yi4^ULA^i^

^j-r>

MOBBED BY CURL-CRESTED TOUCANb.

TRAVEL.

THE

NATURALIST ON THE RIVER
AMAZONS.

A RECORD OF ADVENTURES, HABITS OF ANIMALS, SKETCHES OF

BRAZILIAN AND INDIAN LIFE, AND ASPECTS OF NATURE UNDEk

THE EQUATOR, DURING ELEVEN YEARS OF TRAVEL.

By henry WALTER BATES, F.L.S.,

(Assistant-Secretary to tJie Rayal Geographical Society of Eiigland.)

Pelopseus Wasp building nest.

THIRD EDITION. ^fe;N^# • * ' .' '/'^

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.

LONDON: JOHN MURRAY. '^^^.v ^^

BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS. '//-<^ - -.rO

BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY
CHESTNUT HILL, MASS.

•o

5863

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
PARA.

PAGE

Arrival — Aspect of the country — The Para River — First walk in the
suburbs of Para — Birds, Lizards, and Insects of the suburbs -
Leaf-carrying Ant — Sketch of the climate, ^ history, and present
condition of Para ......... i

CHAPTER II.
PARA.

The swampy forests of Para — A Portuguese landed proprietor —
Country house at Nazareth — Life of a Naturalist under the
Equator — The drier virgin forests — Magoary — Retired creeks —
Aborigines ig

CHAPTER III.

PARA.

Religious holidays — Marmoset Monkeys — Serpents — Insects . , 42

CHAPTER IV.

THE TOCANTINS AND CAMETA.

Preparations for the journey — The bay of Goajara — Grove of fan-
leaved palms — The lower Tocantins — Sketch of the river — Vista
alegre — Baiao — Rapids — Boat journey to the Guariba falls —
Native life on the Tocantins — Second journey to Cameta . . 56

CHAPTER V.

CARIPI AND THE BAY OF MARAJO.

River Para and Bay of Marajo — ^Journey to Caripi — Negro observance
of Christmas — A German family — Bats — Ant-eaters — Humming-

vi CONTENTS.

PAGE

birds —Excursion to the Murucupi — Domestic life of the inha-
bitants— Hunting excursion with Indians — Wliite Ants . . 88

CHAPTER VL

THE LOWER AMAZONS— PARA TO OBYDOS.

Modes of travelling on the Amazons — Historical sketch of the early-
explorations of the river — Preparations for voyage — -Life on
board a large trading-vessel — The narrow channels joining the
Para to the Amazons — First sight of the great river — Guru pa
— The great shoal — Flat-topped mountains^ — Santarem — Obydos 1 12

CHAPTER VH.

THE LOWER AMAZONS— OBYDOS TO MANAOS, OR THE
BARRA OF THE RIO NEGRO.

Departure from Obydos — River banks and by-channels — Cacao
planters — Daily life on board our vessel— Great storm — Sand-
island and its birds— Hill of Parentins — Negro trader and Mauhes^
Indians — Villa Nova, its inhabitants, forest, and animal produc-
tions— Cararaucu — A rustic festival — Lake of Cararaucu — Motuca
flies— Serpa — Christmas holidays— River Madeira— A mameluco'
farmer — Mura Indians — Rio Negro — Description of Barra —
Descent to Para — ^Yellow fever . . . . . .136

CHAPTER VHL

SANTAREM.

Situation of Santarem — Manners and customs of the inhabitants —
Climate — Grassy campos and woods — Excursions to Mapiri,
Mahica, and Irura, with . sketches of their Natural History ;
Palms, wildfruit-trees, Mining Wasps, Mason Wasps, Bees, and
Sloths 174

CHAPTER IX.

VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS.

Preparations for voyage — First day's sail — Loss of boat — Altar do
' Chao— Modes of obtaining fish— Difficulties with crew— Arrival
at Aveyros — Excursions in the neighbourhood — White Cebus,
and habits and dispositions of Cebi Monkeys— Tame Parrot-
Missionary settlement — Enter the River Cupari — Adventure with
Anaconda — Smoke-dried Monkey — Boa-constrictor — Village of
Mundurucu Indians, and incursion of a wild tribe — Falls of the
Cupari — Hyacinthine Macaw— Re-emerge into the broad Tapa-
jos — Descent of river to Santarem 196

CONTENTS. ' vii

I

PAGE

CHAPTER X.

THE UPPER AMAZONS— VOYAGE TO EGA.

Departure from Barra — First day and night on the Upper Amazons —
Desolate appearance of river in the flood season — Cucama In-
dians— Mental condition of Indians — Squalls — Manatee — Forest
■ — Floating pumice-stones from the Andes — Falling banks — Ega
and its inhabitants — Daily life of a Naturalist at Ega — The four
seasons of the Upper Amazons . . . . . . . 238

CHAPTER XL

EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA.

The River Tefife — Rambles through groves on the beach — Excursion
to the house of a Passe chieftain — Character and customs of the
Passe tribe — First excursion to the sand islands of the Solimoens
— Habits of great river-turtle — Second excursion — Turtle-fishing
in the inland pools — Third excursion — Hunting rambles with
natives in the forest — Return to Ega . . . . . 273

CHAPTER XII.
ANIMALS OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA.

Scarlet-faced Monkeys — Parauacu Monkey — Owl-faced Night-apes
— Marmosets — ^Jupurd — Bats — Birds — Cuvier's Toucan — Curl-
crested Toucan — Insects — Pendulous cocoons — Foraging Ants —
Blind Ants , . _ . . . . . . . . 325

CHAPTER XHL

EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA.

Steamboat travelling on the Amazons — Passengers — Tunanlins —
Caishana Indians — The Jutahi — The Sapo — Maraud, Indians —
Fonte Boa — Journey to St. Paulo — Tucuna Indians — Illness —
Descent to Para— Changes at Para — Departure for England . 361

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

MOBBED BY CURL-CRESTED TOUCANS . . . Frontispiece

SAIJBA OR LEAF-CARRYING ANT 9

SAUBA ANT — FEMALE .15

CLIMBING PALM — (DESMONCUS) ....... 22

interior of primeval forest on the amazons . . • • 33

amphisb^na .51

acrosoma arcuatum 54

ASSAI PALM (EUTERPE OLERACEA) ' . -63

BIRD-KILLING SPIDER (MYGALE AVICULARIA) ATTACKING

FINCHES 81

ANT-EATER GRAPPLING WITH DOG 93

HUMMING-BIRD AND HUMMING-BIRD HAWK-MOTH .... 97

SOLDIERS OF DIFFERENT SPECIES OF WHITE ANTS— ORDINARY

SHAPE OF WORKER — WINGED CLASS IO9

ACARI FISH (LORICARIA DUODECIMALIS) I20

FLAT-TOPPED MOUNTAINS OF PARAUA-QUARA, LOWER AMAZONS . 121

HELICONIUS THELXIOPE — HELICONIUS MELPOMENE . . • I30

MUSICAL CRICKET (CHLOROCGELUS TANANA) . . ■ . . . I32

feurirIma palm (bactris) 149

PELOPi^US WASP BUILDING NEST l86

cells of trypoxylon aurifrons 186

MELIPONA bees GATHERING CLAY 1 87

THE JACUARU (TEIUS TEGUEXIM) ; 192

ACARA (MESONAUTA INSIGNIS) 229

1}

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

NEEDLE-FISH (HEMARAMPHUS) SARAPO (CARAFUS) • . . . 23O

bulging-stemmed palm : pashiuba barrkiudo (iriartea

ventricosa) • • • 248

UIKl FRUIT 267

PUPUNHA PALM 269

BLOW-GUN, QUIVER, AND ARROW . 280

SURUBIM (PIMELODUS TIGRINUS) 29O

ARROW USED IN TURTLE-SHOOTING 294

TURTLE-FISHING AND ADVENTURE WITH ALLIGATOR . . . 297

NIGHT ADVENTURE WITH ALLIGATOR .* 307

UMBRELLA BIRD . 3^2

SCARLET-FACED AND PARAUACU MONKEYS . . . . . 227

CURL-CRESTED TOUCAN . . . ,. . . . • . 344

MOBBED BY CURL-CRESTED TOUCANS 346

SUSPENDED COCOON OF MOTH 348

SACK-BEARING CATERPILLAR (sACCOPHORA) 349

FORAGING ANTS (eCITON DREPANOPHORA) . . - . . . 353
FORAGING ANTS (ECITON ERRATICA) CONSTRUCTING A COVERED

ROAD — SOLDIERS SALLYING OUT ON BEING DISTURBED . 359

MASKED DANCE AND WEDDING-FEAST OF TUCUjNA INDIANS , , 380

THE

NATURALIST ON THE AMAZONS.

CHAPTER I.

PARA.

Arrival — Aspect of the country — The Para river — First M^alk in the suburbs
of Para — Birds, Lizards and Insects of the suburbs — Leaf-carrying
Ant — Sketch of the climate, history, and present condition of Para.

I EMBARKED at Liverpool, with Mr. Wallace, in a small
trading vessel, on tlie 26th of April, 1848 ; and, after a swift
passage from the Irish Channel to the equator, arrived, on the
26th of May, off Salinas. This is the pilot-station for vessels
bound to Para, the only port of entry to the vast region
watered by the Amazons. It is a small village, formerly a
missionary settlement of the Jesuits, situated a few miles to the
eastward of the Para river. Here the ship anchored in the
open sea, at' a distance of six miles from the shore, the shallow-
ness of the water far out around the mouth of the great river
not permitting in safety a nearer approach ; and the signal was
hoisted for a pilot. It was with deep interest that my com-
panion and myself, both now about to see and examine the
beauties of a tropical country for the first time, gazed on the
land where I, at least, eventually spent eleven of the best
years of my life. To the eastward the country was not remark-
able in appearance, being slightly undulating, with bare sand-
hills and scattered trees ; but to the westward, stretching
towards the mouth of the river, we could see through the
captain's glass a long line of forest, rising apparently out of
the water ; a densely-packed mass of tall trees, broken into

I

2 PARA. CHAP. I.

groups, and finally into single trees, as it dwindled away in the
distance. This was the frontier, in this direction, of the great
primaeval forest characteristic of this region, which contains so
many wonders in its recesses, and clothes the whole surface of
the country for two thousand miles from this point to the foot
of the Andes.

On the following day and night we sailed, with a light wind,
partly aided by the tide, up the Para river. Towards evening
we passed Vigia and Colares, two fishing villages, and saw many
native canoes, which seemed like toys beneath the lofty walls
of dark forest. The air was excessively close, the sky over-
cast, and sheet lightning played almost incessantly around the
horizon, an appropriate greeting on the threshold of a country
lying close under the equator ! The evening was calm, this
being the season when the winds are not strong, so we glided
along in a noiseless manner, which contrasted pleasantly with
the unceasing turmoil to which we had been lately accustomed
on the Atlantic. The immensity of the river struck us greatly,
for although sailing sometimes at a distance of eight or nine
miles from the eastern bank, the opposite shore was at no time
visible. Indeed, the Para river is 36 miles in breadth at its
mouth ; and at the city 6f Para, nearly 70 miles from the sea,
it is 20 miles wide ; but at that point a series of islands com-
mences, which contracts the river view in front of the port.

On the morning of the 28th of May we arrived at our
destination. The appearance of the city at sunrise was
pleasing in the highest degree. It is built on a low tract
of land, having only one small rocky elevation at its southern ,
extremity ; it therefore affords no amphitheatral view from the
river; but the white buildings roofed with red tiles, the
numerous towers and cupolas of churches and convents, the
crowds of palm trees reared above the buildings, all sharply
defined against the clear blue sky, give an appearance of light-
ness and cheerfulness which is most exhilarating. The per-
petual forest hems the city in on all sides landwards ; and
towards the suburbs, picturesque country houses are seen
scattered about, half buried in luxuriant foliage. The port was
full of native canoes and other vessels, large and small ; and
the ringing of bells and firing of rockets, announcing the dawn
of some Roman Catholic festival day, showed that the popula-
tion was astir at that early hour.

The impressions received during our first walk, on the evening
of the day of our arrival, can never wholly fade from my mind.

CHAP. T. OUR FIRST WALK. 3

After traversing the few streets of tall, gloomy, convent-looking
buildings near the port, inhabited chiefly by merchants and
shopkeepers ; along which idle soldiers, dressed in shabby
uniforms, carrying their muskets carelessly over their arms,
priests, negresses with red water-jars on their heads, sad-looking
Indian women carrying their naked children astride on their
hips, and other samples of the motley life of the place, were
seen ; we passed down a long narrow street leading to the
suburbs. Beyond this, our road lay across a grassy common
into a picturesque lane leading to the virgin forest. The long ,.
street was inhabited' by the poorer class of the population.
The houses were of one story only, and had an irregular and
mean appearance. The windows were without glass, having,
instead, projecting lattice casements. The street was unpaved,
and inches deep in loose sand. Groups of people were cooling "^
themselves outside their doors — people of all shades in colour L
of skin, European, Negro and Indian, but chiefly an uncertain ;^
mixture of the three. Amongst them were several handsome \
women, dressed in a slovenly manner, barefoot or shod in loose -'^
slippers; but wearing richly decorated ear-rings, and around
their necks strings of very large gold beads. They had dark
expressive eyes, and remarkably rich heads of hair. It was a
mere fancy, but I thought the mingled squalor, luxuriance and
beauty of these women were pointedly in harmony with the
rest of the scene ; so striking, in the view, was the mixture of
natural riches and human poverty. The houses were mostly in
a dilapidated condition, and signs of indolence and neglect
were everywhere visible. The wooden palings which sur-
rounded the weed-grown gardens were strewn about, broken ;
and hogs, goats, and ill-fed poultry wandered in and out through
the gaps. But amidst all, and compensating every defect, rose
the overpowering beauty of the vegetation. The massive dark
crowns of shady mangoes were seen everywhere amongst the
dwellings, amidst fragrant blossoming orange, lemon, and many
other tropical fruit trees ; some in flower, others in fruit, at
varying stages of ripeness. Here and there, shooting above the
more dome-like and sombre trees, were the smooth columnar
stems of palms, bearing aloft their magnificent crowns of finely-
cut fronds. Amongst the latter the slim assai-palm was espe-
cially noticeable, growing in groups of four and five \ its smooth,
gently-curving stem, twenty to thirty feet high, terminating in a
head of feathery foliage, inexpressibly light and elegant in out-
line. On the boughs of the taller and more ordinary-looking

i

4 PARA. CHAP. I,

trees sat tufts of curiously-leaved parasites. Slender woody
lianas hung in festoons from the branches, or were suspended
in the form of cords and ribbons j whilst luxuriant creeping
plants overran alike tree-trunks, roofs and walls, or toppled
over palings in copious profusion of foliage. The superb banana
(Musa paradisiaca), of which I had always read as forming one
of the charms of tropical vegetation, here grew with great
luxuriance : its glossy velvety-green leaves, twelve feet in length,
curving over the roofs of verandahs in the rear of every house.
The shape of the leaves, the varying shades of green which they
present when lightly moved by the wind, and especially the
contrast they afford in colour and form to the more sombre
hues and more rounded outliiie of the other trees, are quite
sufficient to account for the charm of this glorious tree. Strange
forms of vegetation drew our attention at almost every step.
Amongst them were the different kinds of Bromelia, or pine-
apple plants, with their long, rigid, sword-shaped leaves, in some
species jagged or toothed along their edges. Then there was
the bread-fruit tree — an importation, it is true ; but remarkable
from its large, glossy, dark green, strongly digitated foliage, and
its interesting history. Many other trees and plants, curious in
leaf, stem, or manner of growth, grew on the borders of the
thickets along which lay our road ; they were all attractive to
new-comers, whose last country ramble, of quite recent date,
was over the bleak moors of Derbyshire on a sleety morning in
April.

As we continued our walk the brief twilight commenced, and
the sounds of multifarious life came from the vegetation around.
The whirring of cicadas ; the shrill stridulation of a vast
number and variety of field crickets and grasshoppers, each
species sounding its peculiar note ; the plaintive hooting of tree
frogs — all blended together in one continuous ringing sound, —
the audible expression of the teeming profusion of Nature. As
night came on, many species of frogs and toads in the marshy
places joined in the chorus : their croaking and drumming, far
louder than anything I had before heard in the same line, being
added to the other noises, created an almost deafening din.
This uproar of Hfe, I afterwards found, never wholly ceased,
night or day : in course of time I became, like other residents,
accustomed to it. It is, however, one of the peculiarities of a
tropical — at least, a Brazilian — climate which is most likely lo
surprise a stranger. After my return to England, the death-
like stillness of summer days in the country appeared to me

CHAP. I. WE COMMENCE HOUSEKEEPING. 5

as strange as the ringing uproar did on my first arrival at Para.
The object of our visit being accomplished, we returned to the
city. The fire-flies were then out in great numbers, flitting
about the sombre woods, and even the firequented streets. We
turned into our hammocks, well pleased with what we had
seen, and hill of anticipation with regard to the wealth of
natural objects we had come to explore.

During the first few days we were employed in landing our
baggage and arranging our extensive apparatus. We then
accepted the invitation of the consignee of the vessel to make
use of his rocinha, or country-house in the suburbs, until we
finally decided on a residence. Upon this we made our first
essay in housekeeping. We bought cotton hammocks, the
universal substitute for beds in this country, cooking utensils
and crockery, and engaged a free negro, named Isidoro, as
cook and servant-of-all-work. Our first walks were in the
immediate suburbs of Para. The city lies on a corner of land
formed by the junction of the river Guama with the Para. As
I have said before, the forest, which covers the whole country,
extends close up to the city streets ; indeed, the town is built
on a tract of cleared land, and is kept free from the jungle
only by the constant care of the Government. The surface,
though everywhere low, is slightly undulating, so that areas of
dry land alternate throughout with areas of swampy ground,
the vegetation and animal tenants of the two being widely
different. Our residence lay on the side of the city nearest
the Guama, on the borders of one of the low and swampy
areas which here extends over a portion of the suburbs. The
tract of land is intersected by well-macadamized suburban
roads, the chief of which, Estrada das Mongubeiras (the
Monguba road), about a mile long, is a magnificent avenue of
silk-cotton trees (Bombax monguba and B. ceiba), huge trees
whose trunks taper rapidly from the ground upwards, and
whose flowers before opening look like red balls studding the
branches. This fine road was constructed under the governor-
ship of the Count dos Arcos, about the year 18 12. At right
angles to it run a number of narrow green lanes, and the whole
district is drained by a system of small canals or trenches
through which the tide ebbs and flows, showing the lowness of
the site. Before I left the country, other enterprising presidents
had formed a number of avenues lined with coco-nut palms,
almond and other trees, in continuation of the M6nguba road..

-^

6 PARA. CHAP. I.

over the more elevated and drier ground to the north-east ot
the city. On the high ground the vegetation has an aspect
quite different from that which it presents in the swampy parts.
Indeed, with the exception of the palm trees, the suburbs here
have an aspect like that of a village green at home. The soil is
sandy, and the open commons are covered with a short grassy
and shrubby vegetation. Beyond this, the land again descends
to a marshy tract, where, at the bottom of the moist hollows,
the public wells are situated. Here all the linen of the city is
washed by hosts of noisy negresses, and here also the water-
carts are filled — painted hogsheads on wheels, drawn by
bullocks. In early morning, when the sun sometimes shines
through a light mist, and everything is dripping with moisture,
this part of the city is full of life : vociferous negroes and
wrangling Gallegos,* the proprietors of the water-carts, are
gathered about, jabbering continually, and taking their
morning drams in dirty wine-shops at the street corners.

Along these beautiful roads we found much to interest us
during the first few days. Suburbs of towns, and open, sunny,
cultivated places in Brazil, are tenanted by species of animals
and plants which are mostly different from those of the dense
primaeval forests. I will, therefore, give an account of what
we observed of the animal world, during our explorations in the
immediate neighbourhood of Para.

The number and beauty of the birds and insects did not at
f first equal our expectations. The majority of the birds we saw
^ were small and obscurely coloured ; they were indeed similar,
in general appearance, to such as are met with in country
places in England. Occasionally a flock of small parroquets,
green, with a patch of yellow on the forehead, would come at
early morning to the trees near the Estrada. They would feed
quietly, sometimes chattering in subdued tones, but setting up
a harsh scream, and flying off, on being disturbed. Humming-
birds we did not see at this time, although I afterwards found
them by hundreds when certain trees were in flower. Vultures
we only saw at a distance, sweeping round at a great height,
over the public slaughter-houses. Several flycatchers, finches,
ant-thrushes, a tribe of plainly-coloured birds, intermediate in
structure between flycatchers and thrushes, some of which
startle the new-comer by their extraordinary notes emitted from
their places of concealment in the dense thickets ; and also

* Natives of Galicia, in Spain, who follow this occupation in Lisbon and
Oporto, as well as at Para.

CHAP. I. BIJ^DS. 7

tanagers, and other small birds, inhabited the neighbourhood.
None of these had a pleasing song, except a little brown wren
(Troglodytes furvus), whose voice and melody resemble those
of our English robin. It is often seen, hopping and chmbing
about the walls and roofs of houses and on trees in their
vicinity. Its song is more frequently heard in the rainy season,
when the Monguba trees shed their leaves. At those times
the Estrada das Mongubeiras has an appearance quite unusual
in a tropical country. The tree is one of the few in the
Amazons region which sheds all its foliage before any of the
new leaf-buds expand. The naked branches, the sodden
ground matted with dead leaves, the grey mist veiling the sur-
rounding vegetation, and the cool atmosphere soon after sun-
rise; all combine to remind one of autumnal mornings in
England. Whilst loitering about at such times in a half-
oblivious mood, thinking of home, the song of this bird would
create for the moment a perfect illusion. Numbers of tanagers
frequented the fruit and other trees in our garden. The two
principal kinds which attracted our attention were the Rham-
phocoelus jacapa and the Tanagra episcopus. The females of
both are dull in colour, but the male of Jacapa has a beautiful
velvety purple and black plumage, the beak being partly white,
whilst the same sex in Episcopus is of a pale blue colour, with
white spots on the wings. In their habits they both resemble
the common house-sparrow of Europe, which does not exist
in South America, its place being in some measure filled by
these familiar tanagers. They are just as lively, restless,
bold, and wary ; their notes are very similar, chirping and
inharmonious, and they seem to be almost as fond of the
neighbourhood of man. They do not, however, build their
nests on houses.

Another interesting and common bird was the Japim, a
species of Cassicus (C. icteronotus). It belongs to the same
family of birds as our starling, magpie, and rook, and has a
rich yellow and black plumage, remarkably compact and
velvety in texture. The shape of its head and its physiognomy
are very similar to those of the magpie ; it has light grey eyes,
which give it the same knowing expression. It is social in its
habits ; and builds its nest, like the English rook, on trees in
the neighbourhood of habitations. But the nests are quite
differently constructed, being shaped like purses, two feet in
length, and suspended from the slender branches all round the
tree, some of them very near the ground. The entrance is on

8 FARA. CHAP. I.

the side near the bottom of the nest. The bird is a great
favourite with the Brazihans of Para: it is a noisy, stirring
babbhng creature, passing constantly to and fro, chattering to
its comrades, and is very ready at imitating other birds, espe-
cially the domestic poultry of the vicinity. There was at one
time a weekly newspaper pubHshed at Para, called "The
Japim;" the name being chosen, I suppose, on account of the
babbling propensities of the bird. Its eggs are nearly round,
and of a bluish-white colour, speckled with brown.

Of other vertebrate animals we saw very little, except of the
lizards. They are sure to attract the attention of the new-
comer from Northern Europe, by reason of their strange
appearance, great numbers, and variety. The species which
are seen crawling over the walls of buildings in the city, are
different from those found in the forest or in the interior
of houses. They are unpleasant-looking animals, with colours
assimilated to those of the dilapidated stone and mud walls on
which they are seen. The house lizards belong to a peculiar
family, the Geckos, and are found even in the best-kept cham-
bers, most frequently on the walls and ceilings, to which they
chng motionless by day, being active only at night. They
are of speckled grey or ashy colours. The structure of their
feet is beautifully adapted for clinging to and running over
smooth surfaces ; the underside of their toes being expanded
into cushions, beneath which folds of skin form a series of flex-
ible plates. By means of this apparatus they can walk or run
across a smooth ceiling with their backs downwards ; the plated
soles, by quick muscular action, exhausting and admitting air
alternately. The Geckos are very repulsive in appearance.
The Brazilians give them the name of Osgas, and firmly believe
them to be poisonous ; they are, however, harmless creatures.
Those found in houses are small -, but I have seen others of
great size, in crevices of tree trunks in vthe forest. Sometimes
Geckos are found with forked tails ; this results from the bud-
ding of a rudimentary tail at the side, from an injury done to
the member. A slight rap will cause their tails to snap off;
the loss being afterwards partially repaired by a new growth.
The tails of lizards seem to be almost useless appendages to
the animals. I used often to amuse myself in the suburbs,
whilst resting in the verandah of our house during the heat of
mid-day, by watching the variegated green, brown, and yellow
ground-lizards. They would come nimbly forward, and com-
mence grubbing with their fore feet and snouts around the

CHAP. I.

AN TS.

roots of herbage, searching for ir^sect larvae. On the slightest
alarm they would scamper off \ their tails cocked up in the air
as they waddled awkwardly away, evidently an incumbrance to
them in their flight.

Next to the birds and lizards, the insects of the suburbs of
Para deserve a few remarks. I will pass over the many other
orders and families of this class, and proceed at once to the
ants. These were in great numbers everywhere, but I will
mention here only two kinds. We were amazed at seeing ants
an inch and a quarter in length, and stout in proportion,
marching in single file through the thickets. These belonged
to the species called Dinoponera grandis. Its colonies consist

'^^//^ ' - — — '

Saiiba or Leaf-carrying Ant. — i. Worker-minor; 2. Woi-ker-major;
3. Subterranean worker.

of a small number of individuals, and are established about the
roots of slender trees. It is a stinging species, but the sting is
not so severe as in many of the smaller kinds. There was
nothing peculiar or attractive in the habits of this giant among
the ants. Another far more interesting species was the Saiiba
(OEcodoma cephalotes). This ant is seen everywhere about
the suburbs, marching to and fro in broad columns. From its
habit of despoiling the most valuable cultivated trees of their
foliage, it is a great scourge to the Brazilians. In some dis-
tricts it is so abundant that agriculture is almost impossible^
and everywhere complaints are heard of the terrible pest.

The workers of this species are of three orders, and vary in
size from two to seven lines ; some idea of them may be
obtained from the accompanying woodcut. The true working-

10

PARA. CHAP. I.

class of a colony is formed by the small-sized order of workers,
the worker-minors as they are called (Fig. i). The two other
kinds, whose functions, as we shall see, are not yet properly
understood, have enormously swollen and massive heads j in
one (Fig. 2), the head is highly poHshed ; in the other (Fig. 3),
it is' opaque and hairy. The worker-minors vary greatly in
size, some being double the bulk of others. The entire body
is of very solid consistence, and of a pale reddish-brown colour.
The thorax or middle segment is armed with three pairs of
sharp spines ; the head, also, has a pair of similar spines pro
ceeding from the cheeks behind.

In our first walks we were puzzled to account for large
mounds of earth, of a different colour from the surrounding
soil, which were thrown up in the plantations and woods.
Some of them were very extensive, being forty yards in circum-
ference, but not more than two feet in height. We soon ascer-
tained that these were the work of the Salibas, being the
outworks, or domes, w^hich overlie and protect the entrances
to their vast subterranean galleries. On close examination, I
found the earth of which they are composed to consist of very
minute granules, agglomerated without cement, and forming
many rows of Httle ridges and turrets. The difference in
colour from the superficial soil of the vicinity is owing to
their being formed of the undersoil, brought up from a con-
siderable depth. It is very rarely that the ants are seen at
work on these mounds ; the entrances seem to be generally
closed; only now and then, when some particular work is
going on, are the galleries opened. The entrances are small
and numerous ; in the large hillocks it would require a great
amount of excavation to get at the main galleries ; but I suc-
ceeded in removing portions of the dome in smaller hillocks,
and then I found that the minor entrances converged, at the
depth of about two feet, to one broad elaborately-worked
gallery or mine, which was four or five inches in diameter.

This habit in the Saliba ant of clipping and carrying away
immense quantities of leaves has long been recorded in books
on natural history. When employed on this work, their pro-
cessions look like a rhultitude of animated leaves on the march.
In some places I found an accumulation of such leaves, all
circular pieces, about the size of a sixpence, lying on the path-
way, unattended by ants, and at some distance from any colony.
Such heaps are always found to be removed when the place is
revisited the next day. In course of time I had plenty of

CHAP. I. MINING ANTS. ii

opportunities ot seeing them at work. They mount the tree
in multitudes, the individuals being all worker-minors. Each
one places itself on the surface of a leaf, and cuts with its sharp
scissor-like jaws a nearly semicircular incision on the upper
side ; it then takes the edge between its jaws, and by a sharp
jerk detaches the piece. Sometimes they let the leaf drop to
the ground, where a little heap accumulates, until carried oft
by another relay of workers ; but, generally, each marches oft
with the piece it has operated upon, and as all take the same
road to their colony, the path they follow becomes in a short
time smooth and bare, looking like the impression of a cart-
wheel through the herbage.

It is a most interesting sight to see the vast host of busy
diminutive labourers occupied on this work. Unfortunately
they choose cultivated trees for their purpose. This ant is
quite peculiar to Tropical America, as is the entire genus to
which it belongs ; it sometimes despoils the young trees of
species growing wild in its native forests ; but seems to prefer,
when within reach, plants imported from other countries, such
as the coffee and orange trees. It has not hitherto been shown
satisfactorily to what use it applies the leaves. I discovered
this only after much time spent in investigation. The leaves
are used to thatch the domes which cover the entrances to
their subterranean dwellings, thereby protecting from the
deluging rains the young broods in the nests beneath. The
larger mounds, already described, are so extensive that few
persons would attempt to remove them for the purpose of
examining their interior ; but smaller hillocks, covering other
entrances to the same system of tunnels and chambers, may be
found in sheltered places, and these are always thatched with
leaves, mingled with granules of earth. The heavily-laden
workers, each carrying its segment of leaf vertically, the lower
edge secured in its mandibles, troop up and cast their burthens
on the hillock ; another relay of labourers place the leaves in
position, covering them with a layer of earthy granules, which
are brought one by one from the soil beneath.

The underground abodes of this wonderful ant are known to
be very extensive. The Rev. Hamlet Clark has related that
the Saiiba of Rio de Janeiro, a species closely allied to ours,
has excavated a tunnel under the bed of the river Parahyba, at
a place where it is as broad as the Thames at London Bridge.
At the Magoary rice mills, near Pard., these ants once pierced
the embankment of a large reservoir : the great body of water

12 PARA. CHAP. I.

which it contained escaped before the damage could be repaired.
In the Botanic Gardens, at Para, an enterprising French
gardener tried all he could think of to extirpate the Saiiba.
With this object he made fires over some of the main entrances
to their colonies, and blew the fumes of sulphur down the gal-
leries by means of bellows. I saw the smoke issue from a great
number of outlets, one of which was 70 yards distant from the
place where the bellows were used. This shows how exten-
sively the underground galleries are ramified.

Besides injuring and destroying young trees by despoiling
them of their foliage, the Saiiba ant is troublesome to the
inhabitants from its habit of plundering the stores of provisions
in houses at night, for it is even more active by night than in
the day-time. At first I was inclined to discredit the stories of
their entering habitations and carrying off grain by grain the
farinha or mandioca meal, the bread of the poorer classes of
Brazil. At length, while residing at an Indian village on the
Tapajos, I had ample proof of the fact. One night my servant
woke me three or four hours before sunrise by calling out that
the rats were robbing the farinha baskets ; the article at that
time being scarce and dear. I got up, listened, and found the
noise was very unlike that made by rats. So I took the light
and went into the store-room, which was close to my sleeping-
place. I there found a broad column of Saiiba ants, consisting
of thousands of individuals, as busy as possible, passing to and
fro between the door and my precious baskets. Most of those
passing outwards were laden each with a grain of farinha,
which was, in some cases, larger and many times heavier
than the bodies of the carriers. Farinha consists of grains of
similar size and appearance to the tapioca of our shops ; both
are products of the same root, tapioca being the pure starch,
and farinha the starch mixed with woody fibre, the latter
ingredient giving it a yellowish colour. It was amusing to see
some of the dwarfs, the smallest members of their family,
staggering along, completely hidden under their load. The
baskets, which were on a high table, were entirely covered with
ants, many hundreds of whom were employed in snipping the
dry leaves which served as lining. This produced the rustling
sound which had at first disturbed us. My servant told me
that they would carry off the whole contents of the two baskets
(about two bushels) in the course of the night, if they were
not driven off; so we tried to exterminate them by kilhng
them with our wooden clogs. It was impossible, however, to

CHAP. I. A NT- CO MM UNI TIES. 13

prevent fresh hosts coming in as fast as we killed their com-
panions. They returned the next night; and I was then
obliged to lay trains of gunpowder along their line, and blow
them up. This, repeated many times, at last seemed to in-
timidate them, for we were free from their visits during the
remainder of my residence at the place. What they did with
the hard dry grains of mandioca I was never able to ascertain,
and cannot even conjecture. The meal contains no gluten,
and therefore would be useless as cement. It contains only a
small relative portion of starch, and, when mixed with water,
it separates and falls away like so much earthy matter. It may
serve as food for the subterranean workers. But the young
or larvae of ants are usually fed by juices secreted by the worker
nurses.

Ants, it is scarcely necessary to observe, consist, in each
species, of three sets of individuals, or, as some express it, of
three sexes — -namely, males, females, and workers; the last-
mentioned being undeveloped females. The perfect sexes are
winged on their first attaining the adult state ; they alone
propagate their kind, flying away, previous to the a'Cf of repro-
duction, from the nest in which they have been reared. This
winged state of the perfect males and females, and the habit ot
flying abroad before pairing, are very important points in the
economy of ants ; for they are thus enabled to intercross with
members of distant colonies which swarm at the same time,
and thereby increase the vigour of the race, a proceeding,
essential to the prosperity of any species. In many ants, espe-
cially those of tropical climates, the workers, again, are of two
classes, whose structure and functions are widely different. In
some species they are wonderfully unlike each other, and con-
stitute two well-defined forms of workers. In others, there is a
gradation of individuals between the two extremes. The
curious differences in structure and habits between these two
classes form an interesting, but very difficult, study. It is one
of the great pecufiarities of the Saiiba ant to possess thj-ee
classes of workers. My investigations regarding them were far
from complete ; I will relate, however, what I have observed
on the subject.

When engaged in leaf-cutting, plundering farinha, and other
operations, two classes of workers are always seen (Figs, i and
2, page 9). They are not, it is true, very sharply defined in
structure, for individuals of intermediate grades occur. All
the work, however, is done by the individuals which have

14 P A R A. CHAP. I.

small heads (Fig. i), whilst those which have enormously large
heads, the worker-majors (Fig. 2), are observed to be simply-
walking about. I could never satisfy myself as to the function
of these worker-majors. They are not the soldiers or defenders
of the working portion of the community, like the armed class
in the Termites, or white ants; for they never fight. The
species has no sting, and does not display active resistance
when interfered with. I once imagined they exercised a sort
of superintendence over the others j but this function is en-
tirely unnecessary in a community where all work with a
precision and regularity resembling the subordinate parts of a
piece of machinery. I came to the conclusion, at last, that
they have no very precisely defined function. They cannot,
however, be entirely useless to the community, for the suste-
nance of an idle class of such bulky individuals would be too
heavy a charge for the species to sustain. I think they serve,
in some sort, as passive instruments of protection to the real
workers. Their enormously large, hard, and indestructible
heads may be of use in protecting them against the attacks
of insectivorous animals. They would be, on this view, a
kind of " pieces de resistance," serving as a foil against
onslaughts made on the main body of workers.

The third order of workers is the most curious of all. If
the top of a small fresh hillock, one in which the thatching
process is going on, be taken off, a broad cylindrical shaft is
disclosed, at a depth of about two feet from the surface. If
this be probed with a stick, which may be done to the extent
of three or four feet mthout touching bottom, a small number
of colossal fellows (Fig. 3) will slowly begin to make their way
up the smooth sides of the mine. Their heads are of the same
size as those of the class Fig. 2 ; but the front is clothed with
hairs, instead of being polished, and they have in the middle
of the forehead a twin ocellus, or simple eye, of quite different
structure from the ordinary compound eyes, on the sides of the
head. This frontal eye is totally wanting in the other workers,
and is not known in any other kind of ant. The apparition
of these strange creatures from the cavernous depths of the
mine reminded me, when I first observed them, of the Cyclopes
of Homeric fable. They were not very pugnacious, as I
feared they would be, and I had no difficulty in securing a few
with my fingers. I never saw them under any other circum-
stances than those here related, and what their special functions
may be I cannot divine.

CHAP. I. SUBURBS OF PARA. 15

The whole arrangement of a Formicarium, or ant-colony, and
all the varied activity of ant-life, are directed to one main
purpose — the perpetuation and dissemination of the species.
Most of the labour which" we" see performed by the workers
has for its end the sustenance and welfare of the young brood,
which are helpless grubs. The true females are incapable of — t
attending to the wants of their offspring ; and it is on the poor
sterile workers, who are denied all the other pleasures of
maternity, that the entire care devolves. The workers are ^
also the chief agents in carrying out the different migrations of"
the colonies, which are of vast importance to the dispersal and
consequent prosperity of the species. The successful debut of

Saiiba Ant, — Female.

the winged^males-a^d-fJeinales depends likewise on the workers.
It is amusing to see the activity and excitement which reign in
an ant's nest when the exodus of the winged individuals is
taking place. The workers clear the roads of exit, and show
the most lively interest in their departure, although it is highly
improbable that any of them will return to the same colony.
The swarming or exodus of the winged males and females of
the Saiiba ant takes place in January and February, that is, at '^ ■
the commencement of the rainy season. They come out in
the evening in vast numbers, causing quite a commotion in
the streets and lanes. They are of very large size, the female ^
measuring no less than two inches and a quarter in expanse of
wing ; the male is not much more than half this size. They
are so eagerly preyed upon by insectivorous animals, that on
the morning after their flight not an individual is to be seen, a
few impregnated females alone escaping the slaughter to found
new colonies.

l6 PARA. CHAP. L

At the time of our arrival, Para had not quite recovered
from the effects of a series of revolutions, brought about by the
hatred which existed between the native Brazilians and the
Portuguese ; the former, in the end, calling to their aid the
Indian and mixed coloured population. The number of in-
habitants of the city had decreased, in consequence of these
disorders, from 24,500 in 18 19, to 15,000 in T848. Although
the public peace had not been broken for twelve years before
the date of our visit, confidence was not yet completely restored,
and the Portuguese merchants and tradesmen would not trust
themselves to live at their beautiful country-houses or rocinhas,
which lie embosomed in the luxuriant shady gardens around
the city. No progress had been made in clearing the second-
' growth forest, which had grown over the once cultivated
/ grounds and now reached the end of all the suburban streets.
': The place had the aspect of one which had seen better days ;
the public buildings, including the palaces of the President
and Bishop, the cathedral, the principal churches and con-
i vents, all seemed constructed on a scale of grandeur far
I beyond the present requirements of the city. Streets full
of extensive private residences, built in the Italian style ot
architecture, were in a neglected condition, weeds and
flourishing young trees growing from large cracks in the
' masonry. The large public squares were overgrown with
I weeds, and impassable on account of the swampy places which
\ occupied portions of their areas. Commerce, however, was
'^ now beginning to revive, and before I left the country I saw
great improvements, as I shall have to relate towards the
conclusion of this narrative.

The province of which Para is the capital was, at the time
I allude to, the most extensive in the Brazilian empire, being
about 1560 miles in length from east to west, and about 600
in breadth. Since that date — namely, in 1853 — it has been
divided into two by the separation of the Upper Amazons as a
distinct province. It formerly constituted a section, capitania,
or governorship of the Portuguese colony. Originally it was
well peopled by Indians, varying much in social condition
according to their tribe, but all exhibiting the same general
physical characters, which are those of the American red man,
somewhat modified by long residence in an equatorial forest
country. Most of the tribes are now extinct or forgotten, at
least those which originally peopled the banks of the main
/river, their descendants having amalgamated with the white

CHAP. I. MAGNITUDE OF THE AMAZONS. 17

and negro immigrants :* many still exist, however, in their
original state on the Upper Amazons and most of the branch
rivers. On this account Indians in this province are far more
numerous than elsewhere in Brazil, and the Indian element
may be said to prevail in the mongrel population, the negro
proportion being much smaller than in South Brazil.

The city is built on the best available site for a port of
entry to the Amazons region, and must in time become a vast
emporium; for the nordiern shore of the main river, where
alone a rival capital could be founded, is much more diffi-
cult of access to vessels, and is besides extremely unhealthy.
Although lying so near the equator (1° 28' S. lat.) the climate
is not excessively hot. The temperature during three years
only once reached 95° of Fahrenheit. The greatest heat of
the day, about 2 p.m., ranges generally between 89° and
94° ; but on the other hand, the air is never cooler than 73°,
so that a uniformly high temperature exists, and the mean of
the year is 81°. North American residents say that the hea
is not so oppressive as it is in summer in New York and
Philadelphia. The humidity is, of course, excessive, but the
rains are not so heavy and continuous in the wet season as in
many other tropical climates. The country had for a long
time a reputation for extreme salubrity. Since the small-pox
in 1819, which attacked chiefly the Indians, no serious epidemic
had visited the province. We were agreeably surprised to find
no danger from exposure to the night air or residence in the
low swampy lands. A few English residents, who had been
established here for twenty or thirty years, looked almost as
freshr-in colour as if they had never left their native country.
The native women, too, seemed to preserve their good looks
and plump condition until late in life. I nowhere observed
that early decay of appearance in Brazilian ladies, which is said
to be so general in the women of North America. Up to 1848
the salubrity of Para was quite remarkable for a city lying in
the delta of a great river in the middle of the tropics and half

* The mixed breeds which now form, probably, the greater part of the
population, have each a distinguishing name. Mameluco denotes the off-
spring of White with Indian ; Mulatto, that of White with Negro ; Cafuzo,
the mixture of the Indian and Negro; Curiboco, the cross between the
Cafuzo and the Indian ; Xibaro, that between the Cafuzo and Negro. These
are seldom, however, well-demarcated, and all shades of colour exist; the
names are generally applied only approximatively. The term Creole is
confined to negroes born in the country. The civilised Indian is called
Tapuyo or Caboclo.

2

i8 PARA. CHAP. I.

surrounded by swamps. It did not much longer enjoy its
immunity from epidemics. In 1850 the yellow fever visited
the province for the first time, and carried off in a few weeks
more than four per cent, of the population.

The province of Para, or as we may now say, the two pro-
vinces of Para and the Amazons, contain an area of 800,000
square miles; the population of which is only about 230,000,
or in the ratio of one person to four square miles ! The country
is covered with forests, and the soil fertile in the extreme, even
for a tropical country. It is intersected throughout by broad
and deep navigable rivers. It is the pride of the Paracuses to
call the Amazons the Mediterranean of South America. The
colossal stream perhaps deserves the name, for not only have
the main river and its principal tributaries an immense expanse
of water, bathing the shores of extensive and varied regions,
but there is also throughout a system of back channels, con-
riected with the main rivers by narrow outlets, and linking
together a series of lakes, some of which are fifteen, twenty,
and thirty miles in length. The whole Amazons valley is
thus covered by a network of navigable waters, forming a vast
inland freshwater sea with endless ramifications, rather than a
river.

I resided at Para nearly a year and a half altogether, return-
ing thither and making a stay of a few months after each of my
shorter excursions into the interior ; until the 6th of November,
1 85 1, when I started on my long voyage to the Tapajos and
the Upper Amazons, which occupied me seven years and a
half:

CHAPTER II.

PARA.

The swampy forests of Para — A Portuguese landed proprietor — Country
house at Nazareth — Life of a Naturalist under the equator — The drier
virgin forests — Magoary-^Retired creeks — Aborigines.

A.FTER having resided about a fortnight at Mr. Miller's
rocinha, we heard of another similar country-house to be let.
much better situated for our purpose, in the village of Nazareth,
a mile and a half from the city, and close to the forest. The
owner was an old Portuguese gentleman named Danin, who
Hved at his tile manufactory at the mouth of the Una, a small
river lying two miles below Para. We resolved to walk to his
place through the forest, a distance of three miles, although
the road was said to be scarcely passable at this season of the
year, and the Una much more easily accessible by boat. We were
glad, however, of this early opportunity of traversing the rich
swampy forest, which we had admired so much from the deck
of the ship ; so, about eleven o'clock one sunny morning,
after procuring the necessary information about the road, we
set off in that direction. This part of the forest afterwards
became one of my best hunting-grounds. I will narrate the
incidents of the walk, giving my first impressions and some
remarks on the wonderful vegetation. The forest is very-
similar on most of the low lands, and therefore one description
will do for all.

On leaving the town, we walked along a straight suburban
road, constructed above the level of the surrounding land. It
had low swampy ground on each side, built upon, however, and
containing several spacious rocinhas, which were embowered in
magnificent foliage. Leaving the last of these, we arrived at a
part where the lofty forest towered up like a wall, five or six
yards from the edge of the path, to the height of, probably,

20 PARA. CHAP. II.

loo feet. The tree trunks were only seen partially here and
there, nearly the whole frontage from ground to summit being
covered with a diversified drapery of creeping plants, all of the
most vivid shades of green ; scarcely a flower to be seen, except
in some places a solitary scarlet passion-flower, set in the green
mantle like a star. The low ground on the borders, between
the forest wall and the road, was encumbered with a tangled
mass of bushy and shrubby vegetation, amongst which prickly
mimosas were very numerous, covering the other bushes in the
same way as brambles do in England. Other dwarf mimosas
trailed along the ground close to the edge of the road, shrink-
ing at the slightest touch of the feet as we passed by. Cassia
trees, with their elegant pinnate foliage and conspicuous yellow
flowers, formed a great proportion of the lower trees, and arbo-
rescent aruns grew in groups around the swampy hollows.
Over the whole fluttered a larger number of brilliantly-coloured
butterflies than we had yet seen ; some wholly orange or yellow
( Callidryas), others with excessively elongated wings, sailing
horizontally through the air, coloured black, and varied with
blue, red, and yellow (Heliconii). One magnificent grassy-green
species (Colsenis Dido) especially attracted our attention. Near
the ground hovered many other smaller species ytry similar in
appearance to those found at home, attracted by the flowers of
numerous leguminous and other shrubs. Besides butterflies,
there were few other insects except dragonflies, which were in
great numbers, similar in shape to English species, but some of
them looking conspicuously different on account of their fiery
red colours.

After stopping a long time to examine and admire, we at
length walked onward. The road then ascended slightly, and
the soil and vegetation became suddenly altered in character.
The shrubs here were grasses, low sedges and other plants,
smaller in foliage than those growing in moist grounds. The
forest was second growth, low, consisting of trees which had
the general aspect of laurels and other e^^ergreens in our gar-
dens at home : the leaves glossy and dark green. Some of
them were elegantly veined and hairy (Melastomse). whilst
many, scattered amongst the rest, had smaller foliage (Myrtles),
but these were not sufficient to subtract much from the general
character of the whole.
^The sun, now, for we had loitered long on the road, was
exceedingly powerful. The day was most brilliant ; the sky
without a cloud. In fact, it was one of those glorious days

CHAP. II. THE ASPECT OF THE FOREST. 21

which announce the commencement of the dry season. The
radiation of heat from the sandy ground was visible by the
quivering motion of the air above it. We saw or heard no
mammals or birds ; a few cattle belonging to an estate down a
shady lane were congregated, panting, under a cluster of wide-
spreading trees. The very soil was hot to our feet, and we
hastened onward to the shade of the forest which we could see
not far ahead. At length, on entering it, what a relief ! We
found ourselves in a moderately broad pathway or alley, where
the branches of the trees crossed overhead and produced a de-
lightful shade. The woods were at first of recent growth,
dense, and utterly impenetrable ; the ground, instead of being
clothed with grass and shrubs as in the woods of Europe, was
everywhere carpeted with Lycopodiums (fern-shaped mosses).
Gradually the scene became changed. We descended slightly
from an elevated, dry, and sandy area to a low and swampy
one ; a cool air breathed on our faces, and a mouldy smell of
rotting vegetation greeted us. The trees were now taller, the
underwood less dense, and we could obtain glimpses into the
wilderness on all sides. The leafy crowns of the trees, scarcely
two of which could be seen together of the same kind, were now
far away above us, in another world as it were. We could only
see at times, where there was a break above, the tracery of the
foliage against the clear blue sky. Sometimes the leaves were
palmate, or of the shape of large outstretched hands ; at others,
finely cut or feathery, like the leaves of Mimosse. Below, the
tree trunks were everywhere linked together by sipos; the
woody flexible stems of climbing and creeping trees, whose
foliage is far away above, mingled with that of the taller inde-
pendent trees. Some were twisted in strands like cables, others
had thick stems contorted in every variety of shape, entwining
snake-like round the tree trunks, or forming gigantic loops and
coils among the larger branches ; others, again, were of zigzag
shape, or indented like the steps of a staircase, sweeping from
the ground to a giddy height.

It interested me much afterwards to find that these cHmbing
trees do not form any particular family. There is no distinct
group of plants whose especial habit is to climb, but species of
many and the most diverse families, the bulk of whose members
are not climbers, seem to have been driven by circumstances
to adopt this habit. There is even a climbing genus of j)alms
(Desmoncus), the species of which are" called, m'the Tupi
Jangirage;"J"acirdTa.''~' These have slender, thickly-spined, and

22

PA RA.

CHAP. II.

.v^

/

v.'-

Climbing Palm
(Desmoncus),

flexuous stems, which twine about the taller
trees from one to the other, and grow to
an incredible length. The leaves, which
have the ordinary pinnate shape charac-
teristic of the family, are emitted from the
stems at long intervals, instead of being
collected into a dense crown, and have at
their tips a number of long recurved spines.
These structures are excellent contrivances
to enable the trees to secure themselves by
in cHmbing, but they are a great nuisance
to the traveller, for they sometimes hang
over the pathway, and catch the hat or
clothes, dragging off the one or tearing
the other as he passes. The number and
variety of climbing trees in the Amazons
forests are interesting, taken in connection
with the fact of the very general tendency
of the animals also to become climbers.

All the Amazonian, and in fact all South
American, monkeys are climbers. There
is no group answering to the baboons of
the Old World, which live on tlie ground.
The Gallinaceous birds of the country, the
representatives of the fowls and pheasants
of Asia and Africa, are all adapted by the
position of the toes to perch on trees, and
it is only on trees, at a great height, that
they are to be seen. A genus of Planti-
grade Carnivora, alHed to the bears (Cer-
coleptes), found only in the Amazonian
forests, is entirely arboreal, and has a long
flexible tail like that of certain monkeys.
Many other similar instances could be
enumerated, but I will mention only the
Geodephaga, or carnivorous ground beetles,
a great proportion of whose genera and

CHAP. II. ^ WA MP Y FORE S T. 23

species in these forest regions are, by the structure of their
feet, fitted to live exclusively on the branches and leaves of
trees.

Many of the woody lianas suspended from trees are not
climbers, but the air-roots of epiphytous plants (Aroidese), which
sit on the stronger boughs of the trees above, and hang down
straight as plumb-lines. Some are suspended singly, others in
clusters ; some reach half-way to the ground and others touch
it, striking their rootlets into the earth. The underwood in
this part of the forest was composed partly of younger trees of
the same species as their taller neighbours, and partly of palms
of many species, some of them twenty to thirty feet in height,
others small and delicate, with stems no thicker than a finger.
These latter (different kinds of Bactris) bore small bunches of
fruit, red or black, often containing a sweet grape-like juice.

Further on the ground became more swampy, and we had
some difficulty in picking our way. The wild banana (Urania
Amazonica) here began to appear, and, as it grew in masses,
imparted a new aspect to the scene. The leaves of this beauti-
ful plant are like broad sword-blades, eight feet in length and
a foot broad ; they rise straight upwards, alternately, from the
top of a stem five or six feet high. Numerous kinds of plants
with leaves similar in shape to these, but smaller, clothed the
ground. Amongst them were species of Marantaceae, some of
which had broad glossy leaves, with long leaf-stalks radiating
from joints in a reed-like stem. The trunks of the trees were
clothed with climbing ferns, and Pothos plants with large,
fleshy, heart-shaped leaves. Bamboos and other tall grass and
reed-like plants arched over the pathway. The appearance of
this part of the forest was strange in the extreme ; description
can convey no adequate idea of it. The reader who has visited
Kew may form some notion by conceiving a vegetation like
that in the great palm-house spread over a large tract of
swampy ground, but he must fancy it mingled with large
exogenous trees similar to our oaks and elms covered with
creepers and parasites, and figure to himself the ground encum-
bered with fallen and rotten trunks, branches, and leaves ; the
whole illuminated by a glowing vertical sun, and reeking with
moisture.

We at length emerged from the forest, on the banks of the
Una, near its mouth. It was here about one hundred yards
wide. The residence of Senhor Danin stood on the opposite
shore; a large building, whitewashed and red-tiled as usual,

)

24 PARA. CHAP. II.

raised on wooden piles above the humid ground. The second

story was the part occupied by the family, and along it was an

open verandah, where people, male and female, were at work.

Below were several negroes employed carrying clay on their

heads. We called out for a boat, and one of them crossed over

to fetch us. Senhor Danin received us with the usual formal

politeness of the Portuguese ; he spoke English very well, and

<^after we had arranged our business we remained conversing

with him on various subjects connected with the country. Like

all employers in this province, he was full of one topic — the

^ scarcity of hands. It appeared that he had made great exer-

/ tions to introduce white labour, but had failed, after having

^_^ brought numbers of men from Portugal and other countries

under engagement to work for him. They all left him one by

one soon after their arrival. The abundance of unoccupied

land, the liberty that exists, a state of things produced by the

7 half-wild canoe-life of the people, and the ease with which a

mere subsistence can be obtained with moderate work, tempt

even the best-disposed to quit regular labour as soon as they

can.

Shortly afterwards we took possession of our new residence.
The house was a square building, consisting of four equal-sized
rooms ; the tiled roof projected all round, so as to fonn a broad
verandah, cool and pleasant to sit and work in. The cultivated
ground, which appeared as if newly cleared from the forest, was
planted with fruit trees and small plots of coffee and mandioca.
The entrance to the grounds was by an iron-grille gateway
from a grassy square, around which were built the few houses
and paim-thatched huts Avhich then constituted the village.
The most important building was the chapel of our Lady of
Nazareth, which stood opposite our place. The saint here
enshrined was a great favourite with all orthodox Paracuses,
who attributed to her the performance of many miracles. The
image was to be seen on the altar, a handsome doll about four
feet high, wearing a silver crown and a garment of blue silk,
stu<dded with golden stars. In and about the chapel were the
offerings that had been made to her, proofs of the miracles
which she had performed. There were models of legs, arms,
breasts, and so forth, which she had cured. But most curious
of all was a ship's boat, deposited here by the crew of a Portu-
guese vessel which had foundered, a year or two before our
arrival, in a squall off Cayenne; part of them having been

CHAP. II. REGULAR WORK, 25

saved in the boat, after invoking the protection of the saint
here enshrined. The annual festival in honour of our Lady of ^
Nazareth is the greatest of the Pari hohdays ; many persons \
come to it from the neighbouring city of Maranham, 300 miles
distant. Once the president ordered the mail steamer to be
delayed two days at Para for the convenience of these visitors.
The popularity of the festa is partly owing to the beautiful
\veather that prevails when it takes place, namely, in the middle
^of the fine season, on the ten days preceding the full moon in
October or November. Para is then seen at its best. The
weather is not too dry, for three weeks never follow in succes-
sion without a shower : so that all the glory of verdure and
flowers can be enjoyed with clear skies. The moonlit nights
are then especially beautiful ; the atmosphere is transparently i__
clear, and the light sea-breeze produces an agreeable coolness.

We now settled ourselves for a few months' regular work.
We had the forest on three sides of us ; it was the end of the
wet season ; most species of birds had finished moulting, and
every day the insects increased in number and variety. Behind
the rocinha, after several days' exploration, I found a series of
pathways through the woods, which led to the Una road ; about
half-way was the house in which the celebrated travellers Spix ^
and Martins resided during their stay at Para, in 1819. It
was now in a neglected condition, and the plantations were
overgrown with bushes. The paths hereabout were very pro-
ductive of insects, and being entirely under shade were very
pleasant for strolling. Close to our doors began the main
forest road. It was broad enough for two horsemen abreast,
and branched off in three directions ; the main line going to
the village of Ourem, a distance of 50 miles. This road for-
merly extended to Maranham, but it had been long in disuse,
and was now grown up, being scarcely passable between Para
and Ourem.

.Our researches were made in various directions along these
paths, and every day produced us a number of new and in-
teresting species. Collecting, preparing our specimens, and
making notes, kept us well occupied. One day was so much
like another, that a general description of the diurnal round of
incidents, including the sequence of natural phenomena, will
be sufficient to give an idea of how days pass to naturalists
under the equator.

We used to rise soon after dawn, when Isidoro would go
down to the city, after supplying us with a cup of coffee, to

26 FAR A.

CHAP. II.

purchase the fresh provisions for the day. The two hours
before breakfast were devoted to ornithology. At that early
period of the day the sky was invariably cloudless (the ther-
mometer marking 72'^ or 73° Fahr.) : the heavy dew or the
previous night's rain, which lay on the moist foliage, becoming
quickly dissipated by the glowing sun, which rising straight out
of the east, mounted rapidly tow^ards the zenith. All nature
was fresh, new leaf and flower-buds expanding rapidly. Some
mornings a single tree would appear in flower amidst what was
the preceding evening a uniform green mass of forest — a dome
of blossom suddenly created as if by magic. The birds were
all active : from the wild-fruit trees, not far off, we often heard
the shrill yelping of the Toucans (Ramphastos viteUinus).
Small flocks of parrots flew over on most mornings, at a great
height, appearing in distinct relief against the blue sky, always
two by two, chattering to each other, the pairs being separated
by regular intervals ; their bright colours, however, were not
apparent at that height. After breakfast we devoted the hours
^from 10 a.m. to 2 or 3 p.m. to entomology ; the best time for
insects in the forest being a little before the greatest heat of
the day.

The heat increased rapidly towards two o'clock (92° and 93°
Fahr.), by which time every voice of bird or mammal was
hushed ; only in the trees was heard at intervals the harsh whirr
of a cicada. The leaves, which were so moist and fresh in early
morning, now become lax and drooping ; the flowers shed their
petals. Our neighbours, the Indian and Mulatto inhabitants of
the open palm- thatched huts, as we returned home fatigued
with our ramble, were either asleep in their hammocks or seated
on mats in the shade, too languid even to talk. On most days
in June and July a heavy shower would fall some time in the
afternoon, producing a most welcome coolness. The approach
of the rain- clouds was after a uniform fashion very interesting
to observe. First, the cool sea-breeze, which commenced to
blow about 10 o'clock, and which had increased in force with
the increasing power of the sun, would flag and finally die
away. The heat and electric tension of the atmosphere would
then become almost insupportable. Languor and uneasiness
would seize on every one ; even the denizens of the forest
betraying it by their motions. White clouds would appear in
the east and gather into cumuli, with an increasing blackness
along their lower portions. The whole eastern horizon would
become almost suddenly black, and this would spread upwards,

CHAP. 11. STORMS. i27

the sun at length becoming obscured. Then the rush of a mighty
wind is heard through the forest, swaying the tree-tops; a vivid
flash of Hghtning bursts forth, then a crash of thunder, and down
streams the deluging rain. Such storms soon cease, leaving
bluish-black motionless clouds in the sky until night. Mean-
time all nature is refreshed; but heaps of flower-petals and
fallen leaves are seen under the trees. Towards evening life
revives again, and the ringing uproar is resumed from bush and
tree. The following morning the sun again rises in a cloud-
less sky, and so the cycle is completed ; spring, summer, and
autumn, as it were, in one tropical day. The days are more or
less like this throughout the year in this country. A little
difference exists between the dry and wet seasons ; but gene-
rally, the dry season, which lasts from July to December, is
varied with showers, and the wet, from January to June, with
sunny days. It results from this, that the periodical phenomena
of plants and animals do not take place at about the same time
in all species, or in the individuals of any given species, as
they do in temperate countries. Of course there is no hyber-
nation; nor, as the dry season is not excessive, is there any
summer torpidity as in some tropical countries. Plants do not
flower or shed their leaves, nor do birds moult, pair, or breed
simultaneously. In Europe, a woodland scene has its spring,
its summer, its autumnal, and its winter aspects. In the equa-
torial forests the aspect is the same or nearly so every day in
the year : budding, flowering, fruiting, and leaf-shedding are
always going on in one species or other. The activity of birds
and insects proceeds without interruption, each species having
its own separate times ; the colonies of wasps, for instance, do
not die off annually, leaving only the queens, as in cold
climates ; but the succession of generations and colonies goes
on incessantly. It is never either spring, summer, or autumn,
but each day is a combination of all three. With the day and \
night always of equal length, the atmospheric disturbances of / \^-
each day neutralising themselves before each succeeding morn ; ;
with the sun in its course proceeding mid-way across the sky,
and the daily temperature the same within two or three degrees
throughout the year — how grand in its perfect equilibrium and
simplicity is the march of Nature under the equator !

Our evenings were generally fully employed preserving our
collections, and making notes. We dined at four, and took tea
about seven o'clock. Sometimes we walked to the city to see
Brazilian life or enjoy the pleasures of European and American

28 PARA.

CHAP. II.

society. And so the time passed away from June T5th to
August 26th. During this period we made two excursions of
greater length to the rice and saw-mills of Magoary, an estab-
lishment owned by an American gentleman, Mr. Upton, situated
on the banks of a creek in the heart of the forest, about twelve
miles from Para. I will narrate some of the incidents of these
excursions, and give an account of the more interesting obser-
A-ations made on the Natural History and inhabitants of these
interior creeks and forests.

Our first trip to the mills was by land. The creek on whose
banks they stand, the Iritiri, communicates with the river Para
through another larger creek, the Magoary ; so that there is a
passage by water, but this is about 20 miles round. We started
at sunrise, taking Isidoro with us. The road plunged at once
into the forest after leaving Nazareth, so that in a few minutes
we were enveloped in shade. For some distance the woods
were of second growth, the original forest near the town having
been formerly cleared or thinned. They were dense and
impenetrable on account of the close growth of the young trees
and the mass of thorny shrubs and creepers. These thickets
swarmed with ants and ant-thrushes : they were also frequented
by a species of puff-throated manikin, a little bird which flies
occasionally across the road, emitting a strange noise, made, I
believe, with the wings, and resembling the clatter of a small
wooden rattle.

A mile or a mile and a half further on, the character of the
woods began to change, and we then found ourselves in the
primaeval forest. The appearance was greatly different from
that of the swampy tract I have already described. The land
was rather more elevated and undulating ; the many swamp
plants with their long and broad leaves were wanting, and there
was less underwood, although the trees were wider apart.
Through this wilderness the road continued for seven or eight
miles. The same unbroken forest extends all the way to
Maranham and in other directions, as we were told, a distance
of about 300 miles southward and eastward of Para. In almost
every hollow part the road was crossed by a brook, whose cold,
dark, leaf-stained waters were bridged over by tree trunks. The
ground was carpeted, as usual, by Lycopodiums, but it was also
encumbered with masses of vegetable debris and a thick coating
of dead leaves. Fruits of many kinds were scattered about,
amongst which were many sorts of beans, some of the pods a
foot long, flat and leathery in texture, others hard as stone. In

CHAP. II. COLOSSAL TREES. 29

one place there was a quantity of large empty wooden vessels,
which Isidoro told us fell from the Sapucaya tree. They are
called monkeys' drinking-cups (Cuyas de Macaco), and are the
capsules which contain the nuts sold under the name just men-
tioned, in Covent Garden Market. At the top of the vessel is
a circular hole, in which a natural lid fits neatly. When the
nuts are ripe, this lid becomes loosened, and the heavy cup falls
with a crash, scattering the nuts over the ground. The tree
which yields the nut (Lecythis oUaria), is of immense height.
It is closely allied to the Brazil-nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa),
whose seeds are also enclosed in large woody vessels ; but these
have no lid, and fall entire to the ground. This is the reason
why the one kind of nut is so much dearer than the other.
The Sapucaya is not less abundant, probably, than the Ber-
tholletia, but its nuts in falling are scattered about and eaten
by wild animals ; whilst the full capsules of Brazil-nuts are
collected entire by the natives.

What attracted us chiefly were the colossal trees. The
general run of trees had not remarkably thick stems ; the great
andr unciform height to which they grow without emitting a
branch, was a much more noticeable feature than their thickness ;
bufat intervals of a furlong or so a veritable giant to^yered up.
Only one of these monstrous trees can grow within a given
space; it monopolises the domain, and none but individuals of
much inferior size can find a footing near it. The cylindrical
trunks of these larger trees were generally about 20 to 25 feet
in circumference. Von Martins mentions having measured trees
in the Para district, belonging to various species (Symphonia
coccinea, Lecythis sp. and Crataeva Tapia), which were 50 to 60
feet in girth at the point where they become cylindrical. The
height of the vast column-like stems could not be Lss than 100
feet from the ground to their lowest branch. Mr. Leavens, at
the saw-mills, told me they frequently squared logs for sawing
TOO feet long, of the Pao d'Arco and the Massaranduba. The
total height of these trees, stem and crown together, may be
estimated at from 180 to 200 feet : where one of them stands,
the vast dome of foliage rises above the other forest trees as a
domed cathedral does above the other buildings in a city.

A very remarkable feature in these trees is the growth of
buttress-shaped projections around the lower part of their stems.
The spaces between these buttresses, which are generally thin
walls of wood, form spacious chambers, and may be compared
to stalls in a stable : some of them are large enough to hold

30 PARA. CHAP. ji.

half a dozen persons. The purpose of these structures is as
obvious, at the first glance, as that of the similar props of brick-
work which support a high wall. They are not peculiar to one
species, but are common to most of the larger forest trees.
Their nature and manner of growth are explained when a series
of young trees of different ages is examined. It is then seen
that they are the roots which have raised themselves ridge-like
out of the earth; growing gradually upwards as the increasing
height of the tree required augmented support. Thus they
are plainly intended to sustain the massive crown and trunk in
these crowded forests, where lateral growth of the roots in the
earth is rendered difficult by the multitude of competitors.'

The other grand forest trees whose native names we learnt,
were the Moira-tinga (the White or King-tree), probably the
same as, or allied to, the Mora excelsa, which Sir Robert
Schomburgk discovered in British Guiana ; the Samaiima
(Eriodendron Samauma) and the Massarandubaj,or Cow-tree.
The last-mentioned is the most remarkable. We. had already
heard a good deal about this tree, and about its producing from
its bark a copious supply of milk as pleasant to drink as that of
the cow. We had also eaten its fruit in Para, where it is sojd
in the streets by negro market women ; and had heard a good
deal of the durableness in water of its timber. We were glad,
therefore, to see this wonderful tree growing in its native wilds.
It is one of the largest of the forest monarchs, and is peculiar
in appearance on account of its deeply-scored, reddish, and
ragged bark. A decoction of the bark, I was told, is used as a
red dye for cloth. A few days afterwards we tasted its milk,
which was drawn from dry logs that had« been standing many
days in the hot sun, at the saw-mills. It was pleasant with coffee,
but had a shght rankness when drank pure ; it soon thickens to
a glue, which is excessively tenacious, and is often used to
cement broken crockery. I was told that it was not safe to
drink much of it, for a slave had recently nearly lost his life
through taking it too freely.

In some parts of the road ferns were conspicuous objects.
But I afterwards found them much more numerous on the
Maranham road, especially in one place where the whole forest
glade formed a vast fernery ; the ground was covered with
terrestrial species, and the tree trunks clothed with climbing and
epiphytous kinds. I saw no tree ferns in the Para district ;
they belong to hilly regions; some occur, however, on the Upper
Amazons.

CHAP. II. FO RE ST A NI MA L S. 31

Such were the principal features in the vegetation of the
wilderness ; but where were the flowers ? To our great dis-
appointment we saw none, or only such as were insignificant in
appearance. Orchids are very rare in the dense forests of the
low lands. I believe it is now tolerably well ascertained that
the majority of forest trees in equatorial Brazil have small
andinconspicuous flowers. Flower-frequenting insects are also
rare m the forest. Of course they would not be found where
their favourite food was wanting, but I always noticed that
even where flowers occurred in the forest, few or no insects
were seen upon them. In the open country or campos of San-
tarem, on the Lower Amazons,~ffowering'^ trees and bushes are
more abundant, and there a large number of floral insects are
attracted. The forest bees of South America belonging to the
genera Melipona and Euglossa are more frequently seen feeding
on the sweet sap which exudes from the trees, or on the excre-
ment of birds on leaves, than on flowers.

We were disappointed also in not meeting with any of the
larger animals in the forest. There was no tumultuous move-
ment, or sound of life. We did not see or hear monkeys, and
no tapir or jaguar crossed our path. Birds, also, appeared to
be exceedingly scarce. We heard, however, occasionally the
long-drawn, wailing note of the Inambu, a kind of partridge
(Crypturus cinereus ?) ; and, also, in the hollows on the banks
of the rivulets, the noisy notes of another bird, which seemed
to go in pairs, amongst the tree-tops, calling to each other as
they went. These notes resounded through the wilderness.
Another solitary bird had a most sweet and melancholy song ;
it consisted simply of a few notes, uttered in a plaintive key,
commencing high, and descending by harmonic intervals. It
was probably a species of warbler of the genus Trichas. All
these notes of birds are very striking and characteristic of the
forest.

I afterwards saw reason to modify my opinion, founded on
these first impressions, with regard to the amount and variety
of animal life in this and other parts of the Amazonian forests.
There is, in fact, a great variety of mammals, birds, and rep-
tiles, but they are widely scattered, and all excessively shy of
man. The region is so extensive, and uniform in the forest
clothing of its surface, that it is only at long intervals that
animals are seen in abundance, where some particular spot is
found which is more attractive than others. Brazil, moreover,
is throughout poor in terrestrial mammals, and the species are

\^-

32 PARA. CHAP. II

of small size ; they do not, therefore, form a conspicuous
feature in its forests. The huntsman would be disappointed
who expected to find here flocks of animals similar to the buf
falo herds of North America, or the svvarms of antelopes and
herds of ponderous pachyderms of Southern Africa. The
largest and most interesting portion of the Brazilian mammal
fauna is arboreal in its habits ; this feature of the animal
denizens of these forests I have already alluded to. The most
intensely arboreal animals in the world are the South American
monkeys of the family Cebidae, many of which have a fifth
hand lor climbing in their prehensile tails, adapted for this
function by their strong muscular development, and the naked
palms under their tips. This seems to teach us that the South
American fauna has been slowly adapted to a forest life, and,
therefore, that extensive forests must have always existed since
the region was first peopled by mammalia. But to this sub-
ject, and to the natural history of the monkeys, of which thirty-
eight species inhabit the Amazon region, I shall have to return.
We often read, in books of travels, of the silence and gloom
of the Brazilian forests. They are realities, and the imjgression
"deepens on a longer acquaintance. The few sounds of birds
are of that pensive or mysterious character which intensifies
. the feeling of solitude rather than imparts a sense of life and
cheerfulness. Sometimes, in the midst of the stillness, a
sudden yell or scream will startle one ; this comes from some
defenceless fruit-eating animal, which is pounced upon by a
tiger-cat or stealthy boa-constrictor. Morning and evening
the howhng monkeys make a most fearful and harrowing noise,
under which it is difficult to keep up one's buoyancy of spirit.
The feeling of inhospitable wildness which the forest is cal-
culated to mspire, is increased tenfold under this fearful uproar.
Often, even in the still hours of midday, a sudden crash will be
heard resounding afar through the wilderness, as some great
bough or entire tree falls to the ground. There are, besides,
many sounds which it is impossible to account for. I found
the natives generally as much at a loss in this respect as
myself. Sometimes a sound is heard like the clang of an iron
bar against a hard, hollow tree, or a piercing cry rends the
air ; these are not repeated, and the succeeding silence tends
to heighten the unpleasant impression which they make on the
mind. With the native it is always the Curupira, the_wild
man or spiriT'of the forest, which produces all noises they are
unable to explain. For myths are the rude theories which

CHAP. II. THE CREEK IRITIRI. 35

mankind, in the infancy of knowledge, invent to explain
natural phenomena. The Curupira is a mysterious being,
whose attributes are uncertain, for they vary according to
locality. Sometimes he is described as a kind of orang-otang,
being^-eovered with long shaggy hair, and living in trees. At
others he is said to have cloven feet and a bright red face.
He^iras^a wife and children, and sometimes comes^ down to the
roeas to steal the mandioca. At one time I had a mameluco
youth in my service, whose head was full of the legends and
superstitions of the country. He always went with me into
the forest ; in fact, I could not get him to go alone, and when-
ever we heard any of the strange noises mentioned above, he
used to tremble with fear. He would crouch down behind me,
and beg of me to turn back ; his alarm ceasing only after he had
made a charm to protect us from the Curupira. For this
purpose he took a young palm leaf, plaited it, and formed it
into a ring, which he hung to a branch on our track.

At length, after a six hours' walk, we arrived at our destina-
tion, the last mile or two having been again through second-
growth forest. The mills formed a large pile of buildings,
pleasantly situated in a cleared tract of land, many acres in
extent, and everywhere surrounded by the perpetual forest.
We were received in the kindest manner by the overseer, Mr.
Leavens, who showed us all that was interesting about the
place, and took us to the best spots in the neighbourhood for
birds and insects. The mills were built a long time ago by a
wealthy Brazilian. They had belonged to Mr. Upton for many
years. I was told that when the ^ark-skinned revolutionists,
were preparing for their attack on^Tara, they occupied the
place, but not the slightest injury was done to the machinery
or building, for the leaders said it was against the Portuguese
and their party that they were at war, not against the other
foreigners.

The creek Iritiri at the mills is only a few yards wide; it
winds about between two lofty walls of forest for some distance,
then becomes much broader, and finally joins the Magoary.
There are many other ramifications, creeks or channels, which
lead to retired hamlets and scattered houses, inhabited by
people of mixed white, Indian, and negro descent. Many of
them did business with Mr. Leavens, bringing for sale their
little harvests of rice, or a few logs of timber. It was interest-
ing to see them in their little heavily-laden montarias. Some-
times the boats were managed by handsome, healthy young lads,

36 PARA. CHAP. II.

loosely clad in straw hat, white shirt, and dark blue trousers,
turned up to the knee. They steered, paddled, and managed
the varejao (the boating pole) with much grace and dexterity.

We made many excursions down the Iritiri, and saw much
of these creeks ; besides, our second visit to the mills was by
water. The Magoary is a magnificent channel ; the different
branches form quite a labyrinth, and the land is everywhere of
little elevation. All these smaller rivers throughout the Para
estuary are of the nature of creeks. The land is so level, that
the short local rivers have no sources and downward currents,
like rivers as we generally understand them. They serve the
purpose of draining the land, but instead of having a constant
current one way, they have a regular ebb and flow with the
tide. The natives call them, in the Tupi language, Igarapes,
or canoe-paths. The igarapes and furos or channels, which
are infinite in number in this great river delta, are character-
istic of the country. The land is everywhere covered with
impenetrable forests ; the houses and villages are all on the
waterside, and nearly all communication is by water. This
semi-aquatic life of the people is one of the most interesting
features of the country. For short excursions, and for fishing
in still waters, a small beat, called montaria, is universally
used. It is made of five planks ; a broad one for the bottom,
bent into the proper shape by the action of heat, two narrow
ones for the sides, and two small triangular pieces for stem and
stern. It has no rudder; the paddle serves for both steering
and propelling. The montaria takes here the place of the
horse, mule, or camel of other regions. Besides one or more
montarias, almost every family has a larger canoe, called Igarite.
This is fitted with two masts, a rudder, and keel, and has
an arched awning or cabin near the stern, made of a frame-
work of tough lianas, thatched with palm leaves. In the
igarite they will cross stormy rivers fifteen or twenty miles
broad. The natives are all boat-builders. It is often remarked,
by white residents, that an Indian is a carpenter and ship-
wright by intuition. It is astonishing to see in what crazy
vessels these people will risk themselves. • I have seen Indians
cross rivers in a leaky montaria, when it required the nicest
equilibrium to keep the leak just above water ; a movement of
a hair's breadth would send all to the bottom, but they
managed to cross in safety. They are especially careful when
they have strangers under their charge, and it is the custom of
Brazilian and Portuguese travellers to leave the whole manage-

CHAP. II. INDIANS. 37

ment to them. When they are alone, they are more reckless,
and often have to swim for their lives. If a squall overtakes
them as they are crossing in a heavily-laden canoe, they all
jump overboard and swim about until the heavy sea subsides,
when they re-embark.

A ^ few words on the aboriginal population of the Para
estuary will here not be out of place. The banks of the Para
were originally inhabited by a number of distinct tribes, who,
in their habits, resembled very much the natives of the sea-
coast from Maranham to Bahia. It is related that one large
tribe, the_T\ipinamba_Sj_ migr^^^^

Amazons. One fact seems to be well established, namely, that
all the coast tribes were far more advanced in civilisation, and
rhilder in their manners, than the savages who inhabited the
interior lands of Brazil. They were settled in villages, and
addicted to agriculture. They navigated the rivers in large
canoes, called ubas, made of immense hollowed-out tree
trunks j in these they used to go on war expeditions, carrying
in the prows their trophies and calabash rattles, whose clatter
was meant to intimidate their enemies. They were gentle in
disposition, and received the early Portuguese settlers with
great friendliness. The inland savages, on the other hand, led
a wandering life, as they do at the present time, only coming
down occasionally to rob the plantations of the coast tribes,
who always entertained the greatest enmity towards them.

The original Indian tribes of the district are now either
civilised, or have amalgamated with the white and negro
immigrants. Their distinguished tribal names have long been
forgotten, and the race bears now the general appellation
of Tapuyo, which seems to be one of the names of the
ancient Tupinambas. The Indians of the interior, still re-
maining in the savage state, are called by the Brazilians Indios,
or Gentios (Heathens). All the semi-civilised Tapuyos of the
villages, and in fact the inhabitants of retired places generally,
speak the Lingoa geral, a language adapted by the Jesuit
missionaries from the original idiom of the Tupinambas. The
language of the Guaranis, a nation living on the banks of the
Paraguay, is a dialect of it, and hence it is called by philolo-
gists the Tupi-Guarani language ; printed grammars of it are
always on sale at the shops of the Para booksellers. The fact
of one language having been spoken over so wide an extent ot
country as that from the Amazons to Paraguay, is quite an

38 F A R A. CHAP. II.

isolated one in this country, and points to considerable migra-
tions of the Indian tribes in former times. At present the
languages spoken by neighbouring tribes on the banks of the
interior rivers are totally distinct ; on the Jurua, even scattered
hordes belonging to the same tribe are not able to understand
each other.

The civilised Tapuyo of Para differs in no essential point,
in physical or moral qualities, from the Indian of the interior.
He is more stoutly built, being better fed than some of them ;
but in this respect there are great differences amongst the
tribes themselves. He presents all the chief characteristics of
the American red man. The skin of a coppery brown colour,
the features of the face broad, and the hair black, thick, and
straight. He is generally about the middle height, thick-set,
has a broad muscular chest, well-shaped but somewhat thick
legs and arms, and small hands and feet. The cheek bones
are not generally prominent ; the eyes are black, and seldom
oblique like those of the Tartar races of Eastern Asia, which
are supposed to have sprung from the same original stock as
the American red man. The features exhibit scarcely any
mobility of expression ; this is connected with the excessively
apathetic and undemonstrative character of the race. They
never betray, in fact they do not feel keenly, the emotions of
joy,- grief, wonder, fear, and so forth. They can never be
excited to enthusiasm ; but they have strong affections, espe-
cially those connected with family. It is commonly stated
by the whites and negroes that the Tapuyo is ungrateful.
Brazilian mistresses of households, who have much experience
of Indians, have always a long list of instances to relate to the
stranger, showing their base ingratitude. They certainly do
not appear to remember or think of repaying benefits, but this
is probably because they did not require, and do not value, such
benefits as their would-be masters confer upon them. I have
known instances of attachment and fidelity on the part of
Indians towards their masters, but these are exceptional cases.
All the actions of the Indian show that his ruling desire is to
be let alone ; he is attached to his home, his quiet monotonous
forest and river life ; he likes to go to towns occasionally, to
see the wonders introduced by the white man, but he has a
great repugnance to living in the midst of the. crowd ; he
prefers handicraft to field labour, and especially dislikes bind-
ing himself to regular labour for hire. He is shy and uneasy
before strangers, but if they visit his abode, he treats them

CHAP. II. INDIA N S.

39

well, for he has a rooted appreciation of the duty of hcspi-
tality; there is a pride about him,, and being naturally formal
and polite, he acts the host with great dignity. He with-
draws^from towns as soon as the stir of civilisation begins to
make itself felt. When we first arrived at Para, many Indian
families resided there, for the mode of living at that time was
more like that of a large village than a city ; but as soon as
river steamers and more business activity were introduced,
they all gradually took themselves away.

These characteristics of the Para Indians are aj)plicable, of
course, to some extent, to the Mamelucos, who now consti-
tute a great proportion of the population. The inflexibility of
character of the Indian, and his total inability to accommodate
himself to new arrangements, will infallibly lead to his extinc-
tion, as immigrants, endowed with more supple organisations,
increase, and civilisation advances in the Amazon region. But,
as the different races amalgamate readily, and the offspring of
wHTte and Indian often become distinguished Brazilian citizens,
tbere is little reason to regret the fate of the race.. Formerly
the Indianjwas harshly treated, and even now he is so in many
parts^oTthe mterior. But, according to the laws of Brazil, he is
a free~dtizen, having equal privileges with the whites ; and there
are very strong enactments providing against the enslaving and
ill-treatment of the Indians. The residents of the interior, who
have no higher principles to counteract instinctive selfishness
or antipathy of race, cannot comprehend why they are not
allowed to compel Indians to work for them, seeing that they
will not do it of their own accord. The inevitable result of the
conflict of interests between a European and a weaker iridi-
genDus race, when the two come in contact, is the sacrifice of
the' latter. In the Para district, the Indians are no longer
enslaved, but they are deprived of their lands, and this they
feel bitterly, as one of them, an industrious and worthyman,
related to me.

On our second visit to the mills, we stayed ten days. There
is a large reservoir and also a natural lake near the place, both
containing aquatic plants, whose leaves rest on the surface like
our water lilies, but they are not so elegant as our nymphaea,
either in leaf or flower. On the banks of these pools grew
quantities of a species of fan-leaved palm-tree, the Carana,
whose stems are surrounded by whorls of strong spines. I
sometimes took a montaria, and paddled myself alone down

U--

40 PARA. CHAP. II.

the creek. One day I got upset, and had to land on a grassy-
slope leading to an old plantation, where I ran about naked
whilst my clothes were being dried on a bush. The creek
Iritiri is not so picturesque as many others which 1 subse-
quently explored. Towards the Magoary the banks at the
edge of the water are clothed with mangrove bushes, and
beneath them the muddy banks, into which the long roots that
hang down from the fruit before it leaves the branches strike
their fibres, swarm with crabs. On the lower branches the
beautiful bird, Ardea helias, is found. This is a small heron of
exquisitely graceful shape and mien ; its plumage is minutely-
variegated with bars and spots of many colours, like the wings
of certain kinds of moths. It is difficult to see the bird in the
woods, on account of its sombre colours and the shadiness of
its dwelling-places ; but its note, a soft long-drawn whistle,
often betrays its hiding-place. I was told by the Indians that
it builds in trees, and that the nest, which is made of clay, is
beautifully constructed. It is a favourite pet-bird of the Bra-
zilians, who call it Pavao (pronounced pavaong), or peacock.
I often had opportunities of observing its habits. It soon
becomes tame, and walks about the floors of houses, picking up
scraps of food, or catching insects, which it secures by walking
gently to the place where they settle, and spearing them with
its long slender beak. It allows itself to be handled by chil-
dren, and will answer to its name " Pavao ! Pavao !'^ walking
up with a dainty, circumspect gait, and taking a fly or beetle
from the hand.

During these rambles by land and water we increased our
collections considerably. Before we left the mills we arranged
a joint excursion to the Tocantins. Mr. Leavens wished to
ascend that river to ascertam if .the reports were true, that
^edar grew abundantly between the lowermost cataract and
the mouth of the Araguaya, and we agreed to accompany liim.
Whilst we were at the mills, a Portuguese trader arrived with
a quantity of worm-eaten logs of this cedar, which he had
gathered from the floating timber in the current of the main
Amazons. The tree producing this wood, which is named
cedar on account of the similarity of its aroma to that of the
true cedars, is not, of course, a coniferous tree, as no member
of that class is found in equatorial America, at least in the
Amazons region. It is, according to Von Martius, the Cedrela
odorata, an exogen belonging to the same order as the maho-
gany tree. The wood is light, and the tree is therefore, on

CHAP. IT. RETURN TO PAR A. 41

falling into the water, floated down with the river currents.
It must grow in great quantities somewhere in the interior, to
judge from the number of uprooted trees annually carried to
the sea ; and as the wood is much esteemed for cabinet work
and canoe-building, it is of some importance to learn where a
regular supply can be obtained. We were glad of course to
arrange with Mr. Leavens, who was familiar with the lan-
guage, and an adept in river-navigation; so we returned to
Para to ship our collections for England, and prepare for the
journey to a new region.

CHAPTER III.

V

PARA.
Religious holidays — Marmoset monkeys — Serpents — Insects.

Before leaving the subject of Para, where I resided, as
already stated, in all eighteen months, it will be necessary to
give a more detailed account of several matters connected
with -the customs of the people and the Natural History of the
neighbourhood, which have hitherto been only briefly men-
tioned. I reserve an account of the trade and improved condi-
tion of Para in 1859 for the end of this narrative.

During the first few weeks of our stay many of those reU-
gious festivals took place, which occupied so large a share of
the time and thoughts of the people. These were splendid
affairs, wherein artistically-arranged processions through the
streets, accompanied by thousands of people, military dis-
plays, the clatter of fireworks, and the clang of military music,
were superadded to pompous reHgious services in the churches.
■ To those who had witnessed similar ceremonies in the southern
J countries of Europe, there would be nothing remarkable per-
^ haps in these doings, except their taking pl2ce amidst the
^ splendours of tropical nature; but to me they were full of
i novelty, and were besides interesting as exhibiting much that
was peculiar in the manners of the people. The festivals cele-
brate either the anniversaries of events concerning saints, or
those of the more important transactions in the life of Christ.
To them have been added, since the Independence, many
gala days connected with the events in the Brazilian national
history ; but these have all a semi-religious character. The
holidays had become so numerous, and interfered so much with
trade and industry towards the year 1852, that the Brazilian
Government was obliged to reduce them ; obtaining the neces-
sary permission from Rome to aboUsh several which were of

CHAP. III. PORTUGUESE SUPERSTITION. 43

minor importance. Many of those which have been retained
are decUning in importance since the introduction of raihvays
and steamboats, and the increased devotion of the people to
commerce ; at the time of our arrival, however, they were in
full glory. The way they were managed was in this fashion.
A general manager or "Juiz^' for each festa was elected by lot
every year in the vestry of the church, and to him were handed
over all the paraphernalia pertaining to the particular festival
w^hich he was chosen to manage ; the image of the saint, the
banners, silver crowns, and so forth. He then employed a
number of people to go the round of the parish and collect
alms towards defraying the expenses. It was considered that
the greater the amount of money spent in wax-candles, fire-
works, music and feasting, the greater the honour done to the
saint? If the Juiz was a rich man, he seldom sent out alms-
gatherers, but celebrated the whole affair at his own expense,
which was sometimes to the extent of several hundred pounds.
Each festival lasted nine days (a iiove7ia), and in many cases
refreshments for the public were provided every evening. In
•the smaller towns a ball took place two or three evenings
during the novena, and on the last day there was a grand
dinner. The priest, of course, had to be paid very liberally,
especially for the sermon delivered on the Saint's-day or termi-
nation of the festival, sermons being extra duty in Brazil.

There was much difference as to the accessories of these
festivals between the interior towns and villages and the capital;
but little or no work was done anywhere whilst they lasted, and
they tended much to demoralise the people. It is soon per-
ceived that religion is rather the amusement of the Paraenses
than their serious exercise. The ideas of the majority evidently
do not reach beyond the belief that all the proceedings are, in
each case, in honour of the particular wooden image enshrined
at the church. The uneducated Portuguese immigrants seemed
to me to have very degrading notions of religion. _I have
oftejijravelled in the company of these shining examples of
European enlightenment. They generally carry with them,
wherever they go, a small image of some favourite saint in their
trunks ; and when a squall or any other danger arises, their first
impulse is to rush to the cabin, take out the image and clasp it
to their lips, whilst uttering a prayer for protection. The
negroes and mulattos are similar in this respect to the low
Portuguese, but I think they show a purer devotional feeling ;
and in conversation I have always found them to be more

")

44 PARA, CHAP. III.

rational in religious views than the lower orders of Portuguese.
As to the Indians ; with the exception of the more civiHsed
famihes residing near the large towns, they exhibit no religious
sentiment at all. They have their own patron saint, St. Thome,
and celebrate his anniversary in the orthodox way, for they are
fond of observing all the formalities ; but they think the feasting
to be of equal importance with the church ceremonies. At
some of the festivals, masquerading forms a large part of the
proceedings, and then the Indians really shine. They get up
capital imitations of wild animals, dress themselves to represent
the Caypor and other fabulous creatures of the forest, and act
their parts throughout with great cleverness. When St. Thome's
festival takes place, every employer of Indians knows that all
his men will get drunk. The Indian, generally too shy to ask
directly for cashaca (rum), is then very bold ; he asks for a
frasco at once (two bottles and a half), and says, if interrogated
that he is going to fuddle in honour of St. Thome.

In the city of Para, the provincial government assists to
augment the splendour of the religious holidays. The proces-
sions which traverse the principal streets consist, in the first
place, of the image of the saint, and those of several other
subordinate ones belonging to the same church ; these are
borne on the shoulders of respectable householders, who
volunteer for the purpose : sometimes you will see your neigh-
bour the grocer or the carpenter groaning under the load. The
priest and his crowd of attendants precede the images, arrayed
in embroidered robes, and protected by magnificent sunshades
— no useless ornament here, for the heat is very great when the
sun is not obscured. On each side of the long line the citizens
walk, clad in crimson silk cloaks, and holding each a large
lighted wax candle. Behind follows a regiment or two of foot
soldiers with their bands of music, and last of all the crowd,
the coloured people being cleanly dressed and preserving a
grave demeanour. The women are always in great force, their
luxuriant black hair decorated with jasmines, white orchids,
and other tropical flowers. They are dressed in their usual
holiday attire, gauze chemises and black silk petticoats ; their
necks are adorned with links of gold beads, which when they
are slaves are generally the property of their mistresses, who
love thus to display their wealth.

At night, when festivals are going on in the grassy squares
around the suburban churches, there is really much to admire.
A great deal that is peculiar in the land and the life of its

CHAP. III. FESTIVALS. 45

inhabitants can be seen best at those times. The cheerful
white church is brilHantly Hghted up, and the music, not of a
very solemn description, peals forth from the open windows
and doors. Numbers of young gaudily-dressed negresses line
the path to the churcTi doors "with stands of liqueurs, sweet-
itmafs,~and" cigarettes, which they sell to the outsiders. A short
disBrnce off is heard the rattle of dice-boxes and roulette at the
open-air gambling stalls. When the festival happens on moon-
lit nights, the whole scene is very • striking to a new-comer.
Around the square are groups of tall palm trees, and beyond
it, over the illuminated houses, appear the thick groves of
mangoes near the suburban avenues, from which comes the
perpetual ringing din of insect life. The soft tropical moon-
light lends a wonderful charm to the wliiole. The inhabitants
are all out, dressed in their best. The upper classes, who come
tor~enjoy the fine evening and the general cheerfulness, are
seated on chairs around the doors of friendly houses. There
is ho boisterous conviviality, but a quiet enjoyment seems to
be felt everywhere, and a gentle courtesy rules amongst all
classe's and colours. I have seen a splendidly-dressed colonel,
from the President's palace, walk up to a mulatto, and politely
ask his permission to take a light jfrorn his cigar. When the
"service is over, the church bells are set ringing, a shower of
rockets mounts upwards, the bands strike up, and parties of
coloured people in the booths begin their dances. About ten
o'clock the Brazilian national air is played, and all disperse
quietly and soberly to their homes.

At the festival of Corpus Christi there was a ver}^ pretty
arrangement. The large green square of the Trinidade was
lighted up all round with bonfires. On one side a fine pavilion
was erected, the upright posts consisting of real fan-leaved palm
trees, the Mauritia flexuosa, which had been brought from the
forest, stems and heads entire, and fixed in the ground. The
booth was illuminated with coloured lamps, and lined with
red and white cloth. In it were seated the ladies, not all
of pure Caucasian blood, "but prFsenttfig' a fine sample of
Para beauty and fashion. "' ' '" *"

The grandest of all these festivals is that held in honour of
Our Lady of Nazareth : it is, I believe, peculiar to Para. As I
have said before, it falls in the second quarter of the moon,
about the middle of the dry season — that is, in October or
November — and lasts, like the others, nine days. On the first
day a very extensive procession takes place, starting from the

\

•46 P A R A. CHAP. III.

Cathedral, whither the image of the saint has been conveyed
some days previously; and terminating at the chapel or hermitage,
as it is called, of the saint at Nazareth, a distance of more than
two miles. The whole population turns out on this occasion.
All the soldiers, both of the line and the National Guard, take
part in it, each battalion accompanied by its band of music.
The civil authorities also, with the President at their head, and
the principal citizens, including many of the foreign residents,
join in the line. The boat of the shipwrecked Portuguese
\essel is carried after the saint on the shoulders of officers or
men of the Brazilian navy, and along with it are borne the
other symbols of the miracles which Our Lady is supposed to
have performed. The procession starts soon after the sun's
heat begins to moderate — that is, about half-past four o'clock
in the afternoon. When the image is deposited in the chapel,
the festival is considered to be inaugurated, and the village
every evening becomes the resort of the pleasure-loving popu-
lation, the holiday portion of the programme being preceded,

-. of course, by a religious service in the chapel. The aspect of
the place is then that of a fair ; without the humour and fun,
but, at the same time, without the noise and coarseness, of
similar holidays in England. Large rooms are set apart for

/ panoramic and other exhibitions, to which the public are
admitted gratis. In the course of each evening, large displays
of fireworks take place, all arranged according to a published
programme of the festival.

The various ceremonies which take place during Lent seemed
to me the most impressive, and some of them were exceedingly
well arranged. The people, both performers and spectators,
conduct themselves with more gravity on these occasions, and
there is no holiday-making. Performances, representing the
last events in the life of Christ, are enacted in the churches or
streets, in such a way as to remind one of the old miracle plays
or mysteries, A few days before Good Friday, a torchlight
procession takes place by night from one church to another, in
which is carried a large wooden image of Christ bent under the
weight of the cross. The chief members of the government
assist, and the whole slowly moves to the sound of muffled
drums. A double procession is managed a few days afterwards.
The image of St. Mary is carried in one direction, and that of
the Saviour in another. The two images meet in the middle
of one of the most beautiful churches, which is previously
filled to excess with the multitudes anxious to witness the

CHAP. III. PIETY OF THE NEGROES, 47

affecting meeting of mother and son a few days before
the crucifixion. The images are brought face to face in the
middle of the church, the crowd falls prostrate, and a lachry-
mose sermon is delivered from the pulpit. The whole thing,
as well as many other spectacles arranged during the few suc-
ceeding days, is highly theatrical, and well calculated to excite
the religious emotions of the people, although, perhaps, only
temporarily. On Good Friday , the bells do not ring, all
musical sounds are interdicted, and the hours, night and day,
'are announced by the dismal noise of wooden clappers, wielded
by negroes stationed near the different churches. A sermon is
delivered in each church. In the middle of it, a scroll is
suddenly unfolded from the pulpit, on which is an exaggerated
picture of the bleeding Christ. This act is accompanied by
loud groans which come from stout-lunged individuals concealed
in the vestry and engaged for the purpose. The priest becomes
greatly excited, and actually sheds tears. On one of these
occasions I squeezed myself into the crowd, and watched the
effect of the spectacle on the audience. Old Portuguese men
and Brazihan women seemed very much affected — sobbing,
beating their breasts, and telling their beads. The negroes
behaved themselves with great propriety, but seemed moved
more particularly by the pomp, the gilding, the dresses, and
the general display. Young Brazilians laughed. Several
aborigines were there, coolly looking on. One old Indian,
who was standing near me, said, in a derisive manner, when
the sermon was over, " It's all very good j better it could not
be '' (Esta todo bom ; melhor nao pude ser).

