174 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [March, 



were made under great difficulties. I generally returned from 

 the forest about three or four in the afternoon, and if I found 

 a new fish, had to set down immediately to figure it before 

 dark. I was thus exposed to the pest of the sand-flies, which, 

 every afternoon, from four to six, swarm in millions, causing 

 by their bites on the face, ears, and hands, the most painful 

 irritation. Often have I been obliged to start up from my seat, 

 dash down my pencil, and wave my hands about in the cool 

 air to get a little relief. But the sun was getting low, and I 

 must return to my task, till, before I had finished, my hands 

 would be as rough and as red as a boiled lobster, and violently 

 inflamed. Bathing them in cold water, however, and half an 

 hour's rest, would bring them to their natural state ; in which 

 respect the bite of this little insect is far preferable to that of 

 the mosquito, the pium, or the mutiica, the effects of whose 

 bites are felt for days. 



The village of Javita is rather a large one, regularly laid out, 

 and contains about two hundred inhabitants : they are all 

 Indians of pure blood ; I did not see a white man, a mulatto, 

 or a half-breed among them. Their principal occupation is in 

 cutting piassaba in the neighbouring forests, and making cables 

 and cordage of it. They are also the carriers of all goods 

 across the " Estrada de Javita," and, being used to this service 

 from childhood, they will often take two loads a day ten miles 

 each way, with less fatigue than a man not accustomed to the 

 work can carry one. When my Indians accompanied the 

 Javitanos the first time from Pimichin, they could not at all 

 keep up with them, but were, as I have related, obliged to stop 

 halfway. They go along the road at a sort of run, stopping to 

 rest twice only for a few minutes each time. They go over the 

 narrow bridges with the greatest certainty, often two together, 

 carrying heavy loads suspended from a pole between them. 

 Besides this, once or twice a year they will go in a body to 

 clean the road as far as the middle, where there is a cross 

 erected. The inhabitants of Marda, Tomo, and other villages 

 of the Rio Negro assemble to clean the other half. One of 

 these cleanings occurred while I was there. The whole village, 

 men, women, and children, turned out, the former carrying 

 axes and cutlasses, the latter bundles of switches to serve as 

 brooms. They divided themselves into parties, going on to 

 different parts of the road, and then worked to meet each 



