2-46 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
adjoining sketch is a portrait of my little house-maid, 
Alexandrina, who, from her mixture of Negro and Indian 
blood, is rather a curious illustration of the amalgamation 
of races here. She consented yesterday, after a good deal 
of coy demur, to have her portrait taken. Mr. Agassiz 
wanted it especially on account of her extraordinary hair, 
which, though it has lost its compact negro crinkle, and 
acquired something of the length and texture of the Indian 
hair, retains, nevertheless, a sort of wiry elasticity, so that, 
when combed out, it stands off from her head in all direc- 
tions as if electrified. In the examples of negro and Indian 
half-breeds we have seen, the negro type seems the first to 
yield, as if the more facile disposition of the negro, as 
compared with the enduring tenacity of the Indian, showed 
itself in their physical as well as their mental characteristics. 
A few remarks, gathered from Mr. Agassiz's notes on the 
general character of the population in this region may not 
be without interest. 
" Two things are strongly impressed on the mind of the 
traveller in the Upper Amazons. The necessity, in the first 
place, of a larger population, and, secondly, of a better class 
of whites, before any fair beginning can be made in develop- 
ing the resources of the country ; and, as an inducement to 
this, the importance of taking off all restraint on the navi- 
gation of the Amazons and its tributaries, opening them to 
the ambition and competition of other nations. Not only 
is the white population too small for the task before it, 
but it is no less poor in quality than meagre in numbers. 
It presents the singular spectacle of a higher race receiving 
the impress of a lower one, of an educated class adopting 
the habits and sinking to the level of the savage. In the 
towns of the Solimoens the people who pass for the white 