The negroes of Para are very devout. They have built, by
slow degrees, a fine church, as I was told, by their own unaided
exertions. It is called Nossa Senhora do Rosario, or Our Lady
of the Rosary. During the first weeks of our residence at
Para, I frequently observed a line of negroes and negresses, /
late at night, marching along the streets, singing a chorus.
Each carried on his or her head a quantity of building
materials — stones, bricks, mortar, or planks. I found they w^ere
chiefly slaves, who,, after their hard day's work, were contribut-
ing-^ little towards the construction of their church. The
materials had all been purchased by their own savings. The >
interior was finished about a year afterwards, and is decorated, \
I thought, quite as superbly as the other churches which were
constructed, with far larger means, by the old religious orders
more than a century ago. Annually, the negroes celebrate the

^8 P A R A. CHAP. Ill,

festival of Ncssa Senhora do Rosario, and generally make it a
complete success.

■ I will now add a few more notes which I have accumulated
on the subject of the natural history, and then we shall have
done, for the present, with Para and its neighbourhood.

I have already mentioned that monkeys were rare in the
immediate vicinity of Para. I met with three species only in .
the forest near the city ; they are shy animals, and avoid the
neighbourhood of towns, where they are subject to much per-
secution by the inhabitants, who kill them for food. The only
kind which I saw frequently was the little Midas ursulus, one
of the Marmosets, a family peculiar to tropical America, and
differing in many essential points of structure and habits from
all other apes. They are small in size, and more like squirrels
than true monkeys in their manner of chmbing. The nails,
except those of the hind thumbs, are long and claw-shaped like
those of squirrels, and the thumbs of the fore extremities, or
hands, are not opposable to the other'fingers. I do not mean
to imply that they have a near relationship to squirrels, which
belong to the Rodents, an inferior order of mammals ; their
resemblance to those animals is merely a superficial one. They
have two molar teeth less in each jaw than the Cebidae, the
other family of American monkeys; they agree with them, how-
ever, in the sideway position of the nostrils, a character which
distinguishes both from all the monkeys of the oldw^orld. The
body is long and slender, clothed with soft hairs, and the tail,
which is nearly twice the length of the trunk, is not prehensile.
The hind limbs are much larger in volume than the anterior
pair. The Midas ursulus is never seen in large flocks ; three
or four are the greatest number observed together. It seems to
be less afraid of the neighbourhood of man than any other
monkey. I sometimes saw it in the woods which border the
suburban streets, and once I espied two individuals in a thicket
behind the English consul's house at Nazareth. Its mode of
progression along the main boughs of the lofty trees is like that
of the squirrel ; it does not ascend to the slender branches, or
take those wonderful flying leaps which the Cebidse do, whose
prehensile tails and flexible hands fit them for such headlong
travelling. It confines itself to the larger boughs and trunks
of trees, the long nails being of great assistance to the creature,
enabling it to cling securely to the bark ; and it is often seen

CHAP. III. THE LEONINE MARMOSET. 49

passing rapidly round the perpendicular cylindrical trunks. It
is a quick, restless, timid little creature, and has a great share
of curiosity, for when a person passes by under the trees along
which a flock is running, they always stop for a few moments
to have a stare at the intruder. In Para, Midas ursulus is
often seen in a tame state in the houses of the inhabitants.
When full grown, it is about nine inches long, independently of
the tail, which measures fifteen inches. The fur is thick, and
black in colour, with the exception of a reddish-brown streak
down the middle of the back. When first taken, or when kept
tied up, it is very timid and irritable. It will not allow itself
to be approached, but keeps retreating backwards when any
one attempts to coax it. It is always in a querulous humour,
uttering a twittering, complaining noise; its dark, watchful
eyes, expressive of distrust, observant of every movement which
takes place near it. When treated kindly, however, as it gene-
rally is in the houses of the natives, it becomes very tame and
familiar. I once saw one as playful as a kitten, running
about the house after the negro children, who fondled it to
their hearts' content. It acted somewhat differently towards
strangers, and seemed not to like them to sit in the hammock
which was slung in the room, leaping up, trying to bite, and
otherwise annoying them. It is generally fed on sweet fruits,
such as the banana ; but it is also fond of insects, especially
soft-bodied spiders and grasshoppers, which it will snap up
with eagerness when within reach. The expression of counte-
nance in these small monkeys is intelligent and pleasing. This
is partly owing to the open facial angle, which is given as one
of 60° ; but the quick movements of the head, and the way
they have of inclining it to one side when their curiosity is
excited, contribute very much to give them a knowing ex-
p-ession.

On the Upper Amazons I once saw a tame individual of the
Midas~Teoninus, a species first described by Humboldt, which
was still mor^ playful and intelligent than the one just
described. This rare and beautiful little monkey is only seven
inches in length, exclusive of the tail. It is named leoninus
on account of the long brown mane which depends from the
neck, and which gives it very much the appearance of a dimi-
nutive lion. In the house where it was kept, it was familiar
with every one ; its greatest pleasure seeming to be to climb
about the bodies of different persons who entered. The first
time I went in, it ran across the room straightway to the chair

4

;o PARA. CHAP. III.

on which I had sat down, and climbed up to my shoulder ;
arrived there, it turned round and looked into my face, showing
its Httle teeth, and chattering, as though it would say, "Well,
and how ^o yoti do?" It showed more affection towards its
master than towards strangers, and would climb up to his head
a dozen times in the course of an hour, making a great show
every time of searching there for certain animalcula. Isidore
Geofifroy St. Hilaire relates of a species of this genus, that
it distinguished between different objects depicted on an
engraving. M. Audouin showed it the portraits of a cat
and a wasp ; at these it became much terrified : whereas, at
the sight of a figure of a grasshopper or beetle, it precipi-
tated itself on the picture, as if to seize the objects there
represented.

Although monkeys are now rare in a wild state near Para, a
great number may be seen semi-domesticated in the city. The
Brazilians -are fond of pet animals. Monkeys, however, have
not been known to breed in captivity in this country. I
counted, in a short time, thirteen different species, whilst
walking about the Para streets, either at the doors or windows
of houses, or in the native canoes. Two of them I did not
meet with afterwards in any other part of the country. One of
these was the well-known Hapale Jacchus, a little creature
resembling a kitten, banded with black and gray all over the
body and tail, and having a fringe of long white hairs sur-
rounding the ears. It was seated on the shoulder of a young
mulatto girl, as she was walking along the street, and I was
told had been captured in the island of Marajo. The other
was a species of Cebus, with a remarkably large head. It had
ruddy-brown fur, paler on the face, but presenting a blackish
tuft on the top of the forehead.

In the wet season serpents are common in the neighbour-
y hood of Para. One morning, in April, 1849, ^^er a night of
deluging rain, the lamplighter, on his rounds to extinguish the
lamps, knocked me up to show me a boa-constrictor he had
just killed in the Rua St Antonio, not far from my door. He
had cut it nearly in two with a large knife, as it was making
its way down the sandy street. Sometimes the native hunters
capture boa-constrictors alive in the forest near the city. We
bought one which had been taken in this way, and kept it for
some time in a large box under our verandah. This is not,
however, the largest or most formidable serpent found in the
Amazons region. It is far inferior, in these respects, to the

CHAP. III. MOTHER OF THE SAUBAS. 51

hideous Sucurujii, or Water Boa (Eimectes murinus), which
sometimes attacks man ; but of this I shall have to give an
account in a subsequent chapter.

It frequently happened, in passing through the thickets, that
a snake \Vould fall from the boughs close to me. Once I got
for a few moments completely entangled in the folds of one, a
wonderfully slender kind, being nearly six feet in length, and
not more than half an inch in diameter at its broadest part. It
was a species of Dryophis. The majority of the snakes seen
were innocuous. One day, however, I trod on the tail of a
young serpent belonging^to a very poisonous kind, the Jararaca
(Craspedocephalus atroxV^It turned round and bit my trousers;
and a young Indian lad, who was behind me, dexterously cut
it"~through with his knife before it had time to free itself. In
some seasons snakes are very abundant, and it often struck me
as strange that accidents did not occur more frequently than
was the case.

Amphisbaena.

Amongst the most curious snakes found here wTre the
Amphisbsenge, a genus allied to the slow- worm of Europe.
Several species occur at Para. Those brought to me were
generally not much more than a foot in length. They are of
cylindrical shape, having, properly speaking, no neck, and the
blunt tail, which is only about an inch in length, is of the same
shape as the head. This peculiar form, added to their habit of
wriggling backwards as well as forwards, has given rise to the
fable that they have two heads, one at each extremity. Thev
are extremely sluggish in their motions, and are clothed with
scales that have the form of small imbedded plates arranged
in rings round the body. The eye is so small as to be scarcely
perceptible. They live habitually in the subterranean chambers
of the Saiiba ant ; only coming out of their abodes occasionally
in the night time. The natives call the Amphisbaena the " Mai
das Saiibas," or..M-Otlier of the ^aubas/ and "Believe it to be

52 PARA. CHAP. III.

poisonous, although it is perfectly harmless. It is one of the
many curious animals which have become the subject of
mythical stories with the natives. They say the ants treat it
with great affection, and that if the snake be taken away from
a nest, the Saiibas will forsake the spot. I once took one quite
whole out of the body of a young Jararaca, the poisonous
species already alluded to, whose body was so distended with
its contents that the skin was stretched out to a film over the
contained Amphisbacna. I was, unfortunately, not able to
ascertain the exact relation which subsists between these curious
snakes and the Saiiba ants. I believe, however, they feed upon
the Saiibas, for I once found remains of ants in the stomach of
one of them. Their motions are quite peculiar ; the undilatable
jaws, small eyes and curious plated integument also distinguish
them from other snakes. These properties have evidently some
relation to their residence in the subterranean abodes of ants.
It is now well ascertained by naturalists, that some of the most
anomalous forms amongst Coleopterous insects are those which
. live solely in the nests of ants, and it is curious that an abnor-

< mal form of snakes should also be found in the society of
} these insects.
' The neighbourhood of Para is rich in insects. I do not

"^ speak of the number of individuals, which is probably less than
one meets with, excepting ants and Termites, in summer days
in temperate latitudes ; but the variety, or in other words, the
number of species, is very great. It will convey some idea of
the diversity of butterflies when I mention that about 700
species of that tribe are found within an hour's walk of the
town ; whilst the total number found in the British Islands
does not exceed 66, and the whole of Europe supports only
321. Some of the most showy species, such as the swallow-
tailed kinds, Papilio Polycaon, Thoas, Torquatus, and others,
are seen flying about the streets and gardens ; sometimes they
come through the open windows, attracted by flowers in the

y^ partments. Those species of Papilio which are most charac-

; leristic of the country, so conspicuous in their velvety-black,
green, and rose-coloured hues, which Linnaeus, in pursuance ot
his elegant system of nomenclature, — naming the different
kinds after the heroes of Greek mythology, — called Trojans,
never leave the shades of the forest. The splendid metallic
blue Morphos, some of which measure seven inches in expanse,
are generally confined to the shady alleys of the forest. They
sometimes come forth into the broad sunlight. When we first

CHAP. III. SPIDERS. 53

went to look at our new residence in Nazareth, a Morpho
Menelaus, one of the most beautiful kinds, was seen flapping
it's huge wings like a bird along the verandah. This species,
however^ although much admired, looks dull in colour by the
side of its'' congener, the Morpho Rhetenor, whose wings, on
the upper face, are of quite a dazzling lustre. Rhetenor usually
prefers the broad sunny roads in the forest, and is an almost
unattainable prize, on account of its lofty flight ; for it . very
rarely- descends nearer the ground than about twenty feet.
When it comes saiHng along, it occasionally flaps its wings,
and then the blue surface flashes in the sunlight, so that it is
visible a quarter of a mile off. There is another species of this
genus, of a satiny-white hue, the Morpho Uraneis ; this is
equally difficult to obtain ; the male only has the satiny lustre,
the female being of a pale-lavender colour. Jt is in the height
of the dry season that the greatest number and variety of
butterflies are found in the woods ; especially when a shower
falls at intervals of a few days. An infinite number of curious
and rare species may then be taken, most diversified in habits,
mode of flight, colours, and markings : some yellow, others
bright red, green, purple, and blue, and many bordered or
spangled with metallic lines and spots of a silvery or golden
lustre. Some have wings transparent as glass ; one of these
clear-wings is especially beautiful, namely, the Hetasra Esme-
ralda; it has one spot only of opaque colouring on its wings,
which is of a violet and rose hue ; this is the only part visible
when'the' insect is flying low over dead leaves, in the gloomy
shades where alone it is found, and it then looks like a wan-
dering petal of a flower.

• Bees and wasps are not especially numerous near Para, and
I will reserve an account of their habits for a future chapter.
Many species of Mygale, those monstrousjhairy spiders, half a
foot in expanse, which attract the attention so much in
museums, are found in sandy places at Nazareth. The different
kinds have the most diversified habits. Some construct,
amongst the tiles or thatch of houses, dens of closely-woven
web, which, in texture, very much resembles fine muslin ; these
are often seen crawling over the walls of apartments. Others
build similar nests in trees, and are known to attack birds.
One very robust fellow, the Mygale Blondii, burrows into the
earth, forming a broad slanting gallery ,^^ about two feet long, the
sides of which he lines beautifully with silk. He is nocturnal
in his habits. Just before sunset he may be seen keeping-

54

PARA.

CHAP. III.

watch within the mouth of his tunnel, disappearing suddenly
when he hears a heavy foot- tread near his hiding-place. The
number of spiders ornamented with showy colours was some-
what remarkable. Some double themselves up at the base of
leaf-stalks, so as to resemble Hower-buds, and thus deceive the
insects on which they prey. The most extraordinary-looking

spider was a species of Acrosoma,
which had two curved bronze-coloured
spines, an inch and a half in length,
proceeding from the tip of its abdomen.
It spins a large web, the monstrous
appendages being apparently no im-
pediment to it in its work ; but what
their use can be I am unable to divine.
Coleoptera, or beetles, at first seemed
to be very scarce. This apparent
scarcity has been noticed in other
equatorial countries, and arises, proba-
bly, from the great heat of the sun not
permitting them to exist in exposed
situations, where they form such con-
spicuous objects in Europe. Many
hundred species of the different families
can be found, when they are patiently
searched for in the shady places to
which they are confined. It is vain to
look for the Geodephaga, or carnivorous beetles, under stones,
or anywhere, indeed, in open, sunny places. The terrestrial
forms of this interesting family, which abound in England
and temperate countries generally, are scare in the neigh-
bourhood of Para, in fact I met with only four or five
species ; on the other hand the purely arboreal kinds were
rather numerous. The contrary of this happens in northern
latitudes, where the great majority of the species and genera
are exclusively terrestrial. The arboreal forms are distin-
guished by the structure of the feet, which have broad spongy
soles and toothed claws enabling them to climb over and
cling to branches and leaves. The remarkable scarcity of
ground beetles is, doubtless, attributable to the number of ants
and Termites which people every inch of surface in all shady
places, and which would most likely destroy the larvae of
Coleoptera. Moreover these active creatures have the same
funcdons as Coleoptera, and thus render their existence

Acrosoma arcuatum.

CHAP. III. ARBOREAL FAUNA. 55

unnecessary. The large proportion of climbing forms of
carnivorous beetles is an interesting fact, because it affords ^..^
another instance of the arboreal character which animal forms
tend to assume in equinoctial America, a circumstance which
points to the slow adaptation of the Fauna to a forest-clad ^
country, throughout an immense lapse of geological time. J

CHAPTER IV.

THE TOCANTINS AND CAMETA. >

Preparations for the journey — The bay of Goajara — Grove of fan-leaved
palms — The lower Tocantins — Sketch of the river — Vista alegre —
Baiao — Rapids — Boat journey to the Guariba falls — Native life on the
Tocantins — Second journey to Cameta.

August 26th, 1848. — Mr. Wallace and I started to-day on
the excursion which I have already mentioned as having been
planned with Mr. Leavens, up the river Tocantins, whose
mouth Hes about forty-five miles in a straight line, but eighty
miles following the bends of the river channels, to the south-
west of Para. This river, as before stated, has a course of
1,600 miles, and stands third in rank amongst the streams
which form the Amazons system. The preparations for the
journey took a great deal of time and trouble. We had first to
hire a proper vessel, a two-masted vigilinga twenty-seven feet
long, with a flat prow and great breadth of beam, and fitted to
live in heavy seas ; for, although our voyage was only a river
trip, there were vast sea-like expanses of _water to traverse. It
was not decked over, but had two arched awnings formed of
strong wickerwork, and thatched with palm leaves. We had
then to store it with provisions for three months, the time
we at first intended to be away ; procure the necessary pass-
ports ; and, lastly, engage a crew. Mr. Leavens, having had
much experience in the country, managed all these matters.
He brought two Indians from the rice-mills, and these induced
another to enrol himself. We, on our parts, took our cook,
Isidoro, and a young Indian lad, named Antonio, who had
attached himself to us in the course of our residence at Naza-
reth. Our principal man was Alexandro, one of Mr. Leavens 's
Indians. He was an intelligent and well-disposed young
Tapuyo, an expert sailor and an indefatigable hunter. To his

CHAP. IV. RIVER SCENERY, 57

fidelity we were indebted for being enabled to carry out any of the
objects of our voyage. Being a native of a district near the
capital, Alexandro was a civilised Tapuyo, a citizen as free as
his white neighbours. He spoke only Portuguese. He was a
spare-built man, rather under the middle height, with fine
regular features, and, what was unusual in Indians, the upper
lip decorated with a moustache. Three years afterwards I saw
him at Pard in the uniform of the National Guard, and he called
on me often to talk about old times. I esteemed him as a quiet,
sensible, manly young fellow.

We set sail in the evening, after -waiting several hours in vain
for one of our crew. It was soon dark, the wind blew SLiffiy,
and the tide rushed along with great rapidity, carrying us
swiftly past the crowd of vessels which were anchored in the
port. The canoe rolled a good deal. After we had made five
or six miles of way the tide turned, and we were obliged to
cast anchor. Not long after, we laid ourselves down all three
together on the mat, which was spread over the floor of our
cabin, and soon fell asleep.

On awaking at sunrise the next morning, we found ourselves
gliding upwards with the tide, along the Bahia or Bay, as it
is called, of Goajara. This is a broad channel lying between
the mainland and a line of islands which extend some distance
beyond the city. Into it three large rivers discharge their
waters, namely, the Guama, the Acara, and, the Mojii; so that
it forms a kind of sub-estuary within the grand estuary of Para.
It is nearly four miles broad. The left bank, along which we
were now sailing, was beautiful in the extreme ; not an inch
of soil was to be seen , the water frontage presented a comp^act
wall of rich and varied forest, resting on the surface of the
stream. It seemed to form a finished border to the water
scene, where the dome-like, rounded shapes of exogenous trees
which constituted the mass formed the groundwork, and the
endless diversity of broad-leaved Heliconiae and Palms — each
kind differing in stem, crown, and fronds — the rich embroidery.
The morning was calm and cloudless ; and the slanting beams
of the early sun, striking full on the front of the forest,
lighted up the whole most gloriously. The only sound of life
which reached us was the call of the Serracura (Gallinula
Cayennensis), a kind of wild fowl ; all else was so still that
the voices of boatmen could be plainly heard, from canoes
passing a mile or two distant from us. The sun soon gains
great power on the water, but with it the sea-breeze increases in

58 THE TOCANTINS AND CAMETA. chap. iv.

strength, moderating the heat which would otherwise be ahnost
insupportable. We reached the end of the Goajara about
midday, and then entered the narrower channel of the
INIojii. Up this we travelled, partly rowing and partly sailing,
between the same unbroken walls of forest, until the morning
of the 28th.

August 2<^th. — The Moju, a stream Utde inferior to the
Thames in size, is connected about twenty miles from its mouth,
by means of a short artificial canal, with a small stream, the
Igarape'-mirim, which flows the opposite way into the water
system of the Tocandns. Small vessels like ours take this
route in preference to the stormy passage by way of the main
river, although the distance is considerably greater. We passed
through the canal yesterday, and to-day have been threading
our way through a labyrinth of narrow channels, their banks all
clothed with the same magnificent forest ; but agreeably varied
by houses of planters and settlers. We passed many quite
large estabUshments, besides one pretty litde village called Santa
Anna. All these channels are washed through by the tides, —
vthe ebb, contrary to what takes place in the short canal, setting
b))w^ards the Tocantins. The water is almost tepid (77° Fahr.),
aiid the rank vegetation all around seems reeking with moisture.
:.ihe country, however, as we were told, is perfectly healthy.
Some of the houses are built on wooden piles driven into the
mud of the swamp.

In the afternoon we reached the end of the last channel,
called the Murutipucu, which runs for "several miles between
two unbroken Hnes of fan-leaved palms, forming with their
straight stems colossal pahsades. On rounding a point of
land we came in full view of the Tocantins. The event was
announced by one of our Indians, who was on the look-out at
the prow, shouting, " La esta o Parana-uassu ! " " Behold the
great river ! " It was a grand sight — a broad expanse of
dark waters dancing merrily to the breeze ; the opposite shore,
a narrow blue line, miles away.

We went ashore on an island covered with palm-trees, to
make a fire and boil our kettle for tea. I wandered a short
way inland, and was astounded at the prospect. The land
lay below the upper level of the daily tides, so that there was
no underwood, and the ground was bare. The trees were
almost all of one species of Palm, the gigantic fan-leaved
Mauritia flexuosa ; on the borders only was there a small
number of a second kind, the equally remarkable Ubussii palm

CHAP. IV. CAMETA. 59

(Manicaria saccifera). The Ubussu has erect, uncut leaves,
twenty-five feet long, and six feet wide, all arranged round the
top of a four-feet high stem, so as to form a figure like that of a
colossal shuttlecock. The fan-leaved palms, which clothed
nearly the entire islet, had huge cylindrical smooth stem.s, three
feet in diameter, and about a hundred feet high. The crowns
were formed of enormous clusters of fan- shaped leaves, the
stalks alone of which measured seven to ten feet in length.
Nothing in the vegetable world could be more imposing than
this grove of palms. There was no underwood to obstruct the
view of the long perspective of towering columns. The crowns,
which were densely packed together at an immense height
overhead, shut out the rays of the sun ; and the gloomy solitude
beneath, through which the sound of our voices seemed to
reverberate, could be compared to nothing so well as a solemn
temple. The fruits of the two palms were scattered over the
ground ; those of the Ubussu adhere together by twos and
threes, and have a rough, brown-coloured shell; the fruit of
the Mauritia, on the contrary, is of a bright red hue, and the
skin is impressed with deep crossing lines, which give it a
resemblance to a quilted cricket-ball. e

About midnight, the tide being favourable, and the bree2S,
strong, we crossed the river, taking it in a slanting direction, a
distance of sixteen miles, and arrived at eight o'clock the fol-
lowing morning at Cameta. This is a town of some import-
ance, pleasantly situated on the somewhat high terra firma of
the left bank of the Tocantins. I will defer giving an account
of the place till the end of this narrative of our Tocantins
voyage. We lost here another of our men, who got drinking
with some old companions ashore, and were obliged to start on
the difficult journey up the river with two hands only, and
they in a very dissatisfied humour with the prospect.

The river view from Cameta is magnificent. The town is
situated, as already mentioned, on a high bank, which forms
quite a considerable elevation for this flat country, and the
broad expanse of dark-green waters is st added with low, palm-
clad islands ; the prospect down river, however, being clear, or
bounded only by a sea-like horizon of water and sky. The
shores are washed by the breeze-tossed waters into little bays
and creeks, fringed with sandy beaches. The Tocantins has
been likened, by Prince Adalbert of Prussia, who crossed its
mouth in 1846, to the Ganges. It is upwards of ten miles in
breadth at its mouth ; opposite Cameta it is five miles broad.

6o THE TOCANTINS AND C A MET A. cfap. iv.

Mr. Burchell, the well-known English traveller, descended the
river from the mining provinces of interior Brazil some years
before our visit. Unfortunately, the utility of this fine stream
is impaired by the numerous obstructions to its navigation
in the shape of cataracts and rapids, which commence, in
a'^cending, at about 120 miles above Cameta, as will be seen in
the sequel.

August 30//?. — Arrived, in company with Senhor Laroque,
an intelligent Portuguese merchant, at Vista Alegre, fifteen
miles above Cameta. This was the residence of Senhor Antonio
Ferreira Gomez, and was a fair sample of a Brazilian planter's
estabhshment in this part of the country. The buildings
covered a wide space, the dwelling-house being separated from
the place of business, and as both were built on low, flooded
ground, the communication between the two was by means of
a long wooden bridge. From the office and visitors' apartments
a wooden pier extended into the river. The whole was raised
on piles above high-water mark. There was a rude mill for
grinding sugar-cane, worked by bullocks ; but cashaca, or rum,
was the only article manufactured from the juice. Behind the
b;uildings was a small piece of ground cleared from the forest,
and planted with fruit trees, orange, lemon, genipapa, goyava,
and others ; and beyond this, a broad path through a neglected
plantation of coffee and cacgio, led to several large sheds, where
the farinha, or mandioca meal was manufactured. The plan-
tations of mandioca are always scattered about in the forest,
some of them being on islands in the middle of the river.
Land being plentiful, and the plough, as well as, indeed, nearly
all other agricultural implements, unknown, the same ground
is not planted three years together ; but a new piece of forest
is cleared every alternate year, and the old clearing suffered to
relapse into jungle.

We stayed here two days, sleeping ashore in the apartment
devoted to strangers. As usual in Brazilian houses of the
middle class, we were not introduced to the female members of
the family, and, indeed, saw nothing of them except at a dis-
tance. In the forest and thickets about the place we were
tolerably successful in collecting, finding a number of birds and
insects which do not occur at Para. I saw here, for the first
time, the sky-blue Chatterer (Ampelis cotinga). It was on the
topmost bough of a very lofty tree, and completely out of the
reach of an ordinary fowling-piece. The beautiful light-blue
colour of its plumage was plainly discernible at that distance.

CHAP. IV. GIPSY BIRDS. ■ 6i

It is a dull, quiet bird. A much commoner species was the
Cigana or Gipsy (Opisthocomus cristatus), a bird belonging to
the same order (Gallinacea) as our domestic fowl. It is about
the size of a pheasant ; the plumage is dark brown, varied with
reddish, and the head is adorned with a crest of long feathers.
It is a remarkable bird in many respects. The hind toe is not
placed high above the level of the other toes, as it is in the
fowl order generally, but lies on the same plane with them ;
the shape of the foot becomes thus suited to the purely arboreal
habits of the bird, enabling it to grasp firmly the branches of
trees. This is a distinguishing character of all the birds in
equinoctial America which represent the fowl and pheasant
tribes of the old world, and affords another proof of the adap-
tation of the Fauna to a forest region. The Cigana lives in
considerable flocks on the lower trees and bushes bordering the
streams and lagoons, and feeds on various wild fruits, especially
the sour Goyava (Psidium sp.). The natives say it devours the
fruit of arborescent Arums (Caladium arborescens), which grow
in crowded masses around the swampy banks of lagoons. Its
voice is a harsh, grating hiss ; it makes the noise when alarmed,
all the individuals sibilating as they fly heavily away from tree
to tree, when disturbed by passing canoes. It is polygamous,
like other members of the same order. It is never, however,
by any chance, seen on the ground, and is nowhere domesti-
cated. The flesh has an unpleasant odour of musk combined
with wet hides — a smell called by the Brazilians catinga ; it
is, therefore, uneatable. If it be as unpalateable to carnivorous
animals as it is to man, the immunity from persecution which
it would thereby enjoy would account for its existing in such
great numbers throughout the country.

We lost here another of ooir crew ; and thus, at the com-
mencement of our voyage, had before us the prospect of being
forced to return, from sheer want of hands to manage the
canoe. Senhor Gomez, to whom we had brought letters of
introduction from Senhor Joao Augusto Correia, a Brazilian
gentleman of high standing at Para, tried what he could do to
induce the canoe-men of his neighbourhood to engage with us,
but it was a vain endeavour. The people of these parts seemed
to be above working for wages. They are naturally indolent,
and besides, have all some little business or plantation of their
own, which gives them a livelihood with independence. It is
difficult to obtain hands under any circumstances, but it was

62 THE TO C ANTINS. ■ chap. iv.

particularly so in our case, from being foreigners, and suspected,
as was natural amongst ignorant people, of being strange in our
habits. At length, our host lent us two of his slaves to help us
on another stage, namely, to the village of Baiao, where we had
great hopes of having this^ our urgent want, supplied by the
military commandant of the district.

September 27td. — The distance from Vista Alegre to Baiao is
about twenty-five miles. We had but little wind, and our men
were therefore obhged to row the greater part of the way. The
oars used in such canoes as ours are made by tying a stout
paddle to the end of a long pole by means of woody lianas.
The men take their stand on a raised deck, formed by a few
rough planks placed over the arched covering in the fore part
of the vessel, and pull with their backs to the stern. We started
at 6 a.m., and about sunset reached a point where the west
channel of the river, along which we had been travelling since
we left Cameta, joined a broader middle one, and formed with
it a great expanse of water. The islands here seem to form two
pretty regular lines, dividing the great river into three channels.
As we progressed slowly, we took the montaria, and went
ashore, from time to time, to the houses, which were numerous
on the river banks as well as on the larger islands. In low
situations they had a very unfinished appearance, being mere
frameworks raised high on wooden piles, and thatched with the
leaves of the Ubussu palm. In their construction another
palm-tree is made much use of, viz., the Assai (Euterpe oleracea).
The outer part of the stem of this species is hard and tough as
horn ; it is split into narrow planks, and these form a great
portion of the walls and flooring. The residents told us that
the western channel becomes nearly dry in the middle of the
fine season, but that at high water, in April and May, the river
rises to the level of the house-floors. The river bottom is
everywhere sandy, and the country perfectly healthy. The
people seemed to be all contented and happy, but idleness and
poverty were exhibited by many unmistakeable signs. As to
the flooding of their island abodes, they did not seem to care
about that at all. They seem to be almost amphibious, or as
much at home on the water as on land. It was really alarming
to see men and women and children, in little leaky canoes laden
to the water-level with bag and baggage, crossing broad reaches of
river. Most of them have houses also on the terra firma, and re-
side in the cool palm- swamps of the Ygapo islands, as they are
called, only in the hot and dry season. They live chiefly on

CHAP. IV.

THE ASSAI PALM.

63

fish, shellfish (amongst which were large Ampullariae, whose
I found, on trial, to be
a very tough morsel),
the never-failing far-
inha, and the fruits of
the forest. Amongst ,
the latter the fruits of/
palm-tree occupied the 7\"

chief place. The Assai
is the most in use, but this forms a
universal article of diet in all parts ol
the country. The fruit, which is per-
fectly round, and about the size of a
cherry, contains but a small portion of
pulp lying between the skin and the
hard kernel. This is made, with the
addition of water, into a thick, violet-
coloured beverage, which stains the
lips like blackberries. The fruit of
the Miriti is also a common article of
food, although the pulp is sour and
unpalateable, at least to European
tastes. It is boiled, and then eaten
with farinha. The Tucuma (Astro-
caryum tucuma), and the Mucuja (Acro-
comia lasiospatha), grow only on the
mainland. Their fruits yield a yellow-
ish, fibrous pulp, which the natives eat
in the same way as the Miriti. They
contain so much fatty matter, that vul-
tures and dogs devour them greedily.

Early on the morning of September
3rd we reached the right or eastern
bank, which is here from forty to sixty
feet high. The houses were more sub-
stantially built than those we had
hitherto seen. We succeeded in buy-
ing a small turtle; most of the inha-
bitants had a few of these animals,
which they kept in little enclosures
made with stakes. The people were
of the same class everywhere, Mame-
lucos. They were very civil ; we were

flesh

^^'^

Assai Palm
(Euterpe oleracea).

64 THE TOCANTINS. chap, i v.

not able, however, to purchase much fresh food from them. I
think this was owing to their really not having more than was
absolutely required to satisfy their own needs. In these dis-
tricts, where the people depend for animal food solely on fishing,
there is a period of the year when they suffer hunger, so that
they are disposed to prize highly a small stock when they have
it. They generally answered in the negative when we asked,
money in hand, whether they had fowls, turtles, or eggs to sell,
" Nao ha, sinto que nao posso Ihe ser bom;" or, "Nao ha,
meu coracao." "We have none; I am sorry I cannot oblige
vou ;" or, '* There is none, my heart.

Sept. -^rd lo- ']th. — At half-past eight a.m. we arrived at
Baiao, which is built on a very high bank, and contains about
400 inhabitants. We had to climb to the village up a ladder,
which is fixed against the bank, and on arriving at the top,
took possession of a room which Senhor Seixas had given
orders to be prepared for us. He himself was away at his sitio,
and would not be here till the next day. We were now quite
dependent on him for men to enable us to continue our voyage,
and so had no remedy but to wait his leisure. The situation
of the place, and the nature of the woods around it, promised
well for novelties in birds and insects ; so we had no reason to
be vexed at the delay, but brought our apparatus and store-
boxes up from the canoe, and set to work.

The easy, lounging life of the people amused us very much.
I afterwards had plenty of time to become used to tropical
village life. There is a free, familiar, pro bono publico style of
living in these small places, which requires some time for a
European to fall into. No sooner were we established in our
rooms, than a number of lazy young fellows came to look on
and make remarks, and we had to answer all sorts of questions.
The houses have their doors and windows open to the street,
and people walk in and out as they please ;- there is always,
however, a more secluded apartment, where the female members
of the families reside. In their familiarity there is nothing
intentionally offensive, and it is practised simply in the desire
to be civil and sociable. A young Mameluco, named Scares,
an Escrivao, or public clerk, took me into his house to show me
his library. I was rather surprised to see a number of well-
thumbed Latin classics, Virgil, Terence, Cicero's Epistles, and
Livy. I was not familiar enough, at this early period of my resi-
dence in the country, with Portuguese to converse freely with
Senhor Soares, or ascertain what use he made of these books ;

CHAP. IV. B A I A <J. 65

it was an unexpected sight, a classical library in a mud -plastered
and palm-thatched hut on the banks of the Tocantins.

The prospect from the village was magnificent, over the
green wooded islands, far away to the grey line of forest on the
opposite shore of the Tocantins. We were now well out of the
low alluvial country of the Amazons proper, and the climate was
evidently much drier than it is near Para. They had had no
rain here for many weeks, and the atmosphere was hazy around
the horizon ; so much so that the sun, before setting, glared
like a blood-red globe. At Para this never happens ; the stars
and sun are as clear and sharply defined when they peep above
the distant tree-tops as they are at the zenith. This beautiful
transparency of the air arises, doubtless, from the equal distri-
bution through it of invisible vapour. I shall ever remember,
in one of my voyages along the Para river, the grand spectacle
that was once presented at sunrise. Our vessel was a large
schooner, and we were bounding along before a spanking
breeze, which tossed the waters into foam, when the day dawned.
So clear was the air, that the lower rim of the full moon re-
mained sharply defined until it touched the western horizon,
whilst, at the same time, the sun rose in the east. The two
great orbs were visible at the same time, and the passage from
the moonlit night to day was so gentle, that it seemed to be
only the brightening of dull weather. The woods around
Baiao were of second growth, the ground having been formerly
cultivated. A great number of coffee and cotton trees grew
amongst the thickets. A fine woodland pathway extends for
miles over the high, undulating bank, leading from one house
to another along the edge of the cliff. I went into several of
them, and talked to their inmates. They were all poor people.
The men were out fishing, some far away, a distance of many
days' journey ; the women plant mandioca, make the farinha,
spin and weave cotton, manufacture soap of burnt cacao shells
and andiroba oil, and follow various other domestic employ-
ments. I asked why they allowed their plantations to run to
waste. They said that it was useless trying to plant anything
hereabout ; the Saiiba ant devoured the young coffee trees, and
every one who attempted to contend against this universal
ravager was sure to be defeated. The country, for many miles
along the banks of the river, seemed to be well peopled. The
inhabitants were nearly all of the tawny-white mameluco class.
I saw a good many mulattos, but very few negroes and Indians,
and none that could be called pure whites.

5

66 THE TOCANTINS. chap. ir.

When Senhor Seixas arrived, he acted very kindly. He pro-
vided us at once with two men, killed an ox in our honour, and
treated us altogether with great consideration. We were not,
however, introduced to his family. I caught a gUmpse once of
his wife, a prettly little mameluco woman, as she was tripping
with a young girl, whom I supposed to be her daughter, across
the back yard. Both wore long dressing-gowns, made of bright-
coloured cahco print, and had long wooden tobacco-pipes in
their mouths. The room in which we slept and worked had
formerly served as a storeroom for caca6, and at night I was
kept awake for hours by rats and cockroaches, which swarm in
all such places. The latter were running about all over the
walls ; now and then one would come suddenly with a whirr
full at my face, and get under my shirt if I attempted to jerk
it off. As to the rats, they were chasing one another by dozens
all night long, over the floor, up and down the edges of the
doors, and along the rafters of the open roof.

September ']th. — We started from Baiao at an early hour.
One of our new men was a good-humoured, willing young mu-
latto, named Jose ; the other was a sulky Indian, called Manoel,
who seemed to have been pressed into our service against his
will. Senhor Seixas, on parting, sent a quantity of fresh pro-
visions on board. A few miles above Baiao the channel
became very shallow ; we got aground several times, and the
men had to disembark and shove the vessel off. Alexandre
here shot several fine fish, with bow and arrow. It was the
first time I had seen fish captured in this way. The arrow is
a reed, with a steel barbed point, which is fixed in a hole at
the end, and secured by fine twine made from the fibres of
pine-apple leaves. It is only in the clearest water that fish
can be thus shot : and the only skill required is to make, in
taking aim, the proper allowance for refraction.

The next day before sunrise a fine breeze sprang up, and the
men awoke and set the sails. We glided all day through
channels between islands with long white sandy beaches, ,over
which, now and then, aquatic and wading birds were seen
running. The forest was low, and had a harsh, dry aspect.
Several palm trees grew here which we had not before seen.
On low bushes, near the water, pretty red-headed tanagers
(Tanagra gularis) were numerous, flitting about and chirping
like sparrows. About half-past four p.m. we brought to at the
mouth of a creek or channel, where there was a great extent of
sandy beach. The sand had been blown by the wind into

CHAP. IV. P A TO S. 67

ridges and undulations, and over the moister parts large flocks
of sandpipers were running about Alexandre and I had a
long ramble over the rolling plain, which came as an agree-
able change after the monotonous forest scenery amid which
we had been so long travelling. He pointed out to me the
tracks of a huge jaguar on the sand. We found here, also,
our first turtle's nest, and obtained 120 eggs from it, which
were laid at a depth of nearly two feet from the surface, the
mother first excavating a hole, and afterwards covering it up
with sand. The place is discoverable only by following the
tracks of the turtle from the water. I saw here an alligator
for the first time, which reared its head and shoulders above
the water just ^fter I had taken a bath near the spot. The
night was calm and cloudless, and we employed the hours
before bed-time in angling by moonlight.

On the loth we reached a small settlement called Patos,
consisting of about a dozen houses, and built on a high rocky
bank, on the eastern shore. The rock is the same nodular
conglomerate which is found at so many places, from the sea-
coast to a distance of 600 miles up the Amazons. Mr. Leavens
made a last attempt here to engage men to accompany us to
the Araguaya; but it was in vain ; not a soi^l could be induced
by any amounts of wages to go on such an expedition. The
reports as to the existence of cedar were very vague. All said
chat the tree was plentiful somewhere, but no one could fix on
the precise locality. I believe that the cedar grows, like all
other forest trees, in a scattered way, and not in masses any-
where. The fact of its being the principal tree observed float-
ing down with the current of the Amazons, is to be explained
by its wood being much lighter than that of the majority of
trees. When the banks are washed away by currents, trees of
all species fall into the river ; but the heavier ones, which are
the most numerous, sink, and the fighter, such as the cedar,
alone float down to the sea.

Mr. Leavens was told that there were cedar trees at Trocara,
on the opposite side of the river, near some fine rounded hills
covered with forest, visible from Patos ; so there we went.
We found here several families encamped in a delightful spot.
Thfe shore sloped gradually down to the water, and was shaded
by a few wide-spreading trees. There was no underwood. A
great number of hammocks were seen slung between the tree
trunks, and the litter of a numerous household lay scattered
about. Women, old and young, some of the latter very good-

68 THE TOCANTINS. , chap. iv.

looking, and a large number of children, besides pet animals,
enlivened the encampment. They were all half-breeds, simple,
well-disposed people, and explained to us that they were inha-
bitants of Cam eta, who had come thus far, eighty miles, to
spend the summer months. The only motive they could give
for coming was, "that it was so hot in the town in the verao
(summer), and they were all so fond of fresh fish." Thus these
simple folks think nothing of leaving home and business to
come on a three months' pic-nic. It is the annual custom of
this class of people, throughout the province, to spend a few
months of the fine season in the wilder parts of the country.
They carry with them all the farinha they can scrape together,
this being the only article of food necessary to provide. The
men hunt and fish for the day's wants, and sometimes collect a
little india-rubber, salsaparilla, or copaiba oil, to sell to traders
on their return ; the women assist in paddling the canoes, do
the cooking, and sometimes fish with rod and line. The
weather is enjoyable the whole time, and so days and wrecks
pass happily away.

One of the men volunteered to walk with us into the forest,
and show us a few cedar trees. We passed through a mile or
two of spiny thickets, and at length came upon the banks of
the rivulet Trocara, which flow^s over a stony bed, and, about
a mile above its mouth, falls over a ledge of rocks, thus form-
ing a very pretty cascade. In the neighbourhood we found a
number of specimens of a curious land-shell, a large flat Helix,
with a labyrinthine mouth (Anastoma). We learnt afterwards
that it was a species w^hich had been discovered a few years
previously by Dr. Gardner, the botanist, on the upper part, of
the Tocantins.

We saw here, for the first time, the splendid hyacinthine
macaw (Macrocercus hyacinthinus. Lath., the Araruna of the
natives), one of the finest and rarest species of the Parrot
family. It only occurs in the interior of Brazil, from i6" S. lat.
to the southern border of the Amazons valley. It is three feet
long from the beak to the tip of the tail, and is entirely of a
soft hyacinthine blue colour, except round the eyes, where the
skin is naked and white. It flies in pairs, and feeds on the
hard nuts of several palms, but especially of the Mucuja (Acro-
comia lasiospatha). These nuts, which are so hard as to be
difficult to break with a heavy hammer, are crushed to a pulp
by the powerful beak of this macaw.

Being unable to obtain men, Mr. Leavens now gave up his

CHAP. IV. ARROYOS. 69

project of ascending the river as far as the Araguaya. He
assented to our request, however, to ascend to the cataracts
near Arroyos. We started therefore from Patos with a more
definite aim before us than we had hitherto had. The river
became more picturesque as we advanced. The water was very
low, it being now the height of the dry season ; the islcads
were smaller than those further down, and some of them were
high and rocky. Bold wooded bluffs projected into the stream,
and all the shores were fringed with beaches of glistening white
sand. On one side of the river there- was an extensive grassy
plain or campo with isolatsd patches of trees scattered over it.
On the 14th and following day we stopped several times to
ramble ashore. Our longest excursion was to a large shallow
lagoon, choked up with aquatic plants, which lay about two
miles across the campo. At a place called Juquerapua we
engaged a pilot to conduct us to Arroyos, and a few miles
above the pilot's house, arrived at a point where it was not
possible to advance further in our large canoe, on account of
the rapids.

September 16th. — Embarked at six a.m. in a large montaria
which had been lent to us for this part of the voyage by Senhor
Seixas, leaving the vigilinga anchored close to a rocky islet,
named Santa Anna, to await our return. At ten a.m. we
arrived at the first rapids, which are called Tapaiunaquara.
The river, which was here about a mile wide, was choked up
with rocks, a broken ridge passing completely across it. Be-
tween these confused piles of stone the currents were fearfully
strong, and formed numerous eddies and whirlpools. We were
obliged to get out occasionally and walk from rock to rock,
whilst the men dragged the canoe over the obstacles. Beyond
Tapaiunaquara the stream became again broad and deep, and
the river scenery was beautiful in the extreme. The water was
clear, and of a bluish-green colour. On both sides of the
streanj stretched ranges of wooded hills, and in the middle
picturesque islets rested on the smooth' water, whose brilliant
green woods fringed with palms formed charming bits of fore-
ground to the perspective of sombre hills fading into grey in
thsL distance. Joaquim pointed out to us grove after grove of
Brazil-nut trees (Bertholletia excelsa) on the mainland. This
is one of the chief collecting grounds for this nut. The tree is
one of the loftiest in the forest, towering far above its fellows ;
we could see the woody fruits, large and round as cannon-balls,
dotted over the branches. The currents were very strong in

70 THE TOCANTINS. chap. iv.

some places, so that during the greater part of the way the
men preferred to travel near the shore, and propel the boat by
means of long poles.

We arrived at Arroyos about four o'clock in the afternoon,
after ten hours' hard pull. The place consists simply of a, few
houses built on a high bank, and forms a station where canoe-
men from the mining countries of the interior of Brazil stop to
rest themselves, before or after surmounting the dreaded falls
and rapids of Guaribas, situated a couple of miles further up.
We dined ashore, and in the evening again embarked to visit
the falls. The vigorous and successful way in which our men
battled with the terrific currents excited our astonishment.
The bed of the river, here about a mile wide, is strewn with
blocks of various sizes, which lie in the most irregular manner,
and between them rush currents of more or less rapidity.
With an accurate knowledge of the place and skilful manage-
ment, the falls can be approached in small canoes by threading
the less dangerous channels. The main fall is about a quarter
of a mile wide \ we climbed to an elevation overlooking it, and
had a good view of the cataract. A body of water rushes with
terrific force down a steep slope, and boils up with deafening
roar around the boulders which obstruct its course. The wild-
ness of the whole scene was very impressive. As far as the eye
could reach, stretched range after range of wooded hills, scores
of miles of beautiful wilderness, inhabited only by scanty tribes
of wild Indians. In the midst of such a solitude the roar of
the cataract seemed fitting music.

September \^th. — W^e commienced early in the morning our
downward voyage. Arroyos is situated in about 4° 10' S. lat. ;
and lies, therefore, about 130 miles from the mouth of the
Tocantins. Fifteen miles above Guaribas another similar
cataract, called Tabocas, lies across the river. We were told
that there were in all fifteen of these obstructions to navigation
between Arroyos and the mouth of the Araguaya. The worst
was the Inferno, the Guaribas standing second to it in evil
reputation. Many canoes and lives have been lost here, most
of the accidents arising through the vessels being hurled
against an enormous cubical mass of rock called the Guari-
binha, which we, oti our trip to the falls m the small canoe,
passed round with the greatest ease about a quarter of a mile
below the main falls. This, however, was the dry season ; in
the time of full waters a tremendous current sets against it.
We descended the river rapidly, and found it excellent fun

CHAP. IV. A NIGHT ASHORE. yi

shooting the rapids. The men seemed to delight in choosing
the swiftest parts of the current ; they sang and yelled in the
greatest excitement, working the paddles with great force, and
throwing clouds of spray above us as we bounded downwards.
We stopped to rest at the mouth of a rivulet named Caganxa.
The pilot told us that gold had been found in the bed of
this brook; so we had the curiosity to wade several hundred
yards through the icy cold waters in search of it. Mr. Leavens
seemed very much interested in the matter ; he picked up all
the shining stones he could espy in the pebbly bottom, in
hopes of finding diamonds also. There is, in fact, no reason
why both gold and diamonds should not be found here, the
hills being a continuation of those of the mining countries of
interior Brazil, and the brooks flowing through the narrow
valleys between them.

On arriving at the place where we had left our canoe, we
stayed all night and part of the following day, and I had a
stroll along a delightful pathway, which led over hill and dale,
two or three miles through the forest. I was surprised at the
number and variety of brilliantly-coloured butterflies ; they were
all of small ' size, and started forth at every step I took, from
the low bushes which bordered the road. I first heard here
the notes of a trogon ; it was seated alone on a branch, at no
great elevation ; a beautiful bird,- with glossy-green back and
rose-coloured breast (probably Trogon melanurus). At in-
tervals it uttered, in a complaining tone, a sound resembling
the words " qua, qua." It is a dull inactive bird, and not very
ready to take flight when approached. In this respect, how-
ever, the trogons are not equal to the jacamars, whose
stupidity in remaining at their posts, seated on low branches
in the gloomiest shades of the forest, is somewhat remarkable
in a country where all other birds are exceedingly wary. One
species of jacamar was not uncommon here (Galbula viridis) ;
I sometimes saw two or three together, seated on a slender
branch, silent and motionless with the exception of a slight
movement of the head ; when an insect flew past within a
short distance, one of the birds would dart off", seize it, and
return again to its sitting-place. The trogons are found in the
tropics of both hemispheres ; the jacamars, which are clothed
in plumage of the most beautiful golden-bronze and steel
colours, are peculiar to tropical America.
^At night I slept ashore as a change from the confinement of
the canoe, having obtained permission from Senhor Joaquim

72 ' THE TOCANTINS. chap. iv.

to sling my hammock under his roof. The house, hke all
others in these out-of-the-way parts of the country, was a large,
open, palm-thatched shed, having one end inclosed by means
of partitions also made of palm-leaves, so as to form a private
apartment. Under the shed were placed all the household
utensils ; earthenware jars, pots, and kettles, hunting and
fishing implements, paddles, bows and arrows, harpoons, and
so forth. One or two common wooden chests serve to contain
the holiday clothing of the females ; there is no other furniture,
except a few stools and the hammock, which answers the
purposes of chair and sofa. When a visitor enters, he is asked
to sit down in a hammock : persons who are on intimate terms
with each other recline together in the same ha'tamock, one at
each end; this is a very convenient arrangement for friendly
conversation. There are neither tables nor chairs ; the cloth
for meals is spread on a mat, and the guests squat round in
any position they choose. There is no cordiality of manners,
but the treatment of the guests shows a keen sense of the duties
of hospitality on the part of the host. There is a good deal of
formality in the intercourse of these half-wild mamelucos,
which, I believe, has been chiefly derived from their Indian
forefathers, although a Htde of it may have been copied from
the Portuguese.

A little distance from the house were the open sheds under
which the farinha for the use of the estabhshment was manu-
factured. In the centre of each shed stood the shallow pans,
made of clay and built over ovens, where the meal is roasted.
A long flexible cyhnder made of the peel of a marantaceous
plant, plaited into the proper form, hung suspended from a
beam ; it is in this that the pulp of the mandioca is pressed,
and from it the juice, which is of a highly poisonous nature,
although the pulp is wholesome food, runs into pans placed
beneath to receive it. A wooden trough, such as is used in all
these places for receiving the pulp before the poisonous matter
is extracted, stood on the ground, and from the posts hung the
long wicker-work baskets, or atursis, in which the women carry
the roots from the roca or clearing ; a broad ribbon made from
the inner bark of the monguba tree is attached to the rims of
the baskets, and is passed round the forehead of the carriers, to
relieve their backs in supporting the heavy load. Around the
shed were planted a number of banana and other fruit trees ;
amongst them were the never-failing capsicum-pepper bushes,
brilhant as holly trees at Christmas time, with their fiery-red

CHAP. IV. THE INDIA-RUBBER TREE. 73

fruit, and lemon trees ; the one supplying the pungent, the
other the acid, for sauce to the perpetual meal of fish. There
is never in such places any appearance of careful cultivation,
no garden or orchard ; the useful trees are surrounded by
weeds and bushes, and close behind rises the everlasting forest.

In descending the river we landed frequently, and Mr.
Wallace and I lost no chance of adding to our collections ; so
that before the end of our journey we had got together a very
considerable number of birds, insects, and shells, ekiefly taken,
however, in the low country. Leaving Baia5, we took our last
farewell of the limpid waters and varied scenery of the upper
river, and found ourselves again in the humid flat region of the
Amazons valley. We sailed down this lower part of the river
by a different channel from the one we travelled along in
ascending, and frequently went ashore on the low islands in
mid-river. As already stated, these are covered with water in
the wet season ; but at this time, there having been three
months of fine weather, they were dry throughout, and, by the
subsidence of the waters, placed four or five feet above the level
of the river. They are covered with a most luxuriant forest,
comprising a large number of india-rubber trees. We found
several people encamped here, who were engaged in collecting
and preparing the rubber, and thus had an opportunity of
observing the process.

The tree which yields this valuable sap is the Siphonia
elastica, a member of the Euphorbiaceous order; it belongs,
therefore, to a group of plants quite different from that which
furnishes the caoutchouc of the East Indies and Africa. This
latter is the product of different species of Ficus, and is con-
sidered, I believe, in commerce an inferior article to the
india-rubber of Para. The Siphonia elastica grows only on the
lowlands in the Amazons region ; hitherto the rubber has been
collected chiefly in the islands and swampy parts of the main-
land within a distance of fifty to a hundred miles to the west
of Para; but there are plenty of untapped -^ trees still growing
in the wilds of the Tapajos, Madeira, Jurua, and Jauari, as far
as 1800 miles from the Atlantic coast. The tree is not
remarkable in appearance ; in bark and foliage it is not unHke
the European ash ; but the trunk, like that of all forest trees,
shoots up to an immense height before throwing off branches.
The trees seem to be no man's property hereabout. The people
we met with told us they came every year to collect rubber on
these islands, as soon as the waters had subsided, namely, iu

74 THE TO C A NTI NS. chap. iv.

August, and remained till January or February. The process
is very simple. Every morning each person, man or woman,
to whom is allotted a certain number of trees, goes the round
of the whole, and collects in a large vessel the milky sap which
trickles from gashes made in the bark on the preceding
evening, and which is received in little clay cups, or in
ampullaria shells stuck beneath the wounds. The sap, which
at first is of the consistence of cream, soon thickens ; the
collectors are provided with a great number of wooden moulds
of the shape in which the rubber is wanted, and when they
return to the camp they dip them into the liquid, laying on,
in the course of several days, one coat after another. When
this is done, the substance is white and hard; the proper colour
and consistency are given by passing it repeatedly through a
thick black smoke obtained by burning the nuts of certain
palm trees, after which process the article is ready for sale.
India-rubber is known throughout the province only by the
name of seringa, the Portuguese word for syringe ; it owes this
appellation to the circumstance that it was in this form only
that the first Portuguese setders noticed it to be employed by
the aborigines. It is said that the Indians were first taught
to make syringes of rubber by seeing natural tubes formed by
it, when the spontaneously-flowing sap gathered round pro-
jecting twigs. Brazilians of all classes still use it extensively
in the form of syringes, for injections form a great feature in
the popular system of cures ; the rubber for this purpose is
made into a pear-shaped bottle, and a quill fixed in the long
neck.

September 24th. — Opposite- Cameta the islands are all planted
with cacao, the tree which yields the chocolate nut. The
forest is not cleared for the purpose, but the cacao plants are
stuck in here and there almost at random amongst the trees.
There are many houses on the banks of the river, all elevated
above the swampy soil on wooden piles, and furnished with
broad ladders by which to mount to the ground floor. As we
passed by in our canoe we could see the people at their
occupations in the open verandahs, and in one place saw a ball
going on in broad daylight; there were fiddles and guitars
hard at work, and a nuniber of lads in white shirts and
trousers dancing with brown damsels clad in showy "print
dresses. The cacao tree produces a curious impression, on
account of the flowers and fruit growing directly out of the'
trunk and branches. There is a whole group of wild fruit

CHAP. IV. VOYAGE TO CAMETA. 75

trees which have the same habit in this country. In the
wildernesses where the cacao is planted, the collecting of the
fruit is dangerous from the number of poisonous snakes which
inhabit the places. One day, when we were running our
montaria to a landing-place, we saw a large serpent on the
trees overhead, as we were about to brush past ; the boat was
stopped just in the nick of time, and Mr. Leavens brought the
reptile down with a charge of shot.

Septembe7' 26th. — At length we got clear of the islands, and
saw once more before us the sea like expanse of waters which
forms the mouth of the Tocantins. The river had now sunk
to its lowest point, and numbers of fresh-water dolphins were
rolling about in shoaly places. There are here two species,
one of which was new to science when I sent specimens to
England; it is called the Tucuxi (Steno tucuxi of Gray).
When it comes to the surface to breathe, it rises horizontally,
showing first its back fin ; draws an inspiration, and then dives
gently down, head foremost. This mode of proceeding dis-
tinguishes the Tucuxi at once from the other species, which is
called Bouto or porpoise by the natives (Inia Geofifroyi of
Desmarest). When this rises, the top of the head is the part
first seen ; it then blows, and immediately afterwards dips head
downwards, its back curving over, exposing successively the
whole dorsal ridge with its fin. It seems thus to pitch heels
over head, but does not show the tail fin. Besides this
peculiar motion, it is distinguished from the Tucuxi by its
habit of generally going in pairs. Both species are exceedingly
numerous throughout the Amazons and its larger tributaries,
but they are nowhere more plentiful than in the shoaly water
at the mouth of the Tocantins, especially in the dry season.
In the Upper Amazons a third pale flesh-coloured species is
also abundant (the Delphinus pallidus of Gervais). With the
exception of a species found in the Ganges, all other varieties
of dolphin inhabit exclusively the sea. In the broader parts
of the Amazons, from its mouth to a distance of fifteen hun-
dred miles in the interior, one or other of the three kinds here
mentioned are always heard rolling, blowing, and snorting,
especially at night, and these noises contribute much to the
impression of sea-wide vastness and desolation which haunts
the traveller. Besides dolphins in the water, frigate birds in
the air are characteristic of this lower part of the Tocantins.
Flocks of them were seen the last two or three days of our
journey, hovering above at an immense height. Towards night

76 THE TOCANTINS. chap. iv.

we were obliged to cast anchor over a shoal in the middle of
the river to await the ebb tide. The wind blew very strongly,
and this, together with the incoming flow, caused such a heavy
sea that it was impossible to sleep. The vessel rolled and
pitched until every bone in our bodies ached with the bumps
we received, and we were all more or less sea-sick. On the
following day we entered the Anapii, and on the 30th of Sep-
tember, after threading again the labyrinth of channels com-
municating between the Tocantins and the Moju, arrived at
Para.

I will now give a short account of Cameta, the principal
town on the banks of the Tocantins, which I visited for the
second time in June, 1849; Mr. Wallace, in the same month,
departing from Para to explore the rivers Guama and Capim.
I embarked as passenger in a Cameta trading vessel, the St.
John, a small schooner of thirty tons burthen. I had learnt
by this time that the only way to attain the objects for which
I had come to this country w^as to accustom myself to the ways
of life of the humbler classes of the inhabitants. A traveller
on the Amazons gains little by being furnished Avith letters of
recommendation to persons of note, for in the great interior
wildernesses of forest and river the canoe-men have pretty
much their own way; the authorities cannot force them to
grant passages or to hire themselves to travellers, and therefore
a stranger is obliged to ingratiate himself with them in order
to get conveyed from place to place. I thoroughly enjoyed the
journey to Cameta; the weather was again beautiful in the
extreme. AVe started from Para at sunrise on the 8th of
June, and on the loth emerged from the narrow channels of
the Anapu into the broad Tocantins. The vessel was so full of
cargo, that there was no room to sleep in the cabin ; so we
passed the nights on deck. The captain or supercargo, called
in Portuguese cabo^ was a mameluco, named Manoel, a quiet,
good-humoured person, who treated me with the most un-
affected civility during the three days' journey. The pilot was
also a mameluco, named John Mendez, a handsome young
fellow, full of life and spirit. He had on board a wire guitar
or viola, as it is here called; and in the bright moonlight
nights, as we lay at anchor hour after hour waiting for the
tide, he enlivened us all with songs and music. He w^asonthe
best of terms with the cabo, both sleeping in the same ham-
mock slung between the masts. I passed the nights wTapped

CHAP. IV. SOJVGS OF CANOE- MEN. 77

in an old sail outside the roof of the cabin. The crew, five in
number, were, Indians and half-breeds, all of whom treated
their two superiors with the most amusing familiarity, yet I
never sailed in a better managed vessel than the St. John.

In crossing to Cameta we had to await the flood-tide in a
channel called Entre-as-Ilhas, which lies between two islands
in mid-river, and John Mendez, being in good tune, gave us
an extempore song, consisting of a great number of verses.
The canoe-men of the Amazons have many songs and choruses,
with which they are in the habit of relieving the monotony of'
their slow voyages, and which are known all over the interior.
The choruses consist of a simple strain, repeated almost to
weariness, and sung generally in unison, but sometimes with
an attempt at harmony. There is a wildness and sadness about
the tunes which harmonise well with, and in fact are born of,
the circumstances of the canoe-man's life : the echoing chan-
nels, the endless gloomy forests, the solemn nights, and the
desolate scenes of broad and stormy waters and falUng banks.
Whether they were invented by the Indians or introduced by
the Portuguese it is hard to decide, as many of the customs of
the lower classes of Portuguese are so similar to those of the
Indians, that they have become blended with them. One of
the commonest songs is very wild and pretty. It has for
refrain the words "^Mai, Mai" ("Mother, Mother''), with a
long drawl on the second word. The stanzas are very variable.
The best wit on board starts the verse, improvising as he goes
on, and the others join in the chorus. They all relate to the
lonely river life and the events of the voyage ; the shoals, the
wind ; how far they shall go before they stop to sleep, and so
forth. The sonorous native names of places, Goajara, Tucu-
mandiiba, &c., add greatly to the charm of the wild music.
Sometimes they bring in the stars thus : —

A lua esta sahindo,

Mai, Mai !
A lua esta sahindo,

Mai, Mai !
As sete estrellas estao chorando,

Mai, Mai !
For s'acharem desamparados,

Mai, Mai !

The moon is rising, ,

Mother, Mother!
The moon is rising,

Mother, Mother !

78 THE TOCANTINS. chap. iv.

The seven stars (Pleiades) are weeping',

Mother, Mother !
To find themselves forsaken,

Mother, Mother !

T fell asleep about ten o'clock, but at four in the morning
John Mendez woke me to enjoy the sight of the little schooner
tearing through the waves before a spanking breeze. The
night was transparently clear and almost cold, ''.he moon ap-
peared sharply defined against the dark blue sky, and a ridge
of foam marked where the prow of the vessel was cleaving its
way through the water. The men had made a fire in the galley
to make tea of an acid herb, called erva cidreira, a quantity of
which they had gathered at the last landing-place, and the
flames sparkled cheerily upwards. It is at such times as these
that Amazon travelhng is enjoyable, and one no longer wonders
at the love which many, both natives and strangers, have for
this wandering life. The little schooner sped rapidly on with
booms bent and sails stretched to the utmost. Just as day
dawned, we ran with scarcely slackened speed into the port of
Cameta, and cast anchor.

I stayed at Cameta until the i6th of July, and made a con-
siderable collection of the natural productions of the neigh-
bourhood. The town in 1849 was estimated to contain about
5,000 inhabitants, but the municipal district of which Cameta
is the capital numbers 20,000 ; this, however, comprised the
whole of the lower part of the Tocantins, which is the most
thickly populated part of the province of Para. The produc-
tions of the district are cacao, india-rubber, and Brazil nuts.
The most remarkable feature in the social aspect of the place
is the hybrid nature of the whole population, the amalgamation
of the white and Indian races being here complete. The abo-
rigines were originally very numerous on the western bank of
the Tocantins, the principal tribe having been the Camiitas,
from which the city takes its name. They were a superior
nation, settled, and attached to agriculture, and received with
open arms the white immigrants who were attracted to the
district by its fertility, natural beauty, and the healthfulness of
the climate. The Portuguese settlers were nearly all males,
the Indian women were good-looking, and made excellent
wives ; so the natural result has been, in the course of two
centuries, a complete blending of the two races. There is now,
however, a considerable infusion of negro blood in the mixture,

CHAP. IV. C A MET A. 79

several hundred African slaves having been introduced during
the last seventy years. The few whites are chiefly Portuguese,
but there are also two or three Brazilian families of pure
European descent. The town consists of three long streets,
running parallel to the river, with a few shorter ones crossing
them at right angles. The houses are very plain, being built,
as usual in this country, simply of a strong framework, filled
up with mud, and coated with white plaster. A few of them
are of two or three stories. There are three churches, and also
a small theatre, where a company of native actors at the time
of my visit were representing light Portuguese plays with con-
siderable taste and ability. The people have a reputation al
over the province for energy and perseverance ; and it is oftei
said, that they are as keen in trade as the Portuguese. The
lower classes are as indolent and sensual here as in other parts
of the province, a moral condition not to be wondered at in a
country where perpetual summer reigns, and where the neces-
saries of life are so easily obtained. But they are light-hearted,
quick-witted, communicative, and hospitable. I found here a
native poet, who had written some pretty verses, showing an
appreciation of the natural beauties of the country, and was
told that the Archbishop of Bahia, the primate of Brazil, was
a native of Cameta. It is interesting to find the mamelucos
displaying talent and enterprise, for it shows that degeneracy
does not necessarily result from the mixture of white and
Indian blood. The Cametaenses boast, as they have a right to
do, of theirs being the only large town which resisted success-
fully the anarchists in the great rebellion of 1835-6. Whilst
the whites of Para were subuiitting to the rule of half-savage
revolutionists, the mamelucos of Cameta placed themselves
under the leadership of a courageous priest, named Prudencio ;
armed themselves, fortified the place, and repulsed the large
forces which the insurgents of Para sent to attack the place.
The town not only became the refuge for all loyal subjects,
but was a centre whence large parties of volunteers sallied
forth repeatedly to attack the anarchists in their various strong-
holds.

The forest behind Cameta is traversed by several broad
roads, which lead over undulating ground many miles into the
interior. They pass generally under shade, and part of the way
through groves of coffee and orange trees, fragrant plantations
of cacao, and tracts of second-growth woods. The narrow
brook-watered valleys, with which the land is intersected, alone

8o THE TOCANTINS. chap. iv.

nave remained clothed with primaeval forest, at least near the
town. The houses along these beautiful roads belong chiefly
to mameluco, mulatto, and Indian families, each of which has
its own small plantation. There are only a few planters with
larger estabhshments, and these have seldom more than a dozen
slaves. Besides the main roads, there are endless bye-paths
which thread the forest and communicate with isolated houses.
Along these the traveller may wander day after day without
leaving the shade, and everywhere meet with cheerful, simple,
and hospitable people.

Soon after landmg I was introduced to the most distinguished
^ itizen of the place. Dr. Angelo Custodio Correia, whom I have
^Iready mentioned. This excellent man was a favourable
specimen of the highest class of native Brazilians. He had
been educated in Europe, was now a member of the Brazilian
ParHament, and had been twice president of his native pro-
vince. His manners were less formal, and his goodness more
thoroughly genuine, perhaps, than is the rule generally with
Brazilians. He was admired and loved, as I had ample oppor-
tunity of observing, throughout all Amazonia. He sacrificed
his life in 1855,, for the good of his fellow-tow^nsmen, when
Cameta was devastated by the cholera ; having stayed behind
with a few heroic spirits to succour invalids and direct the
burying of the dead, when nearly all the chief citizens had. fled
from the place. After he had done what he could he embarked
for Para, but was himself then attacked with cholera, and died
on board the steamer before he reached the capital. Dr.
Angelo received. me with the usual kindness which he showed
to all strangers. He procured me, unsolicited, a charming
country house, free of rent, hired a mulatto servant for me, and
thus relieved me of the many annoyances and delays attendant
on a first arrival in a country town where even the name of an
inn is unknown. The rocinha thus given up for my residence
belonged to a friend of his, Senhor Jose Raimundo Furtado, a
stout florid-complexioned gentleman, such a one as might be
met with any day in a country town in England. To him also
I was indebted for many acts of kindness.

The rocinha was situated near a broad grassy road bordered
by lofty woods, which leads from Cameta to the Aldeia, a
village two miles distant. My first walks were along this road.
From it branches another similar but still more picturesque
road, which runs to Curima and Pacaja, two small settlements,
several miles distant, in the heart of the forest. The Curima

6

CHAP. IV. BIRD - KILLING SPIDER. '^^

road is beautiful in the extreme. About half a mile from the
house where I lived it crosses a brook flowing through a deep
dell, by means of a long rustic wooden bridge. The virgin
lorest is here left untouched ; numerous groups of slender
palms, mingled with lofty trees overrun with creepers and
parasites, fill the shady glen, and arch over the bridge, forming
one of the most picturesque scenes imaginable. A little beyond
the bridge there was an extensive grove of orange and other
trees, which yielded me a rich harvest. The Aldeia road runs
parallel to the river, the land from the border of the road to the
indented shore of the Tocantins forming a long slope which
was also richly wooded ; this slope was threaded by numerous
shady paths, and abounded in beautiful insects and birds. At
the opposite or southern end of the town there was a broad
road called the Estrada da Vacaria; this ran along the banks
of the Tocantins at some distance from the river, and continued
over hill and dale, through bamboo thickets and palm swamps,
for about fifteen miles.

At Cam eta I chanced to verify a fact relating to the habits
of a large hairy spider of the genus Mygale, in a manner worth
recording. I'he species was M. avicularia, or one very closely
allied to it ; the individual was nearly two inches in length of
body, but the legs expanded seven inches, and the entire body
and legs were covered with coarse grey and reddish hairs. I
was attracted by a movement of the monster on a tree-trunk ;
it was close beneath a deep crevice in the tree, across which
was stretched a dense white web. The lower part of the web
was broken, and two small birds, finches, were entangled in
the pieces ; they were about the size of the English siskin, and
I judged the two to be male and female. One of them was
quite dead, the other lay under the body of the spider not
quite dead, and was smeared with the filthy liquor or saliva
exuded by the monster. I drove away the spider and took the
birds, but the second one soon died. The fact of species of
Mygale sallying forth at night, mounting trees, and sucking
the eggs and young of humming-birds, has been recorded long ^
ago by Madam Merian and Palisot de Beauvois ; but, in the
absence of any confirmation, it has come to be discredited.
From the way the fact has been related it would appear thai
it had been merely derived from the report of natives, and had
not been witnessed by the narrators. Count Langsdorff, in
his " Expedition into the Interior of Brazil," states that he
totally disbelieved the story. I found the circumstance to be

84 THE TOCANTINS. - chap, iv

quite a novelty to the residents hereabout. The Mygales
are quite common insects : some species make their cells under
stones, others form artistical tunnels in the earth, and some
build their dens in the thatch of houses. The natives call
them Aranhas carangueijeiras, or crab-spiders. The hairs ..with
which they are clothed come off when touched, and cause a
peculiar and almost maddening irritation. The first specimen
that I killed and prepared was handled incautiously, and I
suffered terribly for three days aftei wards. I think this is not
owing to any poisonous quality residing in the hairs, but to
tb.eir being short and hard, and thus getting into the fine
creases of the skin. Some Mygales are of immense size. One^
day I saw the children belonging to an Indian family, who
collected for me, with one of these monsters secured by a cord
round its waist, by which they were leading it about the house
as they would a dog.

The only monkeys I observed at Cameta were the Couxio
(Pithecia Satanas) — a large species, clothed with long brownish-
black hair — and the tiny Midas argentatus. The Couxio. has a
thick bushy tail, and the hair of the head, which looks as if it
had been carefully combed, sits on it like a wig. It inhabits
only the most retired parts of the forest, on the terra firma, and
I observed nothing of its habits. The little Midas argentatus
is one of the rarest of the American monkeys ; indeed, I have
not heard of its being found anywhere except near Cameta,
where I once saw three individuals, looking like so many white
kittens, running along a branch in a cacao grove : in their
motions they resembled precisely the Midas ursulus already
described. I saw afterwards a pet animal of this species, and
heard that there were many so kept, and that they were esteemed
as great treasures. The one mentioned was full-grown, although
it measured only seven inches in length ^of body. It was
covered with long white silky hairs, the tail being blackish,
and the face nearly naked and flesh-coloured. It was a most
timid and sensitive httle thing. The woman who owned it
carried it constantly in her bosom, and no money would induce
her to part with her pet. She called it Mico. It fed from her
mouth and allowed her to fondle it freely, but the nervous
little creature would not permit strangers to touch it. If any
one attempted to do so, it shrank back, the whole body trem-
bling with fear, and its teeth chattered whilst it uttered its
tremulous frightened tones. The expression of its features
was like that of its more robust brother Midas ursulus ; the

CHAP. IV. AMAZONIAN TRA FELLING, 85

eyes, which were black, were full of curiosity and mistrust, and
Avere always kept fixed on the person who attempted to advance
towards it.

In the orange groves and other parts humming-birds were
])lentiful, but I did not notice more than three species. I saw
one day a little pigmy belonging to the genus Phaethornis in
the act of washing itself in a brook ; perched on a thin branch,
one end of which was under water. It dipped itself, then
li uttered its wings and pruned its feathers, and seemed tho-
roughly to enjoy itself, alone in the shady nook which it had
chosen — a place overshadowed by broad leaves of ferns and
Heliconise. I thought, as I watched it, that there was no need
for poets to invent elves and gnomes, whilst Nature furnishes
us with such marvellous little sprites ready to hand.

My return-journey to Para afforded many incidents charac-
teristic of Amazonian travelling. I left Cameta on the 1 6th of
July. My luggage was embarked in the morning in the Santa
Rosa, a vessel of the kind called cuberta, or covered canoe.
The cuberta is very much used on these rivers. It- is not
decked, but the sides forward are raised and arched over, so as
to admit of cargo being piled high above the water-line. At
the stem is a neat square cabin, also raised, and between the
cabin and covered forepart is a narrow piece decked over, on
which are placed the cooking arrangements. This is called
the tombadilha or quarterdeck, and when the canoe is heavily
laden it goes under water as the vessel heels over to the wind.
There are two masts, rigged with fore and aft sails. The fore-
mast has often, besides, a main and top sail. The forepart is
planked over at the top, and on this raised deck the crew work
the vessel, pulling it along, when there is no wind, by means of
the long oars already described.

As I have just said, my luggage was embarked in the morn-
ing. I was informed that we should start with the ebb-tide in
the afternoon ; so I thought I should have time to pay my
respects to Dr. Angelo and other friends, whose extreme cour-
tesy and goodness had made my residence at Gameta so agree-
able. After dinner the gues:;s, according to custom at the
house of the Correias, walked into the cool verandah which
overlooks the river ; and there we saw the Santa Rosa, a mere
speck in the offing miles away, tacking down river with a fine
breeze. I was now in a fix, for it would be useless attempting
to overtake the cuberta, and besides the sea ran too high for

86 THE TOCANTINS. chap, iv

rny montaria. I was then told, that I ought to have been
[.board hours before the tune fixed for starting, because when a
breeze springs up, vessels start before the tide turns ; the last
]:our of the flood not being very strong. All my precious
collections, my clothes, and other necessaries were on board,
and it was indispensable that I should be at Para when the
ihings were disembarked. I tried to hire a montaria and men,
but was told that it would be maaness to cross the river in a
small boat with this breeze. On going to Senhor Laroque,
another of my Cameta friends, I was reheved of my embarrass-
ment ; for 1 found there an English gentleman, Mr. Patchett of
Pernambuco, who was visiting Para and its neighbourhood on
his way to England, and who, as he was going back to Para in
a small boat with four paddles, which would start at midnight,
kindly offered me a passage. The evening from seven to ten
o'clock was very stormy. About seven, the night became
intensely dark, and a terrific squall of wind burst forth, which
made the loose tiles fly over the housetops ; to this succeeded
lightning and stupendous claps of thunder, both nearly simulta-
neous. We had had several of these short and sharp storms during
the past month. At midnight, when we embarked, all was as
calm as though a ruflle had never disturbed air, forest, or river.
The boat sped along like an arrow to the rhythmic paddling of
the four stout youths we had with us, who enlivened the pas-
sage with their wild songs. Mr. Patchett and I tried to get a
little sleep, but the cabin was so small and encumbered with
boxes placed at all sorts of angles, that we found sleep im-
possible. I was just dozing when the day dawned, and, on
awaking, the first object I saw Avas the Santa Rosa, at anchor
beside a green island in mid-river. I preferred to make the
remainder of the voyage in company of my collections, so bade
Mr. Patchett good-day. The owner of the Santa Rosa, Senhor
Jacinto Machado, whom I had not seen before, received me
aboard, and apologised for having started without me. He
was a white man, a planter, and Avas now taking his year's
produce of cacao, about twenty tons, to Para. The canoe, was
very heavily laden, and I Avas rather alarmed to see that it was
leaking at all points. The crew were all in the AA^ater, diving
about to feel for the holes, Avhich they stopped Avith pieces of
rag and clay, and an old negro AA^as baling the Avater out of the
hold. This was a pleasant prospect for a three-days' voyage !
Senhor Machado treated it as the most ordinary incident pos-
sible : " It Avas ahvays likely to leak, for it AA^as an old vessel

CHAP. IV. RETURN TO PARA. 87

that had been left as worthless high and dry on the beach, and
he had bought it very cheap."

When the leaks were stopped, we proceeded on our journey,
and at night reached the mouth of the Anapu. I wrapped
myself in an old sail, and fell asleep on the raised deck. The
next day we threaded the Igarape-mirim, and on the 19th de-
scended the Moju. Senhor Machado and I by this time had
become very good friends. At every interesting spot on the
banks of the Moju, lie manned the small boat and took me
ashore. There are many large houses on this river, belonging
to what were formerly large and flourishing plantations, but
which, since the Revolution of 1835-6, had been suffered to go
to decay. Two of the largest buildings were constructed by
the Jesuits in the early part of the last century. We were told
that there were formerly eleven large sugar-mills on the banks
of the Moju, whilst now there are only three. At Burujiiba
there is a large monastery in a state of ruin ; part of the edifice,
however, was still inhabited by a Brazihan family. The walls
are four feet in thickness. The long dark corridors and gloomy
cloisters struck me as very inappropriate in the midst of this
young and radiant nature. They would be better in place on
some barren moor in Northern Europe, than here in the midst
of perpetual summer. The next turn in the river below Buru-
jiiba brought the city of Para into view. The wind was now
against us, and we were obliged to tack about. Towards even-
ing it began to blow stiffly, the vessel heeled over very much,
and Senhor Machado, for the first time, trembled for the safety
of his cargo ; the leaks burst out afresh, when we were yet two
miles from the shore. He ordered another sail to be hoisted,
in order to run more quickly into port, but soon afterwards an
extra puff of wind came, and the old boat lurched alarmingly,
the rigging gave way, and down fell boom and sail with a
crash, encumbering us with the wreck. We were then obliged
to have recourse to oars ; and as soon as we were near the
land, fearing that the crazy vessel would sink before reaching
port, I begged Senhor Machado to send me ashore in the boat,
with the more precious portion of my collections.

CHAPTER V.

CARIPI AND THE BAY OF MARAJO.

River Para and Bay of Marajo — ^Journey to Caripi — Negro observance of
Christmas — A German Family — Bats — Ant-eaters — Humming-birds —
Excursion to the Murucupi — Domestic Life of the Inhabitants — Hunting
Excursion with Indians — White Ants.

That part of the Para river which lies in front of the city,
as I have already explained, forms a narrow channel : being
separated from the main waters of the estuary by a cluster of
islands. This channel is about tw^o miles broad, and constitutes
part of the minor estuary of Goajari, into which the three
rivers Guamd, Moju, and Acara discharge their waters. The
main channel of the Para lies lo miles away from the city,
directly across the river; at that point, after getting clear of
the islands, a great expanse of water is beheld, lo to 12 miles
in width ; the opposite shore — the island of Marajo — being
visible only in clear weather as a line of tree-tops dotting the
horizon. A little further upwards, that is, to the south-west,
the mainland on the right or eastern shore appears, this is
called Carnapijo ; it is rocky, covered with the never-ending
forest, and the coast, which is fringed with broad sandy beaches,
describes a gentle curve inwards. The broad reach of the
Para in front of thisL coast is called the Bahia, or Bay of Marajo.
The coast and the interior of the land are peopled by civilised
Indians and mamelucos, with a mixture of free negroes and
mulattos. They are poor, for the waters are not abundant in
fish, and they are dependent for a livelihood solely on their
small plantations, and the scanty supply of game found in the
woods. The district was originally peopled by various tribes of
Indians, of whom the principal were the Tupinambas and

CHAP. V. . CARIPI. 89

Nhengahibas. Like all the coast tribes, whether inhabiting the
banks of the Amazons or the sea-shore between Para and Bahia,
they were far more advanced in civihzation than the hordes
scattered through the interior of the country, some of which
still remain in the wild state, between the Amazons and the
Plata. There are three villages on the coast of Carnapijo, and
several planters' houses, formerly the centres of flourishing
estates, which have now relapsed into forest in consequence of
the scarcity of labour and diminished enterprise. One of the
largest of these establishments is called Caripi : at the time of
which I am speaking it belonged to a Scotch gentleman, Mr.
Campbell, who had married the daughter of a large Brazilian
proprietor. Most of the occasional English and American
visitors to Para had made some stay at Caripi, and it had
obtained quite a reputation for the number and beauty of the
birds and insects found there ; I therefore applied for and'
obtained permission to spend two or three months at the
place. The distance from Para was about 23 miles,
round by the northern end of the Ilha das oncas (Isle of
Tigers), which faces the city. I bargained for a passage
thither with the cabo of a small trading-vessel, which was
going past the place, and started on the 7 th of December,
1848.

We were 13 persons aboard : the cabo, his pretty mulatto
mistress, the pilot and five Indian canoemen, three young ma-
melucos (tailor-apprentices who were taking a holiday trip to
Cameta), a runaway slave heavily chained, and myself. The
young mamelucos were pleasant, gentle fellows : they could
read and write, and amused themselves on the voyage with a
book containing descriptions and statistics of foreign countries,
in which they seemed to take great interest — one reading whilst
the others listened. At Uirapiranga, a small island behind the
Ilha das oncas, we had to stop a short time to embark several
pipes of cashaca at a sugar estate. The cabo took the montaria
and two men ; the pipes were rolled into the water and floated
to the canoe", the men passing cables round and towing them
through a, rough sea. Here we slept, and the following morn-
ing, continuing our voyage, entered a narrow channel which
intersects the land of Carnapijo. At 2 p.m. we emerged from
this channel, which is called the Aitituba, or Arrozal, into the
broad Bahia, and then saw, two or three miles away to the left,
the red-tiled mansion of Caripi, embosomed in woods on the
shores of a charming little bay.

90 CARIPI. CHAP= V.

I remained here nine weeks, or until the 12th of Februar}^,
1849. i '"1^ house was very large and most substantially built,
but consisted of only one story. I was told it was built by the
Jesuits more than a century ago. The front had no verandah,
the doors opening on a slightly elevated terrace, about a, hundred
yards distant from the broad sandy beach. Around the re-
sidence the ground had been cleared to the extent of two or
three acres, and was planted with fruit-trees. Well-trodden
pathways through the forest led to little colonies of the natives,
on the banks of retired creeks and rivulets in the interior. 1
led here a solitary but not unpleasant life ; for there was a great
charm in the loneliness of the place. The swell of the river
beating on the sloping beach caused an unceasing murmur,
which lulled me to sleep at night, and seemed appropriate music
in those midday hours when all nature was pausing breathless
under the rays of a vertical sun. Here I spent my first
Christmas-day in a foreign land. The festival was celebrated
by the negroes of their own free will, and in a very pleasing
manner. The room next to the one I had chosen was the
capella, or chapel. It had a little altar which was neatly ar-
ranged, and the room was furnished with a magnificent brass
chandelier. Men, women, and children were busy in the chapel
all day on the 24th of December, decorating the altar with
flowers and strewing the floor with orange-leaves. They invited
some of their neighbours to the evening prayers ; and when the
simple ceremony began, an hour before midnight, the chapel
was crowded. They were obliged to dispense with the mass, for
they had no priest ; the service therefore consisted merely of a
long litany and a few hymns. There was placed on the altar a
small image of the infant Christ, the " Menino Deos " as they
called it, or the child-god, which had a long ribbon depending
from its waist. An old white-haired negro led off the litany,
and the rest of the people joined in the responses. After the
service was over they all went up to the altar, one by one, and
kissed the end of the ribbon. The gravity and earnestness
shown throughout the proceedings were remarkable. Some of
the hymns were very simple and beautiful, especially one be-
ginning "Virgem soberana," a trace of whose melody springs
to my recollection whenever I think on the dreamy solitude of
Caripi.

The first few nights I was much troubled by bats. The
room where I slept had not been used for many months, and
the roof was open to the tiles and rafters. The first night I

CHAP. V. ATTACKED BY BATS. 91

slept soundly and did not perceive anything unusual, but on the
next I was aroused about midnight by tlie rushing noise made
by vast hosts of bats sweeping about the room. The air
was alive with them ; they had put out the lamp, and when
I relighted it the place appeared blackened with the impish
multitudes that were whirling round and round. After I
had laid about well with a stick for a 'i^vf minutes they dis-
appeared amongst the tiles, but when all was still again they
returned, and once more extinguished the light. 1 took no
further notice of them, and went to sleep. The next night
several got into my hammock ; I seized them as they were
crawling over me, and dashed them against the wall. The next
morning I found a wound, evidently caused by a bat, on my
hip. This was rather unpleasant, so I set to work with the
negroes, and tried to exterminate them. I shot a great many
as they hung from the rafters, and the negroes having mounted
with ladders to the roof outside, routed out from beneath the
eaves many hundreds of them, including young broods. There
were altogether four species — two belonging to the genus
Dysopes, one to Phyllostoma, and the fourth to Glossophaga.
By far the greater number belonged to the Dysopes perotis, a
species having very large ears, and measuring two feet from tip
to tip of the wings. The Phyllostoma was a small kind, of a
dark-gray colour, streaked with white down the back, and
having a leaf-shaped fleshy expansion on the tip of the nose. I
was never attacked by bats except on this occasion. The fact
of their sucking the blood of persons sleeping, from wounds
which they make in the toes, is now well established ; but it is
only a few persons who are subject to this blood-letting. Ac-
cording to the negroes, the Phyllostoma is the only kind which
attacks man. Those which I caught crawling over me were
Dysopes, and I am inchned to think many different kinds of
bats have this propensity.

One day I was occupied searching for insects in the bark ot
a fallen tree, when I saw a large cat-like animal advancing
towards the spot. It came within a dozen yards before per-
ceiving me. I had no weapon with me but an old chisel, and
was getting ready to defend myself if it should make a spring,
when it turned round hastily and trotted off. I did not obtain
a very distinct view of it, but I could see its colour was that of
the Puma, or American Lion, although it was rather too small
for that species. The Puma is not a common animal in the
Amazons fgrests. I did not see altogether more than a dozen

92 CARIPI. CHAP. V.

skins in the possession of the natives. The fur is of a fawn
colour. On account of its hue resembUng that of a deer com-
mon in the forests, the natives call it the Sassii-arana,* or the
false deer ; that is, an animal which deceives one at first sight
by its superficial resemblance to a deer. The hunters are not
.It all afraid of it, and speak always in disparaging terms of its
courage. Of the Jaguar they give a very different account.

The only species of monkey I met with at Caripi was the
same dark-coloured little Midas already mentioned as found
near Para. The great Ant-eater, Tamandua of the natives
(Myrmecophaga jubata), was not uncommon here. After the
first few weeks of residence I ran short of fresh provisions.
The people of the neighbourhood had sold me all the fowls
they could spare ; I had not yet learned to eat the stale and
string}' salt-fish which is the staple food in these places, and for
several days I had lived on rice-porridge, roasted bananas, and
larinha. The housekeeper asked me whether I could eat 1 aman-
dua. I told her almost anything in the shape of flesh would be
acceptable; so the same day she went with an old negro named
Antonio and the dogs, and in the evening brought one of the
animals. The meat was stewed, and turned out very good,
something like goose in flavour. The people at Caripi would
not touch a morsel, saying it was not considered fit to eat in
these parts ; I had read, however, that it was an article of food
in other countries of South America. During the next two or
three weeks, whenever we were short of fresh meat, Antonio
was always ready, for a small reward, to get me a Tamandua.
But one day he came to me in great distress, with the news
that his favourite dog, Atrevido, had been caught in the grip
of an ant-eater, and was killed. AV'e hastened to the place, and
found the dog was not dead, but severely torn by the claws of
the animal, which itself was mortally wounded, and was now
relaxing its gi-asp.

The habits of the Myrmecophaga jubata are now pretty well
known. It is not uncommon in the drier forests of the
Amazons valley, but is not found, I believe, in the Ygap6, or
flooded lands. The Brazilians call the species the Tamandua
bandeira, or the Banner Ant-eater, the term banner being

* The old zoologist Marcgrave called the Puma the Cuguacuarana, pro-
bably (the c's being soft) a misspelling of Sassu-arana ; hence the name
Congonar employed by French zoologists, and copied in most works on
natural history.

ANT-EATER GRAPPLING WITH DOG.

CHAP. V. ANT-EATERS. 95

applied in allusion to the curious coloration of the animal, each
side of-the body having a broad oblique stripe, half gray and
half black, which gives it some resemblance to a heraldic
banner. It has an excessively long slender muzzle, and a
wormlike extensile tongue. Its jaws are destitute of teeth.
The claws are much elongated, and its gait is very awkward.
It lives on the ground, and feeds on termites, or white ants ; the
long claws being employed to pull in pieces the solid hillocks
made by the insects, and the long flexible tongue to lick them
up from the crevices. All the other species of this singular
genus are arboreal. I met with four species altogether. One
was the Myrmecophaga tetradactyla ; the two others, more
curious and less known, were very small kinds, called Taman-
dua-i. Both are similar in size — ten inches in length, exclusive
of the tail — and in the number of the claws, having two of
unequal length to the anterior feet, and four to the hind feet.
One species is clothed with grayish-yellow silky, hair; this is of
rare occurrence. The other has a fur of a dingy brown colour,
vv-ithout silky lustre. One was brought to me alive' at Caripi,
having been caught by an Indian, clinging motionless inside a
hollow tree. I kept it in the house about twenty-four hours.
It had a moderately long snout, curved downwards, and ex-
tremely small eyes. It remained nearly all the time without
motion, except when irritated, in which case it reared itself on
its hind legs from the back of a chair to which it clung, and
clawed out with its forepaws like a cat. Its manner of clinging
with its claws, and the sluggishness of its motions, gave it a
great resemblance to a sloth. It uttered no sound, and re-
mained all night on the spot where I had placed it in the
mornin^:. The next day I put it on a tree in the open air, and
at night it escaped. These small Tamanduas are nocturnal
in their habits, and feed on those species of termites which
construct earthy nests, that look like ugly excrescences, on
the trunks and branches of trees. The different kinds of ant-
eaters are thus adapted to various modes of life, terrestrial
and arboreal. Those which live on trees are ao:ain either
diurnal or nocturnal, for Myrmecophaga tetradactyla is seen
moving along the main branches in the daytime. The aUied
group of thje Sloths, which are still more exclusively South
American forms than ant-eaters are, at the present time furnish
arboreal species only, but formerly terrestrial forms of sloths
also existed, as the Megatherium, whose mode of life was a
puzzle, seeing that it was of too colossal a size to hve on trees,

96 CARIPI. CHAP. V.

until Owen showed how it might have obtained its food from
the ground.

In January the orange trees became covered with blossom —
at least to a greater extent than usual, for they flower more or
less in this country all the year round — and the flowers attracted
a great number of humming-birds. Every day, in the cooler
hours of the morning, and in the evening from four o'clock till
six, they were to be seen whirling about the trees by scores.
Their motions are unlike those of all other birds. They dart
to and fro so swiftly that the eye can scarcely follow them, and
when they stop before a flower it is only for a few moments.
They poise themselves in an unsteady manner, their wings
moving with inconceivable rapidity ; probe the flower, and then
shoot ofl" to another part of the tree. They do not proceed in
that methodical manner which bees follow, taking the flowers
seriatim, but skip about from one part of the tree to another in
the most capricious way. Somedmes two males close with
each other and fight, mounting upwards in the struggle, as
insects are often seen to do when similarly engaged, and then
separating hastily and darting back to their work. Now and
then they stop to rest, perchmg on leafless twigs, where they
may be somedmes seen probing, from the places where they
sit, the flowers within their reach. The brilliant colours with
which they are adorned cannot be seen whilst they are flutter-
ing about, nor can the diflerent species be distinguished unless
they have a deal of white hue in their plumage, such as
Heliothrix auritus, which is wholly white underneath, although
of a glittering green colour above, and the white-tailed Flori-
suga mellivora. There is not a great variety of humming-birds
in the Amazons region, the number of species being far
smaller in these uniform forest plains than in the diversified
valleys of the Andes, under the same parallels of latitude. The
family is divisible into two groups, contrasted in form and
habits, one containing species which live entirely in the shade
of the forest, and the other comprising those which prefer open
sunny places. The forest species (Phaethorninae) are seldom
seen at flowers, flowers being, in the shady places where they
abide, of rare occurrence ; but they search for insects on leaves,
threading the bushes and passing above and beneath each leat
with wonderful rapidity. The other group (Trochilinae) are not
quite confined to cleared places, as they come into the forest
wherever a tree is in blossom, and descend into sunny openings
where flowers are to be found. But it is only where the woods

CHAP. V. HUMMING-BIRD HAWK-MOTH. 97

are less dense than usual that this is the case ; in the lofty
forests and twilight shades of the lowlands and islands they
are scarcely ever seen. I searched well at Caripi, expecting to
find the Lophornis Gouldii, which I was told had been obtained
in the locality. This is one of the most beautiful of all hum-
ming-birds, having round the neck a frill of long white feathers
tipped with golden green. I was not, however, so fortunate as
to meet with it. Several times I shot by mistake a humming-
bird hawk-moth instead of a bird. This moth (Macroglossa
Titan) is somewhat smaller than humming-birds generally are ;
but its manner of flight, and the way it poises itself before a

Humming-bird and Humming-bird Hawk-moth.

flower whilst probing it with its proboscis, are precisely like
the same actions of humming-birds. It was only after many
days' experience that I learnt to distinguish one from the other
when on the wing. This resemblance has attracted the notice
of the natives, all of whom, even educated whites, firmly believe
that one is transmutable into the other. They have observed
the metamorphosis of caterpillars into butterflies, and think it
not at all more wonderful that a moth should change into a
humming-bird. The resemblance between this hawk- moth and
a humming-bird is certainly very curious, and strikes one even
when both are examined in the hand. Holding them sideways,
the shape of the head and position of the eyes in the moth are
seen to be nearly the same as in the bird, the extended pro

7

98 C A RIP I. CHAP. V.

boscis representing the long beak. At the tip of the moth's
body there is a brush of long hair-scales resembling feathers,
which, being expanded, looks very much like a bird's tail. But,
of course, all these points of resemblance are merely superficial.
The negroes and Indians tried to convince me that the two
were of the same species. " Look at their feathers," they said^
" their eyes are the same, and so are their tails." This belief
is so deeply rooted that it was useless to reason with them
on the subject. The Macroglossa moths are found in most
countries, and have every^vhere the same habits ; one well-
known species is found in Englahd. Mr. Gould relates that he
once had a stormy altercation with an English gentleman, who
affirmed that humming-birds were found in England, for he
had seen one flying in Devonshire, meaning thereby the moth
Macroglossa stellatarum. The analogy between the two
creatures has been brought about, probably, by the similarity
of their habits, there being no indication of the one having
been adapted in outward appearance with reference to the other.
It has been observed that humming-birds are unlike other
birds in their mental quahties, resembling in this respect
insects rather than warm-blooded vertebrate animals. The
want of expression in their eyes, the small degree of versatility
in their actions, the quickness and precision of their move-
m.ents, are all so many points of resemblance between them
and insects. In walking along the alleys of the forest a
Phaethornis frequently crosses one's path, often stopping
suddenly and remaining poised in mid-air, a few feet distant
from the face of the intruder. The Phaethominse are certainly
more numerous in individuals in the Amazons region than
the Trochilinae. They build their nests, which are made ot
fine vegetable fibres and lichens, densely woven together and
thickly lined with silk-cotton from the fruit of the samaiima
tree (Eriodendron samaiima), on the inner sides of the tips of
palm-fronds. ■ They are long and purse-shaped. The young
when first hatched have very much shorter "bills than their
parents. The only species of Trochilinae which I found at
Caripi were the little brassy-green Polytmus viridissimus, the
sapphire and emerald (Thalurania furcata), and the large
falcate-winged Campylopterus obscurus.

