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THE LIBRARY OF
BROWN UNIVERSITY

THE CHURCH
COLLECTION

The Bequest of

Colonel George Earl Church

1835-1910

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APVENTUllK AVITII CUKL-crvKSTET) 'JorCANS.

Frontispiece to Vol. I.

THE

NATURALIST ON THE RIVER
AMAZONS,

A RF.CORD OF ADVENTURES, HABITS OF ANIMALS, SKETCHES OF

BRAZILIAN AND INDIAN LIFE, AND ASPECTS OF NATURE UNDER

THE EQUATOR, DURING ELEVEN YEARS OF TRAVEL.

Br HENRY WALTER BATES.

>vauba Ant.— Female.

IN TWO VOLUMES.— VOL. I.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

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

Oi3^>

\''^'

PEEFACE.

Ix the autumn of 1847 Mr. A. R. Wallace, who has
«ince acquired wide fame in connection with the Dar-
winian theory of Natural Selection, proposed to me a
joint expedition to the river Amazons, for the purpose
of exploring the Natural History of its banks ; the plan
being to make for ourselves a collection of objects, dis-
pose of the duplicates in London to pay expenses, and
gather facts, as Mr. Wallace expressed it in one of his
letters, "towards solving the problem of the origin of
species," a subject on which we had conversed and
corresponded much together. We met in London, early
in the following year, to study South American animals
and plants at the principal collections ; and in the
month of April, as related in the following nan-ative,
commenced our journey.

My companion left the country at the end of four
years ; and, on arriving in England, published a naiTa-
tive of his voyage, under the title of " Travels on the
Amazons and Rio Negro." I remained seven years
longer, returning home in July, 1859 ; and having taken,

VOL. I. b

iv PEEFACE.

after the first two years, a different route from that of
my friend, an account of my separate travels and ex-
periences seems not an inappropriate offering to the
public.

When I first arrived in England, being much depressed
in health and spirits after eleven years' residence Avithin
four degrees of the equator, the last three of which were
spent in the wild country 1400 miles from the sea-coast,
I saw little prospect of ever giving my narrative to the
world ; and indeed, after two years had elapsed, had
almost abandoned the intention of doing so. At that
date I became acquainted with Mr. Darwin, who, having
formed a flattering opinion of my ability for the task,
strongly urged me to write a book, and reminded
me of it months afterwards, when, after having made
a commencement, my half-formed resolution began to
give way. Under this encouragement the arduous task
is at length accomplished. It seems necessary to make
this statement, as it explains why so long a time has
intervened between my arrival in England and the
publication of my book.

The collections that I made during the whole eleven
years were sent, at intervals of a few months, to London
for distribution, except a set of species reserved for my
own study, which remained with me, and always accom-
panied me in my longer excursions. With the exception
of a few living plants and specimens in illustration of

TREFACE. V

Economical and Medicinal Botany, these collections
embraced only the Zoological productions of the region-
The following is an approximative enumeration of the
total number of species of the various classes which I
obtained : —

Mammals 52

Birds 360

Reptiles 140

Fishes 120

Insects 14,000

Mollusks 35

Zoophytes ...... 5

14,712

The part of the Amazons region where I resided
longest being unexplored country to the Naturalist, no
less than 8000 of the species here enumerated were neiv
to science, and these are now occupying the busy pens
of a number of learned men in different parts of Europe
to describe them. The few new mammals have been
named by Dr. Gray ; the birds by Dr. Sclater ; the
zoophytes by Dr. Bowerbank ; and the more numerous
novelties in reptiles and fishes are now in course of
publication by Dr. Giinther.

A word will perhaps be here in place with reference
to what has become of these large collections. It will
be an occasion for regret to many Naturalists to learn
that a complete set of the species has nowhere been
preserved, seeing that this would have formed a fair

vi PEEFACE.

illustration of tlie Fauna of a region not likely to be
explored again for the same purpose in our time. The
limited means of a private traveller do not admit- of his
keeping, for a purely scientific end, a large collection.
A considerable number, from many of the consign-
ments which arrived in London from time to time, were
chosen for the British Museum, so that the largest set
next to my own is contained in our National Collection ;
but this probably comprises less than half the total
number of species obtained. My very complete private
collection of insects of nearly all the orders, which was
especially valuable as containing the various connecting
varieties, ticketed with their exact localities for the
purpose of illustrating the formation of races, does not
now exist in its entirety, a few large groups having
passed into private hands in different parts of Europe.

With regard to the illustrations with which my book
is adorned, it requires to be mentioned that the Natural
History subjects have been drawn chiefly from speci-
mens obtained by me, and the others by able artists
partly from my own slight sketches. Messrs. Wolf and
Zwecker have furnished most of the larger ones, which
give an accurate idea of the objeots and scenes they
ref)resent: for the smaller ones, many of which, for
example the fishes, reptiles, and insects, are drawn with
extreme care, I am indebted to Mr. E. W. Robinson.

Leicester, January, 1863.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I

CHAPTER L

PAEA.

Arrival— Aspect of the country— the Para Elver— Fu-st walk in
the Suburbs of Para— Free Negroes— Birds, Lizards, and Insects
of the Suburbs— Leaf-cutting Ant— Sketch of the climate, his-
tory, and present condition of Para 1

CHAPTER II.

PAEA — continued.

The Swampy forests of Para — A Portuguese landed proprietor —
Country house at Nazareth— Life of a Naturalist under the equa-
tor— The drier virgin forests — Magoary — Eetired creeks — Abo-
rigines 44

CHAPTER III.

PAEA — concluded.

Religious holidays— Marmoset Monkeys — Serpents — Insects of the
forest —Eelations of the fauna of the Para District . . .86

CHAPTER IV.

THE TOCANTINS AND CAMETA.

Preparations for the journey — The bay of Goajara — Grove of fan-
leaved palms— The lower Tocantins— Sketch of the river— Vista
alegi-e — Baiao — Eapids— Boat journey to the Guariba falls —
Native life on the Tocantins— Second journey to Cameta . . 112

viii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

CARIPI AND THE BAY OF MARAJ6.

"River Para and Bay of Maraj 6— Journey to Caripi — Negro obser-
vance of Christmas — A German Family — Bats — Ant-eaters —
Humming-birds — Excursion to the Murucupi — Domestic Life of
the Inhabitants — Hunting Excursion with Indians — Natural
History of the Paca and Cutia — Insects , . . . .168

CHAPTER VI.

THE LOWER AMAZONS-PARA TO OBYDOS.

Modes of travelling on the Amazons — Historical Sketch of the
early explorations of the River — Preparations for Voyage— Life
on board a large Trading- vessel — The narrow Channels joining the
Para to the Amazons — First Sight of the great River — Gurupa —
The Great Shoal — Flat-topped Mountains — Contraction of the
River Yalley — Santarem — Obydos — Natural History of Obydos —
Origin of Species by Segi'egation of Local Varieties . . .212

CHAPTER YII.

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

Departure from Obydos — River banks and by-channels— Cacao
planters — Daily life on board our vessel — Great Storm— Sand-
island and its birds — Hill of Pareutins — Negro trader and
Manilas Indians — Villa Nova, its inhabitants, climate, forest,
and animal productions — Cararaucu — A rustic festival — Lake of
Cararaucu — Moti'ica flies — Serpa — Christmas holidays — River
Madeira — A mameluco farmer — Mura Indians — Rio Negro —
Description of Barra — Descent to Para — Yellow fever . . 266

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

YOL. I.

ADVENTURE WITH CURL-CEESTED TOUCANS . . Fvontisinece.

SAUBA OR LEAF-CARRYING ANT 24

SAUBA ANT — FEMALE , . 33

CLIMBING PALM (dESMONCUS) ....... 48

INTERIOR OF PRIMEVAL FOREST ON THE AMAZONS . . . 72

AMPHISB.ENA 101

ACROSOMA ARCUATUM 106

ASSAI PALM (EUTERPE OLERACEA) 123

BIRD-KILLING SPIDER (mTGALE AVICULARIA) ATTACKING FINCHES 161

ANT-EATER GRAPPLING WITH DOG

humming-bird and humming-bird HAWK-MOTH

ACARI FISH (LORICARIA DUODECIMALIS) ....

FLAT-TOPPED MOUNTAINS OF PARAUAQUARA, LO^\^:R AMAZONS

MUSICAL CRICKET (CHLOROCCELUS TANANA)

HELICONIUS MELPOMENE

HELICONIUS THELXIOPE

TRANSITION FORMS BETWEEN HELICONIUS MELPOMENE -AND H,
THELXIOPE

PEURIRfMA PALM (bACTRIS)

177

181
228
232
251
256
257

259

292

THE

NATUKALIST ON THE AMAZONS.

CHAPTER I.

PARA.

Arrival — Aspect of the Country — The Para Piiver— First Avalk in the
Suburbs of Para — Free Negroes — Birds, Lizards, and Insects of
the Suburbs — Leaf-carrjdng Ant — Sketch of the climate, history,
and present condition of Para.

I EMBARKED at Liverpool, with Mr. Wallace, in a
small trading vessel, on the 26th of April, 1848 ; and,
after a swift passage from the Irish Channel to the
equator, arrived, on the 26th of May, off Salinas.
This is the pilot-station for vessels bound to Para,
the only port of entry to the vast region watered
by the Amazons. It is a small village, formerly a
missionary settlement of the Jesuits, situated a few
miles to the eastward of the Para river. Here the
ship anchored in the open sea, at a distance of six
miles from the shore, the shallowness of the water far
out around the mouth of the great river not per-
mitting in safety a nearer approach ; and the signal was
hoisted for a pilot. It was with deep interest that my

2 PAEA. Chap. I.

companion and myself, both now about to see and ex-
amine the beauties of a tropical country for the first
time, gazed on the land, where I, at least, eventually
spent eleven of the best years of my life. To the east-
Avard the country was not remarkable m appearance,
being slightly undulating, with bare sand-hills and scat-
tered trees ; but to the westward, stretching towards
the mouth of the river, we could see through the
captain's glass a long line of forest, rising apparently
out of the water ; a densely-packed mass of tall trees,
broken into groups, and finally into single trees, as it
dwindled away in the distance. This was the frontier,
in this direction, of the great primaeval forest character-
istic of this region, which contains so many wonders in
its recesses, and clothes the whole surface of the country
for two thousand miles from this point to the foot of the
Andes.

On the following day and night we sailed, with a
light wind, partly aided by the tide, up the Para river.
Towards evening we passed Vigia and Colares, two
fishing villages, and saw many native canoes, which
seemed like toys beneath the lofty walls of dark forest.
The air Avas excessively close, the sky overcast, and
sheet lightning played almost incessantly around the
horizon, an appropriate greeting on the threshold of a
country lying close under the equator ! The evening
was calm, this being the season when the winds are not
strong, so we glided along in a noiseless manner, which
contrasted pleasantly with the unceasing turmoil to
which we had been lately accustomed on the Atlantic.
The immensity of the river struck us greatly, for

Chai>. I. THE TARA river. 3

although sailing sometimes at a distance of eight or
nine miles from the eastern bank, the opposite shore
was at no time visible. Indeed, the Para river is 36
miles in breadth at its month ; and at the city of Para,
nearly 70 miles from the sea, it is 20 miles wide ;
but at that point a series of islands commences which
contracts the river view in front of the city.

It will be well to explain here that the Para river
is not, strictly speaking, one of the mouths of the
Amazons. It is made to appear so on many of the maps
in common use, because the channels which connect it
with the main river are there given much broader
than they are in reality, conveying the impression that
a large body of water finds an outlet from the main
river into the Para. It is doubtful, however, if there be
any considerable stream of water flowing constantly
downward through these channels. The whole of the
district traversed by them consists of a complex group
of low islands formed of river deposit, between which is
an intricate net-work of deep and narrow channels.
The land probably lies somewhat lower here than it
does on the sea coast, and the tides meet about the
middle of the channels ; but the ebb and flow are so
complicated that it is difficult to ascertain whether there
is a constant line of current in one direction. A flow
down one of the channels is in some cases diverted into
an ebb through other ramifications. In travelling from
the Para to the main Amazons, I have always followed
the most easterly channel, and there the flow of the
tide always causes a strong upward current ; it is said
that this is not so perceptible in other channels, and

B 2

4 PARA. Chap. I.

that the flow never overiDovvers the stream of water
coming from the mam river ; this would seem to favour
the opinion of those geographers who believe the Para
to be one of the mouths of the King of Rivers.

The channels of which we are speaking, at least those
straighter ones which trading vessels follow in the
voyage from Para to the Amazons, are about 80 miles
in length ; but for many miles of their course they are
not more than 100 yards in breadth. They are of great
depth, and in many places are so straight and regular
that they aj^pear like artificial canals. The great river
steamers which now run regularly to the interior, in
some places brush the overhanging trees with their
paddle-boxes on each side as they pass. The whole of
the region is one vast wilderness of the most luxuriant
tropical vegetation, the strangest forms of palm trees
of some score of different species forming a great pro-
portion of the mass. I shall, howevei', have to allude
again to the wonderful beauty of these romantic chan-
nels, when I arrive at that part of my narrative.

The Para river, on this view, may be looked upon as
the common fresh-water estuary of the numerous rivers
which flow into it from the south ; the chief of which is
the Tocantins, ^ stream 1600 miles in length, and about
10 miles in breadth at its mouth. The estuary forms,
then, a magnificent body of water IGO miles in length,
and eight miles in breadth at its abrupt commence-
ment, where it receives the channels just described.
There is a great contrast in general appearance between
the Para and the main Amazons. In the former the
flow of the tide always creates a strong current uj^wards,

Chap. I. THE AMAZONS DELTA. 5

whilst in the Amazons the turbid flow of the mighty
stream overpowers all tides, and produces a constant
dowuAvard current. The colour of the water is different,
that of the Para being of a dingy orange-brown, whilst
the Amazons has an ochreous or yellowish clay tint.
The forests on their banks have a different aspect. On
the Para the infinitely diversified trees seem to rise
directly out of the water ; the forest frontage is covered
with greenery, and wears a placid aspect, whilst the
shores of the main Amazons are encumbered with fallen
trunks, and are fringed with a belt of broad-leaved
grasses. The difference is partly owing to the currents,
which on the main river tear away the banks, and float
out to sea an almost continuous line of dead trees and
other eiebris of its shores.

We may, however, regard the combined mouths of
the Para and the Amazons with their archipelago of
islands as forming one immense river delta, each side of
which measures 180 miles — an area about equal to the
southern half of England and Wales. In the middle of
it lies the island of Marajo, which is as large as Sicily.
The land is low and flat, but it does not consist entirely
of alluvium or river deposit ; in many parts the surface
is rocky ; rocks also form reefs in the middle of the
Para river. The immense volumes of fresh water which
are poured through these broad embouchures, the united
contributions of innumerable streams, fed by drenching
tropical rains, prevent them from becoming salt-
water estuaries. The water is only occasionally a little
brackish near Para, at high spring tides. Indeed, the
fresh water tinges the sea along the shores of Guiana

6 PAKA. ^ Chap. T.

to a distance of nearly 200 miles from the mouth of the
river.

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

We went ashore in due time, and were kindly
received by Mr. Miller, the consignee of the vessel, who
invited us to make his house our home until we could
obtain a suitable residence. On landing, the hot moist
mouldy air, which seemed to strike from the ground and
walls, reminded me of the atmosphere of tropical stoves
at Kew. In the course of the afternoon a heavy shower
fell, and in the evening, the atmosphere having been
cooled by the rain, we walked about a mile out of town to
the residence of an American gentleman to whom our
host wished to introduce us.

CiiAr. I. OUR FIRST WALK ASHOEE. 7

The impressions received during this first walk can
never wholly fade from my mind. After traversing the
few streets of tall, gloomy, convent-looking buildings near
the port, inhabited chiefly by merchants and shopkeepers,
along which idle soldiers, dressed in shabby uniforms, car-
rying their muskets carelessly over their arms, priests,
negi-esses with red water-jars on their heads, sad-look-
ing Indian women carrying their naked children astride
on their hips, and other samples of the motley life of
the place, were seen, we passed down a long narrow street
leading to the suburbs. Beyond this, our road lay
across a grassy common into a picturesque lane leading
to the virgin forest. The long street was inhabited by
the poorer class of the population. The houses were of
one story only, and had an irregular and mean appear-
ance. The windows were without glass, having, instead,
projecting lattice casements. The street was unpaved
and inches deep in loose sand. Groups of people were
cooling themselves outside their doors : people of
all shades in colour of skin, European, Negro and
Indian, but chiefly an uncertain mixture of the
three. Amongst them were several handsome women,
dressed in a slovenly manner, barefoot or shod in
loose slippers ; but wearing richly-decorated ear-rings,
and around their necks strings of very large gold beads.
They had dark expressive eyes, and remarkably rich
heads of hair. It was a mere fancy, but I thought
the mingled squalor, luxuriance and beauty of these
women were pointedly in harmony with the rest of the
scene ; so striking, in the view, was the mixture of
natural riches and human poverty. The houses were

8 PAEA. Chap. I.

mostly in a dilapidated condition, and signs of indolence
and neglect were everywhere visible. The wooden
palings which surrovinded the weed-grown gardens
were strewn about, broken ; and hogs, goats and
ill-fed poultry, wandered in and out through the gaps.
But amidst all, and compensating every defect, rose
the overpowering beauty of the vegetation. The
massive dark crowns of shady mangos were seen
everywhere amongst the dwellings, amidst fragi-ant
blossoming orange, lemon, and many other tropical
fruit trees ; some in flower, others in fruit, at varying
stages of ripeness. Here and there, shooting above the
more dome-like and sombre trees, were the smooth
columnar stems of palms, bearing aloft their magnificent
crowns of finely-cut fronds. Amongst the latter the
slim assai-palm was especially noticeable ; growing in
groups of four or five ; its smooth, gently-curving stem,
twenty to thirty feet high, terminating in a head of
feathery foliage, inexpressibly light and elegant in out-
line. On the boughs of the taller and more ordinary-
looking trees sat tufts of curiously-leaved parasites.
Slender woody lianas hung in festoons from the
branches, or were suspended in the form of cords
and ribbons ; whilst luxuriant creeping plants overran
alike tree-trunks, roofs and walls, or toppled over
palings in copious profusion of foliage. The superb
banana (Musa paradisiaca), of which I had always read
as forming one of the charms of tropical vegetation,
here grew with great luxuriance : its glossy velvety-
green leaves, twelve feet in length, curving over the
roofs of verandahs in the rear of every house. The

Chap. I. EVENING CHORUS OF ANIMALS. 9

shape of the leaves, the varying shades of gi'een
which they present when lightly moved by the wind,
and especially the contrast they afford in colour and
form to the more sombre hues and more rounded out-
line of the other trees, are quite sufficient to account for
the charm of this glorious tree. Strange forms of
vegetation drew our attention at almost every step.
Amongst them were the different kinds of Bromelia, or
pine-apple plants, with their long, rigid, sword-shaped
leaves, in some species jagged or toothed along their
edges. Then there was the bread-fruit tree — an impor-
tation, it is true ; but remarkable from its large,
glossy, dark green, strongly digitated foliage, and its
interesting history. Many other trees and plants,
curious in leaf, stem, or manner of growth, grew on
the borders of the thickets along which lay our road ;
they were all attractive to new comers, whose last
country ramble of quite recent date was over the
bleak moors of Derbyshire on a sleety morning in
April.

As we continued our walk the brief twilight com-
menced, and the sounds of multifarious life came from
the vegetation around. The whirring of cicadas ; the
shrill stridulation of a vast number and variety of field
crickets and grasshoppers, — each species sounding its
peculiar note ; the plaintive hooting of tree frogs — all
blended together in one continuous ringing sound, — the
audible expression of the teeming profusion of Nature.
As night came on, many species of frogs and toads in
the marshy places joined in the chorus : their croaking
and drumming, far louder than anything I had before

10 PAEA. Chap. I.

heard in the same hne, being added to the other noises,
created an almost deafening din. This uproar of Hfe, I
afterwards found, never wholly ceased, night or day :
in course of time I became, like other residents,
accustomed to it. It is, however, one of the peculi-
arities of a tropical — at least, a Brazilian — climate
which is most likely to surprise a stranger. After my
return to England the death -like stillness of summer
days in the country appeared to me as strange as the
ringing uproar did on my first arrival at Para. The
object of our visit being accomplished, we returned to
the city. The fire flies were then out in great num-
bers, flitting about the sombre woods, and even the
frequented streets. We turned into our hammocks,
well pleased with what we had seen, and full of antici-
pation with regard to the wealth of natural objects we
had come to explore.

During the first few days, we were employed in land-
ing our baggage and arranging our extensive apparatus.
We then accepted the invitation of Mr. Miller to make
use of his rocinha, or country-house in the suburbs,
until we finally decided on a residence. Upon this we
made our first essay in housekeeping. We bought
cotton hammocks, the universal substitute for beds in
this country, cooking utensils and crockery, and then
engaged a free negro, named Isidoro, as cook and
servant-of-all-work. Isidoro had served Englishmen in
this capacity before, and, although he had not picked
up two words of English, he thought he had a great
talent for understanding and making himself under-

Chap. I. FREE NEGROES. 11

stood ; in his efforts to do which he was very amusing.
Having no other medium through which we could make
kno^vn our wants, we progressed rapidly in learning
Portuguese. I was quite surprised to find little or no
trace in Isidoro of that baseness of character which I
had read of as being the rule amongst negroes in a slave
country. Isidoro was an old man, with an anxious,
lugubrious expression of countenance, and exhibited
signs of having been overworked in his younger days,
which I understood had been passed in slavery. The
first traits I perceived in him w^ere a certain degree of
self-respect and a spirit of independence : these I found
afterwards to be by no means rare qualities among the
free negroes. Some time after he had entered our service,
I scolded him one morning about some delay in getting
breakfast. It happened that it Avas not his fault, for
he had been detained, much against his will, at the
shambles. He resented the scolding, not in an insolent
way, but in a quiet, respectful manner, and told me how
the thing had occurred ; that I must not expect the
same regularity in Brazil which is found in England,
and that " paciencia" was a necessary accomplishment
to a Brazilian traveller. There was nothing ridiculous
about Isidoro ; there was a gravity of demeanour and
sense of propriety about him which would have been
considered becoming in a serving-man in any country.
This spirit of self-respect is, I think, attributable partly
to the lenient treatment which slaves have generally
received from their white masters in this part of Brazil,
and partly to the almost total absence of prejudice
against coloured people amongst the inhabitants. This

12 PARA. Chap. I.

latter is a very hopeful state of things. It seems to be
encouraged by the governing class in Brazil ; and, by
drawing together the races and classes of the hetero-
geneous population, will doubtless lead to the most
happy results. I had afterwards, as I shall have to relate
in the course of my narrative, to number free negroes
amongst my most esteemed friends : men of temperate,
quiet habits, desirous of mental and moral improvement,
observant of the minor courtesies of life, and quite as
trustworthy, in more important matters, as the whites
and half-castes of the province. Isidore was not, per-
haps, scrupulously honest in small matters : scrupulous
honesty is a rare quality in casual servants anywhere.
He took j)ains to show that he knew he had made a
contract to perform certain duties, and he tried, evi-
dently, to perform them to the best of his ability.

Our first walks were in the immediate suburbs of
Para. The city lies on a corner of land formed by
the junction of the river Guama with the Para. As I
have said before, the forest, which covers the whole
country, extends close up to the city streets ; indeed,
the town is built on a tract of cleared land, and is kept
free from the jungle only by the constant care of the
Government. The surface, though everywhere low, is
slightly undulating, so that areas of dry land alternate
throughout with areas of swampy ground, the vegetation
and animal tenants of the two being widely different.
Our residence lay on the side of the city nearest the
Guama, on the borders of one of the low and swampy
areas which here extend over a portion of the suburbs.
The tract of land is intersected by well-macadamized

Chap. I. SUBURBS OF PAEA. 13

suburban roads, the chief of which, the Estrada das
Mongubeiras (the Monguba road), about a mile long, is
a magnificent avenue of silk-cotton trees (Bombax mon-
guba and B. ceiba), huge trees whose trunks taper rapidly
from the gi'ound upwards, and whose flowers before
opening look like red balls studding the branches. This
fine road was constructed under the governorship of
the Count dos Arcos, about the year 1812. At right
angles to it run a number of narrow green lanes, and
the whole district is drained by a system of small canals
or trenches through which the tide ebbs and flows,
showing the lowness of the site. Before I left the
country, other entei^rising presidents had formed a
number of avenues lined with cocoa-nut palms, almond
and other trees, in continuation of the Monguba road,
over the more elevated and drier gi'ound to the north-
east of the city. On the high gTound the vegetation has
an aspect quite different from that which it presents in
the swampy parts. Indeed, with the exception of the
palm trees, the suburbs here have an aspect like that of
a village green at home. The soil is sandy, and the open
commons are covered with a short grassy and shrubby
vegetation. Beyond this, the land again descends to a
marshy tract, where, at the bottom of the moist hollow^s,
the public wells are situated. Here all the linen of the
city is Avashed by hosts of noisy negi-esses, and here
also the water-carts are filled — painted hogsheads on
wheels, drawn by bullocks. In early morning, when
the sun sometimes shines through a light mist, and
everything is dripping mth moisture, this part of the
city is full of life : vociferous negroes and wrangling

14 PARA. Chap. I.

Gallegos,* the proprietors of the water-carts, are gathered
about, jabbering continually, and taking their morning
drams in dirty wine-shops at the street corners.

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

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

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

CiiAi'. 1. BIRDS OF THE SUBURBS. 15

ordinary notes emitted from their places of concealment
in the dense thickets ; and also tanagers, and other small
birds, inhabited the neighbourhood. None of these had
a pleasing song, except a little bro\vn wren (Troglodytes
furvus), whose voice and melody resemble those of our
English robin. It is often seen hopping and climbing
about the walls and roofs of houses and on trees in their
vicinity. Its song is more frequently heard in the rainy
season, when the Monguba trees shed their leaves. At
those times the Estrada das Mongubeiras has an
appearance quite unusual in a tropical country. The tree
is one of the few in the Amazons region which sheds all
its foliage before any of the new leaf-buds expand. The
naked branches, the soddened ground matted with dead
leaves, the grey mist veiling the surrounding vegetation,
and the cool atmosphere soon after sunrise, all combine
to remind one of autumnal mornings in England.
Whilst loitering about at such times, in a half-oblivious
mood, thinking of home, the song of this bird would
create for the moment a perfect illusion. Numbers
of tanagers frequented the fruit and other trees in our
garden. The two principal kinds which attracted our
attention were the Rhamphocoelus Jacapa and the
Tanagra Episcopus. The females of both are dull in
colour. The male of Jacapa has a - beautiful velvety
purple and black plumage, the beak being partly white.
The same sex in Episcopus is of a pale blue colour, with
white spots on the wings. In their habits they both
resemble the common house-sparrow of Europe, which
does not exist in South America, its place being in some
measure filled by these familiar tanagers. They are

16 PARA. Chap. I.

just as lively, restless, bold, and wary ; their notes are
very similar ; chirping and inharmonious, and they seem
to be almost as fond of the neighbourhood of man.
They do not, however, build their nests on houses.

Another interesting and common bird was the Japim,
a species of Cassicus (C. icteronotus). It belongs to the
same family of birds as our starling, magpie and rook.
It has a rich yellow and black plumage, remarkably
compact and velvety in texture. The shape of its
head and its physiognomy are very similar to those
of the magpie ; it has light gray eyes, which give
it the same knowing expression. It is social in its
habits ; and builds its nest, like the English rook, on
trees in the neighbourhood of habitations. But the
nests are quite differently constructed, being shaped
like purses, two feet in length, and suspended from the
slender branches all round the tree, some of them very
near the ground. The entrance is on the side near the
bottom of the nest. This bird is a great favourite with
the Brazilians of Para : it is a noisy, stirring, babbling
creature, passing constantly to and fro, chattering to its
comrades, and is very ready at imitating other birds,
especially the domestic poultry of the vicinity. There
was at one time a weekly newspaper published at
Para, called "The Japim ;" the name being chosen, I
suppose, on account of the babbling propensities of the
bird. Its eggs are nearly round, and of a bluish-white
colour, speckled with brown.

Of other vertebrate animals we saw very little except
of the lizards. These are sure to attract the attention of
the new comer from Northern Europe, by reason of

CiiAP. I. LIZARDS. 17

their strange appearance, great numbers, and variety.
The species which are seen crawling over the walls
of buildings in the city, are different from those found
in the forest or in the interior of houses. They are
unpleasant-looking animals, with colours assimilated to
those of the dilapidated stone and mud walls on which
they are seen. The house lizards belong to a peculiar
family, the Geckos. They are found even in the best-
kept houses, most frequently on the walls and ceilings :
they are generally motionless by day, being active only
at night. They are of speckled gray, or ashy colours.
The structure of their feet is beautifully adapted for
clinging to and running over smooth surfaces ; the
underside of their toes being expanded into cushions,
beneath which folds of skin form a series of flexible plates.
By means of this apparatus they can walk or run
across a smooth ceiling with their backs do^vnwards, the
plated soles, by quick muscular action, exhausting and
admitting air alternately. These Geckos are very
repulsive in appearance. The Brazilians give them
the name of Osgas, and firmly believe them to be
poisonous ; they are, however, harmless creatures. The
species found in houses are small ; I have seen others
of great size, in crevices of tree trunks in the forest.
Sometimes Geckos are found with forked tails ; this re-
sults from the budding of a rudimentaiy tail at the side,
from an injury done to the member. A slight rap will
cause their tails to snap off ; the loss being afterwards
partially repaired by a new growth. The tails of lizards
seem to be almost useless appendages to the animals.
I used often to amuse myself in the suburbs, whilst

VOL. I, 0

18 PARA. Chap. I.

resting in the veranclali of our house during the heat of
midday, by watching the variegated green, brown,
and yellow ground-lizards. They would come nimbly
forward, and commence grubbing with their fore feet
and snouts around the roots of herbao-e, searchino- for
insect larvae. On the slightest alarm they would
scamper off ; their tails cocked up in the air as they
waddled awkwardly away, evidently an incumbrance to
them in their flight.

Next to the birds and lizards, the insects of the
suburbs of Para deserve a few remarks. The sjDecies
obsei^ed in the weedy and open places, as already re-
marked, were generally different from those which dwell
in the shades of the forest. It is worthy of notice that
those species which have the widest distribution in
America, and which have the closest affinity to those of
the tropics of the old world, are such as occur in open
sunny places near towns. The general appearance of the
insects and birds belonging to such situations is very
similar to that of European species. This resemblance,
however, is, in many cases, one of analogy only ; that
is, the species are similar in size, form, and colours,
but belong to widely different genera. Thus, all the
small carnivorous beetles seen running along sandy
pathways, look precisely like the Amarse, those oval
coppery beetles which are seen in similar situations in
England. But they belong to quite another genus —
namely, Selenophorus, the genus Am ara being unknown
in Tropical America. In butterflies, again, we saw a
small species of Erycinidse flying about low shrubs in
grassy places, which was extremely similar in colours to

CiTAP. I. (.COLOURS OF TROPICAL INSECTS. 19

the European Nemeobius Lucina. The Para insect,
however, belongs to a genus far removed in all essential
points of structure from Nemeobius ; namely, to Le-
Ki^onias, being the L. epulus. It is worthy of note that
all the old-world representatives, both tropical and
temperate, of this beautiful family of butterflies belong
to the same group as the English Nemeobius Lucina ;
whilst the few species inhabiting North America belong
wholly to South American types.

Facts of this kind, and there are many of them,
would seem to show that it is not wholly the
external conditions of light, heat, moisture, and so forth,
which determine the general aspect of the animals of
a country. It is a notion generally entertained that the
superior size and beauty of tropical insects and birds are
immediately due to the physical conditions of a tropical
climate, or are in some way directly connected with
them. I think this notion is an incorrect one, and that
there are other causes more powerful than climatal
conditions which affect the dress of species. To test
this we ought to compare the members of those
genera which are common to two regions ; say, to
Northern Europe and equinoctial America, and ascer-
tain which climate produces the largest and most
beautifully-coloured species. We should thus see the
supposed effects of climate on nearly-allied congeners,
that is, creatures very similarly organised. In the
first family of the order Coleoptera, for instance,
the tiger-beetles (Cicindelidse), there is one genus,
Cicindela, common to the two regions. The species
found in the Amazons Valley have precisely the same

20 PARA. Chap. I.

habits as their EngHsh brethren, running and flying
over sandy soils in the bright sunshine. About the
same number is found in each of the two countries : but
all the Amazonian species are far smaller in size and
more obscure in colour than those inhabiting Northern
Europe ; none being at all equal in these respects to
the common English Cicindela campestris, the hand-
some light-green tiger-beetle, spotted with white, which
is familiar to country residents of Natural History
tastes in most parts of England. In butterflies I find
there are eight genera common to the two regions we
are thus pitting against each other. Of these, three
only (Papilio, Pieris and Thecla) are represented by
handsomer species in Amazonia than in Northern
Europe. Three others (Lycgena, Melitaea and Apatura)
yield far more beautiful and larger forms in England
than in the Amazonian plains ; as to the remaining two
(Pamphila and Pyrgus) there is scarcely any difference.
There is another and hitherto neglected fact which
I would strongly press upon those who are interested
in these subjects. This is, that it is almost always the
males only which are beautiful in colours. The
brilliant dress is rarely worn by both sexes of the same
species: if climate has any direct influence in this
matter, why have not both sexes felt its effects, and why
are the males of genera living under our gloomy English
skies adorned with bright colours ?

The tropics, it is true, have a vastly greater total
number of handsome butterflies than the temperate
zones ; but it must be borne in mind that they contain
a far greater number of genera and species altogether.

Chap. I. COLOUKS OF TROPICAL INSECTS. 21

It holds good in all families that the two sexes of the
more brilliantly-coloured kinds are seldom equally
beautiful ; the females being often quite obscure in
dress. There is a very large number of dull-coloured
species in tropical countries. The tropics have also
species in which the contrast between the sexes is
greater than in any species of temperate zones ; in some
cases the males have been put in one genus and the
females in another, so gTeat is the difference between
them. There are species of larger size, but at the
same time there are others of smaller size in the same
families in tropical than in temperate latitudes. If
we reflect on all these facts, we must come to the con-
clusion, that climate, to which we are naturally at
first sight inclined to attribute much, has little or no
direct influence in the matter. Mr. Darwin was led to
the same conclusion many years ago, when comparing
the birds, plants, and insects of the Galapagos islands,
situated under the equator, with those of Patagonia
and Tropical America. The abundance of food, the
high temperature, absence of seasons of extreme cold
and dearth, and the variety of stations, all probably
operate in favouring the existence of a greater number
and variety of species in tropical than in temperate
latitudes. This, perhaps, is all we can say with regard
to the influence of climatal conditions. The causes
which have produced the gi'eat beauty that astonishes
us, if we really wish to investigate them, must be sought
in other directions. I think that the facts above men-
tioned are calculated to guide us in the search. They
show, for instance, that beauty of form and colour is

22 PARA. Chap. I.

not peculiar to one zone, but is producible under any
climate where a number of species of a given genus lead
a flourishing existence. The ornamental dress is gene-
rally the property of one sex to the exclusion of the
other, and the cases of widest contrast between the two
are exhibited in those regions where life is generally
more active and prolific. All this points to the mutual
relations of the species, and especially to those between
the sexes, as having far more to do in the matter than
climate.

In the gardens, numbers of fine showy butterfiies
were seen. There were two swallow-tailed species,
similar in colours to the English Papilio Machaon ; a
white Pieris (P. Monuste), and two or three species of
brimstone and orange coloured butterflies, which do not
belong, however, to the same genus as our English
species. In weedy places a beautiful butterfly, with
eye-like spots on its wings, was common, the Junonia
Lavinia, the only Amazonian species which is at all
nearly related to our Vanessas, the Admiral and Peacock
butterflies. One day we made our first acquaintance
with two of the most beautiful productions of natvu'e
in this department ; namely the Helicopis Cupido and
Endymion. A little beyond our house, one of the
narrow green lanes which I have already mentioned
diverged from the Monguba avenue, and led, between
enclosures oven'un with a profusion of creeping plants
and glorious flowers, down to a moist hollow, where
there was a public well in a picturesque nook, buried in
a grove of Mucaja palm-trees. On the tree-trunks,
walls, and palings, grew a great quantity of climbing

Chai'. I. LEAF-CARRYING ANT. 23

Pothos plants, with large glossy heart-shaped leaves.
These plants were the resort of these two exquisite
species, and we captured a great number of specimens.
They are of extremely delicate texture. The wings are
cream-coloured ; the hind pair have several tail-like ap-
pendages, and are spangled beneath as if with silver. Their
flight is very slow and feeble ; they seek the protected
under-surface of the leaves, and in repose close their
wings over the back, so as to expose the brilliantly
spotted under-surface.

I will pass over the many other orders and families of
insects, and proceed at once to the ants. These w^ere in
great numbers everywhere, but I will mention here
only two kinds. We were amazed at seeing ants an
inch and a quarter in length, and stout in proportion,
marching in single file through the thickets. These
belonged to the species called Dinoponera grandis. Its
colonies consist of a small number of individuals, and
are established about the roots of slender trees. It is a
stinging species, but the sting is not so severe as in
many of the smaller kinds. There was nothing peculiar
or attractive in the habits of this giant among the ants.
Another far more interesting species was the Saliba
(OEcodoma cephalotes). This ant is seen ever3rvvhere
about the suburbs, marching to and fro in broad columns.
From its habit of despoiling the most valuable cultivated
trees of their foliage, it is a great scourge to the Brazi-
lians. In some districts it is so abundant that agricul-
ture is almost impossible, and everywhere complaints
are heard of the terrible pest.

The w^orkers of this species are of three orders, and

24

PAKA.

Chap. I.

vary in size from two to seven lines ; some idea of them
may be obtained from the accompanying wood-cut.
The true working-class of a colony is formed by the small-

Saliba or Leaf-cairying ant. — 1, Worker-minor ; 2, Worker-major ;
3, Subterranean worker.

sized order of workers, the worker-minors as they are
called (Fig. 1). The tw^o other kinds, whose functions,
as we shall see, are not yet properly understood, have
enormously swollen and massive heads ; in one (Fig. 2),
the head is highly polished ; in the other (Fig. 3), it is
opaque and hairy. The worker-minors vary greatly in
size, some being double the bulk of others. The entire
body is of very solid consistence, and of a pale reddish-
brown colour. The thorax or middle segment is armed
with three pairs of sharp spines ; the head, also, has a
pair of similar spines proceeding from the cheeks behind.
In our first walks we were puzzled to account for
large mounds of earth, of a different colour from the
surrounding soil, which were thrown up in the planta-
tions and woods. Some of them were very extensive,
being forty yards in circumference, but not more than

Chap. I. LEAF-CAJIRYING ANT. 25

two feet in height. We soon ascertained that these
were the work of the Satibas, being the outworks, or
domes, which overlie and protect the entrances to their
vast subterranean galleries. On close examination, I
found the earth of which they are composed to consist
of very minute gi'anules, agglomerated without cement,
and forming many rows of little ridges and tuiTets.
The difference in colour from the superficial soil of
the vicinity is owing to their being formed of the un-
dersoil, brought up from a considerable depth. It is
very rarely that the ants are seen at work on these
mounds ; the entrances seem to be generally closed ;
only now and then, when some particular work is
going on, are the galleries opened. The entrances are
small and numerous ; in the larger hillocks it would
require a great amount of excavation to get at the
main galleries ; but I succeeded in removing portions of
the dome in smaller hillocks, and then I found that the
minor entrances converged, at the depth of about two
feet, to one broad elaborately-worked gallery or mine,
which was four or five inches in diameter.

This habit in the Saiiba ant of clipping and carrying
away immense quantities of leaves has long been
recorded in books on natural history. When employed
on this w^ork, their processions look like a multitude
of animated leaves on the march. In some places
I found an accumulation of such leaves, all circular pieces,
about the size of a sixpence, lying on the pathway, un-
attended by ants, and at some distance from any colony.
Such heaps are always found to be removed when the
place is revisited the next day. In course of time I had

26 PARA. Chap. I.

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

It is a most interesting sight to see the vast host of
busy diminutive labourers occupied on this work. Un-
fortunately they choose cultivated trees for their pur-
pose. This ant is quite peculiar to Tropical America,
as is the entire genus to which it belongs ; it some-
times despoils the young trees of species growing wild
in its native forests ; but it seems to prefer, when within
reach, plants imported from, other countries, such as
the coffee and orange trees. It has not hitherto been
shown satisfactorily to what Use it applies tjie leaves.
I discovered it only after much time sj^ent in investi-
gation. The leaves are used to thatch the domes which
cover the entrances to their subterranean dwellings,
thereby protecting from the deluging rains the young
broods in the nests beneath. The larger mounds, already
described, are so extensive that few j^ersons would at-
tempt to remove them for the purpose of examining

CnAi>. I. BURGLAR ANTS. 27

their interior ; but smaller liillocks, covering other en-
trances to the same system of tunnels and chambers
may be found in sheltered places, and these are always
thatched with leaves, mingled with granules of earth.
The heavily-laden workers, each carrying its segment of
leaf vertically, the lower edge secured in its mandibles,
troop up and cast their burthens on the hillock ; another
relay of labourers place the leaves in position, covering
them with a layer of earthy granules, which are brought
one by one from the soil beneath.

The underground abodes of this wonderful ant are
known to be very extensive. The Eev. Hamlet Clark
has related that the Sallba of Rio de Janeiro, a species
closely allied to ours, has excavated a tunnel under the
bed of the river Parahyba, at a place where it is as
broad as the Thames at London Bridge. At the
Magoary rice mills, near Para, these ants once pierced
the embankment of a large reservoir : the great body of
water which it contained escaped before the damage
could be repaired. In the Botanic Gardens, at Para, an
enterprising French gardener tried all he could think of
to extirpate the Saiiba. With this object he made fires
over some of the main entrances to their colonies, and
blew the fumes of sulphur down the galleries by means
of bellows. I saw the smoke issue from a great number
of outlets, one of which was 70 yards distant from the
place where the bellows were used. This shows how
extensively the undergrounjd galleries are ramified.

Besides injuring and destroying young trees by de-
spoiling them of their foliage, the Saiiba ant is trouble-
some to the inhabitants from its habit of plundering the

28 PAEA. Chap. I.

stores of provisions in houses at night, for it is even
more active by night than in the day-time. At
first I was inclined to discredit the stories of their
entering habitations and carrying off grain by grain the
farinha or mandioca meal, the bread of the poorer
classes of Brazil. At length, whilst residing at an
Indian village on the Tapajos, I had ample proof of the
fact. One night my servant woke me three or four
hours before sunrise by calling out that the rats were
robbing the farinha baskets. The article at that time
was scarce and dear. I got up, listened, and found the
noise was very unlike that made by rats. So I took
the light and went into the store-room, which was close
to my sleeping-place. I there found a broad column
of Saiiba ants, consisting of thousands of individuals, as
busy as possible, passing to and fro between the door
and my precious baskets. Most of those passing out-
wards were laden each with a grain of farinha, which
was, in some cases, larger and many times heavier than
the bodies of the carriers. Farinha consists of grains
of similar size and appearance to the tapioca of our
shops ; both are products of the same root, tapioca being
the pure starch, and farinha the starch mixed with woody
fibre, the latter ingredient giving it a yellowish colour.
It was amusing to see some of the dwarfs, the smallest
members of their family, staggering along, completely
hidden under their load. The baskets, which were on
a high table, were entirely covered with ants, many
hundreds of whom were employed in snipping the dry
leaves which served as lining. This produced the
rustling sound which had at first disturbed us. My

Chap. I. ANT COMMUNITIES. 29

servant told me that they would carry off the whole
contents of the two baskets (about two bushels) in the
course of the night, if they were not driven off ; so we
tried to exterminate them by killing them with our
wooden clogs. It was impossible, however, to prevent
fresh hosts coming in as fast as we killed their com-
panions. They returned the next night ; and I was then
obliged to lay trains of gunpowder along their line, and
blow them up. This, repeated many times, at last
seemed to intimidate them, for we were free from their
visits during the remainder of my residence at the
place. What they did with the hard dry grains of
mandioca I was never able to ascertain, and cannot even
conjecture. The meal contains no gluten, and there-
fore would be useless as cement. It contains only a
small relative portion of starch, and, when mixed with
water, it separates and falls away like so much earthy
matter. It may serve as food for the subterranean
workers. But the young or larvae of ants are usually
fed by juices secreted by the worker nurses.

Ants, it is scarcely necessary to observe, consist, in
each species, of three sets of individuals, or, as some
express it, of three sexes — namely, males, females, and
workers ; the last-mentioned being undeveloped females.
The perfect sexes are winged on their first attaining the
adult state ; they alone propagate their kind, flying
away, previous to the act of reproduction, from the
nest in which they have been reared. This winged
state of the perfect males and females, and the habit of
flying abroad before pairing, are very important points
in the economy of ants ; for they are thus enabled to

30 PARA. Chap. T.

intercross with members of distant colonies whicli swarm
at the same time, and thereby increase the vigour of
the race, a proceeding essential to the prosperity of any
species. In many ants, especially those of tropical
climates, the workers, again, are of two classes, whose
structm'e and functions are widely different. In some
species they are wonderfully unlike each other, and
constitute two well-defined forms of workers. In others,
there is a gradation of individuals between the two
extremes. The curious differences in structure and
habits between these two classes form an interesting,
but very difficult, study. It is one of the great pecu-
liarities of the Saiiba ant to possess three classes of
workers. My investigations regarding them were far
from complete ; I will relate, however, what I have
observed on the subject.

When engaged in leaf-cutting, plundering farinha,
and other operations, two classes of workers are always
seen (Figs. 1 and 2, page 24). They are not, it is true,
very sharply defined in structure, for individuals of in-
termediate grades occur. All the work, however, is
done by the individuals which have small heads (Fig. 1),
whilst those which have enormously large heads, the
worker-majors (Fig. 2), are observed to be simply
walking about. I could never satisfy myself as to the
function of these worker-majors. They are not the
soldiers or defenders of the working portion of the com-
munity, like the armed class in the Termites, or white
ants ; for they never fight. The species has no sting,
and does not display active resistance when interfered
with. I once imagined they exercised a sort of super-

CnAP. I. ANT COMMl^NITIES. 31

iiiteiidence over the others ; but tliis fimctioii is
entirely unnecessary in a community where all work
with a precision and regularity resembling the
subordinate parts of a piece of machinery. I came
to the conclusion, at last, that they have no very
precisely defined function. They cannot, however, be
entirely useless to the community, for the sustenance of
an idle class of such bulky individuals would be too
heavy a charge for the species to sustain. I think they
serve, in some sort, as passive instruments of protection
to the real workers. Their enormously large, hard,
and indestructible heads may be of use in protecting them
against the attacks of insectivorous animals. They
would be, on this view, a kind of ''pieces de resist-
ance," serving as a foil against onslaughts made on the
main body of workers.

The thu'd order of workers is the most curious of all.
If the toj) of a small, fresh hillock, one in which the
thatching process is going on, be taken off, a broad
cylindrical shaft is disclosed, at a depth of about two
feet from the surface. If this be probed with a stick,
which may be done to the extent of three or four feet
without touching bottom, a small number of colossal
fellows (Fig. 3) will slowly begin to make their way up
the smooth sides of the mine. Their heads are of the
same size as those of the class fig. 2 ; but the front is
clothed with hairs, instead of being polished, and they
have in the middle of the forehead a twin ocellus, or
simple eye, of quite different structure from the ordinary
compound eyes, on the sides of the head. This frontal
eye is totally wanting in the other workers, and is not

32 PAEA. Chap. I.

known in any other kind of ant. The apparition oi
these strange creatures from the cavernous depths of
the mine reminded me, when I first observed them, of
the Cyclopes of Homeric fable. They were not very
pugnacious, as I feared they would be, and I had no
difficulty in securing a few with my fingers. I never
saw them under any other circumstances than those
here related, and what their special functions may be I
cannot divine.

The whole arrangement of a Formicarium, or ant-
colony, and all the varied activity of ant-life, are directed
to one main purpose : — the perpetuation and dissemi-
nation of the species. Most of the labour which we
see performed by the workers has for its end the
sustenance and welfare of the young brood, which are
helpless grubs. The true females are incapable of
attending to the wants of their offspring ; and it is on
the poor sterile workers, who are denied all the other
pleasures of maternity, that the entire care devolves.
What a wonderfully-organised community is that of the
ant ! The workers are also the chief agents in carry-
ing out the different migrations of the colonies, which
are of vast importance to the dispersal and consequent
prosperity of the species. The successful debut of the
winged males and females depends likewise on the
workers. It is amusing to see the activity and excite-
ment which reign in an ant's nest when the exodus of
the winged individuals is taking place. The workers
clear the roads of exit, and show the most lively interest
in their departure, although it is highly improbable
that any of them will return to the same colony. The

Chap. I. PAKA IN 1848. 33

swarming or exodus of the winged males and females of
the Saliba ant takes place in January and February,
that is, at the commencement of the rainy season. They
come out in the evening in vast numbers, causing quite
a commotion in the streets and lanes. They are of
very large size, the female measuring no less than

Satiba Ant. — Female.

two-and-a-quarter inches in expanse of wing ; the
male is not much more than half this size. They are
so eagerly preyed upon by insectivorous animals that
on the morning after their flight not an individual is
to be seen, a few impregnated females alone escaping
the slaughter to found new colonies.

At the time of our arrival, Para had not quite
recovered from the effects of a series of revolutions,
brought about by the hatred which existed between the
native Brazilians and the Portuguese ; the former, in
the end, calling to their aid the Indian and mixed
coloured population. The number of inhabitants of
the city had decreased, in consequence of these disorders,
from 24,500 in 1819, to 15,000 in 1848. Although the

34 PARA. Chap. L

public peace had not been broken for twelve years before
the date of our visit, confidence was not yet completely
restored, and the Portuguese merchants and tradesmen
would not trust themselves to live at their beautiful
country-houses or rocinhas which lie embosomed in the
luxuriant shady gardens around the city. No progress
had been made in clearing the second-gi'owth forest
which had grown over the once cultivated gi'ounds and
now reached the end of all the suburban streets. The
place had the aspect of one which had seen better
days ; the public buildings, including the palaces of the
President and Bishop, the cathedral, the principal
churches and convents, all seemed constructed on a
scale of grandeur far beyond the present require-
ments of the city. Streets full of extensive private
residences built in the Italian style of architecture,
were in a neglected condition, weeds and flourishing
young trees growing from large cracks in the masonry.
The large public squares were over-grown with weeds
and impassable on account of the swampy places
which occupied portions of their areas. Commerce,
however, was now beginning to revive, and before
I left the country I saw great improvements, as I
shall have to relate towards the conclusion of this
narrative.

The province of which Para is the capital, was, at
the time I allude to, the most extensive in the
Brazilian empire, being about 1560 miles in length
from east to west, and about 600 in breadth. Since
that date — namely in 1853 — it has been divided into
two by the separation of the Upper Amazons as a

Chai>. I. C'LIMATK OF PAKA. 35

distinct province. It formerly constituted a section,
capitania, or governorship of the Portuguese colony.
Originally it was well peopled by Indians, varying
much in social condition according to their tribe, but
all exhibiting the same general physical characters,
which are those of the American red man, somewhat
modified by long residence in an equatorial forest
country. Most of the tribes are now extinct or for-
gotten, at least those which originally peopled the
banks of the main river, their descendants having amal-
gamated with the white and negro immigrants : * many
stiU exist, however, in their original state on the
Upper Amazons and most of the branch rivers. On
this account Indians in this province are far more
numerous than elsewhere in Brazil, and the Indian
element may be said to prevail in the mongrel popu-
lation, the negro proportion being much smaller than
in South Brazil.

The city is built on the best available site for a port
of entry to the Amazons region, and must in time
become a vast emporium ; for the northern shore of the
main river, where alone a rival capital could be
founded, is much more difficult of access to vessels,

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

D 2

36 PARA. Chap. I.

and is besides extremely unhealthy. Although lying
so near the equator (1° 28' S. lat.) the climate is not
excessively hot. The temperature during three years
only once reached 95° of Fahrenheit. The gTeatest heat
of the day, about 2 p.m., ranges generally between 89°
and 94° ; but on the other hand, the air is never cooler
than 73°, so that a uniformly high temperature exists,
and the mean of the year is 81°. North American
residents say that the heat is not so oppressive as it is
in summer in New York and Philadelphia. The
humidity is, of course, excessive, but the rains are not
so heavy and continuous in the wet season as in many
other tropical climates. The country had for a long
time a reputation for extreme salubrity. Since the
small-pox in 1819, which attacked chiefly the Indians,
no serious epidemic had visited the province. We were
agreeably surprised to find no danger from exposure to
the night air or residence in the low swampy lands.
A few English residents, who had been established
here for twenty or thirty years, looked almost as fresh
in colour as if they had never left their native country.
The native women, too, seemed to preserve their good
looks and plump condition until late in life. I nowhere
observed that early decay of appearance in Brazilian
ladies, which is said to be so general in the women of
North America. Up to 1848 the salubrity of Para was
quite remarkable for a city lying in the delta of a great
river in the middle of the tropics and half surroimded
by swamps. It did not much longer enjoy its immunity
from epidemics. In 1850 the yellow fever visited the
province for the first time, and carried off in a few

Chai'. I. THE PKOVINCE OF PAKA. 37

weeks more than four per cent, of the population.* One
disease after another succeeded, until in 18.55 the
cholera swept through the country and caused fearful
havoc. Since then, the healthfulness of the climate
has been gradually restored, and it is now fast recover-
ing its former good reputation. Para is free from serious
endemic disorders, and was once a resort of invalids
from New York and Massachusetts. The equable tem-
perature, the perpetual verdure, the coolness of the
dry season when the sun's heat is tempered by the
strong sea-breezes and the moderation of the periodical
rains, make the climate one of the most (Enjoyable on
the face of the earth.

The province is governed, like all others in the
empire, by a President, as chief civil authority. At
the time of our arrival he held also, exceptionally, the
chief military command. This functionary, together
Avith the head of the police administration and the
judges, is nominated by the central Government at
Rio Janeiro. The municipal and internal affairs are
managed by a provincial assembly elected by the
people. Every villa or borough throughout the pro-
vince also possesses its municipal council^ and in
thinly-populated districts, the inhabitants choose every
four years a justice of the peace who adjudicates in
small disputes between neighbours. A system of
popular education exists, and every village has its
school of first letters, the master being paid by the

* Eelatorio of the President, Jeronjono Francisco Coelho, 1850.
From January 1 to July 31, 1850, 12,000 persons, in the city of Para
alone, fell ill out of a population of 16,000, but only 506 died.

38 PAKA. Chap. I.

government, the salary amounting to about 70^., or the
same sum as the priests receive. Besides common
schools a well-endowed classical seminary is maintained
at Para, to which the sons of most of the planters and
traders in the interior are sent to complete their educa-
tion. The province returns its quota of members every
four years to the lower and upper houses of the imperial
parliament. Every householder has a vote. Trial by
jury has been established, the jurymen being selected
from householders, no matter what their race or colour ;
and I have seen the white merchant, the negi^o husband-
man, the m'ameluco, the mulatto and the Indian, all
sitting side by side on the same bench. Altogether the
constitution of government in Brazil seems to combine
happily the principles of local self-government and cen-
tralisation, and only requires a proper degree of virtue
and intelligence in the people to lead the nation to
great prosperity.

The province of Para, or, as we may now say, the
two provinces of Para and the Amazons contain an area
of 800,000 square miles ; the population of which is
only about 230,000, or in the ratio of one person to four
square miles. The country is covered with forests, and
the soil fertile in the extreme even for a tropical country.
It is intersected throughout by broad and deep navi-
gable rivers. It is the pride of the Paraenses to call
the Amazons the Mediterranean of South America. It
perhaps deserves the name, for not only have the main
river and its principal tributaries an immense expanse
of water bathing the shores of extensive and varied
regions, but there is also throughout a system of back-

CiiAr. I. KEVOLUTION OF 1835-6. 39

channels, connected with the main rivers by narrow
outlets and linking together a series of lakes, some of
which are fifteen, twenty, and thirty miles in length.
The whole Amazons valley is thus covered by a network
of navigable waters, forming a vast inland freshwater
sea with endless ramifications rather than a river.

