EXCURSION TO MAUHES AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD. 303 
a welcome harbinger of the time, perhaps not far distant, 
when, instead of their present tedious and uncertain canoe 
journeys to Serpa or Villa Bella, they will be able to 
transport their produce to either of these points in a 
few hours, in small steamboats, connecting all these set- 
tlements, and adapted to the navigation. Any such pro- 
phetic vision was, however, no doubt very far from their 
thoughts ; if they had any idea as to the object of our 
coming, it was probably a fear lest we should be on a 
recruiting expedition. If so, it is certainly a very inno- 
cent one, fishes being the only recruits we aim at en- 
trapping. From the Ramos we turned into the Mauhes, 
ascending to the town of the same name, where to-day 
we are enjoying the hospitality of Mr. Michelis. 
If any of my readers are as ignorant as I was myself 
before making this voyage, a bit of geography may not 
be out of place here. As everybody knows, the river 
Madeira, that great affluent of the Amazons, all whose 
children are giants, except when compared with their royal 
father, enters the main stream on its southern side at a 
point nearly opposite Serpa. But this is not its only con- 
nection with the Amazons. The river Mauhes starting 
about twenty-five leagues from its mouth, runs from the 
river Madeira almost parallel with the Amazons until it 
joins the river Ramos, which continues its course in the 
same direction to a lower point, where it empties into the 
main stream. The district of land thus enclosed between 
four rivers, having the Madeira on the west, the Amazons 
on the north, and the Ramos and the Mauhes on the south, 
is known on the map as the island of Tupinambaranas. 
It is a network of rivers, lakes, and islands ; one of thoso 
watery labyrinths which would be in itself an extensive 
