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Title: The Naturalist on the River Amazons

Author: Henry Walter Bates

Release date: December 1, 2000 [eBook #2440]
Most recently updated: August 20, 2021

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2440

Credits: Martin Adamson

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS ***

EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY
EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS

SCIENCE

BATES’ NATURALIST ON
THE AMAZONS
WITH AN APPRECIATION
BY DARWIN

T H E N AT U R A L I S T O N
THE RIVER AMAZONS

By HENRY WALTER BATES

LONDON: PUBLISHED BY
J. M. DENT & SONS LTD
AND IN NEW YORK BY
E. P. DUTTON & CO.

First issue of this edition 1910
Reprinted 1914

Contents

Chapter I—PARÁ
Arrival — Aspect of the Country — The Pará River — First Walk in the
Suburbs of Pará — Birds, Lizards, and Insects of the Suburbs — Leaf-
carrying Ant — Sketch of the Climate, History, and present Condition of
Pará.
Chapter II—PARÁ
The Swampy Forests of Pará — A Portuguese Landed Proprietor —
Country House at Nazareth — Life of a Naturalist under the Equator — The
drier Virgin Forests — Magoary — Retired Creeks — Aborigines.
Chapter III—PARÁ
Religious Holidays — Marmoset Monkeys — Serpents — Insects.
Chapter IV—THE TOCANTINS AND CAMETÁ
Preparations for the Journey — The Bay of Goajará — Grove of Fan-leaved
Palms — The lower Tocantins — Sketch of the River — Vista Alegre —
Baiao — Rapids — Boat Journey to the Guariba Falls — Native Life on the
Tocantins — Second Journey to Cametá.
Chapter V—CARIPÍ AND THE BAY OF MARAJÓ
River Pará and Bay of Marajó — Journey to Caripí — Negro Observance of
Christmas — A German Family — Bats — Ant-eaters — Humming-birds
— Excursion to the Murucupi — Domestic Life of the Inhabitants —
Hunting Excursion with Indians — White Ants.
Chapter VI—THE LOWER AMAZONS — PARÁ 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 Pará to the
Amazons — First Sight of the Great River — Gurupá — The Great Shoal
— Flat-topped Mountains — Santarem — Obydos.
Chapter VII—THE LOWER AMAZONS — OBYDOS TO MANAOS,
OR THE BARRA OF THE RIO NEGRO

Departure from Obydos — River Banks and By-channels — Cacao Planters
— Daily Life on Board our Vessel — Great Storm — Sand-island and its
Birds — Hill of Parentins — Negro Trader and Mauhes Indians — Villa
Nova, its Inhabitants, Forest, and Animal Productions — Cararaucú — A
Rustic Festival — Lake of Cararaucú — Motuca Flies — Serpa —
Christmas Holidays — River Madeira — A Mameluco Farmer — Mura
Indians — Rio Negro — Description of Barra — Descent to Pará — Yellow
Fever.
Chapter VIII—SANTAREM
Situation of Santarem — Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants —
Climate — Grassy Campos and Woods — Excursions to Mapirí, Mahicá,
and Irurá, with Sketches of their Natural History; Palms, Wild Fruit-trees,
Mining Wasps, Mason Wasps, Bees, and Sloths.
Chapter IX—VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS
Preparations for Voyage — First Day’s Sail — Loss of Boat — Altar do
Chao — Modes of obtaining Fish — Difficulties with Crew — Arrival at
Aveyros — Excursions in the Neighbourhood — White Cebus, and Habits
and Dispositions of Cebi Monkeys — Tame Parrot — Missionary
Settlement — Entering the River Cuparí — Adventure with Anaconda —
Smoke-dried Monkey — Boa-constrictor — Village of Mundurucu Indians,
and Incursion of a Wild Tribe — Falls of the Cuparí — Hyacinthine Macaw
— Re-emerge into the broad Tapajos — Descent of River to Santarem.
Chapter X—THE UPPER AMAZONS — VOYAGE TO EGA
Departure from Barra — First Day and Night on the Upper Amazons —
Desolate Appearance of River in the Flood Season — Cucáma Indians —
Mental Condition of Indians — Squalls — Manatee — Forest — Floating
Pumice Stones from the Andes — Falling Banks — Ega and its Inhabitants
— Daily Life of a Naturalist at Ega — The Four Seasons of the Upper
Amazons.
Chapter XI—EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA
The River Teffé — Rambles through Groves on the Beach — Excursion to
the House of a Passé Chieftain — Character and Customs of the Passé Tribe
— First Excursion to the Sand Islands of the Solimoens — Habits of Great
River-turtle — Second Excursion — Turtle-fishing in the Inland Pools —
Third Excursion — Hunting-rambles with Natives in the Forest — Return
to Ega.

Chapter XII—ANIMALS OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA
Scarlet-faced Monkeys — Paráuacu Monkey — Owl-faced Night-apes —
Marmosets — Jupurá — Bats — Birds — Cuvier’s Toucan — Curl-crested
Toucan — Insects — Pendulous Cocoons — Foraging Ants — Blind Ants.
Chapter XIII—EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA
Steamboat Travelling on the Amazons — Passengers — Tunantins —
Caishána Indians — The Jutahí — The Sapó — Marauá Indians — Fonte
Boa — Journey to St. Paulo — Tucúna Indians — Illness — Descent to
Pará — Changes at Pará — Departure for England.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Saüba or Leaf-carrying Ant
Saüba Ant—Female
Climbing Palm (Desmoncus)
Interior of Primæval Forest on the Amazons
Amphisbæna
Acrosma Arcuatum
Assai Palm (Euterpe Oleracea)
Bird-killing Spider (Mygale Avicularia) attacking Finches
Ant-eater grappling with Dog
Humming-bird and Humming-bird Hawk-moth
Soldiers of different Species of White Ants—Ordinary Shape of Worker—
Winged Class
Acari Fish (Loricaria Duodecimalis)
Flat-topped Mountains of Paráua-quára, Lower Amazons
Heliconius Thelxiope—Heliconius Melpomene
Musical Cricket (Chlorocœlus Tananá)
Peuriríma Palm (Bactris)
Peloæus Wasp building Nest
Cells of Trypoxylon Aurifrons
Melipona Bees gathering Clay
The Jacuarú (Teius Teguexim)
Acará (Mesonauta Insignis)
Sarapó (Carapus)—Needle-fish (Hemaramphus)
Bulging-stemmed Palm: Pashiúba Barrigudo (Iriartea Ventricosa)
Uikí Fruit
Pupunha Palm

Blow-gun, Quiver, and Arrow
Surubim (Pimelodus Tigrinus)
Arrow used in Turtle Shooting
Turtle Fishing and Adventure with Alligator
Night Adventure with Alligator
Umbrella Bird
Scarlet-faced and Parauacú Monkeys
Curl-crested Toucan
Adventure with Curl-crested Toucans
Suspended Cocoon of Moth
Sack-bearing Caterpillar (Saccophora)
Foraging Ants (Eciton Drepanophora)
Foraging Ants (Eciton Erratica) constructing a Covered Road—Soldiers
sallying out on being disturbed
Masked-dance and Wedding-feast of Tucúna Indians
Map 1
Map 2
Map 3

AN APPRECIATION

From Natural History Review, vol. iii. 1863.

BY CHARLES DARWIN
Author of The Origin of Species, etc.

In April, 1848, the author of the present volume left England in company
with Mr. A. R. Wallace—“who has since acquired wide fame in connection
with the Darwinian theory of Natural Selection”—on a joint expedition up
the river Amazons, for the purpose of investigating the Natural History of
the vast wood-region traversed by that mighty river and its numerous
tributaries. Mr. Wallace returned to England after four years’ stay, and was,
we believe, unlucky enough to lose the greater part of his collections by the
shipwreck of the vessel in which he had transmitted them to London. Mr.
Bates prolonged his residence in the Amazon valley seven years after Mr.
Wallace’s departure, and did not revisit his native country again until 1859.
Mr. Bates was also more fortunate than his companion in bringing his
gathered treasures home to England in safety. So great, indeed, was the
mass of specimens accumulated by Mr. Bates during his eleven years’
researches, that upon the working out of his collection, which has been
accomplished (or is now in course of being accomplished) by different
scientific naturalists in this country, it has been ascertained that
representatives of no less than 14,712 species are amongst them, of which
about 8000 were previously unknown to science. It may be remarked that
by far the greater portion of these species, namely, about 14,000, belong to
the class of Insects—to the study of which Mr. Bates principally devoted his
attention—being, as is well known, himself recognised as no mean
authority as regards this class of organic beings. In his present volume,
however, Mr. Bates does not confine himself to his entomological

discoveries, nor to any other branch of Natural History, but supplies a
general outline of his adventures during his journeyings up and down the
mighty river, and a variety of information concerning every object of
interest, whether physical or political, that he met with by the way.
Mr. Bates landed at Pará in May, 1848. His first part is entirely taken up
with an account of the Lower Amazons—that is, the river from its sources
up to the city of Manaos or Barra do Rio Negro, where it is joined by the
large northern confluent of that name—and with a narrative of his residence
at Pará and his various excursions in the neighbourhood of that city. The
large collection made by Mr. Bates of the animal productions of Pará
enabled him to arrive at the following conclusions regarding the relations of
the Fauna of the south side of the Amazonian delta with those of other
regions.
“It is generally allowed that Guiana and Brazil, to the north and south of
the Pará district, form two distinct provinces, as regards their animal and
vegetable inhabitants. By this it means 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
dissemination of species over the surface of tropical America. Pará 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 independent
province. To assist in deciding such questions 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, or only
slightly modified, or whether they are highly peculiar.
“Von Martius 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
Pará, 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 Pará district; whilst more than one-half of 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 Pará. These
endemic species are not highly peculiar, and they may yet be found over a
great part of Northern Brazil when the country is better explored. They do
not warrant us in concluding that the district forms an independent
province, 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 Pará 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 population from that region. I am informed by Dr.
Sclater that similar results are derivable from the comparison of the birds of
these countries.”
One of the most interesting excursions made by Mr. Bates from Pará was
the ascent of the river Tocantins—the mouth of which lies about 45 miles
from the city of Pará. This was twice attempted. On the second occasion—
our author being in company with Mr. Wallace—the travellers penetrated as
far as the rapids of Arroyos, about 130 miles from its mouth. This district is
one of the chief collecting-grounds of the well-known Brazil-nut
(Bertholletia excelsa), which is here very plentiful, grove after grove of
these splendid trees being visible, towering above their fellows, with the
“woody fruits, large and round as cannon-balls, dotted over the branches.”
The Hyacinthine Macaw (Ara hyacinthina) is another natural wonder, first
met with here. This splendid bird, which is occasionally brought alive to the
Zoological Gardens of Europe, “only occurs in the interior of Brazil, from
16° S.L. to the southern border of the Amazon valley.” Its enormous beak—
which must strike even the most unobservant with wonder—appears to be
adapted to enable it to feed on the nuts of the Mucuja Palm (Acrocomia
lasiospatha). “These nuts, which are so hard as to be difficult to break with
a heavy hammer, are crushed to a pulp by the powerful beak of this
Macaw.”
Mr. Bates’ later part is mainly devoted to his residence at Santarem, at the
junction of the Rio Tapajos with the main stream, and to his account of
Upper Amazon, or Solimoens—the Fauna of which is, as we shall presently
see, in many respects very different from that of the lower part of the river.
At Santarem—“the most important and most civilised settlement on the

Amazon, between the Atlantic and Pará”—Mr. Bates made his headquarters
for three years and a half, during which time several excursions up the
little-known Tapajos were effected. Some 70 miles up the stream, on its
affluent, the Cuparí, a new Fauna, for the most part very distinct from that
of the lower part of the same stream, was entered upon. “At the same time a
considerable proportion of the Cuparí species were identical with those of
Ega, on the Upper Amazon, a district eight times further removed than the
village just mentioned.” Mr. Bates was more successful here than on his
excursion up the Tocantins, and obtained twenty new species of fishes, and
many new and conspicuous insects, apparently peculiar to this part of the
Amazonian valley.
In a later chapter Mr. Bates commences his account of the Solimoens, or
Upper Amazons, on the banks of which he passed four years and a half. The
country is a “magnificent wilderness, where civilised man has, as yet,
scarcely obtained a footing—the cultivated ground, from the Rio Negro to
the Andes, amounting only to a few score acres.” During the whole of this
time Mr. Bates’ headquarters were at Ega, on the Teffé, a confluent of the
great river from the south, whence excursions were made sometimes for
300 or 400 miles into the interior. In the intervals Mr. Bates followed his
pursuit as a collecting naturalist in the same “peaceful, regular way,” as he
might have done in a European village. Our author draws a most striking
picture of the quiet, secluded life he led in this far-distant spot. The
difficulty of getting news and the want of intellectual society were the great
drawbacks—“the latter increasing until it became almost insupportable.” “I
was obliged at last,” Mr. Bates naively remarks, “to come to the conclusion
that the contemplation of Nature, alone is not sufficient to fill the human
heart and mind.” Mr. Bates must indeed have been driven to great straits as
regards his mental food, when, as he tell us, he took to reading the
Athenæum three times over, “the first time devouring the more interesting
articles—the second, the whole of the remainder—and the third, reading all
the advertisements from beginning to end.”
Ega was, indeed, as Mr. Bates remarks, a fine field for a Natural History
collector, the only previous scientific visitants to that region having been
the German Naturalists, Spix and Martius, and the Count de Castelnau
when he descended the Amazons from the Pacific. Mr. Bates’ account of the
monkeys of the genera Brachyurus, Nyctipithecus and Midas met with in
this region, and the whole of the very pregnant remarks which follow on the

American forms of the Quadrumana, will be read with interest by every
one, particularly by those who pay attention to the important subject of
geographical distribution. We need hardly say that Mr. Bates, after the
attention he has bestowed upon this question, is a zealous advocate of the
hypothesis of the origin of species by derivation from a common stock.
After giving an outline of the general distribution of Monkeys, he clearly
argues that unless the “common origin at least of the species of a family be
admitted, the problem of their distribution must remain an inexplicable
mystery.” Mr. Bates evidently thoroughly understands the nature of this
interesting problem, and in another passage, in which the very singular
distribution of the Butterflies of the genus Heliconius is enlarged upon,
concludes with the following significant remarks upon this important
subject:—
“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. Morphological 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, co-exists with one that has been evidently derived from it. Generally the supposed 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
successively, 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 must in all cases 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 maintaining their
distinctive characters under such circumstances, the proof of the natural origination of a species is
complete; 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 the great and beautiful diversity within a large genus as brought about by the
working of laws within our comprehension.”
But to return to the Zoological wonders of the Upper Amazon, birds,
insects, and butterflies are all spoken of by Mr. Bates in his chapter on the
natural features of the district, and it is evident that none of these classes of
beings escaped the observation of his watchful intelligence. The account of
the foraging ants of the genus Eciton is certainly marvellous, and would,

even of itself, be sufficient to stamp the recorder of their habits as a man of
no ordinary mark.
The last chapter of Mr. Bates’ work contains the account of his
excursions beyond Ega. Fonteboa, Tunantins—a small semi-Indian
settlement, 240 miles up the stream—and San Paulo de Olivenca, some
miles higher up, were the principal places visited, and new acquisitions
were gathered at each of these localities. In the fourth month of Mr. Bates’
residence at the last-named place, a severe attack of ague led to the
abandonment of the plans he had formed of proceeding to the Peruvian
towns of Pebas and Moyobamba, and “so completing the examination of
the Natural History of the Amazonian plains up to the foot of the Andes.”
This attack, which seemed to be the culmination of a gradual deterioration
of health, caused by eleven years’ hard work under the tropics, induced him
to return to Ega, and finally to Pará, where he embarked, on the 2nd June
1859, for England. Naturally enough, Mr. Bates tells us he was at first a
little dismayed at leaving the equator, “where the well-balanced forces of
Nature maintain a land-surface and a climate typical of mind, and order and
beauty,” to sail towards the “crepuscular skies” of the cold north. But he
consoles us by adding the remark that “three years’ renewed experience of
England” have convinced him “how incomParábly superior is civilised life
to the spiritual sterility of half-savage existence, even if it were passed in
the Garden of Eden.”

* * *

The following is the list of H. W. Bates’ published works:
Contributions to an insect Fauna of the Amazon Valley, Paper read before the Linnean Society,
June 21, 1861; The Naturalist on the Amazons, a Record of Adventure, Habits of Animals, Sketches
of Brazilian and Indian Life . . . during Eleven Years of Travel, 1863; 3rd Edition, 1873, with a
Memoir of the author by E. Clodd to reprint of unabridged edition, 1892.
Bates was for many years the editor of the Transactions of the Royal Geographical Society; the
following works were edited and revised, or supplemented by him:—Mrs. Somerville’s Physical
Geography, 1870; A. Humbert, Japan and the Japanese, 1874; C. Koldewey, the German Arctic
Expedition, 1874; P. E. Warburton, Journey across the Western Interior of Australia, 1875; Cassell’s
Illustrated Travels, 6 vols., 1869-1875; E. Whymper, Travels among the Great Andes of the Equator
(Introduction to Appendix volume), 1892, etc.; Central America, the West Indies and South America;
Stanford’s Compendium of Geography and Travel, 2nd revised Ed., 1882; he also added a list of
Coleoptera collected by J. S. Jameson on the Aruwini to the latter’s Story of the Rear Column of the
Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, etc., 1890; and an appendix to a catalogue of Phytophaga by H. Clark,
1866, etc.; and contributed a biographical notice of Keith Johnson to J. Thomson’s Central African
Lakes and Back, 1881.
He contributed largely to the Zoologist, Entomological Society’s Journal, Annals and Magazine of
Natural History, and Entomologist.

LIFE—Memoir by E. Clodd, 1892; short notice in Clodd’s Pioneers of Evolution, 1897.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1864

Having been urged to prepare a new edition of this work for a wider circle
than that contemplated in the former one, I have thought it advisable to
condense those portions which, treating of abstruse scientific questions,
presuppose a larger amount of Natural History knowledge than an author
has a right to expect of the general reader. The personal narrative has been
left entire, together with those descriptive details likely to interest all
classes, young and old, relating to the great river itself, and the wonderful
country through which it flows,—the luxuriant primaeval forests that clothe
almost every part of it, the climate, productions, and inhabitants.
Signs are not wanting that this fertile, but scantily peopled region will
soon become, through recent efforts of the Peruvian and Brazilian
governments to make it accessible and colonise it, of far higher importance
to the nations of Northern Europe than it has been hitherto. The full
significance of the title, the “largest river in the world,” which we are all
taught in our schoolboy days to apply to the Amazons, without having a
distinct idea of its magnitude, will then become apparent to the English
public. It will be new to most people, that this noble stream has recently
been navigated by steamers to a distance of 2200 geographical miles from
its mouth at Pará, or double the distance which vessels are able to reach on
the Yang-tze-Kiang, the largest river of the old world; the depth of water in
the dry season being about seven fathoms up to this terminus of navigation.
It is not, however, the length of the trunk stream, that has earned for the
Amazons the appellation of the “Mediterranean of South America,” given it
by the Brazilians of Pará; but the network of by-channels and lakes, which
everywhere accompanies its course at a distance from the banks, and which
adds many thousands of miles of easy inland navigation to the total
presented by the main river and its tributaries. The Peruvians, especially, if I
may judge from letters received within the past few weeks, seem to be
stirring themselves to grasp the advantages which the possession of the

upper course of the river places within their reach. Vessels of heavy tonnage
have arrived in Pará, from England, with materials for the formation of
shipbuilding establishments, at a point situated two thousand miles from the
mouth of the river. Peruvian steamers have navigated from the Andes to the
Atlantic, and a quantity of cotton (now exported for the first time), the
product of the rich and healthy country bordering the Upper Amazons, has
been conveyed by this means, and shipped from Pará to Europe. The
probability of general curiosity in England being excited before long with
regard to this hitherto neglected country, will be considered, of itself, a
sufficient reason for placing an account of its natural features and present
condition within reach of all readers.
LONDON, January, 1864.

Chapter I.
PARÁ

Arrival — Aspect of the Country — The Pará River — First
Walk in the Suburbs of Pará — Birds, Lizards, and Insects
of the Suburbs — Leaf-carrying Ant — Sketch of the
Climate, History, and present Condition of Pará.

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 Pará, 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 Pará 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
permitting, in safety, a nearer approach; and, the signal was hoisted for a
pilot. It was with deep interest that my companion and myself, both now
about to see and examine the beauties of a tropical country for the first time,
gazed on the land where I, at least, eventually spent eleven of the best years
of my life. To the eastward the country was not remarkable in appearance,
being slightly undulating, with bare sand-hills and scattered trees; but to the
westward, stretching towards the mouth of the river, we could see through
the captain’s glass a long line of forest, rising apparently out of the water; a
densely-packed mass of tall trees, broken into groups, and finally into single
trees, as it dwindled away in the distance. This was the frontier, in this
direction, of the great primaeval forest characteristic of this region, which
contains so many wonders in its recesses, and clothes the whole surface of
the country for two thousand miles from this point to the foot of the Andes.

On the following day and night we sailed, with a light wind, partly aided
by the tide, up the Pará river. Towards evening we passed Vigia and
Colares, two fishing villages, and saw many native canoes, which seemed
like toys beneath the lofty walls of dark forest. The air was excessively
close, the sky 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 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
Pará river is thirty-six miles in breadth at its mouth; and at the city of Pará,
nearly seventy miles from the sea, it is twenty miles wide; but at that point,
a series of islands commences which contracts the riverview in front of the
port.
On the morning of the 28th of May, we arrived at our destination. The
appearance of the city at sunrise was pleasing in the highest degree. It is
built on a low tract of land, having only one small rocky elevation at its
southern extremity; it, therefore, affords no amphitheatral view from the
river; but the white buildings roofed with red tiles, the numerous towers and
cupolas of churches and convents, the 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, announcing the
dawn of some Roman Catholic 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.
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 carrying
their muskets carelessly over their arms, priests, negresses with red water-
jars on their heads, sad-looking Indian women carrying their naked children
astride on their hips, and other samples of the motley life of the place, we
passed down a long narrow street leading to the suburbs. Beyond this, our
road lay across a grassy common into a picturesque lane leading to the
virgin forest. The long street was inhabited by the poorer class of the
population. The houses were of one story only, and had an irregular and
mean appearance. The windows were without glass, having, instead,
projecting lattice casements. The street was unpaved, and inches deep in
loose sand. Groups of people were cooling themselves outside their doors—
people of all shades in colour 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 earrings, and around their necks
strings of very large gold beads. They had dark expressive eyes, and
remarkably rich heads of hair. It was a mere fancy, but I thought the
mingled squalor, luxuriance and beauty of these women were pointedly in
harmony with the rest of the scene—so striking, in the view, was the
mixture of natural riches and human poverty. The houses were mostly in a
dilapidated condition, and signs of indolence and neglect were visible
everywhere. The wooden palings which surrounded the weed-grown
gardens were strewn about and broken; 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 fragrant blossoming orange, lemon, and many other
tropical fruit trees, some in flower, others in fruit, at varying stages of
ripeness. Here and there, shooting above the more dome-like and sombre
trees, were the smooth columnar stems of palms, bearing aloft their
magnificent crowns of finely-cut fronds. Amongst the latter the slim assai-
palm was 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 outline. 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 a copious profusion of foliage. The superb banana (Musa
paradisiaca), of which I had always read as forming one of the charms of
tropical vegetation, grew here with great luxuriance—its glossy velvety-
green leaves, twelve feet in length, curving over the roofs of verandahs in
the rear of every house. The shape of the leaves, the varying shades of green
which they present when lightly moved by the wind, and especially the
contrast they afford in colour and form to the more sombre hues and more
rounded outline of the other trees, are quite sufficient to account for the
charm of this glorious tree. Strange forms of vegetation drew our attention
at almost every step. Amongst them were the different kinds of Bromelia, or
pine-apple plants, with their long, rigid, sword-shaped leaves, in some
species jagged or toothed along their edges. Then there was the bread-fruit
tree—an importation, it is true; but remarkable from its large, glossy, dark
green, strongly digitated foliage, and its interesting history. Many other
trees and plants, curious in leaf, stem, or manner of growth, grew on the
borders of the thickets along which lay our road; they were all attractive to
newcomers, whose last country ramble of quite recent date was over the
bleak moors of Derbyshire on a sleety morning in April.
As we continued our walk the brief twilight commenced, and the sounds
of multifarious life came from the vegetation around. The whirring of
cicadas; the shrill stridulation of a vast number and variety of field crickets
and grasshoppers, each species sounding its peculiar note; the plaintive
hooting of tree frogs—all blended together in one continuous ringing sound
—the audible expression of the teeming profusion of Nature. As night came
on, many species of frogs and toads in the marshy places joined in the
chorus—their croaking and drumming, far louder than anything I had
before heard in the same line, being added to the other noises, created an
almost deafening din. This uproar of life, I afterwards found, never wholly
ceased, night or day. In the course of time I became, like other residents,
accustomed to it. It is, however, one of the peculiarities of a tropical—at
least, a Brazilian—climate which is most likely to surprise a stranger. After

my return to England, the deathlike stillness of summer days in the country
appeared to me as strange as the ringing uproar did on my first arrival at
Pará. The object of our visit being accomplished, we returned to the city.
The fire-flies were then out in great numbers, flitting about the sombre
woods, and even the frequented streets. We turned into our hammocks, well
pleased with what we had seen, and full of anticipation with regard to the
wealth of natural objects we had come to explore.
During the first few days, we were employed in landing our baggage and
arranging our extensive apparatus. We then accepted the invitation of 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 engaged a free
negro, named Isidoro, as cook and servant-of-all-work. Our first walks were
in the immediate suburbs of Pará. The city lies on a corner of land formed
by the junction of the river Guam&a with the Pará. 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 Guamá, on the borders of one of the low and
swampy areas which here extends over a portion of the suburbs. The tract of
land is intersected by well-macadamised 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 monguba and B.
ceiba), huge trees whose trunks taper rapidly from the ground upwards, and
whose flowers before opening look like red balls studding the branches.
This fine road was constructed under the 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 enterprising 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 ground
to the north-east of the city. On the high ground the vegetation has an aspect

quite different from that which it presents in the swampy parts. Indeed, with
the exception of the palm-trees, the suburbs here have an aspect like that of
a village green at home. The soil is sandy, and the open commons are
covered with a short grassy and shrubby vegetation. Beyond this, the land
again descends to a marshy tract, where, at the bottom of the moist hollows,
the public wells are situated. Here all the linen of the city is washed by
hosts of noisy negresses, and here also the water-carts are filled—painted
hogsheads on wheels, drawn by bullocks. In early morning, when the sun
sometimes shines through a light mist, and everything is dripping with
moisture, this part of the city is full of life; vociferous negroes and
wrangling Gallegos,[1] the proprietors of the water-carts, are gathered about,
jabbering continually, and taking their morning drams in dirty wine-shops at
the street corners.
[1] Natives of Galicia, in Spain, who follow this occupation in Lisbon and
Oporto, as well as at Pará.

Along these beautiful roads we found much to interest us during the first
few days. Suburbs of towns, and open, sunny cultivated places in Brazil, are
tenanted by species of animals and plants which are mostly different from
those of the dense primaeval forests. I will, therefore, give an account of
what we observed of the animal world during our explorations in the
immediate neighbourhood of Pará.
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. Occasionally a flock of small
parroquets, green, with a patch of yellow on the forehead, would come at
early morning to the trees near the Estrada. They would feed quietly,
sometimes chattering in subdued tones, but setting up a harsh scream, and
flying off, on being disturbed. Humming-birds we did not see at this time,
although I afterwards found them by hundreds when certain trees were in
flower. Vultures we only saw at a distance, sweeping round at a great
height, over the public slaughter-houses. Several flycatchers, finches, ant-
thrushes, a tribe of plainly-coloured birds, intermediate in structure between
flycatchers and thrushes, some of which startle the new-comer by their
extraordinary notes emitted from their places of concealment in the dense
thickets; and also tanagers, and other small birds, inhabited the

neighbourhood. None of these had a pleasing song, except a little brown
wren (Troglodytes furvus), whose voice and melody resemble those of our
English robin. It is often seen hopping and 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 Amazon region which
sheds all its foliage before any of the new leaf-buds expand. The naked
branches, the sodden ground matted with dead leaves, the grey mist veiling
the 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,
but the male of Jacapa has a beautiful velvety purple and black plumage,
the beak being partly white, whilst the same sex in Episcopus is of a pale
blue colour, with white spots on the wings. In their habits they both
resemble the common house- sparrow of Europe, which does not exist in
South America, its place being in some measure filled by these familiar
tanagers. They are just as lively, restless, bold, and wary; their notes are
very similar, chirping and inharmonious, and they seem to be almost as
fond of the neighbourhood of man. They do not, however, build their nests
on houses.
Another interesting and common bird was the Japim, a species of
Cassicus (C. icteronotus). It belongs to the same family of birds as our
starling, magpie, and rook—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 grey eyes,
which give it the same knowing expression. It is social in its habits, and
builds its nest, like the English rook, on trees in the neighbourhood of
habitations. But the nests are quite differently constructed, being shaped
like purses, two feet in length, and suspended from the slender branches all
around the tree, some of them very near the ground. The entrance is on the
side near the bottom of the nest. The bird is a great favourite with the
Brazilians of Pará—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 Pará, 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 newcomer from Northern
Europe, by reason of their strange appearance, great numbers, and variety.
The species which are seen crawling over the walls of buildings in the city
are different from those found in the forest or in the interior of houses. They
are unpleasant- looking animals, with colours assimilated to those of the
dilapidated stone and mud walls on which they are seen. The house lizards
belong to a peculiar family, the Geckos, and are found even in the best-kept
chambers, most frequently on the walls and ceilings, to which they cling
motionless by day, being active only at night. They are of speckled grey or
ashy colours. The structure of their feet is beautifully adapted for clinging
to and running over smooth surfaces; the underside of their toes being
expanded into cushions, beneath which folds of skin form a series of
flexible plates. By means of this apparatus they can walk or run across a
smooth ceiling with their backs downwards; the plated soles, by quick
muscular action, exhausting and admitting air alternately. The Geckos are
very repulsive in appearance. The Brazilians give them the name of Osgas,
and firmly believe them to be poisonous; they are, however, harmless
creatures. Those found in houses are small; but I have seen others of great
size, in crevices of tree trunks in the forest. Sometimes Geckos are found
with forked tails; this results from the budding of a rudimentary tail at the
side, from an injury done to the member. A slight rap will cause their tails to
snap off; the loss being afterwards partially repaired by a new growth. The
tails of lizards seem to be almost useless appendages to these animals. I
used often to amuse myself in the suburbs, whilst resting in the verandah of
our house during the heat of mid-day, by watching the variegated green,
brown, and yellow ground-lizards. They would come nimbly forward, and
commence grubbing with their forefeet and snouts around the roots of
herbage, searching 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 Pará deserve a
few remarks. The species observed in the weedy and open places, as already
remarked, were generally different from those which dwell in the shades of
the forest. In the gardens, numbers of fine showy butterflies 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 nature 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 overrun
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 Mucajá palm-trees. On the tree trunks, walls, and palings, grew a
great quantity of climbing 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
appendages, 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 were in great numbers everywhere, but I
will mention here only two kinds. We were amazed at seeing ants an inch
and a quarter in length, and stout in proportion, marching in single file
through the thickets. These belonged to the species called Dinoponera
grandis. Its colonies consist 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 amongst the ants. Another far
more interesting species was the Saüba (Œcodoma cephalotes). This ant is
seen everywhere about the suburbs, marching to and fro in broad columns.

From its habit of despoiling the most valuable cultivated trees of their
foliage, it is a great scourge to the Brazilians. In some districts it is so
abundant that agriculture is almost impossible, and everywhere complaints
are heard of the terrible pest.