The city of Para was founded in 1615, and was a
place of considerable importance towards the latter half
of the eighteenth century, under the government of the
brother of Pombal, the famous Portuguese statesman.
The province was the last in Brazil to declare its inde-
pendence of the mother country and acknowledge the
authority of the first emperor, Don Pedro. This was
owino^ to the great numbers and influence of the
Portuguese, and the rage of the native party was so
great in consequence, that immediately after inde-
pendence w^as proclaimed in 1823, a counter revolution
broke out, during which many hundred lives were lost
and much hatred engendered. The antagonism con-
tinued for many years, partial insurrections taking place
when the populace thought that the immigrants from
Portugal were favoured by the governors sent from the
capital of the empire. At length, in 1835, a serious
revolt took place which in a short time involved the
entire province. It began by the assassination of the
President and the leading members of the government ;
the struggle was severe, and the native party in an evil
hour called to their aid the ignorant and fanatic
mongrel and Indian population. The cry of death to
the Portuguese was soon changed to death to the free-
masons, then a powerfully -organised society embracing

40 PARA. Chap. I.

the greater part of the male white inhabitants. The
victorious native party endeavoured to establish a
government of their own. After this state of things
had endured six months, they accepted a new President
sent from Kio Janeiro, who, however, again irritated
them by imprisoning their favourite leader, Vinagre.
The revenge which followed was frightful. A vast host
of half-savage coloured people assembled in the retired
creeks behind Para, and on a day fixed, after Vinagre's
brother had sent a message three times to the President
demanding, in vain, the release of their leader, the whole
body poured into the city through the gloomy pathways
of the forest which encircles it. A cruel battle, lasting
nine days, was fought in the streets ; an English,
French, and Portuguese man-of-war, from the side of
the river, assisting the legal authorities. All the latter,
however, together with every friend of peace and order,
were finally obliged to retire to an island a few miles
distant. The city and province were given up to
anarchy ; the coloured people, elated with victory, pro-
claimed the slaughter of all whites, except the English,
French, and American residents. The mistaken prin-
cipals, who had first aroused all this hatred of races,
were obliged now to make their escape. In the interior
the supporters of lawful authority, including, it must be
stated, whole tribes of friendly Indians and numbers of
the better disposed negroes and mulattos, concentrated
themselves in certain strong positions and defended
themselves, until the reconquest of the capital and
large towns of the interior, in 1836, by a force sent
from Rio Janeiro, after ten months of anarchy.

CHAr. T. SOCIAL CONDITION OF PARA. 41

Years of conciliatory government, the lesson learnt
by the native party and the moderation of the Portu-
guese, aided by the natural indolence and passive
goodness of the Paraenses of all classes and colours, were
only beginning to produce their good effects about the
time I am speaking of. Life, however, was now and had
been for some time quite safe throughout the country.
Some few of the worst characters had been transported or
imprisoned, and the remainder after being pardoned were
converted once more into quiet and peaceable citizens.

I resided at Para nearly a year and a half altogether,
returning thither and making a stay of a few months
after each of my shorter excursions into the interior,*
until the 6th of November, 1851, when I started on my
long voyage to the Tapajos and the Upper Amazons,
which occupied me seven years and a half. I became
during this time tolerably familiar with the capital of
the Amazons region, and its inhabitants. Compared
with other Brazilian seaport towns, I was always told,
Para shone to great advantage. It was cleaner, the
suburbs were fresher, more rural and much pleasanter
on account of their verdure, shade, and magnificent
vegetation. The people were simpler, more peaceable
and friendly in their manners and dispositions, and
assassinations, which give the southern provinces so ill
a reputation, were almost unknown. At the same time

* The following were the excursions alluded to :— Aug. 26 to Sept.
30, 1848, I Avent to the AiToyos cataracts on the Tocantins. Dec. 8,
1848, to Feb. 11, 1849, I visited Caripl on the Bahia of Marajo. June
8 to July 21, 1849, I visited Cameta and the lower part of the Tocan-
tins. Lastly, from Sept. 22, 1849, to AprH 19, 1851, I made a pre-
liminary voyage to Obydos, the Pdo Negro, and Ega.

42 PAKA. Chap. I.

the Para people were much inferior to Southern Bra-
zilians in energy and industry. Provisions and house
rents being cheap and the wants of the people few —
for they were content with food and lodging of a quality
which would be spurned by paupers in England — they
spent the greater part of their time in sensual indul-
gences and in amusements which the government and
wealthier citizens provided for them gratis. The trade,
wholesale and retail, was in the hands of the Portuguese,
of whom there were about 2500 in the place. Many
handicrafts were exercised by coloured people, mulattos,
mamelucos, free negroes and Indians. The better sort
of Brazilians dislike the petty details of shopkeeping,
and if they cannot be wholesale merchants prefer the
life of planters in the country however small may be
the estate and the gains. The negroes constituted the
class of field-labourers and porters ; Indians were uni-
versally the watermen, and formed the crews of the
numberless canoes of all sizes and shapes which traded
between Para and the interior. The educated Brazilians,
not many of whom are of pure Caucasian descent — for
the immigration of Portuguese, for many years, has
been almost exclusively of the male sex — are courteous,
lively, and intelligent people. They were gradually
weaning themselves of the ignorant, bigoted notions
which they inherited from their Portuguese ancestors,
especially those entertained with regard to the treat-
ment of women. Formerly the Portuguese would not
allow their wives to go into society, or their daughters
to learn reading and writing. In 1848, Brazilian ladies
were only just beginning to emerge from this inferior

Chap I. PRIVATE MOKALITY. 43

position, and Brazilian fathers were opening their eyes
to the advantages of education for their daughters.
Reforms of this kind are slow. It is, perhaps, in part
owing to the degrading position always held by women,
that the relations between the sexes were and are still
on so unsatisfactory a footing, and private morality at so
low an ebb in Brazil. In Para I believe that an im-
provement is now taking place, but formerly promiscuous
intercourse seemed to be the general rule amongst all
classes, and intrigues and love-making the serious
business of the greater part of the population. That
this state of things is a necessity depending on the
climate and institutions I do not believe, as I have
resided at small towns in the interior, where the habits,
and the general standard of morality of the inhabitants,
were as pure as they are in similar places in England.

CHAPTER 11.

PARA — continued.

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

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

Chap. II. ROAD-SIDE VEGETATION. 45

some remarks on the wonderful vegetation. The forest
is very similar on most of the low lands, and therefore
one description will do for all.

On leaving the town we walked along a straight,
subm'ban road constructed above the level of the sur-
rounding land. It had low swampy gTound on each
side, built upon, however, and containing several spacious
rocinhas which were embowered in magnificent foliage.
Leaving the last of these, we arrived at a part where the
lofty forest towered up like a wall five or six yards from
the edge of the path to the height of, probably, 100 feet.
The tree trunks were only seen partially here and there,
nearly the whole frontage from ground to summit being-
covered with a diversified drapery of creeping plants, all
of the most vivid shades of green ; scarcely a flower
to be seen, except in some places a solitary scarlet
passion-flower set in the gTeen mantle like a star. The
low ground on the borders between the forest wall and
the road, Avas encumbered with a tangled mass of bushy
and shrubby vegetation, amongst which prickly mimosas
were very numerous covering the other bushes in the
same way as brambles do in England. Other dwarf
mimosas trailed along the ground close to the edge of
the road, shrinking at the slightest touch of the feet as
we passed by. Cassia trees, with their elegant pinnate
foliage and conspicuous yellow flowers, formed a great
proportion of the lower trees, and arborescent arums
gi'ew in gi'oups around the swampy hollows. Over the
whole fluttered a larger number of brilliantly-coloured
butterflies than we had yet seen ; some wholly orange
or yellow (Callidryas), others with excessively elongated

46 PARA. Chap. 1 1.

wings, sailing horizontally through the air, coloured
black, and varied with blue, red, and yellow (Heliconii).
One magnificent gTassy-green species (Colsenis Dido)
especially attracted our attention. Near the ground
hovered many other smaller species very similar in
appearance to those found at home, attracted by the
flowers of numerous leguminous and other shrubs.
Besides butterflies, there were few other insects except
dragonflies, which were in great numbers, similar in
shape to English species, but some of them looking con-
spicuously different on account of their fiery red colours.

After stopping repeatedly to examine and admire we
at length walked onward. The road then ascended
slightly, and the soil and vegetation became suddenly
altered in character. The shrubs here were grasses,
Cyperacese and other plants, smaller in foliage than
those growing in moist grounds. The forest was second
growth, low, consisting of trees which had the general
aspect of laurels and other evergreens in our gardens
at home : the leaves glossy and dark green. Some of
them were elegantly veined and hairy (Melastomse),
whilst many, scattered amongst the rest, had smaller
foliage (Myrtles), but these were not sufficient to sub-
tract much from the general character of the whole.

The sun, now, for we had loitered long on the road,
was exceedingly powerful. The day was most brilliant ;
the sky without a cloud. In fact, it was one of those
glorious days which announce the commencement of the
dry season. The radiation of heat from the sandy
ground was visible by the quivering motion of the air
above it. We saw or heard no mammals or birds ; a

CnAi". II. CLIMBINCx TREES. 47

few cattle belonging to an estate down a shady lane
were congregated, panting, under a- cluster of wide-
spreading trees. The very soil was hot to our feet, and
we hastened onward to the shade of the forest which
we could see not far ahead. At length, on entering it,
what a relief: We found ourselves in a moderately
broad pathway or alley, where the branches of the trees
crossed overhead and produced a delightful shade. The
woods were at first of second growth, dense, and utterly
impenetrable ; the ground, instead of being clothed
with grass and shrubs as in the woods of Europe, was
everywhere carpeted with Lycopodiums (Selaginellse).
Gradually the scene became changed. We descended
slightly from an elevated, dry, and sandy area to a low
and swampy one ; a cool air breathed on our faces, and
a mouldy smell of rotting vegetation gi'eeted us. The
trees were now taller, the underwood less dense, and we
could obtain glimpses into the wilderness on all sides.
The leafy crowns of the trees, scarcely two of which
could be seen together of the same kind, were now far
away above us, in another world as it were. We could
only see at times, where there was a break above, the
tracery of the foliage against the clear blue sky.
Sometimes the leaves were palmate, or of the shape of
large outstretched hands ; at others, finely cut or
feathery like the leaves of Mimosae. Below, the tree
trunks were everywhere linked together by sipos ; the
woody, flexible stems of climbing and creeping trees,
whose foliage is far away above, mingled with that of
the taller independent trees. Some were twisted in
strands like cables, others had thick stems contorted in

48

PAEA.

Vhav. II.

every variety of shape, entwining
snake-like round the tree trunks or
forming gigantic loops and coils
among the larger branches ; others,
again, were of zigzag shape, or in-
dented like the steps of a staircase,
sweeping from the ground to a giddy
height.

It interested me much afterwards
to find that these climbing trees do
not form any particular family or
genus. There is no order of plants
whose especial habit is to climb,
but species of many and the most
diverse families the bulk of whose
members are not climbers, seem to
have been driven by circumstances
to adopt this habit. The orders Le-
guminosse, Guttiferae, Bignoniacese,
/" "M^^ jfO'f Moracese and others, furnish the
greater number. There is even a
climbing genus of palms (Desmon-
cus), the species of which are called,
in the Tupi language, Jacitara.
These have slender, thickly-spined,
Climbing Palm (Desinoncus). and flexuous stems, whicli twiue

I

/

f

CiiAi'. II. CLIMBING TREES AND ANIMALS. 49

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

All the Amazonian, and in fact all South American,
monkeys are climbers. There is no group answering to
the baboons of the Old World, which live on the ground.
The Gallinaceous birds of the country, the representa-
tives of the fowls and pheasants of Asia and Africa, are all
adapted by the position of the toes to perch on trees,
and it is only on trees, at a great height, that they are
to be seen. A genus of Plantigrade Carnivora, allied to
the bears (Cercoleptes), found only in the Amazonian
forests, is entirely arboreal, and has a long flexible tail
like that of certain monkeys. Many other similar in-
stances could be enumerated, • but I will mention only
the Geodephaga, or carnivorous ground beetles, a great
proportion of whose genera and species in these forest
regions are, by the structure of their feet, fitted to
live exclusively on the branches and leaves of trees.

VOL. I. E

50 ~ PARA. Chap. II.

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

Further on the ground became more swampy, and
we had some difficulty in picking our way. The wild
banana (Urania Amazonica) here began to appear, and,
as it grew in masses, imparted a new aspect to the
scene. The leaves of this beautiful plant are like broad
sword-blades, eiffht feet in lenoi^h and a foot broad ;
they rise straight upwards, alternately, from the top of
a stem five or six feet high. Numerous kinds of plants
with leaves similar in shape to these but smaller, clothed
the ground. Amongst them were species of Marantacese,
some of which had broad glossy leaves, with long leaf-
stalks radiating from joints in a reed-like stem. The
trunks of the trees were clothed with climbing ferns, and
Pothos plants with large, fleshy, heart-shaped leaves.
Bamboos and other tall gi'ass and reed-like plants
arched over the pathway. The appearance of this part
of the forest was strange in the extreme ; description

Chap. II. FOREST INSECTS. 51

can convey no adequate idea of it. The reader who has
visited Kew may form some notion by conceiving a
vegetation like that in the great palm-house spread over
a large tract of swampy ground, but he must fancy it
mingled with large exogenous trees similar to our oaks
and elms covered with creepers and parasites, and
figvire to himself the ground encumbered with fallen
and rotting trunks, branches, and leaves ; the whole
illuminated by a glowing vertical sun, and reeking with
moisture.

In these swampy shades we were afraid at each step
of treading on some venomous reptile. On this first
visit, however, we saw none, although I afterwards
found serpents common here. We perceived no signs of
the larger animals and saw very few birds. Insects
were more numerous, especially butterflies. The most
conspicuous species was a large, glossy, blue and black
Morpho (M. Achilles, of Linnaeus), which measures six
inches or more in expanse of wings. It came along the
alley at a rapid rate and with an undulating flight, but
diverged into the thicket before reaching the spot
where we stood. Another was the very handsome
Papilio Sesostris, velvety black in colour, with a large
silky green patch on its wings. It is the male only
which is so coloured ; the female being plainer, and so
utterly unlike its partner, that it was always held to be
a different species until proved to be the same. Several
other kinds allied to this inhabit almost exclusively
these moist shades. In all of them the males are
brilHantly coloured and widely different from the
females. Such are P. iEneas, P. Yertumnus, and P.

62 PARA. Chap. II.

Lysander^ all velvety black, with patches of gi'een and
crimson on their wings. The females of these species do
not court the company of the males, but are found slowly
flying in places where the shade is less dense. In the
moist parts gi-eat numbers of males are seen, often four
species together, threading the mazes of the forest, and
occasionally rising to settle on the scarlet flowers of
climbers near the tops of the trees. Occasionally a stray
one is seen in the localities which the females frequent.
In the swampiest parts, we saw numbers of the Epicalia
ancea, one of the most richly-coloured of the whole tribe
of butterflies, being black, decorated with broad stripes
of pale blue and orange. It delighted to settle on the
broad leaves of the Uranise and similar plants where a
ray of sunlight shone, but it was excessively wary,
darting off with lightning speed when approached.

To obtain a fair notion of the number and variety of
the animal tenants of these forests, it is necessary to
follow up the research month after month and explore
them in different directions and at all seasons. During
several months I used to visit this district two or three
days every week, and never failed to obtain some
species new to me, of bird, reptile, or insect. It seemed
to be an epitome of all that the humid portions of the
Para forests could produce. This endless diversity, the
coolness of the air, the varied and strange forms of
vegetation, the entire freedom from mosquitos and
other pests, and even the solemn gloom and silence,
combined to make my rambles through it always plea-
sant as well as profitable. Such places are paradises
to a naturalist, and if he be of a contemplative turn

CiiAr. II. THE MURDERER SIP6. 53

there is no situation more favourable for his indulging
the tendency. There is something in a tropical forest
akin to the ocean in its effects on the mind. Man feels
so completely his insignificance there, and the vastness
of nature. A naturalist cannot help reflecting on the
vegetable forces manifested on so grand a scale around
him. A German traveller, Burmeister, has said that
the contemplation of a Brazilian forest produced on him
a painful impression, on account of the vegetation dis-
playing a spirit of restless selfishness, eager emulation,
and craftiness. He thought the softness, earnestness,
and repose of European woodland scenery were far more
pleasing, and that these formed one of the causes of
the superior moral character of European nations.

In these tropical forests each plant and tree seems to
be striving to outvie its fellow, struggling upwards to-
wards light and air — branch, and leaf, and stem — regard-
less of its neighbours. Parasitic plants are seen fastening
with firm grip on others, making use of them with reckless
indifference as instruments for their own advancement.
Live and let live is clearly not the maxim taught in
these wildernesses. There is one kind of parasitic tree,
very common near Para, which exhibits this feature in a
very prominent manner. It is called the Sipo Matador,
or the Murderer Liana. It belongs to the fig order,
and has been described and figured by Von Martins in
the Atlas to Spix and Martius's Travels. I observed
many specimens. The base of its stem would be
unable to bear the weight of the upper growth ; it is
obliged, therefore, to support itself on a tree of another
species. In this it is not essentially different from

54 PARA. Chap. II.

other climbing trees and plants, but the way the
matador sets about it is peculiar, and produces cer-
tainly a disagreeable impression. It springs up close
to the tree on which it intends to fix itself, and the
wood of its stem grows by spreading itself like a
plastic mould over one side of the trunk of its sup-
porter. It then puts forth, from each side, an arm-
like branch, which grows rapidly, and looks as though
a stream of sap were flowing and hardening as it
went. This adheres closely to the trunk of the
victim and the two arms meet on the opposite side and
blend together. These arms are put forth at somewhat
regular intervals in mounting upwards, and the victim,
when its strangler is full-grown, becomes tightly elapsed
by a number of inflexible rings. These rings gi'adually
grow larger as the Murderer flourishes, rearing its crown
of foliage to the sky mingled with that of its neighbour,
and in course of time they kill it by stopping the flow of
its sap. The strange spectacle then remains of the selfish
parasite clasping in its arms the lifeless and decaying
body of its victim, which had been a help to its own
growth. Its ends have been served — it has flowered and
fruited, reproduced and disseminated its kind ; and now,
when the dead trunk moulders away, its OAvn end ap-
proaches ; its support is gone, and itself also falls.

The Murderer Sipo merely exhibits, in a more con-
spicuous manner than usual, the struggle which neces-
sarily exists amongst vegetable forms in these crowded
forests, where individual is competing with individual
and species with species, all striving to reach light and
air in order to unfold their leaves and perfect their

Cn.vr. II. COMPETITION AMONGST PLANTS. 55

organs of fructification. All species entail in their suc-
cessful struggles the injury or destruction of many of
their neighbours or supporters, but the process is
not in others so speaking to the eye as it is in the case
of the Matador. The efforts to spread their roots are
as strenuous in some plants and trees, as the struggle to
mount upwards is in others. From these apparent
strivings result the buttressed stems, the dangling
air roots, and other similar phenomena. The compe-
tition amongst organised beings has been prominently
brought forth in Darwin's " Origin of Species ;" it
is a fact which must be ahvays kept in view in
studying these subjects. It exists everywhere, in
every zone, in both the animal and vegetable king-
doms. It is doubtless most severe, on the whole, in
tropical countries, but its display in vegetable forms in
the forest is no exceptional phenomenon. It is only
more conspicuously exhibited, owing perhaps to its
affecting principally the vegetative organs — root, stem,
and leaf — whose growth is also stimulated by the intense
light, the warmth, and the humidity. The competition
exists also in temperate countries, but it is there con-
cealed under the external appearance of repose which
vegetation wears. It affects, in this case, perhaps more
the reproductive than the vegetative organs, especially the
flowers, which it is probable are far more general decora-
tions in the woodlands of high latitudes than in tropical
forests. This, however, is a difficult subject, and one
which requires much further investigation,

I think there is plenty, in tropical nature, to coun-
teract any unpleasant impression which the reckless

56 PARA. Chap. IL

energy of the vegetation might produce. There is the
incomparable beauty and variety of the foUage, the
vivid colours, the richness and exuberance everywhere
displayed, which make, in my opinion, the richest
woodland scenery in Northern Europe a sterile desert
in comparison. But it is especially the enjoyment of
life manifested by individual existences which com-
pensates for the destruction and pain caused by the
inevitable competition. Although this competition is
nowhere more active, and the dangers to which each
individual is exposed nowhere more numerous, yet
nowhere is this enjoyment more vividly displayed.
If vegetation had feeling, its vigorous and rapid gro^\i:h,
uninterrupted by the cold sleep of winter, would, one
would think, be productive of pleasure to its individuals.
In animals, the mutual competition may be greater, the
predacious species more constantly on the alert, than in
temperate climates ; but there is at the same time no
severe periodical struggle with inclement seasons. In
sunny nooks, and at certain seasons, the trees and the
air are gay with birds and insects, all in the full enjoy-
ment of existence ; the warmth, the sunlight, and the
abundance of food producing their results in the anima-
tion and sportiveness of the beings congregated together.
We ought not to leave out of sight, too, the sexual
decorations — the brilliant colours and ornamentation of
the males, which, although existing in the fauna of all
climates, reach a higher degree of perfection in the
tropics than elsewhere. This seems to point to the
pleasures of the pairing seasons. I think it is a childish
notion that the beauty of birds, insects, and other

Chap. II. SCARCITY OF LABOUR. 57

creatures is given to please the human eye. A Kttle
observation and reflection show that this cannot be the
case, else why should one sex only be richly orna-
mented, the other clad in plain drab and gi'ay ? Surely,
rich plumage and song, like all the other endowments
of species, are given them for their own pleasure and
advantage. This, if true, ought to enlarge our ideas of
the inner life and mutual relations of our humbler
fellow creatures !

We at length emerged from the forest, on the banks
of the Una, near its mouth. It was here about one
hundred yards wide. The residence of Senhor Danin
stood on the opposite shore ; a large building, white-
washed and red-tiled as usual, raised on wooden piles
above the humid ground. The second story was the
part occupied by the family, and along it was an open
verandah where people, male and female, were at work.
Below were several negToes employed carrying clay on
their heads. We called out for a boat, and one of them
crossed over to fetch us. Senhor Danin received us
Avith the usual formal politeness of the Portuguese ; he
spoke Enghsh very well, and after we had an-anged our
business we remained conversing with him on various
topics connected with the country. Like all employers
in this province he was full of one topic — the scarcity
of hands. It appeared that he had made gi'eat exer-
tions to introduce white labour but had failed, after
having brought numbers of men from Portugal and
other countries under engagement to work for him.
They all left him one by one soon after their arrival.
The abundance of unoccupied land, the liberty that

58 PAEA. Chap. IL

exists, a state of things produced by the half-mid canoe-
life of the people, and the ease with which a mere sub-
sistence can be obtained with moderate work, tempt
even the best-disposed to quit regular labour as soon as
they can. He complained also of the dearness of slaves,
owing to the prohibition of the African traffic, telling us
that formerly a slave could be bought for 120 dollars,
whereas they are now difficult to procure at 400 dollars.
Mr. Danin told us that he had travelled in England
and the United States, and that he had now two sons
completing their education in those countries. I after-
wards met with many enterprising persons of Mr.
Danin's order, both Brazilians and Portuguese ; their
great ambition is to make a voyage to Europe or North
America, and to send their sons to be educated there.
The land on which his establishment is built, he told us,
was an artificial embankment on the swamp ; the end
of the house was built on a projecting point overlooking
the river, so that a good view was obtained, from the
sitting rooms, of the city and the shipping. We learnt
there was formerly a large and flourishing cattle estate
on this spot, with an open grassy space like a park.
On Sundays gay parties of 40 or 50 persons used to
come by land and water, in carriages and gay galliotas,
to spend the day with the hospitable owner. Since
the political disorders which I have already men-
tioned, decay had come upon this as on most other
large establishments in the country. The cultivated
grounds, and the roads leading to them, were now
entirely overgi'own with dense forest. When we were
ready to depart, Senhor Danin lent a canoe and two

Chap. II. FESTIVAL OF NAZARETH. 59

negroes to take us to the city, where we an-ived in the
evening after a day rich in new experiences.

Shortly afterwards we took possession of our new re-
sidence. The house was a square building, consisting
of four equal-sized rooms ; the tiled roof projected all
round, so as to form a broad verandah, cool and pleasant
to sit and work in. The cultivated ground, which ap-
peared as if newly cleared from the forest, was planted
with fruit trees and small plots of coffee and man-
dioca. The entrance to the grounds was by an iron-giille
gateway from a grassy square, around Avhich were built
the few houses and palm-thatched huts which then con-
stituted the village. The most important building was
the chapel of our Lady of Nazareth, which stood opposite
our place. The saint here enshrined was a gi'eat
favourite with all orthodox Paraenses, who attributed to
her the performance of many miracles. The image was
to be seen on the altar, a handsome doll about four feet
high, wearing a silver crown and a garment of blue silk,
studded with golden stars. In and about the chapel
were the offerings that had been made to her, proofs of
the miracles which she had performed. There were
models of legs, arms, breasts, and so forth, Avhich she
had cured. But most curious of all was a ship's boat,
deposited here by the crew of a Portuguese vessel which
had foundered, a year or two before our arrival, in a
squall off Cayenne ; part of them having been saved in
the boat, after invoking the protection of the saint here
enshrined. The annual festival in honour of our Lady
of Nazareth is the greatest of the Para holidays ; many

60 PARA. Chap. II.

persons come to it from the neighbouring city of Maran-
ham, 300 miles distant. Once the president ordered
the mail steamer to be delayed two days at Para for the
convenience of these visitors. The popularity of the
festa is partly owing to -the beautiful weather that
prevails when it takes place, namely, in the middle of
the fine season, on the ten days preceding the full moon
in October or November. Para is then seen at its best.
The weather is not too dry, for three weeks never follow
in succession without a shower ; so that all the glory of
verdure and flowers can be enjoyed with clear skies.
The moonlit nights are then especially beautiful ; the
atmosphere is transparently clear, and the light sea-
breeze produces an agreeable coolness.

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

Chap. IT. DIURITAL CYCLE OF PHENOMEN"A. 61

extended to Maranham, but it had been long in disuse
and was now gi'own up, being scarcely passable be-
tween Para and Ourem.

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

We used to rise soon after dawn, when Isidore would
go down to the city, after supplying us with a cup of
coffee, to purchase the fresh provisions for the day. The
two hours before breakfast were devoted to ornithology.
At that early period of the day the sky was invariably
cloudless (the thermometer marking 72° or 73° Fahr.) ;
the heavy dew or the previous night's rain, which lay
on the moist foliage, becoming quickly dissipated by the
glowing sun, which rising straight out of the east,
mounted rapidly towards the zenith. All nature was
fresh, new leaf and flower-buds expanding rapidly.
Some mornings a single tree would appear in flower
amidst what was the preceding evening a uniform green
mass of forest — a dome of blossom suddenly created as
if by magic. The birds were all active ; from the wild-
fruit trees, not far off, we often heard the shrill yelping
of the Toucans (Rhamphastos vitellinus). Small flocks
of parrots flew over on most mornings, at a great height,
appearing in distinct relief against the blue sky, always

62 PAEA. Chap. II.

two by two chattering to each other, the pairs being
separated by regular intervals ; their bright colours,
however, were not apparent at that height. After break-
fast we devoted the hours from 10 a.m. to 2 or 3 p.m.
to entomology ; the best time for insects in the forest
being a little before the greatest heat of the day. We
did not find them at all numerous, althouo^h of OTeat va-
riety as to species. The only kinds that appeared in great
numbers of individuals were ants, termites, and certain
species of social wasps ; in the open grounds dragon-flies
were also amongst the most abundant kinds of insects.
Beetles were certainly much lower in the proportion of
individuals to species than they are in England, and
this led us to the conclusion that the ants and termites
here must perform many of the functions in nature
which in temperate climates are the office of Coleoptera.
As to butterflies, I extract the following note from many
similar ones in my journal. " On Tuesday, collected 46
specimens, of 39 species. On Wednesday, 37 specimens,
of 33 species, 27 of which are different from those taken
on the preceding day." The number of specimens would
be increased if I had reckoned all the commonest species
seen, but still the fact is well established, that there is
a great paucity of individuals compared with species in
both Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. We rarely saw cater-
pillars. After several years' observation, I came to the
conclusion that the increase of these creatures was
checked by the close persecution of insectivorous animals,
which are excessively numerous in this country. The
check operates at all periods of life — on the eggs, the
larvae, and the perfect insects.

Chap. II. DIUENAL CYCLE OF PHENOMENA. 63

The heat increased rapidly towards two o'clock (92°
and 93° Fahr.), by which time every voice of bird or mam-
mal was hushed ; only in the trees was heard at inter-
vals the harsh whirr of a cicada. The leaves, which were
so moist and fresh in early morning, now became lax and
drooping ; the flowers shed their petals. Our neighbours
the Indian and Mulatto inhabitants of the open palm-
thatched huts, as we returned home fatigued with our
ramble, were either asleep in their hammocks or seated
on mat^ in the shade, too languid even to talk. On
most days in June and July a heavy shower would fall
some time in the afternoon, producing a most welcome
coolness. The approach of the rain-clouds was after a
uniform fashion very interesting to observe. First,
the cool sea-breeze, which commenced to blow about
10 o'clock, and which had increased in force with the
increasing power of the sun, would flag and finally die
away. The heat and electric tension of the atmosphere
would then become almost insupportable. Languor
and uneasiness would seize on every one ; even the
denizens of the forest betraying it by their motions.
Wliite clouds would appear in the east and gather into
cumuli, with an increasino^ blackness alono^ their lower
portions. The whole eastern horizon would become
almost suddenly black, and this would spread upwards,
the sun at length becoming obscured. Then the rush
of a mighty wind is heard through the forest, swaying
the tree-tops ; a vivid flash of lightning bursts forth,
then a crash of thunder, and do\vn streams the deluging
rain. Such storms soon cease, leaving bluish-black
motionless clouds in the sky until night. Meantime all

64 PARA. Chap. II.

nature is refreshed ; but heaps of flower-petals and
fallen leaves are seen under the trees. Towards evening
life revives again, and the ringing uproar is resumed
from bush and tree. The following morning the sun
again rises in a cloudless sky, and so the cycle is com-
pleted ; spring, summer, and autumn, as it were, in
one tropical day. The days are more or less like this
throughout the year in this country. A little difference
exists between the dry and wet seasons ; but generally,
the dry season, which lasts from July to December, is
varied with showers, and the wet, from January to June,
with sunny days. It results from this, that the peri-
odical phenomena of plants and animals do not take
place at about the same time in all species, or in the
individuals of any given species, as they do in temperate
countries. Of course there is no hybernation ; nor, as
the dry season is not excessive, is there any aestivation
as in some tropical countries. Plants do not flower or
shed their leaves, nor do birds moult, pair, or breed simul-
taneously. In Europe, a woodland scene has its spring,
its summer, its autumnal, and its winter aspects. In the
equatorial forests the aspect is the same or nearly so
every day in the year : budding, flowering, fruiting, and
leaf shedding are always going on in one species or
other. The activity of birds and insects proceeds with-
out inten^uption, each species having its own separate
times ; the colonies of wasps, for instance, do not die off
annually, leaving only the queens, as in cold climates ;
but the succession of generations and colonies goes on in-
cessantly. It is never either spring, summer, or autumn,
but each day is a combination of all three. With the

Chap. II. PRIMiEVAL FOREST. 65

day and night always of equal length, the atmospheric
disturbances of each day neutralising themselves before
each succeeding morn ; with the sun in its course
proceeding mid-way across the sky and the daily tem-
perature the same within two or three degi'ees through-
out the year — how grand in its perfect equilibrium
and simplicity is the march of Nature under the
equator !

Our evenings were generally fully employed pre-
serving our collections, and making notes. We dined
at four, and took tea about seven o'clock. Sometimes
we walked to the city to see" Brazilian life or enjoy the
pleasures of European and American society. And so
the time passed away from June loth to August 26th.
During this period we made two excursions of greater
length to the rice and sawMnills of Magoary, an estab-
lishment o^vned by an American gentleman, Mr. Upton,
situated on the banks of a creek in the heart of the
forest, about 12 miles from Para. I will narrate some
of the incidents of these excursions, and give an account
of the more interesting observations made on the
Natural History and inhabitants of these interior creeks
and forests.

Our first trip to the mills was by land. The creek on
whose banks they stand, the Iritiri, communicates with the
river Para, through another larger creek, the Magoary ;
so that there is a passage by water ; but this is about
20 miles round. We started at sunrise, taking Isidore
with us. The road plunged at once into the forest after
leaving Nazareth, so that in a few minutes we were
enveloped in shade. For some distance the woods

VOL. I. F

66 PARA. Chap. II.

were of second growth, the original forest near the town
having been formerly cleared or thinned. They were
dense and impenetrable on account of the close growth
of the young trees and the mass of thorny shrubs and
creepers. These thickets swarmed with ants and ant-
thrushes ; they were also frequented by a species of puff-
throated manikin, a little bird which flies occasionally
across the road, emitting a strange noise, made, I
believe, with its wings, and resembling the clatter of a
small wooden rattle.

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

Chap. II. HEIGHT OF TREES. 67

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

Wliat attracted us chiefly were the colossal trees.
The general run of trees had not remarkably thick
stems ; the gi^eat and uniform height to which they
gi'ow without emitting a branch, was a much more
noticeable feature than their thickness ; but at intervals
of a furlong or so a veritable giant towered up. Only
one of these monstrous trees can grow within a given
space ; it monopoKses the domain, and none but indi-
viduals of much inferior size can find a footing near
it. The cylindrical trunks of these larger trees were
generally about 20 to 25 feet in circumference. Yon
Martins mentions having measured trees in the Para dis-

F 2

68 PARA. Chap. II.

trict belonging to various species (Symphonia coccinea,
Lecythis sp. and Cratasva Tapia), which were 50 to 60
feet in girth at the point where they become cylindrical.
The heio^ht of the vast column-like stems could not
be less than 100 feet from the ground to their lowest
branch. Mr. Leavens, at the saw-mills, told me they
frequently squared logs for sawing 100 feet long, of
the Pao d'Arco and the Massaranduba. The total
height of these trees, stem and crown together, may
be estimated at from 180 to 200 feet : where one of
them stands, the vast dome of foliage rises above the
other forest trees as a domed cathedra] does above the
other buildings in a city.

A very remarkable feature in these trees is the
growth of buttress-shaped projections around the lower
part of their stems. The spaces between these but-
tresses, which are generally thin walls of wood, form
spacious chambers, and may be compared to stalls
in a stable : some of them are large enough to hold
half-a-dozen persons. The purpose of these structures
is as obvious, at the first glance, as that of the similar
props of brickwork which support a high wall. They are
not peculiar to one species, but are common to most of the
larger forest trees. Their nature and manner of growth
are explained when a series of young trees of different
ages is examined. It is then seen that they are the roots
which have raised themselves ridge-like out of the
earth ; growing gradually upwards as the increasing
height of the tree required augmented support. Thus
they are plainly intended to sustain the massive crown
and trunk in these crowded forests, where lateral gi'owth

CiiAr. II. COW-TREE. 69

of the roots in the earth is rendered difficult by the
multitude of competitors.

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

In some parts of the road ferns were conspicuous
objects. But I aftei^wards found them much more
numerous on the Maranham-road, especially in one

70 PARA. Chap. II.

place where the whole forest glade formed a vast
fernery ; the ground was covered with terrestrial
species, and the tree trunks clothed with climbing
and epiph3rtous kinds. I saw no tree ferns in the
Para district ; they belong to hilly regions ; some
occur, however, on the Upper Amazons.

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

We were disappointed also in not meeting with
any of the larger animals in the forest. There was
no tumultuous movement, or sound of life. We
did not see or hear monkeys, and no tapir or jaguar
crossed our path. Birds, also, appeared to be exceedingly
scarce. We heaxd, however, occasionally, the long-

Chap. II. ARBOREAL NATURE OF THE FAUNA. 71

drawn, wailing note of the Inambu, a kind of partridge
(Crypturus cinereus ?) ; and, also, in the hollows on the
banks of the rivulets, the noisy notes of another bird,
which seemed to go in pairs, amongst the tree-tops,
calling to each other as they went. These notes re-
sounded through the solitude. Another solitary bird had
a most sweet and melancholy song ; it consisted simply
of a few notes, uttered in a plaintive key, commencing
high, and descending by harmonic intervals. It w^as
probably a species of warbler of the genus Trichas. All
these notes of birds are very striking and characteristic
of the forest.

I afterwards saw reason to modify my opinion, founded
on these first impressions, with regard to the amount
and variety of animal life in this and other parts of the
Amazonian forests. There is, in fact, a great variety of
mammals, bii'ds, and reptiles, but they are widely scat-
tered, and all excessively shy of man. The region is so
extensive, and uniform in the forest clothing of its
surface, that it is only at long intervals that animals
are seen in abundance when some particular spot is
found which is more attractive than others. Brazil,
moreover, is throughout poor in teiTestrial mammals,
and the species are of small size ; they do not, therefore,
form a conspicuous feature in its forests. The huntsman
would be disappointed who expected to find here flocks
of animals similar to the buffalo herds of North America,
or the swarms of antelopes and herds of ponderous
pachyderms of Southern Africa. The largest and most
interesting portion of the Brazilian mammal fauna is
arboreal in its habits ; this feature of the animal denizens

72 PARA. Chap. II.

of these forests I have akeady alhided to. The most
intensely arboreal animals in the world are the South
American monkeys of the family Cebidse, many of which
have a fifth hand for climbing in their prehensile tails,
adapted for this function by their strong muscular
development, and the naked palms under their tips.
This seems to teach us that the South American fauna
has been slowly adapted to a forest life, and, therefore,
that extensive forests must have always existed since
the region was first peopled by mammalia. But to this
subject, and to the natural history of the monkeys, of
which thirty-eight species inhabit the Amazon region,
I shall have to return.
r We often read, in books of travels, of the silence and

gloom of the Brazilian forests. They are realities, and
the impression deepens on a longer acquaintance. The
few sounds of birds are of that pensive or mysterious
character which intensifies the feeling of solitude rather
than imparts a sense of life and cheerfulness. Some-
times, in the midst of the stillness, a sudden yell or
scream will startle one ; this comes from some defence-
less fruit-eating animal, which is pounced upon by a
tiger-cat or stealthy boa-constrictor. Morning and
evening the howling monkeys make a most fearful and
harrowing noise, under which it is difficult to keep up
one's buoyancy of spirit. The feeling of inhospitable
wildness which the forest is calculated to inspire, is
increased tenfold under this fearful uproar. Often, even
in the still hours of midday, a sudden crash will be
heard resounding afar through the wilderness, as some
great bough or entire tree falls to the gi'ound. There

\

Chap. II. MYSTERIOUS SOUNDS IN THE FOREST. 73

are, besides, many sounds which it is impossible to
account for. I found the natives generally as much at
a loss in this respect as myself. Sometimes a sound is
heard like the clang of an iron bar against a hard,
hollow tree, or a piercing cry rends the air ; these are
not repeated, and the succeeding silence tends to
heighten the unpleasant impression which they make
on the mind. With the natives it is always the
Curupira, the wild man or spirit of the forest, which
produces all noises they are unable to explain. Myths
are the rude theories which mankind, in the infancy of
knowledge, invent to explain natural phenomena. The
Curupira is a mysterious being, whose attributes are
uncertain, for they vary according to locality. Some-
times he is described as a kind of orang-otang, being-
covered with long, shaggy hair, and living in trees. At
others he is said to have cloven feet, and a bright red
face. He has a wife and children, and sometimes comes
down to the ro9as to steal the mandioca. At one time
I had a Mameluco youth in my service, whose head was
full of the legends and superstitions of the country. He
always went with me into the forest ; in fact, I could
not get him to go alone, and whenever we heard any ot
the strange noises mentioned above, he used to tremble
with fear. He would crouch down behind me, and beg
of me to turn back. He became easy only after he had
made a charm to protect us from the Curupira. For
this pui-pose he took a young palm leaf, plaited it, and
formed it into a ring, which he hung to a branch on
our track. /

At length, after a six hours' walk, we arrived at our

74 PARA. Chap. II.

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

The creek Iritiri at the mills is only a few yards
wide ; it winds about between two lofty walls of forest
for some distance, then becomes much broader, and
finally joins the Magoary. There are many other rami-
fications, creeks or channels, which lead to retired
hamlets and scattered houses, inhabited by people of
mixed white, Indian, and negi'o descent. Many of them
did business with Mr. Leavens, bringing for sale their
little harvests of rice, or a few logs of timber. It was
interesting to see them in their little, heavily-laden
montarias. Sometimes the boats were managed by
handsome, healthy young lads, loosely clad in straw
hat, white shirt, and dark blue trousers, turned up to the
knee. They steered, paddled, and managed the varejaO
(the boating pole), with much grace and dexterity.

CiiAP. II. NATIVE CANOES. 75

We made many excursions down the Iritiri, and
saw much of these creeks ; besides, our second visit
to the mills was by water. The Magoary is a mag-
nificent channel ; the different branches form quite
a labyi'inth, and the land is everywhere of little
elevation. All these smaller rivers, throughout the
Para estuary, are of the nature of creeks. The land
is so level, that the short local rivers have no sources
and downward currents like rivers as we generally un-
derstand them. They serve the purpose of draining the
land, but instead of having a constant current one way,
they have a regular ebb and flow with the tide. The
natives call them, in the Tupi language, Igarapes,
or canoe-j)aths. The igarapes and furos or channels,
which are infinite in number in this great river
delta, are characteristic of the country. The land
is every^vhere covered with impenetrable forests ; the
houses and villages are all on the waterside, and nearly
all communication is by water. This semi-aquatic life
of the people is one of the most interesting features of
the country. For short excursions, and for fishing in
still waters, a small boat, called montaria, is universally
used. It is made of five planks ; a broad one for the
bottom, bent into the proper shape by the action of
heat, two narrow ones for the sides, and two small tri-
angular pieces for stem and stern. It has no rudder ;
the paddle serves for both steering and propelling.
The montaria takes here the place of the horse, mule, or
camel of other reg^ions. Besides one or more montarias,
almost every family has a larger canoe, called Igaritd
This is fitted with two masts, a rudder, and keel, and has

76 PARA. Chap. II,

an arched awning or cabin near the stern, made of a
framework of tough lianas, thatched with palm leaves. In
the igarite they will cross stormy rivers fifteen or twenty
miles broad. The natives are all boat-builders. It is
often remarked, by white residents, that an Indian is a
carpenter and shipwright by intuition. It is astonishing
to see in what crazy vessels these people will risk them-
selves. I have seen Indians cross rivers in a leaky mon-
taria, when it required the nicest equilibrium to keep
the leak just above water ; a movement of a hair's
breadth would send all to the bottom, but they managed
to cross in safety. They are especially careful when
they have strangers under their charge, and it is the
custom of Brazilian and Portuguese travellers to leave
the whole management to them. When they are alone
they are more reckless, and often have to swim for their
lives. When a squall overtakes them as they are
crossing in a heavily-laden canoe, they all jump over-
board and swim about until the heavy sea subsides,
when they re-embark.

A few words on the aboriginal population of the Para
estuary will here not be out of place. The banks of the
Para were originally inhabited by a number of distinct
tribes, who, in their habits, resembled very much the
natives of the sea-coast from Maranham to Bahia. It
is related that one large tribe, the Tupinambas, migrated
from Pernambuco to the Amazons. One fact seems to
be well-established, namely, that all the coast tribes
were far more advanced in civilisation, and milder in
their manners, than the savages who inhabited the

Chap. II. INDIAN LANGUAGES. 77

interior lands of Brazil. They were settled in villages,
and addicted to agriculture. They navigated the rivers in
large canoes, called ubas, made of immense hollowed-out
tree trunks ; in these they used to go on war expeditions,
canying in the prows their trophies and calabash rattles,
whose clatter was meant to intimidate their enemies.
They were gentle in disposition, and received the early
Portuguese settlers with great friendliness. The inland
savages, on the other hand, led a wandering life, as they
do at the present time, only coming down occasionally
to rob the plantations of the coast tribes, who always
entertained the gi'eatest enmity towards them.

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

78 PAEA. Chap. IL

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

The civilised Tapuyo of Para, differs in no essential
point, in physical or moral qualities, from the Indian of
the interior. He is more stoutly built, being better fed
than some of them ; but in this respect there are great dif-
ferences amongst the tribes themselves. He presents all
the chief characteristics of the American red man. The
skin of a coppery brown colour, the features of the face
broad, and the hair black, thick, and straight. He is
generally about the middle height, thick-set, has a broad
muscular chest, well-shaped but somewhat thick legs and
arms, and small hands and feet. The cheek bones are not
generally prominent ; the eyes are black, and seldom
oblique like those of the Tartar races of Eastern Asia,
which are supposed to have sprung from the same
orio-inal stock as the American red man. The features
exhibit scarcely any mobility of expression ; this is con-
nected with the excessively apathetic and undemon-
strative character of the race. They never betray, in
fact they do not feel keenly, the emotions of joy, grief,
wonder, fear, and so forth. They can never be excited
to enthusiasm ; but they have strong affections, espe-
cially those connected with family. It is commonly
stated by the whites and negroes that the Tapuyo is
ungrateful. Brazilian mistresses of households, who
have much experience of Indians, have always a long

Chap. II. INDIAN CHARACTER. 79

list of instances to relate to the stranger, showing their
base ingratitude. They certainly do not appear to
remember or think of repaying benefits, but this is pro-
bably because they did not require, and do not value
such benefits as their would-be masters confer upon
them. I have known instances of attachment and
fidelity on the part of Indians towards their masters,
but these are exceptional cases. All the actions of the
Indian show that his ruling desire is to be let alone ; he
is attached to his home, his quiet monotonous forest
and river life ; he likes to go to towns occasionally, to
see the wonders introduced by the white man, but he
has a great repugnance to living in the midst of the
crowd ; he prefers handicraft to field labour, and espe-
cially dislikes binding himself to regular labour for
hire. He is shy and uneasy before strangers, but if
they visit his abode, he treats them well, for he has a
rooted appreciation of the duty of hospitality ; there is
a pride about him, and being naturally formal and
polite, he acts the host with great dignity. He with-
draws from towns as soon as the stir of civilisation
'begins to make itself felt. When we first arrived at
Para many Indian families resided there, for the mode
of living at that time was more like that of a large
village than a city ; as soon as river steamers and more
business activity were introduced, they all gi-adually
took themselves away.

These characteristics of the Para Indians are appli-
cable, of course, to some extent, to the Mamelucos, which
now constitute a great proportion of the population.
The inflexibility of character of the Indian, and his

80 PARA. Chap. II.

total inability to accommodate himself to new arrange-
ments, will infallibly lead to his extinction, as immi-
grants, endowed with more supple organisations, increase,
and civilisation advances in the Amazon region. But,
as the different races amalgamate readily, and the off-
spring of white and Indian often become distinguished
Brazilia,n citizens, there is little reason to regi'et the
fate of the race. Formerly the Indian was harshly
treated, and even now he is so in many parts of the
interior. But, according to the laws of Brazil, he is a
free citizen, having equal privileges with the whites ;
and there are very strong enactments providing against
the enslaving and ill-treatment of the Indians. The
residents of the interior, who have no higher principles
to counteract instinctive selfishness or antipathy of race,
cannot comprehend why they are not allowed to compel
Indians to work for them, seeing that they will not do
it of their own accord. The inevitable result of the
conflict of interests between a European and a weaker
indigenous race, when the two come in contact, is the
sacrifice of the latter. In the Para district, the Indians are
no longer enslaved, but they are deprived of their lands,
and this they feel bitterly, as one of them, an indus-
trious and worthy man, related to me. Is not a similar
state of things now exhibited in New Zealand, between
the Maoris and the English colonists ? It is interesting
to read of the bitter contests that were carried on from
the year 1570 to 1759, between the Portuguese immi-
grants in Brazil, and the Jesuit and other missionaries.
They were similar to those which have recently taken
place in South Africa, between the Boers and the Eng-

Chap. II. BANKS OF TOOLS AND CREEKS. 81

lish missionaries, but they were on a »much larger scale.
The Jesuits, as far as I could glean from tradition and
history, were actuated by the same motives as our mis-
sionaries ; and they seemed like them to have been, in
gi'eat measure, successful in teaching the pure and ele-
vated Christian morality to the simple natives. But the
attempt was vain to protect the weaker race from the
inevitable ruin which awaited it in the natural struggle
with the stronger one ; which, although calling itself
Christian, seemed to have stood in need of missionary
instruction quite as much as the natives themselves. In
1759, the white colonists finally prevailed, the Jesuits
were forced to leave the country, and the 51 happy
mission villages went to ruin. Since then, the aboriginal
race has gone on decreasing in numbers under the treat-
ment which it has received ; it is now, as I have already
stated, protected by the laws of the central government.

On our second visit to the mills, we stayed ten days.
There is a large reservoir and also a natural lake near the
place both containing aquatic plants, whose leaves rest on
the surface like our water lilies, but they are not so ele-
gant as our nymphsea, either in leaf or flower. On the
banks of these pools grow quantities of a species of fan-
leaved palm-tree, the Carana, whose stems are sur-
rounded by whorls of strong spines. I sometimes took
a montaria, and paddled myself alone down the creek.
One day I got upset, and had to land on a gi^assy slope
leading to an old plantation, where I ran about naked
whilst my clothes were being dried on a bush. The
creek Iritiri is not so picturesque as many others which I

82 PAEA. Chap. IL

subsequently explored. Towards the Magoary the banks
at the edge of the water are clothed with mangrove
bushes, and beneath them the muddy banks into w^hich
the long roots that hang down from the fruit before it
leaves the branches strike their fibres, swarm with crabs.
On the lower branches the beautiful bird, Ai'dea helias is
found. This is a small heron of exquisitely graceful shape
and mien ; its plumage is minutely variegated with bars
and spots of many colours, like the wings of certain
kinds of moths. It is difficult to see the bird in the
woods, on account of its sombre colours, and the shadi-
ness of its dwelling-places ; but its note, a soft long-
drawn whistle, often betra3^s its hiding-place. I was
told by the Indians that it builds in trees, and that the
nest, which is made of clay, is beautifully constructed.
It is a favourite pet-bird of the Brazilians, who call it
Pavab (pronounced Pavaong), or peacock. I often had
opportunities of observing its habits. It soon becomes
tame, and walks about the floors of houses picking-up
scraps of food, or catching insects, which it secures by
walking gently to the place where they settle, and
spearing them with its long, slender beak. It allows
itself to be handled by children, and will answer to its
name " Pavad ! Pavao ! " walking up with a dainty,
circumspect gait, and taking a fly or beetle from the
hand.

We made several shorter excursions in the neighbour-
hood. There was a favourite young negro slave named
Hilario (anglicised to Larry), who took an interest in
our pursuit. He paddled me one day over the lake,
where w^e shot a small alligator and several Piosocas

Chai'. II. GUM COPAL. 83

(Parra Jacana), a waterfowl having very long legs and
toes, which give it the appearance of walking on stilts,
as it stalks about, striding from one water-lily leaf to
another. I was surprised to find no coleopterous insects
on the aquatic plants. The situation appeared to be
as favourable for them as possibly could be. In England
such a richly-mantled pool would have yielded an abun-
dance of Donacise, Chrysomelse, Cassidse, and other
beetles ; here I could not find a single specimen. Neither
could I find any water-beetles ; the only exception was
a species of Gyrinus, about the same size as G. natator,
the little shining whirligig-beetle of Europe, which was
seen in small groups in shady corners, spinning round
on the surface of the water precisely as its congener does
in England. The absence of leaf-eating beetles on the
water plants, I afterwards found was general throughout
the country. A few are found on large grasses, and
Marantaceous plants in some places, but these are
generally concealed in the sharp folds of the leaves,
and are almost all very flat in shape.* I, therefore,
conclude that the aquatic plants in oj)en places in
this country are too much exposed to the sun's heat
to admit of the existence of leaf-eating beetles.

Lany told me the Indian names, and enumerated the
properties of a number of the forest trees. One of
these was very interesting — viz., the Jutahi, which
yields the gum cojDal, called by the natives Jutahi-sica.
There are several species of it, as appears at once from

* The species belong to the families Hispidse and Cassidiadte, and to
the genera Cephaloleia, Arescus, Himatidium, Homalispa. Carnivo-
rous beetles, also flat in shape, sometimes accompany them.

g2

84 PAEA. Chap. II.

the nature of the fruit. They belong to the order
Leguminosge : the pods are woody and excessively
hard ; inside they contain a number of beans, enveloped
in a sweet yellowish floury substance, which is eaten by
the inhabitants. The shell burns with a clear flame.
Some of the species have large pods, others small oval
ones, containing only one bean. The trees are amongst
the largest in the forest, growing from 150 to 180 feet
in height : the bark is similar to that of our oak.
The leaves are in pairs, whence arises the botanical
name of the genus, H3rmen8ea. The resin which the
various species produce exudes from wounds or gashes
made in the bark : but I was told that the trees secrete
it also spontaneously from the base of the trunk within,
and that large lumps are found in the earth amongst
the roots when a tree is uprooted by storms. In the
resin, ants and other insects are sometimes embedded,
precisely as they are in amber, which substance the
Jutahi-sica often resembles, at least in colour and
transparency.

During these rambles by land and water we increased
our collections considerably. Before we left the mills
we arranged a joint excursion to the Tocantins. Mr.
Leavens wished to ascend that river to ascertain if the
reports were true, that cedar gre^v abundantly between
the lowermost cataract and the mouth of the Araguaya,
and we agreed to accompany him. Whilst we were at
the mills, a Portuguese trader arrived with a quantity
of worm-eaten logs of this cedar, which he had
gathered from the floating timber in the current of
the main Amazons. The tree producing this wood,

Chap. II. CEDAR-AVOOD. 85

which is named cedar on account of the similarity of
its aroma to that of the tnie cedars, is not, of course, a
coniferous tree, as no member of that class is found in
equatorial America, at least in the Amazons region. It
is, according to Von Martius, the Cedrela odorata, an
exogen belonging to the same order as the mahogany
tree. The wood is light, and the tree is therefore,
on falling into the water, floated down with the river
cuiTents. It must gi'ow in great quantities somewhere
in the interior, to judge from the number of uprooted
trees annually carried to the sea, and as the wood is
much esteemed for cabinet work and canoe buildinof, it
is of some importance to learn where a regular supply
can be obtained. We were glad, of course, to arrange
with Mr. Leavens, who was familiar with the language,
•and an adept in river-navigation ; so we returned to
Para to ship our collections for England, and prepare
for the journey to a new region.

CHAPTER III.

PAEA — concluded.

