ON THE AMAZON. 841 
Mr. M‘Culloch’s acquaintance last year at Para, and I gladly seized 
the opportunity of going forward to visit him. We reached his engenho 
about two o’clock, and I remained with him until our canoe came up, 
about noon on the following day. There is no manufactory of sugar 
4n the province, except near Para, and at this distance in the interior 
the difficulties to be overcome in commencing such an undertaking are 
immense. Mr. M. has already been a year employed in clearing away 
forest, planting cane, arranging his water-power, &c., and he has yet a 
great deal to do ere the engenho is completed. The only workmen 
on whom he can depend are a few slaves of Senhor Henrique of the 
Barra. At daybreak on the 3rd I found him occupied with a number 
of Mira Indians, of all sorts and sizes, who had come to work for the 
day. There are several small colonies of these people on the lakes 
hereabouts, and when they take it into their heads to work, this is the 
way they do.—They come to Mr. M‘Culloch early in the morning, 
when he gives each of them a pinga of cashaca. Afterwards any one 
who is so rich as to possess a palm-leaf hat—and, if not, he is pro- 
vided with a fragment of cloth of some kind—holds it out, and Mr. 
M. dispenses into it a cuya-full of farinha, and as much dried fish as 
will serve for the day. Every one takes his rations separately —even 
the father and child—the husband and wife. They now work until 
sunset, when they again come to their employer for a parting pinga, 
and then betake themselves to their forest-homes. This lasts for two 
or three days, when they begin to feel fatigue or ennui at this mode of 
life, and Mr. M‘Culloch sees no more of them for perhaps a week. 
You will easily perceive that the sole inducement of these people to 
labour is the cashaca ; and I was amused to see the ease and the gusto 
with which little naked urchins tipped off their pimga—a quantity 
assuredly sufficient to choke me twice over. 
At Mr. M‘Culloch’s I saw some blocks of wood lying E - 
resembling Itaüba in colour and texture, but much harder and heavier. 
He was so kind as to cut off for me a portion of one of them, which 
I send you, and I should be much obliged if you would ascertain its 
specific gravity, for I have never seen so heavy a wood, and I doubt if 
there be a heavier in existence. You will remember that when Edwards 
visited the Barra, Mr. M‘Culloch had a saw-mill near: this has been — 
since burnt down, but Mr. M. informed me that the main-shaft in it 
was made of this heavy wood, its dimensions being fourteen feet long 
