It was quite pleasant, after coming from the Peruvian villages, which

are all nearly hidden in the woods, to see that Tabatinga had the forest

cleared away from about it; so that a space of forty or fifty acres was

covered with green grass, and had a grove of orange-trees in its midst.

The commandant told him that the trade of the river was increasing very

fast; that, in 1849, scarce one thousand dollars' worth of goods passed

up; in 1850, two thousand five hundred dollars; and this year, six

thousand dollars.

The sarsaparilla seems thus far to have been the principal article of

commerce; but here they find another becoming of importance,--_manteca_,

or oil made of turtle-eggs. The season for making manteca generally

ends by the 1st of November. A commandant is appointed every year to

take care of the beaches, prevent disorder, and administer justice.

Sentinels are placed at the beginning of August, when the turtles

commence depositing their eggs. They see that no one wantonly interferes

with the turtles, or destroys the eggs. The process of making the oil is

very disgusting. The eggs are collected, thrown into a canoe, and

trodden into a mass with the feet. Water is poured on, and the mass is

left to stand in the sun for several days. The oil rises to the top, is

skimmed off, and boiled in large copper boilers. It is then put in

earthen pots of about forty-five pounds' weight. Each pot is worth, on

the beach, one dollar and thirty cents; and at Para, from two and a half

to three dollars. The beaches of the Amazon and its tributaries yield

from five to six thousand pots annually. It is used for the same

purposes as lard with us.

CHAPTER XIV.

HERNDON'S EXPEDITION CONCLUDED.

On Jan. 4, at about the point of the junction of the Purus River with

the Amazon, Lieut. Herndon remarks, "The banks of the river are now

losing the character of savage and desolate solitude that characterizes

them above, and begin to show signs of habitation and cultivation. We

passed to-day several farms, with neatly framed and plastered houses,

and a schooner-rigged vessel lying off several of them."

They arrived at the junction of the River Negro. This is one of the

largest of the tributaries of the Amazon, and derives its name from the

blackness of its waters. When taken up in a tumbler, the water is a

light-red color, like a pale juniper-water, and is probably colored by

some such berry. This river, opposite the town of Barra, is about a mile

and a half wide, and very beautiful. It is navigable for almost any

draughts to the Masaya, a distance of about four hundred miles: there

the rapids commence, and the farther ascent must be made in boats. By

this river, a communication exists with the Orinoco, by means of a

remarkable stream, the Cassaquiare, which seems to have been formed for

the sole purpose of connecting these two majestic rivers, and the future

dwellers upon them, in the bonds of perpetual union. Humboldt, the great

traveller and philosopher, thus speaks of it, "The Cassaquiare, as broad

as the Rhine, and whose course is one hundred and eighty miles in

length, will not much longer form in vain a navigable canal between two

basins of rivers which have a surface of one hundred and ninety thousand

square leagues. The grain of New Grenada will be carried to the banks of

the Rio Negro; boats will descend from the sources of the Napo and the

Ucayali, from the Andes of Quito and Upper Peru, to the mouths of the

Orinoco. A country nine or ten times larger than Spain, and enriched

with the most varied productions, is accessible in every direction by

the medium of the natural canal of the Cassaquiare and the bifurcation

of the rivers."

The greatest of all the tributaries of the Amazon is the Madeira, whose

junction our travellers next reached. For four hundred and fifty miles

from its mouth, there is good navigation: then occur cascades, which are

navigable only for boats, and occupy three hundred and fifty miles,

above which the river is navigable for large vessels, by its great

tributaries, into Bolivia and Brazil.

They next entered the country where the cocoa is regularly cultivated;

and the banks of the river present a much less desolate and savage

appearance than they do above. The cocoa-trees have a yellow-colored

leaf; and this, together with their regularity of size, distinguishes

them from the surrounding forest. Lieut. Herndon says, "I do not know a

prettier place than one of these plantations. The trees interlock their

branches, and, with their large leaves, make a shade impenetrable to any

ray of the sun; and the large, golden-colored fruits, hanging from

branch and trunk, shine through the green with a most beautiful effect.

This is the time of the harvest; and we found the people of every

plantation engaged in the open space before the house in breaking open

the shells of the fruit, and spreading the seed to dry in the sun. They

make a pleasant drink for a hot day by pressing out the juice of the

gelatinous pulp that envelops the seeds. It is called cocoa-wine: it is

a white, viscid liquor, has an agreeable, acid taste, and is very

refreshing."

We must hasten on, and pass without notice many spots of interest on the

river; but, as we have now reached a comparatively civilized and known

region, it is less necessary to be particular. The Tapajos River

stretches its branches to the town of Diamantino, situated at the foot

of the mountains, where diamonds are found. Lieut. Herndon saw some of

the diamonds and gold-sand in the possession of a resident of Santarem,

who had traded much on the river. The gold-dust appeared to him equal in

quality to that he had seen from California. Gold and diamonds, which

are always united in this region as in many others, are found especially

in the numerous water-courses, and also throughout the whole country.

After the rains, the children of Diamantino hunt for the gold contained

in the earth even of the streets, and in the bed of the River Ouro,

which passes through the city; and they often collect considerable

quantities. It is stated that diamonds are sometimes found in the

stomachs of the fowls. The quantity of diamonds found in a year varies

from two hundred and fifty to five hundred _oitavas_; the oitava being

about seventeen carats. The value depends upon the quality and size of

the specimen, and can hardly be reduced to an estimate. It is seldom

that a stone of over half an oitava is found; and such a one is worth

from two to three hundred dollars.

As an offset to the gold and diamonds, we have this picture of the

climate: "From the rising to the setting of the sun, clouds of stinging

insects blind the traveller, and render him frantic by the torments they

cause. Take a handful of the finest sand, and throw it above your head,

and you would then have but a faint idea of the number of these demons

who tear the skin to pieces. It is true, these insects disappear at

night, but only to give place to others yet more formidable. Large bats

(true, thirsty vampires) literally throng the forests, cling to the

hammocks, and, finding a part of the body exposed, rest lightly there,

and drain it of blood. The alligators are so numerous, and the noise

they make so frightful, that it is impossible to sleep."

At Santarem they were told the tide was perceptible, but did not

perceive it. At Gurupa it was very apparent. This point is about five

hundred miles from the sea. About thirty-five miles below Gurupa

commences the great estuary of the Amazon. The river suddenly flows out

into an immense bay, which might appropriately be called the "bay of a

thousand islands;" for it is cut up into innumerable channels. The

travellers ran for days through channels varying from fifty to five

hundred yards in width, between numberless islands. This is the

India-rubber country. The shores are low: indeed, one seldom sees the

land at all; the trees on the banks generally standing in the water. The

party stopped at one of the establishments for making India-rubber. The

house was built of light poles, and on piles, to keep it out of the

water, which flowed under and around it. This was the store, and, rude

as it was, was a palace compared to the hut of the laborer who gathers

the India-rubber. The process is as follows: A longitudinal gash is made

in the bark of the tree with a hatchet. A wedge of wood is inserted to

keep the gash open; and a small clay cup is stuck to the tree, beneath

the gash. The cups may be stuck as close together as possible around the

tree. In four or five hours, the milk has ceased to run, and each wound

has given from three to five table-spoonfuls. The gatherer then collects

it from the cups, pours it into an earthen vessel, and commences the

operation of forming it into shapes, and smoking it. This must be done

at once, as the juice soon coagulates. A fire is made on the ground,

and a rude funnel placed over it to collect the smoke. The maker of the

rubber now takes his last, if he is making shoes, or his mould, which is

fastened to the end of a stick, pours the milk over it with a cup, and

passes it slowly several times through the smoke until it is dry. He

then pours on the other coats until he has the required thickness,

smoking each coating till it is dry. From twenty to forty coats make a

shoe. The soles and heels are, of course, given more coats than the body

of the shoe. The figures on the shoes are made by tracing them on the

rubber, while soft, with a coarse needle, or bit of wire. This is done

two days after the coating. In a week, the shoes are taken from the

last. The coating occupies about twenty-five minutes.

The tree is tall, straight, and has a smooth bark. It sometimes reaches

a diameter of thirteen inches or more. Each incision makes a rough wound

on the tree, which, although it does not kill it, renders it useless,

because a smooth place is wanted to which to attach the cups. The milk

is white and tasteless, and may be taken into the stomach with impunity.

Our travellers arrived at Para on the 12th of April, 1852, and were most

hospitably and kindly received by Mr. Norris, the American consul.

The journey of our travellers ends here. Lieut. Herndon's book is full

of instruction, conveyed in a pleasant style. He seems to have

manifested throughout good judgment, good temper, energy, and industry.