Snakes were very numerous at Caripi; many harmless species
were found near the house, and these sometimes came into the
rooms. I was wandering one day amongst the green bushes of
Guajara, a tree which yields a grape-like berry (Chrysobalanus

CHAP. V. EXCURSIONS IN THE E ORE ST. 99

Icaco) and grows along all these sandy shores, when I was
startled by what appeared to be the flexuous stem of a creeping
plant endowed with life and threading its way amongst the
leaves and branches. This animated liana turned out to be a
pale-green snake, the Dryophis fulgida. Its whole body is of
the same green hue, and it is thus rendered un distinguishable
amidst the foliage of the Guajara bushes, where it prowls in
search of its prey, tree-frogs and lizards. The forepart of its
head is prolonged into a slender pointed beak, and the total
length of the reptile was six feet. There was another kind
found amongst bushes on the borders of the forest, closely allied
to this, but much more slender, viz., the Dryophis acuminata.
This grows to a length of 4 feet 8 inches, the tail alone being
22 inches ; but the diameter of the thickest part of the body is
little more than a quarter of an inch. It is of light-brown
colour, with iridescent shades, variegated with obscurer mark-
ings, and looks like a piece of whipcord. One individual which
I caught of this species had a protuberance near the middle of
the body. On opening it I found a half-digested lizard which
was much more bulky than the snake itself. Another kind of
serpent found here, a species of Helicops, was amphibious in
its habits. I saw several of this in wet weather on the beach,
which, on being approached, always made straightway for the
water, where they swam with much grace and dexterity. Fiorinda,
the housekeeper, one d^y caught a Helicops whilst angling for
fish, it having swallowed the fishhook with the bait. She and
others told me these water-snakes lived on small fishes, but I did
not meet with any proof of the statement. In the woods, snakes
were constantly occurring : it was not often, however, that I
saw poisonous species. There were many arboreal kinds
besides the two just mentioned ; and it was rather alarming, in
entomologising about the tnmks of trees, to suddenly en-
counter, on turning round, as sometimes happened, a pair of
glittering eyes and a forked tongue within a few inches of one's
head. The last kind I shall mention is the Coral-snake, which
is a most beautiful object when seen coiled up on black soil in
the woods. The one I saw here was banded with black and
veruiilion, the black bands having each two clear white rings.
The state of specimens preserved in spirits can give no idea of
the brilliant colours which adorn the Coral-snake in life.

In company with Petzell, a German settler near Caripi, I
made many excursions of long extent in the neighbouring

lOO C A R I P I . CHAP. V.

forest. We sometimes went to Mumcupi, a creek which passes
through the forest about four miles behind Caripi, the banks
of which are inhabited by Indians and half-breeds, who have
lived there for many generations in perfect seclusion from the
rest of the world, the place being little known or frequented.
A path from Caripi leads to it through a gloomy tract of virgin
forest, where the trees are so closely packed together that the
ground beneath is thrown into the deepest shade, under which
nothing but fetid fungi and rotting vegetable debris is to be seen.
On emerging from this unfriendly solitude near the banks of
the Murucupi, a charming contrast is presented. A glorious
vegetation, piled up to an immense height, clothes the banks
of the creek, which traverses a broad tract of semi-cultivated
ground, and the varied masses of greenery are lighted up with
a sunny glow. Open palm- thatched huts peep forth here and
there from amidst groves of banana, mango, cotton, and papaw
trees and palms. On our first excursion, we struck the banks
of the river in front of a house of somewhat more substantial
architecture than the rest, having finished mud walls, plastered
and v/hitewashed, and a covering of red tiles. It seemed to be
full of children, and the aspect of the household was improved
by a number of good-looking mameluco women, who were
busily employed washing, spinning, and making farinha. Two
of them, seated on a mat in the open verandah, were engaged
sewing dresses ; for a festival was going to take place a few
days hence at Balcarem, a village eight miles distant from
Murucupi, and they intended to be present to hear mass and
show their finery. One of the children, a naked boy about
seven years of age, crossed over with the montaria to fetch us.
We were made welcome at once, and asked to stay for dinner.
On our accepting the invitation a couple of fowls were killed,
and a wholesome stew of seasoned rice and fowls soon put in
preparation. It is not often that the female members of a.
family in these retired places are familiar with strangers ; but
these people had lived, a long time in the capital, and therefore
were more civilised than their neighbours. Their father had
been a prosperous tradesman, and had given them the best
education the place afforded. After his death the widov/ with
several daughters, married and unmarried, retired to this
secluded spot, which had been their sitio, farm or country
house, for many years. One of the daughters was married to a
handsome young mulatto, who was present and sang us some
pretty songs, accompanying himself on the guitar.

CHAP. V. BEAUTIFUL VEGETATION. loi

After dinner I expressed a wish to see more of the creek ; so
a Kvely and polite old man, whom I took to be one of the
neighbours, volunteered as guide. We embarked in a little
montaria, and paddled some three or four miles up and down
the stream. Although I had now become familiarised with
beautiful vegetation, all the glow of fresh admiration came
again to me in this place. The creek was about loo yards
wide, but narrower in some places. Both banks were masked
by lofty walls of green drapery, here and there a break occur-
ring, through which, under overarching trees, glimpses were
obtained of the palm-thatched huts of settlers. The projecting
boughs of lofty trees, which in some places stretched half-way
across the creek, were hung with natural garlands and festoons,
and an endless variety of creeping plants clothed the water-
frontage, some of which, especially the Bignonias, were orna-
mented with large gaily-coloured flowers. Art could not have
assorted together beautiful vegetable forms so harmoniously as
was here done by Nature. Palms, as usual, formed a large
proportion of the lower trees ; some of them, however, shot up
their slim stems to a height of sixty feet or more, and waved
their bunches of nodding plumes between us and the sky. One
kind of palm, the Pashiiiba (Iriartea exorhiza), which grows
here in greater abundance than elsewhere, was especially
attractive. It is not one of the tallest kinds, for when full-
grown its height is not more, perhaps, than forty feet : the
leaves are somewhat less drooping, and the leaflets much broader
than in other species, so that they have not that feathery ap-
pearance which some of those palms have, but still they possess
their ov.m peculiar beauty. My guide put me ashore in one
place to show me the roots of t^ie Pashiiiba. These grow
above ground, radiating from the trunk many feet above the
surface, so that the tree looks as if supported on stilts ; and a
person can, in old trees, stand upright amongst the roots with
the perpendicular stem wholly above his head. It adds to the
singularity of their appearance that these roots, which have the
form of straight rods, are studded with stout thorns, whilst the
tnmk of the tree is quite smooth. The purpose of this
curious arrangement is, perhaps, similar to that of the buttress
roots already described — namely, to recompense the tree by
root growth above the soil for its inability, in consequence of
the competition of neighbouring roots, to extend it underground.
The great amount of moisture and nutriment contained in the
atmosphere may also favour these growths.

102 C A R IF I . CHAP. V.

On returning to the house, I found Petzell had been well
occupied during the hot hours of the day collecting insects in a
neighbouring clearing. Our kind hosts gave us a cup of coffee
about five o'clock, and we then started for home. The last
mile of our walk was performed in the dark. The forest in
this part is obscure even in broad daylight, but I was scarcely
prepared for the intense opacity of darkness which reigned here
on this night, and which prevented us from seeing each other,
although walking side by side. Nothing occurred of a nature
to alarm us, except that now and then a sudden rush w^as heard
amongst the trees, and once a dismal shriek startled us. Petzell
tripped at one place, and fell all his length into the thicket.
With this exception, we kept well to the pathway, and in due
time arrived safely at Caripi.

One of my neighbours at Murucupi was a hunter of reputa-
tion in these parts. He was a civilised Indian, married and
settled, named Raimundo, whose habit was to sally forth at
intervals to certain productive hunting-grounds, the situation of
which he kept secret, and procure fresh provisions for his
family. I had found out by this time, that animal food was as
much a necessary of life in this exhausting climate as it is in the
North of Europe. An attempt which I made to live on vege-
table food was quite a failure, and I could not eat the execrable
salt-fish which Brazilians use. I had been many days without
meat of any kind, and nothing more was to be found near
Caripi, so I asked as a favour of Senhor Raimundo permission
to accompany him on one of his hunting trips, and shoot a little
game for my own use. He consented, and appointed a day on
which I was to come over to his house to sleep, so as to be
ready for starting with the. ebb-tide shortly after midnight.

The locality we were to visit was situated near the extreme
point of the land of Carnapijd, where it projects northwardly
into the middle of the Para estuary, and is broken into a num-
ber of islands. On the afternoon of January nth, 1849,1
walked through the w^oods to Raimundo's house, taking nothing
with me but a double-barrelled gun, a supply of ammunition,
and a box for the reception of any insects I might capture.
Raimundo was a carpenter, and seemed to be a very industrious
man ; he had two apprentices, Indians like himself — one a
young lad, and the other apparently about twenty years of age.
His wife was of the same race. The Indian women are not
always of a taciturn disposition like their husbands, ^enhora

CHAP. V. AN INDIAN FAMILY. 103

Dominga was very talkative ; there was another old squaw at
the house on a visit, and the tongues of the two were going at
a great rate the whole evening, using only the Tupi language.
Raimundo and his apprentices were employed building a
canoe. Notwithstanding his industry, he seemed to be very
poor, and this was the condition of most of the residents on
the banks of the Murucupi. They have, nevertheless, con-
siderable plantations of mandioca and Indian corn, besides
small plots of cotton, coffee, and sugarcane; the soil is very
fertile ; they have no rent to pay, and no direct taxes. There
is, moreover, always a market in Para, twenty miles distant,
for their surplus produce, and a ready communication with it
by water.

In the evening we had more visitors. The sounds of pipe
and tabor were heard, and presently a procession of villagers
emerged from a pathway through the mandioca fields. They
were on a begging expedition for St. Thome, the patron saint
of Indians and Mamelucos. One carried a banner, on which
was rudely painted the figure of St. Thome with a glory round
his head. The pipe and tabor were of the simplest description.
The pipe was a reed pierced with four holes, by means of which
a few unmusical notes were produced, and the tabor was a
broad hoop with a skin stretched over each end. A deformed
young man played both the instruments. Senhor Raimundo
received them with the quiet politeness which comes so
natural to the Indian when occupying the position of host.
The visitors, who had come from the Villa de Conde', five miles
through the forest, were invited to rest. Raimundo then took
the image of St. Thome from one of the party, and placed it by
the side of Nossa Senhora in his own oratorio, a little decorated
box in which every family keeps its household gods, finally
lighting a couple of wax candles before it. Shortly afterwards
a cloth was laid on a mat, and all the guests were invited
to supper. The fare was very scanty ; a boiled fowl with rice,
a slice of roasted pirarucii, farinha, and bananas. Each one
partook very sparingly, some ot the young men contenting
themselves with a plateful of rice. One of the apprentices
stood behind with a bowl of water and a towel, with which
each guest washed his fingers and rinsed his mouth after the
meal. They stayed all night : the large open shed was filled
with hammocks, which were slung from pole to pole ; and
on retiring, Raimundo gave orders for their breakfast in the
morning.

104 CARIPI. CHAP. V.

Raimundo called me at two o'clock, when we embarked (he,
his older apprentice Joaquim, and myself) in a shady place
where it was so dark that I could see neither canoe nor water,
taking with us five dogs, AVe glided down a winding creek
where huge trunks of trees slanted across close overhead, and
presently emerged into the Murucupi. A few yards further on
we entered the broader channel of the Aititiiba. This we
crossed, and entered another narrow creek on the opposite side.
Here the ebb-tide was against us, and we had great difficulty in
making progress. After we had struggled against the powerful
current a distance of two miles, we came to a part where the
ebb-tide ran in the opposite direction, showing that we had
crossed the water-shed. The tide flows into this channel or
creek at both ends simultaneously, and meets in the middle,
although there is apparently no difference of level, and the
breadth of the water is the same. The tides are extremely
intricate throughout all the infinite channels and creeks which
intersect the lands of the Amazons delta. The moon now broke
forth and lighted up the trunks of colossal trees, the leaves of
monstrous Jupati palms which arched over the creek, and re-
vealed groups of arborescent arums standing like rows of
spectres on its banks. We had a glimpse now and then into
the black depths of the forest, w^here all was silent except the
shrill stridulation of wood-crickets. Now and then a sudden
plunge in the water ahead would startle us, caused by heavy
fruit or some nocturnal- animal dropping from the trees. The
two Indians here rested on their paddles, and allowed the canoe
to drift with the tide. A pleasant perfume came from the
forest, which Raimundo said proceeded from a cane-field. He
told me that all this land was owned by large proprietors at
Para, who had received grants from time to time from the
Government for political services. Raimundo was quite in a
talkative humour ; he related to me many incidents of the time
of the "Cabanagem," as the revolutionary days of 1835-6 are
popularly called. He said he had been much suspected him-
self of being a rebel, but declared that the suspicion was
unfounded. The only complaint he had to make against the
white man was, that he monopolised the land without having
any intention or prospect of cultivating it. He had been
turned out of one place where he had squatted and cleared a
large piece of forest. I beHeve the law of Brazil at this time
was that the new lands should become the property of those
who cleared and cultivated them, if their right was not disputed

CHAP. V. THE HUNTING-GROUND, 105

within a given term of years by some one who claimed the pro-
prietorship. This land-law has since been repealed, and a new
one adopted, founded on that of the United States. Raimundo
spoke of his race as the red-skins, " pelle vermelho ; '' they
meant well to the whites, and only begged to be let alone.
" God," he said, " had given room enough for us all." It was
pleasant to hear the shrewd good-natured fellow talk in this
strain. Our companion, Joaquim, had fallen asleep ; the night
air was cool, and the moonhght lit up the features of Raimundo,
revealing a more animated expression than is usually observable
in Indian countenances. I always noticed that Indians were
more cheerful on a voyage, especially in the cool hours of night
and morning, than when ashore. There is something in their
constitution of body which makes them feel excessively de-
l)ressed in the hot hours of the day, especially inside their
houses. Their skin is always hot to the touch. They certainly
do not endure the heat of their own climate so well as the
whites. The negroes are totally different in this respect ; the
heat of mid-day has very little effect on them, and they dislike
the cold nights on the river.

We arrived at our hunting-ground about half-past four. The
channel was here broader, and presented several ramifications.
It yet wanted an hour and a half to daybreak, so Raimundo
recommended me to have a nap. We both stretched ourselves
on the benches of the canoe and fell asleep, letting the boat
drift with the tide, which was now slack. I slept well, con-
sidering the hardness of our bed, and when I awoke, in the
middle of a dream about home-scenes, the day was beginning
to dawn. My clothes were quite wet with the dew. The birds
were astir, the cicadas had begun their music, and the Urania
Leilus, a strange and beautiful tailed and gilded moth, whose
habits are those of a butterfly, commenced to fly in flocks over
the tree-tops. Raimundo exclaimed, "Clareia o dia ! " — " The
day brightens ! " The change was rapid : the. sky in the east
assumed suddenly the loveHest azure colour, across which
streaks of thin white clouds were painted. It is at such
moments as this when one feels how beautiful our earth truly
is ! The channel on whose waters our little boat was floating
was about two hundred yards wide ; others branched oft' right
and left, surrounding the group of lonely islands which termi-
nate the land of Carnapijo. The forest on all sides formed a
lofty hedge without a break : below, it was fringed with man-
grove bushes, whose small foliage contrasted with the large

io6 C A R I F I. CHAP. V.

glossy leaves of the taller trees, or the feather and fan-shaped
fronds of palms.

Bemg now arrived at our destination, Raimundo turned up
his trousers and shirt-sleeves, took his long hunting- knife, and
leapt ashore with the dogs. He had to cut a gap in order to
enter the forest. We expected to find Pacas and Cutias ; and
the method adopted to secure them was this : at the present
early liDur they would be seen feeding on fallen fruits, but
would quickly, on hearing a noise, betake themselves to their
burrows : Raimundo w^as then to turn them out by means of the
dogs, and Joaquim and I w^ere to remain in the boat with our
guns, ready to shoot all that came to the edge of the stream —
the habits of both animals, when hard-pressed, being to take to
the water. We had not long to wait. The first arrival was a
Paca, a reddish, nearly tailless Rodent, spotted with white on
the sides, and intemiediate in size and appearance between a
hog and a hare. My first shot did not take effect ; the animal
dived into the water and did not reappear. A second was
brought down by my companion as it was rambling about,
under the mangrove bushes. A- Cutia next appeared : this is
also a Rodent, about one-third the size of the Paca : it swims,
but does not dive, and I was fortunate enough to shoot it. AVe
obtained in this way two more Pacas and another Cuti'a. All
the time the dogs were yelping in the forest. Shortly after-
wards Raimundo made his appearance, and told us to paddle
to the other side of the island. Arrived there, we landed and
prepared for breakfast. It was a pretty spot — a clean, white,
sandy beach beneath the shade of wide-spreading trees.
Joaquim made a fire. He first scraped fine shavings from the
midrib of a Bacaba palm-leaf; these he piled into a little heap
in a dry place, and then struck a light in his bamboo tinder-
box with a piece of an old file and a flint, the tinder being a
felt-like soft substance manufactured by ah ant (Polyrhachis
bispinosus). By gentle blowing the shavings ignited, dry
sticks were piled on them, and a good fire soon resulted. He
then singed and prepared the cutia, finishing by running a spit
through the body, and fixing one end in the ground in a slant-
ing position over the fire. We had brought with us a bag of
farinha and a cup containing a lemon, a dozen or two of fiery
red peppers, and a few spoonfuls of salt. We breakfasted
heartily when our cutia was roasted, and washed the meal down
wdth a calabash full of the pure water of the river.

After breakfast the dogs found another cutia, which was

CHAP. V. . A FOREST OF ARUMS. 107

hidden in its burrow two or three feet beneath the roots of a
large tree, and took Raimundo nearly an hour to disinter it.
Soon afterwards we left this place, crossed the channel, and,
paddling past two islands, obtained a glimpse of the broad river
between them, with a long sandy pit, on which stood several
scarlet ibises and snow-white egrets. One of the islands was
low and sandy, and half of it was covered with gigantic arum
trees, the often-mentioned Caladium arborescens, which pre-
sented a strange sight. Most people are acquainted with the
little Bridsh species, Arum maculatum, which grows in hedge-
bottoms, and many, doubtless, have admired the larger kinds
grown in hothouses ; they can therefore form some idea of a
forest of arums. On this islet the woody stems of the plants
near the bottom were 8 to 10 inches in diameter, and the trees
were 12 to 15 feet high ; all growing together in such a manner
that there was just room for a man to walk freely between them.
There was a canoe inshore, with a man and a woman : the
man, who was hooting with all his might, told us in passing
that his son was lost in the "aningal'^ (arum-grove). He had
strayed whilst walking ashore, and the father had now been an
hour waiting for him in vain.

About one o'clock we again stopped at the mouth of a little
creek. It was now intensely hot. Raimundo said deer were
found here ; so he borrowed my gun, as being a more effective
weapon than the wretched arms called Lazarinos, which he, in
common with all the native hunters, used, and which sell at
Para for seven or eight shillings apiece. Raimundo and
Joaquim now stripped themselves quite naked, and started off
in different directions through the forest, going naked in order
to move with less noise over the carpet of dead leaves, amongst
which they stepped so stealthily that not the slightest rustle
could be heard. The dogs remained in the canoe, in the neigh-
bourhood of which I employed myself two hours entomologising.
At the end of that time my two companions returned, having
met with no game whatever.

We now embarked on our return voyage. Raimundo cut two
slender poles, one for a mast and the other for a sprit : to these
he rigged a sail we had brought in the boat, for we were to
return by the open river, and expected a good wind to carry us
to Caripi. As sogn as we got out of the channel we began to
feel the wind — the sea-breeze, which here makes a clean sweep
from the Atlantic. Our boat was very small and heavily laden ;
and when, after rounding a point, I saw the great breadth we

io8 CA R I P I . CHAP. V.

had to traverse (seven miles), I thought the attempt to cross in
such a shght vessel foolhardy in the extreme. The waves ran
very high : there was no rudder ; Raimundo steered with a
paddle, and all we had to rely upon to save us from falling into
the trough of the sea and being instantly swamped were his
nerve and skill. There was just room in the boat for our three
selves, the dogs, and the game we had killed ; and when between
the swelling ridges of waves in so frail a shell, our destruction
seemed inevitable ; as it was, we shipped a little water now and
then. Joaquim assisted with his paddle to steady the boat : my
time was fully occupied in baling out the water and watching
the dogs, which were crowded together in the prow, yelling with
fear ; one or other of them occasionally falHng over the side and
causing great commotion in scrambling in again. Off the point
was a ridge of rocks, over which the surge raged furiously.
Raimundo sat at the stern, rigid and silent ; his eye steadily
watching the prow of the boat. It was almost worth the risk
and discomfort of the passage to witness the seamanlike ability
displayed by Indians on the water. The little boat rode beauti-
fully, rising well with each wave, and in the course of an hour
and a half we arrived at Caripi, thoroughly tired and wet
through to the skin.

On the 1 6th of January the dry season came abruptly to an
end. The sea-breezes, which had been increasing in force for
some days, suddenly ceased, and the atmosphere became misty ;
at length heavy clouds collected where a uniform blue sky had
for many weeks prevailed, and down came a succession of heavy
showers, the first of which lasted a whole day and night. This
seemed to give a new stimulus to animal life. On the first
night there was a tremendous uproar — tree-frogs, crickets, goat-
suckers, and owls all joining to perform a deafening concert.
One kind of goat-sucker kept repeating at intervals throughout
the night a phrase similar to the Portuguese words, " Joao
corta pao," — "John, cut wood;" a phrase which forms the
Brazilian name of the bird. An owl in one of the Genipapa
trees muttered now and then a succession of syllables resembling
the word " Murucututii. " Sometimes the croaking and hooting
of frogs and toads were so loud that we could not hear one
another's voices within doors. Swarms of dragonflies appeared
in the daytime about the pools of water created by the rain, and
ants and termites came forth in the winged state in vast num-
bers. I noticed that the winged termites, or white ants, which
came by hundreds to the lamps at night, when alighting on the

CHAP. V.

WHITE ANTS-

109

table, often jerked off their wings by a voluntary movement.
On examination I found that the wings were not shed by the
roots, for a small portion of the stumps remained attached to
the thorax. The edge of the fracture was in all cases straight,
not ruptured : there is, in fact, a natural seam crossing the
member towards its root, and at this point the long wing natu-
rally drops or is jerked off when the insect has no further use
for it. The white ant is endowed with wings simply for the
purpose of flying away from the colony, peopled by its wingless
companions, to pair with individuals of the same or other

Soldiers of different species of White Ants. — 9, Ordinary shape of
worker. — 10. Winded class.

colonies, and thus propagate and disseminate its kind. The
winged individuals are males and females, whilst the great bulk
of their wingless fraternity are of no sex, but are of two castes,
soldiers and workers, which are restricted to the functions of
building the nests, nursing and defending the young brood.
The two sexes mate whilst on the ground after the wings are
shed ; and then the married couples, if they escape the nume-
rous enemies which lie in wait for them, proceed to the task of
founding new colonies. Ants and white ants have much that
is analogous in their modes of life : they belong, however, to

110 C A R I P I . CHAP. V.

two widely different orders of insects, strongly contrasted in
their structure and manner of growth.'

I amassed at Caripi a very large collection of beautiful and
curious insects, amounting altogether to about twelve hundred
species. The number of Coleoptera was remarkable, seeing
that this order is so poorly represented near Para. I attributed
their abundance to the number of new clearings made in the
virgin forest by the native settlers. The felled timber attracts
lignivorous insects, and these draw in their train the predaceous
species of various families. As a general rule the species were
smaller and much less brilliant in colours than those of Mexico
and South Brazil. The species too, although numerous, were
not represented by great numbers of individuals ; they were
also extremely nimble, and therefore much less easy of capture
than insects of the same order in temperate climates. The
carnivorous beetles at Caripi were, like those of Para, chiefly
arboreal. Most of them exhibited a beautiful contrivance for
enabling them to cling to and run over smooth or flexible sur-
faces, such as leaves. Their tarsi or feet are broad, and fur-
nished beneath with a brush of short stiff hairs ; whilst their
claws are toothed in the form of a comb, adapting them for
clinging to the smooth edges of leaves, the joint of the foot
which precedes the claw being cleft so as to allow free play to
the claw in grasping. The common dung-beetles at Caripi,
which flew about in the evening like the Geotrupes, the familiar
" shardborne beetle with his drowsy hum '^ of our English lanes,
were of colossal size and beautiful colours. One kind had a
long spear-shaped horn projecting from the crown of its -head
(Phanseus lancifer). A blow from this fellow, as he came
heavily flying along, was never very pleasant. All the tribes of
beetles which feed on vegetable substances, fresh or decayed,
were very numerous. The most beautiful of these, but not the
most common, were the Longicornes; very graceful insects,
having slender bodies and long antennae, often ornamented
with fringes and tufts of hair. They were found on flowers,
on trunks of trees, or flying about the new clearings. One small
species (Coremia hirtipes) has a tuft of hair on its hind legs,
whilst many of its sister species have a similar ornament on the
antennae. It suggests curious reflections when we see an orna-
ment like the feather of a grenadier's cap situated on one part
of the body in one species, and in a totally different part in
nearly allied ones. I tried in vain to discover the use of these
curious brush-like decorations. On the trunk of a living

CHAP. V. ADIEU TO CARIPI. in

leguminous tree, Petzell found a number of a very rare and
handsome species, the Platysternus hebraeus, which is of a
broad shape, coloured ochreous, but spotted and striped with
black, so as to resemble a domino. On the felled trunks of
trees, swarms of gilded-green Longicornes occurred, of small
size (Chiysoprasis), which looked like miniature musk-beetles,
and, indeed, are closely allied to those well-known European
insects.

At length, on the 12 th of February, I left Caripi, my negro
and Indian neighbours bidding me a warm "adeos.'' I had
passed a delightful time, notwithstanding the many privations
undergone in the way of food. The wet season had now set
in ; the lowlands and islands would soon become flooded daily
at high water, and the difficulty of obtaining fresh provisions
would increase. I intended, therefore, to spend the next three
months at Para, in the neighbourhood of which there was still
much to be done in the intervals of fine weather, and ther*
start off on another excursion into the interior.

CHAPTER VI.

THE LOWER AMAZONS— PARA TO OBYDOS.

IModes of Ti-avelling on the Amazons — Preparations for Voyage — Life on
board a large Trading-vessel — The narrow Channels joining the Para
to the Amazons — First sight of the Great River — Gurupa — The Great
Shoal — Flat-topped Mountains — Santarem — Obydos.

At the time of my first voyage up the Amazons — namely, in
1849 — nearly all communication with the interior was by
means of small sailing-vessels, owned by traders residing in the
remote towns and villages, who seldom came to Para them-
selves, but entrusted vessels and cargoes to the care of half-
breeds or Portuguese cabos. Sometimes, indeed, they risked
all in the hands of the Indian crew, making the pilot, who was
also steersman, do duty as supercargo. Now and then, Portu-
guese and Brazilian merchants at Para furnished young Portu-
guese with merchandise, and despatched them to the interior, to
exchange the goods for produce among the scattered population.
The means of communication, in fact, with the upper parts of
the Amazons had been on the decrease for some time, on
account of the augmented difficulty of obtaining hands to navi-
gate vessels. Formerly, when the Government wished to send
any important functionary, such as a judge or a military com-
mandant, into the interior, they equipped a swift-sailing gal-
liota, manned with ten or a dozen Indians. These could travel,
on the average, in one day farther than the ordinary sailing
craft could in three. Indian paddlers were now, however,
almost impossible to be obtained, and Government officers were
obliged to travel as passengers in trading-vessels. The voyage
made in this way was tedious in the extreme. When the regular
east-wind blew — the " vento geral," or trade-wind of the Ama-
zons— sailing-vessels could get along very well ; but when this
failed they were obliged to remain, sometimes many days

CHAP VI. OUR CREW. 113

together, anchored near the shore, or progress loborlously by
means of the "espia/' The latter mode of traveUing was as
follows. The montaria, with twenty or thirty fathoms of cable,
one end of which was attached to the foremast, was sent ahead
with a couple of hands, who secured the other end of the rope
to some strong bough or tree-trunk ; the crew then hauled the
vessel up to the point, after which the men in the boat re-em-
barked the cable, and paddled forwards to repeat the process.
In the dry season, from August to December, when the trade-
wind is strong and the currents slack, a schooner could reach
the mouth of the Rio Negro, a thousand miles from Para, in
about forty days ; but in the wet season, from January to July,
when the east-wind no longer blows, and the Amazons pours
forth its full volume of water, flooding the banks and producing
a tearing current, it took three months to travel the same dis-
tance. It was a great blessing to the inhabitants when, in
1853, a line of steamers was established, and this same journey
could be accomplished with ease and comfort, at all seasons, in
eight days !

Whilst preparing for my voyage it happened, fortunately,
that the half-brother of Dr. Angelo Custodio, a young mestizo,
named Joa5 da Cunha Correia, was about starting for the
Amazons on a trading expedition in his own vessel, a schooner
of about forty tons' burthen. A passage for me was soon
arranged with him through the intervention of Dr. Angelo, and
we started on the 5th of September, 1849. I intended to stop
at some village on the northern shore of the Lower Amazons,
where it would be interesting to make collections, in order to
show the relations of the fauna to those of Para and the coast
resjion of Guiana. As I should have to hire a house or hut
wherever I stayed, I took all the materials for housekeeping —
cooking utensils, crockery, and so forth. To these were added
a stock of such provisions as it would be difficult to obtain in
the interior; also ammunition, chests, store-boxes, a small
library of natural history books, and a hundredweight of
copper money. I engaged, after some trouble, a Mameluco
youth to accompany me as servant — a short, fat, yellow-faced
boy named Luco, whom I had already employed at Para in
collecting. We weighed anchor at night, and, on the following
day, found ourselves gliding along the dark-brown waters of
the Moju.

Joao da Cunha, like most of his fellows-countrymen, took

S

1 14 THE L O WE R A MA ZONS. chap. vi.

matters very easily. He was going to be absent in the interior
several years, and therefore intended to diverge from his route
to visit his native place, Cameta, and spend a few days with
his friends. It seemed not to matter to him that he had a
cargo of merchandise, vessel, and crew of twelve persons, which
required an economical use of time; "pleasure first and busi-
ness afterwards " appeared to be his maxim. We stayed at
Cameta twelve days. The chief motive for prolonging the stay
to this extent was a festival at the Aldeia, two miles below
Cameta, which was to commence on the 21st, and which my
friend wished to take part in. On the day of the festival the
schooner was sent down to anchor off the Aldeia, and master
and men gave themselves up to revelry. In the evening a
strong breeze sprang up, and orders were given to embark.
We scrambled down in the dark through the thickets of cacao,
orange, and coffee trees which clothed the high bank, and,
after running great risk of being swamped by the heavy sea in
the crowded montaria, got all aboard by nine o'clock. We
made all sail amidst the "adeos" shouted to us by Indian and
mulatto sweethearts from the top of the bank, and, tide and
wind being favourable, were soon miles away.

Our crew consisted, as already mentioned, of twelve persons.
One was a young Portuguese from the province of Traz os
Montes, a pretty sample of the kind of emigrants which Portugal
sends to Brazil. He was two or three and twenty years of age,
and had been about two years in the country, dressing and
living like the Indians, to whom he was certainly inferior in
manners. He could not read or write, whereas one at least
of our Tapuyos had both accomplishments. He had a little
wooden image of Nossa Senhora in his rough wooden clothes-
chest, and to this he always had recourse when any squall arose,
or when we got aground on a shoal. Another of our sailors
was a tawny white of Cameta ; the rest were Indians, except
the cook, who was a Cafuzo, or half-bred between the Indian
and negro. It is often said that this class of mestizos is the
most evilly disposed of all the numerous crosses between the
races inhabiting Brazil; but Luiz was a simple, good-hearted
fellow, always ready to do one a service. The pilot was an old
Tapuyo of Para, with regular oval face and well-shaped features.
I was astonished at his endurance. He never quitted the helm
night or day, except for two or three hours in the morning.
The other Indians used to bring him his coffee and meals, and
after breakfast one of them relieved him for a time, when he

CHAP. VI. THE PASSAGE COMMENCED, 115

used to lie down on the quarterdeck and get his two hours'
nap. The Indians forward had things pretty much their own
way. No system of watches was followed ; when any one was
so disposed, he lay down on the deck and went to sleep ; but
a feeling of good fellowship seemed always to exist amongst
them. One of them was a fine specimen of the Indian race : a
man very little short of six feet high, with remarkable breadth
of shoulder and full muscular chest. His comrades called
him the commandant, on account of his having been one of the
rebel leaders when the Indians and others took Santarem in
1S35. They related of him that, when the legal authorities
arrived with an armed flotilla to recapture the town, he was one
of the last to quit, remaining in the little fortress which com-
mands the place to make a show of loading the guns, although
the ammunition had given out long ago. Such were our travel-
ling companions. We lived almost the same as on board ship.
Our meals were cooked in the galley ; but, where practicable,
and during our numerous stoppages, the men went in the
montaria to fish near the shore, so that our breakfasts and dinners
of salt pirarecu were sometimes varied with fresh food.

September 2\th. — We passed Entre-as-Ilhas with the morning
tide yesterday, and then made across to the eastern shore — the
starting-point for all canoes which have to traverse the broad
mouth of the Tocantins, going west. Early this morning we
commenced the passage. The navigation is attended with
danger, on account of the extensive shoals in the middle of the
river, which are covered only by a small depth of water at this
season of the year. The wind was fresh, and the schooner rolled
and pitched like a ship at sea. The distance was about
fifteen miles. In the middle, the river-view was very imposing.
Towards the north-east there was a long sweep of horizon clear
of land, and on the south-west stretched a similar boundless
expanse, but varied with islets clothed with fan-leaved palms,
which, however, were visible only as isolated groups of columns,
tufted at the top, rising here and there amidst the waste of
waters. In the afternoon we rounded the westernmost point ;
the land, which is not terra firma, but simply a group of large
islands forming a portion of the Tocantins delta, was then about
three miles distant.

On the following day (25th) we sailed towards the west,
along the upper portion of the Para estuary, which extefids
seventy miles beyond the mouth of the Tocantins. It varies
in width from three to five miles, but broadens rapidly near its

ii6 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vi.

termination, where it is eight or nine miles wide. The northern
shore is formed by the island of Marajo, and is slightly elevated
and rocky in some parts. A series of islands conceals the
southern shore from view most part of the way. The whole
country, mainland and islands, is covered with forest. We had
a good wind all day, and about 7 p.m. entered the nan'ow river
of Breves, which commences abruptly the extensive labyrinth
of channels that connects the Para with the Amazons. The
sudden termination of the Para, at a point where it expands to
so great a breadth, is remarkable ; the water, however, is very
shallow over the greater portion of the expanse. I noticed,
both on this and on the three subsequent occasions of passing
this place, in ascending and descending the river, that the flow
of the tide from the east along the estuary, as well as up the
Breves, w^as very strong. This seems sufficient to prove that
no considerable volume of water passes by this medium from'
the Amazons to the Para, and that the opinion of those geo-
graphers is an incorrect one, who believe the Para to be one of
the mouths of the great river. There is, however, another
channel connecting the two rivers, which enters the Para six
miles to the south of the Breves. The lower part of its course
for eighteen miles is formed by the Uanapii, a large and inde-
pendent river flowing from the south. The tidal flow is said
by the natives to produce little or no current up this river — a
fact which seems to afford a little support to the view just
stated.

We "passed the village of Breves at 3 p.m. on the 26th. It
consists of about forty houses, most of which are occupied by
Portuguese shopkeepers. A few Indian families reside here,
who occupy themselves with the manufacture of ornamental
pottery and painted cuyas, which they sell to traders or passing
travellers. The cuyas — drinking cups made from gourds — are
sometimes very tastefully painted. The rich black ground-
colour is produced by a dye made from the bark of a tree
called Comateii, the gummy nature of which imparts a fine
polish. The yellow tints are made with the Tabatinga clay ;
the red with the seeds of the Urucii, or anatto plant ; and -the
blue with indigo, which is planted round the huts. The art is
indigenous with the Amazonian Indians, but it is only the
settled agricultural tribes belonging to the Tupi stock who
practise it.

September 2 7^/^-3 o//^. — After passing Breves we continued oui
way slowly along a channel, or series of channels, of variable

CHAP. VI. ROMANTIC CHANNELS. 117

width. On the morning of the 27th we had a fair wind, the
breadth of the stream varying from about 150 to 400 yards.
About midday we passed, on the western side, the mouth of the
Aturiazal, through which, on account of its swifter current,
vessels pass in descending from the Amazons to Para. . Shortly
afterwards we entered the narrow channel of the Jaburii, which
lies twenty miles above the mouth of the Breves. Here com-
mences the peculiar scenery of this remarkable region. We
found ourselves in a narrow and nearly straight canal, not more
than eighty to a hundred yards in width, and hemmed in by
two walls of forest, which rose quite perpendicularly from the
water to a height of seventy or eighty feet. The water was of
great and uniform depth, even close to the banks. We seemed
to be in a deep gorge, and the strange impression the place pro-
duced was augmented by the dull echoes wakened by the voices
of our Indians and the splash of their paddles. The forest was
excessively varied. Some of the trees, the dome-topped giants
of the Leguminous and Bombaceous orders, reared their heads
far above the average height of the green walls. The fan-leaved
Miriti palm was scattered in some numbers amidst the rest, a
few solitary specimens shooting up their smooth columns above
the other trees. The graceful Assai palm grew in little groups,
forming feathery pictures set in the rounder foliage of the mass.
The Ubussu, lower in height, showed only its shuttlecock-
shaped crowns of huge undivided fronds, which, being of a
vivid pale-green, contrasted forcibly against the sombre hues of
the surrounding foHage. The Ubussu grew here in great num-
bers ; the equally remarkable Jupati palm (Rhaphia tsedigera),
which, like the Ubussu, is peculiar to this district, occurred
more sparsely, throwing its long shaggy leaves, forty to fifty
feet in length, in broad arches over the canal. An infinite
diversity of smaller-sized palms decorated the water's edge, such
as the Maraja-i (Bactris, many species), the Ubim (Geonoma),
and a few stately Bacabas (CEnocarpus bacaba). The shape of
this last is exceedingly elegant, the size of the crown being in
proper proportion to the straight smooth stem. The leaves,
down even to the bases of the glossy petioles, are of a rich
dark-green colour, and free from spines. " The forest wall " —
1 am extracting from my journal — " under which we are now
moving, consists, besides palms, of a great variety of ordinary
forest-trees. From the highest branches of these down to the
water sweep ribbons of climbing plants, of the most diverse and
ornamental foliage possible. Creeping convolvuli and others

li8 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vi.

have made use of the slender hanas and hanging air-roots as
ladders to climb by. Now and then appears a Mimosa or other
tree having similar fine pinnate foliage, and thick masses of
Inga border the water, from whose branches hang long bean-
pods, of diffeient shape and size, according to the species, some
of them a yard in length. Flowers there are very few. I see,
now and then, a gorgeous crimson blossom on long spikes orna-
menting the sombre foliage towards the summits of the forest.
I suppose it to belong to a climber of the Combretaceous order.
There are also a few yellow and violet Trumpet-flowers
(Bignoniae). The blossoms of the Ingas, although not con-
spicuous, are delicately beautiful. The forest all along offers'
so dense a front that one never obtains a glimpse into the
interior of the wilderness."

The length of the Jaburii channel is about 35 miles, allowing
for the numerous abrupt bends which occur between the middle
and the northern end of its course. We were three days and a
half accomplishing the passage. The banks on each side seemed
to be composed of hard river-mud, with a thick covering of
vegetable mould, so that I should imagine this whole district
originated in a gradual accumulation of alluvium, through
which the endless labyrinths of channels have worked their deep
and narrow beds. The flood-tide as we travelled northward
became gradually of less assistance to us, as it caused only a
feeble current upwards. The pressure of the waters from the
Amazons here makes itself felt : as this is not the case lower
down, I suppose the currents are diverted through some of the
numerous channels which we passed on our right, and which
traverse, in their course towards the sea, the north-western
part of Marajd. In the evening of the 29th we arrived at a
point where another channel joins the Jabuni from the north-
east. Up this the tide was flowing ; we turned westward, and
thus met the flood coming from the Amazons. This point is
the object of a strange superstitious observance on the part of
the canoemen. It is said to be haunted by a Paje, or Indian
wizard, whom it is necessary to propitiate, by depositing some
article on the spot, if the voyager wishes to secure a safe return
Irom the " sertao," as the interior of the country is called. The
trees were all hung with rags, shirts, straw hats, bunches of
fruit, and so forth. Although the superstition doubtless origi-
nated with the aborigines, yet I observed, in both my voyages,
that it was only the Portuguese and uneducated Brazilians who
deposited anything. The pure Indians gave nothing, and

CHAP. VI. THE AN AC A. 119

treated the whole affair as a humbug ; but they were all
civilised Tapuyos.

On the 30th, at 9 p.m., we reached a broad channel called
Macaco, and now left the dark, echoing Jabuni. The Macaco
sends off branches towards the north-west coast of Marajo. It
is merely a passage amongst a cluster of islands, between
which a glimpse is occasionally obtained of the broad waters of
the main Amazons. A brisk wind carried us rapidly past its
monotonous scenery, and early in the morning of the ist of
October we reached the entrance of the Uituquara, or the
Wind-hole, which is 15 miles distant from the end of the
Jaburu. This is also a winding channel, 35 miles in length,
threading a group of islands, but it is much narrower than the
Macaco.

On emerging from the Uituquara on the 2nd, we all went
ashore — the men to fish in a small creek ; Joao da Cunha and
I to shoot birds. We saw a flock of scarlet and blue macaws
(Macrocercus macao) feeding on the fruits of a bacaba palm,
and looking like a cluster of flaunting banners beneath its
dark-green crown. We landed about fifty yards from the
place, and crept cautiously through the forest, but before we
reached them they flew off with loud harsh screams. At a
wild-fruit tree we were more successful, as my companion shot
an anaca (Derotypus coronatus), one of the most beautiful of
the parrot family. It is of a green colour, and has a hood of
feathers, red bordered with blue, at the back of its head, which
it can elevate or depress at pleasure. The anaca is the only
new-world parrot which nearly resembles the cockatoo of
Australia. It is found in all the lowlands throughout the
Amazons region, but is not a common bird anywhere. Few
persons succeed in taming it, and I never saw one that had
been taught to speak. The natives are very fond of the bird
nevertheless, and keep it in their houses for the sake of seeing
the irascible creature expand its beautiful frill of feathers,
which it readily does when excited. The men returned with a
large quantity of fish. I was surprised at the great variety of
species ; the prevailing kind was a species of Loricaria, a foot
in length, and wholly encased in bony armour. It abounds
at certain seasons in shallow water. The flesh is dry, but very
palatable. They brought also a small alligator, which they
called Jacare cunia, and said it was a kind found only in
shallow creeks. It was not more than two feet in length,
although full-grown, according to the statement of the Indians,

I20

THE LOWER AMAZ-ONS.

CHAP. VI.

who said it was a " mai d'ovos," or mother of eggs, as they had
pillaged the nest, which they had found near the edge of the
water. The eggs were rather larger than a hen's, and regularly
oval in shape, presenting a rough hard surface of shell. Unfor-
tunately, the alligator was cut up ready for cooking when we
returned to the schooner, and I could not therefore make a
note of its peculiarities. The pieces were skewered and roasted
over the fire, each man being his ow^n cook. I never saw this
species of alligator afterwards.

Acari Fish (Loricaria duodecimalis).

October T,rd. — About midnight the wind, for which we had
long been waiting, sprang up, the men weighed anchor, and we
were soon fairly embarked on the Amazons. I rose long before
sunrise, to see the great river by moonlight. There was a
spanking breeze, and the vessel was bounding gaily over the
waters. The channel along which we were sailing was only a
narrow arm of the river, about two miles in wadth : the total
breadth at this point is more than 20 miles, but the stream is
divided into three parts by a series of large islands. The river,
notwithstanding this limitation of its breadth, had a most
majestic appearance. It did not present that lake-like aspect
which the waters of the Para and Tocantins affect, but had all
the swing, so to speak, of a vast flowing stream. The ochre-
coloured turbid waters offered also a great contrast to the
rivers belonging to the Para system. 1 he channel formed a
splendid reach, sweeping from south-west to north-east, with an
horizon of water and sky both up stream and down. At 1 1

CHAP. VI. FLAT-TOPPED HILLS. 123

a.m. we arrived at Gurupa, a small village situated on a rocky
bank 30 or 40 feet high. Here we landed, and I had an oppor-
tunity of rambling in the neighbouring woods, which are in-
tersected by numerous pathways, carpeted with Lycopodia
growing to a height of 8 or 10 inches, and enlivened by num-
bers of glossy blue butterflies of the Theclidas or hair-streak
family. At 5 p.m. we were again under weigh. Soon after sun-
set, as we were crossing the mouth of the Xingii, the first of
the great tributaries of the Amazons, 1200 miles in length, a
black cloud arose suddenly in the north-east. Joao da Cunha
ordered all sails to be taken in, and immediately afterwards a
furious squall burst forth, tearing the waters into foam, and
producing a frightful uproar in the neighbouring forests. A
drenching rain followed : but in half an hour all was again
calm, and the full moon appeared sailing in a cloudless sky.

From the mouth of the Xingii the route followed by vessels
leads straight across the river, here 10 miles broad. Towards
midnight the wind failed us, when we were close to a large
shoal called the Baixo Grande. We lay here becalmed in the
sickening heat for two days, and when the trade- wind recom-
menced with the rising moon at 10 p.m. on the 6th, we found
ourselves on a lee-shore. Notwithstanding all the efforts of our
pilot to avoid it, we ran aground. Fortunately the bottom con-
sisted only of soft mud, so that by casting anchor to windward,
and hauling in with the whole strength of crew and passengers,
we got off after spending an uncomfortable night. We rounded
the point of the shoal in two fathoms' water ; the head of the
vessel was then put westward, and by sunrise we were bounding
forward before a steady breeze, all sail set and everybody in
good humour.

The weather was now delightful for several days in succes-
sion, the air transparently clear, and the breeze cool and
invigorating. At daylight, on the 6th, a chain of blue hills,
the Serra de Almeyrim, appeared in the distance, on the north
bank of the river. The sight was most exhilarating after so
long a sojourn in a flat country. We kept to the southern
shore, passing in the course of the day the mouths of the Uru-
curicaya and the Aquiqui, two channels which communicate
with the Xingii. The whole of this southern coast hence to
near Santarem, a distance of 130 miles, is lowland and quite
uninhabited. It is intersected by short arms or back waters of
the Amazons, which are called in the Tupi language Parana-
mirims, or little rivers. By keeping to these, small canoes can

124 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vi.

travel great part of the distance without being much exposed to
the heavy seas of the main river. I'he coast throughout has a
most desolate aspect : the forest is not so varied as on the higher
land ; and the water-frontage, which is destitute of the green
mantle of climbing plants that form so rich a decoration in
other parts, is encumbered at every step with piles of fallen
trees, peopled by white egrets, ghostly storks, and solitary
herons. In the evening we passed Almeyrim. The hills,
according to Von Martins, who landed here, are about 800 feet
above the level of the river, and are thickly wooded to the sum-
mit. They commence on the east by a few low, isolated, and
rounded elevations ; but towards the west of the village they
assume the appearance of elongated ridges, which seem as if they
had been planed down to a uniform height by some external
force. The next day we passed in succession a series of similar
flat-topped hills, some isolated and of a truncated-pyramidal
shape, others prolonged to a length of several miles. There is
an interval of low country between these and the Almeyrim
range, which has a total length of about 25 miles : then com-
mences abruptly the Serra de Marauqua, which is succeeded
in a similar way by the Velha Pobre range, the Serras de
Tapaiuna-quara, and Paraua-quara, All these form a striking
contrast to the Serra de Almeyrim, in being quite destitute of
trees. They have steep rugged sides, apparently clothed with
short herbage, but here and there exposing bare white patches.
Their total length is about 40 miles. In the rear, towards
the interior, they are succeeded by other ranges of hills, com-
municating with the central mountain-chain of Guiana, which
divides Brazil from Cayenne.

As we sailed along the southern shore, during the 6th and
two following days, the table-topped hills on the opposite side
occupied most of our attention. The river is from four to
five miles broad, and in some places long, low, wooded islands
Intervene in mid-stream, whose light-green vivid verdure
formed a strangely beautiful foreground to the glorious land-
scape of broad stream and grey mountain. Ninety miles
Deyond Almeyrim stands the village of Monte Alegre, which
is built near the summit of the last hill visible of this chain.
At this point the river bends a little towards the south, and
the hilly country recedes from its shores to re-appear at
Obydos, greatly decreased in height, about a hundred miles
further west.

We crossed the river three times between Monte Alegre and

CHAP. Yi. RIVER TAPAJOS. 125

the next tOAvn, Santarem. In the middle the waves ran very-
high, and the vessel lurched fearfully, hurling everything that
was not well secured from one side of the deck to the other.
On the morning of the 9th of October, a gentle wind carried us
along a " remanso," or still water, under the southern shore.
These tracts of quiet water are frequent on the irregular sides
of the stream, and are the effect of counter movements caused
by the rapid current of its central parts. At 9 a.m. we passed
the mouth of a Parana-mirim, called Mahica, and then found
1 sudden change in the colour of the water and aspect of the
banks. Instead of the low and swampy water-frontage which
had prevailed from the mouth of the Xingii, we saw before us
a. broad sloping beach of white sand. The forest, instead of
being an entangled mass of irregular and rank vegetation as
hitherto, presented a rounded outline, and created an impres-
sion of repose that was very pleasing. We now approached, in
fact, the mouth of the Tapajos, whose clear olive-green waters
here replaced the muddy current against which we had so long
been sailing. Although this is a river of great extent — 1,000
miles in length, and, for the last eighty miles of its course, four
to ten in breadth — its contribution to the Amazons is not per-
ceptible in the middle of the stream. The white turbid current
of the main river flows disdainfully by, occupying nearly the
whole breadth of the channel, whilst the darker water of its
tributary seems to creep along the shore, and is no longer dis-
tinguishable four or five miles from its mouth.

We reached Santarem at 1 1 a.m. The town has a clean and
cheerful appearance from the river. It consists of three long
streets, with a few short ones crossing them at right angles, and
contains about 2,500 inhabitants. It lies just within the mouth
of the Tapajos, and is divided into two parts, the town and the
aldeia or village. The houses of the white and trading classes
are substantially built, many being of two and three stories,
and all white-washed and tiled. The aldeia, which contains
the Indian portion of the population, or did so formerly,
consists mostly of mud huts, thatched with palm-leaves. The
situation of the town is very beautiful. The land, although
but slightly elevated, does not form, strictly speaking, a portion
of the alluvial river plains of the Amazons, but is rather a
northern prolongation of the Brazilian continental land. It is
scantily wooded, and toward the interior consists of undulating
campos, which are connected with a series of hills extending
southward as far as the eye can reach. I subsequently made

126 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vi.

this place my head-quarters for three years ; an account
of its neighbourhood is therefore reserved for another
chapter. At the first sight of Santarem, one cannot help
being struck with the advantages of its situation. Although
400 miles from the sea, it is accessible to vessels of heavy
tonnage coming straight from the Atlantic. The river has
only two slight bends between this port and the sea, and for
five or six months in the year the Amazonian trade wind
blows with very little interruption, so that sailing ships coming
from foreign countries could reach the place with. little diffi-
culty. We ourselves had accompHshed 200 miles, or about
hall the distance from the sea, in an ill-rigged vessel, in three
days and a half. Although the land in the immediate neigh-
bourhood is perhaps ill adapted for agriculture, an immense
tract of rich soil, with forest and meadow land, lies on the
opposite banks of the river, and the Tapajos leads into the
heart of the mining provinces of interior Brazil. But where is
the population to come from to develop the resources of this
fine country ? At present the district within a radius of twenty-
five miles contains barely 6,500 inhabitants; behind the town,
towards the interior, the country is uninhabited, and jaguars
roam nightly, at least in the rainy season, close up to the ends
of the surburban streets.

From information obtained here, I fixed upon the next town,
Obydos, as the best place to stay at a few weeks, in order to
investigate the natural productions of the north side of the
Lower Amazons. We started at sunrise on the loth, and being
still favoured by wind and weather, made a pleasant passage,
reaching Obydos, which is nearly fifty miles distant from
Santarem, by midnight. We sailed all day close to the southern
shore, and found the banks here and there dotted with houses
of settlers, each surrounded by its plantation of cacao, which
is the staple product of the district. This coast has an evil
reputation for storms and mosquitoes, but we fortunately escaped
both. It was remarkable that we had been troubled by mos-
quitoes only on one night, and then to a small degree, during
the whole of our voyage.

I landed at Obydos the next morning, and then bid adieu to
my kind friend Joao da Cunha, who, after landing my. baggage,
got up his anchor and continued on his way. The town con-
tains about 1,200 inhabitants, and is ^-irily situated on a high
bluff, 90 or 100 feet above the level of the river. The coast
is precipitous for two or three miles hence to the west. The

CHAP. VI. 0 B Y D 0 S. 127

cliffs consist of the parti-coloured clay, or Tabatinga, which
occurs so frequently throughout the Amazons region ; the strong
current of the river sets full against them in the season of high
water, and annually carries away large portions. The clay in
places is stratified alternately pink and yellow, the pink beds
being the thickest, and of much harder texture than the others.
When I descended the river in 1859, a German Major of Engi-
neers, in the employ of the Government, told me that he had
found calcareous layers, thickly studded with marine shells
interstratified with the clay. On the top of the Tabatinga lies
a bed of sand, in some places several feet thick, and the whole
formation rests on strata of sandstone, which are exposed only
when the river reaches its lowest level. Behind the town rises
a fine rounded hill, and a range of similar elevations extends
six miles westward, terminating at the mouth of the Trombetas,
a large river flowing through the interior of Gi^iana. Hills and
lowlands alike are covered with a sombre rolling forest. The
river here is contracted to a breadth of rather less than a mile
(1738 yards), and the entire volume of its waters, the collective
product of a score of mighty streams, is poured through the
strait with tremendous velocity. It must be remarked, however,
that the river valley itself is not contracted to this breadth, the
opposite shore not being continental land, but a low alluvial
tract, subject to inundation more or less in the rainy season.
Behind it lies an extensive lake, called the Lago Grande da
Ville Franca, which communicates with the Amazons, both
above and below Obydos, and has therefore the appearance of
a by-water or an old channel of the river. This lake is about
thirty-five miles in length, and from four to ten in width ; but
its waters are of little depth, and in the dry season its dimen-
sions are much lessened. It has no perceptible current, and
does not therefore now divert any portion of the waters of the
Amazons from their main course past Obydos.

I remaided at Obydos from the nth of October to the 19th
of November. I spent three weeks here, also, in 1859, when
the place was much changed, through the influx of Portuguese ,
immigrants and the building of a fortress on the top of the
bluff. It is one of the pleasantest towns on the river. The
louses are all roofed with tiles, and are mostly of substantial
architecture. Most of the Obydos townsfolk are owners of
cacao plantations, which are situated on the lowlands in the
vicinity. Some are large cattle proprietors, and possess estates
of many square leagues' extent in the campo, or grass-land

128 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vi.

districts, which border the Lago Grande and other similar
inland lakes, near the villages of Faro and Alemquer. These
campos bear a crop of nutritious grass ; but in certain seasons,
when the rising of the Amazons exceeds the average, they are
apt to be flooded, and then the large herds of half-wild cattle
suffer great mortality from drowning, hunger, and the aligators.
Neither in cattle-keeping nor cacao-growing are any but the
laziest and most primitive methods followed, and the con-
sequence is, that the proprietors are generally poor.

The forest at Obydos seemed to abound in monkeys, for I
rarely passed a day without seeing several. I noticed four
species : the Coaita (Ateles paniscus), the Chrysothrix sciureus,
the Callithrix torquatus, and our old Para friend, Midas ursulus.
The Coaita is a large black monkey, covered with coarse hair,
and having the prominent parts of the face of a tawny flesh-
coloured hue. It is the largest of the Amazonian monkeys in
stature, but is excelled in bulk by the " Barrigudo " (Lagothrix
Humboldtii) of the Upper Amazons. It occurs throughout
the lowlands of the I^ower and Upper Amazons ; but does not
range to the south beyond the limits of the river plains. At
that point an allied species, the White-whiskered Coaita (Ateles
marginatus) takes its place. The Coaitas are called by zoolo-
gists spider-monkeys, on account of the length and slenderness
of their body and limbs. In these apes the tail, as a prehensile
organ, reaches its highest degree of perfection ; and on this
account it would, perhaps, be correct to consider the Coaitas as
the extreme development of the American type of apes. As
far as we know, from living and fossil species, the New World
has progressed no farther than the Coaita, towards the produc-
tion of a higher form of the Quadrumanous order. The tendency
of Nature here has been, to all appearance, simply to perfect
those organs which adapt the species more and more com-
pletely to a purely arboreal life ; and no nearer approach has
been made towards the more advanced forms of- anthropoid
apes, which are the products of the Old World solely. The
flesh of this monkey is much esteemed by the natives in this part
of the country, and the Military Commandant of Obydos, Major
Gama, every week sent a negro hunter to shoot one for his
table. One day I went on a Coaita hunt, borrowing a negro
slave of a friend • to show me the way. When in the deepest
part of a ravine, we heard a rustling sound in the trees overhead,
and Manoel soon pointed out a Coaita to me. There was some-

CHAP. VI. A TAME MONKEY. 129

thing human -like in its appearance, as the lean, dark, shaggy
creature moved deUberately amongst the branches at a great
height. I fired, but unfortunately only wounded it in the belly.
It fell with a crash, headlong, about twenty or thirty feet', and then
caught a bough with its tail, which grasped it instantaneously, so
that the animal remained suspended in mid-air. Before I could
reload it recovered itself, and mounted nimbly to the topmost
branches, out of the reach of a fowling-piece, where we could
perceive the poor thing apparently probing the wound with its
fingers. Coaitas are more frequently kept in a tame state than
any other kind of monkey. The Indians are very fond of them
as pets, and the women often suckle them when young at their
breasts. They become attached to their masters, and will
sometimes follow them on the ground to considerable distances.
I once saw a most ridiculously tame Coaita. It was an old
female, which accompanied its owner, a trader on the river, in
all his voyages. By way of giving me a specimen of its intelli-
gence and feeling, its master set to and rated it soundly, calling
it scamp, heathen, thief, and so forth, all through the copious
Portuguese vocabulary of vituperation. The poor monkey,
quietly seated on the ground, seemed to be in sore trouble at
this display of anger. It began by looking earnestly at him,
then it whined, and lastly rocked its body to and fro with
emotion, crying piteously, and passing its long gaunt arms
continually over its forehead ; for this was its habit when
excited, and the front of the head was worn quite bald in con-
sequence. At length its master altered his tone. " It's all a
lie, my old woman ; you're an angel, a flower, a good affection-
ate old creature," and so forth. Immediately the poor monkey
ceased its wailing, and soon after came over to where the man
sat. The disposition of the Coaita is mild in the extreme : it
has none of the painful, restless vivacity of its kindred, the
Cebi, and no trace of the surly, untameable temper of its still
nearer relatives, the Mycetes, or howling monkeys. It is, how-
ever, an arrant thief, and shows considerable cunning in pilfer-
ing small articles of clothing, which it conceals in its sleeping
place. The natives of the Upper Amazons procure the Coaita,
when full grown, by shooting it with the blowpipe and poisor e i
darts, and restoring life by putting a little salt (the antidote to
the Urari poison with which the darts are tipped) in its mouth.
The animals thus caught become tame forthwith. Two females
were once kept at the Jardin des Plantes of Paris, and Geoffroy
St. Hilaire relates of them that they rarely quitted each other,

9

I30 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vi.

remaining most part of the time in close embrace, folding their
tails round one another's bodies. They took their meals to-
gether ; and it was remarked on such occasions, when the
friendship of animals is put to a hard test, that they never
quarrelled or disputed the possession of a favourite fruit with
each other.

The neighbourhood of Obydos was rich also in insects. In
the broad alleys of the forest a magnificent butterfly of the genus
Morpho, six to eight inches ni expanse, the Morpho Hecuba,

Heliconius Thelxiope.

Heliconius Melpomene.

was seen daily gliding along at a height of twenty feet or more-
from the ground. Amongst the lower trees and bushes nume-
rous kinds of Heliconii, a group of butterflies peculiar to tropi-

CHAP. VI. MIGRATIONS OF BUTTERFLIES. 131

cal America, having long narrow wings, were very abundant.
The prevaiHng ground colour of the wings of these insects is a
deep black, and on this are depicted spots and streaks of crim-
son, white, and bright yellow, in different patterns according to
the species. Their elegant shape, showy colours, and slow,
sailing mode of flight, make them very attractive objects, and
their numbers are so great that they form quite a feature in the
physiognomy of the forest, compensating for the scarcity of
flowers. Next to the HeHconii, the Catagrammas (C. astarte
and C. peristera) were the most conspicuous. These have a
very rapid and short flight, settling frequently and remaining
stationary for a long time on the trunks of trees. The colours
of their wings are vermilion and black, the surface having a rich
velvety 'appearance. The genus owes its Greek name Cata-
gramma (signifying " a letter beneath ") to the curious markings
of the underside of the wings, resembling Arabic numerals. The
species and varieties are of almost endless diversity, but the
majority inhabit the hot valleys of the eastern parts of the
Andes. Another butterfly nearly allied to these, Callithea
Leprieurii, was also very abundant here, at the marshy head of
the pool before mentioned. The wings are of a rich dark-blue
colour, with a broad border of silvery-green. These two group?
of Callithea and Catagramma are found only in tropical Ame-
rica, chiefly near the equator, and are certainly amongst the
most beautiful productions of a region where the animals and
plants seem to have been fashioned in nature's choicest moulds.
A great variety of other beautiful and curious insects adorned
these pleasant woods. Others were seen only in the sunshine
in open places. As the waters retreated from the beach, vast
numbers of sulphur-yellow and orange-coloured butterflies con-
gregated on the moist sand. The greater portion of -^hem
belonged to the genus Callidryas. They assembled in densely-
packed masses, sometimes two or three yards in circumference,
their wings all held in an upright position, so that the beach
looked as though variegated with beds of crocuses. These
('allidryades seem to be migratory insects, and have large
powers of dissemination. During the last two days of our
voyage the great numbers constantly passing over the river
attracted the attention of every one on board. They all crossed
in one direction, namely, from north to south, and the proces-
sions were uninterrupted, from an early hour in the morning
until sunset. All the individuals which resort to the margins
of sandy beaches are of the male sex. The females are much

1^2

THE L O WE R A MA Z O NS.

CHAP, VI.

more rare, and are seen only on the borders of the forest,
wandering from tree to tree, and depositing their eggs on low
mimosas which grow in the shade. The migrating hordes, as
far as I could ascertain, are composed only of males, and on
this account I believe their wanderings do not extend very far.
A strange kind of wood-cricket is found in this neighbour-
hood, the males of which produce, a very loud and not unmusical
noise by rubbing together the overlapping edges of their wing-
cases. The notes are certainly the loudest and most extra-
ordinary that I ever heard produced by an orthopterous insect.
The natives call it the Tanana, in allusion to its music, which is a

Musical Cricket (Chlorocoelns Tanana).
a. Ik Lobes of wing-cases transformed into a musical instrument.

sharp, resonant stridulation resembling the syllables ta-na-na,
ta-na-na, succeeding each other with little intermission. It
seems to be rare in the neighbourhood. When the natives cap-
ture one, they keep it in a wicker-work cage for the sake of
hearing it sing. A friend of mind kept one six days. It was

CHAP. VI. MUSICAL CRICKET. 133

lively only for two or three, and then its loud note could be
heard from one end of the village to the other. When it died,
he gave me the specimen, the only one I was able to procure.
It is a member of the family Locustidae, a group intermediate
between the Crickets (Achetidae) and the Grasshoppers (Acri-
diidfe). The total length of the body is two inches and a
(quarter; when the wings are closed, the insect has an inflated
vesicular or bladder-like shape, owing to the great convexity of
the thin, but firrn, parchmenty wing-cases, and the colour is
wholly pale-green. The instmment by which the Tanana
produces its music is curiously contrived out of the ordinary
nervures of the wing-cases. In each wing-case the inner edge,
near its origin, has a horny expansion or lobe; on one wing \b)
this lobe has sharp raised margins ; on the other {a\ the strong
nervure which traverses the lobe on the other side is crossed
by a number of fine sharp furrows like those of a file. When
the insect rapidly moves its wings, the file of the one lobe is
scraped sharply across the horny margin of the other, thus
producing the sounds ; the parchmenty wing-cases and the
hollow dnmi-like space which they enclose assisting to give
resonance to the tones. The projecting portions of both
wing-cases are traversed by a similar strong nervure, but this is
scored like a file only in one of them, in the other remaining
perfectly smooth. Other species of the family to which the
Tanana belongs have similar stridulating organs, but in none
are these so highly developed as in this insect ; they exist
always in the males only, the other sex having the edges of the
wing-cases quite straight and simple. The mode of producing
the sounds, and their object, have been investigated by several
authors wich regard to certain European species. They are the
call-notes of the males. In the common field-cricket of Europe
the male has been observed to place itself, in the evening, at
the entrance of its burrow, and stridulate until a female ap-
proaches, when the louder notes are succeeded by a more
subdued tone, whilst the successful musician caresses with his
antennae the mate he has won. Any one, who will take the
trouble, may observe a similar proceeding in the common house-
cricket. The nature and object of this insect music are more
uniform than the structure and situation of the instrument by
which it is produced. This differs in each of the three allied
famiUes above mentioned. In the crickets the wing-cases are
symmetrical; both have straight edges and sharply-scored
nervures adapted to produce the stridulation. K distinct por-

134 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vi.

tioii of their edges is not, therefore, set apart for the elaboration
of a sound-producing instrument. In this family the wing-
cases lie flat on the back of the insect, and overlap each other
for a considerable portion of their extent. In the Locustidse
the same members have a sloping position on each side of the
body, and do not overlap, except to a small extent near their
bases ; it is out of this small portion that the stridulating organ
is contrived. Greater resonance is given in most species by a
thin transparent plate, covered by a membrane, in the centre
of the overlapping lobes. In the Grasshoppers (Acridiidse)
the wing-cases meet in a straight suture, and the friction of
portions of their edges is no longer possible. But Nature
exhibits the same fertility of resource here as elsewhere ; and,
in contriving other methods of supplying the males with an
instrument for the production of call-notes, indicates the great
importance which she attaches to this function. The music in
the males of the Acridiidae is produced by the scraping of the
long hind thighs against the horny nervures of the outer edges
of the wing-cases ; a drum-shaped organ placed in a cavity
near the insertion of the thighs being adapted to give resonance
to the tones.

I obtained very few birds at Obydos. There was no scarcity
of birds, but they were mostly common Cayenne species. In
early morning the woods near my house were quite animated
with their songs — an unusual thing in this country, I heard
here for the first time the pleasing wild notes of the Carashue,
a species of thrush, probably the Mimus lividus of ornithologists,
I found it afterwards to be a common bird in the scattered
woods of the campo district near Santarem. It is a much smaller
and plainer-coloured bird than our thrush, and its song is not
so loud, varied, or so long sustained ; but the tone is of a
sweet and plaintive quality, which harmonizes well with the
wild and silent woodlands, where alone it is heard, in the
mornings and evenings of sultry tropical days. In course of time
the song of this humble thrush stirred up pleasing associations
in my mind, in the same way as those of its more highly en-
dowed congeners formerly did at home. There are several allied
species in Brazil ; in the southern provinces they are called
Sabiahs. The Brazilians are not insensible to the charms of
this their best songster, for I often heard some pretty verses in
praise of the Sabiah, sung by young people to the accompani-
ment of the guitar. I found several times the nest of the
Carashue, which is built of dried grass and slender twigs, and

CHAF. VI. BIRDS. 135

lined with mud ; the ^%g^ are coloured an(i spotted like those
of our blackbird, but they are considerably smaller. I was
much pleased with a brilliant little red-headed mannikin which
I shot here (Pipra cornuta). There were three males seated on
a low branch, and hopping slowly backwards and forwards,
near to one another, as though engaged in a kind of dance.
In the pleasant airy woods surrounding the sandy shores of
the -pool behind the town, the yellow-bellied Trogon (T.
viridis) was very common. Its back is of a brilliant metallic-
green colour, and the breast steel blue. The natives call it
the Suruqua do Ygapo, or Trogon of the flooded lands, in
contradistinction to the various red-breasted species, which are
named Suruquas da terra firma. I often saw small companies
of half a dozen individuals, quietly seated on the lower branches
of trees. They remained almost motionless, for an hour or two
at a time, simply moving their heads, on the watch for passing
insects ; or, as seemed more generally to be the case, scanning
the neighbouring trees for fruit ; which they darted off now
and then, at long intervals, to secure, returning always to the
same perch.

CHAPTER VII.

THE LOWER AMAZONS— OBYDOS TO MANAOS, OR THE
BARRA OF THE RIO NEGRO.

Departure from Obydos — River banks and by-channels — Cacao planters —
Daily life on board our vessel — Great storm — Sand island and its birds
— Hill of Parentins — Negro trader and Mauhes Indians — Villa Nova,
its inhabitants, forest, and animal productions — Cararaucu — A rustic
festival — Lake of Cararaucu — Motuca flies — Serpa — Christmas holidays
— River Madeira — A mameluco farmer — Mura Indians — Rio Negro —
Description of Barra — Descent to Para — Yellow fever.

A TRADER of Obydos, named Penna, was about proceeding
in a cuberta laden with merchandise to the Rio Negro, intend-
ing to stop frequently on the road ; so I bargained with him for
a passage. He gave up a part of the toldo, or fore-cabin as it
may be called, and here I slung my hammock and arranged
my boxes, so as to be able to work as we went along. The
stoppages I thought would be an advantage, as I could collect
in the woods whilst he traded, and thus acquire a knowledge of
the productions of many places on the river which, in a direct
voyage, it would be impossible to do. I provided a stock of
groceries for two months' consumption; and, after the usual
amount of unnecessary fuss and delay on the part of the owner,
we started on the 19th of November. Penna took his family
with him : this comprised a smart, lively mameluco woman,
named Catarina, whom we called Senhora Katita, and two
children. The crew consisted of three men, one a sturdy
Indian, another a Cafuzo, godson of Penna, and the third, our
best hand, a steady, good-natured mulatto, named Joaquim.
My boy Luco was to assist in rowing and so forth. Penna was
a timid middle-aged man, a white with a slight cross of Indian ;
when he was surly and obstinate, he used to ask me to excuse
him on account of the Tapuyo blood in his veins. He tried to
make me as comfortable as the circumstances admitted, and

CHAP. VII. CACAO-PLANTERS. 137

provided a large stock of eatables and drinkables ; so that alto-
gether the voyage promised to be a pleasant one.

On leaving the port of Obydos we crossed over to the right
bank, and sailed with a light wind all day, passing numerous
houses, each surrounded by its grove of cacao trees. On the
20th we made slow progress. After passing the high land at
the mouth of the Trombetas, the banks were low, clayey, or
earthy on both sides. The breadth of the river jMMQ^S^Rftj|
about from two and a half to three miles, but neitnB* QQ|fct^js*r
the true terra firma. On the northern side a
for a long distance inland, communicating with^
lake of Faro ; on the south, three channels leac
fresh-water sea of Villa Franca ; these are in
river, so that the land they surround consists, prq]
of islands. When this description of land is notj
of river deposit, as sometimes happens, or is
level of the highest floods, it is called Ygapb alto^
tinguished by the natives from the true islands of ^
well as from the terra firma. We landed at one of Tlifl'tiPao
plantations. The house was substantially built; the walls
formed of strong upright posts, lathed across, plastered with
mud and whitewashed, and the roof tiled. The family were
mamelucos, and seemed to be an average sample of the poorer
class of cacao growers. All were loosely dressed and bare-
footed. A broad verandah extended along one side of the
house, the floor of which was simply the well-trodden earth ;
and here hammocks were slung between the bare upright sup-
ports, a large rush mat being spread on the ground, upon which
the stout matron-like mistress, with a tame parrot perched upon
her shoulder, sat sewing with two pretty little mulatto girls.
The master, coolly clad in shirt and drawers, the former loose
about the neck, lay in his hammock smoking a long gaudily-
painted wooden pipe. The household utensils, earthenware
jars, water- pots and saucepans, lay at one end, near which was
a wood fire, with the ever-ready cofiee-pot simmering on the
top of a clay tripod. A large shed stood a short distance off,
embowered in a grove of banana, papaw, and mango trees ;
^nd under it were the ovens, troughs, sieves, and all other
apparatus for the preparation of mandioca. The cleared space
around the house was only a few yards in extent ; beyond it
lay the cacao plantations, which stretched on each side parallel
to the banks of the river. There was a path through the forest
which led to the mandioca fields, and several miles beyond to

13$ THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vir.

other houses on the banks of an interior channel. We were
kindly received, as is always the case when a stranger visits
these out-of-the-way habitations ; the people being invariably
civil and hospitable. We had a long chat, took coffee, and on
departing one of the daughters sei;it a basketful of oranges for
our use down to the canoe.

The cost of a cacao plantation in the Obydos district is after
the rate of 240 reis or sixpence per tree, which is much higher
than at Cameta, where I believe the yield is not so great. The
forest here is cleared before planting, and the trees are grown
in rows. The smaller cultivators are all very poor. Labour
is scarce ; one family generally manages its own small planta-
tion of 10,000 to 15,000 trees, but at the harvest time neigh-
bours assist each other. It appeared to me to be an easy,
pleasant life ; the work is all done under shade, and occupies
only a few weeks in the year. Th3 incorrigible nonchalance
and laziness of the people alone prevent them from surrounding
themselves with all the luxuries of a tropical country. They
might plant orchards of the choicest fruic -trees around their
houses, grow Indian corn, and rear cattle and hogs, as intelli-
gent settlers from Europe would certainly do, instead of indo-
lently relying solely on the produce of their small plantations,
and living on a meagre diet of fish and farinha. In preparing
the cacao they have not devised any means of separating the
seeds well from the pulp, or drying it in a systematic way; the
consequence is that, although naturally of good quality, it
moulds before reaching the merchants' stores, and does not
fetch more, than half the price of the same article grown in
other parts of tropical America. The Amazons region is the
original home of the principal species of chocolate tree, the
Theobroma cacao; and it grows in abundance in the forests
of the upper river. The cultivated crop appears to be a pre-
carious one ; little " or no care, however, is bestowed on the
trees, and even weeding is done very inefficiently. The planta-
tions are generally old^ and have been made on the low ground
near the river, which renders them liable to inundation when
this rises a few inches more than the average. There is plenty
of higher land quite suitable to the tree, but it is uncleared, and
the want of labour and enterprise prevents the establishment of
new plantations.

We passed the last houses in the Obydos district on the 20th,
tnd the river scener}^ then resumed its usual wild and solitary
character, which the scattered human habitations relieved,

CHAP. viT. DAILY LIFE ON BOARD. 139

although in a small degree. We soon fell into a regular mode
of life on boar:! our little ark. Penna would not travel by
night ; indeed, our ST:iall crew, wearied by the day's labour,
required rest, and we very rarely had wind in the night. We
used to moor the vessel to a tree, giving out plenty of cable, so
as to sleep at a distance from the banks and free of mosquitoes,
which although swarming in the forest, rarely came many yards
out into the river at this season of the year. The strong cur-
rent, at a distance of thirty or forty yards from the coast, steadied
the cuberta head to stream, and kept us from drifting ashore.
We all slept in the open air, as the heat of the cabins was
stifling in the early part of the night. Penna, Senhora Katita,
and I, slung our hammocks in triangle between the mainmast
and two stout poles fixed in the raised deck. A sheet was the
only covering required, besides our regular clothing; for the
decrease of temperature at night on the Amazons is never so
great as to be felt otherwise than as a delightful coolness, after
the sweltering heat of the afternoons. We used to rise when
the first gleam of dawn show^ed itself above the long dark line
of forest. Our clothes and hammocks were then generally
soaked with dew, but this was not felt to be an inconvenience.
The Indian Manoel used to revive himself by a plunge in the
river, under the bows of the vessel. It is the habit of all
Indians, male and female, to bathe early in the morning ; they
do it sometimes for warmth's sake, the temperature of the
water being often considerably higher than that of the air.
Penna and I lolled in our hammocks, whilst Katita prepared
the indispensable cup of strong coffee, which she did with
wonderful celerity, smoking meanwhile her early morning pipe
of tobacco. Liberal ow^ners of river craft allow a cup of coffee
sweetened with molasses, or a ration of cashaca, to each man
of their crews ; Penna gave them coffee. When all were
served, the day's work began. There was seldom any wdnd at
this early hour ; so if there was still water along the shore the
men rowed, if not there was no way of progressing but by espia.
In some places the currents ran with great force close to the
banks, especially where these receded to form long bays or
enseadas, as they are called, and then we made very little head-
way. In such places the banks consist of loose earth, a rich
crumbly vegetable mould, supporting a growth of most luxu-
riant forest, of which the currents almost daily carry away
large portions, so that the stream for several yards out is en-
cumbered with fallen trees, whose branches quiver in the

140 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vii.

current When projecting points of land were encountered, it
was impossible, with our weak crew, to pull the cuberta against
the whirling torrents which set round them ; and in such cases
we had to cross the river, drifting often with the current, a
mile or two lower down on the opposite shore. There gene-
rally sprung up a light wind as the day advanced, and then we
took down our hammocks, hoisted all sail, and bowled away
merrily. Penna generally preferred to cook the dinner ashore,
when there was little or no wind. About midday on these
calm days we used to look out for a nice shady nook in the
forest, with cleared space sufficient to make a fire upon. I then
had an hour's hunting in the neighbouring wilderness, and was
always rewarded by the discovery of some new species. During
the greater part of our voyage, however, we stopped at the
house of some settler, and made our fire in the port. Just
before dinner it was our habit to take a bath in the river, and
then, according to the universal custom on the Amazons, where
it seems to be suitable on account of the weak fish diet, we
each took half a tea-cupful of neat cashaca, the " abre " or
"opening," as it is called, and set to on our mess of stewed
pirarecu, beans, and bacon. Once or twice a week we had
fowls and rice ; at supper, after sunset, we often had fresh fish
caught by our men in the evening. The mornings were cool
and pleasant until towards midday ; but in the afternoons the
heat became almost intolerable, especially in gleamy, squally
weather, such as generally prevailed. We then crouched in
the shade of the sails, or went down to our hammocks m the
cabin, choosing to be half stifled rather than expose ourselves
on deck to the sickening heat of the sun. We generally ceased
travelling about nine o'clock, fixing upon a safe spot wherein
to secure the vessel for the night. The cool evening hours
were delicious ; flocks of whistling ducks (Anas autumnalis),
parrots, and hoarsely-screaming macaws, pair by pair, flew over
from their feeding to their resting places, as the glowing sun
plunged abruptly beneath the horizon. The brief evening
chorus of animals then began, the chief performers being the
howhng monkeys, whose frightful unearthly roar deepened the
feeling of solitude which crept on as darkness closed around us.
Soon after, the fireflies in great diversity of species came forth
and flitted about the trees. As night advanced, all became
silent in the forest, save the occasional hooting of tree-frogs, or
the monotonous chirping of wood-crickets and grasshoppers.
We made but little progress on the 20th and two following

CHAP. VII. A STO R M. 141

days, on account of the unsteadiness of the wind. The dry
season had been of very brief duration this year ; it generally
lasts in this part of the Amazons from July to January, with
a short interval of showery weather in November. The river
ought to sink thirty or thirty-five feet below its highest point ;
this year it had declined only about twenty-five feet, and the
November rains threatened to be continuous. The drier the
weather, the stronger blows the east wind; it now failed us
altogether, or blew gently for a few hours merely in the after-
noons. I had hitherto seen the great river only in its sunniest
aspect ; I was now about to witness what it could furnish in
the way of storms.

On the night of the 22nd the moon appeared with a misty
halo. As we went to rest, a fresh watery wind was blowing, and
a dark pile of clouds gathering up river in a direction opposite
to that of the wind. I thought this betokened nothing more
than a heavy rain, which would send us all in a hurry to our
cabins. The men moored the vessel to a tree alongside a hard
clayey bank, and after supper all were soon fast asleep, scattered
about the raised deck. About eleven o'clock I was awakened
by a horrible uproar, as a hurricane of wind suddenly swept
over from the opposite shore. The cuberta was hurled with
force against the clayey bank ; Penna shouted out, as he started
to his legs, that a trovoada de cima, or a squall from up river,
was upon us. We took down our hammocks, and then all
hands were required to save the vessel from being dashed to
pieces. The moon set, and a black pall of clouds spread itself
over the dark forests and river ; a frightful crack of thunder
now burst over our heads, and down fell the drenching rain.
Joaquim leapt ashore through the drowning spray with a
strong pole, and tried to pass the cuberta round a small pro-
jecting point, whilst we on deck aided in keeping her off and
lengthened the cable. We succeeded in getting free, and the
stout-built boat fell off into the strong current farther away
from the shore, Joaquim swinging himself dexterously aboard
by the bowsprit as it passed the point. It was fortunate for us
that we happened to be on a sloping clayey bank, where there
was no fear of falling trees ; a few yards farther on, where the
shore was perpendicular and, formed of crumbly earth, large
portions of loose soil, with all their superincumbent mass of
forest, were being washed away ; the uproar thus occasioned
adding to the horrors of the storm.

The violence of the wind abated in the course of an hour,

142 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vii.

but the deluge of rain continued until about three o'clock in
the morning ; the sky being lighted up by almost incessant
flashes of pallid hghtning, and the thunder pealing from side to
side without interruption. Our clothing, hammocks, and goods
were thoroughly soaked by the streams of water which trickled
through between the planks. In the morning all was quiet ;
but an opaque, leaden mass of clouds overspread the sky,
throwing a gloom over the wild landscape that had a most
dispiriting effect. These squalls from the west are always
expected about the time of the breaking up of the dry season,
in these central parts of the Lower Amazons. They generally
take place about the beginning of February, so that this year
they had commenced much earlier than usual. The soil and
climate are much drier in this part of the country than in the
region lying farther to the west, where the denser forests and
more clayey, humid soil produce a considerably cooler atmo-
sphere. The storms may be therefore attributed to the rush
of cold moist air from up river, when the regular trade-wind
coming from the sea has slackened or ceased to blow.

On the 26th we arrived at a large sandbank connected with
an island in mid-river, in front of an inlet called Maraca-uassii.
Here we anchored and spent half a day ashore. Penna's
object in stopping was simply to enjoy a ramble on the sands
with the children, and give Senhora Katita an opportunity to
wash the linen. The sandbank was now fast going under
water with the rise of the river; in the middle of the dry
season it is about a mile long and half a mile in width. The
canoe-men delight in these open spaces, which are a great
relief to the monotony of the forest that clothes the land in
every other part of the river. Farther westward they are
much more frequent, and of larger extent. They lie generally
at the upper end of islands ; in fact, the latter originate in
accretions of vegetable matter, formed by plants and trees
gromng on a shoal. The island was wooded chiefly with the
trumpet tree (Cecropia peltata), which has a hollow stem and
smooth pale bark. The leaves are similar in shape to those of ^
the horse-chestnut, but immensely larger ; beneath they are
white, and when the welcome trade-wind blows they show
their silvery undersides, — a pleasant signal to the weary canoe
traveller. The mode of growth of this tree is curious : the
branches are emitted at nearly right angles with the stem, the
branchlets in minor whorls around these, and so forth, the
leaves growing at their extremities \ so that the total appearance

CHAP. vir. BIRDS. 143

is that of a huge candelabrum. Cecropioe of different species
are characteristic of Brazilian forest scenery ; the kind of
which I am speaking grows in great numbers everywhere on
the banks of the Amazons where the land is low. In the
same places the curious Monguba tree (Bombax ceiba) is
also plentiful ; the dark-green bark of its huge tapering trunk,
scored with gray, forming a conspicuous object. The principal
palm-tree on the lowlands is the Jauari (Astryocaryum Jauari),
whose stem, surrounded by whorls of spines, shoots up to a
great height. On the borders of the island were large tracts
of arrow-grass (Gynerium saccharoides), which bears elegant
plumes of feathers, like those of the reed, and grows to a
height of twenty feet, the leaves arranged in a fan-shaped
figure near the middle of the stem. I was surprised to find
on the higher parts of the sandbank the familiar foliage of a
willow (Salix Humboldtiana). It is a dwarf species, and grows
in patches resembling beds of osiers ; as in the English willows,
the leaves were peopled by small chrysomelideous beetles. In
wandering about, many features reminded me of the seashore.
Flocks of white gulls were flying overhead, uttering their w^ell-
known cry, and sandpipers coursed along the edge of the
water. Here and there lonely wading-birds were stalking
about ; one of these, the Curicaca (Ibis melanopis), flew up
with a low cackling noise, and was soon joined by an unicorn
bird (Palamedea cornuta), which I startled up from amidst the
bushes, whose harsh screams, resembling the bray of a jackass,
but shriller, disturbed unpleasantly the solitude of the place.
Amongst the willow bushes were flocks of a handsome bird
belonging to the Icteridse or troupial family, adorned with a
rich plumage of black and saflron-yellow. I spent some time
watching an assemblage of a species of bird called by the
natives Tamburi-para, on the Cecropia trees. It is theMonasa
nigrifrons , of ornithologists, and has a plain slate-coloured
plumage, with the beak of an orange hue. It belongs to the
family of Barbets, most of whose members are remarkable for
their dull inactive temperament. Those species which are
arranged by ornithologists under the genus Bucco are called by
the Indians, m the Tupi language, Tai-assu uira, or pig-birds.
They remain seated sometimes for hours together on low
branches in the shade, and are stimulated to exertion only
when attracted by passing insects. This flock of Tamburi-para
were the reverse of dull; they were gambohing and chasing
each other amongst the branches. As they sported about, each

144 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vii.

emitted a few short tuneful notes, which altogether produced a
ringing, musical chorus that quite surprised me.

On the 27th we reached an elevated wooden promontory,
called Parentins, which now forms the boundary between the
provinces of Para and the Amazons. Here we met a small
canoe descending to Santarem. • The owner was a free negro
named Lima, who, with his wife, was going down the river to
exchange his year's crop of tobacco for European merchandize.
The long shallow canoe was laden nearly to the water level.
He resided on the banks of the Abacaxi, a river which dis-
charges its waters into the Canoma, a broad interior channel
which extends from the river Madeira to the Parentins, a dis-
tance of 180 miles. Pennaoifered him advantageous terras, so
a bargain was struck, and the man saved his long journey.
The negro seemed a frank, straightforward fellow; he was a
native of Pernambuco, but had settled many years ago in this
part of the country. He had with him a little Indian girl
belonging to the Mauhes tribe, w^hose native seat is the dis-
trict of country lying in the rear of the Canoma, between the
Madeira and the Tapajos. The Mauhes are considered, I think
with truth, to be a branch of the great Mundurucii nation,
having segregated from them at a remote period, and by long
isolation acquired different customs and a totally different
language, in a manner which seems to have been general with
the Brazilian aborigines. The Mundurucus seem to have re-
tained more of the general characteristics of the original Tupi
stock than the Mauhes. Senhor Lima told me, what I after-
wards found to be correct, that there were scarcely two words
alike in the languages of the two peoples, although there are
words closely aUied to Tupi in both. The little girl had not
the slightest trace of the savage in her appearance. Her
features were finely shaped, the cheek-bones not at all pro-
minent, the lips thin, and the expression of her countenance
frank and smiling. She had been brought only a {q\^ weeks
previously from a remote settlement of her tribe on the banks
of the Abacaxi, and did not yet know five words of Portuguese.
The Indians, as a general rule, are very manageable when they
are young, but it is a frequent complaint that when they reach
the age of puberty they become restless and discontented.
The rooted impatience of all restraint then shows itself, and the
kindest treatment will not prevent them running away from
their masters ; they do not return to the malocas of their
tribes, but join parties who go out to collect the produce of

CHAP. vn. VILLA NOVA. 145

the forests and rivers, and lead a wandering semi-savage kind
of life.

We remained under the Serra dos Parentins all night. Early
the next morning a light mist hung about the tree-tops, and
the forest resounded with the yelping of Whaiapu-sai monkeys.
I went ashore with my gun and got a glimpse of the flock, but
did not succeed in obtaining a specimen. They were of small
size and covered with long fur of a uniform gray colour. I
think the species was the Callithrix donacophilus. The rock
composing the elevated ridge of the Parentins is the same
coarse iron-cemented conglomerate which I have often spoken
of as occurring near Para and in several other places. Many
loose blocks were scattered about. The forest was extremely
varied, and inextricable coils of woody climbers stretched from
tree to tree. Thongs of cacti were spread over the rocks and
tree-trunks. The variety of small, beautifully-shaped ferns,
lichens, and boleti, made the place quite a museum of crypto-
gamic plants. I found here two exquisite species of Longicorn
beetles, and a large kind of grasshopper (Pterochroza), whose
broad fore-wings resembled the leaf of a plant, providing the
insect with a perfect disguise when they were closed ; whilst
the hind wings were decorated with gaily -coloured eye-like
spots.

The negro left us and turned up a narrow channel, the
Parana-mirim dos Ramos (the little river of the branches, i.e.^
having many ramifications), on the road to his home, 130 miles
distant. We then continued our voyage, and in the evening
arrived at Villa Nova, a straggling village containing about
seventy houses, many of which scarcely deserve the name, being
mere mud-huts roofed with palm leaves. We stayed here four
days. The village is built on a rocky bank, composed of the
same coarse conglomerate as that already so often mentioned.
In some places a bed of Tabatinga clay rests on the conglome-
rate. The soil in the neighbourhood is sandy, and the forest,
most of which appears to be of second growth, is traversed by
broad alleys which terminate to the south and east on the
banks of pools and lakes, a chain of which extends through the
interior of the land. As soon as we anchored I set off with
Luco to explore the district. We walked about a mile along
the marly shore, on which was a thick carpet of flowering
shrubs, enlivened by a great variety of lovely little butterflies,
and then entered the forest by a dry watercourse. About a
furlong inland this opened on a broad placid pool, whose banks,

10

146 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vii.

clothed with grass of the softest green hue, sloped gently from
the water's edge to the compact wall of forest which encom-
passed the whole. The pool swarmed with water-fowl ; snowy
egrets, dark-coloured striped herons, and storks of various
species standing in rows around its margins. Small flocks of
macaws were stirring about the topmost branches of the trees.
Long-legged piosocas (Parra Jacana) stalked over the water-
plants on the surface of the pool, and in the bushes on its
margin were great numbers of a kind of canary (Sycalis brasi-
liensis) of a greenish-yellow colour, which has a short and not
very melodious song. We had advanced but a few steps when
we startled a pair of the Jaburii-moleque (Mycteria americana),
a powerful bird of the stork family, four and a half feet in
height, which flew up and alarmed the rest, so that I got only
one bird out of the tumultuous flocks which passed over our
heads. Passing towards the farther end of the pool, I saw,
resting on the surface of the water, a number of large round
leaves, turned up at their edges ; they belonged to the Victoria
water-lily. The leaves were just beginning to expand (December
3rd), some were still under water, and the largest of those
which had reached the surface measured not quite three feet in
diameter. We found a montaria with a paddle in it, drawn up
on the bank, which I took leave to borrow of the unknown
owner, and Luco paddled me amongst the noble plants to
search for flowers, meeting, however, with no success. I learnt
afterwards that the plant is common in nearly all the lakes of
this neighbourhood. The natives call it the furno do Piosoca,
or oven of the Jacana, the shape of the leaves being like that
of the ovens on which mandioca meal is roasted. We saw
many kinds of hawks and eagles, one of which, a black species,
the Caracara-i (Milvago nudicoUis), sat on the top of a tall
naked stump, uttering its hypocritical whining notes. This
eagle is considered a bird of ill omen by the Indians ; it often
perches on the tops of trees in the neighbourhood of their huts,
and is then said to bring a warning of death to some member
of the household. Others say that its whining cry is intended
to attract other defenceless birds within its reach. The little
courageous flycatcher Bem-ti-vi (Saurophagus sulphuratus) as-
sembles in companies of four or five, and attacks it boldly,
driving it from the perch where it would otherwise sit for
hours. I shot three hawks of as many different species ; and
these, with a Magoary stork, two beautiful gilded-green jaca-
mars (Galbula chalcocephala), and half-a-dozen lerives of the

CHAP. VII. VILLA NOVA. 147

water-lily, made a heavy load, with which we trudged off back
to the canoe.

A few years after this visit, namely, in 1854-5, I passed
eight months at Villa Nova. The district of which it is the
chief town is very extensive, for it has about forty miles of
linear extent along the banks of the river : but the whole does
not contain more than 4,000 inhabitants. More than half of
these are pure-blood Indians, who live in a semi-civilized con-
dition on the banks of the numerous channels and lakes. The
trade of the place is chiefly in india-rubber, balsam of copaiba ■
(which are collected on the banks of the Madeira and the
numerous rivers that enter the Canoma channel), and salt fish
prepared in the dry season, nearer home. These articles are
sent to Para in exchange for European goods. The few Indian
and half-breed families who reside in the town, are many
shades inferior in personal qualities and social condition to
those I lived amongst near Para and Cameta. They live in
wretched dilapidated mud-hovels; the women cultivate small
patches of mandioca ; the men spend most of their time in
fishing, selling what they do not require themselves, and getting
drunk with the most exemplary regularity on casha9a, pur-
chased with the proceeds.

I made, in this second visit to Villa Nova, an extensive
collection of the natural productions of the neighbourhood.
A few remarks on some of the more interesting of these must
suffice. The forests are very different in their general character
from those of Para, and in fact those of humid districts
generally throughout the Amazons. The same scarcity of
large-leaved Musaceous and Marantaceous plants was notice-
able here as at Obydos. The low-lying areas of forest or
Ygapos, which alternate everywhere with the more elevated
districts, did not furnish the same luxuriant vegetation as they
do in the Delta region of the Amazons. They are flooded
during three or four months in the year, and when the waters
retire, the soil — to which the very thin coating of alluvial
deposit imparts little fertiUty — remains bare, or covered with a
matted bed of dead leaves, until the next flood season. These
tracts have then a barren appearance ; the trunks and lower
branches of the trees are coated with dried slime, and dis-
figured by rounded masses of fresh-water sponges, whose long
horny spiculae and dingy colours give them the appearance of
hedgehogs. Dense bushes of a harsh, cutting grass, called

148 T HE L 0 WE R A MA Z 0 NS. chap, vii .

Tiririca, form almost the only fresh vegetation in the dry-
season. Perhaps the dense shade, the long period during which
the land remains under water, and the excessively rapid desic-
cation when the waters retire, all contribute to the barrenness
of these Ygapos. The higher and drier land is everywhere
sandy, and tall coarse grasses line the borders of the broad
alleys which have been cut through the second-growth woods.
These places swarm with carapatos, ugly ticks belonging to
the genus Ixodes, which mount to the tips of blades of grass,
and attach themselves to the clothes of passers-by. They are
a great annoyance. It occupied me a full hour daily to pick
them off my flesh after my diurnal ramble. There are two
species ; both are much flattened in shape, have four pairs of
legs, a thick short proboscis and a horny integument. Their
habit is to attach themselves to the skin by plunging their
proboscides into it, and then suck the blood until their flat
bodies are distended into a globular form. The whole pro-
ceeding, however, is very slow^, and it takes them several days
to pump their fill. No pain or itching is felt, but serious sores
are caused if care is not taken in removing them, as the pro-
boscis is liable to break off and remain in the w^ound. A little
tobacco juice is generally applied to make them loosen their
hold. They do not cling firmly to the skin by their legs,
although each of these has a pair of sharp and fine claws, con-
nected with the tips of the member by means of a flexible
pedicle. When they mount to the summits of slender blades
of grass, or the tips of leaves, they hold on by their fore-legs
only, the other three pairs being stretched out so as to fasten
on any animal which comes in their way. The smaller of the
two species is of a yellowish colour; it is much the most
abundant, and sometimes falls upon one by scores. When dis-
tended, it is about the size of a No. 8 shot ; the larger kind,
which fortunately comes only singly to the work, swells to the
size of a pea.