Religious liolidays— Marmoset monkeys — Serpents— Insects of the
forest— Relations of the Fauna of the Para district ,

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

During the first few weeks of our stay many of those
religious festivals took place, which occupied so -large a
share of the time and thoughts of the people. These
were splendid affairs, wherein artistically-planned pro-
cessions through the streets, accompanied by thousands
of people ; military displays ; the clatter of fireworks,
and the clang of military music, were superadded to
pompous religious services in the churches. To those
who had witnessed similar ceremonies in the Southern
countries of Europe, there would be nothing remarkable
perhaps in these doings, except their taking place

CiiAi'. III. NINE-DAY FESTIVALS. 87

amidst the splendours of tropical nature ; but to me
they were full of novelty, and were besides interesting
as exhibiting much that was peculiar in the manners of
the people. The festivals celebrate either the anni-
versaries of events concerning saints, or those of the
more important transactions in the life of Christ. To
them have been added, since the Independence, many
gala days connected with events in the Brazilian
national history ; but these have all a semi-religious
character. The holidays had become so numerous, and
interfered so much with trade and industry towards the
year 1852, that the Brazilian Government were
obliged to reduce them ; obtaining the necessary per-
mission from Rome to abolish several which were of
minor importance. Many of those which have been
retained are. declining in importance since the intro-
duction of railways and steam boats, and the increased
devotion of the people to commerce ; at the time
of our arrival, however, they were in full glory.
The way they were managed was in this fashion. A
general manager or " Juiz" for each festa was elected
by lot every year in the vestry of the church, and to him
were handed over all the paraphernalia pertaining to
the particular festival which he was chosen to manage ;
the image of the saint, the banners, silver crowns and so
forth. He then employed a number of people to go
the round of the parish and collect alms, towards
defraying the expenses. It was considered that the
gi'eater the amount of money spent in wax candles, fire-
works, music and feasting, the greater the honour done
to the saint. If the Juiz was a ricJi man, he seldom

88 PARA. Chap. III.

sent out alms-gatherers, but celebrated the whole affair
at his own expense, which was sometimes to the extent
of several hundred pounds. Each festival lasted nine days
(a novena), and in many cases refreshments for the public
were provided every evening. In the smaller towns a
ball took place two or three evenings during the novena,
and on the last day there was a grand dinner. The
priest, of course, had to be paid very liberally, especially
for the sermon delivered on the Saint's-day or ter-
mination of the festival, sermons being extra duty in
Brazil.

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

CiiAP. III. RELIGIOUS PEOCESSIONS. 89

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

In the city of Para, the provincial government assists
to augment the splendour of the religious holidays.
The processions which traverse the principal streets
consist, in the first place, of the image of the saint, and
those of several other subordinate ones belononng: to the
same church ; these are borne on the shoulders of re-
spectable householders, who volunteer for the purpose :
sometimes you will see your neighbour the gTocer or the
carpenter groaning under the load. The priest and his

90 PAEA. Chap. III.

crowd of attendants precede the images, arrayed in
embroidered robes, and protected by magnificent sun-
shades— no useless ornament here, for the heat is very
great when the sun is not obscured. On each side of
the long line the citizens walk, clad in crimson silk
cloaks, and holding each a large lighted wax candle.
Behind follows a regiment or two of foot soldiers with
their bands of music, and last of all the crowd : the
coloured people being cleanly dressed and preserving a
grave demeanour. The women are always in great
force, their luxuriant black hair decorated with jas-
mines, white orchids and other tropical flowers. They
are dressed in their usual holiday attire, gauze chemises
and black silk petticoats ; their necks are adorned with
links of gold beads, which when they are slaves are
generally the property of their mistresses, who love
thus to display their wealth.

At night, when festivals are going on in the grassy
squares around the suburban churches, there is really
much to admire. A great deal that is peculiar in the land
and the life of its inhabitants can be seen best at those
times. The cheerful white church is brilliantly lighted up,
and the music, not of a very solemn description, peals
forth from the open windows and doors. Numbers of
young gaudily-dressed negi-esses line the path to the
church doors with stands of liqueurs, sweetmeats, and
cigarettes, which they sell to the outsiders. A short dis-
tance off is heard the rattle of dice-boxes and roulette at
the open-air gambling-stalls. WHien the festival happens
on moonlit nights, the whole scene is very striking to a
new-comer. Around the square are groups of tall palm

CiiAP. III. FESTIVAL OF CORPUS CHRISTI. 91

trees, and beyond it, over the illuminated houses, appear
the thick gi'oves of mangoes near the suburban avenues,
from which comes the perpetual ringing din of insect life.
The soft tropical moonlight lends a wonderful charm to
the whole. The inhabitants are all out, dressed in their
best. The upper classes, who come to enjoy the fine
evening and the general cheerfulness, are seated on
chairs around the doors of friendly houses. There is no
boisterous conviviality, but a quiet enjoyment seems to
be felt every^vhere, and a gentle courtesy rules amongst
all classes and colours. I have seen a splendidly-dressed
colonel, from the President's palace, walk up to a
mulatto, and politely ask his permission to take a light
from his cigar. When the service is over, the church
bells are set rins^inof-, a shower of rockets mounts
upwards, the bands strike up, and parties of coloured
people in the booths begin their dances. About ten
o'clock the Brazilian national air is played, and all
disperse quietly and soberly to their homes.

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

The o^randest of all these festivals is that held in

92 PARA. Chap. III.

honour of Our Lady of Nazareth : it is, I believe,
peculiar to Para. As I have said before, it falls in the
second quarter of the moon, about the middle of the
dry season — that is, in October or November — and lasts,
like the others, nine days. On the first day a very
extensive procession takes place, starting from the
Cathedral, whither the image of the saint had been
conveyed some days previous, and terminating at the
chapel or hermitage, as it is called, of the saint at
Nazareth, a distance of more than two miles. The
whole population turns out on this occasion. All the
soldiers, both of the line and the National Guard, take
part in it, each battalion accompanied by its band of
music. The civil authorities, also, with the President
at their head, and the principal citizens, including many
of the foreign residents, join in the line. The boat of
the shipwrecked Portuguese vessel is carried after the
saint on the shoulders of officers or men of the Brazilian
navy, and along with it are borne the other symbols
of the miracles which Our Lady is supposed to have
performed. The procession starts soon after the sun's
heat begins to moderate— that is, about half-past four
o'clock in the afternoon. When the image is deposited
in the chapel the festival is considered to be inaugurated,
and the village every evening becomes the resort of the
pleasure-loving population, the holiday portion of the
progi-amme being preceded, of course, by a religious
service in the chapel. The aspect of the place is then
that of a fair, witliout the humour and fun, but, at the
same time, without the noise and coarseness of similar
holidays in England. Large rooms are set apart for

CiiAP. III. THE HOLY WEEK. 93

panoramic and other exhibitions, to which the pubHc
is admitted gratis. In the course of each evening, large
displays of fireworks take place, all arranged according
to a published progTamme of the festival.

The various ceremonies which take place during Lent
seemed to me the most impressive, and some of them
were exceedingly well-arranged. The people, both per-
formers and spectators, conduct themselves with more
gravity on these occasions, and there is no holiday-
making. Performances, representing the last events in
the life of Christ, are enacted in the churches or streets,
in such a way as to remind one of the old miracle plays
or mysteries. A few days before Good Friday, a torch-
light procession takes place by night from one church
to another, in which is carried a large wooden image of
Christ bent under the weight of the cross. The chief
members of the Government assist, and the whole slowly
moves to the sounds of muffled drums. A double
procession is managed a few days afterwards. The
image of St. Mary is caiTied in one direction, and that
of the Saviour in another. Both meet in the middle of
one of the most beautiful of the churches, which is pre-
viously filled to excess with the multitudes anxious to
witness the affecting meeting of mother and son a few
days before the crucifixion. The two images are brought
face to face in the middle of the church, the crowd falls
prostrate, and a lachrymose ' sermon is delivered from
the pulpit. The whole thing, as well as many other
spectacles arranged during the few succeeding days, is
highly theatrical, and well calculated to excite the
religious emotions of the people, although, perhaj^s, only

94 PARA. Chap. III.

temporarily. On Good Fridciy the bells do not ring, all
musical sounds are interdicted, and the hours, night and
day, are announced by the dismal noise of wooden
clappers, wielded by negroes stationed near the different
churches. A sermon is delivered in each church. In
the middle of it, a scroll is suddenly unfolded from the
pulpit, on which is an exaggerated picture of the bleeding
Christ. This act is accompanied by loud groans, which
come from stout-lunged individuals concealed in the
vestry and engaged for the purpose. The priest becomes
greatly excited, and actually sheds tears. On one of these
occasions I squeezed myself into the crowd, and watched
the effect of the spectacle on the audience. Old Portu-
guese men and Brazilian women seemed very much
affected — sobbing, beating their breasts, and telling their
beads. The negi'oes behaved themselves with great pro-
priety, but seemed moved more particularly by the pomp,
the gilding, the dresses, and the general display. Young
Brazilians laughed. Several aborigines were there,
coolly looking on. One old Indian, who was standing
near me, said, in a derisive manner, when the sermon
was over, " It's all very good ; better it could not be "
(Esta todo bom ; melhor na5 pude ser).

The negroes of Para are very devout. They have
built, by slow degi'ees, a fine church, as I was told, by
their own unaided exertions. It is called Nossa Senhora
do Rosario, or Our Lady of the Rosary. During the
first weeks of our residence at Para, I frequently
observed a line of negroes and negresses, late at night,
marching along the streets, singing a chorus. Each
carried on his or her head a quantity of building

CHAr. III. MARMOSET MONKEYS. 93

materials — stones, bricks, mortar, or planks. I found
they were chiefly slaves, who, after their hard day's
work, were contributing a little towards the construction
of their church. The materials had all been purchased
by their own savings. The interior was finished about
a year afterwards, and is decorated, I thought, quite as
superbly as the other churches which were constructed,
with far larger means, by the old religious orders more
than a century ago. Annually, the negi'oes celebrate
the festival of Nossa Senhora do Rosario, and generally
make it a complete success.

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

I have akeady mentioned that monkeys were rare in
the immediate vicinity of Para. I met with three
species only in the forest near the city ; they are shy
animals, and avoid the neighbourhood of towns, where
they are subject to much persecution by the inhabitants,
who kill them for food. The only kind which I saw
frequently was the little Midas ursulus, one of the
Marmosets, a family peculiar to tropical America, and
differing in many essential points of structure and
habits from all other apes. They are small in size, and
more like squirrels than true monkeys in their manner
of climbing. The nails, except those of the hind
thumbs, are long and claw-shaped like those of squirrels,
and the thumbs of the fore extremities, or hands, are

96 PAPtA. Chap. III.

not opposable to the other fingers. I do not mean to
convey that they have a near relationship to squirrels,
which belong to the Rodents, an inferior order of mam-
mals ; their resemblance to those animals is merely a
superficial one. They have two molar teeth less in
each jaw than the Cebidse, the other family of American
monkeys ; they agree with them, however, m the sideway
position of the nostrils, a character which distinguishes
both from all the monkeys of the old world. The body
is long and slender, clothed with soft hairs, and the tail,
which is nearly twice the length of the trunk, is not
prehensile. The hind limbs are much larger in volume
than the anterior pair. The Midas ursulus is never
seen in large flocks ; three or four is the greatest number
observed together. It seems to be less afraid of the
neighbourhood of man than any other monkey. I some-
times saw it in the woods which border the suburban
streets, and once I espied two individuals in a thicket
behind the English consul's house at Nazareth. Its mode
of progression along the main boughs of the lofty trees is
like that of squirrels ; it does not ascend to the slender
branches, or take those wonderful flying leaps which
the Cebidae do, whose prehensile tails and flexible hands
fit them for such headlong travelling. It confines itself
to the larger boughs and trunks of trees, the long nails
being of gi-eat assistance to the creature, enabling it to
cling securely to the bark ; and it is often seen passing
rapidly round the perpendicular cylindrical trunks. It
is a quick, restless, timid little creature, and has a
great share of curiosity, for when a person passes by
under the trees along which a flock is nmning, they

(HAP. 111. MARMOSET MONKEYS. 97

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

98 PARA. Chap. III.

sion. Anatomists who have dissected species of Midas
tell us that the brain is of a very low type, as far as
the absence of convolutions goes, the surface being as
smooth as that of a squirrel's. I should conclude, at
once, that this character is an unsafe guide in judging
on the mental qualities of these animals ; in mobility
of expression of countenance, intelligence, and general
manners, these small monkeys resemble the higher
apes far more than they do any E-odent animal with
which I am acquainted.

On the Upper Amazons I once saw a tame individual
of the Midas leoninus, a species first described by
Humboldt, which was still more playful and intelligent
than the one just described. This rare and beautiful
little monkey is only seven inches in length, exclusive
of the tail. It is named leoninus on account of the
long brown mane which depends from the neck, and
which gives it very much the appearance of a diminutive
lion. In the house where it was kept, it was familiar
with every one; its. greatest pleasure seemed to be to
climb about the bodies of different persons who entered.
The first time I went in, it ran across the room straight-
way to the chair on which I had sat down, and climbed
up to my shoulder ; arrived there, it turned round and
looked into my face, showing its little teeth, and
chattering, as though it would say, "Well, and how
do you do ? " It showed more affection towards its
master than towards strangers, and wovild climb up
to his head a dozen times in the course of an hour,
making a great show eveiy time of searching there for
certain animalcula. Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire relates

CiiAi'. ]II. BOA-CONSTRICTORS. 99

of a species of this genus, that it distinguished be-
tween different objects depicted on an engraving. M.
Audouin showed it the portraits of a cat and a wasp ;
at these it became much terrified : whereas, at the
sight of a figure of a grasshopper or beetle, it precipi-
tated itself on the picture, as if to seize the objects
there represented.

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

In the wet season serpents are common in the neigh-
bourhood of Para. One morning, in April, 1849, after a
night of deluging rain, the lamplighter, on his rounds
to extinguish the lamps, knocked me up to show^ me a
boa-constrictor he had just killed in the Rua St. Antonio,

H 2

100 PARA. Chap. III.

not far from my door. He had cut it nearly in two
with a large knife, as it was making its way down the
sandy street. Sometimes the native hunters capture
boa-constrictors alive in the forest near the city. We
bought one which had been taken in this way, and kept
it for some time in a large box under our verandah.
This is not, however, the largest or most formidable
serpent found in the Amazons region. It is far inferior,
in these respects, to the hideous Sucurujti, or Water
Boa (Eunectes murinus), which sometimes attacks man ;
but of this I shall have to give an account in a subse-
quent chapter.

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

Amongst the most curious snakes found here were
the AmphisbsBnae, a genus allied to the slow-worm of
Europe. Several species occur at Para. Those brought

CnAi". III. MOTHER OF THE SAUBAS. 101

to me were generally not much more than a foot in
length. They are of cylindrical shape, having, properly
speaking, no neck, and the blunt tail which is only about
an inch in length, is of the same shape as the head.

Ampliisbaina.

This peculiar form added to their habit of wiiggiing
backwards as well as forwards, has given rise to the
fable that they have two heads, one at each ex-
tremity. They are extremely sluggish in their motions,
and are clothed with scales that have the form of
small imbedded plates arranged in rings round the
body. The eye is so small as to be scarcely perceptible.
They live habitually in the subterranean chambers of
the Saiiba ant ; only coming out of their abodes occa-
sionally in the night time. The natives call the
Amphisbsena the " Mai das Salibas," or Mother of the
Saiibas, and believe it to be poisonous, although it is
perfectly harmless. It is one of the many curious
animals which have become the subject of mythical
stories mth the natives They say the ants treat it with
great affection, and that, if the snake be taken away
from a n^t, the Saiibas will forsake the spot. I once took
one quite whole out of the body of a young Jararaca,
the poisonous species already alluded to, whose body
was so distended with its contents that the skin was
stretched out to a film over the contained Amphis-

102 PARA. Chap. III.

bsena. I was, unfortunately, not able to ascertain the
exact relation which subsists between these curious
snakes and the Saiiba ants. I believe, however, they
feed upon the Saiibas, for I once found remains of
ants in the stomach of one of them. Their motions are
quite peculiar ; the undilatable jaws, small eyes and
curious plated integument also distinguish them from
other snakes. These properties have evidently some
relation to their residence in the subterranean abodes
of ants. It is now well ascertained by naturalists, that
some of the most anomalous forms amongst Coleopterous
insects are those which live solely in the nests of ants,
and it is curious that an abnormal form of snakes should
also be found in the society of these insects.

The neighbourhood of Para is rich in insects. I do not
speak of the quantity of individuals, which is probably
less than one meets with, excepting ants and Termites, in
summer days in temperate latitudes ; but the variety, or
in other words, the number of species is very gi-eat. It
will convey some idea of the diversity of butterflies when
I mention that about 700 species of that tribe are found
within an hour's walk of the town ; whilst the total
number found in the British Islands does not exceed
66, and the whole of Europe supports only 390. Some
of the most showy species, such as the swallow-tailed
kinds, Papilio Polycaon, Thoas, Torquatus, and others,
are seen flying about the streets and gardens ; some-
times they come through the open windows, attracted
by flowers in the apartments. Those species of Papilio
which are most characteristic of the country, so conspi-
cuous in their velvety-black, green, and rose-coloured

Chap. III. MORPHO BUTTERFLIES. 103

hues, which Linnaeus, in pursuance of his elegant system
of nomenclature, — naming the different kinds after the
heroes of Greek mythology, — called Trojans, never leave
the shades of the forest. The splendid metallic blue
Morphos, some of which measure seven inches in
expanse, are generally confined to the shady alleys of
the forest. They sometimes come forth into the broad
sunlight. When we first went to look at our new
residence in Nazareth, a Morpho Menelaus, one of the
most beautiful kinds, was seen flapping its huge wings
like a bird along the verandah. This species, however,
although much admired, looks dull in colour by the
side of its congener, the Morpho Rhetenor, whose
wings, on the upper face, are of quite a dazzling lustre.
Rhetenor usually prefers the broad sunny roads in the
forest, and is an almost unattainable prize, on account
of its lofty flight ; for it very rarely descends nearer
the gi'ound than about twenty feet. When it comes
sailing along, it occasionally flaps its wings, and then
the blue surface flashes in the sunlight, so that it is
visible a quarter of a mile off. There is another
species of this genus, of a satiny-white hue, the Morpho
Eugenia ; this is equally difficult to obtain ; the male
only has the satiny lustre, the female being of a pale-
lavender colour. It is in the height of the dry season
that the gTeatest number and variety of butterflies are
found in the woods ; especially when a shower falls at
intervals of a few days. An infinite number of curious
and rare species may then be taken, most diversified
in habits, mode of flight, colours, and markings : some
yellow, others bright red, gTeen, purple, and blue, and

104 PARA. Chap. III.

many bordered or spangled with metallic lines and
spots of a silvery or golden lustre. Some have wings
transparent as glass ; one of these clear wings is
especially beautiful, namely, the Hetaira Esmeralda ;
it has one spot only of opaque colouring on its wings,
which is of a violet and rose hue ; this is the only
part visible when the insect is flying low over dead
leaves in the gloomy shades where alone it is
found, and it then looks like a wandering petal of a
flower.

Moths also are of great variety at Para ; but most ol
them are diurnal in their time of flight and keep com-
pany with the butterflies. I never succeeded in finding
many moths at night. In situations such as gardens and
wood sides, where so many are to be seen in England,
scarcely a single individual is to be found. I attri-
bute this scarcity of nocturnal moths to the multitude
of night-flying insectivorous animals, chiefly bats and
goat-suckers, which perpetually haunt the places
where they would be found. On the open commons
a moth is seen flying about in broad daylight which
is scarcely distinguishable from the common English
Plusia Gamma. Several times I foand the Erebus
strix expanded over the trunks of trees, to the bark of
which it is assimilated in colour. This is one of the
largest moths known, some specimens measuring nearly
a foot in expanse. Along the narrow paths in the
forests, an immense number of clear-winged moths are
found in the day-time ; mostly coloured like wasps, bees,
ichneumon flies, and other HymenojDterous insects.
Some species of the same family have opaque wings, and

C']iAi'. in. DRAGONFLIES. 105

wear the livery of different species of beetles ; these hold
their wings in repose, in a closed position over their
bodies, so that they look like the wing-cases of the
l)eetles they deceptively imitate.

The Libelhilid^e, or Dragonflies, are almost equally
conspicuous with the butterflies in open, sunny places.
More than a hundred different kinds are found near
Para ; the numerous ditches and pools being, doubtless,
favourable to their increase, for the adolescent states of
the dragonfly are passed in an element different from that
in which the adult exists. The species are not all
confined to open, sunny places. Some are adapted to
live only in the darkest shades of the forest, and these
are, j^erhaps, the most beautiful, being brightly coloured
and more delicate in structure than the others. One
of them, the Chalcopteryx rutilans, is seen only near
the shady rivulets which cross the solitary Magoary
road. Its fore-wings are quite transparent, whilst the
hind-wings have a dark ground-colour, which glitters
with a violet and golden refulgence. All the kinds of
dragonflies wage an unceasing war with day-flying
winged insects, and I am inclined to think that they
commit as much destruction in this way as birds do.
I have often observed them chasing butterflies. They
are not always successful in capturing them, for some
of their intended victims, by a dodging manner of
flight, contrive to escape their clutches. When a
dragonfly seizes its prey, he retires to a tree, and there,
seated on a branch, devours the body at his leisure. The
different species consume gi'eat quantities of small flies,
especially during the brief twilight, when large flocks of

106

PARA.

Chap. III.

the hawk-like creatures congregate to chase them over
the swamps and about the tree-tops.

Bees and wasps are not especially numerous near
Para, and I will reserve an account of their habits for
a future chapter. Many species of Mygale, those mon-
strous hairy spiders, half a foot in expanse, which attract
the attention so much in museums, are found in sandy
places at Nazareth. The different kinds have the most
diversified habits. Some construct, amongst the tiles
or thatch of houses, dens of closely-woven web, which,
in texture, very much resembles fine muslin ; these are
often seen crawling over the walls of apartments. Others
build similar nests in trees, and are known to attack
birds. One very robust fellow, the Mygale Blondii,
burrows into the earth, forming a broad, slanting
gallery, about two feet long, the
sides of which he lines beautifully
with silk. He is nocturnal in his
habits. Just before sunset he
may be seen keeping watch within
the mouth of his tunnel, disap-
pearing suddenly when he hears
a heavy foot-tread near his hid-
ing-place. The number of spiders
ornamented with showy colours
was somewhat remarkable. Some
double themselves up at the base
of leaf-stalks, so as to resemble
flower-buds, and thus deceive the
insects on which they prey. The most extraordinary-
looking spider was a species of Acrosoma, which had two

Acrosoma arcuatiim.

CiiAv. I J I. . GROUND-BEETLES. 107

curved bronze-coloured spines, an inch and a half in
leng-th, proceeding from the tip of its abdomen. It
spins a large web, the monstrous appendages being
apparently no impediment to it in its work ; but what
their use can be I am unable to divine.

Coleoptera, or beetles, at first seemed to be very
scarce. This apparent scarcity has been noticed in other
equatorial countries and arises, probably, from the great
heat of the sun not permitting them to exist in exposed
situations, where they form such conspicuous objects in
Europe. Man}^ hundred species of the different families
can be found, when they are patiently searched for in
the shady places to which they are confined. It is
vain to look for the Geodephaga, or carnivorous beetles,
under stones, or an3r\vhere, indeed, in open, sunny
places. The teiTestrial forms of this interesting family,
which abound in England and temperate countries
generally, are scarce in the neighbourhood of Para, in
fact, I met with only four or five species ; on the other
hand the purely arboreal kinds were rather numerous.
The contrary of this happens in northern latitudes,
where the great majority of the species and genera are
exclusively teiTestrial. The arboreal forms are dis-
tingTiished by the structure of the feet, which have
broad spongy soles and toothed claws enabling them
to climb over and cling to branches and leaves. The
remarkable scarcity of ground beetles is, doubtless,
attributable to the number of ants and Termites which
people every inch of surface in all shady places, and
which would most likely destroy the larvae of Coleop-
tera. These active creatures have the same functions

108 PARA. . Chap. III.

as Coleoptera, and thus render their existence unne-
cessary. The large proportion of climbing forms of
carnivorous beetles is an interesting fact, because it
affords another instance of the arboreal character which
animal forms tend to assume in equinoctial America, a
circumstance which points to the slow adaptation of
the Fauna to a forest-clad country throughout an
immense lapse of geological time.

The large collections which I made of the animal
productions of Para, especially of insects, enabled me to
arrive at some conclusions regarding the relations of
the Fauna of the south side of the Amazons Delta to
those of neighbouring regions. It is generally allowed
that Guiana and Brazil, to the north and south of
the Para district, form two distinct provinces, as regards
their animal and vegetable inhabitants. By this it is
meant that the two regions have a very large number
of forms peculiar to themselves, and which are supposed
not to have been derived from other quarters during
modern geological times. Each may be considered as
a centre of distribution in the latest process of dis-
semination of species over the surface of tropical
America. Para lies midway between the two centres,
each of which has a nucleus of elevated table-land,
whilst the intermediate river-valley forms a wide extent
of low-lying country. It is, therefore, interesting to
ascertain from which the latter received its population, or
whether it contains so large a number of endemic species
as would warrant the conclusion that it is itself an inde-
pendent province. To assist in deciding such questions

Chap. III. FAUNA OF PARA. 109

as these, we must compare closely the species found in
the district with those of the other contiguous regions,
and endeavour to ascertain whether they are identical,
(ir only slightly modified, or whether they are highly
peculiar.

Von Martins, when he visited this part of Brazil
forty years ago, coming from the south, was much
struck with the dissimilarity of the animal and vegetable
productions to those of other parts of Brazil. In fact,
the Fauna of Para, and the lower part of the Amazons, has
no close relationship with that of Brazil proper ; but it
has a very great affinity with that of the coast region of
Guiana, from Cayenne to Demerara. If we may judge
from the results afforded by the study of certain families
of insects, no peculiar Brazilian forms are found in the
Para district ; whilst more than one-half the total
number are essentially Guiana species, being found
nowhere else but in Guiana and Amazonia. Many of
them, however, are modified from the Guiana type, and
about one-seventh seem to be restricted to Para. These
endemic species are not highly peculiar, and they may
be yet found over a great part of Northern Brazil wdien
the country is better explored. They do not warrant us
in concluding that the district forms an independent pro-
vince, although they show that its Fauna is not wholly
derivative, and that the land is probably not entirely a
new formation. From all these facts, I think we must
conclude that the Para district belongs to the Guiana
province, and that, if it is newer land than Guiana, it
must have received the great bulk of its animal popu-
lation from that region. I am informed by Dr. Sclater

110 PARA. Chap. III.

that similar results are derivable from the comparison
of the birds of these countries.

The interesting problem, how has the Amazons Delta
been formed ? receives light through this comparison of
Faunas. Although the portion of Guiana in question is
considerably nearer Para than are the middle and
southern parts of Brazil, yet it is separated from it by two
wide expanses of 'water, which must serve as a barrier to
migration in many cases. On the contrary, the land of
Brazil proper is quite continuous from Rio Janeiro and
Bahia up to Para ; and there are no signs of a barrier
ever having existed between these places within recent
geological epochs. Some of the species common to Para
and Guiana are not found higher up the river where it
is narrower, so they could not have passed round in that
direction. The question here arises, has the mouth of the
Amazons always existed as a barrier to migration since
the present species of the contiguous regions came into
existence ? It is difficult to decide the question ; but
the existing evidence goes far to show that it has not.
If the mouth of the great river, which, for a long
distance, is 170 miles broad, had been originally a wide
gulf, and had become gradually filled up by islands
formed of sediment brought down by the stream, we
vshould have to decide that an effectual barrier had in-
deed existed. But the delta of the Amazons is not an
alluvial formation like those of the Mississippi and the
Nile. The islands in its midst and the margins of both
shores have a foundation of rocks, which lie either bare
or very near the surface of the soil. This is especially
the case towards the sea-coast. In ascending the

i

Chap. III. FORMATION OF AMAZONS DELTA. ill

river southward and south-westward, a gi'eat extent of
country is traversed which seems to have been made up
wholly of river deposit, and here the land lies somewhat
lower than it does on the sea-coast. The rocky and
sandy country of Marajo and other islands of the delta
towards the sea, is so similar in its physical configu-
ration to the opposite mainland of Guiana that Von
Martins concluded the whole might have been formerly
connected, and that the Amazons had forced a way
to the Atlantic through what was, perhaps, a close
series of islands, or a continuous line of low country.

CHAPTEH IV.

THE TOCANTINS AND CAMETA.

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

August 26th, 1848. — ^Mr. Wallace and I started to-
day on the excursion which I have already mentioned
as having been planned with Mr. Leavens, up the river
Tocantins, whose mouth lies about forty-five miles in
a straight line, but eighty miles following the bends
of the river channels, to the south-west of Para. This
river, as before stated, has a course of 1600 miles, and
stands third in rank amongst the streams which form
the Amazons system. The preparations for the jom-ney
took a great deal of time and trouble. We had first to
hire a proper vessel, a two-masted vigilinga twenty-
seven feet long, with a flat prow and great breadth of
beam and fitted to live in heavy seas ; for, although our
voyage was only a river trip, there were vast sea-like
expanses of water to traverse. It was not decked over,
but had two arched awnings formed of strong wicker-
work, and thatched with palm leaves. We had then
to store it with provisions for three months, the time

Chap. IV. THE TOCANTINS AND CAMETA. 113

we at first intended to be away ; procure tlie necessary
passports ; and, lastly, engage a crew. Mr. Leavens,
having had much experience in the country, managed
all these matters. He brought two Indians from the
rice-mills, and these induced another to enrol himself.
We, on our parts, took our cook Isidore, and a young
Indian lad, named Antonio, who had attached himself to
lis in the course of our residence at Nazareth. Our prin-
cipal man was Alexandre, one of Mr. Leavens's Indians.
He was an intelligent and well-disposed young Tapuyo,
an expert sailor, and an indefatigable hunter. To his
fidelity we were indebted for being enabled to carry
out any of the objects of our voyage. Being a native
of a district near the capital, Alexandre was a
civilized Tapuyo, a citizen as free as his white neigh-
bours. He spoke only Portuguese. He was a spare-
built man, rather under the middle height, with fine
regular features, and, what was unusual in Indians,
the upper lip decorated with a moustache. Three years
afterwards I saw him at Para in the uniform of the
National Guard, and he called on me often to talk
about old times. I esteemed him as a quiet, sensible,
manly young feUow.

We set sail in the evening, after waiting several
hours in vain for one of our crew. It was soon dark,
the wind blew stiffly, and the tide rushed along with
great rapidity, carrying us swiftly past the crowd of
vessels which were anchored in the port. The canoe
rolled a good deal. After we had made five or six
miles of way the tide turned, and we were obHged
to cast anchor. Not long after, we lay ourselves dowTi

VOL. I. I

114 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

all three together on the mat, which was spread over
the floor of our cabin, and soon fell asleep.

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

OiiAV. IV. ANAPU CHANNEL. 115

portable. We reached the end of the Goajara about
midday, and then entered the narrower channel of the
Mojii. Up this we travelled, partly rowing and partly
sailing between the same unbroken walls of forest, until
the morning of the 28th.

August 29th. — The Moju, a stream little inferior to
the Thames in size, is connected about 20 miles from
its mouth by means of a short artificial canal mth a
small stream, the Igarape-mirim, which flows the
opposite way into the water-system of the Tocantins.
Small vessels like ours take this route in preference to
the stormy passage by way of the main river, although
the distance is considerably greater. We passed through
the canal yesterday, and to-day have been threading our
way through a labj^i-inth of narrow channels ; their banks
all clothed with the same magnificent forest ; but
agTeeably varied by houses of planters and settlers.
We passed many quite large establishments, besides
one pretty little village, called Santa Anna. All these
channels are" washed through by the tides, — the ebb,
contrary to what takes place in the short canal, setting
towards the Tocantins. The water is almost tepid
(77° Fahr.), and the rank vegetation all around seems
reeking with moisture. The country however, as we
were told, is perfectly healthy. Some of the houses
are built on wooden piles driven into the mud of the
swamp.

In the afternoon we reached the end of the last
channel, called the Anapu, which runs for several miles
between two unbroken lines of fan-leaved palms,
forming with their straight stems colossal palisades.

I 2

116 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

On rounding a point of land we came in full view of
the Tocantins. The event was announced by one of
our Indians, who was on the look-out at the prow,
shouting, " La esta o Parana-uassu ! " " Behold, the
great river ! " It was a grand sight — a broad expanse
of dark waters dancing merrily to the breeze ; the
opposite shore, a narrow blue line, miles away.

We went ashore on an island covered with palm-
trees, to make a fire and boil our kettle for tea. I
wandered a short way inland, and was astounded at
the prospect. The land lay below the upper level of
the daily tides, so that there was no underwood, and
the ground was bare. The trees were almost all of
one species of Palm, the gigantic fan-leaved Mauritia
flexuosa ; on the borders only was there a small
number of a second kind, the equally remarkable
Ubussti palm, Manicaria saccifera. The Ubussu has
erect, uncut leaves, twenty-five feet long, and six feet
wide, all arranged round the top of a four-feet high
stem, so as to form a figure like that 'of a colossal
shuttlecock. The fan-leaved palms, which clothed
nearly the entire islet, had huge cylindrical smooth
stems, three feet in diameter, and about a hundred feet
high. The crowns were formed of enormous clusters
of fan-shaped leaves, the stalks alone of which measured
seven to ten feet in length. Nothing in the vegetable
world could be more imposing than this grove of
palms. There was no underwood to obstmct the view
of the long perspective of towering columns. The
crowns, which were densely packed together at an
immense height overhead, shut out the rays of the

CuAP. IV. CAMETA. 117

sun ; and the gloomy solitude beneath, through which
the sound of our voices seemed to reverberate, could be
compared to nothing so well as a solemn temple. The
fruits of the two palms were scattered over the ground ;
those of the Ubussu adhere together by twos and threes,
and have a rough, brown-coloured shell ; the fruit of the
Mauritia, on the contrary, is of a bright red hue, and the
skin is impressed with deep crossing lines, which give
it a resemblance to a quilted cricket-ball.

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

The river view from Cameta is magnificent. The
town is situated, as already mentioned, on a high bank,
which forms quite a considerable elevation for this flat
country, and the broad expanse of dark-green waters is
studded with low, palm-clad islands, the prospect down
river, however, being clear, or bounded only by a sea-
like horizon of water and sky. The shores are
washed by the breeze-tossed waters into little bays and
creeks, fringed with sandy beaches. The Tocantins has

118 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

been likened, by Prince Adalbert of Prussia, who
crossed its mouth in 1846, to the Ganges. It is
upwards of ten miles in breadth at its mouth ; opposite
Cameta it is five miles broad. Mr. Burchell, the well-
known English traveller, descended the river from the
mining provinces of interior Brazil some years before
our visit. Unfortunately, the utility of this fine stream
is impaired by the numerous obstructions to its navi-
gation in the shape of cataracts and rapids, which
commence, in ascending, at about 120 miles above
Cameta, as will be seen in the sequel.

Aug. SOth. — Arrived, in company with Senhor
Laroque, an intelligent Portuguese merchant, at Vista
Alegre, fifteen miles above Cameta. This was the resi-
dence of Senhor Antonio Ferreira Gomez, and was a fair
sample of a Brazilian planter's establishment in this part
of the country. The buildings covered a wide space,
the dwelling-house being separated from the place of
business, and as both were built on low, flooded ground,
the communication between the two was by means of
a long wooden bridge. From the 'office and visitors'
apartments a wooden pier extended into the river. The
whole was raised on piles above high-water mark. There
was a rude mill for grinding sugar-cane, worked by
bullocks, but caslia9a, or rum, was the only article manu-
factured from the juice. Behind the buildings was a small
piece of ground cleared from the forest, and planted with
frLiit-trees, orange, lemon, genipapa, goyava, and others ;
and beyond this, a broad path through a neglected
plantation of coffee and cacao, led to several large sheds,
where the farinha, or mandiocca meal, was manufactured.

Chap. IV. THE CIGANA FOWL. 119

The plantations of mandiocca are always scattered about
in the forest, some of them being on islands in the
middle of the river. Land being plentiful, and the
plough, as well as, indeed, nearly all other agricultural
implements, unknown, the same ground is not planted
three years together ; but a new piece of forest is cleared
every alternate year, and the old clearing suffered to
relapse into jungle.

We stayed here two days, sleeping ashore in the
apartment devoted to strangers. As usual in Brazilian
houses of the middle class, we were not introduced to
the female members of the family, and, indeed, saw
nothing of them except at a distance. In the forest
and thickets about the place we were tolerably suc-
cessful in collecting, finding a number of birds and
insects which do not occur at Para. I saw here, for the
first time, the sky-blue Chatterer (Ampelis cotinga). It
was on the topmost bough of a very lofty tree, and com-
pletely out of the reach of an ordinary fowling-piece.
The beautiful light-blue colour of its plumage was
plainly discernible at that distance. It is a dull, quiet
bird. A much commoner species was the Cigana or Gipsy
(Opisthocomus cristatus), a bird belonging to the same
order, Gallinacea, as our domestic fowl. It is about the
size of a pheasant ; the plumage is dark bro^vn, varied
with reddish, and the head is adorned with a crest of long
feathers. It is a remarkable bird in many respects. The
hind toe is not placed high above the level of the other
toes, as it is in the fowl-order generally, but lies on the
same plane with them ; the shape of the foot becomes
thus suited to the purely arboreal habits of the bird, en-

120 THE TOCANTIIv^S. Chap. IV.

abling it to grasp firmly the branches of trees. This is a
distinguishing character of all the birds in equinoctial
America which represent the fowl and pheasant tribes of
the old world, and affords another proof of the adaptation
of the Fauna to a forest region. The Cigana lives in
considerable flocks on the lower trees and bushes bor-
dering the streams and lagoons, and feeds on various
wild fruits, especially the sour Goyava (Psidium sp.).
The natives say it devours the fruit of arborescent
Arums (Caladium arborescensj, which grow in crowded
masses around the swampy banks of lagoons. Its voice
is a harsh, grating hiss ; it makes the noise when
alarmed, all the individuals sibilating as they fly heavily
away from tree to tree, when disturbed by passing
canoes. It is polygamous, like other members of the
same order. It is never, however, by any chance^ seen
on the ground, and is nowhere domesticated. The flesh
has an unpleasant odour of musk combined with wet
hides — a smell called by the Brazilians catinga ; it is,
therefore, uneatable. If it be as unpalateable to car-
nivorous animals as it is to man, the immunity from
persecution which it would thereby enjoy would account
for its existing in such great numbers throughout the
country.

A great number of the insects which we found
here were different from those of Para. Species charac-
teristic of the one locality were replaced by allied species
in the other, a fact which would tend to the conclusion
that the Tocantins serves, to some extent, as a barrier
to migration. This was especially the case with the
Papilios of the group which wear a livery of black,

Chap. IV. THE IGUANA. 121

green, and red. P. Echelus of this group, which is so
common at Par^, was here absent, and its place supplied
by the closely related P. ^neides. Both have the same
habits, and seem to fill similar spheres in the natural
economy of the two districts. Another handsome but-
terfly taken here was a member of the Erycinidas family,
the Alesa Prema, which is of a dazzling emerald-green
colour chequered with black. I caught here a young
Iguana ; Iguanas, however, are extremely common
everywhere throughout the country. They are espe-
cially numerous in the neighbourhood of villages, where
they climb about fruit-trees overrun with creepers. The
eggs, which are oblong, and about an inch and a half in
length, are laid in hollow trees, and are very pleasant
eating taken raw and mixed with farinha. The colour
of the skin in the Iguana changes like that of the
chameleon ; in fact, it is called chameleon by the
Portuguese. It grows to a length of five feet, and be-
comes enormously fat. This lizard is interesting to
English readers on account of its relationship to the
colossal fossil reptile of the Wealden, the Iguanodon.
The Iguana is one of the stupidest animals I ever met
with. The one I caught dropped helplessly from a
tree just ahead of me ; it turned round for a moment
to have an idiotic stare at the intruder, and then set off
running along the pathway. I ran after it, and it then
stopped as a timid dog would do, crouching down, and
permitting me to seize it by the neck and carry it off.

We lost here another of our crew ; and thus, at the
commencement of our voyage, had before us the prospect

122 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

of being forced to return, from sheer want of hands to
manage the canoe. Senhor Gomez, to whom we had
brouofht letters of introduction from Senhor Joa5
Augusto Correia, a BraziHan gentleman of high standing
at Para, tried what he could do to induce the canoe-men
of his neighbourhood to engage with us, but it was a
vain endeavour. The people of these parts seemed to
be above working for wages. They are naturally in-
dolent, and besides, have all some little business or
plantation of their own, which gives them a livelihood
with independence. It is difficult to obtain hands
under any circumstances, but it was particularly so in
our case, from being foreigners, and suspected, as was
natural amongst ignorant people, of being strange in
our habits. At length, our host lent us two of his slaves
to help us on another stage, namely, to the village of
Baiao, where we had great hopes of having this, our
urgent want, supplied by^the military commandant of
the district.

Sept 2nd. — The distance from Yista Alegi-e to Baia5
is about twenty-five miles. We had but little wind, and
our men were therefore obliged to row the greater part
of the way. The oars used in such canoes as ours are
made by tying a stout paddle to the end of a long pole
by means of woody lianas. The men take their stand
on a raised deck, formed by a few rough planks placed
over the arched covering in the fore part of the vessel,
and pull with their back to the stern. We started at
6 a.m., and about sunset reached a point where the west
channel of the river, along which Ave had been travelling
since we left Cameta, joined a broader middle one, and

Chap. IV.

ASSAl PALM.

123

/#'

formed with it a great expanse of water,
here seem to form
two pretty regu-
lar Hnes, dividing
the great river
into three chan-
nels. As we pro-
gressed slowly, we took the
montaria, and went ashore,
from time to time, to the
houses, which were numerous
on the river banks as well as
on the larger islands. In low
situations they had a very unfi-
nished appearance, being mere
frameworks raised high on
wooden piles, and thatched
with the leaves of the XJbussu
palm. In their construction
another palm-tree is made much
use of, viz., the Assai (Euterpe
oleracea). The outer part of
the stem of this species is
hard and tough as horn ; it is
split into narrow planks, and
these form a great portion of
the walls and flooring. The
residents told us that the west-
ern channel becomes nearly dry
in the middle of the fine season,
but that at high water, in April

The islands

;sv*^;^

Assai Palm (Euterpe oleracea).

124 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

and May, the river rises to the level of the house-
floors. The river bottom is everywhere sandy, and
the country perfectly healthy. The people seemed
to be all contented and happy, but idleness and po-
verty were exhibited by many unmistakeable signs.
As to the flooding of their island abodes, they did not
seem to care about that at all. They seem to be
almost amphibious, or as much at home on the water
as on land. It wa^ really alarming to see men and
women and children, in little leaky canoes laden to
the water-level with bag and baggage, crossing broad
reaches of river. Most of them have houses also on
the terra firma, and reside in the cool palm-swamps of
the Ygapo islands, as they are called, only in the hot and
dry season. They live chiefly on fish, shellfish (amongst
which were large Ampullarise, whose flesh I found,
on trial, to be a very tough morsel), the never-failing
farinha, and the fruits of the forest. Amongst the latter
the fruits of palm-trees occupied the chief place. The
Assai is the most in use, but this forms a universal article
of diet in all parts of the country. The fruit, which is
perfectly round, and about the size of a cherry, contains
but a small portion of pulp lying between the skin and the
hard kernel. This is made, with the addition of water,
into a thick, violet-coloured beverage, which stains the
lips like blackberries. The fruit of the Miriti is also
a common article of food, although the pulp is sour and
unpalatable, at least to European tastes. It is boiled,
and then eaten with f^irinha. The Tucuma (Astro-
caryum tucuma), and the Mucuja (Acrocomia lasio-
spatha), grow only on the main land. Their fruits yield

CiiAP. IV. RAIAO. 125

a yellowish, fibrous pulp, which the natives eat in the
same way as the Miriti. They contain so much fatty
matter, that vultures and dogs devour them greedily.

Early on the morning of September .3rd we reached
the right or eastern bank, which is here from forty to
sixty feet high. The houses were more substantially
built than those we had hitherto seen. We succeeded
in buying a small turtle ; most of the inhabitants had a
few of these animals, which they kept in little inclo-
sures made with stakes. The people were of the same
class everywhere, Mamelucos. They were very civil ;
we were not able, however, to purchase much fresh food
from them. I think this was owing to their really
not having more than was absolutely required to
satisfy their own needs. In these districts, where
the people depend for animal food solely on fishing,
there is a period of the year when they suffer hun-
ger, so that they are disposed to prize highly a small
stock when they have it. They generally answered in
the negative when we asked, money in hand, whether
they had fowls, turtles, or eggs to sell. " Nao ha, sinto
que nao posso Ihe ser bom ;" or, " Na5 ha, meu coracad"
" We have none ; I am sorry I cannot oblige you ;" or,
" There is none, my heart."

Sept. Srd to 7th. — At half-past eight a.m. we arrived
at Baia5, which is built on a very high bank, and con-
tains about 400 inhabitants. We had to climb to the
village up a ladder, which is fixed against the bank,
and, on arriving at the top, took possession of a
room, which Senhor Seixas had given orders to be pre-
pared for us. He himself was away at his sitio, and

126 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

would not be here until the next day. We were now
quite dependent on him for men to enable us to con-
tinue our voyage, and so had no remedy but to wait his
leisure. The situation of the place, and the nature of
the woods around it, promised well for novelties in birds
and insects ; so we had no reason to be vexed at the
delay, but brought our apparatus and store-boxes up
from the canoe, and set to work.

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

Chap. IV. AVOODS AROUND BAIAO. 127

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

The prospect from the village was magnificent, over
the green wooded islands, far away to the grey line of
forest on the opposite shore of the Tocantins. We
were now well out of the low alluvial country of the
Amazons proper, and the climate was evidently much
drier than it is near Para. They had had no rain here for
many weeks, and the atmosphere was hazy around the
horizon ; so much so that the sun, before setting, glared
like a blood-red globe. At Para this never happens ;
the stars and sun are as clear and sharply defined when
they peep above the distant tree-tops as they are at the
zenith. This beautiful transparency of the air arises,
doubtless, from the equal distribution through it of in-
visible vapour. I shall ever remember, in one of my
voyages along the Para river, the grand spectacle that
was once presented at sunrise. Our vessel was a large
schooner, and we were bounding along before a spanking
breeze which tossed the waters into foam, when the day
dawned. So clear was the air, that the lower rim of
the full moon remained sharply defined until it touched
the western horizon, whilst, at the same time, the sun
rose in the east. The two great orbs were visible at the
same time, and the passage from the moonlit night to day
was so gentle, that it seemed to be only the brightening
of dull weather. The woods around Baia5 were of
second growth, the ground having been formerly culti-
vated. A great number of coffee and cotton trees grew
amongst the thickets. A fine woodland pathway extends
for miles over the high, undulating bank, leading from

128 THE TOCANTINS. . Chap. IV.

one house to another along the edge of the cliff. I went
into several of them, and talked to their inmates. They
were all poor people. The men were out fishing, some far
away, a distance of many days' journey ; the women
plant mandiocca, make the farinha, spin and weave
cotton, manufacture soap of burnt cacao shells and
andiroba oil, and follow various other domestic employ-
ments. I asked why they allowed their plantations to
run to waste. They said that it was useless trying to
plant anything hereabout ; the Saiiba ant devoured the
young coffee-trees, and every one who attempted to
contend against this universal ravager was sure to be
defeated. The country, for many miles along the banks
of the river, seemed to be well peopled. The inhabi-
tants were nearly all of the tawny-white Mameluco class.
I saw a good many mulattos, but very few negroes and
Indians, and none that could be called pure whites.

When Senhor Seixas arrived, he acted very kindly.
He provided us at once with two men, killed an ox in
our honour, and treated us altogether with gi^eat consi-
deration. We were not, however, introduced to his
family. I caught a glimpse once of his wife, a pretty
little Mameluco woman, as she was tripping with a
young girl, whom I supposed to be her daughter, across
the back yard. Both wore long dressing-gowns, made
of bright-coloured calico print, and had long wooden
tobacco-pipes in their mouths. The room in which we
slept and worked had formerly served as a storeroom
for cacao, and at night I was kept awake for hours by
rats and cockroaches, which swarm in all such places.
The latter were running about all over the walls ;

Chap. IY. VOYAGE EESUMED. 129

now and then one would come suddenly with a whirr
full at my face, and get under my shirt if I attempted
to jerk it off. As to the rats, they were chasing one
another by dozens all night long, over the floor, up and
down the edges of the doors, and along the rafters of the
open roof

September 7th. — We started from Baia5 at an early
hour. One of our new men was a good-humoured, willing
young mulatto, named Jose ; the other was a sulky
Indian called Manoel, who seemed to have been pressed
into our service against his will. Senhor Seixas, on
parting, sent a quantity of fresh provisions on board. A
few miles above Baiao the channel became very shallow ;
we got aground several times, and the men had to dis-
embark and shove the vessel off. Alexandro here
shot several fine fish, with bow and arrow. It was the
first time I had seen fish captured in this way. The
arrow is a reed, with a steel barbed point, which is fixed
in a hole at the end, and secured by fine twine made
from the fibres of pine-apple leaves. It is only in the
clearest water that fish can be thus shot ; and the only
skill required is to make, in taking aim, the proper
allowance for refraction.

The next day before sunrise a fine breeze sprung up,
and the men awoke and set the sails. We glided all
day through channels between islands with long, white,
sandy beaches, over which, now and then, aquatic and
wading birds were seen running. The forest was low,
and had a harsh, dry aspect. Several palm trees gi'ew
here which we had not before seen. On low bushes,
near the water, pretty, red-headed tanagers (Tanagra

130 THE TOCANTmS. Chap. IV.

gularis) were numerous, flitting about and chirping like
sparrows. About half-past four p.m., we brought to at
the mouth of a creek or channel, where there was a
great extent of sandy beach. The sand had been blown
by the wind into ridges and undulations, and over the
moister parts large flocks of sandpipers were running
about. Alexandro and I had a long ramble over the
rolling plain, which came as an agreeable change after
the monotonous forest scenery amid which we had
been so long travelling. He pointed out to me the
tracks of a huge jaguar on the sand. We found here,
also, our first turtle's nest, and obtained 120 eggs from
it, which were laid at a depth of nearly two feet from
the surface, the mother first excavating a hole, and
afterwards covering it up with sand. The place is
discoverable only by following the tracks of the turtle
from the water. I saw here an alligator for the first
time, which reared its head and shoulders above the
water just after I had taken a bath near the spot. The
night was calm and cloudless, and we employed the
hours before bed-time in angling by moonlight.

On the 10th we reached a small settlement called
Patos, consisting of about a dozen houses, and built on a
high, rocky bank, on the eastern shore. The rock is
the same nodular conglomerate which is found at so
many places, from the sea-coast to a distance of 600
miles up the Amazons. Mr. Leavens made a last
attempt here to engage men to accompany us to the
Araguaya ; but it was in vain ; not a soul could be
induced by any amount of wages to go on such an
expedition. The reports as to the existence of cedar

Chap. IV. TIC-NIC PARTY. 131

were very vague. All said that the tree was plentiful
somewhere, but no one could fix on the precise locality.
I believe that the cedar grows, like all other forest trees,
in a scattered way, and not in masses anywhere. The
fact of its being the principal tree observed floating
down with the current of the Amazons is to be explained
by its wood being much lighter than that of the majority
of trees. Wlien the banks are washed away by currents,
trees of all species fall into the river ; but the heavier
ones, which are the most numerous, sink, and the
lighter, such as the cedar, alone float do^vn to the
sea.

Mr. Leavens was told that there were cedar trees at
Trocara, on the opposite side of the river, near some
fine rounded hills covered with forest, visible from Patos ;
so there we went. We found here several families
encamped in a delightful spot. The shore sloped gi'a-
dually down to the water, and was shaded by a few
wide-spreading trees. There was no underwood. A
great number of hammocks were seen slung between
the tree-trunks, and the litter of a numerous house-
hold lay scattered about. AVomen, old and young, some
of the latter very good-looking, and a large number of
children, besides pet animals, enlivened the encampment.
They were all half-breeds, simple, well-disposed people,
and explained to us that they were inhabitants of
Cameta, who had come thus far, eighty miles, to spend
the summer months. ' The only motive they could give
for coming was, that " it was so hot in the town in the
verao (summer), and they were all so fond of fresh fish."
Thus these simple folks think nothing of leaving home

K 2

132 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

and business to come on a three months' pic-nic. It is the
annual custom of this class of people throughout the
province to spend a few months of the fine season in the
wilder parts of the country. They carry with them all
the farinha they can scrape together, this being the
only article of food necessary to provide. The men
hunt and fish for the day's wants, and sometimes
collect a little India-rubber, sarsaparilla, or copaiba
oil, to sell to traders on their return ; the women
assist in paddling the canoes, do the cooking, and
sometimes fish with rod and line. The weather is
enjoyable the whole time, and so days and weeks
pass happily away.

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

At Patos we stayed three days. In the woods, we
found a number of conspicuous insects new to us.
Three species of Pieris were the most remarkable. We
afterwards learnt that they occurred also in Venezuela
and in the south of Brazil ; but they are quite unknown
in the alluvial plains of the Amazons. We saw, for the

Chap. IV. ALTERATION OF PLANS. 133

first time, the splendid Hyacinthine macaw (Macrocercus
hyacinthinus, Lath., the Araruna of the natives), one of
the finest and rarest species of the Parrot family. It
only occurs in the interior of Brazil, from 16° S. lat. to
the southern border of the Amazons valley. It is three
feet long from the beak to the tip of the tail, and is
entirely of a soft hyacinthine blue colour, except round
the eyes, where the skin is naked and white. It flies in
pairs, and feeds on the hard nuts of several palms, but
especially of the Mucuja (Acrocomialasiospatha). These
nuts, which are so hard as to be difficult to break with
a heavy hammer, are crushed to a pulp by the powerful
beak of this macaw.

Mr. Leavens was thoroughly disgusted with the
people of Patos. Two men had come from below with
the intention, I believe, of engaging with us, but they
now declined. The inspector, constable, or governor
of the place appeared to be a very slippery customer,
and I fancy discouraged the men from going, whilst
making a great show of forwarding our views. These
outlying settlements are the resort of a number of idle
worthless characters. There was a kind of festival
going on, and the people fuddled themselves with
caxiri, an intoxicating drink invented by the Indians.
It is made by soaking mandioca cakes in water until
fermentation takes place, and tastes like new beer.

Being unable to obtain men, Mr. Leavens now gave
up his project of ascending the river as far as the
Araguaya. He assented to our request, however, to
ascend to the cataracts near Arroyos. We started
therefore from Patos with a more definite aim before

134 THE TOCANTIN'S. Chap. IV.

us than we had hitherto had. The river became more
picturesque as we advanced. The water was very low,
it being now the height of the dry season ; the islands
were smaller than those further down, and some of them
were high and rocky. Bold wooded bluffs projected into
the stream, and all the shores were fringed with beaches
of glistening white sand. On one side of the river there was
an extensive grassy plain or campo with isolated patches
of trees scattered over it. On the 14th and following
day we stopped several times to ramble ashore. Our
longest excursion was to a lai'ge shallow lagoon, choked up
Avith aquatic j^lants, which lay about two miles across
the campo. At a place called Juquerapua we en-
gaged a pilot to conduct us to Arroyos, and a few
miles above the pilot's house, arrived at a point
where it was not possible to advance further in our
large canoe on account of the raj^ids.

September IQth. Embarked at six a.m. in a large
montaria which had been lent to us for this part of our
voyage by Senhor Seixas, leaving the vigilinga anchored
close to a rocky islet, named Santa Anna, to await our
return. Isidore was left in charge, and we were sorry
to be obliged to leave behind also our mulatto Jos^ who
had fallen ill since leaving Baiao. We had then re-
maining only Alexandre, Manoel, and the pilot, a sturdy
Tapuyo named Joaquim ; scarcely a sufficient crew to
paddle against the strong currents.

At ten a.m. we arrived at the first rapids, which are
called Tapaiunaquara. The river, which was here
about a mile wide, was choked up with rocks, a broken
ridge passing completely across it. Between these

Chap. IV. GUARIBAS FALLS. 1.35

confused piles of stone the currents were fearfully
strong and formed numerous eddies and whirlpools.
We were obliged to get out occasionally and walk
from rock to rock, whilst the men dragged the canoe
over the obstacles. Beyond Tapaiunaquara, the
stream became again broad and deep, and the river
scenery was beautiful in the extreme. The water was
clear and of a bluish-gi'een colour. On both sides
of the stream stretched ranges of wooded hills, and in
the middle picturesque islets rested on the smooth
water, whose brilliant gTeen woods fringed with palms
formed charming bits of foreground to the perspective
of sombre hills fading into grey in the distance. Joa-
quim pointed out to us grove after grove of Brazil nut
trees (Bertholletia excelsa) on the mainland. This
is one of the chief collecting grounds for this nut.
The tree is one of the loftiest in the forest, towering
far above its fellows ; we could see the woody fruits,
large and round as cannon-balls, dotted over the
branches. The currents were very strong in some
places, so that during the gi'eater part of the way the
men preferred to travel near the shore, and propel the
boat by means of long poles.

