Santarem—Population—Trade—River Tapajos—Cuiaba—Diamond
region—Account of the Indians of the Tapajos.
Santarem, four hundred and sixty miles from the mouth of the Rio Negro,
and six hundred and fifty miles from the sea, is the largest town of the
province, after Pará. By official returns it numbers four thousand nine
hundred and seventy-seven free, (eighty-seven being foreigners,) and
one thousand five hundred and ninety-one slave inhabitants. There were
two hundred and eighty-nine births, forty-two deaths, and thirty-two
marriages in the year 1849.
I would estimate the population of the town of Santarem at about
two thousand souls. In the official returns, all the settlers on the
cocoa plantations for miles around, and all the tapuios engaged in the
navigation of the river, are reckoned in the estimate. This, I believe,
is the case with all the towns; and thus the traveller is continually
surprised to find population rated so high in places where he encounters
but few people.
There is said to be a good deal of elephantiasis and leprosy among the
poorer class of its inhabitants. I did not visit their residences, which
are generally on the beach above the town, and therefore saw nothing of
them; nor did I see much poverty or misery.
There are tokens of an increased civilization in a marble monument
in the cemetery, and a billiard table. The houses are comfortably
furnished, though I believe every one still sleeps in a hammock. The
rides in the environs are agreeable, the views picturesque, and the
horses good. A tolerably good and well-bitted horse may be had for
seventy-five dollars; they graze in the streets and outskirts of the
town, and are fed with Indian corn.
There is a church (one of the towers has lately tumbled down) and two or
three primary schools. The gentlemen all wear gold watches, and take an
immoderate quantity of snuff. I failed to get statistics of the present
trade of Santarem; but an examination of the following tables furnished
by Mr. Gouzennes, the intelligent and gentlemanly vice-consul of France,
will show the increase in the exports of the place in the three years
between 1843 and 1846.
These tables show the tonnage and cargoes of the vessels arriving in
Santarem for three months in each year.
Mr. Gouzennes gave me the table for 1843, and to M. Castelnau the table
for 1846. He also gave me a letter to M. Chaton, French consul at Pará,
requesting that gentleman to give me his tables for the last year,
(1851;) but they had been sent to France.
Three months Three months
of 1843. of 1846.
Number of crews 300 362
Tonnage 647 1,287
Fish arrobas 5,537 6,402
Peixe-boi " 75 —
Tow " 430 478
Pitch " 64 933
Tobacco " 499 3,352
Cocoa " 12,808 19,940
Sarsaparilla " 665 4,836
Cloves " 226 998
Guaraná " 94 457
Coffee " 369 512
Cotton " 24 226
Cumarú (Tonka beans) " — 47
Carajurú " 2 75
Castanhas alquieres 1,206 3,709
Farinha " 2,428 1,384
Oil of Copaiba pots 427 3,056
Oil of turtle-eggs " 420 1,628
Oil of andirobá " 11 29
Mixira 170 316
Hides — 664
Oxen 100 85
Piassaba rope inches — 1,970
I think, but have no means of forming an accurate judgment, that the
importations of Santarem have not increased in the same proportion in
the years between 1846 and 1852. A few of these articles—such as the
cotton, the coffee, a part of the tobacco, and the farinha—were probably
consumed in Santarem. The rest were reshipped to Pará for consumption
there, or for foreign exportation.
The decrease in the consumption of farinha is significant, and shows an
increased consumption of flour from the United States.
I had from Capt. Hislop, an old Scotchman, resident of Santarem, and
who had traded much with Cuiaba, in the province of Matto Grosso, the
following notices of the river Tapajos, and its connexion with the
Atlantic, by means of the rivers Paraguay and La Plata.
Hence to the port of Itaituba, the river is navigable for large vessels,
against a strong current, for fifteen days. The distance is about two
hundred miles. From Itaituba the river is navigable for boats of six or
eight tons, propelled by paddling, poling, or warping. There are some
fifteen or twenty _caxoieras_, or rapids, to pass, where the boat has
to be unloaded and the cargoes carried round on the backs of the crew.
At one or two the boat itself has to be hauled over the land.
The voyage to the head of navigation on the Rio _Preto_, a confluent
of the _Tapajos_, occupies about two months. At this place mules are
found to carry the cargo fifteen miles, to the village of _Diamantino_,
situated on the high lands that divide the headwaters of the streams
flowing south from those of the streams flowing north, which approach
each other at this point very closely.
These high lands are rich in diamonds and minerals. I saw some in
possession of Capt. Hislop. The gold dust is apparently equal in quality
to that I had seen from California.
From Diamantino to Cuiabá the distance is ninety miles, the road
crossing the Paraguay river, which there, at some seasons, is nearly
dry and muddy, and at others a rapid and deep stream, dangerous for the
mules to pass.
Some years ago a shorter land-carriage was discovered between the
headwaters of the northern and southern streams.
By ascending the _Arinos_, a river which empties into the _Tapajos_,
below the mouth of the Preto, a point was reached within eighteen miles
by land-carriage of a navigable point on the Cuiaba river above the
city. The boat was hauled over these eighteen miles by oxen, (showing
that the passage can be neither very high nor rugged,) and launched upon
the Cuiaba, which is navigable thence to the city.