He had no collisions with the authorities or with individuals, and, on

his part, seems to have met friendly feelings and good offices

throughout his whole route.

William Lewis Herndon was born in Fredericksburg, Va., on the

25th of October, 1813. He entered the navy at the age of

fifteen; served in the Mexican war; and was afterwards engaged

for three years, with his brother-in-law, Lieut. Maury, in the

National Observatory at Washington. In 1851-2, he explored the

Amazon River, under commission of the United-States Government.

In 1857, he was commander of the steamer "Central America,"

which left Havana for New York on Sept. 8, having on board four

hundred and seventy-four passengers and a crew of one hundred

and five men, and about two million dollars of gold. On Sept.

11, during a violent gale from the north-east and a heavy sea,

she sprung a leak, and sunk, on the evening of Sept. 12, near

the outer edge of the Gulf Stream, in lat. 31 deg. 44' N. Only one

hundred and fifty of the persons on board were saved, including

the women and children. The gallant commander of the steamer

was seen standing upon the wheel-house at the time of her

sinking.

In a former chapter, we have told the fate of Sir Humphrey

Gilbert. How fair a counterpart of that heroic death is this of

the gallant Herndon!

CHAPTER XV.

LATEST EXPLORATIONS.

In the year 1845, an English gentleman, Henry Walter Bates, visited the

region of the Amazon for the purpose of scientific exploration. He went

prepared to spend years in the country, in order to study diligently its

natural productions. His stay was protracted until 1859, during which

time he resided successively at Para, Santarem, Ega, Barra, and other

places; making his abode for months, or even years, in each. His account

of his observations and discoveries was published after his return, and

affords us the best information we possess respecting the country, its

inhabitants, and its productions, brought down almost to the present

time. Our extracts relate to the cities, the river and its shores, the

inhabitants civilized and savage, the great tributary rivers, the

vegetation, and the animals of various kinds.

Before proceeding with our extracts, we will remark the various names of

the river.

It is sometimes called, from the name of its discoverer, "Orellana."

This name is appropriate and well-sounding, but is not in general use.

The name of "Maranon," pronounced Maranyon, is still often used. It is

probably derived from the natives.

It is called "The River of the Amazons," from the fable of its former

inhabitants.

This name is shortened into "The Amazons," and, without the plural sign,

"The Amazon," in common use.

Above the junction of the River Negro, the river is designated as "The

Upper Amazon," or "Solimoens."

PARA.

"On the morning of the 28th of May, 1848, we arrived at our destination.

The appearance of the city at sunrise was pleasing in the highest

degree. It is built on a low tract of land, having only one small rocky

elevation at its southern extremity: it therefore affords no

amphitheatral view from the river; but the white buildings roofed with

red tiles, the numerous towers and cupolas of churches and convents,

the crowns of palm-trees reared above the buildings, all sharply defined

against the clear blue sky, give an appearance of lightness and

cheerfulness which is most exhilarating. The perpetual forest hems the

city in on all sides landwards; and, towards the suburbs, picturesque

country-houses are seen scattered about, half buried in luxuriant

foliage.

"The impressions received during our first walk can never wholly fade

from my mind. After traversing the few streets of tall, gloomy,

convent-looking buildings near the port, inhabited chiefly by merchants

and shopkeepers; along which idle soldiers, dressed in shabby uniforms,

carrying their muskets carelessly over their arms; priests; negresses

with red water-jars on their heads; sad-looking Indian women, carrying

their naked children astride on their hips; and other samples of the

motley life of the place,--were seen; we passed down a long, narrow

street leading to the suburbs. Beyond this, our road lay across a grassy

common, into a picturesque lane leading to the virgin forest. The long

street was inhabited by the poorer class of the population. The houses

were mostly in a dilapidated condition; and signs of indolence and

neglect were everywhere visible. But amidst all, and compensating every

defect, rose the overpowering beauty of the vegetation. The massive

dark crowns of shady mangoes were seen everywhere among the dwellings,

amidst fragrant, blossoming orange, lemon, and other tropical

fruit-trees,--some in flower, others in fruit at various stages of

ripeness. Here and there, shooting above the more dome-like and sombre

trees, were the smooth columnar stems of palms, bearing aloft their

magnificent crowns of finely-cut fronds. On the boughs of the taller and

more ordinary-looking trees sat tufts of curiously leaved parasites.

Slender woody lianas hung in festoons from the branches, or were

suspended in the form of cords and ribbons; while luxuriant creeping

plants overran alike tree-trunks, roofs, and walls, or toppled over

palings in copious profusion of foliage.

"As we continued our walk, the brief twilight commenced; and the sounds

of multifarious life came from the vegetation around,--the whirring of

cicadas; the shrill stridulation of a vast number of crickets and

grasshoppers, each species sounding its peculiar note; the plaintive

hooting of tree-frogs, all blended together in one continuous ringing

sound,--the audible expression of the teeming profusion of Nature. This

uproar of life, I afterwards found, never wholly ceased, night or day:

in course of time, I became, like other residents, accustomed to it.

After my return to England, the death-like stillness of summer days in

the country appeared to me as strange as the ringing uproar did on my

first arrival at Para."

CAMETA.

"I staid at Cameta five weeks, and made a considerable collection of the

natural productions of the neighborhood. The town, in 1849, was

estimated to contain about five thousand inhabitants. The productions of

the district are cacao, India-rubber, and Brazil nuts. The most

remarkable feature in the social aspect of the place is the mixed nature

of the population,--the amalgamation of the white and Indian races being

here complete. The aborigines were originally very numerous on the

western bank of the Tocantins; the principal tribe being the Cametas,

from which the city takes its name. They were a superior nation,

settled, and attached to agriculture, and received with open arms the

white immigrants who were attracted to the district by its fertility,

natural beauty, and the healthfulness of the climate. The Portuguese

settlers were nearly all males. The Indian women were good-looking, and

made excellent wives; so the natural result has been, in the course of

two centuries, a complete blending of the two races.

"The town consists of three long streets running parallel to the river,

with a few shorter ones crossing them at right angles. The houses are

very plain; being built, as usual in this country, simply of a strong

framework, filled up with mud, and coated with white plaster. A few of

them are of two or three stories. There are three churches, and also a

small theatre, where a company of native actors, at the time of my

visit, were representing light Portuguese plays with considerable taste

and ability. The people have a reputation all over the province for

energy and perseverance; and it is often said that they are as keen in

trade as the Portuguese. The lower classes are as indolent and sensual

here as in other parts of the province,--a moral condition not to be

wondered at, where perpetual summer reigns, and where the necessaries of

life are so easily obtained. But they are light-hearted, quick-witted,

communicative, and hospitable. I found here a native poet, who had

written some pretty verses, showing an appreciation of the natural

beauties of the country; and was told that the Archbishop of Bahia, the

primate of Brazil, was a native of Cameta. It is interesting to find

the mamelucos (half-breeds) displaying talent and enterprise; for it

shows that degeneracy does not necessarily result from the mixture of

white and Indian blood.

"The forest behind Cameta is traversed by several broad roads, which

lead over undulating ground many miles into the interior. They pass

generally under shade, and part of the way through groves of coffee and

orange trees, fragrant plantations of cacao, and tracts of second-growth

woods. The narrow, broad-watered valleys, with which the land is

intersected, alone have remained clothed with primeval forest, at least

near the town. The houses along these beautiful roads belong chiefly to

mameluco, mulatto, and Indian families, each of which has its own small

plantation. There are only a few planters with large establishments; and

these have seldom more than a dozen slaves. Besides the main roads,

there are endless by-paths, which thread the forest, and communicate

with isolated houses. Along these the traveller may wander day after

day, without leaving the shade, and everywhere meet with cheerful,

simple, and hospitable people."

RIVERS AND CREEKS.

"We made many excursions down the Irritiri, and saw much of these

creeks. The Magoary is a magnificent channel: the different branches

form quite a labyrinth, and the land is everywhere of little elevation.

All these smaller rivers throughout the Para estuary are of the nature

of creeks. The land is so level, that the short local rivers have no

sources and downward currents, like rivers, as we understand them. They

serve the purpose of draining the land; but, instead of having a

constant current one way, they have a regular ebb and flow with the

tide. The natives call them _igarapes_, or canoe-paths. They are

characteristic of the country. The land is everywhere covered with

impenetrable forests: the houses and villages are all on the water-side,

and nearly all communication is by water. This semi-aquatic life of the

people is one of the most interesting features of the country. For short

excursions, and for fishing in still waters, a small boat, called

_montaria_, is universally used. It is made of five planks,--a broad one

for the bottom, bent into the proper shape by the action of heat, two

narrow ones for the sides, and two triangular pieces for stem and stern.

