Town of Barra—Foreign residents—Population—Rio Negro—Connexion
with the Oronoco—River Purus—Rio Branco—Vegetable productions
of the Amazon country.
The town of Barra, capital of the province of Amazonas, is built on
elevated and broken ground, on the left bank of the river, and about
seven miles from its mouth. Its height above the level of the sea is,
by boiling point, one thousand four hundred and seventy-five feet. It
is intersected by two or three ravines, containing more or less water,
according to the state of the river, which are passed on tolerably
constructed wooden bridges. The houses are generally of one story,
though there are three or four of two, built of wood and adobe, and
roofed with tiles. The floors are also of tiles, and the walls are
plastered with the colored earth which abounds on the banks of the
Amazon.
Every room has several hooks driven into the walls, for the purpose
of hanging hammocks. People find it more comfortable, on account of
the heat, to sleep in hammocks, though I always suffered from cold,
and was obliged every night to wrap myself in a blanket. There are few
musquitoes, these insects always avoiding black water.
I was surprised to find, before I left Barra, that provisions were
getting very scarce. The supply of flour gave out, so that for some
time there was no bread in the city; and beef was killed but once a
fortnight. Even the staples of the country were difficult to procure;
and I heard the President say that he was desirous of recruiting some
fifty or sixty tapuios to work on the new government buildings, but that
he really did not know where he should get a sufficient quantity of salt
fish and farinha to feed them on. Just before I sailed, a boat-load of
turtles came up from the Amazon for Henrique, and his house was besieged
by the poorer part of the population, begging him to sell to them.
Soon after my arrival the President did me the honor to ask me to dine
with him, to meet the officers of the new government. There seemed
then a great abundance of provisions. We had fish, beef, mutton, pig,
turtle, and turkey. There are very fine fish taken about Barra; they
come, however, from the Amazon, and, unless cooked immediately on their
arrival, invariably spoil. The best fish is called _pescado_; it is
very delicate, and quite equal, if not superior, to our striped bass,
or rock-fish, as it is called in the Southern States. Cut into pieces,
fried, and potted, with vinegar and spices, it makes capital provisions
for a voyage of a week or two.
Williams is the only American resident in Barra. He was in partnership
with an Irishman named Bradley, who died a few months ago of yellow
fever, in Pará; he, however, had been very sick, but a short time
before, of the tertiana of the Rio Negro, and had not fairly recovered
when he went to Pará. There had been another American in Barra a year
ago. This was a deaf mute named Baker, who was travelling in this
country for his amusement. He carried with him tablets and a raised
alphabet, for the purpose of educating the deaf, dumb, and blind. He
died on the 29th of April, 1850, at San Joachim, the frontier port of
Brazil, on the Rio Branco.
I heard some muttered suspicions that the poor man had possibly met with
foul play, if not in relation to his death, at least in relation to his
property; and understanding that the soldier in whose house he died was
then in prison in Barra, I directed a communication to the President,
requesting an interview with this soldier. His Excellency did not think
proper to grant that, but sent for the soldier, and himself examined
him. He then replied to my communication, that he could find nothing
suspicious in the matter of Mr. Baker's death, but enough in regard to
his property to induce him to send for the commandant of the port of
San Joachim, and bring the whole matter before a proper tribunal, which
he should do at the earliest opportunity, and communicate the result to
the American Minister at Rio.
Enrique had told me that he saw in Mr. Baker's possession a rouleau of
doubloons, which he judged amounted to two thousand dollars, besides
a large bag of silver. A military gentleman whom I was in the habit
of meeting at Enrique's house, told me that he himself had heard
the soldier say that he should be a rich man when he got back to San
Joachim; all of which I communicated to the President. The soldier's
imprisonment at Barra was on account of some military offence, and had
nothing to do with this case.
The President also sent me a list of the personal effects of Mr. Baker,
which had been sent down by the commandant of San Joachim to Col.
Albino, the _Commandante Geral_ of the _Comarca_. Amongst them were
some things that I thought might be valuable to his family—such as
daguerreotypes, maps, and manuscripts; and I requested his Excellency
to place them at my disposal for transportation to the United States;
but he replied that by a law of the empire the effects of all foreigners
belonging to nations who have no special treaty upon the subject, who
die in Brazil, are subject to the jurisdiction of the _Juiz de Orfaos
y Difuntos_; and that it was therefore out of his power to comply with
my request. I am told (though this may be scandal) that if property
once gets into this court, the heir, if he ever succeeds in getting a
settlement, finds but a _Flemish account_ of his inheritance.
