THE GUAMÁ AND CAPIM RIVERS.
Natterer’s hunter, Luiz—Birds and insects—Prepare for a
journey—First sight of the Piroróco—St. Domingo—Senhor
Calistro—Slaves and slavery—Anecdote—Cane-field—Journey into the
forest—Game—Explanation of the Piroróco—Return to Pará—Bell-birds
and yellow parrots.
I had written to Mr. Miller to get me a small house at Nazaré, and I
now at once moved into it, and set regularly to work in the forest,
as much as the showery and changeable weather would allow me. An
old Portuguese, who kept a kind of tavern next-door, supplied my
meals, and I was thus enabled to do without a servant. The boys in
the neighbourhood soon got to know of my arrival, and that I was a
purchaser of all kinds of “bichos.” Snakes were now rather abundant,
and almost every day I had some brought me, which I preserved in
spirits.
As insects were not very plentiful at this season, I wished to get a
hunter to shoot birds for me, and came to an arrangement with a Negro
named Luiz, who had had much experience. He had been with Dr. Natterer
during the whole of his seventeen years’ residence in Brazil, having
been purchased by him in Rio de Janeiro when a boy; and when the doctor
left Pará, in 1835, he gave him his freedom. His whole occupation
while with Dr. Natterer was shooting and assisting to skin birds and
animals. He had now a little land, and had saved enough to purchase a
couple of slaves himself,—a degree of providence that the less careful
Indian seldom attains to. He is a native of Congo, and a very tall and
handsome man. I agreed to give him a milrei (2_s._ 3_d._) a day and his
living. He used to amuse me much by his accounts of his travels with
the doctor, as he always called Natterer. He said he treated him very
well, and gave him a small present whenever he brought a new bird.
Luiz was an excellent hunter. He would wander in the woods from
morning to night, going a great distance, and generally bringing home
some handsome bird. He soon got me several fine cardinal chatterers,
red-breasted trogons, toucans, etc. He knew the haunts and habits of
almost every bird, and could imitate their several notes so as to call
them to him.
In this showery weather the pretty little esmeralda butterfly (_Hætera
Esmeralda_) seemed to delight, for almost every wet day I got one or
two specimens in a certain narrow gloomy path in the forest, though I
never found but one in any other place. Once or twice I walked over
to the rice-mills, to see my friend Mr. Leavens, and get some of the
curious insects which were seldom met with near the city. Several young
men in Pará were now making collections, and it is a proof of the
immense abundance and luxuriance of insect life in this country, that
in every collection, however small, I almost always saw something new
to me.
Having heard much of the “Piroróco,” or bore, that occurs in the Guamá
River at spring-tides, I determined to take a little trip in order to
see it, and make some variation from my rather monotonous life at Pará.
I wished to go in a canoe of my own, so as to be able to stop where
and when I liked, and I also thought it would be useful afterwards in
ascending the Amazon. I therefore agreed to purchase one that I thought
would suit me, of a Frenchman in Pará, and having paid part of the
purchase-money, got it fitted up and laid in a stock of requisites for
the voyage. I took a barrel and a quantity of spirits for preserving
fish, and everything necessary for collecting and preparing birds and
insects. As the canoe was small, I did not want many men, for whom
there would not indeed have been room, so determined to manage with
only a pilot, and one man or boy besides Luiz.
I soon found a boy who lived near, and had been accustomed to bring me
insects. To all appearance he was an Indian, but his mother had Negro
blood in her, and was a slave, so her son of course shared her fate.
I had therefore to hire him of his master, an officer, and agreed for
three milreis (about seven shillings) a month. People said that the
boy’s master was his father, which, as he certainly resembled him,
might have been the case. He generally had a large chain round his body
and leg, as a punishment, and to prevent his running away; he wore it
concealed under his trousers, and it clanked very disagreeably at
every step he took. Of course this was taken off when he was delivered
over to me, and he promised to be very faithful and industrious if I
took him with me. I also agreed with a lame Spaniard to go as pilot,
because he said he knew the river, and some little experience is
required at the time of the Piroróco. He begged for a few milreis
beforehand to purchase some clothes; and when I wanted him to assist me
in loading the canoe he was feasting on biscuit and cheese, with oil,
vinegar, and garlic, washing it down so plentifully with caxaça that
he was quite intoxicated, so I was obliged to wait till the next day,
when, having spent all his money and got a little sober, he was very
quiet and submissive.