It has no rudder: the paddle serves for both steering and propelling.

The montaria takes here the place of the horse, mule, or camel of other

regions. Besides one or more montarias, almost every family has a larger

canoe, called _igarite_. This is fitted with two masts, a rudder, and

keel, and has an arched awning or cabin near the stern, made of a

framework of tough _lianas_, thatched with palm-leaves. In the igarite,

they will cross stormy rivers fifteen or twenty miles broad. The natives

are all boat-builders. It is often remarked by white residents, that the

Indian is a carpenter and shipwright by intuition. It is astonishing to

see in what crazy vessels these people will risk themselves. I have seen

Indians cross rivers in a leaky montaria when it required the nicest

equilibrium to keep the leak just above water: a movement of a

hair's-breadth would send all to the bottom; but they manage to cross in

safety. If a squall overtakes them as they are crossing in a

heavily-laden canoe, they all jump overboard, and swim about until the

heavy sea subsides, when they re-embark."

JUNCTION OF THE MADEIRA.

"Our course lay through narrow channels between islands. We passed the

last of these, and then beheld to the south a sea-like expanse of

water, where the Madeira, the greatest tributary of the Amazons, after

two thousand miles of course, blends its waters with those of the king

of rivers. I was hardly prepared for a junction of waters on so vast a

scale as this, now nearly nine hundred miles from the sea. While

travelling week after week along the somewhat monotonous stream, often

hemmed in between islands, and becoming thoroughly familiar with it, my

sense of the magnitude of this vast water-system had become gradually

deadened; but this noble sight renewed the first feelings of wonder. One

is inclined, in such places as these, to think the Paraenses do not

exaggerate much when they call the Amazons the Mediterranean of South

America. Beyond the mouth of the Madeira, the Amazons sweeps down in a

majestic reach, to all appearance not a whit less in breadth before than

after this enormous addition to its waters. The Madeira does not ebb and

flow simultaneously with the Amazons; it rises and sinks about two

months earlier: so that it was now fuller than the main river. Its

current, therefore, poured forth freely from its mouth, carrying with it

a long line of floating trees, and patches of grass, which had been torn

from its crumbly banks in the lower part of its course. The current,

however, did not reach the middle of the main stream, but swept along

nearer to the southern shore.

"The Madeira is navigable 480 miles from its mouth: a series of

cataracts and rapids then commences, which extends, with some intervals

of quiet water, about 160 miles, beyond which is another long stretch of

navigable stream."

JUNCTION OF THE RIO NEGRO.

"A brisk wind from the east sprung up early in the morning of the 22d:

we then hoisted all sail, and made for the mouth of the Rio Negro. This

noble stream, at its junction with the Amazons, seems, from its

position, to be a direct continuation of the main river; while the

Solimoens, which joins it at an angle, and is somewhat narrower than its

tributary, appears to be a branch, instead of the main trunk, of the

vast water-system.

"The Rio Negro broadens considerably from its mouth upward, and presents

the appearance of a great lake; its black-dyed waters having no current,

and seeming to be dammed up by the impetuous flow of the yellow, turbid

Solimoens, which here belches forth a continuous line of uprooted trees,

and patches of grass, and forms a striking contrast with its tributary.

In crossing, we passed the line a little more than half-way over, where

the waters of the two rivers meet, and are sharply demarcated from each

other. On reaching the opposite shore, we found a remarkable change. All

our insect pests had disappeared, as if by magic, even from the hold of

the canoe: the turmoil of an agitated, swiftly-flowing river, and its

torn, perpendicular, earthy banks, had given place to tranquil water,

and a coast indented with snug little bays, fringed with sloping, sandy

beaches. The low shore, and vivid, light-green, endlessly varied

foliage, which prevailed on the south side of the Amazons, were

exchanged for a hilly country, clothed with a sombre, rounded, and

monotonous forest. A light wind carried us gently along the coast to the

city of Barra, which lies about seven or eight miles within the mouth of

the river.

"The town of Barra is built on a tract of elevated but very uneven land,

on the left bank of the Rio Negro, and contained, in 1850, about three

thousand inhabitants. It is now the principal station for the lines of

steamers which were established in 1853; and passengers and goods are

trans-shipped here for the Solimoens and Peru. A steamer runs once a

fortnight between Para and Barra; and another as often between this

place and Nauta, in the Peruvian territory."

MAMELUCOS, OR HALF-BREEDS.

"We landed at one of the cacao-plantations. The house was substantially

built; the walls formed of strong, upright posts, lathed across,

plastered with mud, and whitewashed; and the roof tiled. The family were

Mamelucos, or offspring of the European and the Indian. They seemed to

be an average sample of the poorer class of cacao-growers. All were

loosely dressed, and barefooted. A broad veranda extended along one side

of the house, the floor of which was simply the well-trodden earth; and

here hammocks were slung between the bare upright supports, a large

rush-mat being spread on the ground, upon which the stout, matron-like

mistress, with a tame parrot perched upon her shoulder, sat sewing with

two pretty-looking mulatto-girls. The master, coolly clad in shirt and

drawers, the former loose about his neck, lay in his hammock, smoking a

long gaudily painted wooden pipe. The household utensils--earthenware

jars, water-pots, and sauce-pans--lay at one end, near which was a

wood-fire, with the ever-ready coffee-pot simmering on the top of a

clay tripod. A large shed stood a short distance off, embowered in a

grove of banana, papaw, and mango trees; and under it were the troughs,

ovens, sieves, and other apparatus, for the preparation of mandioc. The

cleared space around the house was only a few yards in extent: beyond it

lay the cacao-plantations, which stretched on each side parallel to the

banks of the river. There was a path through the forest, which led to

the mandioc-fields, and, several miles beyond, to other houses on the

banks of an interior channel. We were kindly received, as is always the

case when a stranger visits these out-of-the-way habitations; the people

being invariably civil and hospitable. We had a long chat, took coffee;

and, on departing, one of the daughters sent a basketful of oranges, for

our use, down to the canoe."

MURA INDIANS.

"On the 9th of January, we arrived at Matari, a miserable little

settlement of Mura Indians. Here we again anchored, and went ashore. The

place consisted of about twenty slightly built mud-hovels, and had a

most forlorn appearance, notwithstanding the luxuriant forest in its

rear. The absence of the usual cultivated trees and plants gave the

place a naked and poverty-stricken aspect. I entered one of the hovels,

where several women were employed cooking a meal. Portions of a large

fish were roasting over a fire made in the middle of the low chamber;

and the entrails were scattered about the floor, on which the women,

with their children, were squatted. These had a timid, distrustful

expression of countenance; and their bodies were begrimed with black

mud, which is smeared over the skin as a protection against musquitoes.

The children were naked: the women wore petticoats of coarse cloth,

stained in blotches with _murixi_, a dye made from the bark of a tree.

One of them wore a necklace of monkey's teeth. There were scarcely any

household utensils: the place was bare, with the exception of two dirty

grass hammocks hung in the corners. I missed the usual mandioc-sheds

behind the house, with their surrounding cotton, cacao, coffee, and

lemon trees. Two or three young men of the tribe were lounging about the

low, open doorway. They were stoutly-built fellows, but less

well-proportioned than the semi-civilized Indians of the Lower Amazons

generally are. The gloomy savagery, filth, and poverty of the people in

this place made me feel quite melancholy; and I was glad to return to

the canoe."

MARAUA TRIBE.

A pleasanter picture is presented by the Indians of the Maraua tribe.

Our traveller thus describes a visit to them:--

"Our longest trip was to some Indian houses, a distance of fifteen or

eighteen miles up the Sapo; a journey made with one Indian paddler, and

occupying a whole day. The stream is not more than forty or fifty yards

broad: its waters are dark in color, and flow, as in all these small

rivers, partly under shade, between two lofty walls of forest. We

passed, in ascending, seven habitations, most of them hidden in the

luxuriant foliage of the banks; their sites being known only by small

openings in the compact wall of forest, and the presence of a canoe or

two tied up in little shady ports. The inhabitants are chiefly Indians

of the Maraua tribe, whose original territory comprises all the

by-streams lying between the Jutahi and the Jurua, near the mouths of

both these great tributaries. They live in separate families, or small

hordes; have no common chief; and are considered as a tribe little

disposed to adopt civilized customs, or be friendly with the whites.

One of the houses belonged to a Juri family; and we saw the owner, an

erect, noble-looking old fellow, tattooed, as customary with his tribe,

in a large patch over the middle of his face, fishing, under the shade

of a colossal tree, with hook and line. He saluted us in the usual grave

and courteous manner of the better sort of Indians as we passed by.

