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PAR?.

Arrival at Par?--Appearance of the city and its environs--The inhabitants and their costume--Vegetation--Sensitive plants--Lizards--Ants and other insects--Birds--Climate--Food of the inhabitants 1

PAR?.

Festas--Portuguese and Brazilian currency--M. Borlaz' estate--Walk to the rice-mills--The virgin forest, its plants and insects--Milk-tree--Saw and rice-mills--Carip? or pottery-tree--India-rubber tree--Flowers and trees in blossom--Sa?ba ants, wasps, and chegoes--Journey by water to Magoary--The monkeys--The commandante at Laranjeiras--Vampire bats--The timber-trade--Boa constrictor and Sloth 18

THE TOCANTINS.

Canoe, stores, and crew--River Moj?--Igarip? Miri--Camet?--Senhor Gomez and his establishment--Search for a dinner--Jambouass?--Polite letter--B?iao and its inhabitants--A swarm of wasps--Enter the rocky district--The Mutuca--Difficulty of getting men--A village without houses--Catching an alligator--Duck-shooting--Aroyas, and the Falls--A nocturnal concert--Blue Macaws--Turtles' eggs--A slight accident--Capabilities of the country--Return to Par? 50

Visit to Oler?a--Habits of Birds--Voyage to Mexiana--Arrival--Birds--Description of the Island--Population--Slaves, their treatment and habits--Journey to the Lake--Beautiful stream--Fish and Birds at the Lake--Catching Alligators--Strange sounds, and abundance of Animal Life--Walk back--Jaguar meat--Visit to Jungcal in Maraj?--Embarking cattle--Ilha das Frechas 82

THE GUAM? AND CAPIM RIVERS.

Natterer's hunter, Luiz--Birds and insects--Prepare for a journey--First sight of the Piror?co--St. Domingo--Senhor Calistro--Slaves and slavery--Anecdote--Cane-field--Journey into the forest--Game--Explanation of the Piror?co--Return to Par?--Bell-birds and yellow parrots 112

SANTAREM AND MONTEALEGRE.

BARRA DO RIO NEGRO AND THE SOLIM?ES.

Appearance of the Rio Negro--The city of Barra, its trade and its inhabitants--Journey up the Rio Negro--The Lingoa Geral--The umbrella bird--Mode of life of the Indians--Return to Barra--Strangers in the city--Visit to the Solim?es--The Gap?--Manaquerey--Country life--Curl-crested Ara?aris--Vultures and On?as--Tobacco growing and manufacture--The Cow-fish--Senhor Brand?o--A fishing party with Senhor Henrique--Letters from England 163

THE UPPER RIO NEGRO.

Quit Barra for the Upper Rio Negro--Canoe and Cargo--Great width of the river--Carvoeiro and Barcellos--Granite rocks--Castanheiro--A polite old gentleman--S?o Joz?--A new language--The cataracts--S?o Gabriel--Nossa Senhora da Guia--Senhor L. and his family--Visit to the river Cobati--An Indian village--The Serra--Cocks of the rock--Return to Guia--Frei Joz? dos Santos Innocentos 194

JAVITA.

Leave Gu?a--Marabit?nas--Serra de Coco?--Enter Venezuela--S?o Carlos--Pass the Cassiquiare--Antonio Dias--Indian shipbuilders--Feather-work--Mar?a and Pimich?n--A black Jaguar--Poisonous serpents--Fishing--Walk to Jav?ta--Residence there--Indian road-makers--Language and customs--A description of Jav?ta--Runaway Indians--Collections at Jav?ta--Return to T?mo--A domestic broil--Marabit?nas and its inhabitants--Reach Gu?a 231

FIRST ASCENT OF THE RIVER UAUP?S.