At length, all being ready, we started, rowing along quietly with the
flood-tide, as there was no wind, and at night, when the tide turned,
anchoring a few miles up the Guamá. This is a fine stream, about half
a mile wide in the lower part. A short distance up, the banks are
rather undulating, with many pretty sitios. During ebb-tide we managed
generally to anchor near some house or cottage, where we could get on
shore and make a fire under a tree to cook our dinner or supper. Luiz
would then take his gun and I my insect-net, and start off into the
forest to make the most of our time till the tide turned again, when
we would continue our voyage, and I generally had occupation skinning
birds or setting out insects till the evening. About thirty miles
above Pará the Piroróco commences. There was formerly an island in the
river at this point, but it is said to have been completely washed
away by the continual action of the bore, which, after passing this
place, we rather expected to see, now being the time of the highest
tides, though at this season (May) they are not generally high enough
to produce it with any great force. It came however with a sudden
rush, a wave travelling rapidly up the stream, and breaking in foam
all along the shore and on the shallows. It lifted our canoe just as a
great rolling ocean-wave would do, but, being deep water, did no harm,
and was past in an instant, the tide then continuing to flow up with
very great velocity. The highest tide was now past, so at the next we
had no wave, but the flood began running up, instantaneously, and not
gradually, as is generally the case.
The next day we arrived at São Domingo, a little village at the
junction of the Guamá and Capim rivers. I had a letter of introduction
to a Brazilian trader residing here, on presenting which he placed his
house at my disposal. I took him at his word, and said I should stay a
few days. Luiz went into the woods every day, generally bringing home
some birds, and I wandered about in search of insects, which I did
not find very abundant, the dry season having scarcely begun; there
were however plenty of pleasant paths about the woods to the rice- and
mandiocca-fields, and abundance of oranges and other fruit. Our food
was principally fish from the river and some jerked beef, with beans
and rice. The house was little better than a mud hovel, with a bench,
a rickety table, and a few hammocks for furniture; but in this country
the people away from the towns never think of expending any great
labour or going to any expense to make a comfortable house.
After staying nearly a week, with not much success in my collections,
I proceeded up the west branch of the river, called the Capim. My
canoe was a very unsteady and top-heavy one, and soon after leaving
the village a sudden squall nearly upset us, the water pouring in
over the side, and it was with some difficulty we got the sail down
and secured the boat to a bush on the river’s bank till the storm
had passed over. We went pleasantly along for two or three days, the
country being prettily diversified with cane-fields, rice-grounds, and
houses built by the early Portuguese settlers, with elegant little
chapels attached, and cottages for the Negroes and Indians around,
all much superior in appearance and taste to anything erected now. At
length we reached São Jozé, the estate of Senhor Calistro, to whom I
brought letters of introduction. He received me very kindly, and on my
telling him the purpose of my visit he invited me to stay with him as
long as I liked, and promised to do all he could to assist me. He was
a stout, good-humoured looking man, of not much more than thirty. He
had recently built a rice-mill and warehouses, one of the best modern
buildings I had seen in the country. It was entirely of stone; the mill
was approached by arches in the centre, and the warehouses, offices,
and dwelling apartments were at the sides. There was a gallery or
verandah on the first floor connecting the two ends of the building,
and looking down upon the mill, with its great water-wheel in the
centre, and out through the windows on to the river, and a handsome
stone quay which ran along the whole front of the building. It was all
substantially constructed, and had cost him several thousand pounds.
