BARRA DO RIO NEGRO AND THE SOLIMÕES.
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 Solimões—The
Gapó—Manaquerey—Country life—Curl-crested Araçaris—Vultures
and Onças—Tobacco growing and manufacture—The Cow-fish—Senhor
Brandão—A fishing party with Senhor Henrique—Letters from England.
On the 31st of December, 1849, we arrived at the city of Barra on the
Rio Negro. On the evening of the 30th the sun had set on the yellow
Amazon, but we continued rowing till late at night, when we reached
some rocks at the mouth of the Rio Negro, and caught some fine fish in
the shallows. In the morning we looked with surprise at the wonderful
change in the water around us. We might have fancied ourselves on the
river Styx, for it was black as ink in every direction, except where
the white sand, seen at the depth of a few feet through its dusky wave,
appeared of a golden hue. The water itself is of a pale brown colour,
the tinge being just perceptible in a glass, while in deep water it
appears jet black, and well deserves its name of Rio Negro—“black
river.”
We brought letters to Senhor Henrique Antony, an Italian gentleman
settled here many years, and the principal merchant in the city; who
received us with such hearty hospitality as at once to make us feel at
home. He gave us the use of two large rooms in a new house of his own
not quite finished, and invited us to take our meals at his table.
The city of Barra do Rio Negro is situated on the east bank of that
river, about twelve miles above its junction with the Amazon. It is on
uneven ground, about thirty feet above the high-water level, and there
are two small streams or gullies running through it, where during the
wet season the water rises to a considerable height, and across which
are two wooden bridges. The streets are regularly laid out, but quite
unpaved, much undulating, and full of holes, so that walking about at
night is very unpleasant. The houses are generally of one story, with
red-tiled roofs, brick floors, white- and yellow-washed walls, and
green doors and shutters; and, when the sun shines, are pretty enough.
The “Barra,” or fort, is now represented by a fragment of wall and a
mound of earth, and there are two churches, but both very poor and far
inferior to that of Santarem. The population is five or six thousand,
of which the greater part are Indians and half-breeds; in fact there
is probably not a single person born in the place of pure European
blood, so completely have the Portuguese amalgamated with the Indians.
The trade is chiefly in Brazil-nuts, salsaparilha, and fish; and the
imports are European cotton-goods of inferior quality, and quantities
of coarse cutlery, beads, mirrors, and other trinkets for the trade
with the Indian tribes, of which this is the head-quarters. The
distance from Pará is about a thousand miles, and the voyage up in the
wet season often takes from two to three months, so that flour, cheese,
wine, and other necessaries, are always very dear, and often not to be
obtained. The more civilized inhabitants of Barra are all engaged in
trade, and have literally no amusements whatever, unless drinking and
gambling on a small scale can be so considered: most of them never open
a book, or have any mental occupation.
As might be expected therefore, etiquette in dress is much attended
to, and on Sunday at mass all are in full costume. The ladies dress
very elegantly in a variety of French muslins and gauzes; they all have
fine hair, which they arrange carefully, and ornament with flowers,
and never hide it or their faces under caps or bonnets. The gentlemen,
who pass all the week in dirty warehouses, in their shirt-sleeves and
slippers, are then seen in suits of the finest black, with beaver hats,
satin cravats, and patent-leather boots of the smallest dimensions;
and then is the fashionable visiting time, when every one goes to see
everybody, to talk over the accumulated scandal of the week. Morals
in Barra are perhaps at the lowest ebb possible in any civilized
community: you will every day hear things commonly talked of, about the
most respectable families in the place, which would hardly be credited
of the inhabitants of the worst parts of St. Giles’s.
The wet season had now set in, and we soon found there was little to
be done in collecting birds or insects at Barra. I had been informed
that this was the time to find the celebrated umbrella chatterers in
plumage, and that they were plentiful in the islands about three days’
voyage up the Rio Negro. On communicating to Senhor Henrique my wish
to go there, he applied to some of the authorities to furnish me with
Indians to make the voyage. When they came, which was after three or
four days, I started in my own canoe, leaving my brother H. to pay
a visit to an estate in another direction. My voyage occupied three
days, and I had a good opportunity of observing the striking difference
between this river and the Amazon. Here were no islands of floating
grass, no logs and uprooted trees, with their cargoes of gulls,
scarcely any stream, and few signs of life in the black and sluggish
waters. Yet when there is a storm, there are greater and more dangerous
waves than on the Amazon. When the dark clouds above cause the water
to appear of a yet more inky blackness, and the rising waves break in
white foam over the vast expanse, the scene is gloomy in the extreme.
At Barra the river is about a mile and a half wide. A few miles up it
widens considerably, in many places forming deep bays eight or ten
miles across. Further on, again, it separates into several channels,
divided by innumerable islands, and the total width is probably not
less than twenty miles. We crossed where it is four or five miles wide,
and then keeping up the left bank we entered among the islands, when
the opposite shore was no more seen. We passed many sandy and pebbly
beaches, with occasional masses of sandstone and volcanic rock, and a
long extent of high and steep gravelly banks, everywhere, except in the
most precipitous places, covered with a luxuriant vegetation of shrubs
and forest-trees. We saw several cottages, and a village prettily
situated on a high, grassy slope, and at length reached Castanheiro,
the residence of Senhor Balbino, to whom I brought a letter. After
reading it he asked me my intentions, and then promised to get me a
good hunter, to kill birds and any other animals I wanted.