Rapid Current--An Indian Malocca--The Inmates--A Festival--Paint and ornaments--Illness--S?o Jeronymo--Passing the Cataracts--Jauarit?--The Tusha?a Calistro--Singular Palm--Birds--Cheap provisions--Edible Ants, and Earthworms--A grand dance--Feather ornaments--The snake-dance--The Cap?--A State cigar--Anan?rapic?ma--Fish--Chegoes--Pass down the Falls--Tame Birds--Orchids--Piums--Eating dirt--Poisoning--Return to Guia--Manoel Joaquim--Annoying delays 273

ON THE RIO NEGRO.

Difficulties of starting--Descending the Falls--Catching an Alligator--Tame Parrots--A fortnight in Barra--Frei Joz?'s diplomacy--Pickling a Cow-fish--A river storm--Brazilian veracity--Wanaw?ca--Productiveness of the country--A large Snake--S?o Gabriel--S?o Joaquim--Fever and Ague 316

THE CATARACTS OF THE UAUP?S.

Start for the Uaup?s--S?o Jeronymo and Jauarit?--Indians run away--Numerous cataracts--Reach Carur?--Difficult passage--Painted Malocca--Devil Music--More falls--Ocok?--Curious rocks--Reach Uarucapur?--Cobeu Indians--Reach Muc?ra--An Indian's house and family--Height above the sea--Tenente Jesuino--Return to Uarucapur?--Indian prisoners--Voyage to Jauarit?--Correcting the calendar--Delay at S?o Jeronymo 341

S?O JERONYMO TO THE DOWNS.

Voyage down the Rio Negro--Arrive at Barra--Obtaining a passport--State of the city--Portuguese and Brazilian enterprise--System of credit--Trade--Immorality, and its causes--Leave Barra--A storm on the Amazon--Salsaparilha--A tale about Death--Par?--The yellow fever--Sail for England--Ship takes fire--Ten days in the boats--Get picked up--Heavy gales--Short of provisions--Storm in the Channel--Arrive at Deal 369

THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF THE AMAZON VALLEY 404

VEGETATION OF THE AMAZON VALLEY 432

OBSERVATIONS ON THE ZOOLOGY OF THE AMAZON DISTRICT 446

ON THE ABORIGINES OF THE AMAZON 476

VOCABULARIES OF AMAZONIAN LANGUAGES 521

TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON AND RIO NEGRO.

PAR?.

Arrival at Par?--Appearance of the city and its environs--The inhabitants and their costume--Vegetation--Sensitive plants--Lizards--Ants and other insects--Birds--Climate--Food of the inhabitants.

It was on the morning of the 26th of May, 1848, that after a short passage of twenty-nine days from Liverpool, we came to anchor opposite the southern entrance to the River Amazon, and obtained our first view of South America. In the afternoon the pilot came on board, and the next morning we sailed with a fair wind up the river, which for fifty miles could only be distinguished from the ocean by its calmness and discoloured water, the northern shore being invisible, and the southern at a distance of ten or twelve miles. Early on the morning of the 28th we again anchored; and when the sun rose in a cloudless sky, the city of Par?, surrounded by the dense forest, and overtopped by palms and plantains, greeted our sight, appearing doubly beautiful from the presence of those luxuriant tropical productions in a state of nature, which we had so often admired in the conservatories of Kew and Chatsworth. The canoes passing with their motley crews of Negroes and Indians, the vultures soaring overhead or walking lazily about the beach, and the crowds of swallows on the churches and house-tops, all served to occupy our attention till the Custom-house officers visited us, and we were allowed to go on shore.

Par? contains about 15,000 inhabitants, and does not cover a great extent of ground; yet it is the largest city on the greatest river in the world, the Amazon, and is the capital of a province equal in extent to all Western Europe. It is the residence of a President appointed by the Emperor of Brazil, and of a Bishop whose see extends two thousand miles into the interior, over a country peopled by countless tribes of unconverted Indians. The province of Par? is the most northern portion of Brazil, and though it is naturally the richest part of that vast empire, it is the least known, and at present of the least commercial importance.

