-dozen other
persons in the room, he would be the party favoured by their
THE AMAZOAV D/STRAC 7. 3I3
attentions. Once he came to us with a doleful countenance,
telling us, he thought the bats meant to eat him up quite, for,
having covered up his hands and feet in a blanket, they had
descended beneath his hammock of open network, and, attack-
ing the most prominent part of his person, had bitten him
through a hole in his trousers . We could not help laughing
at the catastrophe, but to him it was no laughing matter.
Senhor Brandão, of Manaquery, informed me that he had
once an Indian girl in his house, who was much subject to the
attacks of the bats. She was at length so much weakened by
loss of blood, that fears were entertained of her life, if they
continued their attacks ; and it was found necessary to send
her to a distance, where these bloodthirsty animals did not
abound.
The wound made by them is very difficult to heal, especially
in its usual locality—the tip of the great toe, as it generally
renders a shoe unbearable for a day or two, and forces one to
the conclusion that, after the first time, for the curiosity of the
thing, to be bitten by a bat is very disagreeable. They will,
however, very rarely enter a lighted room, and for this reason
the practice of burning a lamp all night is almost universal.
Zapirus Americanus.-The Tapir is common over the whole
Amazon district, but is nowhere very abundant. It feeds on
leaves and a great many different kinds of fruits, and some-
times does much injury in the mandiocca-fields of the Indians.
Its flesh is very good eating, and is considered very wholesome,
and is even said to be a remedy for the ague. It is a very shy
and timid animal, wandering about principally at night. When
the Indian discovers a feeding-place, he builds a stage between
two trees, about eight feet above the ground, and there stations
himself soon after dusk, armed with a gun, or with his bow and
arrow. Though such a heavy animal, the tapir steps as lightly
as a cat, and can only be heard approaching by the gentle
rustling of the bushes; the slightest sound or smell will alarm
it, and the Indian lies still as death for hours, till the animal
approaches sufficiently near to be shot, or until, scenting its
enemy, it makes off in another direction. I have accom-
panied the Indians on these expeditions, but always without
Sll CCéSS.
Coassus memorivagus.
C. rufus.—These are the small white and red deer of the
3I4 - 2OOZOGY OF
forests, found in all parts of the Amazon. They have very
small unbranched horns. . -
Mazama campestris 3–The “Viado galera,” or horned deer
of the Rio Branco, is probably of this species. It has small
branched horns, and inhabits the open plains, never the thick
forests. -
Dicotyles fataçu. The smallerwild Hog. Taititiofthe Indians.
Z). labiatus 3–The larger species, called by the natives
“Taiaçu.” -
There seems to be also a third species, of the same size as
the last. g
Arctopithecus flaccidus ; Preguiça real. Ai, (Lingoa Geral).
The great Sloth. -
Bradyfus torquatus. Ai, (Lingoa Geral).-These and some
other species of sloths are not uncommon. They feed entirely
on leaves, preferring those of the Cecropias. They are frequently
attacked by the harpy eagle, and are also eaten by the
Indians. - - *
Myrmecophaga jubata. Tamanduá assu, (Lingoa Geral). “The
great Ant-eater.”—This animal is rare, but widely distributed.
During rain it turns its long bushy tail up over its back and
stands still ; the Indians, when they meet with one, rustle the
leaves, and it thinks rain is falling, and turning up its tail, they
take the opportunity of killing it by a blow on the head with a
Stick. It feeds on the large termites, or white ants, tearing up
with its powerful claws the earth and rotten wood in which
their nests are made. The Indians positively assert that it
Sometimes kills the jaguar, embracing it and forcing in its
enormous claws, till they mutually destroy each other. They
also declare that these animals are all females, and believe that
the male is the “curupíra,” or demon of the forests: the
peculiar organisation of the animal has probably led to this
error. It lives entirely on the ground.
Tamandua tetradactylus £ The smaller Prehensile-tailed
Ant-eater.—This animal is entirely arboreal, feeding on the
tree termites ; it has no nest, and sleeps in a fork of a tree
with its head bent under its body.
Cyclothurus didactylus. Tamanduái, (Lingoa Geral). The
Small Silky-haired Ant-eater, is arboreal, and rather abundant.
There is another species much smaller, and as white as cotton;
but it is rare, and I never met with it.

THE AMAZOAV ZX/STRACT, 3I5
Priodonta gigas º Tatuassú, (Lingoa Geral). The great
Armadillo.—Rather scarce. -
Tatusia septemcinctus? Tatu, (Lingoa Geral).-This and
another very small species are the most abundant in the Amazon
district, but can seldom be procured except by hunting with dogs.
All the kinds are eaten, and their flesh is very white and delicate.
Dide/phis . Opossum. Muciira, (LingoaGeral).-Several
species are found. They frequent the neighbourhood of houses,
and attack poultry. The young are carried in an abdominal
pouch, like the kangaroos, and have their little prehensile tails'
twisted round that of the mother.
Aydrochaerus capybara. Capywóra, (Lingoa Geral).—This
animal is found on all the river-banks. It feeds on grass, and
takes to the water and dives when pursued. It is sometimes
eaten, but is not considered very good.
Coºlogenis paca. Páca. (Lingoa Geral).-This animal is
generally abundant. It is nocturnal, and is much esteemed for
its meat, which is the very best the country produces, being fat,
delicate, and very tender.
Dasy/rocta nigricans, Natt. Black Agouti. Cotia, (Lingoa.
Geral).-This species is found on the Rio Negro.
D. punctata ? Yellow Agouti.—This is probably the
Common Amazon species. -
D. agouti ? Cotiwya, (Lingoa Geral).-A smaller species,
very widely distributed. All are eaten, but the meat is rather
dry and tasteless.
Cercolabes prehensilis. The Brazilian Porcupine.—This
animal is scarce. It is eaten by the Indians.
Echimys Several species of these curious, spinous, rat-
like animals are found on the Upper Rio Negro.
Cercolepies caudevolvus. The Potto.—It is a nocturnal
animal, and inhabits the banks of the Upper Amazon.
AVasua olivacea 3 Coatſ.—Two species, the “Coati”, and
the “Coatſ mondi’ of the Indians, are found on the
Amazon. -
Zontra Brasiliensis ; The Brazilian Otter, is abundant on
the Rio Negro.
Galera barbara. Irára, (Lingoa Geral). Teeth, I. 3 C.E. M. H.
This is a curious animal, somewhat allied to the bears. It
lives in trees, and eats honey, whence probably its Indian name,
—from Irá, in the Lingoa Geral, “honey.”
316 ZOOZOGY OF
Vulpes — ? A wild dog, or fox, of the forests; it hunts in
Small packs; it is easily domesticated, but is very scarce.
Zeopardus concolor. The Puma. In the Lingoa Geral,
Sasurána, “the false deer,” from its colour.
Z. onga. The Jaguar. Jauarité, (Lingoa Geral).-“The
Great Dog.” .
L. onça, var. nigra. The Black Jaguar. Jauarité pixuna,
(Lingoa Geral). Tigre (Spaniards).
Z.Éictus and Z.griseus. Tiger Cats. Maracajá, (Lingoa Geral).
The Jaguar, or onça, appears to approach very nearly in
fierceness and strength to the tiger of India. Many persons
are annually killed or wounded by these animals. When they
can obtain other food they will seldom attack man. The
Indians, however, assert that they often face a man boldly,
springing forward till within a few feet of him, and then, if the
man turns, they will attack him ; the hunters will sometimes
meet them thus face to face, and kill them with a cutlass.
They also destroy them with the bow and arrow, for which
purpose an old knife-blade is used for the head of the arrow ;
and they say it is necessary not to pull too strong a bow, or
the arrow will pass completely through the body of the animal,
and not do him so much injury as if it remains in the wound.
For the same reason, in shooting with a gun, they use rough
leaden cylinders instead of bullets, which make a larger and
rougher wound, and do not pass so readily quite through the
body. I heard of one case, of a jaguar entering an Indian's
house, and attacking him in his hammock. .
The jaguar, say the Indians, is the most cunning animal in
the forest: he can imitate the voice of almost every bird and
animal so exactly, as to draw them towards him : he fishes in
the rivers, lashing the water with his tail to imitate falling fruit,
and when the fish approach, hooks them up with his claws.
He catches and eats turtles, and I have myself found the
unbroken shells, which he has cleaned completely out with
his paws; he even attacks the Cow-fish in its own element, and
an eye-witness assured me he had watched one dragging out
of the water this bulky animal, weighing as much as a large ox.
A young Portuguese trader told me he had seen (what many
persons had before assured me often happened) an onga
feeding on a full-grown live alligator, tearing and eating its
tail. On leaving off, and retiring a yard or two, the alligator
THE AMazow prSzrict 317
would begin to move towards the water, when the onga would
spring upon it, and again commence eating at the tail, during
which time the alligator lay perfectly still. We had been
observing a cat playing with a lizard, both behaving in exactly
the same manner, the lizard only attempting to move when
the cat for a moment left it; the cat would then immediately
spring upon it again: and my informant assured me that he
had seen the jaguar treating the alligator in exactly the same
way.
The onça is particularly fond of dogs, and will carry them
off in preference to any other animal. When one has been
committing any depredations, it is a common thing to tie a
dog to a tree at night, the howling of which attracts the onga,
which comes to seize it, and is then shot by a person concealed
for the purpose.
It is a general belief among the Indians and the white
inhabitants of Brazil, that the onga has the power of fascination.
Many accounts are given to prove this; among others, a
person informed me, that he had seen an onga standing at the
foot of a high tree, looking up into it: on the top was a
guariba, or howling-monkey, looking down at the onga, and
jumping about from side to side, crying piteously; the onga
stood still; the monkey continued descending lower and lower
on the branches, still uttering its cries, till at length it fell
down at the very feet of the onga, which seized and devoured
it. Many incidents of this kind are related by persons who
have witnessed them ; but whether they are exaggerated, or
are altogether imaginary, it is difficult to decide. The belief
in them, by persons best acquainted with the habits of the
animal, is universal.
Of the smaller Tiger-cats, there are several kinds, but having
lost my collection of skins, I cannot ascertain the species.
The Puma is considered much less fierce than the jaguar, and
is very little feared by the inhabitants. There are several
varieties of the jaguar, distinguished by the Indians by different
names. The black variety is rarer than the others, and is
generally thought to be quite distinct; in some localities it is
unknown, while in others it is as abundant as the ocellated
variety.
Many small rodent animals—squirrels, rats, etc.—complete
the terrestrial mammalia of the Amazon district.
318 200ZOGY OF
The waters of the Amazon, up even to the base of the
Andes, are inhabited by several species of true Cetacea, of
which, however, we have as yet but very scanty information.
Two, if not more, species of Dolphins are common in every
part of the Amazon, and in almost all of its tributaries. They
are found above the falls of the Rio Negro, and in the Cassi-
quiare and Upper Orinooko. They vary in size and colour,
and two of them have distinct Indian names.—Piraiowára
(Fish-dog), and Tucuxi.
D'Orbigny mentions their being killed by the inhabitants of
Bolivia to make oil. In the Lower Amazon and Rio Negro
they are scarcely ever caught, and I was unable to obtain a
specimen. The species described by D'Orbigny is probably
distinct, as he mentions their being twenty feet long, whereas
none I have seen could have exceeded six or seven.
Herbivorous Cetacea are also found in the Amazon; they
are called by the Brazilians, Peixe boi, or cow-fish, and by the
Indians, Juarouá.
It has not yet been ascertained, whether the cow-fish of the
Amazon is the same as the Manatus of the West Indies and
the coasts of Guiana, or a distinct species. All the accounts
of the Manatus Americanus mention it as being twelve or
fifteen feet long on the average, and sometimes reaching
twenty. Those of the Amazon appear to average seven or
eight feet only; of five or six specimens I have myself seen,
none have exceeded this; Lieutenant Smyth saw one on the
Upper Uaycáli, of the same size; and Condamine describes
the one he saw as not being larger. -
The inhabitants of the Amazon give accounts of three
kinds, which they seem to consider distinct, one smaller, and
one larger than the common kind, and differing also in the
shape of the tail and fins, and in the colour.
The West Indian species is always described as having
external nails on the edge of the fin, or fore-arm. This I
never observed in the Amazon species; though in cutting the
edge of the fin to take out the bones entire, I must have
noticed them, had they been as prominent as they are usually
described; neither does Lieutenant Smyth mention them,
though he could hardly have overlooked so singular an
external character.