Our intelligent and efficient consul at Pará, Henry L. Norris, has
represented this matter to the government in strong terms, showing
the effect that such a law has upon the credit and standing of large
mercantile houses in Brazil. I am not aware of any other nation than
the French being exempted from its operation. It is clear that the
credit of a house whose property may be seized by such a court as this
on the death of its resident principal will not be so good, _cœteris
paribus_, as that of a house exempted from the operation of such a law.
The Brazilian authorities are very rigid in its execution; and I was
told that a file of soldiers was sent (I think in Maranham) to surround
the house of a dying foreigner, to see that no abstraction of property
was made, and that the whole might be taken possession of, according to
law, on the decease of the moribund.
There were two English residents at Barra—Yates, a collector of shells
and plants; and Hauxwell, a collector of bird-skins, which he prepares
most beautifully. He used the finest kind of shot, and always carried in
his pocket a white powder, to stop the bleeding of the birds when shot.
In the preparation of the skins he employed dry arsenic in powder, which
is much superior, in this humid climate, to arsenical soap. He admired
some of my birds very much, and went with Williams up to Pebas, in Peru,
where I procured most of them.
There were also two English botanists, whose names I have forgotten,
then up the Rio Negro. One had been very sick with tertiana, but was
recovering at latest accounts.
The chief engineer of the steamer was a hard-headed, hot-tempered
old Scotchman, who abused the steamer in particular, and the service
generally, in no measured terms. He desired to know if ever I saw such
beef as was furnished to them; and if we would give such beef to the
dogs in my country. I told him that I thought he was fortunate to get
beef at all, for that I had not seen any for a fortnight, and that if
he had made such a voyage as I had recently, he would find turtle and
salt fish no such bad things. The steamer, though preserving a fair
outside, is, I believe, very inefficient—the machinery wanting in power,
and being much out of order; indeed, so much so that on her downward
passage she fairly broke down, and had to be towed into Pará. She,
however, made the trip up in eighteen days, which, considering that
the distance is full a thousand miles; that this was the first trip
ever made up by steam; that the wood prepared for her had not had time
to dry; and that there is nearly three-miles-an-hour current against
her for about one-third of the distance, I do not consider a very bad
run. The officers did not call to see me or invite me on board their
vessel, though I met some of them at the dinner and evening parties of
the President.
Mr. Potter, a daguerreotypist, and watchmaker, who came up in the
steamer, and my good friend Enrique Antonii, the Italian, with his
father-in-law, Senhor Brandâo, a Portugese, make up the list of the
foreigners of Barra, as far as I know them. Senhor Brandâo, however,
has lived many years in the country; has identified himself with it;
and all his interests are Brazilian. He is a very intelligent man; and
I observe that he is consulted by the President and other officials in
relation to the affairs of the new government.
Whilst speaking of persons, I should be derelict in the matter of
gratitude if I failed to mention Donna Leocadia, the pretty, clever, and
amiable wife of Enrique. She exhibited great interest in my mission,
and was always personally kind to myself. When our sunrise meal of
coffee and buttered toast gave out, she would always manage to send me a
tapioca custard, a bowl of caldo, or something nice and comfortable for
a tired invalid. Unlike most Brazilian ladies, whenever her household
duties would permit, she always sat with the gentlemen, and bore an
intelligent part in the conversation, expressing her desire to speak
foreign languages, and to visit foreign countries, that she might see
and know what was in the world. A son was born to her whilst I was in
the house, and we had become such friends that the young stranger was
to be called _Luis_, and I was to be _compadre_, (godfather.) But the
church, very properly, would not give its sanction to the assumption of
the duties belonging to such a position by a heretic.
Ijurra left me here, and returned up stream with Williams. He laid out
nearly all the money received for his services in such things as would
best enable him to employ the Indians in the clearance of the forest,
and the establishment of a plantation, which he proposed to "_locate_"
at Caballo-cocha, saying to me that he would have a grand crop of cotton
and coffee ready against the arrival of my steamer.
