162 LOWER AMAZONS—OBYDOS TO MANAOS. Cuap. VII, 
traders. Their plan was to lurk in ambush near the sandy beaches 
where canoes stop for the night, and then fall upon the people whilst 
asleep. Sometimes they came under pretence of wishing to trade, 
and then as soon as they could get the trader at a disadvantage shot 
him and his crew from behind trees. Their arms were clubs, bows, 
and Taquara arrows, the latter a formidable weapon tipped with a piece 
of flinty bamboo shaped like a spear-head ; they could propel it with 
such force as to pierce a man completely through the body. The 
whites of Borba made reprisals, inducing the warlike Munduructs, who 
had an old feud with the Ardras, to assist them. This state of things 
lasted two or three years, and made a journey up the Madeira a risky 
undertaking, as the savages attacked all comers. Besides the Ardras 
and the Mundurucus, the latter a tribe friendly to the whites, attached 
to agriculture, and inhabiting the interior of the country from the 
Madeira to beyond the Tapajos, two other tribes of Indians now inhabit 
the lower Madeira, namely, the Parentintins and the Maras. Of the 
former I did not hear much; the Maras lead a lazy quiet life on the 
banks of the labyrinths of lakes and channels which intersect the low 
country on both sides of the river below Borba. The Ardras are one of 
those tribes which do not plant mandioca ; and indeed have no settled 
habitations. They are very similar in stature and other physical 
features to the Munduructis, although differing from them so widely 
in habits and social condition. They paint their chins red with Uructi 
(Anatto), and have usually a black tattooed streak on each side of the 
face, running from the corner of the mouth to the temple. They have 
not yet learnt the use of firearms, have no canoes, and spend their 
lives roaming over the interior of the country, living on game and wild 
fruits. When they wish to cross a river, they make a temporary canoe 
with the thick bark of trees, which they secure in the required shape of 
a boat by means of lianas. I heard it stated by a trader of Santarem, 
who narrowly escaped being butchered by them in 1854, that the 
Ardras numbered two thousand fighting men. The number I think 
must be exaggerated, as it generally is with regard to Brazilian tribes. 
When the Indians show a hostile disposition to the whites, I believe it 
is most frequently owing to some provocation they have received at 
their hands ; for the first impulse of the Brazilian red-man is to respect 
Europeans ; they have a strong dislike to be forced into their service, 
but if strangers visit them with a friendly intention they are well treated. 
It is related, however, that the Indians of the Madeira were hostile to 
the Portuguese from the first; it was then the tribes of Muras and 
Torazes who attacked travellers. In 1855 I met with an American, an 
odd character, named Kemp, who had lived for many years amongst 
the Indians on the Madeira, near the abandoned settlement of Crato. 
He told me his neighbours were a kindly-disposed and cheerful people, 
and that the onslaught of the Ardras was provoked by a trader from 
Barra, who wantonly fired into a family of them, killing the parents, 
and carrying off their children to be employed as domestic servants. 
We remained nine days at the sitio of Senhor Joao Trinidade. It is 
situated on a tract of high Ygapé land, which is raised, however, only a 