I am therefore inclined to think that the Amazon possesses
7A/AE AAZAZOAV ZXAS7R/C7. 319
One or two distinct species. Having carefully prepared a skin
and, skeleton of a fine male (which, with the rest of my
Collections, was lost on the voyage home), I did not describe
it so minutely as I otherwise should have done, but have some
notes, referring to male and female specimens, which I will
now give :—
Manatus of the Amazon.
Peixe boi, of the Portuguese.
Vaca marina, of the Spaniards.
Juarouá, of the Indians’ Lingoa Geral.
The mammae of the female are two, one close to the base of
each fin behind. The muzzle is blunt, fleshy, and covered
with numerous stiff bristles; the nostrils are on the upper part
of it, and lunate. The lips, thick, fleshy, and bristly, and the
tongue rough. The skin is lead-colour, with a few pinkish-
white marblings on the belly; others have the whole of the
neck and fore-part of the body beneath cream-colour, and
another spot of the same colour on the underside of the tail.
The skin is entirely smooth, resembling india-rubber in
appearance, and there are short hairs scattered over it, about
an inch apart ; it is an inch thick on the back, and a quarter
of an inch on the belly ; beneath it, is a layer of fat, of an
inch or more in thickness, enveloping every part of the body,
and furnishing from five to ten gallons of oil.
The total length of full-grown animals is seven feet. The
intestines are very voluminous. The lungs are two feet long,
and six or seven inches wide, very cellular, and when blown
up, much resemble a Macintosh air-belt. The ribs are each
nearly Semicircular, arching back from the spine, so as to form
a ridge or keel inside, and on the back there is a great depth
of flesh. The bone is excessively hard and heavy, and can
scarcely be broken. The dung resembles that of a horse.
The Cow-fish feeds on grass on the margins of the rivers and
lakes. It is captured either with the harpoon, or with strong
nets, placed at the mouth of some lake, whence it comes at
night to feed. - - -
Though it has very small eyes, and minute pores for ears,
its senses are very acute ; and the fishermen say there is no
animal can hear, See, and smell better, or which requires
greater skill and caution to capture. When caught, it is killed
320 2OOZOGY OF
by driving a wooden plug up its nostrils. The Indian fills his
canoe full of water, and sinks it beneath the body; he then
bales out the water, and paddles home with a load which
requires a dozen men to move on shore. The meat is very
good, and both for it and for the oil the animal is much sought
after. It ascends most of the tributaries of the Amazon, bu
does not pass the falls or rapids. .*
A. BIRDS.
The birds of the Amazon district are so numerous and
striking, that it is impossible here to do more than mention a
few of the most interesting and beautiful, so as to give some
general idea of the ornithology of the district.
Among the birds of prey, the most conspicuous are the
King Vulture (Sarcorhamphus papa), and the Harpy Eagle
(Thrasaetos harpyia), both of which are found in the whole
district of the lower Amazon. There is also a great variety of
eagles, hawks, kites, and owls, and probably between twenty
#. thirty species may be obtained in the country around
Pará. .
Those two fine eagles, the Spizačius ornatus and the
Morphnus Guianensis, inhabit the Upper Amazon.
Among the smaller perching-birds, the yellow-breasted tyrant
shrikes immediately attract attention, perched upon dead trees
in the open grounds. In the forests the curious notes of the
bush-shrikes (Thamnophilima) are often heard, and the ever-
recurring vociferous cries of the great grey tyrant-flycatcher
(Zipaugus simplex).
Several pretty little tanagers are found about Pará; but the
exquisite little seven-coloured tanager (Calospiza tatao), and
the scarcely less beautiful scarlet and black one (Rhamphocells
nigrogularis,) do not occur till we reach the Rio Negro and
the Upper Amazon.
The Chatterers form one of the most splendid families of
birds, and we have on the Amazon some of the finest species,
such as the Cotinga cayana, C. caerulea, Phoenicurus carnifex,
and P. militaris, which are found at Pará, and the C. Pompa-
doura, and P. nigrogularis on the Upper Amazon and Rio
Negro.
THE AMAZOAV DZSTRACT. 321
The hang-nest Orioles, species of Cassicus, are numerous,
and by their brilliant plumage of yellow or red and black, and
their curious pendulous nests, give a character to the ornitho-
logy of the country.
Woodpeckers, kingfishers, and splendid metallic jacamars
and trogons, are numerous in species and individuals. But of
all the families of birds that inhabit this country, the parrots
and the toucans are perhaps the most characteristic; they
abound in species and individuals, and are much more fre-
quently seen than any other birds. -
From Pará to the Rio Negro I met with sixteen species
of toucans, the most curious and beautiful of which is the
Pteroglossus Beauharnasii, or “curl-crested Araçari,” whose
glossy crest of horny black curls is unique among birds.
Of parrots and paroquets I found at least thirty distinct
species, varying in size from the little Psittaculus passerinus,
scarcely larger than a sparrow, to the magnificent crimson
macaws. In ascending the Amazon, large flocks of parrots
are seen, every morning and evening, crossing the river to
their feeding- or resting-places; and however many there may
be, they constantly fly in pairs, as do also the macaws, while
the noisy little paroquets associate indiscriminately in flocks,
and fly from tree to tree with a rapidity which few birds can
Surpass.
Though humming-birds are almost entirely confined to
tropical America, they appear to abound most in the hilly and
mountainous districts, and those of the level forests of the
Amazon are comparatively few and inconspicuous. The whole
number of species I met with in the Lower Amazon and Rio
Negro, does not exceed twenty, and few of them are very hand-
some. The beautiful little Zophornis Gouldi, found rarely at
Pará, and the magnificent Zopaza pyra, which is not uncommon
on the Upper Rio Negro, are, however, exceptions, and will
bear comparison with any species in this wonderful family.
Probably no country in the world contains a greater variety
of birds than the Amazon valley. Though I did not collect
them very assiduously, I obtained upwards of five hundred
species, a greater number than can be found all over Europe;
and I have little hesitation in saying that any one collecting
industriously for five or six years might obtain near a thousand.
different kinds.
/v2/
2 I
322 *. ZOOZOGY OF
C. REPTILES AND FISHES.
Like all tropical countries the Amazon district abounds in
reptiles, and contains many of the largest size and most singular
structure. The lizards and serpents are particularly abundant,
and among the latter are several very venomous species; but
the most remarkable are the boa and the anaconda, which
reach an enormous size. The former inhabits the land, and
though it is often found very large, yet the most authentic and
trustworthy accounts of monstrous serpents refer to the latter,
the Eunecies murinus of naturalists, which lives in or near
the water. The Indians are aware of the generic distinction
of these creatures, for while they call the former “Jiboa,” the
latter is the “Sucurujú.”
The largest specimens I met with myself were not more than
from fifteen to twenty feet long, but I have had several accounts
of their having been killed, and measured, of a length of thirty-
two feet. They have been seen very much larger, but, as may
be supposed, are then very difficult to kill or secure, owing to
their tenacity of life and their acquatic habits. It is an undis-
puted fact that they devour cattle and horses, and the general
belief in the country is that they are sometimes from sixty to
eighty feet long.” * g -
Alligators of three or four distinct species abound in the
Amazon, and in all its tributary streams. The smaller ones
are eaten by the natives, the larger often devour them in
return. In almost every village some persons may be seen
maimed by these creatures, and many children are killed every
year. The eggs of all the different kinds are eaten, though
they have a very strong musky odour. The largest. species
* As so few Europeans have seen these large serpents, and the very
existence of any large enough to swallow a horse or ox is hardly credited,
I append the following account by a competent scientific observer, the
well-known botanical traveller Dr. Gardner. In his “Travels in Brazil,”
p. 356, he says:— -
“In the marshes of this valley in the province of Goyaz, near Arrayas,
the Boa Constrictor is often met with of considerable size; it is not un-
common throughout the whole province, particularly by the wooded
margins of lakes, marshes, and streams. Sometimes they attain the
enormous length of forty feet: the largest I ever saw was at this place,
but it was not alive. Some weeks before our arrival at Safé, the favourite
riding horse of Senhor Lagoriva, which had been put out to pasture not far
THE AMAZOAV D/STRACT. 323
(/acare migra) reaches a length of fifteen, or rarely of twenty
feet.
The most interesting and useful reptiles of the Amazon are,
however, the various species of fresh-water turtles, which supply
an abundance of wholesome food, and from whose eggs an
excellent oil is made. The largest and most abundant of these
is the Tataruga, or great turtle of the Amazon, the Jurará of
the Indians. It grows to the length of three feet, and has an
oval flattish shell of a dark colour and quite smooth; it abounds
in all parts of the Amazon, and in most places is the common
food of the inhabitants. -
In the month of September, as soon as the sandbanks
begin to be uncovered, the females deposit their eggs, scraping
hollows of a considerable depth, covering them over carefully,
Smoothing and beating down the sand, and then walking across
and across the place in various directions for the purpose of
concealment. There are such numbers of them, that some
beaches are almost one mass of eggs beneath the surface, and
here the Indians come to make oil. A canoe is filled with the
eggs, which are all broken and mashed up together. The oil
rises to the top, and is skimmed off and boiled, when it will
keep, and is used both for light and for cooking. Millions of
eggs are thus annually destroyed, and the turtles have already
become scarce in consequence. There are some extensive
beaches which yield two thousand pots of oil annually; each
pot contains five gallons, and requires about two thousand five
hundred eggs, which would give five millions of eggs destroyed
in one locality.
But of those that remain, a very small portion are able
to reach maturity. When the young turtles issue from the egg,
and run to the water, many enemies are awaiting them. Great
from the house, could not be found, although strict search was made for it
all over the Fazenda. Shortly after this, one of his vaqueiros, in going
through a wood by the side of a small river, saw an enormous Boa
suspended in the fork of a tree which hung over the water; it was dead,
but had evidently been floated down alive by a recent flood, and being in
an inert state it had not been able to extricate itself from the fork before
the waters fell. It was dragged out to the open country by two horses,
and was found to measure thirty-seven feet in length; on opening it the
bones of a horse in a somewhat broken condition, and the flesh in a half-
digested state, were found within it, the bones of the head being uninjured;
from these circumstances we concluded that the Boa had devoured the
horse entire,” p .
324 " ; 2OOLOGY OF
alligators open their jaws and swallow them by hundreds; the
jaguars from the forest come and feed upon them; eagles and
buzzards, and the great wood ibises attend the feast; and
when they have escaped all these, there are many ravenous
fishes which seize them in the stream.
The Indians catch the full-grown turtles, either with the
hook, net, or arrow. The last is the most ingenious method,
and requires the most skill. The turtle never shows its back
above water, only rising to breathe, which it does by protruding
its nostrils almost imperceptibly above the surface; the Indian's
keen eyes perceive this, even at a considerable distance; but
an arrow shot obliquely would glance off the smooth flat shell,
so he shoots up into the air with such accurate judgment, that
the arrow falls nearly vertically upon the shell, which it pene-
trates, and remains securely fixed in the turtle's back. The
head of the arrow fits loosely on to the shaft, and is connected
with it by a long fine cord, carefully wound round it; as the
turtle dives, they separate, the light shaft forming a float or
buoy, which the Indian secures, and by the attached cord
draws the prize up into his canoe. In this manner almost all
the turtles sold in the cities have been procured, and the little
square vertical hole of the arrow-head may generally be seen in
the shell. .
Besides the great tataruga (Podocnemis expansa), there are
several smaller kinds, also much used for food. The Tracaxa
(Emys tracaxa, Spix) and the Cabeçudo (E. macrocephala,
Spix) have been described by the French naturalists, Duméril
and Bibron, as one species, under the name of Peltocephalus
tracasca, but they are quite distinct, and though their characters
are perhaps not easy to define, they could never be confounded
by any one who had examined them in the living state. They
are found too in different localities. The tracaxa is abundant
in the Amazon, in the Orinooko, and in the Guaviare, all white-
water rivers, and very scarce in the Rio Negro. The cabeçudo
is very abundant in the Rio Negro and in the Atabapo, but is
not found in the Guaviare or the Amazon, appearing to be
confined to the black-water streams. I obtained ten distinct
kinds of river tortoises, or Chelya'idae, and there are also two or
three kinds of land-tortoises inhabiting the adjacent district.