The house of Senhor Balbino is generally known as the “Sobrado,” or
upper-storied house, being the only one of the kind out of Barra. It
was however in rather a dilapidated condition, the ladder which served
for stairs wanting two steps, and requiring a great exertion of the
muscles of the leg to ascend it. This, Senhor Henrique afterwards
informed me, had been in the same state for several years, though
Balbino has always a carpenter at work making canoes, who might put in
a couple of boards in an hour.
An Indian living near now arrived, and we accompanied him to his house,
where I was to find a lodging. It was about half a mile further up
the river, at the mouth of a small stream, where there was a little
settlement of two or three families. The part which it was proposed I
should occupy was a small room with a very steep hill for a floor, and
three doorways, two with palm-leaf mats and the other doing duty as a
window. No choice being offered me, I at once accepted the use of this
apartment, and, my men having now brought on my canoe, I ordered my
boxes on shore, hung up my hammock, and at once took possession. The
Indians then left me; but a boy lent me by Senhor Henrique remained
with me to light a fire and boil my coffee, and prepare dinner when we
were so fortunate as to get any. I borrowed a table to work at, but,
owing to the great inclination of the ground, nothing that had not a
very broad base would stay upon it. The houses here were imbedded in
the forest, so that although there were four not twenty yards apart,
they were not visible from each other, the space where the forest had
been cut down being planted with fruit-trees.
Only one of the men here could speak Portuguese, all the rest using
the Indian language, called Lingoa Geral, which I found very difficult
to get hold of without any books, though it is an easy and simple
language. The word _igaripé_, applied to all small streams, means “path
of the canoe”; _tatatinga_, smoke, is literally “white fire.” Many of
the words sound like Greek, as _sapucaía_, a fowl; _apegáua_, a man.
In the names of animals the same vowel is often repeated, producing a
very euphonious effect; as _parawá_, a parrot; _maracajá_, a tiger-cat;
_sucurujú_, a poisonous snake. My Indian boy spoke Lingoa Geral and
Portuguese, and so with his assistance I got on very well.
The next morning my hunter arrived, and immediately went out in his
canoe among the islands, where the umbrella-birds are found. In the
evening after dark he returned, bringing one fine specimen. This
singular bird is about the size of a raven, and is of a similar colour,
but its feathers have a more scaly appearance, from being margined
with a different shade of glossy blue. It is also allied to the crows
in its structure, being very similar to them in its feet and bill. On
its head it bears a crest, different from that of any other bird. It
is formed of feathers more than two inches long, very thickly set,
and with hairy plumes curving over at the end. These can be laid back
so as to be hardly visible, or can be erected and spread out on every
side, forming a hemispherical, or rather a hemi-ellipsoidal dome,
completely covering the head, and even reaching beyond the point of
the beak: the individual feathers then stand out something like the
down-bearing seeds of the dandelion. Besides this, there is another
ornamental appendage on the breast, formed by a fleshy tubercle, as
thick as a quill and an inch and a half long, which hangs down from
the neck, and is thickly covered with glossy feathers, forming a large
pendent plume or tassel. This also the bird can either press to its
breast, so as to be scarcely visible, or can swell out, so as almost
to conceal the forepart of its body. In the female the crest and the
neck-plume are less developed, and she is altogether a smaller and much
less handsome bird. It inhabits the flooded islands of the Rio Negro
and the Solimões, never appearing on the mainland. It feeds on fruits,
and utters a loud, hoarse cry, like some deep musical instrument;
whence its Indian name, _Ueramimbé_, “trumpet-bird.” The whole of the
neck, where the plume of feathers springs from, is covered internally
with a thick coat of hard, muscular fat, very difficult to be cleaned
away,—which, in preparing the skins, must be done, as it would
putrefy, and cause the feathers to drop off. The birds are tolerably
abundant, but are shy, and perch on the highest trees, and, being very
muscular, will not fall unless severely wounded. My hunter worked very
perseveringly to get them, going out before daylight and often not
returning till nine or ten at night, yet he never brought me more than
two at a time, generally only one, and sometimes none.
The only other birds found in the islands were the beautiful and rare
little bristle-tailed manakin, and two species of curassow-bird. On the
mainland, the white bell-bird was found on the loftiest trees of the
forest, almost out of gunshot. Three were brought me, much disfigured
with blood, having been shot at four or five times each before they
fell. The beautiful trumpeter (_Psophia crepitans_), a different
species from that found at Pará, was plentiful here. A rare little
toucan (_Pteroglossus Azaræ_), and a few parrots, hawks, and Brazilian
partridges, were the only other birds we met with.