He had about fifty slaves, of all ages, and about as many Indians,
employed in his cane- and rice-fields, and in the mills, and on board
his canoes. He made sugar and caxaça, but most of the latter, as
it paid best. Every kind of work was done on the premises: he had
shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, smiths, boat-builders, and masons,
either slaves or Indians, some of whom could make good locks for
doors and boxes, and tin and copper articles of all kinds. He told
me that by having slaves and Indians working together he was enabled
to get more work out of the latter than by any other system. Indians
will not submit to strict rules when working by themselves, but when
with slaves, who have regular hours to commence and leave off work,
and stated tasks to perform, they submit to the same regulations and
cheerfully do the same work. Every evening at sunset all the workpeople
come up to Senhor Calistro to say good-night or ask his blessing. He
was seated in an easy chair in the verandah, and each passed by with a
salutation suited to his age or station. The Indians would generally be
content with “Boa noite” (good night); the younger ones, and most of
the women and children, both Indians and slaves, would hold out their
hand, saying, “Sua benção” (your blessing), to which he would reply,
“Deos te bençoe” (God bless you), making at the same time the sign of
the Cross. Others—and these were mostly the old Negroes—would gravely
repeat, “Louvado seja o nome do Senhor Jesu Christo” (blessed be the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ), to which he would reply, with equal
gravity, “Para sempre” (for ever).
Children, of all classes, never meet their parents in the morning or
leave them at night without in the same manner asking their blessing,
and they do the same invariably of every stranger who enters the house.
In fact, it is the common salutation of children and inferiors, and has
a very pleasing effect.
The slaves here were treated remarkably well. Senhor Calistro assured
me he buys slaves, but never sells any, except as the last punishment
for incorrigibly bad conduct. They have holidays on all the principal
saints’ days and festivals, which are pretty often, and on these
occasions an ox is killed for them, and a quantity of rum given,
to make themselves merry. Every evening, as they come round, they
prefer their several petitions: one wants a little coffee and sugar
for his wife, who is unwell; another requires a new pair of trousers
or a shirt; a third is going with a canoe to Pará, and asks for a
milrei to buy something. These requests are invariably granted, and
Senhor Calistro told me that he never had cause for refusal, because
the slaves never begged for anything unreasonable, nor asked favours
when from bad conduct they did not deserve them. In fact, all seemed
to regard him in quite a patriarchal view, at the same time that he
was not to be trifled with, and was pretty severe against absolute
idleness. When picking rice, all had a regular quantity to bring in,
and any who were considerably deficient several times, from idleness
alone, were punished with a moderate flogging. He told me of one Negro
he had bought, who was incorrigibly lazy, though quite strong and
healthy. The first day he was set a moderate task, and did not near
complete it, and received a moderate flogging. The next day he was set
a much larger task, with the promise of a severe flogging if he did
not get through it: he failed, saying it was quite beyond his ability,
and received the flogging. The third day he was set a still larger
amount of work, with the promise of a much severer flogging if he
failed to finish it; and so, finding that the two former promises had
been strictly kept, and that he was likely to gain nothing by carrying
out his plan any longer, he completed the work with ease, and had ever
since done the same quantity, which was after all only what every good
workman did on the estate. Every Sunday morning and evening, though
they do not work, they are required to appear before their master,
unless they have special leave to be absent: this, Senhor Calistro told
me, was to prevent their going to a great distance to other plantations
to steal, as, if they could go off after work on Saturday evening, and
not return till Monday morning, they might go to such a distance to
commit robbery as to be quite free from suspicion.
In fact, Senhor Calistro attends to his slaves just as he would to a
large family of children. He gives them amusement, relaxation, and
punishment in the same way, and takes the same precautions to keep
them out of mischief. The consequence is, they are perhaps as happy
as children: they have no care and no wants, they are provided for
in sickness and old age, their children are never separated from
them, nor are husbands separated from their wives, except under such
circumstances as would render them liable to the same separation, were
they free, by the laws of the country. Here, then, slavery is perhaps
seen under its most favourable aspect, and, in a mere physical point of
view, the slave may be said to be better off than many a freeman. This
however is merely one particular case,—it is by no means a necessary
consequence of slavery, and, from what we know of human nature, can be
but a rare occurrence.