In some parts of the interior the soil is composed of very
coarse sand and small fragments of quartz ; in these places no
trees grow. I visited^ in company with the priest. Padre
Torquato, one of these treeless spaces or campos, as they are
called, situated five miles from the village. The road thither
led through a varied and beautiful forest, containing' many
gigantic trees. I missed the Assai, Miriti, Paxiiiba, and other
palms which are all found only on rich moist soils, but the
noble Bacaba was not uncommon, and there was a great diver-

GHAP. VII.

PEURIRIMA PALM.

149

sity of dwarf species of Maraja palms (Bactris), one of which,
called the Peuririma, was very elegant, growing to a height of

/'

twelve or fifteen feet,
with a stem no thicker
than a man's finger.
On arriving at the
campo all this beau-
tiful forest abruptly
ceased, and we saw
before us an oval tract
of land, three or four
miles in circumference, destitute
even of the smallest bush. The
only vegetation was a crop of
coarse hairy grass growing in
patches. The forest formed a
hedge all round the isolated field,
and its borders were composed in
great part of trees which do not
grow in the dense virgin forest,
such as a great variety of bushy
Melastomas, low Byrsopiina trees,
myrtles, and Lacre trees, whose
berries exude globules of wax re-
^ ~~^^ sembling gamboge. On the mar-
",_ gins of the campo wild pine-apples
~^~ also grew in great quantity. The
fruit was of the same shape as our
cultivated kind, but much smaller,
the size being that of a moderately
large appple. We gathered seve-
ral quite ripe : they were pleasant
to the taste, of the true pine-apple
flavour, but had an abundance of
fully developed seeds, and only a
small quantity of eatable pulp.
There was no path beyond this
campo ; in fact, all beyond is terra
incognita to the inhabitants of
Villa Nova.

The only interesting Mam-
malian animal which I saw at Villa Nova was a monkey of a
species new to me : it was not, however, a native of the dis-

\ vr '

Peuririma Palm (Bactris).

150 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vii.

trict, having been brought by a trader from the river Madeira,
a few miles above Borba. It was a howler, probably the
Mycetes stramineus of Geoffroy St. Hilaire. The howlers
are the only kinds of monkey which the natives have not
succeeded in taming. They are often caught, but they do
not survive captivity many weeks. The one of which I am
speaking was riot quite full grown. It measured sixteen
inches in length, exclusive of the tail ; the whole body was
covered with rather long and shining dingy-white hair, the
whiskers and beard only being of a tawny hue. It was kept in '"'
a house, together with a Coaita and a Caiarara monkey (Cebus
albifrons). Both these lively members of the monkey order
seemed rather to court attention, but the Mycetes -slunk away
when any one approached it. When it first arrived, it occa-
sionally made a gruff subdued howling noise early in the
morning. The deep volume of sound in the voice of the
howling monkeys, as is well known, is produced by a drum-
shaped expansion of the larynx. It was curious to watch the
animal whilst venting its hollow cavernous roar, and observe
how sm-allwas the muscular exertion employed. When howlers,
are seen in the forest, there are generally three or four of them
mounted on the topmost branches of a tree. It does not
appear that their harrowing roar is emitted from sudden alarm ;
at least, it was not so in captive individuals. It is probable,
however, that the noise serves to intimidate their enemies. I
did not meet with the Mycetes stramineus in any other part of
the Amazons region ; in the neighbourhood of Para a reddish-
coloured species prevails (M. Belzebuth) ; in the narrow chan-
nels near Breves I shot a large, entirely black kind ; another
yellow-handed species, according to the report of the natives,
inhabits the island of Macajo, which is probably the M. flavi-
manus of Kuhl; some distance up the Tapajos the only howler
found is a brownish-black species ; and on the Upper Amazons
the sole species seen was the Mycetes ursinus, whose fur is of
a shining yellowish-red colour.

In the dry forests of Villa Nova I saw a rattlesnake for the
first time. I was returning home one day through a narrow
alley, when I heard a pattering noise close to me. Hard by
was a tall palm tree, whose head was heavily weighted with
parasitic plants, and I thought the noise was a warning that it
was about to fall. The wind lulled for a few moments, and
then there was no doubt that the noise proceeded from the
ground. On turning my head in that direction, a sudden

/ s

CHAP. VII. VULTURES. 151

plunge startled me, and a heavy gliding motion betrayed a
large serpent making off almost from beneath my feet. The
ground is always so encumbered with rotting leaves and
branches, that one only discovers snakes when they are in the
act of moving away. The residents of Villa Nova would not
beheve that I had seen a rattlesnake in their neighbourhood ;
in fact, it is not known to occur in the forests at all, its place
being the open campos, where, near Santarem, I killed several.
On my second visit to Villa Nova I saw another. I had then
a favourite little dog, named Diamante, who used to accompany
me in my rambles. One day he rushed into the thicket, and
made a dead set at a large snake, whose head I saw raised
above the herbage. The fooHsh little brute approached quite
close, and then the serpent reared its tail slightly in a hori-
zontal position and shook its terrible rattle. It was many
minutes before I could get the dog away; and this incident,
as well as the one already related, shows how slow the reptile
is to make the fatal spring.

I was much annoyed, and at the same time amused, with the
Urubii vultures. The Portuguese call them corvos or crows ;
in colour and general appearance they somewhat resemble
rooks, but they are much larger, and have naked, black,
wrinkled skin about their face and throat. They assemble in
great numbers in the villages about the end of the wet season,
and are then ravenous with hunger. My cook could not leave
the open kitchen at the back of the house for a moment, whilst
the dinner was cooking, on account of their thievish pro-
pensities. Some of them were always loitering about, watch-
ing their opportunity, and the instant the kitchen was left
unguarded, the bold marauders marched in and lilted the lids
of the saucepans with their beaks to rob them of their contents.
The boys of the village lie in wait, and shoot them with bow
and arrow; and vultures have consequently acquired such a
dread of these weapons, that they may be often kept off by
hanging a bow from the rafters of the kitchen. As the dry
season advances, the hosts of Urubiis follow the fishermen to
the lakes, where they gorge themselves with the offal of the
fisheries. Towards February they return to the villages, and
are then not nearly so ravenous as before their summer trips.

The insects of Villa Nova are, to a great extent, the same
as those of Santarem and the Tapajos. A few species of all
orders, however, are found here, which occurred nowhere else
on the Amazons, besides several others which are properly

152 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vii.

considered local varieties or races of others found at Para, on
the northern shore of the Amazons, or in other parts of Tropical
America. The Hymenoptera were especially numerous, as they
always are in districts which possess a sandy soil : but the
many interesting facts which I gleaned relative to their habits
will be more conveniently introduced when I treat of the same
or similar species found in the localities above named. In the
broad alleys of the forest several species of Morpho were com-
mon. One of these is a sister form to the Morpho Hecuba,
which I have mentioned as occurring at Obydos. The Villa
Nova kind differs from Hecuba sufficiently to be considered a
distinct species, and has been described under the name of M.
Cisseis ; but it is clearly only a local variety of it, the range of
the two being limited by the barrier of the broad Amazons. It
is a grand sight to see these colossal butterflies by twos and
threes floating at a great height in the still air of a tropical
morning. They flap their wings only at long intervals, for I
have noticed them to sail a very considerable distance without
a stroke. Their wing-muscles, and the thorax to which they
are attached, are very feeble in comparison with the wide extent
and weight of the wings : but the large expanse of these mem-
bers doubtless assists the insects in maintaining their aerial
course. Morphos are amongst the most conspicuous of the
insect denizens of Tropical American forests, and the broad
glades of the Villa Nova woods seemed especially suited to
them, fori noticed here six species. The largest specimens of
Morpho Cisseis measure seven inches and a half in expanse.
Another smaller kind, which I could not capture, was of a pale
silvery-blue colour, and the polished surface of its wings flashed
like a silver speculum, as the insect flapped its wings at a great
elevation in the sunlight.

To resume our voyage. We left Villa Nova on the 4th of
December. A light wind on the 5th carried us across to the
opposite shore and past the mouth of the Parana-mirim do arco,
or the little river of the bow, so called on account of its being
a short arm of the main river, of a curved shape, rejoining the
Amazons a little below Villa Nova. On the 6th, after passing
a large island in mid-river, we arrived at a place where a line
of perpendicular clay cliffs, called the Barreiros de Cararaucii,
diverts slightly the course of the main stream, as at Obydos.
A little below these cliffs were a few settlers' houses : here
Penna remained ten days to trade, a delay which I turned to
good account in augmenting very considerably my collections.

CHAP. VII. RUSTIC FESTIVAL. - 153

At the first house a festival was going forward. We an-
chored at some distance from the shore, on account of the
water being shoaly, and early in the morning' three canoes put
off, laden with salt fish, oil of manatee, fowls and bananas,
wares which the owners wished to exchange for different
articles required for the festa. Soon after I went^ ashore. The
head man was a tall, well-made, civilised Tapuyo, named
Marcelhno, who, with his wife, a thin, active, wiry old squaw,
did the honours of their house, I thought, admirably. The
company consisted of 50 or 60 Indians and Mamelucos ; some
of them knew Portuguese, but the Tupi language was the only
one used amongst themselves. The festival was in honour of
our Lady of Conception; and when the people learnt that
Penna had on board an image of the saint handsomer than
their own, they put off in their canoes to borrow it ; Marcellino
taking charge of the doll, covering it carefully with a neatly-
bordered white towel. On landing with the image, a proces-
sion was formed from the port to the house, and salutes fired
from a couple of lazarino guns, the saint being afterwards
carefully deposited in the family oratorio. After a litany and
hymn were sung in the evening, all assembled to supper around
a large mat spread on a smooth terrace-like space in front of
the house. The meal consisted of a large boiled Pirarecu,
which had been harpooned for the purpose in the morning,
stewed and roasted turtle, piles of mandioca-meal and bananas.
The old lady, with two young girls, showed the greatest
activity in waiting on the guests, Marcellino standing gravely
by, observing what was wanted and giving the necessary orders
to his wife. When all was done, hard drinking began, and
soon after there was a dance, to which Penna and I were invited.
The liquor served was chiefly a spirit distilled by the people
themselves' from mandioca cakes. The dances were all of the
same class, namely, different varieties of the "Landum," an
erotic dance similar to the fandango, originally learnt from the
Portuguese. The music was supplied by a couple of wire-
stringed guitars, played alternately by the young men. All
passed off very quietly considering the amount of strong liquor
drunk, and the ball was kept up until sunrise the next
morning.

We visited all the houses one after the other. One of them
was situated in a charming spot, with a broad sandy beach
before it, at the entrance to the Parana-mirim do Mucambo, a
channel leading to an interior lake, peopled by savages of the

154 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vii.

Mdra tribe. This seemed to be the abode of an industrious
family, but all the men were absent, salting Pirarecii on the
lakes. The house, like its neighbours, was simply a frame-
work of poles thatched with palm leaves, the walls roughly
latticed and plastered with mud : but it was larger and much
cleaner inside than the others. It was full of women and
children, who were busy all day with their various employ-
ments ; some weaving hammocks in a large clumsy frame,
which held the warp whilst the shuttle was passed by the hand
slowly across the six feet breadth of web ; others spinning
cotton, and others again scraping, pressing, and roasting man-
dioca. The family had cleared and cultivated a large piece of
ground ; the soil was of extraordinary richness, the perpen-
dicular banks of the river, near the house, revealing a depth of
many feet of crumbling vegetable mould. There was a large
plantation of tobacco, besides the usual patches of Indian-corn,
sugar-cane, and mandioca ; and a grove of cotton, cacao, coffee
and fruit trees, surrounded the house. We passed two nights
at anchor in shoaly water off the beach. The weather was
most beautiful, and scores of Dolphins rolled and snorted about
the canoe all night.

We crossed the river at this point, and entered a narrow
channel which penetrates the interior of the island of Tupinam-
barana, and leads to a chain of lakes called the Lagos de
Cararaucii. A furious current swept along the coast, eating into
the crumbling earthy banks, and strewing the river with debris
of the forest. The mouth of the channel lies about twenty-five
miles from Villa Nova ; the entrance is only about forty yards
broad, but it expands, a short distance inland, into a large
sheet of water. We suffered terribly from insect pests during
the twenty-four hours we remained here. At night it was
quite impossible to sleep for mosquitoes ; they fell lipon us by
myriads, and without much piping came straight at our faces
as thick as raindrops in a shower. The men crowded into the
cabins, and then tried to expel the pests by the smoke from
burnt rags, but it was of litde avail, although we were half
suffocated during the operation. In the daytime the Motiica,
a much larger and more formidable fly than the mosquito,
insisted upon levying his tax of blood. We had been tormented
by it for many days past, but this place seemed to be its
metropoHs. The species has been described by Perty, the
author of the Entomological portion of Spix and Martius'
travels, under the name of Hadrus lepidotus. It is a member

ch.p. VII. COAST OF SERPA. 155

of the Tabanidge family, and indeed is closely related to the
Haematopota pluviaHs, a brown fly which haunts the borders
of woods in summer time in England. The Motuca is of a
bronzed-black colour ; its proboscis is formed of a bundle of
horny lancets, which are shorter and broader than is usually
the case in the family to which it belongs. Its puncture does
not produce much pain, but it makes such a large gash in the
flesh that the blood trickles forth in little streams. Many
scores of them were flying about the canoe all day, and some-
times eight or ten would setde on one's ankles at the same
time. It is sluggish in its motions, and may be easily killed
with the fingers when it settles. Penna want forward in the
montaria to the Pirarecu fishing stations, on a lake lying
further inland; but he did not succeed in reaching them
on account of the length and intricacy of the channels;
so after wasting a day, during which, however, I had a
profitable ramble in the forest, we again crossed the river,
and on the i6th continued our voyage along the northern
shore.

The clay cliffs of Cararaucu are several miles in length. The
hard pink-and-red-coloured beds are here extremely thick, and
in some places present a compact stony texture. The total
height of the cliff is from thirty to sixty feet above the mean
level of the river, and the clay rests on strata of the same
coarse iron-cemented conglomerate which has already been
so often mentioned. Large blocks of this latter have been
detached and rolled by the force of currents up parts of the
chff^ where they are seen resting on terraces of the clay. On
the top of all lies a bed of sand and vegetable mould, which
supports a lofty forest, growing up to the very brink of the
precipice. After passing these barreiros we continued our way
along a low uninhabited coast, clothed, wherever it was elevated
above high-water mark, with the usual vividly-coloured forests
of the higher Ygapo lands, to which the broad and regular
fronds of the Murumuni palm, here extremely abundant, served
as a great decoration. Wherever the land was lower than the
flood height of the Amazons, Cecropia trees prevailed, some-
times scattered over meadows of tall broad-leaved grasses,
which surrounded shallow pools swarming with water-fowl.
Alligators were common on most parts of the coast ; in some
places we saw also small herds of Capybaras (a large Rodent
animal, like a colossal Guinea-pig) amongst the rank herbage
on muddy banks, and now and then flocks of the graceful

156 . THE LOWER AMAZONS. ghap. vii.

squirrel monkey (Chrysothrix sciureus), and the vivacious Caia-
rara (Cebus albifrons) were seen taking flying leaps from tree
to tree. On the 22nd we passed the mouth of the most
easterly of the numerous channels which lead to the large
interior lake of Saraca, and on the 23rd threaded a series of
passages between islands, where we again saw human habita-
tions, ninety miles distant from the last house at Cararaucii.
On the 24th we arrived at Serpa.

Serpa is a small village, consisting of about eighty houses,
built on a bank elevated twenty-five feet above the level of the
river. The beds of Tabatinga clay, which are here inter-
mingled with scoria-looking conglomerate, are in some parts
of the declivity prettily variegated in colour ; the name of the
town in the Tupi language, Ita-coatiara, takes its origin from
this circumstance, signifying striped or painted rock. It is an
old settlement, and was once the seat of the district govern-
ment, which had authority over the Barra of the Rio Negro.
It was in 1849 a wretched-looking village, but it has since
revived, on account of having been chosen by the Steamboat
Company of the Amazons as a station for steam saw-mills and
tile manufactories. We arrived on Christmas-eve, when the
village presented an animated appearance from the number of
people congregated for the holidays. The port was full of
canoes, large and small — from the montaria, with its arched
awning of woven lianas and Maranta leaves, to the two-masted
cuberta of the peddling trader, who had resorted to the place in
the hope of trafficking with settlers coming from remote sitios
to attend the festival. We anchored close to an igarite, whose
owner was an old Juri Indian, disfigured by a large black
tatooed patch in the middle of his face, and by his hair being
close cropped, except a fringe in front of the head. In the
afternoon we went ashore. The population seemed to consist
chiefly of semi-civiHsed Indians, living as usual in half-finished
mud hovels. The streets were irregularly laid out, and over-
run with weeds and bushes swarming with " mocuim," a very
minute scarlet acarus, which sweeps off to one's clothes in
passing, and attaching itself in great numbers to the skin
causes a most disagreeable itching. The few whites and better
^ class of mameluco residents live in more substantial dwellings,
white- washed and tiled. All, both men and women, seemed to
me much more cordial, and at the same time more brusque in
their manners than any Brazilians I had yet met with. One
of them, Captain Manoel Joaquim, I knew for a long time

CHAP. VII., INDIAN PROCESSION. 157

afterwards; a lively, intelligent, and thoroughly good-hearted
man, who had quite a reputation throughout the interior of
the country for generosity, and for being a firm friend
of foreign residents and stray travellers. Some of these
excellent people were men of substance, being owners of
trading vessels, slaves, and extensive plantations of cacao and
tobacco.

We stayed at Serpa five days. Some of the ceremonies
observed at Christmas were interesting, inasmuch as they were
the same, with litde modification, as those taught by the Jesuit
missionaries, more than a century ago, to the aboriginal tribes
whom they had induced to setde on this spot. In the morning
all the women and girls, dressed in white gauze chemises and
showy caUco print petticoats, went in procession to church, first
going the round of the town to take up the different "mor-
domos," or stewards, whose office is to assist the Juiz of the
festa. These stewards carried each a long white reed, decorated
with coloured ribbons ; several children also accompanied, gro-
tesquely decked with finery. Three old squaws went in front,
holding the "saire," a large semicircular frame, clothed with
cotton and studded with ornaments, bits of looking-glass, and
so forth. This they danced up and down, singing all the time
a monotonous whining hymn in the Tupi language, and at fre-
quent intervals turning round to face the followers, who then
all stopped for a few moments. I was told that this saire was
a device adopted by the Jesuits to attract the savages to
church, for these everywhere followed the mirrors, in which
they saw as it were magically reflected their own persons. In
the evening, good-humoured revelry prevailed on all sides. The
negroes, who had a saint of their own colour — St. Benedito —
had their holiday apart from the rest, and spent the whole
night singing and dancing, to the music of a long drum
(gamba) and the caracasha. The drum was a hollow log,
having one end covered with skin, and was played by the
performer sitting astride upon it and drumming with his
knuckles. The caracasha is a notched bamboo tube, which
produces a harsh rattling noise by passing a hard stick over
the notches. Nothing could exceed in dreary monotony this
music and the singing and dancing, which were kept up widi
unflagging vigour all night long. The Indians did not get up
a dance ; for the whites and mamelucos had monopolised all
the pretty coloured girls for their own ball, and the older
squaws preferred looking on to taking a part themselves.

158 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vii.

Some of their husbands joined the negroes, and got drunk
very quickly. It was amusing to notice how voluble the
usually taciturn red-skins became under the influence of liquor.
The negroes and Indians excused their own intemperance by
saying the whites were getting drunk at the other end of the
town, which was quite true.

We left Serpa on the 29th of December, in company of an
old planter named Senhor Joao (John) Trinidade ; at whose sitio,
situated opposite the mouth of the Madeira, Penna intended to
spend a few days. Our course on the 29th and 30th lay
through narrow channels between islands. On the 31st we
passed the last of these, and then beheld to the south a sea-like
expanse of water, where the Madeira, the greatest tributary of
the Amazons, after 2000 miles of course, blends its waters
with those of the king of rivers. I was hardly prepared for a
junction of waters on so vast a scale as this, now nearly 900
miles from the sea. While travelling week after week along
the somewhat monotonous stream, often hemmed in between
islands, and becoming thoroughly familiar with it, my sense of
the magnitude of this vast water system had become gradually
deadened : but this noble sight renewed the first feelings of
wonder. One is inclined, in such places as these, to think the
Paraenses do not exaggerate much when they call the Amazons
the Mediterranean of South America. Beyond the mouth of
the Madeira, the Amazons sweeps down in a majestic reach, to
all appearance not a whit less in breadth before, than after, this
enormous addition to its waters. The Madeira does not ebb
and flow simultaneously with the Amazons ; it rises and sinks
about two months earlier, so that it was now fuller than the
main river. Its current therefore poured forth freely from its
mouth, carrying with it a long line of floating trees and
patches of grass, which had been torn from its crumbly banks
in the lower part of its course. The current, however, did not
reach the middle of the main stream, but swept "along nearer
to the southern shore.

A few items of information which I gleaned relative to this
river may find a place here. The Madeira is navigable for
about 480 miles from its mouth ; a series of cataracts and
rapids then commences, which extends, with some intervals of
quiet water, about 160 miles, beyond which is another long
stretch of navigable stream. Canoes sometimes descend from
Villa Bella, in the interior province of Matto Grosso, but not
so frequently as formerly, and I could hear of very few persons

CHAP. VII. RIVER MADEIRA. 159

who had attempted of late years to ascend the river to that
point. It was explored by the Portuguese in the early part of
the eighteenth century; the chief and now the only town on its
banks, Borba, 150 miles from its mouth, being founded in
1756. Up to the year 1853, the lower part of the river, as far
as about 100 miles beyond Borba, was regularly visite.d by
traders from Villa Nova, Serpa, and Barra, to collect salsapa-
rilla, copaiiba balsam, turtle-oil, and to trade with the Indians,
with whom their relations were generally on a friendly footing.
In that year many india-rubber collectors resorted to this
region, stimulated by the high price (2^-. 6d. per pound) which
the article was at that time fetching at Para; and then the
Araras, a fierce and intractable tribe of Indians, began to be
troublesome. They attacked several canoes and massacred every
one on board, the Indian crews as well as the white traders.
Their plan was to lurk in ambush near the sandy beaches
where canoes stop for the night, and then fall upon the people
whilst asleep. Sometimes they came under pretence of wishing
to trade, and then as soon as they could get the trader at a dis-
advantage shot him and his crew from behind trees. Their
arms were clubs, bows, and Taquara arrows, the latter a formid-
able weapon tipped with a piece of flinty bamboo shaped like a
spear-head ; they could propel it with such force as to pierce a
man completely through the body. The whites of Borba made
reprisals, inducing the warlike Munduruciis, who had an old
feud with the Araras, to assist them. This state of things
lasted two or three years, and made a journey up the Madeira
a risky undertaking, as the savages attacked all comers.
Besides the Araras and the Munduruciis, the latter a tribe
friendly to the whites, attached to agriculture, and inhabiting
the interior of the country from the Madeira to beyond the
Tapajos, two other tribes of Indians nov/ inhabit the lower
Madeira, namely, the Parentintins and the Muras. Of the
former I did not hear much ; the Muras lead a lazy quiet life
on the banks of the labyrinths of lakes and channels which
intersect the low country on both sides of the river below
Borba. The Araras are one of those tribes which do not plant
mandioca ; and indeed have no setded habitations. They are
very similar in stature and other physical features to the
Munduruciis, although differing from them so widely in habits
and social condition. They paint their chins red with Urucii
(Anatto), and have usually a black tattooed streak on each
side of the. face, running from the corner of the mouth to the

i6o THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vii.

temple. They have not yet learnt the use of firearms, have no
canoes, and spend their Hves roaming over the interior of the
country, living on game and wild fruits. When they wish to
cross a river, they make a temporary canoe with the thick bark
of trees, which they secure in the required shape of a boat by
means of lianas. I heard it stated by a trader of Santarem,
w^ho narrowly escaped being butchered by them in 1854, that
the Araras numbered two thousand fighting men. The number
I think must be exaggerated, as it generally is with regard to
Brazilian tribes. When the Indians show a hostile disposition
to the whites, I believe it is most frequently owing to some
provocation they have received at their hands ; for the first
impulse of the Brazilian red-man is to respect Europeans ;
they have a strong dislike to be forced into their service, but
if strangers visit them with a friendly intention they are well
treated. It is related, however, that the Indians of the
Madeira were hostile to the Portuguese from the first ; it was
then the tribes of Muras and Torazes who attacked travellers.
In 1855 I met with an American, an odd character, named
Kemp, who had lived for many years amongst the Indians on
the Madeira, near the abandoned settlement of Crato. He told
me his neighbours were a kindly-disposed and cheerful people,
and that the onslaught of the Araras was provoked by a trader
from Barra, who wantonly fired into a family cf them, killing
the parents, and carrying off their children to be employed as
domestic servants.

We remained nine days at the sitio of Senhor John Trinidade.
It is situated on a tract of high Ygapo land, which is raised,
however, only a few inches above high-water mark. This
skirts the northern shore for a long distance ; the soil consist-
ing of alluvium and rich vegetable mould, and exhibiting the
most exuberant fertility. Such districts are the first to be
settled on in this country, and the whole coast for many miles
was dotted with pleasant-looking sitios like that of our friend.
The establishment was a large one, the house and out-buildings
covering a large space of ground. The industrious proprietor
seemed to be Jack-of-all-trades ; he was planter, trader, fisher-
man, and canoe-builder, and a large igarite was now on the
stocks under a large shed. There was great pleasure in con-
templating this prosperous farm, from its being worked almost
entirely by free labour; in fact, by one family, and its depend-
ants. John Trinidade had only one female slave; his other

CHAP. VII. A MAMELUCO FARMER. i6i

workpeople were a brother and sister-in-law, two godsons, a
free negro, one or two Indians and a family of Muras. Both
he and his wife were mamelucos ; the negro children called
them always father and mother. The order, abundance, and
comfort about the place showed what industry and good
management could effect in this country without slave-labour.
But the surplus produce of such small plantations is very
trifling. All we saw had been done since the disorders of
1835-6, during which John Trinidade was a great sufferer; he
was obliged to fly, and the Mura Indians destroyed his house
and plantations. There was a large, well-weeded grove of
cacao along the banks of the river, comprising about 8,000
trees, and further inland considerable plantations of tobacco,
mandioca, Indian com, fields of rice, melons, and water-melons.
Near the house was a kitchen garden, in which grew cabbages
and onions, introduced from Europe, besides a wonderful
variety of tropical vegetables. It must not be supposed that
these plantations and gardens were enclosed or neatly kept,
such is never the case in this country where labour is so scarce ;
but it was an unusual thing to see vegetables grown at all, and
the ground tolerably well weeded. The space around the
house was plentifully planted with fruit-trees, some, belonging
to the Anonaceous order, yielding delicious fruits large as a
child's head, and full of custardy pulp which it is necessary to
eat with a spoon ; besides oranges, lemons, guavas, alligator
pears, Abius (Achras cainito), Genipapas, and bananas. In the
shade of these, coffee trees grew in great luxuriance. The table
was always well supplied with fish, which the Mura, who was
attached to the household as fisherman, caught every morning
a few hundred yards from the port. The chief kinds were the
Surubim, Pira-peeua, and Piramutaba, three species of Siluridae,
belonging to the genus Pimelodus. To these we used a sauce
in the form of a yellow paste, quite new to me, called Arube,
which is made of the poisonous juice of the mandioca root,
boiled down before the starch or tapioca is precipitated, and
seasoned with capsicum peppers. It is kept in stone bottles
several weeks before using, and is a most appetising relish to
fish. Tucupi, another sauce made also from mandioca juice, is
much more common in the interior of the country than Arube.
This is made by boiling or heating the pure liquid, after the
tapioca has been separated, daily for several days in succession,
and seasoning it with peppers and small fishes ; when old it
has the taste of essence of anchovies. It is generally made as

II

1 62 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap, vi

a liquid, but the Juri and Miranha tribes on the Japura, make
it up in the form of a black paste, by a mode of preparation 1
could not learn; it is then called Tucupi-pixuna, or black
Tucupi. I have seen the Indians on the Tapajos, where fish
is scarce, season Tucupi with Saiiba ants. It is there used
chiefly as a sauce to Tacaca, another preparation from mandioca,
consisting of the starch beaten up in boiling water.

1 thoroughly enjoyed the nine days we spent at this place.
Our host and hostess took an interest in my pursuit ; one of
the best chambers in the house was given up to me, and the
young men took me long rambles in the neighbouring forests.
I saw very little hard work going forward. Every one rose
with the dawn, and went down to the river to bathe; then
came the never-failing cup of rich and strong coffee, after
which all proceeded to their avocations. At this time nothing
was being done at the plantations ; the cacao and tobacco
crops were not ripe; weeding time was over, and the only
work on foot was the preparation of a little farinha by the
women. The men dawdled about ; went shooting and fishing,
or did trifling jobs about the house. The only laborious work
done during the year in these establishments is tlie felling of
timber for new clearings ; this happens at the beginning of
the dry season^ namely, from July to September. Whatever
employment the people were engaged in, they did not intermit
it during the hot hours of the day. Those who went into the
woods took their dinners with them — a small bag of farinha
and a slice of salt fish. About sunset all returned to the
house ; they then had their frugal suppers, and towards eight
o^clock, after coming to ask a blessing of the patriarchal head
of the household, went off to their hammocks to sleep.

John Trinidade was famous for his tobacco and cigarettes,
as he took great pains in preparing the Tauari, or envelope,
which is formed of the inner bark of a tree, separated into
thin papery layers. Many trees yield it, amongst them the
Courataria Guianensis and the Sapucaya nut-tree, both belong-
ing to the same natural order. The bark is cut in long
strips, of a breadth suitable for folding the tobacco ; the inner
portion is then separated, boiled, hammered with a wooden
mallet, and exposed to the air for a few hours. Some kinds
have a reddish colour and an astringent taste, but the sort
prepared by our host was of a beautiful satiny-white hue, and
perfectly tasteless. He obtained sixty, eighty, and sometimes
a hundred layers from the same strip of bark. The best

CHAP. viT. MONKEYS, 163

tobacco in Brazil is grown in the neighbourhood of Borba, on
the Madeira, where the soil is a rich black loam ; but tobacco
of very good quality was grown by John Trinidade and his
neighbours along this coast, on similar soil. It is made up into
slender rolls, an inch and a half in diameter and six feet in
length, tapering at each end. When the leaves are gathered
and partially dried, layers of them, after the mid-ribs are
plucked out, are placed on a mat and rolled up into the
required shape. This is done by the women and children, who
also manage the planting, weeding, and gathering of the
tobacco. The process of tightening the rolls is a long and
heavy task, and can be done only by men. The cords used for
this purpose are of very great strength. They are made of the
inner bark of a peculiar light-wooded and slender tree, called
Uaissima, which yields, when beaten out, a great quantity of
most beautiful silky fibre, many feet in length. I think this
might be turned to some use by English manufacturers, if they
could obtain it in large quantity. The tree is abundant on
light soils on the southern side of the Lower Amazons, and
grows very rapidly. When the rolls are sufficiently well
pressed, they are bound round with narrow thongs of remarkable
toughness, cut from the bark of the climbing Jacitara palm-
tree (Desmoncus macracanthus), and are then ready for sale or
use.

It was very pleasant to roam in our host's cacaoal. The
ground was clear of underwood, the trees were about thirty feet
in height, and formed a dense shade. Two species of monkey
frequented the trees, and I was told committed great depreda-
tions when the fruit was ripe. One of these, the macaco prego
(Cebus cirrhifer?), is a most impudent thief; it destroys more
than it eats, by its random, hasty way of plucking and breaking
the fruits, and when about to return to the forest carries away
all it can in its hands or under its arms. The other species,
the pretty little Chrysothrix sciureus, contents itself with
devouring what it can on the spot. A variety of beautiful
insects basked on the foliage, where stray gleams of sunlight
glanced through the canopy of broad soft-green leaves, and
numbers of an elegant long-legged tiger-beetle (Odontocheila
egregia) ran and flew about over the herbage.

We left this place on the 8th of January, and on the after-
noon of the 9th arrived at Matari, a miserable little settlement
of Miira Indians. Here we again anchored and went ashore.
The place consisted of about twenty slightly-built mud hovels,

r64 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vii.

and had a most forlorn appearance, notwithstanding the hixu-
riant forest in its rear. A horde of these Indians settled here
many years ago, on the site of an abandoned missionary station,
and the government had lately placed a resident director over
them, with the intention of bringing the hitherto intractable
savages under authority. This, however, seemed to promise
no other result than that of driving them to their old solitary
haunts, on the banks of the interior waters, for many families
had already withdrawn themselves. The absence of the usual
cultivated trees and plants gave the place a naked and poverty-
stricken aspect. I entered one of the hovels, where several
women were employed cooking a meal. Portions of a large
fish were roasting over a fire made in the middle of the low
chamber, and the entrails were scattered about the floor, on
which the women with their children were squatted. These
had a timid, distrustful expression of countenance, and their
bodies were begrimed with black mud, which is smeared over
the skin as a protection against mosquitoes. The children
were naked, the women wore petticoats of coarse cloth, ragged
round the edges, and stained in blotches with murixi, a dye
made from the bark of a tree. One of them wore a necklace
of monkey's teeth. There were scarcely any household utensils ;
the place was bare with the exception of two dirty grass ham-
mocks hung in the corners. I missed the usual mandioca
sheds behind the house, with their surrounding cotton, cacao,
coffee, and lemon trees. Two or three young men of the tribe
v»^ere lounging about the low open doorway. " They were stoutly-
built fellows, but less well-proportioned than the semi-civilized
Indians of the Lower Amazons generally are. Their breadth
of chest was remarkable, and their arms were wonderfully
thick and muscular. The legs appeared short in proportion to
the trunk ; the expression of their countenances was unmis-
takably more sullen and brutal, and the skin of a darker hue,
than is common in the Brazilian fed man. Before we left the
kut an old couple came in \ the husband carrying his paddle,
bow, arrows, and harpoon, the woman bent beneath the weight
of a krge basket filled with palm fruits. The man was of low
stature and had a wild appearance from the long coarse hair
which hung over his forehead. Both his lips were pierced with
holes, as is usual with the older Miiras seen on the river. They
used formerly to wear tusks of the wild hog in these holes
whenever they went out to encounter strangers or their enemies
in war. The gloomy savagery, filth, and poverty of the people

CHAP. VII. SCARLET TANAGERS. 165

in this place made me feel quite melancholy, and I was glad
to return to the canoe. They offered us no civilities ; they did
not even pass the ordinary salutes, which all the semi-civilized
and many savage Indians proffer on a first meeting. The men
persecuted Penna for cashaca, which they seemed to consider
the only good thing the white man brings with him. As they
had nothing whatever to give in exchange, Penna declined to
supply them. They followed us as we descended to the port,
becoming very troublesome when about a dozen had collected
together. They brought their empty bottles with them and
promised fish and turtle, if we would only trust them first
with the coveted aguardente, or cau-im, as they called it.
Penna was inexorable : he ordered the crew to weigh anchor,
and the disappointed savages remained hooting after us with
all their might, from the top of the bank, as we glided away.

After leaving Matari we continued our voyage along the
northern shore. The banks of the river were of moderate
elevation during several days' journey \ the terra firma lying
far in the interior, and the coast being either low land, or
masked with islands of alluvial formation. On the 14th we
passed the upper mouth of the Parana-mirim de Eva, an arm
of the river of small breadth, formed by a straggling island,
some ten miles in length, lying parallel to the northern bank.
On passing the western end of this the mainland again
appeared, a rather high rocky coast, clothed with a magnificent
forest of rounded outline, which continues hence for twenty
miles to the mouth of the Rio Negro, and forms the eastern
shore of that river. Many houses of settlers, built at a con-
siderable elevation on the wooded heights, now enlivened the
river banks. One of the first objects which here greeted us
was a beautiful bird we had not hitherto met with, namely,
the scarlet and black tanager (Ramphocoelus nigrogularis),
flocks of which were seen sporting about the trees on the edge
of the water, their flame-coloured liveries lighting up the
masses of dark-green foliage.

The weather, from the 14th to the i8th, was wretched; it
rained sometimes for twelve hours in succession, not heavily,
but in a steady drizzle, such as we are familiar with in our
English climate. We landed at several places on the coast,
Penna to trade as usual, and I to ramble in the forest in search
of birds and insects. In one spot the wooded slope enclosed
a very picturesque scene : a brook, flowing through a ravine
in the high bank, fell in many little cascades to the broad

i66 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vii.

river beneath, its margins decked out with an infinite variety of
beautiful plants. Wild bananas arched over the watercourse,
and the trunks of the trees in its vidnity were clothed with
ferns, large-leaved species belonging to the genus Lygodium,
which, like Osmunda, have their spore-cases collected together
on contracted leaves. On the i8th we arrived at a large
fazenda (plantation and cattle farm), called Jatuarana. A
rocky point here projects into the stream, and as we found it
impossible to stem the strong current which whirled round it,
we crossed over to the southern shore. Canoes in approaching
the Rio Negro generally prefer the southern side on account
of the slackness of the current near the banks. Our progress,
however, was rhost tediously slow, for the regular east wind
had now entirely ceased, and the vento de cima or wind from
, up river, having taken its place,, blew daily for a few hours
dead against us. The weather was oppressively close, and
every afternoon a squall arose, which, however, as it came from
the right quarter and blew for an hour or two, was very
welcome. We made acquaintance on this coast with a 'new
insect pest, the Pium, a minute fly, two-thirds of a line in
length, which here commences its reign, and continues hence-
forward as a terrible scourge along the upper river, or Soli-
moens, to the end of the navigation on the Amazons. It
comes forth only by day, relieving the mosquito at sunrise with
the greatest punctuality, and occurs only near the muddy
shores of the stream, not one ever being found in the shade of
the forest. In places where it is abundant, it accompanies
canoes in such dense swarms as to resemble thin clouds of
smoke. It made its appearance in this way the first day after
we crossed the river. Before I was aware of the presence of
flies I felt a slight itching on my neck, wrist, and ankles, and
on looking for the cause saw a number of tiny objects having
a disgusting resemblance to lice, adhering to the skin. This
was my introduction to the much-talked-of Piiim. On close
examination they are seen to be minute two-winged insects,
with dark-coloured body and pale legs and wings, the latter
closed lengthwise over the back. They alight imperceptibly,
and squatting close, fall at once to work, stretching forward
their long front legs, which are in constant motion and seem to
act as feelers, and then applying their short, broad snouts to
the skin. Their abdomens soon become distended and red
v/ith blood, and then, their thirst satisfied, they slowly move
off, sometimes so stupefied with their potations that they can

CHAP. VII. ANOTHER INSECT PEST. 167

scarcely fly. No pain is felt whilst they are at work, but they
each leave a small circular raised spot on the skin and a dis-
agreeable irritation. The latter may be avoided in great
measure by pressing out the blood which remains in the spot ;
but this is a troublesome task, when one has several hundred
punctures in the course of a day. I took the trouble to dissect
specimens to ascertain the way in which the little pests operate.
The mouth consists of a pair of thick fleshy lips, and two
triangular horny lancets, answering to the upper lip and tongue
of other insects. This is applied closely to the skin, a puncture
is made with the lancets, and the blood then sucked through
between these into the oesophagus, the circular spot which
results coinciding with the shape of the lips. In the course
of a few days the red spots dry up, and the skin in time
becomes blackened with the endless number of discoloured
punctures that are crowded together. The irritation they
produce is more acutely felt by some persons than others. I
once travelled with a middle-aged Portuguese, who was laid
up for three weeks from the attacks of Piiim, ■ his legs being
swollen to an enormous size, and the punctures aggravated into
spreading sores.

A brisk wind from the east sprang up early in the morning of
the 22nd, we then hoisted all sail, and made for the mouth
of the Rio Negro. This noble stream at its junction with the
Amazons seems, from its position, to be a direct continuation
of the main river, whilst the Solimoens which joins at an angle
and is somewhat narrower than its tributary, appears to be a
branch instead of the main trunk of the vast water-system.
One sees therefore at once how the early explorers came to
give a separate name to this upper part of the Amazons. The
Brazilians have lately taken to applying the convenient term
Alto Amazonas (High or Upper Amazons) to the Solimoens,
and it is probable that this will gradually prevail over the old
name. The Rio Negro broadens considerably from its mouth
upwards, and presents the appearance of a great lake ; its
black-dyed waters having no current, and seeming to be
dammed up by the impetuous flow of the yellow, turbid
Solimoens, which here belches forth a continuous line of up-
rooted trees and patches of grass, and forms a striking contrast
with its tributary. In crossing we passed the line, a little more
than half-way over, where the waters of the two rivers meet
and are sharply demarcated from each other. On reaching the
opposite shore we found a remarkable change. All our insect

i68 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vii.

pests had disappeared, as if by magic, even from the hold of
the canoe : the turmoil of an agitated, swiftly flowing river,
and its torn, perpendicular, earthy banks, had given place to
tranquil water and a coast indented with snug little bays,
fringed with sloping sandy beaches. The low shore and vivid
light green endlessly-varied foliage, which prevailed on the
south side of the Amazons, were exchanged for a hilly country,
clothed with a sombre, rounded, and monotonous forest. Our
tedious voyage now approached its termination ; a light wind
carried us gently along the- coast to the city of Barra, which
lies about seven or eight miles within the mouth of the river.
We stopped for an hour in a clean little bay, to bathe and
dress, before showing ourselves again among civilised people.
The bottom was visible at a depth of six feet, the white sand
taking a brownish tinge from the stained but clear water.
In the evening I went ashore, and was kindly received by
Senhor Henriques Antony, a warm-hearted Italian, established
here in a high position as merchant, who was the never-
failing friend of stray travellers. He placed a couple of rooms
at my disposal, and in a few hours I was comfortably settled
in my new quarters, sixty-four days after leaving Obydos.

I found at Barra my companion, Mr. Wallace, who, since our
joint Tocantins expedition, had been exploring, partly with his
brother, lately arrived from England, the north-eastern coast of
Marajo, the river Capim (a branch of the Guama, near Para),
Monte Alegre, and Santarem. He had passed us by night
below Serpa, on his way to Barra, and so had arrived about
three weeks before me. Besides ourselves there were half-a-
dozen other foreigners here congregated — Englishmen, Ger-
mans, and Americans ; one of them a natural-history collector,
the rest traders on the rivers. In the pleasant society of these,
and of the family of Senhor Henriques, we passed a delightful
time; the miseries of our long river voyages were soon for-
gotten, and in two or three weeks we began to talk of further
explorations. Meantime we had almost daily rambles in the
neighbouring forest. The whole surface of the land, down to
the water's edge, is covered by the uniform dark green rolling
forest, the cad-apoam (convex woods) of the Indians, character-
istic of the Rio Negro. This clothes also the extensive areas-
of low land, which are flooded by the river in the rainy season.
The olive-brown tinge of the water seems to be derived from
the saturation in it of the dark green foliage during these

CHAP. VII. FOREST OF BARRA. 169

annual inundations. The great contrast in form and colour
between the forests of the Rio Negro and those of the x\mazons
arises from the predominance in each of different families of
plants. On the main river palms of twenty or thirty different
species form a great proportion of the mass of trees, whilst on
the Rio Negro they play a very subordinate part. The cha-
racteristic kind in the latter region is the Jara (Leopoldinia
pulchra), a species not found on the margins of the Amazons,
which has a scanty head of fronds, with narrow leaflets of the
same dark green hue as the rest of the forest. The stem is
smooth, and about two inches in diameter ; its height is not
more than twelve to fifteen feet ; it does not, therefore, rise
amongst the masses of foliage of the exogenous trees, so as to
form a feature in the landscape, like the broad-leaved Muru-
muru and Urucuri, the slender Assai, the tall Jauari, and the
fan-leaved Muriti of the banks of the Amazons. On the shores
of the main river the mass of the forest is composed, besides
palms, of Leguminosae, or trees of the bean family, in endless
variety as to height, shape of foliage, flowers, and fruit ; of silk-
cotton trees, colossal nut-trees (Lecythidese), and Cecropiae ; the
underwood and water-frontage consisting in great part of
broad-leaved Musaceae, Marantaceae, and succulent grasses :
all of which are of light shades of green. The forests of the
Rio Negro are almost destitute of these large-leaved plants and
grasses, which give so rich an appearance to the vegetation
wherever they grow ; the margins of the stream being clothed
with bushes or low trees, having the same gloomy monotonous
aspect as the mangroves of the shores of creeks near the
Atlantic. The uniformly small but elegantly leaved exogenous
trees, which constitute the mass of the forest, consist in great
part of members of the Laurel, Myrtle, Bignoniaceous, and
Rubiaceous orders. The soil is generally a stiff loam, whose
chief component part is the Tabatinga clay, which also forms
low cliffs on the coast in some places, where it overlies strata of
coarse sandstone. This kind of soil and the same geological
formation prevail, as we have seen, in many places on the banks
of the Amazons, so that the great contrast in the forest clothing
of the two rivers cannot arise from this cause.

The forest was very pleasant for rambling. In some directions

broad pathways led down gentle slopes, through what one

-might fancy were interminable shrubberies of evergreens, to

moist hollows where springs of water bubbled up, or shallow

brooks ran over their beds of clean white sand. But the most

I70 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vii.

beautiful road was one that ran through the heart of the forest
to a waterfall, which the citizens of Barra consider as the chief
natural curiosity of their neighbourhood. The waters of one
of the larger rivulets which traverse the gloomy wilderness
here fall over a ledge of rock about ten feet high. It is not
the cascade itself, but the noiseless solitude, and the marvellous
diversity and richness of trees, foliage, and flowers, encircling
the water basin, that form the attraction of the place. Families
make pic-nic excursions to this spot ; and the gentlemen — it is
said the ladies also — spend the sultry hours of midday bathing
in the cold and bracing waters. The place is classic ground
to the naturalist, from having been a favourite spot with the
celebrated travellers Spix and Martins, during their stay at
Barra in. 1820. Von Martius was so much impressed by its
magical beauty, that he commemorated the visit by making a
sketch of the scenery serve as background in one of the plates
of his great work on the palms.

Birds and insects, however, were scarce amidst these charm-
ing sylvan scenes. I have often traversed the whole distance
from Barra to the waterfall, about two miles by the forest road,
without seeing or hearing a bird, or meeting with so many as a
score of Lepidopterous and Coleopterous insects. In the thinner
woods near the borders of the forest many pretty little blue and
green creepers of the Dacnidse group were daily seen feeding
on berries, and a few very handsome birds occurred in the
forest. But the latter were so rare that we could obtain them
only by employing a native hunter, who used to spend a whole
day and go a great distance to obtain two or three specimens.
In this way I obtained, amongst others, specimens of the Trogon
pavoninus (the Suruqua grande of the natives), a most beautiful
creature, having soft golden green plumage, red breast, and an
orange-coloured beak ; also the Ampelis Pompadoura, a rich
glossy-purple chatterer with wings of a snowy-white hue.

After we had rested some weeks in Barra, we arranged our
plans for further explorations in the interior of the country.
Mr. Wallace chose the Rio Negro for his next trip, and I agreed
to take the Solimoens. My colleague has already given to the
world an account of his journey on the Rio Negro, and his
adventurous ascent of its great tributary the Uapes. I left
Barra for Ega, the first town of any importance on the Soli-
moens, on the 26th of March, 1850. The distance is nearly
400 miles, which we accomplished in a small cuberta, manned
by ten stout' Cucama Indians, in thirty-five days. On this

CHAP. VII. REMINISCENCES OF PAR J. 171

occasion, I spent twelve months in the upper region of the
Amazons ; circumstances then compelled me to return to Para.
I revisited the same country in 1855, and devoted three years
and a half to a fuller exploration of its natural productions.
The results of both journeys will be given together in subse
quent chapters of this work ; in the meantime, I will proceed
to give an account of Santarem and the river Tapajos, whose
neighbourhoods I investigated in the years 185 1-4.

A few words on my visit to Para in 1851 may be here intro-
duced. I descended the river from Ega to the capital, a dis-
tance of 1400 miles, in a heavily-laden schooner belonging to a
trader of the former place. The voyage occupied no less than
twenty-nine days, although we were favoured by the powerful
currents of the rainy season. • The hold of the vessel was filled
with turtle oil contained in large jars, the cabin was crammed
with Brazil nuts, and a great pile of salsaparilla, covered with
a thatch of palm leaves, occupied the middle of the deck. We
had therefore (the master and two passengers) but rough ac-
commodation, having to sleep on deck, exposed to the wet and
stormy weather, under little toldos or arched shelters, arranged
with mats of woven lianas and maranta leaves. I awoke many
n morning with clothes and bedding soaked through with the
rain. With the exception, however, of a slight cold at the
commencement, I never enjoyed better health than during this
journey. When the wind blew from up river or off the land,
we sped away at a great rate ; but it was often squally from
those quarters, and then it was not safe to hoist the sails. The
weather was generally calm, a motionless mass of leaden clouds
covering the sky, and the broad expanse of waters flowing
smoothly down with no other motion than the ripple of the
current. When the wind came from below, we tacked down
the stream; sometimes it blew very strong, and then the
schooner, having the wind abeam, laboured through the waves,
shipping often heavy seas which washed everything that was
loose from one side of the deck to the other.

On arriving at Para, I found the once cheerful and healthful
city desolated by two terrible epidemics. The yellow fever,
which visited the place the previous year (1850) for the first
time since the discovery of the country, still lingered, after
having carried off nearly 5 per cent, of the population. The
number of persons who were attacked, namely, three-fourths of
tjie entire population, showed how general is the onslaught of

172 THE LOWER AMAZONS. chap. vii.

an epidemic on its first appearance in a place. At the heels. of
this plague came the smallpox. The yellow fever had fallen
most severely on the whites and mamelucos, the negroes
wholly escaping ; but the smallpox attacked more especially
the Indians, negroes, and people of mixed colour, sparing the
whites almost entirely, and taking off about a twentieth part of
the population in the course of the four months of its stay. I
heard many strange accounts of the yellow fever. I believe
Para was the second port in Brazil attacked by it. The news
of its ravages in Bahia, where the epidemic first appeared,
arrived some few days before the disease broke out. The go-
vernment took all the sanitary precautions that could be
thought of; amongst the rest was the singular one of firing
cannon at the street corners, to purify the air. Mr. Norris,
the American consul, told me the first cases of fever occurred
near the port, and that it spread rapidly and regularly from
house to house, along the streets which run from the waterside
to the suburbs, taking about twenty-four hours to reach the end.
Some persons related that for several successive evenings before
the fever broke out the atmosphere was thick, and that a body
of murky vapour, accompanied by a strong stench, travelled
from street to street. This moving vapour was called the
"Mai da peste" ("the mother or spirit of the plague'^); and
it was useless to attempt to reason them out of the belief that
this was the forerunner of the pestilence. The progress of the
disease was very rapid. It commenced in April, in the middle
of the wet season. In a few days, thousands of persons lay
sick, dying, or dead. The state of the city during the time the
fever lasted, may be easily imagined. Towards the end of June
it abated, and very few cases occurred during the dry season
from July to December.

As I said before, the yellow fever still lingered in the place
when I arrived from the interior in April. I was in hopes I
should escape it, but was not so fortunate ; it seemed to spare
no new-comer. At the time I fell ill, every medical man in
the place was worked to the utmost in attending the victims of
the other epidemic ; it was quite useless to think of obtaining
their aid, so I was obliged to be my own doctor, as I had been
in many former smart attacks of fever. I was seized with
shivering and vomit at 9 o'clock in the morning. Whilst the
people of the house went down to the town for the medicines I
ordered, I wrapped myself in a blanket and walked sharply to
and fro along the verandah, drinking at intervals a cup of warm

CHAP. VII. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. 173

tea, made of a bitter herb in use amongst the natives, called
Pajemarioba, a leguminous plant growing in all waste places.
About an hour afterwards I took a good draught of a decoction
of elder blossoms as a sudorific, and soon after fell insensible
into my hammock. Mr. Philipps, an English resident with
whom I was then lodging, came home in the afternoon and
found me sound asleep and perspiring famously. I did not
wake till towards midnight, when I felt very weak and aching
in every bone of my body. I then took as a purgative a small
dose of Epsom salts and manna. In forty-eight hours the
fever left me, and in eight days from the first attack I was able
to get about my work. Little else happened during my stay,
which need be recorded here. I shipped off all my collections
to England, and received thence a fresh supply of funds. It
took me several weeks to prepare for my second and longest
journey into the interior. My plan now was first to make
Santarem head-quarters for some time, and ascend from that
place the river Tapajos, as far as practicable. Afterwards I
intended to revisit the marvellous country of the Upper Ama-
zons, and work well its natural history at various stations I had
fixed upon, from Ega to the foot of the Andes,

CHAPTER VIII.

SANTAREM.

Situation of Santarem — Manners and customs of the inhabitants — Climate
— Grassy campos and woods — Excursions to Mapiri, Mahica, and
Irura, with sketches of their Natural History ; Palms, wild fruit-trees,
Mining Wasps, Masen Wasps, Bees, and Sloths,

I HAVE already given a short account of the size, .situation,
and general appearance of Santarem. Although containing not
more than 2,500 inhabitants, it is the most civilised and im-
portant settlement on the banks of the main river from Peru to
the Atlantic. The pretty little town, or city as it is called,
with its rows of tolerably uniform white-washed and red-tiled
houses, surrounded by green gardens and woods, stands on
gently sloping ground on the eastern side of the Tapajos, close
to its point of junction with the Amazons. A small eminence
on which a fort has been erected, but which is now in a dilapi-
dated condition, overlooks the streets, and forms the eastern
limit of the mouth of the tributary. The Tapajos at Santarem
is contracted to a breadth of about a mile and a half by an
accretion of low alluvial land, which forms a kind of delta on
the western side ; fifteen miles further up, the river is seen at
its full width of ten or a dozen miles, and the magnificent hilly
country, through which it flows from the south, is then visible
on both shores. This high land, which appears to be a con-
tinuation of the central table-lands of Brazil, stretches almost
without interruption on the eastern side of the river down to
its mouth at Santarem. The scenery, as well as the soil, vege-
tation, and animal tenants of this region, are widely different
from those of the flat and uniform country which borders the
Amazons along most part of its course. After travelling week
after week on the main river, the aspect of Santarem, with its
broad white sandy beach, limpid dark green waters, and line of
picturesque hills rising behind over the fringe of green forest,

CHAP. VIII. HOUSE-RENl^ AND SERVANTS. 175

affords an agreeable surprise. On the main Amazons, the pros-
pect is monotonous unless the vessel runs near the shore, when
the wonderful diversity and beauty of the vegetation afford
constant entertainment. Otherwise, the unvaried, broad yellow
stream, and the long low line of forest, which dwindles away in
a broken line of trees on the sea-like horizon, and is renewed
reach after reach, as the voyager advances, weary by their
uniformity.

I arrived at Santarem on my second journey into the inte-
rior, in November, 1851, and made it my head-quarters for a
period, as it turned out, of three years and a half During this
time I made, in pursuance of the plan I had framed, many ex-
cursions up the Tapajos, and to other places of interest in the
surrounding region. On landing, I found no difficulty in hiring
a suitable house on the outskirts of the place. It was plea-
santly situated near the beach, going towards the aldeia or
Indian part of the town. The ground sloped from the back
premises down to the waterside, and my little raised verandah
overlooked a beautiful flower-garden, a great rarity in this
country, which belonged to the neighbours. The house con-
tained only three rooms, one with brick and two with boarded
floors. It was substantially built, like all the better sort of
houses in Santarem, and had a stuccoed front. The kitchen,
as is usual, formed an outhouse placed a few yards distant from
the other rooms. The rent was 12,000 reis, or about twenty-
seven shillings a month. In this country, a tenant has no
extra payments to make ; the owners of house property pay a
dizimo or tithe, to the " collectoria geral," or general treasury,
but with this the occupier of course has nothing to do. In
engaging servants, I had the good fortune to meet with a free
mulatto, an industrious and trustworthy young fellow, named
Jose, willing to arrange with me; the people of* his family
cooking for us, whilst he assisted me in collecting ; he proved
of the greatest service in the different excursions we subse-
quently made. Servants of any kind were almost impossible to
be obtained at Santarem, free people being too proud to hire
themselves, and slaves too few and valuable to their masters, to
be let out to others. These matters arranged, the house put in
order, and a rude table, with a few chairs, bought or borrowed
to furnish the house with, I was ready in three or four days
to commence my natural-history explorations in the neighbour-
hood.

Santarem is a pleasant place to live in, irrespective of its

176 S A N T A R E M. chap. viii.

society. There are no insect pests, mosquito, pium, sand-fly,
or motuca. The climate is glorious ; during six months of the
year, from August to February, very little rain falls, and the
sky is cloudless for weeks together, the fresh breezes from the
sea, nearly 400 miles distant, moderating the great heat of the
sun. The wind is sometimes so strong for days together that
it is difficult to make way against it in walking along the streets,
and it enters the open windows and doors of houses, scattering
Icose clothing and papers in all directions. The place is con-
sidered healthy, but at the changes of season severe colds and
ophthalmia are prevalent. I found three Englishmen living
here, who had resided many years in the town or its neighbour-
hood, and who still retained their florid complexions ; the
plump and fresh appearance of many of the middle-aged
Santarem ladies also bore testimony to the healthfulness of the
climate. The streets are always clean and dry, even in the
height of the wet season ; good order is always kept, and the
place pretty well supplied with provisions. Very good bread
was hawked round the town every morning, "vvith milk, and a
.great variety of fruits and vegetables. Amongst the fruits there
was a kind called atta, which I did not see in any other part of
the countr}^ It belongs to the Anonaceous order, and the tree
which produces it grows apparently wild in the neighbourhood
of Santarem. It is a little larger than a good sized orange, and
the rind, which encloses a mass of rich custardy pulp, is scaled
like the pineapple, but green when ripe, and encrusted on the
inside with sugar. To finish this account of the advantages of
Santarem, the delicious bathing in the clear waters of the
Tapajos may be mentioned. There is here no fear of alligators.
When the east wind blows, a long swell rolls in on the clean
sandy beach, and the bath is most exhilirating.

The country around Santarem is not clothed with dense and
lofty forest, like the rest of the great humid river plain of the
Amazons. It is a campo region ; a slightly elevated and undu-
lating tract of land, wooded only in patches, or with single
scattered trees. A good deal of the country on the borders of
the Tapajos, which flows from the great campo area of Interior
Brazil, is of this description. It is on this account that I con-
sider the eastern side of the river, towards its mouth, to be a
northern prolongation of the continental land, and not a portion
of the alluvial flats of the Amazons. The soil is a coarse
gritty sand ; the substratum, which is visible in some places,
consisting of sandstone conglomerate probably of the same

^HAP. VIII. SEASON'S. 177

fDrmation as that which underHes the Tabatinga clay in other
parts of the river valley. The surface is carpeted with slender
hairy grasses, unfit for pasture, growing to a uniform height of
about a foot. The patches of wood look like copses in the
middle of green meadows; they are called by the natives
"ilhas de mato," or islands of jungle; the name being, no
doubt, suggested by their compactness of outline, neatly demar-
cated in insular form from the smooth carpet of grass around
them. They are composed of a great variety of trees, loaded
with succulent parasites, and lashed together by woody climbers
like the forest in other parts. A narrow belt of dense wood,
similar in character to these ilhas, and like them sharply
limited along its borders, runs everywhere parallel and close to
the river. In crossing the campo, the path from the town
ascends a little for a mile or two, passing through" this marginal
strip of wood ; the grassy land then slopes gradually to a broad
valley, watered by rivulets, whose banks are clothed with lofty
and luxuriant forest. Beyond this, a range of hills extends as
far as the eye can reach towards the yet untrodden interior.
Some of these hills are long ridges, wooded or bare ; others are
isolated conical peaks, rising abruptly from the valley. The
highest are probably not more than a thousand feet above the
level of the river. One remarkable hill, the Serra de Muruaru,
about fifteen miles from Santarem, which terminates the pros-
pect to the south, is of the same truncated pyramidal form as
the range of hills near Almeyrim. Complete solitude reigns
over the whole of this stretch of beautiful country. The inha-
bitants of Santarem know nothing of the interior, and seem to
feel little curiosity concerning it. A few tracks from the town
across the campo lead to some small clearings four or five miles
off, belonging to the poorer inhabitants of the place; but,
excepting these, there are no roads, or signs of the proximity
of a civilised settlement.

The appearance of the campos changes very much according
to the season. There is not that grand uniformity of aspect
throughout the year which is observed in the virgin forest, and
which makes a deeper impression on the naturalist the longer
he remains in this country. The seasons in this part of the
Amazons region are sharply contrasted, but the difference is
not so great as in some tropical countries, where, during the
dry monsoon, insects and reptiles go into a summer sleep, and
the trees simultaneously shed their leaves. As the dry season
advances (August, September), the grass on the campos withers,

12

178 SANTAREM. chap. viii.

and the shrubby vegetation near the town becomes a mass of
parched yellow stubble. The period, however, is not one of
general torpidity or repose for animal or vegetable life. Birds
certainly are not so numerous as in the wet season, but some
kinds remain and lay their eggs at this time — for instance, the
ground doves (Chamaepelia). The trees retain their verdure
throughout, and many of them flower in the dry months.
Lizards do not become torpid, and insects are seen both in the
larva and the perfect states, showing that the aridity of the
, climate has not a general influence on the development of the
species. Some kinds of butterflies, especially the little hair-
streaks (Theclae), whose caterpillars feed on the trees, make
their appearance only when the dry season is at its height.
The land molluscs of the district are the only animals which
asstivate ; they are found in clusters, Bulimi and Helices, con-
cealed in hollow trees, the mouths of their shells closed by a
film of mucus. The fine weather breaks up often with great
suddenness about the beginning of February. Violent squalls
from the west, or the opposite direction to the trade-wind, then
occur. They give very little warning, and the first generally
catches the people unprepared. They fall in the night, and
blowing directly into the harbour, with the first gust sweep all.
vessels from their anchorage ; in a few minutes a mass of
canoes, large and small, including schooners of fifty tons bur-
then, are clashing together, pell-mell, on the beach. I have
reason to remember these storms, for I was once caught in one
myself, whilst crossing the river in an undecked boat, about a
day's journey from Santarem. They are accompanied with
terrific electric explosions, the sharp claps of thunder falling
almost simultaneously with the blinding flashes of lightning.
Torrents of rain follow the first outbreak; the wind then
gradually abates, and the rain subsides into a steady drizzle,
which continues often for the greater part of the succeeding
day. After a week or two of showery weather the aspect of
the country is completely changed. The parched ground in
the neighbourhood of Santarem breaks out, so to speak, in a
rash of greenery : the dusty, languishing trees gain, without
having shed their old leaves, a new clothing of tender green
foliage ; a wonderful variety of quick-growing leguminous
plants spring up, and leafy creepers overrun the ground, the
bushes, and the trunks of trees. One is reminded of the sudden
advent of spring after a few warm showers in northern climates ;
I was the more struck by it as nothing similar is witnessed in

CHAP. viir. EXCURSIONS. 179

the virgin forests amongst which I had passed the four years
previous to my stay in this part. The grass on the campos is
renewed, and many of the campo trees, especially the myrtles,
which grow abundantly in one portion of the district, begin to
flower, attracting by the fragrance of their blossoms a great
number and variety of insects, more particularly Coleoptera.
Many kinds of birds, parrots, toucans, and barbets, which live
habitually in the forest, then visit the open places. A few
weeks of comparatively dry weather generally intervene in
March, after a month or two of rain. The heaviest rains fall
in April, May, and June ; they come in a succession of showers,
with sunny gleamy weather in the intervals. June and July
are the months when the leafy luxuriance of the campos, and
the activity of life, are at their highest. Most birds have then
completed their moulting, which extends over the period from
February to May. The flowering shrubs are then mostly in
bloom, and numberless kinds of Dipterous and Hymenopterous
insects appear simultaneously with the flowers. This season
might be considered the equivalent of summer in temperate
climates, as the bursting forth of the foliage in February repre-
sents the spring ; but under the equator there is not that simul-
taneous march in the annual life of animals and plants which
we see in high latitudes ; some species, it is true, are dependent
upon others in their periodical acts of life, and go hand-in-hand
with them, but they are not all simultaneously and similarly
aff"ected by the physical changes of the seasons.

I will now give an account of some of my favourite collecting
places in the neighbourhood of Santarem, incorporating with
the description a few of the more interesting observations made
on the Natural History of the localities. To the west of the
town there was a pleasant path along the beach to a Httle bay,
called Mapiri, about five miles within the mouth of the Tapajos.
The road was practicable only in the dry season. The river
at Santarem rises on the average about thirty feet, varying in
different years about ten feet ; so that in the four months, from
April to July, the water comes up to the edge of the marginal
belt of wood already spoken of This Mapiri excursion was
most pleasant and profitable in the months from January to
March, before the rains became too continuous. The sandy
beach beyond the town is very irrep;ular ; in some places form-
ing long spits on which, when the east wind is blowing, the
waves break in a line of foam 3 at others receding to shape out

i8o SANTARE'M. chap. viii.

quiet little bays and pools. On the outskirts of the town a few
scattered huts of Indians and coloured people are passed,
prettily situated on the margin of the white beach, with a back-
ground of glorious foliage ; the cabin of the pure-blood Indian
being distinguished from the mud hovels of the free negroes
and mulattoes by its light construction, half of it being an open
shed, where the dusky tenants are seen at all hours of the day
lounging in their open-meshed grass hammocks. About two
miles on the road we come to a series of shallow pools, called
the Laguinhos, which are connected with the river in the wet
season, but separated from it at other times by a high bank
of sand topped with bushes. There is a break here in the
fringe of wood, and a glimpse is obtained of the grassy campo.
When the waters have risen to the level of the pools, this place
is frequented by many kinds of wading birds. Snow-white
egrets of two species stand about the margins of the water, and
dusky-striped herons may be seen half hidden under the shade
of the bushes. The pools are covered with a small kind of
water-lily, and surrounded by a dense thicket. Amongst the
birds which inhabit this spot is the rosy-breasted Troupial
(Trupialis Guianensis), a bird resembling our starling in size
and habits, and not unlike it in colour, with the exception of
the rich rosy vest. The water at this time of the year overflows
a large level tract of campo bordering the pools, and the Trou-
pials come to feed on the larvae of insects which then abound
in the moist soil.

Beyond the Laguinhos there succeeds a tract of level beach,
covered with trees which form a beautiful grove. About the
month of April, when the water rises to this level, the trees are
covered with blossom, and a handsome orchid, an Epidendron
with large white flowers, which clothes thickly the trunks, is
profusely in bloom. Several kinds of kingfisher resort to the
place : four species may be seen within a small space : the
largest as big as a crow, of a mottled-grey hue, and with an
enormous beak ; the smallest not larger than a sparrow. The
large one makes its nest in clay cliffs, three or four miles distant
from this place. None of the kingfishers are so brilliant in
colour as our English species. The blossoms on the trees
attract two or three species of humming-birds, the most con-
spicuous of which is a large swallow-tailed kind (Eupetomena
macroura), with a brilliant livery of emerald green and steel
blue. I noticed that it did not remain so long poised in the
air before the flowers as the other smaller species j it perched

CHAP. VIII. SAND WASPS. i8i

more frequently, and sometimes darted after small insects on
the wing. Emerging from the grove there is a long stretch of
sandy beach ; the land is high and rocky, and the belt of wood
which skirts the river banks is much broader than it is elsewhere.
At length, after rounding a projecting bluff, the bay of Mapiri
is reached. The river view is characteristic of the Tapajos :
the shores are wooded, and on the opposite side is a line of
clay cliffs, with hills in the background clothed with a rolling
forest. A long spit of sand extends into mid-river, beyond
which is an immense expanse of dark water, the further shore
of the Tapajos being barely visible as a thin grey line of trees
on the horizon. The transparency of air and water in the dry
season when the brisk east wind is blowing, and the sharpness
of outline of hills, woods, and sandy beaches, give a great
charm to this spot.

Whilst resting in the shade during the great heat of the early
hours of afternoon, I used to find amusement in watching the
proceedings of the sand wasps. A small pale green kind of
Bembex (Bembex ciliata) was plentiful near the bay of Mapiri.
When they are at work, a number of little jets of sand are seen
shooting over the surface of the sloping bank. The little miners
excavate with their fore feet, which are strongly built and fur-
nished with a fringe of stiff bristles ; they work with wonderful
rapidity, and the sand thrown out beneath their bodies issues
in continuous streams. They are solitary wasps, each female
working on her own account. After making a gallery two or
three inches in length, in a slanting direction from the surface,
the owner backs out and takes a few turns round the orifice,
apparently to see whether it is well made, but in reality, I be-
lieve, to take note of the locality, that she may find it again.
This done the busy workwoman flies away ; but returns, after
an absence varying in different cases from a few minutes to an
hour or more, with a fly in her grasp, with which she re-enters
her mine. On again emerging, the entrance is carefully closed
with sand. During this interval she has laid an ^gg on the
body of the fly, which she had previously benumbed with her
sting, and which is to serve as food for the soft footless grub
soon to be hatched from the ^gg. From what I could make
out, the Bembex makes a fresh excavation for every ^gg to be
deposited ; at least, in two or three of the galleries which I
opened there was only one fly enclosed.

I have said that the Bembex on leaving her mine took' note

i82 S A N TA R E M. chap. viii.

of the locality : this seemed to be the explanation of the short
delay previous to her taking flight ; on rising in the air, also, the
insects generally flew round over the place before making
straight off. Another nearly allied but much larger species,
the Monedula signata, whose habits I observed on the banks
of the Upper Amazons, sometimes excavates its mine solitarily
on sand-banks recently laid bare in the middle of the river, and
closes the orifice before going in search of prey. In these cases
the insect has to make a journey of at least half a mile to pro-
cure the kind of fly, the Motuca(Hadrus lepidotus), with which
it provisions its cell. I often noticed it to take a few turns in
the air round the place before starting ; on its return it made
without hesitation straight for the closed mouth of the mine. I
was convinced that the insects noted the bearings of their
nests, and the direction they took in flying from them. The
proceeding in this and similar cases (I have read of something
analogous having been noticed in hive bees) seems to be a
mental act of the same nature as that which takes place in our-
selves when recognising a locality. The senses, however, must
be immeasurably more keen, and the mental operation much
more certain, in them than they are in man ; for to my eye there
was absolutely no land-mark on the even surface of sand which
could serve as guide, and the borders of the forest were not
nearer than half a mile. The action of the wasp would be said
to be instinctive; but it seems plain that the instinct is no
mysterious and unintelligible agent, but a mental process in
each individual, differing from the same in man only by its
unerring certainty. The mind of the insect appears to be so
constituted that the impression of external objects, or the want
icii -c^SGS 4^4G-^G^-^t4^2.^£cisimLJvdli^^ to us like

that of a machine constructed to move in a certain given way.
I have noticed in Indian boys a sense of locality almost as keen
as that possessed by the sand-wasp. An old Portuguese and
myself, accompanied by a young lad about ten years of age,
were once lost in the forest in a most solitary place on the
banks of the main river. Our case seemed hopeless, and it did
not for some time occur to us to consult our litde companion,
who had been playing with his bow and arrow all the way
whilst we were hunting, apparently taking no note of the route.
When asked, however, he pointed out, in a moment, the right
direction of our canoe. He could not explain how he knew;
I believe he had noted the course we had taken almost uncon-
sciously. The sense of locality in his case seemed instinctive.

CHAP. VIII. MA HI C A. 183

The Monedula signata is a good friend to travellers in those
parts of the Amazons which . are infested by the blood-thirsty
Motuca. I first noticed its habit of preying on this fly one
day when we landed to make our fire and dine on the borders
of the forest adjoining a sand-bank. The insect is as large as
a hornet, and has a most waspish appearance. I was rather
startled when one out of the flock which was hovering about
us flew straight at my face : it had espied a Motuca on my
neck, and was thus pouncing upon it. It seizes the fly not
with its jaws, but with its fore and middle feet, and carries it
off tightly held to its breast. Wherever the traveller lands on
the Upper Amazons in the neighbourhood of a sand-bank he is
sure to be attended by one or more of these useful vermin-
killers.

The bay of Mapiri was the limit of my day excursions by
the river-side, to the west of Santarem. A person may travel,
however, on foot, as Indians frequently do, in the dry season
for fifty or sixty miles along the broad clean sandy beaches
of the Tapajos. The only obstacles are the rivulets, most of
which are fordable when the waters are low. To the east my
rambles extended to the banks of the Mahica inlet. This
enters the Amazons about three miles below Santarem, where
the clear stream of the Tapajos begins to be discoloured by the
turbid waters of the main river. The Mahica has a broad
margin of rich level pasture, limited on each side by the
straight, tall hedge of forest. On the Santarem side it is
skirted by high wooded ridges. A landscape of this descrip-
tion always produced in me an impression of sadness and
loneliness, which the riant virgin forests that closely hedge in
most of the by- waters of the Amazons never created. The
pastures are destitute of flowers, and also of animal life, with
the exception of a few small plain-coloured birds and solitary
Caracara eagles, whining from the topmost branches of dead
trees on the forest borders. A few settlers have built their
palm-thatched and mud-walled huts on the banks of the
Mahica, and occupy themselves chiefly in tending small herds
of cattle. They seemed to be all wretchedly poor. The oxen
however, though small, were sleek and fat, and the district was
most promising for agricultural and pastoral employments. In
the wet season the waters gradually rise and cover the meadows,
but there is plenty of room for the removal of the cattle to
higher ground. The lazy and ignorant people seem totally

1^4 SANTAREM. chap, viil

unable to profit by these advantages. The houses have no
j^ardens or plantations near them. I was told it was useless to
plant anything, because the cattle devoured the young shoots.
In this country grazing and planting are very rarely carried on
lugeLiici, lor the people seem to have no notion of enclosing
patches of ground for cultivation. They say it is too much
trouble to make enclosures. The construction of a durable
fence is certainly a difficult matter, for it is only two or three
kinds of tree which will serve the purpose in being free from
the attacks of insects, and these are scattered far and wide
through the woods.

Although the meadows were unproductive ground to a
Naturalist, the woods on their borders teemed with life ; the
number and variety of curious insects of all orders which
occurred here was quite wonderful. The belt of forest was
intersected by numerous pathways leading from one settler's
house to another. The ground was moist, but the trees were
not so lofty or their crowns so densely packed together as in
other parts ; the sun's light and heat therefore had freer access
to the soil, and the underwood was much more diversified than
in the virgin forest. I never saw so many kinds of dwarf
palms together as here; pretty miniature species; some not
more than five feet high, and bearing little clusters of round
fruit not larger than a good bunch of currants. A few of the
forest trees had the size and strongly-branched figures of our
oaks, and a similar bark. One noble palm grew here in great
abundance, and gave a distinctive character to the district.
This was the CEnocarpus distichus, one of the kinds called
Bacaba by the natives. It grows to a height of forty to fifty
feet. The crown is of a lustrous dark-green colour, and of a
singularly flattened or compressed shape ; the leaves being
arranged on each side in nearly the same plane. When I first
saw this tree on the campos, where the east wind blows with
great force night and day for several months, I thought the
shape of the crown was due to the leaves being prevented from
radiating equally by the constant action of the breezes. But
the plane of growth is not always in the direction of the wind,
and the crown has the same shape when the tree grows in the
sheltered woods. The fruit of this fine palm ripens towards
the end of the year, and is much esteemed by the natives,
who manufacture a pleasant drink from it similar to the assai
described in a former chapter, by rubbing off the coat of pulp
from the nuts, and mixing it with water. A bunch of fruit

cn^p. VIII. MASON WASPS. 185

weighs thirty or fort)^ pounds. The beverage has a milky ap-
pearance, and an agreeable nutty flavour. The tree is very
difficult to climb, on account of the smoothness of its stem ;
consequently the natives, whenever they want a bunch of fruit
for a bowl of Bacaba, cut down and thus destroy a tree which
has taken a score or two of years to grow, in order to get at it.

In the lower part of the Mahica woods, towards the river,
there is a bed of stiff white clay, which supplies the people of
Santarem with material for the manufacture of coarse pottery
and cooking utensils ; all the kettles, saucepans, mandioca
ovens, coffee-pots, washing-vessels, and so forth, of the poorer
classes throughout the country, are made of this same plastic-
clay, which occurs at short intervals over the whole surface of
the Amazons valley, from the neighbourhood of Para to within
the Peruvian borders, and forms part of the great Tabatinga
marl deposit. To enable the vessels to stand the fire, the bark
of a certain tree, called Caraipe, is burnt and mixed with the
clay, which gives tenacity to the ware. Caraipe is an article
of commerce, being sold, packed in baskets, at the shops in
most of the towns. The shallow pits, excavated in the marly
soil at Mahica, were very attractive to many kinds of mason
bees and wasps, who made use of the clay to build their nests
with. So that we have here another example of the curious
analogy that exists between the arts of insects and those of
man. I spent many an hour, watching their proceedings : a
short account of the habits of some of these busy creatures may
be interesting.

The most conspicuous was a large yellow and black wasp,
with a remarkably long and narrow waist, the Pelopseus fistu-
laris. This species collected the clay in little round pellets,
which it carried off, after roUing them into a convenient shape,
in its mouth. It came straight to the pit with a loud hum, and
on alighting, lost not a moment in beginning to work ; finishing
the kneading of its little load in two or three minutes. The
nest of this wasp is shaped like a pouch, two inches in length,
and is attached to a branch or other projecting object. One of
these restless artificers once began to build on the handle of a
chest in the cabin of my canoe, when we were stationary at a
place for several days. It was so intent on its work that it
allowed me to inspect the movements of its mouth with a lens
whilst it was laying on the mortar. Every fresh pellet was brought
in with a triumphant song, which changed to a cheerful busy
hum when it alighted and began to work. The little ball of

i86

SANTAREM.

CHAP. VIII.

Pelopasus Wasp building nest.

moist clay was laid on the edge of the cell, and then spread
out around the circular rim, by means of the lower lip guided

by the mandibles. The insect placed
itself astride over the rim to work,
and, on finishing each addition to
the structure, took a turn round,
patting the sides with its feet inside
and out before flying off to gather a
fresh pellet. It worked only in sunny
weather, and the previous layer was
sometimes not quite dry when the
new coating was added. The whole
structure takes about a week to com-
plete. I left the place before the gay
little builder had quite finished her
task : she did not accompany the
canoe, although we moved along the
bank of the river very slowly. On
opening closed nests of this species,
which are common in the neighbour-
hood of Mahica, I always found them to ba stocked with small
spiders of the genus Gastracantha, in the usual half-dead state
to which the mother wasps reduce the insects which are to
serve as food for their progeny.

Besides the Pelopseus there were three or four kinds of

Trypoxylon, a genus also
found in Europe, and which
some Naturalists have sup-
posed to be parasitic, because
the legs are not furnished with
the usual row of strong bristles
for digging, characteristic of
the family to which it belongs.
The species of Trypoxylon,
however, are all building
wasps ; two of them which I observed (T. albitarse and an
undescribed species) provision their nests with spiders, a third
(T. aurifrons) with small caterpillars. Their habits are similar
to those of the Pelopseus : namely, they carry off the clay in
their mandibles, and have a different song when they hasten
away with the burden, from that which they sing whilst at work.
Trypoxylon albitarse, which is a large black kind, three-quarters
of an inch in length, makes a tremendous fuss whilst building

Cells of Trypoxylon aurifrons.

CHAP. VIII. ME LIPO NA BEES, ic'/

its cell. It often chooses the walls or doors of chambers for
this purpose, and when two or three are at work in the same
place their loud humming keeps the house in an uproar. The
cell is a tubular structure about three inches in length. T. auri-
frons, a much smaller species^ makes a neat little nest shaped
like a carafe ; building rows of them together in the corners of
verandahs.

But the most numerous and interesting of the clay artificers
are the workers of a species of social bee, the Melipona fasci-
culata. The Melipona in tropical America take the place of
the true Apides, to which the European hive-bee belongs, and
which are here unknown; they are generally much smaller
insects than the hive-bees and have no sting. The M. fasci-
culata is about a third shorter than the Apis mellifica ; its
colonies are composed of an immense number of individuals.
The workers are generally seen collecting pollen in the same

Melipona Bees gathering clay.

way as other bees, but great numbers are employed gathering
clay. The rapidity and precision of their movements whilst
thus engaged are wonderful. They first scrape the clay with
their jaws : the small portions gathered are then cleared by the
anterior paws and passed to the second pair of feet, which in
their turn, convey them to the large foliated expansions of the
hind shanks, which are adapted normally in bees, as every one
knows, for the collection of pollen. The middle feet pat the
growing pellets of mortar on the hind legs to keep them in a
compact shape as the particles are successively added. The
Httle hodsmen soon have as much as they can carry, and they
then fly off. I was for some time puzzled to know what the
bees did with the clay ; but I had afterwards plenty of oppor-
tunity for ascertaining. They construct their combs in any

1 88 S AN TA R E M. chap. vin.

suitable crevice in trunks of trees or perpendicular banks,
and the clay is required to build up a wall so as to close the
gap, with the exception of a small orifice for their own entrance
and exit. Most kinds of Meliponas are in this way masons as
well as workers in wax and pollen-gatherers. One little species
(undescribed), not more than two lines long, builds a neat
tubular gallery of clay, kneaded with some viscid substance,
outside the entrance to its hive, besides blocking up the crevice
in the tree within which it is situated. The mouth of the tube
is trumpet-shaped, and at the entrance a number of the pigmy
bees are always stationed, apparently acting as sentinels.

A hive of the Melipona fasciculata, which I saw opened,
contained about two quarts of pleasantly-tasted liquid honey.
The bees, as already remarked, have no sting, but they bite
furiously when their colonies are disturbed. The Indian who
plundered the hive was completely covered by them ; they took
a particular fancy to the hair of his head, and fastened on it by
hundreds. I found forty-five species of these bees in different
parts of the country ; the largest was half an inch in length ;
the smallest were extremely minute, some kinds being not
more than one-tv\^elfth of an inch in size. These tiny fellows
are often very troublesome in the woods, on account of their
famiharity ; for they settle on one's face and hands, and, in
crawling about, get into the eyes and mouth, or up the nostrils.

The broad expansion of the hind shanks of bees is applied
m some species to other uses besides the conveyance of clay
and pollen. The female of the handsome golden and black
Euglossa Surinamensis has this palette of very large size.
This species builds its solitary nest also in crevices of walls or
trees; but it closes up the chink with fragments of dried leaves
and sticks, cemented together, instead of clay. It visits the
cajii trees, and gathers with its hind legs a small quantity of
the gum which exudes from their trunks. To this it adds the
other materials required from the neighbouring bushes, and
when laden flies off to its nest.

To the south my rambles never extended further than the
banks of the Irura, a stream which rises amongst the hills
already spoken of, and running through a broad valley, wooded
along the margins of the water-courses, falls into the Tapajos,
at the head of the bay of Mapiri. All beyond, as before re-
marked, is terra incognita to the inhabitants of Santarem,
The Brazilian settlers on the banks of the Amazons seem to

CHAP. VIII. FOREST BROOKS. 189

have no taste for explorations by land, and I could find- no
person willing to accompany me on an excursion further
towards the interior. Such a journey would be exceedingly
difficult in this country, even if men could be obtained willing
to undertake it. Besides, there were reports of a settlement of
fierce runaway negroes on the Serra de Mururaru, and it was
considered unsafe to go far in that direction, except with a
large armed party. I visited the banks of the Irura and the
rich woods accompanying it, and two other streams in the
same neighbourhood, one called the Panema, and the other
the Urumari, once or twice a week during the whole time of
my residence in Santarem, and made large collections of their
natural productions. These forest brooks, with their clear cold
waters brawling over their sandy or pebbly beds, through wild
tropical glens, always had a great charm for me. The beauty
of the moist, cool, and luxuriant glades was heightened by the
contrast they afforded to the sterile country around them. The
bare or scantily wooded hills which surround the valley are
parched by the rays of the vertical sun. One of them, the
Pico do Irura, forms a nearly perfect cone, rising from a small
grassy plain to a height of 500 or 600 feet, and its ascent is
excessively fatiguing after the long walk from Santarem over
the campos. 1 tried it one day, but did not reach the summit.
A dense growth of coarse grasses clothed the steep sides of the
hill, with here and there a stunted tree of kinds found in the
jDlain beneath. In bared places, a red crumbly soil is exposed ;
and in one part a mass of rock, which appeared to me, from
its compact texture and the absence of stratification, to be por-
phyritic ; but I am not Geologist sufficient to pronounce on
such questions. Mr. Wallace states that he found fragments
of scorise, and believes the hill to be a volcanic cone. To the
south and east of this isolated peak, the elongated ridges or
table-topped hills attain a somewhat greater elevation.

The forest in the valley is limited to a tract a few hundred
yards in width on each side of the different streams; in places
where these run along the bases of the hills, the hill-sides
facing the water are also richly wooded, although their opposite
declivities are bare or nearly so. The trees are lofty and of
great variety; amongst them are colossal examples of the
Brazil nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa), and the Pikia. This
latter bears a large eatable fruit, curious in having a hollow
chamber between the pulp and the kernel, beset with hard
spines, which produce serious wounds if they enter the skin.

IQO

SANTA REM. chap. viii.

The eatable part appeared to me not much more palatable than

a raw potato ; but the inhabitants of Santarem are very fond of

it, and undertake the most toilsome journeys on foot to gather

a basketful. The tree which yields the tonka bean (Dipteryx

odorata), used in Europe for scenting snuff, is also of frequent

occurrence here. It grows to an immense height, and the fruit,

which, although a legume, is of a rounded shape, and has but

one seed, can be gathered only when it falls to the ground. A

considerable quantity (from looo to 3000 pounds) is exported

annually from Santarem, the produce of the whole region of

the Tapajos. An endless diversity of trees and shrubs, some

beautiful in flower and foliage, others bearing curious fruits,

grow in this matted wilderness. It would be tedious to

enumerate many of them. I was much struck with the variety

of trees with large and diversely shaped fruits growing out of

the trunk and branches, some within a few inches of the

ground, like the cacao. Most of them are called by the natives

Cupu, and the trees are of inconsiderable height. One of

them, called Cupii-ai", bears a fruit of elliptical shape and of a

dingy earthen colour, six or seven inches long, the shell of

which is woody and thin, and contains a small number of seeds

loosely enveloped in a juicy pulp of very pleasant flavour.

The fruits hang like clayey ants' nests from the branches.

Another kind more nearly resembles the cacao ; this is shaped

something like the cucumber, and has a green ribbed husk. It

bears the name of Cacao de macaco, or monkey's chocolate,

but the seeds are smaller than those of the common cacao. I

tried once or twice to make chocolate from them. They

contain plenty of oil of similar fragrance to that of the

ordinary cacao-nut, and make up very well into paste ; but the

beverage has a repulsive clayey colour and an inferior flavour.

My excursions to the Irura had always a pic-nic character. A
few rude huts are scattered through the valley, but they are
tenanted only for a few days in the year, when their owners
come to gather and roast the mandioca of their small clearings.
We used generally to take with us two boys — one negro, the
other Indian — to carry our provisions for the day ; a few
pounds of beef or fried fish, farinha and bananas, with plates,
and a kettle for cooking. Jose carried the guns, ammunition,
and game-bags, and I the apparatus for entomologising — the
insect net, a large leathern bag with compartments for corked
boxes, phials, glass tubes, and so forth. It was our custom to
start soon after sunrise, when the walk over the campos was

CHAP. VIII. CAMPO SCENERY. 191

cool and pleasant, the sky without a cloud, and the grass wet
with dew. The paths are mere faint tracks; in our early-
excursions it was difficult to avoid missing our way. We were
once completely lost, and wandered about for several hours
over the scorching soil without recovering the road. A fine
view is obtained of the country, from the rising ground about
half-way across the waste. Thence to the bottom of the valley
is a long, gentle, grassy slope, bare of trees. The strangely-
shaped hills ; the forest at their feet, richly varied with palms ;
the bay of Mapiri on the right, with the dark waters of the
Tapajos and its white glistening shores, are all spread out
before one, as if depicted on canvas. The extreme trans-
parency of the atmosphere gives to all parts of the landscape
such clearness of outline that the idea of distance is destroyed,
and one fancies the whole to be almost within reach of the
hand. Descending into the valley, a small brook has to be
crossed, and then half a mile of sandy plain, whose vegetation
wears a peculiar aspect, owing to the predominance of a stem-
less palm, the Curua (Attalea spectabiHs), whose large, beauti-
fully pinnated, rigid leaves rise directly from the soil. The
fruit of this species is similar to the coco-nut, containing milk
in the interior of the kernel, but it is much inferior to it in
size. Here, and indeed all along the road, we saw on most
days in the wet season tracks of the jaguar. We never,
however, met with the animal, although we sometimes heard
his loud "hough" in the night, whilst lying in our hammocks
at home, in Santarem, and knew he must be lurking some-
where near us.

My best hunting ground was a part of the valley sheltered
on one side by a steep hill, whose declivity, like the swampy
valley beneath, was clothed with magnificent forest. We used
to make our halt in a small cleared place, tolerably free from
ants and close to the water. Here we assembled after our
toilsome morning's hunt in different directions through the
woods, took our well-earned meal on the ground — two broad
leaves of the wild banana serving us for a tablecloth — and rested
for a couple of hours during the great heat of the afternoon.
The diversity of animal productions was as wonderful as that of
the vegetable forms in this rich locality. It was pleasant to lie
down during the hottest part of the day, when my people lay
asleep, and watch the movements of animals. Sometimes a
troop of Amis (Crotophaga), a glossy black - plumaged bird,
which lives in small societies in grassy places, would come in

192

SANTA REM.

CHAP, vTir.

from the campos, one by one, calling to each other as they moved
from tree to tree. Or a Toucan (Rhamphastos ariel) silently
hopped or ran along and up the branches, peeping into chinks
and crevices. Notes of solitary birds resounded from a distance
through the wilderness. Occasionally a sulky Trogon ^^■ould
be seen, with its brilliant green back and rose-coloured breast,
perched for an hour without moving, on a low branch. A
number of large fat lizards, two feet long, of a kind called by
the natives Jacuaru (Teius teguexim) were always observed in
the still hours of mid-day scampering with great clatter over
the dead leaves, apparently in chase of each other. The fat of
this bulky lizard is much prized by the natives, who apply it as
a poultice to draw palm spines or even grains of shot from the

The Jacuaru (Teius teguexim).

flesh. Other lizards of repulsive aspect, about three feet in
length when full grown, splashed about and swam in the
water : sometimes emerging to crawl into hollow trees on the
banks of the stream, where I once found a female and a nest
of eggs. The lazy flapping flight of large blue and black
morpho butterflies high in the air, the hum of insects, and
many inanimate sounds, contributed their share to the total
impression this strange soHtude produced. Heavy fruits from
the crowns of trees which were mingled together at a giddy
height overhead, fell now and then with a startling " plop "
into the water. The breeze, not felt below, sdned in the top-
most branches, setting the twisted and looped sipos in motion,
which creaked and groaned in a great variety of notes. To

CHAP. VIII. SLOTHS.

193

these noises was added the monotonous ripple of the brook,
which had its little cascade at every score or two yards of its
course.

I seldom met with any of the larger animals in these excur-
sions. We never saw a mammal of any kind on the campos ;
but tracks of three species were seen occasionally besides those
of the jaguar ; these belonged to a small tiger-cat, a deer, and
an opossum ; all of which animals must have been very rare,
and probably nocturnal in their habits, with the exception of
the deer. I saw in the woods, on one occasion, a small flock of
monkeys, and once had an opportunity of watching the move
ments of a sloth. The latter was of the kind called by Cuviei
Bradypus tridactylus, which is clothed with shaggy gray hair.
The natives call it, in the Tupi language, Ai.ybyrete (in Portu-
guese, Pregui9a da terra firme), or sloth of the mainland, to
distinguish it from the Bradypus infuscatus, which has a long,
black and tawny stripe between the shoulders, and is called
Ki ygapo (Pregui9a das vargens),-or sloth .of the flooded lands.
Some travellers in South America have described the sloth as
very nimble in its native woods, and have disputed the justness
of the name which has been bestowed upon it . The inhabitants
of the Amazons region, however, both Indians and descendants
of the Portuguese, hold to the common opinion,.and consider the
sloth as the type of laziness. It is very common for one native
to call another, in reproaching him for idleness, " bicho de
Embaiiba" (beast of . the Cecropia tree); the leaves of the
Cecropia being, the food of the sloth. It is a strange- sight to
watch the uncouth creature, fit production of these silent
shades, lazily moving from branch to branch. Every move-
ment betrays, not indolence exactly, but extreme caution. He
never looses his hold from one branch without first securing
himself to the next, and when he does not immediately find a
bough to grasp with the rigid hooks into which his paws are
so curiously transformed, he raises his body, supported on his
hind legs, and claws around in search of. a fresh foothold.
After watching the animal for about half an hour, I gave him a
charge of shot ; he fell with. a, terrific crash, but caught a bough,
in his descent, with his powerful claws, and remained suspended.
Our Indian. lad tried to climb the tree, but- was driven back by
swarms of stinging ants ; the poor little fellow slid down in a sad
predicament,. and plunged into the brook to free himself Two
days afterwards I found the- body of the sloth on the ground :
the animal having dropped-on the relaxation of the muscles a

13

194

SANTAREM. chap. viii.

few hours after death. In one of our voyages, Mr. Wallace and

I saw a sloth (B. infuscatus) swimming across a river, at a place
where it was probably 300 yards broad. I believe it is not
generally known that this animal takes to the water. Our men
caught the beast, cooked, and ate him.

In returning from these trips we were sometimes benighted
on the campos. We did not care for this on moonlit nights,
when there was no danger of losing the path. The great heat
felt in the middle hours of the day is much mitigated by four
o'clock in the afternoon ; a few birds then make their appear-
ance ; small flocks of ground doves run about the stony hillocks;
parrots pass over and sometimes settle in the ilhas ; pretty
little finches of several species, especially one kind, streaked
with olive-brown and yellow, and somewhat resembling our
yellow-hammer, but, I beheve, not belonging to the same genus,
hop about the grass, enlivening the place with a few musical
notes. The Carashue (Mimus) also then resumes its mellow
blackbird-like song ; and two or three species of humming-bird,
none of which, however, are peculiar to the district, flit about
from tree to tree. On the other hand, the little blue and
yellow-striped Uzards, which abound amongst the herbage
during the scorching heats of midday, retreat towards this hour
to their hiding-places ; together with the day-flying insects and
the numerous campo-butterflies. Some of these latter resemble
greatly our English species found in heathy places, namely, a
fritillary, Argynnis (Euptoieta) Hegesia, and two smaller kinds,
which are deceptively like the little Nemeobius Lucina. After
sunset the air becomes delightfully cool, and fragrant wath the
aroma of fruits and flowers. The nocturnal animals then come
forth. A monstrous hairy spider, five inches in expanse, of a
brown colour, with yellowish lines along its stout legs — which
is very common here, inhabiting broad tubular galleri e
smoothly lined with silken web — may be then caught on the
watch at the mouth of its burrow. It is only seen at night,
and I think does not wander far from its den ; the gallery is
about two inches in diameter, and runs in a slanting direction,
about two feet from the surface of the soil. As soon as it is
night, swarms of goat-suckers suddenly make their appearance,
wheeling about in a noiseless, ghostly manner, in chase of
night-flying insects. They sometimes descend and settle on
a low branch, or even on the pathway close to where one is
walking, and then, squatting down on their heels, are difficult
to distinguish from the surrounding soil. One kind has a long

CHAP. VIII. NOCTURNAL ANIMALS. 195

forked tail. In the day-time they are concealed in the wooded
ilhas, where I very often saw them crouched and sleeping on
the ground in the dense shade. They make no nest, but lay
their eggs on the bare ground. Their breeding time is in the
rainy season, and fresh eggs are found from December to June.
Later in the evening, the singular notes of the goat-suckers
are heard, one species crying Quao, Quao, another Chuck-co-co-
cao ; and these are repeated at intervals far into the night in
the most monotonous manner. A great number of toads are
seen on the bare sandy pathways soon after sunset. One of
them was quite a colossus, about seven inches in length and
three in height. This big fellow would never move out of the
way until we were close to him. If we jerked him out of the
path with a stick, he would slowly recover himself, and then
turn round to have a good impudent stare. I have counted as
many as thirty of these monsters within a distance of half a
mile.