The workers of this species are of three orders, and vary in size from two
to seven lines; some idea of them may be obtained from the accompanying
woodcut. The true working-class of a colony is formed by the small-sized
order of workers, the worker-minors as they are called (Fig. 1). The two
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 consistency, 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
plantations and woods. Some of them were very extensive, being forty
yards in circumference, but not more than two feet in height. We soon
ascertained that these were the work of the Saübas, 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 granules, agglomerated without cement,
and forming many rows of little ridges and turrets. The difference in colour

from the superficial soil of the vicinity is owing to their being formed of the
undersoil, brought up from a 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, into one broad, elaborately-worked gallery or mine,
which was four or five inches in diameter.
This habit of the Saüba ant, of clipping and carrying away immense
quantities of leaves, has long been recorded in books on natural history.
When employed on this work, their 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, unattended by ants, and at some distance from any colony. Such
heaps are always found to be removed when the place is revisited the next
day. In course of time I had plenty of opportunities of seeing them at work.
They mount the tree in multitudes, the individuals being all worker-minors.
Each one places itself on the surface of a leaf, and cuts, with its sharp
scissor-like jaws, a nearly semicircular incision on the upper side; it then
takes the edge between its jaws, and by a sharp jerk detaches the piece.
Sometimes they let the leaf drop to the ground, where a little heap
accumulates, until carried 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, looking like the impression of a cartwheel through the
herbage.
It is a most interesting sight to see the vast host of busy diminutive
labourers occupied on this work. Unfortunately, they choose cultivated trees
for their purpose. This ant is quite peculiar to Tropical America, as is the
entire genus to which it belongs; it sometimes despoils the young trees of
species growing wild in its native forests, but seems to prefer, when within
reach, plants imported from other countries, such as the coffee and orange
trees. It has not hitherto been shown satisfactorily to what use it applies the
leaves. I discovered this only after much time spent in investigation. The
leaves are used to thatch the domes which cover the entrances to their

subterranean dwellings, thereby protecting from the deluging rains the
young broods in the nests beneath. The larger mounds, already described,
are so extensive that few persons would attempt to remove them for the
purpose of examining their interior; but smaller hillocks, covering other
entrances to the same system of tunnels and chambers, may be found in
sheltered places, and these are always thatched with leaves, mingled with
granules of earth. The heavily- laden workers, each carrying its segment of
leaf vertically, the lower edge secured in its mandibles, troop up and cast
their burdens on the hillock; another relay of labourers place the leaves in
position, covering them with a layer of earthy granules, which are brought
one by one from the soil beneath.
The underground abodes of this wonderful ant are known to be very
extensive. The Rev. Hamlet Clark has related that the Saüba of Rio de
Janeiro, a species closely allied to ours, has excavated a tunnel under the
bed of the river Paráhyba, at a place where it is broad as the Thames at
London Bridge. At the Magoary Rice Mills, near Pará, 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 Pará, an enterprising French gardener tried all he could think of
to extirpate the Saüba. 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 seventy yards distant from the place where the
bellows were used. This shows how extensively the underground galleries
are ramified.
Besides injuring and destroying young trees by despoiling them of their
foliage, the Saüba ant is troublesome to the inhabitants from its habit of
plundering the stores of provisions in houses at night, for it is even more
active by night than in the day-time. At first I was inclined to discredit the
stories of their entering habitations and carrying off grain by grain the
farinha or mandioca meal, the bread of the poorer classes of Brazil. At
length, 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 being scarce and dear. I got up, listened, and found the
noise was very unlike that made by rats. So, I took the light and went into
the store- room, which was close to my sleeping-place. I there found a

broad column of Sauba ants, consisting of thousands of individuals, as busy
as possible, passing to and fro between the door and my precious baskets.
Most of those passing outwards were laden each with a grain of farinha,
which was, in some cases, larger and many times heavier than the bodies of
the carriers. Farinha consists of grains of similar size and appearance to the
tapioca of our shops; both are products of the same root, tapioca being the
pure starch, and farinha the starch mixed with woody fibre, the latter
ingredient giving it a yellowish colour. It was amusing to see some of the
dwarfs, the smallest members of their family, staggering along, completely
hidden under their load. The baskets, which were on a high table, were
entirely covered with ants, many hundreds of whom were employed in
snipping the dry leaves which served as lining. This produced the rustling
sound which had at first disturbed us. My servant told me that they would
carry off the whole contents of the two baskets (about two bushels) in the
course of the night, if they were not driven off; so we tried to exterminate
them by killing them with our wooden clogs. It was impossible, however, to
prevent fresh hosts coming in as fast as we killed their companions. 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 therefore would be useless as
cement. It contains only a small relative portion of starch, and, when mixed
with water, it separates and falls away like so much earthy matter. It may
serve as food for the subterranean workers. But the young or larvae of ants
are usually fed by juices secreted by the worker nurses.
Ants, it is scarcely necessary to observe, consist, in each species, of three
sets of individuals, or, as some express it, of three sexes—namely, males,
females, and workers; the last- mentioned being undeveloped females. The
perfect sexes are winged on their first attaining the adult state; they alone
propagate their kind, flying away, previous to the 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
intercross with members of distant colonies which swarm at the same time,
and thereby increase the vigour of the race, a proceeding essential to the

prosperity of any species. In many ants, especially those of tropical
climates, the workers, again, are of two classes, whose structure and
functions are widely different. In some species they are wonderfully unlike
each other, and 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 peculiarities of the
Saüba 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). They are not, it is
true, very sharply defined in structure, for individuals of intermediate
grades occur. All the work, however, is done by the individuals which have
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 community, like the
armed class in the termites, or white ants, for they never fight. The species
has no sting, and does not display active resistance when interfered with. I
once imagined they exercised a sort of superintendence over the others; but
this function 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 resistance,” serving as a foil against
onslaughts made on the main body of workers.

The third order of workers is the most curious of all. If the top of a small,
fresh hillock, one in which the thatching process is going on, is taken off, a
broad cylindrical shaft is disclosed at a depth of about two feet from the
surface. If this is 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 known in any
other kind of ant. The apparition of these strange creatures from the
cavernous depths of the mine reminded me, when I first observed them, of
the Cyclopes of Homeric fable. They were not very pugnacious, as I feared
they would be, and I had no difficulty in securing a few with my fingers. I
never saw them under any other 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 dissemination of the species. Most of the labour which we
see performed by the workers has for its end the sustenance and welfare of
the young brood, which are helpless grubs. The true females are incapable
of attending to the wants of their offspring; and it is on the poor sterile
workers, who are denied all the other pleasures of maternity, that the entire
care devolves. The workers are also the chief agents in carrying out the
different migrations of the colonies, which are of vast importance to the
dispersal and consequent prosperity of the species. The successful dé but of
the winged males and females depends likewise on the workers. It is

amusing to see the activity and excitement which reigns in an ant’s nest
when the exodus of the winged individuals is taking place. The workers
clear the roads of exit, and show the most lively interest in their departure,
although it is highly improbable that any of them will return to the same
colony. The swarming or exodus of the winged males and females of the
Saüba ant takes place in January and February, that is, at the
commencement of the rainy season. They come out in the evening in vast
numbers, causing quite a commotion in the streets and lanes. They are of
very large size, the female measuring no less than two-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, Pará 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 public peace had not
been broken for twelve years before the date of our visit, confidence was
not yet completely restored, and the Portuguese merchants and tradesmen
would not trust themselves to live at their beautiful country-houses or
rocinhas, which lie embosomed in the luxuriant shady gardens around the
city. No progress had been made in clearing the second-growth forest which
had grown over the once cultivated grounds, and now reached the end of all
the suburban streets. The place had the aspect of one which had seen better
days; the public buildings, including the palaces of the President and
Bishop, the cathedral, the principal churches and convents, all seemed
constructed on a scale of grandeur far beyond the present requirements 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 overgrown 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 Pará is the capital, was at the time I allude to, the
most extensive in the Brazilian empire, being about 1560 miles in length
from east to west, and about 600 in breadth. Since that date—namely in
1853—it has been divided into two by the separation of the Upper Amazons
as a distinct province. It formerly constituted a section, capitania, or
governorship of the Portuguese colony. Originally it was well peopled by
Indians, varying much in social condition according to their tribe, but all
exhibiting the same general physical characters, which are those of the
American red man, somewhat modified by long residence in an equatorial
forest country. Most of the tribes are now extinct or forgotten, at least those
which originally peopled the banks of the main river, their descendants
having amalgamated with the white and negro immigrants:[2] many still
exist, however, in their original state on the Upper Amazons and most of the
branch rivers. On this account, Indians in this province are far more
numerous than elsewhere in Brazil, and the Indian element may be said to
prevail in the mongrel population—the negro proportion being much
smaller than in South Brazil.
[2] The mixed breeds which now form, probably, the greater part of the
population, each have a distinguishing name. Mameluco denotes the offspring of
White with Indian; Mulatto, that of White with Negro; Cafuzo, the mixture of the
Indian and Negro; Curiboco, the cross between the Cafuzo and the Indian;
Xibaro, that between the Cafuzo and Negro. These are seldom, however, well-
demarcated, and all shades of colour exist; the names are generally applied only
approximatively. The term Creole is confined to negroes born in the country. The
civilised Indian is called Tapuyo or Caboclo.

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; the northern
shore of the main river, where alone a rival capital could be founded, is
much more difficult of access to vessels, and is besides extremely
unhealthy. Although lying so near the equator (1° 28′ S. lat.) the climate is
not excessively hot. The temperature during three years only once reached
95° Fahrenheit. The greatest heat of the day, about 2 p.m., ranges generally
between 89° and 94°; but on the other hand, the air is never cooler than 73°,
so that a uniformly high temperature exists, and the mean of the year is 81°.
North American residents say that the 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 Pará was quite remarkable for a city lying in the delta of a great
river, in the middle of the tropics and half surrounded by swamps. It did not
much longer enjoy its immunity from epidemics. In 1850 the yellow fever
visited the province for the first time, and carried off in a few weeks more
than four per cent of the population. One disease after another succeeded,
until in 1855 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 recovering its former good reputation. Pará is free from
serious endemic disorders, and was once a resort of invalids from New York
and Massachusetts. The equable temperature, 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 also held, exceptionally,
the chief military command. This functionary, together with 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 province 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 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 Pará, to which the sons of most
of the planters and traders in the interior are sent to complete their
education. 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 negro husbandman, the mameluco, 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 centralisation, and only requires a
proper degree of virtue and intelligence in the people to lead the nation to
great prosperity.
The province of Pará, or, as we may now say, the two provinces of Pará
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 is fertile in the
extreme, even for a tropical country. It is intersected throughout by broad
and deep navigable rivers. It is the pride of the Paráenses to call the
Amazons the Mediterranean of South America. The colossal stream perhaps
deserves the name, for not only have the main river and its principal
tributaries an immense expanse of water bathing the shores of extensive and
varied regions, but there is also throughout a system of back channels,
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 Pará 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 independence of the
mother-country and acknowledge the authority of the first emperor, Don
Pedro. This was owing to the great numbers and influence of the
Portuguese, and the rage of the native party was so great in consequence,
that immediately after independence was proclaimed in 1823, a counter
revolution broke out, during which many hundred lives were lost and much
hatred engendered. The antagonism continued 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
part of the mongrel and Indian population. The cry of death to the
Portuguese was soon changed to death to the freemasons, then a powerfully
organised society embracing 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 Rio 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 Pará, 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, proclaimed the
slaughter of all whites, except the English, French, and American residents.
The mistaken principals 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.
Years of conciliatory government, the lesson learned by the native party
and the moderation of the Portuguese, aided by the indolence and passive
goodness of the Paráenses 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 Pará 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, Pará 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 Pará people were much inferior to
Southern Brazilians 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 indulgences
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 shop-
keeping, 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
universally the watermen, and formed the crews of the numberless canoes
of all sizes and shapes which traded between Pará 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 treatment 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 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
Pará, I believe that an improvement 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 II.
PARÁ

The Swampy Forests of Pará — 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 Pará. We resolved to walk to his place through the
forest, a distance of three miles, although the road was said to be scarcely
passable at this season of the year, and the Una much more easily accessible
by boat. We were glad, however, of this early opportunity of traversing the
rich swampy forest which we had admired so much from the deck of the
ship; so, about eleven o’clock one sunny morning, after procuring the
necessary information about the road, we set off in that direction. This part
of the forest afterwards became one of my best hunting-grounds. I will
narrate the incidents of the walk, giving my first impressions and some
remarks on the wonderful vegetation. The forest is very similar on most of
the low lands, and therefore, one description will do for all.
On leaving the town we walked along a straight, suburban road
constructed above the level of the surrounding land. It had low swampy
ground on each side, built upon, however, and containing several spacious
rocinhas which were embowered in magnificent foliage. Leaving the last of
these, we arrived at a part where the lofty forest towered up like a wall five
or six yards from the edge of the path to the height of, probably, a hundred

feet. The tree trunks were only seen partially here and there, nearly the
whole frontage from ground to summit being covered with a diversified
drapery of creeping plants, all of the most vivid shades of green; scarcely a
flower to be seen, except in some places a solitary scarlet passion-flower set
in the green mantle like a star. The low ground on the borders between the
forest wall and the road was encumbered with a tangled mass of bushy and
shrubby vegetation, amongst which prickly mimosas were very numerous,
covering the other bushes in the same way as brambles do in England.
Other dwarf mimosas trailed along the ground close to the edge of the road,
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 grew in groups
around the swampy hollows. Over the whole fluttered a larger number of
brilliantly-coloured butterflies than we had yet seen; some wholly orange or
yellow (Callidryas), others with excessively elongated wings, sailing
horizontally through the air, coloured black, and varied with blue, red, and
yellow (Heliconii). One magnificent grassy-green species (Colænis 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 conspicuously 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, low
sedges and other plants, smaller in foliage than those growing in moist
grounds. The forest was second growth, low, consisting of trees which had
the general aspect of laurels and other evergreens in our gardens at home—
the leaves glossy and dark green. Some of them were elegantly veined and
hairy (Melastomæ), whilst many, scattered amongst the rest, had smaller
foliage (Myrtles), but these were not sufficient to subtract much from the
general character of the whole.
The sun, now, for we had loitered long on the road, was exceedingly
powerful. The day was most brilliant; the sky without a cloud. In fact, it
was one of those glorious days which announce the commencement of the
dry season. The radiation of heat from the sandy ground was visible by the

quivering motion of the air above it. We saw or heard no mammals or birds;
a few cattle belonging to an estate down a shady lane were congregated,
panting, under a cluster of wide-spreading trees. The very soil was hot to
our feet, and we hastened onward to the shade of the forest which we could
see not far ahead. At length, on entering it, what a relief! We found
ourselves in a moderately broad pathway or alley, where the branches of the
trees crossed overhead and produced a delightful shade. The woods were at
first of recent growth, dense, and utterly impenetrable; the ground, instead
of being clothed with grass and shrubs as in the woods of Europe, was
everywhere carpeted with Lycopodiums (fern-shaped mosses). Gradually
the scene became changed. We descended slightly from an elevated, dry,
and sandy area to a low and swampy one; a cool air breathed on our faces,
and a mouldy smell of rotting vegetation greeted us. The trees were now
taller, the underwood less dense, and we could obtain glimpses into the
wilderness on all sides. The leafy crowns of the trees, scarcely two of which
could be seen together of the same kind, were now far away above us, in
another world as it were. We could only see at times, where there was a
break above, the tracery of the foliage against the clear blue sky. Sometimes
the leaves were palmate, or of the shape of large outstretched hands; at
others, finely cut or feathery, like the leaves of Mimosæ. Below, the tree
trunks were everywhere linked together by sipós; 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 every variety of shape,
entwining snake-like round the tree trunks, or forming gigantic loops and
coils amongst the larger branches; others, again, were of zigzag shape, or
indented like the steps of a staircase, sweeping from the ground to a giddy
height.
It interested me much afterwards to find that these climbing trees do not
form any particular family. There is no distinct group of plants whose
special habit is to climb, but species of many and the most diverse families,
the bulk of whose members are not climbers, seem to have been driven by
circumstances to adopt this habit. There is even a climbing genus of palms
(Desmoncus), the species of which are called, in the Tupi language,
Jacitára. These have slender, thickly-spined, and flexuous stems, which
twine about the taller trees from one to the other, and grow to an incredible
length. The leaves, which have the ordinary pinnate shape 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 structures 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
representatives of the fowls and pheasants of Asia and Africa, are all
adapted by the position of the toes to perch on trees, and it is only on trees,
at a great height, that they are to be seen. A genus of 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 instances 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.
Many of the woody lianas suspended from trees are not climbers, but the
air-roots of epiphytous plants (Aroideæ), which sit on the stronger boughs
of the trees above and hang down straight as plumb-lines. Some are
suspended singly, others in clusters; some reach 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, eight feet in
length and a foot broad; they rise straight upwards, alternately, from the top
of a stem five or six feet high. Numerous kinds of plants with leaves similar
in shape to these but smaller clothed the ground. Amongst them were
species of Marantaceæ, some of which had broad glossy leaves, with long
leaf-stalks radiating from joints in a reed-like stem. The trunks of the trees
were clothed with climbing ferns, and Pothos plants with large, fleshy,
heart-shaped leaves. Bamboos and other tall grass and reed-like plants
arched over the pathway. The appearance of this part of the forest was
strange in the extreme; description can convey no adequate idea of it. The
reader who has visited Kew may form some notion by conceiving a
vegetation like that in the great palm-house, spread over a large tract of
swampy ground, but he must fancy it mingled with large exogenous trees
similar to our oaks and elms covered with creepers and parasites, and figure
to himself the ground encumbered with fallen and rotting trunks, branches,
and leaves; the whole illuminated by a glowing vertical sun, and reeking
with moisture.

At length we emerged from the forest, on the banks of the Una, near its
mouth. It was here about one hundred yards wide. The residence of Senhor
Danin stood on the opposite shore; a large building, whitewashed and red-
tiled as usual, 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, both male and female, were at work. Below were
several negroes employed carrying clay on their heads. We called out for a
boat, and one of them crossed over to fetch us. Senhor Danin received us
with the usual formal politeness of the Portuguese, he spoke English very
well, and after we had arranged our business, we remained conversing with
him on various subjects connected with the country. Like all employers in
this province, he was full of one topic—the scarcity of hands. It appeared
that he had made great exertions to introduce white labour, but had failed,
after having brought numbers of men from Portugal and other countries
under engagement to work for him. They all left him one by one soon after
their arrival. The abundance of unoccupied land, the liberty that exists, a
state of things produced by the half-wild canoe-life of the people, and the
case with which a mere subsistence can be obtained with moderate work,
tempt even the best-disposed to quit regular labour as soon as they can. 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 afterwards 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 learned 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 forty or fifty 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
mentioned, 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 overgrown with dense forest. When we were ready to depart,
Senhor Danin lent a canoe and two negroes to take us to the city, where we
arrived in the evening after a day rich in new experiences.
Shortly afterwards, we took possession of our new residence. The house
was a square building, consisting of four equal-sized rooms; the tiled roof
projected all round, so as to form a broad verandah, cool and pleasant to sit
and work in. The cultivated ground, which appeared as if newly cleared
from the forest, was planted with fruit trees and small plots of coffee and
mandioca. The entrance to the grounds was by an iron-grille gateway from
a grassy square, around which were built the few houses and palm-thatched
huts which then constituted the village. The most important building was
the chapel of our Lady of Nazareth, which stood opposite our place. The
saint here enshrined was a great favourite with all orthodox Paráenses, 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, which 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 Pará holidays; many persons come to it from the
neighbouring city of Maranham, 300 miles distant. Once the President
ordered the mail steamer to be delayed two days at Pará for the convenience
of these visitors. The popularity of the festival 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. Pará 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 travellers Spix and Martius
resided during their stay at Pará, 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
fifty miles. This road formerly extended to Maranham, but it had been long
in disuse and was now grown up, being scarcely passable between Pará 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 description of the diurnal round of
incidents, including the sequence of natural phenomena, will be sufficient to
give an idea of how days pass to naturalists under the equator.
We used to rise soon after dawn, when Isidoro would go down to the city,
after supplying us with a cup of coffee, to 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
(Ramphastos vitellinus). Small flocks of parrots flew over on most
mornings, at a great height, appearing in distinct relief against the blue sky,
always two-by-two chattering to each other, the pairs being separated by
regular intervals; their bright colours, however, were not apparent at that
height. After breakfast we devoted the hours from 10 a.m. to 2 or 3 p.m. to
entomology; the best time for insects in the forest being a little before the
greatest heat of the day.

The heat increased rapidly towards two o’clock (92° and 93° Fahr.), by
which time every voice of bird or mammal was hushed; only in the trees
was heard at intervals the harsh whirr of a cicada. The leaves, which were
so moist and fresh in early morning, now become lax and drooping; the
flowers shed their petals. Our neighbours, the Indian and Mulatto
inhabitants of the open palm-thatched huts, as we returned home fatigued
with our ramble, were either asleep in their hammocks or seated on mats in
the shade, too languid even to talk. On most days in June and July a heavy
shower would fall some time in the afternoon, producing a most welcome
coolness. The approach of the rain-clouds was after a uniform fashion very
interesting to observe. First, the cool sea-breeze, which commenced to blow
about ten o’clock, and which had increased in force with the increasing
power of the sun, would flag and finally die away. The heat and electric
tension of the atmosphere would then become almost insupportable.
Languor and uneasiness would seize on every one, even the denizens of the
forest, betraying it by their motions. White clouds would appear in the cast
and gather into cumuli, with an increasing blackness along their lower
portions. The whole eastern horizon would become almost suddenly black,
and this would spread upwards, 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 down
streams the deluging rain. Such storms soon cease, leaving bluish-black,
motionless clouds in the sky until night. Meantime all nature is refreshed;
but heaps of flower-petals and fallen leaves are seen under the trees.
Towards evening life revives again, and the ringing uproar is resumed from
bush and tree. The following morning the sun again rises in a cloudless sky,
and so the cycle is completed; spring, summer, and autumn, as it were, in
one tropical day. The days are more or less like this throughout the year in
this country. A little difference exists between the dry and wet seasons; but
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 periodical phenomena of plants and animals do not take place
at about the same time in all species, or in the individuals of any given
species, as they do in temperate countries. Of course there is no
hybernation; nor, as the dry season is not excessive, is there any summer
torpidity as in some tropical countries. Plants do not flower or shed their
leaves, nor do birds moult, pair, or breed simultaneously. In Europe, a

woodland scene has its spring, its summer, its autumn, 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
without interruption, each species having its own separate times; the
colonies of wasps, for instance, do not die off annually, leaving only the
queens, as in cold climates; but the succession of generations and colonies
goes on incessantly. It is never either spring, summer, or autumn, but each
day is a combination of all three. With the day and night always of equal
length, the atmospheric disturbances of each day neutralising themselves
before each succeeding morn; with the sun in its course proceeding midway
across the sky, and the daily temperature the same within two or three
degrees throughout the year—how grand in its perfect equilibrium and
simplicity is the march of Nature under the equator!
Our evenings were generally fully employed preserving our collections,
and making notes. We dined at four, and took tea about seven o’clock.
Sometimes we walked to the city to see Brazilian life or enjoy the pleasures
of European and American society. And so the time passed away from June
15th to August 26th. During this period we made two excursions of greater
length to the rice and saw-mills of Magoary, an establishment owned by an
American gentleman, Mr. Upton, situated on the banks of a creek in the
heart of the forest, about twelve miles from Pará. 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 Iritirí, communicates with the river Pará, through another larger
creek, the Magoary; so that there is a passage by water; but this is about
twenty miles round. We started at sunrise, taking Isidoro with us. The road
plunged at once into the forest after leaving Nazareth, so that in a few
minutes we were enveloped in shade. For some distance the woods were of
second growth, the original forest near the town having been formerly
cleared or thinned. They were dense and impenetrable on account of the
close growth of the young trees and the mass of thorny shrubs and creepers.
These thickets swarmed with ants and ant-thrushes; they were also
frequented by a species of puff-throated manikin, a little bird which flies

occasionally across the road, emitting a strange noise, made, I believe, with
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 ourselves in the primæval 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 Pará. 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 débris and a thick coating of dead leaves. Fruits of
many kinds were scattered about, amongst which were many sorts of beans,
some of the pods a foot long, flat and leathery in texture, others hard as
stone. In one 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 ground. The tree which yields the nut
(Lecythis ollaria), is of immense height. It is closely allied to the Brazil-nut
tree (Bertholletia excelsa), whose seeds are also enclosed in large woody
vessels; but these have no lid, and fall to the ground intact. 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 Bertholletia, but its nuts in
falling are scattered about and eaten by wild animals; whilst the full, whole
capsules of Brazil-nuts are collected by the natives.
What attracted us chiefly were the colossal trees. The general run of trees
had not remarkably thick stems; the great and uniform height to which they
grow 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
monopolises the domain, and none but individuals of much inferior size can

find a footing near it. The cylindrical trunks of these larger trees were
generally about twenty to twenty-five feet in circumference. Von Martius
mentions having measured trees in the Pará district belonging to various
species (Symphonia coccinea, Lecythis sp. and Cratæva Tapia), which were
fifty to sixty feet in girth at the point where they become cylindrical. The
height of the vast column-like stems could not be less than 100 feet from
the ground to their lowest branch. Mr. Leavens, at the sawmills, told me
they frequently squared logs for sawing a hundred feet long, of the Pao
d’Arco and the Massaranduba. The total height of these trees, stem and
crown together, may be estimated at from 180 to 200 feet; where one of
them stands, the vast dome of foliage rises above the other forest trees as a
domed cathedral does above the other buildings in a city.
A very remarkable feature in these trees is the growth of buttress-shaped
projections around the lower part of their stems. The spaces between these
buttresses, which are generally thin walls of wood, form spacious chambers,
and may be compared to stalls in a stable; some of them are large enough to
hold a half-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 growth of
the roots in the earth is rendered difficult by the multitude of competitors.
The other grand forest trees whose native names we learned, were the
Moira-tinga (the White or King-tree), probably the same as, or allied to, the
Mora Excelsa, which Sir Robert Schomburgh discovered in British Guiana;
the Samauma (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
Pará, 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 appearance on account of its

deeply-scored reddish and ragged bark. A decoction of the bark, I was told,
is used as a red dye for cloth. A few days afterwards we tasted its milk,
which was drawn from dry logs that had been standing many days in the hot
sun, at the saw-mills. It was pleasant with coffee, but had a 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
afterwards found them much more numerous on the Maranham road,
especially in one place where the whole forest glade formed a vast fernery;
the ground was covered with terrestrial species, and the tree trunks clothed
with climbing and epiphytous kinds. I saw no tree ferns in the Pará 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
inconspicuous 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 where 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, flowering 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, rather 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 heard, however, occasionally,
the long-drawn, wailing note of the Inambu, a kind of partridge (Crypturus
cinereus?); and, also, in the hollows on the banks, of the rivulets, the noisy
notes of another bird, which seemed to go in pairs, amongst the tree-tops,

calling to each other as they went. These notes resounded through the
wilderness. Another solitary bird had a most sweet and melancholy song; it
consisted simply of a few notes, uttered in a plaintive key, commencing
high, and descending by harmonic intervals. It was probably a species of
warbler of the genus Trichas. All these notes of birds are very striking and
characteristic of the forest.
I afterwards saw reason to modify my opinion, founded on these first
impressions, with regard to the amount and variety of animal life in this and
other parts of the Amazonian forests. There is, in fact, a great variety of
mammals, birds, and reptiles, but they are widely scattered, and all
excessively shy of man. The region is so extensive, and uniform in the
forest clothing of its surface, that it is only at long intervals that animals are
seen in abundance when some particular spot is found which is more
attractive than others. Brazil, moreover, is poor throughout in terrestrial
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 of these forests I have already alluded to. The most
intensely arboreal animals in the world are the South American monkeys of
the family Cebidæ, 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.

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. Sometimes, in the midst of the stillness, a
sudden yell or scream will startle one; this comes from some defenseless
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 ground. There
are, besides, many sounds which it is impossible to account for. I found the
natives generally as much at a loss in this respect as myself. Sometimes a
sound is heard like the clang of an iron bar against a hard, hollow tree, or a
piercing cry rends the air; these are not repeated, and the succeeding silence
tends to heighten the unpleasant impression which they make on the mind.
With the native it is always the Curupíra, the wild man or spirit of the
forest, which produces all noises they are unable to explain. For myths are
the rude theories which mankind, in the infancy of knowledge, invent to
explain natural phenomena. The Curupíra is a mysterious being, whose

attributes are uncertain, for they vary according to locality. Sometimes he is
described as a kind of orang-otang, being 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 roças 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 of the strange noises mentioned above, he used
to tremble with fear. He would crouch down behind me, and beg of me to
turn back; his alarm ceasing only after he had made a charm to protect us
from the Curupíra. For this purpose, he took a young palm leaf, plaited it,
and formed it into a ring, which he hung to a branch on our track.
At length, after a six hours’ walk, we arrived at our 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 surrounded by the perpetual
forest. We were received in the kindest manner by the overseer, Mr.
Leavens, who showed us all that was interesting about the place, and took
us to the best spots in the neighbourhood for birds and insects. The mills
were built a long time ago by a wealthy Brazilian. They had belonged to
Mr. Upton for many years. I was told that when the dark-skinned
revolutionists were preparing for their attack on Pará, 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 Iritirí at the mills is only a few yards wide; it winds about
between two lofty walls of forest for some distance, then becomes much
broader, and finally joins the Magoary. There are many other ramifications,
creeks or channels, which lead to retired hamlets and scattered houses,
inhabited by people of mixed white, Indian, and negro descent. Many of
them did business with Mr. Leavens, bringing for sale their little harvests of
rice, or a few logs of timber. It was interesting to see them in their little,
heavily-laden montarias. Sometimes the boats were managed by handsome,
healthy young lads, loosely clad in a straw hat, white shirt, and dark blue
trousers, turned up to the knee. They steered, paddled, and managed the
varejao (the boating pole), with much grace and dexterity.

We made many excursions down the Iritirí, and saw much of these
creeks; besides, our second visit to the mills was by water. The Magoary is
a magnificent channel; the different branches form quite a labyrinth, and the
land is everywhere of little elevation. All these smaller rivers, throughout
the Pará Estuary, are of the nature of creeks. The land is so level, that the
short local rivers have no sources and downward currents like rivers as we
generally understand them. They serve the purpose of draining the land, but
instead of having a constant current one way, they have a regular ebb and
flow with the tide. The natives call them, in the Tupí language, Igarapés, or
canoe-paths. The igarapés and furos or channels, which are infinite in
number in this great river delta, are characteristic of the country. The land is
everywhere covered with impenetrable forests; the houses and villages are
all on the waterside, and nearly all communication is by water. This semi-
aquatic life of the people is one of the most interesting features of the
country. For short excursions, and for fishing in still waters, a small 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 triangular pieces for stem and stern. It has
no rudder; the paddle serves for both steering and propelling. The montaria
takes here the place of the horse, mule, or camel of other regions. Besides
one or more montarias, almost every family has a larger canoe, called
Igarité. This is fitted with two masts, a rudder, and keel, and has an arched
awning or cabin near the stern, made of a framework of tough lianas
thatched with palm leaves. In the igarité 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 themselves. I have seen Indians cross rivers in a leaky montaria, when
it required the nicest equilibrium to keep the leak just above water; a
movement of a hair’s breadth would send all to the bottom, but they
managed to cross in safety. They are especially careful when they have
strangers under their charge, and it is the custom of Brazilian and
Portuguese travellers to leave the whole management to them. When they
are alone they are more reckless, and often have to swim for their lives. If a
squall overtakes them as they are crossing in a heavily-laden canoe, they all
jump overboard and swim about until the heavy sea subsides, then they re-
embark.

A few words on the aboriginal population of the Pará estuary will not be
out of place here. The banks of the Pará 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 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, carrying in the prows their trophies and calabash rattles,
whose clatter was meant to intimidate their enemies. They were gentle in
disposition, and received the early Portuguese settlers with great
friendliness. The inland savages, on the other hand, led a wandering life, as
they do at the present time, only coming down occasionally to rob the
plantations of the coast tribes, who always entertained the greatest enmity
towards them.
The original Indian tribes of the district are now either civilised, or have
amalgamated with the white and negro immigrants. Their 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 villages, and in fact the inhabitants of
retired places generally, speak the Lingoa geral, a language adapted by the
Jesuit missionaries from the original idiom of the Tupinambas. The
language of the Guaranis, a nation living on the banks of the Paráguay, is a
dialect of it, and hence it is called by philologists the Tupi-Guarani
language; printed grammars of it are always on sale at the shops of the Pará
booksellers. The fact of one language having been spoken over so wide an
extent of country as that from the Amazons to Paráguay, is quite an isolated
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 Juruá,
even scattered hordes belonging to the same tribe are not able to understand
each other.

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

more business activity were introduced, they all gradually took themselves
away.
These characteristics of the Pará Indians are applicable, of course, to
some extent, to the Mamelucos, who now constitute a great proportion of
the population. The inflexibility of character of the Indian, and his total
inability to accommodate himself to new arrangements, will infallibly lead
to his extinction, as immigrants, endowed with more supple organisations,
increase, and civilisation advances in the Amazon region. But, as the
different races amalgamate readily, and the offspring of white and Indian
often become distinguished Brazilian citizens, there is little reason to regret
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 Pará district, the
Indians are no longer enslaved, but they are deprived of their lands, and this
they feel bitterly, as one of them, an industrious and 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 very interesting to read of the bitter contests that were carried on
from the year 1570 to 1759, between the Portuguese immigrants 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
English 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 missionaries; and they seemed like them to have been, in
great measure, successful, in teaching the pure and elevated 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; in 1759, the white colonists finally prevailed, the
Jesuits were forced to leave the country, and the fifty-one happy mission
villages went to ruin. Since then, the aboriginal race has gone on decreasing

in numbers under the treatment 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 elegant as our nymphæa, 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 surrounded 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 grassy slope leading to an old plantation, where I ran
about naked whilst my clothes were being dried on a bush. The creek Iritirí
is not so picturesque as many others which I 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 which the long
roots that hang down from the fruit before it leaves the branches strike their
fibres, swarm with crabs. On the lower branches the beautiful bird, Ardea
helias, is found. This is a small heron of exquisitely graceful shape and
mien; its plumage is minutely variegated with bars and spots of many
colours, like the wings of certain kinds of moths. It is difficult to see the
bird in the woods, on account of its sombre colours, and the shadiness of its
dwelling-places; but its note, a soft long-drawn whistle, often betrays its
hiding place. I was told by the Indians that it builds in trees, and that the
nest, which is made of clay, is beautifully constructed. It is a favourite pet-
bird of the Brazilians, who call it Pavao (pronounced Pavaong), or peacock.
I often had opportunities to observe 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 “Pavao! Pavao!” walking up with a
dainty, circumspect gait, and taking a fly or beetle from the hand.
During these rambles by land and water we increased our collections
considerably. Before we left the mills, we arranged a joint excursion to the
Tocantins. Mr. Leavens wished to ascend that river to ascertain if the reports
were true, that cedar grew abundantly between the lowermost cataract and
the mouth of the Araguava, 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,
which is named cedar on account of the similarity of its aroma to that of the
true cedars, is not, of course, a coniferous tree, as no member of that class is
found in equatorial America, at least in the Amazons region. It is, according
to Von Martius, the Cedrela Odorata, an exogen belonging to the same order
as the mahogany tree. The wood is light, and the tree is therefore, on falling
into the water, floated down with the river currents. It must grow in great
quantities somewhere in the interior, to judge from the number of uprooted
trees annually carried to the sea, and as the wood is much esteemed for
cabinet work and canoe building, it is of some importance to learn where a
regular supply can be obtained. We were glad of course to arrange with Mr.
Leavens, who was familiar with the language, and an adept in river
navigation—so we returned to Pará to ship our collections for England, and
prepare for the journey to a new region.