We arrived at Arroyos about four o'clock in the
afternoon, after ten hours' hard pull. The place consists
simply of a few houses built on a high bank, and forms
a station where canoe-men from the mining countries
of the interior of Brazil stop to rest themselves before
or after surmounting the dreaded falls and rapids of
Guaribas, situated a couple of miles further up. We
dined ashore, and in the evening again embarked to

136 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

visit the falls. The vigorous and successful way in which
our men battled with the terrific currents excited our
astonishment. The bed of the river, here about a mile
wide, is strewn with blocks of various sizes, which lie in
the most irregular manner, and between them rush cur-
rents of more or less rapidity. With an accurate know-
ledge of the place and skilful management, the falls can
be approached in small canoes by threading the less
dangerous channels. The main fall is about a quarter
of a mile wide ; we climbed to an elevation overlooking
it, and had a good view of the cataract. A body of
water rushes with terrific force down a steep slope,
and boils up with deafening roar around the boulders
which obstruct its course. The wildness of the whole
scene was very impressive. As far as the eye could
reach, stretched range after range of wooded hills,
scores of miles of beautiful wilderness, inhabited only
by scanty tribes of wild Indians. In the midst of such
a solitude the roar of the cataract seemed fitting music.

September I7th. We commenced early in the morn-
ing our downward voyage. Arroyos is situated in about
4° 10' S. lat ; and lies, therefore, about 130 miles from
the mouth of the Tocantins. Fifteen miles above
Guaribas another similar cataract called Tabocas lies
across the river. We were told that there were in
all fifteen of these obstructions to navigation between
Arroyos and the mouth of the Araguaya. The worst
was the Inferno, the Guaribas standing second to it
in evil reputation. Many canoes and lives have been
lost here, most of the accidents arising through the

Chap. IV. SEARCH FOR DIAMONDS. 137

vessels being hurled against an enormous cubical mass
of rock called the Guaribinha, which we, on our trip
to the falls in the small canoe, passed round with the
gTeatest ease about a quarter of a mile below the main
falls. This, however, was the dry season ; in the time
of full waters a tremendous cun-ent sets against it.
We descended the river rapidly, and found it excellent
fun shooting the rapids. The men seemed to delight
in choosing the swiftest parts of the current ; they
sang and yelled in the greatest excitement, Avork-
ing the paddles with great force, and throwing clouds
of spray above us as we bounded downwards. We
stopped to rest at the mouth of a rivulet named
Caganxa. The pilot told us that gold has been found
in the bed of this brook ; so we had the curiosity to
wade several hundred yards through the icy cold waters
in search of it. Mr. Leavens seemed very much inte-
rested in the matter ; he picked up all the shining
stones he could espy in the pebbly bottom, in hopes of
finding diamonds also. There is, in fact, no reason why
both gold and diamonds should not be found here,
the hills being a continuation of those of the mining
countries of interior Brazil, and the brooks flowing
through the narrow valleys between them.

On arriving at the place where we had left our
canoe, we found poor Jose the mulatto much worse,
so we hastened on to Juquerapua to procure aid. An
old half-caste woman took charge of him; she made
poultices of the pulp of a wild fruit, administered
cooling draughts made from herbs which grew near the
house, and in fact acted the part of nurse admirably.

138 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

We stayed at this place all night and part of the
following day, and I had a stroll along a delightful
23athway, which led over hill and dale, two or three
miles through the forest. I was surprised at the
number and variety of brilliantty-coloured butter-
flies ; they were all of small size, and started forth at
every step I took, from the low bushes which bordered
the road. I first heard here the notes of a trogon ; it
was seated alone on a branch, at no great elevation ; a
beautiful bird, with glossy-green back and rose-coloured
breast (probably Trogon melanurus). At intervals it
uttered, in a complaining tone, a sound resembling the
words " qua, qua." It is a dull inactive bird, and not
very ready to take flight when approached. In this
respect, how^ever, the trogons are not equal to the
jacamars, whose stupidity in remaining at their posts,
seated on low branches in the gloomiest shades of the
forest, is somewhat remarkable in a country where all
other birds are exceedingly wary. One species of
jacamar was not uncommon here (Galbula viridis) ;
I sometimes saw two or three together seated on a
slender branch silent and motionless with the excep-
tion of a slight movement of the head ; when an insect
flew past within a short distance, one of the birds would
dart off, seize it, and return again to its sitting place.
The trogons are found in the tropics of both hemi-
spheres ; the jacamars, which are clothed in plumage of
the most beautiful golden-bronze and steel colours, are
peculiar to tropical Ameiica.

September 18th. We stayed only twenty-four hours at
Juquerapua, and then resumed our downward journey.

Chap. IY. JUQUEEAPUA. 139

I was sorry to be obliged to leave this beautiful, though
almost uninhabited, country so soon, our journey
through it having been a mere tourist's gallop. Its
vegetable and animal productions, of which we had
obtained merely a glimpse, so to speak, were evidently
different from those of the alluvial plains of the
Amazons. The time we had spent, however, was too
short for making a sufficient collection of specimens and
facts to illustrate the amount and nature of the differ-
ence between the two faunas : a subject of no small
importance as being calculated to throw light on the
migrations of species across the equator in South
America. In the rocky pools near Juquerapua we
found many species of fresh-water shells, and each of us,
Mr. Leavens included, made a large collection of them.
One was a turret-shaped univalve, a species of Melania,
every specimen of which was worn at the apex ; we
tried in vain to get a perfect specimen. In the crystal
waters the fishes could be seen as plainly as in an
aquarium. One kind especially attracted our attention,
a species of Diodon, which was not more than three inches
long and of a pretty green colour banded with black ;
the natives call it Mamayacu. It is easily caught, and
when in the hand distends itself, becoming as round as a
ball. This fish amuses the people very much ; when
a person gets corpulent, they tell him he is as fat as a
Mamayacu.

At night I slept ashore as a change from the con-
finement of the canoe, having obtained permission
from Senhor Joaquim to sling my hammock under
his roof. The house, like all others in these out-of-

140 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

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

A little distance from the house were the open sheds
under which the farinha for the use of the establish-
ment was manufactured. In the centre of each shed
stood the shallow pans, made of clay and built over
ovens, where the meal is roasted. A long flexible
cylinder made of the peel of a marantaceous plant,

Chap. IV. A KIGHT ASHORE. 141

plaited into tlie proper form, hung suspended from
a beam ; it is in this that the pulp of the mandioca
is 23ressed, and from it the juice, which is of a highly
poisonous nature, although the pulp is wholesome food,
runs into pans placed beneath to receive it. A wooden
trough, such as is used in all these places for receiving the
pulp before the poisonous matter is extracted, stood on the
ground, and from the posts hung the long wicker-work
baskets, or aturas, in which the w^omen carry the roots
from the ro^a or clearing ; abroad ribbon made from the
inner bark of the monguba tree is attached to the
rims of the baskets, and is passed round the forehead
of the carriers, to relieve their backs in supporting the
heavy load. Ai'ound the shed were planted a number
of banana and other fruit trees ; amongst them were
the never-failing capsicum-pepper bushes brilliant as
holly-trees at Christmas time with their fiery red fruit,
and lemon trees ; the one supplying the pungent the
other the acid for sauce to the perpetual meal of fish.
There is never in such places any appearance of careful
cultivation, no garden or orchard ; the useful trees are
surrounded by weeds and bushes, and close behind rises
the everlasting forest.

There were other strangers under Senhor Joaquim's
roof besides myself ; mulattos, mamelucos, and Indians,
so we formed altogether a large party. Houses occur
at rare intervals in this wild country, and hospitality is
freely given to the few passing travellers. After a
frugal supper, a large w^ood fire was lighted in the
middle of the shed, and all turned into their hammocks
and began to converse. A few of the party soon dropped

142 THE TOCANTmS. Chap. IV.

asleep ; others, however, kept awake until a very late
hour telling stories. Some related adventures which had
happened to them whilst hunting or fishing ; others
recounted myths about the Curupira, and other demons
or spirits of the forest. They were all very appropriate to
the time and place, for now and then a yell or a shriek
resounded through the gloomy wilderness around the
shed. One old parchment-faced fellow, with a skin
the colour of mahogany, seemed to be a capital story-
teller ; but I was sorry I did not know enough of the
language to follow him in all the details which he gave.
Amongst other things he related an adventure he had
once had with a jaguar. He got up from his hammock
in the course of the narrative to give it the greater
effect by means of gestures ; he seized a bow and a large
taquara arrow to show how he slew the beast, imitated
its hoarse growl, and danced about the fire like a
demon.

In descending the river we landed frequently, and
Mr. Wallace and I lost no chance of adding to our
collections ; so that before the end of our journey we
had got together a very considerable number of birds,
insects, and shells chiefly taken, however, in the low
country. Leaving Baia5 we took our last farewell
of the limpid waters and varied scenery of the upper
river, and found ourselves again in tlie humid flat region
of the Amazons valley. We sailed down this lower
part of the river by a different channel from the one
we travelled along in ascending, and frequently went
ashore on the low islands in mid-river. As already
stated, these are covered with water in the wet season ;

Chap. IY. IXDIA-EUBBER TREES. 143

but at this time, there having been three months of
line weather, they were dry throughout, and by the
subsidence of the waters placed four or five feet above
the level of the river. They are covered with a most
luxuriant forest, comprising a large number of india-
rubber trees. We found several people encamped
here, who were engaged in collecting and preparing
the rubber, and thus had an opportunity of observing
the process.

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

144 THE TOCANTIXS. Chap. IV.

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

* The species I have seen used for this purpose are Maxiniiliana regia ;
Attalea excelsa ; and Astrocarjaim niuruniurum.

Chap. IV. CACAO PLANTATIONS. 145

purpose is made into a pear-sliaped bottle, and a quill
fixed in the long neck.*

Septemher 2M]i. — Opposite Cameta the islands are
all planted with cacao, the tree which yields the choco-
late nut. The forest is not cleared for the purpose, but
the cacao plants are stuck in here and there almost
at random amongst the trees. There are many houses
on the banks of the river, all elevated above the
swampy soil on wooden piles, and furnished with broad
ladders by which to mount to the ground floor. As we
passed by in our canoe we could see the people at their
occupations in the open verandahs, and in one place
saw a ball going on in broad daylight; there were
fiddles and guitars hard at work, and a number of lads
in white shirts and trousers dancing with brown damsels
clad in showy print dresses. The cacao tree produces a
curious impression on account of the flowers and fruit
growing directly out of the trunk and branches. There
is a whole group of wild fruit trees which have the
same habit in this country. In the wildernesses where
the cacao is planted, the collecting of the fruit is
dangerous from the number of poisonous snakes which
inhabit the j^laces. One day, when we were running our
montaria to a landing-place, we saw a large serpent on
the trees overhead, as we were about to brush past ;
the boat was stopped just in the nick of time, and

* India-rubber is now one of the chief articles of export from Para,
and the government derives a considerable revenue from it. In value
it amounts to one-third the total sum of exports. Thus in 1857 the
amount was £139, OCO, the total exports being £450, 720. In 1858, the
rubber exported amounted to £123,000 and the total exports to £356, 000.

VOL. I. L

146 THE TOCANTmS. Chap. IV.

Mr. Leavens brought the reptile down with a charge
of shot.

Septertiber 26fh. — At length w^e got clear of the
islands, and saw once more before us the sea-like
expanse of waters which forms the mouth of the
Tocantins. The river had now sunk to its lowest point,
and numbers of fresh-water dolphins were rolling about
in shoaly places. There are here two species, one of
which was new to science when I sent specimens to
England ; it is called the Tucuxi (Steno tucuxi of
Gray). When it comes to the surface to breathe, it
rises horizontally, showing first its back fin ; draws an
inspiration, and then dives gently down, head foremost.
This mode of proceeding distinguishes the Tucuxi at
once from the other species, which is called Bouto or
porpoise by the natives (Inia Geoffroyi of Desmarest).
When this rises the top of the head is the part first seen ;
it then blows, and immediately afterwards dips head
downwards, its back curving over, exposing succes-
sively the whole dorsal ridge with its fin. It seems
thus to pitch heels over head, but does not show
the tail fin. Besides this peculiar motion, it is
distinguished from the Tucuxi by its habit of gene-
rally going in ]Dairs. Both species are exceedingly
numerous throughout the Amazons and its larger
tributaries, but they are nowhere more plentiful than
in the shoaly water at the mouth of the Tocantins,
especially in the dry season. In the Upper Amazons a
third pale flesh-coloured species is also abundant (the
Delphinus pallidus of Gervais). With the exception
of a species found in the Ganges, all other varieties

Cjiap. IV. JOURXEY TO CAMETA 147

of dolphin inhabit exclusively the sea. In the broader
parts of the Amazons, from its mouth to a distance of
fifteen hundred miles in the interior, one or other of
the three kinds here mentioned are always heard
rolling, blowing, and snorting, especially at night, and
these noises contribute much to the impression of
sea-wide vastness and desolation which haunts the
traveller. Besides dolphins in the water, frigate birds
in the air are characteristic of this lower part of the
Tocantins. Flocks of them were seen the last two or
three days of our journey, hovering above at an im-
mense height. Towards night we were obliged to cast
anchor over a shoal in*the middle of the river to await
the ebb tide. The wind blew very strongly, and this,
together with the incoming flow, caused such a heavy
sea that it was impossible to sleep. The vessel rolled
and pitched until every bone in our bodies ached with
the bumps we received, and we were all more or less
sea-sick. On the following day we entered the Anapu,
and on the 30th September, after threading again the
labpinth of channels communicating betw^een the
Tocantins and the Moju, arrived at Para.

I will now give a short account of Cameta, the
principal town on the banks of the Tocantins, which I
visited for the second time, in June, 1849 ; Mr. Wallace,
in the same month, departing from Para to explore the
rivers Guama and Capim. I embarked as passenger in
a Cameta trading vessel, the St. John, a small schooner
of thirty tons burthen. I had learnt by this time that
the only way to attain the objects for which I had

148 THE TOCANTIXS. Chap. IY.

come to this country was to accustom myself to the
ways of Ufe of the humbler classes of the inhabitants.
A traveller on the Amazons gains little by being fur-
nished with letters of recommendation to persons of
note, for in the great interior wildernesses of forest and
river the canoe-men have pretty much their own way ;
the authorities cannot force them to grant passages
or to hire themselves to travellers, and therefore a
stranger is obliged to ingratiate himself with them in
order to get conveyed from place to place. I thoroughly
enjoyed the journey to Cameta ; the weather was
again beautiful in the extreme. We started from
Para at sunrise on the 8th of June, and on the 10th
emerged from the narrow channels of the Anapu into
the broad Tocantins. The vessel was so full of cargo,
that there was no room to sleep in the cabin ; so we
passed the nights on deck. The captain or super-
caro^o, called in Portuo^uese caho, was a mameluco,
named Manoel, a quiet, good-humoured person, who
treated me with the most unaffected civility during the
three days' journey. The pilot was also a mameluco,
named John Mendez, a handsome young fellow, full
of life and spirit. He had on board a wire guitar or
viola, as it is here called ; and in the bright moonlight
nights, as we lay at anchor hour after hour waiting for
the tide, he enlivened us all with songs and music.
He was on the best of terms with the cabo, both
sleeping in the same hammock slung between the
masts. I passed the nights wrapped in an old sail
outside the roof of the cabin. The crew, five in
number, were Indians and half-breeds, all of whom

Chap. IV. SONGS OF CANOE-MEK 149

treated their two superiors with the most amusing
famiUarity, yet I never sailed in a better managed
vessel than the St, John.

In crossing to Cameta we had to await the flood-tide
in a channel called Entre-as-Ilhas, which lies between
two islands in mid-river, and John Mendez, being in
good tune, gave us an extempore song, consisting of a
great number of verses. The crew lay about the deck
listening, and all joined in the chorus. Some stanzas
related to me, telling how I had come all the way from
" Ingalaterra " to skin monkeys and birds and catch
insects ; the last-mentioned emplo}^nent of course
giving ample scope for fun. He passed from this to
the subject of political parties in Cameta ; and then,
as all the hearers were Cametaenses and understood
the hits, there were roars of laughter, some of them
rolling over and over on the deck, so much were they
tickled. Party spirit runs high at Cameta, not merely
in connection with local politics, but in relation to affairs
of general concern, such as the election of members to
the Imperial Parliament, and so forth. This political
strife is partly attributable to the circumstance that a
native of Cameta, Dr. Angelo Custodio Correia, had
been in almost every election one of the candidates for the
representation of the province. I fancied these shrewd
but unsophisticated canoe-men saw through the absurdi-
ties attending these local contests, and hence their incli-
nation to satirise them ; they were, however, evidently
partisans of Dr. Angelo, The brother of Dr. Angelo, Joao
Augusto Correia, a distinguished merchant, was an
active canvasser. The party of the Con^eias was the

150 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

Liberal, or, as it is called throughout Brazil, the Santa
Luzia faction ; the opposite side, at the head of which
was one Pedro Moraes, was the Conservative, or Saqua-
rema party. I preserved one of the stanzas of the
song, which, however, does not contain much point ; it
ran thus : —

Ora pana, tana pana, pan a tana,
Joao Augusto h^ bouito e hoinem pimpao,
Mas Pedro he feio e hum grande ladrad,

(Choras) Ora pana, &c.

John Augustus is handsome and as a man ought to be,
But Peter is ugly and a great thief.
(Chorus) Ora pana, &e.

The canoe-men of the Amazons have many songs
and choruses, with which they are in the habit of
relieving the monotony of their slow voyages, and
which are kno^vn all over the interior.. The choruses
consist of a simple strain, repeated almost to weariness,
and sung generally in unison, but sometimes with an
attempt at harmony. There is a wildness and sad-
ness about the tunes which harmonise well with, and in
fact are born of, the circumstances of the canoe-man's
life ; the echoing channels, the endless gloomy forests,
the solemn nights, and the desolate scenes of broad
and stormy waters and falling banks. Whether they
were invented by the Indians or introduced by the
Portuguese it is hard to decide, as many of the
customs of the lower classes of Portugese are so similar
to those of the Indians that they have become blended
with them. One of the commonest songs is very wild
and pretty. It has for refrain the words " Mai, Mai,"

Chap. IV. SONGS OF CAN'OE-MEN: 151

"Mother, Mother," with a long drawl on the second
word. The stanzas are very variable ; the best wit on
board starts the verse, improvising as he goes on, and
the others join in the chorus. They all relate to the
lonely river life and the events of the voyage ; the
shoals, the wind ; how far they shall go before they stop
to sleep, and so forth. The sonorous native names of
places, Goajara, Tucumanduba, &c., add greatly to the
charm of the wild music. Sometimes they bring in
the stars thus : —

A lua esta sahindo,

Mai, Mai !
A lua esta saliindo,

Mai, Mai !
As sete estrellas estao cliorando,

Mai, ]\Iai !
Por s'acliarem desamparados,

Mai, Mai !

The moon is rising,

Mother, Mother t
The moon is rising,

Mother, mother !
The seven stars (Pleiades) are weeping,

Mother, Mother !
To find themselves forsaken.

Mother, mother !

I fell asleep about ten o'clock, but at four in the
morning John Mendez woke me, to enjoy the sight of
the little schooner tearinof throuo^h the waves before a
spanking breeze. The night was transparently clear
and almost cold, the moon appeared sharply defined
against the dark blue sky, and a ridge of foam marked
where the prow of the vessel was cleaving its way
through the water. The men had made a fire in the

152 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IY.

galley to make tea of an acid herb, called erva cid-
reira, a quantity of which they had gathered at the
last landing-place, and the flames sparkled cheerily
upwards. It is at such times as these that Amazon
travelling is enjoyable, and one no longer wonders at
the love which many, both natives and strangers, have
for this wandering life. The little schooner S23ed rapidly
on with booms bent and sails stretched to the utmost.
Just as day dawned, we ran with scarcely slackened
sj^eed into the port of Cameta, and cast anchor.

I stayed at Cameta until the 1 6th of July, and made
a considerable collection of the natural productions of
the neighbourhood. The town in 1849 was estimated
to contain about 5000 inhabitants, but the municipal
district of which Cameta is the capital numbered 20,000 ;
this, however, comprised the whole of the lower part of
the Tocantins, which is the most thickly populated part
of the province of Para. The productions of the district
are cacao, india-rubber, and Brazil nuts. The most
remarkable feature in the social aspect of the place is
the hybrid nature of the whole population, the amalga-
mation of the white and Indian races being here com-
plete. The aborigines were originally very numerous
on the western bank of the Tocantins, the jDrincipal
tribe having been the Camutas, from which the city
takes its name. They were a superior nation, settled,
and attached to agriculture, and received with open arms
the white immigrants who were attracted to the district
by its fertility, natural beauty, and the healthfulness of
the climate. The Portuguese settlers were nearly all

CiiAP. IV. PEOPLE OF CAMETA. 153

males, the Indian Avomen were good-looking, and made
excellent wives ; so the natural result has been, in the
course of two centuries, a complete blending of the two
races. There is now, however, a considerable infusion
of neoTO blood in the mixture, several hundred African
slaves having been introduced during the last seventy
years. The few whites are chiefly Portuguese, but there
are also two or three Brazilian families of pure European
descent. The town consists of three long streets, run-
ning parallel to the river, with a few shorter ones
crossing them at right angles. The houses are very
plain, being built, as usual in this country, simply of
a strong framework, filled up with mud, and coated
with white plaster. A few of them are of two or three
storeys. There are three churches, and also a small
theatre, where a company of native actors at the time
of my visit were representing light Portuguese plays
Avith considerable taste and ability. The people have
a reputation all over the province for energy and per-
severance ; and it is often said, that they are as keen
in trade as the Portuguese. The lower classes are as
indolent and sensual here as in other parts of the pro-
vince, a moral condition not to be wondered at in a
country where perpetual summer reigns, and where the
necessaries of life are so easily obtained. But they are
light-hearted, quick-witted, communicative, and hos-
pitable. I found here a native poet, who had written
some pretty verses, showing an appreciation of the
natural beauties of the country, and was told that the
Archbishop of Bahia, the primate of Brazil, was a native
of Cameta. It is interestinsf to find the mamelucos

154 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

displa3dng talent and enterprise, for it shows that dege-
neracy does not necessarily result from the mixture of
white and Indian blood. The Cametaenses boast, as
they have a right to do, of theirs being the only large
town which resisted successfully the anarchists in the
great rebellion of 1835-6. Whilst the whites of Para
were submitting to the rule of half-savage revolutionists,
the mamelucos of Cameta placed themselves under the
leadership of a courageous priest, named Prudencio;
armed themselves, fortified the place, and repulsed
the large forces which the insurgents of Para sent to
attack the place. The town not only became the refuge
for all loyal subjects, but was a centre whence large
parties of volunteers sallied forth repeatedly to attack
the anarchists in their various strongholds.

The forest behind Cameta is traversed by several
broad roads, which lead over undulating ground many
miles into the interior. They pass generally under
shade, and part of the way through groves of coffee
and orange trees, fragrant plantations of cacao, and tracts
of second-growth woods. The narrow brook-watered
valleys, with which the land is intersected, alone have
remained clothed with prima3val forest, at least near
the town. The houses along these beautiful roads
belong chiefly to mameluco, mulatto, and Indian fami-
lies, each of which has its own small plantation. There
are only a few planters with larger establishments and
these have seldom more than a dozen slaves. Besides
the main roads, there are endless bye-paths which thread
the forest, and communicate with isolated houses. Along
these the traveller may wander day after day without

Chap. IY. CHIEF CITIZENS. 155

leaving the shade, and everywhere meet with cheerful,
simple, and hospitable people.

Soon after landing I was introduced to the most dis-
tinguished citizen of the place, Dr. Angelo Custodio
Correia, whom I have already mentioned. This excel-
lent man was a favourable specimen of the highest
class of native Brazilians. He had been educated
in Europe, was now a member of the Brazilian Par-
liament, and had been twice President of his native
province. His manners were less formal, and his good-
ness more thoroughly genuine, perhaps, than is the rule
generally with Brazilians. He was admired and loved,
as I had amjDle opportunity of observing, throughout all
Amazonia. He sacrificed his life in 1855, for the good
of his fellow-townsmen, when Cameta was devastated
by the cholera ; having stayed behind with a few heroic
spirits to succour invalids and direct the burying of the
dead, when nearly all the chief citizens had fled from the
place. After he had done what he could, he embarked
for Para, but was himself then attacked with cholera
and died on board the steamer before he reached the
capital. Dr. Angelo received me with the usual kind-
ness which he showed to all strangers. He procured
me, unsolicited, a charming country house, free of rent,
hired a mulatto servant for me, and thus relieved me
of the many annoyances and delays attendant on a first
arrival in a country town where even the name of an
inn is unknown. The rocinha thus given up for my
residence belonged to a friend of his, Senhor Jose Rai-
mundo Furtado, a stout florid-complexioned gentleman,
such a one as might be met with any day in a country

156 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. 17.

town in England. To him also I was indebted for
many acts of kindness.

The rocinha was situated near a broad grassy road
bordered by lofty woods, which leads from Gamete to
the Aldeia, a village two miles distant. My first walks
were along this road. From it branches another similar,
but still more picturesque road, which runs to Curima
and Pacaja, two small settlements, several miles dis-
tant, in the heart of the forest. The Curima road is
beautiful in the extreme. About half a mile from the
house where I lived it crosses a brook flowing through
a deep dell, by means of a long rustic wooden bridge.
The virgin forest is here left untouched ; numerous
groups of slender palms, mingled with lofty trees over-
run with creepers and parasites, fill the shady glen and
arch over the bridge, forming one of the most pic-
turesque scenes imaginable. On the sunny slopes near
this place, I found a great number of new and curious
insects. A little beyond the bridge there was an exten-
sive grove of orange and other trees, which also yielded
me a rich harvest. The Aldeia road runs parallel to
the river, the land from the border of the road to the
indented shore of the Tocantins forming a long slope,
which was also richly wooded ; this slope was threaded
by numerous shady paths and abounded in beautiful
insects and birds. At the opposite or southern end of
the town there was a broad road called the Estrada da
Yacaria ; this ran along the banks of the Tocantins at
some distance from the river, and continued over hill
and dale, through bamboo thickets and palm swamps,
for about fifteen miles.

Chap. IV. TRIP TO THE ISLANDS. 157

I found at Cameta an American, named Bean, who
had been so long in the country that he had ahnost
forgotten his mother tongue. He knew the neighbour-
hood well, and willingly accompanied me as guide in
many long excursions. I was astonished in my walks
with him at the universal friendliness of the people.
We were obliged, when rambling along the intricate
pathways through the woods, occasionally to pass the
houses of settlers. The good people, most of whom
knew Bean, always invited us to stojD. The master
of the house would step out first and insist on our
w^alking in to take some refreshment ; at the same mo-
ment I generally esj)ied the female members of the
family hurrying to the fireplace to prepare the inevitable
cup of coffee. After conversing a little with the good
folks we would take our leave, and then came the
parting present — a bunch of bananas, a few eggs, or
fruits of one kind or other. It would have been cruel
to refuse these presents, but they were sometimes so
inconvenient to us that we used to pitch them, into the
thickets as soon as we were out of sight of the doDors.

One day we embarked in a montaria to visit a widow
lady, named Dona Paulina, to whom Bean was going to
be married, and who lived on one of the islands in mid-
river, about ten miles above Cameta. The httle boat
had a mast and sail, the latter of which was of very
curious construction. It was of the shape which sailors
call shoulder-of-mutton sail, and was formed of laths
of pith split from the leaf stalks of the Jupati palm
(Raphia tgedigera). The laths w^ere strung together
so as to form a mat, and the sail was hoisted or

158 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

lowered by means of a rope attached to the top. The
same material serves for many purposes ; partitions
and even the external walls of houses of the poorer
classes are often made of it. It fell to my charge to
manage the sail during our voyage, whilst Bean steered,
but when in the middle of the broad river the halyard
broke, and in endeavouring to mend it we nearly upset
the boat, for the wind blew strongly and the waves
ran high. We fortunately met, soon afterwards, a negro
who was descending in a similar boat to ours, and who,
seeing our distress, steered towards us and kindly
supplied us with a new rope. We stayed a day and
night on the island. The house was of a similar
description to those I have already described as common
on the low islands of the Tocantins. The cacaoal
which surrounded it consisted of about 10,000 trees,
which I was astonished to hear produced altogether
only 100 arrobas or 3200 pounds of the chocolate nut
per annum. I had seen trees on the main land, which
having been properly attended to, produced yearly
thirty-two pounds each, or 100 times as much as those
of Dona Paulina's cacaoal ; the average yield in
plantations on the Amazons near Santarem is 700
arrobas to 10,000 trees. Agriculture was evidently
in a very low condition hereabout ; the value of
a cacao estate was very trifling, each tree being worth
only forty reis or one penny, this including the land
on which the plantation stands. A square league of
country planted with cacao could thus be bought for
40^. or 50L sterling. The selling price of cacao is
very fluctuating ; 3,500 reis, or about eight shillings

Chap. IV. CACAO-GEOWING. 159

the arroba of 821bs., may be taken as the averao-e.
The management of a plantation requires very few
hands ; the tree yields three crops a-year, namely, one
each in March, June, and September; but the June
crop often fails, and those of the other months are very
precarious. In the intervals between harvest-times the
plantations require weeding ; the principal difficulty is
to keep the trees free from woody creeiDers and epi-
phytes, but especially from parasitic plants of the
Loranthacese group, the same family to which our
miseltoe belongs, and which are called " pes de passa-
rinho," or " little birds' feet," from their prett}^ orange
and red flowers resembling in shape and arrangement
the three toes of birds. When the fruit is ready for
gathering, neighbours help each other, and so each
family is able to manage its own little plantation
without requiring slaves. It appeared to me that
cacao-growing would be an emplojmaent well suited
to the habits and constitutions of European immi-
grants. All the work is done under shade ; but it
would yield a poor livelihood unless a better style of
cultivation and preparation were introduced than that
now prevailing here. The fruit is of oblong shape,
and six to eight inches in length ; the seeds are
enveloped in a mass of white pulp which makes a
delicious lemonade when mixed with water, and when
boiled down produces an excellent jelly.

I found many interesting insects in the cacaoal ; the
most handsome was the Salamis jucunda, a magnificent
butterfly with sickle-shaped wings, which flies with
great rapidity, but is readily taken when quietly feeding

160 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

on decaying cacao fruits. The island was three or four
miles long and about a mile broad, and was situated in
the central part of the river. The view from Dona
Paulina's house was limited by the western row of islets,
this middle channel being about a mile broad ; not a
glimpse was obtainable of the main land on either side,
and each island was a mass of greenery, towering to a
great height, and seeming to repose on the surface of
the water. The house was in a very dilapidated con-
dition ; but Dona Paulina, who was a simple, good-
natured little woman, with her slaves, tried to make us
as comfortable as the circumstances permitted. At
night it rained heavily, and the water poured through
the broken tiles on to my hammock, so I was obliged to
get up and shift my quarters ; but this is a common
incident in Brazilian houses.

The next day we crossed the river to the main land,
to the house of Dona Paulina's father, where we slept,
and on the following morning started to walk to Cameta
through the forest, a distance of nine miles. The road
was sometimes tolerably good, at others it was a mere
track, and twice we had to wade through swamps which
crossed the path. We started at six a.m., but did not
reach Cameta until nine at night.

In the course of our walk I chanced to verify a fact
relating to the habits of a large hairy spider of the
genus Mygale, in a manner worth recording. The species
was M. avicularia, or one very closely allied to it ; the
individual was nearly two inches in length of body, but
the legs expanded seven inches, and the entire body and
legs were covered with coarse grey and reddish hairs.

Chap. IV. BIED-KILLING SPIDER. IGl

I was attracted by a movement of the monster on a
tree-trunk ; it was close beneath a deep crevice in the
tree, across which was stretched a dense white web. The
lower part of the web was broken, and two small birds,
finches, were entangled in the pieces ; they were about
the size of the English siskin, and I judged the two to
be male and female. One of them was quite dead, the
other lay under the body of the spider not quite dead,
and was smeared with the filthy liquor or saliva exuded
by the monster. I drove away the spider and took the
birds, but the second one soon died. The fact of species
of Mygale sallying forth at night, mounting trees, and
sucking the eggs and young of humming-birds, has been
recorded long ago by Madame Merian and Palisot de
Beauvois ; but, in the absence of any confirmation, it has
come to be discredited. From the way the fact has been
related it would appear that it had been merely derived
from the report of natives, and had not been witnessed
by the naiTators. Count Langsdorff, in his " Expedition
into the Interior of Brazil," states that he totally disbe-
lieved the story. I found the circumstance to be quite
a novelty to the residents hereabout. The Mygales are
quite common insects : some species make their cells
under stones, others form artistical tunnels in the earth,
and some build their dens in the thatch of houses. The
natives call them Aranhas carangueijeiras, or crab-
spiders. The hairs with which they are clothed come
off when touched, and cause a peculiar and almost mad-
dening irritation. The first specimen that I killed and
prepared was handled incautiously,'and I suffered terribly
for three days afterwards. I think this is not owing to

162 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV.

any poisonous quality residing in the hairs, but to their
being short and hard, and thus getting into the fine
creases of the skin. Some Mygales are of immense size.
One day I saw the children belonging to an Indian
family who collected for me with one of these monsters
secured by a cord round its waist, by which they were
leading it about the house as they would a dog.

The only monkeys I observed at Cameta were the
Couxio (Pithecia Satanas), a large species, clothed with
long brownish-black hair, and the tiny Midas argentatus.
The Couxio has a thick bushy tail ; the hair of the head
sits on it like a cap, and looks as if it had been carefully
combed. It inhabits only the most retired parts of the
forest, on the terra firma, and I observed nothing of its
habits. The little Midas argentatus is one of the rarest
of the American monkeys. I have not heard of its being
found anywhere except near Cameta. I once saw three
individuals together running along a branch in a cacao
grove near Cameta ; they looked like white kittens : in
their motions they resembled precisely the Midas ursulus
already described. I saw afterwards a pet animal of this
species, and heard that there were many so kept, and
that they were esteemed as choice treasures. The one
I saw was full-grown, but it measured only seven inches
in length of body. It was covered with long, white,
silky hairs, the tail was blackish, and the face nearly
naked and flesh-coloured. It was a most timid and sen-
sitive little thing. The woman who owned it carried it
constantly in her bosom, and no money would induce
her to part with her pet. She called it Mico. It fed from

Chap. IV. RETURN TO PAEA. 163

her mouth and allowed her to fondle it freely, but the
nervous little creature would not permit strangers to
touch it. If any one attempted to do so it shrank back,
the whole body trembling with fear, and its teeth
chattered, whilst it uttered its tremulous frightened
tones. The expression of its features was like that of
its more robust brother Midas ursulus'; the eyes, which
were black, were full of curiosity and mistrust, and it
always kept them fixed on the person who attempted to
advance towards it.

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

My return journey to Para afforded many incidents
characteristic of Amazonian travelling. I left Cameta
on the 16th of July. My luggage was embarked in
the morning in the Santa Eosa, a vessel of the kind
called cuberta, or covered canoe. The cuberta is very
much used on these rivers. It is not decked, but
the sides forward are raised and arched over so as to

M 2

164 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IY.

admit of cargo being piled high above the water-hne.
At the stern is a neat square cabin, also raised, and
between the cabin and covered fore part is a narrow
piece decked over, on which are placed the cooking ar-
rangements. This is called the tombadilha or quarter-
deck, and when the canoe is heavily laden it goes under
water as the vessel heels over to the wind. There are
two masts, rigged with fore and aft sails. The foremast
has often besides a main and top sail. The fore part is
j)lanked over at the top, and on this raised deck the
crew work the vessel, pulling it along when there is
no wind, by means of the long oars already described.

As I have just said, my luggage was embarked in the
morning. I was informed that we should start with the
ebb-tide in the afternoon, so I thought I should have
time to pay my respects to Dr. Angelo and other
friends, whose extreme courtesy and goodness had made
my residence at Cameta so agreeable. After dinner the
guests, according to custom at the house of the Correias,
walked into the cool verandah which overlooks the
river, and there we saw the Santa Kosa, a mere speck
in the offing miles away, tacking down river with a
fine breeze. I was now in a fix, for it would be useless
attempting to overtake the cuberta, and besides the
sea ran too high for any montaria. I was then told,
that I ought to have been aboard hours before the
time fixed for starting, because when a breeze springs
up, vessels start before the tide turns ; the last hour
of the flood not being very strong. All my precious
collections, my clothes, and other necessaries, were on
board, and it was indispensable that I should be at

Chap. IV. EETURN" TO PARA. 165

Pard when the things were disembarked. I tried
to hire a montaria and men, but was told that it
would be madness to cross the river in a small boat
with this breeze. On going to Senhor Laroque,
another of my Cameta friends, I was relieved of my
embarrassment ; I found there an English gentleman,
Mr. Patchett of Pernambuco, who was visiting Para
and its neighbourhood on his way to England, and
who, as he was going back to Para in a small boat
with four paddles, which would start at midnight,
kindly offered me a passage. The evening from seven
to ten o'clock was very stormy. About seven, the
night became intensely dark, and a terrific squall
of wind burst fort>h, which made the loose tiles fly
over the house tops ; to this succeeded lightning and
stupendous claps of thunder, both nearly simultaneous.
We had had several of these short and sharp storms
during the past month. At midnight when we em-
barked, all was as calm as though a ruffle had never
disturbed air, forest or river. The boat sped along
like an arrow to the rhythmic paddling of the four
stout youths we had with us, who enlivened the
passage with their wild songs. Mr. Patchett and I
tried to get a little sleep, but the cabin was so small
and encumbered with boxes placed at all sorts of
angles, that we found sleep impossible. I was just
dozing when the day dawned, and, on awaking, the first
object I saw was the Santa Rosa, at anchor under
a green island in mid-river. I preferred to make the
remainder of the voyage in the company of my col-
lections, so bade Mr. Patchett good-day. The o^ATier of

166 THE TOCANTINS. CnAr. IV.

the Santa Rosa, Senhor Jacinto Machado, Avliom I had
not seen before, received me aboard, and apologised
for having started without me. He was a white man,
a planter, and was now taking his year's produce of
cacao, about twenty tons, to Para. The canoe was very
heavily laden, and I was rather alarmed to see that it
was leaking at all points. The crew were all in the
water diving about to feel for the holes, wliich they
stopped with pieces of rag and clay, and an old negro
was baling the water out of the hold. This was a
pleasant prospect for a three days' voyage I Senhor
Machado treated it as the most ordinary incident
possible. " It was always likely to leak, for it was an
old vessel that had been left as worthless high and dry
on the beach, and he had bought it very cheap."

When the leaks were stopped, we proceeded on our
journey, and at night reached the mouth of the Anapu.
I wrapped myself up in an old sail, and fell asleep on
the raised deck. The next day we threaded the Igarape-
mirini, and on the 19th descended the Moja. Senhor
Machado and I by this time had become very good
friends. At every interesting spot on the banks of the
Mojii, he mamied the small boat and took me ashore.
There ai'e many large houses on this river belonging to
what were formerly large and flourishing plantations.
Since the revolution of 1835-6, they had been suffered
to go to decay. Two of the largest buildings were
constructed by the Jesuits in the early part of the last
century. We were told that there were formerly eleven
large sugar-mills on the banks of the Moju, but now
there ai-e only throe. At Burujtiba, there is a large

CiiAP. lY. ARRIVAL AT PARA. 167

monastery in a state of decay ; part of the edifice,
however, was inhabited by a Brazilian family. The
walls are four feet in thickness. The long dark corri-
dors and gloomy cloisters struck me as very inappro-
priate in the midst of this young and radiant nature.
They would be more in place on some barren moor in
northern Europe, than here in the midst of perpetual
summer. The next turn in the river below Burujuba
brought the city of Para into view. The mnd was now
against us, and we were obliged to tack about. Towards
evening it began to blow stiffly, the vessel heeled over
very much, and Senhor Machado, for the first time,
trembled for the safety of his cargo ; the leaks burst
out afresh, when we were yet two miles from the shore.
He ordered another sail to be hoisted, in order to run
more quickly into port, but soon afterwards an extra
puff of wind came, and the old boat lurched alarmingly,
the rigging gave way, and down fell boom and sail with
a crash, encumbering us with the wreck. We were then
obliged to have recourse to oars, and as soon as we were
near the land, I begged Senhor Machado to send me
ashore in the boat, with the more precious portion of
my collections.

CHAPTER V.

CARIPI AND THE BAY OF MARAJO.

Eiver Para and Bay of Marajo — Journey to Caripi — Negro observance
of Christmas— A German Family — Bats— Ant-eaters — Humming-
birds— Excursion to the Murucupi — Domestic Life of the In-
habitants— Hunting Excursion with Indians— Natural History of
the Paca and Cutia — Insects.

That part of the Para river which lies in front of
the city, as I have already explained, forms a narrow
channel ; being separated from the main waters of the
estuary by a cluster of islands. This channel is about
two miles broad, and constitutes part of the minor
estuary of Goajara, into which the three rivers Guama,
Moju, and Acara discharge their waters. The main
channel of the Para lies 10 miles away from the city,
directly across the river ; at that point, after getting
clear of the islands, a great expanse of water is beheld,
10 to 12 miles in width ; the opposite shore — the
island of Marajo — being visible only in clear weather as
a line of tree tops dotting the horizon. A little further
upwards, that is to the south-west, the main land on
the right or eastern shore appears, this is called Car-
napijo ; it is rocky, covered with the never-ending
forest, and the coast which is fringed Avith broad sandy

CiiAr. V. CARNAPUO. 169

beaches, describes a gentle curve inwards. The broad
reach of the Para in front of this coast is called the Bahia,
or bay of Marajo. The coast and the interior of the land
are peopled by civilised Indians and Mamelucos, with a
mixture of free negroes and mulattos. They are poor,
for the waters are not abundant in fish, and they are
dependent for a livelihood solely on their small planta-
tions, and the scanty supply of game found in the
woods. • The district was originally peopled by various
tribes of Indians, of whom the principal were the Tu-
pinambas and Nhengahibas. Like all the coast tribes,
whether inhabiting the banks of the Amazons or the
sea-shore between Para and Bahia, they were far more
advanced in civilisation than the hordes scattered
through the interior of the country, some of which
still remain in the wild state, between the Amazons
and the Plata. There are three villages on the coast of
Carnapijo, and several planters' houses, formerly the
centres of flourishing estates, which have now relapsed
into forest in consequence of the scarcity of labour and
diminished enterprise. One of the largest of these
establishments is called Caripi : at the time of which
I am speaking it belonged to a Scotch gentleman, Mr.
Campbell, who had married the daughter of a large
Brazilian proprietor. Most of the occasional English
and American visitors to Para had made some stay at
Caripi, and it had obtained quite a reputation for the
number and beauty of the birds and insects found
there ; I therefore applied for and obtained permission
to spend two or three months at the place. The dis-
tance from Para was about 23 miles, round by the

170 CARIPI. Chap. Y.

northern end of the Ilha das on^as (Isle of Tigers),
which faces the city. I bargained for a jDassage thither
with the cabo of a small trading vessel, which was going
past the place, and started on the 7th of December,
1848.

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

The water is very shallow near the shore, and when
the wind blows there is a heavy ground swell. A few
3'ears previously an English gentleman, Mr. Graham, an

Chap. V. LIFE AT CAPJrf. 171

amateur naturalist, was capsized here and dro^\med with
his wife and child, wdiilst passing in a heavily-laden
montaria to his large canoe. Remembering their fate,
I was rather alarmed to see that I should be obliged to
take all my luggage ashore in one trip in a leaky little
boat. The pile of chests with two Indians and myself
sank the montaria almost to the level of the water. I
was kept busy baling all the way. The Indians manage
canoes in this condition with admirable skill. They pre-
serve the nicest equilibrium, and paddle so gently that
not the slightest oscillation is perceptible. On landing,
an old negress named Florinda, the feitora or manageress
of the establishment which was kept only as a poultry
farm and hospital for sick slaves, gave me the keys, and
I forthwith took possession of the rooms I required.

I remained here nine weeks, or until the 12th of
February, 1849. The house was very large and most
substantially built, but consisted of only one story. I
was told it was built by the Jesuits more than a
century ago. The front had no verandah, the doors
opening on a slightly elevated terrace about a hundred
yards distant from the broad sandy beach. Ai'ound the
residence the ground had been cleared to the extent of
two or three acres, and was planted with fruit trees.
Well-trodden pathways through the forest led to little
colonies of the natives on the banks of retired creeks
and rivulets in the interior. I led here a solitary but not
unpleasant life ; there was a great charm in the loneli-
ness of the jDlace. The swell of the river beating on
the sloping beach caused an unceasing murmur, which
lulled me to sleep at night, and seemed approjDriate

172 CAPJPI. Chap. V.

music in those midday hours when all nature was
pausing breathless under the rays of a vertical sun.
Here I spent my first Christmas-day in a foreign land.
The festival was celebrated by the negroes of their own
free will and in a very pleasing manner. The room
next to the one I had chosen was the capella, or chapel.
It had a little altar which was neatly arranged, and the
room was furnished with a magnificent brass chan-
delier. Men, women, and children were busy in the
chapel all day on the 24th of December decorating
the altar with flowers and strewing the floor with
orange-leaves. They invited some of their neigh-
bours to the evening prayers, and when the simple
ceremony began an hour before midnight, the chapel
was crowded. They were obliged io dispense with
the mass, for they had no priest ; the service there-
fore consisted merely of a long litany and a few hymns.
There was placed on the altar a small image of the
infant Christ, the "MeninoDeos" as they called it, or
the child-god, which had a long ribbon depending from
its waist. An old white-haired negro led off the litany,
and the rest of the people joined in the responses.
After the service was over they all went up to the altar,
one by one, and kissed the end of the ribbon. The
gravity and earnestness shown throughout the jDro-
ceedings were remarkable. Some of the hymns were
very simple and beautiful, especially one beginning
" Virgem soberana, " a trace of whose melody springs to
my recollection whenever I think on the dreamy solitude
of Caripi.

The next day after I arrived two blue-eyed and red-

Chap. X. A GERMAN" FAMILY. 173

haired boys came up and spoke to me in English, and
presently their father made his appearance. They
proved to be a German family named Petzell, who were
living in the woods, Indian fashion, about a mile from
Caripi. Petzell explained to me how he came here.
He said that thirteen years ago he came to Brazil with
a number of other Germans under engagement to serve
in the Brazilian army. When his time had expired he
came to Para to see the country, but after a few months'
rambling left the place to establish himself in the United
States. There he married, went to Illinois, and settled
as farmer near St. Louis. He remained on his farm
seven or eight years, and had a family of five children.
He could never forget, however, the free river life and
perpetual summer of the banks of the Amazons, so he
persuaded his wife to consent to break up their home in
North America, and migrate to Para. No one can ima-
gine the difficulties the poor fellow had to go through
before reaching the land of his choice. He first descended
the Mississippi, feeling sure that a passage to Para could
be got at New Orleans. He was there told that the
only port in North America he could start from was
New York, so away he sailed for New York ; but there
was no chance of a vessel sailing thence to Para, so he
took a passage to Demerara, as bringing him, at any
rate, near to the desired land. There is no communica-
tion whatever between Demerara and Para, and he was
forced to remain here with his family four or five months,
during which they all caught the yellow fever, and one
of his children died. At length he heard of a small
coasting vessel going to Cayenne, so he embarked and

17^ CAEIPL Chap. Y.

got thereby another stage nearer the end of his journey.
A short thne after reaching Cayenne he shipped in a
schooner that was going to Para, or rather the island
of Marajo, for a cargo of cattle. He had now fixed
himself, after all his wanderings, in a healthy and fertile
little nook on the banks of a rivulet near Caripi, built
himself a log hut, and planted a large patch of mandiocca
and Indian corn. He seemed to be quite happy, but
his wife complained much of the want of wholesome
food, meat and wheaten bread. I asked the children
whether they liked the country ; they shook their heads,
and said they would rather be in Illinois. Petzell told
me that his Indian neighbours treated him very kindly ;
one or other of them called almost every day to see
how he was getting on, and they had helped him in
many ways. He had a high opinion of the Tapuyos,
and said, " If you treat them well, they will go through
fire to serve you.".

Petzell and his family were expert insect collectors,
so I employed them at this work during my stay at
Caripi. The daily occurrences here were after a uniform
fashion. I rose with the dawn, took a cup of coffee, and
then sallied forth after birds. At ten I breakfasted, and
devoted the hours from ten until three to entomology.
The evening was occupied in preserving and storing my
captures. Petzell and I sometimes undertook long excur-
sions, occupying the whole day. Our neighbours used
to bring me all the quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, and
shells they met with, and so altogether I was enabled
to acquire a good collection of the productions of the
district.

Chap. Y. BATS. 175

The first few nights I was much troul)led by bats.
The room where I slept had not been used for many
montlis, and the roof was open to the tiles and rafters.
The first night I slept soundly and did not perceive
anything unusual, but on the next I was aroused about
midnight by the rushing noise made by vast hosts of bats
sweeping about the room. The air was alive with them ;
they had put out the lamp, and when I relighted it the
place appeared blackened with the impish multitudes that
were whirling round and round. After I had laid about
well with a stick for a few minutes they disappeared
amongst the tiles, but when all was still again they
returned, and once more extinguished the light. I
took no further notice of them, and went to sleep. The
next night several got into my hammock ; I seized
them as they were crawling over me, and dashed them
against the wall. The next morning I found a wound,
evidently caused by a bat, on my hip. This was rather
unpleasant, so I set to work with the negroes, and tried
to exterminate them. I shot a great many as they hung
from the rafters, and the negroes having mounted with
ladders to the roof outside, routed out from beneath the
eaves many hundreds of them, including young broods.
There were altogether four species, two belonging to the
genus Dysopes, one to Phyllostoma, and the fourth to
Glossophaga. By far the greater number belonged to
the Dysopes perotis, a species having very large ears,
and measuring two feet from tip to tip of the wings.
The Phyllostoma was a small kind, of a dark gTay
colour, streaked with white down the back, and having
a leaf-shaped fleshy expansion on the ti23 of the nose.

176 CARIPI. Chap. V.

I was never attacked by bats except on this occasion.
The fact of their sucking the blood of persons sleeping,
from wounds which they make in the toes, is now well
established ; but it is only a few persons who are subject
to this blood-letting. According to the negroes, the
Phyllostoma is the only kind which attacks man. Those
which I caught crawling over me were Dysopes, and
I am inclined to think many different kinds of bat
have this propensity.

One day I was occupied searching for insects in the
bark of a fallen tree, when I saw a large cat-like animal
advancing towards the spot. It came within a dozen
yards before perceiving me. I had no weapon with
me but an old chisel, and was getting ready to defend
myself if it should make a spring, when it turned
round hastily and trotted off. I did not obtain a very
distinct view of it, but I could see its colour was that of
the Puma, or American Lion, although it was much too
small for that species. The Puma is not a common
animal in the Amazons forests. I did not see altogether
more than a dozen skins in the possession of the natives.
The fur is of a fawn colour. On account of its hue
resembling that of a deer common in the forests, the
natives call it the Sassu-arana,* or the false deer ; that
is, an animal which deceives one at first sight by its super-
ficial resemblance to a deer. The hunters are not at all
afraid of it, and speak always in disparaging terms of

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

ANT-EATER GRAPPLING WITH D0(;

Vol. I, page 1"

Chap. V. ANT-EATER. I77

its courage. Of tlie Jaguar they give a very different
account.

The only species of monkey I met with at Caripi was
the same dark-coloured little Midas already mentioned
as found near Para. The great Ant-eater, Tamandua of
the natives (Myi'mecophaga jubata), was not uncommon
here. After the first few weeks of residence I ran short
of fresh provisions. The people of the neighbourhood
had sold me all the fowls they could spare ; I had not
yet learnt to eat the stale and stringy salt-fish which is
the staple food in these places, and for several days I
had lived on rice -porridge, roasted bananas, and farinha.
Florinda asked me whether I could eat Tamandua.
I told her almost an3rthing in the shape of flesh would
be acceptable, so the same day she went with an old
negro named Antonio and the dogs, and in the evening
brought one of the animals. The meat was stewed and
turned out very good, something like goose in flavour.
The people at Caripi would not touch a morsel, saying
it was not considered fit to eat in these parts ; I had
read, however, that it was an article of food in other
countries of South America. During the next two or
three weeks, when we were short of fresh meat, Antonio
was always ready, for a small reward, to get me a Taman-
dua. But one day he came to me in great distress mth
the news that his favourite dog, Atrevido, had been
caught in the grip of an ant-eater, and was killed. We
hastened to the place, and found the dog was not dead,
but severely torn by the claws of the animal, which
itself was mortally wounded, and was now relaxing its
gi'asp.

VOL. I. X

178 CARIPI. Chap. V.

The habits of the Myrmecophaga jubata are now
pretty well known. It is not uncommon in the drier
forests of the Amazons valley, but is not found, I believe,
in the Ygapo, or flooded lands. The Brazilians call the
species the Tamandua bandeira, or the Banner Ant-
eater, the term banner being applied in allusion to the
curious colouration of the animal, each side of the body
having a broad oblique stripe half-gray and half-black,
which gives it some resemblanoe to a heraldic banner.
It has an excessively long slender muzzle, and a worm-
like extensile tongue. Its jaws are destitute of teeth.
The claws are much elongated, and its gait is very
awkward. It lives on the ground, and feeds on termites,
or white ants, the long claws being employed to pull in
pieces the solid hillocks made by the insects, and the
long flexible tongue to lick them up from the crevices.
All the other species of this singular genus are arboreal.
I met with four species altogether. One was the Mp^me-
cophaga tetradactyla ; the two others, more curious and
less known, were very small kinds, called Tamandua-i.
Both are similar in size — ten inches in length, exclusive
of the tail — and in the number of the claws, having two
of unequal length to the anterior feet, and four to the
hind feet. One species is clothed with grayish-yellow
silky hair ; this is of rare occurrence. The other has a
fur of a dingy brown colour, without silky lustre. One
was brought to me alive at Caripi, having been caught
by an Indian clinging motionless inside a hollow tree.
I kept it in the house about twenty-four hours. It
had a moderately long snout, curved downwards, and
extremely small eyes. It remained nearly all the time

Chap. V. HUMMING-BIRDS. 179

without motion, except when irritated, in which case it
reared itself on its hind legs from the back of a cliair to
which it clung, and clawed out Avith its fore paws like a
cat. Its manner of clinging with its claws, and the
sluggishness of its motions, gave it a great resemblance
to a sloth. It uttered no sound, and remained all night
on the spot where I had placed it in the morning. The
next day I put it on a tree in the open air, and at
night it escaped. These small Tamanduas are nocturnal
in their habits, and feed on those species of termites
which construct earthy nests, that look like ugly
excrescences on the trunks and branches of trees. The
different kinds of ant-eaters are thus adapted to various
modes of life, terrestrial and arboreal. Those which
live on trees are again either diurnal or nocturnal, for
Mp-mecophaga tetradactyla is seen moving along the
main branches in the daytime. The allied group of the
Sloths, which are still more exclusively South American
forms than ant-eaters are, at the present time furnish
arboreal species only, but formerly terrestrial forms of
sloths existed, as the Megatherium, whose mode of life
was a puzzle, seeing that it was of too colossal a size to
live on trees, until Owen showed how it might have
obtained its food from the ground.

