Down the Amazon.--Steam on the Great River.--Loreto.--San
Antonio.--Tabatinga.--Brazilian Steamers.--Scenery on the
Amazon.--Tocantíns.--Fonte Boa.--Ega.--Rio Negro.--Manáos.
We left Pebas for Tabatinga in the Peruvian steamer "Morona," Captain
Raygado. Going up to Jerusalem by railroad, or ascending the Nile by a
screw whisking the sacred waters, is not so startling as the sight of a
steamer in the heart of South America. There is such a contrast between
the primeval wildness of the country and the people and this triumph of
civilized life; and one looks forward to the dazzling future of this
great valley, when the ships of all nations will crowd the network of
rivers for the gold and perfumes, the gems and woods of this western
Ophir. The natives call the steamer the "devil's boat," or "big canoe;"
but they manifest little curiosity. Our Napo Indians were evidently
afraid of it, and stood afar off. The first steamers that broke the deep
solitude of the Marañon were the "Huallaga" and "Tirado," brought out in
1853 by Dr. Whittemore, for Peru. They were built in New York, of
Georgia pine, costing Peru $75,000, and reflected no credit on the
United States; they lie rotting near Nauta. Peru has now two iron
steamers of London make--the "Morona" and "Pastassa"--besides two
smaller craft for exploring the tributaries. These steamers are for
government service, but three more are building in England with
passenger accommodations. The "Morona" has a tonnage of five hundred,
and an engine of one hundred and fifty horse-power. The engineers are
English, and the cook is a Chinaman. She makes monthly trips between
Yurimaguas, on the Huallaga River, and Tabatinga, on the Brazilian
frontier. Her rate down stream is eighteen miles an hour, and from
eleven to twelve against the current. These steamers do not pay expenses
at present; but they preserve the authority of Peru on the Marañon, and
supply with material the government works at Iquitos. They also do a
little commerce, taking down sarsaparilla and Moyabamba hats, and
bringing up English dry-goods. There were not half a dozen passengers on
board.
The only towns of any consequence west of Pebas are Iquitos, Nauta, and
Yurimaguas. Peru claims them--in fact, all the villages on the Marañon.
Iquitos is the most thriving town on the Upper Amazon. It is situated on
an elevated plain on the left bank of the river, sixty miles above the
mouth of the Napo. In Herndon's time it was "a fishing village of 227
inhabitants;" it now contains 2000. Here are the government iron-works,
carried on by English mechanics. In 1867 there were six engineers, two
iron-molders, two brass-molders, two coppersmiths, three blacksmiths,
three pattern-makers, two boiler-makers, five shipwrights, three
sawyers, besides bricklayers, brick-makers, carpenters, coopers, etc.;
in all forty-two. All the coal for the furnaces is brought from
England--the lignite on the banks of the Marañon is unfit for the
purpose. A floating dock for vessels of a thousand tons has just been
built. Nauta lies on the north bank of the Marañon, opposite the
entrance of the Ucayali. Its inhabitants, about 1000, trade in fish,
sarsaparilla, and wax from Ucayali. Yurimaguas is the port of Moyabamba,
a city of 10,000 souls, six days' travel southwest. This vast eastern
slope, lying on the branches of the Marañon, is called the Montaña of
Peru. It is a region of inexhaustible fertility, and would yield ample
returns to energy and capital. The villages are open to foreign
commerce, free of duty; but at present the voice of civilized man is
seldom heard, save on the main fluvial highway between Moyabamba and the
Brazilian frontier. The Portuguese are the most adventurous traders. The
value of imports to Peru by the Amazonian steamers during 1867 was
$324,533; of exports, $267,748.
In two hours and a half we arrive at Maucallacta, or "Old Town," an
Indian village on the right bank of the river. Here our passports were
viséd by the Peruvian governor, and the steamer wooded up. One of the
hands on the "Morona" was Manuel Medina, a mameluco, who was employed by
Bates and Agassiz in their explorations. We left at noon of the
following day, and anchored for the night off Caballococha, for the
Peruvian steamers run only in the daytime. Caballococha, or
"Horse-lake," is a Ticuna town, situated on a level tract of light loam,
closely surrounded by the dense forest, and beside a caño of clear water
leading to a pretty lake. Ecuador claims this town, and likewise all the
settlements on the Marañon; but her learned geographer, Villavicencio,
with characteristic ignorance of the country, has located it on the
_north_ bank of the river!