As might be expected in the greatest river in the world,
there is a corresponding abundance and variety of fish. They
THE AMAZON DISTRICZ. 325
supply the Indians with the greater part of their animal food,
and are at all times more plentiful, and easier to be obtained,
than birds or game from the forest.
During my residence on the Rio Negro I carefully figured
and described every species I met with ; and at the time I left
fresh ones were every day occurring. The soft-finned fishes
are much the most numerous, and comprise some of the best
kinds of food. Of the Siluridae I obtained fifty-one species, of
Serrasalmo twenty-four, of Chalceus twenty-six, of Gymnotus
ten, and of spinous-finned fishes (Acanthopterygia) forty-two.
Of all kinds of fishes I found two hundred and five species in
the Rio Negro alone, and these, I am sure, are but a small
portion of what exist there. Being a black-water river, most
of its fishes are different from those found in the Amazon. In
fact, in every small river, and in different parts of the same
river, distinct kinds are found. The greater part of those
which inhabit the Upper Rio Negro are not found near its
mouth, where there are many other kinds equally unknown in
the clearer, darker, and probably colder waters of its higher
branches. From the number of new fishes constantly found
in every fresh locality and in every fisherman's basket, we may
estimate that at least five hundred species exist in the Rio
Negro and its tributary streams. The number in the whole
valley of the Amazon it is impossible to estimate with any
approach to accuracy. - -
L. INSECTs.
To describe the countless tribes of insects that swarm in the
dense forests of the Amazon would require volumes. In no
country in the world is there more variety and beauty; nowhere
are there species of larger size or of more brilliant colours.
Here are found the extraordinary harlequin-beetle, the gigantic
Arioni and Z2/nastes ; but these are exceptions to the great
mass of the Coleoptera, which, though in immense variety, are
of small size and of little brilliancy of colour, offering a great
contrast to the generally large-sized and gorgeous species of
tropical Africa, India, and Australia. In the other orders the
same rule holds good, except in the Hymenoptera, which con-
tain many gigantic and handsome species. It is in the lovely
326 - ZOOZOGY OF
butterflies that the Amazonian forests are unrivalled, whether
we consider the endless variety of the species, their large size,
or their gorgeous colours. South America is the richest part
of the world in this group of insects, and the Amazon seems
the richest part of South America. This continent is distin-
guished from every other by having a most extensive and
peculiar family, the Heliconiidae, of which not a single species
is found in either Europe, Asia, Africa, or even North America
(excepting Mexico). Another family, still more extensive, of
exquisitely beautiful small butterflies, the Erycinidae, is also
almost peculiar to it, a few species only being found in tropical
Asia and Africa. In both these peculiar families the Amazon
is particularly rich, so that we may consider it as the head-
quarters of South America Zepidoptera. -
Pará itself, for variety of species, is perhaps the best locality
for diurnal Zepidoptera ; six hundred distinct kinds may be
obtained within a day's walk of the city. At Santarem I had
increased my collection to seven hundred species, at Barra to
eight hundred, and I should have brought home with me nine
hundred species had my collections arrived in safety. Mr.
Bates, who has paid more exclusive attention to insects, states
that he has now obtained twelve hundred species, a wonderful
collection to be made by one person, in a country without any
variation of climate or of physical features, and no part of it
elevated five hundred feet above the level of the sea.
E. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALs.
There is no part of natural history more interesting or
instructive than the study of the geographical distribution of
animals. - - -
It is well known that countries possessing a climate and soil
very similar, may differ almost entirely in their productions.
Thus Europe and North America have scarcely an animal in
common in the temperate zone; and South America contrasts
equally with the opposite coast of Africa ; while Australia
differs almost entirely in its productions from districts under
the same parallel of latitude in South Africa and South
America. In all these cases there is a wide extent of sea
separating the countries, which few animals can pass over; so
THE AMAZON DISTRICT. 327
that, supposing the animal productions to have been originally
distinct, they could not well have become intermixed.
In each of these countries we find well-marked smaller
districts, appearing to depend upon climate. The tropical and
temperate parts of America and Africa have, generally speaking,
distinct animals in each of them. -
On a more minute acquaintance with the animals of any
country, we shall find that they are broken up into yet smaller
local groups, and that almost every district has peculiar animals
ſound nowhere else. Great mountain-chains are found to
separate countries possessing very distinct sets of animals.
Those of the east and west of the Andes differ very remarkably.
The Rocky Mountains also separate two distinct zoological
districts ; California and Oregon on the one side, possessing
plants, birds, and insects, not found in any part of North
America east of that range.
But there must be many other kinds of boundaries besides
these, which, independently of climate, limit the range of
animals. Places not more than fifty or a hundred miles apart
often have species of insects and birds at the one, which are
not found at the other. There must be some boundary which
determines the range of each species; some external peculiarity
to mark the line which each one does not pass.
These boundaries do not always form a barrier to the
progress of the animal, for many birds have a limited range,
in a country where there is nothing to prevent them flying in
every direction,--as in the case of the nightingale, which is
quite unknown in some of our western counties. Rivers
generally do not determine the distribution of species, because,
when small, there are few animals which cannot pass them;
but in very large rivers the case is different, and they will, it is
believed, be found to be the limits, determining the range of
many animals of all orders. . - .
With regard to the Amazon, and its larger tributaries, . I
have ascertained this to be the case, and shall here mention
the facts which tend to prove it. -
On the north side of the Amazon, and the east of the Rio
Negro, are found the following three species of monkeys,
Ateles paniscus, Brachiurus satanas, and /acchus bicolor. These
are all found close up to the margins of the Rio Negro and
Amazon, but never on the opposite banks of either river ; nor
328 2OOZOGY OF
am I able to ascertain that either of them have ever been found
in any other part of South America than Cayenne or Guiana,
and the eastern part of Venezuela, a district which is bounded
on the south and west by the Amazon and Rio Negro.
The species of Pithecia, No. 14 of my list, is found on the
west side of the Rio Negro for several hundred miles, from its
mouth up to the river Curicuriarſ, but never on the east side,
neither is it known on the south side of the Upper Amazon,
where it is replaced by an allied species, the P. irrorata (P.
hirsuta, Spix), which, though abundant there, is never found .
on the north bank. These facts are, I think, sufficient to
prove that these rivers do accurately limit the range of some
species, and in the cases just mentioned, the evidence is the
more satisfactory, because monkeys are animals so well known
to the native hunters, they are so much sought after for food,
and all their haunts are so thoroughly searched, and the
localities for the separate kinds are so often the subject of
communication from one hunter to another, that it is quite
impossible that any well-known species can exist in a particular
district, unknown to men whose lives are occupied in forming
an acquaintance with the various tenants of the forests.
On the south side of the Lower Amazon, in the neighbour-
hood of Pará, are found two monkeys, Mycetes beelzebub and
Jacchus tamarin, which do not pass the river to the north. I
have never heard of monkeys swimming over any river, so that
this kind of boundary might be expeeted to be more definite
in their case than in that of other quadrupeds, most of which
readily take to the water.
Towards their sources, rivers do not form a boundary
between distinct species; but those found there, though rang-
ing on both sides of the stream, do not often extend down to
the mouth. f -
Thus on the Upper Rio Negro and its branches are found
the Callithrix torquatus, Myctipithecus trivirgatus, and Jacchus
(No. 21), none of which inhabit the Lower Rio Negro or
Amazon; they are probably confined to the granitic districts
which extend from Guiana across the sources of the Rio
Negro towards the Andes.
Among birds it cannot be expected that we should find
many proofs of rivers limiting their range; but there is one
very remarkable instance of a genus, the three known species
THE AMAZOAV DISTRYCZ. 329
of which are separated by rivers, namely, the three species of
genus Psophia, P. crepitans (Linn.), P. viridis (Spix), and P.
Jeucoptera (Spix). The P. crepitans is the common trumpeter
of Guiana; it extends into the interior all over the country,
beyond the sources of the Rio Negro and Orinooko, towards
the Andes, and down to the Amazon, both east and west of
the Rio Negro, but is never found on the south side of the
Amazon. -
The P. wiridis is found in the forests of Pará, at Villa Nova,
on the south bank of the Amazon, and up to the Madeira,
where it is found at Borba, on the east bank.
The P. leucoptera, a most beautiful white-backed species,
is found also on the south bank of the Amazon, at São Paulo,
at Ega, at Coarſ, and opposite the mouth of the Rio Negro,
but not east of the Madeira, where the green-backed species
commences. These birds are all great favourites in the
houses of the Brazilians, and all three may sometimes be seen
domesticated at Barra, where they are brought by the traders
from the different districts in which they are found. They are
inhabitants of the dense forests, and scarcely ever fly; so that
we see the reason why the rivers should so sharply divide the
species, which, spreading towards each other from different
directions, might otherwise become intermingled. It is not
improbable that, if the two Brazilian species extend as far as
the sources of the Madeira, they may be found inhabiting the
same district.
Of the smaller perching-birds and insects, which doubtless
would have afforded many interesting facts corroborative of
those already mentioned, I have nothing to say, as my exten-
sive collection of specimens from the Rio Negro and Upper
Amazon, all ticketed for my own use, have been lost; and of
course in such a question as this, the exact determination
of species is everything.
The two beautiful butterflies, Callithea sapphira and C.
Zeffrieuri, which were originally found, the former in Brazil,
and the latter in Guiana, have been taken by myself on the
opposite banks of the Amazon, within a few miles of each
other, but neither of them on both sides of that river.
Mr. Bates has since discovered another species, named after
himself, on the south side of the Amazon; and a fourth,
distinct from either of them, was found by me high up in one
*
33O ZooZogy of THE AMAzow DISTRICT.
of the north-western tributaries of the Rio Negro, so that it
seems probable that distinct species of this genus inhabit the
opposite shores of the Amazon. . ‘. -
The cock of the rock, Rupicola crocea, is, on the other hand,
an example of a bird having its range defined by a geological
formation, and by the physical character of the country. Its
range extends in a curving line along the centre of the moun-
tainous district of Guiana, across the sources of the Rio Negro
and Orinooko, towards the Andes; it is thus entirely com-
prised in the granite formation, and in that part of it where
there are numerous peaks and rocks, in which the birds make
their nests. - - *
Whether it actually reaches the Andes, or occurs in the
same district with the allied R. Peruziana, is not known, but
personal information obtained in the districts it inhabits,
shows that it is confined to the narrow tract I have mentioned,
between 19 south and 6° north latitude, and from the mountains
of Cayenne to the Andes, south of Bogotá.
Another bird appears bounded by a geological formation.
The common red-backed parrot, Psittacus festivus, is found
all over the Lower Amazon, but, on ascending the Rio Negro,
has its northern limit about St. Isabel, or just where the
alluvial country ends and the granite commences; it also
extends up the Japura, but does not pass over to the Uaupés,
which is all in the granite district. -
The fine blue macaw (Ara hyacinthina) inhabits the borders
of the hilly country south of the Amazon, from the sea-coast
probably up to the Madeira. Below Santarem, it is sometimes
found close up to the banks of the Amazon, but is said never
to cross that river. Its head-quarters are the upper waters of
the Tocantins, Xingtí, and Tapajoz rivers. .
As another instance of a bird not crossing the Amazon, I
may mention the beautiful curl-crested Araçarſ (Pteroglossus
Beauharnaisii), which is found on the south side of the
Upper Amazon, opposite the Rio Negro, and at Coari and
Ega, but has never been seen on the north side. The green
Jacamar of Guiana also (Galbula viridis) occurs all along the
north bank of the Amazon, but is not found on the south,
where it is replaced by the G. cyanocollis and G. maculicauda,
both of which occur in the neighbourhood of Pará.
CHAPTER XVII.
ON THE ABORIGINES OF THE AMAZON.