This was about three years ago; but the trade, for some reason, is still
carried on by the old route of the _Preto_, and the land-carriage of
one hundred and five miles to Cuiaba.
A person once attempted to descend by the _San Manoel_, a river that
rises in the same high lands as the Preto and Arinos, and empties into
the Tapajos, far below them; but he encountered so many obstructions to
navigation that he lost all but life.
The passage from Diamantino to Santarem occupies about twenty-six days.
Cuiaba is a flourishing town of about ten thousand inhabitants, situated
on the river of the same name, which is thence navigable for large
vessels to its junction with the Paraguay, which river is free from
impediments to the ocean. It is the chief town of the rich province
of Matto Grosso. It receives its supplies—the lighter articles of
merchandise and luxury—by land, from Rio Janeiro; and its heavier
articles—such as cannot be transported on mules for a great distance—by
this route of the Tapajos. These are principally salt, iron, iron
implements, wines, liquors, arms, crockeries, and guaraná, of which the
people there are passionately fond.
St. Ubes or Portuguese salt is worth in Cuiaba thirteen and a half
dollars the _panero_, of one hundred and eight pounds. Lately, however,
salt has been discovered on the bottom and shores of a lake in Bolivia,
near the Paraguay river. It undergoes some process to get rid of its
impurities, and then is sold at four dollars the panero.
Cuiaba pays for these things in diamonds, gold dust, and hides. The
diamond region is, as I have before said, in the neighborhood of the
village of Diamantino, situated on the high lands that divide the
headwaters of the tributaries of the Amazon and La Plata. M. Castelnau
visited this country, and I give the following extracts from his account
of it. He says:
"The mines of gold, and especially those of diamonds, to which the city
of Diamantino owes its foundation and its importance, appear to have
been known from the time the _Paulistas_ made their first settlements
in the province of Matto Grosso; but, under the Portuguese government,
the working of the diamond mines was prohibited to individuals under
the severest penalties.
"A military force occupied the diamond districts, and watched the
Crown slaves who labored in the search of this precious mineral. Every
person finding one of these stones was obliged to remit it to the
superintendency of diamonds at Cuyaba, for which he received a moderate
recompense, whilst he would have been severely punished if detected in
appropriating it.
"At this period, throughout Brazil, the commerce in diamonds was
prohibited, as strictly as their extraction, to all except the special
agents named by the government for this purpose.
"Subsequently to the government of _João Carlos_, of whom we have
already spoken, this commerce became more or less tolerated, then
altogether free.
"If, as we are assured, the laws which heretofore governed this branch
of industry are not legally repealed, they have at least completely
fallen into disuse. The inhabitants of _Diamantino_ only complain that
the prohibition of the slave trade renders it impossible for them to
profit by the wealth of the country.
"In 1746 valuable diamonds were found, for the first time, in Matto
Grosso, and were soon discovered in great quantities in the little river
of _Ouro_. The governor, _Manuel Antunes Nogueiza_, designing to take
possession of these lands for the benefit of the Crown, ejected the
inhabitants therefrom. Famine made great ravages among the wretches thus
deprived of their homes.
"From that time the country seems to have suffered every evil. A long
drought was followed by a terrible earthquake on the 24th September,
1746. It was not until May 13, 1805, that the inhabitants were again
permitted to take possession of their property, but upon condition of
remitting to the Crown, under severe penalties, all the diamonds found.
"In 1809 a royal mandate established at Cuyabá a diamond _junta_.
"Gold and diamonds, which are always united in this region, as in many
others, are found especially in the numerous water-courses which furrow
it, 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, as has been said, passes through the city; and they
often collect to the value of one or two patacas (from eight to fifteen
grains) Brazil weight.
"It is related that a negro, pulling vegetables in his garden, found
a diamond in the earth attached to the roots. It is also said that,
shortly before our arrival at Diamantino, a muleteer, driving a stake
in the ground to tie his mules to, found a diamond of the weight of a
demi-oitavo, (about nine carats.) This last circumstance occurred in
the _chapada_ (table-land) of _San Pedro_.
"We have heard it stated that diamonds are sometimes found in the
stomachs of the fowls.
"The rivers Diamantino, Ouro, and Paraguay appear already to be
completely exhausted. The river _Burité_ continues to furnish many
stones; but the _Santa Anna_, so to speak, is still virgin, and,
notwithstanding the incredible quantity of diamonds taken from it, it
does not appear to have lost its primitive richness.
"It would appear, however, that diamond-hunting is not as productive
as it is believed; for they quote in the country, as very remarkable,
the result obtained by a Spaniard, Don Simon by name, who in four
years, (only working, it is true, during the dry season, but with two
hundred slaves) had collected four hundred oitavas of diamonds, (about
seven thousand carats.) He was obliged to abandon the work because he
lost many slaves in consequence of the pestilential fevers which reign
in the diamond region, and particularly upon the borders of the river
Santa Anna. Before his departure, he filled up the place from whence he
extracted the stones.