Insects were by no means abundant, there being few paths in the woods
in which to hunt for them or to cause them to accumulate together;
for I have invariably found that in an open path through the forest
the chequered light and shade causes a variety of plants to spring
up and flowers to blow, which in their turn attract a great variety
of insects. An open pathway seems to have similar attractions for
many kinds of insects to what it has for ourselves. The great blue
butterflies, and many smaller ones, will course along it for miles, and
if driven into the forest, will generally soon return to it again. The
gleams of sunshine and the free current of air attract some; others
seek the blossoms which there abound; while every particle of animal
matter in the pathway is sure to be visited by a number of different
species: so that upon the number and extent of the paths and roads
which traverse the forest will depend in a great measure the success
of the entomologist in these parts of South America.
There were two other rooms in the house where I lived, inhabited by
three families. The men generally wore nothing but a pair of trowsers,
the women only a petticoat, and the children nothing at all. They
all lived in the poorest manner, and at first I was quite puzzled to
find out when they had their meals. In the morning early they would
each have a cuya of mingau; then about midday they would eat some dry
farinha cake or a roasted yam; and in the evening some more mingau of
farinha or pacovas. I could not imagine that they really had nothing
else to eat, but at last was obliged to come to the conclusion that
various preparations of mandiocca and water formed their only food.
About once a week they would get a few small fish or a bird, but then
it would be divided among so many as only to serve as a relish to the
cassava bread. My hunter never took anything out with him but a bag of
dry farinha, and after being away fourteen hours in his canoe would
come home and sit down in his hammock, and converse as if his thoughts
were far from eating, and then, when a cuya of mingau was offered him,
would quite contentedly drink it, and be ready to start off before
daybreak the next morning. Yet he was as stout and jolly-looking as
John Bull himself, fed daily on fat beef and mutton.
Most of the wild fruits—which are great favourites with these people,
especially the women and children—are of an acrid or bitter taste,
to which long practice only can reconcile a foreigner. Often, when
seeing a little child gnawing away at some strange fruit, I have
asked to taste it, thinking that it must be sweet to please at that
lollipop-loving age, and have found a flavour like aloes or quassia,
that I could not get out of my mouth for an hour; others equally
relished are like yellow soap, and some as sour as verjuice.
These people almost always seem at work, but have very little to show
for it. The women go to dig up mandiocca or yams, or they have weeding
or planting to do, and at other times have earthen pots to make, and
their scanty clothing to mend and wash. The men are always busy,
either clearing the forest or cutting down timber for a canoe or for
paddles, or to make a board for some purpose or other; and their houses
always want mending, and then there is thatch to be brought from a
long distance; or they want baskets, or bows and arrows, or some other
thing, which occupies nearly their whole time, and yet does not produce
them the bare necessaries of life, or allow them leisure to hunt the
game that abounds in the forest around them. This is principally the
result of everybody doing everything for himself, slowly and with
much unnecessary labour, instead of occupying himself with one kind
of industry, and exchanging its produce for the articles he requires.
An Indian spends a week in cutting down a tree in the forest, and
fashioning an article which, by the division of labour, can be made
for sixpence: the consequence is, that his work produces but sixpence
a week, and he is therefore all his life earning a scanty supply of
clothing, in a country where food may be had almost for nothing.
Having remained here a month, and obtained twenty-five specimens of
the umbrella-bird, I prepared to return to Barra. On the last day my
hunter went out, he brought me a fine male bird alive. It had been
wounded slightly on the head, just behind the eye, and had fallen to
the ground stunned, for in a short time it became very active, and when
he brought it me was as strong and fierce as if it was quite uninjured.
I put it in a large wicker basket, but as it would take no food during
two days, I fed it by thrusting pieces of banana down its throat; this
I continued for several days, with much difficulty, as its claws were
very sharp and powerful. On our way to Barra I found by the river-side
a small fruit which it ate readily: this fruit was about the size of
a cherry, of an acid taste, and was swallowed whole. The bird arrived
safely in the city, and lived a fortnight; when one day it suddenly
fell off its perch and died. On skinning it, I found the shot had
broken the skull and entered to the brain, though it seems surprising
that it should have remained so long apparently in perfect health. I
had had however an excellent opportunity of observing its habits, and
its method of expanding and closing its beautiful crest and neck-plume.
I had now a dull time of it in Barra. The wet season had regularly set
in: a day hardly ever passed without rain, and on many days it was
incessant. We seized every opportunity for a walk in the forest, but
scarcely anything was to be found when we got there, and what we did
get was with the greatest difficulty preserved; for the atmosphere was
so saturated with moisture, that insects moulded, and the feathers
and hair dropped from the skins of birds and animals, so as to render
them quite unserviceable. Luckily however there were a good number
of foreigners in Barra, so we had a little company. Two traders on
the Amazon, an American and an Irishman, had arrived. Mr. Bates had
reached Barra a few weeks after me, and was now here, unwilling, like
myself, to go further up the country in such uninviting weather. There
were also three Germans, one of whom spoke English well and was a bit
of a naturalist, and all were good singers, and contributed a little
amusement.