"We reached the last house, or rather two houses, about ten o'clock, and

spent there several hours during the heat of the day. The houses, which

stood on a high, clayey bank, were of quadrangular shape, partly open,

like sheds, and partly enclosed with rude, mud walls, forming one or two

chambers. The inhabitants, a few families of Marauas, received us in a

frank, smiling manner. None of them were tattooed: but the men had great

holes pierced in their ear-lobes, in which they insert plugs of wood;

and their lips were drilled with smaller holes. One of the younger men,

a fine, strapping fellow, nearly six feet high, with a large aquiline

nose, who seemed to wish to be particularly friendly to me, showed me

the use of these lip-holes, by fixing a number of little sticks in them,

and then twisting his mouth about, and going through a pantomime to

represent defiance in the presence of an enemy.

"We left these friendly people about four o'clock in the afternoon, and,

in descending the umbrageous river, stopped, about half-way down, at

another house, built in one of the most charming situations I had yet

seen in this country. A clean, narrow, sandy pathway led from the shady

port to the house, through a tract of forest of indescribable

luxuriance. The buildings stood on an eminence in the middle of a level,

cleared space; the firm, sandy soil, smooth as a floor, forming a broad

terrace round them. The owner was a semi-civilized Indian, named Manoel;

a dull, taciturn fellow, who, together with his wife and children,

seemed by no means pleased at being intruded on in their solitude. The

family must have been very industrious; for the plantations were very

extensive, and included a little of almost all kinds of cultivated

tropical productions,--fruit-trees, vegetables, and even flowers for

ornament. The silent old man had surely a fine appreciation of the

beauties of Nature; for the site he had chosen commanded a view of

surprising magnificence over the summits of the forest; and, to give a

finish to the prospect, he had planted a large number of banana-trees in

the foreground, thus concealing the charred and dead stumps which would

otherwise have marred the effect of the rolling sea of greenery. The

sun set over the tree-tops before we left this little Eden; and the

remainder of our journey was made slowly and pleasantly, under the

checkered shade of the river banks, by the light of the moon."

THE FOREST.

The following passage describes the scenery of one of the peculiar

channels by which the waters of the Amazon communicate with those of the

Para River:--

"The forest wall under which we are now moving consists, besides palms,

of a great variety of ordinary forest-trees. From the highest branches

of these, down to the water, sweep ribbons of climbing-plants of the

most diverse and ornamental foliage possible. Creeping convolvuli and

others have made use of the slender lianas and hanging air-roots as

ladders to climb by. Now and then appears a mimosa or other tree, having

similar fine pinnate foliage; and thick masses of inga border the water,

from whose branches hang long bean-pods, of different shape and size

according to the species, some of them a yard in length. Flowers there

are very few. I see now and then a gorgeous crimson blossom on long

spikes, ornamenting the sombre foliage towards the summits of the

forest. I suppose it to belong to a climber of the Combretaceous order.

There are also a few yellow and violet trumpet-flowers. The blossoms of

the ingas, although not conspicuous, are delicately beautiful. The

forest all along offers so dense a front, that one never obtains a

glimpse into the interior of the wilderness."

THE LIANA.

"The plant which seems to the traveller most curious and singular is the

liana, a kind of osier, which serves for cordage, and which is very

abundant in all the hot parts of America. All the species of this genus

have this in common, that they twine around the trees and shrubs in

their way, and after progressively extending to the branches, sometimes

to a prodigious height, throw out shoots, which, declining

perpendicularly, strike root in the ground beneath, and rise again to

repeat the same course of uncommon growth. Other filaments, again,

driven obliquely by the winds, frequently attach themselves to

contiguous trees, and form a confused spectacle of cord, some in

suspension, and others stretched in every direction, not unfrequently

resembling the rigging of a ship. Some of these lianas are as thick as

the arm of a man; and some strangle and destroy the tree round which

they twine, as the boa-constrictor does its victims. At times it happens

that the tree dies at the root, and the trunk rots, and falls in powder,

leaving nothing but the spirals of liana, in form of a tortuous column,

insulated and open to the day. Thus Nature laughs to scorn and defies

the imitations of Art."

CACAO.

"The Amazons region is the original home of the principal species of

chocolate-tree,--the theobroma cacao; and it grows in abundance in the

forests of the upper river. The forest here is cleared before planting,

and the trees are grown in rows. The smaller cultivators are all very

poor. Labor is scarce: one family generally manages its own small

plantation of ten to fifteen thousand trees; but, at harvest-time,

neighbors assist each other. It appeared to me to be an easy, pleasant

life: the work is all done under shade, and occupies only a few weeks in

the year.

"The cultivated crop appears to be a precarious one. Little or no care,

however, is bestowed on the trees; and weeding is done very

inefficiently. The plantations are generally old, and have been made on

the low ground near the river, which renders them liable to inundation

when this rises a few inches more than the average. There is plenty of

higher land quite suitable to the tree; but it is uncleared: and the

want of labor and enterprise prevents the establishment of new

plantations."

THE COW-TREE.

"We had heard a good deal about this tree, and about its producing from

its bark a copious supply of milk as pleasant to drink as that of the

cow. We had also eaten of its fruit at Para, where it is sold in the

streets by negro market-women: we were glad, therefore, to see this

wonderful tree growing in its native wilds. It is one of the largest of

the forest-monarchs, and is peculiar in appearance, on account of its

deeply-scored, reddish, and ragged bark. A decoction of the bark, I was

told, is used as a red dye for cloth. A few days afterward, we tasted

its milk, which was drawn from dry logs that had been standing many days

in the hot sun at the saw-mills. It was pleasant with coffee, but had a

slight rankness when drunk pure. It soon thickens to a glue, which is

very tenacious, and is often used to cement broken crockery. I was told

that it was not safe to drink much of it; for a slave had recently lost

his life through taking it too freely.

"To our great disappointment, we saw no flowers, or only such as were

insignificant in appearance. I believe it is now tolerably well

ascertained that the majority of forest-trees in equatorial Brazil have

small and inconspicuous flowers. Flower-frequenting insects are also

rare in the forest. Of course, they would not be found where their

favorite food was wanting. In the open country, on the Lower Amazons,

flowering trees and bushes are more abundant; and there a large number

of floral insects are attracted. The forest-bees in South America are

more frequently seen feeding on the sweet sap which exudes from the

trees than on flowers."

CHAPTER XVI.

THE NATURALIST ON THE AMAZON.

On the 16th of January, the dry season came abruptly to an end. The

sea-breezes, which had been increasing in force for some days, suddenly

ceased, and the atmosphere became misty: at length, heavy clouds

collected where a uniform blue sky had for many weeks prevailed, and

down came a succession of heavy showers, the first of which lasted a

whole day and night. This seemed to give a new stimulus to animal life.

On the first night, there was a tremendous uproar,--tree-frogs,

crickets, goat-suckers, and owls, all joining to perform a deafening

concert. One kind of goat-sucker kept repeating at intervals, throughout

the night, a phrase similar to the Portuguese words, 'Joao corta

pao,'--'John, cut wood;' a phrase which forms the Brazilian name of the

bird. An owl in one of the trees muttered now and then a succession of

syllables resembling the word 'murucututu.' Sometimes the croaking and

hooting of frogs and toads were so loud, that we could not hear one

another's voices within doors. Swarms of dragon-flies appeared in the

day-time about the pools of water created by the rain; and ants and

termites came forth in great numbers."

ANTS.

This region is the very headquarters and metropolis of ants. There are

numerous species, differing in character and habits, but all of them at

war with man, and the different species with one another. Our author

thus relates his observations of the saueba-ant:--

"In our first walks, we were puzzled to account for large mounds of

earth, of a different color from the surrounding soil, which were thrown

up in the plantations and woods. Some of them were very extensive, being

forty yards in circumference, but not more than two feet in height. We

soon ascertained that these were the work of the sauebas, being the

outworks, or domes, which overlie and protect the entrances to their

vast subterranean galleries. On close examination, I found the earth of

which they are composed to consist of very minute granules,

agglomerated without cement, and forming many rows of little ridges and

turrets. The difference of color from the superficial soil is owing to

their being formed of the undersoil brought up from a considerable

depth. It is very rarely that the ants are seen at work on these mounds.

The entrances seem to be generally closed: only now and then, when some

particular work is going on, are the galleries opened. In the larger

hillocks, it would require a great amount of excavation to get at the

main galleries; but I succeeded in removing portions of the dome in

smaller hillocks, and then I found that the minor entrances converged,

at the depth of about two feet, to one broad, elaborately worked

gallery, or mine, which was four or five inches in diameter.