Chapter III.
PARÁ

Religious Holidays — Marmoset Monkeys — Serpents —
Insects

Before leaving the subject of Pará, where I resided, as already stated, in all
eighteen months, it will be necessary to give a more detailed account of
several matters connected with the customs of the people and the Natural
History of the neighbourhood, which have hitherto been only briefly
mentioned. I reserve an account of the trade and improved condition of Pará
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-arranged
processions through the streets, accompanied by thousands of people,
military displays, the clatter of fireworks, and the clang of military music,
were super-added 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 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
anniversaries of events concerning saints, or those of the more important
transactions in the life of Christ. To them have been added, since the
Independence, many gala days connected with the events in the Brazilian
national history; but these have all a semi-religious character. The holidays
had become so numerous, and interfered so much with trade and industry
towards the year 1852, that the Brazilian Government was obliged to reduce
them; obtaining the necessary permission from Rome to abolish several

which were of minor importance. Many of those which have been retained
are declining in importance since the introduction of railways and
steamboats, and the increased devotion of the people to commerce; at the
time of our arrival, however, they were in full glory. The way they were
managed was in this fashion. A general manager or “Juiz” for each festival
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 greater the amount of money spent in wax candles, fireworks,
music and feasting, the greater the honour done to the saint. If the Juiz was
a rich man, he seldom sent out alms-gatherers, but celebrated the whole
affair at his own expense, which was sometimes to the extent of several
hundred pounds. Each festival lasted nine days (a 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
termination of the festival, sermons being extra duty in Brazil.
There was much difference as to the accessories of these festivals
between the interior towns and villages and the capital; but little or no work
was done anywhere whilst they lasted, and they tended much to demoralise
the people. It was soon perceived that religion is rather the amusement of
the Paráenses, than their serious exercise. The ideas of the majority
evidently do not reach beyond the belief that all the proceedings are, in each
case, in honour of the particular wooden image enshrined at the church. The
uneducated Portuguese immigrants seemed to me to have very degrading
notions of religion. I have 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 Portuguese, 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 civilised families residing near the large towns, they
exhibit no religious sentiment at all. They have their own patron saint, St.
Thomé, and celebrate his anniversary in the orthodox way, for they are fond
of observing all the formalities; but they think the feasting to be of equal
importance with the church ceremonies. At some of the festivals,
masquerading forms a large part of the proceedings, and then the Indians
really shine. They get up capital imitations of wild animals, dress
themselves to represent the Caypor and other fabulous creatures of the
forest, and act their parts throughout with great cleverness. When St.
Thome’s festival takes place, every employer of Indians knows that all his
men will get drunk. The Indian, generally too shy to ask directly for cashaca
(rum), is then very bold; he asks for a frasco at once (two-and-a-half
bottles), and says, if interrogated, that he is going to fuddle in honour of St.
Thomé.
In the city of Pará, 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 belonging to the same church; these
are borne on the shoulders of respectable householders, who volunteer for
the purpose: sometimes you will see your neighbour the grocer or the
carpenter groaning under the load. The priest and his crowd of attendants
precede the images, arrayed in embroidered robes, and protected by
magnificent sunshades—no useless ornament here, for the heat is very great
when the sun is not obscured. On each side of the long line the citizens
walk, clad in crimson silk cloaks and holding each a large lighted wax
candle. Behind follows a regiment or two of foot soldiers with their bands
of music, and last of all the crowd: the coloured people being cleanly
dressed and preserving a grave demeanour. The women are always in great
force, their luxuriant black hair decorated with jasmines, white orchids and
other tropical flowers. They are dressed in their usual holiday attire, gauze
chemises and black silk petticoats; their necks are adorned with links of
gold beads, which when they are slaves are generally the property of their
mistresses, who love thus to display their wealth.
At night, when festivals are going on in the grassy squares around the
suburban churches, there is really much to admire. A great deal that is
peculiar in the land and the life of its 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 negresses line the path to the church
doors with stands of liqueurs, sweetmeats, and cigarettes, which they sell to
the outsiders. A short distance off is heard the rattle of dice-boxes and
roulette at the open-air gambling-stalls. When the festival happens on
moonlit nights, the whole scene is very striking to a newcomer. Around the
square are groups of tall palm trees, and beyond it, over the illuminated
houses, appear the thick groves of mangoes near the suburban avenues,
from which comes the perpetual ringing din of insect life. The soft tropical
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 everywhere, 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
ringing, a shower of rockets mounts upwards, the bands strike up, and
parties of coloured people in the booths begin their dances. About ten
o’clock the Brazilian national air is played, and all disperse quietly and
soberly to their homes.
At the festival of Corpus Christi, there was a very pretty arrangement.
The large green square of the Trinidade was lighted up all round with
bonfires. On one side a fine pavilion was erected, the upright posts
consisting of real fan-leaved palm trees—the Mauritia flexuosa, which had
been brought from the forest, stems and heads entire, and fixed in the
ground. The booth was illuminated with coloured lamps, and lined with red
and white cloth. In it were seated the ladies, not all of pure Caucasian
blood, but presenting a fine sample of Pará beauty and fashion.
The grandest of all these festivals is that held in honour of Our Lady of
Nazareth: it is, I believe, peculiar to Pará. 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 programme being preceded, of
course, by a religious service in the chapel. The aspect of the place is then
that of a fair, without the humour and fun, but, at the same time, without the
noise and coarseness of similar holidays in England. Large rooms are set
apart for panoramic and other exhibitions, to which the public is admitted
gratis. In the course of each evening, large displays of fireworks take place,
all arranged according to a published programme of the festival.
The various ceremonies which take place during Lent seemed to me the
most impressive, and some of them were exceedingly well- arranged. The
people, both performers and spectators, conduct themselves with more
gravity on these occasions, and there is no holiday-making. Performances,
representing the last events in the life of Christ, are enacted in the churches
or streets in such a way as to remind one of the old miracle plays or
mysteries. A few days before Good Friday, a torchlight procession takes
place by night from one church to another, in which is carried a large
wooden image of Christ bent under the weight of the cross. The chief
members of the government assist, and the whole slowly moves to the
sound of muffled drums. A double procession is managed a few days
afterwards. The image of St. Mary is carried in one direction, and that of the
Saviour in another. The two images meet in the middle of one of the most
beautiful of the churches, which is previously filled to excess with the
multitudes anxious to witness the affecting meeting of mother and son a few
days before the crucifixion. The images are brought face to face in the
middle of the church, the crowd falls prostrate, and a 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, perhaps,
only temporarily. On Good Friday the bells do not ring, all musical sounds
are interdicted, and the hours, night and day, are announced by the dismal
noise of wooden clappers, wielded by negroes stationed near the different
churches. A sermon is delivered in each church. In the middle of it, a scroll
is suddenly unfolded from the pulpit, upon which is an exaggerated picture
of the bleeding Christ. This act is accompanied by loud groans, which come
from stout-lunged individuals concealed in the vestry and engaged for the
purpose. The priest becomes greatly excited, and actually sheds tears. On
one of these occasions I squeezed myself into the crowd, and watched the
effect of the spectacle on the audience. Old Portuguese men and Brazilian
women seemed very much affected—sobbing, beating their breasts, and
telling their beads. The negroes themselves behaved with great propriety,
but seemed moved more particularly by the pomp, the gilding, the dresses,
and the general display. Young Brazilians laughed. Several aborigines were
there, coolly looking on. One old Indian, who was standing near me, said,
in a derisive manner, when the sermon was over: “It’s all very good; better
it could not be” (Está todo bom; melhor nao pude ser).
The negroes of Pará are very devout. They have built, by slow degrees, as
I was told, a fine church 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 Pará, I frequently observed a line of negroes and negresses,
late at night, marching along the streets, singing a chorus. Each carried on
his or her head a quantity of building materials—stones, bricks, mortar, or
planks. I found they 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
negroes 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 accumulated on the subject
of the natural history, and then we shall have done, for the present, with
Pará and its neighbourhood.

I have already mentioned that monkeys were rare in the immediate
vicinity of Pará. I met with only three species 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 not
opposable to the other fingers. I do not mean to imply that they have a near
relationship to squirrels, which belong to the Rodents, an inferior order of
mammals; their resemblance to those animals is merely a superficial one.
They have two molar teeth less in each jaw than the Cebidæ, the other
family of American monkeys; they agree with them, however, in 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 sometimes saw it in the woods which
border the suburban streets, and once I espied two individuals in a thicket
behind the English consul’s house at Nazareth. Its mode of progression
along the main boughs of the lofty trees is like that of the squirrel; it does
not ascend to the slender branches, or take those wonderful flying leaps
which the Cebidæ do, whose prehensile tails and flexible hands fit them for
such headlong travelling. It confines itself to the larger boughs and trunks
of trees, the long nails being of great assistance to the creature, enabling it
to cling securely to the bark, and it is often seen passing rapidly around the
perpendicular cylindrical trunks. It is a quick, restless, timid little creature,
and has a great share of curiosity, for when a person passes by under the
trees along which a flock is running, they always stop for a few moments to
have a stare at the intruder. In Pará, Midas ursulus is often seen in a tame
state in the houses of the inhabitants. When full grown it is about nine
inches long, independently of the tail, which measures fifteen inches. The
fur is thick, and black in colour, with the exception of a reddish-brown

streak down the middle of the back. When first taken, or when kept tied up,
it is very timid and irritable. It will not allow itself to be approached, but
keeps retreating backwards when any one attempts to coax it. It is always in
a querulous humour, uttering a twittering, complaining noise; its dark,
watchful eyes are expressive of distrust, and observant of every movement
which takes place near it. When treated kindly, however, 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 hearts’ content. It acted somewhat differently towards
strangers, and seemed not to like them to sit in the hammock which was
slung in the room, leaping up, trying to bite, and otherwise annoying them.
It is generally fed 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
expression.
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 everyone; its greatest
pleasure seeming to be to climb about the bodies of different persons who
entered. The first time I went in, it ran across the room straightway to the
chair on which I had sat down, and climbed up to my shoulder; having
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
would climb up to his head a dozen times in the course of an hour, making a
great show every time of searching there for certain animalcula. Isidore
Geoffroy St. Hilaire relates of a species of this genus, that it distinguished
between different objects depicted on an engraving. M. Audouin showed it
the portraits of a cat and a wasp; at these it became much terrified; whereas,

at the sight of a figure of a grasshopper or beetle, it precipitated itself on the
picture, as if to seize the objects there represented.
Although monkeys are now rare in a wild state near Pará, a great number
may be seen semi-domesticated in the city. The Brazilians are fond of pet
animals. Monkeys, however, have not been known to breed in captivity in
this country. I counted, in a short time, thirteen different species, whilst
walking about the Pará streets, either at the doors or windows of houses, or
in the native canoes. Two of them I did not meet with afterwards in any
other part of the country. One of these was the well-known Hapale Jacchus,
a little creature resembling a kitten, banded with black and grey all over the
body and tail, and having a fringe of long white hairs surrounding 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 neighbourhood of Pará.
One morning, in April, 1849, after a night of deluging rain, the lamplighter,
on his rounds to extinguish the lamps, woke me up to show me a boa-
constrictor he had just killed in the Rua St. Antonio, not far from my door.
He had cut it nearly in two with a large knife, as it was making its way
down the sandy street. Sometimes the native hunters capture boa-
constrictors alive in the forest near the city. We bought one which had been
taken in this way, and kept it for some time in a large box under our
verandah. This is not, however, the largest or most formidable serpent found
in the Amazons region. It is far inferior, in these respects, to the hideous
Sucurujú, or Water Boa (Eunectes murinus), which sometimes attacks man;
but of this I shall have to give an account in a subsequent chapter.
It frequently happened, in passing through the thickets, that a snake
would fall from the boughs close to me. Once for a few moments I got
completely entangled in the folds of one, a wonderfully slender kind, being
nearly six feet in length, and not more than half an inch in diameter at its
broadest part. It was a species of Dryophis. The majority of the snakes seen
were innocuous. One day, however, I trod on the tail of a young serpent
belonging to a very poisonous kind, the Jararaca (Craspedocephalus 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 struck me
as strange that accidents did not occur more frequently than was the case.

Amongst the most curious snakes found here were the Amphisbænæ, a
genus allied to the slow-worm of Europe. Several species occur at Pará.
Those brought to me were generally not much more than a foot in length.
They are of cylindrical shape, having, properly speaking, no neck, and the
blunt tail which is only about an inch in length, is of the same shape as the
head. This peculiar form, added to their habit of wriggling backwards as
well as forwards, has given rise to the fable that they have two heads, one at
each extremity. 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 Saüba ant; only coming
out of their abodes occasionally in the night time. The natives call the
Amphisbæna the “Mai das Saübas,” or Mother of the Saübas, 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 with the
natives. They say the ants treat it with great affection, and that if the snake
be taken away from a nest, the Saübas 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 Amphisbæna. I was,
unfortunately, not able to ascertain the exact relation which subsists
between these curious snakes and the Saüba ants. I believe however, they
feed upon the Saübas, 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 Pará is rich in insects. I do not speak of the
number of individuals, which is probably less than one meets with,
excepting ants and termites, in summer days in temperate latitudes; but the
variety, or in other words, the number of species, is very great. It will
convey some idea of the diversity of butterflies when I mention that about
700 species of that tribe are found within an hour’s walk of the town; whilst
the total number found in the British Islands does not exceed 66, and the
whole of Europe supports only 321. Some of the most showy species, such
as the swallow-tailed kinds, Papilio Polycaon, Thoas, Torquatus, and others,
are seen flying about the streets and gardens; sometimes they come through
the open windows, attracted by flowers in the apartments. Those species of
Papilio which are most characteristic of the country, so conspicuous in their
velvety-black, green, and rose-coloured hues, which Linnæus, 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 ground 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 Uraneis; 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 greatest number and variety of
butterflies are found in the woods; especially when a shower falls at
intervals of a few days. An infinite number of curious and rare species may
then be taken, most diversified in habits, mode of flight, colours, and
markings: some yellow, others bright red, green, purple, and blue, and many

bordered or spangled with metallic lines and spots of a silvery or golden
lustre. Some have wings transparent as glass; one of these clear wings is
especially beautiful, namely, the 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.

Bees and wasps are not especially numerous near Pará, and I will reserve
an account of their habits for a future chapter. Many species of Mygale,
those monstrous 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 its
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, disappearing suddenly when he hears a heavy foot-tread near his
hiding 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 curved bronze-coloured spines, an inch and a
half in length, proceeding from the tip of its abdomen. It spins a large web,
the monstrous appendages being apparently no 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. Many
hundred species of the different families can be found when they are
patiently searched for in the shady places to which they are confined. It is
vain to look for the Geodephaga, or carnivorous beetles, under stones, or
anywhere, indeed, in open, sunny places. The terrestrial forms of this
interesting family, which abound in England and temperate countries
generally, are scarce in the neighbourhood of Pará; in fact, I met with only
four or five species; on the other hand, the purely arboreal kinds were rather
numerous. The contrary of this happens in northern latitudes, where the
great majority of the species and genera are exclusively terrestrial. The
arboreal forms are distinguished 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 larvæ of Coleoptera. Moreover, these active creatures have the
same functions as Coleoptera, and thus render their existence unnecessary.
The large proportion of climbing forms of carnivorous beetles is an
interesting fact, because it affords another instance of the arboreal character
which animal forms tend to assume in equinoctial America, a circumstance
which points to the slow adaptation of the fauna to a forest-clad country
throughout an immense lapse of geological time.

Chapter IV.
THE TOCANTINS AND CAMETÁ

Preparations for the journey — The Bay of Goajará —
Grove of fan-leaved Palms — The lower Tocantins —
Sketch of the River — Vista alegre — Baiao — Rapids —
Boat journey to the Guariba Falls — Native Life on the
Tocantins — Second Journey to Cameta.

August 26th, 1848—Mr. Wallace and I started today 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
southwest of Pará. 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 journey took a great deal of time and
trouble. We had first to hire a proper vessel, a two-masted vigilinga twenty-
seven feet long, with a flat prow and great breadth of beam and fitted to live
in heavy seas; for, although our voyage was only a river trip, there were
vast sea-like expanses of water to traverse. It was not decked over, but had
two arched awnings formed of strong wickerwork, and thatched with palm
leaves. We then had to store it with provisions for three months, the time we
at first intended to be away; procure the 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
Isidoro, and a young Indian lad, named Antonio, who had attached himself
to us in the course of our residence at Nazareth. Our principal man was
Alexandro, one of Mr. Leavens’s Indians. He was an intelligent and well-
disposed young Tapuyo, an expert sailor, and an indefatigable hunter. To his
fidelity we were indebted for being enabled to carry out any of the objects

of our voyage. Being a native of a district near the capital, Alexandro was a
civilised Tapuyo, a citizen as free as his white neighbours. He spoke only
Portuguese. He was a spare-built man, rather under the middle height, with
fine regular features, and, what was unusual in Indians, the upper lip
decorated with a moustache. Three years afterwards I saw him at Pará in the
uniform of the National Guard, and he called on me often to talk about old
times. I esteemed him as a quiet, sensible, manly young fellow.
We set sail in the evening, after waiting several hours in vain for one of
our crew. It was soon dark, the wind blew 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 obliged to cast anchor. Not
long after, we lay ourselves down, all three together, on the mat which was
spread over the floor of our cabin, and soon fell asleep.
On awaking at sunrise the next morning, we found ourselves gliding
upwards with the tide, along the Bahia or Bay, as it is called, of Goajará.
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 Guamá, the Acará, and the Mojú; so that
it forms a kind of sub-estuary within the grand estuary of Pará. 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 groundwork, and the endless diversity of
broad-leaved Heliconiæ 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 Serracúra (Gallinula Cayennensis), a kind of wild-
fowl; all else was so still that the voices of boatmen could be plainly heard
from canoes passing a mile or two distant from us. The sun soon gains great
power on the water, but with it the sea-breeze increases in strength,
moderating the heat which would otherwise be almost insupportable. We
reached the end of the Goajará about midday, and then entered the narrower

channel of the Mojú. 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 Mojú, a stream slightly inferior to the Thames in size,
is connected about twenty miles from its mouth by means of a short,
artificial canal with a small stream, the Igarapé-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 today have been threading our way through a labyrinth of
narrow channels, their banks all clothed with the same magnificent forest,
but agreeably varied by houses of planters and settlers. We passed many
quite large 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
Murutipucú, which runs for several miles between two unbroken lines of
fan-leaved palms, forming colossal palisades with their straight stems. 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 lookout at the prow,
shouting: “La está o Paraná-uassú!” “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; only
on the borders was there a small number of a second kind, the equally
remarkable Ubussú palm, Manicaria saccifera. The Ubussú has erect, uncut
leaves, twenty-five feet long, and six feet wide, all arranged round the top
of a four-foot 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 obstruct the view of the long
perspective of towering columns. The crowns, which were densely packed
together at an immense height overhead, shut out the rays of the sun; and
the gloomy solitude beneath, through which the sound of our voices seemed
to reverberate, could be compared to nothing so well as a solemn temple.
The fruits of the two palms were scattered over the ground; those of the
Ubussu adhere together by twos and threes, and have a rough, brown-
coloured shell; the fruit of the Mauritia, on the contrary, is of a bright red
hue, and the skin is impressed with deep-crossing lines, which give it a
resemblance to a quilted cricket-ball.
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 Cametá. 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 difficult journey up the river with two
hands only, and they in a very dissatisfied humour with the prospect.
The river view from Cametá 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 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 Cametá 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 navigation in the shape of cataracts and rapids,

which commence, in ascending, at about 120 miles above Cametá, as will
be seen in the sequel.
August 30th.—Arrived, in company with Senhor Laroque, an intelligent
Portuguese merchant, at Vista Alegre, fifteen miles above Cametá. This was
the residence 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 seParáted 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 the high-water mark. There was a rude mill for
grinding sugar-cane, worked by bullocks; but cashaça, or rum, was the only
article manufactured from the juice. Behind the buildings was a small piece
of ground cleared from the forest, and planted with fruit trees, orange,
lemon, genipapa, goyava, and others; and beyond this, a broad path through
a neglected plantation of coffee and cacao, led to several large sheds, where
the farinha, or mandioca meal, was manufactured. The plantations of
mandioca are always scattered about in the forest, some of them being on
islands in the middle of the river. Land being plentiful, and the plough, as
well as, indeed, nearly all other agricultural implements, unknown, the
same ground is not planted three years together; but a new piece of forest is
cleared every alternate year, and the old clearing suffered to relapse into
jungle.
We stayed here two days, sleeping ashore in the apartment devoted to
strangers. As usual in Brazilian houses of the middle class, we were not
introduced to the female members of the family, and, indeed, saw nothing
of them except at a distance. In the forest and thickets about the place we
were tolerably successful in collecting, finding a number of birds and
insects which do not occur at Pará. I saw here, for the first time, the sky-
blue Chatterer (Ampelis cotinga). It was on the topmost bough of a very
lofty tree, and completely out of the reach of an ordinary fowling-piece. The
beautiful light-blue colour of its plumage was plainly discernible at that
distance. It is a dull, quiet bird. A much commoner species was the Cigana
or Gipsy (Opisthocomus cristatus), a bird belonging to the same order
(Gallinacea) as our domestic fowl. It is about the size of a pheasant; the
plumage is dark brown, varied with reddish, and the head is adorned with a
crest of long feathers. It is a remarkable bird in many respects. The hind toe

is not placed high above the level of the other toes, as it is in the fowl order
generally, but lies on the same plane with them; the shape of the foot
becomes thus suited to the purely arboreal habits of the bird, enabling it to
grasp firmly the branches of trees. This is a distinguishing character of all
the birds in equinoctial America which represents 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 bordering the streams and lagoons, and feeds on
various wild fruits, especially the sour Goyava (Psidium sp.). The natives
say it devours the fruit of arborescent Arums (Caladium arborescens),
which grow in crowded masses around the swampy banks of lagoons. Its
voice is a harsh, grating hiss; it makes the noise when alarmed or when
disturbed by passing canoes, all the individuals sibilating as they fly heavily
away from tree to tree. 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 unpalatable to carnivorous animals as it is to
man, the immunity from persecution which it would thereby enjoy would
account for its existing in such great numbers throughout the country.
We lost another of our crew here; and thus, at the commencement of our
voyage, had before us the prospect of being forced to return, from sheer
want of hands, to manage the canoe. Senhor Gomez, to whom we had
brought letters of introduction from Senhor Joao Augusto Correia, a
Brazilian gentlemen of high standing at Pará, tried what he could do to
induce the canoe-men of his neighbourhood to engage with us, but it was a
vain endeavour. The people of these parts seemed to be above working for
wages. They are naturally indolent, and besides, have all some little
business or plantation of their own, which gives them a livelihood with
independence. It is difficult to obtain hands under any circumstances, but it
was particularly so in our case, from being foreigners, and suspected, as
was natural amongst ignorant people, of being strange in our habits. At
length, our host lent us two of his slaves to help us on another stage,
namely, to the village of Baiao, where we had great hopes of having this,
our urgent want, supplied by the military commandant of the district.

September 2nd.—The distance from Vista Alegre to Baiao 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 backs to the stern. We started at six a.m., and about
sunset reached a point where the west channel of the river, along which we
had been travelling since we left Cametá, joined a broader middle one, and
formed with it a great expanse of water. The islands here seem to form two
pretty regular lines, dividing the great river into three channels. As we
progressed slowly, we took the montaria, and went ashore, from time to
time, to the houses, which were numerous on the river banks as well as on
the larger islands. In low situations they had a very unfinished appearance,
being mere frameworks raised high on wooden piles, and thatched with the
leaves of the Ubussú palm. In their construction another palm tree is made
much use of, viz., the Assai (Euterpe oleracea). The outer part of the stem of

this species is hard and tough as horn; it is split into narrow planks, and
these form a great portion of the walls and flooring. The residents told us
that the western channel becomes nearly dry in the middle of the fine
season, but that at high water, in April and May, the river rises to the level
of the house floors. The river bottom is everywhere sandy, and the country
perfectly healthy. The people seemed to all be contented and happy, but
idleness and poverty were exhibited by many unmistakeable signs. As to the
flooding of their island abodes, they did not seem to care about that at all.
They seem to be almost amphibious, or as much at home on the water as on
land. It was really quite 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 Ygapó islands, as they are called,
only in the hot and dry season. They live chiefly on fish, shellfish (amongst
which were large Ampullariæ, 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
Mirití 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
farinha. The Tucumá (Astrocaryum tucuma), and the Mucujá (Acrocomia
lasiospatha), grow only on the mainland. Their fruits yield a yellowish,
fibrous pulp, which the natives eat in the same way as the Mirití. 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 forty to sixty feet high at this point. 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 enclosures 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 solely on fishing for

animal food, there is a period of the year when they suffer hunger, so that
they are disposed to highly prize 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 lhe ser
bom;” or, “Nao ha, men coracao.” “We have none; I am sorry I cannot
oblige you;” or, “There is none, my heart.”
Sept. 3rd to 7th.—At half-past eight a.m. we arrived at Baiao, which is
built on a very high bank, and contains about 400 inhabitants. We had to
climb to the village up a ladder, which is fixed against the bank, and, on
arriving at the top, took possession of a room, which Senhor Seixas had
given orders to be prepared for us. He himself was away at his sitio, and
would not be here until the next day. We were now quite dependent upon
him for men to enable us to continue our voyage, and so had no remedy but
to wait his leisure. The situation of the place, and the nature of the woods
around it, promised well for novelties in birds and insects; so we had no
reason to be vexed at the delay, but brought our apparatus and store-boxes
up from the canoe, and set to work.
The easy, lounging life of the people amused us very much. I afterwards
had plenty of time to become used to tropical village life. There is a free,
familiar, pro bono publico style of living in these small places, which
requires some time for a European to fall into. No sooner were we
established in our rooms, than a number of lazy young fellows came to look
on and make remarks, and we had to answer all sorts of questions. The
houses have their doors and windows open to the street, and people walk in
and out as they please; there is always, however, a more secluded
apartment, where the female members of the families reside. In their
familiarity there is nothing intentionally offensive, and it is practised simply
in the desire to be civil and sociable. A young Mameluco, named 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 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
Pará. 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 Pará this never happens; the stars and sun are as clear
and sharply defined when they peep above the distant treetops as they are at
the zenith. This beautiful transparency of the air arises, doubtless, from the
equal distribution through it of invisible vapour. I shall ever remember, in
one of my voyages along the Pará 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 as 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
Baiao were of second growth, the ground having been formerly cultivated.
A great number of coffee and cotton trees grew amongst the thickets. A fine
woodland pathway extends for miles over the high, undulating bank,
leading from one house to another along the edge of the cliff. I went into
several of them, and talked to their inmates. They were all poor people. The
men were out fishing, some far away, a distance of many days journey; the
women plant mandioca, make the farinha, spin and weave cotton,
manufacture soap of burnt cacao shells and andiroba oil, and follow various
other domestic employments. I asked why they allowed their plantations to
run to waste. They said that it was useless trying to plant anything
hereabout; the Sauba ant devoured the young coffee trees, and everyone
who attempted to contend against this universal ravager was sure to be
defeated. The country, for many miles along the banks of the river, seemed
to be well peopled. The inhabitants were nearly all of the tawny-white
Mameluco class. I saw a good many mulattos, but very few negroes and
Indians, and none that could be called pure whites.
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 great consideration. 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 backyard. 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; 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 the 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 Baiao at an early hour. One of our new
men was a good-humoured, willing young mulatto named José; 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 ran aground several times, and the men had to disembark
and shove the vessel off. Alexandro shot several fine fish here, 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 pineapple leaves. It is
only in the clearest water that fish can be thus shot: and the only skill
required is to make, in taking aim, the proper allowance for refraction.
The next day before sunrise a fine breeze sprang up, and the men awoke
and set the sails. We glided all day through channels between islands with
long, white, sandy beaches, over which, now and then, aquatic and wading
birds were seen running. The forest was low, and had a harsh, dry aspect.
Several palm trees grew here which we had not before seen. On low bushes,
near the water, pretty, red-headed tanagers (Tanagra gularis) were
numerous, flitting about and chirping like sparrows. About half-past four
p.m., we brought to at the mouth of a creek or channel, where there was a
great extent of sandy beach. The sand had been blown by the wind into
ridges and undulations, and over the more moist 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 bedtime 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 seacoast 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
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. When the banks are washed away by currents, trees of all
species fall into the river; but the heavier ones, which are the most
numerous, sink, and the lighter, such as the cedar, alone float down to the
sea.
Mr. Leavens was told that there were cedar trees at Trocará, 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 gradually down to the
water, and was shaded by a few wide-spreading trees. There was no
underwood. A great number of hammocks were seen slung between the tree
trunks, and the litter of a numerous household lay scattered about. Women,
old and young, some of the latter very good-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 Cametá, who had come thus far, eighty miles, to spend
the summer months. The only motive they could give for coming was that:
“it was so hot in the town in the verao (summer), and they were all so fond
of fresh fish.” Thus, these simple folks think nothing of leaving home and

business to come on a three months’ picnic. It is the annual custom of this
class of people throughout the province to spend a few months of the fine
season in the wilder parts of the country. They carry with them all the
farinha they can scrape together, this being the only article of food
necessary to provide. The men hunt and fish for the day’s wants, and
sometimes collect a little India-rubber, salsaparilla, or copaiba oil, to sell to
traders on their return; the women assist in paddling the canoes, do the
cooking, and sometimes fish with rod and line. The weather is enjoyable the
whole time, and so days and 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 Trocará, 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 neighbourhood, we found a number of
specimens of a curious land-shell, a large flat Helix, with a labyrinthine
mouth (Anastoma). We learned 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.
We saw here, for the first time, the splendid Hyacinthine macaw
(Macrocercus hyacinthinus, Lath., the Araruna of the natives), one of the
finest and rarest species of the Parrot family. It only occurs in the interior of
Brazil, from 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 Mucujá (Acrocomia lasiospatha). These nuts, which are so
hard as to be difficult to break with a heavy hammer, are crushed to a pulp
by the powerful beak of this macaw.
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 cashiri, 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 us than we had hitherto. The
river became more picturesque as we advanced. The water was very low, it
being now the height of the dry reason; 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 large shallow lagoon, choked up with aquatic
plants, which lay about two miles across the campo. At a place called
Juquerapuá, we engaged a pilot to conduct us to Arroyos, and a few miles
above the pilot’s house, arrived at a point where it was not possible to
advance further in our large canoe on account of the rapids.
September 16th.—Embarked at six a.m. in a large montaria which had
been lent to us for this part of our voyage by Senhor Seixas, leaving the
vigilinga anchored close to a rocky islet, named Santa Anna, to await our
return. Isidoro was left in charge, and we were sorry to be obliged to leave
behind also our mulatto José, who had fallen ill since leaving Baiao. We had
then remaining only Alexandro, 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
Tapaiunaquára. The river, which was here about a mile wide, was choked
up with rocks, a broken ridge passing completely across it. Between these
confused piles of stone the currents were fearfully strong, and formed
numerous eddies and whirlpools. We were obliged to get out occasionally
and walk from rock to rock, whilst the men dragged the canoe over the
obstacles. Beyond Tapaiunaquára, the stream became again broad and deep,
and the river scenery was beautiful in the extreme. The water was clear and
of a bluish-green colour. On both sides of the stream stretched ranges of
wooded hills, and in the middle picturesque islets rested on the smooth
water, whose brilliant green woods fringed with palms formed charming
bits of foreground to the perspective of sombre hills fading into grey in the

distance. Joaquim pointed out to us grove after grove of Brazil nut trees
(Bertholletia excelsa) on the mainland. This is one of the chief collecting
grounds for this nut. The tree is one of the loftiest in the forest, towering far
above its fellows; we could see the woody fruits, large and round as
cannon-balls, dotted over the branches. The currents were very strong in
some places, so that during the greater part of the way the men preferred to
travel near the shore, and propel the boat by means of long poles.
We arrived at Arroyos about four o’clock in the afternoon, after ten
hours’ hard pull. The place consists simply of a few houses built on a high
bank, and forms a station where canoemen from the mining countries of the
interior of Brazil stop to rest themselves before or after surmounting the
dreaded falls and rapids of Guaribas, situated a couple of miles further up.
We dined ashore, and in the evening again embarked to visit the falls. The
vigorous and successful way in which our men battled with the terrific
currents excited our astonishment. The bed of the river, here about a mile
wide, is strewn with blocks of various sizes, which lie in the most irregular
manner, and between them rush currents of more or less rapidity. With an
accurate knowledge of the place and skilful 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 see, stretched range after
range of wooded hills and 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 17th.—We commenced early in the morning our downward
voyage. Arroyos is situated in about 4° 10′ S. lat.; and lies, therefore, about
130 miles from the mouth of the Tocantins. Fifteen miles above Guaribas,
another similar cataract called Tabocas lies across the river. We were told
that there were in all fifteen of these obstructions to navigate, between
Arroyos and the mouth of the Araguaya. The worst was the Inferno, the
Guaribas standing second to it in evil reputation. Many canoes and lives
have been lost here, most of the accidents arising through the vessels being
hurled against an enormous cubical mass of rock called the Guaribinha,
which we, on our trip to the falls in the small canoe, passed round with the

greatest ease about a quarter of a mile below the main falls. This, however,
was the dry season; in the time of full waters, a tremendous current sets
against it. We descended the river rapidly, and found it excellent fun
shooting the rapids. The men seemed to delight in choosing the swiftest
parts of the current; they sang and yelled in the greatest excitement,
working the paddles with great force, and throwing clouds of spray above
us as we bounded downwards. We stopped to rest at the mouth of a rivulet
named Caganxa. The pilot told us that gold had been found in the bed of
this brook; so we had the curiosity to wade several hundred yards through
the icy cold waters in search of it. Mr. Leavens seemed very much
interested in the matter. He picked up all the shining stones he could espy in
the pebbly bottom, in hopes of finding diamonds also. There is, in fact, no
reason why both gold and diamonds should not be found here, the hills
being a continuation of those of the mining countries of interior Brazil, and
the brooks flowing through the narrow valleys between them.
On arriving at the place where we had left our canoe, we found poor José
the mulatto much worse, so we hastened on to Juquerapuá 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. We
stayed at this place all night and part of the following day, and I had a stroll
along a delightful pathway, which led over hill and dale, two or three miles
through the forest. I was surprised at the number and variety of brilliantly-
coloured butterflies; they were all of small size and started forth from the
low bushes, which bordered the road, at every step I took. 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 “quá, quá.” It is a dull inactive bird, and not very
ready to take flight when approached. In this respect, however, the trogons
are not equal to the jacamars, whose stupidity in remaining at their posts,
seated on low branches in the gloomiest shades of the forest, is somewhat
remarkable in a country where all other birds are exceedingly wary. One
species of jacamar was not uncommon here (Galbula viridis); I sometimes
saw two or three together seated on a slender branch, silent and motionless
with the exception of a slight movement of the head; when an insect flew
past within a short distance, one of the birds would dart off, seize it, and

return again to its sitting-place. The trogons are found in the tropics of both
hemispheres. The jacamars, which are clothed in plumage of the most
beautiful golden-bronze and steel colours, are peculiar to tropical America.
At night I slept ashore as a change from the confinement of the canoe,
having obtained permission from Senhor Joaquim to sling my hammock
under his roof. The house, like all others in these out-of-the-way parts of the
country, was a large open, palm-thatched shed, having one end enclosed by
means of partitions also made of palm-leaves, so as to form a private
apartment. Under the shed were placed all the household utensils;
earthenware jars, pots, and kettles, hunting and fishing implements,
paddles, bows and arrows, harpoons, and so forth. One or two common
wooden chests serve to contain the holiday clothing of the females. There is
no other furniture except a few stools and the hammock, which answers the
purposes of chair and sofa. When a visitor enters, he is asked to sit down in
a hammock; persons who are on intimate terms with each other recline
together in the same 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 establishment 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, plaited into the proper form, hung suspended from a
beam; it is in this that the pulp of the mandioca is pressed, and from it the
juice, which is of a highly poisonous nature, although the pulp is
wholesome food, runs into pans placed beneath to receive it. A wooden
trough, such as is used in all these places for receiving the pulp before the
poisonous matter is extracted, stood on the ground, and from the posts hung
the long wicker-work baskets, or aturas, in which the women carry the roots
from the roça or clearing; a broad ribbon made from the inner bark of the
monguba tree is attached to the rims of the baskets, and is passed round the

