THE LIBRARY OF
BROWN UNIVERSITY

THE CHURCH
COLLECTION

The Bequest of

Colonel George Earl Church

1835-1910

THE

NATURALIST ON THE RIVER
AMAZONS,

A RECORD OP ADVENTURES, HABITS OF ANIMALS, SKETCHES OF

BRAZILIAN AND INDIAN LIFE, AND ASPECTS OF NATURE UNDER

THE EQUATOR, DURING ELEVEN TEARS OF TRAVEL.

By HENRY WALTER BATES.

Pelopaeus "Wasp building nest.

IN TWO VOLUMES.— VOL. II.

LONDON :
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1863.
[The Right of Translation is Reserved.']

11 3.6

i

\

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

CHAPTER I.

SANTAKEM.

Situation of Santarem — Manners and customs of the inhabitants
— Trade — Climate — Leprosy — Historical sketch — Grassy campos
and woods — Excursions to Mapiri, Mahica, and Irura, with
sketches of their Natural History ; Palms, wild fruit-trees,
Mining Wasps, Mason Wasps, Bees, Sloths, and Marmoset
Monkeys — Natural History of Termites or White Ants . . 1

CHAPTER II.

VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS.

Preparations for voyage — First day's sail — Mode of arranging
money-matters and remittance of collections in the interior —
Loss of boat — Altar do Chad — Excursion in forest — Valuable
timber — 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 Kiver 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 — Descent of river to Santarem . . . . .71

CHAPTER III.

THE UPPER AMAZONS— VOYAGE TO EGA.

Departure from Barra — First day and night on the Upper Ama-
zons— Desolate appearance of river in the flood season — Cucama

VOL. II. b

iv CONTENTS.

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 —
Customs, trade, &c. — The four seasons of the Upper Amazons . 153

CHAPTER IV.

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 — Hunt-
ing-rambles with, natives in the forest — Return to Ega . . 225

CHAPTER V.

ANIMALS OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA.

Scarlet-faced Monkeys — Parauacii Monkey — Owl-faced Night-apes
— Marmosets — Jupurd, — Comparison of Monkeys of the New
"World with those of the Old — Bats — Birds — Cuvier's Toucan
— Curl-crested Toucan — Insects — Pendulous Cocoons — Foraging
Ants— Blind Ants 305

CHAPTER VI.

EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA.

Steamboat travelling on the Amazons — Passengers — Tunantins —
Caishana Indians — The Jutahi — Indian tribes on the Jutahi and
the Junia — The Sapo — Maraud Indians — Fonte Boa — Journey to
St. Paulo — Tucuna Indians — Illness— Descent to Para — Changes
at Para — Departure for England 367

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOL. II.

♦

MASKED DANCE AND WEDDING FEAST OF TUCUNA INDIANS

Frontispiece

PELOP.EUS WASP BUILDING NEST

41

42
43
52

CELLS OF TRYPOXYLON AURIFRONS

MELIPONA BEES GATHERING CLAY

THE JACUARU (TEITJS TEGUENIM)

SOLDIERS OF DIFFERENT SPECIES OF WHITE ANTS, WITH ORDI-
NARY SHAPE OF WORKER AND WINGED CLaSS, . . . 64

ac aba (mesonauta insignis) 140

sarapo (cab apes) 141

needle-fish (liemabamphus) 141

bulging-stemmed palm : pashiuba barrigudo (iriartea

yentkicosa) 169

uiki fruit 217

putunha palm 218

blow-pipe, quiver, and abbow 236

sububim (pimelodus tigrinus) . ' . . . . 256

arrow used in turtle shooting 261

vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

TURTLE-FISHING AND ADVENTURE WITH ALLIGATOR . . . 265

NIGHT ADVENTURE WITH ALLIGATOR 279

UMBRELLA BIRD 283

.SCARLET-FACED AND PARAUACU MONKEYS .... 306

CURL-CRESTED TOUCAN 343

SUSPENDED COCOON OF MOTH 348

SACK-BEARING CATERPILLAR (SACCOPHORA) 350

FORAGING ANTS (ECITON DREPANOPHORA) 356

FORAGING ANTS (ECITON ERRATICA) CONSTRUCTING A COVERED

ROAD. —SOLDIERS SALLYING OUT ON BEING DISTURBED . 364

THE

NATUBALIST ON THE AMAZONS.

CHAPTER I

SANTAREM.

Situation of Santarem — Manners and customs of the inhabitants —
Trade — Climate — Leprosy — Historical sketch — Grassy campos and
woods — Excursions to Mapiri, Mahica, and Irura, with sketches
of their Natural History ; Palms, wild fruit-trees, Mining Wasps,
Mason Wasps, Bees, Sloths, and Marmoset Monkeys — Natural
History of Termites or White Ants.

I have already given a short account of the size,
situation, and general appearance of Santarem. Al-
though containing not more than 2500 inhabitants, it
is the most civilised and important 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 sur-
rounded 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 dilapidated condition, overlooks the streets,
and forms the eastern limit of the mouth of the

VOL. II. B

2 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

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 mag-
nificent hilly country through which it flows from the
south, is then visible on both shores. This high land,
which appears to be a continuation of the central table-
lands of Brazil, stretches almost without interruption on
the eastern side of the river down to its mouth at San-
tarem. The scenery as well as the soil, vegetation 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 San-
tarem with its broad white sandy beach, limpid dark-
green waters, and line of picturesque hills rising behind
over the fringe of green forest, affords an agreeable
surprise. On the main Amazons, the prospect is mono-
tonous unless the vessel runs near the shore, when
the wonderful diversity and beauty of the vegetation
afford constant entertainment. Otherwise, the un-
varied, 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
interior, in November, 1851, and made it my head quar-
ters 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 excursions up the Tapajos, and to

Chap. I. SERVANTS. 3

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 pleasantly 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 contained 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 out-
house 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 pay-
ments to make ; the owners of house property pay a
dizimo or tithe, to the " collectoria geral," or general trea-
sury, 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 trust-
worthy 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 subsequently
made. Servants of any kind were almost impossi-
ble 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

B 2

SANTAREM. Chap. I.

days to commence my Natural History explorations in
the neighbourhood.

lc?J

I found Santarem quite a different sort of place from
the other settlements on the Amazons. At Cameta, the
lively, good-humoured, and plain-living Mamelucos
formed the bulk of the population, the white immi-
grants there, as on the Rio Negro and Upper Amazons,
seeming to have fraternised well with the aborigines. In
the neighbourhood of Santarem the Indians, I believe,
were originally hostile to the Portuguese ; at any rate,
the blending of the two races has not been here on a large
scale. I did not find the inhabitants the pleasant, easy-
going, and blunt-spoken country folk that are met with
in other small towns of the interior. The whites, Portu-
guese and Brazilians, are a relatively more numerous
class here than in other settlements, and make great
pretensions to civilisation ; they are the merchants and
shopkeepers of the place ; owners of slaves, cattle
estates, and cacao plantations. Amongst the principal
residents must also be mentioned the civil and military
authorities, who are generally well-bred and intelligent
people from other provinces. Few Indians live in the
place ; it is too civilised for them, and the lower class is
made up (besides the few slaves) of half-breeds, in whose
composition negro blood predominates. Coloured people
also exercise the different handicrafts ; the town supports
two goldsmiths, who are mulattoes and have each several
apprentices ; the blacksmiths are chiefly Indians, as is
the case generally throughout the province. The man-
ners of the upper class (copied from those of Para), are

Chap. I. FORMALITIES. 5

very stiff and formal, and the absence of the hearty hospi-
tality met with in other places, produces a disagreeable
impression at first. Much ceremony is observed in the
intercourse of the principal people with each other, and
with strangers. The best room in each house is set
apart for receptions, and visitors are expected to present
themselves in black dress coats, regardless of the furious
heat which rages in the sandy streets of Santarem
towards mid-day, the hour when visits are generally
made. In the room a cane-bottomed sofa and chairs,
all lacquered and gilded, are arranged in quadrangular
form, and here the visitors are invited to seat them-
selves, whilst the compliments are passed, or the busi-
ness arranged. In taking leave, the host backs out his
guests with repeated bows, finishing at the front door.
Smoking is not in vogue amongst this class, but snuff-
taking is largely indulged in, and. great luxury is dis-
played in gold and silver snuff-boxes. All the gentle-
men, and indeed most of the ladies also, wear gold
watches and guard chains. Social parties are not very
frequent ; the principal men being fully occupied with
their business and families, and the rest spending their
leisure in billiard and gambling rooms, leaving wives
and daughters shut up at home. Occasionally, however,
one of the principal citizens gives a bail. In the first
that I attended, the gentlemen were seated all the even-
ing on one side of the room, and the ladies on the
other, and partners were allotted by means of num-
bered cards, distributed by a master of the ceremonies.
But the customs changed rapidly in these matters after
steamers began to run on the Amazons (in 1853), bring-

6 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

ing a flood of new ideas and fashions into the country.
The old, bigoted, Portuguese system of treating women,
which stifled social intercourse and wrought endless
evils in the private life of the Brazilians, is now being
gradually, although slowly, abandoned.

When a stranger arrives at an interior town in Brazil,
with the intention of making some stay, he is obliged
within three days to present himself at the Police office,
to show his passport. He is then expected to call on
the different magistrates, the military commander, and
the principal private residents. This done, he has to
remain at home a day or two to receive return visits,
after which he is considered to be admitted into the
best society. Santarem being the head of a comarca or
county, as well as a borough, has a resident high judge
(Juiz de Direito), besides a municipal judge (Juiz Muni-
cipal) and recorder (Promoter publico). The head of
the police is also a magistrate, having jurisdiction in
minor cases ; he is called the delegado or delegate of
police, from being appointed by and subordinate to the
chief of police in the capital : all these officers are nomi-
nated by the Central Government. In a pretentious
place like Santarem, the people attach great importance
to these matters, and I had to go a round of visiting
before I finally settled down to work. Notwithstanding
the ceremonious manners of the principal inhabitants, I
found several most worthy and agreeable people amongst
them. Some of the older families, who spend most of
their time on their plantations or cattle estates, were as
kind-hearted and simple in their ways as the Obydos
townsfolk. But these are rarely in town, coming only for

Chap. I. FESTIVALS. 7

a few days during the festivals. They have, however,
spacious town-houses, some of them two stories high,
with massive walls of stone or adobe. The principal citi-
zen, Senhor Miguel Pinto de Guimaraens, is a native of
the place, and is an example of the readiness with which
talent and industry meet with their reward under the
wise government of Brazil. He began life in a very
humble way ; I was told he was once a fisherman, and
retailed the produce of his hook and line or nets in the
port. He is now the chief merchant of the district ;
a large cattle and landed proprietor ; and owner of a
sugar estate and mills. When the new National Guard
was formed in Brazil in 1853, he received from the
Emperor the commission of colonel. He is a pale, grave,
and white-haired, though only middle-aged, man. I
saw a good deal of him, and liked his sincerity and
the' uprightness of his dealings. When I arrived in
Santarem he was the delegado of police. He is rather
unmerciful both in and out of office towards the short-
comings, in private and public morality, of his fellow-
countrymen ; but he is very much respected. The
nation cannot be a despicable one, whose best men are
thus able to work themselves up to positions of trust
and influence.

The religious festivals were not so numerous here as
in other towns, and such as did take place were very
poor and ill attended. There is a handsome church,
but the vicar showed remarkably little zeal for re-
ligion, except for a few days now and then when
the Bishop came from Para, on his rounds through
the diocese. The people are as fond of holiday making

8 SANTAREM. Chap. T.

here as in other parts of the province ; but it seemed
to be a growing fashion to substitute rational amuse-
ments for the processions and mummeries of the saints'
days. The young folks are very musical, the prin-
cipal instruments in use being the flute, violin, Spanish
guitar, and a small four-stringed viola, called cava-
quinho. During the early part of my stay at San-
tarem, a little party of instrumentalists, led by a tall,
thin, ragged mulatto, who was quite an enthusiast in
his art, used frequently to serenade their friends in the
cool and brilliant moonlit evenings of the dry season,
playing French and Italian marches and dance music
with very good effect. The guitar was the favourite
instrument with both sexes, as at Par^, ; the piano, how-
ever, is now fast superseding it. The ballads sung to
the accompaniment of the guitar were not learnt from
written or printed music, but communicated orally from
one friend to another. They were never spoken of as
songs, but modinhas, or " little fashions," each of which
had its day, giving way to the next favourite brought
by some young fellow from the capital. At festival
times there was a great deal of masquerading, in which
all the people, old and young, white, negro, and Indian,
took great delight. The best things of this kind used
to come off during the Carnival, in Easter week, and
on St. John's eve ; the negroes having a grand semi-
dramatic display in the streets at Christmas time. The
more select affairs were got up by the young whites, and
coloured men associating with whites. A party of thirty
or forty of these used to dress themselves in uniform
style, and in very good taste, as cavaliers and dames, each

Chap. I. INDIAN PROCESSION. 9

disguised with a peculiar kind of light gauze mask. The
troop, with a party of musicians, went the round of their
friends' houses in the evening, and treated the large and
gaily-dressed companies which were there assembled to
a variety of dances. The principal citizens, in the large
rooms of whose houses these entertainments were given,
seemed quite to enjoy them ; great preparations were
made at each place ; and, after the dance, guests and
masqueraders were regaled with pale ale and sweet-
meats. Once a year the Indians, with whom masked
dances and acting are indigenous, had their turn, and on
one occasion they gave us a great treat. They assembled
from different parts of the neighbourhood at night, on
the outskirts of the town, and then marched through the
streets by torchlight towards the quarter inhabited by
the whites, to perform their hunting and devil dances
before the doors of the principal inhabitants. There
were about a hundred men, women, and children in
the procession. Many of the men wTere dressed in the
magnificent feather crowns, tunics, and belts, manufac-
tured by the Mundurucus, and worn by them on festive
occasions, but the women were naked to the waist, and
the children quite naked, and all were painted and
smeared red with anatto. The ringleader enacted the
part of the Tushaua, or chief, and carried a sceptre,
richly decorated with the orange, red, and green feathers
of toucans and parrots. The paje or medicine-man came
along, puffing at a long tauari cigar, the instrument by
which he professes to make his wonderful cures. Others
blew harsh jarring blasts with the ture, a horn made of
long and thick bamboo, with a split reed in the mouth-

10 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

piece. This is the war trumpet of many tribes of
Indians, with which the sentinels of predatory hordes,
mounted on a lofty tree, give the signal for attack to
their comrades. Those Brazilians who are old enough
to remember the times of warfare between Indians and
settlers, retain a great horror of the ture, its loud harsh
note heard in the dead of the night having been often
the prelude to an onslaught of bloodthirsty Miiras on
the outlying settlements. The rest of the men in the
procession carried bows and arrows, bunches of javelins,
clubs, and paddles. The older children brought with
them the household pets ; some had monkeys or coatis on
their shoulders, and others bore tortoises on their heads.
The squaws carried their babies in aturas, or large
baskets, slung on their backs, and secured with a broad
belt of bast over their foreheads. The whole thing was
accurate in its representation of Indian life, and showed
more ingenuity than some people give the Brazilian red
man credit for. It was got up spontaneously by the
Indians, and simply to amuse the people of the place.

The entire produce in cacao, salt fish, and other articles
of a very large district, passes through the hands of the
Santarem merchants, and a large trade, for this country,
is done with the Indians on the Tapajos in salsaparilla,
balsam of copauba, India-rubber, farinha, and other pro-
ductions. I was told the average annual yield of the
Tapajos in salsaparilla, was about 2000 arrobas (of 32 lbs.
each). The quality of the drug found in the forests of
the Tapajos, is much superior to that of the Upper
Amazons, and always fetches double the price at Para-
The merchants send out young Brazilians and Portuguese

Chap. I. EDUCATION. 11

in small canoes to trade on the rivers and collect the
produce, and the cargoes are shipped to the capital in
large cubertas and schooners, of from twenty to eighty
tons burthen. The risk and profits must be great, or
capital scarce, for the rate of interest on lent money or
ovefdue accounts is two-and-a-half to three per cent, per
month ; this is the same, however, as that which rules at
Para, The shops are numerous, and well-stocked with
English, French, German, and North American wares ;
the retail prices of which are veiy little above those of
the capital. There is much competition amongst the
traders and shopkeepers, yet they all seem to thrive, if
one may judge from external appearances; but it is
said, that most of them are over head and ears in debt
to rich Portuguese merchants of Para, who act as their
correspondents.

The people seem to be thoroughly alive to the advan-
tages of education for their children. Besides the usual
primary schools, one for girls, and another for boys,
there is a third of a higher class, where Latin and
French, amongst other accomplishments, are taught by
professors, who, like the oommon schoolmasters, are paid
by the provincial government. This is used as a pre-
paratory school to the Lyceum and Bishop's seminary,
well-endowed institutions at Para, whither it is the
ambition of traders and planters to send their sons to
finish their studies. The rudiments of education only
are taught in the primary schools, and it is surprising
how quickly and well the little lads, both coloured and
white, learn reading, writing, and arithmetic. But the
simplicity of the Portuguese language, which is written

12 SANTAEEM. Chap. I.

as it is pronounced, or according to unvarying rules,
and the use of the decimal system of accounts, make
these acquirements much easier than they are with us.
Students in the superior school have to pass an exami-
nation before they can be admitted at the colleges in
Para, and the managers once did me the honour to
make me one of the examiners for the year. The per-
formances of the youths, most of whom were under
fourteen years of age, were very creditable, especially
in grammar; there was a quickness of apprehension
displayed which would have gladdened the heart of a
northern schoolmaster. The course of study followed
at the colleges of Para must be very deficient ; for it
is rare to meet with an educated Paraense who has the
slightest knowledge of the physical sciences, or even of
geography, if he has not travelled out of the ]3rovince.
The young men all become smart rhetoricians and
lawyers ; any of them is ready to plead in a law case
at an hour's notice ; they are also great at statistics,
for the gratification of which taste there is ample field
in Brazil, where every public officer has to furnish
volumes of dry reports annually to the government ;
but they are wofully ignorant on most other subjects.
I do not recollect seeing a map of any kind at San-
tarem. The quick-witted people have a suspicion of
their deficiencies in this respect, and it is difficult to
draw them out on geography ; but one day a man
holding an important office betrayed himself by asking
me, "on what side of the river was Paris situated?"
This question did not arise, as might be supposed,
from a desire for accurate topographical knowledge of

Chap. I. CLIMATE. 13

the Seine, but from the idea, that all the world was a
great river, and that the different places he had heard
of must lie on one shore or the other. The fact of the
Amazons being a limited stream, having its origin in
narrow rivulets, its beginning and its ending, has never
entered the heads of most of the people who have
passed their whole lives on its banks.

Santarem is a pleasant place to live in, irrespective of
its society. There are no insect pests, mosquito, pium,
sand-fly, or motuca. The climate is glorious ; during six
moDths 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 diffi-
cult to make way against it in walking along the
streets, and it enters the open windows and doors of
houses, scattering loose clothing and papers in all direc-
tions. The place is considered 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 health-
fulness 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. None but those who have suffered
from the difficulty of obtaining the necessaries of life at
any price in most of the interior settlements of South

U SANTAREM. Chap. I.

America, can appreciate the advantages of Santarem in
this respect. Everything, however, except meat, was
dear, and becoming every year more so. Sugar, coffee,
and rice, which ought to be produced in surplus in the
neighbourhood, are imported from other provinces, and
are high in price ; sugar indeed, is a little dearer here
than in England. There were two or three butchers'
shops, where excellent beef could he had daily at two-
pence or twopence-halfpenny per pound. The cattle have
not to be brought from a long distance as at Para, being
bred on the campos, which border the Lago Grande, only
one or two days' journey from the town. , Fresh fish
could be bought in the port on most evenings, but, as
the supply did not equal the demand, there was always
a race amongst purchasers to the water-side when the
canoe of a fisherman hove in sight. Very good bread
was hawked around the town every morning, with 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 country. 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 pine-apple, 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 exhilarating.

Chap. I. LEPROSY. 15

There is one great drawback to the merits of San-
tarem. This is the prevalence here of the terrible lep-
rosy. It seems, however, confined to certain families, and
I did not hear of a well-authenticated case of a Euro-
pean being attacked by it. I once visited many of the
lepers in company of an American physician. They do
not live apart ; family ties are so strong, that all at-
tempts to induce people to separate from their leprous
relatives have failed ; but many believe that the malady
is not contagious. The disease commences with glan-
dular swellings in different parts of the body, which are
succeeded by livid patches on the skin, and at the tips
of the fingers and toes. These spread, and the parts
embraced by them lose their sensibility, and decay.
In course of time, as the frightful atrophy extends to
the internal organs, some vital part is affected, and the
sufferer dies. Some of the best families in the place
are tainted with leprosy ; but it falls on all races alike ;
white, Indian, and negro. I saw some patients who
had been ill of it for ten and a dozen years ; they were
hideously disfigured, but bore up cheerfully ; in fact,
a hopeful spirit, and free, generous living had been the
means of retarding in them the progress of the dis-
order ; none were ever known to be cured of it. One
man tried a voyage to Europe, and was healed whilst
there, but the malady broke out again on his return.
I do not know whether the dry and hot soil of San-
tarem has anything to do with the prevalence of this
disease ; it is not confined to this place, many cases
having occurred at Para, and in other provinces, but
it is nowhere so rife as here ; the evil fame of the

16 SANTAREM. Chap. 1.

settlement indeed has spread to Portugal, where Santa-
rem is known as the " Cidade dos Lazaros," or City of
Lepers.

When the Portuguese first ascended the Amazons
towards the middle of the 17th century, they found the
banks of the Tapajos in the neighbourhood of Santarem,
peopled by a warlike tribe of Indians, called the
Tapajocos. From these, the river and the settlement
(Santarem in the Indian language is called Tapajos),
derive their name. The Tapajos, however, amongst the
Brazilian settlers in this part, is most generally known
by the Portuguese name of Rio Preto, or the Black
River. According to Acunna, the historian of the
Teixeira expedition (in 1637-9), the Tapajocos were
very numerous, one village alone having contained more
than 500 families. Their weapons were poisoned darts.
Notwithstanding their numbers and courage, they
quickly gave way before the encroaching Portuguese
settlers, who are said to have treated them with great
barbarity. The name of the tribe is no longer known
in the neighbourhood, but it is probable their descend-
ants still linger on the banks of the Lower Tapajos, a
traditional hatred towards the Portuguese having been
preserved amongst the semi-civilised inhabitants to the
present day. The fact of the Urari poison having been
in use amongst the Tapajocos is curious, inasmuch as it
shows there was at that time communication between
distant tribes along the course of the main Amazons.
The Indians now living on the banks of the Tapajos
are ignorant of the Urari, the drug being prepared only

Chap. I. REBELLION". 17

by tribes which live on the rivers flowing into the
Upper Amazons from the north, 1200 miles distant
from the Tapajos.

The city of Santarem suffered greatly during the dis-
orders of 1835-6. According to the accounts I received,
it must have been just before that time a much more
flourishing place than it is now. There were many
more large proprietors, rich in slaves and cattle; the
produce of cacao was greater ; and a much larger trade
was done with the miners of Matto Grosso, who de-
scended the Tapajos with their gold and diamonds, to
exchange for salt, hardware, and other heavy European
goods. An old Scotch gentleman, Captain Hislop, who
had lived here for about thirty-five years, told me that
Santarem was then a most delightful place to live in.
Provisions were abundant and cheap ; labour was easily
obtained ; and the greatest order, friendliness, and con-
tentment prevailed. The political squabble amongst
the whites, which began the troubles, ended, in this
part of the country, in a revolt of the Indians. At the
beginning of the disorders two parties were formed, one
tolerant of the "Bicudos" (long-snouts), as the Portu-
guese were nicknamed, and supporters of the legal
Brazilian Government ; the other in favour of revo-
lution, expulsion of the Portuguese, and native rule.
The latter co-operated with a large body of rebels who
had collected at a place on the banks of the river,
not far distant ; and on a certain day, according to
agreement, the town was invaded by the horde of
scoundrels and mistaken patriots. All the Portuguese
and those who befriended them, that these infuriated

VOL. II. c

18 SAXTAREM. Chap. I.

people could lay their hands on, were brutally massacred.
A space filled with mounds, amongst the myrtle bushes
in the woods behind Santarem, now marks the spot where
these poor fellows were confusedly buried. I could give
a long account of the horrors of this time as they were
related to me ; but I think the details would not serve
any useful purpose. It must not be thought, however,
that the Amazonian people are habitually a blood-thirsty
race ; on the contrary, the peaceableness and gentleness
of character of the inhabitants of this province, in quiet
times, are proverbial throughout Brazil. The rarity or
absence of deeds of violence from year to year is always
commented upon by the President in his annual report
to the Central Government.

When the Cabanas or rebels entered the town, the
friends of lawful government retired to a large block of
buildings near the water-side, which they held for many
days, to cover the embarcation of their families and
moveables. The negro slaves generally remained faithful
to their masters. Whilst the embarcation was going on
many daring feats were performed, chiefly by coloured
people : one brave fellow, a mameluco, named Paca,
made a bold dash one day, with a few young men of the
same stamp, and secured five or six of the rebel leaders,
who were carried, gagged and handcuffed, on board a
schooner in the port. But the legal party were greatly
outnumbered and deficient in arms and ammunition,
and they were obliged, soon after Pacas feat, entirely
to evacuate the town ; retiring to the village of Pra-
yinha, about 150 miles down the river. Those citizens
of Santarem who sympathised with the rebels were

Chap. I. INDIAN ATTACK ON SANTAEEM. 19

obliged to follow soon after, as the revolt took the shape
of a war between Indians and whites. The red skins,
however, made an exception in favour of the few English
and French residents. Captain Hislop remained in the
town during its occupation by the Cabanas, and told me
that he was treated very well by the Indians and rebel
chiefs.

After Santarem was recaptured, about nine months
subsequent to these events, by a small sea and land force
sent from Rio Janeiro, aided by the townspeople who
were picked up at Prayinha, it was again attacked by a
large force of Indians. This affair showed the blind
fearlessness and obstinacy of the Indian character in a
striking manner. An attack was expected, as the rebels
were known to be concealed in great numbers in the
neighbouring woods ; so the Commandante of the gar-
rison (Captain Lead) had the whites' quarter strongly
stockaded, and every man slept under arms. The
Indians acted as though inspired by a diabolical fana-
ticism ; they had no arms, except wooden spears, clubs,
and bows and arrows ; for their powder and lead had
been exhausted long before. With these rude weapons
they came through forest and campo to the storming of
the now fortified town. The attack was made at sun-
rise ; the sentinels were killed or driven in, and the
swarms of red skins climbed the stockade and thronged
down the principal street. They were soon met by a
strong and well-armed force, well posted in houses or
behind walls, and the reckless savages were shot down
by hundreds. It was not until the street was encum-
bered by the heaps of slain that the rest turned their

c 2

20 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

backs and fled. Their numbers were estimated at
2000 men ; the remnant of the force escaped across the
campos to the village of Altar do Chao, twenty miles
distant, whence they scattered themselves along the
shores of the Tapajos, and gave great trouble to the
Brazilians for many years afterwards. Several expedi-
tions were sent from Santarem to reduce them, a task
in which the Government was aided by the friendly
Mundurucus of the Upper Tapajos, a large body of
whom, under the leadership of their Tushaua Joaquim,
made war on the hostile Indians on the lower parts
both of the Madeira and the Tapajos, until they were
nearly exterminated.

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 undulating 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. On this account I consider 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 pro-
bably of the same formation as that which underlies
the Tabatinga clay in other parts of the river valley.
The surface is carpeted with slender hairy grasses, unfit
for jmsture, growing to a uniform height of about a

Chap. I. CAMPOS. 21

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 demarcated in insular form from the
smooth carpet of grass around them. They are com-
posed 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 ex-
tends as far as the eye can reach towards the yet un-
trodden 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 prospect 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 inhabitants of Santarem know nothing of the in-
terior, 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

22 SANTAKEM. Chap. I.

to the poorer inhabitants of the place ; but, excepting
these, there are no roads, or signs of the proximity of
a civilised settlement.

The sandy soil and scanty clothing of trees are pro-
bably the causes of the great dryness of the climate.
In some years no rain falls from August to February ;
whilst in other parts of the Amazons plains, both above
and below this middle part of the river, heavy showers
are frequent throughout the dry season. I have often
watched the rain-clouds in November and December,
when the shrubby vegetation is parched up by the
glowing sun of the preceding three months, rise as
they approached the hot air over the campos, or diverge
from it to discharge their contents on the low forest-
clad islands of the opposite shore. The trade-wind,
however, blows with great force during the dry months ;
the hotter the weather the stronger is the breeze, until
towards the end of the season it amounts to a gale,
stopping the progress of downward-bound vessels.

Some of the trees which grow singly on the campos
are very curious. The caju is very abundant ; indeed,
some parts of the district might be called orchards of
this tree, which seems to prefer sandy or gravelly soils.
There appear to be several distinct species of it growing
in company, to judge by the differences in the colour,
flavour, and size of the fruit. This, when ripe, has
the colour and figure of a codlin apple, but it has a
singular appearance owing to the large kidney-shaped
kernel growing outside the pulpy portion of the fruit.
It ripens in January, and the poorer classes of Santarem
then resort to the campos and gather immense quan-

Chap. I. AROMATIC TREES. 23

tities, to make a drink or " wine " as it is called,
which is considered a remedy in certain cutaneous
disorders. The kernels are roasted and eaten. Another
wild fruit-tree is the Murishi (Byrsomina), which yields
an abundance of small yellow acid berries. A decoction
of its bark dyes cloth a maroon colour. It is employed
for this purpose chiefly by the Indians, and coarse
cotton shirts tinted with it were the distinctive badges
of the native party during the revolution. A very
common tree in the Ilhas do Mato is the Breio branco,
which secretes from the inner bark a white resin,
resembling camphor in smell and appearance. The
fruit is a small black berry, and the whole tree, fruit,
leaf, and stem, has the same aromatic fragrance.
By loosening the bark and allowing the resin to flow
freely, I collected a large quantity, and found it of great
service in preserving my insect collections from the
attacks of ants and mites. Another tree, much rarer
than the Breio branco, namely the Umiri (Humirium
floribundum), growing in the same localities, distils in
a similar way an oil of the most recherche fragrance.
The yield, however, is very small. The native women
esteem it highly as a scent. To obtain a supply of the
precious liquid, large strips of bark are loosened and
pieces of cotton left in soak underneath. By visiting
the tree daily, and pressing the oil from the cotton,
a small phial containing about an ounce may be filled
in the course of a month. One of the most singular
of the vegetable productions of the campos is the
Sucu-uba tree (Plumieria phagedaenica). It grows in
the greatest luxuriance in the driest parts, and with its

24 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

long, glossy, dark-green leaves, fresh and succulent
even in the most arid seasons, and white jasmine-like
flowers, forms the greatest decoration of these solitary
places. The bark, leaves, and leaf-stalks, yield a co-
pious supply of milky sap, which the natives use very
generally as plaister in local inflammations, laying the
liquid on the skin with a brush, and covering the place
with cotton. I have known it to work a cure in many
cases ; but, perhaps, the good effect is attributable to
the animal heat drawn to the place by the pad of
cotton. The milk flows most freely after the occa-
sional heavy rains in the intervals between the dry
and wet seasons ; it then spurts out with great force
from any part of the tree if hacked with a knife in
passing.

The appearance of the campos changes very much
according to the season. There is not that grand uni-
formity of aspect throughout the year which is observed
in the virgin forest, and which makes a deeper im-
pression 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 asstivate, and the trees
simultaneously shed their leaves. As the dry season
advances (August, September), the grass on the campos
withers, 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

Chap. I. STORMS. 25

and lay their eggs at this time — for instance, the ground
doves (Charnaepelia) . 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 but-
terflies, especially the little hair-streaks (Theclae), whose
larvae feed on the trees, make their appearance only
when the dry season is at its height. The land mol-
luscs of the district, are the only animals which acti-
vate ; they are found in clusters, Bulimi and Helices,
concealed 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 begin-
ning 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 burthen, 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

•26 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

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 com-
pletely changed. The parched ground in the neigh-
bourhood 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 springs up, and leafy creepers over-
run 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 the
virgin forests amongst which I had passed the four
3rears 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 number-

Chap. I. MAPIRI. 27

less 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 represents the spring ; but under the
equator there is not that simultaneous 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 affected 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 little 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
become too continuous. The sandy beach beyond the
town is very irregular ; in some places forming long
spits on which, when the east wind is blowing, the
waves break in a line of foam ; at others receding to

28 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

shape out 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 background 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 by a
high bank of sand topped with bushes at other times.
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 Troupials 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.

Chap. I. RIVER SCENERY. 29

About the month of April, when the water rises to this
level, the trees are covered with blossom, and a hand-
some 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 conspicuous of which is a
large swallow-tailed kind (Eupetomena macro ura), 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 ; it
perched 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
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 trans-
parency of air and water in the dry season when the

30 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

brisk east wind is blowing, and the sharpness of outline
of hills, woods, and sandy beaches, give a great charm
to this spot.

The little pools along the beach were tenanted by
several species of fresh-water mollusks. The most
abundant was a long turret-shaped Melania, which
swarmed in them in the same way as Limnsese do in
ponds at home. I found no Linmsea, nor indeed any
European genus of fresh-water mollusk, in the Amazons
region. After the first storms of February the coast is
strewn with large apple-shells (Ampullaria). They are
not inhabitants of the pools on this side of the river,
but are involuntary visitors, being driven across by the
wind and waves with masses of marsh plants from the
low land of the opposite shore. A great many are dead
shells, and more or less worn. In showery weather I
seldom came this way without seeing one or more water
snakes of the genus Helicops. They were generally con-
cealed under the heaps of thick aquatic grasses cast
ashore by storms ; and when exposed, always made off
straight for the water. They glided along with such
agility that I rarely succeeded in capturing one, and on
reaching the river they sought at once the bottom in
the deepest parts. I believe these snakes are swept
from the marshy land of the western shore with the
patches of grass and the AmpullariaB just mentioned.
Other reptiles and a great number of insects are blown
or floated over in the same way by the violent squalls
which occur in January or February. None of the
species take root on the Santarem side of the river.
Sometimes myriads of Coleopterous insects, belonging to

Chap. I. AQUATIC INSECTS. 31

about half a dozen kinds, are blown across, and become
perfect pests to the town's people for two or three nights.
swarming about the lights in every chamber. They
get under one's clothing, or down one's back, and pass
from the oil-lamp on to the furniture, books, and papers,
smearing everything they touch. The open shops facing
the beach become filled with them, and customers have
to make a dash in and out through the showers that
fall about the large brass lamps over the counter, when
they want to make a purchase. The species are cer-
tainly not indigenous to the eastern side of the river ;
the hosts soon disappear ; those which cannot get back
must perish helplessly, for the soil, vegetation, and
climate of the Santarem side are ill suited to the
inhabitants of the opposite shore.