Ijurra has all the qualities necessary for a successful struggle
with the world, save two—patience and judgment. He is brave, hardy,
intelligent, and indefatigable. The river beach and a blanket are all
that are necessary to him for a bed; and I believe that he could live
on coffee and cigars. But his want of temper and discretion mars every
scheme for prosperity. He spent a noble fortune, dug by his father from
the _Mina del rey_, at Cerro Pasco, in the political troubles of his
country. He was appointed governor of the large and important province
of Mainas, but, interfering with the elections, he was driven out. He
then joined a party for the purpose of washing the sands of the Santiago
for gold, but quarrels with his companions broke that up. With infinite
labor he then collected an immense cargo of Peruvian bark; but, refusing
eighty thousand dollars for it in Pará, he carried it to England, where
it was pronounced worthless; and he lost the fruits of his enterprise
and industry.
He gave me infinite concern and some apprehension in the management of
the Indians; but I shall never forget the untiring energy, the buoyancy
of spirits, and the faithful loyalty, that cheered my lonely journey,
and made the little Peruvian as dear to me as a brother.
The official returns for the year 1848 gave the population of the town
of Barra at three thousand six hundred and fourteen free persons, and
two hundred and thirty-four slaves; the number of marriages, one hundred
and fifteen; births, two hundred and fifty; and deaths twenty-five; the
number of inhabited houses, four hundred and seventy; and the number of
foreigners, twenty-four. There are three or four large and commodious
two-story houses that rent for two hundred and fifty dollars a year.
The ordinary house of one story rents for fifty dollars. The town taxes
are ten per cent. on the rent of houses, a dollar a year for a slave,
and three dollars a year for a horse. There are no other taxes except
the custom-house dues. The soil in the immediate neighborhood of Barra
is poor, and I saw no cultivation except in the gardens of the town.
The rock in the neighborhood of Barra is peculiar; it is a red
sandstone, covered with a thin layer of white clay. At a mill-seat
about three miles from the town, a shallow stream, twenty yards broad,
rushes over an inclined plane of this rock, and falls over the ledge of
it in a pretty little cataract of about nine feet in height. The water
is the same in color with that of the Rio Negro, when taken up in a
tumbler—that is, a faint pink. It is impossible to resist the impression
that there is a connexion between the color of the rock and the color
of the water. Whether the water, tinged with vegetable matter, gives
its color to the rock, or the rock, cemented with mineral matter, has
its effect upon the water, I am unable to say. The rock on which the
mill stands, which is at the edge of the fall, is covered with very hard
white clay, about the eighth of an inch in thickness.
The mill was built upon a platform of rock at the edge of the fall, and
the wheel placed below. There was no necessity for dam or race, or, at
least, a log, placed diagonally across the stream, served for a dam. It
was built by a Scotchman, in partnership with a Brazilian. The Brazilian
dying, his widow would neither buy nor sell, and the mill was finally
burned down. I judge that it was not a good speculation; there is no
fine timber in the immediate neighborhood of Barra, and no roads in the
country by which it may be brought to the mill.
The Indians of the neighborhood are called _Muras_; they lead an idle,
vagabond life, and live by hunting and fishing. A few of them come in
and take service with the whites; and nearly all bring their children in
to be baptized. Their reason for this is, not that they care about the
ceremony, but they can generally persuade some good-natured white man
to stand as godfather, which secures the payment of the church fee, (a
cruzado) a bottle of spirits to the father, and a yard or two of cotton
cloth to the mother. Antonii tells me he is _compadre_ with half the
tribe.
They are thorough savages, and kill a number of their children from
indisposition to take care of them. My good hostess told me that her
father, returning from a walk to his house in the country, heard a noise
in the woods; and, going towards the spot, found a young Indian woman,
a tapuia of his, digging a hole in the ground for the purpose of burying
her infant just born. He interfered to prevent it, when she flew at him
like a tiger. The old gentleman, however, cudgelled her into submission
and obedience, and compelled her to take the child home, where he put
it under the care of another woman.
The women suffer very little in parturition, and are able to perform all
the offices of a midwife for themselves. I am told that sometimes, when
a man and his wife are travelling together in a canoe, the woman will
signify to her husband her desire to land; will retreat into the woods,
and in a very short time return with a newly-born infant, which she will
wash in the river, sling to her back, and resume her paddle again. Even
the ladies of this country are confined a very short time. The mother
of my little namesake was about her household avocations in seven days
after his birth. This probably arises from three causes: the climate,
the habit of wearing loose dresses, and the absence of dissipation.
The Rio Negro, opposite the town, is about a mile and a half wide, and
very beautiful. The opposite shore is masked by low islands; and, where
glimpses of it can be had, it appears to be five or six miles distant.
