_I.--First View_
Alfred Russel Wallace, eminent as traveller, author, and
naturalist, was born January 8, 1822, at Usk, in Wales.
Till 1845 he followed as an architect and land-surveyor
the profession for which he had been trained, but after
that time he engaged assiduously in natural history
researches. With Mr. Bates, the noted traveller and
explorer and writer, he spent four years in the romantic
regions of the Amazon basin, and next went to the Malay
Islands, where he remained for eight years, making
collections of geological specimens. It is one of the most
remarkable coincidences in human experience that Wallace
and Darwin simultaneously and without mutual understanding
of any kind achieved the discovery of the law of natural
selection and the evolution hypothesis by which biological
science has been completely revolutionized. This
absolutely independent accomplishment by two scientists
amazed them as well as the whole scientific world. The
voluminous works of this author, besides the record of his
Amazon expedition, include his "Malay Archipelago,"
"Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection,"
"Miracles and Spiritualism," "The Geographical
Distribution of Animals," "Tropical Nature,"
"Australasia," "Island Life," "Land Nationalisation,"
"Darwinism," and "Man's Place in the Universe."
It was on the morning of the 26th of May, 1848, that after a short
passage of twenty-nine days from Liverpool, we came to anchor opposite
the southern entrance to the River Amazon, and obtained a first view of
South America. In the afternoon the pilot came on board, and the next
morning we sailed with a fair wind up the river, which for fifty miles
could only be distinguished from the ocean by its calmness and
discoloured water, the northern shore being invisible, and the southern
at a distance of ten or twelve miles.
Early on the morning of the 28th we again anchored; and when the sun
arose in a cloudless sky, the city of Pará, surrounded by a dense
forest, and overtopped by palms and plantains, greeted our sight,
appearing doubly beautiful from the presence of those luxuriant tropical
productions in a state of nature, which we had so often admired in the
conservatories of Kew and Chatsworth.
The canoes passing with their motley crews of Negroes and Indians, the
vultures soaring overhead or walking lazily on the beach, and the crowds
of swallows on the churches and housetops, all served to occupy our
attention till the custom-house officers visited us, and we were allowed
to go on shore. Pará contains about 15,000 inhabitants and does not
occupy a great extent of ground; yet it is the largest city on the
greatest river in the world, the Amazon, and is the capital of a
province equal in extent to all western Europe. We proceeded to the
house of the consignee of our vessel, Mr. Miller, by whom we were most
kindly received and accommodated in his "rosinha," or suburban villa.
We hired an old Negro man named Isidora for a cook, and regularly
commenced housekeeping, learning Portuguese, and investigating the
natural productions of the country. Having arrived at Pará at the end of
the wet season, we did not at first see all the glories of the
vegetation. The beauty of the palm-trees can scarcely be too highly
drawn. In the forest a few miles out of the town trees of enormous
height, of various species, rise on every side. Climbing and parasitic
plants, with large shining leaves, run up the trunks, while others, with
fantastic stems, hang like ropes and cables from their summits.
Most striking of all are the passion-flowers, purple, scarlet, or pale
pink; the purple ones have an exquisite perfume, and they all produce an
agreeable fruit, the grenadilla of the West Indies. The immense number
of orange-trees about the city is an interesting feature, and renders
that delicious fruit always abundant and cheap. The mango is also
abundant, and on every roadside the coffee-tree is seen growing,
generally with flower or fruit, often with both.
Turning our attention to the world of animal life, the lizards first
attract notice, for they abound everywhere, running along walls and
palings, sunning themselves on logs of wood, or creeping up the eaves of
the lower houses. The ants cannot fail to be noticed. At meals they make
themselves at home on the tablecloth, in your plate, and in the
sugar-basin.
At first we employed ourselves principally in collecting insects, and in
about three weeks I and Mr. B. had captured upwards of 150 species of
butterflies. The species seemed inexhaustible, and the exquisite
colouring and variety of marking is wonderful.
_II.--The Wonderful Forest_
On the morning of June 23rd we started early to walk to the rice-mills
and wood-yard at Magoary, which we had been invited to visit by the
proprietor, Mr. Upton, and the manager, Mr. Leavens, both American
gentlemen. At about two miles from the city we entered the virgin
forest, where we saw giant trees covered to the summit with parasites
upon parasites. The herbage consisted for the most part of ferns. At the
wood-mills we saw the different kinds of timber used, both in logs and
boards.