There was also a deaf and dumb American, named Baker, a very humorous
and intelligent fellow, who was a constant fund of amusement both
for the Brazilians and ourselves. He had been educated in the same
institution with Laura Bridgman, as a teacher of the deaf and dumb. He
seemed to have a passion for travelling, probably as the only means of
furnishing through his one sense the necessary amount of exercise and
stimulus to his mind. He had travelled alone through Peru and Chile,
across to Brazil, through Pará to Barra, and now proposed going by
the Rio Branco to Demerara, and so to the United States. He supported
himself by selling the deaf and dumb alphabet, with explanations in
Spanish and Portuguese. He carried a little slate, on which he could
write anything in English or French, and also a good deal in Spanish,
so that he could always make his wants known. He made himself at home
in every house in Barra, walking in and out as he liked, and asking
by signs for whatever he wanted. He was very merry, fond of practical
jokes, and of making strange gesticulations. He pretended to be a
phrenologist; and on feeling the head of a Portuguese or Brazilian
would always write down on his slate, “Very fond of the ladies;” which
on being translated, would invariably elicit, “He verdade” (that’s very
true), and signs of astonishment at his penetration. He was a great
smoker, and would drink wine and spirits so freely as sometimes to make
him carry his antics to a great length; still he was much liked, and
will be long remembered by the people of Barra. But, poor fellow! he
was never to see his native land again: he died a few months after,
at the fortress of São Joaquim, on the Rio Branco,—it was said, of
jaundice.
Notwithstanding all this, the time passed heavily enough; and though
Mr. Hauxwell soon after arrived to add to our party, still nothing
could make up for the desolation and death which the incessant rains
appeared to have produced in all animated nature. Between two and three
months passed away in this unexciting monotony, when, the river having
nearly risen to its height, and there being some appearance of the
weather improving, I determined on taking a journey to the Solimões
(as the Amazon is called above the entrance of the Rio Negro), to the
estate of Senhor Brandão, my kind host’s father-in-law.
The river was now so high that a great portion of the lowlands between
the Rio Negro and the Amazon was flooded, being what is called “Gapó.”
This is one of the most singular features of the Amazon. It extends
from a little above Santarem up to the confines of Peru—a distance of
about seventeen hundred miles—and varies in width on each side of the
river from one to ten or twenty miles. From Santarem to Coarí, a little
town on the Solimões, a person may go by canoe in the wet season
without once entering into the main river. He will pass through small
streams, lakes, and swamps, and everywhere around him will stretch out
an illimitable waste of waters, but all covered with a lofty virgin
forest. For days he will travel through this forest, scraping against
tree-trunks, and stooping to pass beneath the leaves of prickly palms,
now level with the water, though raised on stems forty feet high. In
this trackless maze the Indian finds his way with unerring certainty,
and by slight indications of broken twigs or scraped bark, goes on day
by day as if travelling on a beaten road. In the Gapó peculiar animals
are found, attracted by the fruits of trees which grow only there. In
fact, the Indians assert that every tree that grows in the Gapó is
distinct from all those found in other districts; and when we consider
the extraordinary conditions under which these plants exist, being
submerged for six months of the year till they are sufficiently lofty
to rise above the highest water-level, it does not seem improbable
that such may be the case. Many species of trogons are peculiar to
the Gapó, others to the dry virgin forest. The umbrella chatterer is
entirely confined to it, as is also the little bristle-tailed manakin.
Some monkeys are found there only in the wet season, and whole tribes
of Indians, such as the Purupurús and Múras, entirely inhabit it,
building small, easily-removable huts on the sandy shores in the dry
season, and on rafts in the wet; spending a great part of their lives
in canoes, sleeping suspended in rude hammocks from trees over the deep
water, cultivating no vegetables, but subsisting entirely on the fish,
turtle, and cow-fish which they obtain from the river.
On crossing the Rio Negro from the city of Barra, we entered into a
tract of this description. Our canoe was forced under branches and
among dense bushes, till we got into a part where the trees were
loftier, and a deep gloom prevailed. Here the lowest branches of the
trees were level with the surface of the water, and were many of them
putting forth flowers. As we proceeded, we sometimes came to a grove
of small palms, the leaves being now only a few feet above us, and
among them was the marajá, bearing bunches of agreeable fruit, which,
as we passed, the Indians cut off with their long knives. Sometimes
the rustling of leaves overhead told us that monkeys were near, and
we would soon perhaps discover them peeping down from among the thick
foliage, and then bounding rapidly away as soon as we had caught a
glimpse of them. Presently we came out into the sunshine, in a grassy
lake filled with lilies and beautiful water-plants, little yellow
bladder-worts (_Utricularias_), and the bright-blue flowers and curious
leaves with swollen stalks of the _Pontederias_. Again in the gloom
of the forest, among the lofty cylindrical trunks rising like columns
out of the deep water: now a splashing of falling fruit around us
would announce that birds were feeding overhead, and we could discover
a flock of paroquets, or some bright-blue chatterers, or the lovely
pompadour, with its delicate white wings and claret-coloured plumage;
now with a whirr a trogon would seize a fruit on the wing, or some
clumsy toucan make the branches shake as he alighted.
