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 those 

 watery labyrinths which would be in itself an extensive 