The pools I have mentioned were tenanted by a
considerable variety of insects. * I found also a very
large number, chiefly of carnivorous land-beetles under
the pebbles and rejectamenta along the edge of the
water during my many rambles. I was much struck
with the similarity of the Dragon-flies (whose early
states are passed in the water) to those of Britain. A
species of Libellula with pointed tail, which darted
about over the bushes near the ponds, is very closely

* The water-beetles found in the pools belonged to seventeen genera,
thirteen of which are European . Those European genera which form the
greater part of the pond population in Coleoptera in northern latitudes,
are quite absent iu the Amazons region : these are, Haliplus, Cnemi-
dotus, Pelobius, Noterus, Ilybius, Agabus, Colymbetes, Dyticus, and
Acilius : Hydropori, also, are very rare. The most common species
belong to the genera Hydracanthus, Copelatus, Cybister, Tropisternus,
and Berosus, three of which are unknown in Europe.

32 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

allied to our English L. quadrimaculata. But the
resemblance was greater in the small, slender-bodied
and slow-flying species, the Agrions, which every lover
of rural walks must have noticed in England by river
sides. There was one pretty kind with a pale blue ring
at the tip of the body which resembled to a remark-
able degree a common British species. Although very
near akin, neither this nor any of the other kinds, were
perfectly identical with European ones. The strikingly
peculiar dragon-flies from Tropical America which are
seen in our collections are denizens of the forest, being
bred in the shady brooks and creeks in their recesses,
and not in the weedy ponds of open places. Some of
these forest species are strange creatures with slender
bodies measuring seven inches in length ; their elegant
lace-work wings tipped with white or yellow. They fly
slowly amongst the trees, preying on small Diptera,
and in their flight look like animated spindles ; the
wings, placed at the fore extremity of the long, horizon-
tally-extended body, moving rapidly and creating the
impression of rotary motion.

Whilst resting in the shade during the great heat of
the early hours of afternoon, I used to find amuse-
ment 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 furnished with a fringe of stiff bristles ; they work
with wonderful rapidity, and the sand thrown out be-

Chap. I. INSTINCT OF LOCALITY. 33

neath 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
a}3parently to see whether it is well made, but in
reality, I believe, 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 egg 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 egg.
From what I could make out, the Bembex makes a
fresh excavation for every egg 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 of the locality : this seemed to be the expla-
nation 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

VOL. II. d

34 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

of at least half a mile to procure the kind of fly, the
Mottica (Hadaiis 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 bear-
ings 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 ourselves when recognising
a locality. The senses, however, must be immeasur-
ably more keen and the mental operation much more
certain in them than it is 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 unin-
telligible 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 con-
stituted that the impression of external objects or the
want felt, causes it to act with a precision which seems
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, accom-
panied 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,

CftAP. I. SANDY BEACHES. 35

and it did not, for some time occur to us to consult our
little companion, who had been playing with his bow
and arrow all the way whilst we were hunting, ap-
parently taking no note of the route. When asked,
however, he pointed out, in a moment, the right direc-
tion of our canoe. He could not explain how he knew ;
I believe he had noted the course we had taken almost
unconsciously : the sense of locality in his case seemed
instinctive.

The Monedula signata is a good friend to travellers
in those parts of the Amazons which are infested with
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 mandibles 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 neigh-
bourhood 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 excur-
sions by the river-side to the west of Santarem. A
person may travel, however, on foot, as Indians fre-
quently 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

D 2

36 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

fordable when the waters are low. To the east my
rambles extended to the banks of the Mahica inlet.
This enters the Amazons aJbout three miles below San-
tar em, where the clear stream of the Tapajos begins to
be discoloured by the turbid waters of the main river.
The broad, placid channel of the Mahica separates the
Tapajos mainland from the alluvial low lands of the
great river plain. It communicates in the interior with
other inlets, and the whole forms a system of inland
water-paths navigable by small vessels from Santarem
to the river Curua, forty miles distant. 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 description 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 them-
selves 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 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

Chap. I. A GRAZIER. 37

ignorant people seem totally unable to profit by these
advantages. The houses have no gardens or planta-
tions 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 together ; for 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 diffi-
cult 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.

In one place, where there was a pretty bit of pasture
surrounded by woods, I found a grazier established,
who supplied Santarem daily with milk. He was a
strong, wiry half-breed, a man endowed with a little
more energy than his neighbours, and really a hard-
working fellow. The land was his own, and the dozen
or so well-conditioned cows which grazed upon it. It
was melancholy, however, to see the miserable way
in which the man lived. His house, a mere barn,
scarcely protecting its owner from the sun and rain,
was not much better built or furnished than an Indian's
hut. He complained that it was impossible to induce
any of the needy free people to work for wages. The
poor fellow led a dull, solitary life ; he had no family,
and his wife had left him for some cause or other.
He was up every morning by four o'clock, milked his
cows with the help of a neighbour, and carried the day's
yield to the town in stone bottles packed in leather

38 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

bags on horseback by sunrise. His wretched little
farm produced nothing else. The house stood in the
middle of the bare pasture, without garden or any sort
of plantation ; a group of stately palms stood close by,
to the trunks of which he secured the cows whilst
milking. Butter-making is unknown in this country ;
the milk, I was told, is too poor ; it is very rare indeed
to see even the thinnest coating of cream on it, and the
yield for each cow is very small. Our dairyman had to
bring from Santarem every morning the meat, bread,
and vegetables for the day's consumption. The other
residents of Mahica were not even so well off as this
man. I always had to bring my own provisions when I
came this way, for a perennial famine seemed to reign
in the place. I could not help picturing to myself the
very different aspect this fertile tract of country would
wear if it were peopled by a few families of agricultural
settlers from Northern Europe.

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,

Chap. I. BACABA PALM. 39

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 shel-
tered 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 weighs thirty or forty
pounds. The beverage has a milky appearance, 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.

40 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

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 manu-
facture of coarse pottery and cooking utensils : all the
kettles, saucepans, mandioca ovens, coffee-pots, wash-
ing-vessels, and so forth, of the poorer classes through-
out 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 make use of the clay to build their
nests with. 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 fistularis. It collected the clay in little
round pellets, which it carried off, after rolling them
into a convenient shape in its mandibles. 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 species is shaped like a pouch, two
inches in length, and is attached to a branch or other

Chap. I.

MASON WASP.

41

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 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 finish-
ing 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 complete. 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 neigh-
bourhood of Mahica, I always found them to be stocked

Pelopajus Wasp building nest.

42 SANTAREM. ■ Chap. I.

with small spiders of the genus Gastracantha, in thus
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 supposed 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 burthen, to that which they sing whilst
at work. Trypoxylon albitarse, which is a large black
kind, three-quarters of an inch in length, makes a tre-
mendous fuss whilst building 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.
aurifrons, a much smaller
species, makes a neat

Cells of Trypoxylon aurifrons. little nest shaped like a

carafe ; building rows of
them together in the corners of verandahs.

Chap. J. MASON BEES. 43

But the most numerous and interesting of the clay-
artificers are the workers of a species of social bee, the
Melipona fasciculata. The Meliponae in tropical Ame-
rica take the place of the true Apides, to which the
European hive-bee belongs, and which are here un-
known ; they are generally much smaller insects than
the hive-bees and have no sting. The M. fasciculata is
about a third shorter than the Apis mellifica : its
colonies are composed of an immense number of indi-
viduals ; the workers are generally seen collecting-
pollen in the same way as other bees, but great num-
bers are employed gathering clay. The rapidity and
precision of their movements whilst thus engaged are
wonderful. They first scrape the clay with their man-

• ~1-^ -'*< '

Melipona Bees gathering clay.

dibles ; 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 nor-
mally 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

44 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

as the particles are successively added. The little hods-
men 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 opportunity for ascertaining. They construct their
combs in any 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 Meliponae are in this way masons as well as
v 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.

It is remarkable that none of the American bees have
attained that high degree of architectural skill in the
construction of their comb which is shown by the Euro-
pean hive bee. The wax cells of the Meliponae are
generally oblong, showing only an approximation to the
hexagonal shape in places where several of them are
built in contact. It would appear that the Old "World
has produced in bees, as well as in other families of
animals, far more advanced forms than the tropics of
the New World.

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

Chap. I. BEES. 45

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-twelfth of an inch
in size. These tiny fellows are often very troublesome
in the woods, on account of their familiarity ; 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 in some species to other uses besides the con-
veyance of clay and pollen. The female of the hand-
some 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 cajti
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.

Whilst on the subject of bees, I may mention that
the neighbourhoods of Santarem and Villa Nova yielded
me about 140 species. The genera are for the most
part different from those inhabiting Europe. A very
large number make their cells in hollow twigs and
branches. As in our own country, the industrious nest-
building kinds are attended by other species which do

46 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

not work or store up food for their progeny, but deposit
their ova in the cells of their comrades. Some of these,
it is well known, counterfeit the dress and general
figure of their victims. To all appearance this simi-
larity of shape and colours between the parasite and its
victim is given for the purpose of deceiving the poor
hard-working bee, which would otherwise revenge itself
by slaying its plunderers. Some parasitic bees, however,
have no resemblance to the species they impose upon;
probably they live together on more friendly terms, or
have some other means of disarming suspicion. Many
Dij)terous insects are also parasitic on bees, and wear
the same dress as the species they live upon. That the
dress of the victimisers is arranged with especial refer-
ence to their prey, I think is proved by what I observed
at Santarem. The genera of the parasites here are not
the same as in Europe ; and when they counterfeit
working bees, it is the peculiarly-coloured species of
their own country that are imitated, and not those of
any other region. The European genus Apathus, which
mimics European Humble-bees, is not found in South
America ; but the common Bombus of Santarem, which
is remarkable in being wholly of a sooty-black colour, is
attended by a sooty black parasite of a widely-different
genus, the Eurytis funereus. Many of the little MeliponaB
have their counterfeits in small Diptera of the family
Syrphidse ; and the brilliant green or blue bees of the
country (Euglossa) have their imitators in parasitic bees
of equally bright colours, belonging to genera unknown
out of the countries where the Euglossse are found.*

* These are Melissa, Mesocheira, Thalestria, &c.

Chap. I. CONICAL HILL. 47

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 remarked, is terra incog-
nita to the inhabitants of Santarem. The Brazilian
settlers on the banks of the Amazons seem to have no
taste for explorations by land, and I could find no per-
son willing to accompany me on an excursion further
towards the interior. Such a journey would be exceed-
ingly 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 sur-
round 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

48 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

of 500 or 600 feet, and its ascent is excessively fatiguing
after the long walk from Santarem over the campos. I
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 plain 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 ab-
sence of stratification, to be porphyritic ; but I am not
Geologist sufficient to pronounce on such questions.
Mr. Wallace states that he found fragments of scoriae,
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 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. 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

Chap. I. CURIOUS FRUITS. 49

(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 1000 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 wil-
derness. 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 Cupu-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.
vol.it. e

50 SANTAEEM. Chap. I.

My excursions to the Irura had always a picnic
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
entomologizing — 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 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 transparency 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.

Chap. I. REST IN THE FOREST. 51

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 pre-
dominance of a stemless palm, the Curua (Attalea
spectabilis), whose large, beautifully 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 somewhere 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 table-
cloth— and rested for a couple of hours during the great
heat of the afternoon. The diversity of animal pro-
ductions was as wonderful as that of the vegetable
forms in this rich locality. I find by my register that
it was not unusual to meet with thirty or forty new
species of conspicuous insects during a day's search,
even after I had made a great number of trips to the
same spot. It was pleasant to lie down during the

e 2

52

SANTAEEM.

Chap. I.

hottest part of the day, when my people lay asleep,
and watch the movements of animals. Sometimes a
troop of Anus (Crotophaga), a glossy black-plumaged
bird, which lives in small societies in grassy places,
would come in 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

The Jacuaru (Teius teguexim).

distance through the wilderness. Occasionally a sulky
Trogon would 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

Chap. I. A WITCH IN THE FOREST. 5$

it as a poultice to draw palm spines or even grains of
shot from the 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 solitude 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, stirred in the topmost branches, setting
the twisted and looped sipos in motion, which creaked
and groaned in a great variety of notes. To these
noises were added the monotonous ripple of the brook,
which had its little cascade at every score or two yards
of its course.

We frequently fell in with an old Indian woman,
named Cecilia, who had a small clearing in the woods.
She had the reputation of being a witch (feiticeira), and
I found, on talking with her, that she prided herself on
her knowledge of the black art. Her slightly curled
hair showed that she was not a pure-blood Indian : I
was told her father was a dark mulatto. She was
always very civil to our party ; showing us the best
paths, explaining the virtues and uses of different
plants, and so forth. I was much amused at the ac-
counts she gave of the place. Her solitary life and the
gloom of the woods seemed to have filled her with su-

54 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

perstitious fancies. She said gold was contained in the
bed of the brook, and that the murmur of the water
over the little cascades was the voice of the " water-
mother " revealing the hidden treasure. A narrow pass
between two hill sides was the portao or gate, and all
within, along the wooded banks of the stream, was
enchanted ground. The hill underneath which we
were encamped was the enchanter's abode, and she
gravely told us she often had long conversations with
him. These myths were of her own invention, and in
the same way an endless number of other similar ones
have originated in the childish imaginations of the poor
Indian and half-breed inhabitants of different parts of
the country. It is to be remarked, however, that the
Indian men all become sceptics after a little intercourse
with the whites. The witchcraft of poor Cecilia was
of a very weak quality. It consisted in throwing
pinches of powdered bark of a certain tree and other
substances into the fire whilst muttering a spell — a
prayer repeated backwards — and adding the name of the
person on whom she wished the incantation to operate.
Some of the feiticeiras, however, play more dangerous
tricks than this harmless mummery. They are ac-
quainted with many poisonous plants, and although
they seldom have the courage to administer a fatal
dose, sometimes contrive to convey to their victim suf-
ficient to cause serious illness. The motive by which
they are actuated is usually jealousy of other women in
love matters. Whilst I resided in Santarem a case of
what was called witchcraft was tried by the sub-delegado,
in which a highly respectable white lady was the com-

Chap. I. RARE MONKEY. 55

plainant. It appeared that some feiticeira had sprinkled
a quantity of the acrid juice of a large arum on her
linen as it was hanging out to dry, and it was thought
this had caused a serious eruption under which the lady
suffered.

I seldom met with any of the larger animals in these
excursions. We never saw a mammal of any kind on
the campos ; but tracks of three species were seen occa-
sionally 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 movements of
a sloth. The monkeys belonged to a very pretty and
rare species, a kind of marmoset, I think the Hapale
humeralifer described by Geoffroy St. Hilaire. I did
not succeed in obtaining a specimen, but saw a living
example afterwards in the possession of a shopkeeper at
Santarem. It seems to occur nowhere else except in
the dry woods bordering the campos in the interior
parts of Brazil. The colours of its fur are beautifully
varied ; the fore part of the body is white, with the
hands gray ; the hind part black, with the rump and
underside reddish-tawny ; the tail is banded with gray
and black. Its face is partly naked and flesh-coloured,
and the ears are fringed with long white hairs. The
specimen was not more than eight inches in length, ex-
clusive of the tail. Altogether I thought it the prettiest
species of its family I had yet seen. One would mistake
it, at first sight, for a kitten, from its small size, varied

56 SANTABEM. Chap. I.

colours, and the softness of its fur. It was a most timid
creature, screaming and biting when any one attempted
to handle it ; it became familiar, however, with the
people of the house a few days after it came into their
possession. When hungry or uneasy it uttered a weak
querulous cry, a shrill note, which was sometimes pro-
longed so as to resemble the stridulation of a grass-
hopper. The sloth was of the kind called by Cuvier
Bradypus tridactylus, which is clothed with shaggy gray
hair. The natives call it, in the Tupi language, Ai
ybyrete (in Portuguese, Preguica da terra firme), or
sloth of the mainland, to distinguish it from the Bra-
dypus infuscatus, which has a long, black and tawny
stripe between the shoulders, and is called Ai' Ygapo
(Preguica 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 on 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 do 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 movement
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

Chap. I. EVENING ON THE CAMPOS. 57

not immediately find a bough to grasp with the rigid
hooks into which his paws are so curiously trans-
formed, he raises his body, supported on his hind
less, 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 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 be-
nighted 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 after-
noon ; a few birds then make their appearance ; 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 some-
what resembling our yellow-hammer, but I believe not

58 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

belonging to the same genus, hop about the grass, en-
livening the place with a few musical notes. The
Carashue (Mimus) also then resumes its mellow, black-
bird-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 lizards, 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) He-
gesia, and two smaller kinds, which are deceptively
like the little Nemeobius Lucina. After sunset the
air becomes delightfully cool and fragrant with fruits
and flowers. The nocturnal animals then come forth.
A monstrous hairy spider, five inches in expanse
(Mygale Blondii), of a brown colour with yellowish
lines along its stout legs — which is very common
here, inhabiting broad tubular galleries 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

Chap. I. WHITE ANTS. 59

one is walking, and then squatting down on their
heels, are difficult to distinguish from the surrounding
soil. One kind (Hydropsalis psalidurus ?) has a long-
forked tail. In the daytime 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. Birds have not
one uniform time for nidification here, as in temperate
latitudes. Gulls and plovers lay in September, when the
sand-banks are exposed in midriver in the dry season.
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 path-
ways 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 mon-
sters within a distance of half a mile.

The surface of the campos is disfigured in all direc-
tions by earthy mounds and conical hillocks, the work
of many different species of white ants. Some of
these structures are five feet high, and formed of
particles of earth worked into a material as hard as

60 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

stone ; others are smaller, and constructed in a looser
manner. The ground is everywhere streaked with the
narrow covered galleries which are built up by the
insects of grains of earth different in colour from the
surrounding soil, to protect themselves whilst convey-
ing materials wherewith to build their cities — for such
the tumuli may be considered — or carrying their young
from one hillock to another. The same covered ways
are spread over all the dead timber, and about the
decaying roots of herbage, which serve as food to the
white ants. An examination of these tubular passages
or arcades in any part of the district, or a peep into
one of the tumuli, reveals always a throng of eager,
busy creatures. I became very much interested in
these insects while staying at Santarem, where many
circumstances favoured the study of their habits, and
examined several hundred colonies in endeavouring to
clear up obscure points in their natural history. Very
little, up to that date, had been recorded of the con-
stitution and economy of their communities, owing
doubtless to their not being found in northern and
central Europe, and, therefore, not within reach of
European observers. I will give a short summary of
my observations, and with this we shall have done with
Santarem and its neighbourhood.*

White ants are small, pale-coloured, soft-bodied in-
sects, having scarcely anything in common with true

* My original notes on the Termites, comprising all details, were
sent to Professor Westwood (Oxford) in 1854 and 1855 ; they were not
printed in England, but have been translated into German, and pub-
lished by Dr. Hagen, with his monograph of the family, in the Linnpea
Entomologica, 12 Band, Stettin, 1858, p. 207, ff.

Chap. I. WHITE ANTS. 61

ants, except their consisting, in each species and family,
of several distinct orders of individuals or castes which
live together in populous, organized communities. In
both there are, besides the males and females, a set of
individuals of no fully-developed sex, immensely more
numerous than their brothers and sisters, whose task
is to work and care for the young brood. In true ants
this class of the community consists of undeveloped
females, and when it comprises, as is the case in many
species, individuals of different structure, the func-
tions of these do not seem to be rigidly denned. The
contrary happens in the Termites, and this perhaps
shows that the organization of their communities has
reached a higher stage, the division of labour being
more complete. The neuters in these wonderful insects
are always divided into two classes — fighters and
workers ; both are blind, and each keeps to its own
task ; the one to build, make covered roads, nurse the
young brood from the egg upwards, take care of the
king and queen, who are the progenitors of the whole
colony, and secure the exit of the males and females,
when they acquire wings and fly out to pair and dis-
seminate the race : the other to defend the community
against all comers. Ants and termites are also widely
different in their mode of growth, or, as it is called,
metamorphosis. Ants in their early stage are footless
grubs, which, before they reach the adult state, pass
through an intermediate quiescent stage (pupa) in-
closed in a membrane. Termites, on the contrary,
have a similar form when they emerge from the egg to
that which they retain throughout life ; the chief dif-

62 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

ference being the gradual acquisition of eyes and wings
in the sexual individuals during the later stages of
growth. Termites and true ants, in fact, belong to two
widely dissimilar orders of insects, and the analogy
between them is only a general one of habits. The mode
of growth of Termites and the active condition of their
younger stages (larva and pupa) make the constitution
of their communities much more difficult of compre-
hension than that of ants ; hence how many castes
existed, and what sort of individuals they were com-
posed of, if not males and females, have always been
puzzles to naturalists in the absence of direct obser-
vation.

What a strange spectacle is offered to us in the
organisation of these insect communities ! Nothing
analogous occurs amongst the higher animals. Social
instincts exist in many species of mammals and birds,
where numerous individuals unite to build common
habitations, as we see in the case of weaver-birds and
beavers ; but the principle of division of labour, the set-
ting apart of classes of individuals for certain employ-
ments, occurs only in human societies in an advanced
state of civilisation. In all the higher animals there
are only two orders of individuals as far as bodily
structure is concerned, namely, males and females.
The wonderful part in the history of the Termites is,
that not only is there a rigid division of labour, but
nature has given to each class a structure of body
adapting it to the kind of labour it has to perform.
The males and females form a class apart ; they do no
kind of work, but in the course of growth acquire

Chap. I. WHITE ANTS. 63

wings to enable them to issue forth and disseminate
their kind. The workers and soldiers are wingless, and
differ solely in the shape and armature of the head.
This member in the labourers is smooth and rounded,
the mouth being adapted for the working of the mate-
rials in building the hive ; in the soldiers the head is
of very large size, and is provided in almost every kind
with special organs of offence or defence in the form
of horny processes resembling pikes, tridents, and so
forth. Some species do not possess these extraordi-
nary projections, but have, in compensation, greatly
lengthened jaws, which are shaped in some kinds as
sickles, in others as sabres and saws.

The course of human events in our day seems,
unhappily, to make it more than ever necessary for the
citizens of civilised and industrious communities to set
apart a numerous armed class for the protection of the
rest ; in this nations only do what nature has of old
done for the Termites. The soldier Termes, however,
has not only the fighting instinct and function ; he is
constructed as a soldier, and carries his weapons not in
his hand, but growing out of his body.

Whenever a colony of Termites is disturbed, the
workers are at first the only members of the com-
munity seen ; these quickly disappear through the
endless ramified galleries of which a Termitarium is
composed, and soldiers make their appearance. The
observations of Smeathman on the soldiers of a species
inhabiting tropical Africa are often quoted in books on
Natural History, and give a very good idea of their
habits. I was always amused at the pugnacity dis-

64

SANTAREM.

Chap. I.

played, when, in making a hole in the earthy cemented
archway of their covered roads, a host of these little
fellows mounted the breach to cover the retreat of the
workers. The edges of the rupture bristled with
their armed heads as the courageous warriors ranged
themselves in compact line around them. They at-

1 — 8. Soldiers of different species of White Ants. — 9. Ordinary shape of worker. —

10. Winged class.

tacked fiercely any intruding object, and as fast as
their front ranks were destroyed, others filled up their
places. When the jaws closed in the flesh, they suf-
fered themselves to be torn in pieces rather than loosen
their hold. It might be said that this instinct is
rather a cause of their ruin than a protection when
a colony is attacked by the well-known enemy of
Termites, the ant-bear ; but it is the soldiers only

Chap. I. WHITE AXTS. 65

which attach themselves to the long worm-like tongue
of this animal, and the workers, on whom the prospe-
rity of the young brood immediately depends, are left
for the most part unharmed. I always found, on
thrusting my finger into a mixed crowd of Termites,
that the soldiers only fastened upon it. Thus the
fighting caste do in the end serve to protect the species
by sacrificing themselves for its good.

A family of Termites consists of workers as the
majority, of soldiers, and of the King and Queen. These
are the constant occupants of a completed Termitarium.
The royal couple are the father and mother of the
colony, and are always kept together closely guarded by
a detachment of workers in a large chamber in the very
heart of the hive, surrounded by much stronger walls
than the other cells. They are wingless and both im-
mensely larger than the workers and soldiers. The
Queen, when in her chamber, is always found in a
gravid condition, her abdomen enormously distended
with eggs, which, as fast as they come forth, are con-
veyed by a relay of workers in their mouths from the
royal chamber to the minor cells dispersed throughout the
hive. The other members of a Termes family are the
winged individuals : these make their appearance only
at a certain time of the year, generally in the beginning
of the rainy season. It has puzzled naturalists to make
out the relationship between the winged Termites and
the wingless King and Queen. It has also generally
been thought that the soldiers and workers are the
larvse of the others ; an excusable mistake, seeing
that they much resemble larvae. I satisfied myself,

VOL. II. F

66 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

after studying the habits of these insects daily for
several months, that the winged Termites were males
and females in about equal numbers, and that some of
them, after shedding their wings and pairing, became
Kings and Queens of new colonies ; also, that the
soldiers and workers were individuals which had arrived
at their full growth without passing through the same
stages as their fertile brothers and sisters.

A Termitarium, although of different shape, size,
texture of materials, and built in different situations,
according to the species, is always composed of a vast
number of chambers and irregular intercommunicating
galleries, built up with particles of earth or vegetable
matter, cemented together by the saliva of the insects.
There is no visible mode of ingress or egress, the en-
trances being connected with covered roads, which are
the sole means of communication with the outer world.
The structures are prominent objects in all tropical
countries. The very large hillocks at Santarem are
the work of many distinct species, each of which
uses materials differently compacted, and keeps to its
own portion of the tumulus. One kind, Termes are-
narius, on which these" remarks are chiefly founded,
makes little conical hillocks of friable structure, a foot
or two in height, and is generally the sole occupier.
Another kind (Termes exiguus) builds small dome-
shaped papery edifices. Many species live on trees,
their earthy nests, of all sizes, looking like ugly ex-
crescences on the trunks and branches. Some are
wholly subterranean, and others live under the bark,
or in the interior of trees : it is these two latter

Chap. I. WHITE ANTS. 67

kinds which get into houses and destroy furniture,
books, and clothing. All hives do not contain a queen
and her partner. Some are new constructions, and,
when taken to pieces, show only a large number of
workers occupied in bringing eggs from an old over-
stocked Termitarium, with a small detachment of
soldiers evidently told off for their protection.

A few weeks before the exodus of the winged males
and females a completed Termitarium contains Termites
of all castes and in all stages of development. On
close examination I found the young of each of the
four orders of individuals crowded together, and ap-
parently feeding in the same cells. The full-grown
workers showed the greatest attention to the young
larvae, carrying them in their mouths along the galleries
from one cell to another, but they took no notice of the
full-grown ones. It was not possible to distinguish the
larvae of the four classes when extremely young, but at
an advanced stage it was easy to see which were to
become males and females, and which workers and
soldiers. The workers have the same form throughout,
the soldiers showed in their later stages of growth the
large head and cephalic processes, but much less deve-
loped than in the adult state. The males and females
were distinguishable by the possession of rudimentary
wings and eyes, which increased in size after three
successive changes of skin.

Thus I think I made out that the soldier and worker
castes are, like the males and females, distinct from the
egg ; they are not made so by a difference of food or
treatment during their earlier stages, and they never

f2

68 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

become winged insects. The workers and soldiers feed
on decayed wood and other vegetable substances ; I
could not clearly ascertain what the young fed upon,
but they are seen of all sizes, larvae and pupae, huddled
together in the same cells, with their heads converging
towards the bottom, and I thought I sometimes de-
tected the workers discharging a liquid from their
mouths into the cells. The growth of the young family
is very rapid, and seems to be completed within the
year : the greatest event of Termite life then takes
place, namely, the coming of age of the winged males
and females, and their exit from the hive.

It is curious to watch a Termitarium when this exodus
is taking place. The workers are set in the greatest
activity, as if they were aware that the very existence
of their species depended on the successful emigration
and marriages of their brothers and sisters. They clear
the way for their bulky but fragile bodies, and bite
holes through the outer walls for their escape. The
exodus is not completed in one day, but continues until
all the males and females have emerged from their pupa
integuments, and flown, away. It takes place on moist,
close evenings, or on cloudy mornings : they are much
attracted by the lights in houses, and fly by myriads
into chambers, filling the air with a loud rustling noise,
and often falling in such numbers that they extinguish
the lamps. Almost as soon as they touch ground they
wriggle off their wings, to aid which operation there is
a special provision in the structure of the organs, a seam
running across near their roots and dividing the horny
nervures. To prove that this singular mutilation was

Chap. I. . WHITE ANTS. 69

voluntary, on the part of the insects, I repeatedly tried
to detach the wings by force, but could never succeed
whilst they were fresh, for they always tore out by the
roots. Few escape the innumerable enemies which are
on the alert at these times to devour them ; ants,
spiders, lizards, toads, bats, and goat-suckers. The
waste of life is astonishing. The few that do survive
pair and become the kings and queens of new colonies.
I ascertained this by finding single pairs a few days
after the exodus, which I always examined and proved
to be males and females, established under a leaf, a
clod of earth, or wandering about under the edges of
new tumuli. The females are then not gravid. I once
found a newly-married pair in a fresh cell tended by a
few workers.

The office of Termites in these hot countries is to
hasten the decomposition of the woody and decaying parts
of vegetation. In this they perform what in temperate
latitudes is the task of other orders of insects. Many
points in their natural history still remain obscure. We
have seen that there are males and females, which grow,
reach the adult winged state, and propagate their kind
like all other insects. Unlike others, however, which
are always, each in its sphere, provided with the means
of maintaining their own in the battle of life, these are
helpless creatures, which, without external aid, would
soon perish, entailing the extinction of their kind. The
family to which they belong is therefore provided with
other members, not males or females, but individuals
deprived of the sexual instincts, and so endowed in
body and mind that they are adapted and impelled to

70 SANTAREM. Chap. I.

devote their lives for the good of their species. But I
have not explained how these neuter individuals,
soldiers and workers, come to be distinct castes. This
is still a knotty point, which I could do nothing to
solve. Neuter bees and ants are known to be unde-
veloped females. I thought it a reasonable hypothesis,
on account of the total absence of intermediate indi-
viduals connecting the two forms, that worker and
soldier might be in a similar way female and male
whose develojDment had been in some way arrested. A
French anatomist, however, M . Lespes, * believes to
have found by dissection imperfect males and females
in each of the castes. The correctness of his observa-
tions is doubted by competent judges ;f if his conclusion
be true, the biology of Termites is indeed a mystery.

* Recherches sur 1' Organization et les Moeurs du Termite Lucifuge,
Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 4me serie, tome 5, fasc. 4 et 5.
Paris, 1856. M. Lespes states also to have found two distinct forms of
pupa in the same species, one only of which he believes to become kings
and queens. I observed nothing of the kind in Termes arenarius.
Dr. Hagen mentions, in his monograph, cases of beaked workers and
winged soldiers. I always found the beaked individuals to be of
the fighting caste ; with regard to winged soldiers and other curious
forms of pupa? which have occurred, they are probably either mon-
strosities, or belong to species having a peculiar mode of develop-
ment. I did not meet with such ; I found, however, a species whose
soldier class did not differ at all, except in the fighting instinct, from
the workers.

*f* Gerstaecker, Bericht fiber den Leistungen, &c, der Entomologie,
1856. p. 6. Hagen, Linnsea Entomologica, 1858, p. 24.

CHAPTER II.

VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS.

Preparations for voyage — First day's sail — Mode of arranging money-
matters and remittance of collections in the interior — Loss of boat
— Altar do Chao — Excursion in forest — Valuable timber — 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 settle-
ment — Enter the River Cupari — Adventure with Anaconda —
Smoke-dried monkey — Boa-constrictor — Village of Mundurucii
Indians, and incursion of a wild tribe — Falls of the Cupari —
Hyacinthine macaw — Re-emerge into the broad Tapajos — Descent
of river to Santarem.

June, 1852. — I will now proceed to relate the inci-
dents of my principal excursion up the Tapajos, which
I began to prepare 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 Itauba or
stone-wood, a timber of which all the best vessels in the

72 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

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 class, was a square structure with its floor above
the water-line, as my sleeping and working apartment.
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 roiled-up hammock,
to be used only when sleeping ashore, served for a
pillow. The arched covering over the hold in the fore
part of the vessel contained, besides a sleej)ing place for
the crew, my heavy chests, stock of salt provisions and
groceries, and an assortment of goods wherewith to pay
my way amongst the half-civilised or savage inhabitants
of the interior. The goods consisted of cashaga, 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.

Chap. II. CANOE-MEN". 73

When all was done, our 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 mentioned, 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 sailing vessels only for
about 160 miles above Santarem. The hiring of 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 intro-
duction and to the Brazilian authorities, 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 labour. 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 mining 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

74 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

were then 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 build-
ings resting on the dark water. A stretch of wild rocky
uninhabited coast was before us, and we were fairly
within the Tapajos.

Some of my readers may be curious to know how I
managed money affairs during these excursions in the
interior of the South American continent : it can be
explained in a few words. In the first place, I had an
agent in London to whom I consigned my collections.
During the greater part of the time I drew on him for
what sums I wanted, and an English firm at Para (the
only one in the country which traded regularly and
directly with England) cashed the drafts. I found no
difficulty in the interior of the country, for almost any
of the larger Portuguese or Brazilian traders, of whom
there are one or two in every village of 600 or 700
inhabitants, would honour my draft on the English
house ; they having each a correspondent at Para who
deals with the foreign merchants. Sometimes a Portu-
guese trader would hint at discount, or wish me to take
part of the amount in goods, but the Brazilians were

Chap. II. BRAZILIAN MONEY. 75

generally more liberal. At one period, when I was
obliged to wait for remittances from England,* I some-
times ran short of money ; but I had only to say a word
to one of these generous and considerate men, and the
assistance was given without interest to the extent I
required. The current money on the Amazons varied
much during the eleven years of my stay. At first,
nothing but copper coins and Brazilian treasury notes,
the smallest representing 1000 reis (2s. 3d), were seen ;
afterwards (1852 — 1856), with the increase of the India-
rubber trade, a large amount of specie was imported, —
American gold coins, Spanish and Mexican dollars, and
English sovereigns. These were the commonest medium
of exchange in Para and on the Lower Amazons, until
India-rubber fell suddenly in price, in 1855, when the
gold again quickly disappeared. About the year 1857,
new silver coin, issued by the Brazilian Government,
was introduced ; elegant pieces of money of convenient
values, answering nearly to our sixpenny, shilling, and
two shilling pieces. Neither gold, silver, nor paper,
however, was of much use on a journey like the one I
had now undertaken. All travellers on the branch
rivers have to carry cloth, cashaca, and small wares, to
exchange for produce or food with the Indians ; a small
quantity of copper money, the only coin whose value is
understood amongst the remote settlers, being never-
theless necessary to balance exchanges. When I had to

* I take this opportunity of mentioning my obligations to Mr. George
Brocklehurst, of the Para" firm, by whom, during the latter years of my
travels in the interior, my wants were attended to in the promptest
and kindest manner.

76 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

send collections down to Para to be shipped for Eng-
land, which happened three or four times a year, I used
to arrange with any trader who was dispatching a ves-
sel to the capital with produce ; the owners very often
charging nothing for the carriage. Sometimes I had to
entrust chests full of choice specimens to Indians for a
voyage of thirty or forty days : a word to the Pilot
recommending him to keep the boxes free from damp
was quite sufficient. I never suffered any loss or
damage.

Our course lay due west for about twenty miles.
The wind increased as we neared Point Cururu, 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 endeavour-
ing 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. Contrary 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

Chap. II. ALTAE DO CHAO. 77

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
probably not more than 300 feet above the level of the
river. It 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, glo-
riously-wooded ridge.