We passed in the afternoon the little tug "Napo," having on board
Admiral Tucker, the rebel, who, with some associates, is exploring the
tributaries of the Upper Amazon for the Peruvian government. They had
just returned from a voyage of two hundred and fifty miles up the
Javarí. One of the party had a tame tiger-cat in his arms. We arrived at
Loreto early the next morning. This village of twenty houses and a
church is prettily situated on the left bank, with a green slope in
front. It is the most easterly town of Peru on the Amazon. Here resides
Mr. Wilkens, the Brazilian consul, of German birth, but North American
education. The inhabitants are Peruvians, Portuguese, Negroes, and
Ticuna Indians. The musquitoes hold high carnival at this place. In two
hours we were at San Antonio, a military post on the Peruvian frontier,
commanded by a French engineer, Manuel Charon, who also studied in the
United States. One large building, and a flag-staff on a high bluff of
red clay, were all that was visible of San Antonio; but the "Morona"
brought down a gang of Indians (impressed, no doubt) to build a fort for
twenty guns. The site is in dispute, a Brazilian claiming it as private
property. The white barracks of Tabatinga, the first fortress in Brazil,
are in plain sight, the voyage consuming but twenty minutes. Between San
Antonio and Tabatinga is a ravine, on either side of which is a white
pole, marking the limits of the republic and the empire.
Tabatinga has long been a military post, but, excepting the government
buildings, there are not a dozen houses. Numerous Indians, however, of
the Ticuna tribe, dwell in the neighboring forest. The commandante was O
Illustrissimo Señor Tenente Aristides Juste Mavignier, a tall, thin,
stooping officer, dressed in brown linen. He received us with great
civility, and tendered a house and servant during our stay in port. We
preferred, however, to accept the hospitalities of the "Morona" till the
arrival of the Brazilian steamer. Señor Mavignier was commandante of
Manáos when visited by Agassiz, and presented the Professor with a
hundred varieties of wood. With the like courtesy, he gave us a
collection of reptiles, all of them rare, and many of them new species.
He showed us also a live raposa, or wild dog, peculiar to the Amazon,
but seldom seen. Tabatinga stands on an eminence of yellow clay, and is
defended by twelve guns. The river in front is quite narrow, only about
half a mile wide. Here our passports, which had been signed at
Maucallacta and Loreto, were indorsed by the commandante. They were
afterward examined at Ega, Manáos, and Pará. The mean temperature of
Tabatinga we found to be 82°.[135] Some rubber and salt fish are
exported, but nothing of consequence is cultivated. Grapes, the people
say, grow well, but are destroyed by the ants. The only fruit-trees we
noticed were the mamaï (in Spanish, papaya), aracá, and abío. The
papaw-tree bears male and female flowers on different trees, and hence
receives the name of _papaya_ or _mamaï_, according to one's view of the
pre-eminence of the sex. The juice of this tree is used by the ladies of
the West Indies as a cosmetic, and by the butchers to render the
toughest meat tender. The fruit is melon-shaped, and of an orange-yellow
color. Vauquelin discovered in it _fibrine_, till lately supposed to be
confined to the animal kingdom.
[Footnote 135: According to Lieutenant Azevedo, the latitude of
Tabatinga is 4° 14' 30"; longitude, 70° 2' 24"; magnetic variation, 6°
35' 10" N.E.]
The Peruvian steamers connect at Tabatinga with the Brazilian line.
There are eight imperial steamers on the Amazon: the "Icamiaba," running
between Tabatinga and Manáos; the "Tapajos" and "Belem," plying between
Manáos and Pará; the "Inca" and "Manáos," between Obidos and Pará;
besides two steamers on the Tocantíns, one between Pará and Chares, and
projected lines for the Negro, Tapajos, and Madeira. The captains get a
small salary, but the perquisites are large, as they have a percentage
on the freight. One captain pocketed in one year $9000.