The appearance of the city from the river, which is the best view that can be obtained of it, is not more foreign than that of Calais or Boulogne. The houses are generally white, and several handsome churches and public buildings raise their towers and domes above them. The vigour of vegetation is everywhere apparent. The ledges and mouldings support a growth of small plants, and from the wall-tops and window-openings of the churches often spring luxuriant weeds and sometimes small trees. Above and below and behind the city, as far as the eye can reach, extends the unbroken forest; all the small islands in the river are wooded to the water's edge, and many sand-banks flooded at high-water are covered with shrubs and small trees, whose tops only now appeared above the surface. The general aspect of the trees was not different from those of Europe, except where the "feathery palm-trees" raised their graceful forms; but our imaginations were busy picturing the wonderful scenes to be beheld in their dark recesses, and we longed for the time when we should be at liberty to explore them.

On landing, we proceeded to the house of Mr. Miller, the consignee of our vessel, by whom we were most kindly received, and invited to remain till we could settle ourselves as we should find most convenient. We were here introduced to most of the English and American residents, who are all engaged in trade, and are few in number. For the four following days we were occupied in walking in the neighbourhood of the city, presenting our passports and obtaining license to reside, familiarizing ourselves with the people and the vegetation, and endeavouring to obtain a residence fitted for our pursuits. Finding that this could not be immediately done, we removed to Mr. Miller's "rosinha," or country-house, situated about half a mile from the city, which he kindly gave us the use of till we could find more convenient quarters. Beds and bedsteads are not wanted here, as cotton woven hammocks are universally used for sleeping in, and are very convenient on account of their portability. These, with a few chairs and tables and our boxes, are all the furniture we had or required. We hired an old Negro man named Isidora for a cook and servant of all work, and regularly commenced housekeeping, learning Portuguese, and investigating the natural productions of the country.

My previous wanderings had been confined to England and a short trip on the Continent, so that everything here had the charm of perfect novelty. Nevertheless, on the whole I was disappointed. The weather was not so hot, the people were not so peculiar, the vegetation was not so striking, as the glowing picture I had conjured up in my imagination, and had been brooding over during the tedium of a sea-voyage. And this is almost always the case with everything but a single view or some one definite object. A piece of fine scenery, as beheld from a given point, can scarcely be overdrawn; and there are many such, which will not disappoint even the most expectant beholder. It is the general effect that strikes at once and commands the whole attention: the beauties have not to be sought, they are all before you. With a district or a country the case is very different. There are individual objects of interest, which have to be sought out and observed and appreciated. The charms of a district grow upon one in proportion as the several parts come successively into view, and in proportion as our education and habits lead us to understand and admire them. This is particularly the case with tropical countries. Some such places will no doubt strike at once as altogether unequalled, but in the majority of cases it is only in time that the various peculiarities, the costume of the people, the strange forms of vegetation, and the novelty of the animal world, will present themselves so as to form a connected and definite impression on the mind. Thus it is that travellers who crowd into one description all the wonders and novelties which it took them weeks and months to observe, must produce an erroneous impression on the reader, and cause him, when he visits the spot, to experience much disappointment. As one instance of what is meant, it may be mentioned that during the first week of our residence at Par?, though constantly in the forest in the neighbourhood of the city, I did not see a single humming-bird, parrot, or monkey. And yet, as I afterwards found, humming-birds, parrots, and monkeys are plentiful enough in the neighbourhood of Par?; but they require looking for, and a certain amount of acquaintance with them is necessary in order to discover their haunts, and some practice is required to see them in the thick forest, even when you hear them close by you.