We stayed here nine days. As soon as we anchored
I went ashore and persuaded, by the offer of a hand-
some reward, two young half-breeds to go in search of
my missing boat. The head man of the place, Captain
Thomas, a sleepy-looking mameluco, whom I found in
his mud-walled cottage in loose shirt and drawers, with

78 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

a large black rosary round his neck, promised me two
Indians to complete my crew, if I would wait a few
days until they had finished felling trees for a new
plantation. Meantime my men had to make a new
sail and repair the rigging, and I explored the rich
woods of the vicinity.

Captain Thomas sent his son one day to show me the
best paths. A few steps behind the houses we found
ourselves in the virgin forest. The soil was sandy, and
the broad path sloped gently up towards the high ridge
which forms so beautiful a back -ground to the village.
From the top of the hill a glimpse of the bay is ob-
tained through the crowns of the trees. The road then
descends, and so continues for many miles over hill
and dale. There are no habitations, however, in this
direction ; the road having been made by people for-
merly employed in felling timber. The forest at Altai-
do Chao is noted for its riches in choice woods, and
its large laurel and Itauba trees, which are used in
building river schooners. The beautiful tortoise-shell
wood, Moira pinima, minutely barred and spotted
with red and black, which is made into walking-
sticks by Brazilian carpenters, and exported as such
in some numbers to Portugal, was formerly abundant
here ; it is the heart-wood of a tree I believe unknown
to science, and is obtainable only in logs a few inches
in diameter. The Moira coatiara (striped wood), a
most beautiful material for cabinet work, being close-
grained and richly streaked with chocolate-brown on a
yellow ground, is another of these, and is also the
heart-wood of a tree, but obtainable in logs a foot or

Chap. II. A FOREST E AMBLE. 79

more in diameter and ten feet in length. A rare
wood called Sapu-pira, of excessively hard texture,
deep brown in colour, thickly speckled with yellow,
is also a product of these forests. Captain Thomas
showed me a mortar, four feet high, for pounding coffee,
made of it. Many other kinds of ornamental and use-
ful timber are met with,, including a kind of box, which
I saw made into carpenters' planes ; ebony and marupa ;
the last-mentioned a light whitish wood of the same
texture as mahogany. Although the trees have been
felled near the village, more of the same kinds are said
to exist in the forest, which extends to an unknown
distance in the interior. I heard here, also, of the
Murure, a lofty tree which yields a yellow milk of
remarkable virtues, on making incisions in the bark.
It is called by the Portuguese Mercurio vegetal, or
vegetable mercury, from the cures it effects when taken
internally in syphilitic rheumatism. It is said to pro-
duce terrible pains in the limbs soon after it is taken,
but the cure is certain. I was never able to get a sight
of this tree. Captain Thomas said that the only
specimen he knew of it, had been cut down. Persons
in Santarem had attempted to send samples of the
milk to Europe for experiment, but they had failed on
account of the stone bottles in which it was contained
always bursting in transit.

We walked two or three miles along this dark and
silent forest road, and then struck off through the
thicket to another path running parallel to it, by which
we returned to the village. About half way we passed
through a tract of wood, densely overgrown with the

80 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

Curua palm tree ; the natives call a place of this kind
a Pindobal. The rigid, elegantly pinnated leaves,
twenty feet in length, grow, as I have before described,
directly out of the ground. I had frequently occasion
to notice in the virgin forests some one kind of palm,
growing abundantly in society in one limited tract
although scarce elsewhere, no difference of soil, alti-
tude, or humidity being apparent to account for the
phenomenon. The Pindobal covered an area of pro-
bably four or five acres, and the whole lay under the
shade of the tall forest trees. The last half mile of
our road led through a more humid part of the forest
near the low shores of the lake. We here saw a
Couxio monkey (Pithecia satanas), a large black species
which, as I have before mentioned, has a thick cap of
hair on the head parted at the crown. He was seated
alone on a branch fingering a cluster of flowers that
lay within his reach. My companion fired at him, but
missed, and he then slowly moved away. The borders
of the path were enlivened with troojDS of small and
delicate butterflies. I succeeded in capturing, in about
half an hour, no less than eight species of one genus,
Mesosemia ; a group remarkable for having the wings
ornamented with central eye-like spots encircled by fine
black and gray concentric lines arranged in different
patterns according to the species.

I was so much pleased with the situation of this set-
tlement, and the number of rare birds and insects
which tenanted the forest, that I revisited it in the
following year, and spent four months making collec-

Chai\ II. SCARCITY OF FOOD. 81

tions. The village itself is a neglected, poverty-stricken
place : the governor (Captain of Trabalhaclores or Indian
workmen) being an old, apathetic half-breed, who had
spent all his life here. The priest was a most profligate
character ; I seldom saw him sober ; he was a white,
however, and a man of good ability. I may as well
mention here, that a moral and zealous priest is a great
rarity in this province : the only ministers of religion in
the whole country who appeared sincere in their calling,
being the Bishop of Para and the Vicars of Ega on
the Upper Amazons and Obydos. 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.
The Indians were always hostile to the Portuguese, and
during the disorders of 1835-6 joined the rebels in
the attack on Santarem. Few of them escaped the
subsequent slaughter, and for this reason there is now
scarcely an old or middle-aged man in the place. 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 waters 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 children, who came to beg each a piece of

VOL. II. g

82 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II. '

.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 leaf-stalks of palms, tied in bun-
dles. 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 hand-
some 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 woman
wounded by it whilst bathing ; she shrieked frightfully,
and was obliged to be carried to her hammock, where
she lay for a week in great pain; I have known
strong men to be lamed for many months by the
stingy.

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 poison-
ous 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 do-

Chap. II. PUCHEKUMS. 83

leterious 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 sufficient to stupify
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 24
hours afterwards, a considerable number floating dead
on the surface.

The people occupy themselves the greater part of the
year with their small plantations of mandioca. All the
heavy work, such as felling and burning the timber,
planting and weeding, is done in the plantation of each
family by a congregation of neighbours, which they call
a "pucherum:" — a similar custom to the "bee" in
the backwood settlements of North America. They
make quite a holiday of each pucherum. When the
invitation is issued, the family prepares a great quantity
of fermented drink, called in this part Taroba, from
soaked mandioca cakes, and porridge of Manicueira.
This latter is a kind of sweet mandioca, very different
from the Yuca of the Peruvians and Macasheira of
the Brazilians (Manihot Aypi), having oblong juicy
roots, which become very sweet a few days after
they are gathered. With these simple provisions they
regale their helpers. The work is certainly done,
but after a very rude fashion ; all become soddened
with Taroba, and the day finishes often in a drunken
brawl.

g 2

84 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II:

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 lay all my length on the cool
sand for two or three hours before bed-time. The soft
pale light, resting on the 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 land-
scape. 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 in-
crease from day to day : the weather on the first day
after the rain is gleamy with 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 re-
freshing 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.

Jane 17th, — The two young men returned without
meeting with my montaria, and I found it impossible
here to buy a new one. Captain Thomas could find me
only one hand. This was a blunt-spoken but willing

Chap. II. GREAT WIDTH OF RIVER. 85

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 Cajetuba. 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
(Myraiica saevissima) ; 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 without interruption
for miles at the edge of the water. The countless
thousands had been doubtless cast into the river whilst
flying during a sudden squall the night before, and after-
wards 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 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 of the year. The opposite coast appeared in the

S6 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.-

daytime as a long thin line of forest, with dim gray
hills in the back ground.

June 18th and 19th. — Senhor Jeronymo promised to
sell me a montaria, so I waited for three hours after
sunrise the next morning, expecting it to be forth-
coming, but in vain. I sent Pinto and afterwards
Jose to enquire about it, but they, instead of perform-
ing the errand, joined the easy-natured master of the
house in a morning carousal. I was obliged, when my
patience was exhausted, to go after them, having to
clamber down a projecting bough, in the absence of a
boat, to get ashore ; and then found my two men, their
host, and two or three neighbours, lolling in hammocks,
tinkling wire guitars, and drinking cashaca. I mention
this as a sample of a very common class of incidents in
Brazilian travelling. Master Jeronymo backed out of
his promise regarding the montaria. Jose and Pinto,
who seemed to think they had done nothing wrong,
sulkily obeyed my order to go on board, and we again
got under way. The wind failed us on the 18th to-
wards three p.m. About six miles above Aramana-i we
rounded a rocky point, called Acaratingari, the distance
travelled being altogether not more than twelve miles.
The greater part of the day was thus lost : we passed
the night in a snug little harbour sheltered by trees.

To-day (19 th) we had a good wind, which carried us
to the mouth of a creek, called Paquiatuba, where the
" inspector " of the district lived, Senhor Cypriano, for
whom I had brought an order from Captain Thomas to
supply me with another hand. We had great difficulty
in finding a place to land. The coast in this part

Chap. II. HOUSES CONCEALED IN FOREST. 87

was a tract of level, densely-wooded country, through
which flowed the winding rivulet, or creek, which gives
its name to a small scattered settlement hidden in the
wilderness ; the hills here receding two or three miles
towards the interior. A large portion of the forest
was flooded, the trunks of the very high trees near the
mouth of the creek standing 18 feet deep in water.
We lost two hours working our way with poles through
the inundated woods in search of the port. Every inlet
we tried ended in a labyrinth choked up with bushes,
but we were at length guided to the right place by the
crowing of cocks. On shouting for a montaria an
Indian boy made his appearance, guiding one through
the gloomy thickets ; but he was so alarmed, I suppose
at the apparition of a strange-looking white man in
spectacles bawling from the prow of the vessel, that he
shot back quickly into the bushes. He returned when
Manoel spoke, and we went ashore : the montaria wind-
ing along a gloomy overshadowed water-path, made by
cutting away the lower branches and underwood. The
foot-road to the houses was a narrow, sandy alley, bor-
dered by trees of stupendous height, overrun with
creepers, and having an unusual number of long air-
roots dangling from the epiphytes on their branches.

After passing one low smoky little hut, half-buried in
foliage, the path branched off in various directions, and
the boy having left us we took the wrong turn. We
were brought to a stand soon after by the barking of
dogs ; and on shouting, as is customary on approaching
a dwelling, "0 da casa!" (Oh of the house!) a dark-
skinned native, a Cafuzo, with a most unpleasant ex-

8S VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

pression of countenance, came forth through the tangled
maze of bushes, armed with a long knife, with which he
pretended to be whittling a stick. He directed us to
the house of Cypriano, which was about a mile distant
along another forest road. The circumstance of the
Cafuzo coming out armed to receive visitors very much
astonished my companions, who talked it over at every
place we visited for several days afterwards ; the freest
and most unsuspecting welcome in these retired places
being always counted upon by strangers. But, as Ma-
noel remarked, the fellow may have been one of the
unpardoned rebel leaders who had settled here after
the recapture of Santarem in 1836, and lived in fear of
being enquired for by the authorities of Santarem. After
all our trouble we found Cypriano absent from home.
His house was a large one, and full of people, old and
young, women and children, all of whom were Indians
or mamelucos. Several smaller huts surrounded the
large dwelling, besides extensive open sheds containing
mandioca ovens and rude wooden mills for grinding
sugar-cane to make molasses. All the buildings were
embosomed in trees : it would be scarcely possible to
find a more retired nook, and an air of contentment was
spread over the whole establishment. Cypriano' s wife,
a good-looking mameluco girl, was superintending the
packing of farinha. Two or three old women, seated on
mats, were making baskets with narrow strips of bark
from the leaf-stalks of palms, whilst others were occu-
pied lining them with the broad leaves of a species of
maranta, and filling them afterwards with farinha, which
was previously measured in a rude square vessel. It

Chap. II. FIRE-ANTS. 89

appeared that Senhor Cypriano was a large producer of
the article, selling 300 baskets (sixty pounds' weight
each) annually to Santarem traders. I was sorry we were
unable to see him, but it was useless waiting, as we were
told all the men were at present occupied in "puche-
rums," and he would be unable to give me the assistance
I required. We returned to the canoe in the evening,
and, after moving out into the river, anchored and slept.

June 20th. — We had a light, baffling wind off shore
all day on the 20th, 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 Tapaiuna,
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 continuation of the low and flooded
land of Paquiatuba.

June 2\st — The next morning we sailed along the
Tapaiuna 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

90 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

creek, on whose banks an industrious white settler had
located himself. I resolved to pass the rest of the clay
and night here, and endeavour 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, Ponte-
derise, now full of purple blossom, from which flocks of
Piosocas 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 handsome spotted Siluride fish,
and Piranha, a kind of Salmonidse (Tetragonopterus) .
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 Paquia-
tuba 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 their coming aboard in
the morning Pinto was drunk and insolent. According
to Jose, who had kept himself sober, and was alarmed
at the other's violent conduct, the owner of the house
and Pinto had spent the greater part of the night toge-
ther, drinking aguardente de beiju, — a spirit distilled
from the mandioca root. We knew nothing of the

Chap. II. A STRONG BREEZE. 91

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 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 cliff, 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.

Jvme 23rd. — The wind freshened at ten o'clock in
the morning of the 23rd. A thick black cloud then
began t© 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

92 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

column of cold air up river, creating a breeze with which
we bounded rapidly forward. The wind in the afternoon
strengthened to a gale ; we carried on with one foresail
only, two of the men holding on to the boom to prevent
the whole thing from flying to pieces. The rocky coast
continued 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 separa-
tion 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 Aveyros hove in sight, in
the port of which we cast anchor late in the afternoon.

Aveyros is a small settlement, containing only four-
teen or fifteen houses besides the church ; but it is the
place of residence of the authorities of a large district ;
the priest, Juiz de Paz, the subdelegado of police, and
the Captain of the Trabalhadores. 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 missionary
village of Santa Cruz, comprising thirty or forty families
of baptised Mundurucu Indians, who are at present
under the management of a Capuchin Friar, and are
independent of the Captain of Trabalhadores of Aveyros.

Chap. II. CORPS OF TRABALHADORES. 93

The river view frQin 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 per-
spective. 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
wei*e housed and put in order for working.

I here dismissed Pinto, who again got drunk and
quarrelsome 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 autho-
rity, 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

94 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

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 morn-
ing 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 ex-
cept homoeopathy, having been smitten with the mania
during a recent visit to Santarem. He had a Portu-
guese Homoeopathic Dictionary, and a little leather
case containing glass tubes filled with globules, with
which he was doctoring the whole village. A bitter
enmity seemed to exist between the female members
of the priest's family and those of the captain's ; the
only white women in the settlement. It was amusing
to notice how they flaunted past each other, when going
to church on Sundays, in their starched muslin dresses.
I found an intelligent young man living here, a native
of the province of Goyaz, who was exploring the neigh-
bourhood for gold and diamonds. He had made one
journey up a branch river, and declared to me, that
he had found one diamond, but was unable to con-
tinue his researches, because the Indians who accom-
panied him refused to remain any longer : he was
now waiting for Captain Antonio to assist him with
fresh men, having offered him in return a share in the
results of the enterprise. There appeared to be no

Chap. II. OTHEALTHINESS OF BRANCH RIVERS. 95

doubt, that gold is occasionally found within two or
three days' journey of Aveyros ; but all lengthened
search is made impossible by the scarcity of food and
the impatience of the Indians, who see no value in the
precious metal, and abhor the tediousness of the gold-
searcher's occupation. It is impossible to do without
them, as they are required to paddle the canoes.

The weather, during the month of July, was uninter-
ruptedly 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 ea^ly 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 aris-
ing 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

96 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

the insect pests of other parts, mosquitoes, sand-flies,
Motucas and piums ; but the formiga de fogo is per-
haps a greater plague than all the others put toge-
ther. 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 spe-
cies on the banks of the Tapajos. Aveyros was deserted
a few years before my v^sit on account of this little tor-
mentor, 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
oreatly differing from the common red stinging ant of
our own country (Myrmica rubra), except that the pain
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 insects bring their young to
receive warmth near the surface. The houses are over-
run with them ; they dispute every fragment 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

Chap. II. FOREST OF AVEYROS. 97

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
neighbours, 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 unknown
on the Tapajos, before the disorders of 1835-6, and be-
lieve that the hosts sprang up from the blood of the
slaughtered Cabanas. 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 Aveyros yielded me little except
insects, but in these it was very rich. It is not too

VOL. II. H

98 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

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 ygapo, which lies about a mile inland. Of butter-
flies 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 Whaiapu-sai. It is a moderately-
sized species, clothed with long brown hair, and hav-
ing hands of a whitish hue. Although nearly allied
to the Cebi it has none of their restless vivacity, but
is a dull, listless 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 per-

Chap. II. WESTERN SIDE OF THE TAPAJOS. 90

sons in all, and the boat was an old ricketty 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 passen-
gers took the matter very coolly, although the water
spouted up alarmingly, and I thought we should inevit-
ably 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 In-
dians baled out the water with large cuyas. We thus
managed to keep afloat until we reached our destina-
tion, 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 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-

h 2

100 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

brown colour, and of a peaty nature. The higher
grassy undulating 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 hands-
full 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
despatched 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 ; we met,
however, with a flock of the common light-brown allied
species (Cebus albifrons ?), and killed one as a speci-
men. 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 gene-
rally 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 foremost of the flock reaches
the outermost branch of an unusually lofty tree, he
springs forth into the air without a moment's hesitation

Chap. II. CEBI MONKEYS. 101

and alights on the dome of yielding foliage belonging
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 lan-
guage, macaw or large-headed (Acain, head, and Arara
macaw), to the disproportionate size of the head com-
pared with 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 disposition seeming to
arise from great nervous irritability and discontent.
The anxious, painful, and changeable expression of its
countenance, and the want of purpose in its move-
ments, betray this. Its actions are like those of a way-
ward 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,

102 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II,

making some noise or other, often screwing up its
mouth and uttering a succession of loud notes resem-
bling 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 Nycti-
pithecus 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 crack-
ing its skull with his teeth. Upon this I got rid of
him.

After a ramble of four or five hours, during which
Jose shot a beautiful green and black-striped lizard of
the Iguana family, from the trunk of a tree, and I filled
my insect box with new and rare species (including an
extremely beautiful butterfly of the genus Heliconius,
H, Hermathena), we rejoined our companions at a hut,
in the middle of the campo, where the Indians lived
who had charge of the cattle. A tract of land like this,
several miles in extent, alternating prairie and wood-
land, would be a rich possession in a better peopled
country. The few oxen seemed to thrive on the nu-
tritious grasses, and to make all complete there was a
little lake in the low grounds, surrounded by fan-leaved
Carana palms, where the cattle could be watered all the
year round. The farm was at present new, and the
men said they had not yet been visited by jaguars. The

Chap. II. MARACANA PARROT. 103

poor fellows seemed to fare very badly. Captain An-
tonio treated all his Indians like slaves ; paying them
no wages and stinting them to scanty rations of salt fish
and farinha. There was an air of poverty and misery
over the whole establishment, which produced a very-
disagreeable impression : these are certainly not the
people to develope the resources of a fine country like
this.

On recrossing the river to Aveyros in the evening, a
pretty little parrot fell from a great height headlong into
the water near the boat ; having dropped from a flock
which seemed to be fighting- in the air. One of the In-
dians secured it for me, and I was surprised to find the
bird uninjured. There had probably been a quarrel
about mates, resulting in our little stranger being tem-
porarily stunned by a blow on the head from the beak
of a jealous comrade. The species was the Conurus
guianensis, called by the natives Maracana ; the plumage
green, with a patch of scarlet under the wings. I
wished to keep the bird alive and tame it, but all our
efforts to reconcile it to captivity were vain ; it refused
food, bit every one who went near it, and damaged its
plumage in its exertions to free itself. My friends in
Aveyros said that this kind of parrot never became do-
mesticated. After trying nearly a week I was recom-
mended to lend the intractable creature to an old
Indian woman, living in the village, who was said to
be a skilful bird-tamer. In two days she. brought it
back almost as tame as the familiar love-birds of our
aviaries. I kept my little pet for upwards of two
years ; it learned to talk pretty well, and was con-

104 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

sidered quite a wonder as being a bird usually so dif-
ficult of domestication. I do not know what arts the
old woman used : Captain Antonio said she fed it with
her saliva. The chief reason why almost all animals
become so wonderfully tame in the houses of the
natives is, I believe, their being treated with uniform
gentleness, and allowed to run at large about the rooms.
Our Maracana used to accompany us sometimes in our
rambles, one of the lads carrying it on his head. One
day, in the middle of a long forest road, it was missed,
having clung probably to an overhanging bough and
escaped into the thickets without the boy perceiving it.
Three hours afterwards, on our return by the same
path, a voice greeted- us in a colloquial tone as we
passed " Maracana ! " We looked about for some time,
but could not see anything until the word was repeated
with emphasis " Maracana-a ! " when we espied the
little truant half concealed in the foliage of a tree. He
came down and delivered himself up evidently as much
rejoiced at the meeting as we were.

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 obtain specimens of the White
Cebus. We crossed over first to the mission village,
Santa Cruz. It 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. The missionary, Fre Isidro, an

Chap. II. MISSION VILLAGE. 105

Italian monk, was away at another station called Wishi-
tiiba, two days' journey farther up the river. Report
said of him that he had no zeal for religion or devotion
to his calling, but was occupied in trading, using the
Indian proselytes to collect salsaparilla and so forth, with
a view to making a purse wherewith to retire to his
own country. The semi-civilised Indians, who speak the
Tupi language, called him Pai tuciira, or Father Grass-
hopper : his peaked hood having a droll resemblance to
the pointed head of the insect. I afterwards became
acquainted with Fre Isidoro, and found him a man of
superior intelligence and ability. He complained much
of the ill treatment the Indians received at the hands
of traders and the Brazilian civil authorities, and said
that he and his predecessors had incessantly to contend
for the rights secured to the aborigines by the laws of
the empire. The plan of assembling families in formal,
blank-looking settlements, like this of Santa Cruz,
seemed to me very ill chosen. The Indians would be
happier in their scattered wigwams, embowered in
foliage on the banks of shady rivulets where they
prefer to settle when left to themselves.

A narrow belt of wood runs behind the village : be-
yond 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 in-
deed with anything that repaid us the time and trouble.
The soil of the district appeared too dry ; at this season

106 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

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 proceeded to explore care-
fully 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 handsome 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 mameluca, with clear though dark com-
plexion 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 Tucunare's, and Senhora Joaquina showed us
the fly baits used to take this kind of fish, which she

Chap. II. FISHERWOMEN. 107

had made with her own hands of parrots' feathers.
The rods used are slender bamboos, and the lines made
from the fibres of pine-apple leaves. It is not very
common for the Indian and half-caste women to pro-
vide 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 shouldering their
paddles and tucking up their skirts, the two dusky
fisherwomen marched down to their canoe. We sent
the two 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 hus-
bands 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

108 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

taken ; there being sufficient for the whole party, includ-
ing several children, two old men from a neighbouring
hut, and my Indians. I made our good-natured enter-
tainers a small present of needles and sewing-cotton,
articles very much prized, and soon after we re-em-
barked, and again crossed the river to Aveyros.

August 2nd. — Left Aveyros ; having resolved to
ascend a branch river, the Cupari, which enters the Tapa-
jos about eight miles above this village, instead of going
forward along the main stream. I should have liked
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 each of these, and the cargoes
carried by land on the backs of Indians, whilst the
empty vessels are dragged by ropes ove$ the obstruc-
tions. The Cupari was described to me as flowing

Chap. II. ENTER THE CUPARI. 109

through a rich moist clayey valley, covered with forests
and abounding in game ; whilst the banks of the Tapa-
jos 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 unproduc-
tive 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 bot-
tom 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 situ-
ated 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 im-
migrant who had settled here forty years previously and
married a Mundurucu woman. He must have been a far
more industrious man than the majority of his country-
men 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 plantation of cacao occupied the lower grounds.

110 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

The next morning one of the brothers brought me a
beautiful opossum which had been caught in the fowl-
house a little 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 in-
sectivorous order of mammals, being entirely absent
from Tropical America. One kind of these rat-like
opossums is aquatic, and has webbed feet. The terres-
trial 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.

August 5th. — The river reminds me of some parts
of the Jaburu channel, being hemmed in by two walls
of forest rising to the height of at least 100 feet, and
the outlines of the trees being concealed throughout by
a dense curtain of leafy creepers. The impression of
vegetable profusion and overwhelming luxuriance in-
creases at every step. 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

Chap. II. A NEW INSECT PEST. Ill

Malagueita, a mameluco settler, whom we had been
recommended to visit. His house and outbuildings
were extensive, the grounds well wooded, 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 Ave 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. Senhor Antonio had spent his younger
days at Para, and had acquired a profound respect
for Englishmen. I stayed here two days. My host
accompanied me in my excursions ; in fact, his atten-
tions, with those of his wife and the host of relatives
of all degrees who constituted his household, were quite
troublesome, as they left me not a moment's privacy
from morning till night.

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 the natives may be thankful is not spread more
widely over the country : it was a large brown fly of the
Tabanidae family (genus Pangonia), with a proboscis
half an inch long and sharper than the finest needle.

112 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

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
tameness 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 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

Chap. II. THE ANACONDA. 113

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 offered by
their not breeding in confinement, which is probably
owing to their arboreal habits, might perhaps be over-
come by repeated experiment ; but for this the Indians
probably had not sufficient patience or intelligence.
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 Joao 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 sides of the vessel about three feet from
the cabin door. I could find no explanation of the
circumstance, 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 ser-
pent— 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

VOL. II. I

1H VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

houses. I was inclined to doubt the fact of a serpent
striking at its prey from the water, and thought an
alligator more likely to be the culprit, although we
had not yet met with alligators in the river. Some
days afterwards the young men belonging to the dif-
ferent sitios agreed together to go in search of the
serpent. They began in a systematic manner, forming
two parties each embarked 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 speci-
men, measuring only eighteen feet nine inches in length
and sixteen inches in circumference at the widest part
of the body. I measured skins of the Anaconda after-
wards, 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 farm-yards, and 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
one day in their montaria a few miles up the Teffe to
gather wild fruit ; landing on a sloping sandy shore,

Chap. II. WINDINGS OF RIVER. 115

where the boy was left to mind the canoe whilst the man
entered the forest. The beaches of the TefTe 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 Mai d'agoa — the mother
or spirit of the water. This fable, which was doubtless
suggested by the occasional appearance of Sucurujus
of unusually large size, takes a great variety of forms,
and the wild legends form the subject of conversation
amongst old and young, over the wood fires in lonely
settlements.

August 6th and *7th. — On leaving the sitio of Antonio
Malagueita we continued our way along the windings of
the river, generally in a south-east and south-south-east
direction but sometimes due south, for about fifteen miles,
when we stopped at the house of one Paulo Christo, a
mameluco whose acquaintance I had made at Aveyros.

l 2

116 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

Here we spent the night and part of the next day ; doing
in the morning a good five hours' work in the forest, ac-
companied by the owner of the place. In the afternoon
of the 7th we were again under way : 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 com-
mences: 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.

On the road, we passed a little shady inlet, at the
mouth of which a white-haired, wrinkle-faced old man
was housed in a temporary shed, washing the soil for
gold. He was quite alone : no one knew anything of
him in these parts, except that he was a Cuyabano, or
native of Cuyaba in the mining districts, and his little
boat was moored close to his rude shelter. Whatever
success he might have had remained a secret, for he
went away, after a three weeks' stay in the place, with-
out communicating with any one.

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

Chap. II. BUILD A CANOE. 117

I stayed at the sitio of Joao Aracu. until the 19th,
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 Joao Aracu' s
directions. The first day a suitable tree was found for
the shell of the boat, of the kind called Itauba 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 they had previously made with
pieces of round wood to act as rollers. The distance
was about half a mile, and the ropes used for drawing
the heavy load were tough lianas cut from the sur-
rounding 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 criti-
cal operation, and not always successful, many a good
shell being spoilt by its splitting or expanding irregu-
larly. It is first reared on tressels, with the slit down-
wards, over a large fire, which is kept up for seven or

118 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

eight hours, the process requiring unremitting atten-
tion 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 fix-
ing them with wedges, are inserted into the opening,
their compass being altered gradually as the ivork 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 merriment
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 incon-
venience 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 considerable 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. There is the most striking contrast
between the productions of the Cupari and those of Altar
do Chao in this department : the majority of the spe-
cies inhabiting the one district being totally unknown
in the other. At the same time a considerable propor-
tion of the Cupari species were identical with those of
Ega on the Upper Amazons, a region eight times fur-
ther removed than the village just mentioned. The

Chap. II. FLESH OF MONKEY. 119

most interesting acquisition at this place 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 Joao Aracu. brought
down another, possibly the companion. The species is of
about the same size as the common black kind of which
I have given an account in a former chapter, and has a
similar lean body with limbs clothed with coarse black
hair ; but it differs in having the whiskers and a trian-
gular patch on the crown of the head of a white colour.
It is never met with in the alluvial plains of the Ama-
zons, nor, I believe, on the northern side of the great
river valley, except towards the head waters, near the
Andes ; where Humboldt discovered it on the banks of
the Santiago. 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 Coaita
meat. We smoke-dried the joints instead of salting
them ; placing them for several hours on a framework
of sticks arranged 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 cli-
mate 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

120 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

a fortnight, the last joint being an arm with the clenched
fist, which I used with great economy, hanging it in the
intervals between my frugal meals on a nail in the
cabin. Nothing but the hardest necessity could have
driven me so near to cannibalism as this, but we had the
greatest difficulty in obtaining here a sufficient 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
an anteater, 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 jar
full always ready to temper 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 colli-
sion 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 not a breath of wind stirred in the tree-tops. On

Chap. II. GREAT HEAT. 121

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 de-
scended 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 the 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

122 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

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 Joao
Aracus 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 trouble-
some, 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 light-
ning 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 collections, 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 Joao
Aracus 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

Chap. II. TIDES. 123

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 Joao Aracu,
who had not noticed it before (it was only his second
year of residence in the locality), 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 con-
clusion was a correct one.

The fact of the tide being felt 530 miles up the Ama-
zons, passing from the main stream to one of its afflu-
ents 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 21s£. — Joao 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

124 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

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 our
course was southerly and south-easterly. This morning
(August 21st) we arrived at the Indian settlement, the
first house of which lies about thirty-one miles above
the sitio of Joao Aracti. 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 Munduruciis 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 dwell-
ings are conical huts, with walls of framework filled in
with mud and thatched with palm leaves, the broad eaves
reaching halfway to the ground. Some are quadran-
gular, 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 Tushatia or chief, situated on
the top of a high bank, which we had to ascend by

Chap. II. MUNDURUCU INDIANS. 125

wooden steps. There were four other houses in the
neighbourhood, all filled with people. A fine old fel-
low, 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 em-
ployed 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 politeness, and in very good Por-
tuguese. He was a tall, broad-shouldered, well-made
man, apparently about thirty years of age, with hand-
some 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 demeanour. I was told
that he had come into the chieftainship by inheritance,
and that the Cupari horde of Mundurucus, 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 Aracu
and the men to fish, whilst I amused myself with the

126 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

Tushaua and his people. A few words served to ex-
plain 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 in-
tractable 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 ranged over
the whole of the interior country, from the head waters
of the Itapacura (a branch of the Tapajos flowing from
the east, whose sources lie in about 7° south latitude)
to the banks of the Curua (about 3° south latitude),
and from the Mundurucu settlements on the Tapajos
(55° west longtitude) to the Pacajaz (50° west longi-
tude). 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 chil-

Chap. II. TATTOOING. 127

dren. Before they were discovered the hungry savages
had uprooted all the macasheira, sweet potatoes, and
suo-ar 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 be-
fore 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
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 Tushaua 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 appearance, having a semicircular
black patch in the middle of his face, covering the
bottom of the nose and mouth, 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 Bra-
zilian red men ; they being all tattooed either in simple
lines or patches. The nearest approach to elegance of

128 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

design which I saw, was amongst the Tucunas of the
Upper Amazons, some of whom have a scroll-like mark
on each cheek, proceeding from the corner of the
month. The taste, as far as form is concerned, 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 after-
wards learnt from Aracu, he had three or four, to look
at them ; one of them was a handsome girl, decorated
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 ele-
phant, 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 Mundurucu. language, of which I under-
stood only two or three words. Their way of express-
ing surprise was a clicking sound made with the teeth,
similar to the one we ourselves use, or a subdued ex-

Chap. IT. INDIAN FEATURES. 129

clamation, Hm ! hm ! Before I finished, from fifty to
sixty had assembled ; there was no pushing 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 great difference in figure, shape of head, and
arrangement of features amongst these people struck
me forcibly, and showed how little uniformity there
is in these respects amongst the Brazilian Indians,
even when belonging to the same tribe. The only
points in which they all closely resembled each other
were the long, thick, straight, jet-black hair, the warm
coppery-brown tint of the skin, and the quiet, rather
dull, expression of countenance. I saw no countenance
so debased in expression as many seen amongst the
Mura tribe, and no head of the Mongolian type — broad,
with high cheek bones, and oblique position of the
eyes — of which single examples occur amongst the
semi-civilised canoemen on the river. Many of them
had fine oval faces, with rather long and well-formed
features, moderately thin lips, and arched forehead.
One little girl, about twelve years of age, had quite a
European cast of features, and a remarkably slim
figure. They were all clean in their persons ; the petti-
coats of the women being made of coarse cotton cloth
obtained from traders, and their hair secured in a knot
behind by combs made of pieces of bamboo. The old
men had their heads closely cropped, with the excep-
tion of a long fringe which hung down in front over
their foreheads.

The Mundurucus are perhaps the most numerous

VOL. II. K

130 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

and formidable 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, 2000 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 attacking the establishments of the
whites in the province of Maranham. 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 3000
to 5000 baskets (60 lbs. each) annually, to traders who
ascend the river from Santarem between the months

Chap. II. WARS OF MUNDURUCUS. 131

of August and January. They also gather large quan-
tities 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 Tushaua of
the whole tribe or nation, named Joaquim, was rewarded
with a commission in the Brazilian army, in acknow-
ledgment of the assistance he gave to the legal autho-
rities 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, agricultural habits, loyalty to their chiefs,
fidelity to treaties, and gentleness of demeanour, give
them a right to a better title. Yet they show no apti-
tude for the civilised life of towns, and, like the rest of
the Brazilian tribes, seem incapable of any further
advance in culture. In their former wars they exter-
minated two of the neighbouring peoples, the Jumas
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 plantations of the agricul-

k2

132 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

tural Indians. These campaigns begin in July, and last
throughout the dry months ; the women generally ac-
companying the warriors to carry their arrows and jave-
lins. They had the diabolical custom, in former days,
of cutting off the heads of their slain enemies, and pre-
serving 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 Mundurucus and
the Araras. I was told by a Frenchman at Santarem,
who had visited that part, that all the settlements
there have a military organization. A separate shed
is built outside of 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 propitious for attacking the enemy ; 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 seat of pain the smoke from

Chap. II. MAUHES INDIANS. 133

a large cigar, made with an air of great mystery by
rolling 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 Joao Malagueita's family, to operate on a c^hild
who suffered much from pains in the head. Senhor
Joao 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 Joao and I were present. I cannot help think-
ing that 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 gene-
ration. The institution seems to be common to all
tribes of Indians, and to be held to more tenaciously
than any other.

