ON THE AMAZON. 205 
down the river, when he promised to send a man with me to show me 
this and several other trees. 
The Rio Caipurü is broad and clear, with beautiful sandy sloping 
shores, and sitios peeping out here and there among the forest on both =. — 
sides, It is said not to be very long, but to be divided into numerous 
igarapés, flowing through thick forest. The view, in the early morning, 
from Senhor Angelo's house, standing on high ground on the northern 
bank, was very fine. The mist curling up from the water, as it rippled 
on the white beach, showed a few canoes and montarias lying at anchor, 
then, rising higher, revealed the forest of the opposite bank, clothing 
a succession of low serras, one behind the other; while the right 
and left of the picture were formed by noble trees, interspersed with 
Jauari-palms. Near the house are plantations of Mandiocca, Sugar-cane, 
Batatas, Arrowroot, &c. ; and the climate is so moist, that, according 
to Senhor Angelo, sowing and planting may be performed at all seasons 
of the year. A great pest, however, of sandy countries throughout 
the province, is the large Saüba ant, which builds pyramids far more 
wonderful than those of Egypt, if the size of the masons be considered: - 
is a greater roadmaker than ever the Romans were, its highways being 
kept much cleaner and neater than the paths of the country, and 
excayates mines and galleries underground, far more complicated than 
the most extensive of our English coal-mines. Its food, and great 
part of the materials for its various works, are derived from the green 
leaves of trees ; and I was shown some orange-trees at Senhor Angelo’s 
which the Saüba ants had stripped of their foliage in a single night. 
The cultivation of arrowroot in this district dates only from a few years 
ago. The plant, which seems a species of Maranta, though I have not 
yet seen its flower, occurs in various parts of the Rio Trombétas; and 
the Indians have long been in the habit of transporting the roots to 
their rocas, calling them Jacaré-rana, in allusion to their obvious 
resemblance to an alligator, and connecting them with some super- 
stitious observances, but quite ignorant of their use as an article of 
diet. A person from Pernambuco, on a visit to the Rio Trombétas, 
recognized the plant to be the Arrowroot of commerce, and Senhor - 
Angelo was the first to avail himself of the information thus ob- 
tained. He now cultivates the plant extensively, and prepares the E 
farinha in the same way as that of mandiocca. He finds it a diet — 
suitable above all others to his necessarily sedentary life, and eats — 