The river is navigable for almost any draught to the Rio Maraya, a
distance of twenty-five days, or, according to the rate of travelling
on these streams, about four hundred miles; there the rapids commence,
and the further ascent must be made in boats. Though large vessels
may not ascend these rapids, they descend without difficulty. Most of
the vessels that ply both on the Rio Negro and Oronoco are built at
or near _San Carlos_, the frontier port of Venezuela, situated above
the rapids of the Negro, and are sent down those rapids, and also up
the Cassiquiari and down the Oronoco to Angostura, passing the two
great rapids of _Atures_ and _Maypures_, where that river turns from
its westerly course toward the north. They cannot again ascend these
rapids. Antonii has a new vessel lying at Barra, built at San Carlos;
it is one hundred tons burden, and is well constructed, except that the
decks, being laid of green wood, have warped, and require to be renewed.
It cost him one thousand dollars. Brazilians pay a tax of fifteen per
cent. on prime cost on foreign-built vessels. Foreigners not naturalized
cannot sail vessels in their own name upon the interior waters of the
empire.
It takes fifty-one days to go from Barra, at the mouth of the Negro, to
San Fernando, on the Oronoco. This is by ascending the Negro above the
mouth of the _Cassiquiari_, taking the caño of _Pimichim_ and a portage
of six hours to the headwaters of a small stream called _Atabapo_, which
empties into the Oronoco. A small boat may be dragged over this portage
in a day; to go between the same places by the Cassiquiari requires ten
days more at the most favorable season, and twenty when the Oronoco is
full.
From the journal of a voyage made by Antonii in the months of April,
May, and June, 1844, it appears that from Barra to Airâo is five
days; thence to the mouth of Rio Branco, four; to Barcellos, three;
to Moreira, three; to Thomar, two; to San Isabel, five; to Rio Maraia,
three; to Castanheiro, two; to Masarabi, one; to San Gabriel, six; to
Santa Barbara, one; to Sta. Ana, one; to N. S. de Guia, one; to Mabé,
one; to Sta. Marcellina, one; to Maribitano, one; to Marcellera, one;
to San Carlos, two; to Tiriquim, one; to Tomo, two; to Marâo, one; to
Pimichim, one; to Javita, one; to Baltazar, one; to San Fernando, one.
A few hours above Barcellos is the mouth of the river Quiuni, which is
known to run up to within a very short distance of the Japura; nearly
opposite to San Isabel is the mouth of a river called Jurubashea, which
also runs up nearly to the Japura. Between these rivers is the great
Puxiri country; it is covered with water when the rivers are full. There
is a vagabond tribe of Indians living in this country called Magu. They
use no canoes, and when they cannot travel on the land, for the depth
of water, they are said to make astonishing progress from tree to tree,
like monkeys; the men laden with their arms and the women with their
children.
Just above San Isabel are found great quantities of the Brazil nut;
and a little further up is the mouth of the river Cababuri, where
sarsaparilla, estimated at Pará as being better in quality than that
of any other in the valley of the Amazon, is gathered; still higher
up, above San Carlos, is cocoa of very superior quality, and in great
abundance.
I have estimated that the distance between Barra and San Carlos at
the mouth of the Cassiquiari is about six hundred and sixty miles. A
flat-bottomed iron steamer calculated to pass the rapids of the Rio
Negro will make seventy-five miles a day against the current. This will
take her to San Carlos in nine days. She will ascend the Cassiquiari
one hundred and eighty miles in two and a half days. From the junction
of the Cassiquiari and the Oronoco to Angostura is seven hundred and
eighty miles. The steamer has the current with her, and, instead of
seventy-five, will run one hundred and twenty-five miles a day. This
will bring her to Angostura in six days; thence to the ocean, two
hundred and fifty miles, in two days. This allows the steamer abundance
of time to take in fuel, and to discharge and take in cargo, at the many
villages she finds on her route; with a canal cut over the portage of
six hours at Pimichim, she will make the voyage in five days less. Thus
by the natural canal of the Cassiquiari the voyage between Barra, at the
mouth of the Negro, and the mouth of the Oronoco, may be made by steam
in nineteen and a half days; by the canal at Pimichim in fourteen and
a half days.
I shall have occasion hereafter to speak of the portage between the
river _Tapajos_ (one of the southern confluents of the Amazon) and the
headwaters of the _Rio de la Plata_. This gives another immense inland
navigation.