CoMPARING the accounts given by other travellers with my
own obervations, the Indians of the Amazon valley appear to
be much superior, both physically and intellectually, to those
of South Brazil and of most other parts of South America ;
they more closely resemble the intelligent and noble races
inhabiting the western prairies of North America. This view
is confirmed by Prince Adalbert of Prussia, who first saw the
uncivilised Indians of South Brazil, and afterwards those of
the Amazon ; and records his surprise and admiration at the
vast superiority of the latter in strength and beauty of body,
and in gentleness of disposition. -
I have myself had opportunities of observing the Aborigines
of the interior, in places where they retain all their native
customs and peculiarities. These truly uncivilised Indians are
seen by few travellers, and can only be found by going far
beyond the dwellings of white men, and out of the ordinary
track of trade. In the neighbourhood of civilisation the
Indian loses many of his peculiar customs, changes his mode
of life, his house, his costume, and his language, becomes
imbued with the prejudices of civilisation, and adopts the
forms and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion. In
this state he is a different being from the true denizen of
the forests, and it may be doubted, where his civilisation goes
no further than this, if he is not a degenerate and degraded
one; but it is in this state alone that he is met with by most
travellers in Brazil, on the banks of the Amazon, in Venezuela,
and in Peru.
I do not remember a single circumstance in my travels so
striking and new, or that so well fulfilled all previous expec-
332 OAW Zºº APOA*/G/WAES
tations, as my first view of the real uncivilised inhabitants of
the river Uaupés. Though-I had been already three years in
the country, and had seen Indians of almost every shade of
colour and every degree of civilisation, I felt that I was as
much in the midst of something new and startling, as if I had
been instantaneously transported to a distant and unknown
country. .
The Indians of the Amazon and its tributaries are of a
countless variety of tribes and nations; all of whom have
peculiar languages and customs, and many of them some dis-
tinct physical characteristics. Those now found in the city of
Pará, and all about the country of the Lower Amazon, have
long been civilised,—have lost their own language, and speak
the Portuguese, and are known by the general name of
Taptiyas, which is applied to all Indians, and seems to be a
corruption of “Tupis,” the name applied to the natives of the
coast-districts, on the first settlement of the country. These
Indians are short, stout, and well made. They learn all trades
quickly and well, and are a quiet, good-natured, inoffensive
people. They form the crews of most of the Pará trading
canoes. Their main peculiarity consists in their short stature,
which is more observable than in any other tribe I am acquainted
with. It may be as well, before proceeding further, to mention
the general characteristics of the Amazon Indians, from which
the particular tribes vary but very slightly.
They are, a skin of a coppery or brown colour of various
shades, often nearly the tint of smooth Honduras mahogany,
—jet-black straight hair, thick, and never curled,—black eyes,
and very little or no beard. With regard to their features, it
is impossible to give any general characteristics. In some the
whole face is wide and rather flattened, but I never could dis-
cern an unusual obliquity of the eyes, or projection of the
cheek-bones; in many, of both sexes, the most perfect regu-
larity of features exists, and there are numbers who in colour
alone differ from a good-looking European. -
Their figures are generally superb; and I have never felt so
much pleasure in gazing at the finest statue, as at these living
illustrations of the beauty of the human form. The develop-
ment of the chest is such as I believe never exists in the
best-formed European, exhibiting a splendid series, of convex
undulations, without a hollow in any part of it,
OF THE AMAZON. 333
Some native tribes exist in the rivers Guamá, Capim, and
Acarrá, just above the city of Pará, but I could learn little
definite about them. High up the rivers Tocantíns and
Araguáya, there are numerous tribes of tall well-formed Indians,
some of whom I have seen in Pará, where they arrive in
canoes from the interior. Most of them have enormously
elongated ears hanging down on their shoulders, produced
probably by weights suspended from the lobe in youth. On
the Xingui are many native tribes, some of whom were visited
by Prince Adalbert. On the next river, the Tapajóz, dwell
the Mundrucus, and they extend far into the interior, across to
the Madeira and to the river Purús; they are a very numerous
tribe, and portions of them are now civilised. The Máras,
another of the populous tribes, are also partly civilised, about
the mouths of the Madeira and Rio Negro; but in the interior,
and up the river Purús, many yet live in a totally wild and
Savage State.
All along the banks of the main streams of the Amazon,
Solimóes, Madeira, and Rio Negro, live Indians of various
races, in a semi-civilised state, and with their peculiar habits
and languages in a great measure lost. Traces of these pecu-
liarities are, however, still to be found, in the painted pottery
manufactured at Breves, the elegant calabashes of Montealegre,
the curious baskets of some tribes on the Rio Negro, and the
Calabashes of Ega, always painted in geometrical patterns.
Commencing near Santarem, and extending among all the
half-civilised Indians of the Amazon, Rio Negro, and other
rivers, the Lingoa Geral, or general Indian language, is spoken.
Near the more populous towns and villages, it is used indis-
criminately with the Portuguese; a little further, it is often the
only language known ; and far up in the interior it exists in
common with the native language of the tribe to which the in-
habitants belong. Thus on the Lower Amazon, all the Indians
can speak both Portuguese and Lingoa Geral ; on the Solimões
and Rio Negro, Lingoa Geral alone is generally spoken; and
in the interior, on the lakes and tributaries of the Solimoes,
the Müra and Jurítongues are in common use, with the Lingoa
Geral as a means of communication with the traders. Near
the sources of the Rio Negro, in Venezuela, the Barré and
Banſwa languages are those used among the Indians them-
selves.
334 OAV ZEIAE ABORIGINES
º
The Lingoa Geral is the Tupi, an Indian language found in
the country by the Jesuits, and modified and extended by them
for use among all the tribes included in their missions. It is
now spread over all the interior of Brazil, and even extends
into Peru and Venezuela, as well as Bolivia and Paraguay, and
is the general vehicle of communication between the Brazilian
traders and the Indians. It is a simple and euphonious
language, and is often preferred by Europeans who get
thoroughly used to it. I knew a Frenchman who had been
twenty years in the Solimóes, who always conversed with his
wife and children in Lingoa Geral, and could speak it with
more ease than either French or Portuguese; and, in many
cases, I have seen Portuguese settlers whose children were
unable to speak any other language. º
I shall now proceed to give some account of the various
tribes that still exist, in all their native integrity, among the
trackless forests of the Purús, Rio Branco, Japurá, and the
rivers Uaupés and Isānna, near the sources of the Rio Negro.
As I am best acquainted with the Indians of the river
Uaupés, I shall first state all I know of them, and then point
out the particulars in which other nations differ from them.
The tribes which inhabit the Uaupés, as far as any of the
traders ascend, and of which I can get any information, are
the following:— -
Up the main stream.
1. Queianás, at São Joaquim.
2. Tariánas, about São Jeronymo.
3. Ananás (Pine-apples), below Jauarité.
4. Cobeus, about Carurtí Caxoeira.
5. Piraiurii (Fish's mouth).
6. Pisá (Net).
7. Carapaná (Mosquito), Jurupuri caxoeira.
8. Tapüra (Tapir).
9. Uaracti (a Fish), above Jukeira Paraná.
Io. Cohídias. w
11. Tucundéra (an Ant).
12. Jacamí (Trumpeter). -
13. Miritſ (Mauritia Palm), Baccate Paraná.
I4. Omâuas.
I5.
I6.
I7.
18.
I9.
2O.
2 I.
22.
26.
27.
28.
29.
$
OF Zºë AMAZON. 335
On the river Złquié.
Macunas. -
Taiassú (Pig Indians).
Tijtico (Mud Indians).
On Japoff Paraná.
Arapásso (Woodpeckers).
On the river Agaporis.
Tucános (Toucans).
Uacarrás (Herons).
Pirá (Fish).
Desannas.
On the river Quiriri.
. Ipécas (Ducks).
. Gi (Axe).
. Cotia (Wasp).
On the river Codaiar;.
Corócoró (Green Ibis).
Bauhünas.
Tattis (Armadillos).
On Camási Paraná.
Tenimblica (Ashes).
Jukeira Paraná).
3o. Muctira (Opossum).
These tribes have almost all of them some peculiarities of
language and customs, but they all go under the general name
of “Uaupés,” and distinguish themselves, as a body, from the
inhabitants of other rivers. Hence the river is called “Rio
dos Uaupés” (the River of the Uaupés), though the proper
name of it is “Uacaiarſ,” and it is always so termed by the
Indians.
The Uaupés are generally rather tall, five feet nine or ten
inches being not an uncommon height, and they are very
stout and well formed. Their hair is jet-black and straight,
336 OW THE ABORIGINES
only turning grey with extreme old age. The men do not cut
their hair, but gather it behind into a long tail, bound round
with cord, and hanging down to the middle of the back, and
often to the thighs; the hair of the women hangs loose
down their backs, and is cut to a moderate length. The men
have very little beard, and that little they eradicate by pulling
it out ; men and women also eradicate the hair of the eyebrows,
the arm-pits, and the private parts. The colour of the skin is
a light, uniform, glossy reddish-brown.
They are an agricultural people, having a permanent abode,
and cultivating mandiocca (/atropha Manihot), sugar-cane
(Saccharum officinarum), sweet potatoes (Convolvulus Batatas),
carrá, or yam (Zioscorea sp.), pupunha palms (Guilielma
speciosa), cocura (a fruit like grapes), pine-apples (Ananassa
sativa), maize (Zea Mays), uructi or arnotto (Bixa Orellana),
plantains and banánas (Musa sp.), abios (Zucuma Caimito),
cashews (Anacardium occidentale), ingás (Inga sp.), peppers
(Capsicum sp.), tobacco (AVicotiana Zabacum), and plants for
dyes and cordage. All, even in the most remote districts, have
now iron axes and knives, though the stone axes which they
formerly used are still to be found among them. The men
cut down the trees and brushwood, which, after they have lain
Some months to dry, are burnt; and the mandiocca is then
planted by the women, together with little patches of cane,
Sweet potatoes, and various fruits. The women also dig up
the mandiocca, and prepare from it the bread which is their
main subsistence. The roots are brought home from the field
in large baskets called aturás, made of a climber, and only
manufactured by these tribes; they are then washed and
peeled, this last operation being generally performed with the
teeth, after which they are grated on large wooden graters
about three feet long and a foot wide, rather concave, and
Covered all over with small sharp pieces of quartz, inserted in
a regular diagonal pattern. These graters are an article of
trade in all the Upper Amazon, as they are cheaper than the
copper graters used in other parts of Brazil. The pulp is
placed to drain on a large sieve made of the bark of a water-
plant. It is then put into a long elastic cylinder made of the
Outer rind, or bark, of a climbing palm, a species of Desmoncus:
this is filled with the half-dry pulp, and, being hung on a cross-
beam between two posts, is stretched by a lever, on the further
OF THE AMAZOAV. 337
end of which the woman sits, and thus presses out the remaining
liquid. These cylinders, called “tipitis,” are also a considerable
article of trade, and the Portuguese and Brazilians have not
yet introduced any substitute for this rude Indian press. The
pulp is then turned out, a dry compact mass, which is broken
up, and the hard lumps and fibres picked out, when it is at
Once roasted on large flat ovens from four to six feet in diameter,
with a sloping rim about six inches high. These ovens are
well made, of clay mixed with the ashes of the bark of a tree
Called “Caripé,” and are supported on walls of mud about two
feet high,with a large opening on one side, in which to make
a fire of logs of wood. The mandiocca cakes, or “beijú,”
thus prepared, are sweet and agreeable to the taste ; but the
Indians generally first soak the roots some days in water,
which softens and ferments them, and gives the bread a sour
taste, much relished by the natives, but not generally so agreeable
to Europeans. The bread is made fresh every day, as when it
gets cold and dry it is far less palatable. The women thus
have plenty to do, for every other day at least they have to go
to the field, often a mile or two distant, to fetch the root, and
every day to grate, prepare, and bake the bread ; as it forms
by far the greater part of their food, and they often pass days
without eating anything else, especially when the men are
engaged in clearing the forest. For the greater part of the
year, however, the men go daily to fish, and at these times they
have a good supply of this their favourite food. Meat and
game they only eat occasionally; they prefer jabutſs, or land-
tortoises, monkeys, inambus (Tinamus sp.), toucans, and the
smaller species of wild pig (Dicotyles torquatus). But they will
not eat the large wild pig (D. labiatus), the anta (Tapirus
Americanus), or the white-rumped mutun (Crax globitera A).
They consume great quantities of peppers (species of Capsicum),
preferring the small red ones, which are of excessive pungency:
when they have no fish, they boil several pounds of these
peppers in a little water, and dip their bread into the fiery soup
thus formed.