The opposite (western) shore of the Tapajos for some
distance beyond the falls, and the country thence to the
channels behind Villa Nova, are inhabited by the Mauhes
tribe, of whom I have spoken in a former chapter.
These are also a settled, agricultural people, but speak a
totally different language from that of the Mundurucus.
I saw at Aveyros several men of this fine tribe, who were
descending the river in a trading canoe, and who, on
being confronted with a Mundurucu were quite unable
to understand him. There are many other points of dif-
ference between the two tribes. The Mauhes are much
less warlike, and do not practise tattooing. Their villages
are composed of a number of small huts, tenanted by

134 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

single families, whilst the separate hordes of Mundu-
rucus generally live together, each in one large dwelling.
The Cupari horde do not form an exception in this
respect, as they also lived together in one of these large
huts until very recently. The Mauhes are undistin-
guishable in physical appearance from their neighbours,
being of middle size, with broad muscular chests, and
well-shaped limbs and hands. But the individuals of
both tribes can be readily distinguished from the Muras ;
less, however, by the structure and proportions of the
body than by the expression of their countenances, which
is mild and open instead of brutal, surly and mistrustful,
as in those savages. They are invariably friendly to
the whites ; as I have already mentioned, they use the
Parica snuff, a habit quite unknown to the Mundurucus.
They are the only tribe who manufacture Guarana, a
hard substance made of the pounded seeds of a climb-
ing plant (Paullinia sorbilis), which they sell in large
quantities to traders, it being used throughout the
whole of the interior provinces of Brazil, grated and
mixed in water, as a remedy in diarrhoea and intermittent
fevers. The Mundurucus have a tradition that they and
the Mauhes originally formed one tribe ; the two peoples
were formerly bitter enemies, but are now, and have
been for many years, at peace with each other. Many
centuries must have elapsed since the date of their first
separation, to have produced the great differences now
existing in language and customs between the two
tribes. I fancy the so-called tradition is only a myth,
but it doubtless conveys the truth. The points of re-
semblance between all the tribes inhabiting the region

Chap. II. INDIAN FESTIVALS. 135

of the Amazons are so numerous and striking, that,
notwithstanding the equally striking points of difference
which some of them exhibit, we must conclude that not
only the Mundurucus and Mauhes, but all the various
peoples had a common origin — that is, they are de-
rived by immigration from one quarter and one stock,
the separate tribes subsequently acquiring their pecu-
liarities by long isolation.

I bought of the Tushaiia two beautiful feather sceptres,
with their bamboo cases. 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
Mundurucus 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 super-
stitious 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 festi-
vals, 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

136 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. IL

night and day until the stimulating beverage is
finished.

We left the Tushaua'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 Para-
rauate visit. The Indians are here seen to the best
advantage ; having relinquished many of 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 stafe, 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 Mundurucus of the Cupari, however, have
been now for many years protected against ill-treatment.
This is one of the good services rendered by the mis-
sionaries, who take care that the Brazilian laws in
favour of the aborigines shall be respected by the brutal

Chap. II. MENTAL CONDITION OF INDIANS. 137

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, con-
sequently 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, re-
garded 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 ;
but the picture of harmless homely contentment they
exhibit is very 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

138 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

their oars on leaving the port of the Tushaua. 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 transforma-
tion 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 Joao
Aracu, and remain myself with the cuberta and our
other man, 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 spe-
cimens 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 (GEstrus). The back and tail
were of a ruddy-brown colour ; the limbs and under-

Chap. II. FISHES. 139

side 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 (Astryocaryum Tucuma), the exces-
sively 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 ; working on the roof of my
cabin by the light of a lamp.

The place where the cuberta was anchored formed a
little rocky haven, with a sandy beach sloping to the
forest, within which were the ruins of the 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 recog-
nisable 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 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 suc-
cessful, and many contrived to steal the coveted morsels

140

VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS.

Chap. II.

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 popula-
tion of the water varied from day to day. Once a small
shoal of a handsome black-banded fish, called by the

#„..; ^- -^ : "r

WV

Acara (Mesonauta insignis).

natives Acara bandeira (Mesonauta insignis, of Gunther),
came gliding through at a slow pace, forming a very
pretty sight. At another time, little troops of needle
fish, eel-like 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 move-
ment. We caught with hook and line, baited with
pieces of banana, several Curimata (Anodus Ama-

ClIAP. II.

UPROAR OF LIFE.

141

zonum), a most delicious fish, which, next to the
Tucunare and the Pescada, is most i

esteemed by the natives. The Curi-
mata 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 sun-
set, which Humboldt de-
scribes as having witnessed
towards the sources of the
Orinoco, but which is un-
known on the banks of the ^
larger rivers. The noises of
animals began just as the
sun sank behind 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 forests with their
dismal roaring. Troops of
parrots, including the hya-
cinthine macaw we were

Sarapo (Carapus.)

Needle-fish
(Hemaramphus).

142 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chai\ II.

in search of, began then to pass over ; the different
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 per-
formers made a considerable item in the evening
concert. I had heard the same species before at Para,
but it was 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 them 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 Joao
Aracu, and we accomplished the distance, with its aid
and by rowing, in seventeen hours.

Chap. II. DESCENT OF THE TAPAJOS. 143

Sept. 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 epi-
demics 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 experienced 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. Joao
Aracu and his family all fell victims, with the exception
of his wife : my kind friend Joao Malagueita also died,
and a great number of people in the Mundurucii village.
The descent of the Tapajos in the height of the dry
season, which was now close at hand, is very hazardous
on account 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

144 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

than in June ; and in many places, ledges of rock are
laid tare, 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
Ave 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 impos-
sible to contend, as there is no current, and the swell
raised by its sweeping 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 brilliant
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.

Sept. 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 casha9a. Ricardo, who had been for
some time very discontented, having now satisfied his long-

Chap. II. DESCENT OF THE TAPAJOS. 145

ing 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 anywhere 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 troublesome at first, had made a very good servant ;
his companion, Alberto, was of quite a different dispo-
sition, being extremely taciturn, and going through all
his duties with the quietest regularity.

We left at 11 a.m., and progressed a little before the
wind 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 Itapuama. 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 stupified in the prow.
It was what the canoemen 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

VOL. II. L

146 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

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
hammocks under the trees, and breakfasted and dined
together, our cloth being spread on the sanely 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 way 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 Pirn, which is exactly opposite
the village of Boim, and on the following night ad-
vanced 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 necessary to double
by a wide circuit. The terral failed us at midnight
when we were near an espera, called Marai, the mouth
of a shallow creek.

Sept. 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 sun-
rise, and could not get a fresh supply at this place.
So there being a dead calm on the river in the morning,

Chap. II. STRONG BREEZE. 147

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 Mara'i 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.

l2

148 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

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 precious collections
would have been inevitably lost ; but we ourselves 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 without an additional man, and one who
understood the navigation 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 house
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 esta-
blished 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 expedition against
runaway negroes, settled in villages in the interior.

Chap. II. AVIXDS OX THE TAPAJOS. 149

Senhor Cypriano was a pleasant-looking and extremely
civil young Mameluco. He accompanied us, on the
nio'ht 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).
After the 26th of September the north-west day-
breeze came every morning with the same strength, be-
ginning at ten or eleven o'clock, and ending suddenly at
seven or eight in the evening. The moon was in her
third quarter, and we had many successive days and
nights of clear, cloudless sky. I believe this wind to be
closely connected with the easterly trade-wind of the
main Amazons ; indeed, to be the same, reflected from
the west after the land-surface in that quarter has been
cooled by it to a much lower point than the sun-
heated surface of the stagnant Tapajos. The wind
always arose in the morning after the air in the direc-
tion of the north-west had been further cooled by ra-
diation of heat during the nisfht ; and it ceased in the
evening, when the equilibrium of temperature between
the Tapajos and the Amazons had become restored. The
light land breeze from the east which always began to
blow soon after the strong north-wester ceased, is attri
butable in like manner to the wooded surface of the
land being then cooler than the air on the river. The
terral lasted generally from 7 until 11 p.m., but after
midnight it usually veered gradually to the north-east,
and blew rather freshly from that quarter towards
sunrise.

150 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

Point Jaguarari forms at this season of the year a
high sandbank, 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 Acara-
tingari, 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 Cajetilba
and had a pleasant day ashore. The river scenery
in this neighbourhood 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 Cajetilba is similar
to the neighbourhood 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

Chap. II. POINT CURURU. 151

appearance to the damascene plum, and not greatly
unlike it in taste. The Aapiranga is a bright vermilion-
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 propelled 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
stern.

It took us two nights to double Point Cururii, where,
as already mentioned, the river bends from its northerly
course beyond Altar do Chao. A confused pile of rocks,
on which 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 carrying 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 great difficulty,
the shelter of the point. It blew almost a hurricane
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 lashings of our sails, and caused our anchor to
drag. Angelo Custodio, however, seized a rope which

152 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II.

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 further progress was effectually 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 Cururii and Santarem
was accomplished in three days, against the same diffi-
culties of contrary and furious winds, shoaly water, and
rocky coasts. I was thankful at length to be safely
housed, with the whole of my 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 he shook hands and bid me
the final " adeos."

CHAPTER III.

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 Indians
— Mental condition of Indians — Scpialls — Manatee — Forest — Float-
ing pumice-stones from the Andes — Falling banks — Ega and its
inhabitants — Daily life of a Naturalist at Ega — Customs, trade,
&c. — 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 cur-
rent 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

154 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

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.

I shipped the collections made between Para and the
Bio Negro in a large cutter which was about descend-
ing 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 Cameiro, 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 season had now set in over the region through
which the great river flows ; the sand-banks and all the

Chap. III. CLIMATE. 155

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 Motuca, 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 direc-
tion 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 I
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 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

156 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

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
without 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 easternmost 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, imper-
vious, 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 westward, 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 wilderness where civilized
man, as yet, has scarcely obtained a footing ; the culti-

Chap. III. MANACAPUKU. 157

vated ground from the Rio Negro to the Andes amount-
ing only to a few score acres. Man, indeed, in any
condition, from his small numbers, makes but au insig-
nificant figure in these vast solitudes. It may be men-
tioned 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 which communicates with the Rio Negro, emerg-
ing 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 sitios, or country-houses, in
this place, although it is eighty miles distant from the
town by the nearest road. They come here for a few
weeks in the fine season to economise, and pass the time
in planting on a small scale, fishing, and trading. The
custom of having two places of residence is very general
throughout the country, and exists amongst the abori-
gines, at least the more advanced tribes. Some of the

158 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

establishments at Manacapurii are large and of old date,
shown by the number and size of the mangos and other
introduced fruit-trees. The houses, though spacious,
were now in a neglected and ruinous condition. Estu-
lano and I landed at one of them, and dined off roasted
wild hog with the owner, an uncommonly lively little
old man, named Feyres. The place looked dirty and
desolate ; the stucco and whitewash had peeled off in
great pieces from the walls ; the doors and window-
shutters were broken and off their hinges ; the dingy
mud-floors were covered with litter, and the cultivated
grounds around the house choked with weeds. The
hio'h bank, and with it the settlement, terminates
at the mouth of a narrow channel which leads to
a large interior lake abounding in fish, manatee, and
turtle.

Beyond Manacapurii 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 completely 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 Manacapurii we travelled nineteen
days without seeing a human habitation, the few settlers
being located on the banks of inlets or lakes some dis-
tance 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

Chap. III. CUCAMA INDIANS. 159

miles from the bank along which we were laboriously
warping our course upwards.

After the first two or three days we fell into a re-
gular way of life aboard. Our crew was composed
of ten Indians of the Cucama nation, whose native
country is a 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 na-
vigate 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 canoemen 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 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 ; these two formed the extremes as to face and
figure. None of them were tattooed or disfigured in
any way ; 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

160 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

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 care-
fully 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 are 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 in a voyage than these poor Indians. During our
thirty-five days' journey they lived and worked toge-
ther 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 in-
clined 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

Chap. III. MENTAL TRAITS OF INDIANS. 161

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 themselves
in sewing. Vicente was a good hand at cutting
out shirts and trousers, and acted as master tailor to
the whole party. Each had a thick steel thimble and
a stock of needles and thread of his own. Vicente
made for me a set of blue-check cotton shirts during
the passage.

The goodness of these Indians, like that of most
others amongst whom I lived, consisted perhaps more
in the absence of active bad qualities, than in the pos-
session of good ones ; in other words, it was negative
rather than positive. Their phlegmatic, apathetic tem-
perament ; coldness of desire and deadness of feeling ;
want of curiosity and slowness of intellect, make the
Amazonian Indians very uninteresting companions any-
where. Their imagination is of a dull, gloomy quality,
and they seem never to be stirred by the emotions : —
love, pity, admiration, fear, wonder, joy, enthusiasm.
These are characteristics of the whole race. The
good fellowship 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 sprung 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

VOL. II. M

162 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

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 of 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 — Tivpana — signifying God. Vicente
sometimes used this word, but he showed by his ex-
pressions 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 word to express it in their
own languages. Vicente thought the river on which we

Chap. III. WEATHER. 163

were travelling 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 alwa}-s found to be the case with
the Indian in his natural state. Would a community
of any race of men be otherwise, were they isolated
for centuries in a wilderness like the Amazonian
Indians, associated in small numbers wholly occu-
pied in procuring a mere subsistence, and without
a written language, or a leisured class to hand
down acquired knowledge from generation to gene-
ration ?

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 broad-
side foremost on the shore. The vessel was fairly lifted
on to the tall bushes which lined the banks, but we sus-
tained 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 river and consequently full against us. We landed
twice a day to give ourselves and the Indians a little

M 2

164 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

rest and change, and to cook our two meals — break-
fast 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 owner 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 time, to go out
fishing ; for which purpose we carried a spare montaria.
The master had brought from Barra, as provisions,
nothing but stale, salt pirarucu — 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
as beans, sugar, biscuits, tea, and so forth ; but we
found ourselves 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 what-
ever 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

Chap. III. COW-FISH. 165

to range. On most days, however, they brought two or
three fine fish, and once they harpooned a manatee, or
Vacca marina. On 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 the 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 the Indians, notwithstand-
ing its commonness. The fact of its suckling its young at
the breast, although an aquatic animal resembling a fish,
seems to strike them as something 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.

It rarely happened that we caught anything near the
canoe ; but one day, as we were slowly progressing
along a remanso past a thick bed of floating grasses,
the men caught sight of a large Pirarucu : the fish

166 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

which, salted, forms the staple food of all classes in
most parts of the Lower Amazons country. It darted
past with great speed close to the surface of the water,
exhibiting its ornamental coat of mail, the extremely
large, broad scales being margined with bright red. One
of the Indians seized a harpoon and, jumping into the
montaria, wTas after it in a moment. He killed it at
the distance of a few yards, as it was plunging amongst
the entangled beds of grass. The fish was a nearly
full-grown one, measuring eight feet in length and
five in girth, and supplied us all with two plentiful
meals. The best parts only were cooked, the rest being
thrown most improvidently to the vultures. The
Indian name Pirarucu, or Anatto fish (from Pira,
fish ; and urucu, anatto or red), is in allusion to the
red colour of the borders of its scales, and is a sample
of the figurative style of nomenclature of the Tupi
nation.

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 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

Chap. III. PALM-FRUITS. 1(57

little bloodsuckers could not very easily find an un-
occupied place to operate upon. Poor Miguel, the
Portuguese, suffered horribly from these pests, his
ancles 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. Sometimes the neighbour-
hood 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 obsta-
cles of one kind or other. The drier lands were some-
times beautified to the highest degree by groves of the
Urucuri palm"(Attalea excelsa), which grew by thousands
under the crowns of the lofty, ordinary forest 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 immense 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.

168 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. IIT.

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 corresponding
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-gra,ss 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 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 ; but 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

Chap. III.

FORESTS OF THE TERRA FIRMA.

169

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 ventri-
cosa, and the slender, glossy-
leaved Bacaba-i (CEnocarpus mi-
nor), being especially charac-
teristic ; and, in short, animal
life, which imparts some cheer-
fulness 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 abo-
rigines, but these have long since
become extinct or amalgamated
with the white immigrants. I

. _>•:

Bulging-stemmed Palm : Pashiuba barrigudo (Iriartea ventricosa).

170 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

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 of the early tribu-
taries of the Amazons, such as the Macas, the Pastaza,
and the Napo. The stones must have already travelled
a distance of 1200 miles. I afterwards found them
rather common : the Brazilians use them for cleaning
rust from their guns, and firmly believe them to be
solidified river foam. A friend once brought me, when
I lived at Santarem, a large piece which had been found
in the middle of the stream below Monte Alegre, about

000 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 thousand miles
distant from the volcanoes which ejected them. They
are sometimes found stranded on the banks in different
parts of the river. Reflecting on this circumstance since

1 arrived in England, the probability of these porous
fragments serving as vehicles for the transportation of

| seeds of plants, eggs of insects, spawn of fresh-water

Chap. III. FALLING BANKS. 171

fish, and so forth, has suggested 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 currents 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
immense distance before the eggs or seeds were
destroyed. I am ashamed to say that I neglected the
opportunity, 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 locomotion,
are found in opposite parts of the earth, without existing
in the intermediate regions ; unless it can be shown
that these may have migrated or been accidentally trans-
ported 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

172 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

dread of the " terras cahidas," or landslips, which occa-
sionally take place along the steep, earthy banks ; espe-
cially 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 resem-
bling 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 followed others. The thundering peal rolled back-
wards and forwards, 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

Chap. III. CUDAJA. 173

which it caused returned on the 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 and fro, with little pro-
spect of a termination. When we glided out of sight,
two hours after sunrise, the destruction was still
going on.

On the 9th of April we passed the mouth of a narrow
channel which leads to an extensive lake called Anuri ;
it lies at the bottom of a long enseada or bay, on the
north or left side of the river, around which sets the
whole force of the current. The steamboat company
have since established a station near this for supplying
their vessels with firewood. A few miles beyond, on the
opposite side, we saw the principal mouth of the Purus,
a very large stream, whose sources are still unknown.
Salsaparilla and Copauba collectors, the only travellers
on its waters, have ascended it in small boats a distance
of two months' journey without meeting with any
obstruction to navigation. This shows that its course
lies to a very great extent within the level plain of the
Upper Amazons. The mouth is not more than a quarter
of a mile broad, and the water is of an olive-green
colour.

We passed Cudaja on the 12th. This is a channel

174 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

which communicates with an extensive system of back-
waters and lakes, lying between this part of the river
and the Japura, 250 miles further west. The inhabi-
tants of the Solimoens give the name of Cupi}^6 to this
little-known interior water-system. A Portuguese,
whom I knew very well, once navigated it throughout
its whole length. He described the country in glowing
terms. The waters are clear ; some of the lakes are of
vast extent, and the land everywhere is level and luxu-
riantly wooded. It is a more complete solitude than
the banks of the main river, for the whole region is
peopled only by a few families of Mura savages. The
inhabitants of Ega, who are employed in the summer
season in salting pirarucu, sometimes make their fishing
stations on the sandy shores of one or other of these
lakes. The largest of them, whose opposite or northern
shore is said to be scarcely visible from the south side,
is called Lake Mura, and is very seldom visited.

A number of long, straggling islands occur in mid-
river beyond Cudaja. We passed the mouth of the
Mamiya, a black -water stream, on the 18th, and on the
19th arrived at the entrance to Lake Quary. This is
not, strictly speaking, a lake, but the expansion of the
united beds of several affluents of the Solimoens, caused
by the slowly-moving waters of the tributaries origi-
nally spreading out over the flat alluvial valle}^ into
which they descend from the higher country of the early
part of their course, instead of flowing directly into the
full and swift current of the main river. Henceforward
most of the branch rivers exhibit these lake-like expan-
sions of their beds. The same phenomenon takes a

Chap. III. LAKE OF QUARY. 175

great variety of forms, and is shown, as already observed
in the Tapajos and other tributaries of the Lower
Amazons. The mouth of the Quary, or the channel
which connects the lake with the Solimoens, is only
200 or 300 yards broad, and has but a very feeble
current. It is about half a mile long, and opens on a
broad sheet of water which is not of imposing magni-
tude, as it is only a small portion of the lake, this
having a rather sharp bend in its lower part, so that the
whole extent is not visible at one view. There is a
small village on the shores of the inner water, distant
twelve hours' journey by boat from the entrance. We
anchored within the mouth, and visited in the montaria
two or three settlers, whose houses are built in pictu-
resque situations on the banks of the lower lake not far
inwards. Several small but navigable streams or inlets
here fall into the Quary ; the land appeared to be of
the highest fertility ; we crossed a neck of land on
foot, from one inlet to another, passing through
extensive groves of coffee, planted in a loose man-
ner amongst the forest trees. One of the settlers
was a Gibraltar Jew, established here many years, and
thoroughly reconciled to the ways of life of the semi-
civilised inhabitants. We found him barefoot, with
trousers turned up to the knee, busily employed with a
number of Indians — men, women, and children — shelling
and drying cacao, which grows wild in immense pro-
fusion in the neighbourhood. He seemed a lively and
sensible fellow ; was a great admirer of the country, the
climate, and the people, and had no desire to return to
Europe. This was the only Jew I met with on the

176 THE UPPER AMAZON'S. Chap. III.

upper river ; there are several settled at Santarern,
Cameta, and Para, where, on account of their dealings
being fairer than those of Portuguese traders, they do
a good trade, and live on friendly terms with the
Brazilians.

Our object here was to purchase a supply of fresh
farinha and anything else we could find in the way of
provisions, as our farinha had become rotten and unfit
to eat, and we had been on short rations for several
days. We got all we wanted except sugar ; not a pound
of this article of luxury was to be had, and we were
obliged henceforward to sweeten our coffee with treacle,
as is the general custom in this part of Brazil.

We left Quary before sunrise on the 20th. On the
22nd we threaded the Parana-mirim of Arauana-i, one
of the numerous narrow by-waters which lie conve-
niently 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 another great lake 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, 1200 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 sometimes three

Chaf. III. MOUTH OF THE TEFFfi. 177

channels, each about a mile in breadth. We kept
to the southernmost of these, travelling all day on
the 30th 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 Teffe, 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 unspeakably
refreshing to find one's-self again in a dark-water
river, smooth as a lake and free from Pium and Motuca.
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 until night-
fall, 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
nocturnal bird. I reflected on my own wandering life : I
had now reached the end of the third stage of my journey,

VOL. II. x

178 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

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 History 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 1st), 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 ex-
panded 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 whitewashed 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
barn-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

Chap. III. PEOPLE OF EGA. 179

salutes, according to custom, in token of our safe arrival,
and shortly afterwards went ashore.

A few days' experience of the people and the forests
of the vicinity showed me that I might lay myself
out for a long, pleasant, and busy residence at this
place. An idea of the kind of people I had fallen
amongst may be conveyed by an account of my earliest
acquaintances in the place. On landing, the owner of
the canoe killed an ox in honour of our arrival, and the
next day took me round the town to introduce me to
the principal residents. We first went to the Delegado
of police, Senhor Antonio Cardozo, of whom I shall have
to make frequent mention by-and-by. He was a stout,
broad-featured man, ranking as a white, but having a
tinge of negro blood ; his complexion, however, was
ruddy, and scarcely betrayed the mixture. He received
us in a very cordial, winning manner : I had after-
wards occasion to be astonished at the boundless good
nature of this excellent fellow, whose greatest pleasure
seemed to be to make sacrifices for his friends. He
was a Paraense, and came to Ega orignally as a
trader ; but not succeeding in this, he turned planter
on a small scale, and collector of the natural commo-
dities of the country, employing half-a-dozen Indians
in the business. We then visited the military comman-
dant, an officer in the Brazilian army, named Praia.
He was breakfasting with the vicar, and we found
the two in dishabille (morning -gown loose round the
neck, and slippers), seated at a rude wooden table in
an open mud -floored verandah, at the back of the
house. Commander Praia was a little curly -headed

s 2

180 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

man (also somewhat of a mulatto), always merry and
fond of practical jokes. His wife, Donna Anna, a dressy
dame from Santarem, was the leader of fashion in the
settlement. The vicar, Father Luiz Gon salvo Gomez,
was a nearly pure-blood Indian, a native of one of
the neighbouring villages, but educated in Maranham,
a city on the Atlantic seaboard. I afterwards saw a
good deal of him, as he was an agreeable, sociable fel-
low, fond of reading and hearing about foreign countries,
and quite free from the prejudices which might be
expected in a man of his profession. I found him,
moreover, a thoroughly upright, sincere, and virtuous
man. He supported his aged mother and unmarried
sisters in a very creditable way out of his small salary
and emoluments. It is a pleasure to be able to speak
in these terms of a Brazilian priest, for the opportunity
occurs rarely enough.

Leaving these agreeable new acquaintances to finish
their breakfast, we next called on the Director of the
Indians of the Japura, Senhor Jose Chrysostomo Mon-
teiro, a thin wiry Mameluco, the most enterprising per-
son in the settlement. Each of the neighbouring rivers
with its numerous wild tribes is under the control of a
Director, who is nominated by the Imperial Govern-
ment. There are now no missions in the region of the
Upper Amazons : the " gentios " (heathens, or unbap-
tized Indians) being considered under the management
and protection of these despots, who, like the captains
of Trabalhadores, before mentioned, use the natives for
their own private ends ; Senhor Chrysostomo had, at
this time, 200 of the Japura Indians in his employ. He

Chap. III. RESIDENCE AT EGA. 1S1

was half Indian himself, but was a far worse master
to the red-skins than the whites usually are. We
finished our rounds by paying our respects to a venerable
native merchant, Senor Romao de Oliveira, a tall, cor-
pulent, fine-looking old man, who received us with a
naive courtesy quite original in its way. He had been
an industrious, enterprising man in his younger days,
and had built a substantial range of houses and ware-
houses. The shrewd and able old gentleman knew
nothing of the world beyond the wilderness of the Soli-
moens and its few thousands of isolated inhabitants ;
yet he could converse well and sensibly, making obser-
vations on men and things as sagaciously as though he
had drawn them from long experience of life in a Euro-
pean capital. The semi-civilised Indians respected old
Romao, and he had, consequently, a great number in his
employ in different parts of the river : his vessels were
always filled quicker with produce than those of his
neighbours. On our leaving, he placed his house and store
at my disposal. This was not a piece of empty polite-
ness, for some time afterwards, when I wished to settle
for the goods I had had of him, he refused to take any
payment.

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

182 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

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 outside 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 frequently had short rambles

Chap. III. A NATURALIST'S OCCUPATION. 183

by water 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 curious forms in the different classes of the animal
kingdom, but especially insects.

I lived, as may already have been seen, on the best of
terms with the inhabitants of Ega. Refined society, of
course, there was none ; but the score or so of decent,
quiet families which constituted the upper class of the
place were very sociable ; their manners offered a curious
mixture of naive rusticity and formal politeness ; the
great desire to be thought civilised leads the most
ignorant of these people (and they are all very ignorant,
although of quick intelligence) to be civil and kind to
strangers from Europe. I was never troubled with that
impertinent curiosity on the part of the people in these
interior places which some travellers complain of in
other countries. The Indians and lower half-castes — at
least such of them who gave any thought to the subject
— seemed to think it natural that strangers should col-
lect and send abroad the beautiful birds and insects of
their country. The butterflies they universally con-
cluded to be wanted as patterns for bright-coloured
calico-prints. As to the better sort of peojDle, I had no
difficulty in making them understand that each Euro-
pean capital had a public museum, in which were sought
to be stored specimens of all natural productions in the
mineral, animal, and vegetable kingdoms. They could
not comprehend how a man could study science for its
own sake ; but I told them I was collecting for the
" Museo de Londres," and was paid for it ; that was

1S4 THE UPPER AMAZOXS. Chap. III.

very intelligible. One day, soon after my arrival, when
I was explaining these things to a listening circle
seated on benches in the grassy street, one of the
audience, a considerable tradesman, a Mameluco native
of Ega, got suddenly quite enthusiastic, and exclaimed
" How rich are these great nations of Europe ! We
half-civilised creatures know nothing. Let us treat this
stranger well, that he may stay amongst us and teach
our children." We very frequently had social parties,
with dancing and so forth ; of these relaxations I shall
have more to say presently. The manners of the
Indian population also gave me some amusement for a
long time. During the latter part of my residence,
three wandering Frenchmen, and two Italians, some of
them men of good education, on their road one after
the other from the Ancles down the Amazons, became
enamoured of this delightfully-situated and tranquil
spot, and made up their minds to settle here for the
remainder of their lives. Three of them ended by
marrying native women. I found the society of these
friends a very agreeable change.

There were, of course, many drawbacks to the ame-
nities of the place as a residence for a European ; but
these were not of the nature that my readers would per-
haps imagine. There was scarcely any danger from wild
animals : it seems almost ridiculous to refute the idea
of danger from the natives in a country where even
incivility to an unoffending stranger is a rarity. A
Jaguar, however, paid us a visit one night. It was con-
sidered an extraordinary event, and so much uproar
was made by the men who turned out with guns and

Chap. III. ALLIGATORS. 185

bows and arrows that the animal scampered off and
was heard of no more. Alligators were rather trouble-
some in the dry season. During these months there
was almost always one or two lying in wait near the
bathing-place for anything that might turn up at the
edge of 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
portions 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 to-
wards 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 har-
poons 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 pertinacity ; when half
killed they drag it ashore and despatch it amid loud
execrations. Another, however, is sure to appear some
clays 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

186 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

common enough in the forest, but no 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 resi-
dence 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 contemplation 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 to be very eco-
nomical with my stock of reading lest it should
be finished before the next arrival and leave me
utterly destitute. 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 discouraged in the extreme. I was worst off in
the first year, 1850, when twelve months elapsed with-
out letters or remittances. 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

Chap. III. CHANGES AT EGA. 137

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 exa-
mination 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 in the
year 1851.

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
1400 miles distant, as the capital of the then undivided
province. In 1852, with the creation of the new pro-
vince of the Amazons, it became a city ; returned its
members to the provincial parliament at Barra ; had its
assizes, its resident judges, and rose to be the chief
town of a comarca or county. 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 1200 miles, in eighteen

188 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

days. The trade and population, however, did not
increase. with these changes. The people became more
" civilised," that is, they began to dress according to
the 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 it 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 of a small country town in Northern Europe than
a South 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 chan-
nels 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
little tropical village !

After speaking of Ega as a city, it will have a ludi-
crous effect to mention that the total number of its
inhabitants is only about 1200. It contains just 107
houses, about half of which are miserably built mud-
walled 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 2000 more people.
The settlement is one of the oldest in the country,

Chap. III. A LOYAL NEGRO. 189

having been founded in 1688 by Father Samuel Fritz,
a Bohemian Jesuit, who induced several of the docile
tribes of Indians, then scattered over the neigh-
bouring region, to settle on the site. From 100 to 200
acres of sloping ground around the place, were after-
wards 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 1835-6, did not succeed in rousing the
natives of the Solimoens against the whites. A ]3arty
of forty of them ascended the river for that purpose,
but on arriving at Ega, instead of meeting with sympa-
thisers as in other places, they were surrounded 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

190 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

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 recollected, or had any knowledge 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.

More than half the inhabitants of Ega are mame-
lucos ; there are not more than forty or fifty pure
whites ; the number of negroes and mulattos is proba-
bly a little less, and the rest of the population consists
of pure blood Indians. Every householder, including
Indians and free negroes, is entitled to a vote in the
elections, municipal, provincial, and imperial, and is
liable to be called on juries, and to serve in the national
guard. These privileges and duties of citizenship do
not seem at present to be appreciated by the more
ignorant coloured people. There is, hoAvever, a gradual
improvement taking place in this respect. Before I
left there was a rather sharp contest for the Presidency
of the Municipal Chamber, and most of the voters
took a lively interest in it. There was also an election
of members to represent the province in the Imperial
Parliament at Rio Janeiro, in which each party strove
hard to return its candidate. On this occasion, an un-
scrupulous lawyer was sent by the government party
from the capital to overawe the opposition to its
nominee; many of the half-castes, headed by my old
friend John da Cunha, who was then settled at Ega,

Chap. III. CITIZENSHIP OF COLOURED PEOPLE. 191

fought hard, but with perfect legality and good humour,
against this powerful interest. They did not succeed ;
and although the government agent committed many
tyrannical and illegal acts, the losing party submitted
quietly to their defeat. In a larger town, I believe, the
government would not have dared to attempt thus to con-
trol the elections. I think I saw enough to warrant the
* conclusion that the machinery of constitutional govern-
ment would, with a little longer trial, work well amongst
the mixed Indian, white, and negro population, even of
this remote part of the Brazilian empire. I attended,
also, before I left, several assize meetings at Ega, and
witnessed the novel sight of negro, white, half-caste, and
Indian, sitting gravely side by side on the jury bench.

The way in which the coloured races act under the
conditions of free citizenship, is a very interesting sub-
ject. Brazilian statesmen seem to have abandoned
the idea, if they ever entertained it, of making this
tropical empire a nation of whites, with a slave labour-
ing class. The greatest difficulty on the Amazons is
with the Indians. The general inflexibility of charac-
ter of the race, and their abhorrence of the restraints
of civilised life, make them very intractable subjects.
Some of them, however, who have learned to read and
write, and whose dislike to live in towns has been
overcome by some cause acting early in life, make
very good citizens. I have already mentioned the
priest, who is a good example of what early training
can do. There can be no doubt that if the docile
Amazonian Indians were kindly treated by their white
fellow-citizens, and educated, they would not be so

192 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

quick as they have hitherto shown themselves to be to
leave the towns and return into their half wild condi-
tion on the advancing civilisation of the places. The
inflexibility of character, although probably organic, is
seen to be sometimes overcome. The principal black-
smith of Ega, Senhor Macedo, was also an Indian, and
a very sensible fellow. He sometimes filled minor offices
in the government of the place. He used to come
very frequently to my house to chat, and was always
striving to acquire solid information about things.
When Donati's comet appeared, he took a great inter-
est in it. We saw it at its best from the 3rd to the
10th of October (1858), between which dates it was
visible near the western horizon, just after sunset ; the
tail extending in a broad curve towards the north, and
forming a sublime object. Macedo consulted all the
old almanacs in the place to ascertain whether it was
the same comet as that of 1811, which he said he well
remembered. Before the Indians can be reclaimed in
large numbers, it is most likely they will become
extinct as a race. There is less difficulty with regard
to the mamelucos, who, even when the proportion of
white blood is small, sometimes become enterprising
and versatile people. The Indian element in the blood
and character seems to be quite lost, or dominated in
the offspring of white and mameluco, that is in the
fruits of the second cross. I saw a striking example of
this in the family of a French blacksmith, who had
lived for many years on the banks of the Solimoens, and
had married a mameluco woman. His children might
have all passed as natives of Northern Europe, a little

Chap. III. CAPTIVE CHILDREN". 193

tanned by foreign travel. One of them, a charming
young girl named Isabel, was quite a blonde, having
gray eyes, light brown hair, and fair complexion ; yet
her grandmother was a tattooed Indian of the Tuciina
tribe.

