CHAPLER, V1. 
THE LOWER AMAZONS-—PARA TO OBYDOS. 
Modes of Travelling on the Amazons—Historical Sketch of the early Explorations of 
the River—Preparations for Voyage—Life on board a large Trading-vessel 
—The narrow channels joining the Para to the Amazons—First sight of the 
Great River—Gurupa—The Great Shoal—Flat-topped Mountains—Contraction 
of the River Valley—Santarem—Obydos—Natural History of Obydos—Origin 
of Species by Segregation of Local Varieties. . 
At the time of my first voyage up the Amazons—namely, in 1849— 
nearly all communication with the interior was by means of small 
sailing-vessels, owned by traders residing in the remote towns and 
villages, who seldom came to Parad themselves,~but entrusted vessels 
and cargoes to the care of half-breeds or Portuguese cabos. Sometimes, 
indeed, they risked all in the hands of the Indian crew, making the pilot, 
who was also steersman, do duty as supercargo. Now and then, Portu- 
guese and Brazilian merchants at Para furnished young Portuguese 
with merchandise, and despatched them to the interior, to exchange 
the goods for produce among the scattered population. The means of 
communication, in fact, with the upper parts of the Amazons had been 
on the decrease for some time, on account of the augmented difficulty 
of obtaining hands to navigate vessels. Formerly, when the Govern- 
ment wished to send any important functionary, such as a judge or a 
military commandant, into the interior, they equipped a swift-sailing 
galliota, manned with ten or a dozen Indians. ‘These could travel, on 
the average, in one day farther than the ordinary sailing craft could in 
three. Indian paddlers were now, however, almost impossible to be 
obtained, and Government officers were obliged to travel as passengers 
in trading-vessels. The voyage made in this way was tedious in the 
extreme. When the regular east-wind blew—the “vento geral,” or 
trade-wind of the Amazons—sailing-vessels could get along very well ; 
but when this failed they were obliged to remain, sometimes many days 
together, anchored near the shore, or progress laboriously by means 
of the “espia.” This latter mode of travelling was as follows. The 
montaria, with twenty or thirty fathoms of cable, one end of which was 
attached to the foremast, was sent ahead with a couple of hands, who 
secured the other end of the rope to some strong bough or tree-trunk ; 
the crew then hauled the vessel up to the point, after which the men in 
the boat re-embarked the cable, and paddled forward to repeat the 
process. In the dry season, from August to December, when the trade- 
wind is strong and the currents slack, a schooner could reach the mouth 
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