forehead of the carriers, to relieve their backs in supporting the heavy load.
Around the shed were planted a number of banana and other fruit trees;
amongst them were the never-failing capsicum-pepper bushes, 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 Indian,—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
wood fire was lighted in the middle of the shed, and all turned in to their
hammocks, and began to converse. A few of the party soon dropped 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 Curupíra, 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 taquará 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 Baiao, we
took our last farewell of the limpid waters and varied scenery of the upper
river, and found ourselves again in the humid flat region of the Amazons
valley. We sailed down this lower part of the river by a different channel
from the one we travelled along in ascending, and frequently went ashore
on the low islands in mid-river. As already stated, these are covered with
water in the wet season; but at this time, there having been three months of

fine weather, they were dry throughout, and by the subsidence of the waters,
placed four or five feet above the level of the river. They are covered with a
most luxuriant forest, comprising a large number of india-rubber trees. We
found several people encamped here, who were engaged in collecting and
preparing the rubber, and thus had an opportunity of observing the process.
The tree which yields this valuable sap is the Siphonia elastica, a member
of the Euphorbiaceous order; it belongs, therefore, to a group of plants quite
different from that which furnishes the caoutchouc of the East Indies and
Africa. This latter is the product of different species of Ficus, and is
considered, I believe, in commerce, an inferior article to the India-rubber of
Pará. 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 Pará; but there are plenty of untapped trees still growing in
the wilds of the Tapajos, Madeira, Juruá, and Jauarí, as far as 1800 miles
from the Atlantic coast. The tree is not remarkable 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, and remained until January or
February. The process is very simple. Every morning each person, man or
woman, to whom is allotted a certain number of trees, goes the round of the
whole and collects in a large vessel the milky sap which trickles from
gashes made in the bark on the preceding evening, and which is received in
little clay cups, or in ampullaria shells stuck beneath the wounds. The sap,
which at first is of the consistence of cream, soon thickens; the collectors
are provided with a great number of wooden moulds of the shape in which
the rubber is wanted, and when they return to the camp, they dip them into
the liquid, laying on, in the course of several days, one coat after another.
When this is done, the substance is white and hard; the proper colour and
consistency are given by passing it repeatedly through a thick black smoke
obtained by burning the nuts of certain palm trees, after which process the
article is ready for sale. India-rubber is known throughout the province only
by the name of seringa, the Portuguese word for syringe; it owes this
appellation to the circumstance that it was only in this form 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 spontaneously-flowing sap gathered
round projecting twigs. Brazilians of all classes still use it extensively in the
form of syringes, for injections form a great feature in the popular system of
cures; the rubber for this purpose is made into a pear- shaped bottle, and a
quill fixed in the long neck.
September 24th.—Opposite Cametá, the islands are all planted with
cacao, the tree which yields the chocolate nut. The forest is not cleared for
the purpose, but the cacao plants are stuck in here and there almost at
random amongst the trees. There are many houses on the banks of the river,
all elevated above the swampy soil on wooden piles, and furnished with
broad ladders by which to mount to the ground floor. As we passed by in
our canoe, we could see the people at their occupations in the open
verandas, 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 due to the number of poisonous snakes which inhabit the places.
One day, when we were running our montaria to a landing-place, we saw a
large serpent on the trees overhead as we were about to brush past; the boat
was stopped just in the nick of time, and Mr. Leavens brought the reptile
down with a charge of shot.
September 26th.—At length we got clear of the islands, and saw once
more before us the sea-like expanse of waters which forms the mouth of the
Tocantins. The river had now sunk to its lowest point, and numbers of
fresh-water dolphins were rolling about in shoaly places. There are here two
species, one of which was new to science when I sent specimens to
England; it is called the Tucuxí (Steno tucuxi of Gray). When it comes to
the surface to breathe, it rises horizontally, showing first its back fin, then
draws an inspiration, and dives gently down, head foremost. This mode of
proceeding distinguishes the Tucuxí 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 successively the whole dorsal ridge with its fin. It seems thus to
pitch heels over head, but does not show the tail fin. Besides this peculiar
motion, it is distinguished from the Tucuxí by its habit of generally going in
pairs. Both species are exceedingly numerous throughout the Amazons and
its larger tributaries, but they are nowhere more plentiful than in the shoaly
water at the mouth of the Tocantins, especially in the dry season. In the
Upper Amazons a third pale flesh-coloured species is also abundant (the
Delphinus pallidus of Gervais). With the exception of a species found in the
Ganges, all other varieties of dolphin inhabit the sea exclusively. 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 immense 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 Anapú, and on
the 30th September, after threading again the labyrinth of channels
communicating between the Tocantins and the Moju, arrived at Pará.
I will now give a short account of Cametá, 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, departed from Pará to explore the rivers
Guamá and Capim. I embarked as passenger in a Cametá trading vessel, the
St. John, a small schooner of thirty tons burthen. I had learnt by this time
that the only way to attain the objects for which I had come to this country
was to accustom myself to the ways of life of the humbler classes of the
inhabitants. A traveller on the Amazons gains little by being furnished 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 Cametá; the weather was again beautiful
in the extreme. We started from Pará 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 supercargo,
called in Portuguese cabo, 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 treated their two
superiors with the most amusing familiarity, yet I never sailed in a better
managed vessel than the St. John.
In crossing to Cametá 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 “Inglaterra,” to skin monkeys and birds and catch insects; the
last-mentioned employment of course giving ample scope for fun. He
passed from this to the subject of political parties in Cametá; 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 Cametá, 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 Cametá, 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 absurdities attending these
local contests, and hence their inclination 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 Correias was the 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 Saquarema party. I preserved one
of the stanzas of the song, which, however, does not contain much point; it
ran thus:—
Ora paná, tana paná!, pana taná,
Joao Augusto hé bonito e homem pimpao,
Mas Pedro hé feio e hum grande ladrao,
(Chorus) Ora paná, etc.

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

The canoe-men of the Amazons have many songs and choruses, with which
they are in the habit of relieving the monotony of their slow voyages, and
which are known all over the interior. The choruses consist of a simple
strain, repeated almost to weariness, and sung generally in unison, but
sometimes with an attempt at harmony. There is a wildness and sadness
about the tunes which harmonise well with, and in fact are born of, the
circumstances of the canoe-man’s life: the echoing 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 Portuguese are so similar to those of the Indians that
they have become blended with them. One of the commonest songs is very
wild and pretty. It has for refrain the words “Mai, Mai” (“Mother, Mother”),
with a long drawl on the second word. The stanzas are quite 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, Goajará,
Tucumandúba, etc., add greatly to the charm of the wild music. Sometimes
they bring in the stars thus:—
A lua está sahindo,
Mai, Mai!
A lua está sahindo,
Mai, Mai!
As sete estrellas estao chorando,
Mai, Mai!

Por s’acharem desamparados,
Mai, Mai!

The moon is rising,
Mother, Mother!
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 tearing through 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 galley to make tea of an
acid herb, called erva cidreira, a quantity of which they had gathered at the
last landing-place, and the flames sparkled cheerily upwards. It is at such
times as these that Amazon 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 sped rapidly on with booms bent and
sails stretched to the utmost; just as day dawned, we ran with scarcely
slackened speed into the port of Cameta, and cast anchor.
I stayed at Cametá until the 16th 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 Cametá 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 Pará. 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 amalgamation of the white and Indian races being here
complete. The aborigines were originally very numerous on the western
bank of the Tocantins, the principal tribe having been the Camútas, from
which the city takes its name. They were a superior nation, settled, and
attached to agriculture, and received with open arms the white immigrants
who were attracted to the district by its fertility, natural beauty, and the
healthfulness of the climate. The Portuguese settlers were nearly all males,

the Indian women were good-looking, and made excellent wives; so the
natural result has been, in the course of two centuries, a complete blending
of the two races. There is now, however, a considerable infusion of negro
blood in the mixture, several hundred African slaves having been
introduced during the last seventy years. The few whites are chiefly
Portuguese, but there are also two or three Brazilian families of pure
European descent. The town consists of three long streets, running parallel
to the river, with a few shorter ones crossing them at right angles. The
houses are very plain, being built, as usual in this country, simply of a
strong framework, filled up with mud, and coated with white plaster. A few
of them are of two or three stories. There are three churches, and also a
small theatre, where a company of native actors at the time of my visit were
representing light Portuguese plays with considerable taste and ability. The
people have a reputation all over the province for energy and perseverance;
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
province, a moral condition not to be wondered at in a country where
perpetual summer reigns, and where the necessities of life are so easily
obtained. But they are light-hearted, quick-witted, communicative, and
hospitable. I found here a native poet, who had written some pretty verses,
showing an appreciation of the natural beauties of the country, and was told
that the Archbishop of Bahia, the primate of Brazil, was a native of Cametá.
It is interesting to find the mamelucos displaying talent and enterprise, for it
shows that degeneracy does not necessarily result from the mixture of white
and Indian blood. The Cametaenses boast, as they have a right to do, of
theirs being the only large town which resisted successfully the anarchists
in the great rebellion of 1835-6. Whilst the whites of Pará were submitting
to the rule of half-savage revolutionists, the mamelucos of Cametá placed
themselves under the leadership of a courageous priest, named Prudencio;
they armed themselves, fortified the place, and repulsed the large forces
which the insurgents of Pará 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 Cametá 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 primæval forest, at least near the town. The
houses along these beautiful roads belong chiefly to Mameluco, mulatto,
and Indian families, each of which has its own small plantation. There are
only a few planters with larger 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 leaving the shade, and
everywhere meet with cheerful, simple, and hospitable people.
Soon after landing, I was introduced to the most distinguished citizen of
the place, Dr. Angelo Custodio Correia, whom I have already mentioned.
This excellent man was a favourable specimen of the highest class of native
Brazilians. He had been educated in Europe, was now a member of the
Brazilian Parliament, and had been twice president of his native province.
His manners were less formal, and his goodness more thoroughly genuine,
perhaps, than is the rule generally with Brazilians. He was admired and
loved, as I had ample 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 Pará but was himself then attacked with cholera,
and died on board the steamer before he reached the capital. Dr. Angelo
received me with the usual kindness which he showed to all strangers. He
procured me, unsolicited, a charming country house, free of rent, hired a
mulatto servant for me, and thus relieved me of the many annoyances and
delays attendant on a first arrival in a country town where even the name of
an inn is unknown. The rocinha, thus given up for my residence, belonged
to a friend of his, Senhor José Raimundo Furtado, a stout florid-
complexioned gentleman, such a one as might be met with any day in a
country town in England. To him also I was indebted for many acts of
kindness.
The rocinha was situated near a broad grassy road bordered by lofty
woods, which leads from Cametá 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 Curimá and Pacajá, two small

settlements, several miles distant, in the heart of the forest. The Curimá
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 overrun with creepers and
Parásites, fill the shady glen and arch over the bridge, forming one of the
most picturesque scenes imaginable. A little beyond the bridge there was an
extensive grove of orange and other trees, which yielded me a rich harvest.
The Aldeia road runs parallel to the river, the land from the border of the
road to the indented shore of the Tocantins forming a long slope which was
also richly wooded; this slope was threaded by numerous shady paths, and
abounded in beautiful insects and birds. At the opposite or southern end of
the town, there was a broad road called the Estrada da Vacaria; this ran
along the banks of the Tocantins at some distance from the river, and
continued over hill and dale, through bamboo thickets and palm swamps,
for about fifteen miles.
At Cametá 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. 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 narrators. Count Langsdorff, in his Expedition
into the Interior of Brazil, states that he totally disbelieved 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 maddening 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 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, and the hair of the
head, which looks as if it had been carefully combed, sits on it like a wig. It
inhabits only the most retired parts of the forest, on the terra firma, and I
observed nothing of its habits. The little Midas argentatus is one of the
rarest of the American monkeys; indeed, I have not heard of its being found
anywhere except near Cametá, where I once saw three individuals, looking
like so many white kittens, running along a branch in a cacao grove; in their
motions, they resembled precisely the Midas ursulus already described. I
saw afterwards a pet animal of this species, and heard that there were many

so kept, and that they were esteemed as great treasures. The one mentioned
was full-grown, although it measured only seven inches in length of body. It
was covered with long, white, silky hairs, the tail being blackish, and the
face nearly naked and flesh-coloured. It was a most timid and sensitive 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
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 were always kept
fixed upon 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 one day a little pigmy
belonging to the genus Phæthornis in the act of washing itself in a brook;
perched on a thin branch, one end of which was under water. It dipped
itself, then 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 Heliconiæ. 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 at hand.
My return-journey to Pará afforded many incidents characteristic of
Amazonian travelling. I left Cametá on the 16th of July. My luggage was
embarked in the morning in the Santa Rosa, a vessel of the kind called
cuberta, or covered canoe. The cuberta is very much used on these rivers. It
is not decked, but the sides forward are raised and arched over so as to
admit of cargo being piled high above the water-line. At the stern is a neat
square cabin, also raised, and between the cabin and covered forepart is a
narrow piece decked over, on which are placed the cooking arrangements.
This is called the tombadilha or quarterdeck, and when the canoe is heavily
laden, it goes underwater 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 forepart is planked over at the top, and on this raised deck
the crew work the vessel, pulling it along, when there is no wind, by means
of the long oars already described.

As I have just said, my luggage was embarked in the 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
Cametá 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 Rosa, a mere speck in the offing miles
away, tacking down river with a fine breeze. I was now in a fix, for it would
be useless attempting to overtake the cuberta, and besides the sea ran too
high for 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 Pará 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 Cametá friends, I was relieved of
my embarrassment, for I found there an English gentleman, Mr. Patchett of
Pernambuco, who was visiting Pará and its neighbourhood on his way to
England, and who, as he was going back to Pará in a small boat with four
paddles, which would start at midnight, kindly offered me a passage. The
evening from seven to ten o’clock was very stormy. About seven, the night
became intensely dark, and a terrific squall of wind burst forth, which made
the loose tiles fly over the housetops; to this succeeded lightning and
stupendous claps of thunder, both nearly simultaneous. We had had several
of these short and sharp storms during the past month. At midnight, when
we embarked, all was as calm as though a 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
awakening, 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 company of my collections, so bade Mr. Patchett good-day. The owner of
the Santa Rosa, Senhor Jacinto Machado, whom I had not seen before,
received me aboard, and apologised for having started without me. He was

a white man, a planter, and was now taking his year’s production of cacao,
about twenty tons, to Pará. 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, which they stopped with pieces
of ray and clay, and an old negro was baling the water out of the hold. This
was a pleasant prospect for a three-day voyage! 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 Anapú. I wrapped myself in an old sail, and fell
asleep on the raised deck. The next day, we threaded the Igarapé-mirim, and
on the 19th descended the Mojú. Senhor Machado and I by this time had
become very good friends. At every interesting spot on the banks of the
Mojú, he manned the small boat and took me ashore. There are many large
houses on this river belonging to what were formerly large and flourishing
plantations, but which, since the Revolution of 1835-6, had been suffered to
go to decay. Two of the largest buildings were constructed by the Jesuits in
the early part of the last century. We were told that there were formerly
eleven large sugar mills on the banks of the Mojú, whilst now there are only
three. At Burujúba, there is a large monastery in a state of ruin; part of the
edifice, however, was still inhabited by a Brazilian family. The walls are
four feet in thickness. The long dark corridors and gloomy cloisters struck
me as very inappropriate in the midst of this young and radiant nature. They
would be better if placed on some barren moor in Northern Europe than
here in the midst of perpetual summer. The next turn in the river below
Burujúba brought the city of Pará into view. The wind 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, fearing that the crazy vessel would sink before reaching port, I begged

Senhor Machado to send me ashore in the boat with the more precious
portion of my collections.

Chapter V.
CARAPÍ AND THE BAY OF MARAJÓ

River Pará and Bay of Marajó — Journey to Caripí —
Negro Observance of Christmas — A German Family —
Bats — Ant-eaters — Humming-birds — Excursion to the
Murucupí — Domestic Life of the Inhabitants — Hunting
Excursion with Indians — White Ants.

That part of the Pará 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 Goajará, into which the three
rivers Guamá, Mojú, and Acará discharge their waters. The main channel of
the Pará lies ten 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,
ten to twelve miles in width; on the opposite shore the island of Marajó,
being visible only in clear weather as a line of tree-tops dotting the horizon.
A little further upwards, that is to the southwest, the mainland on the right
or eastern shore appears, this is called Carnapijó; it is rocky, covered with
the never-ending forest, and the coast, which is fringed with broad sandy
beaches, describes a gentle curve inwards. The broad reach of the Pará in
front of this coast is called the Bahia, or Bay of Marajó. The coast and the
interior of the land are peopled by civilised Indians and Mamelucos, with a
mixture of free negroes and mulattos. They are poor, for the waters are not
abundant in fish, and they are dependent for a livelihood solely on their
small plantations, and the scant supply of game found in the woods. The
district was originally peopled by various tribes of Indians, of whom the
principal were the Tupinambás and Nhengahíbas. Like all the coast tribes,
whether inhabiting the banks of the Amazons or the seashore between Pará
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 Carnapijó, 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 Caripí. 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 Pará had made some stay at Caripí, and it had obtained
quite a reputation for the number and beauty of the birds and insects found
there; I therefore applied for, and obtained permission, to spend two or three
months at the place. The distance from Pará was about twenty-three miles,
round by the northern end of the Ilha das oncas (Isle of Tigers), which faces
the city. I bargained for a passage thither with the cabo of a small trading-
vessel, which was going past the place, and started on the 7th of December,
1848.
We were thirteen 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 Cametá), a heavily chained
runaway slave, 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 cashaça 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
Carnapijó. At 2 p.m. we emerged from this channel, which is called the
Aititúba, or Arrozal, into the broad Bahia, and then saw, two or three miles
away to the left, the red-tiled mansion of Caripí, 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 years previously, an English gentleman, Mr.
Graham, an amateur naturalist, was capsized here and drowned with his
wife and child, whilst 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 bailing all the way. The Indians manage
canoes in this condition with admirable skill. They preserve 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 veranda, the doors opening upon a slightly elevated terrace
about a hundred yards distant from the broad sandy beach. Around 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; for there
was a great charm in the loneliness of the place. The swell of the river
beating on the sloping beach caused an unceasing murmur, which lulled me
to sleep at night, and seemed appropriate music in those midday hours when
all nature was pausing breathless under the rays of a vertical sun. Here I
spent my first Christmas Day in a foreign land. The festival was celebrated
by the negroes of their own free will and in a very pleasing manner. The
room next to the one I had chosen was the capella, or chapel. It had a little
altar which was neatly arranged, and the room was furnished with a
magnificent brass chandelier. Men, women, and children were busy in the
chapel all day on the 24th of December decorating the altar with flowers
and strewing the floor with orange-leaves. They invited some of their
neighbours to the evening prayers, and when the simple ceremony began an
hour before midnight, the chapel was crowded. They were obliged to
dispense with the mass, for they had no priest; the service therefore
consisted merely of a long litany and a few hymns. There was placed on the
altar a small image of the infant Christ, the “Menino Deos” as they called it,
or the child-god, which had a long ribbon depending from its waist. An old
white-haired negro led off the litany, and the rest of the people joined in the

responses. After the service was over they all went up to the altar, one by
one, and kissed the end of the ribbon. The gravity and earnestness shown
throughout the proceedings were remarkable. Some of the hymns were very
simple and beautiful, especially one beginning “Virgem soberana,” a trace
of whose melody springs to my recollection whenever I think on the
dreamy solitude of Caripí.
The next day after I arrived, two blue-eyed and red-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 Caripí. 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 Pará 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 Pará. No
one can imagine 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 Pará 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 Pará, so he took a passage to Demerara, as bringing him, at any
rate, near to the desired land. There is no communication whatever between
Demerara and Pará, 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 thereby got another stage nearer the end of
his journey. A short time after reaching Cayenne, he shipped in a schooner
that was going to Pará, or rather the island of Marajó, 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 Caripí, built himself a log-hut, and
planted a large patch of mandioca 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 Caripí. 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 excursions,
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.
The first few nights I was much troubled by bats. The room where I slept
had not been used for many months, and the roof was open to the tiles and
rafters. The first night I 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 caves
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-
grey colour, streaked with white down the back, and having a leaf-shaped
fleshy expansion on the tip of the nose. I was never attacked by bats except

on this occasion. The fact of their sucking the blood of persons sleeping,
from wounds which they make in the toes, is now well established; but it is
only a few persons who are subject to this blood-letting. 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 bats 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 around hastily and trotted off. I did not obtain a very
distinct view of it, but I could see its colour was that of the Puma, or
American Lion, although it was rather too small for that species. The Puma
is not a common animal in the Amazons 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 Sassú-arána,[1] or the false deer; that is, an
animal which deceives one at first sight by its superficial resemblance to a
deer. The hunters are not at all afraid of it, and speak always in disparaging
terms of its courage. Of the Jaguar, they give a very different account.
[1] The old zoologist Marcgrave called the Puma the Cuguacuarana, probably
(the c’s being soft) a misspelling of Sassú-arána; hence, the name Cougouar
employed by French zoologists, and copied in most works on natural history.

The only species of monkey I met with at Caripí was the same dark-
coloured little Midas already mentioned as found near Pará. The great Ant-
eater, Tamandua of the natives (Myrmecophaga jubata), was not uncommon
here. After the first few weeks of residence, I ran short of fresh provisions.
The people of the neighbourhood had sold me all the fowls they could
spare; I had not yet learned to eat the stale and 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
Tamanduá. I told her almost anything in the shape of flesh would be
acceptable; so the same day she went with an old negro named Antonio and
the dogs, and in the evening brought one of the animals. The meat was
stewed and turned out very good, something like goose in flavour. The
people at Caripí would not touch a morsel, saying it was not considered fit

to eat in these parts; I had read, however, that it was an article of food in
other countries of South America. During the next two or three weeks,
whenever we were short of fresh meat, Antonio was always ready, for a
small reward, to get me a Tamanduá. But one day he came to me in great
distress, with the news that his favourite dog, Atrevido, had been caught in
the grip of an ant-eater, and was killed. 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 grasp.

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 Ygapó, or flooded lands. The Brazilians call the species the
Tamanduá 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 grey and half black, which gives it some
resemblance to a heraldic banner. It has an excessively long slender muzzle,
and a wormlike extensile tongue. Its jaws are destitute of teeth. The claws
are much elongated, and its gait is very awkward. It lives on the ground,

and feeds on termites, or white ants; the long claws being employed to pull
in pieces the solid hillocks made by the insects, and the long flexible tongue
to lick them up from the crevices. All the other species of this singular
genus are arboreal. I met with four species altogether. One was the
Myrmecophaga tetradactyla; the two others, more curious and less known,
were very small kinds, called Tamanduá-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 greyish-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 Caripí, 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 without motion except
when irritated, in which case it reared itself on its hind legs from the back
of a chair to which it clung, and clawed out with its forepaws like a cat. Its
manner of clinging with its claws, and the sluggishness of its motions, gave
it a great resemblance to a sloth. It uttered no sound, and 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 Tamanduás 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 Myrmecophaga 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 also 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
greater extent than usual, for they flower more or less in this country all the
year round—and attracting a great number of humming-birds. Every day, in
the cooler hours of the morning, and in the evening from four o’clock until
six, they were to be seen whirring about the trees by scores. Their motions
are unlike those of all other birds. They dart to and fro so swiftly that the
eye can scarcely follow them, and when they stop before a flower, it is only
for a few moments. They poise themselves in an unsteady manner, their
wings moving with inconceivable rapidity, probe the flower, and then shoot
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,
perching on leafless twigs, where they may be sometimes seen probing,
from the places where they sit, the flowers within their reach. The brilliant
colours with which they are adorned cannot be seen whilst they are
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 diversified valleys of the
Andes, under the same parallels of latitude. The family is divisible into two
groups, contrasted in form and habits: one containing species which live

entirely in the shade of the forest, and the other comprising those which
prefer open sunny places. The forest species (Phaethorninæ) 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 (Trochilinæ) 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 lowlands and islands, they are scarcely ever seen. I searched
well at Caripí, expecting to find the Lophornis Gouldii, which I was told
had been obtained in the locality. This is one of the most beautiful of all
humming-birds, having round the neck a frill of long white feathers tipped
with golden green. I was not, however, so fortunate as to meet with it.
Several times I shot by mistake a humming-bird hawk-moth instead of a
bird. This moth (Macroglossa Titan) is somewhat smaller than humming-
birds generally are; but its manner of flight, and the way it poises itself
before a flower whilst probing it with its proboscis, are precisely like the
same actions of humming-birds. It was only after many days’ experience
that I learned to distinguish one from the other when on the wing. This
resemblance has attracted the notice of the natives, all of whom, even
educated whites, firmly believe that one is transmutable into the other. They
have observed the metamorphosis of caterpillars into butterflies, and think it
not at all more wonderful that a moth should change into a humming-bird.
The resemblance between this hawk-moth and a humming-bird is certainly
very curious, and strikes one even when both are examined in the hand.
Holding them sideways, the shape of the head and position of the eyes in
the moth are seen to be nearly the same as in the bird, the extended
proboscis representing the long beak. At the tip of the moth’s body there is a
brush of long hair-scales resembling feathers, which, being expanded, looks
very much like a bird’s tail. But, of course, all these points of resemblance
are merely superficial. The negroes and Indians tried to convince me that
the two were of the same species. “Look at their feathers,” they said; “their
eyes are the same, and so are their tails.” This belief is so deeply rooted that
it was useless to reason with them on the subject. The Macroglossa moths
are found in most countries, and have everywhere the same habits; one
well-known species is found in England. 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 warm-
blooded vertebrate animals. The want of expression in their eyes, the small
degree of versatility in their actions, the quickness and precision of their
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 remaining poised in mid-
air, a few feet distant from the face of the intruder. The Phaethorninæ are
certainly more numerous in the Amazons region than the Trochilinæ. 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 samaüma tree (Eriodendron samauma); and on the inner sides lined with
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 Trochilinæ which I found at Caripí were the little brassy-green
Polytmus viridissimus, the sapphire and emerald (Thalurania furcata), and
the large falcate-winged Campylopterus obscurus.
Snakes were very numerous at Caripí; many harmless species were found
near the house, and these sometimes came into the rooms. I was wandering
one day amongst the green bushes of Guajará, a tree which yields a grape-
like berry (Chrysobalanus Icaco) and grows along all these sandy shores,
when I was startled by what appeared to be the flexuous stem of a creeping
plant endowed with life and threading its way amongst the leaves and
branches. This animated liana turned out to be a pale-green snake, the
Dryophis fulgida. Its whole body is of the same green hue, and it is thus
rendered undistinguishable amidst the foliage of the Guajará 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 four feet eight inches, the tail alone

being twenty-two 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 individual which I caught of this species had a
protuberance near the middle of the body. Upon opening it, I found a half-
digested lizard which was much more bulky than the snake itself. Another
kind of serpent found here, a species of Helicops, was amphibious in its
habits. I saw several of this in wet weather on the beach, which, on being
approached, always made straightway for the water, where they swam with
much grace and dexterity. Florinda one day caught a Helicops whilst
angling for fish, it having swallowed the fishhook with the bait. She and
others told me these water-snakes lived on small fishes, but I did not meet
with any proof of the statement. In the woods, snakes were constantly
occurring; it was not often, however, that I saw poisonous species. There
were many arboreal kinds besides the two just mentioned; and it was rather
alarming, in entomologising about the 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 beautiful object when
seen coiled up on black soil in the woods. The one I saw here was 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 excursions of long extent
in the neighbouring forest. We sometimes went to Murucupí, a creek which
passes through the forest, about four miles behind Caripí, 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 Caripí leads to it through a
gloomy tract of virgin forest, where the trees are so closely packed together
that the ground beneath is thrown into the deepest shade, under which
nothing but fetid fungi and rotting vegetable debris is to be seen. On
emerging from this unfriendly solitude near the banks of the Murucupí, a
charming contrast is presented. A glorious vegetation, piled up to an
immense height, clothes the banks of the creek, which traverses a broad
tract of semi-cultivated ground, and the varied masses of greenery are
lighted up with 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 substantial architecture than the rest, having
finished mud walls that were plastered and whitewashed, and had 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 Murucupí, and they intended to be present
to hear mass and show their finery. One of the children, a naked boy about
seven years of age, crossed over with the montaria to fetch us. We were
made welcome at once, and asked to stay for dinner. On our accepting the
invitation, a couple of fowls were killed, and a wholesome stew of seasoned
rice and fowls soon put into preparation. It is not often that the female
members of a family in these retired places are familiar with strangers; but,
these people had lived a long time in the capital, and therefore, were more
civilised than their neighbours. Their father had been a prosperous
tradesman, and had given them the best education the place afforded. After
his death the widow with several daughters, married and unmarried, retired
to this secluded spot, which had been their sitio, farm or country-house, for
many years. One of the daughters was married to a handsome young
mulatto, who was present, and sang us some pretty songs, accompanying
himself on the guitar.
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 embarked in a little montaria, and paddled some three or four
miles up and down the stream. Although I had now become familiarised
with beautiful vegetation, all the glow of fresh admiration came again to me
in this place. The creek was about a hundred 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 overarching trees,
glimpses were obtained of the palm-thatched huts of settlers. The projecting
boughs of lofty trees, which in some places stretched half-way across the
creek, were hung with natural garlands and festoons, and an endless variety
of creeping plants clothed the water-frontage, some of which, especially the
Bignonias, were ornamented with large gaily-coloured flowers. Art could

not have assorted together beautiful vegetable forms so harmoniously as
was here done by Nature. Palms, as usual, formed a large proportion of the
lower trees; some of them, however, shot up their slim stems to a height of
sixty feet or more, and waved their bunches of nodding plumes between us
and the sky. One kind of palm, the Pashiúba (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 Pashiúba. 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 well occupied during
the hot hours of the day collecting insects in a neighbouring clearing. Our
kind hosts gave us a cup of coffee about five o’clock, and we then started
for home. The last mile of our walk was performed in the dark. The forest
in this part is obscure even in broad daylight, but I was scarcely prepared
for the intense opacity of darkness which reigned here on this night, and
which prevented us from seeing each other whilst 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
Caripí.
One of my neighbours at Murucupí 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, the situation of which he kept secret, and procure fresh provisions
for his family. I had found out by this time that animal food was as much a
necessary of life in this exhausting climate as it is in the North of Europe.
An attempt which I made to live on 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
Caripí, so I asked as a favour of Senhor Raimundo permission to
accompany him on one of his hunting-trips, and shoot a little game for my
own use. He consented, and appointed a day on which I was to come over
to his house to sleep, so as to be ready for starting with the ebb-tide shortly
after midnight.
The locality we were to visit was situated near the extreme point of the
land of Carnapijó, where it projects northwardly into the middle of the Pará
estuary, and is broken into a number of islands. On the afternoon of January
11th, 1849, I walked through the woods to Raimundo’s house, taking
nothing with me but a double-barrelled gun, a supply of ammunition, and a
box for the reception of any insects I might capture. Raimundo was a
carpenter, and seemed to be a very industrious, man; he had two
apprentices, Indians like himself—one a young lad, and the other
apparently about twenty years of age. His wife was of the same race. The
Indian women are not always of a taciturn disposition like their husbands.
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 Tupí language. Raimundo and his
apprentices were employed building a canoe. Notwithstanding his industry,
he seemed to be very poor, and this was the condition of most of the
residents on the banks of the Murucupí. They have, nevertheless,
considerable plantations of mandioca and Indian corn, besides small plots
of cotton, coffee, and sugarcane; the soil is very fertile, they have no rent to
pay, and no direct taxes. There is, moreover, always a market in Pará,
twenty miles distant, for their surplus produce, and a ready communication
with it by water.
In the evening we had more visitors. The sounds of pipe and tabor were
heard, and presently a procession of villagers emerged from a pathway
through the mandioca fields. They were on a begging expedition for St.
Thomé, the patron saint of Indians and Mamelucos. One carried a banner,
on which was crudely painted the figure of St. Thomé with a glory round

his head. The pipe and tabor were of the simplest description. The pipe was
a reed pierced with four holes, by means of which a few unmusical notes
were produced, and the tabor was a broad hoop with a skin stretched over
each end. A deformed young man played both the instruments. Senhor
Raimundo received them with the quiet politeness which comes so naturally
to the Indian when occupying the position of host. The visitors, who had
come from the Villa de Condé, five miles through the forest, were invited to
rest. Raimundo then took the image of St. Thomé 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 pirarucú, 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 upon retiring,
Raimundo gave orders for their breakfast in the morning.
Raimundo called me at two o’clock, when we embarked (he, his older
apprentice Joaquim, and myself) in a shady place where it was so dark that I
could see neither canoe nor water, taking with us five dogs. We glided down
a winding creek where huge trunks of trees slanted across close overhead,
and presently emerged into the Murucupí. A few yards further on we
entered the broader channel of the Aititúba. This we crossed, and entered
another narrow creek on the opposite side. Here the ebb-tide was against us,
and we had great difficulty in making progress. After we had struggled
against the powerful current a distance of two miles, we came to a part
where the ebb-tide ran in the opposite direction, showing that we had
crossed the watershed. 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 Jupatí palms
which arched over the creek, and revealed groups of arborescent arums
standing like rows of spectres on its banks. We had a glimpse now and then

into the black depths of the forest, 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 Pará, who had received
grants from time to time from the Government for political services.
Raimundo was quite in a talkative humour; he related to me many incidents
of the time of the “Cabanagem,” as the revolutionary days of 1835-6 are
popularly called. He said he had been much suspected 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
proprietorship. 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 redskins, “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 Raimundo, revealing a more animated
expression than is usually observable in Indian countenances. I always
noticed that Indians were more cheerful on a voyage, especially in the cool
hours of night and morning, than when ashore. There is something in their
constitution of body which makes them feel excessively 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 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-ground about half-past four. The channel was
broader here and presented several ramifications. It yet wanted an hour and
a half to daybreak, so Raimundo recommended me to have a nap. We both

stretched ourselves on the benches of the canoe and fell asleep, letting the
boat drift with the tide, which was now slack. I slept well 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 beautiful our earth truly is! The
channel on whose waters our little boat was floating was about two hundred
yards wide; others branched off right and left, surrounding the group of
lonely islands which terminate the land of Carnapijó. The forest on all sides
formed a lofty hedge without a break; below, it was fringed with mangrove
bushes, whose small foliage contrasted with the large glossy leaves of the
taller trees, or the feather and fan-shaped fronds of palms.
Being now arrived at our destination, Raimundo turned up his trousers
and shirt-sleeves, took his long hunting-knife, and leapt ashore with the
dogs. He had to cut a gap in order to enter the forest. We expected to find
Pacas and Cutías; 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 hearing 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 habits of both animals, when hard-pressed, being to take to
the water. We had not long to wait. The first arrival was a Paca, a reddish,
nearly tail-less 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 reappear. A second was
brought down by my companion as it was rambling about under the
mangrove bushes. A Cutía 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
Cutía. All the time the dogs were yelping in the forest. Shortly afterwards
Raimundo made his appearance, and told us to paddle to the other side of
the island. Arrived there, we landed and prepared for breakfast. It was a

pretty spot—a clean, white, sandy beach beneath the shade of wide-
spreading trees. Joaquim made a fire. He first scraped fine shavings from
the midrib of a Bacaba palm-leaf; these he piled into a little heap in a dry
place, and then struck a light in his bamboo tinderbox with a piece of an old
file and a flint, the tinder being a felt-like substance manufactured 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 cutía, 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 cutía 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 it 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 snow-white egrets. One of the islands was low and
sandy, and half of it was covered with gigantic arum-trees, the often-
mentioned Caladium arborescens, which presented a strange sight. Most
people are acquainted with the little British species, Arum maculatum,
which grows in hedge-bottoms, and many, doubtless, have admired the
larger kinds grown in hothouses; they can therefore form some idea of a
forest of arums. On this islet the woody stems of the plants near the bottom
were eight to ten inches in diameter, and the trees were twelve to fifteen feet
high; all growing together in such a manner that there was just room for a
man to walk freely between them. There was a canoe inshore, with a man
and a woman: the man, who was hooting with all his might, told us in
passing that his son was lost in the “aningal” (arum-grove). He had strayed
whilst walking ashore, and the father had now been an hour waiting for him
in vain.
About one o’clock we again stopped at the mouth of a little creek. It was
now intensely hot. Raimundo said deer were found here; so he borrowed
my gun, as being a more effective weapon than the wretched arms called
Lazarinos, which he, in common with all the native hunters, used, and
which sell at Pará for seven or eight shillings apiece. Raimundo and

Joaquim now stripped themselves quite naked, and started off in different
directions through the forest, going naked in order to move with less noise
over the carpet of dead leaves, amongst which they stepped so stealthily
that not the slightest rustle could be heard. The dogs remained in the canoe,
in the 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 Caripí. 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 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 when between the swelling ridges of
waves in so frail a shell, our destruction seemed inevitable; as it was, we
shipped a little water now and then. Joaquim assisted with his paddle to
steady the boat: my time was fully occupied in bailing 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
Caripí, thoroughly tired and wet through to the skin.