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 be-
come 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 enmi-
ties 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
children on their arrival at Ega. It is a singular cir-
cumstance, that the Indians residing on the Japura

VOL. II. 0

194 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

and other tributaries always fall ill on descending to
the Sohmoens, 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 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 re-
maining on the banks of the retired creeks connected
with the Teffe, and on other branch rivers between the
Teffe and the Jutahi. They are a peaceable, gentle,
and industrious people, devoted to agriculture and
fishing, 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, dis-
tinguished 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 mysterious way
being sufficient to create it. It is generally fatal to the
Juris and Passes : 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 my residence at
Ega, "resgatou" (ransomed, the euphemism in use for pur-

Chap. III. A YOUNG SAVAGE. 195

chased) 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 Pararauates of the Tapajos,
of which there are several in different parts of the in-
terior of South America. His face was of regular, oval
shape, but his glistening black eyes had a wary, dis-
trustful expression, like that of a wild animal ; and his
hands and feet were small and delicately formed. Soon
after his arrival, finding 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 upper parts of the Amazons
have this strange habit ; not only Indians, but negroes
and whites. It is not, therefore, peculiar to the famous
Otomacs of the Orinoco, described by Humboldt, or to
Indians at all, and seems to originate in a morbid craving,
the result of a meagre diet of fish, wild-fruits, and man-
dioca-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 montaria in excursions, and

o 2

196 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

so forth. Sebastian was often my companion in the
woods, where he was very useful in finding the small
birds 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 weeks, 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 company 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 church ceremonies, and so forth.
In this he exhibited the usual dulness of feeling and
poverty of thought of the Indian ; he had, neverthe-
less, very keen perceptions, and was quick at learning
any mechanical art. Jose, who had resumed, some time
before I left the country, his old trade of goldsmith,
made him his apprentice, and he made very rapid pro-
gress ; 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

Chap. III. A MIRAXHA GIRL. 197

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 parcel
or order), and went away. There was very little of the
savage in her appearance, and she was of a much
lighter colour than the boy. We found she was of the
Miranha tribe, all of whom are distinguished by a slit,
cut in the middle of each wing of the nose, in which
they wear on their 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. We 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 coveted articles she saw in the room for play-
things. 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

198 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

know. It was inexpressibly touching to hear her as
she lay, repeating 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 crown 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 terri-
tories of another, and sold to the Ega traders. The vil-
lages of the attacked hordes are surprised, 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, however, as a direct cause of the supply,
stimulating the unscrupulous 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

Chap. III. INDIAN LANGUAGES. 199

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 gram-
matical 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 post-
position, thus : " he is come the village from ; " " go
him with, the plantation to," and so forth. The ideas to
be expressed in their limited sphere of life and thought
are few ; consequently the stock of words is extremely
small ; besides, all Indians have the same way of think-
ing, and the same objects to talk about ; these circum-
stances also contribute to the ease with which they
learn each other's language. Hordes of the same tribe
living on the same branch rivers, speak mutually unin-
telligible languages ; this happens with the Miranhas
on the Japura, and with the Collinas on the Jurua ;
whilst Tupi is spoken with little corruption along the
banks of the main Amazons for a distance of 2500
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 must 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 inflexibility 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 neces-

200 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chai\ III.

sary 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 temperature
better than the original inhabitants of the country :
I always found I could myself bear exposure to the sun
or unusually hot weather, quite as well as the Indians,
although not 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 find some excuse for trooping off to
the shades of the forest in the hot hours of the after-
noons. 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 going down to bathe in the river, or from
eating immoderate quantities of juicy fruits, although

Chap. III. AMUSEMENTS. 201

these indulgences are frequently the cause of death.
They are very subject to disorders of the liver, dysen-
tery, 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 with 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 constitution was not originally
adapted, and has not since become perfectly adapted to
the climate. It is a case of want of fitness ; other races
of men living on the earth would have been better
fitted to enjoy and make use of the rich unappropri-
ated domain. Unlike the lands peopled by Negro and
Caucasian, Tropical America had no indigenous man
thoroughly suited to its conditions, and was therefore
peopled by an ill-suited race from another continent.

The Indian element is very prominent in the amuse-
ments of the Ega people. All the Roman Catholic
holidays are kept up with great spirit ; rude Indian
sports being mingled with the ceremonies introduced
by the Portuguese. Besides these, the aborigines cele-
brate their own ruder festivals : the people of different
tribes combiniDg ; 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

202 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

attaches a kind of superstitious significance to these
acts, and thinks that the amusements appended to
the Roman Catholic 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 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, christenings, 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, drink-
ing coffee, and telling stories ; the bereaved husband
exerting himself much to keep the people merry during
the remainder 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 trow-
sers, 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

Chap. III. RUSTIC FESTIVALS. 203

church, which are attended* by the greater part of the
population, all clean and gaily dressed in calicos and
muslins ; the girls wearing jasmines and other natural
flowers in their 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 com-
mences. 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 inter-
mission. 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 retired 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 be-
come 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 quarrelsome, and the amorous unusually loving.
The Indian, ordinarily so taciturn, finds the use of his
tongue, and gives the minutest details of some little dis-
pute which he had with his master years ago, and which

204 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

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 amuse-
ments 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 repre-
sent 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
Caypor, 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 considered merely as a
kind of hobgoblin. Most of the masquers make them-
selves up as animals — bulls, deer, magoary storks,
jaguars, and so forth, with the aid of light frameworks

Chap. III. MASQUERADING. 205

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 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. I felt rather taken in when I saw him,
on the night of the performance, rigged out as an ento-
mologist, with an insect net, hunting bag, and pincushion.
To make the imitation complete, he had borrowed the
frame of an old pair of spectacles, and went about
with 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, accompanying
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

206 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

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.

A purely Indian festival is celebrated the first week
in February, which is called the Feast of Fruits : several
kinds of wild fruit becoming ripe at that time, more
particularly the Umari and the Wish!, two sorts which
are a favourite food of the people of this piovince,
although of a bitter taste and unpalatable to Europeans.
It takes place at the houses of a few families of the
Juri tribe, hidden in the depths of the forest on the
banks of a creek about three miles from Ega. I saw a
little of it one year, when hunting in the neighbourhood
with an Indian attendant. There were about 150 people
assembled, nearly all red-skins, and signs of the orgy
having been very rampant the previous night were appa-
rent in the litter and confusion all around, and in the
number of drunken men lying asleep under the trees and
sheds. The women had manufactured a great quantity of
spirits in rude clay stills, from mandioca, bananas, and
pine-apples. I doubt whether there was ever much
symbolic meaning attached by the aborigines to festivals
of this kind. The harvest-time of the Umiri and Wishi
is one of their seasons of abundance, and they naturally
made it the occasion of one of their mad, drunken
holidays. They learnt the art of distilling spirits from
the early Portuguese ; it is only, however, one or two of
the superior tribes, such as the Juris and Passes, who

Chap. III. FEAST OF FRUITS. 207

practise it. The Indians of the Upper Amazons, like
those of the Lower river, mostly use fermented drinks
(called here Caysiima), made from mandioca cakes and
different kinds of fruit.

I did not see much fruit about. A few old women in
one of the sheds were preparing and cooking porridge
of bananas in large earthenware kettles. It was now
near midday, the time when a little rest is taken before
resuming the orgy in the evening ; but a small party of
young men and women were keeping up the dance to
the accompaniment of drums made of hollow logs and
beaten with the hands. The men formed a curved line
on the outside, and the women a similar line on the
inside facing their partners. Each man had in his
right hand a long reed representing a javelin, and
rested his left on the shoulders of his neighbour. They
all moved, first to the right and then to the left, with
a slow step, singing a drawling monotonous verse, in a
language which I did not understand. The same figure
was repeated in the dreariest possible way for at least
half an hour, and in fact constituted the whole of the
dance. The assembled crowd included individuals of
most of the tribes living in the region around Ega ; but
the majority were Miranhas and Juris. They had no
common chief, an active middle-aged Juri, named Alex-
andro, in the employ of Senhor Chrysostomo of Ega,
seeming to have the principal management. This festi-
val of fruits was the only occasion in which the Indians
of the neighbourhood assembled together or exhibited any
traces of joint action. It declined in importance every
year, and will no doubt soon be discontinued altogether.

208 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

The trade of Ega, like that of all places on the Upper
Amazons, consists in the collecting of the produce of
the forests and waters, and exchanging it for European
and North American goods. About a dozen large
vessels, schooners and cubertas, owned by the merchants
of the place, are employed in the traffic. Only one
voyage a year is made to Para, which occupies from four
to five months, and is arranged so that the vessels shall
return before the height of the dry season, when they
are sent with assortments of goods ; cloth, hardware,
salt, and a few luxuries, such as biscuits, wine, &c, to
the fishing stations, to buy up produce for the next trip
to the capital. Although large profits are apparently
made both ways, the retail prices of European wares
being from 40 to 80 per cent, higher, and the net prices
of produce to the same degree lower, than those of
Para, the traders do not get rich very rapidly. An old
Portuguese who had traded with success at Ega for
thirty years was reputed rich when he died : his
savings then amounting to nine contos of reis, or about
a thousand pounds sterling. The value of produce
fluctuates much, and losses are often sustained in con-
sequence. Excessively long credit is given : the system
being to trust the collectors of produce with goods a
twelvemonth in advance ; and if anything happens in
the meantime to a customer, the debt is lost altogether.

The articles of export from the upper river are cacao,
salsaparilla, Brazil nuts, bast for caulking vessels (the
inner bark of various species of Lecythidese or Brazil-nut
trees), copauba balsam, India-rubber, salt-fish (pirarucu),
turtle-oil, mishira (potted vacca marina), and grass ham-

Chap. III. TRADE. 209

mocks. The total value of the produce annually ex-
ported from Ega, I calculated at from seven to eight
thousand pounds sterling. Most of the articles are
collected in the forest by the Ega people, who take
their families and live in the woods for months at a
time, during the proper seasons. Some of the produc-
tions, such as salsaparilla and balsam of copauba, have
been long ago exhausted in the neighbourhood of towns,
at least near the banks of the rivers, the only parts that
have yet been explored, and are now got only by more
adventurous traders during long voyages up the branch
streams. The search for India-rubber has commenced
but very lately ; the tree appears to grow plentifully
on some of the rivers, but only an insignificant fraction
of the immense forest has yet been examined. Grass
hammocks are manufactured by the wild tribes, and
purchased of them in considerable quantities by the
salsaparilla collectors. They are knitted with simple
rods, except the larger kinds, which are woven in
clumsy wooden looms. The fibre of which they are
made is not grass, but the young leaflets of certain kinds
of palm trees (Astiyocaryum). These are split, and the
strips twisted into two or three-strand cord, by rolling
them with the fingers on the naked thigh. Salt-fish
and mishira are prepared by the half-breeds and civilized
Indians, who establish fishing stations (feitorias) on
the great sandbanks laid bare by the retreating waters,
in places where fish, turtle, and manatee abound, and
spend the whole of the dry season in this occupa-
tion. Turtle oil is made from the eggs of the large
river turtle, and is one of the principal produc-

VOL. II. P

210 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

tions of the district ; the mode of collecting the eggs
and extracting the oil will be described in the next
chajiter.

I know several men who have been able, with ordi-
nary sobriety and industry, to bring up their families
very respectably, and save money at Ega, as collectors
of the spontaneous productions of the neighbourhood.
Each family, however, besides this trade, has its little
plantation of mandioca, coffee, beans, water melons,
tobacco, and so forth, which is managed almost solely
by the women. Some do not take the trouble to
clear a piece of forest for this purpose, but make
use of the sloping, bare, earthy banks of the Soli-
moens, which remain uncovered by water during eight
or nine months of the year, and consequently long
enough to give time for the ripening of the crops of
mandioca, beans, and so forth. The process with re-
gard to mandioca, the bread of the country, is very
simple. A party of women take a few bundles of
maniva (mandioca shoots) some fine day in July or
August, when the river has sunk some few feet, and
plant them in the rich alluvial soil, reckoning with the
utmost certainty on finding a plentiful crop when they
return in January or February. The regular planta-
tions are all situated some distance from Ega, and across
the water, nothing being safe on the mainland near the
town on account of the cattle, some hundred head of
which are kept grazing in the streets by the townsfolk.
Every morning, soon after daybreak, the women are
seen paddling off in montarias to their daily labours
in these rogas or clearings ; the mistresses of house-

Chap. III. YPADtJ. 211

holds with their groups of Indian servant girls. The
term agriculture cannot be applied to this business ;
in this primitive country plough, spade, and hoe
are unknown even by name. The people idle away
most part of the time at their rogas, and have no
system when they do work, so that a family rarely
produces more than is required for its own con-
sumption.

The half-caste and Indian women, after middle age,
are nearly all addicted to the use of Ypadu, the powdered
leaves of a plant (Erythroxylon coca) which is well known
as a product of the eastern parts of Peru, and is to the
natives of these regions what opium is to the Turks and
betel to the Malays. Persons who indulge in Ypadti at
Ega are held in such abhorrence, that they keep the
matter as secret as possible ; so it is said, and no doubt
with truth, that the slender result of the women's daily
visits to their rogas, is owing to their excessive use of
this drug. They plant their little plots of the tree in
retired nooks in the forest, and keep their stores of the
powder in hiding-places near the huts which are built
on each plantation. Taken in moderation, Ypadu has
a stimulating and not injurious effect, but in excess it
is very weakening, destroying the appetite, and pro-
ducing in time great nervous exhaustion. I once had
an opportunity of seeing it made at the house of a
Maraud Indian on the banks of the Jutahi. The
leaves were dried on a mandioca oven, and afterwards
pounded in a very long and narrow wooden mortar.
When about half pulverised, a number of the large
leaves of the Cecropia palmata (candelabrum tree) were

p2

212 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

burnt on the floor, and the ashes dirtily gathered up
and mixed with the powder. The Ypadu-eaters say
that this prevents the ill-effects which would arise from
the use of the pure leaf, but I should think the mixture
of so much indigestible filth would be more likely to
have the opposite result.

We lived 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 little 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 sending them out for a month
when the waters are low, to collect a stock, and those
who have not, purchasing their supply ; with some diffi-
culty, however, 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 in the forest having
then only a small depth of water. The flesh is very
tender, palatable, and wholesome ; but it is very cloy-

Chap. III. TURTLES. 213

ing : every one ends, sooner or later, by becoming
thoroughly 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 hunger. The native
women cook it in various ways. The entrails are
chopped up and made into a delicious soup called sara-
patel, which is generally boiled in the concave upper
shell of the animal used as a kettle. 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 diffi-
culty 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

214 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

family fishes only for itself, and has no surplus for sale.
An Indian fisherman 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 very thick ham-
mock twine, and placed across narrow inlets. Very
few Europeans are able to eat the meat of this animal.
Although there is a 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 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
wholesome, such is the scarcity of meat and the uncon-
trollable 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

Chap. III. MANDIOCA. 215

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 attribute partly to this the
gradual deterioration of health which I suffered on the
Upper Amazons. Mandioca meal is a poor, weak sub-
stitute for bread ; it is deficient in gluten, and conse-
quently cannot be formed into a leavened mass 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 ex-
tracted 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

216 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

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 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 been planted by the natives in
their clearings. The best was the Jabuti-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 Cum a (Collophora sp.) of which
there are two species, not unlike, in appearance, small
round pears ; but the rind is rather hard, and con-
tains a gummy milk, and the pulpy part is almost as
delicious as that of the Jabuti-puhe. The Cuma tree is
of moderate height, and grows rather plentifully in the

Chap. III. CURIOUS FRUITS. 217

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 cultivation. To get at the
fruit the natives 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. Another cultivated fruit is the Puruma
(Puruma cecropisefolia, Martius), a round juicy berry,
growing in large bunches and resembling grapes in
taste. The tree is deceptively like a Cecropia in the
shape of its foliage. Another smaller kind, called Pu-
ruma-i, grows wild in the forest
close to Ega, and has not yet
been planted. The most sin-
gular of all these fruits is the
Uiki, which is of oblong shape,
and grows apparently cross-
wise on the end of its stalk.

Uiki Fruit.

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. Mingau (porridge) of bananas

218

THE UPPER AMAZONS.

Chap. III.

flavoured and coloured with Uiki is a favourite dish at
Ega. The fruit, like most of the others here mentioned,
ripens in Ja-
nuary. Many
smaller fruits
such as Wa-
jurii (probably
a species of

Achras), the size of a gooseberry,
which grows singly and contains
a sweet gelatinous pulp enclosing
two large, shining black seeds ;
Cashipari-arapaa, an oblong
scarlet berry ; two kinds of
.Bacuri, the Bacuri-siuma and the
B. curua, 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,"
Pupunha of the Tupi nations
(Guilielma speciosa), is a common
tree at Ega. The name, I sup-
pose, is in allusion to the colour
of the fruit, and not to its fla-
vour, 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 Pupunha Palm,

the trees when it is ripe. Dogs will also eat it : I

Chap. III. SEASONS. 219

do not recollect seeing cats do the same, although
they go voluntarily to the woods to eat Tucuma,
another kind of palm fruit. The tree, as it grows in
clusters beside the palm-thatched huts, is a noble
ornament, being, when full grown, from fifty to sixty
feet in height and often as straight as a scaffold-pole. A
bunch of fruit when rijDe is a load for a strong man, and
each tree bears several of 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 cultivation. The superiority of the fruit
on the Solimoens to that grown on the Lower 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 potatoe ; 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 Ega when in season, and is boiled and eaten
with treacle or salt. A dozen of the seedless fruits
makes a good nourishing meal for a grown-up person.
It is the general belief that there is more nutriment in
Pupunha than in fish or Vacca marina.

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

220 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

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
two rises and two falls within the year. The great
annual rise commences about the end of February, and
continues to 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 the shade
of trees. All the countless swarms of turtle of various
species then leave the main river for the inland pools :
the sand-banks go under water, and the flocks of wading
birds migrate northerly to the upper waters of the
tributaries which flow from that direction, or to the
Orinoco ; which streams during the wet period of the
Amazons are enjoying the cloudless skies of their dry
season. The families of fishermen who have been em-
ployed, 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 temporarily constructed fishing establishments
becoming gradually submerged, with the sand islets or

Chap. III. SEASONS. 221

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 continuous ; 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 overcast 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
estao parados, " the waters have stopped." The muddy
streets, in a few days, dry up : groups of young fellows
are now seen seated on the shady sides of the cottages

222 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

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 made
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
sand-banks begin to reappear above the surface of the
waters, and with this change come flocks of sandpipers
and gulls, which latter make known the advent of the
fine season, as the cuckoo does of the European
spring ; uttering 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
interruption of a partial rise called "repiquet," of a
few inches in the midst of very dry weather in Septem-
ber, caused by the swollen contribution of some large
affluent higher up the river. The amount of subsi-
dence 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 of fish and turtle. All the people, men,
women, and children, leave the villages and spend the few
weeks of glorious weather rambling over the vast undu-
lating expanses of sand in the middle of the Solimoens,
fishing, hunting, collecting eggs of turtle and plovers,

Chap. III. SEASONS. 223

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 considerable, 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 season.
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
2000 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 this variety, there is, in the month of
May, a short season of very cold weather, a most sur-
prising circumstance in this otherwise uniformly swel-

224 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III.

tering climate. This is caused by the continuance 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 TefYe, and are cast
in considerable quantities on its shores. One year I
saw and examined numbers of these benumbed and
dead fishes. They were all small fry of different
species of Characini. 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 wrap-
ping themselves up with the warmest clothing they
can get (blankets are here unknown), and shutting
themselves in-doors with a charcoal 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 phenomenon, I presume, is to be accounted for by
the fact that in May it is winter in the southern tem-
perate zone, and that the cool currents of air travelling
thence northwards towards the equator, become only
moderately heated in their course, owing to the inter-
mediate country being a vast, partially-flooded plain,
covered with humid forests.

CHAPTER IV.

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 neighbour-
hood of 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 communicates 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 Teffe is not visited by the Ega
people, on account of its extreme unhealthiness, and its

VOL. II. Q

226 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

barrenness in salsaparilla and other wares. To Euro-
peans it will 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 whose
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 TefTe to
any considerable distance, 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 wear rows of
slender sticks in the holes : their territory lies between
the Purus and the Jurua, embracing both shores of the
TefTe. A very considerable stream, the Bararua, enters
the lake from the west, about thirty miles above Ega ;
the breadth of 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 with 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

Chap. IV. GROVES ON THE BEACH. 227

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 (Eugenia
Egaensis of Martius) and wild Guavas (Psidium), 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 music which is the general accom-
paniment 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, cling-
ing as usual to the branches. On approaching a tree
thus peopled, a number of little jets of a clear liquid
would be seen squirted from aloft. I have often received
the well-directed discharge full on my face ; but the
liquid is harmless, having a sweetish taste, and is ejected
by the insect from the anus, probably in self-defence,
or from fear. The number and variety of gaily-tinted
butterflies, sporting about in this grove on sunny days,
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 congregated to imbibe the moisture. They

q 2

228 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

were of almost all colours, 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 con-
fined to the shades of the woods. Every afternoon, as
the sun was getting low, I used to notice these gaudy
sunshine-loving swains trooping 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 (Callidryas, seven
species), were about a dozen species of CybdeHs, 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.

Chap. IV. A FLOODED DELL. 229

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 waters 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 distance 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 linger in nearly their primitive
state, the relicts of their once numerous tribes. The
family we intended to visit on this trip was that of
Pedro-uassti (Peter the Great, or Tall Peter), an old
chieftain or Tushatia 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 en-
trance, but when fairly within the shades, a remarkable

230 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

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, tillandsiae, 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 freshwater sponges. There was no current
perceptible, and the water was stained of a dark olive-
brown 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 dis-
tance of Pedro's house from Ega being about twenty
miles. When the paddlers rested for a time, the still-
ness 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 commence-
ment, 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

Chap. IV. A WATER-PATH. 231

dell contracts gradually towards the head of the rivulet,
and the forest then becomes denser ; the water-path
also diminishes 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 seen to be loaded with epiphytes ; one
orchid I noticed particularly, on account of its bright
yellow flowers growing at the end of flower-sterns
several feet long. 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 away 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 up
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.

232 EXCURSIONS AROCJND EGA. Chap. IV.

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 path-
way ascended from the shady port to the buildings,
which were about a furlong distant. My friend Car-
dozo 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-uassu 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 occupied 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 with an equal. My friend introduced me, and I
was welcomed in the same grave, ceremonious manner.

Chap. IV. INDIAN DWELLINGS. 233

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-uassti had never
had much intercourse with whites : he was, although
baptised, 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
precisely 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, not reaching 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

234 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV,

shade of trees. Two smaller buildings, detached from
the shed and having mud-walls with low doorways,
contained apparently the sleeping apartment of differ-
ent members of the large household. A small mill for
grinding sugar-cane, having two cylinders of hard
notched wood ; wooden troughs, and kettles for boiling
the guardpa (cane juice), to make treacle, stood
under a separate shed, and near it was a large en-
closed 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 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 Pupimhas, 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 were 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 tattooed spot
over her mouth ; the second was a young grandson ; and
the third the son-in-law from Ega, Cardozo's com'padve.
The old woman was occupied, when we entered, in dis-
tilling spirits from cara, an eatable root similar to the

Chap. IV. BLOW-PIPE. 235

potato, by means of a clay still, which had been manu-
factured 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 tucum 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 employed 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 comadre* 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 feeling 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, 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 Zaraba-

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

236 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

tana, or blowpipe. 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 con-
siderable mechanical 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

Blow-pipe, quiver, and arrow.

black wax, the production of a Melipona bee. The pijDe
tapers towards the muzzle, and a cup-shaped mouth-
piece, made of wood, is fitted in the broad end. A full-
sized Zarabatana is heavy, and can only be used by an
adult Indian who has had great practice. The young
lads learn to shoot with smaller and lighter tubes.
When Mr. Wallace and I had lessons at Barra in the
use of the blowpipe, 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

Chap. IV. AVENUE OF TREES. 237

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 blowpipe ; 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 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 deco-
rated with cotton fringes and tassels.

We walked about two miles along a well-trodden
pathway, through high caapoeira (second-growth forest).
A large proportion 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 Lycopo-
diums. 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 mandi-
oca, the largest I had yet seen since I left the neigh-
bourhood of Para. There were probably ten acres of

238 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IT.

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 hunter's 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 were a few rare insects and a Japu
(Cassicus cristatus), 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 blowpipe, 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 cata-
racts 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

Chap. IV. A DINNER PARTY. 239

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

When we returned to the house after mid-day, Car-
dozo 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 perspira-
tion streaming down his uncovered breast, the unbut-
toned shirt having slipped half-way over his broad
shoulders. 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 previous,
talking to Cardozo in the same monotonous tones, the
conversation apparently not having flagged all the time.
I had never heard so much talking 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 ma-
nufacture 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, ac-
cording to custom, not eating until after the men had
done. Before sitting 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

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

240 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

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-uassu 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, intermar-
riages 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 of Passe will be forgotten."
In so far as the Passes have amalgamated with Euro-
pean immigrants or their descendants, and become civi-
lised 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 dis-
ease 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 origi-
nal population of Fonte-boa on the Solimoens. Their

Chap. TV. PASSE INDIANS. 241

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 ; such as the Juris, Uainumas, Shumanas,
Arauas, and Tucunas. The extinct tribe of Yurimauas,
or Sorimoas, from which the river Solimoens derives
its name, according to traditions extant at Ega, resem-
bled the Passes in their slender figures and friendly dis-
position. 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,
however, 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. I saw altogether about thirty indi-
viduals of the tribe, and found them generally distin-
guishable from other Indians by their lighter colour,
sharper features, and more open address. But these
points of distinction were not invariable, for I saw
individuals of the Juri and Miranha tribes from the
Upper Japura ; of the Catoquinos, who inhabit the
banks of the Jurua, 300 miles from its mouth ; and

VOL. II. R

242 EXCURSIONS ABOUND EGA. Chap. IV.

of the Tucunas of St. Paulo, who were scarcely distin-
guishable from Passes in all the features mentioned.
It is remarkable that a small tribe, the Caishanas, who
live in the very midst of all these superior tribes, are
almost as debased physically and mentally as the
Muras, the lowest of all the Indian tribes on the Ama-
zons. Yet were they seen separately, many Caishanas
could not be distinguished from Miranhas or Juris,
although none have such slender figures or are so frank
in their ways as to be mistaken for Passes. I make
these remarks to show that the differences between the
nations or tribes of Indians are not absolute, and there-
fore that there is no ground for supposing any of them
to have had an origin entirely different from the rest.
Under what influences certain tribes, such as the Passes,
have become so strongly modified in mental, social, and
bodily features, it is hard to divine. The industrious
habits, fidelity, and mildness of disposition 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 set-
tlements 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 hammocks, manufacture
pillow-lace, and so forth. They have been generally
treated with kindness, especially by the educated fami-
lies in the settlements. It is pleasant to have to record
that I never heard of a deed of violence perpetrated, on

Chap. IV. COSMOGONY OF THE PASSES. 243

the one side or the other, in the dealings between Euro-
pean settlers and this noble tribe of savages.

Very little is known of the original customs of the
Passes. The mode of life of our host Pedro-uassu did
not differ much from that of the civilised Mamelucos ;
but he and his people showed a greater industry, and
were more open, cheerful, and generous in their dealings
than many half-castes. The authority of Pedro, like
that of the Tushauas generally, was exercised in a mild
manner. These chieftains appear able to command the
services of their subjects, since they furnish men to the
Brazilian authorities when requested ; but none of them,
even those of the most advanced tribes, appear to make
use of this authority for the accumulation of property ;
the service being exacted chiefly in time of war. Had
the ambition of the chiefs of some of these industrious
tribes been turned to the acquisition of wealth, pro-
bably we should have seen indigenous civilised nations
in the heart of South America similar to those found on
the Andes of Peru and Mexico. It is very probable that
the Passes adopted from the first to some extent the
manners of the whites. Ribeiro, a Portuguese official
who travelled in these regions in 1774-5, and wrote an
account of his journey, relates that they buried their
dead in large earthenware vessels (a custom still observed
amongst other tribes on the Upper Amazons), and that,
as to their marriages, the young men earned their
brides by valiant deeds in war. He also states that
they possessed a cosmogony, in which the belief that the
sun was a fixed body with the earth revolving around
it, was a prominent feature. He says, moreover, that

R 2

244 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

they believed in a Creator of all things ; a future state
of rewards and punishments, and so forth. These
notions are so far in advance of the ideas of all other
tribes of Indians, and so little likely to have been con-
ceived and perfected by a people having no written
language or leisured class, that we must suppose them
to have been derived by the docile Passes from some
early missionary or traveller. I never found that the
Passes had more curiosity or activity of intellect than
other Indians. No trace of a belief in a future state
exists amongst Indians who have not had much inter-
course with the civilised settlers, and even amongst
those who have it is only a few of the more gifted indi-
viduals who show any curiosity on the subject. Their
sluggish minds seem unable to conceive or feel the want
of a theory of the soul, and of the relations of man to
the Creator or the rest of Nature. But is it not so with
totally uneducated and isolated people even in the most
highly civilised parts of the world ? The good qualities
of the Passes belong to the moral part of the character :
they lead a contented, unambitious, and friendly life, a
quiet, domestic, orderly existence, varied by occasional
drinking bouts and summer excursions. They are not
so shrewd, energetic, and masterful as the Mundurucus,
but they are more easily taught, because their disposi-
tion is more yielding than that of the Mundurucus or
any other tribe.

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

Chap. IV. A NIGHT JOURNEY. 245

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
eirum " (Go with God) : a form of salutation taught by
the old Jesuit missionaries. We had a most uncom-
fortable 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 run-
ning 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 stem 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-

246 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

out throwing overboard our cargo. The Indians were
obliged to paddle with extreme slowness to avoid ship-
ping 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 swamped in this hideous solitude was by no
means pleasant, although I calculated on the chance of
swimming to a tree and finding a nice snug place in
the fork of some large bough wherein to pass the
night. At length, after four hours' tedious progress, we
suddenly emerged on the open stream where the moon-
light glittered in broad sheets on the gently rippling
waters. A little extra care was now required in pad-
dling. The Indians plied their strokes with the greatest
nicety ; the lights of Ega (the oil lamps in the houses)
soon appeared beyond the black wall of forest, and in a
short time we leapt safely ashore.

A few months after the excursion just narrated, I
accompanied Cardozo in many wanderings on the Soli-
moens, during which we visited the praias (sand-islands),
the turtle pools in the forests, and the by-streams and
lakes of the great desert river. His object was mainly
to superintend the business of digging up turtle eggs
on the sand-banks, having been 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 royal
praias within the Ega district, (a distance of 150 miles

Chap. IV. ISLANDS OF THE SOLIMOEFS. 247

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 com-
mander, whose business is to make arrangements for
securing to every inhabitant an equal chance in the
egg harvest by placing sentinels to protect the 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 swarms their favourite sand-islands ;
for it is only a few praias 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 thirty or
more feet above the level of the river, and are accessible
only by cutting roads through the dense forest.

We left Ega on our first trip, to visit the sentinels
whilst the turtles were yet laying, on the 26th of Sep-
tember. Our canoe was a stoutly -built igarite, arranged
for ten paddlers, and having a large arched toldo at the
stern, under which three persons could sleep pretty
comfortably. In passing down the narrow channel to
the mouth of the Teffe, I noticed that the yellow waters
of the Solimoens were flowing slowly inwards towards
the lake, showing how much fuller and stronger, at this
season, was the current of the main river than that of
its tributary. On reaching the broad stream, we
descended rapidly on the swift current to the south-
eastern or lower end of the large wooded island of
Baria, which here divides the river into two great chan-
nels. The distance was about twelve miles : the island

248 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

of Shimuni lies in the middle of the north-easterly
channel, and is reached by passing round the end of
Baria. Two miles further down the broad, wild, and
turbid river, lies the small island of Curubaru, skirted
like the others by a large praia ; this is not, however,
frequented by turtles, on account of the coarse, gritty
nature of the deposit. The sand-banks appear to be
formed only where there is a remanso or still water,
and the wooded islands to which they are generally
attached probably first originated in accumulations of
sand.

We landed on Curubaru ; Cardozo wishing to try the
pocos (wells, or deep pools) which lie here as in other
praias between the sand-bank and its island, for fish and
tracajas. The sun was now nearly vertical, and the
coarse, heated sand burnt our feet as we trod. We
Avalked or rather trotted nearly a mile before reaching
the pools : there was not a breath of wind nor a cloud
to moderate the heat of mid-day, and the Indians who
carried the fishing-net suffered greatly. On arriving at
the ponds we found the water was quite warm ; the
net brought up only two or three small fishes, and we
thus had our toilsome journey for nothing.

Re-embarking, we paddled across to Shimuni, reaching
the commencement of the praia an hour before sunset.
The island-proper is about three miles long and half
a mile broad : the forest with which it is covered rises
to an immense and uniform height, and presents all
round a compact, impervious front. Here and there a
singular tree, called Pao mulatto (mulatto wood), with
polished dark-green trunk, rose conspicuously amongst

Chap. IV. PRAIA OF SHIMUNX 249

the mass of vegetation. The sand-bank, which lies at
the upper end of the island extends several miles, and
presents an irregular, and in some parts, strongly waved
surface, with deep hollows and ridges. When upon it,
one feels as though treading an almost boundless field
of sand : for towards the south-east, where no forest-line
terminates the view, the white, rolling plain stretches
away to the horizon. The north-easterly channel of the
river lying between the sands and the further shore
of the river is at least two miles in breadth ; the
middle one, between the two islands, Shimuni and
Baria, is not much less than a mile.

We found the two sentinels lodged in a corner of the
praia, where it commences at the foot of the towering
forest-wall of the island ; having built for themselves a
little rancho with poles and palm-leaves. Great precau-
tions are obliged to be taken to avoid disturbing the
sensitive turtles, who, previous to crawling ashore to lay,
assemble in great shoals off the sand-bank. The men,
during this time, take care not to show themselves and
warn off any fisherman who wishes to pass near the place.
Their fires are made in a deep hollow near the borders of
the forest, so that the smoke may not be visible. The
passage of a boat through the shallow waters where the
animals are congregated, or the sight of a man or a
fire on the sand-bank, would prevent the turtles from
leaving the water that night to lay their eggs, and if
the causes of alarm were repeated once or twice, they
would forsake the praia for some other quieter place.
Soon after we arrived, our men were sent with the net
to catch a supply of fish for supper. In half an hour,

250 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chat. IV.

four or five large basketsful of Acari were brought in.
The sun set soon after our meal was cooked ; we were
then obliged to extinguish the fire and remove our
supper materials to the sleeping ground, a spit of sand
about a .mile off ; this course being necessary on account
of the mosquitoes which swarm at night on the borders
of the forest.

One of the sentinels was a taciturn, morose-looking,
but sober 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,
under 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 climate. Cardozo
and the men were already up watching the turtles. 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 of woody

Chap. IV. MORNING ON THE PRAIA. 251

lianas. They are enabled, by observing the turtles
from this watch-tower, to ascertain the date of succes-
sive deposits of eggs, and thus guide the commandante
in 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 crawling 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 are hatched by the heat of the sand.
One could almost believe, from this, that the animals
used forethought in choosing a place ; but it is simply
one of those many instances in animals where uncon-
scious habit has the same result as conscious prevision.
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 Brazilians taboleiro) over which they have
excavated, is distinguishable 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 recollec-
tions of my Amazonian rambles are more vivid and
agreeable tHan that of my walk over the white sea of

252 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

sand on this cool morning. 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 sun-
rise, 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 opposite 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 black-
ened 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.

Chap. IV. TRACAJA FISHING. 253

I spent the morning of the 27th collecting insects in
the woods of Shinxuni ; assisting my friend in the after-
noon 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 forest 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-inclined bank, from five to eight feet
in height. What may be the cause of this formation
I cannot imagine. The pools always contain a quan-
tity of imprisoned 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

* Specimens of this species of turtle are named in the British
Museum collection, Podocnemis expansa.

