CHAPTER VIII. 



THE UPPP;R RIO NEGRO. 



i 



Quit Barra for the Upper Rio Negro Canoe and Cargo Great Width 

 of the River Carvoeiro and Barcellos Granite Rocks Castanheiro 

 A Polite Old Gentleman S. Joze A New Language The Cataracts 

 S. Gabriel Nossa Senhora da Gufa Senhor L. and his Family 

 ' Visit to the River Cobati An Indian Village The Serra Cocks of 

 the Rock Return to Guia Frei Joze dos Santos Innocentos. 



It was on the last day of August, 1850, at about two o'clock 

 on a fine bright afternoon, that I bade adieu to Barra, looking 

 forward with hope and expectation to the distant and little- 

 known regions I was now going to visit. I found our canoe a 

 tolerably roomy one, it being about thirty-five feet long and 

 seven broad. The after-part had a rough deck, made of split 

 palm-stems, covered with a tolda, or semicircular roof, high 

 enough to sit up comfortably within it, and well thatched with 

 palm-leaves. A part of the front opening was stopped up on 

 each side, leaving a doorway about three feet wide. The 

 forepart was covered with a similar tolda, but much lower, 

 and above it was a flat deck, formed like the other, and 

 supported by upright poles along the sides. This is called 

 the jangada, or raft, and serves for the Indians to stand 

 on, while rowing with oars formed of paddle-blades fixed to 

 long poles. The canoe was well loaded with all the articles 

 most desired by the semi-civilised and savage inhabitants of 

 the Upper Rio Negro. There were bales of coarse cotton 

 cloth and of the commonest calico, of flimsy but brilliantly- 

 coloured prints, of checked and striped cottons, and of blue 

 or red handkerchiefs. Then there were axes and cutlasses, 

 and coarse pointed knives in great profusion, fish-hooks by 

 thousands, flints and steels, gunpowder, shot, quantities of blue, 