But looking at it in this, its most favourable light, can we say that
slavery is good or justifiable? Can it be right to keep a number
of our fellow-creatures in a state of adult infancy,—of unthinking
childhood? It is the responsibility and self-dependence of manhood
that calls forth the highest powers and energies of our race. It is
the struggle for existence, the “battle of life,” which exercises the
moral faculties and calls forth the latent sparks of genius. The hope
of gain, the love of power, the desire of fame and approbation, excite
to noble deeds, and call into action all those faculties which are the
distinctive attributes of man.
Childhood is the animal part of man’s existence, manhood the
intellectual; and when the weakness and imbecility of childhood
remain, without its simplicity and pureness, its grace and beauty, how
degrading is the spectacle! And this is the state of the slave when
slavery is the best that it can be. He has no care of providing food
for his family, no provision to make for old age. He has nothing to
incite him to labour but the fear of punishment, no hope of bettering
his condition, no future to look forward to of a brighter aspect.
Everything he receives is a favour; he has no rights,—what can he know
therefore of duties? Every desire beyond the narrow circle of his daily
labours is shut out from his acquisition. He has no intellectual
pleasures, and, could he have education and taste them, they would
assuredly embitter his life; for what hope of increased knowledge,
what chance of any further acquaintance with the wonders of nature or
the triumphs of art, than the mere hearing of them, can exist for one
who is the property of another, and can never hope for the liberty of
working for his own living in the manner that may be most agreeable to
him?
But such views as these are of course too refined for a Brazilian
slaveholder, who can see nothing beyond the physical wants of the
slave. And as the teetotallers have declared that the example of the
moderate drinker is more pernicious than that of the drunkard, so may
the philanthropist consider that a good and kind slave-master does an
injury to the cause of freedom, by rendering people generally unable
to perceive the false principles inherent in the system, and which,
whenever they find a suitable soil in the bad passions of man, are
ready to spring up and produce effects so vile and degrading as to make
honest men blush for disgraced human nature.
Senhor C. was as kind and good-tempered a man as I have ever met with.
I had but to mention anything I should like, and, if it was in his
power, it was immediately got for me. He altered his dinner-hour to
suit my excursions in the forest, and made every arrangement he could
for my accommodation. A Jewish gentleman called when I was there: he
was going up the river to collect some debts, and brought a letter
for Senhor C. He staid with us some days, and, as he would not eat
any meat, because it had not been killed according to the rules of
his religion, nor any fish that had not scales, which include some
of the best these rivers produce, he hardly found anything at table
the first day that he could partake of. Every day afterwards however,
while he was with us, there was a variety of scaled fish provided,
boiled and roasted, stewed and fried, with eggs, rice, and vegetables
in abundance, so that he could always make an excellent meal. Senhor
C. was much amused at his scruples, though perfectly polite about
them, and delighted to ask him about the rites of his religion, and me
about mine, and would then tell us the Catholic doctrine on the same
questions. He related to us many anecdotes, of which the following is
a specimen, serving to illustrate the credulity of the Negroes. “There
was a Negro,” said he, “who had a pretty wife, to whom another Negro
was rather attentive when he had an opportunity. One day the husband
went out to hunt, and the other party thought it a good opportunity
to pay a visit to the lady. The husband however returned rather
unexpectedly, and the visitor climbed up on the rafters to be out of
sight among the old boards and baskets that were stowed away there. The
husband put his gun by in a corner, and called to his wife to get his
supper, and then sat down in his hammock. Casting his eyes up to the
rafters, he saw a leg protruding from among the baskets, and, thinking
it something supernatural, crossed himself, and said, ‘Lord, deliver us
from the legs appearing overhead!’ The other, hearing this, attempted
to draw up his legs out of sight, but, losing his balance, came down
suddenly on the floor in front of the astonished husband, who, half
frightened, asked, ‘Where do you come from?’ ‘I have just come from
heaven,’ said the other, and have brought you news of your little
daughter Maria.’ ‘Oh! wife, wife! come and see a man who has brought
us news of our little daughter Maria;’ then, turning to the visitor,
continued: ‘And what was my little daughter doing when you left?’ ‘Oh!
she was sitting at the feet of the Virgin, with a golden crown on her
head, and smoking a golden pipe a yard long,’ ‘And did she not send any
message to us?’ ‘Oh yes, she sent many remembrances, and begged you to
send her two pounds of your tobacco from the little rhossa, they have
not got any half so good up there.’ ‘Oh! wife, wife! bring two pounds
of our tobacco from the little rhossa, for our daughter Maria is in
heaven, and she says they have not any half so good up there.’ So the
tobacco was brought, and the visitor was departing, when he was asked:
‘Are there many white men up there?’ ‘Very few,’ he replied; ‘they are
all down below with the _diabo_.’ ‘I thought so,’ the other replied,
apparently quite satisfied; ‘good night!’”
