134 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. {September, 



black, and white beads, and countless little looking-glasses ; 

 needles and thread, and buttons and tape were not forgotten. 

 There was plenty of caxaca (the rum of the country), and wine 

 for the trader's own use, as well as a little brandy for 

 " medicine," and tea, coffee, sugar, vinegar, oil for cooking and 

 for light, biscuits, butter, garlic, black pepper, and other little 

 household luxuries, sufficient to last the family for at least 

 six months, and supply the pressing wants of any famishing 

 traveller. 



My host, Senhor Joao Antonio de Lima, was a middle-sized, 

 grizzly man, with a face something like that of the banished lord 

 in the National Gallery. He had, however, all the politeness 

 of his countrymen, placed the canoe and everything in it " at 

 my orders," and made himself very agreeable. Our tolda 

 contained numerous boxes and packages of his and my own, 

 but still left plenty of room for us to sit or lie down comfort- 

 ably ; and in the cool of the morning and evening we stood 

 upon the plank at its mouth, or sat upon its top, enjoying the 

 fresh air and the cool prospect of dark waters around us. For 

 the first day or two we found no land, all the banks of the 

 river being flooded, but afterwards we had plenty of places on 

 which to go on shore and make our fire. Generally, as soon 

 after daylight as we could discover a convenient spot, we 

 landed and made coffee, into which we broke some biscuit and 

 put a piece of butter, which I soon found to be a very great 

 improvement in the absence of milk. About ten or eleven we 

 stopped again for breakfast the principal meal for the Indians. 

 We now cooked a fowl, or some fish if we had caught any 

 during the night. About six we again landed to prepare 

 supper and coffee, which we sat sipping on the top of the 

 tolda, while we proceeded on our way, till eight or nine at 

 night, when the canoe was moored in a place where we could 

 hang up our hammocks on shore, and sleep comfortably till 

 four or five in the morning. Sometimes this was varied by 

 stopping for the night at six o'clock, and then we would start 

 again by midnight, or by one or two in the morning. We 

 would often make our stoppages at a cottage, where we could 

 buy a fowl or some eggs, or a bunch of bananas or some 

 oranges ; or at another time at a pretty opening in the forest, 

 where some would start off with a gun, to shoot a curassow or 

 a guan, and others would drop their line into the water, and 