"The habit of the saueba-ant, of clipping and carrying away immense

quantities of leaves, has long been recorded in books of natural

history; but it has not hitherto been shown satisfactorily to what use

it applies the leaves. I discovered this only after much time spent in

investigation. The leaves are used to thatch the domes which cover the

entrances to their subterranean dwellings, thereby protecting from the

deluging rains the young broods in the nests beneath. Small hillocks,

covering entrances to the underground chambers, may be found in

sheltered places; and these are always thatched with leaves, mingled

with granules of earth. The heavily-laden workers, each carrying its

segment of leaf vertically, the lower end secured by its mandibles,

troop up, and cast their burthens on the hillock; another relay of

laborers place the leaves in position, covering them with a layer of

earthy granules, which are brought one by one from the soil beneath.

"It is a most interesting sight to see the vast host of busy, diminutive

workers occupied on this work. Unfortunately, they choose cultivated

trees for their purpose, such as the coffee and orange trees."

THE FIRE-ANT.

"Aveyros may be called the headquarters of the fire-ant, which might be

fittingly termed the scourge of this fine river. It is found only on

sandy soils, in open places, and seems to thrive most in the

neighborhood of houses and weedy villages, such as Aveyros: it does not

occur at all in the shades of the forest. Aveyros was deserted a few

years before my visit, on account of this little tormentor; and the

inhabitants had only recently returned to their houses, thinking its

numbers had decreased. It is a small species, of a shining reddish

color. The soil of the whole village is undermined by it. The houses are

overrun with them: they dispute every fragment of food with the

inhabitants, and destroy clothing for the sake of the starch. All

eatables are obliged to be suspended in baskets from the rafters, and

the cords well soaked with copaiba-balsam, which is the only thing known

to prevent them from climbing. They seem to attack persons from sheer

malice. If we stood for a few moments in the street, even at a distance

from their nests, we were sure to be overrun, and severely punished;

for, the moment an ant touched the flesh, he secured himself with his

jaws, doubled in his tail, and stung with all his might. The sting is

likened, by the Brazilians, to the puncture of a red-hot needle. When we

were seated on chairs in the evenings, in front of the house, to enjoy a

chat with our neighbors, we had stools to support our feet, the legs of

which, as well as those of the chairs, were well anointed with the

balsam. The cords of hammocks are obliged to be smeared in the same way,

to prevent the ants from paying sleepers a visit."

BUTTERFLIES.

"At Villa Nova, I found a few species of butterflies which occurred

nowhere else on the Amazons. In the broad alleys of the forest, several

species of Morpho were common. One of these is a sister-form to the

Morpho Hecuba, and has been described under the name of Morpho Cisseis.

It is a grand sight to see these colossal butterflies by twos and threes

floating at a great height in the still air of a tropical morning. They

flap their wings only at long intervals; for I have noticed them to sail

a very considerable distance without a stroke. Their wing-muscles, and

the thorax to which they are attached, are very feeble in comparison

with the wide extent and weight of the wings; but the large expanse of

these members doubtless assists the insects in maintaining their aerial

course. The largest specimens of Morpho Cisseis measure seven inches and

a half in expanse. Another smaller kind, which I could not capture, was

of a pale, silvery-blue color; and the polished surface of its wings

flashed like a silver speculum, as the insect flapped its wings at a

great elevation in the sunlight."

THE BIRD-CATCHING SPIDER.

"At Cameta, I chanced to verify a fact relating to the habits of a

large, hairy spider of the genus Mygale, in a manner worth recording.

The individual was nearly two inches in length of body; but the legs

expanded seven inches, and the entire body and legs were covered with

coarse gray and reddish hairs. I was attracted by a movement of the

monster on a tree-trunk: it was close beneath a deep crevice in the

tree, across which was stretched a dense white web. The lower part of

the web was broken; and two small birds, finches, were entangled in the

pieces. They were about the size of the English siskin; and I judged the

two to be male and female. One of them was quite dead; the other lay

under the body of the spider, not quite dead, and was smeared with the

filthy liquor, or saliva, exuded by the monster. I drove away the

spider, and took the birds; but the second one soon died. The fact of a

species of mygale sallying forth at night, mounting trees, and sucking

the eggs and young of hummingbirds, has been recorded long ago by Madame

Merian and Palisot de Beauvois; but, in the absence of any

confirmation, it has come to be discredited. From the way the fact has

been related, it would appear that it had been derived from the report

of natives, and had not been witnessed by the narrators. I found the

circumstance to be quite a novelty to the residents hereabouts.

"The mygales are quite common insects. Some species make their cells

under stones; others form artificial tunnels in the earth; and some

build their dens in the thatch of houses. The natives call them

crab-spiders. The hairs with which they are clothed come off when

touched, and cause a peculiar and almost maddening irritation. The first

specimen that I killed and prepared was handled incautiously; and I

suffered terribly for three days afterward. I think this is not owing to

any poisonous quality residing in the hairs, but to their being short

and hard, and thus getting into the fine creases of the skin. Some

mygales are of immense size. One day, I saw the children belonging to an

Indian family who collected for me with one of these monsters, secured

by a cord round its waist, by which they were leading it about the house

as they would a dog."

BATS.

"At Caripi, near Para, I was much troubled by bats. The room where I

slept had not been used for many months, and the roof was open to the

tiles and rafters. I was aroused about midnight by the rushing noise

made by vast hosts of bats sweeping about the room. The air was alive

with them. They had put out the lamp; and, when I relighted it, the

place appeared blackened with the impish multitudes that were whirling

round and round. After I had laid about well with a stick for a few

minutes, they disappeared among the tiles; but, when all was still

again, they returned, and once more extinguished the light. I took no

further notice of them, and went to sleep. The next night, several of

them got into my hammock. I seized them as they were crawling over me,

and dashed them against the wall. The next morning, I found a wound,

evidently caused by a bat, on my hip. This was rather unpleasant: so I

set to work with the negroes, and tried to exterminate them. I shot a

great many as they hung from the rafters; and the negroes, having

mounted with ladders to the roof outside, routed out from beneath the

eaves many hundreds of them, including young broods. There were

altogether four species. By far the greater number belonged to the

Dysopes perotis, a species having very large ears, and measuring two

feet from tip to tip of the wings. I was never attacked by bats, except

on this occasion. The fact of their sucking the blood of persons

sleeping, from wounds which they make in the toes, is now well

established; but it is only a few persons who are subject to this

blood-letting."

PARROTS.

"On recrossing the river in the evening, a pretty little parrot fell

from a great height headlong into the water near the boat, having

dropped from a flock which seemed to be fighting in the air. One of the

Indians secured it for me; and I was surprised to find the bird

uninjured. There had probably been a quarrel about mates, resulting in

our little stranger being temporarily stunned by a blow on the head from

the beak of a jealous comrade. It was of the species called by the

natives Maracana; the plumage green, with a patch of scarlet under the

wings. I wished to keep the bird alive, and tame it; but all our efforts

to reconcile it to captivity were vain: it refused food, bit every one

who went near it, and damaged its plumage in its exertions to free

itself. My friends in Aveyros said that this kind of parrot never became

domesticated. After trying nearly a week, I was recommended to lend the

intractable creature to an old Indian woman living in the village, who

was said to be a skilful bird-tamer. In two days, she brought it back

almost as tame as the familiar love-birds of our aviaries. I kept my

little pet for upward of two years. It learned to talk pretty well, and

was considered quite a wonder, as being a bird usually so difficult of

domestication. I do not know what arts the old woman used. Capt. Antonio

said she fed it with her saliva.

"Our maracana used to accompany us sometimes in our rambles, one of the

lads carrying it on his head. One day, in the middle of a long

forest-road, it was missed, having clung probably to an overhanging

bough, and escaped into the thicket without the boy perceiving it. Three

hours afterwards, on our return by the same path, a voice greeted us in

a colloquial tone as we passed, 'Maracana!' We looked about for some

time, but could not see any thing, until the word was repeated with

emphasis, 'Maracana!' when we espied the little truant half concealed in

the foliage of a tree. He came down, and delivered himself up,

evidently as much rejoiced at the meeting as we were."

TURTLE-EGGS AND OIL.

"I accompanied Cardozo in many wanderings on the Solimoens, or Upper

Amazons, during which we visited the _praias_ (sand-islands), the

turtle-pools in the forests, and the by-streams and lakes in the great

desert river. His object was mainly to superintend the business of

digging up turtle-eggs on the sand-banks; having been elected

_commandante_ for the year of the _praia-real_ (royal sand-island) of

Shimuni, the one lying nearest to Ega. There are four of these royal

praias within the district, all of which are visited annually by the Ega

people, for the purpose of collecting eggs, and extracting oil from

their yolks. Each has its commander, whose business is to make

arrangements for securing to every inhabitant an equal chance in the

egg-harvest, by placing sentinels to protect the turtles while laying.