Senhor Calistro had a beautiful canoe made of a single piece of wood,
without a nail, the benches being all notched in. He often went in
it to Pará, near two hundred miles, and, with twelve good Indians to
paddle, and plenty of caxaça, reached the city, without stopping, in
twenty-four hours. We sometimes went out to inspect the cane-fields
in this canoe, with eight little Negro and Indian boys to paddle, who
were always ready for such service. I then took my gun and net, and
shot some birds or caught any insects that we met with, while Senhor
Calistro would send the boys to climb after any handsome flowers I
admired, or to gather the fruit of the passion-flowers, which hung
like golden apples in the thickets on the banks. His cane-field this
year was a mile and a half long and a quarter of a mile wide, and very
luxuriant; across it were eight roads, all planted on each side with
bananas and pine-apples. He informed me that when the fruit was in
full season all the slaves and Indians had as much as they liked to
take, and could never finish them all; but, said he, “It is not much
trouble planting them when setting the cane-field, and I always do it,
for I like to have plenty.” It was altogether a noble sight,—a sample
of the overflowing abundance produced by a fertile soil and a tropical
sun. Having mentioned that I much wished to get a collection of fish
to preserve in spirits, he set several Indians to work stopping up
igaripés to poison the water, and others to fish at night with line and
bow and arrow; all that they procured being brought to me to select
from, and the rest sent to the kitchen. The best way of catching a
variety was however with a large drag-net fifty or sixty yards long.
We went out one day in two canoes, and with about twenty Negroes and
Indians, who swam with the net in the water, making a circuit, and
then drew it out on to a beach. We had not very good fortune, but soon
filled two half-bushel baskets with a great variety of fish, large
and small, from which I selected a number of species to increase my
collection.
Senhor Calistro was now going to send several Indian hunters up a
small stream into the deep forest to hunt for him, and salt and dry
game, and bring home live tortoises, of which there are great numbers
in the forest. I particularly wanted a large and handsome species of
_Tinamus_, or Brazilian partridge, which is found in these forests,
but which I had not yet met with since I saw one being plucked for
supper on the Tocantíns; I was also anxious to procure the hyacinthine
macaw: so he kindly offered to let me go with them, and to lend me a
small canoe and another Indian, to return when I liked, as they were
going to stay two or three months. All the Indians took, was farinha
and salt, with powder and shot; but my kind host loaded my canoe with
fowls, roast meat, eggs, plantains, pine-apples, and cocoa-nuts, so
that I went well provided. It was about half a day’s journey further
up the river, to the mouth of the narrow stream or igaripé we were to
enter; after going up which a short distance we staid at the cottage of
some acquaintances of our men for the night. The next morning early we
proceeded on our journey, and soon passed the last house, and entered
upon the wild, unbroken, and uninhabited virgin forest. The stream
was very narrow and very winding, running with great rapidity round
the bends, and often much obstructed by bushes and fallen trees. The
branches almost met overhead, and it was as dark and gloomy and silent
as can be imagined. In these sombre shades a flower was scarcely ever
to be found. A few of the large blue butterflies (_Morphos_) were
occasionally seen flitting over the water or seated upon a leaf on the
banks, and numerous green-backed kingfishers darted along before us.