"Later another individual found eighty oitavas of diamonds upon one
point alone in the river.
"The largest diamond taken from the Santa Anna weighed, it is said,
three oitavas, (about fifty-two carats.) It was many years since, and
they know not the price it sold for.
"They assert that the stones taken from this river are more beautiful
than those from other diamond localities, and that there are persons
who, in commerce, can distinguish the difference.
"It was very difficult to obtain from the inhabitants of Diamantino, who
seemed to think themselves still under the Portuguese laws in regard to
diamonds and gold, exact information about the quantities of these two
minerals exported each year from the district. However, by uniting the
most positive data, we have formed the following table, which presents
the approximate quantities of diamonds drawn from the country from 1817
to 1845, as well as the fluctuation of prices, and the number of slaves
employed.
"We have added to this table the value of the slaves.
"At the time of our journey about two thousand persons, of whom eight
hundred were slaves, were engaged in this kind of work.
------+--------------+---------------+-----------+--------------
Years.| Price of the | Number of | Number of | Mean value of
| oitava in | oitavas found | slaves | each slave.
| assorted | in the year. | employed. |
| stones. | | |
------+--------------+---------------+-----------+--------------
1817 | $20 | 600 | 1,500 | $125
1820 | 30 | 5 _a_ 600 | 1,500 | 125
1825 | 30 | 5 _a_ 600 | 1,500 | 125
1830 | 30 | 300 | 1,500 | 125
1834 | 60 | 300 | 1,500 | 125
1838 | 75 | 300 | 1,200 | 150
1840 | 100 | 250 | 900 | 200
1844 | 125 to 150 | 200 | 800 | 300
------+--------------+---------------+-----------+--------------
"In 1817 a stone of an oitava was sold for two hundred dollars.
"Gold is worth the following prices the oitava:
"In 1817, sixty-seven and one-half cents.
1820, sixty-seven and one-half cents.
1830, seventy-five cents.
1840, one dollar and sixty cents.
1844, one dollar and eighty cents.
"We see that the prices of diamonds and gold have advanced since 1817.
This is owing to three causes:
"1st. The diminution of the number of African slaves, in consequence of
the laws against the slave trade.
"2d. The diminution of the quantity found.
"3d. The celebrity which this rich locality has progressively acquired,
and which attracts there many persons.
"At present the _vintem_ of diamonds in very small pieces is worth in
commerce from four and a half to five dollars. A stone of a demi-oitava
would be worth now from two to three hundred dollars, according to its
beauty. A stone of an oitava would be worth seven hundred and fifty
dollars.
"Two or three years ago a stone of three-quarters of an oitava was
sold at four hundred dollars, and another of the same weight for five
hundred.
"Now there is scarcely found more than two hundred oitavas of diamonds
per annum, and only two or three stones of a demi-oitava and above.
"The richest man of Diamantino had in his possession, at the time of
our journey, two hundred oitavas of diamonds.
"The slaves sell the diamonds they steal at two, and two and a half
dollars the vintem; large and small, indifferently.
"To recapitulate. After the researches which I made at the places, it
appears to me probable that the quantity of diamonds extracted from
Diamantino and from Matto Grosso amounts, since the discovery by the
Paulistas to the present time, (1849,) to about sixty-six thousand
oitavas; it must be remembered that in this sum are included a great
number of large stones.
"In estimating the mean value of the oitava at one hundred and
twenty-five dollars, we arrive at a total of about eight million two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It is proper to add to this sum
that of the diamonds taken from the basin of the river _Claro_. Although
this last yields inconsiderably at present, and may be far from what it
was under the Portuguese government, I cannot estimate it at less than
fourteen thousand oitavas, worth about one million seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars.
"Thus the amount of diamonds drawn to the present time from the province
of Matto Grosso will amount to about eighty thousand oitavas, worth ten
millions of dollars.
"I do not doubt that this region may one day furnish, if it is submitted
to a well-conducted exploration, an infinitely larger quantity.
Unfortunately, as we have already said, the search for these stones is
accompanied with great danger; and I am convinced that these baubles of
human vanity have already cost, to Brazil alone, the life of more than
a hundred thousand human beings."
M. Castelnau has given the value of diamonds and gold in the Portuguese
currency of _reis_, and occasionally in francs. In turning the reis
into dollars, I have estimated the dollar at two thousand reis. When I
left Brazil, the Spanish dollar was worth nineteen hundred and twenty
reis, and the Mexican eighteen hundred: so that my values are under the
mark; but there is probably less error in this than in any estimate that
Castelnau could form from his data.
One will readily perceive, from these estimates, that diamond-hunting,
as a business, is unprofitable. But this, like all mining operations,
is a lottery. A man in the diamond region may stumble upon a fortune
at an instant of time, and without a dollar of outlay; but the chances
are fearfully against him. I would rather depend upon the supplying of
the miners with the necessaries and luxuries of life, even by the long
land-travel from Rio Janeiro, or by the tedious and difficult ascent of
the Tapajos.