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 atmosphere became misty; at length heavy clouds collected
where a uniform blue sky had for many weeks prevailed, and down came a
succession of heavy showers, the first of which lasted a whole day and
night. This seemed to give a new stimulus to animal life. On the first night
there was a tremendous uproar—tree-frogs, crickets, goat-suckers, and owls
all joining to perform a deafening concert. One kind of goat-sucker kept
repeating at intervals throughout the night a phrase similar to the
Portuguese words, “Joao corta pao,”—“John, cut wood”—a phrase which
forms the Brazilian name of the bird. An owl in one of the Genipapa trees
muttered now and then a succession of syllables resembling the word
“Murucututú.” Sometimes the croaking and hooting of frogs and toads were
so loud that we could not hear one another’s voices within doors. Swarms
of dragonflies appeared in the daytime about the pools of water created by
the rain, and ants and termites came forth in the winged state in vast
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 movement. On examination I found that the
wings were not shed by the roots, for a small portion of the stumps
remained attached to the thorax. The edge of the fracture was in all cases
straight, not ruptured; there is, in fact, a natural seam crossing the member
towards its root, and at this point the long wing 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 disseminate its kind. The winged individuals are
males and females, whilst the great bulk of their wingless fraternity are of
no sex, but are of two castes, soldiers and workers, which are restricted to
the functions of building the nests, nursing, and defending the young brood.
The two sexes mate whilst on the ground, after the wings are shed; and then
the married couples, if they escape the 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.
I amassed at Caripí a very large collection of beautiful and curious
insects, amounting altogether to about twelve hundred species. The number
of Coleoptera was remarkable, seeing that this order is so poorly
represented near Pará. I attributed their abundance to the number of new
clearings made in the virgin forest by the native settlers. The felled timber
attracts lignivorous insects, and these draw in their train the predaceous
species of various families. As a general rule, the species were smaller and
much less brilliant in colours than those of Mexico and South Brazil. The
species too, although numerous, were not represented by great numbers of
individuals; they were also extremely nimble, and therefore much less easy
of capture than insects of the same order in temperate climates. The
carnivorous beetles at Caripí were, like those of Pará, chiefly arboreal. 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 Caripí, 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 (Phanæus lancifer). A
blow from this fellow, as he came heavily flying along, was never very
pleasant. All the tribes of beetles which feed on vegetable substances, fresh

or decayed, were very numerous. The most beautiful of these, but not the
most common, were the Longicornes; very graceful insects, having slender
bodies and long antennæ, 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
antennæ. It suggests curious reflections when we see an ornament like the
feather of a grenadier’s cap situated on one part of the body in one species,
and in a totally different part in nearly allied ones. I tried in vain to discover
the use of these curious brush-like decorations. On the trunk of a living
leguminous tree, Petzell found a number of a very rare and handsome
species, the Platysternus hebræus, 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 (Chrysoprasis), which looked like miniature musk-beetles,
and, indeed, are closely allied to those well-known European insects.
At length, on the 12th of February, I left Caripí, my Negro and Indian
neighbours bidding me a warm “adios.” I had passed a delightful time,
notwithstanding the many privations undergone in the way of food. The wet
season had now set in; the lowlands and islands would soon become
flooded daily at high water, and the difficulty of obtaining fresh provisions
would increase. I intended, therefore, to spend the next three months at
Pará, in the neighbourhood of which there was still much to be done in the
intervals of fine weather, and then start off on another excursion into the
interior.

Chapter VI.
THE LOWER AMAZONS—PARÁ 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 Pará to the Amazons — First
Sight of the Great River — Gurupa — The Great Shoal —
Flat-topped Mountains — Santarem — Obydos

At the time of my first voyage up the Amazons—namely, in 1849—nearly
all communication with the interior was by means of small sailing-vessels,
owned by traders residing in the remote towns and villages, who seldom
came to Pará themselves, but entrusted vessels and cargoes to the care of
half-breeds or Portuguese cabos. Sometimes, indeed, they risked all in the
hands of the Indian crew, making the pilot, who was also steersman, do
duty as supercargo. Now and then, Portuguese and Brazilian merchants at
Pará furnished young Portuguese with merchandise, and dispatched 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 decline for some time, on account of the
augmented difficulty of obtaining hands 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 farther than the ordinary sailing craft could in three.
Indian paddlers were now, however, almost impossible to be obtained, and
Government officers were obliged to travel as passengers in trading-vessels.
The voyage made in this way was tedious in the extreme. When the regular
east-wind blew—the “vento geral,” or trade-wind of the 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.” The 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 strong bough 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 Pará, in about forty days; but in the wet
season, from January to July, when the east-wind no longer blows and the
Amazons pours forth its full volume of water, flooding the banks and
producing a tearing current, it took three months to travel the same distance.
It was a great blessing to the inhabitants when, in 1853, a line of steamers
was established, and this same journey could be accomplished with ease
and comfort, at all seasons, in eight days!
It is, perhaps, not generally known that the Portuguese, as early as 1710,
had a fair knowledge of the Amazons; but the information gathered by their
Government, 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 Pará 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 undertaken in succession. 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 Pará without any great misadventure by the same
route. The 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 lieutenant of Gonzalo Pizarro,
Governor of Quito, and accompanied the latter in an adventurous journey
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 number by disease and hunger, and the
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.[1]
[1] 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 distinguished the early Spanish adventurers,
and impaired the credibility of their narratives.

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 flowing from the south, and therefore, from an
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 constructed
rafts, and, leaving behind our horses and baggage, sailed down the river (the
Ucayali) with great 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 fresh water at its mouth, vast shoals, and 800 leagues of wilderness
without any kind of inhabitants,[2] as your Majesty will see from the true
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
European public was that of the French astronomer, La Condamine, in
1743-4. The most complete account yet published of the river is that given
by Von Martius in the third volume of Spix and Martius’ Travels. These
most accomplished travellers were eleven months in the country—namely,
from July, 1819, to June, 1820—and ascended the river to the frontiers of
the Brazilian territory. The accounts they have given of the geography,
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.
[2] This account disagrees 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.

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

Joao 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, Cametá, 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 Cametá twelve days. The chief
motive for prolonging the stay to this extent was a festival at the Aldeia,
two miles below Cametá, which was to commence on the 21st, and which
my friend wished to take part in. On the day of the festival the schooner
was sent down to anchor off the Aldeia, and master and men gave
themselves up to revelry. In the evening a strong breeze sprang up, and
orders were given to embark. We scrambled down in the dark through the
thickets of cacao, orange, and coffee trees which clothed the high bank, and,
after running great risk of being swamped by the heavy sea in the crowded
montaria, got all aboard by nine o’clock. We made all sail amidst the
“adios” shouted to us by Indian and mulatto sweethearts from the top of the
bank, and, tide and wind being favourable, were soon miles away.
Our crew consisted, as already mentioned, of twelve persons. One was a
young Portuguese from the province of Traz os Montes, a pretty sample of
the kind of emigrants which Portugal sends to Brazil. He was two or three
and twenty years of age, and had been about two years in the country,
dressing and living like the Indians, to whom he was certainly inferior in
manners. He could not read or write, whereas one at least of our Tapuyos
had both accomplishments. He had a little wooden image of Nossa Senhora
in his rough wooden clothes-chest, and to this he always had recourse when
any squall arose, or when we ran aground on a shoal. Another of our sailors
was a tawny white of Cametá; the rest were Indians, except the cook, who
was a Cafuzo, or half-breed between the Indian and negro. It is often said
that this class of mestizos is the most evilly-disposed of all the numerous
crosses between the races inhabiting Brazil; but Luiz was a simple, good-
hearted fellow, always ready to do one a service. The pilot was an old
Tapuyo of Pará, 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 quarterdeck and get his two hours’

nap. The Indians forward had things pretty much their own way. No system
of watches was followed; when any one was so disposed, he lay down on
the deck and went to sleep; but a feeling of good fellowship seemed always
to exist amongst them. One of them was a fine specimen of the Indian race
—a man just short of six feet high, with remarkable breadth of shoulder and
full muscular chest. His comrades called him the commandant, on account
of his having been one of the rebel leaders when the Indians and others took
Santarem in 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 stoppages, the men went in the montaria to fish near
the shore, so that our breakfasts and dinners of salt pirarucu were
sometimes varied with fresh food.
September 24th.—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 northeast there was a long sweep of horizon
clear of land, and on the southwest stretched a similar boundless expanse,
but varied with islets clothed with fan-leaved palms, which, however, were
visible only as isolated groups of columns, tufted at the top, rising here and
there amidst the waste of waters. In the afternoon we rounded the
westernmost point; the land, which is not terra firma, but simply a group of
large islands forming a portion of the Tocantins delta, was then about three
miles distant.
On the following day (25th) we sailed towards the west, along the upper
portion of the Pará estuary, which extends seventy miles beyond the mouth
of the Tocantins. 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 Marajó, and is slightly elevated

and rocky in some parts. A series of islands conceals the southern shore
from view most 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 connects the Pará with the Amazons. The sudden
termination of the Pará at a point where it expands to so great a breadth is
remarkable; the water, however, is very shallow over the greater portion of
the expanse. I noticed both on this and on the three subsequent occasions of
passing this place in ascending and descending the river, that the flow of the
tide from the east along the estuary, as well as up the Breves, was very
strong. This seems sufficient to prove that no considerable volume of water
passes by this medium from the Amazons to the Pará, and that the opinion
of those geographers is an incorrect one, who believe the Pará to be one of
the mouths of the great river. There is, however, another channel connecting
the two rivers, which enters the Pará six miles to the south of the Breves.
The lower part of its course for eighteen miles is formed by the Uanapú, 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 p.m. on the 26th. It consists of about
forty houses, most of which are occupied by Portuguese shopkeepers. A few
Indian families reside here, who occupy themselves with the manufacture of
ornamental pottery and painted cuyas, which they sell to traders or passing
travellers. The cuyas—drinking-cups made from gourds—are sometimes
very tastefully painted. The rich black ground-colour is produced by a dye
made from the bark of a tree called Comateu, 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 Tupí
stock who practise it.
September 27th-30th.—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. About midday we passed, on the western side,
the mouth of the Aturiazal, through which, on account of its swifter current,
vessels pass in descending from the Amazons to Pará. Shortly afterwards

we entered the narrow channel of the Jaburú, 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 perpendicularly from the water to a
height of seventy or eighty feet. The water was of great and uniform depth,
even close to the banks. We seemed to be in a deep gorge, and the strange
impression the place produced was augmented by the dull echoes wakened
by the voices of our Indians and the splash of their paddles. The forest was
excessively varied. Some of the trees, the dome-topped giants of the
Leguminous and Bombaceous orders, reared their heads far above the
average height of the green walls. The fan-leaved Mirití palm was scattered
in some numbers amidst the rest, a few solitary specimens shooting up their
smooth columns above the other trees. The graceful Assai palm grew in
little groups, forming feathery pictures set in the rounder foliage of the
mass. The Ubussú, lower in height, showed only its shuttlecock shaped
crowns of huge undivided fronds, which, being of a vivid pale-green,
contrasted forcibly against the sombre hues of the surrounding foliage. The
Ubussú grew here in great numbers; the equally remarkable Jupati palm
(Rhaphia taedigera), which, like the Ubussú, is peculiar to this district,
occurred more sparsely, throwing its long shaggy leaves, forty to fifty feet
in length, in broad arches over the canal. An infinite diversity of smaller-
sized palms decorated the water’s edge, such as the Marajá-i (Bactris, many
species), the Ubim (Geonoma), and a few stately Bacábas (Œnocarpus
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
ornamental 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 Ingá 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 (Bignoniæ). The blossoms of the Ingás, although not conspicuous,
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 Jaburú channel is about thirty-five miles, allowing for
the numerous abrupt bends which occur between the middle and the
northern end of its course. We were three days and a half accomplishing the
passage. The banks on each side seemed to be composed of hard river-mud
with a thick covering of vegetable mold, so that I should imagine this whole
district originated in a gradual accumulation of alluvium, through which the
endless labyrinths of channels have worked their deep and narrow beds. The
flood-tide as we travelled northward became gradually of less assistance to
us, as it caused only a feeble current upwards. The pressure of the waters
from the Amazons here makes itself felt: as this is not the case lower down,
I suppose the currents are diverted through some of the numerous channels
which we passed on our right, and which traverse, in their course towards
the sea, the north-western part of Maraj&o†. In the evening of the 29th we
arrived at a point where another channel joins the Jaburú 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 Pajé, or Indian wizard, whom it is necessary to propitiate by
depositing some article on the spot, if the voyager wishes to secure a safe
return from the “sertaô,” as the interior of the country is called. The trees
were all hung with rags, shirts, straw hats, bunches of fruit, and so forth.
Although the superstition doubtless originated with the aborigines, I
observed in both my voyages, that it was only the Portuguese and
uneducated Brazilians who deposited anything. The pure Indians gave
nothing, and treated the whole affair as a humbug; but they were all
civilised Tapuyos.
On the 30th, at 9 p.m., we reached a broad channel called Macaco, and
now left the dark, echoing Jaburú. The Macaco sends off branches towards
the north-west coast of Marajó. 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 fifteen
miles distant from the end of the Jaburú. This is also a winding channel,
thirty-five miles in length, threading a group of islands, but it is much
narrower than the Macaco.

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

than two feet in length, although full-grown according to the statement of
the Indians, who said it was a “mai d’ovos,” or mother of eggs, as they had
pillaged the nest, which they had found near the edge of the water. The eggs
were rather larger than a hen’s, and regularly oval in shape, presenting a
rough hard surface of shell. 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 3rd.—About midnight the wind, for which we had long been
waiting, sprang up; the men weighed anchor, and we were soon fairly
embarked on the Amazons. I rose long before sunrise to see the great river
by moonlight. There was a spanking breeze, and the vessel was bounding
gaily over the waters. The channel along which we were sailing was only a
narrow arm of the river, about two miles in width: the total breadth at this
point is more than twenty miles, but the stream is divided into three parts by
a series of large islands. The river, notwithstanding this limitation of its
breadth, had a most majestic appearance. It did not present that lake-like
aspect which the waters of the Pará 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 Pará
system. The channel formed a splendid reach, sweeping from south-west to
north-east, with a horizon of water and sky both upstream and down. At 11
a.m. we arrived at Gurupá, a small village situated on a rocky bank thirty or
forty feet high. Here we landed, and I had an opportunity of rambling in the
neighbouring woods, which are intersected by numerous pathways, and
carpeted with Lycopodia growing to a height of eight or ten inches, and
enlivened by numbers of glossy blue butterflies of the Theclidæ or
hairstreak family. At 5 p.m. we were again under way. Soon after sunset, as
we were crossing the mouth of the Xingú, the first of the great tributaries of
the Amazons, 1200 miles in length, a black cloud arose suddenly in the
northeast. Joao da Cunha ordered all sails to be taken in, and immediately
afterwards a furious squall burst forth, tearing the waters into foam, and
producing a frightful uproar in the neighbouring forests. A drenching rain
followed, but in half an hour all was again calm and the full moon appeared
sailing in a cloudless sky.

From the mouth of the Xingú the route followed by vessels leads straight
across the river, here ten 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 spending an
uncomfortable night. We rounded the point of the shoal in two fathoms’
water; the head of the vessel was then put westward, and by sunrise we
were bounding forward before a steady breeze, all sail set and everybody in
good humour.
The weather was now delightful for several days in 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 Urucuricáya and the Aquiquí, two
channels which communicate with the Xingú. The whole of this southern
coast hence to near Santarem, a distance of 130 miles, is lowland and quite
uninhabited. It is intersected by short arms or back waters of the Amazons,
which are called in the Tupi language Parána-mirims, or little rivers. By
keeping to these, small canoes can travel a 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; and peopled by white
egrets, ghostly storks, and solitary herons. In the evening we passed
Almeyrim. The hills, according to Von Martius, 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 as if they had been planed down to a uniform
height by some external force. The next day we passed in succession a
series of similar flat-topped hills, some isolated and of a truncated-

pyramidal shape, others prolonged to a length of several miles. There is an
interval of low country between these and the Almeyrim range, which has a
total length of about twenty-five miles; then commences abruptly the Serra
de Marauaqua, which is succeeded in a similar way by the Velha Pobre
range, the Serras de Tapaiuna-quára, and Parauá-quára. All these form a
striking contrast to the Serra de Almeyrim in being quite destitute of trees.
They have steep rugged sides, apparently clothed with short herbage, but
here and there exposing bare white patches. Their total length is about forty
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 landscape
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.

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 fearfully, hurling everything that was not well secured from one

side of the deck to the other. On the morning of the 9th of October, a gentle
wind carried us along a “remanso,” or still water, under the southern shore.
These tracts of quiet water are frequent on the irregular sides of the stream,
and are the effect of counter movements caused by the rapid current of its
central parts. At 9 a.m. we passed the mouth of a Paraná-mirim, called
Mahicá, 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 Xingú, we saw before us a broad
sloping beach of white sand. The forest, instead of being an entangled mass
of irregular and rank vegetation as hitherto, presented a rounded outline,
and created an impresssion 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, 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 disdainfully by, occupying
nearly the whole breadth of the channel, whilst the darker water of its
tributary seems to creep along the shore, and is no longer distinguishable
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 southward 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 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 difficulty. 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 meadowland, lies on the opposite
banks of the river, and the Tapajos leads into the heart of the mining
provinces of interior Brazil. But where is the population to come from to
develop the resources of this fine country? At present, the district within a
radius of twenty-five miles contains barely 6500 inhabitants; behind the
town, towards the interior, the country is uninhabited, and jaguars roam
nightly, at least in the rainy season, close up to the ends of the suburban
streets.
From information obtained here, I fixed upon the next town, Obydos, as
the best place to stay for 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
Santarem, by midnight. We sailed all day close to the southern shore, and
found the banks here and there dotted with houses of settlers, each
surrounded by its plantation of cacao, which is the staple product of the
district. This coast has an evil reputation for storms and mosquitoes, but we
fortunately escaped both. It was remarkable that we had been troubled by
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 Joao da Cunha, who, after landing 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, ninety or a hundred feet above the level of the
river. The coast is precipitous 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 extends six miles westward, terminating at
the mouth of 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, 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 architecture.
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 families, 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
districts, which border the Lago Grande, and other similar inland lakes, near
the villages of Faro and Alemquer. These campos bear a crop of nutritious
grass; but in certain seasons, when the rising of the Amazons exceeds the
average, they are apt to be flooded, and then the large herds of half wild
cattle suffer great mortality from drowning, hunger, and alligators. Neither
in cattle-keeping nor cacao-growing are any but the laziest and most
primitive methods followed, and the consequence 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 Pará 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, married 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 Pará. Sunday was strictly observed at
Obydos—at least all the shops were 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.
The forest at Obydos seemed to abound in monkeys, for I rarely passed a
day without seeing several. I noticed four species: the Coaitá (Ateles
paniscus), the Chrysothrix sciureus, the Callithrix torquatus, and our old
Pará friend, Midas ursulus. The Coaitá is a large black monkey, covered

with coarse hair, and having the prominent parts of the face of a tawny
flesh-coloured hue. It is the largest of the Amazonian monkeys in stature,
but is excelled in bulk by the “Barrigudo” (Lagothrix Humboldtii) of the
Upper Amazons. It occurs throughout the lowlands of the 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 Coaitá (Ateles
marginatus) takes its place. The Coaitás are called by zoologists spider
monkeys, on account of the length and slenderness of their body and limbs.
In these apes the tail, as a prehensile organ, reaches its highest degree of
perfection; and on this account it would, perhaps, be correct to consider the
Coaitás as the extreme development of the American type of apes. As far as
we know, from living and fossil species, the New World has progressed no
farther than the Coaitá 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 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 Coaitá hunt, borrowing a negro
slave of a friend to show me the way. When in the deepest part of a ravine
we heard a rustling sound in the trees overhead, and Manoel soon pointed
out a Coaitá to me. There was something 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. Coaitás are more frequently kept in a tame state than any other kind
of monkey. The Indians are very fond of them as pets, and the women often
suckle them when young at their breasts. They become attached to their
masters, and will sometimes follow them on the ground to considerable
distances. I once saw a most ridiculously tame Coaitá. 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 feeling, its master set to
and rated it soundly, calling it scamp, heathen, thief, and so forth, all
through the copious Portuguese vocabulary of vituperation. The poor
monkey, quietly seated on the ground, seemed to be in sore trouble at this
display of anger. It began by looking earnestly at him, then it whined, and
lastly rocked its body to and fro with emotion, crying piteously, and passing
its long gaunt arms continually over its forehead; for this was its habit when
excited, and the front of the head was worn quite bald in consequence. At
length its master altered his tone. “It’s all a lie, my old woman; you’re an
angel, a flower, a good affectionate 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 Coaitá 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 Coaitá, when
full grown, by shooting it with the blowpipe and poisoned darts, and
restoring life by putting a little salt (the antidote to the Urarí poison with
which the darts are tipped) in its mouth. The animals thus caught become
tame forthwith. Two females were once kept at the Jardin des Plantes of
Paris, and Geoffroy St. Hilaire relates of them that they rarely quitted each
other, remaining most of the time in close embrace, folding their tails
around 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 also 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 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 different patterns according to the species. Their elegant shape, showy
colours, and slow, sailing mode of flight, make them very attractive objects,
and their numbers are so great that they form quite a feature in the
physiognomy of the forest, compensating for the scarcity of flowers. Next
to the Heliconii, the Catagrammas (C. astarte and C. peristera) were the
most conspicuous. These have a very rapid and short flight, settling
frequently and remaining stationary for a long time on the trunks of trees.
The colours of their wings are vermilion and black, the surface having a
rich velvety appearance. The genus owes its Greek name Catagramma
(signifying “a letter beneath”) to the curious markings of the underside of
the wings, resembling Arabic numerals. The species and varieties are of
almost endless diversity, but the majority inhabit the hot valleys of the
eastern parts of the Andes. Another butterfly nearly allied to these, Callithea

Leprieurii, was also very abundant here at the marshy head of the pool
before mentioned. The wings are of a rich dark-blue colour, with a broad
border of silvery green. These two groups of Callithea and Catagramma 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 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 uninterrupted from an early hour in the
morning until sunset. All the individuals which resort to the margins of
sandy beaches are of the male sex. The females are much more rare, and are
seen only on the borders of the forest, wandering from tree to tree, and
depositing their eggs on low mimosas which grow in the shade. The
migrating hordes, as far as I could ascertain, are composed only of males,
and on this account I believe their wanderings do not extend very far.

A strange kind of wood-cricket is found in this neighbourhood, the males
of which produce a very loud and not unmusical noise by rubbing together
the overlapping edges of their wing-cases. The notes are certainly the
loudest and most extraordinary that I ever heard produced by an
orthopterous insect. The natives call it the Tananá, in allusion to its music,
which is a sharp, resonant stridulation resembling the syllables ta-na-ná, ta-
na-ná, 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
Locustidæ, a group intermediate between the Cricket (Achetidæ) and the
Grasshoppers (Acridiidæ). 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
instrument by which the Tanana produces its music is curiously contrived
out of the ordinary nervures of the wing-cases. In each wing-case the inner
edge, near its origin, has a horny expansion or lobe; on one wing (b) this
lobe has sharp raised margins; on the other (a), the strong nervure which
traverses the lobe on the 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 horny margin of the other,
thus producing the sounds; the parchmenty wing-cases and the hollow
drum-like space which they enclose assist in giving resonance to the tones.
The projecting portions of both wing-cases are traversed by a similar strong
nervure, but this is scored like a file only in one of them, in the other
remaining perfectly smooth. Other species of the family to which the
Tananá 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 burrow,
and stridulate until a female approaches, when the louder notes are

succeeded by a more subdued tone, whilst the successful musician caresses
with his antennæ the mate he has won. Anyone who will take the trouble
may observe a similar proceeding in the common house-cricket. The nature
and object of this insect music are more uniform than the structure and
situation of the instrument by which it is produced. This differs in each of
the three allied families above mentioned. In the crickets the wing-cases are
symmetrical; both have straight edges and sharply-scored nervures adapted
to produce the stridulation. A distinct portion of their edges is not, therefore,
set apart for the elaboration of a sound-producing instrument. In this family
the wing-cases lie flat on the back of the insect, and overlap each other for a
considerable portion of their extent. In the Locustidæ the same members
have a sloping position on each side of the body, and do not overlap, except
to a small extent near their bases; it is out of this small portion that the
stridulating organ is contrived. Greater resonance is given in most species
by a thin transparent plate, covered by a membrane, in the centre of the
overlapping lobes. In the Grasshoppers (Acridiidæ) 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 Acridiidæ
is produced by the scraping of the long hind thighs against the horny
nervures of the outer edges of the wing-cases; a drum-shaped organ placed
in a cavity near the insertion of the thighs being adapted to give resonance
to the tones.
I obtained very few birds at Obydos. There was no scarcity of birds, but
they were mostly common Cayenne species. In early morning, the woods
near my house were quite animated with their songs—an unusual thing in
this country. I heard here for the first time the pleasing wild notes of the
Carashue, a species of thrush, probably the Mimus lividus of ornithologists.
I found it afterwards to be a common bird in the scattered woods of the
campo district near Santarem. It is a much smaller and plainer-coloured bird
than our thrush, and its song is not so loud, varied, or so long sustained; but
the tone is of a sweet and plaintive quality, which harmonises 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 provinces they are called Sabiahs.
The Brazilians are not insensible to the charms of this their best songster,
for I often heard some pretty verses in praise of the Sabiah sung by young
people to the accompaniment of the guitar. I found several times the nest of
the Carashué, 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 mannikin, which I shot here (Pipra cornuta). There were three males
seated on a low branch, and hopping slowly backwards and forwards, near
to one another, as though engaged in a kind of dance. In the pleasant airy
woods surrounding the sandy shores of the pool behind the town, the
yellow-bellied Trogon (T. viridis) was very common. Its back is of a
brilliant metallic-green colour, and the breast steel blue. The natives call it
the Suruquá do Ygapó, or Trogon of the flooded lands, in contradistinction
to the red-breasted species, which are named Surtiquás da terra firma. I
often saw small companies of half a dozen individuals quietly seated on the
lower branches of trees. They remained almost motionless for an hour or
two at a time, simply moving their heads, on the watch for passing insects;
or, as seemed more generally to be the case, scanning the neighbouring
trees for fruit, which they darted off now and then, at long intervals, to
secure, returning always to the same perch.

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

Departure from Obydos — River Banks and By-channels —
Cacao Planters — Daily Life on Board Our Vessel — Great
Storm — Sand-island and its Birds — Hill of Parentins —
Negro Trader and Mauhés Indians — Villa Nova, its
Inhabitants, Forest, and Animal Productions — Cararaucú
— A rustic Festival — Lake of Cararaucú — Motúca Flies
— Serpa — Christmas Holidays — River Madeira — A
Mameluco Farmer — Múra Indians — Rio Negro —
Description of Barra — Descent to Pará — Yellow Fever.