Early in the afternoon we found a little cleared place where hunters
were accustomed to stay, and here we hung up our hammocks, lit our
fire, and prepared to pass the night. After an excellent supper and
some coffee, I lay down in my hammock, gazing up through the leafy
canopy overhead, to the skies spangled with brightly shining stars,
from which the fire-flies, flitting among the foliage, could often
hardly be distinguished. They were a species of _Pyrophorus_, larger
than any I had seen in Pará. They seemed attracted by the fire, to
which they came in numbers; by moving one over the lines of a newspaper
I was enabled easily to read it. The Indians amused themselves by
recounting their hunting adventures, their escapes from jaguars and
serpents, or of their being lost in the forest. One told how he had
been lost for ten days, and all that time had eaten nothing, for he had
no farinha, and though he could have killed game he would not eat it
alone, and seemed quite surprised that I should think him capable of
such an action, though I should certainly have imagined a week’s fast
would have overcome any scruples of that sort.
The next day the Indians went hunting, proposing to return early in
the afternoon to proceed on, and I searched the woods after insects;
but in these gloomy forests, and without any paths along which I could
walk with confidence, I met with little success. In the afternoon some
of them returned with two trumpeters (_Psophia viridis_) and a monkey,
which I skinned; but as one Indian did not arrive till late, we could
not continue our voyage till the next day. This night we were not so
fortunate as the last, for just about dusk it began to rain, and our
canoes were so small and so loaded with articles that must be kept dry,
that we had little chance of making ourselves comfortable in them.
I managed to crowd in somehow, terribly cramped, hoping the shower
would soon pass over; but as it did not, and we had turned in without
our suppers, I began to feel very hungry. It was pitch-dark, but I
groped my way out, fumbled about for some wood, and with an Indian’s
assistance made up the fire, by which I sat with some palm-leaves over
my head, and made a hearty meal of Jacu (a species of _Penelope_),
which had been stewed in the afternoon. When I had finished, I was
pretty well soaked; but to find or put on dry clothes was out of the
question, so I again rolled myself up uncomfortably into a ball, and
slept pretty well till daybreak, when it had just ceased raining, and
a cup of hot coffee set me all right. We then again started off, but
this day had great difficulties to encounter: several sunken logs were
passed over with great labour, but at last there was a tree fallen
over the stream, which the canoe could not possibly pass under, so
we had to spend more than an hour cutting it through with axes which
we carried for the purpose. About three in the afternoon we reached
another stopping-place, and as we did not wish to have a repetition
of last night’s enjoyment, the Indians set to work making a little
sleeping-hut. They had a long way to go for thatch, as there was only
one palm-tree about a mile off, and this they cut down to supply us
with a roof.
However, as we took the trouble to make a house, we had fine weather
the three days we staid, and did not want it. While here we had not
much success. The hunters killed some deer, large birds, and monkeys,
but did not meet with either of those I particularly wanted. Insects
also, as at the former station, were very scarce, and though I got
several curious small birds, I was not very well satisfied with the
success of my expedition.
Accordingly, after three days, I set out on my return, the rest of
the party proceeding further up into the forest in search of a better
hunting-ground. On the second day we again reached the open river, and
I much enjoyed the change from the dark forest, the damp foliage and
decaying leaves and branches, to the bright sunshine and the blue sky,
with the chirping birds and the gay flowers on the banks. Passing an
estate of Senhor Calistro’s on the opposite side of the river, I went
on shore to shoot a large goatsucker which was sitting on the ground
in the sunshine, and succeeded in killing two, which I skinned on our
way to São Jozé, where we arrived just in time for supper, and were
heartily received by Senhor Calistro. After a few days more I left his
hospitable roof, loaded with luxuries: eggs, tapioca, a roast pig,
pine-apples, and sweets were sent to my canoe; and I bade adieu with
regret to my kind host.