We embarked, December 12, on the "Icamiaba," which promptly arrived at
Tabatinga. The commander, formerly a lieutenant in the Imperial Navy,
and for twelve years a popular officer on the Upper Amazon, was a
polished gentleman, but rigid disciplinarian. As an example of
Brazilian etiquette, we give his full address from one of our letters of
introduction:
"Ilmo. Sr. Capn. de Fragata
Nuno Alvez Pereira de Mello Cardozo,
Digno Commandante de Vapor
Icamiaba."
The "Icamiaba" was an iron boat of four hundred and fifty tons, with two
engines of fifty horse-power each. The engineer was an Austrian, yet the
captain gave his orders in English, though neither could speak the
language. The saloon, with berths for twenty-five passengers, was above
deck, and open at both ends for ventilation. The passengers, however,
usually swung their hammocks on the upper deck, which was covered by an
awning. This was a delightfully breezy and commanding position; and
though every part of the steamer was in perfect order, this was
scrupulously neat. Here the table was spread with every tropical luxury,
and attentively served by young men in spotless attire. Happy the
traveler who sits at the table of Commandante Cardozo. The refreshment
hours were: Coffee as soon as the passengers turned out of their
hammocks, and sometimes before; breakfast at ten, dinner at five, and
tea at eight. Live bullocks, fowls, and turtles were kept on board, so
that of fresh meat, particularly beef (the first we had tasted since
leaving Quito), there was no lack. At breakfast we counted nine
different courses of meat. The Peruvian steamers are limited to turtle
and salt fish. Rice and farina are extensively used in Brazil, but we
saw very little tapioca. Farina is the flour of the country, and is
eaten in hard, dry grains; it will not keep in any other form. It can
not be very nutritious, as it contains little gluten. All bread and
butter are imported from the United States and England. The captains of
Brazilian steamers are their own stewards; and in the midst of other
business in port, they stop to negotiate for a chicken, or a dozen
eggs, with an Indian or Negro. The "Icamiaba" left Tabatinga with only
three first-class passengers, besides our own party. On no Amazon
steamer did we meet with a lady passenger. Madame Godin, who came down
the river from the Andes, and Mrs. Agassiz, who ascended to Tabatinga,
were among the few ladies who have seen these upper waters. But how
differently they traveled! one on a raft, the other on the beautiful
"Icamiaba."
Between Tabatinga and Teffé, a distance of five hundred miles, is
perhaps the most uncivilized part of the main river. Ascending, we find
improvements multiply as we near the mountains of Peru; descending, we
see the march of civilization in the budding cities and expanding
commerce culminating at Grand Pará. The scenery from the deck of an
Amazonian steamer, if described, appears monotonous. A vast volume of
smooth, yellow water, floating trees and beds of aquatic grass, low,
linear-shaped, wooded islets, a dark, even forest--the shores of a
boundless sea of verdure, and a cloudless sky occasionally obscured by
flocks of parrots: these are the general features. No busy towns are
seen along the banks of the Middle Amazon; only here and there a palm
hut or semi-Indian village half buried in the wilderness. We agree with
Darwin (speaking of the Plata), that "a wide expanse of muddy water has
neither grandeur nor beauty." The real grandeur, however, of a great
river like this is derived from reflecting upon its prospective
commercial importance and its immense drainage. A lover of nature,
moreover, can never tire of gazing at the picturesque grouping and
variety of trees, with their mantles of creeping plants; while a little
imagination can see in the alligators, ganoid fishes, sea-cows, and tall
gray herons, the ichthyosaurus, holoptychius, dinotherium, and
brontozoum of ancient days. Here and there the river is bordered with
low alluvial deposits covered with feathery-topped arrow-grass and
amphibious vegetation; but generally the banks are about ten feet high
and magnificently wooded; they are abrupt, and land-slides are frequent.