M. Castelnau, speaking of this trade, says that, taking one article
of merchandise with another, the difference of their value at Pará and
Diamantino is eight hundred and fifty per cent., the round trip between
the two places occupying eight months; but that the profits to the
trader are not to be estimated by the enormous difference of the value
of the merchandise at the place of purchase and the place of sale. He
estimates the expenses of a boat of nine tons (the largest that can
ascend the river) at eight hundred and eighty dollars. Her cargo, bought
at Pará, cost there but three hundred and fifty-five dollars: so that
when it arrives at Diamantino it has cost twelve hundred and thirty-five
dollars; thus diminishing the profits to the trader to about two hundred
and forty-four per cent.
I do not find in Castelnau's estimate of the expenses of a canoe the
labor and time employed in shifting the cargo at Santarem from the large
vessel to the boats. This would probably take off the extra forty-four
per cent., leaving a clear profit of two hundred. This is on the upward
voyage. His return-cargo of hides, with what gold dust and diamonds
he has been able to purchase, will also pay the trader one hundred per
cent. on his original outlay, increased by his profits.
Let us suppose a man sends a cargo from Pará, which costs him there
three hundred and fifty dollars. His two hundred per cent. of clear
profit in Diamantino has increased this sum to one thousand and fifty.
One hundred per cent. on this, the return-cargo, has made it two
thousand one hundred dollars; so that he has pocketed a clear gain of
seventeen hundred and fifty dollars, making a profit of five hundred
per cent. in eight months.
Although there seems, from the accounts we have of the Tapajos, no
chance of a steamer's reaching the diamond region by that river, yet I
have very little doubt but that she may reach it by the rivers Plata,
Paraná, and Paraguay. Should this be the case, and should Brazil have
the magnanimity to throw open the diamond region to all comers, and
encourage them to come by promises of protection and privileges, I
imagine that this would be one of the richest places in the world, and
that Brazil would reap enormous advantages from such a measure.
The place at present is too thinly settled, and the wants of the people
too few, to make this trade (profitable as it appears to be on the small
scale) of any great importance.
Captain Hislop monopolized at one time nearly all the trade of the
Tapajos. He told me that some years ago he sent annually to Cuiabá
goods to the value of fifteen or twenty thousand dollars, and supposes
that all other _commerciantes_ together did not send as much more. He
complains, as all do, of the credit system, and says that the Cuiabanos
now owe him twenty thousand dollars.
The trade now is almost nothing. The Cuiabanos themselves come down to
get their supplies, which they pay for principally in hides.
I made several pleasant acquaintances in Santarem. One of the most
agreeable was a young French engineer and architect, M. _Alphonse Maugin
De Lincourt_, to whom I am indebted for some valuable presents, much
interesting conversation, and the following notes of a voyage on the
Tapajos, which, as describing the manners and customs of the Indian
tribes occupying the borders of that river, I am persuaded will not be
uninteresting.
_Fragments of travels from Itaituba to the cataracts of the Tapajos,
and among the Mundrucus and Maués Indians._
"As soon as the Brazilian —— (the principal authority of the little port
of Itaituba) had procured me some Indians and a small canoe, called in
the country _canoa de Caxoeiras_, I left this place for the purpose of
visiting the great cataracts of the river Tapajos.
"I was the only white man among nine Indians, none of whom, with the
exception of the Indian hunter, could understand me. I cannot express
what I at first suffered in thus finding my life at their mercy. The
boat, under the efforts of these nine pagans, had more the motion of an
arrow than that of a boat ascending against the current of a river.
"Only seeking the principal falls of the Tapajos, we passed, without
stopping, over those of Tapacura, Assu, and _Pracau_, and, continuing
our route to the large ones, we arrived there the following day, without
having met with anything remarkable to relate.
"There the scene changed. The river is no longer the calm Tapajos which
slowly moves towards the Amazon; it is the foaming _Maranhão_, the
advance cataract of the narrow and deep _Caxoeira das Furnas_; it is
the roaring and terrible _coata_, whose currents cross and recross, and
dash to atoms all they bear against its black rocks.
"We surmounted all in the same day. Seated motionless in the middle of
the canoe, I often closed my eyes to avoid seeing the dangers I escaped,
or the perils that remained to be encountered.
"The Indians—sometimes rowing with their little oars, sometimes using
their long, iron-bound staffs, or towing the boat while swimming, or
carrying it on their shoulders—landed me at last on the other side of
the _Caxoeiras_.
"Arrived at the foot of the fifth cataract, the Indians hesitated a
moment and then rowed for the shore. Whilst some were employed in making
a fire, and others in fastening the hammocks to the forest trees, the
hunter took his bow and two arrows, and such is the abundance which
reigns in these countries, that a moment afterwards he returned with
fish and turtles.
"The Indians, exhausted from the fatigues of the day, were not able
to watch that night. I was sentinel, for these shores are infested
by tigers and panthers. Walking along the beach to prevent sleep,
I witnessed a singular spectacle, but (as I was informed by the
inhabitants) one of frequent occurrence. An enormous tiger was extended
full length upon a rock level with the water, about forty paces from
me. From time to time he struck the water with his tail, and at the same
moment raised one of his fore-paws and seized fish, often of an enormous
size. These last, deceived by the noise, and taking it for the fall of
forest fruits, (of which they are very fond,) unsuspectingly approach,
and soon fall into the claws of the traitor. I longed to fire, for I had
with me a double-barrelled gun; but I was alone, and if I missed my aim
at night I risked my life, for the American tiger, lightly or mortally
wounded, collects his remaining strength and leaps with one bound upon
his adversary.