The poisonous juice expressed from the mandiocca root,
when fermented and boiled in various ways, forms sauces and
peculiarly flavoured drinks, of which they are very fond. In
making their bread they have a peculiarity, not noticed among
the neighbouring tribes, of extracting pure tapioca from the
22
338 ON THE ABORIGINES
mandiocca, and, by mixing this with the ordinary pulp, forming
a very superior cake. - -
They use plantains extensively, eating them as a fruit, and
making a mingau, or gruel, by boiling and beating them into a
pulp, which is a very agreeable food. From the fruits of the
Baccába, Patawā, and Assai palms (OEnocarpus Baccaba, CE.
Aatawa, Euterøe oleracea and allied species), they produce
wholesome and nourishing drinks.
Besides these they make much use of sweet potatoes, yams,
roasted corn, and many forest fruits, from all of which, and
from mandiocca cakes, they make fermented drinks, which go
under the general name of “caxirſ.” That made from the
mandiocca is the most agreeable, and much resembles good
table-beer. At their feasts and dances they consume immense
quantities of it, and it does not seem to produce any bad effects.
They also use, on these occasions, an intensely exciting pre-
paration of the root of a climber, it is called capſ, and the
manner of using it I have described in my Narrative
(page 205).
The weapons of these Indians are bows and arrows,
gravatánas, lances, clubs, and also small hand-nets, and rods
and lines, for catching fish.
Their bows are of different kinds of hard elastic wood, well
made, and from five to six feet long. The string is either of
the “tucum ” leaf fibre (Astrocaryum zulgare), or of the inner
bark of trees called “tururi.” The arrows are of various kinds,
from five to seven feet long. The shaft is made of the flower-
stalk of the arrow-grass (Gynerium saccharinum). In the war-
arrows, or “curubís,” the head is made of hard wood, carefully
pointed, and by some tribes armed with the serrated spine of
the ray-fish : it is thickly anointed with poison, and notched in
two or three places so as to break off in the wound. Arrows
for shooting fish are now almost always made with iron heads,
sold by the traders, but many still use heads made of monkeys'
bones, with a barb, to retain a hold of the fish: the iron heads
are bent at an angle, so that the lower part projects and forms
a barb, and are securely fastened on with twine and pitch,
Lighter arrows are made for shooting birds and other small
game, and these alone are feathered at the base. The feathers
generally used are from the wings of the macaw, and, in putting
them on, the Indian shows his knowledge of the principle
OA' THE AMAZOM. . 339
which is applied in the spirally-grooved rifle-barrel : three
feathers are used, and they are all secured spirally, so as to
form a little screw on the base of the arrow, the effect of which
of course must be, that the arrow revolves rapidly in its
onward progress, and this no doubt tends to keep it in a direct
COUlrSe.
The gravatána and small poisoned arrows are made and used
exactly as I have already described in my Narrative (page 147).
The small hand-nets used for catching fish are of two kinds,
—a small ring-net, like a landing-net, and one spread between
two slender sticks, just like the large folding-nets of entomo-
logists: these are much used in the rapids, and among rocks
and eddies, and numbers of fish are caught with them. They
also use the rod and line, and consume an enormous quantity
of hooks: there are probably not less than a hundred thousand
fish-hooks sold every year in the river Uaupés; yet there are
still to be found among them many of their own hooks, in-
geniously made of palm-spines. They have many other ways
of catching fish : one is by a small cone of wicker, called a
“matapſ,” which is placed in some little current in the gapó ;
the larger end is entirely open, and it appears at first sight
quite incapable of securing the fish, yet it catches great quantities,
for when the fish get in they have no room to turn round,
and cannot swim backwards, and three or four are often found
jammed in the end of these little traps, with the scales and skin
quite rubbed off their heads by their vain endeavours to pro-
ceed onwards. Other matapſs are larger and more cylindrical,
with a reversed conical mouth (as in our wire rat-traps), to
prevent the return of the fish: these are often made of a very
large size, and are placed in little forest-streams, and in narrow
channels between rocks, where the fish, in passing up, must
enter them. But the best method of procuring fish, and that
which has been generally adopted by the Europeans in the
country, is with the Cacoaries, or fish-weirs. These are princi-
pally used at high-water, when fish are scarce: they are formed
at the margin of rivers, supported by strong posts, which are
securely fixed at the time of low-water, when the place of the
weir is quite dry; to these posts is secured a high fence of split
palm-stems, forming an entering angle, with a narrow opening
into a fenced enclosure. Fish almost always travel against the
stream, and generally abound more at the sides where the
34O OW THE ABORIGINES
current is less rapid: they are guided by the side-wings of the
weir into the narrow opening, from which they cannot find their
way out. They are obtained by diving into the weir, and
then catching them with the pisä (small net), or with the hand,
or sticking them with a knife. In these cacoaries every kind
of fish is caught, from the largest to the smallest, as well as
river tortoises and turtles. The Indian generally feels about
well with a rod before entering a cacoarſ, to ascertain if it con-
tains an electrical eel, in which case he gets it out first with a
net. The Piránhas, species of Serrasalmo, are also rather
dangerous, for I have seen an Indian boy return from the
cacoary with his finger bitten off by one of them.
The “Geraú,” is yet on a larger scale than the Cacoarſ.
It is used only in the cataracts, and is very similar to the
eel-traps used at mills and sluices in England. It is a large
wooden sieve, supported in the midst of a cataract, so that the
full force of the water dashes through it. All the fish which
are carried down by the violence of the current are here
caught, and their numbers are often so great as to supply a
whole village with food. At many of the falls on the Uaupés
they make these geratis, which require the united exertions
of the inhabitants to construct them ; huge timbers having
to be planted in every crevice of the rocks, to withstand the
strength of the torrent of water brought down by the winter's
floods.
All the fish not used at the time are placed on a little
platform of sticks over the fire, till they are so thoroughly
dried and imbued with smoke, as to keep good any length
of time. They are then used for voyages, and to sell to
travellers, but, having no salt, are a very tasteless kind of
food.
Salt is not so much sought after by these Indians as by
many other tribes; for they will generally prefer fish-hooks
and beads in payment for any articles you may purchase of
them. Peppers seem to serve them in place of salt. They
do, however, extract from the fruits of the Inajá palm (Maxi-
miliana regia) and the Jará palm (Leopoldinia major), and
also from the Carurti (a species of Zacis very common on the
rocks in the falls), a kind of flour which has a saline taste,
and with which they season their food. The Carurti, indeed,
has quite the smell of salt water, and is excellent eating,
OF THE AMAZON. 341
both boiled as a vegetable, or with oil and vinegar as a
salad. -
All the tribes of the Uaupés construct their dwellings after
one plan, which is peculiar to them. Their houses are the
abode of numerous families, sometimes of a whole tribe. The
plan is a parallelogram, with a semicircle at one end. The
dimensions of one at Jauarité were one hundred and fifteen
feet in length, by seventy-five broad, and about thirty high.
This house would hold about a dozen families, consisting of
near a hundred individuals. In times of feasts and dances,
three or four hundred are accommodated in them. The roof
is supported on fine cylindrical columns, formed of the trunks
of trees, and beautifully straight and smooth. In the centre
a clear opening is left, twenty feet wide, and on the sides are
little partitions of palm-leaf thatch, dividing off rooms for the
separate families: here are kept the private household utensils,
weapons, and ornaments; while the rest of the space contains,
on each side, the large Ovens and gigantic pans for making
caxirſ, and, in the centre, a place for the children to play, and
for their dances to take place. These houses are built with
much labour and skill ; the main supporters, beams, rafters,
and other parts, are straight, well proportioned to the strength
required, and bound together with split Creepers, in a manner
that a sailor would admire. The thatch is of the leaf of some
one of the numerous palms so well adapted to the purpose,
and is laid on with great compactness and regularity. The
side-walls, which are very low, are formed also of palm thatch,
but so thick and so well bound together, that neither arrow
nor bullet will penetrate them. At the gable-end is a large door-
way, about six feet wide and eight or ten high: the door is
a large palm-mat, hung from the top, supported by a pole
during the day, and let down at night. At the semicircular
end is a smaller door, which is the private entrance of the
Tushalía, or chief, to whom this part of the house exclusively
belongs. The lower part of the gable-end, on each side of
the entrance, is covered with the thick bark of a tree unrolled,
and standing vertically. Above this is a loose hanging of
palm-leaves, between the fissures of which the smoke from the
numerous fires within finds an exit. In some cases this gable-
end is much ornamented with symmetrical figures painted in
colours, as at Caruri Caxoeira,
342 ow THE ABORIGINES
The furniture consists principally of maqueiras, or hammocks,
made of string, twisted from the fibres of the leaves of the
Mauritia flexuosa : they are merely an open network of parallel
threads, crossed by others at intervals of a foot; the loops at
each end have a cord passed through them, by which they
are hung up. The Uaupés make great quantities of string of
this and other fibres, twisting it on their breasts or thighs,
with great rapidity.
They have always in their houses a large supply of earthen
pots, pans, pitchers, and cooking utensils, of various sizes,
which they make of clay from the river and brooks, mixed
with the ashes of the caripé bark, and baked in a temporary
furnace. They have also great quantities of small saucer-
shaped baskets, called “Balaios,” which are much esteemed
down the river, and are the subject of a considerable trade.
Two tribes in the lower part of the river, the Tariános and
Tucános, make a curious little stool, cut from a solid block of
wood, and neatly painted and varnished; these, which take many
days to finish, are sold for about a pennyworth of fish-hooks.
Their canoes are all made out of a single tree, hollowed
and forced open by the cross-benches; they are very thick in
the middle, to resist the wear and tear they are exposed to
among the rocks and rapids; they are often forty feet long,
but smaller ones are generally preferred. The paddles are
about three feet long, with an oval blade, and are each cut
out of one piece of wood.
These people are as free from the encumbrances of dress
as it is possible to conceive. The men wear only a small
piece of tururf passed between the legs, and twisted on to a
string round the lions. Even such a costume as this is
dispensed with by the women: they have no dress or covering
whatever, but are entirely naked. This is the universal custom
among the Uaupés Indians, from which, in a state of nature,
they never depart. Paint, with these people, seems to be
looked upon as a sufficient clothing; they are never without
it on some part of their bodies, but it is at their festivals that
they exhibit all their art in thus decorating their persons: the
colours they use are red, yellow, and black, and they dispose
them generally in regular patterns, similar to those with which
they ornament their stools, their canoes, and other articles of
furniture. - -
OF THE AMAZON. 343
They pour the juice of a tree, which stains a deep blue-
black, on their heads, and let it run in streams all down their
backs; and the red and yellow are often disposed in large
round spots upon the cheeks and forehead.
The use of ornaments and trinkets of various kinds is
almost confined to the men. The women wear a bracelet
on the wrists, but none on the neck, and no comb in the
hair; they have a garter below the knee, worn tight from
infancy, for the purpose of swelling out the calf, which they
consider a great beauty. While dancing in their festivals, the
women wear a small tanga, or apron, made of beads, prettily
arranged; it is only about six inches square, but is never worn
at any other time, and immediately the dance is over, it is
taken off.
The men, on the other hand, have the hair carefully parted
and combed on each side, and tied in a queue behind. In
the young men, it hangs in long locks down their necks, and,
with the comb, which is invariably carried stuck in the top of
the head, gives to them a most feminine appearance : this is
increased by the large necklaces and bracelets of beads, and the
careful extirpation of every symptom of beard. Taking these
circumstances into consideration, I am strongly of opinion
that the story of the Amazons has arisen from these feminine-
looking warriors encountered by the early voyager. I am
inclined to this opinion, from the effect they first produced
on myself, when it was only by close examination I saw that
they were men; and, were the front parts of their bodies and
their breasts covered with shields, such as they always use, I
am convinced any person seeing them for the first time would
conclude they were women. We have only therefore to suppose
that tribes having similar customs to those now living on the
river Uaupés, inhabited the regions where the Amazons were
reported to have been seen, and we have a rational explana-
tion of what has so much puzzled all geographers. The only
objection to this explanation is, that traditions are said to exist
among the natives, of a nation of “women without husbands.”
Of this tradition, however, I was myself unable to obtain any
trace, and I can easily imagine it entirely to have arisen from
the suggestions and inquiries of Europeans themselves. When
the story of the Amazons was first made known, it became of
course a point with all future travellers to verify it, or if possible
344 ow THE ABORIGINES
get a glimpse of these warlike ladies. The Indians must no
doubt have been overwhelmed with questions and suggestions
about them, and they, thinking that the white men must know
best, would transmit to their descendants and families the idea
that such a nation did exist in some distant part of the country.