The mind is confused with the great images presented to it by the
contemplation of these things. We have here a continent divided into
many islands, (for most of its great streams inosculate,) whose shores
produce, or may be made to produce, all that the earth gives for the
maintenance of more people than the earth now holds. We have also here
a fluvial navigation for large vessels, by the Amazon and its great
tributaries, of (in round numbers) about six thousand miles, which does
not include the innumerable small streams that empty into the Amazon,
and which would probably swell the amount to ten thousand; neither does
it include the Oronoco, with its tributaries, on the one hand, nor the
La Plata, with its tributaries, upon the other; the former of which
communicates with the valley of the Amazon by the Cassiquiari, and
the latter merely requires a canal of six leagues in length, over very
practicable ground, to do the same.
Let us now suppose the banks of these streams settled by an active and
industrious population, desirous to exchange the rich products of their
lands for the commodities and luxuries of foreign countries; let us
suppose introduced into such a country the railroad and the steamboat,
the plough, the axe, and the hoe; let us suppose the land divided into
large estates, and cultivated by slave labor, so as to produce all that
they are capable of producing: and with these considerations, we shall
have no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that no territory on the
face of the globe is so favorably situated, and that, if trade there is
once awakened, the power, the wealth, and grandeur of ancient Babylon
and modern London must yield to that of the depots of this trade, that
shall be established at the mouths of the Oronoco, the Amazon, and the
La Plata.
Humboldt, by far the greatest cosmographer that the world has yet known,
and one of the most learned men and profoundest thinkers of any time,
in contemplating the connexion between the valleys of the Oronoco and
the Amazon by the Cassiquiari, speaks thus of its future importance:
"Since my departure from the banks of the Oronoco and the Amazon, a new
era unfolds itself in the social state of the nations of the West. The
fury of civil discussions will be succeeded by the blessings of peace
and a freer development of the arts of industry. The bifurcation of
the Oronoco," (the Cassiquiari,) "the isthmus of Tuamini," (my portage
of Pimichim,) "so easy to pass over by an artificial canal, will fix
the attention of commercial Europe. The Cassiquiari—as broad as the
Rhine, and the course of which is one hundred and eighty miles in
length—will no 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 Oronoco—a distance which equals that from Timbuctoo to Marseilles.
A country nine or ten times larger than Spain, and enriched with the
most varied productions, is navigable in every direction by the medium
of the natural canal of the Cassiquiari and the bifurcation of the
rivers. This phenomenon, which one day will be so important for the
political connexions of nations, unquestionably deserves to be carefully
examined."
If these things should, in the estimation of Humboldt, "fix the
attention of commercial Europe," much more should they occupy ours. A
glance at the map, and a reflection upon the course of the trade-winds,
will show conclusively that no ships can sail from the mouths of the
Amazon and Oronoco without passing close by our southern ports. Here,
then, is the natural depot for the rich and varied productions of
that vast region. Here, too, can be found all that the inhabitants of
that region require for their support and comfort; and I have not the
slightest doubt, if Brazil should pursue a manly policy, and throw open
her great river to the trade of the world, that the United States would
reap far the largest share of the benefits to be derived from it.
Whilst at Barra, I had conversations with a man who had made several
trading voyages up the "Purus." Ever since I had read the pamphlet of
Father Bobo de Revello, in which he attempts to show that a navigable
river, which he saw to the eastward of Cuzco, and which he calls Madre
de Dios, is identical with the Purus, this river has had for me a
great interest. I sent Mr. Gibbon to look for its head-waters, and I
determined, if possible, to ascend it from its mouth. I am not aware of
the reasons which induced Gibbon to abandon the search for its sources,
though I suspect they arose from the well-known fierce and hostile
character of the savages who dwell on its upper banks. But, for myself,
I am compelled to acknowledge that when I arrived at Barra, near the
mouth of the Purus, I was broken down, and felt convinced that I could
not stand the hardship and exposure necessary for a thorough examination
of this river.
According to the statements of my informant—a very dark Brazilian, named
Seraphim—the Purus commences to rise in October, and to fall in May.
The best time to ascend it is when the river is quite full and done
rising—in May. The beaches are then covered, and slack water is found
close in to the proper shores of the river.
Fifteen days, or about two hundred and fifty miles from the mouth, is
the mouth of a stream called _Parana-pishuna_, which, by a succession
of lakes and a portage of a day, connects the Purus with the Madeira.