"I did not interrupt him, and when he was satisfied he went off. The
next day we passed the difficult and dangerous cataract of _Apuy_. The
canoe was carried from rock to rock, and I followed on foot through the
forest.
"The farther we advance in these solitudes, the more fruitful and
prodigal nature becomes; but where life superabounds, evil does not less
abound. 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.
"At a station called by the Indians _Tucunaré-cuoire_, where we passed
the night, one of them was bitten, whilst asleep, by one of these
vampires, and awoke exceedingly enfeebled.
"In the same place the alligators were so numerous and so bold, and the
noise they made so frightful, that it was impossible to sleep a moment.
"The next day I overtook a caravan of Cuyabanos, who had left Itaituba
before me. They went there to exchange diamonds and gold dust for salt
and other necessary commodities, and were returning with them to Cuyabá.
"They had passed a day at Tucunaré cuoire, and had slept there.
"Thinking that I was a physician, one of them begged me to examine the
recent wounds of a companion. In vain I refused. He still continued his
importunities, lavishing upon me titles of Seigneur and Signor Doctor,
as if he had been in the presence of M. Orfila.
"I went with him. The wounded man was a young Indian, whom an alligator
had seized by the leg the night the caravan slept at Tucunaré-cuoire.
Awakened by his cries, the Cuyabanos fell upon the monster, who, in
spite of every thing, escaped.
"I relieved him as well as I could. I had with me but a scalpel, some
camphor, and a phial of volatile salts. It would have been best to
amputate the limb, which was horribly mutilated.
"I had myself an opportunity of observing the dangers and privations
these men submit to, to carry to Cuyabá the commodities necessary there.
"A caravan called here _Monção_ which is loaded at Itaituba, for ten
contos of reis, (five thousand dollars,) with salt, guaraná, powder,
and lead, arriving in safety at Cuyabá, can calculate upon fifteen or
twenty contos of reis profit.
"At Pará the salt can be sold for three francs the alquiere; at Cuyabá,
it is worth one hundred and fifty francs.
"They can descend the river in forty days; but it requires five months
to ascend it.
"The forests that border the _Tapajos_ are infested by savage Indians,
who frequently attack the _Monçãos_; and dangerous fevers sometimes
carry off those whom the Indian arrow has spared.
"I left the caravan at _Sta. Ana dos Caxoeiras_; it continued its route
towards the source of the Tapajos, and I entered the country inhabited
by the _Mundrucus_.
"The _Mundrucus_, the most warlike nation of the Amazon, do not number
less than fifteen or twenty thousand warriors, and are the terror of
all other tribes.
"They appear to have a deadly hatred to the negro, but a slight sympathy
for the white man.
"During the rainy season they go to the plains to pull the sarsaparilla
root, which they afterwards exchange for common hardware and rum; the
other six months of the year are given to war.
"Each _Malocca_ (village) has an arsenal, or fortress, where the
warriors stay at night; in the day they live with their families.
"The children of both sexes are tattooed (when scarcely ten years
old) with a pencil, or rather a kind of comb, made of the thorns of
the palm-tree, called _Muru-muru_. The father (if the child is a boy)
marks upon the body of the poor creature, who is not even permitted to
complain, long bloody lines, from the forehead to the waist, which he
afterwards sprinkles with the ashes or coal of some kind of resin.
"These marks are never effaced. But if this first tattooing, which is
compulsory among the Mundrucus, sometimes suffices for woman's coquetry,
that of the warriors is not satisfied. They must have at least a good
layer of _geni papo_, (huitoc,) or of _roucou_, (annatto,) upon every
limb, and decorate themselves moreover in feathers. Without that, they
would consider themselves as indecent as a European would be considered
who would put on his coat without his shirt.
"The women may make themselves bracelets and collars of colored beads,
of shells, and of tigers' teeth, but they cannot wear feathers.
"In time of war the chiefs have right of life and death over simple
warriors. The Mundrucus never destroy their prisoners; on the contrary,
they treat them with humanity, tattoo them, and afterwards regard them
as their children.
"This warlike nation, far from being enfeebled as other tribes are, who,
since the conquest of Brazil by the Europeans, are nearly annihilated,
increases, notwithstanding the long wars they every year undertake
against the most ferocious savages.
"Once friends of the whites, they yielded to them the lands they
inhabited on the borders of the Amazon, between the rivers Tapajos and
Madeira, and fled to live an independent life, which they have never
renounced, in the deep solitudes of the Tapajos above the cataracts.
"I visited the old Mundrucu chief, _Joaquim_, who rendered himself so
terrible to the rebels of Pará during the disorders of 1835. He is
a decrepit old man, almost paralyzed. He received me very well, and
appeared flattered that a traveller from a distant country sought to
see him. He told me, in bad Portuguese, 'I am the _Tuchão_, Joaquim.