254 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

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 liable 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 sug-
gested a cigarette. Just then a quick pattering move-
ment 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 va 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, with very long,
tapering muzzle, and black and white speckled hair.*

* I had once only an opportunity of examining a specimen of this
animal. It is probably new to science, at least I have not been able
to find a published description that suits the species. The one men-
tioned was taken from a burrow in the earth in the forests bordering
the Tene*, near Ega.

Chap. IV. RETURN TO EGA. 255

Daniel could distinguish all kinds of animals in the dark
by their footsteps. It now began to thunder, and our po-
sition 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, our-
selves, 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, wait-
ing 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 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 senti-
nels 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 Japura. We
travelled for five hours along the desolate, broken, tim-
ber-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 afternoon we
doubled the upper end of the island, and then crossed
towards the mouth of the Teffe' by a broad transverse

256 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

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 the net. A fine
rain was still falling, and we had capital sport, in three
hauls taking more fish than our canoe would con-
veniently hold. They were of two kinds only, the

Surubim (Pimelodus tigrinus).

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 became suddenly excited, shout-
ing " Ecui Jauarete ; Jauari-pixuna ! " (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 re-
tracing his steps towards the forest. On the spur of the

Chap. IV. TOOLS IN THE FOREST. . 257

moment and without thinking of what wo were doing,
we took our guns (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,
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 restingas 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 excur-
sion ; 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 strusrffle
with all the force of our paddles, aided by the current ;
the boats were tossed about most disagreeably, and

VOL. II. s

258 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

shipped a great deal of water. On 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 Japura. 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 inhos-
pitable 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,
alligators, 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

Chap. IV. THE ANINGAL. 259

employed in making the fire, roasting the fish, and
boiling the coffee, the rest of the party mounted 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 break-
fast a great number of short poles were cut and 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 shooting the turtles, as they came
near the surface, with bows and arrows. The Indians
seemed to think that netting the animals, 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

260 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

green palisade. Around the whole stood the taller forest
trees ; palmate-leaved Cecropioe ; slender Assai palms,
thirty feet high, with their thin feathery heads crowning
the gently-curving, smooth stems ; small fan-leaved
palms ; and as a back -ground 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
astonished at the skill which the Indians display in
shooting turtles. They did not wait for their coming
to the surface to breathe, but watched for the slight
movements in the water, which revealed 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
bad to be taken at a considerable elevation, but the
marksmen preferred a longish range, because 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

Chap. IV.

NETTING TURTLES.

261

animal descends with it towards the bottom, leaving the

shaft floating on the surface. This being

done the sportsman paddles in his mon-

taria 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 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. Car-
dozo 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
was 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 therefore 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 complete 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

Arrow used in
turtle shooting.

262 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

of Matupa, in order to drive the turtles towards the
middle. This was continued for an hour or more,
the beaters gradually drawing nearer to each other, and
driving the host of 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 beating 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 enclosure, 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 discovery that the
pool abounded in ugly, red, four-angled leeches, having
seen several of these delectable animals, which some-
times fasten on the legs of fishermen, although they did
not, on this day, 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 enough, so that a great many clam-
bered 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. Car-

Chap. IV. BIVOUAC ON SAND-BANK. 263

dozo and I lived almost exclusively 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 captured 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 thick-
ness of their tails. Their flesh is considered unwhole-
some, 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

264 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

poles, the rest stretching themselves on the sand round
a large fire. We lay awake conversing until past mid-
night. 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 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 of 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 Portu-
guese colonists. It was several years before I could
induce a fisherman to harpoon Dolphins for me as speci-
mens, for no one ever kills these animals voluntarily,
although their fat is known to yield an excellent oil for
lamps. The superstitious people believe that blindness
would result from the use of this oil in lamps. I suc-
ceeded 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.

Chap. IV. ALLIGATORS. 265

The next day we again beat the pool. Although we
had proof of there being a great number of turtles
yet remaining, we had very poor success. The old
Indians told us it would be so, for the turtles were " la-
dino" (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, " I 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 little 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 dis-
tance 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 species
was the large cayman, the Jacare-uassu of the Amazo-
nian Indians (Jacare nigra).

On the third day we sent our men in the boats to
net turtles in another larger pool, about five miles fur-
ther down the river, and on the fourth returned to Ega.

266 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

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, cow-
ardice and ferocity of this reptile.

I have hitherto had but few occasions of mentioning
alligators, 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-
uassti, to which these remarks more especially relate ;
and the third the Jacare-curua, mentioned in a
former chapter. The Jacare-uassu, or large Cayman,
grows to a length of eighteen or twenty feet, and
attains an enormous bulk. Like the turtles, the alli-
gator 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 excessive, it has not this habit, but is
lively all the year round. It is scarcely exaggerating
to say that the waters of the Solimoens are as well-
stocked with large alligators in the dry season, as a

Chap. IV. ALLIGATORS. 267

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
passengers 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 cay-
man. I once spent a month at Caic,ara, a small village
of semi-civilised Indians, about twenty miles to the
west of Ega. My entertainer, the only white in the
place, and one of my best and most constant friends,
Senhor Innocencio Alves Faria, one day proposed a
half-day's fishing with net in the lake, — the expanded
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 dis-
engaged 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 (I took pains to count the
different species, and found there were no less than

268 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

thirty-five), we prepared to return, and the Indians, at my
suggestion, secured one of the alligators with the view of
letting it loose amongst the swarms 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 liana, 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 settle-
ment. 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
made 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
were 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 in-
tended victim is on his guard : but he is cunning
enough to know when he may do this with impunity :
of this we had proof at Caigara, a few days 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

Chap. IV. ALLIGATORS. 269

appearance in the shallow and muddy water. We were
all obliged to be very careful in taking our bath ; most
of the people simply using a calabash, pouring the water
over themselves whilst standing on the brink. A larere
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 in
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
alligator. 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 Jesus ! "
was the last sign made by the wretched victim. The
village was aroused : the young men with praiseworthy
readiness seized their harpoons and hurried down 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 vengeance : 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

270 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

narrate, was made (again in company of Senhor Car-
dozo, 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
Egfa, announcing that the excavation on Shimuni would
commence on the 17th of October, and on Catua\ sixty
miles below Shimuni, on the 25th. We set out on the
16th, 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 sandbank ; each family having erected a rude tem-
porary shed of poles and palm leaves to protect them-
selves from the sun and rain. Large copper kettles to
prepare the oil, and hundreds of red earthenware jars,
were scattered about on the sand.

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 house-
holds, 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

Chap. IV. TUKTLE EGGS. 271

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 effffs. 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 pro-
vided 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 egg, it may be
here mentioned, has a flexible or leathery shell ; it is
quite round, and somewhat larger than a hen's egg.
The whole heap is thrown into an empty canoe and
mashed with wooden prongs ; but sometimes naked In-
dians 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 off
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

272 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

proceedings is enormous. At least 6000 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, frying fish, and other purposes. It
may be fairly estimated that 2000 more jars-full are
consumed by the inhabitants of the villages on the
river. Now, it takes at least twelve basketsfull of eggs,
or about 6000, by the wasteful process followed, to make
one jar of oil. The total number of eggs annually de-
stroyed 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 pro-
bably 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 waters teemed as
thickly with turtles as the air now does with mosquitoes.
The universal opinion of the settlers on the Upper

Chap. IV. CATUA. 273

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 sandbank 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 : hav-
ing 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 hauling 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
old man had to sustain a heavy fire of jokes from his
companions for several days after this mishap. Such
accidents are only laughed at by this 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 commandant was Senhor Macedo, the Indian black-

VOL. II. T

274 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

smith of Ega before mentioned, who maintained excel-
lent order during the fourteen days the process of
excavation and oil manufacture lasted. There were
also many primitive Indians here from the neighbour-
ing rivers, amongst them a family of Shumanas, good-
tempered, harmless people from the Lower Japura. All
of them were tattooed round the mouth, the blueish 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-
uassus 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
captivating finish to her appearance. Her 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

Chap. IV. SPORTS ON THE PEAIA. 275

could give him no redress ; he invited the family, how-
ever, 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 these sports
was never got up without a good deal of preliminary
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
casha^a. The coldness of the shy Indian and Mameluco
maidens never failed to give way after a little of this
strong drink, but it was astonishing 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 re-
markable 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 reputa-
tion 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-

t 2

276 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

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 persevering fiddler, so there was
no lack of music.

The favourite sport was the Pira-purasse'ya, or fish-
dance, one of the original games of the Indians, though
now probably a little modified. The young men and
women, mingling together, 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, singing 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 succeeds 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. 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

Chap. IV. POTUGUESE TRADERS. 277

was given to every fresh occupier of the place. There
was then good scope for wit in the invention of nick-
names, 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 of fish), which was
considered quite a witty sally ; a little Mameluco girl,
with light-coloured eyes and brown 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 queimado (burnt Peter) ;
in short every one got a nickname, and each time the
cognomen was introduced into the chorus as the circle
marched round.

It is said by the Portuguese and Brazilian towns-
people lower down the river, that much disorder and all
kinds of immorality prevail amongst these assemblages of
Upper Amazons rustics on the turtle praias. I can only
say that nothing of the kind was seen on the occasions
when I attended. But it may be added that there
were no traders from the " civilised " parts present to
set a bad example. Town-bred Indians and half-castes
will be disorderly and quarrelsome, like uneducated
people everywhere, when they can get their fill of in-
toxicating drinks. When low Portuguese traders, who
are most certainly the inferiors of these rustics whom
they despise, attend the praias, they corrupt the women,
and bribe the Indians with cashaQa to steal their
masters' oil ; these proceedings, of course, give rise to
disturbances in many ways. There were none of these

278 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

shining examples of the superior civilisation of Europe
in attendance at Catua. The masters kept their In-
dians well under control ; the young people enjoyed
themselves upon the whole innocently, and sociability
was pretty general amongst all classes and colours.

Our rancho was a large one, and was erected in a line
with the others, near the edge of the sandbank 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 clay I amused myself by taking a basketful
of fragments of meat beyond the line of ranchos, and
drawing the alligators towards me by feeding them.
They behaved pretty much as dogs do when fed ;
catching 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

Chap. IV. A NOCTURNAL VIS1TOK. 279

give a hoarse grunt and shake themselves ; they imme-
diately 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 in-
tolerable. Cardozo had 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 water 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 there-
fore persuaded to sally forth in their montarias and
devote a day to killing them.

280 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

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
woke me up from my hammock, where I lay, as usual,
in the clothes worn during the day ; and after taking
each a cup-full of cashaca and ginger (a very general
practice in early morning on the sandbanks), we com-
menced our walk. The waning moon still lingered in
the clear sky, and a profound stillness pervaded sleep-
ing camp, forest, and stream. Along the line of ranches
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 sandbank, which was also 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

Chap. IV. A DAY'S HUNT. 281

Aiyussa turtles, which were making their way in an
undeviatmg 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
crawling it scores two parallel lines on the sand. The
mouths of these little creatures were full of 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
amusing 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 foot-
marks 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

2S2 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

the lake, and then found ourselves on a restinga, 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 under-
wood, 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 Mutums
(Curassow birds). The crowns of the trees, a hundred
feet or more over our heads, were so closely interwoven,
that it was difficult to distinguish the birds : the prac-
tised 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 off 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 (Catagramma

Chap. IV.

UMBRELLA BIRD.

283

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

■■Mm

■/infWt

Umbrella Bird.

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

284 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

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 singularly 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 perform-
ance. 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 rudi-
ments of the crest and lappet, and is duller-coloured
altogether than the male. The range of this bird ap-
pears 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 sat down and ate our dinners under
the shade ; each man having brought a little bag con-
taining a few handsfull of farinha, and a piece of fried
fish or roast turtle. We expected our companions 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

* Mimbeu is the Indian name for a rude kind of pan-pipes used by
the Caishanas and other tribes.

Chap. IV. NICKNAMES. 285

previously), 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 im-
possible. 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 Heliconise 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 diffi-
cult, 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, however, 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
undertaken in company with three friendly young half-
castes. Two of them were brothers, namely, Joao (John)
and Zephyrino Jabuti : Jabuti, or tortoise, being a nick-
name which their father had earned for his slow gait,
and which, as is usual in this country, had descended

286 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

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 montaria, at four o'clock in the morning, again
leaving the encampment asleep, and travelled at a
good pace up the northern channel of the Solimoens,
or that lying between the island Catua and the left
bank of the river. The northern shore of the island
had a broad sandy beach reaching to its western extre-
mity. We reached our destination a little after day-
break ; this was the banks of the Carapanatuba,* a
channel some 150 yards in width, which, like the Anana
already mentioned, communicates with the Cupiyo. To
reach this we had to cross the river, here nearly two
miles wide. Just as 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 water, 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

* Meaning in Tupi, the river of many mosquitoes : from carajiana,
mosquito, and ituba, many.

Chap. IV. YGAP6 FOKEST. 287

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 believing 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 sandbank covered with bushes, secured the mon-
taria 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. The
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 con-
sidering 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,

288 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

matted, and ribboned with climbing 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 vegetation overhead. Some of the
trees were of prodigious height. We passed many speci-
mens 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 aucuparium). 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

Chap. IV. ALLIGATOR'S NEST. 289

water-course, where we observed, first, the old footmarks
of a tapir, and, soon after, on the margins of a curious
circular hole full of muddy water, the fresh tracks of a
Jaguar. This latter discovery 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 moments 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 foot-
marks 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 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 ellipr
tical 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 rubbing
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-

VOL. II. n

290 EXCURSION'S AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

bag for specimens, and we then continued on our way.
Lino, who was now first, presently made a start back-
wards, calling out " Jararaca ! " This is the name of a
poisonous snake (genus Craspedocephalus), 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 of 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 completely, 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 con-
siderable distance when he approaches. I met, in the
course of my 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 gene-
rally 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 water-course, with round
holes full of muddy water. They occurred at intervals

Chap. IV. ELECTRIC EELS. 291

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 in diameter.
As we approached the most considerable of 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
these 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 inundated
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 pro-
ceeded 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

292 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IT,

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, which 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 considerable 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 pe-
culiar note which they emit. My companions shot two
of them. At the farther end of the lake lay a deep
watercourse, which we traced for about half a mile, and
found to communicate with another and smaller 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 hail-
ing our discovery, on approaching its banks. My friends
made an arrangement on the sj)ot for returning to this
pool, after the termination of the egg harvest on Catua.

In recrossing the space between the two pools, we
heard the crash of monkeys in the crowns of trees over-
head. The chace of these occupied us a considerable
time. Jose fired at length at one of the laggards of the

Chap. IV. PURITY OF THE WATER. 293

troop, and wounded him. He climbed pretty nimbly
towards a denser part of the tree, and a second and third
discharge failed to bring him down. The poor maimed
creature then trailed his limbs to one of the topmost
branches, where we descried him soon after, seated and
picking the entrails from a wound in his abdomen ;
a most heart-rending 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 charge, 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 dining on the remains of our fried
fish and farinha, and smoking our cigarettes, the ap-
paratus for making which, including 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

294 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

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 settles at the
bottom, but I never observed a scum of confervas or
traces of oil revealing animal decomposition on the
surface of these waters, nor was there ever any foul
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 re-
peatedly on the flinty thorns which had fallen from the
bushes, finishing by becoming completely lame, one
thorn having entered deeply into the sole of my foot.
I was obliged to be left behind ; Lino, the Indian, re-
maining with me. The careful fellow cleaned my wounds
with his saliva, placed pieces of isca (the felt-like sub-
stance 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 Monguba 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 disinterestedness in negro slaves or half-castes.

Chap. IV. RETURN TO CATUA. 295

We had to wait two hours for the return of our compa-
nions ; during part of this time I was left quite alone,
Lino having started off into the jungle after a peccary
(a kind of wild hog) which had come near to 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 in-
habiting the South American forests. They had dis-
covered a third pool containing plenty of turtles. Lino
rejoined us at the same time, having missed the pec-
cary, 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 after-
wards, 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 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

296 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

and sparingly scattered. My companions were greatly
elated, and on approaching the encampment at Catua
made a great commotion with their paddles to announce
their successful 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 season was now breaking up ; the river
was rising; the sky was 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 chan-
nel, 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 vegetation : 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, finding the

Chap. IV. BIVOUAC ON THE SANDS. 297

place luckily free from mosquitoes. The different por-
tions 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, however,
seemed inclined to go to sleep, so after supper we all
sat or lay around the large fires and amused our-
selves. We had the fiddler with us, and in the in-
tervals 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 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 in his thighs. 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 him-
self 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

298 EXCURSIONS ABOUND EGA. Chap. IV.

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 out-
side of our encampment. I had read in books of travel
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 Carapana-
tiiba 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 magnificent foliage in the black
shades around our encampment. The heat and smoke
had the desired effect of keeping off pretty well the

Chap. IV. LAKE OF JUTECA. 299

mosquitoes, but the rain continued until at length every-
thing 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 accommodate so large a number of persons
lying at full length ; moreover 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, ex-
hausted with fatigue and irritated beyond all conception
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 Cardozo's domestics, who had a skin dis-
figured 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
effluvia.

We spent the night of the 7th of November plea-
santly on the smooth sands, where the jaguars again sere-
naded us, and on the succeeding morning 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 Solimoens. 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 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

300 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

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 dawn arose a steady rain was still
falling, and the whole sky had a settled leaden appear-
ance, 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 of this lake the
native rice of this country growing wild.

The weather cleared up at 10 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 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 waters.
We come to a little gap in the earthy banks, and find
a dark, narrow inlet with a wall of forest over-sha-
dowing 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 set-
tlers. In striking contrast to these dark, rolling forests

Chap. IV. A MAMELUCO FARMEE. 301

is the vivid, light-green and cheerful foliage 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 has a cheering
effect after the depressing stillness and absence of life
in the woods on the margins of the main river.

Cardozo and I with two Indians took a small canoe
and crossed the lake on a visit to Senhor Gaspar Jose
Rodriguez, a well-to-do farmer, and the principal
resident of Cayambe. His eldest daughter, a home-
loving, industrious girl, had married the Portuguese
Miguel, my old travelling companion, a few days before
we left Eo-a on these rambles. We had attended and
danced at the wedding, and this present visit was in
fulfilment of a promise to call on the family whenever
we should be near Cayambe. Senhor Gaspar was one
of those numerous half-caste proprietors, a few of whom
I have had occasion to mention, who by their indus-
trious, regular habits, good sense, and fair dealing, do
credit to the class to which they belong. We have
heard so much in England of the worthlessness of the
half-caste population of Tropical America that it is a
real pleasure to be able to bear witness that they are
not wholly bad. It is, however, in retired country dis-
tricts where I have chiefly mixed with them. Some
of them, such as the friend of whom I am speaking,
are, considering their defective education, as worthy
men as can be found in any country. There is however,
it must be confessed, a considerable number of super-

302 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

latively lazy, tricky, and sensual characters amongst the
half-castes, both in rural ]3laces and in the towns. I
found the establishment of Senhor Gaspar similar to
that of Joao Trinidade which I have before described,
opposite to the mouth of the Madeira. It was situated
on a high bank : the dwelling-house was large and airy,
but roughly built, and with unplastered mud-walls.
There was a considerable number of outhouses, and in
the rear, extensive orchards of fruit and coffee trees,
with paths through them leading to the mandioca
plantations. Senhor Miguel, with his wife, were absent
at a new clearing which they had made for themselves
in another part of the banks of the lake. The rest of
the family were at home.

We were received with frank hospitality by these
shrewd and lively people. Senhor Gaspar had seven
children, and had himself taught them all to read and
write. The boys were very quick ; one of them after-
wards became clerk to the Municipal Chamber of Ega.
There was an air of cheerfulness and abundance about
the place that was quite exhilarating.

We dined, seated on a large mat, over which a clean
white towel was spread : the meal consisting of fowls
and rice (the general entertainment in this country for
visitors), with dessert of " laranjas torradas," or toasted
oranges ; that is, oranges partially dried in the sun.
The fruit, grown with a little greater care in Gasj^ar's
orchard than is usually bestowed on it in this country,
was very fine in itself, but treated in this form its
sweetness and richness of flavour were far superior to
anything I had yet tasted. When we were about leaving,

Chap. IV. LAKE OF CAYAMBfi. 303

our host, having listened to my praises of the fruit, sent
down' to our canoe a large basketful as a present. The
conversation after dinner turned on the difficulty of get-
ting good houses built at Ega ; on the backward condi-
tion of the province ; the disregard of the interests of
the agricultural class shown by the Government in taxing
all the produce of the interior on its reaching Para, and
so forth. Senhor Gaspar had just finished the erection
of a substantial town-house at Ega. He told me that
it was cheaper to send down to Para (2800 miles there
and back) for doors and shutters, than to make them
at Ega ; for, as there were no large saws anywhere on
the Solimoens, every plank had to be hewn out of the
tree with a hatchet.

On our return to the mouth of the Cayambe, whilst
in the middle of the lake, a squall suddenly arose, in the
direction towards which we were going, and 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 Curubarti, fifteen
miles distant, to encamp for the night on the sands.
We reached the praia at 10 o'clock. The waters were
now mounting fast upon the sloping beach, and we found
on dragging the net next morning that fish was begin-
ning to be scarce. Cardozo and his friends talked quite
gloomily at breakfast time over the departure of the

304 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV.

joyous verao, and the setting in of the dull, hungry
winter season.

At 9 o'clock in the morning of the 10th of Novem-
ber 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 on this upper river. We
bowled along merrily, and soon entered the broad chan-
nel lying between Baria and the mainland on the south
bank. The wind carried us right into the mouth of the
Teffe, and at 4 o'clock p.m. we cast anchor in the port
of Ega.

CHAPTER V.

ANIMALS OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA.

Scarlet-faced Monkeys — Parauacu Monkey — Owl-faced Night-apes —
Marmosets — Jupura — Comparison of Monkeys of the New "World
with those of the Old — Bats— Birds — Cnvier'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 Martius and the
Count de Castelnau, whose acquisitions have been depo-
sited 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, con-
siderable 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 3000) which they have had to describe,
with the locality " Ega" attached to them. The disco-
very of new species, however, forms but a small item in

VOL. II. X

306 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

the interest belonging to the study of the living crea-
tion. 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 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 with very long, straight, and
shining whitish hair ; their heads were nearly bald,
owing to the very short crop of thin gray hairs, and
their faces glowed with the most vivid scarlet hue. As
a finish to their striking physiognomy, they had bushy
wjiiskers of a sandy colour, meeting under the chin,
and reddish-yellow eyes. They sat gravely and silently
in a group, and altogether presented a strange spec-
tacle. 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 offi-
cials at Rio Janeiro, in acknowledgment of having

SCARLET-FACED ANT) PAEAITACU MONKEYS.

Vol. II., page 306.

Chap. V. TAILS OF MONKEYS. 307

been made colonel of the new national guard. They
had been obtained with great difficulty in the forests
which cover the low lands, 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 Ame-
rican monkeys, and one that appears to have escaped
the notice of Spix and Martius. I afterwards made a
journey to the district 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
differs from all its relatives in having only the rudi-
ment 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
specimens 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 appendage 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 Cebidae (seven in number, containing thirty-
eight species), the tail is weaker in structure, entirely

x2

308 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

covered with hair, and of little or no service in climbing,
a few species nearly related to our Uakari having it much
shorter than usual. All the Cebiclse, both long-tailed
and short-tailed, are equally dwellers in trees. The
scarlet-faced monkey lives in forests, which are inun-
dated 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 Cebidse 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) in 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,
living 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
bouo-hs in travelling from tree to tree. The mother, as
in other species of the monkey order, carries her young
on her back. Individuals are obtained alive by shooting
them with the blow-pipe and arrows tipped with diluted
Urari poison. They run a considerable distance after being

Chap. V. TAME TJAKARI. 309

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 pinch of salt, the antidote to the
poison, is then put in its mouth, and the creature revives.
The species is rare, even in the 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 become tame. They are peevish and sulky,
resisting all attempts to coax them, and biting anyone
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 supposed 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

* Three pounds seven shillings to four pounds thirteen shillings.

310 • ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

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 condition, 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
was not exclusively 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, turning 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

Chap. V. TAME UAKARL 311

villages have not succeeded in taming. I have even
seen young jaguars running loose about a house, and
treated as pets. The animals that I had, rarely became
familiar, however long they might remain in my pos-
session, a circumstance due no doubt to their being
kept always tied up.

The Uakaii is one of the many species of animals
which are classified by the Brazilians as " mortal," or of
delicate constitution, in contradistinction to those which
are "duro," or hardy. A large proportion of the speci-
mens sent from Ega die before arriving at Para, and
scarcely one in a dozen succeeds in reaching Rio Janeiro
alive. It appears, nevertheless, that an individual has
once been brought in a living state to England, for Dr.
Gray relates that one was exhibited in the gardens of
the Zoological Society in 1849. 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. When 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,

312 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

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-appeared 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 uncongenial
to him.

A most curious fact connected with this monkey is
the existence of an allied form, or brother species, in a
tract of country lying to the west of its district. This
differs in being clothed with reel instead of white hair,
and has been described by Isidore GeofTroy St. Hilaire
(from specimens brought to Paris in 1847 by the Comte
de Castlenau) as a distinct species, under the name of
Brachyurus rubicundus. It wholly replaces the white
form in the western parts of the Japura delta : that is
to say, in a uniform district of country, 150 miles in
length, and sixty to eighty in breadth, the eastern half
is tenanted exclusively by white Uakaris, and the
western half by red ones. The district, it may be men-
tioned, is crossed by several channels, which at the
present time doubtless serve as barriers to the dispersal
of monkeys, but cannot have done so for many centuries,
as the position of low alluvial lands, and the direc-
tion of channels in the Amazons Valley, change con-
siderably in the course of a few years. The red-haired
Uakari appears to be most frequently found in the

Chap. V. TWO FORMS OF UAKAPJ. 313

forests lying opposite to the mouth of the river which
leads to Fonteboa, and ranges thence to the banks of
the TTati-parana, the most westerly channel of the
Japura, situated near Tunantins. Beyond that point to
the west there is no trace of either the red or the white
form, nor of any other allied species. Neither do they
pass to the eastward of the main mouth of the Japura,
or to the south shore of the Solimoens. How far they
range northwards along the banks of the Japura, I
could not precisely ascertain ; Senhor Chrysostomo,
however, assured me that at 180 miles from the mouth
of this river, neither white nor red Uakari is found, but
that a third, black-faced and gray-haired species, takes
their place. I saw two adult individuals of Brachyurus
rubicundus at Ega, and a young one at Fonteboa ; but
was unable to obtain specimens myself, as the forests
were inundated at the time I visited their locality. I
was surprised to find the hair of the young animal
much paler in colour than that of the adults, it being of
a sandy and not of a brownish-red hue, and consequently
did not differ very much from that of the white species ;
the two forms, therefore, are less distinct from each
other in their young than in their adult states. The
fact of the range of these singular monkeys being
so curiously limited as here described, cannot be said to
be established until the country lying between the
northern shore of the Solimoens and New Granada be
well explored, but there can be no doubt of the separa-
tion of the two forms in the Delta lands of the Japura,
and this is a most instructive fact in the geographical
distribution of animals.

314 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. Y.

The Parauacu Monkey. — Another Ega monkey,
nearly related to the Uakaris, is the Parauacu (Pithecia
hirsuta), a timid inoffensive creature, with a long bear-
like coat of harsh speckled-gray 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 Parauacu 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 there under a changed form, which differs from
its type in colours about as much as the red differs from
the white Uakari. 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 an}^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, neverthe-
less, great dislike 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

Chap. V. NIGHT-APES. 315

the lead of all the South American monkeys in intel-
ligence and docility, and the Coaita has perhaps the
most gentle and impressible disposition ; but the Pa-
rauacu, 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 in-
telligence as well as moral goodness, 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 dwelling, 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 resignation
waiting for him. Shortly afterwards my friend entered,
and the gladdened pet then jumped to its usual perch
on his shoulder.

Old-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 drier lands, without mingling
with each other or intercrossing. They sleep all day
long in hollow trees, and come forth to prey on insects

316 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

and eat fruits only in the night. They are of small
size, the body being about a foot long, and the tail four-
teen inches, and are thickly clothed with soft grey and
brown fur, similar in substance to that of the rabbit.
Their ph}'siognomy reminds one of an 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 Hum-
boldt, who discovered it on the banks of the Cassiquiare,
near the head waters of the Rio Negro.

One cannot help being struck by this curious modifi-
cation of the American type of monkeys, for the owl-
faced night-apes have evidently sprung from the same
stock as the rest of the Cebidaa, as they do not differ
much in all essential points from the Whaiapu-sais
(Callithrix), and the Sai-miris (Chrysothrix). They have
nails of the ordinary form to all their fingers, and semi-
opposable thumbs ; but the molar teeth (contrary to
what is usual in the Cebidse) are studded with sharp
points, showing that their natural food is principally
insects.

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-bajDtised

Chap. V. PET MONKEYS. 317

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 con-
cealed, 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, how-
ever, an individual of the other species (N. felinus)
which was most amusingly tame. Jt 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 inqui-
sitive face an instant afterwards to stare at the intruder.
It was very 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, resting its
hands on the palms and tips of the outstretched fingers

318 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

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.

I have mentioned the near relationship of the night
apes to the Sai-miris (Chrysothrix), which are amongst
the commonest of the ordinary monkeys of the American
forests. This near relationship is the more necessary to
be borne in mind, as some zoologists have drawn a com-
parison between the Nyctipitheci and the Microcebi,
Nycticebi, and Loris, nocturnal apes of the Lemur family
inhabiting Ceylon and Java, and it might be erroneously
inferred that our American Ei-as were related more
closely to these Old World forms than they are to the rest
of the New World monkeys. The Nycticebus of Java has
also large nocturnal eyes, short ears, and a physiognomy
similar to that of our Nyctipitheci ; resemblances which
might seem to be strong proofs of blood-relationship, but
these points are fallacious guides in ascertaining the ge-
nealogy of these animals ; they are simply resemblances
of analogy, and merely show that a few species belong-
ing to utterly dissimilar families have been made similar

Chap. V. BAREIGUDO MONKEYS. 319

by being adapted to similar modes of life. The Loris
and their relatives of Tropical Asia have six incisor teeth
to the lower jaws, and belong, in all other essential
points of structure, to the Lemur family, which has not
a single representative in the New World. The Ei-as
have teeth of the same number, and growing in nearly
the same position, as their near relatives the Sai-mirfs.
I obtained, moreover, yet stronger proof of this close
relationship between the night and clay monkeys of
America, in finding a species on the Upper Amazons
which supplies a link between them. This one had
ears nearly as short as those of the night apes, and also
a striped forehead; the stripes being, however, two in
number, instead of three : the colours of the body were
very similar to those of the well-known Chrysothrix
sciureus, and the eyes were fitted for day vision.

Barrlgudo Monkeys. — 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, occa-
sionally 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 chap-
ters of this narrative. Of the remainder, the most
remarkable is the Macaco barrigudo, or big-bellied
monkey of the Portuguese colonists, a species of Lago-
thrix. The genus is closely allied to the Coaitas, or
spider monkeys, having, like them, exceedingly strong

320 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

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. Hum-
boldtii) 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 was twenty-eight inches in height. The skin of
the face in the Barrigudo is black and wrinkled, the
forehead is low, Avith the eye-brows 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 exclu-
sively on fruits, and is much persecuted by the Indians,
on account of the excellence of its flesh as food. From
information given me by a collector of birds and mam-
mals, whom I employed, and who resided a long time
amongst the Tucuna Indians, near Tabatinga, I calcu-
lated that one horde of this tribe, 200 in number,
destroyed 1200 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.

Chap. V. MARMOSETS. 321

Its manners in captivity are grave, and its temper mild
and confiding, like that of the Coaitas. Owing to these
traits, the Barrigndo 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 Mar-
mosets, 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 walk-
ing 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 fore-
most, 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 mo-
ments, and then bounded off gaily to climb another
tree. At Tunantins, I shot a pair of a very handsome
species of Marmoset, the M. rufiventer, I believe, of
zoologists. Its coat was very glossy and smooth ; the
back deep brown, and the underside 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

VOL. II. V

322 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

as though it held a ball of snow-white cotton in its
teeth. The last I shall mention is the Hapale pygmagus,
one of the most diminutive forms of the monkey order.
I obtained, near St. Paulo, three full-grown specimens,
which measured only seven inches in length of body.
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 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 Jiipnra. — A curious animal, known to natural-
ists as the Kinkajou, but called Jupura by the Indians
of the Amazons, and considered by them as a kind of
monkey, may be mentioned in this place. It is the
Cercoleptes caudivolvus of zoologists, and has been con-
sidered by some authors as an intermediate form between
the Lemur family of apes and the plantigrade Carni-
vora, or Bear family. It has decidedly no close rela-
tionship to either of the groups of American monkeys,
having six cutting teeth to each jaw, and long claws
intead of nails, with extremities of the usual shape of
paws instead of hands. Its muzzle is conical 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

Chap. Y. THE JUPUEA. 323

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 excur-
sion 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 wras
going on, and there being no room to hang our ham-
mocks 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. After midnight, when all be-
came still, after the uproar 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
Caju 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-

Y 2

324 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

meal mixed with treacle. It became tame in a very-
short time, allowing itself to be caressed, but making a
distinction in the degree of confidence it showed between
myself and strangers. -My pet was unfortunately killed
by a neighbour's dog, which entered the room where it
was kept. The animal is so difficult to obtain alive, its
place of retreat in the day-time not being known to the
natives, that I was unable to procure a second living
specimen.

As I shall not have occasion again to enter on the
subject of monkeys, a few general remarks will be here
in place, as a summary of my observations on this im-
portant order of animals in the Amazons region. The
total number of species of monkeys which I found
inhabiting the margins of the Upper and Lower Ama-
zons, was thirty-eight. They belonged to twelve
different genera, forming two distinct families, the num-
ber of genera and families, here as well as in other
orders of animals or plants, expressing roughly the
amount of diversity existing with regard to forms. All
the New World genera of apes, except one (Eriodes,
closely allied to the Coaitas, but having claw-shaped nails
to the fingers), are represented in the Amazons region.
With these ample materials before us, let us draw a
comparison between the monkeys of the new continent,
and their kindred of the Old World. It seems highly
probable that the larger land areas, both continents and
islands, on the surface of our globe, became separated
pretty nearly as they now are, soon after the first forms
of this group of animals came into existence : it will

Chap. V. MONKEYS OF OLD AND NEW WORLD. 325

be interesting, therefore, to see how differently the sub-
sequent creations of species have proceeded in each of
the separated areas.

The American monkeys are distinguished, as a body,
from all those found in the Old World. Upon this
point, there is no difference of opinion amongst modern
zoologists. It is not probable, therefore, that species
of the one continent have passed over to the other,
since these great tracts of land received their present
inhabitants of this order. The American productions pre-
sent a cluster of forms, namely, about eighty-six species,
separated into thirteen genera, which although greatly
diversified amongst themselves, in no case show signs
of near relationship to any of the still more diversified
forms of the same order belonging to the eastern hemi-
sphere. One of the two American families (Cebidse)
has thirty-six teeth, whilst the corresponding family
(Pithecidse) of Old World apes has, like man, only thirty-
two teeth ; the difference arising from the Cebidse
having an additional false molar tooth* to each side
of both jaws. This important character is constant
throughout all the varied forms of which the Cebidse
family is composed ; being equally present in the pre-
hensile-tailed group, with its four genera containing
twenty-seven species, differing in form and clothing,
shape of claws, mental characteristics, and condition of
thumb of the anterior hands ; and in the true Cebi and
the group of Sagouins, with six genera and twenty-four
species, including day apes and night apes, short

* False molars, or premolars, differ from true molars, through being
preceded in growth by milk teeth.