Succeeding travellers, finding traces of this idea among the
Indians, would take it as a proof of the existence of the
Amazons; instead of being merely the effect of a mistake at
the first, which had been unknowingly spread among them
by preceding travellers, seeking to obtain some evidence on
the subject. ... .
In my communications and inquiries among the Indians
on various matters, I have always found the greatest caution
necessary, to prevent one's arriving at wrong conclusions.
They are always apt to affirm that which they see you wish
to believe, and, when they do not at all comprehend your
question, will unhesitatingly answer, “Yes.” I have often in
this manner obtained, as I thought, information, which persons
better acquainted with the facts have assured me was quite
erroneous. These observations, however, must only be taken
to apply to those almost uncivilised nations who do not under-
stand, at all clearly, any language in which you can communi-
cate with them. I have always been able to rely on what
is obtained from Indians speaking Portuguese readily, and I
believe that much trustworthy information can be obtained
from them. Such, however, is not the case with the wild
tribes, who are totally incapable of understanding any con-
nected sentence of the language in which they are addressed;
and I fear the story of the Amazons must be placed with those
of the wild man-monkeys, which Humboldt mentions and
which tradition I also met with, and of the “curupíra,” or
demon of the woods, and “carbunculo,” of the Upper Amazon
and Peru; but of which superstitions we have no such satis-
factory elucidation as I think has been now given of the
warlike Amazons.
To return to our Uaupés Indians and their toilet. We find
their daily costume enlivened with a few other ornaments;
a circlet of parrots’ tail-feathers is generally worn round the
head, and the cylindrical white quartz-stone, already described
in my Narrative (p. 191), is invariably carried on the breast,
suspended from a necklace of black seeds.
OA' THE AMAZON. 345
At festivals and dances they decorate themselves with a
complicated costume of feather head-dresses, cinctures, armlets,
and leg ornaments, which I have sufficiently described in the
account of their dances (p. 202). - -
We will now describe some peculiarities connected with
their births, marriages, and deaths. -
The women are generally delivered in the house, though
sometimes in the forest. When a birth takes place in the
house, everything is taken out of it, even the pans and pots,
and bows and arrows, till the next day; the mother takes
the child to the river and washes herself and it, and she
generally remains in the house, not doing any work, for four
or five days.
The children, more particularly the females, are restricted
to a particular food: they are not allowed to eat the meat of
any kind of game, nor of fish, except the very small bony
kinds; their food principally consisting of mandiocca-cake
and fruits.
On the first signs of puberty in the girls, they have to
undergo an ordeal. For a month previously, they are kept
secluded in the house, and allowed only a small quantity of
bread and water. All relatives and friends of the parents are
then assembled, bringing, each of them, pieces of “sipó” (an
elastic climber); the girl is then brought out, perfectly naked,
into the midst of them, when each person present gives her
five or six severe blows with the sipó across the back and
breast, till she falls senseless, and it sometimes happens, dead.
If she recovers, it is repeated four times, at intervals of six
hours, and it is considered an offence to the parents not to
strike hard. During this time numerous pots of all kinds of
meat and fish have been prepared, when the sipós are dipped
in them and given to her to lick, and she is then considered a
woman, and allowed to eat anything, and is marriageable.
The boys undergo a somewhat similar ordeal, but not so
severe; which initiates them into manhood, and allows them
to see the Jurupari music, which will be presently described.
Tattooing is very little practised by these Indians; they all,
however, have a row of circular punctures along the arm, and
one tribe, the Tucános, are distinguished from the rest by three
vertical blue lines on the chin; and they also pierce the lower
lip, through which they hang three little threads of white beads.
346 - OAV THE ABORIGINAES
All the tribes bore their ears, and wear in them little pieces of
grass, ornamented with feathers. The Cobeus alone expand
the hole to so large a size, that a bottle-cork could be inserted:
they ordinarily wear a plug of wood in it, but, on festas, insert
a little bunch of arrows. - h
The men generally have but one wife, but there is no special
limit, and many have two or three, and some of the chiefs
more ; the elder one is never turned away, but remains the
mistress of the house. They have no particular ceremony at
their marriages, except that of always carrying away the girl by
force, or making a show of doing so, even when she and her
parents are quite willing. They do not often marry with re-
lations, or even neighbours, preferring those from a distance,
or even from other tribes. When a young man wishes to have
the daughter of another Indian, his father sends a message to
say he will come with his son and relations to visit him. The
girl's father guesses what it is for, and, if he is agreeable, makes
preparations for a grand festival: it lasts, perhaps, two or three
days, when the bridegroom's party suddenly seize the bride,
and hurry her off to their canoes; no attempt is made to pre-
vent them, and she is then considered as married.
Some tribes, as the Uacarrás, have a trial of skill at shooting
with the bow and arrow, and if the young man does not show
himself a good marksman, the girl refuses him, on the ground
that he will not be able to shoot fish and game enough for the
family. -
The dead are almost always buried in the houses, with their
bracelets, tobacco-bag, and other trinkets upon them : they
are buried the same day they die, the parents and relations
keeping up a continual mourning and lamentation over the
body, from the death to the time of interment; a few days
afterwards, a great quantity of caxirí is made, and all friends
and relations invited to attend, to mourn for the dead, and to
dance, sing, and cry to his memory. Some of the large houses
have more than a hundred graves in them, but when the houses
are small, and very full, the graves are made outside.
The Tariánas and Tucános, and some other tribes, about a
month after the funeral, disinter the Corpse, which is then
much decomposed, and put it in a great pan, or oven, over the
fire, till all the volatile parts are driven off with a most horrible
odour, leaving only a black Carbonaceous mass, which is
OF THE AMAZON. 347
pounded into a fine powder, and mixed in several large couchés
(vats made of hollowed trees) of caxirí: this is drunk by the
assembled company till all is finished; they believe that thus
the virtues of the deceased will be transmitted to the drinkers.
The Cobeus alone, in the Uaupés, are real cannibals: they
eat those of other tribes whom they kill in battle, and even
make war for the express purpose of procuring human flesh for
food. When they have more than they can consume at once,
they smoke-dry the flesh over the fire, and preserve it for food
a long time. They burn their dead, and drink the ashes in
caxirſ, in the same manner as described above. -
Every tribe and every “malocca” (as their houses are called)
has its chief, or “Tushatia,” who has only a limited authority,
principally in war, in making festivals, and in repairing
the malocca and keeping the village clean, and in planting the
mandiocca-fields; he also treats with the traders, and supplies
them with men to pursue their journeys. The succession of
these chiefs is strictly hereditary in the male line, or through
the female to her husband, who may be a stranger: their
regular hereditary chief is never superseded, however stupid,
dull, or cowardly he may be. They have very little law of any
kind; but what they have is of strict retaliation,--an eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth ; and a murder is punished or
revenged in the same manner and by the same weapon with
which it was committed.
They have numerous “Pagés,” a kind of priests, answering
to the “medicine-men’’ of the North American Indians. These
are believed to have great power: they cure all diseases by
charms, applied by strong blowing and breathing upon the
party to be cured, and by the singing of certain songs and
incantations. They are also believed to have power to kill
enemies, to bring or send away rain, to destroy dogs or game,
to make the fish leave a river, and to afflict with various
diseases. They are much consulted and believed in, and are
well paid for their services. An Indian will give almost all his
wealth to a pagé, when he is threatened with any real or imagi-
nary danger. * -
They scarcely seem to think that death can occur naturally,
always imputing it either to direct poisoning or the charms of
some enemy, and, on this supposition, will proceed to revenge
it. This they generally do by poisons, of which they have
348 ON THE ABOR/G/WE.5
many which are most deadly in their effects: they are given at
some festival in a bowl of caxiri, which it is good manners
always to empty, so that the whole dose is sure to be taken. .
One of the poisons often used is most terrible in its effects,
causing the tongue and throat, as well as the intestines, to pu-
trefy and rot away, so that the sufferer lingers some days in the
greatest agony: this is of course again retaliated, on perhaps
the wrong party, and thus a long succession of murders may
result from a mere groundless suspicion in the first instance.
I cannot make out that they have any belief that can be
called a religion. They appear to have no definite idea of a
God; if asked who they think made the rivers, and the forests,
and the sky, they will reply that they do not know, or some-
times that they suppose it was “Tupénau,” a word that appears
to answer to God, but of which they understand nothing. They
have much more definite ideas of a bad spirit, “Juruparſ,” or
Devil, whom they fear, and endeavour through their pagés to
propitiate. When it thunders, they say the “Juruparſ” is
angry, and their idea of natural death is that the “Jurupari”
kills them. At an eclipse they believe that this bad spirit is
killing the moon, and they make all the noise they can to
frighten him away.
One of their most singular superstitions is about the musical
instruments they use at their festivals, which they call the
Jurupari music. These consist of eight or sometimes twelve
pipes, or trumpets, made of bamboos or palm-stems hollowed
out, some with trumpet-shaped mouths of bark and with
mouth-holes of clay and leaf. Each pair of instruments gives
a distinct note, and they produce a rather agreeable concert,
something resembling clarionets and bassoons. These instru-
ment, however, are with them such a mystery that no woman
must ever see them, on pain of death. They are always kept
in Sone igaripé, at a distance from the malocca, whence they
are brought on particular occasions: when the sound of them
is heard approaching, every woman retires into the woods, or
into some adjoining shed, which they generally have near, and
remains invisible till after the ceremony is over, when the
instruments are taken away to their hiding-place, and the
women come out of their concealment. Should any female
be supposed to have seen them, either by accident or design,
she is invaribly executed, generally by poison, and a father
of THE AMAzow. 349
will not hesitate to sacrifice his daughter, or a husband his
wife, on such an occasion.
They have many other prejudices with regard to women.
They believe that if a woman, during her pregnancy, eats of
any meat, any other animal partaking of it will suffer : if a
domestic animal or tame bird, it will die; if a dog, it will be
for the future incapable of hunting ; and even a man will
ever after be unable to shoot that particular kind of game.
An Indian, who was one of my hunters, caught a fine cock of
the rock, and gave it to his wife to feed, but the poor woman
was obliged to live herself on cassava-bread and fruits, and
abstain entirely from all animal food, peppers, and salt, which it
was believed would cause the bird to die; notwithstanding all
precautions, however, the bird did die, and the woman got a
beating from her husband, because he thought she had not
been sufficiently rigid in her abstinence from the prohibited
articles.
Most of these peculiar practices and superstitions are retained
with much tenacity, even by those Indians who are nominally
civilised and Christian, and many of them have been even
adopted by the Europeans resident in the country: there are
actually Portuguese in the Rio Negro who fear the power of
the Indian pages, and who fully believe and act on all the
Indian superstitions respecting women.
The river Uaupés is the channel by which European manu-
factures find their way into the extensive and unknown regions
between the Rio Guaviare on the one side, and the Japurá on
the other. About a thousand pounds worth of goods enter
the Uaupés yearly, mostly in axes, cutlasses, knives, fish-hooks,
arrow-heads, salt, mirrors, beads, and a few cottons.
The articles given in exchange are salsaparilha, pitch, farinha,
‘string, hammocks, and Indian stools, baskets, feather ornaments,
and curiosities. The salsaparilha is by far the most valuable
product, and is the only one exported. Great quantities of
articles of European manufacture are exchanged by the Indians
with those of remote districts, for the salsa which they give to
the traders; and thus numerous tribes, among whom no
civilised man has ever yet penetrated, are well supplied with
iron goods, and send the product of their labour to European
markets.
In order to give some idea of the state of industry and the
350 OW THE ABORIGINES
arts among these people, I subjoin a list of articles which I
collected when among them, to illustrate their manners,
customs, and state of civilisation, but which were unfortunately
all lost on my passage home. . w"
LIST OF ARTICLES MANUFACTURED BY THE INDIANS
- OF THE RIO Dos UAUPés.
Household Furniture and Utensils.
I. Hammocks, or maqueiras, of palm-fibre, of various
materials, colours, and texture. - -
2. Small wooden stools, of various sizes, painted and var-
nished. (Plate XIV. d.) .