Beyond the actual streets of the city is a large extent of ground covered with roads and lanes intersecting each other at right angles. In the spaces formed by these are the "rosinhas," or country-houses, one, two, or more on each block. They are of one story, with several spacious rooms and a large verandah, which is generally the dining-room and most pleasant sitting and working apartment. The ground attached is usually a swamp or a wilderness of weeds or fruit-trees. Sometimes a portion is formed into a flower-garden, but seldom with much care or taste, and the plants and flowers of Europe are preferred to the splendid and ornamental productions of the country. The general impression of the city to a person fresh from England is not very favourable. There is such a want of neatness and order, such an appearance of neglect and decay, such evidences of apathy and indolence, as to be at first absolutely painful. But this soon wears off, and some of these peculiarities are seen to be dependent on the climate. The large and lofty rooms, with boarded floors and scanty furniture, and with half-a-dozen doors and windows in each, look at first comfortless, but are nevertheless exactly adapted to a tropical country, in which a carpeted, curtained, and cushioned room would be unbearable.

The inhabitants of Par? present a most varied and interesting mixture of races. There is the fresh-coloured Englishman, who seems to thrive as well here as in the cooler climate of his native country, the sallow American, the swarthy Portuguese, the more corpulent Brazilian, the merry Negro, and the apathetic but finely formed Indian; and between these a hundred shades and mixtures, which it requires an experienced eye to detect. The white inhabitants generally dress with great neatness in linen clothes of spotless purity. Some adhere to the black cloth coat and cravat, and look most uncomfortably clad with the thermometer from 85? to 90? in the shade. The men's dress, whether Negro or Indian, is simply a pair of striped or white cotton trowsers, to which they sometimes add a shirt of the same material. The women and girls on most gala occasions dress in pure white, which, contrasting with their glossy black or brown skins, has a very pleasing effect; and it is then that the stranger is astonished to behold the massy gold chains and ornaments worn by these women, many of whom are slaves. Children are seen in every degree of clothing, down to perfect nudity, which is the general condition of all the male coloured population under eight or ten years of age. Indians fresh from the interior are sometimes seen looking very mild and mannerly, and, except for holes in their ears large enough to put a cart-rope through, and a peculiar wildness with which they gaze at all around them, they would hardly be noticed among the motley crowd of regular inhabitants.

The immense number of orange-trees about the city is an interesting feature, and renders that delicious fruit always abundant and cheap. Many of the public roads are lined with them, and every garden is well stocked, so that the cost is merely the trouble of gathering and taking to market. The mango is also abundant, and in some of the public avenues is planted alternately with the Mangabeira, or silk cotton-tree, which grows to a great size, though, as its leaves are deciduous, it is not so well adapted to produce the shade so much required as some evergreen tree. On almost every road-side, thicket, or waste, the coffee-tree is seen growing, and generally with flower or fruit, and often both; yet such is the scarcity of labour or indolence of the people, that none is gathered but a little for private consumption, while the city is almost entirely supplied with coffee grown in other parts of Brazil.

Turning our attention to the world of animal life, what first attract notice are the lizards. They abound everywhere. In the city they are seen running along the walls and palings, sunning themselves on logs of wood, or creeping up to the eaves of the lower houses. In every garden, road, and dry sandy situation they are scampering out of the way as we walk along. Now they crawl round the trunk of a tree, watching us as we pass, and keeping carefully out of sight, just as a squirrel will do under similar circumstances; now they walk up a smooth wall or paling as composedly and securely as if they had the plain earth beneath them. Some are of a dark coppery colour, some with backs of the most brilliant silky green and blue, and others marked with delicate shades and lines of yellow and brown. On this sandy soil, and beneath this bright sunshine, they seem to enjoy every moment of their existence, basking in the hot sun with the most indolent satisfaction, then scampering off as if every ray had lent vivacity and vigour to their chilly constitutions. Far different from the little lizards with us, which cannot raise their body from the ground, and drag their long tails like an encumbrance after them, these denizens of a happier clime carry their tails stuck out in the air, and gallop away on their four legs with as much freedom and muscular power as a warm-blooded quadruped. To catch such lively creatures was of course no easy matter, and all our attempts utterly failed; but we soon got the little Negro and Indian boys to shoot them for us with their bows and arrows, and thus obtained many specimens.