I love the whites, and have never betrayed them. I left my friends,
my _cacoaes_, (cocoa plantations,) and my house on the borders of the
Madeira to defend them. How many Cabanos (insurgents) have I not killed
when I showed my war canoe that never fled?
"Now I am old and infirm; but if I remain in the midst of these women,
and do not soon leave for the fields to chase away these brigands of
Muras, who lay waste my cacoaes, I will be bewitched and die here like
a dog.
"The Mundrucus do not believe that diseases afflict them. When a prey to
them, they say it is a spell some unknown enemy has cast over them; and
if the _Pugé_, or Magician of the Malocca, interrogated by the family
of the dying man, names a guilty person, he whom he named may count upon
his death.
"I have heard afterwards that when he was fighting so generously with
his Mundrucus for the cause of the white man, a Brazilian colonel, who
commanded the expedition, ordered him to pull manioc roots in a field
supposed to be in the power of the rebels. The chief was furious, and,
angrily eyeing the Brazilian, said, 'Dost thou believe my canoe is made
to carry to the field women and children? It is a war canoe, and not a
boat to bring thee farinha.'
"This same colonel revenged himself for this refusal by calumniating
to the Emperor the conduct of the brave Mundrucu; and on that
representation the court objected to recompense him. He remained poor
as an Indian, when, according to the example of the Brazilian officers,
he could have amassed wealth. He is old now, and has no heir, because
he has only daughters.
"The next day he came to see me, and begged me to cure his nephew, a
young Indian of eighteen or twenty years, whom he dearly loved, and
whom he would have had inherit his courage and his titles; but the poor
devil had nothing of the warrior, and every day, for several hours, had
an epileptic attack. I again had recourse to the phial of salts; gave
him some for the sick man to smell at the time of the attacks; and also
directed that he should drink some drops weakened with water.
"The remedy had a good effect. The attacks became less frequent and
long; and during the three days I remained in the neighborhood of the
Malocca the old Tuchão came every day to thank me; pressed my hands with
affection, and brought me each time different small presents—fruits,
birds, or spoils taken heretofore from an enemy.
"From Santa Ana, where I crossed the river, I determined to enter the
forests, and not to descend by the cataracts. Six Indians went back with
the boat to Itaituba; the three others remained to accompany me to the
Mahués Indians, whom no European traveller had visited, and whom I much
desired to know.
"The Indian hunter, to whom I gave one of my guns, carried my hammock
and walked in front. I followed him, loaded with a gun and a sack,
(which contained ammunition,) my compass, paper, pencils, and some
pieces of guaraná. The other two Indians walked behind carrying a little
manioc flour, travelling necessaries, and a small press to dry the rare
plants that I might collect on my journey.
"We followed a narrow pathway, sometimes across forests, uneven,
and muddy, broken by small pebbly rivulets, the water of which is
occasionally very cold; sometimes climbing steep mountains, through
running vines and thorny palm-trees. I was covered with a cold and heavy
sweat, which forced me to throw off my garment, preferring to endure the
stings of myriads of insects to the touch of a garment that perspiration
and the humidity of the forest had chilled.
"Towards five o'clock we stopped near a rivulet; for in these forests
it soon becomes night. The Indians made a fire and roasted the birds
and monkeys that the hunter had killed. I selected a parrot for supper.
"The following day we arrived, about nightfall, at the Indian village
of _Mandu-assu_.
"The Mahués Indians do not tattoo the body as the Mundrucus, or, if they
do, it is only with the juice of vegetables, which disappears after four
or five days.
"Formerly, when they were enemies of the white man, they were conquered
and subdued by the Mundrucus. At present they live in peace with their
neighbors, and willingly negotiate with the whites.
"The men are well formed, robust, and active; the women are generally
pretty. Less warlike than the Mundrucus, they yield willingly to
civilization; they surround their neat cabins with plantations of banana
trees, coffee, or guaraná.
"The precious and medicinal guaraná plant, which the Brazilians of the
central provinces of Goyaz and Matto Grosso purchase with its weight in
gold, to use against the putrid fevers which rage at certain periods of
the year, is owed to the Mahués Indians. They alone know how to prepare
it, and entirely monopolize it.
"The Tuchão of the Malocca, called Mandu-assu, received me with
cordiality, and offered me his cabin. Fatigued from the journey, and
finding there some birds and rare plants, I remained several days.
"Mandu-assu marvelled to see me carefully preserve the birds the hunter
killed, and the leaves of plants, or wood, that possessed medicinal
virtues. He never left me; accompanied me through the forests, and gave
me many plants of whose properties I was ignorant.
"Rendered still more communicative by the small presents I made him, he
gave me not only all the particulars I wished upon the cultivation and
preparation of the guaraná, but also answered fully all my questions.
"I left him for the Malocca of _Mossé_, whose chief was his relative.
This chief was more distant and savage than Mandu-assu, and received
me with suspicion. I was not discouraged, as I only went to induce him
to exchange, for some articles, his _paricá_, or complete apparatus for
taking a kind of snuff which the great people of the country frequently
use.