The turtles descend from the interior pools to the main river in July

and August, before the outlets dry up, and then seek, in countless

swarms, their favorite sand-islands; for it is only a few praias that

are selected by them out of the great number existing.

"We left Ega, on our first trip to visit the sentinels while the turtles

were yet laying, on the 26th of September. We found the two sentinels

lodged in a corner of the praia, or sand-bank, where it commences, at

the foot of the towering forest-wall of the island; having built for

themselves a little rancho with poles and palm-leaves. Great

preparations are obliged to be taken to avoid disturbing the sensitive

turtles, who, previous to crawling ashore to lay, assemble in great

shoals off the sand-bank. The men, during this time, take care not to

show themselves, and warn off any fisherman who wishes to pass near the

place. Their fires are made in a deep hollow near the borders of the

forest, so that the smoke may not be visible. The passage of a boat

through the shallow waters where the animals are congregated, or the

sight of a man, or a fire on the sand-bank, would prevent the turtles

from leaving the water that night to lay their eggs; and, if the causes

of alarm were repeated once or twice, they would forsake the praia for

some quieter place. Soon after we arrived, our men were sent with the

net to catch a supply of fish for supper. In half an hour, four or five

large basketsful were brought in. The sun set soon after our meal was

cooked: we were then obliged to extinguish the fire, and remove our

supper-materials to the sleeping-ground, a spit of land about a mile

off; this course being necessary on account of the musquitoes, which

swarm at night on the borders of the forest.

"I rose from my hammock at daylight, and found Cardozo and the men

already up, watching the turtles. The sentinels had erected for this

purpose a stage about fifty feet high, on a tall tree near their

station, the ascent to which was by a roughly-made ladder of woody

lianas. The turtles lay their eggs by night, leaving the water in vast

crowds, and crawling to the central and highest part of the praia. These

places are, of course, the last to go under water, when, in unusually

wet seasons, the river rises before the eggs are hatched by the heat of

the sand. One would almost believe from this that the animals used

forethought in choosing a place; but it is simply one of those many

instances in animals where unconscious habit has the same result as

conscious prevision. The hours between midnight and dawn are the

busiest. The turtles excavate, with their broad-webbed paws, deep holes

in the fine sand; the first-comer, in each case, making a pit about

three feet deep, laying, its eggs (about a hundred and twenty in

number), and covering them with sand; the next making its deposit at

the top of that of its predecessor; and so on, until every pit is full.

The whole body of turtles frequenting a praia does not finish laying in

less than fourteen or fifteen days, even when there is no interruption.

When all have done, the area over which they have excavated is

distinguishable from the rest of the praia only by signs of the sand

having been a little disturbed.

"On arriving at the edge of the forest, I mounted the sentinels' stage

just in time to see the turtles retreating to the water on the opposite

side of the sand-bank after having laid their eggs. The sight was well

worth the trouble of ascending the shaky ladder. They were about a mile

off; but the surface of the sand was blackened with the multitudes which

were waddling towards the river. The margin of the praia was rather

steep; and they all seemed to tumble, head-first, down the declivity,

into the water."

* * * * *

When the turtles have finished depositing their eggs, the process of

collecting them takes place, of which our author gives an account as

follows:--

THE EGG-HARVEST.

"My next excursion was made in company of Senior Cardozo, in the season

when all the population of the villages turns out to dig up turtle-eggs,

and to revel on the praias. Placards were posted on the church-doors at

Ega, announcing that the excavation on Shimuni would commence on the

17th October. We set out on the 16th, and passed on the way, in our

well-manned igarite (or two-masted boat), a large number of people, men,

women, and children, in canoes of all sizes, wending their way as if to

a great holiday gathering. By the morning of the 17th, some four hundred

persons were assembled on the borders of the sand-bank; each family

having erected a rude temporary shed of poles and palm-leaves to protect

themselves from the sun and rain. Large copper kettles to prepare the

oil, and hundreds of red earthenware jars, were scattered about on the

sand.

"The excavation of the _taboleiro_, collecting the eggs, and preparing

the oil, occupied four days. The commandante first took down the names

of all the masters of households, with the number of persons each

intended to employ in digging. He then exacted a payment of about

fourpence a head towards defraying the expense of sentinels. The whole

were then allowed to go to the taboleiro. They ranged themselves round

the circle, each person armed with a paddle, to be used as a spade; and

then all began simultaneously to dig, on a signal being given--the roll

of drums--by order of the commandante. It was an animating sight to

behold the wide circle of rival diggers throwing up clouds of sand in

their energetic labors, and working gradually toward the centre of the

ring. A little rest was taken during the great heat of mid-day; and, in

the evening, the eggs were carried to the huts in baskets. By the end of

the second day, the taboleiro was exhausted: large mounds of eggs, some

of them four or five feet in height, were then seen by the side of each

hut, the produce of the labors of the family.

"When no more eggs are to be found, the mashing process begins. The egg,

it may be mentioned, has a flexible or leathery shell: it is quite

round, and somewhat larger than a hen's egg. The whole heap is thrown

into an empty canoe, and mashed with wooden prongs; but sometimes naked

Indians and children jump into the mass, and tread it down, besmearing

themselves with the yolk, and making about as filthy a scene as can well

be imagined. This being finished, water is poured into the canoe, and

the fatty mass then left for a few hours to be heated by the sun, on

which the oil separates, and rises to the surface. The floating oil is

afterwards skimmed off with long spoons, made by tying large

mussel-shells to the end of rods, and purified over the fire in

copper-kettles. At least six thousand jars, holding each three gallons

of the oil, are exported annually from the Upper Amazons and the Madeira

to Para, where it is used for lighting, frying fish, and other

purposes."

ELECTRIC EELS.

"We walked over moderately elevated and dry ground for about a mile, and

then descended three or four feet to the dry bed of another creek. This

was pierced in the same way as the former water-course, with round holes

full of muddy water. They occurred at intervals of a few yards, and had

the appearance of having been made by the hands of man. As we

approached, I was startled at seeing a number of large serpent-like

heads bobbing above the surface. They proved to be those of electric

eels; and it now occurred to me that the round holes were made by these

animals working constantly round and round in the moist, muddy soil.

Their depth (some of them were at least eight feet deep) was doubtless

due also to the movements of the eels in the soft soil, and accounted

for their not drying up, in the fine season, with the rest of the creek.

Thus, while alligators and turtles in this great inundated forest region

retire to the larger pools during the dry season, the electric eels make

for themselves little ponds in which to pass the season of drought.

"My companions now cut each a stout pole, and proceeded to eject the

eels in order to get at the other fishes, with which they had discovered

the ponds to abound. I amused them all very much by showing how the

electric shock from the eels could pass from one person to another. We

joined hands in a line, while I touched the biggest and freshest of the

animals on the head with my hunting-knife. We found that this experiment

did not succeed more than three times with the same eel, when out of the

water; for, the fourth time, the shock was hardly perceptible."

CHAPTER XVII.

ANIMATED NATURE.

"The number and variety of climbing trees in the Amazons forests are

interesting, taken in connection with the fact of the very general

tendency of the animals also to become climbers. All the Amazonian, and

in fact all South-American monkeys, are climbers. There is no group

answering to the baboons of the Old World, which live on the ground. The

gallinaceous birds of the country, the representatives of the fowls and

pheasants of Asia and Africa, are all adapted, by the position of the

toes, to perch on trees; and it is only on trees, at a great height,

that they are to be seen. Many other similar instances could be

enumerated."

MONKEYS.

"On the Upper Amazons, I once saw a tame individual of the Midas

leoninus, a species first described by Humboldt, which was still more

playful and intelligent than the more common M. ursulus. This rare and

beautiful monkey is only seven inches in length, exclusive of the tail.

It is named leoninus on account of the long, brown mane which hangs from

the neck, and which gives it very much the appearance of a diminutive

lion. In the house where it was kept, it was familiar with every one:

its greatest pleasure seemed to be to climb about the bodies of

different persons who entered. The first time I went in, it ran across

the room straightway to the chair on which I had sat down, and climbed

up to my shoulder: arrived there, it turned round, and looked into my

face, showing its little teeth, and chattering, as though it would say,

"Well, and how do _you_ do?" M. de St. Hilaire relates of a species of

this genus, that it distinguished between different objects depicted on

an engraving. M. Ardouin showed it the portraits of a cat and a wasp: at

these it became much terrified; whereas, at the sight of a figure of a

grasshopper or beetle, it precipitated itself on the picture, as if to

seize the objects there represented."