But what lovely yellow flower is that suspended in the air between
two trunks, yet far from either? It shines in the gloom as if its
petals were of gold. Now we pass close by it, and see its stalk, like
a slender wire a yard and a half long, springing from a cluster of
thick leaves on the bark of a tree. It is an _Oncidium_, one of the
lovely orchis tribe, making these gloomy shades gay with its airy and
brilliant flowers. Presently there are more of them, and then others
appear, with white and spotted and purple blossoms, some growing on
rotten logs floating in the water, but most on moss and decaying bark
just above it. There is one magnificent species, four inches across,
called by the natives St. Ann’s flower (Flor de Santa Anna), of a
brilliant purple colour, and emitting a most delightful odour; it is
a new species, and the most magnificent flower of its kind in these
regions; even the natives will sometimes deign to admire it, and to
wonder how such a beautiful flower grows “atóa” (uselessly) in the Gapó.
At length, after about eight hours’ paddling, we came out again into
the broad waters of the Solimões. How bright shone the sun! how gay
flowed the stream! how pleasant it was again to see the floating grass
islands, and the huge logs and trees, with their cargoes of gulls
sitting gravely upon them! These, with the white-leaved and straggling
umboöbas (_Cecropias_), give an aspect to the Amazon quite distinct
from that of the Rio Negro, independently of their differently-coloured
waters. Now however there was no land to be reached, and we feared
we should have to sup on farinha and water, but luckily found a huge
floating trunk fast moored amongst some grass near the side, and on
it, with the assistance of a few dead twigs, we soon made a fire,
roasted our fish, and boiled some coffee. But we had intruded on a
colony of stinging ants, who, not liking the vicinity of fire, and not
choosing to take to the water, swarmed into our canoe and made us pay
for our supper in a very unpleasant manner. Dusk soon came on, and
we had to stay for the night; but the mosquitoes made their presence
known, and we lay uncomfortable and feverish till the morning. By the
next night we had reached the mouth of the small stream that leads up
to Manaquery, and had few mosquitoes to annoy us. In the morning we
went on, and soon plunged again into the Gapó, passing through some
small lakes so choked up with grass that the canoe could hardly be
forced over it. Again we emerged into the igaripé—here about a quarter
of a mile wide—and at ten in the morning reached Manaquery.
The estate is situated on the south side of the Solimões, about a
hundred miles above its junction with the Rio Negro. The whole tract
of country round it consists of igaripés, or small streams, lakes,
gapó, and patches of high and dry land, so scattered and mixed together
that it is very difficult to tell whether any particular portion is
an island or not. The land, for a short distance on the banks of the
stream, rises in an abrupt, rocky cliff, thirty or forty feet above
high-water mark: the rocks are of a volcanic nature, being a coarse and
often vitreous scoria. On ascending by some rude steps, I found myself
in a flat grassy meadow, scattered over with orange-trees, mangoes, and
some noble tamarind and calabash trees, and at the back a thicket of
guavas.
Cattle and sheep were grazing about, and pigs and poultry were seen
nearer the house. This was a large thatched shed, half of which
contained the cane-mill, and was only enclosed by a railing, instead
of a wall; the other half had coarse mud walls, with small windows
and thatch shutters. The floor was of earth only, and very uneven,
yet here resided Senhor Brandão and his daughter, whom I had met at
Barra. The fact was that some ten or twelve years before, during the
Revolution, a party of Indians burnt down his house, and completely
destroyed his gardens and fruit-trees, killed several of his servants
and cattle, and would have killed his wife and children, had they not,
at a moment’s notice, escaped to the forest, where they remained three
days, living on Indian corn and wild fruits. Senhor B. was at the time
in the city, and while the Revolution lasted, which was several years,
he was glad to have his family with him in safety, and could not think
of rebuilding his house. Afterwards he was engaged as Delegarde de
Policia for some years, and he had now only just returned to live on
his estate with one unmarried daughter, and of course had plenty to do
to get things a little in order. His wife being dead, he did not feel
the pleasure he had formerly done in improving his place, and it is,
I think, not improbable that, after having lived here a few years, he
will get so used to it that he will think it quite unnecessary to go to
the expense of rebuilding his house. Still it seemed rather strange to
see a nicely-dressed young lady sitting on a mat on a very mountainous
mud-floor, and with half-a-dozen Indian girls around her engaged in
making lace and in needlework. She introduced me to an elder married
sister who was staying with them, and soon Senhor B. came in from his
cane-field, and heartily welcomed me. About twelve we sat down to
dinner, consisting of tambakí, the most delicious of fish, with rice,
beans, and Indian-meal bread, and afterwards oranges _ad libitum_.
I staid here nearly two months, enjoying a regular country life, and
getting together a tolerable collection of birds and insects.
In a few days a hunter I had engaged in Barra arrived, and forthwith
commenced operations. In the afternoon he generally brought me some
birds or monkeys, which were very plentiful. We rose about half-past
five, and by six had a cup of hot coffee; I then sat down to skin
birds, if any had been brought late over-night, or, if not, took my
gun and walked out in search of some. At seven or half-past we had
a basin of Indian-meal porridge, or chocolate, with new milk, as a
sort of breakfast. At twelve punctually we dined, the standing dish
being tambakí, varied occasionally with fowl, cow-fish, deer, or other
game. At four we had another cup of coffee, with biscuit or fruit,
and at seven we took supper of fish like our dinner, if the fisherman
had arrived. In the morning, for a couple of hours, I generally went
with my net in search of insects. Several rare butterflies were
found sitting on the river’s side, on the margin of mud left by the
retiring waters. Small toucans or araçaris of several species were
very abundant, the rarest and most beautiful being the “curl-crested,”
whose head is covered with little glossy curls of a hard substance,
more like quill or metallic shavings than feathers. These are at times
plentiful, but did not appear till some weeks later than the other
species, when I was at last rewarded for my patience by obtaining
several beautiful specimens.