CHAPTER rX.

VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS.

Preparations for voyage — First day's sail — Loss of boat — Altar do Chao^
Modes of obtaining fish — Difficulties with crew — Arrival at Aveyros —
Excursions in the neighbourhood — White Cebus and habits and dispo-
sitions of Cebi monkeys — Tame paiTot — Missionaiy settlement — Enter
the River Cupari — Adventure with Anaconda — Smoke-dried monkey
— Boa constrictor — Village of Mundurucu Indians, and incursion of a
wild tribe — Falls of the Cupari — Hyacinthine macaw — Re-emerge into
the broad Tapajos — Pescent of river to Santarem.

June, 1852. — I will now proceed to relate the incidents of
my principal excursion up the Tapajos, which I began to pre-
pare for, after residing about six months at Santarem.

I was obliged, this time, to travel in a vessel of my own ;
partly because trading canoes large enough to accommodate a
naturalist, very seldom pass between Santarem and the thinly-
peopled settlements on the river, and partly because I wished
to explore districts at my ease, far out of the ordinary track of
traders. I soon found a suitable canoe ; a two-masted cuberta,
of about six tons' burthen, strongly built of Itaiiba or stone-
wood, a timber of which all the best vessels in the Amazons
country are constructed, and said to be more durable than teak.
This I hired of a merchant at the cheap rate of 500 reis, or about
one shilling and twopence per day. I fitted up the cabin, which,
as usual in canoes of this chss, was a square structure with its
floor above the water-line, as my sleeping and working apart-
ments. My chests, filled with store-boxes and trays for speci-
mens, were arranged on each side^ and above them were shelves
and pegs to hold my little stock of useful books, guns, and
game bags, boards and materials for skinning and preserving
animals, botanical press and. papers, drying cages for insects
and birds, and so forth. A rush mat was spread on the floor,
and my rolled-up hammock, to be used only when sleeping

CHAP. IX. PIlErAKATIONS FOR VOYAGE. 197

ashore, served for a pillow. The arched covering over the hold
in the fore pait of the vessel contained, besides a sleeping place
for the crew, my heavy chests, stock of salt provisions and
grocefies, and an assortment of goods wherewith to pay my
way amongst the half-civilised or savage inhabitants of the
interior. The goods consisted of cascha9a, powder and shot, a
few pieces of coarse checked-cotton cloth and prints, fish-hooks,
axes, large knives, harpoons, arrow-heads, looking-glasses,
beads, and other small wares. Jose and myself were busy for
many days arranging these matters. We had to salt the meat
and grind a supply of coffee ourselves. Cooking utensils,
crockery, water jars, a set of useful carpenter's tools, and many
other things had to be provided. We put all the groceries and
other perishable articles in tin canisters and boxes, having
found that this was the only way of preserving them from damp
and insects in this climate. When all was done, out canoe
looked like a little floating workshop.

I could get little information about the river, except vague
accounts of the difficulty of the navigation, and the famito or
hunger which reigned on its banks. As I have before men-
tioned, it is about a thousand miles in length, and flows from
south to north ; in magnitude it stands the sixth amongst the
tributaries of the Amazons. It is navigable, however, by sail-
ing vessels only for about 160 miles above Santarem. The
hiring vof men to navigate the vessel was our greatest trouble.
Jose was to be my helmsman, and we thought three other
hands would be the fewest with which we could venture. But
all our endeavours to procure these were fruitless. Santarem
is worse provided with Indian canoemen than any other town
on the river. I found on applying to the tradesmen to whom I
had brought letters of introduction, and. to the Brazilian autho-
rities, that almost any favour would be sooner granted than the
loan of hands. A stranger, however, is obliged to depend on
them ; for it is impossible to find an Indian or half-caste whom
some one or other of the head-men do not claim as owing him
money or labcuT. I was. afraid at one time I should have been
forced to abandon my project on this account. At length,
after many rebuffs and disappointments, Jose contrived to
engage one man, a mulatto, named Pinto, a native of the min-
ing country of Interior Brazil, who knew the river well ; and
with these two I resolved to start, hoping to meet with others
at the first village on the road.

We left Santarem on the 8th of June. The waters were then

198 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. chap. ix.

at their highest point, and my canoe had been anchored close
to the back door of our house. The morning was cool, and a
brisk wind blew, with which we sped rapidly past the white-
washed houses and thatched Indian huts of the suburbs. The
charming little bay of Mapiri was soon left behind ; we then
doubled Point Maria Josepha, a headland formed of high cliffs
of Tabatinga clay, capped with forest. This forms the limit of
the river view from Santarem, and here we had our last
glimpse, at a distance of seven or eight miles, of the city, a
bright line of tiny white buildings resting on the dark water.
A stretch of wild, rocky, uninhabited coast was before us, and
we were fairly within the Tapajos.

Our course lay due west for about twenty miles. The wind
increased as we neared Point Cururd, where the river bends
from its northern course. A vast expanse of water here
stretches to the west and south, and the waves, with a strong
breeze, run very high. As we were doubling the point, the
cable which held our montaria in tow astern, parted, and in
endeavouring to recover the boat, without which we knew it
would be difficult to get ashore on many parts of the coast, we
were very near capsizing. We tried to tack down the river \ a
vain attempt with a strong breeze and no current. Our ropes
snapped, the sails flew to rags, and the vessel, which we now
found was deficient in ballast, heeled over frightfully. Con-
trary to Jose's advice, I ran the cuberta into a little bay,
thinking to cast anchor there and wait for the boat coming up
with the wind ; but the anchor dragged on the smooth sandy
bottom, and the vessel went broadside on to the rocky beach.
With a little dexterous management, but not until after we had
sustained some severe bumps, we managed to get out of this
difficulty, clearing the rocky point at a close shave with our
jib-sail. Soon after, we drifted into the smooth water of a
sheltered bay, which leads to the charmingly situated village of
Altar do Chao ; and we were obliged to give up our attempt to
recover the montaria.

The little settlement, Altar do Chao (Altar of the ground, or
Earth altar), owes its singular name to the existence, at the
entrance to the harbour, of one of those strange flat-topped hills
which are so common in this part of the Amazons country,
shaped like the high altar in Roman Catholic churches. It is
an isolated one, and much lower in height than the similarly
truncated hills and ridges near Almeyrim, being elevated pro-
bably not more than 300 feet above the level of the river. It

CHAP. IX. ALTAR DO CHAO. 199

is bare of trees, but covered in places with a species of fern.
At the head of the bay is an inner harbour, which communicates
by a channel with a series of lakes lying in the valleys between
hills, and stretching far into the interior of the land. The
village is peopled almost entirely by semi-civilised Indians, to
the number of sixty or seventy families ; and the scattered
houses are arranged in broad streets on a strip of green sward,
at the foot of a high, gloriously-wooded ridge.

I was so much pleased with the situation of this settlement,
and the number of rare birds and insects which tenanted the
forest, tihat I revisited it in the following year, and spent four
months making collections. The houses in the village swarmed
with vermin ; bats in the thatch ; fire-ants (formiga de fogo)
under the floors ; cockroaches and spiders on the walls. Very
few of them had wooden doors and locks. Altar do Chao
was originally a settlement of the aborigines, and was called
Burari. As in all the semi-civilised villages, where the original
orderly and industrious habits of the Indian have been lost
without anything being learnt from the whites to make amends,
the inhabitants live in the greatest poverty. The scarcity of
fish in the clear \Vaters and rocky bays of the neighbourhood is no
doubt partly the cause of the poverty and perennial hunger
which reign here. When we arrived in the port, our canoe was
crowded with the half-naked villagers — men, women, and chil-
dren, who came to beg each a piece of salt pirarucu " for the
love of God." They are not quite so badly off in the dry season.
The shallow lakes and bays then contain plenty of fish, and the
boys and women go out at night to spear them by torchlight ;
the torches being made of thin strips of green bark from the
leafstalks of palms, tied in bundles. Many excellent kinds of
fish are thus obtained, amongst them the Pescada, whose white
and flaky flesh, when boiled, has the appearance and flavour of
cod-fish ; and the Tucunare (Cichla temensis), a handsome
species with a large prettily-coloured eye-like spot on its tail.
Many small Salmonidse are also met with, and a kind of sole,
called Aramassa, which moves along the clear sandy bottom of
the bay. At these times a species of sting-ray is common on
the sloping beach, and bathers are frequently stung most severely
by it. The weapon of this fish is a strong blade with jagged
edges, about three inches long, growing from the side of the
long fleshy tail. I once saw a Avoman wounded by it whilst
bathing ; she shrieked frightfiilly, and was obliged to be carried
to her hammock, where she lay for a week in great pain j I

200 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. chap, ix

have known strong men to be lamed for many months by
the sting.

There was a mode of taking fish here which I had not before
seen employed, but found afterwards to be very common on the
Tapajos. This is by using a poisonous liana called Timbo
(Paullinia pinnata). It will act only in the still waters of creeks
and pools. A few rods, a yard in length, are mashed and
soaked in the water, which quickly becomes discoloured with
the milky deleterious juice of the plant. In about half an hour
all the smaller fishes, over a rather wide space around the spot,
rise to the surface, floating on their sides, and with the gills
wide open. The poison acts evidently by suffocating the fishes;
it spreads slowly in the water, and a very slight mixture seems
sufificient to stupefy them. I was surprised, on beating the
water in places where no fishes were .visible in the clear depths,
for many yards round, to find, sooner or later, sometimes
twenty-four hours afterwards, a considerable number floating
dead on the surface.

The climate is rather more humid than that of Santarem. I
suppose this is to be attributed to the neighbouring country
being densely wooded, instead of an open campo. In no part
of the country did I enjoy more the moonlit nights than
here in the dry season. After the day's work was done I used
to go down to the shores of the bay, and lie .at full length on
the cool sand for two or three hours before bed-time. The soft
pale light, resting on broad sandy beaches and palm-thatched
huts, reproduced the effect of a mid-winter scene in the cold
north when a coating of snow lies on the landscape. A heavy
shower falls about once a week, and the shrubby vegetation
never becomes parched up as at Santarem. Between the rains'
the heat and dryness increase from day to day : the weather on
the first day after the rain is gleamy, wiih intervals of melting
sunshine and passing clouds ; the next day is rather drier, and
the east wind begins to blow ; then follow days of cloudless
sky, with gradually increasing strength of breeze. When this
has continued about a week, a light mistiness begins to gather
about the horizon, clouds are formed, grumbling thunder is
heard, and then, generally in the night-time, down falls the
refreshing rain. The sudden chill caused by the rains produces
colds, which are accompanied by the same symptoms as in our
own climate ; with this exception the place is very healthy.

yune I ph. — The two young men returned without meeting

CHAP. IX. WINGED ANTS. 2Ci

with my montaria, and I found it impossible here to buy a new-
one. The head-man could find me only one hand. This
was a blunt-spoken but willing young Indian, named Manoel.
He came on board this morning at eight o'clock, and we then
got up our anchor and resumed our voyage.

The wind was light and variable all day, and we made only
about fifteen miles by seven o'clock in the evening. The coast
formed a succession of long shallow bays with sandy beaches,
on which the waves broke in a long line of surf. Ten miles
above Altar do Chao is a conspicuous headland, called Point
Cajetiiba. During a lull of the wind, towards midday, we ran
the cuberta aground in shallow water and waded ashore, but
the woods were scarcely penetrable, and not a bird was to be
seen. The only thing observed worthy of note was the quantity
of drowned winged ants along the beach ; they were all of one
species, the terrible formiga de fogo (Myrmica ssevissima) ; the
dead or half-dead bodies of which were heaped up in a line
an inch or two in height and breadth, the line continuing with-
out interruption for miles at the edge of the water. The count-
less thousands had been doubtless cast into the river while
flying during a sudden squall the night before, and afterwards
cast ashore by the waves. We found ourselves at seven o'clock
near the mouth of a creek leading to a small lake, called
Aramana-i; and the wind having died away we anchored,
guided by the lights ashore, near the house of a settler, named
Jeronymo, whom I knew, and who soon after showed us a
a snug little harbour, where we could remain in safety for the
night. The river here cannot be less than ten miles broad ; it
is quite clear of islands, and free from shoals at this season ol
the year. The opposite coast appeared in the day-time as a
long thin line of forest, with dim grey hills in the background.

June 2oth. — We had a light baffling wind off shore all day
on the 2oth, and made but fourteen or fifteen miles by six p.m.;
when, the wind failing us,, we anchored at the mouth of a
narrow channel, called Tapaiiina, which runs between a large
island and the mainland. About three o'clock we passed in
front of Boim, a village on the opposite (western) coast. The
breadth of the river is here six or seven miles : a confused patch
of white on the high land opposite was all we saw of the village,
the separate houses being undistinguishable on account of the
distance. The coast along which we sailed to-day is a con-
tinuation of the low and flooded land of Paquiatuba.

June 2 15/. — The next morning we sailed along the Tapaiiina

202 VOVAG£ UP THE TAP A J OS. chap. ix.

channel, which is from 400 to 600 yards in breadth. We
advanced but slowly, as the wind was generally dead against us,
and stopped frequently to ramble ashore. Wherever the
landing-place was sandy it was impossible to walk about on
account of the swarms of the terrible fire-ant, whose sting is
likened by the Brazilians to the puncture of a red-hot needle.
There was scarcely a square inch of ground free from them.
About three p.m. we glided into a quiet, shady creek, on whose
banks an industrious white settler had located himself. I
resolved to pass the rest of the day and night here, and endea-
vour to obtain a fresh supply of provisions, our stock of salt
beef being now nearly exhausted. The situation of the house
was beautiful ; the little harbour being gay with water plants,
Pontederige, now full of purple blossom, from which flocks of
stilt-legged water-fowl started up screaming as we entered.
The owner sent a boy with my men to show them the best
place for fish up the creek, and in the course of the evening
sold me a number of fowls, besides baskets of beans and farinha.
The result of the fishing was a good supply of Jandia, a hand-
some spotted Siluride fish, and Piranha, a kind of salmon.
Piranhas are of several kinds, many of which abound in the
waters of the Tapajos. They are caught with almost any kind
of bait, for their taste is indiscriminate and their appetite most
ravenous. They often attack the legs of bathers near the shore,
inflicting severe wounds with their strong triangular teeth. At
Paquiatuba and this place I added about twenty species of
small fishes to my collection, caught by hook and line, or with
the hand in shallow pools under the shade of the forest.

My men slept ashore, and on the coming aboard in the
morning Pinto was drunk and insolent. According to Jose,
who had kept himself sober, and Avas alarmed at the other's
violent conduct, the owner of the house and Pinto had spent
the greater part of the night together, drinking aguardente de
beiju, a spirit distilled from the mandioca root. We knew
nothing of the antecedents of this man, who was a tall, strong,
self-willed fellow, and it began to dawn on us that this was not
a very safe travelling companion in a wild country like this.
I thought it better now to make the best of our way to the next
settlement, Aveyros, and get rid of him. Our course to-day lay
along a high rocky coast, which extended without a break for
about eight miles. The height of the perpendicular rocks was
from 100 to 150 feet; ferns and flowering shrubs grew in the
crevices, and the summit supported a luxuriant growth of

CHAP. IX. A V E Y R 0 S. 203

forest, like the rest of the river banks. The waves beat with
loud roar at the foot of these inhospitable barriers. At two
p.m. we passed the mouth of a small picturesque harbour,
formed by a gap in the precipitous coast. Several families have
here settled; the place is called Ita-puama, or "standing rock,"
from a remarkable isolated chff, which stands erect at the
entrance to the little haven. A short distance beyond Ita-
puama we found ourselves opposite to the village of Pinhel,
which is perched, like Boim, on high ground, on the western
side of the river. The stream is here from six to seven miles
wide. A line of low islets extends in front of Pinhel, and a
little further to the south is a larger island, called Capitari,
which lies nearly in the middle of the river.

Jime 22,rd. — The wind freshened at ten o'clock in the morn-
ing of the 23rd. A thick black cloud then began to spread
itself over the sky a long way down the river, the storm which
it portended, however, did not reach us, as the dark threatening
mass crossed from east to west, and the only effect it had was
to impel a column of cold air up the river, creating a breeze
with which we bounded rapidly forward. The wind in the
afternoon strengthened to a gale ; we carried on with one fore-
sail only, two of the men holding on to the boom to prevent
the whole thing from flying to pieces. The rocky coast con-
tinued for about twelve miles above Ita-puama, then succeeded
a tract of low marshy land, which had evidently been once an
island whose channel of separation from the mainland had
become silted up. The island of Capitari and another group
of islets succeeding it, called Jacare, .on the opposite side,
helped also to contract at this point the breadth of the river,
which was now not more than about three miles. The little
cuberta almost flew along this coast, there being no perceptible
current, past extensive swamps, margined with thick floating
grasses. At length, on rounding a low point, higher land again
appeared on the right bank of the river, and the village of
Aveyres hove in sight, in the port of which we cast anchor late
in the afternoon.

Aveyros is a small settlement, containing only fourteen or
fifteen houses besides the church ; but it is the place of resi-
dence of the authorities of a large district ; the priest, Juiz de
Paz, the subdelegado of police, and the Captain of the Trabal-
hadores. The district includes Pinhel, which we passed about
twenty miles lower down on the left bank of the river. Five
miles beyond Aveyros, and also on the left bank, is the mis-

204 VOYAGE UP THE TAFAJOS. chap. ix.

sionary village of Santa Cruz, comprising thirty or forty
families of baptized Mundumcii Indians, who are at present
under the management of a Capuchin Friar, and are inde-
pendent of the Captain of Trabalhadores of Aveyros. The
river view from this point towards the south was very grand ;
the stream is from two to three miles broad, with green islets
resting on its surface, and on each side a chain of hills stretches
away in long perspective. I resolved to stay here for a few-
weeks to make collections. On landing, my first care was to
obtain a house or room, that I might live ashore. This was
soon arranged ; the head man of the place, Captain Antonio,
having received notice of my coming, so that before night all
the chests and apparatus I required were housed and put in
order for working.

I here dismissed Pinto, who again got drunk and quarrel-
some a few hours after he came ashore. He left the next day,
to my great relief, in a small trading canoe that touched at the
place on its way to Santarem. The Indian Manoel took his
leave at the same time, having engaged to accompany me only
as far as Aveyros ; I was then dependent on Captain Antonio
for fresh hands. The captains of Trabalhadores are appointed
by the Brazilian Government, to embody the scattered Indian
labourers and canoe-men of their respective districts, to the
end that they may supply passing travellers with men when
required. A semi-military organisation is given to the bodies ;
some of the steadiest amongst the Indians themselves being
nominated as sergeants, and all the members mustered at the
principal village of their district twice a year. The captains,
however, universally abuse their authority, monopolising the
service of the men for their own purposes, so that it is only by
favour that the loan of a canoe-hand can be wrung from them.
I was treated by Captain Antonio with great consideration, and
promised two good Indians when I should be ready to continue
my voyage.

Little happened worth narrating during my forty days' stay
at Aveyros. The time was spent in the quiet, regular pursuit
of natural history : every morning I had my long ramble in
the forest, which extended to the back-doors of the houses,
and the afternoons were occupied in preserving and studying
the objects collected. The priest was a lively old man, but
rather a bore from being able to talk of scarcely anything
except homoeopathy, having been smitten with the mania
during a recent visit to Santarem. He had a Portuguese

CHAP. IX. FIRE -ANT. 205

Homoeopathic Dictionary, and a little leather case containing
glass tubes filled with globules, with which he was doctoring
the whole village. The weather, during the month of July, was
uninterruptedly fine ; not a drop of rain fell, and the river sank
rapidly. The mornings, for two hours after sunrise, were very
cold ; we were glad to wrap ourselves in blankets on turning
out of our hammocks, and walk about at a quick pace in the
early sunshine. But in the afternoons the heat was sickening ;
for the glowing sun then shone full on the front of the row of
whitewashed houses, and there was seldom any wind to
moderate its effects. I began now to understand why the
branch rivers of the Amazons were so unhealthy, whilst the
main stream was pretty nearly free from diseases arising from
malaria. The cause lies, without doubt, in the slack currents
of the tributaries in the dry season, and the absence of the
cooling Amazonian trade-wind, which purifies the air along the
banks of the main river. The trade-wind does not deviate from
its nearly straight westerly course, so that the branch streams,
which run generally at right angles to the Amazons, and have
a slack current for a long distance from, their mouths, are left
to the horrors of nearly stagnant air and water.

Aveyros may be called the head-quarters of the fire-ant,
which might be fittingly termed the. scourge of this fine river.
The Tapajos is nearly free from the insect pests of other parts,
mosquitoes, sand-flies, motucas and piums ; but the formiga de
fogo is perhaps a greater plague than all the others put together.
It is found only on sandy soils in open places, and seems to
thrive most in the. neighbourhood of houses and weedy villages
such as Aveyros : it does-not occur at all in the shades of the
forest. I noticed it in most places on the banks of the Amazons,
but the species is not very common on the main river, and its
presence is there scarcely noticed, because it does not attack
man, and the sting is not so virulent as it is in the same species
on the banks of the Tapajos. Aveyros was deserted a few
years before my visit on account of this little tormentor, and
the inhabitants had only recently returned to their houses,
thinking its numbers had decreased. It is a small species, of
a shining reddish colour, not greatly differing from the common
red stinging ant of our own country (Myrmica rubra), except
that the piin and irritation caused by its sting are much greater.
The soil of the whole village is undermined by it : the ground
is perforated with the entrances to their subterranean galleries,
and a little sandy dome occurs here and there, where the

2o6. VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. chap. ix.

insects bring their young to receive warmth near the surface.
The houses are overrun with them ; they dispute every frag-
ment of food with the inhabitants, and destroy clothing for the
sake of the starch. All eatables are obliged to be suspended
in baskets from the rafters, and the cords well soaked with
copaiiba balsam, which is the only means known of preventing
them from climbing. They seem to attack persons out of sheer
malice : if we stood for a few moments in the street, even at a
distance from their nests, we were sure to be overrun and
"severely punished, for the moment an ant touched the flesh, he
secured himself with his jaws, doubled in his tail, and stung
with all his might. When we were seated on chairs in the
evenings in front of the house to enjoy a chat with our neigh-
bours, we had stools to support our feet, the legs of which, as
well as those of the chairs, were well anointed with the balsam.
The cords of hammocks are obliged to be smeared in the same
way to prevent the ants from paying sleepers a visit.

The inhabitants declare that the fire-ant was unknowoi on
the Tapajos before the disorders of 1835-6, and believe that
the hosts sprang up from the blood of the slaughtered Cabanas
or rebels. They have, doubtless, increased since that time,
but the cause lies in the depopulation of the villages, and the
rank growth of weeds in the previously cleared, well-kept
spaces. I have already described the line of sediment formed,
on the sandy shores lower down the river, by the dead bodies of
the winged individuals of this species. The exodus from their
nests of the males and females takes place at the end of the
rainy season (June), when the swarms are blown into the river
by squalls of wind, and subsequently cast ashore by the waves.
I was told that this wholesale destruction of ant-life takes place
annually, and that the same compact heap of dead bodies, which
I saw only in part, extends along the banks of the river for
twelve or fifteen miles.

The forest behind Ave)n:os yielded me little except insects,
but in these it was very rich. It is not too dense, and broad
sunny paths skirted by luxuriant beds of Lycopodiums, which
form attractive sporting places for insects, extend from the
village to a swampy hollow or ygapd, which lies about a mile
inland. Of butterflies alone I enumerated fully 300 species,
captured or seen in the course of forty days, within a half-hour's
walk of the village. This is a greater number than is found in
the whole of Europe. . The only monkey I observed was the
Callithrix moloch — one of the kinds called by the Indians

CHAP. IX. A LEAKY BOAT. 207

Whaiapu-sai. It is a moderate-sized species, clothed with long
brown hair, and having hands of a whitish hue. Although
nearly aUied to the Cebi, it has none of their restless vivacity,
but is a dull lisdess animal. It goes in small flocks of five or
six individuals, running along the main boughs of the trees.
One of the specimens which I obtained here was caught on a
low fruit-tree at the back of our house, at sunrise one morning.
This was the only instance of a monkey being captured in such
a position that I ever heard, of. As the tree was isolated, it
must have descended to the ground from the neighbouring
forest, and walked some distance to get at it. The species is
sometimes kept in a tame state by the natives : it does not
make a very amusing pet, and survives captivity only a short
time.

I heard that the white Cebus, the Caiarara branca, a kind of
monkey I had not yet seen, and wished very much to obtain,
inhabited the forests on the opposite side of the river ; so one
day, on an opportunity being afforded by our host going over
in a large boat, I crossed to go in search of it. We were
about twenty persons in all, and the boat was an old rickety
affair, with the gaping seams rudely stuffed with tow and pitch.
In addition to the human freight we took three sheep with us,
which Captain Antonio had just received from Santarem, and
was going to add to his new cattle farm on the other side.
Ten Indian paddlers carried us quickly across. The breadth
of the river could not be less than three miles, and the current
was scarcely perceptible. When a boat has to cross the main
Amazons, it is obliged to ascend along the banks for half a
mile or more to allow for drifting by the current ; in this lower
part of the Tapajos this is not necessary. When about half-
way, the sheep, in moving about, kicked a hole in the bottom
of the boat. The passengers took the matter very coolly,
although the water spouted up alarmingly, and I thought we
should inevitably be swamped. Captain Antonio took off his
socks to stop the leak, inviting me and the Juiz de Paz, who
was one of the party, to do the same, whilst two Indians baled
out the water with large cuyas. We thus managed to keep
afloat until we reached our destination, when the men patched
up the leak for our return journey.

The landing-place lay a short distance within the mouth of
a shady inlet, on whose banks, hidden amongst the dense
woods, were the houses of a few Indian and mameluco settlers.
The path to the cattle farm led first through a tract of swampy

2o8 VOYAGE UP THE TAP A JOS. chap. ix.

forest; it then ascended a slope and emerged on a fine sweep
of prairie, varied with patches of timber. The wooded portion
occupied the hollows, where the soil was of a rich chocolate-
brown colour, and of a peaty nature. The higher grassy, un-
dulating parts of the campo had a lighter and more sandy soil.
Leaving our friends, I and Jose took our guns and dived into
the woods in search of the monkeys. As we walked rapidly
along I was very near treading on a rattlesnake, which lay
stretched out nearly in a straight line on the bare sandy
pathway. It made no movement to get out of the way, and I
escaped the danger by a timely and sudden leap, being unable
to check my steps in the hurried walk. We tried to excite the
sluggish reptile by throwing handfuls of sand and sticks at it,
but the only notice it took was to raise its ugly horny tail and
shake its rattle. At length it began to move rather nimbly,
when we dispatched it by a blow on the head with a pole, not
wishing to fire on account of alarming our game.

We saw nothing of the white Caiarara ; wfe met, however,
with a flock of the common light-brown allied species (Cebus
albifrons ?), and killed one as a specimen. A resident on this
side of the river told us that the white kind was found further
to the south, beyond Santa Cruz. The light-brown Caiarara
is pretty generally distributed over the forests of the level
country. I saw it very frequently on the banks of the Upper
Amazons, where it was always a treat to watch a flock leaping
amongst the trees, for it is the most wonderful performer in
this line of the whole tribe. The troops consist of thirty or
more individuals, which travel in single file. When the fore-
most of the flock reaches the outermost branch of an unusually
lofty tree, he springs forth into the air without a moment's
hesitation, and alights on the dome of yielding foliage belong-
ing to the neighbouring tree, maybe fifty feet beneath ; all the
rest following the example. They grasp, on falling, with hands
and tail, right themselves in a moment, and then away they go
along branch and bough to the next tree. The Caiarara owes
its name in the Tupi language, macaw or large-headed (Acain,
head, and Arara macaw), to the disproportionate size of the
head compared widi the rest of the body. It is very frequently
kept as a pet in houses of natives. I kept one myself for about
a year, which accompanied me in my voyages and became very
familiar, coming to me always on wet nights to share my
blanket. It is a most restless creature, but is not playful like
most of the American monkeys ; the restlessness of its disposi-

CHAP. IX. SANTA CRUZ. 209

tion seeming to arise from great nervous irritability and dis-
content, llie anxious, painful, and changeable expression of
its countenance, and the want of purpose in its movements,
betray this. Its actions are like those of a wayward child ; it
does not seem happy even when it has plenty of its favourite
food, bananas ; but will leave its own meal to snatch the
morsels out of the hands of its companions. It differs in these
mental traits from its nearest kindred, for another common
Cebus, found in the same parts of the forest, the Prego mon-
key (Cebus cirrhifer ?), is a much quieter and better-tempered
animal ; it is full of tricks, but these are generally of a playful
character.

The Caiarara keeps the house in a perpetual uproar where it
is kept : when alarmed, or hungry, or excited by envy, it screams
piteously ; it is always, however, making some noise or other,
often screwing up its mouth and uttering a succession of loud
notes resembling a whistle. My little pet, when loose, used to
run after me, supporting itself for some distance on its hind
legs, without, however, having been taught to do it. He
offended me greatly, one day, by killing, in one of his jealous
fits, another and much choicer pet — the nocturnal owl-faced
monkey (Nyctipithecus trivirgatus). Some one had given this
a fruit, which the other coveted, so the two got to quarrelling.
The Nyctipithecus fought only with its paws, clawing out and
hissing like a cat ; the other soon obtained the mastery, and
before I could interfere, finished his rival by cracking its skull
with his teeth. Upon this I got rid of him.

After I had obtained the two men promised, stout young
Indians, 17 or 18 years of age, one named Ricardo and the
other Alberto, I paid a second visit to the western side of the
river in my own canoe ; being determined, if possible, to obtian
specimens of the White Cebus. We crossed over first to the
mission village, Santa Cruz, which consists of 30 or 40
wretched-looking mud huts, closely built together in three
straight ugly rows .on a high gravelly bank. The place was
deserted, with the exception of two or three old men and
women and a few children. A narrow belt of wood runs be-
hind the village ; beyond this is an elevated barren campo,
with a clayey and gravelly soil. To the south the coast
country is of a similar description ; a succession of scantily-
wooded hills, bare grassy spaces, and richly-timbered hollows.
We traversed forest and campo in various directions, during
three days, without meeting with monkeys, or indeed with any-

2IO P^OYAGE UP THE TAP A JOS. chap. ix.

thing that repaid us the time and trouble. The soil of the
district appeared too dry; at this season of the year I had
noticed, in other parts of the country, that mammals and birds
resorted to the more humid areas of forest ; we therefore pro-
ceeded to explore carefully the low and partly swampy tract,
along the coast to the north of Santa Cruz. We spent two
days in this way, landing at many places, and penetrating a
good distance in the interior. Although unsuccessful with
regard to the White Cebus, the time was not wholly lost, as I
added several small birds of species new to my collection. On
the second evening we surprised a large flock, composed of
about 50 individuals, of a curious eagle with a very long and
slender hooked beak, the Rostrhamus hamatus. They were
perched on the bushes which surrounded a shallow lagoon,
separated from the river by a belt of floating grass : my men
said they fed on toads and lizards found at the margins of
pools. They formed a beautiful sight as they flew up and
wheeled about at a great height in the air. We obtained only
one specimen.

Before returning to Aveyros we paid another visit to the
Jacare inlet, leading to Captain Antonio's cattle farm, for the
sake of securing further specimens of the many rare and hand-
some insects found there; landing at the port of one of the
settlers. The owner of the house was not at home, and the
wife, a buxom young woman, a dark mameluco, with clear
though dark complexion and fine rosy cheeks, was preparing,
in company with another stout-built Amazon, her rod and lines
to go out fishing for the day's dinner. It was now the season
for Tucunares, and Senhora J oaquina showed us the fly baits
used to take this kind of fish, which she had made with her
own hands ol parrots' feathers. The rods used are slender
bamboos, and the lines made from the fibres of pine-apple
leaves. It is fiot very common for the Indian and half-caste
women to provide for themselves, in the way these spirited
dames were doing, although they are all expert paddlers, and
very frequently cross wide rivers in their frail boats without
the aid of men. It is possible that parties of Indian women,
seen travelling alone in this manner, may have given rise to
the fable of a nation of Amazons, invented by the first Spanish
explorers of the country. Senhora Joaquina invited me and
Jose to a Tucunare dinner for the afternoon, and then, shoulder
ing their paddles and tucking up their skirts, the two dusky
isherwomen marched down to their canoe. We sent the two

CHAP. IX. C A T A R A C T S. 211

Indians into the woods to cut palm leaves to mend the thatch
of our cuberta, whilst I and Jose rambled through the woods
which skirted the campo. On our return we found a most
bountiful spread in the house of our hostess. A spotless white
cloth was laid on the mat, with a plate for each guest, and a
pile of fragrant newly made farinha by the side of it. The
boiled Tucunares were soon taken from the kettles and set
before us. I thought the men must be happy husbands who
owned such wives as these. The Indian and mameluco women
certainly do make excellent managers; they are more industrious
than the men, and most of them manufacture farinha for sale
on their own account, their credit always standing higher with
the traders on the river than that of their male connections.
I was quite surprised at the quantity of fish they had taken,
there being sufficient for the whole party, including several
children, two old men from a neighbouring hut, and my
Indians. I made our good-natured entertainers a small pre-
sent of needles and sewing-cotton, articles very much prized,
and soon after we re-embarked, and again crossed the river to
Aveyros.

August 2nd. — Left Aveyros, having resolved to ascend a
branch river, the Cupari, which enters the Tapajos about eight
miles above this village, instead of going forward along the
main stream. I should have Hked to visit the settlements of
the Mundurucu tribe, which lie beyond the first cataract of the
Tapajos, if it had been compatible with the other objects I had
in view. But to perform this journey a lighter canoe than
mine would have been necessary, and six or eight Indian
paddlers, which in my case it was utterly impossible to obtain.
There would be, however, an opportunity of seeing this fine
race of people on the Cupari, as a horde was located towards
the head waters of this stream. The distance from Aveyros
to the last civilised settlement on the Tapajos, Itaituba, is
about forty miles. The falls commence a short distance
beyond this place. Ten formidable cataracts or rapids then
succeed each other at intervals of a* few miles ; the chief of
which are the Coaita, the Bubure, the Salto Grande (about
thirty feet high), and the Montanha. The canoes of Cuyaba
tradesmen which descend annually to Santarem are obliged to
be unloaded at eacli of these, and the cargoes carried by land
on the backs of Indians, whilst the empty vessels are dragged
Dy ropes over the obstructions. The Cupari was described to
me as flowing through a rich moist clayey Valley, covered with

212 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. chaf. ix.

forests and abounding in game; whilst the banks of the Tapajos
beyond Aveyros were barren sandy campos, with ranges of
naked or scantily-wooded hills, forming a kind of country which
I had always found very unproductive in Natural History
objects in the dry season, which had now set in.

We entered the mouth of the Cupari on the evening of the
following day (August 3rd). It was not more than 100 yards
wide, but very deep : we found no bottom in the middle with a
line of eight fathoms. The banks were gloriously wooded ; the
familiar foliage of the cacao growing- abundantly amongst the
mass of other trees, reminding me of the forests of the main
Amazons. We rowed for five or six miles, generally in a south-
easterly direction, although the river had many abrupt bends,
and stopped for the night at a settler's house, situated on a
high bank, and accessible only by a flight of rude wooden steps
fixed in the clayey slope. The owners were' two brothers,
half-breeds, who with their families shared the large roomy
dwelling ; one of them was a blacksmith, and we found him
working with two Indian lads at his forge, in an open shed
under the shade of mango trees. They were the sons of a
Portuguese immigrant, who had settled here forty years pre-
viously, and married a Mundurucii woman. He must have
been a far more industrious man than the majority of his
countrymen who emigrate to Brazil now-a-days, for there were
signs of former extensive cultivation at the back of the house,
in groves of orange, lemon, and coffee trees, and a large planta-
tion of cacao occupied the lower grounds.

The next morning one of the brothers brought me a beau-
tiful opossum, which had been caught in the fowl-house a
httle before sunrise'. It was not so large as a rat, and had soft
brown fur, paler beneath and on the face, with a black stripe
on each cheek. This made the third species of marsupial rat
I had so far obtained : but the number of these animals is very
considerable in Brazil, where they take the place of the shrews
of Europe ; shrew mice and. indeed, the whole of the insectivo-
rous order of mammals, being entirely absent from Tropical
America. One kind of these rat-like opossums is aquatic, and
has webbed feet. The terrestrial species are nocturnal in their
habits,' sleeping during the day in hollow trees, and coming
forth at night to prey on birds in their roosting places.
It is very difficult to rear poultry in this country, on account of
these small opossums, scarcely a night passing, in some parts,
in which the fowls are not attacked by them.

CHAP. jx. ANOTHER INSECT PEST. 213

August <^th. — The river reminds me of some parts of the
Jabuni channel, being hemmed in by two walls of forest, rising
to the height of at least 1 00 feet, and the outlines of the trees
being concealed throughout by a dense curtain of leafy creepers.
The impression of vegetable profusion and overwhelming luxu-
riance increases at every step 3 the deep and narrow valley of
the Cupari has a moister climate than the banks of the Tapajos.
We have now frequent showers, whereas we left everything
parched up by the sun at Aveyros.

After leaving the last sitio we advanced about eight miles,
and then stopped at the house of Senhor Antonio Malagueita,
a mameluco settler, whom we had been recommended to visit.
His house and outbuildings were extensive, the grounds well
weeded, and the whole wore an air of comfort and well-being
which is very uncommon in this country. A bank of indurated
white clay sloped gently up from the tree-shaded port to the
house, and beds of kitchen-herbs extended on each side, with
(rare sight !) rose and jasmine trees in full bloom. Senhor
Antonio, a rather tall middle-aged man, with a countenance
beaming with good nature, came down to the port as soon as
we anchored. I was quite a stranger to him, but he had
heard of my coming, and seemed to have made preparations. I
never met with a heartier welcome. On entering the house,
the wife, who had more of the Indian tint and features than
her husband, was equally warm and frank in her greeting. I
stayed here two days. We had together several long and
successful rambles, along a narrow pathway which extended
several miles into the forest. I here met with a new insect
pest, one which tlie natives maybe thankful is not spread more
widely over the country ; it was a large brown fly of the Taba-
nidse family (genus Pangonia), with a proboscis half an inch
long and sharper than the finest needle. It settled on our
backs by twos and threes at a time, and pricked us through our
thick cotton shirts, making us start and cry out with the sudden
pain. I secured a dozen or two as specimens. As an instance
of the extremely confined ranges of certain species, it may be
mentioned that I did not find this insect in any other part of
the country, except along half a mile or so of this gloomy forest
road.

We were amused at the excessive and almost absurd tame-
ness of a fine Mutum or Curassow turkey that ran about the
house. It was a large glossy-black species (the Mitu tuberosa),
having an orange-coloured beak, surmounted by a bean-shaped

214 VOYAGE UP THE TAP A JOS. chap. ix.

excrescence of the same hue. It seemed to consider itself as
one of the family : attended at all the meals, passing from one
person to another round the mat to be fed, and rubbing the
sides of its head in a coaxing way against their cheeks or
shoulders. At night it went to roost on a chest in a sleeping-
room beside the hammock of one of the little girls, to whom it
seemed particularly attached, following her wherever she went
about the grounds. I found this kind of Curassow bird was
very common in the forests of the Cupari \ but it is rare on the
Upper Amazons, where an allied species, which has a round
instead of a bean-shaped waxen excrescence on the beak (Crax
globicera), is the prevailing kind. These birds in their natural
state never descend from the tops of the loftiest trees, where
they live in small flocks and build their nests. The Mitu
tuberosa lays two rough-shelled white eggs ; it is fully as large
a bird as the common turkey, but the flesh when cooked is
drier and not so well-flavoured. It is difficult to find the
reason why these superb birds have not been reduced to
domestication by the Indians, seeing that they so readily
become tame. The obstacle oflered by their not breeding in
confinement, which is probably owing to their arboreal habits,
might perhaps be overcome by repeated experiment; but for
this the Indians probably had not sufficient patience or intelli-
gence. The reason cannot lie in their insensibility to the
value of such birds ; for the common turkey, which has been
introduced into the country, is much prized by them.

We had an unwelcome visitor whilst at anchor in the port of
Antonio Malagueita. I was awoke a little after midnight, as I
lay in my little cabin, by a heavy blow struck at the sides of
the canoe close to my head, which was succeeded by the sound
of a weighty body plunging in the water. I got up ; but all
was again quiet, except the cackle of fowls in our hen-coop,
which hung over the side of the vessel, about three feet from
the cabin door. I could find no explanation of the circum-
stance, and, my men being all ashore, I turned in again and
slept till morning. I then found my poultry loose about the
canoe, and a large rent in the bottom of the hen-coop, which
was about two feet from the surface of the water : a couple
of fowls were missing. Senhor Antonio said the depredator
was a Sucuruju (the Indian name for the Anaconda, or great
water serpent, Eunectes murinus), which had for months past
been haunting this part of the river, and had carried off" many
ducks and fowls from the ports of various houses. I was in-

CHAP. IX. A N A C 0 N DA S. 215

clined to doubt the fact of a serpent striking at its prey from
the water, and thought an aUigator more Hkely to be the cul-
prit, although we had not yet met with alligators in the river.
Some days afterwards the young men belonging to the different
sitios agreed together to go in search of the serpent. They
began in a systematic manner, forming two parties, each em-
barked in three or four canoes, and starting from points several
miles apart, whence they gradually approximated, searching all
the little inlets on both sides the river. The reptile was found
at last, sunning itself on a log at the mouth of a muddy rivulet,
and despatched with harpoons. I saw it the day after it was
killed : it was not a very large specimen, measuring only
eighteen feet nine inches in length, and sixteen inches in cir-
cumference at the widest part of the body. I measured skins
of the Anaconda afterwards, twenty-one feet in length and two
feet in girth. The reptile has a most hideous appearance,
owing to its being very broad in the middle, and tapering
abruptly at both ends. It is very abundant in some parts of
the country, nowhere more so than in the Lago Grande, near
Santarem, where it is often seen coiled up in the corners of
farmyards, and is detested for its habit of carrying off poultry,
young calves, or whatever animal it can get within reach of.

At Ega a large Anaconda was once near making a meal of a
young lad about ten years of age, belonging to one of my
neighbours. The father and his son went, as was their custom,
a few miles up the Teffe to gather wild fruit; landing on a
sloping sandy shore, where the boy was left to mind the canoe
whilst the man entered the forest. The beaches of the Teffe
form groves of wild guava and myrtle trees, and during most
months of the year are partly overflown by the river. Whilst
the boy was playing in the water under the shade of these trees,
a huge reptile of this species stealthily wound its coils around
him, unperceived until it was too late to escape. His cries
brought the father quickly to the rescue, who rushed forward,
and seizing the Anaconda boldly by the head, tore his jaws
asunder. There appears to be no doubt that this formidable
serpent grows to an enormous bulk, and lives to a great age,
for I heard of specimens having been killed which measured
forty-two feet in length, or double the size of the largest I had
an opportunity of examining. The natives of the Amazons
country universally believe in the existence of a monster water-
serpent, said to be many score fathoms in length, which appears
successively in different parts of the river. They call it the

2i6 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. chap. ix.

Mai d'agoa — the mother, or spirit, of the water. This fable,
which was doubtless suggested by the occasional appearance
of Sucurujiis of unusually large size, takes a great variety of
forms, and the wild legends form the subject of conversation
amongst old and young, over che wood fires in lonely settle-
ments.

August 6th and 'jth. — On leaving the sitio of Antonio Mala-
gueita we continued our way along the windings of the river,
generally in a south-east and south-south-east direction, but
sometimes due north, for about fifteen miles, when we stopped
at the house of one Paulo Christo, a mameluco whose acquaint-
ance I had made at Aveyros. Here we spent the night and
part of the next day, doing in the morning a good five hours'
work in the forest, accompanied by the owner of the place. In
the afternoon of the yth we were again under weigh : the river
makes a bend to the east-north-east for a short distance above
Paulo Christo's establishment, it then turns abruptly to the
south-west, running from that direction about four miles. The
hilly country of the interior then commences, the first token
of it being a magnificently wooded bluff, rising nearly straight
from the water to a height of about 250 feet. The breadth of
the stream hereabout was not more than sixty yards, and the
forest assumed a new appearance, from the abundance of the
Urucuri palm, a species which has a noble crown of broad
fronds, with symmetrical rigid leaflets.

We reached, in the evening, the house of the last civilised
settler on the river, Senhor Joao (John) Aracii, a wiry, active
fellow and capital hunter, whom I wished to make a friend of
and persuade to accompany me to the Mundurucii village and
the falls of the Cupari, some forty miles further up the river.

I stayed at the sitio of John Aracii until the T9th, and
again, in descending, spent fourteen days at the same place.
The situation was most favourable for collecting the natural
products of the district. The forest was not crowded with
underwood, and pathways led through it for many miles and in
various directions. I could make no use here of our two men
as hunters, so, to keep them employed, whilst Jose and I worked
daily in the woods, I set them to make a montaria under John
Aracu's directions. The first day a suitable tree was found for
the shell of the boat, of the kind called Itaiiba amarello, the
yellow variety of the stone-wood. They felled it, and shaped
out of the trunk a log nineteen feet in length ; this they dragged
from the forest, with the help of my host's men, over a road

CHAP. IX. BUILD A CANOE, 217

they had previously made with cylindrical pieces of wood to act
as rollers. The distance was about half a mile, and the rope
used for drawing the heavy load were tough lianas cut from
the surrounding trees. This part of the work occupied about
a week ; the log had then to be hollowed out, which was done
with strong chisels through a slit made down the whole length.
The heavy portion of the task being then completed, nothing
remained but to widen the opening, fit two planks for the sides,
and the same number of semicircular boards for the ends, make
the benches, and caulk the seams.

The expanding of the log thus hollowed out is a critical
operation, and not always successful, many a good shell being
spoilt by its splitting or expanding irregularly. It is first
reared on tressels, with the slit downwards, over a large fire,
which is kept up for seven or eight hours, the process requiring
unremitting attention to avoid cracks and make the plank bend
with the proper dip at the two ends. Wooden straddlers, made
by cleaving pieces of tough elastic wood and fixing them with
wedges, are inserted into the opening, their compass being
altered gradually as the work goes on, but in different degree
according to the part of the boat operated upon. Our casca
turned out a good one : it took a long time to cool, and was
kept in shape whilst it did so by means of wooden cross-pieces.
When the boat was finished, it was launched with great merri-
ment by the men, who hoisted coloured handkerchiefs for flags,
and paddled it up and down the stream to try its capabilities.
My people had suffered as much inconvenience from the want
of a montaria as myself, so this was a day of rejoicing to all
of us.

I was very successful at this place with regard to the objects
of my journey. About twenty new species of fishes and a con-
siderable number of small reptiles were added to my collection ;
but very few birds were met with worth preserving. A great
number of the most conspicuous insects of the locality were
new to me, and turned out to be species peculiar to this part
of the Amazons valley. The most interesting acquisition was a
large and handsome monkey, of a species I had not before met
with — the white-whiskered Coaita, or spider-monkey (Ateles
marginatus). I saw a pair one day in the forest moving slowly
along the branches of a lofty tree, and shot one of them ; the
next day John Aracu brought down another, possibly the com-
panion. The species is of about the same size as the common
black kind, of which I have given an account in a former

2i8 VOYAGE UP THE TAP A JOS. chap. ix.

chapter, and has a similar lean body, with limbs clothed with
coarse black hair ; but it differs in having the whiskers and a
triangular patch on the crown of the head of a white colour.
I thought the meat the best flavoured I had ever tasted. It
resembled beef, but had a richer and sweeter taste. During the
time of our stay in this part of the Cupari we could get
scarcely anything but fish to eat, and as this diet ill agreed
with me, three successive days of it reducing me to a state of
great weakness, I was obliged to make the most of our Goaita
meat. We smoke-dried the joints instead of salting them ;
placing them for several hours on a framework of sticks ar-
ranged over a fire, a plan adopted by the natives to preserve
fish when they have no salt, and which they call " muquiar."
Meat putrefies in this climate in less than twenty-four hours,
and salting is of no use, unless the pieces are cut in thin slices
and dried immediately in the sun. My monkeys lasted me
about a fortnight, the last joint being an arm with the clenched
fist, which I used with great economy, hanging it in the inter-
vals between my frugal meals on a nail in the cabin. Nothing
but the hardest necessity could have driven me so near to can-
nibalism as this, but we had the greatest difficulty in obtaining
here a suf]ficient supply of animal food. About every three
days the work on the montaria had to be suspended, and all
hands turned out for the day to hunt and fish, in which they
were often unsuccessful, for although there was plenty of
game in the forest, it was too widely scattered to be available.
Ricardo and Alberto occasionally brought in a tortoise or ant-
eater, which served us for one day's consumption.' We made
acquaintance here with many strange dishes, amongst them
Iguana eggs ; these are of oblong form, about an inch in length,
and covered with a flexible shell. The lizard lays about two
score of them in the hollows of trees. They have an oily taste ;
the men ate them raw, beaten up with farinha, mixing a pinch
of salt in the mess ; I could only do with them when mixed
with Tucupi sauce, of which we had a large jarful always
ready for the tempering of unsavoury morsels.

One day as I was entomologizing alone and unarmed, in a dry
Ygapo, where the trees were rather wide apart and the ground
coated to the depth of eight or ten inches with dead leaves, I
was near coming into collision with a boa-constrictor. I had
just entered a little thicket to capture an insect, and whilst
pinning it was rather startled by a rushing noise in the vicinity.
I looked up to the sky, thinking a squall was coming on, but

CHAP. IX. CHASE OF A BOA - CONSTRICTOR. 219

not a breath of wind stirred in the tree-tops. On stepping out
of the bushes I met face to face a huge serpent coming down
a slope, and making the dry twigs crack and fly with his weight
as he moved over them. I had very frequently met with a
smaller boa, the Cutim-boia, in a similar way, and knew from
the habits of the family that there was no danger, so I stood
my ground. On seeing me the reptile suddenly turned, and
glided at an accelerated pace down the path. Wishing to take
a note of his probable size and the colours and markings of his
skin, I set off after him ; but he increased his speed, and I was
unable to get near enough for the purpose. There was very
little of the serpentine movement in his course. The rapidly
moving and shining body looked like a stream of brown liquid
flowing over the thick bed of fallen leaves, rather than a
serpent with skin of varied colours. He descended towards the
lower and moister parts of the Ygapo. The huge trunk of an
uprooted tree here lay across the road ; this he glided over in
his undeviating course, and soon after penetrated a dense
swampy thicket, where of course I did not choose to follow
him.

I suffered terribly from heat and mosquitoes as the river
sank with the increasing dryness of, the season, although I
made an awning of the sails to work under, and slept at night
in the open air, with my hammock slung between the masts.
But there was no rest in any part ; the canoe descended deeper
and deeper into the gulley, through which the river flows
between high clayey banks, as the water subsided, and with
the glowing sun overhead we felt at midday as if in a furnace.
I could bear scarcely any clothes in the daytime, between eleven
in the morning and five in the afternoon, wearing nothing but
loose and thin cotton trousers and a light straw hat, and could
not be accommodated in John Aracii's house^ as it was a small
one and full of noisy children. One night we had a terrific
storm. The heat in the afternoon had been greater than ever,
and at sunset the sky had a brassy glare : the black patches of
cloud which floated in it being lighted up now and then by
flashes of sheet lightning. The mosquitoes at night were more
than usually troublesome, and I had just sunk exhausted into
a doze, towards the early hours of morning, when the storm
began; a complete deluge of rain, with incessant lightning and
rattling explosions of thunder. It lasted for eight hours ; the
grey dawn opening amidst the crash of the tempest. The rain
trickled through the seams of the cabin roof on to my collec-

220 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. chap. ix.

tions,the late hot weather having warped the boards, and it
gave me immense trouble to secure them in the midst of the
confusion. Altogether I had a bad night of it ; but what with
storms, heat, mosquitoes, hunger, and, towards the last, ill
health, I seldom had a good night's rest on the Cupari.

A small creek traversed the forest behind John Aracii's
house, and entered the river a few yards from our anchoring
place ; I used to cross it twice a day, on going and returning
from my hunting-ground. One day early in September, I
noticed that the water was two or three inches higher in the
afternoon than it had been in the morning. This phenomenon
was repeated the next day, and in fact daily, until the creek
became dry with the continued subsidence of the Cupari, the
time of rising shifting a little from day to day. I pointed out
the circumstance to John Aracil, who had not noticed it before
(it was only his second year of residence in the locahty), but
agreed with me that it must be the " mare." Yes, the tide !
the throb of the great oceanic pulse felt in this remote corner,
530 miles distant from the place where it first strikes the body
of fresh water at the mouth of the Amazons. I hesitated at
first at this conclusion, but on reflecting that the tide was
known to be perceptible at Obydos, more than 400 miles from
the sea ; that at high water in the dry season a large flood from
the Amazons enters the mouth of the Tapajos, and that there
is but a very small difference of level between that point and
the Cupari, a fact shown by the absence of current in the
dry season ; I could have no doubt that this conclusion was a
correct one.

The fact of the tide being felt 530 miles up the Amazons,
passing from the main stream to one of its afliuents 380 miles
from its mouth, and thence to a branch in the third degree, is
a proof of the extreme flatness of the land which forms the
lower part of the Amazonian valley. This uniformity of level
is shown also in the broad lake-like expanses of water formed,
near their mouths, by the principal affluents which cross the
valley to join the main river.

August 21st — John Aracu consented to accompany me to
the falls, with one of his men, to hunt and fish for me. One of
my objects was to obtain specimens of the hyacinthine macaw,
whose range commences on all the branch rivers of the
Amazons which flow from the south through the interior of
Brazil, with the first cataracts. We started on the 19th, our
direction on that day being generally south-west. On the 20th

CHAP. IX. AN INDIAN SETTLEMENT. 221

our course was southerly and south-easterly. This morning
(August 2 1 St) we arrived at the Indian settlement, the first
house of which lies about thirty-one miles above the sitio of-
JohnAracii. The river at this place is from sixty to seventy
yards wide, and runs in a zigzag course between steep clayey
banks, twenty to fifty feet in height. The houses of the Mun-
durucus, to the number of about thirty, are scattered along the
banks for a distance of six or seven miles. The owners appear
to have chosen all the most picturesque sites — tracts of level
ground at the foot of wooded heights, or little havens with bits
of white sandy beach — as if they had an appreciation of natural
beauty. Most of the dwellings are conical huts, with walls of
framework filled in with mud and thatched with palm leaves,
the broad eaves reaching halfway to the gi"ound. Some are
quadrangular, and do not differ in structure from those of the
semi-civilised settlers in other parts ; others are open sheds or
ranchos. They seem generally to contain not more than one or
two families each.

At the first house we learnt that all the fighting men had this
morning returned from a two days' pursuit of a wandering
horde of savages of the Pararauate tribe, who had strayed this
way from the interior lands and robbed the plantations. A
little further on we came to the house of the Tushaua, or chief,
situated on the top of a high bank, which we had to ascend by
wooden steps. There were four other houses in the neighbour-
hood, all filled with people. A fine old fellow, with face,
shoulders, and breast tattooed all over in a cross-bar pattern,
was the first strange object that caught my eye. Most of the
men lay lounging or sleeping in their hammocks. The women
were employed in an adjoining shed making farinha, many of
them being quite naked, and rushing off to the huts to slip on
their petticoats when they caught sight of us. Our entrance
aroused the Tushaua from a nap ; after rubbing his eyes he
came forward and bade us welcome with the most formal polite-
ness, and in very good Portuguese. He was a tall, broad-
shouldered, well-made man, apparently about thirty years of
age, with handsome regular features, not tattooed, and a quiet
good-humoured expression of countenance. He had been several
times to Santarem and once to Para, learning the Portuguese
language during these journeys. He was dressed in shirt and
trousers made of blue-checked cotton cloth, and there was not
the slightest trace of the savage in his appearance or demea-
nour. I was told that he had come into the chieftainship by

222 VOYAGE UP THE TAP A JOS, chap. ix.

inheritance, and that the Cupari horde of Munduniciis, over
which his fathers had ruled before him, was formerly much
more numerous, furnishing 300 bows in time of war. They
could now scarcely muster forty ; but the horde has no longer
a close political connection with the main body of the tribe,
which inhabits the banks of the Tapajos, six days' journey from
the Cupari settlement.

I spent the remainder of the day here, sending Aracii and
the men to fish, whilst I amused myself with the Tushaua and
his people. A few words served to explain my errand on the
river ; he comprehended at once why white men should admire,
and travel to collect the beautiful birds and animals of his
country, and neither he nor his people spoke a single word
about trading, or gave us any trouble by coveting the things
we had brought. He related to me the events of the preced-
ing three days. The Pararauates were a tribe of intractable
savages, with whom the Mundurucus have been always at war.
They had no fixed abode, and of course made no plantations,
but passed their lives like the wild beasts, roaming through the
forest, guided by the sun : wherever they found themselves at
night-time, there they slept, slinging their bast hammocks, which
are carried by the women, to the trees. They cross the streams
which lie in their course in bark canoes, which they make on
reaching the water, and cast away after landing on the opposite
side. The tribe is very numerous, but the different hordes
obey only their own chieftains. The Mundurucus of the upper
Tapajos have an expedition on foot against them at the present
time, and the Tushaua supposed that the horde which had just
been chased from his maloca were fugitives from that direction.
There were about a hundred of them — including men, women,
and children. Before they were discovered the hungry savages
had uprooted all the macasheira, sweet potatoes, and sugar-
cane, which the industrious Mundurucus had planted for the
season, on the east side of the river. As soon as they were
seen they made off, but the Tushaua quickly got together all
the young men of the settlement, about thirty in number, who
armed themselves with guns, bows and arrows, and javelins,
and started in pursuit. They tracked them, as before related,
for two days through the forest, but lost their traces on the
further bank of the Cuparitinga, a branch stream flowing from
the north-east. The pursuers thought, at one time, they were
close upon them, having found the inextinguished fire of their
last encampment. The footmarks of the chief could be

CHAP. IX. AN INDIAN SETTLEMENT. 223

distinguished from the rest by their great size and the length
of the stride. A small necklace made of scarlet beans was
the only trophy of the expedition, and this the Tushaiia gave
to me.

I saw very little of the other male Indians, as they were
asleep in their huts all the afternoon. There were two other
tattooed men lying under an open shed, besides the old man
already mentioned. One of them presented a strange appear-
ance, having a semicircular black patch in the middle of his
face, covering the bottom of the nose and mouth j crossed lines
on his back and breast, and stripes down his arms and legs.
It is singular that the graceful curved patterns used by the
South Sea Islanders are quite unknown among the Brazilian
red men; they being all tattooed either in simple lines or
patches. The nearest approach to elegance of design which I
saw, was amongst the Tuciinas of the Upper Amazons, some of
whom have a scroll-like mark on each cheek, proceeding from
the corner of the mouth. The taste, as far as form is con-
cerned, of the American Indian, would seem to be far less
refined than that of the Tahitian and New Zealander.

To amuse the Tushaua, I fetched from the canoe the two
volumes of Knight's Pictorial Museum of Animated Nature.
The engravings quite took his fancy, and he called his wives,
of whom, as I afterwards learnt from Aracii, he had three or
four, to look at them ; one of them was a handsome girl, deco-
rated with necklace and bracelets of blue beads. In a short
time others left their work, and I then had a crowd of women
and children around me, who all displayed unusual curiosity
for Indians. It was no light task to go through the whole of
the illustrations, but they would not allow me to miss a page,
making me turn back when I tried to skip. The pictures of
the elephant, camels, orang-otangs, and tigers, seemed most to
astonish them ; but they were interested in almost everything,
down even to the shells and insects. They recognised the
portraits of the most striking birds and mammals which are
found in their own country; the jaguar, howling monkeys,
parrots, trogons, and toucans. The elephant was settled to be
^ a large kind of tapir ; but they made but few remarks, and
those in the Mundurucii language, of which I understood only
two or three words. Their way of expressing surprise was a
clicking sound made with the teeth, similar to the one we our-
selves use, or a subdued exclamation, Hm ! hm ! Before I
finished, from fifty to sixty had assembled ; there was no push-

224 VOYAGE UP THE 7APAJ0S. chap. ix.

ing or rudeness, the grown-up women letting the young girls
and children stand before them, and all behaved in the most
quiet and orderly manner possible.

The Mundurucus are perhaps the most numerous and formi-
dable tribe of Indians now surviving in the Amazons region.
They inhabit the shores of the Tapajos (chiefly the right bank),
from 3^ to 7° south latitude, and the interior of the country
between that part of the river and the Madeira. On the
Tapajos alone they can muster, I was told, 2,000 fighting men ;
the total population of the tribe may be about 20,000. They
were not heard of until about ninety years ago, when they
made war on the Portuguese settlements ; their hosts crossing
the interior of the country eastward of the Tapajos, and attack-
ing the establishments of the whites in the province of Maran-
ham. The Portuguese made peace with them in the beginning
of the present century, the event being brought about by the
common cause of quarrel entertained by the two peoples against
the hated Muras. They have ever since been firm friends of
the whites. It is remarkable how faithfully this friendly feeling
has been handed down amongst the Mundurucus, and spread
to the remotest of the scattered hordes. Wherever a white
man meets a family, or even an individual of the tribe, he is
almost sure to be reminded of this alliance. They are the
most warlike of the Brazilian tribes, and are considered also
the most settled and industrious ; they are not, however,
superior in this latter respect to the Juris and Passes on the
Upper Amazons, or the Uapes Indians near the head waters of
the Rio Negro. They make very large plantations of mandioca,
and sell the surplus produce, which amounts on the Tapajos to
from 3,000 to 5,000 baskets (60 lb. each) annually, to traders
who ascend the river from Santarem. between the months of
August and January. They also gather large quantities of
salsaparilla, india-rubber, and Tonka beans, in the forests.
The traders,, on their arrival at the Campinas (the scantily
wooded region inhabited by the main body of Mundurucus
beyond the cataracts) have first to distribute their wares — cheap
cotton cloths, iron hatchets, cutlery, small wares, and cashaca
— amongst the minor chiefs, and then wait three or four months
for repayment in produce.

A rapid change is taking place in the habits of these Indians
through frequent intercourse with the whites, and those who
dwell on the banks of the Tapajos now seldom tattoo their
children. The principal Tushaiia of the whole tribe or nation,

CHAP. IX. A MEDICINE MAN. 225

named Joaquim, was rewarded with a commission in the Bra-
zilian army, in acknowledgment of the assistance he gave to
the legal authorities during the rebellion of 1835-6. It would
be a misnomer to call the Mundurucus of the Cupari and many
parts of the Tapajos, savages; their regular mode of life, agri-
cultural habits, loyalty to their chiefs, fidelity to treaties, and
gentleness of demeanour, give them a right to a better title.
Yet they show no aptitude for the civilised life of towns, and,
like the rest of the BraziUan tribes, seem incapable of any
further advance in culture. In their former wars they exter-
minated two of the neighbouring peoples, the Jiimas and the
Jacares; and make now an annual expedition against the
Pararauates, and one or two other similar wild tribes who
inhabit the interior of the land, but are sometimes driven by
hunger towards the banks of the great rivers to rob the planta-
tions of the agricultural Indians. These campaigns begin in
July, and last throughout the dry months ; the women gene-
rally accompanying the warriors to carry their arrows and
javelins. They had the diabolical custom, in former days, ot
cutting off the heads of their slain enemies, and preserving
them as trophies around their houses. I believe this, together
with other savage practices, has been relinquished in those
parts where they have had long intercourse with the Brazilians,
for I could neither see nor hear anything of these preserved
heads. They used to sever the head with knives made of
broad bamboo, and then, after taking out the brain and fleshy
parts, soak it in bitter vegetable oil (andiroba), and expose it
for several days over the smoke of a fire or in the sun. In the
tract of country between the Tapajos and the Madeira, a deadly
war has been for many years carried on between the Mun-
durucus and the Araras. I was told by a Frenchman at
Santarem, who had visited that j^art, that all the settlements
there have a military organisation. A separate shed is built
outside each village, where the fighting men sleep at night,
sentinels being stationed to give the alarm with blasts of the
Ture on the approach of the Araras, who choose the night for
their onslaughts.

Each horde of Mundurucus has its paje or medicine man,
who is the priest and doctor; fixes upon the time most pro-,
pitious for attacking the ememy ; exorcises evil spirits, and
professes to cure the sick. All illness whose origin is not
very apparent is supposed to be caused by a worm in the part
affected. This the paje pretends to extract ; he blows on the

I'?

226 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. chap. ix.

seat of pain the smoke from a large cigar, made with an air of
great mystery by rolHng tobacco in folds of Tauari, and then
sucks the place, drawing from his mouth, when he has finished,
what he pretends to be the worm. It is a piece of very clumsy
conjuring. One of these pajes was sent for by a woman in
John Aracii's family, to operate on a child who suffered
much from pains in the head. Senhor John contrived to get
possession of the supposed worm after the trick was performed
in our presence, and it turned out to be a long white air-root
of some plant. The paje was with difficulty persuaded to
operate whilst Senhor John and I were present. I cannot help
thinking tha.t he, as well as all others of the same profession,
are conscious impostors, handing down the shallow secret of
their divinations and tricks from generation to generation.
The institution seems to be common to all tribes of Indians,
and to be held to more tenaciously than any other.

I bought of the Tushaua two beautiful feather sceptres,
with their bamboo cashes. These are of cylindrical shape, about
three feet in length and three inches in diameter, and are
made by gluing with wax the fine white and yellow feathers
from the breast of the toucan on stout rods, the tops being
ornamented with long plumes from the tails of parrots, trogons,
and other birds. The Munduruciis are considered to be the
most expert workers in feathers of all the South American
tribes. It is very difficult, however, to get them to part with
the articles, as they seem to have a sort of superstitious regard
for them. They manufacture head-dresses, sashes, and tunics,
besides sceptres ; the feathers being assorted with a good eye
to the proper contrast of colours, and the quills worked into
strong cotton webs, woven with knitting sticks in the required
shape. The dresses are worn only during their festivals, which
are celebrated, not at stated times, but whenever the Tushaua
thinks fit. Dancing, singing, sports, and drinking, appear to
be the sole objects of these occasional holidays. When a day
is fixed upon, the women prepare a great quantity of taroba,
and the monotonous jingle is kept up, with little intermission,
night and day, until the stimulating beverage is finished.

We left the Tushaiia's house early the next morning. The
impression made upon me by the glimpse of Indian life in its
natural state obtained here, and at another cluster of houses
visited higher up, was a pleasant one, notwithstanding the
disagreeable incident of the Pararauate visit. The Indians are
here seen to the best advantage ; having relinquished many of

CHAP. IX. MISSIONARY SERVICE. 227

their most barbarous practices, without being corrupted by too
close contact with the inferior whites and half-breeds of the
civilised settlements. The manners are simpler, the demeanour
more gentle, cheerful, and frank, than amongst the Indians
who live near the towns. I could not help contrasting their
well-fed condition, and the signs of orderly, industrious habits,
with the poverty and laziness of the semi-civilised people of
Altar do Chao. I do not think that the introduction of liquors
has been the cause of much harm to the Brazilian Indian.
He has his drinking bout now and then, like the common
working people of other countries. It was his habit in his
original state, before Europeans visited his country ; but he is
always ashamed of it afterwards, and remains sober during the
pretty long intervals. The harsh, slave-driving practices of the
Portuguese and their descendants have been the greatest
curses to the Indians ; the Munduruciis of the Cupari, how-
ever, have been now for many years protected against ill-
treatment. This is one of the good services rendered by the
missionaries, who take care that the Brazilian law in favour
of the aborigines shall be respected by the brutal and
unprincipled traders who go amongst them. I think no
Indians could be in a happier position than these simple,
peaceful, and friendly people on the banks of the Cupari. The
members of each family live together, and seem to be much
attached to each other ; and the authority of the chief is
exercised in the mildest manner. Perpetual summer reigns
around them; the land is of the highest fertility, and a moderate
amount of light work produces them all the necessaries of their
simple life. It is difficult to get at their notions on subjects
that require a little abstract thought ; but the mind of the
Indian is in a very primitive condition. I believe he thinks of
nothing except the matters that immediately concern his daily
material wants. There is an almost total absence of curiosity
in his mental disposition, consequently he troubles himself very
little concerning the causes of the natural phenomena around
him. He has no idea of a Supreme Being ; but, at the same
, time, he is free from revolting superstitions — his religious notions
going no farther than the belief in an evil spirit, regarded merely
as a kind of hobgoblin, who is at the bottom of all his little
failures, troubles in fishing, hunting, and so forth. With so
little mental activity, and with feelings and passions slow of
excitement, the life of these people is naturally monotonous
and dull, and their virtues are, properly speaking, only negative

228 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. chap. ix.

but the picture of harmless homely contentment they exhibit
is ver)^ pleasing, compared with the state of savage races in
many other parts of the world.

The men awoke me at four o'clock with the sound of their
oars on leaving the port of the Tushaiia. I was surprised to
find a dense fog veiling all surrounding objects, and the air
quite cold. The lofty wall of forest, with the beautiful crowns
of Assai palms standing out from it on their slender, arching
stems, looked dim and strange through the misty curtain. The
sudden change a little after sunrise had quite a magical effect ; for
the mist rose up like the gauze veil before the transformation
scene at a pantomime, and showed the glorious foliage in the
bright glow of morning, glittering with dew drops. We arrived
at the falls about ten o'clock. The river here is not more than
forty yards broad, and falls over a low ledge of rock stretching
in a nearly straight line across. *

We had now arrived at the end of the navigation for large
vessels — a distance from the mouth of the river, according to a
rough calculation, of a little over seventy miles. I found it
the better course now to send Jose and one of the men forward
in the montaria with John Aracu, and remain myself with the
cuberta and our other men, to collect in the neighbouring
forest. We stayed here four days ; one of the boats returning
each evening from the upper river with the produce of the
day's chase of my huntsmen. I obtained six good specimens
of the hyacinthine macaw, besides a number of smaller birds,
a species new to me of Guariba, or howling monkey, and two
large lizards. The Guariba was an old male, with the hair
much worn from his rump and breast, and his body disfigured
with large tumours made by the grubs of a gad-fly (^strus).
The back and tail were of a ruddy-brown colour; the limbs
and underside of the body, black. The men ascended to the
second falls, which form a cataract several feet in height, about
fifteen miles beyond our anchorage. The macaws were found
feeding in small flocks on the fruit of the Tucuma palm (Astry-
ocaryum Tucuma), the excessively hard nut of which is crushed
into pulp by the powerful beak of the bird. I found the craws
of all the specimens filled with the sour paste to which the stone-
like fruit had been reduced. Each bird took me three hours
to skin, and I was occupied with these and my other specimens
every evening until midnight, after my own laborious day's
hunt j working on the roof of my cabin by the light of a lamp.

CHAP. IX. FISHES. 229

The place where the cuberta was anchored formed a Httle
rocky haven, with a sandy beach sloping to the forest, within
which were the ruins of an Indian Maloca, and a large weed-
grown plantation. The port swarmed with fishes, whose
movements it was amusing to watch in. the deep, clear water.
The most abundant were the Piranhas. One species which
varied in length, according to age, from two to six inches, but
was recognisable by a black spot at the root of the tail, was
always the quickest to seize any fragment of meat thrown into
the water. When nothing was being given to them, a few
only were seen scattered about, their heads all turned one way
in an attitude of expectation ; but as soon as any offal fell from

Acara (Mesonauta insignis).

the canoe, the water was blackened with the shoals that rushed
instantaneously to the spot. Those who did not succeed in
securing a fragment, fought with those who had been more
successful, and many contrived to steal the coveted morsels
from their mouths. When a bee or fly passed through the air
near the water, they all simultaneously darted towards it as if
roused by an electric shock. Sometimes a larger fish approached,
and then the host of Piranhas took the alarm and flashed out
of sight. The population of the water varied from day to day.
Once a small shoal of a handsome black-banded fish, called by
the natives Acara bandeira (Mesonauta insignis, of Giinther),
came gliding through at a slow pace, forming a very pretty
sight. At another time, little troops of needle fish, eel-like

230

VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS.

CHAP. IX.

animals with excessively long and slender toothed
jaws, sailed through the field, scattering before them
the hosts of smaller fry ; and in the rear of the needle-
fishes a strangely-shaped kind called Sarapo came
wriggling along, one by one, with a slow movement.
We caught with hook and line, baited with pieces
of banana, several Curimata (Anodus Amazonum),
a most delicious fish, which, next to the Tucunare
and the Pescada, is most esteemed by the natives.
The Curimata seemed to prefer the middle of the
stream, where the waters were agitated beneath the
little cascade.

The weather was now settled and dry, and the river
sank rapidly — six inches in twenty-four hours. In this
remote and solitary spot I can say that I heard for
the first and almost the only time the uproar of life
at sunset, which Humboldt describes as
having witnessed towards the sources of
the' Orinoco, but which is unknown on
the banks of the larger rivers. The noises
of animals began just as the sun sank be-
hind the trees after a sweltering afternoon,
leaving the sky above of the intensest shade
of blue. Two flocks of howling monkeys,
one close to our canoe, the other about a
furlong distant, filled the echoing forest
with their dismal roaring. Troops of parrots,
including the hyacinthine macaw we were in
search of, began then to pass over ; the dif-
ferent styles of cawing and screaming of the
various species making a terrible discord.
Added to these noises were the songs of
strange Cicadas, one large kind perched
high on the trees around our little haven
setting up a most piercing chirp ; it began
with the usual harsh jarring tone of its tribe,
but this gradually and rapidly became
shriller, until it ended in a long and loud
note resembling the steam-whistle of a loco-
motive engine. Half-a-dozen of these
wonderful performers made a considerable
Needle-fish Sarap6 item in the evening concert. I had heard
(Hemaramphus).(Carapus).^j^^ ^^^^ species bcforc at Para, but it was

CHAP. IX. DESCENT OF THE TAPAJOS. 231

there very uncommon : we obtained here one of them for my
collection by a lucky blow with a stone. The uproar of
beasts, birds, and insects lasted but a short time : the sky
quickly lost its intense hue, and the night set in. Then began
the tree-frogs — quack-quack, drum -drum, hoo-hoo; these
accompanied by a melancholy night -jar, kept up their
monotonous cries until very late.

My men encountered on the banks of the stream a Jaguar
and a black Tiger, and were very much afraid of falling in with
the Pararauates, so that I could not, after their return on the
fourth day, induce the^m to undertake another journey. We
began our descent of the river in the evening of the 26th of
August. At night forest and river were again enveloped in
mist, and the air before sunrise was quite cold. There is a
considerable current from the falls to the house of John Aracu,
and we accomplished the distance, with its aid and by rowing,
in seventeen hours.

September 21st. — At five o'clock in the afternoon we emerged'
from the confined and stifling gully through which the Cupari
flows, into the broad Tapajos, and breathed freely again. How
I enjoyed the extensive view after being so long pent up : the
mountainous coasts, the gray distance, the dark waters tossed
by a refreshing breeze \ Heat, mosquitoes, insufficient and bad
food, hard work and anxiety, had brought me to a very low
state of health ; and I was now anxious to make all speed back
to Santarem.

We touched at Aveyros, to embark some chests I had left
there, and to settle accounts with Captain Antonio : finding
nearly all the people sick with fever and vomit, against which
the Padre's homoeopathic globules were of no avail. The
Tapajos had been pretty free from epidemics for some years
past, although it was formerly a very unhealthy river. A
sickly time appeared to be now returning; in fact, the year
following my visit (1853) was the most fatal one ever experi-
enced in this part of the country. A kind of putrid fever
broke out, which attacked people of all races alike. The
accounts we received at Santarem were most distressing : my
Cupari friends especially suffered very severely. John Aracii
and his family all fell victims, with the exception of his wife :
my kind friend Antonio Malagueita also died, and a great
number of people in the Mundurucu village.

The descent of the Tapajos in the height of the dry season,
which was now close at hand, is very hazardous on account

232 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. chap. ix.

of the strong winds, absence of current, and shoaly water far
away from the coasts. The river towards the end of September
is about thirty feet shallower than in June ; and in many
places ledges of rock are laid bare, or covered with only a small
depth of water. I had been warned of these circumstances by
my Cupari friends, but did not form an adequate idea of what
we should have to undergo. Canoes, in descending, only
travel at night, when the terral, or light land-breeze, blows off
the eastern shore. In .the day-time a strong wind rages from
down river, against which it is impossible to contend, as there
is no current, and the swell raised by its sv/eeping over scores
of miles of shallow water is dangerous to small vessels. The
coast for the greater part of the distance affords no shelter :
there are, however, a number of little harbours, called esperas,
which the canoe-men calculate upon, carefully arranging each
night voyage so as to reach one of them before the wind begins
the next morning.

We left Aveyros in the evening of the 21st, and sailed
gently down with the soft land-breeze, keeping about a mile
from the eastern shore. It was a briUiant moonlit night, and
the men worked cheerfully at the oars, when the wind was
slack; the terral wafting from the forest a pleasant perfume
like that of mignonette. At midnight we made a fire and got
a cup of coffee, and at three o'clock in the morning reached the
sitio of Ricardo^'s father, an Indian named Andre, where we
anchored and slept.

September 22nd. — Old Andre with his squaw came aboard
this morning. They brought three Tracajas, a turtle, and a
basketful of Tracaja eggs, to exchange with me for cotton
cloth and cashaca. Ricardo, who had been for some time very
discontented, having now satisfied his longing to see his parents,
cheerfully agreed to accompany me to Santarem. The loss of
a man at this juncture would have been very annoying, with
Captain Antonio ill at Aveyros, and not a hand to be had any-
where in the neighbourhood ; but if we had not called at
Andre's sitio, we should not have been able to have kept
Ricardo from running away at the first landing-place. He was
a lively, restless lad, and although impudent and trouble-
some at first, had made a very good servant ; his companion,
Alberto, was of quite a different disposition, being extremely
taciturn, and going through all his duties with the quietest
regularity.

We left at II a.m., and progressed a little before the wind

CHAP. IX. SHOALY WA TER. 233

began to blow from down river, when we were obliged again to
cast anchor. The terral began at six o'clock in the evening,
and we sailed with it past the long line of rock-bound coast
near Itapaama. At ten o'clock a furious blast of wind came
from a cleft between the hills, catching us with the sails close-
hauled, and throwing the canoe nearly on its beam-ends,
when we were about a mile from the shore. Jose had the
presence of mind to slacken the sheet of the mainsail, whilst
I leapt forward and lowered the sprit of the foresail ; the two
Indians standing stupefied in the prow. It was what the canoe-
men call a trovoada secca, or white squall. The river in a few
minutes became a sheet of foam ; the wind ceased in about
half an hour, but the terral was over for the night, so we pulled
towards the shore to find an anchoring place.

We reached Tapaiuna by midnight on the 23rd, and on the
morning of the 24th arrived at the Retiro, where we met a
shrewd Santarem trader, whom I knew, Senhor Chico Honorio,
who had a larger and much better provided canoe than our
own. The wind was strong from below all day, so we remained
at this place in his company. He had his wife with him, and
a number of Indians, male and female. We slung our ham-
mocks under the trees, and breakfasted and dined together, our
cloth being spread on the sandy beach in the shade ; after
killing a large quantity of fish with Umbo, of which we had
obtained a supply at Itapuama. At night we were again under
weigh with the land breeze. The water was shoaly to a great
distance off the coast, and our canoe having the lighter draught
went ahead, our leadsman crying out the soundings to our
companion : the depth was only one fathom, half a mile from
the coast. We spent the next day (25th) at the mouth of a
creek called Pini, which is exactly opposite the village of Boim,
and on the following night advanced about twelve miles.
Every point of land had a long spit of sand stretching one or
two miles towards the middle of the river, which it was neces-
sary to double by a wide circuit. The terraV failed us at mid-
night when we were near an espera, called Marai, the mouth of
a shallow creek.

September 26th. — I did not like the prospect of spending the
whole dreary day at Marai, where it was impossible to ramble
ashore, the forest being utterly impervious, and the land still
partly under water. Besides, we had used up our last stick of
firewood to boil our coffee at sunrise, and could not get a fresh
supply at this place. So there being a dead calm on the river

234 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. chap. ix.

in the morning, I gave orders at ten o'clock to move out of
the harbour, and try with the oars to reach Paquiatuba, which
was only five miles distant. We had doubled the shoaly point
which stretches from the mouth of the creek, and were making
way merrily across the bay, at the head of which was the port
of the little settlement, when we beheld to our dismay, a few
miles down the river, the signs of the violent day breeze coming
down upon us — a long, rapidly advancing line of foam with the
darkened water behind it. Our men strove in vain to gain the
harbour ; the wind overtook us, and we cast anchor in three
fathoms, with two miles of shoaly water between us and the
land on our lee. It came with the force of a squall : the heavy
billows washing over the vessel and drenching us with the
spray. I did not expect that our anchor would hold ; I gave
out, however, plenty of cable, and watched the result at the
prow ; Jose placing himself at the helm, and the men standing
by the jib and foresail, so as to be ready if we dragged, to
attempt the passage of the Marai spit, which was now almost
dead to leeward. Our little bit of iron, however, held its place;
the bottom being fortunately not so sandy as in most other
parts of the coast; but our weak cable then began to cause us
anxiety. We remained in this position all day without food,
for everything was tossing about in the hold ; provision-chests,
baskets, kettles, and crockery. The breeze increased in strength
towards the evening, when the sun set fiery red behind the
misty hills on the western shore, and the gloom of the scene
was heightened by the strange contrasts of colour ; the inky
water and the lurid gleam of the sky. Heavy seas beat now
and then against the prow of our vessel with a force that made
her shiver. If we had gone ashore in this place, all my pre-
cious collections would have been inevitably lost ; but we our-
selves could have scrambled easily to land, and re-embarked
with Senhor Honorio, who had remained behind in the Pini,
and would pass in the course of two or three days. When
night came, I lay down exhausted with watching and fatigue,
and fell asleep, as my men had done some time before. About
nine o'clock I was awoke by the montaria bumping against
the sides of the vessel, which had veered suddenly round, and
the full moon, previously astern, then shone full in the cabin.
The wind had abruptly ceased, giving place to light puffs from
the eastern shore, and leaving a long swell rolling into the
shoaly bay.

After this I resolved not to move a step beyond Paquiatuba

CHAP. IX. VOYAGE CONTINUED. 235

without an additional man, and one who understood the navi-
gation of the river at this season. We reached the landing-
place at ten o'clock, and anchored within the mouth of the
creek. In the morning I walked through the beautiful shady
alleys of the forest, which were water-paths in June when we
touched here in ascending the river, to the hcuse of Inspector
Cypriano. After an infinite deal of trouble I succeeded in
persuading him to furnish me with another Indian. There
are about thirty families established in this place, but the
able-bodied men had been nearly all drafted off within the last
few weeks by the Government, to accompany a military expe-
dition against runaway negroes, settled in villages in the
interior. Senhor Cypriano was a pleasant-looking and ex-
tremely civil young Mameluco. He accompanied us, on the
night of the 28th, five miles down the river to Point Jaguarari,
where the man lived whom he intended to send with me. I
was glad to find my new hand a steady, middle-aged and
married Indian ; his name was of very good promise, Angelo
Custodio (Guardian Angel).

Point Jaguarari forms at this season of the year a high sand-
bank, which is prolonged as a narrow spit, stretching about
three miles towards the middle of the river. We rounded this
with great difficulty in the night of the 29th; reaching before
daylight a good shelter behind a similar sandbank at Point
Acaratingari, a headland situated not more than five miles in
a straight line from our last anchoring place. We remained
here all day : the men beating Umbo in a quiet pool between
the sandbank and the mainland, and obtaining a great quantity
of fish, from which I selected six species new to my collection.
We made rather better progress the two following nights, but
the terral now always blew strongly from the north-north-east
after midnight, and thus limited the hours during which we
could navigate, forcing us to seek the nearest shelter to avoid
being driven back faster than we came.

On the 2nd of October we reached Point Cajetiiba, and had
a pleasant day ashore. The river scenery in this neighbour-
hood is of the greatest beauty. A few houses of settlers are
seen at the bottom of the broad bay of Aramana-i at the foot
of a range of richly-timbered hills, the high beach of snow-
white sand stretching in a bold curve from point to point.
The opposite shores of the river are ten or eleven miles distant,
but towards the north is a clear horizon of water and sky.
the country near Point Cajetiiba is similar to the neighbour-

236 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. chap. ix.

hood of Santarem : namely, campos with scattered trees. We
gathered a large quantity of wild fruit : Cajii, Umiri, and
Aapiranga. The Umiri berry (Humirium floribundum) is a
black drupe similar in appearance to the Damascene plum, and
not greatly unlike it in taste. The Aapiranga is a bright ver-
milion-coloured berry, with a hard skin and a sweet viscid
pulp enclosing the seeds. Between the point and Altar do
Chao was a long stretch of sandy beach with moderately deep
water; our men therefore took a rope ashore, and towed the
cuberta at merry speed until we reached the village. A long,
deeply-laden canoe with miners from the interior provinces
here passed us. It was manned by ten Indians, who pro-
pelled the boat by poles ; the men, five on each side, trotting
one after the other along a plank arranged for the purpose
from stem to stem.

It took us two nights to double Point Cururu, where, as
already mentioned, the river bends from its northerly course
beyond Altar do Chao. A confused pile of rocks, on whicli
many a vessel heavily laden with farinha has been wrecked,
extends at the season of low water from the foot of a high
bluff far into the stream. We were driven back on the first
night (October 3rd) by a squall. The light terral was carry-
ing us pleasantly round the spit, when a small black cloud
which lay near the rising moon suddenly spread over the sky
to the northward : the land breeze then ceased, and furious
blasts began to blow across the river. We regained, with gr^at
difficulty, the shelter of the point. It blew almost a hurri-
cane for two hours, during the whole of which time the sky
over our heads was beautifully clear and starlit. Our shelter
at first was not very secure, for the wind blew away the lash-
ings of our sails, and caused our anchor to drag. Angelo
Custodio, however, seized a rope which was attached to the
foremast, and leapt ashore ; had he not done so, we should
probably have been driven many miles backwards up the
storm-tossed river. After the cloud had passed, the regular
east wind began to blow, and our farther progress was effec-
tually stopped for the night. The next day we all went ashore,
after securing well the canoe, and slept from eleven o'clock till
five, under the shade of trees.

The distance between Point Cururu and Santarem was ac-
complished in three days, against the same difficulties of con-
trary and furious winds, shoaly water, and rocky coasts. I was
thankful at length to be safely housed, with the whole of my

CHAP. IX. ARRIVAL AT SANTAREM. 237

collections, made under so many privations and perils, landed
without the loss or damage of a specimen. The men, after
unloading the canoe and delivering it to its owner, came to
receive their payment. They took part in goods and part in
money, and after a good supper, on the night of the 7th
October, shouldered their bundles and set off to walk by land
some eighty miles to their homes. I was rather surprised at
the good feeling exhibited by these poor Indians at parting,
Angelo Custodio said that whenever I should wish to make
another voyage up the Tapajos, he would be always ready to
serve me as pilot. Alberto was undemonstrative as usual ;
but Ricardo, with whom I had had many sharp quarrels,
actually shed tears when, lie shook hands and bid me the final
" adeos.

CHAPTER X.

THE UPPER AMAZONS— VOYAGE TO EGA.

Departure from Barra — First day and night on the Upper Amazons — Deso-
late appearance of river in the flood season — Cucama Indians — Mental
condition of Indians — Squalls— Manatee — Forest — Floating pumice-
stones from the Andes — Falling banks — Ega and its inhabitants — Daily
life of a Naturalist at Ega — The four seasons of the Upper Amazons.

I MUST now take the reader from the picturesque, hilly-
country of the Tapajos, and its dark, streamless waters, to the
boundless wooded plains, and yellow turbid current of the
Upper Amazons or Solimoens. I will resume the narrative of
my first voyage up the river, which was interrupted at the
Barra of the Rio Negro, in the seventh chapter, to make way for
the description of Santarem and its neighbourhood.

I embarked at Barra on the 26th of March, 1850, three
years before steamers were introduced on the upper river, in a
cuberta which was returning to Ega, the first and only town of
any importance in the vast solitudes of the Solimoens, from
Santarem, whither it had been sent with a cargo of turtle oil in
earthenware jars. The owner, an old white-haired Portuguese
trader of Ega, named Daniel Cardozo, was then at Barra,
attending the assizes as juryman, a public duty performed
without remuneration, which took him six weeks away from his
business. He was about to leave Barra himself, in a small
boat, and recommended me to send forward my heavy baggage
in the cuberta and make the journey with him. He would
reach Ega, 370 miles distant from Barra, in twelve or fourteen
days ! whilst the large vessel would be thirty or forty days on
the road. I preferred, however, to go in company with my
luggage, looking forward to the many opportunities I should
have of landing and making collections on the banks of the
river.

CHAP. X. ASPECT OF THE RIVER. 239

I shipped the collections made between Para and the Rio
Negro in a large cutter which was about descending to the
capital, and after a heavy day's work got all my chests aboard
the Ega canoe by eight o'clock at night. The Indians were
then all embarked, one of them being brought dead drunk by
his companions, and laid to sober himself all night on the wet
boards of the tombadilha. The cabo, a spirited young white,
named Estulano Alves Carneiro, who has since risen to be a
distinguished citizen of the new province of the Upper
Amazons, soon after gave orders to get up the anchor. The
men took to the oars, and in a few hours we crossed the
broad mouth of the Rio Negro ; the night being clear, calm,
and starlit, and the surface of the inky waters smooth as a
lake.

When I awoke the next morning, we were progressing by
espia along the left bank of the Solimoens. The rainy reason
had now set in over the region through which the great river
flows ; the sand-banks and all the lower lands were already
under water, and the tearing current, two or three miles in
breadth, bore along a continuous line of uprooted trees and
islets of floating plants. The prospect was most melancholy ;
no sound was heard but the dull murmur of the waters ; the
coast along which we travelled all day was encumbered every
step of the way with fallen trees, some of which quivered in the
currents which set around projecting points of land. Our old
pest, the Motiica, began to torment us as soon as the sun
gained power in the morning. White egrets were plentiful at
the edge of the water, and humming-birds, in some places,
were whirring about the flowers overhead. The desolate
appearance of the landscape increased after sunset, when the
moon rose in mist.

This upper river, the Alto-Amazonas, or Solimoens, is always
spoken of by the Brazilians as a distinct stream. This is partly
owing, as before remarked, to the direction it seems to take at
the fork of the Rio Negro ; the inhabitants of the country,
from their partial knowledge, not being able to comprehend
the whole river system in one view. It has, however, many
peculiarities to distinguish it from the lower course of the river.
The trade-wind, or sea-breeze, which reaches, in the height of
the dry season, as far as the mouth of the Rio Negro, 900 or
1000 miles from the Atlantic, never blows on the upper river.
The atmosphere is therefore more stagnant and sultry, and the

240 THE UPPER AMAZONS. chap. x.

winds that do prevail are of irregular direction and short
duration. A great part of the land on the borders of the
Lower Amazons is hilly ; there are extensive campos, or open
plains, and long stretches of sandy soil clothed with thinner
forests. The climate, in consequence, is comparatively dry,
many months in succession during the fine season passing with-
out rain. All this is changed on the Solimoens. A fortnight
of clear sunny weather is a rarity : the whole region through
which the river and its affluents flow, after leaving the eastern-
most ridges of the Andes, which Poppig describes as rising
like a wall from the level country, 240 miles from the Pacific,
is a vast plain, about 1000 miles in length, and 500 or 600 in
breadth, covered with one uniform, lofty, impervious, and
humid forest. The soil is nowhere sandy, but always either a
stiff clay, alluvium, or vegetable mould, which latter, in many
places, is seen in water-worn sections of the river banks to be
twenty or thirty feet in depth. With such a soil and climate,
the luxuriance of vegetation, and the abundance and beauty of
animal forms which are already so great in the region nearer
the Atlantic, increase on the upper river. The fruits, both
wild and cultivated, common to the two sections of the
country, reach a progressively larger size in advancing west-
ward, and some trees which blossom only once a year at Para
and Santarem, yield flower and fruit all the year round at
Ega, The climate is healthy, although one lives here as in a
permanent vapour bath. I must not, however, give here a
lengthy description of the region, whilst we are yet on its
threshold. I resided and travelled on the Solimoens altogether
for four years and a half. The country on its borders is a
magnificent ^vilderness where civilized man, as yet, has scarcely
obtained a footing ; the cultivated ground from the Rio Negro
to the Andes amounting only to a few score acres. Man,
indeed, in any condition, from his small numbers, makes but
an insignificant figure in these vast solitudes. It may be
mentioned that the Solimoens is 2130 miles in length, if we
reckon from the source of what is usually considered the main
stream (Lake Lauricocha, near Lima) ; but 2500 miles by the
route of the Ucayali, the most considerable and practicable
fork of the upper part of the river. It is navigable at all
seasons by large steamers, for upwards of 1400 miles from the
mouth of the Rio Negro.

On the 28th we passed the mouth of Ariauii, a narrow inlet

CHAP. X. OUR CREW. 241

which communicates with the Rio Negro, emerging in front of
Barra. Our vessel was nearly drawn into this, by the violent
current which set from the Solimoens. The towing-cable was
lashed to a strong tree about thirty yards ahead, and it took
the whole strength of crew and passengers to pull across. We
passed the Guariba, a second channel connecting the two
rivers, on the 30th, and on the 31st sailed past a straggling
settlement called Manacapurii, situated on a high rocky bank.
Many citizens of Barra have siiios, or country-houses, in this
place, although it is eighty miles distant from the town by the
nearest road. Beyond Manacapuru all traces of high land
cease; both shores of the river, henceforward for many
hundred miles, are flat, except in places where the Tabatinga
formation appears, in clayey elevations of from twenty to forty
feet above the line of highest water. The country is so com-
pletely destitute of rocky or gravelly beds, that not a pebble is
seen during many weeks' journey. Our voyage was now very
monotonous. After leaving the last house at Manacapuru we
travelled nineteen days without seeing a human habitation, the
few settlers being located on the banks of inlets or lakes some
distance from the shores of the main river. We met only one
vessel during the whole of the time, and this did not come
within hail, as it was drifting down in the middle of the current
in a broad part of the river, two miles from the bank along
which we were laboriously warping our course upwards.

After the first two or three days we fell into a regular way of
life aboard. Our crew was composed of ten Indians of the
Cucama nation, whose native country is^ portion of the borders
of the upper river, in the neighbourhood of Nauta, in Peru.
The Cucamas speak the Tupi language, using, however, a
harsher accent than is common amongst the semi-civilized
Indians from Ega downwards. They are a shrewd, hard-
working people, and are the only Indians who willingly and in
a body engage themselves to navigate the canoes of traders.
The pilot, a steady and faithful fellow named Vicente, told me
that he and his companions had now been fifteen months
absent from their wives and families, and that on arriving at
Ega they intended to take the first chance of a passage to
Nauta. There was nothing in the appearance of these men to
distinguish them from canoe-men in general. Some were tall
and well built, others had squat figures with broad shoulders
and excessively thick arms and legs. No two of them were at
all similar in the shape of the head : Vicente had an oval

16

242 THE UPPER AMAZONS. chap. x.

visage, with fine regular features, whilst a little dumpy fellow,
the wag of the party, was quite a Mongolian in breadth and
prominence of cheek, spread of nostrils, and obliquity of eyes;
but these two formed the extremes as to face and t^gure. None
of them were tattooed or disfigured in any way ; and they were
all quite destitute of beard. The Cucamas are notorious on the
river for their provident habits. The desire of acquiring property
is so rare a trait in Indians, that the habits of these people are
remarked on with surprise by the Brazilians. The first possession
which they strive to acquire, on descending the river into Brazil,
which all the Peruvian Indians look upon as a richer country than
their own, is a wooden trunk with lock and key ; in this they
stow away carefully all their earnings converted into clothing,
hatchets, knives, harpoon heads, needles and thread, and so
forth. Their wages are only fourpence or sixpence a day, which
is often paid in goods charged a hundred per cent, above Para
prices, so that it takes them a long time to fill their chest.