In January the orange-trees became covered with
blossom — at least to a gi'eater extent than usual, for they
flower more or less in this country all the year round —
and the flowers attracted a great number of humming-
birds. Every day, in the cooler hours of the morning,
and in the evening from four o'clock till six, they were
to be seen whirring about the trees by scores. Their

n2

180 CARIPI. Chap. V.

motions are unlike those of all other birds. They dart
to and fro so swiftly that the eye can scarcely follow
them, and when they stop before a flower it is only for a
few moments. They poise themselves in an unsteady
manner, their wings moving with inconceivable rapidity,
probe the flower, and then shoot off to another part of
the tree. They do not proceed in that methodical
manner which bees follow, taking the flowers seriatim,
but' skip about from one part of the tree to another in
the most capricious way. Sometimes two males close
with each other and fight, mounting upwards in the
struggle as insects are often seen to do when similarly
engaged, and then separating hastily and darting back
to their work. Now and then they stop to rest, perch-
ing on leafless twigs, when they may be sometimes
seen probing, from the place where they sit, the
flowers within their reach. The brilliant colours with
which they are adorned cannot be seen whilst they
are fluttering about, nor can the different species be
distinguished unless they have a deal of white hue in
their plumage, such as Heliothrix auritus, which is
wholly white underneath although of a glittering green
colour above, and the white-tailed Florisuga mellivora.
There is not a great variety of humming-birds in the
Amazons region, the number of species being far smaller
in these uniform forest plains than in the diversifled
valleys of the Andes, under the same parallels of lati-
tude. The family is divisible into two groups con-
trasted in form and habits, one containing species which
live entirely in the shade of the forest, and the other
comprising those which prefer open sunny places. The

rirvr. V

HUMMING-BIRD HAWK-MOTH.

181

forest species (Phaethominse) are seldom seen at flowers,
flowers being, in the shady places where they abide, of
rare occurrence; but they search for insects on leaves,
threading the bushes and passing above and beneath
each leaf with wonderful rapidity. The other group
(Trochilinae) are not quite confined to cleared places, as
they come into the forest wherever a tree is in blossom,
and descend into sunny openings where flowers are to
be found. But it is only where the woods are less dense
than usual that this is the case ; in the lofty forests
and twilight shades of the low lands and islands they
are scarcely ever seen. I searched well at Caripi, ex-
pecting to find the Lophornis Gouldii, which I was told
had been obtained in the locality. This is one of the
most beautiful of all humming-birds, having round its
neck a frill of long white feathers tipped with golden
green. I was not, however, so fortunate as to meet
with it. Several times I shot by mistake a humming-

Humming-bird and Humming-bird Hawk-moth.

182 CARIPI. Chap. V.

bird hawk-moth instead of a bird. This moth (Macro-
glossa Titan) is somewhat smaller than humming-
birds generally are, but its manner of flight, and the
way it poises itself before a flower whilst probing it
with its proboscis are precisely like the same actions of
humming-birds. It was only after many days' ex-
perience that I learnt to distinguish one from the
other when on the wing. This resemblance has at-
tracted the notice of the natives, all of whom, even
educated whites, firmly believe that one is transmutable
into the other. They have observed the metamorphosis
of caterpillars into butterflies, and think it not at all
more wonderful that a moth should change into a
humming-bird. The resemblance between this hawk-
moth and a humming-bird is certainly very curious,
and strikes one even when both are examined in the
hand. Holding them sideways, the shape of the head
and position of the eyes in the moth are seen to be
nearly the same as in the bird, the extended proboscis
representing the long beak. At the tip of the moth's
body there is a brush of long hair-scales resembhng
feathers, which, being expanded, looks very much like
a bird's tail. But, of course, all these points of resem-
blance are merely superficial. The negroes and Indians
tried to convince me that the two were of the same
species. " Look at their feathers," they said ; " their
eyes are the same, and so are their tails." This belief
is so deeply rooted that it was useless to reason with
them on the sulyect. The Macroglossa moths are
found in most countries, and have everywhere the same
habits ; one well-known species is found in England.

CiiAV. V. HUMMING-BIRDS. 183

Mr. Gould relates that he once had a stormy altercation
with an English gentleman, who affirmed that humming-
birds were found in England, for he had seen one flying
in Devonshire, meaning thereby the moth Macroglossa
stellatarum. The analogy between the two creatures
has been brought about, probably, by the similarity of
their habits, there being no indication of the one having
been adapted in outward appearance with reference to
the other.

It has been observed that humming-birds are unlike
other birds in their mental qualities, resembling in this
respect insects rather than wai-m-blooded vertebrate
animals. The want of expression in their eyes, the
small degree of versatility in their actions, the quickness
and precision of their movements, are all so many points
of resemblance between them and insects. In walking
along the alleys of the forest a Phaethornis frequently
crosses one's path, often stopping suddenly and re-
maining poised in mid-air, a few feet distant from
the face of the intruder. The Phaethorninge are cer-
tainly more numerous in individuals in the Amazons
region than the Trochihnse. They build their nests,
which are made of fine vegetable fibres and lichens,
densely woven together and thickly lined with silk-
cotton from the fruit of the samalima tree (Eriodendron
samallma), on the inner sides of the tips of palm fronds.
They are long and purse-shaped. The young when first
hatched have very much shorter bills than their
parents. The only species of Trochilinse which I
found at Caripi were the little brassy-green Polytmus
viridissimus, the Sapphire and emerald (Thalurania

184 CAEIPI. Chap. V.

furcata), and the large falcate-winged Campylopterus
obscurus.

Snakes were very numerous at Caripi ; many harm-
less species were found near the house, and these some-
times came into the rooms. I was wandering one day
amongst the green bushes of Guajara, a tree which yields
a grape-like berry (Chrysobalanus Icaco) and grows along
all these sandy shores, when I was startled by what ap-
peared to be the flexuous stem of a creeping plant
endowed with life and threading its way amongst the
leaves and branches. This animated liana turned out
to be a pale-green snake, the Dryophis fulgida. Its
whole body is of the same green hue, and it is thus
rendered undistinguishable amidst the foliage of the
Guajara bushes, where it prowls in search of its
prey, tree-frogs and lizards. The forepart of its head
is prolonged into a slender pointed beak, and the
total length of the reptile was six feet. There was
another kind found amongst bushes on the borders of
the forest closely allied to this, but much more slender,
viz., the Dryophis acuminata. This grows to a length
of 4 feet 8 inches, the tail alone being 22 inches ; but
the diameter of the thickest part of the body is little
more than a quarter of an inch. It is of light brown
colour, with iridescent shades variegated with obscurer
markings, and looks like a piece of whipcord. One in-
dividual which I caught of this species had a protu-
berance near the middle of the body. On opening it I
found a half-digested lizard which was much more bulky
than the snake itself. Another kind of serpent found
here, a species of Helicops, Avas amphibious in its habits.

CiiAr. V. EXCURSION TO MURUCUPI. 185

I saw several of this in wet weather on tlie bcacli,
which, on being approached, always made straightway
for the water, where they swam with much gi'ace and
dexterity. Florinda one day caught a Helicops whilst
angling for fish, it having swallowed the fish-hook with
the bait. She and others told me these water-snakes
lived on small fishes, but I did not meet Avitli any
proof of the fact. In the woods, snakes were con-
stantly occurring : it Avas not often, however, that I saw-
poisonous species. There were many arboreal kinds
besides the two just mentioned ; and it was rather
alarming, in entomologising about the trunks of trees,
to suddenly encounter, on turning round, as sometimes
happened, a pair of glittering eyes and a forked tongue
within a few inches of one's head. The last kind I
shall mention is the Coral-snake, which is a most beau-
tiful object when seen coiled up on black soil in the
woods. The one I saw here Avas banded with black and
vermilion, the black bands having each two clear white
rings. The state of specimens preserved in spirits can
give no idea of the brilliant colours which adorn the
Coral-Snake in life.

Petzell and I, as already mentioned, made many ex-
cursions of long extent in the neighbouring forest. We
sometimes went to Murucupi, a creek which joasses
through the forest about four miles behind Caripi, the
banks of which are inhabited by Indians and half-breeds
who have lived there for many generations in perfect
seclusion from the rest of the world, the place being
little known or frequented. A path from Caripi leads

186 CARlPl Chap. V.

to it through a gloomy tract of virgin forest, where the
trees are so closely packed together that the ground
beneath is thrown into the deepest shade, under which
nothing but fetid fungi and rotting vegetable debris is to
be seen. On emerging from this unfriendly solitude near
the banks of the Murucupi, a charming contrast is pre-
sented. A glorious vegetation, piled up to an immense
height, clothes the banks of the creek, which traverses a
broad tract of semi-cultivated ground, and the varied
masses of greenery are lighted up with the sunny glow.
Open palm-thatched huts peep forth here and there from
amidst groves of banana, mango, cotton, and papaw trees
and palms. On our first excursion, we struck the banks
of the river in front of a house of somewhat more sub-
stantial architecture than the rest, having finished mud
walls, plastered and white-washed, and a covering of red
tiles. It seemed to be full of children, and the aspect
of the household was improved by a number of good-
looking mameluco women, who were busily employed
washing, spinning, and making farinha. Two of them,
seated on a mat in the open verandah, were engaged
sewing dresses, for a festival was going to take place
a few days hence at Balcarem, a village eight miles
distant from Murucupi, and they intended to be present
to hear mass and show their finery. One of the chil-
dren, a naked boy about seven years of age, crossed
over with the montaria to fetch us. We were made
welcome at once, and asked to stay for dinner. On our
accepting the invitation a couple of fowls were killed,
and a wholesome stew of seasoned rice and fowls soon
put in preparation. It is not often that the female

Chap. V. BEAUTIFUL VEGETATION. 187

members of a family in these retired places are familiar
with strangers ; but these people had lived a long time
in the capital, and therefore were more civilised than
their neighbours. Their father had been a prosperous
tradesman, and had given them the best education the
place afforded. After his death the widow with several
daughters, married and unmarried, retired to this se-
cluded spot, which had been their sitio, farm or country
house, for many years. One of the daughters was
married to a handsome young mulatto, who was present
and sang us some pretty songs, accompanying himself
on the guitar.

After dinner I expressed a wish to see more of the
creek, so a lively and polite old man, whom I took to be
one of the neighbours, volunteered as guide. We em-
barked in a little montaria, and paddled some three or
four miles up and down the stream. Although I had
now become familiarised with beautiful vegetation, all
the glow of fresh admiration came again to me in this
place. The creek was about 100 yards wide, but
narrower in some places. Both banks were masked by
lofty walls of green drapery, here and there a break
occurring through which, under over-archmg trees,
glimpses were obtained of the palm-thatched huts of
settlers. The projecting boughs of lofty trees, which
in some places stretched half-way across the creek, were
hung with natural garlands and festoons, and an endless
variety of creeping plants clothed the water frontage,
some of which, especially the Bignonias, were orna-
mented with large gaily- coloured flowers. Art could not
have assorted together beautiful vegetable forms so

188 CARIPI. Chap. V.

harmoniously as was here done by Nature. Palms, as
usual, formed a large proportion of the lower trees ;
some of them, however, shot up their slim stems to a
height of sixty feet or more, and waved their bunches
of nodding plumes between us and the sky. One kind
of palm, the Pashiuba (Iriartea exorhiza), which grows
here in greater abundance than elsewhere, was especially
attractive. It is not one of the tallest kinds, for when
full-grown its height is not more, perhaps, than forty
feet ; the leaves are somewhat less drooping, and the
leaflets much broader than in other species, so that they
have not that feathery appearance which those of some
palms have, but still they possess their own peculiar
beauty. My guide put me ashore in one place to show
me the roots of the Pashiuba. These grow above
ground, radiating from the trunk many feet above the
surface, so that the tree looks as if supported on stilts ;
and a person can, in old trees, stand upright amongst
the roots with the perpendicular stem wholly above his
head. It adds to the singularity of their appearance,
that these roots, which have the form of straight rods,
are studded with stout thorns, whilst the trunk of the
tree is quite smooth. The purpose of this curious
arrangement is, perhaps, similar to that of the buttress
roots already described ; namely, to recompense the
tree by root-growth above the soil for its inability, in
consequence of the competition of neighbouring roots,
to extend it underground. The great amount of
moisture and nutriment contained in the atmosphere,
may also favour these growths.

On returning to the house, I found Petzell had been

Chap. V. AN INDIAN HUNTER. 189

well occupied during the hot hours of the day collecting-
insects in a neighbouring clearing. He had obtained
no less than six species new to me of the beautiful
family of Longicornes belonging to the order Coleo-
ptera. Our kind hosts gave us a cup of coffee about
five o'clock, and we then started for home. The last
mile of our walk was performed in the dark. The
forest in this part is obscure even in broad daylight,
but I was scarcely prepared for the intense opacity of
darkness which reigned here on this night, and which
prevented us from seeing each other, although walking
side by side. Nothing occurred of a nature to alarm us,
except that now and then a sudden rush was heard
amongst the trees, and once a dismal shriek startled us.
Petzell tripped at one place and fell all his length into
the thicket. With this exception, we kept well to the
pathway, and in due time arrived safely at Caripi.

One of my neighbours at Murucupi was a hunter of
reputation in these parts. He was a civilised Indian,
married and settled, named Raimundo, whose habit
was to sally forth at intervals to certain productive
hunting grounds, whose situation he kept secret, and
procure fresh provisions for his family. I had found
out by this time, that animal food was as much a neces-
sary of life in this exhausting climate as it is in the
North of Europe. An attempt which I made to live
on vegetable food was quite a failure, and I could not
eat the execrable salt fish which Brazilians use. I had
been many days without meat of any kind, and nothing
more was to be found near Caripi, so I asked as a

190 CARIPI. Chap. V.

favour of Senhor Raimundo, permission to accom]3any
him on one of his hunting trips, and shoot a little game
for my o^\m use. He consented, and appointed a day
on which I was to come over to his house to sleep, so
as to be ready for starting with the ebb-tide shortly
after midnight.

The locality we were to visit was situated near the
extreme point of the land of Carnapijo, where it pro-
jects northwardly into the middle of the Para estuary
and is broken into a number of islands. On the after-
noon of January 11th, 1849, I walked through the
woods to Rairnundo's house, taking nothing with me
but a double-barrelled gun, a supply of ammunition and
a box for the reception of any insects I might capture.
Raimundo was a carpenter, and seemed to be a very
industrious man ; he had two apprentices, Indians like
himself, one a young lad, and the other apparently
about twenty years of age. His wife was of the same
race. The Indian women are not always of a taciturn
disposition like their husbands. Senhora Dominga was
very talkative ; there was another old squaw at the
house on a visit, and the tongues of the two were going
at a great rate the whole evening, using only the Tupi
language. Raimundo and his apprentices were em-
ployed building a canoe. Notwithstanding his industry,
he seemed to be very poor, and this was the condition
of most of the residents on the banks of the Murucupi.
They have, nevertheless, considerable plantations of
mandioca and Indian corn, besides small plots of cotton,
coffee, and sugar cane ; the soil is very fertile, they have
no rent to j)ay, and no direct taxes. There is, more-

Chap. V. POVERTY OF SETTLERS. 191

over, always a market in Para, twenty miles distant,
for their sui*plus produce, and a ready communication
with it by water.

Their poverty seemed to be owing chiefly to two
causes. The first is, the prevalence amongst them of a
kind of communistic mode of regarding property. The
Indian and mameluco country people have a fixed notion
that their neighbours have no right to be better off
than themselves. If any of them have no food, canoe, or
weapons, they beg or borrow without scruple of those who
are better provided, and it is the custom not to refuse
the gift or the loan. There is no inducement, therefore,
for one family to strive or attempt to raise itself above
the others. There is always a number of lazy people who
prefer to live at the cost of their too good-natured neigh-
bours. The other cause is, the entire dependence of the
settlers on the precarious yields of hunting and fishing for
their supply of animal food ; which is here, as abeady
mentioned, as indispensable an article of diet as in cold
chmates. The young and strong who are able and will-
ing to hunt and fish, are few. Kaimundo, like all other
hard-working men in these parts, had to neglect his
regular labour every four or five days, and devote a day
and a nioiit to huntino- or fishino^. It does not seem to
occur to these people, that they could secure a constant
sujDply of meat by keeping cattle, sheep, or hogs, and
feeding them with the produce of their plantations. This
touches, however, on a fundamental defect of character
Avhich has been inherited from their Indian ancestors.
The Brazilian aborigines had no notion of domesti-
cating animals for use ; and such is the inflexibility

192 CARIPI. Chap. V.

of organisation in the red rnan, and by inheritance
from Indians also in half-breeds, that the habit seems
impossible to be acquired by them, although they show
great aptitude in other respects for civilised life. Is
this attributable fundamentally to the absence in South
America of indigenous animals suitable for domestica-
tion ? It would appear so ; and this is a great defi-
ciency in a land otherwise so richly endowed by nature.
This, however, is a difficult question, and involves
many other considerations. The presence or absence
of domesticable animals in a country, no doubt, has
a very great influence on the character and culture of
races. The North American Indians, especially those
of Florida, offered many points of similarity in character
and social condition to the Indians of the Amazons
region ; and they were, like them, condemned, probably
from the same cause, to depend for existence chiefly
on the produce of the chase or fishing. On the other
hand, the Indians of Peru, whose more favoured home
contained the Llama, were enabled to reach a high
degree of civilisation, a great help thereto being this
priceless animal, which served as a beast of burthen,
and yielded wool for clothing, and milk, cheese, and
flesh for nourishment. In the plains of Tropical
America there exists no animal comparable to the ox,
the horse, the sheep, or the hog. Of the last-men-
tioned, indeed, there are two wild species ; but they are
not closely allied to the European domestic hog. Of the
other three animals, which have been such important
helps to incipient civilisation in Asia and Europe, the
genera even are unknown in South America. There

Chap. V. ABSENCE OF DOMESTICABLE ANIMALS. 193

is no lack in the Amazonian forests of tameable
animals fit for human food ; the tapir, the paca, the
ciitia, and the curassow turkeys, are often kept in
houses and become quite as tame as the domesticated
animals of the old world ; but they are useless from
not breeding in confinement. Curassow birds are often
seen in the houses of Indians ; one fine species, the
Mitu tuberosa, becoming so familiar that it follows
children about wherever they go ; it will not pro-
pagate, however, in captivity. It is shown to be not
wholly the fault of the natives in this case, by their
valuing the common fowl, which has been imported
from Europe and adopted everywhere, even by remote
tribes on rivers rarely visited by white men. It is,
however, treated with little attention, and increases
very slowly. The Indians do not show themselves so
sensible of the advantages derivable from the ox,
sheep, and hog, all of which have been introduced into
their country. They seem unable to acquire a taste
for their flesh, and the management of the animals
in a domesticated state is evidently unsuited to their
confirmed habits. The inferiority of the native animals
compared with those of the old world in regard to
capability of breeding in confinement, to which, accord-
ing to this view, is originally owing the defect in the
Indian character regarding the domestication of animals,
has been brought about, probably, in some way not easily
exj^licable, by the domination of the forest. It has been
lately advanced by ethnologists, that where dense
forests clothe the surface of a country, the native
races of man cannot make any progress in civilisation.

VOL. I. 0

194 CAEIPI. Chap. V.

It might be added, that vast and monotonous naked
plains produce the same result. The animals which
have been so useful in the infancy of human civilisa-
tion are such as roamed originally over open or
scantily wooded plains, probably of limited extent. The
fact of many delicious wild fruits existing in the forest
which they have never learnt to cultivate seems to
show, contrary to the view here advanced, that it is
innate stupidity rather than want of materials, that has
deprived the Indians of these helps to civilization.
There is a kind of rice, growing wild on the banks of
many of the tributaries of the Amazons, which they have
never reclaimed, although they have adopted the plant
introduced into the country by Europeans.*

In the evening we had more visitors. The sounds of
pipe and tabor were heard, and presently a procession
of villagers emerged from a pathway through the man-
dioca fields. They were on a begging expedition for
St. Thome, the patron saint of Indians and Mamelucos.
One carried a banner, on which was rudely painted the
figure of St. Thome with a glory round his head. The
pipe and tabor were of the simplest description. The
pipe was a reed pierced with four holes, by means of

* Many useful vegetable products have been reclaimed, and it is
to the credit of the Indians that they have discovered the use of the
Mandioca plant, which is highly poisonous in the raw state, and
requires a long preparation to lit it for use. It is cultivated
throughout the whole of Tropical America, including Mexico and the
West India Islands, but only in the plains, not being seen, according
to Humboldt, higher than 600 to 800 metres, at which elevation it
grows, on the Mexican Andes. I believe it is not known in what
region the plant originated ; it is not found wild in the Amazons
valley.

CiiAP. Y. HUNTING EXCURSION. 195

which a few unmusical notes were produced, and the
tabor was a broad hoop with a skin stretched over each
end. A deformed young man played both the instni-
ments. Senhor Raimvmdo received them with the quiet
politeness, which comes so naturally to the Indian when
occupying the position of host. The visitors, who had
come from the Villa de Conde, five miles through the
forest, were invited to rest. Raimundo then took the
image of St. Thome from one of the party, and placed
it by the side of Nossa Senhora in his own oratorio, a
little decorated box in which every family keeps its
household gods ; finally lighting a couple of wax
candles before it. Shortly afterwards a cloth was laid
on a mat, and all the guests were invited to supper.
The fare was very scanty ; a boiled fowl with rice, a
slice of roasted pirarucii, farinha, and bananas. Each
one partook very sparingly, some of the young men
contenting themselves with a plateful of rice. One of
the apprentices stood behind with a bowl of water and
a towel, with which each guest washed his fingers and
rinsed his mouth after the meal. They stayed all night :
the large open shed was filled with hammocks, which
were slung from pole to pole ; and on retiring, Rai-
mundo gave orders for their breakfast in the morning.

Raimundo called me at two o'clock, when we em-
barked, he, his older apprentice Joaquim, and myself, in
a shady place where it was so dark that I could see
neither canoe nor water, taking with us five dogs. We
glided down a winding creek where huge trunks of trees
slanted across close overhead, and presently emerged
into the Murucupi. A few yards further on we entered

196 CARIPI. Chap. Y.

the broader channel of the Aitituba. This we crossed,
and entered another narrow creek on the opposite side.
Here the ebb tide was against ns, and we had great
difficulty in making progress. After we had struggled
against the powerful cun^ent a distance of two miles,
we came to a part where the ebb tide ran in the
opposite direction, showing that we had crossed the
water-shed. The tide flows into this channel or creek
at both ends simultaneously, and meets in the middle,
although there is apparently no difference of level, and
the breadth of the water is the same. The tides are
extremely intricate throughout all the infinite channels
and creeks which intersect the lands of the Amazons
delta. The moon now broke forth and lighted up
the trunks of colossal trees, the leaves of monstrous
Jupati i^alms which arched over the creek, and re-
vealed gi-oups of arborescent arums standing like rows
of spectres on its banks. We had a glimpse now and
then into the black depths of the forest, where all was
silent except the shrill stridulation of wood-crickets.
Now and then a sudden plunge in the water ahead
would startle us, caused by heavy fruit or some nocturnal
animal dropping from the trees. The two Indians here
rested on their paddles and allowed the canoe to drift
with the tide. A pleasant perfume came from the forest,
which Raimundo said proceeded from a cane-field. He
told me that all this land was owned by large proprietors
at Para, wlio had received grants from time to time from
the Government for political services. Raimundo was
quite in a talkative humour ; he related to me many
incidents of the time of the "Cabanagem," as the revo-

Chap. Y. INDIANS SENSITIVE TO HEAT. 197

lutionary days of 1835-6 are popularly called. He
said he had been much suspected himself of being a
rebel ; but declared that the suspicion was unfounded.
The only complaint he had to make against the white
man was, that he monopolised the land without having
any intention or prospect of cultivating it. He had
been turned out of one place where he had squatted
and cleared a large piece of forest. I believe the law
of Brazil at this time was that the new lands should
become the property of those who cleared and cultivated
them, if their right was not disputed within a given
term of years by some one who claimed the proprietor-
ship. This land-law has since been repealed, and a new
one adopted founded on that of the United States.
Raimundo spoke of his race as the red-skins, "pelle
vermelho ;" they meant well to the whites, and only
begged to be let alone. "God," he said, " had given
room enough for us all." It was pleasant to hear the
shrewd good-natured fellow talk in this strain. Our
companion, Joaquim, had fallen asleep ; the night air
was cool, and the moonlight lit up the features of Rai-
mundo, revealing a more animated expression than is
usually observable in Indian countenances. I always
noticed that Indians were more cheerful on a voyage,
especially in the cool hours of night and morning, than
when ashore. There is something in their constitution
of body which makes them feel excessively depressed in
the hot hours of the day, especially inside their houses.
Their skin is always hot to the touch. They certainly do
not endure the heat of their own climate so well as
the whites. The negroes are totally different in this

198 CAEIPI. Chap. V.

respect ; the heat of midday has very little effect on
them, and they dislike the cold nights on the river.

We arrived at our hunting-gi'ound about half-past
four. The channel was here broader and presented
several ramifications. It yet wanted an hour and a
half to day-break, so Raimundo recommended me to
have a nap. We both stretched ourselves on the
benches of the canoe and fell asleep, letting the boat
drift with the tide, which was now slack. I slept well
considering the hardness of our bed, and when I awoke
in the middle of a dream about home-scenes the day
was beginning to dawn. My clothes were quite wet
with the dew. The birds were astir, the cicadas had
begun their music, and the Urania Leilus, a strange
and beautiful tailed and gilded moth, whose habits are
those of a butterfly, commenced to fly in flocks over the
tree tops. Raimundo exclaimed " Clareia o dia !" "The
day brightens !" The change was rapid : the sky in
the east assumed suddenly the loveliest azure colour,
across which streaks of thin, white clouds were painted.
It is at such moments as this when one feels how
l)eautiful our earth truly is 1 The channel on whose
waters our little boat was floating was about 200 yards
wide ; others branched off light and left, surrounding
the gi'oup of lonely islands which terminate the land of
Carnapijo. The forest on aU sides formed a lofty
hedge without a break : below, it was fringed with
mangrove bushes, whose small foliage contrasted with
tlie large glossy leaves of the taller trees, or the feather
and fan-shaped fronds of palms.

Being now arrived at our destination, Raimundo turned

Cii.vi'. V. BREAKFAST ON AN ISLAND. 199

up liis trousers and shii-t-sleeves, took his long hunting-
knife, and leapt ashore with the dogs. He had to cut a
gap in order to enter the forest. We expected to find
Pacas and Cutias ; and the method adopted to secure
them was this : at the present early hour they would be
seen feeding on fallen fruits, but would quickly, on hear-
ino- a noise, betake themselves to their burrows : Raimundo
was then to turn them out by means of the dogs, and
Joaquim and I were to remain in the boat with our guns'
ready to shoot all that came to the edge of the stream,
the habit of both animals, when hard-pressed, being to
take to the water. We had not long to wait. The first
arrival was a Paca, a reddish, nearly tailless Rodent,
spotted with white on the sides, and intermediate in size
and appearance between a hog and a hare. My first shot
did not take effect ; the animal dived into the water and
did not re-appear. A second was brought down by my
companion as it was rambling about under the man-
grove bushes. A Cutia next appeared : this is also a
Rodent, about one-third the size of the Paca : it swims,
but does not dive, and I was fortunate enough to shoot
it. We obtained in this way two more Pacas and
another Cutia. All the time the dogs were yelping in
the forest. Shortly afterwards Raimundo made his ap-
pearance, and told us to paddle to the other side of the
island. Arrived there, we landed and prepared for
breakfast. It was a pretty spot ; a clean, white, sandy
beach beneath the shade of wide-spreading trees.
Joaquim made a fire. He first scraped fine shavings
from the midrib of a Bacaba palm-leaf ; these he piled
into a little heap in a dry place, and then struck a light

200 CARIPI. Chap. V.

in his bamboo tinder-box with a piece of an old file and
a flint, the tinder being a felt-like soft substance manu-
factured by an ant (Polyrhachis bispinosus). By gentle
blowing, the shavings ignited, dry sticks were piled on
them, and a good fire soon resulted. He then singed
and prepared the cutia, finishing by running a spit
through the body and fixing one end in the ground in
a slanting position over the fire. We had brought
with us a bag of farinha and a cup containing a lemon,
a dozen or two of fiery red peppers, and a few spoonsful
of salt. We breakfasted heartily when our cutia was
roasted, and washed the meal down with a calabash full
of the pure water of the river.

After breakfast the dogs found another cutia, which
was hidden in its burrow two or three feet beneath the
roots of a large tree, and took Raimundo nearly an hour
to disinter it. Soon afterwards we left this place, crossed
the channel, and, paddling past two islands, obtained a
glimpse of the broad river between them, with a long
sandy spit, on which stood several scarlet ibises and
snowy-white egrets. One of the islands was low and
sandy, and half of it was covered with gigantic arum-
trees, the often-mentioned Caladium arborescens, which
presented a strange sight. Most people are acquainted
with the little British species, Arum maculatum, which
grows in hedge bottoms, and many, doubtless, have ad-
mired the larger kinds grown in hot-houses ; they can
therefore form some idea of a forest of arums. On this
islet the woody stems of the plants near the bottom
were 8 to 10 inches in diameter, and the trees were 12
to 15 feet high ; all growing together in such a manner

Chap. V. RETURN TO CARIPI. 201

that there was just room for a man to walk freely be-
tween them. There was a canoe inshore, with a man
and a woman : the man, who was hooting with all his
might, told us in passing that his son was lost in the
" aningal ' ' (arum-grove) . He had strayed whilst walking
ashore, and the father had now been an hour waiting
for him in vain.

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

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

S02 CARIPI. Chap. Y.

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

I will here make a few observations reo^ardino^ the
Paca and the Cutia, although there is little to relate of
their habits in addition to what is contained in natural
history books. The Paca is the Coelogenys Paca of
zoologists, and the Cutia the Dasjq^rocta Aguti, or a

Chap. Y. PACA AND CUTIA. 203

local variety of that species. Both difiPer much from
our hare and rabbit, which belong to the same order of
animals, their fur being coarse and bristly, and their
ears short and broad. Their flesh is widely different in
taste from that of our English Rodents. The meat of
the Paca, in colour, grain, and flavour, resembles young-
pork ; it is much drier, however, and less palatable than
jDork. The skin is thick, and boils down to a jelly, when
it makes a capital soup with rice. Both animals live
exclusively in the forests, both dry and moist, being
found, perhaps, most abundantly in the ygapos and
islands. When these are flooded in the wet season,
they escape to the drier lands by swimming across the
intervening channels. At Murucupi I saw several semi-
domesticated individuals of both species, which had been
caught when young, and were suffered to run freely
about the houses. The Paca was not so familiar as
the Cutia, which generally makes use of a hole or a
box in a corner for a hiding-place, and comes out
readily to be fed by children. I once saw a tame Cutia
runnino' about the woods nibbling- the fruits fallen from
the Inaja palm-tree (Maximiliana regia), and when I
tried to catch it, instead of betaking itself to the
thicket, it ran off to the house of its owners, which
was about two hundred yards off. When feeding, this
species sometimes sits upright, and takes its food in
the fore paws like a squirrel.

The Paca and the Cutia belong to a peculiar family
of the Rodent order which is confined to South America,
and which connects the Rodents to the Pachydermata,
the order to which the elephant, horse, and hog belong.

204 CARIPI. Chap. V.

One of the principal points of distinction from other
families is the strong, blunt form of the claws, which
in one of the forms (the Capybara) are very broad,
and approximate in shape to the hoofs of the Pachy-
dermata. On this account the family is named by
some authors Subungulati ; the great division of mam-
malian animals to which the Pachydermata belong being
called, in the classifications of the best authors, Ungulata,
after the hoofed feet, which are considered their leading
character. It is an interesting fact that the pachyder-
matous animal most nearly allied to the Rodents is also
American, although found only in the fossil state,
namely, the Toxodon, which Professor Owen states
resembled the Eodentia in its dentition. The Toxodon,
on the other hand, was nearly related to the Elej)hant,
of which the same distinguished zoologist says, " Several
particulars in its organization indicate an affinity to
the Rodentia." These facts impart a high degree
of interest to these semi-hoofed American Rodents,
because they make it probable that these animals
are the living representatives, albeit somewhat modi-
fied, of a group which existed at a former distant
epoch in the world's history, and which possessed a
structure partaking of the characters of the two great
orders, Rodentia and Pachydermata, now so widely
distinct in the majority of their forms. I believe that
no remains of the order Toxodontia, or of the Rodent
family Subungulati, have been found fossil in any other
part of the world besides America. In this sort of
question it is very unsafe to found generalizations on
negative evidence ; but does not this tend to show that

Chap. Y. BEGINNING OF WET SEASON. 205

the great section of mammals to which the Pachyder-
mata belong had its origin on that part of the earth's
surface where South America now stands ?

On the 16th of January the dry season came abruptly
to an end. The sea breezes, which had been increasing
in force for some days, suddenly ceased, and the atmo-
sphere became misty ; at length heavy clouds collected
where a uniform blue sky had for many weeks pre-
vailed, and down came a succession of heavy showers,
the first of which lasted a whole day and night. This
seemed to give a new stimulus to animal life. On
the first night there was a tremendous uproar — tree-
frogs, crickets, goat-suckers, and owls, all joining to
perform a deafening concert. One kind of goat-sucker
kept repeating at intervals throughout the night
a phrase similar to the Portuguese words, " Joao
corta pao," "John, cut wood;" a phrase which forms
the Brazilian name of the bird. An owl in one of
the Genij^apa trees muttered now and then a suc-
cession of syllables resembling the word " Murucu-
tutu." Sometimes the croaking and hooting of frogs
and toads were so loud that we could not hear one
another's voices within doors. Swarms of dragon-flies
appeared in the daytime about the pools of water
created by the rain, and ants and termites came forth
in the winged state in vast numbers. I noticed that
the winged termites, or white ants, which came by
hundreds to the lamps at night, when alighting on the
table, often jerked off their wings by a voluntary move-
ment. On examination I found that the wings were

206 CAIIIPI. Chap. V.

not shed by tlie roots, for a small portion of the stumps
remained attached to the thorax. The edge of the
fracture was in all cases straight, not ruptured : there
is, in fact, a natural seam crossing the member towards
its root, and at this point the long wing naturally drops
or is jerked off when the insect has no further use for
it. The white ant is endowed with wings simply for
the purpose of flying away from the colony peopled by
its wingless companions, to pair with individuals of the
same or other colonies, and thus propagate and dissemi-
nate its kind. The winged individuals are males and
females, whilst the great bulk of their wingless fraternity
are of no sex, and are restricted to the functions of building
the nests, nursing and defending the young brood. The
two sexes mate whilst on the ground after the wings
are shed, and then the married couples, if they escape
the numerous enemies which lie in wait for them,
proceed to the task of founding new colonies. Ants
and white ants have much that is analogous in their
modes of life : they belong, however, to two widely
different orders of insects, strongly contrasted in their
structure and manner of growth. In some respects the
termites are more wonderful than the ants, but I shall
reserve an account of them for another chapter.

I amassed at Caripi a very large collection of beauti-
ful and curious insects, amounting^ altogether to about
twelve hundred species. The number of Coleoptera
was remarkable, seeing that this order is so poorly re-
presented near Para. I attributed their abundance to
the number of new clearings made in the virgin forest by
the native settlers. The felled timber attracts ligni-

Chap. V. COLOURS OF ANIMALS. 207

vorous insects, and these draw in their train the preda-
cious species of various families. As a general rule the
species were smaller and much less brilliant in colours
than those of Mexico and South Brazil. The species too,
although numerous, were not represented by great num-
bers of individuals ; they were also extremely nimble,
and therefore much less easy of . capture than insects
of the same order in temperate climates. On the sandy
beach I found two species of Tetracha, a genus of tiger-
beetles, which have remarkably large heads, and are
found only in hot climates. They come forth at night,
in the daytime remaining hid in their burrows several
inches deep in the light soil. Their powers of running
exceed everything I witnessed in this style of insect
locomotion. They run in a serpentine course over the
smooth sand, and when closely pursued by the fingers in
the endeavour to seize them, are apt to turn suddenly
back, and thus baffle the most practised hand and eye.
I afterwards became much interested in these insects on
several accounts, one of which was that they afforded an
illustration of a curious problem in natural history.
One of the Caripi species (T. nocturna of Dejean) was
of a pallid hue like the sand over which it ran ; the
other was a brilliant copper-coloured kind (T. jDallipes
of Klug). Many insects whose abode is the sandy
beaches are white in colour ; I found a large earwig
and a mole-cricket of this hue very common in these
localities. Now it has been often said, when insects,
lizards, snakes, and other animals, are coloured so as to
resemble the objects on which they live, that such is a
provision of nature, the assimilation of colours being

208 CAEIPf. Chap. Y.

ofiven in order to conceal the creatures from the keen
eyes of insectivorous birds and other animals. This is
no doubt the right view, but some authors have found a
difficulty in the explanation on account of this assimila-
tion of colours being exhibited by some kinds and not by
others living in company with them ; the dress of some
species being in striking contrast to the colours of their
dwelling-place. One of our Tetrachas is coloured to
resemble the sand, whilst its sister species is a con-
spicuous object on the sand ; the white species, it may
be mentioned, being much more swift of foot than the
copper-coloured one. The margins of these sandy
beaches are frequented throughout the fine season by
flocks of sandpipers, who search for insects on moonlit
nights as well as by day. If one species of insect
obtains immunity from their onslaughts by its deceptive
resemblance to the sandy surface on which it runs,
why is not its sister species endowed in the same
way ? The answer is, that the dark-coloured kind
has means of protection of quite a different nature,
and therefore does not need the peculiar mode of dis-
guise enjoyed by its companion. When handled it emits
a strong, offensive, putrid and musky odour, a property
which the pale kind does not exhibit. Thus we see
that the fact of some species not exhibiting the same
adaptation of colours to dwelling-places as their com-
panion species does not throw doubt on the explana-
tion given of the adaptation, but is rather confirmatory
of it.

The carnivorous beetles at Caripi were, like those of
Para, chiefly arboreal. Some were found under the bark

Chap. Y. LONGICOE:^^ BEETLES. 209

of trees (Coptodera, Goniotropis, Morio,&c.), others run-
ning over the slender twigs, branches, and leaves (Cte-
nostoma, Lebia, Calophaena, Lia, &c.), and many were
concealed in the folds of leaves (Calleida, Agra, &c.).
Most of them exhibited a beautiful contrivance for
enabling them to cling to and run over smooth or flexible
surfaces, such as leaves. Their tarsi or feet are broad,
and furnished beneath with a brush of short stiff hairs,
whilst their claws are toothed in the form of a comb,
adapting them for clinging to the smooth edges of
leaves, the joint of the foot which precedes the claw
being cleft so as to allow free play to the claw in grasping.
The common dung-beetles at Caripi, which flew about-
in the evening like the Geotrupes, the familiar " shard-
borne beetle with his drowsy hum " of our English lanes,
were of colossal size and beautiful colours. One kind
had a long spear-shaped horn projecting from the crown
of its head (Phangeus lancifer). A blow from this
fellow, as he came heavily flying along, was never very
pleasant. All the tribes of beetles w^hich feed on vege-
table substances, fresh or decayed, were very numerous.
The most beautiful of these, but not the most common,
were the Longicomes ; very graceful insects, having
slender bodies and long antennae, often ornamented with
fringes and tufts of hair. They were found on flowers,
on trunks of trees, or flying about the new clearings.
One small species (Coremia hirtipes) has a tuft of hairs
on its hind legs, whilst many of its sister species have a
similar ornament on the antennae. It suggests curious
reflections when we see an ornament like the feather
of a gi'enadier's cap situated on one part of the

210 CAEIPI. Chap. V.

body in one species, and in a totally different part in
nearly allied ones. I tried in vain to discover the use
of these curious brush-like decorations. On the trunk
of a living leguminous tree, Petzell found a number
of a very rare and handsome species, the Platysternus
hebraeus, which is of a broad shape, coloured ochreous,
but spotted and striped with black, so as to resemble
a domino. On the felled trunks of trees, swarms of
gilded-green Longicornes occurred, of small size (Chry-
soprasis), which looked like miniature musk-beetles,
and, indeed, are closely allied to those well-known
European insects.

I was interested in the many small kinds of lignivorous
or wood-eating insects found at Caripi, a few obser-
vations on which may be given in conclusion. It is
curious to observe how some small groups of insects
exhibit the most diversified forms and habits — one set
of species being adapted by their structure for one set
of functions in nature, and another set, very closely
allied, for an opposite sphere of action. Thus the
Histeridse — small black beetles well known to English
entomologists, most of whose species are short and
thick in shape and live in the dung of animals — are
most diversified in structure and habits in the Ama-
zons region ; nevertheless, all the forms preserve in
a remarkable degree the essential characters of the
family. One set of species live in dung ; most of these
are somewhat cubical in shape, the head being re-
tractable within the breastplate, as in the tortoise.
Another group of Histerida3 are much flatter in form,
and live in the moist interior of j)alm-tree stems ; one

Chap. V. DEPARTURE FROM CARirf. 211

of these is a veritable colossus, the Hister maximus of
Linngeus. A third group (Hololeptse) are found only
under the bark of trees ; their heads are not retractable
within the breast, and their bodies are excessively de-
pressed, to fit them for living in narrow crevices,
some kinds being literally as thin as a wafer. A
fourth set of species (Tryi^anaeus) form a perfect con-
trast to these, being cylindrical in shape. They drill
holes into solid wood, and look like tiny animated
gimlets when seen at work, their pointed heads being
fixed in the wood whilst their smooth glossy bodies
work rapidly round, so as to create little streams of
sawdust from the holes. Several families of insects
show similar diversities of adaptation amongst their
species, but none, I think, to the same extent as the
Histeridae, considering the narrow limits of the group.
The facts presented by such groups in the animal
kingdom must be taken into account in any explana-
tion of the way the almost infinite diversity of the forms
of life has been brought about on this wonderful earth.

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

p2

CHAPTER VI.

THE LOWER AMAZONS— PARA TO OBYDOS.

Modes of Travelling on the Amazons — Historical Sketch of tlie early Ex-
plorations of the River — Preparations for Voyage— Life on board a
large Trading-vessel — The narrow Channels joining the Para to the
Amazons — First Sight of the great River — Gurnpa — The Great
Shoal — Flat-topped Mountains — Contraction of the River Valley —
Santarem — Obydos — Natural History of Obydos — Origin of Species
by Segregation of Local Varieties.

At the time of my first voyage up the Amazons —
namely, in 1849 — nearly all communication with the
interior was by means of small sailing vessels, owned
by traders' residing in the remote towns and villages,
who seldom came to Para themselves, but entrusted
vessels and cargoes to the care of half-breeds or Portu-
guese cabos. Sometimes, indeed, they risked all in
the hands of the Indian crew, making the pilot, who
was also steersman, do duty as supercargo. Now and
then, Portuofuese and Brazilian merchants at Para fur-
nished young Portuguese with merchandise, and des-
patched them to the interior to exchange the goods for
produce amongst the scattered population. The means
of communication, in fact, with the upper parts of the
Amazons had been on the decrease for some time, on
account of the augmented difficulty of obtaining hands

Chap. VI. TEADE-WIND OF THE AMAZONS. 213

to navigate vessels. Formerly, when the Government
wished to send any important functionary, such as a
judge or a military commandant, into the interior, they
equipped a swift-sailing galliota, manned with ten or a
dozen Indians. These could travel, on the average, in
one day further than the ordinary sailing craft could in
three. Indian paddlers were now, however, almost im-
possible to be obtained, and Government officers were
obliged to travel as passengers in trading vessels. The
voyage made in this way was tedious in the extreme.
When the regular east wind blew — the " vento geral," or
trade wind, of the Amazons — sailing vessels could get
along very well ; but when this failed they were obliged
to remain, sometimes many days together, anchored
near the shore, or progress laboriously by means of
the "espia." This latter mode of travelling was as
follows. The montaria, with twenty or thirty fathoms
of cable, one end of which was attached to the
foremast, was sent ahead with a couple of hands,
who secured the other end of the rope to some
.strono' bouo'h or tree trunk ; the crew then hauled the
vessel up to the point, after which the men in the
boat re-embarked the cable, and paddled forwards to
repeat the process. In the dry season, from August
to December, when the trade-wind is strong and the
currents slack, a schooner could reach the mouth of the
Rio Negro, a thousand miles from Para, in about forty
days ; but in the wet season, from January to July,
when the east wind no longer blows and the Amazons
pours forth its full volume of water, flooding the banks
and producing a tearing current, it took three mouths to

214 THE LOWER AMAZOITS. Chap. VI.

travel the same distance. It was a great blessing to the
inhabitants when, in 1853, a line of steamers was estab-
lished, and this same journey could be accomplished
with ease and comfort, at all seasons, in eight days !

It is, perhaps, not generally known that the Portu-
guese, as early as 1710, had a fair knowledge of the
Amazons ; but the information gathered by their govern-
ment from various expeditions undertaken on a grand
scale, was long withheld from the rest of the world,
through the jealous policy which ruled in their colonial
affairs. From the foundation of Para by Caldeira, in
1615, to the settlement of the boundary line between
the Spanish and Portuguese possessions, Peru and
Brazil, in 1781-91, numbers of these expeditions were
in succession undertaken. The largest was the one
commanded by Pedro Texeira in 1637-9, who ascended
the river to Quito, by way of the Napo, a distance of
about 2800 miles, with 45 canoes and 900 men, and
returned to Para without any great misadventure by the
same route. Tlie success of this remarkable undertaking
amply proved, at that early date, the facility of the river
navigation, the practicability of the country, and the
good disposition of the aboriginal inhabitants. The
river, however, was first discovered by the Spaniards,
the mouth having been visited by Pinzon in 1500, and
nearly the whole course of the river navigated by
Orellana in 1541-2. The voyage of the latter was one
of the most remarkable on record. Orellana was a lieu-
tenant of Gonzalo Pizarro, governor of Quito, and
accompanied the latter in an adventurous journey

Chap. VI. VOYAGE OF LOPEZ D'AGUIRRE. 215

which he undertook across the easternmost chain of the
Andes, down into the sweltering valley of the Napo, in
search of the land of El Dorado, or the Gilded King.
They started with 300 soldiers and 4000 Indian porters ;
but, arrived on the banks of one of the tributaries of the
Napo, their followers were so greatly decreased in num-
ber by disease and hunger, and thei remainder so much
weakened, that Pizarro was obliged to despatch Orellana
with fifty men, in a vessel they had built, to the Napo,
in search of provisions. It can be imagined by those
acquainted with the Amazons country how fruitless
this errand would be in the wilderness of forest where
Orellana and his followers found themselves when they
reached the Napo, and how strong their disinclination
would be to return against the currents and rapids
which they had descended. The idea then seized them
to commit themselves to the chances of the stream,
although ignorant whither it would lead. So onward
they went. From the Napo they emerged into the
main Amazons, and, after many and various adventures
with the Indians on its banks, reached the Atlantic eight
months from the date of their entering the great river.*
Another remarkable voyage was accomplished, in a
similar manner, by a Spaniard named Lopez d'Aguirre,
from Cusco, in Peru, down the Ucayali, a branch of the
Amazons flowinof from the south, and therefore from an

* It was during this voyage that the nation of female warriors was
said to have been met with ; a report which gave rise to the Portuguese
name of the river, Amazonas. It is now pretty well known that this
is a mere fable, originating in the love of the marvellous which distin-
guished the early Spanish adventurers, and impaired the credibility of
their narratives.

216 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI.

opposite direction to that of the Napo. An account of
this journey was sent by D'Aguirre, in a letter to the
King of Spain, from which Humboldt has given an
extract in his narrative. As it is a good specimen of the
quaintness of style and looseness of. statement exhibited
by these early narrators of adventures in South America,
I will give a translation of it. " We constiTicted rafts,
and, leavinof behind our horses and bag-o^ag-e, sailed
down the river (the Ucayali) with gi'eat risk, until we
found ourselves in a gulf of fresh water. In this river
Maranon we continued more than ten months and a half,
down to its mouth, where it falls into the sea. We
made one hundred days' journey, and travelled 1500
leagues. It is a great and fearful stream, has 80 leagues
of fi^esh water at its mouth, vast shoals, and 800 leagues
of wilderness without any kind of inhabitants,* as your
Majesty will see from the tiTie and correct narrative of
the journey which we have made. It has more than
6000 islands. God knows how we came out of this
fearful sea." Many expeditions were undertaken in the
course of the eighteenth century ; in fact, the crossing
of the continent from the Pacific to the Atlantic, by
way of the Amazons, seems to have become by this
time a common occurrence. The only voyage, however,
which yielded much scientific information to the Euro-
pean public was that of the French astronomer. La
Condamine, in 1743-4. The most complete account

* This account disagi*ees with that of Acunna, the historiographer
of Texeira's expedition, who accompanied him, in 1639, on his return
voyage from Quito. Acunna speaks of a very numerous population on
the banks of the Amazons.

Chap. Y1. PRE^AEATIO^^S FOR VOYAGE. 217

yet published of the river is that given by Von Martins
in the third volume of Spix and Martins' Travels.
These most accomplished travellers w'fere eleven months
in the country — namely, from Jnlj, 1819, to June, 1820,
and ascended the river to the frontiers of the Brazilian
territory. Their accounts of the geogi'aphy, ethnology,
botany, history, and statistics of the Amazons region are
the most complete that have ever been given to the
world. Their narrative was not published until 1831,
and was unfortunately inaccessible to me during the
time I travelled in the same country.

Whilst preparing for my voyage it happened fortu-
natety that the half-brother of Dr. Angelo Custodio, a
young mestizo named Joa5 da Cunha Correia, was
about starting for the Amazons on a trading expedition
in his own vessel, a schooner of about forty tons bur-
then. A passage for me was soon arranged with him
through the intervention of Dr. Angelo, and we started
on the oth of September, 1849. I intended to stop at
some village on the northern shore of the Lower Amazons,
where it would be interesting to make collections, in
order to show the relations of the fauna to those of
Para and the coast region of Guiana. As I should have
to hire a house or hut wherever I stayed, I took all the
materials for housekeepmg — cooking utensils, .crockery,
and so forth. To these were added a stock of such pro-
visions as were difficult to obtain in the interior ; also
ammunition, chests, store boxes, a small library of
natural history books, and a hundredweight of copper
money. I engaged, after some trouble, a Mameluco

218 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI.

youtli to accompany me as servant — a short, fat, yellow-
faced boy named Luco, whom I had already employed
at Para in collecAing. We weighed anchor at night,
and on the following day found ourselves gliding along
the dark-brown waters of the Moju.

Joa5 da Cunha, like most of his fellow-countrymen,
took matters very easily. He was going to be absent
in the interior several years, and therefore intended to
diverge from his route to visit his native place, Cameta,
and spend a few days with his friends. It seemed not
to matter to him that he had a cargo of merchandise,
vessel, and crew of twelve persons, which required an
economical use of time ; " pleasure first and business
afterwards" appeared to be his maxim. "We stayed at
Cameta twelve days. The chief motive for prolonging
the stay to this extent was a festival at the Aldeia, tAvo
miles below Cameta, which was to commence on the
21st, and which my friend wished to take part in. On
the day of the festival the schooner was sent down to
anchor off the Aldeia, and master and men gave them-
selves up to revelry. In the evening a strong breeze
sprang up, and orders were given to embark. We
scrambled down in the dark through the thickets of
cacao, orange, and coffee trees which clothed the high
bank, and, after running great risk of being swamped
by the heavy sea in the crowded montaria, got all aboard
by nine o'clock. We made all sail amidst the "adeos"
shouted to us by Indian and mulatto sweethearts from
the top of the bank, and, tide and wind being favour-
able, were soon miles away.

Our crew consisted, as already mentioned, of twelve

CiiAr. VI. OUR CREW. 219

persons. One was a young Portuguese from the pro-
vince of Traz os Montes, a pretty sample of the kind of
emigrants which Portugal sends to Brazil. He was two
or three and twenty years of age, and had been about
two years in the country, dressing and living like the
Indians, to whom he was certainly inferior in manners.
He could not read and write, whereas one at least of our
Tapuyos had both accomplishments. He had a little
wooden image of Nossa Senhora in his rough wooden
clothes chest, and to this he always had recourse when
any squall arose, or when ^Ye got aground on a shoal.
Another of our sailors was a tawny white of Cameta ; the
rest were Indians, except the cook, who was a Cafuzo,
or half-breed between the Indian and negTo. It is often
said that this class of mestizos is the most evilly-disposed
of all the numerous crosses between the races inhabiting
Brazil ; but Luiz was a simple, good-hearted fellow,
always ready to do one a service. The pilot was an old
Tapuyo of Para, with regular oval face and well-shaped
features. I was astonished at his endurance. He never
quitted the helm night or day, except for two or three
hours in the morning. The other Indians used to bring
him his coffee and meals, and after breakfast one of
them relieved him for a time, when he used to lie down
on the quarter-deck and get his two hours' nap. The
Indians forward had things pretty much their OAvn way.
No system of watches was followed ; when any one was
SO disposed, he lay down on the deck and went to sleep ;
but a feeling of good fellowship seemed always to exist
amongst them. One of them was a fine specimen of
the Indian race : a man very little short of six feet

220 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. YI.

high, with remarkable breadth of shoulder and full
muscular chest. His comrades called him the com-
mandant, on account of his having been one of the
rebel leaders when the Indians and others took San-
tarem in 1835. They related of him that, when the
legal authorities arrived with an armed flotilla to
recapture the town, he was one of the last to quit,
remaining in the little fortress which commands the
place to make a show of loading the guns, although
the ammunition had given out long ago. Such were
our travelling companions. We lived almost the same
as on board ship. Our meals were cooked in the galley ;
but, where practicable, and during our numerous stop-
pages, the men went in the montaria to fish near the
shore, so that our breakfasts and dinners of salt pira-
rucu were sometimes varied with fresh food.

Sept. 24fth. — We passed Entre-as-Ilhas with the
morning tide yesterday, and then made across to the
eastern shore — the starting-point for all canoes which
have to traverse the broad mouth of the Tocantins
going west. Early this morning we commenced the
passage. The navigation is attended with danger on
account of the extensive shoals in the middle of the
river, which are covered only by a small depth of water
at this season of the year. The wind was fresh, and
the schooner rolled and pitched like a ship at sea.
The distance was about fifteen miles. In the middle,
the river view was very imposing. Towards the north-
east there was a long sweep of horizon clear of land,
and on the south-west stretched a similar boundless
expanse, but varied with islets clothed with fan-leaved

Chap. VI. EIVER BEEVES. 221

palms, which, however, were visible only as isolated
groups of columns, tufted at the top, rising here and
there amidst the waste of waters. In the afternoon we
rounded the westernmost point ; the land, which is not
terra firma, but simply a group of large islands forming
a portion of the Tocantins delta, was then about three
miles distant.

On the following day (25th) we sailed towards the
west, along the upper portion of the Para estuary, which
extends seventy miles beyond the mouth of the Tocan-
tins. It varies in width from three to five miles, but
broadens rapidly near its termination, where it is eight
or nine miles wide. The northern shore is formed by
the island of Marajo, and is slightly elevated and rocky
in some parts. A series of islands conceals the southern
shore from view most part of the way. The whole
country, mainland and islands is covered with forest.
We had a good wind all day, and about 7 'p.m.. entered
the narrow river of Breves, which commences abruptly
the extensive labyrinth of channels that connect the
Para with the Amazons. The sudden termination of
the Para at a point where it expands to so great a
breadth is remarkable ; the water, however, is very
shallow over the greater portion of the expanse. I
noticed, both on this and on the three subsequent occa-
sions of passing this place in ascending and descending
the river, that the flow of the tide from the east along the
estuary, as well as up the Breves, was very strong. This
seems sufficient to prove that no considerable volume of
water passes by this medium from the Amazons to the
Para, and that the opinion of those geogi'aphers is an

222 THE LOWER AMAZOXS. Chap. YI.

incorrect one, who believe the Para to be one of the
mouths of the great river. There is, however, another
channel connecting the two rivers, which enters the
Para six miles to the south of the Breves. The lower
part of its course for eighteen miles is formed by the
Uanapu, a large and independent river flowing from
the south. The tidal flow is said by the natives to
produce little or no current up this river ; a fact which
seems to afford a little support to the view just stated.