The common black vultures were abundant, but were rather put to it for
food, being obliged to eat palm-fruits in the forest when they could
find nothing else. Every morning it was an amusing sight to see them
run after the pigs the moment they got up, three or four following
close at the heels of each animal, for the purpose of devouring its
dung the moment it was dropped. The pigs seemed to be very much annoyed
at such indecent behaviour, and would frequently turn round and take a
run at the birds, who would hop out of the way or fly a short distance,
but immediately resume their positions as soon as the pig continued his
walk.
I am convinced, from repeated observations, that the vultures depend
entirely on sight, and not at all on smell, in seeking out their food.
While skinning a bird, a dozen of them used to be always waiting
attendance at a moderate distance. The moment I threw away a piece of
meat they would all run up to seize it; but it frequently happened to
fall in a little hollow of the ground or among some grass, and then
they would hop about, searching within a foot of it, and very often go
away without finding it at all. A piece of stick or paper would bring
them down just as rapidly, and after seeing what it was they would
quietly go back to their former places. They always choose elevated
stations, evidently to see what food they can discover; and when
soaring at an immense height in the air, they will descend into the
forest where a cow has died or been killed, long before it becomes
putrid or emits any strong smell. I have often wrapped a piece of
half putrid meat in paper and thrown it to them, and even then, after
hopping up to it, they will retire quite satisfied that it is only
paper, and nothing at all eatable.
Senhor B. had two fine sows, very fat, and each was expected to bring
forth a litter of pigs in a few days. There were no pig-sties or sheds
of any kind; and all animals retire into the forest on such occasions,
and in a few days return with their young family, just as cats do
with us. These sows had both disappeared for some days, and had not
returned, and we began to be afraid that a jaguar which had been heard
near the house, and whose track had been seen, had destroyed them. A
search was accordingly made, and the remains of a sow were discovered
in a thicket not far from the house. The next night we heard the jaguar
roaring within fifty yards of us, as we lay in our hammocks in the
open shed; but there being plenty of cattle, pigs, and dogs about, we
did not feel much alarmed. Presently we heard a report of a gun from
an Indian’s cottage near, and made sure the animal was dead. The next
morning we found that it had passed within sight of the door, but the
man was so frightened that he had fired at random and missed, for there
are some Indians who are as much cowards in this respect as any one
else. For two or three days more we heard reports of the animal at
different parts of the estate, so my hunter went out at night to lie in
wait for it, and succeeded in killing it with a bullet. It was an onça
of the largest size, and was believed to have killed, besides the sow,
a cow which had disappeared some weeks previously.
The weather was now very dry: no rain had fallen for some time;
the oranges were fully ripe, and the grass, so green and fresh
when I arrived, was beginning to assume a brownish-yellow tinge.
Tobacco-picking had begun, and I saw the process of the manufacture as
carried on here. Tobacco is sown thickly on a small patch of ground,
and the young plants are then set in rows, just as we do cabbages. They
are much attacked by the caterpillar of a sphinx moth, which grows to
a large size, and would completely devour the crop unless carefully
picked off. Old men, and women, and children are therefore constantly
employed going over a part of the field every day, and carefully
examining the plants leaf by leaf till the insects are completely
exterminated. When they show any inclination to flower, the buds are
nipped off; and as soon as the leaves have reached their full size,
they are gathered in strong wicker baskets, and are laid out in the
house or a shed, on poles supported by uprights from the floor to
the ceiling. In a few days they dry, and during the hot days become
quite crisp; but the moisture of the night softens them, and early in
the morning they are flaccid. When they are judged sufficiently dry,
every leaf must have the strong fibrous midrib taken out of it. For
this purpose all the household—men, women, and children—are called up
at four in the morning, and are set to work tearing out the midrib,
before the heat of the day makes the leaves too brittle to allow of
the operation. A few of the best leaves are sometimes selected to make
cigars, but the whole is generally manufactured into rolls of two
or four pounds each. The proper quantity is weighed out, and placed
regularly in layers on a table in a row about a yard long, rather
thicker in the middle. Beginning at one end, this is carefully rolled
up and wound round with a cord as tightly as possible. In a few days
these rolls are opened out, to see if there is any tendency to heat or
mould, and if all is right they are again made up with greater care.
Every day they are rebound tighter and tighter, the operator sitting
on the ground with the cord twisted round a post, and winding and
tightening with all his strength, till at length the roll has become
compressed into a solid mass about an inch in diameter, and gradually
tapering towards each end. It is then wound closely from end to end
with a neat strip of the rind of the Uarumá (a water-rush), and tied
up in bundles of an arroba and half an arroba (thirty-two and sixteen
pounds), and is ready for sale. When the tobacco is good, or has, as
they term it, “much honey in it,” it will cut as smooth and solid as a
piece of Spanish liquorice, and can be bent double without cracking.