THE CAIARARA.

"The light-brown caiarara is pretty generally distributed over the

forests of the level country. I saw it frequently on the banks of the

Upper Amazons, where it was always a treat to watch a flock leaping

amongst the trees; for it is the most wonderful performer in this line

of the whole tribe. The troops consist of thirty or more individuals,

which travel in single file. When the foremost of the flock reaches the

outermost branch of an unusually lofty tree, he springs forth into the

air without a moment's hesitation, and alights on the dome of yielding

foliage belonging to the neighboring tree, maybe fifty feet beneath; all

the rest following his example. They grasp, on falling, with hands and

tail, right themselves in a moment, and then away they go, along branch

and bough, to the next tree.

"The caiarara is very frequently kept as a pet in the houses of natives.

I kept one myself for about a year, which accompanied me in my voyages,

and became very familiar, coming to me always on wet nights to share my

blanket. It keeps the house where it is kept in a perpetual uproar. When

alarmed or hungry, or excited by envy, it screams piteously. It is

always making some noise or other, often screwing up its mouth, and

uttering a succession of loud notes resembling a whistle. Mine lost my

favor at last by killing, in one of his jealous fits, another and much

choicer pet,--the nocturnal, owl-faced monkey. Some one had given this a

fruit which the other coveted: so the two got to quarrelling. The

owl-faced fought only with his paws, clawing out, and hissing, like a

cat: the other soon obtained the mastery, and, before I could interfere,

finished his rival by cracking its skull with its teeth. Upon this I got

rid of him."

THE COAITA.

"The coaita is a large, black monkey, covered with coarse hair, and

having the prominent parts of the face of a tawny, flesh-colored hue.

The coaitas are called by some French zoologists spider-monkeys, on

account of the length and slenderness of their body and limbs. In these

apes, the tail, as a prehensile organ, reaches its highest degree of

perfection; and, on this account, it would perhaps be correct to

consider the coaita as the extreme development of the American type of

apes.

"The tail of the coaita is endowed with a wonderful degree of

flexibility. It is always in motion, coiling and uncoiling like the

trunk of an elephant, and grasping whatever comes within reach.

"The flesh of this monkey is much esteemed by the natives in this part

of the country; and the military commandant every week sends a negro

hunter to shoot one for his table. One day I went on a coaita-hunt, with

a negro-slave to show me the way. When in the deepest part of the

ravine, we heard a rustling sound in the trees overhead; and Manoel soon

pointed out a coaita to me. There was something human-like in its

appearance, as the lean, shaggy creature moved deliberately among the

branches at a great height. I fired, but, unfortunately, only wounded

it. It fell, with a crash, headlong, about twenty or thirty feet, and

then caught a bough with its tail, which grasped it instantaneously; and

there the animal remained suspended in mid-air. Before I could reload,

it recovered itself, and mounted nimbly to the topmost branches, out of

the reach of a fowling-piece, where we could perceive the poor thing

apparently probing the wound with its fingers."

THE TAME COAITA.

"I once saw a most ridiculously tame coaita. It was an old female, which

accompanied its owner, a trader on the river, in all his voyages. By way

of giving me a specimen of its intelligence and feeling, its master set

to, and rated it soundly, calling it scamp, heathen, thief, and so

forth, all through the copious Portuguese vocabulary of vituperation.

The poor monkey, quietly seated on the ground, seemed to be in sore

trouble at this display of anger. It began by looking earnestly at him;

then it whined, and lastly rocked its body to and fro with emotion,

crying piteously, and passing its long, gaunt arms continually over its

forehead; for this was its habit when excited, and the front of the head

was worn quite bald in consequence. At length, its master altered his

tone. 'It's all a lie,' my old woman. 'You're an angel, a flower, a

good, affectionate old creature,' and so forth. Immediately the poor

monkey ceased its wailing, and soon after came over to where the man

sat."

SCARLET-FACED MONKEY.

The most singular of the Simian family in Brazil are the scarlet-faced

monkeys, called by the Indians Uakari, of which there are two

varieties, the white and red-haired. Mr. Bates first met with the

white-haired variety under the following circumstances:--

"Early one sunny morning, in the year 1855, I saw in the streets of Ega

a number of Indians carrying on their shoulders down to the port, to be

embarked on the Upper Amazons steamer, a large cage made of strong

lianas, some twelve feet in length, and five in height, containing a

dozen monkeys of the most grotesque appearance. Their bodies (about

eighteen inches in height, exclusive of limbs) were clothed from neck to

tail with very long, straight, and shining whitish hair; their heads

were nearly bald, owing to the very short crop of thin gray hairs; and

their faces glowed with the most vivid scarlet hue. As a finish to their

striking physiognomy, they had bushy whiskers of a sandy color, meeting

under the chin, and reddish yellow eyes. They sat gravely and silently

in a group, and altogether presented a strange spectacle."

Another interesting creature is the owl-faced night ape. These monkeys

are not only owl-faced, but their habits are those of the moping bird.

"They sleep all day long in hollow trees, and come forth to prey on

insects, and eat fruits, only in the night. They are of small size, the

body being about a foot long, and the tail fourteen inches; and are

clothed with soft gray and brown fur, similar in substance to that of

the rabbit. Their physiognomy reminds one of an owl or tiger-cat. The

face is round, and encircled by a ruff of whitish fur; the muzzle is not

at all prominent; the mouth and chin are small; the ears are very short,

scarcely appearing above the hair of the head; and the eyes are large,

and yellowish in color, imparting the staring expression of nocturnal

animals of prey. The forehead is whitish, and decorated with three black

stripes, which, in one of the species, continue to the crown, and in the

other meet on the top of the forehead.

"These monkeys, although sleeping by day, are aroused by the least

noise; so that, when a person passes by a tree in which a number of them

are concealed, he is startled by the sudden apparition of a group of

little striped faces crowding a hole in a trunk."

Mr. Bates had one of the Nyctipithaeci for a pet, which was kept in a box

containing a broad-mouthed glass jar, into which it would dive, head

foremost, when any one entered the room, turning round inside, and

thrusting forth its inquisitive face an instant afterward to stare at

the intruder. The Nyctipithecus, when tamed, renders one very essential

service to its owner: it clears the house of bats as well as of insect

vermin.

The most diminutive of the Brazilian monkeys is the "Hapale pygmaeus,"

only seven inches long in the body, with its little face adorned with

long, brown whiskers, which are naturally brushed back over the ears.

The general color of the animal is brownish-tawny; but the tail is

elegantly barred with black.

Mr. Bates closes his account by stating that the total number of species

of monkeys which he found inhabiting the margins of the Upper and Lower

Amazons was thirty-eight, belonging to twelve different genera, forming

two distinct families.

THE SLOTH.

"I once had an opportunity, in one of my excursions, of watching the

movements of a sloth. Some travellers in South America have described

the sloth as very nimble in its native woods, and have disputed the

justness of the name which has been bestowed upon it. The inhabitants of

the Amazons region, however, both Indians and descendants of the

Portuguese, hold to the common opinion, and consider the sloth as the

type of laziness. It is very common for one native to call to another,

in reproaching him for idleness, 'Bicho do Embaueba' (beast of the

cecropia-tree); the leaves of the cecropia being the food of the sloth.

It is a strange sight to see the uncouth creature, fit production of

these silent woods, lazily moving from branch to branch. Every movement

betrays, not indolence exactly, but extreme caution. He never looses his

hold from one branch without first securing himself to the next; and,

when he does not immediately find a bough to grasp with the rigid hooks

into which his paws are so curiously transformed, he raises his body,

supported on his hind legs, and claws around in search of a fresh

foothold. After watching the animal for about half an hour, I gave him a

charge of shot: he fell with a terrific crash, but caught a bough in his

descent with his powerful claws, and remained suspended. Two days

afterward, I found the body of the sloth on the ground; the animal

having dropped, on the relaxation of the muscles, a few hours after

death. In one of our voyages, I saw a sloth swimming across a river at a

place where it was probably three hundred yards broad. Our men caught

the beast, and cooked and ate him."

THE ANACONDA.

"We had an unwelcome visitor while at anchor in the port. I was awakened

a little after midnight, as I lay in my little cabin, by a heavy blow

struck at the sides of the canoe close to my head, succeeded by the

sound of a weighty body plunging in the water. I got up; but all was

quiet again, except the cackle of fowls in our hen-coop, which hung over

the side of the vessel, about three feet from the cabin-door. Next

morning I found my poultry loose about the canoe, and a large rent in

the bottom of the hen-coop, which was about two feet from the surface of

the water. A couple of fowls were missing.