It would be difficult to find a better-behaved set of men on a
voyage than these poor Indians. During our thirty-five days'
journey they lived and worked together in the most perfect
good fellowship. I never heard an angry word pass amongst
them. Senhor Estulano let them navigate the vessel in their
own way^ exerting his authority only now and then when they
were inclined to be lazy. Vicente regulated the working hours.
These depended on the darkness of the nights. In the first
and second quarters of the moon they kept it up with espia^ or
oars, until towards midnight ; in the third and fourth quarters
they were allowed to go to sleep soon after sunset, and aroused
at three or four o'clock in the morning to resume their work.
On cool, rainy days we all bore a hand at the espia^ trotting
with bare feet on the sloppy deck in Indian file, to the tune of
some wild boatman's chorus. We had a favourable wind for
two days only out of the thirty-five, by which we made about
forty miles ; the rest of our long journey was accomplished
literally by pulling our way from tree to tree. When we
encountered a remanso near the shore, we got along very
pleasantly for a few miles by rowing : but this was a rare
occurrence. During leisure hours the Indians employed them-
selves in sewing. Vicente was a good hand at cutting out
shirts and trousers, and acted as master tailor to the whole
party, each of whom had a thick steel thimble and a stock of
needles and thread of his own. Vicente made for me a set of
blue-che'^V cotton shirts during the passage.

CHAP. X. INDIAN CHARACTER, .-43

The goodness of these Indians, like that of most others
amongst whom I Hved, consisted perhaps more in the absence
of active bad quahties, than in the possession of good ones ;
in other words, it was negative rather than positive. Their
phlegmatic, apathetic temperament, coldness of desire and
deadness of feeling, want of curiosity and slowness of intellect,
make the Amazonian Indians very uninteresting companions
anywhere. Their imagination is of a dull, gloomy quality, and
they seemed never to be stirred by the emotions — love, pity,
admiration, fear, wonder, joy, enthusiasm. These are character-
istics of the whole race. The good fellowsh'p of our Cucamas
seemed to arise, not from warm sympathy, but simply from the
absence of eager selfishness in small matters. On the morning
when the favourable wind sprang up, one of the crew, a lad of
about seventeen years of age, was absent ashore at the time of
starting, having gone alone in one of the montarias to. gather
wild fruit. The sails were spread and we travelled for several
hours at great speed, leaving the poor fellow to paddle after us
against the strong current. Vicente, who might have waited a
few minutes at starting, and the others, only laughed when the
hardship of their companion was alluded to. He overtook. us
at night, having worked his way with frightful labour the whole
day without a morsel of food. He grinned when he came on
board, and not a dozen words were said on either side.

Their want of curiosity is extreme. One day we had an
unusually sharp thunder-shower. The crew were lying about
the deck, and after each explosion all set up a loud laugh ; the
wag of the party exclaiming, " There's my old uncle hunting
again ! " an expression showing the utter emptiness of mind ot
the spokesman. I asked Vicente what he thought was the cause
of lightning and thunder. He said, "Timaa ichoqua," — I don't
know. He had never given the subject a moment's thought !
It was the same with other things. I asked him who made the
sun, the stars, the trees ? He didn't know, and had never heard
the subject mentioned amongst his tribe. The Tupi language, at
least as taught by the old Jesuits, has a word — Tupana — signi-
fying God. Vicente sometimes used this word, but he showed
by his expressions that he did not attach the idea of a Creator
to it. He seemed to think it meant some deity, or visible image,
which the whites worshipped in the churches he had seen in
the villages. None of the Indian tribes on the Upper Amazons
have an idea of a Supreme Being, and consequently have no
.vord to express it in their own languages. Vicente thought the

244 THE UPPER AMAZONS, chap. X.

river on which we were travelHng encircled the whole earth, and
that the land was an island like those seen in the stream, but
larger. Here a gleam of curiosity and imagination in the
Indian mind is revealed : the necessity of a theory of the earth
and water has been felt, and a theory has been suggested. In
all other matters not concerning the common wants of life the
mind of Vicente was a blank, and such I always found to be
the case of the Indian in his natural state. Would a com-
munity of any race of men be otherwise, were they isolated for
centuries in a wilderness like the Amazonian Indians, associated
in small numbers, wholly occupied in procuring a mere sub-
sistence, and without a written language, or a leisured class to
hand down acquired knowledge from generation to generation ?

One day a smart squall gave us a good lift onward ; it came
with a cold, fine, driving rain, which enveloped the desolate
landscape as with a mist : the forest swayed and roared with the
force of the gale, and flocks of birds were driven about in alarm
over the tree tops. On another occasion a similar squall came
from an unfavourable quarter : it fell upon us quite unawares,
when we had all our sails out to dry, and blew us broadside
foremost on the shore. The vessel was fairly lifted on to the
tall bushes which lined the banks, but we sustained no injury
beyond the entanglement of our rigging in the branches. The
days and nights usually passed in a dead calm, or with light
intermittent winds from up riv^r, and consequently full against
us. We landed twice a day, to give ourselves and the Indians
a little rest and chang-e, and to cook our two meals — breakfast
and dinner. There was another passenger beside myself — a
cautious, middle-aged Portuguese, who was going to settle at
Ega, where he had a brother long since established. He was
accommodated in the fore-cabin, or arched covering over the
hold. I shared the cabin-proper with Senhores Estulano and
Manoel, the latter a young half-caste, son-in-law to the o\^ ner
of the vessel, under whose tuition I made good progress in
learning the Tupi language during the voyage.

Our men took it in turns, two at a tim-e, to go out fishing,
for which purpose we carried a spare montaria. The master
had brought from Barra, as provisions, nothing but stale salt
pirarecu-— half-rotten fish, in large, thin, rusty slabs — farinha,
coffee, and treacle. In these voyages passengers are expected
to provide for themselves, as no charge is made except for
freight of the heavy luggage or cargo they take with them.
The Portuguese and myself had brought a few luxuries, such

CHAP. X. THE MANATEE. 245

as beans, sugar, biscuits, tea, and so forth ; but we found our-
selves almost obliged to share them with our two companions
and the pilot, so that before the voyage was one-third finished
the small stock of most of these articles was exhausted. In
return we shared in whatever the men brought. Sometimes
they were quite unsuccessful, for fish is extremely difficult to
procure in the season of high water, on account of the lower
lands, lying between the inlets and infinite chain of pools and
lakes, being flooded from the main river, thus increasing tenfold
the area over which the finny population, has to, range. On
most days, however, they brought two or three fine fish, and
once they harpooned a manatee,, or Vacca marina. O^i this
last-mentioned occasion we made quite a. holiday; the canoe
was stopped for six or seven hours, and all turned out into the
forest to help to skin and cook the animal. The meat was cut
into cubical slabs, and each person skewered a dozen or so of
these on a long stick. Fires were made, and the spits stuck in
the ground and slanted over the flames to roast. A drizzling
rain fell all the time, and the ground around, the fires swarmed
with stinging ants, attracted by the entrails and slime which
were scattered about. The meat has somewhat the taste of
very coarse pork ;. but tlie fat, which lies in thick layers between
the lean parts, is of a greenish colour, and of a disagreeable,
fishy flavour. The animal was a large one, measuring nearly
ten feet in length, and nine in. girth at the broadest part. The
manatee is one of the few objects which excite the dull wonder
and curiosity of die Indians, notwithstanding its commonness.
The fact of its suckling its young at the breast, although an
aquatic animal resembling a fish, seems to strike them as some-
thing very strange. The animal, as it lay on its. back, with, its
broad rounded head and muzzle, tapering body, and smooth,
thick, lead-coloured skin, reminded me of those Egyptian tombs
which are made of dark, smooth stone, and shaped to the human
figure.

Notwithstanding the hard fare, the confinement of the canoe,
the trying weather, — frequent and drenching rains, with gleams
of fiery sunshine, — and the woful desolation of the river scenery,
I enjoyed the voyage on the whole. We were not much
troubled by mosquitoes, and therefore passed the nights very
pleasantly, sleeping on deck, wrapped in blankets or old sails.
When the rains drove us below, we were less comfortable, as
there was only just room in the small cabin for three of us to
lie close together, and the confined air was stifling. I became

246 THE UPPER AMAZONS. chap x.

inured to the Piums in the course of the first week; all the
exposed parts of my body, by that time, being so closely covered
with black punctures that the little bloodsuckers could not very
easily find an unoccupied place to operate upon. Poor Miguel,
the Portuguese, sufiered horribly from these pests, his ankles
and wrists being so much inflamed that he was confined to his
hammock, slung in the hold, for weeks. At every landing-
place I had a ramble in the forest, whilst the red skins made
the fire and cooked the meal. The result was a large daily
addition to my collection of insects, reptiles, and shells. Some-
times the neighbourhood of our gipsy-like encampment was a
tract of dry and spacious forest, pleasant to ramble in ; but
more frequently it was a rank wilderness, into which it was
impossible to penetrate many yards, on account of uprooted
trees, entangled webs of monstrous woody climbers, thickets of
spiny bamboos, swamps, or obstacles of one kind or other.
The drier lands were sometimes beautified to the highest
degrees by groves of the Urucuri palm (Attalea excelsa), which
grew by thousands under the crowns of the lofty ordinary
fbrest trees ; their smooth columnar stems being all of nearly
equal height (forty or fifty feet), and their broad, finely-pinnated
leaves interlocking above to form arches and woven canopies of
elegant and diversified shapes. The fruit of this palm ripens
on the upper river in April, and during our voyage I saw im-
mense quantities of it strewn about under the trees in places
where we encamped. It is similar in size and shape to the
date, and has a pleasantly-flavoured juicy pulp. The Indians
would not eat it; I was surprised at this, as they greedily
devoured many other kinds of palm fruit, whose sour and
fibrous pulp was much less palatable. Vicente shook his head
when he saw me one day eating a quantity of the Urucuri
plums. I am not sure they were not the cause of a severe
indigestion under which I suffered for many days afterwards.

In passing slowly along the interminable wooded banks week
after week, I observed that there were three tolerably distinct
kinds of coast and corresi^onding forest constantly recurring on
this upper river. First, there were the low and most recent
alluvial deposits, — a mixture of sand and mud, covered with
tall, broad-leaved grasses, or with the arrow-grass before
described, whose feathery-topped flower-stem rises to a height
of fourteen or fifteen feet. The only large trees which grow in
these places are the Cecropise. Many of the smaller and newer
islands were of this description. Secondly, there were the

CHAP. X. COAST SCE N E R Y. 247

moderately high banks, which are only partially overflowed
when the flood season is at its height ; these are wooded with
a magnificent varied forest, in which a great variety of palms
and broad-leaved Marantacese form a very large proportion of
the vegetation. The general foliage is of a vivid light-green
hue ; the water frontage is sometimes covered with a diversified
mass of greenery ; bat where the current sets strongly against
the friable earthy banks, which at low water are twenty-five to
thirty feet high, these are cut away, and expose a section of
forest, where the trunks of trees loaded with epiphytes appear
in massy colonnades. One might safely say that three-fourths
of the land bordering the Upper Amazons, for a thousand miles,
belong to this second class. The third description of coast is
the higher, undulating, clayey land, which appears only at long
intervals, but extends sometimes for many miles along the
borders of the river. The coast at these places is sloping, and
composed of red or variegated clay. The forest is of a different
character from that of the lower tracts : it is rounder in outline,
more uniform in its general aspect; palms are much less
numerous and of peculiar species — the strange bulging-stemmed
species, Iriartea ventricosa, and the slender glossy-leaved
Bacaba-i (^Enocarpus minor), being especially characteristic ;
and, in short, animal life, which imparts some cheerfulness to
the other parts of the river, is seldom apparent. This "terra
firme," as it is called, and a large portion of the fertile lower
land, seemed well adapted for settlement; some parts were
originally peopled by the aborigines, but these have long since
become extinct or amalgamated with the white immigrants. I
afterwards learnt that there were not more than eighteen or
twenty families settled throughout the whole country from
Manacapuru to Quary, a distance of 240 miles ; and these, as
before observed, do not live on the banks of the main stream,
but on the shores of inlets and lakes.

The fishermen twice brought me small rounded pieces of very
porous pumice-stone, which they had picked up floating on the
surface of the main current of the river. They were to me
objects of great curiosity, as being messengers from the distant
volcanoes of the Andes : Cotopaxi, Llanganete, or Sangay,
which rear their peaks amongst the rivulets that feed some ot
the early tributaries of the Amazons, such as the Macas, the
Pastaza, and the Napo. The stones must have already travelled
a distance of 1,200 miles. I afterwards found them rather
common ; the Brazilians use them for cleaning rust from their

248

THE UPPER AMAZONS.

CHAP. X.

guns, and firmly believe them to be solidified river foam. A
friend once brought me,
when I lived at San-
tarem, a large piece
which had been found
in the middle of the
stream below Monte
Alegre, about 900 "miles
further down the river ; having reached
this distance,, pumice-stones would be
pretty sure of being carried out to sea, and
floated thence with the north-westerly
Atlantic current, to shores many thou-
sand miles distant from the volcanoes
which ejected them. They are some-
times stranded on the banks in different
parts of the river. Reflecting on this
circumstance since I arrived in England,
the probabiHty of these porous fragments
serving as vehicles for the transportation
of seeds of plants, eggs of insects, spawn
of fresh-water fish, and so forth, has sug-
gested itself to me. Their rounded,
water-worn appearance showed that
they must have been rolled about for a
long time in the shallow streams near
the sources of the rivers at the feet
of the volcanoes, before they leapt the
waterfalls and embarked on the cur-
rents which lead direct for the Amazons.
They may have been originally cast
on the land and afterwards carried to
the rivers by freshets ; in which case
the eggs and seeds of land insects and
plants might be accidentally introduced,
and safely enclosed with particles of
earth in their cavities. As the speed
of the current in the rainy season has
been observed to be from three to five
miles an hour, they might travel an .--r^-_^
immense distance before the eggs or ^^-^■^--
seeds were destroyed. I am ashamed Bulging-stemmed Palm
, ^ - -^ T , ^ . rashiuba birngudo

to. say that I neglected the. opportunity,, (iriartea.ventricosa).

CHAP. X. TERRA CAHIDA, 249

whilst on the spot, of ascertaining whether this was actually
the case. The attention of Naturalists has only lately been
turned to the important subject of occasional means of wide
dissemination of species of animals and plants. Unless such
be shown to exist, it is impossible to solve some of the most
difficult problems connected with the distribution of plants and
animals. Some species, with most limited powers of loco-
motion, are found in opposite parts of the earth, without exist-
ing in the intermediate regions ; unless it can be shown that
these may have migrated or been accidentally transported from
one point to the other, we shall have to come to the strange
conclusion that the same species had been created in two
separate districts.

Canoemen on the Upper Amazons live in constant dread of
the " terras cahidas," or landslips, which occasionally take place
along the steep earthy banks, especially when the waters are
rising. Large vessels are sometimes overwhelmed by these
avalanches of earth and trees. I should have thought the
accounts of them exaggerated, if I had not had an opportunity
during this voyage of seeing one on a large scale. One morning
I was awoke before sunrise by an unusual sound resembling the
roar of artillery. I was lying alone on the top of the cabin ; it
was very dark, and all my companions were asleep, so I lay
listening. The sounds came from a considerable distance, and.
the crash which had aroused me was succeeded by others much
less formidable. The first explanation which occurred to me
was that it was an earthquake ; for, although the night was
breathlessly calm, the broad river was much agitated and the
vessel rolled heavily. Soon after, another loud explosion took
place, apparently much nearer than the former one ; then fol-
lowed others. The thundermg peal rolled backwards and for-
wards, now seeming close at hand, now far off; the sudden
crashes being often succeeded by a pause, or a long-continued
dull rumbling. At the second explosion, Vicente, who lay
snoring by the helm, awoke and told me it was a " terra
cahida;" but I could scarcely believe him. The day dawned
after the uproar had lasted about an hour, and we then saw the
work of destruction going forward on the other side of the river,
about three miles off. Large masses of forest, including trees
of colossal size, probably 200 feet in height, were rocking to
and fro, and falling headlong one after the other into the water.
After each avalanche the wave which it caused returned on the

250 THE UPPER AMAZONS. chap, x

crumbly bank with tremendous force, and caused the fall of
other masses by undermining them. The line of coast over
which the landslip extended was a mile or two in length ; the
end of it, however, was hid from our view by an intervening
island. It was a grand sight ; each downfall created a cloud of
spray; the concussion in one place causing other masses to
give way a long distance from it, and thus the crashes continued,
swaying to any fro, with little prospect of a termination. When
we glided out of sight, two hours after sunrise, the destruction
was still going on.

On the 22nd we threaded the Parana-mirim of Arauana-i, one
of the numerous narrow by-waters which lie conveniently for
canoes away from the main river, and often save a considerable
circuit round a promontory or island. We rowed for half a
mile through a magnificent bed of Victoria water-lilies, the
flower-buds of which were just beginning to expand. Beyond
the mouth of the Catua, a channel leading to one of the great
lakes so numerous in the plains of the Amazons, which we
passed on the 25th, the river appeared greatly increased in
breadth. We travelled for three days along a broad reach,
which both up and down river presented a blank horizon of
water and sky : this clear view was owing to the absence of
islands, but it renewed one's impressions of the magnitude of
the stream, which here, 1,200 miles from its mouth, showed so
little diminution of width. Further westward a series of large
islands commences, which divides the river into two and some-
times three channels, each about a mile in breadth. We kept
to the southernmost of these, traveUing all day on the 30th of
April along a high and rather sloping bank.

In the evening we arrived at a narrow opening, which would
be taken, by a stranger navigating the main channel, for the
outlet of some insignificant stream : it was the mouth of the
Tefie, on whose banks Ega is situated, the termination of our
voyage. After having struggled for thirty-five days with the
muddy currents and insect pests of the Solimoens, it was un-
speakably refreshing to find one's-self again in a dark-water
river, smooth as a lake, and free from Pium and Motiica. The
rounded outline, small foliage, and sombre-green of the woods,
which seemed to rest on the glassy waters, made a pleasant
contrast to the tumultuous piles of rank, glaring, light-green
vegetation, and torn, timber-strewn banks, to which we had been
so long accustomed on the main river. The men rowed lazily

CHAP. X. LAKE OF EGA. 251

until nightfall, when, having done a laborious day's work, they
discontinued and went to sleep, intending to make for Ega in
the morning. It was not thought worth while to secure the
vessel to the trees or cast anchor, as there was no current. I
sat up for two or three hours after my companions had gone to
rest, enjoying the solemn calm of the night. Not a breath of
air stirred ; the sky was of a deep blue, and the stars seemed to
stand forth in sharp relief ; there was no sound of life in the
woods, except the occasional melancholy note of some noc-
turnal bird. I reflected on my own wandering life : I had now
reached the end of the third stage of my journey, and was now
more than half-way across the continent. It was necessary for
me, on many accounts, to find a rich locality for Natural His-
tory explorations, and settle myself in it for some months or
years. Would the neighbourhood of Ega turn out to be
suitable } and should I, a solitary stranger on a strange errand,
find a welcome amongst its people ?

Our Indians resumed their oars at sunrise the next morning
(May ist), and after an hour's rowing along the narrow channel,
which varies in breadth from 100 to 500 yards, we doubled a
low wooded point, and emerged suddenly on the so-called Lake
of Ega : a magnificent sheet of water, five miles broad — the
expanded portion of the Teffe. It is quite clear of islands, and
curves away to the west and south^ so that its full extent is not
visible from this side. To the left, on a gentle grassy slope at
the point of junction of a broad tributary with the Teffe, lay
the little settlement : a cluster of a hundred or so of palm-
thatched cottages and white- washed red-tiled houses, each with
its neatly-enclosed orchard of orange, lemon, banana, and
guava trees. Groups of palms, with their tall slender shafts
and feathery crowns, overtopped the buildings and lower trees.
A broad grass-carpeted street led from the narrow strip of white
sandy beach to the rudely-built bam-like church, with its
wooden crucifix on the green before it, in the centre of the
town. Cattle were grazing before the houses, and a number of
dark-skinned natives were taking their morning bath amongst
the canoes of various sizes which were anchored or moored to
stakes in the port. We let off rockets and fired salutes, accord-
ing to custom, in token of our safe arrival, and shortly after-
wards w^ent ashore.

I made Ega my head-quarters during the whole of the time
I remained on the Upper Amazons (four years and a half). My

252 THE UPPER AMAZONS. chap. x.

excursions into the neighbouring region extended sometimes
as far as 300 and 400 miles from the place. An account of these
excursions will be given in subsequent chapters ; in the intervals
between them I led a quiet, uneventful Hfe in the settlement ;
following my pursuit in the same peaceful, regular way as a
Naturalist might do in a European village. For many weeks
in succession my journal records little more than the notes made
on my daily captures. I had a dry and spacious cottage, the
principal room of which was made a workshop and study ;
here a large table was placed, and my little library of reference
arranged on shelves in rough wooden boxes. Cages for drying
specimens were suspended from the rafters by cords well
anointed, to prevent ants from descending, with a bitter
vegetable oil : rats and mice were kept from them by inverted
cuyas^ placed half-way down the cords. I always kept on hand
a large portion of my private collection, which contained a pair
of each species and variety, for the sake of comparing the old
with the new acquisitions. My cottage was whitewashed inside
and out about once a year by the proprietor, a native trader ;
the floor was of earth ; the ventilation was perfect, for the out-
side air, and sometimes the rain as well, entered freely through
gaps at the top of the walls under the eaves, and through wide
crevices in the doorways. Rude as the dwelling was, I look
back with pleasure on the many happy months I spent in it. I
rose generally with the sun, when the grassy streets were wet
with dew, and walked down to the river to bathe : five or six
hours of every morning were spent in collecting in the forest,
whose borders lay only five minutes' walk from my house : the
hot hours of the afternoon, between three and six o'clock, and
the rainy days, were occupied in preparing and ticketing the
specimens, making notes, dissecting, and drawing. I fre-
quently had short rambles by w^ater in a small montaria, with
an Indian lad to paddle. The neighbourhood yielded me, up to
the last day of my residence, an uninterrupted succession of
new and different forms in the different classes of the animal
kingdom, but especially insects.

There were, of course, many drawbacks to the amenities of
the place as a residence for a European ; but these were not of
a nature that my readers would perhaps imagine. There was
scarcely any danger from wald animals : it seems almost ridi-
culous to refute the idea of danger from the natives, m a country
where even incivility to an unoffending stranger is a rarity. A
Jaguar, however, paid us a visit one night. It was considered

CHAP. X. ALLIGATORS. 253

an extraordinary event, and so much uproar was made by the
men who turned out with guns and bows and arrows, that the
animal scampered off and was heard of no more. AHigators
were rather troublesome in the dry season. During these
months there was almost always one or two lying in wait near
of the bathing-place for anything that might turn up at the edge
the water ; dog, sheep, pig, child, or drunken Indian. When this
visitor was about, every one took extra care whilst bathing. I
used to imitate the natives in not advancing far from the bank,
and in keeping my eye fixed on that of the monster, which
stares with a disgusting leer along the surface of the water ; the
body being submerged to the level of the eyes, and the
top of the head, with part of the dorsal crest, the only por-
tions visible. When a little motion was perceived in the water
behind the reptile's tail, bathers were obliged to beat a quick
retreat. I was never threatened myself, but I often saw the
crowds of women and children scared whilst bathing, by the
beast making a movement towards them ; a general scamper to
the shore and peals of laughter were always the result in these
cases. The men can always destroy these alligators when they
like to take the trouble to set out with montarias and harpoons
for the purpose ; but they never do it unless one of the monsters,
bolder than usual, puts some one's life in danger. This arouses
them, and they then track the enemy with the greatest perti-
nacity ; when half killed, they drag it ashore and 'dispatch it
amid loud execrations. Another, however, is sure to appear
some days or weeks afterwards, and take the vacant place on
the station. Besides alligators, the only animals to be feared
are the poisonous serpents. These are certainly common enough
in the forest, but no fatal accident happened during the whole
time of my residence.

I suffered most inconvenience from the difficulty of getting
news from the civilised world .down river, from the irregularity
of receipt of letters, parcels of books and periodicals, and
towards the latter part of my residence from ill health arising
from bad and insufficient food. The want of intellectual
society, and of the varied excitement of European life, was also
felt most acutely, and this, instead of becoming deadened by
time, increased until it became almost insupportable. I was
obliged, at last, to come to the conclusion that the contempla-
tion of Nature alone is not sufficient to fill the human heart
and mind. I got on pretty well when I received a parcel from
England by the steamer once in two or four months. I used

254 THE UPPER AMAZONS, chap. x.

to be very economical with my stock of reading, lest it should
be finished before the next arrival, and leave me utterly desti-
tute. I went over the periodicals, the "Athenaeum," for
instance, with great deliberation, going through every number
three times ; the first time devouring the more interesting
articles ; the second, the whole of the remainder ; and the third,
reading all the advertisements from beginning to end. If four
months (two steamers) passed without a fresh parcel, I felt dis-
couraged in the extreme. I was worst off in the first year,
1850, when twelve months elapsed without letters or remit-
tances. Towards the end of this time my clothes had worn to
rags : I was barefoot, a great inconvenience in tropical forests,
notwithstanding statements to the contrary that have been
published by travellers; my servant ran away, and I was
robbed of nearly all my copper money. , I was obliged then to
descend to Para, but returned, after finishing the examination
of the middle part of the Lower Amazons and the Tapajos, in
1855, with my Santarem assistant, and better provided for
making collections on the upper river. This second visit was
in pursuit of the plan before mentioned, of exploring in detail
the whole valley of the Amazons, which I formed in Para m
the year 185 1.

During so long a residence I witnessed, of course, many
changes in the place. Some of the good friends who made me'
welcome on my first arrival died, and I followed their remains
to their last resting-place in the little rustic cemetery on the
borders of the surrounding forest. I lived there long enough,
from first to last, to see the young people grow up, attended
their weddings, and the christenings of their children, and,
before I left, saw them old married folks with numerous
families. In 1850, Ega was only a village, dependent on Para,
1,400 miles distant, as the capital of the then undivided pro-
vince. In 1852, with the creation of the new province of the
Amazons, it became a city ; returned its members to the pro-
vincial parliament at Barra; had its assizes, its resident judges,
and rose to be the chief town of the comarca or country. A year
after this, namely, in 1853, steamers were introduced on the
Solimoens; and from 1855 one ran regularly every two months
between the Rio Negro and Nauta in Peru, touching at all the
villages, and accomplishing the distance in ascending, about
1,200 miles, in eighteen days. The trade and population, how-
ever, did not increase with these changes. The people became
more " civilised," that is, they began to dress according to the

CHAP. X. DESCRIPTION OF EGA. 255

latest Parisian fashions, instead of going about in stockingless
feet, wooden clogs, and shirt sleeves ; acquired a taste for
money-getting and office-holding ; became divided into parties,
and lost part of their former simplicity of manners. But the
place remained, when I left in 1859, pretty nearly what it
was when I first arrived in 1850 — a semi-Indian village, with
much in the ways and notions of its people more like those
a small country town in Northern Europe than a South of
American settlement. The place is healthy, and almost free
from insect pests ; perpetual verdure surrounds it ; the soil is
of marvellous fertility, even for Brazil ; the endless rivers and
labyrinths of channels teem with fish and turtle ; a fleet of
steamers might anchor at any season of the year in the lake,
which has uninterrupted water communication straight to the
Atlantic. . What a future is in store for the sleepy litde tropical
village !

After speaking of Ega as a city, it will have a ludicrous
effect to mention that the total number of its inhabitants is
only about 1,200. It contains just 107 houses, about half of
which are miserably built mudwalled cottages, thatched with
palm-leaves. A fourth of the population are almost always
absent, trading or collecting produce on the rivers. The
neighbourhood within a radius of thirty miles, and including
two other small villages, contains probably 2,000 more people.
The settlement is one of the oldest in the country, having been
founded in 1688 by Father Samuel Fritz, a Bohemian Jesuit,
who induced several of the docile tribes of Indians, then scat-
tered over the neighbouring region, to settle on the site. From
100 to 200 acres of sloping ground around the place were
afterwards cleared of timber; but such is the encroaching
vigour of vegetation in this country, that the site would quickly
relapse into jungle if the inhabitants neglected to pull up the
young shoots as they arose. There is a stringent municipal law
which compels each resident to weed a given space around his
dwelling. Every month, whilst I resided here, an inspector
came round with his wand of authority, and fined every one
who had not complied with the regulation. The Indians of the
surrounding country have never been hostile to the European
settlers. The rebels of Para and .the Lower Amazons, in
[835-6, did not succeed in rousing the natives of the Solimoens
against the whites. A party of forty of them ascended the
river for that purpose, but on arriving at Ega, instead of meet-
ing with sympathisers as in other places, they were surrounded

256 THE UPPER AMAZONS. chap. x.

by a small body of armed residents, and shot down without
mercy. The military commandant at the time, who was the
prime mover in this orderly resistance to anarchy, was a
courageous and loyal negro, named Jose Patricio, an officer
known throughout the Upper Amazons for his unflinching
honesty and love of order, whose acquaintance I had the
pleasure of making at St. Paulo in 1858. Ega was the head-
quarters of the great scientific commission, which met in the
years from 1781 to 1791, to settle the boundaries between the
Spanish and Portuguese territories in South America. The
chief commissioner for Spain, Don Francisco Requena, lived
some time in the village with his family. I found only one
person at Ega, my old friend Romao de Oliveira, who recol-
lected, or had any kno\i'ledge of this important time, when a
numerous staff of astronomers, surveyors, and draughtsmen,
explored much of the surrounding country, with large bodies
of soldiers and natives.

Many of the Ega Indians, including all the domestic servants,
are savages who have been brought from the neighbouring
rivers ; the Japura, the Issa, and the Solimoens. I saw here
individuals of at least sixteen different tribes ; most of whom
had been bought, when children, of the native chiefs. This
species of slave dealing, although forbidden by the laws of
Brazil, is winked at by the authorities, because without it
there would be no means of obtaining servants. They all
become their own masters when they grow up, and never show
the slightest inclination to return to utter savage life. But the
boys generally run away and embark on the canoes of traders ;
and the girls are- often badly treated by their mistresses, the
jealous, passionate, and ill- educated Brazilian women. Nearly
all the enmities which arise amongst residents at Ega and other
places are caused by disputes about Indian servants. No one
who has lived only in old settled countries, where service can
be readily bought, can imagine the difficulties and annoyances
of a land where the servant class are ignorant of the value of
money, and hands cannot be obtained except by coaxing them
from the employ of other masters.

Great mortality takes place amongst the poor captive chil-
dren on their arrival at Ega. It is a singular circumstance,
that the Indians residing on the Japura and other tributaries
always fall ill on descending to the Solimoens, whilst the reverse
takes place with the inhabitants of the banks of the main river,
who never fail of taking intermittent fever when they first

CHAP. X. MORTALITY OF INDIANS, 257

ascend these branch rivers, and of getting well when they
return. The finest tribes of savages who inhabit the country
near Ega are the Juris and Passes : these are now, however,
nearly extinct, a few families only remaining on the banks of
the retired creeks connected with the Teffe, and on other branch
rivers between the Tefife and the Jutahi. They are a peaceable,
gende, and industrious people, devoted to agriculture and fish-
ing, and have always been friendly to the whites. I shall have
occasion to speak again of the Passes, who are a slenderly-built
and superior race of Indians, distinguished by a large square
tattooed patch in the middle of their faces. The principal
cause of their decay in numbers seems to be a disease which
always appears amongst them when a village is visited by people
from the civilised settlements-— a slow fever, accompanied by
the symptoms of a common cold, "defluxo," as the Brazilians
term it, ending probably in consumption. The disorder has
been known to break out when the visitors were entirely free
from it ; the simple contact of civilised men, in some myste-
rious way, being sufficient to create it. It is generally fatal
to the Juris and Passe's : the first question the poor patient
Indians now put to an advancing canoe is, " Do you bring
defluxo?" . '

My assistant, Jose, in the last year of our residence at Ega,
"resgatou" (ransomed, the euphemism in use for purchased)
two Indian children, a boy and a girl, through a Japura trader.
The boy was about twelve years of age, and of an unusually
dark colour of skin : he had, in fact, the tint of a Cafuzo, the
offspring of Indian and negro. It was thought he had belonged
to some perfectly wild and houseless tribe, similar to the Para-
rauates of the Tapajos, of which there are several in different
parts of the interior of South America. His face was of regular,
oval shape, but his glistening black eyes had a wary, distrustful
expression, like that of a wild animal ; and his hands and feet
were small and delicately formed. Soon after his arrival, find-
ing that none of the Indian boys and girls in the houses of our
neighbours understood his language, he became sulky and
reserved ; not a word could be got from him until many weeks
afterwards, when he suddenly broke out with complete phrases
of Portuguese. He was ill of swollen liver and spleen, the
result of intermittent fever, for a long time after coming into
our hands. We found it difficult to cure him, owing to his
almost invincible habit of eating earth, baked clay, pitch, wax,
and other similar substances. Very many children on the

17

258 THE UPPER AMAZONS. . CHAP. X.

upper parts of the Amazons have this strange habit ; not only
Indians, but negroes and whites. It is not, therefore, pecuHar
to the famous Otomacs of the Orinoco, described by Humboldt,
or to Indians at all, and seen.s to originate in a morbid craving,
the result of a meagre diet of fish, wild-fruits, and mandioca
meal. We gave, our little savage the name of Sebastian. The
use of these Indian children is to fill water-jars from the river,
gather fire-wood in the forest, cook, assist in paddling the mon-
taria in excursions, and so forth. Sebastian was often my com-
panion in the woods, where he was very useful in finding the
small bird : I shot, which sometimes fell in the thickets amongst
confused masses of fallen branches and dead leaves. He was
wonderfully expert at catching lizards with his hands, and at
climbing. The smoothest stems of palm-trees offered little
difficulty to him : he would gather a few lengths of tough
flexible lianas ; tie them in a short endless band to support his
feet with, in embracing the slippery shaft, and then mount
upwards by a succession of slight jerks. It was very amusing,
during the first few week's, to witness the glee and pride with
which he. would bring to me the bunches of fruit he had
gathered from almost inaccessible trees> He avoided the com-
pany of boys of his own race, and was evidently proud of being
the servant of a real white man. We brought him down with
us to Para: but he showed no emotion at any of the strange
sights of the capital ; the steam-vessels, large ships and houses,
horses and carriages, the pomp, of j church ceremonies, and so
forth. In this he exhibited the usual , dulness of feeling and
poverty of thought of the Indian ; he had, nevertheless, very
keen perceptions, and was quick at learning any mechanical
art. Jose, who had resumed, some time before I left the coun-
try, his old trade of goldsmith, made him his apprentice, and
he made very rapid progress.^; ; for after about three months'
teaching he came to me one day with radiant countenance, and
showed me a gold ring of his own making.

The fate of the little girl, who came with a second batch of
children all ill of intermittent fever, a month or two after
Sebastian, was very different. She was- brought to our house,
after landing, one night in the wet season, when the rain was
pouring in torrents, thin and haggard, drenched with wet, and
shivering with ague. An old Indian who brought her to the
door, said briefly, " ecui encommenda" (here's your little par-
cel, or order), and went away. There was very little of the
savage Jn her, appearance, and she was of a much lighter colour

CHAP. X. A CAPTIVE INDIAN CHILD. 259

than the boy. We found she was of the Miranha tribe, all of
whom are distinguished by a sUt, cut in the middle of each
wing of the nose, in which they wear on holiday occasions a
large button made of pearly river-shell. We took the greatest
care of our little patient.; had the best nurses in the town,
fomented her daily, gave her quinine and the most nourishing
food ; but it was all of no avail ; she sank rapidly ; her liver
was enormously swollen, and almost as hard to the touch as
stone. There was something uncommonly pleasing in her
ways, and quite unlike anything I had yet seen in Indians.
Instead of being dull and taciturn, she was always smiling and
full of talk. W"e had an old woman of the same tribe to attend
her, who explained what she said to us. She often begged to
be taken to the river to bathe; asked for fruit, or covet -^d
articles she saw in the room for playthings. Her native name
was Oria. The last week or two she could not rise from the
bed we had made for her in a dry corner of the room : when
she wanted lifting, which was very often, she would allow no
one to help her but me, calling me by the name of " Cariwa '*'
(white man), the only word of Tupi she seemed to know. It
was inexpressibly touching to hear her, as she lay, rep ?ating by
the hour the verses which she had been taught to recite with
her companions in her native village : a few sentences repeated
over and over again with a rhythmic accent, and relating to
objects and incidents connected with the wild life of her tribe.
We had her baptized before she died, and when this latter event
happened, in opposition to the wishes of the big people of Ega,
I insisted on burying her with the same .honours as a child of
the whites; that is, as an *'anjinho" (little angel), according to
the pretty Roman Catholic custom of the country. We had
the corpse clothed in a robe of fine calico, crossed her hands
on her breast over a " palma '' of flowers, and made also a
crowa of flowers for her head. Scores of helpless children like
our poor Oria die at Ega, or on the road ; but generally not
the slightest care is taken of. them during their illness. They
are the captives made during the merciless raids of one section
of the Miranha tribe on the territories of another, and sold to
the Ega traders. The villages of the attacked hordes are sur-
prised, and the men and women killed or driven into the
thickets without having time, to save their children. There
appears to be no doubt . that the Miranhas are cannibals, and
therefore the purchase of these captives probably saves them
from a worse fate. The- demand for them at Ega operates,

26o THE UPPER AMAZONS. chap. x.

however, as a direct cause of the supply, stimulating the un-
scrupulous chiefs, who receive all the profits, to undertake these
murderous expeditions.

It is remarkable how quickly the savages of the various
nations, which each have their own, to all appearance, widely
different language, learn Tupi on their arrival at Ega, where it
is the common idiom. This perhaps may be attributed chiefly
to the grammatical forms of all the Indian tongues being the
same, although the words are different. As far as I could learn,
the feature is common to all, of placing the preposition after the
noun, making it, in fact, a /^j-/-position, thus : "he is come the
village ^7'^;?^ y " "go him with^ the plantation /^," and sO forth.
The ideas to be expressed in their limited sphere of life and
thought are few ; consequ-ently the stock of words is extremely
small ; besides, all Indians have the same way of thinking, and
the same objects to talk about ; these circumstances also con-
tribute to the ease with which they learn each other's language.
Hordes of the same tribe Hving on the same branch rivers,
speak mutually unintelligible languages ; this happens with the
Miranhas on the Japura, and with the Collinas on the Junia ;
whilst Tupi is spoken with little, corruption along the banks of
the main Amazons for a distance of 2,500 miles. The purity of
Tupi is kept up by frequent communication amongst the natives,
from one end to the other of the main river; how complete and
long- continued riiust be the isolation in which the small groups
of savages have lived in other parts, to have caused so complete
a segregation of dialects ! It is probable that the strange in-
flexibility of the Indian organisation, both bodily and mental,
is owing to the isolation in which each small tribe has lived,
and to the narrow round of life and thought, and close inter-
marriages for countless generations, which are the necessary
results. Their fecundity is of a low degree, for it is very rare
to find an Indian family having so many as four children, and
we have seen how great is their liability to sickness and death
on removal from place to place.

I have already remarked on the different way in which the
climate of this equatorial region affects Indians and negroes.
No one could live long amongst the Indians of the Upper
Amazons, without being struck with their constitutional dislike
to the heat. Europeans certainly withstand the high tempera-
ture better than the original inhabitants of the country ; I
always found I could myself bear exposure to the sun or un-
usually hot weather quite as well as the Indians, although not

CHAP. X. AMUSEMENTS AT EGA. 261

well fitted by nature for a hot climate. Their skin is always hot
to the touch, and they perspire little. No Indian resident
of Ega can be induced to stay in the village (where the heat is
felt more than in the forest or on the river), for many days
together. They bathe many times a day, but do not plunge in
the water, taking merely a sitz-bath, as dogs may be seen doing
in hot climates, to cool the lower parts of the body. The
women and children^ who often remain at home, whilst the
men are out for many days together fishing, generally fi.nd some
excuse for trooping off to the shade of the forest in the hot
hours of the afternoon. They are restless and discontented in
fine dry weather, but cheerful in cool days, when the rain is
pouring down on their naked backs. When suffering under
fever, nothing but strict watching can prevent them from going
down to bathe in the river, or eating immoderate quantities of
juicy fruits, although these indulgences are frequently the cause
of death. They are very subject to disorders of the liver,
dysentery, and other diseases of hot climates ; and when any
epidemic is about, they fall ill quicker, and suffer more than
negroes or even whites. How different all this is v/;th the
negro, the true child of tropical climes ! The impression
gradually forced itself on my mind that the red Indian lives as
a stranger or immigrant in these hot regions, and that his con-
stitution was not originally adapted, and has not since become
perfectly adapted, to the climate.

The Indian element is very prominent in the amusements of
the Ega people. All the Roman Catholic hohdays are kept up
with great spirit ; rude Indian sports being mingled with the
ceremonies introduced by the Portuguese. Besides these, the
aborigines celebrate their own ruder festivals : the people of
different tribes combining : for, in most of their features, the
merry-makings were originally alike in all the tribes. The
Indian idea of a holiday is bonfires, processions, masquerading,
especially the mimicry of different kinds of animals, plenty of
confused drumming and fifing, monotonous dancing, kept up
hour after hour without intermission, and, the most important
point of all, getting gradually and completely drunk. But he
attaches a kind of superstitious significance to these acts, and.
thinks that the amusements appended to the Roman Catliolic
holidays, as celebrated by the descendants of the Portuguese,
are also an essential part of the religious ceremonies. But in
this respect the uneducated whites and half-breeds are not a
^ bit more enlightened than the poor dull-souled Indian. All

262 THE UPPER AMAZONS, chap. x.

look upon a religious holiday as an amusement, in which the
priest takes the part of director or chief actor.

Almost every unusual event, independent of saints' days, is
made the occasion of a holiday by the sociable, easy-going
people of the white and mameluco classes ; funerals, christen-
ings, weddings, the arrival of strangers, and so forth. The
custom of " waking " the dead is also kept up. A few days
after I arrived I was awoke in the middle of a dark moist
night by Cardozo, to sit up with a neighbour whose wife had
just died. I found the body laid out on a table, with crucifix
and lighted wax candles at the head, and the room full of
women and girls squatted on stools or on their haunches.
The men were seated round the open door, smoking, drinking
coffee, and telling stories ; the bereaved husband exerting
himself much to keep the people merry during the remiainder
of the night. The Ega people seem to like an excuse for
turning night into day ; it is so cool and pleasant, and they can
sit about during these hours in the open air, clad as usual in
simple shirt and trowsers, without streaming with perspiration.

The patron saint is Santa Theresa ; the festival at whose
anniversary lasts, like most of the others, ten days. It begins
very quietly with evening litanies sung in the church, which
are attended by the greater part of the population, ail clean
and gaily dressed in calicoes and muslins ; the girls wearing
jasmines and other natural flowers in the hair, no other head-
dress being worn by females of any class. The evenings pass
pleasantly ; the church is lighted up with wax candles, and
illuminated on the outside by a great number of little oil
lamps — rude clay cups, or halves of the thick rind of the bitter
orange, which are fixed all over the front. The congregation
seem very attentive, and the responses to the litany of Our
Lady, sung by a couple of hundred fresh female voices, ring
agreeably through the still village. Towards the end of the
festival the fun commences. The managers of the feast keep
open houses, and dancing, drumming, tinkling of wire guitars,
and unbridled drinking by both sexes, old and young, are
kept up for a couple of days and a night with little intermission.
The ways of the people at these merry-makings, of which there
are many in the course of the year, always struck me as being
not greatly different from those seen at an old-fashioned village
wake in retii jd parts of England. The old folks look on and
get very talkative over their cups ; the children are allowed a
little extra indulgence in sitting up ; the dull, reserved fellows

CHAP. X. HOLIDAYS AT EGA, 263

become loquacious, shake one another by the hand or slap
each other on the back, discovering, all at once, what capital
friends they are. The cantankerous individual gets quarrel-
some, and the amorous unusually loving. The Indian, ordi-
narily so taciturn, finds the use of his tongue, and gives the
minutest details of some little dispute which he had with his
master years ago, and which every one else had forgotten ; just
as I have known lumpish, labouring men in England do, when
half-fuddled. One cannot help reflecting, when witnessing these
traits of manners, on the similarity of human nature everywhere,
when classes are compared whose state of culture and conditions
of life are pretty nearly the same.

The Indians play a conspicuous part in the amusements at
St. John's eve, and at one or two other holidays which happen
about that time of the year — the end of June. In some of the
sports the Portuguese element is visible, in others the Indian ;
but it must be recollected that masquerading, recitative singing,
and so forth, are common originally to both peoples. A large
number of men and boys disguise themselves to represent
different grotesque figures, animals, or persons. Two or three
dress themselves up as giants, with the help of a tall framework.
One enacts the part of the Cayp^r, a kind of sylvan deity
similar to the Curupira which I have before mentioned. The
belief in this being seems to be common to all the tribes of the
Tupi stock. According to the figure they dressed up at Ega,
he is a bulky, misshapen monster, with red skin and long
shaggy red hair hanging half-way down his back. They believe
that he has subterranean campos and hunting grounds in the
forest, well stocked with pacas and deer. He is not at all an
object of worship, nor of fear, except to children, being con-
sidered merely as a kind of hobgoblin. Most of the masquers
make themselves up as animals — bulls, deer, magoary storks, .
jaguars, and so forth, with the aid of light frameworks, covered
with old cloth dyed or painted, and shaped according to the
object represented. Some of the imitations which I saw were
capital. One ingenious fellow arranged an old piece of canvas
in the form of a tapir, placed himself under it, and crawled
about on all fours. He constructed an elastic nose to resemble
that of the tapir, and made, before the doors of the principal
residents, such a good imitation of the beast grazing, that peals
of laughter greeted him wherever he went. Another man
walked about solitarily, masked as a jabirii crane (a large
animal standing about four feet high), and mimicked the gait

264 THE UPPER AMAZONS. chap. x.

and habits of the bird uncommonly well. One year an Indian
lad imitated me, to the infinite amusement of the townsfolk.
He came the previous day to borrow of me an old blouse and
straw hat. [ felt rather taken in when I saw him, on the night
of the performance, rigged out as an entomologist, with an
insect net, hunting bag, and pincushion. To make the imita-
tion complete, he had borrowed the frame of an old pair of
spectacles, and went about w^ith it straddled over his nose.
The jaguar now and then made a raid amongst the crowd of
boys who were dressed as deer, goats, and so forth. The
masquers kept generally together, moving from house to house,
and the performances were directed by an old musician, who
sang the orders and explained to the spectators what was going
forward in a kind of recitative, accompaiiying himself on a
wire guitar. The mixture of Portuguese and Indian customs is
partly owing to the European immigrants in these parts having
been uneducated men, who, instead of introducing European
civilisation, have descended almost to the level of the Indians,
and adopted some of their practices. The performances take
place in the evening, and occupy five or six hours ; bonfires
are lighted along the grassy streets, and the families of the
better class are seated at their doors, enjoying the wild but
good-humoured fun.

We hved at Ega, during most part, of the year, on turtle.
The great fresh-water turtle of the Amazons grows on the
upper river to an immense size, a full-grown one measuring
nearly three feet in length by two in breadth, and is a load for
the strongest Indian. Every house has a httle pond, called a
curral (pen), in the back-yard to hold a stock of the animals
through the season of dearth— the wet months ;. those who have
a number of Indians in their employ send them out for a month
when the waters are low to collect a stock, and those who
have not, purchase their supply \ with some difficulty, how-
ever, as they are rarely offered for sale. The price of turtles,
like that of all other; articles of food, has risen greatly with the
introduction of steam-vessels. When I arrived in 1850, a middle-
sized one could be bought pretty readily for ninepence ; but
when I left in 1859, they were with difficulty obtained at eight
and nine shillings each. The abundance of turtles, or rather
the facility with which they can be found and caught, varies
with the amount of annual subsidence of the waters. When the
river sinks less than the average, they are scarce ; but when
more, they can be caught in plenty, the bays and shallow lagoons

CHAP. X. . FOOD. 265

in the forest having then only a small depth of water. The
flesh is very tender, palatable, and wholesome ; but it is very
cloying: every one ends, sooner or later, by becoming tho-
roughly surfeited. I became so sick of turtle in the course of
two years that I could not bear the smell of it, although at the
same time nothing else was to be had, and I was suffering
actual huna;er. The native women cook it in various wavs.
The entrails are chopped up and made into a delicious soup
called sarapatel., which is generally boiled in the concave uppe:
shell of the animal used as a ketde. The tender flesh of the
breast is partially minced, with farinha, and the breast shell then
roasted over the fire, making a very pleasant dish. Steaks cut
from the breast and cooked with the fat form another palatable
dish. Large sausages are made of the thick-coated stomach,
which is filled with minced meat and boiled. The quarters
cooked in a kettle of Tucupi sauce form another variety of food.
When surfeited with turtle in all other shapes, pieces of the
lean part roasted on a spit and moistened only with vinegar
make an agreeable change. The smaller kind of turtle, the
tracaja, which makes its appearance in the main river, and lays
its eggs a month earlier than the large species, is of less utility
to the inhabitants, although its flesh is superior, on account of
the difficulty of keeping it alive ; it survives captivity but a very
few days, although placed in the same ponds in which the large
turtle keeps well for two or three years.

Those who cannot hunt and fish for themselves, and whose
stomachs refuse turtle, are in a poor way at Ega. Fish,
including many kinds of large and delicious salmonidse, is
abundant in the fine season ; but each family fishes only for
itself, and has no surplus for sale. An Indian fishei-man remains
out just long enough to draw what he thinks sufficient for a
couple of days' consumption, Vacca marina is a great resource
in the wet season ; it is caught by harpooning, which requires
much skill, or by strong nets made of ver}'- thick hammock
twine, and placed across narrow inlets. Very few Europeans
are able to eat the meat of this animal. Although there is a

O

large quantity of cattle in the neighbourhood of the town, and
pasture is abundant all the year round, beef can be had only
when a beast is killed by accident. The most frequent cause of
death is poisoning by drinking raw Tucupi, the juice of the
mandioca root. "Bowls of this are placed on the ground in the
sheds where the women prepare farinha ; it is generally done
carelessly, but sometimes intentionally, through' spite, when stray

266 THE UPPER AMAZONS. chap. x.

oxen devastate the plantations of the poorer people. The juice
is almost certain to be drunk if cattle stray near the place, and
death is the certain result. The owners kill a beast which
shows symptoms of having been poisoned, and retail the beef
in the town. Although every one knows it cannot be whole-
some, such is the scarcity of meat and the uncontrollable desire
to eat beef, that it is eagerly bought, at least by those residents
who come from other provinces where beef is the staple article
of food. Game of all kinds is scarce in the forest near the
town, except in the months of June and July, when immense
numbers of a large and handsome bird, Cuvier's toucan (Ram-
phastos Cuvieri) make their appearance. They come in well-
fed condition, and are shot in such quantities that every family
has the strange treat of stewed and roasted toucans daily for
many weeks. Curassow birds are plentiful on the banks of the
Solimoens, but to get a brace or two requires the sacrifice of
several days for the trip. A tapir, of which the meat is most
delicious and nourishing, is sometimes killed by a fortunate
hunter. I have still a lively recollection of the pleasant effects
which I once experienced from a diet of fresh tapir meat for a
few days, after having been brought to a painful state of bodily
and mental depression by a month's scanty rations of fish and
farinha.

We sometimes had fresh bread at Ega, made from American
flour brought from Para, but it was sold at ninepence a pound.
I was once two years without tasting wheaten bread, and attri-
bute partly to this the gradual deterioration of health which I
suffered on the Upper Amazons. Mandioca meal is a poor,
weak substitute for bread ; it is deficient in gluten, and conse-
quently cannot be formed into a leavened miass or loaf, but is
obliged to be roasted in hard grains in order to keep any length
of time. Cakes are made of the half-roasted meal, but they
become sour in a very few hours. A superior kind of meal is ^
manufactured at Ega of the sweet mandioca (Manihot Aypi) ;
it is generally made with a mixture of the starch of the root,
and is therefore a much more wholesome article of food than
the ordinary sort which, on the Amazons, is made of the pulp
after the starch has been extracted by soaking in water. When
we could get neither bread nor biscuit, I found tapioca soaked
in coffee the best native substitute. We were seldom without
butter, as every canoe brought one or two casks on each return
voyage from Para, where it is imported in considerable quantity
from Liverpool. We obtained tea in the same way ; it being

CHAP. X. FRUITS. 267

served as a fashionable luxury at wedding and christening
parties ; the people were at first strangers to this article, for
they used to stew it in a saucepan, mixing it up with coarse raw
sugar, and stirring it with a spoon. Sometimes we had milk,
but this was only when a cow calved ; the yield from each cow
was very small, and lasted only for a few weeks in each case,
although the pasture is good, and the animals are sleek and
fat.

Fruit of the ordinary tropical sorts could generally be had.
I was quite surprised at the variety of the wild kinds, and of
the delicious flavour of some of them. Many of these are
utterly unknown in the regions nearer the Atlantic ; being the
peculiar productions of this highly favoured, and little known,
interior country. Some have beeen planted by the natives in
their clearings. The best was the Jabnti-puhe, or tortoise
foot ; a scaled fruit probably of the Anonaceous order. It is
about the size of an ordinary apple ; when ripe, the rind is
moderately thin, and encloses, with the seeds, a quantity of
custardy pulp of a very rich flavour. Next to this stands the
Cuma (Collophora sp.) of which there are two species, not
unlike, in appearance, small round pears ; but the rind is
rather hard, and contains a gummy milk, and the pulpy part is
almost as delicious as that of the Jabuti-puhe. l^he Cuma
tree is of moderate height, and grows rather plentifully in the
more elevated and drier situations. A third kind is the Pama,
which is a stone fruit, similar in colour and appearance to the
cherry, but of oblong shape. The tree is one of the loftiest in
the forest, and has never, I believe, been selected for cultiva-
tion. To get at the fruit the nativ-es are obliged to climb to
the height of about a hundred feet,
and cut off the heavily laden branches.
I have already mentioned the Umari
and the Wishi : both these are now
cultivated. The fatty, bitter pulp
which surrounds the large stony seeds
of these fruits is eaten mixed with
farinha, and is very nourishing. An-
other cultivated fruit is the Puruma Uiki Fruit.
(Purumacecropiaefolia, Martins), around juicy berry, growing in
large bunches and resembling grapes in taste. Another smaller
kind, called Puruma-i, grows wild in the forest close to Ega,
and has not yet been planted. The most singular of all these
fruits is the Uiki, which is of oblong shape, and grows ap-

268 THE UPPER AMAZONS. chap. x.

parently crosswise on the end of its stalk. When ripe, the
thick green rind opens by a natural cleft across the middle,
and discloses an oval seed the size of a Damascene plum, but
of a vivid crimson colour. This bright hue belongs to a thin
coating of pulp, which, when the seeds are mixed in a plate
of stewed bananas, gives to the mess a pleasant rosy tint,
and a rich creamy taste and consistence. Mingaii (porridge)
of bananas flavoured and coloured with Uiki is a favourite dish
at Ega. The fruit, like most of the others here mentioned,
ripens in January. Many smaller fruits, such as Wajuni (pro-
bably a species of Achras), the size of a gooseberry, which
grows singly and contains a sweet gelatinous pulp, enclosing
two large shining black seeds j Cashipari-arapaa, an oblong
scarlet berry ; two kinds of Bacuri, the Bacuri-siiima and the
B. cunia, sour fruits of a bright lemon colour when ripe, and a
great number of others, are of less importance as articles of
food.

The celebrated "Peach palm,'' Piipimha of the Tupi nations
(Guilielma speciosa), is a common tree at Ega. The name, I
suppose, is in allusion to the colour of the fruit, and not to its
flavour, for it is dry and mealy, and in taste may be compared
to a mixture of chestnuts and cheese. Vultures devour it
eagerly, and come in quarrelsome flocks to the trees when it is
ripe. Dogs will also eat it : I do not recollect seeing cats do the
same, although they go voluntarily to the woods to eatTucuma,
another kind of palm fruit. The tree, as it grows in clusters
beside the palm-thatched huts, is a noble ornament, being,
when full-grow^n, from fifty to sixty feet in height, and often as
straight as a scaffold-pole. A bunch of fruit when ripe is a
load for a strong man, and each tree bears several oi them.
The Pupunha grows wild nowhere on the Amazons. It is one
of those few vegetable productions (including three kinds of
mandioca and the American species of banana) which the
Indians have cultivated from time immemorial, and brought
with them in their original migration to Brazil. It is only,
however, the more advanced tribes who have kept up the cul-
tivation. The superiority of the fruit on the Solimoens to that
grown on the I^ower Amazons, and in the neighbourhood of
Para, is very striking. At Ega it is generally as large as a
full-sized peach, and when boiled almost as mealy as a potato ;
whilst at Para it is no bigger than a walnut, and the pulp is
fibrous. Bunches of sterile or seedless fruits sometimes occur
in both districts. It is one of the principal articles of food at

CHAP. X.

THE FLOOD SEASON.

269

Ega when in season, and is boiled and eaten with treacle or

salt, A dozen of the seedless fruits make a good nourishing

meal for a orrown-

up person. It is ^Uv^^^<^v, -^^.NMi^^ '^'^^X

the general belief

that there is more

nutriment in Pu-

punha than in fish

or Vacca marina. y;/;

The seasons in
the Upper Amazons region offer some
points of difference from those of the
lower river and the district of Para, which
two sections of the country we have
already seen also differ considerably.
The year at Ega is divided according to
the rises and falls of the river, with which
coincide the wet and dry periods. All
the principal transactions of life of the
inhabitants are regulated by these yearly
recurring phenomena. The peculiarity of
this upper region consists in there being
twa rises and two falls within the year.
The great annual rise commences about
the end of February, and continues to ^l^hj^ij^
the middle of June, during which the
rivers and lakes, confined during the dry
periods to their ordinary beds, gradually
swell, and overflow all the lower lands.
The inundation progresses gently, inch
by inch, and is felt everywhere, even in
the interior of the forests, of the higher
lands, miles away from the river ; as these
are traversed by numerous gullies, forming,
in the fine season, dry spacious dells,
which become gradually transformed by
the pressure of the flood into broad
creeks, navigable by small boats, under -"'^^"■^^^^h'i^t,
the shade of trees. All the countless -s^-^ .^,-\,xv'' ' "

swarms of turde of various species then
leave the main river for the inland pools : P^P^nha Falm.

sand-banks go under water, and the flocks of wading birds then
migrate northerly to the upper waters of the tributaries which

270 THE UPPER AMAZONS. chap. x.

flow from that direction, or to the Orinoco; which streams
during the wet period of the Amazons are enjoying the cloud-
less skies of their dry season. The families of fishermen who
have been employed, during the previous four or five months,
in harpooning and salting pirarucu and shooting turtle in the
great lakes, now return to the towns and villages ; their tem-
porarily constructed fishing establishments becoming gradually
submerged, with the sand islets or beaches on which they were
situated. This is the season, however, in which the Brazil nut
and wild cacao ripen, and many persons go out to gather these
harvests, remaining absent generally throughout the months of
March and April. The rains during this time are not con-
tinuous \ they fall very heavily at times, but rarely last so long
at a stretch as twenty-four hours, and many days intervene of
pleasant, sunny weather. The sky, however, is generally over-
cast and gloomy, and sometimes a drizzling rain falls.

About the first week in June the flood is at its highest ; the
water being then about forty-five feet above its lowest point ;
but it varies in different years to the extent of about fifteen feet.
The " enchente,'' or flow, as it is called by the natives, who
believe this great annual movement of the waters to be of the
same nature as the tide towards the mouth of the Amazons, is
then completed, and all begin to look forward to the " vasante,'*
or ebb. The provision made for the dearth of the wet season is
by this time pretty nearly exhausted ; fish is difficult to procure,
and many of the less provident inhabitants have become reduced
to a diet of fruits and farinha porridge.

The fine season begins with a few days of brilliant weather —
furious hot sun, with passing clouds. Idle men and women,
tired of the dulness and confinement of the flood season, begin
to report, on returning from their morning bath, the cessation
of the flow : as agoas estad paradas, " the waters have stopped."'
The muddy street-, in a few days, dry up; groups of young
fellows are now seen seated on the shady sides of the cottages,
making arrows and knitting fishing-nets with tucum twine ;
others are busy patching up and caulking their canoes, large
and small : in fact, preparations are madi on all sides for the
much longed-for ''verao "or summer, and the " migration," as
it is called, of fish and turtle ; that is, their descent from the
inaccessible pools in the forest to the main river. Towards the
middle of July the sandbanks begin to reappear above the sur-
face of the waters, and with this chanje come flocks of sand-
pipers and gulls, which latter make known the advent of the

HAP. X. THE FOUR SEASONS AT EGA. 271

fine season, as the cuckoo does of the European spring ; utter-
ing almost incessantly their plaintive cries as they fly about
over the shallow waters of sandy shores. Most of the gaily-
plumaged birds have now finished moulting, and begin to be more
active in the forest.

The fall continues to the middle of October, with the inter-
ruption of a partial rise called " repiquet," of a few inches in
the midst of very dry weather in September, caused by the
swollen contribution of some large affluent higher up the river.
The amount of subsidence also varies considerably, but it is
never so great as to interrupt navigation by large vessels. The
greater it is the more abundant is the season. Every one is
prosperous when the waters are low ; the shallow bays and pools
being then crowded with the concentrated population offish and
turtle. All the people, men, women, and children, leave the
villages, and spend the few weeks of glorious weather rambling
over the vast undulating expanses of sand in the middle of the
Solimoens, fishing, hunting, collecting eggs of turtle and plovers,
and thoroughly enjoying themselves. The inhabitants pray
always for a " vasante grande,'^ or great ebb.

From the middle of October to the beginning of January,
the second wet season prevails. The rise is sometimes not
more than about fifteen feet, but it is, in some years, much
more extensive, laying the large sand islands under water
before the turtle eggs are hatched. In one year, whilst I
resided at Ega, this second annual inundation reached to within
ten feet of the highest water point, as marked by the stains on
the trunks of trees by the river side.

The second dry season comes on in January, and lasts
throughout February. The river sinks sometimes to the extent
of a few feet only, but one year (1856) I saw it ebb to within
about five feet of its lowest point in September. This is called
the summer of the Umari, " Verao do Umari','' after the fruit of
this name already described, which ripens at this seaon. When
the fall is great, this is the best time to catch turtles. In the
year above mentioned, nearly all the residents who had a canoe,
and could work a paddle, went out after them in the month of
February, and about 2,000 were caught in the course of a few
days. It appears that they had been arrested, in their migration
towards the interior pools of the forest, by the sudden drying
up of the water-courses, and so had become easy prey.

Thus the Ega year is divided into four seasons ; two of dry
weather and falling waters, and two of the reverse. Besides

272 THE UPPER AMAZOAS. chap. x.

this variety, there is, in the month of May, a short season of
very cold weather, a most surprising circumstance in this other-
wise uniformly sweltering cHmate. This is caused by the con-
tinuance of a cold wind, which blows from the south over the
humid forests that extend, without interruption, from north of
the equator to the eighteenth parallel of latitude in Bolivia:
■ I had, unfortunately, no thermometer with me at Ega ; the only
one I brought with me from England having been lost at Para.
The temperature is so much lowered that fishes die in the river
Teffe, and are cast in considerable quantities on its shores.
The wind is not strong; but it brings cloudy weather, and lasts
from three to five or six days in each year. The inhabitants all
suffer much from the cold, many of them wrapping them-
selves up with the warmest clothing they can get (blankets are
here unknown), and shutting themselves indoors with a char-
coal fire lighted. I found, myself, the change of temperature
most delightful, and did not require extra clothing. It was a
bad time, however, for my pursuit, as birds and insects all
betook themselves to places of concealment, and remained in-
active. The period during which this wind prevails is called
the " tempo da friagem," or the season of coldness. The phe-
nomenon, I presume, is to be accounted for by the fact that in
May it is winter in the southern temperate zone, and that the
cool currents of air travelling thence northwards towards the
equator, become only moderately heated in their course, owing
to the intermediate country being a vast partially-flooded plain
covered with humid forests.

CHAPTER XI.

EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA.

The River Teffe — Rambles through, groves on the beach — Excursion to the
house of a Passe chieftain — Character and customs of the Passe tribe-
First excursion to the sand islands of the Solimoens — Habits of great
river-turtle — Second excursion — Turtle-fishing in the inland pools —
Third excursion — Hunting rambles with natives in the forest — Return
to Ega.

I WILL now proceed to give some account of the more
interesting of my shorter excursions in the neighbourhood ot
Ega. The incidents of the longer voyages, which occupied
each several months, will be narrated in a separate chapter.

The settlement, as before described, is built on a small tract
of cleared land at the lower or eastern end of the lake, six or
seven miles from the main Amazons, with which the lake com-
municates by a narrow channel. On the opposite shore of the
broad expanse stands a small village, called Nogueira, the
houses of which are not visible from Ega, except on very clear
days ; the coast on the Nogueira side is high, and stretches
away into the grey distance towards the south-west. The
upper part of the river Tefife is not visited by the Ega people,
on account of its extreme unhealthiness, and its barrenness
in salsaparilla and other wares. To Europeans it would seem
a most surprising thing that the people of a civilised settlement,
170 years old, should still be ignorant of the course of the river
on w^hose banks their native place, for which they proudly
claim the title of city, is situated. It would be very difficult
for a private individual to explore it, as the necessary number
of Indian paddlers could not be obtained. I knew only one
person who had ascended the Teffe to any considerable dis-
tance, and he was not able to give me a distinct account of
the river. The only tribe known to live on its banks are the
Catauishis, a people who perforate their lips all round, and

18

274 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

wear rows of slender sticks in the holes : their territory lies
between the Purus and the Jurua, embracing both shores of the
Teffe. A large navigable stream, the Bararua, enters the lake
from the west, about thirty miles above Ega ; the breadth ot
the lake is much contracted a little below the mouth of this
tributary, but it again expands further south, and terminates
abruptly where the Teffe proper, a narrow river with a strong
current, forms its head water.

The whole of the country for hundreds of miles is covered
^vith picturesque, but pathless forests, and there are only two
roads along which excursions can be made by land from Ega.
One is a narrow hunter's track, about two miles in length,
which traverses the forest in the rear of the settlement. The
other is an extremely pleasant path along the beach to the west
of the town. This is practicable only in the dry season, when
a flat strip of white sandy beach is exposed at. the foot of the
high wooded banks of the lake, covered with trees, which, as
there is no underwood, form a spacious shady grove. I rambled
daily, during many weeks of each successive dry season, along
this delightful road. The trees, many of which are myrtles
and wild guavas, with smooth yellow stems, were in flower at
this time ; and the rippling waters of the lake, under the cool
shade, everywhere bordered the path. The place was the
resort of kingfishers, green and blue tree-creepers, purple-headed
tanagers, and humming-birds. Birds generally, however, were
not numerous. Every tree was tenanted by Cicadas, the reedy
notes of which produced that loud, jarring,, insect m.usic which
is the general accompaniment of a woodland ramble in a hot
climate. One species was very handsome,, having wings
adorned with patches of bright green and scarlet. It was
very common ; sometimes three or four tenanting a single tree,
clinging as usual to the branches. On approaching a tree thus
peopled,, a number of little jets of a clear liquid would be seen
b. quirted from aloft. I have often received the well-directed
discharge full on m}'-" face ; but the Hquid is harmless, having a
Mveetish taste, and is ejected by the insect from the anus, pro-
bably in self-defence, or from fear. The number and variety
of gaily-tinted butterflies, sporting about in this grove on sunny
Clays, were so great that the bright moving flakes of colour gave
quite a character to the physiognomy of the place. It was
impossible to walk far without disturbing flocks of them from
the damp sand at the edge of the water, where they congre-
g .ted to imbibe the moisture. They were of almost all colours,

CHAP. XI. VISIT AN INDIAN CHIEFTAIN. 275

sizes, and shapes : I noticed here altogether eighty species,
belonging to twenty-two different genera. It is a singular fact
that, with very few exceptions, all the individuals of these
various species thus sporting in sunny places were of the male
sex; their partners, which are much more soberly dressed and
immensely less numerous than the males, being confined to the
shades of the woods. Every afternoon, as the sun was getting
low, I used to notice these gaudy sunshine-loving swains troop-
ing off to the forest, where I suppose they would find their
sweethearts and wives. The most abundant, next to the very
common sulphur-yellow and orange-coloured kinds, were about
a dozen species of Eunica, which are of large size, and are
conspicuous from their liveries of glossy dark-blue and purple.
A superbly-adorned creature, the Callithea Markii, having wings
of a thick texture, coloured sapphire-blue and orange, was
only an occasional visitor. On certain days, when the weather
was very calm, two small gilded green species (Symmachia
Trochilus and Colubris) literally swarmed on the sands, their
glittering wings lying wide open, on the flat surface. The
beach terminates, eight miles beyond Ega, at the mouth of a
rivulet; the character of the coast then changes, the river
banks being masked by a line of low islets amid a labyrinth of
channels-.

In all other directions my very numerous excursions were by
water ; the most, interesting of those made in the immediate
neighbourhood were, to the houses of Indians on the banks of
retired creeks ;. an account of one of these, trips will suffice.

On the 23rd-of May, 1850, 1 visited, in company with Antonio
Cardozo, the Delegado, a family of the Passe tribe, who live
near the head w^aters of the Igarape, which flows from the south
into the Teffe, entering it at Ega. The creek is more than a
quarter of a mile broad near the town, but a few miles inland
it gradually contracts, until it becomes a. mere rivulet flowing
through a broad dell in the forest. When the river rises, it fills
this dell ; the trunks of the lofty trees then stand many feet
deep in the water, and small canoes are _ able to travel the dis-
tance of a day's journey under the shade,. regular paths or alleys
being cut through the branches and lower trees. This is the
general character of the country of the Upper Amazons ; a land
of small elevation and abruptly undulated, the hollows forming
narrow valleys in the dry months, and deep navigable creeks in
the wet months. In retired nooks on the margins of these
shady rivulets, a few families or small hordes of aborigines still

276 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. ix.

linger in nearly their primitive state, the relics of their once
numerous tribes. The family we intended to visit on this trip,
was that of Pedro-uassu (Peter the Great, or tall Peter), an old
chieftain or Tushaua of the Passes.

We set out at sunrise, in a small igarite, manned by six
young Indian paddlers. After travelling about three miles
along the broad portion of the creek — which, being surrounded
by woods, had the appearance of a large pool — we came to a
part where our course seemed to be stopped by an impenetrable
hedge of trees and bushes. We were some time before finding
the entrance, but when fairly within the shades, a remarkable
scene presented itself. It was my first introduction to these
singular water-paths. A narrow and tolerably straight alley
stretched away for a long distance before us : on each side were
the tops of bushes and young trees, forming a kind of border to
the path, and the trunks of the tall forest trees rose at irregular
intervals from the water, their crowns interlocking far over our
heads, and forming a thick shade. Slender air roots hung down
in clusters, and looping sipos dangled from the lower branches ;
bunches of grass_, tillandsias, and ferns, sat in the forks of the
■larger boughs, and the trunks of trees near the water had
adhering to them round dried masses of fresh-w-ater sponges.
There was no current perceptible, and the water was stained of
a dark olive-brov^Ti hue, but the submerged stems could be seen
through it to a great depth. We travelled at good speed for
three hours along this shady road; the distance of Pedro's
house from Ega being about twenty miles. When the paddlers
rested for a time, the stillness and gloom of the place became
almost painful : our voices waked dull echoes as we conversed,
and the noise made by fishes occasionally whipping the surface
of the water was quite startling. A cool, moist, clammy air
pervaded the sunless shade.

The breadth of the wooded valley, at the commencement, is
probably more than half a mile, and there is a tolerably clear
view for a considerable distance on each side of the water-path
through the irregular colonnade of trees : other paths also, in
this part, branch off right and left from the principal road,
leading to the scattered houses of Indians on the mainland.
•The dell contracts gradually towards the head of the rivulet,
and the forest then becomes denser ; the water-path also dimi-
nishes in width, and becomes more winding on account of
the closer growth of the trees. The boughs of some are
stretched forth at no great height over one's head, and are

CHAP. XI. VISIT AN INDIAN CHIEFTAIN. 277

seen to be loaded with epiphytes ; one orchid I noticed par-
ticularly, on account of its bright yellow flowers growing at the
end of flower-stems several feet Jong. Some of the trunks,
especially those of palms, close beneath their crowns, were
clothed with a thick mass of glossy shield-shaped Pothos plants,
mingled with ferns. Arrived at this part we were, in fact, in
the heart of the virgin forest. We heard no noises of animals
in the trees, and saw only one bird, the sky-blue chatterer,
sitting alone on a high branch. For some distance the lower
vegetation was so dense that the road runs under an arcade of
foliage, the branches having been cut way only sufficiently to
admit of the passage of a small canoe. These thickets are
formed chiefly of bamboos, whose slender foliage and curving
stems arrange themselves in elegant feathery bowers : but
other social plants, slender green climbers with tendrils so
eager in aspiring to grasp the higher boughs that they seem to
be endowed almost with animal energy, and certain low trees
having large elegantly-veined leaves, contribute also to the
jungly masses. Occasionally we came upon an uprooted tree
lying across the path, its voluminous crown still held by thick
cables of sipo, connecting it with standing trees : a wide circuit
had to be made in these cases, and it was sometimes difficult
to find the right path again.

At length we arrived at our journey's end. We were then
in a very dense and gloomy part of the forest : we could see,
however, the dry land on both sides of the creek, and to our
right a small sunny opening appeared, the landing-place to the
native dwellings. The water was deep close to the bank, and
a clean pathway ascended from the shady port to the build-
ings, which were about a furlong distant. My friend Cardozo
was godfather to a grandchild of Pedro-uassu, whose daughter
had married an Indian settled in Ega. He had sent word to the
old man that he intended to visit him : we were therefore expected.

As we landed, Pedro-uassii himself came down to the port
to receive us ; our arrival having been announced by the
barking of dogs. He was a tall and thin old man, with a
serious but benignant expression of countenance, and a manner
much freer from shyness and distrust than is usual with Indians.
He was clad in a shirt of coarse cotton cloth, dyed with murishi,
and trowsers of the same material turned up to the knee. His
features were sharply delineated — more so than in any Indian
face I had yet seen ; the lips thin and the nose rather high and
compressed. A large, square, blue-black tattooed patch occu-

278 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

pied the middle of his face, which, as well as the other exposed
parts of his body, was of a light reddish-tan colour, instead of
the usual coppery-brown hue. He walked with an upright,
slow gait, and on reaching us saluted Cardozo with the air of a
man who wished it to be understood that he was dealing mth
an equal. My friend introduced me, and I was welcomed in
the same grave, ceremonious manner. He seemed to have
many questions to ask : but they were chiefly about Senhora
Felippa, Cardozo's Indian housekeeper at Ega, and were purely
complimentary. This studied politeness is quite natural to
Indians of the advanced agricultural tribes. The language used
was Tupi : I heard no other spoken all the day. It must be
borne in mind that Pedro-uassii had never had much intercourse
with whites : he was, although baptized, a primitive Indian, who
had always lived in retirement; the ceremony of baptism having
been gone through, as it generally is by the aborigines, simply
from a wish to stand well with the whites.

Arrived at the house, we were welcomed by Pedro's wife : a
thin, wrinkled, active old squaw, tattooed in precisejy the same
way as her husband. She had also sharp features, but her
manner was more cordial and quicker than that of her husband ;
she talked much and with great inflection of voice ; whilst the
tones of the old man were rather drawling and querulous. Her
clothing was a long petticoat of thick cotton cloth, and a very
short chemise, notreaching:to her waist. I was rather surprised
to find the grounds around the establishment in neater order
than in any sitio, even of civilised people, I had yet seen on the
Upper Amazons : the stock of utensils and household goods of
all sorts was larger, and the evidences of regular industry and
plenty more numerous than one usually perceives in the farms
of civilised Indians and whites. The buildings were of the
same construction as those of the humbler settlers in all other
parts of the country. The family lived in a large, oblong, open
shed built under the shade of trees. Two smaller buildings,
detached from the shed and having mud walls with low door-
ways, contained apparently the sleeping apartments of different
members of the large household. A small mill for grinding
sugar-cane, having two cylinders of hard notched v/ood ; wooden
troughs, and kettles for boiling the gziardpa (cane juice), to
make treacle, stood under a separate shed, and near it was a
large enclosed mud-house for poultry. There was another hut
and shed a short distance off, inhabited by a family dependent
on Pedro, and a narrow pathway through the luxuriant woods

CHAP xr. AN INDIAN HOUSEHOLD. 279

led to more dwellings of the same kind. There was an
abundance of fruit trees around the place, including the never-
failing banana, with its long, broad, soft green leaf-blades, and
groups of full-grown Pupunhas, or peach palms. There was
also a large number of cotton and coffee trees. Amongst the
utensils I noticed baskets of different shapes, made of flattened
maranta stalks, and dyed various colours. The making of these
is an original art of the Passes, but I believe it is also practised
by other tribes, for I saw several in the houses of semi-civilised
Indians on the Tapajos.

There w-ere only three persons in the house besides the old
couple, the rest of the people being absent ; several came in,
however, in the course of the day. One was a daughter of
Pedro's, who had an oval tattoed spot over her mouth ; the
second was a young grandson ; and -the third the son-in-law
from Ega, Cardozo's compadre. The old woman was occupied,
when we entered, in distilling spirits from cara, an eatable root
similar to the potato, by means of a clay still, which had been
manufactured by herself. The liquor had a reddish tint, but
not a very agreeable flavour. A cup of it, warm from the still,
however, was welcome after our long journey. Cardozo liked
it, emptied his cup, and replenished it in a very short time.
The old lady was very talkative, and almost fussy in her desire
to please her visitors. We sat in tuciim hammocks, suspended
between the upright posts of the shed. The young woman with.
the blue mouth — who, although married, was as shy as any
young maiden of her race — soon became em_ployed in scalding
and plucking fowls for the dinner, near the fire on the ground
at the other end of the dwelling. The son-in-law, Pedro-uassu,
and Cardozo now began a long conversation on the subject of
their deceased wife, daughter, and coi7iadre.'^ It appeared she
had died of consumption — "tisica," as they called it, a word
adopted by the Indians from the Portuguese. The widower
repeated over and over again, in nearly the same words, his
account of her illness, Pedro chiming in like a chorus, and
Cardozo moralising and condoling. I thought the cauim (grog)
had a good deal to do with the flow of talk and warmth of feel-
ing of all three : the widower drank and wailed until he became
maundering, and finally fell asleep.

I left them talking, and went a long ramble into the forest,

* Co-mother ; the term expressing the relationship of a mother to tlie
godfather of her child.

28o EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

Pedro sending his grandson, a smiling well-behaved lad of about
fourteen years of age, to show me the paths, my companion
taking with him his Zarabatana^ or blow-gun. This instrument
is used by all the Indian tribes on the Upper Amazons. It is
generally nine or ten feet long, and is made of two separate
lengths of wood, each scooped out so as to form one-half of the
tube. To do this with the necessary accuracy requires an
enormous amount of patient labour, and considerable mechani-
cal ability, the tools used being simply the incisor teeth of the
Paca and Cutia. The two half-tubes when finished are secured
together by a very close and tight spirally-wound strapping,
consisting of long flat strips of Jacitara, or the wood of the
climbing palm-tree ; and the whole is smeared afterwards with
black wax, the production of a Melipona bee. The pipe tapers
towards the muzzle, and a cup-shaped mouth-piece, made of
wood, is fitted in the. broad end. A full-sized Zarabata?ia is
heavy, and can only be used by an adult Indian who has had

Blow-gun, quiver, and arrow.

great practice. The young lads learns to shoot with smaller
and lighter tubes. When Mr. Wallace and I had lessons at
Barra in the use of the blow-gun, of Julio, a Juri Indian, then
in the employ of Mr. Hauxwell, an English bird-collector, we
found it very difficult to hold steadily the long tubes. The
arrows are made from the hard rind of the leaf-stalks of certain
palms, thin strips being cut, and rendered as sharp as needles
by scraping the ends with a knife or the tooth of an animal.
They are winged with a little oval mass of samaiima silk (from
the seed-vessels of the silk-cotton tree, Eriodendron samaiima),
cotton being too heavy. The ball of samaiima should fit to a
nicety the bore of the blowgun ; when it does so, the arrow can
be propelled with such force by the breath, that it makes a noise,
almost as loud as a pop-gun, on flying from the muzzle. My
little companion was armed with a quiver full of these little
missiles, a small number of which, sufficient for the day's sport,
were tipped with the fatal Urari poison. The quiver was an

CHAP. XI. INDIA N B LO W- G UN. 281

ornamental affair, the broad rim being made of highly-polished
wood of a rich cherry-red colour (the Moira-piranga, or red-
wood of the Japura). The body was formed of neatly-plaited
strips of Maranta stalks, and the belt by which it was suspended
from the shoulder was decorated with cotton fringes and tassels.
We walked about two miles along a well-trodden pathway,
through high caapoeira (second-growth forest). A large pro-
portion of the trees were Melastomas, which bore a hairy yellow
fruit, nearly as large and as well flavoured as our gooseberry.
The season, however, was nearly over for them. The road was
bordered every inch of the way by a thick bed of elegant Lyco-
podiums. An artificial arrangement of trees and bushes could
scarcely have been made to wear so finished an appearance as
this naturally decorated avenue. The path at length terminated
at a plantation- of mandioca, the largest I had yet seen since I
left the neighbourhood of Para. There were probably ten acres
of cleared land, and part of the ground was planted with Indian
corn, water-melons, and sugar-cane. Beyond this field there
was only a faint hunters track, leading towards the untrodden
interior. My companion told me he had never heard of there
being any inhabitants in that direction (the south). We crossed
the forest from this place to another smaller clearing, and then
walked, on our road^ home, through about two miles of caapoeira
of various ages, the sites of old plantations. The only fruits of
our ramble Avere a few rare insects and a Japii (Cassicus crista-
tus), a handsome bird with chestnut and saffron-coloured
plumage, which wanders through the tree-tops in large flocks.
My little companion brought this down from a height which I
calculated at thirty yards. The blow-gun, however, in the hands
of an expert adult Indian, can be made to propel arrows so as
to kill at a distance of fifty and sixty yards. The aim is most
certain when the tube is held vertically, or nearly so. It is a
far more useful weapon in the forest than a gun, for the report
of a firearm alarms the whole flock of birds or monkeys feeding
on a tree, whilst the silent poisoned dart brings the animals
down one by one, until the sportsman has a heap of slain by his
side. None but the stealthy Indian can use it effectively. The
poison, which must be fresh to kill speedily, is obtained only of
the Indians who live beyond the cataracts of the rivers flowing
from the north, especially the Rio Negro and the Japura. Its
principal ingredient is the wood of the Strychnos toxifera, a
tree which does not grow in the humid forests of the river plains.
A most graphic account of the Urari, and of an expedition

282 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

undertaken in search of the tree in Guiana, has been given by
Sir Robert Schomburgk.*

When we returned to the house after mid-day, Cardoza was
still sipping cauim, and now looked exceedingly merry. It was
fearfully hot : the good fellow sat in his hammock with a cuya
full of grog in his hands ; his broad honest face all of a glow,
and the perspiration streaming down his uncovered breast, the
unbuttoned shirt having slipped half-way over his broad shoul-
ders. Pedro-uassu had not drunk much ; he was noted, as I
afterwards learnt, for his temperance. But he was standing up
as I had left him two hours previously, talking to Cardozo in
the same monotonous tones, the conversation apparently not
having flagged all the time. I had never heard so much talk-
ing amongst Indians. The widower was asleep : the stirring,
managing old lady with her daughter were preparing dinner.
This, which was ready soon after I entered, consisted of boiled
'fowls and rice, seasoned with large green peppers and lemon
juice, and piles of new, fragrant farinha and raw bananas. It
was served on plates of English manufacture on a tupe, or large
plaited rush mat, such as is made by the natives pretty generally
on the Amazons. Three or four other Indians, men and women
of middle age, now made their appearance, and joined in the
meal. We all sat round on the floor : the women, according to
custom, not eating until after the men had done. Before sit-
ting down our host apologised, in his usual quiet, courteous
manner, for not having knives and forks • Cardozo and I ate by
the aid of wooden spoons, the Indians using their fingers. The
old man waited until we were all served before he himself com-
menced. At the end of the meal one of the women brought
us water in a painted clay basin of Indian manufacture, and a
clean but coarse cotton napkin, that we might wash our hands.

The horde of Passes of which Pedro-uassii was Tushaua or
chieftain, was at this time reduced to a very small number of
individuals. The disease mentioned in the last chapter had
for several generations made great havoc amongst them ; many
also had entered the service of whites at Ega, and, of late
years, intermarriages with whites, half-castes, and civilised
Indians had been frequent. The old man bewailed the fate of
his race to Cardozo with tears in his eyes. " The people of my
nation," he said, " have always been good friends to the Cariwas
(whites), but before my grandchildren are old like me the name

* Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Vol. vii. p. 411.

CHAP. XI. THE PASSE TRIBE. 283

of Passe will be forgotten/' In so fair as the Passes have amal-
gamated with European immigrants or their descendants, and
become civilised Brazilian citizens, there can scarcely be ground
for lamenting their extinction as a nation ; but it fills one with
regret to learn how many, die prematurely of a disease which
seems to arise on their simply breathing the same air as the
whites. The original territory of the tribe must have been of
large extent, for Passes are said to have been found by the early
Portuguese colonists on the Rio Negro ; an ancient settlement
on that river, Barcellos, having been peopled by them when it
was first established ; and they formed also part of the original
population of Fonte-boa on the Solimoens. Their hordes were
therefore spread over a region 400 miles in length from east to
west. It is probable, however, that they have been confounded
by the colonists with other neighbouring tribes who tattoo their
faces in a similar manner. The extinct tribe of Yurimauas, or
Sorimoas, from which the river Solimoens derives its name,
according to traditions extant at Ega, resembled the Passes in
their slender figures and friendly disposition. These tribes
(with others lying between them) peopled the banks of the main
river and its by-streams from the mouth of the Rio Negro to
Peru. True Passes existed in their primitive state on the
banks of the Issa, 240 miles to the west of Ega, within the
memory of living persons. The only large body of them now
extant are located on the Japura, at a place distant about 150
miles from Ega : the population of this horde, howe^'er, does
not exceed, from what I could learn, 300 or 400 persons. I
think it probable that the lower part of the Japura and its
extensive delta lands formed the original home of this gentle
tribe of Indians.

The Passes are always spoken of in this country as the most
advanced of all the Indian nations in the Amazons region.
Under what influences this tribe has become so strongly,
modified in mental, social, and bodily features it is hard to
divine. The industrious habits, fidelity, and mildness of disposi-
tion of the Passes, their docility and, it may, be added, their
personal beauty, especially of the children and women, made
them from the first very attractive to the Portuguese colonists.
They were, consequently, enticed in great number from their
villages and brought to Barra and other settlements of the
whites. The wives of governors and military officers from
Europe were always eager to obtain children for domestic
servants; the girls being taught to sew, cook, weave ham-

284 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap, xt

mocks, manufacture pillow-lace, and so forth. They have
been generally treated with kindness, especially by the educated
families in the settlements. It is pleasant to have to record
that I never heard of a deed of violence perpetrated, on the one
side or the other, in the dealings between European settlers and
this noble tribe of savages.

We started on our return to Ega at half-past four o'clock in
the afternoon. Our generous entertainers loaded us with
presents. There was scarcely room for us to sit in the canoe,
as they had sent down ten, large bundles of sugar-cane, four
baskets of farinha, three cedar planks, a small hamper of coffee,
and two heavy bunches of bananas. After we were embarked
the old lady came with a parting gift for me — a huge bowl of
smoking hot banana porridge. I was to eat it on the road " to
keep my stomach warm. ^' Both stood on the bank as we pushed
off, and gave us their adeos, " Ikuana Tupana eiriim " (Go with
God) : a foim of salutation taught by the old Jesuit mis-
sionaries. We had a most uncomfortable passage, for Cardozo
was quite tipsy, and had not attended to the loading of the
boat. The cargo had been placed too far forward, and to make
matters worse my heavy friend obstinately insisted on sitting
astride on the top of the pile, instead of taking his place near
the stern ; singing from his perch a most indecent love-song,
and disregarding the inconvenience of having to bend down
almost every minute to pass under the boughs and hanging
sipos as we sped rapidly along. The canoe leaked, but not at
first alarmingly. Long before sunset darkness began to close
in under these gloomy shades, and our steersman could not
avoid now and then running the boat into the thicket. The
first time this happened a piece was broken off the square prow
(rodella) ; the second time we got squeezed between two trees.
A short time after this latter accident, being seated near the
stern, with my feet on the bottom of the boat, I felt rather
suddenly the cold water above my ankles. A few minutes
more and we should have sunk, for a seam had been opened
forward under the pile of sugar-cane. Two of us began to bale,
and by the most strenuous efforts managed to keep afloat with-
out throwing overboard our cargo. The Indians were obliged
to paddle with extreme slowness to avoid shipping water, as the
edge of our prow was nearly level with the surface ; but Cardozo
was now persuaded to change his seat. The sun set, the quick
twilight passed, and the moon soon after began to glimmer
through the thick canopy of foliage. The prospect of being

CHAP. XI. SAND ISLANDS AND TURTLES.] 285

swamped in this hideous solitude was by no meads pleasant,
although I calculated on the chance of swimming tO| a tree and
finding a nice snug place in the fork of some Urge bough
wherein to pass the night. At length, after four hoiirs' tedious
progress, we suddenly emerged on the open stream, '^ where the
moonlight glittered in broad sheets on the gently rippHng
waters. A little extra care was now required in paddi\ing. The
Indians plied their strokes with the greatest nicety ; the lights
of Ega (the oil lamps in the houses) soon appeareq beyond
the black wall of forest, and in a short time we leapt safely
ashore. I

A few months after the excursion just narrated, Ij accom-
panied Cardozo in many wanderings on the Solimoens, during
which we visited the praias (sand islands), the turtle pools in
the forests, and the by-streams and lakes of the greci.t desert
river. His object was mainly to superintend the business of
digging up turtle eggs on the sand-banks, having beeii elected
commandante for the year, by the municipal council! of Ega,
of the "praia real" (royal sand island) of Shimuni, the one
lying nearest to Ega. There are four of these royaJ praias
within the Ega district (a distance of 150 miles from the
town), all of which are visited annually by the Ega people for
the purpose of collecting eggs and extracting oil from their
yolks. Each has its commander, whose business is <^ make
arrangements for securing to every inhabitant an equaR chance
in the egg harvest, by placing sentinels to protect th^j turtles
whilst laying, and so forth. The pregnant turtles descend from
the interior pools to the main river in July and August, before
the outlets dry up, and then seek in countless swarims their
favourite sand islands \ for it is only a few praias i that are
selected by them out of the great number existing. The
young animals remain in the pools throughout the dry season.
These breeding-places of turtles then lie twenty to jthirty or
more feet above the level of the river, and are accessjible only
by cutting roads through the dense forest. ;

We left Ega on our first trip, to visit the sentinels \|hilst the
turtles were yet laying, on the 26th of September. Ojur canoe
was a stoutly-built igarite, arranged for ten padd.lers, and
having a large arched toldo at the stern, under which three
persons could sleep pretty comfortably. Emerging from the
Tefife, we descended rapidly on the swift current of the Soli-
moens to the south-eastern or lower end of the large 1 wooded

EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

1 , 3aria, which here divides the river into two great

n 'ddl ^^ t'titn paddled across to Shimuni, which Ues in the

_ ^ the north-easterly channel, reaching the commence-

• , lC praia an hour before sunset. The island proper

I . , . iree miles long and half a mile broad : the forest with

J ^s covered rises to an immense and uniform height,

., ^ hts all round a compact, impervious front. Here and

y , ngular tree, called Pao mulatto (mulatto wood), with

■' dark-green trunk, rose conspicuously amongst the

1 .vegetation. The sand-bank, which lies at the uppei

^ n ;he island, extends several miles, and presents an irre-

J' 1, ' id in some parts, strongly-waved surface, with deep

'"md ridges. When upon it, one feels as though tread-

° Imost boundless field of sand :- for towards the south-

1,-' lere no forest-line terminates the view, the white

1 ^ lain stretches away to the horizon. The north-easterly
cnanne •

, of the river^ lying between the sands and the further

1 the river, is at least two miles in breadth : the middle
one he • • •

1 ' 1 ween the two islands,, Shimuni and Baria, is not much

^ We f' ^ ^^^*^-

1 mnd the two sentinels lodged m a comer of the praia,

I . 1 ': commences at the. foot, of the towering forest-wall of

1 ^id j having built for themselves a little rancho with

^^ id palm-leave&.. Great precautions are obliged to be

1- ^void disturbing the sensitive turtles, .who, previous to

1 1 ^ ashore to lay, assemble in great shoals off the sand-

1 ■ ^^he men,, during this time, take care not to show them-

y ' ad warn off any fisherman who Wishes to pass near the

/^^* ^rheir fires are made in a deep hollow near the borders

^ ^ Vest, so that the smoke may not be visible. The

passage c^ ^ ^^^^^^ through the shallow, waters where the animals

, 1 °J'egated, or the sight of a man or a fire on the sand-

^Jj^/^. fuld prevent the turtles from leaving the water that

*^ • ° |ay their eggs, and if the causes of alarm were repeated

^^^\ °^^twice they would forsake the praia for some other

quieter V^^^^^ g^^j^^ ^f^-gj. ^g arrived our men were sent with

f ^ fiP cslch a supply of fish for supper. In half an hour
lour or h^^ ^^^^^ basketfuls of Acari were brought in. The sun

^^ f "^ ct°/ M^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ cooked ; we were then obliged to
extinguis^l:^^ the fire and remove our supper materials to the
f^^.^P^^S Aground, a spit of sand about a mile off; this course
being nci ^.^gg^j-y ^p^ account of the mosquitoes which swarm at
mgnt onj ^^^ i^orders of the forest.

CHAP. XI. THE SENTINELS. 287

One of the sentinels was a taciturn, morose-looking, but sobei
and honest Indian, named Daniel; the other was a noted
character of Ega, a little wiry mameluco, named Carepira
(Fish-hawk); -'known for his waggery, propensity for strong
drink, and indebtedness to Ega traders. Both Were intrepid
canoemen and huntsmen, and both perfectly at home anywhere
in these fearful wastes of forest and water. Carepira had his
son with him, a quiet little lad of about nine years of age.
These men in a few minutes constructed a small shed with
four upright poles and leaves of the arrow-grass, und ix which I
and Cardozo slung our hammocks. We did not go to sleep,
however, until after midnight : for when supper was over we
lay about on the sand with a flask of rum in our midst,
and whiled away the still hours in listening to Carepira's
stories.

I rose from my hammock by daylight,., shivering with cold ; a
praia, on account of the great radiation of heat in the night
from the sand, being towards the dawn the coldest place that can
be found in this clim.ate. Cardozo and the men were already
up watching the tiu:tles> The sentinels had erected for this
purpose a stage about fifty feet high, on a tall tree near their
station,, the ascent to which was by a roughly-made ladder ot
woody lianas. They are enabled, by observing the turtles from
'■ thi&^ watch-tower, to ascertain the date of successive deposits of
eggs,. and thus guide the commandante im fixing the time for
the general invitation to the Ega people. The turtles lay their
eggs by night, leaving the water, when nothing disturbs them,
in vast crowds, and crawHng to the central and highest part of
the praia. These places are, of course, the last to go under
water when, in unusually wet seasons, the river rises before the
eggs a. ^ patched by the heat of the sand. One could almost
believe, from this,,that tlie animals used forethought in choosing
a place ; but it is simply one of those many instances in animals
where unconscious habit has the same result as conscious pre-
vision. The hours between midnight and dawn are the busiest.
The turtles excavate with their broad "webbed paws deep holes
in the fine sand : the first comer, in each case, making a pit
about three feet deep, laying its eggs (about 120 in number)
and covering them with sand ; the next making its deposit at
the top of that of its predecessor, and so on until every pit is full.
The whole body of turtles frequenting a praia does not finish
laying in less than fourteen or fifteen days, even when there is
no interruption. When all have done, the area (called by the

288 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

Brazilians taholeiro\ over which they have excavated, is distin-
guishable from the rest of the praia only by signs of the sand
having been a little disturbed.

