78 THE TOCANTINS AND CAMETA. Cup. IV. 
communicate with isolated houses. Along these the traveller may 
wander day after day without leaving the shade, and everywhere meet 
with cheerful, simple, and hospitable people. 
Soon after landing I was introduced to the most distinguished citizen 
of the place, Dr. Angelo Custodio Correia, whom I have already 
mentioned. This excellent man was a favourable specimen of the 
highest class of native Brazilians. He had been educated in Europe, 
was now a member of the Brazilian Parliament, and had been twice 
president of his native province. His manners were Jess formal, and his 
goodness more thoroughly genuine, perhaps, than is the rule generally 
with Brazilians. He was admired and loved, as I had ample opportunity 
of observing, throughout all Amazonia. He sacrificed his life in 1855 
for the good of his fellow-townsmen, when Cameta was devastated by the 
cholera ; having stayed behind with a few heroic spirits to succour 
invalids and direct the burying of the dead, when nearly all the chief 
citizens had fled from the place. After he had done what he could he 
embarked for Pard, but was himself then attacked with cholera, and 
died on board the steamer before he reached the capital. Dr. Angelo 
received me with the usual kindness which he showed to all strangers. 
He procured me, unsolicited, a charming country house, free of rent, © 
hired a mulatto servant for me, and thus relieved me of the many annoy- 
ances and delays attendant on a first arrival in a country town where 
even the name of an inn is unknown. ‘The rocinha thus given up 
for my residence belonged to a friend of his, Senhor José Raimundo 
Furtado, a stout florid-complexioned gentleman, such a one as might be 
met with any day in a country town in England. To him also I was 
indebted for many acts of kindness. 
The rocinha was situated near a broad grassy road bordered by lofty 
woods, which leads from Cametd to the Aldeia, a village two miles 
distant. My first walks were along this road. From it branches 
another similar but still more picturesque road, which runs to 
Curima and Pacaja4, two small settlements several miles distant in 
the heart of the forest. The Curimd road is beautiful in the 
extreme. About half a mile from the house where I lived it crosses a 
brook flowing through a deep dell, by means of a long rustic wooden 
bridge. The virgin forest is here left untouched ; numerous groups of 
slender palms, mingled with lofty trees overrun with creepers and 
parasites, fill the shady glen, and arch over the bridge, forming one of 
the most picturesque scenes imaginable. On the sunny slopes near this 
place, I found a great number of new and curious insects. A little 
beyond the bridge there was an extensive grove of orange and other 
trees which also yielded me a rich harvest. The Aldeia road runs 
parallel to the river, the land from the border of the road to the 
indented shore of the Tocantins forming a long slope which was also 
richly wooded ; this slope was threaded by numerous shady paths, and 
abounded in beautiful insects and birds. At the opposite or southern 
end of the town there was a broad road called the Estrada da Vacaria ; 
this ran along the bank of the Tocantins at some distance from the river, 
and continued over hill and dale, through bamboo thickets and palm 
swamps, for about fifteen miles. 