The connexion is only passable when the river is full. About the mouth
of this stream, the _sezoens_, or intermittent fevers, are said to be
very fatal; but a few days of navigation takes the voyager above their
locality and out of their influence. There are several large lakes
between the mouth of the Purus and that of the Parana-pishuna.
Thirty days from the mouth of the Purus is the mouth of a river called
the _Mucuin_, which also communicates with the Madeira, above the
rapids of that river. The banks of the Mucuin are low and level; the
river is shallow, and the rocks make the passage up and down tedious
and laborious in the dry season, which is from May to October. The
ascent of the Mucuin takes thirty-five days to arrive at the "Furo,"
which connects it with the Madeira; and the navigation of the Furo
takes ten more. I did not understand from Senhor Seraphim that there
were any whites on the banks of the Mucuin; but he told me there were
broad-tailed sheep there—such as are called in Brazil sheep of five
quarters, on account of the weight and value of the tail. If this be
true, I suspect that the Mucuin runs through a portion of the great
department of Beni, belonging to Bolivia; that it communicates with the
Madeira by means of the river Beni; and that these sheep have either
been stolen by the Indians, or have strayed from whites who live about
the little town of Cavanas, situated on a tributary of the Beni.
Four years ago Senhor Seraphim, in one of his voyages, encountered the
wreck of a boat stranded on a beach of the Purus. He knew that it was
not a Brazilian boat, on account of its construction, and from the fact
that he at that time was the only trader on the river. He also knew that
it was not an Indian's boat, from the iron ring in its bow; and the only
conclusion that he could come to was that the boat had broken adrift
from civilized people above, and been wrecked and broken in passing
the rapids. The Indians who were with Seraphim told him that ten days
higher up (though the river was broken by _caxoeiras_) would reach white
people, who rode on horseback, and had flocks and herds. Seraphim was
then probably about six hundred miles from the mouth of the Purus. His
last voyage occupied eighteen months, and he brought down two hundred
and twenty-five pots of copaiba, and one hundred and fifty arrobas of
sarsaparilla.
The _catauxis_ and the Indians generally of the Purus build their houses
exactly as I have described those of the Yaguas. There is rarely ever
more than one house at a settlement; it is called a _malocca_, and ten
or fifteen families reside in it. Children are contracted in marriage
at birth and are suffered to come together at ten or twelve years of
age. The capacity of a boy to endure pain is always tested before he is
permitted to take his place as a man in his tribe. The dead are buried
in the same position as that used by the ancient Peruvians. The knees
and elbows are tied together, and the body placed in a sitting position
in a large earthern jar. This jar is placed in a hole dug in the floor
of the malocca, and is filled in around the body with earth. Two smaller
jars are then placed, with mouth downwards, over the large jar, and the
whole is covered up with earth.
The Indians of the Purus, as elsewhere in the valley of the Amazon, are
careless and lazy; most of them go naked. They cultivate a little maize
and mandioc for sustenance, and make a little carajurú to paint their
bodies and weapons with. Seraphim, however, had no difficulty in getting
Indians to collect copaiba and sarsaparilla for him. He was not long
from the Purus when I arrived at Barra; poor fellow! he was a martyr
to the rheumatism, and his hands and legs were positively black from
the marks left by the musquitoes. I sent him from Pará physic, which
is highly esteemed upon the Amazon, called Ioduret of potassa, and "Le
Roi," in return for his information, and some presents of arms &c., from
the Purus.
The Amazon at Barra ordinarily commences to rise about the fifteenth
of November, and continues filling till the end of December. It falls
through the month of January, when it again rises till June, about the
end of which month it begins to fall.
I found the Rio Negro stationary during the month of January. It
commenced rising about the first of February; it is full in June. I
believe it follows the laws of the Amazon, and had risen through the
month of December. These laws are subject to considerable fluctuations,
depending upon the greater or less quantity of rain at the sources of
the rivers.
The Rio Branco, the greatest tributary of the Negro, is low in January.
This river is navigable for large craft for about three hundred miles
from its mouth; thence it is broken into rapids, only passable for large
flat bottomed boats. It is very thickly wooded below the first rapids;
above these the trees disappear, and the river is bordered by immense
plains, which would afford pasturage to large numbers of cattle. Barra
is supplied with beef from the Rio Branco, where it must cost very
little, as it is sold in Barra at five cents a pound.
