ON THE AMAZON. 275 
safely say that at no one instant during the whole thirty days, when 
there was light enough to distinguish them, were we without one or 
more jacarés in sight. Jacarés sometimes take the bait intended for 
pirarucü, and the line is strong enough to hold them. 
The following is the mode in which pirarucü is prepared on the Ramos. 
When the fish is brought to shore, its head is first cut off; it is then 
skinned and the backbone taken out. The two halves of the back and 
belly are next each cut into two slices, so as to make in all four postas 
(as they are called), which are salted and laid on the skin, spread out on 
the ground. Very little salt is used, and after remaining a few hours in 
pickle, the postas are suspended across poles, supported horizontally on 
a couple of forked sticks stuck erect in the ground, and here they re- 
main, being occasionally turned, until quite dried in the sun. No part 
. of the head is preserved, except the tongue-bone, which makes an ex- 
cellent grater. A full-grown pirarucá weighs, when fresh, from two to 
three arrobas, and affords from half an arroba to an arroba of dried fish. 
A little beyond the middle of the Ramos, we passed the mouth of 
the river Maué, upon which, at a distance of thirty hours in montaría, 
stands the town of Luzéa, anciently ** Aldéa dos Maués.” The river 
Maué enters from W.S.W., but a little way it turns to S., and its 
general course is said to be from S, to N. The direction of the Ramos 
at the junction is about N.N.E. Although Luzéa is not found on any 
published map, it is now a place of growing importance, and boasts of 
a church and chapel, with several white residents and a few shops. It 
was founded by the Portuguese in 1800, with 243 families of Maué 
and Mundruct Indians, the government furnishing them with iron tools 
and building them a church. In 1803 the population amounted to 
1627 souls, of whom 118 were whites. 
The pum of Luzéa is entirely owing to its being the "e depót 3 2 
for guaraná, there being now large guaraná plantations (or guaranals) - 
near the town, and the plant also being found wild on the Maué at — 
some distance higher up. Formerly all the guaraná intended for - 
the miners of Matto Grosso passed through Santarem, but it is now 
conveyed direct from Luzéa to Cuyabá, first in shallow canoes up the 
Maué-mirí nearly to its source, and then by a short portage to the 
river Tapajoz, above the first eataracts, where a depót is established, and 
agents from Cuyabá are stationed to receive the guaraná from the Maué 
Indians, and forward it to its destination. 