Next to the lizards, the ants cannot fail to be noticed. They startle you with the apparition of scraps of paper, dead leaves, and feathers, endued with locomotive powers; processions engaged in some abstruse engineering operations stretch across the public paths; the flower you gather or the fruit you pluck is covered with them, and they spread over your hand in such swarms as to make you hastily drop your prize. At meals they make themselves quite at home upon the table-cloth, in your plate, and in the sugar-basin, though not in such numbers as to offer any serious obstruction to your meal. In these situations, and in many others, you will find them, and in each situation it will be a distinct kind. Many plants have ants peculiar to them. Their nests are seen forming huge black masses, several feet in diameter, on the branches of trees. In paths in woods and gardens we often see a gigantic black species wandering about singly or in pairs, measuring near an inch and a half long; while some of the species that frequent houses are so small as to require a box-lid to fit very closely in order to keep them out. They are great enemies to any dead animal matter, especially insects and small birds. In drying the specimens of insects we procured, we found it necessary to hang up the boxes containing them to the roof of the verandah; but even then a party got possession by descending the string, as we caught them in the act, and found that in a few hours they had destroyed several fine insects. We were then informed that the Andiroba oil of the country, which is very bitter, would keep them away, and by well soaking the suspending string we have since been free from their incursions.

The climate, so far as we had yet experienced, was delightful. The thermometer did not rise above 87? in the afternoon, nor sink below 74? during the night. The mornings and evenings were most agreeably cool, and we had generally a shower and a fine breeze in the afternoon, which was very refreshing and purified the air. On moonlight evenings till eight o'clock ladies walk about the streets and suburbs without any head-dress and in ball-room attire, and the Brazilians, in their rosinhas, sit outside their houses bare-headed and in their shirt-sleeves till nine or ten o'clock, quite unmindful of the night airs and heavy dews of the tropics, which we have been accustomed to consider so deadly.

We will now add a few words on the food of the people. Beef is almost the only meat used. The cattle are kept on estates some days' journey across and up the river, whence they are brought in canoes; they refuse food during the voyage, and so lose most of their fat, and arrive in very poor condition. They are killed in the morning for the day's consumption, and are cut up with axes and cutlasses, with a total disregard to appearance, the blood being allowed to run all over the meat. About six every morning a number of loaded carts may be seen going to the different butchers' shops, the contents bearing such a resemblance to horse-flesh going to a kennel of hounds, as to make a person of delicate stomach rather uneasy when he sees nothing but beef on the table at dinner-time. Fish is sometimes obtained, but it is very dear, and pork is killed only on Sundays. Bread made from United States flour, Irish and American butter, and other foreign products, are in general use among the white population; but farinha, rice, salt-fish, and fruits are the principal food of the Indians and Negroes. Farinha is a preparation from the root of the mandiocca or cassava plant, of which tapioca is also made; it looks something like coarsely ground peas, or perhaps more like sawdust, and when soaked in water or broth is rather glutinous, and is a very nutritious article of food. This, with a little salt-fish, chili peppers, bananas, oranges, and assai , forms almost the entire subsistence of a great part of the population of the city. Our own bill of fare comprised coffee, tea, bread, butter, beef, rice, farinha, pumpkins, bananas, and oranges. Isidora was a good cook, and made all sorts of roasts and stews out of our daily lump of tough beef; and the bananas and oranges were such a luxury to us, that, with the good appetite which our walks in the forest always gave us, we had nothing to complain of.

PAR?.

Festas--Portuguese and Brazilian currency--M. Borlaz' estate--Walk to the rice-mills--The virgin forest, its plants and insects--Milk-tree--Saw and rice mills--Carip? or pottery-tree--Indiarubber-tree--Flowers and trees in blossom--Sa?ba ants, wasps, and chegoes--Journey by water to Magoary--The monkeys--The commandante at Laranjeiras--Vampire bats--The timber-trade--Boa constrictor and Sloth.