A trader of Obydos, named Penna, was proceeding about 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 I thought would be an advantage, as I could collect in the woods
whilst he traded, and thus acquire a knowledge of the productions of many
places on the river which on a direct voyage would be impossible to do. I
provided a stock of groceries for two months’ consumption; and, after the
usual amount of unnecessary fuss and delay on the part of the owner, we
started on the 19th of November. Penna took his family with him: this
comprised a smart, lively mameluco woman, named Catarina, whom we
called Senhora Katita, and two children. The crew consisted of three men:
one a sturdy Indian, another a Cafuzo, godson of Penna, and the third, our
best hand, a steady, good-natured mulatto, named Joaquim. My boy Luco
was to assist in rowing and so forth. Penna was a timid middle-aged man, a

white with a slight cross of Indian; when he was surly and obstinate, he
used to ask me to excuse him on account of the Tapuyo blood in his veins.
He tried to make me as comfortable as the circumstances admitted, and
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, we crossed over to the right bank and
sailed with a light wind all day, passing numerous houses, each surrounded
by its grove of cacao trees. On the 20th we made slow progress. After
passing the high land at the mouth of the Trombetas, the banks were low,
clayey, or earthy on both sides. The breadth of the river varies hereabout
from two and a half to three miles, but neither coast is the true terra firma.
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 consists, properly speaking, of
islands. When this description of land is not formed wholly of river deposit,
as sometimes happens, or is raised above the level of the highest floods, it is
called Ygapó alto, and is distinguished by the natives from the true islands
of mid-river, as well as from the terra 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 upright 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, earthenware 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
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 upon
departing, one of the daughters sent a basket full of oranges for our use
down to the canoe.
The cost of a cacao plantation in the Obydos district is after the rate of
240 reis or sixpence per tree, which is much higher than at Cametá, where I
believe the yield is not so great. The forest here is cleared before planting,
and the trees are grown in rows. The smaller cultivators are all very poor.
Labour is scarce; one family generally manages its own small plantation of
10,000 to 15,000 trees, but at the harvest time neighbours 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 incorrigible
nonchalance and laziness of the people alone prevent them from
surrounding themselves with all the luxuries of a tropical country. They
might plant orchards of the choicest fruit trees around their houses, grow
Indian corn, and rear cattle and hogs, as intelligent 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 drying it in a systematic way; the consequence
is that, although naturally of good quality, it molds before reaching the
merchants’ stores, and does not fetch more than half the price of the same
article grown in other parts of tropical America. The Amazons region is the
original home of the principal species of chocolate tree, the Theobroma
cacao; and it grows in abundance in the forests of the upper river. The
cultivated crop appears to be a precarious one; little or no care, however, is
bestowed on the trees, and even weeding 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 enterprise
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 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 dawn 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 considerably higher than that of the air.
Penna and I lolled in our hammocks, whilst Katita prepared the
indispensable cup of strong coffee, which she did with wonderful celerity,
smoking meanwhile her early morning pipe of tobacco. Liberal owners of
river craft allow a cup of coffee sweetened with molasses, or a ration of
cashaca, to each man of their crews; Penna gave them coffee. When all
were served, the day’s work began. There was seldom any wind at this early
hour, so if there was still water along the shore, the men rowed, if not, there
was no way of progressing but by espia. In some places the currents ran
with great force close to the banks, especially where these receded to form
long bays or enseadas, as they are called, and then we made very little
headway. In such places the banks consist of loose earth, a rich crumbly
vegetable mold supporting 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 hammocks, hoisted all sail, and bowled away merrily.
Penna generally preferred to cook the dinner ashore, when there was little
or no wind. About midday on these calm days, we used to look out for a
nice shady nook in the forest with cleared space sufficient to make a fire
upon. I then had an hour’s hunting in the neighbouring wilderness, and was
always rewarded by the discovery of some new species. During the greater
part of our voyage, however, we stopped at the house of some settler, and
made our fire in the port. Just before dinner it was our habit to take a bath in
the river, and then, according to the universal custom on the Amazons,
where it seems to be suitable on account of the weak fish diet, we each took
half a tea-cup full of neat cashaça, the “abre” or “opening,” as it is called,
and set to on our mess of stewed pirarucú, beans, and bacon. Once or twice
a week we had fowls and rice; at supper, after sunset, we often had fresh
fish caught by our men in the evening. The mornings were cool and
pleasant until towards midday; but in the afternoons, the heat became
almost intolerable, especially in gleamy, squally weather, such as generally
prevailed. We then crouched in the shade of the sails, or went down to our
hammocks 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 evening
chorus of animals then began, the chief performers being the howling
monkeys, whose frightful unearthly roar deepened the feeling of solitude
which crept up 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 weather in November. The
river ought to sink thirty or thirty-five feet below its highest point; this year
it had declined only about twenty-five feet, and the November rains
threatened to be continuous. The drier the weather the stronger blows the
east wind; it now failed us altogether, or blew gently for a few hours merely
in the 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
gathered up river in a direction opposite to that of the wind. I thought this
betokened nothing more than a heavy rain which would send us all in a
hurry to our cabins. The men moored the vessel to a tree alongside a hard
clayey bank, and after supper, all were soon fast asleep, scattered about the
raised deck. About eleven o’clock I was awakened by a horrible uproar, as a
hurricane of wind suddenly swept over from the opposite shore. The cuberta
was hurled with force against the clayey bank; Penna shouted out, as he
started to his legs, that a trovoada de cima, or a squall from up-river, was
upon us. We took down our hammocks, and then all hands were required to
save the vessel from being dashed to pieces. The moon set, and a black pall
of clouds spread itself over the dark forests and river; a frightful crack of
thunder now burst over our heads, and down fell the drenching rain.
Joaquim leapt ashore through the drowning spray with a strong pole, and
tried to pass the cuberta round a small projecting point, whilst we on deck
aided in keeping her off and lengthened the cable. We succeeded in getting
free, and the stout-built boat fell off into the strong current farther away
from the shore, Joaquim swinging himself dexterously aboard by the
bowsprit as it passed the point. It was fortunate for us that he happened to
be on a sloping clayey bank where there was no fear of falling trees; a few
yards farther on, where the shore was perpendicular and formed of crumbly
earth, large portions of loose soil, with all their superincumbent mass of
forest, were being washed away; the uproar thus occasioned adding to the
horrors of the storm.
The violence of the wind abated in the course of an hour, but the deluge
of rain continued until about three o’clock in the morning; the sky was
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
beginning of February, so that this year they had commenced much earlier
than usual. The soil and climate are much drier in this part of the country
than in the region lying farther to the west, where the denser forests and
more clayey, humid soil produce a considerably cooler 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 connected with an island in
mid-river, in front of an inlet called Maracá-uassú. Here we anchored and
spent half a day ashore. Penna’s object in stopping was simply to enjoy a
ramble on the sands with the children, and give Senhora Katita an
opportunity to wash the linen. The sandbank was now fast going under
water with the rise of the river; in the middle of the dry season it is about a
mile long and half a mile in width. The canoe-men delight in these open
spaces, which are a great relief to the monotony of the forest that clothes the
land in every other part of the river. Farther westward they are much more
frequent, and of larger extent. They lie generally at the upper end of islands;
in fact, the latter originate in accretions of vegetable matter formed by
plants and trees 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 candelabrum.
Cecropiæ of different species are characteristic of Brazilian forest scenery;
the kind of which I am speaking grows in great numbers everywhere on the
banks of the Amazons where the land is low. In the same places the curious
Monguba tree (Bombax ceiba) is also plentiful; the dark green bark of its

huge tapering trunk, scored with grey, forming a conspicuous object. The
principal palm tree on the lowlands is the Jauarí (Astryocaryum Jauarí),
whose stem, surrounded by whorls of spines, shoots up to a great height. On
the borders of the island were large tracts of arrow-grass (Gynerium
saccharoides), which bears elegant plumes of 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 stalking about; one of these, the Curicáca (Ibis
melanopis), flew up with a low cackling noise, and was soon joined by a
unicorn bird (Palamedea cornuta), which I startled up from amidst the
bushes, whose harsh screams, resembling the bray of a jackass, but shriller,
disturbed unpleasantly the solitude of the place. Amongst the willow bushes
were flocks of a handsome bird belonging to the Icteridæ 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 Tumburí-
pará, 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 members are remarkable
for their dull, inactive temperament. Those species which are arranged by
ornithologists under the genus Bucco are called by the Indians, in the Tupí
language, Tai-assú uirá, 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 Tamburí-pará 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 promontory, called
Parentins, which now forms the boundary between the provinces of Pará
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 Abacaxí, a river which discharges its waters into the
Canomá, a broad interior channel which extends from the river Madeira to
the Parentins, a distance of 180 miles. Penna offered him 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 Mauhés tribe, whose native
seat is the district of country lying in the rear of the Canomá, between the
Madeira and the Tapajos. The Mauhés are considered, I think with truth, to
be a branch of the great Mundurucú nation, having segregated from them at
a remote period, and by long isolation acquired different customs and a
totally different language, in a manner which seems to have been general
with the Brazilian aborigines. The Mundurucús seem to have retained more
of the general characteristics of the original Tupí stock than the Mauhés.
Senhor Lima told me, what I afterwards found to be correct, that there were
scarcely two words alike in the languages of the two peoples, although there
are words closely allied to Tupí 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
Abacaxí, 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 when they reach the age of puberty they become restless and
discontented. The rooted impatience of all restraint then shows itself, and
the kindest treatment will not prevent them running away from their
masters; they do not return to the malocas of their tribes, but join parties
who go out to collect the produce of 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 Whaiápu-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 grey colour. I
think the species was the Callithrix donacophilus. The rock composing the

elevated ridge of the Parentins is the same coarse iron-cemented
conglomerate which I have often spoken of as occurring near Pará 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 cryptogamic plants. I found here two
exquisite species of Longicorn beetles, and a large kind of grasshopper
(Pterochroza) whose broad fore-wings resembled the leaf of a plant,
providing the insect with a perfect disguise when they were closed; whilst
the hind wings were decorated with gaily-coloured eye-like spots.
The negro left us and turned up a narrow channel, the Paraná-mirim dos
Ramos (the little river of the branches, i.e., having many ramifications), on
the road to his home, 130 miles distant. We then continued our voyage, and
in the evening arrived at Villa Nova, a straggling village containing about
seventy houses, many of which scarcely deserve the name, being mere
mud-huts roofed with palm-leaves. We stayed here four days. The village is
built on a rocky bank, composed of the same coarse conglomerate as that
already so often mentioned. In some places a bed of Tabatinga clay rests on
the conglomerate. The soil in the neighbourhood is sandy, and the forest,
most of which appears to be of second growth, is traversed by broad alleys
which terminate to the south and east on the banks of pools and lakes, a
chain of which extends through the interior of the land. As soon as we
anchored I set off with Luco to explore the district. We walked about a mile
along the marly shore, on which was a thick carpet of flowering shrubs,
enlivened by a great variety of lovely little butterflies, and then entered the
forest by a dry watercourse. About a furlong inland this opened on a broad
placid pool, whose banks, 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 piosócas (Perra Jacana) stalked over the
water plants on the surface of the pool, and in the bushes on its margin were
great numbers of a kind of canary (Sycalis 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 Jaburú-moleque (Mycteria

americana), a powerful bird of the stork family, four and a half feet in
height, which flew up and alarmed the rest, so that I got only one bird out of
the tumultuous flocks which passed over our heads. Passing towards the
farther end of the pool I saw, resting on the surface of the water, a number
of large round leaves turned up at their edges; they belonged to the Victoria
water-lily. The leaves were just beginning to expand (December 3rd), some
were still under water, and the largest of those which had reached the
surface measured not quite three feet in diameter. We found a montaria with
a paddle in it, drawn up on the bank, which I took leave to borrow of the
unknown owner, and Luco paddled me amongst the noble plants to search
for flowers, meeting, however, with no success. I learned afterwards that the
plant is common in nearly all the lakes of this neighbourhood. The natives
call it the furno do Piosoca, or oven of the Jacana, the shape of the leaves
being like that of the ovens on which Mandioca meal is roasted. We saw
many kinds of hawks and eagles, one of which, a black species, the
Caracára-í (Milvago 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 then said to bring a warning of death to
some member of the household. Others say that its whining cry is intended
to attract other defenceless birds within its reach. The little courageous
flycatcher Bem-ti-vi (Saurophagus sulphuratus) assembles in companies of
four or five, and attacks it boldly, driving it from the perch where it would
otherwise sit for hours. I shot three hawks of as many different species; and
these, with a Magoary stork, two beautiful gilded-green jacamars (Galbula
chalcocephala), 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-civilised 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 Canomá channel), and salt
fish, prepared in the dry season, nearer home. These articles are sent to Pará
in exchange for European goods. The few Indian and half-breed families

who reside in the town are many shades inferior in personal qualities and
social condition to those I lived amongst near Pará and Cametá. They live in
wretched dilapidated mud-hovels; the women cultivate small patches of
mandioca; the men spend most of their time in fishing, selling what they do
not require themselves and getting drunk with the most exemplary
regularity on cashaca, purchased with the proceeds.
I made, in this second visit to Villa Nova, an extensive collection of the
natural productions of the neighbourhood. A few remarks on some of the
more interesting of these must suffice. The forests are very different in their
general character from those of Pará, and in fact those of humid districts
generally throughout 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 Ygapós, which alternate everywhere with the
more elevated districts, did not furnish the same luxuriant vegetation as
they do in the Delta region of the Amazons. They are flooded during three
or four months in the year, and when the waters retire, the soil—to which
the very thin coating of alluvial deposit imparts little 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
branches of the trees are coated with dried slime, and disfigured by rounded
masses of fresh-water sponges, whose long horny spiculæ and dingy
colours give them the appearance of hedgehogs. Dense bushes of a harsh,
cutting grass, called Tiriríca, 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 Ygapós. The higher and drier
land is everywhere sandy, and tall coarse grasses line the borders of the
broad alleys which have been cut through the second-growth woods. These
places swarm with carapatos, ugly ticks belonging to the genus Ixodes,
which mount to the tips of blades of grass, and attach themselves to the
clothes of passers-by. They are a great annoyance. It occupied me a full
hour daily to pick them off my flesh after my diurnal ramble. There are two
species; both are much flattened in shape, have four pairs of legs, a thick
short proboscis and a horny integument. Their habit is to attach themselves
to the skin by plunging their proboscides into it, and then suck the blood
until their flat bodies are distended into a globular form. The whole
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 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 forelegs
only, the other three pairs being stretched out so as to fasten onto any
animal which comes their way. The smaller of the two species is of a
yellowish colour; it is the most abundant, and sometimes falls upon one by
scores. When distended, it is about the size of a No. 8 shot; the larger kind,
which fortunately comes only singly to the work, swells to the size of a pea.
In some parts of the interior, the soil is composed of very coarse sand and
small fragments of quartz; in these places no trees grow. I visited, in
company with the priest, Padre Torquato, one of these treeless spaces or
campos, as they are called, situated five miles from the village. The road
thither led through a varied and beautiful forest, containing many gigantic
trees. I missed the Assai, Mirtí, Paxiúba, and other palms which are all
found only on rich moist soils, but the noble Bacába was not uncommon,
and there was a great diversity of dwarf species of Marajá palms (Bactris),
one of which, called the Peuriríma, was very elegant, growing to a height of
twelve or fifteen feet, with a stem no thicker than a man’s finger. On
arriving at the campo, all this 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 growing in patches. The forest formed a hedge all round the isolated
field, and its borders were composed in great part of trees which do not
grow in the dense virgin forest, such as a great variety of bushy
Melastomas, low Byrsomina trees, myrtles, and Lacre-trees, whose berries
exude globules of wax resembling gamboge. On the margins of the campo
wild pine-apples also grew in great quantity. The fruit was of the same
shape as our cultivated kind, but much smaller, the size being that of a
moderately large apple. We gathered several quite ripe ones; 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 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 Geoffroy St.
Hilaire. The howlers are the only kinds of monkey which the natives have
not succeeded in taming. They are often caught, but they do not survive
captivity many weeks. The one of which I am speaking was 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 Coaitá and a Caiarára monkey (Cebus albifrons). Both these
lively members of the monkey order seemed rather to court attention, but
the Mycetes slunk away when anyone approached it. When it first arrived, it
occasionally made a gruff subdued howling noise early in the morning. The
deep volume of sound in the voice of the howling monkeys, as is well

known, is produced by a drum-shaped expansion of the larynx. It was
curious to watch the animal whilst venting its hollow cavernous roar, and
observe how 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 probable, however, that the noise serves to intimidate their enemies. I did
not meet with the Mycetes stramineus in any other part of the Amazons
region; in the neighbourhood of Pará 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 Macajó, 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 of Villa Nova I saw a rattlesnake for the first time. I
was returning home one day through a narrow alley, when I heard a
pattering noise close to me. Hard by was a tall palm tree, whose head was
heavily weighted with parasitic plants, and I thought the noise was a
warning that it was about to fall. The wind lulled for a few moments, and
then there was no doubt that the noise proceeded from the ground. On
turning my head in that direction, a sudden 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 open campos, where, near Santarem, I killed several. On
my second visit to Villa Nova I saw another. I had then a favourite little
dog, named Diamante, who used to accompany me in my rambles. One day
he rushed into the thicket, and made a dead set at a large snake, whose head
I saw raised above the herbage. The foolish little 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 Urubú
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 kitchen open 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 loitering about,
watching their opportunity, and the instant the kitchen was left unguarded,
the bold marauders marched in and lifted the lids off the saucepans with
their beaks to rob them of their contents. The boys of the village lie in wait,
and shoot them with bow and arrow; and vultures have consequently
acquired such a dread of these weapons, that they may be often kept off by
hanging a bow from the rafters of the kitchen. As the dry season advances,
the hosts of Urubús follow the fishermen to the lakes, where they gorge
themselves with the offal of the fisheries. Towards February, they return to
the villages, and are then not nearly so ravenous as before their summer
trips.
The insects of Villa Nova are, to a great extent, the same as those of
Santarem and the Tapajos. A few species of all orders, however, are found
here, which occurred nowhere else on the Amazons, besides several others
which are properly considered local varieties or races of others found at
Pará, on the Northern shore of the Amazons, or in other parts of Tropical
America. The Hymenoptera were especially numerous, as they always are
in districts which possess a sandy soil: but the many interesting facts which
I gleaned relative to their habits will be more conveniently introduced when
I treat of the same or similar species found in the localities above-named. In
the broad alleys of the forest several species of Morpho were common. One
of these is a sister form to the Morpho Hecuba, which I have mentioned as
occurring at Obydos. The Villa Nova kind differs from Hecuba sufficiently
to be considered a distinct species, and has been described under the name
of M. Cisseis; but it is clearly only a local variety of it, the range of the two
being limited by the barrier of the broad Amazons. It is a grand sight to see
these colossal butterflies by twos and threes floating at a great height in the
still air of a tropical morning. They flap their wings only at long intervals,
for I have noticed them to sail a very considerable distance without a stroke.
Their wing-muscles and the thorax to which they are attached are very

feeble in comparison with the wide extent and weight of the wings; but the
large expanse of these 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.
To resume our voyage. We left Villa Nova on the 4th of December. A
light wind on the 5th carried us across to the opposite shore and past the
mouth of the Paraná-mirím 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, and
rejoining the Amazons a little below Villa Nova. On the 6th, after passing a
large island in mid-river, we arrived at a place where a line of perpendicular
clay cliffs, called the Barreiros de Cararaucú, diverts slightly the course of
the main stream, as at Obydos. A little below these cliffs were a few
settlers’ houses; here Penna remained ten days to trade, a delay which I
turned to good account in augmenting very considerably my collections.
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 fifty or sixty Indians and Mamelucos;
some of them knew Portuguese, but the Tupí language was the only one
used amongst themselves. The festival was in honour of our Lady of
Conception; and, when the people learnt that Penna had on board an image
of the saint handsomer than their own, they put off in their canoes to borrow
it; Marcellino taking charge of the doll, covering it carefully with a neatly-
bordered white towel. On landing with the image, a procession was formed
from the port to the house, and salutes fired from a couple of lazarino guns,
the saint being afterwards carefully deposited in the family oratorio. After a
litany and hymn were sung in the evening, all assembled to supper around a

large mat spread on a smooth terrace-like space in front of the house. The
meal consisted of a large boiled Pirarucú, which had been harpooned for the
purpose in the morning, stewed and roasted turtle, piles of mandioca-meal
and bananas. The old lady, with two young girls, showed the greatest
activity in waiting on the guests, Marcellino standing gravely by, observing
what was wanted and giving the necessary orders to his wife. When all was
done, hard drinking began, and soon after there was a dance, to which
Penna and I were invited. The liquor served was chiefly a spirit distilled by
the people themselves from mandioca cakes. The dances were all of the
same class, namely, different varieties of the “Landum,” an erotic dance
similar to the fandango, originally learned from the Portuguese. The music
was supplied by a couple of wire-stringed guitars, played alternately by the
young men. All passed off very quietly considering the amount of strong
liquor drunk, and the ball was kept up until sunrise the next morning.
We visited all the houses one after the other. One of them was situated in
a charming spot, with a broad sandy beach before it, at the entrance to the
Paraná-mirím do Mucambo, a channel leading to an interior lake, peopled
by savages of the Múra tribe. This seemed to be the abode of an industrious
family, but all the men were absent, salting Pirarucú on the lakes. The
house, like its neighbours, was simply a framework of poles thatched with
palm-leaves, the walls roughly latticed and plastered with mud; but it was
larger, and much cleaner inside than the others. It was full of women and
children, who were busy all day with their various 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 foot breadth of web;
others were 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 extraordinary richness, the perpendicular banks of
the river, near the house, revealing a depth of many feet of crumbling
vegetable mould. There was a large plantation of tobacco, besides the usual
patches of Indian-corn, sugar-cane, and mandioca; and a grove of cotton,
cacao, coffee, and fruit-trees surrounded the house. We passed two nights at
anchor in shoaly water off the beach. The weather was most beautiful, and
scores of Dolphins rolled and snorted about the canoe all night.
We crossed the river at this point, and entered a narrow channel which
penetrates the interior of the island of Tupinambarána, 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 mosquitoes; 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
Motúca, 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
Martius’ travels, under the name of Hadrus lepidotus. It is a member of the
Tabanidæ family, and indeed is closely related to the Hæmatopota 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 of horny lancets, which are shorter and broader than is usually the
case in the family to which it belongs. Its puncture does not produce much
pain, but it makes such a large gash in the flesh that the blood trickles forth
in little streams. Many scores of them were flying about the canoe all day,
and sometimes eight or ten would settle on one’s ankles at the same time. It
is sluggish in its motions, and may be easily killed with the fingers when it
settles. Penna 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 Cararaucú are several miles in length. The hard pink-
and-red-coloured beds are here extremely thick, and in some places present
a compact, stony texture. The total height of the cliff is from thirty to sixty
feet above the mean level of the river, and the clay rests on strata of the
same coarse iron- cemented conglomerate which has already been so often
mentioned. Large blocks of this latter have been detached and rolled by the
force of currents up parts of the cliff where they are seen resting on terraces

of the clay. On the top of all lies a bed of sand and vegetable mold, which
supports a lofty forest, growing up to the very brink of the precipice. After
passing these barreiros we continued our way along a low uninhabited
coast, clothed, wherever it was elevated above high-water mark, with the
usual vividly-coloured forests of the higher Ygapó lands, to which the broad
and regular fronds of the Murumurú palm, here extremely abundant, served
as a great decoration. Wherever the land was lower than the flood height of
the Amazons, Cecropia trees prevailed, sometimes 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 also saw 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),
whilst the vivacious Caiarára (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
Saracá, 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 Cararaucú. 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
Tabatínga clay, which are here intermingled with scoria-looking
conglomerate, are in some parts of the declivity prettily variegated in
colour; the name of the town in the Tupí language, Ita-coatiára, takes its
origin from this circumstance, signifying striped or painted rock. It is an old
settlement, and was once the seat of the district government, which had
authority over the Barra of the Rio Negro. It was in 1849 a wretched-
looking village, but it has since revived, on account of having been chosen
by the Steamboat Company of the Amazons as a station for steam saw-mills
and tile manufactories. We arrived on Christmas Eve, when the village
presented an animated appearance from the number of people congregated
for the holidays. The port was full of canoes, large and small—from the
montaria, with its arched awning of woven lianas and Maranta leaves, to the
two-masted cuberta of the peddling trader, who had resorted to the place in
the hope of trafficking with settlers coming from remote sitios to attend the
festival. We anchored close to an igarité, whose owner was an old Jurí
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 disagreeable itching. The few whites and better class of
mameluco residents live in more substantial dwellings, white-washed and
tiled. All, both men and women, seemed to me much more cordial, and at
the same time more brusque in their manners, than any Brazilians I had yet
met with. One of them, Captain Manoel Joaquim, I knew for a long time
afterwards; a lively, intelligent, and thoroughly good-hearted man, who had
quite a reputation throughout the interior of the country for generosity, and
for being a firm friend of foreign residents and stray travellers. Some of
these excellent people were men of substance, being owners of trading
vessels, slaves, and extensive plantations of cacao and tobacco.
We stayed at Serpa five days. Some of the ceremonies observed at
Christmas were interesting, inasmuch as they were the same, with 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 “mordomos,” 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 “sairé,” a large semi-circular 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 Tupí language, and at frequent intervals turning round to face the
followers, who then all stopped for a few moments. I was told that this saire
was a device adopted by the Jesuits to attract the savages to church, for
these everywhere followed the mirrors, in which they saw as it were
magically reflected their own persons. In the evening good-humoured
revelry prevailed on all sides. The negroes, who had a saint of their own
colour—St. Benedito—had their holiday apart from the rest, and spent the
whole night singing and dancing to the music of a long drum (gambá) and

the caracashá. The drum was a hollow log, having one end covered with
skin, and was played by the performer sitting astride upon it, and drumming
with his knuckles. The caracasha is a notched bamboo tube, which produces
a harsh rattling noise by passing a hard stick over the notches. Nothing
could exceed in dreary monotony this music and the singing and dancing,
which were kept up 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 redskins became under the influence of liquor. The
negroes and Indians excused their own intemperance by saying the whites
were getting drunk at the other end of the town, which was quite true.
We left Serpa on the 29th of December, in company of an old planter
named Senhor Joao (John) Trinidade, at whose sitio, situated opposite the
mouth of the Madeira, Penna intended to spend a few days. Our course on
the 29th and 30th lay through narrow channels between islands. On the 31st
we passed the last of these, and then beheld to the south a sea-like expanse
of water, where the Madeira, the greatest tributary of the Amazons, after
2000 miles of course, blends its waters with those of the king of rivers. I
was hardly prepared for a junction of waters on so vast a scale as this, now
nearly 900 miles from the sea. Whilst travelling week after week along the
somewhat monotonous stream, often hemmed in between islands, and
becoming thoroughly familiar with it, my sense of the magnitude of this
vast water system had become gradually deadened; but this noble sight
renewed the first feelings of wonder. One is inclined, in such places as
these, to think the Paraenses do not exaggerate much when they call the
Amazons the Mediterranean of South America. Beyond the mouth of the
Madeira, the Amazons sweeps down in a majestic reach, to all appearance
not a whit less in breadth before than after this enormous addition to its
waters. The Madeira does not ebb and flow simultaneously with the
Amazons; it rises and sinks about two months earlier, so that it was now
fuller than the main river. Its current therefore, poured forth freely from its
mouth, carrying with it a long line of floating trees and patches of grass
which had been torn from its crumbly banks in the lower part of its course.
The current, however, did not reach the middle of the main stream, but
swept along nearer to the southern shore.

A few items of information which I gleaned relative to this river may find
a place here. The Madeira is navigable for about 480 miles from its mouth;
a series of cataracts and rapids then commences, which extends, with some
intervals of quiet water, about 160 miles, beyond which is another long
stretch of navigable stream. Canoes sometimes descend from Villa Bella, in
the interior province of Matto Grosso, but not so frequently as formerly, and
I could hear of very few persons who had attempted of late years to ascend
the river to that point. It was explored by the Portuguese in the early part of
the eighteenth century, the chief and now the only town on its banks, Borba,
150 miles from its mouth, being founded in 1756. Up to the year 1853, the
lower part of the river, as far as about a hundred miles beyond Borba, was
regularly visited by traders from Villa Nova, Serpa, and Barra, to collect
sarsaparilla, copauba balsam, turtle-oil, and to trade with the Indians, with
whom their relations were generally on a friendly footing. In that year many
India-rubber collectors resorted to this region, stimulated by the high price
(2s. 6d. a pound) which the article was at that time fetching at Pará; and
then the Araras, a fierce and intractable tribe of Indians, began to be
troublesome. They attacked several canoes and massacred everyone 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 Taquára arrows, the latter a formidable weapon tipped
with a piece of flinty bamboo shaped like a spear-head; they could propel it
with such force as to pierce a man completely through the body. The whites
of Borba made reprisals, inducing the warlike Mundurucús, who had an old
feud with the Aráras, to assist them. This state of things lasted two or three
years, and made a journey up the Madeira a risky undertaking, as the
savages attacked all comers. Besides the Aráras and the Mundurucús, the
latter a tribe friendly to the whites, attached to agriculture, and inhabiting
the interior of the country from the Madeira to beyond the Tapajos, two
other tribes of Indians now inhabit the lower Madeira, namely, the
Parentintins and the Múras. Of the former I did not hear much; the Múras
lead a lazy quiet life on the banks of the labyrinths of lakes and channels
which intersect the low country on both sides of the river below Borba. The
Aráras are one of those tribes which do not plant mandioca; and indeed

have no settled habitations. They are very similar in stature and other
physical features to the Mundurucús, although differing from them so
widely in habits and social condition. They paint their chins red with Urucú
(Anatto), and have usually a black tattooed streak on each side of the face,
running from the corner of the mouth to the temple. They have not yet
learned 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 2000 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 Múras and Torazes who
attacked travellers. In 1855 I met with an American, an odd character
named Kemp, who had lived for many years amongst the Indians on the
Madeira, near the abandoned settlement of Crato. He told me his
neighbours were a kindly-disposed and cheerful people, and that the
onslaught of the Araras was provoked by a trader from Bara, who wantonly
fired into a family of them, killing the parents, and carrying off their
children to be employed as domestic servants.
We remained nine days at the sitio of Senhor John Trinidade. It is situated
on a tract of high Ygapó 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 vegetable mould, and exhibiting the
most exuberant fertility. Such districts are the first to be settled on in this
country, and the whole coast for many miles was dotted with pleasant-
looking sitios like that of our friend. The establishment was a large one, the
house and out-buildings covering a large space of ground. The industrious
proprietor seemed to be Jack-of-all-trades; he was planter, trader, fisherman,
and canoe-builder, and a large igarité was now on the stocks under a large
shed. There was great pleasure in contemplating this prosperous farm, from

its being worked almost entirely by free labour; in fact, by one family, and
its dependents. John 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 Múras. Both he and his wife were
mamelucos; the negro children called them always father and mother. The
order, abundance, and comfort about the place showed what industry and
good management could effect in this country without slave-labour. But the
surplus produce of such small plantations is very trifling. All we saw had
been done since the disorders of 1835-6, during which John Trinidade was a
great sufferer; he was obliged to fly, and the Múra 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 watermelons. Near the house was a kitchen garden, in which
grew cabbages and onions, introduced from Europe, besides a wonderful
variety of tropical vegetables. It must not be supposed that these plantations
and gardens were enclosed or neatly kept, such is never the case in this
country where labour is so scarce; but it was an unusual thing to see
vegetables grown at all, and the ground tolerably well weeded. The space
around the house was plentifully planted with fruit-trees, some, belonging
to the Anonaceous order, yielding delicious fruits large as a child’s head,
and full of custardy pulp which it is necessary to eat with a spoon; besides
oranges, lemons, guavas, alligator pears, Abíus (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 Múra 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-peëua, and
Piramutába, three species of Siluridæ, belonging to the genus Pimelodus. To
these we used a sauce in the form of a yellow paste, quite new to me, called
Arubé, which is made of the poisonous juice of the mandioca root, boiled
down before the starch or tapioca is precipitated, and seasoned with
capsicum peppers. It is kept in stone bottles several weeks before using, and
is a most appetising relish to fish. Tucupí, another sauce made also from
mandioca juice, is much more common in the interior of the country than
Arubé. This is made by boiling or heating the pure liquid, after the tapioca
has been separated, daily for several days in succession, and seasoning it
with peppers and small fishes; when old, it has the taste of essence of

anchovies. It is generally made as a liquid, but the Jurí and Miranha tribes
on the Japurá make it up in the form of a black paste by a mode of
preparation I could not learn; it is then called Tucupí-pixúna, or black
Tucupí. I have seen the Indians on the Tapajos, where fish is scarce, season
Tucupí with Saüba ants. It is there used chiefly as a sauce to Tacacá, another
preparation from mandioca, 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 on long rambles in the
neighbouring forests. I saw very 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. 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 eight
o’clock, after coming to ask a blessing of the patriarchal head of the
household, went off to their hammocks to sleep.
There was another visitor besides ourselves, a negro, whom John
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 expression 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 wry 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 Múras
against the whites. The negro, on obtaining this news, set off 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; for they used to spend hours together
enjoying the cool breeze, seated under a shed which overlooked the broad
river, and talking of old times.
John Trinidade was famous for his tobacco and cigarettes, as he took
great pains in preparing the Tauarí, or envelope, which is formed of the
inner bark of a tree, separated into thin papery layers. Many trees yield it,
amongst them the Courataria Guianensis and the Sapucaya nut-tree, both
belonging to the same natural order. The bark is cut into long strips, of a
breadth suitable for folding the tobacco; the inner portion is then separated,
boiled, hammered with a wooden mallet, and exposed to the air for a few
hours. Some kinds have a reddish colour and an astringent taste, but the sort
prepared by our host was of a beautiful satiny-white hue, and perfectly
tasteless. He obtained sixty, eighty, and sometimes a hundred layers from
the same strip of bark. The best tobacco in Brazil is grown in the
neighbourhood of Borba, on the Madeira, where the soil is a rich black
loam; but tobacco of very good quality was grown by John Trinidade and
his neighbours along this coast, on similar soil. It is made up into slender
rolls, an inch and a half in diameter and six feet in length, tapering at each
end. When the leaves are gathered and partially dried, layers of them, after
the mid-ribs are plucked out, are placed on a mat and rolled up into the
required shape. This is done by the women and children, who also manage
the planting, weeding, and gathering of the tobacco. The process of
tightening the rolls is a long and heavy task, and can be done only by men.
The cords used for this purpose are of very great strength. They are made of
the inner bark of a peculiar light-wooded and slender tree, called Uaissíma,
which yields, when beaten out, a great quantity of most beautiful silky fibre,
many feet in length. I think this might be turned to some use by English
manufacturers, if they could obtain it in large quantity. The tree is abundant
on light soils on the southern side of the Lower Amazons, and grows very
rapidly. When the rolls are sufficiently well pressed, they are bound round
with narrow thongs of remarkable toughness, cut from the bark of the

climbing Jacitára palm tree (Desmoncus macracanthus), and are then ready
for sale or use.
It was very pleasant to roam in our host’s cacaoal. The ground was clear
of underwood, the trees were about thirty feet in height, and formed a dense
shade. Two species of monkey frequented the trees, and I was told
committed great depredations when the fruit was ripe. One of these, the
macaco prego (Cebus cirrhifer?), is a most impudent thief; it destroys more
than it eats by its random, hasty way of plucking and breaking the fruits,
and when about to return to the forest, carries away all it can in its hands or
under its arms. The other species, the pretty little Chrysothrix sciureus,
contents itself with devouring what it can on the spot. A variety of beautiful
insects basked on the foliage where stray gleams of sunlight glanced
through the canopy of broad soft-green leaves, and numbers of an elegant,
long-legged tiger-beetle (Odontocheila egregia) ran and flew about over the
herbage.
We left this place on the 8th of January, and on the afternoon of the 9th,
arrived at Matari, a miserable little settlement of Múra Indians. Here we
again anchored and went ashore. The place consisted of about twenty
slightly-built mud-hovels, and had a most forlorn appearance,
notwithstanding the luxuriant forest in its rear. A horde of these Indians
settled here many years ago, on the site of an abandoned missionary station;
and the government had lately placed a resident director over them, with the
intention of bringing the hitherto intractable savages under authority. This,
however, seemed to promise no other result than that of driving them to
their old solitary haunts on the banks of the interior waters, for many
families had already withdrawn themselves. The absence of the usual
cultivated trees and plants gave the place a naked and poverty-stricken
aspect. I entered one of the hovels where several women were employed
cooking a meal. Portions of a large fish were roasting over a fire made in
the middle of the low chamber, and the entrails were scattered about the
floor, on which the women with their children were squatted. These had a
timid, distrustful expression of countenance, and their bodies were
begrimed with black mud, which is smeared over the skin as a protection
against mosquitoes. The children were naked, the women wore petticoats of
coarse cloth, ragged round the edges, and stained in blotches with murixí, a
dye made from the bark of a tree. One of them wore a necklace of monkey’s
teeth. There were scarcely any household utensils; the place was bare with

the exception of two dirty grass 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-proportioned 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
unmistakably 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 with holes, as
is usual with the older Múras 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 cashaça, which
they seemed to consider the only good thing the white man brings with him.
As they had nothing whatever to give in exchange, Penna declined to
supply them. They followed us as we descended to the port, becoming very
troublesome when about a dozen had collected together. They brought their
empty bottles with them and promised fish and turtle, if we would only trust
them first with the coveted aguardente, or cau-im, as they called it. Penna
was inexorable; he ordered the crew to weigh anchor, and the disappointed
savages remained hooting after us with all their might from the top of the
bank as we glided away.
The Múras 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.
Everyone spoke of them as lazy, thievish, untrustworthy, and cruel. 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 fundamental defects of character in the