A few minutes after leaving Tabatinga we passed the mouth of the Javarí,
which forms the natural boundary between Peru and Brazil. Henceforth the
river loses the name of Marañon, and is called Solimoens, or, more
commonly, simply Amazon. We were ten hours in reaching San Paulo, a
wretched Ticuna village of five hundred souls, built on a grassy
table-land nearly one hundred feet high. Steps have been cut in the
slippery clay bluff to facilitate the ascent. Swamps lie back of the
town, rendering it unhealthy. "On damp nights (says the Naturalist on
the Amazon) the chorus of frogs and toads which swarm in weedy
back-yards creates such a bewildering uproar that it is impossible to
carry on a conversation in doors except by shouting."
In ten hours more we had passed the Putumayo and entered the Tunantíns,
a sluggish, dark-colored tributary emptying into the Amazon about two
hundred miles below the Javarí.[136] On the bank of white earth, which
strongly contrasts with the tinted stream, is a dilapidated hamlet of
twenty-five hovels, built of bamboo plastered with mud and whitewashed.
We saw but one two-storied house; and all have ground-floors and
double-thatched roofs. The inhabitants are semi-civilized Shumána and
Passé Indians and half-breeds; but in the gloomy forest which hugs the
town live the wild Caishánas. The atmosphere is close and steaming, but
not hot, the mercury at noon standing at 83°. The place is alive with
insects and birds. The nights on the Amazon were invariably cool; on
the Lower Amazon, cold, so that we required a heavy blanket.
[Footnote 136: Herndon says (p. 241), "the Tunantíns is about fifty
yards broad, and seems deep with a considerable current."]
[Illustration: Kitchen on the Amazon.]
Taking on board wood, beeves, turtles, salt fish, and water-melons, we
left at half past 2 P.M. The Brazilian steamers run all night, and with
no slackening of speed. At one o'clock we were awakened by a cry from
the watch, "Stop her!" And immediately after there was a crash; but it
was only the breaking of crockery caused by the sudden stoppage. The
night was fearfully dark, and for aught we knew the steamer was running
headlong into the forest. Fortunately there was no collision, and in a
few minutes we were again on our way, arriving at Fonte Boa at 4 A.M.
This little village stands in a palm grove, on a high bank of
ochre-colored sandy clay, beside a slue of sluggish black water, eight
miles from the Amazon.[137] The inhabitants, about three hundred, are
ignorant, lazy mamelucos. They dress like the majority of the
semi-civilized people on the Amazon: the men content with shirt and
pantaloons, the women wearing cotton or gauze chemises and calico
petticoats. Fonte Boa is a museum for the naturalist, but the
headquarters of musquitoes, small but persistent. Taking in a large
quantity of turtle-oil, the "Icamiaba" turned down the caño, but almost
immediately ran aground, and we were two hours getting off. These yearly
shifting shoals in the Amazon can not be laid down in charts, and the
most experienced pilots often run foul of them. In twelve hours we
entered the Teffé, a tributary from the Bolivian mountains. Just before
reaching the Great River it expands into a beautiful lake, with a white,
sandy beach. On a grassy slope, stretching out into the lake, with a
harbor on each side of it, lies the city of Ega. A hundred palm-thatched
cottages of mud and tiled frame houses, each with an inclosed orchard of
orange, lemon, banana, and guava trees, surround a rude church, marked
by a huge wooden crucifix on the green before it, instead of a steeple.
