Cuap. IV. ARRIVAL AT CAMETA. 59 
Anapu, which runs for several miles between two unbroken lines of 
fan-leaved palms, forming with their straight stems colossal palisades. 
On rounding a point of land we came in full view of the Tocantins. 
The event was announced by one of our Indians, who was on the look- 
out at the prow, shouting, “La estaé o Parana-uassi!” ‘‘ Behold the 
great river!” It was a grand sight—a broad expanse of dark waters 
dancing merrily to the breeze ; the opposite shore, a narrow blue line, 
miles away. 
We went ashore on an island covered with palm-trees, to make a fire 
and boil our kettle for tea. I wandered a short way inland, and was 
astounded at the prospect. The land lay below the upper level of the 
daily tides, so that there was no underwood, and the ground was bare. 
The trees were almost all of one species of Palm, the gigantic fan-leaved 
Mauritia flexuosa; on the borders only was there a small number of a 
second kind, the equally remarkable Ubussui palm (Manicaria saccifera). 
The Ubussti has erect, uncut leaves, twenty-five feet long and six feet 
wide, all arranged round the top of a four-feet-high stem, so as to form 
a figure like that of a colossal shuttlecock. The fan-leaved palms, 
which clothed nearly the entire islet, had huge cylindrical smooth stems, 
three feet in diameter, and about a hundred feet high. The crowns 
were formed of enormous clusters of fan-shaped leaves, the stalks alone 
of which measured seven to ten feet in length. Nothing in the 
vegetable world could be more imposing than this grove of palms. 
There was no underwood to obstruct the view of the long perspective 
of towering columns. The crowns, which were densely packed to- 
gether at an immense height overhead, shut out the rays of the sun ; 
and the gloomy solitude beneath, through which the sound of our 
voices seemed to reverberate, could be compared to nothing so well as 
asolemn temple. ‘The fruits of the two palms were scattered over the 
ground ; those of the Ubussu adhere together by twos and threes, and 
have a rough, brown-coloured shell ; the fruit of the Mauritia, on the 
contrary, is of a bright red hue, and the skin is impressed with deep 
crossing lines, which give it a resemblance to a quilted cricket-ball. 
About midnight, the tide being favourable and the breeze strong, 
we crossed the river, taking it in a slanting direction, a distance 
of sixteen miles ; and arrived at eight o’clock the following morning at 
Cametd. This isa town of some importance, pleasantly situated on the 
somewhat high terra firma of the left bank of the Tocantins. I will 
defer giving an account of the place till the end of this narrative of our 
Tocantins voyage. We lost here another of our men, who got drinking 
with some old companions ashore, and were obliged to start on the 
difficult journey up the river with two hands only, and they in a very 
dissatisfied humour with the prospect. 
The river view from Cameta is magnificent. The town is situated, as 
already mentioned, on a high bank, which forms quite a considerable 
elevation for this flat country, and the broad expanse of dark-green 
waters is studded with low, palm-clad islands ; the prospect down river, 
however, being clear, or bounded only by a sea-like horizon of water 
and sky. The shores are washed by the breeze-tossed waters into little 
bays and creeks, fringed with sandy beaches. The Tocantins has been 