Brazilian red man. There is nothing, I think, to show that the Múras had a
different origin from the nobler agricultural tribes belonging to the Tupí
nation, to some of whom they are close neighbours, although the very
striking contrast in their characters and habits would suggest the conclusion
that their origin had been different, in the same way as the Semangs of
Malacca, for instance, with regard to the Malays. They are merely an
offshoot from them, a number of segregated hordes becoming degraded by
a residence most likely of very many centuries in Ygapó 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 Tupís are distinguished
by their settled agricultural 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 organisation,
obedience to chiefs, and so forth. The Múras have become a nation of
nomade fishermen, ignorant of agriculture and all other arts practised 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
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 roasting. 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 vegetable food used by the Múras 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 massacring all who fell
into their power. About fifty years ago, the Portuguese succeeded in turning

the warlike propensities of the Mundurucús against them and these, in the
course of many years’ persecution, greatly weakened the power of the tribe,
and drove a great part of them from their seats on the banks of the Madeira.
The Múras are now scattered in single hordes and families over a wide
extent of country bordering the main river from Villa Nova to Catuá, near
Ega, a distance of 800 miles. Since the 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
Mundurucús in alliance with the Brazilians, they have given no serious
trouble.
There is one curious custom of the Múras which requires noticing before
concluding this digression; this is the practice of snuff-taking with peculiar
ceremonies. The snuff is called Paricá, and is a highly stimulating powder
made from the seeds of a species of Inga, belonging 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
character. They begin by drinking large quantities of caysúma and cashirí,
fermented drinks made of various fruits and mandioca, but they prefer
cashaça, or rum, when they can get it. In a short time they drink themselves
into a soddened semi-intoxicated state, and then commence taking the
Paricá. 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 reaction soon follows; more
drinking is then necessary to rouse them from their stupor, and thus they
carry on for many days in succession. The Mauhés also use the Paricá,
although it is not known amongst their neighbours the Mundurucús. Their
manner of taking it is very different from that of the swinish Múras, 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. When 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 Paricá was found by the early travellers amongst the Omaguas, a section
of the Tupís who formerly lived on the Upper Amazons, a thousand miles
distant from the homes of the Mauhés and Múras. This community of habits
is one of those facts which support 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 terra firma lying far in the interior, and the coast being either
lowland 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 riverbanks. One of the first objects which greeted us here
was a beautiful bird we had not hitherto met with, namely, the scarlet and
black tanager (Ramphoccelus nigrogularis), flocks of which were seen
sporting about the trees on the edge of the water, their flame-coloured
liveries lighting up the masses of dark-green foliage.
The weather, from the 14th to the i8th, was wretched; it rained sometimes
for twelve hours in succession, not heavily, but in a steady drizzle, such as
we are familiar with in our English climate. We landed at several places on
the coast, Penna to trade as usual, and I to ramble in the forest in search of
birds and insects. In one spot the wooded slope enclosed a very picturesque
scene: a brook, flowing through a ravine in the high bank, fell in many little
cascades to the broad 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 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 around 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 tediously slow, for the regular east wind had now
entirely ceased, and the vento de cima or wind from up river, having taken
its place, blew daily for a few hours dead against us. The weather was
oppressively close, and every afternoon a squall arose, which, however, as it
came from the right quarter and blew for an hour or two, was very
welcome. We made acquaintance on this coast with a new insect pest, the
Piúm, a minute fly, two thirds of a line in length, which here commences its
reign, and continues henceforward as a terrible scourge 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
accompanies canoes in such dense swarms as to resemble thin clouds of
smoke. It made its appearance in this way the first day after we crossed the
river. Before I was aware of the presence of flies, I felt a slight itching on
my neck, wrist, and ankles, and, on looking for the cause, saw a number of
tiny objects having a disgusting resemblance to lice, adhering to the skin.
This was my introduction to the much-talked-of Piúm. 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 punctures in the course of a day. I took
the trouble to dissect specimens to ascertain the way in which the little pests
operate. The mouth consists of a pair of thick fleshy lips, and two triangular
horny lancets, answering to the upper lip and tongue of other insects. This is
applied closely to the skin, a puncture is made with the lancets, and the
blood then sucked through between these into the oesophagus, the circular
spot which results coinciding with the shape of the lips. In the course of a
few days the red spots dry up, and the skin in time becomes blackened with

the endless number of discoloured punctures that are crowded together. The
irritation they produce is more acutely felt by some persons than others. I
once travelled with a middle-aged Portuguese, who was laid up for three
weeks from the attacks of Piúm; his legs being swelled to an enormous size,
and the punctures aggravated into spreading sores.
A brisk wind from the east sprang tip early in the morning of the 22nd:
we then hoisted all sail, and made for the mouth of the Rio Negro. This
noble stream at its junction with the Amazons, seems, from its position, to
be a direct continuation of the main river, whilst the Solimoens which joins
at an angle and is somewhat narrower than its tributary, appears to be a
branch instead of the main trunk of the vast water system. One sees
therefore at once, how the early explorers came to give a separate name to
this upper part of the Amazons. The Brazilians have lately taken to applying
the convenient term Alto Amazonas (High or Upper Amazons) to the
Solimoens, and it is probable that this will gradually prevail over the old
name. The Rio Negro broadens considerably from its mouth upwards, and
presents the appearance of a great lake; its black-dyed waters having no
current, and seeming to be dammed up by the impetuous flow of the yellow,
turbid Solimoens, which here belches forth a continuous line of uprooted
trees and patches of grass, and forms a striking contrast with its tributary. In
crossing, we passed the line, a little more than halfway 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,
perpendicular, earthy banks, had given place to tranquil water and a coast
indented with snug little bays fringed with sloping, sandy beaches. The low
shore and vivid light-green, endlessly-varied foliage, which prevailed on the
south side of the Amazons, were exchanged for a hilly country, clothed with
a sombre, rounded, and monotonous forest. Our tedious voyage now
approached its termination; a light wind carried us gently along the coast to
the city of Barra, which lies about seven or eight miles within the mouth of
the river. We stopped for an hour in a clean little bay, to bathe and dress,
before showing ourselves again amongst 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 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
Portuguese, 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 Manáos, who were continually
at war with the neighbouring 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 down by a single expedition. In 1809, Barra became
the chief town of the Rio Negro district; many Portuguese and Brazilians
from other provinces then settled here; spacious houses were built, and it
grew, in the course of thirty 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 protected them against
forced servitude, were rapidly withdrawing themselves from the place.
When the 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 Manáos.
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 produce (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 region almost as large as Europe, every inch of whose soil
is of the most exuberant 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 passengers and goods are transhipped here for the Solimoens and Peru.
A steamer runs once a fortnight between Pará and Barra, and a bi-monthly
one plies between this place and Nauta in the Peruvian territory. The steam-
boat company is supported by a large annual grant, about £50,000 sterling,
from the imperial government. 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
produce of the forests and rivers; agriculture was consequently neglected,
and now the neighbourhood does not produce even mandioca-meal
sufficient for its own consumption. 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,
when I again visited the place; for instance, six or seven shillings were
asked for a poor lean fowl, and eggs were twopence-halfpenny a piece. In
fact, the neighbourhood produces scarcely anything; the provincial
government is supplied with the greater part of its funds from the treasury
of Pará; its revenue, which amounts to about fifty contos of reis (£5600),
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 Barra, 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 gathered
together in the capital, and, notwithstanding the endless number of trivial
formalities which Brazilians employ in every small detail of administration,
these have nothing to do the greater part of their time. None of the people
who flocked to Barra on the establishment 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 prefer 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 every five dwelling-houses. These stores, or tavernas, have often
not more than fifty pounds’ worth of goods for their whole stock, 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 leaving 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 delightful 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, since our joint
Tocantins expedition, had been exploring, partly with his brother, lately
arrived from England, the northeastern coast of Marajó, the river Capim (a
branch of the Guamá, near Pará), Monte Alegre, and Santarem. He had
passed us by night below Serpa, on his way to Barra, and so had arrived
about three weeks before me. Besides ourselves, there were half-a-dozen
other foreigners here congregated,—Englishmen, Germans, and Americans;
one of them a Natural History collector, the rest traders on the rivers. In the
pleasant society of these, and of the family of Senhor Henriques, we passed
a delightful time; the miseries of our long river voyages were soon
forgotten, and in two or three weeks we began to talk of further
explorations. Meantime we had almost daily rambles in the neighbouring
forest. The whole surface of the land down to the water’s edge is covered
by the uniform dark-green rolling forest, the caá-apoam (convex woods) of
the Indians, characteristic of the Rio Negro. This clothes also the extensive
areas of lowland, which are flooded by the river in the rainy season. The
olive-brown tinge of the water seems to be derived from the saturation in it
of the dark green foliage during these annual inundations. The great contrast
in form and colour between the forest of the Rio Negro and those of the
Amazons arises from the predominance in each of different families of
plants. On the main river, palms of twenty or thirty different species form a

great proportion of the mass of trees, whilst on the Rio Negro, they play a
very subordinate part. The characteristic kind in the latter region is the Jará
(Leopoldinia pulchra), a species not found on the margins of the Amazons,
which has a scanty head of fronds with narrow leaflets of the same dark
green hue as the rest of the forest. The stem is smooth, and about two inches
in diameter; its height is not more than twelve to fifteen feet; it does not,
therefore, rise amongst the masses of foliage of the exogenous trees, so as
to form a feature in the landscape, like the broad-leaved Murumurú and
Urucurí, the slender Assaí, the tall Jauarí, and the fan-leaved Murití of the
banks of the Amazons. On the shores of the main river the mass of the
forest is composed, besides palms, of Leguminosæ, 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 (Lecythideæ), and Cecropiæ; the
underwood and water-frontage consisting in great part of broad-leaved
Musaceæ, Marantaceæ, and succulent grasses: all of which are of light
shades of green. The forests of the Rio Negro are almost destitute of these
large-leaved plants and grasses, which give so rich an appearance to the
vegetation wherever they grow; the margins of the stream being clothed
with bushes or low trees, having the same gloomy monotonous aspect as the
mangroves of the shores of creeks near the Atlantic. The uniformly small
but elegantly-leaved exogenous trees, which constitute the mass of the
forest, consist in great part of members of the Laurel, Myrtle,
Bignoniaceous, and Rubiaceous orders. The soil is generally a stiff loam,
whose chief component part is the Tabatinga clay, which also forms low
cliffs on the coast in some places, where it overlies strata of coarse
sandstone. This kind of soil and the same geological formation prevail, as
we have seen, in many places on the banks of the Amazons, so that the great
contrast in the forest-clothing of the two rivers cannot arise from this cause.
The forest was very pleasant for rambling. In some directions broad
pathways led down gentle slopes, through what one might fancy were
interminable shrubberies of evergreens, to moist hollows where springs of
water bubbled up, or shallow brooks ran over their beds of clean white
sand. But the most beautiful road was one that ran through the heart of the
forest to a waterfall, which the citizens of Barra consider as the chief
natural curiosity of their neighbourhood. The waters of one of the larger
rivulets which traverse the gloomy wilderness, here fall over a ledge of rock
about ten feet high. It is not the cascade itself, but the noiseless solitude,

and the marvellous diversity and richness of trees, foliage, and flowers
encircling the water basin that form the attraction of the place. Families
make picnic excursions to this spot; and the gentlemen—it is said the ladies
also—spend the sultry hours of midday bathing in the cold and bracing
waters. The place is classic ground to the Naturalist from having been a
favourite spot with the celebrated travellers Spix and Martius, 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 great work on the palms.
Birds and insects, however, were scarce amidst these charming sylvan
scenes. I have often traversed the whole distance from Barra to the
waterfall, about two miles by the forest road, without seeing or hearing a
bird, or meeting with so many as a score of Lepidopterous and
Coleopterous insects. In the thinner woods near the borders of the forest
many pretty little blue and green creepers of the Dacnidæ 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 Suruquá grande of the
natives), a most beautiful creature, having soft golden green plumage, red
breast, and an orange-coloured beak; also the Ampelis Pompadoura, a rich
glossy-purple chatterer with wings of a snowy-white hue.
After we had rested some weeks in Barra, we arranged our plans for
further explorations in the interior of the country. Mr. Wallace chose the Rio
Negro for his next trip, and I agreed to take the Solimoens. My colleague
has already given to the world an account of his journey on the Rio Negro,
and his adventurous ascent of its great tributary the Uapés. I left Barra for
Ega, the first town of any importance on the Solimoens, 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;
circumstances then compelled me to return to Pará. I revisited the same
country in 1855, and devoted three years and a half to a fuller exploration of
its natural productions. The results of both journeys will be given together
in 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 Pará in 1851 may be 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 sarsaparilla, covered with a thatch of palm
leaves, occupied the middle of the deck. We had, therefore, (the master and
two passengers) 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 generally calm, a motionless mass of leaden clouds covering the sky,
and the broad expanse of waters flowing smoothly down with no other
motion than the ripple of the current. When the wind came from below, we
tacked down the stream; sometimes it blew very strong, and then the
schooner, having the wind abeam, laboured through the waves, shipping
often heavy seas which washed everything that was loose from one side of
the deck to the other.
On arriving at Pará, I found the once cheerful and healthy city desolated
by two terrible epidemics. The yellow fever, which visited the place the
previous year (1850) for the first time since the discovery of the country,
still lingered after having carried off nearly 5 per cent of the population.
The number of persons who were attacked, namely, three-fourths of the
entire population, showed how general the onslaught is of an epidemic on
its first appearance in a place. At the heels of this plague came the
smallpox. The yellow fever had fallen most severely on the whites and
mamelucos, the negroes wholly escaping; but the smallpox attacked more
especially the Indians, negroes, and people of mixed colour, sparing the
whites almost entirely, and taking off about a twentieth part of the
population in the course of the four months of its stay. I heard many strange

accounts of the yellow fever. I believe Pará 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 precautions that could be thought of;
amongst the rest was the singular one of firing cannon at the street corners,
to purify the air. Mr. Norris, the American consul, told me the first cases of
fever occurred near the port and that it spread rapidly and regularly from
house to house, along the streets which run from the waterside to the
suburbs, taking about twenty-four hours to reach the end. Some persons
related that for several successive evenings before the fever broke out the
atmosphere was thick, and that a body of murky vapour, accompanied by a
strong stench, travelled from street to street. This moving vapour was called
the “Maî 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 newcomer. 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 nine o’clock in the
morning. Whilst the people of the house went down to the town for the
medicines I ordered, I wrapped myself in a blanket and walked sharply to
and fro along the veranda, drinking at intervals a cup of warm tea, made of
a bitter herb in use amongst the natives, called Pajémarióba, a leguminous
plant growing in all waste places. About an hour afterwards, I took a good
draught of a decoction of elder blossoms as a sudorific, and soon after fell
insensible into my hammock. Mr. Philipps, an English resident with whom I
was then lodging, came home in the afternoon and found me sound asleep
and perspiring famously. I did not wake until almost midnight, when I felt
very weak and aching in every bone of my body. I then took as a purgative,
a small dose of Epsom salts and manna. In forty-eight hours the fever left

me, and in eight days from the first attack, I was able to get about my work.
Little else happened during my stay, which need be recorded here. I shipped
off all my collections to England, and received thence a fresh supply of
funds. It took me several weeks to prepare for my second and longest
journey into the interior. My plan now was first to make Santarem
headquarters for some time, and ascend from that place the river Tapajos as
far as practicable. Afterwards I intended to revisit the marvellous country of
the Upper Amazons, and work well its natural history at various stations I
had fixed upon, from Ega to the foot of the Andes.

Chapter VIII.
SANTAREM

Situation of Santarem — Manners and Customs of the
Inhabitants — Climate — Grassy Campos and Woods —
Excursions to Mapirí, Mahicá, and Irurá, with Sketches of
their Natural History; Palms, Wild Fruit Trees, Mining
Wasps, Mason Wasps, Bees, and Sloths

I have already given a short account of the size, situation, and general
appearance of Santarem. Although containing not more than 2500
inhabitants, it is the most civilised and important settlement on the banks of
the main river from Peru to the Atlantic. The pretty little town, or city as it
is called, with its rows of tolerably uniform, white-washed and red-tiled
houses surrounded by green gardens and woods, stands on gently sloping
ground on the eastern side of the Tapajos, close to its point of junction with
the Amazons. A small eminence on which a fort has been erected, but which
is now in a dilapidated condition, overlooks the streets, and forms the
eastern limit of the mouth of the tributary. The Tapajos at Santarem is
contracted to a breadth of about a mile and a half by an accretion of low
alluvial land, which forms a kind of delta on the western side; fifteen miles
further up the river is seen at its full width of from ten to a dozen miles, and
the magnificent hilly country, through which it flows from the south, is then
visible on both shores. This high land, which appears to be a continuation of
the central table-lands of Brazil, stretches almost without interruption on the
eastern side of the river down to its mouth at Santarem. The scenery as well
as the soil, vegetation, and animal tenants of this region, are widely
different from those of the flat and uniform country which borders the
Amazons along most part of its course. After travelling week after week on
the main river, the aspect of Santarem with its broad white sandy beach,
limpid dark-green waters, and line of picturesque hills rising behind over

the fringe of green forest, affords an agreeable surprise. On the main
Amazons, the prospect is monotonous unless the vessel runs near the shore,
when the wonderful diversity and beauty of the vegetation afford constant
entertainment. Otherwise, the unvaried, broad yellow stream, and the long
low line of forest, which dwindles away in a broken line of trees on the sea-
like horizon and is renewed, reach after reach, as the voyages advances,
weary by their uniformity.
I arrived at Santarem on my second journey into the interior, in
November, 1851, and made it my head-quarters for a period, as it turned
out, of three years and a half. During this time I made, in pursuance of the
plan I had framed, many excursions up the Tapajos, and to other places of
interest in the surrounding region. On landing, I found no difficulty in
hiring a suitable house on the outskirts of the place. It was pleasantly
situated near the beach, going towards the aldeia or Indian part of the town.
The ground sloped from the back premises down to the waterside and my
little raised veranda overlooked a beautiful flower-garden, a great rarity in
this country, which belonged to the neighbours. The house contained only
three rooms, one with brick and two with boarded floors. It was
substantially built, like all the better sort of houses in Santarem, and had a
stuccoed front. The kitchen, as is usual, formed an outhouse placed a few
yards distant from the other rooms. The rent was 12,000 reis, or about
twenty-seven shillings a month. In this country, a tenant has no extra
payments to make; the owners of house property pay a dizimo or tithe, to
the “collectoria geral,” or general treasury, but with this the occupier of
course has nothing to do. In engaging servants, I had the good fortune to
meet with a free mulatto, an industrious and trustworthy young fellow,
named José, willing to arrange with me; the people of his family cooked for
us, whilst he assisted me in collecting; he proved of the greatest service in
the different excursions we subsequently made. Servants of any kind were
almost impossible to be obtained at Santarem, free people being too proud
to hire themselves, and slaves too few and valuable to their masters to be let
out to others. These matters arranged, the house put in order, and a rude
table, with a few chairs, bought or borrowed to furnish the house with, I
was ready in three or four days to commence my Natural History
explorations in the neighbourhood.
I found Santarem quite a different sort of place from the other settlements
on the Amazons. At Cametá, the lively, good-humoured, and plain-living

Mamelucos formed the bulk of the population, the white immigrants there,
as on the Rio Negro and Upper Amazons, seeming to have fraternised well
with the aborigines. In the neighbourhood of Santarem the Indians, I
believe, were originally hostile to the Portuguese; at any rate, the blending
of the two races has not been here on a large scale. I did not find the
inhabitants the pleasant, easy-going, and blunt-spoken country folk that are
met with in other small towns of the interior. The whites, Portuguese and
Brazilians, are a relatively more numerous class here than in other
settlements, and make great pretensions to civilisation; they are the
merchants and shopkeepers of the place; owners of slaves, cattle estates,
and cacao plantations. Amongst the principal residents must also be
mentioned the civil and military authorities, who are generally well-bred
and intelligent people from other provinces. Few Indians live in the place; it
is too civilised for them, and the lower class is made up (besides the few
slaves) of half-breeds, in whose composition negro blood predominates.
Coloured people also exercise the different handicrafts; the town supports
two goldsmiths, who are mulattoes, and have each several apprentices; the
blacksmiths are chiefly Indians, as is the case generally throughout the
province. The manners of the upper class (copied from those of Pará) are
very stiff and formal, and the absence of the hearty hospitality met with in
other places, produces a disagreeable impression at first. Much ceremony is
observed in the intercourse of the principal people with each other, and with
strangers. The best room in each house is set apart for receptions, and
visitors are expected to present themselves in black dress coats, regardless
of the furious heat which rages in the sandy streets of Santarem towards
mid-day, the hour when visits are generally made. In the room a cane-
bottomed sofa and chairs, all lacquered and gilded, are arranged in
quadrangular form, and here the visitors are invited to seat themselves,
whilst the compliments are passed, or the business arranged. In taking
leave, the host backs out his guests with repeated bows, finishing at the
front door. Smoking is not in vogue amongst this class, but snuff-taking is
largely indulged in, and great luxury is displayed in gold and silver snuff-
boxes. All the gentlemen, and indeed most of the ladies also, wear gold
watches and guard chains. Social parties are not very frequent; the principal
men being fully occupied with their business and families, and the rest
spending their leisure in billiard and gambling rooms, leaving wives and
daughters shut up at home. Occasionally, however, one of the principal

citizens gives a ball. In the first that I attended, the gentlemen were seated
all the evening on one side of the room, and the ladies on the other, and
partners were allotted by means of numbered cards, distributed by a master
of the ceremonies. But the customs changed rapidly in these matters after
steamers began to run on the Amazons (in 1853), bringing a flood of new
ideas and fashions into the country. The old, bigoted, Portuguese system of
treating women, which stifled social intercourse and wrought endless evils
in the private life of the Brazilians, is now being gradually, although slowly,
abandoned.
The religious festivals were not so numerous here as in other towns, and
when they did take place, were very poor and ill attended. There is a
handsome church, but the vicar showed remarkably little zeal for religion,
except for a few days now and then when the Bishop came from Pará on his
rounds through the diocese. The people are as fond of holiday-making here
as in other parts of the province; but it seemed to be a growing fashion to
substitute rational amusements for the processions and mummeries of the
saints’ days. The young folks are very musical, the principal instruments in
use being the flute, violin, Spanish guitar, and a small four-stringed viola,
called cavaquinho. During the early part of my stay at Santarem, a little
party of instrumentalists, led by a tall, thin, ragged mulatto, who was quite
an enthusiast in his art, used frequently to serenade their friends in the cool
and brilliant moonlit evenings of the dry season, playing French and Italian
marches and dance music with very good effect. The guitar was the
favourite instrument with both sexes, as at Pará; the piano, however, is now
fast superseding it. The ballads sung to the accompaniment of the guitar
were not learned from written or printed music, but communicated orally
from one friend to another. They were never spoken of as songs, but
modinhas, or “little fashions,” each of which had its day, giving way to the
next favourite brought by some young fellow from the capital. At festival
times there was a great deal of masquerading, in which all the people, old
and young, white, negro, and Indian, took great delight. The best things of
this kind used to come off during the Carnival, in Easter week, and on St.
John’s Eve; the negroes having a grand semi-dramatic display in the streets
at Christmas time. The more select affairs were got up by the young whites,
and coloured men associating with whites. A party of thirty or forty of these
used to dress themselves in uniform style, and in very good taste, as
cavaliers and dames, each disguised with a peculiar kind of light gauze

mask. The troop, with a party of musicians, went the round of their friends’
houses in the evening, and treated the large and gaily-dressed companies
which were there assembled to a variety of dances. The principal citizens, in
the large rooms of whose houses these entertainments were given, seemed
quite to enjoy them; great preparations were made at each place; and, after
the dance, guests and masqueraders were regaled with pale ale and
sweetmeats. Once a year the Indians, with whom masked dances and acting
are indigenous, had their turn, and on one occasion they gave us a great
treat. They assembled from different parts of the neighbourhood at night, on
the outskirts of the town, and then marched through the streets by torchlight
towards the quarter inhabited by the whites, to perform their hunting and
devil dances before the doors of the principal inhabitants. There were about
a hundred men, women, and children in the procession. Many of the men
were dressed in the magnificent feather crowns, tunics, and belts,
manufactured by the Mundurucús, and worn by them on festive occasions,
but the women were naked to the waist, and the children quite naked, and
all were painted and smeared red with anatto. The ringleader enacted the
part of the Tushaua, or chief, and carried a sceptre, richly decorated with the
orange, red, and green feathers of toucans and parrots. The pajé or
medicine-man came along, puffing at a long tauarí cigar, the instrument by
which he professes to make his wonderful cures. Others blew harsh, jarring
blasts with the turé, a horn made of long and thick bamboo, with a split reed
in the mouthpiece. This is the war trumpet of many tribes of Indians, with
which the sentinels of predatory hordes, mounted on a lofty tree, gave the
signal for attack to their comrades. Those Brazilians who are old enough to
remember the times of warfare between Indians and settlers, retain a great
horror of the turé, its loud, harsh note heard in the dead of the night having
been often the prelude to an onslaught of bloodthirsty Múras on the
outlying settlements. The rest of the men in the procession carried bows and
arrows, bunches of javelins, clubs, and paddles. The older children brought
with them the household pets; some had monkeys or coatis on their
shoulders, and others bore tortoises on their heads. The squaws carried their
babies in aturas, or large baskets, slung on their backs, and secured with a
broad belt of bast over their foreheads. The whole thing was accurate in its
representation of Indian life, and showed more ingenuity than some people
give the Brazilian red man credit for. It was got up spontaneously by the
Indians, and simply to amuse the people of the place.

The people seem to be thoroughly alive to the advantages of education
for their children. Besides the usual primary schools, one for girls, and
another for boys, there is a third of a higher class, where Latin and French,
amongst other accomplishments, are taught by professors, who, like the
common schoolmasters, are paid by the provincial government. This is used
as a preparatory school to the Lyceum and Bishop’s seminary, well-
endowed institutions at Pará, whither it is the ambition of traders and
planters to send their sons to finish their studies. The rudiments of
education only are taught in the primary schools, and it is surprising how
quickly and well the little lads, both coloured and white, learn reading,
writing, and arithmetic. But the simplicity of the Portuguese language,
which is written as it is pronounced, or according to unvarying rules, and
the use of the decimal system of accounts, make these acquirements much
easier than they are with us. Students in the superior school have to pass an
examination before they can be admitted at the colleges in Pará, and the
managers once did me the honour to make me one of the examiners for the
year. The performances of the youths, most of whom were under fourteen
years of age, were very creditable, especially in grammar; there was a
quickness of apprehension displayed which would have gladdened the heart
of a northern schoolmaster. The course of study followed at the colleges of
Pará must be very deficient; for it is rare to meet with an educated Paraense
who has the slightest knowledge of the physical sciences, or even of
geography, if he has not travelled out of the province. The young men all
become smart rhetoricians and lawyers; any of them is ready to plead in a
law case at an hour’s notice; they are also great at statistics, for the
gratification of which taste there is ample field in Brazil, where every
public officer has to furnish volumes of dry reports annually to the
government; but they are woefully ignorant on most other subjects. I do not
recollect seeing a map of any kind at Santarem. The quick-witted people
have a suspicion of their deficiencies in this respect, and it is difficult to
draw them out on geography; but one day a man holding an important
office betrayed himself by asking me, “On what side of the river was Paris
situated?” This question did not arise, as might be supposed, from a desire
for accurate topographical knowledge of the Seine, but from the idea, that
all the world was a great river, and that the different places he had heard of
must lie on one shore or the other. The fact of the Amazons being a limited
stream, having its origin in narrow rivulets, its beginning and its ending, has

never entered the heads of most of the people who have passed their whole
lives on its banks.
Santarem is a pleasant place to live in, irrespective of its society. There
are no insect pests, mosquito, pium, sand-fly, or motuca. The climate is
glorious; during six months of the year, from August to February, very little
rain falls, and the sky is cloudless for weeks together, the fresh breezes from
the sea, nearly 400 miles distant, moderating the great heat of the sun. The
wind is sometimes so strong for days together, that it is difficult to make
way against it in walking along the streets, and it enters the open windows
and doors of houses, scattering loose clothing and papers in all directions.
The place is considered healthy; but at the changes of season, severe colds
and ophthalmia are prevalent. I found three Englishmen living here, who
had resided many years in the town or its neighbourhood, and who still
retained their florid complexions; the plump and fresh appearance of many
of the middle-aged Santarem ladies also bore testimony to the healthfulness
of the climate. The streets are always clean and dry, even in the height of
the wet season; good order is always kept, and the place pretty well
supplied with provisions. None but those who have suffered from the
difficulty of obtaining the necessities of life at any price in most of the
interior settlements of South America, can appreciate the advantages of
Santarem in this respect. Everything, however, except meat, was dear, and
becoming every year more so. Sugar, coffee, and rice, which ought to be
produced in surplus in the neighbourhood, are imported from other
provinces, and are high in price; sugar, indeed, is a little dearer here than in
England. There were two or three butchers’ shops, where excellent beef
could be had daily at twopence or twopence-halfpenny per pound. The
cattle have not to be brought from a long distance as at Pará, being bred on
the campos, which border the Lago Grande, only one or two days’ journey
from the town. Fresh fish could be bought in the port on most evenings, but
as the supply did not equal the demand, there was always a race amongst
purchasers to the waterside when the canoe of a fisherman hove in sight.
Very good bread was hawked round the town every morning, with milk, and
a great variety of fruits and vegetables. Amongst the fruits, there was a kind
called atta, which I did not see in any other part of the country. It belongs to
the Anonaceous order, and the tree which produces it grows apparently wild
in the neighbourhood of Santarem. It is a little larger than a good-sized
orange, and the rind, which encloses a mass of rich custardy pulp, is scaled

like the pineapple, but green when ripe, and encrusted on the inside with
sugar. To finish this account of the advantages of Santarem, the delicious
bathing in the clear waters of the Tapajos may be mentioned. There is here
no fear of alligators; when the east wind blows, a long swell rolls in on the
clean sandy beach, and the bath is most exhilarating.
The country around Santarem is not clothed with dense and lofty forest
like the rest of the great humid river plain of the Amazons. It is a campo
region; a slightly elevated and undulating tract of land, wooded only in
patches, or with single scattered trees. A good deal of the country on the
borders of the Tapajos, which flows from the great campo area of interior
Brazil, is of this description. It is on this account that I consider the eastern
side of the river, towards its mouth, to be a northern prolongation of the
continental land, and not a portion of the alluvial flats of the Amazons. The
soil is a coarse gritty sand; the substratum, which is visible in some places,
consisting of sandstone conglomerate probably of the same formation as
that which underlies the Tabatinga clay in other parts of the river valley.
The surface is carpeted with slender hairy grasses, unfit for pasture,
growing to a uniform height of about a foot. The patches of wood look like
copses in the middle of green meadows; they are called by the natives “ilhas
de mato,” or islands of jungle; the name being, no doubt, suggested by their
compactness of outline, neatly demarcated in insular form from the smooth
carpet of grass, around them. They are composed of a great variety of trees
loaded with succulent parasites, and lashed together by woody climbers like
the forest in other parts. A narrow belt of dense wood, similar in character
to these ilhas, and like them sharply limited along its borders, runs
everywhere parallel and close to the river. In crossing the campo, the path
from the town ascends a little for a mile or two, passing through this
marginal strip of wood; the grassy land then slopes gradually to a broad
valley, watered by rivulets, whose banks are clothed with lofty and
luxuriant forest. Beyond this, a range of hills extends as far as the eye can
reach towards the yet untrodden interior. Some of these hills are long
ridges, wooded or bare; others are isolated conical peaks, rising abruptly
from the valley. The highest are probably not more than a thousand feet
above the level of the river. One remarkable hill, the Serra de Muruarú,
about fifteen miles from Santarem, which terminates the prospect to the
south, is of the same truncated pyramidal form as the range of hills near
Almeyrim. Complete solitude reigns over the whole of this stretch of

beautiful country. The inhabitants of Santarem know nothing of the interior,
and seem to feel little curiosity concerning it. A few tracks from the town
across the campo lead to some small clearings four or five miles off,
belonging to the poorer inhabitants of the place; but, excepting these, there
are no roads, or signs of the proximity of a civilised settlement.
The appearance of the campos changes very much according to the
season. There is not that grand uniformity of aspect throughout the year
which is observed in the virgin forest, and which makes a deeper
impression on the naturalist the longer he remains in this country. The
seasons in this part of the Amazons region are sharply contrasted, but the
difference is not so great as in some tropical countries, where, during the
dry monsoon, insects and reptiles go into a summer sleep, and the trees
simultaneously shed their leaves. As the dry season advances (August,
September), the grass on the campos withers, and the shrubby vegetation
near the town becomes a mass of parched yellow stubble. The period,
however, is not one of general torpidity or repose for animal or vegetable
life. Birds certainly are not so numerous as in the wet season, but some
kinds remain and lay their eggs at this time—for instance, the ground doves
(Chamæpelia). The trees retain their verdure throughout, and many of them
flower in the dry months. Lizards do not become torpid, and insects are
seen both in the larva and the perfect states, showing that the aridity of the
climate has not a general influence on the development of the species. Some
kinds of butterflies, especially the little hairstreaks (Theclæ), whose
caterpillars feed on the trees, make their appearance only when the dry
season is at its height. The land molluscs of the district are the only animals
which æstivate; they are found in clusters, Bulimi and Helices, concealed in
hollow trees, the mouths of their shells closed by a film of mucus. The fine
weather breaks up often with great suddenness about the beginning of
February. Violent squalls from the west or the opposite direction to the
trade-wind then occur. They give very little warning, and the first generally
catches the people unprepared. They fall in the night, and blowing directly
into the harbour, with the first gust sweep all vessels from their anchorage;
in a few minutes a mass of canoes, large and small, including schooners of
fifty tons burthen, are clashing together, pell-mell, on the beach. I have
reason to remember these storms, for I was once caught in one myself,
whilst crossing the river in an undecked boat about a day’s journey from
Santarem. They are accompanied with terrific electric explosions, the sharp

claps of thunder falling almost simultaneously with the blinding flashes of
lightning. Torrents of rain follow the first outbreak; the wind then gradually
abates, and the rain subsides into a steady drizzle, which continues often for
the greater part of the succeeding day. After a week or two of showery
weather, the aspect of the country is completely changed. The parched
ground in the neighbourhood of Santarem breaks out, so to speak, in a rash
of greenery; the dusty, languishing trees gain, without having shed their old
leaves, a new clothing of tender green foliage; a wonderful variety of quick-
growing leguminous plants springs up; and leafy creepers overrun the
ground, the bushes, and the trunks of trees. One is reminded of the sudden
advent of spring after a few warm showers in northern climates; I was the
more struck by it as nothing similar is witnessed in the virgin forests
amongst which I had passed the four years previous to my stay in this part.
The grass on the campos is renewed, and many of the campo trees,
especially the myrtles, which grow abundantly in one portion of the district,
begin to flower, attracting by the fragrance of their blossoms a great number
and variety of insects, more particularly Coleoptera. Many kinds of birds;
parrots, toucans, and barbets, which live habitually in the forest, then visit
the open places. A few weeks of comparatively dry weather generally
intervene in March, after a month or two of rain. The heaviest rains fall in
April, May, and June; they come in a succession of showers, with sunny,
gleamy weather in the intervals. June and July are the months when the
leafy luxuriance of the campos, and the activity of life, are at their highest.
Most birds have then completed their moulting, which extends over the
period from February to May. The flowering shrubs are then mostly in
bloom, and numberless kinds of Dipterous and Hymenopterous insects
appear simultaneously with the flowers. This season might be considered
the equivalent of summer in temperate climates, as the bursting forth of the
foliage in February represents the spring; but under the equator there is not
that simultaneous march in the annual life of animals and plants, which we
see in high latitudes; some species, it is true, are dependent upon others in
their periodical acts of life, and go hand-in-hand with them, but they are not
all simultaneously and similarly affected by the physical changes of the
seasons.
I will now give an account of some of my favourite collecting places in
the neighbourhood of Santarem, incorporating with the description a few of
the more interesting observations made on the Natural History of the

localities. To the west of the town there was a pleasant path along the beach
to a little bay, called Mapirí, about five miles within the mouth of the
Tapajos. The road was practicable only in the dry season. The river at
Santarem rises on the average about thirty feet, varying in different years
about ten feet, so that in the four months from April to July, the water
comes up to the edge of the marginal belt of wood already spoken of. This
Mapiri excursion was most pleasant and profitable in the months from
January to March, before the rains became too continuous. The sandy beach
beyond the town is very irregular, in some places forming long spits on
which, when the east wind is blowing, the waves break in a line of foam; at
others, receding to shape out quiet little bays and pools. On the outskirts of
the town a few scattered huts of Indians and coloured people are passed,
prettily situated on the margin of the white beach, with a background of
glorious foliage; the cabin of the pure-blood Indian being distinguished
from the mud hovels of the free negroes and mulattoes by its light
construction, half of it being an open shed where the dusky tenants are seen
at all hours of the day lounging in their open-meshed grass hammocks.
About two miles on the road we come to a series of shallow pools, called
the Laguinhos, which are connected with the river in the wet season, but
separated from it by a high bank of sand topped with bushes at other times.
There is a break here in the fringe of wood, and a glimpse is obtained of the
grassy campo. When the waters have risen to the level of the pools, this
place is frequented by many kinds of wading-birds. Snow-white egrets of
two species stand about the margins of the water, and dusky-striped herons
may be seen half hidden under the shade of the bushes. The pools are
covered with a small kind of water-lily, and surrounded by a dense thicket.
Amongst the birds which inhabit this spot is the rosy-breasted Troupial
(Trupialis Gulanensis), a bird resembling our starling in size and habits, and
not unlike it in colour, with the exception of the rich rosy vest. The water at
this time of the year overflows a large level tract of campo bordering the
pools, and the Troupials come to feed on the larvæ of insects which then
abound in the moist soil.
Beyond the Laguinhos there succeeds a tract of level beach covered with
trees which form a beautiful grove. About the month of April, when the
water rises to this level, the trees are covered with blossom, and a handsome
orchid, an Epidendron with large white flowers, which clothes thickly the
trunks, is profusely in bloom. Several kinds of kingfisher resort to the place.

