272 MR. SPRUCE’S BOTANICAL EXCURSION 
eu to its replies, which are merely a repetition of its note, *' Torô, 
rô ” (sounding almost exactly like the French word “ érou”) for an 
cea and perfect silence for a negative. I was in my turn div verted 
by one of the crew commencing a conversation with the Tord, of which 
what follows is a nearly literal translation.— 
“Your worship sings very sweetly all alone by night in the cacao- 
tree.” —‘* Toró ! Tord!” 
“Your worship seems to be enjoying your supper on the delicious 
. cacao.’ —“ Toró ! Tord!” 
* Will your worship tell me if we are to have a favourable wind in 
the morning ? "—TToró respondeth not. 
“Your worship, do me the favour to say if we shall arrive at Obidos 
to-morrow ? "—Apgain no reply. 
“Your worship may go to the d—1!"-—— An insult of which Tord 
taketh not the least notice; and so ends the dialogue, the Indian being 
too angry to interrogate further. 
When lying-to for a wind by day I gathered a few plants unob- 
served the preceding year; and when slowly beating against the furious 
current below Obidos I twice swam on shore to gather a stout Mi- 
moseous twiner that adorned the shore for miles with its thick secund 
panicles, sometimes a foot long, of minute pale yellow flowers. à 
Obidos seems unlucky for travellers. Here Spix and Martius had to 
repair their helm, and we ourselves had scarcely embarked, early on 
the morning of the 15th, when our canoe took the ground in a stony 
place, and part of the ironwork of the helm was broken by the shock. 
It took a blacksmith the whole of the day to make a new „femea, and 
it was not until 10 of the following morning that we got it fastened 
on and again set forth on our voyage. Below Obidos jacarés are only 
occasionally seen, but we now began to meet with them in numbers. 
When anchored on the night of the 16th in the still bay at the mouth 
of the Trombétas we were surrounded by them, mostly floating nearly - 
motionless on the water and only distinguished from logs by the ele- 
_ vations and depressions of the back. Their grunt is something like 
what a pig would make with his mouth shut: our people imitated 
= | : it and thus drew several of them near us, but I did not consider it 
. . worth while wasting powder and shot on them. 
The coast from Obidos to Villa Nova is flat and uninteresting, until 
a little below the latter town its tameness is somewhat relieved by a 
