142 LOWER AMAZONS—OBYDOS TO MANAOS, Cuav. VIL. 
of very brief duration this year; it generally lasts in this part of the 
Amazons from July to January, with a short interval of showery weather 
in November. The river ought to sink thirty or thirty-five feet below its 
highest point ; this year it had declined only about twenty-five feet, and 
the November rains threatened to be continuous. ‘The drier the 
weather, the stronger blows the east wind; it now failed us altogether, 
or blew gently for a few hours merely in the afternoons. I had hitherto 
seen the great river only in its sunniest aspects ; I was now about to 
witness what it could furnish in the way of storms. 
On the night of the 22nd the moon appeared with a misty halo. As 
we went to rest, a fresh watery wind was blowing, and a dark pile of 
clouds gathering up river in a direction opposite to that of the wind. I 
thought this betokened nothing more than a heavy rain, which would 
send us allin a hurry to our cabins. The men moored the vessel to a 
tree alongside a hard clayey bank, and after supper all were soon fast 
asleep, scattered about the raised deck. About eleven o’clock I was 
awakened by a horrible uproar, as a hurricane of wind suddenly swept 
over from the opposite shore. The cuberta was hurled with force 
against the clayey bank; Penna shouted out, as he started to his legs, 
that a trovoada de cima, or a squall from up river, was upon us. We 
took down our hammocks, and then all hands were required to save the 
vessel from being dashed to pieces. The moon set, and a black pall of 
clouds spread itself over the dark forests and river; a frightful crack 
of thunder now burst over our heads, and down fell the drenching rain. 
Joaquim leapt ashore through the drowning spray with a strong pole, 
and tried to pass the cuberta round a small projecting point, whilst we 
on deck aided in keeping her off and lengthened the cable. We suc- 
ceeded in getting free, and the stout-built boat fell off into the strong 
current farther away from the shore, Joaquim swinging himself dex- 
terously aboard by the bowsprit as it passed the point. It was fortunate 
for us that we happened to be on a sloping clayey bank, where there 
was no fear of falling trees; a few yards farther on, where the shore was 
perpendicular and formed of crumbly earth, large portions of loose soil, 
with all their superincumbent mass of forest, were being washed away ; 
the uproar thus occasioned adding to the horrors of the storm. 
The violence of the wind abated in the course of an hour, but the 
deluge of rain continued until about three o’clock in the morning ; 
the sky being lighted up by almost incessant flashes of pallid lightning, 
and the thunder pealing from side to side without interruption. Our 
clothing, hammocks, and goods were thoroughly soaked by the streams 
of water which trickled through between the planks. In the morning 
all was quiet ; but an opaque, leaden mass of clouds overspread the sky, 
throwing a gloom over the wild landscape that had a most dispiriting 
effect. These squalls from the west are always expected about the time 
of the breaking up of the dry season, in these central parts of the Lower 
Amazons. ‘They generally take place about the beginning of February, 
so that this year they had commenced much earlier than usual. The 
soil and climate are much drier in this part of the country than in the 
region lying farther to the west, where the denser forests and more 
clayey, humid soil produce a considerably cooler atmosphere. The 