What most interested us were large logs of the Masseranduba, or
milk-tree. On our way through the forest we had seen some trunks much
notched by persons who had been extracting the milk. It is one of the
noblest trees of the forest, rising with a straight stem to an enormous
height. The timber is very hard, durable, and valuable; the fruit is
very good and full of rich pulp; but strangest of all is the vegetable
milk which exudes in abundance when the bark is cut. It is like thick
cream, scarcely to be distinguished in flavour from the product of the
cow. Next morning some of it was given to us in our tea at breakfast by
Mr. Leavens. The milk is also used for making excellent glue.
During our stay at the mills for several days to me the greatest treat
was making my first acquaintance with the monkeys. One morning, when
walking alone in the forest, I heard a rustling of the leaves and
branches. Looking up, I saw a large monkey staring down at me, and
seeming as much astonished as I was myself. He speedily retreated. The
next day, being out with Mr. Leavens, near the same place, we heard a
similar sound, and it soon became evident that a whole troop of monkeys
was approaching.
We hid ourselves under some trees and with guns cocked awaited their
coming. Presently we caught sight of them skipping from tree to tree
with the greatest ease, and at last one approached too near for its
safety, for Mr. Leavens fired and it fell. Having often heard how good
monkey was, I took it home and had it cut up and fried for breakfast.
There was about as much of it as a fowl, and the meat something
resembled rabbit, without any peculiar or unpleasant flavour.
On August 3rd we received a fresh inmate into our veranda in the person
of a fine young boa constrictor. A man who had caught it in the forest
left it for our inspection. It was about ten feet long, and very large,
being as thick as a man's thigh. Here it lay writhing about for two or
three days, dragging its clog along with it, sometimes stretching its
mouth open with a most suspicious yawn, and twisting up the end of its
tail into a very tight curl. We purchased it of its captor for 4s. 6d.
and got him to put it into a cage which we constructed. It immediately
began to make up for lost time by breathing most violently, the
expirations sounding like high-pressure steam escaping from a Great
Western locomotive. This it continued for some hours and then settled
down into silence which it maintained unless when disturbed or
irritated. Though it was without food for more than a week, the birds we
gave it were refused, even when alive. Rats are said to be their
favourite food, but these we could not procure.
Another interesting little animal was a young sloth, which Antonio, an
Indian boy, brought alive from the forest. It could scarcely crawl along
the ground, but appeared quite at home on a chair, hanging on the back,
legs, or rail.
_III.--On the Pará Tributary_
On the afternoon of August 26th we left Pará for the Tocantins. Mr.
Leavens had undertaken to arrange all the details of the voyage. He had
hired one of the roughly made but convenient country canoes, having a
tolda, or palm-thatched roof, like a gipsy's tent, over the stern, which
formed our cabin. The canoe had two masts and fore and aft sails, and
was about 24 feet long and eight wide.
Besides our guns, ammunition and boxes for our collections, we had a
stock of provisions for three months. Our crew consisted of old Isidora,
as cook; Alexander, an Indian from the mills, who was named Captain;
Domingo, who had been up the river, and was therefore to be our pilot;
and Antonio, the boy before mentioned.
Soon after leaving the city night came on, and the tide running against
us, we had to anchor. We were up at five the next morning, and found
that we were in the Mojú, up which our way lay, and which enters the
Pará river from the south. We breakfasted on board, and about two in the
afternoon reached Jighery, a very pretty spot, with steep grassy banks,
cocoa and other palms, and oranges in profusion. Here we stayed for the
tide, and I and Mr. B. went in search of insects, which we found to be
rather abundant, and immediately took two species of butterflies we had
never seen at Pará.
Our men had caught a sloth in the morning, as it was swimming across the
river, which was about half a mile wide. It was different from the
species we had alive at Pará, having a patch of short yellow and black
fur on the back. The Indians stewed it for their dinner, and as they
consider the meat a great delicacy, I tasted it, and found it tender and
very palatable. In the evening the scene was lovely. The groups of
elegant palms, the large cotton-trees, relieved against the golden sky,
the Negro houses surrounded with orange and mango trees, the grassy
bank, the noble river, and the background of eternal forest, all
softened by the mellowed light of the magical half-hour after sunset
formed a picture indescribably beautiful.