"My cause, however, was not altogether lost; my hunter, who had been
in a cabin of the village, took me to see a young Indian who had been
bitten the evening previous by a _surucucurano_ serpent. I opened the
wound, bled him, and again used the volatile salts. Whilst I operated,
a young Indian woman, singularly beautiful, sister of the wounded man,
supported the leg. She watched me with astonishment, and, whilst I
was binding up the wound with cotton soaked in alkali, (salts,) she
disappeared, and I saw her no more.
"The Indian was relieved. The old Tuchão knew of it; and, to thank me
for it, or rather, I believe, to test me, presented me with a calabash,
in which he poured a whitish and disgusting drink, exhaling a strong
door of corruption. This detestable liquor was the _cachiri_, (masato,)
a drink that would make hell vomit; but the Indians passionately love
it. I knew by experience that by refusing to drink I would offend this
proud Mahué, and that if I remained in this Malocca I should assuredly
die from want, because even a calabash of water would be refused me. I
shut my eyes and drank.
"The cachiri is the substance of the manioc root, softened in hot water,
and afterwards chewed by the old women of the Malocca. They spit it
into great earthen pans, when it is exposed to a brisk fire until it
boils. It is then poured into pots and suffered to stand until a putrid
fermentation takes place.
"The Indian afterwards took his paricá. He beat, in a mortar of
sapucaia, a piece of hard paste, which is kept in a box made of a shell;
poured this pulverized powder upon a dish presented by another Indian,
and with a long pencil of hairs of the _tamandua bandeira_, he spread it
evenly without touching it with the fingers; then taking pipes joined
together, made of the quills of the _gaviâo real_, (royal eagle,) and
placing it under his nose, he snuffed up with a strong inspiration all
the powder contained in the plate. His eyes started from his head; his
mouth contracted; his limbs trembled. It was fearful to see him; he was
obliged to sit down, or he would have fallen; he was drunk, but this
intoxication lasted but five minutes; he was then gayer.
"Afterwards, by many entreaties, I obtained from him his precious
paricá, or rather one of them, for he possessed two.
"At the Malocca of _Taguariti_, where I was the next day, the Tuchão,
observing two young children returning from the woods laden with
sarsaparilla, covered with perspiration, and overcome, as much by the
burden they carried as the distance they had travelled, called them to
him, beat some paricá, and compelled them to snuff it.
"I then understood that a Tuchão Mahué had a paternal authority in his
Malocca, and treated all as his own children. He forced these children
to take the paricá, convinced that by it they avoided fevers and
other diseases. And, in truth, I soon saw the children leave the cabin
entirely refreshed, and run playing to the brook and throw themselves
in.
"Several vegetable substances compose paricá: first, the ashes of a
vine that I cannot class, not having been able to procure the flowers;
second, seeds of the _acacia angico_, of the leguminous family; third,
juice of the leaves of the _abuta_, (cocculus) of the menispermes
family.
"I never saw a Mahué Indian sick, nor ever heard them complain of
the slightest pain, notwithstanding that the forests they inhabit are
the birthplaces of dangerous fevers, which rarely spare the Brazilian
merchants who come to purchase sarsaparilla root.
"I had often heard of the great Tuchão, _Socano_ chief, and king of the
Mahué nation, who, (unlike the kings of France,) notwithstanding the
urgent entreaties of his subjects, abdicated in favor of his brother,
and retired apart in a profound solitude, to pass there tranquilly the
remainder of his life. I wished to see this philosopher of the New World
before going to Itaituba, from which I was eleven days' journey on foot.
"I went again to Massú to see the Indian bitten by the serpent, and
perhaps a little, also, to see the Indian girl. He was still lame,
but walked, however, better. The girl was incorruptible. Promises,
bracelets, collars of pearl, (false)—all were useless.
"Without wishing to attack the virtue of the Mundrucus women, I was
induced to believe she would be more charitable, because in the whole
_Mundrucuanie_ it is not proved that there exists a dragon of such
virtue as to resist the temptation of a small glass of rum.
"I assisted at an Indian festival so singular that it is only in use
among the true Mahués. Following the example of the other nations of
Brazil, (who tattoo themselves with thorns, or pierce the nose, the
lips, and the ears,) and obeying an ancient law which commands these
different tortures, this baptism of blood, to habituate the warriors
to despise bodily sufferings, and even death, the Mahués have preserved
from their ancestors the great festival of the _Tocandeira_.
"An Indian is not a renowned Mahué, and cannot take a wife, until he has
passed his arms at least ten times through long stalks of the palm-tree,
filled intentionally with large, venomous ants. He whom I saw receive
this terrible baptism was not sixteen years old. They conducted him
to the chiefs, where the instruments awaited him; and, when muffled in
these terrible mittens, he was obliged to sing and dance before every
cabin of the Malocca, accompanied by music still more horrible. Soon the
torments he endured became so great that he staggered. (The father and
relatives dread, as the greatest dishonor that can befall the family, a
cry or a weakness on the part of the young martyr. They encourage and
support him, often by dancing at his side.) At length he came to the
last cabin; he was pallid; his teeth chattered; his arms were swollen;
he went to lay the gloves before the old chief, where he still had to
endure the congratulations of all the Indians of the Malocca. Even the
young girls mercilessly embraced him, and dragged him through all their
circles; but the Indian, insensible to their caresses, sought only one
thing—to escape. At length he succeeded, and, throwing himself into the
stream, remained there until night.
