Bay of Marajo—Lighthouses—Rule of the road for
steamers—Vegetation on the Amazon—Rubber trees—Boa
Vista—Corralinha—Breves—Parainha—Gurupá—Mont
Alegre—Cattle-feeding grounds—River Tapajoz—Santarem—American
settlers—Obidos—Manufacture of charqui—Villa
Bella—Serpa—Navigation of the Amazon.
The start up river is generally made from Pará soon after midnight, in
order that the wide estuary termed the Bay of Marajo may be passed before
noon of the following day, as the trade wind that sets in towards the
afternoon raises too high a sea for the steamers built with overhanging
main decks.
In the immediate neighbourhood of Pará there are some sugar plantations
and brick and tile factories, which have a pretty appearance on the river
banks, but as soon as the steamer passes the bay and gets into the narrow
channels which are at the junction of the river Pará and the main stream
of the Amazon, the scenery becomes flat and monotonous. There are several
well-kept lighthouses on the banks of the bay and on the islands therein,
but more will be required as the navigation increases. Some of the
channels through which the steamers work their way are so narrow, that
there is hardly room for two steamers to pass each other in them; some
are therefore used for the ascending journey only, while others serve
for the downward passage; and so well is this “rule of the road” kept
by the Brazilian pilots and captains, that collisions are of very rare
occurrence. On the main river the rule is that ascending steamers should
keep to either bank, by preference the right, whilst descending steamers
have the centre of the river and the full force of the current let free
for them.
The islands and the mainland in the lower part of the Amazon are covered
with a dense vegetation, almost impassable by any living being but the
tapir, or “anta” as it is there called, the lianas and water plants being
closely intertwined and growing amongst the lofty trees of the forest. In
these low-lying lands a considerable population of Brazilian, Portuguese,
negroes and half-castes live, their occupation being entirely confined to
the collecting of the rubber for which the city of Pará is famous. This
tree (_Siphonia elastica_) grows in groups, small paths called “estradas”
being cut through the localities where it most abounds. The lands being
mostly subject to flooding at high water, all the houses are built upon
piles; and as no cultivation can be carried on, the dwellers therein are
entirely dependent on the steamers for their supplies of provisions.
Nearly every house has a small wharf projecting out into the river,
to which the steamers can haul up and receive the firewood prepared
for them, or take in the rubber, on their return journeys to Pará. In
consequence of the daily flooding of these lands, it is not strange
that the people have a washed-out and sallow look, and appear to suffer
greatly from fever and ague.
Leaving Pará behind us, the first places passed on the upward journey
are Boa Vista and Corralinha, the latter a little town that, from the
steamer, looks very pretty with its white church and houses. On the
second day, Breves, a small town on a very narrow channel of the Amazon,
is arrived at. It is a small, unimportant, and very unhealthy place,
being built on land that cannot be a couple of feet above high water.
Then Parainha and Gurupá, small villages, are passed, and Mont Alegre is
reached on the third day. Here there are large pampas, on which cattle
are reared in great numbers.
These “fazendas de ganado,” or cattle-runs, are very valuable properties,
especially those that have hilly lands on them, where the cattle can
take refuge during the periodical inundations. The fourth day brings
the steamer to Santarem, on the Tapajoz River, a short distance from
its junction with the Amazon. The Tapajoz is a fine river of clear
darkish-coloured water, very different in appearance to the whitish water
of the great river, which always contains a certain amount of sediment.
Santarem is a very pretty town of about 3000 or 4000 inhabitants, and is
built upon rising ground on the right bank, its fine church showing to
great advantage. The climate of this place appears to be delightful and
the lands of very good quality. On a range of hills a few leagues from
the town, some American settlers have established themselves, and seem
to be well satisfied with their location. They grow sugar-cane largely,
selling their sugar and rum to great advantage in Santarem.
Obidos, about a day’s steaming from Santarem, is the next town on the
Amazon, and has more inhabitants than any of the places yet passed.
Here there is a small fort, and a few artillerymen keep up a show of
barring the passage of the river to any possibly hostile craft. Large
stores of firewood are kept on the river-side for the steamers, most of
which call here to embark bullocks or their necessary supply of fuel.
In Obidos a great trade in “charqui,” or jerked beef, is carried on,
it being the emporium to which the owners of the estancias send their
stocks. Obidos charqui appears to enjoy a special fame throughout Brazil,
and is preferred to that made in the southern provinces of the empire.
To acquire a taste for it takes considerable time, although, “faute de
mieux,” I have managed to make many a good hearty meal from it. It is
curious to note the clever manner in which the fresh meat is cut out into
great sheets, called “mantas,” or blankets. These sheets of meat are
rubbed with salt, and after being dried in the sun and wind, are rolled
up into bundles, which are tied up with lianas and are then ready for
sale. The price of a Brazilian arroba of charqui, weighing thirty-three
pounds, varies from six to ten milreis, say from fourpence to sevenpence
per pound. Obidos is about the highest place on the Amazon at which the
daily influence of the tides is felt, the river rising and falling about
two feet at this place; against a tide of about twenty feet at Pará.
Above Obidos, high lands on the right bank of the Amazon mark where the
provinces of Pará and Amazonas meet: these hills are known as the Serra
dos Parentins. The small town of Villa Bella on the right or southern
bank of the river being passed, Serpa, opposite the river Madeira, is
reached on the sixth day’s navigation from Pará. Here, in view of
the opening up of trade with Bolivia _viâ_ the Madeira River and the
Railway of the Rapids, the Brazilian Government has lately established a
custom-house; and the town, though but small now, will doubtless become
of importance in the course of a few years. Unless the steamer in which
one is voyaging is on a special trip up the Madeira, a visit will have
to be paid to Manáos, the capital of the province of Amazonas, for it
is there that the larger steamers remain, and passengers for the upper
waters of the Amazon, the Purus, or the Madeira, have to take the smaller
but still comfortable steamers that ascend these rivers.
The navigation of the river Amazon is free all the year round, between
Pará and Manáos, for vessels of any tonnage or draught, if we except
the alleged existence, in September or October of very dry years, of a
sandbank near Villa Bella, on which it is said that vessels drawing more
than eight feet have grounded; but if they have, it has, in my belief,
been owing to faulty pilotage, for I think there must be good water
always throughout the whole of the course.