On our way down I again encountered the “piroróco” when I hardly
expected it. We had gone in shore at a sugar estate to wait for the
tide, when the agent told us we had better put out further into the
stream, as the piroróco beat there. Though thinking he only wished to
frighten us, we judged it prudent to do as he advised; and while we
were expecting the tide to turn, a great wave came suddenly rushing
along, and breaking on the place where our canoe had been at first
moored. The wave having passed, the water was as quiet as before, but
flowing up with great rapidity. As we proceeded down the river, we
saw everywhere signs of its devastations in the uprooted trees which
lined the shores all along, and the high mud-banks where the earth
had been washed away. In winter, when the spring-tides are highest,
the “piroróco” breaks with terrific force, and often sinks and dashes
to pieces, boats left incautiously in too shallow water. The ordinary
explanations given of this phenomenon are evidently incorrect. Here
there is no meeting of salt and fresh water, neither is the stream
remarkably narrowed where it commences. I collected all the information
I could respecting the depth of the river, and the shoals that occur in
it. Where the bore first appears, there is a shoal across the river,
and below that, the stream is somewhat contracted. The tide flows up
past Pará with great velocity, and entering the Guamá river comes to
the narrow part of the channel. Here the body of tidal water will be
deeper and flow faster, and coming suddenly on to the shoal will form
a wave, in the same manner that in a swift brook a large stone at the
bottom will cause an undulation, while a slow-flowing stream will keep
its smooth surface. This wave will be of great size, and, as there is
a large body of water in motion, will be propagated onwards unbroken.
Wherever there are shallows, either in the bed or on the margin of
the river, it will break, or as it passes over slight shoals will be
increased, and, as the river narrows, will go on with greater rapidity.
When the tides are low, they rise less rapidly, and at the commencement
a much less body of water is put in motion: the depth of the moving
water is less, and does not come in contact with the bottom in passing
over the shoal, and so no wave is formed. It is only when the body of
water in motion, as the tide first flows in, is of sufficient depth,
that it comes in contact with the shoal, and is, as it were, lifted up
by it, forming a great rolling wave.
[Illustration]
The above diagram will show more clearly the manner in which I suppose
the wave to the formed. A A represents the level of the water when the
tide is out; D D the bottom of the river; B B the depth to which the
water is put in motion at low tides, not reaching so deep as the bottom
of the river at the shoal C, at which time no wave, but a swift current
only, is formed; C´ C the depth to which the water is set in motion at
spring-tides, when the mass, coming in contact with the bottom at C,
is lifted up, and forms a wave at E, which is propagated up the river.
It appears therefore that there must exist some peculiar formation of
the bottom, and not merely a narrowing and widening in a tidal river to
produce a bore, otherwise it would occur much more frequently than it
does. In the Mojú and Acarrá the same phenomenon is said to take place;
and, as these rivers all run parallel to each other, it is probable
that the same bed of rock running across produces a somewhat similar
shoal in all of them. It may also easily be seen why there is only one
wave, not a succession of them; for, when the first wave has passed,
the water has risen so much that the stream now flows clear over the
shoal, and is therefore not affected by it.
On arriving at Pará I again took up my abode at Nazaré. I had found in
this voyage that my canoe was far too unsteady and confined to think
of going up the Amazon in it, so I returned it to the owner, who had
warranted it steady and adapted for my purpose, but, after much trouble
and annoyance, I was obliged to lose the £10 I had given in part
payment. In the beginning of July, my younger brother H. came out to
Pará to assist me; and by the return of the vessel in which he arrived,
I sent off my collections of fish and insects up to this time.
We had the good fortune one day to fall in with a small flock of the
rare and curious bell-bird (_Casmarhynchos carunculata_), but they were
on a very thick lofty tree, and took flight before we could get a shot
at them. Though it was about four miles off in the forest, we went
again the next day, and found them feeding on the same tree, but had
no better success. On the third day we went to the same spot, but from
that time saw them no more. The bird is of a pure white colour, the
size of a blackbird, has a broad bill, and feeds on fruits. From the
base of the bill above, grows a fleshy tubercle, two to three inches
long, and as thick as a quill, sparingly clothed with minute feathers:
it is quite lax, and hangs down on one side of the bird’s head, not
stuck up like a horn, as we see it placed in some stuffed specimens.
This bird is remarkable for its loud clear ringing note, like a bell,
which it utters at midday, when most other birds are silent.
A few days after, we found feeding on the same tree some beautiful
yellow parrots. They are called here imperial parrots, and are much
esteemed because their colours are those of the Brazilian flag—yellow
and green. I had long been seeking them, and was much pleased when my
brother shot one. It is the _Conurus Carolineæ_, and is figured by Spix
in his expensive work on the birds of Brazil.