Strong northeasterly winds make the ascent of the river tedious. A
boat will come down from San Joachim, near the sources of the river,
to Barra, a distance of five hundred miles, and passing many rapids, in
twelve days.
A portage of only two hours divides the head-waters of the Branco from
those of the Essequibo. I saw fowling pieces, of English manufacture,
in Barra, that had been bought by the traders on the Rio Branco from
Indians, who had purchased them from traders on the Essequibo. They were
of very good quality, but had generally been damaged, and were repaired
by the blacksmiths of Barra. Beautiful specimens of rock crystal are
brought from the highlands that divide the Branco and Essequibo. The
tertianas are said to be very malignant on the Rio Branco.
There is scarcely any attempt at the regular cultivation of the earth
in all the province of Amazonas; but the natural productions of its soil
are most varied and valuable. In the forest are twenty-three well-known
varieties of palm, all more or less useful. From the piassaba bark
(called by Humboldt the chiquichiqui palm) is obtained cordage which
I think quite equal in quality to the _coir_ of India. From the leaves
of the _tucum_ are obtained the fibres of which all the hammocks of the
country are made. Roofs of houses thatched with the gigantic leaves of
the _bussu_ will last more than ten years. The seed of the _urucurí_ and
_inaja_, are found to make the best fires for smoking India-rubber; and
most of the palms give fruit, which is edible in some shape or other.
Of trees fitted for nautical constructions, there are twenty-two
kinds; for the construction of houses and boats, thirty-three; for
cabinet-work, twelve, (some of which—such as the _jacarandá_, the
_muirapinima_, or tortoise-shell wood, and the _macacauba_—are very
beautiful;) and for making charcoal, seven.
There are twelve kinds of trees that exude milk from their bark; the
milk of some of these—such as the arvoeiro and assacú—is poisonous.
One is the seringa, or India-rubber tree; and one the _mururé_, the
milk of which is reported to possess extraordinary virtue in the cure
of mercurialized patients, or those afflicted with syphilitic sores.
Mr. Norris told me that a young American, dreadfully afflicted with the
effects of mercury, and despairing of cure, had come to Pará to linger
out what was left of life in the enjoyment of a tropical clime. A few
doses of the mururé sent him home a well man, though it is proper to
say that he died suddenly a few years afterwards. Captain Littlefield,
the master of the barque "Peerless," told me that he had a seaman on
board his vessel covered with sores from head to foot, who was radically
cured with a few teaspoonfuls of mururé. Its operation is said to be
very powerful, making the patient cold and rigid, and depriving him of
sense for a short time. Mr. Norris has made several attempts to get it
home, but without success. A bottle which I brought had generated so
fetid a gas that I was glad to toss it from my hand when I opened it at
the Observatory.
It is idle to give a list of the medicinal plants, for their name is
legion. The Indians use nearly everything as a "remedio." One, however,
is peculiar—it is called _manacá_. Von Martius, a learned German,
who spent several years in this country, thus describes it: "Omnis
planta magna radix potissimum, systema lymphaticum summa efficacia
excitat, particulas morbificas liquescit, sudore et urina eliminat.
Magni usus in syphilitide, ideo _mercurio vegetal_ a quibusdam dicitur.
Cortex interior et omnes partes herbaceæ amaritudine nauseosa, fauces
vellicante, pollent. Dosí parva resolvit, majore exturbat alvum et
urinam ciet, abortum movet, venenum a morsu serpentum excutit; nimia
dosi tamquam venenum acre agit. De modo, quo hauriri solet, conferas
Martium, in Buchner Repertor. Pharm. XXXI, 379. Apud nonnullas Indorum
gentes in regione Amazonica habitantes ejus extractum in venenum
sagittarum ingreditur."
Its virtue in rheumatic affections was much extolled; and as I was
suffering from pains in the teeth and shoulder, I determined to try its
efficacy; but, understanding that its effects were powerful, and made
a man feel as if a bucket of cold water were suddenly poured down his
back, I begged my kind hostess, Donna Leocadia, to make the decoction
weak. Finding no effects from the first teacupful, I took another; but
either I was a peculiar patient, or we had not got hold of the proper
root. I felt nothing but a very sensible coldness of the teeth and tip
of the tongue. Next morning I took a stronger decoction, but with no
other effect. I think it operated upon the liver, causing an increased
secretion of bile. I brought home the leaves and root.