Returning to Pará we remained there till November 3rd, when we left for
the island of Mexiana, situated in the main stream of the Amazon,
between the great island of Marajó, and the northern shore. We had to go
down the Pará river, and round the eastern point of Marajó, where we
were quite exposed to the ocean; and, though most of the time in fresh
water, I was very seasick all the voyage, which lasted four days.
The island of Mexiana is about 25 miles long by 12 broad, of a regular
oval shape, and is situated exactly on the equator. It is celebrated for
its birds, alligators, and oncas, and is used as a cattle estate by the
proprietor. The alligators abound in a lake in the centre of the island,
where they are killed in great numbers for their fat, which is made into
oil.
On inquiring about the best localities for insects, birds, and plants,
we were rather alarmed by being told that oncas were very numerous, even
near the house, and that it was dangerous to walk out alone or unarmed.
We soon found, however, that no one had been actually attacked by them;
though they, poor animals, are by no means unmolested, as numerous
handsome skins drying in the sun, and teeth and skulls lying about,
sufficiently proved.
Light-coloured, long-tailed cuckoos were continually flying about.
Equally abundant are the hornbill cuckoos, and on almost every tree may
be seen sitting a hawk or a buzzard. Pretty parroquets, with white and
orange bands on their wings, were very plentiful. Then among the bushes
there were flocks of the red-breasted oriole. The common black vulture
is generally to be seen sailing overhead, the great Muscovy ducks fly
past with a rushing sound, offering a striking contrast to the great
wood-ibis, which sails along with noiseless wings in flocks of ten or a
dozen.
_IV.--Continuing Upstream_
We now prepared for our voyage up the Amazon; and, from information we
obtained of the country, determined first to go as far as Santarem, a
town about 500 miles up the river, and the seat of considerable trade.
We sailed up a fine stream till we entered among islands, and soon got
into the narrow channel which forms the communication between the Pará
and Amazon rivers.
We proceeded for several days in those narrow channels, which form a
network of water, a labyrinth quite unknown, except to the inhabitants
of the district. It was about ten days after we left Pará that the
stream began to widen out and the tide to flow into the Amazon instead
of into the Pará river, giving us the longer ebb to make way with. In
about two days more we were in the Amazon itself, and it was with
emotions of admiration and awe that we gazed upon the stream of this
mighty and far-famed river. What a grand idea it was to think that we
now saw the accumulated waters of a course of 3,000 miles. Venezuela,
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, six mighty states,
spreading over a country far larger than Europe, had each contributed to
form the flood which bore us so peacefully on its bosom.
The most striking features of the Amazon are its vast expanse of smooth
water, generally from three to six miles wide; its pale, yellowish-olive
colour; the great beds of aquatic grass which line its shores, large
masses of which are often detached and form floating islands; the
quantity of fruits and leaves and great trunks of trees which it carries
down, and its level banks clad with lofty unbroken forest.
There is much animation, too, on this giant stream. Numerous flocks of
parrots, and the great red and yellow macaws, fly across every morning
and evening, uttering their hoarse cries. Many kinds of herons and rails
frequent the marshes on its banks; but perhaps the most characteristic
birds of the Amazon are the gulls and terns, which are in great
abundance. Besides these there are divers and darters in immense
numbers. Porpoises are constantly blowing in every direction, and
alligators are often seen slowly swimming across the river.
At length, after a prolonged voyage of 28 days, we reached Santarem, at
the mouth of the river Tapajoz, whose blue, transparent waters formed a
most pleasing contrast to the turbid stream of the Amazon. We stayed at
Santarem during September, October, and November, working hard till
three in the afternoon each day, generally collecting some new and
interesting insects in the forest. Here was the haunt of the beautiful
"Callithea sapphirs," one of the most lovely of butterflies, and of
numerous brilliant little "Erycinidæ."
The constant exercise, pure air, and good living, notwithstanding the
intense heat, kept us in the most perfect health, and I have never
altogether enjoyed myself so much.