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

Se23t. 27th-S0th. — After passing Breves we continued
our way slowly along a channel, or series of channels, of
variable width. On the morning of the 27th we had a
fair wind, the breadth of the stream varying from about
150 to 400 yards. The forest was not remarkable in

Chap. VI. JABURU CHANNEL. 223

appearance ; the banks were muddy, and in low marshy
places groups of Caladiums fringed the edge of the
water. About midday we passed, on the western side,
the mouth of the Aturiazal, through which, on account of
its swifter cuiTent, vessels pass in descending from the
Amazons to Para. Shortly afterwards we entered the
narrow channel of the Jaburu, which lies twenty miles
above the mouth of the Breves. Here commences the
peculiar scenery of this remarkable region. We found
ourselves in a narrow and nearly straight canal, not more
than eighty to a hundred yards in width, and hemmed
in by two walls of forest, which rose quite peipendi-
cularly from the water to a height of seventy or eighty
feet. The water was of great and uniform depth, even
close to the banks. We seemed to be in a deep gorge,
and the strange impression the place produced was
augmented by the dull echoes produced by the voices
of our Indians and the splash of their paddles. The
forest was excessively varied. Some of the trees, the
dome-topped giants of the Leguminous and Bombaceous
orders, reared their heads far above the averag^e heiofht
of the green walls. The fan-leaved Miriti palm Avas
scattered in some numbers amidst the rest, a feY\^
sohtary specimens shooting up their smooth columns
above the other trees. The gi'aceful Assai palm grew
in little groups, forming feathery pictures set in the
rounder foliage of the mass. The Ubussu, lower in
height, showed only its shuttlecock-shaped crowns of
huge undivided fronds, which, being of a vivid pale green,
contrasted forcibly against the sombre hues of the sur-
rounding foliage. The Ubussu grew here in great

224 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI.

numbers ; the equally remarkable Jupati palm (Rliaphia
tsedigera), which, like the Ubussu, is peculiar to this dis-
trict, occurred more sparsely, throwing its long shaggy
leaves, forty to fifty feet in length, in broad arches over
the canal. An infinite diversity of smaller-sized palms
decorated the water's edge, such as the Maraja-i (Bac-
tris, many species), the Ubim (Geonoma), and a few
stately Bacabas ((Enocarpus Bacaba). The shape of
this last is exceedingly elegant, the size of the crown
being in proper proportion to the straight smooth stem.
The leaves, down even to the bases of the glossy petioles,
are of a rich dark-green colour, and free from spines.
" The forest wall" — I am extracting from my journal —
"under which we are now moving consists, besides
palms, of a great variety of ordinary forest-trees. From
the highest branches of these down to the water sweep
ribbons of climbing plants of the most diverse and orna-
mental foliage possible. Creeping convolvuli and others
have made use of the slender lianas and hanging air-
roots as ladders to climb by. Now and then appears
a Mimosa or other tree having similar fine pinnate
foliage, and thick masses of Inga border the water,
from whose branches hang long bean-pods, of different
shape and size according to the species, some of them a
yard in length. Flowers there are very few. I see,
now and then, a gorgeous crimson blossom on long
spikes ornamenting the sombre foliage towards the
summits of the forest. I suppose it to belong to a
climber of the Combretaceous order. There are also
a few yellow and violet Trumpet-flowers (Bignoni<T).
The blossoms of the Ingas, although not conspicuous,

Chap. VI. A CURIOUS SUPERSTITION. 225

are delicately beautiful. The forest all along offers
so dense a front that one never obtains a glimpse into
the interior of the wilderness."

The length of the Jaburii channel is about 35 miles,
allowing for the numerous abrupt bends which occur
between the middle and the northern end of its course.
We were three days and a half accomplishing the
passage. The banks on each side seemed to be com-
posed of hard river mud with a thick covering of
veofetable mould, so that I should imao^ine this whole
district originated in a gradual accumulation of allu-
vium, through which the endless labyrinths of channels
have worked their deep and narrow beds. The flood
tide as we travelled northward became gradually of less
assistance to us, as it caused only a feeble current up-
wards. The pressure of the waters from the Amazons
here makes itself felt ; as this is not the case lower
down, I suppose the currents are diverted through some
of the numerous channels which we passed on our right,
and which traverse, in their course towards the sea, the
north-western part of Marajo. In the evening of the
29th we arrived at a point where another channel joins
the Jaburti from the north-east. Up this the tide was
flowing ; we turned westward, and thus met the flood
coming from the Amazons. This point is the object of
a strange superstitious observance on the part of the
canoemen. It is said to be haunted by a Paje, or
Indian wizard, whom it is necessary to propitiate by
depositing some article on the spot, if the voyager
Avishes to secure a safe return from the "sertao,' as
the interior of the country is called. The trees were

226 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI".

all hung with rags, shirts, straw hats, bunches of fruit,
and so forth. Although the superstition doubtless
originated with the aborigines, yet I observed, in both
my voyages, that it was only the Portuguese and un-
educated Brazilians who deposited anything. The
pure Indians gave nothing, and treated the whole
affair as a humbug ; but they were all civilised Ta-
puyos.

On the 80th, at 9 p.m., we reached a broad channel
called Macaco, and now left the dark, echoing Jaburu.
The Macaco sends off branches towards the north-west
coast of Marajo. Whilst waiting for the tide I went
ashore in the montaria with Joa5 da Cunha. The
forest was gloomy and forbidding in the extreme, the
densely-packed trees producing a deep shade, under
which all was dark and cold. There was no animal
life visible — vertebrate, articulate, or molluscous. At
its commencement the Macaco is about half a mile
wide, and runs from S.S.W. to N.N.E. ; towards the
north it expands to a breadth of two or three miles.
It is merely a passage amongst a cluster of islands,
between which a glimpse is occasionally obtained of
the broad waters of the main Amazons. A brisk wind
carried us rapidly past its monotonous scenery, and early
in the morning of the 1st of October we reached the
entrance of the Uituquara, or the Wind-hole, which is
15 miles distant from the end of the Jaburu. This is
also a winding channel, S5 miles in length, threading
a group of islands, but it is much narrower than the
Macaco.

On emerging from the Uituquara on the 2nd, we all

Chap . VI. PARROTS, FISHES AND ALLIGATOR. 227

went ashore : the men to fish in a small creek ; Joa5 da
Cunha and I, to shoot bh'ds. We saw a flock of scarlet
and blue macaws (Macrocercus Macao) feeding on the
fruits of a Bacaba palm, and looking like a cluster of
flaunting banners beneath its dark-green crown. We
landed about fifty yards from the place, and crept
cautiously through the forest, but before we reached
them they flew off with loud harsh screams. At a
wild-fruit tree we were more successful, as my com-
panion shot an anaca (Derotypus coronatus), one of the
most beautiful of the parrot family. It is of a green
colour, and has a hood of feathers, red bordered with
blue, at the back of its head, which it can elevate or
depress at pleasure. The anaca is the only new-world
parrot which nearly resembles the cockatoo of Aus-
tralia. It is found in all the low lands throughout
the Amazons region, but is not a common bird any-
where. Few persons succeed in taming it, and I never
saw one that had been taught to speak. The natives
are very fond of the bird nevertheless, and keep
it in their houses for the sake of seeing the irascible
creature expand its beautiful frill of feathers, which it
readily does when excited. The men returned with a
large quantity of fish. I was surprised at the great
variety of species ; the prevailing kind was a species of
Loricaria, a foot in length, and wholly encased in bony
armour. It abounds at certain seasons in shallow
water. The flesh is dry, but very palatable. They
brought also a small alligator, which they called Jacard-
curua, and said it was a kind found only in shallow
creeks. It was not more than two feet in length,

Q 2

228 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI.

although full grown according to the statement of the
Indians, who said it was a "mai d'ovos," or mother of

Acarl Fish (Loricaria duodecimalis).

eggs, as they had pillaged the nest, which they had
found near the edge of the water. The eggs were rather
larger than a hen's, and regularly oval in shape, pre-
senting a rough hard surface of shell. Unfortunately
the alligator was cut up ready for cooking when we
returned to the schooner, and I could not therefore
make a note of its peculiarities. The pieces were
skewered and roasted over the fire, each man being
his own cook. I never saw this species of alligator
afterwards.

October Srd. — About midnight the wind, for which
we had long been waiting, sprang up, the men weighed
anchor, and we were soon fairly embarked on the Ama-
zons. I rose long before sunrise to see the great river
by moonlight. There was a spanking breeze, and the
vessel was bounding gaily over the waters. The channel

Chap. VI. SUDDEN STORM. 229

along which we were sailing was only a naiTow arm of
the river, about two miles in width : the total breadth
at this point is more than 20 miles, but the stream is
divided into three parts by a series of large islands. The
river, notmthstanding this limitation of its breadth,
had a most majestic appearance. It did not present
that lake-like aspect which the waters of the Para and
Tocantins affect, but had all the swing, so to speak, of a
vast flowing stream. The ochre-coloured turbid waters
offered also a great contrast to the rivers belonging to
the Para system. The channel formed a splendid reach,
sweeping from south-west to north-east, with a horizon
of water and sky both up stream and down. At 11 a.m.
we arrived at Gurupa, a small village situated on a rocky
bank 30 or 40 feet high. Here we landed, and I had
an opportunity of rambling in the neighbouring woods,
which are intersected by numerous pathways, and car-
peted with Lycopodia growing to a height of 8 or 10
inches, and enlivened by numbers of glossy blue butter-
flies of the Theclidse, or hair- streak family. The land
on which Gurupa is built appears an isolated rocky area,
for the rest of the country round about lies low, and
is subject to inundation in the rainy season. At 5 p.m.
we were again under way. Soon after sunset, as we
were crossinof the mouth of the Xinofu, the first of the
great tributaries of the Amazons, 1200 miles in length,
a black cloud arose suddenly in the north-east. Joao
da Cunha ordered all sails to be taken in, and imme-
diately afterwards a furious squall burst forth, tearing
the waters into foam, and producing a frightful uproar
in the neighbouring forests. A drenching rain fol-

230 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI.

lowed : but in half an hour all was again calm, and
the full moon appeared sailing in a cloudless sky.

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

The weather was now delightful for several days in
succession : the air transparently clear, and the breeze
cool and invigorating. At daylight, on the 6th, a chain
of blue hills, the Serra de Almeyrim, appeared in the
distance on the north bank of the river. The sight
was most exhilarating after so long a sojourn in a flat
country. We kept to the southern shore, passing in
the course of the day the mouths of the Urucuricaya
and the Aquiqui, two channels which communicate
with the Xingu. The whole of this southern coas^
hence to near Santarem, a distance of 130 miles, is low
land and quite uninhabited. It is intersected by short

Chap. VI. FLAT-TOITED .^lOUNTAINS. 231

arms or back waters of the Amazons, which are called
in the Tupi language Paran^-mirims or little rivers.
By keeping to these, small canoes can travel great part
of the distance without being much exposed to the
heavy seas of the main river. The coast throughout
has a most desolate aspect : the forest is not so varied
as on the higher land ; and the water frontage, which is
destitute of the green mantle of climbing plants that
form so rich a decoration in other parts, is encumbered
at every step with piles of fallen trees, peopled by
white egTets, ghostly storks, and solitary herons. In
the evening we passed Almeyrim. The hills, according
to Von Martins, who landed here, are about 800 feet
above the level of the river and are thickly wooded to
the summit. They commence on the east by a few low
isolated and rounded elevations ; but towards the west
of the village they assume the appearance of elongated
ridges, which seem to have been planed down to a uni-
form height by some external force. The next day we
passed in succession a series of similar flat-topped hills,
some isolated and of a truncated-j)3n:amidal shape,
others prolonged to a length of several miles. Thei-e
is an interval of low country between these and the
Almeyrim range, which has a total length of about 25
miles : then commences abruptly the Serra de Marau-
aqua, which is succeeded in a similar way by the Velha
Pobre range, the Serras de Tapaiuna-quara, and Paraua-
quara. All these form a striking contrast to the Serra
de Almeyrim in being quite destitute of trees. They
have steep, rugged sides, apparently clothed with short
herbage, but here and there exposing bare white

232 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VL

patches. Their total length is about 40 miles. In
the rear, towards the interior, they are succeeded by
other ranges of hills communicating with the central
mountain chain of Guiana, which divides Brazil from
Cayenne.

As we sailed along the southern shore, during the
6th and two following days, the table-topped hills on
the opposite side occupied most of our attention.
The river is from four to five miles broad, and in some
places long, low wooded islands intervene in mid-
stream, whose light-green, vivid verdure formed a
strangely beautiful foreground to the glorious land-
scape of broad stream and grey mountain. Ninety
miles beyond Almeyrim stands the village of Monte
Alegre, which is built near the summit of the last
hill visible of this chain. At this point the river bends
a little towards the south, and the hilly country
recedes from its shores to re-appear at Obydos, greatly
decreased in height, about a hundred miles further
west. Twenty-five miles to the south-west of Monte
Alegre, high land again appears, but now on the
opposite side of the river. This is the northernmost
limit of the table-land of Brazil, as the hills of Monte
Alegre are the southernmost of that^ of Guiana. In
no other part of the river do the high lands on each
side approach each other so closely. Beyond Obydos
they gradually recede, and the width of the river
valley consequently increases, until in the central parts
of the Upper Amazons, near Ega, it is no less than 540
miles. At this point, therefore, the valley or river
plain of the Amazons is contracted to its narrowest

Chap. VI. MOUTH OF THE TAPAJOS. 233

breadth, reckoning from the places 2000 miles from
its mouth, where the river and its earliest tributaries
rush forth between walls of rock through the eastern-
most ridges of the Andes. It is, perhaps, necessary
to take this in consideration when studying the geo-
graphical distribution of the plants and animals which
people these vast wooded plains.

We crossed the river three times between Monte
Alegre and the next town, Santarem. In the middle
the waves ran very high, and the vessel lurched fear-
fully, hurling everjrthing that was not well secured from
one side of the deck to the other. On the morning
of the 9th of October, a gentle wind carried us along
a " remanso," or still water, under the southern shore.
These tracts of quiet water are frequent on the irregular
sides of the stream, and are the effect of counter move-
ments caused by the rapid current of its central parts.
At 9 a.m. we passed the mouth of a Parana-mirim, called
Mahica, and then found a sudden change in the colour
of the water and aspect of the banks. Instead of the
low and swampy water-frontage which had prevailed
from the mouth of the Xingu, we saw before us a broad
sloping beach of white sand. The forest, instead of
being an entangled mass of irregular and rank vege-
tation as hitherto, presented a rounded outline, and
created an impression of repose that was very pleasing.
We now approached, in fact, the mouth of the Tapajos,
whose clear olive-green waters here replaced the muddy
current against which we had so long been sailing.
Although this is a river of great extent — 1000 miles
in length, and, for the last eighty miles of its course.

234 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI.

four to ten in breadth — its contribution to the Amazons
is not perceptible in the middle of the stream. The
white turbid current of the main river flows disdain-
fully by, occupying nearly the whole breadth of the
channel, whilst the darker water of its tributary
seems to creep along the shore, and is no longer dis-
tinguishable four or five miles from its mouth.

We reached Santarem at 11 a.m. The town has
a clean and cheerful appearance from the river. It
consists of three long streets, with a few short ones
crossing them at right angles, and contains about
2500 inhabitants. It lies just within the mouth of
Tapajos, and is divided into two parts, the town and
the aldeia or village. The houses of the white and
trading classes are substantially built, many being of
two and three stories, and all white-washed and tiled.
The aldeia, which contains the Indian portion of the
population, or did so formerly, consists mostly of mud
huts, thatched with palm leaves. The situation of
the town is very beautiful. The land, although but
slightly elevated, does not form, strictly speaking, a
portion of the alluvial river plains of the Amazons,
but is rather a northern prolongation of the Brazilian
continental land. It is scantily wooded, and towards
the interior consists of undulating campos, which are
connected with a series of hills extending south-
ward as far as the eye can reach. I subsequently
made this place my head-quarters for three years ;
an account of its neighbourhood is therefore reserved
for another chapter. At the first sight of Santarem,
one cannot help being struck with the advantages of

Chap. VI. PASSAGE TO OBYDOS. 235

its situation. Although 400 miles from the sea, it is
accessible to vessels of heavy tonnage coming straight
from the Atlantic. The river has only two slight bends
between this port and the sea, and for five or six months
in the year the Amazonian trade wind blows with very
little interruption, so that sailing ships coming from
foreign countries could reach the place with little diffi-
culty. We ourselves had accomplished 200 miles, or
about half the distance from the sea, in an ill-rigged
vessel, in three days and a half Although the land in
the immediate neighbourhood is perhaps ill adapted for
agriculture, an immense tract of rich soil, with forest and
meadow land, lies on the opposite banks of the river,
and the Tapajos leads into the heart of the mining
provinces of interior Brazil. But where is the popula-
tion to come from to develop the resources of this
fine country ? At present the district within a radius
of twenty-five miles contains barely 6500 inhabitants ;
behind the town, tow^ards the interior, the country is
uninhabited, and jaguars roam nightly, at least in the
rainy season, close up to the ends of the suburban
streets.

From information obtained here, I fixed upon the
next town, Obydos, as the best place to stay at a few
weeks, in order to investigate the natural productions
of the north side of the Lower Amazons. We started
at sunrise on the 10th, and being still favoured by
wind and weather, made a pleasant passage, reaching
Obydos, which is nearly fifty miles distant from San-
tarem, by midnight. We sailed all day close to the
southern shore, and found the banks here and there

236 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI.

dotted with houses of settlers, each surrounded by its
plantation of cacao, which is the staple product of the
district. This coast has an evil reputation for storms and
mosquitoes, but we fortunately escaped both. It was
remarkable that we had been troubled by mosquitoes
only on one night, and then to a small degree, during
the whole of our voyage.

I landed at Obydos the next morning, and then bid
adieu to my kind friend Joa5 da Cunha, who, after land-
ing my baggage, got up his anchor and continued on
his way. The town contains about 1200 inhabitants,
and is airily situated on a high bluff, 90 or 100
feet above the level of the river. The coast is preci-
pitous for two or three miles hence to the west. The
cliffs consist of the parti-coloured clay, or Tabatinga,
which occurs so frequently throughout the Amazons
region ; the strong current of the river sets full against
them in the season of high water, and annually carries
away large portions. The clay in places is stratified
alternately pink and yellow, the pink beds being the
thickest, and of much harder texture than the others.
When I descended the river in 1859, a German Major
of Engineers, in the employ of the Government, told me
that he had found calcareous layers, thickly studded
with marine shells interstratified with the clay. On the
top of the Tabatinga lies a bed of sand, in some places
several feet thick, and the whole formation rests on
strata of sandstone, which are exposed only when the
river reaches its lowest level. Behind the town rises a
fine rounded hill, and a range of similar elevations ex-
tends six miles westward, terminatino- at the mouth of

Chap. VI. STRAITS OF OBYDOS. 237

the Trombetas, a large river flowing through the interior
of Guiana. Hills and lowlands alike are covered with a
sombre rolling forest. The river here is contracted to a
breadth of rather less than a mile (1738 yards), and the
entire volume of its waters, the collective product of a
score of mighty streams, is poured through the strait
with tremendous velocity.* It must be remarked,
however, that the river valley itself is not contracted
to this breadth, the opposite shore not being continental
land, but a low alluvial tract, subject to inundation
more or less in the rainy season. Behind it lies an
extensive lake, called the Lago Grande da Villa Franca,
which communicates with the Amazons, both above
and below Obydos, and has therefore the appearance of
a by-water or an old channel of the river. This lake
is about thirty-five miles in length, and from four to ten
in width ; but its waters are of little depth, and in the
dry season its dimensions are much lessened. It has
no perceptible current, and does not therefore now
divert any portion of the waters of the Amazons from
their main course past Obydos.

I remained at Obydos from the 11th of October to
the 19th of November. I spent three weeks here, also,

* It was formerly believed that the river at the strait of Obydos
could not be sounded on account of its great depth and the velocity of
the current. Lieut, Herndon, of the United States navy, succeeded in
doing so, however, in 1852. He found a depth of 30 to 35 fathoms,
but in one place he thought he had not touched the bottom at 40
fathoms. Von Martins, estimating the depth in the middle at 60
fathoms, and on the side at 20, and the velocity of the current at 2*4
feet per second, estimated that 499,584 cubic feet of water passed through
the strait in each second of time. The tides are felt here in the dry
season, but the flood does not press back the cuiTcnt of the Amazons.

238 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI.

in 1859, when the place was much changed through
the influx of Portuguese immigrants and the building
of a fortress on the top of the bluff. It is one of the
pleasantest towns on the river. The houses are all
roofed with tiles, and are mostly of substantial archi-
tecture. The inhabitants, at least at the time of my
first visit, were naive in their ways, kind and sociable.
Scarcely any palm-thatched huts are to be seen, for very
few Indians now reside here. It was one of the early
settlements of the Portuguese, and the better class of
the population consists of old-established white famihes,
who exhibit however, in some cases, traces of cross
with the Indian and negro. Obydos and Santarem
have received, during the last eighty years, considerable
importations of negro slaves ; before that time a cruel
traffic was carried on in Indians for the same purpose
of forced servitude, but their numbers have gradually
dwindled away, and Indians now form an insignificant
element in the population of the district. Most of the
Obydos townsfolk are owners of cacao plantations, which
are situated on the low lands in the vicinity. Some are
large cattle proprietors, and possess estates of many
square leagues' extent in the campo, or grass-land dis-
tricts, which border the Lago Grande, and other similar
inland lakes, near the villages of Faro and Alemquer.
These campos bear a crop of nutritious grass ; but in
certain seasons, when the rising of the Amazons exceeds
the average, they are apt to be flooded, and then the
large herds of half-wild cattle suffer great mortality
from drowning, hunger, and the alligators. Neither in
cattle-keeping nor cacao-growing are any but the laziest

Chap. YI. SOCIAL PARTIES. 239

and most primitive methods followed, and the conse-
quence is, that the proprietors are generally poor. A
few, however, have become rich by applying a moderate
amount of industry and skill to the management of
their estates. People spoke of several heiresses in the
neighbourhood whose wealth was reckoned in oxen
and slaves ; a dozen slaves and a few hundred head of
cattle being considered a great fortune. Some of them
I saw had already been appropriated by enterprising
young men, who had come from Para and Maranham
to seek their fortunes in this quarter.

The few weeks I spent here passed away pleasantly.
I generally spent the evenings in the society of
the townspeople, who associated together (contrary to
Brazilian custom) in European fashion ; the different
families meeting at one another's houses for social
amusement, bachelor friends not being excluded, and
the whole company, manied and single, joining in
simple games. The meetings used to take place in the
sitting-rooms, and not in the open verandahs — a fashion
almost compulsory on account of the mosquitoes ; but
the evenings here are very cool, and the closeness of
a room is not so much felt as it is in Para. Sunday
was strictly observed at Obydos ; at least all the shops
are closed, and almost the whole population went to
church. The vicar, Padre Raimundo do Sanchez Brito,
was an excellent old man, and I fancy the friendly
manners of the people, and the general purity of morals
at Obydos, were owing in great part to the good example
he set to his parishioners.

One day the owner of the house in which I occupied

240 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VL

a room, Major Martinho da Fonseca Seixas, came over
from his estate on the opposite bank of the river. He
was a man of great importance in the district, and the
only one Avho had had enterprise sufficient to establish a
sugar-mill. He crossed over soon after sunrise in a small
boat, with four dark-skinned paddlers, who made the
morning air ring with a wild chorus which their master,
I was told, always made them sing, to beguile the way.
I found him a tall, wiry, and sharp-featured old gentle-
man, with a shrewd but good-humoured expression of
countenance — quite a typical specimen, in fact, of the
old school of Brazilian planters. He landed in dressing-
gown and slippers, and came up the beach chattering,
scolding, and gesticulating. Several friends joined him,
and we soon had the house full of company. After
taking coffee and a hot buttered roll, he dressed and
went to mass, whilst I slipped off to spend an hour or
two in the woods. When I came back I found the Major
with his friends seated in hammocks, two by two, slung in
the four corners of the room, and all engaged in a lively
discussion on political questions. They had a demijohn
of casha^a in their midst, and were helping themselves
freely, drinking out of little tea-cups. One of the com-
pany was a dark-skinned Cametaense, named Senhor
Calisto Pantoja, a very agreeable fellow, and as full of
talk as the Major. Like most of his townsmen, he was
a Santa Luzia, or Liberal, whilst the old gentleman was
a rabid Tory. Pantoja rather nettled the old man by
saying that the Cameta people had held their town
against the rebels in 1835, whilst the whites of Obydos
abandoned theirs to be pillaged by them. The Major

Chap. VI. A TLANTER'S ESTABLISHMENT. 241

then launclied out into a denunciation of the Cameta-
enses and the Liberals in general. He said he was a pure
white, a " Massagonista ;"* the blood of the Fidalguia
of Portugal flowed in his veins, whilst the people of
Canieta were a mixed breed of whites and Indians. I
noticed that this boasting was ill received by the rest ;
it is generally, in fact, considered bad taste in Brazil to
boast of purity of descent. Soon afterwards most of the
visitors departed, and we dined in quiet. A few days
afterwards I crossed the river to the Major's place, and
spent two days with him. The house was a very large
two-story building, having a large verandah to the upper
floor. There was an appearance of disorder and cheer-
lessness about the place which was very dispiriting.
The old gentleman was a widower. His only son had
been brutally massacred by the rebels in 1835, whilst he
was crossing the river in a small boat, and his two
daughters ' were now completing their education at a
seminary in Para. The household affairs appeared to
be managed by a middle-aged mulatto w^oman ; and a
number of dirty negi'o children were playing about the
rooms. Amongst the outbuildings there were several
large sheds, containing the cane-mill and sugar factory,
and beyond these a curral, or enclosure for cattle. The
mill for grinding the sugar-cane was a rude affair, worked
by bullocks. The cane was pressed between wooden
cylinders, and the juice received in troughs formed of
hollowed logs. Sugar-cane here grows to a height of 18

* The Massagonistas are the descendants of the Portuguese colonists
of Massagao, in Morocco, who forsook this place in a body in 1769, and
migrated to the banks of the Amazons.

VOL. r. R

242 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. YL

to 20 feet, the sugar-yielding part of the stem being
about 8 feet in length and 3 inches in diameter. The
land for miles around the establishment is rich alluvial
soil, and as level as a bowling-green. Beyond the belt
of forest which runs along the banks of the river, there
is a large tract of soft green meadow with patches of
woodland and scattered trees, combining to form a land-
scape like that of an English park. But a meadow on
the banks of the Amazons is a very different thing from
what it is in a temperate climate : the vegetation is rank
and monotonous, and there are absolutely no flowers.
The old gentleman had built a pretty little chapel on
his estate, on the occasion of a visit from the Bishop of
Para, who sometimes travels through his diocese, and I
slept in the Bishop's room attached to the building. The
abundance of mosquitoes is a great drawback to the rich
agricultural country on this side of the river. A little
before night sets in, the inhabitants are obliged to close
the doors and windows of their sleeping apartments ; and
it is singular that this simple means of keeping out the
pests seems to be pretty successful. On the Upper
Amazons the precaution is of no use^ and every one is
obliged to sling his hammock under a mosquito tent.
The whole of this coast, as well as the banks of the
many inlets which intersect it, is inhabited by scattered
settlers. Tlic population of the municipal district of
Obydos, which comprises about twenty miles of river
frontage, is estimated at 12,000 souls.

I made a large collection in the neighbourhood of
Obydos, chiefly of insects. The forest is more varied

Chap. VI. MONKEYS. 243

tluiu it is in the Amazons region generally. There is
only one path leading into it for any considerable dis-
tance. It ascends first the rising ground behind the
town, and then leads down through a broad alley where
tlie trees arch overhead, to the sandy margins of a small
lake choked up with aquatic plants, on the opposite
bank of which rises the wooded hill before mentioned.
Passing a swampy tract at the head of the lake, the
road continues for three or four miles along the slopes
of a ravine, after which it dwindles into a mere picada
or hunter's track, and finally ceases altogether. Another
shorter road runs along the top of the cliff westward,
and terminates at a second small lake, which fills a
basin-shaped depression between the hills, and is called
J auarete-jDaua, or the Jaguar's Mud-hole. The vege-
tation on this rising ground is, of course, different from
that of the low land. The trees, however, grow to an
immense height. Those plants, such as the Heliconise
and Marantacege, which have large, broad, and glossy
leaves, and which give so luxuriant a character to the
moister areas, are absent ; but in their stead is an im-
mense diversity of plants of the Bromeliaceous or pine-
apple order, which grow in masses amongst the under-
wood, and make the forest in many places utterly impe-
netrable. Cacti also, which are peculiar to the drier
soils, are very numerous, some of them growing to an
unwieldy size, and resembling in shape huge candelabra.

The forest seemed to abound in monkeys, for I rarely
passed a day without seeing several. I noticed four
species : the Coaita (Ateles paniscus), the Chrysothrix

R 2

244 THE LOWER AMAZON'S. Chap. VI.

sciureus, the Callithrix torquatus, and our old Para
friend, Midas ursulus. The Coaita is a large black
monkey, covered with coarse hair, and having the pro-
minent parts of the face of a tawny flesh-coloured hue.
It is the largest of the Amazonian monkeys in stature,
but is excelled in bulk by the " Barrigudo'' (Lagothrix
Humboldtii) of the Upper Amazons. It occurs through-
out the low lands of the Lower and Upper Amazons, but
does not range to the south beyond the limits of the
river plains. At that point an allied species, the White-
whiskered Coaita (Ateles marginatus) takes its place.
The Coaitas are called by some French zoologists spider
monkeys, on account of the length and slenderness of
their body and limbs. In these apes the tail, as a pre-
hensile organ, reaches its highest degree of perfection;
and on this account it would, perhaps, be correct to con-
sider the Coaitas as the extreme development of the
American tjrpe of apes. As far as we know, from living
and fossil species, the New World has progressed no
farther than the Coaita towards the production of a
higher form of the Quadrumanous order. The tendency
of Nature here has been, to all appearance, simply to
perfect those organs which adapt the species more and
more completely to a purely arboreal life ; and no nearer
approach has been made towards the more advanced
forms of anthropoid apes, which are the products of the
Old World solely. The tail of the Coaita is endowed
with a wonderful degree of flexibility. It is always in
motion, coiling and uncoiling like the trunk of an
elephant, and grasping whatever comes within reach.
Another remarkable character of the Coaita is the ab-

Chap. VI. CO A IT A HUNT. 245

sence of a thumb to the anterior hands. It is worthy of
note that this strange deficiency occurs again in the
Quadrumanous order only in the Colobi, a genus of apes
peculiar to Africa. The Colobi, however, are not fur-
nished with prehensile tails, and belong, in all their
essential characters, to the Catarhinae, or Old World
monkeys, a group entirely distinct from the Plat3rrhinae,
or South American sub-order. The want of the thumb,
therefore, is not a sign of near relationship between the
Colobi and the Coaitas, but is a mere analogical cha-
racter, which must have originated, in each case, through
independent, although perhaps similar, causes. One
species of Coaita has a rudiment of thumb, without a
nail. The flesh of this monkey is much esteemed by
the natives in this part of the country, and the Military
Commandant of Obydos, Major Gama, every week sent
a negro hunter to shoot one for his table. One day I
went on a Coaita hunt, borrowing a negro slave of a
friend to show me the way. On the road I was much
amused by the conversation of my companion. He was
a tall, handsome negro, about forty years of age, with a
staid, courteous demeanour and a deliberate manner of
speaking. Strangely enough in a negro, he was a total
abstainer from liquors and tobacco. He told me he was
a native of Congo, and the son of a great chief or king.
He nan-ated the events of a great battle between his
father's and some other tribe, in which he was taken
prisoner and sold to the Portuguese slave-dealers.
When in the deepest part of the ravine we heard a
rustling sound in the trees overhead, and Manoel soon
pointed out a Coaita to me. There was something

246 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI.

human-like in its appearance, as the lean, dark, shaggy
creature moved deliberately amongst the branches at a
great height. I fired, but unfortunately only wounded
it in the belly. It fell with a crash headlong about
twenty or thirty feet, and then caught a bough with
its tail, which grasped it instantaneously, and then the
animal remained suspended in mid-air. Before I could
reload it recovered itself, and mounted nimbly to the
topmost branches out of the reach of a fowling-piece,
where we could perceive the poor thing apparently
probing the wound with its fingers. Coaitas are more
frequently kept in a tame state than any other kind of
monkey. The Indians are very fond of them as pets,
and the women often suckle them when young at their
breasts. They become attached to their masters, and
will sometimes follow them on the ground to consider-
able distances. I once saw a most ridiculously tame
Coaita. It was an old female, which accompanied its
owner, a trader on the river, in all his voyages. By way
of giving me a specimen of its intelligence and feelingj
its master set to and rated it soundly, calling it scamp,
heathen, thief, and so forth, all through the copious
Portuguese vocabulary of vituperation. The poor
monkey, quietly seated on the gi'ound, seemed to be in
sore trouble at this display of anger. It began by
looking earnestly at him, then it whined, and lastly
rocked its body to and fro with emotion, crying piteously,
and passing its long, gaunt arms continually over its
forehead ; for this was its habit when excited, and the
front of the head was worn quite bald in consequence.
At lenGfth its master altered his tone. " It's all a lie,

Cir.vr. VI. GIGANTIC RUTTKIJ FLIES. 247

my old woman ; you're an angel, a flower, a good affec-
tionate old creature," and so forth. Immediately the
poor monkey ceased its wailing, and soon after came
over to where the man sat. The disposition of the
Coaitci is mild in the extreme : it has none of the painful,
restless vivacity of its kindred, the Cebi, and no trace of
the surly, untameable temper of its still nearer relatives,
the Mycetes, or howling monkeys. It is, however, an
arrant thief, and shows considerable cunning in pilfering
small articles of clothing, which it conceals in its sleeping-
place. The natives of the Upper Amazons procure the
Coaita, when full grown, by shooting it with the blow-
pipe and poisoned darts, and restoring life by putting a
little salt (the antidote to the Urari poison with which
the darts are tipped) in its mouth. The animals thus
caught become tame forthwith. Two females were once
kept at the Jardin des Plantes of Paris, and Geoffrey
St. Hilaire relates of them that they rarely quitted each
other, remaining most part of the time in close embrace,
folding their tails round one another's bodies. They
took their meals together ; and it was remarked on such
occasions, when the friendship of animals is put to a hard
test, that they never quarrelled or disputed the possession
of a favourite fruit with each other.

The neighbourhood of Obydos was rich in insects.
In the broad alleys of the forest a magnificent butterfly
of the genus Morpho, six to eight inches in expanse, the
Morpho Hecuba, was seen daily gliding along at a
height of twenty feet or more from the ground.
Amongst the lower trees and bushes numerous kinds of

248 THE LOWER AMAZOXS. Chap. VI.

Heliconii, a group of butterflies peculiar to tropical
America, having long narrow wings, were very abundant.
The prevailing ground colour of the wings of these
insects is a deep black, and on this are depicted spots
and streaks of crimson, white, and bright yellow, in
ditferent patterns according to the species. Their
elegant shape, showy colours, and slow, saiHng mode
of flight make them very attractive objects, and their
numbers are so great that they form quite a feature
in the physiognomy of the forest, compensating for the
scarcity of flowers. Next to the HeUconii the Cata-
grammas (C. astarte and C. peristera) were the most
conspicuous. These have a very rapid and short, flight,
settUng frequently and remaining stationary for a long
time on the trunks of trees. The colours of their wings
are vermilion and black, the surface having a rich
velvety appearance. The genus owes it-s Greek name
CatagTamma (signifying " a letter beneath") to the curious
markings of the underside of the wings, resembhng
Arabic numerals. The species and varieties are of
almost endless diversity, but the majority inhabit the
hot valleys of the eastern parts of the Andes. Another
butterfly nearly allied to these, Callithea Leprieurii, was
also very abundant here at the marshy head of the pool
before mentioned. The wings are of a rich dark-blue
colour, with a broad border of silvery gTeen. These two
groups of Callithea and CatagTamma are found only
in tropical America, chiefly near the equator, and are
certainly amongst the most beautiful productions of a
region where the animals and plants seem to have been
fashioned in nature's choicest moulds. A great variety

Chap. YI. SWARMS OF BUTTERFLIES. 249

of other beautiful and curious insects adorned these
pleasant woods. Others were seen only in the sunshine
in open places. As the waters retreated from the
beach, vast numbers of sulphur-yellow and orange
coloured butterflies congregated on the moist sand.
The greater portion of them belonged to the genus
Callidryas.* They assembled in densely packed masses,
sometimes two or three yards in circumference, their
wings all held in an upright position, so that the beach
looked as though variegated with beds of crocuses.
These Callidryades seem to be migratory insects, and
have large powers of dissemination. During the last two
days of our voyage the great numbers constantly passing
over the river attracted the attention of every one
on board. They all crossed in one direction, namely,
from north to south, and the processions were uninter-
rupted from an early hour in the morning until sunset.
All the individuals which resort to the margins of
sandy beaches are of the male sex. The females are
much more rare, and are seen only on the borders of
the forest, wandering from tree to tree, and depositing
their eggs on low mimosas which grow in the shade. The
migrating hordes, as far as I could ascertain, are com-
posed only of males, and on this account I believe their
wanderings do not extend very far. In confirmation of
this is the fact that, although the same species generally

* More than three-fourths of the individuals in these congregations
of butterflies consisted of a pale sulphur- coloured species, C. Statira :
two yellow kinds, C. Eubule and C. Trite, and one orange-coloured,
C. Argante, were less numerous. A few of a much larger species (C.
Leachiana), sulphur- coloured with orange tips to the wings, now and
then occurred amidst the masses.

250 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI.

has a very wide range, some being found from the
central parts of the United States down to 32° S. lat.,
yet each distant region has its tolerably distinct local
variety. But the effect of this general wandering habit
of the groujD is, in the long run, a wide dissemination of
the species ; the formation of local varieties showing
that the process is, nevertheless, a slow one. None of
the species are found much beyond the tropics, but the
genus is well represented within the tropical zone
throughout the world ; and an East Indian kind (C.
Alcmeone) is so nearly allied to a South American one
(C. Statira), as to have been mistaken for it by some
authors.

A strange kind of wood-cricket is found in this
neighbourhood. The males produce a very loud and
not unmusical noise by rubbing together the overlapping
edges of their wing-cases. The notes are certainly the
loudest and most extraordinary that I ever heard pro-
duced by an orthopterous insect. The natives call it
the Tanana, in allusion to its music, which is a sharp,
resonant stridulation resembling the syllables ta-na-na,
ta-na-na, succeeding each other with little intermission.
It seems to be rare in the neighbourhood. When the
natives capture one they keep it in a wicker-work cage
for the sake of hearing it sing. A friend of mine kept
one six days. It was lively only for two or three, and
then its loud note could be heard from one end of the
village to the other. When it died he gave me the
specimen, the only one I was able to procure. It is a
member of the family Locustidse, a group intermediate
between the Crickets (Achetidae) and the Grasshoppers

ClIAT. VT.

MUSICAL CRICKET

2r,l

(Acridiidse). The total length of the body is two inches
and a quarter ; when the wings are closed the insect has
an inflated vesicular or bladder-like shape, owing to the
great convexity of the thin but firm parchmenty wing-
cases, and the colour is wholly pale-green. The instru-

f^,^ax:\

Musical Cricket (Chlorocoelus Tanan^).
a. b. Lobes of wing-cases transformed into a mvisical instrument.

ment by which the Tanana produces its music is
curiously contrived out of the ordinary nervures of the
wing-cases. In each wing-case the inner edge, near
its origin, has a horny expansion or lobe ; on one
Aving (h) this lobe has sharp raised margins ; on the
other (a), the strong nervure which traverses the lobe

252 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI.

on the under side is crossed by a number of fine
sharp furrows like those of a file. When the insect
rapidly moves its wings, the file of the one lobe is
scraped sharply across the homy margin of the other,
thus producing the sounds ; the parchmenty wing-cases
and the hoUow drum-like space which they enclose
assisting to give resonance to the tones. The project-
ing portions of both wing-cases are traversed by a similar
strong nervure, but this is scored like a file only in
one of them, in the other remaining perfectly smooth.
Other species of the family to which the Tanana belongs
have similar stridulating organs, but in none are these
so highly developed as in this insect ; they exist always
in the males only, the other sex having the edges of
the wing-cases quite straight and simple. The mode
of producing the sounds and their object have been
investigated by several authors with regard to certain
European species. They are the call-notes of the males.
In the common field-cricket of Europe the male has
been observed to place itself, in the evening, at the
entrance of its buiTow, and stridulate until a female
approaches, when the louder notes are succeeded by
a more subdued tone, whilst the successful musician
caresses with his antennae the mate he has won. Any
one who will take the trouble may observe a similar
proceeding in the common house-cricket. The nature
and object of this insect music are more unifomi than
the structure and situation of the instrument by which
it is produced. This differs in each of the three allied
families above mentioned. In the crickets the wing-
cases are symmetrical ; both have straight edges and

C'HAT'. VI. BIRDS OF OBYDOS. 253

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

I obtained very few birds at Obydos. There was no
scarcity of birds, but they were mostly common Cayenne
species. In early morning the woods near my house
were quite animated with their songs — an unusual thing
in this country. I heard here for the first time the
pleasing wild notes of the Carashue, a species of thrush.

254 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI.

probably the Mimus lividus of ornithologists. I found
it afterwards to be a common bird in the scattered
woods of the campo district near Santarem. It is a
much smaller and plainer-coloured bird than our thrush,
and its song is not so loud, varied, or so long sustained ;
but the tone is of a sweet and plaintive quality, which
harmonizes well with the wild and silent woodlands,
where alone it is heard in the mornings and evenings
of sultry tropical days. In course of time the song of
this humble thrush stirred up pleasing associations in
my mind, in the same way as those of its more highly
endowed sisters formerly did at home. There are
several allied species in Brazil ; in the southern pro-
vinces they are called Sabiahs. The Brazilians are not
insensible to the charms of this their best songster, for
I often heard some pretty verses in praise of the Sabiah
sung by young people to the accompaniment of the
guitar. I found several times the nest of the Carashue,
which is built of dried grass and slender twigs, and lined
with mud; the eggs are coloured and spotted like those
of our blackbird, but they are considerably smaller. I
was much pleased with a brilliant little red-headed
manikin, which I shot here (Pipra cornuta). There
were three males seated on a low branch, and hopping
slowly backwards and forwards, near to one another, as
though engaged in a kind of dance. In the pleasant
airy woods surrounding the sandy shores of the pool
behind the town, the yellow-bellied Trogon (T. viridis)
was very common. Its back is of a brilliant metallic-
green colour, and the breast steel blue. The natives
call it the Suruqua do Ygapo, or Trogon of the flooded

Chap. VI. VARIATION OF SPPXIES. 255

lands, in contradistinction to the red-breasted species,
wliich are named Suruquas da terra firma. I often
saw small companies of half a dozen individuals quietly
seated on the lower branches of trees. They remained
almost motionless for an hour or two at a time, simply
moving their heads, on the watch for passing insects ;
or, as seemed more generally to be the case, scanning
the neighbouring trees for fruit; which they darted off
now and then, at long intervals, to secure, returning
always to the same perch.

The species of mammals, birds, and insects found at
Obydos are, to a great extent, the same as those inhabit-
ing the well-explored tract of country lying along the
seacoast of Guiana. No other locality visited in the
Amazons region supplied, among its productions, so
large a proportion of Guiana forms. The four monkeys
already mentioned all recur at Cayenne. A general
resemblance of the species to those of Guiana is one of
the jDrincipal features in the zoology of the Amazons
valley ; but in the low lands a great number exist only
in the form of strongly modified local varieties ; indeed,
many of them are so much transformed that they pass
for distinct species ; and so they truly are, according
to the received definitions of species. In the somewhat
drier district of Obydos, the forms are more constant to
their Guiana types. "VVe seem to obtain here a glimpse
of the manufacture of new species in nature. The way
in which these modifications occur merits a few remarks.
I will therefore give an account of one very instructive
case which presented itself in this neighbourhood.

2.56 THE LOAVER AMAZONS. Chap. VI.

The case was furnished by certain kinds of handsome
butterflies belonging to the genus Heliconius,* a group
pecuhar to Tropical America, abounding in individuals
everywhere in the shades of its luxuriant forests, and pre-
senting clusters of varieties and closely allied species, as
well as many distinct, better marked forms. The closely
allied species and varieties are a great puzzle to classi-
fiers; in fact, the group is one of those wherein gi'eat
changes seem to be now going on. A conspicuous mem-

Heliconius Melpomene.

ber of the group is the H. Melpomene of Linnaeus. This
elegant form is found throughout Guiana, Venezuela, and
some parts of New Granada. It is very common at
Obydos, and reappears on the south side of the river in
the dry forests behind Santarem, at the mouth of the
Tapajos. In all other parts of the Amazons valley, east-

* This genus has long been known under the name of Heliconia : a
most inconvenient term, as a botanical genus bears the same name.
An author has lately proposed to revert to the masculine termination
of the words as first employed by Linnseus (Felder, in the ' ' Wiener
Entomologische Monatschrift," March, 1862), and, as I think the cor-
rection a good oTiP, I adopt it.

Chap. VI. ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 257

ward to Para and westward to Peru, it is entirely absent.
This absence at first appeared to me very strange ; for
the local conditions of these regions did not appear so
strongly contrasted as to check, in this abrupt manner,
the range of so prolific a species ; especially as at Obydos
and Santarem it occurred in moist woods close to the
edge of the river. Another and nearly allied species,
however, takes its place in the forest plains ; namely,
the H. Thelxiope of Hubner. It is of the same size and
shape as its sister kind, but differs very strikingly in
colours : H. Melpomene being simply black with a large
crimson spot on its wings, whilst H. Thelxiope has these
beautifully rayed with black and crimson, and is further
adorned with a number of bright yellow spots. Both
have the same habits. H. Melpomene ornaments the

Heliconius Thelxiope.

sandy alleys in the forests of Obydos, floating lazily in
great numbers over the lower trees ; whilst H. Thelxiope,
in a similar manner and in equal numbers, adorns the
moister forests which constitute its domain. No one

VOL. I. S

258 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI.

who has studied the gi^oup has doubted for a moment
that the two are perfectly and originally distinct species,
like the hare and rabbit, for instance, or any other two
allied species of one and the same genus. The following
facts, however, led me to conclude that the one is simply
a modification of the other. There are, as might be
supposed, districts of forest intermediate in character
between the drier areas of Obydos, &c., and the moister
tracts which compose the rest of the immense river
valley. At two places in these intermediate districts,
namely, Serpa, 180 miles west of Obydos, on the same
side of the river, and Aveyros, on the lower Tapajos, most
of the individuals of these Heliconii which occurred
were transition forms between the two species. Already,
at Obydos, H. Melpomene showed some slight variation
amongst its individuals in the direction of H. Thelxiope,
but not anything nearly approaching it. It might be
said that these transition forms were hybrids, produced
by the intercrossing of two originally distinct species ;
but the two come in contact in several places where these
intermediate examples are unknown, and I never ob-
served them to pair with each other. Besides which,
many of them occur also on the coast of Guiana, where
H. Thelxiope has never been found. These hybrid-look-
ing specimens are connected together by so complete
a chain of gradations that it is difficult to separate
them even into varieties, and they are incomparably
more rare than the two extreme forms. They link
together gradually the wide interval between the two
species. One is driven to conclude, from these facts,
that the two were originally one and the same : the

Chap. VI. ORIGIN OF SPECIES.

259

I

Transition forms between Heliconius Melpomene and H. Thelxiope.

s 2

260 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VL

mode in which they occur and their relative geogra-
phical positions being in favour of the supposition
that H. Thelxiope has been derived from H. Melpo-
mene. Both are nevertheless good and true species
in all the essential characters of species ; for, as
already observed, they do not pair together when
existing side by side, nor is their any appearance of
reversion to an original common form under the same
circumstances.

In the controversy which is being waged amongst
Naturalists, since the publication of the Darwinian
theory of the origin of species, it has been rightly said
that no proof at present existed of the production of a
physiological species, — that is, a form which will not
interbreed with the one from which it was derived,
although given ample opportunities of doing so, and
does not exhibit signs of reverting to its parent form
when placed under the same conditions with it. Mor-
phological species, — that is, forms which differ to an
amount that would justify their being considered good
species, have been produced in plenty through selection
by man out of variations arising under domestication or
cultivation. The facts just given are, therefore, of some
scientific importance ; for they tend to show that a
physiological species can be and is produced in nature
out of the varieties of a pre-existing closely allied one.
This is not an isolated case ; for I observed, in the
course of my travels, a number of similar instances.
But in very few has it happened that the species which
clearly appears to be the parent coexists with one that
has been evidently derived from it. Generally the sup-

Chap. VI. ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 261

posed parent also seems to have been modified, and then
the demonstration is not so clear, for some of the links
in the chain of variation are wanting. The process of
origination of a species in nature, as it takes place suc-
cessively, must be ever perhaps beyond man's power to
trace, on account of the great lapse of time it requires.
But we can obtain a fair view of it by tracing a variable
and far-spreading species over the wide area of its
present distribution ; and a long observation of such will
lead to the conclusion that new species in all cases must
have arisen out of variable and widely-disseminated
forms. It sometimes happens, as in the present instance,
that we find in one locality a species under a certain
form which is constant to all the individuals concerned ;
in another exhibiting numerous varieties ; and in a third
presenting itself as a constant form, quite distinct from
the one we set out with. If we meet with any two
of these modifications living side by side, and maintain-
ing their distinctive characters under such circumstances,
the proof of the natural origination of a species is com-
plete : it could not be much more so were we able to
watch the process step by step. It might be objected
that the difference between our two species is but
slight, and that by classing them as varieties nothing-
further would be proved by them. But the differences
between them are such as obtain between allied species
generally. Large genera are composed, in great part,
of such species ; and it is interesting to show how the
great and beautiful diversity within a large genus is
brought about by the working of laws within our
comprehension.

262 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VL

A few remarks on the way races are produced will
be here in place. Naturalists have been generally
inclined to attribute the formation of local varieties
or races of a species to the direct action of physical
conditions on individuals belonging to it which have
migrated into new localities. It might be said, there-
fore, that our Heliconius Thelxiope of the moist forests
has resulted from such operation of the local conditions
on H. Melpomene, especially as intermediate varieties
are found in districts of intermediate character and
position. It is true that external agencies — such as
food and cUmate, causing delayed or quickened growth,
— have great effect on insects, acting on their adoles-
cent states, and so by correlation of growth on the
shape and colours of the adult forms.* But there is
no proof that a complete local variety or race has been
produced wholly by this means, modifications acquired
by individuals not being generally transmissible to
offspring. The examination of these races or closely
allied species of Heliconii, with reference to their geo-
graphical distribution, throws light also on this subject.
Thus Heliconius Thelxiope is disseminated over a dis-
trict 2000 miles in length from east to west, from the
mouth of the Amazons to the eastern slopes of the
Andes, but shows no remarkable modification through-
out all that area ; some slight variations only occur-
ring at the extreme points of it. If local conditions

* M. Bellier de la CliaA'ignerie, in the "Annales de la Society Ento-
mologique de France, 1858," p. 299, relates experiments on the effect of
retardation of the pupa development through exposure to unusual
cold, showing that striking varieties of the adult insects are producible
by this means.

Chap. YI. ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 263

acting directly on individuals had originally produced
this race or species, they certainly would have caused
much modification of it in different parts of this region ;
for the upper Amazons country differs greatly from the
district near the Atlantic in climate, sequence of sea-
sons, soil, forest clothing, periodical inundations, and so
forth. These differences moreover graduate away, so
that the species is subjected to a great diversity of
physical conditions from locality to locality, and ought
in consequence to present an endless series of local
varieties, on the view mentioned, instead of one con-
stant form throughout. Besides, how should we ex-
plain the fact of H. Thelxiope and H. Melpomene
both existing under the same local conditions ; and
how account for the diversified modifications presented
in one and the same" locality as at Serpa and on the
Tapajos?*

There is evidently therefore some more subtle agency
at work in the segregation of a race than the direct ope-
ration of external conditions. The principle of natural
selection, as lately propounded by Darwin, seems to
offer an intelligible explanation of the facts. According
to this theory, the variable state of the species exhibited
in the districts above mentioned would be owing to
Heliconius Melpomene having been rendered vaguely
instable by the indirect action of local conditions dis-

* As the action of external influences would be on the early states
of the insects and not on the adults, it is well to mention that the
broods of the Heliconii appear to be social ; the larvfe feeding together
and undergoing their last transformation on the same tree. This I
observed with regard to the H. Erato, a species closely allied to H.
Thelxiope.

264 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VL

similar to those where it exists under a constant
normal form. In these districts selection has not ope-
rated, or it is suitable to the conditions of life there pre-
vailing, that the species should exist under an instable
form. But in the adjoining moister forests, as the
result shows, the local conditions were originally more
favourable to one of these varieties than to the others.
The selected one, therefore, increased more rapidly
than its relatives ; and the fact of the entire absence of
these latter from an area whence they are now sepa-
rated only by a few miles, points to the conclusion that
they could not there maintain their ground. Those indi-
viduals of successive broods which were still better suited
to the new conditions would for the same reasons be
preferred over their relatives ; and this process going
forward for a few generations, the extreme form of H.
Thelxiope would be reached. At this point the race
became well adapted to the new area, which we may
suppose to have been at that epoch in process of forma-
tion as the river plains became dry land, at the last
geological changes in the level of the country. In the
higher and drier areas of Guiana and the neighbouring
countries, H. Melpomene has been the selected form ;
in the lower and more humid regions of the Amazons,
H. Thelxiope has been preferred. An existing proof of
this perfect adaptation is shown by the swarming abun-
dance of the species ; the derivation of H. Thelxiope
from H. Melpomene is made extremely probable by the
existence of a complete series of connecting links ; and
lastly, its permanent establishment is made evident by
its refusal to intercross with its parent form, or revert

Chap. VI. ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 265

to its former shape when brought by natural redistribu-
tion into contact with it.*

* If this explanation of the derivation of Heliconius Thelxiope be true,
the origination by natural process of a host of now distinct allied species
of this genus, as well as, in fact, all other genera containing numerous
closely related species, will have to be admitted. A species allied to H.
Thelxiope, namely, H. Vesta, seems to have been derived also from H.
Melpomene, for amongst the numerous varieties already mentioned are
many examples intermediate between the two. There is this difference,
however, between H. Thelxiope and H. Vesta : the former is confined
in its range to the Amazons valley, whilst H. Vesta extends beyond
this region over Guiana and the central valleys of the Andes ; it seems,
therefore, to have acquired a power of adajjtation to a much wider
diversity of local conditions. Insects seem to be well adapted to furnish
data in illustration of this interesting but difficult subject. This arises
chiefly from the ease with which ample suites of specimens can be
obtained for comparison from many points in the areas of distribution,
both of species and varieties. It is scarcely necessary to add that the
conclusions thus arrived at will apply to all organic beings.

CHAPTER VII

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

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

A TRADER of Obydos, named Penna, was about pro-
ceeding in a cuberta laden with merchandise to the Rio
Negro, intending to stop frequently on the road ; so I
bargained with him for a passage. He gave up a part
of the toldo, or fore-cabin as it may be called, and here
I slung my hammock and arranged my boxes, so as to
be able to work as we went along. The stoppages 1
thought would be an advantage, as I could collect in
the woods whilst he traded, and thus acquire a know-
ledge of the productions of many places on the river
which in a direct voyage it would be impossible to do.
I provided a stock of groceries for two months' con-
sumption ; and, after the usual amount of unnecessary
fuss and delay on the part of the owner, we started on

Chap. VII. CHANNELS AND ISLANDS. 267

the 19tli of November. Penna took liis family with
him ; this comprised a smart, lively mameluco woman,
named Catarina, whom we called Senhora Katita, and
two children. The crew consisted of three men, one a
sturdy Indian, another a Cafuzo, godson of Penna, and
the third, our best hand, a steady, good-natured mulatto,
named Joaquim. My boy Luco was to assist in rowing
and so forth. Penna was a timid middle-aged man, a
white with a slight cross of Indian ; when he was surly
and obstinate, he used to ask me to excuse him on
account of the Tapuyo blood in his veins. He tried to
make me as comfortable as the circumstances admitted,
and provided a large stock of eatables and drinkables ;
so that altogether the voyage promised to be a pleasant
one.

