LIFE AT MANAOS. 207 
Capivari scuttles up the bank, taking refuge in the trees 
at our approach. To-morrow morning we reach Tabatinga, 
and touch the farthest point of our journey. 
September 2Qth. On Monday evening we arrived at Ta- 
batinga, remaining there till Wednesday morning to dis- 
charge the cargo, a lengthy process, with the Brazilian 
method of working. Tabatinga is the frontier town between 
Brazil and Peru, and is dignified by the name of a military 
station, though when one looks at the two or three small 
mounted guns on the bank, the mud house behind them 
constituting barracks, with half a dozen soldiers lounging 
in front of it, one cannot but think that the fortification is 
not a very formidable one.* The town itself standing on a 
mud bluff, deeply ravined and cracked in many directions, 
consists of some dozen ruinous houses built around an open 
square. Of the inhabitants I saw but little, for it was to- 
ward evening when I went on shore, and they were already 
driven under shelter by the mosquitoes. One or two looked 
out from their doors and gave me a friendly warning not to 
proceed unless I was prepared to be devoured, and indeed 
the buzzing swarm about me soon drove me back to the 
* At this point the Amazonian meets the Peruvian steamer, ami they 
exchange cargoes. Formerly the Brazilian company of Ama/onian steamers 
extended its line of travel to Laguna, at the mouth of the Huallaga. Now 
this part of the journey has passed into the hands of a Peruvian company, 
whose steamers run up to Urimaguas on the Huallaga. They are, however, 
by no means so comfortable as the Brazilian steamers, having little or no 
accommodation for passengers.. The upper Maranon is navigable for large 
steamers as far as Jaen, as are also its tributaries, the Huallaga and 
Ucayali on the south, the Moronha, Pastazza, and Napo on the north, to 
a great distance above their junction with the main stream. There is 
reason to believe that all these larger affluents of the Amazons will before 
long have their regular lines of steamers like the great river itself. The 
opening of the Amazons, no doubt, will hasten this result. L. A. 