"Antonio said the depredator was the sucumju, the Indian name for the

anaconda, or great water-serpent, which had for months past been

haunting this part of the river, and had carried off many ducks and

fowls from the ports of various houses. I was inclined to doubt the fact

of a serpent striking at its prey from the water, and thought an

alligator more likely to be the culprit, although we had not yet met

with alligators in the river. Some days afterward, the young men

belonging to the different settlements agreed together to go in search

of the serpents. They began in a systematic manner, forming two

parties, each embarked in three or four canoes, and starting from points

several miles apart, whence they gradually approximated, searching all

the little inlets on both sides of the river. The reptile was found at

last, sunning itself on a log at the mouth of a muddy rivulet, and

despatched with harpoons. I saw it the day after it was killed. It was

not a very large specimen, measuring only eighteen feet nine inches in

length, and sixteen inches in circumference at the widest part of the

body."

ALLIGATORS.

"Our rancho was a large one, and was erected in a line with the others,

near the edge of the sand-bank, which sloped rather abruptly to the

water. During the first week, the people were all more or less troubled

by alligators. Some half-dozen full-grown ones were in attendance off

the praia, floating about on the lazily flowing, muddy water. The

dryness of the weather had increased since we left Shimuni, the currents

had slackened, and the heat in the middle of the day was almost

insupportable. But no one could descend to bathe without being advanced

upon by one or other of these hungry monsters. There was much offal

cast into the river; and this, of course, attracted them to the place.

Every day, these visitors became bolder: at length, they reached a pitch

of impudence that was quite intolerable. Cardozo had a poodle-dog named

Carlito, which some grateful traveller whom he had befriended had sent

him from Rio Janeiro. He took great pride in this dog, keeping it well

sheared, and preserving his coat as white as soap and water could make

it. We slept in our rancho, in hammocks slung between the outer posts; a

large wood fire (fed with a kind of wood abundant on the banks of the

river, which keeps alight all night) being made in the middle, by the

side of which slept Carlito on a little mat. One night, I was awoke by a

great uproar. It was caused by Cardozo hurling burning firewood with

loud curses at a huge cayman, which had crawled up the bank, and passed

beneath my hammock (being nearest the water) towards the place where

Carlito lay. The dog raised the alarm in time. The reptile backed out,

and tumbled down the bank into the river; the sparks from the brands

hurled at him flying from his bony hide. Cardozo threw a harpoon at him,

but without doing him any harm."

THE PUMA.

"One day, I was searching for insects in the bark of a fallen tree, when

I saw a large, cat-like animal advancing towards the spot. It came

within a dozen yards before perceiving me. I had no weapon with me but

an old chisel, and was getting ready to defend myself if it should make

a spring; when it turned round hastily, and trotted off. I did not

obtain a very distinct view of it; but I could see its color was that of

the puma, or American lion, although it was rather too small for that

species.

"The puma is not a common animal in the Amazons forests. I did not see

altogether more than a dozen skins in the possession of the natives. The

fur is of a fawn-color. The hunters are not at all afraid of it, and

speak in disparaging terms of its courage. Of the jaguar they give a

very different account."

THE GREAT ANT-EATER.

"The great ant-eater, _tamandua_ of the natives, was not uncommon here.

After the first few weeks of residence, I was short of fresh provisions.

The people of the neighborhood had sold me all the fowls they could

spare. I had not yet learned to eat the stale and stringy salt fish

which is the staple food of these places; and for several days I had

lived on rice-porridge, roasted bananas, and farinha. Florinda asked me

whether I could eat tamandua. I told her almost any thing in the shape

of flesh would be acceptable: so she went the next day with an old negro

named Antonio, and the dogs, and, in the evening, brought one of the

animals. The meat was stewed, and turned out very good, something like

goose in flavor. The people of Caripi would not touch a morsel, saying

it was not considered fit to eat in those parts. I had read, however,

that it was an article of food in other countries of South America.

During the next two or three weeks, whenever we were short of fresh

meat, Antonio was always ready, for a small reward, to get me a

tamandua.

"The habits of the animal are now pretty well known. It has an

excessively long, slender muzzle, and a worm-like, extensile tongue. Its

jaws are destitute of teeth. The claws are much elongated, and its gait

is very awkward. It lives on the ground, and feeds on termites, or white

ants; the long claws being employed to pull in pieces the solid hillocks

made by the insects, and the long flexible tongue to lick them up from

the crevices."

THE JAGUAR.

Our traveller, though he resided long and in various parts of the Amazon

country, never saw there a jaguar. How near he came to seeing one

appears in the following extract. This animal is the nearest approach

which America presents to the leopards and tigers of the Old World.

"After walking about half a mile, we came upon a dry water-course, where

we observed on the margin of a pond the fresh tracks of a jaguar. This

discovery was hardly made, when a rush was heard amidst the bushes on

the top of a sloping bank, on the opposite side of the dried creek. We

bounded forward: it was, however, too late; for the animal had sped in a

few minutes far out of our reach. It was clear we had disturbed on our

approach the jaguar while quenching his thirst at the water-hole. A few

steps farther on, we saw the mangled remains of an alligator. The head,

fore-quarters, and bony shell, were all that remained: but the meat was

quite fresh, and there were many footmarks of the jaguar around the

carcass; so that there was no doubt this had formed the solid part of

the animal's breakfast."

PARA.

"I arrived at Para on the 17th of March, 1859, after an absence in the

interior of seven years and a half. My old friends, English, American,

and Brazilian, scarcely knew me again, but all gave me a very warm

welcome. I found Para greatly changed and improved. It was no longer the

weedy, ruinous, village-looking place that it had appeared when I first

knew it in 1848. The population had been increased to twenty thousand by

an influx of Portuguese, Madeiran, and German immigrants; and, for many

years past, the provincial government had spent their considerable

surplus revenue in beautifying the city. The streets, formerly unpaved,

or strewed with stones and sand, were now laid with concrete in a most

complete manner: all the projecting masonry of the irregularly-built

houses had been cleared away, and the buildings made more uniform. Most

of the dilapidated houses were replaced by handsome new edifices, having

long and elegant balconies fronting the first floors, at an elevation of

several feet above the roadway. The large swampy squares had been

drained, weeded, and planted with rows of almond and other trees; so

that they were now a great ornament to the city, instead of an eye-sore

as they formerly were. Sixty public vehicles, light cabriolets, some of

them built in Para, now plied in the streets, increasing much the

animation of the beautified squares, streets, and avenues. I was glad to

see several new book-sellers' shops; also a fine edifice devoted to a

reading-room, supplied with periodicals, globes, and maps; and a

circulating library. There were now many printing-offices, and four

daily newspapers. The health of the place had greatly improved since

1850,--the year of the yellow-fever; and Para was now considered no

longer dangerous to new-comers.

"So much for the improvements visible in the place; and now for the dark

side of the picture. The expenses of living had increased about

fourfold; a natural consequence of the demand for labor and for native

products of all kinds having augmented in greater ratio than the supply,

in consequence of large arrivals of non-productive residents, and

considerable importations of money, on account of the steamboat-company

and foreign merchants.

"At length, on the 2d of June, I left Para,--probably forever. I took a

last view of the glorious forest for which I had so much love, and to

explore which I had devoted so many years. The saddest hours I

recollect ever to have spent were those of the succeeding night, when,

the pilot having left us out of sight of land, though within the mouth

of the river, waiting for a wind, I felt that the last link which

connected me with the land of so many pleasing recollections was

broken."

THE END.

PRESS OF GEO. C. RAND & AVERY, NO. 3, CORNHILL, BOSTON.

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| Transcriber's Note: |

| |

| Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the |

| original document have been preserved. |

| |

| Typographical errors corrected in the text: |

| |

| Page 74 Sascatchawan changed to Saskatchawan |

| Page 103 Cameawait changed to Cameahwait |

| Page 192 Chinnook changed to Chinook |

| Page 198 Chinnooks changed to Chinooks |

| Page 199 Chinnooks changed to Chinooks |

| Page 199 Killamucks changed to Killimucks |

| Page 212 Wakiacums changed to Wahkiacums |

| Page 224 Kooskooskie changed to Kooskooskee |

| Page 224 Sacajaweah chanaged to Sacajawea |

| Page 232 Kooskooskie changed to Kooskooskee |

| Page 295 palmitoes changed to palmitos |

| Page 299 groweth changed to growth |

| Page 360 pursuaded changed to persuaded |

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