The root of the _murapuama_, a bush destitute of leaves, is used as an
analeptic remedy, giving force and tone to the nerves.
A little plant called _douradinha_, with a yellow flower, something like
our dandelion, that grows in the streets at Barra, is a powerful emetic.
A clear and good burning oil is made from the Brazil nut; also from the
nut of the andiroba, which seems a sort of bastard Brazil nut, bearing
the same relation to it that our horse-chestnut does to the edible
chestnut. Both these oils, as also the oil made from turtle-eggs, are
used to adulterate the copaiba. The trader has to be on the alert that
he is not deceived by these adulterations. Another very pretty oil or
resin is called _tamacuaré_; its virtues are much celebrated for the
cure of cutaneous affections.
The banks of the rivers and inland lakes abound with wild rice, which
feeds a vast number of water-fowl; it is said to be edible.
The _Huimba_ of Peru—a sort of wild cotton, with a delicate and
glossy fibre, like silk, and called in Brazil _sumauma_—abounds in
the province. It grows in balls on a very large tree, which is nearly
leafless; it is so light and delicate that it would be necessary to
strip a number of these large trees to get an arroba of it. It is used
in Guayaquil to stuff mattresses. I brought home several large baskets
of it. Some silk manufacturers in France, to whom Mr. Clay, our chargé
d'affaires at Lima, sent specimens, thought that, mixed with silk, it
would make a cheap and pretty fabric; but they had not a sufficient
quantity to test it. Where cotton is cultivated in the province, it is
sown in August, and commences to give in May; the bulk and best of the
harvest is in June and July. The tree will give good cotton for three
years.
Tobacco, of which that cultivated at Borba, on the Madeira, is the best
in Brazil, is planted in beds during the month of February. When the
plants are about half a foot high, which is in all the month of April,
they are set out; the force of the crop is in September. The plant
averages four feet in height. Good Borba tobacco is worth in Barra seven
dollars the arroba, of thirty two pounds; it does not keep well, and
therefore the price in Pará varies much.
The tree that gives the Brazil nut is not more than two or three feet
in diameter, but very tall; the nuts, in number about twenty, are
enclosed in a very hard, round shell, of about six inches in diameter.
The crop is gathered in May and June. It is quite a dangerous operation
to collect it; the nut, fully as large and nearly as heavy as a nine
pounder shot, falls from the top of the tree without warning, and would
infallibly knock a man's brains out if it struck him on the head.
Humboldt says, "I know nothing more fitted to seize the mind with
admiration of the force of organic action in the equinoctial zone
than the aspect of these great ligneous pericarps. In our climates the
_cucurbitaceæ_ only produce in the space of a few months fruits of an
extraordinary size; but these fruits are pulpy and succulent. Between
the tropics the _bertholletia_ forms, in less than fifty or sixty days,
a pericarp, the ligneous part of which is half an inch thick, and which
it is difficult to saw with the sharpest instrument." He speaks of them
as being often eight or ten inches in diameter; I saw none so large.
There is a variety of this tree, called _sapucaia_, that grows on low
lands subject to overflow. Ten or fifteen of the nuts, which are long,
corrugated, and very irregular in shape, are contained in a large outer
shell; the shell, unlike that of the _castanha_, does not fall entire
from the tree, but when the nuts are ripe the bottom falls out, leaving
the larger part of the shell, like the cup of an acorn, hanging to
the tree. The nuts are scattered upon the water that at this season
surrounds the trees, and are picked up in boats or by wading. The bark
of the nut is fragile; easily broken by the teeth; and its substance
is far superior in delicacy of flavor to that of the Brazil nut. This
nut as yet must be scarce, or it would have been known to commerce. The
tree is a very large one; the flowers yellow and pretty, but destitute
of smell. The wood is one of those employed in nautical construction.
Shell lime, which is made in Pará, sells in Barra for one dollar and
twenty-five cents the alquier, of sixty-four pounds; stone lime is
double in price.
Salt is worth one dollar and twenty-five cents the panero, of one
hundred and eight pounds.
Rains at Barra commence in September; the force of the rain is in
February and March, but there is scarcely ever a continuous rain of
twenty-four hours—one day rainy and one day clear.
The Vigario Geral, an intelligent priest, named Joaquin Gonzales de
Azevedo, told me that there was a sharp shock of an earthquake in this
country in the year 1816. The ground opened at "Serpa," a village below
Barra, to the depth of a covado, (three-fourths of a yard.)