The price varies according to the quality and the supply, from 4_d._ to
1_s._ per pound.
One day the fisherman brought us in a fine “peixe boi,” or cow-fish, a
species of _Manatus_, which inhabits the Amazon, and is particularly
abundant in the lakes in this part of the river. It was a female, about
six feet long, and near five in circumference in the thickest part. The
body is perfectly smooth, and without any projections or inequalities,
gradually changing into a horizontal semicircular flat tail, with no
appearance whatever of hind limbs. There is no distinct neck; the head
is not very large, and is terminated by a large month and fleshy lips,
somewhat resembling those of a cow. There are stiff bristles on the
lips, and a few distantly scattered hairs over the body. Behind the
head are two powerful oval fins, and just beneath them are the breasts,
from which, on pressure being applied, flows a stream of beautiful
white milk. The ears are minute holes, and the eyes very small. The
dung resembles that of a horse. The colour is a dusky lead, with some
large pinkish-white marbled blotches on the belly. The skin is about
an inch thick on the back, and a quarter of an inch on the belly.
Beneath the skin is a layer of fat of a greater or less thickness,
generally about an inch, which is boiled down to make an oil used for
light and for cooking. The intestines are very voluminous, the heart
about the size of a sheep’s, and the lungs about two feet long, and
six or seven inches wide, very cellular and spongy, and can be blown
out like a bladder. The skull is large and solid, with no front teeth;
the vertebræ extend to the very tip of the tail, but show no rudiments
of posterior limbs; the fore limbs, on the contrary, are very highly
developed, the bones exactly corresponding to those of the human arm,
having even the five fingers, with every joint distinct, yet enclosed
in a stiff inflexible skin, where not a joint can have any motion.
The cow-fish feeds on grass at the borders of the rivers and lakes,
and swims quickly with the tail and paddles; and though the external
organs of sight and hearing are so imperfect, these senses are said
by the hunters to be remarkably acute, and to render necessary all
their caution and skill to capture the animals. They bring forth one,
or rarely two, young ones, which they clasp in their arms or paddles
while giving suck. They are harpooned, or caught in a strong net, at
the narrow entrance of a lake or stream, and are killed by driving a
wooden plug with a mallet up their nostrils. Each yields from five to
twenty-five gallons of oil. The flesh is very good, being something
between beef and pork, and this one furnished us with several meals,
and was an agreeable change from our fish diet.
As I now expected a canoe shortly to arrive, bringing me letters and
remittances from England, after which I was anxious to set off for the
Upper Rio Negro as soon as possible, I determined to return to Barra,
and having agreed for a passage in a canoe going there, I took leave of
my kind host. I must however first say a few words about him. Senhor
José Antonio Brandão had come over from Portugal when very young, and
had married early and settled, with the intention of spending his life
here. Very singularly for a Portuguese, he entirely devoted himself
to agriculture. He built himself a country house at Manaquery, on a
lake near the main river, brought Indians from a distance to settle
with him, cleared the forest, planted orange, tamarind, mango, and
many other fruit-bearing trees, made pleasant avenues, gardens, and
pastures, stocked them well with cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry, and
set himself down to the full enjoyment of a country life. But about
twenty years ago, while his family were yet young, disturbances and
revolutions broke out, and he, as well as all natives of Portugal,
though he had signed the constitution of the Empire, and was in heart
a true Brazilian, became an object of dislike and suspicion to many
of the more violent of the revolutionists. A tribe of Indians who
resided near him, and to whom he had shown constant kindness, were
incited to burn down his house and destroy his property. This they did
effectually, rooting up his fruit-trees, burning his crops, killing
his cattle and his servants, and his wife and family only escaped from
their murderous arrows by timely flight to the forest. During the long
years of anarchy and confusion which followed, he was appointed a
magistrate in Barra, and was unable to look after his estate. His wife
died, his children married, and he of course felt then little interest
in restoring things to their former state.
He is a remarkably intelligent man, fond of reading, but without books,
and with a most tenacious memory. He has taught himself French, which
he now reads with ease, and through it he has got much information,
though of course rather tinged with French prejudice. He has several
huge quarto volumes of Ecclesiastical History, and is quite learned
in all the details of the Councils, and in the history of the
Reformation. He can tell you, from an old work on geography, without
maps, the length and breadth of every country in Europe, and the main
particulars respecting it. He is about seventy years of age, thirsting
for information, and has never seen a map! Think of this, ye who roll
in intellectual luxury. In this land of mechanics’ institutions and
cheap literature few have an idea of the real pursuit of knowledge
under difficulties,—of the longing thirst for information which there
is no fountain to satisfy. In his conversation there was something racy
and refreshing: such an absence of information, but such a fertility
of ideas. He had read the Bible in Portuguese, as a forbidden book,
though the priests make no very great objection to it here; and it was
something new to hear a man’s opinions of it who had first read it at
a mature age, and solely from a desire for information. The idea had
not entered his mind that it was all inspired, so he made objections to
all parts which he thought incredible, or which appeared to him to be
capable of a simple explanation; and, as might have been expected, he
found of his own accord confirmation of the doctrines of the religion
in which he had been brought up from childhood.