* 3: Flat baskets of plaited bark, in regular patterns and of
various colours. . . .
4. Deeper baskets, called “Aturás.” (Plate XIII. d)
5. Calabashes and gourds, of various shapes and sizes.
6. Water-pitchers of earthenware.
7. Pans of earthenware for cooking.
Articles used in the Manufacture of Mandiocca Bread.
8. Mandiocca graters, of quartz fragments set in wood.
(Plate XIII. a.) - - -
9. Tipitis, or wicker elastic pressure cylinders.
Io. Wicker sieves for straining the pulp.
II. Ovens for roasting cassava-bread and farinha. (Plate
XIII. 3.) -
12. Plaited fans for blowing the fire and turning the cakes.
Weapons used in War, Hunting, and Fishing. -
13. Bows of various woods and different sizes.
14. Quivers of curabís, or poisoned war-arrows.
15. Arrows with heads of monkey-bones. -
16. Arrows, with iron heads, for shooting fish.
17. Gravatánas, or blow-tubes, from eight to fourteen fect
long. * - :
18. Wicker and wooden quivers, with poisoned arrows for
them. . . . . . . . - -
19. Small pots and calabashes, with the curarſ or ururi
poison. -
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INDIAN IMPLEMENTS AND DOMESTIC ARTICLES.
PLATE XIII.






















OF THE AMAZON. 351
20. Large carved clubs of hard wood.
21. Carved and feather ornamented lances.
22. Large circular shields of wicker-work.
23. Ditto, covered with tapir's skin.
24. Nets for fishing (Pisás).
25. Rod and line for fishing.
26. Palm-spine fish-hooks.
27. Small wicker traps for catching fish (Matapſs).
Musical Instruments.
28. A small drum.
29. Eight large trumpets, the Juruparſ music.
3o. Numerous fifes and flutes of reeds.
31. Fifes made of deer-bones.
.31 a. Whistle of a deer's skull.
32. Vibrating instruments of tortise and turtle shells.
Ornaments, Dress, and Miscellaneous.
d 33. About twenty distinct articles, forming the feather head-
IſèSS. - -
34. Combs of palm-wood, ornamented with feathers.
(Plate XIV. a.)
35. Necklaces of seeds and beads.
36. Bored cylindrical quartz-stone.
37. Copper earrings, and wooden plugs for the ears.
38. Armlet of feathers, beads, seeds, etc.
39. Girdle of jaguars' teeth. . -
4o. Numbers of cords, made of the “coroá’ fibre, mixed
with the hair of monkeys and jaguars, making a soft elastic
Cord used for binding up the hair, and various purposes of
Ornament.
41. Painted aprons, or “tangas,” made from the inner bark
of a tree. -
42. Women's bead tangas.
43. Rattles and ornaments for the legs.
44. Garters strongly knitted of “coroá.”
45. Packages and carved calabashes, filled with a red pig-
ment called “crajuru.” *
46. Large cloths of prepared bark.
, 47. Very large carved wooden forks for holding cigars.
(Plate XIV. b.)
352 ow THE ABORIGINES
48. Large cigars used at festivals.
49. Spathes of the Bussu palm (Manicaria saccifera), used
for preserving feather-ornaments, etc. -
5o. Square mats. + - *
51. Painted earthen pot, used for holding the “capi” at
festivals.
52. Small pot of dried peppers. -
53. Rattles used in dancing, formed of calabashes, carved,
and ornamented with small stones inside. (Plate XIV. c.)
(Maracás.) -
54. Painted dresses of prepared bark (tururſ).
55. Balls of string, of various materials and degrees of
fineness. f -
56. Bottle-shaped baskets, for preserving the edible ants.
57. Tinder-boxes of bambo carved, and filled with tinder
from an ant's nest.
58. Small canoe hollowed from a tree.
59. Paddles used with ditto.
60. Triangular tool, used for making the small stools.
61. Pestles and mortars, used for pounding peppers and
tobacco.
62. Bark bag, full of Sammaüma, the silk-cotton of a Bombax,
used for making blowing-arrows.
63. Chest of plaited palm-leaves, used for holding feather-
OrnamentS.
64. Stone axes, used before the introduction of iron.
65. Clay cylinders, for supporting cooking utensils. (Plate
XIII. c.)*
The Indians of the river Isánna are few in comparison with
those of the Uaupés, the river not being so large or so pro-
ductive of fish. $
The tribes are named—
Banſwas, or Manſvas (Mandiocca).
Arikénas.
Bauatanas.
Ciugſ (Stars).
* Specimens of Nos. 1, 2, 3, 9, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 21, 34, 36, 41, 47,49,
and 63, of this list, have been sent home by my friend R. Spruce, Esq.,
and may be seen in the very interesting Museum at the Royal Botanical
Gardens, at Kew. -
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INDIAN IMPLEMENTS AND DOMESTIC ARTICLES,
PLATE XIV.






























OF THE AMAZOM. 353
Coatſ (the AWasua coatimundi).
Juruparſ (Devils).
Ipéca (Ducks). à
Papunauás, the name of a river, a tributary of the
Guaviare, but which has its sources close to the
Isánna. -
These tribes are much alike in all their customs, differing only
in their languages; as a whole, however, they offer remarkable
points of difference from those of the river Uaupés.
In stature and appearance they are very similar, but they
have rather more beard, and do not pull out the hair of the
body and face, and they cut the hair of their head with a knife,
or, wanting that, with a hard sharp grass. Thus, the absence of
the long queue of hair forms a striking characteristic difference
in their appearance.
In their dress they differ in the women always wearing a
Small tanga of turūri, instead of going perfectly naked, as
among the Uaupés ; they also wear more necklaces and bracelets,
, and the men fewer, and the latter do not make use of so many
feather-ornaments and decorations in their festivals.
Each family has a separate house, which is small, of a square
shape, and possesses both a door and windows; and the houses
are collected together in little scattered villages. The Isānna
Indians make small flat baskets like those of the Uaupés, but not
the stools, nor the aturás, neither have they the white cylindrical
stone which the others so much esteem. They marry one, two,
or three wives, and prefer relations, marrying with cousins,
uncles with nieces, and nephews with aunts, so that in a village
all are connected. The men are more warlike and morose in
their disposition than the Uaupés, by whom they are much
feared. They bury their dead in their houses, and mourn for
them a long time, but make no feast on the occasion. The
Isánna Indians are said not to be nearly so numerous, nor to
increase so rapidly, as the Uaupés ; which may perhaps be
owing to their marrying with relations, while the former prefer
strangers.
The Arekainas make war against other tribes, to obtain
prisoners for food, like the Cobeus. In their superstitions and
religious ideas they much resemble the Uaupés.
The Macás are one of the lowest and most uncivilised tribes
of Indians in the Amazon district, They inhabit the forests
23
354 OW THE ABORIG/MAES
and serras about the rivers Marié, Curicuriarſ, and Urubaxi, and
live a wandering life, having no houses and no fixed place of
abode, and of course no clothing; they have little or no iron,
and use the tusks of the wild pig to scrape and form their bows
and arrows, and they make a most deadly kind of poison to anoint
them. At night they sleep on a bundle of palm-leaves, or stick
up. a few leaves to make a shed if it rains, or sometimes, with
“sipós,” construct a rude hammock, which, however, serves
only once. They eat all kinds of birds and fish, roasted or
boiled in palm-spathes; and all sorts of wild fruits.
The Macás often attack the houses of other Indians
situated in solitary places, and murder all the inhabitants; and
they have even depopulated and caused the removal-of several
villages. All the other tribes of Indians catch them and keep
them as slaves, and in most villages you will see some of them.
They are distinguishable at once from the surrounding tribes
by a wavy and almost curly hair, and by being rather lanky and
ill-formed in their limbs: I am inclined, however, to think that
this latter is partly owing to their mode of life, and the hardships
and exposure they have to undergo; and some that I have seen
in the houses of traders have been as well-formed and hand-
Some as any of the other Indian tribes.
The Curetús are a nation inhabiting the country about the
river; Apaporís, between the Japurá and Uaupés. I met with
some Indians of this tribe on the Rio Negro, and the only
peculiarity I observed in them was, that their cheek-bones
were rather more prominent than usual. From them, and
from an Isānna Indian who had visited them, I obtained some
information about their customs.
They wear their hair long like the Uaupés, and, like them,
the women go entirely naked; and they paint their bodies,
but do not tattoo. Their houses are large and circular, with
walls of thatch, and a high conical capped roof, made like
Some chimney-pots, with the upper part overlapping, so as to
let the smoke escape without allowing the rain to enter. They
do not wander about, but reside in small permanent villages,
governed by a chief, and are said to be long-lived and very
peaceable, never quarrelling or making war with other nations.
The men have but one wife. There are no pages, or priests,
among them, and they have no ideas of a Superior Being.
They cultivate mandiocca, maize, and other fruits, and use
OF Zºº AMAZOAW. 355
game more than fish for food. No civilised man has ever
been among them, so they have no salt, and a very scanty
supply of iron, and obtain fire by friction. It is said also that
they differ from most other tribes in making no intoxicating
drinks. Their language is full of harsh and aspirated sounds,
and is somewhat allied to those of the Tucanos and Cobeus
among the Uaupés.
In the lower part of the Japurá reside the “Uaenambeus,”
or Humming-bird Indians. I met with some of them in the
Rio Negro, and obtained some information as to their customs
and language. In most particulars they much resemble the
last-mentioned tribe, particularly in their circular houses, their
food, and mode of life. Like them they weave the fibres of
the Tuctim palm-leaf (Astrocaryum zulgare) to make their
hammocks, whereas the Uaupés and Isānna Indians always
use the leaf of the Miriti (Mauritia ſexuosa). They are dis-
tinguished from other tribes by a small blue mark on the upper
lip. They have from one to four wives, and the women always
wear a small apron of bark.
Closely allied to these are the Jurís of the Solimões, between
the Iga and Japurá. A number of them have migrated to the
Rio Negro, and become settled and partly civilised there.
They are remarkable for a custom of tattooing in a circle (not
in a square, as in a plate in Dr. Prichard's work) round the
mouth, so as exactly to resemble the little black-mouthed
squirrel-monkeys (Callithrix sciureus); from this cause they are
often called the Juripixiinas (Black Juris), or by the Brazilians
“Bocapreitos” (Black-mouths). From this strange errors have
arisen: we find in some maps the note “Juries, curly-haired
Negroes,” whereas they are pure straight-haired Indians. They
are good servants for canoe and agricultural work, and are the
most skilful of all in the use of the gravatána, or blow-pipe.
In the same neighbourhood are Miránhas, who are canni-
bals; and the Ximánas and Cauxānas, who kill all their first-
born children: in fact, between the Upper Amazon, the
Guaviare, and the Andes, there is a region as large as England,
whose inhabitants are entirely uncivilised and unknown.
On the south side of the Amazon also, between the Madeira
and the Uaycáli, and extending to the Andes of Peru and
Bolivia, is a still larger tract of unknown virgin forest, unin-
habited by a single civilised man: here reside numerous
356 OAV ZAZAZ ABOAC/GYNES
nations of the native American race, known only by the
reports of the border tribes, who form the communication
between them and the traders of the great rivers.
One of the best-known and most regularly visited rivers of
this great tract is the Purús, whose mouth is a short distance
above the Rio Negro, but whose sources a three months’
voyage does not reach. Of the Indians found on the banks
of this river I have been able to get some information.
Five tribes are met with by the traders:—
I. Muiras, from the mouth to sixteen days' voyage up.
2. Purupurūs, from thence to about thirty days' voyage up.
3. Catauxis, in the district of the Purupurūs, but in the
igaripés and lakes inland.
4, Jamamarís, inland on the west bank.