_V.--The City of Barra_
On December 31, 1849, we arrived at the city of Barra on the Rio Negro.
It is situated on the east bank of that tributary, about twelve miles
above its junction with the Amazon. The trade is chiefly in Brazil
nuts, sarsaparilla, and fish. The distance up the Amazon from Pará to
Barra is about 1,000 miles. The voyage often occupies from two to three
months. The more civilized inhabitants of the city 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.
The Rio Negro well deserves its name--"inky black." For its waters,
where deep, are of dense blackness. There are striking differences
between this river and the Amazon. Here are 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. At Barra the Rio Negro is a mile and a half wide. A few
miles up it widens considerably, in many places forming deep bays eight
or ten miles across.
In this region are found the umbrella birds. One evening a specimen was
brought me by a hunter. This singular bird is about the size of a raven.
On its head it bears a crest, different from that of any other bird. It
can be laid back so as to be hardly visible, or can be erected and
spread out on every side, forming a hemispherical dome, completely
covering the head. In a month I obtained 25 specimens of the umbrella
bird.
The river Uaupés is a tributary of the Upper Rio Negro, and a voyage up
this stream brought us into singular regions. Our canoe was worked by
Indians. In one of the Indian villages we witnessed a grand snake dance.
The dancers were entirely unclad, but were painted in all kinds of
curious designs, and the male performers wear on the top of the head a
fine broad plume of the tail-coverts of the white egret. The Indians
keep these noble birds in great open houses or cages; but as the birds
are rare, and the young with difficulty secured, the ornament is one
that few possess. Cords of monkeys' hair, decorated with small feathers,
hang down the back, and in the ears are the little downy plumes, forming
altogether a most imposing and elegant headdress.
The paint with which both men and women decorate their bodies has a very
neat effect, and gives them almost the aspect of being dressed, and as
such they seem to regard it. The dancers had made two huge artificial
snakes of twigs and branches bound together, from thirty to forty feet
long and a foot in diameter, painted a bright red colour. This made
altogether a very formidable looking animal. They divided themselves
into two parties of about a dozen each and, lifting the snake on their
shoulders, began dancing.
In the dance they imitated the undulations of the serpent, raising the
head and twisting the tail. In the manoeuvres which followed, the two
great snakes seemed to fight, till the dance, which had greatly pleased
all the spectators, was concluded.
_VI.--Devil-Music_
In another village I first saw and heard the "Juripari", or devil-music
of the Indians. One evening there was a drinking-feast; and a little
before dusk a sound as of trombones and bassoons was heard coming on the
river towards the village, and presently appeared eight Indians, each
playing on a great bassoon-looking instrument, made of bark spirally
twisted, and with a mouthpiece of leaves. The sound produced is wild and
pleasing.
The players waved their instruments about in a singular manner,
accompanied by corresponding contortions of the body. From the moment
the music was first heard, not a female, old or young, was to be seen;
for it is one of the strangest superstitions of the Uaupés Indians, that
they consider it so dangerous for a woman ever to see one of these
instruments, that, having done so, she is punished with death, generally
by poison.
Even should the view be perfectly accidental, or should there be only a
suspicion that the proscribed articles have been seen, no mercy is
shown; and it is said that fathers have been the executioners of their
own daughters, and husbands of their wives, when such has been the case.
_VII.--The World's Greatest River Basin_
The basin of the Amazon surpasses in dimensions that of any other river
in the world. It is entirely situated in the tropics, on both sides of
the equator, and receives over its whole extent the most abundant rains.
The body of fresh water emptied by it into the ocean is, therefore, far
greater than that of any other river. For richness of vegetable
productions and universal fertility of soil it is unequalled on the
globe.
The whole area of this wonderful region is 2,330,000 square miles. This
is more than a third of all South America, and equal to two-thirds of
all Europe. All western Europe could be placed within its basin, without
touching its boundaries, and it would even contain our whole Indian
empire.