Cacao, assaï, and pupunha palms rise above the town, adding greatly to
its beauty; while back of all, on the summit of the green slope, begins
the picturesque forest, pathless, save here and there a faint hunter's
track leading to the untrodden interior. The sheep and cattle grazing on
the lawn, a rare sight in Alto Amazonas, gives a peaceful and inviting
aspect to the scene. The inhabitants, numbering about twelve hundred,
are made up of pure Indians, half-castes, negroes, mulattoes, and
whites. Ega (also called Teffé) is the largest and most thriving town
between Manáos and Iquitos, a distance of twelve hundred miles. It is
also one of the oldest settlements on the river, having been founded
during the English revolution, or nearly two centuries ago. Tupi is the
common idiom. The productions of the country are cacao, sarsaparilla,
Brazil nuts, bast for caulking vessels, copaiba balsam, India-rubber,
salt fish, turtle-oil, manati, grass hammocks, and tiles. Bates
calculates the value of the annual exports at nearly forty thousand
dollars. The "Icamiaba" calls here twice a month; besides which there
are small schooners which occupy about five months in the round trip
between Ega and Pará. "The place is healthy (writes the charming
Naturalist on the Amazon), and almost free from insect pests; perpetual
verdure surrounds it; the soil is of marvelous fertility, even for
Brazil; the endless rivers and labyrinths of channels teem with fish and
turtle; a fleet of steamers might anchor at any season of the year in
the lake, which has uninterrupted water communication straight to the
Atlantic. What a future is in store for the sleepy little tropical
village!" Here Bates pursued butterflies for four years and a half, and
Agassiz fished for six months.
[Footnote 137: Smyth says the town gets its name from the clearness of
the water; but Herndon found it muddy, and, to our eyes, it was dark as
the Negro.]
[Illustration: Natives on the Middle Amazon.]
Ega is the half-way point across the continent, but its exact altitude
above the sea is unknown. Herndon's boiling apparatus gave two thousand
feet, and, what is worse, the lieutenant believed it. Our barometer made
it one hundred feet; but as our instrument, though perfect in itself,
behaved _very_ strangely on the Middle Amazon, we do not rely on the
calculation. The true height is not far from one hundred and twenty-five
feet, or one fifth the elevation of the middle point in the North
American continent.[138] Taking on board salt fish, turtle-oil, and
tiles, we left Ega two hours after midnight, reaching Coary at noon.
The Amazon began to look more like a lake than a river, having a width
of four or five miles. Floating gulls and rolling porpoises remind one
of the sea. Coary is a huddle of fifteen houses, six of them plastered
without, whitewashed, and tiled. It is situated on a lake of the same
name--the expanded outlet of a small river whose waters are dark brown,
and whose banks are low and covered with bushes. Here we took in turtles
and turtle-oil, Brazil nuts and cocoa-nuts, rubber, salt fish, and wood;
and, six hours after leaving, more fish and rubber were received at
Cudajá. Cudajá is a lonely spot on the edge of an extensive system of
back-waters and lakes, running through a dense unexplored forest
inhabited by Múra savages.
[Footnote 138: For a discussion of the barometric perturbations on the
Amazon, see _American Journal of Science_ for Sept., 1868.]
At three in the afternoon of Christmas, seventy-four hours' running time
from Tabatinga, we entered the Rio Negro. Strong is the contrast between
its black-dyed waters and the yellow Amazon. The line separating the two
rivers is sharply drawn, the waters meeting, not mingling. Circular
patches of the dark waters of the Negro are seen floating like oil amid
the turbid waters of the Amazon. The sluggish tributary seems to be
dammed up by the impetuous monarch. The banks of the latter are low,
ragged, perpendicular beds of clay, covered with a bright green foliage;
the Negro is fringed with sandy beaches, with hills in the background
clothed with a sombre, monotonous forest containing few palms or
leguminous trees. Musquitoes, piums, and montucas never trouble the
traveler on the inky stream. When seen in a tumbler, the water of the
Negro is clear, but of a light-red color; due, undoubtedly, to vegetable
matter. The visible mouth of the river at this season of the year
(December) is three miles wide, but from main-land to main-land it can
not be less than twenty.
[Illustration: A Siesta.]
In forty minutes after leaving the Amazon we arrived at Manáos. This
important city lies on the left bank of the Negro, ten miles from its
mouth and twenty feet above high-water level. The site is very uneven,
and consists of ferruginous sandstone. There was originally a fort here,
erected by the Portuguese to protect their slave-hunting expeditions
among the Indians on the river--hence the ancient name of Barra. On the
old map of Father Fritz (1707) the spot is named _Taromas_. Since 1852
it has been called Manáos, after the most warlike tribe. Some of the
houses are two-storied, but the majority are low adobe structures, white
and yellow washed, floored and roofed with tiles, and having green doors
and shutters. Every room is furnished with hooks for hanging hammocks.