5. Jubiris, on the river-banks above the Purupurūs.
The Mūras are rather a tall race, have a good deal of beard
for Indians, and the hair of the head is slightly crisp and
wavy. They used formerly to go naked, but now the men
all wear trousers and shirts, and the women petticoats. Their
houses are grouped together in small villages, and are scarcely
ever more than a roof supported on posts; very rarely do they
take the trouble to build any walls. They make no hammocks,
but hang up three bands of a bark called “invira,” on which
they sleep; but the more civilised now purchase of the traders
hammocks made by other Indians. They practise scarcely
any cultivation, except sometimes a little mandiocca, but
generally live on wild fruits, and abundance of fish and game:
their food is entirely produced by the river, consisting of the
Manatus, or cow-fish, which is as good as beef, turtles, and
various kinds of fish, all of which are in great abundance, so
that the traders say there are no people who live so well as
the Müras; they have therefore no occasion for gravatánas,
which they do not make, but have a great variety of bows and
arrows and harpoons, and construct very good canoes. They
now all cut their hair; the old men have a large hole in their
lower lip filled up with a piece of wood, but this custom is
now disused. Each man has two or three wives, but there
is no ceremony of marriage; and they bury their dead some-
times in the house, but more commonly outside, and put all
the goods of the deceased upon his grave. The women use
necklaces and bracelets of beads, and the men tie the seeds
• OF ZTHE AMAZON. 357
of the india-rubber tree to their legs when they dance. Each
village has a Tushatia: the succession is hereditary, but the
chief has very little power. They have pagés, whom they
believe to have much skill, and are afraid of, and pay well.
They were formerly very warlike, and made many attacks
upon the Europeans, but are now much more peaceful; and
are the most skilful of all Indians in shooting turtles and fish,
and in catching the cow-fish. They still use their own language
among themselves, though they also understand the Lingoa
Geral. The white traders obtain from them salsaparilha, oil
from turtles' eggs and the cow-fish, Brazil-nuts, and estopa,
which is the bark of the young Brazil-nut tree (Bertholletia
excelsa), used extensively for caulking canoes; and pay them
in cotton goods, harpoon and arrow-heads, hooks, beads,
knives, cutlasses, etc.
The next tribes, the Purupurús, are in many respects very
peculiar, and differ remarkably in their habits from any other
nation we have yet described. They call themselves Pamouirís,
but are always called by the Brazilians Purupurūs, a name
also applied to a peculiar disease, with which they are almost
all afflicted : this consists in the body being spotted and
blotched with white, brown, or nearly black patches, of irregular
size and shape, and having a very disagreeable appearance:
when young, their skins are clear, but as they grow up, they
invariably become more or less spotted. Other Indians are
sometimes seen afflicted in this manner, and they are then
said to have the Purupurti; though it does not appear whether
the disease is called after the tribe of Indians who are most
subject to it, or the Indians after the disease. Some say that
the word is Portuguese, but this seems to be a mistake.
The Purupurtis, men and women, go perfectly naked; and
their houses are of the rudest construction, being semi-cylindri-
cal, like those of our gipsies, and so small, as to be set up on
the sandy beaches and carried away in their canoes whenever
they wish to move. These canoes are of the rudest construc-
tion, having a flat bottom and upright sides, a mere square
box, and quite unlike those of all other Indians. But what
distinguishes them yet more from their neighbours is, that they
use neither the gravatána, nor bow and arrows, but have an
instrument called a “palheta,” which is a piece of wood with
a projection at the end, to secure the base of the arrow, the
358 OW ZººZAZ ABOR/G/WES'
middle of which is held with the handle of the palheta in the
hand, and thus thrown as from a sling: they have a surprising
dexterity in the use of this weapon, and with it readily kill
game, birds, and fish. ;
They grow a few fruits, such as yams and plantains, but sel-
dom have any mandiocca, and they construct earthen pans to
cook in. They sleep in their houses on the sand of the prayas,
making no hammocks or clothing of any kind; they make no
fires in their houses, which are too small, but are kept warm
at night by the number of persons in them. They bore large
holes in the upper and lower lip, in the septum of the nose,
and in the ears; at their festivals they insert in these holes
sticks, six or eight inches long; at other times they have only
a short piece in, to keep them open. In the wet season, when
the prayas and banks of the river are all flooded, they construct
rafts of trunks of trees bound together with creepers, and on
them erect their huts, and live there till the waters fall again,
when they guide their raft to the first sandy beach that appears.
Little is known of their domestic customs and superstitions.
The men have each but one wife; the dead are buried in the
Sandy beaches; and they are not known to have any pagés
A few families only live together, in little movable villages, to
each of which there is a Tushatia. They have, at times,
dances and festivals, when they make intoxicating drinks from
wild fruits, and amuse themselves with rude musical instruments,
formed of reeds and bones. They do not use salt, but prefer
payment in fish-hooks, knives, beads, and farinha, for the
salsaparilha and turtle-oil which they sell to the traders.
May not the curious disease, to which they are so subject,
be produced by their habit of constantly sleeping naked on
the sand, instead of in the comfortable, airy, and cleanly
hammock, so universally used by almost every other tribe of
Indians in this part of South America? - -
The Catauixis, though in the immediate neighbourhood of
the last, are very different. They have permanent houses,
cultivate mandiocca, sleep in hammocks, and are clean-skinned.
They go naked like the last, but do not bore holes in their
nose and lips; they wear a ring of twisted hair on their arms
and legs. They use bows, arrows, and gravatánas, and make
the ervadiira, or ururſ poison. Their canoes are made of the
bark of a tree, taken off entire. They eat principally forest
OF THE AMAZON. 359
game, tapirs, monkeys, and large birds; they are, however,
cannibals, killing and eating any Indians of other tribes they
can procure, and they preserve the meat, smoked and dried.
Senhor Domingos, a Portuguese trader up the river Purús,
informed me that he once met a party of them, who felt his
belly and ribs, as a butcher would handle a sheep, and talked
much to each other, apparently intimating that he was fat, and
would be excellent eating. -
Of the Jamamarís we have no authentic information, but
that they much resemble the last in their manners and customs,
and in their appearance.
The Jubirís are equally unknown ; they, however, most
resemble the Purupurus in their habits and mode of life, and,
like them, have their bodies spotted and mottled, though not
to such a great extent.
In the country between the Tapajóz and the Madeira,
among the labyrinth of lakes and channels of the great island
of the Tupinambarános, reside the Mundructis, the most war-
like Indians of the Amazons. These are, I believe, the only
perfectly tattooed nation in South America: the markings are
extended all over the body; they are produced by pricking
with the spines of the pupunha palm, and rubbing in the soot
from burning pitch to produce the indelible bluish tinge.
They make their houses with mud walls, in regular villages.
In each village they have a large building which serves as a
kind of barrack, or fortress, where all the men sleep at night,
armed with their bows and arrows, ready in case of alarm :
this house is surrounded within with dried heads of their
enemies: these heads they smoke and dry, so as to preserve
all the features and the hair most perfectly. They make war
every year with an adjoining tribe, the Parentintins, taking the
women and children for slaves, and preserving the heads of
the men. They make good canoes and hammocks. They
live principally on forest-game, and are very agricultural,
making quantities of farinha and growing many fruits. The
men have each one wife, and each village its chief. Cravo or
wild nutmegs, and farinha, are the principal articles of their
trade ; and they receive in exchange cotton cloth, iron goods,
salt, beads, etc. . -
In the Rio Branco are numerous tribes, and some of them
are said to practise circumcision.
360 - ow The Aborigſwes
Others, near the sources of the Tapajóz, make the girls
undergo the same cruel initiation as has been already described
as Common among the Uaupés and Isānna Indians.
On the north banks of the Rio Negro are many uncivilised
tribes, very little known.
On the south banks, the Manags were formerly a very
numerous nation. It appears to have been from these tribes .
that the various accounts of imaginary wealth prevalent soon
after the discovery of America were derived; the whole of them
are now civilised, and their blood mingles with that of some of
the best families in the Province of Pará; their language is
said still to exist, and to be spoken by many old persons, but
I was never fortunate enough to meet with any one under-
standing it. * :
One of the singular facts connected with these Indians of
the Amazon valley, is the resemblance which exists, between
Some of their customs, and those of nations most remote from
them. The gravatána, or blow-pipe, reappears in the sumpitan
of Borneo; the great houses of the Uaupés closely resemble
those of the Dyaks of the same country; while many small
baskets and bamboo-boxes, from Borneo and New Guinea,
are so similar in their form and construction to those of the
Amazon, that they would be supposed to belong to adjoining
tribes. Then again the Mundructis, like the Dyaks, take the
heads of their enemies, smoke-dry them with equal care,
preserving the skin and hair entire, and hang them up around
their houses. In Australia the throwing-stick is used; and,
on a remote branch of the Amazon, we see a tribe of Indians
differing from all around them, in substituting for the bow
a weapon only found in such a remote portion of the earth,
among a people differing from them in almost every physical
character. -
It will be necessary to obtain much more information on
this subject, before we can venture to decide whether such
similarities show any remote connection between these nations,
or are mere accidental coincidences, produced by the same
wants, acting upon people subject to the same conditions of
climate and in an equally low state of civilisation; and it
offers additional matter for the wide-spreading speculations of
the ethnographer.
The main feature in the personal character of the Indians

OA' 7"HAE AMAZOAV. 36.
of this part of South America, is a degree of diffidence, bash-
fulness, or coldness, which affects all their actions. It is
this that produces their quiet deliberation, their circuitous way
of introducing a subject they have come to speak about, talking
half an hour on different topics before mentioning it: owing
to this feeling, they will run away if displeased rather than
complain, and will never refuse to undertake what is asked
them, even when they are unable or do not intend to perform
it.
It is the same peculiarity which causes the men never to
exhibit any feeling on meeting after a separation; though they
have, and show, a great affection for their children, whom they
never part with ; nor can they be induced to do so, even for
a short time. They scarcely ever quarrel among themselves,
work hard, and submit willingly to authority, They are ingeni-
ous and skilful workmen, and readily adopt any customs of
civilised life that may be introduced among them; and they
seem capable of being formed, by education and good govern-
ment, into a peaceable and civilised community. -
This change, however, will, perhaps, never take place: they
are exposed to the influence of the refuse of Brazilian society,
and will probably, before many years, be reduced to the
condition of the other half-civilised Indians of the country,
who seem to have lost the good qualities of savage life, and
gained only the vices of civilisation.
APPEND Ix.
ON AMAZONIAN PICTURE-WRITINGS.
As connected with the languages of these people, we may
mention the curious figures on the rocks commonly known.
as picture-writings, which are found all over the Amazon
district. - --
The first I saw was on the serras of Montealegre, as described
in my Journal (p. 104). These differed from all I have since
seen, in being painted or rubbed in with a red colour, and
not cut or scratched as in most of the others I met with.
They were high up on the mountain, at a considerable distance
from any river. -
The next I fell in with were on the banks of the Amazon,
on rocks covered at high water just below the little village
of Serpa. These figures are principally of the human face,
and are roughly cut into the hard rock, blackened by the
deposit which takes place in the waters of the Amazon, as in
those of the Orinooko. º -
Again, at the mouth of the Rio Branco, on a little rocky
island in the river, are numerous figures of men and animals
of a large size scraped into the hard granitic rock. Near
St. Isabel, S. Jozé, and Castanheiro, there are more of these
figures, and I found others on the Upper Rio Negro in Vene-
zuela. I took careful drawings of all of them,--which are
unfortunately lost.
In the river Uaupés also these figures are very numerous,
and of these I preserved my sketches. They contain rude
representations of domestic utensils, canoes, animals, and
W. ºr 1.
ſ
–
|
2
FIGURES ON THE GRANITE ROCKS OF THE RIVER UAUPES.
PLATE XVI.
© Nº .
OF *
&c &

AAEAAEAVZ)/X. / 363
human figures, as well as circles, squares, and other regular
forms. They are all scraped on the excessively hard granitic
rock. Some are entirely above and others below high-water
mark, and many are quite covered with a growth of lichens,
through which, however, they are still plainly visible. (Plates.
XV. and XVI.) Whether they had any signification to those
who executed them, or were merely the first attempts of a
rude art guided only by fancy, it is impossible now to say.
It is, however, beyond a doubt that they are of some antiquity,
and are never executed by the present race of Indians. Even
among the most uncivilised tribes, where these figures are
found, they have no idea whatever of their origin; and if
asked, will say they do not know, or that they suppose the
spirits did them. Many of the Portuguese and Brazilian
traders will insist upon it that they are natural productions,
or, to use their own expression, that “God made them ; ”
and on any objection being made they triumphantly ask,
“And could not God make them P” which of course settles
the point. Most of them in fact are quite unable to see any
difference between these figures and the natural marks and
veins that frequently occur in the rocks.
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