326 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

furred and long-haired apes, apes with excessively long
tails, and apes with rudimentary tails. The second
American family, the Marmosets, have thirty -two teeth,
like the Old World monkeys and man ; but this identity
of number arises from one of the true molars being
absent ; the Marmosets have three premolar teeth, like
the Cebidse, and are therefore quite as far removed as
the Cebidae from all the forms of the Old World. They
are, moreover, a low type of apes, having a smooth
brain, and claws instead of nails, although they are
gentle and playful in disposition, and have a visage
which presents an open facial angle.

The Old World apes, as just observed, are far more
diversified amongst themselves, than are those of the
New World. They form, in the first place, two widely
distinct groups or sub-orders, Pithecidse and Lemurs,
and comprise about 125 species, divided into twenty-
one genera. The Lemur group contains a remarkably
great diversity of forms ; this is shown by their being
naturally divisible into four families,* and twelve
genera, although containing only twenty-five species.
Their teeth are very irregular in number and position,
but never correspond with those of the Pithecidse or
Cebidse. These four families, in structure, are more
widely separated from each other than are the two
American groups of the same denomination. The
Lemurs also contain a number of anomalous or isolated
forms, which, by their teeth, number of teats, and other
features, connect the monkeys with other and lower
orders of the mammal class ; namely, the Rodents, the

* True Lemurs, Tarsiens, Aye-Ayes, and Galeopitheci.

Chap. Y. DISTRIBUTION OF MONKEYS. 327

Insectivora, and the Bats. All the typical Lemurs, which
constitute the great majority of the family, inhabit
exclusively the Island of Madagascar.

The Pithecidse are divisible into three groups, which
again are much more distinct from each other than the
subordinate groups of Cebidae. These are the Anthro-
poid section, to which some zoologists consider man
himself belongs, comprising the Gorilla, the Chimpan-
zee, the Orangs and the Gibbons ; the Guenons (which,
in their forms, tempers, and habits, resemble the Cebidse),
and lastly, the Baboons, whose extreme forms — the dog-
faced species, with nose extending to the tip of the
muzzle — seem like a degradation of the monkey type.
There is nothing at all resembling the Anthropoid apes
and the Baboons existing on the American continent.
The Guenons, too, have only a superficial resemblance
to American monkeys ; for they have all thirty-two
teeth, nostrils opening in a downward direction (instead
of on the sides, like the Cebidae and Marmosets), and
are, moreover, linked to the Baboons through interme-
diate forms (Macacus), and the possession of callosities
on the breech, and other signs of blood-relationship.

A few more words on the peculiar way in which these
groups of monkeys are distributed over the earth's sur-
face. We may consider, in connection with this subject,
the great land masses of the warmer parts of the
earth to be four in number. 1. Australia, with New
Guinea and its neighbouring islands : 2. Madagascar :
3. America : 4. The Continental mass of the Old World,
comprising Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Islands of the
Malay Archipelago, which latter are connected with

328 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

Asia by a shallow sea, whilst they are separated from
New Guinea by a channel of very deep water ; the
shallow sea pointing to a former, but recent, union of the
lands which it connects, the deep channel a complete
and enduring severance of the lands which it separates.
Now, with regard to monkeys, these four land masses
seem to have had these animals allotted to them in
the most capricious way possible, if we are to take
for granted that the species were arbitrarily created
on the lands where they are now found. Australia, with
soil and climate as well adapted for Baboons as Africa,
where they abound, and New Guinea, with rich humid
forests as suitable for Orangs and Gibbons as the very
similar island of Borneo, have, neither of them, a single
species of native monkey. Madagascar possesses only
Lemurs, the most lowly-organised group of apes,
although the neighbouring continent of Africa contains
numerous species of all families of Old World apes.
America, as we have seen, has no Lemurs, and not a
single representative of the Old World groups of the
order, but is well peopled by genera and species belonging
to two distinct groups peculiar to the continent. Lastly,
the Old World continental mass, with a few anomalous
forms of Lemurs scattered here and there, is the exclu-
sive home of the whole of the Pithecidae family, which
presents a series of forms graduating from the debased
Baboon -to the Gorilla, which some zoologists consider
to approach near to man in his organisation.

What does all this mean ? Why are the different
forms apportioned in this way to the various lands of
the earth 1 Why is Australia with New Guinea desti-

Chap. V. DISTRIBUTION OF MONKEYS. 329

tute of monkeys, and why should Madagascar have
stopped short at Lemurs, whilst America has gone on
to prehensile-tailed Cebidae, and the Old- World con-
tinent continued to Gibbons, Orangs, Chimpanzee, and
Gorilla ? Is it that the greater land masses have seen
a larger amount of geological and climatal changes with
corresponding changes in the geographical relations of
species ? Moreover, why should the smaller groups of
the order be confined to smaller areas within the greater
areas peopled by the families to which they belong?
For, it must be added, the true Lemurs are confined to
Madagascar, the Gibbons and others to South Eastern
Asia, the dog-faced baboons to Africa, and, as we have
seen, the scarlet-faced monkeys to a limited area on the
Upper Amazons. May we be allowed to explain the
absence of these animals from New Guinea with Aus-
tralia, by the supposition that those lands were separated
from South Eastern Asia before the first forms of the
order came into existence ? If so, it may be concluded
that Madagascar became separated from Africa, and
America from the continental mass of the old world
before the Pithecidas originated. But, if these explana-
tions, founded on natural causes, be entertained, we
commit ourselves, by the fact of entertaining them, to the
admission that natural causes are com pe tent to explain
the existence or non-existence of forms in a given area,
and why may not the exercise of our reason, founded on
carefully observed and collated facts, be carried a step
farther, namely to the origin of the species of monkeys
themselves? I have already shown how singularly
species of monkeys vary in different localities, and have

330 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. Y.

given the striking case of the white and red-haired
Uakaris. If these two forms, which are considered by
the most eminent naturalists as distinct species, have
originated, as the facts of their distribution plainly tell
us they have, from one and the same stock, why may
not the various species of Lemurs, of Baboons, of Gib-
bons, and so forth, given the necessary amount of time
and climatal changes, have originated in the same way ?
And if we can thus account for the origin of the species
of one genus, on what grounds can we deny that the
genera of the same family, or the families of the same
order, have also proceeded from a common stock ? I
throw out these suggestions simply for the consideration
of thoughtful readers, but must add, that unless the
common origin, at least, of the species of a family be
admitted, the jDroblem of the distribution of monkeys
over the earth's surface must remain an inexplicable
mystery, whilst, if admitted*, a flood of light illuminates
the subject, and promises an early solution to honest
and patient investigation. These questions, also, show
how interesting and difficult are the problems which
Natural History, granted the right and ability of the
human mind to deal with them, has to solve.

It is a suggestive fact that all the fossil monkeys
which have been found in Europe and America, belong
in each case to the types which are still peculiar to the
continent which they inhabit. The European fossils are
all of the Pithecidse family, the South American all
belong to the Cebidfe and Marmoset families. The
separation of the two continental masses (at least of
their warm zones) must therefore be of great geological

Chap. V. BATS. 331

antiquity. It is interesting to trace how the diversi-
fication of forms (if the expression may be allowed),
since the separation, has gone on in Tropical America.
What wide divergence as to size, forms, habits, and
mental dispositions, between the silver marmoset so
small that it may be inclosed in the two hands, and
the strong and savage black Howler, nearly two feet
and a half in length of trunk ! Yet there has been no
direct advance in the organisation of the order towards
a higher type, such as is exhibited in the old world.
America, for her share, has produced the most per-
fectly arboreal monkey in the world ; but beyond the
perfection of the arboreal type she does not go. The
retention of arboreal forms throughout long geological
ages, may teach geologists that there must always
have been extensive land areas covered by forests
on the site of the tropical zone of America. It is
curious to reflect, in conjunction with the fact of the
advance of the American Quadrumana having halted at
a low stage, that ethnologists have almost unanimously
come to the conclusion that the race of men now in-
habiting the American continent are not Autochthones
of America, the land of the Cebidse, but immigrants
from the Old World continent, the land of the Anthro-
poid group of the order Quadrumana.

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 themselves by day under the broad
leaf-blades of Heliconiae and other plants which grow

332 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

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 everyone believes it to 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 the
countenance of this creature when viewed from the
front ; the large, leathery ears standing out from the
sides and top of the head, the erect spear-shaped ap-
pendage on the tip of the nose, the grin and the glis-
tening 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,
however, is the most harmless of all bats, and its inof-
fensive 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 ascertained that both feed chiefly on
fruits. The church at Ega was the head-quarters of

Chap. V. BIRDS. 333

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 of the forest. They sometimes enter houses ;
the first time I saw one in my chamber, wheeling
heavily round and round, I mistook it for a pigeon,
thinking that a tame one had escaped from the pre-
mises 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
cajus and guavas on trees in the gardens, but on com-
paring the seeds taken from their stomachs with those
of all cultivated trees at Ega, I found they were unlike
any of them ; it is therefore probable that they gene-
rally 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 more 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 ; indeed, 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 remains of insects belonged to species of Scarites (Coleoptera)
having blunt maxillary blades, several of which fly abroad in oreat
numbers on warm nights.

334 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

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 con-
stitute 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 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 in-
sectivorous birds are also gregarious ; but they are so,
numbers of distinct species, belonging to many different
families, 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 re-
marks.

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 Dendro-
colaptidse (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.

* Tachyphonus surinamus and cristatus, Tanagrella elegantissima.
I very often found fruit-eating birds, such as Cassicus icteronotus and
Capito Amazoninus mingled with these bands.

Chap. V. THE PAPA-UIEA. 335

The bustling crowd loses no time, and although movino-
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 line
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 de-
generated into a myth, to the effect that the onward
moving bands" are led by a little grey bird, called the
Papa-uira, which fascinates all the rest, and leads them
a weary dance through the thickets. There is certainly
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 Papa-uira, believing that if they keep
them in their clothes' chest, the relics will have the

33G ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

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 speci-
mens for me ; but, after the same man (who was a
noted woodsman) brought me, at different times, three
distinct species of birds as the Papa-uira, I gave up the
story as a piece of humbug. The simplest explanation
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 conspicuous from the great size and light struc-
ture of their beaks, and so characteristic of Tropical
American forests, five species* inhabit the woods of
Ega. The largest of all the Toucans found on the
Amazons, namely, the Ramphastos toco, called by the
natives Tocano pacova, from its beak resembling in
size and shape a banana or pacova, appears not to reach
so far up the river as Ega. It is abundant near Para,
and is found also on the low islands of the Rio Negro,
near Barra, but does not seem to raDge much farther to
the west. The commonest species at Ega is Cuvier's

* Ramphastos Cuvieri, Pteroglossus Beauharnaisii, Pt. Langsclorfii,
Pt. castanotis, Pt. flavirostris. Further westward, namely, near St.
Paulo, a sixth species makes its appearance, the Pteroglossus Hum-
boldtii.

Chap. V. CUVIER'S TOUCAN. 337

Toucan, a large bird, distinguished from its nearest rela-
tives by the feathers at the bottom of the back being
of a saffron hue instead of red. It is found more or
less numerously throughout 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 individuals 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, apparently, as leader of the inharmonious
chorus ; but two of them are often heard yelping alter-
nately, 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 is. difficult 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
into crevices of the 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

VOL. II. Z

338 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

forest, near Ega, in large flocks, probably, assemblages
of birds gathered together from the neighbouring Ygapo
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 are then very fat, and the meat exceedingly sweet
and tender. I did not meet with Cuvier's Toucan on
the Lower Amazons ; in that region, the sulphur and
white-breasted Toucan (Ramphastos Vitellinus) seems to
take its place, this latter species, on the other hand, being
quite unknown on the Upper Amazons. It is probable
they are local modifications of one and the same stock.

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 develop-
ment of beak, adapted for seizing fish. Some travellers
also related fabulous stories of Toucans resorting to

Chap. V. LONG BILLS OF TOUCANS. 339

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, prevailed. Toucans,
however, are now well known to be eminently arboreal
birds, and to belong to a group (including trogons, par-
rots, 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. Pro-
fessor 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 chew-
ing the cud in a tame bird, that the great toothed bill
was useful in holding and re-masticating the food. The
bill 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 fruits on the crowns of the large trees of
South American forests grow, principally, towards the
end of slender twigs, which will not bear any con-

* CapitoniriPe, O. E. Cray.

z2

340 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

siderable weight ; all animals, therefore, which feed upon
fruit, or on insects contained 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 then 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 enabled to sustain themselves on the
wing before blossoms whilst rifling them of their con-
tents. These strong-flying creatures, however, will,
whenever they get a chance, remain on their perches
whilst probing neighbouring flowers for insects. Tro-
gons have feeble wings, and a dull, inactive tempera-
ment. Then 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 sur-
rounding trees, darting off, as if with an effort, every
time they wish 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. Barbets and Toucans are
very closely related ; indeed a genus has lately been
discovered towards the head waters of the Amazons,*

* Tetragonops. Dr. Sclater has lately given a figure of this bird in
the Ibis, vol. iii. p. 182.

Chap. V. TAME TOUCAN. 341

which tends to link the two families together ; the
superior length of the Toucan's bill gives it an advan-
tage over the Barbet, with its small, conical beak ; it
can reach and devour immense quantities of fruit
whilst remaining seated, and thus its heavy body and
gluttonous appetite form no obstacles to the prosperity
of the species. It is worthy of note, that the young of
the Toucan has a very much smaller beak than the
full-grown bird. The relation between the extraor-
dinarily lengthened bill of the Toucan and its mode of
obtaining food, is precisely similar to that between the
long neck and 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 instru-
ment for the end to which it is applied, as here ex-
plained ; but nature appears not to shape 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 in 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 con-
dition, but after a few days of good living it recovered
health and spirits, and became one of the most amus-
ing pets imaginable. Many excellent accounts of the
habits of tame Toucans, have been published, and

342 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

therefore I need not describe them in detail, but I do
not recollect to have seen any notice of their intelligence
and confiding disposition under domestication, in 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 correction
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 under-
neath 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 meal 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 enclosing 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 appearance 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 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

Chap. V.

CURL-CRESTED TOUCAN.

343

had stolen him, and which was situated at the further
end of the village.

The Curl-crested Toucan (Pteroglossus Beauhar-
naisii). — 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 Beauhar-
nais Toucan. The feathers on the head of this singular

mm

Curl-crested Toucan.

bird are transformed into thin, horny plates, of a lus-
trous black colour, curled up at the ends, and resem-
bling shavings of steel or ebony wood : the curly crest
being arranged on the crown in the form of a wig.
Mr. Wallace and 1 first met with this species, on ascend-
ing 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

344 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

flocks in the forest near Ega in May and June, when
it has completed its moult. I did not find these bands
congregated 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 Arassaris, to my knowledge, make a
yelping noise like that uttered by the larger Toucans
(Ramphastos) ; the notes of the curl-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 leaving my gun leaning against a
tree-trunk in the pathway, went into the thicket where
the bird had fallen, to secure my booty. It was only
wounded, and on my attempting to seize it, 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 thicket.
They descended towards me, 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. Had I had a long stick in
my hand I could have knocked several of them over.
After killing the wounded one I rushed out to fetch
my gun, but, the screaming of their companion having
ceased, they remounted the trees, and before I could
reload, every one of them had disappeared.

Insects. — Upwards of 7000 species of insects were
found in the neighbourhood of Ega. I must confine
myself, in this place, to a few remarks on the order

Chap. V. BUTTEKFL1ES. 345

Lej)idoptera, 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 vege-
tation, the varied nature of the land, the perennial
warmth and humidity of the climate. But no descrip-
tion 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 or 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 for comparison. The distinctness of the
specific characters is due probably to the fact that all
the superficial signs of change in the organisation are
exaggerated, and made unusually plain, by affecting the
framework, shape, and colour of the wings, which, as
many anatomists believe, are magnified extensions of
the skin around the breathing orifices of the thorax of
the insects. These expansions are clothed with minute

346 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

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 modifica-
tions of 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-relationship of the spe-
cies. As the laws of Nature must be the same for all
beings, the conclusions furnished by this group of insects
must be applicable to the whole organic world; there-
fore, the study of butterflies — creatures selected as the
types of airiness and frivolity — instead of being de-
spised, will some day be valued as one of the most
important branches of Biological science.

I have mentioned, in a former chapter, the general
sultry condition of the atmosphere on the Upper Ama-
zons, where the sea-breezes which blow from Para to
the mouth of the Rio Negro (1000 miles up stream)
are unknown. This simple difference of meteorological
conditions would hardly be thought to determine what
genera of butterflies should inhabit each region, yet it
does so in a very decisive manner. The Ujjper Ama-
zons, from Ega upwards, and the eastern slopes of the
Andes, whence so large a number of the most richly-
coloured species of this tribe have been received in
Europe, owe the most ornamental part of their insect
population to the absence of strong and regular winds.
Nineteen of the most handsome genera of Ega, con-
taining altogether about 100 species, are either entirely

Chap. V. BUTTERFLIES. 347

absent or very sparingly represented on the Lower
Amazons within reach of the trade winds. The range
of these nineteen genera is affected by a curiously com-
plicated set of circumstances. In all the species of
which they are composed, the males are more than
100 to one more numerous than the females, and being-
very richly coloured, whilst the females are of dull hues,
they spend their lives in sporting about in the sun-
light, imbibing the moisture which constitutes their
food, from the mud on the shores of streams, their
spouses remaining hid in the shades of the forest. The
very existence of these species depends on the facilities
which their males have for indulgence in the pleasures of
this sunshiny life. The greatest obstacle to this is the
prevalence of strong winds, which not only dries rapidly
all moisture in open places, but prevents the richly-
attired dandies from flying daily to their feeding-places.
I noticed this particularly whilst residing at Santarem,
where the moist margins of water, localities which on
the Upper Amazons swarm with these insects, were
nearly destitute of them ; and at Villa Nova (where a
small number exists) I have watched them buffeting
with the strong winds at the commencement of the dry
season, and, as the dryness increased, disappearing from
the locality. On ascending the Tapajos to the calm and
sultry banks of the Cupari, a great number of these
insects re-appeared, most of them being the same as
those found on the Upper Amazons, thus showing clearly
that their existence in the district depended on the
absence of winds.

Before proceeding to describe the ants, a few remarks

348

ANIMALS OF EGA.

Chap. V.

may be made on the singular cases and 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 work-
manship I ever saw. It is a cocoon, about
the size of a sparrow's egg, woven by a
caterpillar in broad meshes of either buft
or rose-coloured silk, and is frequently
seen in the narrow alleys of the forest, sus-
pended from the extreme tip of an out-
standing leaf by a strong silken thread five
or six inches in length. It forms a very
conspicuous 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 Susp0efn^e0dthcocoon
it changes from the little chrysalis which
sleeps tranquilly in its airy cage. The moth is of a

Chap. V. LEAF-ROLLING CATERPILLARS. 349

dull slaty colour and belongs to the Lithosiide group
of the silk-worm family (Bombycidse). When the cater-
pillar begins 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, 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 fabri-
cating cases with fragments of wood or leaves, in which
they live secure from all enemies whilst they are feed-
ing and growing. I 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 Melastomse, and as, in crawling,

350

ANIMALS OF EGA.

Chap. V.

the weight of so large a dwelling would be greater
than the contained caterpillar could sustain, the insect

^ef

Sack-bearing Caterpillar (Saccophora).

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 published in books of travel, and copied in Natural
History works, regarding these ants, which appear to
have been confounded with the Sauba, a sketch of whose
habits has been given in the first chapter of this work.
The Sauba is a vegetable feeder, and does not attack
other animals ; the accounts that have been published
regarding carnivorous ants which hunt in vast armies,

(hap. V. FORAGING ANTS. 351

exciting terror wherever they go, apply only to the
Ecitons, or foraging ants, a totally different group of this
tribe of insects. The Ecitons are called Tauoca by the
Indians, who are always on the look-out for their armies
when they traverse the forest, so as to avoid being at-
tacked. 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 Santarem ; 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-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 composed, 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 (E. legionis) this is not
sufficient to cause a separation into classes, with division
of labour ; in others (E. hamata) the jaws are so mon-
strously lengthened in the worker-majors, that they are
incapacitated from taking part in the labours which the

352 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chai>. V.

worker-minors perform ; and again, in others (E. erra-
tica and E. vastator), 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 (Myrmica), 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 size is presented from the largest to the

* There is one numerous genus of South American ants in which
the two classes of workers are nearly always sharply defined in struc-
ture, not only the head, but other parts of the body, being strikingly
different. This is the genus Cryptocerus, of which I found fifteen
species, but in no case was able to discover the distinctive function of
the worker-major class. The contrast between the two classes reaches
its acme in C. discocephalus, whose worker-majors have a strange dish-
shaped expansion on the crown of the head. All the species inhabit
hollow twigs or branches of trees, the monstrous-headed individuals
being always found quiescent and mixed with crowds of worker-minors.
It cannot be considered wonderful that the function of worker-majors
has not been discovered in exotic ants, when Huber, who devoted a
life-time to the study of European ants, was unable to detect it in a
common species, the Formica rufescens.

Chap. V. ECITON LEGIONIS. 353

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 (Myrmica rubra), which it also re-
sembles in colour. The Eciton legionis lives in open
places, and was seen only on the sandy campos of San-
tarem. The movements 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 line,
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 oppor-
tunities 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
pupae of other ants. I had no difficulty in tracing the
line to the spot from which they were conveying their

VOL. II. A

354 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

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 pre-
ceding 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 Formicas, 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 frag-
ment, and carrying it off down the slope. On digging
into the earth with a small trowel near the entrances of
the mines, I found the nests of the Formicas, 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 difficulty in rescuing a few entire for
specimens. In digging the numerous mines to get at

ChapV. A RETURNING ARM V. 355

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 com-
rades, who stationed themselves at the mouth of the
shaft, and relieved them of 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 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 con-
veyors of the spoil.

In about two hours, all the nests of Formicae 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 already
described in a former chapter as being constructed of a
material as hard as stone. The broad and compact
column of ants moved up the steep sides of the hil-
lock in a continued stream ; many, which had hitherto

A A 2

356

ANIMALS OF EGA.

Chap. V.

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
therefore in the middle of the base of the stony hillock.

Eciton clrepanophora. — The commonest species of
foraging ants are the Eciton hamata and E. drepano-
phora, two kinds which resemble each other so closely
that it requires attentive examination to distinguish

".&jc< ' > ' " - " ' ~i

Foraging ants (Eciton drepanophora).

them ; yet their armies never intermingle, 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 inch in length, with small
heads and jaws, and giants half an inch in length with
monstrously enlarged head and jaws, all belonging to

Chap. V. ANT- ARMIES. 357

the same family. There is not, however, 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 books 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 further, 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 pin-
cer-like jaws into his skin, and with the purchase thus
obtained, doubling 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 they will be sure to
give the alarm, crying " Tauoca ! " and scampering at
full speed to the other end of the column of ants. The
tenacious insects who have secured themselves to his
legs then have to be plucked off one by one, a task
which is generally not accomplished without pulling
them in twain, and leaving heads and jaws sticking
in the wounds.

358 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chai\ V.

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 commo-
tion, 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
encountered 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

Chap. V. ORDER OF MARCH. 359

flying about them. In bearing off their spoil in frag-
ments, the pieces are apportioned to the earners with
some degree of regard to fairness of load : the dwarfs
taking the smallest pieces, and the strongest fellows
with small heads the heaviest portions. Sometimes two
ants join together in carrying one piece, but the worker-
majors with 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 pos-
sible to follow them. I have traced an army some-
times 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 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 ascending 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 their being a

360 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

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 ownward-moving comrades with their
antennae ; a proceeding which has been noticed in other
ants, and supposed to be their mode of conveying intel-
ligence. When I interfered with the column or ab-
stracted an individual from it, news of the disturbance
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 little cluster of white maggots,
which I thought, at the time, might be young larvae of
their own colony, but afterwards found reason to con-
clude were the grubs of some other species whose nests
they had been plundering, the procession being most
likely 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 extraordinary fellows to about a score of the
smaller class ; none of them carried anything in their
mouths, but all trotted along empty-handed and out-
side 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
observation, for their shining white heads made them
very conspicuous amongst the rest, bobbing up and
down as the column passed over the inequalities of the
road. I did not see them change their position, or take
any notice of their small-headed comrades marching

CiiAr. V. RECREATIONS OF ANTS. 361

iii the column, and when I disturbed the line, they did
not prance forth or show fight so eagerly as the others.
These large-headed members of the community have
been considered by some authors as a soldier class,
like the similarly-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 community, 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 possible 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 ascertain
whether this was really the fact.

The life of these Ecitons is not all work, for I fre-
quently saw them very leisurely employed in a way
that looked like recreation. When 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 positions ;
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 antennae with
their fore-feet ; but the drollest sight was their cleaning
one another. Here and there an ant was seen stretch-

362 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

ing forth first one leg and then another, to be brushed
or washed by one or more of its comrades, who per-
formed the task by passing the limb between the jaws
and the tongue, finishing by giviug 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 develop-
ment of the primary qualities of mind. The actions of
these ants looked like simple indulgence in idle amuse-
ment. 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 sport iveness, like young lambs
or kittens, or in idle whims like rational beings \ It
is probable that these hours of relaxation and cleaning
may be indispensable to the effective performance of
their harder labours, but whilst looking at them, the
conclusion that the ants were engaged merely in play
was irresistible.

JEciton prcedator. — This is a small dark-reddish spe-
cies, 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

Chap. V. BLIND ANTS. 363

the summits of all the lower trees, searching every leaf
to its apex, and whenever they encounter a mass of de-
caying 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 confused 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, occupies 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 skir-
mishers 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. Con-
necting 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 foraging expeditions like the rest of its tribe, and

364

ANIMALS OF EGA.

Chap. V.

attacks even the nests of other stinging species (Myr-
mica), but it avoids the light, moving always in conceal-
ment 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 this
the procession passes in secret, the indefatigable crea-
tures 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

Foraging ants (Eciton erratica) constructing a covered road— Soldiers sallying
out on being disturbed.

visible ; and, lastly, the Eciton erratica, in which both
sockets and eyes have disappeared, 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 ad-
vance. The column of foragers pushes forward step

Chap. V. PARASITIC FLIES. 365

by step, under the protection of these covered passages,
through the thickets, and on reaching a rotting log, or
other promising hunting-ground, pour into the crevices
in search of booty. I have traced their arcades, occa-
sionally, 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 Termites, who use their glutinous saliva to cement
the grains 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 uncemented structure fall to pieces.
There was a very clear division of labour between the
two classes of neuters in these blind species. The large-
headed class, although not possessing monstrously-
lengthened 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, de-
fending 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.

The armies of all Ecitons are accompanied by small
swarms of a kind of two-winged fly, the females of

366 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V.

which have a very long ovipositor, and which belongs
to the genus Stylogaster (family Conopsidge). These
swarms hover with rapidly-vibrating wings, at a height
of a foot or less from the soil over which the Ecitons
are moving, and occasionally one of the flies darts with
great quickness towards the ground. I found they
were not occupied in transfixing ants, although they
have a long needle-shaped proboscis, which suggests
that conclusion, but most probably in depositing their
eggs in the soft bodies of insects, which the ants were
driving away from their hiding-places. These eggs
would hatch after the ants had placed their booty in
their hive as food for their young. If this supposition be
correct, the Stylogaster would offer a case of parasitism
of quite a novel kind. Flies of the genus Tachinus
exhibit a similar instinct, for they lie in wait near the
entrances to bees' nests, and slip their eggs into the food
which the deluded bees are in the act of conveying for
their young.

CHAPTER VI.

EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA.

Steamboat travelling on the Amazons — Passengers — Tunantins — Caish-
ana Indians — The Jutahi — Indian tribes on the Jutahi and the
Juriia — The Sapo — Maraud" Indians — Fonte Boa — Journey to St.
Paulo— Tucuna Indians — Illness — Descent to Para" — Changes at
Para — Departure for England.

November 7th, 1856. — Embarked on the Upper Ama-
zons 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 uten-
sils, crockery, and so forth, formed fifteen large pack-
ages. One volume consisted of a mosquito tent, an

368 EXCUESIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

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 cheated the thirsty swarms of mosquitoes
which fill the chamber.

We were four days on the road. The pilot, a mame-
luco of Ega, whom I knew very well, exhibited a know-
ledge 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 Kio 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 pas-
sengers 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,

Chap. VI. PASSENGERS. 369

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 ex-
change 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 quality, and cost from twelve
shillings to six pounds sterling each ; some traders
bring down two or three thousand 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 Peru being, as I was
told, lower than those of Brazil, and the difference
not being counter-balanced by increased expense of
transit, on account of weight, over the passes of the
Andes.

There was a great lack of amusement on board. The

VOL. II. B B

370 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

table was very well served, professed cooks being em-
ployed 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
water 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 din-
ner-bell rung, and the evenings were always pleasant.

A few miles below Tunantins, and to the west of the
most westerly mouth of the Japura, on the same side
of the Solimoens, I saw, to my surprise, a bed of stra-
tified rock, apparently a fine-grained sandstone, exposed
on the banks of the river. It was elevated not more

Chap. VI. TUNANTINS. 371

than three or four feet above the present level of the
river, which was now, the season having been an un-
usually wet one, about half full. I had not seen rocks
of any kind on the river banks since leaving Manaca-
purti, 450 miles distant, and this bed seems to have
escaped the notice of Spix and Poeppig. The bank, at
the foot of which alone the rock was visible, was con-
nected with a tract of land lying higher than the purely
alluvial district that extends eastward to a distance
of several hundred miles, and was clothed with the
rounded, dark -green forest which is distinctive of the
terra firmas of the Amazons valley. The slightly
elevated land continues, with scarcely a break, to the
mouth of the Tunantins, which we entered, after making
a long circuit to avoid a shoal, on the 11th of November.

November 11th to SOth. — 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 ascle-
pias. The atmosphere in such a place, hedged in as it is
by the lofty forest, and surrounded by swamps, is always

B B 2

372 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

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
plovers, sandpipers, striped herons, and scissor-tailed fly-
catchers ; and alligators are always seen floating lazily
on the surface of the river in front of the houses.

On landing, I presented myself to Senhor Paulo Bitan-
court, a good-natured half-caste, director of Indians
of the neighbouring 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 wher-
ever they can effect an entrance. My baggage was soon
landed, and before the steamer departed I 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
shortness 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

* Species or races which take the place of other allied species or races.

Chap. VI. CAISHANA INDIANS. 373

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
surpassing 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 flyer,
and is not confined, as I afterwards found, to the
northern side of the river, for I once 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.

With the exception of three mameluco families and
a stray Portuguese trader, all the inhabitants of the
village and neighbourhood are semi-civilised 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 Muras of
the Lower Amazons, and have, like them, shown no
aptitude for civilised life in any shape. Their huts
commence at the distance of an hour's walk from the
village, along gloomy and narrow forest-paths. The

374 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

territory of the tribe extends to the Moco, an affluent
of the Japura, with which there is communication by-
land higher up the Tunantins, the two rivers approxi-
mating within about fifteen miles. From what I saw
nd heard of the Caishanas, I was led to the conclusion
that they had no close genealogical relationship with the
Muras, but were more likely a degraded section of the
Shumana, or some other neighbouring tribe. Scarcely
any of them had the coarse features, the large trunk,
broad chest, thick arms, and protuberant abdomen of
the Muras, and their features, although presenting a
wild, unstead}^, and distrustful expression like the Muras,
were often as finely shaped as those of the Shumanas
and Passes. Senhor Bitancourt told me their " girio," or
tribal language, had much resemblance to that of the
Shumanas. I have before shown how scattered hordes
have segregrated from their original tribes, and by long
isolation, themselves become tribes, acquiring totally
different languages, habits, and, to a lesser extent,
different corporeal structure.

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 well-trodden pathway, bordered on
each side with Lycopodia 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

Chap. VI. CAISHANA INDIANS. 375

on purpose to obstruct the way to their habitations.
Half-a-mile of this shady road brought me to a small
open space on the banks of a brook 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 cloth-
ing 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 fore-
head to the eyes. I stayed about two hours in the
neighbourhood, the children gaining sufficient confi-
dence to come and help me to search for insects. The
only weapon used by the Caishanas is the blow-pipe,
and this is employed only in shooting animals for food.
They are not a warlike people, like most of the neigh-
bouring tribes on the Japura and Issa. Their utensils
consist of earthenware cooking-vessels, wooden stools,
drinking-cups of gourds, and the usual apparatus for
making farinha, of which they produce a considerable
quantity, selling the surplus to traders at Tunantins.

The whole tribe of Caishanas does not exceed in
number 400 souls. None of them are baptised Indians,

376 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chai\ VI.

and they do not dwell in villages, like the more ad-
vanced 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. Symbolical or masked dances, and cere-
monies 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 ceremony used
is the drinking of cashiri beer, and fermented liquors
made of India'h-com, 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 instru-
ment, 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 Tu-
nantins 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 import-
ant event, and the bird is made to serve as a meal for a
score or more persons. They boil the meat in earthen-
ware kettles filled with Tucupi sauce, and eat it with

Chap. VI. INDIANS OF THE ISSA. 377

beiju, or mandioca-cakes. The women are not allowed
to taste of the meat, but forced to content themselves
with sopping pieces of cake in the liquor.