On rising I went to join my friends. Few recollections of
my Amazonian rambles are more vivid and agreeable than
that of my walk over the white sea of sand on this cool morn-
ing. The sky was cloudless ; the just-risen sun was hidden
behind the dark mass of woods on Shimuni, but the long line
of forest to the west, on Baria, with its plumy decorations of
palms, was lighted up with his yellow, horizontal rays. A faint
chorus of singing birds reached the ears from across the water,
and flocks of gulls and plovers were crying plaintively over the
swelling banks of the praia, where their eggs lay in nests made
in little hollows of the sand. Tracks of stray turtles were
visible on the smooth white surface of the praia. The animals
which thus wander from the main body are lawful prizes of the
sentinels ; they had caught in this way two before sunrise, one
of which we had for dinner. In my walk I disturbed several
pairs of the chocolate and drab-coloured wild-goose (Anser
jubatus) which set off to run along the edge of the water.
The enjoyment one feels in rambling over these free, open
spaces, is no doubt enhanced by the novelty of the scene, the
change being very great from the monotonous landscape of
forest which everywhere else presents itself.

On arriving at the edge of the forest I mounted the sentinel's
stage, just in time to see the turtles retreating to the water on
the oppo site side of the sand-bank, after having laid their eggs.
The sight was well worth the trouble of ascending the shaky
ladder. They were about a mile off, but the surface of the
sands was blackened with the multitudes which were waddling
towards the river -, the margin of the praia was rather steep,
and they all seemed to tumble head first down the declivity
into the water.

I spent the morning of the 27 th collecting insects in the
woods of Shimuni ; assisting my friend in the afternoon to beat
a large pool for Tracajas, Cardozo wishing to obtain a supply
for his table at home. The pool was nearly a mile long, and
lay on one side of the island between the forests and the sand-
bank. The sands are heaped up very curiously around the
margins of these isolated sheets of water ; in the present case
they formed a steeply-incHned bank, from five to eight feet in
height. What may be the cause of this formation I cannot
imagine. The pools always contain a quantity of imprisoned

CHAP. XL BEATING POOLS FOR TURTLES. 289

fish, turtles, Tracajas, and Aiyussas."^ The turtles and Aiyussas
crawl out voluntarily in the course of a few days, and escape to
the main river, but the Tracajas remain and become an easy
prey to the natives. The ordinary mode of obtaining them is
to whip the water in every part with rods for several hours
during the day ; this treatment having the effect of driving the
animals out. They wait, however, until the night following the
beating before making their exit. Our Indians were occupied
for many hours in this work, and when night came they
and the sentinels were placed at intervals along the edge of
the water, to be ready to capture the runaways. Cardozo and
I, after supper, went and took our station at one end of the
pool.

We did not succeed, after all our trouble, in getting many
Tracajas. This was partly owing to the intense darkness of the
night, and partly, doubtless, to the sentinels having already
nearly exhausted the pool, notwithstanding their declarations to
the contrary. In waiting for the animals it was necessary to
keep silence : not a pleasant way of passing the night ; speaking
only in whispers, and being without fire in a place Hable to be
visited by a prowling jaguar. Cardozo and I sat on a sandy
slope with our loaded guns by our side, but it was so dark we
could scarcely see each other. Towards midnight a storm
began to gather around us. The faint wind which had breathed
from over the water, since the sun went down, ceased ; thick
clouds piled themselves up until every star was obscured, and
gleams of watery lightning began to play, in the midst of the
black masses. I hinted to Cardozo that I thought we had now
had enough of watching, and suggested a cigarette. Just then
a quick pattering movement was heard on the sands, and
grasping our guns, we both started to our feet. Whatever it
might have been it seemed to pass by, and a few moments
afterwards a dark body appeared to be moving in another
direction on the opposite slope of the sandy ravine where we
lay. We prepared to fire, but luckily took the precaution of first
shouting " Quern vai la?" (Who goes there ?) It turned out
to be the taciturn sentinel, Daniel, who asked us mildly whether
we had heard a " raposa " pass our way. The raposa is a kind
of wild dog, vv^ith very long tapering muzzle, and black and
white speckled hair. Daniel could distinguish all kinds of

* Specimens of this species of turtle are named in the British Museum
collection, Podocnemis expansa.

19

/

290 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

animals in the dark by their footsteps. It now began to
thunder, and our position was getting very uncomfortable.
Daniel had not seen anything of the other Indians, and thought
it was useless waiting any longer for Tracajas ; we therefore
sent him to call in the whole party, and made off ourselves, as
quickly as we could, for the canoe. The rest of the night was
passed most miserably; as indeed were very many of my nights
on the Solimoens. A furious squall burst upon us ; the wind
blew away the cloths and mats we had fixed up at the ends of
the arched awning of the canoe to shelter ourselves, and the
rain beat right through our sleeping-place. There we lay,
Cardozo and I, huddled together, and wet through, waiting for
the morning.

A cup of strong and hot coffee put us to rights at sunrise ;
but the rain was still coming down, having changed to a steady

Surubim (Pimelodus tigrinus).

drizzle. Our men were all returned from the pool, having taken
only four Tracajas. The business which had brought Cardozo
hither being now finished, we set out to return to Ega, leaving
the sentinels once more to their solitude on the sands. Our
return route was by the rarely frequented north-easterly channel
of the Solimoens, through which flows part of the waters of its
great tributary stream, the Jupura. We travelled for five hours
along the desolate, broken, timber-strewn shore of Baria. The
channel is of immense breadth, the opposite coast being visible
only as a long low line of forest. At three o'clock in the after-
noon we doubled the upper end of the island, and then crossed
towards the mouth of the Teffe by a broad transverse channel
running between Baria and another island called Quanaru.
There is a small sand-bank at the north-westerly point of Baria
called Jacare; we stayed here to dine, and afterwards fished with

\

CHAP. XI. THE BLACK TIGER, 291

the net. A fine rain was still falling, and we had capital sport,
in three hauls taking more fish than our canoe would conveni-
ently hold. They were of two kinds only, the Surubim and the
Piraepieiia (species of Pimelodus), very handsome fishes, four
feet in length, with flat spoon-shaped heads, and prettily-spotted
and striped skins.

On our way from Jacare to the mouth of the Teffe we had a
little adventure with a black tiger or jaguar. We were paddling
rapidly past a long beach of dried mud, when the Indians
bee me suddenly excited, shouting " Ecui Jauarete; Jauari-
pixiina ! " (Behold the jaguar, the black jaguar !) Looking
ahead we saw the animal quietly drinking at the water's edge.
Cardozo ordered the steersman at once to put us ashore. By
the time we were landed the tiger had seen us, and was retracing
his steps towards the forest. On the spur of the moment, and
without thinking of what we were doing, we took our gims (mine
was a double-barrel, with one charge of B B and one of dust-
shot) and gave chase. The animal increased his speed, and
reaching the forest border dived into the dense mass of broad-
leaved grass which formed its frontage. We peeped through the
gap he had made, but, our courage being by this time cooled,
we did not think it wise to go into the thicket after him. The
black tiger appears to be more abundant than the spotted form
of jaguar in the neighbourhood of Ega. The most certain
method of finding it is to hunt, assisted by a string of Indians
shouting and driving the game before them, in the narrow
resiingas or strips of dry land in the forest, which are isolated
by the flooding of their neighbourhood in the wet season. We
reached Ega by eight o'clock at night.

On the 6th of October we left Ega on a second excursion ;
the principal object of Cardozo being, this time, to search certain
pools in the forest for young turtles. The exact situation of
these hidden sheets of water is known only to a few practised
huntsmen ; we took one of these men with us from Ega, a
mameluco named Pedro, and on our way called at Shimuni for
Daniel to serve as an additional guide. We started from the
praia at sunrise on the 7th in two canoes containing twenty-
three persons, nineteen of whom were Indians. The morning
was cloudy and cool, and a fresh wind blew from down river,
against which we had to struggle with all the force of our
paddles, aided by the current; the boats were tossed about
most disagreeably, and shipped a great deal of water. On

292 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

passing the lower end of Shimuni, a long reach of the river was
before us, undivided by islands ; a magnificent expanse of
water stretching away to the south-east. The country on the
left bank is not, however, terra firma, but a portion of the
alluvial land which forms the extensive and complex delta
region of the J apura. It is flooded every year at the time of
high water, and is traversed by many narrow and deep channels
which serve as outlets to the Japura, or at least are connected
with that river by means of the interior water system of the
Cupiyo. This inhospitable tract of country extends for several
hundred miles, and contains in its midst an endless number of
pools and lakes tenanted by multitudes of turtles, fishes, alliga-
tors, and water serpents. Our destination was a point on this
coast situated about twenty miles below Shimuni, and a short
distance from the mouth of the Anana, one of the channels just
alluded to as connected with the Japura. After travelling for
three hours in mid-stream we steered for the land, and brought
to under a steeply-inclined bank of crumbly earth, shaped into
a succession of steps or terraces, marking the various halts
which the waters of the river make in the course of subsidence.
The coast line was nearly straight for many miles, and the bank
averaged about thirty feet in height above the present level of
the river : at the top rose the unbroken hedge of forest. No
one could have divined that pools of water existed on that
elevated land. A narrow level space extended at the foot of
the bank. On landing the first business was to get breakfast.
Whilst a couple of Indian lads were employed in making the
fire, roasting the fish, and boiling the coffee, the rest of the
party moutned the bank, and with their long hunting knives
commenced cutting a path through the forest ; the pool, called
the Aningal, being about half a mile distant. After breakfast a
great number of short poles were cut and were laid crosswise
on the path, and then three light montarias which we had
brought with us were dragged up the bank by lianas, and rolled
away to be embarked on the pool. A large net, seventy yards
in length, was then disembarked and carried to the place. The
work was done very speedily, and when Cardozo and I went to
the spot at eleven o'clock we found some of the older Indians,
including Pedro and Daniel, had begun their sport. They
were mounted on little stages called moutas, made of poles
and cross-pieces of wood secured with lianas, and were shoot-
ing the turtles as they came near the surface, with bows and
arrows. The Indians seemed to think that netting the animals,

CHAP. XI. TURTLE SHOOTING, 293

as Cardozo proposed doing, was not lawful sport, and wished
first to have an hour or two's old-fashioned practice with their
weapons.

The pool covered an area of about four or five acres, and was
closely hemmed in by the forest, which in picturesque variety
and grouping of trees and foliage exceeded almost everything I
had yet witnessed. The margins for some distance were swampy,
and covered with large tufts of a fine grass called Matupa.
These tufts in many places were overrun with ferns, and exterior
to them a crowded row of arborescent arums, growing to a
height of fifteen or twenty feet, formed a green palisade.
Around the whole stood the taller forest trees ; palmate-leaved
Cecropiae; slender Assai palms, thirty feet high, with their
thin feathery heads crowning the gently-curving smooth stems;
small fan-leaved palms ; and as a background to all these
airy shapes lay the voluminous masses of ordinary forest trees,
with garlands, festoons, and streamers of leafy climbers hanging
from their branches. The pool was nowhere more than five
feet deep, one foot of which was not water, but extremely fine
and soft mud.

Cardozo and I spent an hour paddling about. I was asto-
nished at the skill which the Indians display in shooting turdes.
They did not wait for their coming to the surface to breathe,
but watched for the slight movements in the water which re-
vealed their presence underneath. These little tracks on the
water are called the Siriri ; the instant one was perceived an
arrow flew from the bow of the nearest man, and never failed to
pierce the shell of the submerged animal. When the turtle was
very distant, of course the aim had to be taken at a consider-
able elevation, but the marksmen preferred a longish range, be-
cause the arrow then fell more perpendicularly on the shell,
and entered it more deeply.

The arrow used in turtle shooting has a strong lancet-shaped
steel point, fitted into a peg which enters the tip of the shaft.
The peg is secured to the shaft by twine made of the fibres of
pine-apple leaves, the twine being some thirty or forty yards in
length, and neatly wound round the body of the arrow. When
the missile enters the shell, the peg drops out, and the pierced
animal descends with it towards the bottom, leaving the shaft
floating on the surface. This being done, the sportsman paddles
in his montaria to the place, and gently draws the animal by the
twine, humouring it by giving it the rein when it plunges, until
it is brought again near the surface, when he strikes it with a

294

EXCURSIOA'^S AROUND EGA- chap. xi.

second arrow. With the increased hold given by the two cords
he has then no difficulty in landing his game.
By mid-day the men had shot about a score of nearly full-
grown turtles. Cardozo then gave orders to
spread the net. The spongy, swampy nature of
the banks made it impossible to work the net so
as to draw the booty ashore ; another method
w^as therefore adopted. The net was taken by
two Indians and extended in a curve at one
extremity of the oval-shaped pool, holding it
when they had done so by the perpendicular rods
fixed at each end ; its breadth was about equal
to the depth of the water, its shotted side there-
fore rested on the bottom, whilst the floats buoyed
it up on the surface, so that the whole, when the
ends were brought together, would form a com-
plete trap. The rest of the party then spread
themselves around the swamp at the opposite end
of the pool, and began to beat, with stout poles,
the thick tufts of Matupa, in order to drive the
turdes towards the middle. This was continued
for an hour or more, the beaters gradually draw-
ing nearer to each other, and driving the hosts ot
animals before them ; the number of little snouts
constantly popping above the surface of the
water showing that all was going on well. When
they neared the net, the men moved more quickly,
shouting and beatmg with great vigour. The ends
of the net were then seized by several strong
hands and dragged suddenly forwards, bringing
them at the same time together, so as to enclose
all the booty in a circle. Every man now leapt
into the inclosure, the boats were brought up,
and the turtles easily captured by the hand and
tossed into them. I jumped in along with the
rest, although I had just before made the dis-
cover}^ that the pool abounded in ugly, red, four-
angled leeches, having seen several of these de-
lectable animals, which sometimes fasten on the
Arrow used in legs of fishermen, although they did not, on this
turtle shooting, ^^ij, trouble US, working their way through cracks
in the bottom of our montaria. Cardozo, who remained with
the boats, could not turn the animals on their backs fast

CHAP. XT. TURTLES. 295

enough, so that a great many clambered out and got free again.
However, three boat-loads, or about eighty, were secured in
about twenty minutes. They were then taken ashore, and
each one secured by the men tying the legs with thongs of bast.

When the canoes had been twice filled we desisted, after
a very hard day's work. Nearly all the animals were young
ones, chiefly, according to the statement of Pedro, from three
to ten years of age : they varied from six to eighteen inches in
length, and were very fat. Cardozo and I lived almost exclu-
sively on them for several months afterwards. Roasted in the
shell they form a most appetizing dish. These younger turtles
never migrate with their elders on the sinking of the waters,
but remain in the tepid pools, fattening on fallen fruits, and,
according to the natives, on the fine nutritious mud. We cap-
tured a few full-grown mother-turtles, which were known at
once by the horny skin of their breast-plates being worn,
telling of their having crawled on the sands to lay eggs the
previous year. They had evidently made a mistake in not
leaving the pool at the proper time, for they were full of eggs,
which, we were told, they would, before the season was over,
scatter in despair over the swamp. We also found several
male turtles, or Capitaris, as they are called by the natives.
These are immensely less numerous than the females, and are
distinguishable by their much smaller size, more circular shape,
and the greater length and thickness of their tails. Their flesh
is considered unwholesome, especially to sick people having
external signs of inflammation. All diseases in these parts, as
well as their remedies, and all articles of food, are classed by the
inhabitants as "hot " and " cold," and the meat of the Capitari
is settled by unanimous consent as belonging to the "hot" list.

We dined on the banks of the river a little before sunset.
The mosquitoes then began to be troublesome, and finding it
would be impossible to sleep here, we all embarked and crossed
the river to a sand-bank, about three miles distant, where we
passed the night. Cardozo and I slept in our hammocks slung
between upright poles, the rest stretching themselves on the
sand round a large fire. We lay awake conversing until past
midnight. It was a real pleasure to listen to the stories told
by one of the older men ; they were given with so much spirit.
The tales always related to struggles with some intractable
animal — jaguar, manatee, or alligator. Many interjections
and expressive gestures were used, and at the end came a
sudden " Pa ! terra ! " when the animal was vanquished by a

296 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

shot or a blow. Many mysterious tales were recounted about
the Bouto, as the large Dolphin of the Amazons is called. One
of them was to the effect that a Bouto once had the habit of
assuming the shape of a beautiful woman, with hair hanging
loose to her heels, and walking ashore at night in the streets oi
Ega, to entice the young men down to the water. If any one
was so much smitten as to follow her to the water-side, she
grasped her victim round the waist and plunged beneath the
waves with a triumphant cry. No animal in the Amazons
region is the subject of so many fables as the Bouto ; but it is
probable these did not originate with the Indians, but with
the Portuguese colonists. It was several years before I could
induce a fisherman to harpoon Dolphins for me as specimens,
for no one ever kills these animals voluntarily, although their
fat is known to yield an excellent oil for lamps. The super-
stitious people beheve that blindness would result from the use
of this oil in lamps. I succeeded at length with Carepira, by
offering him a high reward when his finances were at a very low
point \ but he repented of his deed ever afterwards, declaring
that his luck had forsaken him from that day.

The next morning we agam beat the pool. Although we
had proof of there being a great number of turtles yet remain-
ing, we had very poor success. The old Indians told us it
would be so, for the turtles were " ladino " (cunning), and
would take no notice of the beating a second day. When the
net was formed into a circle, and the men had jumped in, an
alligator was found to be inclosed. No one was alarmed, the
only fear expressed being that the imprisoned beast would tear
the net. First one shouted, " 1 have touched his head • " then
another, " he has scratched my leg." One of the men, a lanky
Miranha, was thrown off his balance, and then there was no
end to the laughter and shouting. At last a youth of about
fourteen years of age, on my calling to him, from the bank, to
do so, seized the reptile by the tail, and held him tightly until,
a litde resistance being overcome, he was able to bring it
ashore; the net was opened, and the boy slowly dragged the
dangerous but cowardly beast to land through the muddy
water, a distance of about a hundred yards. Meantime I had
cut a strong pole from a tree, and as soon as the alligator was
drawn to solid ground, gave him a smart rap with it on the
crown of his head, which killed him instantly. It was a good-
sized individual ; the jaws being considerably more than a foot
long, and fully capable of snapping a man's leg in twain. The

CHAP. XI. ALLIGATORS. 299

species was the large cayman, the Jacare-uassii of the Amazo-
nian Indians (Jacare nigra).

On the third day we sent our men in the boats to net turtles
in a larger pool, about five miles further down the river, and on
the fourth returned to Ega.

It will be well to mention here a few circumstances relative to
the large cayman, which, with the incident just narrated, afford
illustrations of the cunning, cowardice, and ferocity of this reptile.

I have hitherto had but few occasions of mentioning alli-
gators, although they exist by myriads in the waters of the
Upper Amazons. Many different species are spoken of by the
natives. I saw only three, and of these two only are common :
one, the Jacare-tinga, a small kind (five feet long when full-
grown), having a long slender muzzle and a black-banded tail ;
the other, the Jacare-uassii, to which these remarks more
especially relate ; and the third the Jacare- curiia, mentioned in
a former chapter. The Jacare-uassii, or large cayman, grows
to a length of eighteen or twenty feet, and attains an enormous
bulk. Like the turtles, the alligator has its annual migrations,
for it retreats to the interior pools and flooded forests in the
wet season, and descends to the main river in the dry season.
During the months of high water, therefore, scarcely a single
individual is to be seen in the main river. In the middle part
of the Lower Amazons, about Obydos and Villa Nova, where
many of the lakes with their channels of communication with
the trunk stream dry up in the fine months, the alligator
buries itself in the mud and becomes dormant, sleeping till the
rainy season returns. On the Upper Amazons, where the dry
season is never '' xessive, it has not this habit, but is lively all
the year ror It is scarcely exaggerating to say that the

waters of tlic oonmoens are as well stocked with large alligators
in the dry season, as a ditch in England is in summer with
tadpoles. During a journey of five days which I once made in
the Upper Amazons steamer, in November, alligators were seen
along the coast almost every step of the way, and the passen-
gers amused themselves, from morning till night, by firing at
them with rifle and ball. They were very numerous in the
still bays, where the huddled crowds jostled together, to the
great rattling of their coats of mail, as the steamer passed.

The natives at once despise and fear the great cayman. I
once spent a month at Caicara, a small village of semi-civilised
Indians, about twenty miles to the west of Ega. My enter-
tainer, the only white in the place, and one of my best and

300 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

most constant friends, Senhor Innocencio Alves Faria, one day
proposed a half-day's fishing witli net in the lake, — the ex-
panded bed of the small river on which the village is situated.
We set out in an open boat with six Indians and two of
Innocencio's children. The water had sunk so low that the
net had to be taken out into the middle by the Indians,
whence at the first draught two medium-sized alligators were
brought to land. They were disengaged from the net and
allowed, with the coolest unconcern, to return to the water,
although the two children were playing in it not many yards
off. We continued fishing, Innocencio and I lending a helping
hand, and each time drew a number of the reptiles of different
ages and sizes, some of them Jacare-tingas ; the lake, in fact,
swarmed with alligators. After taking a very large quantity of
fish we prepared to return, and the Indians, .at my suggestion,
secured one of the alligators with the view of letting it loose
amongst the swaims of dogs in the village. An individual was
selected about eight feet long : one man holding his head and
another his tail, whilst a third took a few lengths of a flexible
hana, and deliberately bound the jaws and the legs. Thus
secured, the beast was laid across the benches of the boat, on
which we sat during the hour .and a half's journey to the
settlement. We were rather crowded, but our amiable pas-
senger gave us no trouble during the transit. On reaching the
village we took the .animal into the middle of the green,
in front of the church, where the dogs were congregated, and
there gave him his liberty, two of us arming ourselves with
long poles to intercept him if he should make for the water,
and the others exciting the dogs. The alligator showed great
terror, although the dogs could not be made to advance, and
m-ade off at the top of its speed for the water, waddling like a
duck. We tried to keep him back with the poles, but he
became enraged, and seizing the end of the one I held, in his
jaws, nearly wrenched it from my grasp. We wexe obliged, at
length, to kill him to prevent his escape.

These little incidents show the timidity or cowardice of the
alligator. He never attacks man when his intended victim is
on his guard ; but he is cunning enough to know when this
may be done with impunity : of this we had proof at Caicara,
a few daj's afterwards. The river had sunk to a very low point,
so that the port and bathing-place of the village now lay at
the foot of a long sloping bank, and a large cayman made his
anD^arance in the shallow and muddy water. We were all

CHAP. XI. EXCAVATION OF TURTLE EGGS. 301

obliged to be very careful in taking our bath ; most of the
people simply using a calabash, pouring the water over them-
selves while standing on the brink. A large trading canoe,
belonging to a Barra merchant named Soares, arrived at this
time, and the Indian crew, as usual, spent the first day or two
after their coming into port, in drunkenness and debauchery
ashore. One of the men, during the greatest heat of the day,
when almost every one was enjoying his afternoon's nap, took
it into his head whilst in a tipsy state to go down alone to
bathe. He was seen only by the Juiz de Paz, a feeble old man
who was lying in his hammock, in the open verandah at the
rear of his house on the top of the bank, and who shouted to
the besotted Indian to beware of the alhgator. Before he
could repeat his warning the man stumbled, and a pair of
gaping jaws, appearing suddenly above the surface, seized him
round the waist and drew him under the water. A cry of
agony, " Ai Jesiis ! " was the last sign made by the wretched
victim. The village was aroused : the young men with praise-
worthy readiness seized their harpoons and hurried dowTi to
the bank: but of course it was too late; a winding track of
blood on the surface of the water was all that could be seen.
They embarked, however, in montarias, determined on ven-
geance : the monster was traced, and when, after a short lapse
of time, he came up to breathe — one leg of the man sticking
out from his jaws — was dispatched with bitter curses.

The last of these minor excursions which I shall narrate,
was made (again in company of Senhor Cardozo, with the
addition of his housekeeper, Senhora Felippa) in the season
when all the population of the villages turns out to dig up
turtle eggs, and revel on the praias. Placards were posted on
the church doors at Ega, announcing that the excavation on
Shimuni would commence on the 17th of October, and on
Catua, sixty miles below Shirauni, on the 25th. We set out
on the 1 6th, and passed on the road, in our well-manned
igarite, a large number of people, men, women, and children, in
canoes of all sizes, wending their way as if to a great holiday
gathering. By the morning of the 17th some 400 persons
were assembled on the borders of the sand-bank ; each family
having erected a rude temporary shed of poles and palm leaves
to protect themselves from the sun and rain. Large copper
kettles to prepare the oil, and hundreds of red earthenware
jars, were scattered about on the sand.

302 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA, chap. XL

The excavation of the taboleiro, collecting the eggs, and
purifying the oil, occupied four days. All was done on a
system established by the old Portuguese governors, probably
more than a century ago. The commandante first took down
the names of all the masters of households, with the number of
persons each intended to employ in digging ; he then exacted a
payment of 140 reis (about fourpence) a head towards defraying
the expense of sentinels. The whole were then allowed to
go to the taboleiro. They ranged themselves round the circle,
each person armed with a paddle, to be used as a spade, and
then all began simultaneously to dig on a signal being given —
the roll of drums — by order of the commandante. It was an
animating sight to behold the wide circle of rival diggers
throwing up clouds of sand in their energetic labours, and
working gradually towards the centre of the ring. A little rest
was taken during the great heat of mid-day, and in the evening
the eggs were carried to the huts in baskets. By the end of
the second day the taboleiro was exhausted : large mounds of
eggs, some of them four to five feet in height, were then seen
by the side of each hut, the produce of the labours of the
family.

In the hurry of digging some of the deeper nests are passed
over ; to find these out the people go about provided with a
long steel or wooden probe, the presence of the eggs being
discoverable by the ease with which the spit enters the sand.
When no more eggs are to be found, the mashing process
begins. The ^gg^ it may be mentioned, has a flexible or
leathery shell ; it is quite round, and somewhat larger than a
hen^s &gg. The whole heap is thrown into an empty canoe
and mashed with wooden prongs; but sometimes naked
Indians and children jump into the mass and tread it down,
besmearing themselves with yolk and making about as filthy
a scene as can well be imagined. This being finished, water is
poured into the canoe, and the fatty mess then left for a few
hours to be heated by the sun, on which the oil separates and
rises to the surface. The floating oil is afterwards skimmed oft'
with long spoons, made by tying large mussel-shells to the end
of rods, and purified over the fire in copper kettles.

The destruction of turtle eggs every year by these proceed-
ings is enormous. At least 6,000 jars, holding each three
gallons of the oil, are exported annually from the Upper
Amazons and the Madeira to Para, where it is used for
lighting, fr}-ing fish, and other purposes. It may be fairly

CHAP. XI. ARRIVAL AT CATUA. 303:

estimated that 2,000 more jarfuls are consumed by the inha-
bitants of the villages on the river. Now, it takes at least
twelve basketfuls of eggs, or about 6,000, by the wasteful
process followed, to make one jar of oil. The total number of
eggs annually destroyed amounts, therefore, to 48,000,000.
As each turtle lays about 120, it follows that the yearly
offspring of 400,000 turtles is thus annihilated. A vast
number, nevertheless, remain undetected \ and these would
probably be sufficient to keep the turtle population of these
rivers up to the mark, if the people did not follow the wasteful
practice of lying in wait for the newly-hatched young, and
collecting them by thousands for eating ; their tender flesh and
the remains of yolk in their entrails being considered a great
delicacy. The chief natural enemies of the turtle are vultures
and alligators, which devour the newly-hatched young as they
descend in shoals to the water. These must have destroyed an
immensely greater number before the European settlers began
to appropriate the eggs than they do now. It is almost
doubtful if this natural persecution did not act as effectively in
checking the increase of the turtle as the artificial destruction
now does. If we are to believe the tradition of the Indians,
however, it had not this result ; for they say that formerly the
v/aters teemed as thickly with turtles as the air does now with
mosquitoes. The universal opinion of the settlers on the
Upper Amazons is, that the turtle has very greatly decreased
in numbers, and is still annually decreasing.

We left Shimuni on the 20th, with quite a flotilla of canoes,
and descended the river to Catua, an eleven hours' journey by
paddle and current. Catua is about six miles long, and almost
entirely encircled by its praia. The turtles had selected for
their egg-laying a part of the sand-bank which was elevated at
least twenty feet above the present level of the river; the
animals, to reach the place, must have crawled up a slope. As
we approached the island, numbers of the animals were seen
coming to the surface to breathe, in a small shoaly bay. Those
who had light montarias sped forward with bows and arrows to
shoot them. Carepira was foremost : having borrowed a small
and very unsteady boat of Cardozo, and embarked in it with
his little son. After bagging a couple of turtles, and whilst
hauHng in a third, he overbalanced himself; the canoe went
over, and he with his child had to swim for their lives, in the
midst of numerous alligators, about a mile from the land. The

304 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

old man had to sustain a heavy fire of jokes from his com-
panions for several days after this mishap. Such accidents
are only laughed at by these almost amphibious people.

The number of persons congregated on Catua was much
greater than on Shimuni, as the population of the banks of
several neighbouring lakes was here added. The line of huts
and sheds extended half a mile, and several large sailing vessels
were anchored at the place. The commandante was Senhor
Macedo, the very worthy Indian blacksmith of Ega, who main-
tained excellent order during the fourteen days the process
of excavation and oil manufacture lasted. There were also
many primitive Indians here from the neighbouring rivers,
amongst them a family of Shumanas, good-tempered, harmless
people from the Lower Japura. All of them were tattooed
round the mouth, the bluish tint forming a border to the lips,
and extending in a line on the cheeks towards the ear on each
side. They were not quite so slender in figure as the Passes of
Pedro-uassii's family ; but their features deviated quite as much
as those of the Passes from the ordinary Indian type. This
was seen chiefly in the comparatively small mouth, pointed
chin, thin lips, and narrow, high nose. One of the daughters,
a young girl of about seventeen years of age, was a real beauty.
The colour of her skin approached the light tanned shade of
the Mameluco women ; her figure was almost faultless, and the
blue mouth, instead of being a disfigurement, gave quite a cap-
tivating finish to her appearance. Pier neck, wrists, and ankles
were adorned with strings of blue beads. She was, however,
extremely bashful, never venturing to look strangers in the face,
and never quitting, for many minutes together, the side of her
father and mother. The family had been shamefully swindled
by some rascally trader on another praia; and, on our arrival,
came to lay their case before Senhor Cardozo, as the delegado
of police of the district. The mild way in which the old man,
without a trace of anger, stated his complaint in imperfect
Tupi, quite enlisted our sympathies in his favour. But Cardozo
could give him no redress ; he invited the family, however, to
make their rancho near to ours, and in the end gave them the
highest price for the surplus oil which they manufactured.

It was not all work at Catua ; indeed there was rather more
play than work going on. The people make a kind of holiday
of these occasions. Every fine night parties of the younger
people assembled on the sands, and dancing and games were
carried on for hours together. But the requisite liveliness for

CHAP. XI. THE FISH -DANCE, 305

these sports was never got up without a good deal of preHmi-
nary rum-drinking. The girls were so coy that the young men
could not get sufficient partners for the dances, without first
subscribing for a few flagons of the needful cashaca. The cold-
ness of the shy Indian and Mameluco maidens never failed to
give way after a little of this strong drink, but it was astonish-
ing what an immense deal they could take of it in the course of
an evening. Coyness is not always a sign of innocence in these
people, for most of the half-caste women on the Upper Amazons
lead a little career of looseness before they marry and settle
down for life ; and it is rather remarkable that the men do not
seem to object much to their brides having had a child or two
by various fathers before marriage. The women do not lose
reputation unless they become utterly depraved, but in that
case they are condemned pretty strongly by public opinion.
Depravity is, however, rare, for all require more or less to be
wooed before they are won. I did not see (although I mixed
pretty freely with the young people) any breach of propriety on
the praias. The merry-makings were carried on near the
ranchos, where the more staid citizens of Ega, husbands with
their wives and young daughters, all smoking gravely out of
long pipes, sat in their hammocks and enjoyed the fun.
Towards midnight we often heard, in the intervals between
jokes and laughter, the hoarse roar of jaguars prowling about
the jungle in the middle of the praia. There were several
guitar players amongst the young men, and one most perse-
vering fiddler, so there was no lack of music.

The favourite sport was the Pira-purasseya, or fish-dance,
one of the original games of the Indians, though now probably
a little modified. The young men and women, mingling to-
■gether, formed a ring, leaving one of their number in the
middle, who represented the fish. They then all marched
round, Indian file, the musicians mixed up with the rest, sing-
ing a monotonous but rather pretty chorus, the words of which
were invented (under a certain form) by one of the party who
acted as leader. This finished, all joined hands, and questions
were put to the one in the middle, asking what kind of fish he
or she might be. To these the individual has to reply. The
end of it all is that he makes a rush at the ring, and if he suc-
ceeds in escaping, the person who allowed him to do so has to
take his place ; the march and chorus then recommence, and so
the game goes on hour after hour. Tupi was the language
mostly used, but sometimes Portuguese was sung and spoken.

20

3o6 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

The details of the dance were often varied. Instead of the
names of fishes being called over by the person in the middle,
the name of some animal, flower, or other object was given to
every fresh occupier of the place. There was then good scope
for wit in the invention of nicknames., and peals of laughter
would often salute some particularly good hit. Thus a very
lanky young man was called the Magoary, or the gray stork ;
a moist, gray-eyed man, with a profile comically suggestive of a
fish, was christened Jaraki (a kind offish), which was considered
quite a witty sally ; a little Mameluco girl, with light-coloured
eyes and brow^n hair, got the gallant name of Rosa branca, or
the white rose ', a young fellow who had recently singed his
eyebrows by the explosion of fireworks was dubbed Pedro quei-
mado (burnt Peter) ; in short, every one got a nickname, and
each time the cognomen was introduced into the chorus as the
circle marched round.

Our rancho was a large one, and was erected in a line with
the others, near the edge of the sand-bank which sloped rather
abruptly to the water. During the first week the people were
all, more or less, troubled by alligators. Some half-dozen full-
grown ones were in attendance off the praia, floating about on
the lazily-flowing muddy water. The dryness of the weather
had increased since we had left Shimuni, the currents had
slackened, and the heat in the middle part of the day was
almost insupportable. But no one could descend to bathe
without being advanced upon by one or other of these hungry
monsters. There was much offal cast into the river, and this
of course attracted them to the place. One day I amused my-
self by taking a basketful of fragments of meat beyond the line
of ranches, and drawing the alligators towards me by feeding
them. They behaved pretty much as dogs do when fed ; catch-
ing the bones I threw them in their huge jaws, and coming
nearer and showing increased eagerness after every morsel.
The enormous gape of their mouths, with their blood-red lining
and long fringes of teeth, and the uncouth shapes of their bodies,
made a picture of unsurpassable ugliness. I once or twice fired
a heavy charge of shot at them, aiming at the vulnerable part
of their bodies, which is a small space situated behind the eyes,
but this had no other effect than to make them give a hoarse
grunt and shake themselves; they immediately afterwards turned
to receive another bone which I threw to them.

Every day these visitors became bolder ; at length they reached
a pitch of impudence that was quite intolerable. Cardozo had

CHAP. XI. HUNTING EXCURSIONS. 309

a poodle dog named Carlito, which some grateful traveller whom

he had befriended had sent him from Rio Janeiro. He took

great pride in this dog, keeping it well sheared, and preserving

his coat as white as soap and w^ater could make it. We slept

in our rancho in hammocks slung between the outer posts ; a

large wood fire (fed with a kind of wood abundant on the banks

of the river, which keeps alight all night) being made in the

middle, by the side of which slept Carlito on a little mat.

Well, one night I was awoke by a great uproar. It was caused

by Cardozo hurling burning firewood with loud curses at a huge

cayman which had crawled up the bank and passed beneath

my hammock (being nearest the water) towards the place where

Carlito lay. The dog had raised the alarm in time ; the reptile

backed out and tumbled down the bank to the water, the

sparks from the brands hurled at him flying from his bony hide.

To our great surprise the animal (we supposed it to be the same

individual) repeated his visit the very next night, this time

passing round to the other side of our shed. Cardozo was

awake, and threw a harpoon at him, but without doing him

any harm. After this it was thought necessary to make an

effort to check the alligators ; a number of men were therefore

persuaded to sally forth in their montarias and devote a day to

killing them.

The young men made several hunting excursions during the
fourteen days of our stay on Catua, and I, being associated
with them in all their pleasures, made generally one of the
party. These were, besides, the sole occasions on which I could
add to my collections, whilst on these barren sands. Only two
of these trips afforded incidents worth relating.

The first, which was made to the interior of the wooded
island of Catua, was not a very successful one. We were twelve
in number, all armed with guns and long hunting knives.
Long before sunrise my friends w^oke me up from my hammock,
where I lay, as usual, in the clothes worn during the day ; and
after taking each a cupful of cashaca and ginger (a very
general practice in early morning on the sand-banks), we com-
menced our walk. The waning moon still lingered in the clear
sky, and a profound stillness pervaded sleeping camp, forest,
and stream. Along the line of ranchos glimmered the fires
made by each party to dry turtle-eggs for food, the eggs being
spread on little wooden stages over the smoke. The distance
to the forest from our place of starting was about two miles,
being nearly the whole length of the sand-bank, which was also

3IO EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

a very broad one ; the highest part, where it was covered with
a thicket of dwarf willows, mimosas, and arrow grass, lying near
the ranchos. We loitered much on the way, and the day
dawned whilst we were yet on the road ; the sand at this early
hour feeling quite cold to the naked feet. As soon as we were
able to distinguish things, the surface of the praia was seen to
be dotted with small black objects. These were newly-hatched
Aiyussa turtles, \yhich were making their way in an undeviating
line to the water, at least a mile distant. The young animal
of this species is distinguishable from that of the large turtle
and the Tracaja by the edges of the breast-plate being raised
on each side, so that in crawJing it scores two parallel lines on
the sand. The mouths of these little creatures were full cf
sand, a circumstance arising from their having to bite their
way through many inches of superincumbent sand, to reach the
surface on emerging from the buried eggs. It was amxusing to
observe how constantly they turned again in the direction of
the distant river, after being handled and set down on the sand
with their heads facing the opposite quarter. We saw -also
several skeletons of the large cayman (some with the horny and
bony hide of the animal nearly perfect) embedded in the sand:
they reminded me of the remains of Ichthyosauri fossilized in
beds of lias, with the difference of being buried in fine sand
instead of in blue mud. I marked the place of one which had
a well-preserved skull, and the next day returned to secure it.
The specimen is now in the British Museum collection. There
were also many footmarks of jaguars on the sand.

We entered the forest as the sun peeped over the tree-tops
far away down river. The party soon after divided ; I keeping
with a section which was led by- Bento, the Ega carpenter, a
capital woodsman. After a short walk we struck the banks of
a beautiful little lake^ having grassy margins and clear dark
water, on the surface of which floated thick beds of water-lilies.
We then crossed a muddy creek or watercourse that entered the
lake, and then found ourselves on a restmga, or tongue of land
between two waters. By keeping in sight of one or the other
of these there was no danger of our losing our way ; all other
precautions were therefore unnecessary. The forest was
tolerably clear of undenvood, and consequently easy to walk
through. We had not gone far before a soft, long-drawn whistle
was heard aloft in the trees, betraying the presence of Miitums
(Curassow birds). The crowns of the trees, a hundred feet or
more over our heads, were so closely interwoven that it was

CHAP. XI. A HUNTING PARTY.

3"

difficult to distinguish the birds ; the practised eye of Bento,
however, made them out, and a fine male was shot from the
flock ; the rest flying away and alighting at no great distance ;
the species was the one of which the male has a round red ball
on its beak (Crax globicera). The pursuit of the others led us
a great distance, straight towards the interior of the island, in
which direction we marched for three hours, having the lake
always on our right.

Arriving at length at the head of the lake, Bento struck oft
to the left across the restinga, and we then soon came upon a
treeless space choked up with tall grass, which appeared to be
the dried-up bed of another lake. Our leader was obliged to
climb a tree to ascertain our position, and found that the clear
space was part of the creek, whose mouth we had crossed lower
down. The banks were clothed with low trees, nearly all of
one species, a kind of araca (Psidium), and the ground was
carpeted with a slender delicate grass, now in flower. A great
number of crimson and vermilion coloured butterflies (Cata-
gramma Peristera, male and female) were settled on the smooth
white trunks of these trees. I had also here the great pleasure
of seeing for the first time the rare and curious Umbrella Bird
(Cephalopterus ornatus), a species which resembles in size,
colour, and appearance our common crow, but is decorated with
a crest of long curved hairy feathers having long bare quills,
which, when raised, spread themselves out in the form of a
fringed sun-shade over the head. A strange ornament, like a
pelerine, is also suspended from the neck, formed by a thick
pad of glossy steel-blue feathers, which grow on a long fleshy
lobe or excrescence. This lobe is connected (as I found on
skinning specimens) with an unusual development of the trachea
and vocal organs, to which the bird doubtless owes its singu-
larly deep, loud, and long-sustained fluty note. The Indian
name of this strange creature is Uira-mimbeu, or fife-bird,* in
allusion to the tone of its voice. We had the good luck, after
remaining quiet a short time, to hear its performance. It drew
itself up on its perch, spread widely the umbrella-formed crest,
dilated and waved its glossy breast-lappet, and then, in giving
vent to its loud piping note, bowed its head slowly forwards.
We obtained a pair, male and female : the female has only the
rudiments of the crest and lappet, and is duller coloured alto-

* Mimbeu is the Indian name for a rude kind of pan-pipes used by the
Caishanas and other tribes.

312

EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA.

CHAP. XI.

gether than the male. The range of this bird appears to be
quite confined to the plains of the Upper Amazons (especially
the Ygapo forests), not having been found to the east of the
Rio Negro.

Bento and our other friends being disappointed in finding no
more Curassows, or indeed any other species of game, now
resolved to turn back. On reaching the edge of the forest we

Umbrella Bird.

sat down and ate our dinners under the shade ; each man having
brought a little bag containing a few handfuls of farinha, and
a piece of fried fish or roast turtle. We expected our com-
panions of the other division to join us at mid-day, but after
waiting till past one o'clock without seeing anything of them
(in fact, they had returned to the huts an hour or two prec

CHAP. XL AN UNEXPECTED OBSTACLE. ' 313

viously), we struck off across the praia towards the encampment.
An obstacle here presented itself on which we had not counted.
The sun had shone all day through a cloudless sky untempered
by a breath' of wind, and the sands had become heated by it to
a degree that rendered walking over them with our bare feet
impossible. The most hardened footsoles of the party could
not endure the burning soil. We made several attempts ; we
tried running : wrapped the cool leaves of Heliconiae round our
feet, but in no way could we step forward many yards. There
was no means of getting back to our friends before night,
except going round the praia, a circuit of about four miles, and
walking through the water or on the moist sand. To get to the
water-side from the place where we then stood was not difficult,
as a thick bed of a flowering shrub, called tintarana, an infusion
of the leaves of which is used to dye black, lay on that side of
the sand-bank. Footsore and wearied, burthened with our
guns, and walking for miles through the tepid shallow water
under the brain-scorching vertical sun, we had, as may be
imagined, anything but a pleasant time of it. I did not, how-
ever, feel any inconvenience afterwards. Every one enjoys the
most lusty health whilst living this free and wild life on the
rivers.

The other hunting trip which I have alluded to was under-
taken in company with three friendly young half-castes. Two
of them were brothers, namely, Joao (John) and Zephyrino
Jabuti : Jabuti, or tortoise, being a nickname which their
father had earned for his slow gait, and which, as is usual in
this country, had descended as the surname of the family. The
other was Jose Frazao, a nephew of Senhor Chrysostomo, of
Ega, an active, clever, and manly young fellow, whom I much
esteemed. He was almost a white, his father being a Portuguese
and his mother a Mameluco. We were accompanied by an
Indian named Lino, and a Mulatto boy, whose office was to
carry our game.

Our proposed hunting-ground on this occasion lay across the
water, about fifteen miles distant. We set out in a small mon-
taria, at four o'clock in the morning, again leaving the encamp-
ment asleep, and travelled at a good pace up the northern
channel of the Solimoens, or that lying between the island of
Catua and the left bank of the river. The northern shore of
the island had a broad sandy beach reaching to its western
extremity. We gained our destination a little after daybreak ;

314 ■ EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xt.

this was the banks of the Carapanatiiba,* a channel some 150
yards in width, which, like the Anana already mentioned, com-
]nunicates with the Cupiyo. To reach this we had to cross the
river, here nearly two miles wide. Just as the day dawned we
saw a cayman seize a large fish, a Tambaki, near the surface ;
the reptile seemed to have a difficulty in securing its prey, for
it reared itself above the w^ater, tossing the fish in its jaws, and
making a tremendous commotion. I was much struck also by
the singular appearance presented by certain diving birds
having very long and snaky necks (the Plotus Anhinga).
Occasionally a long serpentine form would suddenly wriggle
itself to a height of a foot and a half above the glassy surface
of the water, producing such a deceptive imitation of a snake
that at first I had some difficulty in beHeving it to be the neck
of a bird ; it did not remain long in view, but soon plunged
again beneath the stream.

We ran ashore in a most lonely and gloomy place, on a low
sand-bank covered with bushes, secured the montaria to a tree,
and then, after making a very sparing breakfast on fried fish
and mandioca meal, rolled up our trousers and plunged into
the thick forest, which here, as everywhere else, rose like a
lofty wall of foliage from the narrow strip of beach. We made
straight for the heart of the land, John Jabuti leading, and
breaking off at every few steps a branch of the lower trees, so
that we might recognise the path on our return. Thd district
was quite new to all my companions, and being on a coast
almost totally uninhabited by human beings for some 300
miles, to lose our way would have been to perish helplessly. I
did not think at the time of the risk we ran of having our
canoe stolen by passing Indians ; unguarded montarias being
never safe even in the ports of the villages, Indians apparently
considering them common property, and stealing them without
any compunction. No misgivings clouded the lightness of
heart with which we trod forwards in warm anticipation of a
good day's sport.

The tract of forest through which we passed was Ygapo, but
the higher parts of the land formed areas which went only a
very few inches under water in the flood season. It consisted
of a most bewildering diversity of grand and beautiful trees,
draped, festooned, corded, matted, and ribboned with chmbing

* Meaning in Tupi, the river of many mosquitoes : from carapana, mos-
quito, and ituba, many.

CHAP. xr. A y A G U A R. 315

plants, woody and succulent, in endless variety. The most
prevalent palm was the tall Astryocaryum Jauari, whose fallen
spines made it necessary to pick our way carefully over the
ground, as we were all barefoot. There was not much green
underwood, except in places where bamboos grew; these
formed impenetrable thickets of plumy foliage and thorny
jointed stems, which always compelled us to make a circuit to
avoid them. The earth elsewhere was encumbered with
rotting fruits, gigantic bean-pods, leaves, limbs, and trunks of
trees ; fixing the impression of its being the cemetery as well
as the birthplace of the great world of vfegetation overhead.
Some of the trees were of prodigious height. We passed many
specimens of the Moratinga, whose cylindrical trunks, I dare
not say how many feet in circumference, towered up and were
lost amidst the crowns of the lower trees, their lower branches,
in some cases, being hidden from our view. Another very
large and remarkable tree was the Assacu (Sapium aucu-
parium). A traveller on the Amazons, mingling with the
people, is sure to hear much of the poisonous qualities of the
juices of this tree. Its bark exudes, when hacked with a knife,
a milky sap, which is not only a fatal poison when taken
internally, but is said to cause incurable sores if simply
sprinkled on the skin. My companions always gave the
Assacu a wide berth when we passed one. The tree looks
ugly enough to merit a bad name, for the bark is of a dingy
olive colour, and is studded with short and sharp venomous-
looking spines.

After walking about half a mile we came upon a dry water-
course, where we observed, first, the old footmarks of a tapir,
and, soon after, on the margin of a curious circular hole full of
muddy water, the fresh tracks of a jaguar. This latter dis-
covery was hardly made when a rush was heard amidst the
bushes on the top of a sloping bank on the opposite side of the
dried creek. We bounded forward ; it was, however, too late,
for the animal had sped in a few minutes far out of our reach.
It was clear we had disturbed, on our approach, the jaguar,
whilst quenching his thirst at the water-hole. A few steps
further on we saw the mangled remains of an alligator (the
Jacaretinga). The head, fore-quarters, and bony shell were
the only parts which remained ; but the meat was quite fresh,
and there were many footmarks of the jaguar around the
carcase ; so that there was no doubt this had formed the solid
part of the animal's breakfast. My companions now began to

3i6 EXCURSION^ AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

search for the alligator's nest, the presence of the reptile so far
from the river being accountable for on no other ground than
its maternal solicitude for its eggs. We found, in fact, the
nest at the distance of a few yards from the place. It was a
conical pile of dead leaves, in the middle of which twenty eggs
were buried. These were of elliptical shape, considerably
larger than those of a duck, and having a hard shell of the
texture of porcelain, but very rough on the outside. They
make a loud sound when rubbed together, and it is said that it
is easy to find a mother alligator in the Ygapo forests by rub-
bing together two eggs in this way, she being never far off, and
attracted by the sounds.

I put half a dozen of the alligator's eggs in my game-bag for
specimens, and we then continued on our way. Lino, who was
now first, presently made a start backwards, calling out " Jara-
raca ! " This is the name of a poisonous snake (genus Craspe-
docephalus), which is far more dreaded by the natives than
jaguar or alligator. The individual seen by Lino lay coiled
up at the foot of a tree, and was scarcely distinguishable, on
account of the colours of its body being assimilated to those ot
the fallen leaves. Its hideous flat triangular head, connected
with the body by a thin neck, was reared and turned towards
us : Frazao killed it with a charge of shot, shattering it com-
pletely, and destroying, to my regret, its value as a specimen.
In conversing on the subject of Jararacas as we walked
onwards, every one of the party was ready to swear that this
snake attacks man without provocation, leaping towards him
from a considerable distance when he approaches. I met, in
the course of m^y daily rambles in the woods, many Jararacas,
and once or twice very narrowly escaped treading on them, but
never saw them attempt to spring. On some subjects the
testimony of the natives of a wild country is utterly worthless.
The bite of the Jararacas is generally fatal. I knew of four or
five instances of death from it, and only of one clear case of
recovery after being bitten ; but in that case the person was
lamed for life.

We walked over moderately elevated and dry ground for
about a mile, and then descended (three or four feet only) to
the dry bed of another creek. This was pierced in the same
way as the former watercourse, with round holes full of muddy
water. They occurred at intervals of a few yards, and had the
appearance of having been made by the hand of man. The
smallest were about two feet, the largest seven or eight feet

CHAP. XI. ELECTRIC EELS. 317

in diameter. As we approached the most extensive oi'' the
larger ones, I was startled at seeing a number of large serpent-
like heads bobbing above the surface. They proved to be
those of electric eels, and it now occurred to me that the
round holes were made by these animals working constantly
round and round in the moist muddy soil. Their depth (some
of them were at least eight feet deep) was doubtless due also to
the movements of the eels in the soft soil, and accounted for
their not drying up, in the fine season, with the rest of the
creek. Thus, whilst alligators and turtles in this great inun-
dated forest region retire to the larger pools during the dry
season, the electric eels make for themselves little ponds in
which to pass the season of drought.

My companions now cut each a stout pole, and proceeded to
eject the eels in order to get at the other fishes, with which
they had discovered the ponds to abound. I amused them all
very much by showing how the electric shock from the eels
could pass from one person to another. We joined hands in a
line whilst I touched the biggest and freshest of the animals
on the head with the point of my hunting-knife. We found
that this experiment did not succeed more than three times
with the same eel when out of the water ; for the fourth time
the shock was scarcely perceptible. All the fishes found in the
holes (besides the eels) belonged to one species, a small kind
of Acari, or Loricaria, a group whose members have a complete
bony integument. Lino and the boy strung them together
through the gills with slender sipos, and hung them on the
trees to await our return later in the day.

Leaving the bed of the creek, we marched onwards, always
towards the centre of the land ; guided by the sun, w^hich now
glimmered through the thick foliage overhead. About eleven
o'clock we saw a break in the forest before us, and presently
emerged on the banks of a rather large sheet of water. This
was one of the interior pools of which there are so many in
this district. The margins were elevated some few feet, and
sloped down to the water, the ground being hard and dry to
the water's edge, and covered with shrubby vegetation. We
passed completely round this pool, finding the crowns of the
trees on its borders tenanted by curassow birds, whose presence
was betrayed as usual by the peculiar note which they emit.
My companions shot two of them. At the further end of the
lake lay a deep watercourse, which we traced for about half a
mile, and found to communicate with another and smaller

3i8 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

pool. This second one evidently swarmed with turtles, as we
saw the snouts of many peering above the surface of the water :
the same had not been seen in the larger lake, probably because
we had made too much noise in hailing our discovery, on
approaching its banks. My friends made an arrangement on
the spot for returning to this pool, after the termination of the
iigg harvest on Catua.

In recrossing the space between the two pools we heard the
crash of monkeys in the crowns of trees overhead. The chase
of these occupied us a considerable time. Jose fired at length
at one of the laggards of the troop, and wounded him. He
climbed pretty nimbly towards a denser part of the tree, and
a second and a third discharge failed to bring him down. The
poor maimed creature then trailed his limbs to one of the top-
most branches, where we descried him soon after, seated and
picking the entrails from a wound in his abdomen ; a most
heartrending sight. The height from the ground to the
bough on which he was perched could not have been less than
150 feet, and we could get a glimpse of him only by standing
directly underneath, and straining our eyes upwards. We
killed him at last by loading our best gun with a careful
chaige, and resting the barrel against the tree trunk to steady
the aim. A few shots entered his chin, and he then fell heels
over head screaming to the ground. Although it was I who
gave the final shot, this animal did not fall to my lot in
dividing the spoils at the end of the day. I regret now not
having preserved the skin, as it belonged to a very large species
of Cebus, and one which I never met with afterwards.

It was about one o'clock in the afternoon when we again
reached the spot where we had first struck the banks of the
larger pool. We had hitherto had but poor sport, so after
dinmg on the remains of our fried fish and farinha, and
smoking our cigarettes^ the apparatus for making which,
includmg bamboo tinder-box and steel and flint for striking
a light, being carried by every one always on these expeditions,
we made off in another (westerly) direction through the forest
to try to find better hunting-ground. We quenched our thirst
with water from the pool, which I was rather surprised to find
quite pure. These pools are, of course, sometimes fouled for a
time by the movements of alligators and other tenants in the
fine mud which setdes at the bottom, but I never observed a
scum of confervse or traces of oil revealing animal decomposi-
tion on the surface of these waters, nor was there ever any foul

CHAP. XI. INDIAN KINDNESS. 319

smell perceptible. The whole of this level land, instead of
being covered with unwholesome swamps emitting malaria,
forms in the dry season (and in the wet also) a most healthy
country. How elaborate must be the natural processes of self-
purification in these teeming waters !

On our fresh route we were obliged to cut our way through
a long belt of bamboo underwood, and not being so careful of
my steps as my companions, I trod rej^eatedly on the flinty
thorns which had fallen from the bushes, finishing by becoming
completely lame, one thorn having entered deeply the sole
of my foot. I was obliged to be left behind ; Lino, the Indian,
remaining with me. The careful fellow cleaned my wounds
with his saliva, placed pieces of isca (the felt-like substance
manufactured by ants) on them to staunch the blood, and
bound my feet with tough bast to serve as shoes, which he
cut from the bark of a Mongiiba tree. He went about his work
in a very gentle way and with much skill, but was so sparing of
speech that I could scarcely get answers to the questions I put
to him. When he had done, I was able to limp about pretty
nimbly. An Indian, when he performs a service of this kind,
never thinks of a reward. I did not find so much disinterested-
ness in negro slaves or half-castes. We had to wait two hours
for the return of our companions ; during part of this time I
was left quite alone. Lino having started off into the jungle
after a peccary (a kind of w^ild hog) which had come near t6
where we sat, but on seeing us had given a grunt and bounded
off into the thickets. At length our friends hove in sight,
loaded with game, having shot twelve curassows and two
cujubims (Penelope Pipile), a handsome black fowl with a
white head, which is arboreal in its habits, like the rest of this
group of gallinaceous birds inhabiting the South American
forests. Tney had discovered a third pool containing plenty of
turtles. Lino rejoined us at the same time, having missed the
peccary, but in compensation shot a quandu, or porcupine.
The mulatto boy had caught alive in the pool a most charming
little water-fowl, a species of grebe. It was somewhat smaller
than a pigeon, and had a pointed beak ; its feet were furnished
with many intricate folds or frills of skin instead of webs, and
resembled very much those of the gecko lizards. The bird was
kept as a pet in Jabuti's house at Ega for a long time afterwards,
where it became accustomed to swim about in a common hand-
basin full of water, and was a great favourite with everybody.

We now retraced our steps towards the water-side, a weary

320 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

walk of five or six miles, reaching our canoe by half-past
five o'clock, or a little before sunset. It was considered by
every one at Catua that we had had an unusually good day's
sport. I never knew any small party to take so much game in
one day in these forests, over which animals are everywhere so
widely and sparingly scattered. My companions were greatly
elated, and on approaching the encampment at Catua made a
great comm.otion with their paddles to announce their suc-
cessful return, singing in their loudest key one of the wild
choruses of the Amazonian boatmen.

The excavation of eggs and preparation of the oil being
finished, we left Catua on the 3rd of November. Carepira, who
was now attached to Cardozo's party, had discovered another
lake rich in turtles, about twelve miles distant, in one of his
fishing rambles, and my friend resolved, before returning to
Ega, to go there with his nets and drag it as we had formerly
done the Aningal. Several mameluco families of Ega begged
to accompany us to share the labours and booty ; the Shumana
family also joined the party; we therefore formed a large body,
numbering in all eight canoes and fifty persons.

The summer sea.son was now breaking up : the river was
rising; the sky w^as almost constantly clouded, and we had
frequent rains. The mosquitoes also, which we had not felt
whilst encamped on the sand-banks, now became troublesome.
We paddled up the north-westerly channel, and arrived at a
point near the upper end of Catua at ten o'clock p.m. There
was here a very broad beach of untrodden white sand, which
extended quite into the forest, where it formed rounded hills
and hollows like sand dunes, covered with a peculiar vegeta-
tion : harsh, reedy grasses, and low trees matted together with
lianas, and varied with dwarf spiny palms of the genus Bactris.
We encamped for the night on the sands, findmg the place luckily
free from mosquitoes. The different portions of the party made
arched coverings with the toldos or maranta-leaf awnings of their
canoes to sleep under, fixing the edges in the sand. No one, how-
ever, seemed inclined to go to sleep, so after supper we all sat or
lay around the large fires and amused ourselves. We had the
fiddler with us, and in the intervals between the wretched tunes
which he played, the usual amusement of story-telling beguiled
the time : tales of hair-breadth escapes from jaguar, alligator,
and so forth. There were amongst us a father and son who had
been the actors, the previous year, in an alligator adventure on

CHAP. XI. A MISERABLE NIGHT. 321

the edge of the praia we had just left. The son, whilst bathing,
was seized, by the thigh and carried under water ; a cry was
raised, and the father, rushing down the bank, plunged after
the rapacious beast, which was diving away with his victim.
It seems almost incredible that a man could overtake and
master the large cayman in his own element; but such was the
case in this instance, for the animal was reached and forced to
release his booty by the man's thrusting his thumb into his eye.
The lad showed us the marks of the alligator's teeth on his
thigh. We sat up until past midnight listening to these
stories and assisting the flow of talk by frequent potations of
burnt rum. A large shallow dish was filled with the liquor and
fired ; when it had burnt for a few minutes, the flame was
extinguished and each one helped himself by dipping a tea-cup
into the vessel.

One by one the people dropped asleep, and then the quiet
murmur of talk of the few who remained awake was interrupted
by the roar of jaguars in the jungle about a furlong distant.
There was not one only, but several of the animals. The older
men showed considerable alarm, and proceeded to light fresh
fires around the outside of our encampment. I had read in
books of travels of tigers coming to warm themselves by the
fires of a bivouac, and thought my strong wish to witness the
same sight would have been gratified to-night. I had not,
however, such good fortune, although I was the last to go to
sleep, and my bed was the bare sand under a little arched
covering open at both ends. The jaguars nevertheless must
have come very near during the night, for their fresh footmarks
were numerous within a score yards of the place where we
slept. . In the morning I had a ramble along the borders of the
'jungle, and found the tracks very numerous and close together
on the sandy soil.

We remained in this neighbourhood four days, and succeeded
in obtaining many hundred turtles, but we were obliged to
sleep two nights within the Carapanatuba channel. The first
night passed rather pleasantly, for the weather was fine, and we
encamped in the forest, making large fires and slinging our
hammocks between the trees. The second was one of the most
miserable nights I ever spent. The air was close, and a drizzling
rain began to fall about midnight, lasting until morning. We
tried at first to brave it out under the trees. Several very
large fires were made, lighting up with ruddy gleams the mag-
nificent foliage in the black shades around our encampment.

21

322 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xi.

The heat and smoke had the desired effect of keeping off pretty-
well the mosquitoes, but the rain continued until at length
everything was soaked, and we had no help for it but to bundle
off to the canoes with drenched hammocks and garments.
There was not nearly room enough in the flotilla to accommo-
date so large a number of persons lying at full length ; more-
over the night was pitch dark, and it was quite impossible in
the gloom and confusion to get at a change of clothing. So
there we lay, huddled together in the best way we could arrange
ourselves, exhausted with fatigue and irritated beyond all concep-
tion by clouds of mosquitoes. I slept on a bench with a sail
over me, my wet clothes clinging to my body, and to increase
my discomfort, close beside me lay an Indian girl, one of Car-
dozo's domestics, who had a skin disfigured with black diseased
patches, and whose thick clothing, not having been washed
during the whole time we had been out (eighteen days), gave
forth a most vile effluvium.

We spent the night of the yth of November pleasantly on
the smooth sands, where the jaguars again serenaded us, and
on the succeeding morning we commenced our return voyage
to Ega. We first doubled the upper end of the island of
Catua, and then struck off for the right bank of the Soli-
moens. The river was here of immense width, and the
current was so strong in the middle that it required the most
strenuous exertions on the part of our paddlers to prevent us
from being carried miles away down the stream. At night we,
reached the Juteca, a small river which enters the Solimoens
by a channel so narrow that a man might almost jump across
it, but a furlong inwards expands into a very pretty lake
several miles in circumference. We slept again in the forest,
and again were annoyed by rain and mosquitoes ; but this time
Cardozo and I preferred remaining where we were to mingling
with the reeking crowd in the boats. When the grey dawai
arose, a steady rain was still falling, and the whole sky had a
settled leaden appearance, but it was delightfully cool. We
took our net into the lake and gleaned a good supply of
delicious fish for breakfast. I saw at the upper end ot this lake
the native rice of this country growing wild.

The weather cleared up at lo o'clock a.m. At 3 p.m. we
arrived at the mouth of the Cayambe, another tributary stream
much larger than the Juteca. The channel of exit to the
Solimoens was here also very narrow, but the expanded river
inside is of vast dimensions ; it forms a lake (I may safely

CHAP. XI. END OF OUR SUMMER TRIP, 323

venture to say) several score miles in circumference. Although
prepared for these surprises, I was quite taken aback in this
case. We had been paddling all day along a monotonous
shore, with the dreary Solimoens before us, here three to four
miles broad, heavily rolling onward its muddy watery. We
^ come to a little gap in the earthy banks, and find a dark, narrow
inlet with a wall of forest overshadowing it on each side ; we
enter it and at a distance of two or three hundred yards
a glorious sheet of water bursts upon the view. The
scenery of Cayambe is very picturesque. The land, on
the two sides visible of the lake, is high and clothed with
sombre woods, varied here and there with a white-washed
house in the middle of a green patch of clearing, belonging to
settlers. In striking contrast to these dark rolling forests is
the vivid light-green and cheerful foHage of the woods on the
numerous islets which rest like water-gardens on the surface of
the lake. Flocks of ducks, storks, and snow-white herons
inhabit these islets, and a noise of parrots with the tingling
chorus of Tamburi-paras was heard from them as we passed.
This had a cheering effect, after the depressing stillness and
absence of life in the woods on the margins of the main river.

Cardozo and I took a small boat and crossed the lake to visit
one of the settlers, and on our return to our canoe, whilst in
•the middle of the lake, a squall suddenly arose, in the
direction towards which we were going, so that for a whole
hour we were in great danger of being swamped. The wind
blew away the awning and mats, and lashed the waters into
foam, the waves rising to a great height. Our boat, fortunately,
was excellently constructed, rising well towards the prow, so
that with good steering we managed to head the billows as
they arose, and escaped without shipping much water. We
reached our igarite at sunset, and then made all speed to
Curubarii, fifteen miles distant, to encamp for the night on .
the sands. We reached the praia at ten o'clock. The waters
were now mounting fast upon the sloping beach, and we found
on dragging the net next morning that fish were beginning to
be scarce. Cardozo and his friends talked quite gloomily at
breakfast time over the departure of the joyous verao^ and the
setting in of the dull, hungry winter season.

At nine o'clock in the morning of the loth of November a
light wind from down river sprang up, and all who had sails
hoisted them. It was the first time during our trip that we
had had occasion to use our sails; so continual is the calm

324 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. chap. xr.

on this upper river. We bowled along merrily, and soon
entered the broad channel lying between Baria and the main-
land on the south bank. The wind carried us right into the
mouth of the Teffe, and at four o'clock p.m. we cast anchor in
the port of Ega.

CHAPTER XII.

ANIMALS OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA.

Scarlet-faced Monkeys — Parauacu Monkey — Owl-faced Night Apes — Mar-
mosets— ^Jupura — Bats — Birds — Cuvier's Toucan — Curl-crested Toucan
—Insects — Pendulous Cocoons — Foraging Ants — Blind Ants.

As may have been gathered from the remarks already made,
the neighbourhood of Ega was a fine field for a Natural
History collector. With the exception of what could be learnt
from the few specimens brought home, after transient visits,
by Spix and Martins and the Count de Castelnau, whose
acquisitions have been deposited in the public museums of
Munich and Paris, very little was known in Europe of the
animal tenants of this region ; the collections that I had the
opportunity of making and sending home attracted, therefore,
considerable attention. Indeed, the name of my favourite
village has become quite a household word amongst a
numerous class of Naturalists, not only in England, but abroad,
in consequence of the very large number of new species
(upwards of 3,000) which they have had to describe, with the
locality " Ega " attached to them. The discovery of new
species, however, forms but a small item in the interest belong-
ing to the study of the living creation. The structure, habits,
instincts, and geographical distribution of some of the oldest-
known forms supply inexhaustible materials for reflection. The
few remarks I have to make on the animals of Ega will relate^
to the mammals, birds, and insects, and will sometimes apply
to the productions of the whole Upper Amazons region. We
will begin with the monkeys, the most interesting, next to
man, of all animals.

Scarlet-faced Monkeys. — Early one sunny morning, in the
year 1855, I saw in the streets of Ega a number of Indians,
carrying on their shoulders down to the port, to be embarked

326 ANIMALS OF EGA. chap. xii.

on the Upper Amazons steamer, a large cage made of strong
lianas, some twelve feet in length and five in height, containing
a dozen monkeys of the most grotesque appearance. Their
bodies (about eighteen inches in height, exclusive of limbs)
were clothed from neck to tail ^vith very long, straight, and
shining whitish hair; their heads were nearly bald, owing to
the very short crop of thin grey hairs, and their faces glowed
with the most vivid scarlet hue. As a finish to their strikiiig
physiognomy, they had bushy whiskers of a sandy colour, meet-
ing under the chin, and reddish-yellow eyes. These red-faced
apes belonged to a species called by the Indians Uakari, which
is peculiar to the Ega district, and the cage with its contents
was being sent as a present by Senhor Chrysostomo, the
Director of Indians of the Japura, to one of the Government
officials at Rio Janeiro, in acknowledgment of having been
made colonel of the new national guard. They had been
obtained with great difficulty in the forests which cover the
lowlands, near the principal mouth of the Japura, about thirty
miles from Ega. It was the first time I had seen this most
curious of all the South American monkeys,' and one that
appears to have escaped the notice of Spix and Martins. I
afterwards made a journey to the dsitrict inhabited by it, but
did not then succeed in obtaining specimens ; before leaving
the country, however, I acquired two individuals, one of which
lived in my house for several weeks.

The scarlet-faced monkey belongs, in all essential points of
structure, to the same family (Cebidse) as the rest of the large-
sized American species ; but it diff"ers from all its relatives in
having only the rudiment of a tail, a member which reaches
in some allied kinds the highest grade of development known
in the order. It was so unusual to see a nearly tailless monkey
from America, that naturalists thought, when the first speci-
mens arrived in Europe, that the member had been shortened
artificially. Nevertheless, the Uakari is not quite isolated
from its related species of the same family, several other kinds,
also found on the Amazons, forming a graduated passage
between the extreme forms as regards the tail. The appen-
dage reaches its perfection in those genera (the Howlers, the
Lagothrix, and the Spider Monkeys) in which it_ presents on
its under surface near the tip a naked palm, which makes it
sensitive and useful as a fifth hand in climbing. In the rest
of the genera of Cebidse (seven in number, containing thirty-
eight species), the tail is weaker in stmcture, entirely covered

SCARLET-FACED AND PARAUACU MONKEYS.

CHAP. XII. THE WHITE UAKARI. 3.-9

with hair, and of Httle or no service in climbing, a few species
nearly related to our Uakari having it much shorter than usual.
All the Cebidse, both long-tailed and short-tailed, are equally
dwellers in trees. The scarlet-faced monkey lives in forests
which are inundated during great part of the year, and is never
known to descend to the ground ; the shortness of its tail is
therefore no sign of terrestrial habits, as it is in the Macaques
and Baboons of the Old World. It differs a little from the
typical Cebidae in its teeth, the incisors being oblique and in
the upper jaw converging, so as to leave a gap between the
outermost and the canine teeth. Like all the rest of its family,
it differs from the monkeys of the Old World, and from man,
in having an additional grinding-tooth (premolar) on each side
of both jaws, making the complete set thirty-six instead of
thirty-two in number.

The white Uakari (Brachyurus calvus), seems to be found in
no other part of America than the district just mentioned,
namely, the banks of the Japura, near its principal mouth ; and
even there it is confined, as far as I could learn, to the western
side of the river. It lives in small troops amongst the crowns
of the lofty trees, subsisting on fruits of various kinds. Hunters
say it is pretty nimble in its motions, but is not much given to
leaping, preferring to run up and down the larger boughs in
travelling from tree to tree. The mother, as in other species
of the monkey order, carries her young on her back. Indivi-
duals are obtained alive by shooting them with the blow-pipe
and arrows tipped with diluted Urari poison. They run a con-
siderabh distance after being pierced,, and it requires an
experienced hunter to track them. He is considered the most
expert who can keep pace with a wounded one and catch it in
his arms when it falls exhausted. A j^inch of salt, the antidote
to the poison, is then put in its mouth, and the creature
revives. The species is rare, even in tlie limited district which
it inhabits. Senhor Chrysostomo sent six of his most skilful
Indians, who were absent three weeks before they obtained the
twelve specimens which formed his unique and princely gift.
When an independent hunter obtains one, a very high price
(thirty to forty milreis*) is asked, these monkeys being in
great demand for presents to persons of influence down the
river.

Adult Uakaris, caught in the way just described, very rarely

* Three pounds seven shillings to four pounds thirteen shillings.

330 ANIMALS OF EGA. chap. xii.

become tame. They are peevish and sulky, resisting all
attempts to coax them, and biting any one who ventures within
reach. They have no particular cry, even when in their native
woods ; in captivity they are quite silent. In the course of a
few days or weeks, if not very carefully attended to, they fall
into a listless condition, refuse food and die. Many of them
succumb to a disease which I suppose from the symptoms to be
inflammation of the chest or lungs. The one which I kept as
a pet died of this disorder, after I had had it about three
weeks. It lost its appetite in a very few days, although kept
in an airy verandah ; its coat, which was originally long,
smooth, and glossy, became dingy and ragged like that of the
specimens seen in museums, and the bright scarlet colour of its
face changed to a duller hue. This colour, in health, is spread
over the features up to the roots of the hair on the forehead
and temples, and down to the neck, including the flabby cheeks
which hang down below the jaws. The animal in this condi-
tion looks at a short distance as though some one had laid
a thick coat of red paint on its countenance. The death of my
pet was slow; during the last twenty-four hours it lay prostrate,
breathing quickly, its chest strongly heaving ; the colour of its
face became gradually paler, but was still red when it expired.
As the hue did not quite disappear until two or three hours
after the animal was quite dead, I judged that it w^s not exclu-
sively due to the blood, but partly to a pigment beneath the
skin, which would probably retain its colour a short time after
the circulation had ceased.

After seeing much of the morose disposition of the Uakari, I
was not a little surprised one day at a friend's house to find an
extremely lively and familiar individual of this species. It ran
from an inner chamber straight towards me, after I had sat
down on a chair, climbed my legs and nestled in my lap, turn-
ing round and looking up with the usual monkey's grin, after
it had made itself comfortable. It was a young animal which
had been taken when its mother was shot with a poisoned
arrow ; its teeth were incomplete, and the face was pale and
mottled, the glowing scarlet hue not supervening in these
animals before mature age \ it had also a few long black hairs
on the eyebrows and lips. The frisky little fellow had been
reared in the house amongst the children, and allowed to run
about freely, and take its meals with the rest of the household.
There are few animals which the Brazilians of these villages
have not succeeded in taming. I have even seen young jaguars

CHAP. XII. THE PARAUACU. 33I

running loose about a house, and treated as pets. The animals
that I had, rarely became familiar, however long they might
remain in my possession, a circumstance due no doubt to their
being kept always tied up.

The Uakari is one of the many species of animals which are
classified by the Brazilians as " mortal," or of delicate constitu-
tion, in contradistinction to those which are " duro," or hardy.
A large proportion of the specimens sent from Ega die before
arriving at Para, and scarcely one in a dozen succeeds in reach-
ing Rio Janeiro alive. The difficulty it has of accommodating
itself to changed conditions probably has some connection with
the very limited range, or confined sphere of life, of the species
in its natural state, its native home being an area of swampy
woods, not more than about sixty square miles in extent,
although no permanent barrier exists to check its dispersal,
except towards the south, over a much wider space. AVhen I
descended the river in 1859, we had with us a tame adult
Uakari, which was allowed to ramble about the vessel, a large
schooner. When we reached the mouth of the Rio Negro, we
had to wait four days whilst the custom-house officials at Barra,
ten miles distant, made out the passports for our crew, and
during this time the schooner lay close to the shore, with its
bowsprit secured to the trees on the bank. Well, one morning,
scarlet-face was missing, having made his escape into the
forest. Two men were sent in search of him, but returned
after several hours' absence without having caught sight of the
runaway. We gave up the monkey for lost, until the following
day, when he re-api^eared on the skirts of the forest, and
marched quietly down the bowsprit to his usual place on deck.
He had evidently found the forests of the Rio Negro very
different from those of the delta lands of the Japura, and
preferred captivity to freedom in a place that was so uncon-
genial to him.

'The Paraiiacu Monkey. — Another Ega monkey, nearly re-
lated to the Uakaris, is the Parauacii (Pithecia hirsuta), a
timid inoffensive creature, with a long bear-like coat of harsh
speckled-grey hair. The long fur hangs over the head, half
concealing the pleasing diminutive face, and clothes also the
tail to the tip, which member is well developed, being eighteen
inches in length, or longer than the body. The Parauacii is
found on the " terra firma " lands of the north shore of the
Solimoens, from Tunantins to Peru. It exists also on the
south side of the river, namely, on the banks of the Teffe', but

332 ANIMALS OF EGA. chap. xii.

there under a changed form, which differs a Httle from its type
in colours. This form has been described by Dr. Gray as a
distinct species, under the name of Pithecia albicans. The
Parauacu is also a very delicate animal, rarely living many
weeks in captivity ; but any one who succeeds in keeping it
alive for a month or two, gains by it a most affectionate pet.
One of the specimens of Pithecia albicans now in the British
Museum was when living the property of a young Frenchman,
a neighbour of mine at Ega. It became so tame in the course
of a few weeks, that it followed him about the streets like a
dog. My friend was a tailor, and the little pet used to spend
the greater part of the day seated on his shoulder, whilst he
was at work on his board. It showed, nevertheless, great dis-
like to strangers, and was not on good terms with any other
member of my friend's household than himself. I saw no
monkey that showed so strong a personal attachment as this
gentle, timid, silent little creature. The eager and passionate
Cebi seem to take the lead of all the South American monkeys
in intelligence and docility, and the Coaitd has perhaps the
most gentle and impressible disposition ; but the Parauacu,
although a dull, cheerless animal, excels all in this quality of
capability of attachment to individuals of our own species. It
is not wanting, however, in intelligence as well as moral good-
ness, proof of which was furnished one day by an act of our
little pet. My neighbour had quitted his house in the morning
without taking Parauacu with him, and the little creature
having missed its friend, and concluded, as it seemed, that
he would be sure to come to me, both being in the habit
of paying me a daily visit together, came straight to my
dwelhng, taking a short cut over gardens, trees, and thickets,
instead of going the roundabout way of the street. It had
never done this before, and we knew the route it had taken
only from a neighbour having watched its movements. On
arriving at my house and not finding its master, it climbed to
the top of my table, and sat with an air of quiet resigna-
tion, waiting for him. Shortly afterwards, my friend entered,
and the gladdened pet then jumped to its usual perch on his
shoulder.

Owl-faced Night Apes. — A third interesting genus of monkeys,
found near Ega, are the Nyctipitheci, or night Apes, called
Ei-a by the Indians. Of these I found two species, closely
related to each other, but nevertheless quite distinct, as both
inhabit the same forests, namely, those of the higher and

CHAP. XII. A TAME MONKEY. 333

drier lands, without mingling with each other or intercrossing.
They sleep all day long in hollow trees, and come forth to prey
on insects and eat fruits only in the night. They are of small
size, the body being about a foot long, and the tail fourteen
inches, and are thickly clothed with soft grey and brown fur,
similar in substance to that of the rabbit. Their physiognomy
reminds one of the owl, or tiger-cat ; the face is round and
encircled by a ruff of whitish fur; the muzzle is not at all
prominent ; the mouth and chin are small ; the ears are very
short, scarcely appearing above the hair of the head ; and the
eyes are large and yellowish in colour, imparting the staring
expression of nocturnal animals of prey. The forehead is
whitish, and decorated with three black stripes, which in one
of the species (Nyctipithecus trivirgatus) continue to the
crown, and in the other (N. felinus) meet on the top of the
forehead. N. trivirgatus was first described by Humboldt,
who discovered it on the banks of the Cassiquiare, near the
head waters of the Rio Negro.

I kept a pet animal of the N. trivirgatus for many months, a
young one having been given to me by an Indian compadre, as
a present from my newly-baptized godson. These monkeys,
although sleeping by day, are aroused by the least noise ; so
that when a person passes by a tree in which a number of
them are concealed, he is startled by the sudden apparition of
a group of little striped faces crowding a hole in the trunk. It
was in this way that my compadre discovered the colony from
which the one given to me was taken. I was obliged to keep
my pet chained up; it therefore never became thoroughly
familiar. I once saw, however, an individual of the other
species (N. felinus) which was most amusingly tame. It was as
lively and nimble as the Cebi, but not so mischievous and far
more confiding in its disposition, delighting to be caressed by
all persons who came into the house. But its owner, the
Municipal Judge of Ega, Dr. Carlos Mariana, had treated it
for many weeks with the greatest kindness, allowing it to sleep
with him at night in his hammock, and to nestle in his bosom
half the day as he lay reading. It was a great favourite with
every one, from the cleanliness of its habits and the prettiness
of its features and ways. My own pet was kept in a box, in
which was placed a broad-mouthed glass jar; into this it
would dive, head -foremost, when any one entered the room,
turning round inside, and thrusting forth its inquisitive face
an instant afterwards to stare at the intruder. It was very

334 ANIMALS OF EGA. chap, xir.

active at night, venting at frequent intervals a hoarse cry, like
the suppressed barking of a dog, and scampering about the
room, to the length of its tether, after cockroaches and spiders.
In climbing between the box and the wall, it straddled the
space, jresting its hands on the palms and tips of the out-
stretched fingers, with the knuckles bent at an acute angle, and
thus mounted to the top with the greatest facility. Although
seeming to prefer insects, it ate all kinds of fruit, but would
not touch raw or cooked meat, and was very seldom thirsty.
I was told by persons who had kept these monkeys loose
about the house, that they cleared the chambers of bats as well
as insect vermin. When approached gently, my Ei-a allowed
itself to be caressed ; but when handled roughly, it always
took alarm, biting severely, striking out its little hands, and
making a hissing noise like a cat. As already related, my pet
was killed by a jealous Caiarara monkey, which was kept in
the house at the same time.

Barrigiido Mo7ikeys. — Ten other species of monkeys were
found, in addition to those already mentioned, in • the forests
of the Upper Amazons. All were strictly arboreal and diurnal
in their habits, and lived in flocks, travelling from tree to tree,
the mothers with their children on their backs ', leading, in
fact, a life similar to that of the Pararauate Indians, and, like
them, occasionally plundering the plantations which lie near
their line of march. Some of them were found also on the
Lower Amazons, and have been noticed in former chapters of
this narrative. Of the remainder, the most remarkable is the
Macaco barrigudo, or big-bellied monkey of the Portuguese
colonists, a species of Lagothrix. The genus is closely allied
to the Coaitas, or spider monkeys, having, like them, exceed-
ingly strong and flexible tails, which are furnished underneath
with a naked palm like a hand for grasping. The Barrigudos,
however, are very bulky animals, whilst the spider monkeys are
remarkable for the slenderness of their bodies and limbs. I
obtained specimens of what have been considered two species,
one (L. olivaceus of Spix?) having the head clothed with
gray, the other (L. Humboldtii) with black fur. They both
live together in the same places, and are probably only
differently coloured individuals of one and the same species.
I sent home a very large male of one of these kinds, which
measured twenty-seven inches in length of trunk, the tail
being twenty-six inches long ; it was the largest monkey I saw
in America, with the exception of a black Howler, whose body

CHAP. XII. MARMOSETS. 335

was twenty-eight inches in height. The skin of the face in
the Barrigudo is black and wrinkled, the forehead is low, with
the eyebrows projecting, and, in short, the features altogether
resemble in a striking manner those of an old negro. In the
forests the Barrigudo is not a very active animal ; it lives
exclusively on fruits, and is much persecuted by the Indians, on
account of the excellence of its flesh as food. From inform.a-
tion given me by a collector of birds and mammals, whom I
employed, and who resided a long time amongst the Tucuna
Indians, near Tabatinga, I calculated' that one horde of this
tribe, 200 in number, destroyed 1,200 of these monkeys
annually for food. The species is very numerous in the forests
of the higher lands, but, owing to long persecution, it is now
seldom seen in the neighbourhood of the larger villages. It
is not found at all on the Lower Amazons. Its manners in
captivity are grave, and its temper mild and confiding, like
that of the Coaitas. Owing to these traits the Barrigudo is
much sought after for pets; but it is not hardy like the
Coaitas, and seldom survives a passage down the river to
Para.

Marmosets. — It now only remains to notice the Marmosets,
which form the second family of American monkeys. Our old
friend Midas ursulus, of. Para and the Lower Amazons, is not
found on. the upper river, but in its stead a closely allied
species presents itself, which appears to be the Midas rufoniger
of Gervais, whose mouth is bordered with longish white hairs.
The habits of this species are the same as those of the M.
ursulus, indeed it seems probable that it is a form or race of
the same stock, modified to suit the altered local conditions
under which it lives. One day, whilst walking along a forest
pathway, I saw one of these lively little fellows miss his grasp
as he was passing from one tree to another along with his
troop. He fell head-foremost from a height of at least fifty
feet, but managed cleverly to alight on his legs in the pathway ;
quickly turning round, he gave me a good stare for a few
moments, and then bounded off gaily to climb another tree.
At Tunantins I shot a pair of very handsome species of mar-
moset, the M. rufiventer, I believe, of zoologists. Its coat was
very glossy and smooth, the back deep brown, and the under-
side of the body of rich black and reddish hues. A third
species (found at Tabatinga, 200 miles further west) is of a
deep black colour, with the exception of a patch of white hair
around its mouth. The little animal at a short distance looks

336 A NIMA LS 01' EGA. chap. xii.

as though it held a ball of snow-white cotton in its teeth.
The last I shall mention is the Hapale pygmaeus, one of the
most diminutive forms of the monkey order, three full-grown
specimens of which, measuring only seven inches in length of
body, I obtained near St. Paulo. The pretty Lilliputian face
is furnished with long brown whiskers, which are naturally
brushed back over the ears. The general colour of the animal
is brownish-tawny, but the tail is elegantly barred with black,
I was surprised on my return to England to learn, from
specimens in the British Museum, that the pigmy marmoset
was found also in Mexico, no other Amazonian monkey being
known to wander far from the great river plain. Thus the
smallest and apparently the feeblest species of the whole order
is one which has by some means become the^ most widely
dispersed.

The yupurd. — A curious animal, known to naturalists as the
Kinkajou, but called Jupura by the Indians of the Amazons,
and considered by them as a kind of monkey, may be men-
tioned in this place. It is the Cercoleptes caudivolvus of
zoologists, and has been considered by some authors as an
intermediate form between the Lemur family of apes and the
plantigrade Carnivora, or bear family. It has decidedly no
close relationship to either of the groups of American monkeys,
having six cutting teeth to each jaw, and long claws instead of
nails, with extremities of the usual shape of paws instead of
hands. Its muzzle is copical and pointed, like that of many
lemurs of Madagascar ; the expression of its countenance, and
its habits and actions, are also very similar to those of lemurs.
Its tail is very flexible towards the tip, and is used to twine
round branches in climbing. I did not see or hear anything of
this animal whilst residing on the Lower Amazons, but on the
banks of the upper river, from the Teffe to Peru, it appeared to
be rather common. It is nocturnal in its habits, like the owl-
faced monkeys, although unlike them it has a bright, dark eye.
I once saw it in considerable numbers when on an excursion
with an Indian companion along the low Ygapo shores of the
Teffe, about twenty miles above Ega. We slept one night at
the house of a native family living in the thick of the forest,
where a festival was going on, and there being no room to hang
our hammocks under shelter, on account of the number of
visitors, we lay down on a mat in the open air, near a shed
which stood in the midst of a grove of fruit trees and pupunha
palms. Past midnight, when all became still after the uproar

CHAP. XII. THE VAMPIRE BAT. 337

of holiday-making, as I was listening to the dull, fanning
sound made by the wings of impish hosts of vampire bats
crowding round the Cajii trees, a rustle commenced from the
side of the woods, and a troop of slender, long-tailed animals
were seen against the clear moonlit sky, taking flying leaps
from branch to branch through the grove. Many of them
stopped at the pupunha trees, and the hustling, twittering, and
screaming, with sounds of falling fruits, showed how they were
employed. I thought at first they were Nyctipitheci, but they
proved to be Jupuras, for the owner of the house early next
morning caught a young one, and gave it to me. I kept this
as a pet animal for several weeks, feeding it on bananas and
mandioca-meal mixed with treacle. It became tame in a very
short time, allowing itself to be caressed, but making a dis-
tinction in the degree of confidence it showed between myself
and strangers. My pet was unfortunately killed by a neigh-
bour's dog, which entered the room where it was kept. The
animal is so difficult to obtain alive, its place of retreat in
the daytime not being known to the natives, that I was
unable to procure a second living specimen.

Bats, — The only other mammals that I shall mention are
the bats, which exist in very considerable numbers and variety
in the forest, as well as in the buildings of the villages. Many
small and curious species living in the woods conceal them-
selves by day under the broad leaf-blades of Heliconias and
other plants which grow in shady places ; others cling to the
trunks of trees. Whilst walking through the forest in the
daytime, especially along gloomy ravines, one is almost sure to
startle bats from their sleeping-places ; and at night they are
often seen in great numbers flitting about the trees on the
shady margins of narrow channels. I captured altogether,
without giving especial attention to bats, sixteen different
species at Ega.

The Vampire Bat. — The little gray bloodsucking Phyllostoma,
mentioned in a former chapter as found in my chamber at
Caripi, was not uncommon at Ega, where every one believes it
ta visit sleepers and bleed them in the night. But the vampire
was here by far the most abundant of the family of leaf-nosed
bats. It is the largest of all the South American species,
measuring twenty-eight inches in expanse of wing. Nothing
in animal physiognomy can be more hideous than'lhe counte-
nance of this creature when viewed from the front ; the large
leathery ears standing out from the sides and top of the head,

22

v-ij'

ANIMALS AT EGA. chap. xii.

the erect spear-shaped appendage on the tip of the nose, the
grin and the glistening black eye, all combining to make up a
figure that reminds one of some mocking imp of fable. No
wonder that imaginative people have inferred diabolical in-
stincts on the part of so ugly an animal. The vampire, how-
ever, is the most harmless of all bats, and its inoffensive
character is well known to residents on the ■ banks of the
Amazons. I found two distinct species of it, one having the
fur of a blackish colour, the other of a ruddy hue, and ascer-
tained that both feed chiefly on fruits. The church at Ega
\vas the head-quarters of both kinds ; I used to see them, as I
sat at my door during the short evening twilights, trooping
forth by scores from a large open window at the back of the
altar, twittering cheerfully as they sped off to the borders ot
the forest. They sometimes enter houses ; the first time I saw
one in my chamber, wheeling heavily round and round, I mis-
took it for a pigeon, thinking that a tame one had escaped
from the premises of one of my neighbours. I opened the
stomachs of several of these bats, and found them to contain a
mass of pulp and seeds of fruits, mingled with a few remains
of insects. The natives say they devour ripe cajiis and guavas
on trees in the gardens, but on comparing the seeds taken
from their stomachs with those of all cultivated trees of Ega,
I found they were unlike any of them ; it is therefore probable
that they generally resort to the forest to feed, coming to the
village in the morning to sleep, because they find it more
secure from animals of prey than their natural abodes in the
woods.

Birds. — I have already had occasion to mention several of
the mere interesting birds found in the Ega district. The first
thing that would strike a new-comer in the forests of the
Upper Amazons would be the general scarcity of birds ; in-
deed, it often happened that I did not meet with, a single bird
during a whole day's ramble in the richest and most varied
parts of the woods. Yet the country is tenanted by many
hundred species, many of which are in reality abundant, and
some of them conspicuous from their brilliant plumage. The
cause of their apparent rarity is to be sought in the sameness
and density of the thousand miles of forest which constitute
their dwelling-place. The birds of the country are gregarious,
at least during the season when they are most readily found ;
but the frugivorous kinds are to be met with only when

CHAP. XII. HUNTING PARTIES OF BIRDS, 339

certain wild fruits are ripe, and to know the exact localities
of the trees requires months of experience. It would not be
supposed that the insectivorous birds are also gregarious ; but
they are so, numbers of distinct species, belonging to many
different famihes, joining together in the chase or search of
food. The proceedings of these associated bands of insect
hunters are not a little curious, and merit a few remarks.

Whilst hunting along the narrow pathways that are made
through the forest in the neighbourhood of houses and villages,
one may pass several days without seeing many birds ; but now
and then the surrounding bushes and trees appear suddenly to
swarm with them. There are scores, probably hundreds, of
birds, all moving about with the greatest activity— woodpeckers
and Dendrocolaptidse (from species no larger than a sparrow to
others the size of a crow) running up the tree trunks ; tanagers,
ant-thrushes, humming-birds, fly-catchers, and barbets, flitting
about the leaves and lower branches. The bustling crowd
loses no time, and although moving in concert, each bird is
occupied on its own account in searching bark, or leaf, or twig ;
the barbets visiting every clayey nest of termites on the trees
which lie in the hne of march. In a few minutes the host is
gone, and the forest path remains deserted and silent as before.
I became in course of time so accustomed to this habit of
birds in the woods near Ega, that I could generally find the
flock of associated marauders whenever I wanted it. There
appeared to be only one of these flocks in each small district ;
and as it traversed chiefly a limited tract of woods of second
growth, I used to try different paths until I came up with it.

The Indians have noticed these miscellaneous hunting
parties of birds, but appear not to have observed that they
are occupied in searching for insects. They have supplied
their want of knowledge, in the usual way of half- civilised
people, by a theory which has degenerated into a myth, to the
effect that the onward moving bands are led by a little gray
bird called the Uira-para, which fascinates all the rest, and
leads them a weary dance through the thickets. There is cer-
tainly some appearance of truth in this explanation ; for some-
times stray birds encountered in the line of march are seen
to be drawn into the throng, and purely frugivorous birds
are now and then found mixed up with the rest, as though
led away by some will-o'-the-wisp. The native women, even
the white and half-caste inhabitants of the towns, attach a
superstitious value to the skin and feathers of the Uira-para,

340 ANIMALS OF EGA. chap. xii.

believing that if they keep them in their clothes chest the
rehcs will have the effect of attracting for the happy possessors
a train of lovers and followers. These birds are consequently
in great demand in some places, the hunters selling them at
a high price to the foolish girls, who preserve the bodies by
drying flesh and feathers together in the sun. I could never
get a sight of this famous little bird in the forest. I once
employed Indians to obtain specimens for me ; but after the
same man (who was a noted woodsman) had brought me at
different times three distinct species of birds as the Uira-para, I
gave up the story as a piece of humbug. The simplest expla-
nation appears to be this, that the birds associate in flocks
from the instinct of self-preservation, and in order to be a less
easy prey to hawks, snakes, and other enemies, than they would
be if feeding alone.

Toucans. — Cuvier's Toucan. — Of this family of birds, so con-
spicuous from the great size and light structure of their beaks,
and so characteristic of tropical American forests, five species
inhabit the woods of Ega. The commonest is Cuvier's Toucan,
a large bird, distinguished from its nearest relatives by the
feathers at the bottom of the back being of a saffron hue
instead of red. It is found more or less numerously through-
out the year, as it breeds in the neighbourhood, laying its
eggs in holes of trees at a great height from the ground.
During most months of the year it is met with in single indi-
viduals or small flocks, and the birds are then very wary.
Sometimes one of these little bands of four or five is seen
perched for hours together amongst the topmost branches of
high trees, giving vent to their remarkably loud, shrill, yelping
cries, one bird mounted higher than the rest, acting ap-
parently as leader of the inharmonious chorus ; but two of
them are often heard yelping alternately and in different
notes. These cries have a vague resemblance to the syllables
Tocano, Tocano, and hence the Indian name of this genus of
birds. At these times it isdiflicult to get a shot at Toucans,
for their senses are so sharpened that they descry the hunter
before he gets near the tree on which they are perched,
although he may be half concealed amongst the underwood
150 feet below them. They stretch their necks downwards to
look beneath, and on espying the least movement amongst the
foliage, fly off to the more inaccessible parts of the forest.
Solitary Toucans are sometimes met .with at the same season,
hopping silently up and down the larger boughs, and peering

CHAP. xiL THE TOUCAN. 341

into the crevices of tree trunks. They moult in the months
from March to June, some individuals earlier, others later.
This season of enforced quiet being passed, they make their
appearance suddenly in the dry forest near Ega, in large
flocks, probably assemblages of birds gathered together from
the neighbouring Ygapd forests, which are then flooded and
cold. The birds have now become exceedingly tame, and the
troops travel with heavy laborious flight from bough to bough
amongst the lower trees. They thus become an easy prey to
hunters, and every one at Ega who can get a gun of any sort
and a few charges of powder and shot, or a blow-pipe, goes
daily to the woods to kill a few brace for dinner; for, as
already observed, the people of Ega live almost exclusively on
stewed and roasted Toucans during the months of June and
July, the birds being then very fat, and the meat exceedingly
sweet and tender.