Four species may be seen within a small space: the largest as big as a crow,
of a mottled-grey hue, and with an enormous beak; the smallest not larger
than a sparrow. The large one makes its nest in clay cliffs, three or four
miles distant from this place. None of the kingfishers are so brilliant in
colour as our English species. The blossoms on the trees attract two or three
species of hummingbirds, the most conspicuous of which is a large
swallow-tailed kind (Eupetomena macroura), with a brilliant livery of
emerald green and steel blue. I noticed that it did not remain so long poised
in the air before the flowers as the other smaller species; it perched more
frequently, and sometimes darted after small insects on the wing. Emerging
from the grove there is a long stretch of sandy beach; the land is high and
rocky, and the belt of wood which skirts the river banks is much broader
than it is elsewhere. At length, after rounding a projecting bluff, the bay at
Mapirí is reached. The river view is characteristic of the Tapajos; the shores
are wooded, and on the opposite side is a line of clay cliffs with hills in the
background clothed with a rolling forest. A long spit of sand extends into
mid-river, beyond which is an immense expanse of dark water, the further
shore of the Tapajos being barely visible as a thin grey line of trees on the
horizon. The transparency of air and water in the dry season when the brisk
east wind is blowing, and the sharpness of outline of hills, woods, and
sandy beaches, give a great charm to this spot.
Whilst resting in the shade during the great heat of the early hours of
afternoon, I used to find amusement in watching the proceedings of the
sand wasps. A small pale green kind of Bembex (Bembex ciliata), was
plentiful near the bay of Mapirí. When they are at work, a number of little
jets of sand are seen shooting over the surface of the sloping bank. The little
miners excavate with their forefeet, which are strongly built and furnished
with a fringe of stiff bristles; they work with wonderful rapidity, and the
sand thrown out beneath their bodies issues in continuous streams. They are
solitary wasps, each female working on her own account. After making a
gallery two or three inches in length in a slanting direction from the surface,
the owner backs out and takes a few turns round the orifice apparently to
see whether it is well made, but in reality, I believe, to take note of the
locality, that she may find it again. This done, the busy workwoman flies
away; but returns, after an absence varying in different cases from a few
minutes to an hour or more, with a fly in her grasp, with which she re-enters
her mine. On again emerging, the entrance is carefully closed with sand.

During this interval she has laid an egg on the body of the fly which she had
previously benumbed with her sting, and which is to serve as food for the
soft, footless grub soon to be hatched from the egg. From what I could
make out, the Bembex makes a fresh excavation for every egg to be
deposited; at least in two or three of the galleries which I opened there was
only one fly enclosed.
I have said that the Bembex on leaving her mine took note of the locality;
this seemed to be the explanation of the short delay previous to her taking
flight; on rising in the air also the insects generally flew round over the
place before making straight off. Another nearly allied but much larger
species, the Monedula signata, whose habits I observed on the banks of the
Upper Amazons, sometimes excavates its mine solitarily on sand-banks
recently laid bare in the middle of the river, and closes the orifice before
going in search of prey. In these cases the insect has to make a journey of at
least half a mile to procure the kind of fly, the Motúca (Hadrus lepidotus),
with which it provisions its cell. I often noticed it to take a few turns in the
air round the place before starting; on its return it made without hesitation
straight for the closed mouth of the mine. I was convinced that the insects
noted the bearings of their nests and the direction they took in flying from
them. The proceeding in this and similar cases (I have read of something
analogous having been noticed in hive bees) seems to be a mental act of the
same nature as that which takes place in ourselves when recognising a
locality. The senses, however, must be immeasurably more keen and the
mental operation much more certain in them than it is in man, for to my eye
there was absolutely no landmark on the even surface of sand which could
serve as guide, and the borders of the forest were not nearer than half a
mile. The action of the wasp would be said to be instinctive; but it seems
plain that the instinct is no mysterious and unintelligible agent, but a mental
process in each individual, differing from the same in man only by its
unerring certainty. The mind of the insect appears to be so constituted that
the impression of external objects or the want felt, causes it to act with a
precision which seems to us like that of a machine constructed to move in a
certain given way. I have noticed in Indian boys a sense of locality almost
as keen as that possessed by the sand-wasp. An old Portuguese and myself,
accompanied by a young lad about ten years of age, were once lost in the
forest in a most solitary place on the banks of the main river. Our case
seemed hopeless, and it did not for some time occur to us to consult our

little companion, who had been playing with his bow and arrow all the way
whilst we were hunting, apparently taking no note of the route. When
asked, however, he pointed out, in a moment, the right direction of our
canoe. He could not explain how he knew; I believe he had noted the course
we had taken almost unconsciously; the sense of locality in his case seemed
instinctive.
The Monedula signata is a good friend to travellers in those parts of the
Amazons which are infested by the blood-thirsty Motúca. I first noticed its
habit of preying on this fly one day when we landed to make our fire and
dine on the borders of the forest adjoining a sand-bank. The insect is as
large as a hornet, and has a most waspish appearance. I was rather startled
when one out of the flock which was hovering about us flew straight at my
face: it had espied a Motuca on my neck and was thus pouncing upon it. It
seizes the fly not with its jaws, but with its fore and middle feet, and carries
it off tightly held to its breast. Wherever the traveller lands on the Upper
Amazons in the neighbourhood of a sand-bank he is sure to be attended by
one or more of these useful vermin-killers.
The bay of Mapirí was the limit of my day excursions by the river-side to
the west of Santarem. A person may travel, however, on foot, as Indians
frequently do, in the dry season for fifty or sixty miles along the broad clean
sandy beaches of the Tapajos. The only obstacles are the rivulets, most of
which are fordable when the waters are low. To the east my rambles
extended to the banks of the Mahicá inlet. This enters the Amazons about
three miles below Santarem, where the clear stream of the Tapajos begins to
be discoloured by the turbid waters of the main river. The Mahicá has a
broad margin of rich level pasture, limited on each side by the straight, tall
hedge of forest. On the Santarem side it is skirted by high wooded ridges. A
landscape of this description always produced in me an impression of
sadness and loneliness which the luxuriant virgin forests that closely hedge
in most of the by-waters of the Amazons never created. The pastures are
destitute of flowers, and also of animal life, with the exception of a few
small plain-coloured birds and solitary Caracára eagles whining from the
topmost branches of dead trees on the forest borders. A few settlers have
built their palm- thatched and mud-walled huts on the banks of the Mahicá,
and occupy themselves chiefly in tending small herds of cattle. They
seemed to be all wretchedly poor. The oxen however, though small, were
sleek and fat, and the district most promising for agricultural and pastoral

employments. In the wet season the waters gradually rise and cover the
meadows, but there is plenty of room for the removal of the cattle to higher
ground. The lazy and ignorant people seem totally unable to profit by these
advantages. The houses have no gardens or plantations near them. I was
told it was useless to plant anything, because the cattle devoured the young
shoots. In this country, grazing and planting are very rarely carried on
together, for the people seem to have no notion of enclosing patches of
ground for cultivation. They say it is too much trouble to make enclosures.
The construction of a durable fence is certainly a difficult matter, for it is
only two or three kinds of tree which will serve the purpose in being free
from the attacks of insects, and these are scattered far and wide through the
woods.
Although the meadows were unproductive ground to a naturalist, the
woods on their borders teemed with life; the number and variety of curious
insects of all orders which occurred here was quite wonderful. The belt of
forest was intersected by numerous pathways leading from one settler’s
house to another. The ground was moist, but the trees were not so lofty or
their crowns so densely packed together as in other parts; the sun’s light and
heat, therefore, had freer access to the soil, and the underwood was much
more diversified than in the virgin forest. I never saw so many kinds of
dwarf palms together as here; pretty miniature species; some not more than
five feet high, and bearing little clusters of round fruit not larger than a
good bunch of currants. A few of the forest trees had the size and strongly-
branched figures of our oaks, and a similar bark. One noble palm grew here
in great abundance, and gave a distinctive character to the district. This was
the Œnocarpus distichus, one of the kinds called Bacába by the natives. It
grows to a height of forty to fifty feet. The crown is of a lustrous dark-green
colour, and of a singularly flattened or compressed shape, the leaves being
arranged on each side in nearly the same plane. When I first saw this tree on
the campos, where the east wind blows with great force night and day for
several months, I thought the shape of the crown was due to the leaves
being prevented from radiating equally by the constant action of the
breezes. But the plane of growth is not always in the direction of the wind,
and the crown has the same shape when the tree grows in the sheltered
woods. The fruit of this fine palm ripens towards the end of the year, and is
much esteemed by the natives, who manufacture a pleasant drink from it
similar to the assai described in a former chapter, by rubbing off the coat of

pulp from the nuts, and mixing it with water. A bunch of fruit weighs thirty
or forty pounds. The beverage has a milky appearance, and an agreeable
nutty flavour. The tree is very difficult to climb, on account of the
smoothness of its stem; consequently the natives, whenever they want a
bunch of fruit for a bowl of Bacába, cut down and thus destroy a tree which
has taken a score or two of years to grow, in order to get at it.
In the lower part of the Mahicá woods, towards the river, there is a bed of
stiff white clay, which supplies the people of Santarem with material for the
manufacture of coarse pottery and cooking utensils: all the kettles,
saucepans, mandioca ovens, coffee-pots, washing-vessels, and so forth, of
the poorer classes, throughout the country, are made of this same plastic
clay, which occurs at short intervals over the whole surface of the Amazons
valley, from the neighbourhood of Pará to within the Peruvian borders, and
forms part of the great Tabatinga marl deposit. To enable the vessels to
stand the fire, the bark of a certain tree, called Caraipé, is burned and mixed
with the clay, which gives tenacity to the ware. Caraipé is an article of
commerce, being sold, packed in baskets, at the shops in most of the towns.
The shallow pits, excavated in the marly soil at Mahicá, were very
attractive to many kinds of mason bees and wasps, who made use of the
clay to build their nests with. So we have here another example of the
curious analogy that exists between the arts of insects and those of man. I
spent many an hour watching their proceedings; a short account of the
habits of some of these busy creatures may be interesting.

The most conspicuous was a large yellow and black wasp, with a
remarkably long and narrow waist, the Pelopæus fistularis. This species
collected the clay in little round pellets, which it carried off, after rolling
them into a convenient shape, in its mouth. It came straight to the pit with a
loud hum, and, on alighting, lost not a moment in beginning to work;
finishing the kneading of its little load in two or three minutes. The nest of
this wasp is shaped like a pouch, two inches in length, and is attached to a
branch or other projecting object. One of these restless artificers once began
to build on the handle of a chest in the cabin of my canoe, when we were
stationary at a place for several days. It was so intent on its work that it
allowed me to inspect the movements of its mouth with a lens whilst it was
laying on the mortar. Every fresh pellet was brought in with a triumphant
song, which changed to a cheerful busy hum when it alighted and began to
work. The little ball of moist clay was laid on the edge of the cell, and then
spread out around the circular rim by means of the lower lip guided by the
mandibles. The insect placed itself astride over the rim to work, and, on
finishing each addition to the structure, took a turn round, patting the sides
with its feet inside and out before flying off to gather a fresh pellet. It
worked only in sunny weather, and the previous layer was sometimes not
quite dry when the new coating was added. The whole structure takes about
a week to complete. I left the place before the gay little builder had quite
finished her task; she did not accompany the canoe, although we moved
along the bank of the river very slowly. On opening closed nests of this
species, which are common in the neighbourhood of Mahicá, I always
found them to be stocked with small spiders of the genus Gastracantha, in
the usual half-dead state to which the mother wasps reduce the insects
which are to serve as food for their progeny.

Besides the Pelopæus, there were three or four kinds of Trypoxylon, a
genus also found in Europe, and which some naturalists have supposed to
be parasitic, because the legs are not furnished with the usual row of strong
bristles for digging, characteristic of the family to which it belongs. The

species of Trypoxylon, however, are all building wasps; two of them which
I observed (T. albitarse and an undescribed species) provision their nests
with spiders, a third (T. aurifrons) with small caterpillars. Their habits are
similar to those of the Pelopæus; namely, they carry off the clay in their
mandibles, and have a different song when they hasten away with the
burden to that which they sing whilst at work. Trypoxylon albitarse, which
is a large black kind, three-quarters of an inch in length, makes a
tremendous fuss whilst building its cell. It often chooses the walls or doors
of chambers for this purpose, and when two or three are at work in the same
place, their loud humming keeps the house in an uproar. The cell is a
tubular structure about three inches in length. T. aurifrons, a much smaller
species, makes a neat little nest shaped like a carafe, building rows of them
together in the corners of verandahs.
But the most numerous and interesting of the clay artificers are the
workers of a species of social bee, the Melipona fasciculata. The Meliponæ
in tropical America take the place of the true Apides, to which the European
hive-bee belongs, and which are here unknown; they are generally much
smaller insects than the hive-bees and have no sting. The M. fasciculata is
about a third shorter than the Apis mellifica: its colonies are composed of an
immense number of individuals; the workers are generally seen collecting
pollen in the same way as other bees, but great numbers are employed
gathering clay. The rapidity and precision of their movements whilst thus
engaged are wonderful. They first scrape the clay with their jaws; the small
portions gathered are then cleared by the anterior paws and passed to the
second pair of feet, which, in their turn, convey them to the large foliated
expansions of the hind shanks which are adapted normally in bees, as every
one knows, for the collection of pollen. The middle feet pat the growing
pellets of mortar on the hind legs to keep them in a compact shape as the
particles are successively added. The little hodsmen soon have as much as
they can carry, and they then fly off. I was for some time puzzled to know
what the bees did with the clay; but I had afterwards plenty of opportunity
for ascertaining. They construct their combs in any suitable crevice in
trunks of trees or perpendicular banks, and the clay is required to build up a
wall so as to close the gap, with the exception of a small orifice for their
own entrance and exit. Most kinds of Meliponæ are in this way masons as
well as workers in wax, and pollen-gatherers. One little species
(undescribed) not more than two lines long, builds a neat tubular gallery of

clay, kneaded with some viscid substance, outside the entrance to its hive,
besides blocking up the crevice in the tree within which it is situated. The
mouth of the tube is trumpet-shaped, and at the entrance a number of pigmy
bees are always stationed, apparently acting as the sentinels.

A hive of the Melipona fasciculata, which I saw opened, contained about
two quarts of pleasant-tasting liquid honey. The bees, as already remarked,
have no sting, but they bite furiously when their colonies are disturbed. The
Indian who plundered the hive was completely covered by them; they took
a particular fancy to the hair of his head, and fastened on it by hundreds. I
found forty-five species of these bees in different parts of the country; the
largest was half an inch in length; the smallest were extremely minute,
some kinds being not more than one-twelfth of an inch in size. These tiny
fellows are often very troublesome in the woods, on account of their
familiarity, for they settle on one’s face and hands, and, in crawling about,
get into the eyes and mouth, or up the nostrils.
The broad expansion of the hind shanks of bees is applied in some
species to other uses besides the conveyance of clay and pollen. The female
of the handsome golden and black Euglossa Surinamensis has this palette of
very large size. This species builds its solitary nest also in crevices of walls
or trees; but it closes up the chink with fragments of dried leaves and sticks
cemented together, instead of clay. It visits the caju trees, and gathers with
its hind legs a small quantity of the gum which exudes from their trunks. To
this it adds the other materials required from the neighbouring bushes, and
when laden flies off to its nest.
To the south my rambles never extended further than the banks of the
Irurá, a stream which rises amongst the hills already spoken of, and running
through a broad valley, wooded along the margins of the water-courses,

falls into the Tapajos, at the head of the bay of Mapirí. All beyond, as before
remarked, is terra incognita to the inhabitants of Santarem. The Brazilian
settlers on the banks of the Amazons seem to have no taste for explorations
by land, and I could find no person willing to accompany me on an
excursion further towards the interior. Such a journey would be exceedingly
difficult in this country, even if men could be obtained willing to undertake
it. Besides, there were reports of a settlement of fierce runaway negroes on
the Serra de Mururarú, and it was considered unsafe to go far in that
direction, except with a large armed party.
I visited the banks of the Irurá and the rich woods accompanying it, and
two other streams in the same neighbourhood, one called the Panéma, and
the other the Urumarí, once or twice a week during the whole time of my
residence in Santarem, and made large collections of their natural
productions. These forest brooks, with their clear, cold waters brawling over
their sandy or pebbly beds through wild tropical glens, always had a great
charm for me. The beauty of the moist, cool, and luxuriant glades was
heightened by the contrast they afforded to the sterile country around them.
The bare or scantily wooded hills which surround the valley are parched by
the rays of the vertical sun. One of them, the Pico do Irura, forms a nearly
perfect cone, rising from a small grassy plain to a height of 500 or 600 feet,
and its ascent is excessively fatiguing after the long walk from Santarem
over the campos. I tried it one day, but did not reach the summit. A dense
growth of coarse grasses clothed the steep sides of the hill, with here and
there a stunted tree of kinds found in the plain beneath. In bared places, a
red crumbly soil is exposed; and in one part a mass of rock, which appeared
to me, from its compact texture and the absence of stratification, to be
porphyritic; but I am not geologically sufficient to pronounce on such
questions. Mr. Wallace states that he found fragments of scoriæ, and
believes the hill to be a volcanic cone. To the south and east of this isolated
peak, the elongated ridges or table-topped hills attain a somewhat greater
elevation.
The forest in the valley is limited to a tract a few hundred yards in width
on each side the different streams; in places where these run along the bases
of the hills, the hill-sides facing the water are also richly wooded, although
their opposite declivities are bare or nearly so. The trees are lofty and of
great variety; amongst them are colossal examples of the Brazil nut tree
(Bertholletia excelsa), and the Pikiá. This latter bears a large eatable fruit,

curious in having a hollow chamber between the pulp and the kernel, beset
with hard spines which produce serious wounds if they enter the skin. The
eatable part appeared to me not much more palatable than a raw potato; but
the inhabitants of Santarem are very fond of it, and undertake the most
toilsome journeys on foot to gather a basketful. The tree which yields the
tonka bean (Dipteryx odorata), used in Europe for scenting snuff, is also of
frequent occurrence here. It grows to an immense height, and the fruit,
which, although a legume, is of a rounded shape, and has but one seed, can
be gathered only when it falls to the ground. A considerable quantity (from
1000 to 3000 pounds) is exported annually from Santarem, the produce of
the whole region of the Tapajos. An endless diversity of trees and shrubs,
some beautiful in flower and foliage, others bearing curious fruits, grow in
this matted wilderness. It would be tedious to enumerate many of them. I
was much struck with the variety of trees with large and diversely-shaped
fruits growing out of the trunk and branches, some within a few inches of
the ground, like the cacao. Most of them are called by the natives Cupú, and
the trees are of inconsiderable height. One of them called Cupú-aï bears a
fruit of elliptical shape and of a dingy earthen colour six or seven inches
long, the shell of which is woody and thin, and contains a small number of
seeds loosely enveloped in a juicy pulp of very pleasant flavour. The fruits
hang like clayey ants’-nests from the branches. Another kind more nearly
resembles the cacao; this is shaped something like the cucumber, and has a
green ribbed husk. It bears the name of Cacao de macaco, or monkey’s
chocolate, but the seeds are smaller than those of the common cacao. I tried
once or twice to make chocolate from them. They contain plenty of oil of
similar fragrance to that of the ordinary cacao-nut, and make up very well
into paste; but the beverage has a repulsive clayey colour and an inferior
flavour.
My excursions to the Irurá had always a picnic character. A few rude huts
are scattered through the valley, but they are tenanted only for a few days in
the year, when their owners come to gather and roast the mandioca of their
small clearings. We used generally to take with us two boys—one negro,
the other Indian—to carry our provisions for the day; a few pounds of beef
or dried fish, farinha and bananas, with plates, and a kettle for cooking. José
carried the guns, ammunition and game-bags, and I the apparatus for
entomologising—the insect net, a large leathern bag with compartments for
corked boxes, phials, glass tubes, and so forth. It was our custom to start

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

My best hunting ground was a part of the valley sheltered on one side by
a steep hill whose declivity, like the swampy valley beneath, was clothed
with magnificent forest. We used to make our halt in a small cleared place,
tolerably free from ants and close to the water. Here we assembled after our

toilsome morning’s hunt in different directions through the woods, took our
well-earned meal on the ground—two broad leaves of the wild banana
serving us for a tablecloth—and rested for a couple of hours during the
great heat of the afternoon. The diversity of animal productions was as
wonderful as that of the vegetable forms in this rich locality. It was pleasant
to lie down during the hottest part of the day, when my people lay asleep,
and watch the movements of animals. Sometimes a troop of Anús
(Crotophaga), a glossy black-plumaged bird, which lives in small societies
in grassy places, would come in from the campos, one by one, calling to
each other as they moved from tree to tree. Or a Toucan (Rhamphastos
ariel) silently hopped or ran along and up the branches, peeping into chinks
and crevices. Notes of solitary birds resounded from a distance through the
wilderness. Occasionally a sulky Trogon would be seen, with its brilliant
green back and rose-coloured breast, perched for an hour without moving
on a low branch. A number of large, fat lizards two feet long, of a kind
called by the natives Jacuarú (Teius teguexim) were always observed in the
still hours of midday scampering with great clatter over the dead leaves,
apparently in chase of each other. The fat of this bulky lizard is much prized
by the natives, who apply it as a poultice to draw palm spines or even grains
of shot from the flesh. Other lizards of repulsive aspect, about three feet in
length when full grown, splashed about and swam in the water, sometimes
emerging to crawl into hollow trees on the banks of the stream, where I
once found a female and a nest of eggs. The lazy flapping flight of large
blue and black morpho butterflies high in the air, the hum of insects, and
many inanimate sounds, contributed their share to the total impression this
strange solitude produced. Heavy fruits from the crowns of trees which
were mingled together at a giddy height overhead, fell now and then with a
startling “plop” into the water. The breeze, not felt below, stirred in the
topmost branches, setting the twisted and looped sipós in motion, which
creaked and groaned in a great variety of notes. To these noises were added
the monotonous ripple of the brook, which had its little cascade at every
score or two yards of its course.
We frequently fell in with an old Indian woman, named Cecilia, who had
a small clearing in the woods. She had the reputation of being a witch
(feiticeira), and I found, on talking with her, that she prided herself on her
knowledge of the black art. Her slightly curled hair showed that she was not
a pure-blood Indian: I was told her father was a dark mulatto. She was

always very civil to our party, showing us the best paths, explaining the
virtues and uses of different plants, and so forth. I was much amused at the
accounts she gave of the place. Her solitary life and the gloom of the woods
seemed to have filled her with superstitious fancies. She said gold was
contained in the bed of the brook, and that the murmur of the water over the
little cascades was the voice of the “water-mother” revealing the hidden
treasure. A narrow pass between two hillsides was the portao or gate, and all
within, along the wooded banks of the stream, was enchanted ground. The
hill underneath which we were encamped was the enchanter’s abode, and
she gravely told us she often had long conversations with him. These myths
were of her own invention, and in the same way an endless number of other
similar ones have originated in the childish imaginations of the poor Indian
and half-breed inhabitants of different parts of the country. It is to be
remarked, however, that the Indian men all become sceptics after a little
intercourse with the whites. The witchcraft of poor Cecilia was of a very
weak quality. It consisted of throwing pinches of powdered bark of a certain
tree, and other substances, into the fire whilst muttering a spell—a prayer
repeated backwards—and adding the name of the person on whom she
wished the incantation to operate. Some of the feiticeiras, however, play
more dangerous tricks than this harmless mummery. They are acquainted
with many poisonous plants, and although they seldom have the courage to
administer a fatal dose, sometimes contrive to convey to their victim
sufficient to cause serious illness. The motive by which they are actuated is
usually jealousy of other women in love matters. Whilst I resided in
Santarem, a case of what was called witchcraft was tried by the sub-
delegado, in which a highly respectable white lady was the complainant. It
appeared that some feiticeira had sprinkled a quantity of the acrid juice of a
large arum on her linen as it was hanging out to dry, and it was thought this
had caused a serious eruption under which the lady suffered.
I seldom met with any of the larger animals in these excursions. We
never saw a mammal of any kind on the campos; but tracks of three species
were seen occasionally besides those of the jaguar; these belonged to a
small tiger cat, a deer, and an opossum, all of which animals must have
been very rare, and probably nocturnal in their habits, with the exception of
the deer. I saw in the woods, on one occasion, a small flock of monkeys,
and once had an opportunity of watching the movements of a sloth. The
latter was of the kind called by Cuvier Bradypus tridactylus, which is

clothed with shaggy grey hair. The natives call it, in the Tupí language, Aï
ybyreté (in Portuguese, Preguiça da terra firme), or sloth of the mainland, to
distinguish it from the Bradypus infuscatus, which has a long, black and
tawny stripe between the shoulders, and is called Aï Ygapó (Preguiça das
vargens), or sloth of the flooded lands. Some travellers in South America
have described the sloth as very nimble in its native woods, and have
disputed the justness of the name which has been bestowed upon it. The
inhabitants of the Amazons region, however, both Indians and descendants
of the Portuguese, hold to the common opinion, and consider the sloth as
the type of laziness. It is very common for one native to call another, in
reproaching him for idleness, “bicho do Embaüba” (beast of the Cecropia
tree); the leaves of the Cecropia being the food of the sloth. It is a strange
sight to watch the uncouth creature, fit production of these silent shades,
lazily moving from branch to branch. Every movement betrays, not
indolence exactly, but extreme caution. He never looses his hold from one
branch without first securing himself to the next, and when he does not
immediately find a bough to grasp with the rigid hooks into which his paws
are so curiously transformed, he raises his body, supported on his hind legs,
and claws around in search of a fresh foothold. After watching the animal
for about half an hour I gave him a charge of shot. He fell with a terrific
crash, but caught a bough, in his descent, with his powerful claws, and
remained suspended. Our Indian lad tried to climb the tree, but was driven
back by swarms of stinging ants; the poor little fellow slid down in a sad
predicament, and plunged into the brook to free himself. Two days
afterwards I found the body of the sloth on the ground, the animal having
dropped on the relaxation of the muscles a few hours after death. In one of
our voyages, Mr. Wallace and I saw a sloth (B. infuscatus) swimming across
a river, at a place where it was probably 300 yards broad. I believe it is not
generally known that this animal takes to the water. Our men caught the
beast, cooked, and ate him.
In returning from these trips we were sometimes benighted on the
campos. We did not care for this on moonlit nights, when there was no
danger of losing the path. The great heat felt in the middle hours of the day
is much mitigated by four o’clock in the afternoon; a few birds then make
their appearance; small flocks of ground doves run about the stony hillocks
parrots pass over and sometimes settle in the ilhas; pretty little finches of
several species, especially one kind, streaked with olive-brown and yellow,

and somewhat resembling our yellow-hammer, but I believe not belonging
to the same genus, hop about the grass, enlivening the place with a few
musical notes. The Carashué (Mimus) also then resumes its mellow,
blackbird-like song; and two or three species of humming-bird, none of
which, however, are peculiar to the district, flit about from tree to tree. On
the other hand, the little blue and yellow-striped lizards, which abound
amongst the herbage during the scorching heats of midday, retreat towards
this hour to their hiding-places, together with the day-flying insects and the
numerous campo butterflies. Some of these latter resemble greatly our
English species found in heathy places, namely, a fritillary, Argynnis
(Euptoieta) Hegesia, and two smaller kinds, which are deceptively like the
little Nemeobius Lucina. After sunset, the air becomes delightfully cool and
fragrant with the aroma of fruits and flowers. The nocturnal animals then
come forth. A monstrous hairy spider, five inches in expanse, of a brown
colour with yellowish lines along its stout legs—which is very common
here, inhabiting broad tubular galleries smoothly lined with silken web—
may be then caught on the watch at the mouth of its burrow. It is only seen
at night, and I think does not wander far from its den; the gallery is about
two inches in diameter and runs in a slanting direction, about two feet from
the surface of the soil. As soon as it is night, swarms of goat-suckers
suddenly make their appearance, wheeling about in a noiseless, ghostly
manner, in chase of night-flying insects. They sometimes descend and settle
on a low branch, or even on the pathway close to where one is walking, and
then squatting down on their heels, are difficult to distinguish from the
surrounding soil. One kind has a long forked tail. In the daytime they are
concealed in the wooded ilhas, where I very often saw them crouched and
sleeping on the ground in the dense shade. They make no nest, but lay their
eggs on the bare ground. Their breeding time is in the rainy season, and
fresh eggs are found from December to June. Later in the evening, the
singular notes of the goat-suckers are heard, one species crying Quao,
Quao, another Chuck-cococao; and these are repeated at intervals far into
the night in the most monotonous manner. A great number of toads are seen
on the bare sandy pathways soon after sunset. One of them was quite a
colossus, about seven inches in length and three in height. This big fellow
would never move out of the way until we were close to him. If we jerked
him out of the path with a stick, he would slowly recover himself, and then

turn round to have a good impudent stare. I have counted as many as thirty
of these monsters within a distance of half a mile.

Chapter IX.
VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS

Preparations for Voyage — First Day’s Sail — Loss of Boat
— Altar de Chao — Modes of Obtaining Fish — Difficulties
with Crew — Arrival at Aveyros — Excursions in the
Neighbourhood — White Cebus, and Habits and
Dispositions of Cebi Monkeys — Tame Parrot —
Missionary Settlement — Entering the River Cuparí —
Adventure with Anaconda — Smoke-dried Monkey — Boa-
constrictor — Village of Mundurucú Indians, and Incursion
of a Wild Tribe — Falls of the Cuparí — Hyacinthine
Macaw — Re-emerge into the broad Tapajos — Descent of
River to Santarem.

June, 1852.—I will now proceed to relate the incidents of my principal
excursion up the Tapajos, which I began to prepare for, after residing about
six months at Santarem.
I was obliged, this time, to travel in a vessel of my own; partly because
trading canoes large enough to accommodate a Naturalist very seldom pass
between Santarem and the thinly-peopled settlements on the river, and
partly because I wished to explore districts at my ease, far out of the
ordinary track of traders. I soon found a suitable canoe; a two-masted
cuberta, of about six tons’ burthen, strongly built of Itauba or stonewood, a
timber of which all the best vessels in the Amazons country are constructed,
and said to be more durable than teak. This I hired of a merchant at the
cheap rate of 500 reis, or about one shilling and twopence per day. I fitted
up the cabin, which, as usual in canoes of this class, was a square structure
with its floor above the waterline, as my sleeping and working apartment.
My chests, filled with store-boxes and trays for specimens, were arranged

on each side, and above them were shelves and pegs to hold my little stock
of useful books, guns, and game bags, boards and materials for skinning
and preserving animals, botanical press and papers, drying cages for insects.
and birds and so forth. A rush mat was spread on the floor, and my rolled-up
hammock, to be used only when sleeping ashore, served for a pillow. The
arched covering over the hold in the fore part of the vessel contained,
besides a sleeping place for the crew, my heavy chests, stock of salt
provisions and groceries, and an assortment of goods wherewith to pay my
way amongst the half-civilised or savage inhabitants of the interior. The
goods consisted of cashaca, powder and shot, a few pieces of coarse,
checked cotton cloth and prints, fish-hooks, axes, large knives, harpoons,
arrowheads, looking-glasses, beads, and other small wares. José and myself
were busy for many days arranging these matters. We had to salt the meat
and grind a supply of coffee ourselves. Cooking utensils, crockery, water-
jars, a set of useful carpenter’s tools, and many other things had to be
provided. We put all the groceries and other perishable articles in tin
canisters and boxes, having found that this was the only way of preserving
them from dampness and insects in this climate. When all was done, our
canoe looked like a little floating workshop.
I could get little information about the river, except vague accounts of the
difficulty of the navigation, and the famito or hunger which reigned on its
banks. As I have before mentioned, it is about 1000 miles in length, and
flows from south to north; in magnitude it stands the sixth amongst the
tributaries of the Amazons. It is navigable, however, by sailing vessels only
for about 160 miles above Santarem. The hiring of men to navigate the
vessel was our greatest trouble. José was to be my helmsman, and we
thought three other hands would be the fewest with which we could
venture. But all our endeavours to procure these were fruitless. Santarem is
worse provided with Indian canoemen than any other town on the river. I
found on applying to the tradesmen to whom I had brought letters of
introduction and to the Brazilian authorities, that almost any favour would
be sooner granted than the loan of hands. A stranger, however, is obliged to
depend on them; for it is impossible to find an Indian or half-caste whom
someone or other of the head-men do not claim as owing him money or
labour. I was afraid at one time I should have been forced to abandon my
project on this account. At length, after many rebuffs and disappointments,
José contrived to engage one man, a mulatto, named Pinto, a native of the