I obtained a little information here concerning the
inhabitants of the banks of the Issa, a stream 700 miles
in length, which, having its sources at the foot of the
volcanoes near Pasto, in New Granada, enters the
Amazons about twenty miles to the west of Tunantins.
I once met a mulatto of Pasto and his wife, who had
descended this river from its source to its mouth. They
lost all their luggage in passing the cataracts ; but
found, after the first fifteen days of their journey (about
150 miles), no more obstructions to navigation down to
the Solimoens. It is not so unhealthy a river as the
Japura ; but the natives are much less friendly to the
whites than those inhabiting that river. To the distance
of about 400 miles from Tunantins, its banks are now
almost destitute of inhabitants. A few half-civilised
and peaceable Passes, Juris, and Shumanas, are settled
near its mouth ; but higher up the Mariete's occupy the
domain, and towards the frontiers of New Granada,
Miranhas are the only Indians met with, whose territory
extends overland thence to the Japura. The Marietes
and Miranhas have been for many years constantly at
war, and the depopulation of the country is owing
partly to this circumstance, and partly to diseases in-
troduced by the whites. These wars are not carried
on by the whole of each tribe at once, but in a series
of partial hostilities between separate hordes or clans.
The hordes of each nation live apart ; indeed these
tribes have no villages, but are scattered in families

378 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

over the country, and are connected together by no
other ties than a common name and the tradition of
general enmity towards the hordes bearing the name of
the other nation. Moreover, hordes belonging to the
same tribe or nation sometimes quarrel with each other.
These petty wars originate in this fashion : a member of
a family falls ill, and his or her relations, or the rest of
the horde, get hold of the idea that the Paje of a neigh-
bouring horde has caused the illness by witchcraft ; all
then assemble for a grand drinking-bout, during which
they excite each other by reciting their wrongs. The
armed men meet on the following day, and march by
intricate paths or circuitous streams, so as to take their
enemies by surprise, and then pounce upon them with
loud shouts, killing all they can, and burning their huts

to the ground.
i

November 30th. — 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 Fran-
cisco 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 1000 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. The sources of none
of them are known. The longest of the six is the

Chap. VI. INDIANS OF THE JURUA. 379

Purus, the first met with in ascending the Solimoens.
I gleaned very little information concerning the Jutahi, '
which was not visited much by traders, but, as far as I
could learn, its banks were peopled by nearly the same
wild tribes as those of the next parallel stream, the Jurua,
about which I gathered a good deal from my friend
John da Cunha, who ascended it as far as it was navi-
gable on a trading expedition. The Jurua flows wholly
through a flat country covered with light-green forests,
and its waters are tinged ochreous, by the quantity of
clayey and earthy matter held in suspension, like those
of the Solimoens. At the end of the navigation there
is a road by land to the Purus, the two great streams
being there only about thirty or forty miles distant
from each other. The Jutahi must be a much shorter
river than the Jurua, for, as Senhor Cunha told me,
the Conibos, an advanced tribe of agricultural Indians
living on the banks of the Jurua near its source, have
at that point a direct road by land to the Ucayali,
which must pass to the south of the sources both of
the Jutahi and Jauari, the two livers lying between the
Jurua and Ucayali. Eight distinct tribes of Indians
inhabit the banks of the Jurua, all of which, except the
most remote (the Conibos) pass overland to the Jutahi *
Each tribe has its peculiar language, and to a great
extent, also its peculiar customs. I heard, however, of
no new feature in Indian character or customs, except

* The order in which they are met with on ascending the river is as
follows : — 1. Marauds. — 2. Catauishis. — 3. Canaraares. — 4. Araiias. —

5. Collinas (rivers Shiruan and Invira, affluents of the right bank). —

6. Catoquinos (R. Shiruan). — 7. Naiias. — 8. Conibos, with their hordes
Mauislns, Zaminaiias, and true Conibos.

380 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

that the Conibos practise the art of knitting cotton
cloth, which they fashion into long cloaks. The cloth,
of which I saw many specimens, forms a regular, durable,
and not inelegant web of tolerably close texture. The
Conibos, like the Indians of Peru, do not grow the
poisonous kind of mandioca, but simply the sweet kind,
or Macasheira (Manihot Aypi). I estimate the length
of the Jutahi at about 400 miles, and that of the Jurua
at 600 miles.

We remained at anchor four days within the mouth
of the Sapo, a 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
further 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 ascend-
ing, 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 tribu-

Chap. VI. MARAUi INDIANS. 381

taries. 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
line. 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 in-
habitants, 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 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

382 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

skin, the effect of a cutaneous disease very prevalent
in this part of the country. The face of one old man
was completly blackened, and looked as though it had
been smeared with black lead, 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 after-
wards 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 fre-
quent 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 affected
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.

When my tall friend saw me, after dinner, collecting
insects along the paths near the houses, he approached,

Chap. VI. AN INDIAN ABODE. 383

and, taking me by the arm, led me to a mandioca shed,
making signs, as he could speak very little Tupi, that
he had something to show. I was not a little surprised
when, having mounted the girao, or stage of split palm-
stems, and taken down an object transfixed to a post,
he exhibited, with an air of great mystery, a large
chrysalis suspended from a leaf, which he placed care-
fully in my hands, saying, " Pana-pana curl " (Tupi :
butterfly by-and-by). Thus I found that the metamor-
phoses of insects were known to these savages ; but
being unable to talk with my new friend, I could not
ascertain what ideas such a phenomenon had given rise
to in his mind. The good fellow did not leave my side
during the remainder of our stay ; but, thinking appa-
rently that I had come here for information, he put
himself to considerable trouble to give me all he could.
He made a quantity of Hypadu powder, that I might
see the process ; going about the task with much action
and ceremony, as though he were a conjuror performing
some wonderful trick.

We left these friendly people about four o'clock in
the afternoon, and in descending the 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

384 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

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 productions : 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. I collected here
a great number of insects, including several new species.
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 7th. — Arrived 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 Ama-
zons. 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

Chap. VI A MUDDY VILLAGE. 3S5

of the principal inhabitants, Senhor Venancio, a house
was ready for me on landing. The only recommenda-
tion of the dwelling was its coolness. It was, in fact,
rather 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 shiubs, 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 months of the
year (nine out of the 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 side-
ways step by step.

I remained in this delectable place until the 2oth of
January, 1857. Fonte Boa, in addition to its other
amenities, has the reputation throughout the country of
vol. ir. , c c

386 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

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 any 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 be-
longs to a different species from that of the town, 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
prevents 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 inhabi-
tants ought to be thankful the big, noisy fellows never
come out of the forest. ■ In compensation for the abun-
dance 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

Chap. VI. INHABITANTS. 387

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
was 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 perennial
and crystal waters. The margins of these streams were
paradises of leanness and verdure ; the most striking
feature being the variety of ferns, with immense leaves,
some terrestrial, 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

c c 2

388 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

the most industrious tribes, Shumanas, Passes, and
Cambevas, having settled on the site and adopted civi-
lised 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 em-
ployers, Senhor Guerreiro, a well-educated Paraense,
was still trading on the Amazons when I left the coun-
try, in 1859 : he told me that forty years previously
Fonte Boa was a delightful place to live in. The neigh-
bourhood 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 Fonte Boa, and no true
whites. The inhabitants seemed to be nearly all mamelu-
cos, and were a loose-living, rustic, plain-spoken and igno-
rant 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 of very rare occurrence. The principal man of
the village, one Senhor Justo, was a big, coarse, ener-
getic fellow, sub-delegado of police, and the only trades-
man who owned a large vessel running directly between
Fonte Boa and Para. He had recently built a large

Chap. VI. CHRISTMAS. 389

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, 1500 miles dis-
tant, 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 impos-
sible 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 afterwards,
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 wish to keep
them, was boundless in demonstrations of gratitude, end-
ing 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,

390 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

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 to-
gether a very pretty marching chorus, and each one,
on reaching the little image, stooping to kiss the end
of a ribbon which was tied round its waist. Consider-
ing that the ceremony was got up of their own free-
will, 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 Loreto,
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. Be-
yond Loreto, signs of civilisation, from the side of the
Pacific, begin to be numerous, and, from Ega down-
wards, the improvement is felt from the side of the
Atlantic.

Chap. VI ALLIGATORS. 391

September 5th, 1857. — Again embarked on the
" Tabatinga," this time for a longer excursion than the
last, namely to St. Paulo de Olivenca, 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 were 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. The 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 estimation
amongst Brazilians as a " remedio," charm or medicine.
The steamer was stopped, and a boat sent, with four
strong men, to embark the beast ; the body, however,

392 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

was found too heavy to be lifted into the boat ; 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 imper-
fect idea of its immense bulk and weight. The num-
bers of turtles which were seen swimming in quiet
shoaly bays passed on the road, also gave us much
amusement. 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 suddenly smitten
with distrust, diving like ducks under the stream.

We had on board, amongst our deck-passengers, a
middle-aged Indian, of the Juri tribe ; a short, thick-
set man, with features resembling much those of the
late Daniel O'Connell. His name was Caracara-i (Black
Eagle), and his countenance seemed permanently
twisted into a grim smile, the effect of which was
heightened by the tattooed marks — a blue rim to the
mouth, with a diagonal pointed streak from each corner
towards the ear. He was dressed in European style —
black hat, coat, and trousers — looking very uncomfort-
able in the dreadful heat which, it is unnecessary to say,
exists on board a steamer, under a vertical sun, during

Chap. VI. RIVER SCENERY. 393

mid-day hours. This Indian was a man of steady reso-
lution, ambitious and enterprising ; very rare qualities
in the race to which he belonged, weakness of reso-
lution being one of the fundamental defects in the
Indian character. He was now on his return home to
the banks of the Issa from Para, whither he had been to
sell a large quantity of salsaparilla that he had collected,
with the help of a number of Indians, whom he induces,
or forces, to work for him. One naturally feels inclined
to know what ideas such a favourable specimen of the
Indian race may have acquired after so much experi-
ence amongst civilised scenes. On conversing with our
fellow-passenger, I was greatly disappointed in him ;
he had seen nothing, and thought of nothing, beyond
what concerned his little trading speculation, his mind
being, evidently, what it had been before, with regard
to all higher subjects or general ideas, a blank. The
dull, mean, practical way of thinking of the Amazonian
Indians, and the absence of curiosity and speculative
thought which seems to be organic or confirmed in their
character, although they are improveable to a certain
extent, make them, like common-place people every-
where, most uninteresting companions. Caracara-i dis-
embarked at Tunantins with his cargo, which consisted
of a considerable number of packages of European wares.
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
gi^andeur in the mighty stream up to this point, a dis-
tance of 1500 miles from the Atlantic; and yet we did

394 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

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 their 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 ! " (English 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 10th of September we
anchored in the port of St. Paulo, after five days' quick
travelling from Ega.

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 100 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,

Chap. VI. ST. PAULO. 395

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 Tucuna 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 seen better days.
Signs of commerce, such as meet the eye at Ega, could
scarcely be expected in this remote spot, situate 1800
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 immi-
grants 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 Antonio Ri-
beiro, half- white half-Tucuna, 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 there-
fore, after heavy rains, become filled with muddy pud-
dles. On damp nights, the chorus of frogs and toads
which swarm in weedy back-yards, creates such a be-

396 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. YI.

wildering 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 collec-
tions 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 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 to reach its acme, for Poeppig found at Chin-
chao that the most refined sugar, in a few days, dis-
solved 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.

The principal residents at St. Paulo were the priest,
a white from Para, who spent his days and most of his
nights in gambling and rum-drinking, corrupting the
young fellows and setting the vilest example to the
Indians ; the sub-delegado, an upright, open-hearted,
and loyal negro, whom I have before mentioned, Senhor
Jose Patricio ; the Juiz de Paz, a half-caste named
Geraldo, and lastly, Senhor Antonio Bibeiro, who was
Director of the Indians. Geraldo and Bibeiro were my

Chap. VI. A NEGRO GENTLEMAN. 397

near neighbours, but they took offence at me after the
first few days, because I would not join them in their
drinking bouts, which took place about every third day.
They used to begin early in the morning with Cashaca
mixed with grated ginger, a powerful drink which used
to excite them almost to madness. Neighbour Geraldo,
after these morning potations, used to station himself
opposite my house and rave about foreigners, gesticu-
lating in a threatening manner towards me, by the
hour. After becoming sober in the evening, he usually
came to offer me the humblest apologies, driven to it, I
believe, by his wife, he himself being quite unconscious
of this breach of good manners. The wives of the St.
Paulo worthies, however, were generally as bad as their
husbands ; nearly all the women being hard drinkers,
and corrupt to the last degree. Wife-beating naturally
flourished under such a state of things. I found it
always best to lock myself in-doors after sunset, and
take no notice of the thumps and screams which used
to rouse the village in different quarters throughout
the night, especially at festival times.

The only companionable man I found in the place,
except Jose Patricio, who was absent most part of the
time, was the negro tailor of the village, a tall, thin,
grave young man, named Mestre Chico (Master Frank),
whose acquaintance I had made at Para several years
previously. He was a free negro by birth, but had had
the advantage of kind treatment in his younger days,
having been brought up by a humane and sensible
man, one Captain Basilio, of Pernambuco, his padrinho,
or godfather. He neither drank, smoked, nor gambled,

393 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

and was thoroughly disgusted at the depravity of all
classes in this wretched little settlement, which he in-
tended to quit as soon as possible. When he visited
me at night, he used to knock at my shutters in a
manner we had agreed on, it being necessary to guard
against admitting drunken neighbours, and we then
spent the long evenings most pleasantly, working and
conversing. His manners were courteous, and his talk
well worth listening to, for the shrewdness and good
sense of his remarks. I first met Mestre Chico at the
house of an old negress of Para, Tia Rufina (Aunt
Rufina), who used to take charge of my goods when I
was absent on a voyage, and this affords me an oppor-
tunity of giving a few further instances of the excellent
qualities of free negroes in a country where they are not
wholly condemned to a degrading position by the pride
or hatred of the white race. This old woman was born a
slave, but like many others in the large towns of Brazil,
she had been allowed to trade on her own account, as
market-woman, paying a fixed sum daily to her owner,
and keeping for herself all her surplus gains. In a
few years she had saved sufficient money to purchase
her freedom, and that of her grown-up son. This done,
the old lady continued to strive until she had earned
enough to buy the house in which she lived, a consider-
able property situated in one of the principal streets.
When I returned from the interior, after seven years'
absence from Para, I found she was still advancing in
prosperity, entirely through her own exertions (being a
widow) and those of her son, who continued, with the
most regular industry, his trade as blacksmith, and

Chap. VI. A SHADY GLEN. 399

was now building a number of small houses on a piece
of unoccupied land attached to her property. I found
these and many other free negroes most trustworthy
people, and admired the constancy of their friendships
and the gentleness and cheerfulness of their manners
towards each other. They showed great disinterested-
ness in their dealings with me, doing me many a piece
of service without a hint at remuneration ; but this
may have been partly due to the name of Englishman,
the knowledge of our national generosity towards the
African race being spread far and wide amongst the
Brazilian negroes.

I remained at St. Paulo five months ; five years
would not have been sufficient to exhaust the treasures
of its neighbourhood in Zoology and Botany. Although
now a forest-rambler of ten years' experience, the beau-
tiful 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 Zoology revealed
plainly the nearer proximity of the locality to the
eastern slopes of the Andes than any I had yet visited,
by the first appearance of many of the peculiar and
richly-coloured forms (especially of insects), which are
known only as inhabitants of the warm and moist val-
leys of New Granada and Peru. 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-

400 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

cold water flowing at the bottom. At midday 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 meet-
ing, whilst rambling through the thickets, with trick-
ling 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 clothed
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 con-
tinue, as I was told, a distance of several days' journey
into the interior, which is peopled by Tuctinas and
other Indians, living in scattered houses and villages
nearly in their primitive state, the nearest village lying
about six miles 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 can-
tans), the most remarkable songster, by far, of the
Amazonian forests. When its singular notes strike the

Chap. VI. TITCUNAS. 401

ear for the first time, the impression 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 flage-
olet, and notwithstanding the utter impossibility of the
thing, one is for the moment convinced that some-
body 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 commence-
ment of an air ; one listens expecting to hear a com-
plete 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 sometimes rest their paddles whilst travelling in
their small canoes along the shady by-streams, as if
struck by the mysterious sounds.

The Tucuna Indians are a tribe resembling- much
the Shumanas, Passes, Juris, and Mauhes in their phy-
sical appearance and customs. They lead like those
tribes a settled 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

VOL. II. d D

402 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap VI.

idle and debauched than other Indians belonging to
the superior tribes. They are not so warlike and loyal
as the Mundurucus, although resembling them in many
respects, nor have they the slender figures, dignified
mien, and gentle disposition of the Passes ; there are,
however, no trenchant points of difference to distinguish
them from these highest of all the tribes. Both men
and women are tattooed, 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 harm-
less, 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, with-
out reference to what his fellow-labourers were doing.
The Avails 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

Chap. VI. THE JURIJPARI. 403

and for fires in the middle, and on one side is an ele-
vated stage (girao) overhead, formed of split palm stems.
The Tucimas 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, ornament-
ing them outside with crossed diagonal streaks of
various colours. These jars, with cooking-pots, smaller
jars for holding water, blow-pipes, 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 greater excess by the Tucunas than
they are by most other tribes. The Jurupari or
Demon is the only superior being they have any con-
ception of, and his name is mixed up with all their
ceremonies, but it is difficult to ascertain what they con-
sider 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 under-

* These bags are formed of remarkably neat twine made of Bro-
melia 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.

dd2

404 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

standings. It is vain to try to get information out of a
Tucuna on this subject ; they affect great mystery when
the name is mentioned, 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-

Chap. VI. WEDDINGS. 405

work frame, are worn at these holidays. The biggest
and ugliest mask represents the Jurupari. In these
festival habiliments the Tuctinas 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 caysuma, smoking tobacco, and
snuffing parica powder.

I could not learn that there was any deep symbolical
meaning in these masked dances, or that thev comme-
morated 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 I 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 : wed-
dings amongst the rest. A youug man who wishes to
wed a Tucuna 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
brideoroom at a safe distance until the end of the
dreary period of dancing and boosing. The Tuciinas

406 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

have the singular custom, in common with 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 original territory of the Tucuna tribe embraced
the banks of most of the by-streams, from forty miles
below St. Paulo to beyond Loreto in Peru, a distance
of about 200 miles ; the tribe, however, is not well-
demarcated from that of the Collinas, who appear to be
a section of Tucunas, and whose home extends 200 miles
further to the east. The only other tribe of this neigh-
bourhood concerning which I obtained any information
were the Majeronas, 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 Majer6nas lying in wait on its banks to
intercept and murder all travellers, especially whites.

Four months before my arrival at St. Paulo, two
young half-castes (nearly white) of the village went to
trade on the Jauari ; the Majeronas 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
Patricio, with his usual activity in the cause of law and

Chap. VI. (ESTKUS FLIES. 407

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 settlement 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, baptised 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 good-will by extracting the grub of an
CEstrus fly * from her back, and thus cured her of a
painful tumour. She was decidedly the best-humoured
and, to all appearance, the kindest-hearted specimen of

* A species of (Estrus or gadfly, on the upper Amazons, fixes on the
flesh of man as breeding place for its grub. I extracted five at different
times from my own flesh. The first was fixed in the calf of my leg, causing
there a suppurating tumour, which, being unaware of the existence of
this (Estrus, I thought at first was a common boil. The tumour grew and
the pain increased until I became quite lame, and then, on carefully
examining the supposed boil, 1 saw the head of a grub moving in a
small hole at its apex. The extraction of the animal was a difficult
operation, it being an inch in length and of increasing breadth from
head to tail, besides being secured to the flesh of the inside of the
tumour by two horny hooks. An old Indian of Ega showed me the
most effective way of proceeding, which was to stupefy the grub with
strong tobacco juice, causing it to relax its grip in the interior, and
then pull it out of the narrow orifice of the tumour by main force.

408 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

her race I had yet seen. She was tall, and very stout ;
in colour much lighter than the ordinary Indian tint,
and her ways altogether were more like those of a care-
less, 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 incongruity 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 examination 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 pro-
ductions of the country bordering the Amazons to the
end of the Brazilian territory, a distance of 1900 miles
from the Atlantic at the mouth of the Para ; but beyond

Chap. VI. AGUE. 409

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 dis-
eases 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 known 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
1851, 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 camo-
mile 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 feel-
ing 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

410 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

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 em-
barked 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,
en route for England.

I arrived at Para on the 1 7th of March, after an ab-
sence in the interior of seven years and a half. My old
friends, English, American, and Brazilian, scarcely knew
me again, but all gave me a very warm welcome, espe-
cially Mr. G. R. Brocklehurst (of the firm of R. Single-
hurst 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 principal 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 who had spent seven and a half
years 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

Chap. VI. CHANGES AT PAEA. 411

it in 1848. The peculation had been increased (to
20,000) by an influx of Portuguese, Madeiran, and Ger-
man immigrants, and for many years past the provincial
government had spent their considerable surplus re-
venue in beautifying the city.* The streets, formerly
unpaved or strewn 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 hand-
some 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

* The revenue of the province of Pard, derived almost wholly from
high custom-house duties, had averaged for some years past about
£1000,000 sterling. The import duties vary from 18 to 80 per cent,
ad valorem ; export duties from 5 to 10 per cent., the most productive
article being india-rubber.

The total value of exports for 1858 was £355,905 4s. 0d., employing
104 vessels of 29,493 total tonnage. More than half the foreign trade
was done with Great Britain ; the principal nations in order of amount
of import trade ranking as follows : —

1. Great Britain.

2. United States.

3. France.

4. Portugal.

5. Hanse Towns.

As most of the articles of consumption are imported and most of
those produced exported, the foreign trade of Para is larger, compared
with the internal trade, than it is in most countries. The insignifi-
cance of the trade of a country of such vast extent and resources
becomes very apparent from the totals here quoted.

413 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

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 agree-
able 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
beautified squares, streets, and avenues.

I found also the habits of the people considerably
changed. Many of the old religious holidays had de-
clined in importance and given way to secular amuse-
ments ; social parties, balls, music, billiards, and so
forth. There was quite as much pleasure-seeking as
formerly, but it was turned in a more rational direction,
and the Paraenses seemed now to copy rather the
customs of the northern nations of Europe, than those
of the mother-country, Portugal. I was glad to see
several new booksellers' shops, and also a fine edifice
devoted to a reading-room supplied 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 comers.

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 con-
sequence of the demand for labour and for native
products of all kinds having augmented in greater ratio
than the supply, through large arrivals of non-productive

Chap. VI. EXPENSES AT PAKA. 413

residents, and considerable importations of money on
account of the steamboat company and foreign mer-
chants. Para, in 1848, 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
cheajDer 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 fruit ; tomatos
were from two to three pence each, and all other fruits
in this fruit-producing country had advanced in like pro-
portion. 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 four-
pence to fivepence per pound, made from American
flour, 1200 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 little place of two rooms,
without fixtures or conveniences of any kind, having
simply blank walls, cost at the rate of 1SL 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

414 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI.

small boat and one man to disembark from the steamer,
a distance of 100 yards.

In rambling over my old ground in the forests of the
neighbourhood, 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 undisturbed 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 now 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 neighbouring
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
growth of creepers will cover the naked tree-trunks on
the borders of this new road, and luxuriant shrubs form

Chap. VI. DEPARTURE FOR ENGLAND. 415

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.

June 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 even-
ing 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 mameluco pilot
having left us free of the shoals and out of sight of
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 alli-
terative proverb, " Queni vai para (o) Para para," " He
who goes to Para stops there," and I had often thought I
should myself have been added to the list of examples.

416 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. TI.

The desire, however, of seeing again my parents and
enjoying once more the rich pleasures of intellectual
society, had succeeded in overcoming the attractions
of a region which may be fittingly called a Naturalist's
Paradise. During this last night on the Para river, a
crowd of unusual thoughts occupied my mind. Recol-
lections of English climate, scenery, and modes of life
came to me with a vividness I had never before ex-
perienced, during the eleven years of my absence.
Pictures of startling clearness rose up of the gloomy
winters, the long grey twilights, murky atmosj)here,
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 some-
where about fifty-two degrees of latitude. It was natural
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 if it were passed in the garden of Eden.

Chap. VI. CONCLUSION". 417

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 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'lSi.
lat. and 52° 30' W. long., and therefore about 400 miles
from the mouth of the main Amazons, we passed nume-
rous patches of floating grass mingled with tree-trunks
and withered foliage. Amongst these masses I espied
many fruits of that peculiarly Amazonian tree the
Ubussu palm ; and this was the last I saw of the Great
River.

VOL. II. E E

INDEX

Agrias, i. 297.

Air-roots, i. 50.

Aiyussa" turtle, ii. 281.

Alligators, i. 227 ; ii. 185, 265, 278,

281, 286, 289, 297, 391.
Amazons, province, population of, i.

339.

— valley, contraction of, i.

232.

— Lower, rising and sinking

of, i. 274.

— Upper, rising and sinking
of, ii. 220.

Amphisbaeua snakes, i. 101.

Ampullaria, i. 124 ; ii. 30.

Anacd parrot, i. 227.

Anaconda, ii. 113.

Animals, large, scarcity of, i. 70.

Ant-eaters, i. 177.

Arara Indians, i. 315.

Arboreal nature of Fauna, i. 49, 72.

Arrow-grass, i. 277.

Arrows for shootiug turtle, ii. 261.

Arroyas, cataracts of, i. 136.

Arube sauce, i. 318.

Arums, forest of, i. 200.

Assacu, poisonous tree, ii. 288.

Assai palm, i. 8, 123.

Ateles marginatus, ii. 118.

Atmosphere, transparency of, i. 127.

Attalea excelsa, ii. 167.

Bacaba palms, i. 224 ; ii. 39, 169.
Barbets, i. 278.

Barrigudo monkeys, ii. 319.
Bats, i. 175.
Bees, i. 70 ; ii. 45.
Bembex, ii. 32.
Bird-killing spider, i. 160.
Birds, insectivorous, flocks of, ii.
334.
— singing, of forest
Blow-pipe, ii. 236.
Boa-constrictor, i. 99; ii. 120.
Box-wood, ii. 79.
Brachyurus calvus and rubicundus,

ii. 306.
Brazil-nut trees, i. 67, 135.
Breio branco, ii. 23.
Burmeister, on virgin forest, i. 53.
Butterflies, great diversity of, near
Para, i. 102.

— importance of, in Biologi-

cal science, ii. 345.

— of Ega, ii. 227.
Buttress-trees, i. 68.
Byrsomina, ii. 23.

Cacao planters, i. 158, 269.
Caianira monkeys, ii. 100.
Caishana Indians, ii. 373.
Caju trees, ii. 22.
Callidryas.i. 249.
Callithea, i. 249, 297 ; ii. 228.
Callithrix monkeys, i. 280 ; ii. 98.
Canary (birds), i. 282.
Cannibal Indians, ii. 406.

420

INDEX.

Canoes, description of, i. 75.

mode of building, ii. 117.
Canoe-men, songs of, i. 150.
Carashue' thrush, song of, i. 254.
Carnivorous beetles, i. 208.
Cassicus icteronotus, i. 16.
Catagramma, i. 248 ; ii. 282.
Cebus albifrons, ii. 101.

cirrhifer, i. 323 ; ii. 101.
Cecropia-tree, i. 276.
Cedar-tree, i. 85, 131.
Chlamys, i. 346.
Chrysothrix sciureus. i. 323.
Cicadas, ii. 142, 227.
Clark, Rev. Hamlet, on Saiiba ant,

i. 27.
Climbing animals, i. 49.
Climbing trees, i. 48.
Coaita' monkey, i. 243.
Coca, ii. 211.

Cocoons, suspended, ii. 348.
Coleopterous insects, i. 62, 83, 107,

206.
Colours of insects adapted to soil,
i. 208.
— of tropical insects not di-
rectly due to climate, i. 19.
Conibo Indians, ii. 379.
Conurus guianensis, ii. 103.
Couxio monkey, i. 162 ; ii. 80.
Cow-tree, i. 69.
Cricket, musical, i. 251.
Cucama Indians, ii. 159.
Cupti-trees, ii. 49.
Curassow birds, ii. 112.
Curud palm, ii. 51, 80.
Curupira, wood-demon, i. 73 ; ii-

204.
Cutia, i. 199.
Cyphorhinus cantans, or organ bird,

ii. 400.

Darwin, on colours of animals of
Galapagos Islands, i. 21.

Delta of the Amazons, i. 5, 111. .
Diamonds, ii. 94.
Diurnal cycle of phenomena, i. 61.
Dog, wild, new species of, ii. 254.
Dolphins, fresh-water, i. 146, 303 ;

ii. 264.
Domesticable animals, i. 191.
Dragon-flies, i. 105 ; ii. 31.

Earthenware, ii. 40.
Education, i. 37, 287 ; ii. 11.
Electric eels, ii. 291.
Euglossa surinamensis, ii. 45.

Fan-leaved palms, grove of, i. 116.
Fauna of Pard, adapted to forest, i.
49, 120.
— derivation of, i. 108.

Ferns, i. 69 ; ii. 333, 387.
Finches, ii. 57.
Fire-ant, ii. 85, 89, 95.
Fish-dance, ii. 276.
Fishes, ii. 139.

modes of capturing, i. 129 ;
ii. 82.
Flies, parasitic, ii. 365.
Flowers, scarcity of, i. 70.
Foraging ants, ii. 350.
Free Negroes, i. 11, 320 ; ii. 397.
Fritillary butterfly, ii. 58.
Fruits, i. 318 ; ii. 14, 216.

Gtoajara, bay of, i. 114.
Goatsuckers, i. 205 ; ii. 58.
Government officials, ii. 6.
Gum copal, i. 83.

Hagen, Dr., on Termites, ii. 70.
Hapale humeralifer, ii. 55.
jacchus, i. 99.

INDEX.

421

Hapale pygmseus, ii. 322.

Heliconii butterflies, i. 256 ; ii. 102.

Helicopis Cupido and Endymion, i.

22.
Helicops, snake, i. 185.
Heron, peacock, i. 82.
Hetaira Esmeralda, i. 104.
Histeridse, i. 210.
Howling monkeys, i. 72, 294.
Humidity, increase of, towards Andes,

ii. 396.
Humming-birds, i. 163, 179 ; ii. 29.

Igarite canoe, description of, i. 75.
Iguana, i. 121.

Indians, and Brazilian land-law, i.
196

— character of, i. 78.

— defect of character of, regard-

ing domestication of ani-
mals, i. 191.

— enslaving of, i. 337.

— unsuited to a hot climate, ii.

200.
India-rubber tree, i. 143.
Instinct of locality, ii. 33.
Iriartea ventricosa, ii. 169.

Jaburu channel, i. 225.
Jacamars, i. 138.
Jacuaru, ii. 52.
Jacita>a, i. 48, 322.
Japim, i. 16.
Jarardca snakes, ii. 52.
Jesuit missionaries, i. 80, 310.
Jupati palm, i. 224.

Kinkajou, or Jupurd, ii. 322.

Lacre, or wax-trees, i. 293.

Languages, Indian, i. 329 ; ii. 199.
Leaf-carrying ant, i. 24.
Leeches, ii. 262.
Leprosy, ii. 15.

Lespe's, M., on Termites, ii. 70.
Longicorn beetles, i. 209.
Loranthacese, on cacao-trees, i. 159.
Loricaria fish, i. 227 ; ii. 291.

Macaws hyacinthine, i. 133 ; ii.

139.
Madeira, river, i. 313.
Majerona Indians, ii. 406.
Mameluco settlers, i. 19, 317 ; ii.

301.
Manaos Indians, i. 337.
Manatee, ii. 165.
Mandioca, mode of packing, ii. 88.

— planting, ii. 210.

— plant, range of, i. 194.
Manicueira, kind of Mandioca, ii. 83.
Maraud Indians, ii. 381.

Mariete Indians, ii. 377.
Marmosets, i. 95 ; ii. 55, 321.
Mauhes Indians, i. 279; ii. 133.
Mason bees, ii. 43.

wasps, ii. 40.
Massagonistas, i. 241.
Melipona bees, i. 70 ; ii. 43.
Mesosemia, ii. 80.
Midas argentatus, i. 162.

— bicolor, i. 343.

— leoninus, i. 98.

— rufi venter, ii. 321.

— rufoniger, ii. 321.

— ursulus, i. 95.
Mimetic analogies, i. 298.
Miseltoe plants, i. 159.
Missionaries, i. 80 ; ii. 104.
Mixed breeds, names of, i. 35.
Moira-pinima, ii. 78.
Monasa nignfrons, i. 278.
Money, Brazilian, ii. 74.

422

INDEX.

Monkeys of cacao plantations, i. 323.

— of Obydos, i. 243.

— summary of, ii. 324.
Montana canoe, description of, i. 75.
Morpho butterflies, i. 103, 247, 300.
Moths, i. 104.

Motuca flies, i. 306.

Mundurucu Indians, ii. 124.

Mura Indians, i. 305, 315, 324.

Murderer liana, i. 53.

Murure, or vegetable mercury, ii. 79.

Myrmica seevissima, ii. 85, 89, 95.

Negroes, free, i. 11, 320; ii. 397,
Night apes, ii. 315.

Obydos, straits of, i. 237.
(Ecodoma cephalotes, i. 23.
(Estrus, parasitic on man, ii. 407
Opisthocomus cristatus, i. 119.
Opossums, ii. 110.

Paca, i. 198, 203.

Palm-fruits, i. 124.

Papilio iEneides and Echelus, i. 121.

— Lysanderand Parsodes, i. 304.

— Sesostris and kindred, i. 51.
Pararauflte Indians, ii. 124.
Parauacu monkey, ii. 314.
Parentins hill, i. 279.

Pashiuba palm, i. 188 ; ii. 169.

Passe Indians, ii. 240.

Paullinia pinnata, ii. 82.

Pelopaeus wasp, ii. 40.

Peuririma palm, i. 292 .

Pine-apples wild, i. 293.

Piranha fish, ii. 90.

Pirarucu fish, ii. 166.

Pium flies, i. 333.

Plants cultivated by Indians, i. 194.

Plumieria, ii. 23.

Puma, i, 176.
Pumice-stones, ii. 170.
Pupunha palm, ii. 218.

Kahphoccelus Jacapa, i. 15.
Ramphastos Cuvieri, ii. 336.

— Toco, ii. 336.

— Vitellinus, i. 61.
Rattlesnakes, i. 295 ; ii. 100.
Rice, wild, i. 194 ; ii. 300.

Sand-wasps, ii. 33.

Sapucaya nut-tree, i. 67.

Sapu-pira wood, ii. 79.

Saiiba ant, i. 23, 101, 128.

Shells, i. 139 ; ii. 25, 30.

Shumana Indians, ii. 274.

Sloths, ii. 56.

Snakes, i. 184.

Snuff-taking amongst Indians, i. 330.

Species, origin of, i. 255,

Spider monkeys, i. 244.

Spiders, i. 106, 160 ; ii. 58.

Spix and Martius, i. 217.

Steam Navigation Company, i. 338.

Striped wood, ii. 78.

Sucu-uba, ii. 23.

Surubim fish, ii. 256.

Tabatinga-clay formation, i. 236,

281,307, 308; ii. 394.
Tanagers, i. 15, 322 ; ii. 334.
Tattooing, ii. 127.
Tauari cigarette wrappers, i. 321.
Teius teguexim, ii. 52,
Termites, i. 205 ; ii. 60.
Tetrachse, i. 207.
Ticks, i. 291.

Tides felt on the Cupari, ii. 122.
Tiger-beetles, i. 207, 323.
Tiger, black, ii. 256.

INDEX.

423

Timber trees, ii. 78.

Timbo. poisonous liana, ii. 82.

Toads, ii. 59.

Tobacco cultivation, i. 321.

Tonka-bean tree, ii. 49.

Tortoise-shell wood, ii. 78.

Toucans, i. 61 ; ii. 336.

— use of beak of, ii. 338.

— curl-crested, ii. 343.
Trabalhadores, captains of, ii. 93.
Tracaja turtle, ii. 253.
Trade-wind of Amazons, i. 213.
Trees of forest, i. 67, 68.
Trogons, i. 138, 254, 345 ; ii. 340.
Trypoxylon, ii. 42.

Tucuna Indians, ii. 401.
Tucunare fish, ii. 82, 106.
Tucupi sauce, i. 319.
Tupinambarana, island of, i. 2S4.
Tupi language, i. 77 ; ii. 199.

— nation, i. 285.
Turtle, modes of cooking, ii. 212.

Ubusstj palm, i. 116, 223.

Umbrella bird, ii. 283.
Umiri, scent, ii. 23.
Unicorn bird, i. 277.
Urania Leilus, i. 198.
Urari poison, ii. 16, 238.
Urubu river, i. 322.

Vampire, ii. 332.
Victoria water-lilies, i. 282.
Vigilinga canoe, description of, i. 112.
Vultures, i. 296.

Wallace, A.R., ascent of Rio Negro,

i. 347.
Water-beetles, ii. 31.
Willows, i. 277.
Witchcraft, ii. 53.
Wren, i. 15.

Yellow fever, i. 349.

Ygapo or flooded forests, i. 290.

THE END.

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, V. HITEERIARS.

o