We did not see a bed between Quito and New York except on the steamers.
The population, numbering two thousand,[139] is a mongrel
set--Brazilians, Portuguese, Italians, Jews, Negroes, and Indians, with
divers crosses between them. Laziness is the prominent characteristic. A
gentleman offered an Indian passing his door twenty-five cents if he
would bring him a pitcher of water from the river, only a few rods
distant. He declined. "But I will give you fifty cents." Whereupon the
half-clothed, penniless aboriginal replied: "I will give you a dollar to
bring me some."[140] While every inch of the soil is of exuberant
fertility, there is always a scarcity of food. It is the dearest spot on
the Amazon. Most of the essentials and all of the luxuries come from
Liverpool, Lisbon, and New York. Agriculture is at a discount on the
Amazon. Brazilians will not work; European immigrants are traders;
nothing can be done with Indians; and negroes are few in number, the
slave-trade being abolished, emancipation begun, and the Paraguayan war
not ended. A laboring class will ever be a desideratum in this tropical
country. With a healthy climate,[141] and a situation at the juncture
of two great navigable rivers, Manáos is destined to become the St.
Louis of South America. In commercial advantages it is hardly to be
surpassed by any other city in the world, having water communication
with two thirds of the continent, and also with the Atlantic. It is now
the principal station for the Brazilian line of steamers. Here all goods
for a higher or lower point are reshipped. The chief articles of export
are coffee (of superior quality), sarsaparilla, Brazil nuts, piassaba,
and fish. The Negro at this point is really five or six miles wide, but
the opposite shore is masked by low islands, so that it appears to be
but a mile and a half.
[Footnote 139: Official returns for 1848 give 3614; Bates (1850) reckons
3000.]
[Footnote 140: Darwin met a similar specimen in Banda Oriental: "I asked
two men why they did not work. One gravely said the days were too long;
the other that he was too poor."]
[Footnote 141: It is, however, one of the warmest spots on the river.
The average temperature, according to Azevedo and Pinto, is only 79.7°;
but the highest point readied on the Amazon in 1862 (87.3°) was at
Manáos, and the extraordinary height of 95° has been noted there.]
The country around Manáos is quite romantic for the Amazonian Valley.
The land is undulating and furrowed by ravines, and the vegetation
covering it is marvelously rich and diversified. In the forest, two
miles from the city, there is a natural curiosity celebrated by all
travelers from Spix and Martius down. A rivulet coming out of the
wilderness falls over a ledge of red sandstone ten feet high and fifty
feet broad, forming a beautiful cascade. The water is cool, and of a
deep orange color. The foundation of a fine stone cathedral was laid in
Manáos fourteen years ago, but this generation is not likely to witness
the dedication. Life in this Amazonian city is dull enough: commerce is
not brisk, and society is stiff; balls are about the only amusements. On
Sunday (the holiday) every body who can afford it comes out in Paris
fashions. There are carts, hut no coaches. We called upon the President
at his "Palace"--an odd term for a two-storied, whitewashed edifice. His
excellency received us with less formality and more cordiality than we
expected to find in the solemn officials of the empire. The first glance
at the reception-room, with the four chairs for visitors set in two
lines at right angles to the chair of state, promised cold etiquette;
but he addressed us with considerable familiarity and evident good-will.
We found, however, that his authority was quite limited, for a written
order which he gave us for a subordinate did not receive the slightest
consideration. At the house of a Jew named Levy we met a party of
Southerners, Captains Mallory, Jones, Sandedge, and Winn, commanded by
Dr. Dowsing, who, since "the late onpleasantness," as Nasby calls it,
have determined to settle in this country. The government grants them
twenty square leagues of land on any tributary, on condition that they
will colonize it. They were about to start for the Rio Branco on an
exploring tour.