On leaving the port of Obydos w^e crossed over to the
right bank, and sailed wdth a light wind all day, passing
numerous houses, each surrounded by its grove of cacao
trees. On the 20th we made slow progress. After
passing the high land at the mouth of the Trombetas,
the banks were low, clayey, or earthy on both sides.
The breadth of the river varies hereabout from tw^o and
a half to three miles, but neither coast is the true terra
iirma. On the northern side a by-channel runs for a
long distance inland, communicating with the extensive
lake of Faro ; on the south, three channels lead to the
similar fresh-water sea of Villa Franca ; these are in part
arms of the river, so that the land they surround con-
sists, properly speaking, of islands. When this descrip-
tion of land is not formed wholly of river deposit, as
sometimes happens, or is raised above the level of the

268 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

highest floods, it is called Ygapo alto, and is distin-
guished by the natives from the true islands of mid-
river, as well as from the ten-a firma. We landed at one
of the cacao plantations. The house was substantially
built ; the walls formed of strong upright posts, lathed
across, plastered with mud and whitewashed, and the
roof tiled. The family were mamelucos, and seemed
to be an average sample of the poorer class of cacao
growers. All were loosely dressed and bare-footed. A
broad verandah extended along one side of the house,
the floor of which was simply the well-trodden earth ;
and here hammocks were slung between the bare up-
right supports, a large rush mat being spread on the
ground, upon which the stout matron-like mistress, with
a tame parrot perched upon her shoulder, sat sewing
with two pretty little mulatto girls. The master, coolly
clad in shirt and drawers, the former loose about the
neck, lay in his hammock smoking a long gaudily-
painted wooden pipe. The household utensils, earthen-
ware jars, water-pots and saucepans, lay at one end,
near which was a wood fire, with the ever-ready coffee-
pot simmering on the top of a clay tripod. A large
shed stood a short distance off, embowered in a grove
of banana, papaw, and mango trees ; and under it were
the ovens, troughs, sieves, and all other apparatus for
the preparation of mandioca. The cleared space
around the house was only a few yards in extent;
beyond it lay the cacao plantations, which stretched on
each side parallel to the banks of the river. There was
a path through the forest which led to the mandioca
fields, and several miles beyond to other houses on the

Chap. VII. CACAO PLANTATIONS. 269

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

The cost of a cacao plantation in the Obydos district
is after the rate of 240 reis or sixpence per tree, which
is much higher than at Cameta, where I believe the
jdeld is not so great. The forest here is cleared before
planting, and the trees are grown in rows. The smaller
cultivators are all very poor. Labour is scarce ; one
family generally manages its own small plantation of
10,000 to 15,000 trees, but at the harvest time neigh-
bours assist each other. It appeared to me to be an
easy, pleasant life; the work is all done under shade,
and occupies only a few weeks in the year. The incor-
rigible nonchalance and laziness of the people alone
prevent them from surrounding themselves with all
the luxuries of a tropical country. They might plant
orchards of the choicest fruit-trees around their houses,
grow Indian corn, and rear cattle and hogs, as intelli-
gent settlers from Europe would certainly do, instead of
indolently relying solely on the produce of their small
plantations, and living on a meagre diet of fish and
farinha. In preparing the cacao they have not devised
any means of separating the seeds well from the pulp,
or drpng it in a systematic way ; the consequence is
that, although naturally of good quality, it moulds
before reaching the merchants' stores, and does not
fetch more than half the price of the same article

270 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

grown in other parts of tropical America. The Amazons
region is the original home of the principal species of
chocolate tree, the Theobroma cacao ; and it grows in
abundance in the forests of the upper river. The culti-
vated crop appears to be a precarious one ; little or no
care, however, is bestowed on the trees, and even weed-
ing is done very inefficiently. The plantations are
generally old, and have been made on the low ground
near the river, which renders them liable to inundation
when this rises a few inches more than the average.
There is plenty of higher land quite suitable to the tree,
but it is uncleared, and the want of labour and enter-
prise prevents the establishment of new plantations.*

We passed the last houses in the Obydos district on
the 20th, and the river scenery then resumed its usual
wild and solitary character, which the scattered human
habitations relieved, although in a small degree. We
soon fell into a regular mode of life on board our little
ark. Penna would not travel by night ; indeed, our small
crew, wearied by the day's labour, required rest, and we
very rarely had wind in the night. We used to moor the
vessel to a tree, giving out plenty of cable, so as to sleep
at a distance from the banks and free of mosquitoes,
which although swarming in the forest, rarely came

* Next to india-rul)ber, cacao is the chief article of exportation from
Para. The yield, however, varies greatly in different years. The
price also fluctuates considerably, and does not follow the abundance or
scarcity of the crop. The following valuation of exports of the article
is taken from an official statement of exports, given me by Mr. Bailey,
U. S. Consul at Para. In 1856, £99,247 7s. 9d ; 1857, £208,926 ;
1858, £133,013 8.s. The quantity in weight exported was in 1856,
4,343,1361b. ; in 1857, 7,428,4801b.

Chap. VII. DAILY LIFE ON BOARD. 271

many yards out into the river at this season of the year.
The strong current at a distance of thirty or forty yards
from the coast steadied the cuberta head to stream, and
kept us from drifting ashore. We all slept in the open
air, as the heat of the cabins was stifling in the early
part of the night. Penna, Senhora Katita, and I slung
our hammocks in triangle between the mainmast and
two stout poles fixed in the raised deck. A sheet was
the only covering required, besides our regular clothing ;
for the decrease of temperature at night on the Amazons
is never so great as to be felt otherwise than as a
delightful coolness after the sweltering heat of the
afternoons. We used to rise when the first gleam of
da^\^l showed itself above the long, dark line of forest.
Our clothes and hammocks were then generally soaked
with dew, but this was not felt to be an inconvenience.
The Indian Manoel used to revive himself by a plunge
in the river, under the bows of the vessel. It is the
habit of all Indians, male and female, to bathe early
in the morning ; they do it sometimes for warmth's
sake, the temperature of the water being often con-
siderably higher than that of the air. Penna and I
lolled in our hammocks, whilst Katita prepared the
indispensable cup of strong coffee, which she did with
wonderful celerity, smoking meanwhile her early morn-
ing pipe of tobacco. Liberal owners of river craft allow
a cup of coffee sweetened with molasses, or a ration of
casha9a, to each man of their crews ; Penna gave them
coffee. When all were served, the day's work began.
There was seldom any wind at this early hour ; so if
there was a remanso along the shore the men rowed, if

272 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

not there was no way of progressing but by espia. In
some places the currents ran with great force close to
the banks, especially where these receded to form long
bays or enseadas, as they are called, and then we made
very little headway. In such places the banks consist
of loose earth, a rich crumbly vegetable mould, sup-
porting a growth of most luxuriant forest, of which
the currents almost daily carry away large portions,
so that the stream for several yards out is encumbered
with fallen trees, whose branches quiver in the current.
When projecting points of land were encountered, it
was impossible, with our weak crew, to pull the cuberta
against the whirling torrents which set round them;
and in such cases we had to cross the river, drifting
often with the current, a mile or two lower down on the
opposite shore. There generally sprung a light wind as
the day advanced, and then we took down our ham-
mocks, hoisted all sail, and bowled away merrily. Penna
generally preferred to cook the dinner ashore, when
there was little or no wind. About midday on these
calm days we used to look out for a nice shady nook in
the forest, with cleared space sufficient to make a fire
upon. I then had an hour's hunting in the neighbour-
ing wilderness, and was always rewarded by the dis-
covery of some new species. During the greater part of
our voyage, however, we stopped at the house of some
settler, and made our fire in the port. Just before
dinner it was our habit to take a bath in the river, and
then, according to the universal custom on the Amazons,
where it seems to be suitable on account of the weak
fish diet, we each took hnlf a tea-cup full of neat

I

Chap. VII. NIGHTS ON THE RIVER. 273

casha9a, the "abre" or "opening," as it is called, and
set to on our mess of stewed pirarucu, beans, and bacon.
Once or twice a week we had fowls and rice ; at supper,
after sunset, we often had fresh fish caught by our men
in the evening. The mornings were cool and pleasant
until towards midday ; but in the afternoons the heat
became almost intolerable, especially in gieamy, squally
weather, such as generally prevailed. We then crouched
' in the shade of the sails, or went down to our hammocks
in the cabin, choosing to be half stifled rather than
expose ourselves on deck to the sickening heat of the
sun. We generally ceased travelling about nine o'clock,
fixing upon a safe spot wherein to secure the vessel for
the night. The cool evening hours were delicious ;
flocks of whistling ducks (Anas autumnalis), parrots, and
hoarsely-screaming macaws, pair by pair, flew over from
their feeding to their resting places, as the glowing sun
plunged abruptly beneath the horizon. The brief even-
ing chorus of animals then began, the chief performers
being the howling monkeys, whose frightful unearthly
roar deepened the feeling of solitude which crept on as
darkness closed around us. Soon after, the fireflies in
great diversity of species came forth and flitted about
the trees. As night advanced, all became silent in the
forest, save the occasional hooting of tree-frogs, or the
monotonous chirping of wood-crickets and grasshoppers.
We made but little progress on the 20th and two
following days, on account of the unsteadiness of the
wind. The dry season had been of very brief duration
this year ; it generally lasts in this part of the Amazons
from July to January, with a short interval of showery

274 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VIL

weather in November. The river ought to sink thirty
or thirty-five feet below its highest point ; this year it
had dedined only about twenty-five feet, and the
November rains threatened to be continuous. The
drier the weather the stronger blows the east wind ; it
now failed us altogether, or blew gently for a few hours
merely in the afternoons. I had hitherto seen the great
river only in its sunniest aspect ; I was now about to
witness what it could furnish in the way of storms.

On the night of the 22nd the moon appeared with a
misty halo. As we went to rest, a fresh watery wind was
blowing, and a dark pile of clouds gathering up river
in a direction opposite to that of the wind. 1 thought
this betokened nothing more than a heavy rain which
would send us all in a hurry to our cabins. The men
moored the vessel to a tree alongside a hard clayey bank,
and after supper all were soon fast asleep, scattered
about the raised deck. About eleven o'clock I was
awakened by a horrible uproar, as a hurricane of wind
suddenly swept over from the opposite shore. The
cuberta was hurled with force against the clayey bank ;
Penna shouted out, as he started to his legs, that a tro-
voada de cima, or a squall from up river, was upon us.
We took down our hammocks, and then all hands were
required to save the vessel from being dashed to pieces.
The moon set, and a black pall of clouds spread itself
over the dark forests and river ; a frightful crack of
thunder now burst over our heads, and down fell the
drenching rain. Joaquim leapt ashore through the
drowning spray with a strong pole, and tried to pass
the cuberta round a small projecting point, whilst we on

\

Chap. VII. A^IOLENT STORM. 275

deck aided in keeping her off and lengthened the cable.
We succeeded in getting free, and the stout-built boat
fell off into the strong current further away from the
shore, Joaquim swinging himself dexterously aboard by
the bowsprit as it passed the point. It was fortunate
for us that we happened to be on a sloping clayey bank,
where there was no fear of falling trees ; a few yards
further on, where the shore was perpendicular and formed
of crumbly earth, large portions of loose soil, with all
their superincumbent mass of forest, were being washed
away ; the uproar thus occasioned adding to the horrors
of the stonn.

The violence of the wind abated in the course of an
hoar, but the deluge of rain continued until about three
o'clock in the morning ; the sky being lighted up by
almost incessant flashes of pallid lightning, and the
thunder pealing from side to side without interruption.
Our clothing, hammocks, and goods were thoroughly
soaked by the streams of water which trickled through
between the planks. In the morning all was quiet ;
but an opaque, leaden mass of clouds overspread the sky,
throwing a gloom over the wild landscape that had a
most dispiriting effect. These squalls from the west
are always expected about the time of the breaking up
of the dry season in these central parts of the Lower
Amazons. They generally take place about the begin-
ning of February, so that this year they had commenced
much earlier than usual. The soil and climate are
much drier in this part of the country than in the region
lying further to the west, where the denser forests and
more clayey, humid soil produce a considerably cooler

t2

27G THE LOWEK AMAZONS. Chap. YII.

atmosphere. The storms may be therefore attributed to
the rush of cold moist air from up river, when the
regular trade-wind coming from the sea has slackened
or ceased to blow.

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

Chap. YII. BIRDS. 277

candelabrum. Cecropise of different species are charac-
teristic of Brazilian forest scenery ; the kind of which I
am speaking grows in gi'eat numbers everywhere on the
banks of the Amazons where the land is low. In the
same places the curious Monguba tree (Bombax ceiba) is
also plentiful ; the dark gi'een bark of its huge tapering
trunk, scored with gi'ay, forming a conspicuous object.
The principal palm-tree on the low lands is the Jauari
(Astryocaryum Jauari), whose stem, surrounded by
whorls of spines, shoots up to a gi*eat height. On the
borders of the island were large tracts of arrow-grass
(Gynerium saccharoides), which bears elegant plumes of
flowers, like those of the reed, and grows to a height of
twenty feet, the leaves arranged in a fan-shaped figure
near the middle of the stem. I was surprised to find on
the higher parts of the sandbank the familiar foliage of
a willow (Salix Humboldtiana). It is a dwarf species,
and grows in patches resembling beds of osiers ; as in
the English willows, the leaves were peopled by small
chrysomelideous beetles. In wandering about, many
features reminded me of the seashore. Flocks of white
gulls were flying overhead, uttering their well-known
cry, and sandpipers coursed along the edge of the
water. Here and there lonely wading-birds were stalk-
ing about ; one of these, the Curicaca (Ibis melanopis),
flew up with a loud cackling noise, and was soon joined
by a unicorn bird (Palamedea cornuta), wdiich I startled
up from amidst the bushes, whose harsh screams, re-
sembling the bray of a jackass, but shriller, disturbed
unpleasantly the solitude of the place. Amongst the
willow bushes were flocks of a handsome bird belonging

278 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VIL

to the Icteridse or troupial family, adorned with a rich
plumage of black and saffron-yellow. I spent some time
watching an assemblage of a species of bird called by
the natives Tamburi-para, on the Cecropia trees. It is
the Monasa nigrifrons of ornithologists, and has a plain
slate-coloured plumage with the beak of an orange hue.
It belongs to the family of Barbets, most of whose mem-
bers are remarkable for their dull inactive temperament.
Those species which are ranged by ornithologists under
the genus Bucco are called by the Indians, in the Tupi
language, Tai-assu uira, or pig-birds. They remain
seated sometimes for hours together on low branches in
the shade, and are stimulated to exertion only when
attracted by passing insects. This flock of Tamburi-para
were the reverse of dull ; they were gambolling and
chasing each other amongst the branches. As they
sported about, each emitted a few short tuneful notes,
which altogether produced a ringing, musical chorus
that quite surprised me.

On the 27th we reached an elevated wooded pro-
montory, called Parentins, which now forms the boun-
dary between the provinces of Para and the Amazons.
Here we met a small canoe descending to Santarem.
The owner was a free negro named Lima, who, with
his wife, was going down the river to exchange his
year's crop of tobacco for European merchandise. The
long shallow canoe was laden nearly to the water level.
He resided on the banks of the Abacaxi, a river which
discharges its waters into the Canoma, a broad interior
channel which extends from the river Madeira to the
Parentins, a distance of 180 miles. Penna offered him

Chap. YII. INDIAN GIRL. 279

advantageous terms, so a bargain was struck, and the
man saved his long journey. The negro seemed a frank,
straightforward fellow ; he was a native of Pernambuco,
but had settled many years ago in this part of the
country. He had with him a little Indian girl belonging
to the Mauhes tribe, whose native seat is the district of
country lying in the rear of the Canoma, between the
Madeira and the Tapajos. The Maiihes are considered,
I think with truth, to be a branch of the great Mundu-
rucu nation, having segregated from them at a remote
period, and by long isolation acquired different customs
and a totally different language, in a manner Avhich
seems to have been general with the Brazilian abori-
gines. The Mundurucus seem to have retained more
of the general characteristics of the original Tupi stock
than the Mauhes. Senhor Lima told me, what I after-
wards found to be correct, that there w^ere scarcely two
words alike in the languages of the two peoples, although
there are words closely allied to Tupi in both.* The
little girl had not the slightest trace of the savage in
her appearance. Her features were finely shaped, the
cheek-bones not at all prominent, the lips thin, and the
expression of her countenance frank and smiling. She
had been brought only a few weeks previously from a
remote settlement of her tribe on the banks of the
Abacaxi, and did not yet know five words of Portuguese.
The Indians, as a general rule, are very manageable
when they are young, but it is a general complaint that

* Thus the word Woman, in Mauhe, is Unilia ; in Tupi, Cunha ;
in ^lundumcu, Taishi. Fire in Mauhe, is Arid ; in Tupi, Tata ; in
Mundurucii, Idasha or Tashd.

280 THE LOWER AMAZOXS. Chap. VII.

when tliey reach the age of puberty they become rest-
less and discontented. The rooted impatience of all
restraint then shows itself, and the kindest treatment
will not prevent them running away from their masters ;
they do not return to the malocas of their tribes, but
join parties who go out to collect the produce of the
forests and rivers, and lead a wandering semi-savage
kind of life.

We remained under the Serra dos Parentins all night.
Early the next morning a light mist hung about the
tree-tops, and the forest resounded with the yelping
of Whaiapu-sai monkeys. I went ashore with my gun
and got a glimpse of the flock, but did not succeed in
obtaining a specimen. They were of small size and
covered with long fur of a uniform gTay colour. I
think the species was the Callithrix donacophilus. The
rock composing the elevated ridge of the Parentins is
the same coarse iron-cemented cono-lomerate which I
have spoken of as occurring near Para and in several
other places. Many loose blocks were scattered about.
The forest was extremely varied, and inextricable coils
of woody climbers stretched from tree to tree. Thongs
of cacti were spread over the rocks and tree-trunks.
The variety of small, beautifully-shaped ferns, lichens,
and boleti made the place quite a museum of cr3rpto-
gamic plants. I found here two exquisite species of
Longicorn beetles, and a large kind of grasshopper
(Pterochroza) whose broad fore-wings resembled the
leaf of a plant, providing the insect with a perfect dis-
guise when they were closed ; whilst the hind-wings
were decorated with gaily-coloured eye-like spots.

CiiAP. VII. WATER-FOWL. 281

The negro left us and turned up a nan'ow channel,
the Parana-mirim dos Ramos (the little river of the
branches, i.e., having many ramifications), on the road
to his home, 130 miles distant. We then continued
our voyage, and in the evening amved at Villa Nova, a
straggling village containing about seventy houses, many
of which scarcely deserve the name, being mere mud-
huts roofed with palm-leaves. We stayed here four
days. The village is built on a rocky bank, composed
of the same coarse conglomerate as that already so
often mentioned. In some places a bed of Tabatinga
clay rests on the conglomerate. The soil in the neigh-
bourhood is sandy, and the forest, most of which
appears to be of second growth, is traversed by broad
alleys which terminate to the south and east on the banks
of pools and lakes, a chain of which extends through
the interior of the land. As soon as we anchored I
set off with Luco to explore the district. We walked
about a mile along the marly shore, on which was a
thick carpet of flowering shrubs, enlivened by a great
variety of lovely little butterflies, and then entered
the forest by a dry watercourse. About a furlong-
inland this opened on a broad placid pool, whose banks,
clothed with grass of the softest green hue, sloped
gently from the water's edge to the compact wall of
forest which encompassed the whole. The pool
swarmed with water-fowl ; snowy egrets, dark-coloured
striped herons, and storks of various species standing in
rows around its margins. Small flocks of Macaws were
stirring about the topmost branches of the trees. Long-
legged piosocas (Parra Jacana) stalked over the water-

282 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

plants on the surface of the pool, and m the bushes
on its margin were great numbers of a kind of canary
(Sycalis brasiliensis) of a greenish-yellow colour, which
has a short and not very melodious song. We had
advanced but a few steps when we startled a pair of
the Jaburu-moleque (Mycteria Americana), a powerful
bird of the stork family, four and a half feet in height,
which flew up and alarmed the rest, so that I got only
one bird out of the tumultuous flocks which passed
over our heads. Passing towards the farther end of the
pool I saw, resting on the surface of the water, a number of
large round leaves, turned up at their edges ; they be-
longed to the Victoria water-lily. The leaves were just
beginning to expand (December 8rd), some were still
under water, and the largest of those which had reached
the surface measured not quite three feet in diameter.
We found a montaria with a paddle in it, drawn up on
the bank, which I took leave to borrow of the unkno^vn
owner, and Luco paddled me amongst the noble plants to
search for flowers, meeting, however, with no success. I
learnt afterwards that the plant is common in nearly all
the lakes of this neighbourhood. The natives call it the
furno do Piosoca, or oven of the Jacana, the shape of
the leaves being like that of the ovens on which Man-
dioca meal is roasted. We saw many kinds of hawks and
eagles, one of which, a black species, the Caracara-i (Mil-
vago nudicollis), sat on the top of a tall naked stump,
uttering its hypocritical whining notes. This eagle is
considered a bird of ill omen by the Indians ; it often
perches on the tops of trees in the neighbourhood of
their huts, and is theu said to bring a warning of

CiiAP. VII. VILLA NOVA. 283

death to some member of the household. Others say
that its whming cry is intended to attract other defence-
less birds within its reach. The little courageous fly-
catcher Bem-ti-vi (Saurophagus sulphuratus) assembles
in companies of four or five, and attacks it boldly, driv-
ing it from the perch where it would otherwise sit for
hours. I shot three hawks of as many different species ;
and these, with a Magoary stork, two beautiful gilded-
green jacamars (Galbulachalcocephala), and half-a-dozen
leaves of the water-lily made a heavy load, with which
we trudged off back to the canoe.

A few years after this visit, namely, in 1854-5, I
passed eight months at Villa Nova. The district of
which it is the chief town is very extensive, for it has
about forty miles of linear extent along the banks of the
river ; but the whole does not contain more than 4000
inhabitants. More than half of these are pure-blood
Indians, who live in a semi-civilized condition on the
banks of the numerous channels and lakes. The trade
of the place is chiefly in India-rubber, balsam of Copaiba
(which are collected on the banks of the Madeira and
the numerous rivers that enter the Canoma channel),
and salt fish, prepared in the dry season, nearer home.
These articles are sent to Para in exchange for Euro-
pean goods. The few Indian and half-breed families
who reside in the town, are many shades inferior in
personal qualities and social condition to those I lived
amongst near Para and Cameta. They live in wretched
dilapidated mud-hovels ; the women cultivate small
patches of mandioca ; the men spend most of their time

284 THE LOWER AMAZOIS^S. Chap. VIL

in fishing, selling what they do not require themselves
and getting drunk with the most exemplary regularity
on casha^a, purchased with the proceeds.

The configuration of the district of country in which
Villa Nova is situated, is remarkable. About a mile
inland, there commences a chain of lakes of greater or
lesser extent, which are connected together by narrow
channels, and extend to the interior by-water of the
Ramos. This latter communicates with the channel of
Canoma, already mentioned as connected with the river
Madeira. The whole tract of land, therefore, forms an
island, or group of islands, which extends from a little
below Villa Nova, to the mouth of the Madeira, a
distance of 180 miles ; the breadth varying from ten
to twenty miles. The district is known by the name
of the Island of Tupinambarana. The Canoma is an
outlet to the waters of the Madeira when this river is
fuller than the main Amazons, which is the case from
November to February. But it also receives the con-
tributions of eight other independent rivers, most of
which have broad, lake-like expansions of water near
their junction with the Canoma. One of them, the
Andira-mirim, I was told, is a league broad for some
distance from its mouth. The country bordering these in-
terior waters is extremely fertile, and the broad lakes have
clear waters and sandy shores. They abound in fish and
turtle. The country is healthy along the banks of the
Canoma, and for some distance up its tributary streams.
In certain places on the banks of these, intermittent
fevers prevail, as they do on all those affluents of the
Amazons which have clear, dark waters and slow cur-

CiiAP. VII. FATHER TORQUATO. 285

rents. The incidence of this endemic is somewhat
remarkable, for it exists on one side of the Andira-
mirim, where the land is high and rocky, and not on
the other which is low and swampy. The old historians
relate that the island of Tupinambarana was colonised
by a portion of the great Tupi or Tupinamba nation,
who were driven from the sea-coast near Pernambuco,
by the early Portuguese settlers in the 16th century.
I think, however, there is reason to conclude, that
different tribes, having more or less affinity with the
Tupis, originally existed in many places on the banks
of the Amazons, and that they had frequent communi-
cation with each other, before the time of the Portu-
guese. Much partial migration probably occurred
when the aborigines had the navigation of the main
Amazons all to themselves. It seems to me very
unlikely, that a compact body of Indians wandered at
once from the sea-coast near Pernambuco to the central
parts of the Amazons. However this may be, no trace
of the aboriginal Tupis now exists in this quarter. The
district is thinly populated, and the Indians who now
reside here, are scattered hordes of the Mundurucu,
Miira, and Mauhes tribes : semi-civilised families of the
two latter live in or near the town.

I found some very friendly and intelligent people
amongst the white and mameluco families residing at
Villa Nova. The vicar. Father Torquato de Souza, is
not quite unknown to the European pubHc, having been
the guide of Prince Adalbert of Prussia when he
visited the Jurnna Indians on the Xingu, and men-
tioned in the published narrative of the journey. He is

286 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. YII.

now a distinguished citizen of the new Province of the
Amazons, having been elected, several times in succes-
sion, President of the Provincial Chamber. Together
with many other natives of the Amazons region, he
affords a proof that an equatorial climate in the new
world has not necessarily a deteriorating effect on the
white race. He is a well-built man : above the middle
height, with handsome features, and a fine, healthy,
ruddy complexion. He is a most lively and energetic
fellow. When we first landed at Villa Nova, in 1849,
the church was being repaired, and as carpenters were
scarce, he had buckled to the work himself, and I
found him, with sleeves turned up, sawing and planing
as though he was well used to the trade. Next to Padre
Torquato, Senhor Meirelles, well deserves mention ; a
more sensible, intelligent and kind-hearted man I
never met with in Brazil. He also held some ap-
pointment under Government, but his time was chiefly
taken up with the management of his plantations
situated three miles below the village. Both these
worthy men were fond of reading, and subscribed regu-
larly to Bio Janeiro daily newspapers. Senhor Meirelles
spent a deal of money on dear books, which he sent for
by a parcel at a time from the metropolis, 2000 miles
off. Some of these were Portuguese periodicals, on the
plan of the English Penny Magazine ; most of them,
however, were translations of romances chiefly French.
They cii'culated freely amongst the many readers at
Villa Nova. At the time of my visit " Uncle Tom's
Cabin," translated into Portuguese, was a gi-eat favourite.
I found a love of reading not at all uncommon amongst

Chap. VII. EDUCATION. 287

the better sort of people in the towns and villages on
the Amazons ; it seems natural to the climate, and is
promoted by the occupation being well suited to the hot
and lazy hours of mid-day. It is a pity the Portuguese
language, on account of the poverty of its modern
literature, is so poor a medium for acquiring knowledge,
and that books are so scarce in Northern Brazil, other-
wise the Amazonian people would not be condemned
to the wretchedly narrow range of information which is
now generally their lot. A system of popular educa-
tion supported entirely by the Government, has been
established for some time in Brazil, and a primary
school for boys exists in every small town from Para to
the frontiers of the Empire. Padre Torquato was the
schoolmaster, as well as the priest at Villa Nova. He
had about thirty scholars, who were of all shades of
colour, from the negro and Indian to the pure white.
The schoolmasters, as mentioned in a former chapter,
receive the same amount of salary as the priests, namely,
600 milreis, or about 70^. a year ; but they are entitled
to a bonus if the number of scholars exceeds a certain
limit. In some of the larger villages, schools for girls
have also been established. It is very desirable that
these should be well supported, for the future advance-
ment of the Brazilian people towards a better "social
condition depends in a great measure on the improve-
ment in the education of their women.

Villa Nova, like most places on the main Amazons,
is very healthy ; it is considerably more so than Santarem,
where the climate is much drier and hotter, or the
regions further west, where the air is sultry and stag-

288 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VIL

nant. The cool and invigorating east wind becomes
neutralised before reaching the Rio Negro, but at Villa
Nova, in average seasons, it blows daily, with the ex-
ception of a few weeks' interval in November, from the
beginning of September to the end of January. The
river, here about two and a half miles broad, makes a
bold sweep of ten or twelve miles free of islands, the
blue ridge of the Parentins terminating the prospect
down stream. The broad, rapidly-flowing current, with
the brisk counter-movement of the atmosphere, are no
doubt the chief causes of the salubrity of the district.
The seasons vary very considerably. Thus, in 1849, as
already mentioned, the period of dryness and strong
breezes was unusually short, and the river, in conse-
quence, did not sink to its usual level. In 1854 I
witnessed the opposite extreme. The wet season, from
February to June, had been very severe, and the waters
had risen to their highest point. It took us, in the
months of June and July, in a well-manned vessel,
fourteen days to ascend from Santarem, a distance of
only 110 miles. The currents were very strong ; all
the low lands were flooded, and great portions of land
planted with cacao on the coast of Obydos were swept
away. At Villa Nova it was very hot, gleamy, and
showery up to the end of August. The welcome dry
winds then set in, and lasted until the 20th of No-
vember, by which time the river had receded to its
lowest level. At that date commenced a series of heavy
rains, which continued, however, only nine days ; but the
weather remained showery to the end of the year. On
the 3rd of January a kind of second summer began,

Cii.vi'. Vir. A DRY SEASON. 289

and this was a most delightful time. The vegetation
which had become parched up in November had been
freshened by the showery weather of December, and
the open places were covered with a carpet of the
brightest verdure. The marly and sandy terrace-formed
beaches were clothed with a great diversity of flowering
shrubs. Birds and insects were far more numerous and
active than they had been before. A species of swallow
of a brown colour, with a short square tail (Cotyle), then
made its appearance in great numbers, and built its
nests in holes of the bank on which the village is built,
trilling forth in the mornings and evenings a short but
sweet song. The east wind recommenced. It blew at
first gently, but increased in strength daily as the dry-
ness augmented : and with it came a dense fog, a rare
phenomenon in this countiy, but which I found to be of
regular occurrence in the central parts of the Lower
Amazons when the dry season was much prolonged.
For three successive weeks the daily order of the
weather was almost uniform. The mornings dawned
with a clear sky, a stiff breeze blowing and tossing the
waters into billows, searching through our dwellings,
and communicating a healthful exhilarating glow to
the body. As the sun ascended, a light mistiness crept
along the lower strata of the atmosphere ; after mid-
day this increased in density, until an hour before
sunset the sun became obscured, and no longer produced
that sickening heat which at all other times was so de-
pressing in the late hours of afternoon. An hour or
two after sunset the mist cleared away, and the nights
were starlit and deliciously cool. Every day the fog

290 THE LOWEE AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

increased in amount, until at the beginning of Febi-uary
a thick moist veil enveloped the whole landscape both
night and day. The wind then increased to a gale ;
every sailing craft on the river was obliged to seek
shelter ; and when the monthly river steamer, a vessel
of 400 tons burthen, anchored in the 23ort, it pitched up
and down as I have seen ships do in breezy weather in
the Southampton water. This lasted three days, at the
end of which the wind suddenly lulled, black clouds
gathered in the east, the fog lifted up like a curtain,
and down came the deluging rain which inaugurates the
wet season.

I made, in this second visit to Villa Nova, an exten-
sive collection of the natural productions of the neigh-
bourhood. A few remarks on some of the more in-
teresting of these must suffice. The forests are very
different in their general character from those of Para,
and in fact those of humid districts generally through-
out the Amazons. The same scarcity of large-leaved
Musaceous and Marantaceous plants was noticeable
here as at Obydos. The low-lying areas of forest or
Ygapos, which alternate everywhere with the more
elevated districts, did not furnish the same luxuriant
vegetation as they do in the Delta region of the Ama-
zons. They are flooded during three or four months in
the year, and when the waters retire, the soil — to which
the very thin coating of alluvial deposit imparts little
fertility — remains bare, or covered with a matted bed of
dead leaves, until the next flood season. These tracts
have then a barren appearance ; the trunks and lower

Chap. VII. TICKS. 291

branches of the trees are coated with dried slime, and
disfigured by rounded masses of fresh-water sponges,
whose long horny spiculae and dingy colours give them
the appearance of hedgehogs. Dense bushes of a harsh,
cutting grass, called Tiririca, form almost the only fresh
vegetation in the dry season. Perhaps the dense shade,
the long period during which the land remains under
water, and the excessively rapid desiccation when the
waters retire, all contribute to the barrenness of these
Ygapos. The higher and drier land is ever3rwhere
sandy, and tall coarse gi'asses line the borders of the
broad alleys which have been cut through the second-
growth woods. These places swarm with carapatos,
ugly ticks belonging to the genus Ixodes, which mount
to the tips of blades of grass, and attach themselves
to the clothes of passers by. They are a great annoy-
ance. It occupied me a full hour daily to pick them
off my flesh after my diurnal ramble. There are two
species ; both are much flattened in shape, have four
pairs of legs, a thick short proboscis and a horny inte-
gument. Their habit is to attach themselves to the
skin by plunging their proboscides into it, and then suck
the blood until their flat bodies are distended into a
globular form. The whole proceeding, however, is very
slow, and it takes them several days to pump their fill.
No pain or itching is felt, but serious sores are caused
if care is not taken in removing them, as the proboscis
is liable to break off and remain in the wound. A little
tobacco juice is generally applied to make them loosen
their hold. They do not cling firmly to the skin by
their legs, although each of these has a pair of sharp

292

THE LOWER AMAZONS.

Chap. VII.

and fine claws connected with the tips of the member
by means of a flexible pedicle. When they mount to
the summits of slender blades of grass, or the tips of

leaves, they hold
on by their fore
legs only, the
other three pairs
being stretched
out so as to fas-
ten on any ani-
mal which comes in their
way. The smaller of the
two species is of a yellowish
colour ; it is much the most
abundant, and sometimes
falls upon one by scores.
When distended it is about
the size of a No. 8 shot ; the
arger kind, which fortu-
nately comes only singly to
the work, swells to the size
of a pea.

In some parts of the in-
terior the soil is composed
of very coarse sand and
small angular fragments of
quartz ; in these places no
trees grow. I visited, in
^ MM> /vlLi-^-'^'»-" '^il' company with Padre Tor-
^'^tfC< , V ' ' quato, one of these tree-

Peuririma Palm (Bactris). IcSS SpaCOS Or CaUipOS, aS

Chap. VII. WILD PINE-APPLES. 293

they are called, situated five miles from the village.
The road thither led through a varied and beautiful
forest, containing many gigantic trees. I missed
the Assai, Miriti, Paxiuba, and other palms which
are all found only on rich moist soils, but the noble
Bacaba was not uncommon, and there was a gi'eat
diversity of dwarf species of Maraja palms (Bactris), one
of which, called the Peuririma, was very elegant,
grooving to a height of twelve or fifteen feet, with a
stem no thicker than a man's finger. On arriving at
the campo all this beautiful forest abruptly ceased,
and we saw before us an oval tract of land, three or
four miles in circumference, destitute even of the
smallest bush. The only vegetation was a crop of
coarse hairy grass gTowing in patches. The forest
formed a hedge all round the isolated field, and its
borders were composed in great part of trees which do
not grow in the dense virgin forest, such as a gi'eat
variety of bushy Melastomas, low Byrsomina trees,
m3rrtles, and Lacre-trees, whose berries exude globules
of wax resembling gamboge. On the margins of the
campo wild pine-apples also grew in gi^eat quantity.
The fruit was of the same shape as our cultivated kind,
but much smaller, the size being that of a moderately
large apple. We gathered several quite ripe ; they were
pleasant to the taste, of the true pine-apple flavour, but
had an abundance of fully developed seeds, and only a
small quantity of eatable pulp. There was no path
beyond this campo ; in fact all beyond is terra incognita
to the inhabitants of Villa Nova.

The only interesting Mammalian animal which I saw

294 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

at Villa Nova was a monkey of a species new to me ; it
was not, however, a native of the district, having been
brought by a trader from the river Madeira, a few miles
above Borba. It was a howler, probably the Mycetes
stramineus of Geoffrey St. Hilaire. The howlers are
the only kinds of monkey which the natives have not
succeeded in taming. They are often caught, but they
do not survive captivity many weeks. The one of which
I am speaking was not quite full grown. It measured
sixteen inches in length, exclusive of the tail ; the whole
body was covered with rather long and shining dingy-
white hair, the whiskers and beard only being of a
tawny hue. It was kept in a house, together with a
Coaita and a Caiarara monkey (Cebus albifrons). Both
these lively members of the monkey order seemed rather
to court attention, but the Mycetes slunk away when
any one approached it. When it first arrived, it occa-
sionally made a gruff subdued howling noise early in
the morning. The deep volume of sound in the voice
of the howling monkeys, as is well known, is produced
by a drum-shaped expansion of the larjnix. It was
curious to watch the animal whilst venting its hollow
cavernous roar, and observe how small was the muscular
exertion employed. When howlers are seen in the
forest there are generally three or four of them mounted
on the topmost branches of a tree. It does not appear
that their harrowing roar is emitted from sudden alarm ;
at least, it was not so in captive individuals. It is pro-
bable, however, that the noise serves to intimidate their
enemies. I did not meet with the Mycetes stramineus
in any other part of the Amazons region ; in the neigh-

Chap. VII. RATTLESNAKES. 295

boiirhood of Para a reddish-coloured species prevails
(M. Belzebuth) ; in the narrow channels near Breves I
shot a large, entirely black kind ; another yellow-handed
species, according to the report of the natives, inhabits
the island of Macajo, which is probably the M. flavimanus
of Kuhl ; some distance up the Tapajos the only howler
found is a brownish-black species ; and on the Upper
Amazons the sole species seen was the Mycetes ursinus,
whose fur is of a shining yellowish-red colour.

In the dry forests pf Villa Nova I saw a rattlesnake
for the first time. I was returning home one day
through a narrow alley, when I heard a pattering noise
close to me. Hard by was a tall palm tree, whose head
was heavily weighted with parasitic plants, and I thought
the noise was a warning that it was about to fall The
wind lulled for a few moments, and then there was no
doubt that the noise proceeded from the ground. On
turning my head in that direction, a sudden plunge
startled me, and a heavy gliding motion betrayed a large
serpent making off almost from beneath my feet. The
ground is always so encumbered with rotting leaves and
branches that one only discovers snakes when they are
in the act of moving away. The residents of Villa
Nova would not believe that I had seen a rattlesnake
in their neighbourhood ; in fact, it is not known to occur
in the forests at all, its place being the oj)en campos,
where, near Santarem, I killed several. On my second
visit to Villa Nova I saw another. I had then a
favourite little dog, named Diamante, who used to
accompany me in my rambles. One day hfe rushed into
the thicket, and made a dead set at a large snake, whose

296 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

head I saw raised above the herbage. The fooKsh Httle
brute approached quite close, and then the serpent
reared its tail slightly in a horizontal position and shook
its terrible rattle. It was many minutes before I could
get the dog away ; and this incident, as well as the one
already related, shows how slow the reptile is to make
the fatal spring.

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

CiiAi". VII. MIMETIC RESEMBLANCES. 297

The insects of Villa Nova are, to a great extent, the
same as those of Santarem and the Tapajos. A few
species of all orders, however, are found here, which
occurred nowhere else on the Amazons, besides several
others which are properly considered local varieties or
races of others found at Para, on the Northern shore of
the Amazons or in other parts of Tropical America. The
H3rmenoptera were especially numerous, as they always
are in districts which possess a sandy soil ; but the many
interesting facts which I gleaned relative to their habits
will be more conveniently introduced when I treat of the
same or similar species found in the localities above-
named. One of the most conspicuous insects peculiar
to Villa Nova is an exceedingly handsome butterfly,
which has been named Agrias Phalcidon. It is of large
size, and the colours of the upper surface of its wings,
resemble those of the Callithea Leprieurii, already
described, namely, dark blue, with a broad silvery-gi'een
border. When it settles on leaves of trees, fifteen or
twenty feet from the ground, it closes its wings and
then exhibits a row of brilliant pale-blue eye-like spots
with white pupils, which adorns their under surface. Its
flight is exceedingly swift, but when at rest it is not
easily made to budge from its place ; or if driven off,
returns soon after to the same spot. Its superficial
resemblance to Callithea Leprieurii, which is a very
abundant species in the same locality, is very close.
The likeness might be considered a mere accidental
coincidence, especially as it refers chiefly to the upper
surface of the wings, if similar parallel resemblances
did not occur between other species of the same two

298 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VIT.

genera. Thus, on the Upper Amazons, another totally
distinct kind of Agrias mimicks still more closely another
Callithea ; both insects being peculiar to the district
where they are found flying together. Resemblances
of this nature are very numerous in the insect world.
I was much struck with them in the course of my
travels, especially when, on removing from one district
to another, local varieties of certain species were found
accompanied by local varieties of the species which
counterfeited them in the former locality, under a dress
changed to correspond with the altered liveries of the
species they mimicked. One cannot help concluding
these imitations to be intentional, and that nature has
some motive in their production. In many cases, the
reason of the imitation is sufficiently plain. For instance,
when a fly or parasitic bee has a deceptive resem-
blance to the species of working bee, in whose nest it
deposits the egg it has otherwise no means of provid-
ing for, or when a leaping-spider, as it crouches in the
axil of a leaf waiting for its prey, presents an exact
imitation of a flower-bud ; it is evident that the benefit
of the imitating species is the object had in view.
When, however, an insect mimicks another species of
its own order where predaceous or parasitic habits are
out of the question, it is not so easy to divine the precise
motive of the adaptation. We may be sure, never-
theless, that one of the two is assimilated in external
appearance to the other for some purpose useful, — per-
haps of Hfe and death importance — to the species. I
believe these imitations are of the same nature as those
in which an insect or lizard is coloured and marked

Chai-. VII. ODOUK OF BUTTERFLIES. 299

SO as to resemble the soil, leaf, or bark on which it
lives ; the resemblance sei'ving to conceal the creatures
from the prying eyes of their enemies ; or, if they are
predaceous species, serving them as a disguise to enable
them to approach their prey. When an insect, instead
of a dead or inorganic substance, mimicks another species
of its own order, and does not prey, or is not parasitic,
may it not be inferred that the mimicker is subject
to a persecution by insectivorous animals from which
its model is free ? Many species of insects have a most
deceptive resemblance to living or dead leaves ; it is
generally admitted, that this serves to protect them
from the onslaughts of insect-feeding animals who would
devour the insect, but refuse the leaf. The same might
be said of a species mimicking another of the same
order ; one may be as repugnant to the tastes of insect
persecutors, as a leaf or a piece of bark would be, and its
imitator not enjoying this advantage would escape by
being deceptively assimilated to it in external appear-
ances. In the present instance, it is not very clear
what property the Callithea possesses to render it less
liable to persecution than the Agrias, except it be that
it has a strong odour somewhat resembling Vanilla,
which the Agrias is destitute of This odour becomes
very powerful when the insect is roughly handled or
pinched, and if it serves as a protection to the Callithea,
it would explain why the AgTias is assimilated to it in
colours. The resemblance, as before remarked, applies
chiefly to the upper side ; in other species* it is equally
close on both surfaces of the wina's. Some birds, and the

* Agi-ias Hewitsoniiis and Callithea Markii.

300 THE LO\YER AMAZONS. Chap. VI I.

great ^schnae dragon-flies, take their insect prey whilst
on the wing, when the upper surface of the wings is the
side most conspicuous.

In the broad alleys of the forest where these beau-
tiful insects are found, several species of Morpho were
common. One of these is a sister form to the Morpho
Hecuba, which I have mentioned as occurring at Oby-
dos. The Villa Nova kind differs from Hecuba suffi-
ciently to be considered a distinct species, and has
been described under the name of M. Cisseis ; but it
is clearly only a local variety of it, the range of
the two being limited by the barrier of the broad
Amazons. It is a grand sight to see these colossal but-
terflies by twos and threes floating at a great height in
the still air of a tropical morning. They flap their wings
only at long intervals, for I have noticed them to sail
a very considerable distance without a stroke. Their
wing-muscles and the thorax to which they are at-
tached, are very feeble in comparison with the wide
extent and weight of the wings : but the large ex-
panse of these members doubtless assists the insects in
maintaining their aerial course. Morphos are amongst
the most conspicuous of the insect denizens of Tropical
American forests, and the broad glades of the Villa Nova
woods seemed especially suited to them, for I noticed
here six species. The largest specimens of Morpho
Cisseis measure seven inches and a half in expanse.
Another smaller kind, which I could not capture, was
of a pale silvery-blue colour, and the polished surface
of its wings flashed like a silver speculum, as the insect
flapped its wings at a great elevation in the sunlight.

Chap. YII. RUSTIC FESTIVAL. 301

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

At the first house a festival was going forward. We
anchored at some distance from the shore, on account of
the water being shoaly, and early in the morning three
canoes put off laden with salt fish, oil of manatee, fowls
and bananas, wares which the owners wished to exchange
for different articles required for the festa. Soon after I
went ashore. The head man was a tall, well-made,
civilised Tapuyo named Marcellino, who, with his wife,
a thin, active, wiry old squaw, did the honours of their
house, I thought, admirably. The company consisted
of 50 or 60 Indians and Mamelucos ; some of them knew
Portuguese, but the Tupi language was the only one
used amongst themselves. The festival was in honour
of our Lady of Conception ; and when the people learnt
that Penna had on board an image of the saint hand-
somer than their own, they put off in their canoes to
borrow it ; Marcellino taking charge of the doll, cover-

302 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

ing it carefully with a neatly-bordered white towel.
On landing with the image, a procession was formed
from the port to the house, and salutes fired from a
couple of lazarino guns, the saint being afterwards care-
fully deposited in the family oratorio. After a litany and
hymn were sung in the evening, all assembled to supper
around a large mat spread on a smooth terrace-like space
in front of the house. The meal consisted of a large
boiled Pirarucu, which had been harpooned for the
purpose in the morning, stewed and roasted turtle,
piles of mandioca-meal and bananas. The old lady,
with two young girls, showed the greatest activity in
waiting on the guests, Marcellino standing gravely by,
observing what was wanted and giving the necessary
orders to his wife. When all was done hard drinking
beofan, and soon after there was a dance, to which Penna
and I were invited. The liquor served was chiefly a
spirit distilled by the people themselves from mandioca
cakes. The dances were all of the same class, namely,
different varieties of the '' Landum," an erotic dance
similar to the fandango originally learnt from the Portu-
guese. The music was supplied by a couple of wire-
stringed guitars, played alternately by the young men.
All passed off very quietly considering the amount
of strong liquor drunk, and the ball was kept up until
sunrise the next morning.

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

CifAP. VII. SAND-BANK. 303

abode of an industrious family, but all the men were
absent, saltinof Pirarucii on tlie lakes. The house, like
its neighbours, was simply a framework of poles thatched
witli palm-leaves, the walls roughly latticed and plastered
with mud : but it was larger, and much cleaner inside
than the others. It was full of women and children, who
were busy all day with their various employments ; some
weaving hammocks in a large clumsy frame, which
held the warp whilst the shuttle was passed by the
hand slowly across the six feet breadth of web ; others
spinning cotton, and others again scraping, pressing,
and roasting mandioca. The family had cleared and
cultivated a large piece of ground ; the soil was of extra-
ordinar}^ richness, the perpendicular banks of the river,
near the house, revealing a depth of many feet of crumb-
ling vegetable mould. There was a large plantation of
tobacco, besides the usual patches of Indian-corn, sugar-
cane, and mandioca ; and a grove of cotton, cacao,
coffee and fruit-trees surrounded the house. We passed
two nights at anchor in shoaly water off the beach.
The weather was most beautiful ; scores of Dolphins
rolled and snorted about the canoe all nig^ht. I saw
here, for the first time, the flesh-coloured species (Del-
phinus pallidus of Gervais ?), which rolled always in
pairs, both individuals being of the same colour. In the
day-time the margin of the beach abounded with a
small tiger-beetle (Cicindela hebrsea of Klug), which
flew up like a swarm of house-flies before our steps as
we walked along. It is not easily detected, for its
colour is assimilated to that of the moist sand over
which it runs. I have a pleasant recollection of this

304 THE LOWER AMAZONS. CHAr. VII.

sancl-bank, from having here observed, for the first
time, in ascending the river, one of the handsomest of
the many handsome butterflies which are found exclu-
sively in the interior parts of the South American
continent, namely the Papilio Columbus. It is of a
cream-white colour bordered with black, and has a
patch of crimson near the commencement of its long
slender tails. In the forest, amongst a host of other
beautiful and curious insects, I found another species
of the same genus, which was new to me, namely, the
Papilio Lysander, remarkable for the contrasted colours
of its livery — crimson and blue-green spots on a black
ground. This conspicuous insect may be cited as
affording another illustration of the way in which
species so very commonly become modified according
to the different localities they inhabit. P. Lysander is
found throughout the interior of the Amazons country,
from Villa Nova to Peru, and also in Dutch and
British Guiana. In the Delta region of the Amazons
it is replaced by a form which has been treated as a
distinct species, namely, the P. Parsodes of Gray. In
French Guiana, however, numerous varieties interme-
diate between the two are found, so that Ave are
compelled to consider them as local modifications of
one and the same species. The difference between the
two local forms is of a slight nature, and many natu-
ralists on this account alone would consider them to
belong to the same species ; but the numerous existing
intermediate shades of variation show how many grades
are possible between even two local varieties of a
species. In fact, the steps of modification are found

Chap. YII. FAMILY OF SAVAGES. 305

to be exceedingly small and numerous in all cases where
the filiation of races or species can be traced ; and
this circumstance may be held as confirming the truth
of the axiom, " Natura non facit saltum," which has
been impugned by some writers.

About two miles beyond this sand-bank was the
miserable abode of a family of Mura Indians, the most
degraded tribe inhabiting the banks of the Amazons.
It was situated on a low terrace on the shores of a
pretty little bay at the commencement of the high
barreiros. With the exception of a cluster of bananas
there were no fruit-trees or plantation of any descrip-
tion near the house. We saw in the bay several large
alligators, with head and shoulders just reared above
the level of the water. The house was a mere hovel ; a
thatch of palm-leaves supported on a slender framework
of upright posts and rafters, bound with flexible lianas,
and the walls were partially plastered up with mud. A
low doorway led into the dark chamber ; the bare earth
floor was filthy in the extreme ; and in a damjD corner I
espied two large toads whose eyes glittered in the dark-
ness. The furniture consisted of a few low stools ;
there was no mat, and the hammock was a rudely woven
web of ragged strips of the inner bark of the Mongiiba
tree. Bows and arrows hung from the smoke-blackened
rafters. An ugly woman, clad in a coarse petticoat, and
holding a child astride across her hip, sat crouched
over a fire roasting the head of a large fish. Her hus-
band was occupied in notching pieces of bamboo for
arrow-heads. Both of them seemed rather disconcerted
at our sudden entrance ; we could get nothing but curt

VOL. I. X

306 THE LOWEE AMAZONS. CHAr. YIL

and surly answers to our questions, and so were glad
to depart.

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

Chap. YII. CLAY CLIFFS. 307

of horny lancets, which are shorter and broader than is
usually the case in the family to which it belongs. Its
puncture does not produce much pain, but it makes
such a large gash in the flesh that the blood trickles
forth in little streams. Many scores of them were
fl3dng about the canoe all day, and sometimes eight or
ten would settle on one's ancles at the same time. It is
sluggish in its motions, and may be easily killed with
the fingers when it settles. Penna went forward in the
montaria to the Pirarucu fishing stations, on a lake
lying further inland ; but he did not succeed in reaching
them on account of the length and intricacy of the
channels ; so after wasting a day, during which, however,
I had a profitable ramble in the forest, we again crossed
the river, and on the 16th continued our voyage along
the northern shore.

The clay cliffs of Cararaucii are several miles in
length. The hard pink and red-coloured beds are here
extremely thick, and in some j)laces present a compact
stony texture. The total height of the cliff is from thirty
to sixty feet above the mean level of the river, and the
clay rests on strata of the same coarse iron-cemented
conglomerate which has already been so often mentioned.
Large blocks of this latter have been detached and
rolled by the force of currents up parts of the cliff where
they are seen resting on terraces of the clay. On the top
of all lies a bed of sand and vegetable mould which sup-
ports a lofty forest growing up to the very brink of the
precipice. After passing these barreiras we continued
our way along a low uninhabited coast, clothed, wherever
it was elevated above high water-mark, with the usual

x2

308 THE LOWER AMAZOXS. Chap. YII.

vividly-coloured forests of the higher Ygapo lands, to
which the broad and regular fronds of the Murumuru
palm, here extremely abundant, served as a great de-
coration. Wherever the land was lower than the flood
height of the Amazons, Cecropia trees prevailed, some-
times scattered over meadows of tall broad-leaved
grasses, which surrounded shallow pools swarming with
water-fowl. Alligators were common on most parts
of the coast ; in some places we saw also small herds
of Capybaras (a large Rodent animal, like a colossal
Guinea-pig) amongst the rank herbage on muddy
banks, and now and then flocks of the graceful squirrel
monkey (Chrysothrix sciureus), and the vivacious Caia-
rara (Cebus albifrons) were seen taking flying leaps
from tree to tree. On the 22nd we passed the mouth
of the most easterly of the numerous channels which
lead to the large interior lake of Saraca, and on the
23rd threaded a series of passages between islands,
where we again saw human habitations, ninety miles
distant from the last house at Cararaucu. On the 24th
we arrived at Serpa.

Serpa is a small village consisting of about eighty
houses, built on a bank elevated twenty-five feet above
the level of the river. The beds of Tabatinga clay, which
are here interminoied with scoria-lookinsf cono^lomerate,
are in some parts of the declivity prettily variegated in
colour ; the name of the town in the Tupi language,
Ita-coatiara, takes its origin from this circumstance,
signifying striped or painted rock. It is an old settle-
ment, and was once the seat of the district govern-
ment, which had authority over the Barra of the Rio

Chap. VII. INHABITANTS OF SERPA. 800

NeiH'o. It was in 1849 a \vi'etched-lookino^ villao-e, but it
has since revived, on account of having being chosen by
the Steamboat Company of the Amazons as a station for
steam saw-mills and tile manufactories. We arrived on
Christmas-eve, when the village presented an animated
appearance from the number of people congregated for
the holidays. The port was full of canoes, large and
small — from the montaria, with its arched awning of
woven lianas and Maranta leaves, to the two-masted
cuberta of the peddling trader, who had resorted to the
place in the hope of trafficking with settlers coming
from remote sitios to attend the festival. We anchored
close to an igarite, whose owner was an old Juri Indian,
disfigured by a large black tatooed patch in the middle
of his face, and by his hair being close cropped, except a
fringe in front of the head. In the afternoon we went
ashore. The population seemed to consist chiefly of semi-
civilised Indians, living as usual in half-finished mud
hovels. The streets were irregularly laid out and overrun
with weeds and bushes swarming with "mocuim," a very
minute scarlet acarus, which sweeps off to one's clothes
in passing, and attaching itself in great numbers to the
skin causes a most disag-reeable itchino-. The few whites
and better class of mameluco residents live in more
substantial dwellings, white-washed and tiled. All,
both men and women, seemed to me much more cordial,
and at the same time more brusque in their manners
than any Brazilians I had yet met with. One of them.
Captain Manoel Joaquim, I knew for a long time after-
wards ; a lively, intelligent, and thoroughly good-hearted
man, who had quite a reputation throughout the interior

310 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

of the country for generosity, and for being a firm friend
of foreign residents and stray travellers. Some of these
excellent people were men of substance, being o"vvners
of trading vessels, slaves, and extensive plantations of
cacao and tobacco.

