186 SANTAREM. Cuap. VIII. 
Santarem is a pleasant place to live in, irrespective of its society. 
There are no insect pests—mosquito, pitm, sand-fly, or motuca. The 
climate is glorious: during six months of the year, from August to 
February, very little rain falls, and the sky is cloudless for weeks 
together, the fresh breezes from the sea, nearly 400 miles distant, 
moderating the great heat of the sun. The wind is sometimes so strong 
for days together, that it is difficult to make way against it in walking 
along the streets, and it enters the open windows and doors of houses, 
scattering loose clothing and papers in all directions. The place is 
considered healthy; but at the changes of season, severe colds and 
ophthalmia are prevalent. I found three Englishmen living here, who 
had resided many years in the town or its neighbourhood, and who still 
retained their florid complexions ; the plump and fresh appearance of 
many of the middle-aged Santarem ladies also bore testimony to the 
healthfulness of the climate. The streets are always clean and dry, 
even in the height of the wet season ; good order is always kept, and 
the place pretty well supplied with provisions. None but those who 
have suffered from the difficulty of obtaining the necessaries of life at 
any price in most of the interior settlements of South America, can 
appreciate the advantages of Santarem in this respect. Everything, 
however, except meat, was dear, and becoming every year more so. 
Sugar, coffee, and rice, which ought to be produced in surplus in the 
neighbourhood, are imported from other provinces, and are high in 
price ; sugar, indeed, is a little dearer here than in England. There 
were two or three butchers’ shops, where excellent beef could be had 
daily at twopence or twopence-halfpenny per pound. The cattle have 
not to be brought from a long distance, as at Para, being bred on the 
campos, which border the Lago Grande, only one or two days’ journey 
from the town. Fresh fish could be bought in the port on most even- 
ings, but, as the supply did not equal the demand, there was always a 
race amongst purchasers to the water-side when the canoe of a fisherman 
hove in sight. Very good bread was hawked around the town every 
morning, with milk, and a great variety of fruits and vegetables. 
Amongst the fruits, there was a kind called atta, which I did not see in 
any other part of the country. It belongs to the Anonaceous order, 
and the tree which produces it grows apparently wild in the neighbour- 
hood of Santarem. It is a little larger than a good-sized orange, and 
the rind, which encloses a mass of rich custardy pulp, is scaled like the 
pine-apple, but green when ripe, and encrusted on the inside with 
sugar. To finish this account of the advantages of Santarem, the 
delicious bathing in the clear waters of the Tapajos may be mentioned. 
There is here no fear of alligators ; when the east wind blows, a long 
swell rolls in on the clean sandy beach, and the bath is most exhila- 
rating. 
There is one great drawback to the merits of Santarem. This is the 
prevalence here of the terrible leprosy. It seems, however, confined to 
certain families, and I did not hear of a well-authenticated case of a 
European being attacked by it. I once visited many of the lepers, in 
company of an American physician, ‘They do not live apart; family » 
ties are so strong that all attempts to induce people to separate from 