"The _Tocandeira_ ants not only bite, but are also armed with a sting
like the wasp; but the pain felt from it is more violent. I think it
equal to that occasioned by the sting of the black scorpion.
"In one of my excursions in the environs of the Malocca of Mandu-assu,
I had occasion to take several of them. I enclosed them in a small tin
box. I afterwards let one bite me, that I might judge in a slight degree
what it costs the young Mahués to render themselves acceptable. I was
bitten at 10 a. m. I felt an acute pain from it until evening, and had
several hours' fever.
"At Mandu-assu I was invited to a great festival of the Malocca. The
chief kept me company; the people remained standing, and ate afterwards.
As the Mahués are less filthy than the Mundrucus, I ate with a little
less disgust than with the last, who never took the trouble to skin the
monkeys or deer they killed, but were contented with cutting them to
pieces, and throwing them pell-mell in large earthen pots, where meat,
hair, feathers, and all were cooked together. The Mahués at least,
though they did not pick the game, burnt the hair and roasted the meat.
"The next day I departed for the Socano country. The Indians who
accompanied me, having no curiosity to see the old Indian king,
already tired of the journey, and seeing it prolonged four or five days
independent of the eleven it would require to reach Itaituba, concerted
to deceive me by conducting me through a pathway which they thought
led to a port of the river Tapajos, and where they hoped to find some
Brazilians of Itaituba with their canoes loaded with sarsaparilla.
"In trying to lead me by a false route, they deceived themselves; for
we walked two long days, and the pathway, which was but a hunter's
track, finally entirely disappeared. I was ignorant of the position of
the Malocca I was seeking. I only heard it would be found nearer the
river Madeira than the Tapajos. I wished to cut across the woods and
journey towards the west; the Indians were discouraged, and followed me
unwillingly. We passed a part of the third day in the midst of rugged
and inundated forests, where I twice sank in mud to the waist.
"The hunter could kill nothing; and when, towards the evening, I wished
to take some food, I could only find a half-gnawed leg of monkey. The
Indians had not left me even a grain of farinha. Being near a stream, I
grated some guaraná in a calabash and drank it without sugar, for they
had left me none.
"Not daring to rest, for fear of being unable to rise, we immediately
resumed our journey. Having again walked two hours across forests of
vines, which caused me to stumble at every step; or crawling under large
fallen trees, which constantly barred our way; or in the midst of large
prickly plants, which lacerated my hands, I arrived, torn and bruised,
at a small river, where we stopped.
"After drinking another portion of guaraná, I swung my hammock, but
was soon obliged to rise, because a storm had gathered above us and now
burst forth.
"If there is an imposing scene to describe, it is that of a storm which
rages at night over an old forest of the New World. Huge trees fall
with a great crash; a thousand terrific noises resound from every side;
animals, (monkeys and tigers,) whom fear drives to shelter, pass and
repass like spectres; frequent flashes of lightning; deluging torrents
of rain—all combine to form a scene from which the old poets might have
drawn inspiration to depict the most brilliant night of the empire of
darkness.
"Towards midnight the storm ceased; all became tranquil, and I swung my
hammock anew. The next day I awoke with a fever. I drank guaraná made
more bitter than usual, and we started. The hunter met a band of large
black monkeys. He killed five of them. The Indians recovered courage;
for myself, I could proceed no further, so great were the pains I
suffered from my feet to my knees. The fever weakened me so much that I
carried my gun with difficulty; but I would not abandon it. I had only
that to animate my guides and defend myself with.
"By frequently drinking guaraná the fever had left me; but towards
the evening of the fifth day, finding we were still wandering, and
the forests becoming deeper, I lost courage and could not proceed. The
hunter swung my hammock and gave me guaraná. The two others, perfectly
indifferent, were some paces from me, employed in broiling a monkey. I
knew if I had not strength to continue the journey the next day, they
would abandon me without pity. Already they answered me insolently.
"After a moment passed in the saddest reflection, I called to the hunter
to bring me my travelling case. I took from it the entire preparation
of paricá of the Mossé chief, and a flask of arsenical soap, which I
would not use except as the last resource. I took the paricá and did
as I had seen the old Indian do. I instantly fell drunk in my hammock,
but with a peculiar intoxication, and which acted upon my limbs like
electric shocks. On rising, I put my foot to the ground, and, to my
great surprise, felt no pain. At first I thought I dreamed. I even
walked without being convinced. At length, positively sure that I was
awake, and there still remaining two hours of daylight, I detached my
hammock, and forced the Indians, by striking them, to follow me.
"When further on we stopped to rest, they brought me the roast monkey,
which they had not touched. I snatched a leg and ate it with voracity.
The next day, constantly compelling myself to take the guaraná, I had
but slight fever; and towards the evening, after a toilsome journey, we
arrived at a miserable Malocca, composed of about four or five Indian
cabins."