We stayed at Serpa five days. Some of the ceremo-
nies observed at Christmas were interesting, inasmuch
as they were the same, with little modification, as those
taught by the Jesuit missionaries more than a century
ago to the aboriginal tribes whom they had induced to
settle on this spot. In the morning all the women and
girls, dressed in white gauze chemises and showy calico
print petticoats, went in procession to church, first going
the round of the town to take up the different " mor-
domos " or stewards, whose office is to assist the Juiz of
the festa. These stewards carried each a long white reed,
decorated with coloured ribbons ; several children also
accompanied, grotesquely decked with finery. Three
old squaws went in front, holding the " saire,", a large
semicircular frame, clothed with cotton and studded
with ornaments, bits of looking-glass, and so forth.
This they danced up and down, singing all the time a
monotonous whining hymn in the Tupi language, and
at frequent intei-vals turning round to face the followers,
who then all stopped for a few moments. I was told
that this saire was a device adopted by the Jesuits to
attract the savages to church, for these everywhere
followed the miiTors, in which they saw as it were
magically reflected their own persons. In the evening,
good-humoured revelry prevailed on all sides. The
negroes, who had a saint of their own colour — St. Bene-

Chap. YII. FOREST OF SERPA. 311

dito — had their holiday apart from the rest, and spent
the whole night singing and dancing to the music of a
long drum (gamlia) and the caracasha. The drum was
a hollow log, having one end covered with skin, and was
played by the performer sitting astride upon it and drum-
ming with his knuckles. The caracasha is a notched
bamboo tube, which produces a harsh rattling noise by
passing a hard stick over the notches. Nothing could
exceed in dreary monotony this music and the singing
and dancing, which were kept up with unflagging vigour
all night long. The Indians did not get up a dance ; for
the whites and mamelucos had monopolised all the pretty
coloured girls for their own ball, and the older squaws
preferred looking on to taking a part themselves. Some
of their husbands joined the negroes, and got drunk very
quickly. It was amusing to notice how voluble the
usually taciturn red-skins became under the influence
of liquor. The negroes and Indians excused their own
intemperance by saying the whites were getting drunk
at the other end of the town, which was quite true.

The forest which encroaches on the ends of the
weed-grown streets jdelded me a large number of inter-
esting insects, some of which have been described in
the preceding chapter. The elevated land on which
Serpa is built appears to be a detached portion of the
terra firma ; behind, lies the gi-eat interior lake of
Saraca, to the banks of which there is a foot-road through
the forest, but I could not ascertain what was the
distance. Outlets from the lake enter the Amazons both
above and below the village. The woods were remarkably
dense, and the profoundest solitude reigned at the

312 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. YII.

distance of a few minutes' walk from the settlement.
The first mile or two of the forest road was very-
pleasant ; the path was broad, shady, and clean ; the
lower trees presented the most beautiful and varied
foliage imaginable, and a compact border of fern-like
selaginellas lined the road on each side. The only birds
I saw were ant-thrushes in the denser thickets, and
two species of Cergeba, a group allied to the creepers.
These were feeding on the red gummy seeds of Clusia
trees, which were here very numerous, their thick
oval leaves, and large, white, wax-like flowers making
them very conspicuous objects in the crowded woods.
The only insect I will name amongst the numbers of
species which sported about these shady places is the
Papilio Ergeteles, and this for the purpose of again show-
ing how much may be learned by noting the geogTaphical
relations of races and closely-allied species. The Papilio
Ergeteles is of a velvety black colour, with two large
spots of green and two belts of crimson on its wings. Its
range is limited to the North side of the lower Amazons
from Obydos to the Rio Negro ; on the south side of
the river it is replaced by a distinct kind called the
Papilio Echelus. The two might be considered, as they
have been hitherto, perfectly distinct species, had not
an intermediate variety been found to inhabit Cayenne,
where neither extreme form occurs. The two forms
are as distinct as any two allied species can well be,
and they are different in both sexes. They are found
in no other part of America than the districts men-
tioned. The intermediate varieties, however, link the
two together, so that they cannot be considered other-

Chap. VII. RIVER MADEIRA. 313

wise than as modifications of one and the same species ;
one produced on the North, the other on the South
side of the Amazons. It is worthy of especial mention
that here as well as in the cases of P. Lysander and
the Heliconii, described in the preceding chapter,
the connecting links are found inhabiting distinct locali-
ties, and not mingled with the extreme forms which
they connect.

We left Serpa on the 29th of December, in company
of an old planter named Senhor Joao Trinidade ; at
whose sitio, situated opposite the mouth of the Madeira,
Penna intended to spend a few days. Our course on
the 29th and 30th lay through nari'ow channels between
islands. On the 31st we passed the last of these, and
then beheld to the south a sea-like expanse of water,
where the Madeira, the gi'eatest tributary of the
Amazons, after 2000 miles of course, blends its waters
with those of the king of rivers. I was hardly pre-
pared for a junction of waters on so vast a scale as
this, now nearly 900 miles from the sea. Whilst
travelling week after week along the somewhat mono-
tonous stream, often hemmed in between islands, and
becoming thoroughly familiar with it, my sense of
the magnitude of this vast water system had become
gradually deadened ; but this noble sight renewed the
first feelings of wonder. One is inclined, in such places
as these, to think the Paraenses do not exaggerate
much when they call the Amazons the Mediteri'anean
of South America. Beyond the mouth of the Madeira,
the Amazons sweeps do^vn in a majestic reach, to all
appearance not a whit less in breadth before than

314 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. YII.

after this enormous addition to its waters. The Ma-
deira does not ebb and flow simultaneously with the
Amazons ; it rises and sinks about two months earlier,
so that it was now fuller than the main river. Its
current therefore poured forth freely from its mouth,
carrying with it a long line of floating trees and
patches of grass, which had been torn from its crumbly
banks in the lower part of its course. The current,
however, did not reach the middle of the main stream,
but swept along nearer to the southern shore.

A few items of informa,tion which I gleaned relative to
this river may find a place here. The Madeira is navig-
able for about 480 miles from its mouth ; a series of
cataracts and rapids then commences, which extends with
some intervals of quiet water, about 160 miles, beyond
which is another long stretch of navigable stream.
Canoes sometimes descend from Villa Bella, in the inte-
rior province of Matto Grosso, but not so frequently as
formerly, and I could hear of very few persons who had
attempted of late years to ascend the river to that
point. It was explored by the Portuguese in the early
23art of the eighteenth century ; the chief and now the
only town on its banks, Borba, 150 miles from its
mouth, being founded in 1756. Up to the year 1853,
the lower part of the river, as far as about 100 miles
beyond Borba, was regularly visited by traders from
Villa Nova, Serpa, and Barra, to collect salsaparilla,
copaiiba balsam, turtle-oil, and to trade with the
Indians, with whom their relations were generally on a
friendly footing. In that year many India-rubber col-
lectors resorted to this region, stimulated by the high

Chap. YII. IXDTAXS OF THE MADEIRA. 315

price (2s. 6d. a pound) which the article was at that
time fetching at Para ; and then the Ai'aras, a fierce
and intractable tribe of Indians, began to be trouble-
some. They attacked several canoes and massacred
every one on board, the Indian crews as well as the white
traders. Their plan was to lurk in ambush near the
sandy beaches where canoes stop for the night, and
then fall upon the people whilst asleep. Sometimes
they came under pretence of wishing to trade, and then
as soon as they could get the trader at a disadvantage
shot him and his crew from behind trees. Their arms
were clubs, bows, and Taquara arrows, the latter a
formidable weapon tipped with a piece of flinty bamboo
shaped Hke a spear-head ; they could propel it mth such
force as to pierce a man completely through the body.
The whites of Borba made reprisals, inducing the war-
like Mundurucus, who had an old feud with the Araras,
to assist them. This state of things lasted tWD or three
years, and made a journey up the Madeira a risky
undertaking, as the savages attacked all comers. Be-
sides the Araras and the Mundurucus, the latter a tribe
friendly to the whites, attached to agriculture, and in-
habiting the interior of the country from the Madeira
to beyond the Tapajos, two other tribes of Indians now
inhabit the lower Madeira, namely, the Parentintins
and the Muras. Of the former I did not hear much ;
the Muras lead a lazy quiet life on the banks of the
labjTinths of lakes and channels which intersect the low
country on both sides of the river below Borba. The
Araras are one of those tribes which do not plant man-
dioca ; and indeed have no settled habitations. They

316 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. Yll.

are veiy similar in stature and other physical features
to the Mundurucus, although differing from them so
widely in habits and social condition. They paint their
chins red with Urucu (Anatto), and have usually a
black tatooed streak on each side of the face, running
from the comer of the mouth to the temple. They
have not yet learnt the use of firearms, have no canoes,
and spend their lives roaming over the interior of the
country, living on game and wild fruits. "When they
wish to cross a river they make a temporary canoe with
the thick bark of trees, which they secure in the required
shape of a boat by means of lianas. I heard it stated
by a trader of Santarem, who narrowly escaped being
butchered by them in 1854, that the Araras numbered
two thousand fighting men. The number I think must
be exaggerated, as it generally is with regard to Brazilian
tribes. When the Indians show a hostile disposition to
the whites, I believe it is most frequently owing to some
provocation they have received at their hands ; for the
first impulse of the Brazilian red-man is to respect
Europeans ; they have a strong dislike to be forced into
their service, but if strangers visit them with a friendly
intention they are well treated. It is related, however,
that the Indians of the Madeira were hostile to the
Portuguese from the first ; it was then the tribes of
Muras and Torazes who attacked travellers. In 1855
I met with an American, an odd character, named
Kemp, who had lived for many years amongst the
Indians on the Madeira, near the abandoned settlement
of Crato. He told me his neighbours were a kindly-
disposed and cheerful people, and that the onslaught of

Chap. VII. MAMELUCO FARMERS. 317

the Ai'aras was provoked by a trader from Barra, who
wantonly fired into a family of them, killing the
parents, and carrying oif their children to be employed
as domestic servants.

We remained nine days at the sitio of Senhor Joao
Trinidade. It is situated on a tract of high Ygapo land,
which is raised, however, only a few inches above high-
water mark. This skirts the northern shore for a long
distance ; the soil consisting of alluvium and rich vege-
table mould, and exhibiting the most exuberant fertility.
Such districts are the first to be settled on in this
country, and the whole coast for many miles was dotted
with pleasant-looking sitios like that of our friend.
The establishment was a large one, the house and out-
buildings covering a large space of gi^ound. The indus-
trious proprietor seemed to be Jack-of-all-trades ; he
was planter, trader, fisherman, and canoe-builder, and
a large igarite was now on the stocks under a large
shed. There was greater pleasure in contemplating this
prosperous farm from its being worked almost entirely
by free labour ; in fact, by one family, and its depend-
ents. Joao Trinidade had only one female slave ; his
other workpeople were a brother and sister-in-law, two
godsons, a free negro, one or two Indians, and a family
of Muras. Both he and his wife were mamelucos ; the
negro children called them always father and mother.
The order, abundance, and comfort about the place,
shoAved what industry and good management could
effect in this country without slave-labour. But the
surplus produce of such small plantations is very trifling.

318 THE LOWER AMAZOXS. Chap. VII.

All we saw, had been done since the disorders of 1835-6,
during which Joa5 Trinidade was a great sufferer ; he was
obliged to fly, and the Mura Indians destroyed his house
and plantations. There was a large, well-weeded grove
of cacao along the banks of the river, comprising about
8000 trees, and further inland, considerable plantations
of tobacco, mandioca, Indian corn, fields of rice, melons,
and water-melons. Near the house was a kitchen gar-
den, in which grew cabbages and onions introduced
from Europe, besides a wonderful variety of tropical
vegetables. It must not be supposed that these plan-
tations and gardens were enclosed or neatly kept, such
is never the case in this country where labour is so
scarce ; but it was an unusual thing to see vegetables
grown at all, and the ground tolerably well weeded.
The space around the house was plentifully planted with
fruit-trees, some, belonging to the Anonaceous order,
yielding delicious fruits large as a child's head, and full
of custardy pulp which it is necessary to eat with a spoon ;
besides oranges, lemons, guavas, alligator pears, Abius
(Achras cainito), Genipapas and bananas. In the shade
of these, coffee trees grew in great luxuriance. The
table was always well supplied with fish, which the Mura,
who was attached to the household as fisherman, caught
every morning a few hundred yards from the port.
The chief kinds were the Surubim, Pira-peeua and
Piramutaba, three species of Siluridse, belonging to the
genus Pimelodus. To these we used a sauce in the
form of a yellow paste, quite new to me, called Arub^,
which is made of the poisonous juice of the mandioca
root, boiled down before the starch or tapioca is pre-

Chap. YII. DAILY LIFE ON A FARM. 319

cipitated, and seasoned with capsicum peppers. It is
kept in stone bottles several weeks before using, and is
a most appetising relish to fish. Tucupi, another sauce
made also from mandioca juice, is much more common
in the interior of the country than Arube. This is
made by boiling or heating the pure liquid after the
tapioca has been separated, daily for several days in suc-
cession, and seasoning it with peppers and small fishes ;
when old it has the taste of essence of anchovies. It
is generally made as a liquid, but the Juri and Miranha
tribes on the Japura, make it up in the form of a black
paste by a mode of preparation I could not learn ; it is
then called Tucui^i-pixima, or black Tucupi. I have
seen the Indians on the Tapajos, where fish is scarce,
season Tucupi with Saiiba^ants. It is there used chiefly
as a sauce to Tacaca, another preparation from man-
dioca, consisting of the starch beaten up in boiling water.
I thoroughly enjoyed the nine days we spent at this
place. Our host and hostess took an interest in my
pursuit ; one of the best chambers in the house was
given up to me, and the young men took me long
rambles in the neighbouring forests. I saw veiy little
hard work going forward. Everyone rose with the
dawn, and went down to the river to bathe ; then came
the never-failing cup of rich and strong coffee, after
which all proceeded to their avocations. At this time,
nothing was being done at the plantations ; the cacao
and tobacco crops were not ripe ; weeding time was over,
and the only work on foot was the preparation of a little
farinha by the women. The men dawdled about ; went
shooting and fishing, or did trifling jobs about the house.

320 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. YII.

The only laborious work done during the year in
these establishments is the felling of timber for new
clearings ; this happens at the beginning of the dry
season, namely, from July to September. Whatever
employment the people were engaged in, they did not
intermit it during the hot hours of the day. Those
who went into the woods took their dinners with
them — a small bag of farinha, and a slice of salt fish.
About sunset all returned to the house ; they then had
their frugal suppers, and towards 8 o'clock, after coming
to ask a blessing of the patriarchal head of the house-
hold, went off to their hammocks to sleep.

There was another visitor besides ourselves, a negro,
whom Joa5 Trinidade introduced to me as his oldest
and dearest friend, who had saved his life during the
revolt of 1835. I have, unfortunately, forgotten his
name ; he was a freeman, and had a sitio of his own,
situated about a day's journey from this. There was
the same manly bearing about him that I had noticed
with pleasure in many other free negroes ; but his quiet,
earnest manner, and the thoughtful and benevolent ex-
pression of his countenance showed him to be a superior
man of his class. He told me he had been intimate
with our host for thirty years, and that a wiy word had
never passed between them. At the commencement of
the disorders of 1835 he got into the secret of a plot for
assassinating his friend, hatched by some villains whose
only cause of enmity was their owing him money and
envying his prosperity. It was such as these who
aroused the stupid and brutal animosity of the Muras
against the whites. The negro, on obtaining this news.

Chap. YIT. TAUAEI CIGARETTES. 321

set ofif alone in a montaria on a six hours' journey in
the dead of night, to warn his " compadre " of the fate
in store for him, and thus gave him time to fly. It was
a pleasing sight to notice the cordiality of feeling and
respect for each other shown by these two old men.
They used to spend hours together enjoying the cool
breeze, seated under a shed which overlooked the broad
river, and talking of old times. Joao Trinidade was
famous for his tobacco and Tauari cigarettes. He took
particular pains in preparing the Tauari, the envelope
of the cigarettes. It is the inner bark of a tree, which
separates into thin papery layers. Many trees yield it,
amongst them the Courataria Guianensis and the Sa-
pucaya nut-tree (Lecythis ollaria), both belonging to
the same natural order. The bark is cut in long strips,
of a breadth suitable for folding the tobacco ; the inner
portion is then separated, boiled, hammered with a
wooden mallet, and exposed to the air for a few hours.
Some kinds have a reddish colour and an astringent
taste, but the sort prepared by our host was of a beau-
tiful satiny-white hue, and perfectly tasteless. He
obtained sixty, eighty, and sometimes a hundred layers
from the same strip of bark. The best tobacco in
Brazil is grown in the neighbourhood of Borba, on the
Madeira, where the soil is a rich black loam ; but
tobacco of very good quality was grown by Joao Trini-
dade and his neighbours along this coast, on similar
soil. It is made up into slender rolls, an inch and a
half in diameter and six feet in length, tapering at
each end. When the leaves are gathered and partially
dried, layers of them, after the mid-ribs are plucked

322 THE LOWEE AMAZONS. Chap. VIL

out, are placed on a mat and rolled up into the re-
quired shape. This is done by the women and children,
who also manage the planting, weeding, and gathering
of the tobacco. The process of tightening the rolls is a
long and heavy task, and can be done only by men.
The cords used for this purpose are of very great
strength. They are made of the inner bark of a pecu-
liar light-wooded and slender tree, called Uaissima,
which yields, when beaten out, a great quantity of
most beautiful silky fibre, many feet in length. I think
this might be turned to some use by English manufac-
turers, if they could obtain it in large quantity. The
tree is abundant on light soils on the southern side of
the Lower Amazons, and grows very rapidly. When
the rolls are sufficiently well pressed they are bound
round with narrow thongs of remarkable toughness, cut
from the bark of. the climbing Jacitara palm tree
(Desmoncus macracanthus), and are then ready for sale
or use.

A narrow channel runs close by this house, which
communicates at a distance of six hours' journey (about
eighteen miles) with the Urubu, a large and almost un-
known river, flowing through the interior of Guiana.
Our host told me the Urubu presented an expanse of
clear dark water, in some places a league in width, and
was surrounded by an undulating country, partly forest
and partly campo. Its banks are fringed with white
sandy beaches, and peopled only by a few families of
Mura savages. The family now in his employ, and who
were living gipsy fashion, the only way they can be in-
duced to live, under a wretched shed on his grounds,

CiiAP. VII. ANIMALS OF CACAO GROVE. 323

were brought from tliis river six months previously. The
channel was navigable by montarias only in the rainy
season ; it was now a half-dry watercourse, the mouth
lying about eight feet above the present level of the
Amazons. The principal mouth of the TJrubu lies
between this place and Serpa. The river communicates
with the lake of Saraca, but I could make out nothing
clearly as to its precise geographical relations with that
large sheet of water, which is ten or twelve leagues
in length and one to two in breadth, and has an old-
established Brazilian settlement, called Silves, on its
banks.

It was very pleasant to roam in our host's cacaoal.
The ground was clear of underwood, the trees were about
thirty feet in height, and formed a dense shade. Two
species of monkey frequented the trees, and I was told
committed great depredations when the fruit was ripe.
One of these, the macaco prego (Cebus cin'hifer ?), is a
most impudent thief ; it destroys more than it eats by its
random, hasty way of plucking and breaking the fruits,
and when about to return to the forest, carries away all
it can in its hands or under its arms. The other species,
the pretty little Chrysothrix sciureus, contents itself
with devouring what it can on the spot. A variety of
beautiful insects basked on the foliage where stray
gleams of sunlight glanced through the canopy of broad
soft-green leaves. Numbers of an elegant, long-legged
tiger-beetle (Odontoch eila egi'egia) ran and flew about
over the herbage. It belo ngs to a sub-genus j^eculiar to
the warmest parts of America, the species of which are
found only in the shade of the forest, and are seen quite

324 THE LOWER AMAZO^^S. Chap. YII.

as frequently pursuing their prey on trees and herbage as
on the gi'ound. The tjrpical tiger-beetles, or Cicindelse,
inhabit only open and sunny situations, and are wholly
terrestrial in their habits. They are the sole forms of
the family which occur in the Northern and Central
parts of Europe and North America. In the Amazons
region, the shade-loving and semi-arboreal Odontocheilse
outnumber in species the Cicindelse as twenty-two to
six ; all but one of this number are exclusive^ peculiar
to the Amazonian forests, and this affords another proof
of the adaptation of the Fauna to a forest-clad country,
pointing to a long and uninterrupted existence of land
covered by forests on this part of the earth's surface.

We left this place on the 8th of January, and on the
afternoon of the 9th, arrived at Matari, a miserable little
settlement of Miira Indians. Here we again anchored
and went ashore. The place consisted of about twenty
slightly-built mud-hovels, and had a most forlorn ap-
pearance, notwithstanding the luxuriant forest in its
rear. A horde of these Indians settled here many years
ago, on the site of an abandoned missionaiy station, and
the government had lately placed a resident director over
them, with the intention of bringing the hitherto intract-
able savages under authority. This, however, seemed
to promise no other result than that of driving them
to their old solitary haunts on the banks of the interior
waters, for many families had already withdrawn them-
selves. The absence of the usual cultivated trees and
plants, gave the place a naked and poverty-stricken
aspect. I entered one of the hovels, where several
women were employed cooking a meal. Portions of a

Char VII. MURA INDIANS. 325

large fish were roasting over a fire made in the middle
of the low chamber, and the entrails were scattered
about the floor, on which the women with their children
were squatted. These had a timid, distrustful expres-
sion of countenance, and their bodies were begrimed
with black mud, which is smeared over the skin as a
protection against musquitoes. The children were
naked, the women wore petticoats of coarse cloth,
ragged round the edges, and stained in blotches with
murixi, a dye made from the bark of a tree. One of
them wore a necklace of monkey's teeth. There were
scarcely any household utensils ; the place was bare
mth the exception of two dirty grass hammocks hung
in the corners. I missed the usual mandioca sheds
behind the house, with their surrounding cotton, cacao,
coffee, and lemon trees. Two or three young men of
the tribe were lounging about the low open doorway.
They were stoutly-built fellows, but less well-propor-
tioned than the semi-civilised Indians of the Lower
Amazons generally are. Their breadth of chest was
remarkable, and their arms were wonderfully thick and
muscular. The legs appeared short in proportion to the
trunk ; the expression of their countenances was unmis-
takeably more sullen and brutal, and the skin of a
darker hue than is common in the Brazilian red man.
Before we left the hut, an old couple came in ; the
husband carrying his paddle, bow, arrows, and harpoon,
the woman bent beneath the weight of a large basket
filled with palm fruits. The man was of low stature and
had a wild appearance from the long coarse hair which
hung over his forehead. Both his lips were pierced

326 THE LOWEPt AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

with holes, as is usual with the older Mui'as seen on the
river. They used formerly to wear tusks of the wild hog
in these holes whenever they went out to encounter
strangers or their enemies in war. The gloomy savagery,
filth, and poverty of the people in this place, made me
feel quite melancholy, and I was glad to return to the
canoe. They offered us no civilities ; they did not even
pass the ordinary salutes, which all the semi-civilised
and many savage Indians proffer on a first meeting.
The men persecuted Penna for casha9a, which they
seemed to consider the only good thing the white man
brings with him. As they had nothing whatever to give
in exchange, Penna declined to supply them. They
followed us as we descended to the port, becoming very
troublesome when about a dozen had collected together.
They brought their empty bottles with them and pro-
mised fish and turtle, if we would only trust them first
with the coveted aguardente, or cau-im, as they called
it. Penna was inexorable : he ordered the crew to
weigh anchor, and the disappointed savages remained
hooting after us with all their might from the top of
the bank as we glided away.

The Muras have a bad reputation all over this part
of the Amazons, the semi-civilised Indians being quite
as severe upon them as the white settlers. Every one
spoke of them as lazy, thievish, untrustworthy, and
ciTieL They have a greater repugnance than any other
class of Indians to settled habits, regular labour, and
the service of the whites ; their distaste, in fact, to any
approximation towards civilised life is invincible. Yet
most of these faults are only an exaggeration of the fun-

Chap. VII. MURA lNDIA:NrS. 327

damental defects of character in the Brazilian red man.
There is nothing, I think, to show that the Muras had a
different origin from the nobler agricultural tribes be-
longing to the Tupi nation, to some of whom they are
close neighbours, although the very striking contrast in
their characters and habits would suggest the conclusion
that they had, in the same way as the Semangs of Ma-
lacca, for instance, with regard to the Malays. They are
merely an offshoot from them, a number of segregated
hordes becoming degTaded by a residence most likely of
very many centuries in Ygapo lands, confined to a fish
diet, and obliged to wander constantly in search of food.
Those tribes which are supposed to be more nearly related
to the Tupis are distinguished by their settled agricul-
tural habits, their living in well-constructed houses,
their practice of many arts, such as the manufacture of
painted earthenware, weaving, and their general custom
of tattooing^, social oro-anisation, obedience to chiefs, and
so forth. The Muras have become a nation of nomade
fishermen, ignorant of agriculture and all other arts prac-
tised by their neighbours. They do not build substantial
and fixed dwellings, but live in separate families or small
hordes, wandering from place to place along the margins
of those rivers and lakes which most abound in fish and
turtle. At each resting-place they construct temporary
huts at the edge of the stream, shifting them higher or
lower on the banks, as the waters advance or recede.
Their canoes originally were made simply of the thick
bark of trees, bound up into a semi-cylindrical shape
by means of woody lianas ; these are now rarely seen,
as most families possess montarias, which they have

328 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VIL

contrived to steal from the settlers from time to time.
Their food is chiefly fish and turtle, which they are
very expert in capturing. It is said by their neighbours
that they dive after turtles, and succeed in catching
them by the legs, which I believe is true in the shallow
lakes where turtles are imprisoned in the dry season.
They shoot fish with bow and arrow, and have no
notion of any other method of cooking it than by roast-
ing. It is not quite clear whether the whole tribe were
originally quite ignorant of agriculture ; as some families
on the banks of the streams behind Villa Nova, who
could scarcely have acquired the art in recent times,'
plant mandioca ; but, as a general rule, the only vege-
table food used by the Muras is bananas and wild fruits.
The original home of this tribe was the banks of the
Lower Madeira. It appears they were hostile to the
European settlers from the beginning ; plundering their
sitios, waylaying their canoes, and rnassacreing all who
fell into their power. About fifty years ago the Portu-
guese succeeded in turning the warlike propensities of
the Munduiiicus against them ; and these, in the course
of many years' persecution, gi-eatly weakened the power
of the tribe, and drove a gi'eat part of them from their
seats on the banks of the Madeira. The Muras are
now scattered in single hordes and families over a wide
extent of country bordering the main river from Villa
Nova to Catua, near Ega, a distance of 800 miles.
Since tlie disorders of 1835-6, when they committed
great havoc amongst the peaceable settlements from
Santarem to the Rio Negro, and were pursued and
slaughtered in great numbers by the Mundurucus in

Chap. VII. INDIAN LANGUAGES. ' 329

alliance with the Brazilians, they have given no serious
trouble.

The reasons which lead me to think the Muras are
merely an offshoot from the Mundurucus, or some other
allied section of the widely-spread Tupi nation, and not
an originally distinct people, are founded on a general
comparison of the different tribes of Amazonian Indians.
In the fii-st place, there is no sharply-defined difference
between sections of the Indian race, either in physical
or moral qualities. They are all very much alike in
bodily structure ; and, although some are much lower
in the scale of culture than others, yet the numerous
tribes in this respect form a gTaduated link from the
lowest to the highest. The same customs reappear in
tribes who are strongly contrasted in other respects and
live very wide apart. The Mauhes, who live in the
neighbourhood of the Mundurucus and Muras, have
much in common with both ; but, according to tradition,
they once formed part of the Mundurucu nation. The
language of the Muras is entu-ely different from that of
the tribes mentioned ; but language is not a sure guide
in the filiation of Brazilian tribes ; seven or eight dif-
ferent languages being sometimes spoken on the same
river, within a distance of 200 or 800 miles. There are
certain peculiarities in Indian habits which lead to a
quick corruption of language and segregation of dialects.
When Indians, men or women, are conversing amongst
themselves, they seem to take pleasure in inventing
new modes of pronunciation, or in distorting words. It
is amusing to notice how the whole party will laugh
when the wit of the circle perpetrates a new slang term,

330 THE LOWER AMAZONS. CnAr. YII.

and these new words are very often retained. I have
noticed this during long voyages made with Indian crews.
When such alterations occur amongst a family or horde,
which often live many years without communication
with the rest of their tribe, the local corruption of lan-
guage becomes perpetuated. Single hordes belonging
to the same tribe and inhabiting the banks of the same
river thus become, in the course of many years' isolation,
unintelligible to other hordes, as happens with the
Collinas on the Jurtia. I think it, therefore, very pro-
bable that the disposition to invent new words and new
modes of pronunciation, added to the small population
and habits of isolation of hordes and tribes, are the
causes of the wonderful diversity of languages in South
America.

There is one curious custom of the Muras which
requires noticing before concluding this digression ; this
is the practice of snufP-taking Y/iih peculiar ceremonies.
The snuff is called Parica, and is a highly stimulating
powder, made from the seeds of a species of Inga, belong-
ing to the Leguminous order of plants. The seeds are
dried in the sun, pounded in wooden mortars, and kept
in bamboo tubes. When they are ripe, and the snuff-
making season sets in, they have a fuddling-bout, lasting
many days, which the Brazilians call a Quarentena, and
which forms a kind of festival of a semi-religious cha-
racter. They begin by drinking large quantities of
caysuma and cashiri, fermented drinks made of various
fruits and mandioca, but they prefer casha9a, or rum,
when they can get it. In a short time they drink
themselves into a soddened semi-intoxicated state, and

Chap. A^II. T'AUlCk SNUFF. 331

then commence taking the Parica. For this purpose
they pair off, and each of the partners, taking a reed
containing a quantity of the snuff, after going through
a deal of unintelligible mummery, blows the contents
with all his force into the nostrils of his companion.
The effect on the usually dull and taciturn savages is
wonderful ; they become exceedingly talkative, sing,
shout, and leap about in the wildest excitement. A
re-action soon follows ; more drinking is then necessary
to rouse them from their stupor, and thus they carry
on for many days in succession. The Mauhes also use
the Parica, although it is not known amongst their
neighbours the Mundurucus. Their manner of taking
it is very different from that of the swinish Muras, it
being kept in the form of a paste, and employed chiefly
as a preventive against ague in the months between the
dry and wet seasons, when the disease prevails. Wlien
a dose is required, a small quantity of the paste is dried
and pulverised on a flat shell, and the powder then
drawn up into both nostrils at once through two vulture
quills secured together by cotton thread. The use of
Parica was found by the early travellers amongst the
Omaguas, a section of the Tupis, who formerly lived
on the Upper Amazons, a thousand miles distant from
the homes of the Mauhes and Muras. This commu-
nity of habits is one of those facts which supjDort the
view of the common origin and near relationship of the
Amazonian Indians.

After leaving Matari, we continued our voyage along
the northern shore. The banks of the river were of
moderate elevation during several days' journey ; the

332 THE LOWER AMA20NS. Chap. VIL

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

The weather, from the 14th to the 18th, was
wretched ; it rained sometimes for twelve hours in suc-
cession, not heavily, but in a steady drizzle, such as we
are familiar with in our English climate. We landed at
several places on the coast, Penna to trade as usual,
and I to ramble in the forest in search of birds and
insects. In one spot the wooded slope enclosed a very
picturesque scene : a brook, flowing through a ravine in
the high bank, fell in many little cascades to the broad
river beneath, its margins decked out with an infinite
variety of beautiful plants. Wild bananas arched over
the watercourse, and the trunks of the trees in its

Chap. YII. PIUM FLTES. 333

vicinity were clothed with ferns, large-leaved species
belonging to the genus Lygodium, which, like Osmunda,
have their spore-cases collected together on contracted
leaves. On the 18th, we arrived at a large fazenda
(plantation and cattle-farm), called Jatuarana. A rocky
point here projects into the stream, and as we found it
impossible to stem the strong current which whirled
round it, we crossed over to the southern shore. Canoes,
in approaching the Rio Negro, generally prefer the
southern side on account of the slackness of the current
near the banks. Our progress, however, was most tedi-
ously slow, for the regular east wind had now entirely
ceased, and the vento de cima or wind from up river,
having taken its place, blew daily for a few hours, dead
against us. The weather was oppressively close, and
every afternoon a squall arose, which, however, as it
came from the right quarter and blew for an hour or
two, was very welcome. We made acquaintance on this
coast with a neAv insect pest, the Pium, a minute fly,
two-thirds of a line in length, which here commences its
reig^n, and continues henceforward as a terrible scourp'e
along the upper river, or Solimoens, to the end of the
navigation on the Amazons. It comes forth only by
day, relieving the mosquito at sunrise with the greatest
punctuality, and occurs only near the muddy shores
of the stream, not one ever being found in the shade
of the forest. In places where it is abundant it accom-
panies canoes in such dense swarms as to resemble
thin clouds of smoke. It made its appearance in this
way the first day after we crossed the river. Before I
was aware of the presence of flies, I felt a sHght itching

334 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

on my neck, wiist, and ankles, and on looking for the
cause, saw a number of tiny objects having a disgusting
resemblance to lice, adhering to the skin. This was
my introduction to the much-talked of Pium, On
close examination, they are seen to be minute two-
winged insects, with dark-coloured body and pale legs
and wings, the latter closed lengthwise over the back.
They alight imperceptibly, and squatting close, fall at
once to work ; stretching forward their long front legs,
which are in constant motion and seem to act as feelers,
and then applying their short, broad snouts to the skin.
Their abdomens soon become distended and red with
blood, and then, their thirst satisfied, they slowly move
off, sometimes so stupefied with their potations that
they can scarcely fly. No pain is felt whilst they are
at work, but they each leave a small circular raised
spot on the skin and a disagreeable irritation. The
latter may be avoided in great measure by pressing
out the blood which remains in the spot ; but this is
a troublesome task when one has several hundred punc-
tures in the course of a day. I took the trouble to
dissect specimens to ascertain the way in which the
little pests operate. The mouth consists of a pair of
thick fleshy lips, and two triangular horny lancets,
answering to the upper lip and tongue of other insects.
This is applied closely to the skin, a puncture is made
with the lancets, and the blood then sucked through
between these into the oesophagus, the circular spot
which results coinciding with the shape of the lips. In
the course of a few days the red spots dry up, and the
skin in time becomes blackened with the endless num-

Chap. VII. EIO NEGRO. 335

ber of discoloured punctures that are crowded together.
The irritation they produce is more acutely felt by some
persons than others. I once travelled with a middle-
aged Portuguese, who was laid up for three weeks
from the attacks of Pium ; his legs being swelled to
an enormous size, and the punctures aggravated into
spreading sores.*

A brisk wind from the east sprang up early in the
morning of the 22nd : we then hoisted all sail, and made
for the mouth of the Rio Negro. This noble stream at
its junction with the Amazons, seems, from its j^osition,
to be a direct continuation of the main river, whilst the
Solimoens which joins at an angle and is somewhat nar-
rower than its tributary, appears to be a branch instead
of the main trunk of the vast water-system. One sees
therefore at once, how the early explorers came to give a
separate name to this upper part of the Amazons. The
Brazilians have lately taken to applying the convenient
term Alto Amazonas (High or Upper Amazons), to the
Solimoens, and it is probable that this will gradually
prevail over the old name. The Rio Negi'o broadens
considerably from its mouth upwards, and presents the
appearance of a great lake ; its black -dyed waters hav-
ing no current, and seeming to be dammed up by the
impetuous flow of the yellow, turbid Solimoens, which
here belches forth a continuous line of uprooted trees

* The Piiim belongs probably to tbe same species as tlie Mosquito of
the Orinoco, described by Humboldt, and which he referred to the
genus Simulium, several kinds of which inhabit Europe. Our insect
is nearly allied to Simulium, but differs from the genus in several points,
chiefly in the nervures of the wings.

336 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

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

The town of Barra is built on a tract of elevated, but

Chap. VII. INDIANS OF RIO NEGRO. 3?>7

very uneven land, on the left bank of the Rio Negro,
and contained in 1850, about 3000 inhabitants. There
was originally a small fort here, erected by the Portu-
guese to protect their slave-hunting expeditions amongst
the numerous tribes of Indians which peopled the
banks of the river. The most distinguished and warlike
of these were the Manaos, who had many traits in com-
mon with the Omaguas, or Cambevas, of the Upper
Amazons, the Mundurucus of the Tapajos, the Jurunas
of the Xingu, and other sections of the Tupi nation.
The Manaos were continually at war with the neigh-
bouring tribes, and had the custom of enslaving the
prisoners made during their predatory expeditions.
The Portuguese disguised their slave-dealing motives
under the pretext of ransoming (resgatando), these
captives ; indeed, the term resgatar (to ransom) is still
applied by the traders on the Upper Amazons to the
very general, but illegal, practice of purchasing Indian
children of the wild tribes. The older inhabitants of
the place remember the time when many hundreds of
these captives were brought dowm by a single expedition.
In 1809, Barra became the chief town of the Rio Negro
<listrict ; many Portuguese and Brazilians from other
provinces then settled here ; spacious houses and ware-
houses were built, and it g-rew, in the course of thirtv
or forty years, to be, next to Santarem, the principal
settlement on the banks of the Amazons. At the time
of my visit it was on the decline, in consequence of
the growing distrust, or increased cunning, of the
Indians, who once formed a numerous and the sole
labouring class, but having got to know that the laws

338 THE LOWEE AMAZONS. Chap. YII.

protected them against forced servitude, were rapidly
withdrawing themselves from the place. When th^ new
province of the Amazons was established, in 1852, Barra
was chosen as the capital, and was then invested with
the appropriate name of the city of Manaos.

The situation of the town has many advantages ; the
climate is healthy ; there are no insect pests ; the soil is
fertile and capable of growing all kinds of tropical pro-
duce (the coffee of the Rio Negro, especially, being of
very superior quality), and it is near the fork of two
great navigable rivers. The imagination becomes excited
when one reflects on the possible future of this place,
situated near the centre of the equatorial part of South
America, in the midst of a res^ion almost as larofe as
Europe, every inch of whose soil is of the most exube-
rant fertility, and having water communication on one
side with the Atlantic, and on the other with the Spanish
republics of Venezuela, New Granada, Ecuador, Peru,
and Bolivia. Barra is now the principal station for the
lines of steamers which were established in 1853, and
13assengers and goods are transhipped here for the
Solimoens and Peru. A steamer runs once a fortnight
between Para and Barra, and a bi-monthly one plies
between this place and Nauta in the Peruvian temtory.
The steam-boat company is supported by a large annual
grant, about 50,000^. sterling, from the imperial govern-
ment. Barra was formerly a pleasant place of residence,
but it is now in a most wretched plight, suffering from
a chronic scarcity of the most necessary articles of food.
The attention of the settlers was formerly devoted
almost entirely to the collection of the spontaneous pro-

CiiAP. YII. TROVINCE OF THE AMAZONS. 339

duce of the forests and rivers ; agriculture was conse-
quently neglected, and now the neighbourhood does not
produce even mandioca-meal sufficient for its own con-
sumption. Many of the most necessary articles of food,
besides all luxuries, come from Portugal, England, and
North America. A few bullocks are brought now and
then from Obydos, 500 miles off, the nearest place where
cattle are reared in any numbers, and these furnish at
long intervals a supply of fresh beef, but this is generally
monopolised by the families of government officials.
Fowls, eggs, fresh fish, turtles, vegetables, and fruit, were
excessively scarce and dear in 1859, w^hen I again
visited the place ; for instance, six or seven shilings were
asked for a poor lean fowl, and eggs were twopence
half-penny a piece. In fact, the neighbourhood pro-
duces scarcely anything ; the provincial government is
supplied with the greater part of its funds from the
treasury of Para ; its revenue, which amounts to about
50 contos of reis (5,600?.), derived from export taxes
on the produce of the entire province, not sufficing for
more than about one-fifth of its expenditure. The
population of the province of the Amazons, according to
a census taken in 1858, is 55,000 souls ; the municipal
district of BaiTa, which comprises a large area around
the capital, containing only 4500 inhabitants. For the
government, however, of this small number of people,
an immense staff of officials is g-athered toeether in
the capital, and, notwithstanding the endless number of
trivial formalities which Brazilians employ in eveiy
small detail of administration, these have nothing to do
the greater part of their time. None of the people

z 2

340 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VIL

who flocked to Barra on the estabhshment of the new
government, seemed to care about the cultivation of
the soil and the raising of food, although these would
have been most profitable speculations. The class of
Portuguese who emigrate to Brazil seem to pi'efer petty
trading to the honourable pursuit of agriculture. If the
English are a nation of shopkeepers, what are we to
say of the Portuguese ? I counted in Barra, one store
for eveiy five dwelling-houses. These stores, or tavernas,
have often not more than fifty pounds' Avorth of goods
for their whole slock, and the Portuguese owners, big
lusty fellows, stand all day behind their dirty counters
for the sake of selling a few coppers' worth of liquors,
or small wares. These men all give the same excuse
for not applying themselves to agriculture, namely, that
no hands can be obtained to work on the soil. Nothing
can be done with Indians ; indeed, they are fast leav-
ing the neighbourhood altogether, and the importation
of negro slaves, in the present praiseworthy temper
of the Brazilian mind, is out of the question. The
problem, how to obtain a labouring class for a new
and tropical country, without slavery, has to be solved
before this glorious region can become what its delight-
ful climate and exuberant fertility fit it for — the abode
of a numerous, civilised, and happy people.

I found at Barra my companion, Mr. Wallace, who,
sinceour joint Tocantins expedition, had been exploring,
partly with his brother, lately arrived from England, the
north-eastern coast of Marajo, the river Capim (a branch
of the Guama, near Para), Monte Alegre, and Santarem.

CiiAi'. Yll. FORESTS OF THE RIO NEGRO. 341

He had passed us by night below Serpa, on his way to
Barra, and so had arrived about three weeks before
me. Besides ourselves, there were half-a-dozen other
foreigners here congregated, — Englishmen, Germans,
and Americans ; one of them a Natural History col-
lector, the rest traders on the rivers. In the pleasant
society of these, and of the family of Senhor Henriques,
we passed a delightful time ; the miseries of our long
river voyages were soon forgotten, and in two or three
weeks we began to talk of further explorations. Mean-
time we had almost daily rambles in the neighbouring
forest. The country around Barra is undulating and
furrowed by ravines, through which flow rivulets of
clear cold water, along Avhose banks many picturesque
nooks occur. The whole surface of the land down to
the water's edge is covered by the uniform dark-gi-een
rolling forest, the cad-apoa/ni (convex woods) of the
Indians, characteristic of the Rio Negro. This clothes
also the extensive areas of low land, which are flooded
by the river in the rainy season. The olive-brown tinge
of the water seems to be derived from the saturation in
it of the dark o-reen foliao-e durinof these annual inunda-
tions. The great contrast in form and colour between the
forests of the Rio Negro and those of the Amazons arises
fi'om the predominance in each of different families of
plants. On the main river, palms of twenty or thirty
different species form a great proportion of the mass of
trees ; whilst on the Rio Negro they play a very sub-
ordinate part. The characteristic kind in the latter
region is the Jara (Leopoldinia pulchra), a species not
found on the margins of the Amazons, which has a scanty

342 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

head of fronds with narrow leaflets of the same dark
green hue as the rest of the forest. The stem is smooth,
and about two inches in diameter ; its height is not
more than twelve to fifteen feet ; it does not, therefore,
rise amongst the masses of foliage of the exogenous trees,
so as to form a feature in the landscape, like the broad-
leaved Murumurti and Urucuri, the slender Assai, the
tall Jauari, and the fan-leaved Muriti of the banks of the
Amazons. On the shores of the main river the mass of
the forest is composed, besides palms, of Leguminosse,
or trees of the bean family, in endless variety as to
height, shape of foliage, flowers, and fruit ; of silk-cotton
trees, colossal nut-trees (Lecythidese), and Cecropise, the
underwood and water-frontage consisting in great part
of broad-leaved Musacese, Marantacese, and succulent
grasses : all of which are of light shades of green. The
forests of the Eio Negi'o are almost destitute of these
large-leaved plants and grasses, which give so rich an
appearance to the vegetation wherever they grow ; the
margins of the stream being clothed with bushes or low
trees, having the same gloomy monotonous aspect as
the mangroves of the shores of creeks near the Atlantic.
The uniformly small but elegantly-leaved exogenous
trees, which constitute the mass of the forest, consist in
great part of members of the Laurel, Myrtle, Bignonia-
ceous, and Rubiaceous orders. The soil is generally a
stiff loam, whose chief component part is the Tabatinga
clay, which also forms low cliffs on the coast in some
places, where it overlies strata of coarse sandstone.
This kind of soil and the same geological formation
prevail, as we have seen, in many places on the banks of

CuAP. YII. FAUNA OF BARRA. 343

the Amazons, so that the great contrast in the forest-
clothing of the two rivers cannot arise from this cause.

I did not stay long enough at Barra to make .a large
collection of the animal productions of the neighbour-
hood. I obtained one species of monkey ; not more
than a dozen birds, and about 300 species of insects.
Judging from these materials, the fauna appears to
have much in common with that of the sea-coast of
Guiana ; but, at the same time, it contains a considerable
number of species not hitherto found in Guiana, or in
any other part of South America. The resemblance
between the eastern shore of the Rio Neg^ro and the
distant coast of Guiana, in this respect, appears to be
greater than that between the Rio Negro and the banks
of the Upper Amazons.*

The species of monkey mentioned above was rather

* ]My own material is perhaps not sufficient to establish this view
of the relations of the fauna, for it re(j[uires the comparison of an exten-
sive series of species to obtain sound results on such subjects. A few
conspicuous instances, however, pointed to the conclusion above men-
tioned. For example : in birds, the beautiful seven-coloured Tanager,
Calliste tatao, the "sete cores" of the Brazilians, a Cayenne bird, is
common to Guiana and the neighbourhood of Barra, but does not range
further westward to the banks of the Solimoens ; where, from Ega to
Tabatinga, the allied form of Calliste Yeni takes its place. The Ram-
phastos Toco, or Tocano pacova (so named from its beak resembling a
banana or pacova), a well-known Guianian bird, is found also at
Barra, but not further west at Ega. In Coleopterous insects such
species as Aniara sepulchralis, Agra senea, Stenocheila Lacordairei,
and others, confirm this view, being common to Cayenne and the Rio
Negro, but not found further west on the banks of the Solimoens.
Mr. Wallace discovered that the Rio Negro served as a barrier to the
distribution of many species of mammals and birds, certain kinds
being peculiar to the east, and others to the west bank (Travels on
the Amazons and Rio Negro, p. 471). The Upper Amazons Fauna,
nevertheless, contains a very large proportion of Guiana species.

SU THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

common in the forest ; it is the Midas bicolor of Spix,
a kind I had not before met with, and pecuHar, as far
as at present known, to the eastern bank of the Rio
Negro. The colour is brown, with the neck and arms
white. Like its congeners, it keeps together in small
troops, and runs along the main boughs of the loftier
trees, climbing perpendicular trunks, but never taking
flying leaps. The locality seemed to be a poor one for
birds and insects. I do not know how far this apparent
scarcity is attributable to the rainy weather which
jDrevailed, and to the unfavourable time of the year.
The months spent here (from January to March) I
always found to be the best for collecting Coleopterous
insects in this climate, but they are not so well for
other orders of insects or for birds, which abound most
from July to October. The forest was very pleasant for
rambling. In some directions broad pathways led down
gentle slopes, through what one might fancy were in-
terminable shrubberies of evergi-eens, to moist hollows
where springs of water bubbled up, or shallow brooks
ran over their beds of clean white sand. But the most
beautiful road was one that ran through the heart of
the forest to a waterfall, which the citizens of Barra
consider as the chief natural curiosity of their neighbour-
hood. The waters of one of the larger rivulets which
traverse the gloomy wilderness, here fall over a ledge of
rock about ten feet high. It is not the cascade itself,
but the noiseless solitude, and the marvellous diversity
and richness of trees, foliage, and flowers, encircling
the water basin, that form the attraction of the place.
Families make picnic excursions to this spot ; and the

CiLvr. VII. BEAUTIFUL BIRDS. 345

gentlemen — it is said the ladies also — spend the sultry
hours of midday bathing in the cold and bracing waters.
This place is classic gTOund to the Naturalist, from having
been a favourite spot with the celebrated travellers Spix
and Martins, during their stay at Barra in 1820. Von
Martins was so much impressed by its magical beauty
that he commemorated the visit by making a sketch of
the scenery serve as background in one of the plates
of his gi'eat work on the palms.

Birds and insects, however, were scarce amidst these
charming sylvan scenes. I often traversed the wdiole
distance from Barra to the waterfall, about two miles
by the forest road, without seeing or hearing a bird,
or meeting with so many as a score of Lepidopterous
and Coleopterous insects. In the thinner woods near
the borders of the forest many pretty little blue and
green creepers of the Dacnidse group, were daily seen
feeding on berries ; and a few^ very handsome birds
occurred in the forest. But the latter were so rare
that we could obtain them only by employing a native
hunter ; who used to spend a whole day, and go a great
distance, to obtain two or three specimens. In this way
I obtained, amongst others, specimens of the Trogon
pavoninus (the Suruqua grande of the natives), a
most beautiful creature, having soft golden green plu-
mage, red breast, and an orange-coloured beak ; also
the Ampelis Pompadoura, a rich glossy-purple chatterer
with wings of a snowy-white hue. The borders of the
forest yielded me more insects also than the shady cen-
tral pathways. A few species occurred which I had pre-
viously found at Obydos and Serpa, but certain kinds

346 THE LOWEE AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

were met with which are not known in any other part of
South America. The small-leaved bushes and low trees
on the skirts of the forest and along the more open
pathways were sparingly tenanted by a variety of
curious phytophagous beetles. None of these offered
any remarkable feature, except perhaps the species of
Chlamys. These are small beetles of a cubical shape
and grotesque appearance, the upper surface of their
bodies being studded with tubercles. They look like
anything rather than insects ; some of them are an
exact imitation of the dung of caterpillars on leaves ;
others have a deceptive likeness to small flower-buds,
galls, and other vegetable excrescences, whilst some
large kinds are like fragments of metallic ore. They
are very sluggish in their motions, and live in the most
exposed situations on the surface of leaves ; their curious
shapes are therefore no doubt so many disguises to pro-
tect them from the keen eyes of insectivorous birds and
lizards. A nearly allied group, the Lamprosomas, of
which several species occurred in the same places, have
perfectly smooth convex bodies ; these glitter like pre-
cious stones on the foliage, and seem to be protected
by the excessive hardness of their integuments. The
Eumolpidse and Galerucidse, two groups belonging also
to the leaf-eating family, were much more numerous
than the Chlamydes and Lamprosomas, although having
neither the disguised appearance of the one nor the hard
integuments of the other ; but many of them secrete a
foul liquor when handled, which may perhaps serve the
same purpose of passive defence. The Chlamydes are
almost confined to the warmer parts of America, and

CiiAr. VII. DESCENT TO PARA. 347

tlie species, although extremely numerous (about 300
are known in collections), are nearly all very rare. It
is worthy of note that mimicking insects are very
generally of great scarcity ; that is, few examples of each
species occur in the places where they are found, and
they constitute groups which are remarkable for the
strongly-marked diversity and limited ranges of their
species.

After we had rested some weeks in Barra,we arranged
our plans for further explorations in the interior of the
country. Mr. Wallace chose the Rio Negro for his
next trip, and I agreed to take the Solimoens. My
colleague has already given to the world an account of
his journey on the Rio Negro, and his adventurous
ascent of its great tributary the Uapes. I left Barra for
Ega, the first town of any importance on the Soli-
moens, on the 26th of March, 1850. The distance is
nearly 400 miles, which we accomplished in a small
cuberta, . manned by ten stout Cucama Indians, in
thirty-five days. On this occasion, I spent twelve
months in the upper region of the Amazons ; circum-
stances then compelled me to return to Para. I
revisited the same country in 1855, and devoted three
years and a-half to a fuller exploration of its natural
productions. The results of both journies will be
given together in subsequent chapters of this work ; in
the meantime, I will proceed to give an account of
Santarem and the river Tapajos, whose neighbourhoods
I investigated in the years 1851-4.

A few words on my visit to Para in 1851, may be

34S THE LOWEE AMAZONS. Chap. VII.

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

On arriving at Para, I found the once cheerful and

Chap. VII. YELLOW FEVER. 349

healthy city desolated by two terrible ejDidemics. The
yellow fever, which visited the place the previous year
(1850) for the first time since the discovery of the coun-
try, still lingered, after having carried off nearly 5 per
cent, of the population. The number of persons who
were attacked, namely, three-fourths of the entire popu-
lation, showed how general is the onslaught of an epi-
demic on its first appearance in a place. At the heels
of this plague came the smallpox. The yellow fever
had fallen most severely on the whites and mamelucos,
the negi'oes wholly escaping ; but the smallpox attacked
more especially the Indians, negroes, and people of
mixed colour, sparing the whites almost entirely, and
taking off about a twentieth part of the population in
the course of the four months of its stay. I heard
many strange accounts of the yellow fever. I believe
Para was the second port in Brazil attacked by it. The
news of its ravages in Bahia, where the epidemic first
appeared, arrived some few days before the disease
broke out. The government took all the sanitary pre-
cautions that could be thought of ; amongst the rest was
the singular one of firing cannon at the street corners,
to purify the air. Mr. Norris, the American consul,
told me, the first cases of fever occurred near the port,
and that it spread rapidly and regularly from house to
house, along the streets which run from the waterside
to the suburbs, taking about twenty-four hours to reach
the end. Some persons related that for several succes-
sive evenings before the fever broke out the atmosphere
was thick, and that a body of murky vapour accom-
panied by a strong stench, travelled from street to

350 THE LOWER AMAZON'S. Chap. VII.

street. This moving vapour was called the "Mai da
peste," " the mother or spirit of the plague " ; and it
was useless to attempt to reason them out of the belief
that this was the forerunner of the pestilence. The
progress of the disease was very rapid. It commenced
in April, in the middle of the wet season. In a few days,
thousands of persons lay sick, dying or dead. The state
of the city during the time the fever lasted, may be
easily imagined. Towards the end of June it abated,
and very few cases occurred during the dry season from
July to December.

As I said before, the yellow fever still lingered in the
place when I arrived from the interior in April. I was
in hopes I should escape it, but was not so fortunate ;
it seemed to spare no new comer. At the time I fell ill,
every medical man in the place was worked to the
utmost in attending the victims of the other epidemic ;
it was quite useless to think of obtaining their aid, so
I was obliged to be my own doctor, as I had been in
many former smart attacks of fever. I was seized with
shivering and vomit at 9 o'clock in the morning. A¥hilst
the people of the house went down to the town for
the medicines I ordered, I wrapped myself in a blan-
ket and walked sharply to and fro along the veran-
dah, drinking at intervals a cup of warm tea, made of
a bitter herb in use amongst the natives, called Pajema-
riuba, a leguminous plant growing in all waste places.
About an hour afterwards, I took a good draught
of a decoction of elder blossoms as a sudorific, and
soon after fell insensible into my hammock. Mr.
Philipps, an English resident with whom I was then

Chap. YII. FUTURE PLANS. 351

lodging, came home in the afternoon and found me
sound asleep and perspiring famously. I did not wake
till towards midnight, when I felt very weak and aching
in every bone of my body. I then took as a purga-
tive, a small dose of Epsom salts and manna. In forty-
eight hours the fever left me, and in eight days from
the first attack, I was able to get about my work.
Little else happened during my stay, which need be
recorded, here. I shipped off all my collections to Eng-
land, and received thence a fresh supply of funds. It
took me several wrecks to prepare for my second and
longest journey into the interior. My plan now was first
to make Santarem head-quarters for some time, and
ascend from that place the river Tapajos, as far as prac-
ticable. Afterwards I intended to revisit the marvellous
country of the Upper Amazons, and work well its
natural history at various stations I had fixed upon,
from Ega to the foot of the Andes.

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