Perhaps no country in the world contains such an amount of vegetable
matter on its surface as the valley of the Amazon. Its entire extent,
with the exception of some very small portions, is covered with one
dense and lofty primeval forest, the most extensive and unbroken which
exists on the earth. It is the great feature of the country--that which
at once stamps it as a unique and peculiar region. Here we may travel
for weeks and months in any direction, and scarcely find an acre of
ground unoccupied by trees. The forests of the Amazon are distinguished
from those of most other countries by the great variety of species of
trees composing them. Instead of extensive tracts covered with pines, or
oaks, or beeches, we scarcely ever see two individuals of the same
species together.
The Brazil nuts are brought chiefly from the interior; the greater part
from the country around the junction of the Rio Negro and Madeira with
the Amazon. The tree takes more than a year to produce and ripen its
fruits, which, as large and as heavy as cannon balls, fall with
tremendous force from the height of a hundred feet, crashing through the
branches and undergrowth, and snapping off large boughs. Persons are
sometimes killed by them.
_VIII.--Splendid Native Races_
Comparing the accounts given by other travellers with my own
observations, the Indians of the Amazon valley appear to be much
superior, both physically and intellectually, to those of South Brazil
and of most other parts of South America. They more closely resemble the
intelligent and noble races inhabiting the western prairies of North
America.
I do not remember a single circumstance in my travels so striking and so
new, or that so well fulfilled all previous expectations, as my first
view of the real uncivilised inhabitants of the Uaupés. I felt that I
was in the midst of something new and startling, as if I had been
instantaneously transported to a distant and unknown country.
The Indians of the Amazon and its tributaries are of a countless variety
of tribes and nations; all of whom have peculiar languages and customs,
and many of them some distinct characteristics. In many individuals of
both sexes the most perfect regularity of features exists, and there are
numbers who in colour alone differ from a good-looking European.
Their figures are generally superb; and I have never felt so much
pleasure in gazing at the finest statue, as at these living
illustrations of the beauty of the human form. The development of the
chest is such as I believe never exists in the best-formed European,
exhibiting a splendid series of convex undulations, without a hollow in
any part of it.
Among the tribes of the Uaupés the men have the hair carefully parted
and combed on each side, and tied in a queue behind. In the young men,
it hangs in long locks down their necks, and, with the comb, which is
invariably carried stuck in the top of the head, gives to them a most
feminine appearance. This is increased by the large necklaces and
bracelets of beads, and the careful extirpation of every symptom of
beard.
Taking these circumstances into consideration, I am strongly of opinion
that the story of the Amazons has arisen from these feminine-looking
warriors encountered by the early voyagers. I am inclined to this
opinion, from the effect they first produced on myself, when it was only
by close examination I saw that they were men.
I cannot make out that these Indians of the Amazon have any belief that
can be called a religion. They appear to have no definite idea of a God.
If asked who made the rivers and the forests and the sky, they will
reply that they do not know, or sometimes that they suppose it was
"Tupanau," a word that appears to answer to God, but of which they
understand nothing. They have much more definite ideas of a bad spirit,
"Jurupari," or Devil, whom they fear, and endeavour through their
"pagés," or sorcerers, to propitiate.
When it thunders, they say that the "Jurupari" is angry, and their idea
of natural death is that the "Jurupari" kills them. At an eclipse they
believe that this bad spirit is killing the moon, and they make all the
noise they can to drive him away. One of the singular facts connected
with these Indians of the Amazon valley is the resemblance between some
of their customs and those of the nations most remote from them. The
gravatana, or blowpipe, reappears in the sumpitan of Borneo; the great
houses of the Uaupés closely resemble those of the Dyaks of the same
country; while many small baskets and bamboo-boxes from Borneo and New
Guinea are so similar in their form and construction to those of the
Amazon, that they would be supposed to belong to adjoining tribes.
The main feature in the personal character of the Indians of this part
of South America is a degree of diffidence, bashfulness, or coldness,
which affects all their actions. It is this that produces their quiet
deliberation, their circuitous way of introducing a subject they have
come to speak about, talking half an hour on different topics before
mentioning it. Owing to this feeling, they will run away if displeased
rather than complain, and will never refuse to undertake what is asked
them, even when they are unable or do not intend to perform it. They
scarcely ever quarrel among themselves, work hard, and submit willingly
to authority. They are ingenious and skilful workmen and readily adopt
any customs of civilised life introduced among them.