About a fortnight after our arrival at Par? there were several holidays, or "festas," as they are called. Those of the "Espirito Santo" and the "Trinidade" lasted each nine days. The former was held at the cathedral, the latter at one of the smaller churches in the suburbs. The general character of these festas is the same, some being more celebrated and more attractive than others. They consist of fireworks every night before the church; Negro girls selling "doces," or sweetmeats, cakes, and fruit; processions of saints and crucifixes; the church open, with regular services; kissing of images and relics; and a miscellaneous crowd of Negroes and Indians, all dressed in white, thoroughly enjoying the fun, and the women in all the glory of their massive gold chains and earrings. Besides these, a number of the higher classes and foreign residents grace the scene with their presence; showy processions are got up at the commencement and termination, and on the last evening a grand display of fireworks takes place, which is generally provided by some person who is chosen or volunteers to be "Juiz da festa," or governor of the feast,--a rather expensive honour among people who, not content with an unlimited supply of rockets at night, amuse themselves by firing off great quantities during the day for the sake of the whiz and the bang that accompany them. The rockets are looked upon as quite a part of the religious ceremony: on asking an old Negro why they were let off in the morning, he looked up to the sky and answered very gravely, "Por Deos" . Music, noise, and fireworks are the three essentials to please a Brazilian populace; and for a fortnight we had enough of them, for besides the above-mentioned amusements, they fire off guns, pistols, and cannon from morning to night.

After many inquiries, we at last succeeded in procuring a house to suit us. It was situated at Nazar?, about a mile and a half south of the city, just opposite a pretty little chapel. Close behind, the forest commences, and there are many good localities for birds, insects, and plants in the neighbourhood. The house consisted of a ground-floor of four rooms, with a verandah extending completely round it, affording a rather extensive and very pleasant promenade. The grounds contained oranges and bananas, and a great many forest and fruit trees, with coffee and mandiocca plantations. We were to pay twenty milreis a month rent , which is very dear for Par?, but we could get no other house so convenient. Isidora took possession of an old mud-walled shed as the domain of his culinary operations; we worked and took our meals in the verandah, and seldom used the inner rooms but as sleeping apartments.

On the morning of the 23rd of June we started early to walk to the rice-mills at Magoary, which we had been invited to visit by the proprietor, Mr. Upton, and the manager, Mr. Leavens, both American gentlemen. At about two miles from the city we entered the virgin forest, which the increased height of the trees and the deeper shade had some time told us we were approaching. Its striking characteristics were, the great number and variety of the forest-trees, their trunks rising frequently for sixty or eighty feet without a branch, and perfectly straight; the huge creepers, which climb about them, sometimes stretching obliquely from their summits like the stays of a mast, sometimes winding around their trunks like immense serpents waiting for their prey. Here, two or three together, twisting spirally round each other, form a complete living cable, as if to bind securely these monarchs of the forest; there, they form tangled festoons, and, covered themselves with smaller creepers and parasitic plants, hide the parent stem from sight.

Among the trees the various kinds that have buttresses projecting around their base are the most striking and peculiar. Some of these buttresses are much longer than they are high, springing from a distance of eight or ten feet from the base, and reaching only four or five feet high on the trunk, while others rise to the height of twenty or thirty feet, and can even be distinguished as ribs on the stem to forty or fifty. They are complete wooden walls, from six inches to a foot thick, sometimes branching into two or three, and extending straight out to such a distance as to afford room for a comfortable hut in the angle between them. Large square pieces are often cut out of them to make paddles, and for other uses, the wood being generally very light and soft.

Other trees, again, appear as if they were formed by a number of slender stems growing together. They are deeply furrowed and ribbed for their whole height, and in places these furrows reach quite through them, like windows in a narrow tower, yet they run up as high as the loftiest trees of the forest, with a straight stem of uniform diameter. Another most curious form is presented by those which have many of their roots high above the surface of the ground, appearing to stand on many legs, and often forming archways large enough for a man to walk beneath.

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