No one on seeing a Toucan can help asking what is the
use of the enormous bill, which, in some species, attains a
length of seven inches, and a width of more than two inches.
A few remarks on this subject may be here introduced. The
early naturalists having seen only the bill of a Toucan, which
was esteemed as a marvellous production by the virtuosi of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, concluded that the bird
must have belonged to the aquatic and web-footed order, as
this contains so many species of remarkable development of
beak, adapted for seizing fish. Some travellers also related
fabulous stories of Toucans resorting to the banks of rivers to
feed on fish, and these accounts also encouraged the erroneous
views of the habits of the birds, which for a long time pre-
vailed. Toucans, however, are now well known to be emi-
nently arboreal birds, and to belong to a group (including
trogons, parrots, and barbets*), all of whose members are
fruit-eaters. On the Amazons, where these birds are very
common, no one pretends ever to have seen a Toucan walking
on the ground in its natural state, much less acting the part
of a swimming or wading bird. Professor Owen found, on
dissection, that the gizzard in Toucans is not so well adapted
for the trituration of food as it is in other vegetable feeders,
and concluded, therefore, as Broderip had observed the habit
of chewing the cud in a tame bird, that the great toothed bill
was useful in holding and re-masticating the food. The bill

* Capitoninse, G. R. Gray.

342 ANIMALS OF EGA. chap. xii.

can scarcely be said to be a very good contrivance for seizing
and crushing small birds, or taking them from their nests in
crevices of trees, habits which have been imputed to Toucans
by some -writers. The hollow, cellular structure of the interior
of the bill, its curved and clumsy shape, and the deficiency of
force and precision when it is used to seize objects, suggest
a want of fitness, if this be the function of the member. But
fruit is undoubtedly the chief food of Toucans, and it is in
reference to their mode of obtaining it that the use of their
uncouth bills is to be sought.

Flowers and fruit on the crowns of the large trees of South
American forests grow principally towards the end of slender
twigs, which will not bear any considerable weight ; all
animals, therefore, which feed upon fruit, or on insects con-
tained in flowers, must, of course, have some means of reaching
the ends of the stalks from a distance. Monkeys obtain their
food by stretching forth their long arms, and, in some instances,
their tails, to bring the fruit near to their mouths. Humming-
birds are endowed with highly-perfected organs of flight, with
corresponding muscular development, by which they are en-
abled to sustain themselves on the wing before blossoms whilst
rifling them of their contents. These strong-flying creatures,
however, will, whenever they can get near enough, remain on
their perches whilst probing neighbouring flowers for insects.
Trogons have feeble mngs, and a dull, inactive tempera-
ment. Their mode of obtaining food is to station themselves
quietly on low branches in the gloomy shades of the forest,
and eye the fruits on the surrounding trees, darting off as if
with an effort every time they msh to seize a mouthful, and
returning to the same perch. Barbets (Capitoninae) seem to
have no especial endowment, either of habits or structure, to
enable them to seize fruits ; and in this respect they are
similar to the Toucans, if we leave the bill out of question,
both tribes having heavy bodies, with feeble organs of flight, so
that they are disabled from taking their food on the wing.
The purpose of the enormous bill here becomes evident. It is
to enable the Toucan to reach and devour fruit whilst re-
maining seated, and thus to counterbalance the disadvan-
tage which its heavy body and gluttonous appetite would
otherwise give it in the competition with allied groups of
birds. The relation between the extraordinarily lengthened
bill of the Toucan and its mode of obtaining food, is there-
fore precisely similar to that between the long neck and

CHAP. XII. A TAME TOUCAN. 343

lips of the Giraffe and the mode of browsing of the animal.
The bill of the Toucan can scarcely be considered a very
perfectly formed instrument for the end to which it is applied,
as here explained ; but nature appears not to invent organs at
once for the functions to which they are now adapted, but
avails herself, here of one already-existing structure or instinct,
there of another, according as they are handy when need for
their further modification arises.

One day whilst walking along the principal pathway in the
woods near Ega, I saw one of these toucans seated gravely on
a low branch close to the road, and had no difficulty m seizing
it with my hand. It turned out to be a runaway pet bird ;
no one, however, came to own it, although I kept it in my
house for several months. The bird was in a half-starved and
sickly condition, but after a few days of good living it re-
'^^overed health and spirits, and became one of the most
amusing pets imaginable. Many excellent accounts of the
habits of tame toucans have been published, and therefore I
need not describe them in detail, but I do not recollect to
have seen any notice of their intelligence and confiding disposi-
tion under domestication, m which qualities my pet seemed to
be almost equal to parrots. I allowed Tocano to go free about
the house, contrary to my usual practice with pet animals ; he
never, however, mounted my working-table after a smart cor-
rection which he received the first time he did so. He used
to sleep on the top of a box in a corner of the room, in the
usual position of these birds, namely, with the long tail laid
right over on the back, and the beak thrust underneatii the
wing. He ate of everything that we eat, beef, turtle, fish,
farinha, fruit, and was a constant attendant at our table — a
cloth spread on a mat. His appetite was most ravenous, and
his powers of digestion quite wonderful. He got to know the
meai hours to a nicety, and we found it very difficult, after the
first week or two, to keep him away from the dining-room,
where he had become very impudent and troublesome. We
tried to shut him out by inclosing him in the back-yard, which
was separated by a high fence from the street on which our
front door opened, but he used to climb the fence and hop
round by a long circuit to the dining-room, making his ap-
pearance with the greatest punctuality as the meal was placed
on the table. He acquired the habit afterwards of rambling
about the street near our house, and one day he was stolen, so
we gave him up for lost. But two days afterwards he stepped

344

ANIMALS OF EGA.

CHAP. Xll.

through the open doorway at dinner hour, with his old gait
and sly magpie-like expression, having escaped from the house
where he had been guarded by the person who had stolen him,
and which was situated at the further end of the village.

The Curl-ci'ested Toucan {Pteroglossus Beauharnaisii). — Of
the four smaller toucans, or arassaris, found near Ega, the
Pteroglossus flavirostris is perhaps the most beautiful in
colours, its breast being adorned with broad belts of rich
crimson and black ; but the most curious species by far is the
Curl-crested, or Beauharnais Toucan. The feathers on the
head of this singular bird are transformed into thin homy
plates, of a lustrous black colour, curled up at the ends, and
resembling shavings of steel or ebony wood, the curly crest

Curl-crested Toucan.

being arranged on the crown in the form of a wig. Mr.
Wallace and I first met with this species on ascending the
Amazons, at the mouth of the Solimoens ; from that point it
continues as a rather common bird on the terra firma, at least
on the south side of the river, as far as Fonte Boa, but I did
not hear of its being found further to the west. It appears in
large flocks in the forests near Ega in May and June, when it
has completed its moult. I did not find these bands con-
gregated at fruit trees, but always wandering through the
forest, hopping from branch to branch amongst the lower trees,
and partly concealed amongst the foliage. None of the aras-
saris to my knowledge make a yelping noise like that uttered
by the larger toucans (Ramphastos); the notes of the curl-

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CHAP. XII. INSECTS. 347

crested species are very singular, resembling the croaking of
frogs. I had an amusing adventure one day with these birds.
I had shot one from a rather high tree in a dark glen in the
forest, and entered the thicket where the bird had fallen to
secure my booty. It was only wounded, and on -my attempting
to seize it, set up a loud scream. In an instant, as if by
magic; the shady nook seemed alive with these birds, although
there was certainly none visible when I entered the jungle.
They descended towards m.e, hopping from bough to bough,
some of them swinging on the loops and cables of woody lianas,,
and all croaking and fluttering their wings like so many furies.
If I had had a long stick in my hand, I could have knocked
several of them over. After killing the wounded one I began
to prepare for obtaining more specimens and punishing the
viragos for their boldness ; but the screaming of their com-
panion having ceased, they remounted the trees, and before
I could reload every one of them had disappeared.

Insects. — Upwards of 7,000 species of insects were found in
the neighbourhood of Ega. I must confine myself in this
place to a few remarks on the order Lepidoptera, and on the
ants, several kinds of which, found chiefly on the Upper
Amazons, exhibit the most extraordinary instincts.

I found about 550 distinct species of butterflies at Ega.
Those who know a little of Entomology will be able to form
some idea of the riches of the place in this department, when I
mention that eighteen species of true papilio (the swallow-tail
genus) were found within ten minutes' walk of my house. No
fact could speak more plainly for the surpassing exuberance of
the vegetation, the varied nature of the land, the perennial
warmth and humidity of the climate. But no description can
convey an adequate notion of the beauty and diversity in form
and colour of this class of insects in the neighbourhood of Ega.
I paid especial attention to them, having found that this tribe
was better adapted than almost any other group of animals 01
plants, to furnish facts in illustration of the modifications
which all species undergo in nature under changed local con-
ditions. This accidental superiority is owing partly to the
simplicity and distinctness of the specific characters of the
insects, and partly to the facility with which very copious
series of specimens can be collected and placed side by side foi
comparison. The distinctness of the specific characters is due
probably to the fact that all the superficial signs of change in

348

ANIMALS OF EGA.

CHAP. XII.

the organisation are exaggerated and made un-
usually plain by affecting the framework, shape,
and colour of the wings, which, as many anato-
mists believe, are magnified extensions of the
skin around the . breathing orifices of the thorax
of the insects. These expansions are clothed
wdth minute feathers or scales, coloured in regular
patterns, which vary in accordance with the
slightest change in the conditions to which the
species are exposed. It may be said, therefore,
that on these expanded membranes nature writes,
as on a tablet, the story of the modifications o'f
species, so truly do all changes of the organisa-
tion register themselves thereon. Moreover, the
same colour-patterns of the wings generally show,
with great regularity, the degrees of blood-rela-
tionship of the species. As the laws of nature
must be the same for all beings, the conclusions
furnished by this group of insects must be ap-
pHcable to the whole organic world; therefore
the study of butterflies — creatures selected as
the types of airiness and frivolity — instead of
being despised, will some day be valued as one
of the most important branches of Biological
science.

Before proceeding to describe the ants, a few

remarks may be made on the singular cases and Suspended co-
-, ,-, , -ii r , • coon of Moth.

cocoons woven by the caterpillars of certain

moths found at Ega. The first that may be mentioned is one
of the most beautiful examples of insect workmanship I ever saw.
It is a cocoon, about the -size of a sparrow's Qgg, woven by a
caterpillar in broad meshes of either buff or rose-coloured silk,
and is frequently seen in the narrow alleys of the forest, sus-
pended from the extreme tip of an outstanding leaf by a strong

CHAP. XII. SACK-BEARING CATERPILLAR.

349

silken thread five or six inches in length. It forms a very con-
spicuous object, hanging thus in mid-air. The glossy threads
with which it is knitted are stout, and the structure is therefore
not liable to be torn by the beaks of insectivorous birds, whilst
its pendulous position makes it doubly secure against their
attacks, the apparatus giving way when they peck at it. There
is a small orifice at each end of the egg-shaped bag, to admit
of the escape of the moth when it changes from the little
chrysalis which sleeps tranquilly in its airy cage. The moth is

Sack-bearing Caterpillar (Saccophora).

of a dull slaty colour, and belongs to the Lithosiide group of
the silk-worm family (Bombycidce). When the caterpillar be-
gins its work, it lets itself down from the tip of the leaf which
it has chosen, by spinning a thread of silk, the thickness of
which it slowly increases as it descends. Having given the
proper length to the cord, it proceeds to weave its elegant bag,
placing itself in the centre and spinning rings of silk at regular
intervals, connecting them at the same time by means of cross
threads ; so that the whole, when finished, forms a loose web,

350 ANIMALS OF EGA. chap. xii.

with quadrangular meshes of nearly equal size throughout. The
task occupies about four days : when finished, the enclosed
caterpillar becomes sluggish, its skin shrivels and cracks, and
there then remains a motionless chrysalis of narrow shape,
leaning against the sides of its silken cage.

Many other kinds are found at Ega belonging to the same
cocoon-weaving family, some of which differ from the rest in
their caterpillars possessing the art of fabricating cases with
fragments of wood or leaves, in which they live secure from all
enemies whilst they are feeding and growing. 1 saw many
species of these ; some of them knitted together, with fine
silken threads, small bits of stick, and so made tubes similar to
those of caddice-worms ; others (Saccophora) chose leaves for
the same purpose, forming with them an elongated bag open at
both ends, and having the inside lined with a thick web. The
tubes of full-grown caterpillars of Saccophora are two inches in
length, and it is at this stage of growth that I have generally
seen them. They feed on the leaves of Melastomae, and as
in crawling the weight of so large a dwelling would be greater
than the contained caterpillar could sustain, the insect attaches
the case, by one or more threads, to the leaves or twigs near
which it is feeding.

Foraging Ants. — Many confused statements have been pub-
lished in books of travel and copied in Natural History works
regarding these ants, which appear to have been confounded
with the Saiiba, a sketch of whose habits has been given in the
first chapter of this work. The Saiiba is a vegetable feeder,
and does not attack other animals ; the accounts that have
been published regarding carnivorous ants which hunt in vast
armies, exciting terror wherever they go, apply only to the
Ecitons, or foraging ants, a totally different group of tJiis tribe
of insects. The Ecitons are called Taudca by the Indians,
who are always on the look-out for their armies when they
traverse the forest, so as to avoid being attacked, I met with
ten distinct species of them, nearly all of which have a different
system of marching ; eight were new to science when I sent
them to England. Some are found commonly in every part of
the country, and one is peculiar to the open campos of Santa-
rem ; but, as nearly all the species are found together at Ega,
where the forest swarmed with their armies, I have left an
account of the habits of the whole genus for this part of my
narrative. The Ecitons resemble in their habits the Driver

CHAP. XII. E C I T O N S, 351

ants of Tropical Africa ; but they have no close relationship
with them in structure, and indeed belong to quite another
sub-group of the ant tribe.

Like many other ants, the communities of Ecitons are com-
posed, besides males and females, of two classes of workers, a
large-headed (worker-major) and a small-headed (worker-minor)
class ; the large-heads have in some species greatly lengthened
jaws, the small-heads have jaws always of the ordinary shape ;
but the two classes are not sharply defined in structure and
function, except in two of the species. There is in all of them
a little difference amongst the workers regarding the size of
the head ; but in some species this is not sufficient to cause a
separation into classes, with division of labour ; in others the
jaws are so monstrously lengthened in the worker-majors, that
they are incapacitated for taking part in the labours w^hich
the worker-minors perform ; and again, in others the difference
is so great that the distinction of classes becomes complete,
one acting the part of soldiers, and the other that of workers.
The peculiar feature in the habits of the Eciton genus is their
hunting for prey in regular bodies or armies. It is this which
chiefly distinguishes them from the genus of common red
stinging ants, several species of which inhabit England, whose
habit is to search for food in the usual irregular manner. All
the Ecitons hunt in large organised bodies ; but almost every
species has its own special manner of hunting.

Eciton rapax. — One of the foragers, Eciton rapax, the giant
of its genus, whose worker-majors are half an inch in length,
hunts in single file through the forest. There is no division
into classes amongst its workers, although the difference in
size is very great, some being scarcely one-half the length of
others. The head and jaws, however, are always of the same
shape, and a gradation in si?e is presented from the largest to
the smallest, so that all are able to take part in the common
labours of the colony. The chief employment of the species
seems to be plundering the nests of a large and defenceless ant
of another genus (Formica),whose mangled bodies I have often
seen in their possession as they were marching away. The
armies of Eciton rapax are never very numerous.

Eciton legionis. — Another species, E. legionis, agrees with
E. rapax in having workers not rigidly divisible into two
classes ; but it is much smaller in size, not differing greatly in
this respect from our common English red ant (]\Iyrmica rubra),
which it also resembles in colour. The Eciton legionis hves m

352 ANIMALS OF EGA. chap. xir.

open places, and was seen only on the sandy campos of San-
tarem. The movement of its hosts were, therefore, much more
easy to observe than those of all other kinds which inhabit
solely the densest thickets ; its sting and bite also were less
formidable than those of other species. The armies of E.
legionis consist of many thousands of individuals, and move in
rather broad columns. They are just as quick to break lirie
on being disturbed, and attack hurriedly and furiously any
intruding object, as the other Ecitons. The species is not a
common one, and I seldom had good opportunities of watching
its habits. The first time I saw an army was one evening
near sunset. The column consisted of two trains of ants,
moving in opposite directions ; one train empty-handed, the
other laden with the mangled remains of insects, chiefly larvae
and pup^ of other ants. I had no difficulty in tracing the
line to the spot from which they were conveying their booty ;
this was a low thicket ; the Ecitons were moving rapidly about
a heap of dead leaves ; but as the short tropical twilight was
deepening rapidly, and I had no wish to be benighted on the
lonely campos, I deferred further examination until the next
day.

On the following morning no trace of ants could be found
near the place where I had seen them the preceding day, nor
were there signs of insects of any description in the thicket ;
but at the distance of eighty or one hundred yards, I came
upon the same army, engaged evidently on a razzia of a
similar kind to that of the previous evening; but requiring
other resources of their instinct, owing to the nature of the
ground. They were eagerly occupied on the face of an inclined
bank of light earth in excavating mines, whence, from a depth
of eight or ten inches, they were extracting the bodies of a
bulky species of ant of the genus , Formica. It was curious to
see them crowding round the orifices of the mines, some
assisting their comrades to lift out the bodies of the Formicae,
and others tearing them in pieces, on account of their weight
being too great for a single Eciton; a number of carriers
seizing each a fragment, and carrying it off" down the plope.
On digging into the earth with a small trowel near the
entrances of the mines, I found the nests of the Formicae, with
grubs and cocoons, which the Ecitons were thus invading, at
a depth of about eight inches from the surface. The eager
freebooters rushed in as fast as I excavated, and seized the
ants in my fingers as I picked them out, so that I had some

CHAP. XII.

FORAGING ANTS.

353

difficulty in rescuing a few entire for specimens. In digging
the numerous mines to get at their prey, the little Ecitons
seemed to be divided into parties, one set excavating and
another set carrying away the grains of earth. When the shafts
became rather deep, the mining parties had to climb up the
sides each time they wished to cast out a pellet of earth ; but
their work was lightened for them by comrades, who stationed
themselves at the mouth of the shaft, and relieved them ot
their burthens, carrying the particles, with an appearance of
foresight which quite staggered me, a sufficient distance from
the edge of the hole to prevent them from rolling in again.
All the work seemed thus to be performed by intelligent co-
operation amongst the host of eager little creatures ; but still

" L "r- ^ ?

Foragins: Ants (Eciton drepanophora).

there was not a rigid division of labour, for some of them,
whose proceedings I watched, acted at one time as carriers of
pellets, and at another as miners, and all shortly afterwards
assumed the office of conveyors of the spoil.

In about two hours all the nests of Formicse were rifled,
though not completely, of their contents, and I turned towards
the army of Ecitons, which were carrying away the mutilated
remains. For some distance there were many separate lines of
them moving along the slope of the bank ; but a short distance
off these all converged, and then formed one close and broad
column, which continued for some sixty or seventy yards, and
terminated at one of those large termitariums or hillocks of
white ants which are constructed of cemented material as hard

23

354 ANIMALS OF EGA. chap. xii.

as stone. The broad and compact column of ants moved up
the steep sides of the hillock in a continued stream ; many
which had hitherto trotted along empty-handed, now turned
to assist their comrades with their heavy loads, and the whole
descended into a spacious gallery or mine opening on the top
of the termitarium. I did not try to reach the nest, which I
supposed to lie at the bottom of the broad mine, and there-
fore in the middle of the base of the stony hillock.

Eciton drepanophora. — The commonest species of foraging
ants are the Eciton hamata and E. drepanophora, two kinds
which resemble each other so closely that it requires attentive
examination to distinguish them; yet their armies never inter-
mingle, although moving in the same woods and often crossing
each other's tracks. The two classes of workers look, at first
sight, quite distinct, on account of the wonderful amount of
difference between the largest individuals of the one, and the
smallest of the- other. There are dwarfs not more than one-
fifth of an inah in length, with small heads and jaws, and
giants half an inch in length, with monstrously enlarged head
and jaws, all belonging to the sama brood. There is not, how-
ever, a distinct separation of classes, individuals existing which
connect together the two extremes. These Ecitons are seen in
the pathways of the forest at all places on the banks of the
Amazons, travelling in dense columns of countless thousands.
One or other of them is- sure to be met with in a woodland
ramble, and it, is^ to them, probably, that the stories we read
in JDOoks on South America apply, of ants clearing houses
of vermin, although I heard of no instance of their entering
houses, their ravages being confined to the thickest parts of the
forest.

When the pedestrian falls in with a train of these ants, the
first signal given him is a twittering and restless movement of
small flocks of plain-coloured birds (ant thrushes) in the jungle.
If this be disregarded until he advances a few^ steps farther, he
is sure to fall into trouble, and find himself suddenly attacked
by numbers of the ferocious little creatures. They swarm up
his legs with incredible rapidity, each one driving its pincer-
like jaws ^ into his skin, and with the purchase thus obtained,
doubUng in its tail, and stinging with all its might. There is
no course left, but to run for it ; if he is accompanied by natives,
theyv will be sure to give the alarm, crying, "Taudca!" and
scampering at full speed to the other end of the column of ants.
The tenacious -insects who have secured themselves to his legs

CHAP. XII. ANTS ON THE MARCH, 355

then have to be plucked off one by one, a task which is gene,
rally not accomplished without pulling them in twain, and
leaving heads and jaws sticking in the wounds.

The errand of the vast ant-armies is plunder, as in the case
of Eciton legionis ; but from their moving always amongst
dense thickets, their proceedings are not so easy to observe as
in that species. Wherever they move, the whole animal world
is set in commotion, and every creature tries to get out of their
way. But it is especially the various tribes of wingless insects
that have cause for fear, such as heavy-bodied spiders, ants of
other species, maggots, caterpillars, larvae of cockroaches, and
so forth, all of which live under fallen leaves, or in decaying
wood. The Ecitons do not mount very high on trees, and
therefore the nestlings of birds are • not much incommoded
by them. The mode of operation of these armies, which
I ascertained only after long-continued observation, is as
follows. The main column, from four to six deep, moves
forward in a given direction, clearing the ground of all
animal matter, dead or alive, and throwing off here and
there a thinner column to forage for a short time on the
flanks of the main army, and re-enter it again after their
task is accomplished. If some very rich place be encoun-
tered anywhere near the line of march, for example, a mass
of rotten wood abounding in insect larvae, a delay takes
place, and a very strong force of ants is concentrated upon
it. The excited creatures search every cranny and tear in
pieces all the large grubs they drag to light. It is curious
to see them attack wasps' nests, which are sometimes built
on low shrubs. They gnaw away the papery covering to
get at the larvae, pupae, and newly-hatched wasps, and cut
everything to tatters, regardless of. the infuriated owners which
are flying about them. In bearing off their spoil in fragments,
the pieces are apportioned to the carriers with some degree of
regard to fairness of load, the dwarfs- taking the smallest
pieces, and the strongest fellows with small heads the heaviest
portion.?. Sometimes two ants ^ join together in carrying one
piece, but the worker-majors, mth their unwieldy and distorted
jaws, are incapacitated from taking any part in the labour.
The armies never march far on a beaten path, but seem to
prefer the entangled thickets where it is seldom possible to
follow them. I have traced an. army sometimes for half a mile
or more, but was never able to find one that had finished its
day's course and returned to its- hive. Indeed, I never met

356 ANIMALS OF EGA. chap. xii.

with a hive ; whenever the Ecitons were seen they were always
on -the march.

I thought one day, at Villa Nova, that I had come upon a
migratory horde of this indefatigable ant. The place was a
tract of open ground near the river side, just outside the edge
of the forest, and surrounded by rocks and shrubbery. A dense
column of Ecitons was seen extending from the rocks on one
side of the little haven, traversing the open space, and ascend-
ing the opposite declivity. The length of the procession was
from sixty to seventy yards, and yet neither van nor rear was
visible. All were moving in one and the same direction, except
a few individuals on the outside of the column, which were
running rearward, trotting along for a short distance, and then
turning again to follow the same course as the main, body.
But these rearward movements were going on continually from
one end to the other of the line, and there was every appearance
of this being a means of keeping up a common understanding
amongst all the members of the army, for the retrograding ants
-stopped very often for a moment to touch one or other of their
onward-moving comrades with their antennae, a proceeding
which has been noticed in other ants, and supposed to be their
mode of conveying intelligence. When I interfered with the
•column or abstracted an individual from it, news of the dis-
turbance was very quickly communicated to a distance of
several yards towards the rear, and the column at that point
commenced retreating. All the small-headed workers carried
in their jaws a Httle cluster of white maggots, which I thought
at the time might be young larv^ of their own colony, but
afterwards found reason to conclude were the grubs of some
other species whose nests they had been plundering, the pro-
cession being most Hkely not a migration, but a column on a
marauding expedition.

The position of the large-headed individuals in the marching
column was rather curious. There was one of these extraordi-
nary fellows to about a score of the smaller class ; none of them
<:arried anything in their mouths, but all trotted along empty-
handed and outside the column, at pretty regular intervals
from each other, like subaltern officers in a marching regiment
of soldiers. It was easy to be tolerably exact in this observa-
tion, for their shining white heads made them very conspicuous
amongst the rest, bobbing up and down as the column passed
over the inequaUties of the road. I did not see them change
their position or take any notice of their small-headed comrades

CHAP. XII. ANTS AT LEISURE. 357

marching in the column, and when I disturbed the Hne they
did not prance forth or show fight so eagerly as the others.
These large-headed members of the community have been con-
sidered by some authors as a soldier class, like the sin:ilarly-
armed caste in Termites ; but I found no proof of this, at least
in the present species, as they always seemed to be rather less
pugnacious than the worker-minors, and their distorted jaws
disabled them from fastening on a plane surface like the skin
of an attacking animal. I am inclined, however, to think that
they may act, in a less direct way, as protectors of the commu-
nity, namely, as indigestible morsels to the flocks of ant-
thrushes which follow the marching columns of these Ecitons,.
and are the most formidable enemies of the species.. It is pos-
sible that the hooked and twisted jaws of the large-headed class
may be effective weapons of annoyance when in. the gizzards or
stomachs of these birds, but I unfortunately omitted to ascer-
tain whether this was really the fact.

The life of these Ecitons is not all work, fori frequently saw
them very leisurely employed in a. way that looked like recrea-
tion. Wlien this happened, the place was always a sunny nook
in the forest. The main, column of the army and the branch
columns, at these times, were in their ordinary relative posi-
tions ; but instead of pressing forward eagerly, and plundering
right and. left, they seemed to have been, all smitten with a
sudden fit of laziness. Some were walking slowly about, others
were brushing their antennge with their fore feet ; but the
drollest sight was their cleaning one another. Here and there
an ant was seen stretching forth first one leg and then another,
to be brushed and washed by one or more of its comrades, who.
performed tiie task by passing the limb between the jaws and
the tongue,, finishing by giving the antennae a friendly wipe.
It was a curious spectacle, and one well calculated to increase
one's amazement at the similarity between the instinctive
actions of ants and the acts of rational beings, a similarity
which must have been brought about by two different processes
of development of the primary qualities of mind. The actions
of these ants looked like simple indulgence in idle amusement;
Have these little, creatures, then, an excess of energy beyond
what is required for labours absolutely necessary to the welfare
of their species, and do they thus expend it in mere sportive-
ness, like young lambs or kittens, or in idle whims like rational
beings? It is probable that these houis of relaxation and
cleaning may be indispensable to the effective performance of

358 ANIMALS 01' EGA, chap. xir.

their harder labours ; but whilst looking at them, the conclusion
that the ants were engaged merely in play was irresistible.
^' Eciton prcEdator. — This is a small dark-reddish species, very
similar to the common red stinging ant of England. It differs
from all other Ecitons in its habit of hunting, not in columns,
but in dense phalanxes consisting of myriads of individuals,
and was first met with at Ega, where it is very common.
Nothing in insect movements is more striking than the rapid
march of these large and compact bodies. Wherever they pass,
all the rest of the animal world is thrown into a state of alarm.
They stream along the ground and climb to the summits of all
the lower trees, searching every leaf to its apex, and whenever
they encounter a mass of decaying vegetable matter, where
booty is plentiful, they concentrate, like other Ecitons, all their
forces upon it, the dense phalanx of shining and quickly-moving
bodies, as it spreads over the surface, looking like a flood of
dark-red liquid. They soon penetrate every part of the con-
fused heap, and then, gathering together again in marching
order, onward they move. All soft-bodied and inactive insects
fall an easy prey to them, and, like other Ecitons, they tear
their victims in pieces for facility of carriage. A phalanx of
this species, when passing over a tract of smooth ground, occu-
pies a space of from four to six square yards ; on examining
the ants closely they are seen to move, not altogether in one
straightforward direction, but in variously spreading contiguous
columns, now separating a little from the general mass, now
re-uniting with it. The margins of the phalanx spread out at
times like a cloud of skirmishers from the flanks of an army.
I was never able to find the hive of this species.

Blind Ecitons. — I will now give a short account of the blind
species of Eciton. None of the foregoing kinds have eyes of
the facetted or compound structure such as are usual in insects,
and which ordinary ants (Formica) are furnished with, but all
are provided with organs of vision composed each of a single
lens. Connecting them with the utterly blind species of the
genus, is a very stout-limbed Eciton, the E. crassicornis, whose
eyes are sunk in rather deep sockets. This ant goes on forag-
ing expeditions like the rest of its tribe, and attacks even the
nests of other stinging species (Myrmica), but it avoids the
light, always moving in concealment under leaves and fallen
branches. When its columns have to cross a cleared space,
the ants construct a temporary covered way with granules of
earth, arched over, and holding together mechanically ; under

CHAP. XII.

BLIND ANTS

359

this the procession passes in secret, the indefatigable creatures
repairing their arcade as fast as breaches are made in it.

Next in order comes the Eciton vastator, which has no eyes,
although the collapsed sockets are plainly visible ; and, lastly,
the Eciton erratica, in which both sockets and eyes have dis-
appeared, leaving only a faint ring to mark the place where
they are usually situated. The armies of E. vastator and E.
erratica move, as far as I could learn, ^wholly under covered
roads, the ants constructing them gradually but rapidly as they
advance. The column of foragers pushes forward step by step
under the protection of these covered passages, through the
thickets, and on reaching a rotting lo^, or other promising
hunting-ground, pour into the crevices in search of booty. I

Foraging ants (Eciton erratica) constructing a covered road — Soldiers
sallying out on being disturbed.

have traced their arcades, occasionally, for a distance of one or
two hundred yards; the grains of earth are taken from the
soil over which the column is passing, and are fitted together
without cement. It is this last-mentioned feature that dis-
tinguishes them from the similar covered roads made by Ter-
mites, who use their glutinous saliva to cement the giains
together. The blind Ecitons, working in numbers, build up
simultaneously the sides of their convex arcades, and contrive,
in a surprising manner, to approximate them and fit in the
key-stones without letting the loose un cemented structure fall
to pieces. There was a very clear division of labour between
the two classes of neuters in these blind species. The large-
beaded class, although not possessing monstrously lengthened

36o ANIMALS OF EGA. chap. xii.

jaws like the worker-majors in E. hamata and E. drepanophora,
are rigidly defined in structure from the small-headed class,
and act as soldiers, defending the working community (like
soldier Termites) against all comers. Whenever I made a
breach in one of their covered ways, all the ants underneath
were set in commotion, but the worker-minors remained behind
to repair the damage, whilst the large-heads issued forth in a
most menacing manner, rearing their heads and snapping their
jaws with an expression of the fiercest rage and defiance.

CHAPTER XIII.

EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA.

Steamboat travelling on the Amazons — Passengers — Tunantins — Caishana
Indians — The Jutahi — The Sapo- — Maraua Indians — Fonte Boa —
Journey to St. Paulo — Tucuna Indians — Illness — Descent to Para —
Changes at Para — Departure for England.

November "jth, 1856. — Embarked on the Upper Amazons
steamer, the "Tabatinga," for an excursion to Tunantins, a
small semi-Indian settlement, lying 240 miles beyond Ega. The
*'Tabatinga " is an iron boat of about 170 tons burthen, built
at Rio de Janeiro, and fitted with engines of fifty-horse power.
The saloon, with berths on each side for twenty passengers, is
above deck, and open at both ends to admit a free current of
air. The captain or " commandante " was a lieutenant in the
Brazilian navy, a man of polished., sailor-like address, and a
rigid disciplinarian ; his name, Senhor Nunes Mello Cardozo.
I was obliged, as usual, to take with me a stock of all articles
of food, except meat and fish, for the time I intended to be
absent (three months) ; and the luggage, including hammocks,
cooking utensils, crockery, and so forth, formed fifteen large
packages. One bundle consisted of a mosquito tent, an article
I had not yet had occasion to use on the river, but which was
indispensable in all excursions beyond Ega; every person, man,
woman, and child, requiring one, as without it existence would
be scarcely possible. My tent was about eight feet long and
five feet broad, and was made of coarse calico in an oblong
shape, with sleeves at each end through which to pass the cords
of a hammock. Under this shelter, which is fixed up every
evening before sundown, one can read and write, or swing in
one's hammock during the long hours which intervene before
bed-time, and feel one's sense of comfort increased by having

362 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. chap. xiii.

cheated the thirsty swarms of mosquitoes which fill the
chamber.

We were four da} s on the road. The pilot, a mameluco of
Ega, whom I knew very well, exhibited a knowledge of the
river and powers of endurance which were quite remarkable.
He stood all this time at his post, with the exception of three
or four hours in the middle of each day, when he was relieved
by a young man who served as apprentice ; and he knew the
breadth and windings of the channel, and the extent of all the
yearly-shifting shoals from the Rio Negro to Loreto, a distance
of more than a thousand miles. There was no slackening of
speed at night, except during the brief but violent storms
which occasionally broke upon us, and then the engines were
stopped by the command of lieutenant Nunes, sometimes
against the wish of the pilot. The nights were often so dark
that we passengers on the poop deck could not discern the
hardy fellow on the bridge ; but the steamer drove on at full
speed, men being stationed on the look-out at the prow, to
watch for floating logs, and one man placed to pass orders to
the helmsman ; the keel scraped against a sand-bank only once
during the passage.

The passengers were chiefly Peruvians, mostly thin, anxious
Yankee-looking men, who were returning home to the cities of
;Moyobamba and Chachapoyas, on the Andes, after a trading
trip to the Brazilian towns on the Atlantic sea-board, whither
they had gone six months previously, with cargoes of Panama
hats to exchange for European wares. These hats are made of
the young leaflets of a palm tree, by the Indians and half-caste
people who inhabit the eastern parts of Peru. They form
almost the only article of export from Peru by way of the
Amazons, but the money value is very great compared with
the bulk of the goods, as the 'hats are generally of very fine
quahty, and cost from twelve shillings to six pounds sterling
each ; some traders bring down two or three thousands pounds'
worth, folded into small compass in their trunks. The return
cargoes consist of hardware, crockery, glass, and other bulky or
heavy goods, but not of cloth, which, being of light weight,
can be carried across the Andes from the ports on the Pacific
to the eastern parts of Peru. All kinds of European cloth can
be obtained at a much cheaper rate by this route than by
the more direct way of the Amazons, the import duties of
Pern being, as I was told, Ipwer than those oi Brazil, and thq
difference not being counterbalanced by increased expense

CHAP. XIII. THE RIVER TUNANTINS. ' 363

of transit, on account of weight, over the passes of the
Andes.

There was a great lack of amusement on board. The table
was very well served, professed cooks being employed in these
Amazonian steamers, and fresh meat insured by keeping on
deck a supply of live bullocks and fowls, which are purchased
whenever there is an opportunity on the road. The river
scenery was similar to that already described as presented
between the Rio Negro and Ega : long reaches of similar
aspect, with two long, low lines of forest, varied sometimes
with cliffs of red clay, appearing one after the other ; an
horizon of v^^ater and sky on some days limiting the view -both
up stream and down. We travelled, however, always near the
bank, and, for my part, I was never weary of admiring the
picturesque grouping and variety of trees, and the varied
mantles of creeping plants which clothed the green wall of
forest every step of the way. With the exception of a small
village called Fonte Boa, retired from the main river, where
we stopped to take in fire-wood, and which I shall have to
speak of presently, we saw no human habitation the whole of
the distance. The mornings were delightfully cool ; coffee was
served at sunrise, and a bountiful breakfast at ten o'clock ;
after that hour the heat rapidly increased until it became
almost unbearable ; how the engine-drivers and firemen stood
it without exhaustion I cannot tell ; it diminished after four
o'clock in the afternoon, about which time dinner-bell rung,
and the evenings were always pleasant.

November 11th to 30//^. — The Tunantins is a sluggish black-
water stream, about sixty miles in length, and towards its mouth
from 100 to 200 yards in breadth. The vegetation on its banks
has a similar aspect to that of the Rio Negro, the trees having
small foliage of a sombre hue, and the dark piles of greenery
resting on the surface of the inky water. The village is
situated on the left bank, about a mile from the mouth of the
river, and contains twenty habitations, nearly all of which are
merely hovels, built of lath-work and mud. The short streets,
after rain, are almost impassable, on account of the many
puddles, and are choked up with weeds, — leguminous shrubs,
and scarlet-flowered asclepias. The atmosphere in such a
place, hedged in as it is by the lofty forest, and surrounded by
swamps, is always close, warm, and reeking; and the hum
and chirp of insects and birds cause a continual din. The
small patch of weedy ground around the village swarms with

364 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. chap. xiii.

plovers, sandpipers, striped herons, and scissor-tailed fly-
catchers ; and alhgators are always seen floating lazily on the
surface of the river in front of the houses.

On landing, I presented myself to Senhor Paulo Bitancourt,
a good-natured half-caste, director of Indians of the neighbour-
ing river Issa, who quickly ordered a small house to be cleared
for me. This exhilarating abode contained only one room, the
walls of which were disfigured by large and ugly patches of
mud, the work of white ants. The floor was the bare earth,
dirty and damp ; the wretched chamber was darkened by a
sheet of calico being stretched over the windows, a plan adopted
here to keep out the Pium-flies, which float about in all shady
places like thin clouds of smoke, rendering all repose impossible
in the daytime whenever they can efl'ect an entrance. My bag-
gage was soon landed, and before the steamer departed 1 had
taken gun, insect-net, and game-bag, to make a preliminary
exploration of my new locality.

I remained here nineteen days, and, considering the short-
ness of the time, made a very good collection of monkeys, birds,
and insects. A considerable number of the species (especially
of insects) were different from those of the four other stations,
which I examined on the south side of the Solimoens, and as
many of these were " representative forms "* of others found
on the opposite banks of the broad river, I concluded that there
could have been no land connection between the two shores
during, at least, the recent geological period. This conclusion
is confirmed by the case of the Uakari monkeys, described in
the last chapter. All these strongly modified local races of
insects confined to one side of the Solimoens (like the Uakaris),
are such as have not been able to cross a wide treeless space
such as a river. The acquisition which pleased me most, in
this place, was a new species of butterfly (a Catagramma),
which has since been named C. excelsior,, owing to its surpass-
ing in size and beauty all the previously-known species of its
singularly beautiful genus. The upper surface of the wings is
of the richest blue, varying in shade with the play of light, and
on each side is a broad curved stripe of an orange colour. It
is a bold flier, and is not confined, as I afterwards found, to
the northern side of the river, for once I saw a specimen
amidst a number of richly-coloured butterflies, flying about the
deck of the steamer when we were anchored off Fonte Boa,
200 miles lower down the river.
* Species or races which take the place of other allied species or races.

CHAP. XIII. caishAna savages. 365

With the exception of three mameluco families and a stray-
Portuguese trader, all the inhabitants of the village and neigh-
bourhood are semi-civiHzed Indians of the Shumana and Passe
tribes. The forests of the Tunantins, however, are inhabited
by a tribe of wild Indians called Caishanas, who resemble much,
in their social condition and manners, the debased Miiras of
the Lower Amazons, and have, hke them, shown no aptitude
for civilized life in any shape. Their huts commence at the
distance of an hour's walk from the village, along gloomy and
narrow forest-paths. My first and only visit to a Caishana
dwelling was accidental. One day, having extended my walk
further than usual, and followed one of the forest-roads until
it became a mere picada, or hunters' track, I came suddenly
upon a Avell-trodden pathway, bordered on each side with Lyco-
podia of the most elegant shapes, the tips of the fronds
stretching almost like tendrils down the little earthy slopes
which formed the edge of the path. The road, though smooth,
was narrow and dark, and in many places blocked up by trunks
of felled trees, which had been apparently thrown across by the
timid Indians on purpose to obstruct the way to their habita-
tions. Half-a-mile of this shady road brought me to a small
open space on the banks of a bfook or creek, on the skirts of
which stood a conical hut with a very low doorway. There
was also an open shed, with stages made of split palm stems,
and a number of large wooden troughs. Two or three dark-
skinned children, with a man and woman, were in the shed ;
but, immediately on espying me, all of them ran to the hut,
bolting through the little doorway like so many wild animals
scared into their burrows. A few moments after, the man put
his head out with a look of great distrust ; but on my making
the most friendly gestures I could think of, he came forth with
the children. They were all smeared with black mud and
paint; the only clothing of the elders was a kind of apron
made of the inner bark of the sapucaya tree, and the savage
aspect of the man was heightened by his hair hanging over his
forehead to the eyes. I stayed about two hours in the neigh-
bourhood, the children gaining sufficient confidence to come
and help me to search for insects. The only weapon used by
the Caishanas is the blow-gun, and this is employed only in
shooting animals for food. They are not a warlike people, like
most of the neighbouring tribes on the Japura and Issa.

The whole tribe of Cashanas does not exceed in number 400
souls. None of them are baptized Indians, and they do not

366 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. chap. xiii.

dwell in villages, like the more advanced sections of the Tupi
stock; but each family has its own solitary hut. They are
quite harmless, do not practise tattooing, or perforate their
ears and noses in any way. Their social condition is of a low
type, very little removed, indeed, from that of the brutes living
in the same forests. They do not appear to obey any common
chief, and I could not make out that they had Pajes, or
medicine men, those rudest beginnings of a priest class. Sym-
bolical or masked dances, and ceremonies in honour of the
Jurupari, or demon, customs which prevail amongst all the
surrounding tribes, are unknown to the Caishanas. There is
amongst them a trace of festival keeping ; but the only cere-
mony used is the drinking of cashiri beer, and fermented
liquors made of Indian corn, bananas, and so forth. These
affairs, however, are conducted in a degenerate style, for they
do not drink to intoxication, or sustain the orgies for several
days and nights in succession, like the Juris, Passes, and
Tucunas. The men play a musical instrument, made of pieces
of stem of the arrow-grass cut in different lengths and arranged
like Pan-pipes. With this they while away whole hours, lolling
in ragged bast hammocks slung in their dark, smoky huts.
The Tunantins people say that the Caishanas have persecuted
the wild animals and birds to such an extent near their
settlements that there is now quite a scarcity of animal
food. If they kill a toucan, it is considered an important
event, and the bird is made to serve as a meal for a score
or more persons. They boil the meat in earthenware kettles
filled with Tucupi sauce, and eat it with beiju, or mandioca
cakes. The women are not allowed to taste of the meat, but
forced to content themselves with sopping pieces of cake hi
the liquor.

November ^oth. — I left Tunantins in a trading schooner of
eighty tons burthen belonging to Senhor Batalha, a tradesman
of Ega, which had been out all the summer collecting produce,
and was commanded by a friend of mine, a young Paraense,
named Francisco Raiol. We arrived on the 3rd of December
at the mouth of the Jutahi, a considerable stream about half a
mile broad, and flowing with a very sluggish current. This is
one of a series of six rivers, from 400 to 1,000 miles in length,
which flow from the south-west through unknown lands lying
between Bolivia and the Upper Amazons, and enter this
latter river between the Madeira and the Ucayali. We re-
mained at anchor four days within the mouth of the Sapo, a

CHAF. XIII. THE MARAVA INDIANS, 367

small tributary of the Jutahi flowing from the south-east :
Senhor Raiol having to send an igarite to the Cupatana, a
large tributary some few miles farther up the river, to fetch a
cargo of salt fish. During this time we made several excursions
in the montaria to various places in the neighbourhood. Our
longest trip was to some Indian houses, a distance of fifteen or
eighteen miles up the Sapo, a journey made with one Indian
paddler, and occupying a whole day. The stream is not more
than forty or fifty yards broad; its waters are darker in colour
than those of the Jutahi, and flow, as in all these small rivers,
partly under shade between two lofty walls of forest. We
passed, in ascending, seven habitations, most of them hidden in
the luxuriant foliage of the banks ; their sites being known
only by small openings in the compact wall of forest, and the
presence of a canoe or two tied up in little shady ports. The
inhabitants are chiefly Indians of the Maraua tribe, whose
original territory comprised all the small by- streams lying
between the Jutahi and the Jurua, near the mouths of both
these great tributaries. They live in separate families or
small hordes ; have no common chief, and are considered as a
tribe little disposed to adopt civilised customs or be friendly
with the whites. One of the houses belonged to a Juri family,
and we saw the owner, an erect, noble-looking old fellow,
tattooed, as customary with his tribe, in a large patch over the
middle of his face, fishing under the shade of a colossal tree in
his port with hook and hne. He saluted us in the usual grave
and courteous manner of the better sort of Indians as we
passed by.

We reached the last house, or rather two houses, about ten
o'clock, and spent there several hours during the great heat of
mid-day. The houses, which stood on a high clayey bank,
were of quadrangular shape, partly open like sheds, and partly
enclosed with rude mud-walls, forming one or more chambers.
The inhabitants, a few families of Marauas, comprising about
thirty persons, received us in a frank, smiling manner : a
reception which may have been due to Senhor Raiol being an
old acquaintance and somewhat of a favourite. None of them
were tattooed; but the men had great holes pierced in their
ear-lobes, in which they insert plugs of wood, and their lips
were drilled with smaller holes. One of the younger men, a
fine strapping fellow nearly six feet high, with a large aquiline
nose, who seemed to wish to be particularly friendly with me,
showed me the use of these lip-holes, by fixing a number of

368 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. chap. xiri.

little white sticks in them, and then twisting his mouth about
and going through a pantomime to represent defiance in the
presence of an enemy. Nearly all the people were disfigured
by dark blotches on the skin, the effect of a cutaneous disease
very prevalent in this part of the country. The face of one
old man was completely blackened, and looked as though it had
been smeared with blacklead, the blotches having coalesced to
form one large patch. Others were simply mottled ; the black
spots were hard and rough, but not scaly, and were margined
with rings of a colour paler than the natural hue of the skin.
I had seen many Indians and a few half-castes at Tunantins,
and afterwards saw others at Fonte Boa, blotched in the same
way. The disease would seem to be contagious, for I was told
that a Portuguese trader became disfigured with it after
cohabiting some years with an Indian woman. It is curious
that, although prevalent in many places on the Solimoens,
no resident of Ega exhibited signs of the disease : the early
explorers of the country, on noticing spotted skins to be very
frequent in certain localities, thought they were peculiar to a
few tribes of Indians. The younger children in these houses
on the Sapo were free from spots ; but two or three of them,
about ten years of age, showed signs of their commencement in
rounded yellowish patches on the skin, and these appeared
languid and sickly, although the blotched adults seemed not to
be afiected in their general health. A middle-aged half-caste
at Fonte Boa told me he had cured himself of the disorder by
strong doses of salsaparilla ; the black patches had caused the
hair of his beard and eyebrows to fall off, but it had grown
again since his cure.

We left these friendly people about four o'clock in the after-
noon, and in descending tlie umbrageous river, stopped, about
half-way down, at another house, built in one of the most
charming situations I had yet seen in this country. A clean,
narrow, sandy pathway led from the shady port to the house,
through a tract of forest of indescribable luxuriance. The
buildings stood on an eminence in the middle of a level cleared
space ; the firm sandy soil, smooth as a floor, forming a broad
terrace around them. The owner was a semi-civilised Indian,
named Manoel ; a dull, taciturn fellow, who, together with his
wife and children, seemed by no means pleased at being
intruded on in their solitude. The family must have been very
industrious ; for the plantations were very extensive, and
included a little of almost all kinds of cultivated tropical pro-

CHAP. XIII. FO NT E B 0 A. 369

ductions : fruit trees, vegetables, and even flowers for ornament.
The silent old man had surely a fine appreciation of the
beauties of nature : for the site he had chosen commanded a
view of surprising magnificence over the summits of the forest \
and, to give finish to the prospect, he had planted a large
quantity of banana trees in the foreground, thus concealing the
charred and dead stumps which would otherwise have marred
the effect of the rolling sea of greenery. The only information
I could get out of Manoel was, that large flocks of richly-
coloured birds came down in the fruit season and despoiled his
trees. The sun set over the tree tops before we left this little
Eden, and the remainder of our journey was made slowly and
pleasantly, under the chequered shades of the river banks, by
the light of the moon.

December "jth. — Arrival at Fonte Boa ; a wretched, muddy,
and dilapidated village, situated two or three miles within the
mouth of a narrow by- stream called the Cayhiar-hy, which runs
almost as straight as an artificial canal between the village and
the main Amazons. The character of the vegetation and soil
here was different from that of all other localities I had
hitherto examined ; I had planned, therefore, to devote six
weeks to the place. Having written beforehand to one of the
principal inhabitants, Senhor Venancio, a house was ready for
me oh landing. The only recommendation of the dwelling was
its coolness. It was, in fact, decidedly'damp ; the plastered walls
bore a crop of green mould, and a slimy moisture oozed through
the black, dirty floor; the rooms were large, but lighted by
miserable little holes in place of windows. The village is built
on a clayey plateau, and the ruinous houses are arranged round
a large square, which is so choked up with tangled bushes that
it is quite impassable, the lazy inhabitants having allowed
the fine open space to relapse into jungle. The stiff clayey
eminence is worn into deep gullies which slope towards the
river, and the ascent from the port in rainy weather is so
slippery that one is obliged to crawl up to the streets on all-
fours. A large tract of ground behind the place is clear of
forest, but this, as well as the streets and gardens, is covered
with a dense, tough carpet of shrubs, having the same wiry
nature as our common heath. Beneath its deceitful covering
the soil is always moist and soft, and in the wet season the
whole is converted into a glutinous mud swamp. There is a
very pretty church in one corner of the square, but in the rainy

24

370 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. chap. xiir.

months of the year (nine out of twelve) the place of worship is
almost inaccessible to the inhabitants on account of the mud,
the only means of getting to it being by hugging closely the
walls and palings, and so advancing sideways step by step.

I remained in this delectable place until the 25th of January,
1857. Fonte Boa, in addition to its other amenities, has the
reputation throughout the country of .being the head-quarters
of mosquitoes, and it fully deserves the title. They are more
annoying in the houses by day than by night, for they swarm
in the dark and damp rooms, keeping, in the daytime, near the
floor, and settling by half-dozens together on the legs.. At
night the calico tent is a sufficient protection ; but this is
obliged to be folded every morning, and in letting it down
before sunset, great care is required to prevent even one or two
of the tormentors from stealing in beneath, their insatiable
thirst for blood, and pungent sting, making these enough to
spoil all comfort. In the forest the plague is much worse ; but
the forest-mosquito belongs to a different species from that of
the towm, being much larger, and having transparent wings ; it
is a little cloud that one carries about one's person every step
on a woodland ramble, and their hum is so loud that it pre-
vents one hearing well the notes of birds. The town-mosquito
has opaque speckled wings, a less severe sting, and a silent
way of going to work ; the -inhabitants ought to be thankful
the big noisy fellows never come out of the forest. In com-
pensation for the abundance of mosquitoes, Fonte Boa has no
piums ; there was, therefore, some comfort outside one's door
in the daytime ; the comfort, however, was lessened by there
being scarcely any room in front of the house to sit down or
walk about ; for, on our side of the square, the causeway was
only two feet broad, and to step over the boundary, formed by
a line of slippery stems of palms, was to sink up to the knees
in a sticky swamp.

Notwithstanding damp and mosquitoes, I had capital health,
and enjoyed myself much at Fonte Boa ; swampy and weedy
places being generally more healthy than dry ones on the
Amazons, probably owing to the absence of great radiation of
heat from the ground. The forest was extremely rich and
picturesque, although the soil w^as everywhere clayey and cold,
and broad pathways threaded it for many a mile over hill and
dale. In every hollow flowed a sparkling brook, with peren-
nial and crystal waters. The margins of these streams were
paradises of leafiness and verdure ; the most striking feature

CHAP. XIII. FONTEBOA. 371

being the variety of ferns, with immense leaves, some terres-
trial, others climbing over trees, and two, at least, arborescent.
I saw here some of the largest trees I had yet seen : there was
one especially, a cedar, whose colossal trunk towered up for
more than a hundred feet, straight as an arrow ; I never saw
its crown, which was lost to view, from below, beyond the
crowd of lesser trees which surrounded it. Birds and monkeys
in this glorious forest were very abundant; the bear-like
Pithecia hirsuta being the most remarkable of the monkeys,
and the Umbrella Chatterer and Curl-crested Toucans amongst
the most beautiful of the birds. The Indians and half-castes
of the village have made their little plantations, and built huts
for summer residence on the banks of the rivulets, and my
rambles generally terminated at one or other of these places.
The people were always cheerful and friendly, and seemed to be
glad when I proposed to join them at their meals, contributing
the contents of my provision:bag to the dinner, and squatting
down amongst them on the mat.

The village was formerly a place of more importance than
it now is, a great number of Indians belonging to the most
industrious tribes, Shumanas, Passes, and Cambevas, having
settled on the site and adopted civilised habits, their industry
being directed by a few whites, who seem to have been men of
humane views as well as enterprising traders. One of these
old employers, Senhor Guerreiro, a well-educated Paraense,
was still trading on the Amazons when I left the country, in
1859 : 1^^ tol^ ^^^ t^^^t forty years previously Fonte Boa was a
delightful place to live in. The neighbourhood was then well
cleared, and almost free from mosquitoes, and the Indians were
orderly, industrious, and happy. What led to the ruin of the
settlement was the arrival of several Portuguese and Brazilian
traders of a low class, who in their eagerness for business
taught the easy-going Indians all kinds of trickery and im-
morality. They enticed the men and women away from their
old employers, and thus broke up the large establishments,
compelling the principals to take their capital to other places.
At the time of my visit there were few pure-blood Indians at
P'onte Boa, and no true whites. The inhabitants seemed to be
nearly all mamelucos, and were a loose-living, rustic, plain-
spoken, and ignorant set of people. There was no priest or
schoolmaster within 150 miles, and had not been any for many
years : the people seemed to be almost without government of
any kind, and yet crime and deeds of violence appeared to be

372 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. chap. xiii.

of very rare occurrence. The principal man of the village, one
Senhor Justo, was a big, coarse, energetic fellow, sub-delegado
of police, and the only tradesman who owned a large vessel
running directly between Fonte Boa and Para. He had re-
cently built a large house, in the style of middle-class dwellings
of towns, namely, with brick floors and tiled roof, the bricks
and tiles having been brought from Para, 1,500 miles distant,
the nearest place where they are manufactured in surplus.
When Senhor Justo visited me, he was much struck with the
engravings in a file of "Illustrated London News," which lay
on my table. It was impossible to resist his urgent entreaties
to let him have some of them " to look at," so one day he
carried off a portion of the papers on loan. A fortnight after-
wards, on going to request him to return them, I found the
engravings had been cut out, and stuck all over the newly
whitewashed walls of his chamber, many of them upside down.
He thought a room thus decorated with foreign views would
increase his importance amongst his neighbours, and when I
yielded to his \yish to keep them, was boundless in demonstra-
tions of gratitude, ending by shipping a boat-load of turtles for
my use at Ega.

These neglected and rude villagers still retained many
religious practices which former missionaries or priests had
taught them. The ceremony which they observed at Christmas,
like that described as practised by negroes in a former chapter,
was very pleasing for its simplicity, and for the heartiness with
which it was conducted. The church was opened, dried, and
swept clean a few days before Christmas-eve, and on the
morning all the women and children of the village were busy
decorating it with festoons of leaves and wild flowers. Towards
midnight it was illuminated inside and out with little oil
lamps, made of clay, and the image of the *'menino Deus," or
Child-God, in its cradle, was placed below the altar, which was
lighted up with rows of wax candles, very lean ones, but the
best the poor people could afford. All the villagers assembled
soon afterwards, dressed in their best, the women with flowers
in their hair, and a few simple hymns, totally irrelevant to the
occasion, but probably the only ones known by them, were
sung kneeling; an old half-caste, with black, spotted face,
leading off the tunes. This finished, the congregation rose,
and then marched in single file up one side of the church and
down the other, singing together a very pretty marching chorus,
and each one, on reaching the little image, stooping to kiss the

CHAP. XIII. ALLIGATOR SHOOTING. 373

end of a ribbon which was tied round its waist. Considering
that the ceremony was got up of their own freewill, and at
considerable expense, I thought it spoke well for the good
intentions and simplicity of heart of these poor neglected
villagers.

I left Fonte Boa, for Ega, on the 25th of January, making
the passage by steamer, down the middle of the current, in
sixteen hours. The sight of the clean and neat little town,
with its open spaces, close-cropped grass, broad lake, and white
sandy shores, had a most exhilarating effect, after my trip into
the wilder parts of the country. The district between Ega and
Lore to, the first Peruvian village on the river, is, indeed, the
most remote, thinly-peopled, and barbarous of the whole line of
the Amazons, from ocean to ocean. Beyond Loreto, signs of
civilisation, from the side of the Pacific, begin to be numerous ;
and from Ega, downwards, the improvement is felt from the
side of the Atlantic.

September c^th, 1857. — Again embarked on the " Tabatinga,"
this time for a longer excursion than the last, namely, to St.
Paulo de Olivenga, a village higher up than any I had yet
visited, being 260 miles distant in a straight line from Ega, or
about 400 miles following the bends of the river.

The waters are now nearly at their lowest point ; but this
made no difference to the rate of travelling, night or day.
Several of the Parana-mirims, or by-channels, which the steamer
threads in the season of full-water, to save a long circuit, were
now dried up, their empty beds looking like deep sandy ravines
in the midst of the thick forest. The large sand islands, and
miles of sandy beach, were also uncovered ; and these, with the
swarms of large aquatic birds, storks, herons, ducks, waders,
and spoon-bills, which lined their margins in certain places,
made the river view much more varied and animated than
it is in the season of the flood. Alligators of large size were
common near the shores, lazily floating, and heedless of the
passing steamer. The passengers amused themselves by shoot-
ing at them from the deck with a double-barrelled rifle we had
on board. I'he sign of a mortal hit was the monster turning
suddenly over, and remaining floating, with its white belly
upwards. Lieutenant Nunes wished to have one of the dead
animals on board, for the purpose of opening the abdomen,
and, if a male, extracting a part which is held in great estima-
tion amongst Brazilians as a " remedio," charm or medicine.
The steamer was stopped, and a boat sent, with four strong

374 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. chap. xiii.

men, to embark the beast ; the body, however, was found too
heavy to be Hfted into the beat; so a rope was passed round it,
and the hideous creature towed alongside, and hoisted on deck
by means of the crane, which was rigged for the purpose. It
had still some sparks of life, and when the knife was applied,
lashed its tail, and opened its enormous jaws, sending the
crowd of bystanders flying in all directions. A blow with a
hatchet, on the crown of the head, gave him his quietus at last.
The length of the animal was fifteen feet ; but this statement
can give but an imperfect idea of its immense bulk and weight.
Tli^e number of turtles which were seen swimming in quiet
shoaly bays passed on the road, also gave us much amuse-
ment. They were seen by dozens ahead, with their snouts
peering above the surface of the water, and, on the steamer
approaching, turning round to stare, but not losing confidence
till the vessel had nearly passed, when they appeared to be sud-
denly smitten with distrust, diving like ducks under the stream.
The river scenery about the mouth of the Japura is extremely
grand, and was the subject of remark amongst the passengers.
Lieutenant Nunes gave it as his opinion, that there was no
diminution of width or grandeur in the mighty stream up to
this point, a distance of 1,500 miles from the Atlantic; and yet
we did not here see the two shores of the river on both sides at
once; lines of islands or tracts of alluvial land, having by-
channels in the rear, intercepting the view of the northern
mainland, and sometimes also of the southern. Beyond the
Issa, however, the river becomes evidently narrower, being
reduced to an average width of about a mile ; there were then
no longer those magnificent reaches, with blank horizons,
which occur lower down. We had a dark and rainy night
after passing Tunantins, and the passengers were all very
uneasy on account of the speed at which we were travelling,
twelve miles an hour, with every plank vibrating with the
force of the engines. Many of them could not sleep, myself
amongst the number. At length, a little after midnight, a
sudden shout startled us : " Back 'her ! " (EngHsh terms being
used in matters relating to steam-engines). The pilot instantly
sprung to the helm, and in a few moments we felt our paddle-
box brushing against the wall of forest into which we had
nearly driven headlong. Fortunately the water was deep
close up to the bank. Early in the morning of the loth of
September we anchored in the port of St. Paulo, after five
days' quick travelling from Ega.

CHAP. xiii. S T. P A U L 0, 375

St. Paulo is built on a high hill, on the southern bank of
the river. The hill is formed of the same Tabatinga clay,
which occurs at intervals over the whole valley of the Amazons,
but nowhere rises to so great an elevation as here, the height
being about loo feet above the mean level of the river. The
ascent from the port is steep and slippery; steps and resting-
places have been made to lighten the fatigue of mounting,
otherwise the village would be almost inaccessible, especially
to porters of luggage and cargo, for there are no means of
making a circuitous road of more moderate slope, the hill
being steep on all sides, and surrounded by dense forests and
swamps. The place contains about 500 inhabitants, chiefly
half-castes and Indians of the Tuciina and Collina tribes, who
are very little improved from their primitive state. The streets
are narrow, and in rainy weather inches deep in mud ; many
houses are of substantial structure, but in a ruinous condition,
and the place altogether presents the appearance, like Fonte
Boa, of having se^n better days. Signs of commerce, such as
meet the eye at Ega, could scarcely be expected in this remote
spot, situate i,Soo miles, or seven months' round voyage by
sailing-vessels, from Para, the nearest market for produce. A
very short experience showed that the inhabitants were utterly
debased, the few Portuguese and other immigrants having,
instead of promoting industry, adopted the lazy mode of life
of the Indians, spiced with the practice of a few strong vices of
their own introduction.

The head-man of the village, Senhor Antonia Ribeiro, half-
white, half-Tuciina, prepared a house for me on landing, and
introduced me to the principal people. The summit of the
hill is grassy table-land, of two or three hundred acres in
extent. The soil is not wholly clay, but partly sand and
gravel ; the village itself, however, stands chiefly on clay,
and the streets, therefore, after heavy rains, become filled v/ith
muddy puddles. On damp nights the chorus of frogs and toads,
which swarm in weedy back-yards, creates such a bewildering
uproar, that it is. impossible to carry on a conversation in-
doors except by shouting. My house was damper even than
the one I occupied at Fonte Boa, and this made it extremely
difficult to keep my collections from being spoilt by mould.
But the general humidity of the atmosphere in this part of the
river was evidently much greater than it is lower down ; it
appears to increase gradually in ascending from the Atlantic
to the Andes. It was impossible at St. Paulo to keep salt

376 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. chap. xiii.

for many days in a solid state, which was not the case at
Ega, when the baskets in which it is contained were well
wrapped in leaves. Six degrees further westward, namely,
at -the foot of the Andes, the dampness of the climate of
the Amazonian forest region appears t© reach its acme, for
Poeppig fomid at Chinchao that the most refined sugar in
a few days, dissolved into syrup, and the best gunpowder
became liquid, even when enclosed in canisters. At St. Paulo
refined sugar kept pretty well in tin boxes, and I had no
difficulty in keeping my gunpowder dry in canisters, although
a gun loaded over-night could very seldom be fired off in the
morning.

I remained at St. Paulo five months ; five years would not
have been sufficient to exhaust the treasures of its neighbour-
hood in Zoology and Botany. Although now a forest-rambler
of ten years' experience, the beautiful forest which surrounds
this settlement gave me as much enjoyment as if I had only
just landed for the first time in a tropical country. The
plateau on which the village is . built extends on one side
nearly a mile into the forest, but on the other side the descent
into the lowland begins close to the streets ; the hill sloping
abruptly towards a boggy meadow surrounded by woods,
through which a. narrow winding path continues the slope
down to a cool shady glen, with a brook of icy-cold water
flowing at the bottom. At mid-day the vertical sun penetrates
into the gloomy depths of this romantic spot, lighting up the
leafy banks of the rivulet and its clean sandy margins, where
numbers of scarlet, green, and black tanagers and brightly-
coloured butterflies sport about in the stray beams. Sparkling
brooks, large and small, traverse the glorious forest in almost
every direction, and one is constantly meeting, whilst rambling
through the thickets, with trickling rills and bubbling springs,
so well provided is the country with moisture. Some of the
rivulets flow over a sandy and pebbly bed, and the banks of all
are clotlied with the most magnificent vegetation conceivable.
I had the almost daily habit, in my solitary walks, of resting
on the clean banks of these swift-flowing streams, and bathing
for an hour at a time in their bracing waters ; hours which
now remain amongst my most pleasant memories. The broad
forest roads continue, as I was told, a distance of several days'
journey into the interior, which is peopled by Tucunas and
other Indians, living in scattered houses and villages nearly in
their primitive state, the nearest village lying about six miles

CHAP. XIII. THE TUCUNA INDIANS. 377

from St. Paulo. The banks of all the streams are dotted with
palm-thatched dwellings of Tucunas, all half buried in the leafy
wilderness, the scattered families having chosen the coolest and
shadiest nooks for their abodes.

I frequently heard in the neighbourhood of these huts the
"realejo^' or organ bird (Cyphorhinus cantans), the most re-
markable songster, by far, of the Amazonian forests. When
its singular notes strike the ear for the first time, the impres-
sion cannot be resisted that they are produced by a human
voice. Some musical boy must be gathering fruit in the
thickets, and is singing a few notes to cheer himself The
tones become more fluty and plaintive ; they are now those of
a flageolet, and notwithstanding the utter impossibility of the
thing, one is for the moment convinced that somebody is
playing that instrument. No bird is to be seen, however
closely the surrounding trees and bushes may be scanned, and
yet the voice seems to come from the thicket close to one's
ears. The ending of the song is rather disappointing. It
begins with a few very slow and mellow notes, following each
other like the commencement of an air ; one listens expecting
to hear a complete strain, but an abrupt pause occurs, and
then the song breaks down, finishing with a number of
clicking unmusical sounds like a piping barrel organ out of
wind and tune. I never heard the bird on the Lower Ama-
zons, and very rarely heard it even at Ega ; it is the only
songster which makes an impression on the natives, who some-
times rest their paddles whilst travelling in their small canoes
along the shady by-streams, as if struck by the mysterious
sounds.

The-Tuciina Indians are a tribe resembling much the Shu-
manas. Passes, Juris, and Mauhes in their physical appearance
and customs. They lead like those tribes a setded agricultural
life, each horde obeying a chief of more or less influence,
according to his energy and ambition, and possessing its
paje or medicine man, who fosters its superstitions ; but
they are much more idle and debauched than other Indians
belonging to the superior tribes. They are not so warlike and
loyal as the Munduruciis, although resembling them in many
respects, nor have they the slender figures, dignified mien, and
gentle disposition of the Passes j there are, however, no tren-
chant points of difference to distinguish them from these
highest of all the tribes. Both men and women are tattooed,

378 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. chap. xiii.

the pattern being sometimes a scroll on each cheek, but
generally rows of short straight lines on the face. Most of
the older people wear bracelets, anklets, and garters of tapir-
hide or tough bark \ in their homes they wear no other
dress except on festival days, when they ornament themselves
with feathers or masked cloaks made of the inner bark of
a tree. They were very shy when I made my first visits
to their habitations in the forest, all scampering off to the
thicket when I approached, but on subsequent days they
became more familiar, and I found them a harmless, good-
natured people.

A great part of the horde living at the first Maloca or
village dwell in a common habitation, a large oblong hut built
and arranged inside with such a disregard of all symmetry,
that it appeared as though constructed by a number of hands,
each working independently, stretching a rafter or fitting in a
piece of thatch, without reference to what his fellow-labourers
were doing. The walls as well as the roof are covered with
thatch of palm-leaves ; each piece consisting of leaflets plaited
and attached in a row to a lath many feet in length. Strong
upright posts support the roof, hammocks being slung between
them, leaving a free space for passage and for fires in the
middle, and on one side is an elevated stage {girao) overhead,
formed of split palm-stems. The Tuciinas excel most of the
other tribes in the manufacture of pottery. They make broad-
mouthed jars for Tucupi sauce, caysuma or mandioca beer,
capable of holding twenty or more gallons, ornamenting them
outside with crossed diagonal streaks of various colours.
These jars, with cooking-pots, smaller jars for holding water,
blow-guns, quivers, matiri bags* full of small articles, baskets,
skins of animals, and so forth, form the principal part of the
furniture of their huts, both large and small. The dead bodies
of their chiefs are interred, the knees doubled up, in large jars
under the floors of their huts.

The semi-religious dances and drinking bouts usual amongst
the settled tribes of Amazonian Indians are indulged in to

* These bags are formed of remarkably neat twine made of Bromelia
fibres elaborately knitted, all in one piece, with sticks ; a belt of the same
material, but more closely woven, being attached to the top to suspend
them by. They afford good examples of the mechanical ability of these
Indians. The Tucunas also possess the art of skinning and stuffing birds,
the handsome kinds of which they sell in great numbers to passing
travellers.

CHAP. xiiL MASKED DANCE. 381

greater excess by the Tucunas than they are by most other
tribes. The Jurupari or Demon is the only superior beinoj
they have any conception of, and his name is mixed up with
all their ceremonies, but it is difficult to ascertain what they
consider to be his attributes. He seems to be believed in
simply as a mischievous imp, who is at the bottom of all those
mishaps of their daily life, the causes of which are not very
immediate or .obvious to their dull understandings. It is
vain to try to get information out of a Tuciina on this
subject ; they affect great mystery when the name is men-
tioned, and give very confused answers to questions : it was
clear, however, that the idea of a spirit as a beneficent God or
Creator had not entered the minds of these Indians. There
is great similarity in all their ceremonies and mummeries,
whether the object is a wedding, the celebration of the feast of
fruits, the plucking of the hair from the heads of their children,
or a holiday got up simply out of a love of dissipation. Some
of the tribe on these occasions deck themselves with the bright-
coloured feathers of parrots and macaws. The chief wears a
head-dress or cap made by fixing the breast-feathers of the
Toucan on a web of Bromelia twine, with erect tail plumes
of macaws rising from the crown. The cinctures of the arms
and legs are also then ornamented with bunches of feathers.
Others wear masked dresses : these are long cloaks reaching
below the knee, and made of the thick whitish-coloured inner
bark of a tree, the fibres of which are interlaced in so regular
a manner, that the material looks like artificial cloth. The
cloak covers the head ; two holes are cut out for the eyes,
a large round piece of the cloth stretched on a rim of flexible
wood is stitched on each side to represent ears, and the
features are painted in exaggerated style with yellow, red,
and black streaks. The dresses are sewn into the proper
shapes with thread made of the inner bark of the Uaissima
tree. Sometimes grotesque head-dresses, representing monkeys'
busts or heads of other animals, made by stretching cloth
or skin over a basket-work frame, are worn at these holi-
days. The biggest and ugliest mask represents the Jurupari.
In these festival habiliments the Tucunas go through their
monotonous see-saw and stamping dances accompanied by
singing and drumming, and keep up the sport often for three
or four days and nights in succession, drinking enormous
quantities of caysiima, smoking tobacco, and snuffing parica
powder.

382 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. chap. xiii.

I could not learn that there was any deep s^/mbolical mean-
ing in these masked dances, or that they commemorated any
past event in the history of the tribe. Some of them seem
vaguely intended as a propitiation of the Jurupari, but the
masker who represents the demon sometimes gets drunk along
with the rest, and is not treated with any reverence. From all
1 could make out, these Indians preserve no memory of events
going beyond the times of their fathers or grandfathers.
Almost every joyful event is made the occasion of a festival :
weddings amongst the rest. A young man who wishes to wed
a Tuciina girl has to demand her hand of her parents, who
arrange the rest of the affair, and fix a day for the marriage
ceremony. A wedding which took place in the Christmas
week whilst I was at St. Paulo, was kept up with great spirit
for three or four days, flagging during the heats of mid-day,
but renewing itself with increased vigour every evening.
During the whole time the bride, decked out with feather
ornaments, was under the charge of the older squaws, whose
business seemed to be sedulously to keep the bridegroom at a
safe distance until the end of the dreary period of dancing and
boosing. The Tucunas have the singular custom, in common
wath the Collinas and Mauhes, of treating their young girls, on
their showing the first signs of womanhood, as if they had
committed some crime. They are sent up to the girao under
the smoky and filthy roof, and kept there on very meagre diet,
sometimes for a whole month. I heard of one poor girl dying
under this treatment.

The only other tribe of this neighbourhood concerning which
I obtained any information were the Majerdnas, whose territory
embraces several hundred miles of the western bank of the
river Jauari, an affluent of the Solimoens, 120 miles beyond
St. Paulo. These are a fierce, indomitable, and hostile people,
like the Araras of the river Madeira ; they are also cannibals.
The navigation of the Jauari is rendered impossible on account
of the Majerdnas lying in wait on its banks to intercept and
murder all travellers, especially whites.

Four mcnths before my arrival at St. Paulo, two young half-
castes (nearly white) of the village went to lrade on the Jauari;
the Majerdnas having shown signs of abating their hostility for
a year or two previously. They had not been long gone, when
their canoe returned with the news that the two young fellows
had been shot with arrows, roasted, and eaten by the savages.
Jose' ITatricio, with his usual activity in the cause of law and

CHAP. XIII. ATTACKED BY AGUE. 383

order, despatched a party of armed men of the National Guard
to the place to make inquiries, and, if the murder should appear
to be unprovoked, to retaliate. When they reached the settle-
ment of the horde who had eaten the two men, it was found
evacuated, with the exception of one girl, who had been in the
woods when the rest of her people had taken flight, and whom
the guards brought with them to St. Paulo. It was gathered
from her, and from other Indians on the Jauari, that the young
men had brought their fate on themselves through improper
conduct towards the Majerona women. The girl, on arriving
at St. Paulo, was taken care of by Senhor Jose Patricio, bap-
tised under the name of Maria, and taught Portuguese. I
saw a good deal of her, for my friend sent her daily to my
house to fill the water jars, make the fire, and so forth. I
also gained her goodwill by extracting the grub of an QEstrus
fly from her back, and thus cured her of a painful tumour.
She was decidedly the best-humoured and, to all appear-
ance, the kindest-hearted specimen of her race I had yet seen.
She was tall and very stoiit; in colour much lighter than
the ordinary Indian tint, and her ways altogether were more
like those of a careless, laughing country wench, such as
might -be met with any day amongst the labouring class
in villages in our own country, than a cannibal. I heard
this artless maiden relate, in the coolest manner possible,
how she ate a portion of the bodies of the young men whom
her tribe had roasted. But what increased greatly the in-
congruity of this business, the young widow of one of the
victims, a neighbour of mine, happened to be present during
the narrative, and showed her interest in it by laughing at
the broken Portuguese in which the girl related the horrible
story.

In the fourth month of my sojourn at St. Paulo I had a
serious illness, an attack of the *' sizoens,'^ or ague of the
country, which, as it left me with shattered health and damped
enthusiasm, led to my abandoning the plan I had formed of
proceeding to the Peruvian towns of Pebas and Moyobamba,
250 and 600 miles further west, and so completing the exami-
nation of the Natural History of the Amazonian plains up to
the foot of the Andes. I made a very large collection at St.
Paulo, and employed a collector at Tabatinga and on the banks
of the Jauari for several months^ so that I acquired a very fair
knowledge altogether of the productions of the country border-

384 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. chap. xiii.

ing the Amazons to the end of the Brazilian territory, a dis-
tance of 1,900 miles from the Atlantic at the mouth, of the
Para; but beyond the Peruvian boundary I found now I should
be unable to go. My ague seemed to be the culmination of a
gradual deterioration of health, which had been going on for
several years. I had exposed myself too much in the sun,
working to the utmost of my strength six days a week, and had
suffered much, besides, from bad and insufficient food. The
ague did not exist at St. Paulo ; but the foul and humid state
of the village was, perhaps, sufficient to produce ague in a
person much weakened from other causes. The country
bordering the shores of the Solimoens is healthy throughout ;
some endemic diseases certainly exist, but these are not of a
fatal nature, and the epidemics which desolated the Lower
Amazons from Para to the Rio Negro, between the years 1850
and 1856, had never reached this favoured land. Ague is
endemic only on the banks of those tributary streams which
have dark-coloured water.

I always carried a stock of medicines with me ; and a small
phial of quinine, which I had bought at Para in 185 1, but
never yet had use for, now came in very useful. I took for
each dose as much as would lie on the tip of a penknife-blade,
mixing it with warm chamomile tea. The first few days after
my first attack I could not stir, and was delirious during the
paroxysms of fever ; but the worst being over, I. made an effort
to rouse myself, knowing that incurable disorders of the liver
and spleen follow ague in this country if the feeling of lassitude
is too much indulged. So every morning I shouldered my
gun or insect-net, and went my usual walk in the forest. The
fit of shivering very often seized me before I got home, and I
then used to stand still and brave it out. When the steamer
ascended in January, 1858, Lieutenant Nunes was shocked to
see me so much shattered, and recommended me strongly to
return at once to Ega. I took his advice, and embarked
with him, when he touched at St. Paulo on his downward
voyage, on the 2nd of February. I still hoped to be able
to turn my face westward again, to gather the yet unseen
treasures of the marvellous countries lying between Tabatinga
and the slopes of the Andes ; but although, after a short rest
in Ega, the ague left me, my general health remained in a state
too weak to justify the undertaking of further journeys. At
length I left Ega, on the 3rd of February, 1859, e?i route for
England.

i^(j

CHAP. xiii. RETURN TO PARA, 3^5

I arrived at Pard on the 17th of March, after an absence in
the interior of seven years and a half. My old friends, English,
American, and BraziHan, scarcely knew, me again, but all ^ave
me a very warm welcome, especially Mr. George Brocklehurst (of
the firm of R. Singlehurst and Co., the chief foreign merchants,
who had been my correspondents), who received me into his
house, and treated me with the utmost kindness. I was rather
surprised at the warm appreciation shown by many of the prin-
cipal people of my labours; but, in fact, the interior of the
country is still the " sertao " (wilderness), — a terra incognita to
most residents of the seaport, — and a man v/ho had spent seven
years and a half in exploring it solely with scientific aims was
somewhat of a curiosity. I found Para greatly changed and
improved. It was no longer the weedy, ruinous, village-looking
place that it appeared when I first knew it in 1848. The
population had been increased (to 20,000) by an influx of Por-
tuguese, Madeiran, and German immigrants, and for many years
past the provincial government had spent their considerable
surplus revenue in beautifying the city. The streets, formerly
un paved or stre-svn with loose stones and sand, were now laid
with concrete in a most complete manner ; all the projecting
masonry of the irregularly-built houses had been cleared away,
and the buildings made more uniform. Most of the dilapidated
houses were replaced by handsome new edifices, having long
and elegant balconies fronting the first floors, at an elevation
of several feet above the roadway. The large swampy squares
had been drained, weeded, and planted with rows of almond
and casuarina trees, so that they were now a great ornament to
the city, instead of an eyesore as they formerly were. My old
favourite road, the Monguba avenue, had been renovated and
joined to many other magnificent rides lined with trees, which
in a very few years had grown to a height sufficient to afford
agreeable shade ; one of these, the Estrada de Sao Jose, had
been planted with coco-nut palms. Sixty public vehicles,
light cabriolets (some of them built in Para), now plied in the
streets, increasing much the animation of the beautiful squares,
streets, and avenues.

I found also the habits of the people considerably changed.
Many of the old religious holidays had declined in importance,
and given way to secular amusements ; social parties, balls,
music, billiards, and so forth. There was quite as much plea-
sure-seeking as formerly, but it was turned in a more rational
direction, and the Paraenses seemed now to copy rather the

25

3^6 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. chap. xiii.

customs of the northern nations of Europe, than those of the
mother-country, Portugal. I was glad to see several new book-
sellers' shops, and also a fine edifice devoted to a reading-room
suppHed with periodicals, globes, and maps, and a circulating
library. There were now many printing-offices, and four daily
newspapers. The health of the place had greatly improved
since 1850, the year of the yellow fever, and Para was now
considered no longer dangerous to new-comfers.

So much for the improvements visible in the place, and now
for the dark side of the picture. The expenses of living had
increased about fourfold, a natural consequence of the demand
for labour and for native products of all kinds having aug-
mented in greater ratio than the supply, through large arrivals
of non-productive residents, and considerable importations of
money on account of the steamboat company and foreign
merchants. Para, in 1 848, was one of the cheapest places of
residence on the American continent ; it was now one of the
dearest. Imported articles of food, clothing, and furniture
were mostly cheaper, although charged with duties varying
from 18 to 80 per cent, besides high freights and large profits,
than those produced in the neighbourhood. Salt codfish was
twopence per pound cheaper than the vile salt pirarucu of the
country. Oranges, which could formerly be had almost gratis,
were now sold in the streets at the rate of three for a penny ;
large bananas were a penny each ; tomatos were from twopence
to threepence each, and all other fruit in this fruit-producing
country had advanced in like proportion. Mandioca-meal, the
bread of the country, had become so scarce and dear and
bad, that the poorer classes of natives suffered famine, and
all who could afford it were obliged to eat wheaten bread at
fourpence to fivepence per pound, made from American flour,
1,200 barrels of which were consumed monthly; this was now,
therefore, a very serious item of daily expense to all but the
most wealthy. House-rent was most exorbitant ; a miserable
Httle place of two rooms, without fixtures or conveniences of
any kind, having simply blank walls, cost at the rate of ;?{^i8
sterling a year. Lastly, the hire of servants was beyond the
means of all persons in moderate circumstances ; a lazy cook or
porter could not be had for less than three or four shillings a
day, besides his board and what he could steal. It cost me
half-a-crown for the hire of a small boat and one man to dis-
embark from the steamer, a distance of 100 yards.

In rambling over my old ground in the forests of the neigh-

CHAP. XIII. DEPARTURE FOR ENGLAND. 387

bourhood, I found great changes had taken place — to me,
changes for the worse. The mantle of shrubs, bushes, and
creeping plants which formerly, when the suburbs were undis-
turbed by axe or spade, had been left free to arrange itself in
rich, full, and smooth sheets and masses over the forest borders,
had been nearly all cut away, and troops of labourers were still
employed cutting ugly muddy roads for carts and cattle,
through the once clean and lonely woods. Houses and mills
had been erected on the borders of these new roads. The
noble forest trees had been cut down, and their naked half-
burnt stems remained in the midst of ashes, muddy puddles,
and heaps of broken branches. I was obliged to hire a negro
boy to show me the way to my favourite path near Una, which
I have described in the second chapter of this narrative ; the
new clearings having quite obliterated the old forest roads.
Only a few acres of the glorious forest near Una nov/ remained
in their natural state. On the other side of the city, near the
old road to the rice mills, several scores of woodsmen were
employed, under government, in cutting a broad carriage-road
through the forest to Maranham, the capital of the neighbour-
ing province, distant 250 miles from" Para, and this had entirely
destroyed the solitude of the grand old forest path. In the
course of a few years, however, a new groAvth of creepers will
cover the naked tree-trunks on the borders of this new road,
and luxuriant shrubs form a green fringe to the path : it will
then become as beautiful a woodland road as the old one was.
A naturalist will have, henceforward, to go farther from the
city to find the glorious forest scenery which lay so near in
1848, and work much more laboriously than was formerly
needed, to make the large collections which Mr. Wallace and I
succeeded in doing in the neighbourhood of Para.

Jime 2, 1859. — At length, on the second of June, I left
Para, probably for ever;, embarking in a North American
trading-vessel, the "Frederick Demming," for New York, the
United States route being the quickest as well as the pleasantest
way of reaching England. My extensive private collections
were divided into three portions, and sent by three separate
ships, to lessen the risk of loss of the whole. On the evening
of the third of June, I took a last view of the glorious forest
for which I had so much love, and to explore which I had
devoted so many years. The saddest hours I ever recollect to
have spent were those of the succeeding night, when, the mame-
luco pilot having left us free of the shoals and out of sight of

388 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. chap, xifl.

land, though within the mouth of the river, at anchor, waiting
for the wind, I felt that the last link which connected me with
the land of so many pleasing recollections was broken. The
Paraenses, who are fully aware of the attractiveness of their
country, have an alliterative proverb, " Quem vai para (o) Pard
para," '' He who goes to Para stops there,'^ and I had often
thought I should myself have been added to the list of examples.
The desire, however, of seeing again my parents and enjoying
once more the rich pleasures of intellectual society, had suc-
ceeded in overcoming the attractions of a region which may be
fittingly called a NaturaHst's Paradise. During this las"t night
on the Para river a crowd of unusual thoughts occupied my
mind. Recollections of English climate, scener}% and modes
of life came to me with a vividness I had never before expe-
rienced during the eleven years of my absence. Pictures of
startling clearness rose up of the gloomy winters, the long
grey twilights, murky atmosphere, elongated shadows, chilly
springs, and sloppy summers ; of factory chimneys and crowds
of grimy operatives, rung to work in early morning by factory
bells \ of union workhouses, confined rooms, artificial cares, and
slavish conventionalities. To live again amidst these dull
scenes I was quitting a country of perpetual summer, where
my life had been spent like that of three-fourths of the people
in gipsy fashion, on the endless streams or in the boundless
forests. I was leaving the equator, where the well-balanced
forces of Nature maintained a land-surface and climate that
seemed to be typical of mundane order and beauty, to sail
towards the North Pole, where lay my home under crepuscular
skies somewhere about fifty-two degrees of latitude. It was
natura 1 to feel a little dismayed at the prospect of so great a
change \ but now, after three years of renewed experience of
England, I find how incomparably superior is civilised life,
where feelings, tastes, and intellect find abundant nourishment,
to the spiritual sterility of half-savage existence, even though
it be passed in the garden of Eden. What has struck me
powerfully is the immeasurably greater diversity and interest
of human character and social conditions in a single civilised
nation, than in equatorial South America, where three distinct
races of man live together. The superiority of the bleak north
to tropical regions, however, is only in their social aspect ; for
I hold to the opinion that, although humanity can reach an
advanced state of culture only by battling with the inclemencies
of nature in high latitudes, it is under the equator alone that

CHAP. XIII. CONCLUSION. 389

the perfect race of the future will attain to complete fruition of
man's beautiful heritage, the earth.

The following day, having no wind, we drifted out of the
mouth of the Para with the current of fresh water that is
poured from the mouth of the river, and in twenty-four hours
advanced in this way seventy miles on our road. On the 6th
of June, when in 7'^ 55' N. lat. and 52° 30' W. long., and there-
fore about 400 miles from the mouth of the main Amazons, we
passed numerous patches of floating grass mingled with tree-
trunks and withered foliage. Amongst these masses I espied
many fruits of that peculiarly Amazonian tree the Ubussii
palm ; this was the last I saw of the Great River.

INDEX.

Agriculture, 6o, i6i, 184

Ague, 383

Air- roots, 23

Aiyussa turtle, 289, 310

Alligators, 119, 253, 299, 306, 315,

373
Amazons river, magnitude of, 17,
120, 158, 240, 250,

.374
— — rising and sinking
of, 141, 269
Amphisbaena snakes, 51
Ampullarise, 63
Amusements, 261
Anaca parrot, 119
Anaconda, 215
Animals, large, scarcity of, in forest,

Anonaceous fruits, 161, 176, 267

Ant-eaters, 92

Ants, 9, 109, 205, 350

Ant-thrushes, 6, 339

Arara Indians, 159

Arboreal nature 01 Fauna, 22, 32, 54

Arrow-grass, 143, 246

An-ows for shooting turtle, 293

Arroyas, cataracts of, 70

Arabe sauce, 161

Arums, forest of, 107

Assacu, poisonous tree, 315-

Assai palm, 3, 63, 117

Ateles marginatus, 217

Atmosphere, transparency of, in the

Amazons delta, 65
A tta fruit, 1 76

Bag ABA PALMS, 117, 184, 247

Barbets, 143

Barrigudo monkeys, 334

Bats, 90, 337

Bees, 31, 187

Bembex, 181

Bird-killing spider, 83

Birds, insectivorous, flocks of, 339

— singing, 31, 134, 194, 377
Blow gim, 280
Boa- constrictor, 50, 219
Brachyurus calvus, 329
Brazil-nut trees, 29, 69
Butterflies, great diversity of, near
Para, 52

— importance of, in Bio-

logical science, 347

— of Ega, 274, 347
Buttress-trees, 29

Cacao planters, 74, 137
Caiarara monkeys, 208
Caishana Indians, 365
Callidryas, 131
Callithea, 131, 275
Callithrix monkeys, 145, 207
Campo districts, 176
Canary birds. 146
Cannibal Indians, 382 f
Canoes, description of, 36, 85
— mode of building, 217
Canoe-men, songs of, 77
Carashue thrush, song of, 134, 194
Carnivorous beetles, 1 10
Cassicus icteronotus, 7
Catagrammas, 131, 311
Caypor, sylvan deity, 363
Cebus monkeys, 163, 208, 31S, 332
Cecropia-tree, 143
Cedar tree, 40, 67
Chocolate, monkey's, 190
Chrysothrix sciureus, 163

392

INDEX.

Cicadas, 230, 274

Clark, Rev. Hamlet, on Saiiba ant,

II
Climate, 176, 200, 240
Climbing animals, 22, 32, 54
Climbing trees, 21
Coaita monkey, 128, 332
Cocoons, suspended, 348
Coleopterous insects, 52, IIO
CoUina Indians, 375, 382
Cow-tree, 30
Cricket, musical, 132
Cucama Indians, 241
Cupiyo, great interior channel, 292
Cupu-trees, 190
Curassow birds, 214, 310
Curimata fish, 230
Curua palm, 191
Curupira wood-demon, 32, 263
Cutia (Agouti), 106
Cyphorinus cantans, or organ bird,

377

Diurnal cycle of phenomena,

26
Dog, wild, 289
Dolphins, fresh-water, 75, 154,

296
Doves, 178, 194

Earthenware, 185, 378
Electric eels, 317
Euglossa, 31, 188

Fan-leaved palms, grove of, 59
Fauna of the Amazons, adapted to

forest, 22, 54
Feather ornaments of Indians, 226,

381
Ferns, 30, 166
Finches, 194
Fire-ant, 199, 201, 205
Fish-dance of Indians, 305
Fishes, 200, 229

— modes of capturing, 67, 200
Flowers, scarcity of, in forest, 31
Foraging ants, 353
Fritillary butterfly, 194
Fruits, 161, 176, 267

Goajara, bay of, 57
Goatsuckers, 108, 194
Gold, 71

HapAle, species of, 50, 336

Heliconii butterflies, 130

Helicops snake, 99

Heron, peacock, 40

Hetaira Esmeralda, 53

Howling monkeys, 32, 140, 150,

230
Humidity, increase of, towards

Andes, 375
Humming-bird hawk-moths, 97
Humming-birds, 6, 96

iGARiTfi CANOE, description of,

36
Indians, and Brazilian land-law, 39,
105

— captive, 257

— character of, 37, 243

— diseases of, 257

— enslaving of, 39, 109, 256

— sensitiveness to heat, 105,

260

— unsuited to a hot climate,

260
India-rubber tree, 73
Instinct of locality, 182
Iriartea ventricosa, 247

JaBURU CHANNEL, II 7

Jacamars, 71

Jacare curua, 119

Jacuaru, 192

Jacitara, 21, 163

Jaguar and alligator, 315

Japim bird, 7

Jara palm, 169

Jararaca snake, 51, 316

Jesuit missionaries, 37, 87, 157

Jupati palm, 104, 117

Juri Indian, 367

Jurupari, Indian deity, 381

Kingfishers, i8o
Kinkajou or Jupura, 336

Lacre, or wax-trees, 149
Landslips, 249
Languages, Indian, 37, 260
Leaf-carrying ant, 9
Leeches, 294
Lizards, 8, 192, 194
Longicom beetles, ill
Loricaria fish, 119

INDEX.

J93

Macaws, hyacinthine, 68, 228
— scarlet and blue, 119
Madeira river, 158
Majerona Indians, 382
Mamelucos, 39, 63, 160
Manatee, 245
Mandioca, 12, 72, 266

— poisonous juice of, 265
Maraua Indians, 367
Mai-moset monkeys, 48, 335
Masquerading, Indian, 263, 381
Mauhes Indians, 144, 382
Mason bees, 187
— wasps, 185
Melipona bees, 31, 187
Midas, species of, 48, 49, 84, 335
Missionaries, 37
Mixed breeds, names of, 17
Moju river, 58
Monasa nigrifrons, 143
Monkeys, 48, 84, 128, 140, 149, 156,

207, 217, 230, 318, 325
Monkeys of cacao plantations, 163
Montaria canoe, description of, 36
Morpho butterflies, 52, 152
Mosquitoes, 370
Motuca flies, 154

Mundurucu Indians, 144, 221, 377
Mura Indians, 159, 163

Night-apes, 332

Obydos, straits of, 126
CEstrus, parasitic on man, 383
Opischocomus cristatus, 61
Opossums, 212

Paca, 106

Paje, or medicine-men, 225, 366
Palm-fruits, 59, 63, 184, 246, 267
Pai-a, history of, 16
Pararauate Indians, 222, 257
Parauacu monkey, 331
Parentins hill, 144
Parentintins Indians, 159
Pashiuba palm, 107, 2*48
Passe Indians, 282
Paullinia pinnata, 200
Peach-palm, 267
Pelopaeus wasp, 1S6
Peruvian traders, 362
Peuririma palm, 149

Pikia fruit, 189
Pine-apples, wild, 149
Piranha fish, 202, 229
Pium flies, 197, 364
Portuguese emigrants, 78, 1 14
Puma, 91

Pumice-stones floating on the Ama-
zons, 247

Ramphoccelus Jacapa, 7
Rattlesnakes, 150, 208
Rice, wild, 320
Rostrhamus hamatus, 210

Sand-wasps, j8i

vSapucayo nut-tree, 29

Sarapo fishes, 230

Saiiba ant, 9, 65

Shumana Indians, 304, 365

Silk-cotton, or Monguba trees, 5,

143
Sloths, 193

Snakes, 50, 75, 98, 316
Songs of canoemen, 77
Spider monkeys, 129, 217
Spiders, 53, 83, 194
Spix and Martins, 25, 170
Steam-navigation Company, 156
Surubim fish, 290

Tabatinga-clay formation, 127,

145, 155, 156, 177, 185, I9S,

247, 375
Tanagers, 7, 66, 165
Tapioca, 12
Tattooing, 223

Taurari cigarette wrappers, 162
Teius teguexim, S92
Termites, 108
Ticks, 148
Tides felt 530 miles from the mouth

of the Amazons, 220
Tiger, black, 291
Tinibd, poisonous liana, 200
Toads, 195

Tobacco cultivation, 162
Tocantins, length of, 56, 59
Tonka-bean tree, 189
Toucans, 26, 192, 266, 340

— use of Vjeak of, 341
Tabalhadores, captains of, 204
Tracaja turtle, 289

26

394

INDEX.

Trade-wind of Amazons, 1 1 2, 205,

239
Trees, colossal, 29, 3x5, 371
Trogons, 71, 135, 170, 192, 342
Trypoxlyon, 186
Tucuna Indians, 377
Tucunare fish, 199, 210
Tucupl sauce, 161, 265
Tupi language, 37, 260
Turtle, modes of cooking, 265
— fishing and shooting. 293

Ubusstj" palm, 58, 117
Umbrella bird, 312
Unicorn bird, 143
Urari poison, 281, 329

Urucuri palm, 21 5, 246

Vampire, 337
Victoria waler-Iily, 146, 250
Vigilinga canoe, 56
Vultures, 151

Wallace, Mr. A. R., ascent of Rio

Negro, 170
"W^hyapusai monkeys, 145, 207
Willows, 143
Wren, 7

Yellow fever, 171
I Ygapo, or flooded forests, 147

THE END.

Watson & Hazell, Printers, London and Aylesbury;

Date Due

- — "■ ~~T

"■ -' ' '-"'I' • •'' — =* —

ijyL_5

1990

OCT 1 t

IS37

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