On arriving at Barra, the expected canoe had not arrived, and many
weeks passed wearily away. The weather was fine, but Barra is a very
poor locality for making collections. Insects were remarkably scarce
and uninteresting, and I looked forward anxiously to the time when I
could start for some distant and more promising district. The season
was very dry and hot: the thermometer, at two, every afternoon,
reaching 94° and 95° in the shade, and not often sinking below 75°
during the night. The lowest which I observed, just before sunrise,
was 70°, and the highest in the afternoon, 96°. There was scarcely
any rain during the months of July and August, so the grass about the
city was completely burnt up. The river was now falling rapidly, and
the sand-banks in the Amazon were, some of them, just rising above the
water.
One day, Senhor Henrique made a party to go fishing, with a large
drag-net, in the Solimões. We started in the afternoon in a good canoe,
with a party of about a dozen, and eight or ten Indian rowers; and just
before sunset, reached the mouth of the Rio Negro, and turned up into
the strong and turbid waters of the Solimões. There was a bright moon,
and we kept on talking and singing, while passing the narrow channels
and green islands of the north side of the river, which looked most
picturesquely wild and solitary, by the pale silvery moonlight, and
amid the solemn silence of the forest. By about midnight, we reached
a large sand-bank, just rising out of the water. Most of the party
turned up their trousers, and waded through the shallows, till they
reached the bank, where they began searching for small turtles’ eggs,
and those of gulls and other water-birds, which lay them in little
hollows scraped in the sand. Gulls, divers, ducks, and sandpipers flew
screaming about as we landed, and the splash of fish in the shallow
water told us that there was abundance of sport for us. Senhor Henrique
soon ordered the Indians to get out the net, and commenced dragging.
Every time the net was drawn on shore, we nearly filled a basket with
numerous small fishes, and a few of larger size. There were quantities
of little ones armed with spines, which inflict a serious wound if
trodden on, so we had to be cautious with our bare feet. I was much
interested in the great variety and the curious forms that every
basketful contained. There were numbers of a little fish, peculiar to
the Amazon, which inflates the fore part of the body into a complete
ball, and when stamped upon explodes with a noise similar to that
produced by the bursting of an inflated paper bag.
After two or three hours, we felt rather tired, so we made a fire,
and cooked some of our fish for a meal,—which we might call supper
or breakfast, as we pleased, for dawn was now appearing. We then
again went on fishing, while others got their guns, and endeavoured
to shoot some of the wild ducks. One gentleman, with a rifle, made
an extraordinary shot, bringing down a single duck flying, at a long
distance, with a bullet. Now it was daylight, I endeavoured to sketch
some of the curious fish, but they were so numerous, and the sun was
so hot, that I could do but little; and as they became putrid in a few
hours, I could not keep them for the purpose till we returned home.
About ten in the morning we left off fishing, and began cooking. We
had roasted, broiled, and stewed fish, and with oil and vinegar, and
plenty of pepper and salt, made a very excellent breakfast. We also had
wine, bread, and farinha, and coffee for those who preferred it. While
we were at breakfast, our Indians lay down on the sand, in the sun, to
take a nap, as they had been hard at work for two days without sleep.
In about an hour they were roused to breakfast, and then at noon we
started on our way home.
At five in the afternoon we reached a place at the mouth of the Rio
Negro, where there are some flat rocks, and generally abundance of
fish. Here most of the party began fishing again with rod and line, and
were pretty successful; and a fisherman coming in with a fine pirarucú,
weighing thirty or forty pounds, Senhor Henrique bought it of him, in
order to have something worth showing from our excursion.
We then proceeded homewards, many of us dozing; and our Indians rowing
hard, but hardly able to keep their eyes open. Now and then, one would
regularly drop off to sleep, but keep on paddling mechanically, without
pulling very hard. One of his companions would then tickle his nose,
and rouse him up, and his look of astonishment to find he had been
sleeping would set all in a roar of laughter at his expense. It was
midnight when we reached Barra, and we were all pretty glad to seek our
hammocks.
Several weeks more passed wearily, till at length we had news of the
long-expected canoe; one of the owners, having arrived beforehand in
a montaria, informing us that it would be up in two days more. There
was at this time in the city a trader from the upper Rio Negro, a
Portuguese, and generally considered a very good sort of fellow. He
was to start the next day, but on Senhor Henrique’s representation,
he agreed to stay till Senhor Neill Bradley’s canoe arrived, and then
give me a passage up to the Falls of the Rio Negro, or to any other
place I might wish to go to. The next afternoon the expected vessel
reached Barra; about six in the evening I got a long arrear of letters
from Pará, from England, from California, and Australia, some twenty in
number, and several dated more than a year back. I sat up till two in
the morning reading them, lay down, but slept little till five in the
morning; I then commenced answering the most important of them,—packing
up—buying forgotten necessaries for the voyage—making up a box for
England—giving instructions to my brother H., who was to stay in
Barra, and, in six months, return to England,—and by noon was ready to
start on a voyage of seven hundred miles, and, probably, for a year’s
absence. The Juiz de Direito, or Judge of the district, had kindly
sent me a turkey and a sucking-pig; the former of which I took alive,
and the latter roasted; so I had a stock of provisions to commence the
voyage.